#but i went with magical girl theme to contrast

[misersdream]

tinkaton

[kianamaiart]

I just wanted to tell you that I love idwtbamg and am especially blown away by the character designs for aika and zira!!!!!! their colour palettes compliment each other really well and are soft while still having some contrast and I would love to know how you came up with the designs or if you don't feel like sharing that, your favourite parts of their designs and what you're most proud of? Good luck with the pilot, by the way!!! ^^

Aw thank you so much! Character design was initially what I wanted to do when entering the industry so I love whenever I'm able to do it~

I talk about my process for picking colors here a bit!

Design process under the cut (loooong post ahead)

Whenever I'm designing a cast of characters I always start with the main character and build off of them. I started specifically with Aika's normal girl design. I wanted a star theme, and the star hair was the first thing I knew I needed. With her hair being the most eye catching and important part of her design, I wanted to make sure whatever else she had going on wasn't gonna distract from it too much. So I went for a more top heavy, but simple look with a big tshirt, small black pants. Aika was initially fully blonde but the stark black pants was starting to pull the eye. That gave me the idea to use the stark black in her hair (for the bottom half)! Made her hair even more eye catching and highlighted the star pigtails in a nice way.

For her magical girl design, I wanted to make it feel over the top and overwhelming to contribute visually why Aika wouldn't want to be a magical girl. Big poofy dress, ribbons poking out every where for a crazy silhouette and tall, tall platforms. I also wanted to give her longer hair in this form so I went with goddess locs! I was able to do an easy shorthand with it (long thick strands with lil curls at the end) I like the kinda biblically accurate angel look she has. My favorite part of this design was the ribbons in her hair that make the star pigtails look like shooting stars heehee

With Zira I knew I wanted her to be opposite to Aika. So sticking with the space thing, I gave her a moon motif and that was my jumping off point. With Aika having high pigtails, I decided to give Zira low pigtails and give them a vaguely crescent shape (like crescent moons get it?). Continuing with the opposites thing, I wanted to make Zira's design bottom heavy as opposed to Aika's top heavy one, and also color-wise, go on the opposite side of the color wheel from yellow for its complimentary color, purple! I didn't want Zira to feel too stylish (she's a loser after all) but also didn't wanna make her design ugly. I tried toeing the line of out of style but lowkey trendy with the grungy skirt, jeans combo. Also went with the stark black shirt under the tshirt to lean harder into the 2000s look. On top of that it helped tie her design to Aika's more (this is where I decided the stark black was gonna be an essential part of the design language of this show). My favorite part of her design for me is the mangled ends of her pants. It's a small detail but I think it says a lot about her as a character (she drags her feet, she's a little careless, kinda messy, etc.)

Hoshi is star. There's not much more to their design haha. I did give them wings to mirror Aika's dress ribbons. With their human design though, I just knew I wanted to make sure that they'd be able to make a star shape with their silhouette. Thus the hoodie and stubby limbs. Gave them the stark black pants (again at this point, it's part of the design language of this show). I tossed around the idea of giving them eyes that matched more with Aika and Zira, but it just didn't look like Hoshi so I stuck with the same face in their star design and I just thought that was funny hehe. My favorite part of Hoshi's design is just the overall fact that I managed to make them look like a star in their human form still haha

Eclipse was the hardest design for me. You would not believe how long it took me to decide whether I wanted to make him a boy or a girl. Eclipse was always gonna be named Void (and DeVoid was gonna be Eclipse) but it didn't feel quite right. I knew I wanted him to ALSO be opposite from Aika, but in a different way that Zira is. Looking at it that way helped me land on the name Eclipse because I thought it'd be fun to give both Zira and him moon motifs (as Aika's love interest and alleged love interest respectively). Similar to Zira I wanted to have purple be in his design to contrast the yellow in Aika's design. Due to his name now being Eclipse, I figured going dark with his design would make the most sense but my friend/roommie Bri @/ghostbri (who is a professional painter/color designer) suggested going pastel instead and it worked perfectly. It matched his personality and also plays on the fact that he cares more about theatrics and aesthetics than actual villainy. He completely misses the point of being the servant of darkness. He's heavily inspired by Tuxedo Mask. I wanted to make it feel like he saw a cool character once in a tv show and he decided to make it his whole persona. So he's got the suit, he's got the cape and he's got the mask. My favorite part of his design is his cape, intended to also have a crescent moon shape but then also have that stark black on the inside so his silhouette really pops against it. It's funny bc it ended up being like a reverse eclipse where the light is blocking out the dark.

DeVoid was the easiest for me to come up with the design for LMAO. Like obviously. I wanted to make her feel slick but prickly but also slightly over the top like a lot of old school magical girl villains. I thought it'd be a difficult balance to strike but it actually wasn't too bad! I gave her a sort of form fitting cocktail dress and at this point the stark black was a must so it worked out that the "void" character would just be in that all black look. It really helped her feel slick like I wanted (also gave her the slicked back hair for this reason). To give her some edge, I gave her the giant pointy shoulder pads, giant pointy horns, pointy ears, sharp nails and bat wings! Oh also worth mentioning she's the one main cast character I didn't use Aika as a jumping off point for. I designed her to look good next to Eclipse since they'd be the ones interacting the most. I made her wings white to contrast with her black dress (opposite to how Eclipse has a black cape but then mostly white outfit). To ensure that her design wasn't too dark and that her arms would read against her body, I gave her those bright silver bracelets~ While her design was easy for me to come up with, my god figuring out what color to make her hair was killing me. Tbh I was avoiding pink/red like the plague. I didn't want her to look toooo much like Jessie Team Rocket LOL. I tried white, I tried purple, I tried a more pastel pink but none of them worked well in a lineup with the rest of the characters. Bri helped talked me through all this haha. Pink/red worked the best especially there was no pink/red in the entire lineup. The Jessie influence is still there but I feel like she looks different enough! Favorite part of her design is her big ass horns)

Finally Miss! Miss was an interesting case because I designed her as I was storyboarding the pilot. She was intended to be an incidental character that we'd only randomly see once in a while. She had a veeery generic teacher design in my first pass but then as I was hiring VAs I got the idea to cast Michele Knotz to play her and that was enough for my brain to start going and come up with a backstory for her and a role that could tie in with the rest of the cast in a more meaningful way. Because of this, I designed Miss to the voice I imagined Michele would use for her. She does a great groggy and tired voice so I gave her those tired eyes, she has a darker color palette, her posture's a little more sluggish, etc. Her design still felt bland in the board so I gave her a couple piercings which helped. But then! The stark black! I gave her the half dyed hair which worked phenomenally and is probably my favorite part of her design. It leans into the tired feel (too tired to dye her roots) and also was a nice way to get the black in her design without just having to give her black pants or a black shirt or something. I'd only figured out her color palette way later and after recording Michele. The VA announcement image was the first time I'd fully drawn and colored Miss. I went with green since there was no green in the lineup! Also green's my favorite color so I had to.

PHEW that's it! Hope it was an interesting read and look into my brain.

[hybbart]

i love your magical girl designs for the seablings, could we get some more info on the choices of colour and stuff? i'm super into character design and love seeing peoples thought on stuff like that ^^

Sure!

A big influence was precure, obviously, as a fan. Many palettes aren't too far off from various precure if you look for them. I am generaly a bit unhappy with the mishmash of 20 different colours used in modern cures, but they did help me be a bit bolder with choices as I'll talk about later. I also tossed out their "avoid green as a main colour" rule like everyone else. I have no idea what sort of wack marketting advice convinced every girls show that girls don't like green and we probably will never know. Irrelevant...

My first step was assigning each mode its own colour. Since they're a duo I was tempted to do either contrasting or complimentary colours, but that went out the window quick. E1 seablings already had very distinctly assigned colours of green and purple, and they were the easiest that I already had ideas for, so I tossed that and just tried to not have them overlap. I still ended up with green, cyan, AND blue as main colours but I adjusted it with the secondary colours.

For the e1 seablings outfits it was primarily colour picked from my actual designs for the codfather and ocean queen, but tweaked to be more saturated, so their main colour theme is green (pink secondary) and purple (blue secondary). It's also when I decided to give them a highlight colour in their hair, as is popular with modern magical girls, since my codfather design already has this. (Also I stole the veil from cure Spicy. Her little veil/napkin hat I immediately fell in love with and thought it would work as a lily pad like hat on Jimmy when designing him, and it fit well with the slight wedding theme I gave them.)

Lizzie's colours are pretty much just various shades of purple and and blue based on her axolotl ocean goddess design. Jimmy's colours are supposed to be like a water lily, of course, and I made the greens less sickly than his codfather design which are meant to be more swampy and go with the browns of the cod. Both the seablings' secondary coloura are references to each other in this btw, as is the case in my codfather design to designate him as the ocean queen's family. Jimmy isn't inherently associated with blue in this au but I did manage to slip it into all three designs since outside of it he is.

The life series designs were veeery easy for Jimmy and much more difficult for Lizzie, but the actual colour choices were both easy once I worked out a design. Lizzie never had an actual skin for her faerie fort self, and her base skin is purple just like the ocean queen, which is also the case for her clothes in e2, so this is where I started taking liberties with her and assigned her other things and desided to throw out the idea of the colour palettes being in neat little boxes. This is the closest to a rainbow cure they get, but I made Lizzie's official main colour cyan and secondary green. Jimmy by contrast is the most monochromatic he gets here, with a main colour of blue and secondary yellow.

Butterfly Lizzie is actually the only time I had multiple palette ideas that I had to make a hard choice between because I liked them all so much, usually I was struggling to find shades I enjoyed being paired since I don't usually work with such saturated palettes. I guess it's fitting, since cyan/teal is minecraft's bets colour that's easy to slap on any build to make it look elegant. Jimmy's palette itself was pretty easy, took a lot of notes from cure sky for him in colour AND design, but it was a matter of where to put what colours. I think I changed the colour of his shorts more times than any other article.

E2 designs were the first I actually designed and thenthe last ones I made palettes for. Their main colours were red and orange... which are quite difficult to work with in such high saturation, and especially with trying to avoid overlaping. I ended up using very unconventional palettes way out of my comfort zone. Brown in general is very unconventional for a magical girl, but there's been a few curea like cure chocolat and cure wing that utilized it that gave the inspiration. It was an easy decision to make her hair and ears based on her calico design after that, though I had trouble deciding exactly where to incorperate the brown into her actual outfit. The purple just came very natural after that. I often use purple instead of actual brown for dark browns so it made sense to me, at least. It was a nice pop against the orange and also contrast the yellow.

