#i will probably draw another pixel guy some day in the close future....

[brainworms-all-night-long]

Get pixelated idiot

[imagineclaireandjamie]

Here I am, minding my own business scrolling through when I stumble upon deep within. Already I’m so invested! Thank you for this wonderful story... can’t wait to read more!

I know I’ve answered this prompt, but it made me so happy that I did it twice. Enjoy the next part:

Deep Within The Darkness Peering: Part i; Chapter THREE.

“Have you ever done anything impetuous?” The question was rhetorical and John knew it having known Claire since college, she already knew that he had. “The other week someone was airlifted in, a prisoner, and I need to help him.”

“What? Claire? Are you insane?” He spluttered, holding the phone close to his ear as he paced the length of his large office in shock. A high flying barrister in the city, John rarely had to attend to questions from her regarding his job so it had come as a shock to him when she’d called so out of the blue.

“Before you say anything, he hasn’t put me up to this. Please, John, just hear me out, okay?”

“Jeez, why could this not be something simple?” He asked, massaging his temples with his free hand.

“He was up for parole but the fight that landed him in my care got back to the governors and whilst he was in the hospital they denied his request and rubber stamped it. He’s been told he can’t appeal, that it’s final. But he didn’t start the scuffle, he was so badly injured, he flatlined once on the table and spent another week in an induced coma. He told me he didn’t fight back and I trust him. I don’t know what happened, what they did to him, but something tells me their purpose was to keep him there for the foreseeable future.”

“What’s his name?” Pulling his laptop from its bag, he let it load whilst grabbing a tumbler and a new bottle of whisky, clearly it was going to be a long night.

“Jamie,” she began, shaking her head and correcting herself as she wrapped her frozen hands around a warm cup of tea, “James Fraser.”

“Christ, Claire! You know what he did right?”

Taken aback by the fact that John knew who Jamie was without even having to look him up, she nearly dropped the boiling liquid onto her lap. “Yes, but--”

“But nothing. You cannot be serious. He *beat* a captain beyond recognition and left him for dead in an alley. If they denied his request then it’s because his conviction is too severe, that and they probably don’t trust that he can rehabilitate himself." His research was leading him deeper into the case as he read the transcripts from various stages of Fraser’s trial. “How can we prove that what he says about the fight in prison is accurate? You might be right, he might not have instigated it or even lashed out during it, but I doubt there’s any evidence to support his claims.”

“So there’s nothing to be done?” Hanging her head in defeat, she let out the breath she’d been holding, her stomach feeling hollow at the prospect of failing him.

“You didn’t make him any promises, did you?” He asked cautiously.

“No. I didn’t even mention that I was contemplating this, I didn’t know what chance I had of getting a hold of you in time, let alone you knowing his case.”

“I don’t - really, I just know *of* it.”

“And what do you know about the cop, the guy he attacked? One of the guards mentioned him in passing.”

John could tell there was more to it by the tone of her voice but didn’t press for information. Shaking his head, he considered his options. He knew some home truths about the man, opinions and facts that he’d heard pass through the high court offices and as much as he trusted Claire, she seemed to have a vested interest in Fraser and he didn’t want to lend hope to her cause where there was none.

Against his better judgement, though, he stuck to the truth - reciting as much as he felt able to divulge. “His name is Captain Jack Randall. Quite a decorated officer, he has been known to employ less than favourable methods of extraction when it comes to confessions but nothing has ever come from the claims. He’s like Marmite, it seems, either you love him or…” he took a deep breath; the truth, he told himself again, “you hate him.”

“John,” she asked, her spine tingling as she felt hope and fear mingle in her belly, “is there a chance that this...Randall...is stretching the truth? O-or that he caused the fight? To try and keep Jamie inside?”

“I don’t know, Claire. Honestly. I’d have to look further into it. But, and I’m playing devil's advocate here, absolutely anything is possible. It’s rare, but where there is corruption, it often runs deep.”

-- --- --

Throughout her next shift she ignored the feeling in her gut, the twinge of discomfort that had the power to render her immobile if she stopped to think about it for too long. Keeping her promise, she went to see Jamie one last time before they discharged him but they didn’t speak much. She wanted to reach out to him, to tell him about the conversation she’d had with John, but something told her that it was unfair to raise his hopes - especially with a new batch of guards on duty, two she did not know.

“Do you need anything?” She asked, placing the back of her hand lightly against his forehead mimicking the motions of checking his temperature to keep her hands busy. “Something more to eat, or your wounds redressed...just in case?” Without asking for further permission, though, she took the salve that she’d placed in the draw beside his bed and massaged a little more into the chafed sores that lined his wrists. She’d taken to silently doing this every day. The handcuffs that bound him rubbed, and she could tell he was bothered by it - though he would never say.

“Thank ye, nurse Beauchamp,” she could tell by his immediate formality that he was being wary, “but I dinna need anything more.”

“Take care of yourself, Mr Fraser.” She said, returning the sentiment.

Pulling the blanket up and over his stomach, she smiled sadly before returning back to her waiting patients. It was hard to leave him, much harder than she’d originally thought but John was a bloody good barrister. If anyone could help it was him.

The rest of the day dragged at an exceedingly slow pace and every moment she had time to herself she considered going back to check on him one last time. And every time she did, Glenna would raise a brow at her and subtly shake her head. There was nothing more she could do for now and loitering around would only arouse suspicion.

She did, however, hang around the nurses station long enough to watch the corridor clear as they led him away. Looking at his feet, he didn’t glance up though she willed him to, just for one last chance at reassurance. Her heart dropped in her chest the moment he was out of sight, a feeling of loneliness taking root in the base of her stomach.

“Come now, Claire,” Glenna whispered, rubbing her elbow gently, “final rounds before dinner, maybe Mrs Greaves will tell us another tale of her time in the army, aye?”

The red button on her answering machine was blinking wildly by the time she arrived home. As she threw her keys in the bowl beside the door and removed her shoes, she pressed play, put her work lanyard by her keys and half listened to the first message.

“Stupid spam companies.” She cursed as a woman with a cockney accent wittered on about accident claims. It wasn’t until she heard John’s voice that she began to fully pay attention. Quickly rewinding the tape, she replayed the message, the breath catching in her throat as hope swelled in her chest.

“Hi Claire, it’s me, John,” his manicured English accent seemed more prominent on the tape making each of his words clear and pronounced, “it turns out you were right about the fight. There’s video evidence from the security footage that shows the prisoners setting to your Mr Fraser. It’s too pixelated to make out what happened to start it, or what they used to cause him such damage but it’s enough for me to make a clear case for another hearing of his probation case. I called the hospital, they said you’d be off by midnight. Please get some rest now and meet me in the cafe at the end of your road for breakfast - we’ll talk more then.”

Pulling out her mobile, she penned him a quick message, a real smile covering her face as she slumped against the wall, relief coursing through her.

Morning seemed ages away, the hours ticking by slowly. Unable to relax, Claire sat in bed with a cup of tea and a new book. The mattress was comfy, a new one she’d purchased not long ago, and she couldn’t help but hope Jamie wasn’t in too much pain sleeping, once again, on his prison cot. The alarm woke her some time later as she blinked her eyes sleepily, sat upright in bed -her book now resting on her lap- and slid herself from beneath the sheets. Noting the time, she dressed quickly, pulling the scarf around her neck as she walked the few steps between her apartment and the tiny greasy spoon she occasionally purchased breakfast from.

John was already there, looking massively out of place in his suit and tie, supping quietly on his first cup of coffee. His first words to her, though, were only cautiously optimistic.

“I just have to warn you, Claire, there is still a lot standing between Fraser and his freedom. Remember, he attacked a policeman, he’s served half his jail time and has amassed a good record whilst being incarcerated. That,” he said, looking pointedly at her, “will work in his favour and now we can be certain he didn’t instigate or take part in the assault against himself it’ll make him seem more of a good candidate. But, there is one thing you have to know…”

She waited, certain that no matter what John said she was set on her course. “It won’t matter.” If they had cause to hide information about the skirmish to scupper his probation case, there was no telling what else they were capable of.

Surveying her expression, he could tell she wasn’t backing down. “He has no place of residence listed on his file. With no home, no accepting family, he’ll just be denied again. Once he’s served his time, in full, they’ll let him free without worrying too much about that. But for probation to be approved you need to provide evidence of a fixed, permanent address.”

“So...what if I offer mine up to him, just for the duration of his probation.”

“You do know how long that would be, don’t you?”

She didn’t, but she knew he’d clue her in.

“Four years, his total sentence is eight years.”

