#Spider's Web with Strings Attatched

[theavianlady]

...tw? Tw.

TW: Gore, Blood, Injury, uh...Pain and Sadness-

@psychologicalwarclaire

Ha ha! Tis I! I was the anon!

(Cue dramatic exclamations of disbelief)

Ahem. Tis the anniversary of Spider's Web with Strings Attached, and I wanted to make something! Go and read the fic if you haven't already; it's incredible.

Lots of ramblings and other versions under the cut (if anyone wants to see any other parts with or without different lighting and stuff that I didn't include, just let me know; I'm happy to share).

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This is the first (almost) completely original thing I've drawn digitally! Poses are really hard for me, so I'm super proud of this. No tracing, only references!

...so. Many. References.

Except for the bricks, which I'm not counting, because bricks are scary. And the chains. I used a brush. Chains are scary too.

I started July 28th, and then spent almost 40 hours across various canvases planning, experimenting, and actually working on this. Not including research. It took me absolutely forever, but I regret nothing.

Except for the fact that I spent over 6 hours just shading bricks. I didn't even draw them! I took a pattern for the grooves from google and filled it with black, (rotated and edited for some variance in their cells), and then did the red lighting and some shadows you can't even really see. For 6 hours.

I tried to draw their spider brooches many times, but I could not get them to look right (especially from a side angle), so I gave up. Let's all just pretend they're there until I come back later. Eventually. Maybe. Oh, and Leo's chains. At the time of posting, I really just want to get this up and posted, so they're not shaded, but again, I might do it later.

I wanted to have this set when they're both in their separate cells, right after Viper was, uh...in the cell with Leo. So, Donnie is all stitched up and healing, while Leo is...not doing great (not certain about the timeline, because I'm paranoid about everything, so it's probably fine). But, I wanted to convey what happened to Donnie, so I drew that weird glowing spine thing to indicate some kind of mystic healing something. I don't even know.

It didn't turn out as well as I wanted it too, but I'm probably biased. Because there was so much gore on Leo's side, Donnie's looked boring. I couldn't figure out how to do the lighting. The values could be better. It could do with more time spent on the shadows. Etc, etc. I'm a perfectionist.

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Uh, in order of posting, behold!

1. Big version.

2. Big version without lighting (except on the bricks) or Japanese characters.

3. Close up of magic spine representation thing because I'm proud of it.

4. Close up of gore-covered-Leo because I'm also proud of that. I have never drawn such...messy gore before.

Fun fact, the group of layers all of that was on is called "Bad Stuff".

5. Close up of Donnie's shell stitches without the spine thing, because I worked hard on those. It was also pretty tricky, because I couldn't find any references for large stitched wounds. Only open ones. If anyone knows any good places for references like that, t'would be greatly appreciated.

Also, they don't usually stitch puncture wounds, because it could trap infection, but I feel like with something so large and deep as dragon teeth it would be necessary? So I tried to include those.

But also, would they just stitch the skin in such deep wounds? Is there still a gaping hole under the skin? Do they also stitch muscles with the dissolvable sutures or something? I'm like, going to go to med-school just so I can draw more accurate wounds and stitches and stuff.

6. Close up of Leo without the gore because he's pretty and I'm really proud of the plastron. And the right forearm armour piece. I couldn't get the other ones to look as nice, much to my dismay.

The Japanese characters write out to Omae wa hitoribocchi da, which translates to You are alone. I think. Google Translate says it's You are all alone, but translation services that I trust slightly more, like Reverso.net and ChatGPT (the most reliable of sources, I know) just say You are alone.

Omae is the equivalent of anata, for those familiar with Anata wa hitori janai. They both mean you, but omae is more...condescending, from what I can tell. Informal and rough, often used to express disdain or superiority.

Wa indicates that anata or omae are the subject of the sentence.

Hitori is present in both, meaning alone, though from what I can see, hitoribocchi is more...desolate and painful. It's a more emotional term for being alone.

Janai kind of means is not, or are not, while da is just like...closing the sentence. A firm, declarative ending particle.

I tried to paste the actual Japanese characters from different translation services (I am not fighting with using a keyboard from another language), but Tumblr wouldn't let me. Boo. So, you can all suffer with my English-Japanese. Also, don't trust anything I say. I'm learning Japanese on Duolingo, but I've only just started and it gets way more complicated. So, pretty much anything I just said could be wrong. I just did a lot of research.

If anyone does speak Japanese, and knows a better way to convey this, please tell me. I crave knowledge and accuracy.

I should get like, a personal human translator. No AI or program can truly understand a language like its people. Especially comparing Japanese and English. From what I've learned, there are a lot of words that could be translated many ways, depending on exact feel. It's complicated, and I'm scared to get farther into Duolingo's course.

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I also just discovered yesterday that today is also the anniversary of the Rise Movie, so yay! Happy Anniversary to the movie that literally changed my life. And Curly, you're awesome. It's authors like you keeping this fandom alive, so thank you!

[frickfrackiwastakingabath]

Not me being scatter brained on my own blog. No siree.