E2 Jimmy is the one I am least satisfied with. It was the only one that was not based off his skin the same way Lizzie's weren't. I still look at it and think if theres anything else I could try. By far the most difficult. Red's a very bold colour so it's hard to match without just using different tones of red, and the wrong shade would make the whole rhing look off. I also already knew I wanted yellow/orange in the design because of the sherrif star, but I didn't want it to be his life design with a different primary colour. I decided to try incorperating his blue, and I like it in concept but I still am not sure about the specific shade. After that I thought to add green to make it that classic childish primaries colour, make the design like a space cowboy almost. The star on his hat, the hat in general actually, ended up being the biggest help to decide.

At one point I experimented with a full on rainbow theme but it did not work out. I think it could have with a slightly different design and somekne better at picking colours, but I scrapped it. I also decided to use a lot of darker shades since red is already so bold and bright. Still unhappy with the pants, but white was just a bit too bright and the secondaries were too bold to use. This was the only time I actually messed with the design itself to try and help make colours work, but it didn't work out. I'd say overall I'm happy enough with it but I could have done a lot better.

Also I decided to adjust Lizzie's pink hair slightly with each to match the palettes. I was trying to avoid it, but it's so pink and there's so much it really affected the rest of her design a lot, so I made her e2 hair a more salmon pink and her life design a more bubblegum pink.

As for their wands I just went with an unobtrusive white and pastel rainbow colour scheme. The white matches their outfits and the rainbow doesn't clash too hard with anything. Joel I obbiously just made green and Norman was a bit more awkward but I went with a grey to match the real Norman since a full blue palette made him look like a generic cat faerie and not specifically Norman.

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

It’s important that the first revelation of Nissa Nissa is accompanied by some level of skepticism from Salladhor Saan and aversion on Davos’ part. It doesn’t sound right that Azor Ahai chose to sacrifice his wife for a magic sword. It shouldn’t sound right.

“A hundred days and a hundred nights he labored on the third blade, and as it glowed white-hot in the sacred fires, he summoned his wife. ‘Nissa Nissa,’ he said to her, for that was her name, ‘bare your breast, and know that I love you best of all that is in this world.’ She did this thing, why I cannot say, and Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel. Such is the tale of the forging of Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.

“Now do you see my meaning? Be glad that it is just a burnt sword that His Grace pulled from that fire. Too much light can hurt the eyes, my friend, and fire burns.” Salladhor Saan finished the last grape and smacked his lips. “When do you think the king will bid us sail, good ser?”

[…] A true sword of fire, now, that would be a wonder to behold. Yet at such a cost … When he thought of Nissa Nissa, it was his own Marya he pictured, a good-natured plump woman with sagging breasts and a kindly smile, the best woman in the world. He tried to picture himself driving a sword through her, and shuddered. I am not made of the stuff of heroes, he decided. If that was the price of a magic sword, it was more than he cared to pay.

Not only does it not make sense that Nissa Nissa would agree to her husband’s request, it’s also telling how Salladhor Saan expresses relief in knowing that King Stannis didn’t actually forge Lightbringer. Because forging Lightbringer means human sacrifice. And why should one be deprived of their life, even if it’s for a magic sword? Davos is very right to be creeped out by it.

The theme of sacrifice shows up quite a bit in ASOIAF and Davos I isn’t the first or last time. The very first chapter in the series, Bran I, tackles this idea with Jon and the direwolves.

“Lord Stark,” Jon said. It was strange to hear him call Father that, so formal. Bran looked at him with desperate hope. “There are five pups,” he told Father. “Three male, two female.”

“What of it, Jon?”

“You have five trueborn children,” Jon said. “Three sons, two daughters. The direwolf is the sigil of your House. Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord.”

Bran saw his father’s face change, saw the other men exchange glances. He loved Jon with all his heart at that moment. Even at seven, Bran understood what his brother had done. The count had come right only because Jon had omitted himself. He had included the girls, included even Rickon, the baby, but not the bastard who bore the surname Snow, the name that custom decreed be given to all those in the north unlucky enough to be born with no name of their own.

Their father understood as well. “You want no pup for yourself, Jon?” he asked softly.

“The direwolf graces the banners of House Stark,” Jon pointed out. “I am no Stark, Father.”

Jon, though he may desperately desire to have his own piece of magic, would not sacrifice his siblings for it. He wouldn’t dare to deprave the girls, Arya and Sansa, of their own magic even when it might be very easy to do so. This is a pretty stark contrast (pun intended) to Azor Ahai and his Nissa Nissa. Azor Ahai’s first line of thought was to sacrifice his wife whereas Jon’s was to sacrifice himself. Sure Azor Ahai got his magic sword, but Jon’s self-sacrifice is not in vain either because he later earns his own wolf, who turns out to be even more special than the rest in the pack.

Bran IV kind of alludes to the idea of self sacrifice through Old Nan’s retelling of the last hero:

So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched, until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. And the Others smelled the hot blood in him, and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds—”

Though the one we know is called the “last hero”, notice that it’s not a title but a mere descriptor; there were many heroes before him who died and he was the last one standing. There is a human toll in this legend, but it’s implied to be self sacrifice. It’s also interesting that though there is mention of a blade, it is the children of the forest’s magic that is key. This does kind of bleed into what we know about the Night’s Watch and its relation to the long night. The Night’s Watch victory was a group effort, rather than the actions of any one man.

We have several legends surrounding the long night that work, but only one involves the cost of sacrificing someone else (that we know of). This might be where GRRM is headed with Stannis and his creation of Lightbringer. Sure Azor Ahai did get his magic sword, but it doesn’t negate the steep human cost. GRRM has lowkey confirmed that Stannis is sure to burn Shireen. And rather than this sacrifice not working, I think it’s more likely that it does work. Stannis does indeed create the flaming sword. But this will be directly weighed by other (self) sacrifices made for the same purpose. Stannis’ sacrifice of his daughter won’t work any better than other characters who choose to sacrifice themselves even when knowing that they are not going to go down as individual legends; I think Jon Snow will once again be the prime example of this, as he has already resigned himself to being a shadow in history despite initially wanting the opposite. Maester Aemon was right in saying that

[…] all deceive ourselves, when we want to believe. Melisandre most of all, I think. The sword is wrong, she has to know that … light without heat … an empty glamor … the sword is wrong, and the false light can only lead us deeper into darkness, Sam

The sword is wrong. Azor Ahai is NOT one to be emulated. Rather, he should be a cautionary tale. He is not any more special for his sacrifice than what the last hero or the men of the Night’s Watch did, even though we know his name but don’t know theirs. GRRM answered the question regarding sacrifice before he even posed it. To make someone else pay the price is flat out wrong. The only true and worthy sacrifice is really that of the self.

[raayllum]

I've wanted to talk about this parallel for like 8 months let's goo

One of my favourite dynamics in the series in terms of theme / interplay is this little trifecta, as they are heavily tied to similar ideas (truth vs lying, dark vs primal magic, staying vs abandonment) and often contrast each other. Claudia feared making any choice, Rayla feared making the wrong one, Callum feared having no choice at all; Rayla leaves first, Claudia is stagnant because she refused to leave, and Callum always fights for the other person to stay (with him).

When Callum is suffocated / cannot breathe, it's because of both Claudia and Rayla. He used Claudia's dark magic book and ingredients and was inspired to do dark magic because of her, hence leading to the possession, but he only went through with it / actually did it because of Rayla. Claudia's offer wasn't enough to make him do dark magic, Rayla's safety was, but Callum's ability to do it was engineered by his former friend, causing him to be another pawn of Aaravos. This push and pull of both Claudia and Rayla driving Callum's arc forward (particularly in s1/s2) in ways neither girl actually wants is consistent, to say the least.

Then we see Callum as a contrasting force for both Rayla and Claudia in 5x09. Callum uses primal magic and encourages Rayla to breathe through the magical spell he's given her, letting her go and offering support when she flees to the surface. He's loving and supportive. Meanwhile, Callum takes away Claudia's ability to breathe, leaves her to drown, and likewise lets her flee to the surface (alone, without support until she reaches Terry).

This sort of framing / development is one of my favourites across the show and these three's episodes (1x03, 2x03, 2x07, 2x02 and TTM, etc) and I love it so much whenever it rears its head.

[shizukateal]

Miraculous Ladybug Magical Girl Fashion Review -Part 1

Preamble

Ok, so. What do you people generally think of as a "superhero outfit"? Spandex, right? Tight-skinned, uninterrupted spandex covering almost all the body, or at least not straying away from the body line if you're a girl and only get a swimsuit. Maybe a cape (hood optional) depending on how dramatic you are to add some flow or, if you're a woman, your hairstyle will do that job. Otherwise you can have some form of helmet or headpiece to distinguish yourself, and that's it. That's the extent of options you have. If you're extremely lucky, they might allow you to wear a jacket.

While this description might be a bit of an exaggeration (not by much, though) I think we can all agree that this is a very restrictive set of rules to work with. It's very hard to make something that completely contours to the body visually compelling. It's hard to distribute colors and shapes and patterns in a neat way that makes you stand out when you have to compete with thousands of millions of characters with the same 3 allowed bodytypes (lean, broad, or Woman™️). Which is why we should clap even more at designs like the DC holy trinity and especially Spiderman, who not only has a fantastic design in spite of how alienating it should be, but whose look is also currently inspiring thousands of artists to make their own variations, technically also including today's very own Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

This is all a very lengthy way to say that some of the MLB people wear their fursuits better than the rest. Skin-tight onesies with fur patterns are not something everyone can pull off. Doubly so with how inconsistent the art direction in the show is, with everyone in the cast reaching different levels of uncanny valley and swagless drip. I personally think that many of them would do better if they thought a bit outside that box of "standard superhero fashion" and went for something more specific to the personalities of the characters, but there are some winners amongst the rabble. Much like the writing of the show itself, the show's design averages into a trashy sludge pile that still manages to look tempting thanks to some unexpected moments of competence. Let's sort through the pile *cracks knuckles*

Ladybug (standard and ultimate version)

You'd think it would be easy for me to just say "yeah, the bland, near fully uninterrupted polkadot bodypaint onesie is both boring and silly and the other more balanced version is a LOT better by comparison" and leave it at that, but unfortunately I also have to talk about the hairstyle. And the hairstyle is wrong in a very specific way which I don't have concise terms for, so I need you to pay attention and stay with me here.