“Shit, John, he’s been inside since he was twenty!?” The colour drained from her face, her nails digging into the rough wooden table. Burying the shock, she swallowed, wrapping her hands around her small glass of water to keep herself still. “It doesn’t matter, I don’t care how long it would be for, my offer remains the same. If he needs a sponsor, I’ll do it.”

Sighing, John brought his hand to rest over hers. “This is all very gallant of you and I’m sure he’ll be really grateful to you, but I need you to seriously consider the consequences of this decision, of the choice you’re making.”

“I trust him, John. I know you think it’s madness, I can tell by the look in your eyes. And yes, I don’t really know him all that well. But I just *know*, something in my heart tells me this is the right thing to do, that he needs this. You didn’t see him after he got the news. You didn’t see his face, the fear etched deep behind his eyes. He’s terrified, John. Petrified. It might be a naive notion, but I got the distinct impression he didn’t feel safe going back there. For all we know, the damage might have already been done. But if anything else happens to him, I’ll never be able to forgive myself.”

“Alright then.” Squeezing the side of her palm, he took one last sip of his drink and placed the mug back onto the table. “Just know, though, if any harm comes to you, I’ll never forgive myself. And if he does something to jeopardize his probation, it may directly impact on you. On your home, your career...your wellbeing.”

“Thank you.” Resting her head against his shoulder, she breathed an easy breath, the scent of boiled coffee filling her lungs. “I really appreciate you taking the time to work on this for me.”

After a brief term dating at the beginning of university, John had confessed his true proclivities to Claire and they had turned into fast friends. His family, like hers, had a certain reputation and his parents were clear on his path. Degree, law school, marriage and kids; and though they hadn’t been outwardly disappointed by his confession when he’d finally worked up the guts to tell them, his relationship had suffered because of it.

Claire had stuck by him, had moved to Glasgow shortly after he’d been promoted here and had become more like a sister than a best friend. Her story had hit him harder than he cared to admit. With no remaining family of her own, she had a tendency to gravitate towards people who needed a home and even if Fraser turned out to be unworthy of her help, he knew she wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it if she didn’t at least try.

“I’ll do what I can. It could take a while, a few weeks maybe, so don’t panic if we don’t have an answer immediately.”

“Will it take as long as the original hearing.”

“Six months? Gosh no. I could take up to a month, depending on whether the board drag their heels, but if we put a little pressure on them -not enough to anger them, mind- we should have an answer in a week or two.”

[suicidalcatz]

DOG DAYS ARE OVER : CHAP 5

AN: Hello frens! Are you having a nice sunday? In this chapter we exchange some texts. But also we make fun of Josh just because. In the next chapter, things get complicated between the three of you... I hope you’ll like it. Please feel free to comment or send me prompts!

Pairing : Jake Kiszka x Reader

Genre : College AU

Previous parts : Prologue ; Chap 1 ; Chap 2 ; Chap 3 ; Chap 4

Masterlist : here

Chapter five : New number, who dis ?

Packing never made me feel weird before. It was friday afternoon so a majority of students were going home or, like me, to their parents' place for the week end. Most of the time I'd stay in my dorm with Mandy because we had so much homework there was no point coming home at all. I already knew for a fact that I'll be locked up in my room all week end painting, drawing, and cutting paper, but I promised I'd see them since it has been a while. My parents' cooking and comfy house usually made me impatient but not this time. I knew the boys were staying on campus because they lived far away, and it gave me mixed feelings. Part of me longed for Jake, and the feeling of his touch on my wrist was still so vivid I sometimes got the impression his hand was still here. On the other hand, he and Josh were big family guys, and seeing them missing their home so much while I was reluctant to see mine made me feel like a spoiled brat. That's why instead of calling to tell my parents I wasn't coming home this week end either, I went home to enjoy every bit of it.

My mom had already made my favorite dish, and dad was excitedly chatting about this new movie  he saw on tv the other day. It felt good, I could allow myself to relax a little, take a bath, hang out with some friends for an hour or two after finishing an assignment.

Sitting at my desk, I dropped the pen and stretched my back, falling back onto the chair and looking at my work. I did good this week, so the teacher didn't make me redo any of my assignments, which was very fortunate because I still had a flyer design to create. I unfolded that one Jake gave to me and took a look at all the infos, preparing a draft of my first idea. Why they didn't let the Illustration department do the visual com design was a mystery. By the look of it I bet it was the Music and Architecture dudes who made it. There was a bunch of band names thrown in the middle, what looked like a pixelled stock image of a Santa hat in a corner, « with beer ! » in a really ugly comic bubble in another, and the worst was that they though Comic Sans was an acceptable font choice. Unbelievable. That's why we can't let Architecture dudes do anything.

Creating a decent design took me a solid two hours, which was way faster than I planned. Getting up, I studied it from a distance, looking for flaws. It wasn't the best I could've done but it was pretty cool and not printed with neon yellow paper. For now, I'll rest my head for a bit and see if I can sketch the few more ideas I came up with later on. Feeling proud of my work, I took a picture to send it to Jake. It was dark and quiet outside, and one glance at the clock confirmed my thoughts on how late it was already. Biting my lower lip, I struggled. Maybe he was sleeping.

I never texted him since he gave me his number. I mean he gave it to me so we could talk about the flyers, right ? I would've been uneasy using it for another reason. Pondering whether of not I should maybe wake him up, I started pacing in my room, tidying and touching things, stuff I did when I was nervous. My arm still had some black marker on it, faded shapes and symbols vaguely resembling numbers, like an old letter with smudged ink and discolored paper. At first I didn't wanted to wash it off. Mandy and I got so excited by it we cheered together right after school, and classmates seemed intrigued by it. The cold weather didn't allow me to show too much skin so it could look like a tattoo, or a hot guy gave me his number (which was technically true). It could look like I just wrote it myself, but it was totally lame so I didn't want to think about it. Although I really enjoyed that empowering feeling of being someone's interest, at least a little, I scrubbed it hard the same evening. I didn't know if Josh was aware of it and couldn't raise suspicion in case he wasn't. It looked like we were doing something bad, and maybe we were, I had no clue. Guys had that weird rule regarding friends dating brothers and according to Netflix romcoms I was walking on thin fucking ice so I wasn't taking any risks. To be honest I don't think Josh would mind us talking but Jake seemed like a secretive guys so if he told Josh then I'll talk about it and otherwise, I won't. I'll just go with the flow and follow his lead on this, it was safer.

It was almost 2AM when I sent the pic and left my room to get a nice cup of tea/coffee after all these efforts. By the time I got back I had one new message.

« Hi to you too »

I felt my heart jump a little when I saw his name at the top of the screen, and his first text made me smile. I got so pumped by all these design ideas that I forgot to tell him it was me. The picture made it clear enough, though, but maybe it was a bit rude of me. Taking a sip of hot tea/coffee before putting the mug on the night table, I sat on the bed, eyes still on my phone, thinking of an answer. It took me maybe too long because I kept on rereading it to be sure I wouldn't embarrass myself with a typo.

« Hi, sorry. So what do you think ? »

The phone was threwn on the blankets and I turned on the tv to make me think of something else than his future reply. Saying that I was confident would be half-true. The design was good or so I thought so, but then again tastes were all too subjectives and art was tricky. He had all the right to hate it, I wouldn't take it personally (well at least not a hundred percent...). Idly watching a re-run of some old sitcom, I continued to quietly empty my cup and switch channels without really paying attention when I heard my phone buzz and let everything down to grab it.

« I got to admit you were right, our flyers sucked, this one looks fantastic »

And maybe my cheeks started turning pink. Compliments on my art meant a lot, more than those on my personnality or physic. It was really rewarding to have someone enjoy something you created from your own hands. It felt better than any other flattery, so the reply came naturally.

« I'm so glad you like it. I had a few more ideas in stock just in case »

His next message came so fast this time that I didn't even put down my phone yet when I felt it vibrate in my palm.

« Thank you for this, I really appreciate it. I'll owe you one. »

His sweet personality made a smile spread across my face. I took the flyer in my hand again, studying it. The number of bands playing this day was surprisingly high. Some of them I knew because I either heard people talk about it, or knew the guys playing. One especially because they kept rehearsing their rap lyrics in the dorms for everybody to enjoy, which I didn't since they started loudly singing at three in the morning and ignored all my complaints about the noise of their boombox. But most of the bands, no, I didn't know. I continued watching intently the names of the bands playing as if I'll have an epiphany and guess which was Jake's. Giving up, I took my phone again to tap.

« Don't sweat it, I'm glad to help. So... which one are you... ? »

Again, the reply was faster than the first texts we exchanged, despite the late hour.

« You mean the band ? Guess you'll have to come and find out »

I raised an amused eyebrow at this. Getting cocky, aren't we ?

