#THE WHOLE THING . the guidelines the animation EVERYTHING

[disposal-blueeee]

nny and edgar in the dance club be like

OKAY LOL this is SUPER DUMB but

it all started when @zarla-s sent this video to a gc i'm in saying " edgar goes with nny to the club to go dancing and he sees nny do this and just stands there paralyzed " " DANCE EDGAR nny shouts at him, edgar sways awkwardly back and forth " i was like haha that's so funny when i do have the time i'm gonna animate that i think guess what i did have the time . right now

[icyg4l]

PAC: What Do Your Passed On Loved Ones Admire About You?

Hello beautiful people! Today's reading will be a lot more serious than normal so this is a warning for those who will get emotionally triggered. Your passed on loved ones are with you always! I am simply just passing on the message. My condolences to those who have lost a loved one in their lifetime. If you are interested in this reading, please don't be afraid to dm me so that you can book with me! Be sure to refer to my guidelines and dm me if you have any questions. Without further ado, please pick the image that resonates with you the most.

Top Left-to-Bottom Right: (1-6)

Pile One: Tenacity and strength are the first characteristics that come to mind. Your passed on loved one wants you to know that your childlike innocence is a gift not a curse. This could be your uncle. You are someone that can get the truth out of everyone simply because you know what to say. There’s not a lot that you have to say either. You’re quite the persuasive being. They also admire how level-headed you are. Some of your loved ones were more on the fiery side and because of that, they wish they could have been more balanced with their temperament when they were still here. However, this does not mean that you back down to a fight. You know when to open your mouth to protest against the injustices of the world. You have an undying love for humanity, nature and animals. You are so sensitive and precious to your loved ones. You also know when you’ve made a mistake. Your passed on loved ones see you as their Princess Diana. You’re kind and loving to all, but you fight when your back is against the wall or when others are being judged.

Cards Used: 6 of Cups, 7 of Wands, The Magician, 9 of Discs, Princess of Discs, 3 of Discs.

extras: blue ribbon ice cream. no limits. satisfaction guaranteed. mild. “there’s a lesson in everything.” monthly visits. crown. like mike (2002). lesbian. learning accommodations.

Pile Two: “You’re so cool” is the first thing that I heard. You are someone who is the standard. You are the Beyonce of your family. People try to impress you because you’re just that girl/guy/enby. You are an angel on earth. I feel like some of you were bullied when you were younger and this person came to your defense. This could have been an older sibling/cousin, maybe your mother who was younger than most. But you did not let these traumatic events harden you. You grew into a beautiful person. This pile as a whole went through a lot of back-to-back trauma in their lives but your passed on loved one wants you to know that they admire your peaceful approach to life. You are someone that is easy to bond with. I feel like you choose not to drink when the opportunity is presented because you have a bit of a temper when drunk. Your passed on loved one could have been the same way. You also have a fair way of viewing things. You try not to be biased when shown two sides of the story. You consider everything. You value the truth and the moral of the situation. Your integrity matters, Pile Two. Your passed on loved one wants you to continue to be this way.

Cards Used: Knight of Wands, Temperance, The Moon, 4 of Swords, Death, King of Swords, 6 of Discs.

extras: wet shirt. pushya moon. water sign. effervescent. sniffing flowers. moniker. “grown man.” glow. party pants. amazon. purify. NBA roster. sims 4 gaming channel. kawaii.

Pile Three: You are so humble, dear. Your passed on loved ones really admired your ability to talk to anyone. You never felt like you were above anyone. You treat everyone with the respect they deserve. You have stripped yourself down to the point where everyone can see through you clearly. You do not have to depend on material things to make up your self-concept. Your vulnerability is beautiful. It’s not a level of self-awareness that everyone can achieve. Some people may try to make you feel bad for where you come from but you carry yourself with nonchalance. That saying about sticks and stones is personified. Your passed on loved ones admire how you stay out of the way. “This is a crazy world” I heard. It feels like this is an elder talking to you. They believe that you will do big things in this world despite how little you have come from. You were not set up for failure. You have the tools to improve your situation.

Cards Used: The Star (RX), 6 of Cups, The Hermit, The High Priestess, Princess of Discs, Wheel of Fortune.

extras: neck tattoo. “kiss the ring.” ring around the rosie. martian. elephant in the room. malleable. solar system. troubleshoot. best buy. filled gas tank. empty condom box. snoring. aaliyah.

Pile Four: Your passed on loved one admires you in totality. This is your lover, could have been your fiance/fiancee. This also could have been your best friend. They miss your scent. They miss being in your presence, period. They love the shape of your eyes. They love the way you smile and tilt your head downward. You have this unexplainable quality about you that lights up the room. They know that life is different without them but they want you to keep going. Your go-getter, flirtatious nature is admirable as well. You have this lust for life that everyone should have. Your lover misses your physical touch. Your ability to get up every morning and go to sleep at night makes them want to come back down to Earth temporarily. Your person could have had some egotistical qualities about themselves but they love that you loved them with all your heart. They see you as their other half. They want to reunite with you in another life. This story is to be continued, my love.

Cards Used: Princess of Swords, 9 of Wands, 4 of Cups, King of Wands, 2 of Cups, The Lovers.

extras: eartha kitt. purr. austin powers costumes. chapell roan. meeting in college. musical.ly.

Pile Five: You take pride in your appearance. You stay in the gym to keep your figure right. You get your nails and hair done. You pick out the right colors for your wardrobe. You stay on top of your shit. But you also have this side to you that is in tune with the world around you. You have the perfect amount of both feminine and masculine energy to them. Are you a lawyer or social justice advocate? Your passed on loved one wants you to know that you can do all. You’re living proof that anything can happen. This feels like a male’s energy. He was a dominating force in the household and he was young. This could be your father or older brother. They are smiling down on how you have manifested everything that you two talked about. They were there in spirit when you made history/reached a milestone. They also admire how you keep in touch with family even after their death. They admire how you keep your promises even if it’s something that you don’t want to do. You need to learn to ask for help though and stop being so stubborn. They appreciate the altar you dedicated to them. If not, you need to. It would strengthen the relationship between the two of you.

Cards Used: Ace of Cups, The Emperor, Queen of Cups, Justice, The Star, 10 of Wands, 10 of Cups.

extras: quen blackwell. new workout plan (2004). ari fletcher. olivia pope. kpop bias. fallen curtain. sweeping feet.

Pile Six: When I pulled for you, I thought of the movie ‘Paid in Full’. Whoever your loved one is, they lived a dangerous/risky life at some point. But they admire how cutthroat you are. You get stuff done. You keep stuff moving. Your passed on loved one says that you have their swag. You have a lot of mental energy. You’re smart, both book and street smart. Your loved one says to stay safe and live life to the fullest; but also live it the clean way. They like how you stay outside in nature with the wildlife. I feel like you are the breadwinner or you at least have a lot of money saved up. You are attempting to gain financial stability at a young age and I can hear claps because of that, lol. Along with your practical side, they admire your outlook on life. You try to be as fiscal as possible but you also try to enjoy the fruits of your labor. You will party with a lot of people. I feel like your person was kind of uptight. I feel like you never miss a chance to make money. You’re a “hustler”, just like your loved one. This person feels like an uncle, a cousin, maybe your father.

Cards Used: King of Discs, King of Wands, 2 of Swords, King of Swords, 7 of Swords, Queen of Discs.

Extras: “keep it in the family.” “no one knows.” pork rinds. round glasses. beeper. shady business. groupme. “out of line.” solo dolo. throwback. paying tribute.

[hattiestgal]

SHAKES YOU how do you draw taurs. i need help i genuinley cant wrap my head around the anatomy of it. optionally i need help with fat taurs but any kind of taur is okay

Ooh, I love these sorta questions!!!

So there are two main things folks usually struggle with when it comes to drawing taurs as a whole. 1, they struggle with quadrupedal anatomy and 2. connecting the humanoid upper body to the quadrupedal lower body. Obviously there's no shame in either of these things, drawing four legged animals, especially if you're more used to the anatomical structure of something more humanoid is quite tough! And finding the sweet spot where humanoid and quadruped meet to make a taur is a bit of a struggle for folks who're still figuring it out.

