#but i didn't know which drawings were their most accurate character references

[zivazivc]

@felsicveins headcanon about your guys be upon ye

[wakebymoonsleepbysun]

Untitled Caine x GN!Reader oneshot because why not

EDIT: A more polished version of this is now on ao3!!

After writing something close to 20k words of Stereo Souls this week I needed a quick break, and came up with this while half asleep and feeling mopey. It's self-indulgent so if you find yourself thinking "He would not fucking say that" then yeah, you're probably right but eh, this isn't a Caine character study. 🤣

If I ever think of a title and edit this I might put this on ao3 cuz again whynot.

(Sidenote: Yes, the reader appearance is based on the TADC sona I designed for myself. At the time I referred to the sona with she/her pronouns because I didn't mean for it to be anything other than a drawing of my own sona. But I assure you this reader is gender neutral despite sharing a design with a she/her character.)

Word count: ~1700

You’ve lost track of how long you’ve been stuck in the Digital Circus. You think the time is best measured in months, not years, but Jax has suggested otherwise a couple times. But you can’t always tell when Jax is lying to upset you, or telling the truth to upset you.

You try not to be upset at all.

Easier said than done in this place, most of the time.

Caine makes it easier, though you seem to be in the minority with that opinion. His games can be irritating sometimes, but you sense he is trying to make them fun…and the banquets and parties he throws for you and your cohorts afterwards are usually nice.

You think he’s improving, but every time you mention that possibility Jax lets out a cough that usually sounds suspiciously like “Stockholm”. 

It is after such a party you’ve slipped out of the tent to wander the grounds on your own for a bit. The sun has gone away for now. You don’t think describing it as having “set” is accurate, but in any case, the grounds are bathed in the bluish glow of nighttime. The moon herself seems to have dozed off in her perch among the chalk stars, so she pays you no mind.

Like the other humans (or perhaps former humans) here, you were given a new form when you arrived. From a distance, you could be mistaken as one of the more humanoid characters, but up close that illusion falls apart. You’re essentially an animated pile of clothing. A hoodie, with the always up hood serving as your head and cartoony, ever malleable and expressive pair of thick glasses serving as your eyes. Your legs are a pair of jeans, the bottoms of which rest on the ground like a floppy pair of feet.

When you’d first caught a glimpse of yourself in a mirror, you’d thought you were invisible…but there’s no invisible body beneath your garments--the garments are you. 

You don’t remember your past life--nobody here does. But you know bits of it, and you feel like in some ways you know yourself. Somehow the idea of you being invisible, faceless, nondescript and barely noticeable feels…Well, it feels like a predictable outcome in many ways. As much as predictable outcomes exist in the Digital Circus, anyway.

The others all seem to have something pulling them back to the human world, even if they don’t always know what it is. Jax less so, and Kinger seems to forget the pull just as much you’ve all forgotten what’s pulling you, but it’s there all the same.

Less so for you though.

You just can’t help but feel…you don’t have much to go back to.

Your moping is interrupted--as it often is--but the sudden appearance of two large eyes immediately in front of you. Green and blue.

“Hello there! I was wondering where you’d gone off to,” Caine says, floating back a pace so his eyes aren’t dominating your visual field.

“Oh, uh, hi Caine,” you say, lifting a floppy sleeve in an imitation of a wave.

“What’s gotcha so blue, pal? Aside from the obvious,” he says, gesturing at the artificially blue lighting around you two.

You let out a little laugh at the joke, wringing your sleeves together. “O-Oh nothing, Caine…” you say.

He’s quiet a moment, then lets out a thoughtful hum. “Hmmmmmmmm?” he muses. His eyes stay in place while his mouth and body rotate around them until he’s upside-down. “Nothing?” he repeats, a layer of dubiousness making itself known beneath his usually pompous tone.

“N-Nothing you need to worry about…” you correct.

Caine abruptly rights himself, giving the top of your hood a gentle tap with his baton, causing your hood--your head--to deflate slightly. 

“Nonsense!” he cries as you try to push your hood back into a head-like shape. “As ringmaster I am in charge of ensuring all characters maintain their happiness and sanity!” he cries, his irises “closing” into little crescents…which is about as close as he can get to closing his eyes.

At your silence, his eyes open again and he floats downward, leaning in close. “Is it because Bubble didn’t save you guys any angel food cake? I told that little parasite--”

“It isn’t that!” you say quickly, holding up your sleeves and quickly shaking your hood.

“Oh. Excellent!” he chirps. For a moment, you hope the tangent had distracted him, but you realize he’s still looking at you expectantly.

“I was uh…just um…thinking about the human world, I guess…” you admit, one of your sleeves rubbing the other nervously.

“Ahhh yes, that whole affair,” Caine says, his tone both pompous and commiserating. He floats down to join you on the ground and begins walking beside you. “I do apologize for how long the Exit Door is taking. I do still have some new ideas I--”

“I’m not worried about the Exit Door, Caine,” you say. He’s talked about making one before, and you’re told when Pomni arrived, he’d come up with something pretty convincing. But it was no real exit. None of you are sure if his “Exit Door” talk is just another game, some new level he’s designing that he thinks will delight all of you indefinitely, or if he truly is trying to help you find a way out.

Most of the time you’re not sure if Caine even knows.

“Oh?” he asks curiously. “Everyone else is.”

“Well…I’m not not worried about it…” you amend.

One side of his upper teeth raises in an approximation of a quirked brow. “But you just said--”

“I-I mean…I’m worried about it in general I guess, but not right this second,” you clarify quickly.

“Ah. I see,” he says with a small nod. Once again he looks at you expectantly.

“Can I ask you something?”

Caine’s mouth tilts to one side curiously, but after a moment he cries “Certainly!” in his usual showman tone.

“Do you…have any data on who we used to be? Even…what we looked like?” you ask.

“Afraid not, friend!” he declares easily. “In fact, I don’t even know what humans look like!”

You falter slightly, glancing over him in surprise. “Not at all?”

“Not at all!” he says with a grand sweep of his arm. “Think about it. When would I have ever seen a human?”

“I…I suppose…” you say.

“I have inferred some things though!” he declares, raising one finger and puffing his chest as he walks. “Ragatha is the closest. Pomni being a close second. And you being…” He stops walking, one hand scratching his chin. “Perhaps a distant third?” he asks tentatively, as if he’s truly not sure.

You’re not entirely sure either. If Jax’s ears didn’t make him resemble a rabbit more than a human, one could make the case that he’s more “human” than you by virtue of having a solid shape and an actual face.

But you simply shrug and dip your hood in a nod. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“Good!” he chirps easily, taking a couple quick steps to catch up to you and once again fall into step beside you. “But why do you ask?”

You don’t think he’s going to stop prodding until you tell him. Or until he decides you need a new adventure to take your mind off of it. Though even after you tell him, he might still think you need an adventure. But either way, it seems your only chance at a peaceful evening is to just tell Caine what’s on your mind.

Still, that’s a bit easier said than done.

“I-It’s just…I don’t really remember specifics about my life…”

“Nobody does!” he chirps.

“Right,” you continue, not particularly phased by the interruption. “It’s…hard to explain, but…s-sometimes…when I look in the mirror and don’t have a face--a real face…it’s…almost a relief?” you say, glancing up at him.

