#ianthina.

[therookandthecrow]

I've finally created a Rook to romance each of the companions, and, of course, they are all elves.

[wikipediapictures]

Nudibranch

[celestdraws]

Free WTA/DTA adopts for my CS. :3

[rannadylin]

Ranna in Middle-earth...*frequently* in Middle-earth

After that poll with the "over 300 hours logged on a video game" bit I got curious about my LOTRO play time so I did the /played check on the ones I play the most...

That's on Evernight Lennidhren, who's at level 140. (There's also Landroval Lennidhren, who was around...85-ish, maybe, last time I played on that server?) If my math is correct that comes to almost 1393 hours logged in on my elven librarian lore-master.

Alts under the cut as this could get long...

Up next is Corbous, level 112 Hobbit Brawler:

So that should be about 286 hours of punching things. :-D (Also, he's that close to level cap and less than a quarter of the time it took Lenni to get there? Brawlers, man. Although of course I've been spending less time on underlevel quests with him and just moving on when quests in a zone turn grey because I've seen them before on Lenni anyway, after all. And I haven't done any festivals and such on him yet either, just zooming to Mordor.

Next highest leveled is Ianthina, level 53 high elf Runekeeper, the LOTRO incarnation of my Pillars of Eternity inquisitor past-life of Watcher Violet (as Corbous is the LOTRO incarnation of Vi's older brother Corbus Itzli...). Note how she's, you know, less than half of Corbs' level? Note how long it took her to get there:

Brawlers, man. In 286 hours he gets to level 112, and in over 330 hours my Runekeeper is just up to 53?

Let's take one more example...my high elf minstrel Fjiola (LOTRO incarnation of Fjóla Reinert who's a Pillars chanter/cipher for a PoE ttrpg we...may or may not ever get around to actually playing, but it's been a while since I first started making her) got to level 35 before I discovered the magic of speed-leveling a Brawler and abandoned her until Corbous, like, single-handedly punches Sauron or something:

So a bit over 31 hours...For a total of over 2000 hours logged in just to the four characters I've played the most overall and recently on one server. I should probably revisit my Landroval and Crickhollow (formerly of Nimrodel...er...I think Crickhollow was where that server got merged to long ago?) and see what their play time was like, too, but anyway. It's a lot. I've been playing since about half a year after LOTRO launched except for a few years when I burnt out on Landroval and didn't play until more recently on Evernight. I guess this does confirm that I chose wisely to buy my lifetime subscription to this game back when they still offered those...I think I've gotten my money's worth after more than 2000 hours! :-D

[parakaryote]

For Pride Month, have some art of the LGBT+ protagonists (well, protagonist and love interest for the first two - and they aren’t the only LGBT+ characters who appear) from my current WIPs!

[vivianwrite]

Big update on A Summer with the Immortal…

I finally, FINALLY finished the penultimate edits! 🥳🎉🎊 The only thing that’s left now is some final minor copy-editing (mostly for sentence flow)!

To celebrate, here’s a short snippet. This is from before Taryn and Florence start dating; here, they meet up at a restaurant and talk about a bunch of things - including sensory sensitivities (they are both autistic).

“A lot of foods you can’t tolerate, you say?” Florence laughed. “I’m the same way. For example, I can’t stand fruit. Any fruit.” “You’re drinking fruit juice right now,” Taryn said in disbelief. She couldn’t imagine how it was possible for someone to not like any fruit. “Juice is fine, just not solid fruit. I can’t really explain it. It’s something about the texture and the juice when it’s still in the flesh.” Taryn could understand that, actually. Many of her own food-repulsions worked in similar ways, following guidelines which seemed strange to most people. Thankfully, her family had always believed her about what she could and couldn’t eat, even if they didn’t fully understand. “When I was travelling with my grandpa, he would always bring some foods from home,” she said. “He also brought my blanket and pillow from home, just in case the pillows or blankets in the hotel had a bad texture.” “Your grandpa sounds awesome. Wait, what do you want to eat? The waiter’s probably coming any minute now.” “Oh! Fish and chips.” Taryn didn’t even need to look at the menu. She remembered from her first visit how good the fish and chips were here. Besides, it wasn’t as if there were that many options she could eat.

