#i find really interesting how they played with the color palettes

[itachanta]

My favorite Trigun Stampede trio & their main colors.

[bokunoheros]

LIPSTICK STAINS & MIRRORS

CHARACTER: SHOUTO TODOROKI

GENRE: FLUFF, SMUT

TAGS/WARNINGS: reader is gender neutral but written to be afab (shouto calls you princess once), reader is implied to be shorter than shouto, y’all are like 20+, married and live together, mirror sex, kissing, so much kissing, i love kissing, oral (m. receiving), fingering (reader receiving),  inappropriate quirk usage (temperature play), shouto is a tease but in a loving manner, cervix kissing, chair sex, riding (reverse cowgirl), cumming inside, and aftercare, also kinda lazy ending?? bc i stayed up til 10am finishing this and wanna be done so bad

SUMMARY: you just ordered a bunch of new lipgloss and can’t wait to try it out — subsequently, your husband thinks you look beautiful, but doesn’t know how to verbalize it. 

WORD COUNT: 7.7K

🦊’s A/N: this wasn’t actually going to be the first fic i posted here, but i DID just get a bunch of lipgloss i've waited a week and a half for, and would love to do the following <3 anyway shoutout judydoll they didn’t sponsor this but i wish they would. // also i pulled like two all-nighters writing this so i’m sorry if it like. starts unraveling a lil at the end i didnt actually proofread this god bless everyone thank you for giving this fic a chance

you had just ordered a bunch of new lipgloss you’d gotten in a buy 2 get 1 free sale, and it had finally come in the mail! after squealing excitedly and startling your poor husband, and highschool sweetheart, you quickly ran up to your shared bedroom and sat down in front of your vanity. fumbling with the box for a second, you get up to grab a pair of scissors from the bathroom before using one blade to cut through the packaging tape sealing the contents inside away. 

once you’d managed to get your greedy little hands on the new products is around the same time shouto had wandered into the bedroom, where he stood leaning against the door frame, watching as you excitedly looked down at your lipstick and wondered which one to try on first.

hm……. maybe the more natural looking color instead of the red..? probably, since it's less likely to leave a stain, you think to yourself, oblivious to your husband's presence — until you caught a glimpse of him in the mirror, that is. 

“oh! shouto, just in time,” you grin, waving him over. “which one do you think i should try first?” you ask, knowing he had always shown an interest in the process of how you did your makeup. not that he had actually verbalized said interest, rather, it was something you noticed while you were still in highschool. after months into the actual relationship, you two had finally had sex and you had stayed the night at his house. once this became an almost routine of sorts, you'd begin bringing stuff to stay overnight, and get ready for class in the morning, including a few makeup palettes. and so, shouto slowly took an interest in the way in which you’d do your makeup — be it just some eyeshadow/liner, or a fully beat face, he found it to be so…..interesting. 

that being said, the youngest of the todoroki family takes a step towards you and away from the doorframe to look down at the lipsticks in your hands and picks the one in the shiny silver, almost holographic, tube and says this one. 

huh, what do you know? he had picked the lipstain! guess it’s meant to be, then.

untwisting the cap, you shift in your seat slightly to better face the mirror as you pull the wand from the bottle, and find yourself face to face with the applicator you had been tweaking over for what felt like ever — a nice, smooth, iron tip! one of a kind, really, as you had never seen anything like it before! looking into the mirror, your gaze lingers on shouto for but a moment before focusing on your own lips and applying the stained lipgloss evenly — and then one more coat for good measure. 

“what do you think?” you ask sweetly, turning around in your seat to face him.

what he thinks? obviously, he thinks you look stunningly, jaw droppingly gorgeous regardless of what you’re wearing, or if you have makeup on or not (save for the times you’ve ugly cried around him…), but god…. he can’t ignore the way his body suddenly feels flushed as he looks at your lips and the red-ish color currently staining them.

“i think — it looks nice,” he says simply as he takes a few steps closer to you, up until he’s directly behind your vanity chair and planting his hands on the back of it.

“just… nice?” your voice comes out softer than normal, and you sound audibly disappointed. at this, shouto begins to internally panic as he thinks of a way to get his admiration.

“very nice,” he corrects quickly, and you can’t help but let out a little chuckle at how rushed he sounded — you understood that your husband wasn’t exactly a stellar wordsmith, so you weren’t actually too upset with him.

“that’s it?” this time, you sound much more lighthearted, as you raise a brow at him and watch him speedrun the five stages of grief through his expressions and slight body language.

“....i think, you look very lovely,” he’s finally able to vocalize. even after all this time, he still got somewhat bashful when complimenting you — it wasn’t his fault! you just happened to render him speechless and left his dick hard every time you did anything! fuck… how should he go about this? maybe he should just show you what he thinks? yes…. that should work. 

“stand up,” he says all of a sudden — he didn’t sound demanding or rude or anything, but there was a certain firmness to his voice that had you obeying without a second thought. without a moment of hesitation, shouto steps around to the side of the chair so he’s standing almost in front of you, and plants his large, calloused hands on your hips.

“shouto….” your voice comes out as a mere whisper as he pulls you closer toward him, left hand coming to cup your cheek as you look up at him.

“hm?” is all you get in reply as he leans in to kiss you tenderly.

tilting his head slightly to the side, he slots his lips over your painted ones in hopes of properly conveying his feelings on how he thinks you look. truthfully, as embarrassing as it may be, shouto wishes you’d put some lipstick on him so he could kiss you all over and leave a physical mark as you so often did to him. maybe one day he would have to sneak some of your lipgloss for himself to surprise you with? perchance… (you can’t just say perchance!) that being said, he takes advantage of the lipstick you’re currently wearing and hopes it transfers onto his lips. 

and just like that, you’ve forgotten all about your new lipstick, or anything that wasn’t your husband, really. when you first met him, it was a little difficult to imagine shouto todoroki as a good kisser, and it was kinda true initially!, but after a little guidance and experience, he very quickly got the hang of it and used his newfound skills to turn you into nothing more than a panting mess.

swiping his tongue over the seam of your lips, he pulls away with a slight grin just as you part them for him.

“hey…..” you whine. “that’s not fair.” 

“what isn’t?” he asks in a way that would’ve made you think he was playing dumb if he wasn’t….. well, like the way he was. you know your husband well enough to know that he was asking an earnest question, as he often teased you without meaning to or being aware of it.

“just… kiss me again, …please?” you ask in such a saccharine voice, shouto finds himself unable to resist for even a moment as he eagerly leans back in for another kiss.

god…. he was just so fucking weak when it came to You. he could never tell you no or deny you of what you asked for — hell, the first time you asked if you could kiss him (when he was still a kissless virgin), he accidentally bonked his head against yours in trying to copy the way you tilted your head to the side. …only, he had tilted his in the same direction as you, making for a very awkward, very laughable (but memorable) first kiss.

“mmh,” he hums quietly, pleasurably, as his lips work against yours — gently and tenderly, full of nothing but adoration for you, his sweet spouse. 

there just truly weren’t enough words in the world for shouto to describe his affections for you, so instead, he often took to showing you exactly how he felt; more often than not, this led to fleeting but heated kisses throughout the day that left you on your toes and wanting for more. jesus, did he even realize the effect he had on you? (he did Nawt.) 

this time, it was you to take the initiative to swipe your tongue over his plump lower lip before nibbling on it lightly and sucking it into your mouth. at this, the softest little moan slips past shouto’s throat at the feeling and he pulls you closer to him, so much so that your chest was now flush against his as the hand on your cheek leaves a cooling sensation against your flushed skin. 

releasing his lip with a wet, almost schliiick kind of noise, you go to pull away from the kiss, just as he had done earlier, just to find the hand on your cheek had shifted to cradle the back of your head, and the hand on your hip had turned into an arm wrapped tightly around your waist as shouto’s tongue manages to slip into your open mouth.

you can’t help but giggle at the almost ticklish feeling of the wet muscle running around the inside of your cheeks before his tongue is suddenly ice cold and you’re squealing and trying to push him away.

“shouto!” you cry with no real irritation or upsetness — all he had done was catch you off-guard, really. okay, so maybe he could tease you on purpose every now and then..! it just wasn’t often that he did such a thing! he was typically kind of oblivious to a lot of things — not that it was his fault or anything; he hadn’t exactly grown up with the best social cues or …. uhm. family, in general, really….. (touya and enji i’m looking at you). 

“yeah?” he breathes, looking down at you with stars in his eyes.

“what was that about?” you ask, trying to steady your breathing, chest heaving slightly as your hands find their way up to his chest, where they rest on his boo—well defined and muscled pecs. 

“what was what about?” he echoes, tilting his head, actually playing dumb this time—he knew damn well what he had done this time around, and he couldn’t contain the little smile that tugged at the corners of his plump and almost pouty lips. he loved using his quirk to tease you — given, he’d been extremely hesitant about it at first, worried he might hurt you, or somehow cause some kind of permanent damage. thankfully, as the years went by, he gradually warmed up to it, and now? he couldn’t get enough of your reactions! like when he was fingering you, and suddenly his hand started to get a little too hot, or a little too cold, depending on which one he was using; it wasn’t enough to actually hurt or cause any damage, just some mild discomfort turned to pleasure once you got used to the feeling. and sometimes, whenever you let him cum inside or somewhere on you, his cum felt hotter than it should — sure, yeah, cum is warm, but…. his was just hot! it didn’t scald or anything, but it was definitely an added sensation that wouldn’t be possible without his quirk.

“you know what..!” is what you would have said had shouto not leaned in to kiss you again—effectively cutting you off and rendering you speechless. so maybe he knew he was a good kisser; he was highly observant after all, and would have to be a moron to not realize that he at least left you breathless every time! sure, he didn’t realize the full extent of the effect he had on you, but… partially aware is better than completely oblivious, right? 

this time as you two kiss, the hand cradling your head moves back down to your hip, and before you know it, he’s picking you up and sitting himself down in the chair you were previously sitting on not too long ago. 

“ah–!” you gasp at the sudden movement and change in position. now straddling his lap, with your back to the mirror, shouto begins trailing kisses down to your jawline and then the column of your neck. now, your husband wasn’t a particularly sloppy kisser. no, more often than not, he was very put together in almost every aspect of his life, and the bedroom was no exception. well, save for the occasions shouto just simply could not contain himself, and it was beginning to seem like one of those situations as he runs his freezing tongue over the sensitive skin of your neck, causing goosebumps to form as he nibbles at the junction where your neck and shoulder meet. 

