#It's been a while since I did anything traditionally with pencils and paper

[suzylind]

Starting 2025 with a "redraw" in traditional style! From the Sonic Movie 3 none the less~

I really enjoyed the movie and I just wanted to attempt redrawing a moment I really.liked traditional style. Am very happy with the result! It's the boy after all.

[haosvteen]

I Found You | soulmate seventeen series

a/n: this is my first traditionally written imagine i’m posting here, so i hope you like it!! i’m a little bit nervous to post, so please let me know how you like it :)

minghao x reader | soulmate seventeen

~ - fluff

word count: 3.2k

main masterlist

All you could focus on is the ticking of the clock and the tapping of your pencil on the worn-out wooden desk. No matter how hard you tried to tune into your professor’s monotone voice lecturing about string theory, your mind kept wandering elsewhere. Literally anywhere else. At first, you started thinking about why you had to take this class anyway. It didn’t have anything to do with your major, so what was the point? But as soon as that thought came, it went, and you were trying to decide where to get lunch after the unnecessarily long class ended.

Leaning down to your side and reaching into your backpack on the floor, you pulled out a brown leather-bound notebook. Running your fingers over the intricate gold designs adorning the spine, admiring the swirls and flowers, you placed it on your desk and flipped it open. Gliding your pencil across the unlined, seemingly old paper, you wrote “What do I get for lunch? My stomach is about to grumble in class”.

You run a hand through your hair with a sigh and look back up at your professor, once again trying to figure out what he is attempting to explain. One-dimensional strings? Quantum gravity? It meant nothing to you. Thankfully, Hao had been helping you almost every night. Honestly, you felt a little bad because he was trying his hardest to make it simple for you, but the content was essentially impossible to understand. Your brain just doesn’t seem to cooperate when it comes to physics.

Looking back down at the notebook below you, you received a response: “What about that pizza place you like down the street from your apartment?”. Just the thought of the greasy slice of goodness makes your stomach emit an audible grumble, causing several heads near you to turn your way, judgmental looks behind their eyes. After taking a moment to apologetically smile at them and deal with your embarrassment, you jot on the paper, “Hao, you’re a genius how do you always know what I want?”.

Almost as quickly as you finished writing your sentence, you see Hao’s handwriting appear letter by letter on the page. “It’s because I’m your soulmate, duh”. You lean your head on your hand and smile to yourself, noticing the students around you start packing up their books and leaving the room, signaling to you that class had finished.

After closing all of your books and stuffing them in your backpack, you slung a strap on your shoulder and started to make your way out of the classroom. Before you had the opportunity to escape into the hallway, your professor called to you, “Ms. Y/L/N, would you mind seeing me for a moment?”

Slowly turning around, you made your way up to the front of the classroom where he was wiping down the blackboard for the next class. It felt as if you were walking to the gallows due to the tone of his beckoning. “Yes, sir?”, you asked, curious as to what this may be about. Had he noticed you weren’t paying attention? That you were writing in your soulmate journal?

“As you know, final exams are coming up and I am concerned about your final grade in this class. In order to pass, you need to earn at least an 85% or higher on the final,” he nonchalantly said, not even bothering to make eye contact with you as he began to pack up.

You knew that you were not the best at physics, but you did not realize your grade was so low. That you would basically have to eat, sleep, and breathe the subject until the end of the term. “I’m so sorry, is there any extra credit I could possibly do? I’ve been trying my best, it’s just that-“, before you had the opportunity to finish your statement, he had cut you off.

“You haven’t been trying your best, though. Far too often I see you writing away in that notebook of yours and I highly doubt your taking notes.” You didn’t even know what to say in response to that because he was right. You weren’t taking notes. But could you be blamed for wanting to talk with your soulmate? Somewhere along the way since your 16th birthday, you and Hao discovered that you lived in different time zones so there were only certain times of the day you could talk to each other…one of those times just happened to be during this class. If only your professor understood this.

As if the gruff man in front of you read your mind, he continued, “I am assuming that is your soulmate journal?” Silently giving a small nod, you internally cringed for what was to come because based on the raised eyebrow and demeaning glare, it could not be good. “You know all of that’s bullshit right?”. Your jaw slightly dropped because you were not expecting that to come from your professor’s mouth.

“Statistically only 32% of people actually end up with their ‘soulmate’? No one even understands the technology of these journals or where they come from. Researchers haven’t been able to find conclusive evidence of the accuracy of these journals. The odds are higher that you will end up with someone in this class rather than whomever you are speaking to through those pieces of paper. I suggest you keep this in mind for the remainder of the semester,” your professor concluded and hastily marched out of the classroom.

You are dumbfounded. You didn’t know what your professor wanted to see you about, but in no way did you suspect that. Alright, maybe you suspected him addressing you about your poor grade, but that rant? Probably would have been the last thing you guessed. After overcoming the initial shock of the encounter you just were on the receiving end of, you shook your head and finally left the room.

Walking down the street to your favorite pizza place (as Hao suggested), you couldn’t stop thinking about everything your professor said. Was it really true that only 32% of people end up with their soulmate? And now that you thought about it, having someone’s writing showing up in some magical journal you get on your 16th birthday seems a little impractical too.

After taking a seat at the small pizzeria, you took a bite, the cheese stretching, and about to fall off the slice. You wiped your greasy fingers off on a napkin before pulling out your soulmate journal to write to Hao, telling him his suggestion was an excellent choice.

While waiting for his response, you decided to do a little bit more research about the probability of soulmates ending up together. With a simple google search, thousands of articles came up about the illegitimacy of the journals, however, there were equally as many describing the validity of them while recounting people’s personal positive experiences.

After reading article after article, you couldn’t help but question if you would actually end up with Hao. You’d never had to think about it before. Your whole life, you had always been told: “whoever you write to in your soulmate journal is who you will find true love with and be forever happy”. You didn’t have a reason to question it either because you love Hao. Even though you had never seen him, you knew that you love him.

Your parents were connected through the soulmate journal and found each other, so they raised you to believe that the same would happen for you. The difference is that your parents had known each other since they were six years old. It was easier for them. You didn’t even know where Hao was from. You had your guesses considering his timezone, but you really knew nothing else. The journal would erase writing that held personal information (which sounds kind of…magical? but everyone has a notebook in which they can speak to their soulmate, so who’s to judge when that is an aspect of your world). When you first got your journal, you immediately wrote in it, providing your social media handles so your soulmate could find you. However, with every letter you wrote, they disappeared twice as fast.

There were many sleepless nights you complained to your friends about how hard it was because you just wanted to find him. You just wanted to be able to see his face. Hear his voice. Almost everyone you knew found their soulmates easily, but you were what felt like the only one left without your soulmate. Especially one on the other side of the world.

Becoming so wrapped in your thoughts, you picked up your pen again and wrote in the journal, “Hey…have you ever thought that we maybe…won’t end up together?”.

“What do you mean? Of course, we will end up together. We’re soulmates. That’s the whole purpose of this journal,” Minghao responded.

“I know, I know, but my professor just told me some stuff today. It’s stupid and I know I shouldn’t even worry about it, but he said that only 32% of people actually end up with their soulmate,” you explained. Sitting up in your seat, you started to get a little anxious. You know that Hao hated talking about this stuff.

“Y/N, I’ve told you this so many times before. We will find each other. I will find you. Don’t listen to the statistics,”. As you see the words appear on the paper in front of you, you can’t help but think…what if? What if you don’t find each other. Taking a moment to logically think about it, there is really no definitive way to track the other down. It all happens by chance.

As you placed your pen on the paper, about to write back, Hao’s handwriting appeared again. “I don’t want you to worry about this. The universe wants us together. It will find a way.”

With a sigh, you simply responded, “You’re right, I’ll talk to you later” and quickly drew a heart. You closed the journal, hoping it would help the thoughts leave your head, but you couldn’t stop the constant what-ifs running through your mind for the next days.

During that time, you did more research and truly discovered statistically how low the chances are that you will find your soulmate. There are 7.5 billion people in the world, what are the odds you find your person?

Things between you and Hao were never really the same after that.

It started out slowly. You would happen to forget your journal at home when you went out and instead of running back to get it (like you usually would), you didn’t bother. There were days that turned into weeks where you wouldn’t write to Minghao at all. Every so often you would maybe leave a kind message telling him to have a good day, but there were no longer meaningful conversations between you two. You even started seeing other boys. If statistically, you were not going to end up with Minghao, it was okay to start looking elsewhere.

Having been raised on the idea that this person on the other end of the journal is who you will end up with, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, didn’t allow you to experience young love the way many people do. When you turned 16, all of your attention went immediately to Minghao…because you were 100% sure you would end up with him. Now that you knew the small likelihood of that actually happening, you allowed yourself to find happiness. Even if it wasn’t with your soulmate.

Not to say that you forgot about Minghao. You could never forget about Minghao. But no matter how much you wished that it would work between you two, you knew the reality of the situation.

Several years had gone by. You and Minghao would write to each other in your journals sometimes, but never at the same time. Typically, you would write a message every several months to update him about what was going on in your life and he would do the same. Even years later, you still regret leaving him the way you did. You cannot imagine what providing little to no explanation did to him, but you were young. You didn’t know how to handle it.

But now, your life was completely different from those years ago when your best friend was through a journal. You had a career that you loved, amazing and supportive friends…there wasn’t more you could ask for. Except that you still hadn’t found someone. You thought that it would be easier to find a boy to spend your life with, even if it wasn’t Minghao, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Everyone was just looking for people to hook up and have one-night-stands with as they waited to find their soulmate. No one had accepted the reality of the situation as you had. While some might say that you were being pessimistic, you liked to think of it as being logical.

It was 8:54am and you were stumbling all over your apartment in an attempt to get dressed while simultaneously pack your bag for work. You were sure that you set your alarm for 6:30am so you had ample time to prepare and have a relaxing morning before you had to leave to catch your train.  The image of the 6:30am alarm on your phone being switched on was ingrained in your mind, you knew you turned it on. Technology works in mysterious ways.

While tugging on the first appropriate shoes you found, you swung open the closet door that contained your sweatshirts that were still appropriate for work. This was your go-to when you were running late and today was definitely one of those days. As you swiftly opened the door, a book fell down from the top shelf. Your soulmate journal.

The panic of the morning immediately halted. It had been years since you had even looked at it. You shoved it away in a random box while moving to this city for your job and you honestly hadn’t thought about it since. While the memories of your conversations with Minghao flooded your mind, you decided to pack it in your bag. Maybe you would write to him while you were on your lunch break.

Grabbing the last of your items, you hurried out the door, trying to make it to the next scheduled train. As you exited your building and began running down the busy sidewalk to the train station, the crisp air whipped against your face. Your nose and ears were numb, but that was the least of your worries.

Your lungs felt like they were on the verge of exploding as you approached the train and saw the double doors sliding closed. “Hey!!! Someone hold the door!!! Please!!!”, you shout breathlessly, hoping to catch the attention of anyone inside the warm transport. To your luck, someone heard you and stuck their hand outside. Little did they know they were saving you from having to wait another 30 minutes for a train.

As you quickened your pace to enter the train, you smiled at the man who held the doors open for you, “Thank you so much, if it weren’t for you I would even more late for work than I am now”.

“No problem,” he said while making his way to a seat. Taking a moment to smooth out your hair, you followed behind him trying to find a place of your own. After looking around, the only one you found available was right across from that same man.

You looked at your watch and couldn’t help but watch the seconds and minutes tick away, making you more and more late for work. Stealing you from your trance, your phone began ringing. Noticing that it was your boss, you couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh.

Before you had the opportunity to say hello, he was screaming into your ear, “Y/N where are you?! We need you here now!! This is unacceptable behavior.”

“I understand, I apologize. I’m on my way, sir. I will be there as fast as I can,” you responded, trying to keep your cool. After some more several unkind words, your boss hung up the phone. Running your hands over your face, you look up to see the man sitting opposite you, staring at you with wide eyes and a slightly agape mouth. You gave him a small smile and looked away, trying to ignore the look he continued to give you.

“Y/N?” you heard him say.

“Oh, me?” you questioned, to ensure that he was talking to you. Hopefully whatever he has to say won’t take too long because the train was due to stop in three minutes and you had to get off immediately.

He responds with a nod, eyes still as wide as a deer in headlights, “I’m Minghao”.

With that, your expression imitated his. Minghao? As in your Minghao?

“Wait, I don’t understand. You’re here?” you asked because last time you read a message from him in the journal, he hadn’t moved or mentioned traveling. Well…the last time you had touched the journal was years ago.

Minghao quickly moved to rummage in his bag. After a few moments, he pulled out a brown leather-bound notebook…with gold designs on the spine…swirls and flowers.

Before you knew what you were doing, you also began to dig in your bag for your soulmate journal…that happened to fall out of your closet today…that you wouldn’t have opened if your alarm would have gone off…

You immediately opened the old journal for the first time in years. The first words you see are, “I found you”.

Looking up at Hao, tears began to form in your eyes. You hadn’t admitted it to yourself, but it had been so hard without him. It’s like whenever you weren’t with him, everything was so much worse. Even if you only knew each other through the soulmate journal.

The train came to a screeching stop and the people around you began standing and exiting to the station, but you two remained seated. There were some people giving you some strange looks, but they didn’t realize that two people who were meant to be together had finally met. That you and Hao had met.

“I’ve looked everywhere for you,” Hao said as he stood up. “I told you I would find you.”

You couldn’t help yourself, but run up and wrap your arms around him. The arms you wanted to hold you since you were 16. You could finally feel him. Hear his voice. See his face. You could be with him. Not just through pieces of bound paper.

You pulled away from him and looked up into his eyes. Your cheeks were tear-stained, but you couldn’t help it. “We are not a statistic,” Hao softly whispered. His eyes flicked from yours, down to your lips. He moved his hands up to your face, using his thumbs to wipe the tears that won’t stop cascading down your cheeks. He leaned into you slowly, softly pressing his lips to yours.

“I found you,” Hao said so only you could hear, as he leaned his forehead against yours.

He found you.

[yeehawitstheplague]

I've been extremely touch starved lately and I do be dying for some fluffy cuddles n kisses n shit-- Can I just get some cute fluff stuff with the Quinnster, plz n thx 🥺👉👈

ngl this was so fun to write, i’m so weak for soft Caleb 🥺

also used my hc for Caleb’s horse

. . .

Your gaze was fixated on the paper in front of you, stroking soft lines with your pencil. You’d gotten a bit inspired while just sitting around the saloon. Caleb wasn’t around at the moment, you figured he was either out in trial or in his workshop; so you found yourself sketching pictures of his horse, Jesse.

At least thats the name you gave him, Caleb told you he didn’t really have a name in their past life but did like the name Jesse for him. Jesse seemed to like it too, always nuzzling your arm when you would greet him coming back to Glenvale after trial. He would stand near the entrance and wait for you to come back from time to time. You saw him more like a big puppy dog than a horse at times.

You watched him stand peacefully outside the saloon, drinking out of the water trough and nibbling at some apples you would find him ever so often. You continued to work at your paper, focusing in on the smaller details in his face when you heard him whinny outside. You glanced back over to see what got his attention, only to see Caleb returning home. He wore his usual duster coat and carried his rifle, so you assumed he just returned from trial. He gave Jesse a pat before taking a step into the saloon. He didn’t realize you were there until you greeted him. He turned his head to the table you were sitting at and smiled.

“Hiya, darlin’, didn’t see ya there” he said, laying his gun down by the edge of the bar table. He walked over toward you and gave you a kiss to your temple before looking down at your drawing.

He stared at it for a moment, taking in all the details then smiled. “I’m sure the ol’ boy will appreciate your work” he joked.

You giggled, “Yeah, just figured I’d pass the time, nothing else really to do”.

Caleb looked at you for a moment then out to Jesse. He then grabbed your hand and motioned for you to follow.

“Let’s go for a little ride, you and me”.

Your eyes lit up, eagerly standing from your spot and following behind him.

You couldn’t remember the last time Caleb took you for a ride on Jesse. It had been a long time since the two of you had really just had one on one bonding time, with him being so busy with his duties and you catering to your trials as well.

Caleb whistled for Jesse to come, petting his nose before quickly throwing a bridle on him and handing the reins to you to hold him, while he put his saddle on. Jesse looked at you with big brown eyes as you spoke kind words to him. He was a gorgeous animal, a red roan is what Caleb said he was if you remembered correct. And he was always so patient with the people he trusted, meaning only you and Caleb. You smiled to yourself remembering how Caleb would joke about Jesse beginning to like you even more than he did Caleb.

Caleb tightened the strap on the saddle one more time to ensure it was fitted in place then turned to you.

“You wanna lead him this time?” he asked.

You were surprised, “Can I?” you asked, much like a child.

Caleb chuckled, motioning for you to get on. You took his hand as he helped you hoist yourself up on the large animal, scooting closer to the front end. Caleb threw the reins over Jesse’s head and to you before throwing a leg over and sitting down behind you. You held the reins in your hands the way Caleb had taught you before, low and loose. Shoulders relaxed and back straight.

“Thats a girl, go and give ‘em a kick” he said. You gently bumped your heels at Jesse’s sides, asking him to move forward. He began walking down the dirt path around the town. You were practically beaming in excitement, you’d never done anything like this before. Caleb wrapped an arm loosely around your waist, watching you work with Jesse. He adored how well you and Jesse got along, he often made the joke that Jesse knew you were the one before he did.

At first, you did some rounds around the saloon just to get the hang of things then Caleb pointed over towards the exit of Glenvale.

“I found a little spot not far from here the other day, I wanna show ya”.

You nodded and sent Jesse in that direction. The dusty, dirt trail turned to dark soil as you entered the ominous forest that you found yourself walking through each time you returned to Glenvale from the campfire. Caleb directed you to the entrance of a secluded cave that sat not far from where you came. You pulled Jesse to a stop and Caleb hopped off to tie his reins to a nearby tree. He offered out his hand to help you off and guided you into the dark cave. You were lying if you didn’t say it made you uneasy. You gently gripped Caleb’s hand, staying very close as you walked through the tunnel. He chuckled looking down at you.

“Ain’t nothin’ to be ‘fraid of, doll. I been through here a few times, ain’t nothin’ roaming around” he assured you. You trusted him.

Soon enough a dull light could be seen at the end of the tunnel.

“There it is” he said, pointing towards the light. He led you up the opening where the light was coming from to reveal a hidden crystal oasis. The walls of the rock cave were covered in sprouting, glowing crystals, shining together to make the light you’d seen. And in the middle, lay a pond of clear water, seemingly untouched. It was a gorgeous sight of scenery.

“Saw that light peeking the other day and came across this beauty. I figured you’d like it”.

He knew you well, you loved ‘hidden treasures’ like this. You peered down at the water, glistening in perfection. It had been forever since you had been swimming. You remembered the hot summer nights back on Earth when you would go swimming with your friends, some of the best memories you had in your past life.

You neared the waters edge and began to strip yourself of your shirt and pants, until you were in just your undergarments.

Caleb watched you with a smirk. You rolled your eyes at him before beckoning him to come with you.

He shook his head.

“Nah, you do your thing, darlin’. I’m fine just watching”.

You huffed, but went ahead and stepped into the water. It was smooth and cooling on your skin as you sunk in deeper. At its deepest, you could keep your head above the water on your tip toes. Otherwise you were completely engulfed in this relaxing atmosphere. It was perfect, too perfect not to share.