So! The first thing you wanna do really is just familiarize yourself with quadrupedal anatomy. Look at the skeleton of the creature you're trying to taur and see how things like their limbs bend differently or how they're just differently naturally posed as compared to someone who walks upright.

This is a very simplified skeleton of a cat, but you can pretty immediately see how differently everything bends. And I'm not saying it's something you have to perfectly master to know how to draw a taur (especially when you get to drawing fat taurs), but i highly recommend becoming familiar with how a quadrupedal body is structured, the silhouette of most animals is quite misleading! And absolutely use reference!

Heck, our first go at drawing taur Riley was super heavily referenced (I'll even share the ref image if anyone is interested!), and this still came out real jank. Practice makes perfect!

As for connecting the upper body to the lower body, this is a little more subjective and up to you, but I'll lay out some general guidelines.

Generally speaking, you wanna put the humanoid torso where the base of the neck is, the front of the torso kinda merging with the rest of the taur body just after the tummy, basically just before the crotch starts.

As for the back, you're gonna want to shoot for just shy of where the butt starts, waist having curved back outwards. It gets a little awkward if you go higher or lower than that. And obviously, you wanna make sure the torso is firmly planted in the center of where the neck should be, ehehe.

That's pretty much the basics though! As always, i recommend looking at how your favorite taur artists draw the creatures and studying off of that! Familiarize yourself with quadrupedal anatomy, and use reference!! You will absolutely get it down with time. I will absolutely cover fat taurs if there's interest in it, and ofc, lemme know if there's anything I missed or need to go over! I hope this helps!

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Hello TBSkyen, I have a question for you. I myself am a person who's interested in making videos about art and posting them on youtube but have heard pretty much every youtuber I watch complain about youtube's unfair copyright system. So I would like to ask, how do you typically deal with that? What do I need to do to decrease the chance of a video getting claimed/struck? I know you don't have all the answers but I would like to hear the opinion of someone who has had to deal with this.

*deep breath born from long history of frustration*

Okay, so number one, you can't protect yourself fully from that. Anyone can file a copyright claim on anything you upload for any reason, they don't have to have evidence that they own the work being claimed, and all of the onus is on you to prove you didn't commit infringement by disputing the claims being made.

Which sucks.

It's a very frustrating thing to deal with, and it can make it nearly impossible to discuss certain properties or media because the owners (or a bunch of shitty grifters abusing the copyright system) will strike and claim anything and everything they can possibly identify.

Having said that, there are some tips and tricks. First, understand the principle of Fair Use (which is American law, and which is usually what you have to deal with on YouTube, but not always), which Casey Fiesler has a good video primer about here:

The broad strokes are that you can use as much as is needed to make a transformative point and then no more than that. The spirit of the law is that you can't use Fair Use to simply repost and profit off of other people's work, and the reality of how it's enforced is that bots scan YouTube for instances of videos using Too Much of the media they're protecting, and claim it as infringement.

So. If you're discussing any kind of video media - film, TV, animation, etc. - use clips of no more than 5-8 seconds of continuous footage, and do not use the original audio of the show unless it is necessary. You can sometimes get away with longer stretches of footage, but anything over 10 seconds is just begging for an automated copyright claim.

Shrink the footage down on screen and put a frame around it so it doesn't take up the entire screen, edit something on top of the footage like animations and other edits that transform the footage, maybe slow the footage down to a lower speed so that your video can't be construed as a meaningful replacement for watching the original media.

If you're discussing static art - comics, paintings, etc. - make sure to double check the copyright status on them, and keep in mind the principle of using what is needed to make a point and no more than that. If you discuss a manga or comic, be careful about simply showing whole pages unaltered on screen if it's not necessary. Show the panels or dialogue as you discuss it, but don't put whole pages or issues or chapters up on screen in sequence.

There are other tips and tricks and guidelines and hacks also, but if you're discussing any popular form of media you do have to be ready to have to fight a ton of spurious copyright claims on anything you do, especially if it gets views and becomes popular. It's a long process of filing disputes and waiting 30 days for them to get dropped before you can publish your video, it sucks.

[redslug]

Denoiser wisdom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[upat4amwiththemoon]

Unwanted animal | part 2

Summary: Because that unwanted animal wants nothing more than to get out.

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x female!reader

Warnings: cursing

Word count: 1990

a/n: as you probably saw from the first part, this doesn’t follow really the MCU timeline/events

Tags: @thought-of-you-and-me @rafecameronswhore @sayah13 @strangegardentaco @natashamaximoff69

masterlists | guidelines

All parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7

A week has passed since the Avengers brought Y/N to the compound. During the week she has been there, she has met most of the Avengers, those who work on Earth, and complied with any tests or questionings they wanted her to do. They all have been fair and easy on her, trusting Natasha’s judgment and believing Y/N is answering their questions truthfully. However, she has yet to get any of the privileges of a free woman, but she isn’t too bothered by it.

The Avengers haven’t actually found any of the other prisoners nor the new HYDRA facility where everything was moved. It seems like they’ve disappeared to thin air. They clearly upped their secrecy. Luckily, the information Y/N has given them hasn’t gone to waste. They have learned more about HYDRA’s doings, some of them things they were completely unaware about, like capturing former Black Widow agents and making them comply to their wants and needs. The Black Widow agents are an easy target after all, most of the girls and women have lived in there their whole life and they follow commands due to the mental programming, besides, all of the training has been done already. HYDRA only has to tweak their minds to follow their orders, everything else has been done for them.

A loud thump echoes through the training room as Natasha’s back hits the floor. She throws Y/N over her body in an attempt to get her down, but she lands right on her feet. The two stare at each other, both crouched down, watching the others moves. They’ve been training for a while now, but neither of their breaths have changed from the normal.

Natasha grins slightly when she notices Y/N’s leg twitch right before she moves to attack. Because of that, she’s able to dodge it and counter attack quickly. Her leg sweeps near the floor, finally bringing Y/N to the floor with a bang. She straddles her waist, immobilizing her legs and arms so she won’t be able to get out of her hold.

“I win.” She smirks.

Y/N scoffs and rolls her eyes, “only because I let you.”

Laughing, Natasha stands up and offers a hand to Y/N to pull her up with her. They’ve been training almost every day together to get Y/N back to her original strength. The starvation and dehydration she had to go through at HYDRA did take a toll on her physical wellness, but given her history, she’s able to overcome it more easily than someone else would.

“It’s okay, I get that you’re still a bit rusty.” Natasha comments before taking a sip from her water bottle.

“That’s a low blow.”

They laugh. The other team members have heard that sound from Natasha a lot more since Y/N arrived. They’re all surprised, but haven’t said anything about it, mostly because they’re sure Natasha would kick their asses.

Glancing at the clock, Natasha pack her bag. “Are you joining us for dinner?” She watches Y/N pack her own bag next to her. During the first two days at the compound, Y/N preferred to stay in her room during eating times. Being around all of the Avengers at once felt too overwhelming to do so soon. On the third day, Wanda made the initiative to ask Y/N to join them, having cooked Russian food just for her and Natasha’s sake, hoping it’d ease the transition even a little bit. After that, Y/N started eating with the team.

“Would you like me to join the dinner?”

“Of course.”

Y/N smiles, her bag now resting on her shoulder as she looks at Natasha. “Then I’ll be joining you.”

“I’ll save you a seat next to me.”

The two start walking out of the training room, going to shower in their respective rooms. “How sweet.” Y/N throws Natasha a playful look before opening the door to her room. “I’ll see you at dinner.” She closes the door after her, leaving Natasha to stare at the closed door a moment longer, before going into her own.

Y/N opens her hair from the ponytail with a sigh. She walks over to the bathroom, locking the door right behind her. She has never gotten the luxury of privacy or a space that’s her own, so she is using all the benefits she has. Choosing to lock the door is one of those. The main door of the bedroom is still unable to lock, as the Avengers need to have access to her room because of the whole trust thing, but Y/N is very happy to just be able to lock her bathroom door. And having a proper bathroom.