Caine simply stares at you in silence, waiting for you to continue.

“I-I just…feel like…there was something in the mirror I…didn’t like seeing…but I don’t know why…”

One side of his upper jaw raises slightly in a curious expression. “Do you mean in a physical sense? Or more metaphorical?” he asks.

You glance over at him in surprise. You hadn’t expected such an insightful question. If anything, you’d assumed he’d take it literally--that you just didn’t like your human face. Nothing deeper than that.

But even you don’t know if it’s deeper than that.

“I don’t know,” you say. “I don’t remember clearly enough. It’s…just…an impression of how I used to feel, I guess.”

“Hmmmm…” he hums, his fingers drumming on the gums below his lower row of teeth. “Well, good buddy, I’m afraid I can’t help with that.”

You’d give a small, good-natured smile if you could, but you can’t, so you simply flop your arms in a mild shrug. “I didn’t think so. That’s why I didn’t want to bother you with it.”

“Bother? Hardly a bother!” Caine cries cheerfully. “Your happiness and sanity are my priority!” he declares, placing a fist against his chest and puffing up proudly.

“W-Well..thanks for um…checking in on me anyway,” you say, wringing your sleeves together awkwardly.

He lifts off the ground again, hovering in front of you. He lays horizontally, his hands folded under his lower jaw. “For what it’s worth though, friend…If you had a face, I’d sure be happy to see it!” he says, poking the bridge of your glasses with one finger.

You sputter in surprise at the remark, and the little touch. He…he surely meant both in the most innocent, innocuous way possible…right?

Caine’s irises close into happy crescents as he rights himself, taking your sleeves in his hands. “Feeling better?” he asks, and you think you hear some genuine warmth in his tone.

Your hood flops forward in a nod. “Y-Yes…thank you.”

“Good!” he crows happily. “Ready to head back? There’s a mousse pie with your name on it!” he grins. Then he pauses, tapping his chin with one finger. “Which I maaaaay mean literally, if that’s your fancy!”

You laugh softly. “Figuratively is fine.”

“Ah, good. Keeps things simple!” he says. He lowers himself to the ground again, and to your surprise, holds out his elbow for you. “Shall we head back, then?”

You’re surprised at the little gesture. You feel your glasses fogging up a bit but quickly lower your hood, trying not to draw attention to it. “S-Sure…” you say, looping your sleeves around his arm.

Life in the circus…isn’t terrible, you decide.

[sc-intothedarknightofthesoul]

Kasta for the OC Bingo! ❤️

No bingos here, but I am excited to talk about me OCs.

And let me tell you, Kasta has a long history, they lived long enough to see DeviantArt at its peak before its fall into utter misery (but they're not the oldest, that title goes to my Clone Wars OC I made when I was 10 or 11, who was supposed to be a secret relative of Obi-Wan Kenobi).

They went through many identities and...well, Phoenix moments (totally not a reference to my Pluto 1st House placement in my Astrology birth chart), before I eventually reshaped them into a serious Soul Calibur OC.

But to make a long heckin' story short, I often mention that they were my internet persona for the longest time.

What I did not mention (or maybe I did and I just forgot) is that I originally created them in TERA Online, a Korean MMO my sister got me to play when we were teenagers. Their name is originally a play-on-word of the Castanic, a playable horned race from the game. Yes, it's also where their horns come from, but the reason why they're moon-shaped is because the horns from this game are hard to draw and I have a habit of simplifying designs in my art (kind of the reason why I was able to get away with drawing Grøh and Azwel multiple times with my wrist intact, but I digress).

I've recently learned that their name (Kasta or Nik) could mean many things that I didn't know I accurately portrayed until I looked it up.

Kasta (or Casta) means "pure/modest one" in many cultures and sometimes refers to one with a shy and sensitive nature, but is also quick-minded and full of wisdom.

Nik is short for Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory, which is also where the name Nicholas comes from and has associations with the greater public, hence "the triumph of the people." On the other hand, Nik is also short for nick, which is British slang for "to trick, cheat, or steal," which is funny considering there are instances in Libra of Soul where The Conduit steals something or goes full on tomb raiding.

It's also the fact that its my username on my main blog and has been my username for a long time, and how people in-universe also refer to Kasta as Nik comes from the fact that an old friend on Discord often referred to me as Nik and it sounded cool.

As I suggested in my fanfic adaptation, they don't care which name you refer to them as, just as long as you don't make it weird.

As you can guess, yes I admit, Kasta's a hard to write character to write. Shocking *lightning cracks in the background.* That ties in with the fact that I put a lot of myself in them (most of my crazy childhood that I'm able to share without going into TMI territory, the even crazier dreams I have when I fall asleep, the fact that Kasta also falls under the non-binary umbrella, etc) and that they're the one character that's been with me through thick and thin.

Sometimes, I get too excited about a character I'm creating that I put in a lot of details about them all at once that it either becomes too contradictory, they take too much away from the main cast or other OCs, or they get accused of being a Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu (and as much as I act like Mary-Sue/Gary-Stus don't really exist because different people interpret characters differently or beauty lies in the eye of the beholder or something like that, the vindictiveness and bloodshed I've witnessed on DeviantArt did exist, and it still somewhat terrifies me to this day to even cross that kind of threshold).

So yeah, not only is it a balancing act for me to write Kasta, it's also a major responsibility for me to uphold considering they're the main character in my fic and that they are also my canon Conduit in the Libra of Soul game mode (among getting the characterization of everybody else in the story right).

But just as much as they are the absolute worst (endearingly), I still love writing them.

Also, let's not forget the fact that Kasta, as a Soul Calibur OC, went through SO. MANY. DESIGN. CHANGES!

When it comes to fanart, I don't care if you're an experienced artist or just starting out, as long as it's not made through an AI generator, I keep the fanart made for my OCs to cherish them for the rest of my days.

[liauditore]

hi!! i just wanted to say i absolutely adore your art :3 recently you drew bigb and while im incredibly happy more people are drawing him (and quite gorgeously may i add), a few of his features were slighly misrepresented (sorry im really bad w words)? black people/poc have light palms which he wasn't drawn with, and his hair was depicted as straight/wavy when he has tighter coils and curly hair. i know you didn't mean any harm and didn't do this intentionally and i'm not trying to be rude or mean or condescending at all, but i thought maybe you should know? ty <3

Hi anon! Thank you for wording this kindly, I hope this response comes off just as well. I've been putting alot of thought into my bigb design because black features are kind of a difficult thing to translate into the style I envision (or at least, severely lacking reference), so some background first:

I'm making these designs with some level of animation-friendliness in mind (for the sake of The Project), which means details like the colour transition on his palms would just be one more floating detail to keep track of that I ended thinking was unimportant enough to leave out. I'm unaware if this is something people find uncanny(?) so if I could get some more opinions on if this is like. something that bothers people I'll happily change this.

re: the hair I had a lot of trouble finding reference for black hair. most black anime characters have either shaved heads or some variant on dreads, which didn't quite fit what I had in mind for bigb (turns out alot of black anime guys just look like.. the same guy). I wanted to get something "fluffier" which does not help the animation aspect of things but I'm stubborn, but I suppose the way I simplified it might make it look straighter than I intended? Here's some of the reference I was looking at:

