#I think I should start thinking about inktober.....

[goldenstorm0]

skelly time, practicing more with ink wash, i know that putting down the ink wash part first then lines on top when it dries would be cleaner, but i like muddying up the lines, i think its pretty

[lynnie-ee]

Inktober Day 3; Regrets.

╰┈➤"A relationship with Vil was all you could ever dream of, perfect and loving, but it seems like he doesn't want that anymore. Either way, he'll have to deal with the consequences of it; at some point, you had to move on, didn't you?."

╰►Gender neutral reader, oneshot, 1.6k words.

╰►Note: The prompts are based on words I found interesting and then I put them on a roulette to decide when I would write about them, lol. English is not my first language, so please let me know if there are any grammatical mistakes <3. Not proof read, I haven't written in a long time, so I apologise if anything is out of character.

╰►Masterlist / Inktober Masterlist.

⤿

⤿

Loving Vil was like staring at the moon on a starry night. Beautiful, elegant, gracefully glimmering above anything or anyone, surrounded by stars but never being outshined by them. A gentle light that kept them on the right path, and that took care of them tenderly.

But cold, nevertheless. Distant, stern, perfect; a chill running down their spine when they were in his presence, as if they weren’t worthy of admiring him so closely.

The Prefect was well aware of their own flaws, as they were sometimes clumsy, sometimes impulsive, and sometimes too tired at night to worry about a night routine. Seemingly out of place next to Vil, the personification of magnificence, always sharp and confident.

Even so, (Y/n) was able to discover a new side of him, something that wasn’t possible to see through movie premieres and Magicam posts.

They got close after VDC; with the entire situation of his overblot and all of his issues, the Prefect offered their support to him one day, casually offering to listen to him if he ever needed it.

At first, Vil didn’t reach them, but then, on a bad day, he unconsciously walked all the way to Ramshackle. The housewarden of Pomefiore realised that (Y/n)’s kindness was genuine; they hadn’t been in his world for long, they didn’t realise the amount of power and success he had, and instead they saw him for himself. Maybe that was what encouraged him to pursue them in more ways than he intended at first.

He found himself falling in the arms of a magicless human, grasping every new part of them he got to know and cherish each of the sincere compliments they gave him with adoration and care. Holding them close, kissing their worries away, making sure they were healthy and content.

They were doing good, together.

And still, it wasn’t enough.

No matter how much (Y/n) tried to find him, there was always an invisible wall between them.

“We should break up.”

“…What?”

“We won’t work out; you know it as well as me.”

It all started a few days ago. A call from his manager, asking him if he planned to reveal his relationship at some point. Actors with partners lose popularity. They lose roles more often. They lose followers. It usually lasted for a few months, of course, but could Vil risk his downfall? Shouldn’t it be more difficult for him to ever think about leaving the Prefect? Shouldn’t he feel a pang on his chest at the mere thought of not waking up next to them? Shouldn’t he be able to picture himself sharing a future with them?

‘Perhaps this is just a silly romance that will forgotten in a few years. They’ll come back to their world and I’ll continue working as diligently as always.’

“I don’t understand.” The Prefect muttered, looking into Vil’s eyes, searching for doubt or hesitation, a wave of sadness invading them when they found none of it. They felt dizzy, the air of Vil’s room suffocating them as his words settled in their mind.

“It’ll be the best, for the both of us.” The housewarden stated, his words sharp but his voice compassionate. “You have always trusted me, haven’t you?”

“Yes.” They replied immediately.

“Then trust me on this, too.” Vil replied, one of his hands cupping the cheeks of the Prefect. “Let’s be honest, we’re both tired-“

“I’m not.”

“(Y/n).”

“I love you.” They muttered, their voice breaking. Vil was wonderful, supportive, patient, someone they couldn’t image themselves living without, at least in that world where they had no one else. When did they lose him…? “Don’t you love me too?”

“Perhaps that’s not enough for us.”

“It can be, Vil, just let me in. Let me understand you.”

Vil observed them briefly, (Y/n) standing before him as a complete mess that he didn’t find himself capable of fixing. He didn’t have time to play around, nor to introduce them into his world. He had decisions to make.

“I’m not sure you’ll be able to. We’re…different.”

“Are you saying I’m not enough?”

“I’m saying we may be better on our own.”

The Ramshackle student removed his hand from their face, now standing to gaze into his eyes, his message clear in their mind as they realised Vil just didn’t want to deal with them anymore. They weren’t some kind of famous singer or a wealthy artist, they were just themselves. And Vil was Vil.

‘It was bound to happen, at some point’, they thought to reassure themselves.

“I’m not going to beg you for anything else, then.” They stated as firmly as they could, even if the tears on their cheeks could indicate something else. “But I love you sincerely, and you won’t find that easily. I hope you can find what you’re looking for by yourself.”

“I wish you well, (Y/n).”

“I don’t believe in your words anymore, Vil.”

⤿

⤿

Loving (Y/n) used to be like a bright morning on a sunny day. Warm, inviting, tender towards anyone who could turn towards them, never rejecting the opportunity of lending a hand to whoever needed it. A gentle light that kept him away from the darkest days.

Suffocating, at times, making him wish for the night to arrive just to find solace in the familiar cold.

He believed it’d be more comfortable, going back to his usual starry nights where he shined as brightly as always. The memories of his time with the Prefect going away in no time.

Except that it never happened.

He found himself waking up and looking around for them. At night, he kept in mind to remind the Prefect to clean their face and take care of their skin, only for him to remember that they weren’t staying with him anymore. At school, he didn’t have anyone to hold hands when no one else was looking. At work, he received multiple compliments about his efforts and looks, but none as sincere as (Y/n)’s words.

And (Y/n) seemed to have disappeared from every place he was in.

They were still in Night Raven College, of course, but no matter how much he looked for them or how many times he asked Epel about them, they seemed to do an excellent job at avoiding him.

“You were the one who did this, don��t go after them now.” The first-year replied to him on a particularly stressful day.

He couldn’t believe it; Him? Missing someone he took out of his life by himself? Wishing to be with a person who didn’t belong to this world? Who couldn’t understand him- No, who he didn’t allow to understand him?

Then the holidays began. He went back home, and worked as usual, doing campaigns and assisting events, as glamorous as always, never showing his pain.

“I heard you got the role of the main character for your next role! That’s amazing, you’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you?” An older actress congratulated him in the middle of a charity party, as she seemed to be the best person to spend time amongst so many wealthy people and royals.

“Indeed. I’m very grateful to have this opportunity.” He answered politely.

“I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out- Oh, isn’t that the Prince of Sunset Savana? I haven’t seen him at an event in years.”

“What?”

Vil turned around, easily spotting Leona among so many people, but his attention was soon dragged to something else, or rather, someone else. Someone who walked along him, hand in hand. Someone who used to hold his hand before.

“(Y/n)…” He mumbled unconsciously.

They looked stunning, but it wasn’t as if they were ever bad-looking in the first place. They looked happy, peaceful even when they were surrounded by strangers who seemed as curious as him to know what was his relationship with the prince.

Perhaps Leona’s arm around their waist calmed down in such an unknown environment for them. Or maybe it was the words he whispered in their ear when they seemed to get uncomfortable.

Vil couldn’t even imagine that Leona could be attentive to someone else, but there he was, looking at (Y/n) with love, taking great pride in presenting them as his partner to anyone that asked him, no matter who was it.

“Prince Leona! It’s been so long, how have you been?” The actress that accompanied him asked the beastman as soon as they approached.

“I’ve been doing great, as you can see.” He replied, proudly holding (Y/n)’s hand.

“It’s so nice to know you have found such a beautiful partner, what’s your name, darling?”

“My name is (Y/n), is such a pleasure to meet you.”

“I can say the same! Vil, Leona is your classmate, right? Have you met his partner before?” The woman asked innocently, oblivious to Vil’s irritated mood, even though he tried to mask it.

“Well, we-“

“We meet briefly at Night Raven College, but we’re not really close.” (Y/n) interrupted, as Leona grinned quietly next to them. “And it’s been a nice conversation, but it’s getting quite late, isn’t it?”

“Do you want to leave?” Asked Leona with his regular tone, but even Vil was able to catch a certain fondness that was unusual in him.

“Yes, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course, Herbivore, let’s go home.”

“Goodbye then.” The Prefect spoke politely, gazing for the last time at him, his eyes now more confident than the last time he was able to look at them. “I hope you’re doing well, Vil.”

‘Well, perhaps I’m still stuck in the role of the villain, after all.'

⤿

⤿

[crows-in-the-house]

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖚𝖆𝖑

It's a part of my own writting inktober! To see more check out this post!