« Alright then, Mister Mysterious, I'll wait and see. »

« You won't regret it. », replied Jake, and for some reason my face started heating up again.

We didn't speak for several minutes, I didn't know what to say now that the topic was closed, and I had nothing to add to it. Switching channels and drinking tea/coffee didn't gave me much help either, at this hour it was either old re-runs, or tv shopping. My eyes looked at the digital alarm clock, and it was almost three in the morning. That's how I knew what to write next.

« I just thought about it, but didn't I wake you up ? »

He was fast as ever again this time, probably wide awake and without anything to do.

« No, don't worry. Rehearsing with my brothers. I'm taking a break until Sam and Josh stop arguing and find a compromise for the new song. Our friend Danny's being the peace keeper once again, I left him alone on the battlefield and went out for a smoke. »

The war metaphor made me chuckle lightly, causing my imagination to run wild. The thought went through my mind that I couldn't believe they would argue, but since they were brothers it was normal I guess, even if they seemed pretty close. Close enough to form a band together at least. I never saw Josh angry, but he had a very vivid temperament, so it wasn't really much of a surprise either. My mind wandered a bit, and I briefly wondered how Jake looked in a heated argument. Probably hot, but also intimidating. He had that kind of quiet aura that seemed like it could become suddenly agitated, like a spotless watercourse that got troubled by the rain or rocks that ricocheted on it. I couldn't explain it, but it was how my limited knowledge of him perceived it.

My phone buzzed again, and this time it was a picture that made me snort in the ugliest way possible. It was a very unflattering close up of a moody and clearly unamused Josh who looked like he was in the middle of scolding Jake for doing whatever he did that got him upset. More of it  came, one after the other, for my greatest amusement, and by looking at them in order I could see his actions and movements, like a flipbook of ugly pictures of an angry Josh wearing a colorful dyed t shirt and ample pants that I assumed were his pajamas. The last one got me shaking with laughter, poor Josh looked awful, in a middle of what I assumed was a menacing speech for Jake to stop his bullshit, with an eye half closed and his mouth stuck the weirdest twist of the lips humanly possible. I saved this one as blackmail material, might be helpful in the future.

I didn't even know what to respond to that, they all radiated such chaotic energy it was splendid. Jake was quicker, and sent me a text this time, saying Josh threw his slipper at his face and that he was lucky he hadn't had the tambourine in his hands at that moment.

« I guess rehearsal is over for today, hopefully they'll make up their minds about the song tomorrow. Thanks again for the flyers, see you on monday, we'll print them. »

I never knew I'd be that impatient to go back to school before meeting him.

[walviemort]

paternal instincts, part 6

Emma’s fear of pregnancy leads Killian to find—and use—a spell that allows him to carry their child instead. A canon-divergent CS pregnancy fic, just with the roles flipped a bit. (mpreg; rated T for implied sexy times) | AO3

A/N: dedicated to @sherlockianwhovian and @cocohook38 for their inspiration, and to @jennjenn615, @mayquita, and @devilish-pixel for their support! Thank you!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Chapter 6: Almost There

Summary: Killian's due date is drawing near. But first, he has to confront a scary situation, both physically and emotionally, with David; gets some interesting news from Belle; and pray that Snow can help him conquer boredom while waiting for their little bean to arrive.

Summer began to fade into fall and Killian’s due date loomed on the horizon. He still had quite a ways to go—seven weeks, by the doctor’s calculations. One one hand, he was eager to meet their daughter; but on the other (well, on his hook), he was glad they still had time to prepare.

That morning, Emma and Snow had shooed him and David out of the house so they could finish the nursery. They hadn’t wanted a full baby shower, but that didn’t stop the residents of Storybrooke from bringing them just about everything they could possibly need, and the ladies were bound and determined to get it organized today. For some reason, they assumed Killian would just be a hindrance, so Snow had put Neal in David’s arms and told the two of them to find something else to do.

They started with a late breakfast at Granny’s, where Killian initially balked at the size of the stack of pancakes she served him, only to finish them all off easily (no wonder Emma had to order him a larger size of maternity jeans). Then, since the weather was perfect albeit on the cool side, they decided it was a great day for a sail, and it likely would be the last chance he’d have to get out on the water for quite some time.

Not an hour later, they were fully at sea, Killian at the helm while David played with Neal on the deck. The sight of the little boy in his thick life jacket made Killian eager for the day his lass could do the same; and if the way she was moving around within him was any indication, she couldn’t wait either. That must have been why she jabbed him in the rib.

“Behave yourself, lass,” he whispered to her, rubbing at the spot she’d hit on the side of his 33-week belly through the thick hoodie he’d borrowed from David, though even that, oversized as it was, only just covered him. He couldn’t stand quite as close to the helm as he was used to, but having the ship’s wheel under his hand and staring out at the horizon still managed to calm him as it usually did.

Which was a good thing, because his thoughts had been everywhere lately. Quite often, they drifted to his good-for-nothing father, and how drastically that man paled in comparison to Emma’s. And what happened with Baelfire still haunted him, even though he knew he wasn’t that man anymore.

Watching David in action right then, and knowing all the man had done for his children, made him wonder what kind of father he would be; he couldn’t help the irrational worry that he’d be more like his own, even though he had vowed time and time again to not be like that, and Emma had reassured him he wouldn’t a thousand times over.

They’d been attending classes to prepare for birth and the early months of childcare, but he still felt somewhat overwhelmed at the prospect. Truthfully, what if he wasn’t fit to be a father?

As if she was confirming his fears—or possibly trying to tell him to get out of his own head—the babe gave him another sharp kick. Wait, no—that was stronger than a kick; this felt more like a cramp, and all over his stomach. He winced at it and started to rub the top of his belly to ease the pain. What was that?

Then it happened again, not even a minute later, but harder, making him curl in on himself as much as he could. He cried out involuntarily and gripped the wheel tight to hold himself up. Panic began to set in; what was going on?

“Hook!” Suddenly, David was at his side, one hand holding his shoulder and the other rubbing his back in a comforting motion. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I-I don’t know, mate—ahh!” His gasping turned into another cry as the pain clenched his abdomen again, even stronger this time, making him drop to his knees.

“Killian, is it the baby?” David asked, his voice just as frantic as Killian felt.

“It can’t be; it’s too soon!” he managed he managed to gasp out, but—was it? Was he having contractions already? He tried to take deep breaths, but his heart was almost racing too much for them to be effective.

“Come on; let’s get you below deck,” Dave said in an attempt at an authoritative tone, but Killian could tell he was freaking out as much as he was. Nevertheless, the prince slipped his hands under Killian’s shoulders and hauled him to his feet carefully but quickly, and started to lead him down the stairs from the quarterdeck, but Killian’s knees buckled after the first step from the residual pain.

David guided him to a seated position on the steps and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “We’re still in range. I’m calling Snow.”

“Good,” Killian panted out. The pain had subsided a bit since he sat down, and he could still feel his daughter moving around, but he was filled with fear—was she truly making her appearance so early? Would he be able to get to the hospital in time, or would he deliver her out here, without medical aid?

And, most importantly, what would it mean for her? He’d been following her development week by week through an app on Emma’s phone, and he knew babies born this early could survive, but it was risky.

Worst, was he the reason for this? Had he done something wrong that had brought this on? Was he failing his babe before she was even born?

He was pulled from his increasingly dark thoughts by a tiny squeeze on his knee. Little Neal was staring up at him with concern in his big blue eyes. “Kill’n, you okay?” he asked in his toddler voice.

“I hope so, lad,” he answered truthfully, and reached up to ruffle the boy’s dark hair. When he pulled his hand back, Neal grabbed it with his smaller one and held tight, as if he knew Killian need the extra comfort. Killian squeezed back, in awe of the depth of compassion from one so young; clearly, he learned it from his parents.

“Snow! Finally!” David shouted, pacing the deck with his phone at his ear. “It’s Hook; we think he’s having contractions.” He watched Killian as Snow talked to him, though Killian couldn’t hear what was being said, until, “Yeah, hold on.” He pulled the device away from his face and fiddled with it, finally saying, “Okay, you’re on speaker.”

“Killian, can you hear me?” Snow’s voice sounded from the phone.

“Yeah,” he called back, voice still strained but the pain was fading.

“Okay, Emma is checking things on her end to see if it’s labor, but tell me what you felt.” He described the sharp, sudden convulsion (“It was like everything was contracting; that’s what a contraction is, isn’t it?”) and answered her questions about where he felt it, how many times, and how far apart they were.

Eventually, he heard the murmur of Emma’s voice in the background. “Okay, Emma says things are normal with her, so I’m pretty sure you were just having Braxton-Hicks contractions; false labor.”

He sighed in relief; in his panic, he’d forgotten about those.