“sho–shouto—,” you breathe as he peppers kisses over your tender flesh. it had taken him a long while to be able to show affection so freely, and even now, he still had some trouble, but compared to the todoroki you knew in high school, he had improved by leaps and bounds! 

your husband merely ignores your soft cry of his name—his dick doesn’t, though, and you can even feel it start to twitch to life beneath you. fuck. all you had done was put on a little lipstick, and?? now your husband was glued to your neck, nipping and biting along the way, even stopping in a couple places to suck against the skin there in order to leave a couple hickies! 

“don’t tease,” you try to chide him, but it comes off weak and a little pathetic sounding as shouto finds a particularly sensitive spot on your neck and takes full advantage of it. jesus christ! his tongue was so cold!! it was such a contrast to the heat of his breath, you couldn’t help but pant at the feeling. 

“‘m not,” is the only thing he says, it was more of a mumble, really, as he bites down harder than he had previously, and you can’t help the squeal that leaves you as his teeth sink into your skin.

“shouto!” if you didn’t know any better, or if you had married someone more… aggressive (katsuki)...., you might have thought your husband had drawn blood — he didn’t, obviously, as he would never intentionally hurt you, but he did like to toe the line of pleasure and pain often enough to keep you on your toes, just enough pain for it to be able to bleed into an acquired type of pleasure.

“yeah?” he all but hums in response, sounding pleased with himself.

he doesn’t give you a chance to respond, however, as he quickly pulls away from your neck to plant another heated kiss to your glossy lips. it doesn’t last very long, though, as he pulls away just far enough to look at you properly, and his eyes widen when he sees the way your lipstick had been smudged and it had spread slightly down to your neck (it was more like lightly red-colored patches in the shape of his lips peppered vaguely over your flesh). 

“will you put on some more lipstick?” he suddenly asks, sounding out of breath.

giggling quietly at his request, you nod and oblige, shifting to turn around on his lap so that your back was against his chest, and your ass against his steadily growing erection. grabbing the tube of lipstick from your vanity, you untwist the cap and begin to apply more, focusing wholly on your lips during the process, completely missing the way shouto was eyeing you in the mirror.

after putting the cap back on and setting the silver bottle full of what felt watery liquid when you put it on, but wasn’t actually, back down on your vanity’s surface, you tilt your head to face your husband, who had wrapped his arms around your waist while you had been applying the aforementioned beauty product, and smile at him.

“better?” you wonder aloud, knowing it was much better indeed.

“mhmm,” he hums sweetly, one hand coming up to all but squish your cheeks, just without the pressure, to better tilt your head towards him as he himself leans in for yet another kiss. you swear, the first time you kissed shouto, a switch flipped in that poor boy’s brain, because ever since then, he’s been addicted to them like they’re crack—he needs your kisses the same way he needs oxygen to breathe or a therapist for his generations of trauma stuffed into a single, incomplete lifetime. (please….. please, go to group therapy with the rest of 1-a, i’m begging.) 

shouto can’t help but smile against your lips as he pulls you flush against his chest and rolls his hips, and consequently, his hard-on, up against your ass. neither of you can contain the whimper or little gasp that slips past your throats, nor can you help the way one of your hands comes up to thread itself into his peppermint-colored hair as you part your lips needily, trying to shift around in his firm grasp. 

despite the quality of your lipstick, it still transferred partially onto his lips, simply due to how fresh the coat was, not that your husband minds. he’d revel in the way he’d get to smear lipstick over your body, and — pause. his hands suddenly find themselves planted on your hips as he manhandles you to face him again, and meets your gaze for a moment before pressing a kiss to your forehead. but in that moment, you could see all the love and admiration in the world swirling around in his beautifully mismatched eyes, and you couldn’t control the wide-ass smile that had spread across your face—so wide, in fact, your cheeks hurt. even though it was such a simple action, you could truly feel his love for you in everything that he did. 

“i love you—so much, y’know,” you practically coo, hands moving to cup his flushed cheeks as you simply just look at the man you had married. goddamn! he was so beautiful! taking in all the fine details of his face, you notice the faintest little dusting of freckles across the bridge of his nose, and the way even his eyebrows, and even his awfully long lashes (he got them from his mother), are different colors. his perfectly plump and pouty lips to match his overall softer facial features. how could anybody be so perfect-looking? it was just simply unfair! even with his ice burn scar and somewhat sparse left eyebrow growth, it didn’t change a thing in your eyes. 

shouto feels his heart flutter at your words, and his grin stretches to be almost uncharacteristically wide as his hands shift lower on your hips, closer to your upper thighs, and his thumbs begin rubbing tender circles against the plush flesh there. 

“i — love you more,” he whispers back. the words sound shy coming from him, but you can tell he means his words. you may have fallen first, but shouto fell harder. his smile softens a bit as his hands move up to cup your cheeks tenderly before pressing another kiss to your painted lips. god. he truly could not believe how lucky he was to have you — you, who brought him out of his shell back in highschool, you who showed him love can be tender and soft, you who taught him how to let love into his heart. 

now, it was shouto’s turn to show you just how much he loved you.

sliding his tongue over the seam of your lips, he lets out a soft hum as he grips your thighs before sliding his hands slowly upwards and up under the t-shirt you wore—it was his, actually!—and over your bare ribcage. you can’t help the goosebumps that broke out over your skin at the feeling of his calloused hands against your much softer flesh, nor the chill that runs down your spine and causes your nipples to stiffen under the thin fabric—especially with the way he begins to palm and grope at your tits. 

“mmnh,” you hum at the temperature difference of his rough hands, and let out a soft moan when it increases drastically all of a sudden, your right nipple freezing cold and the left a little too hot for comfort—even your body was unsure of how to react to such a feeling, but it sure does send a throb down to your clit, and you can feel a damp spot begin to form in the seat of your panties, which is all you happened to be wearing under your stolen shirt.

“shouto, please,” you whine, squirming around on his lap, and dragging your thinly clothed cunt over the erection in his stupid grey sweatpants that always drove you crazy. 

“please what, love?” he asks, pulling away just enough to rest his forehead against yours. 

“god…. just— fuck me,” is all your able to get out, but, lucky for you, your husband has something even better in mind than just that. sure, he couldn’t wait to get his dick wet—to feel the way your cunt wraps around his sensitive tip—god, he can feel himself leak pre-cum like he’s some excited teenager again, and he groans at the nature of your request.

“mm, …not yet,” he smirks, and, before he’s even processed what he himself is doing, he had already licked an embarrassingly hot stripe up the length of your neck.

“shouto!” you squeal. “what was that for?!” 

“felt like it,” he replies simply before attaching his full lips to your neck once more, where he began nipping and nibbling at all your most tender spots, before he finds your sweet spot and bites down particularly hard and begins suckling against the skin there, determined to leave a mark of sorts. now, while shouto was not one to leave marks in obvious places—he was perfectly content with marking you in places only he could see—he just couldn't help himself for some reason..! maybe it was because he was feeling rather bold at the moment, or because he couldn't get enough of the sweet, quiet noises you were making as he nipped and sucked at your flesh until you were sure the skin was raw. 

“sho—” you can’t help but wiggle in his lap, cunt grazing over his erection. when he groans at your actions, you repeat your actions, rolling your hips down against his as he marks your neck up in pretty blue and purple and reddish hues. 

suddenly, an idea pops into your mind, and you find yourself melting off of his lap and onto your knees between his legs, eager hands reaching to unbuckle his leather belt and pull it off of him. 

“wh–what’re you doing, baby?” shouto finds himself breathless with a flushed face as you begin to unbutton his pants and tug down the zipper, exposing his all-too-tight black boxers and the wet spot that had formed on them. you only grin and lick your lips at the sight, of course, eager to get your husband’s perfect cock in your mouth.

“what’s it look ‘m doin’, huh?” you look up at him with big wet eyes and pouty red lips. “now lift your hips f’me,” you instruct him, and he does as told, so you can tug his pants and boxers down in one swift go.

shouto hisses as his sensitive tip comes into contact with the cool air of the bedroom, and he looks down at you a little embarrassedly, biting as lower lip as you kissed his swollen and flushed head before taking it slowly into your mouth. 

“ah–!” your husband moans as you suckle around his mushroom-headed tip and he can’t help the way one large hand falls down to rest on top of your head, long fingers burying themselves into your hair as he begins to set a moderate pace for you to bob your head. unfortunately, poor shouto still had trouble controlling his reactions whenever you gave him head — your mouth and tongue were simply too skilled for your own good! for his own good! 

tilting his head back to look at the ceiling instead of you, in an attempt to not bust too early, he catches a glimpse of the lewd sight in the mirror and—oh god. his dick fucking twitches and he feels an embarrassing amount of pre-cum leak from his sticky tip and into your hot mouth. 

“jesus christ—fuck,” your husband groans—it wasn’t too often that he swore, only when he was especially mad, passionate, or, in this case, especially horny. “take it easy, honey—please,” he whines, hand gripping your hair tighter, forcing your head further down his thick length despite his contradictory words. you pay his actions no mind, however, only doing your best to suppress your gag reflex and hollow your cheeks out around him before swallowing thickly; you even went as far as to deepthroat him all the way, uncaring of the way drool seeped past your lips and all around the base of his cock. swallowing around him again once his leaky tip hits the back of your throat, and shouto’s hand grips your hair a little too tightly—not that you minded in the moment. if anything, it made your pussy throb. as did the way he was panting and moaning softly above you. god…… his little noises were absolutely divine and each and every one sent a jolt to your clit. 

much to his embarrassment, shouto is surprisingly noisy in bed — not exactly loud per se, but certainly unable to contain all his little huffs, puffs, and soft moans and quiet groans. but it wasn’t like it was his fault! how exactly was he supposed to stay quiet when you’re making him feel so damn good? jesus, it wasn’t fair! for him, anyway; for you, his sweet sounds only made you all the more hot and bothered. 

his gaze falls down to meet yours, and then further down to his dick and the way your glossy lips wrapped around it and the fucking lipstick stains you were leaving around him. how was he meant to last like this? (here’s a hint: he wasn’t!) 

pushing against his hand for a moment, he lessens his grip as you pull off him with a sickening schliiickk noise and wrap one hand around his base as you pant for air, looking up at him with doe-like eyes. 

“shouto?”

“yeah?” his heart is pounding and he bites his lip as he looks down at your flushed face that now had a thin sheen of sweat over it, and he feels almost ashamed for the way he immediately craves your mouth back around him.

“i want you to cum in my mouth, okay?” you tell him with a soft smile, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear before taking him into your mouth once again, all the way down until your nose was flush against his mix-matched pubic hair and you had to actively breathe through your nose so you didn’t hurl. shallowly beginning to bob your head, your tongue laves over the underside of his veiny cock as the hand previously wrapped around him moves to cup his balls, fondling them softly before giving them a gentle squeeze.