The pigtails work well for Marinette. They are distinct, practical, realistic enough while bordering just slightly on the fantastic, and their mild childishness enhances Mari's romantic nature. In theory they also match the polka-dot theme and they are not impractical considering the function of Ladybug's suit, but they still go against what it's trying to do. There's probably a concrete term in shape and action line theory that better educated people than me know about, but to give you the gist of what I mean I'm gonna do another Shitty Paint Edit™️ so I don't go in too many circles explaining myself:

Ok, you get what I'm trying to say here now? The pigtails match the balance of this specific pose, but the suit is too skin-tight and it highlights Marinette's neck, so they interrupt the buildup. They don't even work well as pieces of flow for contrast, because the hair is so stiff and the ribbons are barely noticeable. Compare to itsanarkee's cosplay and how much better she looks because she has an updo. The worst part of it all is that, usually, matching a body-paint suit with a hairstyle to provide contrast in a female superhero is, like, babyshit, the bread and butter of superheroine costumes, but Astruc managed to find the one hairstyle in the world to make it work wrong because he was to proud about Marinette's design to change anything. Just give her the fucking buns already.

Chat Noir

He serves cunt. Pops pussy, if you will. The only very mild itch it gives me is that I can't see what his ears are attached to and it bothers me, although he's not the only one with that feature and I understand why they would want to hide a hair band especially in his design. I can forgive that when everything else in this design is genius. The belt tail. The way his mask sharpens his features alongside the hair and ears. The flaps on his boots and gloves that highlight how his movements put more weight in his joints. The acrylic claws, the paws on his boots. The lines that highlight his figure in just the right way. The fucking bell. Chat is easily the best design amongst the heroes.

And while this my purely subjective interpretation, I truly do think it's understated how much this outfit manages to sell Adrien's clark kenting. It makes complete and perfect sense to me at least that Marinette wouldn't recognize him like this. Adrien is just slightly generically pretty enough that you wouldn't assume they are the same person just because they're both blonde bishies, and the contrast between the two personas is high enough that it could be realistic that some people wouldn't put them together if they are not looking for that connection. Doubly so for Marinette, who is way too enamored with Adrien's personality of generic un-disruptive niceness with a touch of rich boy angst to fully reconcile it with Chat's outright spicier demeanor lightened with Pathetic Wet Beast Energy for potability.

Rena Rogue vs Volpina

Yeah, this one merits a comparison. It's a perfect example to elaborate on my first rule. Lila already stands out as another of the best human designs amongst the cast, and the sleaze she exudes lends itself a lot better to this slick body-paint tightness and form-highlighting curves. The tail-sash around her waist is also brilliant. She'd probably look even better in something more grounded, but the fact that she's already pulling the outfit off like this is still an accomplishment.

Rena Rogue on the other hand... well, everything around her head is very good and cute, and I especially appreciate the eyebrows on her mask. On paper I also like the top with its longtail, but overall Alya looks a lot blander than Volpina, because her outfit doesn't reflect her personality the way it does Lila's. It's not ugly, even if the patch of white starts to bother me because it has no interruptions as it goes down. In fact it succeeds in making Rena look kind of adorable, really, but Alya is not a cutesy girl, and tbh the overall general texture of the outfit is a lot more body spray-painting-ish than Volpina's, which also makes it look cheaper in a bad way.

The Fox miraculous may be summarized as the power of Illusion, but both girls represent two facets elaborating on that concept: where Lila is the Fox as Deceit, Alya is the Fox as Cleverness. So Lila may be... smart manipulative -Ok, sincerely speaking Lila Rossi is the single most blatant Villain Sue I have ever seen put onscreen, but what I'm trying to get at is that while she -supposedly- has some cunning, her pettiness and eagerness to speak on the fly is -or rather should be- a contrast to Alya, who goes around sniffing for the truth and thus always has a fuller picture. Because remember: the best liars tell the truth. So Rena's outfit should reflect that. It should be less slick and more street-savvy, something that the pendant with its long chain is especially well suited to.

Speaking of all these thematic parallels, am I the only one in the fandom who is extremely weirded out that Lila isn't a rival to Alya? Like, aren't they extremely obvious foils beyond both of them being fox-themed? The girl who bases her clout on lies vs the one who searches for the truth? The girl who pretends to be friends with Ladybug while bullying her civilian identity vs the girl who is friends with both? Have the writers ever exploited this ever since I stopped watching?

Carapace

Nino is almost perfect. I am genuinely impressed at how well they chose the angle of this costume. It's so easy for me to imagine a much shittier version with an ugly cowl/spiderman wannabe facemask -because other characters in this series take that approach-, but taking a page out of spider-gwen's book instead paid amazing dividends. He looks great as teenage not-mutant ninja turtle.

He only has two significant faults. One is that I feel his goggles should be tinted opaque orange, and he should wear a mask over his mouth and nose. You know, make the clark kenting a little easier, the stealth more pointed, maybe he can have a cool graffiti of a turtle beak over the mask for a sprinkle of his actual personality. The second is that the partition he chose for his crotch area is a bit iffy and yes, I am very sorry to talk about this. The shape of the partition itself is not bad but it's the same color, so it doesn't actually help the transition all that much and instead, sadly, it only brings more attention to the middle. My suggestion is that he should take a page out of Rise of the TMNT's book and make the plastron into actual armor that goes from his chest to his navel, instead of just a logo on the front. Then he can either wear black shorts or he can go the Rise!Casey Jones route and wear pants that are slightly baggy but still cinch to his ankles.

Then there's only one last thing he needs to be completely perfect and that is having an actual relationship with Master Fu since he is the direct successor of his miraculous and one of the first characters to be akumatized on account of his resentment towards adults, so I feel like there's a whole bunch of narrative foiling potential not being explored there, you get me?

Queen Bee vs Vesperia

Zoe's face is more interesting and I appreciate that, as well as the design team giving her a braid, but Chloe still wins this one. Vesperia's outfit is reasonably cool on its own, but it does very little aesthetically for her. Perhaps if the colors of her top and pants were inverted it could work, but there's something about the aggressive sharpness of its lines that Zoe's bubbly face is not matching, made worse by the black being at the forefront. That might not be a problem in civilian outfit, but only because that look is balanced with other colors. Or rather, I think she also needs a more casual fit to pull it off instead of a skin-tight jacket. I also get what they're trying to do with her bangs and I would love it were it not for the fact that it doesn't look good in this artstyle. Chloe also has that problem with her hair, but Queen Bee's style fits her a lot better in a much obvious way, and for added points I think Queen Bee wears the cord as a belt better too., so congrats to Chloe on her one win, I do hope the writing allows her to have proper character development later instead of constantly resetting her to square one for conflict.

[rubykgrant]

(Talking about Poppy's favorite movie being the Last Unicorn actually created a whole theme in my head about connections with identity, and it turned into a small story; a character study of Poppy explaining certain things about her life, how her favorite movie influenced her, but also how that story is VERY different from what she went through, with quotes from the Last Unicorn added to compare/contrast. The movie is the Rankin-Bass animated 1982 film, based on the book by Peter S Beagle. I think I'll eventually illustrate a comic with Poppy that follows this narrative, but for now, here is the text by itself~)

I remember watching The Last Unicorn when I was little

I first saw it when I was about two, maybe three

I loved it because it was beautiful, and sad, but full of hope… also, the songs were really pretty. The deeper parts of the story I didn’t totally understand, but it was still completely enthralling

I watched it again and again as I grew up. I started to mean more to me when I was older

As important as this movie is… The Last Unicorn isn’t a direct side-by-side comparison to who I am

Everything that happened in my life didn’t mirror the Last Unicorn… but I can understand why some people might think that. I can also understand how other people might relate to it-

“I can feel this body dying all around me!”

“I am a unicorn! I am a UNICORN!”

The Unicorn was turned into a human girl, and at first, that felt wrong to her. She was trapped, feeling like something she wasn’t supposed to be

However, the more time she spends as a human, the more she forgets being a unicorn. Eventually, she wants to stay human forever. She’s afraid to change back…

Until it has to happen. She is a unicorn again, she is herself again, but she also has her human memories and new emotions. After changing so much, she knows she has to keep living, no matter how hard it is

She also frees the other unicorns that have been trapped in the sea, and kills the monster that hunted them all down. That isn’t the focus to this story about identity, but it was still pretty bad-ass, and also something that stuck with me as a little kid

I never felt trapped by my own body. I never felt like I had to change into somebody else… but other people did make me feel like I had to hide. It wasn’t always possible, or safe, to just be myself all the time

When I was still very little, I just really liked the girls in stories the most. They were always my favorite. I wished I was like them. Then I realized, I could be. Then I knew who I was

I never was anything or anybody else

Even when I had to hide, and lie, and pretend… inside, I was still me

“Once, I can’t remember. I was, long ago, someone strange

I was innocent and wise, and full of pain

Now that I’m a woman, everything is strange

Once, when I was searching. Somewhere out of reach

Far away in a place I could not find, or heart obey

Now that I’m a woman, everything has changed”

I had to keep lying for a long time

Eventually, I stumbled into a place where I was finally free to just be myself

It wasn’t a magical transformation, it wasn’t a fairytale ending… but I was happy, and I was really ME

It felt like I found something I had been missing since I was little… I think a lot of people feel like if they don’t have certain kinds of happiness when they’re young, they’ll never have it at all. Like they missed their chance-

“Where have you been? Where have you been? Damn you, where have you been?

Where were you twenty years ago, ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those innocent young maidens you always come to?

How dare you come to me now, when I am this?”

As long as you are still alive, things can change. I had people who really cared about me, and I cared about them. I found my home. Part of my life finally seemed to begin…

 Then, they were gone. I couldn’t save them, or bring them back, or set them free. Part of my life seemed to die… even though I was still alive

I’m not slender

I’m not dainty or delicate

I don’t really wear make-up or jewelry

I never felt like I had to somehow be more “feminine”, or change my features to really be a woman

I’d still be a woman, no matter what I look like. That’s true for everybody- there isn’t a cookie-cutter standard to being a woman. People who act like there is are full of it

One thing I did want, though… I wanted to grow out my hair

Like  princess. A little cliché, I know

If I kept it short, I’d still be a woman. If I ever cut it again, or if it somehow burns off or falls out, I’ll still be a woman. I’ll always be me, because I always have been

I’m still happy that I can actually do this

A change for myself, that feels right, that I want

I didn’t get to be a princess when I was little… but I’m older now, and I can finally be all of myself

I’m alive, and I have a new home

[s0nia246]

Nightshadz

My Y2k Magical Girl oc. I created her in 2021 using a generator. I love her so much. She doesn't have a team yet but I wanna create on for her.