“Just take it easy for a bit and you’ll be fine,” Snow assured him.

“Aye, milady, I will; thank you,” he replied in a tired voice.

Emma must have wrested the phone from her mother, because she spoke next. “Killian? You okay?”

“I think so, love.”

“I know; those are scary. Henry freaked me out with them so many times. I didn’t even know I was actually having him until my water broke.” He swallowed; he loved Emma, but her bedside manner could use some improvement. “Sorry; that probably wasn’t very comforting.”

“Not really, no.”

“Just relax and you’ll be fine; I promise. Think you can do that?”

“I’ll try.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Neal dashed off then, wanting to talk to his mom for a moment, so Killian leaned back on the stairs as much as he could, propping himself up with his now-free hand and cradling his belly with his hooked arm. Thankfully, his daughter seemed unperturbed by what had just happened; he wished he could say the same.

“Hey, Killian?” David was in front of him. “Is it cool if I put this guy down for a nap in your cabin?” He had Neal in his arms now, who was resting his head on his father’s shoulder. It was unbelievably precious and immediately brought a tear to Killian’s eye; goodness, he was getting tired of those moodswings.

“Of course it is. Captain’s quarters for the guest of honor,” he managed to get out without sounding too maudlin.

“Cool, thanks. I’ll be back up in a bit.”

Killian watched as they disappeared below deck, knowing that someday in the not-too-distant future, that would be him with his little lass. He truly couldn’t wait for it, but how would he know what to do? Had they rushed into this?

It took some struggle, but he was able to heft himself to his feet, and waddle—yes, he waddled now—over to the railing to gaze out over the water. He could really use its calming effect about now.

As captain, he was used to being the one in command and always having control of a situation, or at least being able to think fast to handle whatever came at him. But with this pregnancy and this child, he was constantly at the disadvantage and unable to predict what would come. Not only was it personally upsetting, but how was he supposed to protect his child like that?

The ship creaked as David came back on deck and walked over to Killian. “So, how about you tell me how you really feel, because I can tell you were lying to Emma.”

Killian sighed. “Is it that obvious?”

David turned around and leaned against the edge of the railing, causing some paternal instinct in Killian to shout a warning about being careful, but he bit his tongue.

“I may not have been exactly in your shoes, but I’ve done the expectant father thing twice now,” David lectured. “I can tell you’re worried. And I can also tell you that you shouldn’t be.”

“How can I not be, Dave?” Killian blurted out. “I didn’t even know what was going on just now, and given my history, I’m not sure I ever will. And I see you, and you make it look so easy. How the bloody hell am I supposed to raise a child from infancy, when I’ve no clue what to do?” He could feel a tear running down his cheek from his outburst, but the wave of worries within him was cresting and crashing and Dave was unfortunately the one there for it.

Dave hardly reacted to it, though. “You know what I’m gonna tell you, right?”

“That I’m being irrational,” he muttered, wiping his cheeks.

“No!” David sounded almost offended at that. “For one, if I make it look easy, it’s only because I’ve had a bit of practice. But you were there before Neal was born—you remember how I had to physically fight my insecurities.” Killian nodded. “The thing is, the fight never ends; you’re always going to wonder if you’re doing the right thing. And all you can do is keep trying, and giving it your all.”

“But what if I do something wrong?” Killian asked in a watery voice.

“You will. We all do. But you learn from it and move forward. No one is perfect, but the best parents are the ones that never give up. And, for the record—” David placed a comforting hand on Killian’s shoulder—“I’ve watched you with Henry, and Neal, and Gideon, and I’ve gotta say: you’re gonna be amazing.”

Killian sniffed—it was supposed to be a snort of derision, but his lingering tears ruined the effect. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“Come on, you know I’m a terrible liar,” David told him, squeezing his shoulder. “You’re going to be overwhelmed and terrified and elated, all at the same time. And you know what?”

“What?”

“You’ve got someone at your side who will be going through all of that, too. And you guys will be just fine.”

Killian could feel his eyes brimming with tears again, and did all he could to blink them back, but he knew it was a losing battle.

“What? What did I say wrong?” Dave asked, worried.

“Nothing; you said everything right,” Killian answered, choking back a sob. “I’m just still not used to people believing in me; it means more than I can tell you.”

David just smiled and opened his arms. “Come here, man.” And he held Killian as he wept for infinite reasons, some known, some unknown, made all the more awkward with the bump between them, but in the end, Killian felt better than he had in weeks.

“Thanks, mate,” he said softly, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of the sweatshirt. “Oh, and sorry,” he quickly added, and wiped the remnants of his blubbering off David’s jacket.

“Hey, if it helped, then it’s the least I can do. But maybe tell my granddaughter to calm down with the kicking?” he teased. She’d been quite active while Killian let it all out, mostly toward David.

“Don’t act as though you didn’t enjoy it, mate,” Killian threw back with a wink as he slowly climbed back to the helm. “I think it means she likes you.”

“How could she not?”

They shared another laugh as they got ready to take the ship back to the docks. Killian was still nervous about everything, but at least now he knew he wasn’t the only one in that boat, both literally and figuratively.

“Uncle Killy, she’s hitting me!”

Killian could only chuckle at Gideon’s exclamation. “Is she, now?” It was true—his daughter was kicking up a storm as he tried to read to Gideon at the library. Gideon was making do with what little of Killian’s lap was left, which, at 36 weeks, wasn’t much. “You know, that’s her way of saying ‘hi!’”

“Yeah?” The boy looked up at him in wonder, his brown eyes wide.

“Mhmm. Here.” He took Gideon’s chubby little hands and placed them on his belly, right where she was moving around. “Feel that?”

“Yeah!” Gideon shouted, pressing his hands back against her, only for her to kick back. His tiny giggles and their interaction were possibly the most precious thing Killian had ever seen, and he couldn’t wait for Gideon to meet his “cousin” when she was outside in a few weeks.

Eventually, they got back to reading, which meant that eventually, Gideon fell asleep. He lifted the dreaming lad up with his left arm to prop him against his shoulder, leaving his hand free to track his daughter’s movements within.

It was probably a premature thought, but Killian could almost envision being in this position again someday, but with his daughter in his arms and a new little one on the way. He shook his head—he was getting far ahead of himself. And it didn’t help that he was projecting his daughter on every small one in town, wondering if she would be like one of them, or more likely, none of them.

Much like that day all those months ago, Belle brought him a cup of tea and settled into the chair next to him.

“Oh, do you want me to take him? That can’t be comfortable,” she said, starting to reach for Gideon, but he waved her off.

“He’s fine, love. Best not to disturb him.”

“Only if you insist.” She relaxed back in her seat. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine, other than the constant sensation that someone has strapped a large melon to my gut.”

“Oh come on; it can’t possibly feel like that.”

“You’re right. It’s heavier, and moves around far too much,” he retorted with a wink.

She laughed a bit, but there was something wistful in her eyes and small smile. “I do still wish I’d been able to experience all that normally.”

“Are you sure? Even after seeing how fat I’ve gotten?” he jested, patting his belly. In addition to larger jeans, Emma had also bought him a size larger in tshirts but even those were straining now. He knew he wasn’t truly as big as he thought he was, but he certainly wasn’t small anymore.

“Oh, hush! You look fantastic,” she assured him. “And yes. I’m thrilled that we got a second chance to raise him, but I still feel like I missed out on these moments—watching him grow and feeling him move on the inside.”

“I know, love.” What happened with Belle’s pregnancy had been at the back of his mind the last several months, and he was eternally grateful that no villain had set their designs on the product of his and Emma’s True Love; but he wished his friend had been spared that. “Do you ever think you might try it again?”

“No, we’re happy with one. Actually,” she started, suddenly looking unsure. “That reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“What is it?”

She wrung her hands a bit before speaking again. “Well, when Gideon gets a bit bigger—maybe in a year or so—we’ve decided that we’d like to travel, and finally see the realms.”

His initial reaction was a pang to the heart—his best friend was leaving? But all she had ever wanted was to see the worlds; how could he not be thrilled for her that she’d finally have that chance? “That sounds spectacular, my dear. You’ll finally get what you’ve always dreamed of.” (His voice may have been a bit watery.)

She grinned back. “But, that leads me to my next question. You don’t have to answer now, and I don’t want you to feel obligated, but...would you consider taking over here when I leave?”

His jaw dropped—she was asking him to run the library? This place was like a child to her, and she tended to it almost as much as she did Gideon. And she wanted to entrust it to him?

“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” she said quickly, filling the silence that had hung over them with his lack of answer. “I know you like working at the station with Emma and everything, but—”

“Belle, I’d love to,” he interrupted. “I’m...I’m actually honored that you’d even consider me to replace you. Not that I ever could, of course, but I’d gladly try to maintain what you’ve started.���

“I know you would; that’s why I asked.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “But you’ve got plenty of time to think it over and talk with Emma. For now, you just focus on bringing that sweet little girl into the world.”

