#I clicked on an image to zoom in on the pretty art

[causeimanartist]

What the hell is Tumblr TV and how do I turn it off

[lynaferns]

Redraw (well, third attempt) of an old drawing from 2022.

Alright, this is a big one, so, PC users: left click the image, right click the image, open in another tab, zoom and see all the details you want.

Phone users: press down on the image, download, find image in your phone gallery, it will download at full quality so you can zoom and see all the details.

The fancy stars and the inside of the piano were a pain in the ass, everything else went pretty smoothly, or at least the average complications. I'm proud of how I mixed the colors in the piano. I was convinced I'd end up making a mess but it turned out nice.

Once again, this is finished because I decided so. I have no energy to make the final look I had in mind.

The piano alone, close ups (cuz the jpeg won't let you zoom at the very max and that sucks, so I screenshot from my art program) and an idea for an AU + youtube playlist I made that I relate too much to the AU under the cut. vvv

SO!

This was never supposed to be an AU, and I probably won't do anything regardless, but I got the idea while I was working on it last month. And since I have a liiiiiiittle basic knowledge of music and experience, specially in piano... well...

I had bad experiences learning music as a child so probably the story would reflect on that lol.

An old astral auditorium that's abandoned and in ruins during the day and gets all shiny and nice at night when it's illuminated by the light of the stars.

Sun, Moon and Eclipse are in charge of the place, they do their best at keeping the place standing… and are the main musicians that play for the stars every month, once or twice. The day and night transformation affects them too.

Violet (y/n that's not really a y/n at this point) is a young altruist and selftaugth violinist (yeah yeah, I'm very original with the names, hush) that came across this old auditorium. She starts visiting the brothers to play music during the day and decides to join them in the auditions to play for the stars, and help them modernize a little bit to attract human audience too.

The brothers play several instruments to be able to acompany each other if necesary buuut they each have a "favourite". Sun mainly Piano, Moon mainly Harp (can also play piano and viola to accompany Sun) and Eclipse can play any instrument Sun and Moon can and more, but likes accordion :)

Sun is the most strict one when it's about playing music even though he likes to mess around with songs and improvise during day hours when no body is around, but will feel guilty afterwards... Moon is a gremlin that likes messing up and playing with the instruments in ways you are not supposed to (like using the viola bow as a sword). Eclipse is easy going and will match the energy of their brothers while keeping them out of trouble. Clip doesn't really like playing for the auditorium and prefers improvising silly songs alone or with Sun and Moon.

You can ask me about this AU if it got you curious, I'll be glad to answer!

I still want to make the MC design at least. And maybe some sketch comics if I have the energy for it.

[ropes3amthoughts]

To my homies who encouraged me to get Twitter, thank you so much. There are so many gorgeous Kabrus there and the overall Kabru content is plentiful. Also I just saw this absolutely divine jawdropping enchanting gorgeous stunning beautiful Kabru art and I am in a state of shock. Like look at this holy shit?????? Like click on the link and click on the image and zoom in on the details and stuff this is so incredible. I mean you don’t have to but this is so good and I’m losing my mind and there are so many little details you won’t see unless you zoom in so I recommend it.

For anyone looking quickly this is not my art it belongs to the Twitter user in the link and it’s so good I would recommend looking at it

https://x.com/Neruchiru_08/status/1841319033632862418

I get insane under the cut

It’s been like 4 hours and I cannot stop thinking about it. Every time I stand up I start shaking. I feel nauseous and am coughing constantly. I feel like I am choking. That image will be burned into my brain for a very long time. Why doesn’t Twitter let you reblog with really long comments I need to say a million compliments. My voice is cracking. My heart is hammering. I’m warm and sweaty. Holy shit I am fagging it up bro. It’s beautiful as an art piece because the composition and colors and stuff are absolutely amazing and it’s beautiful if you’re queer (or straight and like Kabru too) because Kabru looks so good. His shoulders are showing and something about Kabru’s shoulders showing makes me insane. Like I thought the whole “you can’t show your shoulders” dress code thing in school was a bunch of dumb bullshit but oh boy I understand now. Every time I see Kabru’s shoulders I think “I want to bite that man” and then I’m all like “WOW who just thought that” but it’s me I’m thinking that I’m going insane over him I want to bite his shoulders he makes me crazy he’s so pretty oh goodness wow oh wow oh wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww IM GOING INSANE a lot more people have seen it now but I need to show this to everyone you guys don’t understand how this makes me feel I’m going to pass away and fall over and cry you guys look pretty Kabru art guys guys it’s Kabru being gorgeous oh my fucking god guys guys I am going to be sick guys oh god guys do you see him he’s so pretty guys guys guys holy shit dude guys. I am an enjoyer of the arts. I enjoy this art. For sure. Wow. Awesome. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you guys. Guys. Guys. Guys. I am going to lose my mind. Ough. Guys. Guys guys guys. Do you????:!: seee????? The Kabru??????? Oh my god. Compliments to the artist. Beautiful. Beautiful lovely fantastic work. Awesome. This is great. I’m losing it. I showed my discord friends and I reblogged on Twitter and stuff but I wanted to show you guys too because I am a big fan of this beautiful Kabru art. I love this insanely much. Kabru fish…I love this creature the Kabru fish. Great 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 chat I am gonna die this is too beautiful Ough beautiful Kabru

I’m being so dramatic you guys but do you understand the power this art has do you understand my feelings I love this art so much 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Kabru 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Kabru fish 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 gorgeous 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[bullet-prooflove]

No. 24 She's mean and she's mine for Fbi most wanted Remy. TIA

Companion piece to Sober (NSFW) - Remy realises you have issues with soberiety.

You don’t hide your addiction from Remy. You talk about it openly with him. He knows that you got hooked undercover, that you used coke and booze to cope. You’d been in a spiral for a couple of years before Jubal had forced you to confront the problem. By the time you’d met him you’d been sober for three years.

“I was a mean drunk Remy.” You’d told him as you made tea in his kitchen. “I burned through all my friends, my family. It took me a long time to make amends.”

He knows how isolated you’d become, how you’d pushed people away in the throes of your addiction. It made it easier to reconcile the drinking. He had kissed away the shame that crept up your cheeks, whispered the sweetest reassurances against your skin as he held you close.

“You’re bigger than your addiction.” He had reminded you. “You aren’t the same person you were back then.”

It’s true, Remy believes that with every single fibre of his being. The job you do, it may be high pressure but you know your triggers, you manage it well. Which is why he’s surprised when your brother sends him a 911 text to discuss his concerns about you.

“She’s drinking again.” Henry informs him as he sits across from Remy at the coffeeshop a few doors down from 26 Fed. “I saw her in a club a couple of days ago, she had a glass in her hand and she was with another guy. I’m sorry Remy but this is what it was like last time…”

Remy holds his hand up to silence the other man as he struggles to process the information. He admits he’s been busy over the past few weeks, Wyoming, Richmond, Bethesda but when he has been home he’s been attentive. He would know if something was going on with you. As for another man being on the scene, he doesn’t understand when you would even have the time, let alone the inclination. Remy’s pretty confident in his ability to keep you satisfied.

“What did he look like?” He asks Henry and the other man withdraws his phone from his jacket pocket.

“I took a picture.” He says before pushing the device towards Remy. “In case you needed proof.”

It’s a image of you and a man he knows well. You’re standing alongside each other at a bar. His hand is on your lower back, almost protectively. There’s a glass in your hand, a cocktail with a cherry sticking out of it. You’re wearing a cobalt blue dress, one that clings to your form. It’s that dress that makes everything click into place for Remy, that makes him take another at the glass in your hand.

“She’s not drinking again.” He says quietly before he zooms in on the glass and tilts the phone back towards Henry. “It’s a Shirley Temple, a non-alcoholic cocktail, it’s grenadine and ginger ale. It’s what she drinks when she’s on UC ops so that she blends in and that guy she’s with? His name is Omar Zidan, he’s her partner.”

Remy remembers that night well because he’d barely been able to keep his hands off you when you’d stepped out of the bedroom wearing dress. You’d been interrupted by OA’s arrival, the younger man had joked about having Cinderella back by midnight. When you’d slinked in at one am, you’d been sober as a judge and ready for a little play. He’d made love with you in the bed you shared until the sun came up.

“You don’t have to worry about her.” He reassures Henry. “Your sister, she’s solid.”

