#if i knew how to make gradient text i would

[seasofsaturn]

Songs I'd like to see added to Project Sekai:

Group Suggestion:

Red = Vivid Bad Squad

Blue = Leo/need

Green = More More Jump

Yellow = Wonderland Showtime

Purple = Nightcord at 25:00

Infinity Dance Step (インフィニティダンステップ)

Junjo ☆ Fighter (純情☆ファイター)

Tetrodotoxin Synthesizer No. 2 (テトロドトキサイザ2号)

Tengaku (天樂)

Lagtrain (ラグトレイン)

Play with Fire (ヒアドビ)

Dancer in the Dark

It's Matsuri, Hey Come On (祭りだヘイカモン)

Yes Yes (Katakuna-P/sat)

City Lights (シティライツ)

Rubik's Cube (ルービックキューブ)

Sakurazensen Ijou Nashi (桜前線異常ナシ)

Kaii Mononoke Ongakubako (怪異物ノ怪音楽箱)

Pusse cafe (off topic but listen to Da-little's cover of this song)

Arazome Train (退紅トレイン)

E? Aa, Sou (え？あぁ、そう。)

Musunde Hiraite Rasetsu to Mukuro (結ンデ開イテ羅刹ト骸)

Toosenbo (とおせんぼ)

Unhappy Refrain (アンハッピーリフレイン)

The Crow and the Rabbit (烏と兎)

Pinky Promise (指切り)

Rinne (リンネ)

Love Philosophia (恋愛フィロソフィア)

Thief Night Trick (ドロボウナイトトリック)

Jabberwocky Jabberwocka (ジャバヲッキー・ジャバヲッカ)

AaAaAaAAaAaAAa (あぁあぁあぁああぁあぁああぁ)

Dear

Your Body Temperature (君の体温)

[likesummerrainn]

watch that poison blossom

Hangman Page Birthday Week 2024: ⤷ Day 6 - Favorite Feud: HangSwerve

[mikelogan]

gif tutorial

i was asked to make a tutorial for this set i made, so let's get right into it!

first things first, i downloaded the music videos from youtube in 1080p using 4k video downloader. unfortunately, the quality of youtube videos always seems... not great, to put it simply. plus these music videos are from the 90s, so they've been upscaled to 1080p after the fact. all of this works against us, but i've definitely worked with videos of lesser quality than these, so at least there's that!

when i gif, i import video frames to layers rather than screencapping. this comes down to personal preference. after everything has loaded, i group all my layers together and set the frame delay to 0.05. i then cropped my gif to 540x500.

the next step in my process is sharpening. i did play around with my settings a bit given the quality of the footage and the dimensions of the gif. i compared both @hellboys low-quality video gif tutorial to my regular sharpening action and my vivid sharpening action and in this case, i preferred my normal vivid sharpening action. i used this tutorial to create the action for myself, and you can find other sharpening tutorials here. this action converts my frames to video timeline and applies sharpening.

once my gif is sharpened and i'm in timeline, i begin coloring. i wanted to simplify the amount of colors used in these gifs, again because of the video quality -- i knew it wasn't going to have the crispness i would normally like for my gifs. here are my coloring adjustment layers and their settings (not pictured: my first layer is a brightness/contrast layer set to screen) (explanation in alt text):

all of these layers and their settings will vary depending on your footage and its coloring (and obviously, feel free to make the gradient map whatever colors you like if you aren't going for this exact look).

pretty basic coloring, especially with just slapping a gradient map on top (my beloved), but at this point, i still didn't like the quality of the gif, so i added a couple textures/overlays.

i put the left one down first and set the blending mode to soft light and the opacity to 8%. depending on what look you're going for, you could increase or decrease the opacity or play around with different blending modes. i like using this texture with lower quality footage because even when it's sized up a bit, it adds some crispness and makes things feel more defined. for the second texture, i set it to overlay and 75% opacity. we love and respect film grain in this house.

now for the typography! sometimes i really enjoy typography and other times it's the bane of my existence for the sole reason of just how many fonts i have installed. anyway, here are the settings i used for this set:

make sure the color of your font is white and then set the blending mode to either difference or exclusion. i can almost never see a difference between the two, but for this set, i used exclusion. below are the blending options (double click on your text layer to bring up this menu or right click and select blending options).

now we have to add the warp effect. with your text tool still selected, click this icon at the top of your screen:

from the dropdown menu, select twist. these were my settings, but feel free to play around with different warp options and their settings. the ones i use most often are flag, fish, and twist.

this last step is completely optional, but it's an effect i use in most of my sets with typography. duplicate your text layer (select the layer and ctrl+j), turn off the layer effects (click the eye icon next to effects), and set the blending mode to normal. right click on the layer and select rasterize type. right click on the layer icon itself and choose select pixels.

at this point, you should see the moving black and white dotted line showing that only your text is selected. then go to edit > stroke. here are the settings i almost exclusively use.

this is what your text should look like now:

using ctrl+T, move the layer off the canvas so you can't see any of the text anymore. you should be left with only your outline. click anywhere on your canvas to de-select the text we just moved. use ctrl+T again as well as your arrow keys to nudge the outline over to the left 2px and up 2px. this is personal preference as far as the positioning, but i almost never move it any other way. you can leave it like this, which i sometimes do, or you can set the blending mode to soft light like i did for a more subtle effect.

and that's it! rinse and repeat for each gif in your set or use a different warp effect on each gif to switch it up! if you have any questions about this tutorial or would like me to make one for anything else, please feel free to ask any time!

[to6ge]

Aquarium date with various atsv men

Pairing :: earth 1610!Miles Morales, Miguel O’hara, Pavitr Prabhakar, Hobie Brown x Gn!reader !! ୨୧

Summary :: Going to the aquarium was one of your favorite things, so your boyfriend took you to the aquarium!

Gwen’s note :: Guys how tf do you make a text gradient colored.. anyways random idea I thought about at a 4 hour long drive back home, my phone is dying !!

— Earth 1610!Miles Morales

Miles, who was one of the sweetest boyfriend you could ever have—took you on a date to the aquarium because he knew you loved seeing little sea creatures just moving around in the water, you found it so adorable on how they just move so effortlessly. So here you both are, in an aquarium. You stared at a group of clown fishes moving around, your eyes lit up and Miles was just watching you. He found it really cute how your eyes lights up when you look at something that was cute,, he’d do anything to see you so happy like that—no,, he’d do anything to see you happy. Even if it meant burning a hole in his wallet. And when you look at the fishes, he will sketch you, just admiring the little fishies. <3

— Miguel O’hara

He thinks that it’s silly that you find little sea creatures just roaming around cute, he’s intrigued but at the same time amused by it. He’s mostly just happy to see you happy, he thinks that its cute, honestly. He’d wait for you, station to station till you’re fully satisfied. “You really like them, dont you, amor?” he asked,, “Theyre so cute, ofcourse I like them! Just take a look at them. Theyre beautiful!” you replied—“I think theyre nothing compared to your beauty, cariño,”

— Pavitr Prabhakar

God was this boy the best person that you have in your life, he (probably) also likes fishes so you both would always be like “This one is so cute, Pav!!” then Pav would be like “Yeah yeah!” but then he sees another fish and says, “No! This one's definitely cuter!” and it wouldnt stop till the end—speaking of the end, theres a souvenir shop at the end and there’s fishes you could buy, some matching keychains and some cute plushies. “Priyyyy, look, those fishes looks like us!” Pavitr was pointing at two goldfishes very close to each other, you just laughed at his silliness. But anyways, he gets both of you matching keychains, and drops you off to your house.

— Hobie Brown

He would take you to those aquariums where you could pet some fish ( ideally sharks :3 ) because you kept on saying how much you loved fishes, so he wanted to make you happy. He gets really happy when you get happy, Hobie thinks its nice to see people happy—especially you! He practically melts when he sees your eyes light up when you see something you like, he just hides it. You guys would stop in the middle because theres a fish store, you said every fish there was really cute but youve been staring for this one particular fish for very, very, long and he knew what to do. He bought you that fish! You bought Hobie a cute plushie you knew he wouldn't like, but you knew that he’d treasure it forever anyways. In the end, you walked home together, coming home to your shared apartment with a fish, and a plushie.

Hello.. THE MIGUEL ONE WAS SO SHORT. I know. I hope I didd decent, I actually had lots of fun writing this, esp wrting the miles n pav one :(( I love all of them sm (⁠●⁠´⁠⌓⁠`⁠●⁠)

[diamondchili]

despite not being very far into ooo i've seen ankh's full greeed form, and tbh i kinda hate it,, so i redesigned him!! feat. some doodles of him not clinically posed and symmetrical :p

character design is a true passion of mine, so i infodumped broke down my process below the cut!! do note i'm not approaching this as someone who would have to consider fight choreo and stunts and whatnot. just a disclaimer lol

id in alt text as always! <3

The thing i immediately hated was how human-like his face looked?? or at least his mouth. yuck. while i get wanting to set Ankh apart from the other greeeds, there's a difference between uniqueness and breaking the rules of design you've put in place for a set of characters. Uva, for instance, has a very bug-like face, whereas Mezool has almost no face thanks to the orca's mouth framing it. That means there's two major ways for a greeed's face to look, and i think where they went wrong was trying to do something entirely different for ankh.

i kindof get what they were going for by making the bird face frame Ankh's *real* face, but imo they added too much detail to both. if youre making the big face's mouth frame the actual face, don't give the actual face a mouth lol, it crowds the design too much and looks confusing. Plus, he's a suit character, he doesn't exactly need a mouth to talk from!! So for this redesign, i made both faces much more simple and gave the primary face a sortof stand-in mouth.

Next thing was the hair. why, why, WHY on EARTH does the hair on Ankh's full form not match the hair he gives the people he possesses?!?!?!? that was the first visual hint we get as to Ankh's full appearance when he changes Shingo's physical attributes upon possessing him, and when he possesses Eiji it does the same swoopy thing. so. i made my design have hair that does that. this is basic shit yall come on 😭

Then i saw the dinky lil drab half-cape they gave him and i said oh no. oh honey. this is a BIRD. you've Gotta give him more drama than that. i kept the black to break up the ocean of red in the design (and i'll admit it is still a little red-heavy up top), but since he is a bird-based character with a triad color scheme, i made the back of it have that gradient. the tatoba/traffic-light/analogous color pattern is repeated all over the suit in Ankh's canon design, and i did want to stick to that so he's still recognizable as the same character.

Speaking of sticking to canon, i actually think the chest piece and waist armor is the only thing i didn't majorly change. i simplified the color placement, but tbh that can be chocked up to the quick-and-dirty art style i did for this, i was mostly just feeling the design out. But i did include the gradients down the chest, again to break up the red. not sure if i like it if i'm 100% honest-- it doesn't quite line up the way i want. The only other thing i added here were the bird claw pauldrons, mostly to make him match Uva bc i LOVE Uva's weird bug leg pauldrons, and I love when design elements are repeated across different characters in unique ways. not sure if you can really see them under his fluffy feather cape, but oh well

I kept the thigh pieces fairly simple, omitting the green from the gradient as it's present on the loincloth-like piece just between them. For the kneepads, i repeated the flying bird motif on the iconic forearm armor, because it's such a fun element and is the first thing we see of Ankh, so i knew repeating it somewhere on the design was essential, even if it didnt match exactly. i see they did this on the canon design, but the shape was just too different to solidify it. it weirdly looks like a face? and again this isn't practical suit design-- i'm sure having kneepads in this shape would Not Work from a stunts standpoint.

Lastly, i don't have much to say about the shoepieces honestly? Aside from the fact that in Ankh's canon greeed form his bird claws more resemble owl feet. which. i guess isn't incorrect? they're still bird themed. just looks odd with the tropical bird everything else. So i just made them a bit daintier lol. kinda wish i'd kept the green painted nails tho, thats cute.

ANYWAYS if you read this far, thank you!! i love getting to analyze character design-- what works, what doesn't, all that!! so this was a lot of fun. whether you agree or disagree with my decisions, i hope you enjoyed seeing my art and reading my ramblings!! <3

[seiquack]

Late Night Walk

Ran Haitani ( 灰谷 蘭 ) x GN!reader ✧

Overthinking, Mutual feelings (?), Ran loves reader and is obvious about it, mostly reader who overthinks,

proofread: @spoiled-beans707

You knew he wanted you as much you wanted him. The kisses that left your skin marked with shades of purple linger on your skin, gifts and flowers delivered infront of your door to make up for small misunderstandings

These events happen in most friendships yet why is Ran's actions seemed to be laced with something

His texts about his day's shedule, texts asking to hang out, and sudden 'I love you' texts in the middle of night.

