#just a little but i also wanted to draw relatively realistically

[cargoshortsenjoyer]

This is Herbert West about to experiment on Jeffrey Combs. The concept originally came from @heliojip on here. He hasn't released his image yet though.

I had begun jokingly brainstorming how Jeffrey Combs would react if he was transported into the Reanimator universe and met Herbert. I think he'd escape with his knowledge of how horror movies work and how to act if you wanna be the survivor, and then go eat some keebler fudge magic middles (discontinued). Then Herbert would find him and Jeffrey would have to make up a reason why they look so similar, and he'd tell him that he was his REAL biological dad; the sperm donor to his actually adoptive father. Anyways if you want more of this headcanon tell me, it was fun

[mochinomnoms]

I'm not sure if this counts as a request for 'Shrimpy Chronicles', but do you have any headcanons regarding Coral and Pearl or the triplets (Poppy, Moss, Lumiro) as grown ups/teens? I can only imagine how some of them might be troublemakers like their Dad(s)

Bonus if Shrimp Yuu is wailing because her babies are growing up like: "Why would you leave me!?"

See I think it would be funnier if one of the Dads was wailing, the obvious answer would be Azul but like Floyd wailing and wrapping himself and his tail around his kiddos is a way funnier image to me.

I have a few ideas for the kids, part of me wants to make them just like Jade and Floyd, but realistically they wouldn't be the exact type of menaces their fathers were.

As teens, both of them are relatively straight forward and socialites. Compared to the (adult) twins, they're not fairly intimidating, so they're very easy to approach or be approached by. This is partially because they appear a lot more human thanks to Shrimpy Yuu's genetics. But it's also because the Leech family is lowkey training them for a...different part of the family business, one that requires them to be charismatic and to blend in with the crowd.

Unfortunately, that last one is a bit hard as, despite them being rather sociable, are also quick to gossip and even start fights if it entertains them. Coral especially likes to whisper into other's ears and make little 'suggestions' to people, rile them up so to speak, and watches in glee as she and Pearl bet on who will win the fight she causes. Pearl is just very curious (or impulsive), so she tends to get into all sorts of situations just to see what will happen if she touches that big red button that says 'DO NOT TOUCH'. Anything that happens after is totally not her fault! They shouldn't have made that button soooooo touchable!

Unlike Jade and Floyd, who enjoy personal space and doing their own thing (and even often fought as kids for annoying each other), Coral and Pearl are attached at the hip. If one likes one hobby, the other will find herself doing a similar, if not the same hobby just to hang around her. It's quite funny to see growing up, as neither particularly realizes it when one picks up drawing, the other does painting. One starts baking, the other starts cooking.

The funniest is when both try to do the same thing, but in each other's space. Once, Pearl took up reading horror novels and Coral started hovering over her shoulder to see what her sister was up to. After about 10 minutes, Coral as completely splayed over the top of the chair, cheek pressed against Pearl's as they both read the book together. They're very fond of each other, though they have their squabbles (usually over food, they both are gluttons).

The triplets I haven't thoughts as much about so I don't have much to share about them...ask again later lol

[princess-nobody]

Avatar Rant: Snowy Region Na'vi

Am I the only one who doesn't like the fanon snow navi designs? Specifically this (I used shitty AI images I found off of pinterest to illustrate the point and to avoid using actual artwork from people 🩷):

(Before I continue my God these are creepy 😭 AI genuinely cannot create Na'vi without them looking uncanny, disturbing and far too human)

I can understand why people choose the more predictable design philosophy – blonde hair, blue eyes, pale/white skin, pretty two pieces – because that's relatively how this sort of lifestyle has been portrayed to us in the media. Every movie or show set in a snowy region always features mostly eastern European characters, so naturally people decide that their snow na'vi must resemble eastern European people to a degree, and this bothers me.

Not because they look like white people (though that is like 25% why ngl) but because it just isn't realistic? Na'vi may be inspired by humans but they are still a different species living on a harsh and deadly planet that humans can't survive in, na'vi winter and snow would be excruciatingly difficult for them, and they would need to adapt to it.

I just don't see how they would be so thin and petite and pale, people say to blend in, but why? Only a handful of animals in arctic regions are actually white to blend in (polar bears, arctic foxes etc.) so wouldn't it make more sense to base them off of arctic animals from the ice age? Back then, animals were bigger, bulkier, with thicker skin and hair all over to protect themselves from the crippling cold – with that in mind, wouldn't snow na'vi be bigger than average na'vi, and bulkier too? Unlike regular na'vi, it would make sense that the snow ones actually have body hair all over, maybe even fur if you want to take it that far.

And if you're basing them off of INDIGENOUS people, then appearance, features and fashion wise, wouldn't it make more sense to base them off of the actual Inuit people of the arctic instead of Elsa from frozen 😭

Because realistically why would they wear flowey dresses and two pieces in weather that is probably 80% worse than any winter humanity has ever faced... especially since na'vi are all inspired by different non-white/european indigenous communities, and yes... non-white/European indigenous people do in fact live in cold, snowy, arctic regions...

To add a little bit of pseudo-psychology to it, it may be done in an attempt from white avatar fans for the most part to feel closer to the na'vi by adding a white adjacent sub-species, as the closer to europeans the na'vi look, the more they see themselves within the na'vi. However, that is purely speculation lol.

Also, I do NOT think you are racist or anti-indigenous or anything of the sort if your headcanon for snow na'vi looks anything like the examples! You're allowed to draw and design what you want, and just because tumblr user princess-nobody doesn't like it, doesn't mean it's bad.

TLDR: Fanon snow na'vi don't make sense and confuse me lol. Imo snow na'vi would be big and bulky behemoths that are covered in thick body hair and wear large, figure covering warm clothing, not skinny little russian girls in ballet outfits LMAOOOO.

[tossawary]

I think SVSSS as a 2D cartoon would be the best moving medium for it imo.

I mean, personally, yeah, that's how I'd enjoy seeing it as well! My ideal slightly pretentiously artsy SVSSS screen adaptation would probably look only a little more detailed than linograph prints (2D or shaded 3D?) (someone hit me up in like two weeks to draw an example of what I mean, if I don't remember on my own, I don't have access to art stuff right now), very stylized and vibrantly colorful, because that's one of the art styles that I particularly enjoy.

I'm not a personally a fan of the 3D SVSSS show because I find the characters a little too doll-like and same-facey for my tastes? It's fine! It works! It's serviceable! It's just all, backgrounds included, a little... safe? I tend to like over-the-top bright colors and intricate details and impractically weird shapes and yet also coherent world production design in my fantasy, which is a lot to demand of any production, perhaps especially with animation productions, which are always squeezed for time and money.

(EDIT: I know the SVSSS show was under heavy constraints and the results are impressive considering their resources; it doesn't change the fact that I just don't like the art style and nevertheless find the results underwhelming. I don't like a lot of "realistic" modeling / rendering styles, not just "anime" ones, even if they are extremely technically impressive. Believe me when I say that I know the vast majority of the entertainment industry is overworked and underpaid and creatively restrained.)