Cilvian name:Nia Blair

Magical Girl name: Nightshadz

Nicknames: My Jester (called by Monochromatic), My Jester Knight(called by Monochromatic)

Age: 21

Gender: Female

Occupation: College Student, Magical Girl

Cilvian Apperence: Nia is an African American female. She normally wears alternately/modern fashion that her sister makes. Her skin is brown with freckles scattered all over her body, her hair is a reddish-brown short pixie cut, and her eyes are light brown. She also wears makeup and her transformation item the 'Jester's ring' with a red ring with the head of a jester.

Magical Girl Appearance: As Nightshadz, her hair turns into long dark red pigtails with bells at the ends of her tips, her eyes are bright salamon pink. She wears a nightshadz red jester outfit. The outfit is sleeveless underneath striped pink and white with a poncho with bells at the ends on top of it. On her right hand is a short glove tha goes up to her wrist while the left hand a a long glove that reaches her upper arm, shorts un-paned breeches with white and pink striped thigh-high socks, also she has coat tails similar to her poncho on top.She waera a pair of nightshadz red knee-high pointy boots with bells at the ends. She also wears white facepaint, red lips, and red tear drops, similar to how a clown or mime might do their makeup.

Personality: Nia is described as a genius in logic and problems but has difficulty understanding emotions or behavior. She is shown to have a dry and somewhat twisted sense of humor. She is also shown to be very sarcastic when it comes to her sister. Nia is extremely close to her sister. Nia can be seen as a generally rude person. However, she can be social towards other people as well. She loyal and protective to people she cares about.

Backstory: Nia was just a regular college student before one day while walking home for class night at night, Nia and her sister saw a poor rooster getting attacked by something. Her sister quickly went to protect the poor animal. See the monster Nia when to protect her sister. Surprisingly, Nia defeated the monster that attacked the rooster. Shocked by this strong human, the rooster, introducing himself as Monochromatic, the King of the Infernal Regions, he gave Nia his ring, Jester's ring to help her fight and return the citizens of his dimension.

Likes:

• Solving logical problems and puzzles.

• Modern fashion, especially the clothes her sister makes.

• Loyalty and protectiveness towards her sister.

• Ugly-but-cute things like Monochromatic

• Statues

Dislikes:

• Monsters or creatures that threaten innocent beings.

• Lack of logic or irrational behavior.

• Dealing with her difficulty in understanding emotions.

• Anything that poses a threat to her sister.

• Being underestimated or misunderstood due to her sarcasm.

Character Quirks:

• Always analyzing surroundings: Nia has developed a habit of constantly assessing her environment, looking for potential threats or escape routes, even in mundane situations.

• Whistling in stressful situations: Nia has developed a habit of whistling a tune when faced with tension or stress, providing a peculiar contrast to the seriousness of the moment.

• Bookmark obsession: Whether it's a physical book or a digital document, Nia can't resist using unique or themed bookmarks. She collects them and always has a variety on hand.

• Counting steps unconsciously: Nia tends to count her steps subconsciously, whether walking down the street or climbing stairs. It's a quirky habit that helps her maintain a sense of order in her surroundings.

• Unusual fascination with constellations: Despite her logical and problem-solving nature, Nia has a soft spot for stargazing and often finds comfort in identifying constellations, associating them with various events in her life.

• Reciting poetry under her breath: When deep in thought or during moments of reflection, Nia quietly recites snippets of poetry to herself. It's a private practice that helps her connect with her emotions in a more artistic way.

Positive Character Quirks:

• Precision in everything: Nia is meticulous and precise in her actions, whether it's solving a problem, executing a magical attack, or even arranging her belongings.

• Keen problem-solving skills: She enjoys tackling challenges and can't resist the urge to solve problems, always seeking logical solutions to various situations.

• Night owl tendencies: Nia is most active and alert during the night, which aligns well with her magical girl duties but can make her seem mysterious to others.

• Bell obsession: Nia has a fascination with bells, stemming from the ones on her magical girl outfit. She tends to collect unique and interesting bells as a quirky hobby.

• Quick reflexes: Thanks to her self-defense training and magical abilities, Nia possesses exceptionally quick reflexes, making her adept at dodging attacks or reacting swiftly in unexpected situations.

Negative Character Quirks:

• Sarcasm overload: Nia's sarcasm can be excessive, sometimes unintentionally hurting others' feelings. It's a defense mechanism she uses to mask her difficulty in understanding emotions.

• Impatience with inefficiency: She gets easily frustrated when things are not done efficiently or logically, often expressing her annoyance through sarcastic remarks.

• Minimal trust in others: Due to her protective nature and past encounters with monsters, Nia finds it challenging to trust people easily, leading to a somewhat guarded demeanor.

• Obsessive overthinking: Nia tends to overthink situations, analyzing every detail, which can sometimes lead to unnecessary stress or anxiety.

• Secretive about vulnerabilities: Despite being protective and loyal, Nia struggles to open up about her own vulnerabilities, fearing it might be perceived as a weakness.

Abilities:

The Jester's ring can also turn into a knife and staff with four morning stars.

• Jester's Ring Transformation:Knife Proficiency: Nia is skilled in wielding the Jester's ring when transformed into a sharp and versatile knife, making her a formidable opponent in close combat.

Staff with Morning Stars: The Jester's ring can also transform into a staff adorned with four morning stars, allowing Nia to engage enemies from a distance with both striking and bludgeoning attacks.

• Hell-Fire Manipulation & Hell-Fire Attacks: Nia has the ability to manipulate hell-fire, allowing her to unleash devastating attacks with this mystical and potent element. These attacks can vary in intensity and range, providing her with a versatile range of offensive capabilities.

• Illusionary Mastery: Nightshadz can create intricate illusions, deceiving opponents with vivid and convincing images. This skill enhances her tactical abilities, allowing for strategic diversions and misdirection during battles.

• Shadow Teleportation:Nightshadz can meld into shadows and teleport to another shadowy location, granting her unparalleled mobility on the battlefield. This skill enables her to reposition swiftly and surprise enemies.

• Enhanced Agility:Nightshadz possesses heightened agility, allowing her to perform acrobatic maneuvers with grace and precision. This agility enhances her overall combat skills, making her a difficult target to hit.

• Night Vision:Nia gains the ability to see clearly in low-light conditions as Nightshadz, giving her a significant advantage during nighttime battles or in environments with reduced visibility.

• Emotional Resonance:Nightshadz's magical abilities are subtly connected to emotions. The stronger the emotions she experiences or witnesses, the more potent her attacks become. This adds a unique dynamic to her fighting style, where emotional intensity amplifies her magical prowess.

• Jester's Insight:Nightshadz possesses an intuitive understanding of deception and trickery, allowing her to anticipate and counter enemy strategies effectively. This skill enhances her defensive capabilities, making her a strategic and cunning fighter.

[literary-analysis]

Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

This was my second foray into faerie land (after The Cruel Price), and it was a warm, cozy read with witty banter and intriguing morally-grey characters. 

I want to delve into a theme that stood out to me as I read this book: the greed for knowledge and how it can blind you.

Emily’s focus throughout the story is to gather research on faeries for her encyclopaedia. She is infatuated with academic research, to the point where it takes centre-stage even when someone is in danger. 

Despite successfully rescuing Lilja and Margaret, Emily doesn’t lie to herself on her real motive. She knows her focus will always be on faerie research and she acknowledges this:

“Indeed I had as much reason to thank them for getting themselves captured and allowing me the opportunity of witnessing the Hidden Ones’ fair.”

She is blunt in this regard, and while she may come off as an unlikeable character, I found her frankness and dubious moral nature quite refreshing.

However, that does not mean I was not surprised. When contrasting Emily with Wendell, Wendell has never hid his true intentions from Emily or the reader - Emily knows he would not bat an eye if a mortal was kidnapped:

“‘I made no agreement with these people. I went on that mad goose chase for you.’”

This is evident even before they went on the rescue mission, where he highlights the unlikely success rate of the mission.

“‘If you want the truth, I don’t know if it’s in my power to rescue our young lovers, and I have no desire to risk my neck trying. Why do you wish to risk yours?” 

It’s interesting that despite being a faerie with magical powers and having the ability to kill humans or fae alike easily (we have seen him do this and enjoy it), he wasn’t confident in rescuing the two girls from an unknown fae land. 

After knowing this, Emily’s feat of singlehandedly escaping from fae world unharmed and with the two girls is even more bizarre to me.

For her encyclopaedia, for pursuing her academic interests, for an opportunity to see what almost no human has seen and been sane enough to tell the tale, she took an incredibly huge risk. 

This was a suicide mission for her. And it was also out of character for her. As she says herself:

“My life has been one long succession of moments in which I have chosen rationality over empathy…but rarely have they stared me in the face as bluntly as they did then.” 

The moment she chose to enter the faerie world on her own (with Shadow), she chose irrationality. She is smart enough to know the likelihood of being trapped in there and the very low likelihood of coming back alive. 

But while it may have been irrational, I can also see the other side of the argument, which is that she is obviously very good at her job and experienced in fae behaviours, which she did not hesitate to remind Wendell: 

“‘Have you ever considered…that I might be more capable than you think? I have written dozens of papers, read hundreds of analyses. I’ve also had numerous firsthand dealings with the Folk, from hobs to bogles to an extremely self-entitled aristocrat.’”

I'll leave it up to you to decide. Personally I'm undecided.

Overall, this book was a solid 4/5, it kept me entertained and wanting to sip hot chocolates while forever being snug under a blanket and looking out the window to a winter sky.

[league-of-sam]

Catching A Ghost | Simon 'GHOST' Riley

Ghost x Reader

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Simon 'GHOST' Riley x AFAB!Reader!OC 18+ MINORS DNI! t.w // angst, mental health, language, violence, death, sexual themes/SMUT, military inaccuracies, language inaccuracies (google translate).

Catching A Ghost: Masterlist

You looked up at him with eyes that made him weak at the knees.

"Then take me."

Simon Riley did not need to be told twice.

His lips met yours with the heat of a thousand suns, with the same desperation and need as the first time he kissed you. He had been without your touch for over two weeks, and he craved it; craved you.

Once again, he whined as your hands reached up, pulling his face closer. Your fingers tugged at the hair on the nape of his neck. You stood on your tiptoes, pressing your body against his. His arms moved around your waist, pushing underneath your shirt to touch your skin.

Goosebumps raised as you shivered - his calloused fingers a sharp contrast to the supple, soft flesh of your back.

Without removing his lips from yours, he pushed you back gently until the back of your knees hit the bed, and you went falling backwards. He lowered you onto the bed, one hand supporting his weight as the other shuffled you up to the pillows. 