Taking off her clothes and folding them before putting them into the hamper, Y/N steps into the shower. She turns it on, a smile appearing to her face when the warm water hits her skin. Showering has become one of those things to her that bring comfort. Whenever she’s feeling lost or overwhelmed, she takes a shower, not feeling comfortable with talking to anyone about her worries. It’s cleansing, in more ways than one, the water droplets hitting her skin empty her mind.

It’s peaceful, not having to think about her duties or next steps.

Y/N follows the conversation going around her with a smile on her face. She has already finished eating her dinner, as her appetite is still messed up from years of starvation, but she enjoyes listening the team talk, hearing all the gossip and what’s going on in each of their lives.

Listening gets her up to speed on the team. Obviously she has heard about the Avengers before, having been locked up with their enemies her whole life, but there are a lot of things she doesn’t know, personal things.

“I hope everyone has treated you well.” Steve states with a smile on his face, bringing Y/N into the conversation.

“Yes, they have, thank you, really. You had no obligation to treat me so well and let me stay this long.”

“I believe Natasha mentioned to you, you have a possibility of staying here, for good.”

She glances at Natasha, who nods with a smile. “She did.”

“I think I speak for all of us, that we would be very happy if you accepted the offer. Of course, making it official means going through a basic lie detector test, but that’s just protocol.”

Y/N nods with a quiet hum. “Of course.”

“How has training gone?” Steve turns to Natasha as he speaks.

“Very well, she’s getting back to her strength quickly.”

“Then I don’t see a reason to delay the final part.” He moves his head back to Y/N, a smile on his face. Steve likes her, she’s polite and helpful. She clearly wants to help them. He trusts her.

“As you see best.”

Sitting on a small chair, Y/N stares straight forward as Natasha attaches the wires to her body. Her touch is gentle, her fingers touch her skin lightly when she moves sleeves out of the way. She keeps glancing at her, but Y/N’s gaze doesn’t meet hers.

After setting up everything, Natasha takes a step back, “agent Maria Hill will be doing your test, but I’ll be right on the other side of the door.” They decided to bring someone from SHIELD to do the lie detector to have someone who doesn’t know her personally, someone unbiased.

“Alright.” Her voice is light. Finally she turns to look at Natasha. Nothing shows up on her face. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

With a grin, Natasha nods and leaves the room, holding the door open for Maria. “I’m agent Hill, pleasure to meet you.” She sits down to the chair opposite of Y/N. There files in front of her to get her up to speed on the situation. “This test is designed to tell us if you’re lying with 100% accuracy, if I find you to be untruthful, there will be consequences. This is private, no one else will hear your answers. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Agent Hill nods, “lets start with simple questions. What is your name?”

“Y/N.”

“No last name?”

“I don’t know my last name.”

“How long were you in the Red Room?”

“Since I was born, I got out once it was destroyed.”

“Then you worked with Hydra?”

“Yes.”

“Do you still affiliate yourself with HYDRA or the Red Room?” As Maria asks the question, her eyes are tightly locked to the panel in front of her.

“No.”

The readings stay the same. Without showing anything on her face, Maria continues asking questions. Some of them are more obscure than others, like what is the difference between an egg and a rock, but Y/N answers them all the same. Her readings don’t move, until the final question, “why do you want to be part of the Avengers?” Y/N’s pupil moves the tiniest amount, making Maria lift her head up to face her. “Why are you here, Y/N?”

Y/N doesn’t blink. She doesn’t tighten her hold on the armrests. She doesn’t swallow. She just breathes in and out, like she has all her life. “I am here to be with the Avengers, to complete missions and make up for the things I’ve done.”

Maria’s gaze is sharp like a hawk as she looks through the statistics in front of her. Nothing flashes red. “Alright,” she walks over to Y/N and starts taking the wires off of her, “you’re all clear.”

“Thank you, agent Hill.” She gives the agent a nod in respect and leaves the room with a smile on her face.

“I’m guessing things went well since you aren’t handcuffed.” Natasha is the first person she sees out in the hallway. She has a teasing grin on her face as she leans against a wall, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Were you nervous?” She asks, her voice light and playful.

Chuckling, Natasha just shakes her head and starts walking towards their rooms by Y/N’s side. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous. But, that’s something she isn’t going to say out loud. “Congrats then, you’re an official Avenger.” She sets her hand to Y/N’s shoulder, squeezing in lightly.

“That’s it? I don’t have to do anything else?”

“That’s it. You’d really think there was a more complicated way joining, but most members got in easier. Of course, we always tend to do background checks, but that’s a little difficult to do to spies who technically aren’t supposed to exist.” They stop in front of their doors. “Today’s movie night, are you joining us?”

“You guys do movie nights?” She smirks, making Natasha roll her eyes.

“Every once in a while, Peter kinda dragged us to keep them, and now we have them even when he isn’t here.”

Y/N smiles and nods, “I’ll join.”

“I’ll reserve us a blanket then.”

“We’re on blanket sharing basis now?”

Natasha stares at the teasing look on Y/N’s face with a small smile. “Yeah, we are.”

The grin on her face slowly turns to a genuine smile. “Okay, can’t wait.” She says, her voice quiet. The two stand on the hallway, staring at each other with dopey smiles on their faces.

Something inside Natasha sparks. She feels her heart beat little bit faster than normally and her face suddenly radiates heat. Suddenly her palms are clammy, she has to wipe them to her pants discreetly. Her breath starts going irregularly, like she has suddenly forgotten how to breathe properly. She wants to break eye contact with Y/N, but it’s almost like her eyes are locked to with hers. All of these feelings are bubbling to the surface so quickly, and it scares the shit out of her.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results -- Gligglae

Sorry this is later than usual; traveling for the holidays makes it difficult to keep up with this sort of thing. The smart move would have been to write it up a couple days ahead of time, then on Monday just update it with anything new that had been posted since, but see, what happened was that I did not do that. Instead, I tried to type this up Monday evening in between various family obligations, realized I didn't have time to do it properly, and just shoved it in my drafts. Then all of Tuesday was taken up with the long drive back home from where my family lives, and now you're getting it on Wednesday.

(Also, don't worry, I followed all CDC guidelines appropriate for someone who had recently had covid, and wouldn't have traveled for the holidays at all if I hadn't been without a fever for 48 hours prior to departing. Plus I drove instead of flying, didn't visit anyone but immediate family, and had a mask the whole time, so even if I am still contagious somehow, exposure was pretty minimal.)

Anyway, the entry that our artists are working from is here:

And, of course, all previous material on this matter can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

I think a larger number of people than usual identified the animal in question right off the proverbial bat, because this one has some pretty blatant tells, but as always I appreciate everyone trying to put it out of their minds.

So, anyway, in rough chronological order:

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) (thank you for providing your own alt text, I really appreciate it) brings us her usual impeccably medieval-stylized rendition -- the swirls and curves in this one give it a really interesting vibe, I think. We can see the Gligglae in full-body profile on the left there, and a group of them doing their cluster behavior on the right. The, like, griffin/cockatrice/vampire look is pretty great, also. I enjoy the overall design, which you can find some discussion of in the linked post. Gold foil also a nice touch.

Coolest-capybara also notes that the entry is very interested in the ways in which the creature is "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a bird," and I can explain why that is. It is because this entry is in the Bird section of the bestiary, so officially this is a bird -- I mean, it flies, what else can it be -- but it's sufficiently un-bird-like that it really sticks out to the authors, so they need to explain the ways in which it's Doing Bird Wrong. Everything else in this section does X, so we need to point out that this one does Y, kind of thing.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has drawn an absolutely adorable little Gligglae. (Adorable if you have my sense of aesthetics, that is -- I suspect if you're among the portion of the population that finds aye-ayes more creepy-looking than cute, that might apply here as well.) There's an explanation of design decisions in the linked post, including a number of references to real animals that provided inspiration. I like the decision to play up the "lowly" and "mean" part of the description by making it small and kind of scruffy. And the general concept of blending "gliding rodent" with "nocturnal primate" to make an arboreal mammal with elements of both really worked out well here, in my opinion.