You don't know if he really meant those 'I love you's' or if it's just to rile you up and see how you would react.

You are not even sure if you should be with Ran considering the things he has done, being affiliated with gangs the whole part of his life, the tittle he holds that he wears mighty and high not feeling an ouch of shame when explaining on how him and his brother got it

Calloused hands that's always tainted with Crimson blood that didn't belong to him,

holds your hand gently that it almost made you believe he didn't have the strength to break every bone in your body

It was a night in the month of December, walking in an empty park since he suggested the both of you should stroll around town for a while before going to each others respective homes.

Leafless tree's decorated with LED lights with snow decorating the ground surrounded the two of you as the both of your continued to walk

"Come and be apart of my life forever" Ran stops walking still holding your hand causing you to stop in your tracks

He gently squeezes your hand as he looked at you as if you were the most perfect being in every universe that exist.

you give him a look as if he said the most stupid thing in the word

"You wouldn't want that" letting go of his hand, looking away from him starting to walk away

"Yes i do" He replies "Wouldn't you know why I said that?" he questions you following your pace and walking beside you but keeping space between the two of you

"Honestly, I don't want to know" you pause to swallow the lump forming in your throat "everything your sprouting out of your mouth is just a sudden thought you created and you want to solve by doing dumb solutions"

You stop walking and look back to him, he stopped as well just giving you his casual smile that didn't falter at your reply to his question

"How would you know?" He askes you once again raising a brow and putting his hands on his coats pockets. He moves closer to you and adjusts himself til he's infront of you

Giving you a small smile to reassure you he means what he said, and a small kiss to your cheek to back up that reassuring smile

( a/n: I finally found out jow to do that gradient on the text, my friend proofread half of it not the whole thing since I wanted to post again HEHE )

Likes and Reblogs are appreciated ♡ !

m.list @seiquack

[my-plastic-life]

I did a thing... actually, I did several things. :D My ani-ME (anime doll version) needed manga in her house, so of course I had to make mini Inuyasha manga! I've done this before, but this time it's different... I didn't do miniature versions of the Viz BIG volumes. Nope, I did all 56 original Japanese volumes. Because ani-ME is in Japan, so she must have the original volumes!!! :D What a task this was - because the volumes are so old, it's hard to find high resolution pictures of them online. And even if you do, many times it's just the front, not the back and definitely not the spine. I found some, but then the front and back cover colors were completely different, some had text and graphics cut off from what was most likely a scanned image, the colors were inconsistent between various websites, some colors were clashing badly due to low quality resolution, etc.

So I literally made a template in Photoshop of the real size of the original manga (obtained via Amazon) and rebuilt EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. from scratch. I was able to find a site with all the original cover photos, and then I found the most high resolution cover I could find to duplicate the pattern that's on all books (colors vary), recreated the logo for each book (the character symbols and the gradients are all different for each volume), redrew the SS Comics logo that's on all books, and I even replicated each individual barcode. Because I'm nothing if not a consistent perfectionist. :D

For the backs, I used the images I found and just copied and pasted the characters and Japanese text, and for the teeny tiny characters I used the brush tool to trace over them. Even though I knew you probably wouldn't be able to see them in such a small scale, no way was I leaving them out! Consistency, darn it! :D

For the spines, I found complete sets on eBay and used a photo of the spines from those auctions as a template. I redid everything on the spine except the character head at the top of each, which is copied and pasted from the eBay files. They're definitely pretty low resolution, but hopefully it's not noticeable at such a small scale.

And the volume numbers? Try as I might, I could NOT find a font that matched them. So I got the most high resolution volumes I could find and made number templates... so each time I needed one of the volume numbers, I'd just use a color overlay on it and plop it where it needed to go on the front and spine.

Then the fun part - resizing them all to 1/6 scale. They're a little over an inch tall right now. And because they're not very thick in the spine, wrapping the covers around foam board to mimic pages wasn't working. So I had to make pages... for 56 volumes LOL. I just took my cover template, sized it down, and made it a blank white with a black stroke so I could see where to cut. I could fit 11 mini pages in one row across a regular sized sheet of printer paper (I used cardstock for extra thickness and stability), and I could fit like six rows on a sheet. I was able to fit 11 pages in one volume to allow the spine room, so 56 volumes x 11 mini pages each = 616 total pages I wound up cutting, then stacking and gluing together. But, of course, that wasn't a perfect fit, as the pages, despite being sanded down to be completely straight and smooth, poked out of the covers. So I had to wrap the covers around the pages, mark where they hit, and use an X-acto knife to trim the pages down before gluing them inside the covers.

But finally, I was done! It was time-consuming, but I love how these little books turned out. They don't open, but that's totally okay. That would be way too much work, and every time I make a book that opens, it never closes again. I did, however, manage to find some pages from the original first volume (in Japanese), so I printed a second volume 1 cover and glued those pages inside. So now ani-ME has an open book she can read too!

So there you have it! My mini, 1/6 scale Japanese volumes of Inuyasha - all 56 of them! I made that bookshelf just for them, but I intentionally left more room in case I want to add more manga later. But of course we had to have Inuyasha manga on the shelf - it's the most important! :D And the poster on the wall is totally a tag from one of my shirts LOL.

Showing off her new bookshelf stocked full of all 56 volumes of the Inuyasha manga:

Relaxing in bed, reading from the beginning:

Why yes, she is reading the Inuyasha manga on an Inuyasha pillow :D

All 56 volumes on the bookshelf:

What do you do with an Inuyasha shirt tag? Make an instant doll poster, of course!

Front covers:

Back covers:

Volume 1 pages (glued in order, right to left):

Size reference (shown with American penny):

[neonmetro]

HII ive been a huge fan of your art for forever and i never get tired of seeing it in my feed. you have this very specific style of design and composition (the fonts, the colors, the symbols) that scratches my brain really hard and i'd love to hear about the thoughts behind them!!!!

AHHH THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!! ofc :D i hope you don't mind the rambling

i'll be very honest most of my compositions just follow the triangle rule (making poses follow a triangle) and filling up the page (with text, icons, etc) and lots of going back and forth seeing whether or not smth looks good 😭 like spending literal hours on the placement of sparkles

i REALLY like using text in my art and i usually have a certain phrase or highly specific vibe where i'll then go and look for a quote that'll fit that vibe and i'll usually place it somewhere midway through lineart

i kind of use the same few fonts and i think its pretty noticeable (kozuka mincho std h, hanmingwang mainly) but its mainly bc i can use it for both chinese and english words, i think it gives off a really cool vibe to use both languages with fonts that have serifs

i also just. make shit up as i go tbh i usually draw the pose first and have to work a background around it and maybe add some sparkles to fill some more space

the ahab piece i just knew i wanted waves at her feet and the composition to feel like its at sea, with her hair mimicking oceans. once i was done rendering the fullbody i just looked up vintage ships line art for the bg and thought maybe the white circle/halo would look cool) and the outis piece i only had the half body and chibi drawn out and kinda framed everything around it

i usually pick text that's kinda on the nose references, the ahab piece's chinese text is "moby dick" and "WHITE WHALE HOLY GRAIL" is from blood and thunder about. well. captain ahab. the outis is again just more direct references, w. corp, her trailer quote, and her own name. there was some extra space in between the chibi and the halfbody i wanted to fill and originally wanted to do a train icon but it wouldn't fit in such a small space, so i decided to go for sign icons instead (thinking about it, if i didn't do the exit sign i might've done a wet floor sign or smth but i like the little detail of adding the X on the arrow leading out, giving her no exit)

i always feel something is missing from the composition so i spend a long time trying things out since i usually don't have this planned out but also backgrounds are uniquely weird because i want the characters to stick out but contrast is very important to me

i remember trying to figure out how to make the background of this piece both cohesive with the rest of the art and also make it not blend in together (so i opted to add shading to the leaves while also doing another gradient from the right corner up), the sparkles were also there to fill in space

most of my colors are just slightly more saturated vers of the character i'm drawing's canon colors and then i slap 48762793832 filters on top to make it even more saturated lawl

like this is a sneak peak of art that's queued up ^ and there's a pretty massive diff before gradient maps/filters and after lol

[leonsleftbicep]

posting this while on the brink of falling asleep

@eepymonstrr i have finished the outline and stuff for the dnd x sleep token thing.

i put to much work into this and its not even drawn yet because i had to flesh out the characters first before drawing them.

this is is my notes in text form with some additions. enjoy this till i can actually draw, i do not have time nor energy at the moment. very sorry.

Elf Druid Vessel - 

White long curly hair, gray skin, smoke markings, freckles, some other markings, the deer womb tat, claws. Why a druid? He was abandoned in the forest by his elder. He seemed to be too quiet and almost depressed to the others, he was not attractive to the humans like all the other elves. It drove his elders to abandon him and call him a monster, a creature, not worthy of love. By anyone. He encountered Sleep as he shivered and slept on the moss covered forest floor. Sleep asked if they could be able to save him, let him be free. in return worship Sleep and spread his word and create a collective. After that vessel awoke in a cottage being taken care of by a smoke like creature that had tentacles and eyes in place of a face shrouded in a cloak. The same cloak he would adopt and add to in his worship of Sleep. 

Half-Orc Ranger II -

Blue undertone gray skin with red gradient on his fingers and toes, dark hair with gray streaks at the temples, 5’7, 180 - 200 pounds, tusks that are prominent. Lots of scars as well as Sleep’s marking as a scar on his chest. Why a ranger? Hes self taught main weapons are two Kris knifes his mother gave him before he was exiled from the quiet village he got thrown out for being loud and “spawn of the enemy”  He met Vessel after almost shooting Vessel with an arrow as he was hunting.

Tiefling Rogue III -

Red skin with a black gradient on his fingers and toes, white/pale blue eyes, long black warm tone hair (most likely curly). 6”7 - 7 feet tall (not yet decided). Claws because why not  Why a rouge? He met IV while on a heist with his old party (of people also on the run). The encounter with IV was in a tavern in the middle of the town he was in at the moment. He fell into IV’s arms and was baffled at spark feeling, like something that makes him want to leave all of this behind and just find happiness. Which he did, he went on a journey to find IV after that, running into him with his new party (Vessel and II). III felt a pull and knew he was on the right path.

Dragon-Born/Human Hybrid Wizard IV -

Warm gray scales with a red and gold iridescence that is stark against his skin, 5’10, stormy blue eyes with dragons slit pupils that act a lot like a cats, dusty brown blond long mullet mohawk, a tattoo somewhere, claws because why the hell not (starting to get sleepy while writing these up) Why a wizard? He was born to a human mother and a dragon born father who plans to retire from his wizardly duties once IV has found his magical spark and is of age. Little did he know that his son would find how spark and then decide to leave the royal life forever.

im now going to go to bed

[bcdrawsandwrites]

[ID: The first image Psychonauts fanfic banner on a black-to-gray gradient background. On the left in white text it says “Prompt #6: Organ Theft” On the right is a bright green animated figment of a brain in a glass case. The top of the glass case is labeled "PREZ" and the base is labeled "NO TOUCH." The figment is based on one of the images from the Milla's Adventures! memory vault.

The second image is a Bad Things Happen Bingo card. Various prompts are marked with a half-brain (prompt requested but not filled) or full-brain (prompt requested and finished) symbol, while the “Organ Theft” prompt specifically is marked with a full brain symbol. /end ID]

FINALLY WE'RE BACK!! This one took me WAY too long, but here's the next fic in my @badthingshappenbingo challenge!

I am currently NO LONGER OPEN FOR REQUESTS. I have enough to work on to get a bingo! I MAY decide to reopen prompts later if I want to keep going after finishing these fics, but for now, requests are closed!

This request is for @of-science-and-stars! Sorry this took so long, and hope you enjoy! Thanks to @jaywings and @pinkygrocket for beta-reading!

Prompt: Organ Theft Characters: Sasha Nein, Milla Vodello, Ford Cruller Warnings: None

---~~~---

The doors leading into Sasha's lab slid open, and he trudged through them, making his way to his office, then all but collapsed down onto his couch. Automatically, he TK'd a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it with pyrokinesis, and he tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling. He took a slow drag, sighing through his nose and watching the smoke spiral toward the ceiling.

