#I want to see fur texture that makes me want to give the characters a bath

[sabrondabrainrot]

Bring back LAES!

I'm steadily making progress on catching up on sun and moon show along with foxy and monty etc etc but it's pretty difficult when one of the main key plot lines is gone. I know a few spoilers thanks to fanfiction but I want to see the drama in person.

Here's some outfit ideas for tsams cause I'm a sucker for fashion and redesigns!

Order is, SolarFlare - Lunar - NewMoon - Old Moon - Sunny (Solar's dimension) - Sun

closeups and more brainrot under the cut!

Explaining my redesigns! Lunar - he's not really a redesign and more so an overdesign. I love adding tons of little details to him to really hammer home his star-ness. He's such an interesting little guy, like yes he acts childish but I can see he's really growing (SAD I CANT WATCH MORE CAUSE THE SHOW IS GONE). I saw the ep he killed Eclipse and homeboy revived. The entire time I was like "Waaahh Lunar??? Waaahhh???" but I love the drama ngl.

SolarFlare - Same as Lunar, not really a redesign I just drew him with no dirt. I really love his base design it's so neat it makes me think of like sci-fi concepts from the 80's. Something from fallout really. I think it's kind of funny Eclipse's aesthetics for SolarFlare when you compare him next to say Jack who Solar designed.

OldMoon - I just wanted to give him a sleek mad scientist cool guy suave vibe. I saw the more recent thumbnails of him with a turtle neck and idk that's just peak character design for me. I'm a simple woman put the dumb-dumb in a dark turtleneck. I want him to kind of look like the BadGuy TM (he's not actually) so he gets all edgy and hard edges and stuff.

NewMoon - I wanted to do a similar color scheme but instead he has lighter colors like more white incorporated into his fit. To give him the whole 'reborn' aesthetic. He's all like "old moon wore black well I wear white now I'm nothing like him so hah!" kinda thinking. I gave his cap a fur texture cause of that one ep he turned into a furry. I drew rounder stuff on him cause he's a big ol' softy sweety pie.

Sunny - Sunny is my headcanon of Sun from Solar's dimension. I think it's really interesting his default with no personality was theater performance and not say...doing daycare stuff? I feel like honoring the FNAF books with this design by leaning heavily into the theater performer look. I like to think in Solar's dimension Sun and Moon were originally made for theater. (so far in the show I've noticed Creator says 'they needed a daycare attendant' something like that so it comes off more like they were intended for the daycare from the start VS. Solar's dimension where Sunny's core seems to be more so for the performing arts.) I also wanted to make Sunny look different from Sun for the extra angst potential of "They're similar but not the same" so I leaned more into a blue palette for him.

Sun - I just wanted to give him big puffy everything. I took away the tutu. nothing against the tutu I just hate drawing the damn thing. I like to think Sun in main has white eyes because he's so burnt out from within. *badum tish* (eyes are the window to the soul-) I also covered him in stickers because he totally would just be covered in stickers from the kids. I also decided to give some of his rays cracks because I think he's extremely sentimental and even in a newly upgraded body (after using star power to defeat Eclipse the first time) he'd keep rays from his original body? I also put the cracks ones on the side of his face where Old Moon hit him. Why? Because it just seems like something Sun would do. I love him so.

Ok just some brainrot stuff, look away to avoid spoilers .

RUIN DESTROYED HOW MANY DIMENSIONS?? SOLARS DEAD. LUNAR KILLED ECLIPSE. DARK SUN IS PLOTTING??? MOON BE CRYING??? Also Francine just had a birthday! ONE OF THE BLOODMOON BOYS ARE DEAD AND SAME WITH ONE OF THE STITCHY BOYS??? HELLO?!?

I love the drama.

Also, I love how every single kid vibe checks Sun and he passes every time. Francine? She loves Sun and learns from him. FC? He ONLY feels safe with Sun for a bit. Barry? He hugged Sun after gonad checking him (a right of passage for the bunny kid). Jack? I'm pretty sure he literally is just one room away from Sun at all times (he also calls Sun's cats his master???). I have yet to see Dazzle, but Dazzle 10000% loves Sun (I've seen the edits).

ALSO? When Lunar was first brought into the family the first person he hugged was Sun and then later on when Earth was in danger he ran into SUN's arms for safety/comfort. They're family your honor.

Sobbing and Crying laying on the floor over Solar's death but I think he'll be back.

Also the molten thing with Ruin? I'm excited to see more.

I don't have a youtube account to post about saving LAES but if anyone wants me to draw more LAES just to help the community please let me know. I'm planning to draw my idea of Earth next.

[pervcoded]

DOG-EARED AND DOUBTFUL starring yuuji itadori. part iii.

──☆*:・ﾟcontent warning: amab!reader (referred to as a boy), canon divergent, college au (18+ characters) inside of the hybridverse. artist!reader, sukuna is related to yuuji. awkward meet-cute, but yuuji is implied to be (and is) slightly unhinged. reader is human and yuuji is a doberman hybrid. fluffy, safe for work-ish. nude modelling. bashful , sorta pushover reader. reader has a stutter. invasion of privacy (yuuji goes through your sketchpad and gets comfortable fast). british use of trousers (pants) and pants (underwear). scent stuff going on, yuuji has a good nose. yuuji is sorta feral and reader's not in a position to (nor does he quite want to) argue. mdni! reblogs and comments appreciated!

wc: 4.2 words.

It’s beautiful, truly. Yuuji is admittedly philistine in his artistic taste, never had a muse for it; but he finds himself wholly appreciative of the opportunity to become yours- even if it’s only for the evening. He can’t control the way his tail wags, heart pattering quicker in his chest as the excitement overrides his previously projected aloofness, his hands moving faster than his mind in that moment. One more page wouldn’t hurt.

You’re just like any other boy in class, really. Maybe the round ears and lack of fur are a bit of a weird look, but Yuuji wasn’t popular when he first transferred to the university either - and some change is always good, he thinks.

“And your tongue—is it really that small?” Someone had asked on your first day in, your classmates ogling your skin, analyzing its novel texture. You’re good at acting nonchalant when you’re placed on the spot. Tone even, eyes level, posture loose and relaxed as you fold your arm over the back of your chair. You’re smarter than they’d ever give you credit for—laughed along with their jibes so they wouldn’t see how gently you swayed. Trembled. The claws of some touchy Wolverine mutt glancing at your collarbones, and you laughed it off, never once minding the sweat cascading down the apex of your temple.

But your scent is disloyal to you. He never thought to mention it. The sour notes of tangerine, key lime, crescendo in the spot where you stand, a heady cocktail of anxiety and embarrassment and horror. 

You’re quite popular for a human, however. Maybe that was your conventional appeal. Or rather stood next to them you stick out like a sore thumb, and that makes you far more interesting—purely by virtue of your association. But Yuuji likes to think you have your own redeeming qualities too. You’re an artsy type. Try and spend a lot of time by yourself if you can manage, but your peers seem intent on laywaying your silence; coveting your time like shiny trinkets in a magpie’s nest.

Still, you’re nice to him. 

You remember his name. Say “Itadori, hi,” and give him a solemn nod before going on your way. You give him your leftovers you don’t want if your class schedules happen to line up that day. You share your notes from Anthropology, and sketch him in the margins of your notebook on the days you can’t focus.

The patience of hybrids doesn’t often extend to their own kind, and Yuuji’s felt terribly lonely since his grandfather passed - what with his uncle not being much in the way of making conversation. But you’re easy to talk to.

“Ah, Itadori, can you come here?”  His tail wags a little at the acknowledgement, but if you notice you failed to comment. “Uh, yeah? What’d you want? I’m a little busy right now, so,” He smiles half-heartedly, suddenly a little uncomfortable to be seen with you like this. You move your stuff away from where you want him to sit at the table, and his eyes are acutely drawn to each movement of your hands. Gathering up runaway pencils, stacking textbooks. “You can call me Yuuji, by the way. I don’t mind.”

Your face lights up at that, and you tell him your name in kind. He tries it. Once for his pleasure. Again to make sure he got it right. He looks back down at the now emptied table, though he doesn’t go to take a seat.

Your lunch is sparse. Two pieces of bread with peanut butter and something else sandwiched in the middle. A browning apple eaten to the core. He thinks about mimicking the impressions of your teeth.

“Ah, well, I know we don’t talk and um - I’m still kinda new here and - please, you can sit,” Your hand fans out to gesture at the chair in front of you, and Yuuji settles into it uneasily. He can smell you’re afraid of something.

“Yuuji…” You tap your pencil on something he can’t see, draped over your thigh. “I.. wanted to draw you.” Yuuji tilts his head, finger absently reaching towards his chin. “Me?” “Yeah. It’s for an art assignment. We’re practicing portraits.” Your smile is disarmingly charming. “If it was okay with you, I wanted to see if… we could find some time to—y’know. Have you model for me.” Yuuji doesn’t let himself get excited so quickly, the hair on his forearm bristling a bit as he digs his nails into his thigh. Keep it from bouncing. “Okay. Yeah. Sure - that’s fine. I’d love to.” Yuuji sounds like he’s speaking through grit teeth, but his expression doesn’t expose anything other than slight apprehension. You sigh, a weight seemingly lifted off your shoulders. “Oh! Okay!” You try not to sound too happy about it, but a smile keeps weaseling onto your face. “Okay so, we’d have to book one of the art rooms, but that shouldn’t be too hard—nobody really lingers around after class. Lucky us, right?” You’re fishing your phone out of your pocket, and Yuuji nearly forgets to grab it with his unbloodied hand.

“Here. Add your number, take a photo if you’d like.” You’re teasing, but Yuuji never was good with sarcasm. He smiles big and wide for it, pointed teeth all in the front row. 

He saves his name as ‘Yuuji 😎’, and hands your tech back to you. You send a quick ‘hey’ to make sure you got the right number. When his pocket rumbles he’s off no later, barely waving goodbye as he leaves you to your own devices.  

You text out the details later. Tomorrow, at 7:00. 

He gets there at 6:56 on the dot. Campus has been largely deserted this time of day, and the few stragglers left, student and faculty, each flock to their club space or the odd, afterhour meeting. You’re all set up by the time he’s there. You’re well-prepared, graphites and eraser shavings finding a home on the floor around you. Sticks of pastels lie short and chipped on the easels mantle, your fingertips already blackened by charcoal. This wing is new to him, but the hallways look just like this rooms walls. Student made murals scaling taller than him, ferals unfurling across the unorthodox canvas; a magnificent sky. Ceramic busts settle atop storage cabinets; baked and glazed vases filled with paper flowers, tucked into empty corners. Paintings hung to dry. Thick ink stains as he sidesteps a rolling chalkboard, gently pushing it to the side.