Slightly tangential general note: I don't think 2D is inherently superior to 3D (EDIT: NOT trying to imply asker is saying this, just having some general thoughts), especially because, with the realities of production, each have their advantages. 2D has a lot of stylistic advantages still, but 3D shaders are catching up and doing some incredible things these days! More advanced puppet controls and particle effects and such are doing some beautiful things for 2D shows as well these days. A lot of stuff has been subtly mixed media as soon as 3D became possible. It is potentially possible (note: not saying any studio would actually greenlight this) to do an equally slightly weird and artistically stunning 3D SVSSS show, given the freedom to work. (Good boarding and writing is also sooooo important in both mediums, obviously, it's not just about the art design. You can get away with incredibly limited animation with good boarding, writing, and art design.)

Another slightly tangential ramble: both 2D and 3D have the potential for stiff animation and poor character acting, which also comes down to production limits and animator skills? (I often think of character animators as a type of actor!) There are a lot of 2D shows that I don't really like because I find the animation incredibly stiff, both puppet and handdrawn (there's great 2D puppet stuff out there these days), which pretty much always comes down to production limits (deadlines and budget and software, saving up their animation for the coolest scenes). One of my favorite things about Studio Ghibli films (which as features get a lot more space to focus on art compared to the demands and restraint of television) has always been the squash and stretch in otherwise relatively realistic action, making things like hugs look SO nice for example. But 3D stuff is getting better at that these days! The ways characters slumped into each other in "Nimona" for example was great. And it's just fascinating to look at the elasticity / stylized sculpt of expressions in "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" compared to the technical limits of the models / rigs in "Shrek" or "Shrek 2".

Adding these side notes because I want to be clear about my respect for both 2D and 3D artistically! A lot of video games are doing cool stuff in 3D that looks very close to 2D with stylized shaders, which you can sometimes spot by the large or small rotations in character action / acting, which is difficult (and therefore often expensive) to do in 2D with all of those extra drawings / angle poses. Also, I think the current push towards funky shaders in 3D is so cool and it's hard not to gush about them!!!

[thedreadvampy]

fwiw if you want to introduce more variety to how you draw faces I strongly suggest thinking really hard about noses

noses give you so much information about someone! they're usually one of the first things which define how we think of someone's face (after all - they're by far the feature that takes up most of it).

They change as we age - they take up more of our faces and move away from our mouths. babies almost all have round little tips of noses with no definable bridges, while depending on the type of nose an adult has they may get bonier and sharper or softer and flatter with age. nostrils widen, skin creases, eyes drop back from the bridge. I think often people try to age faces by putting wrinkles around an unchanged nose and it throws stuff off.

They're also a really racialised feature. like there is no one Black Nose or East Asian Nose or Desi Nose or White Nose, obviously, there's huge variation within and across ethnic groups, but there's a lot of overlapping trends in nose shape for different ethnicities and it's often a big contributing factor to people drawing characters of colour that kind of look like palette-swapped white people? like there are so many nose shapes that are super common but because they're relatively uncommon for white people, they're just not the noses people often learn to draw as standard.

but also a diversity of noses says so much about a character, the same way that their build or eye shape or face shape does. like. a long sharp narrow nose in a bony face? a round, slightly flat nose on a face full of smile lines? an upturned, softly rounded nose with freckles and no bridge? a long hooked nose with a curved tip? a crooked, broken nose? a bulbous, reddened nose? noses can imply strength, weakness, innocence, experience, childishness, wisdom, suffering, whatever you want to get out of a character design. don't neglect the nose!!!!

and like. obviously depending on how stylised the art is there's going to be information lost, but that's the thing - there's a real upper limit on how much variation you can put in eyes or mouths or face shape in simpler styles without making it overly realistic, but you can go really nuts on nose shapes! even with just one or two lines or one simple shape you can imply so many different noses by changing little things!

and yet really often I look at people who are trying to broaden variety on faces and they mix up everything except the noses, which stay like a circle or a triangle or a line or whatever their standard noise is, and as a result there's still this sameness to all the faces.

bc eyes and mouths and jawlines are all very well but noses are, in my opinion, the most varied part of the face. I can't think of any two people I know who have the same shape of nose except maybe me and my identical twin.

(and I'm not talking big Vs small, or hooked vs snub vs straight vs flat. really look at people's noses in real life cause there are so many variables)

(some leading questions under the cut)

how big is it? how long from the front? how far away from the face does it sit in profile?

does it have a rounded tip? how round? some people's noses have a profile that's basically a triangle point, some people's are basically a round tip with no visible cartilage above it, and everything in between.

What's going on at the bridge? in profile, is there a clear dip in between the brow and the bridge of the nose, or does the brow come straight down to meet it (or, if you have a kind of striking profile like Hangman Adam Page who looks like an early 2000s DreamWorks character, is your profile one line from brow to the top of your nose)? from the front, is there a clearly defined edge to the bridge of your nose or does it curve out? how much of the space between your eye sockets is nose, on a range from 100% to 0%?

What shape is the top of the nose in profile? Is it a straight line from bridge to tip? does it curve down? does it curve up like a ski slope? does it come to a sharp stop and angle out into a round tip?

does it have sharp edges? does it look bony, with a pronounced ridge? or is it all soft lines? Does it meet the cheek at an angle or at a curve?

does the tip come to a sharp point, or to a curve? does it angle up (so you can see the nostrils from the front), or down (so you can only see the line of the nose)?

how big is the base of the nose compared to the bridge? from the front, does it flare wide across the face at the bottom, or is it almost a straight line down? is it broader higher up the nose?

what are the nostrils doing? how big are they? are they round, or slit-shaped? do they sit behind the tip, with the noise all contained in a single pyramid shape, or do they sit to the sides? do they sit along the face, point forward towards the tip, or point up higher than the tip?

how does the nose interact with the other features? does it dominate the face? is it a tiny wee thing? does it sit over a very long upper lip with a pronounced philtrum, or is it almost touching the mouth? How much of the space between the eyes is taken up by the bridge of the nose? do the eyebrows curve towards the nose, or meet them at a hard angle? if they wear glasses, where on the nose do they sit?

colouration - is it all the same colour, or pinker at the tip or over the bridge? are the insides of the nostrils visible, and are they pale or dark pink? does the top of the nose get more sun - is it darker?

surface details - are there creases at the bridge or around the nostrils and cheeks? are they from scowling (vertical) or laughing (horizontal)? does their nose scrunch up when they smile, or flare when they're angry? is there hair? freckles? piercings? scars or breaks?

like the nose, jaw and brow are the structure around which the rest of the face is built. if you get to a place in your art style where you're comfortable playing around with that then you immediately add so much more diversity and life and verisimilitude to your characters!

also noses are just great. like they're so fun to draw and there are so many different gorgeous noses! I'm so into noses that usually the way I find how I want a character to look is to draw the eyes, draw the nose, then redraw the eyes and build the whole face around the nose.

(this advice is coming from the fact that the most common compliment I get on my art is the diversity and believability of characters and I would say that's like 50-60% in the nose/brow)

[maximilliansblog]

How to build your first fursuit head for ~$100 USD (2023)

What’s good furries? I’m sure a lot of you have a fursona and want to make your first fursuit. I recommend starting with a partial just in case you mess up or fall out of the hobby. It’s also less expensive!

