#and only two of them were designed to actually be practical xD

[matrim-cauthons-hat]

so i tried my hand at creating a locust with a LB 2-X AC, and starting from the 1E, it turns out it like wasnt hard like at all. just give it a clan XL engine and strip the other weapons, and it frees up 6 ton to use for the weapon and a single ton of ammo. it was a bit boring so i added an endo steel and cut half a ton of armour to give it a trio of jumpjets. i figure mobility will help it survive more than armour ever will. did leave me with an extra point of armour to add to the head tho. i figure that since the cannon is mounted in the torso, we can just not both putting arms on it. like, they aint needed its fine. oh yeah and upgraded its single heat sinks to double because why the hell not. maybe they will take a hit somehwere instead of something important like the ammo or the engine. but, i wanted to get silly...

SO I TRIED TO PUT A SECOND LB 2-X AC!!!!!

i stripped it down to half a ton of armour, ripped out those jump jets i gave it, made the XL engine just a touch smaller, and took away all those nice jump jets id given it, to create my ultimate war machine! sure, its as sturdy as a wet tissue and is going to evaporate the moment another mech so much as looks at it, but damn if it isnt going to be just kinda irritating the whole time. like, not actually an issue but you kinda wish it would go away

[the-therapist-is-ace]

Hello! As promised to @rubberduckyrye, here are some of my notes I got about my social psychology class, about leadership! (And of course I thought of V3. Of course. So I'm sharing the ones that could be linked to it x)

(Please keep in mind that those datas were extracted from social experiments in real life, not a killing game tho xD)

There's four "main" types of leadership:

Authoritarian (like in the army)

Transactional (preferably one for a short period of time or objective; this one is quite literally, a transaction. You do this task, you get this reward. It's not a long-term option)

Transformative (This one is the most looked after in companies: it's one that focus on changing things for the better, helping employees too in the process, but also it's looking for long-terms solutions and practice. The one that can motivate others, and help employees with their problems)

And lastly the "let it be", a type of leadership that let the "employees" -keep in mind those experiments were done in companies' settings- do what they want and doing much about it.

First of all, it's good to know that the leadership authoritarian is less performant than the transactional, or the transformative. But it's still WAY BETTER than the "let it be"! To give a hierarchy:

"let it be" < authoritarian < transactional < transformative.

(Again, in a company's setting. But I think it would work best in a killing game too, since everyone have to collaborate for a long term objective, leaving, when there's one actual traitor in their group)

Kaede and Kokichi (because I am still talking about V3, of course!) both tried -Kaede... more or less- a transformative leadership. Which, good idea! The problem being that Kaede also took some major part of the "let it be" type as well. Asides from the Death Road of Despair, and when she asked Miu for help, she pretty much didn't let the others contribute.

Kokichi too; well he let Miu, Gonta and maybe a bit Shuichi contribute, but after the first trial there's not a lot of people willing to listen to him asides the first two I mentionned.

Angie in chapter 3, tried an authoritarian leadership. Which... works, until the authority figure isn't respected (or feared) and people start doing whatever they want again. (And the problem with her, is that she only was respected by half of the class to begin with. It was bond to fail)

And all three of them struggle with the notion to let others than their allies do the work for the group (which, in a killing game is understandable. There's a mastermind lurking around) but it doesn't help the overall cohesion, conflicts in the group happens because "it's always the same doing the things" (in a company setting anyway.)

An annoying thing too, is that once a leader is designated, all the others around are like "oh cool, they'll do all the work and I can chill" only doing things if the leader actually tell them to. In a company setting (or in a group project...) no problem. In a killing game on the other hand...

The followers have the tendency to take the values of their leader in mind when taking decisions; in a company, it's seen as a HR employee avoiding to recruit women because he knows his superior is mysogynist. In the killing game, it's seen when Kaede declare they're all friends, and despite the murders that happens, everyone claim this mentality. (Claim. Not necessary follow... *look at the murders*)

Because yes, having people with differents values/goals (i.e: the mastermind working against them) obviously doesn't help the group.

And then, interestings things are seen.

It has been shown in the experiments, that the one stepping up to be the leader, isn't always the most qualified for the job.

Not only that, but people that chose their leader doesn't necessary makes the right choice, and prefer to have someone they like in charge, they are biased.

Looks familiar to anyone?

And now the most fascinating thing:

If no real leader (recognized, followed by everyone or the biggest majority and most importantly: DOING A GOOD JOB) is there, that's when a scapegoat is "designed".

You know, the one that everyone claim to be the source of all problems (the "villain") the one that get ignored (even when they are BLEEDING) the one that can get all their hard work for the group overlooked, even when said-work help to end the crisis? (AKA, the killing game?)

Hm, wonder who that is in V3!

On a lighter note, homor is a great idea in leadership. Studies showed that a joking leader eased the tensions in the group, and help motivate people to go forwards.

Hm, wonder who could try to make jokes to ease the tension...

[ell-arts]

Out of curiosity, when/where did you first learn to animate? What inspires you to make your animations?

(I'm partly asking this because the urge to animate hit me like a truck once I really got into PMATGA, lmao. I've only ever made around 3-4 small ones over the span of several months)

Good question! Long answer! :'D

I've been dreaming of being an animator since I was young, because my elder sister studied animation and that's where I learned more about it. She gave me her copy of The Animator's Survival Kit from Richard Williams after she finished studying, and I've kept it with me ever since. Mind you, I never finished it, because distractions happened XD But I've read the first bunch of pages and started getting a fletchling idea of how animation worked. This was when I was around 10-14 years old. My favourite movies were almost exclusively Disney or Dreamworks classics, and my love for them grew as I grew older. I keenly observed their animations and analyzed what it was that them so appealing, long before I actually learned how to animate properly. Through observing what made those animations so appealing and life-like, I've built up references in my mind as a benchmark as to how animation is supposed to look. So when the time came to learn animation properly, I've already had a headstart thanks to observation, which sped up my learning quite a bit.

Now, let me tell you about a man named Aaron Blaise.

To say that Aaron Blaise is an animation legend would be an understatement.

He was the co-director of Brother Bear. He worked on various Disney movies that shaped our childhoods. He animated young Nala from The Lion King, Raja from Aladdin, and he also worked on Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Pocahontas, and the Rescuers Down Under. He left Disney in 2007, but in 2012 he teamed up with a friend and decided to start CreatureArtTeacher, a website where he shares everything that he's learned, whether that be animation from his time at Disney or just art in general. He brings aboard many other professionals in the same field and beyond, where courses are offered at the most affordable prices. Often, he'll also offer lessons on various art subjects on his YouTube for free, and he livestreams frequently!

It's thanks to these lessons that I've learned more about animation. While I didn't practice often, I did start taking my first steps into doing animation, spurred on by inspiration from Aaron's videos. This was around age 16-18. Unfortunately, I can't track down my first ever animation I've made. But I did make this sometime before turning 20;

Yes, that's a BG shot from pmatga XD

So going into my twenties, I knew enough about animation to make small little snippets such as the one above, but I wasn't yet at the point where I'd consider myself an educated animator. And here's the thing; when I went to university, I studied Visual Communication & Design, which mostly focused on graphic design. In that course, we did do a little bit of animation, but it was nothing I've already known, and it was mostly cut-out animation where you control it like a puppet in After Effects. What I really wanted to do was dive deeper into traditional 2D cell animation, but we had to preferably work in 2D cut-out animation to save time. It was a cool learning experience, but also a bit frustrating because I prefer the traditional frame-by-frame method. Alas, that would take too long, and my uni projects ran on a 2-week basis (a new project every two weeks), so I couldn't push to improve my animation skills in the direction that I wanted to. I still learned quite a bit tho, and got valuable experience with different programs, so I guess the time I got a taste of animation education was around the age of 22.

But then came 2024, age 24, when I got hired as a storyboard artist at my current job. Thanks to the company's help in giving their workers the space to learn new things, I finally tackled animation in earnest. I brought out the good ol' The Animator's Survival Kit and Aaron Blaise's courses and taught myself as much as I could, along with the support and guidance of the studio. Needless to say, sometime afterwards I could make the Rubber Pac animation I did here.

So yeah! It was a combination of things. Both my sister's influence and the influence of animated movies from a young age, Aaron Blaise's courses, university, and real-time work experience are what taught me animation <3

As for what inspires my animations, it mostly comes down to music tbh. I can always conjure a scene in my head along with whatever music is playing. Other than that, it's the desire to give life to something in an intrinsically human way, especially as art. I've always felt closest to God as an artist 💙

Told ya it was a long answer xD But hey, twas a fun answer! >:D

[bleachbleachbleach]

8/12 - 8/18/2024

I wrote a version of Renji 11 what is at this point several years ago (RIP me), and have since just been throwing random stuff/required additions into that Note with no rhyme nor reason, so it took over two hours this week just to sort it all out. But! It is sorted!

Modern-era Renji 11 consists of 3 new scenes and 3 already-existing scenes. I wrote 1.5 of the new scenes. As far as how well I think this Chapter is going, I dunno. As a narrator, Renji’s kind of like, oh hey, here’s a thought I had. And here’s another one! Which feels legit but I’m not sure if it allows the reader to understand which pieces of information are actually important for following the narrative.

You know those reblog memes that like, ask people to identify hallmarks of your writing? The concept is fun, but it wouldn't work in practice because 0.02% of anyone who might see that post would have any familiarity with my writing. SO. I WILL SIMPLY TELL YOU. My hallmarks are that I love an interstice—love having things that should be on the cutting room floor not on the cutting room floor—but am also a firm believer in stories not needing to have every scene the characters experience to exist on the page. This combination means there’s a good chance that actually relevant, defining scenes simply do not exist and only the interstitial nonsense does. I think in certain stories this can be a real thing that works. I think it can also have the effect of nothing hanging together, making any sense, or meaning anything, without certain bits of key information/certain scenes that I simply did not include because they exist in my head and therefore exist everywhere right. I think that’s where this chapter is.

Maybe the remaining 1.5 new scenes will help ameliorate that, but I feel like that’s asking a lot of them. And then, theoretically, you’d think fixing the existing scenes would go more quickly than writing from scratch, but I don’t know that they will. Because the story leading up to this point has changed enough that the characters are in very different headspaces and perceptions of each other than they were when I first wrote those scenes. Well, that’s not true—Kensei and Renji are in a very different place with each other. Renji and Hitsugaya need to have the exact same conversation but, you know… better. And FRANKLY, I do not know whether entirely overhauling Kensei and Renji will be harder or easier than merely line-editing Hitsugaya and Renji. =_=;;

I’d really like to finish Renji 11 by the end of next week, and then take some time to finish out the revisions on Rukias 7 and 10, which are the most related to Renji 11. Then I’d like to go back to do final line edits on Chapters 4, 5, and 8 before heading into the big mess of revision that is Hisagi 9, because those revisions will be most related to Hitsugaya 12.

