#I fully expect this to flop

[vorgoth]

I am Sith, and I endure.

[haroldherald]

shite about harold's family i've made up

harold canonically has two siblings; an older brother and a younger sister

his brother is named alexander (goes by lex) and his sister's name is elizabeth (goes by lizzie)

i won't give them long full names like harold's for now but they're be similar enough with all the middle names and stuff

which is why they've both shortened their first names

i already posted that i feel like he and his older brother are irish twins (less than a year apart)

it's just the three of them and their mom

they all have a good relationship with their mom but she can't always be around, harold babies lizzie a lot for this reason

even if lizzie isn't especially appreciative of harold for their differences, he still makes an effort with her (like when he tells heather he's read her books in the island special)

i think i posted before that i'd like to think lex, harold and lizzie are all weird in some way but they're all like "my siblings are so weird thank god i'm the only normal one in this family"

like lex tries too hard to be cool and distances himself from his siblings and lizzie wears j-fashion and harold is. you know already 😭

harold and lizzie bond over japan at least, he's offered to bring her to conventions and stuff

lex does NOT try as hard as harold does with their sister

they're all nd in some way

even though lex and harold are so close in age they go to separate schools. they were in the same grade and unfortunately for both of them their teachers kept them together for everything so they both complained until their mom let one move

every time they had to do a project as partners harold would have to do everything while lex told people it was him doing all the work

i got an anon ask once saying they thought harold would still be taller than his brother (i hope they're okay with me using that 🙏)

[smolghostbot]

The Night Out

Because this stupid vampire refuses to leave my brain, here's another story about Nix, my beloved morally-gray genderfluid bastard vampire

(Note for the regular readers, this is not a g/t story! It's firmly a normal whump story. If you want a sizey story with Nix, check out Unlucky Clover)

Word Count: 2.8k CWs: whump, carewhumper, gaslighting, supernatural mind manipulation, abduction, nonconsensual blood drinking (maybe in a spicy way? gonna be honest besties i’m too ace to know what’s spicy or not)

======

The Next Day

Where… are you? You look around, taking in a bedroom you’ve never been in before… at least, you don’t think you’ve been here. It’s a nice looking room, except… is the window boarded? Your breath hitches as the feeling of confusion makes way to panic. Your eyes dart to the door. It’s closed. Hesitantly, you get out of the bed, only to almost immediately get hit with lightheaded-ness. What…?

You sit back down, well, really you fall back down, and look to the night stand, where you see a breakfast bar and a sports drink. There’s a sticky note, with a heart drawn on it in red. You try to remember last night, what happened?

You remember going to the bar… but you don’t drink. You were just there with some friends, but… what happened after that? Why can’t you remember? Clearly, you went home with somebody… somehow.

Shit, my phone, you think, as you try to find it, but it seems to be missing. Weirdly, you still have your wallet… so you weren’t robbed, that’s good at least.

With no other options, you open the drink cap and the package the breakfast bar is in. Both are unopened, that’s a small relief… no worries about being tampered with. After you eat and drink, you start to feel a little better, but the calm you experience is short-lived as you hear movement from outside. You begin to worry, before realizing it’s probably the person who brought you here. They’ll likely have answers.

Sure enough, the door opens, and in walks a person you swear you’ve never seen before, though he looks… familiar. He’s pale, a bit on the short side, wearing clothes far nicer than yours with makeup to match, like he was out for a night on the town. His hair is a light purple, though you can see the black roots near his scalp. As your eyes meet his, you finally take in the obvious, being his blood-red eyes… and everything starts to make sense. Those are either contacts, or…

“Oh, well look who’s awake! I’ll be honest, you certainly had me worried with how fast you passed out”, he says with a grin and a wink. You instantly notice just how sweet and smooth his voice is. Between that and his appearance, it’s not hard to see how past-you ended up in this situation.

You have a million questions. How did I get here, where is here, why can’t I remember anything, what did I do last night. So many questions fighting their way to your mouth, but only one makes it all the way out and into the awkward silence of the room.

“Where’s my phone?”

He laughs at this, a hearty laugh that gives you a good look at his fangs. Yep, those aren’t contacts.

“That’s the question you ask? Really?” He says with an incredulous tone, “Well, don’t worry, it’s downstairs, fully charged. I didn’t want you waking up and panic-texting, that could cause me problems, as I’m sure you’re starting to realize.”