Prompt: clown / emotion / ritual

pairing: Bill Cipher x Reader

tw: none

The moon was full, bathing the night sky in a cold silver light. Dark, long branches hit the window panes. It was midnight when you started to have doubts. Will it work? Will it actually help you?

You shook your head - there was no time for such questions. The last candle was lit with a trembling hand. The room was filled with darkness, you could barely see your hands despite the gentle flickers of the fire. You took a deep breath, taking the chill night air into your lungs, and letting it out in a long sigh.

You opened the old scripture, holding on to the old paper as if to your own life. The ancient rhymes made your eyes water. You were just about to go on to the part with the knife when you heard a faint laughter.

The room seemed to shift and change. You knew that voice right? Low, ominous rumbling filled the air, when sharp shadows circled around you as if to swallow you whole. There was something emerging from the corners in the darkness, something big, staring right at you-

This fucker!

"Bill! What are you doing in my ritual!"

"Oh come on toots, calling onto some stupid gods and not me? You really have a nerve!"

The triangle demon circled you while laughing. His form again normal sized, perfectly punchable if he only moved closer.

"Don't even try that kid! I'm not like those clowns you want so badly! I will get back at ya!"

"What do you want Cipher!? I was just about to summon a god and you ruined it! Again! Do you know how long I have to wait for another full moon?!"

You looked at the demon with anger. Since you two met he succesfuly stopped all your attempts at dark magic. At first you belived him when he said you where doing some stuff wrong, like using a wrong spell, or not fresh enough offering. But with time he started interfiing more and more. And now he was just an annoying prick.

"Listen kid, if you're so desperate to make a deal with a higher power-

"I'm not making deal with you Bill." You stood up crossing your arms. " I want to learn my future from a reliable source. A reliable source, got it?"

"Oh and would you look at that - that's exactly me, brainiac! If we just made a deal, I would let you know aaaall your possible futures, with all the alternative universes, great deaths and every new emotion in your head! Why not shake on, so I can share it with you?"

"Cuz last time I did that, you made me think of you every time when I spoke to my crush! And now I don't even remember their name!"

"As if such a detail was important kid, you got your end of the deal, and I got mine, yes?"

"How was that even beneficial to you?!"

"A guy must advertise himself somehow, you know?" He said while shrugging. You growled, putting out the candles. You had to stowe them away and wash the floor again. At least you didn't spill your blood this time. You were getting short on bandages.

You looked at your watch. Fifteen minutes after midnight. If it was at least ten, you would still have time to continue, rushed, but at least finally achieving your goal. Now tho, it was certain it wouldn't work out. The ritual needed special time and undivided attention. Both of which, Bill took without any care.

Your stomach growled. You haven't eaten in a while. Maybe you should go do that and watch a movie to sleep? You looked back at the triangle. He was still there, staring at you, as if suspended in space. Was he lost in thoughts or reading your mind? You nudged his side to get his attention.

"You know what? If you spawn me a drink - not alive, conscious one that is, I will share my popcorn with you." You saw humor get back to his eye.

"Oh golly! Free useless food from my meatbag monkey? What a treat!"

"Do you want it or not?" you replied, leaving the room. His eye scanned your tired form while slowly following you.

What a cute fool you were. Calling onto beings your whole mind wouldn't understand. It was shame you weren't awere how much he was protecting you from getting your brain melted. Maybe, just maybe if he made you more like him you would finally realize how much work you made him do! But no. He couldn't risk his stupid puppet getting a potential response from one of those "higher beings".

After all you belonged to him.

[arsene-inc]

My Nagademon 2024 project

After a month of my inktober challenge of tying a ttrpg to each prompt, now it's November 's time to be busy with NaGaDeMon, a month long game jam I have done for the last few years with more or less success.

This year I am going to do Witch-Knights of Azulmarr

It all started with seeing a picture of a witch knights on social media. It all started with an idea for a character creation tarot system. It all started with a thought of implied system. Where does that lead ?

You are Witch Knight of Azulmarr, a prestigious order of the Kingdom. You were chosen according to prophecies. Now you must find the Major Arcanas to restore the kingdom to glory. 

The main idea for creation is thus : 

Separate the major Arcana from the minor arcanas

Divide the minor into : Pages/knight/queen/king together, Sword, Wands, Cup, Pentacle. 

For creation, draw a card from each of these stacks

Sword : you weapon, your style of knight fighting

Gives you abilities for when there is a Sword card in your hand of fate, and one when you discard a sword card ( plus one when you discard  a sword + another suit, thinking about it)

Wand : your preferred type of magic

Gives you abilities for when there is a Wand card in your hand of fate, and one when you discard a wand card. Plus a Wand +Pentacle for creating an artefact linked to your magic

Cup : your place of origin

Gives info on region

Gives you the trigger for drawing a card

Pentacle : a magic artefact in your position

Activated by discarding a Pentace card

Court : your prophesied rival/enemy

No mechanical effects

My idea was to make it semi diegetic, like based on old extracts of poems by this invented poet/prophet. Each card drawn would have a two line part of a poem and all of them together form the character prophecy That’s where the Lost Verses book comes in. The lost part that no player should see. Only written by the poet. May be seen in game if the players find them

Will gives info for the Wand card : the secret when the pc uses more than one card. For example, death magic will learn that the entire world was a battlefield. The Fate magic will learn that the kingdom prophecies are…fake. That they can choose. 

And it will gives info on the major arcana and how to obtain them. Ideas for ow CHariot : in the mountain, there is a chariot stuck there, never moving, no matter who tried. The one to make it move will gain the arcana

The Major arcana will be placed in a Past, present, future spread, which the one player who gained it choosing where to put it or IF to put it. 

Some will involve the rivals. Some can be gained when a PC accomplish a certain action, no matter where or when. And the World arcana will just be “Come find me”

[piyo13sdoodles]

day 28, chapter 76:

At the expression on Quintus' face Cliopher could take no more. He started laughing before he made it out of the room, though the loudest whoops came after he'd reached the hallway. He did not get far along, just sank down at the top of the stairs so he could try to muffle his mirth with his hands. ~ "Your family seems somewhat perturbed," Rhodin observed after a few minutes.

and bonus gallery shot + musings under the cut because it's been exactly 4 weeks now:

fun to see what kinds of patterns intentionally or unintentionally crop up... or also which days i can tell i was busy vs which days i had time or worked in advance to dedicate more time to the piece. if anyone's curious, on average one of these might take me 2-3 hours to complete! more detailed ones like october 23 i think probably took me closer to 5 hours, simpler ones like october 9 maybe 1.5h.

i am both sad and glad it's almost over--i've definitely lost a fair amount of sleep trying to get these done in time (usually i work a day ahead so i can post at a reasonable time, but that hasn't always worked out, especially in the final stretch here), so this pace does become untenable on top of work, but it also is really fun to make so much art! and to always have something to work on rather than becoming trapped into that idea of 'what should i do, too many choices, can't decide..' the answer is always inktober!

in any case, seeing the gallery like this is also interesting to me because it really helps me realize where i could have/should have pushed the ink a bit more--working in ink is (to me; this is definitely not gospel, just how i consider ink work) an exercise in controlling contrast. you don't have colour to drive edges or cool/warm tones, so the only value you have is the light-dark contrast, and in my mind at least, good use of contrast should carry across to a smaller format. for example, zoomed out like this i can see that october 11th really needed more contrast in the feathers--they blend too much into the background in a way that doesn't really work to emphasize that ludvic is standing in front of the candles there. otoh, on october 5, i think that one's fine because what i wanted was for the moon to draw the eye first, and THEN for you to notice HR sitting there.

overall, also, i want to keep these interesting--if the compositions are always the same, then it can become repetitive or boring, so i wanted a good mix of light and dark compositions, and a good balance of tone across all of them. which so far i'm pleased with! and this year i let myself use pencil undersketches and do thumbnail planning and everything (last year i really wanted to get better at visualizing the piece in my head so i set the challenge of just committing straight to paper... i'm still happy with last year's but you can tell i took on much more challenging compositions this year lol)

anyway!! much to think about, so much to learn, i wanted to work a bit in advance again so i won't be putting tomorrow's up almost at midnight again but alas i think it was not meant to be, so i'm off to bed and if you read this whole thing, congrats, have a cookie *hands you a cookie*

[noturlondonboy]

Hiiii

Might I request even more autistic! Yelena things, they mean so much to me.

Also thanks for responding last time :)

Heyyy nonnie yknow what would be so cool- if you gave yourself a silly little way for me to know who you are so I can keep up with the convo whenever we talk about the girl 🤭

ANYWAY!! I do have more thoughts about Autistic!Yelena :DD

(I really should be working on inktober rn. But. I am not.)