He lifted you and moved you around like you weighed absolutely nothing, and it sent your mind reeling.

He crawled between your legs, nudging them apart with his knees, his hands running up your body to pin your arms above your head.

"Missed ya so much boo...m'sorry." he mumbled into your mouth, "gonna make ya feel good, gonna make it right."

"I missed you too." you breathed out.

Every sense was overwhelmed. Ghost's tongue was once again running rampant in your mouth, driving that heat to your core. Your hips bucked up, desperate to feel any kind of sensation, thighs squeezing at his sides.

He pulled away from you, chuckling, "Easy, love, we have all night."

"You won't leave?" you looked up at him, eyes lidded and full of adoration.

"Never again."

You smiled a smile so sweet, it had his entire groin throbbing as it grew. You were so willing to forgive him, so willing to give yourself to him completely. 

With swift movement, he tugged off your clothes, and leaned back on his knees, looking at all of you. Your chest was still littered with faint bruises from the bullets hitting your vest, scars here and there from missions.

You frowned a little, moving to cross your arms over your chest, but he shook his head, placing a soft grip on your wrists moving your hands to rest on his thighs.

Slowly, he dipped back down, placing featherlight, wet kisses over each mark. You sighed contently, your body leaning into him. 

"Gonna take care of ya." he mumbled, shuffling down the bed so his face was level with your heat.

"Look at ya, so wet and so fuckin' perfect for me."

Your breath quickened in anticipation, and a loud gasp flew from your mouth as his tongue made it's connection. He licked a long strip up the centre, before working his magic on your opening.

"Oh, f-fuck, Si-"

He cut you off with a chuckle, one that vibrated all the way through you as his lips found your clit, sucking and swiping gently. Your legs were already shaking as your thighs clamped around his head.

One hand found your hip to steady you against his face, as the other rose, introducing itself to you.

His finger slipped in easily, long, tender strokes sending your world into orbit. He looked up at you through his lashes, smiling at the sight. Your jaw was dropped open, eyes rolled back as your spine arched, throwing your tits so perfectly into the air.

"So bloody pretty," he groaned, "think you can take another?"

You whined, nodding feverishly. "P-please."

"Good girl, askin' so nicely."

He slipped in another, pumping at perfect rhythm. Your moans were drawing louder and louder, incoherent babble falling from your lips as he dragged you so violently to your high.

Ghost shifted, the movement allowing his fingers to slip deeper inside of you. Now, he hovered over your body, his free hand coming to lock over your mouth.

"Shhh...ya need to be quiet, love." he cooed. "Don't want ya brother burstin' in here to kill me."

"Well you made the fucking comment- oh god." you mumbled through his fingers.

He paused all movement, making you whine in disappointment, "What was that?"

You looked at him with innocent eyes, making him tut, shaking his head.

"Didn't I tell ya that mouth o' yours would get you in trouble?"

You gulped nodding, "Y-yes."

"So I'll ask again, what did ya say?"

"N-nothing, sir."

He smirked, his fingers continuing their rhythm, "Thought so, miss."

You didn't need to tell him you were close; it was both written in your face and evident by the way your mouth bit down on his hand, and how your walls clenched tighter and tighter around his fingers. 

Your hands moved to stretch across his back, nails digging into his covered flesh as you clung to him, chasing your released.

A muffled scream of his name came from your mouth.

He moaned, hand becoming slick with your fluids, "Good girl...good fuckin' girl."

He removed his fingers from you, swiping off his shirt and shrugging down his trousers before climbing in between your legs lining up with your entrance.

You looked down, biting your lip as he pumped a few times, pre-cum glistening at the tip.

"W-wait." you said, placing a hand on his chest.

He immediately faltered, going into protective mode, "What? Are ya okay do you wanna stop I'm sorry-"

"Can I ride you?" you whispered, face reddening.

You didn't dare look back at him, worried that you might have just thrown him off completely. He stayed silent, processing what you said. He thought he misheard you, but no way.

You wanted to ride him, and you'd asked so nicely.

He groaned, feeling himself get harder as he took your face in his hands, tongue swiping at your lips as he kissed you.

"Yes." he whispered back.

Gently, you sat up, guiding him down onto the mattress and swinging your legs over to straddle him.

His hands shook as they rested on your thighs, his breathing laboured. He was clearly nervous about being vulnerable like this, but god, he wanted so bad to power through it for you.

Your hands ran along his chest, and you leaned down, placing tender kisses over his scars, just like he had with you.

He whimpered as your pussy rubbed against his tip, hips bucking slightly.

"Please, baby...I need ya...need to feel ya 'round me."

You raised your body, his hands digging into your hips to support you, and lowered down slowly. 

Mewling out his name over and over, you sank down, taking him whole. He fit you so fucking perfectly, leaving you teetering on the edge of pain and pleasure. 

He groaned loudly, sent over the edge by how well you took him - it was like your cunt was made just for him.

"F-fuck ya so bloody tight- feels so good..." he mumbled, eyes tipping back.

With a whimper, you began moving, rocking your hips back and forth in a rhythm that had you both seeing stars almost immediately.

He filled you completely, sending you moaning and slurring words as he thrust upwards, matching your pace. With every thrust, he hit your spot. 

Over and over and over.

"Fuckin' bloody hell, love, ya keep this up and I won't last much longer." he grunted, hands running all over your body.

"Oh, Christ, Simon-"  you gasped, as he pushed himself up, taking your nipple in his mouth.

White hot pleasure coursed through your veins as you rode him with every ounce of energy in you.

Your chest was smushed against his, his hips slapping yours with a foul noise. 

But you didn't care.

Your mind was on him, and only him.

"S-Simon, m'gonna...gonna cum-" you mumbled, head falling onto his shoulder.

With one hand, he reached down between you, thumb padding the throbbing bundle of nerves, rubbing in perfect circles.

You cried out, fingers scratching at his back.

"Me too, baby - shit - me t-too."

With his lips to yours, swallowing the moans of both your names, you came in tandem, syncing perfectly together. You felt his cock throb as he shot his seed deep inside of you, holding you against his chest tightly.

Both of you were panting harshly, a thin layer of sweat coating your bodies, sticking your skin together.

"So good, so fuckin' good." he purred, placing sloppy kisses on your skin, "such a good fuckin' girl."

"You're so good." you murmured, eyes falling closed as your weakened body collapsed against him.

"God I wanna say it-" he panted, burying his face into your neck, "wanna say it so bad- I just, fuck."

He bit down on your neck, frustrated with himself, causing you to gasp.

"Say what?"

He pulled away from your neck, meeting your gaze. His lip quivered as he tried to force the words out, but nothing came. His face reddened with embarrassment and frustration, his eyes rapidly moving over yours, praying you'd understand.

"Say wha-" your brows furrowed in confusion, until your face relaxed, finally getting it. "Oh, Simon..."

You knew by the look on his face he wasn't lying.

His mind just wouldn't let it slip.

Your heart pounded loudly, because you knew you needed to say it first.

With his cock still rammed inside you, the two of you still coming down from your highs, you tipped forward, arms locked around his neck. Placing your forehead against his, you leant in.

Your lips grazed his, barely ghosting over then, making him whine when you pulled away.

"Simon Riley..." you whispered, and he hummed, opening his eyes to look into yours, "I love you."

The flash in his eyes struck fear into you, because you couldn't quite tell what it was.

The next thing you knew, he'd stood up, turned, and tossed you down onto the bed before crawling between your legs, peppering your entire body in kisses so delicate, it was like hundreds of butterflies were flapping their wings against you.

You giggled, hands in his hair, guiding his face slowly up to yours. When he was level, he placed a searing kiss to your lips, one so passionate that it made you dizzy.

He pulled away, one hand at the side of your head while the other caressed your cheek, "I...shit- I love y-you, too."

"Yeah?" your face beamed with a light that was outshining the moon.

"I love you." he said, with more confidence and sureness. "Yeah, Boo, I fuckin' love ya."

"I love you too."

He smiled so widely, like it was the first time he'd ever heard it.

Little did you know, it was.

And he wanted to hear you say it over and over, forever.

Placing a soft kiss to your forehead, he stood up, sauntering over to the bathroom and starting to run a bath.

You giggled to yourself as you heard his confused mumbles over which bubble bath to use. Rolling onto your stomach, your fingers traced your lips, causing yet another small giggle to leave your mouth.

"Somethin' funny?" Ghost said, leaning against the wooden frame of the bathroom door.

"Not at all." you whispered. "Everything's just...perfect."

He scoffed, rolling his eyes playfully, but felt exactly the same. Johnny was right, taking risks was sometimes the only good thing to do. He took a risk with you, with his heart, and he finally got everything he ever wanted.

Before you could nod off, Ghost was back in front of you, carrying your exhausted, naked body to the bathroom, and lowering you into the tub, where you were enveloped in warmth and bubbles. He stepped in behind you, slotting you neatly between his legs.

You sighed, leaning your head back onto his chest, as he ran a soft sponge over your skin, cleaning you.

"Who knew you were such a big softie, Ghost?" you smirked.

"Hmm." he replied, placing small kisses on your shoulder.

You fell into a comfortable silence, just enjoying the presence of each other. Your fingers reached up, fiddling with the dog tags dangling around your neck absentmindedly.

Simon frowned behind you.

One of the things he'd noticed about you was how you'd play with your dog tags when you were anxious, worried, or had something on your mind. He'd caught you many times running the chain through your fingers or flicking the tags between your hands.

"Somethin' bothering ya?" his voice was gruff in your ear.

You dropped your hands back into the water, looking up at him, "What makes you say that?"

"Playin' with your tags, you do it a lot when ya anxious."

"You noticed that?"

"Course I did."

You smiled, warmed by the fact that this whole time, he'd been picking up on your habits and little things you did to ground yourself.

"Just thinking about everything...wondering where we go from here."

His arms tightened around your waist, his cheek rubbing against yours, "Don't."

"We're loose ends, Simon. Shepherd's coming for us and I swear to God if he so much as touches a hair on your head I'll-"

His hand moved up, cupping your chin to turn your face upwards, placing his lips over yours to hush you.

"He won't touch us. Won't let 'im."

Sighing, you nodded, leaning back into him.

He caught you off guard, then, pulling the chain from your neck, and letting your tags drop into his hand.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Ya trust me?" he said, taking off his own.

"Of course I do, Simon."

He didn't answer, and instead held both sets in front of you, chin perched on your shoulder. You watched as he silently undid the chains, pulling one tag from each, and placing it on the other. Your breath hitched as you realised what he was doing.