You turned to Caleb again, who was rested on the rocks above, hand rested on his chin, watching you contently.

You beckoned for him again.

“Come on, it feels nice”

you said. Caleb shook his head again with a smile.

You neared the edge of the pond and looked up at him with puppy dog eyes.

“Please” you begged.

Caleb chuckled before giving in. He stood and removed his clothes down to just his boxers. He neared the waters edge before undoing his leg brace. He figured he’d be alright without it just this once, considering you were practically weightless underwater. He shuddered as he sunk in, not being used to this feeling since he was a kid.

But he had to admit, it did feel really nice.

You smiled as you swam toward him.

“See, what did I tell you?” you gloated. Caleb chuckled before pulling you into his arms. You wrapped your legs around his waist as he held you. Tall as he was, he could stand at the deepest with the water just washing over his shoulders.

For a while, you both really didn’t say anything. You just took in and basked in each others presence. You rested your head in the dip of his shoulder, mindlessly running your fingers through his damp hair. Caleb would run his hand up and down your back, while laying soft kisses on your shoulder and neck.

You missed this, your alone time with him. Its what made this hellish world worth surviving for. For a while, you would often think to yourself ‘what am I fighting so hard to live for if I’m just gonna be sucked back into another trial’. You eventually answered your own question when you fell in love with someone traditionally assigned to be your enemy. You never understood what drove you to Caleb, but you didn’t care to remember now. All you knew was that he loved you and you loved him.

In those mindless times when you would lay in his arms at night and he would lull you to sleep with the sweet words he whispered to you. How you were his everything, how you tamed the anger that burned like a furnace in his bones, you were his sun, stars and moon. He would protect to his last breath because you are everything worth fighting for.

You could almost cry sometimes because you could feel the genuine nature coming from his voice. He made you feel safe, even in a world were everything was out to kill you. He was your home. And you were his, no matter where you were.

The shine of the crystals glistened on his skin, compelling you to gently touch the shininess. Tracing patterns on his skin where the lights fell. You felt Caleb shift slightly as he waded over to a shallower part of the pond, sitting you on the ledge, giving you a slight height advantage over him for once. You giggled placing your hands over his shoulders.

“So this is what it feels like” you teased. He rolled his eyes before letting you press your lips to his. His hands fell on the sides of your thighs, pulling you slightly to him. His body was always so warm and inviting. You broke from your kiss to his star dazed eyes.

He swore you were the only person that could do that to him, make him all soft and starry eyed just from a kiss. You pulled the wet strands of hair out from dangling in his face, taking in his features. You could swear you could see faint remains of freckles in his cheeks and across his nose. Probably more prominent in his youth and faded with age. You gave gentle pecks where you saw the remains, making him smile and softly scrunch his face.

“You’re cute, ya know that?” you said.

Caleb made a face.

“Thats more your genre, darlin” he defended.

You simply shook your head and kissed him again.

“You’re cute to me”

He laughed,

“Whatever you say”.

His eyes wandered across your glistening body. You were the most gorgeous sight he’d laid eyes on. He appreciated and adored every piece of you. Every scar, blemish, and imperfection you despised on yourself, only gave him another reason to love you. It made you unique, it made you: You. And that’s something he wouldn’t change for the world.

You caught him staring.

“What?” you questioned. He softly shrugged. “Just admiring what a piece of beauty ya’ are”.

Your cheeks tinted pink, playfully slapping his shoulder “Oh stop”.

“I mean it, darin” he said “I ain’t gonna lie to ya when I say, ain’t no woman I ever met or seen that ever made me feel like I do about you”.

Your eyes softened.

“I know I don’t say it enough, but I love ya’. More than anybody ever could. And I’m thankful that you care about me the way you do,” he paused for a moment to look up at your eyes.

“You make me feel whole again, like I’m human.. Ain’t nobody ever made me feel like that”.

You could feel your emotions welling up inside. You cupped his cheek before wrapping your arms around him. You held him firmly, wanting to make him feel safe and loved. You loved this man more than words could say. You knew he was a broken soul, most everyone here was. But with everyday you were with him, you did your best to love the missing pieces of soul back into him. To show him the kindness and respect he never got before. And each day, he fell more and more in love with you for it.

You whispered a soft ‘I love you’ to him, he didn’t reply, he only held you longer.

What seemed like hours had past, before Caleb took notice of the growing darkness outside the cave, turning back to you.

“We should probably head back”.

You frowned, throwing your arms back around him.

“But I like our bonding time” you whined.

Caleb pulled you back into his arms again, giving you soft kisses to your face.

“We still got the rest of the night. Ain’t nobody coming ‘round. Hows bout we go back, and pour us both a drink, yeah?”

he suggested. He was right, nobody was gonna come around and this spot wasn’t going anywhere. You nodded, letting him place you back on the ledge to dry off. He joined you after.

Once most of the water had run off you both, you got dressed and went back to find Jesse where you left him. You admitted you were a little tired, so you opted to let Caleb lead this time. You jumped on the back of Jesse, curling close behind Caleb. Wrapping your arms around his mid section as you rode back. His free hand rubbed the knuckles of your hands wrapped around him. As the glowing lanterns attached to the buildings of the town in the distance caught your eye, you peered back up at the content face of your beloved cowboy. You smiled to yourself, wondering how you found such a hidden treasure in someone assigned to be your enemy. But once again you didn’t care to much to think on it, you just accepted that you were very fortunate. You were snapped from your thoughts by Caleb’s voice.

“We should do that more often”, he said looking back at you.

“I miss our time too”.

You smiled, snuggling closer into him.

“Sounds good to me”

[viria]

hello viria~ i really admire your art, it's so amazing! if you just answer me a "hi", i will be so happy lol ok, let's start it for the begin. I am 12 years old. I draw since 10y, and my art really improved. I can draw really better in the paper, with the pencil and things like this. You do your draws with digital art? And how long did it take for you to get accustomed, or succeed? that's it, thanks! (i love your nico)

Hello!:”) First of all, thank you!

As for digital art - yes, I pretty much only ever work through digital media. I feel like i got so accustomed to it, my traditional works really...lack, compared to digital ones, I can never get a piece as decent with traditional media as I can with digital. 

I have been drawing traditionally only at the very start of my art journey, and it’s been so long! I probably drew on paper for the first couple of years, and to be honest I don’t remember as well the actual process of getting used to it, but I do remember that for me it wasn’t too hard. I really wanted to learn how to do digital art so I feel like all the struggles were kinda lost because digital art was (and still is) so fun for me?

I guess it everyone has their own journey with it, like it can take so little for one person to adjust, and then someone else can’t get used to it for a while. But, we can get used to absolutely everything! It’s like riding one bicycle for years, and then getting a new one. First it feels weird and kind of off, but over time you can’t really ride anything else, so same thing is going to be here:3

I can’t quite say whether or not it’s going to be quick and easy for you, but I can  say with certainty that it is totally possible:”) Especially considering you’ve only been drawing for two years, it can take you less to adjust to a new media than to say for someone with 10 years of experience, simply because you’re a bit less used to it all and still have so much ahead of you.

As for success part...I always feel like I am not enough. I feel like this burning unsatisfaction is what keeps us going and striving for more, and the more you strive for improvement - the more you improve, and you keep it up. So hard work really pays off, and I wish you all the best

[mysticsparklewings]

Sparkle By the Sea

Pardon me as I just barely squeeze a MerMay piece of art in. I'll be honest with you guys, I've been pretty lacking in artistic motivation since NaPoWriMo ended. Although if you've noticed my lack of uploads, you probably could've already guessed that.  This isn't abnormal for the aftermath of a month-long challenge for me, especially with a brand-new video game calling my name at every moment of the day, but even so I feel like this particular motivation drought was a bit different. Part of it definitely had to do with the changes to DeviantArt that I'm sure I don't need to remind everyone of, but that's been more of me dreading seeing what the state of the community is than anything else. (However, I have noticed I'm not a fan of the new tag system over the old category one, as confusing as the category system could be sometimes.) Rather, I think this lake of motivation has more to do with the fact that being largely absent from all social media during NaPo reminded me...well, that I hate social media. This is really a bigger discussion for a journal or something, but suffice to say it did not feel good to realize just how many literal hours I had previously been spending trying to desperately to scrape up just a little bit of support on other social media platforms (namely Twitter), versus the more natural growth I see here on dA that also feels a lot more genuine and less forced/obligatory. I can't really explain it, but that reminder/realization really helped my brain slip back into a place where I felt like creating again. And with that, I'll transition into talking about the art and save the social media talk for, as I said, a journal or something later on. Naturally, I've been seeing a lot of mermaid art this month and every year I feel the urge to get in on the fun, though I know better than to try actually doing the MerMay Challenge (especially not this year after having just done NaPo), so I usually either do a one-off drawing or if I'm too busy with other projects I just skip it. But I was starting to feel that need to make art in my brain again and I've had a specific set of stickers from the dollar store sitting in my stash for quite a while now that more or less sealed the deal for me. How do these stickers fit into the mix? Well, I originally fell in love with/picked them up because they are mermaid-themed and absolutely adorable--See for yourself! And I thought they would make for nice decals in a book project since they're wall stickers and therefore repositionable with minimal adhesive-yuck. And at first, I thought maybe I'd end up making them into said hypothetical book project in time for MerMay...except that felt a little cheap in combination with my lack of uploads. Did I really want to come back with a book project featuring mermaids I didn't even draw? And for MerMay of all things? So I sat on the idea and left the stickers out where I could see them, and eventually I sat down and took a closer look at them. The art style, upon further inspection, actually didn't look like it would be too far outside my usual art-making realms...Most of the coloring looks a lot like watercolor, except for the skin which I thought was flat and smooth like alcohol marker and the glitter accents which from my perspective pretty much had to be digital, but could potentially be replicated with glittery/metallic supplies... And that was the moment the idea hatched.  I decided I'd try drawing a mermaid myself in the same style. This would work for MerMay, have something to do with the stickers, and based on my plans would work well for me as a mixed-media project, which as I'm sure I've said before is where I think my artistic talent shines best. I thought the scariest part was going to be replicating the looser and less strict line style, and to a point it was, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I find it's usually kind of tricky to explain this, but really what this part of the process boils down to for me (if I'm replicating an existing style and not using my own), is really just studying the original artwork(s) and looking for patterns, then trying to stick to those patterns. For example, the style here features fairly large & rounded faces, and the hands are more like hand-shaped mittens (which was great news by the way because hands are always a pain in the butt for me), so I did my best to emulate those features. As per usual, I did start with a sketch, but I tried to keep it looser than usual, and then when I did the inking I started with my 0.2 Micron, again trying to keep things loose and no be too fussy if I could help it. Then I went back with a brush tip liner from Prismacolor to get more natural variation in the lines and to force myself to not have quite so much control over the line weight. I was also very careful with my choice of liners because I knew pretty much everything except the skin was going to see a lot of watercolors, which meant the lines had to be waterproof. And of course, I went with watercolor paper (my nice 100% cotton stuff this time) to make sure I didn't have any issues with blending or layering. Now, at this stage, I didn't know what I was going to do for the background, though I was leaning towards the idea of making one separately and placing the mermaid on top afterward, as sort of a nod to the original mermaids being stickers. But I wasn't totally sure yet. What I was sure of was how scared I was to just dive into coloring. The sketching and inking and gone so well I was thinking I was in for a rude awakening at any moment. So, just in case, I scanned my uncolored lines as a fall-back if I royally screwed up. With my paranoid mind set at ease (for the most part), I could begin with color application. I started with the skin since it was the easiest; Just one good layer of alcohol marker, leaving a little white space here and there like the artwork I was emulating. Although 1. The marker color turned out a bit darker than I was expecting and later blended too well with her tail, so I had to lighten it in Photoshop, and 2. because watercolor paper really soaks up the ink, I ended up with less white space than I thought I would. But beyond that, this step went off without a hitch. So then came the second-scariest part: The watercolor. I used a mixture of my Master's Touch watercolors and Mermaid Markers (yes, that was a very conscious supply choice ) and tried to take my time and be mindful of the color balance I was looking for. I'd decided ahead of time that I wanted to try and stick with a soft-ish palette like the original art, but I still wanted my choices to be different. Since yellow/gold is featured in the original but not used for a tail color, that's what I went with, and I opted for the blue-y-purple hair since a soft blue and purple are also prominent in the original and based on color-theory would be a nice contrast to the gold-orange tail. Though I did also try to get some pink in both the tail and the hair for a bit of unity and calling back to the pink in the original art. The trickiest part with the coloring was actually the tiny lips and blush spots. I ended up using a fluorescent pink for that turned out as more of a red originally and had to be touched-up via Photoshop because of that and also because of the lightening I did to the skin. It's more that it was a bit of a challenge to get the shapes of these much smaller areas right and in the correct place, since I had to use very minimal pencil markings, lest I end up with nasty graphite marks mixed into the paint. Getting the hair to be dark enough without being extreme compared to the rest of the drawing was also a great test of patience, but it ultimately worked out, I think. I also had a hard time deciding what color the piece of coral in her hair should be, which is why it ended up as this vague dusky-orange color. And I got more pink on the sand dollar next to it than I intended, but neither of those things is a huge deal. While I waited for all that to dry though, I had to decide how I was going to go about tackling all that extreme sparkle the original art had. I could have just added it in digitally and not even attempted it traditionally, but everything else had gone so smoothly that I decided to push my luck this time. Originally, I started with just glittery gel pens, but I found pretty quickly that they were sinking back into the colors underneath them too much and thus just weren't doing what I wanted. I wanted high-impact sparkle. After some brief consideration, I turned to the metallic watercolor sets I have made by Art Philosophy, which are very high-impact metallic and pretty opaque, which would work well over my failed gel pen and would work wonders for the areas where I wanted that high-impact over an opposing color. (I.E. Where I wanted the blue sparkle over a very orange-yellow area, which would normally make brown mud if the color on top wasn't opaque.) The funny part about that is that I originally used a different shade of purple and gold for those areas of sparkle that I ended up completely covering with different shades (the purple needed to be lighter and the gold needed to be darker/more gold and less yellow). And her eye shadow cover saw all three colors before I settled; The purple just seemed wrong, and the gold blended too well with her skin. I thought the blue wouldn't work so close to her blue hair, but it actually ended up looking the best out of the three. Although, I do have to make a full disclosure that the high-impact sparkle you see here is in fact where I went in and re-did it digitally once I scanned the artwork in. Unfortunately, glitter and metallic supplies just don't scan very well and usually end up looking too dark, dull, or flat by comparison. The metallic paints work just fine in person since you can move the art and see how they reflect the light, but it just doesn't work in a still image that's been captured by having a bright light uniformly shined over it. Still, re-tooling the sparkle digitally ended up being an interesting challenge, especially since it's been a fairly long time since I was messing with digital textures like this. Also worth noting is that I had to re-paint some of the metallic areas because they weirdly lifted off onto the plastic cover I used to protect the art when I pressed it onto the background to make the glue stick. I'm not sure if it's because those were the extra-layered areas and they hadn't fully dried all the way down to the paper, or if that particularly plastic just picks up this metallic paint really easily or what. And speaking of that background... Like I said earlier, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do for a background for a while, but after reviewing my mermaid-centric Pinterest board I decided a simple rock seat and something to vaguely suggest the ocean/water without getting too detailed would suffice just fine. Based on that, I felt like using gouache would work nicely (and I just really felt like using the gouache since I don't find a lot of opportunities to use it) and that a color scheme that flipped her hair and tail colors would be best for the effect I wanted. I've found I really like the Strathmore 400 series mixed media paper for gouache because of how smooth it is, so I cut a piece down to size and got busy. For the most part, I just kind of went in with the colors doing whatever felt right, and trying to use some gouache I'd already mixed from past projects (since gouache can be reactivated and I've found this kind, in particular, seems to reactivate really nicely) either on their own or to mix the colors I felt like I needed. And I also tried to do a lot of blending straight on the paper to get more variations in color and make things a bit more lively. Oddly enough, this ended up being a good example of gouache's covering power because I accidentally started applying the colors upside down--using more greens and blues on top and more pinky-purple on the bottom--and not only had to flip the paper around but also had to do a fair amount of covering the colors I'd already put down with colors you don't really want to mix with them because they don't make very pretty results.  But it worked out just fine, so yay! I also added some clouds for a little extra ambiance, which I think looks quite nice. Believe it or not, the most difficult thing about the background was the rocks. I spent far longer than I care to admit (or bothered to document, for that matter) trying and in many ways failing to mix the proper shades of gray I wanted, and the end result didn't turn out quite as clean and graphic as I had hoped, but by the time I put the mermaid on top, you really can't tell because you can only see a fraction of what's actually there.  And I mean, the end result isn't terrible, it's just not quite what I was picturing in my mind's eye is all. Personally, I know it's kind of an odd choice, but I really like how there's no defining line between the water and the sky, and yet you still get a clear idea that they're separate and the rocks aren't just floating in space. I'm not sure how, but I think I'd like to work with this kind of ambiguity more often. It's like a step between abstract and more structured art. Anyway. With the background done, the next step was to attach the mermaid, which I felt like doing in a more 3D and less flat manner, so I chopped up a cardboard box that previously held a chocolate bunny I had on hand and glued some pieces together to boost the mermaid up a bit. This where those deep shadows between her and the background are coming from.   Here I feel the need to insert a comment about how difficult it was to get my tacky glue to dispense the glue for me, though there's a chance this is because I need to poke the opening in the tip to be a bit wider. (You have to poke it open yourself and I always felt like I never did get it open quite enough...unless you like strenuous hand exercises...) Of course, once all the above was done then I had to scan the art in, which I was admittedly a bit nervous about after the incident with the plastic cover peeling off the metallic paint (though fortunately, the scanner glass didn't have the same effect), and then all that was left wad the digital retouches. Overall, I'm really happy with how this turned out. It doesn't blend in as well as I originally wanted it to with the original art, but in the end, that doesn't really bother me. It's just a nice piece of art on its own that is also unique from what I normally do...except it's still got a lot of similar elements to how I normally make art. It feels a lot like the days when all I made was fanart. The key difference here is that I know myself better as an artist now and thus can use that knowledge to my advantage. I can't promise this a return to regular posting for me, though I do hope it's a gateway to me posting more frequently at least, but I can say I do intend on getting back to working on art more often and therefore being more present online again. At the very least, I can happily tell you guys that I have a couple of new art supplies en route to me that I've been wanting for a while and am excited to share with you once they arrive.  If nothing else, we at least have that to look forward to! ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[loversandantiheroes]

My anxiety is actively trying to murder me today, so here’s a first kiss ficlet for my farmer Flax and Harvey because writing fluff is good for a distraction...

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The little gathering at the tavern had been Flax’s idea.  She’d seen Harvey’s named penciled onto the community calendar outside Pierre’s by sheer accident.  A week and a half into January had found her standing there with her arms laden full of spring seeds that would need to be set sprouting in the shed before they could be planted, checking the bulletin board for anything of interest.  The wind had picked up, ruffling the pages of the calendar and she’d caught sight of a hastily scribbled note in February.  Written in the box for the 14th beneath the fine print that labeled it as The Festival of Hearts, in a hand that looked suspiciously like Maru’s, were the words “Harvey b-day!”  

