#i hope i formatted this right

[forgetmenot-mymoon]

The Hunt For The Abominable Snowman

----- Authors note:

For context, this is the second fanfic I’ve like ever written and uh so this was supposed to be romance- yeah shit happened. I am planning to eventually make a part 2(which will hopefully actually have romance) but I have like 4 other things I wanna write so that’ll be a while. Enjoy.

TW: death

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

“The snow falls every year here.” Jack's trying to be the “adult one," he’s the babysitter for Orpheus.

“I think the snow falls here every day” Wujiu, the black guard retorted. He had a whole puffy coat over him. Before we left he said it was for the white guard, not him. However, the man was curled up, his knees to his chest, even shivering a bit while holding onto the umbrella like always.

Orpheus always needed more hunters however the summoning ritual wasn’t as simple as everyone would like. He needed an item from the dead -usually a weapon- Or even better a body. So who better to send the dead themselves? Maybe he thinks we would be like sniffer dogs. The same people weren't always picked, except Jack always came along, he loved fresh blood. Along with Jack, this trip was me, Joseph, Wujiu, and Bi'an.

This is my first time out! The air outside the manor smells so much cleaner even with the icy drops of the plateau threatening my gills.

You may be wondering how a bunch of ghosts snuck into towns to find bodies, well it was all handled by Orpheus “associates," They provided transportation and shelter for us. We had passed through and stayed at the village before the forest. We weren't allowed outside where people could see, the associates kept us locked up. the place had a reputation for cult activities and witch hunts, i couldn't focus my eyes on anything but outside for the time we were there. It was similar to my village in ways... I had seen symbols of worship hung all around... Less than I would’ve expected from a town with a cult reputation and from the rumors from outside the town they even participated in witch hunts.

After we finally got to the end to the town and the beginning of the barren forests, not even birds sung. while I’m more of a fish person, bird song is always welcomed. Bird songs are calm like gentle waves.

“Here, now you walk.” the old gruff associate gruffed out.

“Okay I think this would be faster if we spilt up” then Jack was gone, I turned,

Wu Chang was gone.

Joseph stood there and stared for a few seconds. “Well Lady Grace, I’m going to take some pictures. This scenery is delightful."

The cold air blew in my face. I was alone.

Looking at the footprints, Jack had gone to the south, opposite way of the wind. Joseph to the east- why did he wear his pointed shoes even out here?- There’s no sign of where Wu Chang went. I guess I'll go north. The coldest way would probably not have anyone, so I wouldn’t have to worry about running into anyone or talking.

Thankfully the manor gave us coats, it was even colder than the water was on snowy days, even after it turned to ice. Being able to float only helped a bit with my speed, not my temperature. I hated those days when it was too cold to swim, there were no splashes, almost no life. it was a horrible idea to go north. The snow had already gotten in my boots even though I was floating, it hasn't even been 10 minutes. If I got lost how would they even find me…it’s not like I could scream- well I’m sure one of them would figure it out…right? I feel like those thoughts jinxed myself, as they always do.

I step more and more into the dark woods, birds fly by every now and then, but I don’t sense anything amiss. The winds got more rough as I pulled my hood over my head, making sure to tuck my braid inside it. It gets worse and worse as if a god is doing it, finally I stumble across a cabin. A neatly decorated one, a songbirds nest on the roof. Birds flying around nearby. My gills felt like the ice was about to break them open, It was too frigid to care whether there were people inside. I knocked, no answer so I jiggled the knob and there it went, opened.

The cottage is similar to the village buildings, it doesn’t have any religious decor but it’s as modest if not more as towns like this are. The first room is a kitchen, looks like no one has cooked for a long time but I open the fridge and there’s fresh meat? Do hunters live here? The next room is a living room, I see a sofa on the left, and on the right side, there are two more doorways. There's a rocking chair in the back, creaking. This cabin is so far from the town, at least a 30-minute walk since it was a 20-minute float. I do wonder why anyone would live this far away. Perhaps to get out of the cult? I would’ve preferred an island over a snowy taiga. I wish I could’ve escaped to an island, I wonder if whoever lived here did- oh well they didn’t.

That is a skeleton.

Years of decay at least- it has flowers all over it surrounded by candles. I really hope this isn’t a sacrifice or murder, I don’t need more of those. The skeleton is tucked in next to the couch on the floor, chains on her wrist covertly hidden with blankets. birds sang softly outside, like music to a goodbye. The body is pretty fully decayed so maybe more of a shrine? Does the cult of the village do this?

The wind blows in the cabin, and my body shakes from the sudden drop. I don’t really know how to light a fire but I’m dead so I should be fine.

I jinxed myself again,

The door near the rocking chair on the grade opens, I didn’t notice it. Must be the back door. a man steps in, a living man.

He looks at me, blue dots behind a white mask. The shivers start up again. His eyes are that of a dead man’s, of an inhuman creature- but he’s living, I hear his deep breaths. As he approaches the small flesh I can make out is the normal color, not grey. it has blood pumping behind- and if he was dead he wouldn’t be able to be here, he wouldn’t be so solid, he wouldn’t have that axe.

Is this the guy we’re suppose to find? He looks like a hunter- but he’s not dead- Oh he has an axe-

He’s not dead.

I’m locked against the wall, next to a dead body -which still vaguely smells even with all the flowers- with an axe to my neck.

“Why the fuck are you here.” His voice is like a shark circling its prey- or in this case a wolf? Or are those rabbit ears on his hood? For a living man his hair is almost as pale as Joseph's, much more unhealthy looking though.

His statement was more of a threat than a question I lift my hand slowly praying- well not praying- hoping that he wouldn’t cut my head off and try to gesture to my lips to try to say I’m mute.

After what feels like five minutes of him staring and me gesturing and opening my mouth and even shaking my head. He cautiously takes away the axe.

“Don’t touch or go near her again.” He says as I step as far away from the dead body and closer to the door he came in, which I assume is the back door.

