#every texture is hand drawn actually :3

[mutedeclipse]

"hey lunar why did you fall off the face of the earth for a day"

WELL!

I got inspired to use an R model as a base to fuck around, got lost in the sauce, changed or deleted EVERYTHING and went apeshit. I have never used a specular map. Or a metal map. Or a roughness map... Ontill today! I made 3. 3. And learned how to give models iridescence.

Long story short i feel like god please reblog and stuff it took a while and i want people to see

Have a bonus blight_fucking_dies_sparkle_princess.png

[witch-hazels-musings]

i'd know the difference

warning -> none, sfw, fluff <3 | happy birthday Diluc

diluc x gn reader | Anthology

His back was tired. Tense muscles ignited by the sunlight pouring through the window. Diluc rolled his shoulder, dug his fingers into his trapezius muscle, and squinted at the sharp pain that ran down his arm.

The forms on his desk hardly dwindled since this morning. He swore they multiplied each time he placed one neatly into an envelope and pressed his seal into the ruby wax.

A knock at his study drew his gaze. "Sir, Diluc, the barrels are ready for inspection." A muffled voice slipped under the doorframe, their movements silenced by the heavy wood.

"I will be there momentarily," Diluc responded as his father's fountain pen glided across the final page of a contract. Another seller from Inazuma. Requests from the sealed-away nation had increased substantially after the Raiden Shogun opened trade routes. While it meant the Winery was bound to see a profitable quarter, he was bound to see many more sleepless nights.

Diluc filed the contract away into a water-sealed container and dropped it into a small, wooden box meant for outgoing correspondence. Three other letters softened the container's fall. He hadn't even made it halfway through.

---

The halls of the Winery were filled with still light, the decorated walls made everything compact but he had grown used to the opulent clutter. As a child, he spent many hours staring at the picture frames. Distant lands he hoped one day to traverse; he did and found that each depiction served little justice to the actual thing. The ornate rug muffled his steps and he moved swiftly toward the stairs. He fussed with his vest until something soft grazed his arm.

A fresh bouquet of flowers was placed on a tall, rounded table near the balcony overlooking the lower floor. A rich, sweet, earthy aroma filled his nose. Shades of royal blue, amber, and honey mixed with lush green. He rubbed a petal with his thumb and index finger, the satin texture unaffected by the roughness of his hand.

The corner of his lips lifted.

---

"There you are," Diluc said from the garden's edge. He had a feeling you'd be out here. Hard at work preparing beautiful arrangements you'd later place in the Winery. If he wasn't careful, he'd be trapped here forever watching you weave through the swaying flowers. He thought to ask a painter to capture the scene, but, in the end, he decided against it - there were some things he preferred to keep to himself.

"Morning," you called out, rising from the flower bed. With the back of your hand, you pushed up your sun hat.

The metal click of the gate rang out as Diluc made his way into the garden, narrow paths made it difficult for him to see where his feet landed while you moved through them with practiced grace. "How long have you been out here?" he asked.

"About as long as you've been cooped up in your study. I figured once you'd ultimately emerged, you'd appreciate being greeted by something lovely," you explained as you shooed a bug away from the ends of his hair.

"So why were you not waiting for me then?" he asked, teasingly, but in his heart he was serious. Your face was the thing he enjoyed most.

You shook your head and leaned in to kiss his cheek. "I'll remember that for next time." With ease, you turned down the path and made your way to a sun-bleached table holding several bundles of partially trimmed flowers. He followed after you.

Diluc watched you work. Skilled fingers stripping the stems of their leaves, the soft clipping of prunes as you, one by one, measured the height of each flower. He moved in, drawn to you like the bees to the flowers.

"You smell divine," he professed and reached to steal your hat so he could kiss your head. The sun clung to every strand of your hair and warmed his desperate lips.

"Are you sure it's not just the flowers?" you asked, chuckling softly, your hands busy with bundling a fresh bouquet.

"I'm sure." Diluc stepped closer to you, his chest pressing against your back, his fingers trailing down your arm and fixing the shawl that had fallen off while you worked. He kissed the space below your ear and breathed you in. "I'd know the difference anywhere."

You turned just enough to look into his eyes and the sight of your face made his heart beat wildly. He shielded you with your hat and, with a gentle hand he cupped your throat, his thumb held your chin so he could keep you still and let his lips linger against your own until he was satisfied.

Even in a field of flowers, none of them compared to you - none could ever compare to his favorite.

[cera-writes]

Can I request some priest Nightcrawler pls? Can be smut or fluff or anything I don’t really care I just love my little blueberry elf priest boy <3

A/N: for suuuure <3 hope this little idea was okay. So I actually wrote a fic of Priest!Kurt in another one-shot I'll link here : Penitent Pining it's pretty similar to what I would have written for this request! Pairing: Kurt Wagner x AFAB!Reader Tags: oral sex (receiving), smut, mutual pining

Bathroom Rendezvous

"Psst, over here," a whisper cut through the dim light of the X-Mansion bathroom, barely audible over the muffled bass of the party outside. You turned to see Nightcrawler's silhouette in the doorway, his yellow eyes gleaming with mischief.

"Kurt? What are you doing?" you asked, your heart racing as he beckoned you closer. The air was thick with anticipation, the faint scent of his cologne mingling with the sterile smell of the bathroom.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you all night," he confessed, his voice low and husky. "Every time I saw you across the room, my mind wandered... to places it shouldn't. Teufel noch mal, (y/n)... you drive me wild."

You stepped closer, drawn by the raw desire in his voice. His tail flicked out, brushing against your arm, sending shivers down your spine. "And where did your mind wander to, Kurt?" you teased, your voice barely above a whisper.

He closed the distance between you, his hand reaching up to cup your cheek. "To here," he murmured, leaning in to press a soft, lingering kiss to your lips. The world seemed to fade away, leaving only the sensation of his lips on yours, the gentle pressure building into something more urgent.

His tail moved with a mind of its own, tracing patterns down your back, dipping lower until it reached the hem of your skirt. With a gentle tug, he lifted it, exposing your thighs to his curious touch. The tip of his tail explored, finding the sensitive skin behind your knees, then moving higher, teasing the crease where thigh met hip.

You gasped, the sensation both alien and incredibly erotic. "Kurt, please," you moaned, unable to articulate what you wanted, but he seemed to understand.

His tail continued its journey, sliding between your legs, parting them gently. You leaned back against the sink, giving him better access, your breath coming in short, sharp pants as his tail found the apex of your thighs.

"Is this... is this okay, Schatz?" he asked, his voice strained with desire, his eyes never leaving yours.

"Yes," you breathed, arching into his touch as his tail caressed you intimately, the soft fur sending waves of pleasure coursing through your body. "More, Kurt, please."

Emboldened, his tail pressed harder, stroking you in a way that made your knees weak. You reached for him, pulling him close, kissing him fiercely as his tail worked its magic. The world narrowed to the feel of his lips on yours, his tail on your most sensitive flesh, the sound of your mingled breaths echoing off the tiled walls.

Just as you felt yourself nearing the edge, he pulled back, his eyes wide with a mix of awe and lust. "I... I want to taste you, Leibling" he whispered, his voice rough with need.

In an instant, he dropped between your knees, head between your legs. His breath was hot against your skin, sending shivers through you.

"Oh, Kurt," you murmured, guiding his mouth to where you needed him most. He tasted you tentatively at first, his tongue darting out, learning the taste and texture of you. Encouraged by your soft moans, he grew bolder, his tongue swirling, lapping at you with increasing fervor.

Your hands tangled in his hair, holding him to you as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over you. His tail pulled back your folds, giving him easy access to your clit. It only added to the sensations until you were gasping, clinging to him as you neared your peak.

"Kurt, I'm... I'm going to—" But you didn't finish the sentence, the words lost in a cry of ecstasy as you came, your body shuddering with the force of your release.

He held you, his mouth still on you, tasting every last drop of your pleasure. When you finally came down from the high, you looked at him, his face flushed, his eyes bright with wonder.

"Thank you," you whispered, helping him to his feet. "That was... incredible."

He smiled, shy but proud. "Now, shall we get back to the party? Or did you want me to lock the door?" he smirked, face leaning into yours as he tucked a stray piece of hair behind your ear.

