#it started as a bunch of sketches and then i tried to put it all together

[grey-viridian]

TW Blood

also SPOILERS for a fic "you can have three wishes if you don't take too long (if you don't take too long)"!!!

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Fanart for a beautiful fic you can have three wishes if you don't take too long (if you don't take too long) by mad_and_thick_as_thieves

Beware that it will break your heart (it did mine), so read the warnings, be careful and stay safe.

(I also did a little sketch here that happens right after this)

[halo-chainsaw]

Shut up i'm talking patreon only 7$!!!!!

The patreon podcast is out, and I have just finished listening to it!

I decided to write down some notes for those who are interested but do not have the patreon. It's a long one, but I picked out what I thought would be important + silly moments here n there

Podcast is recorded the morning of Dream's video (I'm sorry but not to Tommyinnit)

Tommy called his mom about the situation first, discussing about how it was awful (pre reddit post)

Harry wrote the "you can call me anything but do not call me poor" LOL

Tommy didn't watch the dream stream but read a synopsis, and he said that was enough

He's spoken to Dream privately several times (starting 2023), all his friends told him that dream was taking advantage of him, but he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt

He has told dream to change how he acts, and dream has refused. Has had conversations like this multiple times.

Told dream in a conversation he was no longer speaking to him and was no longer talking to him after he talked to his mom. Was previously ignoring him but blocked him outright.

After his dream v quackity sketch dream sent him awful and mean messages.

Jack and Tommy are pissed off about people saying to "resolve it privately". They have tried multiple times to solve things privately, but Dream will take things public.

Jack had a 2 hour long call with dream on jack's DADS BIRTHDAY??? and it was about why he didn't like dream, and about dream's allegations.

the "Jack mentions Dream" account bothers Jack since its a bunch of indirect things, and him responding to messages rather than him just bringing Dream up.

Dream says Jack spreads rumors about him.

Jack does not think dream is a p*dophile, but he finds the situation(s) he was in wildly inappropriate.

Dream showed everyone his evidence against the grooming allegations in the DreamSMP discord. Jack said he told Dream it weirded him out, because either way, he was still messaging a fan, and it pissed Dream off.

Jack flat out calls Dream "stupid".

He's very pissed about the "unfaithful" rumor, and he's very vocal about it for a minute.

Jack reiterates the editor story with the 50 quid

They point out how the Dream ignores the George and Caiti situation, along with clipping Tubbo out of context.

"I can't believe he thought he could win by just lying. Especially when you've got a reputation of lying." -Jack (paraphrased/two different sentences put together)

Tommy says the video were for him, not everyone else. Makes a jab about Dream unable to use media literacy.

Tommy says Dream knows what he's talking about when he refers to misogyny. That there's so much more behind the scenes, that it's miserable.

Tommy says he doesn't want to do any of this anymore, that it's pointless. He says Youtube doesn't make him happy, that he doesn't fit in, and he wants to be done. He will still be posting to Youtube because he loves making videos, but he doesn't want to be part of the Youtube sphere/culture. He wants to be a proper comedian.

"I might as well go down sayin' what I fuckin' mean." -Tommy

brings up the "putting others down", Tommy reiterates how he's been very kind/warm to everyone, but if someone famous is being an asshole he's gonna make a joke about it. "That's what I've done with Logan, done to you, and what I'm going to continue to do."

Tommy calls him one of the most self indulgent and exhausting people he's ever met.

Brings up Dream calling him the internet police, he says that he's just sick of the bullshit. "When I see it, say it."

Tommy reiterates he can't do this much longer, that it's all pointless. Dream is just doing what he's been doing for years. He is not proud of dream and he doesn't respect him. Tells him straight to "Fuck off".

Tommy would talk to Jack, unsure if what was happening with Dream was odd/bad or not. He's a little relieved that it's in the public eye now.

Jack talks about how everyone on the server is talking against him, that no one is defending him. They've all known he's awful.

Tommy says he felt close to Dream, so he struggled with seeing the bad actions he had done. He felt skewed/manipulated.

Tommy tells a story about back when he was 14, he would annoy people in Hypixel by lobby spamming. One day he heads into a streamer's chat that he looked up to and said hello. the streamer, who was about 20 at the time, tore into him, calling him the R slur and many other horrible things. He said he felt heartbroken and shaken up. "Shit like this just happens along the way, and it's miserable, but like- for me, I just keep remindin' myself "this isn't the first time I've done this"."

Jack tried to make his disassociation as public as possible, he had told Dream to his face (during the allegations) in the DreamSMP discord that he did not want to be associated with him anymore.

Talks about how people still group DreamSMP members with Dream, and how they think every member is bad due to Dream's actions, and he's tired of it.

He doesn't like how public everything is, but he's glad people can finally see that they don't like Dream.

Tommy, from now on, is telling everyone how he feels. He's going to be blatant. (if that's what i understood from a comment he made)

Jack is still shocked that Dream chose that moment of all things to jump in. They have made comments here and there but Dream never said anything.

Jack talks about a part in his stream where he says something along the lines of "I'd understand this type of outburst if we had been bullying im for weeks and weeks. But we haven't been. Nor would that make it okay." And then someone on twitter said "Jack just admitted that they'd been bullying Dream non stop for weeks and he's proud of it!!!!" Jack says he can't believe people's ability to misinterpret.

Tommy saw Tubbo dissecting Dream's stream for 7 hours and knew that was the point it was becoming ridiculous.

Jack blatantly calls out how Dream uses manipulation tactics in how he speaks to the public. Tommy calls it painful for him to watch because it's what Dream had done to him and others in private.

Jack goes back to Dream's stream, talking about their phone call together, about how it was disingenuous and weird to bring up publicly. He says there are things he can't talk about publicly that formed his opinion.

"I just think he's like an impossibly self-indulgent, selfish man, who thinks everyone's on his own time." -Tommy

Jack thought Dream was purposefully being negligent in the way he would speak, and while he still is, he is seeing that a lot of it also comes from Dream not being able to pick up on social cues and norms. Though, he also reiterates that it doesn't excuse his awful behavior.

"I don't get how he can't listen to anyone else." -Tommy

Both of them have talked to Dream multiple times about how he acts and he never listens. Not even just them, they say "We all have really tried", which implies more members of the SMP or other personal friends.

"He doesn't seem to feel very much empathy for the pain he's caused, and if I was in his shoes- I don't know where his guilt is." -Tommy

They talk about his inability to apologize and how they can't understand it. Tommy gets a little heated. Dream has given them empty apologies and goes to do the same things again. They talk about how he doubles down over and over until no one sides with him, that's when he apologizes.

Jack calls Dream dismissive, and how its obvious that he doesn't care.

Tommy implores the audience to not imagine these dramas as Youtubers doing it, but to imagine their friends doing these things. Youtubers are not above others, there's no difference. The only difference is responsibility.

Jack points out how it's odd that they decide to post these things. It shows that they just double down on their awful actions.

Tommy ends by saying he doesn't want to continue this, but if there are things that need to be said then they will be, but on the Patreon.

Jack says he is done as well, that he's done with all his serious points, but he will be making jokes here and there. He won't be joking about rumors, but things that actually happened.

"Anyway, back to writing!" "Guys, let's all get back to coding."

[arsquare]

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is my Heishin Exchange piece (event hosted by @heishinvalentineexchange2025) for oreganocactus on Ao3! The prompt I used was: "heishin yuri would be awesome…i love explorations of how gender would affect how characters behave/change so that would be cool :)"

Thoughts and process under the cut!

And also an NSFW sketch at the very bottom btw. as a treat for clicking on the readmore

So originally I had wanted to do a comic retelling the Murdered Diplomat Case Except They're Both Girls This Time AKA Heiji's debut case, but I got about 8 pages into the storyboards before I realized it would be impossible within the exchange's time frame. The Murdered Diplomat case is really really long, even if I cut everything about the case out LMAO... here's what I had if anyone is curious!

It was already sprawling by my standards here. We're on page 8 and Heiji has nary shown her face in the Mouri Detective Agency (also boy Kazuha is there? The part with the details of the case was supposed to be sort of timelapsed through a bunch of texts Kazuha sent Heiji because he was worried about where she was) So in my desperation I tried redoing it from page 7 to be more concise:

This was the point where I was officially like yeah this is not happening this is going to take one william pages at this rate and I just am not going to have the time to do that!! So I scrapped it and started working on the final product you see up there.

(BTW IT'S REAL!! about 80-90% of the comic actually exists in the real world!! I actually drew and inked it physically this time!)

I had really WANTED to retell the Murdered Diplomat Case because I would have been able to totally recontextualize Heiji and Shinichi's relationship, because I do think it would have been kind of different.

For one, I think Heiji's adoration of Shinichi would have had a more desperate quality to it. Between the two of them, Shinichi is definitely the more self-assured one of the two. With her laissez-faire parents who just does whatever they want, I'm sure they would have been fine with letting Shinichi pursue her detective dreams (though I'm sure Yukiko's even more sad about Shinichi not being a child actress </3 whatever though who cares about that), and so she's more confident that it's something she can be.

Heiji on the other hand comes from a more traditional family. I think her parents would highly disapprove of her detective pursuits, and as a result she becomes a more rebellious child-- but one who harbors a deep insecurity about whether she's doing the right thing or not, even if she knows she wants it.

When Shinichi vanishes off the radar, it's more than just a person that Heiji's developed an intense parasocial relationship with going off the grid, it's an entire nail in the coffin of the idea that being a female high school detective is something that's possible at all. That's why she's so desperate to find Shinichi-- she needs assurance that this hiatus that Shinichi is taking is not because society or the world put her into her place and made her quit doing this, but because of... something else. It has to be something else.

This I think would really bleed into how Heiji ends up treating Conan. In canon Heiji's super dismissive of Conan, initially only treating his as a nuisance on the crime scene before he figures out that he's Shinichi, despite the fact he no doubt was in those shoes a decade ago. But because of the continual pushback from her parents, the officers on the scene, and friends (cough boy kazuha), the struggle of being treated like she isn't supposed to be there on the crime scene is much fresher in her mind. She sees herself in Conan much more than he does in canon.

So I guess all I'm saying is that I think Heiji would have been nicer to Conan in my retelling LOLLL

As for what's going on in the comic I actually posted... well, you know, this wasn't my first choice precisely because I don't think it's necessarily gendered as much? Like, I can see this playing out if they were both still guys as well, maybe even more. After all, girls in general are more able to be physically affectionate with each other while suffering fewer consequences.