“I… think I get it. So, you…” you start to speak, as you feel around your neck.

“Other side, dear. Don’t worry, they’ll disappear within a few days.”

You move your other hand up, and sure enough you can feel two small scars in your neck. Your eyes go wide with panic, though he’s quick to continue speaking in that smooth tone as he walks over and sits on the bed next to you, putting a cold hand on your chest.

“Oh, do calm down, you’re still alive, aren’t you?”

Your quickly-beating heart does confirm that theory. So you’re still… you. That’s good.

“Why… can’t I remember last night? What did you do?”

He chuckles, grinning again with those sharp teeth.

“Why, how rude of you to assume the worst in me!” he says, with mock offense in his voice. “I simply removed a few memories of when I fed, for your sake. It… may have tampered with your memories of earlier in the night, but that wasn’t my intention.”

You decide to not push it. “I can’t remember… a lot of last night. It’s… a little scary.”

The vampire moves his hand gently to your shoulder. “Please, you have no need to worry. We met at the bar, hit it off, and then we came back here for me to feed. After which, you passed out and I erased your memories of the pain.” 

A question lingers in your mind, though you’re almost afraid to say it. You stutter as you look down at yourself, “Did we, uh, aside from the…”

His gaze grows serious, and the next words he speaks seem to be missing the aloof attitude he had prior. “Let’s not mince words. While you’re quite cute, I only drank your blood, dear. Nothing more. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have wiped your memory. I’m not a monster.” he says, almost spitting the words out.

Okay. He’s answered most of your worries, but the memory situation still leaves several more questions unanswered. Regardless, as attractive as this stranger may be, you really don’t want to hang around here any longer than you have to… something doesn’t sit right about this whole situation.

“I still don’t understand why you wiped my memory… but I guess I believe you… can I, um… can I leave?”

He scoffs at this. “Can you leave? I don’t know, can you? Trust me, dear, if I didn’t want you to leave here alive, you wouldn’t be awake right now, if you understand.” He says with a wink, though that doesn’t comfort you in the slightest.

“I… I’d like to leave now.”

He stands up, making a beckoning motion with his hands. “Very well then, if you insist on heading out, and you think you can walk properly, let’s go get your phone and I’ll call a cab. It’s on me, of course. You’ll have to forgive me for not driving you back to the bar myself, but the sun is out, you understand.”

You stand again, this time able to keep your bearings after a quick stumble, and make your way out into the rest of the vampire’s house. It’s a nice house, if not a little bit unusual with every window being boarded, though you suppose that makes sense. Otherwise, it looks… almost normal. As he calls a cab, you take a seat on a nice couch in the living room, noticing that your “host” gives you a small smirk as you do so.

As you get ready to head out, you see the vampire duck away from the door, but not before saying one final thing. “I added myself to your phone, by the way. Look for Nix if you change your mind about spending some more time together. I’m always here,” Nix says with a flirty wink as you walk out the door.

The Night Before

Fuck, how did you end up in this situation. You were just at the bar with your friends, and now you’re sitting here making awkward eye contact with a vampire. You know she has just as much right to be here as anyone else, you suppose, but still…

Oh, shit, she’s headed right for you. As she gets closer, you take in her appearance. She's average height, you think. Her outfit is fancy, with makeup to match, though it doesn’t hide the tell-tale pallor of a vampire. Her hair is a lavender color, with visible black roots, and her eyes a bright crimson, typical for vampires.

Clearly she notices your wary expression, as her eyebrows raise, and she begins to speak to you, her voice sweet and smooth.

“Let’s cut to the chase, dear, I see the way you’re looking at me. Are you captivated by my appearance, or just not used to seeing my kind?”

“I, uh… sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude…” you stammer out, definitely not wanting to insult her.

“It’s all fine, my dear. Honestly, it amuses me. You look young… let me guess, you’re new to the nightlife, probably here with those friends of yours, and worried about… these?” She says, before flashing her fangs at you quickly. She chuckles and takes a sip of the drink in her hand as you try to form a response.

“No, I just, uh…” you try to lie, but quickly realize that she can see right through you. “Sorry.”

“Well, I’ll have you know this is just a normal margarita, and I’m just trying to enjoy an evening the same as you.”