He truly enjoyed his work. But there were some days that made him wish he had a different job—one that didn’t leave mental and emotional burdens weighing heavily on his shoulders.

Soon the first cigarette was smoked down to the filter. Into the ashtray it went, and it was swiftly replaced with another.

It was days like this that made him wish that he had never taken Ford up on his offer to join the Psychonauts when he had run into him so long ago. Of course, deep down he knew it was the best decision he'd ever made, and that mental exhaustion was causing his emotions to behave irrationally, but right now, that knowledge did nothing to change how he felt. As the events of the past several hours played out again in his mind, he sank lower into his couch. Truly this was one of the worst days of his career.

It could not possibly get worse.

If Hollis would no longer allow him to wear what he chose, then—

Shoehorn, Dustpan, this is Grease Jar.

Sasha jolted upright, scrambling to TK-grab his dropped cigarette before it burned the couch.

Got an important mission that's slipped through the cracks. U.S. government's deemed it too unimportant, but the entirety of Country's future is on the line if we don't do something.

Rubbing his forehead, Sasha wondered if Ford had misspoke. Before he could comment, Milla chimed in:

Of course, Grease Jar. Shoehorn and I would be happy to help. What's the trouble?

President's been captured.

What? That had to be wrong—how could that have slipped through the cracks? Are you sure?

Do I ever contact you when I'm not? You gonna help or what?

Well, he couldn't argue with that. ...Yes, he replied. We're ready.

Great. I'm getting things set up on my end. Paperwork will be handled as usual. Gimme a minute and I'll get you ready for transport.

Very well. Just... warn us this time, please. You recall how last time went.

You were fine, son. I know how to use the heimlich, and I can do it again if I need to.

He could feel Milla's gentle laugh, and he couldn't be too upset.

For a few moments he sat in his office, putting out his cigarette and straightening his jacket. Ford didn't like to waste time, so he'd likely be here any minute. Sighing, he stood up to stretch—

—and just as he realized one critical error he'd made, someone abruptly appeared next to him, grabbed his shoulder, and with a yank, he was out of his office.

—-

Sasha stumbled in the sudden dim light. The beeps and chirps from the nearby consoles weren't unfamiliar to him, but the use of teleportation was always jarring.

With a rush of green psychic energy, Ford and Milla appeared next to him. Nodding in satisfaction, Ford clapped both of them on the back. "Good to see you two out here to visit an old coot again."

"You know you're much more than that to us, Agent Cruller," Milla said with a smile.

"Pshaw." Ford waved a hand. "I didn't bring you here to get all sappy on me, anyway." He glanced over at Sasha, then blinked, one of his bushy brows raising. "Didn't take you out here for a vacation, either."

Milla followed his gaze, then covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. Meanwhile, Sasha looked away, shuffling his feet in his very comfortable pair of socks and sandals.

Shaking his head, Ford strode over to a console and tapped in a few keys, bringing up holographic images around the platform they stood upon. The first depicted a map of the globe, which zoomed in on a teeny tiny island. "So this here is Country."

"Which country?" Sasha asked, frowning at the image.

"It's not a country, it's a territory," Ford snapped, eyeing Sasha over his shoulder.

Milla exchanged a glance with Sasha before raising a finger. "You did just say it was a country—"

"No, I said it was Country. Keep up!" Frowning, Ford brought up a second map, which was zoomed a bit further out. "Country is a small island territory off the coast of Nation."

Sasha could feel regret creeping up his spine the second he opened his mouth. "Which nation—"

"The nation of—” He broke off into a sputter. “It's not a nation, it's a republic! Didn't you young'ns ever go to school?!"

Clasping her hands, Milla nodded. "Of course, Agent Cruller. What's going on there?"

Ford relaxed a little before bringing up another image—this one appearing to be a short, squat man with mint-green skin. "President's been found in danger."

"...The President?" Sasha asked, wilting.

"Yea—I mean, no!" Ford snapped, his body trembling in agitation. "His name's President—goes by Prez—and he's the Prime Minister of Country. He's been captured by terrorists and is being held captive in the Company Building."

Once again Sasha nearly opened his mouth, but Milla shook her head, and he held himself back. "So we'll head to this office building and—"

"It's not an office—it's a—a—" Ford broke off into sputtering once again, but this time shot a glare at the holograms around him. "Who names these things?!"

Milla laughed, and Ford rolled his eyes. "Laugh all you want, but I'd like to see you keep this stuff straight!"

Sighing, he brought up the layout of the fortress on the holograms. "Prez is being held somewhere in these walls. Now you'd think it'd be at the top of this tower here—" he pointed at a tower on the leftmost side of the building "—like some princess in a fairy tale, but the intelligence I've gathered shows he's most likely located somewhere around here." He indicated a number of smaller rooms in the middle of the building, then paused, indicating the tower again. "Or, if we're unlucky, he might be held there, where they apparently keep the gators."

The ridge of one of Sasha's lenses raised as he exchanged a glance with Milla. "Alligators?"

Ford scratched the back of his scalp as he glanced off to the side. "Or maybe it was crocodiles? Same difference. Anyway." Shaking his head, he pulled up another image that showed an aerial view of the building and its surrounding grounds. "Now, the authorities are camped out outside, and they’ve been notified that you’re coming. Hostage situations are delicate and all that, but if you can get Prez outside, they can take it from there."

"I assume these terrorists have a psychic on their side?" Sasha asked, examining the map. "Otherwise we would not have been called upon."

"Now that we're not sure," Ford admitted. "But one thing we do know is that they may have access to sneezing powder, which is going to complicate things. They may have some brains switched up."

"Ach, of course."

"We can handle it, Agent Cruller," Milla said, giving Sasha a nod.

"Good," Ford replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple photos as well as printed sheets of paper, which he handed to Sasha and Milla.

"Here's some pictures of our target, and some questions you'll need to ask him to verify his identity, in case they tried a switcheroo. Study 'em and burn 'em. I got the coordinates logged in the Pelican, as well as your disguises for the mission. I'll stay down here for now so you can reach me, and I'll give you more mission details along the way. Now git!"

With that, he waved his hands toward them in a shoo-ing motion.

"Tchau!" Milla said with a short wave.

"We'll be in contact," Sasha added, and the two of them headed for the tree stump exit. From there, the transport system brought them to the hangar. To his dismay, he found a bird's nest had been built atop one of the wings of the Pelican. "Ach... How do they keep getting in here?"

While Milla gently TK'd the nest off to the side, Sasha glanced around. While well-disguised on the outside, the hangar was above-ground, which led to... problems like this. At least the bears and cougars couldn't get in.

Milla gave him a playful psi-poke, and he shook his head. Right, they had bigger things to worry about right now. Arguably.

Once they had both levitated into the Pelican, a psychic message from Ford reached them: Once you're onboard, you should find your outfits on the front seats.

Nodding to each other, they approached their respective seats to find Milla's had one of her custom Psychonauts outfits folded neatly there, complete with the rarely-used hood. It also had a set of large, circular earrings on top, each of them transparent while giving off opalescent reflections. Sasha, meanwhile, found a fancy blue suit with a pin on the breast reading "Logan Smith - AquaSpark Amusement Parks.” Accompanying the outfit was a small briefcase with the fake company’s logo: a blue lightning bolt with a splash of water directly beneath it.

There were, however, no matching shoes for the outfit.

Sasha curled up inside himself.

So, Dustpan, you'll be handling the sneaky stuff. Those earrings there are one of Egg Carton's inventions—supposed to give you more invisibility time.

Milla smiled, turning over the earrings in her hand. Oh, that's wonderful! So stylish, too.

Yeah, yeah, he's all about style. Now, Shoehorn, you'll be the distraction. You'll be Logan Smith, CEO of AquaSpark Water Parks. For some reason these terrorists are just nuts about water parks, so they'll be happy to see you there.

Wonderful, Sasha thought, looking over the outfit. They sound reasonable.

"I'm sure you'll do great, darling!" Milla said with a smile.

Sasha almost raised a hand to protest, only to stop himself, and placed a hand on his temple to speak to Ford. Ford, there seems to be something missing from my outfit.

Eh?

The shoes.

Didn't give Milla shoes either. Figured you'd both come dressed for work.

He almost argued that he was dressed for work, but bit back the comment; a man's life was in danger, and there was no time to worry about shoes. Tapping the button to open the hangar door and flipping a number of switches, he sent a message to both Milla and Ford. Very well. Starting up the jet.

Good, Ford replied. Course is already set, so you should be there in about two hours.

We will notify you upon arrival.

As the jet took off, they braced themselves, and waited until the plane leveled before relaxing. Sasha turned to Milla. "We may as well familiarize ourselves with our target while we wait."

“Good idea!” Milla replied, TKing out the papers Ford had given her.

Sasha, meanwhile, TK'd out the photo he was given of Prez. Looking it over, he found himself staring into the face of a man who looked well-meaning, if somewhat baffled. Recalling the glimpse he'd gotten of the picture Ford had shown earlier, he wondered if that was the man's perpetual expression. Or perhaps he was just not photogenic.

After studying it for a while, he switched to the document. Said document detailed basic facts about the man—his birth date, his partner's name, the date of their anniversary, the names of all seven of his Samoyeds, and various other factoids that could be useful to know, ranging from basic to obscure. Fortunately, Sasha was used to memorizing this sort of thing—it was standard procedure for when a brain swap was suspected.

After he studied the notes for some time, another copy of the document entered his vision, and he didn't have to look to know that Milla was TKing it to him. Without a word he TK'd it off to his other side, gave her a moment to look away, and lit it on fire with pyrokinesis, doing the same with his own paper shortly afterward. "Aside from the odd names, this should be a fairly standard mission."

Milla nodded. "It will be over soon enough, and then we can throw a party!" She gave him a grin. "Perhaps that would cheer you up?"

Sasha stiffened. "Ah... I had hoped that wasn't obvious."

"It's all right, darling." She reached over to pat him on the shoulder gently. "Now let's get ready. It looks like we'll be arriving soon!"

Milla retreated into the bathroom, and stepped out in her Psychonaut outfit, without the hood—understandable, as it would not be comfortable to wear for an extended period. As his partner settled herself in her seat again, Sasha took a moment to step back to change into his own outfit. The suit tugged at his shoulders, but otherwise he found himself able to move around in it well enough. He kept his Psychonauts badge, however, slipping it into his pocket in case he needed to identify himself. But as he stepped back out, he frowned down at his feet.

"Oh, are you worried about your footwear?" Milla asked. He gave a start to find her looking back at him with an amused smile. "I'm sure you'll find a way to roll with it, darling."

"Hopefully," Sasha remarked, taking a moment to straighten his tie.

By this point, the jet was slowing down as it approached the Island of Country. Milla carefully tied her hair back into a bun and pulled her hood over her head. Her earrings poked out from the hood, looking obvious against the dark outfit, but half a second later she turned herself invisible.

"So far, so good," Sasha remarked, nodding approvingly in the direction where Milla had been standing. However, he felt her presence just behind him, and turned to see her smiling at him beneath her hood.

"I'm glad you think so," she said, a teasing glint in her eyes.

He gave a huff of amusement. "Even if Otto's new accessories don't work as advertised—which I'm sure they will—your stealth is unmatched."

"Naturally." Milla gave a soft laugh.

Looking down at the briefcase he’d been given, Sasha picked it up with his hand, and frowned. Well, this wouldn’t be enjoyable.

When the jet landed, the two drew their attention to a holographic screen near the cockpit. It displayed a map of the island, indicating where the jet had landed and where their target was.

"All right, listen up, cuz this recording's about to delete itself once it's done," Ford's voice crackled out of the speaker. "You've landed here, west of the target." The blip on the map indicating the jet flashed. "The authorities are gathered outside the building, and they've been made aware of your arrival. Dustpan, you're gonna sneak in through the side entrance here." The map zoomed in on the building, highlighting something on the western side. "The code to enter is 5002. Meanwhile, Shoehorn, you're gonna enter through the front, and make a show of pushing yourself through the cops. That'll get these guys' attention, and I'll leave you to figure out where to take it from there."

Sasha nodded grimly. Playing things by ear was not his favorite way to do things, but he could handle it when he had to.

"Remember, the fate of Country is on your shoulders, so don't screw this up. Grease Jar, out!" The screen switched off, and a dull bleep indicated that the message had been deleted.