He hands me a cup of water, thankfully a good thing about being dead is I can, one, not die (still feel pain though) so I can’t die from poison, second I’m naiad, I can tell it’s clean water. Just in case I put a drop on my gills, it doesn’t sting. I take a much-needed sip after all the traveling. I missed being anywhere near water, even a few drops are nice. Snow is much different more confining, trapping like a cage. It traps water. Water is more gentle freeing, it flows, ice is hard and frozen. Both will kill you but water fills you up, ice traps you. I prefer suffocating rather than being trapped as I die, slowly crawling, trying to escape- even if I did that in the water too-

“Are you okay? Why are you here? Who are you?”

It seems he was waiting for that- he was really holding all those questions in. I’m guessing that the "Are you okay?" question is because of how much I was staring. He taps his claws on the counter behind him near the sink, I didn’t even notice the scratch marks when I came in.

I open my mouth and shake my head, in response, he walks up to me and shoves a book and pen in my hand, he picks them up from the kitchen counter. By book I mean an already written book called “Born of the Winds” It's been heavily annotated it seems by the same pen he shoved in my hand.

While I despised my life before this, at least I know how to write, even in cursive.

However I don’t write in cursive in case he doesn’t know it, he looks on head tilted a bit like a dog. I’m unsure of how much info to give him so I just write the basic “Yes, to find a new hunter, Grace,”

He reads it slowly, I wonder if my handwriting is bad until he finally gives it back

Out of anxious impulse of the silence I write “Why this book?”

“Oh- it reminds me of myself, the character has the power of wind like me.”

He has powers but he’s still alive, this is strange. Where’s the others to talk when I need them.

“Are you dead?”

His head tilts again and he takes off his glove and puts a finger to his artery. We make very awkward eye contact until he's satisfied with what he's found.

“My heart’s beating,”

I’ll take that as a very very much alive.

“We are suppose to find a hunter, who has an item and is dead. How do you have powers but not dead?”

“Who’s we?” His voice darkens- I think I’ve said- or written too much.

I scribble quickly hoping I don’t get an axe to my throat (again)

“My fellow hunters

My friends

coworkers?

Joseph, Wu Chang, and Jack, three of them.

There’s more back at the manor

I decided not to mention Wu Chang was technically two.

“Ah Oletus manor? I’ve heard of that.”

He looked up at the roof, it seemed it was starting to decay.

“I got an invite months ago, I don’t fall for such foolish tricks. I don’t even know how it got to me, I don’t have a mailbox. I just found it on the counter one night.”

“We weren’t told about that, just told to retrieve and the manors owners associates got us here,”

“Where are the ones you mentioned scaley fish girl?”

“I don’t know, we spilt up.”

“Well I guess I’ll have to find them.”

“We all went different directions.” I scribble trying to grab his attention, i cant let him hurt the others.

“Did you?”

“Yes,”

He looks at me a long time…

if I could see his face I’m assuming it would be a suspicious squint.

My spear is in my backpack, it’s been sticking out, I haven’t wanted to use it but I might.

I feel my stance stiffened with his stare. He’s wondering what to do with me, this has happened far too many times.

“You stay here, do not touch her.” His voice makes a growling noise at the end, he really does seem feral-I hear a quiet burst of wind that turns louder and louder like a siren. I back away out of impulse and trip- the floor was my comfort. When I look up he’s gone, but the wind isn’t. Dammit, that’s how he’s trapped me, the wind outside would definitely tear me apart, it sounds like a hurricane.

Okay, okay Grace don’t panic. You’re stuck in a small cabin with a dead body and there’s a very dangerous person with magic that could come back and kill you. There’s still water nearby. I turn on the faucets. it doesn’t work well but it’s still some water I can control. Maybe I could use the water to make a path in the wind? No, It looks too powerful. And far too dangerous even for a dead person. Okay okay, maybe I can use the water to get me above the wind? That might still be too dangerous, especially with how thick the wind is screaming. I ease the door- the wind immediately slams it the henges shriek like a dying cow.

Suddenly a woosh comes behind me, Wu Chang seems to have teleported.

“Why the hell is there a tornado?” The black guard speaks with malice. He's still shaking like a leaf even in the coat that weights more than he or B'ian combined. I grab the book off the couch and flip to a new page, the last clean page before the writing of the novel.

“The hunter were suppose to find did it. He’s alive not dead Wu Chang! They’re suppose to be dead what the hell happened!?”

He turned his hand on his chin, “hm”

“Maybe one of Orpheus’s “tests”?” When test was spoke he did air quotes while trying to keep the umbrella in his right hand.

I pick up the pen again,

“Well what are we gonna do?”

“Kill him?”

“Is that the right thing to do?”

“Well considering there’s a dead body right there, yes”

“I don’t know, I think we should ask Orpheus

“How do you propose we do that?”

"I don't know" I sign after a few moments of silent, remembering i don't have to write with Wuiju

“Exactly, I’ll wait here with you and we’ll both dispose of the thing when it comes back.”

That was not a question.

----

There were tea bags so I busied myself with making tea, the white guard had switched in and was rambling about…uh I wasn’t particularly listening….

“Grace,”

I move to face him,

“The wind has stopped”

“I don’t see anyone outside, do you?”

I shake my head as I try to survey the outside

“Hmmm should we make a run for it,”

"It might be a trap," I sign

They switch again,

“I’ll risk it,” Wujiu states stomping out the door before I can stop him.

I hear a thump, “FUCK”

I think that confirms my guess was right.

I race outside with my spear ready

“Hi there again,” that voice is not in front of me. My spear hits a body as the bunny-hoodied man tries to jump down-

Oh shit -

I immediately drop my spear- which is still in him- well maybe he won’t bleed out. I hear the umbrella in the air and then a hand on my shoulder.

“Well…”

While the guy is shocked- I didn’t even learn his name oh god oh god I just killed someone who wasn’t a survivor oh god-

All the voices sound like they’re underwater, I want to go back I want the water I want the fish-

——-

“We should just kill him”

“I could always just take a picture,”

“He needs to be dead to be a hunter so let’s end him now.”

I awake, groggy, This is what happens when you’re the only- I felt it's a bony shoulder on me- They sat me next to the damn skeleton i realize as I swim up.