Short tag list (no pressure, tell me if you don’t want to be tagged): @ashen-crest @magic-is-something-we-create @writeblrfantasy

[setsuntamew]

Hello and welcome to "Icon Making With Killian: An Intro to the 'Lost' Art of LiveJournal Icons"

aka, I'm still making them and I'd like to teach you how to do it, too!

This tutorial was written in Photoshop 2020, but you can probably recreate it in as far back as CS2-ish (since I still use the same sort of techniques I've been using since then, lmao). It also assumes basic understanding of the software, though I've tried to be as clear as possible throughout.

With that out of the way, let's get this tutorial on the road!!!!!!

I started with the bloomed art of Hiiro from the White Lilies scout box (image courtesy of the Ensemble Stars!! English Wiki).

I basically always start with a blank 100x100 canvas and paste the image into it. I try to go into icon making with a vague idea of what I want to do, and I knew from the beginning that my vision for this icon would have the top 1/4-1/3 of the image covered by a solid band of color. To make positioning the image of Hiiro easier, I made a rough version of the band with temporary colors (though they're pretty close to what I ended up using in the end).

With that in place, I could start working with the actual image for the icon. After pasting it in and adjusting the layers so it was under the band, I resized it and moved it around a bunch until I was happy with the position. Once I liked how it looked, I used an Unsharp Mask on the base.

Next up, I used a texture from lookslikerain. However, purple is all wrong for the color scheme I had in mind, so I went to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation... to change it up to better suit my needs. Never be afraid to mess around with textures!

Here's how I adjusted this specific texture, but each one is unique- both the texture and the icon you're creating, so it's best to play with it until you get good results.

I then pasted this into the icon, making sure it was under the layers making up the top bands of color (because I was only trying to affect the base for now), and set this layer to Darken.

Now it's time to mess with the colors of the top band. They sorta matched before I did anything to the base, but now...not quite. I used a layer style for each part of it, but using the paint bucket tool would work just as well. I went to Layer > Layer Styles > Color Overlay... for each, changing the colors as necessary. The thickest band is #85d0bf, the middle band is #086371, and the thinnest, lightest one is #fcfcd8.

Time to start putting stuff on top of everything!! I took this light texture from ianthinae, rotated it, and set it to Lighten. I decided I wanted it to be a little bit brighter, so I duplicated the layer, set it to Screen, and dropped the Opacity to 20%.

I then used a texture from Sarah-Dipity and set it to Lighten as well.

Okay, now that's what I'm talkin' about!!! It's time to throw some text on this~ I went for something simple to go with the theme of the story this card is from: Princely. The font is Georgia, 10pt, in #086371, set to all caps. I decided it didn't stand out enough, so I duplicated it, changed the color to #8b4235, dragged it under the first text layer, and moved it 1 pixel to the right.

I wanted a bit more embellishment around it, so I used this simple tiny text brush from colorfilter in #06444d. I also erased part of it to make it fit the space better.

Finally, I used a texture from shiruji, set to Darken to get a bit more color variation in it, and called it done! :D

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, and I'll answer as best I can- as long as it's not about making icons in other software D: I only know Photoshop (and Paint Shop Pro, but I don't think anyone uses that anymore). If there are any other icons of mine you're interested in seeing tutorials for - or even just specific techniques! - just lemme know. I love helping :D

Also, I'm happy to share where I get icon resources from. I have a whole post dedicated to that on my DW graphics journal, though tbh that's the best place to talk to me about making graphics in general. But I will absolutely answer asks/replies/etc about icons here on tumblr, don't worry!!!!

[shrimply-dive-pics]

I forgot about this account lol

Here’s some sea slugs from my stay with Marine Conservation Philippines in *cough* 2022 for your amusement

What I think these blorbos are (please educate me if I’m wrong XD):

A chromodoris nudibranch maybe? Like glossodoris? Help

*cries* I don’t knowww

Nembrotha lineolata

Chromodoris nudibranch (Goniobranchus kuniei?)

