#but i'll probably post some color options on here when i get to those

[dotmander]

How To Get Your Character Models Out Of A Game: Tips And Tricks For Bitches That Have Never Used Blender

(it's me, i'm bitches)

(also ignore how messy that lighting is it's 1am and i should have been asleep hours ago. he's there for proof of concept 💕)

a couple people (specifically @forsaken-constellation and @ratasum) asked for a tutorial on how to rip models out of the game. this is not that, but it is a compilation of resources i used to learn about ripping, blender, and 3d modeling in general. i desperately wanted a post like this to exist when i was trying to figure this out, so here we go! all the resources below are completely free, with the exception of a link to the patreon of the person that created ninjaripper.

disclaimers:

there are probably more efficient ways to do the things i am doing. i watched a tutorial to learn shortcuts and then skipped to character models. if you have tips to add, corrections to make, or other thoughts, please feel free to share! i'll link to your post here. ^^

i do not know if any of this will get your account banned. i've ripped several models, so i'm going to assume it's fine as long as you don't try to make money off of it. use your best judgment, be an adult, etc etc etc

last updated: june 30, 2024

PROGRAMS & WEBSITES

ninjaripper 1.7.1 - there's a newer version on the creator's patreon, presumably with support for newer versions of blender and fewer bugs, but i haven't tried that

blender 2.79 - the import addon that comes with ninjaripper 1.7.1 is outdated for the current version of blender (3.5 as of this post), so 2.79 is needed to combine the .RIP files into a .BLEND (blender) file

noesis - ninjaripper saves your textures as .DDS files, noesis lets you view them and export them as .PNGs

blender 3.5 (optional?) - i just like it better than 2.79. if you're completely new it might not matter to you. all of the tutorials linked later are for later versions, though.

mixamo (optional) - rigs your character for you and lets you put them in Situations (like my guy above.) there's a whole library of free animations and poses you can try!

TUTORIALS

how to use ninjaripper - most of what you need to know about actually ripping the files and using ninjaripper is covered here. do not skip this one.

how to use blender 3.5 - full disclosure i haven't finished this series because it's uhhhh many hours long. but if you are a complete newbie to blender, i do recommend at least the first few videos; you'll learn about shortcuts that will make your life easier, how to unfuck your model when it fucks itself for no reason, and different terms that will help you google things you don't know later on. possibly he even covers some of the things i'm about to link! anyway.

what's a uv map?

how to apply textures

how to apply bump maps (note: for our purposes, you wouldn't add a color ramp node, you would add an image node with your bump map, and attach it to the bump node as the person does in the video)

there should be stuff here about weight painting, cloth physics, emission maps (makes your sylvari glow), and other stuff, but um. i haven't figured those out <3  

TIPS

TURN UP YOUR GRAPHICS BEFORE YOU RIP - if you don't, you might end up missing certain textures/glows/etc. HOWEVER, you should turn animations down, because apparently high animation can make your meshes misplace themselves

rip from the character select screen, rather than an instance, because you will have 100 meshes to sort through instead of 1400. i am not exaggerating either of those numbers. if you are new to blender, please love yourself and start with character select.

your textures will be fucked up the first time you try to apply them. this is because the UV maps (the things that tell your textures where to go) of your models are flipped upside down in relation to the texture image. you can flip them back over manually, ooooor you can just flip the entire texture file in something like CSP or photoshop.

for some reason all eyes are red in the texture files. i have not figured out why. i recommend editing the .PNG to have the correct eye color before applying the texture.

that's all i can think of for now - if you have other questions, feel free to shoot them my way, although i can't promise i'll have a straight answer ^^;;

mixamo only works for humanoid characters with tight clothing (or without clothing at all). if you try to use it to rig a charr or asura, or someone with a skirt or big sleeves, you will most likely be disappointed.

2024 edit: sometimes parts of hair meshes just...disappear. i have no idea why. if you can figure it out please let me know LMAO

information from bookahlogy about character proportions, fixing normals, and other fun tips

[nitrowyverine]

I think I write dating sim/VNs/etc reviews now? Anyway,

LOST IN LIMBO REVIEW/THOUGHTS

This VN piqued my interest, so I gave the demo a shot! This review will follow the same general format as my Obscura/Touchstarved review, except there's 7 (!!!) romance options.

Since I totally loved this game, I'm going to put the conclusion promo up here too: if Lost in Limbo interests you, consider playing it Here, Here on steam, and/or backing it Here!

ALSO! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE DEMO!

My (long winded) thoughts are below:

(Banner image courtesy of the Ravenstar Games tumblr account pinned post. Individual character pics courtesy of tumblr posts from the studio. Individual posts are linked in character titles.)

Gameplay design thoughts:

the plot immediately sucked me in, I'm pretty invested in whatever the hell is going on with the protag, the realms, the lords, etc. I think the setup/land are deep enough to draw me in, but not so intimidating in it's depth that I'm afraid to explore more.

I always enjoy a little bit of nightmare fuel in my games, so the voidbound are perfect. They're so gross and horrible, but not just a stock zombie/nightmare creature design. Whenever the voidbound pop up, it makes the back of my neck itch, which is perfect.

I have no idea whose route I'll pick first. Usually I have one candidate that I can pick out as number 1. This game however? I go back and forth all the time, since I love all of them. I do think I have bias for Ara/Gael/Amon/Envy, maybe?

I really want to design an MC to doodle for this, but I feel like I don't know enough about other people in the realm. (Mostly, I'm assuming that standard humans don't have pointy ears? how close to our reality is the regular world?) I might say "screw it" and design an MC anyway (with some speculative clothing for once they get cleaned up)

The backgrounds have been great set pieces so far. Sometimes I catch myself just kinda staring into space at them. They've got a fantastic flavor.

Misc. Thoughts written during a replay

Fun touch to have Evie's rock image from the beginning fortune shop scene line up with the 7 LI's color schemes.

Each of the VA's does a lovely job with their voices. I've been turned off of certain dating sims because of bad voice acting, but the acting in this game is superb so far. It really helps set the richness of the story.

I have a theory that the LI's (and possibly people in Limbo in general) experience pain differently. The characters seem largely uninterested in the MC's stabbed, weakened state, beyond a "Oh that sucks....we'll clean you up later" mentality. I wonder if they have different pain tolerances, or are just less attached to such things. (Then again, Amon and Raeya have full missing limbs/eyes, so they probably have a decent perspective on pain altogether)

What does wielder/non-wielder mean? Xal says the MC "Can't wield, can't see." What do the LI's see that we don't? Ara mentions that the MC seems "Completely normal". Many mysteries.

I need those monster forms like crazy oh my goodness. Please devs PLEASE SHOW THE MONSTER FORMS

Now, to the lovely love interests!

Amon

WHO LET THIS MAN BE OVER 7 FEET TALL? PRIDE YOU HAVE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO

I only just noticed he also has a few freckles, *chefs kiss* (Waaaiit do all of them have little freckle skin textures??? Oh this is a glorious day.)

It's hard not to love a big friendly guy. I was honestly relieved when he first showed up, because I did Envy's route first, and I was thrilled to see a friendly face in the big dark scary woods.

This does not mean, however, that I'm not excited to see what this guy turns into when he's mad.

I like that he has pity for MC when they first show up, but I do worry it makes his resolve weaker. I'm not as confident that he could handle society/reality breaking down as well as the others. Can he put aside his affable nature for when shit hits the fan?

Question: What level of fight had to happen for Amon to lose his eye? He's already huge, and has some sort of telekinetic powers. My theory is that he was taken by surprise, maybe by someone close to him.....(Envy I'm looking at you)

RIP Amon you would have loved Hawaiian shirts

Conclusion: Most likely to be the camp counselor who hurts his back from always giving piggy back rides. Least likely to keep his composure during a badly timed pun/dad joke.

Raeya

I'm fighting for my life whenever shes on screen good LORD

Similarly to Amon, I GOTTA know the story behind her prosthetic arm. Its so rad looking, but how did she lose a whole arm? (I am also considering that she was also not born with one)

Playing the demo again, she makes a specific comment about the monsters having not "infected a limb" of the MC. My bet is that's how she lost her arm.

I wish I could have spent 1:1 time with her, but it wasn't offered in the demo. I'd love to have like, a sit down discussion with her about history. (Well I'd be fine getting lectured about history and drinking tea and hanging out)

Out of everyone's motivations, I think I understood Raeya's the most. Even if she was against MC, I think her concerns are completely valid. If an alien fell out of the sky from a different reality to earth I'd ALSO be taking every precaution

She and Amon have matching ear chains, that's adorable....

I hope I can take her on a nice date and spoil her and let her relax in the full game, pretty please. Nothing bad will happen right???

Conclusion: Most likely to gently remind the waiter that you said NO pickles with your order, thank you very much. Least likely to admit to being the one who farted in a crowded room.

Envy

every other line from him is "UGGGHHH" and i love that for them.

After playing, I think I've finally realized that I've got a soft spot for grumps. just grumpy lil friends with their pouty faces

I want (vivi's) Envy's nails SO BAD. I need him to do my nails because theirs are perfect. Envy, envy PLEASE

They pretend not to care, but are already getting attached to the MC by the end of the demo. I can't wait to see what they're like when they actually DO get attached

Elephant in the room, what could he have possibly done to get himself demoted so severely? Everyone seems to be fine with him being demoted except Amon, who sheepishly vouches for him when he can.