I’m not anticipating getting much done in September, because I have a major work deadline September 30th, and the rest of autumn will probably be kind of garbage, too, and I probably won't exist. But I would love to finish Part II (so, Chapters 12 and 13) by December. Well, speaking honestly, my original hope was that I would finish Part II by May, but here it is, August, and I am still working on Chapter 11. So: I would LOVE to finish Part II by December.

—

I did a low-res mockup of the fic banner several months ago (okay, this might have been last November). I pulled out some high-res assets to work with on Friday and played around with a new design I thought was fun, but it turns out design-wise the old mockup looks much more polished. Or it would, if I were using higher-quality materials. XD So I’ll probably go back to the old design. The only reason to continue with the new one is that it reflects the clusterfuck spirit of everything that happens in this fic, but I kind of like the way the old banner puts a pretty bow on the clusterfuck lurking beneath the surface. Maybe I’ll solicit opinions once I’ve made a more serious mockup of the first version.

[system-of-a-feather]

Hi, as my designated bird professional i have a bird related question, in particular if you know any tips or tactics on how to approach people in public to get them to stop feeding ducks and other birds?

bc i was in a park yesterday with some friends and a stranger sat down next to us and started throwing bread (and fries??!) at the birds; which is not only prohibited but we could directly see why, bc they then started swarming us too and one of the bigger seagulls got so greedy that it bit a smaller one in the neck and wouldnt let go for a while(?!?) it was kind of scary situation and i was very uncomfortable and wanted to say something but i... didnt ;_; we just got up and left and i still feel bad about it so i wanted to ask if you maybe had some... tips and tricks so i can prepare in case something like that happens again :D

As the resident hand-thrower over some of this stuff, yep I do XD Im just gonna ramble on about this topic some and give some tid bits about why you don't do that stuff usually.

I will admit, the amount I stress it personally varies depending on what food they are feeding, how much they are feeding, and what species they are feeding. In all cases it is technically (and for valid reason) illegal cause the idea is that it can 1) create dependence on humans 2) cause them to become too comfortable with humans which can result in them "attacking" or being perceived as attacking humans which can end up with humans calling to have them killed 3) if not eaten, the food (particularly bread) can rot in the environment and make it unhealthy for them to live in 4) for migratory species it can encourage them to skip migration which can potentially fuck up population dynamics

So as a disclaimer, I tend to "care less" if the birds fed are birds that don't tend to migrate as much / the damage is done (mallards, canada geese, any released domestic ducks and geese, any non-native ducks and geese that were likely also released from farms) as it doesn't really harm them anymore than they already are so long as the feed stuff is actually good for them. By "care less" I mostly mean "don't feel that bad about not saying something."

That said, I do actually support feeding waterfowl In Minecraft that are KNOWN to have been released from domestic settings occasionally - especially if theyve been recently dropped off - as a means of kinda helping them wean off of human care and into natural foraging. But again, only if you KNOW they were released into parks and only if you can reliably feed ONLY them. (usually my go to for this is if they are non-native domestic ducks and they - without hesitation - eat from your hands, its probably safe to say they were raised on a farm or in a domestic setting; this is pretty helpful for not feeding waterfowl that weren't released like this too because even the imprinted ones will be hesitant to eat directly from the hand imo)

If any food is given to any waterfowl species, bread and processed high carb foods are horrible for them and can directly cause horrific long term disabilities if they are fed too much bread. The two largest conditions they tend to develop are these things called "Angel Wings" which - due to poor nutrition - the feathers around the wings grow back in incorrectly and make their wings practically useless; I'm sure I don't need to explain why thats horrible for a bird. Additionally, when given too much bread, you tend to get these obese and misshapen waterfowl that become so heavy in the rump that they are also completely unable to fly (you can see in the right image how much the rump sags).

Both of these can be relatively difficult to rehabilitate and medically treat and thus a lot of these birds are either put down or - if they are lucky - sent to a sanctuary.

Admittedly, a large portion of people feeding bread and other unhealthy foods often know that its illegal and that they shouldn't and do so anyways, so I will say most of the time you confront them, they will get awkward and leave for a bit but theyll likely come back again if you just tell them no.

Usually my go to is to kind of try to find a way to kindly bring it up and the negative affects (usually talking about angel wings is and showing it to them and explaining the long term affects of angel wings is one of the more visceral things that kinda make some of the better people go "oh maybe I shouldnt do this" as the other points tend to be a lot more of a concept than a real thing to them) and deeply suggest that if they care for the waterfowl to Not Feed them Bread

And a lot of them still want the attention and experience of feeding the ducks, which is something you can't really convince people against doing if Angel Wings doesn't deter them, so when I realize its probably that case, I usually just go "if you HAVE to feed them, please feed them something more nutritious for them like peas, cut leafy greens, grapes, oats, and cracked corn.

Most of the time, I have to settle with damage control because people are stubborn.

That said I still do tend to try

As for why french fries are unhealthy and bad to feed...

[cursedfortune]

It's mentioned that the inspiration for Mortem comes from historical portrayals of witch craft, what part of history and folk traditions has been the main focus?

@swordduels

Hello! And thanks for the lovely question. ^^ <3

I'm thinking you mean this part of my rules warning about content on this blog? (Totally correct me if I'm wrong!!)

I mixed some real world topics regarding witches and the perception people have of them into the lore I made for my own witches.

I meant this as: I utilized the perception people throughout history have towards witches, the accusations towards women (specifically), the actuality of what women (specifically) who were accused of witchcraft were doing. There are some aspects of folklore and historical things but it's more of a timeline or to play into types of witches that exist. Not a means to build lore upon it. If that makes sense?

CUTTING CAUSE IT GOT LONG OOPS.

I designed a specific lore for Mortem's canon story she's a part of. The first thing to know is Mortem isn't on the original Earth. She's a sixth generation witch whose bloodline does date back to the original Earth, however. Half of her ancestors hailed from Ireland! Specifically the first three of her ancestors lived and died there, the fourth (her grandmother) lived almost half her life there before she was forced to the version of Earth that Mortem calls home today.

The third generation witch, Maeveen, lived during the 5th century Ireland and frequently traveled between England and Scotland as well. Intentionally she sparked some of the Arthurian Legends, adding some flair and magic into a world that lacked fantastical things outside of witches and some other natural forces. It backfired in many ways when others began promoting and rewriting her tales and stories to fit a narrative that continued to subjugate witches and what not as heretics.

That being said, the main themes I utilize about witches throughout history is their practice coming from a scientific angle and being denounced by various parties. Witches in my lore are often accused by others of 'witchcraft' as being magic, when it isn't inherently that.

Given what witches are in my lore (forces of nature that abide a purpose but also possess mortal souls to act as a balance between mortals and immortals) they have their own way of being, their own culture amongst their kind that only they understand. Which is to be expected, of course. But naturally the themes of rejecting religion (for themselves, personally - some witches may outright express disdain, others don't care about mortals' beliefs), going against what was meant to be commonplace for gender roles (witches a predominantly female due to oppression igniting their wills to become witches - but bloodlines carried down have given birth to male witches, too).

I mostly tried to stay shallow on historical events because it felt more respectful that way. But borrowing from folklore across Ireland, England, Scotland and later (vaguely) parts of Salem regarding beliefs, cruelty and just general timeline stuff to help establish some continuity for Mortem's bloodline specifically.

Given that witches in my lore live to be about 1200 naturally (though Maeveen and Mortem are the two to go beyond due to spells they forged), so you can probably imagine how long this bloodline dates back if Maeveen was considering young in the 5th century. xD

A lot of early accusations just centered around a witch's desire to not conform. Possessing strong wills. Her first three and a half ancestors fought in the various witch hunts that took place throughout history. Maeveen specifically fought the majority of them and her daughter did as well before she was eventually thrown off-world. Those parts of history I found important to keep though I didn't want to dive into the details of them too much. I wrote instead fictional encounters, trials, battles, etc.

In terms of folklore, I borrowed from all over to help give me a range of what a witch's purpose could mean. From being something more mundane, like a healer or alchemist, to being a witch of a more demanding purpose (like Mortem). Their abilities ranging from being basically a glorified farmer that can maybe heal crops better, brew better potions, to witches that can possess an ungodly amount of power. We see plenty of historical accusations of witches committing offenses like theft to sometimes the most silliest of accusations. And in folklore, we have witches who are seen less as mortals and more as creatures or deities to some degree. So I wanted that full range of perception because a witch can be absolutely anything. The only common factor is possessing a will so strong it breaks the confinement of common mortality.

I hope that answered things well, new friend! Feel free to ask for clarification on anything! ^^

[solalunar-eclipse]

I am thinking incredibly hard about ancient secrets! Shadow and him pretending to be an organic person who breathes and is harmed by fire and can’t contort his body in ways that would absolutely be painful for anyone else. I haven’t read pt 3 of shrodinger’s hedgehog in a while before writing this so please forgive me if I mention stuff that’s noncanon lmao- I remember that he was raised like a normal person so maybe all the stuff I’m gonna mention is habit by now. I dunno.

He’s gotta run actlikeanormalperson.Exe like constantly. Except when he’s alone in the woods. Mental checklist.

- when’s the last time I blinked?

- am I breathing?

- how long have I just been standing here unmoving for?

- am I touching something commonly considered harmful?

- what are normal human joint limits like again

- have I been seen ‘eating’ recently or am i gonna have to worry about people thinking I have an eating disorder

First of all, I just wanted to briefly say how utterly delighted I am that even one person has Ancient Secrets on the brain at all. I’m so happy you’re enjoying it!!

As for Shadow, he absolutely does have to pretend about a lot of that stuff…which is an extremely helpful but unintentional (on his part) bonus of living alone in the woods in a cave! (Also, you haven’t mentioned anything non-canon at all—actually, I didn’t want to infodump too much about Shadow’s schematics in the fic because I was worried it would bore some people, but I’m totally going to take the chance to do it now :] )

By the way, I love the title “actlikeanormalperson.exe”, it’s just perfect both for Boom and Shadow XD I’ve actually only previously considered two out of these six, the others I hadn’t thought of (I was focusing more on “how can I make his body mimic an organic one as closely as possible” than what the differences were, so hopefully my answers will be good enough!)

