#I’ll post the coloured version later

[clovreat3r]

WOOOO

IT FITS THEM SO WELL PLEASE

[artistmarchalius]

I enjoyed Fem!Alastor’s catalogue page so much, I just had to make one for Rosie next! A classy gal like her would have a frock for every occasion.

[antoniosvivaldi]

Rotoscoping Tutorial by @antoniosvivaldi​​

Hi everyone! I’m excited to announce my long-delayed Rotoscoping Tutorial - requested by a number of people over the past calendar year. 

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create the cutout gifs like this (and seen in most of my gifsets under this tag) with Rotoscoping on After Effects. I’ll also provide additional examples and a number of things that I do to optimise my giffing / Rotoscoping workflow (e.g. useful shortcuts & other things to be aware of).

This is the structure of the tutorial:

Why Rotoscoping? Photoshop video timeline’s limitations

Photoshop workflow pt 1: Preparing your gif

After Effects workflow: Interface, shortcuts, and Rotoscoping tools

Photoshop workflow pt 2: Assembling your gif; with multiple examples

Bonus content: Rotoscoping tips* & workarounds to common issues

For quick reference, here are example gifsets (and where Rotoscoping is used in the posts) that I will mention in the tutorial:

Example 1: Cutout gif effect | panels 2 + 4

Example 2: Changing a gif’s background colour | all panels

Example 3: Cutout gif effect in a shape | all panels

Example 4: Putting it all together | panels 1, 3, & 5

What you need & need to know:

Software: Photoshop & After Effects (After Effects 2021 or later for Rotobrush 2.0)*

Hardware: 16GB RAM required to run later versions of AE*

Difficulty: Advanced; Knowledge in making gifs, applying layer masks, and using video timeline interface assumed

Key concepts: Rotoscoping (AE) / Video Timeline (AE+ PS) / Layer Masks & Groups (PS)

Supplementary files: tutorial resources

*I’m currently running the latest version of PS & AE on an M2 Mac, but I’ve also used older versions (CC 2015 & 2020) on Intel-based Macs. I’ll outline some known compatibility & performance issues, and workarounds later in this tutorial that could help streamline your giffing workflow.

Tutorial under the cut. Like / Reblog this post if you find this tutorial helpful. Linking this post / the example gifsets in your post caption, will be greatly appreciated if you read this to create effects seen in Examples 3 + 4.

1) Why Rotoscoping?

My Rotoscoping journey is motivated by the shortcomings on Photoshop - namely the limited options to manipulate the Layer Mask keyframes in the video timeline interface, as well my need to gif more efficiently.

Suppose I want to cutout this subject or recolour the background of a gif on Photoshop: I personally classify the gifs that I prepare on PS into 3 types based on the motion of the subject

These are the common Photoshop-only approaches when attempting to mask the subject in the gif.

Case 1: minimal motion in the subject → a simple layer mask will do the trick

Case 2: some linear panning of the subject in the gif → using the Layer Mask Position keyframes in the video timeline interface will do the trick

Case 3: subject moves around a lot (e.g. zoom motion) → Unfortunately this is where a Photoshop-only workflow will require frame by frame masking. Layer Mask Position keyframes only apply positional translation (but not transformation / rotation) on the layer mask

Enter Rotoscoping on After Effects: Instead of resigning to frame by frame procedure on Photoshop, I opted to make my life easier by learning to Rotoscope on After Effects. This essentially provides me an opportunity to cutout / recolour a wider range of gifs with relative ease.

2) Photoshop pt. 1: Preparing your gif

Prepare your gif the usual way - whether you screencap or import frames from video.

Then your Photoshop should look like this:

Now, I shall walkthrough & explain my personal giffing workflow (as of 2023) after loading the gif frames. To speed up the process, import my gif prep action file to Photoshop.

Going to Window > Action, you’ll see a set of actions under the “gif prep” folder. 

"set frame delay for timeline” (highlighted in yellow) will set all of your entire gif’s frame delay to 0.03s

“convert to timeline“ (highlighted in red) will take you to the Video Timeline interface

To play an action, press on the Play button (highlighted in green)

i. Set the frame delay of the entire gif to 0.03s. (play “set frame delay for timeline” from my gif prep action pack)

I work with everything in 0.03s frame delay (or equivalently 30fps) at first. It’s always possible to change the frame delay of the final gif to 0.05s before uploading onto Tumblr.   

ii) Convert this gif to a Smart Video Layer (play “convert to timeline” from my action pack)

Note: I personally don’t resize the gif just yet. That’s because Rotoscoping in full video resolution will render higher quality details around the edges as well as more flexibilities later on in the editing process.

Performance optimisation: If your computer has 8GB of RAM or less, you might find it helpful to crop / resize your gif to Tumblr dimensions now for a less sluggish performance in After Effects later on. 

(I have giffed on a desktop with 8GB of RAM and it’s quite slow at rendering individual frames of a 1080p short clip on AE)

iii) Add colouring adjustments on the gif. This will save you A LOT of time when you Rotoscope gifs that are originally very dark / poorly lit (e.g. the uncoloured Taylor Swift gif shown just above). 

If you usually colour your gifs at the very end of your giffing process (i.e. after sharpening), this will be a bit of a change.Nevertheless I still highly recommend adding some base colourings now to at least increase the contrast between the subject and the background.

iv) To minimise lagging on After Effects, simplify this gif file as follows: 

Flatten / Unsmart this gif file back to frame animation mode: play “flatten” (highlighted in red) from my gif prep action pack

Set the frame delay to 0.03s: play “set frame delay for timeline” (highlighted in green)

Convert the simplified gif file back to the video timeline interface: play “convert to timeline” (highlighted in yellow)

After “unsmarting” and converting back to the video timeline, your interface should look like this

And voila! This gif PSD is now ready to be imported to After Effects for Rotoscoping work!

3) After Effects: Interface and useful shortcuts

Open After Effects and Import (Cmmd / Ctrl + I) your gif PSD that you’ve just prepared.

After importing your gif PSD to After Effects, the interface should look like this. 

In the screenshot below, there are two compositions: the imported gif (highlighted in green) & another composition file made from selecting the imported gif (highlighted in red)

For the rest of the workflow, we will edit from the clone composition (the one highlighted in red), so select this one.

Before we take our plunge into the Rotoscoping, here are a few useful shortcuts to remember. I’ll explain the Roto Brush tool in the next section.

Preview the previous: fn + up arrow

Preview the next frame: fn + down arrow

Add to Roto Brush selection: holding Shift while you’re using the Roto Brush Tool

Subtract from Roto Brush selection: holding Alt while you’re using the Roto Brush Tool

Change Roto Brush size: while holding Cmmd / Ctrl, click + drag your mouse left / right

4) After Effects: The Rotoscoping Process

To access the Rotoscoping tools, click on the Roto Brush icon (highlighted in red in the screenshot below)

Then you’ll get the following dropdown options with two Rotoscoping Tools

Roto Brush Tool: This is where you add / subtract your Rotoscoping selection in your composition

Refine Edge Tool: Paint around the edge of your selection for more refined edges. Very helpful for Rotoscoping fuzzy edges / hairs

To make some Rotoscoping selection, first grab the Roto Brush Tool and click on the subject you want to cut out from your composition. 

When you’re Rotoscoping you’ll see this in the Effect Controls panel. 

There are two versions of Roto Brush:

Version 2.0: The Rotoscoping selection is powered by AI for higher accuracy when you propagate the frames. 

Version 1.0 (Classic): This is the legacy Roto Brush Tool that uses a lesser algorithm. Recommended only if Roto Brush 2.0 is unstable on your machine due to RAM issues.

And two quality settings for Roto Brush 2.0:

Standard

Best

Note: I am currently unable to use Roto Brush 2.0 with Best quality model on my machine to compare the differences myself, so I’ll link this page that explains the two quality settings.

Note: if you’re using an older version of After Effects you’ll see this instead. This corresponds to Roto Brush 1.0 / Classic in the newer versions of AE.

When you’ve made a selection using the Roto Brush Tool, you’ll see the pink lines around the subject. This is the region that you’ve selected to Rotoscope!

To bring out some details around the edges, grab the Refine Edge Tool and paint around the edges

Then the interface will look like this

To view the Rotoscoping selection that you’ve made more intuitively, you could click on the following buttons.

Personally I like the viewing my selection using Toggle Alpha (the second box from the left) & Toggle Alpha Boundary (the 3rd box from the left)

Toggle Alpha

Toggle Alpha Boundary

Note: If you aren’t happy with the initial Roto Brush selection, you can always add (press Shift while using the Roto Brush Tool) / subtract (press Alt / Option using the Roto Brush Tool) your selection.

After you’re happy with your Rotoscoping selection in the first frame of your composition, press fn + down to view the next frame.

Repeat pressing fn + down and fix the selection along the way (e.g. I subtracted a small area from my Rotoscoping selection with the Roto Brush tool to make the edge look cleaner).

After fixing the selection along the way, go back to the composition file (select the clone composition again) and you will see that a cutout gif is made!

To export this, go to File > Export > Add to Render Queue. You’ll be redirected to the Render Queue panel at the bottom of After Effects. 

Highlighted in red: click to change export setings

Highlighted in green: click to change save destination

Highlighted in yellow: click to render video

To preserve the transparency of your cutout gif, you need to change your export settings in the Output Module. 