“oh—sweetheart,” he moans, dick twitching violently in your mouth. “don’t stop,” he all but begs you, rolling his hips up, forcing himself further down your throat. you actually do gag at this, but are able to swallow most of your excessive drool down, only some of it spilling over and out of your mouth and onto to your husband’s dick, mixing beautifully with your lipstick stains, and poor todoroki groans at both the sight and feeling.

all it takes is a few more bobs of your head and another squeeze to his balls before they’re tightening and suddenly he’s cumming down your throat—just like you had asked him to. god, he swears you’ll be the death of him!

swallowing around his awfully sensitive length one final time, both to tease him and get his cum down, you pull off of him with another disgustingly wet noise before looking up at him oh-so-sweetly.

the hand that wasn’t still fondling his balls comes to wrap around his dick, pumping it slowly as you press a little kiss to his flushed and shiny tip, licking it playfully and swirling your tongue around it for a moment before you actually stopped teasing his cock with your mouth and just with your hand.

“baby, please—” his voice is uncharacteristically whiney and his hips buck up into your grasp. despite his natural temperature regulation due to his quirk, shouto finds his entire body feeling hot, so hot, thanks to your delicate touch. “just—ah!” he moans softly as your hand begins moving up and down his shaft slowly, moving up and up until you could place your thumb over the slit of his red and swollen head and run it over the horribly sensitive spot. 

“god–damn, sweetheart—give me a moment, please,” he begs you, hips bucking upwards as his cock twitches simultaneously. shouto feels like he’s losing his mind as you pump his oversensitive length and he has to keep his eyes away from the mirror lest he nut again—no, the next time he came today, it would be inside you, his beautiful fucking spouse. “just let me breathe.” one of his large hands comes up to run through his hair and push his bangs out of his face just for them to fall right back in place once it exits his hair. 

with a scoff and a roll of your eyes, you blow a puff of cold air over his cockhead and let out a playful okay. 

“i guess,” you giggle, looking up at him from your spot on the floor. it’s true that your knees were starting to get a little sore, but you figured you were basically done anyway, so, naturally, you went to stand—just for shouto’s massive hands to land on your hips, up under your shirt, and turn you around so that you’re facing the mirror before tugging your panties down to your now reddened knees in one swift movement.

pulling you onto his lap, his painfully hard cock pressed into the crack of your ass, you whine and squirm in your husband’s strong grasp.

“b-baby?” you sound audibly confused and shouto can’t help but smile at your reaction as he presses a kiss to the side of your neck.

“shh,” he hushes you gently, one hand coming down between your legs to stop and rest on your clit. 

“sho-shouto,” you can’t help but whine as he applies a slow but firm pressure to your achy bundle of nerves, gently starting to trace teasing circles over it.

“can’t i make you feel good, too?” he whispers into your ear, catching your gaze in the mirror. his heterochromatic eyes are glued to the reflection of yours and you feel a chill run down your spine as he nuzzles his nose against your neck as his middle finger dips down to your dripping slit before bringing it back up to rub against your pulsing clit.

“ah!” an airy breath escapes you and your back arches at his calloused touch. “fuck,” you hiss as he begins pressing soft kisses to the already brusing flesh of your neck and finger moves with experience over your slick button. 

the first several times you two slept together, shouto was rather shy, and not particularly bold — always scared he was going to hurt you somehow or fuck up your pleasure, and then you’d want nothing to do with him; so it took a bit of instruction and teaching him what it is you do and don’t like, but shouto, ever the fast learner, quickly caught on and figured out what exactly he had to do and how he had to do it in order for you to feel good. 

“that’s what i like to hear,” he mumbles, more to himself than to you, nibbling on the lobe of your ear before blowing a puff of cold air onto it. todoroki could never get enough of the noises you made — the same way you couldn’t get enough of his whimpers and whines — and would do anything in his power to elicit such sweet sounds from you.

“sh-shut up,” is all you’re able to get out, unable to think as he brings his middle finger back down to your slit and actually inserts it into you this time — fingering you in the lightest, most teasing manner possible, while he heats up his hand, his right arm wrapping around you tighter to keep you in place.

shouto just chuckles at your poor attempt at a quip as he licks a chilly stripe up the column of your neck, causing you to shiver as a devious grin stretches over your husband’s usually sweet face. 

“oh, honey,” his voice is low and deep and admittedly makes your pussy clench around the single finger stuffed in it — god, you wish he’d add a second or third to actually stretch you out. and, almost as if he had read your thoughts, shouto curls his finger inside of you before pulling it out about halfway so he could slide another in until—he just stops, one finger half way in you with the tip of another barely poking at your entrance. 

“sho–shouto?” you all but whine, hips wiggling futilely, wishing he’d just scissor your cunt open already!

“look in the mirror,” he commands softly. nodding hesitantly, you reluctantly look at your reflection and take in the lewdness of the scene: shouto had your legs spread out over his, keeping them open by borderline entwining your lower legs with his, with his thick ring and middle fingers positioned against your cunt, and his chin now resting on your shoulder, piercing gaze capturing your own. 

as he finally begins easing his ring finger into along with the one already in there, you can’t help but squeeze your eyes shut, and just like that, any movement stops.

“i didn’t tell you to close your eyes,” he mutters, right hand coming up to slip under your shirt and pinch a nipple. 

“ah! ‘m sorry!” your eyes immediately fly open as you try to focus your gaze on the sight in front of you as shouto’s fingers get progressively hotter the further they slip into you, and suddenly—you were burning from the inside out!

“mmh, shouto….” you whine, one hand coming up to tangle into his hair, giving it a light tug. 

your husband merely ignores you as he focuses on pleasing you instead; curling his all too hot fingers at just the right angle, spreading them apart to scissor your pretty pussy, his eyes trained on your reflection and each little way you react to his touch—the way you flinch and try to close your legs, just for him to effortlessly prevent this by spreading his a little wider. god; he had learned to be a little too good at this for your own good. 

“nngh—, c’mon baby, don’ be a tease,” is all you’re able to get out as your husband takes his goddamn time fingering you; this couldn’t even be considered as finger-fucking! the feeling of the calloused pads of his heated fingertips rubbing against your already hot inner walls as he pumps them slowly—your internal temperature felt like it was skyrocketing, when in reality, it was only one or two degrees higher, something shouto could easily remedy should he switch hands. 

“i’m afraid i don’t know what you’re talking about, lovely,” he smiles gently, beginning to pepper kisses along your neck once more. fuck, you coudn’t stand when he played dumb like that — he had to have known what he was doing!! (and he did! that just wasn’t for you to know.) “if there’s something you want…. then you’ll have to ask for it directly, my dear,” he tells you cheekily, and you can physically feel his smile against your skin as he begins to suck against the junction of your neck and shoulder.

god! damn him! 

“f-faster,” you whine, wiggling and rolling your hips against his slow moving fingers, just for shouto to pull them nearly all the way out of you. “sh–shouto! goddammit! please don’t tease me!” you plead, eyes beginning to lightly water over out of sheer frustration. tugging at his hair, you try to twist around enough to give him another kiss — just for him to avoid your lips, too!

“uh-uh,” he chides, his freezing free hand pinching one of your nipples, and you gasp louder than you would have liked to at the feeling. “watch yourself in the mirror ‘n ask nicely and you can have anything you want, princess,” shouto says softly, physically unable to stop smiling. sure, most of the time, his teasing was truly unintentional, the other half of the time (a little less than half, really, it was closer to 60/40) was completely on purpose, as hearing you whine his name or for him to touch you never failed to turn him on or bring a somewhat sadistic smile to his usually stoic face. 

nodding, you refocus your attention onto the large vanity mirror, with the chair scooted far back enough so you could clearly see his fingers buried in your glistening cunt, and you physically can’t control the whimper that slips past your throat as his index and pinky fingers move to spread your slick folds apart so you could get a better view of what shouto thought was the most perfect pussy in the world—ever since you’d first had sex (despite his initial nerves), he had quickly grown addicted to the feeling of your cunt wrapped oh-so-snuggly around him. 

finally, your husband finally began to finger you in earnest, crooking his fingers in such a delicious way so deep inside you—much further than your own fingers could ever reach, anyway—and suddenly you wish it was his dick filling you up, not just his fingers..! unbeknownst to you, this was both shouto’s brief way of giving his sensitive cock a rest so he could fuck you properly without creaming too early and making sure you’d get to cum twice, too.

“you’re so tense,” his voice has a saccharine lilt to it, and you feel goosebumps erupt over your skin as he watches the way his fingers pump in and out of you, and he can feel his length twitch and drool pre as he imagines your cunt fluttering around his dick instead of his fingers.

“‘s not my fault—you’re not exactly making it easy f’me to relax,” you complain, shifting around in his grip as you give his hair a light tug. 

“oh? i’m not?” his gentle smile stretches into a shit eating grin as he slides his fingers out of you entirely before bringing his hand up to his mouth to lick your slick off the digits that had been nearly knuckle-deep inside you less than a moment ago, except—he only sucks off his ring finger, leaving the middle one for you to suck on instead, bringing it up to your plump, glossy lips whilst softly telling you to open your mouth. of course, you obeyed without a second thought, happily, and almost hazily, swirling your tongue around his finger in a similar manner you had done with his cock. the action reminded shouto of such, and he lets out a quiet groan at the feeling.

“mmh,” you hum pleasantly around the digit that was pressing down lightly against your tongue. you weren’t too pleased, however, about the lack of stimulation your pussy was receiving, and you decided to make this known to your husband.

catching his eye in the mirror, you let out a little whine and wrap both your hands around his thick wrist as you purposely let the drool in your mouth build up so it begins to seep down his hand and slowly trickle onto his forearm. 

“baby, please. please just fuck me,” you mumble, tugging on his wrist to pull his calloused, slick finger from you spit-soaked mouth. 

shouto really was planning to finger you to an orgasm, honest, but—when you asked so sweetly, he just couldn’t say no to you!

“fuck,” he groans, both hands quickly settling onto your hips in order to lift you enough to align your soaked slit with his flushed and achy cock. “y’know i can’t tell you no when you ask like that,” he says before letting you slowly sink all the way to the base. 

“you feel so good,” he groans out as your puffy pussy wraps around him tightly.

“s–so do you,” you whine out, feeling his head kiss the entrance to your cervix. jesus christ, how was it possible to hit so deep? “s-so, so good,” you tell him, trying to look at the two of you in the mirror and the way your cunt envelopes him and—it’s just too embarrassing to look at! 

squirming in his grasp, you try to turn around to better face him so you could plant a kiss to his plump lips. shouto, however, simply uses one large hand to squish your cheeks and hold your face in place to watch as he lazily fucks up into in the mirror. no matter how bad he wanted to kiss you (that would have to come (cum) after you), he just enjoyed that flustered look on your face too much to not indulge in it! besides, he was always so sweet to you, he’s sure you can handle some light teasing. 