Pelican Town traditionally did little for the Festival of Hearts, it had long since been folded into the following month’s Flower Dance, but it still gave her a little pang to think of Harvey weathering the double blow of that holiday and his birthday by himself.  And so she had planned for a dinner.  Nothing terribly overdone, but Gus had been easy to ply with the promise of a case of blackberry wine for the use of the back room.  Maru had come, of course, with a nervous-looking Penny in tow, along with Elliot and Leah.  

Harvey had been deeply flustered by the whole affair, and it had only made it worse when Emily had brought in the cake (black forest - he’d seemed fond of the cherries she’d bombarded everyone with last spring) and proceeded to plant a wet smack of a kiss on his forehead and wish him a happy birthday.  He had eventually relaxed, thanks in no small part, she suspected, to the wine she had brought, and by the time the gifts came out, he was smiling.

Elliot had brought a fountain pen inlaid in black mother-of-pearl.  Leah’s gift was a stained oak plaque carved with a rod of Asclepius.  Penny glanced nervously between Maru and Harvey before handing over her own gift, a book on famous pilots of the Ferngill Republic.  Given Maru’s gentle encouragement and Harvey’s unabashed enthusiasm over the gift, Flax suspected Penny might’ve had a little help.  Maru gave him a glass pour-over coffee maker, saying that while she’d considered making him a proper one, she knew he’d favor the low-tech option.

When Flax set her gift on the table, wide and flat and roughly the size of a wall calendar, Harvey had shaken his head.  “No, Flax, you didn’t have to.  Honestly this is, this has all been, you’ve done more than enough...”

“I am an overachiever by nature, Harvey,” she said, sliding the package across the table.  “Happy birthday.”

Smiling and blushing, Harvey tore neatly through the wrapping paper.  And then fell utterly silent.

He looked up, found Flax’s eyes.

“How did-?”

She smiled hopefully.  “Friend of mine back in Zuzu works at this record store.  I took a guess and I pulled a favor.  I hope you like it.”

There was a long, long pause, long enough for the others gathered at the table to start exchanging nervous looks, before Maru put on here best ice-breaking smile and said, “Don’t leave us hanging, Harv, what is it?”

Harvey blinked, startled out of his thoughts.  “Uhm.  It’s uh.  Jazz record.  Blue Moon Woods.  Phoenix Colt.”  He pulled the rest of the wrapping paper off to reveal a slightly worn record, the cover a serene and slightly ominous painting of tall pines under a bright blue moon.  There was a heavy black scrawl across the bright blue sky.

“Signed,” he added, dumbstruck.  Behind his thick glasses, Harvey’s eyes shone just a little overbright.

Elliot tossed his head back and laughed.  “Lesson learned - I need to step up my gift-giving-game when Flax is involved.”

It was late when they all filed out, Elliot leading a very giggly and quite drunk Leah by the arm with the promise to get her home in once piece.  Maru pulled Harvey down for a hug, wrapping her arms so tightly around his neck his face threatened to turn purple, before offering to walk Penny back to her trailer.  Penny gave a little backward wave as they walked off, calling out “Happy birthday, Harvey!” one last time.

And then it was just the two of them.

They set off slowly across the town square.  The moon was out, bright and blue-white, and there was still enough snow on the ground that it was, even given the hour, quite bright.

“Thank you,” Harvey said as they reached the door of his clinic.  “It hardly seems adequate after all tonight, but...thank you.  This was the best birthday I’ve had since...well, probably ever,” he added with a laugh.

“Thought you could use a good night out,” she said, shrugging.  “I’ve had more than a few low and lonely birthdays.  I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.  Least of all you.”

He blinked, the white plume of his breath ceasing altogether.  “Least of all?”

Too much wine, she thought, feeling the flush creep up her cheeks.  Sweet Yoba, far too much wine.

“You’re one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, Harvey.  Even if you do chastise me like a flustered nun when I come in injured.”

“Well if you’d exercise a little more caution when crawling through old mineshafts...”

She laughed, and he at least had the good grace to look a little abashed.

“I’m glad you had a good time,” she said.  “You deserved it.”

Leaning his shoulder against the clinic door, Harvey looked up, moonlight reflecting off his glasses, and shook his head wonderingly.  “I don’t think there’s anything could have made this night better.”

“I could kiss you, if you like.”  The words were out of her mouth before she’d even finished thinking them.

Harvey stared at her, the same look of shock on his face as when he’d opened her gift.  And then he smiled, broad and achingly sweet.  His hand cupped her cheek, the leather of his gloves cold against her skin.  And he shook his head.

“No,” he said.  “If I’m ever lucky enough to witness that sort of a miracle, I’d rather be sober enough to remember it.”  And then, almost sadly, “And to know you were sober enough to mean it.”

She covered his hand with her own and squeezed.  “I am.  And I mean it.”

He drew in a sharp breath.  “Tomorrow.  If you still mean it.”

“Tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Flax.”

“Goodnight, Harvey.  Happy birthday.”

Again he smiled.  “It was.”

* * *

The next morning brought little in the way of a hangover, thankfully.  A hot shower helped, and a few painkillers and an antacid over breakfast took care of the rest.  She made her early rounds feeding the livestock and then set off for town with a thermos of chamomile tea and a “burrito” of eggs rolled in bacon wrapped up in a bit of waxed paper stuck in her coat pocket.

Harvey was sat behind the desk leafing through a stack of medical journals when she pushed her way inside.  She saw him wince every so slightly at the bell, and immediately thrust the thermos at him.  “You’ll want this, I think.”

He eyed it with some suspicion.  “If that’s one of Emily’s ‘hangover cures’ I think I’d rather-”

“Chamomile.”

“Oh, bless you.”  He grabbed for it immediately.

“Have you eaten?” she asked, taking her usual spot on the front desk.

He nudged his glasses with a knuckle, shifting his eyes away.  “Not, um, much.”

She pulled the erstwhile burrito from her pocket and set it next to the thermos.

“You didn’t have to,” he mumbled.  “Really.”

“Did anyway.”

“Yeah, I see that.”  He took a healthy gulp of tea and gave a little sigh.  “I needed that.  Thank you.  Seems to be a bit of a habit lately.  Me thanking you.”

“I don’t mind if you don’t,” she said.

A little of the nervousness left his face.  “I suppose that’s alright, then.”

Her own nerves, on the other hand, were screaming.  Her heart was beating so hard she could feel the throb of it in her teeth.  He was looking up at her, smiling sweetly, and she was struck by how green his eyes were, how kind.  

Now or never, now or never, now or never.  

She bent down, cupped his face in both her hands, and kissed him.

He went completely still, a statue done up in green tweed and brown curls.  As she pulled back his eyes were wide and startled.

“I-” he stammered, one hand finding her wrist and squeezing, as if trying to be sure she was real.  He swallowed hard.  “I didn’t think you meant it.”

She grinned and kissed the tip of his nose.  “You think too much.”

[jackednephi]

@starseedjenny you have observed my tags and for this you get an infodump

So Dylan (my husband) took levels in carpentry. He's no master carpenter but he can make furniture. His absolute favorite thing to do is to get gnarly tree roots or branches and carve them into odd length walking sticks and then sell them at the local wood shop. It's easier to use a stick instead of a cane (my back hurts a LOT from using my cane but never with a stick) and different people are different heights. Plus, something people don't think about is there are incredibly short people or even children. So why not have something beautiful and sturdy?

What he does is he carefully exposes what it is about the piece of wood that is unique. Are the different bark layers different colors? He'll strip the bark carefully to have a gradient flowing up the stick until the heart of the wood, its true color as it were, is exposed. Did it have a lot of branches? Find a way to show off the cool knots. Basically, he works with what he has to let the thing speak for itself. Less actual carving like swirls or whatever and more revealing what it is that makes that stick special. Takes less technical carving skill but a good eye for natural beauty. My uncle carved my grandmother her cane before he passed and while it's a beautiful piece, it is definitely carved if that makes sense

Anyway, as you know I love arting and crafting and making pretty things with my hands. Because of church, I know how to embroider, quilt, scrapbook, make pretty much anything you could ever want from cloth from actual clothes to scripture holders, and all the usual home stuff afab people get taught in YWs. I know how to knit (with a loom), make paper art, draw traditionally, paint traditionally (and know how to stretch my own canvas), create beautiful digital art, create rough architecture blueprints that are less rough with minecraft now, stain wood, cook, make rugs, and basically if there is a craft out there I don't know, I learn very quickly as I'm great with my hands and my hand-eye coordination is fantastic. Thank you 15 years of piano lessons

Dylan, knowing this, encouraged me to take up wood burning. Painting is difficult as I don't have an easel and unless I find a comfy recliner or wheelchair stat, I can't feasibly paint anytime soon. Due to disability (and lack of materials) there are a great number of hobbies I can no longer engage in as there I'd nothing but pain and frustration. I was a little intimidated, I'll admit, because I had no idea what a wood burning tool looked like and how would I work it anyway? From my time around big saws and other wood working machinery, I wondered if it would be something unwieldy and dangerous

Plus, let's be honest. I have a very hard time justifying spending money on myself if it's more than $5 at a time

He'd been goading me into it since November. He'd basically finished up my stick except for staining and he knew I'd want to burn it. But I hemmed and hawed. Finally, we had a pretty decent paycheck with loads of money leftover and he talked me into it. Even got that nice flat piece to get me started before taking the tips to my stick

It has been a genuine blast and a complete delight. It's like a very hot, very fat pencil and he saw right away I was going to need gloves or I'd burn myself and have loads of scars all over my fingers and hands. I'm glad he did because it hasn't been a day and already my gloves have marks on them. He got real expensive deerskin so they'd be able to move with my fingers and give me more mobility than anything else. They were expensive too and wouldn't hear any complaints I had about money. He wasn't going to have me melting my flesh or unable to do delicate work like I like

What I've been doing is outlining the thin layers of bark he left. He noticed that while the outermost layers were ugly, the innermost were interesting. You can see the grain in a way you can't with the lighter wood and you have a cool looking shade that's a nice contrast to that lighter heart. I've been going over them with the round tip (really good for drawing and writing as it's super smooth) and doing those hair thin lines with the point tip. It feels very similar to drawing a fantasy map all over my stick

I'm about 1/3 of the way up my stick though definitely not 1/3 of the way finished. I lose hours at a time bent over and carefully burning. I found out I can take the tips off hot and put them in a ceramic dish to minimize cool off and maximize time spent working. Which is critical for me as I can't spend more than about three hours tops bent over burning

It's so fun because it's like line art but it's on a piece of wood so it feels like I'm doing something new. It's very methodical and cathartic and I lose so much time focusing on doing this. It keeps me calm and downright happy! Which is EXCELLENT because it means I'm combatting seasonal depression in a very big way. I've already agreed to do this with all of his pieces to enhance what he's already carved. Eventually I'll probably Do Things like Actual Wood Art but for now I'm happy with this

We already have some projects planned too by the way!!! He loves making furniture and he can build better stuff for cheaper than buying it from a furniture store. So he's going to build a lift top coffee table and a dresser for sure that I'll burn. The first piece I want us to do, I'll burn the wood BEFORE he cuts it and see how that turns out. It'll be a little box (probably to hold bunny stuff) but I want to see if that does something unique or if it just is bad. If it's not something we like, hey I didn't waste weeks or months on something huge that ended up looking bad

We're probably going to make all the tables and dressers that go in our home. Maybe an entertainment center. I know we'll make my sister stuff just on the condition she pays for materials and getting it into her place. We'll probably make stuff for people who want it and I KNOW he's willing to take commissions. Closest family (parents, my sister, etc) will only have to pay for materials/shipping. Friends and other family will probably pay that and a little extra because friends and family discount. Everyone else is gonna have to pay retail value on top of materials and shipping because they'd get a unique piece you can't find anywhere else and it'd be worth it y'know?

But that's like way off sometime eventually probably

For now, I LOVE this new hobby. I can't wait to see what my stick is going to look like finished! I'm going to burn "support" on the bottom in kanji before the no slip grip goes on. Not really for any particular reason so much as like. Sentimental? I guess? Kind of like I'm burning a prayer for it to be sturdy and useful and good into it. I tried carving my wife's kanji on it (the first kanji of his middle name means dragon) but it didn't work out well so I'm gonna burn it onto the top and that'll be its name. Again, sentiment. There is also power in naming things and like. Just in case?

It has been such a very long time since I've been able to make something with my hands that I had the materials for and I'm just absolutely pink over it. I really super want people to see this stick and want some useful beauty for themselves that I can give. I love giving and making and seeing people smile over stuff I've made. It's been such a long time since something I've done has made someone smile and I just really want to bring that back y'know?

Anyway thank you for letting me gush. I just super love this and like yeah it's the butchest hobby like ever (according to Phoebe who has the most femme hobby ever of macrame) but it really fits me. It sparks joy in a way I haven't felt in a very very long time and I can't wait to see all the things I can do

[ahgaru]

[Day6 Fic] Don't Stop The Rain

Who missed me on Tumblr? Lol. No one, ofc. But in case you were one of the Once/Twice series readers (That Young K x Reader fic, Once is a coincidence twice is not), or you don't read on other platforms where I posted this (ao3 or aff), here's another Day6 fic. Only this time, it's Jae x Reader. And I'm not sure if it'd be as good as the other but hope you'll enjoy.

Pairing: Jae x Reader (Fluff) Word count: 2,271 Characters: Day6 members, minor mention of Got7

I remembered an anime scene the moment I woke up with the guy and girl sharing umbrella, then I saw a twitter post right after that a rain + umbrella is romantic but.... What if the guy isn't kind at all to share his umbrella with you? 

Chapter 1: Umbrella

It's frustrating when it's raining and you don't have your umbrella with you. But that frustrating moment could turn into a romantic one when there's an attractive guy holding an umbrella beside you--like those in books, movies or dramas, where the guy would offer to share his umbrella. A new love could bloom--or not.

"Aw man, it's raining real hard," the silver-haired guy utters after a groan before glancing at you "You don't have an umbrella?"

"Huh?" you flip your head to look at him, a bit startled, and you can't help but adore his tiny eyes covered by his silver hair. He tilts his head waiting for an answer "Uh, no," you shyly respond with a hope of him to offer his, or at least share it with you.

"That sucks," he just shrugs before looking ahead again and finally taking a step out of the shed.

"What the actual--" confounded with what just happened, you try to gather every ounce of self-restraint to not throw a shoe on him "What a jerk"

Letting out a sharp breath, you hug yourself because it's getting cold and step back so you won't get wet from the rain. You look up to the gloomy sky as you bite your lower lip to stop it from quivering.

It's been almost 10 minutes and you're still hugging yourself, looking down as you wait for the rain to stop.

"Hey! Here," you suddenly heard a not-so-familiar voice. Looking up, you see the stranger from before towering over you with his left arm stretched, holding a spare umbrella.

Maybe he's not a jerk after all. Trying to hide the small smile on your face, you gesture a small bow of gratitude before stretching an arm to reach for the umbrella. "Thank--"

"Woops," he pulls back his arm before you could even have contact with the umbrella. "It's not for free, though" Your forehead furrows "Nothing's free in this world, Lady"

You exhale a sharp breath of surrender before rolling your eyes, "Fine. How much should I pay you for it?"

"Uh-uh", he moves his left index finger left to right as a 'no', "I don't like money. How about a coffee? Since it's cold anyway. Oh! But I don't usually drink coffee. How about a lobster, maybe?"

You squint your eyes in disbelief, "Foget it" A lobster for an umbrella? Man, that's an expensive exchange. I take back what I said. He's really a jerk. A total jerk.

"Okay, then how about chicken? There's a nearby chicken place over there. And I swear, I swear, Man, their chicken is to die for"

"Why don't you just die for it then?"

He shrugs, "I'm sure I'm not the one who'd be dead if I can't go home tonight. I don't have anything important with me that need not to get wet," he eyes the folder, between your chest and arms, containing a lot of files that you need to attend to later. Mr. Park, your boss, would surely kill you if you won’t finish the revisions and of course, if you get those drafts wet and damaged. “I’ll go ahead then.” He says before he turns to take a step away from the shed.

Making a tighter grip on the folder, you take the offer, “Fine! Chicken it is.”

With a wide smile painted on the stranger’s face, he turns around and paces back to finally give you the umbrella he got from a convenience store, a few-minute walk away from the park you’re at.

You walk behind him, struggling a bit with your things, while he, on the other hand, is humming cheerfully as he take small steps with his free hand in his pocket. You glare at him with every bit of annoyance from your system. He doesn’t have a plan on helping me, does he?

“Stop glaring, Missy. I can feel you shooting daggers on me.” He chortles softly “Remember, I just saved your little ass”

“Whatever! And F.Y.I. Mister, my ass ain’t little”

With a smirk on his face, he looks at you over his shoulder, his eyes travel from your head to feet and finally rested on your face. Your eyebrows furrow more.

“Can you not?!”

He sniggers causing his shoulders to move (and causing your stomach to flip and your blood rushing) as he finally faces you and walk towards your side. Your raise a brow and he answers it with a shrug.

“Go,” he motions you to continue walking “I’ll walk beside you. You might go elsewhere to escape if I walk before you.”

Rolling your eyes for how many times now, you sigh and start walking again. The edge of his lips raises again as he take a glance on you without you noticing. He’s so tall that you need to tilt your head almost 75 degrees just to look at his face when he’s just a feet away from you.

He suddenly takes the folder from you which causes your eyes to widen in surprise.

“You walk so slowly. And you might drop these papers and blame it on me and won’t give me that chicken that I want”

You scoff. He’s just so unbelievable, isn’t he? But somehow, you didn’t regret going to the chicken place with him because, yes, he’s actually telling the truth. Their chicken is really to die for.

You both keep eating and your mind becomes busy on thinking of whether to ask anything, say something or just continue to be quiet. You eye him not so subtly and you can’t help but curb yourself from smiling. He looks like a kid enjoying his favorite meal.

You also don’t know if it’s a relief or not that he isn’t saying anything either. You’re about to open your mouth to say something—maybe to ask his name, whether he lives around—but he stands up and utter his thanks before winking at you.

“Gotta go. Next time again”

“There won’t be any next time

He shrugs “We don’t know anything about that. Who knows? We might see each other tomorrow again and the next day after that, and the day after, and the—“

“Whatever. Just go”

He beams, even his eyes are smiling, which causes your heart to make a loud thump. What the heck was that? He mouths ‘See you’ before finally leaving the place.

You finally let go of the breath you don’t know you were holding. You put a hand on your chest and feel that your heartbeat is beating wildly. Why does he need to be cute? You shake your head to erase the thought. No, that’s not right. I mean, why does he need to be a jerk?

“I—“, you get startled by the sudden voice and there he is again standing beside the table. He looks at you a bit with mirth from being surprised. You exhale sharply before glaring at him. “I forgot to tell you, just in case you’ll try finding it later, I’ll take the umbrella with me. It’s stopped raining anyway"

With mouth agape, you just look at his back, your eyes following him as he walks towards the exit. You shake your head again. He’s really unbelievable.

After taking a shower, you take a seat in front of your computer. As if on cue, your phone rings. Your boss is calling you to tell you that he’ll give you until before you live for work tomorrow for the revisions instead of giving it to him first thing in the morning.

You didn’t have a chance to speak because he ended the call right after he told you his concern. You stare at your laptop for a minute, trying to absorb what just happened. You take your phone again to call someone.

“Wonpil!” You exclaim the moment the person on the other line answered “Mr. Park extended my deadline for the revision. And he told me to just rest tonight.”