-I’ve been thinking about marvel characters knowing sign language and obviously we’ve got Clint and the Barton family, and Kate by proxy, but I like the idea of Yelena already knowing it for when she goes nonverbal

-Kate and Clint are talking in sign one time when Clint is having an old man day and needs to just not hear shit, and Yelena suddenly appears and chimes in with her own ASL and Kate and Clint are just like 😟😯😦😧😮

-Kate really wants to figure out why Yelena knows it but at this point she doesn’t know that Yelena is neurodivergent and can’t quite pin it down

-Clint figures her out way quicker than she likes because he sees her having a meltdown one time and recognizes the signs of going nonverbal (Natasha, Lila, Laura maybe? Nate? Bucky? I dunno) and is trying to help and give her ways to respond that are real easy but she whips the ASL out and he puts two and two together

-Fanny is actually an esa/therapy dog and is trained to get Yelena’s meds, water, chewelry, weighted blanket, etc. and make her sit down when she’s having a meltdown and is just generally very helpful because she’s the goodest girl

-idk if I’ve ever talked about what Yelena’s meltdowns/shutdowns look like but they are

Bad

-they start mild, and can be really easy to see coming, especially if there’s obviously already a lot of stimuli, and they can be preventable if someone who knows what they’re doing is there to help her, but more often than not she masks masks masks masks masks until her brain is on fire and she either explodes or goes catatonic and freaks people out

-I’m talking screaming crying wailing throwing up levels of freak out when she’s beyond her breaking point and something small happens that finally just makes her snap

-holding her down only makes her panic more but sometimes her flailing and disorientation become an actual risk and she needs to not

-or her eyes are glassy and her jaw is either clenched or slack and she just sits/lays there entirely unresponsive for a HOT minute and all anyone can do is get Fanny and make sure she’s positioned safely and in a secure place

-sometimes she just needs to lay on the floor for half an hour until The Feeling goes away

-it’s called her floor time and she needs it desperately

-you know exactly what I’m talking about. Don’t pretend otherwise.

[earthtocaptainsky]

Inktober day 26: Dream

Much like I said yesterday, I love vampires. I also love Seraph of the End. Which, coincidentally, is about vampires. But also demons, angels, the incessant greed of humanity, and found family. Truly the epitome of my preferred fantasy vibe. What starts out as a tragic loss of family turns into Yuuichiro being single-mindedly going ‘save family’ for currently 29 volumes on my shelf. Seraph of the End is one of the first fandoms I was ever involved in. None of my old art is viewable anymore, but I did draw a lot of it. I also cosplayed from the series a few times. I look back on all those memories quite fondly. Maybe I should draw more Seraph art again. What do you think Crew?

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

hey, sleepy! hope you’re having a wonderful day :)

If im not mistaken, you were/are studying visual art in college (correct me if i’m wrong), and id be glad to know your opinion about it: would you say that the college helped you to improve your art? (1-10)

im about to finish school and i do want to work with art, yet, im uncertain about colleges and what they will be offering (if the content will be taught by fundamentals to coloring or character design)

tysm! all the best 🩷 keep going w the inktober drawings, they’re amazing

Hello! Hope you have a wonderful day as well!

Okay so yes I did go to visual art college. However, the thing is, I major and got my bachelor degree in "Visual Communication Design" the emphasis being the "Communication" here. So we study communication through visual arts. I learn to not only make art to only be understood by me, but also by everyone else. The lecturers taught psychology, perception, and so much more!

It actually depends on yourself. I personally would categorize the art college experience in 3 categories : PERSONAL, FRIENDSHIP, and LECTURER aspect. (This is my own personal experience in college in Indonesia. Your college and the culture in your country might be different)

PERSONAL ASPECT - Art college will assign you with countless assignments. With hundreds of drawings every year. It depends on me to half-ass it or give it my all. Giving it my all means I study what I'm supposed to be drawing, and work with what I can do and can't do. Say, there's an assignment to make a comic about traditional medicines in Indonesia. I learn to research. What should people who read it know? What's not required. Which one is just additional information? I learn to organize/put hierarchy on information. Now that I know which one is important and which ones don't, I have to convey it through drawings. Now that's the thing I study. On the other hand, I myself developed my own artstyle as the assignments go. You draw SO DAMN MUCH by the second/third year my artstyle has finally gotten established (plus as some of you may know, I also started drawing CoD fanarts as sleepyconfusedpotato in Tumblr around the start of college, so GhostJade also helped me find my own artstyle). So the lecturers don't really TEACH you much about drawing. They give you lessons and assignments so you can learn to draw by yourself. What you need to do is to learn how to study - develop your brain so it's always in constant learning mode.

FRIENDSHIP ASPECT - Art college HUMBLED me. When I was in high school, I was THE art kid of the class, but when I got into art college, I was just a speck of dust! I meet more developed friends and even more experienced friends who've achieved more. HOWEVER, the college experience is to experience it with friends. In Indonesia we tend to do the art assignments together, lend art supplies together, go to cafe's together. Work independently together in a communal way. I learn to ask friends what they think, and what they think should be improved. I can't tell you how much my friends' comments and ideas have broken me out of art block. A second, third, fourth opinion is always a good additional consideration. Because they see our art without knowing what's inside our brain. They're good test screening for audiences.

LECTURER ASPECT - Lecturers are there to GIVE YOU OPPORTUNITIES. Makes you a better thinker, and gives comments about our drawings. They give the final feedbacks. To make use of the lecturers, CHASE THE LECTURERS. Ask them stuff, make their knowledge yours. Another thing is, lecturers are usually famous people/known experts in their fields. Ask them for opportunities. "Sir can I join you in one of your researches?" "Ma'am do you know a good resource/book if I want to learn about this?" "Sir, do you know people from this field that I can contact so I can start working with them? I'm interested in what they do and I think it'd be exciting to work under their guidance." From there, your connection to the art world BEYOND your college will broaden. Your lecturers can even write recommendation letters! You'll get to go to internships in various companies/studios with their recommendations. This can fill up your portfolio and CV for when you've graduated from college. College is first and foremost a Field of Opportunities. Student Exchanges! Researches! Guest Lecturers! The lecturers are your doors towards these things. ----

SO. After I yap so much, I guess the final thing I can say is this : College experience won't be much different if you just stay still and work alone. As much as an introvert I am, I learn to communicate with others, how to befriend people, how to communicate with experts respectfully, etc. I learned that if I want to thrive in art for life, I need to make use of this college experience, make the 4 years I spend in this institution worth my time.

So that's what I can share! Once again, I want to remind that this is my Indonesian college experience. Your college culture might be different, but college is supposed to help you grow.

PHEW I yapped a bit there, but thank you for asking!

[lucagray813]

Journeytober (2024) Days 1 - 15

Last year I discovered @vorpaldoodles's Inktober/Journeytober prompts halfway through October and I decided that I wanted to go back and do the first half that I missed.

This is a project I've been working on on and off for the past couple of months and because I wasn't on a time limit I wanted to try and challenge myself in different ways and I definitely did that! Very glad I did it but also very glad it's done! 😅

If you want to check out the ones I did last year - you can start here at Day 16

Below the cut is a bit more detail on each prompt.

Day 1 - Tree I'm really pleased with how this one turned out, I think the sketch and the line weight of the ink is really good. I'm forever trying to figure out the right medium for colouring and I was determined to give pencils another go. I really tried to do it "properly" doing layer after layer to get it looking right. The leaves I think I nailed but I definitely lost steam by the time I got to the hill 😅 but overall I'm still very happy with it

Day 2 - Ghost So one ambition I had for completing this challenge was to try and do less straight up screenshot redraws and while this is still technically a redraw I definitely put a lot of effort into changing it up! I looked at so many screenshots and artwork of LBD's little ghost things but in the end two pieces of art really helped me figure it out. The first is this amazing work by wurmje and the second is this work I found on Pinterest that I unfortunately couldn't find the original post for. I honestly don't know how wurmje got those smoke trails on the skulls looking so good - experience, practice and talent probably! - but even after staring at smoke trail vectors on Pinterest this was still my best attempt 😅

Day 3 - Fruit I had an epiphany when I was brainstorming ideas for the remaining prompts and that was that there was nothing stopping me from taking inspiration from my own fanfics. So, this basket of fruit is reminiscent of the one Wukong gave to Wǎn'ér the last time he saw her in Until the End. His inclination to peaches means that they always end up being the most prevalent fruit. Generally, the more he likes you, the more peaches he'll give you. But he put together this basket about two dozen times trying to put together the best possible combination for Wǎn'ér's health and enjoyment and the amount of peaches was a critical consideration. At several points it was just a basket full of (non-immortal) peaches. I was experimenting with the line weight to indicate shadows but I was always messing about with new liners so it's maybe not quite as tidy as I would like and also I don't know actually know how the shadows would work here but I gave it a good shot!