“Oh-“

“Grace, could you not almost hit the umbrella? That’s technically us” Bi'an complained after dodging me. If he knew sign language they would know I’m signing why the fuck put my sleeping body next to the dead body,

Joseph hands me the book and pen I was using earlier,

“Why did you sit me next to the dead body????” The multiple question marks were purposeful.

Jack shrugs, I assume he’s the culprit.

“Grace we’re trying to plan what to do with that one.” Jacks razors point at the dead asleep guy on the ground.

“Orpheus might get angry if we kill him prematurely” I quickly note,

“I think he wouldn’t mind.” Jack said looking at his claws.

“Maybe a serial killer shouldn’t be included in this discussion?” Joseph, being the only sane one here.

“Would you like me to list your sins, Mr. Desaulniers? I’m sure Claude would be happy.” Jack baits.

Joseph's brows furry at his twin's name, he closes his eyes briefly and fidgets with his sword.

“Why don’t we take this outside Ripper?”

Joseph took the bait.

"Gladly,”

The umbrella followed them, I was just left there, looking at the boy on the floor

I poked him with my harpoon gently and he shook a bit.

I’m glad he’s still alive…I don’t think anyone deserves this life and Orpheus didn’t tell us to kill anyone….

“What the fuck.”

“They aren’t very smart” I scribble quickly before he sees me- and possible attacks I push the book below his now risen head.

“Mm you’re running out of room…there’s a notepad over there in the drawer next to the fridge, he tries to point but his arm just falls back down...Why didn't he just give me that earlier?

“Could you get me some bandages? I’ve lost…a good amount of blood,”

“In the bathroom,” he adds on after a few seconds, before letting his head mop to the floor once more.

I float to the bathroom behind him, it's tiny and barely fits the shower and everything else…I open the cabinets…that’s where my parents kept bandages- ah here! I grab some cloth disinfection as well.

“Let me help” I scribble over my words, already ran out of room on the dirt mostly-blank pages, he’s right but I’ll fix him up before grabbing the notepad.

He just groans a bit as I sit him down to inspect the wound, I hit his side, it’s not that deep, he would’ve already been dead if it was.

I gently pull his shirt up a bit, I use the cloth to stop the bleeding- at least mostly- disinfect it then bandage it just as mother taught me once- before they realized my power-

“Better?” I have to resort to writing over other words,

“You should get the notepad,”

I nod- unsure if he’s even eyeing me and float over to it.

I come back and sit in front of him while he tries to sit up from his laying-face-first position.

“Feeling better?” I write

“A bit…Could you get me a glass of water?”

I nod and rush off again, I grab two incase- which was the right move he gulps them both down only picking up his mask a fraction.

“Tic tac toe?”

“You want me to play….that with you?”

I nod as I draw boxes in a box for it.

“I’ll go first,” he goes O’s I go X’s

I end up winning, I’m very experienced after all. Back in the village in the rare cases kids came up to me, this is what we would play- plus Robbie always enjoys playing tic tac toe with me.

“Again”

I draw the box on another page

Then another

I end up getting comfy and lie on my stomach

“I have a lot of experience!” I write,

“How much experience lands you this much wins in a game of chance?”

“It’s not chance!!” I argue

“I think it is, you must be lucky”

“I’m dead I don’t think I can be that lucky!”

“Hmm maybe it’s the luck saying 'sorry you’re dead'- wait you guys are all dead? How does that work?”

“I don’t know for sure but the manor owner brings us back and then we participate in matches”

“Do I wanna know?”

“...no?”

“That was rhetorical Grace” He said my name.

“Well we the undead are hunters” I pause my pen as he shifts so he’s laying next to me so he can stare as I write.

“There are four survivors each match and we hunt them. They don’t die they are always revived.”

“So you’re trapped?”

I nod solemnly. I always try to avoid that line of thought. The man of winds just hums, thinking of this information like a hunter who saw tracks. Suddenly the air got thick like fog rolled in,

“Grace” Jack returned with a snarl.

The bunny-eared man sat up -unsteadily- ready to flee if needed.

“We must kill him, manor orders” he stated as if he had just received a letter of devotion. While he had blood running down his claws, Grace stared, “The coward ran to the cameras.”

Jack stepped forward towards him. Grace floated up in front and cocked her head, innocently. She had learned even in village life men will do what you ask if you act dumb, if you show your wits or give them a stare they will show their claws and use their teeth. However cute ditzy women please them, sometimes they even pity.

The quiet bird chirping outside suddenly ceased, she hadn’t even noticed the silent song until it was gone.

Fog appeared in the cabin rising up from hell itself.

“We must do what the manor says Grace”

Wujiu teleports behind him as backup.

--

With a knock of a claw, Grace was out, and after some….difficulties Night Watch of the Plateau of Leng was dead.

The legends did not die with him though. Those followed the village in fear that no hunts would happen for long after the death of The Night Watch.

They returned to the manor with a weapon, clothes, and a furious spirit. Grace didn’t wake up till they were back, Jack always had drugs in case. For he was always prepared for a chase.

----- Authors Note part 2

While editing this I got the image of just Joseph in the camera world, while this was happening in Hawaii, sitting on a beach chair drinking wine, just chiling. and maybe crying about his dead brother

Also, I apologize for how bad this probably is, it wasn't as rushed as my other works have been though so I am semi-proud of it.

[paintedcrows]

"Bill... Can I call you that?" / "You can call me whatever you want except 'My Love'!"

"Ha ha! That's a joke! Everybody loves me!"

Y yo a ti Ford, or whatever. @fearoftriangles pointed out that in the Spanish version of The Book of Bill: Bill says Ford can call him anything but "Mi Amor" instead of anything but "Late for Dinner" and-

...I swear, Spanish translators cannot keep getting away with this

[eyrieofsynapses]

why Aurora's art is genius

It's break for me, and I've been meaning to sit down and read the Aurora webcomic (https://comicaurora.com/, @comicaurora on Tumblr) for quite a bit. So I did that over the last few days.

And… y'know. I can't actually say "I should've read this earlier," because otherwise I would've been up at 2:30-3am when I had responsibilities in the morning and I couldn't have properly enjoyed it, but. Holy shit guys THIS COMIC.