Love Remy? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

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[miodiodavinci]

hey! just getting started using aviutl and i know you use it too, how did you do that like trembling effect on the art and text in your one of repetition pv?

that's my homemade line boiling effect ! ! ! it's a bit of work to set up, but once you make all the resources and get the hang of using the tools, it gets easier to use w

brief tutorial below the cut ! ! !

so the long and short of this effect is that you'll need a "noise" file at a low frame rate (ala 5 to 8 FPS) and aviutl's displacement map tool. before we can work in the project you actually plan on using the effect, though, we need to make a new project to make the noise file

CREATING the NOISE FILE

1. create a new project file in aivutl, but change the frame rate to 10 FPS or below. 5 to 8 usually works for me w. for folks reading who have never used aviutl before, you'll need to right click on the timeline and select Create a New Project from the context menu that pops up.

2. right click on the timeline again and select New media object > Graphic. over in the properties window that pops up, you're going to change the type of graphic from Circle to Background. set the Zoom% (scale) to 300 or so (i neglected to do that here before taking the screenshot whoops).

3. on the same window, right click and select Add a filter effect > Noise. it'll create a texture on the graphic that'll look something like this:

4. from there, you're also going to add Color compensation and Animation effect using the same right click method.

5. go ahead and change the settings to something along these lines (but you can play around with it for more or less drastic effects):

6. congrats!! you have your noise pretty much done ! ! ! just set the length of the graphic to be about 30 seconds to 1 minute, right click on the timeline and select Range setting > Make last object position as last frame, and then export it in your preferred format (i tend to use MP4 to save space).

USING a DISPLACEMENT MAP

1. return now to the project file you plan on using the line boil effect on. in the upper left-hand corner of the timeline, click on the button that says Root and select any scene you like (so long as you can remember which one). scenes essentially function as sub-projects or sub-timelines within your project and can allow you to pre-compose videos to be used elsewhere in your project.

2. in the new scene, import your noise file from the previous project. place it at the start of your timeline and check off the Loop playback box in the properties window. then, just grab the rightmost end of the video file and extend it for the full length of your project. if you find later that the FPS you used is too slow for your liking, you can also adjust the vPlay slider to speed up or slow down the video.

3. head back to the Root (or whichever scene you were composing your video on in the first place). you're going to go to the text or image file you want to apply the effect to and add the Displacement map effect using the same method as before. on the properties window, change the Kind of map from Circle to (Select from scene).

4. remember the scene you used before? click on the new selection button that appears in place of Kind of map and select that scene. also check the box at the bottom that says Match with original size.

5. now it's time to play with the settings ! ! ! Deform X and Deform Y are going to determine how drastic the effect is, and Blur will change how closely the distortion follows the original file. keep in mind that these first two parameters are very sensitive. for example:

if my original file looks like this:

this is what it looks like with DX and DY set to 5 and blur set to 0:

by contrast, when i set DX and DY to 5 but set the blur to 40:

... it creates a much more gentle waving effect w

play around with it ! ! ! in this case, setting the DX and DY to 1 and the blur to 10 got me a pretty nice line boil, but you can experiment to see what works for you and your project w

you can also overlay more than one noise in the same scene to increase the variety of noise ! ! ! just try things out and see what works for you ! ! !

you can also apply this effect to a frame buffer (under Add new media object) if you want to distort the whole screen and not just one or two objects w

and . . . . (leans in close) don't tell anyone i told you this, but you can use this exact same method and just swap out the noise file for any other kind of overlay to create other effects, like glitching computer graphics or old VCR tapes

did i figure all this out through trial and error purely because i was so mad about not having access to the line boil effect i used to use in after effects?? yes. am i sharing it with you now so you can create your own analog horror effects in aviutl?? yes ! ! ! !

have fun with it ! ! ! ! and let me know if you have any questions ! ! ! !

[xestuck]

the real basic review of art programs for sprite making (my opinion )

so tha main programs i use for art are KRITA, FIREALPACA, and PAINT TOOL SAI. im still tryin to figure out sai2. they all have pros and cons but this will specifically be abt how they handle ALIASED LINES!! aka "pixel" brushes, aka not anti-aliasing.

EACH PROGRAMS BUILT IN BASIC PIXEL BRUSH:

Krita has a few, but focusing on Pixel Art and Pixel Art Fill Firealpaca has Dot Tool (can be 1-3 pixels big) and the basic Pen brush with AA turned off PTSai has Binary Pen (or Legacy Pen)

---

PTSai easily has the smoothest binary pen out of these when the algorithm setting is on accurate!! unfortunately the pen has barely any settings compared to other brush types in PTSai.

and when using pixel textures in regular brushes, unless theres a setting im missing, they still act like AA brushes and dont colour evenly.

Otherwise PTSai has a really easy compact UI and easy clipping layers

so its good for basic pixelly art without using fancy brushes.

---

FIREALPACA Dot Tool is kinda rough, and when the aliased regular brush is too small then the lines break up and leave gaps. but at bigger sizes its pretty smooth. and a lot of firealpacas brushes can be pixel-ized in a single click!!!!

when this box is unticked then most brushes will no longer anti-alias and will become pixelly!! (the following images are zoomed to 200% to better see the effects)

while the effect shows on basically all brushes, not all are strictly pixelly and still have anti-aliasing pixels on the edges.

but still! a lot of the brushes do become truly pixel brushes, and brushes like the Edge Brush can be really useful for making sprites.

also Firealpaca has easy clipping layers too.

---

KRITA Pixel Art brush is pretty smooth, and Pixel Art Fill is probably smoother for ppl with more steady hands lol. and while its ui is a Lot More complicated than the prev two programs (usually requiring a few more steps to do similar things), it has A SHITTON OF BRUSH SETTINGS!! and in those brush settings is the Sharpness setting, which can be used to achieve a similar effect to Firealpacas' Anti-Aliasing box being unticked.

but in my experience it can basically guarantee pixel-ized brushes!!! OBSERVE (again, images are zoomed to 200% to better see the effects):

(there might be a way to have sharpness up but still keep the fish texture. im not sure yet)

this also means pixel texture brushes can apply evenly too

but alas. clipping is a bit more annoying to do in Krita. u gotta rightclick on a layer then select Group > Quick Clipping Group for the easiest clipping layer (maybe theres a better way but idk it yet.)

---

ok this is more of a comparison rather than a review. but still. i personally prefer Firealpaca for spriting homestuck style sprites, it just feels tha most natural for me

[fred-the-dinosaur]

If you're really wanting to see how you'd do, here's the quiz.

It doesn't record answers so you have to note your answers separately like it's a magazine quiz from the noughties. Then check your answers on this page: (obviously massive spoilers for the answers, don't click this one until you're ready)

(oh, and you're not supposed to zoom in during the quiz so it's a bit tricky on mobile because the pics end up being pretty damn small. I'd recommend doing it on desktop if you can. Or be daft like I was, I'm not your mother)

Have fun! I will admit, despite scoring a lot better than the usual, it was a lot harder than I expected and I made some really awful mistakes.

This post should not be read as me being arrogant or complacent about how easy it is to miss AI art, rather to the contrary I feel that as AI becomes more ubiquitous and harder to spot, the undervalued skills of image analysis are more important than ever. I missed a bunch and I have training. Of course people will miss AI if we don't value and teach image literacy.

actually you know what, most people in that study did barely better than even chance at identifying AI from human art, and I got a solid 80% while dying from COVID and with all the pictures under two inches big on a phone screen.

So maybe. MAYBE. my art history degree wasn't pointless after all, huh?

[lessthanpure]

Making the Best of It Chapter 14

Fandom: Baseball RPF

Pairing: Pete Alonso/OFC, Pete Alonso/Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso/Jeff McNeil/OFC

Summary: Sharing hobbies.

Notes: I decided to go for a bit of plot this time (shocking for me, but the 'plot' is debatable). I wanted to show their relationship a bit more.

Wordcount: 1,967

AO3 link

18+ only

The next time the boys have a road trip, Sloane scrolls her phone aimlessly for a day. She wants a new hobby. She pauses on one in her list. She’s always wanted a physical item to show for her art, and this could be a good way to do it without having to learn an entire new set of skills for a while. Cutting and glueing tiles she can do. Next paycheck, she decides. That also gives her enough time to do research, think of designs, and so forth.

It’s like the universe gives its blessing to her- her paycheck comes with an unexpected bonus commission from a project she’d been working on in a team. Her team leader informed all of them that the client tipped them for good work, and she spread the tip out among them. $150. More than enough for her new hobby.

She buys everything she thinks she needs, reminding herself not to go overboard. She doesn’t know if she likes the hobby yet. She prepares everything and starts, listening to atmospheric music through her headphones.  It’s an off day, so she doesn’t even have to watch a game and she has time.