Under the Video Output section, change your Channels to RGB + Alpha. Press OK. Then Render the video.

5) Photoshop pt. 2: Assembling your final gif

The essence is to drag the cutout gif (aka the video file that you’ve just rendered on AE) into a new PSD composition file. This will be where you’ll do the rest of your giffing. Your workflow will contain the follow steps:

Make a new blank PSD composition file in Tumblr dimensions

Enable the Video Timeline

Follow the instructions detailed in the individual examples i.e. drag the cutout gif into the PSD & adjust the timeline start / end points

Exporting the final gif. If you’ve worked in 0.03s frame delay all the way up to here, just play the action that I’ve provided in the tutorial in the following order to set the frame delay to 0.05s.

EXAMPLE 1: finalising your cutout gif | sample gifset

After enabling the Video Timeline in your PSD composition file you’ll see something like this

Go to your folder, drag the cutout gif you’ve made on After Effects, resize / reposition, then press Enter. 

And also make sure to adjust the Video Timeline’s start / end values.

Add some finishing touches. Because I did the Rotoscoping at full HD resolution, I’ll also need to sharpen my gif in this step.

After you’re happy, you can export this into a gif file and do what you usually do to change the frame delay to 0.05s. 

Notes on my “Unsmarting” approach:

To prevent accidentally writing over a PSD composition file that I’ve spent time editing, I personally render this into a short video (File > Export > Render Video) and use the following export settings (to prevent quality loss)

Then I open the rendered clip and play the actions in my gif prep action pack as follows:

flatten: this “Unsmarts” the clip / video

set frame rate: this sets all frames to have 0.05s frame delay

This is the final interface that I get before I pull up the Save For Web window.

EXAMPLE 2: changing your gif’s background colour (for Case 3 gifs) | sample gifset

From your folder, drag BOTH the cutout gif (rendered on AE) and the original gif to your blank composition. 

Important: you need to make sure that both layers are properly lined up in the composition file (i.e. selecting both layers when repositioning / resizing)

 On Photoshop, press Enter twice and place the cutout gif on top of the original gif from the Layers panel. Then you should get something like this

Select both layers and resize / reposition them in your PSD composition until you’re satisfied with the placements.

The basic idea here is to add some adjustment layers / other things in between the cutout gif and the original gif. To do this, select the original gif layer in the Layers panel.

Then you can start adding.a bunch layers e.g. textures, onto the composition.

And then here’s the exported gif!

6) Fancier Rotoscoping examples

Note: knowledge in using layer masks / groups and making shape / text layers assumed

In the next two examples, I’ll show you how to combine the two previous examples with shape / text layers.

EXAMPLE 3: Placing your cutout gif into a shape / text layer | sample gifset

Add a text / shape layer to your blank PSD composition

We want to prepare a masked group so in the Layers panel:

Make selection from layer: Cmmd / Ctrl + Click (highlighted in red)

Make a new group: click on the folder icon (in yellow)

Create layer mask: click on the icon (in green)

After duplicating the masked group you’ll get something like this in the Layers panel

Drag your cutout gif into the PSD composition

Place the cutout gif into the masked group on top

Select the mask of the top group and paint (in white) over the region you want to reveal for the cutout gif

Add some finishing touches & export the gif!

EXAMPLE 4: Putting it all together | sample gifset

You follow the same approach as in Example 3 to prepare the masked groups, but you need to drag two gif layers in (and resize them using the approach outlined in Example 2)

Place the gif layers as follows

While selecting the mask of the group on top, paint (in white) over the region that you want to reveal in the cutout gif

Now select the original gif (placed within the other group) and add some adjustment layers

After adding some finishing touches & exporting the gif, I get this!

Note: you can do even more overlay effects in the background portion of example 4. There will just be more masked groups + adjustment layers

7) Bonus: Some useful Rotoscoping / giffing lifehacks

GIFFING LIFEHACKS:

— Use best quality footage that you could find & Rotoscope in full video resolution, for better details around the edges

— Poorly lit scenes & low contrast edges are harder to Rotoscope (e.g. Toy Story set / TS evermore set).

If you’re new to AE, I would recommend choosing videos with well-lit gifs with simpler backgrounds and high contrast edges (e.g. Maisie Peters Cate’s Brother set)

— Use Rotobrush 2.0 if you’re using After Effects 2021 or later. It’s more difficult to Rotoscope / change background colour for gifs with a lot of movements with the classic Rotobrush tool. If the scene is tricky, you might want to switch to the “Best” quality model.

HARDWARE-RELATED PERFORMANCE OPTIMISATION:

— The recent versions of Photoshop require at least 8GB of RAM. If you have less RAM, it will still work provided you have enough scratch disk space. For better performance, it’s best to close other applications when you’re using Photoshop.

— The recent versions of After Effects require at least 16GB of RAM. If your machine has less RAM than this, there are some workarounds to prevent your machine from hanging: 

Essential: close other applications that you’re running on your computer

Resize your gif down to Tumblr dimensions & sharpen it before importing to After Effects.

Install an older version of AE 

8) Bonus: Some known software + hardware issues, and workarounds

KNOWN ISSUES ON PHOTOSHOP:

I currently have minimal issues in my giffing workflow, but I’ll nevertheless outline a few common known Photoshop issues for anyone who needs some workarounds.

— Video Timeline interface missing: this affects Apple Silicon Macs (i.e. M1 / M1 Pro / M1 Max / M1 Ultra / M2 / M2 Pro / M2 Max)

Update to newer version of Photoshop (updated 2022 or 2023)

Open Photoshop with Rosetta

— Scratch disk full error: This is a common issue with machines that lack RAM & have nearly used up internal storage. Editing video layers in the timeline interface uses a lot of memory hence will require a lot of scratch disk space. 

Make sure that you have enough free storage space while using Photoshop. Alternatively you can use an external hard drive as a scratch disk.

KNOWN ISSUES ON AFTER EFFECTS:

These are a few issues that I have personally ran into over the course of giffing on multiple devices & multiple versions of After Effects.

Note: Inputs from M1 / M2 Mac users with regards to experiences on using the After Effects Rotoscoping tools are welcome!

— Rotobrush 2.0 set to “Best” quality model causes AE to crash: this affects anyone who’s using MacOS Ventura

I’m currently experiencing this issue on my M2 Mac. The workaround right now is to change the Roto Brush 2.0 quality setting to Standard. 

This is due to some software compatibility issues on Adobe’s side specifically with MacOS Ventura. Fingers crossed that they will properly fix this bug in the future updates!

— Cannot re-open project files with Rotoscoping: this affects anyone using the initial release of After Effects 2020 (I had installed this on an Intel-based machine and it sucked)

The only option here is to update to a later version of After Effects.

8) More useful Rotoscoping resources

Rotoscoping + Keyframes Tutorial by @jenna--ortega​

Rotoscoping + Masking Tutorial by @usergif​

Rotoscoping For Beginners in After Effects | Motion Graphics Tutorial

I hope you enjoy reading this! If you have any questions / need any help related to this tutorial, feel free to send me an ask!

[ltwilliammowett]

Naval Slang

Here is a small collection of slang that is just too short for its own posts.

Anchor or to get one's ass to an- to sit down.

Ant' bollock on the beach - something is extremely hard to locate.

At loose ends - there is little to do. The ends of ropes at sea were easily untangled and formed loose ends. So if there was little to do, the captain could instruct the crew to check the ropes for loose ends and repair them.

Beam ends - When the ship is almost at the beam ends, it means that it is capsizing and in danger of sinking, with the deck beams almost perpendicular to the sea surface. Today it means - to be in a hopeless situation.

Bite the bullet - Men who were flogged with the lovely cat were often given a piece of leather and later a bullet to bite on so they would stop screaming in pain. If he did, he was scornfully called a nightingale.

Boom and Mizzen- Cockney rhyming slang for prison.

Brace of Shakes - I'll be with you in a brace of shakes, literally means I'll be with you before the sail has time to shake twice, in other words I'll be with you almost immediately.

Bread hook - finger

Colours tied to the mast - Give up ? Forget it, this one will be fought to the bitter end.

Cranky- She's hard to sail and unstable. The modern version means awkward, eccentric or hard to understand - often used in connection with women.

Deck Cargo - Breasts

(I'm going to) deck (you) - I'll punch you so hard in the face that you'll see the deck up close. But since such acts were forbidden at sea, they waited until the opponents were in port and could settle it there.

Donkey Wallopers - Royal Navy slang for members of mounted cavalry regiments.

Don't spoil the Ship for a ha'porth of tar - To half-finish a job by not filling the planks properly with hot tar when lapping. Ships will leak if too little tar is applied, so a little extra effort is well worth it.

Goose without gravy - a flogging without blood.

Grass combers - seamen with an agricultural background.

Hit the deck - When a swivel gun or cannon was to be fired at close range, sailors would dive onto the deck to avoid being hit.