Also inspired by this guy from detective conan, who isn't black but it looked "textured" enough for me to feel right using it as ref:

I have drawn bigb in the past with more ig read-able textured hair but 1. I was scared of the potential complexity in animating these and 2. both of these are relatively realistic compared to at least the other shorter hairstyles I've drawn and it felt kinda weird to treat bigb differently just because he's black? Idk I felt like he needed some level of anime hair weirdness. But unfortunately I think that made it harder to translate what I wanted to convey :'D

Hope this doesn't come off as like. Me finding excuses. I'm more trying to explain my thought process in trying to seek further feedback because this is something I've looked into fairly extensively and it's difficult trying to find that balance between portraying black features accurately and keeping him in the same style as everyone else if that makes sense? I usually only take feedback from others I trust but if anyone has any thoughts regarding this I'm happy to hear them out 👍

[basket-of-loquats]

do you have any tips for drawing people? if not that okay! :D

oh geez i am far from an expert!! I feel like every time anyone asks me for drawing advice i always just say "look at reference pics and practice" but like it's so true... im entirely self taught so reference pics are the only sort of thing ive ever relied on, idk any fancy techniques or proportions or anything!! i'll try to think of something less basic tho fjhdasgjfasgh

tip 1: understand the flow and keep it loose! i personally get trapped in the nitty gritty details so easily so one thing im trying to practice is to keep sketches loose and flowy! otherwise the pose will look stiff and unnatural.

these were my sketching steps for my most recent namseok piece. as you can see the first one is the barest of the bare, literally just me trying to understand what the flow of the characters might look like. the next sketch works to retain that flow while still fleshing out the actual forms! i changed namjoon's flow considerably which is all part of the process of not taking anything too seriously and not being afraid to change things up.

tip 2: anatomy!! you don't Always have to draw the anatomy beneath clothes tbh depending on what you're going far or what clothes you're drawing BUT in this case with these unfamiliar poses and form-clinging clothes i knew i had to trace out some anatomy beforehand! obviously neither of them are that accurate, firstly because i didn't have a ref pic for them bc this was just a sketch piece that i wasn't letting myself get too serious about, and secondly because again this Is just one sketch layer and so i'm still not getting too bogged down in details! things like hands i still kept loose and open, while things like eh,,, legs and feet,,, you can see i struggled with more to keep that loose vibe. i'll practice more :))) in any case knowing the anatomy of a form is essential to drawing anything, but humans especially!!! before you dress them up make sure the parts all look right lol

tip 3: don't be afraid to experiment! human bodies can do some weird poses and things that you might think would look unnatural might actually work! I find this is super true with things like hands.

neither of their poses are super common or natural or things you'd see a human do irl but they still came out okay! again i didn't have a ref for this piece so it was definitely experimental and i had to draw their poses a couple times to get that flow down right, esp namjoon who has a relatively stiff pose but i still wanted it to look light and floaty! Namjoon's right hand is also in a pose that doesn't come very naturally and might not be accurate to what his hand would Actually be doing in this pose but it still looks good and was more fun to draw!

here's another example of this sort of "go with the flow" mindset! i didn't have a ref for this one either but after lots of experimenting with hoseok's hands placements i found this flowy maybe less than accurate one that i really liked!

idk if any of this makes sense or is helpful but they're just thinks i'm actively trying to keep in mind these days when i draw humans. thanks for the ask!

[mellythedork]

How in the ever-loving gourd has it been ten years? Time is an illusion that I stopped seeing ages ago.

10 years ago, at the tail end of 2013, I had a huge, friendship-ending fight that shattered me. In an attempt to keep myself together, I hid behind a character and wrote the most self-indulgent crossover fic I'd ever concocted. After 5 years, 2 rewrites, too many OCs to count, magic mechanics I didn't think through, and conversations with my former best friend about what had happened, I finally let that fic rest. I knew that if I tried to continue it, I'd never move on, as the very basis of it was focused on that fight.

But it was still such a colossal part of my life. 5 years to spend on a project is no laughing matter, and it felt like it was the only trustworthy constant as I struggled to make my way through everything going on around me. It invaded RPs with friends and basically everything I did...and that wasn't always a good thing. It was a coping mechanism that went too far, but I still cherished it so much.

Things never got anywhere near back to how they had been before that fight. But I learned a lot about myself and how to better handle problems I hadn't realized I was creating. I feel like being forced to think about it while writing the original Mooniverse helped me come to terms with it and move on--which was, of course, the intention all along! But it came to a point where I knew it had to end.

There was never any rhyme or reason to that fic, in any version of it. I wrote it purely to have fun and go wild. It's so odd looking back at the chapters now; I keep laughing at how things went without direction. But it was pure and adorable and I'll always look back at it fondly...beyond the cringing at how much I shoved it in my friends' faces.

For…I was going to say over a year, but I feel like 2 would be more accurate. For about 2 years now, I've struggled to create anything. Both art and writing have felt impossible. I burned out on most of my personal projects without realizing it until last month, but that realization took a weight off of me. And without that weight, as I realized the anniversary that was coming up, I was able to create something on nothing but a whim and enjoy it again.

My art block certainly isn't gone, and nothing about this is what I'd consider perfect. It's not even finished. But I set the sketch as my goal, trying to keep the pressure low, in hopes that I'd be able to post it at all. I do want to touch it up and finish it one day, but I'm not going to worry about that now.

I have been a bit inspired, though! I want to do more things like this. Like the original Mooniverse Melodia and the final one standing side by side here, I want to pull together more OCs with such connections and growth and see how far they've come. I don't know how much of that I'll accomplish, but it's been fun to think about for sure.

I hope everyone's holidays have gone well and that your plans for the new year are fulfilling. I think this year is going to go a lot better for me than the last.

--

From left to right we have: The original Annie along with the final Annie (Of course they'd be friends!)

The final Melodia (with slight modifications to her outfit in order to make a bit more sense; ditto to her bangs. Seriously, what was I thinking when I made that mess?? lol)

The middle-ground Moon (as I no longer have the design for the original, but wanted to include her)

The final Hope (in one of her alternate outfits)

The original Melodia (I didn't think I had any references left of her, but after about 2 hours of searching, I gave up only to stumble upon one by chance the next day. Sure was a surprise!)

And finally the middle-ground Myasu (just think of her & Moon as representing the first rewrite!)

-- I knew most of my art problems were from my difficulty and dislike of drawing bodies, so to make this possible at all, I used a base.

I also very much referenced the original image, the hair of Love Live and Idolmaster characters, and self-made bases from Shugo Chara, both due to time constraints and to keep my sanity. I'm very out of practice and didn't want to get so frustrated I abandoned the drawing altogether.

[geminai-ramblez]

『REVAMP』 XOXO AU

SUMMARY: Choosing this life was not the hardest option to make, if it meant that his brother would live another day, however, what wasn't included was the ability to denounce their humanity. How could they be heroes together if they didn't understand the basics of what is like to being human...? Well, that answer is easy, no?

Hello!!! It's me, Gemini!!! I'm back with a revamp of my XOXO AU that has been left forgotten for quite some time now! And it will follow this idea similarly but not 100% accurately.