I intended to just do a generalized "hello this is all the things I love about this story," and I wrote a paragraph or two about art style. …and then another. And another. And I realized I needed to actually reference things so I would stop being too vague. I was reading the comic on my tablet or phone, because I wanted to stay curled up in my chair, but I type at a big monitor and so I saw more details… aaaaaand it turned into its own giant-ass post.

SO. Enjoy a few thousand words of me nerding out about this insanely cool art style and how fucking gorgeous this comic is? (There are screenshots, I promise it isn't just a wall of text.) In my defense, I just spent two semesters in graphic design classes focusing on the Adobe Suite, so… I get to be a nerd about pretty things…???

All positive feedback btw! No downers here. <3

---

I cannot emphasize enough how much I love the beautiful, simple stylistic method of drawing characters and figures. It is absolutely stunning and effortless and utterly graceful—it is so hard to capture the sheer beauty and fluidity of the human form in such a fashion. Even a simple outline of a character feels dynamic! It's gorgeous!

Though I do have a love-hate relationship with this, because my artistic side looks at that lovely simplicity, goes "I CAN DO THAT!" and then I sit down and go to the paper and realize that no, in fact, I cannot do that yet, because that simplicity is born of a hell of a lot of practice and understanding of bodies and actually is really hard to do. It's a very developed style that only looks simple because the artist knows what they're doing. The human body is hard to pull off, and this comic does so beautifully and makes it look effortless.

Also: line weight line weight line weight. It's especially important in simplified shapes and figures like this, and hoo boy is it used excellently. It's especially apparent the newer the pages get—I love watching that improvement over time—but with simpler figures and lines, you get nice light lines to emphasize both smaller details, like in the draping of clothing and the curls of hair—which, hello, yes—and thicker lines to emphasize bigger and more important details and silhouettes. It's the sort of thing that's essential to most illustrations, but I wanted to make a note of it because it's so vital to this art style.

THE USE OF LAYER BLENDING MODES OH MY GODS. (...uhhh, apologies to the people who don't know what that means, it's a digital art program thing? This article explains it for beginners.)

Bear with me, I just finished my second Photoshop course, I spent months and months working on projects with this shit so I see the genius use of Screen and/or its siblings (of which there are many—if I say "Screen" here, assume I mean the entire umbrella of Screen blending modes and possibly Overlay) and go nuts, but seriously it's so clever and also fucking gorgeous:

Firstly: the use of screened-on sound effect words over an action? A "CRACK" written over a branch and then put on Screen in glowy green so that it's subtle enough that it doesn't disrupt the visual flow, but still sticks out enough to make itself heard? Little "scritches" that are transparent where they're laid on without outlines to emphasize the sound without disrupting the underlying image? FUCK YES. I haven't seen this done literally anywhere else—granted, I haven't read a massive amount of comics, but I've read enough—and it is so clever and I adore it. Examples:

Secondly: The beautiful lighting effects. The curling leaves, all the magic, the various glowing eyes, the fog, the way it's all so vividly colored but doesn't burn your eyeballs out—a balance that's way harder to achieve than you'd think—and the soft glows around them, eeeee it's so pretty so pretty SO PRETTY. Not sure if some of these are Outer/Inner Glow/Shadow layer effects or if it's entirely hand-drawn, but major kudos either way; I can see the beautiful use of blending modes and I SALUTE YOUR GENIUS.

I keep looking at some of this stuff and go "is that a layer effect or is it done by hand?" Because you can make some similar things with the Satin layer effect in Photoshop (I don't know if other programs have this? I'm gonna have to find out since I won't have access to PS for much longer ;-;) that resembles some of the swirly inner bits on some of the lit effects, but I'm not sure if it is that or not. Or you could mask over textures? There's... many ways to do it.

If done by hand: oh my gods the patience, how. If done with layer effects: really clever work that knows how to stop said effects from looking wonky, because ugh those things get temperamental. If done with a layer of texture that's been masked over: very, very good masking work. No matter the method, pretty shimmers and swirly bits inside the bigger pretty swirls!

Next: The way color contrast is used! I will never be over the glowy green-on-black Primordial Life vibes when Alinua gets dropped into that… unconscious space?? with Life, for example, and the sharp contrast of vines and crack and branches and leaves against pitch black is just visually stunning. The way the roots sink into the ground and the three-dimensional sensation of it is particularly badass here:

Friggin. How does this imply depth like that. HOW. IT'S SO FREAKING COOL.

A huge point here is also color language and use! Everybody has their own particular shade, generally matching their eyes, magic, and personality, and I adore how this is used to make it clear who's talking or who's doing an action. That was especially apparent to me with Dainix and Falst in the caves—their colors are both fairly warm, but quite distinct, and I love how this clarifies who's doing what in panels with a lot of action from both of them. There is a particular bit that stuck out to me, so I dug up the panels (see this page and the following one https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-30/):

(Gods it looks even prettier now that I put it against a plain background. Also, appreciation to Falst for managing a bridal-carry midair, damn.)

The way that their colors MERGE here! And the immense attention to detail in doing so—Dainix is higher up than Falst is in the first panel, so Dainix's orange fades into Falst's orange at the base. The next panel has gold up top and orange on bottom; we can't really tell in that panel where each of them are, but that's carried over to the next panel—

—where we now see that Falst's position is raised above Dainix's due to the way he's carrying him. (Points for continuity!) And, of course, we see the little "huffs" flowing from orange to yellow over their heads (where Dainix's head is higher than Falst's) to merge the sound of their breathing, which is absurdly clever because it emphasizes to the viewer how we hear two sets of huffing overlaying each other, not one. Absolutely brilliant.

(A few other notes of appreciation to that panel: beautiful glows around them, the sparks, the jagged silhouette of the spider legs, the lovely colors that have no right to make the area around a spider corpse that pretty, the excellent texturing on the cave walls plus perspective, the way Falst's movements imply Dainix's hefty weight, the natural posing of the characters, their on-point expressions that convey exactly how fuckin terrifying everything is right now, the slight glows to their eyes, and also they're just handsome boys <3)

Next up: Rain!!!! So well done! It's subtle enough that it never ever disrupts the impact of the focal point, but evident enough you can tell! And more importantly: THE MIST OFF THE CHARACTERS. Rain does this irl, it has that little vapor that comes off you and makes that little misty effect that plays with lighting, it's so cool-looking and here it's used to such pretty effect!