[mlim8]

Hand-to-Hand Combat

Jaydick Week Day 1 and 4: Reverse Robins + Talons/Court of Owls @jaydick-week​

[PART 1] [PART 2] [PART 3]​​

[PART 1] [PART 2] [PART 3]​​

*sobs* I FINISHED IT. ... Kind of an idea I had for a while... it was only suppose to be Page 3, but then it got longer... and longer... and longer... ;w; I actually also have a Bonus ending couple of pages I’ll add later when I finish fjioejlksefkle Much love to @nerd-by-definition​ and @allthatsentimentalcandyfloss​ for love and support ;w;

Here is Bluejay (lol my agendaaaa) Jason, put on recon ONLY because the rest of the Batfam doesn’t want Jason near danger and action after they lost Dick [mumbles and suitable amount of time] ago. He runs into a Talon, who’s just a kid, so Jason thinks he’s got a chance. Plus he’s antsy from just sitting all night!

Notes and Easter Eggs:

1) I’ve been calling this version of Talon!Dick a Cockroach for a while now lol starting with this post

2) Talon!Dick’s eyes have become yellow, so I changed his speech bubble colour to reflect that as well

3) Talon!Dick is left handed for no good reason

4) I used so many references for this, especially because action scenes are not my forte lol Gusari’s works were inspiration and references for a lot of them

5) Blackbird refers to Damian in this AU

6) Jason probably would be the best at hand-to-hand combat. Maybe not in his young age right now, but Dami would be able to notice his unpolished skill uwu

7) Originally, I had Jason’s line about being the best at H2H combat talking about how Talon!Dick was good, but he never trained with Batman himself... xD and then realized I couldn’t do that because teeeeechnically, Dick has lol

It’s nearly 2am as I queue this lol I’m sorry if none of this makes any sense :3

[equinox-pl]

(Reads from right to left! ^^)

Ooc: Hehe this was fun to make, I’ll post the coloured version later :)

[blaithnne]

Early concept sketches of Midnight Giant Lauren! You can see me figuring out the style, colours, as well as Lauren’s outfits, plus a little Hilda that I wanted to include but gave up on cause I couldn’t get her to look right.

Johanna switches outfits about 3 times in this comic, so I wanted Lauren to do the same. Also, since Johanna’s deerfox outfit in the flashback is based off one of her looks in mountain king, I wanted Lauren’s to as well! So one of these outfits will be repurposed for teenaged Show!Lauren in the deerfox later down the line, which I think is fitting because she’d be around the same age in the flashback as Comic!Lauren is here

I didn’t talk much about my design process in the original post, so I’ll make a couple notes on that under the cut!

Here’s the final product for reference-

Though Johanna changes outfits about 3 times in this comic, one of these outfit changes is just the same outfit but with trousers instead of a skirt. So I wanted one of Lauren’s outfit changes to be more subtle, keeping most of the same items of clothing but only changing the jumper!

In terms of her outfits, I tried to add a little bit of a late 2000s - early 2010s vibe, which I think makes her fit in a lot more

Whilst this style still features quite noodley characters, it allowed me to bulk up Lauren much more than the troll did, so I took advantage of that and started adding in juuuust a little muscle! But she’s still kind of twig looking, so I brought back the same trick I used in the troll and gave her a big ol’ pile of logs and a heavy axe to weild in one of the sketches just to show that she’s a strong girl. I swear I tried to think of something other than an axe but it’s surprisingly hard to think of heavy objects that a character would just be. Carrying around lol

Looking back at this design a few months later, the biggest thing I’d change is I’d make her look a bit younger. It’s a little hard to design a unique character when you only have two points of reference lol, one of which is an adult and the other of which is a child, so I think I made her look a bit too much like an adult, oh well!

One thing I kept though to help her look younger is her freckles, same as Hilda! I love freckles but I swear I never use them in character designs. This design feature disappears from Hilda in the later comics, but I wanna keep them for Lauren for as long as I can tbh…

I mentioned before that I thought it would make sense for Lauren to go through a couple different hairstyles before reaching her final one in these early comics - the designs in the show are based off the ones in stone forest, which was the most recent comic to be released at the time the show came out. The style and characters designs had changed a lot from the early comics, and one of my favourite things about reading through the series is seeing how the designs changed and progressed before reaching those “final” versions, so I’m kinda reverse engineering Lauren’s design process to get that effect here, and I think one way that’d be shown is through her hair. Here her style is getting closer to the final version, her fringe has been lifted so it no longer covers her eye, and she’s got more of a curl! But her strands fall a little differently, so we’re not quite there yet…

I struggled a LOT with colouring this one, and that’s because I got the colour count wrong! One of the most overlooked ways to emulate a style is to count how many different colours appear per character - Hilda The Series generally has 6, 2 for hair and skin, and 4 for outfits, though the number can change. I miscounted here and thought the comics had 4 outfit colours like the show, but they actually only have 3. Once I realised that it made things much easier, though I still sent a little over it with some varying shades of green in her shoes. These kinds of rules generally aren’t firm, and might not even be one’s the original artist is even aware of, but when you’re trying to emulate someone’s work these little things can make all the difference

Show!Lauren probably doesn’t play guitar, I’ve mentioned before that I think she’s decent at piano and I stand by that, but I thought it was fitting for Comic!Lauren lol

That’s everything I can think of right now!

[snapdragonling]

ozy & kallux, <1k, post-campaign for the prompt 'reunion kiss' from @impossibletruths

Ozy finds him in the wilderness at the heart of the city. Or rather— Kallux finds him there.

He’s distracted by the birds. They’re a strange mix. Some he thinks he recognises from the Sanctuary, now free to spread their wings in the wake of the storm; others bright and unfamiliar, their feathers many-coloured, eyes sharp and knowing. Born from Melora Herself, perhaps.

He’s watching a pair of them chirp back and forth over a vivid purple fruit when someone clears their throat behind him. “They’re a nightmare at dusk. Can’t get a moment’s peace.”

An invisible tether, grown slack between worlds, pulls suddenly taut. Ozy would like to say his heart doesn’t lurch violently. He’s trying to be better about lying these days.

When Ozy turns to look at him Kallux’s mouth is sharp around the pressed-down edges of a smile. His hair is a little longer, his Airedon leathers exchanged for weathered robes, the linen hanging loose over sun-bronzed skin. He always looked good. He looks especially good now.

“How do you manage?” Ozy asks, voice rough.

Kallux holds his gaze for a long moment. Around them, strange birds chased strange insects through the miraculous jungle. Above them, wide, glossy fronds caught the burning sun and filtered it like the surface of the ocean, until light fell dappled and watery onto the cracked pavements below. It felt like a different world entirely. It felt like another chance at life.

“Well,” Kallux says at last, still half-smiling. “I have some experience dealing with headaches.”

He lifts his chin to indicate a break in the undergrowth. Ozy follows, ducking beneath hanging vines and leafy branches until he’s standing in a dusky little hollow, where only the barest hints of sunlight cast a diffused glow over the scene.

There’s no time to appreciate the peacefulness of the glade, given the impressive speed with which Kallux has him up against the nearest tree, mouth already on his.

Ozy kisses him back with three months’ worth of longing, hands skimming up and down his sides, tangling in his hair, cradling his jaw; reacquainting himself with topography he’d seen only in his dreams. Kallux’s hands roam, too; the tug of his fingers at the nape of Ozy’s neck makes his breath catch, the sound of singing insects rising with the buzz of desire in his head. In his periphery he can see the pale glow of his wings unfurling. A few months ago he might have been chagrined at his own transparency. Now, burning up in the heat of Kallux’s attention, it hardly seemed to matter.

When Kallux draws back a few heady minutes later Ozy can’t help but go with him, face tipped into his shoulder, breathing in the smoke and sweat smell of him. He hears a quiet huff above him; feels Kallux’s arms circle his back, and shivers faintly when they pass through his wings. “Miss me that much?” Kallux asks.

Ozy mumbles his assent. He’d told him he would.

He's the one to draw away next, once it feels like too much of an indulgence to stay there any longer. He puts his back to the tree again, head bowed, watching beneath his lashes as Kallux watches him.

“I…have things I need to do here,” he says quietly.

“Yeah,” agrees Kallux. He still has one hand on Ozy’s waist. 

“I’ll need to speak to Riv or…whoever’s in charge.”

“Probably.”

Ozy glances around the dappled glade, lips pursed. For a moment he feels pinned in place, the weight of the past and another version of himself compressing all the air in his lungs. The last time he was here the word regret held no meaning for him. It feels like a lifetime ago. It feels far too close. “Where do I even begin?” he murmurs.

He’s brought back to the present by a hand on his face, and the sudden warmth of Kallux’s lips against his cheek. “No idea,” he says, stepping back with a shrug. “But you better get to it. C’mon.”

[sptwt]

SOUTH PARK AU OR SOMWTIMG BURP

Coloured version will be dropped when i find an app to draw in that isnt mspaint burp

I’ll post call girl in a minute then i’ll draw the rest of the freedom pals later + possible craig and wendy redraw when i find a new drawing website lols

[cb-writes-stuff]

Since you're wanting some system related asks:

What made you work out you were a system?

Does you have a headspace and does it look like anything?

Also your "me and me and-" had more colours than the three you posted about before, do you have more alters?

Obligatory I'm a singlet so I'm rlly sorry if I got any terminology incorrect please feel free to correct me /gen

First off, thank you for asking. I really appreciate it.

What made you work out you were a system? Um… I’m not entirely sure. I read something about someone discovering their own plurality once, and I later had an anxiety attack in which I suddenly and repeatedly acted like very different versions of me to deal with the anxiety as different coping methods failed, which was very distressing. I talked with my therapist about it, and he recommended reaching out and such. I didn’t much feel like doing that.