QUICK RECAP

This AU followed the guise of Bakugou being Gyutaro and Midoriya being Daki from Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer). And it implied that demons are alive without Muzan being the progenitor. Which is very confusing, to be honest, and not my proudest accomplishment.

THE REVAMP

Now, this revamp still follows the ideology of Bakugou being similar to Gyutaro and Midoriya being similar to Daki.

Note that they will be similar to Gyutaro and Daki but not exactly like the characters.

Instead of Midoriya being sold to the Red Light District it's more of a hate crime being committed towards Midoriya for being quirkless or some bullying taken too far and Midoriya is near death's door because of it. Either Bakugou was a witness or he wasn't there to witness what was happening to Midoriya and he finds his battered body.

I'm leaning on Bakugou not being there to witness it because it would add flavor to his characterization.

Anyway, instead of meeting Dōma, trust me I don't know how he snuck into my head, either Bakugou met All for One or the Doctor that created the Nomus. This is where we get the plot points here!

PLOT POINTS

Now, for clarification, I'm gonna summarize the characterization of both Bakugou and Midoriya first before dabbling into the plot points because you'll need to know how they think/act before getting into the plot.

First Bakugou:

Bakugou's characterization in this AU was surprisingly easy, though that's because I was considering season 1 and season 6 of Bakugou's characteristics with Gyutaro.

Bakugou can be summed up into three main characteristics: sadistic, volatile, and prideful. However, that's just the tip of the iceberg of his character.

I combined Gyutaro's sadism, projection, and worry into Bakugou's character since it was the most fitting here.

I didn't want to stray too far from Bakugou's character but I also didn't want to make him like an exact version of Bakugou in the anime/manga.

So, I choose to reference Bakugou during season one as his inspiration for this AU. However, he also isn't just like season one because Gyutaro doesn't act like that either.

I know this doesn't make sense but hear me out! If you were to meet Bakugou in this AU your first impression would be intimidating, scary, and powerless since in this AU (if I haven't made it clear) Demons are alive.

Bakugou's looks are similar to his fantasy AU design, however, he would have four pairs of horns, black scleras, almost a kitsune makeup look, black wing eyeliner, and a black high-neck tank top. (Though I'm not sure if that's what the type of shirt would be called. I'm not very versed in clothing so don't come after me. :') ) which is also why I have the Fantasy AU GIF up there.

That's how I imagine he (Bakugou) would look like. (And yes, I drew that, so please DON'T steal it.

Midoriya, on the other hand, would look more androgynous. He would have medium-length hair, an open-collar button-up shirt, and makeup inspired by an oiran minus the white-powered face.

Again, this is how I imagine this AU's Midoriya would look. I did draw this; PLEASE DO NOT steal this.

His personality wouldn't be like a brat (unlike Daki) but more or so on the lines of childish.

He would definitely be manipulative and try to make you relax and lower your guard before he lure you in with false promises.

Between Bakugou and Midoriya, the lesser evil here would be Bakugou because you would know you would be gone because of how rough and bloodthirsty he would be.

Midoriya, on the other hand, would mess you the fuck up. He would toy with your mind and make you question your very existence since he would deflect the blame and make it seem as if you were the problem.

Both of them wouldn't probably even let you be near their presence, and they are both very dismissive and would only use you till you longer needed for their plans.

However, I didn't mention that Bakugou and Midoriya would have a caring side, albeit for each other and no one else, because the world has clearly only shown them pride and prejudice.

But it's there - it's there somewhere underneath all of that cruelness they present to their victims.

I wouldn't say Bakugou or Midoriya have a preference on who they would - uh - devour, but Bakugou would definitely prefer people with flashier quirks to consume rather than weaker or quirkless people. Because, in his mind, the stronger and flashier quirks will give him more of a boost than those without. Yet the person is still dead either way. So.

On the other hand, oh boy - Midoriya, he would take the outcasts, luring them into a false sense of security and devour them quick and easily. He has some empathy for them since he too, was in that position, but it doesn't deteriorate his preference for them because, in Midoriya's eyes, he's doing them a favor by ending their miserable lives quick and painlessly.

Now, this leads me to their backstory! Yay!!

THE BACKSTORY

It was hard to think at what age they would turn into demons since, in the anime and manga, Midoriya and Bakugou have been shown to be deadset on being the best heroes, even at a young age.

So, I chose around 10-13 because that's the age Midoriya is set after transforming into a demon. Bakugou looks around 15-17 since he is dead set on being the older sibling here.

To further clarify, Midoriya looks to be around 13 while Bakugou looks to be 15 or 16 to lure and confuse their opponents about their true nature.

This leaves me with 'how are demons alive?'

Easy, the Doctor, Mr. Garaki.

I wouldn't be sure where they met or how they came across each other but the Doctor will be the one to make the offer to Bakugou about being part of an experiment that (if it goes right) will heal Midoriya and, in turn, make Bakugou much more stronger, and much more capable in protecting Midoriya.

Garaki would have to word his motives carefully since Bakugou would be able to tell about there being another motive behind the offer.

In the end, whether Bakugou figures it out or not, it doesn't change that he takes the offer up because there wouldn't be any other way to save Midoriya in the state he's currently in. Which is a critical danger.

They take up different names because after transforming into demons, they don't remember anything.

They remember something about justice, how they only had each other, and the cruelty inflicted upon them.

Which in turn, makes them mad, envious, and disoriented about who they are, what they are, and where they were before meeting 'Sensei' and 'The Doctor.'

They have an odd─and sick─way of justifying their crimes.

Their end goal is to make the world a better place. To have the strong and weak co-living with each other. Idealistic? Definitely. Unreachable? Not exactly.

Transforming into demons doesn't automatically make Midoriya and Bakugou loyal to Sensei and The Doctor. They've seen what the Doctor and Sensei have done and how far they took their actions to make their end goal a reality. Kinda hypocritical if you ask me.

And their actions don't correspond with Bakugou and Midoriya's ideal world, so, they make a plan behind their backs to take them down.

This is definitely shorter than my other AU's, but I didn't want to make this post longer than it should be. (Cough, Puppet AU, cough).

Also, the amount of times I accidentally posted this while I was trying to keep it in my drafts has frustrated me enough times to just cut it to where we are now.

So, this is part one out of (I don't know yet!)

The next post will be about the actual plot rather than just characterization. So, be on the lookout! Thank you, and goodbye!

[livesinthebalance]

GENERAL TO SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE BACK

IN REFERENCE TO ABIGAIL "ABBY" DEKKER'S IMPLANT FOR HER BACK…

I have done a fair amount of research for myself and for my characters on this topic, but I am by no means an expert on backs or on paralyzing injuries. I know only what I have researched and what I have learned from those who do have working and everyday knowledge. I will try to portray this injury well both prior to the implant and afterwards—as threads demand—as accurately as possible. If I am inaccurate in something, please feel free to let me know and I will make the necessary corrections.

Now, to start, Abby's injury was at the lower part of her lumbar vertabrae, around the L4-L5 section, which largely prevented her from walking without the constant use of tools to aid her, until such time as she received the implant, after which she had to do a great deal of physical therapy to rebuild the muscles and regain her coordination and mobility—insomuch as she could.

This is what the implant looks like internally on her spine.