At the same time though I think Shinichi has an intense "not like other girls" thing going on. This whole thing is actually a subset of my genderbend universe where the whole teenage cast gets swapped and actually it was originally me just wanting girl Shinichi to comfort boy Ran (but badly because she's lowkey kinda autistic and not great at that...) as his parents got divorced LMAOOO. But anyways it would mean that Shinichi's closest friends are... Sonoko and Ran? Who are both guys...

So I think she would intentionally distance herself from that physical affection girls are able to have. She feels like if she indulges in that, then everyone else will take her less seriously and think "oh she's just a girl after all" and all the negative connotations of not being as capable or as smart as she actually is. In my head, she associates physical affection with being manhandled as a kid.

Another thing I kind of waffled on was... what should Heiji and Shinichi call each other? And maybe it's a bit of a weird choice for them to still refer to each other by last name but like. Hear me out.

I think to refer to each other by their last names is a token of respect, especially from Heiji to Shinichi. He keeps slipping up in canon and accidentally calling him Kudo, and while I do agree that part of it is him being careless and possibly inconsiderate to some degree, I also think... he really wants to call him Kudo? Like, this is someone he deeply respects. He wants to be professional equals to him more than he wants to be friends at the start, but never was able to actually GET that kind of relationship due to contrived circumstances of Shinichi getting shrunk. He can't call Conan "Edogawa", that's weird as fuck, so he has to wait until Conan's back to being Shinichi to even begin calling him "Kudo" for real. I think he'd really relish it, as a long-time-coming kind of thing, and I don't think it's any different as girls. In fact I'd argue it's even more intense because of that.

These two characters are both in such an intense hurry to grow up. Hell, Shinichi even dislikes it in canon when his mother calls him Shin-chan, and I think it's because he feels like this diminishes his self-perception as a "grown person". All the more since they're girls: I think this type of affectionate, diminutive name-calling would have been used against them to try to coax them away from crime scenes they wanted to be at. Like, "Oh, come on~ You're just a little girl, you shouldn't be here, Hei-chan~", something like that.

I think this is sort of an implicitly understood undercurrent that lies between them. If we have nobody else in the world who respects us we at least have each other. So when Heiji tries to push their relationship a bit, tries to become more than just friends, Shinichi sees this as a betrayal in some ways. Even if she rationally knows that Heiji isn't trying to belittle her, she can't help but conflate her recent experiences as a little girl again with how Heiji treats her now in the comic.

This whole thing could have been avoided if Heiji was more straightforward about her intentions btw but of course see above careless and possibly inconsiderate PLUS he's also kind of a tsundere character like everyone in detco when it comes to the person he likes so. inevitable... </3

Anyways thank you for reading all of this nonsense. Originally this comic was going to be longer and like, (this is a grossly incompetent summary,) they'd have a yuri makeout session in the Kudo Mansion Study. But we can't have good things in this world because there's not enough time so I only have this to show for :(((

I hope everyone likes it 👍️

[loustica-lucia]

Heroes of the Dragon Age

An animation I've made for Dragon Age Day 2023, featuring my main Warden (Alyssa Cousland-Theirin), Hawke (Eleena Amell Hawke) and Inquisitor (Sulevin Lavellan)!

It's to this day one of my best artwork and I thought I should share it here too! 90+ hours between the original sketch, outfit design, the rough animation, rotoscope, inking, flat-colours, background shading and even the audio :')

Interested in the process? I detailed it below since it was my first time doing something like that:

I would like to start by saying I'm not a professional animator!Everything you've seen here is the result of experimentation and a lot of practice to learn and understand how 2D animation works.

My first idea started in May 2023. I just finished rewatching DA Absolution for the X time, and wanted to analyse why I loved the intro so much. (Even after countless rewatch, I never skipped it once.) I was inspired to study it with my main three protagonists!

Then came the first test with Alyssa Cousland-Theirin, my Hero of Ferelden! I tried to understand which part to separate for the animation. Mainly the hair and cape because it flows a lot more than the rest! If I recall, my first idea here was to make her counter flame attacks (?). Then, as the camera turns around her, I tried to add a grid to know how the camera would work around it.

I ended up making the clip longer, so she could position herself to the further left and leave space to the two other protagonists.

Now it was time to try to animate Sulevin Lavellan, my Inquisitor. I really kept that quick doodling style just to capture the vibe without putting too much time/effort into it! The background would be static to contrast with Alyssa's. I also loved the idea of a rogue sneaking!

Instead of working on Eleena Amell Hawke, my Champion of Kirkwall, I went back to Alyssa and started working with Clip Studio Paint 3D models (this entire animation has been done on the EX version of the software!) It helped for rotoscope animation and maintaining likeness! That's when I got the idea to make the background swirl around the character to let the eyes be guided by the rest of the screen!

After a couple more hours, I planned the entire animatic with 3D models and quick doodles! I finally found a cool pose for Eleena Hawke, which was honestly the hardest of the three to imagine for some reason? I tried many other poses but ended up picking an animation from the game!

This whole time, I was studying a bunch of background ideas and how studio Red Dog Culture House (who made Absolution) work! Thankfully, they have a YouTube Channel where they shared some BTS content so I could analyse it!

Then, I simplified my character and their original designs in the style of the studio! These outfits are how I imagine them after Trespasser. Alyssa as the Queen of Ferelden, looking for a cure to the Calling, Hawke following Fenris to Tevinter & Sully as a Red Jenny Inquisitor!

The idea for Sulevin's animation actually came from a piece I doodled on a live stream, when I was drawing pose studies and turning them into finished artworks haha As for Alyssa, I wanted to draw the fight that got her facial scars!

Once their designs were ready and the background ideas too, I made the rough version of the animation! Basically a sketch done on top of the 3D models to add the details, staying pretty rough just to capture the idea and movements.

Then it was time to start the lines! I decided make a folder per frame, so I could separate all he main elements and draw them one by one. It helps keeping the likeness of a character in the different frames without having big "jumps" between frames! In fact, every parts were coloured differently to recognize them, and then I used vector erasers and masks (Ah yes, the entire lineart is done in vectors of course! It's easier to adjust and save time when working on similar frames!)

At first of course, everything overlaps! But I find it easier to draw too much and erase after, just to make sure everything is coherent in each frames! The cool thing about CSP is how you can change the colour of the layers in one click! So all the coloured lines turned into black in one second, and I could reverse it just as quickly to double check!

Then I started working on Sulevin! I made a blue line to mark where her feet were, as the sketch in the background wasn't perfectly straight! (Like Sulevin's sexuality 🤭😂) The silhouettes were very quick to do, but I had fun adding more & more details as she came closer to the foreground!

I really wanted to add that little dagger trick, but I remember it required me to change the pacing of Eleena's apparition, as it was recovering her arm too quickly! I had to change the pace of multiple frames quite a lot during the project, to make sure the flow was right! For Eleena, most of her animation remained around her arms and the staff itself, as magic would be the most difficult part! That way each character has their own focus: Alyssa has a very animated background, Sulevin got the grappling hook and Eleena the ice!

Then it was time to start adding colours! Just like for the lineart, I separated every colour on it's own layer, so I could easily adjust the colours later if needed. I added one colour at the time, going through all the frames, and then another colour!

I made full palette tests with the colours I would use for their background at this point, checking if the details remained readable! Alyssa was the most challenging in terms of clothes, because I made her a very detailled armour! I had to simplify the Theirin heraldry, vectorize/redraw the Cousland, and make a brush for her cape's pattern!

Once I was done adding the flatcolours, I started the background, and oh boy it was a wild ride. For the cave, I painted multiple tests. I imagine was to use CSP panorama tools, which transform a texture into a 3D sphere, so each corners must match to look good. Sadly, it made the background very blurry, so after hours of testing, I changed ideas. Instead of the random fire balls (?) I originally imagined for Alyssa, I made three simple frames of a Rage Demon to attack her.

I ended up using the cave as a repeated pattern to make it turn 360° around the character. For Eleena, I mixed inspiration from the comics, Dreadwolf & Absolution, using warm colours matching Hawke's signature red. Just like I made the cave very grey/blue to match Grey Wardens. For Val Royeaux, it was more complex because I wanted to make it green, matching the Inquisitor's signature green. But bright green couldn't work, and the original colour during day time was blue/white/gold. So I added more leaves, played around the design a bit! After adding the rage demon, I made the shading! It was surprisingly easy and quick to do now!

I clipped a white layer on the flatcolours to not be distracted by the colours, and made thin lines to separate the light/shadows, then simply filled everything with the bucket tool! Then you set the layer to multiply and remove the white layer, and you have celshading shadows! Now the character looks out of the picture, so I added layers of blue in color burn, saturation and substract blending modes to make her look like she's in the right setting! Of course, I did the same with the other two, giving Hawke a red overlay and Sulevin green shadows!

Then I added the details, it went from white irises, to sword/staff smears to earrings and smaller finition that goes on top of these layers. To add the lights, I simply selected the shadows and reversed the selection! Using warm and cold tones to create contrast with the purple/bluish shadows! I also added more ambient light layers for Alyssa to reflect the Rage Demon fire. Now it was time to add ice magic! My first attempt had too many frames, making it look weird! Sometimes it's better to lower the frame rate to make things less bumpy!

Then I downloaded some cool ice brushes on CSP assets that made it look less like blue magical flames! But when I covered the screen in ice, I realized "Oh wait, I could make a cool transition from the ice, to blue lyrium turning red?"Red Lyrium truly links these three games and The Veilguard somehow! I spent the next hour painting over the idol and putting it in a black background, with lyrium and then the golden Dragon Age title text.

For the SFX, I used free youtube libraries sounds & "Darkspawn!" comes from the violent human female voice set (iconic for ""Can I get you a ladder? So you can get off my back!"😂🤭) After editing all that, the animation was finally done!

Here's the final math:

About 15 hours for the sketching/rough/animatic phase, 30h for the lineart, 25h for colours, 10h for backgrounds, 5h for details & 5h for music & SFX, for a total of 90 hours. Aka the same amount of time it took me to finish Baldur's Gate 3 the first time lol

If you have any question regarding the animation or the softwares etc. do not hesitate to ask, I'll do my best to answer!

[sunrisecaminus]

Ratchet x Sick Reader

Summary - Human Reader gets sick with something terrible and Ratchet takes care of you like the little sweetheart he is.