Then I came on [tumblr], stuff happened, and I finally decided to reach out. I decided to start looking for advice from people while I figured some things out, and now we’re here.

Does you [sic] have a headspace and does it look like anything? Sort of? I explained it in a post before, but I won’t make you go looking for that. Basically, we have the Void. It’s not that it doesn’t look like anything, but rather, it looks like nothing. My brain isn’t good at visualizing things, so an internal landscape with fully-formed people feels fake, or too forced. Instead, my brain conceptualizes—in my imagination, things are concepts by default. So the others, their appearances, their actions, even the Void itself, exist conceptually in my head, because that’s what comes naturally.

Also your “me and me and-” had more colours than the three you posted about before, do you have more alters? I don’t like to use the term “alters” myself, but yes. (I don’t dislike other people using it for me, so you’re fine. I just haven’t figured out what term I want to use yet.) There’s several more. I don’t know how many, if any, are comfortable being talked about, and I don’t see why I’d talk about it anyway if I’m still me and I don’t have to. As a little anecdote, one of them started out as just a name and a function with no appearance, but then she saw Siffrin with no hat and cloak and made them her facetroject (I think I’m using that term right? Someone who looks like a person/character but isn’t that person/character), even though it has nothing to do with who she is. She just likes it.

I’ll still be posting as myself though, as I can’t see any reason not to.

And really, thank you for making an effort. It’s always reassuring that I’m not scaring away my moots with all this.

[secret-fiction]

Sonic Boom: Those Who're Made Fools

As April Fools day is upon them, Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends must contend with a series of pranks from an outside source that go a little farther than they would like.

Updated Version of this Sonic Boom April Fools themed fanfiction. A new ending & epilogue will be added at to this post as a reblog. 6,238 words here. 10,198 words total.

General Audiences, Swearing

While Sonic the Hedgehog would usually be sleeping in, the cool breeze blowing through his hut and swaying the hammock he laid on beckoned him awake. He declined this request to wake up at a normal time and curled up further. However his body began to shiver and his mind was dragged into enough consciousness to realize that the cool breeze was actually a freezing wind. His eyes shot open, seeing a light flurry of snowflakes blowing over him, already building up drifts in his beachside hut. 

“What the f-, flakes? Snow??” said Sonic as he wobbled to his feet.

The warm light of sunrise was peering through his windows and the island outside looked as tropical as it should. The culprit then, Sonic deduced, was likely the large yellow painted machine that looked like an industrial sized window air-conditioner if it were built by a mad scientist. 

A letter lifted off of the pile of mail he kept strewn on the ground and into his face. It was the invitation to Amy’s birthday event this evening. Thus, it was also April Fools day.

“Either Tails actually got his sleep schedule in check just to get me first, or I need to have a chat with him about staying up all night again,” said Sonic aloud, ears turning to listen for any unseen listener. 

The wind then picked up, the flurries of snow beginning to sting as they struck Sonic. In fact it was more of a semi-frozen rain now. Everything in his hut was quickly being coated with bits of water and ice which created a slick layer over all surfaces. He grumbled and shivered, then dashed to the machine jammed in the door to find the off switch. The machine however blocked the entire doorway. There were no controls on the side facing Sonic, just a torrent of freezing rain blowing from a vent.

“Aw what the heck?!” Sonic tried to push the machine out of his door but found his feet slipping on the frozen and wet floor. “TAILS! I don’t wanna break your new toy here, but I will!”

Sonic heard no response aside from the gale of freezing wind and rain, which grew strong enough to send him slipping onto his face and sliding away to the far wall. He grumbled, stood up, and placed his feet on the wall. With one strong kick he spin-dashed into the machine, sending pieces of it flying as it fell out of his door frame. 

“Brrr, jeez,” said Sonic as he stood up and looked around, seeing no sign of Tails, “don’t tell me he already ran off to prepare another prank. This one was already a bit much… Guess I’ll have to teach him a lesson on restraint.”

With resolve filling his eyes, Sonic the Hedgehog took off running across the beach in a blur. The machine was left behind on his front porch, a problem for later perhaps.

A potential problem for now descended from a hidden perch in the trees of the jungle toward the machine. Insectoid wings fluttered, carrying a figure whose green colour matched the jungle canopy. They landed atop Tails’ machine, then yanked a kunai dagger out of the machine's control panel before heading for their next target.

________________

The drone of power tools echoed throughout Tails’ workshop as usual while he assembled a new gadget. Progress was going good by his insane standards of pacing, so he took a step back to look over the device. Lifting the goggles off of his eyes revealed they bore a giddiness bright enough to almost hide his dark eyebags. This projector he was modifying would surely be perfect for setting the mood at Amy’s event this evening. All he needed to do now was program a remote for ease of use, something he had learned others care about when using technology. From there he’d-

A swinging sound from the mail chute on his door pulled Tails’ attention away. Could it be Sonic’s counter attack already? He chuckled to himself, picturing Sonic popping out of a pile of harmless snow with a dumbfounded look on his face. Upon approach however he saw that it was clearly from Amy. It bore fancy calligraphy for the address and her custom rose wax seal which was slightly cracked, likely from its journey. 

“Oh, she must be excited,” muttered Tails to himself before biting the letter to open it with his teeth. 

Tails immediately regretted his lazy choice of letter opening when a pink cloud of a gas blasted forth from the letter, filling the workshop and his mouth. The taste he recognized as floral air freshener made him gag and spit. Then the overwhelming smell filled his nose. It should’ve smelled pleasant, but the flowery fragrance was so overwhelming, suffocating, that Tails had to cover his snout. He scrambled for the nearest window before his breath ran out. 

“What The FLYING FFff-!” Tails gritted his teeth and compressed his fit into a soft growl while throwing a workshop window open. 

One by one Tails swung every window open. Then he opened the garage door for the hangar portion of his workshop. That didn’t dilute the air freshener smell fast enough so he turned on every industrial fan he could. Soon the continued overstimulation made him resort to using his emergency eye and face wash station, after shoving a pile of boxes blocking access out of the way. The torrent of water on his face made his eyes stop stinging so bad and got most of the taste out of his mouth. But his nose was still completely overwhelmed. 

“I can’t work like this!! Why should I work like this?!” said Tails as he shook the water off of his head. 

The ring of his doorbell drew Tails’ irritated red eyes to the door. Opening it revealed a fast food bag, of which he couldn’t smell at all, sitting on the welcome mat. This was definitely another prank. The fact that he was quite hungry now that he thought about it annoyed him greatly. So he leaned forward and kicked the bag away before turning to slam his door shut. 

“Hey woah!” said Sonic, jumped down from atop the workshop roof, “what’s up? Not hungry?”

Tails glared at Sonic, glancing between him and the bucket of ice and snow in his grasp.

“Okay to be fair you really-” Sonic coughed and waved a hand in front of his muzzle, “wow bud isn’t that a bit too much air freshener? It’s kinda distracting.” 

“Yes! And I guess Amy thinks that’s funny, since evidently you had a much lazier prank in mind,” said Tails.

“Amy?” said Sonic, “she usually doesn’t take time for anything more elaborate than what you can buy at the joke store.”

“Yeah, except when she asks you for help with her party.” Tails walked to his work table and plugged his nose with tissue paper before pushing the projector project aside. “So let’s see how she likes my help now, heheheh…”

“Tails you’re getting a bit maniacal,” said Sonic, “seriously, don’t go overboard again. It just smells a bit too nice in here.”

“You don’t mess with someone's sense of smell and get off easy,” said Tails.

“Okay, well, can I ask your opinion on something first?” said Sonic

Tails turned to face Sonic, only to get a glob of half melted snow thrown in his face. 

“I’ll ask for your help fixing the wind damage to my house later!” said Sonic before dropping the bucket and dashing away.

Tails grumbled, wiped the snow off his face, then grabbed any errant material he had lying around to build his revenge on Amy. Though after a moment or two he started thinking about what Sonic had just said.

“...Fix his house? What?” 

In his state of sensory overload and anger, Tails failed to notice a figure move from its perfectly still position in the jungle canopy outside a nearby window. It stood tall, then began leaping away between the trees toward the village.

_____________

The hum of Amy Rose’s voice trailed through her house as she happily prepared for the rest of the day. Her daily twenty-four step quill-styling routine was now finished, she was dressed, and every surface of the room was covered in decorations and snacks to be assorted. Sure she always had a bit of anxiety about the fact her birthday falls on the first of April, the day of The Fool. But that worry was now barely present after living the last couple of years dealing with Dr. Eggman attacking at any random time. 

Working out a block of time in her schedule to deal with an inevitable attack or crisis meant Amy had all the time she needed to still have a fun birthday. She smiled to herself while looking over a stack of colourful papers she had printed, it was hard to suppress her enthusiasm at having her friends over tonight. Truly the real power of one's birthday was the leverage it put on everyone else to finally try your favorite forms of entertainment. 

“Alright, let’s get this next part right,” said Amy to herself as she organized the papers, character sheets. “This is my one chance this year to convince the other that this’ll be fun. And this time I’m right.”

Amy’s smile faltered slightly as she remembered her failure to convince Sonic and the others that playing out her favorite musicals was fun. Really she should’ve known that’d be too much. This time though, an engaging role playing game… she can get them to agree this activity is worthy of regularity.

