#i did all i could with my not so great editing skills to make this better

[marypaol]

Flowers Upon Your Head

Draco x Fem!Reader

Summary: Reader officially crowns the Slytherin Prince of Hogwarts, but what she doesn’t expect is to be crowned his princess. (Not real crowns, but made of flowers.)

Warnings: Talk about praising someone, like hailing them, self doubts in academic work, nothing else I know of.

Sorry if it’s too short; but it’s gotta be one of my favorites besides “Dear Draco”.

Dear Draco

Masterlist

Request Requirements (they’ve been updated!)

The sky was bright blue, sun rays shining bright across all the land of Hogwarts, showcasing the wondrous school that held many intelligent students; now either learning more knowledge or taking their assigned time off.

Two green robes were taking the second option to their best advantage: staying outside in the fresh air and catching up on work.

The both lay on the grass by the Black Lake, the boy leaning against the tree trunk and the girl sitting criss cross next to him.

The boy, platinum blonde hair and known as the bully of the school, had his Potions homework in front of him on his lap. His quill scribbled left and right as he wrote an essay.

The girl, known as the most innocent person in the world who wouldn’t hurt a fly, was previously done with her homework and is now fiddling (or, at least, that’s the word Draco would use to describe what she was doing) with flowers in her hand, tying the stems together to make something the boy didn’t know.

She was well concentrated until she heard a groan escape the boy, her eyes moving from the flower stems to him, raising an eyebrow questionably.

He didn’t look up as did she, instead he was having a glare contest with the paper as he tapped his quill quite frustratingly.

“What’s another word for fragile?”

She thought for a moment, going back to the plants in her hand once she discovered his groan was the reason of nothing serious.

“Delicate? Brittle?” She asked once figuring it out, fingers slightly burning from now finishing the tie of the stems, the nectar from the flowers getting on her fingertips as the stems were tightly wrapped around her hands.

He hummed. “Brittle is good.”

She smiled soft, glad she could help in some way. “Is the essay coming along nicely?”

He chuckled. “With the amount of skill I have in the writing spectrum and your vocabulary, I think it’s going quite well.”

She rolled her eyes this time, knowing he was being sarcastic with the statement he said about himself.

“Dray, don’t worry; I read it during lunch and it looked fine so far. That is if you didn’t ruin it with what you call last minute edits.”

Her teasing tone grabbed a smirk from him that she didn’t see.

She wasn’t mindful of the next occurrence because she was in fact focused on the finishing touches of her crown, but his ears turned from pale to a soft pink color at the nickname.

He scoffed instead to cover it up even though she didn’t see it. “Doubt it.”

She sighed, knowing there was no use in trying to convince him the work was good grade worthy.

He suddenly slapped the paper down in front of her on the grass. “How does this look?”

Despite the aggression he showed in his actions she could hear a little anxiousness in his voice. He was nervous for her reaction.

She still had the flowers in her hands so she didn’t touch the paper in fear of getting things on it, so instead of holding them in front of her she moved them so they were by her shoulder and she looked down at the paper.

Draco’s handwriting covered the paper, perfect cursive with soft swoops in the letters forming great work.

Her eyes scanned it as she read, taking in the information he provided.

She hummed in satisfaction. “Very nice, Dray. Very nice.”

She smiled at him as he took the paper back, this time noticing the pink tint on the tip of his ears.

“You okay?” She asked, oblivious to the reason for his flush.

He nodded, swallowing thickly.

She hummed again, turning her body fully to him. “Don’t worry! Snape will love it. I see it now,” she started, pretending to look of into the distance like she was dreaming. “An ‘Outstanding’!”

Draco rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Wouldn’t go that far with it but whatever.”

She scoffed at his negative mindset and, wiping her hands on the grassy ground to get rid of the nectar, grabbed the crown she just previously made. She then turned the scoff on her face to a soft reassuring smile.

“Well, whatever you may think, I think it was wonderful and the good grade I know you’ll get is well deserved.”

She ended her sentence with softly placing the crown on his platinum head, the soft white petals perfectly matching the mob of hair he held.

Draco’s eyes moved upward as if he would be able to see the flowers on his head. The girl laughed, then she smiled once again.

“All hail the Slytherin Prince.” She joked. She expected another eye roll but instead received a soft smirk coming from the corner of his lips, a small chuckle escaping him.

She then moved to sit next to him, their shoulders brushing and cheeks flushing.

His soft looking hands reached out and using his long fingers pulled flower after flower out of the tall grass, each stem producing a satisfying snap when they broke.

Although she kinda felt bad for the flowers, she knew that the roots were still planted into the ground, so that gave her reassurance knowing they’d grow back again.

Still she watched as his own hands messily tied the stems together almost just like she did. When he was finished, his arm reached up as he placed it on her head, the weight of it slightly flattening the top of her hair.

He then leaned in, brushing his nose on her cheek; her face turning a soft tone of red. His head turned so his lips touched her ear lightly. The touch was barely felt, but it was there.

“All hail the Slytherin Princess.”

He whispered it, making the meaning much more meaningful. A soft chill went through her, a warm sense of comfort and nervousness at the same time racing down her spine.

“How’d you know how to tie it?” She asked curiously to hide the nervous warmth flooding through her. She felt his cheeks spread into a smile.

“I watch you, loves; much more than you think.”

Her face flushed as his finger gently booped her nose.

He chuckled low right in her ear. “Aww, don’t get flustered loves; just giving my princess the praise and recognition she deserves.”

Wait.

‘My Princess’?

Thank you for reading! 📖

[mingi-s-dimples]

OH EM GEEEE I LOVE YOUR FICS SO SO MUCH (be prepared to see me often hihi) can I request:

hongjoong x wooyoung x reader ? Preferably smut :D maybe where reader keeps annoying wj and hj and they teach her a little lesson AHHHH I love them so so much:(((

Can I be 💭 anon? :]

game over - topaz

REQUEST BY: 💭

pairing: best friends!topaz x fem!reader

rating: 18+

genre: non idol au, smut (lil filth)

summary: you and your boy best friends were playing video games in the living room, but you might have teased them.. a bit too much to their liking.

WC: 2.2k

warnings: wooyoung is a fucking brat (everyone knows this), bratty!reader, woo is teaching reader a lesson for cheating in the game, joong joining in, 3some, creampie, oral (both m&f), handjob, blowjob, sucking off, cum (lots), overstim, squirting, nipple sucking, big dick!topaz, joong is a lil bit confused at first, teasing, unprotected (wrap up irl!), completely consensual!, unedited, I'm sure I forgot something. edit: lil bit of pet names and some degradation? (fucker, slut)

Author's Note: MUAHHAHA 👹👹 I loved writing this pfffff. Thank you SO much anon for requesting this, had so much fun with it. I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG I WAS SO BUSY WITH LIFE AND BACK TO SCHOOL THINGS 😭. I'll do better I promise. Topaz brainrot is EVERYTHING please send me more topaz requests. I hope I fulfilled your expectations, 💭! (send me an ask with your opinion HAHAHAH) love youuu (I am aware it's not necessarily Joong being annoyed by her cheating in the game but he joined in so he was equally annoyed HAHAHAH but he didn't show it -> this eas my view of Joong) -> I still don't feel like I put my whole power and creativity in but I promise y'all won't be disappointed with the kinktober requests 👹)

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction & does not represent the members in any way.

The living room was filled with the sounds of explosions, rapid gunfire, and the excited shouts of my two boy best friends, Wooyoung and Hongjoong. We were all huddled on the couch, controllers in hand, locked in an intense battle in our favorite video game. The stakes were high, and I could feel their determination radiating off them as they tried to outmaneuver each other—and me.

But little did they know, I had a secret weapon. A sly smile tugged at the corners of my lips as I casually pressed a hidden button combination, activating a cheat code I’d discovered online. Instantly, my character leapt ahead in the game, dodging bullets and landing impossible headshots with ease.

"Hey, how are you so good all of a sudden?" Wooyoung complained, glancing over at me suspiciously. Hongjoong narrowed his eyes, clearly sensing something was off. I just shrugged, trying to hide my grin.

"Oh, you know," I replied nonchalantly, "Just skill."

They groaned in unison as I racked up another win, not letting on that I was secretly cheating. Winning felt great, but the real fun was seeing their frustrated faces every time they lost to me. I couldn't help but laugh as Wooyoung threw his hands up in exasperation and he muttered something about "beginner's luck."

If only they knew the truth—that their unbeatable friend wasn’t quite as fair as they thought. You absolutely loved teasing them, the frustrated looks on their faces were amusing you so bad. But in a moment of focusing on your game, you did a thoughtless move, Wooyoung seeing your hand nibbling at the controller.

"You fucker" he shouted. "ARE YOU CHEATING!?"

"NO! WHY WOULD I CHEAT." you said, trying to excuse yourself.