There was a long pause before he utters a word, “Mr. Park? The Park Sungjin?”

“Yes. He gave me until before I leave for work tomorrow.” A cough can be heard from the other line. You’re pretty sure that Wonpil, your Animator best friend who also works in JYPSoft, is surprised by what he just heard. The CEO, Mr. Park Sungjin, can be approachable and nice but for him, a deadline is a deadline.

“For real?” He confirms in disbelief “But the 3D artists need your concept tomorrow for them to start modeling the characters”

“I—I don’t know. Shall I just ignore it and work for it tonight instead of resting like he said?”

“Yes.”

With a sigh, you called another person.

“Dowoonie,” you bite your lip for a second “Did Mr. Park call you?”

“Nope. Why?”

“Aren’t you going to work with the characters tomorrow for the new game we’re making?”

“Yes. And the non-organic modelers will also do the assets. We would also like to start right away so they’d be textured and give them to the riggers so the animators could work on them as early as possible, too. Why? What’s the matter? You’re having a hard time with the concept revisions?"

You let out a long sigh before shaking your head as if he can see you. “No, no. It’s nothing. Anyway, thank you. I’ll hang up now.”

Forgetting about the call, you pick up the stylus and move the drawing tablet closer to you.

Scratch.

Scratch.

Scratch.

Erase.

Scratch.

Flip.

Scratch.

You groan as you put your stylus down and slump your upper body and arms on the table. Without permission, someone’s face enters your mind. That slender young man, with his mischievous smile, silver hair, tiny eyes—his overall features that make him look as if he jumped straight out of a comic.

You sit back straight and move the drawing tablet away. You take a blank paper and a pencil and start scribbling. Your hand moves as if it knows exactly what it needs to do. Sometimes, you feel more comfortable drawing traditionally than digitally. You feel more of you are invested to it. That’s why every time an idea comes to mind, paper and pen are your best partners.

You start striding towards Mr. Park’s office the moment you dropped your things on your desk. He is quite surprised to see you peeking through his office door.

“You still have until 5pm. What makes you come here?”

“I’m actually done already, Sir”

He furrows his brows and motions you to continue. You walk towards his table and place the revised concepts. When he sees the first page, his eyes squint before he takes a look at you.

“Why does this character seem familiar?”

Your heart suddenly starts beating fast. “Pardon, Sir?”

Mr. Park just smirks and shakes his head. He… smirked? “You can go rest for today. You can go to the Rec room, grab some coffee, have a date or whatever”

“Sir…?”

He lands a glance on you again. This time it’s a firm glance. “You heard me. Now, go before I change my mind”

The moment you step out of his office, you go straight to Wonpil right away to tell him what just had happened.

“He told you to go to the Recreational Room, where you can play or chill, when you actually need to meet a deadline today?” He asks “Are you sure? I mean, yes, we can go to the Rec Room anytime we want especially when we need our minds to rest and gather some creativity but not on the day of the deadline. You know that”

“Exactly! That’s why it’s weird. He even told me that I can go grab some coffee or have a date or whatever”

Wonpil suddenly grabs your arm and leans closer to you to whisper, “Maybe he likes you? And maybe he’s hoping you’d ask him for coffee?”

“What? That’s ridiculous, Pil”

Brushing aside your best friend’s remark, you spend the day trying to work on more concepts even when you don’t know if your revisions were already approved or need a few more revisions again. The CEO didn’t tell you anything. And it’s almost time for you to leave work but he hasn’t called you for more modification or change. Maybe it was approved?

 You open your bag and check your stuff, taking the umbrella out of your bag, getting it ready just in case it’s raining again. You don’t exactly hate the monsoon season. You don’t really dislike the rain either. It’s just that, sometimes, it really is a hassle.

You are about to leave your desk, bag already slung, when Wonpil calls your attention causing you to put your umbrella on your desk.

“Dowoon said they’ve already worked on with the new characters for the Fortday. So I think the new concepts were approved?” He shows an assuring smile before tapping your back “Now, go ahead. I’ll stay for a little bit more”

You happily walk out of the building. You’re only strolling for 3 minutes but it’s already starting to rain. You halt for a bit, look up to the murky sky and heave a sigh. You open your bag to get your umbrella but it’s nowhere to be found. That’s when you realize, you forgot to get it back from your table. With another sigh, you walk fast towards the shed where you also took covering from the rain yesterday.

“Told ‘ya! We’ll meet again”, the silver-haired asserts with a smug.

Chapter 2: Chicken

Also on: * AsianFanfics * archiveofourown * twitter

Fics masterlist: Daelisix’s Fics

[tomatolouise]

All these beautiful art made by wonderful artists just makes me sad and happy at the same time.

I don’t do a lot of these post, for reasons I won’t say for now.

But if you do decide to continue, then bare with me till the end.

Geez where do i even start. I hate being all sappy like this because it’s not like me to vent out in public but I just want everyone to know- if you write, if you draw, if you make art, don’t stop and don’t give up.

I know a lot of you feel discouraged right now. Maybe a lot of people don’t support in what you’re doing, or you just don’t believe in yourself. maybe you feel intimidated by great artists, painters or writers around you, you feel like you’re never going to be like them and make things that move people’s lives, and honestly that’s okay, as long as you don’t forget why you started doing it in the first place, remember why you wanted to do it, what is your reason? Your motivation?

I know it’s hard, we all hit rock bottom at some point of our lives, every artist feel like that once in a while and to be perfectly honest I feel like that everyday. I feel like I’m not good enough, that I should stop since my parents don’t support my method of making art, I should stop because nobody reads the works i put so much effort into.

But no matter how much I convince myself just that, it’s not the case, because It’s never the case.

Because if that was the real reason, then I wouldn’t have an art tablet, nor a MacBook Pro. In my country, most kids these days would beg to have one yet one just fell into my hands. I was aware how much they cost yet it was just given to me as a gift. What did i do to deserve that? I barely did anything for these people and yet they spent so much money for something I wanted to work hard on.

It was because they believed in me

Now I may look like I’m bragging but, I struggled showing my art to people even though I’ve been drawing for a long time (mostly anime, in which most elders including my parents were not keen with), but one day, a friend acknowledged this and encouraged me to try Deviantart where I started building up confidence. If you look at my account back thee all i did were traditional drawings of anime screenshots, i had very few feedback (that was to be expected) but that’s where I started and all I though at that point was I wanted to make something that would move people, things that when they see it, it would leave an impact on their mind, but I really have a short-temper, many people stay away from me because of it. I had and still have episodes where I would just scream in my room and complain, and tear my hair why anything I did wasn’t good enough. i told myself I would give up on drawing, on writing because giving up was the only thing I did best, even my parents told me that giving up was all I did (we even have a word for a person who is like that, nigas kugon) but fortunately I’ve been drawing well enough for more than a decade to give up that easily so I would find myself picking up a pencil, draw, tear the paper and break the pencil in two pieces, then draw again. I had some serious anger issues, and everyone around me just teased or scolded at it.

Eventually, I tried drawing digitally for a change of pace (because that was where everyone’s eyes were) on a small tablet with my fingers, no joke, stylus were also expensive at that time so i had to suck it up and just dream that i’d have an art tablet one day.

I didn’t think that it would come so early though.

It wasn’t a smooth ride, along the way, I would always come across a good drawing made by an equally amazing artist and think “why can’t I be like that? I want to draw like that too” and proceed to cry the whole week and lose my motivation. Things will never go the way you want but it will always go the way that will make you a better person. Heck, someone close to me even stole my whole portfolio that contained two years of traditionally drawn artworks and pretended she found it under a bookshelf.

I’ve been really down lately, nobody is supporting my art, my family keeps rushing me to study realism or else i wouldn’t make it into art school which just added to my glum mood and even when I did try it little by little, it felt like nothing I did was enough. But only because of these times I realised what I was doing wrong and went to correct it. Don’t think that nobody is there for you, because giving up means wasting all those years, the tears, sweat and all the mistakes you made in the past. Don’t you think that’s more painful that going forward having all the knowledge and experience you got through all the years and getting the chance to say “I’m proud of myself and the times I went through to get where i am now”?.

I myself haven’t achieved that goal yet, but I’m on my way, and boy am I going taking my sweet sweet time. I have friends and memes to accompany me through this dark times.

I want to tell all of you- Don’t rush it, you’ll learn new things by time, have patience and believe in yourself, don’t forget your goal. Remember, the journey is what teaches us not the destination.

P.S: Sorry for making all of my mutuals worry for not being able to be online as much as before and I’m terribly sorry to all of my friends that I left behind in leaving so many au’s, I believe they are choices that I will not regret and will be essential for me to become a better artist. i hope you all understand.

But most of all, I want to thank Sangie, for being the best friend that I could ever ask for, I hope you are doing well and I am receiving your messages in my inbox (I’m getting to shy to post a reply, and do tell me if you want me to take this lower note down)

[sktchy]

‘I made pictures so I wouldn’t have to speak...’

Meet Irina Sivatskaya, an artist on Sktchy. In this Q&A she gives some creative wisdom and a peek at her Sktchy profile.

What’s your background?

I'm a web developer in Brooklyn, NY. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember and never really had any formal schooling until college. In college, I took some painting and illustration courses and then ended up double majoring in web development and illustration.

I always found myself torn between technology and art but, honestly, could never picture making a living from art, fearing that I would grow to hate it. It's always been an outlet, a coping mechanism too personal to share with others or to allow it to become a chore.

Being shy and socially awkward, I drew to express feelings too difficult to put into words; I made pictures so I wouldn’t have to speak. At the same time, I always wanted to illustrate children's books. As much as I've always been into horror movies, books, and imagery, my love for illustrated children's books has been carried well into adulthood and that air of wonder and magic they seemed to possess still excites me almost as much as when I was a kid. But my lack of confidence and the extreme intimidation and anxiety when faced with a project or even a blank page never allowed me to create anything other than hesitant doodles.

Discovering Sktchy has helped to chip away at the more than a decade long artist’s block. It took me a while to start - I just kept adding photos to the queue until it reached about 300 but when I finally forced myself to draw and post even if I wasn’t completely satisfied with the result - the positive feedback from the amazing Sktchy community has given me the courage and inspiration to continue, and I’m happy to say that, since then, I draw almost every day and, so far, this is the most productive that I’ve ever been.

I am very grateful to Sktchy’s creators and users for building such a warm and welcoming environment where one can grow and develop their artistic skills in a comfortable and pressure-free setting.

When you’re looking for inspiration on Sktchy, what jumps out at you?

Clear, undoctored portraits expressing genuine emotion or a dreamy stillness of a sort, as if caught in deep thought. I especially love profiles and three-quarter views. If they include a hand or two, that’s also great. Usually, I look for an expression that reflects how I’m feeling at the moment.

What’s your medium of choice when you’re creating art?

I work best when I limit myself - so, lately, I’ve been using only two pencils - a red 0.5 mm lead one to start and flesh out a drawing and a regular 0.5 mm HB graphite lead to finish in a Moleskine sketchbook. Some of the earlier Sktchy drawings were done in a Strathmore grey-toned paper sketchbook with a 2 mm graphite lead and a white Conté crayon blended with a dry brush. I’m also trying to get back into painting digitally in Photoshop and traditionally in watercolor.

What’s one quirk in your creative process?

I tend to distort some features. I don’t quite recall when it became my “thing” but the more I did it, the more I liked it, and I’m very glad that it’s now being recognized as my style.

I don’t intend to draw caricatures - partially, it just helps to relieve the pressure of trying to capture the exact likeness, so I usually start with stretched out necks and noses and then see where that takes me.

Physically and aesthetically, I just love drawing long, flowing lines and, to me, unnaturally long, thin necks add a sense of fragility to the character. I have this illustration-character-creating approach to each drawing, so even if I’m unable to capture the real life likeness, might as well make it alien-like and/or creepy. I truly do enjoy adding a touch of creepiness to everything.

Any words of advice for fellow artists?

I’m not really at a point where I can confidently give any advice but I’d say learning to take breaks when working on a piece or even walking away from it for a while when encountering difficulties helps to see it anew and makes what needs to be done more visible. Not getting hindered by a failed attempt may require a lot of patience but, in the process of learning, leaving something alone in order to come back to it later after having acquired enough experience to see what went wrong and skill to be able to fix it, is worth the final result.

Get the Sktchy iPhone app to join Irina on Sktchy. Featured art:

https://sktchy.com/ojOzq https://sktchy.com/6Xx6dc https://sktchy.com/suPY0H https://sktchy.com/aBIvec https://sktchy.com/7sE93D https://sktchy.com/G7GLMH

[gaiienpokedex]

Interlude: The People of the Crossing

A/N: I've been hinting at some mythology/worldbuilding in the story so far that this interlude chapter may make more clear. You are totally in the right if you read this and think "god damn Keleri go write some original fiction already", but I think it also helps answer the question in canon of 1) where did humans come from? and 2) why does the pokémon world have such a long history but basic facts about pokémon seem to be poorly understood?

Sometimes it seems like humans (or pokémon?) have just arrived in the pokémon world, and other times people are said to have been there for millennia. (The DPPt games even claim, memorably, that humans and pokémon used to be the same.) Like most competing theories, I propose the answer, Por que no los dos?

Ancient pokémon (or daikaiju, "great strange beasts") are based on the giant pokémon from the first season of the anime.

x.x.x.x.x

Gaia and Terra are two planets connected by an incredible distance and none at all. An enormous amount of power is needed to break through to cross between them, but all around us are, overlaid like pages of a book, other Gaias and other Terras, and other earths yet unnamed by explorers. Humanity has always explored, looking out at land and sea and sky and the stars, and finally our gaze turned toward a new frontier, of new and unexplored planets only a breath away.

But like our ancestors striking out into the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, so too was there danger and deadly forces we could not imagine. The loss of the First Crossing, that deserted Roanoake of those early days, told us as much, and so too were the incredible discoveries of the fractured Second Crossing obtained at great cost. But the people who stayed discovered even more, who we thought were going to their doom, but instead survived in a strange land with new and indispensable allies.

And when we, the Third Crossing, arrived, they showed us how to survive and how to thrive, and how to do more than thrive: to create, for the first time in human history, a society where the vast majority are cared for and do not suffer under food or economic insecurity, where clean water, autonomy, security, and education are human rights, and freely available to everyone under the aegis of a cooperative elected government.

We had a rough start. We vowed not to repeat the sins of the past, but pain and fear got the better of us, as it always does, and as it will again—but we will always fight, and hope, that one day it will not. And the strange life forms of Gaia, these elementals with great and terrible and wonderful powers, who helped the Second Crossing survive and shortly the Third Crossing too, and all the people of Gaia united at last, protected and cared for, they showed us the way, and they will again.

On this fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Saffron City, I thank pokémon once again for putting up with humanity, and I look toward this year's crop of new trainers to learn from the past and to look toward the future, and to put your skills to the test so that they can continue to protect and serve everyone in our beautiful new world. I look forward to sharing this adventure with you. Let's go!

—Speech by Professor Maggie Druyan (Spruce I) at the Saffron City Golden Jubilee, 51 CR

x.x.x.x.x

Partial transcript of HIST202 lecture by Professor Aaron Singh (Holly III)

"The initial assays were done by drones, and the temporal anomalies weren't noticed until much later—they were smaller in magnitude—the drones would go through the breach for an hour and come back with 70 minutes of data, for instance. The First Crossing was a group of about two dozen people, survivalists and wilderness experts who would set up a base camp for the next group, due to arrive in about six months. Six months passed. Then nine. After a year, someone went back—crossing meant opening the breach, which depleted fuel that they used day-to-day, but eventually they decided to risk it—and that person, returning, found that barely a month had passed on the Terra side.

"When they returned through the breach with a rescue party, the First Crossing camp was entirely gone, with only a few scattered items long-disused and overgrown, and no trace was found of the people left there.

"The Second Crossing was better prepared: with the temporal anomalies clear, they set out with more technology and resources to fall back on, and a clearer understanding of what it meant to cross. One could come back, to resource-depleted, climate-changed Terra fairly easily, but years would pass on the Gaia side. And it still wasn't clear what had happened to the First Crossing. They were wary. But months turned into years, and they founded towns on the rich shores and rivers and scarcely had to farm, and the animals were nearly tame and unafraid of them, in a world untouched by humans since its beginning.

"But soon they found that there were more than animals on Gaia: there were monsters, lizards with fire breath and walking plants. Even as they sought to understand these wonders, the first daikaiju appeared, living hurricanes and forest fires that nearly obliterated all they had worked for, and they could guess at last what had happened to the First Crossing.

"Some returned to Terra, but others discovered the secret of befriending monsters instead of fighting them. Some learned to command armies of elementals and people, to tame the aggressive ones, and finally, to subdue the kaiju instead of running. And the Second Crossing made them their war-leaders in a world perpetually at war, their dukes and caesars.

"Centuries later, from their perspective, we arrived—the people of the Third Crossing.

"We were different. The survivors of the Second Crossing had returned a year or two ago, from our perspective, and they told us about monsters. We were people desperate enough for land and skies unmarred by pollution, landless people, people without citizenship, people who didn't exist.

"We came prepared, of course. The best weaponry of modern Terra: guns, drones, cybernetic implants, combat enhancements; doctors filled us with augmentations, the better to survive in a hostile world."

x.x.x.x.x

Excerpt from We Are Explorers by E. Mordvinova and C. Muomelu (Linden II)

The temporal distortion was well-known by the time the Third Crossing was organized, and a new breach was established with stabilizing factors that would allow a large number of colonists, soldiers, supply vehicles, agricultural vehicles, animals, etc. to pass through over the course of about a week without significant disjoint, and option for a quick abort if the same problems with destructive entities arose.

The analogy of dimensional travel is thus: a pencil pierces two sheets of paper to form a path between them; so too does the breach link the sheaves of two worlds. The problem of temporal distortion might be analogous to both those papers rotating out of sync, and so initially the pencil length that joins the papers is very small, but it grows as they twist away from each other. Although the time spent in this "throat" is instantaneous, the "length" of it growing as the dimensions fall out of sync creates dangers that are still poorly understood. "Old" breaches have been used successfully to travel backward to Terra, but they expose the user to what is hypothesized to be a hostile extradimensional environment that is wholly unexplored and uncharacterized.

The Third Crossing was aware that the Second Crossing had survived and that they had established towns and cities. It was not until communications were established that the real extent of the temporal distortion was realized, and how disparate the people were from the original settlers.

The Third Crossing arrived at a time when the people of the Second Crossing were in a period of expansion. The construction of large ocean-going vessels had been forgotten for hundreds of years after the initial destruction, and a long history played out while restricted to a single landmass. However, with the help of pokémon, eventually this technology was rediscovered and the Second Crossing made more and more distant journeys, sparsely colonizing new continents, or returning to bring word of barren, elemental-less lands, or not at all.

The emergence site of the Third Crossing was the Kansai continent. They found a country with only a few Second Crossing villages already established and a generous people living on what came to be called Vermillion Bay. There the inhabitants survived on rich seasonal seafood, and only engaged in a little hunting and farming to add variety.

The Third Crossing had overprepared, ready for disaster and death: they had expected the tougher soils of Terra that required reinvigoration to grow anything, collapsed fisheries, extinct animals, hardship, famine. The richness of the new world caught them off-guard. They did their best to integrate with and learn from the people of the Second Crossing. One of the stated goals of the colonization effort was to avoid the kind of environmental abuse and unsustainable exploitation that had ruined Terra, and their harmony with nature appealed to the Third Crossing's leaders. It was a hopeful attitude, but also a practical one: the people of the Second Crossing had survived for millennia in the face of all the legendary dangers that the original refugees had reported, and so it was vital to learn how they might protect themselves.