A knock on her door made Amy jump and gasp with a smile. She waved her hands a bit to lower her giddiness, taking a deep breath. Then she skipped over to the door.

Greeting her outside was a basket with a bow on it, sitting just past her welcomemat. Amy’s heart skipped a beat, but she quickly recognized Knuckles’ handwriting. “Hope you like these colourful rocks!” It wasn’t a romantic gesture from Sonic, but still nice. With a sigh and a soft smile she stepped forward to see what varieties of polished stones Knuckles had-

Amy’s boot fell through her welcomemate and she stumbled into the hole that had been hidden just below it. It was a short fall, but she landed on her face and splattered some liquid all over herself. It took a few seconds of sitting still to process what just happened.

“What the F-Ow…” said Amy as she stood up, eyes stinging from the oily fluid coating her. “What is this stuff?”

The smell, and once her vision cleared, the black colouration showed Amy that this was actually just oil. Used oil. Most likely motor oil. From a motor. Filled with gunk. Gunk that was now in her quills… and her whole dress.

“Are, You, SERIOUS?!” shouted Amy, “isn’t this a bit much!?” 

Amy sighed, but tried not to let this ruin her mood. It was meant as harmless fun, even if it was harmful to her morning. It wasn't usual for Knuckles to be that deceptive though, even though signs pointed to him being involved with how good he is at digging. Perhaps Tails put him up to this, considering the use of engine oil. But why would he? This is usually a thing between him and Sonic.

After a moment of glowering, Amy decided to climb out of the small hole. The dirty motor oil made this tricky however, as she fell back in several times. By the time she heard the swishing of Tails’ tails mid flight, along with a nefarious chuckle, she had worked through her patience.

“TAILS! Get down here this instant!!” 

Amy heard a gasp, then the patter of footsteps. Tails leaned over the hole and looked at her with a strange squint. She in turn gave him the most stern look she could.

“This is really obnoxious, especially for you!” said Amy.

“Yeah, like you don’t know a thing about obnoxious pranks,” said Tails, glancing away from Amy’s eye contact.

“There’s MOTOR OIL In My Quills Tails!!” said Amy.

Tails leaned out of Amy’s sight, she heard him put something down on her deck, before he leaned back over the hole. “Who put a hole full of motor oil here anyway?”

“...It wasn’t you?” 

“No! This is lazy! And just mean!” said Tails as he gestured energetically, “I’d at least be way more creative for something this mean! Or just less mean if I don’t have time to be creative.”

“Okay, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult your… prowess with pranking,” said Amy, “Please get me out of here.”

“Oh yeah, sure.”

With ease, Tails lifted Amy out of the hole and dropped her on the deck before landing himself. She pretended not to notice him immediately kicking a really haphazardly thrown together looking device out of sight. 

“Uh, Amy,” said Tails as he rubbed the back of his head, not noticing the oil stain he was leaving there from his glove, “do you happen to know anything about the perfume filling my workshop.”

“What? What happened?” said Amy.

Tails made eye contact with Amy, a look of anger quickly fading to regret. “I-I’m sorry, someone else must’ve put that perfume bomb in my mailbox then.”

“...Probably Eggman, right?” 

“He… He’s not good at all at being that sneaky though…not without letting you know it was him.” Tails squinted as he looked at the hole, “And this does look like it was dug by claws, natural or those glove things people can get. And I guess Knuckles can be sneaky sometimes?” 

“Okay but how would he do this without your help?” said Amy. 

“...I dunno, could’ve gone to a mundane mechanic,” said Tails, “But this is something he’d try to do to Sonic for April fools, not you.” 

Just overhead, as Amy & Tails started talking about their problems, a sneaky individual leapt and flew away from the top of a palm tree. It was bound for a path deeper into the island's jungle. 

_________________

It was much easier for Knuckles to find specific rocks when they were in the ground. The polished stones he’d collected in a gift basket for Amy evaded him in a way most minerals couldn’t. He’d been forced into retracing his steps to the best of his ability, now out on the jungle trails just outside of the Village. However all he could find was litter and Sticks’ traps.

“Oh come on gift basket, where’d you go?!” said Knuckles aloud, “I need you to be a good friend to Amy!”

The gift basket didn’t answer, only the rustling leaves did. Of course Knuckles could quickly gather some neat looking plants, but it wouldn’t have the same meaning to it. He slapped himself on the head trying to remember where he could’ve left the basket. After the week he spent picking out the perfect colourful stones it sickened him to just lose that gift. 

Searching the edges of the trail closely, Knuckles came across a tree with a nook inside it. The bright colours inside excited him for a moment, until he realized that it was only foraged fruit, not his basket of rocks. Though his stomach grumbled now, and the smell of the berries grew enticing. Then when he noticed a doodle carved in the bark next to the nook in the tree, depicting a simple Sticks the Badger giving a thumbs up, he smiled.

“Oh! Awesome! I really gotta thank Sticks for these snack stocks she leaves out,” said Knuckles

As Knuckles stepped close enough to reach into the nook of this tree, something snagged on his leg. He instinctively kicked and felt something wrap tight around his ankle and pull him upward. He gave a yell as the complex and well hidden snare trap hung him upside down from the top of the tree, several feet out of reach of the collection of berries. 

“Ah dang! I set off one of Sticks’ traps again…” said Knuckles as he folded his arms. “Wait, why was there a trap there, when there was a friendly and welcoming sign?! That’s like, the opposite of making sense!”

Knuckles grumbled to himself. If it took Sticks too long to find him then he’d have less time to find his gift basket. Then even less time to beat Sonic & Tails in the April Fools prank war.

“Wait, I think I know what’s going on…. Sticks is trying to make me an April Fool!” said Knuckles, slapping his face in shock. “Oh man I’ve never had to deal with a prank battle involving her before.”

“Knuckles! What’re you doing up there!” shouted the voice of Amy Rose.

“Amy?!” Knuckles looked down to see Amy with several paper towels in her hands & quills and a bag over her shoulder. “Thank goodness you’re here! Sticks got me in a prank-snare thing! Who knows what she’ll do next!”

Amy’s eyes widened, then squinted. “Knuckles, Sticks doesn’t do April Fools day!”

“Oh wait, really?”

“No, she stays in her burrow all day, remember?” 

Knuckles thought about that. He did begin to recall Sticks’ distaste for the idea of April Fools day the first time it was ‘explained’ to her. That was one crappy day, Sonic only barely survived. 

“Oh yeah!” Knuckles leaned up and grabbed the rope tied to his legs, then ripped it apart with his raw strength. He landed on his feet next to Amy and sighed in relief. “I was worried I’d have to stay up there all day. Good thing this rope doesn’t actually belong to Sticks.”

“Hey, I had a question for you,” said Amy.

“Oh yeah, I was gonna ask you about the oily smell but I can wait,” said Knuckles.

“...Yeah you didn’t dig that pit in front of my house then.”

“A pit?” 

“Yeah, sorry, I thought you tried and succeeded to prank me.”

“Oh wow! If I were you I’dve like, punched me in the snoz,” said Knuckles as he looked over just how messed up Amy’s quills were, “man, I’m glad you’re  so reasonable Amy. It’s nice knowing you have faith in the rest of us.”

“Heheh, yeah,” said Amy, tucking the bag over her shoulder behind herself. The spice-laden cupcakes inside will have to wait before burning someone's mouth up.

Seeing where Amy and Knuckles’ conversation was going, the hidden figure in the canopy fluttered away. Only one more member left to find. 

_____________

No amount of fresh air from outside could alleviate the tension in Sticks the Badger’s nerves. She’d just managed to will herself out the door of her burrow, knowing that the number of traps and practical alarms she’d placed around would warn of any intrusion. None of the others were going to mess with her this year, she knew that, they assured her and she trusted them. She desperately wanted to just trust them. 

“C’mon, you promised Amy you’d go to her party…” Sticks muttered, grimacing as she stared down at her boots. 

The sound of a jingling bell made her ear twitch and her body stand even more tense than before. She glanced over, seeing no sign of anyone there. That upset her more than anything she could’ve seen prowling toward her burrow. Her teeth clenched together hard enough to become sore, as they often do. 

Sticks looked in the direction of the other makeshift alarms, then more broadly the edges of the jungle near her burrow. To her relief and ire, someone was here and it wasn’t only her. That camouflaged figure staying perfectly still in the trees evidently didn’t realize to what extent Sticks had memorized the area around her living space.

Being sure to not look to close in the direction of the figure, Sticks started walking into the jungle. The peripheral view she’d had gave her enough information about the size and shape of this stalking figure that she was confident about what to listen for. After only a few steps she heard the sound of it sticking to a new tree, a light thud very subtle but distinct from the tropical woodpeckers. 

“Heh, see, It’s not any of your friends,” Sticks muttered, trying then to steady her breath.

Based on the pace of when the figure hopped between trees, Stick knew exactly which snare to pass under. With a hand on her boomerang she listened as she walked. In short order, the figure fell into the trap as Sticks heard the snare suddenly tighten above her. She scowled, turned on her heel, and whipped the boomerang at the figure whilst snarling. 

The sight of a scarf and large insectoid wings is all Sticks could see of the figure through a cloud of blue glitter as they were pulled away into the air. Sticks heard a snap from her rope and saw the figure dodge the boomerang then duck behind a tree. Then the boomerang came back and knocked the figure down with a thwack, triggering a chain reaction among Sticks’ traps.