-I didn’t even think about him blinking, but you’re so right! He does do it in the show, and it looks very natural, so I’m torn 50/50 between “he has an actual program for that” and “when he was little he saw Luna blinking and then practiced it in the mirror for days”, haha.

-as for breathing, that actually is something he does naturally, but not for the reasons organic creatures do! He circulates air to keep his electronics from overheating, because while the Ancients were very technologically advanced, they weren’t perfect (see Sonic’s mech for an excellent example). Luna wanted him to be able to live a life as close to organic as possible, so she tried to find reasons to give him various “living” behaviors. This does mean that she gave him coding for things like hyperventilating when having a panic attack too, though, even if she hoped he’d never have to use it.

-oh he would ABSOLUTELY forget to move sometimes. I feel like he probably learned to do this one while he was fighting Lyric in the defense forces, because people would give him weird looks when he just sat there not doing anything and going over battle plans in his head. Once again, I totally didn’t consider this, but honestly it’s such a good idea!!

-“touching something commonly considered harmful” is a tough one, because he’s had enough self-sacrificial moments that have impacted him to the point where he actively puts himself between harmful things like fire or poison and organic people. If asked about it he’d probably just brush it off and say something like “well, that seems like a you problem” prior to his friendship arc. The thing is, he acts like many people’s interpretations of game!Shadow where he does things that make his Ultimate status obvious but then treats them as things he’s obligated to do.

-luckily for him, he doesn’t have to think of joint limits very often, since most of his interactions with other people have involved fighting (which isn’t designed for people who can rotate their arms and legs 360 degrees, haha). It’s not really something he does much because he hasn’t seen organic people model that kind of behavior—although he did do it a couple of times when he was young and startled Luna, so he has a bit of a “hey maybe I shouldn’t reach over and backwards to pick something up from the counter behind me” reminder in the back of his head XD

-and as for food, eating it actually does give him energy! It isn’t needed to power his body, per se, since the crystal inside him can run indefinitely so long as it isn’t damaged, but he can absorb the Chaos energy from it and it’ll give him a little boost. He can work just fine without food, but he works even better with it. Of course, he doesn’t care what other people think (or he didn’t, rather), and he couldn’t be bothered with food, so he’s eaten very infrequently prior to spending time with his friends. Now, though, he usually gets an average of about one meal every 1-2 days, but his friends don’t know that he eats so little. If they did, they’d probably be trying to get him to eat more often.

[thunderxleafart]

Uh Oh! Something Has Gone Wrong!  Given that there was recently an Eclipse, why not post some art of a certain someone of the same name? x'D Seems fitting! Honestly given my Sun/Moon brainrot it was only a matter of time before I drew this dude too. And I won't lie, I actually had a lot of fun with it! xD I'm especially proud of the pants, they give me the vibe of like shooting stars. And I think that's pretty nifty. :D

Now it's headcanon time, here we go! xD "Eclipse", in my interpretation, is actually the result of a malfunction. The Daycare Attendant was designed with two modes; Daytime (Sun), and Nighttime (Moon), which could easily be switched between once a certain light (or lack there of) threshold was met. 

The problem began when Strobe Lights were introduced. Their body was bombarded with switch commands to the point where it just... well, it broke.And they ended up stuck somewhere in-between Day and Night mode.

So in a way Eclipse is both Sun and Moon, and also neither of them. Becoming a strange amalgamation of the two AIs. Eclipse only existed for a little while before their system completely crashed, due to not being equipped to handle both AIs being active at the same time. And ever since then, a type of "Grace Period" was implemented, therefore preventing Eclipse from happening again. But, if somehow someway Eclipse was brought out again and stabilized, I imagine they would have a very disoriented and confused demeanor. The two AIs would be conflicting with one another, causing Eclipse to be unstable. I don't see them being malicious or evil in any way, but they could definitely be a little... off-putting. :'D But who knows? Sun and Moon don't hate each other, and maybe with some time and practice, Eclipse could become somewhat stable and actually develop a personality all their own. ^^ Though for the time being, Eclipse is just regarded as a slight technical glitch. :'D Overall, I think there's a lot of potential with Eclipse! :D So there's a good chance I'll be drawing them again in the future, alongside Sun and Moon of course. But the general gist for their design is a fusion of Sun and Moon's designs, and a few extra little quirks due to being, y'know, a malfunction. x'D Honestly, I really like it! So I hope you guys do too! <3 Feeling a bit under the weather atm so I'm gonna try to take it easy, but I should be back with more art next week! ;3 So stay tuned! <3 And as always, thanks for looking everybody!~ ^w^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please do NOT repost or use my art! Eclipse (c) Steel Wool/Scott Cawthon [Five Nights at Freddy's Franchise] Art (c) Me <3

[marquisegallery]

SO HEY, DISCLAIMER! This is all very old art from like 2019!! The reason I’m reposting these is because, if you’ve seen my last post, I’m in the process of moving from DeviantArt to InkBlot. And I realized a few of my older drawings were only posted to here as thumbnails... why did I ever thinks that was a good idea. :u

Anyways, now posting the full art for at least some of those thumbnail pics, mainly to keep as a backup here on Tumblr. These are old and wonky enough that I don’t really feel like keeping them on InkBlot too. But I still want to keep them for reference for my Maddy and Match fan kids of course. So yeah! :P

And bonus drawing of figuring out alternate outfits for Maddy, and a silly pic with TorchMan and ColorMan, because why not, I got room here.

Also including the descriptions from their original DeviantArt uploads under the cut here for reference as well.

(Pic 1, the family photo)

Behold as I draw something super self-indulgent and silly! Match and Maddy with children! Admittedly this is the first time in a long while that I've tried to draw children, and I'm not sure if the proportions really look right...? Ah well, at least that's something I can keep in mind to practice. :P A friend mentioned that Maddy's outfit on another pic I did (the alternate outfits one) seemed kinda like a mom outfit, so that's Maddy's designated mom outfit now. And I guess Match's outfit here can be his designated dad outfit! Not sure what it is about button down shirts that exude dadness, but I'll roll with it. Anyways, the kids! From left to right, Akihoshi, Eilionoir, and Cináed (who goes by Kentaro because no one can pronounce his real name xD ). I will be doing pics of them as adults/with their Navis and explaining them a bit more there. For now I hope this kinda gives an idea of each of their personalities! (Also, fun fact, Akihoshi is obviously the youngest, but Eilionoir is the actual oldest of the three. Kentaro just ends up growing up to be much taller than everyone else, ha ha)

(Pic 2, Eilinoir, the oldest child and only daughter)

So continuing from my last pic of a fanmade set of kids for Maddy and Match, a pic of their eldest as an adult! And with her Navi! Basically inheriting HeatMan from her dad (who exists separately from TorchMan due to Reasons that I will hopefully get into with the comics I'm planning to do, I promise ^^; ) Starting with her name, Maddy insisted that Match pick out Scottish names for them because she thought it'd be really cool. With Match not actually being Scottish in my story set up (this will hopefully come up at some point, but basically my headcanon is that his family has at least one Scottish ancestor somewhere down the line due to the red hair and all, but his family is basically Japanese people faking a Scottish accent at this point :P ), he just looked up some names and picked what looked good. On that note, neither Maddy nor Match know how "Eilionoir" is supposed to be pronounced anyways, but since it's a Scottish form of Eleanor, they just pronounce it the same as Eleanor. Ellie herself eventually insists it's pronounced "Ellie-noir" (like the French word for black) to make it sound fancier! :D Anyways, basically, all of Maddy and Match's quirkness/weirdness as afterschool cartoon villains went into Ellie. She's very wild and can also be creepy at times, but overall is still a good person (at the least, she doesn't get tempted to be a villain like most people would have expected). Especially when it comes to her family, you better not mess with them! She loves fire, knives, and masks (and has a collection of the latter two), and works as an intern Net Agent before eventually becoming a chef. Also she gets along great with HeatMan, especially when it comes to burning up losers! ... I am still iffy about how HeatMan's right hand turned out, but then again, with his robotic/unusual shapes, it's hard to tell how some things could look at a certain angle. @_@; I did my best! And at the least I can say I love how Ellie's pose turned out. :D EDIT: I forgot to mention when I first posted this, Ellie's gloves are specifically meant to be what's called "weighted-knuckle glove", which is more or less a combination of gloves and brass knuckles. Extra punching power!! 

(Pic 3, Kentaro, the middle child and oldest son)

And now the middle child! Kentaro, with FlameMan as his Navi! (Who also exists separately from TorchMan and HeatMan in my little story thing, so yeah :P ) His real name is Cináed (pronounced kinda like "Ken-Ahj") and is another case of Maddy making Match find a Scottish name for their kid. In this case, the name ends up so confusing for other people to pronounce, that the kid himself just ends up changing it to Kentaro. Plus he went by Kentaro and Ken as nicknames anyways (based on how his original name was pronounced), so it worked out in the end. Kentaro is much more calm and 'normal' compared to Ellie. He's quiet, though not in a shy sense, just more "Doesn't like talking if he doesn't need/want to". He's also the tallest, taller than his parents, and even compared to someone like Count Zap (who is listed as being around 6'1" in the BN Complete Works book, fun fact  ). Maddy and Match aren't sure how that happened, but they love their son just the same. He eventually becomes a fantasy novelist (his own mom ends up being one of Kentaro's biggest fans. xD ), and had FlameMan modified/reprogrammed to be able to act as his editor and proofreader (with a vast knowledge of grammar rules, cliches to avoid/be aware of, etc). This comes in exchange for some attack power, but FlameMan doesn't mind much, since Kentaro himself isn't much for Netbattling, while FlameMan himself has kinda-sorta 'retired' from battling after going through the Battle Network 3 stuff. That doesn't mean he's not strong and can certainly put up a fight if he has too, he's just not at the same level of fire power (haha) he was back then! ... now onto the drawing itself, man, FlameMan is yet another one of those Navis that you can't quite figure out how the hell he's supposed to look from different angles. His legs and the fire sockets in his body really don't help either!! You can tell I got lazy with said fire sockets, but at the least I think I did well on getting his legs to look right. :u Also still kinda iffy about how Kentaro's hands turned out. Should they be a bit bigger for someone his size? I kept debating on that while drawing this, but I didn't want to end up giving him hands that were too big at the same time. And a bonus, the colors of Kentaro's shirt and pants are based off of the outfit Match wears in BN2! Slightly changed the colors a bit though. Also, his hoodie is based off of one I have myself! Just with different colors and rings on it. :D Edit: Oops, forgot to put in the characters Kentaro picks for his name. Strong/healthy (健, 'ken'), big (太, 'ta'), and son (郎, 'ro'). Kinda straightforward and literal, though that makes it easier for people to remember his name.  xD Also, I think the "ro" character can also be written as "rou", though I am not sure if that makes too big of a difference in pronunciation? 