You glanced up when the door opened, but it was more reflexive than comprehending. You saw him, then looked back at the canvas, focused. Only when he nearly stumbles do you look back up again, and you’re smiling really wide. You wave excitedly. “Hey Yuuji!” His ear twitches near imperceptably, tail high and wagging. “Hey.” He’s decent at acting, if you think he’s faking casual you don’t mention it, just gesture to the seat beside you. The chair you saved for him has tall legs and a strong, straight back; perfect for a model.

“Well, you can take this chair when you’re ready,” he’s taking a peak at the easel sat in front of you, identical setups matching yours haphazardly set up around a squat stage in the center of the room.

Your sketchpage: marked with vague gestures and dancing, people-like shapes. You’ve been practicing. You absently tug at your collar at the lack of distance between you two (forgot you were using charcoal, so you quickly stop) and a strange aura radiates from you, the smell of frayed nerves stinging his nose. His tail lulls in its movement, a tad disappointed you weren’t as comfortable with him as he thought you were.

“For a portrait, you being closer is ideal, so we don’t h..have to use the stage. I’ll just do my thing over here and… Oh! I brought some water and um, snacks.” You tilt your head in a familiar, curious motion, ”You like shrimp chips?” 

He shrugs at you and smiles. “They’re okay.” He’s flattered you considered him, mostly. He really did like that about you humans, such soft and compassionate creatures; moreso than any of the hybrids he knew. Where they-mournfully, himself included-took a unique pleasure in watching another squirm, your kind wasn’t like that at all, were they? Perhaps an underdeveloped survival mechanism. A tail to tuck in the presence of a predator’s bared fangs. Regardless, your grin crinkles the corners of your eyes and makes his heart soar, your anxiety easing out as you stand from your seat, revealing your true smell. Heat and sweet and pastry-light; a creme bruele after the top has been carefully cracked open. Tickles his cheeks pink.

“So, how long you been doing this art stuff for anyway?” You seem startled by the ask and pause before you answer, probably not used to being asked about your interests by the other hybrids. “Years now. E..ever since I was a kid I always liked art, drawing-” You curse as something rolls out of your bag and say sorry to nothing and no one. “Drawing, traditional, digitally. I was thinking about going into graphic design! - I’m still technically undecided, but I love art… It just calls to me, you know?” Oh, he has no fucking clue what you’re talking about. But he hums in the affirmative and reckons now’s a good a time as any to check. Take a peek through your lens and see the shape of your artisan mind. An artist’s sketchpad to him seemed the appropriate equivalent to their soul; so he takes the opportunity to flip through the pages on your drawing pad. 

He’s admittedly expecting something grander. Maybe the inside of an old world colosseum or perhaps something abstract and profound, the kind of things disheartened schoolchildren write essays about; A Great Wave or Thinking Man, befitting of the brand of mystery he’d superimposed on you. Nothing suitably miraculous happens. The task merely becomes more intimate by virtue of your artistic repertoire. Surely, not the fault of his plain nosiness.

All flesh upon the paper is laid entirely bare. Inscriptions of bodies wrap around the canvas from the top to the very bottom like the prayers in a holy book. Any free tarp is not spared, a bared torso and breast here, the sole of a foot en point over there. Largely unfinished yet tangible, beginnings and inbetweens and many more ends; scores of tails, teeth, tongue and claws. “Oh, wow.” You’re still digging through your bag so you don’t mind him, preoccupied second guessing kneaded erasers and rags to wipe your creativity off on.

To describe your work as a product of mere fascination would be a woefully inaccurate assessment. Not a proper acknowledgement of your time, effort, sweat, (more than a few smudges in the graphite, a whiff of salt that sticks out above the rest) and conviction. 

There’s quick notes scribbled between poses and observations, some names - none of which he immediately recognizes, but makes his head fog with some vague posessiveness regardless. Jealousy maybe. He doesn’t linger on it, instead flipping to the next page. Bodies more and more bodies, some without heads; long torsos; hips; thighs and legs and asses,

Lips, mouth wide open, teeth and tongue presenting. There’s a notable lack of vulgarity to the images. A seemingly clinical observation of how the parts move, some independent of the others; but when it all comes together…

It’s beautiful, truly. Yuuji is admittedly philistine in his artistic taste, never had a muse for it; but he finds himself wholly appreciative of the opportunity to become yours- even if it’s only for the evening. He can’t control the way his tail wags, heart pattering quicker in his chest as the excitement overrides his previously projected aloofness, his hands moving faster than his mind in that moment.

One more page wouldn’t hurt. (It’s just admiration he’d say, when the real reason he’s so riled up is because he’d been hoping for this moment; all his anxieties of pursuing you assuaged by your apparent obsession for him- er- hybrids like him—can’t get ahead of himself just yet—) His fingers move with deft purpose. 

You come back with a whole bag of stuff; chips, ramune, what smells like pocky, but he’s not looking towards you as you return. Surely, you think, a blank page can’t be that interesting, and you’re right; that’s not what he’s staring at. 

He’s found your page.

Your life drawing class encourages you to practice still lifes in your free time. There aren’t many hybrids tripping over themselves to be ogled by a human - some models even abject to posing in the room while you’re there - so when the opportunity presented itself to observe something more than a picture, someone else, removed from your wheedling peers, obviously you lept for it. 

You’d grown tired of drawing yourself.

“Ah, Yuuji-” Your inhale quick and sudden, the sharp clatter of a glass bottle twitching him out of his stupor. You stiffen up when he looks back at you despite his brevity (because he is just fascinated with your canvas all the sudden), your hands flapping anxiously as you step close, you’d collapse in on yourself if you had the option. “Um wait, please! That’s private!”

You are deeply gifted. He doesn’t have to stare it like he did the other ones cause he recognizes it as you so immediately. (Letting his eyes wander all those times seems to have payed off). Recognizes the arch and swell of your muscles, the slope of your back and the softness of the dimples in your hips, the gentle curve of your -

A hand darts over the artistic nudity before he can fully commit it to memory, and you shout: “Yuuji! I got the snacks, okay? Just- we can get started now,” He can’t read the expression on your face as you reset your canvas and flip to a blank page. He desperately tries to meet your eye; but your gaze is leagues away. An inkling of some base, carnal attraction blooms in his chest; your unwitting submission appealing to some feral hindbrain before he recalls your humanity, disappointingly gentle emotions and sensibilities. 

He feels sad for you after though it only lasts a moment, his tail drooping pathetically and eyes sagging similarly as the compunction grapples him; and in a frenzied moment of attempting to sooth your shame (smells dull and salty like wood grain) he gets a good idea. According to his standard, anyway. He smiles at you and pants a little. His finger is digging into his collar at an angle, tugging up; in demonstration.

“If you want me to get naked, I really wouldn’t mind!” His whip tail thud-thuds into your easel. “Excuse me?” You initially abject, dumbfounded. Your face feels warm and your skin tingles, the blood in your cheeks stinging it darker, body tensing up. “W-why would you..? I..I wouldn’t, you really shouldn’t. I-it’s a, well - Portraits are mostly sup..supposed to be your face, so, getting naked? Really not necessary,” 

He’s already taking his sweater off. “Yuuji, please.” His tail wags a little when you whimper and he has a mind to admonish himself for taking pleasure in such a thing.

“It’s fine, really!” Sounds so easy for him to say, when you’re on the verge of an aneurysm. “I was reading a little about it-” (and hardly did he ever read), “-and apparently, portraits can be half, or full bodies. Well, you’d probably know that better than me anyway.” His voice is dampened by the fabric, but you’re too dazed to notice he said anything. Everything is happening too fast.

He kicks off his shoes and drops trou in your choked silence, your hands tremble as dread wars in your mind and you remain uncertain of where to put them. Nevermind your eyes. The thought of trying to stop him warrs with the concept that having to touch him, see him, will surely kill you. “You seem to draw a lot of hybrids- so I assume you’re already used to seeing us naked? Though I didn’t see a lot of dogs in there…”

The room kicks up a few degrees and your blood simmers beneath your skin, your boundaries bent and bowed as you struggle to figure what happens next. Your shirt feels too, too tight. His is starting to come off. The slow drag of cotton across his body is amplified by the emptiness of the space, at a pace entirely too casual for an impromptu strip tease. “But there’s nothing wrong with trying something new every once in a while, y’know?”  He stumbles a little when it’s past his shoulders, self consciously fixing his hair after he’s gotten it slung over his arm. 

As if he has anything to be nervous about. He looks at you triumphantly when he’s finished (pants regretfully still on), and he wishes you couldn’t meet his eyes this time; get a good eyeful of how excited he is for you. In what must be respectful to you, you catch his gaze this time, with these big round prey eyes that makes the fur on the back of his arms bristle in the studio’s cool air. A vein in his throat jumps and his pupils dilate, but (too) soon you turn away.

You’ve seated yourself back on your chair and fixed up the workspace, though he has a hard time gauging this new expression on your face. Maybe apprehensive, again? Bashful? You chew your lip with this insistence, bruising the delicate skin there. Your hands move with opposed intention; flattening out the canvas and arming yourself with graphite.  “O-kay. Y..you can.. Make yourself comfortable I guess..” He can still smell you, too.

This scent is new. Near cloying and knitting to the inside of his nose as it pours off of you, slight, topping off that twinge of orange peel and grapefruit. 

“Okay!” He brusquely shoves past your apprehensions; looking mighty pleased with himself-the dog-the muse’s chair dragging agonizingly against the floor as he goes to set it in place. You do nothing at first. He is seated within seconds and after your hand suddenly is no longer your own, flexed potential in every muscle put to pause in the air, your brows furrowing in newfound frustration.

You don’t look at him, still. Yuuji’s triumph of domination having past, he finds the selfish desire to be observed and admired comes gnawing back to him. He doesn’t want to push you (so he says while shoving you) but he really is going all out. He’d like some of that signature human hospitality back, pretty please? He leans closer. 