This tutorial will only cover the head. I haven’t made any of the other stuff and I’m probably going to buy it online premade because I’m lazy.

1.) Have a reference sheet for your fursona.

If you are an artist, draw (the best you can) a reference sheet of your fursona from the front, side, and back. I made a little turnaround animation for mine, but this is not necessary.

Not an artist? Don’t want to draw? Commission someone to do it for you. I recommend Etsy, but you can find furry artists with open commissions all over the internet.

No money for commissions? You might be out of luck. Ask a friend or draw it the best you can. Alternatively, you can edit someone else’s fursona reference sheet to make it look like your fursona. Yeah, it’s stealing. Just don’t post it and act like it’s yours 👍

You can also go into the Roblox game, Catalogue Avatar Creator, and assemble something that looks kind of like your fursona. Take a screenshot of it from the front, side, and back, then go into a photo editor (I recommend IbisPaint or MediBang Paint, they are both free) and add in your special details.

I recommend not making your first fursuit super complicated or some kind of rare species. But you do you. It will just be really hard.

Also determine what style of fursuit you want. Toony? Kemono? Realistic? (I don’t recommend realistic for your first fursuit but you do you). This will be important later.

2.) Find Shit to Build It With

Once again, I recommend Etsy. You’ll need:

+ all the fur colors you need (try 2-3)

+ eye mesh

+ 3D printed mask

+ hot glue gun and hot glue sticks (dollar store)

+ needle and thread (dollar store or Walmart)

+ balaclava

+ styrofoam head

+ fabric scissors

+ extra foam pieces for ears or horns

Assemble all of that. It should be around $80-120 USD.

Your 3D printed mask is the most important thing. Another reason to get a relatively common species. Mine was a dragon. Remember the fursuit style you picked earlier? Search on etsy “3d printed [style] [species] furry mask” and you should be able to find one. You can also get pre-made foam heads. I don’t recommend trying to make your own head base, because A) it’s hard and B) those materials cost more money.

This shit will take a while to come in so don’t get too excited about it. My mask took like a month because it came from Germany.

3.) Mark the Color Spots on your Head Base

Basically just take a sharpie and outline the different color regions on your headbase. You can also use a pencil if you’re a pussy /j

4.) Uhhhh Eyeball That Fabric Pattern and Hot Glue the Pieces to Your Headbase

Some people use duct tape to make a pattern. That did not work for me! So I eyeballed it. Made some mistakes. That’s okay.

5.) Trim Down the Fur Length

Most people use clippers for this but I didn’t want to buy any and I didn’t know how to use them so I did it VERY CAREFULLY with scissors.

6.) Fill in the Cracks Between Your Hot Glue Seams With Loose Fur

Look at all this damn fur on the floor! If only there was something to do with it!

Put hot glue between the super visible seams where you hotglued different pieces of fabric next to each other, then pack in some of that loose fur. Cut it down if it’s too long. The seams will be less visible.

7.) Hot Glue the Eye Mesh Behind the Eye Holes

VERY CAREFULLY hot glue this so your character isn’t cross-eyed. You can try follow-me eyes but I didn’t do that with mine.

8.) Add Your Extra Details

You know like whiskers or plastic teeth or a tongue or anything else you want to put on there.

Now you’re done with the mask part.

9.) CAREFULLY Hot Glue Your Balaclava to the Inside of the Mask

The eye hole should be where your eye mesh is so that you can see out. Also make sure some of the balaclava is glued to the top of the mask.

10.) Weigh Down Your Styrofoam Head With a Heavy Rock

Or put it on a stand. Or hot glue it to the table. Whatever works.

11.) Put the Balaclava that you Glued to the Mask on the Styrofoam Head

Pretty simple. The reason we weighed down the styrofoam head is because the front of your mask will be heavy and make it fall over while you’re trying to work.

12.) ????? Put Fur On the Balaclava

You’ll also need to like add some fur connecting the sides of the mask to the balaclava. Hard to explain. You’ll probably figure it out?

13.) Trim that Fur and Put the Trimmings in the Seams Like Before

14.) Take it off of the Styrofoam Head

You may need to cut a slit in the back of the neck of your fursuit head. Not only will it help get the styrofoam head out, now your head can get in and out too!

15.) Put it on

Edit it if something is wrong. It might feel crooked but it’s probably not.

16.) Enjoy!

Hopefully this was helpful! This is how made mine.

[xaeyrnofnbe]

been thinking reaaally hard about the tritons on mana. i’m making things up as i go but damnit this is fun (yes they’re naked. i didn’t want to bother covering them up with clothes. and i wanted to show off the markings n stuff. but realistically they would wear clothes.)

BASICALLY the idea i have is that a very long time ago tritons were split up into three main groups, the ones who live in the shallows, the ones who live in the open ocean, and the ones that live in the deepest depths available. (details, of which there are many, under the cut. oh and additional versions of the drawing) (do take a look if you can, i wrote a lot)

the shallows variant, living near islands in shallow kelp forests and in coral reefs (sometimes even inland lakes and rivers), were the smallest. a bit shorter than the average human, in fact. they came in bright green-blue colors with a vibrant and diverse array of brightly colored fins, webbing, and gills. they were also the most humanoid.

those in the open ocean lived just about wherever as long as it wasn’t too deep or too near the oversea, and were bigger than humans. averaging well over ten feet in height, and nearly double that if you include the tail. they came in darker blues accented with green, often mirroring the deep blues of their environment. they are most defined, however, by their slightly uncanny features. they lean a bit more towards fishiness than their little cousins.

and in the deepest, furthest reaches of the ocean, where hardly any sunlight reaches at all, are the biggest, and least humanoid breed of triton. they’ve gone by many names, colossals, poseidons, leviathan tritons, you get the idea. coming in dull blues and purples, but with dazzling displays in the form of bioluminescent markings, along with coral-like horns or antlers growing from their heads, suggesting draconic influence in centuries past. they are enormous, so big in fact, that because i’m not great at eyeballing measurements i’m leaving it up to the concept art i’ve done to show off just how big they are. once upon a time, they lived among the leviathans, oceanic gods of their time, truly colossal in nature. but they were just as advanced and intelligent as their relatives. they were also the earliest tritons, from which the rest are descended.

now, the leviathan tritons are gone. whether something killed them or if they simply vanished, it’s impossible to know for certain. but the two surviving variants put aside their differences and became one, and now modern tritons sit comfortably between the appearances of both their ancestors. and as for what remains of the leviathan variant? well, it’s less obvious, but some bloodlines of modern tritons still carry those magnificent flashing spots and stripes, and on occasion, an infant is born with budding, brightly colored horns that grow with them as they develop and age.

these horns are generally thought of as a sign of powerful magic, or of godly influence. it can skip generations, but is passed down nonetheless.

here are the unshaded version, and the sketch, of the drawing seen above (oh and. i completely forgot to give the Big Tritons hair. as an excuse let’s say this is a bald one, but they’d normally also have hair.)