One of the panel captions says something about it blurring out all the injuries on the characters but like THAT AIN'T TOO BIG OF A PROBLEM when it gets across the environmental vibes, and also that'd be how it would look in real life too so like… outside viewer's angle is the same as the characters', mostly? my point is: that's the environment!!! that's the vibes, that's the feel! It gets it across and it does so in the most pretty way possible!

And another thing re: rain, the use of it to establish perspective, particularly in panels like this—

—where we can tell we're looking down at Tynan due to the perspective on the rain and where it's pointing. Excellent. (Also, kudos for looking down and emphasizing how Tynan's losing his advantage—lovely use of visual storytelling.)

Additionally, the misting here:

We see it most heavily in the leftmost panel, where it's quite foggy as you would expect in a rainstorm, especially in an environment with a lot of heat, but it's also lightly powdered on in the following two panels and tends to follow light sources, which makes complete sense given how light bounces off particles in the air.

A major point of strength in these too is a thorough understanding of lighting, like rim lighting, the various hues and shades, and an intricate understanding of how light bounces off surfaces even when they're in shadow (we'll see a faint glow in spots where characters are half in shadow, but that's how it would work in real life, because of how light bounces around).

Bringing some of these points together: the fluidity of the lines in magic, and the way simple glowing lines are used to emphasize motion and the magic itself, is deeply clever. I'm basically pulling at random from panels and there's definitely even better examples, but here's one (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-16-33/):

First panel, listed in numbers because these build on each other:

The tension of the lines in Tess's magic here. This works on a couple levels: first, the way she's holding her fists, as if she's pulling a rope taut.

The way there's one primary line, emphasizing the rope feeling, accompanied by smaller ones.

The additional lines starbursting around her hands, to indicate the energy crackling in her hands and how she's doing a good bit more than just holding it. (That combined with the fists suggests some tension to the magic, too.) Also the variations in brightness, a feature you'll find in actual lightning. :D Additional kudos for how the lightning sparks and breaks off the metal of the sword.

A handful of miscellaneous notes on the second panel:

The reflection of the flames in Erin's typically dark blue eyes (which bears a remarkable resemblance to Dainix, incidentally—almost a thematic sort of parallel given Erin's using the same magic Dainix specializes in?)

The flowing of fabric in the wind and associated variation in the lineart

The way Erin's tattoos interact with the fire he's pulling to his hand

The way the rain overlays some of the fainter areas of fire (attention! to! detail! hell yeah!)

I could go on. I won't because this is a lot of writing already.

Third panel gets paragraphs, not bullets:

Erin's giant-ass "FWOOM" of fire there, and the way the outline of the word is puffy-edged and gradated to feel almost three-dimensional, plus once again using Screen or a variation on it so that the stars show up in the background. All this against that stunning plume of fire, which ripples and sparks so gorgeously, and the ending "om" of the onomatopoeia is emphasized incredibly brightly against that, adding to the punch of it and making the plume feel even brighter.

Also, once again, rain helping establish perspective, especially in how it's very angular in the left side of the panel and then slowly becomes more like a point to the right to indicate it's falling directly down on the viewer. Add in the bright, beautiful glow effects, fainter but no less important black lines beneath them to emphasize the sky and smoke and the like, and the stunningly beautiful lighting and gradated glows surrounding Erin plus the lightning jagging up at him from below, and you get one hell of an impactful panel right there. (And there is definitely more in there I could break down, this is just a lot already.)

And in general: The colors in this? Incredible. The blues and purples and oranges and golds compliment so well, and it's all so rich.

Like, seriously, just throughout the whole comic, the use of gradients, blending modes, color balance and hues, all the things, all the things, it makes for the most beautiful effects and glows and such a rich environment. There's a very distinct style to this comic in its simplified backgrounds (which I recognize are done partly because it's way easier and also backgrounds are so time-consuming dear gods but lemme say this) and vivid, smoothly drawn characters; the simplicity lets them come to the front and gives room for those beautiful, richly saturated focal points, letting the stylized designs of the magic and characters shine. The use of distinct silhouettes is insanely good. Honestly, complex backgrounds might run the risk of making everything too visually busy in this case. It's just, augh, so GORGEOUS.

Another bit, take a look at this page (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-15-28/):

It's not quite as evident here as it is in the next page, but this one does some other fun things so I'm grabbing it. Points:

Once again, using different colors to represent different character actions. The "WHAM" of Kendal hitting the ground is caused by Dainix's force, so it's orange (and kudos for doubling the word over to add a shake effect). But we see blue layered underneath, which could be an environmental choice, but might also be because it's Kendal, whose color is blue.

And speaking off, take a look at the right-most panel on top, where Kendal grabs the spear: his motion is, again, illustrated in bright blue, versus the atmospheric screened-on orange lines that point toward him around the whole panel (I'm sure these have a name, I think they might be more of a manga thing though and the only experience I have in manga is reading a bit of Fullmetal Alchemist). Those lines emphasize the weight of the spear being shoved at him, and their color tells us Dainix is responsible for it.

One of my all-time favorite effects in this comic is the way cracks manifest across Dainix's body to represent when he starts to lose control; it is utterly gorgeous and wonderfully thematic. These are more evident in the page before and after this one, but you get a decent idea here. I love the way they glow softly, the way the fire juuuust flickers through at the start and then becomes more evident over time, and the cracks feel so realistic, like his skin is made of pottery. Additional points for how fire begins to creep into his hair.