"I think it's my turn to show my gratitude," you whispered, playfully nibbling on the sensitive skin of his pointed ear. He shuddered pleasantly before you locked the bathroom door, nothing but the muffled sounds of music drowning out the moans and screams you'd release later.

[dwcmarshalarts]

I adore your style and content - I’m considering doing masters studies of some of your pieces just to try it out, but I’m still fairly new to art. I was curious if there’s any part of your process or any particular advice you’d have?

Gave this answer before to someone who asked me the same question, and I think it still counts! 1) Build stamina. You can do this by drawing often- and with intention. Start your drawing with a warm up- something light, not overly serious. Focus more on the literal mechanical feeling of your hand moving to draw. Then focus on the heavier stuff after you’ve both literally and mentally warmed up, setting the stage for more involved drawing. Make this a routine and drawing overall will be less tiring over time.

2) Focus on replicability, not detail. This goes hand in hand with the previous point. A lot of people develop a kind of perfectionism early on, where they get overly attached to a specific sketch and don’t wanna budge from it, and put details until it “looks good,” even when the subject as a whole is wonky. I like to equate this to “too much icing, not enough cake,” or “building on sand foundations.” I’ve been there before, and it can hold you back. Instead of focusing on a specific piece and how you rendered it that one time, focus on how you render it such that you could do something similar, easily replicate the concept. Once you’ve built more stamina, you can open up the gates to tackling the same subject matter in different ways.

3) Mind your mark making. Some folks agonize over the tiniest detail, sometimes for hours. At the end of the day, that itself doesn’t necessarily bring improvement- that’s more of a test of patience. Unless someone specifically asks, you don’t- for example- need to draw every single ridge of every knob on a switchboard in great detail. These things can be implied through mark making. Remember, a lot of drawing isn’t about literally making something for people to see- it’s tricking the eye into believing what’s drawn is actually there. You’ll be amazed at what detail can be like even when you don’t define every part.

4) Drawing is more seeing than “making it up.” * Don’t be afraid to use references and such. It’ll help you render form than imagining it- sometimes the imagination can conjure things incorrectly. *Even seasoned artists who don’t typically use too much references need to do studies from life or books every now and then to reinforce skills.

One point I didn't add before for style things specifically is: 5) Look where the artist got their inspirations from if you want to learn from them. No art exists within a vaccuum, everyone has their influences. Trying to do a study from someone's art will only take you so far- because then it'll feel more like mimicry than actual, learned study. Research or try to see parallels with artists that you might think had a hand in influencing a given artist's style. Notice the patterns there- certain textures are invoked here, this form was defined like this, etc. A lot of folks confuse wanting "more of a thing" as opposed to "what makes that thing desirable/unique." If you'd like to know where some of my influences come from, I'd say look at the works of Squiddy, covers for Hellboy comics, and the Snowpiercer graphic novel.

Addendum: If you're looking to draw anatomy specifically- study from real anatomy, and learn how to do those before you begin to "break the rules" (exaggerate, anthropomorphize, etc). For resources on that, I'd recommend the Morpho books (all of them haha) and Dynamic Human Anatomy by Roberto Osti.

Hope this helps somewhat, feel free to ask if I missed anything.

[cyclesprefectpress]

[image description: photos of a Breath of the Wild-themed hanafuda card deck, art rendered with hand-drawn inks and colors printed letterpress from linoleum blocks. hanafuda are a Japanese style of playing cards where the faces only use imagery, with no pips, ranks, or point values printed. there are 12 suits of 4 cards each, 48 total. in the classic deck design, suits are unified by particular flowers or plants; in this version the unifying elements for each suit are plants, creatures, or items from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. suits of horses, Guardians, koroks, dragons, ex. there are also photos of the small linocuts used to print each color, one cut for every color on each card. cards are about 1 3/8 inch by 2 1/8 inch. end description.]

🎊🎊 tadaaaaa 🎊🎊 here tis, my craftalong project for Desert Bus for Hope 2024! the event starts Nov. 8th this year, and this card deck is up for silent auction starting 6pm PST on Saturday the 9th.

hanafuda!! very very fun to get familiar with this card deck and its games. i think about doing other formats of card deck all the time and always just have to wait for a subject matter that compels me to intersect with a structure that interests me. nintendo started out producing card decks, and maybe they have made LoZ hanafuda in the past—i didn't find one but i'm truly bad at web research—anyway there isn't one available now, only a 52-card deck with alternate Zelda art.

i limited the scope to BotW for lots of reasons, big one being keeping the suits tightly defined to specific things and places, & utilizing one singular map type/environment interface. even adding TotK seemed like a nightmare for keeping suit assignments tidy. each place is a specific location in-game (with some adjustments for better composition, like, Akkala tower is there behind Foothill Stable, but i made the angles of the view cleaner), and wherever applicable, items rendered with surrounding context are done as a specific location where that item appears in-game (the sword in the rock is a real place, where you can pick up a rusty sword and see the Great Plateau Tower beyond). i'll admit to some extra heavy lifting on Satori Mountain but i only actually cheated once: Silent Princess flowers don't grow at the Springs around the statues of Hylia. but that's it!! everything else is real.

the Brights are the Master Sword, Hyrule Castle, the Blood Moon, Hylia, and the Dragons; tanzaku are shrines and towers; instead of Boar-Deer-Butterfly it's Rudania-Naboris-Medoh; instead of sakura-viewing and moon-viewing parties there are…………oh no and oh NO parties?? (guardian stalker + hyrule castle, stalker + blood moon.) in these photos, the suits are laid out in order, January to December. I made a little guide to go in the box based on the one for Nintendo's Mario Hanafuda, which also includes instructions for playing Koi-Koi.

8 colors, 88 blocks, +1 very simple reduction cut for the Sheikah eye on the back side. the classic deck is completely blank on the back, but if i hadn't done the eye i think the deck would've been missing some kind of unifying umbrella. and if you're asking yourself, hey, even with overage it’s only 5 copies of each card, why not hand color the cards? i also asked this. i tried some things and unfortunately did not like the texture at all. Only 88 little lino cuts would do for my brain worms. each card is two layers of 120# cover cross-laminated together. the drawings went down first on each copy; the back sides were printed on separate sheets before lamination. laminated, pressed, colors printed post-lamination, then each card die cut out of the 3x3 inch sheet. i very much like the color palate that came out of it; since the pen drawings went down before colors i printed the grey first to find the bottom end of the value range, bookended it with the yellow, and filled in the middle. my favorite color of the bunch turns out to be the soft brown, or maybe the "gold" with no metallic in it.

i would say this card deck was about as much work as last year's tarot deck but it wasn't all the same kind of work—i didn't have to trawl through a novel of text for excerpts and battle feelings of intellectual inadequacy to have confidence in my reading comprehension, for instance. i had to learn how to draw, like, 20 things i hadn't drawn before, and carve 88 little lino cuts, but it's just not the same kind of effort. long hours, but largely calmer. the tiny but thicc little cards are so nice to hold. i am quite happy with the style of the illustrations i found, trying to make them recognizable objects, so small, and two-color. all in all very satisfying!! (confession: i logged quite a bit of footage from my own BotW playthrough to get reference material but i still haven't actually finished Medoh myself. or fought Ganon. i keep putting it off to mess around and get armor upgrades instead. gotta get to that finally.)

wip

under the cut: the body of the little game guide that went in the box, with instructions for Koi-Koi and explainers on the yaku.

[kalechipslives]

sorekara setting design

Here are some notes on the development of SOREKARA's style and presentation. If you couldn't already tell, SK takes a lot of inspiration from 70's/80's anime, Nobody's Boy Remi being the reference point for much of it. I've always respected Dezaki for his monumental work so I've always wanted to pay tribute to it (especially the early stuff). I don't think I was as successful as I'd like to have been, but alas! There is still more to come! So without further ado!