Warning - Vomiting (Only once)

Type of Fic - Comfort

You have been sick for about two days now. It was light coughing, runny nose, headaches, the normal small symptoms of a cold. It was winter, so you were ready for something like this and is right now wearing a mask while shopping for clothes. You didn't want to take any chances accidentally coughing on someone, so you bought a cheap mask to give people a chance to avoid you. Ratchet looked up a bunch of stuff and knew you weren't in any danger so everything was ok right now. Honestly, you were happy that the bots weren't worried about you. Having Chicken noodle soup for lunch, relaxing on Ratchet's shoulder and drawing sketches. Letting Ratchet have the kids not touch or get close to you was funny. You still can recall him shooing them away like bugs, you couldn't help but laugh. Looking in the clearance section, you have been finding some good deals and put them in your arms. Finally leaving after paying for your lovely clothes, you walk yourself over to the base which was a few miles away. Being in such a small town, you were used to walking far distances because how spaced everything is from each other. It wasn't snowing or windy, so thankfully you were able to walk on the sidewalk without feeling worse than you already were. The scenery was lovely too, the inch of snow around on the ground and the lovely few rare trees around the area with no leaves standing still.

No one is around you. It was just you and the road, so you took off your mask and breathed in the nice cold air. That was when you felt something in your stomach, something that made you ache. You confusingly hold your stomach a bit and felt a bit weird…couldn't be from lunch. All you had was chicken and noodles, you didn't eat anything raw. All of a sudden, you puke all over the snow. You can't control your body as you bend down on the sidewalk and feel yourself shaking, vulnerable after the horrible event that just happened. Being close by to the base, you honestly didn't want to call anybody. Your throat was now hurting like crazy, breathing and trying to speak made the pain worse so you tried not to speak the whole way.

Ratchet was working at his desk when he hears small footsteps coming from the entrance. He turns to see you groggily walking, wet from the snow, and your plastic bag dripping a little of water. Before he could say something to you, he smelled an awful smell coming from your body as you flop yourself on the ground, your legs weak and your hair a mess. "Y/n?!" He rushes over and scans you, already messaging June in seconds on his comm that he needed her here. "H-hey Ratch-ow." He sees that you hold your neck from the pain, wincing and shut your mouth before you complete the sentence. June was already at the base with Jack so she quickly ran from the railing and starts to check on your body. "This isn't a cold. It might be something serious, where were you for the past few days? Miko go to her room and grab her some extra clothes, I can smell throw up." Miko nods and ran to your room immediately to grab something nice for you. Ralph and Jack ran over and watched June clean you up with a towel. You didn't know what could have given you this horrible mess. Unless…"My work just got a new storage of materials to make stuff. I don't know much of it but the air wasn't clear at all when we were unloading the truck."

…

You have been laying on the couch for about a day. Ratchet kept a close optic on you and kept you company while Darby went to investigate what you had. You have been coughing and hacking for a while, and your throat has gotten worse after a few hours of waking up. You couldn't eat anything as well and Ratchet kept begging you to eat something. "Miko made sandwiches…" Ratchet put a plate on the coffee table and you glared at it, turning your body around to cover your face as a motion to the Doc that you were not hungry still. "Y/n, you have not eaten anything after lunch yesterday. Eat!" Both of you were stubborn as you groaned at him, feeling his giant digit poking you on the back to get you up. Finally after a few minutes, you turned and grabbed his pointer finger before he could retract, hugging him. Ratchet could not believe how weak you were. He has never seen you so sick. Your arms holding his digit felt like you weren't even hugging him. The feeling of wanting to protect you increased and he gently puts you in his hand and cradles your small body. "Hey…I know it sucks, but you are probably starving. You need to eat something or you will get worse. Please y/n." You looked up at him with watery eyes, you were already tired of this horrible illness you have and didn't want to be hurting anymore. Your breath didn't sound clear either when you breathed. Ratchet hears a small whisper. "I'll do it…for you." He blushed a bit in the cheeks when you said that and grabbed a plate. Seeing you slowly eat was such a relief in his eyes, giving a small smile (at least the best smile this doctor can give) when he saw Darby angrily ending a call on the phone with papers in hands. She walks up to you two and shows Ratchet the folder. "She has something called Bagassosis. It is a horrible sickness that is created from breathing in dust, specifically a type of sugar that is used to make cardboard. If not treated, it could get worse and become chronic…meaning she will feel pain and cough for years. Thankfully there was good results when taking medication so I already have the bottle." She looks over at you and hands a pill. "Take it, and we just have to wait for your body to except it or reject it. Please tell me or Ratchet if you feel worse after."

You didn't care, you grabbed the pill and looked at the bottle. Damn it was steroids, you didn't know this was that serious. Taking the pill, you kept eating the sandwich and drank water. Leaning against Ratchet's servo, you clenched your hand one his thumb, not wanting to let go of him. Ratchet feels your motion and that is what made him realize he wasn't going to be able to get back to work today. He knows, he wasn't going to let go of you. In his processor, he had a patient in his servos, clinging and begging for his attention, and he was going to give his full attention. Ratchet loved and cared for you, he wasn't going to leave you cold on the couch during your recovery. The only work he would do, for the days you were recovering, was only reading reports from missions and maybe a few check ups here and there. You would always be with him, sleeping on his desk, his hands, sitting on his shoulder, and maybe even sleeping in his berth if he was on missions. The only motivation this mech had was to come home to you intact to give you the love you needed with his support. Three days goes by after the puking event, and you feel so much better with the prescription you were taking everyday. The only thing now that was still not fully treated was your throat and breathing problem. You weren't weak anymore, and your head was ok, but your breathing sounded terrible and talking still kind of hurt a bit. Grabbing some pencils, you go into Ratchet's blanket and start to draw Ratchet in his vehicle mode. It has been a while since Ratchet gave you so much care and love, maybe you should have another life or death situation…no never mind that would be horrible. You hear the door opening to Ratchet's birth as familiar footsteps walk inside. "…Y/n?" Ratchet sees you poke your head out cutely from out of his blankets and show your drawing of him. He looks closely at it and smiles. "Awe thanks sweetspark." He sets his medical bag down and goes into the bed, letting you crawl up to his neck and ready to take a nap with him. "I can't stay here forever, I have work to do y/n." He pats your head while talking. You cling to his digits again and give a smirk. "Never."

[bonelyheartsclub]

♡ Poplar - Valentine's One-Shot ♡

Written by @/duskyskye

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“Splendid, absolutely splendid!”

Poplar gazed at your latest piece, raising it above his head. You’d tried your best to work with the tiny watercolor canvas and brushes he had available for you, but you really thought you could have done better with this one. Especially compared to Poplar’s prowess.

“I don’t know,” you thought aloud, “I don’t think it’s really all that.”

“Nonsense! The way you rendered this flower is lovely! I love the shading you did on the petals.”

“Poplar…you and I both know I was just following a tutorial. I couldn’t do that without help.” Your tone was light as you spoke, though the creeping feeling of inadequacy was still present. Of course, Poplar wasn’t taking that from you.

“Hmm…what I know for certain is that you shouldn’t be nearly this hard on yourself. Everyone begins somewhere, after all! I think you’re off to a lovely start. Now, may I?” Poplar stood, gesturing to the wall. You gave him a shrug and a nod, trying to keep the smile on your face. Without another word, he positioned your piece just above his desk mirror.

“Well, I think that makes for a lovely centerpiece. Done by an even more lovely person.” Poplar smiled, looking at the wall.

You followed his gaze. Yep. That was your piece, alright. Next to the other paintings that he had hanging. They seemed to dwarf yours in quality, the brushwork and delicate detail reflecting Poplar’s talent in his craft. You shuddered a little bit.

Poplar seemed to pick up on your discomfort, his smile faltering as he sat back down next to you.

“Does it really bother you that much? Your painting?”

You gave him a small nod. He sighed, looking downcast for a brief moment before his sockets widened, his smile quickly returning as he turned to you.

“I don’t think I’ve ever shown you my old paintings, now, have I? Oh dear, what a shame. Though surely if you’re so bothered by someone’s early works, you’d have no interest…” Poplar made a point of acting hurt, leaning dramatically against his desk. You giggled at the theatrics. Maybe you were a bit on the theatrical side yourself with how downtrodden you were being.

“Are you acting like that because you think they’re any worse than mine?”

“Darling, I KNOW they are.” Poplar gave you a quick grin before taking his cane and walking to his dresser. With a flourish, he pulled out a well-loved folder from the top drawer.

“I suppose I should clarify before I open this, but I am showing this to you with the express purpose of helping you understand that everyone struggles when beginning in a new medium. I fully expect you to laugh, to judge, and so on. All I ask is that when you reach the life drawing section, you refrain from visibly cringing too hard.” Poplar slid back into the seat beside you, placing the file on the tabletop where you had been working.

“What’s that supposed to mean, anyway?”

“You’ll find out in just a moment.”

You opened the file, which contained a relatively thick bunch of papers. The top started with a few color studies. Each labelled with various brush styles, paint colors, and blending methods. Wet on wet, wet on dry, flat wash, gradients, glazing… all things you had a vague understanding of, but more than you think you would have the patience to complete. You could tell that the strokes and coloring were not nearly as neat as the works that were displayed above your head.

Pages turned from dedicated exercises to a few applications. Circles in various colors were shaded using the previous techniques. He was experimenting with the various colors available to him. You could tell that he had also been following guides with a few of these as he got the hang of the technique. It all seemed fairly rudimentary, but you could tell that he had put a lot of effort in.

At this point it appeared he was branching out his sketching skills as well. Leaves and flowers were a common subject, it seemed. It was at that point that he broke the silence.

“Ash was beginning to garden at around the point I started to commit to bettering myself in the visual arts. It’s interesting, trying to capture the detail in such tiny little things. Though I think you can see that the subtlety is easy to lose.” He finished with a laugh.

Sure enough, the linework was notably shaky. The symmetry he had tried to go for had been lost. The lines clearly lacked confidence, and the veins of the leaves looked more like fur than anything else, somehow. Not that you could do much better if you were going for absolute realism.

“I think you still did a good job.” You said, gesturing to a couple illustrations. “This leaf looks really nice!”

“I’m well aware that they’re wonky, darling. They were my first attempts.” Poplar offered you a smile. “You don’t need to struggle to come up with compliments.”

“No, no, I genuinely think they’re good! Especially for first attempts.”

“Then I suggest you continue onwards. Though while you do, would you mind if I make a sketch of my own while you continue to peruse?”