(Pic 4, Akihoshi, the youngest child and youngest son)

Okay, I have a bunch to explain here (and even then I can't go into too much detail with spoiling a story I wanna draw :P ) but let's get started with Akihoshi himself. The last and youngest of Maddy and Match's kids, Akihoshi! Match insisted that they give this kid a Japanese name this time, compared to the other two. xD Akihoshi's name is spelled with the characters for autumn (秋, 'aki') and star (星, hoshi). He's naturally anxiety prone and in general tends to worry more than most people do. Not because of any terrible event, he just ended up unluckily having anxiety problems (he gets better eventually though, mainly thanks to his parents (after making it clear they aren't mad at him for it and just want to help) and making sure he gets therapy and medication). Once he gets a handle on that, he goes on to be a teacher like his parents! In my little story timeline they're both teachers. :P Also, his Navi is... NovaMan! Who is basically a reprogrammed (kinda) StarMan. Much more cheery and carefree than Akihoshi, and is fairly essential in making sure his operator got through the day during his earlier years (while Akihoshi was learning how to handle his anxiety problems), and generally helps Akihoshi look on the bright side of things! And can also be very scary if anyone dares to give Akihoshi a hard time... So with NovaMan, getting into too much specifics would be spoilers for his origin story chapter. But basically, in my story-set-up-thing, StarMen are generic Navis used for satellite control/maintenance. NovaMan was originally a regular StarMan who got his memory and personality wiped due to Reasons, but eventually gets better thanks to Maddy and Match and their Navis saving him, in a way. Also he's basically ColorMan and TorchMan's son, and refers to them as Pa and Dad respectively. They were kinda weirded out by the idea of being parents at first (especially since, really, it was NovaMan who decided they were his parents :P ) but they got used to it. They're proud dads now! :D For the art itself, ahh, this was so much easier to draw than the other two! You can probably tell by how quickly this is being submitted since Kentaro's pic. Then again, it helps that NovaMan was SO much easier to draw compared to FlameMan and HeatMan. :P Anyways, overall pleased with how this turned out, yay! :>

(Pic 5, Maddy outfits)

This is for the comic idea I'm planning for, but this is admittedly like... something that probably won't appear in the comic for a looong time.  :P But anyways, I'm trying to decide on a new outfit for Maddy, something more casual/civilian? Well, her main outfit is kinda like that already but ehh. So the basics I decided on are: shirt-with-puffy-sleeves, capri pants, and... how would you describe these kinds of shoes? I don't know much shoe terminology, I just wanted to make shoes that look comfortable to wear and walk in. Oh, also the glasses are a constant here. There's some concept art of Maddy where she's wearing glasses, so I imagine she does need glasses to see but otherwise normally wear contacts! Well, I guess that's more of a headcanon, huh? The shirt in the middle is cute, but at the same time I feel like it's almost too-cutesy for Maddy? And admittedly the colors for the capris in the left outfit were based on the colors for her normal pants anyways, so maybe that's too derivative. Or maybe I'm just overthinking things. :P I might just mix and match with different combos of the outfit-pieces here, I don't know. Well, I'm not in too much of a hurry to decide on a main-new outfit for Maddy, since like I said, it'll still be a while before I start the comic anyways. So I've got a while to think about it! At the least I wanted to share this now for a bit of feedback/suggestions (If anyone doesn't mind!) Edit: Also! Her pose here is kinda-sorta based on her pose in her official art! Her left hand still looks... a little wonky, but eh, I tried at least!

(Pic 6, TorchMan and ColorMan dealing with pop-ups)

Fun fact, Rush from the anime is based off of viruses called Moles in the games (in the English version of the games at least, they're actually still called Rush in the originals  :P ). The battle chip you can get from them is called PopUp, which made me think that they probably act like pop-up ads. xD As advanced as the Battle Network world is, they still have viruses to deal with, so they probably have plenty of other computer-related issues too (pop-up ads, spyware, lag, etc).

[ashes-in-a-jar]

And I Owe it All to You

Hello! This is a fic I wrote based on @speakerunfolding 's wonderful Jonmartin scottish cabin comic which I couldn't stop looking at.

I wrote this while watching Dirty Dancing for the first time in many years. Quite an experience xD

Summary: It's a night in for Jon and Martin in the cabin and they decide to pop out the wine.

Rated: T

Word count: 2.2K

Tw: alcohol, drinking and being slightly drunk, minor injuries

Maybe it was the fact that neither of them had gone out much in the past few months. Maybe the Fears prefer their avatars lightweight. Maybe Scottish alcohol tended to be stronger than English alcohol. But the sparkling wine they bought on a whim at the village store shouldn't have had the effect on them that it did.

Having emptied two cups each (Jon was actually drinking out of a mug, since they found only one wine glass, and he conceded the honor of feeling classy to Martin) they have already become giggling messes over some dumb joke regarding one Peter Lukas and a computer that refused to boot.

It wasn't even that funny. But there they were, acting like complete fools leaning against each other on the couch, legs propped up in a completely uncomfortable position on the small living room table (dangerously close to the now nearly empty bottle), holding their cups precariously in one hand and holding hands with the other.

And enjoying every moment of it.

The giggling subsided. They took a moment of comfortable silence to regain their breath and enjoy another sip.

"Can't believe he didn't know he could just u-unplug and replug the whole thing. Even I know that." Jon's speech was ever so slightly slurred, his leftover wine sloshing in his cup.

Martin hummed and then snorted.

"Jon, you barely know how to do that either. I had to teach you how to open new tabs in the same internet window for christ's sake."

"It was a new laptop! All of the buttons were in the wrong p-place." Jon protested weakly, starting to hiccup.

"Sure."

"Prick." Jon nudged him fondly. "You underestimate my vast knowledge of 'modern' things."

Martin snorted again. "Modern, you say?"

"Yes Martin, what do you take me for?"

"An old geezer." Martin tousled his hair gently. Jon leaned into the touch. Then, the words sunk in.

"Hey! Why do you and Georgie keep thinking that? I can know pop culture!"

"Oh yeah? Tell me, what do you know?"

"Uh..." Jon struggled to straighten himself, which resulted in actually sliding further off the couch. "Um...I know S-Star Wars! And uh, Matrix? I think. I've seen it once. Oh! That, that dinosaur movie! And... Titanic?" He finished unconvincingly. 

Martin looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Really, Jon? You're just naming movies now.  And not even new ones. Did you actually watch any of those?"

Jon avoided his gaze "I... I may have fallen asleep during uh, during some of these?"

Martin gave him a long look. 

"Yes alright, I fell asleep in all of them."

Martin huffed "Thought so". 

Jon gave up trying to salvage his dignity, taking a final long gulp from his mug, a small drop trickling down his chin. Martin swiped it away, absent-mindedly licking his finger, not noticing as Jon hiccuped, his face heating up considerably. 

"I-I did like the Princess Bride though— that was a nice film, if a bit sensational." 

"Hang on. You watched the Princess Bride? And liked it?" Martin asked, incredulous. 

"I'm allowed to like things, Martin. B-besides, Georgie made me watch it. Said it was a- a core staple of cinema history o-or something."

"Oh yeah? Did she make you watch those other movies as well?" Martin asked casually, swirling the liquid in his cup. 

"Unfortunately yes. She would cruelly  shake me awake when I finally managed to get some shut-eye for once in my life. I-it's not my fault the only times I could sleep normally were during those, those damn films! She woke me up for that ridiculous scene with the, uh, the bullets in the Matrix. And that lifting scene in that unseemly dancing movie."

"What lifting scene?" 

"That movie with all of the dancing? Th-the one where he lifts her at the end in the middle of the crowd with that song? At least, uh, at least I think there was a lot of dancing, I wasn't actually, hmmm... Focused at the time." 

"Oh my god Jon, do you mean Dirty Dancing? You fell asleep during Dirty Dancing?" Martin's delighted incredulity was plain on his face. 

Jon scrunched up his nose. "That's the name of the film? Good thing I fell asleep then."

"Jesus Jon. That's incredible, good on Georgie! Heh, at least you woke up for that scene. It's iconic, you know." 

"Yes, yes." Jon waved at him dismissively, reaching unsteadily for the wine bottle. Martin gently took it away from Jon and with a much steadier hand, poured the remaining bit of wine into his mug.

"Thank you Martin," Jon mumbled into the cup. 

Another warm silence fell on them, lulling Jon into a half drunken stupor. He nearly threw his cup in the air when Martin's words startled him back into awareness. 

"I can do that scene you know, that lifting part." He was looking intently at his glass. 

"R-really?" Jon hiccuped. "How?" 

"I… I had a boyfriend who wanted to try it. So we did. Turns out that I'm good at balancing large things that aren't stacks of paper."

Jon hummed. He suddenly imagined very vividly Martin lifting someone else in that way and felt a pang in his chest. What was that?

Another beat of silence. 

"Do. Do you want to try?"

"W-what?" 

"Do you want to do that lifting scene with me? I'm sure I could lift you." Martin suddenly sat up, his tone excited and anticipating. He looked at Jon. 

Jon shifted. "Uh, I-I guess it's fine? Sure."

"Okay! Let's do it then!" Martin got up on his feet, swaying ever so slightly. 

Jon looked up at him surprised. "W-wait, now? Shouldn't we wait? You know, to be less uh, inebriated? Don't you need to see the scene again for a reminder?"

"Mmm. We don't have reception so I can't exactly watch the scene again. But, but I'm pretty sure I can do it now, definitely sure! Come on." He held out his hand expectantly. 

Jon took it, stumbling only a bit as he got up. Martin took out his phone . 

"I might even have the song saved. Let me check."

A moment later he gave a whoop of success and the song began to play, filling the main space of the cabin with its soft, if slightly tinny sound. 

Jon stretched, releasing the tension in his muscles. "All right Martin, where do you want me?" 