[sineala]

Hi Sine, have you read the new Ultimates (2024)? Any thoughts? I'm currently on the fence, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I have read the new Ultimates! I have actually been keeping up with it since Ultimate Invasion, so I've read Ultimate Invasion and Ultimate Universe and am also mostly keeping up with Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Black Panther, and Ultimate X-Men, but since none of those three are really my corner of comics fandom I think I am less qualified to speak to how they are going since I don't generally follow their 616 counterparts and wasn't reading them in the original-flavor Ultimate universe either.

I think the actual Ultimates comic itself has a surprising amount of potential and I'm liking it a lot more than I expected to like it considering that we are only two issues in and the fact that I'd literally never heard of the writer before did not fill me with a lot of confidence. But, y'know, I'm here for Steve and Tony and if Steve and Tony are friends I am, in that regard, fairly easy to please.

So I like the team dynamic so far, but from the beginning I haven't really been a fan of the worldbuilding, and I think a lot of my problems with the worldbuilding would be fixed if they simply had not also called this Ultimates, but as we all know, it is forbidden for Marvel to come up with new names for anything ever.

See, the original Ultimates had a pretty clear and relatively unique mission statement: it was meant to be a low-continuity universe, set in something closer to the real world than 616 is, with grittier and more realistic storylines. The idea was that fans could read and enjoy this universe without needing to know decades of backstory. And, sure, if you knew the backstories there would often be little Easter Eggs, but you're totally capable of reading and enjoying Ults 1, say, if you don't know why the Hulk is gray or why Hank and Jan have a terrible relationship. Because within the context of Ults, that's just how things are. Sure, they're that way because of things that happened in 616, but you don't need to know that.

The original Ults is also gritty and grimdark and polarizing. A lot of people don't like it. The new Ults universe has almost nothing in common with it except that the Maker (Reed Richards) originally hails from Earth-1610. Which, as it happens, does affect the plot a lot, but old Ults and new Ults are different things, and I think the shared name actually hurts new Ults. Because, when you think about it, who's going to want to read this? You've got the people who liked old Ults and are sad that this isn't it. And then you've got the people who didn't like old Ults and have been avoiding this universe because they assume it's the same one. So who's left? People who just like the name "Ultimates?" People who are willing to take a chance on anything Marvel releases? I just feel like there are probably fewer of those people.

I know that the new Ults universe was supposed to be Donny Cates' project before he had to leave due to medical issues, and that Ultimate Invasion was then taken over by Hickman. And honestly I would have liked to see Cates' take, because I wasn't a big fan of Hickman's Ults run, mostly because I didn't like the Maker -- so I'm not, you know, really thrilled that the one thing that gets kept from Earth-1610 is my least favorite character.

The new Ults universe has also pretty much abandoned the two things I thought were the big draw of old Ults: a more "realistic" setting as well as a low amount of continuity. As you probably know, the premise of new Ults is that the Maker goes universe-hopping, gets to Earth-6160, decides that's good enough, stops there, and proceeds to epically fuck shit up. He has his City going, just like 1610. The Earth now has a handful of massive countries, which I guess makes it easier for a shadowy cabal to rule them. So we are definitely abandoning any kind of real-world…geopolitical similarity. Britain and France are the same country; Captain Britain speaks French. China and Japan are the same country. The US fell apart in the 60s. I mean, it's not necessary to use real places in superhero comics -- DC and its array of fictional cities seems to be doing fine -- but it seems weird to do it here when that was supposed to be part of the attraction of Ults (and later on, the MCU, which pulled a lot from Ults). It's a thing people like to read. It gives you a little more investment, I think, as a reader.

The Maker's goal is to prevent superheroes from showing up at all by taking them off the playing field. He gets there at some point after WWII -- because Steve was still Captain America and got iced -- but before the modern Marvel universe kicks off. The Maker is clearly going after as many people as he can. He prevents Peter Parker from being bitten by the spider. He has a creepy museum/mausoleum where he collects artifacts and corpses of dead heroes; for example, we see an adamantium skeleton that is presumably Wolverine's.

Of course, the heroes aren't going to stand for this. Which heroes, you ask? Who's left? Well… mostly Tony, actually. In this universe, Tony is very young and has more of an MCU-influenced backstory in terms of his relationship to his father and to Obadiah Stane. He's also Iron Lad. So, yes, this is a Kang thing. He has help from this universe's Reed (who is masked like Doom) and they're going to assemble the Ultimates and get back as many heroes as they can. Tony finds middle-aged Peter Parker (who is married to MJ and, oh, yeah, Uncle Ben's still alive) and gets him a spider. They are going to fix the world and make everything right.

Is this fun? I think so! I am down for a plot where Tony restores superheroes to his world. However, the thing it isn't is low-continuity. Unlike original Ults, there is so so so much continuity just embedded into the worldbuilding. We see the Maker's big list of characters he's gotten rid of. You're already supposed to know who these people are.

If you pick up the original Ults, let's say Millar's Ults 1 & 2, you don't need to know anything about anything. Sure, like I said, there are lots of things in it that are callbacks to 616, but you don't actually need to know what they are to understand the plot. But everything in new Ults is, within the plot, a reference to something else in the multiverse. They're putting things back the way they were. To do that, you actually need to know something about the way things were. Some of this stuff is going to be obvious to most people who are even vaguely familiar with comics -- I don't read Spider-Man, generally, and even I know it's a big deal that Uncle Ben is alive. But not all the changes are as big as that, and if you don't know them, it's confusing. Ultimate X-Men is all about a teenage schoolgirl named Hisako, in the country presumably formerly known as Japan. "Mutants" don't seem to be a recognized group of people. She doesn't know anything about her powers and I didn't even know she was a mutant until someone told me that was Armor, a mutant obscure enough that I only vaguely remembered her after I was told her name. I spent all of issue 1 wondering who this character was and why I was reading a horror comic about her classmates dying and what she had to do with anything. Apparently she's a mutant and I would know that if I had kept up with X-Men.

Over in the realm of the Ultimates themselves, the worldbuilding has a lot of stuff I wouldn't bank on people just knowing. Does a casual fan know who Iron Lad is? It's probably going to matter! The FCBD issue features Steve liberating Jim Hammond from the Maker's storage. Now, I am very fond of the Invaders and I was thrilled that someone here at Marvel remembered Jim Hammond, but I would bet that a lot of people reading this don't know who Jim Hammond is or why Steve wants to find him. Similarly, I thought Midas was a great villain for Ultimates #2 but I also read a discussion thread where someone asked who he was and three people in a row managed to extremely confidently misidentify Midas' origin and what decade of comics he was from. The earliest they got was the 90s. (Iron Man #17 is from 1969, guys. Also the first appearance of Whitney Frost as Madame Masque, which is why I know it.)

(Skipping ahead a little to the Ultimates team itself, you can take Hank and Jan as an example. They're both recruited in Ultimates #1 and Hank learns about what he's like on other worlds and his first concern is whether he's going to hurt Jan if he becomes a superhero. To fully understand this plot point, you actually need to know what Hank has done, because otherwise you don't actually know what he is upset about -- and that means you need to be familiar with a bunch of other comics. In the old Ults, Hank just hits Jan. Yes, Mark Millar went for the gritty, edgy choice. But it's also a choice that doesn't require you to know anything about Hank hitting Jan in any other universe. It just matters that it's happening here.)