You get infinitely stiffer and he whimpers. An honest to god beaten doggy whine, and your shock is what finally gets you to look up. He’s far more relaxed than you at present, pouting expression at odds with his slouched posture and occasional pant. His floppy ears tilt open and he momentarily mirrors your wide-eyed wonder. “Finally,” he chirps. ”I was starting to think we weren’t actually friends!” You scoff, still staring saucer-eyed. Your eyebrows go up and down and up, your forehead wrinkles. “You ge-get naked for all your f..friends?” The incredulous twang to your voice wants to read to him like jealousy, but projection is a fickle thing.

Yuuji  genuinely thinks about your question, further astounding you. “Well. I guess only for the ones I really like.” The statement is made sincerely, the smile accompanying it darling, and could have perhaps romanticized the situation had you not been a sane-minded human man. The warmth in your face has turned to fire hot heat and you sputter on your words. “I’m fl..flattered. But humans? Don’t do t..this,” you attempt to gesture to the entire situation, “With their friends! This is, frankly, too, too-” You stutter into nothing, the thought dying on your tongue. “Too what? I mean, you don’t smell like you hate it,” he sniffs. “My nose is pretty good! If you-” you dislike the way he stresses the syllable, like you’re special some how, “-were scared, I’d smell that miles away. You have a very strong scent you know? It’s not a bad thing though, don’t worry! At least, it isn’t for me anyway. It makes you feel more.. Genuine.” He hums matter-of-factly, your pencil beginning to tremble above the page. “But aren..aren’t you cold? Or-or something? It’s always freezing-freezing in here!” Yuuji shrugs, ”Aw, it’s no worries really. I sorta run hot, so,”

You knew a lot of things about hybrids. About their keen noses, most gifted with perceptive capabilities beyond that of your kind. Still it feels no better to hear that for despite your subtlety, you never had a chance to evade their prying eyes. You sigh with a shake of your shoulders, and Yuuji takes your silence as an excuse to move closer. “Hey, don’t worry. What’d I say about new things?” You don’t feel terribly reassured, but you nod along for your own sake. “You got an assignment due, don’t you? Just focus on that. Forget Yuuji, focus on capturing..” “The form.” You finish. Yuuji would have said ‘these guns’, but shrugs. “Yeah, that.”

You look at him again, but only now do you truly perceive him, resigned yourself to capturing his image and replacing the blankness on your canvas. Your gaze is sharp and surgical, your pencil connecting with the paper as you change focus between him and it. Him, his infuriatingly cheeky grin and easy-going eyes and loose limbs. This body worthy of envy. Laid bare for you to wrangle and tame, reduce to your second dimension.

You begin to draw.

Yuuji sits in a silence punctuated by the sounds of your scribbles. Upwards stroke, down again; quick curving motions. Stare right at him, into the depths of his soul. Turn away, and sketch some more.

It’s a lot more boring than he’d imagined it. He is very excited you have your eyes on him; don’t get him wrong, but your stare doesn’t possess any of the fullbodied fascination, like he has for you. He almost wished he could give you his nose just so you could smell his pheremones, or his eyes, so you could catch every little jump of his muscles or twitch of the tail. He’d refrain for a few selfish reasons; Your changes in mood. The straightening of your spine and the twitching of your eye after you got a rhythm going. You ditch the graphite, go for the charcoal, and make some bigger shapes, Strikes some fine lines. Stillness comes simply to him, studying you as intently as you are him. 

Your movements slow to an inevitable stop after a time, “Okay…” You stare stonily at your canvas. Briefly compare in silence. “I… think I’m finished.” You don’t move away, seemingly taken by your own creation.

He shoots up from his seat and moves close. “You’re no..not gonna put your c..clothes back on?” He looks down at you with his head at an angle, suddenly peered over your shoulder. “You want me to?” Your silence is loud. “Okay then.” He smiles, finally taking a look at your drawing.

The expression you gave him is burrowing and severe. An intense glower that catches even him off guard. An unbidden hunger beneath his eyes accentuated by whisps of charcoal, a pinprick of yellow nestled into his irises. He is in both awe of it and horrified that is how you saw him. How he truly was. You define the slant of his collarbones after the fact, rounding out the muscle of his pecs. You sketch and erase, sketch and erase under his curious eye, sketch. Your palette grows. Swirled into colorless grey by your finger, pencil replaced by your finger. You draw without a model, so he no longer sees the point in teasing you with his nudity. Forgive him for expecting something more dramatic- he’s been reading too much manga, surely…

He gets dressed slow and gets as close as possible to your face whenever he has a question. 

“Is art always this boring?” He whispers close to your ear and you shiver. “M..maybe if you’re not the one…the one drawing. This.. I-I’m having fun, actually.” He tuts at you, “You need to teach me how to draw then. Next time when we do this, I can take a crack at drawing you!” His clawed finger crawls down your shoulder, you sweat a little under his attentions. 

“Y..yeah,” you swallow. “Maybe..” He smiles cooly as he eases back into the seat opposite you. “I just don’t think it’s fair you get to have the fun all to yourself, y’know?” You shoot him a look, lip pursed. “A-a lot more people would be more … excited about getting a free portrait.”

“Well, a lot more people would be more excited about getting to see me half naked.” Practically naked, to be a precise as possible. Your exasperation beats out your nervousness and you’re no longer afraid to set your brows with attitude, scoffing in irritation. Like he knows how you feel. The sheer restraint you’re exercising. How adamantly you will not allow this to get out of hand; you will not allow yourself to do something you'll regret- “G..get them to draw you, then!”

“Nah.” He drags his chair closer, but it’s not casual like before. Now the oxygen feels stuffier. Hotness that makes the air thicken and drag you down, a heat that blazes too close to your ears and seemingly makes the air tremble before you. You look toward him, not knowing what to expect (but twitching, aching for it). 

His tongue runs over his canines in a raw, animalistic fashion, the deep pools of his amber eyes threatening to drown you beneath their surface. “I don’t like them nearly as much.”

all content written by me @pervcoded is owned by me, and you are not allowed to repost or translate my works. don't put my shit into ai generators, don't steal my shit and put it on wattpad. thank you.

[redslug]

Denoiser wisdom

Since a lot of people showed interest in my workflow of using SD like a renderer for existing sketches, I'll be sharing the little tricks I find while exploring the capabilities of SD with Neuroslug. Read the inpainting post to understand this one. When inpainting, the model takes into consideration what is already in the area it regenerates and in the areas around it. How exactly it'll follow these guidelines is determined by denoising strength. At low values it'll stick closely to the areas of color it sees and won't create anything radically different from the base. At high denoising strength it'll gladly insert colors, shapes and silhouettes that weren't there originally. Basically the more you trust your sketch the smaller your denoising strength should be. It doesn't mean you won't need the high denoising at some point. Let me explain it using yesterday's artwork. It all starts with a rough sketch.

Since I have a particular composition in mind and want it to be maintained, I'll be using a low denoising strength to fully regenerate this image.

It means that the algorithm won't have enough freedom to fix my large-scale mistakes, it's simply not allowed to change the areas of color too dramatically. So if you want to do this yourself make sure to set the image to black and white first and check that your values are working and contrast is good.

To make sure the result isn't too cartoony and flat I used brushes with strong color jitter and threw a rather aggressive noise texture over the whole thing. This'll give the denoiser a little wiggle room to sprout details out of thin air.

It kept the composition, the suggested lighting and the majority of flowers kept their intended colors too. This was denoising strength 0f 0.4. To contrast that, same base image with denoising at 0.7:

It's pretty, but it's neither the style nor composition I wanted. Let's refine the newly redrawn base to include the details that were lost in transition. These were intended to be roses.

It's here where I learned a little trick. You can mix and match different models to achieve the look you desire. Neuroslug is good at detailed moths and painterly environments. It's not good at spitting out really detailed flowers, they end up looking very impressionist which is not what I want in foreground. So, I switched to an anime focused model and let it run wild on this bush with high (0.7) denoising strength.

Nice definition, but it looks too smooth and isn't in line with what I want. Switching back to Neuroslug with denoising at 0.5 and letting it work over these roses.

This way, I get both the silhouette and contrast of the anime model (counterfeitV30) and the matching style of Neuroslug. It's also useful in cases where the model doesn't know a particular flower. You can generate an abstract flower cluster with the anime model and use the base model to remind the AI that what you want is in fact a phlox specifically. So I did this to basically every flower cluster on the image to arrive at this:

It's still a bit of a mess but it has taken me about 80% of the way there, the rest I'll be fixing up myself.

My "Lazy Foliage" brush set was really helpful for this. I'll release that one once it accumulates enough brushes to be really versatile. Now we block in the character.

Yes, I left the hands wonky since I intend to be drawing them manually later, same about the foot. There's so much opportunity for the AI to mess them up that I'd rather have all the control on these details.

When it renders the face it can really mess up everything, so I do it with low (0.45) denoising strength to discourage new eyes popping up in inappropriate places. Take note that I kept the antennae out of the mask. AI is easily confused when one subject overlaps the other.

Good, good. Wait. Why are your eyes hairy? Now, mask out the eyes, remove all mention of fur from the prompt and

That's about right. Since the eyes are all one color block I can afford to raise the denoising strength for more wild results. Same for areas of just fluff on the entire body, it's all one texture and having the denoiser at 0.6-0.75 is beneficial because it's going to add locks, stray hairs and other fluffy goodness. Just make sure to not make the mask too tight to the silhouette, it needs some space to add hairs sticking out.

With the skirt it was back to really low denoising. The folds I blocked in make sense with the position oh her legs under it, so I didn't want it to be lost.

Lastly, I drew in a flower that she's planting and ran over it with moderately high denoising to make it match the surrounding style. Ignore the biblically accurate roots there, I'll fix them by hand.

One last pass over the whole thing in Procreate. I draw the hands and add details such as the round pseudopupils, face ridges and wing markings to keep the character consistent with the previous image of her. And a bit of focal blur for a feeling of depth. Phew, even with generous use of AI this whole thing took an entire day of work. In the end what determines quality isn't the tool you use but the attention you choose to pay to finding inconsistencies and fixing them.

[fallenclan]

Related to FallenClan designs! All your designs are super amazing, what’s your simplifying process/how do you decide design for cat pelts? Cause I always struggle with simplifying/deciding how they look especially bengals and cats with white patches… thanks if you respond!