“Aye-aye, Captain,” he replied with a smile.

They sat in silence for a bit after that, not because they had nothing else to say, but more to just enjoy this moment of peace together before taking the next steps in their respective adventures.

Killian was quite ready to take that step, too, and only got more eager as his due date drew near.

“Aren’t you ready to come out yet, little love?” he asked the child in his belly as he lounged on their sofa. “It feels like you’ve been in there for ages.”

Truly, it had only been 39 weeks, but in some ways, it felt like an eternity. Or maybe it just felt like that because he’d been bored out of his mind while on paternity leave this past week. He’d certainly lived through his fair share of cabin fever, but it was much more difficult when he had to rush to use the facilities every hour, usually when he’d finally gotten comfortable or was right in the middle of whatever task he’d found to accomplish. Or was constantly starving even though he was already the size of a whale. Or when he didn’t have rum as a distraction.

He laughed at himself to think of that hot day over the summer when he thought things had reached their peak. He’d only just lost visibility of his feet then; now, he could barely remember what they looked like. When he tried to lay down, his belly practically towered over him, which made for a good bookrest—until his lovely daughter decided to kick it over. And it wasn’t like laying down was comfortable for long, anyway.

So here he was, attempting to rest and watch television in their sitting room, feet propped on the coffee table (no, he still couldn’t see them around the mass of his abdomen), a snack in hand, and going absolutely stir crazy.

A knock sounded on the door. Thank the gods, he wasn’t alone. He paused the program he was watching, shifted to sitting and set his food down, and hoisted himself up to his feet…just in time for Snow to let herself in, arms laden with bags.

“Oh, Killian, you didn’t have to get up! Sit, relax; I’m just gonna—“

“No, let me help,” he offered as casually as he could muster.

“No! Get off your feet; I’m sure you—“

“Snow, I love you, and I’m telling you: please give me something to do,” he cut her off, exasperation coming through in his tone.

“Oh! Um, sure, then...here, take these.” She seemed taken aback at his minor outburst, but handed him a few bags nonetheless. “I just thought I’d bring over some frozen food and a few last-minute baby things.”

“Thank you, milady,” he effused, trying to make up for scaring her as he followed her into the kitchen. “And I apologize for my temper.”

She set her bags down on the dining table and waved him off. “You’re fine; I remember my emotions being all over in those last days. At least you don’t have the added stress of a wicked witch after your baby,” she quipped as she started putting dishes in the freezer.

He leaned against one of the counters and sighed, rubbing his sore sides. “Think Zelena would give it a go if I called her up?”

Snow slammed the door shut so hard the fridge shook. “Killian!! Seriously?” It had been years since he’d been on the receiving end of a glare that menacing from her.

“Don’t worry; I jest,” he assured her, waving his hand. “I’m just…” He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “I’m so bloody bored.”

“Well, there’s gotta be something for you to do around here,” Snow commented. “I would have loved some extra time before Neal to get settled.”

“That’s the thing, though—there isn’t,” he huffed. “I’ve reorganized the baby’s bookshelf twice and her closet four times; I’ve dusted thrice, but Swan put a magic lock on the vacuum cleaner; and I can’t get comfortable enough for anything else because this lass won’t stop kicking me and I’m constantly starved. And that medicinal gelatin has been no help whatsoever but I can’t stop craving it.”

Snow tilted her head. “Medicinal what now?”

“The stuff in the fridge in the small cups.”

Wearing a curious look, Snow pulled the fridge open, glanced around, and then started laughing. “Jello?”

“Aye; same as what they serve in the hospital.”

“Oh, Killian,” she said, chuckling. “There’s nothing medicinal about Jello. It just tastes good and has sugar and is easy to eat when you’re sick.”

“Oh, bloody—“ He had to cut himself off before he cursed in front of his mother-in-law, and settled with a long sigh.

“Come here,” she said, walking towards him with open arms and pulling him in for a hug, which he gladly reciprocated. “Oh! Is she always this active?” Because, of course, the little lass had promptly began to kick her grandmother.

“Always,” he practically groaned.

“You’re almost there,” she replied. “And with all you’ve been through, this will be nothing for you to handle. And then you’ll get to hold this sweet little baby, who is kicking me in the ribs.”

“I know the feeling,” he threw back, pulling away and breaking the embrace. “It just seems like she’s never going to come.”

“She’ll come when she’s ready. You’re taking awfully good care of her right now, so I understand why she might be waiting,” Snow teased. “Don’t lose hope!”

“I haven’t,” he answered, chuckling. “I’m definitely reigning in my expectations, though.”

“If it helps, just think of that day a few weeks from now when you’ll be all settled at home, with her in one arm and Emma in the other.”

It wasn’t hard to imagine; the idea was never far from his thoughts. “It’s all I've been dreaming of,” he agreed, a bit teary.

“Don’t you dare cry, Killian Jones; because then I will, too.”

He sniffed. “I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises.”

While she continued to put food away, he busied himself with the tea kettle, and they settled down for an afternoon chat over Jello and chamomile. Her comparison of giving birth in the Enchanted Forest versus this realm had him quite glad for modern medicine, even if his situation was somewhat outside its scope. Truthfully, he hadn’t had too many one-on-one moments with Snow, so it was nice to have an easy conversation with her.

They got so lost in discussion that they both jumped when the alarm on her phone went off. “Oh, shoot; I’m supposed to meet Regina. Sorry; looks like I have to dash off!”

“No worries, milady; let me see you out.” He hauled himself to his feet, grateful for their sturdy table as he used it to support him, and waddled after her down the hall.

“Oh, I almost forgot—here, there’s a few outfits in there, and some blankets and washcloths,” she said as she handed him one last bag. “I just saw them and I couldn’t resist.”

He peeked into the sack, catching a glimpse of a few pink onesies covered in unicorns, hearts, and one emblazoned with “Little Princess”. “They’re perfect,” he whispered, then let the bag dangle on his hook as his hand jumped to his belly, where it felt like the baby had punched him. “And I think she agrees,” he added, wincing.

Snow gave him an understanding smile and squeezed his arm. “You’ve got this, okay? Have hope. You’ve made it this far; just a bit more to go.”

He nodded in agreement, they hugged one last time, and she let herself out while he began the trek up the stairs. It had only become a chore in the last week or so, now that his belly had dropped, but wearing the belly band that Snow had given him ages ago helped...some.

By the time he got upstairs, he needed to use the restroom again, but then he made his way into the nursery and went about finding a home for the new things. The room couldn’t be more ready for its incoming occupant: the crib was furnished, the changing table was outfitted, the closet was full, and the unicorn mobile that should have been Emma’s was hanging, swaying gently with moving air currents.

Once he’d put the clothes in with all the others (arranged by size, and then by color, and he was considering adding another filter in there but wasn’t quite sure which yet), he took a seat on the gliding rocking chair Regina had gifted them and propped his feet on the matching stool.

“Please come out soon, my little darling, our magic bean,” he said softly, caressing his stomach and feeling all her little movements. “We cannot wait to meet you.”

A/N: Belly update! There might be a manip coming later today or tomorrow, as well ;) Thank you all for reading! One more chapter after this!

[mikemateiweb-blog]

My TMNT Mario Paint Animation, a Retrospective – Mike Matei Blog

This is three lines drawn in Mario Paint at different speeds of strokes with the mouse.

The limitation of Mario Paint that’s probably the most regrettable is the dismal color selection.  There are only 15 solid colors, and 15 extra colors which are the basic colors combined in various ways in a pixel checkerboard pattern.

There’s a reason why you don’t see actual pixel artists use patterns like this for coloring, because the results are usually hideous.

Unfortunately, an artist working within the restrictions of Mario Paint will have to use these extra colors sometimes, for better or worse.  Outside of these 30, there’s also several pages of stuff that I rarely find a use for at all.

There’s no shortage of eye-melting color patterns to choose from, although these look better using the Spray tool.

This is due to the limitations of the hardware of the SNES.  I’m not a programmer and I wasn’t able to find any detailed information on how Mario Paint’s code works, but here’s my best guess of what’s going on:  The canvas area of Mario Paint is 248×168 pixels, which means it’s made up of 8×8 tiles, 31 horizontal and 21 vertical.  The SNES has 16 colors to work with in each 8×8 tile, which means Mario Paint is using the maximum amount of colors the console can support (I’m guessing that one color has to be left unused for transparency, possibly to allow the cursor to hover over the drawing area).  Also, the SNES can only display 34 of these tiles per horizontal row, so there’s 31 tiles for the canvas, 2 tiles for the border around the screen, and 1 left over that allows for the cursor.