"Woo, it's not the first time I've seen her. Though, I kept it to myself, it was really fun to see her win" Hongjoong said, almost unbothered by the situation.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!" Woo said, frustrated. "Goddamn, you fucked all my stats with your cheating. STOP IT!"

"You'd have to make me, tho."

oh.

"What did you just say, y/n?" Joong exhaled, surprised at your words.

"Exactly what you heard. Do you want me to repeat? Y'all would need to make me stop cheating. Whatever it takes, I'm pretty unbothered, tho"

Wooyoung threw his controller on the coffee table and approached you. He pushed you on the sofa, scanning you from head to toe. He sat on the sofa, his right knee between your legs.

"Say it again."

"No"

"Say. It. Again."

"Make me stop cheating at your little stupid game, you fucker."

"Now that's what I wanted to hear."

Hongjoong came behind Woo and he pushed him away from you. Both you and the younger looked at him confused, but you both suddenly realised the two of you know something he doesn't.

"What!? It's not like I haven't fucked her already."

fuck.

"Joong, you better decide now if you wanna join or look. It's up to you."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN Y'ALL FUCKED!?" the older man shouted, worried about the situation at first.

"Like I just said, it's not the first time. Now, go away if you don't wanna join. Though, this little slut might actually like the two of us at the same time. I need to teach her a lesson" Wooyoung said, spreading your legs apart with his knee, pressing on your thigh.

But Hongjoong didn't back off. In fact, he came closer, looking contently at what Wooyoung was doing. Now.. you've never been completely honest with Joong. You and Wooyoung have been fucking for a while whenever you teased him one time too much in a day, and he always fucked you dumb as a punishment. Though.. was it really a punishment?

You were looking at the two men approaching you. Wooyoung was already working on your clothes. He started by slowly taking off your shirt, leaving you in only your bra. He then tugged a bit at your shorts, giving Hongjoong a nod to come closer. The younger moved away from you for a moment, letting Joong take the lead and he took off the shorts, revealing the wet spot on your panties.

"What a slut. Already? Were you perhaps getting wet only at the thought of me fucking you if you teased me, hm? Is that right? Come here you little fucker" Wooyoung said and pulled you closer, one hand under your ass and one on your waist. He lifted you and went to his bedroom, where he dropped you off on the bed. The sheets got wrinkly and as you backed off to the headboard, Hongjoong took of his shirt. He was.. hot. Hot as fuck. Whenever you saw him without a shirt, or going to take a shower in only his briefs something in you made you want to crawl on the walls. But seeing him like that.. undressing for you, riled you up in a way only Wooyoung had ever did.

"Now.. what should I do with you, mm?" the younger said, approaching you. He pushed your hands above the headboard, holding them in place with one of his hands. His other hand went down on your body, and while he started planting soft, sloppy kisses, his hand reached your inner thigh, finding it's way to your dripping core. His kisses trailed from your neck and to your collarbones, where he left dark, purple marks. Then as his fingers started slowly rubbing on your folds, he stood up and sat between your legs, looking back at Hongjoong who was, waiting for a sign from Woo. That was the sign.

He undressed himself almost completely, being left in his briefs, from which a huge bulge could be seen. His cock was straining against the fabric, threatening to spring out at any moment.

"Now... baby. Who do you want first?" Woo scoffed.

"Both"

"Ohh, so you wanted this to happen, hm?" the younger said as he spread your legs out once again for the night and gave you soft kisses on your thighs, then within one move of his hand you were left bare in front of him, dripping on the linen. "What was going through that little mind of yours? Did you want both of us fucking you?"

"Y-yes" you mumbled, shivers being sent up your spine as he was now fingers deep in you, hitting all your sweet spots. You were squirming under him, his body pressed onto yours, but it didn't last long. He went down on you, licked his fingers and started eating you out. His tongue riled you up so bad, you started gripping the sheets to not squirm under him too much. He hated that, cause he couldn't eat you out how he wanted. He loved tasting every inch of you, feeling up your insides and sucking on your clit. Everything he did made you eventually move, to which he bit your inner thigh for a short second and held you down even more forcefully.

Hongjoong was also helping himself in the background, you were watching him contently between all your whimpers and moans. He was lazily stroking his length, waiting for an opportunity to jump in. Though, you didn't let him wait too long as you nodded to him.

"Come here, don't stand b-by yourself" your breath hitching from all that was happening between your legs. You murmured, "Let me h-help you" and as he was close enough to you, your hand started pumping him. The view he had was marvelous, you were being eaten out by Woo and he was stroked by your little hand, but little did he know it was about to get better. He let out some soft whimpers and as you pumped him two more times, you pulled him closer by his thigh and took his dick in your mouth. His cock was girthy, he was stretching your mouth good. At first, you slowly sucked on his tip, licking up his length from the base to the shaft. He didn't even know where to put his hands, in the end he rested one on your head, slowly guiding you to suck him properly. You gave the tip soft kisses then went all out and took his dick up your throat, slowly choking on it. You could hear him hold his moans back, but as your own moans were muffled by his dick deep down your throat, he could feel them revrebrate through his body. You could see how he was close to finishing, but you couldn't properly focus on him at the given moment.

"You taste so good, babe" Wooyoung whispered, and as his finger went to your clit and started rubbing it, you let out a loud moan, at which Hongjoong came undone in your mouth, surprising you. You slurped everything up and sucked him off for a short second to gather all the cum dripping from his tip and you swallowed, looking him in the eyes.

Wooyoung looked up to see why you were moving so much, to which he was greeted by the sight of you now sloppily kissing Joong, the position you were in not being the best. He saw the cum stains on your hand.

"Haha, it didn't take him that long to finish. Aren't you such a little slut, hm?" Wooyoung said and as he pumped his fingers inside of you a few more times and rubbed your clit, you creamed on his fingers beautifully, to which he sucked your juices off his hand once again.

"Now.."

"Joong.. please come here. Baby, what do you think about being fucked by both, hm?" Wooyoun said as he lifted and put you on his now bare dick, his back leaned on the headboard. "Tell me. What do you say?"

"P-please, Woo... Joong. I want b-both of you"

"Good girl. You didn't have a choice, anyways."

As he lined his length to your dripping cunt, Hongjoong also climbed on the bed and got a hold of your leg, pulling himself close to you.

"Babe.. remember this"

Wooyoung said and he started rubbing his tip on your folds.

"You'll always be..."

He pushed only his tip in.

"My lovely fucktoy."

And he bottomed out.

To which Hongjoong followed his movements, he pushed himself right in, gripping on your waist as he started wildly thrusting into you. You could feel that he wanted to do this for a while, the way he was fucking you was riling you on the walls. Wooyoung's dick was filling you up so good, girthy and.. the huge length hitting your cervix almost every time he bottomed down.

"F-fuck, you feel so good" the older one said.

"R-right? Look at her, fucked by both of us. She needs to be taught a lesson, right? What did I tell you about cheating, mm?" Wooyoung said and started nibbling and sucking on your nipples. "Hm? what did I say?"

"Y-you said that I-i should not- ngh, do it"

"And why did you do it?"

"I-i love when you fuck m-me like this. Like there's no tomorrow" you said and engaged in a steamy kiss with him, your ass slapping on both men's cocks, taking them up so good. The only sounds you could hear in the whole room was Hongjoong groaning and your own muffled moans as you were filled by two dicks at once.

"B-babe. That's so good. Keep it going, I'm close" Woooyoung whined, and as he pushed himself into your aching cunt a couple more times, he came in you, filling you up with his load.

"Yes, that's good. Take it all up" to which he continued with "I'm not done yet." and he started wildily fucking you again with his once again hard cock.

Hongjoong was also close, his thrusts became sloppier and they didn't have any rythm. He pumped himself into you a couple more times and bottomed down, gave you some soft kisses, trailing your spine and came in you, staying like that for a minute.

Wooyoung didn't show any signs of stopping. You could feel your tummy getting thighter and your clit aching harder.

"N-no, ngh, please, a bit slower" you mumbled.

"No? I didn't have enough fun yet" the younger one whispered and he pounded heavily into you and make you squirt all over him and the linen.

"See, that's what I'm talking about."

"Holy fuck" Joong murmured.

"See, Joong? She's just not the innocent girl you've known until now. Did you see just how good she took you?"

"Y-yes" he said, a little bit shy.

"The fuck are you turning your head around for? Ah, you're shy... for what? You just saw her squirt all over me, haha" the younger one scoffed.

"Don't worry. You'll see her like this many more times, you'll get used to it. Right, baby?" Wooyoung said, lifting you and hugging you thightly.

"Y-yes" you murmured, still dizzy from all that happened a moment ago.

"Good girl. Joong, let's get her washed up."

"Up for a 2nd round?" you said confidently.

"Thought you'd never ask" Hongjoong said, making the two of you laugh.