Well. Now you feel like a jerk. “O-of course, I didn’t mean to imply…”

She laughs again as she cuts you off, before staring at you with a look that you can only read as condescending. “Oh, you’re absolutely adorable, you know that? Don’t worry about offending me, dear, I’ve heard it all before.”

After a moment of you failing to reply, she gives a wink and heads back to the other side of the bar after a simple “Try not to stare, dear��. You try to remain calm and collected. After all, she’s just a vampire… There are lots of vampires… 

Your friends come back, and you hang out for a few hours, still noticing the vampire a few seats down at the bar. You swear she glances at you throughout the night, but you pay it no mind.

Finally, your friends start filtering out. The friend you were supposed to be driving home, of course, decided to go home with some guy, so they no longer needed a ride. Typical. As you head towards your car alone, you’re interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Leaving so soon, dear?”

You turn around and see her, that vampire. Immediately, your eyes dart around, looking for anybody else nearby, just in case, but she quickly interrupts your panicked line of thinking.

“Oh, do calm down. Seriously, what do you think I’m really going to do?”

Bashfully, you take a deep breath. She’s absolutely right, she’s done nothing to warrant that kind of reaction… until suddenly she’s right behind you, one hand on your waist, the other holding your head back, and her face right near your throat. She speaks, her breath tickling your neck.

“Something like this? Sneak up behind you and drain you dry?”

You freeze as your life flashes before your eyes, but you hardly have time to make a sound before she’s back to where she was standing, a few feet away, looking at you expectantly.

“Well, that should prove that I mean no harm. If I truly wanted you dead and drained, you would be,” she says, as if that’s comforting in the slightest.

“W-what do you want?” you ask, after taking a second to compose yourself.

“Oh, you know the answer to that, don’t you? You’ve clearly been anxious about it all evening.” she replies, grinning enough for you to see her fangs.

“Wait, wait, hold on, you just said you wouldn’t…” you stutter, panic rising as you start to look around again.

“Kill you, yes.” she says, taking a very deliberate step forward. “And I won’t. But you see, I’m quite hungry. Don’t worry dear, if you’re good then I promise everything will be just fine.”

You go to run, but your arm is grabbed with an almost impossible strength. You think to scream, but something feels like it’s stopping you. You look at the vampire, and see her eyes glow in an almost hypnotic way.

“I… I don’t want to die…” is all you manage to whisper, as if your own mind is preventing you from screaming in terror.

“Shhh… I promised you’d be fine, didn’t I? So why don’t you just come with me, nice and easy, and we won’t have any trouble.” she says, changing her grip so her arm is wrapped around yours, hand in cold hand.

“There we go… My place is just a few blocks away, why don’t we go for a nice walk, hm? Unless you want to make a mess out here?” Despite her phrasing it as a question, she’s already walking, forcing you to walk as well to keep up. To an outsider, you’d look like a normal couple going for an evening walk… which is probably exactly what she wants.

Your words feel like they’re stuck in your throat, both from fear and whatever influence she’s putting on you. You’re barely able to speak, your voice coming out as a whisper even as you try to shout. “Why…?”

The vampire seems confused, before giving that toothy grin you’ve grown to hate and replying. “Because, dear, you were perhaps the world’s easiest target. And what can I say, I find myself drawn to the anxious types… It makes the hunt more fun.”

“I have… a family…” you say, as if it’ll do anything to deter the vampire.

“Aren’t you moving a little fast, dear? We’ve only just met, and you want me to meet the parents,” replies the vampire, a snarky tone in her voice. “I already told you, as long as you play nice then you’ll be going home tomorrow, there’s no need to beg… though I do find it entertaining.”

“... There’s no… getting out of this, is there?” You ask, and she gives a small chuckle before nodding in agreement.

“I’m afraid not. You must understand, it’s been quite a while since I’ve fed. And, if I may be so bold, your blood smells amazing.” She says, which only serves to make you more nervous. The rest of the walk is quiet, aside from some cheerful humming coming from your kidnapper as she swings your arm to a rhythm only she’s aware of.

As you enter her house, you’re walked over to the couch, and surprisingly, she lets go of your hand. As she walks away, you jump up to escape, only to see the vampire chide you and shake her head from across the room. “Now now… remember what I said about being good? Unless you want the thrill of a chase, in which case… just take a few more steps.”

You saw how fast she can move. You decide to sit down.