"You need a bit of a running start, and then you need to jump high right as you reach my arms, so stand over there." He indicated towards the door of the bedroom. 

"Right." Jon stumbled only once as he made his way towards the designated spot. Martin moved across the room stopping right near the kitchen door. 

The song kept playing calmly in the background, slowly building up towards the upbeat chorus. 

Jon looked at him again "I dunno Martin. A-are you sure?" He suddenly felt a bit more fuzzy than he did sitting down. He hiccuped again. 

"Please Jon, you're thin as a rake. Have a little faith." His face wore that determined look that Jon couldn't help but love. 

"Alright, as you wish." He grinned, proud of his clever reference as he took his stance. 

Martin rolled his eyes as well as his sleeves. "Steady on Westley, this is the part."

Jon felt a rush of excitement as he caught Martin's enthusiasm. "Ready?" He asked, bouncing a little on his feet in preparation. 

"Ready." Martin crouched a little, holding out his arms. 

As the chorus neared Jon, with a wild drunken energy, took his running start, jumping up as he reached Martin, grabbing on to his shoulders for support. Martin firmly gripped Jon's hips, bent his legs and with a strained grunt lifted Jon in the air as the song reached a crescendo. 

Jon was flying. 

He laughed giddily, stretching out his arms in elation. 

As Martin continued holding him in his strong grip he looked down at his beautiful boyfriend. Despite the exertion, Martin looked up with the softest expression as the song kept playing for them in the background. 

For a moment everything was perfect. 

And then Martin leaned backwards a bit too far. 

In hindsight, they should have known this would happen. While Martin was better at hiding it, he was as drunk as Jon. And Jon's already impeded balance certainly didn't help. 

As they went down, Jon idly wondered if they could also recreate the rest of the dance if they practiced. And then he hit his nose on the floor. 

After a moment of stunned silence the pain rushed in and Jon grunted. 

Turns out that while most of him was protected from the fall by Martin's soft and sturdy body, his knee also missed the mark and crashed into the floor as well.

Muffled by Jon's body above him, Martin squirmed. "Ugh, Jon, are you okay?"

When Jon didn't respond, Martin groaned and picked himself off the floor, lifting Jon in the process. 

"Oh my god, Jon! You're bleeding!" 

Jon's face throbbed. And so did his knee. His hazy drunken state began fading away as the pain sharpened. 

"I-I think I hit something." 

"I'm so sorry Jon! God, where are the tissues?" Seemingly having sobered up considerably, Martin picked Jon up and carried him bodily into the bathroom. Jon allowed all of this to happen as the shock of the fall dissipated. He let Martin easily lift him onto the sink counter as he shoved a towel into his hands.

"Hold it against your nose while I... Jesus, your knee too?" He stepped back now hurriedly lifting the stained pant leg to reveal the damage. 

"God, Jon I'm so sorry. Hold still, I'm going to find the first aid kit. We shouldn't have done this. This was a complete disaster." 

He kept muttering irritably as he walked away. Jon sighed and pressed the towel to his throbbing nose. His foggy mind still felt as though it was trying to catch up to the recent chain of events. He spoke slowly, attempting to convey himself with clarity. 

"Martin, it's fine. Honestly, I think we both know I've had worse-" 

"You nearly broke your bloody neck! God, where's that goddamn kit." He shouted from across the cabin as Jon heard the rattling of drawers being forcefully pulled open. 

"Martin, please I-I'm okay. It's just a little bit of bruising. It honestly already feels better." 

And it actually did. In the chaos after the fall, they both forgot Jon's... situation. Jon watched as the cut on his knee slowly closed up, leaving only the drying stain of blood behind. The pain in his nose was slowly vanishing as well. 

By the time Martin came back holding the bag, Jon already put down the towel and was tentatively poking at the previously bruised spot. 

Martin stopped in front of him, looking at him with a mixture of emotions Jon couldn't parse out. He smiled at Martin hesitantly. 

"See? Good as new. No harm no foul, I say."

Martin let out a long suffering sigh and took the towel out of Jon's hands. He quietly dampened it in the sink and stepped closer to gently pat at his face. 

Jon looked at him. This close he could practically count his faded freckles, follow every line and trace every mark that was so beautifully Martin. He let himself smile. 

"I must say, I'm quite impressed by your strength, if we weren't so inebriated, I'm sure you could have kept me up there for quite a while," he said quietly, enjoying the fluttering touches. 

"It wasn't because I was drunk." Martin muttered. 

"Pardon?" 

"I said it wasn't because I was drunk that I dropped you," he said a little louder, oddly flustered. "I was looking at... At you. You just looked... I dunno, happy, I guess? I just never seen that expression on you before and it..." He trailed off, concentrating intently on Jon's knee, finishing up cleaning up the blood. 

"M-Martin, look at me. Please look up here." Jon gently tugged at his shoulders to pull him up. At this height, sitting on the counter, he actually came face to face with Martin, seeing his blush and ruffled expression right in front of him as opposed to slightly above him like he normally did 

He lifted his palms to bracket Martin's warm cheeks. 

"There you are," he whispered and leaned in for a quick kiss. He then leaned back slightly. "You know that I'm perfectly happy. Here with you. Y-you know that, right?" 

Martin looked at him for a few moments, then smiled. "Yeah, I do."

"Good. Now, help me down so we can clean up the wine stain, which I'm sure is growing on the carpet right now."

"Wha- oh," Martin said as he turned to see the fallen glass that apparently toppled during the mayhem. 

"Yeah. Let me down?" Jon said again, holding out his arms. 

Martin turned back to him, a teasing expression on his face. "As you wish." 

Jon groaned and allowed himself once again to be pulled, secretly enjoying Martin's burst of giggles as they both walked back into the crime scene that was their drunken night in. 

All things considered, it was a pretty good night. 

[teddy06writes]

Through Thick And Thin

requested by this anon: “If you are still doing requests, could you maybe do a royal AU of a Knight! Awesamdude x royalty reader? Thanks!” 

Awesamdude x reader

trigger warnings: some swearing, mentioned character death

premise: royalty au; you are heir to the throne of the dream smp lands, Sam is the knight who has been sworn to protect you. When L’manburg, a rising power begins to attack, Sam stays by your side, even as the kingdom falls

{also I did my best to keep this gender neutral, but it might’ve ended up leaning for feminine, sorry about that}

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“Do you take one lump or two?” You forced a polite smile onto your face. 

“Two, with lemon, not milk,” Bad said, “Try not to look so bored, you may be able to pull a smile on your face, but your eyes wandering about this room betray you.” 

Etiquette lessons were something you had finished long ago, but your mother had arranged for a brush up, seeing as the ambassadors of L’manburg would be arriving Wednesday. 

You nodded, quietly filling his tea cup with what he requested, and sliding it across the table too him. 

“Now, serve the tea cakes.” Bad instructed. 

As you cut the sponge cake into pieces you let your eyes drift again, look to where Sam stood beside the door. 

He bit back a smile, scrunching his nose at you. 

It took all your willpower not to giggle, regaining composer as you passed the plate across the table. 

~~

“I just think its stupid shit,” You said, tapping the toe of your shoe against the gravel path, “I already know how to poor tea and address nobles.” 

Sam chuckled, looking around the garden, “I suppose you do, but brushing up on those things never hurts.” 

“I did my time learning tea and titles, and dances and all that. I don’t see why I should have to do it any more. You should help me sneak out of lessons.” 

He laughed again, “I don’t know if I can partake in helping you get out of your duties.” 

“You used too.” You fake pouted, moving to sit on one of the benches lining the path.

“Yes well that was before, this is now. I’m not a stable boy any longer. We both have different duties to attend to.” He said, turning to look at you. 

You frowned, “I thought your duties were to protect me.” 

“They are.” 

“Then you’d have to go with me if,,, say I snuck away to go down to the shore tomorrow. Where we used to go in the summer.” You grinned cheekily. 

“Yes, I would have to,” He admitted begrudgingly, “But, considering you have to handle preparations for the ambassadors stay, I would be forced to suggest waiting till after they leave on Friday.” 

You chuckled, “I like the way you think.” 

~~

The morning of the ambassadors arrival came all too quickly, and you woke early, carefully dressing. 

There was a knock on the door, around 9:30, to which you sighed, “Come in.” 

Sam appeared in the door, holding a glass box, “His highness says you must wear this.” 

You look wearily at the small crown he was holding, then back at him, “You’re joking me.” 

He shook his head, “Dream insisted.” 

“Oh for XD’s sake.” you muttered, taking the box, and moving to set it atop your desk.

Slowly you extracted the crown, setting it gently atop your hair, adjusting it slightly in the mirror before turning to Sam, “How’s it look?” 

“Heavy.” He laughed. 

“Oh shut up,” You grumbled, moving past him into the corridor, “How long until the ambassador arrives?” 

“Half an hour or so.” He reported.

~~ Negotiations had began the moment Wilbur Soot and his cabinet members walked in the door, hardly leaving any time for introductions. 

You sat uncomfortably in your chair, these men were not like the ones you were expecting to be meeting. 

They were loud, harsh, and in the young blonde boys case, quite rude.

“Simply put, we don’t want to start a fight if we don’t have to, with you or any of the other neighboring  kingdoms.” Wilbur finished. 

Dream crossed his arms, looking at the treaty that had been placed in front of him, “You want our land?” 

“No, we only want a small piece of your land, just the farms that are technically within L’manburg’s borders,” The young Lord Tubbo clarified, “The original treaty clearly designates them to us.” 

“With all due respect, Mr. President, His Highness never agreed to the original terms.” Bad pointed out. 

George nodded, “Your nation has grown separately, never attached to us, the farms have never been yours.” 

Dream couldn’t help but chuckle as he cocked his head, “Your here for something else, aren’t you?” 

Wilbur sighed, “Yes, I suppose we are. Well, gentlemen, I should come clean. I come here seeking power. Something to put me at an advantage. I came here to ask for (y/n)’s hand in marriage.” 

“Excuse me?” You snapped, eyes wide. 

“You heard me. I wish to make you my betrothed, lord knows its the most you could accomplish in a life time.” He repeated, something malicious in his voice. 

The Dream SMP’s side of the table grew very tense. 

“I reject your proposal,” You stared him dead in the eye, “I would never marry a man like you.” 

Before anyone else could speak, you stood, “Perhaps you’ll work out a different arrangement. If you’ll excuse me.” 

With that you gracefully glided out of the room, loyal knight on your heels. 