Networks:

@blossomnet

@illusionnet

TAGLIST:

@mingleshine @musiclovingfairy @crazylittlebisexual @sanhwalvr @gong-fourz

[dunmeshistash]

I genuinely think Kabru would have been a villain if it wasn't for Milsiril adopting him, like mf literally just witnessed a massacre, his own parents being murdered and yet he's still relatively well adjusted, it's still genuinely baffling to me he's like mostly okay (from what we see), I'm very curious how Milsiril met Kabru? Like was he just on the ground trying to processs what had happened and then this random elf lady shows up and goes "don't worry I'll be your mom now" or something??

I don't think he would have, I don't see anything that indicates his sense of morals comes from Milsiril, since Milsiril herself seems avoidant of the things that upset her, he was already 7 so he probably had a personality developed somewhat by then? I think besides his PTSD he would have elf trauma similar to Rin's because he would probably have been raised the same as her, but I think his sense of "I must stop this from happening again" would be the same.

Btw from the QnA Kabru had a real name with surname but he doesn't remember, Kabru doesn't sound like an elvish name tho, I wonder if his Mom renamed him when they ran away from their family and that's why he doesn't remember his real name and surname.

I imagine Kabru was found alive and Milsiril ended up adopting him, she doesn't seem like the type of person that would just randomly pick up a kid like that, by the Rin extra it seems like she worries about their quality of life (admitting she can't take any more in) so I imagine she would have been kinder and gentler than just "You're coming with me", the way she asks Kabru if he would help also makes me think that (it was a request not an order)

That's all assumptions based on my perception of her tho as far as I know there's no canon description of their first meeting.

Edit: He was buried in rubble and Milsiril saved him.

Edit2: Adding this cause I think it's necessary, Milsiril definitely made Kabru's life easier than it could have been but I think his achievements are his own. His drive, his sense of justice and his observation skills come from him, what she did was facilitate his journey and teach him all he wanted. She's just his mom at the end of the day and good moms are great to prop you up when you're down but they can't walk for you.

[sirfrogsworth]

Photo Restoration Project - Part 1

A long time ago, Katrina sent me some old photos of her family I could restore. Her parents have been helping me from afar for years and I really wanted to do something nice for them. Unfortunately my dad got much worse and I pretty much forgot about this project for quite some time.

But then I decided to visit Katrina in Orlando and we discussed having dinner with her parents and I remembered these photos. So I thought I would fix them up so I could present them as a gift in person.

The first and most important photo was from her parents wedding.

Old photo prints can fade over time due to UV light exposure. From what I understand, different colors fade at different rates and red/orange tones tend to be the least susceptible to this fading. Thankfully all of the color information is still there, it's just that the darks are not as dark and the lights are not as light. The dynamic range got squeezed like an accordion. However, if you do a levels adjustment on the red, blue, and green channels individually, you can unsqueeze the accordion and balance everything back to the way it was.

But you can't always save everything and there may be other damage that needs fixing. If something becomes pure white, there is no way to restore that detail. Thankfully I was able to use the new generative fill feature to bring back detail in the dress, the flowers, and the tuxedo shirt.

And because I hate front facing flash and how it makes colors look ugly and sterile, I may have also added a marble floor and pillars.

Next up was a photo of Anastasia, Katrina's mom, protesting Henry Kissinger on behalf of her home country of Greece. This suffered from the same color fading issues.

What made this one a little more tricky was an uneven fading. The left side had to be adjusted independently and the top was even more faded. I had to isolate the trees to bring back their color. And the protest signs were difficult to read, so I enhanced those as well.

Next we have this lovely photo of Anastasia tending to some house plants.

This photo was actually in decent shape. It lost a little contrast, had a little bit of fading, and her top retained almost no detail I could recover. Recovering accurate skin tones is probably one of the most important skills I learned when restoring these photos. I wanted to keep that filmic look of the era while avoiding making people look jaundiced or pale. Lightroom's new masking feature that let's you isolate every aspect of the people it detects in a photo. This made fixing skin tones much easier. I could isolate just her face or her lips or her hair or her eyes and make precise individual adjustments. This process could have taken a great deal longer without this feature. But, I brought back proper contrast and color, added a little bit of detail to her top with gen fill, and hopefully got fairly accurate skin tones as well.

Next up, forward facing flash strikes again in a photo of Mike and Anastasia during Christmas.

Film did not do well in low light. If it was indoors and nighttime, you pretty much had no choice but to use flash. But a flash is a very small, bright light source and this causes a very unflattering result on humans. Today we have much more powerful flashes with rotating heads. We can bounce the light into the ceiling or off a wall and increase the size of the light source to get a more flattering result.

In this photo I wasn't able to do much, so I just balanced the skin tones and brought out some hidden detail and called it a day. It's still a lovely memory and thankfully film has such character that it negates a lot of the unflattering aspects of direct flash.

Next up is some cuteness...

A big priority when editing photos is to make sure the subjects are the star of the photo. And in this one their faces were a bit obscured in shadow. There was also a lot of haze in the background hiding the beautiful vista. Not to mention when I cleared that haze, there was this super faint hint of something in the sky. I can't tell if it was a rainbow, but I decided to believe it was a rainbow. The only thing that I am still struggling with, and this seems to be common with a lot of old photos, is green. Getting a good, saturated, natural green to look right has been very difficult. Everything I try ends up looking toxic or fake. The only thing that ends up looking right with the rest of the photo is more of a yellow-y brown. It's something I'll have to work on as I learn, but as long as the overall photo looks balanced and natural, I'm okay with not perfectly nailing the greens.

Up next we have a lovely scene on a Greek dock...

As far as editing goes, this was pretty basic. I just undid the fading, adjusted the skin tones, replaced the blown-out sky, and made the colors pop. But I think this is actually one of my favorite before and after shots. I just love how such a simple fix brought this scene to life.

A new car is a big deal and Anastasia looks so proud here...

This image has another common issue in addition to the typical fading of colors. It has a yellowish orange color cast. This could have been an issue with the film used or the development process or a chemical reaction on the print. A color cast is a lot like looking through colored glasses. It's like a translucent color material was put on top of the image. This can be a little trickier to deal with, but if you know your color theory, you might already know the solution. Blue is the opposite of yellow/orange on the color wheel, so if you introduce blue to the image it should balance out. Also, add a sky if it was missing.

Next up we have a landscaping project...

This one wasn't too tricky, but there was one interesting issue I had to address. All light has a color temperature. Daylight has a temperature of around 5500K. But the inside of the garage was being lit by reflected light and so that light took on the color temperature of the things it was bouncing off of. So I had to mask out the people and the car and address the color temperature inside the garage to make everything look balanced. Also, the green fought me hard on this one. And with the theme of this picture being plants, I felt I really needed to find a tone that worked. I think I finally got there, but I spent way too much time in the color picker doing trial and error of green tones. Also, new sky.

With this next one I actually did a pretty thorough explanation of how I edited it. But this was probably my favorite puzzle to solve from this collection of photos.

I'll do the abridged explanation...

The physical photograph was printed on a paper with a very heavy texture. And when it was scanned, the light from the scanner bounced off that texture and created a pattern of unwanted highlights.

I was worried this was impossible to fix and I almost gave up on this photo. But after one final Google search I discovered something called "Fast Fourier Transform." It's a mathematical formula that can be used to detect patterns. And the image editing software Affinity Photo, just so happens to have a filter called FFT denoise that helps you remove unwanted patterns from scanned photos.

And thanks to that filter, I was able to remove a substantial amount of that pattern...

Then I did my standard clean up techniques...

Oh, and I decided to try learning how to colorize.

Photoshop has a new set of experimental filters and a colorization tool is one of them. It is not great yet, but it is a great starting place. Instead of having to hand paint every single thing in the photo, Photoshop gave me a base to work with and I could take it from there with traditional techniques.

That's all I have the energy for today, but there are a bunch of cool restorations to talk about. Hopefully you all find this interesting. It was such a great gift to give to Katrina's parents. And spending that time with them and making them happy felt like I was with my own parents again. So we all got a gift in that wonderful evening.

Part 2 coming as soon as I have the energy!

[olderthannetfic]

Vent. I *hate* having my works beta read, the emotions of going through the suggestions and comments and nit-picks. Especially when what they're 'correcting' isn't wrong but something stylistic I did on purpose. I get a beta reader for exchanges or gift fics, because I feel like I *should*. But if a reader genuinely cares that much that I used a hyphen instead of an em-dash, or that a single line of dialogue is missing a comma. Fine, they can leave. It's not worth making myself hate and second guess something I already worked so much on already. Yeah yeah, I know I'm actually the one with the problem here, acting irrationally. But it's just a miserable process.

--

Good lord. Beta reading shouldn't be like that.

To be honest, I usually do everything at the last minute, so I rarely bother with betas for exchanges. And when I do get a beta, they're usually worse at spotting typos than I am and not that great at suggesting stylistic changes. It's some combo of me being a fairly good writer and fairly lazy about finding the right beta.