I was just talking about Dezaki , but now I shall talk about something completely different. To set the tone, I created the cat and the trolley setting first. The Girl's design should be plenty obvious (lol). But the background here I paid special attention to... I find the paints of Night on the Galactic Railroad to be very unique. They have a line less, airbrushed quality to them that blends in surprisingly well with the characters. I did some research and studied 児玉喬夫 Takao Kodama's work, as they were credited with setting design for this film as well as Genji Monogatari. Actually, if you look at Genji Monogatari's backgrounds, they have the exact same airbrushed quality! I had never done a background like this before (I am certainly not an environmental artist) but I think I did a fairly good job of it.

...I immediately switched gears and without thinking, went back to Dezaki works. I can't say I was very faithful at all. The night sky is easy to paint, with it's notable color spray and paint blots, but I diverged quite a bit with the watercolor textures. Shichiro Kobayashi is the artist I looked to the most, and this project made me appreciate him more than ever before. Just looking at his paints gets me emotional... The vibrant colors, the dramatic angles, you can just feel his reverence for life overflowing from the work. There really isn't anyone better. I need to study more if I'm to capture even a fraction of his skill. That being said, I did make sure to animate the backgrounds slightly with the sparkles on the water-- The reflection of light on water is my favorite to draw! Also, flowers are a very important motif (for various reasons, ohohoho). Kobayashi seemed to love drawing flowers, the paint around the edges give is a delicate look. Actually, if you look at the textbox...

Instead of full-color CGs, I opted to use "postcard memories". This was a technique Dezaki used where he would show a detailed, scratchy-lined illustration to highlight important moments instead of fully animating them. It creates a really memorable image that draws out all of your emotions! I tried to emulate them (the more single-toned ones, that is) for the game. It was 1/3 Dezaki worship, 1/3 time-saving technique, and 1/3 excuse to draw lots of scratchy lines. I love scratchy lines. This way, I could make a lot of memorable shots that were visually interesting without overworking myself.

As another note, I looked to Akio Sugino's character art when drawing. The characters don't really look like Sugino characters, but I was emulating his shading technique with (once-again) the scratchy lines. Ah, I was in heaven. Looking at his older work, the linework is hardly ever clean-- but the rough, hand-drawn edge gives everything a tactile quality and the strong anatomy makes everyone so gorgeous. It's like an engraving come to life.

Finally, the anime effects! On the left you can see soothat before his values are adjusted (very dark, isn't he?) and on the right you can see he is in-game, values adjusted with a more appropriate "anime" look. This is because anime cells are put onto a CRT screen, so they end up looking very different. I created an auto action in CSP to adjust the color grating and line quality of every asset before popping them into the game for the chromatic aberration to take effect. The lines are slightly crunched a blurrier compared to the original. It gives it a more "physical" look. The colors are fixed up-- you'll see there is no pure black. If you look at a physical anime cell, you'll see they more often than not do not include pure black. There is usually a tint of green or red in there.

The chromatic aberration filter... I don't know how noticeable it is to the average player, but the game actually has a built-in filter that creates a slight "chroma" effect to emulate the look of frames through a crt/light. This means the red + blue + green values of the entire screen are split up and adjusted to layer slightly off from each other, giving it a little visual interest. It was AN EXTREME doozy to put in, with my poor programmer coding it and re-coding it until the end. It seemed simple at first, but there are parts where the game zooms in which totally broke the filter! It made out eyes bleed! But it was repaired in the end, so blessing upon you, Sandy. You saved my life.

The reason why I looked to Ie Naki Ko/Nobody's Boy Remi specifically is because that's where I feel the most "pure" energy from. It is a show that leans incredibly hard on it's techniques to get by but because of that it really embodies what I love about old anime-- It has a selfless reverence for its subject that drives you to watch and surrender your heart. Dezaki's powerful directing, Sugino's gorgeous drawings and Kobayashi's majestic paintings come together to make a work that shines. The setting is truly at the forefront with the characters getting lost in the grandeur. That's the attitude I had with SOREKARA: "There are things much greater than us, so isn't it wonderful that we are able to see them side-by-side?" There are many animation techniques that are cost-effective while still being utterly beautiful, I would love to copy them someday but I wasn't able to go that far yet. At least not in the demo. There's still time, I suppose... Studying limited animation from old anime is actually extremely useful when creating visual novels. Understanding the placement of cells and their layering/movement has given me even more ideas for stories!

I ended up going on a rant about anime again ^^" But it's so beautiful, you must now understand my heart going into the work. I always think of my characters and their journey, of course, but before that I think of the setting. I want the player to experience beautiful and mysterious things alongside their traveling companions. There is still so much more to make. I hope to incorporate more Dezaki-style techniques in this and future works. Please remember the true message of my works.... Not that love finds a way, or that your connections can transform your world...it's that....anime is very, very cool.

Thank you for reading 🙇🏽‍♂️

[magicalgirlmascot]

Alright who wants to see my old Bionicle humanizations? These were from my modern/college!AU Metru Uni which I made when I was in college. These were all posted on dA circa 2011-12ish, and you have to understand these were drawn by hand, scanned into a computer, and edited using a laptop trackpad and MS Paint. Get ready for a lot of Shoujo Legs and Weird Character Choices. (All images will have their descriptions in the alt text.)

So first of all you have to understand that Vakama was my babygirl for many many years. This guy has the worst social anxiety you've ever seen. Not sure why I decided to take away his glasses when he transformed considering that's one of my least favourite things but whatever.

THIS MAN HAS NO ASS. I mean none of them do but Matau especially, goddamn. Anyway he wanted to dye his hair green so bad but his mom wouldn't let him. This guy is a huge flirt and we stan. Also I think the second image is flipped for some reason.

Okay yeah the second image is definitely flipped why did I do that. I was genuinely trying to make Nokama look cute and fashionable here but also I didn't know how to draw skirts very well so. Yeah. Vakama and Matau were both instantly smitten with her when she showed up and honestly the endgame ship there was Vakama/Nokama but for real it should've been the three of them. God she was so fucking patient

Now I gotta say I have absolutely no clue why the hell I gave Onewa a punk aesthetic (it's not even that punk, really, just what I would've considered punk as a very sheltered teen in 2011) but it kinda fucks actually. He was such a bitch but also he was so right about basically everything. King <3

WHENUA MY BELOVED. He was the oldest out of all of them and straight up had a university degree already but had for some reason decided to go to college after to get qualifications for a job that definitely would have paid less than the job he was originally going for with the university degree but I was dumb as hell and also he had to be at college that was the point of the fic. He and Vakama were roommates (oh my god they were roommates)

Okay so the hairstyle. Um. I was obsessed with Wizard AnimalParade at the time. Also when he lifted the eyepatch on his transformed self he could zoom his vision in and out like a telescope. Also also he was obsessed with astronomy and thought astrology was stupid which. Is very funny writing KNPS now because that version of Nuju has exactly the same opinion

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Hey Rags how come the characters with brown and black as their theme colours are the only brown and black skinned characters" because I was fucking stupid that's why. Moving on.

One of the running gags I had in the manga version of this fic (YES there was a manga version, it only got about halfway through the second chapter) was that Lhikan always had bishounen sparkles every time he appeared. I wanted him to be a pretty boy so bad. I stand by this choice honestly Lhikan should be the prettiest boy. He should be more pretty than he is. VAKAMA SHOULD'VE HAD A BI LITTLE CRUSH ON HIM.

Honestly the only reason his eyes are white here is I forgot to colour them lmao. Dume worked in the college's security office and he was such an uptight old bitch. Look at his stupid little tie clip. This was also before I learned how to, like, make people look older, and so he just looks like a young man with a moustache lol. What learning to draw from Chris Hart books does to a mf

And to round off this part, please have one of the first pieces of digital art I ever did: a cover for the series! Back in the day fanfiction.net let you set a specific cover for a series so I drew this for that. I'm honestly really glad I found this again, I thought that it was lost to time and the only version I had access to was the extremely crunched version still up on ff.net. I drew this all by hand and did all the colouring and shading and stuff using Paint.net, which was a free program. The textures for the dirt and earth were made using MS Paint still though lol.

OKAY there are still about one million billion left to go but I'm calling it here for now so it doesn't get too long. I'll make another post with villains or something later.

Except also here have this no-context picture of Matau that was my deviantart profile picture for a long time.