Most of the implant itself is not visible but part of it is above the skin. This is likely the access point where components would be replaced when it was necessary for general upkeep—short of things that would require major surgery like the sections along the bones themselves and at the spinal cord.

Due to both the way the implant is set and the fact that it was experimental at the time, there are issues with it, among them:

1) It created a limited range of movement with its design, at least where the lowest sections of her spine are concerned. You will not see her twist too much. You'll usually see her completely turn her body instead. She can also only bend forward or backward to a certain point.

2) The purpose of the design was both to reinforce the spine itself after the injury, as well as to convey the signals from the brain past the incomplete spinal cord injury, almost acting as a bridge—which is where the inner section of the device that I didn't draw would come into play.

3) That said, though it accomplished the main goal of allowing her to walk and resume other such functions that were difficult to impossible due to the injury, it did not solve everything. She can walk. She no longer needs a catheter or anything of that nature. Anything else on that list for the lower sections of the spine are functional again because the signals are conveyed. There are flaws with it, however, up to and including how quickly and how precisely the messages travel around the damaged nerves. As a result, she is clumsy and will trip over her own feet, sometimes over air, sometimes misjudged steps/mis-relayed messages. You will not likely see her running [ short of emergency ] or dancing or anything like that [ unless she has simply already resigned herself to the fact that she is going to fall ]. Feeling is also not 100% in her feet/lower legs, almost like someone with neuropathy. She is at least happy that she can [ mostly ] work the pedals on a piano again [ an organ, however, would be very unlikely due to the amount of precise footwork required to do so ] .

4) She does deal with pain/nerve pain. Some days are fairly minor, what would typically just be considered soreness or stiffness. Then, though they are fairly rare, there are days that the pain makes it difficult to impossible to get out of bed, and it leaves her actually holding her breath until whatever spike or spasm passes, until the next one. On those days, her business partner and friend [ I am considering the partner being an omnic ] handles all of the business at their shop—as well as venturing upstairs to check on her occasionally.

5) Random facts: while it is not very obtrusive, she tends not to lay on her back as it is uncomfortable, she often pivots in solid back chairs when possible so her back is not flat against it, and she tends to shy away from anyone touching anywhere below the natural waistline. Again, she is almost never seen NOT in layers to hide both the implant and the lights that show it is functioning properly.

[lackenthusiasm]

NAME ETYMOLOGY

I saw a post once, a while back, that claimed Norm's first name has roots in Christianity and Judaism as a biblical name that means "sincere," but while I tried to research this further, I only found one website that makes this statement and offers no sources to back up its claims. I decided to go do my own research instead. My info comes mainly from behindthename, so may not be 100% accurate but should fall within a reasonable degree of correctness.

The name Norman comes from a Germanic byname meaning "Northman", "Man of the North," and was used in reference to the Scandinavians. The Normans were Vikings who settled on the coast of France in the region that would come to be known as Normandy.

Following the Norman Conquest, in which the Vikings sought to expand their territory, the English began to adopt the term "Norman" into their vernacular in reference to Scandinavian barbarians. However, the term fell out of use by the 14th century with the decline and assimilation of the Scandinavians/Vikings.

The name was revived during the mid-19th century (1850s) by C.M. Yonges, who used it for a character in his novel, The Daisy Chain, and since then other prolific bearers of the name Norman have included the painter Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) and Norman Mailer (1923-2007).

MacLean as a surname has a bit of a rabbit hole attached to it, as it is an Anglicized form of the Scottish Gaelic surname MacGillEathain or MacGillEain, meaning "son of the servant of Eòin." Eòin is a Gaelic spelling of Iohannes, the Latin form of Greek Ioannes, but let's keep this simple and stick with the fact that all of these are derived from one original Biblical name: John.

John appears in use by both the Old Testament and New Testament and means "Yahweh (God) is gracious." In terms of popularity and use, John was a name more commonly used among Christians in the Byzantine Empire, but following the First Crusade it spread to Western Europe, becoming extremely popular in England as a common male name from the 13th to 20th century. To date, it is still one of the most popular baby names in existence.

As for how the name and surname affect Norm and reflect his characterization in canon, I would think that Hank MacLean being the vault overseer and his children being expected to "perpetuate america" and uphold their father's legacy in the vault draws parallel to Christianity, where there is often pressure from parents who practice religion for their children to function as an extension of oneself rather than allow them to grow and be their own individuals.

I noticed this the most significantly when Norm met Bud/Brain-On-A-Roomba. Bud refers to him only as "Son of Hank" and yes while I know this is likely because Norm didn't throw his name out there when he encountered Bud's brain, I think Bud could've accessed Vault 33 data files if he needed to, and he simply chose not to because the only value Norm has [to Vault-Tec] is due to being one of Hank's offspring.

In a more literal translation, the MacLeans are children of a servant to John, who was chosen or blessed by God in some capacity.

[plant-dad-sulu]

@surfrgeek That's an interesting point and I'm willing to give my best guess here, though it may be disappointing. Because, honestly, I do believe that the answer is not super useful to other artists trying to do the same thing. A photo for reference:

I wanted a picture with multiple people in it to point something out, and that it that while all of the characters are recognizable as their original actors, they are not necessarily accurate representations of them (especially Uhura and Scotty). They're not bad representations, but they definitely fit nicely into the style they're drawn in. Once again we can see that mccoy and spock are more accurate than the others, which is because they have very distinct faces (and Spock's ears really help too).

Kirk isn't bad either and there's a few reasons for this.

he's got all the recognizable features i mentioned in my original post. He's got the hairline, the hooded eyes, and he's even got something I didn't mention but thought about which is a slightly larger distance from his mouth to his nose than average. That last one, though, is also related to style as you can see they all have a bit of distance there

this style is MADE for young Shatner. This is the style of Flash Gordon, Bravestarr, He-Man (all three were done by Filmation), shows about men who were "manly" and "brave" and "heroic" and who had a certain look that lent itself to those qualities. There are the same visual qualities that got Shatner hired as the brave space explorer. So what we're looking at is a bridge between animation and live-action based on an agreed upon appearance of the desirable leading man. Like I said, Shatner doesn't exactly have the most distinct silhouette, so an animation style that doesn't have especially distinct silhouettes and is based around brave leading men is pretty much made for him. They can be as generic as they want so long as they have his most recognizable feaures -- hair, eyes, and, of course, his uniform

CONTEXT! The big one! The thing about the animated Kirk is that you actually CAN mistake him for anyone but Kirk, but we don't because he's in exact context. He's got the uniform, he's got Spock at his side, he's got the backgrounds that tell us we're in Star Trek space. To show you what I mean, here's animated Kirk's face photoshopped onto Flash Gordon:

Not that he really looks like Flash Gordon, but if no one told me that was Kirk's face I wouldn't know it. Without the hairline and the uniform, that's just another 70's cartoon man.

"That's not fair, he's got a different jawline" I hear you say. Okay, here he is with the jaw:

not my best work I'll grant you, but I'd never assume that was supposed to be William Shatner if I was watching Flash Gordon. The only thing that might give me pause is his nose and only because a Generic Hot Man generally isn't given a nose like that in cartoons, but it's still passable as Random Hot Guy #7

And of course I can't just not acknowledge the most important point here.