“Go for it.”

Poplar nodded, pulling his sketchbook and a pencil into his hand. You flipped to the next page.

Poplar had shifted from leaves and flowers to objects that you recognized from around his room. A porcelain plate with floral decoration that he displayed on the other side of the room. A plush that he had carefully mounted on top of his shelves. What you assumed was either an older bed of his, or one of his cousin’s, as it wasn’t the one you were next to currently. Each had what looked like at least an hour of work poured into them. Even if they weren’t the best sketches, you could see he was gaining a better eye for detail as he worked at it.

Then you flipped to the next piece.

You could only ASSUME that what you were looking at was his first attempt at drawing chicken. 

You looked back at Chicken, who had been fast asleep on their pillow for the majority of their visit. You turned in your seat, looking between the sketch and the real thing.

“Ah. You found it.” Poplar broke into a fit of giggles. “It’s absolutely awful, isn’t it? It’s alright to laugh.”

Well, it was…certainly an attempt. Poplar had gone VERY heavy on the wrinkles. One eye was notably misshapen compared to the other, and the muzzle was disproportionately long for a cat. The end product was what you could tell was Chicken from the approximation of feline traits and almost nothing else.

“I don’t know, I think you did ok.”

“No, I absolutely crashed and burned. There are only two reasons that that sketch isn’t in the bin. The first is that when I’m struggling with a piece, it reminds me that I could do so much worse. The second is that when I’m feeling overconfident, it humbles me.”

Hearing him talk…yeah, you knew what you sounded like now.

“Should I continue going through this, or do you think that your point came across just fine?” You asked him, a slight hint of comedy in your tone. The stack that you had left to sort through wasn’t thick.

“Oh, by all means, continue. I’m still working on what I’m doing over here. Though if you’re curious about any of the other pieces within, you only need to ask.” Poplar looked up at you from his paper, gesturing to you to continue.

So, you did.

While none of the pieces invoked the same level of shock in you that Chicken’s portrait did, you could see the purpose of these sketches was very much to learn the ropes of anatomy and shape. It wasn’t like you had much room to speak, of course. It was more of a comparison to his current work than anything else. You could see things improving as you thumbed through each sheet of canvas, each work growing more refined as you went on. By the end, you could see a couple of full pieces that started to look very nice.

“So?” Poplar eagerly piped up as he saw you close the folder. “What are your thoughts? Do be honest about it.”

“It’s your beginner’s folder. I think you showed a lot of promise even back then, even if your pieces weren’t always the best work.” You stated bluntly. Poplar smiled at your tiptoeing.

“Now, tell me: how many folders in do you think I am now?”

“…I have no clue.”

“Fifteen. All as big as this one. Plus at least three sketchbooks. It’s a hobby, but I’m quite dedicated.”

Your eyes widened. Wow, no wonder there was such a jump in quality between then and now.

“No kidding you’re, ‘dedicated.’ I can see that all that work paid off.”

“I’d like to think so. Of course, everyone has areas in which they can improve with their artwork. I’ve just been working hard enough and for long enough that things come to me more naturally than they once did. For instance:”

Poplar thumbed through the sketchbook he was holding to an earlier page. On it was a similar picture of Chicken, this time with more precise proportions. A marked improvement from what you had seen before.

“I see. You did an amazing job on that.” You reached out, gently touching the paper.

“I’m glad you think so! Though I find I’m still not the best at rendering skin folds. They look more like the folding you’d find on clothing than the kind you’d find on skin. It doesn’t help that I can’t use myself as reference, what with the bones and all.”

Poplar closed the sketchbook, looking you directly in the eye.

“I never want you to feel bad at where you’re at in your art journey, my love. We all have to start somewhere, and personally, I think yours is much better than mine. What matters is that you’re trying, because if you keep doing that, then you’ll get to where you want to be eventually.”

You looked back at the piece he’d hung up on the wall. Sure, it was more of an attempt than anything, but maybe it wasn’t so bad. You chuckled.

“Yeah, I got you. I appreciate the reassurance, Poplar.”

“Any time, my love. Now, are you curious as to what I was working on while you were distracted with my crimes against art?”

You giggled at his joke.

“Of course.”

Poplar opened the sketchbook back up, turning to a point about midway through.

What greeted you on the page was your reflection, not fully rendered due to the lack of time, but still clearly you, nonetheless. Your hair was perfectly textured, your eyes stood out brightly with a small amount of rendering, and your skin looked as light as the paper it was drawn on.

“Poplar…I’m flattered.”

“Well, you know, I think it has room for improvement. Time to shade and color, for instance. There’s SO much to improve on. After all, it’s hard to compare a pencil sketch to the TRUE work of art that it’s based on…”

“Yeah, yeah!” You shoved him, both of you laughing. “Seriously though, this is gorgeous. Thank you for this.”

“Of course, my love.” Poplar leaned in, planting a gentle kiss on your cheek. “You know that if you ever feel as though you’re lacking confidence, I’m happy to give you any encouragement you need. Even if it means showing you my first attempts at drawing my cat.”

You smiled, not doubting his words for even a second.

“Thank you, Poplar… and you know what?” You pulled a new canvas from the paper stack Poplar had supplied you and confidently took a pencil in your hand. “I’m ready to start on my next piece.”

Poplar’s sockets sparkled; his grin widened from cheek to cheek.

“I’m excited to see what you create, darling.”

[ronearoundblindly]

Ohhh Valentine's who would! Who would write you a love letter/ be your secret admirer?

eee, so cute! (Warnings for language because Lloyd is on this list all the time.)

James Mace

Though he keeps them basic, simple, short and sweet, Mace absolutely writes love notes. If you aren't already dating, he'd be the deepest of secret admirers, meaning you would get lovely gifts and things but never know who he was. Mace strikes me as the "hopelessly in love with his best friend" type. He's around to make sure his gifts are appreciated, stops if they aren't, and also escalates if you seem super interested 🥰.

Curtis Everett

Definitely a secret-admirer type but not really a letter writer. Curtis also keeps it simple. He prefers 'gifts' that make your day easier, so he coordinates more tedious tasks be done (if you work together) or does stuff like pay for your drink ahead of you in line at the café. Little things like that rather than deliveries of chocolates and flowers.

Jimmy Dobyne

Old school and old fashioned, Jimmy will write you the occasional letter. It's meaningful but not gushy. He's honest about how happy you make him and descriptive of your best times together. Every so often flowers or candy don't seem like enough, usually after hard times or big events. Valentine's as a holiday...doesn't really count.

Johnny Storm

Nah. If he likes you, you'll know, and if he can just text or call, he ain't writing shit on paper.

Jake Jensen

Digitally? Yes, tons of notes. Bunch of AI/deepfake videos of animals or famous people professing how much he loves you. Most of them are funnier than hell, several have brought you to tears, and I would not put it past him to sneak an intro to a marriage proposal in one...

Lloyd Hansen

He takes great pride in making all the little cards on gifts horrible. "So you smell better" on the perfume he buys you, "eat me and like it" on the chocolates, and, of course, "don't be fucking late" on the dinner invite. On the back it also says "wear something slutty."

Ari Levinson

No letters, sorry. Snail mail reminds him of deployment so he'd rather not. Ari did enough secretive stuff in the military, too, so he'll just openly admire you, thanks.

Ransom Drysdale

He tried once.

He then had to clean up an overflowing bin of wasted papers from shit drafts, and he's never fucking doing that again. He'll take you shopping. Problem solved.

Andy Barber

The only love letters/notes he's written have been in apology for having to miss a date or special occasion due to work. Sorry. I know that sucks, but overall, you'd also rather he spend time actually with you whenever possible instead of running around buying cards and writing notes.

Steve Rogers

They start as letters but end up half full of doodles. One of Steve's favorite subjects to sketch from memory is your profile. Your smile comes in at a close second.

Bucky Barnes

Would so much rather spend the time and effort with you, but if he has to be away (and he can find enough space for himself to quietly focus on it) then he'll write you. Though he's not as well-read or eloquent as Steve, Bucky has the advantage of being slightly dorkier and (deliberately) funnier. His love letters are sweet, spicy, and often hilarious.

Thank you for asking!

[Main Masterlist; Who Would... Masterlist; Ko-Fi]

[akascow]

fave jayvik hc so far is that jayce knew how to make a rlly good leg brace from basically scraps bc he helped in designing and crafting viktor's own brace🫠👍🏻

^^ "scraps" is kinda mirroring them probably having to make mock ups and test runs while trying to perfect viktor's brace so there were a bunch of prototypes with random parts they had lying around trying to make it work ahaaaa

like obviously jayce is extremely talented and smart when it comes to engineering so he very easily coulda come up w the design and mechanics of it on the spot (meaning using what he had on hand, rather than actually coming up with it in a few hours bc,, well he was down there for at least a few weeks HAHA) but idk its nice to think about i guess lmfao

plus itd make a lil bit of sense, like why go somewhere else to get a leg brace when your perfectly capable and willing partner is right here lmfao.

also we only see viktor has the leg brace after working with jayce. and yeah u could chalk it up to his illness getting worse so he wouldntve needed it until now. and obviously im not trying to ignore the fact that viktor is extremely capable to make it himself and if he did maybe since hes more than an assistant he actually has the tools and means to make it himself now lol.

but idk it seems like jayce was one of the first if not only person to care about V and include him in things ("people didnt believe in me, a poor disabled kid from the undercity" "i dont want to spend my whole life as an assistant" "our hextech dream" "arent you the professor's assistant" "you should be up there with me" etc) so i can totally picture him see viktor working on it or even a glance at a few crude sketches as a start and want to help his partner yk?

and from what we see hes like extremely nice and caring and at the risk of this sounding too fluffy bc thats not the point rn you can picture viktor walking around the lab, jayce noticing him wincing whenever he tries to correct his position and offering to help him with a mobility aid and they have all the means necessary to build it right here right now and shit happens and here we are now lol

hes constantly making an effort to show and tell people that hextech is not JUST his doing, but viktor's too. which, as someone who seemed to revel in the attention, jayce easily could've forgotten to mention, but never does

so in my head it makes sense that he would be the first person to propose the idea of helping him in creating a leg brace that would make walking a lil less painful (it keeps his foot straight, u can see he has to correct the angle himself in s1 act1)

anyway i think its a neat theory lmao

these didnt fit in anywhere else so im put it it here pft👇🏻

also jayce has two different braces- during and post anomaly. so while there may just be some place in piltover that makes them i’d like to think he just whipped it up all quicklike in his lab the second he got back bc like.. the blueprints are right there lol

his and viktor’s arent entirely similar ofc bc they serve two different functions,, viktors helps to keep his leg/foot facing and moving foward, and jayces kinda just stabilizes/supports his leg i think ? uh but they both help in general to reduce pain

n then viktor, having a leg that didnt develop akin to typical human anatomy, is clearly shown as not the easiest to walk or put pressure in on lmao, especially when he only really got to correct it at like age 30, so like, habits (for lack of a better term) have already been deeply rooted in his posture by now lol

bc, well,, putting any weight on that fucked up Broken In Half shin bone that Definitely Did Not heal correctly (if its even fully healed at this point in the first place) probably causes a bunch of Ouch- hence the supports in the front of his leg,, post anomaly tho, during anomaly its at the sides which was probably just to straighten the injury while it was healing idk.

i cant find a good answer as to why the lower leg support is in the front now but my main guess is so it doesnt put too much strain when he bends his knee/ankle downward, which u can kinda see in ep8 when he blasts viktor and the knockback breaks the part resting on his shoe away, and its hard to see but i think his ankle bends slightly more after the gear breaks ? so thats what i can assume.

clearly im not well versed in the art of KAFO support braces and i tried to look up to the best of my abilities but came up empty handed HAHA who knew itd be so hard referencing similarities between the homemade parallel reality fictional sci fi gear braces and modern irl real orthotic braces LMAO

[toffeebrews]

Ink sans headcanons!