Day 4 - Bear Meet (Zǒu Xíng) Shí Xióng, the (Misshapen) Stone Bear, Nǚwā's assistant and one of her failed attempts to create MK - you can find out more about him here. Bear Ref I used was this.

Day 5 - Lotus Who else was it going to be? I struggled with this one a lot - I wanted to try my hand at a non Lego body type and I really struggled with the face, especially the eyes. I must have looked at hundreds of different LMK artists to see how they drew their versions of characters and I honestly still don't know how they make them look so good (I mean, I do - it's practice but you know what I mean). But overall I think it was a decent attempt! I really tried to make the line weight a bit dynamic but honestly I really like how I messed up his wheel and just went ham - maybe a style to really commit to another time!

Day 6 - Cycle Get it? It's a motorcycle? Sorry 😅 People that draw machines are built different. People that can ink circles though? God like ability. You should have seen me sweating putting pen to those wheels and then I messed up the back one so badly I just coloured the whole thing in (it was still a bit off so I also cut out some paper to try and fix it a little). I accidentally missed out some little bits by not getting the proportions quite right but I don't think you can really tell so I'm calling it a success!

Day 7 - Scripture So my initial plan for this was to have Tang crying over some scrolls but I was trying to demand something of myself I just didn't have the skills for yet, positioning a character I didn't have a reference for, and it was just getting frustrating so instead I pivoted to trying to do backgrounds and using line weight to show distance from the viewer. Overall I think I did ok but the pillars were impossible to get straight 😖

Day 8 - Legacy I had a much more ambitious idea for this one but it was turning out to be more frustrating than challenging and I was getting grumpy so I changed tact and did something simpler!

Day 9 - Wound/Scar My initial plan was to do a couple different characters from my fics and focus on one of their most significant scars but I really want to try and explore other styles and since this was going to be a straightforward prompt (i.e. not fully body drawings) this felt like a good opportunity to experiment a little! So I did some little studies of some very talented fan artists work trying to understand how they put faces together and make them look good! Links to the artists and their works: pinkydonatsu, bismuthfool and ninjadudexx

Day 10 - Spider I've written some more about this scene here but basically this is pre-working for Spider Queen and she's got her eyes on Syntax. Pretty happy with how this turned out! I'm not the best at blending different coloured pencils together but I think it looks pretty good! It is pretty obvious that the yellow was a higher quality pencil tho 😅 I also managed to preserve those white lines in his hair so it doesn't look like on big mass.

Day 11 - Creation I did think about doing someone with Nǚwā and her stone carvings but Red Son's little flame sprite from Season 5 just really grew on me the more I looked at it. Decided to have a bit of fun with it and do a little fakemon evolution for it, I actually did a digital version first (add link) before putting pen to paper. Also decided to give the glitter gel pen ago and honestly apart from the fact the glitter sometimes clogs up the ballpoint it was actually pretty nice to work with. But it also does NOT dry as fast which I didn't enjoy accidentally discovering 😤

Day 12 - Underworld So this is another example of me drawing inspiration from my fics. In my Monkey Talk Series, the Red-Bottomed Horse Monkey is the celestial primate of the "underworld" - predating the Ten Kings by eons. She's held many a soul in her life time. You can read more about her here and this is the ref I used. Did a digital version of this one too! Continued to try using the gel pen and found it's more forgiving than traditional liners when it comes to hand shakiness, I'm not sure it layers quite as nicely though!

Day 13 - Pagoda The colours for the 100-Eyed Demon were just so ahem eye-catching and I thought I could maybe do something fun with it. I was messing around with various pencils and pens but the bleeding on some of the pens was really annoying me and so this somehow became a bit of a paper craft project with at least 5 layers and 17 different cut out shapes! Very finicky but I actually did enjoy it! And got to experiment with some pencil techniques so overall I'm happy with it!

Day 14 - Lunar Cutting out paper with a craft knife? Way, way more difficult than it has any right to be. Also, I kid you not, as soon as I was done my brother came through and was like "Oh, yeah, I've got a craft knife specifically for cutting out curves." RIP me, I guess. But I think I did alright regardless! I was half tempted to add some craters to the moon but I was too scared of ruining it.

Day 15 - Mercy I struggled coming up with what to draw for this one but eventually I remembered that Sandy exists and how he very pointedly spares Huntsman! But I wanted to give myself a bit of extra challenge and so tried to draw his hand a bit more realistically. If you're wondering why he's missing part of a finger that's because I used a picture of my dad's hand as a reference, who due to crane related incidents, is down half a finger. But I could believe Huntsman lost a finger in his life - I had thought to add some scars but I forgot. But yeah, overall happy with this one!

Overall, I'm pretty proud of myself! Even if a drawing didn't turn out quite like I'd hoped I can still find something I like about it and almost everyone had it's own unique challenge that I gave my best shot! Thanks again to vorpaldoodles for the prompts!

[turuin]

Inktober

So, in a few days it will be Inktober again.

Many (ill-informed and arrogant) people think Inktober is a silly thing, a show-off, a stupid challenge that has nothing to do with art, and generally despise those who partake in it. We will not talk of such people: they are just another specimen of the archaic "internet troll", and we know well one should not feed trolls. They are only expressing themselves to grief others, or to spoil their fun, and this is pretty much their top aspiration for their internet persona - and I think this speaks volumes of what kind of people they might be in real life.

I'll tell you this instead: Inktober was the very reason why I started considering my stupid office-time doodles something more than that; and, potentially, the very thing that made me understand a couple of important things about art in general.

So, it boils to this: you have a list of verbal prompts, one per day, which you pick from many lists. Yes, there is an official Inktober challenge, set up by Jake Parker and normally available on Instagram and on its own website. Parker was part of an internet controversy, a couple of years ago, about having stolen the idea for an Inking Textbook from another very good artist, Alphonso Dunn; whether you choose to use Parker's prompts or entirely different ones, though, is entirely up to you. I have skipped them, back then, and then I started using them again a couple of years afterwards. They are handy, and you can use them without sponsoring Parker at all, if you feel like it (he has trademarked the Inktober brand for sketchbooks but you can't really trademark a challenge, so hashtags are still free to use).

List controversy aside, the fun thing is that it asks you to draw once per day, possibly with ink (but not solely, and rules are entirely up to you about the medium you want to use whether it is digital or traditional) for a total of 31 days, the whole month of October.

Back when I started, I didn't think myself capable of doing this until the end, and surely my skill was much lower than today. And yet, Inktober taught me many things:

stick to the plan, but if you skip a day, or multiple days, don't worry! Nobody is paying you for that, and there are many people who will keep drawing from the list well into November, but when you decide to draw for the day, put yourself into it - don't do it just because. Inktober is not about speed or skill, it's about challenging your brain and hand on interpretation and execution.

share your art. It is basic? Share it. It is made at the top of your abilities? Share it. People are insulting it? SHARE IT. You have to be able to disconnect emotionally from your art when it is done. You like it? Fine! You don't like it? Fine! I've made it. It is there. Do what you will with it. I have already accomplished my goal: the process.

It will be an occasion for you to learn. You never used ink? Try! You never used ink pens? Try! You never used an old brush with dried ink on it to create strange effects? TRY! Inktober might as well be about trying anything that crosses your mind. Also, you don't need expensive tools; a sheet of paper and a ballpoint pen can, and often will, be enough.

People mock you because you do Inktober or are stressed out because you post Inktober updates? That is a perfect time to remind them of the existence of the "unfollow" button. It does wonders with people who live in troll caves.

You feel like you need to vent? You feel like you're being left behind and stress because you think you will not complete it? First of all: VENT. Your blog / page / online space is yours and you should keep in mind that whatever you post has to do with YOU, not others. People may not like what you post, it's fine. They can unfollow, or start their personal rant in their online space about you - at the end, we are all passing by, if people want to live their life in anger or ranting about your art or your blog, it's their liver, not yours. No, that's not a typo: I'm actually referring to their liver, which probably will not be in very good conditions to start with.

People give you unsolicited advice or opinion on your art? Gracefully nod, and forget about it one fraction of a second later. When you will need advice, you will ask for it, and welcome it. My suggestion is you stick by that rule for pretty much everything in your life: you should be asking, that is of paramount importance, and learning how to ask something is at least as important, but nobody should force you into their opinion. TL;DR: fuck'em opinons.