Nets and leaves went flying throughout the air as several trees sprung loose from the tension of ropes and traps. Sticks dived behind a safe tree and tried to watch the figure, but they managed to escape her sight and each trap they triggered. Eventually she heard the drone of their large wings as they disappeared into the jungle. The only sign they left behind was a spot of blue glitter on every tree they’d touched. 

“Sticks!” shouted Knuckles, “What was all that?! Are you alright”

“I’ve only heard legends, but if my guess is right… some sort of Ninja,” said Sticks.

Knuckles gasped, “a Ninja?! AWESOME!”

“Wait, you've heard of ‘em?” said Sticks, “The rest of you hardly ever know what I’m talking about.”

“Well when you watch enough tv you learn what a Ninja is,” said Knuckles.

“TV? Darn, I should’ve known…” said Sticks as she walked out to find her boomerang, “wait, why’re you out here?”

“Oh yeah, Amy wanted me to find you. We have a problem.”

_________________

“Hoh Hoh Hoh!” laughed Dr. Eggman as he sat in his room of many monitors. On the largest screen the unfortunate situations of Sonic and his friends played out on loop. His laughs bellowed uninterrupted as a figure stood patiently behind him. It was a green Preying Mantis in gray robes, a pine green scarf hanging from their neck to nearly the floor. They kept their arms folded behind their back and their eyes on the Doctor. 

Also waiting patiently were Dr. Eggman’s assistants, Orbot and Cubot. Though their postures grew more eager and anxious with each loop. 

“Look at his face as he slips onto his own face!” said Dr Eggman, hitting his control panel and laughing, “he’s helpless against a bit of wind and freezing rain! I’ve gotta remember that!”

“Uh boss,” said Orbot, “now that we’ve played these recordings on loop 20 times, perhaps we ought to worry about what Sonic and the others are going to do to retaliate?”

“Oh yeah, what did you build for Sonic to blow up today boss?” said Cubot.

“I didn’t build anything to face them today,” said Dr. Eggman.

“But eeh… that means they’re gonna break something else,” said Cubot.

“No you nincomputer!” Dr. Eggman stood up from his fancy swiveling chair, “they don’t even know who’s responsible for the appropriation of their pranks! It’s genius you see! The initiative still lies with me!”

“But sir, who else would antagonize them like that other than you?” said Orbot.

“Why this mischievous freelancer of course!” said Dr. Eggman, putting one of his hands on the Mantis’ shoulder and giving them a friendly shake.

“I did in fact sabotage their joy today,” said The Mantis, standing stiff and waiting for Dr. Eggman to release them.

“Yes you did! And you got four out five of them! That's four stars out of five in my book! I knew I wouldn’t regret hiring you out of that catalog.”

“Oh yeah, you were like ‘I better not regret this!’” said Cubot, taking up an Eggman-like pose.

Dr. Eggman glared at Cubot, then coughed and turned to look down at the Mantis. “Your contract said I’ve got your services for the whole day, yes?”

“I am standing here for that reason, yes,” said the Mantis.

“Good, now let’s show them who’s really responsible for their misfortune! I’ll even let you partake in gloating with me!” said Dr. Eggman.

“I do not have ‘gloat’ in my skillset. Thus I would perform poorly at that task,” said the Mantis.

“...I can teach you a bit about it on the way.”

___________________

“Alright team, if we’re going to have fun during my birthday, and Sonic & Tails are gonna have a fair ‘battle of pranks,’ we gotta deal with whoever’s trying to ruin our day!” said Amy Rose to the rest of Team Sonic. They had assembled at the Team’s agreed DPZ, De-Prankified Zone, the Meh Burger dining lot. 

“Who, other than Eggman, would go to these lengths anyway?” said Tails, “that’s what’s really bothering me. Have we done anything to someone recently?”

“Well there’s people who get ‘parasocially angry’,” said Sonic with finger quotes. “Could be literally anyone who doesn’t vibe with our brand of swagger and has no life of their own.”

“Ninja’s are notoriously without a life,” said Knuckles. 

“And good at blending in…” said Sticks, turning and eyeing a family sitting at a nearby table with suspicion.

“That I have seen,” said Sonic.

“Oh yeah, did you manage to hire-” started Amy, before the attention-demanding voice of Dr. Eggman rudely interrupted her. 

“MUAHAHAHAH!” bellowed Dr. Eggman from his flying eggmobile. His threatening presence caused the other patrons of meh burger to steadily flee. Though only after gathering their food, napkins, and flavour packets. “Have you had a bout of misfortune today Sonic?”

“Are you going to have some misfortune?” said Sonic, leaning forward but staying seated.

“Not today, Hedgehog! For you see, I have the upper hand.”

Some patrons scooted by the team’s table as Tails said “Have you actually built a badnik we haven’t seen before, or are you just trying to hype up Mega again?”

“Hey! I don’t use that one that often!” said Dr. Eggman

“Uh, yeah, you kinda do,” said Sonic.

“It’s frankly embarrassing how often you pull out the same few badniks on us,” said Amy, “the people of this village can’t even be bothered to put energy into fleeing from you anymore, that’s how stale you’ve gotten.”

“Yeah, and you use the same robots all the time!” said Knuckles.

“Yeah, okay. So maybe I can’t churn out new super badniks at an insane rate, but I’ve got standards for my health! I’m not gonna crunch my schedule if you lot won’t even respect what I build!”

Sonic turned and stared at Tails for a moment, who took a bit to notice. “What?”

Sonic titled his head and raised an eyebrow.

“What??”

“Does Egghead actually have a better sense of self care than you these days?” said Sonic.

Tails folded his arms and looked away from Sonic. 

“If you all could be bothered to pay attention for more than a second!” shouted Dr. Eggman, “You might notice-”

The crash of a soda cup hitting the ground drew everyone’s attention to Sticks. Her hand was clasped around the wrist of the Mantis Ninja, having caught them in the middle of trying to hook a small wire to her leg. The two made eye contact, Stick’s glaring furiously and the Mantis wide eyed yet focused. 

“Well, colour me impressed,” said Dr. Eggman with a widening grin.

Sonic recognized that grin. So he immediately dashed toward Dr. Eggman. Then Eggman pressed a button and something tightened on Sonic’s leg. He fell onto his face and heard a crash behind him. A thin wire had tied to his leg, which led to a small round black badnik shaped like a spider. Three more wires protruding from this badnik were tied to Tails, Amy, and Knuckles, who had all been sent to the floor by the momentum of Sonic’s dash. 

“Ow FUCK!” shouted Tails.

“Tails what the F-! You can’t say that!” said Sonic.

“Actually,” said Knuckles as he pushed the dining table off of himself, “I’m with Tails, this fucking hurts.”

“I’ve had enough of Eggman’s shit today to care,” said Amy.

“Goddammit, could you guys at least try to keep the Team PG?” said Sonic.

“It’s no use anyway,” Said Sticks, still grippin the Mantis, “It’s not like we’re getting fucking renewed anytime soon.”

“...What?” said the Mantis, with the second emotion anyone’s seen on their face being sheer bafflement. 

Sticks responded by punching the Mantis in the face. The force allowed them to pull out of her grasp and dart away, diving behind the counter to the despair of the service worker there. Still Sticks gave chase, throwing her boomerang. 

The Mantis responded with a flying kunai that struck Sticks’ boomerang and changed its trajectory. Truly Ninja’s are as dangerous as Sticks worried, as she found it hard to follow the boomerangs flight path. She only regained sight of it just before it was about to strike her in the face.

Then a second kunai hit the boomerang, deflecting it away from Sticks. Everyone looked over to see a floating hand. Actually, it was attached to a well blended figure, whose colours changed from that of the background to purple. 

“Chaotix agency, Espio,” said Espio the Chameleon.

“Oh he’s good,” said Amy, “how much money did Vector want?”

“Not too much,” said Sonic as he stood up and struggled against the wires of the spider badnik, “they said if we were actually dealing with another Ninja we’d get a discount.”

“That… doesn’t make sense,” said Tails.

“The honor of testing my skills against another trained in these arts,” said Espio as he stepped closer to the Mantis, “is worth a quarter of my boss’ revenue.”

The Mantis nodded, “so be it.”

“That’s it,” said Sticks, “two Ninja’s is too much for me to worry about! I’ve got something more important to be doing!”

Sticks the Badger proceeded to leave… without even assisting her friends. Sonic and the others all exchanged a glance and shrug. 

“What is even happening anymore?” said Dr. Eggman, “this was supposed to be when you all cower at the genius of my Tripping-bot in conjunction with my competent hiring judgment!”

“Well Egghead, you’re not the only one who gets the ‘spies and assassins’ catalog,” said Sonic.

“If that’s the case, no more delaying! Ninja, attack!” shouted Dr. Eggman.

“Go get em Espio!” said Sonic. 

The two Ninja’s locked eyes, raised their kunai, and charged at each other. Just before an intense clash of blades, both Espio and the Mantis dodged into different directions. The blur of their respective colours of green and purple disappeared among the furniture of the dining area. 