Disclaimer: I don't claim anything to be canon. Although, I tried to make sure it didn't conflict with canon for the most part. Erm, I also didn't check the tag before I made this, so of any these are canon/popular hcs i didn't know before making this.

Ink has something similar to a bag of holding tied to his belt. He picks up little trinkets in the aus he visits (something small, of course, like a flower!) It can hold an endless amount of objects. It also stands as as way of reminding him of where hes been and who he's met! he puts any gifts he gets there as well.

He has this weird ability that if you point at something he knows the exact hex code and color name it is. Why? Not even he knows, but it may be a creator giving him knowledge somehow thing.

For his paints? They all taste a little different. They taste like, something? But the exact flavor is so vague it's "hard for him to describe". If anything, they taste like a whole bunch of flavors at once. A little overwhelming to the palate. They all differ in sensation as well, fizzy, smooth, milky etc.

(more yapping under the cut)

Consistency wise, they both smell and have the thickness of acrylic paint. Specifically that kinda watery acrylic paint you can get for cheap at a store (like apple barrel).

Each of his vials has three dosages. One vial is like daily usage. But they can sometimes run out unevenly depending on how bad/good that day is (ex: on an extremely bad day, he has to take more of a positive emotions) so he had extra markings to "top off". Given there's no consistent time frame hes in, he just takes them whenever he wakes up. [ note: this particular headcanon was partially inspired by @/the-local-eldritch-microwave headcanon lol ↓]

He can actually last maybe about few days without his vials, but his emotions just become duller after 24-48 hrs. Taking a sharp decline after about 72 hrs. Their mobility and mental health declines with it as well, so he'd rather not wait for the decline to start! haha unless he got stuck in some situation where he had no choice!!! :D haha

He tried chugging all his vials at once for experimentation! He vomited everywhere. He'll not be attempting that again. Too much at once...

He has a reallllyyyy long scarf so he has enough room for all of his notes. It drags behind him and also dramatically blows behind him when there's a draft. It tracks stuff in it, due to its length. The bottom of his scarf is all colorful because of all the crap hes tracked in it! LOL

If he ever needed it, he'd add more fabric to the end for more notes. I guess eventually it would get cartoonishy long. At least, until it became completely impossible to manage.

On that topic, hes actually quite messy. Although, its more in a "organized chaos" sorta way. He knows where everything is, even if you don't. hes also MESSY not dirty very clear distinction!

In my mind the reason Ink would have a gap tooth in my version is when he was a "sketch" his teeth were more uh implied? So when he's born (how the hell would you word that? conceived? idk) he now has a permanent gap tooth.

[archandshri]

28th June ‘24 - [arch] One Page Limitation??? - My process for Traffic Zine #5

Hello All!

A couple months ago, I got accepted to @trafficzine, a digital anthology of pieces by a large group of artists and writers based on the most recent season of the Life Series. I made this piece back in April, but thankfully I kept some notes of my process. 

Heads up - this contains spoilers for Secret Life :D

We were able to choose our own prompt from a list! For this project, I wanted to push my comic making - especially how to communicate a lot of information in a small space. I went through and watched a few clips from the series to see which prompt would fit a comic and settled on Scott’s death.

As usual, I began by getting some reference images and going ham on some big paper. This gets me excited about the project and helps generate ideas. I go for whatever interests me in terms of medium and subject matter, but I try to use a process that doesn’t let me control too much (in this case brush and ink)

initial sketches for fun and vibes :D

During this, I also took the time to transcribe the scene - I wanted to use the dialogue directly, and see how much I could fit into the single page that I was allowed for the zine.

In these early planning stages I make sure to do warm-up sketches to remind myself of the energy I want to communicate. This also keeps things fun and fresh so I'm not ONLY thinking about page composition and making things 'good'. (the expectation for it to be 'good' kills a project prove me wrong)

Dialogue from the clip + warm up sketches

Next up, I started to plan what panels I have on the page. At this stage, some panels might just be a box with some words, and some may have a sketch if I have a clear composition in mind. This stage is mostly for pacing and plot, so instead of focusing on what the panel and page will look like, I will think about:

what will happen in the panel

it's purpose and

what it will communicate

Sometimes I'll illustrate a string of panels that tell the story and fit them on a page after - but this depends on the project and my confidence with the size of it.

After messing around with these and coming up with a pretty clear direction, I draw a bunch of boxes to see how the panels could sit nicely together. At this stage I might realise I have too many panels, and need to cut a few or come up with a creative solution. Nothing is set in stone at this point.

sketching panel layouts

Now begins the fun! I decide on the layout I prefer and I can start putting planned compositions into the boxes. I often do this digitally, or a digital editing process will be involved.

Once planned, I print these out to do a more refined sketch over. I find that my traditional drawings have a lot more life and character to them than digital ones, so I try to keep the majority of the process traditional, with passes of scanning and digital editing.

I tried a version with her looking out at the distance - ready to face the oncoming battle. But it still felt off. So I turned to my slides to ask myself some questions!!

I tried to think of more things that were working - but I really felt like it was lacking a lot. I was going for this slower emotional feeling because that came more naturally to me, but it just wasn't working for this image. The original clip is quite rushed and chaotic - which would be harder to communicate in a comic format but the challenge interested me. Either way, I knew I wasn't happy with this direction so... i decided to start from scratch! Back to the drawing board!!!

In the previous version, I had cut out a lot of the dialogue, but I decided to go back to the original clip and use AS MUCH as possible. Since passing the bow was my favourite part of that first composition, I really wanted to lean into it as the emotional height and final goodbye before Scott's death. It's a moment to slow down and absorb the vibes :D

I made a list of panels along with their descriptions to refer to when trying to figure out the order of panels. there were SO MANY and it was VERY CONFUSING when they were too small to read.

These thumbnails were super small and would not have made sense without my list, I swear.

I printed this tiny thumbnail out at A4, so I could sketch over it and get a clearer sense of flow. Then began a loooong process of printing out tiny photocopies and rearranging the panels to be legible. It was a difficult balance of communicating busyness while making sure the hierarchy/reading order made sense.

After some tweaking, i printed out an A3 copy to draw my panel borders and text.

Doing this on a separate piece of paper means I don't have to worry so much about messing up the text or borders when drawing the characters. This allows me to be more free and expressive with my illustration.

Woah! Quick trip back in time!! During the thumbnailing process I drew these warm up sketches! I looooved the way the linework came out. I drew this on an A3 piece of paper - and the shocked Gem would, in theory, be one of the smallest panels. So I decided to do a crazy thing.

I touched up the sketch digitally, compiling some of my favourite warm up sketches, some traditional sketches made for the panels, and filling the rest in digitally. Then I printed this image out in QUATERS at A3!! This meant the final sketch layer, printed out was A1!! (aka very large, considering the final file would be at A4, about 8x smaller)

I did this so I could get fairly small detailed lines with my pencil while being quite expressive and firm with my mark-making. Slowly, I dlined all of the panels traditionally and scanned them in. Then I assembled the finished linework on Photoshop, along with the text and panel borders and got to colouring :D

final linework :D

For colouring, I played a little bit with halftone but I found the texture made it feel a bit too busy - the panels are already doing enough. Because of this, I also decided to use a limited colour palette. Here are some images of the colouring process, which I won't go into today.

I'm really happy with how this came out - I think it captures the chaos of the moment, while taking time to linger on the emotion of it. Keeping that bow moment really made it, I think.

I think the last panel is still quite weak. Earlier in the process there was a low-angle shot of Gem about to kill Scott which may have been more powerful, but I think I was struggling with my actual drawing skill when it comes to perspective. A lot of learning how to draw, and in particular with comics, is about knowing where your skills are at, how to utilise them best and how to test and push them.

I'm glad that I started again, instead of finishing that composition I wasn't happy with. It was a tough project but I learnt sooooo much from it, and it's been essential skill-building for.... the current comic I'm working on (stay tuned!!! :0) Thanks for reading this incredibly long post! Go check out @trafficzine and look at all the other cool art Cool vibes and silly men,

Archie :D

[luxuki-1]

Like I said I would, I'm going to go through the details I hid in my recent FNAF painting. Not because anyone asked, but because I want to and I'm proud of everything put in

1. Michael's design is my own! I've pretty much had the same concept for the design since SB came out. I just really liked the idea of having part of his jaw missing for no particular reason other than it looks cool. But, I have since moved the jaw gap to the other side, as well as defining scars and wrinkles.

2. I've already posted Golden Freddy but here he is again. I redrew the original poster since I really didn't feel like I just should just slap the original on there. Since I had that freedom now, I decided to make references in the design to later games since it is appearing as a hallucination(?) to Michael. Obviously there are blood stains around the mouth to reference The Bite of '83 and I also added tear stains to reference Evan/CC, said victim of the bite.