Again: don't fall in love with your art. It's a piece of paper; you can burn it afterwards. You already possess that art within your hands. It is lost forever? It's ok. You have made it. It existed. You ceased caring about it as soon as it was on paper. Let it go. It is not yours anymore. Let people make what they will of it. You are already unto the next one.

So: I will partake in Inktober, and vent, and chat about it, and post art. I will also do this in our community, https://www.tumblr.com/communities/ars-gratia-artis , and for the time being, I will allow people who want to share their art, participate in the community and not be toxic about it, to join with a link. I would also very much love for community members to attempt Inktober, even with a little doodle whenever they are able. It's fun, I promise!

If you want to join our community, Inktober or not, here's the link:

[lynnie-ee]

Day 4; Convince.

╰┈➤"Telling your friends that you're in a relationship with Scarabia's vicehousewarden was supposed to be easy and nice to share...Once you can convince them you're telling the truth, of course."

╰►Gender neutral reader, oneshot, 3.2k words.

╰►Note: The prompts are based on words I found interesting and then I put them on a roulette to decide when I would write about them, lol. English is not my first language, so please let me know if there are any grammatical mistakes <3. Not proof read, I haven't written in a long time, so I apologise if anything is out of character.

╰►Masterlist / Inktober Masterlist.

⤿

⤿

Sleepovers at Ramshackle started as something casual. It only happened a few times every month, maybe the day after an overblot, as a way to make (Y/n) some company after difficult days. However, after some time, they became more regular, and more crowded.

At first, it was only Deuce and Ace. Then Jack joined, then Epel, Ortho, and somehow, even Sebek started to assist, under the excuse that Silver guarded Malleus back at Diasomnia, whereas he was in charge of guarding Ramshackle in case Malleus decided to visit Ramshackle at night, as he usually did (Malleus never went when the Prefect informed him that they were going to have a sleepover with the first-years).

They usually played video games, watched movies or just talked about school stuff. Like they did now, as they were reunited at the lounge of Ramshackle; Ace, Deuce and Epel laying on some makeshift beds that were on the ground, the Prefect sitting on one of the sofas with Grim, Sebek and Jack on the other sofa nearby, and Ortho sitting happily on one of the chairs of the room.

 “Did y’all know that Rook’s partner from the Science club broke up with his girlfriend?” Epel commented, as he ate some chips out of a now half-empty bag.

“Epel, don’t you think it’s quite inappropriate to talk about other people’s personal life?” Jack questioned.

“Uuuuh, you’re talking about that one guy from Scarabia?” Ace asked right away, promptly ignoring Jack’s words.

“Yeah, that one.” The Pomefiore student nodded. “You think he cheated or something?”

“It’s kinda mean to suggest that.” Deuce commented. “…But I heard that his girlfriend found some messages from another girl on the past holidays.”

“If that’s the case, he should be punished for tarnishing his dorm’s reputation with such immoral behaviour.” This time was Sebek who joined.

“They didn’t break up because of that, though.” The Prefect clarified. “It was because he did terrible on his last exams, and his girlfriend told him through the phone, and I quote, ‘she wouldn’t date a dumb loser’, something like that.”

“How do you even know that?” Ace was quick to question.

“I was at Scarabia when the girl called him, she was loud enough to be heard even if he didn’t have the volume up.” They replied nonchalantly, as they accommodated the blanket that covered Grim and them, as the small beast complained that he was feeling cold.

“What were you doing at Scarabia either way?” The Pomefiore first-year asked as he reached for another bag of chips.

“Oh, about that…” The Prefect murmured, now wondering if this was the time to tell them. After all, this was one of the few times when all of their friends were reunited in a place without other students around, and they probably would notice at some point, if they hadn’t noticed already. “Now that we’re talking about that, there’s something I’ve got to tell you.”

“Oh, really? Do tell us, Prefect.” Ortho encouraged, moving his chair to hear them more clearly.

“Well, I waited a little bit before telling all of you because we decided to be more discreet for now, but I think is best for you to hear it from me rather than someone else.” (Y/n) started, as the rest of first-years looked at them expectantly. “I’m dating someone.”

For a few seconds, silence prevailed over the room, no visible reaction out of their friends, until Ace suddenly yelled triumphantly.

“I knew you were dating Kalim! Pay up, Deuce!” He immediately turned towards his dormmate to collect their bet.

“Well, congrats Prefect, good for you-“

“What? I’m not dating Kalim!” The magicless human was quick to correct. “I’m dating Jamil!”

Another silence.

And then, Ace’s loud laugh.

“C’mon Prefect! You don’t have to lie.”

“It’s okay if you have a crush on him or something, but you shouldn’t pressure yourself to say such things…”

“We can help you if you want to look for someone else, though.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” (Y/n) questioned discomposed by their friends’ comments, probably more upset at the fact that they weren’t mocking them, and their suggestions seemed genuine, for some reason.

“Please don’t be offended.” Deuce tried to reassure them. "It’s not that you’re ugly or unattractive, I think you’re very nice and pretty. It’s just that…”

“Jamil is…Jamil, y’know?” Ace complemented Deuce’s comment. “I see him a lot at practice, he just doesn’t seem the kind to date someone.”

“Yeah, besides isn’t he like, busy all day with his dorm stuff?”

“Jamil is a very diligent vicehousewarden and a dedicated guardian to Kalim, a relationship would only distract him from his duties!”

“Idia says that he could probably beat him in a competition of who sleeps less, it would be incredible if he managed to be in a relationship even with how tired he probably is.”

“I think you are exaggerating…But I agree he doesn’t look like the kind of person to be in a relationship.”

“His food is really good! You should invite him over more frequently.”

“That’s not the point of the conversation, Grim.” The Prefect sighed, wondering when they thought this would be a good idea. “I’m not saying I like him; I’m saying I’m dating him. Like, we already went through all the confessing part and stuff, he’s my boyfriend!” They stared at their group of friends. “You don’t believe me, don’t you?” They asked with a deadpan expression.

“I’d never call you a liar.” Jack answered immediately. “But it is hard to think about it…”

“Even you, Jack, I can’t believe this.” The magicless human sank onto the sofa, offended that none of them could imagine them dating Jamil. They knew he was handsome and committed to his responsibilities, but c’mon, they were the Prefect of Ramshackle, the one who survived multiple overblots, who built their dorm from scratch and managed to stay sane (lowkey) on a world that wasn’t even theirs. It wasn’t difficult to put some respect to their name, wasn’t it?

“You’re all bad friends and I hate you all.” They mumbled as they covered themselves with the blanket with a dramatic demeanour. “Even Grim was more supportive than all of you.”

“You were?” Ace frowned towards the direction of the little beast.

“He makes nice meals and always brings my henchman food for lunch! He’s not that bad, he brought the great Grim a tuna can once.”

“It’s not like Grim is the best source of information, though…”

“You know what? I’ve got nothing to prove to you.” (Y/n) got up abruptly, the offended expression still adorning their face. “You will see it by yourselves soon enough.”

“Sure, Prefect, if that makes you sleep better at night.”

“One more word and I’ll kick all of you out of my dorm.”

⤿

⤿

“What class do we have after this?”

“Shared gym class with Vargas.”

“Great, I’ll have to listen to Sebek screaming for an hour more than usual.”

“I’ll let you know I speak on a perfectly decent volume! You humans just have weak ears!”

“Great Sevens, have mercy on me…”

The group of first-years walked on the main hallway, already on their way to their next class, when the Prefect caught a glimpse of a certain vicehousewarden who seemed to be walking towards another classroom.

‘This is my chance to prove them wrong.’

“Jamil, hey!” The magicless human separated from the group to get close to the Scarabia student, who looked at them as soon as they heard their voice. “How are you-“

“I’m very sorry my love, I’ve got a test with Crewel in less than five minutes, I’ll talk to you later.” He walked past quickly with an apologetic voice tone, leaving the Prefect started as they watched him disappear promptly at the end of the hall.

As they stood there, even now far away from their group of friends, they could hear Ace’s snickering, the sound even more prominent as they walked back with them. After all, they were close enough to see how the vicehousewarden turned them down, but not close enough to hear the fondness of Jamil’s voice or the pet name.

“Very romantic, Prefect.”

“Shut up.”

⤿

⤿

The cafeteria buzzed with the sound of multiple chats of the many tables filled with students from different dorms all around the place. (Y/n) arrived at the table where Ace, Epel, Ortho and Sebek were waiting for them, as Deuce and Jack hadn’t finished their club practice yet. As they sat next to them, their phone suddenly buzzed.