This is a roundabout way of saying that, after Ultimate Invasion and Ultimate Universe, and seeing the starts of the other Ultimate comics, I didn't have high hopes for the new Ultimates comic, and I also had never heard of the writer, which didn't really help.

And then I started reading the new Ultimates comics and I know we've only got two issues but I honestly really like them. Like I said, I am here for the high-continuity new universe; I don't think that's necessarily going to be a winning long-term move in terms of getting new Ults fans, but, like, I am in this fandom partly because I like being in fandoms with massive amounts of continuity.

Jan is great. Did I say that already? No? Jan is so great.

And, of course, I am a Steve/Tony fan, so I am here for the Steve/Tony dynamic and I think it's really interesting. Steve wants to have a revolution. Hell yeah. I'll definitely read that Captain America. He knows the world's wrong and he wants to fix it. 1610 Steve -- in early canon, at least -- just kind of exuded depression from every pore and Did Not Want To Be Here but he was a soldier, goddammit, and he was going to run the mission. 616 Steve was a little more lost, still sad, but kind of keeping that to himself as much as possible and trying to just find meaning in leading the team and the things the team was doing. This new guy seems more like that. but sadder. because the world is way more fucked up. I mean, he woke up and learned America didn't exist anymore, which has to be a downer.

I'm still not a fan of the Iron Lad thing, but the letter Tony writes to Howard is pretty amazing.

It's interesting that Tony is younger and so much less experienced than Steve. He's clearly smart, of course, but it's clear they're not great at teamwork yet -- not because they don't like each other, but because they don't know each other well enough, which I think is interesting and which I haven't really seen in canon, because this wasn't a thing Marvel was going to show us in 1964. But, like, we've had multiple fight scenes where they aren't quite pulling off the plan as intended -- say, when they're rescuing Jim Hammond and no one else can do what Steve is asking so he just does it himself. Or in #1, Steve telling Tony that his recruiting plan isn't going to work, and Tony not listening, and then, surprise, it doesn't work. Or in #2, when Tony tries to tell Steve that his suit modification will drain all his power if he uses it, and he doesn't manage to tell Steve this, so he does the thing when Steve tells him to do it and then, surprise, he has no power. Like, that doesn't happen in 616. Either 616 Tony does the stupid thing without ever telling Steve because he knows Steve would tell him no, or he just flat-out tells Steve no because he's not afraid to disagree with him, or he asks Steve for advice and actually follows it. They don't do this. So this is pretty fun. It's different. Maybe Tony is a little intimidated by Captain America? We shall see!

I'm a little grumpy that Ults is making me like (presumably) Teen Tony, though. I did not like The Crossing! I really did not!

So, yeah, it's interesting! Looking forward to seeing more of it! It could all go wrong, of course, and two issues is kind of a small sample size, but so far I'm into it.

[ynisreal]

wires (3) - michael afton x reader

summary: Michael and Henry argue. You and Michael argue. But, everything works out in the end. Even too much. (~8k)

Chapter 3

Michael Afton, after many years, could finally say that he woke up looking forward to what the next day held. He was perhaps shutting his own head in the loop that the moments he had shared with you had created in the man's memory; Henry himself had already noticed the airheaded behavior that Michael was displaying. In the few late-night hours that Henry came to visit, all Michael could do was talk about you. Henry knew it was good for Michael to distract himself a little and smile at life's simple gifts, but he was increasingly afraid that the younger man's blindness would fail to realize the absurdity of the situation. Michael was dead, not completely, but he didn't have a heart, or blood, or even the freedom to walk around freely.

"You think I don't know these things?" Michael replied, a little annoyed at the truth being thrown in his face like a bucket of cold water. Henry hadn't even realized that he had vocalized his own thoughts, always letting his body react in protection mode for the man he saw as his own son.

"I hate to be the one to take the smile off your face, Mike, but we have to be realistic," Henry continues, voice laden with affection for the man he watched grow up, "It's all too risky, she could find out about your lies, how will we handle it if she reacts negatively? How will you handle it?"

Michael wasn't stupid, as stupid as some of his actions were, he wasn't stupid himself. He knew that the closeness he desired with you and was actively seeking to find was absurd, a dream reserved only for his sleep. After your conversation at Parts & Service, you and the night security guard had struck up a friendship. Michael now made a point of always showing up for you 40 minutes before your shift ended with the excuse of helping you clean up and organize the mess that the architects were starting to leave behind. It was no lie he enjoyed helping you, doing the manual labor while you watched and entertained him with stories about your sister and your past jobs. If you were too inattentive to notice the time (which was most days), Michael had the opportunity to talk to you for a while longer, your workday over and his beginning. The conversations you had were the best, Michael found you amusing and interesting, never failing to draw a small laugh from his lips or to immerse him in the subject you were telling him.

He was careful, though, always wearing the mask that covered the lower half of his face, the hood covering his brunette hair that was a little too long for Michael's liking, bandages covering his hands and the fabric of the pants and sweater he wore always hiding his purple skin. Of course, there were times when Michael felt his already stopped heart stop again when you got too close, offered to change the bandages on his hands or even asked about his deceased siblings.

"She wouldn't react negatively," Michael says, a little too quickly, almost interrupting Henry before he's even finished speaking. Okay, maybe Michael was saying it more to comfort himself than to convince Henry, because, in truth, he had no fucking idea how you would react. You were empathetic and caring towards Michael, and he had already noticed how your eyes lingered on the figure of him carrying the heavy materials for a relatively long time. You were attracted to him, just as he was to you, but you were also human, with a sister to look after at home and bills to pay, you probably wanted a partner who would help with these problems, a partner who could pick your sister up from school and look after her until you got home, someone to take you out for dinners and then make you forget all your worries in one night, letting your little body turn practically to mush, drunk on the pleasure this person could give you. Michael could certainly make you forget the world for a few hours, but now, the rest of the items on the list? How could he provide a comfortable life for you without even being able to leave the establishment, besides, he doesn't even know if you would still be attracted to him if you knew the true form he was hiding.

"Okay, she reacts happily, you kiss and get married the next day, now what? Are you going to let her and her sister live in constant fear of some other animatronic deciding to use their bodies for cover?" Henry was angry with Michael for being so naïve, "-No, or even better, how are they going to protect themselves when fucking William Afton shows up at their perfect house to cut off both their heads in fulfillment of his mission to torment you for the rest of your days by putting their lifeless bodies into a fucking animatronic?"

"Oh shit, Henry, I forgot that I can't move on with my life, that I can't have a fucking happy ending, I'm sentenced to live in hiding because of the shit my father did," Michael returned the sarcasm, the anger, as always, leaving his mind blank, "Did you ever stop to think that this shitty situation can't get any worse? I died, Henry, I have no goddamn life and yet, I couldn't escape this constant nightmare that is living behind monitors watching the same pizzerias to make up for my father's mistakes!" the younger man was on his feet now, his tone loud and pissed off. He had always felt a lot of anger, ever since he was a teenager, knowing that the people closest to him would always fall victim to his aggression, even as an adult.