[sarelcon]

Harpy Eda Progress (random stuff because wow this project has been pure chaos)

Progress has been made but it’s all over the place since I’m procrastinating willingly on some things and forced to wait on others. So here is a bit progress update of random stuff

1. Wig

I bought a lace front in gray from Arda Wigs and one of their long white clip-on ponytails. I crimped both the ponytail and the wig, dismantled the ponytail’s mesh base, and took out the white wefts to glue them onto the main wig. Then I went back and teased almost the entire wig and steamed it to tone down the flyaways. I actually went through the spiking process twice because I hated the first version and didn’t account for the ears. (First version on the left, semi final version on the right)

2. Ears

I have tiny baby ears so I wasn’t sure I could find prosthetics in my size that weren’t custom made (aka expensive). So naturally I decided to spend a lot of time- and some money- to make them myself. I went through the long process of live-casting my ears with alginate (the goopy stuff they use to take tooth impressions at the dentist) and made a plaster cast of my small baby ears. I did a sculpt with Monster Clay and did a second alginate mold and plaster cast to have a nice base for the final latex ears. For the actual ears, these are liquid latex tinted with white acrylic paint and they are brushed/dabbed onto the base ears in thin layers. After 15-20 layers, I have to apply a stupid amount of baby powder to keep the latex from sticking to itself, and then I can carefully peel them off the plaster masters. They just get glued on with Prosaide afterwards and are pretty comfortable to wear.

3. Feathers

I have been in Adobe Illustrator hell creating feather SVGs for the laser cutter software Lightburn so that I can have a machine cut EVA foam feathers for me while I’m busy avoiding my corset mock-up by doing a full fabric stash inventory. There are five feather sizes with four variants of shapes in each size. Every feather has a red outline and dozens of detail texture lines drawn as tapered lines. These are plopped onto appropriately sized art boards that match the cutting area of the laser cutter which is 15x15 inches. Adobe also exports SVGs at 72 ppi (pixels per inch) and Lightburn treats everything as 96 ppi so I had to rescale everything. (Yes, me and the owner of the laser cutter found this through trial and error). The end result is a gorgeous bunch of feathers that I did not have to engrave by hand. There’s currently about 120 out of over 400 feathers cut so far

Everything else is still in early stages or waiting to be done after something else finishes (like the dress or corset that will support the wings’ backplate)

[dawnthefluffyduck]

Just got out of class where we had our group critique; can finally post something I've had done for a couple days now 🎉🎉 project details/commentary/funny(?) story under cut because I don't know how to keep things brief

tl;dr: Made some stickers that show things that interest me in Japan for class :) might try to print them later on, if I do then I'll post that too

This was for Digital Art, it's another "draw concepts of a specific location," but I didn't like, draw where I live this time, so I can actually post this one online haha.

The actual instructions were: "Create six 3"x3" stickers that represent parts of a city, country, landmark, or attraction you would like to visit/have visited." I, a typical art student, chose to do Japan, but I didn't really wanna lean into the whole anime thing a lot, partly because I just don't watch it as often as I used to. I wanted to stick with architecture and major landmarks, but buildings are hard to draw repeatedly in a shorter time limit so I ended up drawing some food too. Also, I'm a percussionist, so I wanted to include a taiko drum just cause they're really cool

The lineart itself took the longest since I reeeaaaally wanted to emphasize a hand drawn feeling to the stickers. I felt this was the best way to make all of the stickers match stylistically, aside from general color matching. I couldnt entirely rely on colors to make them match because things like the ramen bowl had wayyy more colors than the buildings/mountains, and the onigiri was mostly one color. Matching the stickers was part of the grading criteria, so after a lot of brainstorming, I ended up deciding to put more attention to detail into the linework than to the color scheme (though I did try to weasel in that orangey red into as much as I could)

Illustrator did not like line style I used, 'cause apparently all those textured pens take a lot more to load than the normal ones (never had that problem in the program I normally use to draw, so it caught me off guard). Halfway into the project my laptop's fan would sound like a jet engine every time I opened the file; needless to say, progress was slowed a bit as the program started to get extremely laggy haha.

I wasn't able to start on the coloring until a few days before the project was due but I was still good on time . Ultimately ended up having to pull a near all nighter though, because Illustrator crashed in the middle of the coloring process (guessing bc of the lineart), which got rid of hours worth of work :D so cool, love that

Got it done, walked into class on Monday w/ three hours of sleep ready for critique, but five or so other people didn't finish theirs on time so prof ended up extending the due date anyway :D :D so cool very awesome

Can't really be mad though. I would've been happy if that courtesy was extended to me if I were in that spot, so I just went home and used the extra time to knock out some homework lol.

The extra time was worth it too cause everyone's turned out so cool :D wish I could share those too cause I loved looking at all of them during critique today

I said I just got out of class when I wrote this but I took so long to finish the post that two hours have passed since then,,

[lizardsfromspace]

Okay, this post has been bothering me, because uh. Nearly every detail in the reblogs is blatantly wrong?

3D animators aren't unionized.

The screencaps above are from films by Disney, and Dreamworks...and both are union. Disney has been since 1941, and Dreamworks is as well. Both companies started in 2D and moved to 3D, and nothing I can see indicates that when companies swapped to 3D, those workers - represented by the same union at the same studio - were suddenly non-unionized. And a quick glance at the IMDB credits for Treasure Planet shows a lot of the animators stuck with the company after the change to 3D. They're still union today as largely 3D studios, so if 3D animators aren't union, what does the union representing them do?

I think what people are thinking of is visual effects workers, who are different, and the fact that Pixar specifically is not union. Illumination too. But most Hollywood animation studios are, and Disney's other animation studios remained union after the Pixar acquisition (since the two studios operate autonomously), even into the 3D era, so that doesn't work as an explanation

2. This period in animation was before 3D.

There was something special about this era of animation:

it was CGI.

See, 90s and early 00s 2D animation heavily incorporated computer-generated imagery, for backgrounds, for moving objects too hard to do in 2D, and to enable more dynamic camera motion; they started mixing the two in The Great Mouse Detective in 1986, but most prominently with the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast, and used computers heavily after that. This era doesn't represent the last gasp before 3D ruined everything, it represents a fusion of the traditional and the new. Atlantis specifically set the record for the most CGI in a hand-animated Disney film.

Meanwhile, here's an article from the time about the use of computers in Prince of Egypt. In the parting of the Red Sea scene for instance, the water was computer-generated, and then had hand-drawn textures drawn over it.

3. It just stopped "for some reason".

It's...actually really well known why traditional animation stopped in the 2000s. And it was capitalism, but not in the unionbusting sense

Treasure Planet grossed 109 million against a 140 million budget; Atlantis exceeded its budget but not by much; Titan A.E. grossed 36 million on a 90 million budget, The Iron Giant 31 million against a 50 million budget, The Road to El Dorado 76 million against a 95 million budget...a lot of 2D animated films of the era were expensive flops at the time, even if they gained an audience later. Even films that didn't flop, like Emperor's New Groove and Spirit, underperformed. Just about the only traditionally-animated films to do well in the early 2000s were Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear, and really only Lilo & Stitch became anything. 2003 brought the film that killed Dreamworks' 2D films - Sinbad, 80 million on a 60 million budget - and 2004 saw the film that ended DIsney's 2D animation, Home on the Range (145 million on a 110 million budget).

(one thing with Disney in particular is that a lot of their films did sell a lot of tickets...but lost money anyway bc they had such gigantic production budgets.)

By comparison, during that time, Monsters Inc and Shrek made half a billion, Ice Age almost 400 million, and Finding Nemo nearly a billion. The only real flop was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, but that had the additional baggage of being a rare Hollywood attempt at a dramatic animated film for adults

The biggest tell of how much people preferred CGI at the time is Dinosaur, which everyone remembers as a flop...but which was actually the fifth highest grossing film of 2000, and the highest grossing animated film of the year. And their first film as an all-CGI studio, Chicken Little, turned out to be their biggest hit since...Dinosaur. Which must show enthusiasm for CGI over traditional animation bc Chicken LIttle is terrible, literally the only thing anyone said about it at the time was "wow, Chicken Little sucks" & still, it made nearly three times more than Treasure Planet did

Nothing epitomizes this era to me like Roger Ebert's review of Lilo & Stitch, where he begs parents to consider a DIsney movie. That was the state of things then: that was something you had to beg parents to do.