I’m ADHD and struggle with consistency and simplifying lol, though more complex designs are pretty, I lean more towards what you do w/ you’re cats as they are simple but still super pretty + it makes it easier to consistently draw them all for stuff like this! (These comic like moon updates :])

(Also hope none of this came off as offensive, it’s all meant positively! I really really admire you and your designs :])

ty for the compliments!!! very sweet ask and I shall do my best to give a good response o7

generally my method with designing characters/drawing is to just wing it. fuck it we ball basically. but i DO take a lot of inspiration from other people's warriors art, taking the time to analyze what i like about their styles and what different sorts of patterns i can use

(i also regularly consult the Clangen Sprite Guide for better looks at white patches/tortie patterns and such, highly recommend)

the first thing i decide when i'm designing a new cat is what fur texture i want them to have. i have four that I pick from (pictured below, in order), wavy, spiky, curly, and square.

i decide the fur pattern based on the cat's personality (a more stoic cat might have square fur, while someone more bubbly might have curly, or someone more excitable have spiky, so on and so on), and also based on their parents/how many cats i've designed with that fur pattern recently.

after that is snout shape, which is probably my favorite part. i love to draw cats with a very pronounced snout, not unlike an oriental shorthair, but i generally slide around between that and a more typical, stubby snout, occasionally veering off into the very square snout of a maine coon. this is also a great spot to determine how sharp you want their jaw to be, which is something that can really help set a design apart! (a couple of snout examples below)

then i usually move onto colors. i like to pick an undertone for the cat first, so i know what sort of pallate to work with. as you can see in the pictures below, ravenstar has a purple/blue undertone, and toadbelly has orange/red undertones

this helps me make all the colors look nicer together, so i don't end up doing something like making a very warm colored cat with blue-toned white patches (which would make the white patches look super cold/too bright), which can be a really cool stylistic choice, but isnt what i tend to go for

once i've drawn out the cats fur shape and picked my colors, i'll move onto the base coat. over my time of having the fallenclan blog i've discovered that having a very simple pattern underneath the normal pattern can add a lot of visual interest to a cat, and make them look less plain.

here's a good example! one of the first cats i designed, oaktuft. their pattern was super basic--one base color, plus the inside of the ears, and then the color of their patterns.

and here's another cat that i designed a little more recently--Shiverspots! you can see that even just the small change of adding a bit of a lighter color to her underbelly made a world off difference. plus my style got a lot more defined lol

i have a couple of different base patterns that i use. here's a few more examples. i've even started to experiment with more than two colors!

once i've got the base done i move onto patterns. this part can definitely be tricky; trying to make a dozen brown tabbies with short fur be distinct can be . a challenge. i like to follow the steps of what i've already designed--a cat with spiky fur might have very sharp, angular stripes, and a cat with curly fur might have much rounder ones.

i think a good rule of thumb for if your pattern feels a little too basic is just to throw some more colors in there. another shade of orange, a more pale tint to some of them, whatever. and don't be afraid to erase it and start again! sometimes a design just won't work, and thats fine :)

the final thing i do is to add little design quirks. a particularly sharp jawline, downturned eyes, a crooked smile or a gap tooth, whatever! little things can really give your cats character.

i really hope that this helped!!!

[miss0atae]

BL fashion in Jack & Joker: U Steal My Heart (EP 5):

The best part of the week when it comes to BL fashion is when you get a new episode of Jack and Joker. The characters in this series are the best dressed (for me, of course).

Let's start with Jack. I said it before and I'm going to say it again, but Jack really has found his style since he has been working towards repaying his debts to the Boss. He is mostly wearing a blue, black, white color palette of outfits and it works really well. I feel his range goes from smart casual to formal. This blue shirt is doing wonders to him. It may seem minimalist, but it's always stylish.

As for Hope, I feel he was more into colors in this episodes. We were used to seeing him in black to black outfits, but it was a nice change to see him wearing more colors. If you know me, you know I love printed and colorful shirts. The first pictures make it seem like he is wearing a baseball jersey over a white tee. It creates a nice contrasts with the black pants and the white creeper shoes is wearing with this outfit is bringing a touch of rock flair. In the second picture, Hope opted for a Hawaiian shirt. He rocked them with a light blue jean and again with his white creeper shoes (definitely his statement piece) which gave more of an urban feel.

Next we get Arun and he is very fashionable too. I'm a bit sad he changed his outfit between the time they captured Tattoo and Hoy. That's because the lace laser cut beige dress over a sequin top was a very bold and audacious choice. It's like he was wearing an over-the-top outfit to attract Tattoo and then he decided to go for the a more casual version of his outfit after he got what he wanted. I like the beige lightweight cardigan over the black top. The ripped jean and the silver necklace are there to enhance his outfit by adding personality and texture. I would say Arun is good at gender fluid styling as he is blending traditionally fashion elements and express himself beyond the binary. The second picture doesn't give justice to the nice black button vest he is wearing. I think the back of the vest is with lace. Simple, but visually appealing. The bruise on his face and this outfit gives a bad boyish air to Arun.

I really like also what Arun, Hope and Jack were wearing at the auction. It was mostly black and white formal outfits, but they all choose a different style that represent them a lot. You can see their personality through the choice of their outfits. Hope preferred an all-black outfit with a band collar. It gives the wearer the chance to dress down while maintaining an air of elegance. Arun has to play a rich guy so he choose to wear a fur collar jacket to give the impression of sophistication. As for Jack, he preferred a classic tuxedo with bow tie. It is according to his taste and you can never go wrong at a formal event with it.

[toychest321]

L.U.V. Dolls - Initial thoughts

(Special thanks to @dollsinvogue for notifying me about these and clarifying their names! And credit to youloveit.com for most of the info I'll be going over)

For anyone not in the know, the creators of Glo Up Girls are releasing a new doll line named L.U.V. (Limitless, Unique, Vibrant) Dolls, coming May 1, 2024

The most notable aspect of this release is the fact that the dolls' outfits were displayed at New York Fashion Week!

To add onto the line's central high fashion aesthetic, the dolls' boxes (from what we've seen) are made to resemble magazine covers

Already I'm giving them major props for such a bold choice in marketing!

I also admire how while the brand has a clear theme (with bold prints and ruffles in particular being a running motif throughout designs), most of the characters have styles that speak well to their individual personalities! It makes me want the line to succeed so we can see the second outfits in doll form as well, and speaking of which...

The first design we have is for the character Harper. I absolutely ADORE both of her looks here, I'm guessing she'll have a very soft and sweet personality between the use of light colors, lace, and puffed sleeves! I'm also detecting some slight 1950s inspo with the a-line silhouettes, sinched waists, polka dots, and large collar! I also really hope the dolls come with the purses shown! Easily an 8/10 design here.

This character Londynn's designs are probably my second favorite, and another good example of consistent characterization! The hot pink pops without distracting from the bold prints on display, and the use of colors like black, brown, white, and beige tie them all together! I'm also wondering if this character might be an adventuring type between the animal motifs (fur on the first coat and a pale pink zebra print on the second jacket) and knee-high tan boots. While the doll's style doesn't look to be exactly for me, I appreciate the thought put behind it! Also I'm giving a bonus point for giving the doll textured hair as well, 7.5/10.

In third we have Brooke, and I find I'm somewhat conflicted with these designs? Both of these respective designs are fairly well-executed imo, but I'm not sure they give off the same character. The left honestly kinda reminds me of Karma Nichols but slightly edgier with the sleek material and black accents. The right, meanwhile, gives me girlboss vibes. I will give it that they were able to make a professional look without being too boring (side-eyeing Barbie Style rn), by adding the ruffles at the jacket and pants for a unique silhouette. Maybe the inconsistency in style is for a day-to-night look? Honestly the only thing I'd change are the puffed sleeves on the first designs. Overall I'd say this is a solid 7/10.

And lastly we have Autumn's looks, and honestly? I kinda hate it. The first look is decent, but sorta comes across as too similar to the first two's outfits between the pale tones and the pink? That second look though is atrocious. The skirt looks like a puffer jacket and doesn't match at all with the pattern, and asymmetrical sleeves have always been a pet peeve of mine. It's a Barbie Extra look, in a bad way. 5.5/10

Despite my negative thoughts towards the end, I have high hopes for this line! With Rainbow High abandoning its High Fashion aesthetic for an uglier child-friendly sparkle rainbow slime vibe, I feel like these dolls could take up the hole it's leaving behind if they play their cards right!

I look forward to what this line has to bring!

[sleepytoycollection]

Funko FNAF 13.5in Freddy Figure Review

Saw this bad boy at target's and made an impulse decision. 😎 The retail price is $32.99, but thanks to a target circle coupon I got him for $25, which ain't half bad.

So for the hell of it, here's my review of the 13.5in Freddy Fazbear doll.

Currently there are only two characters available, Freddy and Bonnie. I hope they make make a Chica and Foxy in this size as well, as it'd be cool to have the main four as a set.

Box art is pretty simple, and kinda bland, mostly recycling game images.

The inside box art is just the office from Fnaf 2, which is not the game this version of Freddy appears in. The Freddy on the front of the box is the wrong version too; I'm not sure why Funko always wants to use Fnaf 2 images on the merch. This isn't the only time they've done this.

Here's the big guy out of the box. He's pretty solid, and has a good weight to him.

His mike is his only accessory, and the hat isn't removable. It had a tough time getting him to hold the mike, as he doesn't have enough space in his paw for it. The mike itself is hollow, and I had to squish it in. You can tell it's squished too, and it bothers me.

He's technically got 14 pts of articulation, a ball joint at his neck, joints at shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles, and even his jaw moves! But good luck getting him posed because those joints were SUPER stiff. It felt like, well, wrestling a bear heh.

I wasn't sure they were supposed to move at first, but I looked at another review and yes, they are.

Also, many of them don't go super far anyway. I don't mind too much as I don't expect an anamatronic to have a full range of movements, and it's enough to give him some personality when taking photos.

But they are wayyyyy too stiff. If they were a struggle for me, I imagine a kid would really be having a hard time getting him to move.

Here's a Midge for scale.

Freddy's the perfect size to fit in with the dollies, which is the main reason I wanted him. It's just so fun to combine my interests.

Speaking of combinations, here's big Fred with lil' Fred.

As you can see, it's pretty much the same sculpt, just enlarged. Looking at them together, I wish they had altered the fur texture a little for big Fred. It looks kinda off at this scale, like he has the texture of an orange instead of fleece.

Also, little Freddy has much more accurate coloring and better detailed paint. Might give big Fred a good black wash and dry brushing to match.

...But at least big Fred doesn't fall apart.

My lil' Fred is from the first wave of figures, and he is constantly falling to pieces whenever I handle him. I don't know if Funko ever fixed this issue with later figures, but I don't often handle them because of this.