4. The cartoonists are professionals! Not only do they have the training and experience to know how to draw a recognizable character in the style they're working within, but Filmation, the studio that animated Star Trek TOS, was primarily in the business of adapting live-action into animated television, so they really knew how to turn a man into a cartoon. They know which features to keep -- hairline, broad nose tip, hooded eyes -- and which ones to swap out -- eyebrows are black instead of blond and a different, more expressive shape, only lower lips for the men, no eyeshadow at all, add a bump to his nose bridge so it appears wider than if you'd followed the actual line, and so on. But, like I said, they're working with a style that was made for men like Kirk, and when we're dealing with cartoons the feeling of the image is just as important as the accuracy. You can make it look like Shatner all you want to, but that doesn't mean it'll read as Kirk to the audience. You have to depict him with the aura of the character too, the feel of him. If that includes making his eyes narrower and less dreamy then so be it.

I also noticed in looking between the cartoon and Shatner himself that one very clever thing they did to make it Him was they included the asymmetry of his smile. You can see the dip on the lefthand side of his mouth (the viewer's righthand side) which is a nice little touch I actually didn't notice until just now.

All this to say, your Kirks are gonna vary from style to style and artist to artist. The style and artists for TAS were just very very suited to Shatner's Kirk, and it's not necessarily something that would be useful to people drawing in their own styles.

I'm going to make my own post on why shatner's kirk is hard to draw because i'm a star trek fan and an artist and work in theatre/film and am insane, so here we go

For reference:

I've seen someone say before that he's hard to draw because the lighting changes his features too much to pin him down, but that's just not true. If that was the problem then no one in any tv show would be easy to draw and let me tell you it's hard to get nimoy and kelley wrong. The actual reason, in my opinion, is all the soft edges.

A lot of people who complain about him being difficult to draw -- myself among them -- work with lineart, and one thing lineart depends on is defined features. Shatner has obvious and recognizable features, but the combination of the softness of those features with the way they've done his makeup means that drawing those features makes them feel too severe and leaving them out makes him feel like some generic Man.

His lips, for example, are clearly there, he's got really nice lips, but because they have been made up to be essentially the same colour as the rest of his face it feels wrong to the artist's brain to draw them as thick as they really are. To leave them out entirely removes a defining feature that makes this Shatner™ and that creates a sort of paradox in which nothing really looks right.

It's the same with his eyebrows. As we can see in the photo, he has decently thick eyebrows, but while they are defined at the bottom they seem to blend in with his forehead at the top. Partly this is because he's on the edge of blond and partly it's because they've got some makeup in there (foundation or possibly just powder to keep him from being shiny). So we are faced with the same issue: to draw them defined would feel wrong and to draw them thinner would make this Not Shatner.

His nose, too, has very soft edges in a way that's hard to depict with lineart without making it feel more defined than it actually is. His nose bridge is fairly broad and isn't super pronounced, and his nostrils aren't particularly defined from the tip of his nose either, so no matter what lighting you get, the shadows will tend towards softer. Same with his cheekbones and jawline -- they are undeniably There but because of the gradualness of the curves, none of them are super defined leaving the artist with the question of "do i draw this in or do i shade it in or do i leave it unshaded and let the viewer extrapolate?" It doesn't help that he tends to smile tenderly, which doesn't create sharp lines in the face and doesn't create much change to the other soft features.

The most definable and easily depicted aspects of his face, in fact, are his eyes and his hairline. He's got partially hooded eyes that are decently defined by his eyelids, both of which are nice and easy features to draw, and they settle into nice dark shadows by his nose bridge. The only place, in fact, where his nose and eyebrows casts sharp shadows. His hairline is insanely recognizable. The roundness at the corners of his forehead combined with the widows peak make up for the relatively light colour of his hair up top. You put together his hairline and his eyes and it's the most obvious shatner you're going to get.

And because shatner is your typical 60's leading man, his face shape is simply not noteable. Nimoy has a long face and kelley has a very square/round one. Shatner's somewhere in between. He's got a nice silhouette and that's all. But there's a million actors out there with the same silhouette because it's attractive, and so if you don't get those defining features in there -- the ones that are so difficult to draw -- then he just winds up looking generic, and so your brain tells you that's Wrong.

tl;dr soft things are hard to draw, shatner is all soft angles

[apatheticlexicographer]

ok yk what i still have no opinion on whether mike is gay or bi from either a textual or headcanon perspective, HOWEVER i do have opinions on his s1 "crush" on el.

some people say that he did have a real crush on her, which is evidence for him being bi. some people say he was just concerned for her and it was other people's behaviour (lucas, nancy) that made him self-question and interpret it as a crush.

so, using my personal experiences as a point of reference, since that's the best i can do on this bitch of an earth: i'm aroace. i'm like 80% confident of this on the worst of days, and if there's a scrap of attraction in me i'm still definitely somewhere on both spectra. aesthetic and platonic attraction are all i experience.

that being said, i had crushes when i was a little kid, or at least i felt things i interpreted as crushes. i would meet somebody who i felt giddy and happy around, who i wanted to spend all my time with and have all their attention on me. there were i think two guys and a girl??? i was firmly convinced that these crushes were real, and i even kissed a couple of them. in hindsight, would i call these crushes real??? sure, why not, they felt real at the time. if i felt the same thing now, would i still call it a crush??? nope. i do feel the same thing, and i call it a squish. the feelings never matured with age the same way my friends' crushes did. i have no desire to share any kind of romantic affection with people i have squishes on, i just really, really want to be their friend.

obviously there are a couple of things you can draw from this. first of all, kids have a very narrow point of reference for how to label their emotions, both due to the limited range of terms they've been exposed to and the very small amount of personal past experience they have to compare with. i was raised by extremely progressive parents in the 2010s in a predominantly atheist country and still was unable to accurately label my feelings until i was about fourteen. mike is from a conservative family in 1980s small-town america. enough said, really.

secondly, although this is mostly subjective speculation and definitely not meant as some deep character analysis, i do see quite a lot of similarities between mike's "feelings" for el / his relationship with her and my experience with crushes and squishes. the people around him are the ones initially teasing him for having a crush, even when he doesn't believe he does. when i was a kid i would get teased for hanging out with my male friends all the time, and when i was at sleepovers people would accuse me of lying if i said i didn't have a crush at the moment. he spends a lot of time with her and tries to express affection in romantic ways but continually draws back from this. i would kiss my best friend because it was the only way i could think of to make her understand how much i cared about her. he thinks she's pretty. i experience aesthetic attraction and it's confusing AF, particularly when you have a squish on the person. most notably, all of his crush symptoms have only decreased over time. all of my squishes have faded eventually, either because i successfully befriended them, i got to know them better and was disappointed, or i was separated from them and lost interest.

so basically what i'm saying is mike can have had what he believes to be a legitimate crush on el and still not necessarily be attracted to women and also GREY-AROACE MIKE CANON REAL AND TRUE that boy likes dragons too much to be allo

[noxious-fennec]

PLEASEEEE tell me about the symbolism in your drawing Oh i am dying to know

HII why thank you for asking!! I'll try my best to answer concisely but Tl;dr I'm not normal about either cwilbur or flower symbolism :) it also must be noted that a lot of my decisions are entirely based on my personal cultural experience so I hope if anything you find it interesting.