Far from abandoning art right away, studios kept with 2D animation pretty late after the wave of bombs began. I mean, all those movies failed in 1999-2001 and they still pumped more than 100 million into Home on the Range. These films were not left out to die, either. They were given marketing campaigns just as big as their 90s work. They had Happy Meals, they had video games, et al. If they were trying to kill off the medium as unionbusting they'd make intentional bombs, but all these movies failing came as a surprise. After all, they still put an incredible amount of money and new technology into these films

So it was audiences that killed traditional animation, not a plot by the studios

Nowadays, when everyone's tired of computer-generated everything and nostalgic for traditional animation and practical effects, we imagine that there must've been some conspiracy to take them away from people. But the truth is, people were excited for computer effects! The replacement was enthusiastically cheered at the time! Because when everything looks the same, people get tired of it (and then years later realize most of the stuff they rejected was pretty good. Whoops!) and they want to see the possibilities of something New. People in the past had motives we can't understand, either because we were born long after it, or because we were eleven at the time and too busy trying to convince our mom to take us to see Kangaroo Jack. Mom it has a talking kangaroo who raps! It has to, it's in the trailer!

We find it hard to understand how, say, people in the 1950s could be in favor of their cities being ripped up for freeways, so it's easier to say they weren't, to invent a conspiracy that destroyed streetcars. Sorry if this post is how you found out the streetcar conspiracy is a myth. Everything else in Roger Rabbit happened though, Toon Town was torn down in 1989 and replaced with a Fry's Electronics themed to Toon Town that was demolished in 2023 to be replaced by a Planet Fitness. To get back on point, yeah, people in the 2000s just rejected traditional animation for CGI repeatedly for inscrutable reasons

Anyway, 3D animators were and are unionized, 90s 2D animation was full of 3D art, and the rise of CGI films wasn't a plot. They just made a lot more money and philistine audiences liked Shark Tale more

[katherinemathew]

Eat your way around Rarotonga

When it comes to planning the ultimate escape, Cook Islands holidays undoubtedly make it to the top of many travel wish lists. Known for their captivating beauty and tranquil ambiance, these Pacific jewels offer a paradise for those looking to unwind. While many are drawn by affordable Cook Islands holiday packages and irresistible Aitutaki resort deals, the islands offer a wealth of experiences that go beyond sun, sand, and sea.

One aspect that sets a Cook Islands holiday apart is the rich culinary landscape waiting to be explored, particularly in Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands. If you’re contemplating Cook Islands travel or have already booked your ticket, the gastronomic scene in Rarotonga is a journey in itself that you won’t want to miss. From traditional Polynesian fare to contemporary fusions, the island offers a multitude of flavours, making it a gastronomic haven for food lovers.

In an era where travel experiences are seeking to be as authentic as possible, Cook Island holidays present the ideal opportunity to immerse yourself in local culture — and what better way to do so than through food? As you map out your itinerary for Cook Island travel, be sure to carve out time to indulge in the diverse culinary offerings of Rarotonga. Whether you’re a die-hard foodie or someone who simply enjoys a good meal, the island’s culinary scene is bound to be a highlight of your trip.

So, buckle up and get ready to eat your way around Rarotonga. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll share insider tips and must-visit eateries that will take your Cook Islands holiday to the next level. From morning brews to midnight snacks, consider this your gastronomic roadmap to a fulfilling Cook Islands travel adventure.

Our Top 10 Food Picks For Your Holiday to Rarotonga!

The Cook Islands are home to fantastic fresh produce, so it’s no surprise that food is a very prominent part of every Cook Islands holiday. Restaurants and cafés use locally caught seafood, tropical fruit and island vegetables, but they also have the luxury of importing anything that isn’t able to be grown locally from New Zealand.

1. Local Delicacies at Te Vara Nui Cultural Show.

No holiday is complete with tasting local favourites! Here are a few must-try local dishes:

* Rukau: which is mashed taro leaves cooked with onion and coconut milk, its looks a little unappetising, but it tastes delicious! * Ika Mata: this is Cook Islands Raw fish which is marinated in lemon juice and served in coconut cream * Poke: This is a sweet banana dish, which is often purple in colour. It is traditionally eaten instead of bread or potatoes, but is often eaten as a dessert due to its sweetness and pudding-like texture. * Nu: the young green drinking coconut. You could try your hand at collecting and husking your own, but is much easier to buy Nu from a local stall, the markets or the supermarket! Tip: Put a few Nu in the fridge — Cold Nu is the perfect thirst quencher on a hot Cook Island summer day!

2. Fresh Fish Sandwiches from Mooring’s Café

This little café is actually a shipping container that has been converted into a kitchen. Located right on the water, fresh fish is literally caught in the morning and taken straight off the boat and into the kitchen. Moorings is famous for its amazing fish sandwiches, and at under NZ$15 these huge sandwiches will keep you going all day!

3. Pastries from LBV Bakery & Café in Muri

Specialising in freshly made pastries, this is the perfect place to grab a quick breakfast or takeaway a sweet treat to enjoy later in the day! They also have proper sit-down options, great coffee & lots of lunch options.

4. A Burger from Palace

Palace is a local legacy, located near town in Avarua; you can’t miss trying a ‘wet cheese’ or the MONSTER ‘Palace’ burger on your next Cook Islands adventure. Not for the health nut, these huge burgers are perfect after a big day of activities and at only NZ$15 for the biggest item on the menu — you are sure to leave satisfied and with plenty of money left over.

Read the full article to know more about Eat your way around Rarotonga

#spacificatravel #cookislandsholidays #cookIslandstravel

[desiree-machine]

03 - THE PORT OF PALERMO

Ur buys a cappuccino from a really friendly barista

Ur has just arrived in the central court of the brand new Port of Palermo. He is sweating from the long journey to get there - the promise of the purest of milk and halls more grand and opulently decorated than those of the richest individuals call people from far away. Dehydrated and dreary, he spots a food truck selling coffee and joins the queue. The barista serving the coffee is uncharacteristically nice and writes his name correctly, despite it being 4’000 years out of date. “Thanks”, says Ur Nammu, “could you please tell me the direction of the fountain of milk?”. “The fountain is through the labyrinth you can’t get lost in”, replies the barista, whilst pointing at a thicket of bushes with an opening in them off to one side. She hands him a cappuccino in a small cup. “Thanks. What’s your name?”, asks Ur. “My name is Poly-Lipa”, replies the barista, “I wonder, when you go, if I stay on your mind?[1] Ur gives her an awkward nod and shuffles away from the food truck slowly, cappuccino in hand. Her gaze follows him as he disappears into the labyrinth.

Ur enters the labyrinth you can’t get lost in

Ur walks along the paths between the tall hedges. Above him he can see the dome of the central court stretching away. He can already hear the sound of milk crashing down. At every turn, a sign clearly tells him which way to go. The maze is actually very short and simple, without any form of complication. After 2 minutes and 37 seconds, Ur leaves the maze and arrives on the other side. He is surprised and stands for a moment to collect his breath and take a sip from the cappuccino. As he is looking around, the same barista from the food truck appears in front of him again with a big grin. It is Poly-Lipa. Before he can say anything, she sings to him in a loud voice “Let's get physical!” Ur is startled and spills some of his coffee on his trousers. He responds: “Thanks for your offer. But where I come from, if a man accused the wife of a man of adultery, and the river ordeal proved her innocent, then the man who had accused her must pay one-third of a mina of silver.”[3] Poly Lipa, however, bursts into song again: “But you're here now and you're turning me on. I wanna feel a different kinda tension. Yeah, you guessed it, the kind that's fun.” At this point, Ur loses his temper: “I must now go to the fountain of milk. Please tell me where that is or leave me be.” Poly-Lipa is saddened and begins to cry. Ur, who is emotionally constipated, just leaves her again and walks off. 