“aa–ahh! sh-shouto! fuck!” you cry as he begins bouncing you up and down his needy dick. you whimper at the way he throbs inside you and your cunt clenches tightly around him—making your husband groan loudly too. “sho–!” it’s all you can do to look into the mirror at the lewd sight, and embarrassingly enough, it only serves to turn you on even more.

“hmm?” it’s all he can do to hum out a response as he keeps you moving up and down, strong arms moving with ease as he rhythmically rolls his hips up into yours. “what—” he hisses from the way his tip hits against your cervix, with nowhere left to go. “what is it, love?” he does his best to answer coherently, needing you to be the one fucked dumb first. without a second thought, one hand abandons your hip to slide down your abdomen all the way back between your legs where he began rubbing slow, tight circles against your neglected clit.

“ah! f–fuck!” you moan as he soon sets a steady pace against your throbbing bud, steadily working you up to an orgasm, the knot in your stomach tightening. 

it doesn’t take much longer before you’re quivering in shouto’s grip and whining about how close you were, and he can’t help but feel a sense of pride wash over him as he pushes you closer to the edge. 

as your cunt clenches and flutters around him, shouto feels himself growing uncomfortably close as well, and soon finds himself asking if it’s okay if he came inside.

“yes, please, baby,” you whine and nod your head, one hand moving to entangle itself into shouto’s hair as he finally allowed you to kiss him once again.

and, with a few more thrusts, you find yourself cumming in sync as the horribly tense knot in your stomach finally snaps and you’re creaming all over your husband’s cock.

“oh fuck,” he groans, dick pulsing once, twice, before finally squirting his thick, hot seed deep into your womb, leaving you feeling both gross and contently full.

after rubbing your clit throughout the duration of your orgasm, shouto still doesn’t stop, even once you began coming down from you high, and you can’t help but jolt in his lap from the oversensitivity.

“sh-shouto, you can—you can st-stop!” you manage to spit out, biting your lower lip as you watch his calloused fingers rub steady circles against your poor clit. 

“but—” he pants. “you only— only came once,” he tries to explain, rolling his hips up into you despite his own sensitivity, desperate to make you cum again. 

“i– i know, but—’m sensitive, baby,” you try telling him, quickly feeling that familiar knot start to form again.  “ple—please!”

despite your pathetic little mewls, your husband ignores you in favor of your excess pleasure, significantly warming up the fingers playing with your puffy clit. 

it’s not long before you’re cumming one more time, evening out your total to two—equal to what you had given your oh-so-doting husband (even if you only went out of your way to actually give him a single orgasm—he just happened to cum a second time because you felt so good wrapped around him).

“fuck, baby,” you moan, back arching deeply as he slowly lessens the pressure on your throbbing clit. shouto never disappointed you in bed, or in this case, just simply in the bedroom, and for that, you were eternally grateful.

once you were done making a mess around the length of his dick, your back falls flush against his chest, and you both pant heavily for a long moment before either of you are able to recompose yourselves.

afterwards, shouto helps lift you off his softening dick, and into the bathroom so you could piss (always piss after sex, y’all), before going downstairs to get you a glass of water and then returning back to your shared bedroom to wait in your king sized bed.  once you re-entered the room, your husband sits up in the plush bed, with his arms extended out to you, your water already on your nightstand. 

with a smile, you make your way over to the bed, with only slightly wobbly legs, and curl up in your loving shouto’s strong arms, where he holds you close to him, resting your head against his chest, where you could hear his beating heart—a sound so soothing you were almost lulled asleep by it until you heard the quietest, faintest whisper of, “you’re so beautiful,” and you can’t help the grin that breaks out across your face as you tell him he is too, something shouto has never been too sure of how to process, but over time, as the compliments he received increased, he slowly learned how to handle and accept them properly.

“i love you,” you say in sync, and you let out a little giggle at this before saying jinx! and pressing a kiss to his cheek before nuzzling your head back against his chest and yawning deeply.

[plutoenjoyer]

soft junhan thoughts 💭

· this guy loves loves loves getting his hair played with

· it's like, the perfect amount of physical touch for him

· because he doesn't normally like it, you find ways to be affectionate with him in ways he's okay and comfortable with, and just twirling your fingers in his hair, or braiding it, or gently scratching the nape of his neck with a massage is sooo calming and not too much

· and you get to watch him just melt in your hands out of relaxation 🥹😵‍💫

· ART PROJECTS

· there's always doodling around you two

· he's leaving a note for you on your night stand? there's a cute little happy face drawn next to it. you're killing time waiting for your coffee at a café? he's doodling a little flower for you on a napkin.

· and you leave him doodles back of course. sometimes you'll draw something that accompanies his original drawing, and these are his favorite because you made it together, even if it's just a silly looking cat playing in a field of silly looking, badly scribbled flowers.

· it's one of his favorite ways to communicate with you because it's like your own little language. none of the other members, not even your family, can hear the love in these doodles between you two (and you two only)

· he likes having special secrets and inside jokes with you for sure

· and sometimes when you're both hanging out, you'll draw together. one of the funnier moments is when you decide to draw portraits of one another, and the results... varied, but it was still fun

· nail polish. oh you know exactly what I'm gonna say

· you guys paint each other's nails, usually you're touching up his usual black polish but sometimes he lets you get creative :)

· on the other hand, you love watching his artist brain work and how he uses colors on your nails to create the perfect vibe. sometimes you end up with vibrant polish on every nail, and sometimes you get a very simple and muted color palette. either way you're happy with them because he did it for you :]

· i think junhan values not only creativity in a person, but also values the willingness to discuss things. he likes that you genuinely try to take interest and understand what he's explaining to you, because he's someone who thinks deeply on things and shares that curiosity with the people he loves because he wants to engage with them.

· you really enjoy when he gets passionate and explains things to you because 1) it's cute and 2) he genuinely has lots of interesting takes on things (looks at his bubble messages)

· he appreciates that you even challenge his thinking sometimes because his introvert mind is always in his own head, and having someone to yank him out of his own bias is super refreshing!!!

· he shows affection with acts of service so much (since physical touch and words of affirmation are not usually his thing). he cooks for you and will do the dishes AND take out the trash so you don't have to do a thing

· i also think that he's suchhh a secret admirer, like compared to ode who likes to make his love known, junhan is stealing glances at your cute face when you're focused and when you confront him about it he's like

· "yes i was🙂"

· "ooookay...and can i ask why?"

· "oh, i just thought you looked pretty?"

· and you snicker because that's usually something you would just tell your gf, but you don't care. you tell him "you're handsome!" and you can't stop yourself from giving him a little peck on the cheek, to which he starts cutely giggling back

· you and junhan are so very tender and patient with one another, listening and valuing one another's time, truly the perfect pair!!!

· he has a 4 cut photo of you two tacked above his desk, sometimes when he's writing lyrics he looks up for inspiration :)

· just admires and respects you so much🥺💖

[judilyart]

Can you make a post about how you choose colors plz ? I'm really curious about your process

this is such a difficult question to answer bc really the way i approach colors is mostly reliant on what I find interesting and I do struggle with them, but i'll try my best to answer!

before I even start working on my piece, I like to gather a bunch of refs and think about the vibe I want to achieve since colors and values change the piece drastically. personally, I like to play around with purple a lot so usually I start with a light purple for the undertone/sky background color and I find that it helps a lot to work above that rather than the white of the canvas, it also helps me bring purple back into the shadows! I think my "secret" to why my paintings are so colorful is that I start by blocking in as many colors/shapes as I can using a brush with the color dynamics setting on, I find that it creates a good base fast without having to manually pick every single hue by hand. It's also important to try many different palettes and not be scared of scrapping something and repainting from scratch bc that's how you're able to tell what works and what doesn't! it also creates many ugly stages lol but here's a few screenshots from my process video of Under The Peach Tree as an example of how many times I repainted it

I like to keep in mind what the highlight color will be, for example in this painting I went for a skintone that's closer to the colors of the peaches and the little blanket bc that will tie everything together and make the character feel like they belong in the environment. it's similar in other cases too, for example if the grass is more cool toned then I'd go for some red pink flowers. there's a tool in photoshop that's called selective color which I use a lot as well as curves or color balance, they're all used to adjust the colors that you already have like if I feel that the yellow is not quite right then I try to change it up through those tools and see what's better. it's really a lot of trial and error and just trying things out and seeing what you end up liking, it also ofc comes with practice and learning compositional values.

I hope this helps 💗 I do upload my process on my patreon, and I've been planning a video specifically on how I paint skin since it's an interesting topic!

[the-s1lly-corner]

Pocky game w/ various HH characters part 1/3

I want pretzels so bad rn it's not even funny

Characters: charlie, vaggie, angel dust, husk, sir pentious

Notes: read is GN for everyone but vaggie and angel, Angel's reader is male, vaggies reader is fem, bonus hcs of what i think their favorite flavor would be- take it with a grain of salt because admin has only tried the og flavor and the cookies n creme

CWs: edit

CHARLIE

oh she loooooooves stuff like this and shes definitely going to bring it up if you dont bring it up!

very understanding if you tell her you dont want to play the game, she doesnt want to force you- however she is over the moon if you agree

meets you in the middle and gives you a kiss, probably does a little "mwah!" sound to add to the general light heartedness of the activity

excited and she loves sweets so she might eat her portion a little faster than you

likes all the flavors but always finds herself coming back to the original, can never go wrong with a classic

VAGGIE

not much of a sweets person but if she doesnt have anything going on shes likely to do a game or two with you

is aware of the game but has never played it, at least if this is a timeline where she doesnt date charlie because charlie 100% would get her to do it with her

unsure if its supposed to end in a kiss but she does keep that in mind when playing the game- neither works too slow or too fast on her end- she doesnt want to come off as too into it... not that shes not into you of course! she just doesnt want to come off as desperate if that makes sense

does it for you most of the time because she knows it makes you happy and it doesnt bother her

i think she would be an almond crush enjoyer!