Sloane had had a hard time deciding what to try first, but a medium wall piece seemed good. Most of the guides had suggested something flat, so she had gone to her local hardware store and picked up a piece of decently sized wood- sixteen by ten inches. She had an even harder time picking a design, but she figured personalizing something was a good start. So she picked her favorite animal- a badger- and had it above an S for her first name. 

Sloane has fun picking out the colors- shades of minty green for the decorations and a nice cream for the background and dark gray grout. She takes her time drawing it on the wood, then uses the nippers to cut a bowl’s worth of the tiles. She glues each piece down, humming serenely. She’s greatly enjoying this. 

Hours pass in a blink, and she has to force herself to stop for frequent water breaks and meals. She ends up having dreams about her new hobby and gets back into it early the next morning to leave time for the afternoon game. She gets half of it done before the game, then stops to watch her boys. They have a good game but end up losing in extras, so she sends a soothing message to them. ‘You’ll get them next time. You played great.’ 

By the time her boys are home, she’d finished the piece. She’d debated telling them, but she’s more excited than nervous. 

“I tried a new hobby out while you were gone,” she says over dinner at Jeff’s.

“Yeah,” Jeff asks. “What kind?”

“I always wanted something physical for my art, so I started mosaic.”

“That’s awesome,” Pete grins. “Did you finish a piece?”

“I did,” Sloane nods. She gets her phone out and clicks to the image. She hands it to Jeff, who slides closer to Pete so they can both see. 

“Wow,” Jeff murmurs. 

“That’s amazing, sweetheart,” Pete agrees. Jeff pinches the screen, zooming in, and whistles appreciatively. 

“That must have taken hours. It looks awesome,” Jeff looks up and smiles. 

“I haven’t hung it up yet, but I’m thinking it’ll go in my dining room.”

“Sick,” Pete nods. 

“I’m glad your landlord’s ok with you hanging things up,” Jeff says as he hands her phone back. 

“Me too. The building’s pretty good, as long as I patch everything before I leave,” she says. “I’ve had apartments where I wasn’t allowed to hang anything, but the price was too good to pass up. At least until I had enough savings to move to this place.”

They chat the rest of dinner, then Sloane and Pete clear up since Jeff had cooked. Pete flicks soap bubbles at her, and she giggles and ducks away. Jeff grins and scoops up a handful, slapping it on Pete’s head. It turns into a soap fight that leaves them all giggling and damp. They spend the night at Jeff’s using clothes they had stashed there. Sloane has the fleeting thought that she wished they could bring duffle bags over, but backpacks have to do. This is good. For now, she muses. She gets in bed in between her boys and they sleep.

Jeff and Sloane play Minecraft the next morning in the world they built together while Pete watches. “I found a cool design for a Nether portal,” Sloane says.

“Show me,” Jeff smiles. Sloane pulls it up on her phone and does. He whistles long and low. “Jesus.”

“I know, but it’s rad.” The image they’re looking at is a sword Nether portal soaring into the sky. “Wanna do it?”

“Sure. What do you need me to do?”

“Well, we’re gonna need lots of obsidian. We can build the actual portal out of that, the rest in whatever we want. I was thinking warped planks.”

“I like those.”

“Me too. I’ll hop into the Nether, grab those, and you can go into our mine and get obsidian,” she offers.

“Sounds good.”

They gather resources and start to build, knowing that it’ll take a few sessions to complete. Their world is coming along nicely, though- Jeff had built a treehouse with a ladder coming down, and a mine nearby. Sloane had found a nearby cave she uses more often than the mine, but Jeff prefers controlled spelunking. Even so, he’d found an abandoned mineshaft before she did. They had cleared it out together and found an absolutely massive lake of lava. They’d been using that for smelting everything because they found so much. 

Sloane had also been exploring and found a cool mountain range half a map away, with floating parts and everything. They’d built a secondary home there and stocked it with everything they’d need. A village lies in between, and Sloane had cycled through librarians and gotten one with mending and one with protection IV (and one with curse of binding that she threw on a jack o’ lantern. Jeff had been a good sport about a goofy bet and had worn it for a session). 

Pete enjoys watching them play, but he knows that he’d get tremendously bored half an hour in. Watching them is better because he can go on his phone when they’re resource gathering, which they don’t mind. He had liked watching Sloane find a treasure bastion, amazed at how she’d killed the brutes and found most of them by sound and memorizing the layout. She’d been disappointed that she didn’t find something called ‘pigstep’ though, but hadn’t told Pete what exactly it is.

After a few hours, they close the game and have lunch. Then they say their goodbyes, kissing softly. “See you later,” Jeff smiles.

“See ya,” Pete says while Sloane smiles.

Pete and Sloane head out. 

Their next dinner is at Pete’s. “So what made you choose mosaic,” Jeff asks.

“I always wanted a physical piece for my art,” Sloane explains. “And instead of having to learn a really involved skill that would take years to see progress, like sculpture, I figured this would be a good balance. It’s a hobby I’ve had on my list for a while.”

“Your list,” Pete asks.

“Yeah, I tend to want to do every hobby under the sun,” she rolls her eyes at herself. “So I write them down in my phone,” she explains. “When I’m super bored, I sort through them to decide which one to try out. I have them in sections: ones I have time for, ones that can be in the future, and ones that can be useful.”

“Which ones are useful,” Jeff asks.

“Sewing,” she explains. 

“You sew,” Pete asks.

“Little projects here and there. I’m not practiced enough to make my own clothes, but I can make like, tote bags.”

“Cool,” Jeff smiles. 

“Once upon a time I wanted to sew, paint, and sell them, but I thought it through and did a complete list of what it’d cost, and it really wasn’t feasible at the time. Maybe in the future.”

“Your art is great,” Pete smiles. “I’m sure people would love to have it on something they use a lot.”

“You’re sweet,” Sloane smiles.

“I haven’t seen much of it, but the mosaic was super cool.”

“After dinner I can show you,” she promises. 

They finish eating and Jeff and Sloane clean up. They settle on the couch when they’re done, Sloane in the middle. She opens her phone to the gallery of her complete pieces and works-in-progress she’s proud of. Jeff hums and makes her pause at each one, admiring it. “They’re gorgeous,” he says.

“Thanks, hon,” she says, kissing his cheek. 

“That one’s new,” Pete says when he sees the next one. 

“Yeah, I’ve been experimenting with gouache,” she muses. There were some experiments that failed miserably, but this one she likes. A simple colored background with flowers spilling out of its borders. She’d done a few of them, with different flowers- small daisies, forget-me-nots, other flowers that spread low on the ground. They look through all her work. “That’s all, folks.”

Jeff chuckles. “They were great. Show me anytime,” he says.

“I’ll show you the good ones.”

“They’re all good,” he promises.

“There are some that need work, and that’s ok. That’s why I don’t show anyone my entire sketchbook- they’re private, a place to try things out without worrying if it’s instagram worthy,” she explains, leaning against the back of the couch. Jeff puts his arm around her shoulders. Sloane crosses her legs and Pete puts his hand on her knee. “I like having pieces that I’m not afraid to get messy with it. Not every piece I make will be good, and that’s a good thing. It means I’m growing and trying new things.”

“A great way to look at it,” Jeff says. 

“Do you do any art or anything like that,” Sloane asks.

Jeff pauses, rubbing his thumb on her shoulder. “Kind of. I play guitar.”

“Really,” Pete asks. “You never told me that.”

“Never came up. It’s just something I do at home. It relaxes me. Sometimes I write snippets of chords, sounds I like. No words,” he shrugs. 

“Well, when you’re comfortable,” Sloane says. “Feel free to show us.”

“Ok,” Jeff smiles, but he’s nervous.

“When you’re comfortable, babe,” Pete says.

Jeff relaxes. They’re ok with waiting. He knows that rationally, but they show him that a lot. 

“Can we do something creative together when we next get together,” Pete asks.

“Like what,” Jeff asks.

“I’ve seen like, dinner parties where people pick random prompts and paint, then switch canvases every like, half an hour or whatever.”

“Sounds fun,” Sloane smiles. “I can look up other stuff, too- there are a few things I’ve always wanted to do in a group. There’s this cool thing where you take a white pillar candle, light colored tea lights, and use the wax to ‘paint.’ It’s a really cool decorative and useful thing.”

“Those both sound like fun,” Jeff smiles. “I’ll look up some things, too. We can do a different thing every month or something.”

“That sounds amazing,” Pete says, leaning over Sloane’s head and kissing Jeff’s temple. 

“It’s good to get away from the digital world. Unplug,” Jeff says. “I think I’d like making something with my hands.”

“Who knows, we might have the next Picasso on our hands,” Sloane shoulders him playfully. 

“I doubt that,” Jeff ducks his head, bashful. “I just had an idea, though,” he says. “Writing. Like Pete said, every half hour we switch.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun,” Sloane says, grinning. 