@aethereaii (link to post here) has done this beautiful piece in a style that kind of gives "19th-century naturalist" vibes. (Actually, it makes me think of James Gurney, but I suspect that association says more about my childhood reading habits than anything else.) This is a great design in my opinion, and you can find some brief discussion on design decisions as well as an earlier version of the Gligglae in the linked post. The earlier design is also very good, but I agree with Aethereaii that this one is a step up, particularly with the Anomalocaris-inspired faux-wings. I also really like the inclusion of the juvenile Gligglae (Gligglings?) clinging to their parent's back in the corner there.

@karthara (link to post here) decided to go in a reptilian direction with this one, which (a) works well and (b) caused me to spend a chunk of time reading about flying snakes on Wikipedia just now. So in this version, the "rowing motion with its skin" is a description of the Gligglae flaring its ribs and undulating through the air -- which I genuinely think really makes sense. The entry seems to legitimately disagree with itself about whether this critter has wings (or, taking it entirely literally, it has wings but flies through a completely separate method that specifically does not involve said wings, which I think we're justified in deciding is Wrong), so I think going with such a non-wing-like flight method works here. Also like the concept of making these very cuddly (and apparently loving, according to our bestiary author) creatures into a type of animal that usually isn't seen that way. The linked post also contains some brief notes on design decisions.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has, as per usual, provided a really excellent modern-naturalistic description of the creature they've designed in the linked post, and you should definitely go check it out right now. I'll wait.

... back? Okay good. I particularly like their interpretation of the "grape-cluster" behavior as a social group that's specifically not a kin group; and also the fact that said group is officially referred to as a "cuddle". The choice to make it a whole genus and show us several different wild and domesticated species, also very good, love it. As with several of these drawings, Strixcattus's Gligglae (Gligglaes?) are extremely cute -- which, really, does also fit the description provided in the entry. They're like tadpoles crossed with sugar gliders.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) credits Ken Sugimori's Pokemon illustrations as a stylistic inspiration, which I suppose explains why the Gligglae cluster seems to be hanging from a Sudowoodo. The linked post also draws certain parallels between medieval bestiaries and the Pokedex, which I think is actually pretty insightful. There's also a breakdown of their design decisions there, go read it. I think this is a pretty good rendering of something that is like a flying squirrel but distinctly not a flying squirrel, and I like the shaggy look of the fur.

Also, thank you for providing your own alt text.

@pomrania (link to post here) is, I think, the only person to take the bestiary author at their word that this animal has wings but flies through some other, non-wing-related method. You can see the tiny useless wings at the shoulder there. I really think that's fascinating as a concept: what evolutionary pressures would produce an animal that (a) has wings and (b) flies but (c) those two things are unrelated? Although this many appendages on a fur-bearing creature puts us firmly in the "alien biology" territory, so maybe it's silly to expect it to make sense by the standards of terrestrial biology. Regardless, I like it, and I think the decision to run with the "rowing" description by giving it those oar-shaped appendages is a good & creative one. The post linked above contains a fair bit of information on design decisions and the drawing process here -- there are sketches and everything.

@vindikat (link to post here) has interpreted this in a way I find really charming. The art is of course excellent, very well drawn, and I appreciate the effort that went into doing these different poses. However, I really like it from a worldbuilding perspective: this gives me the impression of a small species of griffin that's adapted to urban living, more pigeon/cat than eagle/lion. (Come to think, both pigeons and cats are examples of feral populations finding a successful niche, rather than wild ones that adapt to a city, so maybe we can speculate that these guys are also descended from domestic ancestors.) Also the Gligglae under the eaves there remind me of pictures of chimney swifts that have made the rounds on Tumblr.

The design is also generally very appealing; I think the extra wings and the long tail really work here. The linked post includes an explanation of the design decisions that I think is worth taking a look at.

@moustawott (link to post here) has given us another very cuddly version of the Gligglae. I particularly like the wing design here, how it's kind of a mammalian version of a pterosaur -- Moustawott indicates that they were specifically trying not to draw the animal that they're sure this is, and I think the pterosaur-squirrel design here is a great way to make something that could fill kind of the same niche while being an unmistakably distinct creature. The little round head and eye markings remind me of a chipmunk, also, which is cute.

@rautavaara (link to post here) continues to do interesting stylistic stuff with their contributions. I like how the limited color palette here makes this look kind of like a single-block woodcut or similar relief printing. Like, you could plausibly see this as a design someone's carved into a wood block, then printed on mustard-yellow paper with purple ink. (I'm actually not 100% sure that's not what it is; I would just be surprised if someone actually went the extra mile of breaking out the engraving tools for my little bestiaryposting thing.) Very dynamic scene, also, and a charming creature design; love the huge mouths with pointy little fangs.

All right, these are all the ones that come up on the search; if I missed yours, let me know please.

(I have to apologize here for another delay that's absolutely my fault -- I would have had this out a few hours ago, but I got derailed by impulsively deciding to check out that Hbomberguy plagiarism video everyone's talking out, and... yeah.)

Anyway, as a number of this week's artists indicated, this one was really easy to guess, so the reveal seems a little pointless, but we have a format, so:

Obviously, this was the sheep.

What? Look, you can't make assumptions with these things. Some of these medieval bestiary entries are really counterintuitive. Medieval Europeans believed there was a species of small, highly-social, flying nocturnal sheep native to Ethiopia.

Really, it's in Pliny the Elder.

...

Yes, fine, I'm just lying to you for fun. It's the animal you all think it is, there are no flying sheep to my knowledge. Here's the Aberdeen Bestiary illustration.

Yep, it's the bat. Oddly human face on that one, and generally I don't think this was drawn from life, but it's definitely a bat.

I do kind of find the way it's described in this entry kind of interesting, though. The confusion about whether bats count as having wings (even after having been placed in the "bird" category) is kind of odd, and the "rowing" description is not one I would have ever thought of. I very much like the declaration that the way bats huddle together is "an act of love of a sort which is difficult to find among men"; it's a sweet way to talk about a creature with a generally negative reputation, which contrasts interestingly with the fact that the author also thinks of them as "lowly" and "mean". You kind of get the idea of a creature that's a bit wretched but in a sympathetic way. "Scrungly", one might say.

[hwadam-stories]

₊ ˚ ⊹ #HWADAMSTORIES 𓂃 ࣪ ˖ .ᐟ

a writing blog for anything and everything related to the elixir of the sun manhwa, originally written by Soldam and illustrated by Song Yi, a historical romance story about fate, destiny and an eternal love. 3/7/24.

sign the petition to get this manwha animated!

🌺 INTRODUCTION

first and foremost, this blog is a sideblog to my roleplay blogs IMPERIALSIYO and JEUNGHWA you'll receive a follow back from those blogs upon following this one.

my name is moe (she / her) twenty-four. black and cherokee-indian, thank you for coming by and checking out my blog. I highly encouraged coming into my inbox and interacting with me (messages, requests, etc) because I genuinely love that stuff with my whole heart.

due to the nature of my blog and the manhwa itself, minors and ageless blogs are prohibited from interacting with me and will receive an immediate block. this blog and it's contents caters only to an adult audience. Please refer to this post to know more

🌺 REQUESTS / GUIDELINES

I do not consent to my work being translated, plagiarized or reposted anywhere else.

Sharing is caring! Likes do nothing for my fics other than serving a bookmark for you, so please consider reblogging my fics to share with others so more people can read and enjoy them!

While my inbox is open to requests (both anonymously and non) I do reserve the right to decline any submissions that either breaks my rules or makes me uncomfortable.

That being said, I love crossover content of any kind and absolutely encourage more than just reader x character fics! I'm in many fandoms like Wandavision, Castlevania, Inuyasha, Disney, Jujutsu Kaisen, American Dad, Archer, Hazbin Hotel etc.

POINTS OF VIEW: male, female, deaf, blind, black (African-American), etc.

WHAT I WON'T WRITE: non-con, pedophilia, beastiality, gross / weird kinks, illegal age gaps, etc.