It wasn’t until you reached the safety of the farthest garden from the castle that you felt like you could breath again. 

“I’ll kill him,” Sam muttered, pacing along the path, “No one speaks to you like that and gets away with it.” 

You sank onto a bench, pulling the crown from your head and running your hands through your hair, “He’s vile! The whole lot of them are!” 

“They’ll never get away with this. Everyone knows you’re mi-” He stopped himself, shaking his head. 

“Why, for a moment did it look like Dream was actually considering it?” You muttered, tears springing into the corners of your eyes. 

Sam quickly sat beside you, taking your hands, “Hey, I won’t let it happen. You’re- you belong here.... with me.” 

You looked up at him, with wide eyes, “Sam- you really mean that? With you? Truly you’d allow it?” 

Practically the whole palace staff had known since you’d first met Sam that you’d fallen for him. It had seemed like you were always destined to be together. 

“Yes, if you would.” 

You nodded, resting your forehead against his, “I would.” 

For a moment, the world seemed right. 

For a moment, nothing was wrong. 

For a moment, it seemed like there was a chance. 

Until a loud explosion rang through the castle, ripping through the tranquil morning.

Distantly you could hear screams of pain, yells of triumph and fights breaking out. 

Sam quickly stood, turning to the castle, where all the other guards seemed to be running too. 

“Sam...” 

Your shaky voice broke him from his almost trance, “What wrong dove?” 

“Sam they all had gladiolus flowers on there lapels. They all- the all had gladiolus on there lapels.” 

How you hadn’t realized it before you weren’t sure. 

“What?” 

“Gladiolus means ready- or armed.” You said quietly.

Sam stared at you for a moment, before someone else entered the garden, “You really shouldn’t have turned down that proposal (y/n)!” 

“Run!” Sam yelled, grabbing your hand to pull you along with him. 

You ran blindly with him, down the paths and toward the back of the garden. 

Sam pushed you toward the gap in the hedge, “Go! Down by the shore, where we used to go in the summer. Go! I’ll be there as soon as I can, lock yourself inside, and only open up for me.” 

You barley had time to think before he shoved you through the hedge, turning and drawing his sword to face Wilbur. 

~~ You stumbled along the path, you were almost there- almost there- almost to the abandoned light house. 

The sounds of fighting faded behind you as you tripped once more, picking yourself up and going even faster as the sea came into view. 

You threw yourself against the lighthouse door to get it to open, quickly closing it behind you and locking the door. 

You leaned against it, struggling to catch your breath. 

After a moment, your eyes adjusted to the light, and you looked around at the dusty space. 

When you were young, this had been Sam and yours special place, somewhere to avoid lessons. 

The only servant who’d known about it had helped you move furniture out there long ago, and the space seemed semi inhabitable. 

You fumbled to light a lamp, then found your way to a cabinet, looking for a cloth, or rag to clean with. 

Soon you were busying yourself with fixing the place up, desperately trying to ignore the fact that Sam was taking a very long time to get there. 

Once you finished the first floor you climbed the stone steps to the next, and began working there. 

Night had nearly fallen when you heard a rough knock at the door. 

Armed with a small paring knife you’d found in the old kitchen you crept to the door, peaking out the small window to check who it was. 

Quickly you unlocked the door, throwing it open and pulling Sam inside, “Holy shit Sam you had me so worried!” 

He grunted, moving to sit at the table you had turned upright, as you locked the door again. 

“Are you hurt at all?” 

He shook his head, “Just tired, I came the long way, to make sure no one was following. Are you alright?” 

You sighed with relief, “I’ll be okay, long as your here.” 

Sam smiled, “I’ll be here through thick and thin.” 

[goggles-mcgee]

Hello. I love the prompt " the commission " can we have the full story please ? How will the avengers react of the news about Hawkmoth?

The full story will come later I promise! I unleashed so many things onto myself but I have no regrets XD Though I shall share some headcanons with you guys about the AU in the mean time!

* Pepper has been a fan of MDC since she saw the designs for Penny and Jagged’s wedding attire. Her and Penny are friends and when she asked who made Penny’s dress and Jagged’s suit, Penny was all too happy to tell her and brag about Marinette and show her everything else Mari had designed for her and Jagged and others. 

* When Tony officially proposed, Pepper already knew who she wanted to make her dress. She could tell Tony was hesitant to ask MDC since she wasn’t that well known yet, but they both knew he couldn’t say no to her, so it was no surprise when she caught him looking at her website and commission prices. Later she pretended not to notice him calling Penny and asking for MDC’s email. Pepper liked to let him believe he could keep anything from her, it was the thought that counted. 

* Peter, Harley, MJ, and Ned are all excited for the wedding. Peter gets to be the flower boy which he is super happy about and Harley is the ring bearer. 

* MJ is also a fan of MDC

* The whole “Minion” squad are Jagged Stone fans. Peter’s favorite album may or may not be Rock Giant.  👀

*The Minion Squad are all off school for summer already, Marinette just started summer since it’s the beginning days of July. While the Minion Squad plans to help plan the wedding, invent, prank the Avengers, and just have some good summer fun, Marinette plans to work on her MDC commissions since she knew she would be getting a lot. Penny had given her a heads up. Besides, there wasn’t much friends she could hang out with since Luka had told her that him, his sister, and his mom planned to sail around for the summer. Anarka wantedd to get the kids out of Paris for a while. Chloe and Sabrina would be going on vacation with Chloe’s mom to Milan for two weeks and then to New York for a month so Chloe could see her mother’s business and get a feel of it and see if it is something she would want to take over. Kagami and her mother would also be leaving Paris to visit family in Japan. The only ones she would be able to hang out with would be Alix, Nathaniel, and Marc. 

* Then she gets the email from Tony. Freaking. Stark! She nearly faints! Okay. She faints. He actually wants Marinette to design and make his and Pepper Potts wedding attire!!! His email said that he would house her and her team for however long she needed for the consulting period and the beginning work of the outfits. Okay actually it said till the outfits were done but she would discuss that with him and Pepper when she got there because wedding dresses typically took 6-9 months to make. She figured she had time as he did specify they were planning a December wedding of next year, something about it being a Christmas present. 

* After she talks it over with her parents, she responds to Tony that she would love to design and make his and Pepper’s wedding attire but before the discuss anything further she would like for them to video chat. Tony agrees later that day, which is more than enough time for Marinette to set up at Jagged and Penny’s house, they officially bought a house in Paris yes, along with her mother and father so they could talk everything over with Mr. Stark. When the camera connects, Tony swears he must be rebooting because he did not think that MDC was a 16 year old girl, but he adapts quickly and understands now why she wanted to discuss the arrangement more.

* Tom and Sabine are even more delighted and on board on sending Marinette to New York when Tony offers to let her stay in Stark Tower/Avengers Tower with the heroes and his Minions. Marinette of course asks if she can bring some friends, they’re not officially her team but she would feel better having them there with her. Of course Tony agrees because he could practically hear Pepper scold him if he said no and they continue to set everything up while Marinette calls up Alix, Marc and Nathaniel and ask if they want to go with her to New York to go to the Avengers Tower. It takes too long in her opinion to convince them that no. she’s not joking, and yes she is serious. 

* Once they get their parents permission they plan to leave on Saturday which would be in two days. It’s a little hectic, especially because Marinette didn’t know if she should take the Miracle Box or not but in the end she decides to leave it with her mom and dad, aka the new Turtle and Fox heroes of Paris. They had found out she was Ladybug a little after she had become the Guardian because she had broken down. Everything had become too much for her and Tikki couldn’t stand to see her chosen like that so she told Tom and Sabine that their daughter was Ladybug. 

* Marinette was going to take the Horse, Mouse, and of course, Ladybug Miraculous, to New York though. Her mom promised that she would text her or call her as soon as she could if they spotted or heard an akuma, and that they would fight it off until she got there. 

* When Marinette and her friends get to New York and meet Tony, he can tell they’ve fought in a fight children shouldn’t have to, but he doesn’t know how to ask about it so he pushes it back till he can think of a way to approach the subject. He immediately takes a liking to Marinette, he can tell she’s smart for her age, and he just likes her energy. 

* Then Tony introduces them to his Minions and Peter, Ned, and Harley all have a collective freakout because they are meeting THE MDC. MJ is, of course, happy too but she can at least keep her cool when meeting the designer who made Jagged Stone’s iconic Eiffel Tower sunglasses, the one who designed his Rock Giant album art, and the one who made his Roaring Dragon Jacket! Peter asks Marinette if she can sign his copy of the album and Tony thinks it’s all down hill from there. He can see the kid’s blush from across the room. 

* The consultation happens and Pepper is just as surprised as Tony was when she learns MDC is only 16 but she hides it fairly well. Both are pleasantly surprised by Marinette’s professionalism and are pleased with the overall talk about what they want out of the design. Tony even manages to squeeze in another suit for Peter because he knows the kid and he is not letting him wear a rented tux to his wedding. 

* Tony and Pepper have dinner with the kids and the Minions and it’s decided that they can stay for the summer, and no Pepper don’t look at Tony like that it’s not because he’s trying to help Peter get a date for the wedding.

* Then Marinette meets the Avengers. Thor loves her, but like who doesn’t Thor love? And who doesn’t love Thor? She is super interested in learning about Asgard, especially its fashion and she even talks Thor into giving her some fabric samples to work with. He just loves her enthusiasm and he appreciates her letting him talk about his home and his people. Marc and Nathaniel get a great picture of the two of them sitting on Thor’s flexed arms. Marc also loves to hear about Thor’s home and people and Nathaniel loves to draw him and those he talks about. 

Natasha accidentally sneaks up on Marinette, she never means to do it, it is just how she is, so when this little girl turns around in a flash with a pencil held in her fist as a weapon her eyes narrowed looking for the danger, she is suprised and has to stop her own reflexes from sweeping the girls legs from under her. She respects Marinette’s reflexes and the two spar and Marinette tells her she used to do ballet when Natasha asks her why her turns and spins almost seem like she’s doing a dance and Natasha’s eyes light up. The two bond over ballet 

Bucky, Clint, and Steve meet her one morning when they go to the kitchen and find so many goodies to eat and see this tiny little girl singing to herself as she pulls muffins out of the oven. She turns to them and smiles and says good morning before introducing herself so they do as well. When Steve introduces himself her eyes narrow and she hisses out, “YOU.” He’s so confused until she starts tearing into him about him hero suit. Bucky and Clint of course love this moment and will cherish it forever. 