ANGEL DUST

it should come as a shock to absolutely no one that hes going to use this as an excuse to try to flirt or tease you; even more if you clearly show some feelings for him or if you two are already in a relationship

sighs.. he would make it a point to nibble on the stick in a way to try to get under your skin in one way or another.. its like when people get freaky with popsicles

game ends with a kiss, hes well aware of it when you take the pocky out and he is READY

comments on how nice it tasted, likely winks, can see him asking to do it again

i feel like he would like the strawberry flavored ones.. though im unsure if thats because of his color palette making me think that or if he would actually be a strawberry enjoyer.. maybe a crunchy strawberry enjoyer

SIR PENTIOUS

has no idea what the game is so youre going to have to explain it to him, he gets way too into it because of what it implies- if you were suspecting he had a crush on you this is kind of a confirmation because theres no other reason he would jump at the oppurtunity

all talk until the game actually starts, he kind of just freezes up or slows his tune a lot... didnt actually expect you to agree, or think about what would happen if the game actually started

barely meets you in the middle due to his nerves, and i can honestly see him pulling away at the last minute

its not like he doesnt WANT to meet you in the middle, its just that its a little overwhelming! and this would technically be his first kiss with you! if its going to happen he wants it to be more special!

dork... but it doesnt help him in growing the nerve to approach you to ask you out

has never heard of pocky so im unsure of what flavor would be his favorite

HUSK

i dont think he would be all that interested, he might think the game is a little dumb actually.. on top of that i dont personally see him as being much of a sweets enjoyer so its more likely for him to turn you down

while derailing from the posts prompt, if you were to substitute the pocky with something thats more up his ally he might be more inclined to give it a try... though im unsure of what you could replace the pocky with and keep the basis of the game intact

actually, he doesnt really partake in games like that- the ones that can lead to something thats typically romantic. its just not his cup of tea

i can see him being a bit of tease, but i dont think this meshes well with his style... might do it to humor you though

does NOT eat much of the pocky, and he prefers the bit with no chocolate- might take one nibble to please you but thats it

if you two are already dating, though, hes going to lean into the kiss

no favorite flavor due to the above mentioned "hes not a sweets guy"

[breakfastatmiles]

Your art is wonderful!!!

A constant inspiration to my own creativity and art work. Could you explain some of your art style to me? I’m interested in looking at a bunch of different ones to try and finally find one for me.

Goodnight!!🌙

Thank you so much! That means the world to me! I’d be happy to share some of my process with you 😄

Keep in mind I’m completely self-taught, so this is just the process of how I make my drawings and not any sort of professional advice 😅 apologies for the long post ahead 😪

Starting with the basics, my biggest influences are Jin Kim and Ami Thompson. Both are amazing character designers and I really admire their stylization and expressions. Whenever I feel stuck on something, I always go back to their drawings for inspiration.

I typically start in Procreate with a canvas size of 3300px x 4200px or 11” x 14” with a DPI of 300.

I put my reference in the corner of the canvas (in this case it’s a screenshot from the movie She’s the Man) and I start my rough sketch (emphasis on rough). Sketching is probably the longest part in my drawing process because I’m focusing on expression, composition, proportions, etc. This usually has about two to three passes before I move on.

Then I lower the opacity of the sketch and clean it up with some lineart on a new layer. Lineart doesn’t play a huge part in my style, but I still like to play around with line weight. Since I knew this was going to be a fully rendered piece, I didn’t spend much time on lines that I knew were going to be removed later in the process.

Underneath all of that, I use the skin tone and color the base of the character. I make sure that I color ever so slightly past the lineart, for reasons that will be important later. This part can be tedious, especially because I use a textured brush, so there are a lot of gaps that I fill in later.

Then using new layers with clipping masks, I start the flat colors. Nothing too crazy here.

I’ve made color palettes for characters and backgrounds that I typically draw, so this way it speeds up the process and maintains style consistency. If I need a color that I don’t normally use, I’ll just play around with the colors until I find something that fits well with everything else.

Next, on a multiply layer, I add some basic shading (with the skin tone color) and blush (with an orange-pink color). I also move onto the background. Some are more complex than others. If I’m going for a more cinematic look, I’ll fill the background in with some basic shapes and blur it slightly. Thankfully the background was pretty simple in this reference.

I start checking proportions now that everything has basic colors. Then I duplicate my lineart layer and change it to a pinkish-red and put it on multiply mode and turn down the opacity. This is why the base color layer needs to line up with the lineart, otherwise there’d just be gaps underneath. Instead of erasing my black lineart layer, I put a mask on it and just keep the eyes and eyebrows.

Then I start working on the shading and hair, which is an entire process in itself. Maybe I’ll make a tutorial on that one day 😅

I also use some vivid light and soft light layers and put in some subtle colors for extra pizzazz.



Then I add a hard light layer to the eyes for that glossy look and on a normal layer add some white details just to make some things pop more (like the nose, lips, eyes, sometimes hair, etc.)

I did make an eye tutorial a while back, but my process is still the same!

Lastly, I spend a lot of time playing with different blending modes (multiply, add, soft light, vivid light layers) and really focus on the lighting. I used to focus on adding a lot more details and make the coloring more realistic, but I found that the more simplistic coloring was easier for me to do and fit my style better. Sometimes I still tend to go too far with the details and realize that it looks better when I tone it down a bit.

That’s pretty much it! Let me know if you have any questions! Hope this helps. Have fun making art!

[mossy-green-aka-ferrythem]

You know.

As much as I absolutely adore Shadow Generations.

I really hope they get back to making more original stuff for Sonic, you know, for a series that has prided itself on originality for quite a while.

Like I don't give a fuck if it's "Cringe" or whatever make Sonic do more goofy wild shit.

Making Frontiers a weird pseudo-open world game was a great idea, more of that please and less Cyberspace. Much less Cyberspace even I want original level layouts and original visual design again, and by and large, Cyberspace doesn't feel that fun to be honest.

The gimmick ideas that Shadow Gens had were truly fantastic, and I would love to see more original levels. Some adaptations of levels are my favorite ever, and the 2D sections in Shadow Gens feel amazing. Kingdom Valley is a blast and so is Chaos Island, especially Chaos Island even, I think that one is my favorite!

Also, as much as I absolutely love the tonal shift and the way Radical Highway has been turned into Black Doom's weird, warped dimensional zone, the more I replay levels, the more I can't help but find the levels that stay within their area the entire time my favorites, as seen with Kingdom Valley and Chaos Island.

Idk, I absolutely love this game, but I feel like when I replay Shadow Gens, I can get burnt out on it so quickly since there is so little of it, and also, while the game looks fantastic, if I am going to be a little bitch about one thing, it's that lighting and shading on some models look a bit weird. Which I think is a totally valid criticism. Lighting effects a lot, and it makes some things in the game contrast slightly too heavily with the surrounding environment, but with that being said, it's mostly a non-issue, just something that I think games with brighter, flatter color palettes handled better, to a certain extent. It's hard to articulate this point lol.

Anyways...

A big thing that concerns me, is that when I think about the concept of there being "Alternate Picks" for stages to end up being included in Generations, the old games have tons of options, even if they're not all the best picks, but after Colors? Can't think of much of anything for Forces, and while Frontiers did an excellent job putting a creative and original spin on things, it doesn't have too much that's distinct, I feel like they should have done more wild, cool shit like Chaos Island being an "Island above the clouds", and even Ares Island stands out as being an open space, it can't help but make Kronos, Rhea, and Ouranos look quite weak in comparison, especially with how similar Ouranos looks to Kronos Island, despite having some somewhat interesting locations and ideas sprinkled here and there.

My god I fucking love Sonic so much, I can just keep talking about it lmao

My main point being is that I love Sonic for it's originality, even the game that played it safe at the time, Sonic Colors, which is on the more childish side, even for a series already made for kids, had truly stunning visual designs for levels, all so distinct, and so many fun level layouts and ideas. I feel like Lost World, from what I have seen, kinda dropped the ball, because most of the ideas in that game feel like they've just been done before. Forces is worse though, because it's just not interesting to talk about. Hell, at least the train-wreck of 06 has P06 to back it up, while Forces? It has a mod called "Overclocked", which introduces a new plot and new level layouts, and even though Overclocked does a lot of good things from what I have seen, the sheer amount of things it does differently says a lot about Sonic Forces.

Frontiers is still a major step in the right direction though, even though it has some rather annoying hangups with Cyberspace.

Damn I really can just keep talking about Sonic forever lol

My big thing is I hope they come up with more original ideas. Even fans of the series seem to have caught themselves into a sort of thought pattern where they're kind of stuck. It's easier for someone to imagine something being cool in a Generations styled game, rather than making something new entirely, and while I love Generations, the entire point of this rant is that I crave new flavors.

So please Sonic, keep running forward, and strive to move onto new Frontiers.

[snellyfish]

Why is Angie your favourite character?

This is really funny I just got off call with Glownary and was talking about how much I don't miss Danganronpa discourse. Anyway I hope someone finds a way to get mad at me in this post!

((Admittedly I'd probably actually place Korekiyo above her because he ACTUALLY has a relevant and specified canon story,,, but, y'kno))

Plain and simple, she just has a handful of design and character tropes I super adore in characters! As a base, I'm usually not super into,,, well-adjusted, well-liked , reasonable, and rational characters. LMAO. They're fine but I live for exaggeration. I LOVE when they're little freaks and not watered down at all for the viewers sake/comfort, I love when they (both the writers and the written) just keep twisting the knife for no good reason other than the bit despite how unconventional it may be.

One could argue that her not being watered down and being as shitty to the other players as she is is a trauma response, or just a mentally ill person being mentally ill. It can be neat to think of her that way sometimes! It's of my opinion that almost all Danganronpa characters are super open-ended lore/personality-wise and we as fans are just making up canon as we go because it's FUCKING FUN, and, as such, all the ways that Angie can be interpreted is very interesting to me-- EVEN if that's seen as "the irredeemable annoying religion-force-feeding zealot antagonist." Which is, of course, an objectively awful way to view anyone REGARDLESS of media illiteracy, but, you know! I like weird freaks so this "flaw" they see is simply more food for me. Yippee!!

Whether I think she's canonically A) genuinely malicious and sadistic, B) traumatized from an abusive religious sect, C) honestly caring about the other players, and/or D) none/all of the above? I'll never tell! Oops all bangers!

Tropes I enjoy, whether or not I found myself enjoying them BECAUSE of Angie herself;;

Religion, especially if it's horrifying and...bad! (Most of my own characters deal heavily with religion and religious trauma, I think it's cool to play with, whether or not it's a fantasy religion like I think Angie's is)

CULTS! Cult behavior! Let's live in a commune!! (GUYS I LOVE MIDSOMMAR)

Dark skin / light hair contrast color combo goes hard!!!

+ The pansexual flag palette is literally my favorite color combo ever!!!!

Manipulative little shits!!!!!

Small scary women!!!!!!

Islander stuff, it's very nostalgic to me and I just have a deep love and appreciation for the beach and ocean!!!!!!!

Piercings!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cutesy sunshine character who could and would stab you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BLOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IDK HOW THIS WASN'T MY FIRST POINT!!!!!!!!!!