3. The classic "Celebrate!" poster. The same thing with Golden Freddy, I didn't feel like I should copy and paste the original so I drew it myself, but this time I only drew the bottom half of the crew since you'd only see that part anyway. Maybe one day I'll fully recreate the poster but for now, this is it lol (You may also notice that I gave each of them different leg shapes, to make them more distinguished from each other other than just colour)

4. And again, didn't want to just copy and paste, so I re-typed all of the newspaper clippings myself in Canva. They say pretty much the same thing as the originals, but I'll still put them here anyway in case anyone wants to take a look:

5. I also recreated the children's drawings myself. Fun fact: I actually used my NON-dominant hand to draw most the basic shapes. I figured that if I drew with my dominant hand, the lines might look too clean, showing my obvious years experience. It's silly but I really wanted it to look and feel like a child drew it

6. It ends up being pretty much invisible in the final painting, but on the floor you can see old confetti and blood stains on the tiles

7. If it wasn't obvious; cup from the Security office is here too

8. Now it should it obvious by now that I chose to not draw the security office. Why you ask? I'm still new to drawing more detailed backgrounds, and I really didn't feel like drawing the office in the moment lol so I opted for the hallway, and I think it still looks pretty good with what I was going for

9. As a bonus, here's the original sketch I planned out. As you can see, I was originally planning to have more posters, some featuring the missing children. But in the end, I decided to scrap it and leave room for the wall to be more detailed since I thought it looked bare. Also, if you look closely, you can see a faint plan for a shadow over Mike. I was originally planning to put a shadow of Freddy there, but when I really started finishing up the shading, I realised that the extra shadow would be too much for an already dimly lit scene

And that's pretty much everything! I had so much fun doing all the little details and references, even though it did end up being more time consuming lol. I also tried out a bunch of different rendering techniques and I think they really helped pulled everything together. I'm definitely going to try my hand and making more paintings like this in the future ^^

If interested in seeing the full process, here's a link to the speed-paint:

[twoidiotwriters1]

Chapter 16. Oak-leaved Geranium

Summary: He likes the sound of it in nature, but he dislikes the thought of any man thinking the Princess is his amusement. Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Words: 2,447 Listen to: 'Hit Me Where The Heart Is' -by Mega Simone A/N: I cannot leave these two without plots otherwise they'll just start fucking each other -Danny

Dear Diary,

The Queen has agreed to see Violet Bridgerton but can't tell when she'll have time. I suggested this week's ball, since Lady Danbury told me Mrs Mondrich needs her in attendance. I am torn between many ladies, and I don't wish to disappoint, I'd never been trusted and relied on to this extent, except by my own family.

Alas, as a Queen-to-be, this ought to be a valuable practice. Mother settles disagreements all the time within our noble folk, so I come from capable blood. 

Besides, Ben is reluctant to believe I can do it, and I love proving him wrong.

Benedict is celebrating at Mondrich's with his brother Colin and John Stirling a bunch of little fancies, as he likes to call them. Mondrich himself invited them, this is the last night he'll ever stand there as the owner of his grand establishment.

"Gentlemen! One of my finest bottles of brandy." There is a choir of approval as the man uncorks the bottle. "I cannot have it going to the new proprietor..."

"Another? This way you'll have us wish you closed the club every week!" Benedict says joyfully.

"Sadly, this is the very last bottle," Mondrich starts pouring into a small glass only to watch it run out by the end of it, causing general dissatisfaction. "Damn. I thought there were at least a few more pours..." mumbles the man in embarrassment.

"Surely the drink is yours," Colin says, always the giving soul. "To celebrate your last night owning this fine institution?"

"You mean to mourn my last night," Mondrich replies with a chuckle. "I refuse your pity drink."

"Well, if it's a pity drink, then perhaps I deserve it," Colin is quick to reach for it. Benedict bursts into laughter and Colin frowns. "What?"

"You?" Benedict gives him an exaggerated pout.

"You were right," his brother insists. "Love has made me so simple I cannot even write a sentence this week. It is torture, really." Colin says with feeling.

Benedict leans forward with an intrigued furrow of brow. "What do you need to write?"

The young man tries his best to be nonchalant. "I am writing a manuscript, in fact."

"Ohh," the older brother adopts a high-pitched teasing tone. "Are you?"

"Yeah," Colin responds defiantly.

"What is it about?" Mondrich asks politely. 

"I am editing the story of my travels—Or, in principle, I am," he says vaguely, lifting the glass to his lips.

"No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no," Benedict stops him at once and loudly. He makes a condescending gesture to beckon the drink and Colin hands it over with a scoff. 

"Why? You think you deserve it?"

Benedict leans back with the glass in hand, pointing at his brother in accusation. "You at least have a direction for your life while I am floating, purposeless, with no discernible path forward," he makes a show out of his quivering voice, face contorting in feigned misery.

"What?" Colin chortles. "No, no—put that glass down! Let us revise your so-called undiscernible path. Are you not back in the Academy?"

Benedict smiles slightly. "Well, yes, but—"

"And are you not one of—if not the most sought out sketch artist of the season thanks to your job as tutor?"

"Oh, please, that's a mere fancy the ton will forget before winter and you know it."

"It might last enough for you to make a small fortune. If you exploit it now, before the novelty wears out," Mondrich suggests wisely.

"Which brings my third and final point," Colin points at the man in agreement. "Purposeless and feather-weight, you are basking in a Genovian Princess's attention. Or do you think we can't tell? You're making a living out of the thing you like most, unmarried, able to enjoy yourself with quite a beauty. Are you not the happiest you've ever been?"

Benedict's nonchalance is at risk of cracking for a millisecond before he composes himself, wrinkling his nose and giving up the drink. He likes the sound of it in nature, but he dislikes the thought of any man thinking the Princess is his amusement. "Oh, right. That is true, yes." He manages to say in a careless manner.

"I think the drink is mine," John says, holding everyone's attention. "If I am correct in reading that the winner of this game is whoever is the most fortunate?"

"No!" Benedict covers his face dramatically, glad to have a way to brush off and ignore his own mushiness. "Please do not start saying sentimental things about our sister!"

"I was going to say," John stops him, "I am most fortunate amongst us because I have spotted another bottle." He gets up and approaches the missing bottle, earning applause and cheering from the other gentlemen. He brings it back to the table and pours a generous round for each. 

Benedict gets possessed by an outer power as he steals the one glass everyone had deemed the drink of the fortunate, and with a great and secret satisfaction, downs it with gusto.

"What is this I hear about Lady Whistledown?" It's the first thing you ask Benedict as you step into the garden. "I thought it was all figured out?"

Benedict bows and lifts your hand to his lips, politely kissing it. "Not quite. The Queen has asked for proof—it surprises me you don't know it, I thought the Queen was fond of you?" He says teasingly.

You give him a look. "I don't have much interest in the gossip column nowadays—I was nervous when I first arrived, thinking it would shred my family to pieces, but as it turns out, we've done quite well, don't you think?"

"And that's exactly why I don't believe Cressida Cowper is the author," he brings it up again, "she's very envious and cruel, and your blunders are far too many to be left unmentioned the way they keep getting ignored. I'm sure if she had it in her hands to humiliate a Princess, she wouldn't hesitate to do so."

"My blunders are not that bad, thank you very much," you huff, though it comes out without any real annoyance. "I do not know the lady enough to disagree with you, and I imagine your opinion is heavily based on sisterly observations?"

The left corner of his mouth raises when he answers. "Yes. But I watch as much as I complain, you know? I don't hate the ladies of the ton without reason."

"Hate?" You pick up your sketchbook. "Strong word..."

"It is well deserved. You know, I've been thinking a lot lately, about how the ton ostracizes those who aren't quick on their feet. Take John Stirling, for example—with properties all over, and yet he couldn't find a soul in those ballrooms to connect with until my sister came around—My other sister Eloise, or Penelope Featherington—it's all so..." he sighs, deterred by the injustice. "Why are we forced to expose ourselves?"

You watch him, a softness in your voice that comes easily when you face people in distress. "It is not always nice, but some of us need a push, Ben. We may hate every second of it, but once it's over and we've taken that small, scary step... Oh, you breathe so much better for it."

Benedict keeps his eyes down, fiddling with his pencil. "I have taken small, scary steps all my life, and all it does is make me sink deeper in this sodding sandbox..."

"Maybe you're not moving in the right direction," you imply gently. "There is quite a difference between moving sideways in the same spot over and over until you cannot climb out of the ditch you've made, and moving forward."

"Ah, this wasn't about me," He quickly backtracks, smiling dashingly as he brushes it off. "Forget I said anything—"

"There you are," the Queen unexpectedly interrupts your lessons. 

Benedict shoots up to his feet and bows, though the Queen barely notices him as her gaze lands on you. "Your Highness," you stand, amicably smiling at her. "Did you need me?"

"I have decided to attend that ball you mentioned," she says, "the new additions to our society."

"The Mondrich family," you smile at Benedict, hoping he gets your 'told-you-so' message in it, "I'm very pleased to hear that, Your Highness."

"You and your sister will come with me, of course," she says, leaving no room for discussion, "there is no need for Mr Bridgerton to escort you this time."

You glance at the man with amusement as he hides his displeasure behind a stiff smile. "It's all settled, then. I shall tell Marie."

The Queen nods and turns away followed by her little group of helpers. You giggle at the view and turn to Benedict. "That is so funny."

"What? You enjoy watching me get snubbed indirectly even when I'm present?" Benedict scowls.

"What? Oh no, I was laughing at her court," you say grinning. "All those people following her tail—I can barely handle Paula tailing me around the castle and your Queen has ten people everywhere she goes!"

"Yes, but she's lonely," Benedict says in a surprising display of empathy towards his crown. "You have all of our society wanting to strike up a friendship with you, and she only has her King and good-for-nothing children. Though I suppose I'm no one to criticize them..." he mumbles the last part, his brow raising in a self-aware judgy gesture.

"Oh, well..." you blush, realizing you might've sounded quite uncaring. "I'm just a novelty, but you're right, I'm lucky. Even though your Eloise still finds me exhausting."

"Eloise is vexed at the world as a whole," he's quick to ease you, holding your hand once more and kissing it. "Now, shall we start the lesson? I have just been told I won't get a chance to steal you away at the next ball, and I wish to enjoy some of you here, in the garden."

"By that you mean talking, I hope?"

"I'm not as foolish as to try and break the rules inside the ruler's house," he mutters, giving you a playful look of caution.

The Queen arrives with you and your sister on each side, proud and disdainful as you stand before the curious crowd. "As I told you," the Queen mutters to her servant, Brimsley. "Lackluster at best."