“Yeah, great idea,” Pete agrees.

[kabannoneko]

Game Thoughts: I commissioned some bees 0 by Follow The Fun

So, we watched someone play A Building Full of Cats quite a while back, and we kinda wanted to play something similar. Searched on Steam and found this free game! With 1000+ bees to find, what could possibly go wrong?! - Gure

What’s It About?

Well, it’s not really a story-based game, so I have almost nothing to say about what it’s about… But if ya gotta know, it’s a hidden object game where you gotta find bees hidden in various illustrations which were commissioned by the dev. That’s pretty much the whole premise, hence the title.

And this is only one of a whole series of (really affordable) games!

Art

I would consider the art the main draw of this game. After all, they did commission some art with bees, right?

The art looks like what you would expect in hidden object games, and in a good way! All of them get pretty surreal, and that’s cool. There’s so many little details that I can’t help but take a good look at. Definitely a must if you’re gonna be searching for little bees in them.

Music

Not really much to say when it comes to the background music, since they did purchase it from a stock music website and I couldn’t play it on stream as a result… (Although I did play some music that’s also pretty much not in the VOD lol) But the ambient sounds that they used did fit the images, at least. Liked the spoopy one a lot in particular.

Also liked the little bee sounds that played whenever you clicked on the bees. It’s cute, hehe.

Gameplay

It’s what you would expect for pretty much any hidden object game. You simply click on the left mouse button to get any bees you see on the artwork. Additionally, you can use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out, click and drag the left mouse button to move the image around, and press H to momentarily show an arrow pointing to an area with a bee in it.

Aside from the bees, there are also other bee-related items that you can find and click on per stage.

From my experience, it all flows smoothly, nothing complicated, except for the times when I meant to click but dragged instead (that’s pretty much my fault lol). I thought it would take me a really long time to find all the bees and items, but it’s pretty quick, in my opinion. And it looks like you can replay the whole thing again just to challenge yourself to get better times, since the game does take note of how long you took to find everything.

I wonder if it would be a better choice if it was the right mouse button to pan instead…?

Overall

It’s a nice, short game that you can play if you’re bored and don’t have that much cash on you. Not to mention that you can get to appreciate some art that really talented people made! Not sure if I just didn’t look for it, they didn’t do it, or I didn’t remember, but it would be nice if I could see who made the nice art.

Either way, you can find it on Steam.

[majorprojectalex]

Really long Blog about the whole week

I wasn't able to write anything on Wednesday and I thought that trying to write the blog on another day would interfere with my workflow, so ill make up for it with a longer blog today.

I had a meeting with Leo on Monday where I got feedback about the design of the trick

Leo advised that if I get more time I should make an explanatory chart of the booth, Something kind of like an Ikea instruction manual.

I also run past him the idea to change the schedule and doing the UI design next instead of the magician, and he agreed, as long as I thought it wouldn't interfere. So, I changed my Gantt chart to reflect this change. Basically all I had to do was switch the tasks of week 4 with week 9I felt like the change works as I'm only switching things around for character and UI design and already have rough concept for that character

During the week I also tried learning RenPy in order to see what was possible to do with the UI instead of trying to guess and hoping that it might work if I decide I want to put together a demo at the end of the project.

I also experimented a bit wit a colour palette and started thinking about the design of the start screen. For the start screen I looked at a few recent games and how they did it and sketched some thumbnails of them. (TGAA Chronicles, AI Solminum Files, Dredge, Mask of the Rose, Frog detective, and Tangle Tower)

I saw that some of them used zoomed out locations from the game as screens for the menu, and I thought it could be a good idea to try that, as designing the locations was my next task so i would be getting ahead on and killing two birds with one stone.

I ended up coming up with this. The design of the cave exterior is pretty bland for now, but this is just the first idea, and it was very quickly sketched and put together. I liked the idea of having contrasting colours, so I experimented with bold orange and blue colours for it.

When I showed it in class, the feedback was that the orange/red colour is too intence and gives horror vibes, which wasn't really what I was trying to do.

On Wednesday we also had the symposia, which ended up being pretty useful because it turns out I was a bit confused about what the forefront posts are supposed to be

After the feedback I tried making the colour scheme for the menu screen

After that I spent some more time learning ren-py. What I found most useful in the very beginning was going into one of the default games that ren-py has, called 'the question' and editing the code to see how it aggected the game in real time, and which lines of code cause what. I only learned incredibly basic things like this, but it got me over the initial fear that I had about approaching programming

After that, I started following 'Coding with B and E' his Ren-Py for complete beginners.

Make Your Own Visual Novel! | Ren'Py Tutorial Part 1 - YouTube

I managed to learn a lot of the basics a lot quicker than I had anticipated. And the experience of learning it ranged from incredibly frustrating to really satisfying. I deceided that I wanted to see what I could do with what I had learned and created some placeholder art to use for a prototype of the game

the place holder art was for three in game locations, which was again killing two birds with one stone as it got me started coming up with ideas for the environments. I created three backgrounds with the hope that I will be able to reach my wishlist goal of adding an extra location.

I ended up creating a game loop where you can move from location to location in the game using some arrow simbols. I also added some characters, as I imagined that in the game you will be able to click characters and talk to them. (In the prototype it just notifies you that the character has been clicked, since I don't have any of the dialogue yet.)

I was able to do this through the use of image buttons, where you can code an image to trigger certain action. I also added a hover state where there is some light glow around the image when it's hovered on so that it is easier to tell that something can be clicked.

I found image buttons incredibly difficult to figure out at first, but now I feel like I got the hang of them and I could use them for finding clues, creating UI screens ect.

So that gives me a more clear impression of what I could do in terms of UI.

I also created a small icon for the game. It's really small in the video but you might be able to see it.

I also did some research about UI:

I watched this video about it:

(4) 5 TIPS for making prettier UI for games, faster. || Resources and Tools for User Interface Design - YouTube

And took some notes of what I thought could be useful in my sketchbook.

I also looked at Aviary attorney, as I really like the UI they have for the inventory and the and culprit UI)

Then, I brainstormed some ideas about the UI in my sketchbook, and thumbailed some ideas about how the dialogue screen could look like, about a screen where you can examine the characters, and about a people's file screen, kind of like the Aviary attorney's culprit UI screen.

I also sketched out some ideas for what the puzzle's UI could look llike

Then, I also came up with an idea for a mechanic where you can characters, clues or statements together and prove something by showing how they contradict or connect to each other.

I am not exactly sure how I would implement that yet, and the idea is really fresh in my hed still ,so I think I need to think about it more.

Schedule for next weeks:

I still want to create a better design of the booth puzzle, so I have to try squeezing it in between working on other tasks. I've gotten more of an idea for the other designs byu creating the placeholder art, so I'm hoping that that will make the process of their design faster.

Also, even though I have done a lot of work in terms of UI and prototyping, I still have a long way to go with it, especially now that making something playable seems more possible. So I will have to try doing it in paralell with other tasks too

Bibliography:

(2019) AI: The Somnium Files on Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/948740/AI_The_Somnium_Files/ (Accessed: 23 August 2023).

(2021) The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles on Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158850/The_Great_Ace_Attorney_Chronicles/ (Accessed: 23 August 2023).

5 TIPS for making prettier UI for games, faster. || Resources and Tools for User Interface Design (2020). YouTube. 10 July. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQVe6D2flpI&ab_channel=AmalieKae (Accessed: 23 August 2023).

Dredge on steam (2023) DREDGE on Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1562430/DREDGE/ (Accessed: 23 August 2023).

Frog detective 1: The haunted island on steam (2018) Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island on Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/963000/Frog_Detective_1_The_Haunted_Island/ (Accessed: 23 August 2023).

Make Your Own Visual Novel! | Ren’Py Tutorial Part 1 (2020). YouTube. 28 September. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vith10gG8L4&list=PL8gnyyQEz5CGTzHWF8thIfUg92ffs7T7P&ab_channel=CodingWithBandE (Accessed: 23 August 2023).

Mask of the rose on steam (2023) Mask of the Rose on Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1769980/Mask_of_the_Rose/ (Accessed: 23 August 2023).

Tangle Tower on steam (2019) Tangle Tower on Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/359510/Tangle_Tower/ (Accessed: 23 August 2023).

[iloveabunchofgames]

#JakeReviewsItch

ART SQOOL

by Glanderco

Price (US): $6.99

Included In: Indie Bundle for Palestinian Aid, Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, Bundle for Ukraine

Genre: None provided by the developer

Pitch: Learn to draw. Draw to learn.