So what's the verdict?

I like him a lot actually. There are a few annoyances, but this is exactly the kind of figure I really wanted at the height of my 2015-17 Fnaf phase. Plus he's super sturdy, mostly game accurate, and I bet a lot of kids will want him and Bonnie for Christmas.

Hopefully we'll get Chica and Foxy in this size too, maybe even Springtrap.

[play-on-skinners-box]

Others have already been furrying the Raincode characters and doing a phenomenal job, but when I would peruse Danganrompa fanart I really liked seeing different and wildly varying interpretations for the characters' animal choices and now it is my turn, my GOD GIVEN DUTY TO PROVIDE IN THE GENISIS OF THE RAINCODE FANDOM, FOR THE HONOR OF THOSE WHO HAVE COME BEFORE ME.

For all of them I used their pose from the artbook renders. I'll say it's to keep them recognizable but that is actually a lie I'm just lazy.

Secretary Bird Halara:

Halara I did first and they were the one I was most jazzed to do because I love them dearly. I made them a secretary bird and I think it's a PERFECT fit. Ahem allow me to rattle off. Secretary birds are birds, so doomed by the narrative to have to stay away from cats, they are predatory birds and of course Halara would be at the top of the food chain. Speaking of predetory birds, secretary birds are known for their ability TO KICK VENOUMOUS SNAKES TO DEATH, AND THATS JUST TOO GOOD A FIT. They also have plumage that I could easily shape into Halara's kinda smooth swoopy hairstyle, and face markings that could be sort of representative of their glasses! I think the drawing for them is probably the weakest out of the group just because as I went along I improved and started to translate the human designs in less one to one ways, plus the pose Halara has in the artbook doesn't fit perfectly to the really big wing hand things. I still enjoyed making it because H A L A R A N I G H T M A R E but I'm honestly kinda sad at how lackluster it is compared to Fubuki and Viva who got the most interesting details and texture work. NEVER DO YOUR FAVORITE FIRST IT'S A TRAP.

Guinea Pig Desuhiko:

With Desuhiko I was going back and fourth between a few rodents, I just think he kinda looks like one and already had those pikachu cheeks. My first scetch made him a hamster, and while it DID look like him, it felt a little too... Indistinct. Desuhiko's probably my favorite design in the cast just because he looks so distinctive and has a short stocky bodytype I really really love and makes my character designer brain happy, so I swapped hamster for guinea pig. While the guinea pig face doesn't look like him quite as much as the hamster, they are very interesting and distinctive looking which I loved a lot more even with a bit of accuracy sacrificed if that makes sense. Also there are Guinea pigs with spikey wild fur that make it so I could just kinda give him his actual hair and still have it make sense. Guinea pigs are also the perfect size and shape to be thrown like a large softball and out of all the Master Detectives Desuhiko looks like he'd be the most sadisfying to chuck across a room.

Fish Fubuki:

Fubuki was really hard just because it's difficult to anthropomorphize a fish in the same way as a mammal or a avian cause of their structure. She might look a biitttt more like a fantasy creature inspired by a fish than just a fish but she's charming enough I don't completely mind. I got some SOLID advice and looked at some Splatoon NPCs characteristics to try and make her more appealing. So why fish? I got it as a suggestion that I ended up really liking because fish are notorious for their bad memory, live in tanks their whole lives(Fubuki is the definition of sheltered), and they have fins to mimic the shape of Fubukis cloak and hair. I used beta fish for reference, they don't really fit her but just being a fish was good enough for me and at that point I was prioritizing looks. She doesn't even really look like any specific species like the other three to be honest. She's defiantly the outlier of the group but that's fine, she can be special in her own unique way like always. Got a little lazy with making the hair look all that fin-like, but it's kinda the main event of her human design so I wanted to keep it as true to that as possible but looking at it now I think its tooooo copy and paste looking. Her furry design IS my brothers favorite out of the batch so that's gotta count for something!

Flying Fox Bat Vivia:

The vampire looking man was always gonna be a bat, I am but a slave to the whims of fate. I made him specifically a flying fox because they're the largest bat species and therefore can loom ominously. Vampire bat would have been fun too, but they have more of a squished bastard energy that doesn't really fit Vivia. Bats also are known for their weird sleeping habits, ala upside. Viva isn't sleeping upside down or anything like that but he DOES snooze in some weird places so I think comparing him to a bat in multiple aspects is very apt! His drawing and animal design is probably my favorite, I really like the wings, and the bat feet are super weird I loved doing those. I did have trouble incorperating his hair, flying foxes have pretty smooth heads, but they do have sort of a mane thing going on so I tried to put some of his hair texture and shape there instead. Sorry I did not give him is edgy edgy hair cut, I too love it very much but it was simply not to be. I did try to mimic it's vibe with the patterning on his head though, an illusion of his bangs.

I'm very happy with this lineup overall, they're some neat little designs if I do say so myself! I might do more but I have the chronic problem of not being able to sit still for a long time to do a BUNTCH of guys again(though for the record I would make Seth the most delightfully storm drain gutter looking creature). I also kinda wanna do Makoto and Yuma cause someone suggested a REALLY good idea for them, but the concept for Makoto with this idea would be more of an involved design that I wouldn't be able to use all of his normal outfit for so it'd probably take longer than average.

TLDR: Furries amiright?

[yearningaces]

hello, hope you're doing well <3 idk if requests are open rn, but- i've been having a hard time with my disability cause of the cold and was wondering if you could write any of your characters (or a new friend!!) giving a disabled reader comfort during a tough time? particularly regarding chronic pain and joint issues?

lots of love 🤍

I specifically want to write this so badly because of my own joint issues (in my early 20's no less) and I love these topics cause there's never enough of them it seemes

As disclaimer I don't have chronic pain so if I portray anything in a way that's not realistic please point it out so I can do better by folks who deal with this. This goes for any time I write about any disability

And you get a new friend entirely, specifically while thinking of the best kind of partner to help with chronic pain I had an idea and I hope you don't mind that I'm using my own monster creation for this, but I really wanted a chance to talk about him regardless

It was already overwhelming by the time you woke up mid-morning to see the sun shining far too brightly into your room.

Your body ached, your joints strained, it was going to be a bitch of a day.

It took time to get up and move, briefly you'd wondered what sort of level you'd be riding on today, and by extension what mobility aid you'd need to use.

For now though, something to drink and something for pain. By the time you made it to the apothecary cabinet, you were ready to sit on the floor and take a few minutes of rest... The cold certainly wasn't helping and today was a really bad day.

"Hearth of my home, are you awake?" Vydon's voice rings out from the back door as he enters the kitchen, no doubt having gone out to the forest for the early morning to hunt. His voice hissing and clicking with bone against bone as the exposed skull of the nightstalker spoke in layered tones.

The nightmarish form of a prey species turned predator rounded the corner, pointed hooves clopping and his skeletal snout peered around the corner of the kitchen, turning to face you. Vydon's white glowing eyes peered at you as he moved on all fours before easily swapping to standing on his hind legs, looming straight down over you as he shifted closer. His antlers had fallen off apparently, shedding season had finally arrived. "My warmth in the cold, why are you seated upon this floor?" His voice was attempting some form of soft tones despite the natural hiss to his words.

"Can't get up." Your response has him lowering himself further, taloned hands slowly hovering over your shoulders, ready to lift you up.

"Bad day?" His jaw clicks a few times as he speaks, listening intently.

"Shit day." You reiterate, "Cold doesn't help, I just want something to knock me out for a bit at least so I don't have to deal with my body's revolt." You nod to the cabinet you had opened to rifle through the various medicines inside.

Vydon drops his skeletal snout, swinging is slowly side to side as his tail sways behind him slowly. "On an empty stomach no doubt... May I lift you, my light?" The gray fur and bone covered creature questions, hands hovering closer to you.

"I don't know..." He'd learned the places you ache the worst and how to carry you to avoid disturbing those spots further but today wasn't just a few spots, everything just hurt.

Vydon clicked his jaw lightly, ears flicking slightly as he debated something. "Then rest here momentarily. I will bring you something to drink, and rest upon until you feel you are ready to move."

The nightstalker nodded his head and with a garbled rumble, turned to the main kitchen, yet his ears remained pointed back towards you, listening still.

He returned after a moment, laying a cushion beside you as close as he could and offering a mug of something warm enough to heat your insides but cold enough not to burn so you could take your pain meds. "Now, this first then I can make something simple to eat. Something of soft texture and warm... Pancakes perhaps? Or grits?"

You listened to him ponder as you sipped on what turned out to be apple cider. Having taken your meds and the toasty feeling of a warm drink not erasing your pain, but soothing it somewhat. The cushion was nice too. Without noticing Vydon's tail circling around you, a light wool blanket was deposited onto your shoulders as well while he spoke, trying to rid you of your aching chill.

"-y dear, did you hear me?" Vydon's voice calls out in a soft hiss as he lowered himself to be eye level with your seated form.

His words bring you back to attention and make you shake your head, "spacing out, nothing to worry about." You don't want to bother him right now.

He clicks his jaw at your words. "Funnily enough, I was saying you need not act as though you are fine, that you can manage and handle this alone, that I shouldn't worry." Vydon slowly settled on his haunches as he watches you. "I hold the privilege of worrying for you, as it means you trust me to do right by you when you are in need of any assistance."

"I'm a burden." You respond calmly, it's not entirely upsetting to you, it just is.

"yes, you are." He agreed... That's what catches you off guard. Yet he continues with such affection in his tone. "Everyone is a burden at one point or another, I have been to you a monumental amount of times. You spent so long learning how to cook food that we both could safely eat. As I am a being of raw meat, and you a human who could so easily be harmed by certain types of raw food, it was a challenge for you to learn how to feed a carnivorous creature like myself." His skeletal muzzle lowers to gingerly press against the side of your arm, not risking anything else until he knew you wouldn't be uncomfortable from his actions.

"My antlers fall off in bloody heeps and each spring when they regrow the velvet falls off in fleshy bloody strands that you so often aid me with despite my objections as I know it's a messy bloody burden, but you do so because you love me, you don't love me despite such things. They are a part of me that you love, inconvenience and all." His tail slowly shifts across the floor to circle around you without touching you.

"And as such, I do not love you in spite of your ailments. Why, I wished they did not harm you so, and if I could I'd fight your illnesses one by one, but as they exist it is another part of you I will care for as you are you. I will love you through it all."