He was taking a piece of you, and giving you a piece of him.

"There." he started, tying the tags back around your neck, "Now ya know that I'm with ya, no matter what. And you're with me."

You took the tags in your hands, running your fingertips over the raised letters.

One for you.

One for Lieutenant Simon Riley.

Ghost shifted, pulling his round to meet yours.

One for him.

One for Lieutenant (Y/N) Price.

You had to stifle an emotional sob. Something so small, but weighed down by the deepest, sincerest love.

"We're not supposed to give away our tags..." you joked.

"Want ya to have somethin' to show I love ya."

You leaned in, pressing your forehead to his temple, "I love you too." you whispered back.

He helped you out of the tub, drying you off with a towel before running over to pick up that hoodie. He slipped it over your head, then knelt to the floor, sliding a fresh set of knickers up your legs. 

Stepping back, he admired you for a moment. His clothes absolutely devoured your tiny frame, and he fucking loved it. His hoodie practically reached your knees, and he let out a small groan at the sight.

"C'mere, love." he whispered, opening his arms.

You ran toward him, jumping. He caught you with ease, hands locking under your thighs to keep you strapped to his waist. You felt him grin as you place your lips against his, teeth clashing as you both began to laugh.

"Just can't help yourself, can you, lieutenant?"

"Not when ya look so bloody sexy in my clothes."

You giggled again, yelping slightly as he dropped you onto the bed, climbing under the covers to bring your body back to his, lips devouring yours.

All those moments before, none of it seemed to matter now.

Because this...

This was home. 

He was home.

[kaftan]

Longish post on a discovery regarding lesbianism and the 1001 Nights (again)

So I was trying to track down an online version of the story of qamar al-zaman and the princess boudour (from 1001 nights) and I instead ran into this delightful webpage which has links to so many relevant scholarly articles about it??

https://www.alpennia.com/lhmp/lhmp-event-person/qamar-al-zaman-and-princess-boudour

Here’s a sample of some of them:

LHMP #384 Bosman 2021 ’I Am Not Good at Any of This’ Playing with Homoeroticism in The Arabian Nights

This article looks at two stories within the 1001 nights that set up scenes of apparent homoeroticism due to gender disguise. In two romances—that of Qamar and Budur, and that of Ali Shar and Zumurrud—the woman disguises herself as a man during a period when the lovers are separated, and then when they are reunited and the disguised woman is in a position of greater social power, she teases her lover (who has not recognized her or even realized she is a woman) by demanding that he submit to her sexually (believing he is submitting to a man).

LHMP #383 Antrim 2020 Qamarayn: The Erotics of Sameness in the 1001 Nights

This article looks at how beauty and attractiveness and desirability are framed within the early manuscripts of the 1001 Nights as involving similarity rather than gender difference. While later editions, and especially translations and adaptations into western languages, tended to insert a more binary-gendered aesthetic into the descriptions of characters in the thousand and one nights, this is a conceptual shift from the early versions.

LHMP #135 Epps 2008 Comparison, Competition, and Cross-Dressing: Cross-Cultural Analysis in a Contested World

Epps considers themes in stories from The Thousand and One Nights that compare and contrast gender, particularly in terms of evaluating gendered ideas of beauty, and cultural framings of gendered responses to another’s beauty. The initial discusion covers a debate between two jinn (one male, one female) regarding whether boys or girls are more beautiful. On test that is suggested is which gender is least able to control themselves sexually on seeing the other. I.e., that greater beauty will more easily overcome self-control in the other.

And then I went to the website’s homepage and found this bio from the person who runs it?

Heather Rose Jones writes fantasy, historic fantasy, and historical fiction, including the Alpennia series with swordswomen and magic in an alternate Regency setting. She blogs about research into lesbian-like motifs in history and literature at the Lesbian Historic Motif Project which provides inspiration for her fiction. She has a PhD in linguistics, studying metaphor theory and the semantics of Medieval Welsh prepositions, and works as an industrial failure investigator in biotech.

(bolded text mine)

How was I unaware of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project, which is possibly 10000% my shit? Also, three of the articles on that page are of Sahar Amer’s work; how did I not know that the author who got me interested in medieval Arab lesbianism to begin with was/is a part of this??

Brb exploring this unexpected treaure trove, join me if you like!

[they-them-that]

Ranking Precures based off their design and concept Part 2.

9. Heart Catch Precure

This is my favourite Precure season besides the original for the art style alone, despite putting it in the middle. I love the dresses and floral theme! The designs are so eye-catching although it does admittedly feel similar to Ojamajo Doremi.

There is the problem with Cure Sunshine being a trap character but not because she's willingly gender nonconforming. Feminizing GNC characters and framing nonconformity as a restriction when it's normally the other way around epitomizes traditional femininity as "natural" which is a harmful message for GNC girls and trans kids.

8. Star Twinkle Precure

I'm biased for an alien themed Precure because that's right up my alley! All the colours look so nice together and the outfits are playful and fun to look at. They could've done more to really embody their theme though, I wouldn't think of space just by looking. Especially when the alien precures just look like normal people with different ears.

7. Kira Kira Precure A La Mode

I love how much they committed to the idea and they went for two concepts here; pastry and animal! The actual outfits are so cute on their own but the pawed shoes and giant animals ears and tails are next level! It's probably Precure's funnest season in terms of theme. Zero subtlety and I love it.

6. Go! Princess Precure

It's a lot to look at but I just love the extravagance of it all! The hair is extra, the dresses are intricate, and they execute the princess theme so well! All the details just add to the luxury of it all but nothing actually feels out of place for me.

5. Yes! Precure 5 (Go Go)

Their hairstyles have so much personality and the butterfly theme helps make them distinct. Both outfit versions scream classic Precure which I love and the Go Go ones are a simple but noticeable upgrade. It's an understated yet perfect step into group precures without doing too little or too much!

4. Fresh Pretty Cure

I don't even know how to explain why I really love the appearance and style of Fresh Precure as it feels understated. It's just so cohesive to me, there's obviously a stylistic theme but the girls are still strongly distinct and character driven in their design. Their look feels original without relying on an obvious theme. It's hard to put my finger on but I just know that I love it!

3. Hug! Precure

My favourite in terms of design, only knocked back because of its concept. They just look so gorgeous, I especially love the makeup! Their colour pallets are soft and they're just mesmerizing to look at. It kind of throws me off because they end up looking older than their actual age but I think this is the prettiest Precure line up!

2. Witchy Precure

This is the most clever concept in Precure to me! I love the idea of having the same girls getting different magical girl outfits, it keeps it exciting! They also have very strong personalities that makes their individuality shine through their clothes while the witch aspect is never compromised. It just creates a lot of variety and cool ideas! All the outfits are stunning as well.

1. Pretty Cure

Feels like it should be a given the classic would get first place, they were the blueprint after all. Maybe it is nostalgia talking but the outfits are still top notch! It feels knightly with the shoulder and chest pieces reminding me of armour but the frills and bows add that touch of flare and femininity. Cure Black's outfit has an edge to it that I don't see from other precures and her outfit feels practical on top of stylish! Cure White's is more graceful that captures an elegance that hasn't been repeated since. They contrast each other perfectly! Shiny Luminous has a princess look that suits the theme, even though she does stick out to me. Nonetheless, they still slap and can't be any more respected!

[hollowwhisperings]

KH Spec: Princesses of Light as Stars, part 2.

Part 1 went into the symbolism of stars within the KH series, specifically with respect to Paopu Fruit. It also began establishing the concept of Kairi as a "Star" in contrast to Riku's being a "Sun": astronomically identical, symbolically referential but ultimately distinct. Each "Sun" is a "Star" but each World, each Heart has its own personal "Sun": this is a concept I can see easily worked into the KH series as Kairi begins her own Coming of Age arc, as Sora struggles to remember his "Light", as CinderRiku reenacts The Objectively Best Direct-to-Video Disney Film.

While a later post will go into the Literal Instances of Kairi being a Star, and the metaphysics of "Starhood" within the KH setting, this post will continue with the Symbolism of Stars as pertaining to the Other Original Princesses.

The Original Seven

Kairi's co-stars in KH1 were, in order of appearance: Snow White (Tutorial/Sora's Dive to Heart), Cinderella (DtH), Aurora (DtH), Belle (DtH), Alice (Wonderland) & Jasmine (Agrabah).

While Kairi first appears in KH1's opening cutscene and in the Destiny Islands, her next physical appearance is in Neverland.

So, let us begin with the first chronogical Disney Princesses: Snow White, Cinderella & Aurora.

The Founding Three (+ Pinnochio)

While she does not have as much direct star imagery associated with her, Snow White is very much connected to themes that Disney (& the KH series) would retroactively connect to her: wishes, dreams & true love.

Snow White

Snow White's first appearance has her singing to her reflection in a wishing well (Disney would later establish that wishes could be made on stars in their next animated film, Pinnochio). The young princess wishes to have someone who loves her, someone she can love in turn.

Cue Appearance of an Anonymous, Eavesdropping Prince (this ended up becoming a Pattern, carried even into KH sans musical number).

Snow White later falls into a death-like sleep, a tradition passed on to Aurora & Sora. She is awakened by the joint forces of the Seven Dwarves (who love her & bully everyone in their way to saving her) and The Anonymous Prince. Her film attributes the latter's kiss as having the Power of Awakening: Snow White's story is one of Dreaming, Wishes, found family, cursed Sleep, True Love & Resurrection.

Incidentally, almost every significant event in Snow White's story features animated water: her scrubbing the castle courtyard, the wishing well, her tears of fright after being chased, tears of hurt from her & her animal friends, instructing the dwarves to Wash Their Dang Hands, the dwarves tearing up at hearing her story & upon her resurrection. It's also Notable that the Queen wanted Snow White's Heart... in a black box.

The Guiding Key: "When You Wish Upon A Star"

Between Snow White & Cinderella came Disney's Pinnochio: Disney's most Iconic song comes from that film, sung (I believe?) by the Blue Fairy.

Pinnochio, his story, his World, his Conscience (Jiminy Cricket) & the themes of his film have featured in every Kingdom Hearts game featuring Sora & Riku.

Dreams, Wishes & Stars are all Intertwined. Anyone can grow a Heart. So long as you try, Redemption is possible. True Love is Unconditional.

Pinnochio may not be a Princess nor Light himself but the KH series uses his story as Parable.