Meanwhile Knuckles managed to get a footing against the tension of the wire from the Spider Badnik. Seeing this, Dr. Eggman attacked team Sonic with the basic missiles and laser on his eggmobile. He was sure he could give them a humiliating defeat himself in these conditions. 

Two epic battles played out over the next few minutes. The first being Team Sonic steadily overcoming the problem of being tied together. At Amy’s suggestion, Knuckles took the lead of which direction they would all move, even throwing the others up to Eggman. Via taunting, Tails tricked eggman into blasting the cord tying him to the others and started flying interference. 

Eventually Tails lured Dr. Eggman close enough to the ground for Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles to time a jump together and all land on Dr Eggman's vehicle. Just in time too, as he had finally grabbed ahold of Tails and was about to throw hands. From there all four of the team beat up Dr. Eggman and his eggmobile until he finally admitted defeat, which took an impressive amount of blows to make him do. 

All the while the two Ninja’s engaged in the most intense battle of their lives up till now. The Mantis used their flight advantage to duck behind elevated positions and look for Espio. However Espio knew this and compensated with his camouflage and speed. Both moved between positions only at the best opportunities and waited to find a clear opportunity to attack the other unawares.

From the perspective of everyone else and each other however, they both remained completely out of sight. Some customers even started returning to the Meh Burger, unaware of the intense battle going on between tables and booths.

“...Are either of them still here?” asked Amy.

“ I literally can’t tell,” said Sonic.

“Well one of those ninja knives just appeared in my shoe, and I’m sure it wasn’t there before,” said Knuckles.

“They must be so fast!” said Tails.

“And sneaky,” said Sonic.

“How impressive!” said Amy.

…

“This is so boring,” said Sonic as he sat down in a chair.

“Yep,” said Knuckles.

“I’m afraid so,” said Amy.

“Maybe I could build a Ninja tracker?” said Tails. 

“If this fight takes that long, I think we’re better off-” Sonic leaned back in his chair as he talked and to everyone's surprise tripped the Mantis Ninja, sending them stumbling out into the open.

The Mantis immediately opened their wings to take flight, but were stopped as Espio charged out of nowhere, ramming horn first into their torso. The two Ninjas tumbled to the ground with the sounds of struggle. Once everyone managed to realize what was happening Espio had his kunai at the Mantis’ neck.

“Damn,” said the Mantis.

“Yep,” said Espio.

The two stood up and dusted themselves off. Espio quickly went to retrieve his scattered ninja weapons while the Mantis adjusted their scarf. 

“Apologies Doctorate Eggman,” said the Mantis, “I was bested in the duel. Here is an adjusted invoice. Call my number if you have questions.”

“Right…” said Dr. Eggman as he rebooted the eggmobile.

Sonic and the others went over to Espio to congratulate him. Though the chameleon kept a stoic pose, Amy at least could tell he seemed to appreciate the praise.

“For the discount,” said Epsio as he pulled a pocket register out and started typing into it, “please write down all the thoughts you have about my performance for my boss to see.”

“Yeah I’ll tell vector you did a good job,” said Sonic.

“How will you be paying?”

“I have a card,” said Amy.

“But it’s your birthday!” said Knuckles.

“Yeah, we can cover it, right Sonic?” said Tails.

“Uh… yeah, I’ll just… hafta to buy a smaller gift for Amy,” said Sonic.

“D’aw,” Amy smiled warmly at Sonic, that comment alone fully recovered her mood from earlier, despite the battle damage to her dress and quills. “Don’t worry Sonic, having more money for later is a lovely birthday gift.”

“Oh, yeah, sure thing Ames,” said Sonic.

________________

While his mood was a bit soured, Dr Eggman took some pleasure in knowing he at least inconvenienced Sonic and his friends today. That was worth something. Now he just needed to figure out how best to word that to Orbot and Cubot as to make it sound like he didn’t lose. 

That train of thought was halted when Dr. Eggman got within view of his lair. Smoke poured out of several portions of the structures, and loose wires threw sparks all over the place. Several of his defensive badniks were flying and walking circles around the base in full alert, but it was clear they had no idea where the culprit of this mess was. Dr. Eggman grumbled and flew in closer to evaluate the damage.

“Now who had time to do this?!” Eggman said to the badniks. 

From behind a rock, Orbot and Cubot peeked out and pointed to the top of the base, Orbot stuttering out “she did…”

“Wha-” Dr. Eggman was cut off by Sticks the Badger landing on his Eggmobile and driving an obsidian shortsword into its control panel. He screamed in genuine terror as they crashed to the ground. Dr. Eggman felt himself tumbling until he lay flat on his back. Then Sticks jumped onto his chest and bared her teeth, putting a hand on his collar. 

“I have WAY too much to worry about, without even dealing with this damned ‘Fools Holiday!’”

“Wait, I-” muttered Dr. Eggman.

“SHUT UP!”

Dr. Eggman shut up.

“When I hafta to worry just that much more, it actually hurts! And I’m not willing to spare you the pain it causes me!” Sticks took a few heavy breaths and made sure Eggman was looking her in the eyes. “Now, are you EVER, going to make me hafta to worry about an ‘April Fools’ again?!”

“Well… when you ask so nicely…”

Sticks growled like a wild badger.

“No no of course not! Jeez! I’ll leave you alone if you leave me alone!” said Dr. Eggman. 

Sticks’ posture immediately softened and she released Dr. Eggman's collar. She let out a sigh and said “thanks,” before stepping off of Eggman’s chest and sitting on the ground. 

“Uh… don't mention it,” said Dr. Eggman.

“Yeah, of course… Sorry I hafta be so mean…” said Sticks as she laid her back to the ground. 

“I'm going… to go inside and hide.”

Sticks gave Dr. Eggman a thumbs up and continued to just lie on her back in front of his evil lair.

PART TWO: https://www.tumblr.com/onesecretperson/747242079944622080

[thygoddessouijathicc]

Ok another Ugly post lesdoit

Ugly has some really good character designs and I want to fanwhateveriam over them. Specifically I want to talk about Scorpion in all his designs and briefly about Butterfly. Spoilers.

First is Scorpion (Player Version). It’s very good it’s very simple and looks like the drawings of child Butterfly. It’s missing Scorpion’s usual cape coat thing though the red is still definitely there in the nose which serves to draw your eye to his face. The outfit feels definitely noble but it’s simple and mostly all one colour aside from the shoulders, which bring his third main colour of yellow into the design, which causes it to feel almost humble.

It also doesn’t have ears which is unusual because almost every design in the game has ears it’s the outlier and I noticed that so you have to as well.

His blue eyes are also very noticeable which is a fun detail because of things I’ll talk about later but for now onto the next Scorpion design…s

First is his main pre story design. As I mentioned earlier he keeps all of the same colours as the Player design but this design feels far… louder. The red that was once relegated to the nose is now on a very large chunky coat with big cuffs and according to the memories also pointed shoulders. The colour is very alarming and while subdued in the player design it’s fully on display here and has a big “hey look at me” effect. Without the red nose the face would be less noticeable compared to this fucking visibility vest ass coat but the bright yellow of Scorpion’s hair draws your eye to his face and sorta frames it. The shape of his hair also at times implies curled back horns like a demon. The hair does a good job of making a frame through which his face is more visible especially the little things on the sides which close the frame.

His blue eyes are also as or more visible than in the last design as now they contrast heavily with the red of the coat and the yellow of his hair. He also seems to be wearing some makeup which doesn’t look or feel out of place. It’s definitely less of a good player design because it’s so attention grabbing but that’s the point and is why the player design is different. The player Scorpion is supposed to look humble but this is the character in his natural attention seeking state. It wouldn’t be great to do some of the puzzles with but it’s great for the places it is used. Especially because where we see this specific rendition is in a scene where the character himself is being portrayed as attention seeking.

Oh god they bleached my boi what have they done- all jokes aside this rendition of the design is also great. Scorpion looks more disheveled here with messy hair, scars, and heavy bags under his eyes. He’s still recognizable despite the changes and what was good with the last design is also good here. His black bags under his eyes are very noticeable as is the messiness of his hair. He’s definitely still someone who wants your undivided attention but less so now as he overall feels like he tried to fight a lawnmower and lost. Big rip Scorp eh?

This mor flawed design also feels more bright eyed in a sense as if more protagonistic he’s definitely still not as good for that as the actual player design he’s still a little much with the giant coat and neon yellow hair. But while the old design feels like he’s sort of above you in a sense where he thinks he’s better than you and there’s nothing you can do to knock him down… this version of Scorpion feels like he’s been knocked down from his high horse and kicked around a bunch. Which is very fitting for the end of the game because the character has pretty much had his whole perception flipped.

I’d also say this is a more visually interesting and appealing design than his more cocky and put together one because it has a lot more going on and more complex feelings attached which makes sense because he’s mentally been shoved in a blender multiple times throughout his journey. Deserved tho fr fr.

Aight the final full scorpion design that’s not just a green recolour. He’s tall angular and has a defined jaw and big hair in a style that’s not quite accurate but easier to draw for a child.

He’s very sharp very bright and still has all the hallmark features that make him iconic like the framed face and bright red coat this design is also great for a misdirect because he’s drawn so angular and has the red coat making you miss the obvious similarities with your own character. There is also the lack of eye colour to help the illusion that you are playing butterfly.