"Yes, Michael, you're trapped in this nightmare, just like me! Like it or not, we're not the only ones who have lost lives or family members to your crazy father, but, unfortunately, we're the ONLY ones who can really do something about it!" Henry was shouting back, aware that this subject was sensitive for both of them in every way. Honestly, they didn't know who their anger was directed at, they were just taking it out on each other because it was the only option at hand. Henry and Michael never seemed to stop suffering from the mistakes they didn't make.

"Get out," Michael says, his voice dangerously quiet and calm. Henry hears the heavy breaths escaping the younger man's lips. "What?" Henry asks, unable to think because of the explosion of emotions he was experiencing.

"Get out now before either you or I do or say something that we'll both regret," his completely black eyes met those of the older man. It was true that Michael felt a lot of anger, but he had learned from his own mistakes what acting without thinking can bring into one's life, and frankly, he couldn't bear the pain of losing Henry.

Henry nods, understanding the reasons Michael brought up. They were both very overwhelmed and vulnerable, with Michael's violent nature and Henry's eternal grief, this conversation could escalate to a bad ending very quickly. Henry would never leave Michael's side, no matter what gigantic shit he does, it's always been like that, ever since the man in front of him was a tiny teenager with a Foxy mask stuck on his head. Henry will always fight for Michael, and no argument could ever change that.

The older man got up from the chair he was sitting on at the control room and began to make his way towards the main entrance, leaving Michael alone with his thoughts frantically hammering his own mind. His head was so heavy that he let it fall into his palms, feeling his breath hitch with the anger growing in his empty body. He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes and letting the images of his childhood flood his sight. He remembers it almost perfectly, he has drawn the scene almost down to reality, Freddy's animatronic seemed so much taller than him at the time, the heavy, golden mouth with drops of blood almost painting the robotic bear in red and Evan's body completely still. He could hear the laughter and swearing of his friends fall silent almost immediately, traumatized by the image they were witnessing. Michael didn't cry, at least not immediately, finding the whole situation too absurd to be real. He had never wished so much for him to be impaired by the alcohol his friends had stolen from Henry, perhaps it was a hallucination or his altered vision. But it wasn't, he had killed his brother by accident. Truth be told, Michael Afton had killed his brother.

Mike can't even remember what happened afterwards, only how he was badly beaten by his own father and how his family was never the same again, William Afton was never the same again. The rest being an eternal extension of Michael's traumas, damned by the fact that if he hadn't let his anger build up over the years at his father's favoritism, he would never have turned into the combative, aggressive teenager he became, nor would he have bullied his younger brother or placed Evan's head in Freddy's mouth. There's no point in lamenting the life he would have had if everything had been different, he knows he has to find peace in the present, otherwise he would really go mad tonight, the same way he felt every night he spent in the same place where he had lost his life. Michael doesn't even notice, unconsciously letting his hands search his pocket, finding the note you gave him yesterday.

~

"I kept my promise," you said, your voice sounding like a melody in Michael's memory. You looked so beautiful yesterday, cheeks flushed due to all the material Noah had sent to the office, Michael helping you bring in the boxes and organize the materials, a small layer of sweat on your face that made your face shine when it faced the light, making your beautiful features even more apparent to Michael. He still had his hood and mask covering his face, so he allowed himself to smile every time he looked at you, knowing that you wouldn't be able to see how happy he was to be spending more and more time with you.

"What promise?" Michael replied, focused on the manual labor of opening the boxes and taking out the various tools that the company's employees were going to use for the redesign process regarding the next attraction. You were responsible for telling Michael where to put the items he found, a little frustrated again by the man's order to leave all the heavy lifting to him, making you sit in one of the many chairs in the main hall.

"I drew you - well, I tried to draw you to be honest," he recalled your reply, a little embarrassment tinged in your voice. Michael hadn't forgotten the promise, he was just concentrating too hard on organizing the materials in a way that would be accessible to you, preventing you from tripping over them (which, frankly, Michael thought was quite likely) or getting in the way of the clean-up that the two of you always did at the end of your workday.

"Great, let me see your masterpiece," the man replied, getting up from the floor where he was opening the boxes to turn his body towards you, his hand outstretched, waiting for you to hand him the small piece of paper.

"You have to promise not to laugh at me," you say, eyes staring at Michael's faceless figure. "I know you asked me in a joking tone, but I really took it seriously and tried my best," a half-hearted smile forms on your face, showing that you've accepted defeat even before exposing your drawing to Michael.

"Well, if you really made an hour out of your busy schedule to draw a mere mortal like me, how could I laugh?", the sarcastic tone of the man in front of you didn't pass by unnoticed, causing you to let out a small chuckle cursing the night security guard for not being able to take your efforts seriously, in which Michael heard and emitted a small gasp pretending to be offended.

"Yes, asshole, here's your drawing - at least try to not judge me so much," you give up on making him take your struggle seriously, dropping the small piece of paper into his bandaged hands. The paper looked even smaller when Michael took hold of it.

Well, the drawing really was a mess. But Michael didn't have the heart to tell you that, seeing as you'd even tried to draw a more humanoid body than the lanky stick figure you'd drawn previously, horribly imitating the shadowing he'd done on your drawing. However, his hair still looked like black spaghetti stuck to a human head. You had drawn his hood over the spaghetti, a mask that looked like a brick explained the lack of mouth or nose in the drawing. Michael was surprised by just one detail: his eyes in the drawings were black.

"Why are my eyes completely black?" he asked, nervous to hear your answer. In all honesty, he was already mentally preparing himself for your screams, calling him a monster and all sorts of worse things that would make his heart die all over again. He didn't raise his head to look at you, even though he knew the hood would hide any glimpse you might have of Michael's completely dead skin; in fact, he was afraid of recording your face as you shouted at him, forever trapped in the memory of your hateful face, and not the thousands of smiles that he already replays in his mind before going to rest.

"Ah- the shadow of your hood always makes your eyes look completely black, and since I thought it looked super cool, I decided to draw it," you babble, a little nervous that he'll think you're a complete weirdo. "I don't know, it makes you look like a super-powerful movie villain, sorry if that came out weird-"

"No, no, I liked it," Michael interrupted before you could sink into the insecurity of possibly making him uncomfortable, another smile invisible to you forming on his face. He never thought he'd be grateful for not having any more blood circulating in his body, otherwise he'd be completely red in your eyes. Michael pulls himself together quickly, not wanting to show how your comment affected him, messing up any thought other than you complimenting his lifeless eyes.

You seem to happily accept Michael's comment, positively surprised that he expressed that he liked it, expecting him to either laugh out loud or simply mock your hard-working attempt. Satisfied with the result of your drawing, you leave the paper in Michael's possession and return to your chair, ready to get back to your job of admiring the strength of the man in front of you and telling him where he should place the item. Michael also returns to his old place, sitting on the floor, surrounded by boxes to open, but he can't pass up the opportunity to ask you:

"So you're attracted to villains and bad guys?", his question meets your ears after the blood has rushed to your cheeks, painting your face red and your eyes wide in surprise. Michael was trying to provoke you, and when he saw that he had succeeded, he let out a laugh at your expense. He seemed to enjoy seeing you blush, completely embarrassed and vulnerable, it was a side of you that was completely adorable to Michael. You were easily flustered by the tall man, showing him the effect he was having on you, how little phrases or actions could make your body and mind stop working.