Not even a second has passed since her statement when Mrs Mondrich sets her spectacle in motion, revealing a beautifully crafted machine that opens and displays hundreds of paper flowers as the centrepiece of her ballroom. Every guest gasps and awes at it, amazed by the creation. The Queen gives her smile of approval, and the ball continues with high spirits.

You and Marie accompany the Queen to the seats arranged for you and instantly want to leave it. Your eyes dart from one face to the other and are full of displeasure when you notice Benedict is nowhere to be seen. 

"He didn't come," you tell your sister, deeply disappointed.

"Well, he was quite right in assuming you'd get no chance to sneak out, this is a small venue," your sister says, though she's not hating it in the least. "He's told you many times that he hates these events, bella, he deserves a little break, don't you think?"

"A part of me believed that he would come anyway, that being in the same room was reward enough..." you sigh. "Oh, Marie, am I getting attached?"

Before she can reply to that, however, Cressida Cowper steals everyone's attention by delivering a written note explaining the column's scarcity and formally introducing herself as Lady Whistledown. There is something that doesn't sit right with you, her eagerness to be rewarded clashes with the amount of time spent keeping the whole thing a secret. 

You spot Penelope Featherington and Eloise Bridgerton both looking shocked and distressed, and it reminds you of the time Penelope fainted after Cressida's announcement at her engagement party. Now, any woman would be rightfully upset to get the spotlight taken away on her special day, but from what you've heard, Penelope is used to being left out of things, so much so that she's spent most of her life tiptoeing around conversations she's not invited to... and is left to overhear.

Suddenly you see what the ton can't, and a thrill forces you to your feet. You sneak your way down the little steps and follow the two girls who have just gone away to discuss something that you suspect holds great importance.

You're not sure why you're doing this other than there's a part of you that deeply cares about outsiders. Still, you don't dare to make your presence known as you eavesdrop on their conversation, surprised and impressed. Penelope Featherington is Lady Whistledown, and that's the reason why Eloise has been acting so distant and disinterested in the world.

"...The column began because I felt powerless in my own home. I was forced to debut a year early, and I had no say in anything. Writing was the only way I felt I could have a voice. And I should've been using the column to give a voice to the other voiceless."

The young woman's speech shakes you from your stupor and gives you a rush just like the one Tilley gave you when she spoke in front of those men at the fair, it makes you feel a deep respect for these high-society women, fighting back in a country where their gender is held over their heads like a beacon of weakness.

"You must get a full issue out right away," Eloise says hoarsely, "before Cressida does."

"I quite agree," you step into the room, doing your best not to sound like a threat.

"Princess Y/N," Penelope pales. "We were—I was only—"

"You mustn't tell the Queen!" Eloise blurts out.

"Eloise!" Penelope scolds her with dread. "Princess Y/N, please, I can explain—"

"I've heard it all," you approach, bowing with respect. "You're a remarkable young lady, Miss Featherington. A talented writer, clever, and as long as I'm here, you shant fear." You turn to Eloise, looking at you with her mouth wide open. "Neither you nor your family, Miss Bridgerton. You fear Cressida might offend loved ones, and rest assured, I will not stand by it."

"With all due respect, Your Royal Highness, I don't see how a foreigner would be of use in this intimate and complicated affair," she says unable to keep her nerves in check.

Both girls are surprised when they see you smile at her words. "You're right, a foreigner Princess has no influence in the most obscure affairs of your country... but in the most practical of ways, I am an unknown stranger, and some liberties are granted by it that no one born in London could possibly have."

Penelope blinks. "Pardon me, Princess... are you saying you'll help me?"

"I'm sure the Queen will be itching to leave the ball by now," you turn around. "I have to take care of that, but wait here, I shall make an excuse and get us a separate carriage."

Next Chapter –>

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[silently-standingstill]

This isn’t an art request but I just saw your AMV and I loved it a lot! If you can, could you walk through the process whereby you color the animation? Do you have set color palettes and add overlays to create lighting or do you manually pick the colors via color theory? I want to know /nf

Hello!! I appreciate your interest :D I put a lot of thought into the colors so this may be a long one! It'll include other animation info too

Any color I use is never reused for any section, I pick them all manually and for a purpose, it's important to have something different for each section as it adds more meaning and so things don't get boring. I occasionally use overlays, only one section uses it though. I'll go over a bunch of parts where color was important.

I struggled with the colors here, it based it off of an old drawing (on the right), and I realized I couldn't make my old coloring style work again, especially with how I was going about it, nothing played off of each other and felt very icky? I opted for more natural colors, creates a better sense of what I was originally going for, this part isn't very significant but it was interesting to find out what works and doesn't, you can learn a lot from redrawing old works.

This was another part I struggled on, I purposely made One look wonky because I liked the sketch more than anything I could come up with. They really look stupid, don't they? I redrew it a bunch of times to incorporate the orange, but I did not want to base it off of the scene where One was counting down, that had a purpose for it, this did not. It was following the previous parts color, which has an overcast of orange, but I couldn't find a way for this to work without feeling unsatisfying. I opted for using a trio of blue+green+red, it could be seen as 123 but that wasn't intentional.. it was the only colors I thought could work with the lighting of One's TV, but hooray for unintentionality! It makes this part connected with the lore!

This part I put a lot of thought into! Something I found interesting about One's lounge is how it uses red+yellow+blue, the three primary colors, in design those colors are used to invoke a sense of familiarity and safety, and if you pay attention, these colors are used everywhere. this could or could not be intentional in the actual show, I do not believe they are, but I used this to my advantage as when One's walking past the figurines, the yellows increases, but when they figurines fall, the yellow fades into white to show while One tries to come across as trustworthy, their façade can be quickly broken. I put together a lot of notes for this part and drew a sketch for it too LOL

"The lights that shine" section's color were meant to be like this from the start, this was the first section I animated, they have a big contrast and yellow limbs, I only put that because I thought it looked cool, but the colors carried over to the other part where they look like this, and ended up using this palette to symbolize who was kidnapped by One. I had trouble deciding how the beams(?) that were coming out of the moon should look like though, this was what I was originally going to do. The placement of each contestant is important too, more to the front, the more they may be impacted by One. I wasn't sure between Gaty or Leafy to put in this section, since we don't know if either of them will/had contact with her, it was difficult to decide. I put Leafy instead because I didn't want to animate Gaty.

The chair for Gaty! No one mentioned this detail and I was a little sad about that - each time One's lounge is shown, there is a different chair for each contestant, if One took Gaty, it'd leave a bitter feeling if she used a similar chair to her and Two's hangout couch.. their hangout couch is already split in half, it's possible One could take half of it. The colors were based off of how the person who designed One's lounge uses colors, I used some of her personal artwork as reference, and also how the chairs shown in the lounge were designed, and each design has something to do with the characters, One's is big, to show importance and uses the primary colors, Fanny's is small and dark with shadows taking up most of it, Basketball's is big, modern and green to reflect her mechanic room, Gaty in TPOT is (unfortunately) mostly associate with Two and this couch, and is similar to a therapist's patients couch, it would fit her role and characterization in TPOT if I am right about this

This was the only section to use overlay, layer 6 and 5 were the only ones to be changing as stated in the notes, there's a lot of light changes in this sequence, and if you notice closely there's a red, a shadow casting from characters outside of ones shadow, and there's a bigger contrast between the lighting and shadows. The "lights that shine" section you'd think uses that, but everything was done manually, even the transitions colors

These are some storyboards for this, the handwriting is probably poor I apologize about that, I created this during school and I don't write neat/properly if I don't plan to show anyone it LOL

[chronurgy]

i loveeeeeeeee your hc about gortash in all your tags!!! can you share your favorite hc about durge/gortash shenanigans in the city?

Yeah absolutely! Shenanigans hmmm....

Some of these will be a little more specific to my durge (Vesper, half-drow wizard) than others

During the Hall of Wonders heist, gortash specifically left some guards out of his reconnaissance to test how Durge handled themselves under pressure. He wanted to know if this was someone he would work with or someone too crazy to manage.

Gortash and Durge did a heist in the House of Hope as a trial run for their heist of the Crown - this is when they stole Raphael's shoes (the helldusk armor boots that Gortash keeps in the chest at the foot of his bed). Gortash didn't tell them about his history there or with Raphael before they went in. I think after seeing him there Durge did put at least pieces of it together and really left lots of burn marks and blood and guts spread around in their wake to get back at Raphael. They also broke at least one priceless and irreplaceable vase on "accident" while they were there. Their ire towards Raphael from this realization actually manages to carry over even when they can't remember why and it's partly why they're so determined to kill Raphael and so insistent that they won't work with him.

Gortash takes Durge to fancy parties, for a number of reasons - as a bodyguard, to bring them close to a murder target, to introduce them to the kind of high society stuff they'll be involved with as his co-ruler. But also because he loves to show them off, his darling assassin, loves the vicious little comments they make about the other attendees. He starts finding excuses to bring them to any party he can because he only ever enjoys these parties when they're with him, when he has someone just as brilliant as he is at his side. Durge usually has to attend in disguise but sometimes just dressing up fancy enough not to look like a sewer rat is enough to fool people.

Gortash is the kinda guy who will work himself to exhaustion and then fall asleep at his desk. The first time Durge found him like that, completely dead to the world on top of his diagrams and sketches, they thought about killing him. They imagined every detail, knew exactly how it would go. It would have been so easy, because he's so defenseless like this. They see his eyes moving under their lids, see his hands flex, and little expressions pass over his face - they know he's dreaming. They wonder what he's dreaming about (is it them?). And they don't kill him. They just watch him sleep, fascinated by the differences between the waking man they know and this unguarded sleeping one. They leave before he wakes up. I think they do this a couple of times before he finally catches them (maybe because they try to stroke his hair or something in a fit of softness). At first he's like, "oh my apologies, please don't hesitate to wake me should this happen again" before he puts together the look on Durge's face and realizes they've been watching him sleep and tried to like, touch his hair. He considers this a success because they could've killed him a whole bunch of times and didn't and they seem to be developing some sort of feelings towards him. He resolutely does not acknowledge the existence of any things he could possibly be feeling about this. Not at all.

Gortash keeps a large fancy estate in the city, Durge has a guest room there - it starts out as just an extra room but as they spend more time there Gortash starts to customize it more to their liking. He also moves their room to be next to his once he realizes that they're staying over more often, blaming a maid for knocking over a candle and causing fire damage in their old room when they ask why it was moved.