A Liar and a Snake

Tws for a vore mention and a lot of fearplay and spiders (I don't know if there's like a tw for driders)

...

Eret was what one might call... well, he wasn't really sure what he was. But he didn't really care. Whatever he was it was powerful, scary.

Powerful and scary enough for stupid adventurers who wanted fame, apparently.

Yes, a party of four or five here or there. Always charging head first with swords and spells. Eret always got his fun and a meal in the end, but the attempts seemed to be getting more and more lackluster.

That was, until a party of six wandered into his forest. Not only was that more than usual, but they were inexperienced. Only one of them seemed to have a spell book, the rest with bows and swords. That didn't even look like they knew where they were, who's forest they were in.

It had only been a few weeks with his last meal, Eret decided to take his time.

...

Tubbo clutched his spell book, his only defence compared to the fighters around him. And the monsters of the forest.

Strangely, no monsters yet. The forest was dark, thick foliage nearly blocking out the sky. It was dense with mile high trees. And yet- nothing. But any wizard worth their spell slots knew what that meant.

There was a singular, bigger, more terrifying monster in this forest that kept all the small fry away. And whatever it was, it could clean up after itself. No foot prints or anything.

But if Tubbo didn't know, Tubbo didn't talk. No one wanted to be bothered by his paranoia.

There was a rustling in the bushes.

Tommy nudged him, drawing his sword. He was probably the strongest fighter in the party, which wasn't saying much. "Finally, some action!"

Wilbur drew his bow, putting away the map he was holding. "Ready your arms, adventurers."

Niki got out her axe and Jack his crossbow. Fundy used a longer sword than Tommy. Tubbo readied a spell, trying to make sure his knees didn't buckle under him.

"HELP!" a figure jumped out of the bushes. They looked rather pathetic, torn up armour, their flowing white eyes making it apparent they were cursed. "Please, you've got to-"

"And who are you?" Jack narrowed his eyes, aiming at the other guy's chest.

"I'm Eret," they introduced themself. "Please, my friend got caught in a giant spiders web and I can't get him out!"

A giant spider? That's It? Tubbo stepped forward. "I'm sure us six can handle a spider. Where is he?"

"This way!" Eret ran and the party followed.

...

Eret tried not to make conversation as she took the party back to her cave. The party was sympathetic to her, that was already hilarious on its own.

But the night was dark, the mountains were darker. As soon as she was enveloped in shadows, she transformed. They can handle a spider? Well, Eret will put them to the test.

...

Niki looked around. "Eret?"

She used the one cantrip she knew- burning hands- and set her fingers on fire. The light spreading just enough in time for her to see Fundy get plucked into darkness.

What the fuck fuck fuck. "Guys?!"

"Nik- GAH!" She heard Jack.

"What's going on?! AH!" Tubbo.

"Hey, wa- AAAAH!" Tommy.

Niki backed up, waving away the fire to not draw attention to herself. The cave must have been huge, it wasn't helping her nerves the way she could hear her footsteps echo.

"Guys- eek!"

Niki was plucked off the ground and faced with two giant glowing white eyes. Of course. First time the party decides to help someone it's a trap.

Eret was very much different now. They looked to be covered in dark plates when they lit a torchlight. Oh, that and that their lower half wad now of a spider.

The web- clearly their own- spread wall to wall, about half the room. Fundy, Jack, Tubbo, and Tommy were all tied up with their mouths covered into cocoons.

Niki looked down as she felt a string attatched to her ankle. Realising what wad happening, she thrashed around trying to loosen Eret's grip or at least inconvenience them. But he held her tight in his hand, silencing her and sticking her on the web.

The last one on the ground was Wilbur, Eret smiled. "Come on, you're an adventurer, aren't you? Fight the big bad monster."

Wilbur shakily knocked an arrow. He flinched away as he let go, his aim was way off from the trembling. Eret stalked closer.

"Aww..." Eret picked up a screaming Wil. Niki stretched and bended the web, but it wouldn't let her go. "Couldn't save your friends? Or even yourself?"

"Unhand me you-" Wilbur's mouth was covered by webbing as he was stuck on the web as well.

"Oh, do you not like this form?" Eret asked. They spun around, their abdomen narrowing and stretching out, the plates melding into scales.

Something more snake like. They smiled with fanged teeth. "Is this more friendly?"

Niki froze in fear. She felt two of her friends above her writhe and try to escape to no avail. Eret had them trapped.

"Oh..." Eret slithered up to the web, poking and prodding at each of their captives. "I could just eat you all now..."

Tommy screamed silently, only a panicked hum. Niki shook and convulsed, anything but this.

Eret tsked. "But you all seem like too much fun. I think I can spare another month or two before I'm hungry again."

Their laugh rattled in Niki's skull, like shine against stone. She saw them slither over and curl up in the other half of the room, laying down.

Tears fell silently from her eyes. She was never getting out of here, was she.

...

Eret felt the taste of fear, fear he had caused. It was an amazing sensation.

He was right when he thought these six would be entertaining, their muffled cried and kicks just from his threats was enough for him to want to keep them around.

He fell asleep, smiling. Who knew a wizard curse would be the best thing to ever happen to him?