Cinderella

A kind young girl who sings "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes": Cinderella's song follows up on those in Snow White's & Pinnochio's films. Cinderella is a dreamer, kind and kind in the face of adversity. The Fairy Godmother gifts her faith with Free Transport, Emotional Support & Affirmment & a magical silver gown (magic & gown both animated in the same style as Starlight).

Cinderella features Dreams Becoming Reality, Magic being linked to Stars (as in Pinnochio), Wishes & Dreams being connected, found family & True Love.

The soap bubbles from Cinderella's chores were & remain amongst the most memorable scenes in animation: bubbles aside, Cinderella has no strong connections with water (though she cries, her tears are not emphasised in the animation).

Sleeping Beauty

Following directly in the examples of Snow White & Cinderella, Aurora's story is not actually told from her perspective but from that of the Good Fairies (her fairy godmothers). Aurora sings "Once Upon A Dream": since SB is not truly from Aurora's POV, sleeping through it almost entirely (ring any bells, Sora?), her song is less about Her & more about the Themes explored by preceding heroines: of dreaming of people & places beyond her sheltered home, of dreams & love being connected, of using dreams & stories as escapism. Her interactions with Prince Philip could be interpreted as his "going with the flow" to keep talking to a pretty girl... but, at least in BBS, Aurora's relationship with Philip is implied as beginning in shared dreams (Riku are you listening).

Blessed Sleep (replacing a curse of death) that holds a World in stasis. Dreams Becoming Reality. Found family, True Love & Resurrection.

Besides a dream-like dance in clouds (repurposed from the making of Cinderella) & the alternating dye of her birthday gown, Aurora has no true connections with water. Her name refers to a phenomena of light & there is no direct star imagery in the SB film itself.

Summary of Shared Themes:

Wishes & Music: "I'm Wishing", "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes".

Hearts: wanted in a Box; communicates wishes through dreams.

Dreams: cursed sleep, the nightmare forest chase, "a wish your heart makes", "Once Upon A Dream". In BBS, Cinderella's world is named "Castle of Dreams".

Hope: wishes, dreams, support of found family.

Water: "Snow" White, wash water, wishing wells, reflections, tears, soap bubbles, clouds, dye.

True Love: awakening & resurrection, the most powerful form of magic, something to fight for, something found in dreams.

Love & Resurrection: the go-to cure for sleeping curses.

All three princesses also have love through Found Families: Snow White finds family in the Seven Dwarves; Cinderella has her animals friends & Fairy Godmother; Aurora has the Good Fairies.

Star Symbolism: Connected By Song

Through the songs of these four films, the Pinnochio film's song acting as thematic touchstone, KH is able to connect each of these Founding Disney Princesses with the series use of star symbolism: Snow White's "wish" (to love & be loved) comes true through a "star" (she, through her kindness and willingness to help, inspires the love of the Seven Dwarves & the Anonymous Prince); Cinderella's Heart wishes for freedom from her life of servitude, a Dream made 'Real' through the compassion of Cinderella (the 'Star') inspiring her friends to help her in turn; Aurora's Dreams (her "wishes from the heart") allowed her to meet Prince Philip while the Love of her Fairy Godmothers empowered them to act against Maleficent & so rescue Aurora from death (via orchestrating a Heroic Rescue for Philip to play out).

Each of these Princesses acted as the "Hearts" of their stories, the Love they had & inspired in others leading them to create miracles both magical & mundane. Hearts are Lights & Hearts moved by Love cast the strongest Light (& Shadow) of all. These Princesses Love & are Loved in turn: the strength of their Dreams, their Wishes From The Heart, connect them to the Magic of Stars: to fairies Blue, Good & Godmother.

An Aside: Love as Freedom

This is a theme unsaid but strongly implied in all three films, given the era these heroines hail from. Marriage was a female's traditional method of leaving their childhood home, in both early 20th century North America & in Japan.

While all three princesses coveted "freedom", wishing for it outright would have given their audiences the impression that they were "selfish" or "irresponsible" (Cinderella was made for post-wartime America: her ability to retain her kindness & cheerfulness whilst doing thankless labour was why she was so beloved by audiences of the time & her animators, most of whom having been conscripted in some form or another).

Thusly, largely anonymous "handsome princes" acted as representations of escape, of joining society, of the world beyond childhood.

The KH series was made for contemporary audiences and is, at heart, Sora's Coming of Age Story: while Sora hadn't quite matured to understand the values these princesses held, he recognised in them that Hope can be powerful. When Aqua met Cinderella's Fairy Godmother in BBS, she was introduced to the concept of Love being the only true method of "defeating" Darkness (Riku's journey to self-acceptance enabling him to use his Darkness without suffering for it proves the point, and "love" is the implied requirement for the Power of Awakening)

[highfantasy-soul]

So I've been thinking a lot about Legendborn and how there were so many great set ups that just....didn't come to fruition or were handled really poorly in my opinion.

I think Black community was really fumbled in this story that supposedly is all about Blackness in a predominantly white society. Black community on campus is mentioned, then there's a paper-thin attempt at it with the therapist and random witch #2, but it's handled so poorly and they kick Bree out of 'community' like, immediately, because her grief is too inconvenient for them (literally, the therapist that's brought in to help her with her grieving her mother's death throws her in the trash with some therapist-speak/bunk diagnosis of traumatic grief after having only known Bree for a week and NEVER actually doing a therapy session with her).

I think the first issue the author ran into was having the only Black woman character wildly incompetent and, quite frankly, abusive and predatory. We're supposed to feel like Bree coming into contact with other Black people on campus is a good thing, a comforting thing, something that will help HER as she's drowning in the grief of her mother's death. Yet the 'therapist' is only interested in Bree because her mother didn't let Patricia in on her Root magic when they were at school together and so now she's trying to get that info from Bree - becoming obsessed with getting Bree to cast magic the way SHE does even though they're supposed to be working through the trauma of Bree's mother's death. When Bree is, ya know, traumatized by a random girl being brought in to the 'therapy' session who tries to force her to face her ancestors who - let me reiterate - Bree has a lot of traumatic grief surrounding, Patricia treats Bree like shit and tells her she's not getting over her mother's death fast enough and she needs to 'find a new therapist' (and at the same time, a new community because the Black one doesn't want her). Hmm.

So, how to get the theme of Black community in a predominantly white space that then turns its back on you across in a better way? I have thoughts.

First, get rid of incompetent adults, or at least if you have them, don't make them the only Black adult representation (barring Bree's father whom I really loved - but he's not in on the secret world, so). I think a much stronger way to incorporate Black community (in contrast to the white community of the Order) AND Rootcraft would have been to have Bree's father insist she join the Black Student Union to make friends on campus that will help her keep to her studies and allow her to have that Black womanhood community that she lost when her mother died.

Bree could have gone to a meeting/event and when asked why she chose UNC, she could have mentioned her mother being an alum - here's a great place to include the picture of her mother in lab gear on campus where she can point it out to the others - and one girl (appropriately aged to be Bree's friend rather than an adult) can get excited that 'OMG Faye was your MOM??' And enter the connection between Bree's mom and the Rootcrafting community on campus. Maybe that girl's mom went to school with Faye and though she didn't share much about her Rootcraft, they were in a lot of science classes together.

So, the established student can then bring Bree over to a group of other Black girls in the student union who all practice Rootcraft and - voila - Bree has a community we can contrast with the white boy club of the Order. Maybe this girl group could try some fumbling attempts at helping Bree through her grief, but as they're young too, their attempts are genuine, but not very effective. Through that, they might try to teach her some Rootcraft in the way their mothers taught them and so when some harmful things happen around the craft (like an ancestor memory walk gets ripped out of the control of the one who cast it - unlike when that happens with the ADULT who was supposed to be in control of the THERAPY session and then acknowledged NO part in her responsibility for the life and mental state of the CHILD she was supposed to be THERAPIZING), it's understandable because the other caster was a kid, too, and it just got out of hand. There's not really malice in a kid trying to share what they do and it going haywire and everyone freaking out while to me, there IS malice when it happens with an adult who never takes responsibility for putting a child (Bree) in danger/distress.

So here we have a way to include Black community (more than a single token Black person then another for about 2 pages who we have no connection to) in an organic way that's able to give Bree some real friends and a true look into the social structure of a magic system that mirrors the Order (group of powered kids figuring out how to use their powers to help people) but is wildly different.

Their rejection of Bree as she refuses to leave the Order would also be much more realistic and understandable than the shittastic 'therapist' rejecting Bree because 'being a part of the Order is a harmful coping mechanism for your mother's death, and since you haven't gotten over that in the single week of non-therapy sessions we've had that have only traumatized you further, I'm ditching you'.

These are a group of students. Black students. Black female students at a predominantly white college (I thought there was a whole thing about Rootcraft being only with the women of the families, but there was a throwaway line at the end where I think Mariah had mentioned one of her uncles was a Medium who got possessed by ancestors too, so I'm kinda unclear about that - but if boys can have it too - maybe we can get a Black love interest for Bree here instead of only having the two white boys! Unless we want to make Bree like girls too, and in that case, triple yay!). If they're connected to someone who has infiltrated the Order to take it down, their entire college career will go up in flames - they might lose scholarships, internships, get kicked out altogether. It might then bleed over into the Black Student Union at large and paint an even bigger target on their backs where the Black students are even MORE over-policed on campus. AND it could spread to their families as the Order doesn't like anyone using magic in a way that's not theirs and so their own mothers will become targets of the Order.

All that is a much much more understandable reason for a Black community to ostracize someone because they want to continue being a part of the white boy's club.

You would feel for the Black girls who taught Bree Rootcraft and tried to help her with her grief because they've got lives too! Their whole purpose in life isn't to help Bree, they've got to think of the community at large. Patricia's existence in the narrative was 100% centered around Bree and her magic/grief - it was the only reason she was there. Her reasons for rejecting Bree were just as personally directed at Bree - nothing to do with 'if the Order connects me to you, I'll lose my job, every student here I help with Rootcraft will be under scrutiny and could be harmed', etc. No, it's solely: "Bree, you are super traumatized by your grief and after one week knowing you, you aren't over it and taking actions I view as harmful instead of being a good little Rootwitch like I want you to be, so I'm just going to abandon you now. Fuck off."

I think introducing Black community and Rootcraft through students Bree's age (I would also age Bree up to be no a fucking 16 year old on a college campus) would have really been a better way to explore those themes.

Idk, just my thoughts on the matter as the therapist is my most-hated character in the whole book and I'm pretty sure that wasn't the intention and I CANNOT stop thinking about it.

[qwertzze]

Ok, get ready for design notes from what I can remember. It's been more than a few weeks, so this won't be all of it.