"Fuck you, Michael," you let out, frustrated at his success in making you blush and embarrass yourself once again. This seems to make him laugh louder, which frankly, you couldn't care less that it was at your expense.

~

The small drawing was in Michael's hands, and the memory seemed to quieten the violent and traumatic thoughts that had invaded the man's mind because of the disagreement with Henry. In fact, the memory didn't quieten the thoughts, it frighteningly silenced Michael's mind. The only images running through his head at that moment were you, your inattentive manner, your humor, your flushed face, your words of comfort and your rosy lips. You, you, you.

Michael quickly put the drawing back in his pocket, startled by the effect you had on him. It had been a long time since his mind had been this quiet, it was almost a glimpse of the peace he could have had. You were messing with him in a dangerous way, Michael couldn't afford to fall in love with you, shit, how was that going to work?

Not wanting to enter another state of panic, he got up and started walking to the hidden room that belonged to him. The new movies that Henry had brought seemed like a good distraction to pass the time. Time passing quickly meant that he could see you again more quickly too. He would be able to feel that silence again.

Michael ended up spending the next few hours of his workday watching the movies Henry had brought for the young man, but no matter how many scenes of action or romance were stimulating his vision, his mind seemed to be in a constant zig-zag: remembering the fight he had with Henry, bringing all his traumas back to life, or thinking of you, flooding his head with memories he had spent with you.

The younger man seemed a little frustrated at his inability to calm down. Before, you seemed to have been a remedy for his anxiety, but now, thinking of you meant thinking of the impossibility of your future together, images of you in danger, the disgust on your face as you learned the truth about him or of his involvement in the madness of his father, blinded by his grief for Evan. Michael felt that he had gone just as crazy, foolish enough to get close to you. Henry was right, it was unfair and dangerous for you, after all, how was Michael going to protect you when William came knocking on your door, intent on ruining all the happiness his eldest son had ever felt? Michael had already tried to kill his father and free the poor souls from the constant suffering of being trapped inside animatronics, it hadn't been easy, how could he keep trying when he had to worry about your safety or the safety of your sister? He couldn't even protect his own sister from their father's evil deeds.

Michael could hear the doors to the main hall opening, your little squeal of surprise announcing your arrival, as always. Michael wasn't going to come after you today, he wasn't going to hide in the shadows of the rooms or the corridors to watch you, or talk to you when your workday was over. It will be unbearable, given that you were the only source of happiness and entertainment in Michael's life recently, but he can't be selfish. Not with you, anyway.

You arrived at the building, the noise of the doors not failing to startle you, but it irritated you more than usual. You were tired, your evening had been anything but peaceful due to Cassie's homework, a difficult model of the solar system, in which the two of you had to turn the house upside down looking for materials to build the planets and stars. Cassie seemed to like the result, but you were too tired to judge whether Jupiter was in the right place or not.

You and the night security guard seem to have grown quite close, and, given your immense attraction to him, it has had an effect on your behavior. You may not have noticed it, but you were more giggly, smiling at little things, more optimistic and in a good mood. It had been a few months since you last went on a date or took a deep interest in someone, always preferring to spend all your energy on paying the bills and looking after your sister. Your old partners were always hesitant when they heard you mention that you were responsible for your little sister, perhaps afraid of the idea of taking on such a responsibility so soon. However, that didn't stop you from looking, the idea of building a solid family for Cassie being very important to you, she needed a reliable figure besides you.

"Are you taking someone to the Halloween party?" Cassie answered your question with another. You had asked your sister if you could bring a companion to her school's Halloween party. The institute always threw parties for the children and their families, and this year, you thought you'd ask someone to go with you and Cassie. That someone was called Michael.

"I'm thinking about it," you replied, shrugging your shoulders and smiling at the little girl as you glued the little planets to toothpicks. Cassie became even more curious, grabbing your arms as she asked:

"Are you dating someone?" Your sister almost screams, advertising to all the neighbors about your love life. You flinch at the noise.

"No!" You reply almost immediately, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. "I just met someone interesting, that's all," you add, trying to get your sister to drop the subject, otherwise you would become a source of gossip between her and her friends.

"So you're in love?" Cassie asks the right question, the same question that's been on your mind. Were you? You hadn't even seen his face, despite spending hours talking to him, you felt you didn't really know him the way he knew you.

"I don't know, Cas," you answer sincerely, aware that it's a subject your sister has no maturity to advise you on. "I think he's funny, caring and I like the way he carries heavy things," you tell her, smiling when she makes a disgusted face.

"Ew, adults are such weirdos, I thought you were supposed to say he's handsome," Cassie looks away from you, confused by your statement, going back to painting the wooden board black.

"You'll understand when you're older," you conclude, smiling when she denies it, disbelieving that you would compliment the way someone carries heavy things.

The memory makes you smile, finding your sister's reaction comical but sincere. You had little information about the man you were interested in, but you had more qualities to list than defects. Even though you hadn't seen his face, you already found him extremely attractive. He looked after you, made you laugh and seemed to be interested in what you were saying. He was funny without being insulting and made you feel comfortable, as well as all the physical qualities you could list.

His height was enviable for any man, his arms clashed with the thin fabric of his jacket to make themselves noticed, his husky voice made you wince and his bandaged hands infiltrated your dreams. Perhaps you were acting on impulse, but you wanted to get to know him better, after all, no red flags had been raised by now, with the opportunity to learn more about the man, you could accurately assess the situation. So you arrived at the establishment with a firm decision in your head: you were going to ask him out.

Tiredness is still bearing down on your shoulders, but the memory of your motivation for having applied a little more make-up today quickly cheers you up. You wanted to surprise the night security guard in a positive way, hoping that he would accept your request even if he felt sorry for your efforts.

Your workday went smoothly, Alice and Noah arrived in the main hall to check the boxes, you cleaned the corridors and watched the monitors. Everything was going well, even if your stomach was twisting with nervousness at being the first to take action. He seems to be interested in you too, you notice that some of your comments get an almost instant reaction from the man. Perhaps this is a good sign, an indication that he'll accept. But, shit, you were fucking nervous.

With just one hour remaining, you make your way to the main hall. Michael has been arriving at work early to spend more time with you, using the excuse that he wanted to help you organize the boxes and materials brought in by the company's employees. Cute, how eager he is to help you. But a few minutes pass and no Michael. You start to tell yourself that maybe he's decided to be on time today, but when the clock on your wrist shows the end of your workday and the beginning of his, Michael still hasn't come through the door.

Your motivation and stubbornness were something to behold, because even though the night security guard was late, you decided to wait. The courage you'd built up during the day wouldn't last until tomorrow, you had today and only today to ask him to go out with you. Obviously you were nervous or afraid of his response, but if you procrastinated or kept putting it off, you might never find the right moment to do it.

You were fearless, but Michael was confused and nervous about you waiting for him. He knew that you would find his lateness or his absence from your office strange, but the promise he had made to himself was not to look for you again. But when your workday ended and he didn't hear the sound of the doors opening and closing, he thought you might be busy or had missed the time. Well, Michael thought wrong, because 30 minutes had passed and you didn't leave.