Which means, as much as I lament the poor color choices, I can’t blame the creators of Mario Paint.  They squeezed as much functionality out of Mario Paint as the hardware allowed.  The checkerboard colors and blob patterns was the only way to extend the colors available.  (By the way, if you’re knowledgeable about how Mario Paint or the SNES hardware works and anything I said is incorrect, let me know and I’ll edit this article with the correct information and give you credit).

The color limitations also played a big part in why I chose the TMNT opening. Mario Paint offers two solid shades of green, which would allow me to add shadows to the Turtles’ skin.

The character design of the Turtles just happened to work really well with Mario Paint’s colors, and I could get a bit more mileage out of light and shadow.

There’s also an undo history of exactly one action, which is offered to you by the dog icon.  Saving and loading is limited and slow, the flood fill tool is slow (although it can be cancelled in the middle to partially fill things), and the animation function is limited to 4 drawable frames… I could go on and on about the limitations of Mario Paint, but I think you get the point.

So, as I just mentioned, Mario Paint has a pretty limited animation suite, so I used modern capture technology to simply capture frames when I completed them, and then edit them together later in video editing software.  This could have been done in 1992 as well. I have friends who would use their VCR to record Mario Paint onto VHS and string them together to make elaborate animation projects, as well as other Nintendo art tools such as the GameBoy Camera placed into a Super Game Boy. VCRs connected to a camcorder could also be used to do stop motion animation with clay or toys, and even film individual frames of drawings to make animations.

This process was super nerve wracking, because each completed frame had to be discarded from existence entirely once I was done grabbing them. At least data storage is easy nowadays and I didn’t have to worry about someone in the house overwriting my animation in order to record an episode of Roseanne from the TV.

So, we come back to the concessions I talked about at the beginning. The original animated sequence for the TMNT show totals up to about 1200 individual frames of animation.  So if I averaged about an hour per frame drawing in Mario Paint, and I worked 8 hours a day, that would mean I would reasonably get 8 frames done per day.  Which means it would take 150 days of nonstop work to get the animation done, which would be okay if I didn’t also have a full time job and a social life that needs to be taken care of as well.

My animation ended up with about 420 frames total, and took me 6 months. So doing 1200 frames would have taken a year and a half, and who knows how much I would slow down from fatigue after a project that long.  There were a couple times I could get a break, such as some frames just being a single solid color (such as lightning flashes), and I reused the swirling TMNT logo from the beginning for the end.

Hey, the original cartoon reused this animation, why can’t I?

I mentioned earlier that Mario Paint doesn’t offer any layer functionality, so this is a huge problem when animating moving characters over a background. As you can see in the above example, the background is constantly being destroyed by the turtles moving across the screen, and that destroyed information has to be rebulit when the portion of the background comes back into view.

  Eagle-eyed readers will probably notice that this scene had to be animated out of sequence and then reassembled, which accounts for the way the background constantly changes shape.

Surprisingly, the shots you would think would be more difficult to do, such as Donatello flying around the city and the background moving around really fast, are about the same difficulty as the shot you see above, because of the lack of background layers.  When the background is moving so quickly, redrawing the entire frame isn’t that much worse.

Oh who am I kidding, this was still painful.

Another issue came from the fact that I wasn’t going to use all 1200 frames from the original animation, so I had to pick and choose which frames to use. I was referring to a television off to the side drawing these individual frames, and I tried to pick out individual frames that would convey the most movement.  This resulted in a bit of a discontinuity in the framerate, which had to be corrected manually when it came time to edit.  This is why you see the framerate fluctuate often during the entire sequence.  This is regrettable but… I dunno.  Nobody has really complained about it, and if they did I’d just shrug and say Mario Paint isn’t the optimal tool to create animation.  I did the best I could, you know?

Recreating an animation sequence in Mario Paint is so ridiculously transformative that it easily meets the requirements for Fair Use, so in order to keep my video from getting taken down, I was going to need a cover version of the music instead of using the original audio.  Luckily I was able to get a great one by Epic Game Music that was tailored to match the timing of the video I animated.  After that was done, it just needed some editing and it was completed.

So there you have it.  How do I feel about this animation more than a year later? I’m glad I did it because it’s something nobody had ever done before. Doing something this elaborate with the drawing section of the game. Sure a lot of people have done a lot with the music portion, and there is a very small limit to what you can do with the in-game animation tool. But to animate something like this with the basic drawing tool, I’d say I did the most elaborate thing anyone ever attempted. If there’s anything else out there even close to as time consuming, I’d love to see it.

I think it was a really good personal exercise for me in diligence and determination.  I’m glad that I managed to finish it.  Starting a project like this and then abandoning it halfway would have been a gnawing regret I would have had to carry for the rest of my life.  The end result wasn’t perfect, but it’s more important to me that I finished it.

“I may lose, but it won’t be because I gave up!”

As for economics… all told, I only made a couple hundred dollars off the video.  I’d do the Pat-Math on how much my hourly wage was, but you can guess its low enough to be just about nothing.  But hey, that’s the game we play being creatives.  You never know what’s going to hit or miss, and you just have to keep consistently applying yourself until something hits.  Whenever I get negative feelings about this animation, I have to remind myself that it was more than made up for with a lot of other successes that required far less effort.  Not to mention I’m a Let’s Player and a streamer where I record myself playing art that other people made, and standing on the shoulders of giants to do so.  I’m grateful for the wonderful life I have, and I hope you guys don’t get the impression that I made this post just to whinge about making cartoons in Mario Paint.

Animation is extraordinarily difficult, but we’re in a strange time where animation is easier to make than ever before, yet independent animators aren’t making the money they probably should.  And yet… so many people still animate. There’s so much incredibly good animation being made by individuals on YouTube and all over the internet. Against overwhelming odds and minimal rewards, they still painstakingly download their imaginations into individual frames, one by one.  I believe strongly that things will get better for animators in the future.

Just like Lion-o up there, they just need to keep running. Eventually something good will happen.

Source By: https://www.mikematei.com/blog/my-tmnt-mario-paint-animation-a-retrospective-mike-matei-blog/

 Update:

Not long after I posted this article, which details my process of creating a full animated sequence in Mario Paint a year and a half ago, my animation was taken down from YouTube due to a copyright complaint.

From the very beginning, I was aware that my video could be taken down, so I purposely designed the video to be as transformative under Fair Use as I possibly could.  Everything was manually drawn by hand using a reference offscreen.  There’s no way to download images into Mario Paint, nor is there any way to trace anything, and the limitations of Mario Paint actually make it impossible to perfectly recreate the original (the article that follows will explain why in detail). And, a new cover version of the song was recorded specifically for this video.  I was under the impression that I was so far ahead of what was required that I would be completely in the clear, and then some.

If the animation I made in Mario Paint doesn’t count as transformative, then I’m not sure what even does.  What if I had recreated the intro using claymation?  What if I had used actors in costumes?  What if I just used a recording of me singing the theme song in the shower?  Where is the actual line that got crossed?

I want to know what aspects of my video supposedly don’t qualify as Fair Use. Hopefully I can manage to get that question answered at least.  I’m sure other creators could find the information useful as well.

Anyways, the video got reposted by someone already if you didn’t get a chance to watch it. It very well may get deleted again, so save it and if you want and share it on other video players and blogs so half a year of work isn’t tossed out a window forever..

See the video here:

https://www.vidlii.com/watch?v=PlV2cAO9kf1

https://www.bitchute.com/video/bfyvFFHA4Aw5/

Of all the art forms, animation seems to be the one affected by economics the most.  Film is another big one for sure, but animation is such an incredibly manual, labor-intensive process that there’s a giant disconnect between creative vision and what can actually be reasonably produced, and what can reasonably make money. Since animators are painstakingly creating moving pictures frame by frame, simple creative decisions can multiply into hours, months or even years of extra work.  Concessions always have to be made, and the work doesn’t always pay off.

In 2016, I used the Super Nintendo game Mario Paint to recreate the intro to the 80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon opening. Here is the original video that was taken down. Use the links above to see the animation.

There were a lot of candidates to choose from (Thundercats, X-Men, Ducktales were also high on my list), but I chose TMNT because it seemed to be the most likely to reach a wide audience.  I knew from the outset that this was going to be a big undertaking, and it took me roughly 6 months to complete.

 The reasons to animate using Mario Paint are probably what you’d figure. Since I’m known as a commentator on retro video games, it was appropriate to use an art tool from a retro games console.  There aren’t really many other choices that fit the bill, and there’s no way I could have used the LJN Video Art console to do it, being the completely useless art tool that it is that’s not even suitable for use by children.  Also, there’s the element of the masochistic spectacle of one man going through the grueling process animating a full sequence working within such strange limitations.  I thought people would be into it, and thankfully a good amount of people were.