Exchanging glances, Sasha and Milla gave each other a nod before exiting the Pelican, levitating onto the ground outside. With a wave of his hand, Sasha activated the jet's cloaking mechanism to hide it from view, and took note of his surroundings to remember where it was. They'd landed in a clearing in the middle of a forest, where enormous trees surrounded them. The air was thick and humid and alive with the buzzing of mosquitoes, and the sky was overcast. There was nothing really noteworthy here, but luckily, the building was a straight shot east of where they'd landed.

Also a straight shot east was a puddle of muck that Sasha had just stepped into.

His skin began to crawl, and he was certain about half a dozen regrets had spawned in his mental world.

"Watch your step, darling," Milla said, hovering gracefully over the ground.

Grimacing, Sasha levitated a few inches upward, telekinetically keeping hold of his sandal so it didn't slip off his foot and get devoured by the mud. He joined Milla in floating over the ground, but rather than the natural-looking hover Milla performed, he moved parallel to the ground as though standing upon an invisible moving walkway. As they traversed over the mud, he realized that this was more than just a patch of soggy ground—this was an outright swamp. He wished Ford had mentioned this.

Granted, it wasn't relevant to the mission, but it was relevant to his outfit.

Fortunately it wasn't long before they caught sight of a massive structure just beyond the swamp. It was a centuries-old fortress featuring a number of towers, giving the brief illusion that they had somehow stepped back in time. The illusion was shattered by the sight of modern police cars sitting outside, with various officers milling about idly.

Turning to Milla, Sasha gave a nod, and she faded from sight.

Let me know what's happening once you're inside, Milla said. I'll start scouting.

I'll try to draw their attention, Sasha replied, though he couldn't help but wish their roles were reversed.

Approaching the police, he TK'd his Psychonaut badge out of his pocket and flashed it at the police chief. It took a moment for the man to notice, but when he did, he did a double-take. "Hey, you're not supposed to be here," he spoke in a deliberate, dull tone.

As Sasha TK'd the badge away, the other cops looked at the chief, then at Sasha, before continuing the charade with little to no conviction. "Hey, get out of here. This is a police investigation!"

Sasha winced, but made his way toward the fortress nonetheless. "No," he said, also with volume, but hopefully more convincing than the police. "Let me through! I must speak with the men here!"

"Stay back. We have weapons." Several of the officers lifted batons (with a couple more enthusiastically raising guns).

Mentally Sasha prepared a psi-shield should the officers decide to attempt to be too convincing of the act they were putting on of keeping him out. "No!" he cried, raising his voice more with a rapid glance at the entrance to the fortress. "It is of dire importance that I speak to these people!"

To his relief, their plan seemed to be working—a few men wearing ski-masks were now staring at them from the other side of the iron gate that blocked the entrance. They looked at each other, then at him, and seemed to take notice of the logo on his briefcase. They gave a jump and their movements seemed to be growing more excited.

Unbelievable, Sasha thought. Shaking his head, he realized the officers were starting to close in on him (but not too much of course), and he redoubled his efforts to reach the fortress. "Let me through!"

There was a rusty screeching noise as the iron gate that blocked the entrance was raised. While a few officers turned to look at the gate, they looked away again, remembering the plan. With the police pretending to be preoccupied with Sasha, they “failed” to notice one of the men sneaking in their direction. Sasha continued to push his way toward the gate when the man suddenly rushed forward, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the fortress. The officers gave a half-hearted shout, a few of them pursuing before stopping at the closing gate.

"Bout time one of you guys heard about us!" the masked man said as he hauled Sasha through the courtyard. "Now we can finally be makin' some progress here!"

"I-indeed," Sasha stammered, wishing that this man would let go. His sandals were slapping noisily against the stone path and mud was flaking off of his pant leg. He noticed that the courtyard was filled with, of all things, inflatable water slides (many of which were deflated), but before he could comment on these, the man led him into the main building.

More people, these ones not wearing masks, hurried up to them, their brows furrowed in consternation. "Who's this bozo?" one woman demanded.

The man at Sasha's side yanked off his mask, and his expression was that of a child right before a birthday party. "He's with a water park!" he exclaimed, gesturing dramatically at Sasha.

Straightening his back and rolling his shoulder, Sasha nodded. "That's right. Logan Smith, Aqua Spark Amusement Parks."

The others' faces lit up. "Finally!" the woman cried.

"May I speak to...?" Sasha balked, realizing he'd never been given the name of their leader.

"Oh, yeah! Sure! Georg is this way." With a bounce to their steps, the people led Sasha further down the hall. Said hall seemed to be littered with trash, but on closer inspection, the mess consisted of small pool toys.

Something struck him, and he sent a telepathic message to Milla. I've entered the fortress. It was strangely easy.

To his shock, Milla's mental voice was slightly heightened in distress. That's great, darling, but I'm busy at the moment!

Sasha's heart jumped. Are you all right?

I can handle this. Try to find President!

Understood. Sasha frowned—in spite of Milla's insistence, he couldn't help but worry that they'd fallen for a trap. This group couldn't be that simple, could they?

As though reading his mind—can they? Sasha wondered in alarm—one of the men turned to Sasha with a raised eyebrow. "I've never heard of Aqua Spark."

Thinking quickly, Sasha replied, "We're a startup company looking for a place to build our first park. We believe that Country here is an untapped market."

To his relief, the man looked at his fellows with a wide grin. "That's what I've been saying!"

They continued to lead him further down the hall until they reached a doorway guarded by two women. They seemed cautious at first, but Sasha's companions hurried up to them to explain the situation, and they eagerly stepped away, ushering them into the room.

Stepping inside, Sasha found himself in a wide room that was probably once used for war meetings, which now had a banged-up desk shoved in one corner, misaligned with the wall, and a large aquarium in another corner, bearing a few cracks that were patched with duct tape. Said aquarium was devoid of fish, but a woman in a dark suit was bent over it, tossing in diving sticks with mild interest. One sank to the floor of the tank with a shower of bubbles and turned on its side, and the woman gave a cry of disgust, yanking it out of the tank and turning it over until she spotted a number of punctures in it. Hissing a curse, she turned to hurl the stick across the room, and Sasha had to stop himself from reflexively grabbing it with TK to avoid being hit.

Spotting Sasha, the woman paused. "Who are you?"

The first man who'd spoken to Sasha stepped forward. "This man is Logan Smith! He's with a water park!"

Rather than being ecstatic like her henchman, however, the woman frowned, looking Sasha up and down, studying him. Her gaze stopped at his feet, and Sasha stiffened, sweat trickling down the back of his neck. This was bad, this was going to end very badly, he should have told Ford to give him a moment to change his shoes before—

"Well, Mr. Smith..." she began, looking up into his glasses, as he gazed frantically around the windowless room for some sort of escape route. "It seems you share our enthusiasm for water parks! You've even brought your flip-flops!"

The tension in his shoulders eased slightly. "I—yes, of course." He gave a tight nod. "Hearing of your enthusiasm, we knew this would be the perfect place to launch our first theme park."

"That's great news!" the woman cried, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "We were hoping someone like you might show up!"

Please do not.

Realizing her forwardness, she backed off. "But where are my manners—my name is Georgette, but everyone here just calls me Georg." She held out her hand, and Sasha shook it uneasily. "It's great to have you here, Mr. Smith. Have a seat."

Before he could ask where she expected him to sit, one of the henchmen used a pump to inflate a chair, which was then propped up in front of the table. He stared at the chair for a long moment, almost debating remaining standing, before remembering he had a disguise to maintain. He lowered himself into the seat, which squeaked noisily against him. Likewise, Georg took a seat on the other side of the table, sitting on an equally squeaky inflatable chair.

"So!" she began, leaning forward. "Let's hear about your company. I'm all ears."

It took half a moment for Sasha to spin a quick story. "Right. Aqua Spark is a startup water park company in America. We're employing people who have experience building for other parks—Eight Flags, Oak Fair, Queen's Island..."

Georg nodded, her eyes and grin growing wide.

"Of course, there's a great deal of parks there, so we wanted to... make a splash—" Sasha repressed a shudder "—by building our first park here." He jabbed his finger just over the desk for emphasis. "We believe Country is an untapped market, and the perfect spot for a water park."

"Excellent!" Georg cried, clapping her hands together. "We've thought the same thing and have been campaigning for this for years now, but the government won't budge! But with our bargaining chip and with the backing of an amusement park company, there's no way they can turn us down again!"

One of the phrases made Sasha's ears perk. "Bargaining chip?"

"Oh yes, of course." She leaned forward, tilting her head. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, I assume."

"I believe so." Sasha mulled this over in his mind. "Though, I will say, it would look poorly on the company if we worked with you, and it turned out he were harmed."

"Oh! Goodness, no, we wouldn't do that!" Her smile went a bit too wide, her teeth biting down on her lower lip. "He's perfectly safe!" As she spoke, she gave a pointed glance at one of her lackeys, who hurried out the door. She rose to her feet. "But we'll get to that later! First, I wanted to show you some of our own ideas for the park we wanted—"

"Ah, yes," Sasha said, standing and taking a quick glance at the door. "First I'd like to make a quick trip to the restroom."

Georg sighed. "All right. Geoff, please show him the way, and then we can get right back to it."

"Sure thing! This way." The lackey, Geoff, waved him over to the door and began to lead him down the hall. As they walked, Geoff started to ramble. "So what kind of stuff are you planning?"

Sasha was only partially paying attention, scanning to look for the lackey who had left earlier. "We have a number of attraction concepts we're considering," he mumbled. He could definitely hear footsteps up ahead, and he hoped it was the woman who had been sent out. She must have gone to check on President.

"Like what? Oh, I really hope there's gonna be water slides—"

"Yes, of course. We’re planning a... ah... looping slide."

Geoff whirled on him. Sasha froze up, nearly expecting the man to attack, but instead he bore a huge grin.

"Like the one in Adventure Park?!"

Sasha relaxed. "Yes, but, uh... improved."

"Ooooooh man!" The lackey turned around again, continuing to lead him down the hall before stopping at one of the doors. "Here you are, Mr. Smith!"

"Thank you." Hastily, Sasha stepped inside, balking when he realized that the bathroom consisted only of a few reeking outhouses that had been dragged into the room. Steeling himself, he stepped into one, holding his breath, but did not quite close the door. Instead, he put a hand to his temple. Dustpan, this is Shoehorn. I have a lead on where President is.

Milla's mental voice sounded exhausted. That's great, darling.

Are you all right?

For now. Let me know when you find him, and I'll meet with you.

Understood.

Nodding, Sasha activated his invisibility and exited the outhouse, quietly shutting the door behind him. Relieved to be out of that germ-infested place, he crept out of the room, but froze when he realized his sandals were slapping against the stone floor. He was almost certain he had been caught, but he glanced at Geoff, who leaned against the wall. "Oh man..." the lackey was still muttering as Sasha shook his head.

He hated what he was about to do, but he could not levitate while invisible, nor could he risk compromising the mission any further. Reaching down, he slipped his sandals off his feet and held them in his free hand so his socks were now touching the ground, and continued creeping down the hall.

Sure enough, he spotted the woman who had been sent out of the room earlier. She was looking into each room frantically, as though she wasn't sure which room the captive would be in, which struck Sasha as odd. Frowning, he kept a short distance behind her, and at one point she opened one door only to close it with a yelp and lock it, hurrying ahead even more urgently. Sasha made a mental note to check that out later, if he had time—they would notice his absence eventually.

Finally, she turned a corner before reaching the last room in the hall. She opened the door with a key, and looked relieved. Sasha hurried behind her to find a man matching President's description blindfolded, gagged, and bound to a chair in a very, very cluttered room, full of old pool toys and several unlabeled tubs.

Noticing that the woman was about to shut the door, Sasha quickly CV'd into the man, only to bounce back immediately. His face went pale.

Dustpan, he said, exhaustion dragging at his mind, we've got an egg missing from the carton.

Oh dear.

That was putting it mildly. Still, Sasha steeled himself and made a mental map of where he was, projecting it to Milla. Dealing with a debrained target would be difficult, and he'd need all the help he could get.

For a moment he considered following the lackey who had locked the door so he could grab her keys, but his invisibility was already starting to wear off. Instead, he waited for her to turn the corner and psi-blasted the lock, catching it with TK before it could hit the floor. Now that he didn't have to hide it, he transferred his suitcase and sandals to TK as well.

Carefully opening the door, Sasha poked his head in. "President?" he whispered.

"TV...?" came the dreaded, muffled reply.