I just wanna wrap him in a blanket burrito like you do with a spicy kitten. and then give him little smooches

Conclusion: Most likely to be they guy who gets one drink at a party and sits in the corner with the dog/cat all night. Least likely to allow their partner to willingly boop their nose with any regularity.

Pride

Old man yells at cloud? No....old man IS cloud.

The dev's tumblr has mentioned that he's a pathetic old man, but for now at least, I am afraid of his authority and power. since hes like. yaknow. the big god of this world

The VA did some fabulous work for his voice. I definitely got actual chills in certain parts. 10/10

Okay, so WHAT is this guy's deal with mirrors? He looks great, why is he worried about it. I sincerely doubt he's just 52 though, if he's a god. (as a note for all these interests, I have a feeling that the ages are their physical ages, and not their actual ages. Or at least, age relative to ours. I think they're much older in our years than in their years.)

We also didn't get any 1:1 time with Pride in the demo, so I'm fascinated to see what alone time with Pride would be like. Is he quiet? a chatterbox? Just a guy??? does he only play piano and not talk to you. (power move)

Conclusion: Most likely to show up WAY over-prepared for Parent-Teacher conferences. Least likely to understand and survive the cinnamon challenge.

Ara

Certified CUTIE PIE

We got a pretty clear demonstration of everyone's powers in the demo, except for Ara. Unless it was too subtle for me to realize, I'm not actually sure what her cool powers are yet.

If she DOESN'T have plant powers I'd be very surprised.

I keep wanting to think things like "I have to protect her" or "keep her safe at all costs". But then I remember she's likely absolutely terrifying, and I honestly should be actually afraid for anyone who gets in her way.

I would like to remind/inform everyone that so far, she is the only member of the cast who is visibly armed at all times. (Raeya doesn't count even if her arm claws look really really sharp.)

If I have to pick anyone to party with, it's probably Ara. I know she'd throw an absolute rager, but would also make sure you stay hydrated. I wanna hold her hand too. Please?

I'll go butch for her, i'll do it if thats what she wants. I'm weak

Conclusion: Most likely to be able convince you to give her your kidney. Least likely to let you skip a bloodthirsty game of monopoly because you "Have a headache"

Gael

where did he find pants long enough for him.

Okay. So its HIS fault that Amon has the deepest V-cut since time immemorial. Do you think Amon and Gael had an extensive argument about the minimum amount of clothes Amon has to wear at any given time? Because I do.

His powers certainly did not. Awaken anything in me. Nope.

he has the shortest and most perfect arc from stranger -> friendly -> ???? -> BETRAYAL

I am MASSIVELY curious about his dissociation/spacing out during the demo. He was 8 million miles away in the tower for some reason, and I HAVE to find out why. I just KNOW this man is doing some questionable shit with good intentions and I can't wait to find out what it is.

So, he has SOME issue with touch. No idea what it is, but I can't wait to find out what it is. Also noting he's the only one with full-coverage gloves in the cast. Interesting...

Conclusion: Most likely to cry after being sent those sad FB/insta animal stories. Least likely to let you open your own car/carriage/etc door under any circumstances.

Xal

He looks so soft. I have to bully him, in a good way. (Like grim from Date with Death)

I am fascinated as to why he would lie for MC. That's such a great hook to his character. What does a guy who so desperately wants to be left alone have to see to stick his neck out for a stranger?

SOMEONE get this man a NINTENDO DS POST HASTE

THIS GAME HAS TO GET FUNDED BECAUSE XAL SAYS HE HAS A CAT AND I WANT TO SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will do it, I will be the one to tuck him in when he is too eepy. I will carry him to bed and kiss his little head good night

Wait, if he can "Figure something out" by touching it, he could be like, the worlds greatest doctor. Xal please get off the couch and help me diagnose mystery ailments in a medical sitcom

Conclusion: Most likely to injure himself rigging up a Rue Goldberg machine to scratch his back. Least likely take it easy on you once he learns how to play super smash bros. (He's a fox/falco main)

Concerns:

What the Ravenstar team has already been able to accomplish is incredible. I'm worried that with 7 whole love interests (with a possible two more on the way if the kickstarter goes well), i'm worried the devs are taking on a whole lot of work. I think they're fully capable of taking this on, but I hope they don't burn themselves out in the process.

I'm pretty happy to see the kickstarter is moving along, but there's always the chance that something happens, and/or the kickstarter goal isn't met. BY THE TIME I FINISHED WRITING THIS IT GOT FUNDED LETS GOO!!! I still hope this project makes it all the way to completion beyond the kickstarter. Things can always happen, so Ive got my fingers crossed for the Ravenstar team!

OVERALL CONCLUSION:

I loved the demo, and I have now backed the project! The team is trying to hit stretch goals now, so share Lost in Limbo with your buddies! I crave content for this game like nothing else.

[poeticpains]

Poe's Giffing Tutorial (From One Beginner to Another)

Hey, everyone! So, I've been thinking about this for a while, and decided to finally make it happen. This post aims to be a giffing tutorial that isn't a bunch of technical jargon that nobody except experienced giffers understands. This is for the person that I was when I first started out: someone who wants to make gifs, for free, without having to learn the entirety of a new program. As such, if you're already familiar with the basics, this probably won't be super helpful to you.

In this, I'll cover the basics of actually capturing a gif, the how-to of color correction (though without getting into the nitty-gritty detail of it), some basic text effects, and some more decorative effects like overlays and ~fancy coloring. I'll also show you the program I use to resize gifs.

I don't have a fun quip to lead us into the next part, so, uh, let's just dive in.

Tools*:

A PC capable of handling heavy processor loads (I use a mid-range gaming laptop; it's a little slow sometimes, but it works)

Whatever you're giffing (obviously...)

ScreenToGif (a free, basic screencapture program)

Photopea (a free, in-browser Photoshop dupe)

RedKetchup (a free file resizer/converter)

*Note: These are not the end-all, be-all of gifmaking. They may not even be the best tools for the job! But they're free, they work well, and they're relatively intuitive.

Step 1: Capture your gif.

I'm going to use ScreenToGif for this. The first thing I do is open the program and click Recorder, which opens the recording interface.

I click and drag (or manually input dimensions in the boxes next to the recording button in the lower right corner) to set my dimensions, and then I press record. The red "Record" button will change to a blue square that says "Stop," and a timer will appear in the upper right corner, showing how many seconds your gif is.

Generally, I'll pause the video 5-10 seconds before my desired start time, to give myself a buffer (you'll be able to delete those frames later), start the recording, and then start the video. You'll probably find a system that works for you once you do it a few times.

Once the scene that I want to capture is done, I'll click the blue "Stop" button, and the overlay will close itself. A few seconds later, depending on how long/complex/large your gif is, the program will pop up with a new window where you can edit. Here's what it looks like:

You can do a lot with ScreenToGif, but we'll be using the dead simple stuff today. Click the "Edit" tab, fourth from the left, and this will show up.

"Delete All Previous" and "Delete All Next" are our friends here. Go to the FIRST frame that you want in your gif, using either your arrow keys or just dragging the slider, and select it. Then hit "Delete All Previous." This will make that frame the first frame of your gif. Then, go to the LAST frame of your gif, and hit "Delete All Next." This makes the last frame of the scene that you want the last frame of the gif. You can also use the "Delete" option to delete frames by selecting them with your cursor if you want a more manual option.

Now you have your raw gif! Go to the "File" tab, the first one on the left, and select "Save As" from the menu. You want to make sure that it's saving as a .gif file, not an .mp4 or .apng --- you can check this up at the top. Don't worry, though, as .gif is the default, so unless you change it, you should be golden. Select whatever folder you want to put it in, name it, and save it.

You could absolutely stop here. It is by no means required to color your gifs or slow them down or any other number of things associated with giffing. But if you want to, here's how I do it.

Step 2: Edit your gif.

Head on over to Photopea. You'll see this:

What we want is the "Open From Computer" option. Click it, and your File Explorer will show up. Navigate to whatever folder you saved your gif in and select it by double clicking or clicking once and hitting "Open."

It'll open in a new workspace that looks like this.

You may be saying, "Gee, Poe, that sure looks a lot like Photoshop!" Yes, it absolutely does. If you're familiar with Photoshop, you will most likely be able to find your way around Photopea just fine, and can probably go from here. But if you're not familiar with Photoshop, here's the basics.

First thing's first: gifs are frequently pretty fuzzy/blurry. Luckily, sharpening them is easy.

Select all your frames (the list on the right with all the numbered layers) by clicking one end, scrolling up/down, holding Shift, and clicking the other end. Then go up to the tabs and do Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. This will automatically sharpen each frame using a percentage; the default is, I believe, 150%, and this is usually what I use because I am fundamentally lazy.

If you don't select all your frames, only the one that you're currently on (the one highlighted in a lighter color) will get the effect applied to it. This goes for basically anything you do, so it's good to get in the habit of selecting all.

Now that it's sharpened, we can color it. Go up to the tabs again, and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > [whatever you want to adjust]. Most commonly in Escape the Night, you'll have to adjust brightness, because there's a lot of dark, moody scenes; Season 3 is also especially yellow/orange tinted, so you'll probably want to color correct it, too, using the Color Balance adjustment layer. This is a total guessing game based on the exact scene you're doing and my method is just selecting random things and adjusting sliders until it looks good (remember: fundamentally lazy). Honestly, I'm not an expert in coloring gifs, so I won't pretend to be — especially since people can and do write entire posts just dedicated to it. For this gif, I'm just lightening it a little.

And if this is all you want to do — no text, no effects — you're done! Go to File > Export As > GIF. It will take a few moments to load, so don't panic when your page freezes. A new window will pop up that allows you to do things like set looping, time, etc. but you can also just "Save" and you're done!

But let's say you want something fun. Maybe you'd like to overlay a quote or make it a cool color. If that's the case, continue on...

Step 3: Make your gif shine.

Three parts in this: text, fun colors, and overlays. You can combine these three to do some awesome things, and they're all very simple to do, once you know what you're doing. Think of them less like steps and more like a mix-and-match deal. You can use one, two, or all three!

So, here we go.

Option 3a: Add some text.

The easiest option of the three, this one works exactly like you think it does. The uppercase T symbol on the sidebar will create a new text layer where you can type something and set a font, size, and color.

I'll spare you the lecture on typography that I could give you — you can find better ones than I could make. Generally, though, you have a decorative/display font for headings and emphasis, and then a different, more generalized font for subheadings and other things. In this, the display font is Heavy Heap, which was used on the Season 3 tarot cards, and the general font is a relatively generic serif font.

(Sidenote: you can load fonts into Photopea! Just go to a font website like Dafont, download the font you want, and then open it as you would any other file by going to File > Open and selecting it from your files. You should get a message that says "Font [Your Font Name Here] Loaded," and then you'll be able to use it in your design. That's how I got Heavy Heap in there.)

You can change size and color with these, which will show up at the top when you select the text tool. Keep in mind that if you're making changes after you type something out, you will need to select (highlight) the text you want to change — it won't do it automatically.

I will admit that Photopea's text editor is not the cleanest, simplest, or nicest to use, especially at first. I came from Canva where it was much faster and easier. The downside, of course, is that Canva is highly limited with what you can do.

There are also ways to warp the text, change the blending, and do outlines, but I'll leave that for another time as to avoid making this any longer than it already is.

Option 3b: Make it a cool color.

You have a couple different ways to do this. Probably the most intuitive is to go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter. Select the color box, pick the color you want using the picker or a hex code, select your desired density, and click OK. Boom, color over your gif.

It defaults to this vintage-y orange, but you can pick whatever color your heart desires.

However, I usually use a different method using Gradient Maps. This is also pretty easy; Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. If you leave it black and white, by the way, you get a B&W gif (you can also just select the Black and White option in the Adjustment Layer menu). Click on the gradient, select the white square on the right side of the gradient line, and then select the square down at the bottom of the window and change it to whatever color you want.

For this gif, I'm leaving it B&W.

(You can have a lot of fun with gradient maps. Play around with them!)

Option 3c: Overlay another gif on top.

Ooookay, so, this is the most advanced and tedious of effects to do (at least of the ones documented in this post), but it's worth it, I promise. For this, you'll need at least one other gif. I usually use a base gif that's relatively neutrally colored, oftentimes B&W but sometimes just faded or pastel, plus one (or more than one) colored, brighter gif. These are, of course, just guidelines — combine whatever gifs you want. The only real requirement, per se, is that they have the same amount of frames. If they don't, it'll look weird. (But if you do end up with two gifs that have different amounts of frames, you can delete the difference right in Photopea, so I don't stress about it too much.)

You also generally want to add text after this step, so if you're planning on doing this, save the text for last.

First things first: color your gifs the way you want and then save both of them. Then re-open them both in Photopea. Yes, this is annoying. I did say it was tedious.

So now I have both of them in my navbar, labeled as "tutorial base" and "tutorial overlay."

Go to your overlay gif and right-click on the gif folder. This is the top layer with a little arrow and folder icon next to the name of the gif.

Select "Duplicate Into" and then pick your base gif in the popup. In my case, it's named "tutorial base."

Now you'll click over to your base gif, and you'll see that your accent has been put on top of your base. Now you get to have fun with blending!

Right click on the overlay gif's folder again. Then, select Blending Options, which is the first menu item. It'll bring up a popup with all sorts of options for styling your layer.

The default setting is Pass Through, which is what we see here. If you want, you could just change the opacity to get your desired effect.

You could also play around with blending options such as Overlay, Color Burn, Lighten, and Screen. Every gif is different, and every gif will look different with different options, so experiment and see what looks best! You may have to go back and recolor it a few times, so I recommend just keeping the project open in your navbar for easy access.

For this gif, I think I'll go with Darker Color at 67%.

One last step, and then you're done with blending!

Go to Layer > Animation > Merge. This will merge each frame of your animation (the gifs) with each other, meaning that they'll play at the same time. If you forget this step, as I do frequently, you'll go to save your gif and find that it plays as a sequence.

Once you've merged your gifs, you can add texts, more effects, PNG overlays, whatever you want! Congrats! You did it!

Step 4: Resize your gif (if necessary).

Maybe you've made a gif, and it's beautiful, and it's amazing, and you wanna show everyone...but it's five million megabytes and you can't send or post it anywhere. Tumblr's max file size is 10 MB, while Discord's (standard) max file size is..7 MB, I think? Either way, if you try to upload something bigger than that, you'll get an error message and the familiar taste of disappointment.

Never fear, Redketchup is here!

This is Redketchup, and it's super simple.

Go to "GIF Resizer" under Animation Tools. Upload your gif, then scroll until you see the Resize GIF section. Input the percentage you'd like to reduce it by (presets are 25%, 50%, and 75% smaller, but you can set it manually, as well).

This is also the step where you can slow it down if you desire if you didn't do it in Photopea — it's in the next section down. Set the speed, if you'd like, and then go down to the bottom and hit Download.

It'll take you to a preview tab where you can check if your gif is small enough. If it is, hit Download again up in the top left, and that's that! Go share your gif with the world!

Conclusion:

Thank you for reading! I am by no means an expert gifmaker, but I want to spread the love and give other people the option to do it. I wouldn't know any of this stuff without the people who taught me, and I'll put a list of tutorials down at the bottom that I referenced when I was first learning to make gifs.

At any rate, if you use this post to make a gif, feel free tag me or send it to me so I can see! And for those of you who are on the fence about learning or starting to gif...

Do it. I double-dog dare you.

:)

References:

Blending Gifs by @the-mother-of-lions

Photopea Coloring Tutorial by @heroeddiemunson

Merging in Photopea by @bellamyblakru

And, though not a specific reference, I frequently browse @usergif for inspiration (they have tutorials there, as well, but I haven't checked them out yet).

[loudn-mcyt]

Superhero AU: Spruce

On the last poll, Spruce kingdom and End kingdom ended up tied. I considered a couple options for a tiebreaker to decide which one I was going to do first.

Then I woke up at 3:30 this morning and decided that I might as well do both since i have nothing better to do.

So, here is the first of those posts, for Spruce. I'll also be posting End kingdom in close succession so keep an eye out for that. (The masterpost will have links to both, as well as all previous builds)

Both builds for Spruce were extremely easy to conceptualize and build for me; they just felt like very natural extensions of the lore within their episodes. Additionally, these builds should be pretty straightforward - if I had to pick any of these characters to give to a first-time player, it would probably be one of these two. First up is Anathra. The colors for this one were taken from his coat and visor.

Anathra's powers center around controlling cold and ice. At the time I built this, I didn't know about his whole visor/hologram lore, which would have been very fun to build, but I like this path forward as well - it's a lot more tied to sbk specifically. He has a few different options, all at range, for single-target or area damage, or some control with the frozen in place affliction. He can also shape his environment with the ice sculpture power. These offensive options are enhanced by his advantages, which represent the precision and control he has over his powers - accurate attack allows him to sacrifice a little power for a better chance to hit, while precise attack allows him to circumvent cover with his attacks.

On the defensive/utility side, he has a pretty robust set of tools. He's immune to any effect with the cold descriptor, including his own powers (well, mostly...that complication may disagree), and can activate an aura of intense cold that harms anyone who comes into contact with him. His lowered body temperature also allows him to hide from infravision by blending into the background, and can sense when other people use similar powers to his. He can also "skate" by covering the ground with a thin layer of ice to increase his speed going forward.

There's not much to say about Anathra's skills or advantages; his advantages not geared towards combat are to complement his analytical nature and his skills as a team player, and the skills I gave him are also geared towards a perceptive character.

Acorn was also extremely easy for me to think of a role for; after all, she already has the mask down. The colors here are from her normal sweatshirt and her mask.

Acorn is the first real 'vigilante' style character, with significantly less put into powers compared to most of the builds I've made. Her powerset is pretty simple, taking some traits from tanukis/raccoons to give her just a little more impact in combat and a lot more mobility and utility to get around quickly.

This kind of build centers a lot more around generally high abilities and lots of skills and advantages, and that's where most of the points went here. Her advantages highlight her training and adaptability, with focus on exploiting her opponent's weak spots and getting out when things get rough, as well as some noncombat advantages to emphasize her investigative traits and skill in stealth.

Skillwise, she has a lot of options. focused around the idea of a stealthy investigator. Three to highlight are Expertise: Streetwise, Investigation, and Stealth: with the Skill Mastery advantage, she can always treat those as though she had rolled a 10, resulting in minimum outcomes of 19, 21, and 24, respectively.

This one was a lot shorter, but it's like I said - these are some of the most straightforward builds I've done, and by far the easiest to pick up and understand.

[legolasghosty]

I blame @latinposeidon for this. This post he made inspired it. I failed in the 'Don't write a ficlet' department. Enjoy!

Hmmmm, which color, Willie wondered, his fingers dancing over the sea of black lids in Julie's drawer. Okay, this probably wasn't what she'd meant when she said he could borrow some of her stuff for the band's gig tonight, but well, Willie had been eyeballing her nail polish collection for like a month now.

What, it was pretty. The little flashes of color always caught their eye in the best way when other people wore it. And without Caleb around to police their wardrobe choices, he could finally give it a try.

Though maybe there was a reason Willie hadn't just asked Julie outright if he could borrow hers. Maybe he was a bit nervous about how it would look. Maybe they couldn't quite shake Caleb's disapproving glares, couldn't always ignore the nightmares of that same expression coming from the faces of Julie or Luke or Reggie...

Willie tried not to think about the dreams where Alex gave him that look.

But those were just dreams and this was real. Willie wanted to do this and they were going to. He just had to pick a color already.

"Everybody decent in-" Julie started, entering the room and cutting herself off at the sight of Willie hunched over her desk. "What's going on in here?" she asked slowly.

Oh geez, this wasn't good. She was going to get mad. Boys weren't supposed to wear nail polish. And they definitely weren't supposed to just take stuff without asking. There went Willie's friendship with the one lifer who could see him-

"Ooo, are we doing nails?" Julie questioned, peering over their shoulder into the drawer. "Perfect, I needed to do something with mine anyways."

Willie just stared at her for a long moment. What? She wasn't upset? Why wasn't she upset? Was she pretending? Why would she-

"Willie, you're spiraling," Julie said softly, touching his arm. "You're doing that same glazed-over thing Reggie does. What's going on?"

Willie shook his head. Right. This was Julie, not Caleb. She'd already let them borrow and tie up her hoodies and oversized band shirts more than once. She hadn't batted an eye when he walked in on Alex braiding their hair. It was fine.

"I just haven't painted my nails before," Willie confessed, voice much softer than he'd intended. "Caleb didn't let us."

Julie bit her lower lip and nodded. Willie didn't talk about Caleb much, so he wasn't surprised that she didn't really know what to do with this information.

"It's fine," he added. "Just got in my head for a second." More than a second, but who was counting? "Well there's no Caleb here now," Julie said after another silent moment. She reached for the drawer, fingers wrapping around one of the bottles. "What color do you want?" Willie was a little startled by their own laughter. "Well that's what I was trying to figure out," they explained, twisting the black ring around their middle finger.

Julie gave him a long, appraising look. "How do you feel about pink?" she asked, after taking in his black shorts and purple and white crop top.

"Isn't pink more Alex's color?" Willie asked slowly. He couldn't stop himself from checking out the options though. That one was almost the same color Alex's cheeks got when Willie kissed them.

"Well yeah, so it'll make him lose his mind," Julie retorted. "Pick a color."

Willie grinned and grabbed a cotton candy bottle of polish.

"Perfect," Julie agreed, choosing a dark purple color of her own. "I'll do you, you do me."

Willie nodded, grinning. They perched on her desk, letting her take the chair. Julie laid out some paper towels in case of any drips and they got to work.

And Alex did lose his mind a bit over the pink on Willie's fingertips. Though he confessed later, when it was just the two of them curled up in the loft of the garage, that it was Willie's grin that got him first. And really, what was Willie supposed to say to that? Alex was just being too cute. All Willie could really do was kiss him at that point, his pink nails tangled in the pink string of Alex's hoodie.

[syntheticmortal]

I got tagged by the lovely @crownedinmarigolds! Thank you so much mate!! I'm absolutely charmed 🥰

Now my rat bastard spouse stole most of my tagging options on their post so to not double-tag I will add:

@skaerdir, @klaciate, @tzimizce and @vamp-orwave!!

If anyone who sees this wants to be an honourary tagee, then go for it XD

For those who don't know - Hi I am Alex! (He/They) and I'm a writer and an English immigrant to the USA!

3 ships: oh mate all of these are OCxOC with @c-n-i-d-a-r-i-a-n

Victor and Gloria – A Nos and his unbound Ghoulfriend. Making your touchstone one of your mission Ghouls is dangerous af but live fast love hard, lads.

Jeff and Lamb – Another of Vic's unbound Ghouls and the Thin Blood Nos that joined the Warren. Disgustingly fucking cute injected into the den of the rejected and disgruntled.

Ventan/Taakur Rig and Rozanin Rig – My and Daz's SWTOR PCs respectively. A Chiss Cipher Agent that ends up having to go hide with his Mandalorian hireling with her Clan and Roz's unrequited love becomes hella requited and suddenly Ventan/Cipher Five-now-Taakur has step kids??

I love it so much.

first ship: Oh god this takes me back to being little. Probably a Sonic one??

Shadow and Rouge if I had to take a guess??

last song: Temptation by Sean Paul! A proper bop

But honestly massive shout out to the second Nostalgia Synthwave mix by Odysseus on youtube

This thing keeps me sane, and has all the songs marked! – that opening one, Realign by Cerulean, can usually just melt my brain into peace whenever I hear it

last film: Snatch – Like VTMB it's a problematic fave that oozes style and characterisation throughout. Watched it as prep for a Setite I'm going to play in a V5 game >:D

currently reading: Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan as part of genre research. Finished The Vampyre recently too! Really I should pick AC up today, I've been working hard on my editing and outlining of my own pieces and neglecting the reading part of the craft for a few weeks >.>;

currently craving: So I'm drinking far less booze to save money whilst I'm out of work trying to get some Proper Writing done. So when I hit a good worthy milestone I'm getting a bottle of whiskey and I am ready.

fav color: Green! Sometimes purple!

relationship status: Maaarriiied to @c-n-i-d-a-r-i-a-n

last google search: I had to double check the spelling of Taakur for the ship section, so it was 'mandoa' :')

and before that I'm pretty use I searched Scryfall last night to go look at MTG cards even though I have no one to play with right now :'D (at least it's saving me money >.>)

current obsessions: Was tempted to add my own work here but I'll tag that on the very end XD

There's a lot of fandoms I don't leave – World of Darkness and Warhammer 40k predominantly as settings I always have another angle I want to see explored in!

I do however have the Magic the Gathering bug, even though I haven't really played in years and years now – but card interaction as a generation for narrative has always kind of captivated me? Like there's a couple big mean Ogre cards that make Rats more dangerous, but due to the way the systems work they also empower the Ratfolk of Kamigawa, the Nezumi, as they count as 'Rat' cards still. So big Ogre spellcasters improving Rat people as part of a contained bit of narrative kind of fascinates me as a concept.

Plus each deck presupposes a Planeswalker character who's casting those spells – and I was always intrigued by that notion and so most of my OCs are representative of decks I played (or wanted to :P) and then in turn each Planeswalker needs a Plane to come from, probably from a still existing culture on that Plane too, and so it can kind of wonderfully reverberate inspiration.

Like how every VTM Kindred OC presupposes a Sire!

BONUS ALEX SECTION

So if you want to get to know me, let me tell you about what writing I'm working on/have made recently.

Out now!

The Mutilation of Finley Reid

A short story of masculine horror, about a young man by the name of Finley who suffers in the pursuit of having his place as a man affirmed by his peers.

The world of Torranham Nights is an anachronistic reflection of England set in the coastal city state of Torranham, drawing from contemporary culture and folklore as well as the legends and reality of the cultures that came before – without being fetishistic about it like a lot of stories will.

Handle It

A short retail horror, about working the cash register of a butcher's counter, and the customer who orders increasing amounts of ground beef...

Inspired by my own work in a same spot, anyone who's done service work should get a kick out of this – plus it's free and only takes 20 minutes to read! XD

On the way!

Defector – name subject to change

A short story of grief, shame, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, and community. On the moon.

A Special Recon mech pilot, “Crash”, from Earth has defected to the Moon rebels, and now lives in Magnolia City, rotting away in her tiny apartment. Then the Provisional Government sends one of its elite commanders, a former enemy of Crash's, to pull her out.

Elhart: Arrival

The first of a short story fantasy anthology about a city of refugees at the edge of time and space, hiding from the end of the multi-planar universe. A super soldier has washed up with a near-fatal headwound and no memory, and she must learn to live in a far more peaceful world than the one her instincts suggest she came from. But who was she? And can she earn the trust of people who fear her potential to kill?

Neon Sun

A novel! Cyberpunk Vampires! If we're mutuals you can come ask about this but I'm not ready to share things too publicly for this one yet, but the outlining has gone beautifully in my opinion, and the worldbuilding is singing.

Speartip

I'm making a TTRPG!! It's a Powered by the Apocalypse engine game, about serving as the primary field agents of a faction of people who need your support and protection. Because if you're going to be a hero, who are you doing it for if not your kin?

Setting agnostic as hell, excluding some implicit need for magic in the class moves – I'm prepping to playtest this in sci-fi and fantasy settings to see how well my mechanics hold up in both swords and firearms based stories. Plus I'm going to explore a variety of perspectives of what the faction can be – from ethnic groups, to gangs, to guilds, to neighbourhoods.

I'm VERY excited about all this!!

[gwydionae]

King's Quest Fan Remakes

After talking about them a bit recently, I felt compelled to play through the old KQ fan remakes (1-3 from AGDI and 3 from IA), and I wanted to share my more in depth thoughts for anyone interested in these love letters to the original games.

King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown Remake from AGD Interactive

A lovely update to the original! While clearly the least polished of AGDI's offerings, it's nice to be able to play KQ1 with KQ5-style graphics and voice acting (the original voice of Graham, Josh Mandel, voices him in all four of the games in this post, ftr). There is an option to turn off any chance of softlocking yourself before you even start the game, which is a welcome feature. Puzzle-wise, this one stays the most faithful to the original out of the three from AGDI with a few updates here and there (like that stupid name puzzle! lol). The vocal performances and sound effects can be a bit fuzzy, but I found them enjoyable nonetheless.

Overall a solid fan remake with limited extra bells and whistles!

King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones from AGDI

Easily the most ambitious of the three from AGDI. Pretty much all of the core elements from KQ1 are further polished here - artwork, acting, music, and sound effects. The story and puzzles, however, have been changed enough that the end product is sizably different from the original. In some cases, this is fun and interesting (more lore and character interactions! new and unique puzzles!), but not everyone will enjoy all the changes. I, for example, find the underwater section kind of fun, but the new content around the count... not so much (for reasons I'll avoid due to spoilers, but know they're more mechanical than anything). There's less freedom in when you can do things, the added story making the game far more linear than it originally was. But then I'm sure many would agree that if any KQ game could do with extra content, it'd be 2, so I can't fault them swinging for the fences, even if not every hit was a home run.

All in all, this version of KQ2 doesn't really work if you're simply looking to experience the original game with updated graphics, but it's a fun playthrough nonetheless, and newcomers might enjoy the added lore/story bits. Just be aware that I could probably sum up the original game's story in about two sentences while this one would take far longer. XD

King's Quest III: To Heir is Human Redux from AGDI

If KQ1 wasn't fully polished and KQ2 was a little overworked, then KQ3 is juuuuuust right! (For anyone who knows the game, yes, this is a purposeful pun. XD) The graphics, sounds, music, vocal performances - all are the best yet (though still with some minor hiccups as any fan game is wont to have - the music was sadly cutting out during the climactic sequence for me). It even has a neat little feature where the timer changes color depending on how close you are to being zapped into oblivion that is not only useful but adds a sense of urgency in it's own way (especially if you forgot the item that makes travel a lot easier for like 2 meals I mean what lol). While it does carry over some of the story threads from AGDI's second entry, this game still works well enough on it's own, with the majority of the new content being added in naturally rather than supplanting whole sections of the original. In fact, personally speaking, I think the added content only enhances the game, your encounters with Medusa and the yeti especially getting a nice boost. And the extra lore only helps you feel for the protagonists plight all the more. The ending is a bit drawn out, perhaps, and I may not agree with the order you're supposed to choose the four items in to get the treasure (insert rant here XD), but those are minor nitpicks at best.

This is easily the best of the three, AGDI having perfected their KQ formula at this point. It works as a remake of the original while still adding in a bit of new content that doesn't feel unwelcome. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in giving the King's Quest series a try.

King's Quest III: To Heir is Human Remake from Infamous Adventures

Look. I know that it's not as impressive as AGDI's version. The time limit is laughably long, the spells are impossible to mess up, and some of the clickable areas can be a bit wonky. But I really like this version, ok?? I like the design and voice of Gwydion, I like the storybook quality that the cutscene art has, I like that it feels lonely when it should. And as much as some of the changes in AGDI's version were really nice, I like that it's basically just the original game without extra stuff added in.

This is like AGDI's KQ1 - a really solid remake of a game that gives you the feel of the original but with an updated interface and graphics. It's not as impressive as the one above, but it doesn't have to be. The original KQ3 is an awesome game, so an update of just that can't be bad. It can easily be played as a standalone game, and I will continue recommending this version 'til I die, lol.

[arenabreadandbiscuits]

OFFERING COMMISSIONS (Art, Writing, Animations, and MORE) Please Read Full Post If Interested and VOTE

-

Waited a week and maybe a few extra days for this person to pay $50 dollars for this commission (lineart, color, and time) and they haven't yet sooo.. since commissions are a serious thing that I've mentioned time and time and time again here I'm just going to post it and let others enjoy the art since if I'm not getting paid, attention from people who will pay and pay on time are ones I'm reaching out to.

They mentioned wanting to pay with mobile deposit which I mentioned over and over again that I haven't used before and even after I looked into it mentioned that I wasn't comfortable with that method of payment. After waiting I've decided to just move on.

If YOU have the funds, are serious about payment, and happy to help someone trying to heal from their disability while also trying to keep a good head and some money in their pocket in the living situation they are in right now please dm me!

I do art and writing commissions: Art - open to headings, pfps, couple pics, OCS, favorite characters and them x OCS

And writing commissions: Fanfic - OC x OC, OC x cc, cc x reader, reader x OC, smut, angst, fluffy, yandere, etc

My commissions aren't cheap except for lineart but it depends on case. The lowest I'll go for an art commission would be $30 and the lowest I'll go for a writing one would be $5 but the highest I'll go for art is $250 with THIS being an example. (< Hazbin Hotel Banner) And $195 for writing up to 10k words.

Here's the picture of the art I drew but wasn't paid for.

I don't like usually posting the faces but I tried everything for a marker or something to cover it but since it's not working here's the time lapse. Anyway this commission made me want to do more pet commissions are well just for practice so if you want your pet and you drawn and are willing to pay money upfront or midway then my dms are open to you. For the most part I won't post it unless you want me to or unless you're like this person.

Poll for engagement to reach better buyers.

Prices can be debated of course, I'm willing to have prices change depending on what art you want, how much time it takes, and what is included in it. Cases most likely will be unique for certain people and things but as long as we both agree on the price I'm willing to accept anyone. I also wouldn't mind Commissions for smut art (OC x Sebastian Michaelis for example..) but that would probably be extra dollars so yeah.

I've opened animation commissions in the past but no one said anything about them so while these prices may change later at some point I feel pretty okay with the prices here. Imagine paying for smut art but basically animation. They will only be lineart until I grow more comfortable with coloring animations and when I eventually do of course I'll price up for cases to get paid what I deserve for my work. Just be patient with animations since they'll take a couple days to get done I'm sure but you'll absolutely get an amazing piece for commissioning me.

Never send me money unless I say I'm ready for it, with this being said I refuse to be blamed if you don't follow the rules and these many posts I've made for how I take and accept commissions. If you have questions ALWAYS ask them before anything else.

My ONLY Payment methods currently are:

CASHAPP

CHIME

VENMO

ONE

RIA

CURRENT

PayPal is an option too but not one I prefer using really. If you can't use any of these payment methods or refuse to please don't bother here with me. Give space for those who actually want and can help me please and thank you. Also if you are an account that shows up and tells me to DM you with no further information I will be immediately blocking you.

I look forward to hearing from many of you! Just please understand my rules, I'm so tired of explaining them all the time haha.

[unfriendlyamazon]

Find Your Flag (gen fanfic)

i was thinking of saving this but since @kaijous posted their bi pride yugi i'll post my bi pride tristan. a little exchange we did to celebrate our favorite bisexuals in this fandom

characters: Tristan Taylor, Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, Anzu Mazaki, Miho Nosaka, Duke Devlin & Seto Kaiba (mentions)

rating: G

summary:

As Domino City ramps up for its first pride event, Tristan can't help but feel a little anxiety.

Tristan took the side roads to Kame Game, his motorcycle puttering along with the increased traffic. Most of the main roads in Domino’s downtown were already cornered off, pushing motorists to wind through the streets. He caught glimpses of the main thoroughfare as it was being set up. Floats were being readied, and workers in bright t-shirts directed pedestrians off the main road. Music blared from all over, and the parade would end at the entrance gates to Kaibaland, which had free entry all day. Domino City’s first pride event was shaping up to be one for the history books.

And of course the crew was going wild. Duke’s game shop was along the parade route, and they’d secured a float, meaning they’d been traipsing around in a full ball gown for a week to get ready. Anzu and Miho had spent the morning at Kaibaland, dressed in oranges and pinks with flowers in their hair. They’d meet the boys when the parade was ready to start, which was why Tristan was heading over to Yugi’s with still a few hours to go. Joey’d slept over at Yugi’s to avoid the disrupted bus schedule, and he’d already gotten plenty of pics of them preparing their outfits. Tristan lagged behind, a little less enthusiastic than his friends. He was happy the parade was happening, and the whole thing had those Kaiba flourishes that really made it pop, but the truth was, he didn’t know if he was ready to take it to the streets. He’d only started admitting he was bisexual last year. Now the whole city was waiting for him to come out of the closet, fishnet shirt and bisexual pasties included.

He parked the bike and waved to Grandpa as he started up the steps to the upstairs apartment. Pride flags fluttered outside of Kame Game, and someone had draped a trans flag over a cardboard standee of Yugi. Some kids were taking pictures with it. He didn’t bother to knock as he pushed open the door to the comfy living space. Music carried from Yugi’s room, where Yugi and Joey were laughing on his bed. Both sat up as Tristan came in.

“The big man’s here!” Joey shouted. “I thought you were gonna bail.”

Tristan gave his best smile. “On Domino’s first pride? It’s a historic occasion.”

“Kaiba really went all out,” Yugi said, jumping from the bed. “He’s grand marshalling the whole thing.”

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Tristan said.

“Did you see the photos he posted?” Joey nudged his buddy. “He’s kinda hot as a girl.”

Tristan rolled his eyes and shoved him down, earning another peal of laughter. Yugi grabbed a handful of shirts from a discarded pile and held them up to Tristan.

“I went thrifting with Anzu,” he said. “You said you didn’t know what to wear.”

Tristan’s eyes swam with the options in front of him. Yugi definitely had his style, and he’d gone with a mesh shirt pleather pants for himself, crisscrossed with strips of fabric in dark colors of the bisexual flag. He’d done his hair at full spikiness, with enough gel to probably hurt someone if they got too close. A spiked collar and several chains hung down from his throat. The clothes he’d picked out, he’d at least gone more subtle on. Strips of fabric in dark pinks and blues on clothes where he’d definitely guessed the size.

“Thanks,” Tristan said, “but I think I’m just gonna wear this.”

He felt them both sizing up his current look. He’d stripped the motorcycle jacket off, and he’d gone with a simple blue button up and his usual jeans. The two glanced at each other, and Joey shrugged.

“Whatever works, big man.” He slapped a hand on Tristan’s back. “Show me what you got for me.”

Yugi brightened and untangled more outfits. Tristan sat back as they chattered together, holding up clothes, laughing at the stupid stuff they said. It was easy to let them caught up in whatever they were doing, so he could focus on breathing. He wished this whole thing wasn’t giving him anxiety. He wanted to join in with his friends, laugh and share and feel pride, but with every news camera and Instagram post he felt his fear rising. It wasn’t like his parents would see him front and center. It wasn’t like his buddies at the garage would just know. But they might. For so long Tristan had wrapped himself in the blanket of I have gay friends, and that shield was slowly disappearing. Now he’d be in the crowd, with the world watching.

No pressure.

He startled as Joey dropped down onto the bed beside him. Yugi was in the bathroom, applying his makeup, but it was as private a moment as the two were gonna get that day.

“You okay?” Joey asked.

Tristan grinned at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

He tilted his head, but didn’t say anything. After a few beats, he jumped up again, grabbing a tin from Yugi’s bedside and shoving it at Tristan.

“Gramps dug these out,” he said. “Vintage pride buttons.”

Tristan glanced at him as opened the tin. Buttons of varying size were collected among other trinkets. They came in all sorts of colors, bearing slogans like CURE AIDS NOW and GAY POWER. Lesbian and gay and liberation mixed together. Joey reached in, snagging a button and holding it out to Tristan.

“I know you’re not the flashiest guy,” he said, “but I thought you’d wanna wear that one.”

Tristan turned it over in his hands. The metal had tarnished on the back, and it was clearly homemade. The front was black, with a pink and blue triangle intersecting each other. The wording was simple: BISEXUAL PRIDE!

“If you want,” Joey said. “No pressure.”

Tristan wondered briefly where the elder Muto had picked these up, if it’d been a passing fancy, or an intentional collection. Maybe he’d felt the same way Tristan did holding it. Someone had made this, crafted it, shared it with the world, in a time where wearing a button like this was the bravest thing you could do. He closed his fist around it and smiled up at Joey.

“Thanks,” he said.

A knock against the bathroom door made them both look up. Yugi waved his phone at them.

“Anzu just texted,” he said. “She and Miho are heading this way.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll put on some clothes,” Joey groaned.

Yugi helped him worm into a top that showed off his top surgery scars, and he’d switched out the laces of sneakers with rainbow themed ones. He was digging through Yugi’s body glitter collection as Tristan opened his palm to look at the button again. Anzu and Miho’s voices carried from the doorway, and he smiled, lifting the button to his chest and pinning it into his shirt.

“Are we ready?” Anzu called, hands on hips, bossy as always.

Yugi bounded towards her, and Joey glanced at Tristan as he got to his feet.

“Yeah,” Tristan said. “I’m ready.”

Joey grinned at him, and together they all headed out onto the street, hand in hand, ready to face the world.

[yukidragon]

Is there any picture of Alice’s family? It would be cool to see them or doodle an idea what they look like :0

Sadly, I haven't been able to draw for a while now due to health reasons, and it might be a while longer before I can again. (Don't worry, it's nothing serious.) A friend of mine offered to draw the oldest three King girls for me though, which is super sweet of her.

I have made picrews of some of the family members to serve as a general idea to work from when I do eventually draw them. It's what I did before drawing Alice's concept sheet too. I find picrews to a good place to consider character appearance in broad strokes.

I'll share some of those picrews with you all if you're curious about my current general ideas. Remember, their designs (and some of their names) aren't completely set in stone yet, as I still need to draw them when I can. This just helps me better get a picture in my mind of what they look like.

As a heads up, each individual picrew can be pretty limited in its options. Sometimes skin tone, eye color, hair type, etc. just won't match with the look I'm going for. These are just the picrews that come closest to what I have in mind right now.

First up is Mama King, who I'm considering naming Lycoris or Lily.

Picrew

Soft, sweet, cuddly, short of stature but big of heart, Mama King absolutely loves her family more than anything else in the world. There's nothing she won't do to protect them and what they love.

Mama King is not only a great mother, but she's also fantastic at growing plants and has won many awards over the years. This is what led to a pretty good business online selling flowers that have been made into charming jewelry and other forms of art by her creative and loving spouse.

The family home has a decent sized plot of land to allow Mama to grow as many plants as she likes. Her gardens are truly a sight to behold, and her one of a kind flowers are to die for.

As you might have guessed, Alice has gotten a few features from her mom, such as her height, curly hair, and her wonderfully soft and cuddly hugs. The coloration, however, was something she inherited from her Papa.

Picrew

I'm still trying to decide on Papa King's name, but I've got a pretty solid idea of what he looks like. Tall, slender, and pale, this proud papa stands out in a crowd, though sometimes under some shade with sunscreen and shades on if it's someplace out in the sunlight. Sadly, being albino means you're more prone to sunburns, and his eyes are more sensitive than most. The picrew can't really give what I have in mind justice, but their eyes are a mixture of pale blue and red due to the lack of pigment.

Papa King is a sensitive soul who loves creating stylish trinkets and jewelry. He struggles with conflict, so their wife is his knight in shining armor much of the time, and that's one of the reasons why they fell in love with her. He also loves their wonderful children, as well as all the cats and dogs the family own. Though quite the homebody, his life is very full with such a busy house and their creative projects, as well as running the business he owns with their wife.

The oldest child of the King family probably doesn't really need an introduction. I mean, I drew Alice and mentioned her on this tumblr plenty of times before. Still, it feels sad to leave her out, so here's a picrew of her and Jack holding hands and dressed for a date.

Picrew

Why yes I'm shameless about my OTP. Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy the sweet vanilla and spice.

Eventually I'll make a post with the picrews that I used to help me make Alice's concept sheet, but that's for another time. Now onto the next child in this big, happy family.

Picrew

The second oldest was named Barbara Anne, but you'd be forgiven for not knowing that, as everyone calls her Barbie, with her siblings sometimes just calling her Bar. (Alice was the one who first started using that particular nickname when they were very little and it just stuck around.)

Barbie is practically the opposite of her sweet and doting parents. She's a prickly, snarky, and sarcastic misanthrope who prefers animals and 2D characters to humans. Her personality and large stature are usually enough to ward people off. She's taken after her dad with her height and her mom with having a larger frame. Though she's a nerdy otaku, if she hits you, it's going to hurt.

Barbie isn't shy to let people know to back off and leave her alone, quick to deliver barbs and tease others mercilessly if they don't buzz off. Still, like any true tsundere, get past her prickly exterior and there's a softer side that's full of genuine love and affection waiting underneath. The only people she cares about currently are her family and the few friends she made online... and eventually a suitor who is going to need to be a good boy and heel at her command if he wants a chance of making puppies with her.

The most striking thing about Barbie is her eyes. She has central heterochromia, which means both of her eyes are a mixture of brown and blue, not unlike how Papa King's are a mixture of red and blue. She practically lives in t-shirts and sweatpants, which often are themed around anime and games she likes, or offensive snark. Her hair is always a mess, and she keeps it cropped short most of the time so that she doesn't have to bother with it.

Barbie is good with computers and isn't above a little hacking or trolling. Though she's moved out of the King house, she's doing just fine in her own apartment, making money by scamming crypto scammers and the like, among other more legitimate and actually legal jobs.

Don't tell anyone about her secret double life as a streamer with a cutesy anime waifu virtual avatar. She'll make your life hell if you do.

Picrew

Next up is Coraline. I already made a post talking about her and showing off a few of her picrews, so I'll just lightly touch on what I have in mind for her design. She's average height (making her a little taller than big sis Alice), with brown eyes, looks very sickly, and while most of her very curly hair is brown, it lacks some pigment in places. She still lives at home due to her health, and every morning Mama braids her hair up nice and neat, only for it to eventually come increasingly undone and messy by the end of the day. She favors comfortable clothes like sweaters and sweatpants.

The most signature piece of Coraline's look is her pendant. I've actually mentioned the pendant before in a previous post... or at least Alice's version of the pendant and the fact that each King child got one when they were born.

Mama King proposed to Papa with a bouquet of blue roses that she grew specially for them . Blue roses are said to be an impossible flower naturally, very rare, and growing them was her way of showing that she loved him enough to do the impossible for them. Papa preserved each one of the flowers in resin and whenever they're expecting a child, he crafts one into a custom necklace for the child, which is engraved with the baby's name and the date of their birth after they're born.

As an aside, if one of the kids ever wanted to change their name for whatever reason, Papa would be more than happy to alter the inscription to their new name.

The rest of the kids are vague as of the moment, but I know there are at least 4 more of them. They'll be fleshed out eventually over time, along with the pets and any other details about this happy family.

I hope you liked what I've got to share with you so far about the King family, and thanks for showing interest in them. I'm always happy to know that people enjoy my OCs. 💖

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

[victorluvsalice]

VITD Sims Lookbook: Smiler

Hello all! As promised at the end of my last Chill Valicer Save update, this week I'm showing off some "Valicer In The Dark"-inspired looks for my OT3 that I made at the end of last year (on Christmas, in fact -- I was in the mood to play with CAS that day). Let's dive right into it with our favorite Slide/Leech (Sleech, if you will) Smiler, shall we?

Starting with another variant on what I consider to be their "standard" VITD outfit (as seen in previous posts like this one), this one without the hat and with belted pants instead of just button-up ones. I think I prefer Smiler having the belt to not having the belt, but *shrug* Well see what happens going forward. That yellow waistcoat and the yellow shoes are always a must, though -- thank you High School Years!

For bedtime, we have some very Smiler pajamas -- and while bunny slippers probably DON'T fit the "vaguely Victorian" aesthetic of Blades In The Dark, I had to give them to them anyway, because come on. XD Though maybe I should give them a different color of bunny -- do they come in black? I'll have to check at some point in the future.

For those parties that require at least a semi-formal look, we have this outfit! Looking at it now, I'm thinking that it may be a little too dark -- the shoes and pants together in particular look a bit too plain -- but I like that purple waistcoat on them. Nice alternative look to the yellow one!

And if you need to go full "visiting Brightstone" formal, here's Smiler in a full Victorian day suit! Specifically, they're showing off one of the outfits from the Men's Day Suit Collection by @simmerofthedawn! (Plus one of the recolored top hats they did with their first collection of men's suits.) I really appreciate that SimmerOfTheDawn made sure to include a healthy number of swatches with all these outfits -- including a few good yellow options, as you can see here. Yeah, the shade's a little darker than I'd normally like for Smiler, and I kinda wish the jacket was black instead of dark gray, but hey -- it still really works for a Smiler-about-town!

By contrast, here's Smiler's extremely casual athletic outfit, for those times when they're planning on doing something that they know is going to make them pretty sweaty. It's just something to throw on, then throw in the washtub afterward! Again, wish I could have found a proper yellow swatch for the shirt, but you can't have everything. And if this is meant as a "don't care about my appearance" outfit, it doesn't really matter anyway. :p

And finally, a Smiler for those chilly days in Duskwall (which -- is most of them, because NO SUN), wrapped up in a nice thick sweater. :) Really like the bit of yellow striping -- Smiler doesn't get enough stripes to play with in their outfits! Mostly because they're almost always the wrong colors. *sigh* We need more good yellows and good yellow stripes in this game! My roller coaster Sim demands it!

[catsrightnow]

Im gonna play around with making sentences in Koro Creole. Gonna try "I already ate. I made food. I am cooking. I will be full, I will not be hungry"

Here's a highlighted version- I'll try to keep colors the same for parts of the words throughout this post:

"I already ate. I made food. I am cooking. I will be full, I will not be hungry"

Pink is past tense ans blue is future. Idk how to seperate verb from tense in highlighting for english so I highlited the whole word. Orange is the negative

I've chosen those because it means I get to play around with a lot of different verb tenses.

First I gotta put it into spanish, so I think it would be "Ya comí. Hice comida. Estoy cocinando. Estaré lleno, No estaré hambriento"

(OH! this is gonna b rlly hard to read if you don't speak spanish, so I'll write a simple guide right here:

"Ya" means already, "Estar" (and conjugations- for these all the words that begin with "est" are conjugations in line with the tense seen in the english above). "Hice" (and later seen as "Hacer") is "to make". Also sibce the subject (I) and the tense (Past/present/future) are both in the same word as the verb, negatives are written before the verb- that's why "no" is at the front of "I will not be hungry/no estaré hambriento"

I think the rest of the words should be the same order as the english translation above)

But some of the conjugations change/are gotten rid of, and I think they would use the mandarin "Le" for past tense. But I don't like other particles (?) would be used. For future tense ... Since le is already used for past, the two options I have are using "[Verb] + nole" literally saying its Not using the past particle, instead indicating a future tense. I rlly like that and I think it could be interesting to look into how that developed. I could also use a mandarin particle again.

Oh !! Smth else that mandarin does sometimes (I THINK correct me if im wrong) is just implying that it's in the future with surrounding words. Like basically saying "Tomorrow I am eating"- technically using the present tense, but the use of "tomorrow" indicates that it's in the future.

So it then turns into "Ya yo comerle. Yo hacerle comida. Yo estar cocinando. [En el] futuro yo estar lleno, No [yo] estar hambriento"

Literally "Already I eat[Past Particle]. I make[P.P.] food. I be/am cooking. [In the] future I be/am full, not [I] be/am hungry"

I put a couple words in brackets bcs im tentative on their use. When using it in terms of conjugation, I think "In the" might be omitted is saying future. So it would be "Future I am full, i am not hungry" as opposed to "IN THE future I am full, I am not hungry". I also don't know if "I" would be repeated. It could be assumed that since the tense was assumed for the second half, the subject can be as well- like you only gotta state the subject or tense if it changes. So it's then like "Future I am full, am not hungry"

Altho.... Omitting the tense from the second half might cause confusion. That might be were "nole" comes in. Like if a sentence continues you restate that it's in the future. So it's them "Futuro yo estar lleno, no estar hambriento nole".

"Ya yo comerle. Yo hacerle comida. Yo estar cocinando. Futuro yo estar lleno, No estar hambriento nole"

We also gotta think about the english and portuguese influence. I've been focusing a lot on the mandarin since it's the most different, but english and portuguese probably have more influence than mandarin. Technically the changes in conjugation should be more reminiscent of english and portugese than mandarin but. Thats less fun.

Ohh we also have to assume that, at least in the pidgin stage, it wasn't all one language. Like since the language developed in argentina/chile, northeastern areas maybe had more portuguese influence while western parts might have had more mandarin influence. Especially since the mandarin mainly came from trade w/ chile, it would make sense for coastal towns to use it more than inland ones.

Moving onto pronunciation, there aren't a TONNN of sounds that are difdocult for english or mandarin speakers to say that are also in spanish, but there are some. Namely ʒ (Like in "Asia" or "Beige"), which I hear somes out as a J or S sound often (I'm just reading this off some stuff online btw, so I'm not 100% sure if it's right). I heard V also comes out as W a lot. So words like "Ver" or "Vamos" would be "Wer" or "Wamos". L's and R's also seem underpronounced/mixed? idk. None of those sounds (Besides the L, in le, but that's from the original mandarin) are in the provided sentences. It's a good thing to remember tho

I'll have to keep working on the vocabulary and grammer, but I'm happy with how it looks rn

[talkyorgans]

What’s your rendering process/brush you use?

bit long so

ok so first brushes:

i still use both paint tool sai and medibang paint (the latter of which is freeware btw!) bc csp is too complicated for me to get into

i posted my brushes a while back here and they're pretty much the same, granted i play around with some individual settings a lot so if you wanna use them just do the same until you get something that works for you. also i forgot this at the time but i have textures loaded up into sai that i downloaded from a free resource pack on deviantart like 10 years ago lmao AND i think recent versions of medibang got rid of the sumi ink brush bc i went through hell trying to recreate it when i got a new computer so i'll just post those at the bottom.

anyway next up my rendering process is a mess tbh.

i have a basic system of sketch>optional cleaner sketch>base colors painted under>play with layer modes>merge all layers and blend/redefine things until i either like what i end up with or give up.

i've got some intermediate layers i've saved but beyond that i'm not sure how to describe the actual painting bit.

sai used on top, medibang on the bottom

also i usually play with colors and adjust things in photoshop after and bada boom thats it.

anyway this is the dirt05 texture i use in sai. tumblr won't let me upload a bmp image so you'll have to reconvert it but after that you just open the program source files and toss it into the brushtext folder and it should show up upon reopening the main .exe

and this is the medibang brush i use, i'm pretty sure anyway, but if not i can dig up the raw brush file too. also apparently updated versions of mdp have a timelapse feature which would have probably helped but i've found that older versions have less performance issues and generally work better for me

[blindrapture]

tagged (talented and gifted girls eat donuts)

I was tagged in a thing!! by @paperchamomiles

last song: as I am currently in a dream theater phase, the last song I listened to was "The Great Debate," which I listened to upon waking up, on impulse. a dense song. one of my all-time favorites.

favorite color: purple! to blue. the bluey purples. the way indigo looks on a computer screen.... <3

currently watching: well I recently finished watching Samurai Jack for the first time. I have hot takes about that show. but generally liked my experience with it. final season was definitely the best one. and these days I am watching dream theater live dvds. some of them, I had watched as a teenager and am getting nostalgia for, and some of them I never had!!!

last movie/show: last movie was.... a while ago... probably Incredibles 2??? I definitely do not watch too many movies, I have some that I will watch at some point soon, and sometimes I do go through periods watching quite a few movies, but movies are relatively low on my priorities of media! and last show, as mentioned, was Samurai Jack. here are some aforementioned hot takes: the first four seasons... needed more continuity and less fight scenes. the last season was perfect right up until the last couple episodes, where all of a sudden, the slowest show on television decided to speedrun through dense plot beats, giving us only seconds to process each one. that ending, content-wise, was beautiful. but execution-wise, it left such a forgettable taste in my mouth. but damn, the entire rest of that season was about as perfect as television can get...

sweet/savory/spicy: salty. salty all the way. that's not one of those options. spicy is my favorite of those options, though too much spice at once is a whole thing. so savory is a close second. sweet is nice every now and then, or in drinks.

relationship status: I have a girlfriendddd!!!! we started dating in november!!! we met on tumblr, then we found out we actually live like two towns away from each other!!!! we will be visiting each other in a week!!!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!!!!

last thing you googled: tony levin. I had to remember what bands he'd been in when I posted about liquid tension experiment earlier.

current obsessions/s: besides dream theater? besides finnegans wake, and the sopranos, and half-life... I am always obsessed with puzzles and riddles and mysteries... the surreal... the overwhelmingly maximalist... the abstract... gods... uh I don't know how to answer this question! I move exclusively through obsessions, if I don't obsess over it I don't talk about it! I'm also a bit wired and shattered simultaneously these days, trapped between worlds, so, I'll have to think on this one!!!

tagging: uh. @springtimebat hello there! and. @rabarbermupp you are also friend! and. @eagleoftheninth I see you too and want to encourage you to speak! and. @rapturebones hey there!! and. @graveyardrabbit what about your current obsessions!!! none of you actually have to do this!!! and if anyone else, yes you, is reading this and wants to do it, then I am tagging you!!!

[fangirl-of-way-too-many-fandoms]

Alright. So.

My today's agenda is:

bring some justice to Wen's actions.

I'm talking about the speculations abt him cheating on Alan that I see on my timeline/dashboard.

Let's goooooo.

Almost every post I see abt this topic mentions that Wen is actually-basically-as-it-turns-out cheating on Alan. And I'm here, at your service, to argue with that. I even have a few facts that will (hopefully) prove my point. Some are more solid, some are not so much, but anyhow.

Fact #1:

the overall feel of the condo/apartment when Wen comes back.

What I mean is that it feels empty, lonely and cold. Of course the colour palette chosen for this scene plays a huge, dare I say gigantic, role in our perception of this place and the vibe of Wen's "home". It highlights calm and cold tones of blue that are generally associated w/ loneliness and sadness.

Look at the tones and colors of that scene. They are pale, dark, kinda hostile and unwelcoming. It doesn't feel like "home", it doesn't have that signature warmth to it that every "Home" has.

And to highlight that feeling of emptiness, we're shown a few shots of a previous night. Which, despite all the 'no complications and deeper connections' thing, still feels warm and full of emotions and feelings. The contrast is literally palpable.

AND. If we can see it and feel it - all of those hints at the atmosphere at Wen's 'home' - than it was probably the intention of the creators. They purposefully created such an atmosphere so that we can get the gist of the state in which Wen's private life is at the moment. And this gist would be that he is lonely. His loneliness is actually appears to be so intense, like you can almost feel it yourself.

Side note: the more I think abt it, the more it seems like he didn't even want to come back. Like he was really reluctant to leave Jim and this little corner of comfort he unintentionally found

This leads us up to fact #2:

the feel of Wen's relationship with Alan.

It seem cold. Again. It seems to be void of affection that is usually more or less palpable in romantic relationships. The main tell-tale of that fact would be the note Alan left. It looked really office-ish. Like the note that you usually leave for your co-worker whom you're not really close with. It's 'strictly business', straight and plain.

When you leave a note for someone close to you, you usually draw some little cute doodles on it or maybe a smiley face or use a pet name/nickname of a person or write some small 'addition' to it like: "The leftovers from dinner are in the fridge. Microwave them and eat"/"I'll be back by 7. Lets have chinese takeout today"/etc. You get the idea. You do it to make the note more personal, to make a person smile, to give the note a warm feel and fill it with emotion. There was none of it.

So. Summarizing these two thoughts leads us to the conclusion that the relationship between Wen and Alan is at the VERY LEAST became cold and devoid of affection and any romantic feels. OR, maybe it even ended for good. And they live with each other for God knows for what reason, the main point of said reason being the lack of another/better option at the moment.

Now. With the speculations and ambiguous vibes of that scene - which everyone may interpret however they want - out of the way we can move on to more solid fact #3:

TAGS at MyDramaList

I'm talking about "Ex-boyfriend comes back" one specifically. Now, I know that we can't trust everything that's written and that we see on the Internet.. BUT mdl so far has been pretty accurate (at least in my experience of using it) with the info it provides. So I don't see why we can't trust this tag.

And by using some logic we can deduct that this mysterious 'ex-boyfriend' will probably be Wen's. And as such, it'll probably be Alan. Since it's mini-series that tend to be not really complicated, so we probably won't be getting any new characters who theoretically speaking can turn out to be someone's ex.

Summing this monstrosity of a post (which was supposed to be a short 3-point list of facts) up I'd like to justify my precious boy Wen's actions and state that he is not cheating per say. Like, personally I'm convinced that he and Alan broke up, so there is no cheating when there is no relationship. But if they haven't like 'officially' broke up - like haven't said it out loud that they are no longer in a relationship - but still there are no more feelings between them anymore, then I still don't really consider it cheating. 'Cus, like, you have no feelings anymore towards this person. Should you talk and break up? Yes. Are you a dummy for not addressing this issue first and jumping into some strangers' bed? Also yes. Can you be blamed and called 'cheater' if you have no feelings anymore? No. And I stand by it.

This turned out to be way longer than I anticipated lol. Sorry not sorry.

If someone will make it through all my ramblings and find them somewhat coherent - thank you. If you also have some thoughts on this, quite controversial, topic - I'm open to a discussion.

[taras-toe-beans]

BG3 Fic Feb Day 1: What was Tav doing when they were abducted?

Hi! This is my first time actually posting fic. I'll try to keep up and post daily. I'll mostly be sticking with the SFW list and writing 500-1000 or so words daily.

Despite the growing chill in the air, the skies were clear, and the sun warmed the earth in Rivington. The grass was still green, and the small town outside Baldur’s Gate still bustled. There was still plenty of time to help those in need to prepare for the biting winter, for sure, but it was about that time of year that the temple’s workload was greatest. Suffering would be greatest in the winter.

As such, a pair of Ilmataris from the Open Hand Temple ventured out into Baldur’s Gate to select some yarn that would make warm clothes and blankets for those who needed them. They were a rather unusual pair. One was a very slight human woman with neat braids woven into a bun atop her head. She wore gold-rimmed glasses and a shawl that she made by hand. Izzrhys, on the other hand, was a shockingly large drow and stuck out immensely in a crowd. He was a paladin of Ilmater, and frequently accompanied other clergy to the city for protection while they ran errands. He quite enjoyed the days that he got to venture to Baldur’s Gate, either alone, or with a friend. Rivington was lovely, but Baldur’s Gate was much more like what he knew from Waterdeep, the first city he’d called home after moving to the surface.

“The shop’s right ahead. You don’t have to come inside with me, if it disinterests you.”

“That’s all right, Av. I quite like making these shopping trips, you know. I’d be more than happy to help you pick out some yarn. Besides, if the haul is anything like last year, I’m sure you’ll need help carrying it back.”

Av smiled. “That’s awfully sweet of you. Maybe you ought to join us one of these days when we make winter clothes.”

“I would love to learn how, if anyone is willing to teach me. Every little thing I can do to make a difference, even if it’s just stitching together warm clothes to help others weather the winter, it all is worth learning.”

The priestess shook her head. “You’ve probably got better things to do, don’t you? Like bashing some Loviatan skulls in? Aren’t you going on that trip with the other paladins soon?”

“No, I- I backed out of that one,” he replied firmly, “My calling is here, in the city.”

“They’re going to start making accusations one of these days, you know. You’re hardly a paladin if you can’t kill our sworn enemies.”

“It wouldn't be the first time…” he sighed, “There's plenty of others who leap at the chance. I'm content here, protecting the people. I fancy myself more of a healer. I can fight, but I never want to lash out first."

“I can see why Father Lorgan loves you. Very peaceful, for a paladin. He trusts you to do right by us.”

The two ducked into the shop. The walls were lined with shelves, all stacked floor to ceiling with yarns and fabrics of all colors and textures. Izzrhys brushed his hand against some soft lacy yarn.

“We're looking for wool only. It does the best in bad weather, since it stays warm, even if it gets wet.”

Izzrhys nodded. “Any color?”

“We'll be able to afford more with undyed fibers. A bit of a shame, but so be it.”

Av perused their collection as the shopkeeper watched from afar. She seemed to block out everyone else's presence as she worked through her options. Av started to hold up two skeins of yarn when strange noises started to come from outside, followed by screaming.

Izzrhys, not missing a beat, pulled out his glaive and rushed outside.

A ship of some sort with tentacles sailed through the air, scraping against buildings and carelessly tearing structures down. As he looked down the streets of the lower city, Izzrhys saw that anyone whom the tentacles touched simply disappeared.

When Av peeked out the door after him, Izzrhys was already trying to form a plan. He couldn't take this down, but maybe he could do something to help with crowd control, to lead people to safety.

“Hells! What is that?” Av shouted, “Izzrhys, you don't stand a chance! Get back inside!”

The ship was barrelling closer at breakneck speed, knocking bricks from buildings, vaporizing people trying to run away.

Izzrhys heard the sharp cry of a distraught child running from the ship. The child looked back over their shoulder, screaming for their parents. Probably taken by the tentacles. But this kid was wasting time. Izzrhys sprinted towards the child and lunged to grab them and bring them into the shop, where they'd at least be safe from the tentacles.

He was almost there, ready to bring the child he carried inside to relative safety. But he felt a tap on his back, followed by a foreign sensation that set into his limbs, like they were fading away, dissolving into nothingness. That and the dumbfounded look on Av’s face told him everything. He was gone, too, and he probably wouldn't come back.

Izzrhys tried to cry out, but the air left his lungs, his tongue seemed to turn into dust, and his vision and hearing went completely black, completely silent.