I think one night they have to have at least one really stupid caper they pulled off while extremely drunk that neither of them will talk about - as an example, they got super drunk, decided that since they were so good at heists they should do more of them, broke into some patriars estate, and stole a ton of fancy liquor. They also stole the bust of some guy from the entryway and staggered up the stairs to escape out the window of the daughter of the house's dressing room. Anyway, they woke up the next morning on the floor of Gortash's bedroom, extremely hungover and both of them (and the bust they stole) were wearing fancy little fascinator hats they can't remember but must have stolen out of the dressing room. They try to laugh at each other but gortash just ends up violently throwing up in a trash bin while durge lies on the floor with their eyes squeezed shut because the room won't stop spinning. They refuse to speak of this and will adamantly deny it ever happened if asked. Durge absolutely killed sceleritas while trying to force him into a stupid hat. The exact series of events might need some workshopping, but the core idea is some extremely stupid adventure the two of them had together that neither would ever admit to but is also a cherished memory for both of them.

Gortash's gauntlets (before he had the netherstone) used a series of capacitors and a setup akin to a self winding watch to generate an electric charge that he could attack people with. He designed them himself.

Vesper finds these gauntlets fascinating. When they first meet in person, he shows them off and discusses their construction and it's the first thing about him that they find impressive and intriguing.

As a gift, Gortash gave Vesper a set of sharpened rings designed after his gauntlets.

Vesper actually helped Gortash with some of the designs for the steel watch, looking at the plans and making suggestions - they were especially helpful when it came to the magical portions of the construct.

I think the closest the Urge ever comes to forcing Vesper to kill Gortash isn't when they first meet or during sex. It's one day when they're waiting for some spy's report, so they're sitting around in his room. He's tinkering with something at his workbench, and they're sitting at a desk working on a spell. They realize they need certain special inks for the transcription and look up to see them in the desk's little shelving unit and then they look closer and realize the desk is stocked with all the things a wizard needs - inks, chalks, paper, magical components. And this is the desk they always sit at when they're here and need to do some work. And Gortash has stocked it as a wizard's desk. He's made it their desk. And he's working at his workbench and they're working at their desk together in companionable silence. It's domestic, almost. And that's when the urge hits, with just absolutely crushing intensity, and they turn on gortash. Jokes on them, he's into that shit. After some back and forth between them (the level of explicitness is up to you! Or me, if I can get my act together and write this!), Vesper more or less jumps out the window and spends the next couple of days cutting a bloody swathe through baldur’s gate. When they finally return to him, gortash just asks them if they enjoyed their little vacation. After that, even when recreating much the same scene, the urge never comes on as strongly again (they don't know it at the time but this is the first time they've managed to throw off Bhaal's yoke when he really wanted them to kill someone. He never pushed that hard again with gortash because he's afraid of the consequences, though he still does push them to kill him a little bit).

Gortash gave durge a number of gifts over their acquaintance, both practical and fantastic: jewelry, enchanted items, clothes, shoes, books, any and everything you can imagine. He loves seeing them using his gifts, carrying or wearing something he gave them, because it helps mark them as his. He spends absolutely lavishly on them, buying them beautiful and fancy clothes for them to wear when they're in his house or out with him in public. He also buys them more practical gifts, well-fitting boots, weapons, armor, all of it enchanted and worth a small fortune.

On some of his gifts to Durge, he encodes messages for them in their cypher. They say things like "For my dearest assassin" and "To the sorrow of all" on a weapon and "pari pasu" (Latin for with equal step) and "I've always liked to play with fire", plus any number of other things.

Gortash has a thing for Durge wearing his clothes. One cold morning durge throws on his black coat when they get out of bed to check something and seeing them wearing nothing but his coat is such a thing for him that he ditches all their plans for the day to spend the day in bed with them.

Gortash has a number of affairs, to help his star rise in the upper city. He may use them to make durge jealous, but they are ultimately people to be used and discarded. He doesn't care what they do, because they're tools. Durge is his. His partner. And that's why he doesn't share.

[walrus150915]

Happy pride, Nimona fandom :3

I gotcha some sketches! Gotta place them in different parts of the post so that you read everything

It's not just drawings I got HEADCANONS for you too!

Off topic but I love Nimona's design SO MUCH it's so AMAZING TO DRAW AGHHH

So

⚧Nimona LGBTQ+ specific headcanons of mine🏳‍🌈

• I've made a conclusion that if queer flags exist in Nimona universe, as well as gay drag bars (so was confirmed in the artbook), then labels DO exist. As well as good old homophobia??? I suppose????

• Nimona doesn't have a specific label because she thinks they are sorta restrictive. Also she just doesn't need one lol, if somebody asked her about her gender she'd say "Nimona"

• She'd wear the heck out of a "protect trans kids" shirt she bought no she ain't feeding into the capitalist machine she stole it

• There was something between Nimona and Gloreth but Nimona can't exactly say what for sure. Not exactly romantic but not strictly platonic. Homegirl had that toxic doomed kindergarten yuri going on😭

• Nimona doesn't look for romantic relationships. She explains it as "romance is for sappy dumb-dumbs" but in reality she just doesn't want to date and romantically love somebody who'll. Eventually die and leave her all by herself again yk (oh this got angsty real fast)

• Maybe one day Ballister tried to help her find her label (because he still tries to put things in boxes) and she just waved it off

Speaking of Ballister

• My man is transgender. Do I even have to explain. Read one of those posts that explain his transness better LMAO

• He started his medical transition as a teenager and had to fit right in not to disrupt the Institute's function. If he's a man then he has to transition QUICKLY so that others don't notice

• Because of that he's a transmedicalist and probably an enbyphobe at the start of the movie, thinking only one type of valid transness exists, and it's the one that is very binary and restrictive

• At the end he realizes the wrong of his ways and works on the internalized transphobia

• He came to terms with his homosexuality a bit easier. "It's always been boys" yk the drill

A couple of words about his boy lol

• Ambrosius is a painfully cisgender gay man. I genuinely apologize to all Transbrosius believers but he gives off STRONG cis vibes can't have a character with this surname dickless

• He's a trans ally but his opinions on trans issues were like. Very closed-minded. He supported but didn't entirely understand. Of course it changed as he went through ✨character development✨

• He was fully supportive of Ballister on his trans journey. Reassured him when Ballister felt like he wasn't enough, tried to make his boyfriend as secure as possible, loving every part of him

There should be a bunch of rather suggestive headcanons but this isn't that type of post LOL

No but think about Ambrosius kissing down Ballister's body and across his chest scars. This is my ultimate dream as a trans man

• Ambrosius also rocks a "protect trans kids" shirt that's for SURE

• He came to terms with his queerness as a teenager and had a whole crisis about it. As a Goldenloin he had the expectations of ✨continuing Gloreth's bloodline✨ thrown at him back in childhood so he sorta internalized that. Then boom, my boy is g a y and oh how gay he is!

• Click here to read about my headcanons on goldenheart when they had only started falling in love :D

• Ambrosius made inoffensive jokes about Ballister's transness. Like yk those goofy puns like "baby you put men in MENstruation", "omg does this make your parents transparent". Ballister smiled at them and rolled his eyes but also silently appreciated his bf's support, although expressed so stupidly

• He also made sure Ballister took proper care of his body because you know Ballister would not bind safely, being a dumb teen

Anyway yeah gay people

Unpopular opinion but we as a fandom should start drawing Bal with a disability queer pride flag

Side characters headcanons, anyone? XD

• Diego came out as nonbinary after the events of the movie. He got that he/they swag going on

• Also Ballister was his queer awakening FIGHT ME ABOUT IT. He had the stupidest, most childish celebrity crush on Bal. Maybe Bal formed Diego's type in men fjfhhx I like to think Diego got a boyfriend whose attitude is similar to Bal's

• Remember those news anchors? (they are so underrated omg) Well Nate Knight has a husband and Alanzapam Davis is a bi queen🙏

• Speaking of queens. Valerin is a straight ally💪💪 I imagine her being quite iconic on the Kingdom's queer side of the internet. They call her "mother" and stuff aajjaj

• the Director is homophobic, need I say more? So is Todd but I actually imagine him being a type of guy to reject his queerness

Haha mailman *winks at yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt*

• Todd had NO idea Ballister was trans. NONE

• The Kingdom has pride events!! Ambrosius and Ballister were very happy and excited to attend those as an official couple once they were out :}

• Nimona attended them every year, ofc she had to hide her true nature but it was fun for her to march along! And it was even more fun when everyone accepted her!!

Anyway yeah this was very fun to make!! Happy pride y'all, lmk what you think ;D

[soliloquy-dawn]

Director's commentary on Love Letters!

Would love to know a bit about your process behind writing it, too, and what goes into it :) if you want!

Hello May, thank you for the ask!!!! And what a question. I am more of a pantser when I write; I need a solid idea, or an anchor for a story, and then I will waffle on and just see where the wind takes me. But with Love Letters, I planned out this fic even before I put the metaphorical pen to paper. I wanted to touch upon certain themes and events, and it all had to line up pretty neatly to have the final effect I’m going for. The ending is a crucial part of the story for me, and it contains a lot of my own thoughts and feelings regarding the nature of storytelling and how it’s been captured in Atonement. I am changing things (in comparison to what they were in Atonement)… to maybe say something different. Or, be a bit more hopeful. Maybe. 

And when it comes to actually writing the fic… First, I gorged myself on Atonement, both the film and the book. I wanted to soak up the atmosphere, but also the writing style, the sentence structure, the cadence of it, the music. I still go back to specific fragments and reread them to get into the mood before editing. 

Then, I drafted part One, and sketched out Two and Three. I do admit, part One was probably the most fleshed out before I started writing, but I added and changed a lot while editing. For part Two and Three, hmm… I know exactly what’s going to happen, and what’s important, but I suspect I will surprise myself a bunch of times as I get through the drafting process. 

Anddd, I also tried to read up about specific historical events I want to include or reference. I am by no means trying to make this story historically accurate. I am too much of a layman for that. But I strive to capture some authenticity, or at least an impression of authenticity.  

There’s one particular book I’m reading now, about a particular historical event. Bucky and Buck will be deeply affected by that event. I don’t want to say what book so as not to spoil the fic, but one thing I’ll say is that it’s not Dunkirk, but something… of similar caliber. 

And here's a wee cover I made recently, just for fun. Thank you soo much for the ask again, my dear.