“There we go dear, you’re a smart one, aren’t you?” she replies, as if praising a puppy. You see her bringing over a red towel. You know what it’s for, this is a nice couch after all. You wonder if the towel’s always been red.

She sits down next to you, and leans in close, her face right next to your neck, as she moves her hand around your throat to hold you in place. You tense up, an involuntary reaction. “Now now… this will only hurt for a moment. And tension will make it hurt worse, dear, so why don’t you just relax.”

You desperately try to relax, to ignore the fangs near your neck, to forget the fact that you’re about to potentially die. While the vampire said you’ll be fine, can you really trust a woman who abducted you in the middle of the night? 

“Are… are you sure I’ll be okay?” You barely say. You know you won’t truly trust her answer, but hearing it one more time wouldn’t hurt, at least. She rolls her eyes and speaks to you in that same condescending tone.

“Yes yes, I’ve been doing this for, oh, 200 years now? I think I’d know how to feed by now. You just sit still and continue to look adorable and stupid, and you’ll be just fine.”

And then she bites down.

She was right. It only hurts for a moment, as her fangs pierce into your neck with near surgical precision. Afterwards, a numb feeling spreads through your body, starting at your throat, as if her bite has some kind of sedative in it. With every beat of your pounding heart you can feel the blood pulsing out of your neck and into the vampire’s mouth. You want to scream, but even the thought hurts you considering the condition your throat is in. After what could have been seconds or hours, you aren’t entirely sure, your whole body starts to feel light and fuzzy, the lamp in the room seems brighter, the distant sounds of the city replaced with a ringing buzz. You start to feel like you’ve been lied to, and you’re not getting out of this alive, before your eyelids flutter, no longer able to keep themselves open.

And then everything goes dark.

[norskacel]

i did NOT expect my red leader to get so much love

[feralnando]

It’s my 26th birthday tomorrow and if anyone wants to share their favourite Nando content.. I would love that.

Without sounding lame as fuck, wanna make friends 🖤

[astranauticus]

post mortem for my orv animatic bc i have lots of thoughts and yall are gonna hear all of them (that is a threat)

first is the obligatory special thanks/plagiarism declaration section but a lot of the shots in this are inspired by the original changgwi lyric video which like. please watch it there's a reason this song is a classic animatic song on bilibili like the music is good but the video definitely helped. also speaking of bilibili, special shoutout to this arknights chongyue animatic that introduced me to the song that will haunt the next 8 months of my life!

the original inspiration was the thought that the verse of the spirit telling the story of its own death felt very yjh coded but it took like another week of stewing on it to have the idea of using the final chorus for the dkos arc which was the moment i decided i have to actually make this thing

going strictly by when i started putting pen to paper (pencil to ipad screen? whatever) this took almost exactly 5 months since i created the first drafts in february but the first 3 months ish from february until may were also my school semester so. most of the progress (id say about >60%) was done in the last two months of me working on this every moment i wasnt at work (or playing project sekai, for some reason)

also! funny little detail but counting the drafts and some discarded frames my procreate stack for this thing has exactly 49 artworks in it! neat little easter egg i guess (yeah 51 wouldve been more fitting but whatever)

this fully slipped by both me (at 2am) and my friend whom i sent the finished version to (fighting the flu) but in the final edit i didn't actually include the second half of the last lyric?? it's 'i will take you to the mountain god' i apparently just wrote 'i will take you' and never finished the rest LMAO

speaking of the lyrics i dont speak korean and im not a huge fan of most english translations of this song that exists so on multiple occasions i was so tempted to just use the chinese cover someone on bilibili did because then i'd at least be confident i know where the fucking line breaks were (there's one line at the end where im pretty sure i didn't edit on the line breaks correctly but that was more of an intentional compromise because the timings would've been off otherwise. anyway) tbh the only reason i didnt do that is the atmosphere and delivery of the original song is. really unbeatable like the cover's also pretty good but it doesn't quite achieve the same effect

also speaking of things i fucked up im aware i drew sys in the wrong outfit for the dkos fight but like. ok full disclosure my orv reference folder is a complete mess (theres like 400+ images in there. for some reason) so on net ive gotten character outfits wrong while working on this thing like at least 3 times bc id just grab a random webtoon screenshot from my folder and go w it. it's just that by the time i realised i fucked up i'd already finished drawing all of sys's frames and i was too lazy to go back and change all of them LMAO