Children and adults of the Third Crossing were bonded to pokémon for the first time. In the days before pokéballs, most people could only bond with one or two, if at all, and the search for a compatible monster could be arduous. People who could support four or more were considered "adepts". Traditionally anyone with such abilities was scouted and sent to a master in the capital of Nalea, the main Second Crossing region, but that order had broken down in the distant colonies. Further, the Third Crossing governing body rightly judged that they would be seen as a threat by the lords in Nalea, not as allies and bringers of otherworldly comforts as the Kantonian people did.

The Third Crossing built dense cities in ecologically insignificant areas and preserved vast tracts of virgin wilderness. They were able to survive a handful of ancient pokémon incidents with the help of the Second Crossing and pokémon, as well as modern technology, and became confident that their preparation had been sufficient. The development of nearly-modern pokémon training and the wide adoption of apricorn balls were also progressing at this time. Overall this was an idyllic period, where it seemed that the fears regarding Gaia's "monsters" and the potential for the Third Crossing's arrival to be violent or even genocidal had been assuaged.

The ancient ho-oh that destroyed Saffron Town was a kaiju of kaiju.

Although there existed records of encounters with other ancient legendaries and Primal legendaries that were often fatal, none of them had ever threatened a major human settlement. And not just any easily-evacuated village, but the center of the Third Crossing's activity on Gaia, and the repository of the modern technology and knowledge they had brought from Terra.

The Third Crossing's primary residential, commercial, and industrial areas suffered catastrophic damage. It severely damaged critical infrastructure and left thousands without running water, electrical power, etc. for months. The ho-oh emitted extreme heat that caused marine life die-offs in Vermillion Bay and sterilized the soil along its path, and the water vapor and ash it generated was lifted high into the atmosphere and caused unusual weather all over the globe.

If it had appeared earlier, the operation would have been abandoned, but the damage was severe but recoverable. However, it was immediately obvious that the Third Crossing had been far too centralized. A number of important data backups were lost or almost lost due to their proximity to one another. The Third Crossing governing body immediately began developing plans to spread out throughout Kanto and Johto, so that a similar attack could not again be so decisive. (Unfortunately, Saffron City eventually grew into Gaia's largest and densest metropolis, and it could see severe casualties today if its defenses were to fail.)

This expansion brought the Third Crossing into conflict with the Second Crossing in Kanto, and notably with the powerful steel- and dragon-cults in Johto, leading to decades of back-and-forth aggression. Technological development focused on the rapid evolution of anti-pokémon devices, as well as black-market distribution of modern ordinances to Second Crossing groups, and the militarization of pokémon usage among the Third Crossing. The biological manipulation of pokémon was also explored and led to the creation of the first human-designed pokémon, Mewtwo. Ironically it was this pokémon, designed to be a weapon, who was able to end the conflict through diplomacy.

[texanredrose]

Tex, if you do one of those buisness aus, so help me world, there better be a lesbean in a suit.

*bangs fist on table* I FINALLY FINISHED THIS… well… the first part, at least. Thanks to @fallintolife for developing this universe with for me. Also, @cass-burger and @maburito, here y’all go. Business AU now affectionately nicknamed Joint Venture. And thank you, anon, for the suggestion!

Yang sighed, squinting at the computer screen and rereading the proposal for the fifth time. Something felt off about it- entirely too accommodating, no blatantly ambiguous wording, no footnote to turn to an obscure page for some loophole- and she’d become adept at noticing when all the standard hallmarks of greed were absent. It often meant a more cutting clause lay buried somewhere in the text but she couldn’t, for the life of her, find it. Normally, she’d stop any task that threatened to get her this frustrated, but she simply couldn’t, not with the project deadline looming on the horizon. The entire floor consisted of harried office workers doing their best to finalize the details and she- being the CEO’s intern- had her own responsibilities to ensure everything would go off without a hitch. Which meant she had to find the blasted thing, and the quicker the better.

Probably anyone who’d known Yang Xiao Long in high school might be absolutely shocked at the turn her life had taken. A tri-sport athlete who got a full ride on her boxing skills wouldn’t strike many as the type to become a paper pusher, yet here she sat, pouring over contracts for Remnant’s largest dust company, and busting her ass every day to make sure she impressed her boss, which was no small feat.

Winter Schnee, eldest of the Schnee siblings and current CEO, redefined the concept of a ‘take no shit’ attitude. Tall, elegant, with piercing blue eyes and a perpetual resting bitch face that could make even the blonde’s usual brash confidence falter, the woman radiated an aura of unquestionable power and authority unlike anything Yang had ever seen before. Her business acumen tended towards the ruthless side, a by product of military training that served her well in many other ways, too, but she could definitely be compassionate and treated her employees fairly- even the Faunus ones, a decision that broke the mold from her father’s practices and earned her quite a bit of flak from stodgy old curmudgeons on the board at first. But Winter was a compelling force, especially when she had her younger sister and COO, Weiss, backing her up. Where the elder had laser focused remarks and an imposing demeanor, the second born child of the Schnee line had a razor sharp wit ready to explode at a moment’s notice. Between them, they could intimidate just about anyone into bending to their whims, and had used that clout for several social gatherings to walk back their father’s previous policies and improve trading and commerce within their sector, relinquishing the iron clad grip they had on the monopoly to allow new blood to enter the scene.

When it came right down to it, that glimmer of hope constituted the sole reason she’d even taken the internship at all. Ever since they were kids, Ruby had two distinct passions: being the hero and tinkering with weapons. What better way to combine them than open a weapons shop that catered to everything a Hunter could want? Although she had her own Hunter License and could go slay the Grimm to her heart’s content herself, four years at Beacon Combat Academy had given her a real drive to create better weapons than the hand-me-downs she saw her classmates using, improving the Hunters’ overall capabilities and hopefully one day eradicating the Grimm threat entirely. Her little sis always had a pretty good head on her shoulders, able to see the bigger picture, and she had no desire to jack up the prices so they could get rich. Just enough to break even, or maybe a little extra, would be enough for her, considering the rather ludicrous sums she got from the kingdoms for killing Grimm.

However, seeing as Ruby dedicated herself to learning about weapons and Grimm and Dust, if she wanted to see her little sister’s dream come true, Yang would have to schlep through the boring stuff that businesses entailed, like negotiating contracts, learning business laws, and getting a sweet reference and/or deal with the biggest Dust company on the planet. That meant finding this thrice damned clause if it was the last thing she did!

“Knock knock.”

Yang blinked, concentration broken even as a smile came to her lips. She’d recognize that voice anywhere. “Who is it?”

“Please, could we not-”

“Is it a broken pencil?” She pushed off with her feet, causing the office chair to swirl around so she could look at the entrance to her little cubicle. Her desk sat on the west side of the floor, directly in front of her boss’ temporary office, with a little partition blocking her view from everyone else. The opening to her small space was on the side facing Winter’s office door, a thick plane of one-way glass separating the CEO from everyone else. Usually, they would be at the very top of the building- the floor that housed only Weiss’ and Winter’s offices and yet managed to take up the entire floor anyway- but both the CEO and the COO had decided the very nature of this particular project and all the moving pieces required more direct supervision. The move had caused quite a bit of fuss among the poor bastards who worked on the floor, but they eventually came to realize that the big, scary, Ice Queen and Ice Princess duo were more concerned about getting the job done without running anyone ragged than obsessing over the cleanliness of one’s desk.

Despite knowing full well how this would end, the Faunus’ ears perked up in curiosity. “A broken pencil?”

“Ah, nevermind.” She shrugged, an apologetic smirk on her lips. “It’s pointless.”

Almost immediately, Blake rolled her eyes, a hand coming up to cover her face as she sighed in deep disappointment. “Why do I set myself up for these things? After four years of living with you…”

“One would think you’d have developed a sense of humor!” The blonde finished for her best friend, laughing while sitting back in her chair, trying her hardest to be mindful of her skirt. Personally, she preferred suits or dresses- if she wanted to be really fancy- but a little variety in her wardrobe couldn’t hurt her chances, not that they were particularly noteworthy anyway. Crossing one leg over the other, she cocked her head to the side and gave the Faunus a once over. “Trying something a little different today?”

Between the two of them, Blake always tended more towards the traditionally feminine side. Maybe it came from how long she wore a bow in her hair to hide the feline ears marking her heritage and her penchant for eye shadow but, for whatever reason, dresses and skirts seemed to be more up her alley than Yang’s when it came to formal attire. Yet, today, she was sporting a rather flattering black pantsuit with purple pinstripes ensemble that made her eyes positively pop. Not to mention she wore her usually long, flowing black hair up in as tight a bun as her mane could be wrangled into, exposing her slender neck, made all the more obvious when she shrugged. “I thought it might work.”

The blonde let out a low whistle, lilac eyes scanning her best friend’s form for a second time. “You saying she hasn’t done anything with you wearing that?”

“Nothing,” the Faunus replied with a weary sigh. “I’m beginning to give up hope.”

They were both in a pretty terrible situation. On the one hand, they needed their internships to go well for obvious reasons- Yang had a sister’s dream to make reality and Blake had the hopes of her entire family riding on securing a good standing relationship with the new and improved Schnee Dust Company. That’s a lot of pressure to be the best interns the CEO and COO could hope for, respectively. But on the other… their bosses were hot. Colder than ice in their business dealings, imperious in their looks, downright flawless in their beauty, and Winter got every gear in the blonde’s motor spinning at full speed. The same could be said for Blake in reference to Weiss, the Faunus having lamented more than once that, had they just gotten the other’s position, perhaps every work day wouldn’t feel like walking a razor’s edge between their responsibilities and their desires.

It would be easier if they could be overt. Drop a few pick-up lines, bat their eyelashes, maybe even be bold enough to outright ask the women on dates. But, seeing as that would create a conflict of interest- something neither could afford given their aforementioned responsibilities- they were left to count lingering looks and brief brushes as their only victories. Conversely, if there was no interest to be found, then at least they would know; Yang had been through the wringer a time or two for hitting on straight chicks, so she already had a patented apology system worked out that resulted in nine women out of ten being flattered by her interest, even if they didn’t swing that way. Blake, always being the more hesitant- she would say ‘selective’- of the two, hadn’t quite reached that point, and hoped things never got to it.

“Don’t say that, Blakey.” She propped her head up on one fist, resting her elbow in the chair’s armrest. “Our internship’s almost over. There’s still the 'go for broke’ plan, if everything else fails.”

“I don’t know, Yang.” Crossing her arms over her chest, the Faunus leaned against the partition, careful not to crinkle the manila folder in her off hand. “Maybe we should just quit while we’re ahead. Go… I dunno, hit the bar or something.”

“Now, I know you’re getting into your own head when you are the one suggesting we spend a night in a loud bar instead of a book store.” She frowned, getting up and putting a consoling hand on her best friend’s shoulder. “Keep your chin up, Belladonna. Even if you’re right and they are straight, or just not interested, we aren’t going out to get hammered like a couple of clueless chumps.”

“Oh, is that right?” One black brow arched up. “And what’s your plan for getting over this entire mess?”

“Simple.” She smiled. “We grab to go from that sushi place you like, hunker down in my living room, and eat our weight in ice cream while watching Love Letter from Vale on repeat until we both slip into a food coma or fall asleep crying, whichever comes first. Like perfectly well adjusted adults.”

Although she was expecting some manner of ridiculous response- hey, she did know who she was dealing with, after all- Blake still let out a surprised laugh, amusement shining clear in her eyes as she shoved at the blonde’s shoulder. “You goofball. Can’t you take anything serious?”

“Hey.” Her smile stretched wider. “Where’s the fun in that?”

From the other side of the one way glass, Winter Schnee watched her intern closely. Perhaps a little… too closely.

She sat behind her temporary desk, having appropriated an unused one from a vacant corner office rather than have the movers they kept on retainer haul hers down from the top floor. Her relocation didn’t affect any meetings she held and purely served to make communications between the various project leads, their teams, and the executives easier, given how much was riding on the whole deal going through. One would think that, as the premiere Dust supplier in Remnant, they could dictate their terms to the kingdoms to suit their needs, but ever since she and Weiss had forged a new way ahead for their family’s company, throwing their weight around to get their way was reserved for the causes that truly deserved it, not day-to-day business.

One would think that managing the company would consume all her hours, every thought put towards second guessing and triple guessing the movements of anyone who might stand to profit if the SDC took a nosedive, but she actually had a surprising amount of free time. The team working for her operated like a well oiled machine, the brightest minds applying themselves wholeheartedly to tackling any task she threw their way, and with her sister ready to check over her shoulder with a fresh set of eyes, they effectively recovered from the severe hit their 'radical’ policies caused, sitting now with a higher profit margin and cleaner consciences than a year ago, and their diversified employee base had wrought many, many returns.

Unfortunately, there came a steep downside, too, that caught her entirely by surprise. And- her eyes narrowed as a familiar figure approached her intern’s desk- she wasn’t the only one.

Already, her hand moved to intercept the call she knew was coming, hitting the blinking speaker button before the ringer could even sound. “Why must you vex me so?”

“Because I cannot focus and these expenditure reports won’t audit themselves,” her sister replied, the edges of her voice sounded frazzled. “It’s your turn to be distracted.”

“I can’t say I blame you, Weiss.” Her lips turned down at the corners, eyeing the Faunus’ clean, crisp suit as she stepped up and knocked on the partition separating her intern’s desk space from the rest of the floor. They’d thought offering internships to the local universities would be a good step in building rapport among the up-and-coming business leaders of the new age, one free of the archaic traditions of their father’s time. It certainly helped open their doors to aspiring Faunus graduates, many of whom applied to the specialty departments and improved efficiency in unexpected places purely from longstanding habits adopted on Menagerie. Limited resources spawned unique methods of minimizing waste and, all in all, the improved diversity was a boon in every way… except when unexpected complications arose. “But I’m not sure you’ll be able to get much done if you divide your attention between the audits and talking to me.”

“Sister, I don’t ask much or often, please.” The shuffling of papers and clacking of a keyboard could just barely be heard over the phone line. “I’m quite certain I’ll explode at this rate and you aren’t faring much better, I’d imagine.”

She wished she could play the role of the calm, patient, supportive elder sister at that moment. However, both of them knew better than that. “Very well, you first.”

“She’s perfect.” Weiss lamented over the phone, practically growling out the words. “She listens to The Sterlings, she has strong opinions and she’s exceptionally articulate in expressing them, she’s always current on world events, she has no problems speaking her mind, her ears are adorable, I think I’ve gotten lost in her eyes at least three times today alone, and have I mentioned that she’s possibly the most kindhearted person I’ve ever met?”

“Maybe once or twice,” Winter replied, despite there being no need. It helped distract her from the display just outside her office, on the other side of the glass, where her intern just happened to be flirting with Weiss’ intern. The blonde was laughing about something or other, mirth shining bright in those vivid lilac eyes as she leaned back, one leg crossing over the other, bringing that nearly skin tight skirt just a bit higher up muscled thighs. The modest heels she wore made her calves look fantastic while standing, true, but even seated there was such latent power on display, strength packed and ready to be used at a moment’s notice.

“Blake Belladonna is intelligent, charming, sweet- the list goes on, and ends with 'entirely straight’.” A dull sounded from the other side of the line. “Why? Just… just, why?”

“I have sincere reason to doubt that.” The woman pushed back from her desk, stalking around it so she could lean back against the hard wood, arms crossing over her chest as her gaze never once deviated. How her sister could continue to be so emphatic about such an obviously incorrect conclusion remained beyond her comprehension. “Have you never watched them interact?”

The question itself served no point except to vent the frustration mounting within her as she watched Yang leaned back in her chair, lilac eyes flicking approvingly over her fellow intern’s form. On paper, she didn’t look too terribly different from any other applicant for the internship- a student athlete with the physical prowess to become a full fledged Huntress while also possessing a keen intellect, maintaining high marks throughout university while also earning a few sports titles on the side- but it truly came down to the part of Winter that personally enjoyed disproving age old adages. The moment she saw the attached photo of Yang Xiao Long, with her luscious, wild blonde locks, shining lilac eyes, and beautiful smile that distracted from the slightly crooked nose, the CEO recognized the untapped vein of potential for the SDC and like-minded businesses lying in wait. For far too long had the stuffy elite thought a pretty face could hold nothing more than meeting dates and perhaps a to do list, leaving positions like CEO open to only the masculine or those dictated by birth to bear the title; to have someone so conventionally attractive working directly under her would surely give the younger woman a leg up on the competition, encourage her to persevere where others might falter. She certainly had the determination, that much was evidenced by her grueling course schedule piled on top of her workout routine.

“I think you might be reading too much into it.” Her sister sounded nearly despondent. “They seem more friendly than romantic.”

Both interns shifted, their postures relaxing as always. They were so… comfortable around each other, and she didn’t miss the way Yang got up and reached out towards Blake, contact between them a staple of every interaction. She bit her lip lightly for a moment, watching as whatever momentary unpleasantness they were discussing gave way to more laughter. “They’ve got to be fucking.”

“Winter!” Her sister- caught between frustration and scandal- snapped across the line. “For one thing, that’s hardly a fitting topic for discussion and, quite frankly, I know that’s not the case.”

“And what makes you so certain?” Winter watched as the blonde leaned back against her desk, crossing her arms just under her ample chest and highlighting not only the soft curves concealed by her blouse but the rigid muscles of her arms as well, the fabric pulling taunt against her skin. Something her counterpart seemed to notice too, reaching out to lightly pull on one cuff.

“I found out Blake’s boyfriend’s name is Sun.” Weiss sighed. “They’ve been together a while, apparently.”

The woman hummed, mulling over this new information while she watched, the vile sensation curling in the pit of her gut at once entirely obvious yet something she didn’t want to name quite yet, if only so she could convince herself she was above such pettiness.

“I’m serious, Yang, you’re going to rip that shirt,” Blake said, shaking her head as her ears laid back. “Maybe you should lay off the curls for a little while.”

“Aw, c'mon, I can’t disrespect the armory like that!” She laughed, quickly curling both hands into fists as she pumped her arms- only briefly though. The Faunus wasn’t wrong, after all, and she could practically feel the seams protesting her movements. “But, yeah, I grabbed the wrong one this morning. Too busy looking at what matched, totally missed the fact that I outgrew this one years ago.”

“It’s a shame; the cream color really brings out your eyes.” Her lips quirked into a smirk. “But I’m guessing your luck is about as good as mine.”

Yang sighed, crossing her arms again. “Yeah. I mean, I get it, but I thought I would’ve gotten at least a second glance when I came in this morning.” Wanting to distract herself with the cursed blessing of her boss’ obliviousness regarding every flirtatious attempt she made, the blonde hit on another common topic they discussed. “Hey, how’s Sunny Boy doing, by the way? He found a job yet?”

“He’s got an interview this week, actually. I had to let Weiss know that I might be a little late; I promised I’d give him a ride.” Her expression pinched into one of mild annoyance. “I really hope this one goes well. He’s a great friend and all but I’m not sure I can put up with his habits as a roommate much longer. I swear- if I find one more banana peel in the shower, I’m going to kick him out.”