My expectations: Man, I want to like ART SQOOL. It might have been the first game I downloaded after getting the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, which would also make it the first disappointment in that bundle. I thought maybe I'd missed something, so I gave it another try about a year later. Will my third attempt be the one that finally makes it click, or was my initial impression right all along?

Review:

Get a prompt. Get a grade. Get another prompt.

ART SQOOL claims grades are determined by artificial intelligence on the criteria of COLOR, COMPOSITION, LINEWORK, and APPROACH, but it sure feels RANDOM. I’d draw a vibrant, detailed image using every tool at my disposal, get an F, and be told to repeat the assignment. I’d scribble a crude smiley face in response and get an A.

For those who didn’t go to art school, I gotta say: Pretty accurate.

Trying to create great art in ART SQOOL is a fool’s errand. The canvas is tiny, without the options that make good digital art tenable, like zooming in or drawing on layers. The undo button is temperamental. There are just 16 brushes and six paints, most of which aren’t available from the start.

There’s a surreal world of sky islands to explore. The character has infinite air-jumps, so getting around is easy; it’s just painfully slow. Since the mouse input is used for drawing, camera control is all on the keyboard, and it is awkward. You’ll need to peek around every corner, though, to find the missing art supplies. Not much of an art tool. Not much of a game.

+ It has style! Lots of blobby pastels. + Drawing based on open-ended prompts can be fun. + A no-pressure time waster. + Saves all your images. It's fun to look back at them months or years later and try to guess what they're meant to be.

– Great art can come from limitations. The drawing tools, however, aren't limited enough to encourage new ways of thinking or expansive enough to compete with other software. I felt like my options were to put a lot of effort into a drawing that would end up looking compromised or little effort into something that's disposable, anyway. So it all feels disposable. – Getting around the world is a chore. – If there's a game that could benefit from online integration, here it is. What's everyone else doing with these prompts? I kept thinking about Jackbox and the Miiverse—bad drawing tools made fun through community. – Random, discouraging grading system.

🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍 Bottom Line: Here's your assignment: Download an old version of Kid Pix and open a random Wikipedia page. Draw the title. Upload your picture to Tumblr, and tag it with #WikPix. You are now having the ideal ART SQOOL experience.

#JakeReviewsItch is a series of daily game reviews. You can learn more here. You can also browse past reviews...

• By name • By rating • By genre

[fullonfandomindulgence]

The Same People (2/5)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Drive folder - AO3

In which Mob has asked out Tsubomi and some other things start happening.

Click for bigger images. Notes and ID below.

notes: im sowwy the art on part 1 is so janky. i mean. jankier than this. i wanted to get it tf out to hold myself accountable for finishing the rest. might redo it eventually but right now onto 3 and 4! i promise there will be more jokes. and more locations than < < trees > >. im tryna let tsubomi be the weirdo i know she is. am i stretching believability how long mob stayed in the park before going back to reigen and dimple?? who cares. uh, lemme know if u like this, or if u have constructive criticism, i could use the feedback

ID: Four black and white comics pages about characters from Mob Psycho 100.

Page 1:

Tsubomi's head and torso are centered in an otherwise empty panel. She is hunched and her body is turned away, but she's looking straight at the reader, head tilted, a rueful smile on.

In the same view, Tsubomi straightens and puts her hands on her hips, leaning her head back. She tilts it to one side and looks down her nose at the reader, brow furrowed, mouth closed and wide.

Tsubomi centers her head, closes her eyes, straightens her arms, and suddenly (motion lines) claps her hands to the sides of her thighs in exaggerated formality.

She quickly (motion lines) bows. "I'm sorry, Mob. I've never thought about you that way."

Page 2:

Tsubomi and Mob are both visible in front of black silhouetted trees, Tsubomi leaning forward coming out of her bow, Mob leaning forward in dismay. Tsubomi looks blankly to one side and thinks, "I mean maybe when I was like, nine." Mob thinks, "But what about when we were nine??"

Over Tsubomi's shoulder, Mob looks cowed. Tsubomi is unhappy but frank, eyelids low, eyebrows high. "We've barely talked in, three years? We're not the same people we were." Mob: "Yeah…" Tsubomi: "I don't know you. I thought…"

An empty panel except for Tsubomi's head and shoulders occupying one side. She looks away, brow folded.

Tsubomi again looks down her nose at Mob, head tilted back and to the side, but this time smiling knowingly, arms spread out. Beside her is a damaged tree, wounded in two places. "I mean you're proud you did it though, right?"

Tsubomi's open hand is in close-up, and behind it Mob looking on. His eyes are empty. He is concerned.

Page 3:

Mob remains concerned and uncertain. "I--even if you don't want to uh, go, out, I'm still sad you're leaving."

Tsubomi sags. We look up at her as she and the trees twist away. "Yeah… I dunno."

Tsubomi's head and shoulders are upside down. She is facing away. Trees form abstract black stripes. The panel border is gone. "It'll be nice to have a change."

Mob's head and shoulders are in front of a bare tree with lots of small branches and twigs. He looks down.

Then a closeup of Mob's eye as he squints. "You waited for me here. Through the whole storm…"

The view zooms out, looking at Mob and Tsubomi from above. The trees are bent, leaves fly through the air, and Tsubomi's hair is blown back. Mob, standing tall, looks at Tsubomi, hunched and looking away.

Page 4:

The view is from underneath Mob and at an odd angle. Leaves ruffle around him. Mob says, concerned, "You must be pretty disappointed that I invited you here just to ask you out like everyone else."

A tiny panel. Mob is a black silhouette facing Tsubomi, who looks up from her head tilted away.

Tsubomi faces the reader, the otherwise empty panel framing her head and upper torso. In sadness her eyebrows are knit, her lower eyelids are up, and her mouth is small. "Yeah."

She shrugs.

Mob is in the same view, facing the reader. He leans to the side. There is a flower on his head. A petal has fallen off and is drifting away.

End ID.

[thefloofartist]

Since when did canonseeker make videos involving the RWBY Fandom? And when did canonseeker have the ability to doctor images? You've always called him creatively and intellectually bankrupt, now suddenly he's able to do this? You know something is off. And its not the first time somebody pretended to be him. Who is Troy?

Canonseeker's actually made it clear for a while now that he had been wanting to make a video. While I'm pretty sure this Ask Me is just Canonseeker himself, in the 1% chance it's not, I'll try giving an answer as to how he made this video based on my experiences with video editing and image manipulation. If you're really not Canonseeker, I'd appreciate being messaged directly in Tumblr's chat instead of an Ask Me, because it makes verifying who is who much easier and differentiating between people who don't know about Canonseeker and people who do know. Again, sorry for the inconvenience. Moving onto the explanation! The quality of the video in question is something I could do in about 10 minutes in Vegas Pro 14. It's got two layers - Video and Audio. Video is where all of the images he used are uploaded to, while Audio is taken up solely by the music he picked. He starts the video with 8 seconds of blank screen (black) before it directly cuts to an edited version of SYTO's artwork. This image is the only one that lasts longer than 4 seconds that isn't the manufactured "conversation".

After this, each image he uses fades into the next one, and it isn't even timed properly to account for the dialogue that Canonseeker himself edited in since each image is on screen for the same amount of time, excluding the first and last one. What I think happened was that Canonseeker just dragged and dropped the images, overlaid them on top of each other in one layer, and called it a day. Their timestamps are too similar for this to not be the case.

After all the stolen art, the video directly cuts to a single, very vertical, image of the "conversation" between Canonseeker and CYTOseeker. This can be done quite easily. In Vegas Pro 14, you can click on an icon that brings up a timeline, set two points, and simply reposition the image so the video box is at different locations on the same image over a period of time. The program does all of the movement in between Point A and Point B for you. This can be done in under 30 seconds.

Once the nonsense passes by, it cuts to black again for about 7 seconds, but there's a flash frame at the end entirely in white. I'm not sure why this is the case, but it might be a piece of something else Canonseeker is working on, or just an image he forgot to slip in that he zoomed in way too far for.

The audio is the laziest bit about this. It's just music. No sound effects, no blending, no nothing. Dragged and dropped and that was that. This takes less than 3 seconds to do.

To answer on this "Troy" person, "Troy" is just a Canonseeker alt, considering the account was made yesterday and the video uploaded shortly after. "Troy" has never been mentioned or name dropped at any other point in the history of Canonseeker's shenanigans, so I really don't see why or how someone who is significant enough in Canonseeker's life would suddenly appear now of all times instead of several months ago when people were still unsure as to who or what Canonseeker was during all the callout posts.

That's all I'll say for now. See ya.

[alena-draws]

Hey op! I was wondering, how do you manage to keep your pic quality actually decent? Whenever I try to post anything I've drawn and taken a picture of, the quality becomes immediately a mayhem and total disrespect to the eFFORT.