For an overview, The peice is inspired by art nouveau, namely alphonse mucha and henri privat livemont, and is mostly based on this hamlet production poster by the former. The composition however is not based on said illustration, and is slightly inspired in part by stained glass and fences of the movement. The clothing cwilbur is wearing is from the edwardian period, if I've got my references correct it's earlier in the period, though not any year in particular. It differs drastically in the fact that the colors are very vibrant (I can't help putting cwil in shades of red, ho16 permanently changed my brain chemistry), and that the Cape part of the inverness cape is entirely too short. Otherwise I've attempted to keep the general silhouette accurate.

Now the plant symbolism:

First: Arabian jasmine (which fun fact are not actually the same as the 4 petal vine yasmine, has a different name, Full (فل), and they grow on shrubs) and the Damascus rose go together because of two reasons: 1) i didn't know other flowers to put there and 2) they're very closely tied in my brain. If you try to find their symbolism you'll find a lot of things about beauty and purity, as is common with any white flower or rose, but my reasoning differs. Without going into too much detail, I intended for them to symbolise community and belonging.

Daffodils (the ones depicted are the ones most common in my region, they may not resemble the expectations but they are indeed daffodils) mean death rebirth and hope, its a flower i generally associate with cwil. Same meaning goes for the white lilies. And poppies have a heavy association with war and generally symbolise remeberance and hope for peace, and thus, l'manberg association.

The next five are flowers that represnt certain characters strictly based on cwilbur's preception of them, but they can be applied to others as well, i just thought these were most important:

Freesia: especially when yellow, usually means thoughtfulness, trust and friendship. represents cranboo.

Orange/tiger lilly: pride, hatred, status, tenacity.  Cquackity

Lilly of the valley: cmon we all know this one, ctommy

Boat orchid: virtue and morality, a gesture of respect and friendship. Ctubbo

Gladiolus: diminutive of gladius(sword); strength of character, moral integrity and rememberance. ctechno

pomegranate tree and fruit: pomegranates have a very different connotation in Western media, from what I can glean, as opposed to what I'm used to them being perceived as (I won't derail this but I can elaborate if needed). In short, I've chosen to take advantage of this double meaning and so its here to represent life death and resurrection while the tree is for family and home.

On a side note, I was originally going to do night blooming jasmine (مسك الليل) but it wasn't working, the symbolism of it however still stand: its a flower many love and think smells amazing, but rarely do they actually want the burden of having it in their own yards because of how deathly strong it smells. I was intending on using it to symbolise the complicated nature of cwilbur's relationship with the important people in his life.

And finally, the olive tree: aside from its meanings of peace and friendship, olive trees also mean olive oil which is a product with many healing properties that is not too easy to make and requires a lot of work. i chose it to mean healing and the process thereof.

So yeah that's it, hope it's up to expectation and thanks for the interest means a lot to me <33

[all-thestories-aretrue]

TW: self harm (in many forms)- no graphic descriptions.

This post contains my thoughts about Caleb and self harm, so read at you own risk.

A lot of my thoughts are not very well parsed yet, but this has been bouncing around in my brain like a ping pong ball and I need it out. I'm only on ep 29 so whatever below may not be accurate by the end of the campaign.

Caleb self harms. A lot of his mindset is also that of a person who self harms, even if it is about injuries or events that are not self inflicted.

The most obvious example is when he uses fire spells to kill things (actual game mechanics aside). He knows the effect this has on him. He knows he could end up dissociating badly, throwing up, left unable to move, and it puts him at more risk of injury if there are other enemies still present. He does it anyway! It may be for the good of the group, sure, but he is engaging in behavior that directly and severely hurts him on purpose. I know there is more too it than that, but I will get to his mindset later.

He also does not care for himself regularly. He doesn't bathe or wash his clothes, or shave (which I know beards are a thing but I'm using his conversation with Yasha as reference). It's become a running joke that he stinks. He says it's because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself, but that still means he's neglecting his body and its needs. Not all forms of self harm are obvious and I think in this case a lot of it comes down to intent.

He also isolates himself. He's been out of the sanatorium for five years I believe when he meets the nein and in all that time, Nott was the only person he befriended. And i don't think they had even known each other that long when they meet up with everyone. Isolation is also a form of self harm, if less obvious.

I do want to just mention the scratching thing. This may not fall squarely under the category of self harm, but it can easily toe the line.

So, his mindset. He thinks the way a person who hurts himself does. He thinks he deserves the pain, that he needs to be useful or he'll be kicked from the group. He justifies these behaviors to himself to make them okay. And the shame and self-loathing. That's where it all stems from. A lot of the actions he takes, particularly concerning himself, are based on his self-loathing and shame.

He's deeply ashamed of what he did, which totally fair, and that's where all of this comes from, but I also want to point out the physical trauma he endured at the hands of Trent Ikathon. Gems were stuck into holes in his arms. And even though these wounds were not self inflicted, he hides them and feels great shame around them which is still in line with self-harming behavior. I'm not even going to touch the rest of what happened.

He wouldn't engage in these behaviors if he thought he didn't deserve it or he didn't feel ashamed of himself.

Not all forms of self-harm are obvious, and even though I was convinced Caleb did self harm, it took me a while to figure out how. Anything can be a tool to hurt yourself with and Caleb has weaponized many.

I don't know where I'm going with this. This post is mostly for me lol. There's just not a lot of representation of characters who self harm so any rep that I do see, I immediately latch on.

If anyone has any thoughts about any of this I would be happy to chat!!! I think this is a really nunaced conversation, ans I doubt it did it justice here.

[vital-information]

“I just love sketching,” Casarosa shares. “And I just love travelogging. I come from drawing comics, and watercolors. When I pitched La Luna with a presentation using watercolors, I remember someone asking me, ‘But you want to do it in watercolor?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I mean, you know, we're at Pixar and I think we should use our tools, but how do we bring in some warmth and imperfection...’ The thing I don't always love about computer animation is there's a certain sheen, a certain perfection to it. Now it's gone past that toward realism. But I come from loving sketches; I'm not one to love a perfectly painted picture that is realistic.”

“…So that sketchiness, that cartoony expressiveness, was part of our early story reels. And they were the part that made us laugh. It felt unique, these connections to kinetic and comedic moments.”

Casarosa’s artistic sensibilities stem in part from the animation he loves most. “I love Miyazaki movies,” he shares. “I love Wes Anderson’s stop-motion. I love Aardman’s stop-motion. Some of that ends up in my drawings, that sketchy and expressive style. We wanted to bring that to the film because it felt like this is a kid's world. This is a playful world. And it felt true to the story to go in that direction. I love the immersion of 3D, but I sometimes I feel it can go towards coldness. So, I wanted to bring the warmth of imperfection. That’s why some of the silly drawings made us laugh when we started boarding them and then put them on a screen.”

“We wanted to capture some of that in our animation,” he continues. “Which meant, we needed to inspire the animation team to embrace it. And they took it and ran with it, literally and figuratively, in a wonderful way. I didn't know where it was going to exactly go, but it was really fun because some of them were showing more limited animation, with these snappy, kind of wonderfully held poses.”