She meets Bruce and he’s heard of this little terror from Steve and he’s thinking she’s going to tear into Hulk about wearing only shorts but then she’s shaking his hand and saying it’s an honor to meet you Dr. Banner, apparently she’s read some of his papers. And Bruce can’t help but smile for the rest of the day. 

When Wanda meets her she just hugs the little girl for a while because she hadn’t meant to see how her ex friends had treated her back in Paris but she did and this child needed a hug. Marinette had just been asking what material her jacket was made out of so they had touched briefly, then she was being hugged, but she didn’t mind, she figured maybe Wanda was having an off day and needed a hug.

Vision had just looked at Marinette and said, “Miraculous.” nobody knew what he meant but Marinette did and she just put a finger to her lips with her eyes wide with panic. Thankfully he got what she was trying to say and gave her a nod and small smile. 

Tony said there was more people for her to meet but she would have the whole summer to do that so she was content. 

* Then the first akuma alert went off when they were there in New York. Marinette thought everyone was sleeping when she created the portal and leapt through...she didn’t know how wrong she was. 

[raycatz]

Omg your comics are in here too? Eeee! How to only choose one? …I’m gonna list a couple and you just pick whichever you want to talk about most.

Wouldn’t it be funny if Legend kept revealing secrets by touching things he shouldn’t?

Let’s shoot Sky’s beetle through the dark portal!

Wind and Four go dungeon crawling

Hi!!!! Thank you for the tag and the ask!

Can I answer all of them!?? :D (my sister brought up the third today so now I want to talk about it too ahsfgdhs.)

1- Wouldn’t it be funny if Legend kept revealing secrets by touching things he shouldn’t?

The chain are solving puzzles in a dungeon. They need to find a way to progress to the next room. Hit the crystal switches, shoot an eye switch, find a hidden enemy, something. Now, Legend's all for caution but this is taking way too long. He touches something he shouldn’t and a certain magical item saves him from being squished.

or, Legend’s arch nemesis, moving architecture, strikes again.

The plan is for this to be a 6~8 page comic in the same format as the LU pages!

I may like bullying Legend. Just a little bit. xD

2- Let’s shoot Sky’s beetle through the dark portal!

I answered this already over here. It’s my current ongoing big project and hopefully it’ll be done at some point. Fingers crossed.

3- Wind and Four go dungeon crawling

This is the first bit of fanfiction I'd ever written for LU! I was pretty new to the fandom at the time, had just read Crimson Ties, and was playing FSA and Mish Cap. It shows and is telling for where this wip came from xD I've a snippet and some art!

Breaking the urge to curl, Four spreads his arms in freefall as practiced and reaches for the sailor, a hand, anything. Goddess, he hates heights! A tug on his arm. “Gottcha! Hold on!” Four scrambles to hold onto Wind. Between the sailor’s fingers is a leaf and flicked once it snaps open. They float a moment before the leaf goes frail and they’re plummeting again. It’s just enough time for Four to point the staff of pacci at the ground. A bubble of air swirls up to meet them and the boys bounce harmlessly off it in a clattering of swords and shields. “Heavier than a korok…” Wind pushes himself off the ground with a wince. “You doing alright?” “Yeah… My tailbone hurts but I’ve had worse landings. Are you okay?” “Yeah. Thanks for catching me.” “No problem. Hey, how far down do you think we fell?” The sailor cups his hands and shouts above them, “HOYYY!” Four compacts and pockets the staff, rises on wobbly legs, and stands with Wind at the bottom of the echoing chamber. “Far…”

Time, calling down: “If you need anything you call the Champion, alright? We’ll try and find a way around.”

Wind: “Got it.”

Wind: “This isn’t going to work. I wanted to show everyone that we could handle this, but I think we’re stuck. Four people are needed on the lower floor but there’s only one of you.”

Four, internally losing his shit because, hey, isn’t that convenient? It just so happens there are four of him sometimes.

Green: Let’s help the sailor out.

Blue: But no one knows!

Vio: There are four of us.

Shadow: Five, actually.

Red: I think he can handle this.

After reading Crimson Ties I really grew attached to Wind wanting to prove himself to the others -> doing so multiple times over / learning he doesn’t need to as a potential character arc. I also wanted to design a dungeon that required all of the chain's individual skills combined to complete. There had to be puzzles that demanded different combinations of skillsets/items. Ideally, it would be an opportunity for a recently gathered chain to learn to trust each other. Wind and Four were my favorites so I made their room first. It’s pretty simple: a main room with four sun masks and balcony with a skylight on the wall behind but not facing the masks. Someone has to direct the light from the balcony into the main room so the rest of the group can shine the light to the masks. Wind and Four both have mirror shields but there’s only two of them. It's a Colors reveal aaaa xD potentially! Given more time they could probably fenagle a way to lay reflective items on the ground to light the masks (a Wild-esc solution), and Four figures this out, but he also wants to give Wind a chance to solve the puzzle himself. Soooo for Four, it’s either steal the wind from his sails, share a secret, or wait and maybe push a little. I haven’t decided which because all scenarios would be fun to explore!

The final boss would be a giant spider like Armogohma from TP, but it needs to be defeated like a FSA boss. Each member of the chain covers a leg while the ninth targets a weak spot. The way the weak spot can be hit changes, so the chain needs to coordinate who to swap out while making sure no one’s injured.

To anyone reading, if the room builds, mirror shield puzzles, or giant spider boss resonate with you and you want to use it, go for it! This stuff doesn’t even have to be LU specific I just think it’s fun to make personalized puzzles for the heroes xD Maybe one day I’ll return to this dungeon, but there are a lot of things I want to work on rn so ahhhh I can’t do it all. If you do write with any of these or know something similar please let me know, I’d love to read it!

This got really long asjhgsdf thanks for reading my spontaneous character analysis and listening to me chatter about my imaginary video game dungeons.

[demonslayedher]

do you still take asks? if so, could you explain tanjirou's hanafuda earings? i've seen some people online (like insta and other such places) claim that the design is one of a flower, but i always thought it was of a sun since it was supposed to be like a token for the sun god or something (disregarding possible [and hopefully unintentional] symbolisms coming from ww2)

whenever these people say these, they go back on to the earings being called hanafuda cards, and that hana means flower. i'm not that smart when it comes to japanese things or hanafuda cards specifically, so if you could, can you explain the hanafuda cards and the design on tanjirou's earings?

thank you and i hope you're having a lovely day (love your blog, btw, esp the art and japanese trivia posts)

Hahaha.... my attempted answer to this met so many technical difficulties, this is my third version, I think, hahahaaaaaa. TwT We shall indeed endeavor to keep this related to the original Sengoku period design of the earrings and their relation to Hanafuda cards, though indeed this is a Heisei/Reiwa period production and it's unavoidable that the similarity would be read in a post-WW2 context. It's not that I don't have things I could say on that, but I prefer not to go in that direction either (and people who choose to use the alternate design have my support). Short answer, though: nope, not a flower design!

The sun symbolism and its representation of Japan supersedes Muzan’s birth by at least a few centuries, and in its earliest uses with a simple circle to represent it, it wasn’t even always defined by the color red. The bright color red has been, however, long since symbolic of the sun, so it’s unsurprising that at some point the two symbols came together. No one knows who to credit for its design as a symbol to represent the emperor, but it seems this started in the Sengoku period, same time Yoriichi and his mother Akeno were around in the 15th, 16th centuries or so (but hard to say). The imperial use is due to the Shinto mythology that the emperor is descended from the sun goddess, Amaterasu. (I’ve have heard some KnY theorists posit that certain characters represent different gods in the Shinto pantheon and that Yoriichi represents Amaterasu (who indeed has historical male representations), but I don’t buy into those theories.)

While’s it’s not to say Amaterasu couldn’t be beseeched for healing a deaf child, she doesn’t strike me as the first goddess you’d go to for help with that, so I had originally suspected Akeno might have been more of a practicing Buddhist seeking the help of Dainichi-nyorai (the Buddha that represents the sun, if we put it very simply), or that she might had been a follower of the Nichiren sect, which embraced syncretism with Shintoism and used the “Nichi” (sun) symbolism pretty heavy-handedly (that sect tended to encourage a devout following of women, too). That’s as far as I find relevant to read into this side of things, though, for a look at Akeno’s altar shows us a round mirror often used in Shinto worship (some scholars suspect the round shape represents the sun, too, but it’s not at all limited to being a sacred item to represent sun-related deities). However, religion is and always has been complicated, and Akeno may have been a follower of any pure or blended strain of Shintoism and/or Buddhism.

Tl;dr: Akeno has a profound faith in some kind of sun deity.

After all, Yoriichi says this very plainly on this page in Chapter 186, “My mother was a person of very deep faith.” In addition to her daily prayers for peace, she made the earrings for Yoriichi praying that the “god of sunlight” may shine on and warm his unhearing ears. We have no further definition of this “god of sunlight,” so it could be Amaterasu, Dainichi-nyorai, any possible unnamed sunlight god she might have had faith in (Gotouge tends to borrow heavily from a lot of different religious traditions without narrowing them too far into any particular sect or strain). We may not be meant to read this in such detailed historical context as Amaterasu because it is left so ambiguous, but the art representing the sun is pretty ubiquitous throughout Japanese culture by that period.

And would you look at that, little Michikatsu and Yoriichi were playing a card game! Hmm, I wonder what? While I cannot claim anything one way or another about how Gotouge and her editors saw it or what they may think of it being seen that way abroad, the rays inevitably make it seem similar to the 16-ray naval flag, and the earlier color illustrations did have red lines. However, at some point the design settled into using 11 thin black lines only, with an emphasis in Gotouge’s character design notes (from the first fanbook) on the pooling thickness at the ends of the lines. This feels to me a bit like inky brushstrokes, and there is also design emphasis on the thick lines at the tops and bottoms of the earrings. These details, as well as the notes (cropped out of the image below) about the movement and weight of the earrings around Tanjiro’s face make them seem to have the thickness of light cardboard, which altogether makes them very similar to Hanafuda cards. Most specifically, doesn’t it look like this card featuring pampas grass and the moon?

While Hanafuda does literally mean “flower cards” and there are designs grouped around certain themes (even if the theme itself isn’t a flower, the design will typically incorporate a plant), I feel fairly confident saying the design of Yoriichi’s earrings is not a flower, and indeed the sun.