WHAT I WILL WRITE: fluff, smut, familial dynamics, romance, violence, blood, death, alternate universes, alternate scenes, legal age gaps, Headcanons, oneshots, yandere, etc.

🌺 CHARACTER LIST (see images here)

[ganak village]: Rangbi, Jahan, Saran, Yul

[hwadam kingdom]: Emperor Dhan, Bayan, Chief Secretary Juhyul, Chief General Ga-Yerang, Suyeon

[concubines]: Sama Hyeon, Han Bia, Ye Tae Im, Karan

characters from other fandoms

🌺 ABOUT THE MANHWA (read it here)

Bayan is an outcast amongst the Siyo, a people who have healing powers. Considered worthless because she doesn’t have the ability to heal others, Bayan is sent to the court of Dhan, the Great Sun Emperor, who is cursed with unrelenting bloodlust and slaughters his concubines mercilessly. It seems that Bayan’s fate is sealed the moment she reaches the emperor’s palace and Dhan is fated to suffer from madness forever... But together, Bayan and Dhan just might be able to change each other’s destiny.

Elixir Of The Sun is a historical romance about our main characters Dhan and Bayan overcoming fate and finding love in one another through trials and tribulations. The Manwha is adapted from the light novel "Lord Of The Sun" written by Soldam and does contain dark, sensitive and explicitly adult scenes where as the manhwa is careful to tone it down for a mature audience.

🌺 TRIGGER WARNINGS!

Should you choose to read Elixir Of The Sun, please keep in mind that:

- sexual violence is part of its story in terms of information (no scene is ever depicted but there is a close call regarding the main character in chapters 9 & 10)

- depictions of self inflicted injuries (the main character has healing blood and has to stab herself multiple times throughout the story)

- a failed un-aliving attempt in chapters 41 & 42. The main character was sleepwalking.

- In Chapters 110 - 115 there is a extreme depiction of excessive blood and violence but no gore is present.

Thankfully, the story doesn't force its plot to have these things as the main point, it merely uses these plot devices to reinforce and focus on the romance and subtle fantasy plot surrounding the bond of Bayan and Dhan.

[johannestevans]

My Top Stories for 2023!

In case you missed ’em: these were my most popular works of fiction and non-fiction of the year!

It’s very nearly 2024, and it’s been a big year for me! 

I’ve published so many short stories and new essays, I had a great time at EasterCon and BristolCon, and have published pieces with several new (for me!) publications on top of moving into my new apartment. I’m now based in Yorkshire instead of Ireland, and that means I’ll be attending a bunch more conventions and other events across Wales, Scotland, and England as well as still going back to Ireland from time to time. 

Firstly, as a big thank you to all my supporters and to ring in the new year, I’m currently doing an end-of-2023 giveaway! Sign up here! 

On 01/01/2024, I’ll be drawing a winner of the giveaway, and they’ll receive by post / mail signed copies of my paperbacks, Heart of Stone and Gerald Poole and the Pirates, vouchers for my eBooks, some badges, and some other goodies that will be contained in the parcel. 

Secondly, I wanted to remind people who’ve had a little bonus or gifted money and want to treat themselves that as well as being able to subscribe for access to all reader-locked works on Medium, by any authors, for $5 USD, I have a Patreon where I publish almost all my works (barring those that might be against Patreon guidelines, of which there currently aren’t many), there is an option to pay annually on Patreon! 

You can subscribe to me monthly on Patreon for access to my works at £3 / £6 / £10.50 / £17 per month — there’s no difference in the benefits of these tiers, just that you can choose to support me with a subscription for what you can afford. 

If you subscribe annually on Patreon, you get a 16% discount on what you would ordinarily pay monthly, and you get full access to everything for the duration of the year’s subscription! 

With that intro done, let’s get to my top 24!

My Top 12 Fiction Pieces of 2023

January 2023 — Erotic Short: Running the Table

A trans man is the favourite pocket on the pool table.

Rated E. Cis M/trans M/cis M. 4k. Featuring consent play with a prenegotiated rape roleplay, object insertion (not sanitary, not safe, just sexy), double penetration, begging, tears, size difference, age difference, lots of anal play, belly bulging.

Jock and Phineas first appeared in Centre Pocket, where Jock initially makes the threat of the pool balls.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon / / Read on Ao3

February 2023 — Erotic Short: Fresh Bounty

A bounty hunter takes a young wizard to the king’s court.

1.7k, rated E, cis M/trans M! Power play with a lack of negotiation, but fully consensual enthusiasm for it, cockwarming, threatened overstimulation, D/s, implications of public use, and sex on horseback!

CW for a mention of it in dirty talk, but no animals are actually abused, harmed, or looked on sexually.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

March 2023 — Erotic Short: Purpose-Built Toy

A stretchy supervillain goes up against five huge superheroes.

3.2k, rated E. Trans M/5 alien Ms with alien cocks. There is absolutely no redeeming plot features in this, it’s just horrible unrealistic porn with lots of come inflation, objectification, humiliation, and belly kink.

There are several consent issues in this fic, where the trans guy is basically being turned into a fucktoy for these aliens without anyone asking how he feels about it — with that said, he’s really into the whole thing, and absolutely does not want to opt out.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon / / Read on Ao3

April 2023 — Erotic Short: Slime Breeder

An elf is used as a distraction as his party fight a gigantic slime.

3.5k. A trans masc elf getting fucked from all ends by a giant slime creature, used as a seedbed by it, then played with by his variously gendered friends in the aftermath.

Mildly to very dubious consent here, but Sam is absolutely enjoying himself by the end of it — featuring a giant slime monster, aphrodisiacs, tentacle sex, encasement, choking, oviposition and egg-laying, cumflation, overstimulation, anal, oral, and vaginal penetration, objectification, lactation, milking. All that fun and beastly stuff!

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon / / Read on Ao3

May 2023 — Erotic Short: The Mermaid and the Fisherman

A wanderer meets a mermaid, and the two of them work to understand each other.

This short is also available for purchase on Smashwords as an eBook, and is originally from September 2020.

7.3k, rated E, M/M. A young man fleeing home has taken up residence in an old fishing cabin on the west coast of Scotland. He is observed, very closely, by a mermaid from beyond the maerl beds nearby.

Featuring cultural differences, humour, oviposition, cervix penetration, mild chem sex from the mermaid’s aphrodisiac, some rough sex, some mildly dubious consent, stuffing, belly bulge.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

June 2023 — Erotic Short: Agony and Ecstasy

An abbot takes a stranded sailor on for… personal duties.

6k, M/M, rated E! Age difference, virginity kink, some naivety, some oral and anal, first time enthusiasm.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

July 2023 — Erotic Short: The Stasis Box

A prisoner is frozen in time with his holes still accessible for the crew of a mining vessel to use.

5k, rated E, trans M/cis M but hundreds of other people. A trans twink agrees to be involved in an experiment in lieu of his year-long prison sentence — he’s placed in a stasis box, frozen in time, with his holes still accessible for the crew of a mining vessel to make use of.

This is honestly one of the most fucked-up things I’ve ever written, it goes big on the sci-fi body horror fucky horniness.

Full consent is given throughout, the twink knows what he’s in for. Featuring medical kink, fingering, anal and vaginal fingering and sex, sensitivity, time stop, big overstimulation, mind-break and ahegao, objectification, huge come inflation, gaping, come vomiting, general degradation.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

August 2023 — Erotic Short: The Interview

A workplace roleplay with age difference and some hearty degradation.

Rated E, 4k, cis M/trans M. Younger boss/older prospective employee, pre-negotiated roleplay, degradation and humiliation, daddy kink, nipple play, PIV, riding, sex in the office, casual sex, bareback. The older man is fat, but none of the degrading language is about his body or his size except for commenting on the size of his chest — the degradation primarily is about his age and assumed loneliness.

Words used for the trans man’s body are tits and chest, one comparison to a cow’s udder; cock, cunt, hole.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

September 2023 — Erotic Short: Training Toy

A cheerleader loans out his favourite toy to the football players.