Chromodoris annae

Nembrotha kubaryana

Pleurobranch (Pleurobranchus forskalii)

Blue dragon nudibranch (Pteraeolidia ianthina. Not glaucus lol)

Dotted/funeral nudibranchs (Jorunna funebris)

[sleepyfins]

Fishtober Day 19 - Blue Dragon

Check out the creator! ^ [@/fishiscrazy]

Blue Dragon Sea Slug! Todays fish isn't actually a fish but they're still pretty cool.

As gastropods, they're a type of mollusc/mollusk. More specifically, they're Nudibranchs, which are marine molluscs that lose their shells past their larval stage! And their Genus contains 5 different species.

They're a little confusing because the two most well known species - Glaucus atlanticus and Glaucus marginatus - are both called Blue Dragon. But so are Pteraeolidia ianthina, another species of sea slug in the same sub-order!

They're also venomous, so don't try to pick one up. Even though they do look quite cute... they sting. Ouch!

[pillowspace]

pteraeolidia ianthina.... I love blue dragon nudibranchs so much

YOOOO THAT LOOKS AWESOME. Gently petting that with my finger. It makes me think of a blue duster

[drhoz]

#2287 - Lycaena boldenarum - North Island Boulder Copper

Male above, female below. I must have spent an hour trying to photograph these - everytime I got close they'd either take off or be chased off by a ravenous Tiger Beetle.

AKA pepe para riki. Described by the Scottish entomologist Adam White in honour of his first wife, Helen and her sister Frances, nee Bolden. There are three subspecies - boldenarum, caerulea, and ianthina. The latter is critically endangered.

Despite the common name, found on North AND South Island, and actually more widespread on the South Island. It's found in open habitats including grassland, shingle, sand dunes and braided rivers.

The caterpillars feed on Muehlenbeckia axillaris and seem to be gaurded by Monomorium ants.

Rangipo Desert, North island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand

[someverygaymoth]

CFK!AU Geno(Stacius) and Reaper(Scylla) and of course, baby Goth(Ianthina)

[parakaryote]

I’d love to do this!

Incomplete list of OCs I’ve talked about on this blog (for ideas):

Tappani Æmber: The world’s only paleonecromancer (he talks to prehistoric animals).

Taryn Viato: Biology student in a world where new species appear on the daily (courtesy of a mysterious mutagenic energy).

Florence Ianthina: A photographer-in-training and Taryn’s girlfriend.

Acacia: Ex-architect, currently living in a mansion he bought. Biologically immortal — over 100 years old.

Ash Carme: Werecat (snow leopard) with severe self-trust issues.

Sebastian Nikolaou: Tsavo lion shapeshifter. Loner who prefers to act more feline than human.

Daphne Archer: Ash’s roommate (for a time). Never quite got out of her goth phase.

Taigex: Alien who invented gloves for her species’ prehensile tongues. Lives in their Stone Age.

Darby Chedanta: A psychic who ran away from her family because her powers were being exploited. Currently lives in an apartment by the ocean.

Consicor Chedanta: Darby’s fashion designer sister. More perceptive than she lets on.

emojis oc ask game! These are unabashedly just the questions *I* want to ask about y’all’s ocs. Feel free to copy the entire question into the ask box, because this list is hefty and I wouldn’t mind not searching through it, hahaha. Remember to specify which oc(s) you’re asking about!

🌈 - Do you associate any colors with them?

👁️ - How do other people perceive this oc? How close do their first assumptions come to the truth?

💝 - How much effort do they put into appearances? Do they have a favorite article of clothing?

⚠️ - If this oc came with a warning sign, what would it be?

🌨️ - If this oc had a day free from all their responsibilities, how would they spend it?

💙 - Describe their bedroom! Is it personalized, unchanged? Messy, neat?

👖 - Coffee shop or high school AU, your choice: tell me their role.

☕ - What is their preferred beverage(s)?