As always, your art is absolutely great. Amazing. Stunning. Showstopping-

Hm, can you go to the details of your image file by right click? Like this here (though it's in german now) and maybe check for the image details. For a good resolution, 300 dpi is good to have (it is the minimum needed for a proper print, though for web view 170dpi or something is also ok). Another point could be that it's a small image, maybe with only around 1000px length/width?

I see you have gorgeous watercolour paintings on your blog, and by looking I'd say this is maybe more an issue of the camera you're using. Most mobile cameras nowadays are pretty good, but without good light equipment and a really good cam like a reflex camera, scanning your drawings is still the best option for optimal quality, I think :) I'm using a Canon LiDE220, and for the relatively low costs it has served me reallly well these last years. Colours will need a bit readjusting on the computer, but I can scan with 600dpi which means you can zoom in the picture a lot and it still looks crisp close-up.

And, if all the above isn't it, this might still be a problem of Tumblr :/ I don't know what to do in that case, maybe it's something with the source code of your tumblr template that wrecks the image quality.

And thank you very much! I love your art as well, it's so dynamic and flowy!

[clairethecutepup]

Title: Puppy Eyes and Doll Eyes (Pg. 1)

[Next Page]

First, disclaimers: we all know Ed Edd n' Eddy doesn't belong to me, and the "Assassin AU" of the series is by "C2ndy2c1d". Secondly, it's recommended you zoom into the image for better quality, however possible. For more about this piece and my thoughts, click the "read more" below.

If you're wondering how some animal hybrid, like Claire, exists in this world, I came up with an idea that could make sense. I'd imagine any organization running a business involving assassins would want to craft something that'd make their jobs easier: hybrids that combine humanistic and animalistic abilities, "werebeasts". At the very least, it certainly helped me come up with one idea for a more original series based on assassins.

Just think about how handy it may be, if you could have a servant/partner that was un-dyingly loyal to the point of dying in your place? Plus, the human body would make for an easier time of protecting you and assisting you in tasks, while the animal senses/parts are pretty easy to guess the usefulness of.

Back to the comic itself, I had some issues here and there, like the upper perspective toward the forest ceiling at times. Also, I'll be honest: this AU version of Sarah and Jimmy freaks me out, so that was a mental obstacle to overcome, via getting myself into the Zen of looking at and drawing them. What? They wear masks, they call themselves a creepy-sounding duo name of "Dollies," their main method of weapon is acupuncture and thus means they prefer controlling your body-- don't even get me started on some fan art portraying them as puppeteers, by as simple as their hidden strings being drawn from their fingertips... If that wasn't enough, I've seen how cunning and manipulative these two could be in the actual EEnE series: "If it Smells like an Ed" and "Run Ed Run," and I'd imagine they'd be 10x more clever and conniving, possibly having honed those skills as assassins.

Even creepier, I just know those two would realistically have a field day with Claire, since her small size and animal features would probably make her look like a living doll/teddy hybrid in the duo's eyes. I doubt they'd actually hurt the poor, terrified thing, but I still do not envy her being a likely target of their fun: the teasing, the ability to push her around, the ability to manipulate her smaller body-- even without the puppet strings and acupuncture... Geez, it's like Claire has her own Kanker Sisters, except there's no "lovey dovey" stuff involved-- but I can't decide which is worse!

I also had a bit of trouble with the drawn motions, and I'm not especially proud of the movement in Claire zipping into Ed's arms up there. But, at the very least, I think we can all agree it looks better to use lines and draw SFX, than to do some sort of "overlapping" effects and what else could hide the expressions/etc.

[cloud-9ine]

Through a Golden Lens (pt 1)

⤷ pairing - hawks x (fem) reader

⤷ fandom - bnha 

⤷ warnings - some language, hawks flirting, reader’s cynicism 

⤷ summary - reader is a bitter, overworked photographer at a hero press agency with little patience for her newly assigned muse- hawks

⤷ word count - 4.5k+

⤷ notes - i have lots of ideas so this is probably going to be a multi-part series. also new to tumblr so this might not be the best

⤷ pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, pt 4, pt 5, pt 6

“Mr. Hawks! Please look this way!” his heavy lidded eyes rolled to the side as another blinding flash burned through his vision. 

“You look perfect, thank you!” it was hard to smile for their benefit, but he managed. Hawks had attended countless of these events for the press. It had been exhilarating at first, with the rush of adrenaline from the cameras and the lights and the endless stream of compliments solidifying his place in the public eye.

Nowadays, it was less thrilling. After a while, they all seemed the same- each one blurring into a senseless flare of cameras and hollow accolades.

He was bored, to say the least.

“Mr Hawks, would you like to come and see? I’d love to hear your opinion on this set!” with a practiced, easy smirk he nodded. It was easier to pander to the artist than to criticise their work. 

He looked good, but when did he not? The shoots were easy to glide through. All he had to do was pull a boyish grin, ‘make love to the camera’ as the photographers always liked to spout. It didn’t really matter what he did: the public would eat up anything with his face slapped on to the front. They all looked the same to him, anyway.

“Looks good,” he wondered why people were so easily satiated by shallow praises, but as he stared at the younger lady’s blush, he couldn’t help but realise that maybe it was him who had something to do with it.

Hawks couldn’t help his gaze from drifting to the door. His skin prickled in the humidity of all the moving bodies in one enclosed space and he longed to take a step outside and stretch his wings in a way that wasn’t to pose for a magazine. 

For a moment, he felt like his prayers had been answered when the door opened, letting in a stream of natural light to breach the artificiality of the modelling room. 

”(L/N)! You were supposed to be here over three hours ago!” the woman in front of him exclaimed, ripping the camera away from his view and marching to the figure that appeared in the light. He blinked in surprise: this entire shoot he hadn’t heard her raise her voice above anything but a low mumble when conversing with him, and now she was positively fuming.

You stared down at your co-worker through honey-tinted shades, expression unamused.

“Yeah, and I was also supposed to be out of this job three years ago. We don’t all do what we’re supposed to, cupcake.”

For a moment, Hawks thought you were a model. Tasteful cream turtleneck tucked into heavily creased mocha skirt, caramel beret perched on your head. There were a few metal, classy looking rings wrapped around your fingers, but as far as he could see, no wedding ring. It was pretty standard style for those who worked in the arts, but somehow you wore it so well. 

Your hair was a little dishevelled, and the dark circles under your eyes combined with the coffee cup in your hand were obvious signs of a rough night. His eyes locked on to the loopy black handwriting on the brown band around the cup.

(L/N) (Y/N)

You were no model, but Hawks couldn’t see the difference.

His wings beat lightly behind his back as he glided over, weaving through the other photographers and models scattered around the area. 

“Hey there, I’m Hawks,” he said smoothly, voice saccharine as he spoke to you. Your attention turned to him as you glanced at him from above the frames of your sunglasses, seemingly unimpressed.

“This the new boytoy, Mizuki?” you asked, eyes raking up and down his figure. Hawks was never one to shy away from the gaze of others, but the way you were inspecting him made him feel so exposed.

“Show some respect,” Mizuki muttered, voice lowered at Hawks’ presence but glare still piercing. You sighed, sparing one last glance at Hawks before snatching the camera out of Mizuki’s hands, leaving her scrambling for the device as you walked away.

“Lemme see what you’ve got already,” Mizuki’s face grew red, half from anger towards you, and half because of the embarrassment of being diminished in front of Hawks.

“(L/N) y-you can’t just come in three hours late and take over! I’ve already done the shoot and Hawks has already expressed that he is pleased with the outcome,” you scoffed, rolling your eyes and shooting the shorter woman a glare over your shoulder.

“There’s no way you’re gonna force me to come into work and make me sit here doing nothing,” you sneered, waving the camera around almost teasingly, “you wanted someone actually skilled to do this shoot, and here I am. Let me do my thing,” without waiting for a response, you left, thumb fumbling with the dial that allowed you to scroll through the photos.

Hawks was impressed. You hadn’t bat an eye when you saw him, and while you were very clearly very late, you were confident in your skills and obviously took your job seriously.

“Who was that?” he questioned, wings spreading slightly as his eyes chased after you. Mizuki bowed her head, remorse filling her expression.

“I apologise for her impertinence. That’s (L/N), she was who your original photographer was supposed to be today, but when she didn’t show up I had to take over,” she huffed, “she’s been like this for about a year now, and the boss is prepared to fire her if she keeps it up. So you’d think she’d be able to pull her at together for you, Mr. Hawks...”