3k, rated E, trans M/many cis M. Continuing on from Stuck.

A cheerleader trains up another student to be a good fucktoy, and shares him out to local football players — featuring D/s, multiple orgasms, mild bimboification vibes, training, multiple penetration, degradation, objectification, anal, vaginal, and oral, big penetrations.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon / / Read on Ao3

October 2023 — Erotic Short: A Gift For the Wolfmen

A young man in a brothel is invited to join a quartet of hulking wolf-like warriors.

6.4k, rated E. Two trans men, both being gangbanged by four cis wolfmen with huge cocks.

Fantasy universe with adventurers and so forth. Featuring stuck-through-wall and grope boxes, body writing, vaginal, oral, and anal play, huge come inflation, size difference, knotting, power dynamics, virginity kink, objectification and dehumanisation, degradation, humiliation, breeding kink, body modification, mentions of lactation and pregnancy, and enthusiastic consent throughout.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

November 2023 — Erotic Short: Confession and Penance

A priest takes a hands-on approach to addressing a worshiper’s poor working habits.

11k, cis M/M, rated E! Tiernan, a manipulative workaholic who only ever relaxes during Mass services, is taken aside by Father Mullen when it all gets to be a bit too much. D/s, BDSM-approach to enforcing self-care, spanking, painplay, bit of a priest kink but it doesn’t go into that aspect too much, faith. Also some anal.

Note that by definition consent’s an issue here because this is the very definition of religious abuse, especially because Tiernan is a CSA survivor and references past CSA by another priest. Content warnings for the religious abuse and references to the CSA throughout, as well as dubious consent in other sexual situations. For all that, though, the tone is generally light-hearted and is more dark humour than dark drama.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

December 2023 — Erotic Short: Knight Tactics

An elf serves as a distraction and an exhaustion tactic for a bandit camp. By letting them fuck him.

3k, trans M/loads of cocks, assumed as cis M. Amaethon gets himself stuck in a wall so that the bandits will work out their stamina fucking him rather than fighting off the king’s guard.

Stuck in wall, free use, fully (and gleefully) consensual whilst pretending he isn’t, mild belly bulging and come inflation, gaping, exhaustion, messy and come-spattered, etc. All the fun stuff.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon / / Read on Ao3

My Top 12 Non-Fiction Pieces of 2023

January 2023 — Fast “Who am I?”: A Fun Game to Play with Friends

A silly fun game to play rapidly with your friends and loved ones in 2023.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

February 2023 — Our Flag Means Death S01 E01: Close Textual Analysis

Examining OFMD E1: Pilot in close detail and liveblogging/analysing the text.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon / / Read on Ao3

March 2023 — Ringing The Devil’s Doorbell: A Light-Hearted, Practical Guide

Let’s talk sex! Vulvar and vaginal stimulation for fun, pleasure, and profit.

Contents:

Preface

The Anatomy of the Vulva and Vagina: the actual anatomy of the vulva, it and the vagina’s attendant parts, and how everything fits together

On Testosterone: the effects of testosterone as a HRT treatment on the vulva and vagina in the context of sexual pleasure

(I don’t have any specific advice in regards to different intersex configurations or further genital and hormonal diversity, but that section might nonetheless be semi-relevant; there’s also some notes on vaginal atrophy that might be relevant if you’re menopausal or similar)

Stimulating the Vulva and Vagina: ringing the Devil’s doorbell, dancing about in his vestibule, and then running into (then out of) (then into) (then out o — ) his house

Additional Reading: more resources and links

Read on Medium

April 2023 — The Precarity of Subscription-Based Income

We’re basically busking online. No wonder we have anxiety about it.

Read on Medium 

May 2023 — The Straight Male Gaze on Pretty Male Gays

How does it feel when straight men want to fuck us?

A quick little intro — I went ham on this one. I watched A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and it just gave me a lot of feelings.

Warnings throughout this piece for discussion of the film’s gore and violence, the homophobia both in- and out- of universe, sexual violence, homophobia in general. I use a lot of slurs in this one because I self-identify with a lot of them, and a lot of this piece is about the ways in which queer identity is weaponised and not weaponised against us.

Bon appetit.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

June 2023 — Passing Privilege: Through My Eyes, as a Trans Man Who Passes

Second puberty and the waves we send through the spaces around us.

On Medium / / On Patreon / / On Tumblr.

July 2023 — Yentl: A Trans Man Studying Talmud is Distracted by Gay Thoughts

Yentl (1983, dir. Barbra Streisand) and Yentl the Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis Singer.

On Medium / / On Patreon.

August 2023 — Barbie Isn’t Anti-Men — It’s Anti-Toxicity

Patriarchy does damage to us all, and Barbie (2023, dir. Greta Gerwig) clearly depicts that.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

September 2023 — Close Reading: A Deep Dive into the Process

An in-depth guide into applying analysis to a piece of text and extrapolating meaning.

A close reading is what we call an in-depth analysis of a piece of text, which might be in the case of fiction a short story, or for novels and novellas might be a portion or an extract from the text.

On Medium / / On Patreon.

October 2023 — Looking For 🍑🍆💦: A Beginner’s Guide to Grindr for Trans Men

Approaching Grindr (and cruising culture) as a trans man.

Read on Medium

November 2023 — As a Trans Man, Why Do Doctors Always Want to Get Me Pregnant?

I’m so tired of fielding questions about my “lost” fertility.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon

December 2023 — Uncling Duties

A selection of conversations with my friends’ cats, Kira and Bercow.

On Medium / / On Patreon.

[nostalgiclittlespace]

Hiding Little Gear

For closeted regressors, hiding their gear is as important as it is stressful.  And, unfortunately, I can’t give a cookie-cutter answer of ‘this is how to hide your gear, foolproof,’ as we all having very different living situations and families.  However, I still hope to give some ideas and guidelines on how to best hide your stuff.

Consider if it would be best to hide all your stuff in one place, or to scatter it around.   If you have family members who snoop through your belongings, it would probably be better to find the most secure possible hiding place, and put everything there.  However, if you’re fairly private, then hiding things individually might not be a bad idea either.  It’s a lot easier to explain a singular kid item than a whole bunch of them if they happen to be found.

If you keep all your things in a bag or box, make it as inconspicuous as possible.  While it would be super fun to have a childishly decorated box or themed backpack to hold your things, these might attract attention.  Stashing them in an unmarked box/bag might be less suspicious.

Have a response prepared in case you are caught.  Be prepared, especially if you have little privacy, a high chance of having your gear discovered, and/or you want to remain closeted.  Keeping your cool with a scripted response will certainly help with these.  (I’ll be making a list of suggestions for these another time!)

Be open when you can.  I don’t mean shouting that you’re a regressor from the rooftops, but hiding things in plain sight that aren’t suspicious is one of the best ways to not get caught.  Casually using a coloring book, keeping a stuffed animal on your bed, etc, doesn’t have to be a big deal, and it might not even be questioned.

Keep things themed as something you enjoy in your Big Headspace too/aren’t inherently for kids.  Having something like Sonic the Hedgehog stickers, kawaii notebook, a cool plush, a Disney T-shirt, etc can be for adults and kids.  Things that for any age are perfect because even if they’re found, they aren’t weird to have/can be explained easily.

Places to consider stashing your gear:

Under your mattress

In an old backpack

In clothes’ pockets

A random box in your closet, hidden by other boxes, clothes, etc

Inside a pillowcase 

Keep things like your journal and coloring pages digital if you don’t want them snooped through

Find a stuffed animal with an open-able back, and hide things inside.  Some weighted plushies have their weights removable through a velcro or zipper opening, and these are perfect for hiding things like pacifiers

Make one of those fake books with a secret compartment (I think there are tutorials on YouTube)

A jewelry box with a lock

In a storage bin of your childhood things; I have a box of old things like baby clothes, a favorite plushie of when I was a baby, etc—anything found in there won’t be questioned

That’s all for now! If you have any more suggestions, please share them! Happy regressing, everyone!

-Marty 👻

[1-800-therianthropy-help]

Intro!!