“Aw, you don’t mean that.” She cocked her head to the side, lowering her voice to strike a balance between supportive and chiding. “You two have been besties for twenty years and he hit a rough patch. Even if it drives you insane in the meantime, you’d let him keep crashing on your couch until he’s back on his feet.”

“You have more faith in my patience than I do.” Blake chuckled with a shake of her head. “At any rate, if this falls through, he’s applying to more places today. I told him to stop wearing open shirts to the interviews might improve his chances but… you know how he is. Plus, he keeps inviting Neptune over, and I’m not sure how much more 'bro-tastic movie marathons’ I can take.”

“Well, if you ever need to retreat to somewhere with less testosterone, you can always crash at my place.” She smiled wide. “It would be like college all over again!”

Her best friend rolled her eyes fondly. “If you’re done being ridiculous, Weiss wanted me to touch base with you about our latest trip to Mistral. She’s auditing the expenditure reports and we need to verify our charges.” Her eyes narrowed. “You did keep the receipts, right?”

“Yeah, I got 'em here, somewhere.” Yang turned around, shuffling through the papers on her desk before snapping her fingers, some niggling reminder popping into her head to check the bottom right drawer of her desk. As she leaned over to sift through it, she flicked her hair over her left shoulder, so she could glance back at the Faunus, who was also leaning over with her ears cocked forward in interest. Somewhere in those amber eyes, she could see the urge to joke about the blonde’s less than stellar organizing system, but Blake refrained by the barest margins. “Oh, hey, when’s that big, super important meeting with the kingdom council, again? Winter’s given me, like, three reminders and I keep spacing the date.”

“It’s next Tuesday.” A little chuckle fell from her lips, the interns exchanging a knowing look. “They’re going to be insufferable over the weekend, you know.”

“Eh, we’ll talk 'em through it.” She smiled, pushing to the side the uneasiness that immediately rose in her. The moment they’d finalized this report, she’d have to dive back into the contract; there was a huge difference between knowing she needed to turn in her annotations on Thursday and realizing that the deal would be sealed the following week. The blonde would have to double down hard on dissecting the text if she wanted to be on time- which meant Wednesday morning at the latest, because Winter would pour over it for two days herself before accepting it and moving forward. It took a while for her to understand that the double- and triple-checking of everything she handed in stemmed not from a lack of confidence in her abilities on her boss’ part but, simply, the fact that every Schnee tended towards obsessive perfectionism that could probably qualify as intense anxiety, if they would ever own up to it. Thankfully, both interns had learned a thing or two about dealing with the executive’s tendencies, and each had their personally tailored list of how to reassure the CEO and COO that every ’t’ was crossed, every 'i’ dotted, and every stone set in place. “If there’s one thing we can actually get across to them, it’s that we’ve got this deal on lock.” At least, they would, no doubt about it. But first, the receipts, which she’d found tucked into an envelope in the drawer. “Alright, so, what do you have?”

Winter bit into her knuckle, pinching her brows together and growling around the digit. “They have to be dating.”

“Blake. Has. A boyfriend.”

She watched the blonde bend over, searching for something within her desk, and the way her counterpart stepped over, looking down as if to offer assistance but refraining. The CEO couldn’t see where her gaze remained trained but she wouldn’t blame the Faunus for sneaking a peek at the way Yang’s skirt rode up just a little, clinging to the curve of her rear. Nothing indecent, of course; while she wouldn’t be so delusional as to claim Yang particularly cared for 'classy’ actions, the woman had the sense enough to conduct herself in an appropriate way at all times, though she did… bend the rules every now and again. Like throwing a wink in at the end of an affirmative response, or making absolutely abysmal puns that never failed to put cracks in Winter’s armor, or nodding off during a meeting when it ran longer than two hours- a few dozen moments flitting through her mind’s eye where Yang had exhibited some action, some mannerism that would’ve driven her father to frown severely at best or fire the blonde at worst. Each contributed to the larger picture, this portrait of a woman who would stop at nothing to achieve her ends and do it all with a smile on her lips and a swagger in her step, brimming with confidence while also showing vulnerability freely, like just then when she ducked her head at a comment Blake made. The woman’s sense of humor, her charismatic demeanor, her firm embrace on the duality of organized chaos, a sharp mind hidden beneath firm muscle and a disarming smile. She could be exacting when the situation called for it but clueless and clumsy the next, vacillating between strong enough to move desks around herself and dropping things for apparently no reason other than them slipping from her grip- she was just so dynamic and vibrant. How could one person be so much, all the time?

“And I refuse to entertain the notion she could be unfaithful. It’s just… not like her. Unless- perhaps it’s one of those… polyamorous relationships? The two of them and this… Sun character? That’s a thing, right?”

The elder Schnee bit harder into her knuckle as the two interns seemingly began pouring over receipts and the file Weiss sent over, Blake leaning over Yang’s shoulder as the two examined everything on the desk. They stood awfully close together and one could make the excuse it made comparing the receipts to the report easier, but Winter could see the way the Faunus leaned against her counterpart’s frame, allowing her weight to rest against the woman’s slightly larger form. That sort of contact spoke of an intimacy that went far beyond coworkers or acquaintances, indicating they’d spent many hours in close proximity to one another, invading the other’s space without so much as a word of complaint.

Naturally, as lovers would.

“That would make everything fit…” Weiss sighed, more shuffling of papers and clacking of keys accompanying her voice. “But it still seems like a stretch. It’s more likely you’re reading their interactions entirely wrong.”

Something must’ve caught her intern’s attention, the blonde going stock still for a moment before hurriedly pushing the little receipts aside to claw through the papers on her desk, desperately searching for something amid the chaos that seemed to constantly surround Yang Xiao Long. She found it almost immediately, hunching her shoulders as she examined the papers intensely, all the while her counterpart straightened up and backed away a step, knowing when to let the woman work. Seeing Yang in action- a whirlwind of focused intent bearing down on whosoever was foolish enough to stand in her way- usually brought a smile to her lips, recognizing in the other woman the same determination that she herself had towards accomplishing her tasks. They went about it different ways- usually, Winter would begin issuing orders in her crisp, military fashion while the blonde seemed more inclined to attend to things personally- but she could respect such passion in motion.

She probably looked even better when working out, that same fire lighting in those devastatingly attractive lilac eyes.

“You stopped listening to me, didn’t you? Or did you mute me again?”

Pulling her knuckle away from her mouth, the elder snapped off a quick response, ignoring the non sequitur inherent in her words. “Weiss, do you have any idea what Yang is wearing today?”

There was a moment of silence before the frustration came back to her sister’s voice. “Winter, I know full well you can see what Blake is wearing, so you tell me- are either of us really faring any better than the other?”

Gritting her teeth, the CEO watched as her intern suddenly stood straight up, fist pumping the air before leaning over and pulling her counterpart close enough to plant a kiss on the Faunus’ forehead. “No.”

“Yang, what was that for?” Blake raised a quizzical brow, more than adjusted to her quirks by this point but curious nonetheless.

Honestly, she was far too ecstatic to really care about how ridiculous she looked right then, dancing in place while holding their receipt from the Mistrali hotel the four had stayed at during their business trip. “I finally figured it out! Why this contract seems too good to be true!” Interest caught, the Faunus leaned over, looking at the paper herself. “See, the council has a standing contract with a specific hotel chain for a discounted rate, but I didn’t make the connection until just now!” She pulled the relevant section of the contract over so her friend could see, setting the hotel receipt they were both just reviewing next to it. “I figured, no big deal, ya know, we don’t stay overnight when the meeting’s within the borders anyway, but they’ve got branches all over Remnant under different names.” She pointed towards the trademark in the bottom corner of the receipt, the same name as on the contract. “According to the contract, part of our obligation would be to honor the kingdom’s standing agreements, so we’d have to use this chain whenever we traveled to see the other mine sites or negotiate with the other kingdoms, and we’d be liable for any charges incurred.”

The Faunus hummed. “Not seeing the issue yet.”

She quickly started scrabbling through the mess of papers, looking for the one she needed. “Well, that contract has a specification- where did it, oh, here we go- see? Only a certain amount of nights are allotted per year before the council has to pay double to offset labor and accommodations. But with how often we travel-”

Feline ears perked up as realization dawned in amber eyes. “We’d burn up the allotments and they’d shunt the excess charges to us or sue for breach of contract.”

Yang smiled, tapping her finger against the paper to accentuate her point. “All this knowing they’ll get a cut of the pie anyway from taxes, because the main chain is just two blocks down Fifth.”

“That’s sneaky.” Blake’s lips lifted in a small smirk, begrudging respect reflecting in her expression. When navigating the treacherous minefield that constituted the cutthroat business world, one had to acknowledge the more clever pitfalls when they appeared, or risk getting fooled later on down the line. “And it wouldn’t be for another six months at least that we realized it, which would be after the initial exit clause closes.”

“Exactly!” Grabbing a red pen from the holder on her desk, she circled the hotel chain, quickly skimming down the rest of the contract and circling various other vendors as she came across them. “I bet if I did a little more digging, I’d find they have other contracts that would screw us over like this, too. I knew this was too good to be true!” Finally, she could assemble a decent review of the contract and pass it off to Winter, allowing the CEO to begin outlining the drafts she wanted for amendments to protect the SDC’s interests. Pride and excitement coursed through her, practically sending her into a tizzy purely from the rush of picturing the look on her boss’ face when she handed in the report. While the blonde might not be able to catch the woman’s eye in a romantic sense, earning a small smile for a job well done quite nearly made up for that. “Thanks for the boost, Blake; talk about good timing!”

Her friend chuckled, holding out her hand. “A lucky coincidence. Here, give me the receipts and I’ll-” A buzzing stopped her short, one hand digging into the pocket of her jacket and pulling out her scroll. As amber eyes read over the text she’d received, her shoulders and ears slumped. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“What’s up?” Quickly scribbling out an arrow to mark her place, Yang turned her attention to the Faunus, concern pinching her brow.

With a frustrated sigh, Blake gave her an annoyed look, ears creating a flat line across the top of her head. “Remember when you brought the dog back to the dorms that one time?”

“You mean Zwei? My dog?” She couldn’t help the grin that came to her lips. There were few times during their friendship when she thought the Faunus might consider outright murdering her in her sleep, and bringing the family dog to college for a visit certainly topped the list.

“Yes.” She flipped the scroll around. “Look what Sun just sent me.”

Blonde brows raised in surprise at the little tabby kitten, quite obviously kneading the comforter on the feline Faunus’ bed mercilessly. “Aw, but it’s a cute kitty!”

“And my apartment doesn’t allow pets!” With an aggravated shake of her head, Blake began furiously tapping out a reply. “I swear, he doesn’t think things through, ever. The last thing I need right now is getting slapped with a warning for breaking the complex’s policies.” Her scroll buzzed again and she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Great, now he’s guilt tripping me.”

“C'mon, Blakey, just tell him to take that kitten over to Neptune’s or something; if he really wants to keep the little guy, he can pick 'em up after he gets his own place.”

“I’m trying.” Blake pressed her lips into a thin line. “He knows I want a pet, but right now isn’t a good time. I need to find a new apartment first, and-

She straightened up, nudging the Faunus’ shoulders with her fist to pull her attention away from madly typing into her scroll. “Hey, how about pizza at my place? I could bust out the old '64 and we could play some Smash Brothers like old times. Get your mind off the roommate troubles.”

For a moment, it looked like she’d be shot down, but slowly the stress seemed to slide away. “You know what? That sounds great.” Yang could hear and see the door opening out of the corner of her eye but kept her attention focused on her friend’s relaxing posture, a reassuring smile on her lips. “Your place, say seven o'clock?”

“We could just leave straight from here!” Her smiled pulled wider but she tried to cut off the conversation quickly, considering Winter was just now stepping out of her office, likely to follow up on her assessment of the contract. The CEO didn’t seem to mind if she discussed personal matters at work from time to time, but there was an unspoken rule that she had to keep on top of her daily tasks in the process. “That work for you?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Yang.” Blake gave her a grateful smile before collecting up the manila folder and the receipts, turning to nod politely at the CEO as she stepped out. “Ms. Schnee.”

The blonde probably should’ve acknowledged her boss, too. Unfortunately, every synapse in her brain shorted out at the same moment as her eyes grew wide. She had already seen the woman that morning- and experienced the exact same mental overload of 'oh wow she’s hot’ and a continuous mantra of 'oh shit oh shit oh shit’ being the only things in her head- but now she wished she’d prepared herself mentally for when it would, of course, inevitably happen again.

Winter Schnee always looked good, that much the blonde had accepted as one of those things that shouldn’t be possible yet was, but today she looked killer. A crisp white suit in pseudo-military design, with the pants tucked into thigh high black boots and a coat held closed by a single button at her waist, the long tails trailing behind her while the front opened up, practically putting the dark blue vest on display, especially the way the ensemble framed her chest. And if that wasn’t enough, she even had a little yellow tulip bud tucked into the breast pocket, just above the Schnee’s emblem stitched in cool grey, a splash of color that drew the eye… well… she should probably look up. White locks were bound in a bun atop her head, not quite as severe looking as the framed photographs of her time in the Atlesian military but damn close, bangs framing those sharp, piercing blue eyes that fell on her with all the weight of a Goliath, the sheer power of her aura silencing any and every thought- even her ability to breath for a moment.

“Miss Belladonna, Miss Xiao Long. Please. Don’t let me interrupt.” The words, spoken in that pointed, well enunciated tone she used whenever she was trying to hide anxiety, snapped the blonde out of her stupor rather effectively. Here they were, a week out from an important deadline, and she was getting lost in how hopelessly attracted she was to her boss!

“Oh, M-miss Schnee, uh, I was just working on the report on the council contract,” she said, turning around and quickly scrabbling together the various papers. “I need to do a little more digging, but Blake helped me find an indemnification clause they tried to sneak past us.”

“Regarding Dust shipments, I assume.” The CEO’s lips lifted slightly in a smirk; the SDC hadn’t missed a shipment deadline since the sibling duo took the reins of the company, the amount of terrorist activity working against them drastically reduced once they started making headway in protecting their Faunus employees.

“Actually, third party vendors.” She put the relevant pages on top of the stack and turned it over to the now surprised and curious woman, who immediately set about reading through the red marked passages. “Guess the color scheme confused them; it looks like they’re trying to set us up to be their sugar mamas.”

Mentally, she smacked a hand to her forehead, somewhat mollified when she caught sight of Blake doing that exact motion behind the CEO’s back. The self admonishment by proxy would have to do for now, seeing as blue eyes immediately flicked up to meet her gaze. “Sugar… mamas?” Her pale lips pressed into a thin line- full lips, kissable lips, lips she really wanted to taste- before she nodded, favoring the blonde with a small grin. “So it would seem. Excellent work, Miss Xiao Long. When can I expect the full report?”

“After lunch,” she replied a bit quickly, a tad bit too eager and belatedly realizing that she still had to cross reference all the vendors, following the bread crumbs throughout all of Remnant and double checking everything through kingdom records. “A-at the earliest, I mean. But, uh, definitely by the end of the day, Ma'am.”

Winter frowned, handing back the red inked contract. “I’m afraid that won’t do.” The blonde blinked, worry lancing through her chest at the thought she might’ve let her boss down. “There’s entirely too much left for you to sort through for that to be feasible, not unless you work through lunch and stay late, which you’ll be doing neither.” Her gaze briefly flicked over her shoulder to where Blake stood. “I’ll let Weiss know that both of you are to be out of this building by four thirty at the latest, seeing as you have… plans.” The pause before the last word seemed laden with something, though Yang couldn’t begin to decipher what with how quickly Winter continued. “As for lunch, Weiss and I have reservations at a restaurant just a flew blocks over. I will be amending them to accommodate the two of you joining us.”

The words brooked no room for argument and Yang let out a surprised chuckle, trying very hard not to react too strong this time. She had to keep her cool for just a bit longer; their internship was just a few more weeks. “Well, I- I appreciate that, but, uh, we wouldn’t want to impose-”

“Nonsense.” The CEO waved off her concerns. “I know quite well that if I leave you to your own devices, you’ll work through lunch without even realizing it. Someone has to ensure you eat.”

“Thanks boss.” A wide smile stretched her lips, lilac eyes flicking over to her best friend. It wasn’t often they spent lunch with their respective executive, so the prospect appealed to both of them; maybe in a more relaxed environment, they could push the boundaries just a little. Because, honestly, she really wanted to know the woman’s favorite color, purely because if things got down to the wire and she thought she stood even a ghost of a chance, she wasn’t about to waste her 'go for broke’ shot on anything less than her absolute best. “What’s the place called? I can-”

“You can continue with what you were doing.” Winter nodded, looking over towards the Faunus, who had schooled her expression into one of polite interest the moment she noticed the motion. “Both of you can. I will attend the arrangements myself.”

With that, the woman disappeared back into her office, shutting her door and allowing the best friends to relax entirely. At least, in theory, anyway.

Naturally, the blonde said the first thing to come to her mind. “If I just… laid myself out in front of her door like a rug, do you think she’d step on me? Because I suddenly think I might be into that, all memes aside.”

“You dork.” Blake sighed, rubbing at her temple. “We’re hopeless. Sugar mamas, really?”

With a heavy sigh the moment the door closed, Winter trudged through her office until she reached her desk, bracing herself against the sturdy wood with both arms. Several emotions swirled in her head and tugged her every which way- a strange pain in her chest, a touch of nausea, a weakness in her knees- but she managed to compose herself.

Mostly.

“Well?” Weiss’ anxious voice intoned from the speaker. “Did you invite them to lunch?”

That was the plan. A last minute plan hatched to get a little space, perhaps open avenues to casual conversation that had nothing to do with work. Learn a bit more about their interns while maintaining their professional facades- dinner meetings, after all, came with the trade- and they were foolhardy enough to think it a good idea.

And it backfired spectacularly.

“Yes,” she said, turning around and slumping against her desk, crossing her arms over her chest and proceeding to do something she hadn’t since she was eight. Winter Schnee, CEO of one of-if not the- most powerful companies in Remnant, eldest daughter, decorated military officer, certified huntress… pouted. “They have a date tonight.”

Silence.

“They what?” Her younger sister’s voice, caught between incredulous and heartbroken, filled the space briefly but long enough to drive the static from between her ears.

“I overheard them finalizing their plans. They’re going to Yang’s after work.” Marshaling her thoughts, the woman shook her head slowly, coming to terms with this new information. She couldn’t even take solace in being right; instead, she just felt… hollow, empty, and that wouldn’t do. She wasn’t a child, after all, and the corporate world held too many dangers for her to afford such distractions, anyway.

“Oh.” A long pause. “I was… so sure. Maybe…” The listless shuffling of paper- she could imagine just how lost Weiss looked right then, trying to puzzle through her conflicting emotions. “I suppose it doesn’t matter now. At least- at least they seem… you know… good for each other.”

“Right.” She straightened up, smoothing out her jacket before walking around to reclaim her chair. Although the… distraction wasn’t a pleasant one, she now felt entirely capable of throwing herself back into her work. “However, I think taking them to lunch is still a good idea. Despite our personal failings in remaining professionally detached, they’ve been two of the best employees we’ve ever had working directly under us.”