Jamil: ‘I brought you lunch’

Me: ‘I can bring my own meal, you know? I’m not that irresponsible’

Jamil: ‘A meal better than curry?’

Me: ‘…I want you to know that I really love you.’

Jamil: ‘I’m on the tables next to the windows, come quickly’

“I’ll be back in a minute.” The magicless human notified their friends, as they made their way towards the table where Scarabia student was waiting for them.

“Hey handsome, how did you do on Crewel’s test?” The Prefect asked right away, discreetly taking his hand to squeeze lightly as a greeting.

“It was good, I just got late after running some errands in the morning.” He sighed, squeezing their hand back, and then softly dropping it to take the extra lunchbox he brought. “Here, take it.”

“Thank you, Jamil, I really appreciate it.”

“It was nothing, I hope you like it.”

“You cooked it, of course I will. You’ve got practice today after class, don’t you?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Nothing, just asking. See you later.” They turned back, ready to go back to their table with their friends.

‘Heh, now I can show the guys that my beautiful boyfriend brought me a fantastic lunch-'

“Hey stop that! If you’re not careful I’ll-AH, Oh, I’m very sorry!” Suddenly, a first-year from another class crashed against them. “I’m so so sorry, my friend here was bothering me and I- Great Sevens, your lunch!”

Well, now the lunch made by their beautiful boyfriend lay on the ground, and (Y/n) could only stare at it with a deadpanned expression.

“You’re okay?” Jamil rushed to their side, promptly checking if they were hurt by the other student.

“Yeah, but the lunchbox…”

“I can pay for your lunch! I really apologize.” The first-year spoke again. (Y/n) had seen him a few times before, and they knew he wasn’t a bad guy, his only crime was being a bit clumsy and having annoying friends. They had that in common, perhaps.

“No, don’t worry, it's alright.” They commented with a dismissive expression.

“I can give you part of my lunch, if you want.” The vicehousewarden was quick to offer.

“It’s fine, like I said before, I brought my lunch as well. Besides, curry is your favourite. I’ll see you after class.”

“Alright, have a nice meal.”

“You too.”

They turned around and came back to their seat, this time without the lunchbox between their hands, sitting on their spot as they stared at the table.

They, in fact, forgot to bring their own lunch.

⤿

⤿

Two classes and one-half of a sandwich that Epel gave them later, it was finally the end of the day. It was tiring, but at least it was Friday, which usually meant that a sleepover would take place at Ramshackle, but this time, the boys wanted to try a new video game in which (Y/n) had no interest, so the sleepover would be moved to Heartslabyul, leaving the Prefect a night to rest.

After making a quick stop by the cafeteria, they walked towards the gym, where the basketball practice took place. There, (Y/n) could spot Jamil right away, near the benches. As they entered the room, they greeted other students briefly, noticing then Ace chatting with other first-years in the middle of the court.

‘Maybe this could be a good opportunity to show him he was wrong…’

“It’s good to see you, my love. Did you enjoy your lunch?”

“Yeah, it was very…delicious.” The prefect answered with an awkward smile. “Are you busy after practice?”

“Not really.” He answered, making (Y/n) look at him curiously. “Kalim came back to Scalding Sands for the weekend, for an important family gathering, and he requested for me to stay here.”

“Really? Did he say why he did it?”

“...No.”

“How strange, because Kalim told me last week how happy he was to give you a free weekend to spend with me.” The Ramshackle student teased with a smile. Ever since he found out they were dating (which was like two days after they got together), he seemed so excited for Jamil that (Y/n) could swear that he was probably waiting to organize their wedding right away.

“…Yeah, very unusual. Don’t think much about it.” The vicehousewarden dismissed the topic, a faint blush on his face.

“Well, considering that, would you like to come to Ramshackle tonight? Grim is staying a Heartslabyul, so we could watch a movie or something like that. Only if you want, of course.”

“Yeah, sounds good to me.”

“It’s settled, then.” They smiled at him. “Practice is probably going to start soon, so I should leave. See you at Ramshackle at 6?”

“I’ll be there.” Jamil looked around for a few seconds, before towards them to leave a soft and brief kiss on their lips as a way to say goodbye.

The Prefect stood in their place for a few seconds, dumbfounded, as Jamil walked away nonchalantly towards where the rest of the team was. They had kissed before, but it wasn’t often in public, due to Jamil’s reserved nature, so it was surprising for them.

‘Take that, Ace!’

They walked happily towards the exit, until the figure of a certain first-year appeared through the door.

“Ace? Weren’t you here already?”

“Yeah, but I had to refill my water bottle. Why are you here, anyway?”

“Well, I…” They mumbled, until they suddenly realised. “Wait, you didn’t even see?!”

“See what?” The Heartslabyul student asked, genuinely confused.

“You know what? I don’t care anymore.” (Y/n) sighed, walking away from the gym, and leaving his friend confused at their change of demeanour.

⤿

⤿

“So, they don’t believe you?”

“Yeah, and you haven’t been cooperative either.”

Jamil and (Y/n) chatted as they prepared to go to sleep. They had already spent the evening watching movies and talking, and after Jamil had made dinner for the both of them, they realised how dark was outside. This motivated (Y/n) to suggest that it was too late and too far for Jamil to walk alone back to his dorm (It was 11 pm and it was a 15-minute walk), so he should just stay the night.

They were already lying on bed, just talking, when (Y/n) remembered the dilemma that had bothered them for the past few days and started to narrate his failed attempts to demonstrate to their friends that they were, in fact, incredible enough to date Jamil.

“I didn’t know I had to cooperate in the first place, so that should excuse me.”

“You literally walked past me when I wanted to talk to you.”

“I was late.”

“The boys mocked me for the rest of the day!” (Y/n) complained, plopping their head onto Jamil's chest to prove their frustration. “I can’t believe they don’t think I’m capable of dating you.”

“If it’s making you uneasy, I could talk to them-“

“That would be even more embarrassing.” They sighed. “I gave up. If they don’t want to believe me, it’s up to them.”

“I don’t get them, though. I thought I was obvious, back then when I started to like you, so I believed that your friends would notice.”

“You had too much faith in them. Besides, you weren’t obvious, even I didn’t notice.”

“I tutored you for Trein’s class and I helped you manage your dorm.”

“And?”

“That's a lot more of anything that I’d do for anyone else that wasn’t you.” The vicehousewarden threw one of his arms around (Y/n), who answered by nuzzling closer to him.

“Yeah, you may have a point there.” They replied, yawning as they started to feel the exhaustion get to them. “Can you believe they thought I was dating Kalim at first?” They commented lightly, suddenly feeling Jamil’s body stiffen.

“…They did?” He questioned, a frown on his face, receiving a quiet ‘Mhm’ as an answer. “…I think it would be okay if we started to be less discreet.”

“It wouldn’t make you uncomfortable?”

“Well, holding hands wouldn’t be so bad, right.” The Scarabia student replied, trying to sound nonchalantly. “Besides, it would keep your friends away from incorrect and wrong suppositions.”

“It’s fine by me.” The Prefect mumbled, once again yawning. “But we should sleep already, I’m tired.”

“Goodnight then, my love.”

“Goodnight dear.”

⤿

⤿

“Prefeeeeect, we’ve brought you cat!”

“Leave me on the ground! I can walk by myself!”

“You went to the kitchen at 4 am and Riddle caught you, I’m not leaving you until (Y/n) gets you back. I’m getting collared if I don’t!”

“The great Grim was just hungry!”

“Ace, the Prefect is probably sleeping, I don’t think they’ll open the door at this hour.” Deuce mumbled, ignoring Grim's complaints.

“Fine, let’s just leave him in their room.”

The three of them opened the door to the dorm, the interior still cold due to how early it was, the ghosts nowhere to be found yet, even as they made their way through the stairs.

“(Y/n), sorry to bother you, Riddle sent us to drop Grim by and- Ace, isn’t that Jamil?!”

“What are you saying, why would he be here at this hour- Wow, yeah that’s him!”

The duo didn’t even bother to keep their voices low, causing (Y/n) to stir up due to the sudden noise, making them sit down on the bed a few seconds later to look for the source of such scandal.

“Ace…? Deuce…? What are you doing here...” They mumbled, interrupting themselves with a yawn. “What happened to your sleepover?”

“That’s not the point right now, what’s Jamil doing here?!”

“Well, he-“

“My love, what’s with all the noise…?” This time was the vicehousewarden who woke up, tiredly sitting on the bed, until he realized they had company. A company that now was looking at him like he grew two heads.