A small detail that's generally consistent across the comic, but which I want to make note of here because you can see it pretty well: Kendal's eyes glow about the same as the jewel in his sword, mirroring his connection to said sword and calling back to how the jewel became Vash's eye temporarily and thus was once Kendal's eye. You can always see this connection (though there might be some spots where this also changes in a symbolic manner; I went through it quickly on the first time around, so I'll pay more attention when I inevitably reread this), where Kendal's always got that little shine of blue in his eyes the same as the jewel. It's a beautiful visual parallel that encourages the reader to subconsciously link them together, especially since the lines used to illustrate character movements typically mirror their eye color. It's an extension of Kendal.

Did I mention how ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL the colors in this are?

Also, the mythological/legend-type scenes are illustrated in familiar style often used for that type of story, a simple and heavily symbolic two-dimensional cave-painting-like look. They are absolutely beautiful on many levels, employing simple, lovely gradients, slightly rougher and thicker lineart that is nonetheless smoothly beautiful, and working with clear silhouettes (a major strength of this art style, but also a strength in the comic overall). But in particular, I wanted to call attention to a particular thing (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-12-4/):

The flowing symbolic lineart surrounding each character. This is actually quite consistent across characters—see also Life's typical lines and how they curl:

What's particularly interesting here is how these symbols are often similar, but not the same. Vash's lines are always smooth, clean curls, often playing off each other and echoing one another like ripples in a pond. You'd think they'd look too similar to Life's—but they don't. Life's curl like vines, and they remain connected; where one curve might echo another but exist entirely detached from each other in Vash's, Life's lines still remain wound together, because vines are continuous and don't float around. :P

Tahraim's are less continuous, often breaking up with significantly smaller bits and pieces floating around like—of course—sparks, and come to sharper points. These are also constants: we see the vines repeated over and over in Alinua's dreams of Life, and the echoing ripples of Vash are consistent wherever we encounter him. Kendal's dream of the ghost citizens of the city of Vash in the last few chapters is filled with these rippling, echoing patterns, to beautiful effect (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-14/):

They ripple and spiral, often in long, sinuous curves, with smooth elegance. It reminds me a great deal of images of space and sine waves and the like. This establishes a definite feel to these different characters and their magic. And the thing is, that's not something that had to be done—the colors are good at emphasizing who's who. But it was done, and it adds a whole other dimension to the story. Whenever you're in a deity's domain, you know whose it is no matter the color.

Regarding that shape language, I wanted to make another note, too—Vash is sometimes described as chaotic and doing what he likes, which is interesting to me, because smooth, elegant curves and the color blue aren't generally associated with chaos. So while Vash might behave like that on the surface, I'm guessing he's got a lot more going on underneath; he's probably much more intentional in his actions than you'd think at a glance, and he is certainly quite caring with his city. The other thing is that this suits Kendal perfectly. He's a paragon character; he is kind, virtuous, and self-sacrificing, and often we see him aiming to calm others and keep them safe. Blue is such a good color for him. There is… probably more to this, but I'm not deep enough in yet to say.

And here's the thing: I'm only scratching the surface. There is so much more here I'm not covering (color palettes! outfits! character design! environment! the deities! so much more!) and a lot more I can't cover, because I don't have the experience; this is me as a hobbyist artist who happened to take a couple design classes because I wanted to. The art style to this comic is so clever and creative and beautiful, though, I just had to go off about it. <3

...brownie points for getting all the way down here? Have a cookie.

[princema-k]

THE LIVING MUSEUM: CHAPTER 1

(interactive puzzle at the bottom!)

As luck would have it, the detective had a case that had just been given to her by the Chief Constable Barton (talk about a high order!) I watched as she leafed through the folders on her desk before slipping out a small stack of papers and bringing them over to me. Clearing her throat, Detective Layton ran over the details…

“At approximately 2:00pm, a fire alarm in the Natural History Museum sounded. Around 5 minutes later, visitors in the museum reported that they witnessed several exhibits, and I quote, ‘come to life before their eyes.’ There were visitors who told officials that the suits of armour on display had started to move and raise their weapons, visitors who reported that paintings on the walls started to melt and blink, and visitors who said that the dinosaur skeleton exhibits had opened their mouths and moved their heads. But the most damning of all seemed to be the Tyrannosaurus rex exhibit, who not just moved but assumed a lunging stance with its full body, as well as somehow roared.”

“Right, that’s odd. And?”

“Well, since the officials were only able to question the visitors outside of the museum due to everyone having been evacuated because of the fire alarm, naturally they went inside to check the exhibits themselves.”

“And they found…?”

“Nothing. They did a whole sweep of the area, but they found nothing out of place. All exhibits were in their normal places, the paintings were just fine, and everything was untouched.”

“Wow…”

“I assume the reason that Barton held onto what information they had on it and handed it to me was due to the witnesses. Despite the fact that the Yard found no obvious signs of tampering, everyone swears up and down the walls that the museum had seemingly come to life at that moment.”

“...That is a proper mystery. And these files are all we have on the matter?”

“Well, in a sense, yes. These are all the files we have,” Detective Layton muses as she taps the bottom of the stack on the coffee table. Then, getting up, she drops the stack back in their folder. “...Which is why I was thinking of heading over to the museum myself to do a bit of personal investigation.”

“As expected of the great Professor Layton,” I say cheekily as I stand and follow her to the front door, grabbing my jacket off the hanger in the process. The detective sighs lightly as she places her hat on her head, pulling the brim over her eyes in mock disappointment. “Please, Ms. Altava. It's just Detective.”

Now lifting the brim, she smiles brightly as she grabs her umbrella.

“So, Ms. Altava… let’s go investigate this living museum with our own two eyes, shall we?”

And with that, our adventure into the peculiar museum begi-

“Ah, but before that, I have here the directions to the museum written for me by Barton, and it seems to be a puzzle of some sort. As you’re now my assistant, why don’t you give it a shot? Think of it as a warm-up of things to come.”

…Right. She’s Layton’s daughter, after all. How could I have forgotten? …And are we sure they're not really related by blood…?

PUZZLE 1: Where's The Museum?

Take your time and think about the answer, or Flora (and the puzzle master) will be very disappointed in you...!

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J (Need a hint?: 1 | 2 | 3)

(thanks to @justkillingthyme for beta reading, and several mutuals for puzzle testing!)

[kaeyacollection]

Who's ready for my Master Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss Crepus Theory!!