AND SHE'S JUST FUCKING SILLY!!!!!!!! SHE'S GENUINELY SO FUNNY AND CUTE ESPECIALLY IN HER INTERACTIONS WITH SHUICHI!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER SO BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She was an IMMEDIATE favorite when I played V3 and when I found out that, like, everyone fucking HATED her and she's probably the least liked character in the entire class by the fans, my brain immediately went the contrarian route to find reasons to like her even MORE. I tend to do this a lot, but when it's a character I already enjoy, it's even worse, dude.

ummmmm obligatory Shinnaga mention sorry but I frequently tend to appreciate a character a lot more based on potential dynamics alone. Ships, romantic or not, have legitimately gotten me to enjoy characters I hated before, based on interesting interactions unique to them alone. So while Kiyo and Angie's (they're making out btw) ingame dynamic and dialogues aren't REALLY what my sick and twisted mind views them as, it's worth noting that my honest belief and interpretation of the two of them could even give me a sliver of that dynamic being possible .......... means she's fuckin slay ............ it means love wins..... It means Vote For Yonaga 2024

[queenofthecats]

ʏᴜɪ ᴋᴏᴍᴏʀɪ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅɪᴀʙᴏʟɪᴋ ʟᴏᴠᴇʀꜱ’ ꜰᴀɴᴅᴏᴍ

—————————————

Yui is one of my favorite characters, and for a reason. Let me explain:

(Please excuse the spelling mistakes)

1. 𝓔𝓶𝓹𝓪𝓽𝓱𝔂 𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓐𝓫𝓲𝓵𝓲𝓽𝔂 𝓽𝓸 𝓕𝓮𝓮𝓵 𝓢𝓸𝓻𝓻𝔂 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓞𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓼

This is what makes a person strong in my opinion, and Yui has a lot of it. She’s caring, despite the situation that she’s put in. She can admit when she’s wrong, and she genuinely feels bad. A little dense at times, but she still cares. I find her reminding me a lot of what I want to be. And no, I don’t mean her situation, I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemies. What I mean is her ability to forgive, her ability to heal. She’s like a golden retriever honestly, and her being genuine is what makes her so likable and is what makes me so confused when she receives hate.

2. 𝐻𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝒶𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝒹/𝑜𝓇 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝑒𝓁𝒾𝑒𝒻

I’ve never really felt comfortable as a queer woman around religious people. But she’s my comfort character, and for a good reason. Her faith, and her desire to not give up is what many of us wish we had the ability to achieve. She doesn’t use her religion as a way to attack, rather as a way to hold herself to moral standards. Yui doesn’t give up fast when it comes to her beliefs, she’s strong and isn’t swayed easily when it comes to something she truly believes, which is something so beautiful in a way.

3. ᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ ᴛᴏ ʜᴏʟᴅ ʜᴇʀꜱᴇʟꜰ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴜɴᴛᴀʙʟᴇ

As I mentioned earlier, she, despite being a teenager, is quite accountable. She apologizes when she does something she considers wrong. She tries to her best ability to understand why she made people upset. Not to mention, when she realizes she did something, even unintentionally, that hurt somebody, she genuinely seems to feel bad. I know this sounds pretty basic, but a lot of people seem to lack this, and so do so many ocs in the fandom.

4. Ｈｅｒ Ｅｍｏｔｉｏｎｓ

I know a lot of people love the cold-hearted look, but that isn’t favorable at all to me. Everybody has emotions nearly, except few with certain mental disorders. Yui plays into them, which is so realistic in a way, especially in her age range. Her bad endings reminds me of the female rage trend. If everybody is nonchalant about everything, imagine how boring that would be? No reactions, no nothing. We use art as a way to express our emotions, our backgrounds, everything we ever known. Imagine watching a horror movie for example, and nobody reacts the whole time. There would be no emotional value really. This is why human art is so special, this is why Yui is special. I don’t watch much media, but I’ve never seen a teenage female character that I’ve found interesting and emotionally relatable as Yui. She makes mistakes, she knows that. She isn’t made to be a completely unrealistic character, who is perfect, and fits every beauty standard, not that she’s not pretty, cause she is, but still. She’s perfect in a teenage girl way to me, not in a creepy old man who profits off unrealistic expectations way. She’s one of the realest female characters I’ve ever seen. I wish I was as strong as emotionally that she is.

5. Ｈｅｒ Ｄｅｓｉｇｎ

I could go on for hours about how much I love her and why, but I’m going to cut it short as I have more posts that I want to do!

Anyways, Yui’s design is aesthetically pleasing to me. I actually got into the fandom because of her design, as I saw it on Pinterest and fell in love with the color palette and how pretty she was to me. Her eyes are so pretty, and so is her hair. She looks like she has this warm aura surrounding her, like she’s the sun itself. She’s so simply designed, yet I love her. It’s funny, as somebody who has always been into more alternative fashion, I love her simple girly design. Her facial expressions make me laugh tbh, and she’s always so pretty no matter what she’s in.

6. 𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚙𝚎𝚍 𝙼𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝙻𝚎𝚜𝚋𝚒𝚊𝚗

Now, everybody in Diabolik lovers and also the fandom helped me realize this, but especially Yui. I loved the way she treated others, and started to think about how I would want a woman treating me that way, the way she treated the DL boys. I wanted somebody nice like Yui, but more than a friend.

The DL boys also helped me realize that it wasn’t being a certain way that I couldn’t stand, I just can’t stand idea of being with a man. This fandom also helped me realize this, as no matter how much they characterized the guys, no matter how much empathy they gave them, I was not attracted to them, much less real men. Their anime designs are some of the best I’ve seen, but I still couldn’t find myself, which caused me to go down a rabbit hole, that made me realize I did not like men at all.

-Livi

—————————————

[the--artist]

I’ve decided to just start a series where I rant about my favorite characters and why I like them (emphasis on “I” as this is just my opinion) and why I like them.

Sooo, I thought I’d start with my favorite character - Donna Beneviento from RE8.

I want to preface this saying that Donna is maybe the only character I can actually relate with personality-wise. No, I don’t kin her(high school me probably did 😓), but she’s one of the only characters who i actually feel like I understand her at a deeper level. Donna is elegant, respectful, and quiet on the outside, but timid and scared on the inside. She’s always been afraid. Either being afraid of kids seeing her scar, to people seeing her through Angie. When faced with adversity, Donna turns to herself inward: for example, turning towards playing with dolls instead of friends. On a general level, I resonate with this a lot and I’m so happy to have seen a character like this.

On another note, I really love her quiet, but intentional presence in the back when we meet the four lords. Angie, Angie, ANGIE is always in your face - arguably the first lord we meet in that scene (excluding Karl Heisenberg before). Angie is definitely loud - and with her scary white color palette - sticks out. Donna is pretty much in the back all by herself and some people haven’t even caught onto her presence at that point. After racketing Ethan, Angie heads back to Donna and that’s when we finally notice her. The cloaked, hidden Victorian goddess, Donna Beneviento is sitting in the back.

Speaking on her design, I LOVE her design. I’m a sucker for pale skin + dark outfit/dark skin + light outfit combo. This light/dark motif in character design really highlight the character’s haunting, but mysterious look. This design choice is a really good idea for her and adds a “haunting, tragic” feel. The pale skin contrasting to her dark hair and outfit makes her feel like a ghost! This is evident more in Donna’s portrait. I LOVE masks or face coverings, and with Donna her veil gives her such a mysterious look. Why is she hiding her face? When we bump into her portrait we see such a beautiful lady, so why is she hiding her face?? Only when we finally see her face when Ethan kills her can we see her scars. A once beautiful and normal women is now scared and hurt - what a tragedy - which cause her to hide her face. Once we lean about Miranda’s experiments, we feel even more bad for her as she was mentally underdeveloped. In some ways, implanting the Cadou gave her cool hallucination powers, but absolutely destroyed the timid, traumatize Donna. A once sweet girl has now been turned evil.

Basically, I’m a sucker for a conservatively dressed/modest goth who covers their face.

On to Donna’s doll motifs. As a doll collector and horror enthusiast, her being a doll maker really spoke to me. Seeing her display dolls everywhere around her home make me feel like at home. I genuinely enjoy seeing the dolls make her so happy!

I won’t go on about my theories and understanding of her backstory, but she’s genuinely one of the most interesting and intriguing characters I’ve ever seen. She’s shrouded in so much mystery and so much is left to the player to theorize about. The notes we find around the game as well as her actions are incredibly vague but purposeful. I have spent hours thinking about it and how this connects to her. There is sooo much duality in her. From her crest, to her outfit, split personality (idk much about this), colors, actions, and behavior. There is so much to unpack to understand how Benvienoto’s mind works.

Anyways, I’m leaning towards writing an analysis on Donna. Tell me if you’d be interested..

[vodoriga-art]

I'm going to be asking a lot of artists I follow this question, but how did you develop your style? It SEEMS like most people find their style and stick with it forever, just making improvements and iterations. I tend to work in a lot of different styles because I enjoy doing that, though I know there are things I gravitate towards as well. But I wonder what your journey was and how you got feedback and improved while staying true to what you enjoyed?

Interesting question!

I never really think about style when making a piece, I don’t worry about making it match the rest of my portfolio, it’s just that the things that make up my style are things that come most naturally to me when I don’t think about it.

✦ TL;DR: My style is a combination of: the different mediums I use (including tablet and PS brushes), the fact I’m scatterbrained and unlikely to finish if I take too long, the aesthetics I like seeing, what feels good physically (movements that feel good to make with my arm and hand), and rhythms that feel innate and come naturally. I really believe that the things that make up your, or anyone else's style, are already within them, they just need to be brought out into view through making art.

Longer thorough answer with images below 👇

✦ I’d say that I “developed” my style by doing what feels comfortable - the shapes of my lines are I think influenced by the fact I’m “lazy” and don’t like erasing, which isn’t a problem in digital, but I used to do a lot of traditional art in ink, and not to mention etchings where I definitely can’t erase without wasting a bunch of time.

✦ My line art looks the way it does because it’s basically a cleaned up sketch, because I don’t have the patience to do both, or line art that was done without a prior sketch, just trying to make lines as good as I can on the first go knowing that any parts that end up feeling off will be painted over later. The brushes I've been using for years also play a role here.

✦ The way I paint digitally, as in colors are not often blended, and often the transitions between colors are made up of blobs of color or even something resembling hatching, stems from:

1. When I started art college, I realized I was waaaay slower than everybody else when it comes to painting, and in order to finish a full body real size portrait in time there was no way I could do it with blended shadows and realism (in high school I worked mostly in pencil, going for as much realism as possible because that's what was expected). So I started constructing planes from these blobs, only going into more detail if time allowed. The goal was to make something that can pass as finished in as little time as possible and then refine it later if possible. Sadly I don’t have much college work to scan as an example (some fruits are below). Quickly this became not just a way to finish a painting in time, but a part of what made my painting mine. I started doing it in charcoal, and in digital even when there was no time limit.