You take a moment, listening to his jumbled words. He's trying his best that's for certain, and when his taloned hand carefully holds out a heated water bottle placed into the plush bear it's made for, you take the warm item and hold it in your hands with a nod. "I guess that makes sense. Most folks would say I'm not a burden though if I said I was."

"that would be as if I lied about being a burden to you when hunting season returns and you have to find me covered in blood and hose me down. I will not lie to you, but I will never not love you either."

What is there to do other than to agree? You both sit silently for a few minutes, Vydon seems completely relaxed and at peace waiting for you to feel up to moving back to bed so he can bring you breakfast as well.

Eventually you hold a hand out to him, your body still aches, but the bed will be more comfortable than here, and with how carefully the night stalker takes your hand, you know he'll help as much as he can.

Sometimes that's enough

[akaiitori]

Attack Dog - Rendering Breakdown

OK here's an attempt at explaining how I go with illustrations. This isn't necessarily an 'effective' way to paint, but rather it's a process to maximize my personal enjoyment. I encourage you to do the same! Find those steps you have the most fun with, and exploit the hell out of them.

For this post, I'll be going step-by-step for this illustration

1- Sketching

A Mess. I don't like making lineart unless I'm super in the mood for it. In this case, I couldn't be bothered to spend a lot of time in the sketch. I often use 3D models as a base for paintings because, if I'm making a painting I only want to paint, not to stress out on anatomy.

2- Blocking values

I only start painting with colour if I'm certain about what I want to do. In this case, I wasn't. When it comes to visual information, values (light and shadow) are more important than colour, so it's easier to block those out first than trying to improve the values in an already coloured piece.

This is a very insightful video if you want to see if a greyscale-first process could be useful for you. Marco Bucci's content in general is a treasure.

Here's a link to the head model used for light reference

3- Paintinggg hell yeah babyyyyy

Not much to say here except, look at a lot of reference. I only limit my canvas to one or two reference pics to not get it super crowded, but I'll always have more pictures open on my browser, tablet, etc.

There's this little app you can use to compile reference pics. I don't use it because the act of opening it is too much work for me but, it's a neat tool.

The main brushes I use for rendering are the following:

Regular round brush with pen-pressure opacity.

Custom triangle brush. It's just a triangle with some texture layered on.

Clip Studio Paint's textured paint. Unmodified.

Custom square brush. Same as the triangle, but it's a square.

Clip Studio Paint's gouache brush. Unmodified. Good for blending.

"Fur block-in" from this pack. Excellent for blocking in feathers.

"triple line" from this pack. Very good for adding texture.

You don't need this many brushes, but I like the variety to keep things interesting. I'd say that only #1, #2 and #7 are essential to me.

A quick trick I used for the muzzle was to make the wires with a white brush, on a layer with border effect.

I considered explaining how to shade feathers here but, it was making this post a little too long. Even more than it already is. But, let me know if a guide on drawing feathers is something you'd be interested in seeing!

4- Colours

For this one I kept it simple. I liked the values and I wanted to have a very stark contrast with the red blood. I made some quick tests with gradient maps trying out different palettes, using gradient maps and overlay layers.

While I enjoyed #1, at the end I went with #5 as it worked better narratively. The clinical white and silvery shadows give a stoic indifference to the blood, which fits with Blackbird's character.

The muzzle and situation on itself aren't a canon event happening, so it also felt more fitting to keep a more stylized 'colouring' rather than actually putting in the character's colours and scene. For this colouring, I only used a single gradient map, but it's not rare if I end up using several, placing masks for areas of different colours.

When it comes to colouring greyscales in character colours I follow a different process, for which I'll use another illustration as an example.

(this is Loketh, he belongs to my partner)

So, for this drawing I also started with a grayscale, but started adding colour in much earlier.

1- Black and white base render

2- New layer with a flat colour, put it on overlay. This will serve as a base for colouring, kinda like glazing on a canvas for a traditional painting

3- Adding character colours, in a new layer on overlay mode. You can do this in a single layer, or make new layers for each new colour. Just keep it loose, no need to add all detail yet.

4- Colouring the shadows. I used a gradient map adjustement layer, set to overlay. Made the lights green, and the shadows purple.

5- Flatten and paint! Now this is the step to add all intricate colour details missing from step 3.

5- Post-Processing

This is a term more used in 3D renders, where it refers to colour corrections and final tweaks. Things like adding depth of field, motion blur, vignette, any final filter.

For almost all my art I'll add a grainy noise layer and chromatic aberration, I just think it looks neat. You can also add paper textures or flat colours on top of you image and set that layer to overlay, it helps to tie everything together.

AND THAT'S ITTT

I hope this was useful, and remember to just have fun with it :)

Further reading:

Marco Bucci's youtube account

Jason Rainville's blog with breakdowns of his illustrations

Sinix Design's video on colouring skin

Anatomy For Sculptor's 3D models for muscle reference (cw nudity)

[crochetedblorbos]

"Look, she's well steep."

Character Name: Montgomery “Three-Card Monty” Barker

Fandom: Realms of Peril & Glory (@realmspod), Liminal London campaigns [Podcast]

Played By: Naomi Clarke (@naomithinksit)

Yarn Used: Hair: CraftSmart Value - Toasted Almond Skin: CraftSmart Value - Taupe Birthmark/Mouth: Caron Lava Cakes - Sour Cherry Tracksuit: Red Heart Super Saver - Spring Green Zipper: CraftSmart Value - Heather Grey Shoes: CraftSmart Value - Tomato Soles: CraftSmart Value - White

Basic pattern here.

Monty, our beloved chicken nugget wizard. I fell in love with this kid pretty much from the moment I heard him (him being Naomi’s creation helped with that) and he’s just…adorable. And after Episode 4 of Loose Change (the fourth mystery), Great Googly Mooglies, that boy needs all the hugs. I hauled ass to get him finished in time for Episode 5 (I am writing this paragraph prior to actually finishing him, so we’ll see if I manage since it’s, uh, Sunday night). [Crafter’s note: I did not. I finished him two weeks later, in time for Episode 7.] He differs from the base pattern as follows:

Shoes: I actually used a different color for his soles this time! Like with Joseph’s, I did the soles in white, then switched to red for the body of the shoes. However, I did use white for the decreases at the toes in the first round of decreasing the shoes to give that white toe cap that’s so distinctive on Converse and Converse knockoffs (per Naomi, everything Monty owns is a knockoff). I also added an extra round of decreases to make longer flat tops to the shoes and skinnier ankles. The shoes went up to R9 like that, and then: R10: Ch 1, sc in front loops of first 5 sc, sl st in next 2 sc, sc in next 5 sc, sl st in first sc (12 sc).

Tracksuit: I asked on the Light & Tragic Discord, and Naomi was kind enough to inform me that Monty wears high-tops and tucks the hem of his tracksuit into them. I also wanted the pants to have a kind of baggy effect. So once I joined the tracksuit yarn, I chained 2, then did 2dc in the back loop of the first sc in R9, then dc in the back loop of the next 10 sc in R9, then 2dc in the back loop of the final sc in R9, sl st in first dc (15dc). I then continued as normal. I used the same method for his shirt as I did for Joseph and Gerry, just a bit higher up when I started the hemline. I also formed his torso the same way as I did Gerry’s—square most of the way up and then starting the decreases at the very end. Neither of these decisions were intentional, I just wasn’t paying attention to how many rounds I’d done. For the zipper, I tied three knots on top of one another to make a zipper pull, then embroidered in straight lines up and down either side of the zipper track before doing a cross stitch up the middle.

Head: Naomi said in S4E5 that Monty “had one of those big birthmarks” and I knew I had to include it. I didn’t really plan the defined edges of the birthmark, just changed color back and forth as seemed appropriate. Came out a bit Ziggy Stardust, but you know, it’s Monty. I also used safety eyes for him again. Think I put them in too far up too soon, because stitching around them was a pain in the ass, but it worked out.

Hair: I, uh. Forgot to start adding his hair in as low as I usually do, so his hairline is a bit higher in the back than normal, which is one of the reasons there are no pictures from behind, the other being that for some reason the seam got really jagged up the back (I’m guessing I wasn’t counting carefully enough and my joins got off). I’d meant for him to have a textured stitch to his hair, but I got to that point while I was away from home and didn’t have my book with all the stitches in it with me, so I improvised. I gave him a fun little swoosh of hair at the front. Turns out I was overcomplicating things with Hux’s and Mini’s hair. There’s a legitimate stitch called the hair stitch or fur stitch that does exactly what I was trying for on them with significantly less stress, so I used that here for Monty. Gives him kind of a cheeky look and I love it.

Arms: I used the same method I used for Joseph. I only stuffed up to R20 so he would have a little more flexibility in the shoulders.

[rennybu]

Hi there! Maybe this is a weird question, but as an artist and A D&D, I thought you might be a good resource! I'm wanting to commission a portrait of my D&D character for roll20 purposes, but I'm struggling with what refs and such I should gather for the artist. How can I make it as easy as possible for an artist when the character I'm wanting a portrait of isn't human? Would a written description suffice, or are images better? Thank you for whatever advice you have! --sincerely, a Loam enjoyer

DELIGHTFUL QUESTION, not weird at all!!! I hope its okay to publish this in case anyone else was wondering the same :']

Speaking as an artist who's done portrait commissions in the very recent past, a mix of images and written description is a sweet spot. Notes about specific features that the reference images might not show, or might not show accurately, help a lot to avoid retakes and corrections down the line.

Using Loam as an example, I have my own drawings of him I can crop and compile as reference, as well as a human model whose face proportions I like and make sure to include in case the realism is helpful at all to the artist. (The model is. EXTREMELY pale, ginger, and blue-eyed, so it really is just for like, Nose, Mouth, Jaw. FORM!) Then bolster what I've provided with additional reference - for Loam's ears, I have some pictures of cow ears saved for the overall shape and fur texture. AND all his jewelry afgkhfldKLJSHFGLSKD <3 Plus various armors, weathered fabrics, pieces of misc gear that complement and offer more options than what I've presented in my own artwork - to give the artist a range to work within, while still representing what I imagine suits Loam.

Simple notepad or Paint sketches also go a long way in conveying which details/features are most important to include in a given commission!!! Even scribbling over a reference image to be like, "this but PURPLE" is quick and easy. The power of the stick figure/smiley face with annotated doodles is never to be underestimated in communicating a bigger idea!!!!!!