After a while, Hawks tuned out her whining, eyes curiously trained on you, surveying your furrowed brows and expression pinched with annoyance as you studied the photos. Although they looked good enough to him, it appeared that you didn’t share the same sentiment. 

Hawks didn’t have time to avert his eyes when you turned your head, gaze locking on to his. You raised a slightly suspicious brow, but otherwise didn’t entertain his actions. 

“Mizuki, why would you use cool lighting?” you called over your shoulder, not even sparing the decency to turn around and face the person you were addressing. Mizuki frowned, moving to your side. Like a magnet, Hawks did the same, peering over your other shoulder. You eyed him from the corner of your vision for a second before tapping the screen. 

“What do you mean?” you sighed at your co-workers words, evidently frustrated.

“Considering you have bird boy over here in dark academia, accented in warmer yellows, using cool lights will bring out too much of a contrast. We need to match the accent colours with warmer lighting, or use a overlay,” you muttered, seemingly addressing yourself more than the two of them. Mizuki just shook her head.

“That would just oversaturate the image,” you snorted, giving her the same patronising look an adult would give a child if they tried to outsmart them.

“Not necessarily. I could spot-reduce saturation in highlight areas during editing. Or, if you really want your contrast, I could neutralise the warmer shades by using a blue, or compliment them using a red,” Hawks didn’t miss the way you said ‘I’ instead of ‘we’. Mizuki looked agitated, her frown growing deeper.

“Even so, we only have white backdrops. That would be a jarring contrast. You’d need something darker or more clustered to make it work. If you wanted a backdrop change you probably should’ve come earlier,” she spoke with a formality that obviously stemmed from Hawks next to her, but you paid no mind. You were silent for a moment, and Hawks could see your eyes narrowing as you were thinking.

“I need a natural background, huh?” you mumbled, thumbing the buttons on the camera. With a shrug, “alright, bird boy, come on, we’re leaving,” Hawks blinked in surprise as you spun on your heel, a grin breaking onto his face. Finally, he got to leave.

“Whatever you say, boss,” you shot him an irritated look.

“Don’t call me that. I’m 22, not 40,” his feathers ruffled up. “Hey, I’m also 22! What a coincidence, right?” he grinned, winking at you. You just responded by rolling your eyes.

Mizuki spluttered, trying in vain to get either one of you to stop as Hawks trailed after you.

“L-Look, you can’t just leave-” you turned, shoving the camera back into her hands, a mirthless smile on your face.

“Watch me,” your voice was cold, goading her to try and stop you, “bird boy, out, now.” Hawks didn’t have to be told twice. Some of the others whispered and muttered as they realised what was going on, but they all fell quiet when you shot them a sharp glare.

He breathed in the fresh air with a content sigh, his chest feeling lighter now he was out the cramped room. The amber glow from the late afternoon sun kissed his tanned skin as he stretched his arms above his head, his forearms flexing slightly under his dark blazer. His eyes shut in bliss and head tilted back, exposing his sharp jawline.

You eyed him slightly, eyes trailing across his features. Now that you had actually left, you were a little lost on what your plan was. You didn’t regret storming out of there, though, nor did you even consider turning back to apologise.

You took your own camera out of the dark camera bag slung across your body, careful not to scratch it on the tripod, and focused the lens on Hawks. It was smaller, a little more compact than the ones Mizuki and the others were using, but you found that it was much better suited for portrait work. 

The click of the camera shutter brought Hawks out of his stupor, eyes snapping open and immediately landing on you. Your attention had already been diverted to the screen, studying your work. 

“The modelling room is stuffy, I’ll give you that,” you mumbled, zooming in on his face, “but you can stretch while we walk,” Hawks leaned over you, eyes sparkling at the shot.

“Aw, you make me look so good, I’m flattered!” you rolled your eyes.

“Don’t be,” you took a large sip of your coffee, moving down the pathway as you thought. Hawks scrambled after you, his wings puffing out when he reached your side. You couldn’t help but gaze at the bright red feathers as he unfurled his wings, a small, happy chirping noise rumbling at the back of his throat once they were fully spread behind your back. They were warm, you noticed, feeling the heat through your turtleneck. 

Your vision was filled with a cheeky smirk painted on full lips, Hawks’ face appearing in front of your eyes. Your eyes narrowed as you sized him up.

“See something you like?” you rolled your eyes as he purred. 

“Not in the slightest, bird brain,” his wings beat behind his back, hand clutching the fabric on his chest.

“Oh, how you wound me!” Hawks cried, and you couldn’t help but smile slightly, which you quickly covered with your coffee cup. 

“I’m sure you’ll face a villain that will do greater damage than I could,” he hummed, angling his face towards the sun. 

“So, where are we headed?” you chewed on your bottom lip, slinging your camera over your shoulder. 

“It can’t be anywhere with lots of traffic, you attract a lot of attention, you know?” it was a rhetorical question, but Hawks’ chest still puffed out in pride at your words.

“Thanks, it’s because of my raging-”

“Shut up,” you cut him off, “either way, I have a pounding headache and I do not have enough shits to give to put up with your fan girls today,” with a sigh, you rubbed your temples. Hawks stared at your clenched teeth.

“Hey, why do you-” “I think I know where we can go,” he frowned.

“You know it’s not polite to interrupt people like that-”

“Sunflowers.” your tone dripped finality as you faced Hawks, a brazen determination in your eyes he hadn’t seen until now. It made his breath hitch in his throat.

Breathy chuckle escaping his lips, and eyebrows furrowed when you sped your pace, gulping down more of your coffee.

“Uh, what?” you waved a hand dismissively.

“There’s a sunflower field in Fukuroi City, I think it’s west from here,” the tiniest of grins etched onto your features, “it’s gonna be a lot more interesting than the rest of those blank background. Plus, the yellow will compliment your clothes, and with the sun low in the sky I’ll get my perfect warm lighting,” you explained. Hawks wasn’t sure exactly how much of a difference it would make, but the idea seemed charming, and it was more exciting than being perpetually flanked by a white screen.

“Sounds good,” he chirped, “although, to be honest, you could take me out anywhere and I wouldn’t mind,” you rolled your eyes. 

“That’s a shame, because I don’t intend to hang around any more than I have to,” Hawks pouted, crossing his arms.

“Come on, I wanna know more about you!” you bristled.

“Good for you.” the two of you fell into a beat of silence before Hawks smiled, undaunted.

“I’m sure I can win you over somehow,” shaking your head in disbelief, you lifted the cup to your lips, before looking down disappointedly when you realised it was empty.

“I don’t have enough coffee for this,” you muttered. Hawks’ expression brightened. 

“That’s an easy fix: your agency is around here so you must know there area pretty well,” he spoke nonchalantly, as if he was on a casual lunch date and not in the most expensive outfit you’d seen in your entire life, “what’s the best place to grab a coffee?” for a moment, you looked taken aback, before shaking your head.

“Best café in these parts is the Sunset Hour,” you said, rubbing the back of your neck, “but as much as I have no inhibitions regarding bunking off work, that’s a little too far away. I need to take this pictures before the end of the day or Mizuki’ll submit those crappy ones she took in the studio,” Hawks nodded in understanding, smile never faltering for a second.

“Well I gotta get you your caffeine fix somewhere, so what’s the second best?” your expression scrunched in thought for a moment, before you jutted a thumb over your shoulder.

“There’s a Starbucks across the road,” he snickered seeing your blank expression.

“Not exactly where I would want our first date, but I suppose it’ll do,” rolling your eyes, you shoved the empty cup to his chest, which he gripped almost instinctively. 

“Good thing this isn’t a date, then,” Hawks grinned, sending your empty cup on a feather to the nearest bin before chasing after you as you crossed the road. You didn’t spare him a single glance when he appeared at your shoulder, nor when he reached over above your head to open the Starbucks door from behind you.

“So you’re saying we can have our first date somewhere else?” with a shallow sigh, you shook your head.

“What I’m saying is that there’s not gonna be a first date. Not between us,” his chest tightened. God, you were so mean. He’d be into that.

The inside of the Starbucks was a mix between modern, western architecture and traditional Japanese woodwork. The equipment was all cutting edge, and the tables and chairs were made with a sleek mahogany, but the windows were framed with bamboo shutters, and the backroom was separated with shoji sliding doors. It was an curious blend, one that you studied with an interest. The deep, earthy scent of roasted coffee beans heavily imbued the air, filling your nose with the aroma of something far more familiar. 

Given it was the late afternoon, and most people tended not to drink caffeine after 2pm, the patrons were few and far in between. Good for you, at least. It meant you wouldn’t get- “Hawks? Sorry to bother you but can we get a picture?” your head turned at the voice that rung out.