2. Digitally I used to paint with a brush with didn't always match the color on the palette, and the very slight color difference in each stroke or blob was interesting and something I started doing intentionally, and in traditional acrylic painting as well.

3. Long story short, the way I work in one medium influences the way I work in others. So it feels that choice of mediums (digital, acrylic, tempera, charcoal) leads to a style that can be reproduced in all these different mediums.

4. If I had any photos of my (unbaked, unglazed) clay works from sculpting class you could even recognize my style there as well. So we can assume that clay sculpting also influenced my 2D art as well.

Some examples of the non blended colors in different mediums (digital, acrylic, acr., tempera, digital):

✦ Obviously the things I find visually attractive and interesting - shiny or glossy surfaces, interesting pointy shapes, subtle differences in tone, dramatic lighting - will be things I reproduce and emphasize in my art consciously or subconsciously, and those will make a style across different mediums.

✦ A mostly consistent color palette is a part of style as well. I gravitate towards the colors I find pretty - grays, browns, reds, gold, pink, and shades of off-white.

✦ As for feedback, I didn't get a whole lot of it from my art profs (which is one of the reasons I dropped out), but one thing is they encouraged my choice of color palette and gloomy mood, and my messy process. My friends say the most recognizable thing about my art and what they call my signature is the little sparkle shapes I love to use. Not that other artists don’t use sparkles but when I put mine on at the end it feels like one really conscious choice that I make that makes the finished piece feel really mine ✨

✦ Another thing people noted about my art are the solid black areas I sometimes use as pure black cel shading, sometimes as kinda random blobs - I feel like line art needs to have a certain “weight” to look good, but as my lines are mostly the same weight, and often very light and sketchy, I add the black areas to compensate for that lack of weight across the piece. In my head this genuinely feels like weight, and if a piece feels too light in my head/hands, I add weight via flat black areas. I don’t know if that makes sense but it does to me and leads to a style. In pieces without lines it adds weight that's missing because of a lack of contrast or details elsewhere.

✦ And last but not least: The artists I admire and who are an inspiration have and continue to influence my style on a conscious or subconscious level. Either in regards to coloring, composition, shapes, or whatever. Leyendecker and Schaeffer are two pretty obvious ones I think. Mike Mignola and Chris Bourassa (the artist of Darkest Dunegon) also include flat black shadows and planes in their art.

All these things I feel like aren't going anywhere even as I improve, nor do they impede improvement or would hold me back if I decided to completely switch mediums or themes. They are so at the core of my craft(s) I don't think I could change or ditch them without great effort and even then it would be hard to stick to something else.

Basically I guess do what feels good and don't overthink, chances are even when you think you switch between wildly different styles there's something tying them together. At the same time, if there's an element that you really like, nothing wrong with consciously incorporating into your style(s), like I do with sparkles.

[creedslove]

All this boy dad talk makes me wonder what Marcus would be like getting a baby boy, this man is a girl dad to the end but him getting one little boy makes me think of all the possible fluff!!!

Marcus Pike x f!reader

A/N: I fucking love Marcus Pike and I'm also back at the headcanons besties ❤️

• contrary to popular myth, I don't think Marcus can fall into a girl dad or boy dad category, I think he is a dad™ overall because that man loves his family and he's just happy and blessed no matter what

• Marcus would be so thrilled to know you are pregnant with his baby, he doesn't really have a preference, he just wants his baby to be healthy and happy and when he finds out he's having a tiny little Pike boy he is over the moon

• he is so excited about buying new clothes, building up the room and that man would worship you because you are his pregnant goddess now

• I also think he would be a little indecisive and it would take him a while to figure out exactly what kind of decoration he would like to buy his son, so I'm sure he would go with a color palette instead

• so instead of being like cars, dinosaurs or whatever, you and him would come up with a color and have the baby room all that

• he is a romantic man so don't get surprised if he suggests a color based on something meaningful like the color of your eyes, or the flower bouquet you carried when you married him or something like that, we know Marcus, don't we?

• and god, he is so excited, he can't wait to have his baby, so the happiest day of his life is definitely the birth of his big boy

• when your son is now an adorable toddler, Marcus like to motivate him into liking arts; he doesn't force the baby though, but music and other kinds of art are important to Marcus so he would like to share that bone with his boy

• so he always gifts him paper, pencils, pens, crayons, paint, anything he might be interested in, and he tries teaching him how to play instruments

• Marcus plays the bass, so that means he can either play the guitar as well, or at least he's got a decent idea on how to do so, and that's why he would buy a small guitar for your son, to try and teach him

• also, Marcus really likes the theory of putting babies to sleep with classical music, so from his early days your son falls asleep to it

• does the FBI have a 'take your kid to work' day? If not, then Marcus will definitely start the tradition because he's so proud of his son he can't wait for his whole team to see how precious his little boy is 😍

____

[snowwhite-andtheknight]

Summer Challenge Announcement: Obiyuki AU Bingo 2024!

Back by popular demand, Obiyuki AU Bingo!

Sign ups for the summer challenge start today 4/24 and go until 4/28! Please send an ask to the comm if you wish to participate; we will send back a confirmation that you are signed up. You will be messaged your board assignment by one of the mods on May 1st (for non-Americans, please be aware the boards go out according to EST, so you may get yours on May 2nd). Please remember these asks CANNOT BE ANONYMOUS.

What is AU bingo?: People who are interested in joining us for the summer challenge will sign up to receive a randomly generated bingo board of alternate universe prompts. To win the challenge, make bingo! We will be doing a round up post of all the works posted in the tag each week, followed by a big round up post at the end of the challenge

Run Dates: Jun 16th - Jul 27th Sign-Ups: Apr 24rd - Apr 28th Boards Assigned: May 1st Tag: #obiyukibingo24 Medias: Fic, art, edits or playlists

[PLEASE READ ALL GUIDELINES BEFORE POSTING YOUR WORKS]

Guidelines:

All work must be your own

The main pairing is Obi x Shirayuki

Must follow the AU prompt

Must be tagged #obiyukibingo24 within the first five tags

With tumblr’s tagging system on the fritz, please also @ the obiyuki comm in your entry

No works entered through the submission box will be accepted for this challenge

Works must be posted to tumblr to be eligible as fills! They post may redirect elsewhere (AO3, ffnet, deviant art, youtube, etc) but we need a tumblr post to reblog your progress!

Please label with your AU!

All NSFWcontent must be tagged and under a Read More!

You may post more than one entry a prompt, but it will only count for that square

One entry, no matter how many AUs it is applicable for, may only count as one square

Fics must be over 500 words to count as a fill

Art does not have to be a full colored finished piece, but at least a finished sketch

Playlists must be over 8 songs.

Fill 5 consecutive squares to win!

Fill 25 to make us all very impressed. I mean really, my goodness

Be nice

Play hard

Can I base my work off of other fanworks? (aka, make fanart of a fanfic, write fanfic based on fanart, make an edit of a fanfic or write a fanfic for a playlist, etc)

This is absolutely welcome! If your medium is the same (making a fanfic of a fanfic, or fanart inspired by fanart), please check with the creator of the original fanwork, but otherwise just credit the work that inspired you.

What works are considered valid entries?

Fic, art, edits & playlists. Please note, we are looking for transformative works; please do not simply palette swap characters from the AU source, or find & replace names in their plot. Reimagine what an AU would look like with AnS character in it!

[onesecretperson]

10 bloggers you'd like to know better challenge/prompt. tagged by @redpenship

last song: Return to Krocodile Isle, again, because I've been on and off listening to it after work since I first watched that animated music video. Just good kind of musical stuff.

favorite color: I have a very difficult time with Favorites in general, but I'll say a Dark Shade Of Purple right now, like one that'd be good for colour palettes in nighttime scenes.

last book: A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear, a nonfiction book that I'm only just finishing because of how sporadically I actually take time to read books. It's very amusing though, written like a long TV Documentary, though I imagine I'd find a lot of a nonfiction is written like that If I'll actually find more to read.

last movie: Adams Family Values, watched on a Discord Watch party, which is where I see most movies now a days. It was a fun movie, and surprisingly good.

last tv show: Mission Hill, also watched on a Discord Watch Party. First time I saw it & I was so surprised by how impressive the character animation is. It's also so well written for it's humour.

sweet/savory/spicy: Savoury. I can't handle a lot of forms of sweet anymore, like I can feel it actively damage me. Still eatch lots of sugary things but at a limited scope. Spicy is pretty good too but I don't like capsaicin much. Honestly though, whatever the flavor genre that brand cereal, oats, etc are in is the most common thing I eat.

relationship status: Single. Actually just started being interested in the idea of a romantic relationship this year. But... I only want to interact with people over shared interests. Putting energy into dating for the sake of dating is hard to justify.

last thing I searched: Aw heck, capsaicin, because I wanted to double check the spelling and if I was thinking of the right thing. I usually keep a thesaurus open due to my random dips in how confident I am in my understanding of basic words, so I don't have to use the search engine for it. Before that though was "Pathfinder Troop."

current obsession: I don't have a specific obsession above the rest right now, my brain is hopping between topics constantly. I AM however just falling off of a Disco Elysium obsession. Actually more like I'm actively forcing my thought patterns to change to stop thinking about it because I played the story twice now and I really don't want to start making fanfiction pitches and outlines for it. I also don't want to get stuck trying to perfect a run in it like I did when playing Suzerain for a month straight.

looking forward to: Trying out some sort of anxiety treatment, because I was never worried about how much I worried until I just recently started to consider that maybe my Psychiatrist is right about OCD to a limited extent. I also that a lot of my frusterating behaviors seems anxiety driven, and having more control over what I am able to do would be so nice.

BONUS TOPICS

favorite drink: Water. So much Water.

song playing on a loop in your head: Ms Langtree's Lament song from Over the Garden Wall. Mostly because I always forget certain lyrics and replaying the song to figure out what the lyric is.

current favorite character: Kim Kitsuragi. The hype about this man online was correct, he is such a perfect supporting character for a video game. Like he is so patient, but he also constantly has tells that reveal his interests and real opinions. He's so interesting.

fun activity you would like to get into: Making very simple video Games. Maybe even with other people.

last video game: Game Dev Tycoon, because I was weak last night and let myself slip into one of my annoying looping thought patterns around that game's gameplay. Luckily I actually didn't have as rough of a time getting stuck into it like I tend to.

last comic/graphic novel: I think the latest was the update of Jareddilon's Wayward Comic. But yeah I'm still trying to learn the skill of reading graphic novels. I have a lot of IDW physical prints but never read them veyr far yet despite enjoying what I did read. I was always so frustrated as a kid that I couldn't read comic either whenever I tried.