Let's be real: in a good story, no reader, including me, cares that much about a couple of hyphens in place of dashes. And I'm someone whose dashes are all correctly formatted in the first draft. You're being defensive and weird about something that isn't the heart of the issue here.

The issue, to my eye, is that you want some basic proofreading out of a sense of duty, and people are offering you bad quality stylistic advice.

I see no reason why you ought to use betas. They don't make your writing better just by existing. Every writer could get better with good editing, both good editing they do themselves and a good editor who's another person, but the whole thing is a creative collaboration. Finding a good editor you mesh well with is like finding a co-author you want to work with or the right therapist or a significant other. Just filling that slot with a person will usually do more harm than good.

Betaing—editing—is a skill the same as writing is, and most people suck at it.

[bubbleddisasters]

(Can’t believe I’m writing my first ever x reader (kind of) this but the Self Aware Au is so interesting to me)

Code Escaping: Heartstabyl Edition.

(All Students (can be viewed as platonic or romantic, Orthos is strictly platonic though)

Gender Neutral Reader!

——-

After several attempts, and failures, they finally succeeded.

They got through

To your world.

What next? Try and Find you, Rush to your side first thing and try to casually explain that a video game character broke out of their code to see them?

Maybe set things up first? Comfy living, then an easy way to find you? Or go off clues from things you used to say or areas he saw behind you? Or did he get lucky and he’s two feet away?

Man, He should have checked the code for your location…..No time to lose!

------------------

𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒚𝒍

-----------------

𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒍𝒆 🌹

——

Truth be told, he got quite lucky.

A library is where he arrived, one he recognized as your hiding spot to study, or simply relax.

So, he found every tome he thought relevant on what he needed to know of the basics of your world, aswell as the one he last witnessed you study, and sat himself in the seat next to where you usually did, awaiting your arrival.

Was it timely? Perhaps, Perhaps not.

You’d been slightly (Very) annoyed that for some reason, none of your Riddle cards would show his appearance. The Chibi was no where to be seen, and your homescreen vacant of him.

So as you made your way to your spot, you nearly shrieked because either thats a damn good cosplay or Riddle Rosehearts was very casually reading the history textbook your teacher assigned while sitting four feet away from your usual spot.

Steel blue eyes scoped to check the noise, and sat up instantly.

“Just as I expected, you’d arrive here sooner or later. You certainly took your time, however.”

Before you could process the fact he sounded suspiciously like Ciel Phantomhive, he quite literally summoned a tea set. Out of thin air.

And was just staring. Most definitely waiting for you to sit down casually like he didn’t summon an entire china set with piping hot tea in a magicless world.

This was the real deal. Mommy Issues Supreme was now officially your problem. Good Luck.

————————

𝑻𝒓𝒆𝒚♣

——

He remembered the name of the bakery down the street you visited.

As a joke, when you’d finished book one, you’d ordered a Strawberry Tart. He couldn’t exactly remember if you actually ate it, or gave it away, but it was funny, regardless.

Using Paint the Roses, he altered a napkin into a very nice resume, and he got a job there.

When Trey up and vanished from your homescreen, you’d gone to get a pastry to cheer yourself up. Not the best coping skill, but hey, it works.

It was pretty late, and it seemed they were closing up, so you planned to just be in and out, not wanting to make their job any harder.

The little bell rung as you entered, and the little alarms in your head went off when you arrived at the counter, and a-wait, why would someone cosplay at their job? Trey and working at a Bakery fit together, but…wait a second. Thats not a wig, and thats not contacts either.

If Ingame Trey was missing, and this guy looked exactly like him…..Nope, Not Possible.

Trying to play it casual , you ordered the usual and once you had it, sat down as you normally would.

But when you took a bite of your treat, it tasted like….Strawberry. Then Chestnut. What the hell.

You unintentionally had an odd staring contest with the current cashier, who then held out a scarily familiar pen, chuckling a bit as he placed it on the counter.

“Surprise.”

After making his way around the counter, he sat down on the other side of the table, doing his best to not freak you out too much.

“Yea, I know this might be a bit confusing, and It’s probably not easy to process all this, so take your time, and I’ll answer any questions you have.”

Great, because you had several.

——————-

𝑪𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓♦

——

Social Media Stalking but not Stalking was his forte.

The first thing he did was make pretty much every account he could on medias he knew you had. Like Tumblr.

He decided it would be way too freaky to just pop up out of nowhere, so as he was thinking and exploring, he took a few selfies and photoshoots here are there.

And WOW. They blew up. At first he thought it was the general math of Attractive Guy + Good Photos of him = Alot of Views. He had sorta kinda forgot other people knew about Twist until he noticed the flood of “Cater IRL” and “THE Cater Cosplay” comments. Which gave him an idea.

After the annoyance of all your Caters being lost in the code sauce, you messed around online until you accidentally pulled up a page with the greatest Cater Cosplay you had ever witnessed.

You had to do a double take when the follow button said “Follow Back”. You complied with the buttons wishes and followed them back.

After a while, you somehow ended up dming back and forth with him, and his strangely Cater coded texts. You also discovered that it apparently wasn’t a cosplay, and just his natural appearance was scarily similar to Caters..and his name was Cater, which was accidentally revealed by a Starbucks barista calling out after finishing making his drink while you were calling.

Part of you suspected that this could be the real Cater, with all the math adding up, and the other half of you called you a fucking idiot for that.

Little did you know the first one was exactly what Cater was hoping for.

With that, he managed to do some kinda social media stalking ( but not like, Rook Levels, DW) and found your general area based on area matching (TY Google Maps!) and nearly jumped for joy when he realized it was where he was too.

He subtly managed to sneak that in conversation, and set up a meetup between you two, a brunch and phone shopping. Weird Pick on the last one, but you decided not to judge.

The first thing he said when you arrived confused you, alot.

With a bright smile, he waved you over.

“Hey! Long Time no see!”

Ignoring the aggressive red flag in that statement with a simple “Maybe he meant since we called” as if you didn’t call him last night to plan this out, either way, you scooted in.

You two got so distracted chatting, at one point making up a game of fake gossiping the craziest things to see if anyone reacted, and for your own entertainment.

Because of that, your drink went warm, and as soon as you mentioned it, you got your answer to the “Where did my Caters go.” question.

Why? Because, as if this had happened before, he simply refroze it. Magically.

As you stared in pure awe and confusion, he grimaced upon the realization his cover was pretty much blown.

“Whoops…Lets just pretend that didn’t happen, and I’ll explain later, ‘Kay?”

You just had to pray nobody witnessed that, as Area 51 did definitely did not sound like Cay-Cays ideal Vacay.

——

𝑨𝒄𝒆♥

—

He thought it would be fucking HILARIOUS to prank you, as, unfortunately for you, he ended up in your house, only to find out you were asleep, which gave him the opportunity to PUA (Prank Upon Arrival)

For the next several hours of your waking life, Ace of Hearts playing cards of varying sizes would be infesting your house, or when you’d put something down and look away, there was either a card on it or it had been replaced by a card.

You were also robbed of leftovers you’d been saving, and a few snacks by this card demon.

After you left the house vacant (you fool), the Knave struck again, this time sneaking out and guessing your next move, heading off to a cafe because you needed caffeine after the card madness, until you had already ordered, and you had turned on Twist while waiting for your drink.

Quietly, he slid into the chair infront of you as you grumbled.

“He’s not on the homescreen either—Where the hell are all my Ace cards?”

Hehe, Infront of you. This is the best setup ever.

Leaning back on the chair, he couldn’t contain a grin as he faked obliviousness.

“I dunno. Maybe try looking around a lil’ more?”

Not paying much attention to who was talking to you in your moment of despair , you sighed, swiping back to the home screen.

“They’re not those kinds of cards.”

“Aren’t like, five of them card themed?”

“Four right now, since Ace has seemingly gone and fucked off to another dimension:”

“Yeaaa, about that. It was not as easy to do as you’re making it sound. Just saying.”

You looked up for a split second, then did a double take and nearly skyrocketed out of your chair, making indecipherable confusion noises while he laughed his ass off, totally soaking in the success of his perfect surprise you had unintentionally enabled.

While you stood frozen in shock, he simply grabbed your things, put them in your hand, S̶t̶o̶l̶e̶ grabbed your coffee, and whisked you out the door.

I pray for you, good luck dealing with him.

——

𝑫𝒆𝒖𝒄𝒆♠

——

Woke up in either your garage or kitchen, and was confused. Rightfully so.

Since he couldn’t really find you around, but at least recognized this as your house, he just waddled around more or less, fixing random things here and cleaning up there while trying to find clues to where you might be, or if he should just wait here.