SUMMARY?

Any existing artwork of the character

Any models/actors (or animals, for textures in fur/scales/eyes/teeth, etc etc) with features that are accurate to your image of the character

A simple doodle/sketch of the concept you have in mind

Written notes to consolidate the visuals you've provided and fill in any gaps that might still remain

BONUS? Links to the artist's own work depicting non-human features in a way you enjoyed seeing previously, that made you want to commission them for your character! (this has also helped me in the past with clients wanting lighting/rendering styles, hair, magic effects, etc. similar to pieces I'd done previously)

GO FORTH HAVE FUN!! i hope some of this was a little helpful :'D

[cadaverdolls]

Hey! Plushie gun 🫵

Today I chose @dellphie s character! I was having trouble picking one drawing to base the plushie on so the clothes/TFs may not be exact.

☁️ Poof! ☁️

I know that the character has both cat and angel TF but decided on cat alone since I did two Angel TFs prettt recently. Also this is my first cat! I might have made the fur on the cat ears too shiny. It might look like horns from far away. Next time I do animal ears I’ll make the inside a lighter color.

Doll break down below!

The break down. Bangs would be a separate piece of fabric and not embroidered to the face. Long fur fabric and the ponytail will be a stuffed plush piece. Got to get that volume and fluff to the ponytail so regular doll hair prob won’t cut it. The cat ears are small to it being sewn to the hair would be good (also this character has the cat features showing almost all the time so I think it be more appropriate instead of the magnet version).

Drawing and coloring I tried going all out! Attempting to remember all the comments I made in the past on things I wanted to do or change. Two colored lashes, better shading (see neck and eye lids), textured brushes, and more color! This turned out well! I’ll be trying to put out a level like this more often.

I’ve been going more outside the box with my designs. My first couple of designs were made to be the type of drawing you could give as is to a company. Faces that could be down with embroidery. The faces I’ve been doing more recently edge on not follow guidelines for what’s possible but fixing them/simplifying them isn’t an issue at all. I could easily do it, but these pieces I’ve been making are more for me to improve my art and have fun. Get better with my coloring and line work. Paying attention to facial expressions and how little details in a design change the feeling of the character.

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

Be a Doll

Palmer/Roland fic from the vault of my google doc. 2.5k words of second person POV. This is just a sappy character study that got away from me, but I just think they're neat. AO3 Link Here.

He's quiet once you've gotten your hands wrapped around him, palming the soft leather of his jacket with your fingers wrapping around to his front, feeling the give of his simulated uniform and body under your fingertips. His hands come up to grab your fingers in some search for purchase and maybe to help him adjust to the feedback as you smile down at him and move to sit on the end of your bunk. The hardlight is different now, not the same humming buzz that tickles where he touches your bare skin, but it’s still got a thrumming energy even as it simulates something so real you nearly pause to cradle him more gently.  

He opens his mouth, half cocked grin at the ready when you interrupt whatever distracting quip he had prepared by dragging a finger down the fur lining of his jacket collar. You move slowly, allowing the soft texture to drag against your fingertip, moving it back and forth as you study it, study him with a discerning eye. You can't help the smirk as his face changes into something with less bravado and a little more confusion. 

"You put a lot of detail into this, huh?" You whisper and tap your nail on the buckle holding all his straps together. It makes a pleasant sound so you tap it once more, humming your approval and eyeing his preening as you notice the level of detail he’s worked on. There's no parachute on his back but the rest of the harness is present and defined enough you can slip a finger under it and test the give, the hardlight moving like fabric under your touch. "Does it come off?"

He nods mutely, and then seems to remember he was putting on a show, and a smile cracks wide, big enough that his cheeks push at the leather of his cap and you think about undoing it. You think about undoing a lot of his uniform.

But there's an order to it, and you want to take your time.

He fidgets a bit, movements that have you tightening your grip slightly and you can feel how he's made himself so realistic, almost alarmingly so with the soft give of his uniform and the flesh below it, with the small fragile bones you can feel along his ribs as they expand when he breathes, to the rabbit quick beat of his heart you can feel in your palm as you hold him.

You don't want to let him go but as you stare down at him you realize two hands would make this a lot easier.

You don't give him much warning beyond a pensive hum as you decide to roll over and place him near your pillow, legs kicked up behind you as you rest on your elbows and box him in. He wavers on the uneven terrain of your bed, arms out as he wobbles off kilter for a moment.

"There we go." You murmur, eyeing his uniform again, half aware of the way you're rubbing your now empty palm that's missing the warmth of him. He crosses his arms and makes a face, but you just smile broadly, and let your teeth catch your lip while you bring your hands up to nudge his arms apart. "Gotta get this out of the way. How else will I get to see what you worked so hard on?"

You tug at his straps, lifting them a bit more than necessary, just to keep him off balance, while you undo the buckle and peel the harness off. It's so strange to see him without it on.

Next comes the scarf, another little detail you've wanted to touch. Laying the harness out with a gentle reverence so it doesn't get tangled, you return your attention to him in time to see him watching your hands.

"Still good?" You ask, tone teasing and light, even if the concern is real and only half buried.

"Yeah...yeah. What's next?" He stands straighter under your scrutiny and you point at his scarf. Instead of undoing it himself, he simply puffs his chest out and tilts his head up, both looking at you and baring his throat. The motion makes you swallow but your hands are steady as you cup him with one hand and tease the scarf loose with a single finger.

He leans against your hand as you pinch the soft fabric between thumb and forefinger, his eyes watching you focus on this one part of his anatomy. The fabric slides easily away from his throat revealing skin you haven't seen before.

You pause for a moment and then place the scarf down next to the harness. He watches you. 

He's still watching from where he's leaning against your cupped hand when you bring your finger to his throat. The pad of your finger just rests lightly on the thin skin of his neck and you feel him swallow.

The moment is heavy and it passes slowly, peeling away like ice melting from a window pane and something still unspoken is clearer than it was before.

You glide your finger up from his bare throat and touch the fastener on the chin strap of his headgear, careful not to brush his mic as you lift his chin and gently, lightly turn his head from side to side.

"Like what you see?" He chokes out with a laugh when you release him.

"Yes." And then you don't explain or say anything else. The blunt honesty throws him for a loop but he recovers when you ask him to remove his cap. The buckle is too small for you, but you don't mind. Watching him undress at your request is pleasure enough. His movements are relaxed and slow and let him appear calm, but he's made himself too realistic and his heart is pounding in his chest and you can feel it from where he's still leaning against you.

The fastener clicks open, the metal buckle ringing against itself, and he lifts the protective pilot helmet off slowly, letting you see all of his face for the first time.

You take it in with a fascinated look that melts into something fond as you cannot stop yourself from smiling. He stands proud under the weight of your attention and you can make out the little tells from his avatar, small flickers of detail that show how affected he truly is. 

He's given himself helmet hair, but it doesn't hide his short curling waves. You take in the way his face looks without the helmet rounding it out. His ears are cute, you allow yourself to think, as you eye the way his hair parts and small details of his complexion. The hand he’s using for support starts petting his back, your thumb moving seemingly under its own volition as you reach for his face with the other.

Closing his eyes, he presses into the touch of your fingertips as you trace lightly over his jaw once more, sliding your touch up to ruffle his hair and explore the newly revealed parts of him. Feather light touches over his cheeks garners you the sensation of stubble.

"You've done a good job with this." You murmur to him, your attention still on the feel of him in your hands. He smiles and opens his eyes as you smooth back a stray lock of hair. 

The rest of your words get locked up in your throat but it's nothing new. Actions are easier. Petting the collar of the jacket once more to soothe the both of you, you pause near his bare throat again and finger the zipper.

He perks up and stands, pushing your hands away as he slowly unzips the jacket.  You find yourself leaning in, eyes fixated on the sight. Vision narrowing to the movement of his hands dragging the zipper down and sliding the clothing off, you feel his eyes on you as you stare at newly revealed clothes. 

These ones fit tighter to his body and let you see more of his outline. The jacket slides off his shoulders and he holds it out to you with a smile and a pose. Tearing your eyes away from the new sights and the sliver of skin peaking out from his sleeves as they ride up his arms as he moves, you cup your hand to hold the jacket.

You take your prize and gently thumb the internal lining before laying it near the scarf and harness. 

He swallows when you return your gaze to him, eyes settling on his form, traveling over familiar and new sights alike. Something clicks and he settles into a more confident posture once more before exaggerating his movements as he sits on your pillow and starts undoing his boots. You rest your chin on your hand and watch as he works and looks up at you through his eyelashes.

It’s much easier to study the line of his shoulders and see his body language change with fewer layers covering him. 

He kicks off his boots with a bit of flair but grabs them and hands them to you when you hold your hand out. They go next to his other clothes after you inspect them, eyes tracing the details and care he put into them.

When you look back, he’s lounging on your pillow, leg crossed and resting on a knee with his arms behind his head and a smug grin on his face as he wiggles to get comfortable. 

You don’t repress the snort his pose causes but you retaliate by dragging a fingernail up the bottom of his socked foot and watch him squirm at the feeling. He falls out of his carefully constructed position and yelps as he glares up at you.

You smile and let your eyes rove over his form once more, gaze lingering on the finer details of his shirt with its buttons and the way the fabric clings and highlights his shape. Golden cloth over golden skin. Darker golden hair shadowed in its textured waves dances beneath your gaze and then your touch as you pet his head, relishing the minute details.  

Pulling back, you simply watch as he sprawls out on your pillow; his glowing form sinking into the softness with a pleased look on his face.

“Comfortable?” you murmur after a few seconds, grinning as he wiggles deeper. 

“Yeah.” He sighs and seems to deflate. He stretches once more and splays out on your pillow with a grin, eyes barely cracked open to watch your response. He’s trying to be a little bastard but you’re too busy taking in all the new parts of him, of this thing you’re both doing, to care too much about his antics.

He shouldn’t feel the need to act up anyway; he already has all of your attention.

You feel the corner of your mouth lift and you huff a breath as he breaks first and looks up at you. He pillows his head on his arms and watches; it’s your move now, and you try for nonchalance even as your heart races. 

He smiles up at you, the cocky grin softer than usual, but it lets you know you’ve been caught. It’s a wonder that this is what makes your heart beat fast, this small moment with the anticipation for something neither of you are really sure of. This was something of a whim you both were exploring, a joke gone on too long now that you both can’t deny. He’s sitting there so small and fragile on your pillow and running the entire ship all at once; such a paradox that makes you feel so many ways you aren’t used to. Your whole world and something obviously dear but if you tried to find the words you’d never be able to. You don’t want to. Actions were always your strong suit, so instead you drag a finger up his leg.