Tagging -I've just tagged people I've interacted with through Tumblr at least once before. Don't think any of these people have many interests in common: @noeggets, @bethdehart, @antirepurp, @slunberparty, @buginacup, @lonicera-edulis, @fridka, @snewdraws, @friendlyfangs, @skelleste

[or-echo]

When I first drew that JC reference like three months ago, I didn't really expect that I'd turn it into a full *project,* but here we are anyways lol. I also didn't expect to draw Alex, let alone redesign her! But that's a long-ish story. All of them are relatively janky looking in their own right, but they're all just personal reference points so who cares.

Since this isn't exactly a *thrilling* artwork and I'm a little low on ideas for funnier/more engaging stuff, I think I'll do a little analysis on each design. Some cross between analysis and personal interpretation. Also explaining the intention behind the Alex redesign, since it's a departure from the original.

FOR PAUL;

Most of the visual interest in his design comes from the trench coat. Most evident when you *take* it from him. He looks almost bare without it. A lot of it may be the lack of the purple in his design; my hypothesis is that his design manages to be so eye-catching through a relatively successful triadic color scheme. Purple, green, and orange (brown, but it's a dark orange, in this case). Usually, triadic schemes are best used for their sharp contrast, but that's not the case for Paul. His design may not be outright *eye catching* but it is unique and will draw the eye, mostly due to the low saturation of his color palette. The colors don't fight or pop out too much. They share emphasis.

A funny side note- Paul's eyes are not the same as JC's, which I didn't realize until I colored him in properly. His eyes sit on a darker blue base- the bright blue, which IS the same as JC's, takes the place of the pupil. Meanwhile, JC's pupil is an even lighter blue.

Drawn at approximately 5'11.

FOR JC (male);

JC's outfit is undeniably a ripoff of Blade (1998), therefore, the best means to distinguish the two is through color palettes. JC gets to have his cold, moody colors, but they're not completely *dark.* Where Blade wears black, JC wears blue. Dark blues (mostly), but still blues nonetheless.

I took a few liberties with JC. I didn't quite like the look of the leg straps (and then I gave them to Alex- oops) so I replaced them with leg pouches instead. Better for storage & the tactical look JC is going for.

I also toyed with the idea of changing his hairstyle to a short one, but thought I'd keep the slicked back hair because I like the idea of him taking inspiration from his older brother. After all, the Deus Ex Bible said he admired him greatly when he was younger; the whole secret agent deal. I like to attribute the very 'action hero' look to that idealization as well. JC as a character is very idealistic, almost- if not outright- naive. His picture of the world is more fiction than reality until the events of the narrative rip it from him- or at least, that's what I interpreted. Compare him to Paul, who has a much simpler, more practical design. Aside from the embellishments on the trenchcoat, Paul looks extremely normal. Meanwhile, JC sticks out quite a lot.

The boots were fully improvised. I had no clue what was going on in the texture and couldn't find a reference I liked.

Headcanon name for him is James Chris because I like how it sounds. :) I only remembered that James Bond exists AFTER I thought of it and couldn't find a name I liked better.

Drawn at approximately 5'11.

FOR JC (FEMALE)

Drew her shortly after I played the Lay D. Denton mod for the first time. I was so inspired that I *had* to make my own design for her. I love the idea of a female JC.

I did take some liberties from the mod's design, though. I returned her widow's peak, for one. One of the odd tidbits I remember from biology class was that widow's peaks are a dominant genetic trait, so even if she *wasn't* a clone of Paul, the chances of her having one would still be 50% at minimum. As for her hairstyle overall, I thought I'd let it be loose but still slicked back- reminiscent of her male counterpart. JC struck me as the type to keep her hair short rather than put it into a bun or ponytail. More convenient overall. Not a buzz cut- since male JC didn't get one either- but still above the shoulders.

I also removed the nail polish. It's an idea I love for a secret agent of her type, but I just don't get the idea that she'd wear it from her personality (+ refer to the bit about JC's 'tactical look'). It would suit someone like Navarre better in my opinon, showing efficiency in her job- that she's so good she wouldn't need to worry about chipping a nail as well as the fact that she has time to re-paint them. Unfortunately, Navarre has cybernetic arms. Maybe she can paint her nails anyways- don't know.

Ditto for the lipstick.

I removed the stiletto heel- though that's not the fault of the mod. They had to use a generic model & re-texture it for her design, after all. I did, however, let her have about a ~2 inch heel. Nothing *too* obscene. More of just a reference.

The vest is modeled on one I saw online that I liked the look of.

Headcanon name for her is Joan because I've loved the name 'Joan' as long as I've been listening to Joan Jett's music. Kept Chris because I like the sound of it as a gender neutral name.

Drawn at approximately 5'6, with 2 inch heels to make her 5'8.

FOR ALEX:

Hers is somewhat of a story.

I was considering making this into a full Denton lineup- as I now have- but thought it would be incomplete without Alex. Issue is that I don't especially like Alex's design all that much, male OR female, but female especially. That's when I thought to redesign her. Side note, I went w/ female Alex because I liked the voice performance better + I just like the idea :)

It spiraled from there, starting as a design more consistent with the other Dentons (one of the gripes I have w/ the original design), into a rewrite. So I wouldn't say that this is by *any* means the same Alex as Invisible War.

Given that it's relevant to the design, the premise is as follows; rather than being Alex 20 years in the future, this Alex would instead be the one found in Area 51, the one who was retconned out of the story. The intention behind that setpiece in the level always interested me a lot, whether or not it was later retconned. The idea of accelerated clone growth + memory implantation also caught my eye, and I wanted to use her to explore all of those things a little more. Therefore, that would be her function. The Dentons are prototypes, after all. She exists in an alternate world, a take on the scrapped UNATCO route everyone wonders about, though it would differ in the sense that it only happens if JC fails the Lebedev mission. Paul goes fully MIA, and Alex is deployed early to fill the empty space. Without having led a full life & full outside control over her memories, she'd be a complete UNATCO zealot; what MJ12 wanted JC to be. There's more detail than that, but that's about what's necessary for the design to make sense.

It's a blend of the other Dentons & prominent UNATCO figures. She has the same physical features as her siblings- same face, same approximate build, same nanoaugmentations, so on. Her clothes, however, are meant to resemble the mech-augs more than it does the Dentons. Where the Dentons wear looser clothing, Alex's is more form fitting, akin to Anna Navarre & Gunther, even if she has no cybernetic joints that loose fabric could get caught in. It's meant to reinforce the idea of her loyalty to UNATCO rather than anything else.

The jacket is meant to resemble the Dentons, however. Even then, it's cropped because she wouldn't necessarily be a "full" Denton (for lack of a better term) or share a true connection with them beyond genetics.

As for color scheme, it follows that pattern. She relies on a black base more than her siblings do, again akin to the mech-augs. The prominent blue is meant to be similar to JC's, but it's also worth mentioning that JC and Paul (Paul especially) have much more of a green tint than what I selected for her. Alex's is more metallic, once again to mimic Navarre & Gunther. Still, she is a Denton, fully manufactured or not, so the blue of her design is meant to be more prominent & full than it is with the mech-augs.

The hair gave me some trouble. It's meant to be the same-ish style as the Alex of Invisible War, but I'm ngl I was struggling to draw it. I had also wanted to give her some kind of facial accessory- Paul has a beard, JC has his sunglasses, but I couldn't find something for Alex. I didn't like the look of a facemask or gasmask- I also considered goggles, but they would be too reminiscent of JC's shades while also being made redundant by her augmentations. In the end, I left her face as-is.

Drawn at approximately 5'6, with 1 inch heels to make her 5'7.

Anyways, I made an Invisible War version of the lineup too for fun, and because I wanted to see what the Alex design would look like with the original purple look. :)

isn't character design fun

[mygreatadventurehasbegun]

My Favorite New-To-Me Movies of 2023

Women Talking

This movie won the Oscar of Best Adapted Screenplay and deservedly so...it's scenes are so tightly written and delivered so beautifully by the incredible cast of actresses, that it held my attention for the entire runtime. Every performance was fantastic, and I wish at least one of them had received recognition from the Academy...personally my vote would have been for Claire Foy, but any one of them could have walked away with a nomination.

Pearl

This was such an interesting horror flick...the saturated color palette, the extreme bursts of violence and of course, the magnificent performance by Mia Goth. She was absolutely fascinating to watch...the character of Pearl is so desperate to leave her home and to become a star that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

While I consider this to be one of the best movies I've seen this year...it's not necessarily one I'd ever want to watch again. At least not in the near future...because this movie is bleak. During the Great Depression, a group of people sign up for a dance marathon with the hope of winning the prize money. All the characters are so compelling and interesting to watch. Absolutely recommend watching it, especially for Jane Fonda's outstanding performance...but you might finish the movie a bit depressed.

Deathtrap

Man, this movie is fun. It's the kind of movie that I can't say too much about, because the plot is so full of twists...but the basic idea is: A famous playwright, coming off a string of flops, learns that his former student has written a surefire hit play, and he conspires to murder his student and take the play as his own. And you have Christopher Reeve wearing some fantastic sweaters.

Sweet Smell of Success

This movie is so good, I don't even know where to start. The performances, the writing, the cinematography...it's such a perfect example of a noir film (especially one that doesn't focus on a murder or a detective). I wasn't sure what to expect when I started, but from the moment I pressed play, I was completely engrossed.

The Last of Sheila

I really caught up on my murder mysteries this year...and The Last of Sheila is a really great one. Another movie that I can't say too much about because of it's twisty plot...but I will say you can definitely see how it influenced Rian Johnson for his Knives Out films. Also, this was co-written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim!

Catch-22

I blind bought this one after Alan Arkin's death...I had never seen it, but thought it seemed like a fun enough film to take the gamble on. And boy, was I right! While I can see why some critics didn't love it back then, this movie is so wonderfully bonkers, I can't help but love it! The witty dialogue, clever shot composition and excellent performances by a massive cast make this movie a real treat!

Home Before Dark

This was a very random find for me...I actually just came across it on TV when it was starting and decided to stick with it (just like the olden days, get off my lawn). And while the movie itself isn't perfect, I was completely drawn in by Jean Simmons' performance. Her character has just returned home from a stay at an asylum, and while she tries to reacclimate to life at home, we start to see her lose it again...but we aren't sure if she is actually being pushed towards that breakdown intentionally. It has a few shades of the movie Gaslight, for sure.

The Collector

This may have been my favorite new-to-me movie of the year! It is such an intense and uncomfortable film, with amazing performances by the two lead actors and an ending that I did not see coming. Given the story and the setting, I could almost see this easily being turned into a stage play...I'd love to see a theater try and capture the claustrophobic feeling you get when Miranda is trapped in that cellar.

A few honorable mentions are: All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), The Thin Man, Sound of Metal, Persona and Somewhere in Time (this one mostly for the melodrama, lol)

Here's to more movies in 2024!