So, my (the mod)’s name is Null, I use it/they/he pronouns (they can be used interchangeably, I don’t mind :}) as well as the whole xe/xer/xem bracket, and I’m above 18!

This blog was made so people could ask questions or just talk about whatever their experiences may be! All ‘types are welcome, and all ages are welcome :)) I want this place to be a safe place for all ages.

(edited) There is no particular guidelines for asks. I will curate my own experience. You are welcomed to ask or share whatever you feel like, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I am reserving the right to delete anything I receive at my own discretion. basic DNI would include: transphobes, homophobes, or just bigoted individuals in general.

Also, I myself am a recently awakened/questioning therian/otherkin. I’m trying to figure things out too!! I might not know everything, which is also why I made this blog. I want to have a place where the community can assist people who need help without them having to search extensively for *active* ask blogs.

I’ll be posting general stuff about my own experiences or whatever I feel like talking about that’s relevant as well :))

Gaza things are scheduled to post every sunday.

Anyways, have a good timezone! :D

-🦌🐰

Kin list and various other things below the cut :33

Kins (that I know of/am debating)

-Jackalopekin!!! both demi-human and full jackalope

-Angelkin/Deitykin/Ockin—A little unsure on this one but with frequent wing shifts+other signs like halo, several eyes, etc and also relating to an oc of mine with those features, I have a feeling.

-Some sort of big cat—not sure which one😭 I was thinking snow leopard though so that’s a start!!

-I have two(suspected) kins that are canines of some kind. I’m thinking one is more along the scale of big dogs while the other is closer to wolves tho^^

-Technically another ockin? It’s an animal I made called a Starealk

[lutawolf]

Hi luta

I'm not really sure how to do this as I'm new to basically everything, including Tumbler. But I want I had a few questions. So I was recently introduced into this community and I'm sure where I fit. I have always been super independent even at a young age and took care of others I'm 20 almost 21. Im still a college student and working full time as a nurse so life is stressful. My friend just recently interduced me to this community so forgive me if I'm doing this completely wrong. She told me that I seem to have little tendencies and I'm not sure where she is getting this or how to know what she means I've tried looking this up but I never feel I drop to another headspace or age. I'm not even sure I would consider myself a submissive. I've always cared for others and told others what to do as I was the oldest and it was my responsibility to care for my younger siblings at that time then I became a nurse so I'm still doing the same really. I am extremely independent I have high boundaries and people can lose my respect easily I don't trust easy I don't like being spoiled cause that takes time from others. I know once I'm close to people I act differently I prefer them make small decisions as I make them everyday sme life changing ones for other people it gets tiring but I still make my own decisions also. I know I can seem childish but thats always brought me comfort small things like blankets and stuffed animals watching cartoons I did as a little kid but I always thought that was normal comfort items to want when stressed. So I'm not sure what really im asking or if you really can help me or even if you talk about littles or little tendencies also sorry for the long post. Bye-bye

Hey marshmellowbunny,

I'm gonna be honest and say that I don't like how your friend went about this. It feels more like someone leading a horse to a trough to drink because they have a rider that needs a horse. Just because there is a hole doesn't mean everything should go in it, nor does everything fit.

The fact that you don't know the basics or basic safety is concerning. And for all I know, this is exactly how your friend was introduced and maybe doesn't know any better either. So let me give some perspective and then answer your questions to the best of my ability.

Why am I bothered by how you were introduced to the community? You don't know what a submissive is. A submissive is not a doormat and should absolutely have boundaries that will be respected. A Dom that doesn't respect boundaries is a shitty Dom. Being submissive doesn't mean that a Dom shouldn't earn your respect or that you should just trust any Dom. That's a good way to ending up face down in a ditch somewhere. I would never disregard my sub's boundaries. Boundaries and guidelines are there for a reason. If they clash with my needs, then I simply look for a different submissive who I better fit with.

I don't know how familiar you are with me, but I'm 100% Dom and my husband is only submissive within our relationship. Outside of our relationship, he's a Dom. Think Porsche from Kinnporsche. Do you know how many stuffed animals I got on my bed because of that man!?!? Which I thought was ridiculous until he pointed out my blanket that I will fight the kids over. I've also caught him on more than one occasion watching his nostalgic childhood cartoons. And that man is so far from a little it's not even funny. I don't want to decide what to eat on any given day, but I'm still Dom. So our status within the community isn't based on a few tendencies we might have but on our personalities and needs as a whole.

First, take a test. Don't look up anything, just take the test.

This test is not perfect, but it will give you a starting place. It will also help you to start thinking about your wants. Then start educating yourself. The same website that I gave you to take a test has blogs and educational resources.

And keep in mind that you can be intrigued by the kink community, enjoy watching or reading about it. Without being a part of it. There is no rush to the finish line with the community. Twenty to Twenty-one is still very young for a scene kinkster, so take your time. You don't read one book and jump right into nursing, right? You don't take one dance class and jump into a dance competition?

Hopefully I wasn't too blunt that I scared you off from asking any more questions and I truly hope I was helpful. Wishing you the best. 💜💜💜

[ihni]

Fic rec tag game

(And yes, I'm making a new one because I feel like it)

Rules (more like "guidelines" ...): Rec some fics that fit the categories below (feel free to skip some if you want)! Maybe tag some people if you want. And if you see this and think this looks like fun, consider yourself tagged! :)

I'll start. And I have read a LOT so I'm gonna say right now that it's gonna be difficult to pick just ONE fic for each category ... (Also if I mention your fic in this, yes you're automatically tagged)

~~~

Fic that made you laugh: Play with me (Stranger Things) by @sanguine-tenshi In which Tommy, Billy, Steve and Eddie are trapped in the Upside Down for a while, and do what bored boys do when they're bored. No, not that XD "Boys being boys" at its best!

Fic that made you cry: panache (Stranger Things) by zoetropes In which ... I can't even explain it all. Just. Prom, guys. All you need to know is that I ugly-cried at chapter 17 and that I love it so much that I learned how to animate gifs simply so I could express my emotions over it. (When this fic is done I wanna print it and eat it)

Fic that made your heart melt: Prince Among Wolves (Teen Wolf) by Wrenegade (Wrenegadeone) The one where Derek has twins and work too much with his important work, and Stiles is the most awesome babysitter ever. I just ... melt over this one. And to think that once, I foolishly believed I didn't like kid fics ...

Fic that made you have to take a break while reading (perhaps you had to get up and walk the room for a bit): Third Person Singular (The Hobbit) by Wealhtheow21 Companion piece to another fic, "To Find Our Long-Forgotten Gold" which is also so good. Written from Kíli's POV, with language so CHOPPY and ... poignant? That it sometimes felt like a punch to the throat.

Old fic that for whatever reason stayed with you over the years: Responsibility (SeaQuest) by Jules In which everyone gets sick and Lucas has to take care of everyone and everything and whoopsie, some baddies are trying to take over the ship. I haven't read it in forever, I can't find it anywhere now, but I remember loving it. Lovely, lovely exhaustion fic.

Fic that inspired you to do something in real life: The Garrison Reserve (The Musketeers) by chapstickaddict and readwing In which they're all running a restaurant together. This fic combines my love for fic with the love for food, and made me buy wine for the first time in my life so I could make a proper risotto. (It was so good, too)

Fic that inspired you to do some kind of fanwork (+what that fanwork was): Words Left Unsaid (Stranger Things) by @lemonlovely In which the boys get to know each other and grow closer. I will forever subscribe to this fic <3 (And it inspired a rhyme: "Another boy's mother")

Fic that introduced you to a favorite trope: Persistence Hunting (Guardians of the Galaxy) by grocketinmypocket In which Peter proves that humans are indeed terrifying creatures. I read it for the first time ten years ago. Got me into the whole humans-are-space-orcs thing. Love it.

Fic that you'd consider a guilty pleasure (bad term for it though, no fics should make you feel guilty because fanworks are life!): Rich Man's World (The Flash) by @robininthelabyrinth Accountant!Len. Whenever I need a pick-me-up, I can always fall back on this random, but utterly lovely fic.

Fic with a ship you didn't really consider until this fic: Secrets Make This Town (Stranger Things) by @thingsalexwrites In which ... you know what? Read the summary. It's Billy/Steve/Hopper, and it's so soft and sweet (despite being basically porn).

A WIP you love: In Your Reflection (Stranger Things) by @stuffinggroves / Timetravelersunited In which Billy deals with hunger. Which I am so weak for in fics! Love this fic so far, it brings me joy.

An all-time favorite fic (AN, note that I wrote AN ... not THE): Grievance (Thor) by @peaceheather In which Loki is promptly and publicly adopted by a capable and caring Tyr. It's amazing. The whole "Odin's son, Tyr's son" series is amazing. I have it printed.