Sighing, Sasha squeezed into the cramped room and shut the door behind him. Though he knew he wouldn't be understood, he went on, "My name is Sasha Nein. I'm here to help you." With a few quick tugs of telekinesis, he undid the ropes that bound the man to the chair. Another few tugs and the blindfold and gag fell to the floor.

President stared at him seriously. "Puppy."

"Yes, we'll return you to your spouse and dogs as soon as we've found your brain." Sasha regarded the man for a moment—he was somehow more serious-looking than when he had a brain. Otto would have had a field day. "But where to find your brain?"

President continued to stare at him, then pointed a finger in his face. "Prime Minister."

"No, that's you," Sasha said, TKing the man's hand away. "Now, where—"

The doorknob rattled.

Sasha went invisible, ducking behind President's chair. If they'd been caught, then hopefully whoever opened the door to find this scene would assume that the ropes had fallen off of President on their own. Regardless, Sasha prepared for things to go south, placing a hand to his temple.

The door opened slowly, and Sasha tensed.

And then it shut, and before Sasha could wonder what happened, Milla came into view.

"Thank goodness," he breathed, ridding himself of his invisibility again. "It's good to see you again." But when he studied her closer, he frowned; Milla's outfit was roughed up, a few tears visible on the legs. It was rare to see her in such a state. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine, darling," Milla said, pulling down her hood partway. "I finally managed to get past those terrible alligators."

"Alligators?" he asked, eyebrows raised, then he shuddered when he remembered what Ford had said earlier. "It seems that bit of intelligence was accurate."

"Yes, they're everywhere." Milla moved some strands of hair out of her face, tucking them behind her ears. "But that's not important right now. Poor President!"

President looked her in the eye. "Dog treats."

"Yes, and we have little time to waste. They'll discover my absence soon."

"But how are we to find his brain? Where could they have put it?" Milla looking out over the mess of tubs of toys. "They don't seem very organized, and they let those awful alligators chew on everything!"

A thought struck Sasha as he recalled the information Ford had given them. "...The tower."

Milla nodded grimly. "Where they keep the alligators... Though it seems now they let those brutes roam everywhere."

Something’s not quite adding up… Sasha shook his head. "Regardless, we've no time to waste. Let's take him with us and get to the tower as soon as possible." He looked down at President and helped him up from the chair. "Time to leave, sir."

"TV. Puppies. Kibble!" the man said with increasing enthusiasm. "Dog treats!" And with no further warning he grabbed one of Sasha's sandals, which he had still been TKing off to the side, and began chewing on it.

Sasha winced back. "Aaaaach...!"

Milla placed a hand on his shoulder. "It will keep him quiet. Now let's go!" Putting up her hood again, she turned to open the door. "Hopefully we haven't been caught y—"

And the hiss of an alligator greeted them, the reptile opening its jaws wide as it sat in front of the door.

"Too late," Sasha grunted. He placed a hand to his temple and fired a psi-blast at the monster, knocking it back into the wall. "Come on!"

"Puppy!" President mumbled around the sandal in his mouth, reaching out toward the incapacitated alligator as Sasha plucked him up with TK.

Milla activated her invisibility, and Sasha led her down the hall, mentally mapping out the place. The tower they were headed for was on the western side of the building opposite of where they were, so they would have to be fast. Since their cover had already been blown, Sasha went into full-blown levitation, blasting down the hall.

As they passed one door—the door the lackey had checked and locked earlier—it began to rattle before bursting open off its hinges, and several more alligators scrambled out after them. "Doggies!" President mumbled in delight, while Sasha moved even faster.

Turning a corner, he spotted Geoff, still standing outside the bathroom. The lackey looked up at him in surprise. "Woah! Mr. Smith? What's going on? Isn't that Prez?"

Is he not aware? Regardless, Sasha did not answer, blasting past him. Before Geoff had time to question him again, the alligators turned the corner, and he let out a scream, bolting away.

They're afraid of their own guard dogs? Milla asked.

It seems so, but now's not the time to question it.

They continued through the building, any lackeys they discovered fleeing the second they saw the alligators giving chase, with some of the gators even pursuing them. Sasha was nearly relieved until another alligator burst out of a door ahead of him, its snout bearing a scorch mark, much like the one he'd psi-blasted earlier.

"What—how?!" Sasha cried.

As if on cue, several more gators suddenly appeared just ahead—literally, spawning out of mid-air.

That was it—they were teleporting. Perhaps that was why the people here didn't seem to be in control of them—the gators were as much of a problem to the criminals as they were to them.

Looking over the swarm of hissing alligators, Sasha frowned. We cannot teleport, but we can levitate! Get ready.

Ready when you are, darling!

The alligators continued to hiss before one of them charged, the others following suit.

NOW!

Sasha and the still-invisible Milla leaped into the air, levitating over the alligators. A few raised their heads and snapped at them, but they managed to clear the swarm, landing on the other side and resuming their charge through the fortress. Several of the gators hissed, giving chase, but a few more were distracted by the lackeys that stepped out of their rooms to panic.

Finally, Sasha came upon what he was looking for—a stairwell. With a motion to Milla, he hovered into it, ascending the narrow, spiraling stairs while the gators scrambled up after them. Milla and Sasha had the advantage here, and managed to reach the top before the gators could.

The room shouldn't be far from here, Sasha said, glancing to his side. He was somewhat surprised to find Milla visible again, but even with the equipment she had, it wasn't easy to stay invisible for an extended period, especially not when using other powers. Meanwhile, the alligators were nearing the top of the stairs, the one at the lead opening its mouth wide. With a well-aimed psi-blast, it was sent tumbling backward, knocking into the other reptiles and sending them all crashing down the spiral stairs.

That may or may not buy us some time, depending on if they decide to teleport again. Now to find...

This way! Milla cried, charging forward with a burst of levitation. Sasha followed, and they soon found themselves approaching another door, this one sealed with a giant padlock. One psi-blast later, the lock was smoldering on the ground, and they opened the door.

They found themselves in a circular room with a large circular grate raised up in the center. Sasha and Milla exchanged glances before grabbing it with telekinesis and heaving it up and off to the side.

As Sasha finally set President down, he leaned over the hole and opened his mouth. "Teeeveeeee!" he called, his voice echoing as the sandal he'd been holding in his mouth dropped down, down, down.

"No—!" Sasha cried, but before he could react, there was a splash, followed by the snapping of alligator jaws. He heaved a long, deep sigh, looking down. "More alligators."

There were two alligators swimming in the water far below, and in the midst of them was a small pedestal, upon which sat a glass covering. The pedestal had a large "NO TOUCH" sign attached, while the covering was labeled "PREZ."

And sitting within the glass was a human brain.

"There it is," Sasha and Milla found themselves saying together, and Sasha looked up. "I'll get it."

"No, you watch President," Milla said with a wink. "Leave this to the levitation expert."

"Fair enough."

With that, Milla raised herself up off the floor and down into the shaft, nearly upside-down as she reached out toward the glass jar. The alligators hissed up at her, swimming in circles beneath her like aquatic vultures, but she paid them no mind.

"Squeaky toy," President said, frowning down at his own brain as Milla TK'd the glass away.

"Stay put..." Sasha said, holding a hand in front of President as he watched Milla. She was raising the brain upward, drawing it closer to her hands.

At once there was a flash of psychic energy, and one of the alligators from below was up in the air in the middle of the shaft, snapping at Milla as it fell down toward her. She let out a startled cry, backing up against the wall of the shaft as the alligator teleported again, this time falling closer.

"Milla!" Sasha cried. His fear and fury took the form of raw psychic energy, blasting forward into the alligator. It slammed against the wall, skidding back down into the water. Before either of them had time to celebrate, the second alligator teleported higher up in the shaft, jaws focused on President's brain.

In a sudden stab of frustration, Sasha took his remaining sandal that he'd been TKing off to his side, and chucked it into the alligator's mouth. The reptile's jaws snapped shut, and it began to wheeze and choke as it plummeted back down into the water. Eventually, it spat up the mangled sandal and swam down into the water with an indignant flip of its tail, its slightly-scorched companion following suit.

With a sigh of relief, Milla levitated the rest of the way up the shaft, landing next to Sasha. "Thank you, darling."

"Thank me later," Sasha said, already opening up his briefcase and pulling out a funnel. He turned to face President. "Stay still, sir."

President was still frowning at his own brain. "Chew toy," he said with a look of disgust.

Sighing, Sasha took the brain from Milla and TK'd the funnel over to President's ear. "Hold him still, please."

Milla held the President with TK as Sasha forced the brain into the wider end of the funnel, shoving it inward until it slipped into the Prime Minister's empty head.

President staggered back as Sasha removed the funnel, the man's eyes rolling and blinking several times before coming into focus. "Wh... where am I?" he stammered, looking at Sasha and Milla in bewilderment. "Where are my dogs?!" He looked all around the room, his movements becoming more and more frantic. "Spot? Daisy? LEONARD?!"

Sasha grit his teeth, looking out the door to make sure they weren't going to get jumped on, while Milla bent down, shushing the man. "It's all right, Prime Minister President. You've been kidnapped and debrained, and we've just recovered your brain."

"Is... is that true?" Prez asked, rubbing his head. "That would explain my headache... Also, just Prez is fine."

"There's no time for questions. We're bound to be discovered at any moment, and we need to get out of here." Looking up and down the hallway, Sasha noted that any windows he could see were barred. "Milla, where was the entrance you came in from?"

"Not that way," she said. "It was crawling with alligators!"

Prez chuckled, and Sasha frowned. "Noted. We'll have to go back through the main entrance. Hurry!"

With that, the three charged back toward the stairs they'd ascended. The stairwell was empty, but to save time, Sasha grabbed Prez with TK once again as he and Milla levitated down the stairs.

"Woah!" Prez cried, eyes wide. "You're some a' them psychics!"

"Indeed, and it seems the alligators here are, too," Sasha replied, and Prez's brows knit in confusion. Once Sasha touched down on the floor, he took off in a burst of levitation down the hall, which was deserted. "We're nearly there. We just need to make it outside!"

The courtyard was in sight. Sasha and Milla both put on a burst of speed, feeling a great relief that their mission was nearing its end.

And with several puffs of green psychic energy, a dozen hissing alligators filled the courtyard, surrounding them.

"Not this again!" the three of them said simultaneously, and Sasha and Milla briefly gave Prez a look of confusion.

"I'll need all concentration on my psychic powers," Sasha said, dropping in his levitation to the ground in a psychic attack pose and setting Prez down. "Stay between me and Milla!"

As the alligators pressed in closer, Sasha and Milla both fired blue and pink psi-blasts respectively at the reptiles. While he could hear one be struck by Milla's attack, the one he'd fired at disappeared again. Whipping his head around, he searched for the missing gator, only to realize a shadow was falling over him. With a cry, he staggered out of the way, only for his feet to slip against the slick grass and send him crashing down on his back. The alligator landed in front of him, hissing, and more were closing in behind him and to the sides.

Before he could do anything else, however, there was a deafening chorus of barking from somewhere behind him. All the alligators looked up, and began to scramble away as a pack of enormous white dogs came charging into the courtyard. They howled and snarled as they chased the reptiles away from Sasha and the others, until the gators gave up, disappearing as quickly as they'd appeared.

"Daisy!" Prez cried, holding out his arms. "Spot! Leonard! Barkley!"

Any other names he called were drowned out by the sound of elated barking and whining as he was surrounded by the pack of dogs, who all jumped over each other at the chance to lick his face.

Milla pulled her hood back, wiping at her brow. "That was a close one..." With an invisible psychic hand, she helped Sasha to his feet. He dusted himself off, for all the good it would do.

"Indeed," he said, looking back toward the entrance. "I presume these aren't K-9 units..."

"Nah, those are probably on gator duty," Prez said, squeezing his way out from the swarm of samoyeds. "C'mon, let's get out of here!"

With that, the group stepped out of the fortress, the dogs cheerfully surrounding them. Milla couldn't resist the urge to pet one of them, and it leaned into her touch, tongue lolling.

Outside, the police seemed preoccupied with handcuffing a number of criminals, including Georg and Geoff. The former looked furious, while Geoff looked out toward Sasha with his lower lip wobbling. "N... no looping water slide?" he whimpered, eyes shining with tears.

"I'm afraid not," Sasha said, replacing his name tag with his Psychonaut badge. "This place seems ill-suited for water parks regardless."