anyway yeah some other random things i wanted to whinge about:

there's a lot of effects i wanted to do that didn't quite come across due to. lack of skill/time/patience/all of the above but the one im really annoyed about is the yhk postchorus bit with the 3 circles bc. first off i think i drew those while halfway dozing off on the train to school once because uh. yeah

anyway poor drawing aside id really wanted to recreate the sort of. drawn-in effect on the circles and lines that the original lyric video had but i could NOT for the life of me figure out a way to execute that in capcut so. here we are (also you cant put transitions on overlays in capcut so that's why those also looked so bad. youre welcome)

honestly my timeline for this in capcut looks pretty ridiculous bc if you want to do word by word animations/effects you need to pay for the pro version so my workaround was just to have like five thousand text layers with 1-2 words on it each (do not recommend btw)

speaking of the text im a moron so i kinda forgot to account for the text when drawing frames and wow you can tell. yeah next time im just hand writing the text fuck this

and i have some more thoughts that are. mild to moderate webtoon spoilers so past this will be the spoiler warning line

__________________________________________________________

actually my original plan was to upload this the day dkos dies in the webtoon but a. i genuinely did think it was gonna be yesterday like i dont pay for the early access episodes so i was just kinda going off orvtwt LMAO b. i could feel myself burning out on this like the last few frames i drew for this were fucking dogshit so i figured either i finish it soon or i wont finish it at all

i will probably still draw something for dkos' death day though for those who celebrate (basically when i was thumbnailing for one of the frames in this i ended up with one that didnt fit the video aspect ratio at all but still looks pretty good so im promoting it to a full drawing. so look forward to that)

like for an idea of how fucking sick of this shit i was by like. last week pretty much like for the last few frames of the dkos fight i straight up forgot to draw dkos' wings and had to add them in halfway through editing last night. like that's how fucking out of it i was by then lmaoo

looking back its actually kinda funny cuz the whole put this up when dkos dies thing was my plan since february but i had literally no way of knowing when that would be especially since the webtoon stopped going with the novel chapter numbers exactly (i could.. guesstimate but my original estimation was in june so yknow. real useful) but like i can find evidence of me panicking about that deadline since may. why did i do that

given that deadline i knew i cant really include stuff from the novel past the dkos arc but man. the amount of times i wanted to use something from later (ESPECIALLY 1863 arc). i actually have another idea i want to test out thats like full epilogue spoilers partially because working on this for so long made me realise i really want to make more epilogue content <- what

yknow how i mentioned discarded frames yeah i had to draw dkos' death 3 times because the first two compositions just never quite panned out. i mean the current one is also pretty unreadable with the colour scheme but trust me the previous ones were way worse christ alive

[cantankerouscatfish]

hard at work.

[rimtimtigger]

I watched wonder.land the other day and just fell in love with Alice’s costume

[a-goose-in-a-trenchcoat]

What's the weirdest thing you own?

I'll go first

now, while owning drumsticks is not peculiar in and of itself, what makes these so queer is the fact I do not, nor have I ever played, the drums2

[jamesmotorcompany]

this notes business is so fucking easy check this out.

autistic transgender catboys

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

i love it when shit happens in my life that dredges up old wounds and coincidentally im re-experiencing the media i intrinsically link it to cause then i get to remember exactly why i love it and find it so meaningful all over again. there's a fucking reason ill always say Berserk [& RGU] both came into my life at a perfect fucking time and holy shit they fucking resonated with me so hard and as much as life can suck ass and lovvves kicking me in the balls when ive just recovered from last time i a least get to remember how & why i love something so much.

[raininyourblackeyes]

KOSHIRO??? WHAT A SLAY!!!

[enluv]

confession: i want to write another three exes fic but i fear nothing will ever live up to the original with choi line…

[softwaluigi]

just remembered that musical movie adaptations are A Thing and praying and hoping and thanking god that the mediocre musical I got really into in high school that still looms over me as a spectre 5-6 years later will probably never be considered profitable enough to get one

[medicalmechanicas]

doing a gfm has really been a delightfully surprising treat in being loved by my community. like my old best friend from high school that i haven’t talked to in years and old tumblr moots and folks play destiny with with all coming outta the woodwork to send me cash here and there is so so heartwarming.

[art-mybeloved]

i made a uquiz which short story are you (based on science)