I originally posted this over at Hoyolab and people there seemed to really like my favorite joke theory that Crepus just tries to gaslight the whole of Mondstadt right after obtaining Kaeya

Majority of this will be the same but with little tweaks for the wonderful tumblr audience

This joke stems from Kaeya's introduction:

and the use of the word "rumored"

Cause it's not like it said beyond Teyvat or the seven nations just Mondstadt

And I mean like c'mon how many families are living off the grid in Mondstadt

(Actually... Don't answer that I forgot Glory's boyfriend is just

Out there in the bush with Razor...)

Initially I had the idea of Crepus walking around the markets one day carrying Kaeya with Diluc beside him running into Varka who asks:

"Who's the boy?"

"You mean my son?"

"Not Diluc the boy you're carrying"

"I have two sons? You know this??"

But then the Caribert quest came out mentioning Kaeya ran away from home near immediately and was dragged home by Crepus just as fast and it became even funnier

Cause imagine you're by the docks one day and richest man in town gets off the boat with no cargo but instead a tiny child you may not have seen before that Crepus seems to be very cross with at the moment and threatening to turn him into a leash kid if he runs off again

In a small town that loves gossip do you know how fast that information is spreading? Cause I do and Varka's knocking on Crepus's door 30 minutes later like:

"Is this what we're doing? We're just taking kids now?"

Both paths lead to Varka asking where Kaeya comes from and getting hit with a

"I think you're a bit too old to still be confused about the birds and the bees Varka"

Varka getting frustrated to the point he just starts demanding Kaeya tell him what's up

Love to see him following in his fathers footsteps of stressing Varka the fuck out

And upon hearing how his birth father left for juice and didn't return Varka went

"Good! That was ALL I needed to know!!"

Follow ups on if his father intended to abandon him or got lost in the storm and needed a search party?

Don't care!! You weren't kidnapped!!

Welcome to the knights! 🤝

Which bringing it back to it only being a rumor

In a town of alcoholics, who's gonna call out the one guy with the winery?

Here's some add ons that got sparked from the comment section 😘

Bonus panels would have included Varka showing up with Rosaria one day mimicking Crepus about "wHaT you ForGot I haD a Kid" sparking a trend within the community of just adopting random children to the point posters are made saying "In Barbatos name: See a child Take a child"

Alice seeing it and pulling a "when in rome" tucking both Albedo and Diluc(who is yelling he is an adult) under her arms and telling Klee if she ever sees someone in need of a mom let her know she'll send over the paperwork right away

And then the last bonus: Venti wakes up, walks in through the gate while playing a tune, and stops when he sees the poster, not sure if he needs to start yet another revolution, or if this one is fine actually

I imagine the posters had to be taken down because visitors were losing their kids left and right and the solution of parents pinning a note saying "not dead & still want custody" to their kids shirt didn't catch on but the saying still lives strong in the hearts of Mondstadt's citizens I mean look Bennett and his 27 dads Mondstadt may have a lot of orphans but the demand is even higher

Comment on original post:

"I have a headcanon where Kaeya fooled first Crepus, then the rest of Mondstadt but.this is too funny!! I want to see this happening!"

Which prompted one of my new favorite lines at the end:

"Wait by fool Crepus first do you mean like Crepus finding him out in the storm bringing him inside to ask him where he lives and Kaeya's just

"? I live here? You adopted me? Are you feeling okay?"

Cause I'm absolutely cry laughing over this that's so good but that also means when Kaeya runs away Crepus is just

"hey no no l'm not misplacing you a second time come home" "

[glamreapers]

[krisalyce]

bsd but make it scott pilgrim au where dazai is ramona and when poor kunikida starts dating him he has to fight dazai’s 7 evil exes (just chuuya)

[dailyclassicwho]

DOCTOR WHO (1963) — 10.20 "Planet of the Daleks: Part Six"

[luck-of-the-drawings]

[<==PREV PAGES] [NEXT PAGE==>(not out yet.wait a year.or maybe more.imagine.]

saw alot of comments on prev pages; saying 'i HATE that mean teacher! im gonna FIGHT HIM!!' & i LOVE the energy!! it WOULD be nice. to have that catharsis. but the story of young tidestrider is Not one of catharsis. it is a story of being so small and so special and sucking so bad.

[venjamin-kingdomhearts]

if Daybreak Town Keykids had Tumblr accounts. sure someone else has already made one of these but here’s my take

0 notes

🎆 livelaughlux Follow

hey so - your boyfriend? yeah wanted to let you know that he gave into the darkness of his heart and transformed. yeah, he’s a darkling now. no, sorry, he just wants to steal lux. but look, now he has those cute little elf boots!

#sorry about your boyfriend

🎆 livelaughlux Follow

okay not to interrupt but which two leopardus members are roleplaying warrior cats in the notes of this post. i just wanna talk

13,700 notes

🌸 avas-favorite Follow

🥀 chainbonuschi-713 Follow

are you fucking tone deaf? there are actually kids in unions getting into fights over this shit. one of my old party members lost his heart to darkness over a petty lux dispute, and now you’re seriously pinning unions against each other? you’re part of the problem.

🌸 avas-favorite Follow

you can talk to me when your union isn’t dead last in the leaderboards girlie 😘

13,029 notes

🐍 anguissssssss Follow

i hate you sand i hate you cannoned camels i hate you wily bandits i hate you desert sun i hate you abu i hate you cave of wonders i hate you agrabah

43,713 notes

🌠 ventus-wentus Follow

going to meet master ava today!! i’m super nervous so wish me luck!!!

🌠 ventus-wentus Follow

ooooooooh she says she has something for me!!!! this is like a wish come true 😸😸😸💚💚💚

#its kinda dark in here tho

🌠 ventus-wentus Follow

GUYS you won’t believe what she gave me!!!