Finally let’s talk about the man the myth the legend Butterfly my beloved. His colour scheme is highly unified with a softer orange red base with a blue tie to stand out and a red face to draw your eye. His eyes are yellow (a trait shared by his mother but not his father) which furthers the difference between him and the player design.

He stands out like his father does with his bright pops of colour like the tie and face but it’s much more soft and muted. He’s not trying to make you look at him he just knows how to dress. Scorpion wants all of your attention Butterfly doesn’t mind either way but gets your attention through looking really good.

His colours are soft and calming while his fathers are loud and alarming and his expression is relaxed. He just looks like a regular guy with a nasty scar on his face and overall he gives the energy of kindness we know is core to the character. He’s a kind man and even without his father’s showman ship he knows how to look his best. He’s really cool I really like him I just wish we knew more because of how likable this design is.

[iolitemoth]

here’s the bunny boys being cute! i’ll be colouring this later and post that version when it’s done

actually, just had a thought: if anyone wants to take a shot at colouring this themselves, go right ahead! tag me if you do, i’d love to see!!!

also i used this photo from AdorkaStock for reference!

[pixiestein]

my first meowlody & purrsephone designs vs my second designs

i usually don’t like to post my drawings but idk i just rlly enjoy the progress btwn these two designs. im gonna explain my thought processes but im sooo sleepy so bear with me & my rambling or scroll on if u want :3

at first i thought- they’re tuxedo cats, it would be cool to incorporate tuxedo jackets into their outfits! but yeah, i couldn’t figure out how to integrate fancy suit jackets into the casual styles that i wanted for them. maybe i’ll do a formal design w tuxes later but it’s jus not working for this one. most of my version of monster high is based mainly on gen 1 with aspects of gen 3 & ofc my own thoughts. so that’s what i’m going for here. i love meowlodys hair buns in g3 so i wanted both of them to have buns, one up & one down. g3 also inspired the doc martin style boots & using the yarn as shoelaces. i wanted to keep the stripy hair from g1, as well as have them wear the same skirt in different colours like in g1. & ofc the tuxedo jackets styled differently w different tops. as for the tops themselves idk…purrsephones was a bit thrown together based on the tuxedo theme, but for meowlody i knew i wanted a mock neck bodysuit, which didn’t work well w the tux look bc there wasn’t room for a tie. so i gave her a bolo tie type thing w yarn but ehhh. it doesn’t look right. i also knew i wanted each girl to have a different cat toy accessory, & a feather toy seemed like a good choice but i couldn’t think of another. so purrsephone ended up with those like, tube thingies that have holes for cats to play in? those weird things? she has one of those as an arm cuff & at the top of her boots. yeah idk why i thought that would look good. but anyway, i wanted more yarn in the outfits so i gave them yarn belts but it just looked weird!! i made the ball of yarn the belt buckle but it looks so clunky right there in the middle of the waist. they also needed to share more of their colours to look more cohesive w each other.

so for the second design i put the ‘ball’ part of the belt on the side so that the string is hanging down around the hips. & i thoughtit was important for the belt yarn to match the shoelace yarn bc it looks wrong for ver1 meowlody to have orange yarn in her belt & tie but black+red yarn on her shoes.

i eventually decided the structure of their outfits would be bodysuit + partial skirt with different clothes on their limbs. they have silver bands throughout both of them (main belts, boots, meowlodys collar & purrsephones bracelets) each band having studs that match their respective yarn colours. again, i wanted them to accessorize with different cat toys, but looking at the g3 designs i remembered about bells! duh. so i gave meowlody little bells-on her collar, earring, & hanging from her belt- because meowlody is the more mischievous sister & generally when a cat is too mischievous they put a bell on their collar to make it harder for them to hunt. idk why that’s what i thought of but it’s funny to think her parents made her wear bells bc she kept sneaking up on ppl & scaring them or smth 😭😭 meowlody is the softer sister so she got the feathers :P on her belt & earring.

they each have a silver earring & a fish skeleton earring, meowlodys black & purrsephones white. the soles of their shoes also have the design of ribs on the sides, which would extend with the rest of the fish skeleton on the bottom of the boot. the soles are opposite colours to the fish earrings & match their hair, with meowlodys white & purrsephones black, so the very top of their heads match the bottom of their feet. the toes of the shoes also have the shape of the top of a cats head. the fish imagery is also in the centre of purrsephones mock neck bodysuit, with a zipper down the fish spine.

as for the main pieces, both wear short bodysuits. purrsephones is a sleeveless high neck, with her arms covered by detached arm sleeves. meowlodys is a scoop neck with a high neck long sleeve shrug overtop leaving just a bit of space btwn the bottom of the shrug & top of the bodysuit. purrsephones bodysuit is orange with her sleeves & tights being white with black stripes. this is reversed in meowlody, who has a black bodysuit with white stripes with orange sleeves & tights. so their bodysuits+sleeves+tights are different but balanced. one has patterned bodysuit & solid coloured limbs, while the other has solid coloured bodysuit with patterned limbs. i try to avoid using a lot of patterns, bc i find too many patterns esp when they’re close together is just annoying to my eyes & makes everything look super busy. i think one of my mistakes with ver1 was not using any patterns though. i think the mirrored stripe patterns on ver2 are one of the things that rlly brings it together, both individually & as a pair.

+ just extra thoughts, ik their official designs have white stripes on their limbs, but i wanted them to look like real tuxedo cats, whose white patches are usually on the tips of their paws, tip of their tail, & the centre of the face extending down their chest. so those are the markings i gave them even tho it’s hard to see w their feet being covered & most of their hands being covered. also just wanna say!!!!! i just love designing monster high characters!!!! i’ve been doing it most of my life & it’s so incredibly important to me!!!!! that’s why i don’t usually share them lol, it feels like sharing part of my soul. but it brings me so much joy even tho my hand hurts & im sleepy, i rlly need to get better at digital art so that i can post drawings that don’t get ruined by my shitty phone camera😭😭 speaking of which here’s a terrible terrible guy who interrupted the photos:

[dollyknight]

Just some Cassie redesign doodles i mad on a plane because I wanted to make my design closer to the new model, I’ll probably post come coloured versions later

[spinningbagel]

Heyyyy y’all I come bearing a gift for you all ✨✨ (it’s Sheriff’s design in the Cyberpunk Au)

I debated posting this, not sure if I should wait to do the others but decided to just do them individually so I can talk about the design, the character in the Au and other things I feel the need to mention.

So without further ado, here’s Sheriffs design:

And an alternative version to show off some glowy parts of the outfit:

So, with Sheriffs design I wanted something interesting yet something that’d be mostly practical for his line of work. So he’s got a cool jacket for that with some orange accents to represent the district he lives in (I’ll talk about districts at a later date.) the orange accents are also on his shoes and the thingys on his pants.

The back of his jacket has the star to represent the sheriffs star he has in canon because I didn’t want to give him an actual one in this, if you’ve seen the one or two drawings I did of Hero, i did the same thing there just with the sleeves.

Moving on.

On his right arm, you’ll see what is essentially an electronic glove with a screen in his arm. It’s something Shooter created early into his and Sheriffs partnership, it does many things including having a built in map and communication app of Shooters design. Aside from using earpieces, this is their main form of contact, especially during stealth missions where it’s dangerous to speak.

And moving onto the left arm, we’ve got Sheriffs cybernetic arm, this is obviously to replace his mutated one in canon. It’s got dark greys on it in order to blend into the night but does have a light mode variant he can switch to at anytime. Yes, the shell of the arm can switch between light and dark and even a bunch of other colours. It’s a newer model in the world and is highly customisable. The arm also shifts into a gun as seen below the arm on the main drawing. There’s two variations, the first being where the hand becomes the gun and the second where it pops out of a compartment on the arm. I’m leaning more towards the first option but you guys can leave your thoughts.

There’s also his visor which is not on the main drawing but beside it, another one of Shooters creations, the visors job is to scramble facial recognition technology in order to keep Sheriffs identity secure. It can also make it seem like his eyes are a different colour to what they are. The visor also comes equipped with a mini map for when checking his sleeve isn’t an option.

Those are really the main parts of his design I wanted to mention. So let’s talk about other things about him.

In the MBCPAU, Sheriff is a bounty hunter and occasional assassin. He takes up odd jobs even given to him by clients or by other sources who give him information on criminals who have a bounty over their head. He’s obviously in this for the money, needing to pay off the loan he used to purchase his cybernetic arm (and have the surgery to get it attached. Yes it’s surgically attached to his body.) and to keep himself and Ryan under a safe roof. Ryan is wheelchair bound and doesn’t have an electronic one, not being able to afford it. Sheriff is also saving for one because he doesn’t want Ryan to strain himself trying to get around the house (which has been made as wheelchair accessible as possible.)

Sheriff met Shooter in high school and the two have been close ever since, Shooter has been assisting Sheriff on his missions since Sheriff barged into Shooters apartment one night, bleeding and delirious. Sheriff is thankful he’s on his team, Shooter saving his ass more times then he can count. Shooter doesn’t usually join him on missions, instead hanging back in his apartment and offering guidance from there.

Also this isn’t about Sheriff but Shooters parents are absolutely loaded (they’re head engineers for the company who produces cybernetic parts) so he lives in district 3.

Anywayss.

I believe that’s all, for any further questions you may be having, please head to my query box. It’s always open for asks and I live receiving them!!

As always, Stay safe and eat bread O/