“That’s… true.” Her sister seemed slower in recovering and, honestly, it didn’t surprise her. Comparatively, Weiss had less experience in such matters, lacking the years her elder spent in the military meeting new people and maturing in that sense, remaining dedicated to her studies in order to take the COO position at such a young age. The woman was the same age as their interns, after all, and had held the position for two years already; there simply wasn’t time for much of a personal life. She’d fleetingly admitted to an unobtainable crush or two over the years- the famous huntress Pyrrha Nikos came to mind- but they were few and far between, always with the added benefit of distance and improbability to keep heartache to a minimum. However, she’d always been resilient, and she seemed to shake off the lingering melancholy after a few more moments to get her thoughts in order. “And their internships end in three weeks. Once we finalize this agreement, we have the quarterly review and then we’ll part ways.”

“Right.” Winter nodded for her benefit alone, already setting her fingers to the keyboard and diving back into the slew of emails awaiting her attention.

“Right.” A few moments of silence in which she thought the line would disconnect were followed by a small, somewhat defeated sigh of acknowledgement. “I’m… planning on getting a bottle of wine after work. Maybe two.”

“Get two, and double that order.” Her shoulders slumped ever so slightly, though she straightened them immediately. She would not allow herself to become bogged down by useless self pity. “We’ll both need it.”

Blake took a surreptitious breath, steeling herself before knocking on the door to the COO’s office. Now that she had confirmed the expenses from their last business trip, Weiss could complete the expenditure report for the finance department and they could both move on to their next task for the day. While Winter and Yang focused their attentions on the impending contract, Weiss and Blake had taken on the standard day-to-day operations, and they still had to review the previous weeks reports from the various mines, not to mention pick which ones they’d be auditing for human- and faunus rights violations.

Her feline ears perked at the quiet but distinct order to enter, quickly slipping into the woman’s office and closing the door behind her. Behind the desk sat Weiss Schnee, second born to the family name, her off center ponytail peeking up and over the triple display screens occupying the majority of her desk space, the tapping of keys only interrupted by the occasional click of a mouse. They’d already spoken a few times that morning- quick notes about their to-do list, aggregating data for the audits, and clarification regarding a less important meeting later that week- but the Faunus still found herself mentally preparing for when she walked around to the side of the desk, allowing her amber eyes to fall on her boss. She didn’t favor the same strict, military style dress her elder sister did; more often than not, she wore skirts and dresses that swirled around pale, creamy thighs and ankles, dipping collars that accented the hollow of her throat and the curve of her-

“Is that the Mistral trip?”

Blake stiffened upon realizing she’d drifted off into her imagination again, silently cursing herself. “Yes, Ma'am. I just confirmed everything with Yang.”

A quick expression passed over the woman’s face- despite being Weiss’ intern, she’d yet to unravel the mystery of her boss’ quick expressions that never seemed to last long enough for her to discern, if they even appeared at all- before she accepted the manila folder, opening it up and quickly glancing at the papers within. “Thank you, Miss Belladonna. Is there anything else?”

The Faunus frowned, trying valiantly to keep her ears from twitching. Weiss wasn’t normally this curt after she’d had her morning coffee and certainly seemed a bit… friendlier before she’d gone over to check the receipts. The woman would at least look her in the eye, as if she truly held Weiss’ undivided attention for those precious moments, but now she felt more like a bothersome fly a second from being batted away. “Uh, did you… want me to get a status check on the Vacuon mines first? Or contact our Vytal branch office regarding their quarterly numbers?”

Usually, the woman would pause, look thoughtful, weigh the estimated time for completion against deadlines, accounting for timezone differences, and decide on a course of action- all in under a minute. This time, the reply was instantaneous. “We need the numbers; the status check can wait until after lunch.”

“Yes, Miss Schnee.” Without another word, Blake left the office, closing the door behind her and frowning. Rather than sit down at her desk and get back to work- wrangling the numbers out of the Vytal branch wouldn’t be easy, seeing as they often waited until the last minute and the reports weren’t technically due until the end of next week- but instead she leaned back against the solid wood, thinking back to just a few hours before.

She’d watched Weiss come in- white skirt swirling with every sharp step, the clack of her heels, those bright blue eyes softer than her sister’s but so entrancing, wait, focus Belladonna- but, now that she thought on it, the woman hadn’t had anything in her hands aside from her briefcase. No to-go bag from the bakery across the street, no pastry wrapped in a paper towel from home, and the doctor’s appointment she’d had that morning probably meant that she hadn’t eaten in a while, if at all.

Forgoing her desk, the Faunus strode towards the break room tucked into the middle of the floor, pouring a little coffee into a paper cup and tasting it herself. While it wouldn’t win any awards, the sharp bite was satisfactory, and she quickly added two packets of sugar and a splash of creamer to the cup before filling it nearly to the brim with coffee and swirling the concoction together with a stir stick. She grabbed a napkin and picked out a donut from the box sitting on a table- plain glaze, since the only other option was a bearclaw or some monstrosity layered with sprinkles- and went back to the COO’s office, carefully rapping her knuckles against the wood without losing either offering.

“Come in.” Pushing into the office, Blake quickly set about returning to the side of the desk and waiting for acknowledgement- the barest flick of those blue eyes her way- before setting down the coffee and donut. The movement seemed to be enough to prompt the woman to pause her work for a moment, watching as both items were set upon her desk. “What’s this for?”

“I… didn’t see you come in with anything this morning.” She took a step back, trying her hardest to will away the light blush rising in her cheeks while her ears trembled from the force of being held still. “It’s not good to skip breakfast.”

For a moment, Weiss did nothing but stare before eventually sighing. “You’re right. I was in a bit of a rush this morning.” She reached out to grab the donut and broke it in half, holding out one side to the intern. “But, here- you usually grab a snack about this time, do you not?”

“I do,” she replied, somewhat cautious.

The woman made a vague gesture, enticing her to take the offered half. “I’d rather not eat it all myself. We have a lunch arrangement soon, after all, and I don’t want to spoil my appetite.”

Her ears flicked, having caught a distinct consonant sound after the word 'lunch’ that her boss had quickly covered up, but she brushed it off as her nerves playing tricks on her. She hadn’t thought Weiss paid enough attention to her habits to notice she often ran to the vending machines about this time of day, if she hadn’t brought something in with her. Accepting the donut, she quickly took a step towards the door, seeing as her mission was complete. For the time being, at least. “I’ll go get started on those numbers.”

“Thank you, Miss Blake.”

The Faunus stopped, eyes flicking up to meet those steady, sparkling blue ones as her breath caught in her throat. Sure, it wasn’t quite as casual as when anyone else said her name, but… it was the first time the woman hadn’t been entirely formal. “A-anytime, Miss Weiss.”

For a moment, she’d thought the momentary distraction provided by the COO’s use of her name had just condemned her to losing her position entirely- really, calling the woman by name, what was she thinking- but those pale lips curled slightly into a little grin. With no reprimand forthcoming, she quickly left the office, once again leaning back against the door and releasing a deep, satisfied breath of relief. Whatever had the woman in a terse mood, she seemed to improve it, if only a little, which could only mean good things for their lunch da- the lunch their bosses would be treating the interns to, no doubt.

After she got the ball rolling on the numbers, she would text Yang to gush about the way Weiss said her name, unable to wipe the smile from her face as she sat down and got to work.

Within her office, Weiss watched the door close as her intern slipped out, releasing a breath she’d unconsciously held since she’d slipped up. Slowly, she lowered her forehead to the space between her keyboard and the edge of the desk, waiting for the dull thunk of impact before groaning, trying valiantly to ignore the way those amber eyes seemed to light up when she’d accepted the offering, when she’d crossed that invisible line in her mind between professional and personal by uttering the Faunus’ given name, when she seemed just so… happy about something in that quiet way she had.

Eventually, she reached the only logical conclusion left: these three weeks would be the death of her.

A business AU romcom starring Yang “Open Mouth Insert Foot” Xiao Long, Blake “Surrounded By Children” Belladonna, Winter “So Far In Denial She’s Drowning” Schnee, and Weiss “Needs Remedial Romance For Dummies” Schnee. 

I’m getting Weiss and Yang in suits before I let this AU go, I fucking swear it.

[dryangon]

1-30 on the artist asks do it

jesus h fuck alright

gonna put this in a readmore

Do you prefer traditional drawing, or digital?

only recently ive been preferring digital, i think it has more to do with the fact that i dont usually do my own style when drawing traditionally cause art class

How long have you been drawing?

since i was like 3 my dude although i only seriously started trying to get better in fifth grade so about 5 years

How many classes have you taken?

ive taken four? so far? depends on whether or not digital media counts

Do you have a DeviantArt, personal website, or art blog?

do not have any of those things except art blog, youre looking at it

What’s your favorite thing to draw?

people

What’s your least favorite thing to draw?

b a c k g r o u n d s

How often do you use references?

not that often unless im trying to nail down a specific background or someone requests something that requires a reference

Do you draw professionally, or just for fun?

just for fun, ive been thinking about commissions but idk if ill ever set that up

How much time do you spend drawing on an average day?

really depends on the day. since schools out i spend a good four hours drawing (not consecutively)

Are you confident about your art?

wiggles hand uncertainly

How many art-related blogs do you follow?

uhhhhhhhhhh like 70ish

Is it okay for people to ask you about your process?

yeah i dont mind! i probably am not the best person to ask for help tho

Do you prefer to keep your art personal, or do you like drawing things for other people?

theres a line between personal art and public art in my head, i dont mind drawing things for others but i dont like people looking at the stuff that ive done for my personal use

Do you ever collaborate with others?

i would if i was asked

How long does an average piece take you to complete?

usually what you see on my blog are sketches and lineart and those take me anywhere from 30 min to an hour, colored things take me like 2 hours

Do you draw more today than you did in the past, or do you draw less?

i think i draw more, just because when i was a little kid teachers and stuff would take away anything i was drawing with even in art classes if i was supposed to be paying attention or some shit

i remember in sixth grade my social studies teacher took my notebook away from me because i was doodling in her class while taking notes

there was also once that a substitute yelled at me for drawing after we finished a test

Do you think you’re justified in giving other people art advice?

i mean i guess with lines and stuff but with color im completely hopeless

i can tell you what i think looks good but other than that 

What are you currently trying to improve on?

backgrounds

What is the most difficult thing for you to draw?

backgrounds

What is the easiest thing for you to draw?

hair

Do you like to challenge yourself?

i do but its really hard for me to do sometimes because often ill get distracted and forget to focus on this one piece of art

Are you confident that you’re improving steadily?

mnot really

i guess i can sort of see it in my older pieces but i really dont know

the other thing is sometimes i like the way my style turns out but then i progress and i cant revert back to what i liked

Do you draw more fanart, or more original art?

fanart on this blog, original in my notebooks

Do you feel jealous when you see other people’s art, or inspired? (Be honest!)

i dont really get jealous, but i guess sometimes i do get sad just because they found this really cool style and im still trying to find mine

Do you like to draw in silence, or with music?

i like drawing with music but a lot of the time i end up drawing in silence bc my playlist ran through entirely

For digital artists: what program(s) do you use?

artrage 4

For digital artists: how many layers does a typical piece require?

sketches: 4-5. colored: 10+

For traditional artists: what medium do you like most? (Pencil, charcoals, etc)

pencil

For traditional artists: How do you usually start on a big piece? (Light sketch, colored lead, sketchpaper, etc)

light sketch

What inspires you to not just make art, but to be a better artist?

i have a lot of fuckin ideas and i want to be able to put them on paper goddamn it

[aion-rsa]

How Hideo Kojima and Junji Ito Could Finish What Silent Hills Started

https://ift.tt/2EpTlgx

The collaboration survival horror fans have been waiting for may finally be happening, according to famed mangaka Junji Ito, who confirmed that he’s been talking to video game auteur Hideo Kojima about working together on a new horror project, which has been the subject of much speculation since the release of Death Stranding last year.

Ito shared this tidbit while talking to Viz Media during this weekend’s Comic-Con@Home event (via IGN), where he was asked whether he was currently working on any video game projects.

“So, the simple answer is no,” Ito’s translator Junko Goda told Viz Media. “However, I do know director Kojima and we have been in conversation that he might have a horror-based game that he may be doing, and so he has invited me to work on that, but there are no details on it yet.”

Those who have been following Kojima’s attempts to make a horror game over the years likely know that Ito was previously set to collaborate with the video game auteur and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro on Silent Hills, a new take on the beloved survival horror series starring The Walking Dead and Death Stranding actor Norman Reedus. But the collaboration never got past a few initial meetings and a karaoke session.

“Once the Silent Hills meeting was over, we went to karaoke,” Ito said while speaking at the Toronto Comics Art Festival (via Game Informer) in 2019. “I didn’t hear anything after that. I heard that the plan got scrapped through outside sources. I have seen Kojima and Del Toro since. I never started designing monsters. Nothing exists. There are no roughs or sketches.”

In an interview with IGN about approaching Ito to work on Silent Hills, del Toro called the mangaka “completely one of the masters,” saying that he loved how Ito seemed to “get high on his own supply” while imagining the grotesque monsters, body horror, and extreme violence that are trademarks of the mangaka’s work.

“In the way that you feel Dario Argento in the early movies was getting off on each murder or you feel David Cronenberg was secretly aroused by body horror – in the same way, you feel Junji Ito being titillated at a very basic disturbing level by his stuff,” del Toro said of Ito.

However Silent Hills would have turned out, it does sound like the trio had some interesting new ideas about how to push the survival horror genre forward.

“We had a few working sessions where we were talking about using the console, the next-generation console in a way that would surprise people. Let’s really freak out people. Let’s really cause a panic with Silent Hill. Let’s go for it. Let’s go for full-blown social madness,” del Toro told IGN. “We were planning this stuff. Ito was mainly being nice, making notes. He didn’t sing either. He was a very serious man.”

Unfortunately, when Kojima and publisher Konami had a falling out during the development of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the game director left the company and Silent Hills was quickly canceled. Konami has done little with the series since (besides making Silent Hill-themed pachinko gambling machines).

It’s a shame this all happened before Ito could even put pencil to paper. I personally would have loved to see what monstrosities Ito’s chats with Kojima and del Toro might have inspired. Fortunately, Kojima and del Toro’s P.T. demo was a stunning proof of concept for what Silent Hills might have looked like. It was also its own experiment in “social madness.”

When P.T. was mysteriously released at Gamescom 2014 by a fake studio, many gamers quickly became obsessed with solving the confounding (and terrifying) demo’s seemingly nonsensical puzzles. Within hours, P.T. had become a viral marketing phenomenon, the subject of countless reaction videos, forum threads, walkthroughs, live streams, and social media posts. Of course, beating the demo revealed P.T.‘s biggest mystery of all: that it was, in fact, a “playable teaser” for Kojima and del Toro’s Silent Hills. Yet, by the time the truth had come out, P.T. itself had morphed into its own unique experience destined to outlive the game it was created to promote.

Much has been written about the making of P.T. and its influence on the horror genre in the years since its release. You can also find plenty of videos dissecting different aspects of the demo, including videos of players, dataminers, and modders trying to figure out how the demo works. Siux years later, certain things about the demo remain a secret, including the meaning of its cyclical narrative.

The demo is a notable example of a game going viral, as players worked together on the internet to solve the puzzles, while word of mouth on social media got others to try the demo. While Kojima explored this idea further in Death Stranding, which has its own social mechanics, del Toro and Kojima originally planned to take all of this one step further with Silent Hills, using “every aspect” of the PS4 to “create a state of widespread social panic,” according to IGN. While I’d stop short of saying it caused widespread panic, P.T. itself did spread like wildfire through internet gaming communities in 2014 like some sort of interactive urban myth or creepypasta. Or a meme.

Fans of the Metal Gear series know Kojima loves to insert metafiction and other metaphysical elements into his work, such as with the Psycho Mantis boss fight in Metal Gear Solid and the final twist in Metal Gear Solid 2, which some believe predicted the pervasive nature of meme culture on the internet as well as how technology could be used for social engineering. Many of Kojima’s games specifically tackle how technology can distort and corrupt reality.

P.T. has its own distortive qualities and can even be considered a major turning point in Kojima’s work undoubtedly influenced by del Toro’s own directorial sense. Some critics have said the demo’s endlessly looping hallway, which players must keep walking through to solve P.T.‘s many puzzles, “practically hypnotizes you into a state of vulnerability.” That sense of vulnerability also comes in part from the hostile ghost that follows closely behind you throughout the experience as well as the disorienting nature of the puzzles that work on a sort of dream logic that’s never explained within the actual game. (There are no tutorials or in-game prompts to be found in P.T.)

Read more

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Kojima told The Japan Times in 2014 that with P.T. he wanted to explore “a more genuine, thoughtful and permeating type of fear” than the violence and gore usually found in AAA survival horror games.

“There are horror action games with zombies and grotesque things and so forth. The real fear isn’t from those things. It’s from standing in an empty place, where just to step forward or to turn around is scary,” Kojima said, explaining that the demo is scary because “there’s no information.”

“Nowadays, when people don’t know something, they Google it. They ask on Twitter or Facebook and they get the answer right away. We live in an age of information. When that suddenly disappears, that’s the scariest thing,” Kojima explained. “That’s why there was no information about who made P.T. There was no purpose or background and no explanation about the story, and that’s frightening. I did this on purpose. That’s why I hid my name and title and just let them play.”

While Kojima has said many times since the release of P.T. that the demo wasn’t actually related to Silent Hills in terms of gameplay or story, it’s impossible not to wonder how the success of the interactive teaser would have influenced Kojima and del Toro’s final product, and how Ito’s own work would have added to the experience.

After all, Ito was a perfect fit for the “social madness” Kojima and del Toro were going for with Silent Hills. In his seminal horror manga books Gyo and Uzumaki in particular, Ito deals with extreme levels of social anxiety and the unbridled chaos that follows.

In Gyo, Japan is plagued by undead fish who crawl out of the sea using spider-like metal legs powered by a “death stench.” Images of bloated victims assimilated into the killer fish army pervade the pages of the book as do images of mass hysteria.

If Gyo is Ito’s own take on the zombie genre, Uzumaki is something far more experimental and disturbing. In Uzumaki, a small Japanese town finds itself under attack by a supernatural curse involving spirals. The book is infused with a heightened sense of paranoia, as characters try to navigate the horrific dream logic that’s not unlike the one found in P.T.

Interestingly enough, Ito was inspired to create Uzumaki in part due to his desire to understand spirals as symbols, as well as an interest in depicting spirals in an unexpected way that would scare Japanese audiences, an approach that sounds like Kojima’s own distortion of gameplay mechanics players normally take for granted.

“The ‘spiral pattern’ is not normally associated with horror fiction. Usually spiral patterns mark character’s cheeks in Japanese comedy cartoons, representing an effect of warmth. However, I thought it could be used in horror if I drew it a different way,” Ito said in an interview with 78 magazine in 2006. “Spirals are one of the popular Japanese patterns from long ago, but I don’t know what the symbol represents. I think spirals might be symbolic of infinity.”

While Ito’s work is full of the violence and gore that Kojima wanted to move away from with P.T., it’s clear that the two creators share similar sensibilities when it comes to finding more primal ways of scaring their audiences. Like Kojima and his use of the suburban hallway, Ito often uses images of things that aren’t traditionally considered scary — like spirals — in order to terrify. Another example is hair.