Mario Paint was a wonderful toy for its time, and Nintendo was smart enough to add game elements, humor, and quirky flair to the experience instead of just making it a basic electronic art program.  But as an art tool, the limitations are numerous.  It’s very strange in that it’s essentially a tool to create pixel art, but offers extremely limited pixel precision (save for the pixel art stamps you can define, which weren’t suitable for my project).

The game came bundled with a mouse, but laser mouse technology didn’t exist in 1992.  The Super Nintendo mouse used a rubber ball that rolled along the mousepad to manipulate rollers inside the unit to move the cursor onscreen.   Everything grinds to a halt with this mouse if anything gets dirty, and the mouse is in a constant hurry to get as dirty as it possibly can.  People reading this who grew up with Mario Paint will remember the cursor snagging over and over and the constant struggle to keep it clean.  This was my life for 6 months.

As for other limitations, lines need to be drawn extremely slowly in Mario Paint, because moving the cursor too fast will result in dotted lines streaking across the screen.  Not to mention every pen stroke overwrites the color underneath, as there is no layering functionality, so trying to build colored shapes with an outline requires a bit of planning in advance.  In Mario Paint, I typically lay down color blobs and then add black outlines around them as the very last step, which is backwards from the way most people draw.

This is three lines drawn in Mario Paint at different speeds of strokes with the mouse.

The limitation of Mario Paint that’s probably the most regrettable is the dismal color selection.  There are only 15 solid colors, and 15 extra colors which are the basic colors combined in various ways in a pixel checkerboard pattern.

There’s a reason why you don’t see actual pixel artists use patterns like this for coloring because the results are usually hideous.

Unfortunately, an artist working within the restrictions of Mario Paint will have to use these extra colors sometimes, for better or worse.  Outside of these 30, there’s also several pages of stuff that I rarely find a use for at all.

There’s no shortage of eye-melting color patterns to choose from, although these look better using the Spray tool.

This is due to the limitations of the hardware of the SNES.  I’m not a programmer and I wasn’t able to find any detailed information on how Mario Paint’s code works, but here’s my best guess of what’s going on:  The canvas area of Mario Paint is 248×168 pixels, which means it’s made up of 8×8 tiles, 31 horizontal and 21 vertical.  The SNES has 16 colors to work within each 8×8 tile, which means Mario Paint is using the maximum amount of colors the console can support (I’m guessing that one color has to be left unused for transparency, possibly to allow the cursor to hover over the drawing area).  Also, the SNES can only display 34 of these tiles per horizontal row, so there are 31 tiles for the canvas, 2 tiles for the border around the screen, and 1 left over that allows for the cursor.

Which means, as much as I lament the poor color choices, I can’t blame the creators of Mario Paint.  They squeezed as much functionality out of Mario Paint as the hardware allowed.  The checkerboard colors and blob patterns were the only way to extend the colors available.  (By the way, if you’re knowledgeable about how Mario Paint or the SNES hardware works and anything I said is incorrect, let me know and I’ll edit this article with the correct information and give you credit).

The color limitations also played a big part in why I chose the TMNT opening. Mario Paint offers two solid shades of green, which would allow me to add shadows to the Turtles’ skin.

The character design of the Turtles just happened to work really well with Mario Paint’s colors, and I could get a bit more mileage out of light and shadow.

There’s also an undo history of exactly one action, which is offered to you by the dog icon.  Saving and loading are limited and slow, the flood fill tool is slow (although it can be canceled in the middle to partially fill things), and the animation function is limited to 4 drawable frames… I could go on and on about the limitations of Mario Paint, but I think you get the point.

So, as I just mentioned, Mario Paint has a pretty limited animation suite, so I used modern capture technology to simply capture frames when I completed them, and then edit them together later in video editing software.  This could have been done in 1992 as well. I have friends who would use their VCR to record Mario Paint onto VHS and string them together to make elaborate animation projects, as well as other Nintendo art tools such as the GameBoy Camera placed into a Super Game Boy. VCRs connected to a camcorder could also be used to do stop motion animation with clay or toys, and even film individual frames of drawings to make animations.

This process was super nerve-wracking because each completed frame had to be discarded from existence entirely once I was done grabbing them. At least data storage is easy nowadays and I didn’t have to worry about someone in the house overwriting my animation in order to record an episode of Roseanne from the TV.

So, we come back to the concessions I talked about at the beginning. The original animated sequence for the TMNT show totals up to about 1200 individual frames of animation.  So if I averaged about an hour per frame drawing in Mario Paint, and I worked 8 hours a day, that would mean I would reasonably get 8 frames done per day.  Which means it would take 150 days of nonstop work to get the animation done, which would be okay if I didn’t also have a full-time job and a social life that needs to be taken care of as well.

My animation ended up with about 420 frames total and took me 6 months. So doing 1200 frames would have taken a year and a half, and who knows how much I would slow down from fatigue after a project that long.  There were a couple times I could get a break, such as some frames just being a single solid color (such as lightning flashes), and I reused the swirling TMNT logo from the beginning for the end.

Hey, the original cartoon reused this animation, why can’t I?

I mentioned earlier that Mario Paint doesn’t offer any layer functionality, so this is a huge problem when animating moving characters over a background. As you can see in the above example, the background is constantly being destroyed by the turtles moving across the screen, and that destroyed information has to be rebuilt when the portion of the background comes back into view.

Eagle-eyed readers will probably notice that this scene had to be animated out of sequence and then reassembled, which accounts for the way the background constantly changes shape.

Surprisingly, the shots you would think would be more difficult to do, such as Donatello flying around the city and the background moving around really fast, are about the same difficulty as the shot you see above, because of the lack of background layers.  When the background is moving so quickly, redrawing the entire frame isn’t that much worse Mike Matei.

Continue Reading: https://www.mikematei.com/blog/my-tmnt-mario-paint-animation-a-retrospective-mike-matei-blog/

[pokelec]

@france-scah There’s this thing called an askbox. It’s makes answering these things a lot easier if you use it in the future.

Send me an Overwatch Hero 

This needs to be under a cut due to length (why did you send FIVE HEROES AT ONCE?!)

One Main: Mei

What skin/spray/voiceline is my favourite: 

Skin: Luna! I do like the classic and Chang’e, but the red and gold is more flattering on Mei, in my opinion. But gdi, Blizzard, fix the damn skins!

Spray: Eyes is really good. The snowflake and Mei in the center feels... fitting. Dragon Dance is also pretty good, with Snowball and all

Voiceline: “I’m gonna have to science the heck out of this!” I just... it’s so pure... It’s so good

My first impression of them

“Oh, an ice character! And she’s a scientist! I’m gonna play here first!” -Me, right before playing Overwatch and right before realizing she will become my main

What I think of them now

“STOP CALLING HER A DEVIL!“

How many hours I have on them

51. I think that’s the most I have on a single character, period. But there’s someone else who is pretty close...

Something that needs to be buffed

I don’t know if Mei needs a buff? I mean, that glitch where her freezing effect didn’t make people slow down was fixed, so I’m good now. I also don’t play against enough Meis to say for sure what needs to be buffed (or nerfed).

Something that needs to be nerfed

I would love something where, if a griefer decides to play as Mei and they’ve been reported enough times in the past for trolling, I would love it so that they could never use ice walls

Then again, people may abuse that system by reporting Mei mains... Dammit.

Solution: let teammates pass through ice walls? ...Nah.

If/How I got their Cute/Pixel sprays

I think I got her sprays within my first day of playing Overwatch. No stories for them, I’m afraid. I just knew right away that she would be my main. I can’t say the same for...

My Other Main: McCree

What skin/spray/voiceline is my favourite:

Skin: BLACKWATCH, DUH! I’ve been wanting a young McCree skin for a long time. And I am so happy I got it! Now, I can’t say I’m as pleased that I got three duplicates in loot boxes during the event...

Spray: Draw, and Target Practice is pretty similar, too. They have a dramatic feel to them.

^Special mention to SnowCree, which I got immediately after I decided I would go for it in the Winter Wonderland event

Voiceline: “I feel like a man possessed.” O_O That’s not even an equipable voiceline, it just... stands out.

My first impression of them

“Oh! Uh, I guess this guy is pretty fun to play as...” -Me, as he started to grow on me

What I think of them now

“I LOVE THIS FRACKING DORK THAT ALSO NEEDS A HUG! IT’S HIGH NOON SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD!”

How many hours I have on them

50. Considering that the hero with the third most hours I have on them is, like, 16, I think it’s pretty obvious who I love to play as. 