"How did you capture them all?" Milla asked, looking toward the chief officer. "How could you have known we'd already rescued the Prime Minister and his brain?"

"We didn't," the officer said with a shrug. "These guys came runnin' out 'cause of the gators."

Prez let out a hearty laugh. "That's a real shocker!"

"Prez!" Another person came bolting through the crowd—someone Sasha identified as the man's spouse. They threw their arms around him in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're all right! We were so worried about you, and I couldn't leave the dogs..."

"I'm fine! Thanks to the dogs, actually. And these guys too, of course." He waved a hand at Sasha and Milla.

Something had been nagging at the back of Sasha's head, and he hovered over to Prez, frowning. "Please excuse me for interrupting this moment, but I must ask." He waited for Prez to step away from his spouse and face him before continuing: "You seem to have a very serious problem with psychic alligators here. Why have you not called upon the Psychonauts for help with this?"

Prez, his spouse, and several of the police officers turned to give him bewildered looks. "Yeaaah, you mentioned that before," the Prime Minister said, crossing his arms. "How do you know they're psychic, though?"

Sasha balked. Had Prez been blind to what had just happened moments ago? "They can teleport, sir."

The man's face broke into a smile. "Yeah, and fish can swim! What's your point?"

Sasha glanced back at Milla, who was laughing. "Alligators don't normally have that ability."

Prez began laughing again, but stopped when Sasha did not join in. "Wait, you're serious?"

"Indeed," Sasha replied, suddenly feeling even more tired than he had before. "We can arrange to send a zoolepathy expert here to begin work on this issue, if you like."

"Uh. Yeah!" Prez blinked. "Yeah, that'd be great! Honestly, they're sorta the reason we couldn't build a water park here in the first place."

"WHAT?!" Georg cried some distance away, as a police carted her off with the rest of her lackeys.

Meanwhile, the police chief nodded. "If that's true, we'll send for one of you again."

As Sasha rubbed his temples, Milla stepped forward. "As for us, it looks like our work here is done."

"Right!" Prez rushed up to Milla and shook her hand before repeating the gesture with Sasha. "Thanks for your help!"

"And with that, we must be on our way." Finally, Sasha began hovering away from the crowd, back toward where they'd parked and cloaked the jet. Milla followed suit, waving to Prez and the others as they went their separate ways.

Once out of view of the crowd, they both dipped slightly in their respective hovers. Milla gave Sasha a tired smile, and he returned it.

"This has been quite the day," he admitted.

"Yes, but at least it's over now, darling."

Soon they were back onboard the Pelican and en-route back to Whispering Rock. While Milla stepped back toward the restroom, Sasha tapped a few buttons on the console and leaned back in his chair.

"This is Grease Jar," Ford's voice crackled over the radio. "What's the word?"

"The criminal group has been apprehended and Prez's brain and body rescued."

"Excellent work!"

"That said, it seems the Psychonauts are not yet done aiding Country. They seem to have an infestation of psychic—"

"ALLIGATOR!" Milla cried from the back.

"Pretty sure there's supposed to be an 's' at the end for the plural..." Ford grumbled, but Sasha was barely listening, rushing to the back to find Milla backing away from the bathroom in horror.

An enormous alligator stood over the toilet, where a large clutch of rubbery eggs sat within.

It was going to be a very, very long flight.

[fundmydeathowo]

flufftober day 1, lost Pet Meet Cute

first time posting flufftober on tumblr ToT, can be read on ao3 under fundmydeath, that's my user :D

pairing: gradient sans/angst sans

gradient wasn't exactly overjoyed at the moment, he had trusted his older sibling pj to watch over his black cat meowmers and pj lost his cat.

how did he lose it?? he left gradients bedroom window open to air out the house. and instead of just shutting the bedroom door and making sure the cat wasn't in there pj just left the door open.so gradient was putting up posters and putting things online as well to see if anyone had seen or even had his cat. it was stressing him out, his own dads couldn't even calm him down and ink could always do that, fresh not so much. error couldn't even help because he was with his spouses at a scientist thing in Germany. that didn't mean error wasn't harassing his friends to force their kids to help gradient, it was known gradient was errors favorite.

so sitting in his living room being forced to take a break by palette gradient heard his phone go off, getting up and grabbing it he saw a text from an unknown number.

unknown: hello this is angst, my mother nightmare is friends with your father error. I've come across the cat you are looking for, I will send an image shortly.

okay, nightmare, gradient wasn't very familiar with her but he knew she was dreams twin sister and was dating swap and ccino, and swap was inks best friend so. gradients phone went off again.

unknown: [image_cat]

unknown: this is your cat correct?

gradient could cry right now

me: yes! it is, thank you so much! do you want me to go over and pick her up? or would you want to come to my house?

unknown: I'll go to you

me: okay! this is my address xxxxxx

unknown: you don't live far from me, I will be there in 25 minutes

gradient quickly put his phone down and ran into the kitchen where pj and palette were. both looking up at gradient when he almost ran into the wall.

“what-”

“MEOWMERS WAS FOUND”

gradient quickly cut off whatever pj was trying to say and threw his hands up in the air. palette immediately started jumping up and down while pj made he way over to gradient and patted his back.

“that's good”

“thank God I thought I was going crazy”

palette also fell over from jumping and pj rushed over to him

“damnit pal”

“sorry sorry!! just so happy!!”

while the three of them finished up talking the doorbell was rung letting out an annoying bird squawk, causing gradients brothers to look at him.

“what the fuck is that doorbell”

“my emotional support doorbell”

gradient stood up and walked over to the door, fixing his green hoodie to look semi presentable.

he opened the door and had to stop himself from slamming it in the person's face, he was so pretty, he had dark brown skin with dyed black-purple hair that was pulled into a braid with multiple smaller braids making up the big braid. he wore a light purple silk button up shirt (who owned stuff like that??) with black slacks and black dress shoes.

the guy held a hand and gradient got the memo to shake his hand, quickly doing it and pulling his hand back.

“Uh, I'm gradient! thank you so so much for finding my cat”

the guy shook his head, angst he said his name was angst when texting you, remember that, don't be like dad.

“it was nothing, she is very well behaved”

angst held out a cat carrier and meowmers was just inside sleeping her little life away.

“didn't even put up a fuss going in the carrier”

gradient took the carrier and smiled brightly at angst

“she's a emotional support animal, plus she helps with my eyes sometimes because I deal with episodes of blurry vision!”

angst gave a nod of his head

“that explains it, it was nice meeting you gradient, I do hope you will keep in contact with me, you make for a wonderful conversation partner”

gradient felt like his face was on fire, God if you are out there strike him down!

“o-of course!”

angst gave another swift nod of his head and walked off, gradient quickly shut the door and slid to the floor.

oh my god,, that was horrible.

---------

prompt by: @flufftober

[chinzhilla]

i was tagged by @sandushengshou @khaotunq @baek1nho and @chickenstrangers to post my top/favorite creations from each month of 2023! thank you all so much for thinking of me <33

doing this loosely and with director's commentary bc i can never resist

january: my top set is this winteam hugs one. man i struggled so much with maintaining quality while trying to do that yellow to blue gradient coloring down the set. i definitely remembered it as looking worse than it does though, so i was pleasantly surprised to see that no it looks pretty good actually. probably also my favorite from that month since the others are very basic but honorable mention to my chinzhilla set cause i gotta shout out my beloved namesakes

february: top is jimbo the gogurt cat 😻 february was a slow month for me gif-wise so there aren't that many to choose favorites from, but it's probably my eclipse rewatch ep4 for the coloring

march: well uhh march was even slower than february i have two whole posts from that month and they're both eclipse rewatch sets (this was when my old laptop died and i spent like 3-4 weeks without photoshop). top and fav for this month is the eclipse rewatch ep5

april: top is akkayan in the first our skyy 2 trailer and fav is .... akkayan in the second our skyy 2 trailer (the quality of these is so much better how did i manage to make those first gifs look so bad 😅). honorable mention to my coloring in the eclipse rewatch ep8

may: ahh the our skyy 2 days...take me back..... top is every akkayan kiss as it should be. which i think is also my top post on this blog. as it should be. fav is vegas x it's about time (tw for glitch effect/flashing). there's some stuff there that i would go back and change cause i don't think it comes across great in retrospect, but i'm still really pleased with all the technical details

june: top was minoru's heart eyes part 3 (a gif series i WILL come back to shortly - i think the bleak midwinter is the perfect time for an odt rewatch). fav is akk x identity, but god would i go back and redo the typography and layout of the lines/text boxes (iirc i was like. minutes away from missing the deadline on this event so). still very pleased with the blending and what the set actually conveys though

july: oh look another gif series i've put on hold.... top is word of honor rewatch ep1, fav is tied between kp pretty boys (a set which is very pretty itself, if i do say so myself, and was very fun to make) and lomfontien kiss details (truly one of my all time favs on this blog even though it's so simple also everyone please go watch la pluie right now thank you)

august: bombastic side eye: the series takes the cake this month, which was SUCH a fun set to make (as was its spiritual companion, objectifying him to filth, which trailed by only about 30 notes). fav was charn vs wkx quotes. i honestly think i nailed it both conceptually and aesthetically

september: top is the first kanaphan drinking straw cinematic universe which continues to delight me whenever it shows back up in my notifs. fav is tied between cursed sandray parallels (tw glitch) (because it was one of those where as i was making it and inflicting emotional damage on myself, i knew it was going to be delightful inflicting that damage on others, and it was) and sandray x it will come back (mostly for the neon text and its reflection in the first two i just think it looks really good)

october: top was sandray love scene details (tw flashing) which was basically a rip off of my lomfontien kiss one from july but this one was much more successful lol. favorite is only friends x shameful company (tw flashing) (which now i can't look at without thinking of the sign skdjfds). really happy with the cards gif in particular

november: the guynawa kiss won november and they deserved it. my favorite was jim x loss which took me foreverrrr and i redid the last two gifs like three times but it was worth it. also shoutout to my dan x shadow post for all the 'wait there's actual monsterfucking in this show' reactions it elicited

december: top is phayatharn ep1/ep2 parallels and i have to take back what i said about every akkayan kiss being my top post - this one beats it by three notes! which surprised me but i'm glad we're all in this madness together with these two. fav has got to be morkday x come closer (tw flashing) if only for how much i beat my head against a wall over it during the creation process skdjfskj. although i also really love this set of tharn's sexy dream (nsfw) specifically because i added an offset pink layer and i'm OBSESSED with the way it looks with phaya's tattoo

if you read all that.. thank you and also i'm in love with you. anyways it was super fun to look back on everything i made this year! and interesting to realize i'm not nearly as prolific as i thought, especially in the first half of the year. here's to many more gifsets in 2024!!

tagging a few people i don't think have done this yet, apologies if you already have! and as always no pressure

@i-got-the-feels @pharawee @markpakin @difanghua @junghaesin @krystaljungs @firstmix @khaotunqs

[skloomdumpster]

Youtuber voice: make a gifset with me :)

alright folks, welcome to another episode of Jo talking to the void. Gonna try and do a "follow my process" thing.

It's very- VERY long and image heavy. Under the cut and feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions/want me to elaborate on anything.

Part 1: Grab at any idea that sparks joy. Anything. Today mine is the word "horror", so we'll try and do a horror set.

Part 2: Scene analysis and reference hunting. I'll open a new folder on my pc named "Horror gifset" and dump there all the FTWS scenes I already have and that I think could be fun. Open pinterest and behance and type "horror", see if anything sparks an idea.

This takes me roughly 20 mins, here's what I have:

I try to take a step back and see what is it about these designs that attracted me. Clearly the red & black contrast, Bloom and I actually just like the "police line" because of the amount of storytelling it brings by doing basically nothing. (Don't be fooled, I saved many many pics before narrowing it down)

Part 3: To me this is the hardest one. I want to have a small storyline in my gifset, so time to think of it. I open a notes document and just start typing whatever comes to mind, trying to keep the mood of the previous images.

Here's what I landed on. It's not much, but I can now start the fun part of structuring the gifset.

Part 4: I've really been into layout lately, so now's the time to do math.

The first panel I knew I wanted to have the text centered in the middle and surrounded by the mini-gifs. Here are the two layouts I thought of. I decided to go with the second one because it's more interesting, but I already knew I'd tweak a lot, to resemble an actual police line, etc.

I separated all of the scenes from 2x06. Both when Bloom is arrested and when she's released, considering I could use them in reverse.