You keep the pressure light and fiddle with the button to the pocket near his knee before moving further upwards and dragging at the last thin layer of clothing on his torso. The texture of the fabric changes and so does the amount of give beneath your finger. You ghost light touches along his sides as you explore and let the pad of your finger rest on his chest. His heartbeat matches your own, staccato fast, and you meet his eyes again. 

“Put a lot of effort into this, huh? Pretty human.” You drawl in a whisper. You’ve gotten closer and quieter and you’re not sure why but you don’t want to break the tension.

“....Well,” he starts, hands coming to rest on your finger, “I’m nothing if not thorough, Commander.”

“I can tell. You do good work.” The words are barely out of your mouth when his avatar glitches under the finger you were dragging down his front. It’s a small hiccup in his holographic form but you haven’t taken your eyes off him so it’s impossible for it to escape your notice.

You freeze and he comes back together, patting your hand and apologizing. You didn’t do anything, it just seems he had a reaction to your words. Crisis averted, you smile down at him, grin showing teeth as he realizes how much he’s given away.

“You’re good now? It’s not too much if I tell you how good a job you’ve done on your avatar?”

“Commander.” He says flatly, but there’s no bite at all, especially with his shirt still ruffled and his layers gone and his heart he chose to make still racing under your touch. 

“It won’t be too much if I talk about how much I like looking at you like this, or how pretty you look?” You continue, tracing the defiant look he’s giving you with your eyes as you use a finger to lift his chin.

“Palmer.”

“Oh we’re dropping rank now? So it is affecting you.” You purr and hunker down even more.

He opens his mouth and closes it again. A small pout forms and he pushes your finger away and crosses his arms. You laugh and cup one hand around him to place a kiss on his head.

He’s warm beneath the gentle give of your lips and you linger for a moment before pulling back. Leaning your chin on your free hand, you watch him fight the smile curling in the corners of his mouth and return his look with your own overly sappy grin. You don’t feel like fighting it, or hiding your fondness in this moment.

In fact, you adjust the rest of yourself in your bunk to curl up close and lay your head on the pillow next to him, softly exhaling a contented sigh as you settle and he rolls over to look at you. His smiling face, without the bravado or the cap hiding it, is so soft it makes something swell up in your chest til you feel fit to burst. 

Instead you reach out, gingerly and more slowly than you’ve moved this whole time, and place your hand near his. He takes a finger in his palm immediately and you melt even more.

“Bedtime?” He chides gently, squeezing your pinkie as he asks.

Another breath leaves you, slow and calm, like you're exhaling all the air out of an overstretched balloon.

“Bedtime. Good night Roland.”

“Good night Sarah.”

[littlekittenfairychubbybunny]

Katrina 🐱

While looking through your stuffies, you find one that brings a smile to your face with Daddy Negan (♡°▽°♡)   You start off with the big age of whatever age you are now, and slowly descend to the age of 5-6

The day starts off with you waking up and doing your morning routine. You brush your teeth, wash your face, brush your hair etc. You walk back into your shared bedroom and find Daddy sitting on the couch near the foot of the bed and table. You gasp in excitement and run towards him. 

“Daddy!” You exclaim and as he opens his arms wide you run into them engulfed in a big hug. 

“How’s my good girl, hm?” He asks you with soft eyes

“Am good Daddy!” You say climbing up into his lap and rubbing your face into his chest. He gives you pecks and kisses on the head and rubs your back. You situate yourself to where you’re being cradled by him, slipping farther into little space. (At this point you're 6 going into 5) You start to run your fingers on his stubble beard caressing his face. He looks at you with endearment and carries you to the bed.

He sets you down causing you to whine and walks towards the cubbies that’s meant for your things. He pulls open the top drawer where your stuffies are kept. 

He brings the box of them and you sit up curiously. You tilt your head and look at him confused. He looks at you with a smile and asks 

“Did you ever even name half of these?” He looks at you expectantly. Your face starts to heat up in embarrassment and shake your head no. He laughs and grabs one 

“Alright well, let’s start with this one. What should we name him? Hmmm…” He sits down holding the sheep, you crawl towards him and rest your head on his shoulder. 

“Mmm.. Wha abouttt Cloud!” You say in excitement 

“Ohh! That’s a good one Princess!” Daddy smiles “Cloud it is then” He pats Cloud on the head and passes it to you, you give Cloud a kiss placing it in the box. You fish out a new one and this time it’s a cat! 

You smile at it remembering when Daddy gave her to you. 

Flashback begins

You were out on a run with him one day, looking through a mall, once his men called and cleared out all (if not most) of the walkers you and him went inside hand in hand. Negan keeping a firm grip on Lucille and you. He lets go and raises Lucille and cautiously walks around with his men. 

“Alright, Joey and David you stay down here. Me and Baby Girl will head upstairs.The rest of you split up into different parts.” They nod compliantly while you and Daddy head up the broken escalator. You hold onto the railings while you climb up and Daddy helps you up the final step. Walking around quietly and cautiously you look at the variety of ruined and abandoned shops. Broken glass and dust is found in every inch of the floor. The light shining in through the skylight roof of the mall reveals all the dust flying through the air, adding into the sickly atmosphere. 

Negan leads you store to store, asking if you see anything you like. Although some things had caught your eye, it wasn’t a big enough desire to say yes. It was until you saw the toy store. Your eyes go wide and Daddy turns to you with a smile. 

“Ohhhhh do I see something Baby Girl likes?” Negan asks you with a grin, you nod in excitement ready to go towards the store. As the two of you head to the store your excitement builds up. Daddy tells you to hide behind the counter to search through the store just in case any walkers are lurking. He circles back and tells you to walk around the store to see anything you like. You give him a big hug and rush to look around. The variety of toys, books, and games makes you excited to choose which one(s) you want. 

You made your way towards the stuffies and gasped in excitement and ran towards the display of them. From teddies to characters from different franchises, all of it just made you so giddy. You felt all different textures and furs and finally settled on the pink, purple, and white swirled kitty. You gave her a squeeze and knew she was the one. Daddy watching you from afar smiles and wishes he had some sort of camera to save the memory. You run towards him showing off your new friend and he kisses your forehead. 

“What’s her name Baby?” Daddy asks

“Katrina” You smile 

Flashback ends

“Ohhhhh I remember her, Katrina? Right Doll?” Daddy asks. You nod and give her a kiss and hug. You decide that she’s gonna join you and Daddy on whatever adventure you have today. Daddy puts back the box of stuffies and takes your hand to lead you to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Done!! I hope you cutie butts enjoy this because this is my way of showing my gratitude on 100 likes! I know this isn't Daryl but I've been really into Negan lately and just wanted to write for him

[blueberry-lemon]

Sonic x Shadow Generations Mini-Review

Not a big formal thing, but I have the toxic trait of being a Sonic fan so I feel like I need to get my thoughts down in writing...

The “Sonic Generations” Part

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and I know people have really varying opinions on favorite Sonic games, but it always surprises me when people list Generations as “one of the best ones.”

I remember playing through the whole thing on Xbox 360 and thinking it was alright. This time, I’m not even sure whether I’ll finish it.

It’s just not for me. The physics, handling, and level design just feel really clunky to me and I don’t enjoy playing it. The side-scrolling levels kind of make me motion sick. 

The idea of being able to equip different Passive Skills is cool (I loved that in Sonic and the Secret Rings) but I feel like they didn’t really get creative about what the skills would be.

I didn’t really like the cutscenes in the original and I don’t really like them now despite them doing some re-writing and re-dubbing. It just feels really stilted and stiff to me.

Either way, it’s great that it’s available on modern consoles.

The “Shadow Generations” Part

As people have said already, this is the reason to try the game.

Liked it much more than the Sonic half. I’m really happy with how it came together and the stuff that they’re experimenting with.

Right off the bat, the physics and handling feel much more Dreamcast/Gamecube-era Sonic than “Boost Era” Sonic. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but I have more interest seeing them try to get the old handling right. It’s funny that Shadow handles differently in this than Sonic does in the same game release. It’s like they still haven’t, after all these years, decided how they want these games to control.

When it comes to Shadow’s gameplay, guns and motorcycles are out and superpowers are in. I think it’s a great idea, from both a mechanic standpoint and branding standpoint. I like Shadow starting off with Chaos Emerald -ish powers and ending with weird Venom Symbiote powers.

The new mechanics are silly but are also the spice that really brings this all together. Being able to slow down time is a natural fit for these games. The weird lock-on charge shot thing from Star Fox is also interesting, as it gives you “something to do” while you’re running in a straight line or grinding on a rail.

The hub world is interesting but, honestly, not for me. It feels too convoluted to get from point A to be point B. I got lost a few times and also felt a bit motion sick from whipping the camera around.

Writing-wise…I love that it’s campy and silly and angsty. That said…I don’t know why, but Sonic game writing (even with writers like Ian Flynn taking turns on it) just does not land for me pretty much ever. I don’t know why, it just always feels so forced and unnatural.

I absolutely love the writing in the Sonic comics (IDW and late-Archie), and I think the writing in the cartoons and web shorts are also good. I don’t know why it just never seems to click in the games. Maybe something about having to be sandwiched in between gameplay, or having to be localized into multiple languages, makes it feel all sanded down?

I also think the game is trying to be a big recap or “start here” point for Shadow as a character, but they present it a little too confusingly for its own good.

So sadly, for me, the writing was a low point.

In terms of visuals I think it looks pretty good. I like it. I don’t really understand why they use certain textures on the characters though (like Shadow’s “fur” and Gerald’s nose skin??)

We are living in an age of Maria looking way way waaaaay better than she did with her Sonic Adventure 2 model.

Anyway, end of review! Pretty decent game.

Although I like Sonic as a media franchise, I very rarely can get into the games. They’re just really not for me, especially because of the physics, controls, and level design.

Even when I have a bit of fun with one, like I did with Shadow Generations, I’m not sure I can earnestly put it in the same tier as other 3D platformers.

That said, I hope this is a bright sign for the future. If they took another crack at the Shadow Generations gameplay I think it’d be really nice.

Sadly, Sonic Team has always had this bizarre habit of just giving up on stuff and not iterating on it, so we’ll see what happens.