He finally found a grocery list, which you had forgotten, and spent the next 10 minutes trying to find the nearest grocery store while unintentionally locking himself out of the house in the process, so made the genius decision to hope you were still at the grocery store and dashed over.

You’re doing great, dude.

Anywho, he got lucky, because in the middle of carrying off your shopping bags, your notification that your AP was full went off, and as you went to use it, you noticed a severe lack of Deuce on your homescreen.

This lead to sitting on a bench and getting distracted trying to figure out why the hell this glitch had only affected your Deuce cards, so you weren’t paying much attention when you heard a voice somewhat far off but close.

“Oh hey! There you are!”

Assuming it was for someone else, you continued trying to fix the “glitch”, then paused when you heard the voice from before right infront of you.

“Do you need help with carrying those bags?”

The words “I’m good, thanks.” died on your tongue when you looked up, only to be face to face with the guy you’d been suffering trying to figure out where he went for 20 minutes. Ingame. In a VIDEO GAME.

Internally, you practically short-circuited, after you panicked, he started panicking, and you both ended up in a weird confusion panic that had the energy of the spidermans pointing at eachother meme.

Great job! You have now acquired a German Shepard Golden Retriever mix in human form.

————

Bonus :

——

𝑪𝒉𝒆'𝒏𝒚𝒂⤵➟

——

Unlike most of them, he had absolutely zero trouble hopping into your world.

However, instead of revealing himself right away, he decided to be the ghost of good deeds and mischief. And a random black cat you’d suspiciously find on your window sill demanding pets or cuddles.

Luckily transforming, flying, invisibility, and the rest of his magic ability seemed to work just fine.

Sometimes, you’d randomly find things placed in unusual places, spoons on the ceiling, for example, the paintings or pictures sometimes randomly taking on very funny faces, teacups and plates floating around at 2am, leaving you to assume it was a sleepy hallucination.

Other times you’d be aggravatingly trying to fix something, look away for one moment, and not only was it fixed, it looked almost brand new. Or you’d open the fridge or pantry, and notice the lack of food, then open it again, and i’d be filled to the brim.

You never noticed anything too strange on Twist itself however until you got bored one day, and decided to replay Heartstabyls chapters, only to realize Che’nya was…completely missing.

Out of sheer curiosity, you checked his Pomfieore Chapter appearance. Nothing. Gone.

Trying to see if it was just the WIFI connection, you moved rooms, only to see a blink of purple in the corner of your eye.

Lounging in the air by the window, tail swaying lazily, he peeked over, then grinned his signature grin.

“Nya-ice to meet you~”

———

Yay! Thats all!!

Holy shit I can’t believe I wrote this, feel free to take me out (Date or Assassination I really don’t care)

Alright! I might do more but they might not be in dorm order, see ya!

[punkitt-is-here]

How can I cultivate the same, "just keeping making stuff all the time" kind of energy you have? It's very impressive and something I wish I could do!

well, theres a couple reasons i think! one is that i just found ways to be satisfied with small amounts of work. its in part because of my ADHD, but my parents were always trying new things (motorcycles, leatherwork, acrylic paint, collage art, photography, video editing) so that definitely rubbed off on me; i had a great example of people just wanting to try stuff. i keep making stuff all the time because i love trying out new things; you don't have to be an expert to try something new! you just have to have a desire for it! wanna make a zine? google it! wanna write a comic? give it a shot! wanna get into woodworking? buy a carving knife and find a stick or something! i think theres plenty of ways to find entry points into interesting stuff and you gotta let yourself be okay with making shit that sucks just because its fun. which leads me to my second point!!

im okay with being dogshit at stuff! i try new things, i kind of suck at them, and i think it's either 1. cool that i made it this far or 2. kinda funny that this is what its like at the moment. i know that sucking is never permanent, everything can be improved with time, and rarely does anyone ever magically get good at something first try. i think of myself as a talented artist, but its over the course of 2+ decades of drawing; im always improving, and no matter what im going to find things i want to get better at, so why fault myself now for not being perfect? a couple of months ago i really wanted to try woodcarving, so i made spoon with my dad. did it turn out great? not really! you cant even use it as a spoon! but im glad i tried it, it was fun, i had a great time with my dad, and now i know a little bit more going in next time. the idea that you have to be perfect or make tangible progress every single time you try something new is a recipe for burnout. i promise you, it doesnt matter if something doesn't come out like God's Gift to Humanity! Did you have fun? did you learn something? are you satisfied in some small part? good!

(pictured: tha spoon)

last, im just really easy to please myself! I'll make a doodle or implement an idle animation in my game or color a piece and go "wow! thats so cool i did that :)" and it really is just a matter of realizing that its fucking COOL to create stuff, no matter how small! whatever you made didn't exist before you, especially in your own unique way, and now it does! doesn't that rule?! i'm obsessed with it! even if its just a stick figure, its a stick figure you made, and it wasn't there before. thats fucking awesome!!! art is so cool!!!! i think that being happy with small goals and victories is a great way of trying out new things and showing off cool stuff u made, no matter what skill level. :) this turned into a whole big thing, but i hope this helps! tl;dr is try things if they seem fun, be okay with not being good at them, and find stuff about it that makes you happy or satisfied!

[dailyadventureprompts]

Homebrew Mechanic: Bumpercar Combat

I'm going to keep most of my reasoning behind developing this system below the cut but I think we can all agree that D&D's combat can be painfully static. I love fight scenes but after going down a combined stage combat/ videogame boss design rabbit hole I've realized that one of the primary elements is missing from D&D's combat system, namely: Movement

From a mechanical perspective, D&D combat needs movement to break up the monotony of non-spellcater characters throwing punches at eachother until one of them drops, to introduce increased risk and randomness without damage-spike abilities.

From a narrative perspective, D&D combat needs movement to introduce tension and to help put character into day to day fighting beyond just flavor text. Likewise, fights that give different opportunities for movement will feel different from one another, making them stand out in the party's mind.

So without further ado I present my fun new system, which will have your party and their enemies bouncing around the battlefield like a demolition derby:

Press the attack: If you attack a creature and your initial attack roll is higher than their constitution score, you can force them to shift 5 ft into any of the tree squares opposite from your position. You then move to occupy the space they did.  

Back to a Wall:  Walls and other substantial barriers grant attackers the benefits of flanking as if they were a threatening creature. 

Give Ground: If you are attacked in melee and the initial roll is lower than your dexterity score you may shift into any adjacent square, forcing the opponent to move into the space you previously occupied. If you are attacked at a range, you may still shift, but the attacker loses any cover bonuses they might have till the start of their next turn rather than moving. 

Tripping Hazard: If you force an opponent into a square that could be considered rough terrain ( such as if it was occupied by a chair, or down a slippery slope) the target drops prone. 

First things first I want to say that this system is largely inspired by the dynamic combat movement rules by raventear productions, which I found over on reddit. It's a great system but the more I thought about it the more I realized that introducing extra rolls into combat was adding extra bloat to combat, and so I needed to retool the system to ensure that the party weren't having to roll any more dice than they normally would. My goal with homebrew is always to add more options, not bloat.

Also, go check out@jillbearup over on youtube, her series breaking down cinematic fights was one of the main drivers behind wanting to find a homebrew system like this in the first place.

Finally, long hours spent watching @ohnoitstbskyen 's in depth bloodborne playthough got me thinking about the design of fights, and the right combination of enemies and environment can truly elevate the player(s) experience. I'm also working on my own bloodborne game which gave me a reason to finalize this system.

Now lets get on to why I wanted to build this system in the first place: D&D combat is at risk of being painfully slow and boring, as it's aged the depths to which it can be slow and/or boring have only increased. While part of that is up to the skill of players at the table, I largely chalk it up to the fact that the base system of combat isn't much changed from the days of old tabletop wargaming....characters and monsters control like army units, clashing up against one another till one side drops or some spellcaster drops an AoE ( artillery). That rigidity is fine when one person is controling a whole army of units, but I think every melee character has been in a position where they're slugging away with the same old attack while the wizards get to do cool shit.

The system sort of worked back In the early days when characters and monsters could only take a couple of hits before dropping, but as the editions progressed and everything got more complex what might have first been a quick life or death clash turned into a slugfest. Attacks of opportunity and rigid flanking rules specifically encouraged this slowdown, and 4th edition, the only attempt outside of the battemaster to really play with positioning crashed and burned mainly due to WotC's incompetence.

So how do I use this?

If you're having trouble thinking of why this system might be fun to implement, here's a few ideas:

It makes groupfights more dangerous, encouraging tactical thinking. Getting advantage reliably is the deciding factor in most d&d combats, with the tide turning in favour of whichever side has the most bodies. If combatants are shifting around with every missed hit then that advantage is more up for grabs

It puts increased focus on hazards and terrain features. Ledges, pits, pillars, walls, furniture, dungeon-clutter. Make no mistake that if you use this system and then design your combat arenas with some kind of terrain feature, it's GOING to be used. Where previously players and enemies alike had to chose between engaging with the arena for a potential benefit or doing raw damage reliably, here they'll be able to do both.