When making layouts the only things to keep in mind is that the dashboard optimal width is 540 px and that the space in between every piece of "frame" you put within a gif is 2px. So let's say I was going with the square layout 1. It's 540 px width, BUT I can't just divide 540/3 and make that the size of my layout, because I need to account for the space in between the squares too. So the math is actually 540 - 4 (because I have three columns - two gaps)/3 = 178 px. All the squares in that image are 178 x 178.

On Scene grabbing: I do everything I can to use footage that's high quality. This is the easiest way for your gifs to come out pretty, avoid anything lower than 1080. Especially if you're grabbing a scene that'll need loads of adjustments like a night scene or a period piece with too much yellow, grab even higher quality than 1080.

When I work with Redeeming Love's footage, I work with 4k quality, because I know I'm about to destroy the quality by adjusting it.

I mean look at the amount of yellow.

I t*rrent all my scenes in MKV, then use Avidmux to chop the entire movie/show into smaller sized scenes and convert it into mp4.

Part 5: Back to the set. Once I have the basic layout, I pull in my scenes and check if they make sense. One big tip is to stop thinking of scenes as what you watched, but as what you're seeing.

Scenes meaning are very easily altered by whatever context they're put in. Look for scenes in unexpected places (the romantic scene can absolutely be horror footage) and reverse the order or add in effects to alter their meaning.

Each one of these gifs had it's own peculiarities. So to break it down:

Gif 1: I colored it to bring out the black and added the blue because I knew I wanted to use overwhelming red later and this would pop-out. Shaded the white streaks so they'd appear more like police lines and colored them using a gradient just so it'd be more interesting. I didn't like how Bloom's upper part lined up with the cuffs, so I inverted it and brought out the red

Gif 2: First off, I scavenged my memory to try and find a scene where a character appears with white eyes like Bloom's. This poor fella is from The Covenant (2005). I color matched both Bloom's and his scenes so the green was neutralized and we had more blue and red. Then finally I added the phone where the actual storyline I wrote back up starts to unfold.

Gif 3.1: First off, this gif is 540 width, but not 540 px tall. It's actually 400 px tall, which is a good tip: You don't have to stick to one format when giffing. Sometimes a layout or scene simply won't work in a tall format and that's fine.

For this first part all I did was color Bloom, slap the all red color map and the text. Then I realized I didn't like her swimsuit under blending, so I went back and specifically desaturated the red in the starting layer and made it dark, so it'd show up black. The "20 years" are subtle, but in my head it'd be what the characters are hearing in their nightmare, so it's just a faint whisper in the corner.

Gif 3.2: I colored all scenes to match each other. Sky's was the darkest one, so I knew I'd try and match to his because then I wouldn't have to destroy the quality of his footage to match the others. Musa's scenes was tricky because in the actual scene she's waking up slowly and happy. I chose to speed it up and start the gif already in her movement, so you don't realize she's actually very relaxed in the scene.

Gif 4: I started by coloring Bloom and Riven's footage, reducing the yellow and bringing out the blue and red in both. As you can see there's still a candle behind Riven, that makes it hard to see his face, so what I did was add a black shape under (or you could paint a layer in PS) with black and just blur the edges, so his footage would actually show. Finally there was that big empty spot in the upper left, so I added a note and used it to wrap up the story of the set.

There are two layers of text, both set to multiply: one is the actual text, the second one is in a brighter red and blurred in one direction, so it looks like the text got smeared in a rush. Added the blood and ta-da! We're done.

Exporting:

If you're exporting from After Effects, I've found exporting in MOV works better than trying to export in mp4, since it doesn't compress the file. You'll notice I'm using the format "apple ProRes 444", that's simply because this format keeps the alpha channel (transparent). While I didn't need it in this set, it's an habit.

Once I export from after effects, we're importing in Photoshop.

I import by going File > Import > Video Frame to Layers. Then you select your file and you should have this:

Hit OK.

If you don't have the timeline here, simply go in "Window > Timeline"

You'll end up with something like this. Now here's the most boring part of giffing, but don't give up now!

Go on the 3 lines on the bottom right of the timeline (=) and click on "select all frames". Once they're all selected, click the little down arrow under the little thumbnails to change the timing. I change mine from 0.04 to 0.05

Then I select all my LAYERS (not frames), put them inside a group. And click:

On this little piled up icon to transform into the video timeline. This is so we can sharpen our gifs.

Right Click on top of the group on the layers panel and select "convert to smart object". Then in the upper bar, click Filter > Sharpen> Smart Sharpen and use these settings:

This is what makes gifs look clear and crispy.

FINALLY we're saving. You can do it manually, like a peasant, by going on file > export > save for web (legacy). Or you can play keyboard piano and hit alt+shift+ctrl+s.

These are my export settings.

Things to keep in mind:

"Diffusion" is just one of the types of exporting you can do. TWEAK THIS for every gif. Sometimes very detailed gifs will look better with Pattern. Very colorful ones with Diffusion. It varies a lot.

"Adaptive" is just another way the pixels are laid out. I don't actually see much difference here, but I always tweak on all settings, just to make sure I'm getting the best quality by the smaller size.

On the bottom left you'll see your size. Mine is currently 6.82M. All you have to know is that Tumblr won't allow any gif bigger than 9.8M.

Looping Options: make sure it's in forever, otherwise your gifs won't play.

And then... finally, hit save.

....

Now rinse repeat and do this for 200 other gifsets, because it's a totally fun hobby to have!

[missrosiesworld]

Heartstrings

Amaryllis moved about the apartment, her hands moving mechanically as she wiped down the kitchen counter, swept the floors, and straightened the cushions on the couch. Anything to keep her mind busy and occupied. She knew that Ian was coming over to talk, and the thought of it made her stomach churn with anticipation. She had a good idea of what he wanted to talk about, as he had been leaving her voicemails and text messages for months, apologizing for what he had done.

As she finished up the cleaning, Amaryllis took a moment to sit on the couch and reflect on how far she had come since the breakup with Ian. Just a few months ago she had been in a state of emotional despair, unable to even get out of bed in the morning. She had spent months going to therapy, working on her self-love and healing from the hurt that Ian had caused her. She had also been focusing on her music career, pouring all of her energy and passion into her art.

In the midst of her thoughts, Amaryllis was suddenly transported back to the phone call she had with Ian when they agreed to meet in person to talk. He had been persistent in his apologies, and she had finally agreed to hear him out. She had suggested that they meet at her apartment to talk because it was a private matter, and if either of them became emotional, she'd rather it be behind closed doors. However, she didn't explain this to Ian when they agreed to meet, not wanting to seem too vulnerable.

Shaking her head to clear the memories, Amaryllis stood up and took a deep breath, ready to face Ian and whatever he had to say. She knew that things between them could never be the same, but she was open to hearing him out and seeing where they could go from here if they could go anywhere.

As she waited for Ian to arrive, Amaryllis put on some music, allowing the melodies and lyrics to soothe her nerves. She couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at how much she had grown and changed since the breakup. And no matter what happened between her and Ian, she knew she had become stronger, more resilient because of it.

Just then, her phone rings and she sees that it is Shaun calling. She smiles and quickly answers the phone.

"Hey, Shaun," Amaryllis says, trying to sound cheerful despite feeling tingles all over in anticipation of what is to come. Shaun's voice was like a balm, soothing her worries away. "Hey, Amaryllis," Shaun replied, his voice calm and warm. "How are you doing today?"

"I'm okay, I just finished cleaning up the apartment," Amaryllis replied, taking a deep breath. "Ian's coming over to talk."

There was a moment of silence at the other end of the line before Shaun spoke up again. "Do you want me to come over?" Amaryllis considered the offer for a moment before shaking her head, even though Shaun couldn't see her. "No, it's okay. I think I need to do this on my own."

"Alright, but if you need anything, I'm just a phone call away," Shaun said reassuringly.

"Thanks, Shaun," Amaryllis said, appreciative of her best friend.

The two chatted a bit more, with Shaun offering words of encouragement and support until Amaryllis saw Ian's car pull up outside. "I have to go now. He's here," Amaryllis said, her heart pounding in her chest.

"Okay, remember to take care of yourself and I'm here for you, no matter what happens," Shaun said comfortingly. "Thanks, Shaun. You're the best," Amaryllis said, feeling more at ease.

As they hung up, Amaryllis took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves. She knew seeing Ian again would be difficult, but she also knew she was stronger now.

As Amaryllis makes her way over to the door, she catches a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror in the hallway. Before, she was a mess - her hair was unkempt and her skin lacked its usual glow. But now, Amaryllis looks like a completely different person.

Her silver curls cascade down her shoulders and rest just above her waist, framing her face in soft waves. The dark roots at the top of her head create a gradient effect, adding dimension to her hairstyle. Her hazel eyes sparkle in the light, and her olive complexion glows with newfound health. She takes a deep breath, feeling confident in her appearance for the first time in a while.

Amaryllis adjusts her fitted black crop top, which accentuates her curves and draws attention to her neck and collarbones. Her high-waisted black pants fit her like a glove, hugging her curves in all the right places, while the flared leg adds sophistication to her outfit. The ribbed knit material adds texture and depth, completing the look. Amaryllis runs her fingers over the tattoo on her collarbone - a delicate script that reads "Nevertheless". She smiles at herself, remembering the tattoo's significance. On her left forearm, a geometric pattern stretches from her wrist to her elbow. And on her shoulder, a moody bloom bursts into life. Each tattoo reflects a different part of her personality.

Amaryllis finishes looking at her reflection in the mirror and smiles softly at herself. She turns away from the mirror, her attention now focused on the door in front of her as she waits for Ian to arrive. She takes a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves as she readies herself to face whatever comes next. It's been months since she's seen Ian, who went to school across the country, and the anticipation of their reunion builds up inside of her.

Finally, she hears a knock at the door, and she takes one more deep breath before opening it. Revealing Ian standing before her, she takes another deep breath as she sees Ian's auburn hair, tied into a low ponytail, framing his handsome features. His dark brown eyes scan her face, and his freckles add a boyish charm to his appearance. Amaryllis can't help but notice how much he's changed since they last saw each other. As Ian steps closer, Amaryllis notices that he's wearing their couple-set necklace. She almost reaches towards her neck, where she used to wear her half of the necklace, but stops herself as she realizes she's not wearing it.

"Hey," Ian says softly, breaking the silence. His voice is slightly shaky, indicating that he's just as nervous as Amaryllis feels. "You look amazing, Amaryllis."

Amaryllis feels her cheeks flush at the compliment, and she nervously tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "Thank you," she replies with a small smile, motioning for him to come inside. "Please, come in."

As Ian steps inside, he immediately takes off his shoes and looks around the apartment, his eyes scanning the familiar surroundings. "It feels strange to be back here after so long," he says, his voice tinged with nostalgia and regret.

Amaryllis nods in agreement, "I know what you mean," she replies, leading him toward the living room.

Ian takes in the space with a curious gaze, admiring the minimalist yet cozy decor that exudes warmth. He notices a colorful abstract painting on the wall, which draws his attention.

"You redecorated," he observes, turning to face Amaryllis.

"Just a little," Amaryllis says as she closes the door behind him. "I needed a change."

Ian nods in understanding, but the air is thick with tension, and he shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the other. As they sit down on opposite sides of the couch, facing each other, Amaryllis can sense the weight of the past still lingering between them.

Amaryllis notices that Ian is looking a little uneasy, and decides to break the awkward silence. "Can I get you something to drink?" she offers, hoping to make him, as well as herself, feel more at ease.

Ian looks at her, grateful for the offer. "Sure, that would be great," he replies, his voice soft.

Amaryllis stands up and heads towards the kitchen, motioning for Ian to make himself comfortable. As she rummages through her cabinets, she can't help but feel nervous. This is the first time she's seen Ian in months, and the emotions she thought she had put to rest are resurfacing.

She takes a deep breath and focuses on the task at hand, pulling out a couple of glasses and filling them with ice. She opens the fridge and peers inside, trying to decide what to offer Ian. She spots a carton of orange juice and a bottle of sparkling water and decides to mix them together, hoping it will be to Ian's liking.

She pours the concoction into the glasses and makes her way back to the living room, where Ian is sitting on the couch, staring at the painting on the wall. Amaryllis sets the glasses down on the coffee table and sits down beside him, careful to leave some space between them.