Something that needs to be buffed

I heard he’s getting a fix to a hidden part of his gameplay! That’s good! 

I would also like it so that, since he’s the only hero who’s able to actively cancel his ult after it’s been activated, he keeps some ult charge when he cancels it. 

There’s also a proposition I heard of for a passive for him. “Bounty”, as it was called, would allow him to see enemies that are on fire (sorta like Sombra’s passive). The youtuber who I heard this from (who heard of it on reddit) asked a lot of questions about practicality and limits, but if it behaves like Sombra’s passive, then the answers are pretty obvious. I can explain my thoughts in a different post, if I felt like writing the questions and my answers all out. 

There was also another idea, that his combat roll gets instantly resets if McCree gets an elimination, and I liked that idea, too. 

Something that needs to be nerfed

This cowboy has enough of a bad reputation as a glass cannon as is. He doesn’t need a nerf.

If/How I got their Cute/Pixel sprays

I got the pixel spray “Whoa there!” pretty early in my time as playing as him. I got “High Noon” on Volskaya Industries, and I remembered where it happened because a) I posted the POTG on my tumblr somewhere and b) I have a lot of luck on getting achievements at Volskaya, for some reason. 

Genji

What skin/spray/voiceline is my favourite:

Skin: BLACKWATCH. I mean, I did like his Chrome skin for subtlety, but HIS HANZO PHASE BLACKWATCH SKIN IS PRETTY AWESOME

Spray: I’m not impressed by Genji’s sprays. If I had to pick a favorite, I guess it’d be Green Dragon

Voiceline: “Life and death balance on the edge of my blade.” It’s pretty dramatic, and it’s even better with his Hanzo Phase Blackwatch skin on

My first impression of them

“Get away from me, and stop trying to reflect my ice beam.”

What I think of them now

“I’M A SHOOTING STAR LEAPING THROUGH THE SKYYYY LIKE A TIGER, DEFYING THE LAWS OF GRAV-I-TYYYYYY”

How many hours I have on them

~4. I’ve only picked him up recently. Strangely, I feel like he’s better on defense than on attack.

Something that needs to be buffed

I already heard that’s he has a buff in the PTR and a possibility he’ll be able to use the dragonblade 7 times max as opposed to 6... 

Something that needs to be nerfed

I lowkey want an occassional troll message in the chat instead of “I need healing”. It’d be like what happens whenever a player types “gg ez”, but not as reliable. Though, I wouldn’t mind something like that to be an April’s Fool thing next year... 

If/How I got their Cute/Pixel sprays

I have not gotten either of his sprays yet. I have a POTG on here where I was a fraction of a second off of getting his cute spray, though. Man, I was mad I didn’t get the achievement. 

Lucio 

What skin/spray/voiceline is my favourite:

Skin: I’m not impressed by a lot of his skins, even the legendaries. I just like the recolors and Andes. 

Spray: In Concert, because it’s funny to watch a performer put up his own posters lol

Voiceline: “Why are you so angry?” I would love to ask that to Lucio’s voice actor, just because. I’m lowkey mad I didn’t see him at WonderCon

My first impression of them

“At least I can play as one healer...” -Me, before I started playing every healer

What I think of them now

It’s either “GET OFF THE DAMN PAYLOAD” or “CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP”, there’s no in between. 

How many hours I have on them

12. After all this time, he’s still in the third spot in my quick play time. 

Something that needs to be buffed/nerfed

Listen. He’s already gotten a huge buff/nerf recently. I kinda don’t wanna tough him right now. 

If/How I got their Cute/Pixel sprays

I have the cute spray! I remember getting it at Numbani, but I don’t remember much else.

Trust me, I WISH I had the pixel spray.

Symmetra

What skin/spray/voiceline is my favourite:

Skin: Architech, because Star Trek. Utopaea is pretty... pretty, too!

Spray: As a contrast to Lucio and Genji, Symmetra’s sprays as all #aesthetics. The Lotus is probably the best in that regard

Voiceline: “I don’t think so”, mainly as a response to other people’s voicelines lol

My first impression of them

“Stupid turrets!”

What I think of them now

“OMG I NEED TO PLAY THIS CHARACTER MORE, I GOTTA!”

How many hours I have on them

~3. I only have one officially, but I play her a good bit in Capture the Flag and No Limits. Seriously, I need to play her more. 

Something that needs to be buffed

I feel like she needs the ability to cancel her ult. Sure, I like that McCree is the only one who can do that, but I feel like it would at least make sense for Sym to be able to do that, too. 

Something that needs to be nerfed

I’m not a fan of how her primary fire gets stronger as it is used for a long time... if that made sense. If that had to be kept in, I’d like the rate of power-increase to... decrease. 

If/How I got their Cute/Pixel sprays

I got her pixel spray at King’s Row by doing the infamous microwave-at-spawn technique. 

I don’t have her cute spray, obviously. I’m trying to think of when I possibly could get 20 people teleported in one match... 

[chikari]

Pax South Summary

I’m excited to share with you all some of the awesome games I had a chance to look at while we were at Pax South this year! There were obviously tons and tons of great games but here are the highlights for me. 

Darwin Project:

The first is Darwin Project. This game has so much potential! It’s a battle royal type game. However, it is only 10 people per game, plus 1 more person that plays as the Show Director. This person can influence the game in a hunger games fashion, such as manipulating when and which zone closes. The coolest thing is, though, that the show direction can choose to let their chat decide what happens through Mixer’s interactive system. This is especially fun for me to allow ya’ll to make some decisions in game. Also, this game is much more about skill since you only have your axe and bow and arrow starting out. There are traps which you can craft and the whole crafting system has some customization. My vod here shows some game play and I explain throughout how the different mechanics work. Go check it out and let me know if you have any questions! The game should be going live sometime this Spring, but they haven’t set a date for sure yet. 

Bargain Quest:

The next game that really caught my attention was Bargain Quest. This is a wonderful board/ card game! It is for 2-6 players and you take the role of shopkeepers in a town that is unfortunately plagued with monsters. It is a card/item drafting game where you can choose what items you’d like to sell to certain heroes in order to take on the monsters or you can play a more reserved style. There is also a way for all players to lose so that has to be taken into consideration! The base game is $40 and the expansion is $10. They are available for pre-order on the Bargain Quest website. The expansion adds extra things to the game, including a few mechanic changes for experienced players. The creator did speak of possible future plans depending on how well the game does, so if it sounds interesting to you be sure to go support it! 

Drawing Dead:

Next we have Drawing Dead. This card game is truly inspired and is made by John Fiorillo who is probably one of the most passionate game designers I have ever met! If there was every someone that you should support in their endeavors it is this guy. The game is about building the best poker hand as you play around the table clockwise. There are special cards which influence the game in unique and fun ways (such as stealing a card from another player). The game was very fun to play and we really enjoyed the aesthetics of the cards as well. Both sides of each card feature absolutely amazing artwork that I’m sure you will enjoy. You can pick up this game on their website. Me and Mr_Bo are hoping to stream this game sometime soon so keep an eye out for that as well. 

Moonlighter:

Next is probably my favorite game of the weekend, Moonlighter! This game is being published by 11 Bit Studios who are always knows for quality games. This particular game has you playing as Will. Will is a shopkeeper, but has a drive to be something more important in his eyes; an adventurer! A hero! He would fit right in with my stream! There are 2 phases to gameplay. The first is the store management stage where you sell relics, artifacts, and raw materials that you’ve found in order to make a living and buy things for your own needs. The second phase happens at night and is where you go explore the dungeons yourself in order to unlock their mysteries and find more objects for your shop. This game is truly gorgeous and the actual gameplay was a ton of fun! It reminded me a lot of Binding of Isaac in style and how the controls felt, but it truly in a league of it’s own. I absolutely can’t wait until I can share more of this game with you all. They said it would be releasing sometime in Q2 hopefully and will be out for PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and PC. 

Level 99 Games:

Lastly for this post we have the games by Level 99 Games. The real standouts for me were Pixel Tactics, Sellswords, and Millennium Blades. I would encourage you to check out their website and wide array of games, though, because they all looked amazing and I could see myself playing them all some day. If you like more tactical games, opening booster packs, head to head combat, or just out smarting your opponent there is a game for you from Level 99 Games. The passion they have for the games they put out is evident by quality alone. If you have the chance to try out any of their games or if you already own some please feel free to shoot me a message or submission about what you think about them! I would love to hear your thoughts! 

Well, that wraps up the games and groups that really impressed me during Pax South. If you got to go, what was your favorite part? What games do you think I need to add to my list to check out? Also, be sure to stop by my stream sometime for awesome gameplay and card/ board games soon! https://mixer.com/chikari