It gives non burst-damage melee characters a new way to play. Rolling a barbarian or fighter is supposed to come with a scene of empowerment which can be undercut one folks realize their super-strong orc berserker is being outclassed for damage by the shifty guy with the knife. Telling that player "Yeah, that person gets to roll more dice, but you get to bounce badguys off the walls like pinballs" is more than a consolation, it's what they signed up to do in the first place.

It adds drama to the fight. There's only so many ways a dm can describe enemies taking non-lethal sword hits that only take up a portion of their hp, and they're liable to run out of those long before the campaign is through. Part of what sells the importance of those hits and keeps players engaged between the first and the last is the feeling that they've had SOME kind of effect. Moving folks around is a middle ground between doing nothing and dropping a foe, changing the battlefield in a myriad of small ways that can build up to something meaningful.

Art

[loudclan-clangen]

Hey there!

Checking out Loudclan? That's great! Thanks so much!

Loudclan was originally planned to be drawn as I played the game like most other clangen blogs... Then I got frustrated about how slow it was moving and played ahead. Just a little bit, nothing to worry about, only about 1000 moons. So this blog should be running for A WHILE. I also take pretty big liberties with the designs and events. I think it's more interesting that way! Also it's been several real life months since I started playing and some things I just... forgot. Or lost. Either way, it's fun to stretch my creative skills.

As for the mechanics of the blog:

General Content Warnings Include:

Death, Animal Death, (Cat Death specifically), Death in Childbirth, Violence, Murder, Illness, Gore, Grooming, Abuse, Bad Parenting, Cheating, Affairs, Drama, Cursing, Language, Dirty Jokes, ECT. (if i missed something please let me know)

Start Here

Allegiances

Lore

Discord

RedBubble

Updates are not going to be on a consistent schedule... ever. I'm a college student. I just don't have the time or energy.

The style is going to vary wildly. It's been years since I've consistently drawn cats and I wasn't ever really happy with the way I did it back then anyway. Come along for the ride with me! I'm just as surprised by what my hands create as you guys!

Overview:

Loudclan is set in a fictional location that is based on South Central Alaska. A group of rogues fled up the mountains to get away from the deep snows of the valleys at the beginning of a particularly harsh winter. The clan follows three "Leaders" in the form of the Leader, the Lead Healer, and the Lead Mediator. These leaders will each pass their position on to their oldest heir, the closest related member of their direct family. Issues regarding what happens when two cats have similar claims have yet to be sorted out by the clan, and may never be fully decided... *insert mysterious foreshadowing sounds*

If you are interested in more of a deep dive into the lore check out this post: Lore, or anything tagged #loudclanlore .

Asks are welcome! I will do my best to answer them quickly and efficiently! I am happy to talk about characters, art, process, gameplay, pretty much anything. (I probably won't be showing sprites though, just because I've played ahead so far and a not insignificant amount of them are just... gone. Lost to the ether. Sacrificed so that my laptop could keep running the game.) All asks are tagged #loudclanasks .

Also fanart/writing/edits are more than welcome! You guys are so cool and talented and I am honored that you would want to make something based on my dumb little pixel cats. Referencing or imitating my style/designs/layout is absolutely allowed, just make sure to mention me so I don't miss them! All fan contributions are tagged #loudclanfan .

I will never complain about anyone "blowing up my notifications" or spam liking. I think it's so neat to see people go through the blog liking as they go. Don't worry about it. I enjoy seeing you enjoy my work!

A little bit about me, you can call me "D"! I use any pronouns, I'm pretty ambivalent about them but the majority of people use she/her for me and I'm fine with that. I'm 20, I live most of the time in Alaska and part time on a ranch in Texas and I'm working on my BA in Elementary Education. I started reading Warriors in 2nd Grade and stopped in 6th Grade but the brain worms never die. If you know me in real life no you don't: It took me all of high school to kill the furry allegations I'm not going through that again. Oh, and my main blog is @restinginpiecesofpizza but warning, there's spoilers for Owlstar's family tree for like 8 generations posted on there.

If you think Loudclan's cool and want to help me out consider checking out my RedBubble!

Anyway, thanks for checking out my blog! I hope you enjoy!

[unma]

I'm not going to be able to write my typical long rambles for a bit (need to catch up on important work), but here's a short list of things I wanna talk about with the latest canto.

Spoilers, of course.

The entire Canto taking place after the ending of Don Quixote (the first Don, I will not call him the Actual Don because our Don is as much Don Quixote as he is) is not something I expected, but makes so much sense and made for a wonderful story. There are themes of identity, struggling to live under a broken system and GOD THE FAMILIAL TIES. THE FIGHT AGAINST THE TWO MIDBOSSES + THE PRIEST HAD SUCH MAGNIFICENT STORY BUILD UP. AND THE PRIEST'S ENTIRE MOVESET. UGGGH I WANNA TALK ABOTU IT

Hey. Outis. What did you mean by that. We all know what I'm talking about, right? This is the first time I know of that she's actually given even a smidge of info about herself somewhat directly. Somewhat. Everything else is just in how she knows things and acts. Here she is asking a very specific question and god, I need to know more about her now.

Good job Sinclair. And everyone else. But good job Sinclair.

Vergilius with Sanson's face/mask is cursed.

I continue to feel so so bad for the Bloodfiends. They did the best they could in a world that gave them only two horrible options. I couldn't help but compare La Manchaland to the Tokyo Ghoul:RE ending, because the hemobars reminded me of the artificial meat, except in TG:RE it worked and here, well. We saw how that went. I think it's a great idea to start with the after of their solution; this isn't a situation with a possible solution, they tried that and failed. Who knows if there is one that works? Does it matter now that they're all dead?

I'm going to be very weird about Camille once this is all said and done, but I do want to note that the pretty boy being turned into a flower and having a name very clearly gotten from Carmilla the flower (and maybe the book? Haven't read it yet so idk if he's taken from there) is very cheeky. I still wish I could've besting him up myself. This isn't me critiquing the writing, this is me being weird.

The QTE in the ending cutscene of the boss fight was cool and really added to the feeling of fighting against and overcoming a clearly superior foe.

I wanna hug Don Quixote the First. He's such a ray of sunshine and deserved better. Even if he was somewhat delusional, at least he genuinely cared for his family.

What happened to Hong Lu's sister? Did she just vanish? I didn't notice until later on, so I'll probably need to go back and check myself.

Bari is the Librarian of Death (edit: Nameless Bookhunter, thanks for the correction AE)? Idfk and idc for now. If Bari ends up showing up again or a moot of mine decides they wanna talk about it, maybe I'll look into it.

The familial themes here are most certainly also going to be related to Hong Lu's story, which once more is a reason I really should get to reading all the books for this game.

Ryoshu accepting death from the possibility of fighting Don Qui the second was really funny.

The abno fights here are really good, and I love how Limbus is making unbreakable coins the standard from now on. Makes it so you can't just blaze through fights taking no damage, and these battles genuinely feel difficult. That's good. Their designs and mechanics are also pretty easy to understand and match with their ego gifts pretty well. God I wish we had more Rupture ids that could stack as much count as the Lasso abno.

Sancho fight was cool as hell. The clashable 10 speed skill was so good and made it feel like a massive improvement on the Cassetti fight. So good. On use coin power did mess me up a little given it doesn't show up in the clash numbers, but that was on me for not reading tbh.

Fun fact: final boss can be Meatlantern soloed really easily. So easy in fact that that's how I cleared it. Doing it with a full team didn't end well for me. The solo's also really consistent, which is nice.

Mili song is really good. As usual. I need to go listen to it again. I need an in-game mix. I need it. The childishness of Sancho's side of the tune compared with the seriousness of first Don's side is lovely.

Also. Please, in the final clash where you use Don's base ego. I hope you looked at the name of the ego and the name of Don the First's attack. Please. It's such a good detail. And it's so much better when you remember that Sancho was always the one making weapons for Don. He calls Sancho's lances much more graceful than his. It's so lovely. You can tell these two genuinely love each other. It's so good.

Also the fact that basically every fixer we went in with got wiped out by weakened Bloodfiends really shows just how powerful these bloodfiends are. Camille had to resort to using ego gear to survive. Sheesh.

That'll be all for now. Expect a long ramble on any of these points when I'm more free, aka never.