"Hope you like orange juice and sparkling water," she says with a small smile, offering him a glass. Ian takes a sip and nods in approval. "It's good. Thanks," he says, his gaze meeting hers. Amaryllis can feel her heart racing as their eyes lock, and she quickly looks away, taking a sip of her own drink. The silence between them feels heavy, and she wonders how they can ever hope to bridge the gap that has formed between them.

"So, um, how have you been?" he asks, rubbing the back of his neck. Amaryllis takes a deep breath, trying to find the right words. "I've been good," Amaryllis says, trying to keep her voice even. "Just keeping busy with work and stuff." She takes a sip of her drink before continuing, "I'm also getting back into music," Amaryllis explains, her voice growing more confident. "I've been working on some new songs and building a platform online. It's been really exciting to see the positive response from people."

Ian nods, looking impressed. "That's amazing, Amaryllis. You were always so talented. I'm glad to hear you're pursuing your passion."

Amaryllis smiles softly, but her eyes betray a hint of sadness. "I won't lie, it's been a tough few months," she admits hesitantly. "But I'm pushing through and taking care of myself." 

As Amaryllis hesitantly admits that it's been a tough few months, Ian can see the sadness in her eyes. He realizes that the reason behind her struggles might be his own actions and feels immense guilt.

"I'm so sorry, Amaryllis," Ian says, his voice barely above a whisper. "I know I hurt you, and I hate myself for it. I should have never cheated on you. You're the most important person in my life, and I messed up everything."

Amaryllis tries to steady her breathing as she feels her eyes begin to water but refuses to cry. She takes a deep breath and asks Ian the question that's been weighing on her mind for months.

"Why did you cheat, Ian?" Amaryllis asks, her voice shaking slightly.

Ian looks down at his feet, feeling ashamed. "I don't know, Amaryllis," he admits. "I was stupid and selfish. I got caught up in the excitement of my new life and the attention I was getting from other people. I was feeling insecure and I didn't know how to handle it. But that's no excuse for what I did to you. I should have talked to you about how I was feeling instead of betraying your trust."

Amaryllis sniffles and wipes her bottom eyelid. "Ian, I deserve more than just an 'I don't know,'" she says, her voice cracking with emotion. "I was always there for you. I supported you in everything you did, even when things were tough. I never judged you or made you feel bad about yourself, no matter what. And yet, you still cheated on me."

She takes a deep breath before continuing. "I feel like you took me for granted, Ian. Like I was just some sort of safety net for you to fall back on whenever things got tough. You didn't even consider how your actions would affect me. Do you know how much pain and hurt you've caused me? How many nights I spent crying myself to sleep, wondering what I did wrong?"

Amaryllis continues, her voice growing stronger. "And now, you're sitting here in front of me, telling me that you don't know why you did it? That's not good enough, Ian."

Ian takes a deep breath and looks up at Amaryllis, his eyes filled with remorse. "You're right, Amaryllis. 'I don't know' isn't good enough. The truth is, I was feeling insecure and lost in my own life. I didn't know how to handle the sudden positive attention I was getting from other people when I went to study abroad. You know I was bullied a lot growing up, so I was never used to getting positive attention. But being in a new place where no one knew me, people started to notice me, and it felt good."

He looks down, feeling ashamed. "I know it's no excuse, Amaryllis. I should have talked to you about how I was feeling instead of betraying your trust. And you're right about me taking you for granted. I never appreciated just how much you did for me, and I'm so sorry for that. I never meant to hurt you, Amaryllis. I love you, and I hate myself for what I've done to you."

Amaryllis feels a lump forming in her throat as she tries to hold back the tears. She takes a deep breath and looks into Ian's eyes, trying to find some kind of reassurance. But as she speaks, her voice cracks with emotion.

"Ian, were you bored of me? Wasn't I enough for you?" she asks, her bottom lip trembling. "I loved you so much, gave you all my time and attention, and yet you still cheated on me. Wasn't that enough for you?"

As she speaks, tears start to stream down her face, and she feels her whole body shake with sobs. All of the hurt and pain that she had been holding back for so long comes rushing out at that moment.

Ian's eyes fill with tears as he watches Amaryllis cry before him. His heart breaks at the sight of her pain, and he struggles to hold back his own sobs. He takes her hand and squeezes it gently, trying to find the right words to say. "Amaryllis, no," he says, his voice breaking. "It's not about you. You were never not good enough for me. It was always about me and my own insecurities. I was feeling lost and unsure of myself, and I didn't know how to deal with those feelings. I turned to other people for validation, and I made a terrible mistake. But it was never about you, I promise."

Ian wipes away a tear from Amaryllis's cheek, feeling guilty for causing her so much pain. "You've always been more than enough for me, Amaryllis. You're the most loving, caring, and supportive person I know, and I took that for granted. I didn't appreciate just how lucky I was to have you in my life." Ian's voice breaks as he continues, "I'm so sorry for what I've done, and I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you."

Ian pulled Amaryllis into a tight embrace, holding her close as she cried. He kissed the top of her head and whispered, "I love you, Amaryllis. I'm so sorry."

Amaryllis's heart was heavy as she listened to Ian's words. She could feel the sincerity in his voice, and it made her cry even harder. She leaned into his embrace, feeling his warmth and his love for her. After a few moments of crying, Amaryllis looked up at Ian with red and puffy eyes. "I... I don't know what to say," she said, her voice shaking. "I feel so hurt and betrayed, but I also love you so much, Ian."

Amaryllis took a deep breath before continuing, "I want to forgive you, but I don't know if I can. I don't know if I can trust you again, Ian. How do I know that you won't do this to me again?" She looked into his eyes, searching for a glimmer of hope and assurance.

Ian's heart ached as he saw the pain in Amaryllis's eyes. He knew that he had hurt her deeply, and he didn't blame her for feeling the way she did. He took a deep breath before speaking. "I understand, Amaryllis. And I don't expect you to forgive me right away. I know that I need to earn your trust back, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to do so."

Ian took Amaryllis's hands in his and looked into her eyes. "I'll be completely honest with you from now on, Amaryllis. I'll be open and honest about my thoughts and feelings, and I'll work hard to show you that you can trust me again. I know that it won't be easy, and it won't happen overnight, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes."

Ian pulled Amaryllis into another embrace and kissed her forehead. "I love you, Amaryllis. And I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

Amaryllis felt Ian's sincerity in his words, and it gave her a glimmer of hope. She wanted to believe him and trust him again, but it would take time. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "I love you too, Ian. And I want to believe you. But it's going to take time for me to heal and for us to work through this together. I need you to be patient with me and to understand that I may have doubts and fears."

Amaryllis pulled back and looked into Ian's eyes. "But I'm willing to try, Ian. I want to work through this together and rebuild our relationship. I believe that we can come out stronger on the other side if we're both committed to making it work."

A small smile appeared on Amaryllis's face as she took Ian's hand. "So let's take it one day at a time, okay?"

Ian looked deeply into Amaryllis' eyes, his own eyes filled with tears of emotion as he nods in agreement. "Okay, but please know that you're it for me. It's always been you, and it always will be. You're the one I want to spend the rest of my life with, the one I want to grow old with. You're my person, Amaryllis."

As Ian spoke, tears began to stream down his face, tears of happiness mixed with tears of regret for having ever doubted their love. "I don't know how I ever let myself forget that, Amaryllis. But I promise you, from this moment on, it's just you and me. No one else, ever."

Ian reached out to take Amaryllis' hand, his heart full of love for her. "I know I've hurt you, Amaryllis. And I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, earning your trust back. But please believe me when I say that you are it for me. You're the one I want to wake up to every morning, the one I want to share every moment with. I love you more than words can say."

Ian pulled Amaryllis close, holding her tightly as he cried tears of happiness and regret, and feeling her warmth and love in return. Amaryllis wrapped her arms around him, holding him close as they cried together. "I love you too, Ian," she whispered, her voice full of emotion. "I'm so happy to hear you say that, and I want to believe you. But it's going to take time for me to trust you again, Ian. I hope you understand."

Ian nodded, his tears still flowing. "I understand, Amaryllis. And I'll do whatever it takes to earn your trust back, to show you that I'm committed to you and only you. I know it won't be easy, but I'll do it, because you're worth it. You're everything to me, Amaryllis. Everything."

Ian slowly pulled back from the embrace, looking at Amaryllis with a mix of love and uncertainty as he wiped away his tears. He had poured out his heart to her, but he didn't want to push her or make her uncomfortable. "Amaryllis," he said softly, "Can I... can I kiss you?" His hand tenderly cupped her cheek as he awaited her response.

Amaryllis smiled warmly at him, her eyes shining with love. "Yes, Ian," she said, reaching out to touch his cheek. "You can kiss me."

With a deep breath, Ian leaned in and pressed his lips gently to Amaryllis's, feeling a rush of emotions as he did so. He had missed her so much, missed the feeling of her lips against his, and he felt like he was finally coming home. As they kissed, Ian wrapped his arms around Amaryllis, holding her close as they shared a moment of tenderness and love.

When they pulled away, Ian looked at Amaryllis, his eyes filled with nervous anticipation. He brought his hand to her neck, gently caressing her skin as he asked, "Did you get rid of the necklace?" 

Amaryllis's smile softened, and she reached down to lift up her pant leg, revealing the necklace tied around her ankle as an anklet. "No, I didn't," she said, still smiling. "I just... moved it."

Ian let out a relieved laugh, his nervousness dissipating as he reached out to touch the necklace. "Oh, thank god. I was so worried."

Amaryllis laughed too, feeling a wave of happiness wash over her. She pulled Ian back towards her, kissing him again as they both laughed and smiled, feeling the weight of their past worries and doubts melting away in the warmth of their love.

~

For Ian's character, I definitely had to do a lot of reading and research. Thank you to the amazing @yukidragon for her theories as to why Ian cheated! That helped me so much in my writing :)

[stardestroyer81]

BEHOOOOOOOOOLD!!!

✨Mega Man Ultimate's title screen! ✨

(Check under the cut for the usual Star Insight, a process of how the above sprite piece was drawn as well as concept art!)

Ever since Mega Man Ultimate's inception way back in 2018, a faux title screen for it was very much always in the cards. Since then, however, the concept and story of Ultimate has changed over time, and several years later, I thought it would be a fun little challenge to revisit the idea of spriting a title screen for Mega Man Ultimate, and was quick to set out to work!

Upon prepping my workstation, I knew I had everything I need: image dimensions, a brand-new iteration of the Mega Man Ultimate logo, and a general idea of how I wanted Ultimate's title screen to stand out from all the others (Gradient edges, colored text, etc.)! Though, the one thing I didn't have on hand was perhaps the most important aspect of a Mega Man title screen... the art.

@tondemo-sliceuu and I had been batting ideas back and forth on what would be a fitting visual for Ultimate's title screen, and eventually it was decided that a sprite piece of Mega Man holding his buster while an intimidating silhouette of Synth looms overhead. So, we had the concept, now it was time to draw some hasty concept art!

Yeah, that'll do! Technically, since Ultimate's tumblr reveal back at the end of 2020, this is more than likely many of my followers' very first glimpse of the head honcho of the Synth Legion, the walking artillery Synth himself! I promise that eventually he'll get his own introductory post once I get around to finishing his sprite, though this does make for a menacing teaser.

Now, all that's left is to take that concept art and sprite it out, refining it accordingly!

Similar to drawing Stellar Man's stage select portrait, this particular sprite piece was not only drawn with little to no preliminary sketching beforehand, but also drawn in one sitting! I think this was drawn in anywhere between one and a half to two hours, if memory serves correctly... even if I did just draw it yesterday.

But seeing how well it turned out, I was ecstatic to get to show it off here on tumblr, and am looking forward to seeing what everyone thinks! ✨

[unknown-lifeform]

Keeping up with yesterday's snippet, another one with a more somber feel from the ASGZC exophilia anthology. Guess I'm good at putting Sephiroth in angsty scenes

Sometimes you have to trust your partner

[ID under the cut]

[Image description: A white text box on a black-to-red background gradient. The text reads:

Cloud looked unsure. His doll face had a limited range of expressions, but Sephiroth knew how to interpret the minute signs, the curve of his mouth and look of his eyes. He remained silent for a moment, examining the newly built limb.

"How long will it take you to replace it?" he eventually asked.

"I would rather not rush it."

It was the first time Sephiroth had to do this sort of modification to Cloud's body, and he couldn't allow himself to make mistakes. Building the arm alone had taken him multiple attempts. Sephiroth hadn't been willing to accept even a single centimeter off of Cloud's existing proportions.

End Description]