🧁 - When is their birthday? How do they celebrate it, if at all?

🧠 - What is their stress response: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn?

💭 - How is their mental health? Do they struggle with guilt or shame?

💔 - Does forgiveness come easily or with difficulty to this oc? Can they forgive others? What about themselves?

❗- What are the highest priorities to this oc (at a point in their life of your choosing)?

⚔️ - How does this oc handle conflict?

🌍 - What are this oc’s religious views?

🌊 - Does this oc have a secret or repressed desire?

✨ - Tell something that makes this oc feel happy!

🧶 - Do they do any arts, crafts, or creative hobbies?

🍪 - What are their favorite scents?

☔ - How does this oc feel about rain?

🌲 - Do they have a favorite location to hang out in?

⚡ - Does this oc have any unusual or “irrational” fears?

🗡️ - Does this oc have a signature object, accessory, or weapon?

💛 - Are they ‘good with children’, or more awkward?

🧡 - Physical touch: good or bad for this oc?

👁️‍🗨️ - Eye contact: good or bad for this oc?

🐺 - How does this oc deal with solitude?

🔅 - How does this oc deal with physical pain?

🌱 - Share one of this oc’s early memories.

🐰 - How huggable is this oc?

🍁 - What is this oc’s favorite season?

🌕 - If this oc was an animal, what kind would they be?

🦷 - Would this oc ever bite someone?

🐉 - Very serious question… are they more like a dragon, or a unicorn?

🐸 - What’s this oc’s sense of humor like?

🚷 - Tell one difference between yourself and this oc!

📓 - Do you associate any quotes or lyrics with this oc?

[celestdraws]

at last! the final secret santa. this one was for enchiron too. :D

[rannadylin]

Today's tea: Teaquisitor, a blend for Ianthina, my Watcher's past life in Pillars of Eternity. Strong black tea, just a bit fruity & floral.

Today's knit: So I haven't had tea-and-knit pics for the past few days as I've been stuck in a short row Groundhog's Day of sorts... XD Yesterday I finished the button band and shawl collar, which are worked all in one piece, with short rows back and forth forming the longer section for the collar. So for most of that time that whole long edge was all on one needle while the live stitches from the bottom ribbing were on a second needle as a holder. Working back and forth meant I couldn't separate the ends of the needle cable to lay the work flat for a picture, and until I finished the short rows it all just looked like a big blue wooly blob. Now that I have that part off the needles, it turned out pretty cool!

Closeups:

An I-cord bind-off edging finishes the button bands, collar, and bottom ribbing very neatly.

The nice thing about the I-cord edging is that it looks identical from both sides of the fabric, so that the shawl collar folds down without looking like it's on the wrong side.

All we need now is a couple of sleeves!

(Maleme Cardigan in Knit Picks City Tweed DK, Jacquard colorway)

[parakaryote]

A very simplified diagram of Florence’s mother’s house, and a peaceful childhood moment. Not pictured: doors, sinks, lighting, plumbing and other internal workings, the grating covering the nature room. The animals in the nature room are also drawn larger than they actually are.

“Pelagic” is the name used in Kenor for any semi-aquatic, specifically marine, human variety. They can resemble many different kinds of marine animals (Florence and her mother are a nudibranch-like type), but they never have gills even if they resemble gilled animals. Their lungs function like those of marine mammals, allowing them to hold their breath for long periods of time but always needing to come back up for air. Because of this, their dwellings are only partially underwater, and bedrooms in particular are almost always above water (they can technically sleep underwater, whale-style, but most don’t feel comfortable with it).

Florence’s mother likes sleeping on futons. Florence likes listening to the waves lap against the bottom of the floor.

The arches in the underwater living room are furniture that you can wrap your legs or arms around in order to stay in place. On the side is a window into the nature room.

“Nature rooms” are basically aquariums that consist of a large hole in the side of the house. The holes in the grating are large enough to let some medium-sized animals through, but the grating ultimately prevents any large animals from setting up home there. The inhabitants of the house can then watch a mini-ecosystem develop.