🌠 ventus-wentus Follow

why is there blood

3 notes

[saphushia]

haii!!! time to be tortured by another comic for @shepscapades DBHC AU!!

i need to point out, this scene is ✨~NONCANON~✨ to the au, and is kinda just. well i really wanted to create a hypothetical 'what if' scenario to torture shep, honestly. That scenario being, in this case, "hey, what if when Doc and X reboot etho on s9 after the moon crash and he wakes up Wrong and Angry and Bloodlusty, he gets loose on the server before they can shut him down?"

so uh. yeah ^_^ also, look below the cut for ✨fun bonus facts!!✨ (because they got too long to put in the tags)

NUMBER 1!! it got hidden by the text bubble, but in the first panel bdubs is holding his phone. this is because, well, when etho gets out, doc and x immediately start warning ppl. sending messages in chat basically saying 'etho awake, he got out of the lab, something's wrong, he's glitched, he's dangerous, if you see him tell one of us immediately, and BE CAREFUL' and bdubs, of course, processes up to "etho's awake" before dropping everything and going to look everywhere for him. because that's his buddy! etho's been down for repairs for a while he misses him!! he's going to go see his buddy!

2!! in dbh (the actual game), when an android's stress level gets too high, they pretty much start looking for a way to terminate themselves. of course, i'm sure this holds no bearing to the comic! definitely no relation with etho throwing himself into pvp as his stress level skyrockets...

and 3! there's a couple of ways this can end. either, doc and x arriving and one of them having to hold bdubs back as the other deactivates etho, or, option 2, well... at least bdubs will respawn far away and not have to watch :) i'm sure this won't be traumatizing for either of them ^_^

[itissadbutitsmy-life]

i got @micasaur for @riddletransfers’s riddle school exchange!!!! the kids r back in school as they should be :>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[theultimatekamehamehavoc]

toast man based off of THIS POST of mine

[cloudybori]

I'M A BEAST BOY CALL ME TEEN TITAN

[beans-in-a-toaster]

rip Adric of Alzarius, you would've loved competitive NES Tetris

[vicsbasement]

3. Clingy Charles

For the ask game

me using the same tropes and scenes sometimes as a mechanism to get me to write? fork found in the kitchen - if y'all can pinpoint from which fic i took the scene with Charles barging into the office while Carlos was getting fired you get another snippet. Also it seems like Teto is a recurring character in these! It's just that he's been so present lately it's impossible for me to ignore him.

"Leclerc's been acting weird." Teto tells him, one day. Carlos is walking along with him towards the back of the house where the bikes are parked when he says the thing out loud. Carlos arches and eyebrow and turns to him, questioning silently and asking him to elaborate as he starts checking the bike’s tyres are in good shape.

"Haven't you noticed?" Teto asks, his curls swishing to the side when he tilts his head in a silent inquiry. "I know you don't watch things back or anything but ever since they announced... Well. Pretty sure it's from before, even, but ever since the thing went public he's been... I don't know how to say it." Roberto pauses again as they open the garage door and Carlos is already fidgeting with the bike's lock to unclasp it. Carlos nudges him to get his lock off, and Teto obeys for a second while he thinks as the garage door whirs in the background.

"Remember that day I went to the factory with you?" He asks instead, and Carlos nods. It was a couple days after the team called him and met him in private to explain the leaked information about them contacting Lewis. It was a terrible day. He remembers some of it, but the fact that Charles was at the factory stuck to him the most. They weren't supposed to even be there together, let alone meet, but Charles seemed adamant to see him and had barged into the office instead of waiting outside, like he was supposed to.

Carlos was accompanied by his usual posse, his dad, Caco. Teto was there because they'd been training together and since Rupert had left, Carlos missed the company.

When Charles had barged into the office, he seemed out of breath, and his eyes were puffy and red-rimmed. Carlos couldn't really recall the last time he'd seen Charles cry, it had been too long, so he compartmentalized the whole thing as to justify the eyes with some other excuse, like allergies, because Charles was very sensitive to a plant that was very prominent in Italy and the pollen lifted during the winter, so he tended to have a bad time with sneezing and red-rimmed eyes.

"I mean, I remember. But I'm pretty sure that didn't mean much." Carlos says, sure that Teto meant the little display of emotion when he barged into the room.

Still, as soon as he had barged in, he'd bailed. He noticed that they were talking to Fred and Menkies, showered the room with apologies and bolted.

"I'm not talking about him barging in." Teto says, and Carlos now really is confused. If it wasn't about that, what was it?

"When we got out of the office, he— remember he asked for your dad's permission to take you out to eat?"

"Pretty sure he was just being polite, given that we were all there together and he was sort of breaking us up."

"Yeah, but... Well, okay, then, if you didn't notice that I don't know what to tell you. Still, have you watched the interview you guys did before Bahrain?"

"I watched it before they edited it." Carlos replies. And Teto's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline as he gets on his bike, still trying to make a point.

"You didn't notice how he physically recoils from the reminder that you're leaving?" He insists, and Carlos gets a little defensive because this isn’t really what he wants to be discussing right now, so he gets on his bike and whirs the pedals to fill the silence. Still, Teto nudges his shoulder so they both bike slowly towards the exit of the garage.

"Oye, Teto, ya está, ¿sí? Te estás pasando con lo de interactuar con las fans, tío. Qué coño le va a importar a Leclerc si me voy o no..." Carlos says, his tone final. Teto shrugs his shoulder cartoonishly as he takes the lead, moving swiftly out of the driveway.

"Oh, Carlos, you've got big eyes but not a good way to use them. You'll see. He's... I don't know. He's been different.” Roberto keeps searching for a word as he stops in the driveway to get his helmet on. “Changing. Like he's... Clingy!” He snaps his fingers victoriously. “That's the word. He's been clingy towards you. And he is like that sometimes but only when you start it. Now it's like he's... Craving it. I don't know, man."

"What the fuck are you saying, cabrón?" Carlos fights the urge to kick his shins as he puts his own helmet on. Sometimes when Teto gets an idea in his head its nearly impossible to convince him otherwise.

"Que Leclerc se va a dar una hostia de los cojones este año cuando se dé cuenta del compañero que está perdiendo, cabrón. Ya vas a ver." Teto grabs the handle of his bike, jumps back on it and starts pedaling in a soft pace, Carlos in tow.

"Huh. Well, okay, then. Let's... Start the season and see."