[dis-4str0]

parkour civilization headcanons (YAYAYY)

i have been thinking a lot about the movies recently so here are my dumb silly headcanons because they make me very excited and wanna jump about :PP

inspo from: @finlin000 @harvocel

spoilers? small general tw

evbo and other parkour noobs were extremely malnourished, they were starving essentially, especially since they ate raw meat all the time

because of it being raw meat I think many if you didn’t die or get sent to prisons for reasons you would probably die or get sick often from consuming raw meat, especially if they didn’t change it out often. you could probably imagine the amounts of parasites people consumed because of it

the moment evbo was no longer a parkor noob he refused to eat chicken. even when it is cooked. just the smell or possible mention of it probably making him gag and get flashbacks of having to force down the slimy substance without throwing up (which he did a few times) over and over. Same goes for raw beef but a little less since he managed to tolerate it later.

less angst, more about technicals (idk) >:| !

leather boots for noobs are horrible. after a few years (if one survives long enough) they probably start to rot and fall apart. those things stick like hell since noobs don’t have resources to take care of them. They only benefit being they might grip the ground better.

noob class is the poor class in a kindom, they live in poverty and fear and are only really there to be test subjects (as seen in the prisons) or just a population ig. They are kinda like toys for high class

parkour pro’s have way better boots. They are more sturdy, easier to keep clean and done but nothing too fancy, they are built for work. boots aren’t customizable. more foot at our though

parkour pro’s are the work class of parkour civilization, along with that they are also probably some of the more parkour training focused of the levels (masters as well but probably starting off of knowledged learned as a pro)

the lost civilization (chain or the advanced) is centered around knowledge, mostly around parkour but they are the only level with books/library’s (I think), this also led to the level finding out about parkour racing

parkour advanced boots are like iron except a little more practical. Leg armor and padding armor for the longer jumps on the level too. Especially since they had different areas with different types of parkour

if there was a parkour religion it would mostly be centered on the advanced level

parkour masters are the level of wealth and riches, yes they still have some form of jobs but they run the economy

when you become a parkour master you get the standard gold boots but you are able to customize them to your liking. They can be tailored towards the specific user (example seawatt’s boot are more sandal like.) the boots now have knee padding too and are made to withstand harder and higher jumps

masters like to show off their boots and skills, a lot.

parkour champions have there boots custom made with great care and detail (maybe by a parkour pro or above). Only mad with the best material. stretch up the leg to around the knees. mostly likely always enchanted (hence the regeneration and lack of hunger)

it is an honor to be the one who gets to make the boots though

the parkour champion is treated like the royalty of society and the higher the level you have, the influence you have too.

thats about most of them but I might edit later with more cause I am tired and wanna sleep. Yay 🎉:))

[egg-but-with-style]

HEADCANONS WITH THE BOYSSSS!!!!

My last post did pretty well, and if people like it, I figured I might as well try my hand at some more!!!!

Gaz

This guy literally has the best skin in the world, it's like looking at something carved from marble, everytime you ask about his skincare routine, he just says genetics.

He detests anything made with cinnamon, his older sister once made him try a pie she made, and by the time he was done eating it, he was literally coughing up cinnamon. Didn't say anything though, couldn't be mean to his sister like that.

HE CANNOT SIT STILL!! Gaz and soap are literally the most energetic people on base. Except Price finds Gaz charming and soap less so...

Also I for some reason think he smells like oranges and mangos???

(edited after I saw a tiktok about climate change) GAZ IS SUPER VOCAL ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE, all of the boys care to some degree (get it?) but Gaz brings hard facts and evidence everytime he talks about it, Price is now worried for Gaz's mental health

Price

Where to start? Maybe with the fact he has duplicates of his hats he keeps in his office drawer. Ghost went in there one time to give Price a report and saw Price open his Hat Drawer. Ghost had never seen so many hats

If some of y'all didn't know, if you have a low tolerance to cigars and breathe in too much of the smoke, you'll get sick. So, Price keeps a puking trash can just for the people that come into his office. Is he gonna stop smoking to prevent people from losing their lunch? Never.

When he's not on duty he wears the stupid Hawaiian shirts that middle aged dads wear on vacation. Also cargo shorts. Cause they're tactical

Soap

Again, he cannot sit still. He'll wake up in the middle of the night and you'll find him in the armory tinkering with an explosive, and even then he gets up every couple minutes just to pace around

He is very meticulous about his hair. Every morning he wakes up just a little bit earlier then everyone else and hair gels that baby into place. It does not move. It could probably be as effective as a military grade helmet at that point.

THIS MAN DRAWS PORN AND POSTS IT ON TWITTER!!! He uses an alias of course, and a very well hidden drawing tablet when he's on duty. Just ignore the fact that alot of the men he draws look just a tad bit like ghost. Just a little.

Also, while all of the COD men love a woman (or man) with meat on their bones, soap is feral. Chubby chaser all the way. There's also something really hot about a person being around his height and not taking his shit.

Ghost

He has horrible acne under that mask. It's actually awful how much he goes through just to keep it on. He's done skincare, moisturizing, pimple patches, everything, and nothing work. The worst part is, he thinks the mask is so cool it's worth it

This man is an actual dork. (Idea by @ghouljams) this guy definitely makes those little miniatures. The little details he puts into every bit of his work, whether it's wood grain, the look of water, he just does it all with such skill. The plus side is that it keeps his brain at bay, not thinking and more focused on what's in front of him. He also likes DND. Go figure.

I also do like the idea of trans ghost. He understands what it was like before he transitioned and feeling ashamed of his size when he used to be forced into the stereotype of what a woman should look like. So when people fuck with you about your size, he's right behind you like he's gonna kill them.

Authors note: the only thing I'm afraid of as I start writing is 1. The fan fic author curse, and 2. People actually paying attention to me, my anxiety is gonna kill me, lol. Anyway, hope y'all are having a great day!!! Bye!!!

[eggdrawsthings]

Hi! I wanted to ask a question and I wasn’t sure if it was too personal or not so just ignore this is you’d rather not answer, but I was wondering if you went to art school or got a degree in it? I really want to start learning and maybe one day start a career in animation and wasn’t sure whether I should spend time and resources getting a degree. I know it’s going to be different for everybody and nothings a guarantee for this field but since I love your style and technical skill I was curious whether you had done that and what were your thoughts on it or if you are self-taught.

Hey anon! No worries it's all good!

Ig I should quickly go through my art journey so you can have an overall look of why I went to art school lol.

So I'm from Vietnam. I think back in 2013 I went to a small art school in Singapore (they were the only one that gave me a scholarship). My major was 3D modeling actually, but during my final year, I realized I only wanted to draw characters for animation. I could already draw decently, so I just read The Silver Way book and built a character design portfolio on my own during this time. I was lucky I got a job as a concept artist at a small animation studio there so I learned a lot from the job. I also did a lot of self-learning and took Woulter Tulp's Expressive Character class on Schoolism.

Then after 3-ish years of working, I got sick of the tiny and dying animation industry in Singapore. I wanna do sth more than just preschool shows and I was severely underpaid lmao. So I quit my job and took the MA VisDev program at AAU. It's a little more affordable cuz u can do 1 year online and the second year on-site. The reason I went to this school even tho i could just take a VisDev class online was cuz i need the visa so i can try to break into the industry in the US.

Now back to your question. Is art school a must? No. Should you still take it? Maybe, depends on your situation. If you can afford it then hell yeah by all means. Art school is great cuz you have professors and peers to help guide you along the way so you won't get lost while trying to figure out your shit. And to have a few years just experimenting and focusing on art is a great experience. Plus you can make a lot of meaningful connections in school and it will help you a long way after you grad. But if you have to go into debt to go to art school, then don't. There are places like Schoolism, CGMA, and Warrior Art Camp where you can pick what class and from whom you wanna learn. If you are not from the US and wanna break into the industry here like me however, then yeah getting a degree is a better bet cuz you can use the student visa and OPT to hopefully get a job here (it's still very very hard tho ngl im struggling rn as we speak lmao). Also, you need a BA to work overseas so there's that too. The hard truth is studios prefer to hire locally than some rando from somewhere else and have to wait for them to relocate and shit, (unless you are exceptionally good and they'd do anything to have you, but that is super rare lol).

Even though I did go to art school, I have to say most of my skills are from self-study. It requires a lot of self-discipline but I'm pretty much obsessed with drawing and I draw everyday so it's not a problem for me. But my friend is not good at that, so she found art school/classes helped her better cuz there are deadlines and instructors to help guide her to reach her goal. So it depends on your learning style tbh.

There is this chart that can help you consider your options. Im sorry it's a very long answer, cuz yes everyone's experience is different. Feel free to drop me another ask if you still have anymore questions tho ^^

Edit: I must also add, though there are online classes and ways to self-learn animation,I do think it only truly benefit you if you know exactly what you wanna do in this industry (for example I already knew i wanna become a character designer for 2d/3D animation specifically so any books/classes i took I tailored it to fit my goal). If you are unsure what you wanna do, then maybe even a cheap animation course will do better, and then you can take extra online classes on the side.

[sirfrogsworth]

Photo Restoration: Adventures in Upscaling - Part 1

After finishing my big photo restoration for Katrina's family I was organizing my files and noticed a scan I missed.