Ur makes a contract in the DeLaval Rotary E500 contracting machine 

Ur follows the sound of milk crashing down. Soon he turns a corner and sees the fountain of milk before him. He finds himself in a great domed hall, walled on each side by tropical trees and shrubs. The ceiling is formed by a massive dome, in the centre of which there is a round opening. The milk flows from this opening and falls down into a vortex below. Paths lead between the vegetation, towards a square that surrounds the vortex of milk. On the square surrounding the fountain and vortex of milk below lies the DeLaval Rotary E500. Ur is drawn towards the fountain, where a queue has formed in front of the E500 contracting machine. The machine is composed of a rotary disc of small booths, each with a selection of tubes for milk injection. The disc is rotating slowly around the fountain of milk. Each person from the queue is funnelled into a booth, where they are connected to the tubes. Ur gets on as well and is connected to the milk supply. He can already taste its silky creamy texture against his lips. He is hungry for the milk and begins to salivate as he stares ahead at the milk cascading down. Three booths to his right, Poly-Lipa appears and is connected to the tubes well. Her eyes are still red from the tears and she stares straight ahead. As the last individual is connected to the tubes, the E500 begins to rotate more quickly. Then the cascade of milk from the dome begins to slow as the milk is diverted from the fountain to the E500. Milk pulsates in the tubes and flows into the individuals in each booth. Ur and Poly-Lipa are drenched in milk as 4.5 cubic metres of milk begin to wash through their bodies per minute. 

In this moment Ur realised that the true quest wasn’t for the milk of Palermo. The milk pulsating through his veins, Ur screamed out and locked eyes with Lipa to his right. She looked like an alien, quite unlike the person from the maze and the food truck earlier. As the E500 rotated faster and faster, the surroundings blurred and became indeterminate. As they stared at each other they realised that the quest for Truth is more precious than its possession. [4] Language delineates the boundaries of our consciousness and the milk had helped them learn to speak to one another. [5] There are only multiplicities of multiplicities forming a single assemblage, operating in the same assemblage: packs in masses and masses in packs. [6] In this epiphanic moment they knew then that it was no longer about the milk. It was about becoming the rotating E500. It was about Ur Nammu becoming Poly Lipa and Poly Lipa becoming Ur Nammu and Ur Nammu and Poly Lipa becoming E500. And so on and on. One assemblage rotating and drinking milk, screaming within itself. 

On a hill above Palermo the 20’400’000 cows grazed on some grass. They smiled to themselves, knowing they had done a good job. 

References

[1] Dua Lipa - Break my Heart [2] (Eisenman, Written into the Void) [3] Code of Ur Nammu [4] Farid ud-Din Attar - The Conference of the Birds [5] Wittgenstein [6] Deleuze and Guattari - A Thousand Plateaus

[kaelidascope]

Reblogging this on my art account but up until last year, I can 100% confirm this behavior is still actively happening on that hellsite. I started on Deviantart 16 years ago and over the duration of that time, I was in a lot of ARPG groups. One of the biggest rules those groups had and actively enforced with aggressive vigor was that under no circumstances could any piece of art worthy of in-game currency show any signs of referencing or tracing. Doesn't matter if it was free stock, paid stock, a similar expression to another artist, a pose of an actual animal. It was absolutely not allowed and a perma-ban offense. My entire online career was spent believing we were not allowed to do that *ever*. It was literally my job as an admin to cross reference suspicious art and search the internet for possible tracing/referencing. It was incredibly toxic and a perfect breeding ground for art style elitism exclusive to the exceptionally skilled and basically gave a giant middle finger to anyone who was self-taught or trying to improve. To be honest, you can see an obvious nose dive in the quality of my work between 2020-2022 because the art group I was in/an admin for at that time was so freaking anal about requirements for their art. The experience became more about large quantities of shitty art for daily loot gain and less about actually growing your skill set or expressing yourself artistically. For fucks sake, we couldn't even play with dynamic angles. It had to be full body, at least 3 hand drawn elements (my go to was rock stick tree) and NO pre-set brushes allowed. Like leaves, a brick texture, grass? Nah. Everything had to be hand drawn, no references, 100% original. Otherwise it wouldn't count and you'd be denied submission to the group.

Imagine my shock when I moved from DA to other platforms and I'm immediately seeing everyone and their mother using melon_soup pose references easily sourced from Pinterest. And they don't get called out for it??? Or perma-banned from every Fandom community within 10 miles of each other? And there's people who just make free poses for use??? *what?*

Still a bad habit I am in the process of overcoming but I deadass spent 16 years crippling myself and my skill growth because I really believed I wasn't allowed/we weren't supposed to use references 🧍‍♀️

randomly remembered how on deviantart in the aughts using images as references was treated as an actual cardinal sin. if a pose in something you had drawn by hand was 1:1 with an existing photo or another piece of art, it was considered the same as stealing. there were artists who sincerely insisted that references could only be used for practice and that if you wanted to draw something for the purpose of posting online you would need to have studied anatomy and color theory to the point where you could just Produce that thing from your mind with maybe the help of some general reference photos at best as reminders of what that thing looked like. insane amount of rigor to demand from a userbase of largely casual hobbyists. no wonder ms paint emo furry art is the only thing people remember fondly from that era.

[writing-havoc]

Both

♡ Summary: You have a nightmare about Kaz. He helps a little more than you thought he would

♡ Pairing(s): Kaz Brekker x GN!Reader

♡ Fandom: Six of Crows

♡ Warning(s): Blood

♡ WC: 2.5k

Just a small moment between Kaz and the reader. It's a little rushed, written in about 45 minutes (save for grammar corrections) but I like it.

While I did edit it, please excuse any grammar and spelling errors. Hope you like it <3

∘₊✧──────────────────✧₊∘

Your heart pounds in your chest as you shoot out of bed, gun drawn as you look wildly around. Flashes of figures and people flicker in your eyes and disappear as you blink. Your hands are dripping with blood and yet there's not a single speck of red on them.

Sweat drips off your eyebrow and onto your cheek, but as you hurriedly wipe it away you realize your cheek is drenched.

With a start, you remember you had a nightmare. Adrenaline pumps through your veins, ramping up your heart and shortening your breathing. There still people in the corner of your eyes, your hands feel sticky with what you now realize is sweat and you can't stop shaking, gun clattering to the floor.

You wait for a round to fire off, but thankfully nothing happens. Thunder cracks in the distance and you hate with every fiber of your being how you jump at the sound. Who jumps at thunder?

Your eyes drool with tears, spilling them down your face faster than you can clean them. Without a notice from your brain you begin to pace, trying to think and yet /not/ think.

Sweat plasters your shirt to your body, and you peel it off- actually, damn near rip it off as the frigid air begins to cool your slick bare skin. But it's not enough because it's still too damn hot and freezing at the same time.

You try sticking your arms in the air, giving your skin room to breathe instead of crushing it together. You can hear yourself talking, feel the muscles in your jaw moving, but there's not a single coherent syllable tumbling from your lips. You want to scream and throw your nightstand through the window.

But you have to be quiet. You have to be quiet because if you start breaking shit you'll wake up Inej and Nina and Pim and-

Kaz.

It's like your heart leaps directly out of your chest when you think of him. So much so an audible sob escapes your lips and your knees nearly buckle.

That's what the dream was about. That's what you're crying over.

But he's fine, right? He's Kaz Brekker. Dirtyhands. Bastard of the Barrel. A fucking monster among men. Secret sweetheart. He's fine he's fine he's fine.

Yet you can't think of anything but the blood and the people and his body drowning in its own crimson lake. There's always so much and it just spills everywhere. Sticky and dark and metallic.

You grab your discarded shirt and wipe your body down, soaking up as much sweat and tears as you can and lunging for a clean one on the foot of your bed. Tugging it on, you had just barely the mind to check your pants and socks before opening your door.

The dream itself didn't make sense. There's no way you and Kaz would be on a mission alone without backup, surrounded by his enemies, and practically defenseless. But the feeling you got, the way everything sounded and the texture of his shirt and blood were all real, all things you've felt and heard before. And that was enough to send you hurtling over the edge.

You don't even know you're going to him until you see the light shining underneath the door to the attic.

There was no thinking as you opened the door to his office, stepping in and searching wildly for the man from your dream. There was a candle lit and a cup of his day old coffee on the corner of his desk. You shut the door behind you, jumping when you bump into his coat rack. His hat and coat were here, so he has to be home.