…

It’s an old-fashion cartoon technique in some ways,” Casarosa says, referring to the multi-limb motion. “Like with Peanuts. It came out of the drawings, the essence of someone running extremely fast. We wanted to use the multi-limb technique in areas of the film where the characters were doing extreme physicality, where it would add to the personality of the silliness of the moment. There were only so many chances to use it. I wish there were more. But it was so much fun to use it when we could.”

Venturini goes on to explain how they also had to back away from their inherent instinct to move towards realism in the animation. “One part of our 2D inspiration is that in 2D animation, more often than not, you're animating on every other frame - on twos, as they say. And when you do that, you must be more descriptive in your shapes because you have fewer opportunities to describe the dialogue. Your shapes become a little more caricature, or a little more like graphically abstract art.”

“Our films are always done on ones,” he notes. “We use every single frame and in dialogue, it allows us to be incredibly rich and realistic in detail. So much so that we pride ourselves in the ability to turn the sound off and still be able to tell what a character saying. For Luca, we didn't want to be that rich in detail. Part of our 2D inspiration was to simplify the mouth shapes and try to animate only every other shape. Simplify it a little bit. That allowed us to be round in the mouth corners because we didn't have to do accurate phonetic shapes. We had to liberate ourselves from that level of realism before we could really consider doing round shapes and not wanting to be phonetically accurate. The other thing was that in the Miyazaki film library, and in a lot of anime, is they get really big with the mouth shapes because they're being emotionally expressive. It's less about the dialogue being said, or the anatomical accuracy. So, we thought, ‘Let's be big and expressive. These are kids, the world's huge to them.’ And then, let's be as small as we can and just bring those corners all the way in and keep it round.”

“We watched a lot of Aardman animation where they go from a big toothy mouth to a little one with no teeth,” Venturini adds. “They'll go to these shapes where there's no teeth and we thought, ‘Let's do that.’ So, we also developed the ability to turn the teeth on and off over a single frame if we wanted. Those were some of the things that influenced us that we thought were playful, fun, more emotionally expressive, and less chained to reality.”

— Dan Sarto, “Creating the Stylized, 2D-Inspired Fun of Pixar’s Luca”

[stardestroyer81]

It was bound to happen sooner or later, though after extensive work and a close eye for attention to detail, I've created promo artwork for the Deltarune AU @itsactuallyreigh and I have been working on, DarkLight: Parallel Worlds, based off of the artwork Deltarune uses in its file select menu!

(And there's quite a tale behind its creation, too, of which you can find a deep dive and additional insight for underneath the cut— concept art included!)

Since Reigh and I began talking about creating a Deltarune about a month or so back, we knew that at one point we wanted a version of the one piece of Deltarune art featuring Kris, Susie and Ralsei beholding a behemoth of a billowing, blue dark fountain (Unintentional alliteration + 100).

The only difference being, naturally, that in place of the usual three heroes of the Delta Rune legend, it would instead feature the DarkLight trio: Reigh, Micah, and— a character that a lot of the Deltarune fandom could argue deserves much more lore relevance— Rouxls Kaard.

I mean, how hard could it be, right? Said artwork is entirely sprited, and if you know me, I've quite a history in pushing my spriting expertise to the limit... though, let's take a closer look at the original's sprites.

Upon closer inspection, the silhouettes of Deltarune's trio are not only shaded a very specific way, but also have parts of their outfits flowing valiantly in the wind. The more I began to look at it up close, the more I wasn't sure if I had the skill to make something of this caliber for DarkLight— I even would have to sprite the trio from the back!

Though, I didn't want to conclude that it couldn't be done, not without at least giving it an attempt. Really, all I needed to do was sprite DarkLight's trio of the legend, as I already had a good, pixel-perfect asset of the fountain itself. So, I took to MS Paint and hastily drew out what the end result would look like.

Key word: Hastily.

As it turns out, it was easier than I thought it would be whipping up silhouettes of the cast by mouse, though I knew for certain that I would have to add a lot more details and accurate shading if I were to attempt a final version.

It was at this point that I discovered a sneaky trick that would, effectively, give me silhouettes that would actually look good, and from then on, all I'd need to do is shade them. The trick in question? Just upscale their overworld sprites, redraw them as solid black silhouettes, and flip them horizontally!

It worked out a lot better than I thought it would, too, and all that was left to do was heavily reference the shading style of the original. I noticed that, in the original art piece, the upper halves of Susie and Ralsei are at a very slight angle— it's easier to see with Susie, as you'll notice her jacket is flowing mostly to the left, so I'd have to account for that for Micah and Rouxls.

So, I got to work in shading. It was during this process that I made the realization that I would have to draw in some details so that the silhouettes would look better, most notably, having Rouxls holding his hands behind his back (Which, as any artist who's drawn said pose from the front, is nowhere near as easy from the back).

Here's what the fruits of my labor yielded! Eagle-eyed observers may notice that Rouxls' coat flaps are drawn differently than the original silhouettes so that they look a bit more flowy (Rouxls Kaard fanatics may also notice that his whole design looks a bit different, and the reason behind that is... well... Reigh fixed it!).

This was quite a fun little project to work on, and it won't be the last time you'll see this art in action, either, though more on that in due course... in the meantime, I hope you've found my sprite process for this piece to be fascinating because I'm REALLY proud of it!!

[foxymoxynoona]

In honor of your Two Year anniversary, which story took the most work to plan or involved the most research? which one takes/took the longest to write?

Ooooh this is a fun question!

So the first answer is the Secret Song Series books definitely have the most hours of writing and the most research. When I started writing I knew nothing about idol life and didn't even know much about BTS except that I adored them. I spend a great deal of time researching all the different themes in the story, like impact of fame on young adults, and trauma/relationship struggles for trafficking survivors, and laws about work visas and non-profits in Korea, this and that, etc. When the characters travel or live anywhere, I've researched everything from the hotel they stay at to whether they can get Korean food, etc. I "do" the shopping trips to make sure it's somewhat accurate. I make up Sasha's class adn work schedules, and JK's work schedule. It's why I ultimately decided to start posting, because I'd spent so much time on it, I felt like I might as well, even if I knew it wouldn't fit the bill of what a lot of people are looking for in an idol AU. Also just to be clear: I only learn about BTS through official things and I still have barely scratched the surface of all the content they've produced --I'm not on Twitter, I don't follow Kmedia outlets, I'm not digging around lookign for "true" private info. When I say I research, I mean that I know more about western celebrity culture but then try to learn how it compares to general Asian celebrity/idol culture and build my stories and what I want to apply to the BTS guys in my story through that theoretical long way and what fits thematically for my story/characters rather than being overly concerned with anything being "true". I'm still learning so much!

After that monster series though... The Red-Lions books. They are based in a video game world that I've learned and continue to learn so much canon about (all the manga, the supporting novels, the art and concept books, the fan theories, etc.), but if you're familiar with the games, you can probably see also how incredibly much I've added. It would not be difficult to completely separate them from the Dragon Age world they began with. I do extensive research into European and Asian history to draw inspiration, and some African as well. Probably the Viking references are easy to pick up on but the ancient Thracian tribes also provide a lot of inspiration! And so on.

That being said, if you only look at Lowlander, I think Amended may have actually taken me longer to write if you don't include the research.

On the opposite side, Sea of Indigo and Sugar Fairy were the quickest to write. I literally posted a chapter a day alternating for those stories for three months and then they were both done, the end.