Primarily because these earrings aren’t Hanafuda cards! Hanafuda technically didn’t exist until after Yoriichi’s time, and was adapted from a Portuguese card game. Said game was initially illegalized at the same time Christianity was illegalized, but the Edo public loved their card games, and reinvented it every time some previous version was outlawed for its use in gambling. Even today, there are many, many different versions or reiterations of Hanafuda under the same or different names. I have never played though, and will not attempt to explain it. ^0^;; (I have cousins who grew up playing the Hawaiian version, though.) It was finally legalized in the Meiji period, and the first fanbook even lists this as one of Zenitsu’s favorite games.

By the Taisho period anyone would had been familiar with it, leading Muzan to describe Tanjiro to Yahaba and Susamaru as “the demon hunter who wears earrings that look like Hanafuda cards.”

While my research didn’t take me this far, I’m willing to bet card games with similar illustrations existed far prior to Hanafuda, and whether or not Akeno would had been influenced by them is anyone’s guess. But as she made them as religious items, that still makes them not game cards. I do assume she used high quality washi paper though, the finest she could afford as the wife of a high-ranking samurai. Good washi is strong enough to last for centuries, and even used to be used for making clothing because it’s so durable. But it’s also lightweight, she wouldn’t want to weigh Yoriichi’s little ears with precious metals or anything like that, I believe!

This all being said, I have most certainly noticed a trend of actual Hanafuda cards being used in accessories, everything from earrings to necklaces to charms to hang on facemasks to manicures. The only time I’ve seen this sun design has been in clear reference to Kimetsu no Yaiba, though!

This went in a lot of different directions, Anon, but I hope that clears things up about the sun and Hanafuda connections more than it clouds everything in unnecessary details. XD

[mikauzoran]

Mikau Draws Tissue Boxes and Fruit

Hi everyone! Long time no see. I’ve been doing a lot of drawing during my holiday from writing, but I haven’t felt like touching my laptop because I’m so burnt out, so I’m only posting about it now. The drawings above are a little old at this point, but I want to keep a record of my progress, so I’m posting about them now.

At top left, I tried to draw the Pisces glass from my zodiac set. I got it at a rummage sale over a decade ago because the designs (not pictured here because I’m not capable of that kind of detail yet) were really neat. It was really hard to draw glass because of the way it distorts. I tried my hand at shading too, and I think it looks so-so. I haven’t learned shading yet, so I have no clue what I’m doing. ^.^;

Next, I drew a tissue box, and I think it looks pretty okay. My lines are fairly straight for doing it all freehand, so I’m fairly happy with it. I’m excited for when I learn perspective so that I can make it look more realistic.

In the middle, I drew two views of the same banana. I like the bottom half of the first one and the top half of the second one. ^.^; This was a lot harder than I expected, honestly. I think I could draw a banana from my imagination without much difficulty, but it’s hard to actually look at what’s in front of you and draw that specific banana.

After the bananas, I drew another tissue box. My mum has a few different tissue box covers, and this is one of them. I really like the large ceramic flower just off center. The petals were a challenge, but I got almost all of them in there, and I’m proud of how this turned out.

Next, I drew my magnum opus to date at the time: the pineapple. It was a pain in the butt to do all of those little segments on the body of the pineapple. I wasn’t happy with how they turned out, so I did another version the next day. You’ll get to see that in my next drawing post. The stem was hard too, but I really like how it turned out. I’m very proud of my first pineapple attempt. XD

Last, I drew three strawberries of various sizes. Below is a close up with the strawberries rotated so you can see them better. I didn’t have enough room for them in a horizontal orientation, so I had to turn my paper vertical when I drew them. I’m trying to move towards drawing multiple objects at once, so doing three strawberries was good practice. It further drove home that the mental image I have of “strawberry” isn’t what real strawberries actually look like. I would have drawn them differently had I done it from my imagination.

Below is a picture of some of the objects from my drawings. From left to right we have the pineapple, the tissue box with the cover with the ceramic flower on the front, and my Pisces zodiac glass.

As a bonus, here are two images of various drawing exercises I’ve been doing. I got a few different books on drawing from the library, and that’s where I got the exercises.

This first one includes exercises in mark-making, line, shapes, and shading. The shading section is kind of embarrassing. XD I was supposed to make a sphere with the outer edges shaded dark getting progressively lighter as I neared the center. 

I’m a little proud of this because you can see in my first attempt that I had no idea what I was doing, but my attempts got a little better until my tenth attempt yielded something that looked more like what I was trying to do. At around attempt six, I was despairing about how I would never learn shading. It felt impossible, and I couldn’t figure it out, but then it suddenly got better. I’m proud that I was able to make progress.

Below, I did exercises that focused on making three dimensional shapes like cubes and cylinders. Then there was more shading which I still have no clue how to do. Oh, well. I’ll get there eventually. We’ll be covering shading in the art class I’m taking, so I’ll get better soon once someone shows me how to do it correctly.

Side note: I’m really happy with my Campbell’s soup can à la Andy Warhol in the bottom left corner. ^.^

Thanks for reading!

[hedgethemaze]

It's QUEEN ASAMI HOUR! All #s character meme plz!!💓

More like hourS, I spent all morning and afternoon answerring this 😅 (gladly, btw)

Before hand, thank u gray face, for asking about my girl Asami 💖 I may be getting used to referring to her as a Queen actually XD

Alright

Buckle-up, this is gonna be long!

1. If professional car racing were a thing in the avatarverse, you can bet your a$$ she would be involved. Asami is one of the first people to endorse it as a sport. Helping it spread around the globe, designing race tracks and stuff. Most likely she would sponsor racers from RC, yet she’d be no stranger to racing herself (not professionally, though)

2. She tends to be unfairly unkind to herself :/ (not all the time, but the scales lean to this more often than not), too focused on others' wellbeing that she neglects her own needs and wants...saddest thing is, this headcanon rings too much like ‘canon’ to my liking 😭

3. Although she has her own speed boat, Asami grows fond of sailing. It's a new kind of unwinding for her. With three elements down (earth/ground, air/sky and water/tides) and given you can't drive anything on fire, she should be called 'rider of all the elements' xD

4. I wouldn’t count Asami’s relationship with Kuvira as neutral (yet), at least for me, it would take more than the events of ROTE for her to mellow out toward the person that killed her father.

While Asami is no grudge-holder (not a big one anyways), I'm just following the guidelines “to spite canon, especifically”

5. Asami knows Kali/Eskrima (LOK fans would know it as the Lieutenant's  fighting style😱) and favors the baton and sticks. Any edged weapon is a heavy no. Mainly, she used to practice it as physical training to keep her body and muscles sharp. But because of the emphasis on the usage of weapons, she prefers not to use it in actual combat.

Legend says Korra once saw her practice on a wooden dummy (no weapons involved) and she fainted...after gawking like a blushing fool, ofc lol

Although, ever since coming to live on Air Temple Island, she has stoped doing it almost entiredly (it feels awkaward and like this kind of art doesn't belong in air nomad grounds) muscle memory is a thing of wonder. Give her some kali sticks and she'd mop the floor with anyone that challenged her to a round or two. My bet would be Bolin - if he caught wind of this, he would totally want Asami to put her money where her mouth is and show him. 😮    

6. Had her mother not been murdered, both her parents would outwardly hold Asami’s s/o to stupidly high standars (Hiroshi rolls with this way of thinking better than his wife does, though), regardless of them being a bender or non-bender.

Inwardly though, they would accept anyone their daughter chose as her partner in life. Only ‘request’ being that they cherrish Asami the way she cherrishes them. She loves wholeheartedly, they would want nothing less for their daughter to get in return.

7. Asami has a birth mark, i.e. she was born with it...that counts as pre-canon, right? 😆

8. She and Korra eventually move out of Air Temple Island and live together in RC, somewhere equidistant to Future Industries Tower and Avatar Korra Park. They still like to go to the island for some downtime.

9. The very first night right after Kuvira’s defeat (weeks before Zhurrick’s wedding) Asami just couldn’t sleep. The events of the day; the destruction of a good chunk of the city, Hiroshi’s death, Kuvira’s spirit ray almost oblitarating Korra, too raw in her mind to get an eye shut. The only way she was able to get some rest is thanks to Korra, who offers to keep her company.

Unknowingly, the Avatar is also having trouble falling asleep, albeit for different reasons. After all those years away, and now sure of her budding feelings, Korra’s grown keen to Asami’s emotions, even the ones she doesn’t show as openly, and just wants to be there for her friend.

To their pleasant surprise, even in turmoil the other’s presence quickly becomes calming and reassuring to each other. That's the first time they share the same bed - they also fall asleep with Asami's arm wrap around Korra's middle and the latter clutching said arm's hand to her chest. And (you’d be surprised) Asami’s the only one that remembers that particular detail, the next day 😁

10.

I'm embarrassed to say...my mind is empty on this one, at the moment. I mean, it's not like there's nothing regarding Asami that can be changed as far as 'canon' goes...it's just, I'm not 100% sure the stuff I could come up with to make up for it are the things that should have happened (hope that made sense, sorry!🙏) 

11. Mako doesn’t think Asami can lift Korra bridal-style...

Bumi and Varrick think she doesn’t like animals - and while she’s not the greatest animal lover, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t enjoy the company of a few... *spoiler* she loves Naga

12. Speaking of Naga. There’s a brief moment in their early romantic relationship where Asami thinks Naga wants to eat her alive the closer she gets to Korra (looking at it as the pet being territorial) when in truth, Asami’s become Naga’s second favorite human being because of how happy Korra gets whenever she’s around her 🥰 The polar bear dog just wants to lick her whole face as a sign of affection.

13. It’s a three-way-tie between crossing the spirit portal with Korra hand in hand, their first kiss in the spirit world and the first time they said ‘I love you’ to each other.

You can assume my favorite comic is Turf Wars and you’d be correct:

14. Korra collapsing after the battle with Zaheer, and falling out of consciousness in Tonraq's arms. Her mecha-battle with Hiroshi. 

15. If I tell you then it wouldn't be a secret now, would it? But it involves an OC of my creation that will remain in the unknown for confidential reasons (how's that for a secret?)

16. Do I even have to say it?

17-18. There's no way for me to answer that regarding Asami, honestly 😐

19. Since the last numbers were basically about my otp, here are my notp's

Asami x Kuvira - I don't think I need to explain this one 🙄😒

Asami x Iroh - Indifference most of all. I mean, I sure hope there's more of a reason besides the visual aesthetic to why some ship them. I just don't care about finding out.