~~~

And, just 'cause, let me tag some people (feel free to ignore, of course): @dragonflylady77 @callieb @weird-an @desperate-not-serious @robthegoodfellow and uuuuh I'm too tired to add more - if you wanna do it, please do it :) I wanna see your recs.

[xxylan]

AI ART RANT!! TW: opinions

The whole thing with AI and art is honestly so disappointing. Art community is getting so icky and gross and it’s just people hating or accusing of AI usage 👎

AI isn’t even bad!! It’s how AI is used - using AI for ideation and guidelines is perfectly fine but the issue is when it’s presented as the final product.

You’re really going to post an image you generated through a machine that gathers human work and chews it up and spits out this beautiful image - yes - but then..what?

You’re really going to be proud of that? Don’t you feel cheap and tacky? An AI generated tattoo, an AI generated food ad, an AI generated animation.

AI streamlines work processes, it’s really good for increasing efficiency for example in technology consulting AI can cut down hours of processing into seconds. Totally fine.

But people don’t comprehend the process of art. Pick up a pencil and write or draw something from your bloody head. “Oh but I can’t draw or write and I’m using AI to generate something I imagined” perfectly fine. You can use that as part of your process - but the end product has to be your’s.

Even drawing fanart straight from an image makes me feel icky now. Not saying it’s inherently wrong (that’s how we learn) but I don’t feel original and I feel so disconnected from it. (Which is why i really want to work on my ocs and develop my personal artstyle separate from fanart..but also i started with fanart to grow my accounts because it’s so hard to gain traction on ocs alone)

Like I just felt like I’m starting to strengthen my art skills and style and it’s so demotivating to see how unstable it is if I wanted to pursue an art-based career or even just share my art for fun??

Everything boils down to being money-hungry. Wanting easy results fast. The art itself of spending hours simply pouring your blood, sweat and tears into your craft is dying. We just need to understand how to use tools (ie AI) to help us while still maintaining our own originality and hard work.

Also if you’re going to respond with anything below the emotional maturity of a 12 year old, don’t bother. That’s embarrassing on your part and I only accept constructive criticism and respectful debating. (Except i am too tired to debate lol i’m just going to leave this here and let it filter out people who don’t have the same values as me in regards to AI art)

[rendevok]

How did u learn to draw heads/faces?

Hey, anon! Thanks for the question. There are a lot of things that have contributed to my understanding of heads & faces, but for the quick and easy answer, I’ve gathered together some general guidelines I try to follow when I’m drawing heads/faces (featuring our lovely model, Mr. Phoenix Wright)!

As in the image above, here are my tips for heads & facial features, in more detail-

Head & face proportions:

eyes rest at the halfway point of the skull, and are an “eye length” apart

ears between the nose and brow line, however often smaller than that entire length

edge of mouth lines up with center of eyes

the bottom of the nose rests approximately halfway between the chin & eyes

lips are approximately halfway between the nose & chin (usually slightly closer to the nose)

Head angles and how to move facial features:

At most angles the brow & symmetry lines will be curved*

When drawing eyes, one lid will always match your brow line*

The lines that the features rest on are all parallel to the brow & symmetry lines. When these core lines curve, so do the respective feature lines. I.e. ears will appear “lower” than the brow when a character is looking up, or higher when the character looks down.

At extreme angles, certain features will start to disappear or soften- eyes get obscured by the nose most often, and features like the bridge of the nose or the jaw soften and become harder to define the more directly you look at them

*the exception to these being either a direct forward facing angle, or in different terms, when the camera view is aligned directly with either of these axes.

Before you treat these as “rules”, I want to point out that they’re guidelines- not law. These are notes on how to draw a very human head. They’re useful for keeping your features in consistent relation to each other, but a lot of that can be stylistic preference too so don’t let these tips stop you from drawing how you want to! “Rules” like these are absolutely made to be broken.

And of course, since it’s me you’re asking, I am personally obligated to sing the praises of ✨gesture drawing✨

If you are unaware, gesture drawing is the practice of drawing things VERY fast and then gradually drawing for longer periods of time. You start by drawing something for 5 seconds, then 10, then 20, then 30, then a minute, then two- the whole practice revolving around forcing you to see the general picture before you move in on details. I LOVE this method of learning because you could apply it to just about anything you wish to learn how to draw. It’s taught me how to draw everything from hands to figures, to animals, shoes, and yes, even faces. It’s taught me to single out the most important aspects of a face and keep what matters most in focus. And it’s worked out really nicely for me because hey- it doesn’t take that much time! Just a little session of 10 minutes a day and you could be drawing some really kickass things!! I recommend this method at every opportunity because it has helped me more than I can properly express. These two sites are invaluable resources for this and I use them all the time.

Aaaaaand I’ve probably overstayed my welcome on such a simple question, so I hope these tips and resources help, and I am wishing you success and inspiration on your artistic endeavors! (^♡^)/”

[theworldvsyoshiko]

As for what comes next, I think I'm going to do the post-apocalyptic nomads thing, then move on to something like the monastery one. The nomad one can probably be relatively fast? Probably. There's a whole lot of luck and variation there, because relying on scavenging for gear means that I might have everybody in full marine armor sets from day 5, or might not have anything better than Flak Jacket (Poor 43%) T until a year in. Still, I've played a couple of hours of the general setup to make sure it's interesting and viable, and enough goofy stuff keeps happening that I want to post about it, which is a good sign.

A few adjustments to the nomad thing from what I mentioned yesterday:

Also turning off hostiles from Real Ruins. That setting seems to spawn enemies in the ruins sometimes. Sometimes this will be, like... an animal. So you don't realize that oh, that isn't a normal wolf, that's a wolf that is intent on killing you for no apparent reason. And also the game won't let you quickly reform the caravan, because somewhere out there is a wolf that hates you. It just sucks. At least, I hope that setting is where those come from. If not, then it's going to be a real pain.

While I do like the feel of starting with a lone 13-year-old for this, I'll probably try for a rather more skilled one than Yoshiko started as. The nomad thing feels harsher if you don't have a broad skill set. Obviously one kid isn't going to be good at everything, but hopefully she won't be useless at everything other than art and shooting like some people were.

I'll probably start off using a slightly less strict recruitment guideline than I did for Yoshiko: only recruit people younger than the starting character, but I don't have to accept all of them. In particular, anybody with paralytic abasia is fucking out of luck, because it's difficult to be a nomad if you're unable to walk for half a year.

I'm going to turn the storyteller's threat scale up to the 150-200% range. That will make raids a bit harder to compensate for the lack of stuff that comes with a nomadic lifestyle. Once I reach the spaceship, I'll probably lower it again.

50+% map coverage (for a longer walk to the spaceship.) I'll also probably bump rainfall up a little, because deserts walk a fine line between being an interesting obstacle and being effectively impassible, especially early on.

While it's a nomad lifestyle, the ideoligion meme does still let you settle in one spot for a season or so without issues, so it won't be constantly on the move. There will still be bases, just not big ever-growing ones.

I've also adjusted the Real Ruins settings to discourage it from spawning gigantic piles of expensive objects, but if it does do so, I retain the right to use dev mode to delete them. I'd rather not have to ditch an entire map because it contains a room full of masterwork gold sculptures or something.

I'll also be using a map seed that Real Ruins has a lot of data for, because the setup doesn't really work if there are only like 100 ruins on the whole planet.