It didn't take long at all for him to appear with an annoyed expression on his face from the bathroom. The expression morphed, however, when he saw the state that you were in.

It took everything in you to not run up to him and just touch him. That wasn't allowed. But you wanted to. You wanted to feel the warmth in his body and the blood pumping in his veins. You wanted to feel something that would tell you he was alive.

He was upright and walking, eyes full of as much life as they could be with the job he works and his past, but looks are easy to deceive. His voice was like gravel, tickling your ears in a way that is wholeheartedly and completely familiar, but that could be faked too.

"... you doing here?" You only just registered the words coming out of his mouth, his form now closer to yours. You were both in the middle of the room, you staring tearfully at him and him looking you over while keeping a distance. It was startling to see that his hands were bare, the pale white skin of his slender fingers on display.

That definitely wasn't like Kaz at all.

Your mouth opened and closed like a fish, staring at his chest. It was covered by a white button up shirt with faint, thin blue stripes going vertically on the torso and horizontally on the arms. If you reached out you could touch him and check his pulse. You wringed your hands together.

Saints, what could you even say?

'Sorry I busted in your room at an unholy hour of the night. I just had a horrible nightmare of which its focal point was you dying right in front of me and I woke up inable to distinguish reality from my hallucinations and I'm genuinely not sure if you're alive right now even though you're standing right in front of me.'? He'd probably have you kicked from the Dregs for being a fucking lunatic.

So instead you just went with, "Bad dream."

He was silent as he seized looking you over, now truly noticing your glossy focused eyes and roughed up appearance. You don't doubt there was little white streaks all across your face, smudged from your shirt and newer ones tracing your rough edges.

"I'd say 'bad dream' is a bit of an understatement, dove." He looked around his room. "Considering you barged in here at a little after 3 bells and your shirt is inside out, I'd lean more towards nightmare."

You looked down. The seams were showing.

Fuck.

This was all wrong.

You nodded, shuffling on your feet. You chanced a glance up at his face and found him staring directly at you. As tired as he appeared to be, you could tell he wasn't planning to sleep anytime soon.

You opened your mouth to say something, anything, explain yourself maybe, but nothing came. Its like your throat was closing in on itself. You took a step backward and began pacing, just like before. What could you even do?

Kaz was silent as he watched you. From the corner of your eye you could see him begin to retreat back to the bathroom. Bright red panic flashed in your body at the thought of him disappearing from your sight. There was too much red. Everything was red.

The rapid pattering of your feet stilled on the ground, his own turning to see what happened. Shock was evident on his face. You gripped your hand harder, etching crescent moons into the back of your hand.

Why were you being such a baby? He can handle himself. You know he can. You went over this.

But the blood.

"I'm just going to get my gloves." He stated calmly, continuing into the bathroom slowly. You moved to the left, watching him every step of the way but never moving closer. True to his word he grabbed his gloves and left the room, walking back towards you with that familiarly uneven gait.

It eased your heart a little.

He came back to a stop at just the same distance in front of you as before, his slender fingers sliding back into the confines of his gloves. He was starting to look a little more like himself.

But still.

"Are you-" You began in a whisper, clearing your throat to speak up. "Are you alive?"

"I should hope so, otherwise we'd both have a little bit of a problem on our hands."

You stared at his chest again. If you looked more closely maybe you could see his heart beating through his shirt.

Kaz shuffles on his feet, leaning towards his good leg.

"This nightmare of yours... it was about me I reckon." His tone was calm, and surprisingly soft. Not guarded and grating like usual.

There were so many mixed signals.

You nodded, looking away but keeping him well within your peripheral.

This was horrifically embarrassing. But nothing was working. Him standing in front of you was helping a little, but not enough. Nothing was enough.

You flapped your hands, trying to shake the electricity out of them. Your wrists protested at the jerking and bending, but you ignored them.

"You..." You sucked in a breath. "You died, right in front of me. And you just... you laid there and there was so much blood." Your breathing became ragged, the images flashing in your mind once again. "It was like a fucking lake and it wouldn't stop. It was on the ground on my shoes on my hands-" you them on your shirt, the sweat on them feeling much too similar, "and everybody was angry and they just killed you and they- they almost got me too but-"

A sob broke from your throat. "But you just got up and stared at me and I touched you and you were cold as ice even though you were only dead for a few seconds and your voice-" you shook your head, hands grabbing at your hair as fresh tears streamed down your face.

"It wasnt yours." You couldn't manage more than a whisper, a whine even as you just repeated it over and over. Kaz wasn't saying anything and you're not even sure if you wanted him to say anything at all. What would he even say?

You sniffled, trying to clear your throat. "And I know you can handle yourself and it wasnt real but saints Kaz it felt so real." You dried your eyes with your hands, wiping them off on your pants as you did so. "Hell, I woke up standing in the middle of my room with my gun drawn. I don't know why I'm so freaked out and I'm so sorry for just coming in here but I just needed to know you're at least here but its not enough-"

A glove was held toward you, pale skin shaking ever so slightly.

The shock of the action was enough to ground you temporarily. You looked up at him and saw his eyes looking right at yours already, like they never moved from before.

"Kaz what-"

"Put it on."

You had to have heard him wrong. You had to have.

"What do you-"

"I need you to put the glove on for this."

For... oh, fuck.

Hesitantly, you took the glove, taking care not to touch his bare hand and slipped it on. It was big, a good half inch of glove left over on the fingers. The inside felt nice, though. The material wasnt uncomfortable and definitely felt like they were made for long term use.

"I'm not sure you'll be able to feel warmth right away, or at all." You could tell he was trying to keep his tone even, teeth a little gritted, but he reached for your hand. You pulled away slightly, just out of reach.

"Kaz you don't have to do this. I know how uncomfortable you are- well, I don't know, but I know how you get. You don't have to force this on yourself if you don't want to, really. Im just being a big baby-"

He let out a sigh, but you caught the whispers of a smile on his lips. He waited for you to calm before speaking. "I know more than anyone that I don't have to. Now give me your hand. The gloved one, preferably."

Well... okay, then. You cracked a smile and stepped forward, placing your hand (the gloved one) in his. With a gentleness you hadn't seen on him before, he brought your hand forward, placing your palm directly to his chest.

Immediately you could feel his heart. It was fast, faster than a heart should be. But it was there, and that's what mattered.

Very quickly heat began to seep through the leather, flanked by Kazs hand still holding onto yours and pressing it harder onto himself.

You took a deep shakey breath in, your bubbling anxiety trickling away.

He's here. He's here and he's alive and he's okay.

The people in the corner of your mind fell away, the sticky blood runs clear, and Kaz Brekker stands before you. Warm, snarky, and alive.

You sit here for a little while, feeling his pulse continue its steady high rhythm as your own syncs to his. It was a little rushing, to feel your heart beating so fast, but it helped you feel alive and present, grounded. Because it was his you were sharing this beat with.

The shaking stopped, but you could see the way his temple flexed as he grinded his teeth, a very very fine sheen of sweat plastering on his forehead. Distantly, you wondered just how long he'd be willing to put up with this.

Eventually though, you needed to give him his space. You pulled your hand back, gently taking it out from beneath his. Your fingers dragged along his chest.

He shuddered under the touch.

It felt strange, not having the thumping against the palm of your hand, but it wasn't going to kill you.

You pulled at the fingers, sliding the glove off and handing it back to him. He would need it. And that much was clear as he gave you a grateful nod and slid his hand back into it. He flexed his hand, comfortable to have a solid barrier between him and the world once more.

"I want to apologize, again, for barging in here. I promise, or at least hope, this doesn't become a regular thing." You rubbed your thumb into the palm of your hand. "I'm more than aware you can take care of yourself-"

"Y/n."

"Yes?"

"Dont hesitate to barge in."

You swallowed the spit collecting in your throat. "You sure?"

He flicked between your brows, earning a hurt chirp from your mouth. "Im sure."

"You're gonna regret that one day." You rubbed your forehead.

"Which one?" He asked, walking to his desk. "The offer or the flick?"

"Both."