The scan was fairly low resolution and the photos were only 400x700 pixels.

But I was bored and restoring photos helps me relax, so I decided to fix them up anyway—even if they did not have great fidelity.

I did my thing, and it worked pretty well.

But I have been interested in a set of photo tools made by Topaz Labs. They are known for their noise removal and upscaling apps and are praised by many photographers I follow.

Before I jumped into this A.I. suite of tools I wanted to make sure it was trained ethically with licensed images—same as how Adobe operates.

So that made me feel better about that aspect. Plus I feel this is exactly the kind of thing A.I. is great for. A tool to help artists rather than displace them.

I have used a few upscalers in the past and have had varying degrees of success. Typically they just implore various sharpening tools and try to control the chunky artifacts with denoising tools—trying to find the best balance between the two.

Two opposites trying to reach a compromise.

But I was not expecting the results I got. This is way beyond anything I have ever tried before and I had no idea the technology had improved this much.

Here are the results...

All photos will be displayed in order of original, my edit, Topaz upscale followed by extremely zoomed in crops to help you better see the effects.

Crops...

Topaz has a specific "face recovery" algorithm and I was curious if these results were only because of that.

But then I looked at this little guy and he seemed pretty sharp as well.

I was stunned at how well this was working. I was able to upscale these photos so they could be printed as an 8x10 with 300ppi resolution.

Maybe that first photo was just a fluke, so I proceeded with the others.

Santa's face was mostly obscured, but it was still able to work its magic despite that.

Crops...

At this point I felt like I was a caveman discovering fire for the first time.

This next photo is interesting because it has a very creepy clown clearly plotting to kill baby Katrina. And the clown has on full makeup, which could confuse the face recovery.

Crops...

The clown face looked great, but there were two interesting artifacts involving text.

First, there was not nearly enough information on the clown's button. So the A.I. did its thing and rendered nonsense. I found a smiley face button and just did some classic compositing.

There was also a bottle of Elmer's glue on the table and even though I felt there was enough detail to make out the words, the A.I. still struggled. So I found a bottle of vintage glue with the same label and replaced it.

And it kinda feels nice that A.I. can't do everything yet and I still have to use my problem solving skills to make the best photo possible.

On to part 2!

[hrtsmika]

𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒑 𝒃𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒑 ᯓ★

lee know x fem!reader

summary: Lee Know decides to teach YN one of the group’s dance routines. At first, YN feels nervous and self-conscious, worried about keeping up with such a skilled dancer. However, Lee Know’s patient and encouraging helps her a lot.

word count: 500 words

Lee Know stood in the middle of the practice room, his eyes focused on the mirror in front of him as he perfected a series of sharp, precise moves. The rhythmic sound of Stray Kids' latest track blared from the speakers. He wanted to be able to do the dance perfectly.

Y/N stood outside the door, then nervously opened it. She didn't want to disturb him because she knew how important and stressful all of this was for him. Hearing the door open, Lee Know immediately turns his gaze toward it, expecting one of the members. He smiled when he saw thar it was Y/n.

"Hey" you said walking slowly toward him. Lee Know softly replied hugging you, seeking some kind of peace. Suddenly, he had a brilliant idea - to teach his girlfriend the dance. This way they will spend some time together while doing something he loves very dearly.

" I have an idea. Do you want to teach the dance im working on. It will be nice, i promise. " Minho suggested. You thought about it for a second, but then agreed because you just can't say no to him. Dance was a big part of his life and you knew that.

"You ready?" your boyfriend asked, his tone light and encouraging.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she replied, her voice trembled slightly.

Lee Know noticed and stepped closer, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll do great. Just follow my lead, and remember to have fun." He started with a simple warm-up, guiding her through the basic steps. "So far, so good" you thought still feeling kinda nervous. You tried to follow every move he does, eyes fixed on him. Despite your best efforts, you were new to dancing so you stumbled a few times, the self-consciousness creeping in.

"Relax, YN. It's okay to make mistakes. That's how we learn," he said gently. He may not be so patient with his members sometimes, but with you, it was different. After a few minutes, you were to do it perfectly, and everything seemed fine and more relaxed. It wasn't that bad after all.

As they continued, Lee Know's patience and encouragement began to work their magic. Your nerves began to ease so you started to move more freely. After an hour of practice and hard work you finally danced through the routine together flawlessly.

"You did it!" Lee Know exclaimed, pulling you into a hug. "See, I knew you could."

You smiled happily and thanked him. "I couldn't have done it without you," you admitted. "Thank you for being so patient and encouraging."

Moments like these seemed to make up for all the time you are separated due to his busy schedule and concerts.

"We can show it to the others tomorrow. Im sure they would be very impressed" Lee Know said. As you two left the practice room hand in hand, you released that you could face any challenge as long as you have him next to you.

note: second oneshot i post yay. Im so happy to write and post here. Hope you enjoy it and sorry for any mistakes. Leave requests if you have any.

© hrtsvivis — do not steal, edit, or repost my works.

[comickergirl]

I thought it would be kinda cool to try and make a tier list with my own drawings and, in hindsight, that was maybe too ambitious, given I had more manga titles this year and less free time for fanart, but regardless, here we are! Gonna hide additional thoughts on some of the books under a read-more for the terribly curious. XD

Going in order from top to bottom, left to right:

Snow White with the Red Hair: ...No. There is too much to say. I'll need to return to this some other time. XD (Actually I'm gonna skip the other 2023 titles on the tier list as well)

King in Limbo: LOVED this one. Possibly one of my favorite that I read this year. (Am I biased because it takes place in San Francisco? MAYBE SO.) Really great sci-fi series with a crime/murder mystery element, and Rune and Adam make for a great mismatched 'buddy comedy' duo. Also... *cough* Am I excited for the Your Forma anime? Yes. Do I think King in Limbo did the same plot but better and first? Also yes. *cough*

QQ Sweeper/ Queen's Quality: Look this title has everything, okay? Action, romance, comedy, horrifying nightmare monsters, tips on window cleaning, what more could you want, really?

Wolf's Daughter: A Werewolf's Tale: THANK YOU SEVEN SEAS FOR LICENSING THIS FOR PRINT THIS YEAR!

Library Wars: Admittedly I'd tried this one a handful of times before and struggled to get into it (also I don't care for the anime) BUT. I told myself to stick with it and lo and behold, loved it. Such a charming cast of characters.

Immortal Rain: I recall encountering this in either middle school or high school and loving the art, but I don't think I read past volume one. Really enjoyed reading the whole series through.

Wolf and Revolver: How can an unlicensed title rank this high, you ask??? V I B E S

Rose of Versailles: Listen I felt genuine anxiety over the fate of Marie Antoinette and if that isn't the mark of a skilled storyteller right there, I don't know what is.

Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom: IT'S SO CUTE AND CHARMING and way funnier than I thought it would be??? Also reminded me of The Thief and the Cobbler a fair bit, in terms of tone and art.

From Far Away: Feel like this had a bit of a slow start but the main draw, in my opinion, is Noriko. She’s such a sweet, determined heroine.

Children of the Whales: I actually have some nitpicks with this one, story-wise, BUT. It’s so impressive from an artistic standpoint and unique in its world building that I just gotta give it to ‘em, you know?

The Hachioji Specialty: Tengu’s Love: How can a manga with only two volumes out rank this high, you ask? IT'S ADORABLE. XD In all seriousness, I love that it’s a ‘fish out of water’ story that doesn’t infantilize the woman so that the guy can save her with his worldly ways. Refreshing! And I say again: so. Heckin’. CUTE.

The rest of the titles all tend to fall in the same sort of, ‘I liked this!’ area for me, except fooooor….

Fushigi Yuugi: Listen LISTEN, it ranks real low and I’ve got complaints about the plot and pacing BUT. I’m glad I read it and would like to someday dive into the sequels because it is clearly a genre-defining staple. Maybe I’d like the anime better?? (I liked the first volume of the latest spin-off! XD)

SECRET BONUS ROUND! Most of these had a physical edition of their first volume drop at the tail end of the year and as such, felt a bit too last minute to draw, but they generally all fall in the ‘solidly entertaining’ tier:

Stomp, Kick, Love Blade Girl Love, That’s an Understatement Agents of the Four Seasons* In Another World, My Sister Stole my Name*

(*These came out less recently but I forgot to write them down! XD)

SECRET BONUS ROUND: 2023 EDITION! These didn’t make it onto my illustrated list that year but I *have* read ‘em:

Red River (Note: If I had to pick a soap-opera-esque, sprawling, vaguely historical isekai fantasy, I prefer this to Fushigi Yuugi) Prince Freya

SECRET BONUS ROUND: SHONEN/SEINEN EDITION! Nozaki Kun Your Forma Dahlia My Dear Detective Noragami Tropic of the Sea Opus Seraphim The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store The Golden Sheep

And there we go! :D