“Historically, long black hair has been symbolic of Japanese women, and most women value this image. The long hair of a woman is common in Japanese horror because it conveys an enveloping feeling of movement. I think it conjures up fear in people unconsciously,” Ito told 78. It’s in this space between what we know to be scary and what people don’t even know they’re scared of yet that both Ito and Kojima excel. With Kojima now running his own Kojima Productions indie studio where he can decide what he wants to work on and with whom he wants to work with next, his collaboration with Ito might finally come into fruition on their own terms. And their past work certainly points to a match made in hell. If Kojima and Ito do decide to collaborate on a new horror game, one would have to wonder how del Toro might fit into the project. After Silent Hills was canceled and a previous video game project called Insane also fell through, del Toro vowed to never work on a game again during an interview with Playboy (via IGN). That said, del Toro did allow Kojima to use his likeness for a major supporting character in Death Stranding, so perhaps there’s hope the Silent Hills trio could be reunited one day. Until then, our hopes of seeing something akin to what was planned for Silent Hills rest with Kojima and Ito. Perhaps Kojima could even teach Ito a thing or two about video games along the way: “I don’t know anything about games. I don’t play them. I am afraid if I get into them I’ll miss deadlines. I have never played Silent Hill,” Ito revealed at the Toronto Comics Art Festival while ruminating on his relationship with Kojima. “I have known Hideo Kojima for 20 years. He is a nice older brother type.”

The post How Hideo Kojima and Junji Ito Could Finish What Silent Hills Started appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[mysticsparklewings]

Covered in All the Colored Lights‪

Well, this looks wild and different coming from me, doesn't it? If you've been a Sparkler long enough, you may remember this character of mine from ages ago when I made This Is Where You Wanna Be, which featured her. Her name is Windith, and she's a performer who likes mixing old-time circus elements with more contemporary stuff.   (She was originally just a circus performer but that felt too limiting for me, and I'm thinking it might be a little too passive for her personality. I don't have a set story for her, so her character will perpetually be in development ) This drawing was also me testing out some new paper and the new Skin Tone marker set from Ohuhu. Which I simply had to get because it meant more colors of their brush tip markers that I've tested out in the past. (Ohuhu Brush Marker Review and Sweet Ohuhu Snail) I'll cut to the chase for those that aren't interested in the longer version: I kinda hate this paper and it, unfortunately, was not the best choice for what was supposed to be a mostly-marker illustration. But I like the markers! The markers themselves are nice as always, and I like the addition of the new colors, but the one thing I have to point out is that Ohuhu is still lacking in good colors for super pale skin that doesn't have a strong pink or gray undertone. They're doing really good with peachy tones, mid-tone, warm browns, and the new colors add some really nice darker/cooler browns, though. In fact, the new marker colors are what primarily inspired me to bring Winidth back into the fold in the first place; some of the colors looked like they would work really well for her skin tone in particular, and I've avoided drawing her traditionally in the past because I wasn't sure I could capture it accurately with the supplies I had. And...that's really all I have to say about the markers, actually. As brush markers, virtually nothing has changed from the last two rounds of testing I did with the Ohuhus, and thus the only thing I can really comment on is the colors. I really appreciate having more to pick from, especially because some of the colors in the set really do stand apart from the rest of my alcohol marker collection, but a lot of the "light skin tone" options are either too orange/pink or too yellow or just generally too dark for a light/pale skin tone. So, my final commentary is the same as always: More colors, please! Now, as for that paper... I picked up a new sketchbook from my local Ross, which I've known for a while now as having a surprisingly good (maybe not the best, but surprisingly good) art supply section. This paper is by a brand called Craft Smith, which as far as I can tell seems to be very into making scrapbook/craft paper and doesn't appear to be actively selling/promoting sketchbooks currently. (At least not anywhere I could find online.) It also claims to be "Mixed Media Paper 120 lb (180 gsm)." I actually have some 120 lb mixed media paper that I use semi-frequently in the form of a sketchbook by Denik. And funnily enough, that's the same paper I used on my other two Ohuhu marker pieces. So we have both a baseline for comparison in terms of performance and in terms of feel. Now, I'm not an idiot. I did inspect the paper before I actually bought the sketchbook, and it's alarming how deceptive this paper is. It definitely has the right weight/thickness to it, even compared to the 120 lb. paper I already had once I got it home. The only truly notable differences are 1. This paper is a brighter white (the Denik paper is almost on the blue/purple side) and 2. This paper feels smoother. And the second point was actually one of the reasons I bought it, as I thought it was make for a really nice marker paper. (Smoother paper tends to be a better option for brush markers so you don't wear out the nibs as quickly)   Oh boy, how wrong would I be! So, let me explain just by going through my process for the art, since that and discovering the atrocities of this paper go pretty hand-in-hand. Trying desperately to get used to my current tablet situation, I started by doing the lines for the illustration digitally, having been inspired for a pose/facial expression by some Ball Jointed Dolls over on Instagram. The lines didn't turn out perfectly, but they were good enough that I felt comfortable printing them out and re-inking them traditionally as I did for Fairy Enchanting, the artwork featured on my Commission Sheet. In that process, I would end up with a 1/2 of the drawing that didn't print correctly, the proper print out I used to do the inking, and also similarly to Fairy Enchanting, a first attempt at tracing my lines that was not turning out how I wanted that got scrapped. So, essentially, I had 1.5 test pages just for colors/color placement (as they were on regular printer paper), and 1 to see how this paper would actually handle my supplies. And while normally I'd be scolding myself for wasting paper and ink, in this case, it's actually a very good thing that happened. My second attempt at inking on this paper went a lot smoother (I think I just needed to loosen up the inking part of my brain), and I was actually pretty happy with how the lines turned out. So much so that once I discovered major problems with the paper, I actually scanned the inked version in to preserve it, just in case. And I even inked it a third time on to the Denik paper I mentioned earlier, extra-just in case so I could even do a side-by-side comparison of the two papers to show "this paper is crap, this other paper is not." (Fortunately, I don't think I'll be needing that third inking despite the tale I'm about to tell.) I started out by using the different test pages to make sure I had the right tones/colors I wanted for the skin. The swatches looked okay, so I went ahead and tried coloring the skin to test some blush and shading. Right away I noticed that 1. The ink feathers/bleeds across the page (outside of lines) way more than it should for a paper this thick, and 2. once the ink settles into the paper, it's kind of patchy/spotty. And 3. If you trying layering a light color over a darker color with alcohol markers, it makes the patchy/spotty-ness more apparent. Obviously, these things combined make layering and blending tricky without the end result looking strange and uncomfortable. Just in case there was something this paper didn't like about the Ohuhu markers, in particular (and also because I wasn't super happy with my color choices for Ohuhu for this particular hair color), I did try a test blend for the hair with some Copic markers. Nope, still feathering badly and doing the weird spotty thing. Still not layering very well without re-working the entire area. Briefly, I panicked. The whole idea for this paper was to be for markers, and I had largely intended for this illustration to be pretty markers-only. But this paper, quite apparently, hates markers. Okay, okay. I tried one more blending/coloring test, this time just seeing if I could do the skin and get it to look decent on this paper inside my lines, and while not super ideal, I did manage to get something I was mostly happy with. Likewise, my next step was to do that again on the final piece. At least then I'd have the most important part--the skin--for this piece done and then I could proceed with whatever seemed like the best option for the rest of it. So the skin actually turned out okay in the end because I was being exceptionally careful to work with the issues I'd already discovered. By nature, it's not the best (as in it would look better on better paper), but it works. I still had at least a small problem on my hands though. To be fair, even before I printed the lines off I was thinking I might try washi tape for her clothes/shawl/whatever, so the paper not liking markers really just re-enforced that idea. The problem was I still had the hair to do. I tried a couple more blending/coloring tests, trying desperately to make the markers work for that, but it just wasn't happening. The way I blend hair just requires too many layers for this paper. So my next solution was to try some tests with colored pencils. For smooth, flat color, this paper is actually pretty nice for colored pencils. For layering and blending, however, (just as I suspected before I even tried it) it's too smooth. Blending works pretty okay if you're just doing 1-2 layers, but anything beyond that is just slippery and unsatisfying, to say the least. That was my two main mediums thrown out the window. Now what do I do? Because I was largely at my wit's end, I got a little crazy and tried some tests using some Faber Castell gelatos to see what they would do. And I have to say, putting the gelatos to this paper does feel exceptionally good, as the smoothness of the paper suits the creamy texture of the gelatos. Although the gelatos don't blend out super well when you add water to them on this paper, so that limits what you can do with them by a fair amount. Not really knowing what else to do, I broke out some actual watercolors and tried those. Fortunately, while the paper does warp fairly easily (that's to be expected with any paper less than 140 lb.), the paint lays down and blends fairly smoothly and nicely. And so I finally had something to work with. There's a reason when I work with watercolors I usually don't go for a hard illustration like this, but I think I managed fairly well to get the paint to do what I wanted. I knew going in it wouldn't have the same look or dimension as my markers or pencils, so I made my peace with that ahead of time. The main thing I wanted was at least the suggestion of shading and relatively smooth coverage. There are some small areas where the paint just did what it wanted anyway, but it's little enough I don't think it ruins the whole thing. I'm sure I could've worked with the hair more to get arguably better results, but by this point, I was so relieved the paint was working that I decided not to push my luck. (I did end up having to digitally tweak it because it shows up as a little more blue on the scan than it actual is, but that's not really the paper's fault.) Since I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do with the face/makeup at this point, I moved on to dealing with the washi tape. Fortunately, this ended up working out fairly easily. I actually put the tape down on my inking-gone-wrong (as the areas where I needed to cut it turned out well enough it would work for this) and used an Exacto knife to carefully cut the top of tape away to make the neckline and keep the tape from covering up the little bit of hair that reaches down that far, the hair being the tricker part to cut. Even so, I had a less challenging time than I thought and I only minimally dented/cut into the very top layer of the paper underneath. (Which was why I wanted to cut the tape on not-the-final-piece in the first place; I knew indentions were going to be made from the knife no matter what I did, but it's hard to predict how bad it'll be until it's usually too late.) Once that was done, I could simply peel the pre-cut tape off of my test page and re-apply it to the final one. Naturally, the cut wasn't 100% accurate, but it was close enough that the little bit that wasn't quite right was easily disguised but going back over my lines again and filling any gaps. I went back to the face once that was taken care of, and I ended up relying on the heavy feathering this paper does to get Windith's eyes right. Originally when I drew her, I tried to give her "oil slick" eyes. As in, her eyes are black but have a rainbow sheen to them, like how if you ever see oil in a parking lot, it's black but has that really pretty rainbow shine to it. I never had to consider before how this might translate into a traditional drawing though since that drawing was done digitally and at a time where I thought digital art was going to be my primary medium going forward.  (My oh my, how the tables have turned indeed...) After a couple of failed tests (failed due to personal preference and actually not the paper this time) I ended up going with a dark selection of alcohol markers in very teeny tiny dots to make a pseudo-rainbow. It's not a perfect translation of what her eyes are supposed to look like, but it's close enough to suit me. Then came the makeup. Originally, I was going to just make her lips a more natural color and largely call it done, but I didn't want them to blend in too much with her skin and even when I tried a less natural berry color I just couldn't get the blending right in such a small space on this paper. And I was also thinking it would be nice to give her eye shadow and bring the colors from her shawl-thing up into the face area a little bit. But I'd already discovered colored pencils weren't the way to go and I had a feeling I wasn't going to like how this paper handled pastels either, so I just skipped testing that altogether. After some thought, since I originally thought of Windith as a circus performer, I deiced to do some testing with gel pens (which I figured would handle just fine on this paper, given the nature of gel pens in general) and this simple kind of clown makeup. (I'm sure there's a more proper name for it out there somewhere but I haven't the foggiest idea what that said name is.) I ended up really liking that, especially with how the bright colors pop against her dark skin tone, and in that, I thought a bright color would work well for her lips, too. I tested my orange gel pen, but it was a little too bright and just a little too imprecise for my taste, so I opted for a little fluorescent orange watercolor instead. I know the makeup probably looks kind of silly to most, but I really like it and how it ties the colors together better. And besides, I think it says a lot of about Windith's character that she can wear makeup like that but still looks as confident and determined as she does here.   But I wasn't done quite yet. I wanted to do something to fill the empty space in the background, but as I mentioned earlier I really was not keen on finding out how this paper would handle pastels after the struggles I'd already been through. And also I didn't really think any of my pastel colors would work all that well with the other colors going on here. It's not too much, but I ended up defaulting to some of my dollar-store stencils to add some florals and a little butterfly back there. I figured that would tie in nicely with the floral washi tape, add a bit of color, yet not totally overpower everything. I also ended up with some artsy white dots because I somehow got some random ink dots/smudges around a few edges and once I covered those up I added some more dots so it would look like an intentional part of the look. Unfortunately, said white dots did not show up on the scan.   The final piece is definitely far from perfect and this paper is not good for a lot of things I was hoping it would be (I can report it seems to work pretty good for regular sketching, though, so it won't go to waste!). However, I still managed to get something pretty decent out of the equation, I think. Small victories? I may not be looking forward to making more finished pieces with this paper, but I am looking forward to playing with the Ohuhu Skin tone markers more, that's for sure. I've got a few sketches that I'm thinking about turned into a mini-series illustrating a few different skin tones with them, but I haven't decided 100% on that just yet. I do have a couple of other projects definitely coming down the pipeline though, so stayed tuned. P.S. The title is a reference to The Greatest Show, the opening them from "The Greatest Showman," the same song that largely inspired the first time I drew Windith. It's just kinda her thing now.   ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram 

[mysticsparklewings]

Butterfly Babe

See the sparkle & shine in a video clip over on Instagram!: www.instagram.com/p/Bx2b7Qkjue… Welp, I wanted to have this up yesterday as I said in my WIP Wednesday! but I became preoccupied with catching bugs in Animal Crossing to repay my debt to Tom Nook... But it's all finished and up now Believe it or not, this started as an excuse to do more with a set of metallic watercolors because as much as I love how they look I just feel like I don't get many opportunities to use. I stumbled upon this picture in Yesterdays-Paper 's gallery: Be My Little Baby Butterfly and thought a recreation akin to my Figures in Good Style piece could be fun and involve metallic watercolors . I don't know where it came from, but I had a pretty specific image in my mind of what I wanted the girl in the end result to look like since I started doing pose thumbnails to figure out, which is why I ended up picking this pose even though I knew it was going to testing my perspective and shading skills a little bit. Which it did, but I think it turned out okay. Funny story. I actually sketched her out traditionally and was going to ink her traditionally too, but I had drawn the skirt separately off to the side so I wouldn't disrupt the body base and between accidentally overdrawing some lines (namely the sleeve things on her arms) so that that would look weird when adding the skirt and just having one of those nights where for whatever reason my inking patience was just out the window, I ended up scanning the sketch and doing the line art of her digitally and printing it out on to the mixed media paper I wanted to use. That wasn't a problem since I had already decided I wanted to do the metallic watercolor, watercolor wings (both of which I knew would each have to be on their own separate watercolor papers/layers) and do the girl in alcohol markers for color (though I did end up adding some colored pencil on top to fix some shading bugs). The only issue with printing the line art was that most of the lines did a weird ghosting thing, which struck me as extra odd because I drew and printed some guidelines for the wings that didn't do that, so I did end up having to go back and ink most of the lines with a real pen to hide that, which is why the lines still look semi-organic compared to if they were straight digital. Well, and technically I forgot that I had considering doing the lines in a color other than black, but in the end, I think the black was probably for the best. Only thing is that I did the antennae in black and it was only after I printed it and started coloring that I thought it was a little too harsh, and doubly so considering the ones in the original postcard were a white/silver color. So I went over them with a white gelly pen just enough to pale them out but not enough to make them disappear. Which reminds me; the main part of the design for the girl/outfit that I changed from the reference would be the shoe/ankle area. In the original, it's just black tights and white/cream heels, but I pulled the idea of toe-less tights and an anklet to match her dress ruffles and the things in her hair from...I don't even know, but the idea occurred to me and I ran with it. And I do think it helps bring together certain elements of the outfit just a little more.  Plus the original shoes wouldn't have looked very interesting in this particular pose. Honestly though once I had her drawn, the girl was the easy part. The bigger challenges were mixing the exact color of the metallic paint that I wanted, the wings, and deciding on the background aside from the metallic portion. I did my best to use some white, gold, and black of the metallic paints to create this funky gray-gold color, since I do like the gray in the original but I didn't really have a good solution for it in my version, and I thought the straight gold would've been too harsh. It doesn't look like much on the scan, but I think it came out super pretty in-person. I also deliberated between several different options of decorative paper decorated like piles of old paper and stuff (that block has come in so handy for things that were never even thought of when it was purchased) for the backing piece and how I wanted to incorporate the border idea from the original; ultimately though I thought this stamp-print paper looked the best and I liked the idea of the two different washi tapes you can see for a border between the metallic and the background paper, as I've been having the same issue with that as the metallic watercolor: I have a small washi tape collection I love, but I just haven't used any of it much. You can also see in the WIP that I took three separate stabs at the wings, partly for experimentation's sake and partly to give myself more options just in case one set didn't turn out that great. Ironically enough, of the three sets, I still ended up going with the first one because it felt the most balanced between the top and bottom wing colors/patterns. Figuring out the lines before I started painting was a little tricky since I needed something waterproof but I wanted it to be subtle, and I ended up going with my "clear" Stardust gelly roll, which actually leans on the gold side, and then I went back over the lines once they were dry and it picked up a little watercolor pigment, making it slightly darker but not overbearingly so. Oh, and about those wings...I ended up Googling to try and find what kind of butterfly they were from to have a clearer reference for painting/drawing them myself, and oddly enough the best match I found was not, in fact, a butterfly but was instead a Magpie Moth. Granted, I'm not an expert on these things and I don't think I spent more than an hour looking into it, but I did seriously consider titling this something to do with my moth revelation because of how odd it struck me. It doesn't really change anything, it was just kind of weird to me. Also, both cutting out the wings and the girl were not exactly fun. The watercolor paper for the wings was so stiff that by the time I cut three sets out my hand was a little sore and the girl...Well, you can see all the little things I had to try to work around and how close I was trying to get. I think that speaks for itself in why that was more a chore than an enjoyment. And that was pretty much where I stopped two nights ago because I wanted to make sure everything was dry, it was four in the morning, and I was tired, but I snapped the WIP shot before going to be so I would have something to post in the meantime. (I had hoped to have the finished piece up on Wednesday but obviously, that didn't happen). I resumed the next day and started with figuring out placement, washi taping, and gluing everything together. This included a few logistic hiccups over how to glue like the girl and the wing and the metallic piece together so everything laid okay, but ultimately I actually didn't have to do anything special because while the watercolor paper is thick, in practice it isn't so thick that it was causing layering issues, so I was just careful about how I glued and left it alone. Then I wanted to make sure everything was dry again and hopefully that it would dry mostly flat, so I stacked it carefully between heavy books and left it for the night. Originally, I was just going to leave it at that. But I came back to it the next day and it was missing something. After a little testing, I ended up adding the outlines of some small butterflies on the stamp paper edge for ambiance and officially closed the drawing by adding my little signature to balance out the leg area. I still think maybe some tiny butterfly stickers or something on the metallic portion would make the scan look better, but in person, I just can't justify it because I don't want to overwhelm the metallic quality or crowd the center since the more empty space draws the eye there so well. There are mistakes and things I could've done differently here and there, but ultimately I'm happy with how it turned out and I'm glad I can finally post it. Now the question is to decide what my next big project like this will be...hmm... ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram