#doodling them is pretty easy but idk what I should doodle them doing :(

[hollowsart]

thinking about big hairy men tonight. my favorite men.

otto & beck 💕💞🐙🔮💞💕

[dorylinae-supremacy]

He says thank you for letting him perform

He performed with his super cool guitar xylophone! The other ones are just what he practices on.

Oh also damn you guys really like xyloblade huh. I figured I should just give you the scrapped bits of art rather than deleting them so here you go!

These are pretty fun and easy to do so if you wanna see more just send me a prompt in my askbox / comments and I'll probably do a doodle for it.

He will go on both various adventures and play many instruments if you ask him to. Probably other things as well idk he's an adventurous little guy

[dreamsy990]

some pretty rough and bad sketches for some designs for a persona au? i also doodled a couple others but they need more cleanups than these guys do. which granted they still need a lot of cleanup. uhhhh notes under the cut for some stuff

i have the least to say about trucy. um i think her design needs the least touchups and thats only partially because drawing her was really easy with her canon design already being somewhat within the realm of persona designs. her arcana is the magician (obviously) and her persona is hermes !! idk why but it felt very fitting for her immediately. idk it might be a combination of both epics take on hermes being very silly and trucy acting as a sort of messenger sometimes to give people fake evidence. its ok guys it wasnt her fault shes literally a kid. honestly shes the only one ive decided on a persona for dfvgfedf. as for role in the party i think shed be garbage with physical stuff but have a very high magic stat because. magician !! as for what magic uhhh ill put a hesitant curse or wind. she could be either of those really.

athena i think would be the navigator. i just think it makes sense for her with her whole thing being about psychology and the general nature of palaces it seems fitting shed have that role. but while i think shed fill a similar role to futaba in being a navigator i think she would absolutely still be a party member because i cant imagine athena NOT being a party member. let the girl kill!!! i think shed mostly do physical damage and her magic type would be psychic obviously. i realize this is a haru ass build but whatever. also her arcana is strength. i considered some others but like come on shes strength. also while i was trying to come up with a persona for her i briefly realized i could just. take a pre existing persona and change their arcana TO strength instead of just working with personas that are already strength. and i was thinking of maybe giving her aphrodite? because i COMPLETELY forgot sex was a thing and was like "yeah aphrodite is about love and emotion and athenas got a lot of emphasis placed on her ability to hear others emotions and shes a psychologist so thats fitting also i cant give her athena as a persona obviously and ares isnt too fitting for her either but i remember hearing aphrodite at one point did have some association to war like athena and ares? and i was like YES aphrodite is a great choice. then i remembered the sex part and was like oh hm maybe not? but i might give her aphrodite anyways i just hope people like. get the actual reason why i think she should have aphrodite and dont just assume things. unfortunately i hate her design soooo much here i need to redo it or find some good inspiration

and nahyuta hasnt actually changed uh. much at all since my initial sketches for this au like a year ago. his arcana is the hierophant and his persona is uh. i havent actually decided yet sorry. lmk if yall have any good ideas though!! i do have a rough idea for his moveset, because i think he should have bless magic (because of course, maybe you could mix in some curse too for funsies but im worried about stepping on akechis toes too much with nahyuta dfvbgfd) obviously, and i think he could also be support. i dont think hed be much of a healer but have things like stat buffs and debuffs instead? so things like matarukaja and elec break for example. also for a vague concept of his role in the story, i think he might have a similar role to akechi, albeit probably not a villain really? my idea is that hed be working on his own in the metaverse, and eventually joins the main party because they share similar goals and its safer to work with others in the metaverse anyways. but hes probably slow to actually become part of the group in terms of like. being friends with them fbfrerfg. thats also why his design is sort of different in color palette from everyone else? all the others very mainly feature black in their designs while hes mostly white and gold. i think itd be cool for him to get a costume change at some point to fit in with them better, maybe make his scarf black? idk. also completely accidental but in my rough apollo sketches i gave him a similarish scarf and i think thats a funny similarity. i think nahyuta and apollo would hate each others guts. idk im trying to make designs cohesive like again you cant see it here but i tried to have trucy and apollo share a lot of design elements and i accidentally gave apollo and nahyuta similar scarfs and all the gang has black on their designs etc etc. im trying to make connections but im not all that good at character design so. its a struggle. but we stay silly.

ok thats it ummmmmm. idk. im bad at art but i hopeee you like them.

[fedoraspooky]

In light of tumblr shooting itself in the foot, I've been thinking about what I should do with my art from now on. Obviously, deleting my old posts off here isn't gonna do shit, it's essentially locking my door after my house got emptied out by burglars. Especially with my old rp account I no longer can log into, they're just gonna steal and sell my old art that I posted there and I can't even flip a questionably-affective toggle about it.

Thing is, I dunno how many people are gonna actually leave. I'm not even sure I will, since I have a lot of friends here... And after so many shitty updates a lot of people are just hanging on out of spite at this point.

That said, I'm considering that for art posts and stuff, maybe I'll post them elsewhere and just link to them here so they're not on tumblr's servers? Idk... Tumblr tends to kill the visibility of links but I'm not really sure what else I can do.

Also, there's the question of where to actually post new stuff. Bluesky seems the most active but I dont know if old posts cut off after a certain amount of posts like twitter does, in which case that would not be a good archive in the long run. xnx

Cohost is functionally pretty close to tumblr, but ngl it seems super isolated on there bc of its commitment to not showing any likes on your posts. I get that its to combat the social media numbers game, but the downside is that it looks like nobody's even seen your work. If people like something of yours there's no way outside of notifs to see it, so scrolling down on your page and seeing only zeros after zeros of comments on stuff (comments are the only visible number), it's easy to feel like you're just posting into a void.

Pillowfort is pretty good, and they just added tag blocking and the ability to queue/schedule posts. Still kinda quiet and invite only, but if you sign up for the invite queue you can get one pretty fast. Also i probaby have a ton of invites sitting around if anyone wants one. I wish it had an app, but mobile web version works well enough I guess, and I'm already used to doing that with sheezy and newgrounds, so I just have those open in mobile tabs together.

Speaking of, Newgrounds has been pretty good, but due to the nature of the portal system and stuff you're more encouraged to post only your better-looking stuff there. You CAN post doodles if you want, but only outside of the portal, which limits their visibility. Kinda like dA's scraps system I guess.

Sheezy looks super promising customization-wise so I'm thinking of posting there more when it opens up to more peeps.

Toyhouse also looks really good for OC and story things too, and also has a good degree of customization.

There's probs options I haven't even thought about, but its good to know there ARE options. I may post in several of those places for now and see how it goes. Test the waters a bit.

If you're thinking of moving your art elsewhere lemme know where, I'm curious to see where people are going :o

Especially you moots, i need to refind my pals in these other places!

[curufiin]

hello igts me 🪴 anon. i dont know if you remember me but im sorry for dying. i had a bit of a crisis or something idk and refused to do anything on tumblr for a few months. sory

but hi since i honestly have no idea what else t9 say, ill tell you a few of the things that have happened in my discord server because i find them funny.

first of all we are working on getting more people interested in the silmarillion. currentl7 there's this guy we just let join the server and we all think he's pretty cool. and as replacements for actual names we have curveball curufin, eol the lotion brand (i dont actually know about this one's origin), maestoso maedhros,

and 1812 overture cannons

for maglor.

one of the members of the server thought another member was a pilot, someone sent a picture of airplane with borzoi head on it and we got a chain of "huan plane"

we call the game fate of the empress "twinkol game" (comes from thingol and twink being mixed)

i started a poll on who hates finrod and everyone answered YES except ONE OF OUR MEMBERS. execution date: tomorrow

theres more but this is it for now i have to do other things

-🪴

Hey jey yellow plant anon (it’s currently 4:30 am when i’m typing this so i’m keeping the typos. As a treat) of course i remember you silly welcome back to hell <3

hope you’ve been chilling bc procrastination is kicking my ass. do your schoolwork when it’s due please

Also i tbink i need to join this server in question so i can be The CurufinTM (the real and official one and tbe only one as you can tell from mu username. i am definitely NOT the second curufin). also love the eol mention i think he should be appreciated more as a freak lover myself <33

BORZOI HUAN IS SOO REAL hold on you can see this huan i doodled for a mutual

Check him out!!!!

agreed you must execute the finrod haters. no one gets to hate finrod and live. please also execute any finwe/celegorm/finarfin/beleg haters for me thank you <3

Hope the Things go easy for you i like this pen pal thing we have going on. ok i sleep now good nite

[timeregistry]

A Human's Touch (p.AI.nter x Reader) | Chapter 5

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Masterlist

Notes: Eyefestation jumpscare (like in my pressure runs) in this chapter only that that's bestie idk

also I was reading the chapter again cuz I do that and tell me why I saw the word unpleasant and the stupid gradient materialized in my mind T_T true jumpscare...

They indeed did not let you see Painter again in the afternoon.

A grumble escaping your lips as they told you a firm “no”. Which meant your afternoon was pretty free.

Normally, you would be annoyed by Sebastian (or vice versa), but it seemed that Urbanshade was really keeping him hostage the moment that he showed he was effective at his job. The only reason he did it quickly was because he valued his free time, but now it seemed that they just kept giving him more work with the promise of consequence if he doesn’t do it (which really sours his mood the times you see him. Evident by the grimace on his face).

However, it seemed that they really didn’t want you to do your more hands-on part of your job so instead you spent your time inside of your office reading files as you spent the rest of your workday in.

The next day, you went to the kitchen getting the usual breakfast only to realise that it was indeed empty, it wasn’t even the end of the week how was this even possible? You overheard one of your co-workers complaining about it exactly, only that you heard them mentioning explicitly their stolen lunch.

…You probably should talk with Sebastian about it.

Walking to your office, you took the paperwork that was in the pocket next to the door. It looks like there were new documents to look through, not as important if they didn’t give it to you directly.

Now inside, you put the folders on your desk, except you saw a bag on your desk. You raised your brow at it, opening it as you saw a collection of food items and a note.

“So you won’t be hungry, sleepy head.” Signed with a silly doodle at the bottom.

Of course it was Sebastian who raided the kitchen. Not only that but he even kept you in mind and left some items for you. How considerate.

For a second you wondered how Sebastian got inside your room but then you remembered how he borrowed your spare ID the other day just because he felt like it. The only reason you had an extra one was exactly because you had lost your last one (which surprise surprise, was just under your desk). You should probably ask for it back soon, Urbanshade wouldn’t be too happy knowing an MR-P has a high clearance key card.

Either way, you grabbed one of the things that Sebastian got for you, it wasn’t much but it was a lot better than what Urbanshade normally gave you. He really did cherry pick (and probably stole someone’s hard work too).

Looking at the time, you pondered how long you could wait until they would actually let you see Painter. You can tell the researchers really didn’t want you interacting with the computer still, but with enough insistence you should be able to still see Painter... As long as the other scientists don’t raise it up to your higher ups.

You still think about the one subject that you kept wanting to visit as each subject you only managed to progress very very little. But after a while, apparently it was raised to your superior that explicitly told you that you couldn’t continue working on that subject, which broke your researcher heart.

With all the subjects, you always wanted to see the different facets of them, hoping that with a different way of life, maybe they will be more effective and/or happy. But it is quite common for you to never see that part if the group in charge of the subject decides to complain to your superior that you are practically doing nothing.

The only reason why your superior was convinced all too easy to make you stop seeing certain subjects was thanks to the sheer amount of subjects in the Hadal Division. You can't begin to imagine how many other ones are in the other divisions. Not like you are planning on changing divisions anytime soon.

You were always "needed" somewhere else according to your superior. Your skills can be useful to subjects that actually need it.

Which is stupid, you're firm into believing that a lot of the subjects that they think don't need your skills are ones that need it the most! They just wouldn't understand because this is Urbanshade we are talking about, and they aren't quite known to be very nice.

Shaking your head, you decided to go check up on another one of the subjects, there were some you liked that you would visit more.

Some researchers didn’t hate your presence, which meant that you could visit some of the subjects yourself more than the average visits you were allowed.

Weirdly enough, Eyefestation was one of them.

Doing the usual testing before going into the room of Eyefestation, you did a quick sigh as you entered the room that had a big window displaying the shark. Sitting on the only chair provided as well as straight up the only piece of furniture in the room, you looked down at your notebook as you always did to avoid its gaze.

“Interesting.” Suddenly you heard the Painter’s voice, you almost looked up, instead snapping back down to your notebook in a sweat. “I was going to say something else but your reaction piqued my interest.”

You turned back in front of you to your notebook, grumbling as you realised it was Eyefestation that was talking to you. “Go back to using your voice Eyefestation.”

You heard Eyefestation hum slightly, as you let out a sigh.

“My voice is whatever you want to hear.” Eyefestation started, it’s voice going back to the voice that you recognized as it's own. “If you heard something else, it isn’t my fault.”

Somehow, you find it hard to believe. But Eyefestation has a point. Especially since the last time it scared you this bad was when it replicated Sebastian’s voice. The only reason why you had a different reaction then was because Eyefestation exactly said things Sebastian would never ever say, much less in the way that Eyefestation put it.

Either way you let out another sigh, talking with Eyefestation was always an experience as you had a conversation in your mind, it made you feel a little bit crazy.

“Is the voice you heard another subject?”

“Yes.” You responded swiftly, Eyefestation was always a bit curious about the other subject. Yet in the case of Painter, you had no idea how to phrase it for the shark to understand what you were talking about. “Remember when I told you about electronics?”

Eyefestation only swam around, you saw the light that it had moved around the floor of the room you were in. “Well, the voice you spoke in was from one of those electronics.”

“How?”

“Electronics can do more than just make lights.” Scratching your head, you wondered how you were even going to explain a computer to Eyefestation.

The shark could learn things by just reading your mind but you’re not sure it would even be able to understand the concept of computers, it already took you awhile just to explain technology that can make lights like it does.

However, Eyefestation was patient as you attempted to explain computers to it.

Thinking you did a pretty good job on explaining, you wrote down a note on how you explained how computers worked to Eyefestation.

“I don’t understand,” it started, “how does that work?”

“Well-” You scratched that part of your note, changing it so that it wasn’t successful as you tried to explain again in different words. At this point, it felt more like you were trying to explain to the elderly how new technology worked. Because you couldn’t even see them, it really didn’t help your visualisation of the scenario.

“Please end your interview promptly.” The intercom went on. Perhaps that was a blessing in surprise as your head was starting to hurt in trying to think up a way to explain computers in yet another way.

“Sorry, I need to cut this short.” You apologised quickly at the shark, getting up from your seat as you quickly turned back so as to not accidentally gaze into its eyes.

“Is that ‘computer’ important to you?”

“What?”

“For you to hear my voice as it…”

Eyefestation trailed off, you looked over at the door out of the room you were in. “I want the best for all the subjects here.” You started, thinking over your words.

You were going to continue except the intercom went on again on how you should be leaving the room. Which made you scowl, couldn’t you be patient with the subjects?

“Sorry again,” you sighed, you knew it was still listening to you, “I’ll explain it to you next time.”

“Until next time.”

You left Eyefestation’s “chambers”, nodding at the researchers that were watching through one of those one sided windows.

“Anything new?”

“Z-317 seems more stable emotionally.” Flipping some pages on your notebook, stopping at Eyefestation’s. “Though I wouldn’t try interacting with it just yet. I think it needs more convincing to be able to see certain humans as ‘safe’.”

You closed the notebook, looking back at the scientist, they didn’t look satisfied. “... and if we can convince it, Z-317 could be used as a weapon that can be transported by sea.”

That seemed to satisfy them as they nodded briefly. You always had to keep telling (or even reminding) the other researchers that the subject can be used as a weapon as that is all that Urbanshade really sees the subjects as. Either weapons or money makers.

You hated needing to speak of the subjects like so. Safe for the ones that actually committed heinous crimes and it showed that they did. You wanted those that were wrongfully trapped in Urbanshade to actually get their rightful freedom.

You knew most of them would be killed before they got to see freedom again. Eyefestation being one of them. It’s doubtful if it will ever be able to see the normal sea again. You just hoped that your research could maybe open a different realm of possibility.

Talking about a different realm of possibilities, Eyefestation’s words started playing in your mind.

Is Painter someone you’d consider… Important?

Of course he was. All the subjects were important to you, you wanted them to all succeed.

Yet the way that Eyefestation phrased it during your conversation just made your mind think about it more...

...A new realm of possibilities...

...You shut your own thoughts down for now, it’s no use thinking about it at the moment. There were more pressing matters to attend to.

Leaving Eyefestation’s area of the Heavy Containment area, you started walking through the heavy doors between each area of the Heavy Containment. The good thing was that since Eyefestation was in this area, it meant that you didn’t have to walk that much to find Painter who was coincidentally also in the Heavy Containment area.

At this point, most of the subjects you worked with were in Heavy Containment. Which made you question your safety briefly for a second.

The only negative about Painter’s area is that it was hotter than the rest of the Blacksite. The amount of machinery and what you can only really presume as lots and lots of GPU systems (was the GPU shortage you heard about actually thanks to Urbanshade? You wouldn’t be surprised) only made the area hotter thanks to the fans of the machinery exuding hot air from the systems.

The Blacksite in general was colder so the shock of temperature from the area was quite a bit. But at this point, you grew accustomed to the temperature change.

Sliding your ID on the door to the room containing Painter, you knew full well the researchers were probably going to kick you out but you still wanted to give visiting Painter a shot.

Letting out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding, the door accepted your ID with an extremely loud beep. Making your way inside the room you gazed around.

However, what came as a surprise was the sheer emptiness of the room. Normally the room has quite a bit of researchers just checking to make sure all the machinery is working, and as Painter is a newer subject, a lot of researchers are stationed to simply analyse it to make sure any… updates that they’ve performed on him are working spot on.

You checked your watch quickly.

Ah, that explains it.

A lot of the researchers were taking their break. You hadn’t even noticed that it was break time. Not for you exactly, but for this department it was.

Well, more like those that were overseeing Painter. Normally Urbanshade has a sort of system where when one side of researchers takes a break, there will be another one that will cover for them. But seeing as how passive Painter is, and how Painter does basically the same thing every day, you supposed that they kept their personnel to other more “urgent” subjects.

Better for you, that meant that there was a higher chance to see Painter.

Opportunity at its finest, you decided to try out your chances. This is exactly the game that Urbanshade likes playing, and two can play the game. It felt like a game of cards, only that finally you had a winning hand and your opponent didn't even notice.

“Hey!” You approached the singular poor scientist still in the room (for some reason), friendly and open, sliding quickly on the chair next to them. “How are you?”

Seeing as to how the scientist reacted, they looked like they recently just got the job, maybe even an intern. “...Good.”

They looked like deer in headlights. You introduced yourself as you knew that they didn’t know you as you didn’t know them. “-yeah so I’m a Behavioural Scientist and I’ve been working on Painter over there.” You pointed at the computer as if to prove a point. “Z-779. You know.”

“...Right…”

“Basically I just need you to oversee that I don’t die or something as I check over it. Cool?” You gave them a quick thumbs up. They looked completely clueless which meant that you definitely had a complete say to it. And none of the researchers that enter later can’t just say no because there was one that said yes. Things don’t work like that but you hoped that fate was in your favour to make it happen as so. “Oh but you don’t really have to pay attention, have your break. If you hear a loud thump, that’s when you look back and check on me.”

You joked lightly with the scientist which only reacted in a nervous manner. “Really, don’t sweat it I just really have to have someone around for safety reasons but you don’t have to pay attention.” And you didn’t want them to pay attention.

As long as you were quick enough, you shouldn’t be caught though. Painter wasn’t an experiment that was monitored much and glancing quickly at the schedule, you have a wealth of time.

Whoever said that you just had to be confident to convince people was right as you saw the scientist move their seat closer to the window telling you they were ready with a quiet voice as they settled their stuff nearby.

Definitely an intern.

Getting up from your seat, you stood right next to the door. Finally sliding your ID in the doors in a silent victory to yourself that you managed to convince the intern. And lucky for you, the door opened as expected. Looks like luck was in your favour and your superior wasn’t notified yet which not only meant that your ID could still open Painter’s enclosure, but also meant that you’re safe to continue your little interviews.

Looking out at the intern, you saw them go on their phone. That’s good, that meant they were definitely not going to be paying attention to anything you will do with Painter. Better safe than sorry though, you’re still going to take precautions.

“Painter, it’s me.” You said in a low voice. “They didn’t let me see you until now.”

Not like they actually let you now, you just practically sneaked in. But Painter doesn’t need to know that, not that you didn’t want it to know but rather you don’t know if there was something listening.

“Well if it isn’t the one and only ‘not like other scientists’ scientists.” Painter’s face appeared on the screen with a grin.

You didn’t expect that from Painter, you felt yourself cringe slightly at your words haunting you suddenly. “I didn’t think you’d remember that.”

“I remember everything.”

“I realised.”

It was silent but not unpleasant. The gentle hum of Painter’s fans went on almost lulling,

“Hey, where are the other white coats?” Painter started again, “I only see one, you normally never go in here without so many of those in the room.”

“How do you think I got in here?” You spoke honestly, looking away to the side for a second. “I’m kidding, they are on break right now.”

You pressed your lips into a thin line, in response, Painter turned it’s expression to slightly more serious one, he knew you were lying yet made no effort to press on. After all, what did it even lose from this situation?

“...Anyways, how’s your piece going?”

Painter seemed to light up the moment you mentioned it. “Well I’m gla~d you asked!” He changed it’s screen to the drawing program, his face going to the corner of the screen as if it was one of those videos with the person in the corner reacting to the content.

However what you didn’t expect was to see the piece almost done. The colours were beautiful and it looked stunning. Before you thought it was already looking great but now? It was… gorgeous…

“It’s not… perfect.” Painter started, its face going into a light frown. “I’m a bit out of practice... I have to admit.”

“You say this is out of practice?” You looked at the screen in awe. “How can a machine even be out of practice? This is beautiful!”

Painter lit up completely, his face turning into a complete face of happiness.

“You think?”

“Yeah!”

It chuckled lightly, you didn’t know the computer could even do that. “Thanks!”

Painter looked completely bashful, with little “blush” lines on his face to complete the look. It was such a surprise seeing him act like it. In a research standpoint, this was a complete breakthrough as you managed to get more emotional capacity of the computer. And on your own personal standpoint, it was so nice to see the subjects you worked with happy.

“I can’t wait to see the final product.” You said after a while, a smile still on your face.

“Oh yeah, just you wait.” His face went back to covering the whole screen. “I’m so far from done so when I am you’ll see how talented I am.”

Far from done??? You couldn’t even believe Painter anymore, it already looked amazing, you couldn’t imagine it looking even better than that.

“I can’t wait!”

“Oh! Oh! Also!” Painter grinned again. “I managed to mine more crypto than normal apparently! They told me that at this rate I can actually reach the quota to go to the surface!”

“Really?” A surprised noise escaped from you, you didn’t expect that from the other researchers. There had to be some strings attached. “What about your circuits? Are you keeping your temperature in check?”

“Well, they said that it was only a slight improvement.” Painter mumbled honestly, “I overheard them talk about it from the other room… among… other comments.”

Painter seemed to frown, reminiscing on what it heard, however the screen glitched slightly as he changed expressions again. “As for the circuits, I’ve been trying to keep my CPU and GPU as low as I can while doing things differently. Though I have to say that having the other program open is making it a little harder.”

You never thought you would hear about a computer procrastinating but here you were. There was something surprising about hearing how even when Painter was multitasking and drawing in secret thanks to the inspiration you gave it, but also being able to be more effective than how it normally was this whole time.

Almost, you felt like mentally patting yourself on the back. If everything went well, then surely Painter would be able to draw and mine crypto at the same time and be effective with it.

Not that the other researchers would know that he is multitasking seeing as how little importance they see of Painter. As long as it does the job, who cares how it’s done.

Though on the other hand, you knew that treating the computer more “humanly” would actually help it be more successful. Take that! Any of the other researchers that keep telling you that nothing good comes from your work!

“That sounds great, Painter!” You put out a smile, Painter matching your expression back, albeit slightly bashfully.

“Thank you…” He trailed off. Seeing his expression, you wondered if Painter had gotten any praise for his work since it was stolen from his home.

You put a hand on your chin slightly, thinking briefly as Painter seemingly looked to the side. “Actually, may I touch you?”

“Huh?” Painter looked back at you, he seemed so expressive suddenly, a more dumbfounded expression on him. “Yeah, sure… I… I trust you.”

You smiled at hearing the last part. It was surprising to hear it at first, knowing how you’re sure that Painter wouldn’t like being touched after all that Urbanshade has done to him. But it made you smile that he trusted you enough to let you touch him.

Bringing a hand closer to Painter, you put it on the top of his casing, patting it slightly. “You did a good job today.” You told him, you’re sure that he can’t feel it but it's the thought that counts. You wanted to physically show him that he did good in a way. It is your job to make sure all the subjects do their absolute best, and Painter is already showing improvements which makes your heart swell already. “I’m proud.”

“O-Oh.” Painter’s fans started whirring louder than they were going before, you were starting to feel the warm air coming from Painter on you. Thankfully, it didn’t become hot enough to burn your hand as the first time you met.

Even with that, you were a bit worried. Glancing worriedly at Painter, you slid your hand instead to his side, checking for his temperature. “Are you alright?”

“Ju~st peachy!” Painter swiftly responded, a sort of "laugh" coming from its speakers as his screen glitched slightly. “Hey um, how about we both go back to work, the break is going to end soon right?”

It was almost as if something clicked on your mind as you retracted your hand from Painter to check your watch. “Shoot, you're right.” You frowned slightly, a groan escaping you. “If I want to play it safe I should leave…”

“Yeah…” Painter replied back, a nervous smile on his screen.

“Well,” you scratched your neck lightly, “I guess that’s it for me. Keep up the good work!”

“Of course I will” The confident smile you knew from Painter came back on his screen. You smiled back in response.

“I’ll come back soon to do a check up on you alright? Good night, Painter.”

You turned back from him, putting your keycard in the door to leave, the loud beeping of it making you completely miss the sigh that Painter let out as you left the room.

[blackstarchanx3new]

How do you draw up your comics so quickly? I've been wanting to get into making comics myself, but it seems so daunting lol

Was hoping to get some tips on how you draw them so well and so quickly /pos /nf

Omf that's a tough one. My honest first response is "All I do is draw all day" so please don't hold yourself to my standards I don't have anything better to be doing.

Basically it's a mix of stuff:

My art style is simple/character designs are simple. Backgrounds are simple, overall.

STUFF BE SIMPLE.

"Gets the point across" tends to be the idea.

Anatomy isn't perfect, gradients are used a lot, shading isn't always present, I try to limit my color pallets to be pretty small.

I have a bunch saved onto the side bar in Clip Studio. And I have presets like the borders of the panels as a pre-set so I don't gotta make a new one over and over again.

Short cuts are NOICE.

Art wise:

I start with a thumbnail. Just getting the idea/facial expressions of the character down.

Sketching is 2nd step but I have no examples because I delete those pretty quickly.

More similar to this so line art is WAY easier.

I change the sketch's opacity to like 20 ish and a light blue to see it better.

Then I do line art and add a neutral color under it to make coloring easy. I change this to black after ward to fill any gaps.

Add color and ba-bam

I use "Color burn" "linear burn" and Multiply in the layer settings for shading. Just depends on the circumstance.

I guess smth else I do is go by "Chapter" or scenes.

Smth that's helpful for some is writing a script and then drawing your stuff based on that.

Often what I end up doing is writing a script but using it as a guide rather than a beat by beat thing.

Referencing manga for inspiration is smth I do a lot.

Smth I'd recommend doing is making a one shot or a comic you purposely make to be short.

Longer comics are daunting but the best way to deal with that is to complete parts of em. XD It's like going through a video game. Beating each mini boss gets you closer to the final. Like instead of one big project, see it as a bunch of smaller ones.

Smth I do to let off steam from bigger projects is making stupid shit like this:

Like there's no point to it other than to be dumb and funny.

Keeping the story entertaining or fun even while doing a part you don't want too.

Sometimes you will just have to chug through a portion you dislike but is necessary. But staying strong really helps.

Pop on a freakin' YT video and zone the hell out is what I do.

Your art doesn't have to be perfect every single time, my comics at least, are free so anyone who complains is a little bitch.

Just do what makes you happy.

Huge thing to consider: Your art doesn't have to be held to any specific standard.

You don't even have to COLOR that shit if you don't want too lmao. There's no rules. You can color a sketch and post it. It literally doesn't matter.

A specific standard of what every webcomic should be held to is a lie. It doesn't exist. Go feral.

Draw backgrounds. Even if you suck at em. It helps give the world dimension hah.

That's what I've been trying to do.

Use your comics as a way to experiment.

Ghost Soulmate I wanted to try out this weird painter style for the shading/lighting.

In FSR it was trying out a more anime style

Falling Cards is weird character designs + A FAR too ambitious story hah.

Bunny and Kitty was to see if I could do a shorter form story.

Biggest advice would be: Just try smth. You got no obligation to finish smth either. Just try it and see how it goes.

I'd recommend having an idea where your story is going before you start, but just starting ANYWHERE helps.

I tend to doodle my characters before I jump into their comic. Doodle them doing fun stuff before I go into the meat and potatoes of what I want them to do. I often have an ending in mind too before I start. You can fill in the gaps later.

Anyways that's all I got Idk if this was useful or helpful. X'D

[jennilah]

jenna gone got high and started rambling about nothing again

the amount of times ive drawn something that i thought i would be appealing or even only make sense to an audience of me and maybe 2 other people, only for it to get blown out of the water with response is shockingly often

like hoffman and strahm from the Saw franchise getting high together, yeah

but also my nonsense comics about Michael Myers from specifically the Thorn trilogy, the RZ remake, and the Green sequel hanging out like weird brothers

or every time I draw a weird AU like slashers as fish. or mini characters that live in the pockets of either someone else or the normal versions of themselves

any self indulgent crossover ive ever made like Jason hanging out with Godzilla and Mothra

and i do it for every fandom. if anyone remembers my old spn comics and AUs, some of those were off the wall cryptic and nonsensical. to the likes of which i havent come close to recreating

many of these get hundreds to thousands of notes/likes/whatever on various websites. so many people just see my nonsense and let me take their hand, no questions asked

thats it i just think its funny

jk im not done that reminds me,. the results of my dumb little poll came in where i asked what people sort of ideally want from me and im kind of surprised

i think i rambled this already but deleted it bc it felt too dumb but actually i dont think its dumb. i think its really interesting and relieving that people actually want my sketches and doodles and dumb things.

& yea i enjoy occasionally making a fully rendered piece but i mean. its not easy, and im never totally happy with the end result most of the time. but if im only posting sketches and doodles and sketchy doodly comics i feel bad like i feel like im just holding people over until the next piece where i actually put in effort.

but it turns out people are totally ok with stuff that i dont kick my own ass trying to polish. people arent settling for it, people voted- they want it.

and i dont know where this attitude against myself came from because i was never unhappy seeing sketches from artists i like

maybe its the part inside of me, which im pretty sure is inside every artist who has ever experienced self doubt, which makes me feel like i should be putting my best effort into everything. like, if i could only just muster up the courage to fully render some of these comics I do, then they would be even better...

but i wouldnt have as much fun. thats too much work, i get overwhelmed

so, they stay sketches. with varying degrees of refinement and shading.

so idk im glad ppl like them

anyway rambling done i think ive made my non-points

[pathos-p]

"Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game" but i got tagged in it so i am gonna answer all of them 'cause theyre fun

questions by @/i-like-eyes

thanks for the tag @king-chook!! ^^

1. Art programs you have but don't use

i thiiink i have a license for clip studio paint that came with my old wacom tablet but i never rly used it. also used to have krita installed for the longest time but just always felt off to me idk why. don't currently have it installed anymore tho

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

to their right is a bit easier i think. not smth i consciously notice, mostly i'm just thinking abt when im doodling on the margins of stuff they usually are looking to the left of the page

3. What ideas come from when you were little

uhhh idk tbh, i dont think much of my art draws from that

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

cityscapes !!! i love cities they r so pretty and cool looking but goddamn theyre so hard to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

80-20? i post everything that i finish. basically the only stuff that doesnt get posted is sketches i give up on

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

hmmmm not that i can think of rn...

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

watercolour !! i've tried it a few times and Struggled but i love seeing ppl's work in it

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

so many animatics ..................... also many comic ideas ..................... i get so many ideas that i just never start on or start and only do a little before losing the hyperfocus/fixation and just Cannot continue them. it sucks

9. What are your file name conventions

usually the character name, maybe a bit of description of what theyre doing... idk not much of a convention to it

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

hmm i like jackets :)

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

yes, usually music. sometimes random youtube videos like stream highlights or video essays.

12. Easiest part of body to draw

uhhh hair? maybe idk. hard question bc it varied a lot depending on what kinda style and just. sometimes smth is hard in a particular drawing then easy later idk

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

i cant think of anything i will edit it in if i think of anyone

14. Any favorite motifs

in my drawings i dont feel like i use any much. mostly i pull motifs from whatever im doing fanart of lol. in music, i like religious motifs (but not like. ones abt christ or bible stories, rather heaven, hell, god/divinity, angels)

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

at home pretty much exclusively. in bed lol

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

idk i feel like the stuff im better at is the stuff i like bc i practice it more for fun lol

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

not usually

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

surprisingly little. mostly bc i do more digital art lol

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

weapons and nature. especially ice for nature

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

i cant think of anything ill add it if i do

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

i love rougher styles, like ones with a lot of visible brushstrokes and bold lines and shit. so cool. idk how to make it look good lol i dont have the confidence in my lines for it

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

none... probably i should change that

23. Do you use different layer modes

yeah, often i use a multiple layer for shading then a variety to colour adjust at the end

24. Do your references include stock images

sometimes

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

cant think of any

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

there was this poem i wrote about capitalism and how shit it is and someone thought it was abt interpersonal relationships/smth along the lines of a breakup. i rly didnt mind it tho i thought it was cool bc the emotion was not far off, the sense of betrayal and abandonment. just a very very different subject

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

no lol

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

i ran a zine (digital only) for the dimension 20 zine jam! and also made art+writing for others in that :D also was part of a polygon yt fanzine a while back

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

spider-man (not the MCU, mostly tasm and a few of the comics)

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

IS IT BAD TO SAY A PIECE THAT GOT QUITE A BIT OF POSITIVE ATTENTION ?? maybe

i rly like the cj comic i did i am genuinely so goddamn happy with the result so . even tho it did very well by the standards for the fandom its for and my current follower base it is underrated

alternatively this one https://www.tumblr.com/pathos-p/704380503765221377/tridential-sovereignty?source=share bc it didnt get all that much attention on any social media site but i think its cool !!

(mostly only using recent ones bc i dont wanna dig back further esp onto my old twt acct, too much work lol)

[jessfastlane]

I've thought about this a bit but after writing this out it turned into a goddamn mini-essay so sorry in advance (also sorry if my language sounds too "academic" at times, i just be like that sometimes). I think there are a combination of things that make this show appealing for autistic people (as well as pretty much everyone else):

1. Character Design. The drones were primarily designed to be quick and easy to animate for the Glitch team. As a result the designs are quite simple and appealing. On the creation side it's similar to the My Little Pony fandom back in the day, and still somewhat today. The simple design mean it's easy for anyone to draw their own characters and fan content, create AUs, etc. The simple designs also mean there's a lot of room for stylisation, meaning it's hard to find any two artists that draw these characters in the exact same way. Essentially, these designs have created an oil well of creativity that'll keep running for potentially years on end.

2. Escapism. Since all the characters are either fun, insane, or some combination of the two, we don't really see any judgement or expectations from drones towards one another (especially N and Uzi). It's easy to imagine that none of the drones judge each other in the same way we see neurotypical people judge others. They also seem to have a high level of freedom in regards to self-expression that we all, on some level, wish we could have. I mean, one guy's head was literally on fire for a while and no one cared. They probably thought it was a fashion statement or something.

3. The Story. It's very much centered around Uzi, the awkward social outcast of her community, and N, the unwaveringly optimistic body-horror-abomination and ex-murderer. Both of them are unabashedly sincere and there's this feeling that they could say anything to each other without fear of judgement. It's also a story about self-discovery and the anxiety that often comes with that which, along with other unmentioned themes, are often very relatable to autistic people.

4. The Community. Pretty much since the first episode there's been ongoing discussions involving plot analysis, theories, character analysis, exploration of themes and background details, etc. The conversations around the show are neverending, fuelled even further by the time gap between episode releases, and its always fun to engage with those discussions. When you break it down, it's mostly just a lot of Info-Dumping and people talking about their interests in hyper-specific detail (Funnily enough, exactly what I'm doing here).

5. The Pacing. For each individual episode the pacing is blindingly fast. I mean, you could watch the same episode 4 times in a row and still somehow find new things hidden in the background. This means you're rewarded for being attentive. There's also something to be said about the natural desire to uncover mysteries that drives us to hyper-analyse each frame of every episode, but that's too philosophical even for me.

In summary, or tl;dr, idk: I should make a second blog for textposts so this one is just for art. Or, uhh, I guess the show and surrounding community kinda tickle the brain in just the right way. Like 'The Brown Note', but instead of making you poop your pants it makes you want more murderous robots.

Damn, this conclusion got away from me. Anyway, here's a doodle of Cyn as a treat for reaching the bottom of this weird rant:

Ok so honest question, but how the hell does Murder Drones somehow flare up everyone’s (Me included) autism in such a perfectly beautiful way?

I mean like-whenever I go onto Tumblr it is a necessity to search for murder drones and see if there are any new posts.

[imagine--if]

I got so excited when I found out that you were writing for Barry!Joker, and i lovedd your last fic! Could you do a part 2 in which Barry! Joker gets those 5 minutes alone with his girl.

xx

A/N: Yasss 🃏 the amount of people who wanted this is InSaNe, I'm so glad you're all enjoying it 🥰 Look out for the last part (breaking outta Arkham) tomorrowwww Thanks for all the likes and asks, keep them coming!! 200 follower milestone 🥳 should I make a fluff prompt list in celebration? Been thinking about it lol but idk you tell me 😊

Pairing: Keoghan!Joker x reader (The Batman 2022)

Warnings: The Batman spoilers?? Hella crazy love 🖤 the reader's a lil crazy hehe

Words: 924

"He wants to see you."

You look up from inside your cell, doodling on the walls with chalk. Everything's so bleak and boring here, so it was pretty much your job to liven it up a little. You haven't been here for too long - a good few months, maybe - and soon you'd be out, back in the streets of Gotham, to do what you do best.

It's Batman. His stoic glare is fixed on you, deep brown eyes shielding his emotions, lips a straight line. You smile, raising a brow.

"Who? Be specific."

"You know who," Batman responds coldly. "I need information, and the Joker refuses to share it without seeing you."

"Mm," you consider, "it has been a while. You're kind of mean, you know, keeping a couple separated. Just because you don't have a lover-"

"That's not it," Batman snaps. "You two kill people. They need to keep order."

"How's that going for them?"

Batman holds his breath in annoyance, letting it out slowly. "Do you want to see him or not?"

You put the chalk down, offering him your hands. "C'mon, then."

He takes a few steps back, and a few guards approach your cell door, hesitant. One of them meets your eye worriedly, and you flick your hand at him, to which he jumps at. You grin.

Batman rolls his eyes, prompting them to hurry up, and after the sound of several locks twisting and snapping, the door swings open. A guard rushes over to cuff you, and you sigh, looking over at Batman questioningly.

"Really?"

"Don't try anything," Batman warns, and you give him an innocent shake of the head as your led down the maze of hallways. It's a wonder they don't put a bag over your head. This place is ridiculous, and if anything, it only encourages the insane to go madder.

The interrogation room is around the corner, and Batman stops as you approach the doors that lead to it, sceptical.

"You gonna move?"

The Batman glares at you, signalling to the guards to hold you for a moment before entering himself, keeping the door open with one hand.

"Don't try anything," He repeats to the Joker, and his response is a familiar laugh. Then the Batman nods to the guards, who seem even more terrified now, actually agreeing to the main thing they were trying to avoid.

Reuniting the Joker with his queen.

Your smile widens when you see him, messy green hair and blue eyes that are so easy to overlook when you focus on the pale scars and bloody smile. To everyone else, he's horrifying, both the things he does and the way he looks, but to you? No, he looks like familiarity, an unsafe safety who's ready to bomb the world if your life depended on it.

His blue gaze softens sightly, in a way only you can notice, and he grins, waving at you, metal chains that keep his wrists linked jingling.

"Hiya, dolly."

"Hi," You reply, smiling, before looking behind you at the guards. "You guys gonna stay here the whole time?"

"Go," Batman tells them, a firm hand leading you further inside the room. "Five minutes. I'm staying."

You scoff lightly. "Rude. He's jealous, you know."

The Joker chuckles, his eyes shifting to look at Batman. "Ah, of course he is. I got to you first."

Batman stops himself from snapping back, glancing at the clock impatiently.

"What have you been up to in the nuthouse, queenie? Having fun?"

You shrug, shaking your head. "It's boring without you."

Joker smiles thoughtfully, leaning in closer to the glass partition. "Hm. Well, nothing like this lasts forever, now does it? And when we get out-"

"You won't get out," Batman interrupts, causing the Joker to stop and give him a pointed look.

"When we get out," He repeats, turning his attention back to you, "you know what I'll do, huh?"

You shake your head, humouring him. "What'll you do?"

"Whatever you like, queenie," J giggles. "Y'know, I miss not waking up to that beautiful smile of yours. Or watching you beat up the cavalry with a rifle you don't even fire. It's just bam, bashing their skulls in with it like a bat in- instead of just shooting..."

His laughter makes him stop in mid-sentence, and you can't help laughing along with him. It's contagious, his laughter, a sound you'd missed for a while.

"Thirty seconds left," Batman says, arms folded.

"He loves us really," You joke.

"Yeah, course- c'mere, doll-"

Batman's attention is off of you two for a few fleeting moments, the guards talking to him frantically, trying to keep their voices quiet as they protest to the meeting. You quickly go over, and he pushes something small over through the metal slider between the two sides of the interrogation room. You grab it without looking, hiding it under your sleeve. Joker winks at you with another grin, and you smile back, before the guards take your arms and take you out of the room.

"Are you ready to cooperate now?" Batman asks him, and the Joker signals for him to hand the files over.

Meanwhile, you're back in your room, waiting for the guards to leave before you check what it was that J gave you.

It's a lockpick, with a cell number written on one shiny side in dark green, a date that's only a few days away on the other, half a dozen x's underneath it.

You muffle a giggle under your hands, and hide the lockpick again, waiting patiently.

[mashbrainrot]

hawkeye/bj, hawkeye. If you got those already, hawk/trap and klinger.

Ask game

002 | Give me a character & I will tell you | Klinger

This is coming off the back of a LOT of Klinger thoughts this week so an especially big thank you for asking me about him

• One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

It can be summed up with this: keep him in the damn dresses.

• my OTP:

Klinger/Soon-Lee is pretty much as perfect as a last minute pairing could be tbh.

• my cross over ship:

My imagination is failing hard with these ones, Jesus. Someone else who fucks with gender presentation.

• a headcanon fact:

He becomes a tailor. What the fuck is an AfterMASH? Oh I also think he is one of the few of the main cast who doesn't have a thing for Hawkeye.

• How I feel about this character:

It's about his unrelenting and uncomplicated kindness. It's about his defiance in the face of the army that manages to stay mostly devoid of anger. Its about the way he plays with gender in ways the text intended and didn't intend. It's his steadiness that is important to the characters within the story, and to the audience

• All the people I ship romantically with this character:

If it isn't Soon-Lee, I think honestly him and Kellye would have been absolutely incredible as a pairing. Unlike the rest of the characters, however, who I could generally buy having at least partly romantic or sexual relationships with any of the others, I think that's the extent of Klinger's pairing options I'm interested in. I think Henry was FASCINATED with him bit I don't think Klinger would have gone there.

• My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Him and Mulcahy and him and Charles make very funny double acts.

• My unpopular opinion about this character:

I've really dug deep for this one and I got NOTHING. Maybe not seeing the romantic sides to him with the other characters, I know him and Mulcahy are a big(?) ship. I don't get him with Charles either, romantically or sexually.

001 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

Traphawk edition

• when I started shipping it if I did:

The first episode I REMEMBER really really shipping them was Yankee Doodle Doctor. Who could resist that dancing scene?

• my thoughts:

I'm mostly into Traphawk as a melancholic 'missed connections' type affair. I love the angst, and the juxtaposition of the nature of Trapper's departure vs the generally easygoing and very happy relationship we saw on screen. I also love their relationship for what it adds to Hawkeye's overarching narrative.

• What makes me happy about them:

The way they make each other laugh, their physical comedy, Trapper's dogged loyalty and support in most things, how goddamned pretty and cute and sexy they are.

• What makes me sad about them:

Trapper's relative lack of character outside of their dynamic, the fact we never got to see how he would have handled a more troubled Hawkeye.

• things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Any hand-waving of the nature of Trapper's departure. That's like, the sole conflict between them, and I don't like it being excused so easy in a fic where they are meant to be endgame. A common way of doing this seems to be to make out that Trapper thought Hawkeye is dead, but then that's just ACCEPTED and they don't examine why Trapper didn't... demand answers beyond that, which seems very out of character. He didn't write the 4077th at all to find out what happened? He didn't send condolences to Daniel?

• things I look for in fanfic:

Something I like in Traphawk fics is EITHER fun sexy times set in Korea, or big reunions post-war where Trapper makes amends and generally looks after a Hawkeye who is a very different and much more delicate creature than the man he left behind.

• Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

For Hawkeye I think it's obvious I'm gonna say Beej... for Trapper? Idk man, I think Louise and him should get divorced and him just live very happily as a single man.

• My happily ever after for them:

Honestly, that they reconnect and stay in each others lives. They meet up regularly, and send each other life updates and the occasional stupid present that made them think of the other, or pranks by mail. I struggle to believe a til-death-do-them-part style romance, but a long lasting one? Sure. And staying in each others lives as an important part of their stories? Definitely.

• who is the big spoon/little spoon:

I have really thought about this, and have come to the conclusion that I think Hawkeye trained Trapper into accepting being the little spoon sometimes by making him do it as a bit first. 

• what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Making each other laugh, and dancing. Providing each other with small acts of love, like good food, that record they know the other has had their eye on, a scarf they make the other wear when it's cold.

[sunnyoldbear]

Luca Headcanons Part 2

DoesLast one blew up and I was gonna wait to make another before making this one but then my Italian fish obsessed brain couldn’t stop thinking and I literally couldn’t stop myself so let’s go, part 2!

Luca:

Has nightmares of what would happen if things went differently: If he was sent to The Deep, if he and Alberto were outed as sea-monsters before the race, if Ercole, Cicco, and Guido didn’t miss Alberto when throwing the harpoons at the beach, if Alberto didn’t come with the umbrella during the race and he was outed in front of the town and hit with Ercole’s harpoon, etc. He always wakes up terrified. 

Apologizes to inanimate objects if he bumps into them or drops them.

Names everything he comes in contact with. Random animals such as birds, insects (even though he’s terrified), erasers he uses often, etc. They’re always random, silly names, but he loves them. 

Is a slow reader because of how he fantasizes himself in the books and daydreams, then is snapped back to reality.

Keeps a dream journal!

Loves making stories about the stars and constellations. He loves the original stories, but he loves to make up his own.

Honestly I just get the vibe that he’s scared of birds after the encounter with the seagull.

His favorite color is purple followed by green!

Giulia’s mom buys him his own bike and he loses his mind, loving it so much

He’s a bit awkward with making friends at school, sticking to Giulia’s side most of the time

He doesn’t really care for music

He can fall asleep anywhere, honestly. He once fell asleep leaning against the doorway and then crashed onto the floor

Alberto loves to doodle on his arms and hands and Luca doesn’t really care to wash them off so they just kinda chill there. 

He’s very easy to prank and scare

Oh you should see him around the holidays! He’s so excited! His eyes sparkle and shine, he absolutely loves the decorations!

He’s not competitive, actually. He just wanted the prize money to get the Vespa, but he doesn’t really care about winning. He just... Isn’t competitive

He is very protective over his friends. Do what you want to him, but lay a hand on someone he loves and he will tear you a new one. We see him in the movie just frown when Ercole makes fun of him, but when Ercole shoved Alberto, all bets were off.

Charts the stars

He doesn’t have one love language, he has all of them, but probably Physical Touch and Quality Time more than anything, or Acts of Service.

Drinks expresso more often than he probably should, but just to get through his schoolwork

Misses his goatfish more than he wants to admit, especially little Giuseppe

Allergies beat him up during the spring

Slowly gets used to cats with Machiavelli’s kittens, but he’s still scared of the chunky boy

A teacher at school made the mistake of introducing him to Shakespeare. He spent hours sobbing over a good chunk of the plays.

Because he liked Shakespeare, Giulia’s mom got him some poetry books. He was not a fan of Edgar Allan Poe or Agatha Christie or Mary Shelley, all the horror/murder type stuff. He loved Emily Dickinson though!

Is as terrified of losing Alberto as Alberto is terrified of losing him

While he isn’t as touchy with Giulia as he is with Alberto, he does get more touchy with her

Reads tons of books about cats, dogs, and turtles to give Machiavelli, Nerone, and Caligola the care they need

Hears about human farms and loses his mind, rapidly asking questions about how they work and if they’re similar to his own

Giulia tries to convince him that fairytales are real. He has nightmares about them for a few nights until Massimo has to tell him that fairytales are made up and her mom changes them slightly to be more... Non-scary. She starts telling them to him to bed just because she misses doing so, and then he can’t fall asleep without someone telling him a story.

Doesn’t do the handshake with anyone that isn’t Alberto or Giulia.

Giulia’s mom calls him “fishy” or “guppy” and he wants to hate it but he can’t

Hates it when people call him cute or baby him, but his family + Alberto + Marcovaldos still do it

Once heard some French Tourists and stared at Giulia and went “why is their Italian so weird sounding” and she lost her shit laughing

Doesn’t swear, refuses to swear

Tries to use Vespa stamps if they’re available

Once he learns what “Piacere, gioralamo trombetta” means, he sends a letter to Alberto which is just him freaking out and laughing while making fun of it. They don’t stop saying it. In fact, they probably say it more.

He has a map in his room with pushpins of where he’s been. Beside it are a bunch of sticky notes of where he wants to go with Alberto with reasons on why he wants to go.

Has a little bit more courage, but not too much

He’s often teased for calling others “sir” or “ma’am” and so he feels really shy about it but doesn’t stop

Refuses to call Massimo and Giulia’s mom by their names, it just feels too awkward for him

Makes friendship bracelets for the trio as well as separate ones for him and Alberto, then him and Giulia.

While he loves gelato, he doesn’t like it as much as Alberto

I feel like he’d dot the i’s in Giulia’s name with hearts but no one else’s

People at school think he has a crush on her but he doesn’t

He and Alberto still say they sleep under the anchovies. No matter how often he researches stars, he’ll always call them anchovies around him.

Sticks out his tongue when focused

Doesn’t like aquariums, he stares at those fish and he just feels trapped

Loves to dance in the rain

Does that little feet tappy dance thing when he’s excited or shakes his hands

Honestly half of his vocabulary is stern shouts of “Alberto!” “Giulia!” or “silenzio Bruno, silenzio Bruno! Silenzio Bruno!”

Speaking of, he can’t just say “Silenzio Bruno” once, it’s always him saying it more than once, especially when he’s really scared

He doesn’t have loud, aggressive sneezes, but he does have sneeze fits. Once he sneezed so many times that with every one his face got closer to his desk until it just went BAM and he has a massive bruise on his forehead for days. 

Sometimes just goes into the water and swims to relax. If he’s feeling homesick, he’ll do some daring trick and then instinctively turn to smile at Alberto only to realize he isn’t there

His dad still keeps crabs but lets Luca name them. Luca chooses to name them all after space things. Mainly moons, but sometimes planets or galaxies

Secretly feels really guilty about Alberto selling their Vespa

After almost being sent to The Deep, he is terrified of the dark and can’t sleep without a light on, no matter how dim it is

Alberto:

Matching pajamas with both Massimo and Giulia! (Refuses to match with her, Massimo yelled at them)

Tries to see what triggers his transformation. Does watermelon? Does juice? Is it any liquid? He’ll find out!

Calls Giulia “Spewlia” just to piss her off

Those two are always arguing. Yes, he often starts it

Lots of tattoos and ear piercings!

Will into Giulia’s room, stare her dead in the eyes, call her a bitch, and run out while leaving the door open. She’ll scream at him and probably throw something. 

Tends to shorten people’s names. He calls Luca “Lu,” “Lulu,” and even “Luke.” Luca does not like any of these names.

Still builds his Vespas! They’re not as fun without Luca, though

Takes Giulia with him sometimes too and purposely crashes into the sea or something just to see what she does. 

Gains quite a bit of muscle 

Is the one who takes down all the sea monster things with Massimo. He and Lorenzo carry Smuca to the fountain

Idk I feel like he has loud sneezes

I also feel like he makes that weird cough face like that one cat idk I just know I’m right

He doesn’t just sing... He scream sings

Doesn’t know how to dance but if there is music he will dance

Loves dancing in the rain too!

Sometimes he’ll just walk into Giulia’s room and gossip with her. They’ll make a blanket fort and grab some snacks and cats and just... Spend the night talking and catching up

She teaches him how to braid hair and now he just loves doing her hair

Bites his lip quite a bit. That’s canon but like, still worth mentioning

Learns how to ride a bike so he doesn’t get killed or something

Keeps a journal on things Luca and Giulia are interested in so he can learn about them. He writes down bullet points on what he remembers from conversations, but it’s honestly not much

He doesn’t have big dreams other than traveling the world with Luca. He knows Giulia wants to be a marine biologist and Luca wants to travel the world + is still figuring things out. He has short term goals other than that and changes the topic about it.

A popular headcanon is that Alberto takes care of the goatfish when Luca’s at school and I think that would happen!

He’s shockingly good with kids! When not working, he loves playing soccer with them by the fountain

He almost named Machiavelli’s mate “Frog” because he can’t name things

Half the time when Giulia and/or Luca talk about school, he goes “I don’t what that means, but I’m choosing to define it as ____” and won’t let them prove him wrong

Technically canon but he will bite. Chomp chomp.

When he meets Giulia’s mom, they love to paint together

He does make some friends in Portorosso, but none are as close to him as his sister and best friend!

This man is the most dramatic person good lord

Love language is definitely physical touch!

Still screams “Take me, gravity!” pretty often

Can’t do work alone without music. He doesn’t really like opera but he can’t stand silence, he just can’t

Sometimes he thinks of Luca’s betrayal and is really angry, but knows he’d probably do the same if the roles were reversed. It was about self preservation and the risk of living. He still gets upset about it sometimes, but completely forgives him and understands

Is always torn between giving Giulia genuine facts about sea creatures and giving her such absurd but lowkey believable lies. He wants her to succeed so badly but also wants to screw her over

If you give him anything, he will play with it. String? A toy. A pen? A toy. A literal rock you found on the side of the road? A gorgeous toy, thank you!

Never just goes into the water, he will always be dramatic and dive in or jump

Sometimes when not on duty, he just blows his lifeguard whistle because he thinks it’s cool

He loves yoyos!

Will noogie Giulia.

Sometimes gets scared that Massimo will abandon him, but it seems like Massimo always knows

Città Vuota is his favorite song!

Doodles all over everything, especially Giulia and Luca’s arms and legs. They range from little stars to tic tac toe games to fish to anything that comes to mind

Giulia:

Is very much into photography! Luca always does hearts with his hands/fingers while Alberto does stupid poses or flips her off... or both.

Hums and sings a lot! 

Also loves to dance and is the best of the trio! Loves to twirl and vibe even if there’s no music! It’s just her personality

She doesn’t just hug, she jumps into their arms and holds them close

Sometimes just to annoy Alberto she’ll hug him and press kisses to his head and cheeks. Siblings gonna be annoying.

Always has so much energy but really struggles with sitting still for homework after such long hours in school that her grades aren’t all that good except for Astronomy!

The most competitive of the trio

Bites her lip when she’s nervous

Started wearing her hat to match her dad when she was little and now she doesn’t like being without it

Has probably fallen asleep in class

Loves watermelon and gelato

While Ciccio and Guido apologize for their actions, she doesn’t forgive them and doesn’t want to. She has every right to

Gets really into singing when she’s singing along to songs

Doesn’t like makeup for herself but will hold the boys captive to do their makeup

Loves puns! Will make sea puns to piss off Alberto and Luca, but Luca loves them so it half-works

Loves copying Alberto’s lipbite

Machiavelli her beloved <3 

Loves her fam so much! She’s got pictures of them everywhere and is constantly buying them gifts

Speaking of! Her love language is giving gifts! 

She’s actually pretty good at making friends since she can read people so well. It’s just that Portorosso doesn’t have any.... Great kids to befriend and Genova just has too many that she sticks to a small group which eventually fades, as groups do

She isn’t the most emotional but she also isn’t the least emotional. She doesn’t cry often but she does get sad and shows it

I don’t know why I feel this way but I definitely think she’s scared of the doctor

She used to be scared of thunderstorms until meeting her boys and the race happened. Now she associates rain and storms with that win

Summer is her favorite season

She knows everyone in Portorosso by name and knows most of their birthdays by heart

Speaking of, she always celebrates Alberto’s birthday like her like her life depends on it

Now loves racing on her bike even more cause of the race

Calls Alberto “Berto” and is the only one allowed to do say

A very light sleeper

---

More on the way probably they’re all I think about

[vesperstalksclones]

Drawing lesson #2 - full body

So for fun I decided to do another drawing tips & tricks thingy! I'm not an expert by any means, but I have been doodling forrrrr... at least 30 years now so.... *shrugs*

Ho-kay! So I'm drawing mr sexy pants Rex in Zygarrian armor because who doesn't love an angry cutie pie in a cat suit!

So BIG important - set some guide lines on your paper! Ugh! Don't draw and draw and draw and then suddenly you can't fit a foot on your paper ! 😭

Make dumb fat messy shapes to set up where your body parts are, and go over them multiple times. I find all those lines help to create the nice organic shapes I want!

So I have a messy outline going. I filled in that stick man type thing here and my important joints. Also I added some plains to help keep my body aligned

This is kind of a 3/4 angle. Not facing perfectly at me, so I don't have to be as fussy with the symmetry.

Now, let's talk about shapes. I often break body parts in to shapes while I am drawing. This helps keep the body parts the right size in relation to eachother; its easier to draw two triangles than to mock out two entire feet, right? These are my training wheels!

So take a look here! See how I turn the basic areas in to easy shapes? This way I can make sure my body is nice and proportional before I put lots of effort in to details.

This is also hugely helpful with hands and feet! So see how the foot on our left side is viewed from dead on? From the angle to the bottom it is kind of one big cone/triangle from this angle, or even maybe like the look of a horse's hoof!

Look to the one on the right - I used a triangle for the heel, a squatty rectangle for the toe and a sloping rectangle for the mid foot. I almost prefer to err on the side of bigger and chunkier with feet. What can I say... I like boots!

Also, look at the leg on our left. See how I outlined the leg? The natural curves of the thighs and calves should be "B" shaped at this angle.

Ok, so I want to make sure my arms are proportional! If you straighten out and put your arms at your sides you'll find your palms reach your thighs well below your hips! Like, Rex needs to be able to cover his nethers if need be!

So to draw my arms, first I pick where my hand is going to be, and my shoulder first. THEN I draw the forearm, elbow and upper arm to connect my hand to the body. To check my proportions, I grab my ruler and measure the rough length of my arm pieces, and then make sure a straight arm would reach his thigh. It looks pretty good to me!

What? More shapes? YES! So I like a thic chest on my man, but this really works for even skinny bodies. The top of my pectoral rectangle also acts as my collar bone, which connects the shoulders. Then the tops of the trapezius/shoulder muscles make a triangle pointing to the head. The rounded portion of the shoulder is two petals.

Now, the torso/sternum part is a fatty triangle pointing down from the pectoral. This also forms your rib cage. The tip of the triangle pushes down in to a cylinder shaped waist/abdomen. On a male body type this is generally not as curvey.

And the pelvis/hips... shaped like shorts 😋

Dude.... hands are hard!!! For EVERYONE. Anyone who says otherwise is BS-ing you. The painful truth is practice, practice, practice. Copy pictures from magazines. Sit and look at your own hands. Make the shape you are trying to draw and examine yourself!

Thank goodness for my cheater shapes! If you look at your mitts, you'll see that the knuckles line up fairly well, so laying down a guideline can help to lay them out. The palm section is a pretty comfortable rectangle, and where palm becomes wrist -> triangle.

Also, check out the fist on our right. IDK why, but I like making a triangular gap between my fingers. I feel like it adds depth in a way and it makes them feel less like sausages that way.

Alright! I've been working my way around my drawing. I like to jump around from part to part to keep everything moving along together. Work together the lines that you laid out with your shapes. I start out light, but when I've found the shape I like, I lay down a thick dark line that says "this is done. As much as I'm tempted to be lazy, I know I'll be unhappy if I don't keep working at all the little details. A simple curved line makes a wrinkle in the fabric. Add seams to your clothes and textures to cloth or metal.

For shading, sometimes a softer graphite pencil is nice, but it can get really smudgey! Some folks have these paper blenders - they make me gag. Its a texture thing. I prefer to blend with my fingers; the oils seem to help soften the pencil and seal it to the paper. Just a light scribbling motion with the pad if my finger usually works.

There he is babies!! I could lecture more, but I can only put this many pics in to a post!! So here I have my finished Zygerrian Rex. He has no patience for d-bag slavers and is going to open up a world of hurt on sumbody. I rrreeeeaaally wanted an angry toothy snarl a la Frank Miller's Spartans... bit I couldn't make it happen and look good. *Shrug*

Well, dollies... lwt me know what you think! Feel free to ask questions any time!

[thepoodlepack]

What's wrong with goldenpoodles? I'm genuinely curious because almost all of my dogs are mixed breeds and behave fine. So I'm curious if there's something else I'm missing

jeez this feels like bait but u kno what, you got me

alright, so it goes like this. the doodle really began with a guy in australia being like i need the temperament of a lab for a guide dog but these ppl are allergic to dogs, so i need a poodle bc they have hair, not fur. so he bred em together. years later he’s like damn that was a mistake.

now, why, exactly? alright so first of all he only needed that mix bc labs on average tend to adapt better to situations that are largely exclusive to service dog work than poodles do. i can go into what this means at a later date, but that’s basically how it is. but either way, people jumped on this creation and it kinda spiraled out of control. soon, poodles were being bred by everyone and every breed. suddenly, they were a marketing scam more then they were a dog breed.

oh theyre hypoallergenic! all of them, all the time cause zero allergies! look theyre so much better than poodles! theyre friendly and easy to train, not like poodles of course, just like labs! they’re better than labs bc none of them shed, ever! they’re super healthy bc breeding labs and poodles together wipes out all their health problems, of course!

lies, lies lies. the aussie guy, whose name i’m not going to look up bc i’m lazy but who you can find if you google creator of doodles, straight up says that even the first litter(s) of labradoodles he bred had puppies that the people he bred them for were allergic to. he very carefully tested the litter and the reaction the person had before placing a puppy that was not going to hurt them.

think of the punnet squares we all learned about in 5th grade science class. you draw the squares and one parent has two fur genes and the other parent has two hair genes and what do you get? well if you have four puppies, one might have hairhair and the next one might have hairfur and the next one might have furhair and the next one might have furfur. and so guess what? only hairhair pup is going to be the best choice for allergic people. additionally, you can see why the non-shedding thing can be bullshit, and that in particular is also a guessing game. you may be able to test allergy sufferers against the pups, but that does not necessarily mean they won’t shed. hairfur, for example, may be a good choice for some allergic people, but perhaps they’ve got just enough fur to shed anyway. also, lets look at salukis (and frankly, most long-haired sighthounds). salukis are still considered dogs with fur, not hair. they also still shed, even though it’s just a little. and yet they’re still considered good for allergy sufferers.

(ps poodles do actually shed. but they shed like humans shed. your hair comes out, doesn’t it? like, esp folks with long hair, aren’t people always complaining how you clog the shower drain? yeah, like that. ALSO obviously the situation is more complicated then super simple punnet squares and as an ex-groomer i have something to say about doodle coats but i’m going to save that for later, put a pin in it.)

oh and wait a hot minute there. i said best choice, didn’t i, not hypoallergenic. well, that’s because no dog is hypoallergenic. poodles, and a few other dog breeds, they have hair, like we do. but the thing is both humans and breeds with hair still produce the dander, though they’re different kinds. breeds with hair happen to produce the least amount possible that dogs can produce, which is why they’re a better choice for allergy sufferers, but that’s still not a guarantee. my roommate Dakota is allergic to dogs. if i don’t wash my dogs for an extended period of time (which has never happened, ever, in my life, idk what ur talking about), thus giving the chance for the dander my dogs still produce, he will have a very, very mild reaction when touching them. it can be countered by him washing his hands after touching them and also me just giving them a fucking bath, i need to stop forgetting, but still, there you go. ALSO people might not be allergic to dogs bc of their dander. they might be allergic to the saliva of dogs, which poodles or any other breed with hair still produces about the same as other dogs. so, yeah, not hypoallergenic, not at all.

the people who taut their hypoallergenic dogs for sale largely don’t do the testing required to check if they’re actually providing a dog to someone who won’t react to it. not acceptable at all.

so, labs are friendly and easy to train right? not at all like poodles, right? no. absolutely incorrect. some labs are friendly and easy to train. some labs, a lot of them when they’re puppies, are nightmare fuel. personally, i have a theory that everyone’s vision of labs in their heads are either a) service dogs or b) those old labs who are slightly pudgy (or morbidly obsess, which is a different topic) and who are graying in the face and just want to lounge around because they’re seniors now. alright, so here’s why thats bad. labs are a working breed. a retrieving breed. they’re supposed to be bulky and strong and driven. service dogs are highly trained, to a point that most pet dogs will never see, and if you see them with their actual disabled handler, they’ll probably be around 2.5 yrs of age and out of their most wild days. old labs are well. old. sleepy. maybe a bit achey. and well out of their most wild days. oh, and it’s the same type of thing with goldens by the way, the other most popular doodle type. poodles are also easy to train, especially if their parents have a decent temperament. they’re all about equal if you actually start training them when they’re puppies and just pay for some training classes, like everyone should. in the puppy classes i’m in right now, Euphoria is leaps and bounds ahead of doodles, goldens, and labs that are her age or older. I train her properly and she’s got amazing parents. that’s it, that’s the trick. not breed, not necessarily, and def not in this case.

I am once again going to say that labs and goldens are more often used as service dogs than poodles because of their adaptability, but it’s the ability to adapt to situations that most pet dogs will never have to worry about.

jeez this is a long post. i’ve still got more to cover too. alright, on to super healthy, or “hybrid vigor” as the nerds call it. uhh, it’s bullshit. thank u for ur time.

okay, but actually why on gods green earth would breeding two completely different breeds with little to no research make them super healthy? now i want to preface this with i’m (generally) pro-outcross projects. Euphoria’s dad is half mini poodle and half standard poodle, which isn’t technically an outcross bc all the variations are of the same breed, but if we’re going by genetic diversity alone minis and standards are different enough to actually be different breeds.

so, to be clear, outcrosses, given the proper thought and planning: good, results in healthier dogs (see: lua dals). randomly breeding two very different breeds together with no planning other than to sell the puppies to randos who won’t continue the outcross: bad. especially when you’re doing it to cash in and don’t health test at all, or don’t health test the major health problems with both breeds (if you’re doing an f2 breeding or anything like that). no the poodle’s health problems don’t get canceled out by the goldens or labs or whatever the other party’s health problems are, and vice versa. and yeah, i’ve looked at a lot of doodle breeder’s websites and yeah, most of them don’t health test at all, or at least don’t health test properly. do you know i own one doodle and currently live with another? yeah, i got them both from breeders and do you know how much health testing their parents got? if your answer is none, good job, you’ve been paying attention. in my defense, i was like 13, i didn’t know what i was doing.

alright, so those are the big points. this is kinda gonna be just... a mix of my other complaints. here we go, hope you’re ready for more. argument the first: i feel like it’s pretty disrespectful to reputable breeders. now, i actually have two reasons why that is. reason one: most reputable poodle breeders don’t want their breeding stock bred with other breeds, for various reasons. i’ve even met a few who used to be okay with it and then as the doodle scam got bigger and more out of control, they stopped being okay with it, even to the breeders who they had been fine with it in the past. that means a lot of doodle breeders out there have their breeding stock because they scammed poodle breeders into giving them pet quality, not breeding quality, dogs or because they’re getting their stock from non-reputable breeders. i also feel it’s disrespectful to breeders who are actually trying to create new breeds. quite frankly, a breed with the size, strength, and adaptability of a lab or golden that doesn’t shed and that has the train-ability of a poodle, lab, or golden sounds pretty interesting to me. did you know you can actually make that breed? and it wouldn’t be a cross with unpredictable... well, everything. it would actually be a true dog breed.

Look at Silken Windhounds and Biewer Terriers who began both development in the 1980s. Biewer Terriers were recognized by the AKC this year, and Silken Windhounds still haven’t been. And yeah, that’s the problem isn’t it? Making a real new breed takes a lot of time, planning, and care. People would rather just cash in. I think it’s sad and I think it’s disrespectful to the breeders who do work so hard to make actual new breeds.

and finally, unpin being an ex-groomer goddamnit. guess what? doodles are awful to groom! they’re terrible on the grooming tables because people want to have in both ways: they want a dog that doesnt shed at all and they want a dog who doesn’t need to be groomed. well guess what, that dog doesn’t exist and you can have it only one way. and also, bring back the goddamn punnet squares because a lot of doodles have awful coats. if you have hairfur and furhair over there, guess what, their coat fucking sucks bc it’s not meant to be like that. it wants to mat bc hair but also it wants the mats to slide out bc short-ish fur but its too thick for the mats to slide out bc thick hair. and yes its more complicated then this and that means its often more awful then this. its awful, it makes me want to cry. and maybe it’s slightly easier to get away with it with a shorthaired dog like a lab, or, you know what, even a golden, okay, even a slightly long haired dog like a golden but people are doodling akitas? border collies? bernese fucking mountain dogs? i am crying. i am crying right now as i type this.

lets do a sum up to this disaster of a post. look, i don’t go out there attacking or yelling at every doodle or every doodle owner i see, alright? or any of them really. i might engage in conversation to one that’s interested, but that’s it. i love my doodly Isis, okay? shes tiny and she’s adorable and I love her more than life and i will never, ever get another doodle. i don’t like the way they’ve gotten so prolific, i don’t like the reasons they’re now widespread, and i don’t like almost all of the people that create them, including the ones i’ve literally given my (parents) money to in the past. i wish they were better but i just cannot approve of them, especially not in the environment they exist in now. that said, i do support them in their original use case as assistance dogs, and i do not care about them if they’re shelter dogs.

[shadowling-guistical]

Sit and Bleed.

Roman asks Remus for advice, and Remus delivers. In his own, mildly disturbing way. Somehow, bonding ensues.

Yeah idk either. I shared this to one of my friends and they said, and I quote, "Hey mishi i love you but wtf? Did remus posess you?"

So like, enjoy?

WARNING: Extensive blood talk, period talk, mild injury, mild gore, and generally just canon typical Remus shenanigans.

---

"Do you think that it's true?" Roman had asked him one day, "That writing is easy? That you could just sit at a typewriter and… And bleed?"

It had been dusk, and somehow, Roman had Imaginationed the setting sun to send it's final rays streaking across his room. From where Remus had been lying, splayed out on Roman's carpet like a human sacrifice waiting for a malevolent god, it looked sickeningly beautiful. The gold that bathed the room, the warmth and splendour, he thought it was just saccharinely horrid.

Roman turned his chair to face him. Remus turned his head. A heartbeat turned into two before he scoffed.

"Please," Remus idly picked his nose, rolling the products he found jammed up in his sniffer into a small hard ball and flicked it off to god knows where. He hoped it landed on Roman's pillow. "If writing were that easy, I'd twist my foot off and feed it to Virgil's tarantula,"

"It used to be,"

Remus sighed, swinging his legs up before he leapt onto his feet with a soft oof. Roman went back to his writing, ignoring the sound of Remus' spine popping when he straightened himself. The Duke sauntered to Roman's desk, looking over his shoulder to see…

Nothing.

Well, nothing substantial .

Bits of writing here, a doodle there, scratched out ideas at the corner, angry scribbles at another…Oof.

His twin must have noticed, because Roman’s tone was bitter.

“Not anymore,”

"Yeah well," Remus muttered, thinking of glittering yellow eyes filled with mischief and a sly smirk underneath a shadowy hood, "A lot of other things used to be easy too,"

"Well? What do you think?"

Riiiiight, typewriting and bleeding. Remus scoffed, "Well willya lookit that. You never asked me before, why start now?"

Roman groaned, "... Remus I’m serious here,"

"Hey! It's true," Remus swiped the paper and crumpled it into a ball. Without looking, he threw it over the shoulder. Roman scowled when he sees it bounce onto his bed, "What's up, Prince stink-a-lot? You ask me to come hang out. You didn't kick me out when I wiped boogers onto that skinned angora cat you call a carpet, and now you're asking me questions? What gives?"

"...it's just…"

God, it’s just this and it’s just that , Remus wanted to pull his hair out already. He wished Roman would just spit it out. Just vomit it out and get this over with. Really, getting his stupid twin to just spew whatever was rattling in that noggin if his was worse than pulling teeth out of a gator. And Remus would know, he tried it a lot over the years.

"I just wanted to be like you,"

And there it was, whatever thing that had been sitting in his twin’s gut like a 5 foot long tapeworm.

…

Like him.

Like Remus.

The Duke of Dastardly Deeds.

Mr. Dark and Disgusting himself.

Roman "Pretty Boy" Sanders wanted to be like him?

Remus leaned forward, far more amused than shocked.

"...You're fucking with me,"

"No, I am not," Roman was looking at him with those intense green eyes of his and woah… the guy really was serious, wasn't he?

Huh.

Curiosity reared it's head, familiar and cloying somewhere inside of Remus'  stomach. Then again, it could have been the extra potent shaving cream he had over his deodorant earlier today. Who fucking knows.

"Why?" He finally asked.

"Because… You've always made it look so… easy," Shaking hands ran through unruly curls, "It comes easier for you than it did for me. Always did. Just— How do you do it, Remus?"

The other twin considered it for a moment.

Had it really? Admittedly, Remus didn’t really notice it. He hummed. Sit on a typewriter and let yourself bleed , huh?

Well. He apparently had a crisis to handle.

Remus leaned against Roman's desk. Lightly, he ran rough, clumsy fingers on a splotch of dried ink absorbed into wood.

The tone that his Other Half (Don't make it weird Tumblr, he didn't mean that way. So put those pitchforks down and back away. Thanks.) had used while gesturing to the stack of papers and feather quills on his desk now morphed into disgust, "it feels like I just don't have any flowing in me anymore,"

"Well duh," long, dirty fingernails tapped against polished wood, "It's because bleeding isn't supposed to be easy, you doofus," He sighed, and Roman’s expression caused him to nearly want to groan and drape himself over the table. God, it was so fucking obvious that Roman really had no idea, did he? "You know, If you wanna go all gross metaphor with me, you gotta at least not half ass it,"

"Okay, but half ass it how? That how the saying goes,"

With all the tact and delicacy of a blunt axe, Roman’s words were cut off.

"Then it's a shit saying,"Before Roman could protest, "Look do you want me to help or not? Yeah? Then good. Just shut up for a sec and spill the juicy details," Pause, "Okay, what do you know about periods?"

Roman stiffened, obviously beginning to not like where the conversation was steered to. Because not even Jesus could take the wheel when Remus was behind it. However, Roman reluctantly let his shoulders relax when his twin brushed him off with an eye roll. Cautiously, because Remus still needs to be handled much like a skunk would.

"Remus— “

"Oh just relax. This is going somewhere. Trust me. And I won't do any shit I can't clean up. Just answer the question,"

Roman looked queasy, but swallowed heavily. He supposed he did ask, "I guess, just what Thomas learned in Sex Ed,"

Hm, he could work with that.

"So absolutely shit! Great! I just love the educational system in Florida. Wonderful. Wish the Nerdy Wolverine was here to tell you. But you only got me so it'll have to do— Should've prepared a whole musical number about it too—"

Remus held out his palms, and Roman sees the skin tighten. It strained and stretched before it ripped into a bloody gash.  Roman grimaced, the other unperturbed. In fact, he daresay Remus looked curious. Like he was mulling over what to say.

"Eh, Follow up— Have" Remus let the blood pool into his cupped hands. A tablespoonful turned into a cupful and soon it was overflowing. He tipped his hand so that the blood dribbled down. Drip drip drip, a small stream of blood hit the floor in splatters, "Have you seen it before? Period blood?"

"What?” Oh god, he feels like he could gag, “Gross—! No of course not,"

Remus rolled his eyes.

"Unfeminist much?" The dry tone was met with protest.

"I'm not!—" Roman spluttered, "I don't go around looking for what comes out of people's pants, Remus!"

"Yeah yeah, but did you know they're chunky though?"

"I— What the fuck Remus?"

"Just...humour me for a sec. So they're chunky," Remus sort of flicked his hand, sending smaller droplets flying. A particularly large droplet streaked across Roman’s floor, "Thick goopy, disgusting— Hey, think of that the next time you scoop out some Crofters eh?"

Well, there nearly goes Roman's lunch.

"Oh god.” He pushed down the tickle at the back of his throat, “Please don't— Just, get to the point,"

"Okay okay. Jeez. The point is," two scarred, calloused hands rubbed together, letting the blood smear, "Is that even blood flows differently,"

The hands raised up, tinged red and both of them marred with an angry, red, jagged tear.

"Look at this shit. See? Not everything that comes out is the same. Some places will drip. Others flow and some? They're chunky. That's just how it is. you can't expect chunky blood to flow as easily as fresh blood,"

Without letting Roman mull on the morbid metaphor, he ploughed on.

"Oh yeah— And blood coagulates. It dries up and turns to scab. It won't stay bleeding forever. It's not supposed to. And expecting it to is just stupid, so write that down with your fancy quill,"

Blinking, Roman's mind slowly caught up with him.

Flowing blood and drying and scabbing— He soon deflated.

Oh.

Oh…

He just watched wordlessly as Remus wiped his hand against the fabric of his outfit. Flakes of dried blood sprinkled down joining the droplets on the ground like some sort of morbid snow.

" And just in case you forget, because of course you do. Scabbing is good. Personal experience guaranteed. It heals things. Plus…" the hand with the cut waved again. Exaggeratedly, mockingly, and even Roman couldn't help but to crack a smile, "You gotta make a pretty deep cut if you wanna bleed a lot,"

Maybe Roman was imagining the softer tone that Remus had let bleed into his voice.

"And if you bleed a lot, you gotta let yourself scab,"

A long, slow exhale.

He had to let himself scab.

"And… You've kinda been bleeding a lot, didn’tcha?"

"I…" Roman swallowed, mouth suddenly dry, "...Yeah...I think so,"

"Been making some huge cut lately to get it flowing?…"

"...Mmmm…" Shaking breaths, fragile and soft. Okay… okay… "Remus?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you… do you think I can… I should—"

Should he stop?

"... Course you could, you stupid bleeding heart…" a hand found itself in Roman's hair, gently carding it. Really, almost petting it, "...But fuck Ro, if that isn't the thing we all love about you, you doof. Of course you can. And you should. In fact, I am telling you to,"

Hesitantly, a pair of arms circled themselves over Roman's shoulder, pulling him close.

Remus didn't mention it when he saw broad shoulders decorated in tassels begin to  shake. He didn't pay attention to the soft sobs that sent a Prince, unwavering and strong, shaking. He didn't care about the way Roman's face had crumpled.

"It's time to let it scab, Roman. And try not to pick at it too much,”

Outside, the figure that had been leaning against the door for the better part of the last 10 minutes smiled.

Heh… Credit where credit's due, he supposed.

He tilted his bowler hat forward and began walking down the hallway. No need to worry.

Who knew that the Duke had it in him.