“Did he just call the Prefect…?”

“Yes, he did.”

“It’s too early for this nonsense.” Jamil mumbled, feeling his cheeks heating up, as he sighed to mask his embarrassment.

“I literally told you two I was dating him like a week ago. Now, I won’t receive Grim before 11 am, so leave my dorm before I call Riddle.” (Y/n) ordered, plopping themselves in the bed to go back to sleep.

“But Riddle said he’d collar us if we didn’t-“

“Not my problem, out of my dorm.”

“But-“

“If you don’t leave right now, I’ll tell Floyd you were the one who ate his snack yesterday.” This time was Jamil who spoke, already annoyed.

“Yeaaah, let’s go Deuce.”

The vicehousewarden sighed once again, coming back to the position he was in as soon as the Heartslabyul students left.

“I’m never speaking to them again.” He mumbled against the Prefect’s hair.

“Why? Because they saw you all soft when waking up?” They teased, chuckling quietly.

“No, because they have no sense of decent hours to wake someone up.”

“Hey, look at the bright side, we don’t have to convince them now.”

“Yeah, whatever, now go back to sleep.”

(Y/n) smiled tenderly, wrapping their arms around the figure of the vicehousewarden.

“As you wish, my love.”

⤿

⤿

⤿

[rbkzz]

Inktober is happening and I don't know what the prompt is and I'm not actually doing it.

But here are Watford era snowbaz in ink because I have an all day seminar today and I can only listen while doodling.

I initially just had a hankering to draw Baz (who apparently decided his first teenage facial hair attempt would be a soul patch. A questionable choice, but I think he pulls it off).

Then I decided I had to add Simon. And of course that lovable f*ucker had to steal the show as always. Look at him having *colour* and shit. Damnit Simon!!

What are they arguing about? Who knows. Maybe Simon's like "dude I hate you I know you're a f*cking vampire I can see your damn fangs stop denying it you're totally gaslighting me how dumb do you think I am don't answer that shit wait your fangs are actually really hot can you eat with those they look super sharp can I touch em how much blood do you need are you looking for a donor because I think I have a lot of extra blood like I'm always hot and sweating and blushing and stuff so like I'm sure I could spare a pint or two but only if you wanna try I bet my blood would taste like buttered scones since that's the main component of my diet and I could probably start eating extra if you need blood like every day so I could keep my strength up but like how does this even work should I go wash my neck do you wanna try right now because I don't really have any plans this evening so if you're free and like your fangs are right there and and holy shit they're like glinting how do you keep your teeth so white I bet you've never had a cavity in your life can you even go to a normal dentist or do they notice your fangs how do you get your plaque scraped if you can't go to a dentist is there a spell for that there probably is and nobody ever told me not that I would try it on myself my teeth would probably all fall out if I did but I bet I could ask Penny to do it for me or maybe you could because if I start giving you my blood which I'm totally down for anytime then maybe you'd have more energy and wanna do nice things for me so if you want my neck is right here and like I'm totally not pressuring you but please bite me I feel like I'm gonna go off your fangs Baz your damn fangs are doing things to me and I can't...."

[jokodoesstuff]

Damirae Inktober 2023???

Hey y’all! Hope y’all had a good summer

I’m making this poll cause I was thinking about doing an OTP inktober for Damirae

I’ve already got started on some art, so I wanna ask any fellow shippers if they want this to happen

[mysticsparklewings]

Obscutober 2024 Day 2: Littoral 🏖️

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Littoral (adj.)

of or relating to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean

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Good News, Sparklers: I’m still happy with this as my #Inktober approach so far! 🎉 (Hopefully that continues🤞)

This one definitely turned out more “general beach/ocean” than “shoreline,” but oh well! 🤷‍♀️

Click the "Keep Reading" and we'll talk more about my thoughts/process for this piece (including part of why this word made the prompt-list cut)! ✨

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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Well Sparklers, I seem to once again be writing this description (and therefore posting the art) later in the day than expected again today, but y'know I'm still early enough I don't feel such a rush to just get everything done, as was an extremely bad habit for me during Inktober last year...But we're only on Day 2 so it's still very possible I'll end up in that situation at some point later in the month. 😅

Either way, since we covered I think what was left of the background information for my how/whys for October this year yesterday, I think today I'm free to focus just on today's piece.

And I'll start with the admission that one of the primary reasons this word made the cut when I was putting together the prompt list is because I personally find it more amusing than I probably should that "Littoral" can very easily sound like "Literal" depending on your accent/pronunciation; And while I haven't figured one out, I just know there's a delightful pun or wordplay hiding somewhere in that association. 😆

Does that have anything to do with my choice of shapes for the mandala or colors for the background? Not consciously, no. But I mention it just in case someone for some reason finds the idea as funny as I do!

That said, this one is—at least I think—a lot strong on the specific images in the mandala that tie back to the theme than yesterday's. Granted, I probably leaned a little more heavily on general beachy/ocean themes than is really appropriate for a word that's really more about shorelines for multiple kinds of waterbodies...

In my defense, I started working on this one around 2-3 a.m. before I went to bed and was struggling to stay awake for the area between the inner circle of seashells and the round with the tail-fin shapes. What were supposed to look more like fish scales underneath those fin shapes came out looking a lot more like the edges of stacked sand dollars as a result. 😅

That might kinda be for the better though because I think if they did look more like scales, the tail fins might be a little too mermaid-y. Sand dollars probably fit a little better for a shoreline focus. Or, this way they kinda also make me think of like...ridged rocks that you might see either along lake edges, or as like the "drop off" point where the ocean shore "ends" and the deep sea more or less "begins," if that makes any sense.

I also tried something...I want to say "different" but we're only on Day 2, so that feels a bit odd. 😆 But it is something I don't usually do with mandalas when I make them. You'll notice that the round with the tail fins features only 2 additional sea shells, not 4, 6, or 8 as would be more typical for a mandala pattern, and on either side of that same round where you'd expect another pair of shells to be are instead some different wave shapes.

This was just a small experiment in what I'm going to do "non-traditional symmetry" (because "asymmetry" isn't quite right). So far I'm just using Procreate for these, and Procreate's built-in symmetry tools can only be pushed so far vs. an app made more specifically for mandalas, so I was trying to get a feel for where exactly my boundaries with Procreate's tools are. Obviously I didn't get too crazy with it because I was tired, but I did learn a few things and intend to carry them forward.

To that end, for what it's worth, I am considering trying a mandala-making-specific app, but I haven't pulled the trigger just yet. I thought I'd try a couple more with just Procreate and see if I still want to. I have a feeling even if I do try another app, I'll end up tracing over whatever results I get in there in Procreate anyway just to make sure all my Obscutober pieces are stylistically consistent. [That's a me thing, I don't expect anyone else to care about the style consistency even half as much as I personally do.]

I will also say the "splash" shapes that end everything off weren't really what I originally had in mind, but I'm not bothered about it because I think they came out great and give the effect that I wanted really well. 😄

Oh, and before I move on from the mandala part: If you look closer, you can also see I tried just a little bit of hatching on this one. I wanted to "fill in" some more of the mandala lines for visual interest, but I didn't like the solid-fill look in those areas when I tried it. It's still not quite what I wanted but I was too tired to be bothered re-doing it. I'm also not sure how much I'll use hatching (or other "traditional" inking techniques) for the rest of the month, though it is a tool I'll be keeping in my metaphorical back pocket just in case.

This may as well be a good time to mention that not necessarily every Obscutober piece will use white mandala lines; I don't want to overcomplicate my choices too much, but I am planning on allowing black lines as well, if they'll suit that day's themes better. So far we've just had two days in a row where I thought the white worked better. 😉

As for the background: This one is one of the things that motivated me to go with this particular format for this year. I didn't start working on this piece until after the decision(s) had already been made, but during those last couple of days of September when the mandala idea finally started to form, I was going back and forth over the words and landed on "Littoral" again; The idea of having a kind of "island" in the middle surrounded by "water" for the background popped into my brain—Nothing but shoreline all 360º around. 🤗

That wasn't the deciding factor alone, but it was definitely a strong nudge in that direction! This background was also a good "test" in that it pushed me to consider there might be days—like this one!—where it's tempting to color the background less abstractly and more tied to whatever is happening with the mandala lines. Somehow, I hadn't really considering that yet. From that, you can see I decided that some spot color is okay, but for consistency purposes, I am still going to keep it largely soft and abstract. Since I'm toying with the idea of making coloring pages out of the finished mandalas later anyway, if I really want to color right inside the lines, I can worry about that after Obscutober.