Two high school girls stood to your left, hands clutched together in front of their chests and a dark pink coating their cheeks. With a small sigh, you took a step forward in the small queue. Hawks smiled with all the faux charm in the world, an obvious change in his demeanour as his pride spiked.

“Of course! And just as it happens, I have my personal photographer here who can make sure your photos look amazing as you two do!” it took you a moment to register what he had said through the excited squeals of the girls before he clutched your shoulders and pulled you forward, causing you to stumble slightly. 

“Your what?” he sent you an audacious smirk, willing you to play along as one of the girls handed you her phone. Your first instinct was to decline, but as you met the eyes of the girls, so eager and bright, you couldn’t find it in you to disappoint them. 

Taking a couple steps back, you lifted the phone, slightly angling it so the picture looked more natural, and not that of a celebrity and their fans (even if it was). You squinted angrily at the poor lighting, but tried to rectify it the best you could. The girls looked a little tense, but Hawks was a natural. A liberal smirk played on his lips and shoulders rolled back, relaxed. Even with the low lighting, the highlights on his cheekbone and jawline were indescribably perfect, and you weren’t sure if the credit should go to you or his god-like genes.

“Wow, that’s perfect!” one of the girls cried, her body appearing by your side. You hadn’t even noticed her moving, “thank you so much!” you just nodded, handing her back her phone and crossing your arms, eyes narrowing at Hawks.

“If that’s all, ladies, we best be ordering,” they nodded frantically at Hawks’ words, sharply bowing and spouting their thanks to the two of you countless times. They left the Starbucks, but even outside you could still hear them fawning over the picture. He faced you with a grin, but you couldn’t muster up a smile.

“Don’t go around telling people I’m your personal photographer,” you sneered. He pouted, looking genuinely disappointed for a second. “What, you don’t wanna be mine?” “Not in the slightest.” 

“What will be your order, Miss?” the barista had directed the question at you, but it was clear his attention was elsewhere. You weren’t surprised, but a small swell of annoyance grew in your mind.

“Can I have a mocha with a double shot of expresso?” Hawks chuckled.

“Might as well have an expresso, you know. You’re basically just taking a shot of caffeine,” you shrugged.

“It’s my favourite drink. I like the chocolate taste,” he looked at you with round eyes, a small squeeze in his chest.

“And you, sir?”

“Oh, I’ll have the same, then,” he didn’t miss the way your eyes darted to him. The barista nodded, tapping for a couple seconds before turning back.

“That’ll be 660 yen,” “I’m paying,” Hawks blurted, even before you could offer. You were silent, a small nod in the affirmative rocking your head. As he handed over the bills, he chuckled. “You know, not that I mind, but usually couples would argue over who’s paying,” you rolled your eyes.

“We’re not a couple,” you watched the barista prepare your drinks, more of a way to occupy yourself rather than a genuine interest, “besides, you’re a lot richer than I am. I don’t mean to be impolite, but I’m sure you can lose 600 yen and still be good,” he hummed happily.

“No disagreements there.” “Are you two eating in or taking out?” the barista asked, in the midst of securing the plastic lids to the top of the cups. Hawks’ eyes sparkled as he turned to you with an excitement you assumed only appeared in children.

“Hey, we can-” “Take out,” you responded, giving a now deflated Hawks a challenging look, “I will leave you here if I have to.” the blonde grinned. “You wouldn’t. You need me for the pictures,” he sang, voice jovial.

“I don’t care about you that much. The sunflowers are probably less annoying subjects anyway,” oh. With no warning, his heart beat sped up, his wings puffing out slightly. Sure, he wouldn’t mind if you were a little nicer to him, but your insults were like a breath of fresh air. There was no doubt that Hawks loved the limelight, loved the popularity he got, but the relentless ass-kissing got old after a while. You kept him on his toes. Even if he was just constantly chasing after you every time you brushed him off, he didn’t care. 

“Put those away, bird brain,” it was then he realised his wings had spread further than he intended, stretched out on either side of him. One was curled right around his face, and he almost felt himself blushing as he pulled them in. It was just animal instincts, he assured himself. 

The rest of the journey was filled with a one-sided conversation of him talking and commenting on what was around you, with no response from you except the occasional witty retort or light-hearted jab at his expense, each one making his heart flutter. It wasn’t too long before you had arrived, the chain link fence around the plot stretching high above your head and corroded with orange rust. 

Rows and rows of bright yellow sunflowers stretched to the horizon, an immense display of summer vitality. The fragrance was potent, a sort of cloying sweetness that you didn’t hate. And just as you were about to enter, you knew you had made a mistake. 

“Oh.” Hawks stared at you incredulously, attention switching from your taken aback expression to the sign posted on the gate.

“You didn’t check to see it was open?” you looked up at him, allowing him to survey a tinge of remorse he hadn’t recognised until this point. 

“Look, how was I supposed to know? This place has always been open at this time since I was a little kid,” you rubbed your arm, brows furrowed. Hawks sighed, rolling his shoulders back.

“Well, the sun’s too low to go anywhere else outside,” he shrugged, “it’s no biggie, I guess. Those other photos weren’t too bad. Hey, now that we’re free, do you want to- what are you doing?” your foot was halfway in the gaps in the gate, the wedges on your heels making it hard to climb.

“I’m not wasting my day for nothing,” you growled, fingers curling around the metal, “get climbing, bird boy,” with a soft sigh, smile gracing his lips and a warm feeling in his chest, Hawks spread his wings.

“I think you’re forgetting something that’ll make this a lot easier,” you felt a cool draft on your back as Hawks flapped his wings, the feeling being quickly replaced by the warmth of his chest as he pulled you in. A foreign emotion coiled in your stomach, but you convinced yourself that it was just the flight.

One arm wrapped around your shoulders, the other supporting your knees, and all Hawks was thinking that such a gentle flight never felt so calming. 

Your feet tapped against the soft soil, sinking in to it slightly when the hero placed you down. You nodded your thanks.

“Let’s go over there, I want the sun coming in from the right,” Hawks nodded, content to just follow your orders. You pulled the tripod from your bag and set it up, adjusting it to your liking as Hawks looked around, trying to think of a pose. 

Once everything was ready, you turned your attention to Hawks.

“I want to humanise you,” he grinned curiously as you walked over.

“What do you mean by that?” he nearly gasped when you grabbed his chin, angling his face to the side and slightly up, towards the sun. You took a step closer, reaching up and running a hand through his hair. He bit his lip, hands trembling as you tugged slightly, trying to mess it up a little.

“All the photos I’ve seen on you always put a huge emphasis on either your wings or your hero status, and I don’t really see why,” you mumbled, placing one hand on his jawline while the other fixed his hair to your liking, letting a few strands fall in front of his eyes, “I think that just creates a divide. If they wanted you to seem angelic they should play that up, not just have it the norm,” you huffed, “anyway, I wanna put the emphasis on you and not your wings. So ideally if you could tuck them behind your back that would be wonderful,” 

Hawks nodded, disappointment filling him as you stepped away. He made sure not to move as he awkwardly folded his wings over each other and pulled them in, glancing at you with a look of apprehension. You just nodded in approval, leaning down to your camera. 

You took plenty of shots, allowing him plenty more opportunities to feel your hands on him (and he would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it). 

“Hey, why were you so late today?” Hawks dared to question while you were analysing your photos. You were perched on a bench, appreciating your work. The late sun cast a golden sheen on his skin, the spattering of glimmering rays highlighting his face in all the right places. 

“I was sleeping,” you responded, deleting an out of focus shot. His eyes narrowed.

“What?” “Just as it sounds. Figured if they were gonna make me work so I could only have three hours of sleep a night it was gonna be on their time, not mine,” he frowned, taking a seat next to you.

“They shouldn’t work you that hard,” you shrugged with a hollow laugh, blank gaze in your eyes. 

“What am I gonna do? Have them fire me? As much as I hate this job it’s the only thing that pays for my coffee in the morning,” he was silent as you stood up, stretching your arms behind your bag before tucking everything back in your bag. 

“Did you want to be a photographer?” he questioned, only to be met with a forlorn smile.

“Maybe at one point.” the two of you lapsed into silence before you sighed.

“Well, I’ve gotta submit these to Mizuki, and I’m sure you need-” Hawks caught your wrist, spinning you back around.

In the glow of the sunset, you looked almost ethereal. Your eyes gleamed, and cheeks warmed in the orange flare. Sunflowers framed your form, and the words caught in his throat, nearly stopping him from saying anything at all.

“Come work for me.” he blurted. You snorted.

“No.” all he could do was smile as you hopped back over the fence, not waiting up for him.

“Yeah. That’s what I thought you’d say.”