Sam n Jade are singing ah ummm... I don't remember exactly which song it was meant for, but it's from Hercules.

I was really trying to lean into parallels for Jade n Sam, I tried to use sharp lines for Sam and more rounded ones for Jade.

The belts have the same stripe on opposite sides, though Sam's is harder to see.

I imagine if I had drawn Jade's teeth, she might have a bit of an overbite to contrast Sam's missing tooth.

Then there's the matching pin/clip things, I really do like the idea of them dating. Both trans, sexuality don't matter in this case.

I tried to give them both a kind of trim/color fade for the bottoms of their outfits (Sam's pants and Jade's skirt)

Obviously, they both got sleeveless turtle necks because I'm a sucker. Jade's hair goes down while Sam's goes up, and while that's just how the transfer of their features went I like that parallel anyway.

Matching gloves, too!! It's ambiguous where Jade's other hand is, but I imagine it's just on the small of his back. I really wish I had drawn more of them when I was into KinitoPet, they're so lovely 😭

As for Kinito himself, he's being wingman'd by them in the form of song. His shirt matches his surfboard, and the clip is the user's mouse for obvious reasons.

I wanted something rainbow/colorful in general for his pants, and I remember thinking it was somewhat 'retro' at the time. I'm not sure about that

I didn't want him to be too formal, but I wanted SOMETHING like a bowtie for him, so he gets an untied necktie. I'm not sure about the actual term.

Post fixation clarity from when I was really into KinitoPet for like a month went wild

The only notes for these sketches are that I couldn’t find one color for Kinito that I really liked, which impacted my drawings of him

Leaned into pink/green contrast and surfing when I remembered to, mainly I was having fun

Magical girl kinito would transform with the tamogachi, and the main weapons would be desktop themed. In universe it was just promotional material by his company

Also Bert

[falloutjuli]

I was inspired some time ago to write for Vik and since I study art I wanted to see him with an artistic Reader. It’s short and 2am Brainrot but I hope you will enjoy it anyway.

Thank you so much for the positive reactions towards my Tutor!Viktor x Reader, I am currently working on a second part (Together with the Discord Server haha)

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this little brainrot, I am simping hard.

______________________________

Viktor x Fem!Artist!Reader

The sound his cane made echoed through the big hall. It annoyed the man it belongs to, since he always thought he annoys people with this sound. 

Luckily there currently was no one in the hall, as he had the advantage of belonging to the Piltover academy, which this hall also belonged too. It was currently filled with fine art of the art students. 

He himself was a scientist, a brilliant prodigy from Zaun. Normally Viktor wouldn't describe himself as a person who is interested in art. Sure, he could easily appreciate a nice painting if it hang in a corridor or anything, but to actively seek out exhibits was not the norm. 

He was only here in the first place because Professor Heimerdinger specifically recommended it to him. 

Why was a mystery to him. 

Sure, the landscapes were beautiful and some of the portraits even looked interesting, but nothing captured his honey colored eyes just yet. The official opening of the exhibit would be tomorrow but as a fellow academic he was allowed to wander thought the rooms much earlier. It had it's advantage. 

He could step really close and inspect the canvases and sculptures much longer without bothering anyone. When Viktor's gaze wandered through the next hall, he stepped into he noticed he wasn't all alone. 

A girl stood in front of a painting, tilting her head left and right with her hand on her cheek. As she heard Viktor's cane make contact with the ground with a "thud" that echoed through the room, she turned her attention to him. 

A pleasant smile was on her lips and she waved to him, before she turned to the painting once more. Her h/c hair was put lazily together. 

Once Viktor stood next to her, he also let his eyes analyze the painting. It was a naturalistic painting of the Hexgates, which made Viktor smile fondly. The other paintings in the room were all magic themed. 

The little card next to the Hexgate painting read simply: "Hexgates at sunset - Y/N L/N"

"Mind telling me what you think about the painting?" The girl next to him asked. "Well, I think it's rather beautiful. I just wonder why the artist chose the Hexgates as their motive." He answers, leaning on his cane while his free hand moved wildly around to seem sophisticated. 

"The task was to create multiple works that feature something that inspires you. And looking around the room, I would think that the artist was inspired by magic." 

Viktor nodded and turned his head to also look at the other pieces properly in the room. "Well, they are all quite beautiful, but I think I like this one best." Viktor pointed at the Hexgate painting and the girl chuckled. "How come?" She asked, turning her body towards him. 

"Well, the contrast of the blue runes from the Hexgates against the dark orange sky and the careful attention for details around the runes and buildings makes it seem so real. Like I can feel the magic through this painting." She looked at him with a sly smile and slight red tinted cheeks. 

"I'm sure the artist would appreciate your words. Are you another art student?" She asked and gestured to sit on the small bench in the room. Viktor went to sit with her before answering. "No, I belong to the scientist. Art is not really my thing, I only came because Professor Heimerdinger recommended it to me."

 Somewhat shyly the brown haired male brushed a loose strain of hair behind his ear. "Well, then I hope you enjoyed the exhibition. Better make a good impression." Her smile was so genuine and the way her beautiful e/c eyes sparkled when she spoke made Viktor’s knees weak. 

"I think I can see myself maybe checking the art department more. I mean this room is truly something else." 

"I'm glad you think so. It's always refreshing to hear a non-artists thoughts." "Well, I might be biased towards these paintings as I and my partner Jayce created the Hextech." Her smile faltered and her eyes widened. 

"You're Jayce's Partner Viktor?" She exclaimed and got up. The sentenced echoed through the halls. 

Shyly Viktor nodded and suddenly his hands was locked in a death grip. "I can't believe it. One of the greatest minds is sitting just right here. Wow." Viktor had to laugh about her excitement. He had seen people react like this towards Jayce but barley towards him, nevermind some pretty woman in an art exhibit. She also knew his name, a rare occurrence. 

The girl cleared her throat, which ripped Viktor out of his thoughts, and she took a deep breath. She drew back her hands, which made the Zaunite almost sad that now the warm of her delicate hands were gone. "Sorry. I just had never expected to see you or Jayce here. I have been so impressed and inspired by the HexTech ever since you two created it." 

Viktor felt humbled and he wished Jayce was here to guide the conversation. There was a reason why the tall, muscular man took care of all things public.

 "No worries. It's always nice to hear and see that we inspire other people." Viktor's gaze landed on the HexGate paining again. "You really like that painting, do you?" She asked and Viktor nodded absentmindedly. To his shock and horror, the girl quickly went over and removed it off the wall. 

"What are you doing?" Viktor exclaimed. "Please accept it as a gift." She quickly took a marker out of her vest and began to write on the backside of the canvas.

 "So, you're the artist I hope?" He saw her nod, her hair moving around gracefully. Once she was done, the marker disappeared in her vest again and she offered him the canvas. 

"Please take it." She repeated and hesitantly Viktor did. He couldn't believe that he was just gifted an artwork that he found so intriguing and mesmerizing. "But aren't you missing something now for the grand opening?" 

"I'll create something new. I'd be honored if you would accept my humble art as a gift. Really, it'd mean a lot to me." She pressed her hand onto her heart and looked at the taller man with pleading eyes. So with a happy nod, Viktor fully took hold of the canvas and she let go. 

"Thank you so very much for accepting. If you may excuse me, I have to get home and work on a new piece." She smiled so warmly at him, he felt his heart melt. "I hope you will attend the grand opening tomorrow. I would be more than happy to see you again." 

He felt his head become lighter with each second. "I think I can get myself to take another break from the lab." "Okay, then see you tomorrow?" She asked as she was about to leave the hall. 

"See you tomorrow." Viktor assured her. With her now gone Viktor was alone once again but he decided he had enough of art for the day. 

So with the big canvas under his arm he made his way to the lab. He got some funny looks on the way there but her couldn't care less. Once in the lab, he set the canvas down on his desk and then looked at it once more. 

Remembering that she had written something on the back, he turned it around.

"For Viktor, a great mind and man of progress. With love, Y/N." 

It made him involuntarily smile as he set it aside to work on his research. In the back of his mind echoed the beautiful laugh of the talented artist and it made him smile throughout the work. 

When Jayce came back only a little later, he too inspected the painting that Viktor was gifted. "that's really pretty. And you got it signed?" Jayce asked as he turned it around. "Yes. Spoke to the artist herself." Jayce whistled and set it down. 

"Real pretty but where is my painting with a personal dedication?" Viktor just rolled his eyes and kept that dopey smile on his lips. Jayce did pick up on it, but decided to not say anything. 

"So, you'll attend the grand opening tomorrow?" He asked from his own desk and Viktor nodded, even when his partner couldn't see it. "Yes. I want to see what she will exhibit instead of this. I also enjoyed talking to her."

"Well, I wish you a nice time then. I am invited to dinner with my parents, otherwise I'd join you and see if I can get a free pretty painting too." Viktor felt almost jealous, but he knew Jayce was just making a joke.

 With the grand opening already full on happening the hall was filled to the brim. Now Viktor would really like Jayce by his side, as he felt odd in this big crowd. He dressed himself up, a casual suit that he had made him look just as fancy as the other guests attending. 

He slowly made his way towards the room where he had met the pretty girl, letting his gaze wander over the other paintings in the process.

One he reached the room, he saw that it was packed, and Y/N holding a little presentation. Thanks to Viktor’s height he was able to watch despite standing all the way in the back. 

His heart skipped a beat when he saw the new exhibited painting. It was an abstract portrait of him. It was truly mesmerizing, like her other works. She had such a brilliant way of using colors.

His eyes couldn't leave the portrait no matter how much he tried. If they did they only landed on the young artist, who presented her work. She wore a beautiful f/c dress, and she was all dolled up, looking absolutely stunning, like her paintings. 

Once the presentation was over and some people scattered Viktor approached her. 

She smiled widely once she spotted him. Before she was able to say anything Viktor showered her in praise. "I would have never thought I would see myself be painted. And then it happens and it's such a beautiful work done by an amazing and talented artist. I'm blown away, Y/N." 

Her cheeks heated up at the kind compliments and they displayed a faint red shade. "Aw, thank you so much. I really hoped you'd come. And I really, really hoped you'd like my interpretation of you."

 "I do. I can barley take my eyes off it. But when I do they get stuck on the beautiful artist who created this piece." Now Y/N was really flustered, she laughed shyly, fiddling with her fingers as he continued to speak. 

"If you don't have anything else to do, would you mind walking around with me? I would appreciate hearing the thought process you had creating your art." Viktor offered his arm, and after a second of hesitation, you link it with yours, snuggling up to his side. 

"I would love that."