"We'll see about that." He opened the window behind his desk, dusting off the surface with his hands. "For now, I do not regret it."

You walked over as he patted the rest of the dirt away, hopping up onto the sill as he brushed his hands together. "Not even a little?"

Kaz looked at you, and smiled genuinely. "Not even a little."

"The flick? Or the offer?"

He smiled, a private smile meant only for you. "Both."

This was definitely Kaz Brekker.

[not-your-fucking-kacchan]

Can we get some erasermic helping a student with sensory overload (and unhealthy stimming) xoxoxo

EEEEE PLS THIS REQUEST>>>😩

Masterlist<3

Warning: mentions of harmful and unhealthy stimming, hitting, pulling hair...

Erasermic x Student!Reader (Platonic) - Stimming

The silence of the classroom is cut through with the anxious whimpers of a lone student, sat in the furthest corner of the room with their head in their hands while they rock back and forth, finding some sort of comfort in the way that their eyes are pressed firmly to their kneecaps.

Lunch had only just started and you had started to get very irritable, rubbing your ear harshly at every loud noise and holding back an angry growl every time someone brushes against you. Eventually you're forced to flee the overbearingly crowded hall when the sound of people smacking their lips and chewing loudly grates at your nerves a little too deep.

Too much. It was all too much, and as you rush through the hallway with tears in your eyes, hands frantically pulling at your now tangled hair and smacking your skull. It was just so noisy and obnoxious and the lights were too bright and the smell was too overwhelming.

Images flash in your head of people's digusting, unwashed teeth chewing loudly with their mouths open, revealing mashed up food inside and you cringe, fighting the urge to throw up. You shake your head to clear your thoughts, smacking your head loudly as you grow more and more agitated, your knees shaking and knocking together.

You're so preoccupied with your sensory overload induced panic attack that you don't even notice when Aizawa sensei walks in, having suspected that something like this woould be happening.

He had noticed how restless and anxious you seemed during the lessons and was going to hold you back at the end of class to talk about it, but you were out of the room faster than anyone else was and he was busy dealing with verbally disciplining Mineta for being a creep. He tried to find you at lunch too, only to bump into a few stunned classmates just moments after you had suddenly barreled off.

It was then that he'd started to worry since, according to your classmates, you looked quite upset. So the only reasonable cause of action was to find you and figure out what the trigger was for your episode.

Queue your teacher coming into the room and letting out a soft sigh before sending a message to Present Mic. He had always been better in these situations, he could provide empathy and comfort where Aizawa was sure he could not, and he understood these things best. His attention is drawn back to you though, when he hears you smacking and scratching yourself and pulling at your hair.

His lips part in shock and surprise as he sees this display, though he quickly gets to work on intercepting your next hit with his hand while setting the other on your shoulder, giving you a look of concern.

"Come on now, stop that... You're stimming right? Sensory overload? Focus on me, now. Everything's fine. Rub your hands together, it'll help..."

He speaks quietly, knowing that being rough or deadpann won't help in this kind of situation. But as your eyes shift to glance up at his and then quickly avoid them, he knows he's succeeded in distracting you enough from whatever your trigger was. Your attention is pulled from your panic and you feel more disorientated now than ever, but at least you're not harming yourself anymore, soft palms slowly starting to rub together as you focus on the texture and the feeling of your veins bulging through the skin or the softness of the back of your hand compared to your palm.

Once Mic finally arrives, you've mostly calmed down, now just a little embarrassed to have been caught during one of your meltdowns. Neither Aizawa Sensei or Present Mic will hear it from you though, the blonde loudly fawning over you and giving you some words of praise as well as Aizawa for being "less emotionally constipated" and actually helping you.

From then on you get to talk to the both of them much more about your habits and what's troubling you. Mic teaches you all about stimming and how to do it safely, along with other healthy habits to pick up, and when you feel especially agitated or close to a sensory overload, you have special permission to stay in the classroom or even the break room with them when you're lucky, just to wind down and feel better.

Neither of them mind of course, and sometimes you're joined by an agitated Bakugou when he's feeling especially explosive that day, and if the two of you bond just a little while you're there, he's forbidden you from talking about it.

[sweetnsour1]

3:18:01

Fluff, Bakugou x female reader, part 1 of 6

part of the Drummer AU

You nibbled on another fry, wishing you could stomach something more substantial. You never could here. Something about the sound of live music rattled your senses. The way it vibrated through you was soothing, but the cost was always appetite robbery.

You licked your lips, catching the few stray granules of salt stuck in your strawberry gloss. You paused as you felt a sensation on the tip of your tongue, remembering too late that you’d used the plumping formula tonight. You shut your mouth tightly when you caught his gaze on you. Fuck, of course the hottest guy looked over here while your tongue was lolled out like a fucking dog.

“I think they’re up next!”

You tuned back into the chatter of your friends as a pink hand passed you another shot of fireball. This shit wasn’t your favorite, but they were the deal of the day. You let them clink their glasses with yours before you all tapped them against the table and threw them back. Sweet…so sweet. You laughed at Ochako and Hagakure as they coughed, nearly wasting a good deal, mirroring each other’s complaints of it burning.

Your eyes were drawn back to that brick wall, covered in layers of marker, but there was no sign of blonde hair. No red eyes watching you make a fool of yourself. Didn’t matter. You weren’t fucking here for that, and you definitely weren’t fucking here to worry about some random guy’s opinion of you.

You chomped down on another fry, not really sure what you were actually here for. Sometimes it was too perfect having a friend like Mina. She always knew when you needed to be dragged out of the apartment. She was like a fucking bloodhound when it came to sniffing out your shutdown avoidant bullshit. You wouldn’t even have a chance to break out the cat onesie or ignore her texts before she’d come rattling the lock of your front door with her key…that she kept forgetting to give back to you, and barge in with some outing you needed to get ready for.

This time it was some basement bar that some of her friends were playing at. Although that could mean friends from a decade ago or someone she met this morning. You smiled and ran your tongue across your lip, frowning at that same stupid sensation. Dumb. You were gonna lick all the gloss off at this rate.

You dusted the salt from your lap, glad you were wearing black denim as you realized that you’d probably just used it as a napkin, and slid off the barstool, waving off the simultaneous offers to join you in the restroom. You’d been here before. There was barely room in there for the people that needed to use it.

Smoke…none of it remained, but the scent curled around you still. You didn’t hate it, feeling like it belonged to the wallpaper in hallways like this. Dim amber lights etched the shadows on the textured walls, covered in framed pictures instead of patron scribbles like the rest of the bar. Someone shouldered past you on their way out…even that didn’t bother you. It was practically unavoidable with the small hall and sharp corners. This space demanded you to be a little rougher, a little possessive of the air you took up.

You hummed at your reflection, squinting one eye after the other…maybe you were starting to get a bit drunk. You shut both tightly, but your boots stayed planted and your body stayed steady. You opened them again to reapply that gloss, wiping the smears of it from the corners of your lip. You upheld tradition and shouldered past someone on your way out.

The bar had gone darker, but the lights flashing on the stage lit your way every few feet. Your smile fell as you realized your destination had become the loudest table in the bar. You couldn’t tell what they were shouting at first, a name you didn’t recognize…but it came out as a jumble of consonants with all five women starting it at different times. Their timing was terrible. You laughed, settled back into your seat and placed another fry between your lips. Their shouts were silenced by a quick pounding of the drums.

“Don’t use my fuckin’ first name like ya know me!”

The deep voice didn’t come through the speakers, instead making its way across the stage without any help from the mic. It came directly from the blonde drummer, his red eyes flashed for the moment the white lights settled on him. The hue shifted to a red glow, turning his spiked hair into almost a pink as his drumsticks pointed directly at your fucking table.

Your lips parted when his head tilted towards you. The lights flashed again, catching on his piercings, but shadowing his eyes. Your face heated as the fry you’d been chewing fell from your mouth. The drumsticks slid through his fingers. The movement looked lazy, but they ended with you as their new target.

“You.” His teeth flashed before he was tossed back into darkness. “You can say it for me tonight.”

Inspiration for this came from here from the lovely and contagious mind of @katsukikitten 🖤 thank you

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First AU attempt. Let’s see where the characters drag us.