Besides, keeping it abstract will be faster anyway; I have a tendency to get way-too-perfectonist when coloring inside of digital lines. 🫠

The longer I think about it, the more there are things I might do a bit differently if I gave the mandala part another go. I am still happy with how this one turned out and think the background is really solid, it's just that usual "hindsight is 20/20" artist problem—Sometimes great ideas for a piece only come after it's already done and you really don't feel like going through the trouble if changing what you have!

Ah well. Maybe I'll have more ideas actually come to me in-the-moment if I can be bothered working on the future mandalas when I'm not falling asleep at my desk. 😆 It still beats being wide-awake because I'm rushing to get it done at all, but it's definitely not the ideal way to be! 😅

In any case, aside from delays in writing this description, I've been enjoying seeing a few people (mostly on Tumblr) decide to try out the Obscutober list for themselves, so the month is off to a pretty decent start as far as I'm concerned! I hope it is for you Sparklers too, or that if it isn't, that things get better soon! 🤞

I'll leave you Sparklers with that for today, and hopefully see you again in cheerful spirits tomorrow. Toodles! 👋

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See the Prompt List

Artwork  © me, MysticSparklewings

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

[stardewvalleyfrog]

SDV "Inktober" writing prompt day 8: Television

Just a cute little morning between AJ and Shane <3

AJ woke up with the dawn, 6AM. Shane was less of an early bird, if he didn't have to be. She pulled herself away from the warm covers, but ensured that they fell back around Shane's arms. He began to stir slightly as AJ pulled on the slippers Evelyn had knitted for her.

"Mornin' hun," she made her way to the other side of the bed, planting a kiss on Shane's forehead after realizing he was awake.

"Morning." His green eyes blinked open and he pressed his hand to her cheek, pulling her closer. She gave him another quick kiss.

"I'll make us breakfast," she told him, "what do you want? I can do pancakes, hasbrowns, eggs… I think I still have Raisin Bran too." She said the latter with a small smirk, and Shane rolled his eyes.

"Don't even say 'Raisin Bran," he mimed gagging, which brought a giggle from AJ's lips. "How about hashbrowns and eggs? I'll get up in a minute to make coffee."

"Sure. Take your time."

She disappeared into the hallway and Shane lay his head back down on the pillow, his eyes drifting out the window as a content smile stuck on his lips.

When he made his way into the kitchen, AJ was at the frying pan with a pan of shredded potatoes in one hand and a pan of scrambled eggs beside that on the stove. Shane's arms found their way around AJ's shoulders and he kissed her cheek. She leaned into him, enjoying the way his stubble scratched her jawline.

"Smells good," he told her.

"Really? I haven't even showered yet," she snickered.

Shane squeezed her. "Mhm." He let go as his hand found the coffee maker next to them. The water tank was full already- Shane had done it the night before after he'd made his own coffee. He opened the coffee grounds and spooned it into a filter, He did it without thinking too much, moving around AJ's kitchen comfortably as if it were his own. As the coffee machine whirred, Shane found the TV remote on the dining room table. He switched on the TV and the fortune teller channel sprang to life.

"Oh!" AJ's attention was quickly caught by the woman on the TV with the royal purple robe. She sat as always with a pearly crystal ball in front of her.

"The spirits are very pleased today," the woman said, "you will have a lot of extra luck!"

"Damn it," AJ went back to her eggs, stirring them with a wooden spoon. "It would have been a great day for the mines."

"You really believe in that stuff?" Shane chuckled. "There are no magical spirits controlling your luck, hun. Everything you achieve is because of you."

She smiled slightly. "Maybe. But you should see how quick I can get down the cave on a lucky day. There's gotta be something to it."

"Whatever keeps you going," Shane kissed her cheek. "I'm gonna start getting the baskets together for the egg festival. Give me a shout when it's done." He placed a mug beside her, with coffee just how she liked it: no sugar and a little bit of cream.

[zephrunsimperium]

Okay so I've been thinking a lot about what I want to draw cause I really really want to art but I've found myself in an inspiration drought after Inktober. And I was like, "I want to draw stuff from me and @ch4rl13-ch40s's AU but I don't think people on tumblr would love that" and then I realized that I should take my own advice and draw what I want dammit!

Zeph's Human Bill AU: A Summary

I will provide context for each individual drawing, but here's a summary of the AU beneath the cut. I've made it as brief as possible, but it is long please read it I spent hours on it. It's also BillFord stuff, I know this is primarily a FiddAuthor blog.

TW for religious trauma, child abuse/neglect, and drug use/addiction.

Part I: Bill's Backstory

William Cipher was born in the year 1951 in middle of nowhere Oregon. Shortly after entering kindergarten in 1957, Bill received an autism diagnosis (or what was autism in the 50s) and his mother was distraught, especially so because the local pastor told her the autism was caused by a demon possessing him.

Bill's mother quickly pulled him out of kindergarten to "home school" him and broke his leg to keep him from leaving the house. Bill would spend the majority of the next 7 years alone in the attic, reading old books left from the house's previous owners, favoring the thick and dusty math textbooks over the rest. Any time he got to leave the attic, he would collect things - anything to call his, random objects like bottle caps, spare change, pieces of thread, rocks - a habit that would later develop into kleptomania.

Bill grew extremely malnourished with a leg that never healed right. His father rarely interacted with him, but his mother made sure that Bill understood he was corrupted and needed to heal the only way anyone could - through Catholicism. Of course, as time passed, Bill didn't get "better" so his mother got angrier and angrier while Bill's anxiety got worse and worse, his religious rituals developing into crippling OCD. Triangles and the number three in particular became something of a holy symbol of the trinity to him. Arranging objects into threes, drawing triangles on himself and his possessions, counting by threes during panic attacks...

One day, Bill lashed out after his mother discovered the items he'd pilfered from downstairs and tried to take them away along with his precious books. As punishment, his mother splashed acid on his face, an injury that blinded his left eye. In his anger, out of pure impulse, Bill started a fire, fully intending to burn the house down with his parents inside. But while he waited outside, hearing their dying screams, 14 year old Bill realized too late that he regretted it. The police and firemen discovered him nearly catatonic outside the smoking building.

Part II: Backupsmore

After being passed around the foster system, Bill finally graduated high school. Grade school had not nearly been the utopia Bill was hoping it would be, but he still had a little bit of hope left that college would be a bit better. Though he didn't remember much from his childhood, his memories teaching math to an old teddy bear inspired him to declare a major in mathematics education.

Although Bill initially regarded his roommate warily, it didn't take long for him to find common grounds with Stanford Pines. The two bonded over being labeled freaks as children and found comfort in the strange new experience of being understood and seen. Eventually, after battling some internalized homophobia, the two started a secret romance

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. Summer separated the two lovers and in the terror of being alone, Bill turned to hard drugs to cope. Although he was happy to see Ford again their sophomore year, hiding his budding addiction became a constant anxiety. And to add to his paranoia, Ford made a new friend out of Fiddleford Hadron McGucket. Bill despised the skinny blonde southerner immediately, terrified that Ford would replace him. After months of tension and open hatred between the two, Bill's homicidal impulses reared their ugly head again and he broke Fiddleford's arm. He would have done more, but Ford was able to separate the two. Naturally upset, Ford initiated a roommate swap as soon as he was able.

Part III: Gravity Falls

Bill graduated college out of pure spite and moved back to Oregon since it was familiar. Bill's students there had very mixed opinions of him. Sure, he was a little creepy and his dark humor wasn't for everyone and everyone had a different story to explain his limp and his eye patch, but one thing was undeniable: if you wanted to learn complicated mathematics, he was the best teacher you could hope for. Students from several small Oregon towns took his class for college credit.

After four years however, Bill's teaching career would come to a screeching halt when an accidental meth overdose landed him in the hospital. Unable to find any family or valid emergency contacts, Ford was contacted. Though it was not his initial plan upon being summoned without warning, pity and the softening of memory over time drove Ford to pay Bill's bail for drug possession and take him in with the hopes of keeping him clean.

It only takes a week for Ford and Bill to fall back into their old romantic patterns which come with mixed feelings; Bill is terrified of being abandoned again and Ford is worried about being let down again. Things go quite well for them for about a month or so - and Ford buys a cat for Bill which he names Pythagorus - until a familiar face fresh off of divorce proceedings arrives in Gravity Falls.

After Ford broke up with Bill in college, he and Fiddleford had a brief fling before Ford admitted he was just trying to get over Bill. Fiddleford arrives with the hope of getting back together with Ford, but is horrified to find Ford right back in Bill's "evil clutches." Fidds gets more and more unhinged as his memory gun usage ramps up and Ford tries to keep things civil between the two men.