Okay, Michael was definitely nervous. You were totally committed in your decision to ask him out, but Michael was losing any motivation whatsoever in the promise he'd made to himself to leave you alone. With every minute that passed, more questions popped into his head: Well, she seems to be waiting for me, it would be awful of me not to answer. Or I don't need to expand any deeper into our interactions, maybe just being by her side during work is enough.

Michael knew the last one was a lie, but the idea that maybe he was exaggerating by ignoring you completely started to make total sense to his heart. After all, he didn't want to hurt you, did he? Honestly, he knew the moment he opened the door to the hideout that no decision he made when searching for you was with you in mind, only him. He was attracted to you, he wanted to feel you, he wanted you around, he wanted to talk to you and he wanted to see you now.

When you start to hear someone's footsteps coming from the hallway, you immediately rise to your feet. You hadn't heard the door open or anyone announce their arrival to you, so your first theory was formed: it was an intruder. The footsteps were getting louder and louder, showing that they were approaching you, which made you shout:

"Who's there?!" Your nervous voice disguised in a hoarse, confident tone reaches Michael's ear, who responds with a laugh as he makes himself seen at the end of the corridor.

"The boogeyman, Y/n," he says, as he leans on the arch that merges the end of the corridor with the main hall. Michael crosses his arms and stares at you, who are clearly still nervous about the fright he gave you.

"Fuck- Michael, I didn't hear you enter the establishment, I thought you were an intruder," you say, putting your hand over your pounding heart. Your pulse was a little elevated due to the possibility of an intruder.

"Don't worry, I would have known if there was someone else here," Michael says confidently, which makes you roll your eyes at how lightly he took the subject. He notices your slight irritation, once again impressed by how he manages to have an effect on you.

"I see, Batman, I forgot you have eyes everywhere," you recompose yourself, sitting back down on the chair where you've spent the last few minutes waiting for the man.

"I thought you liked villains?" Michael asks with the intention of teasing, which he succeeds in doing, making you roll your eyes again, drawing a small laugh from the night security guard. Man, how he wanted to make you roll your eyes in a different way.

"Why are you late?" You ignore Michael's last line, wondering where he was, given that you were waiting for him to come through the front door.

"I'm not late," Michael replies, " I was actually a bit early and got some things organized at Ballora's Gallery," he lies. You notice, but you don't say anything. Maybe he was embarrassed that he was late for work?

"Hm, I see," you reply, not wanting to dwell on the subject. "I was waiting for you", you say, a little quieter now, exploring the territory before you drop the bomb. Perhaps, during the conversation, he'll give you some indication that he wasn't interested.

"Thanks, you didn't have to do that," the night security guard says, coming a little closer to you and leaning on the table in front of you, making a point of keeping a safe distance so that you couldn't see his face.

"I know, but I wanted to," you almost whisper, the nervousness that had once been overpowered by your motivation and stubbornness now making itself present in your body, burning the palms of your hands and making your stomach turn in every direction of your body. Has it always been this hot in the main hall?

"Cute. Do you want to distract me from my work?" Michael replies, far too confidently for someone who was freaking out back at the hideout at the thought of even seeing you today. You really had a major effect on him.

You don't even realize that you're not answering, your restless mind making you more and more nervous and insecure. Unconsciously, you start rubbing your sweaty palms on your pants, looking down at the floor, away from Michael. The blood rushes to your cheeks as you realize that you need to ask the question before your body simply stops working and you fall hard into the floor in front of the man who was the target of all your thoughts today.

Michael winces when he hears you let out a sigh and count from 3 to 1 in a quiet voice. Before he could even think about asking if you were all right, he hears:

"Why are you hiding your face from me?" It comes out of your mouth instead of the question you wanted to ask, and Michael notices, because you place your hand over your mouth as if your body had acted without your consent. Your wide eyes also prove that.

"What?" Michael asks, his mind going too fast to understand your questioning. No, actually, he didn't want to believe that's what he'd heard.

"Well, um, why do you hide your face?" The question didn't come out as coherently as you wanted, your nervousness getting the better of your voice, making you stutter a little. You couldn't face him, your body taking you by surprise. As much it was a question that had been on your mind, you didin´t plan on bring it up today, even more so abruptly.

"Yes, I heard," Michael said dryly, not caring how it sounded to you. His head was being invaded by a thousand worries or lies that he could tell you. He wasn't expecting this, well, not for now at least, but Michael knew that it was inevitable that you would start to suspect on why he always lived in the shadows and hid.

But, fuck Y/n*,*** did it have to be today? He wanted more time with you, Michael wanted enough memories with you to live out the rest of his days in peace, he didn't have an exact number and maybe it didn't even exist, but in his traumatic logic, one day he could live away from you just replaying the happy moments that he had with you. Michael thought he could delude his own mind with memories of you, pretending that you would still be there, in the establishment where you work, sitting in the chair that Michael pointed to, letting him hear all the subjects that came into your head. He wanted to memorize your personality and your appearance so that he could leave you alone.

Michael was panicking. Henry was right. He didn't have that privilege, Michael couldn't be distracted, being one of the only ones who knows the truth behind this whole shitty franchise, and maybe getting too close to you would only hurt you and hurt him.

You start to worry when the man in front of you is unresponsive, frozen in place. The establishment was so quiet that you couldn't even hear his heart beating. Maybe he got so nervous that he had a heart attack.

"Michael, look, I only asked because I was curious, you're always hiding, and anyway, I thought I could ask why, since we've been getting closer in the last few days -“ you begin to explain yourself, something you never had to do when you were with Michael. There is a first time for everything, you guess. You get up from where you were sitting, to gently get closer to Michael, still worried about the man's complete stillness.

Michael hesitates as he hears you come closer, his eyes glued to his own feet. He was nervous, did not know what to tell you, did not know what to answer in general, how would he get out of this situation without disappointing you? Michael was never good at explaining himself, or rather, Michael was never good at reacting on emotional situations, like the ones right now. So his body reacts as it always has, almost as a ready-made defense mechanism. He gets angry.

"Yes, I understood the question, I'm not stupid,” the voice full of poison comes out of Michael's lips, and makes you immediately stop in your tracks. What? You can't believe the roughness of his voice when responding to your explanation.

You take a deep breath, not wanting to further stress the man who already seemed to be angry. "Yes, Michael, I know you're not stupid, but I thought I'd better explain myself to not make you more uncomfortable-", again, you try to rationalize with the night security guard, since he was clearly annoyed by your question. The evening was not going at all as you wanted.

Even Michael didn't want that. That's why he got angry, angry at you for not keeping it quiet, angry at you for popping the question and angry at himself for being naive and having these expectations about you. Anger at himself for being angry at you.

”It´s none of your business, Y/n", Michael hesitates with his own tone of voice, anger and irritation filling the small distance you two had. He didn't want to be treating you like that, but that was all he knew how to do. Getting angry was the feeling he knew best.

"Yes, I get it-“ you were going to apologize for apparently overstepping an inner boundary for him, but he interrupts you before you can.

”Don't ever ask me anything like that again", Michael's thick, dry reply comes in your ears, and you start to feel a little frustrated at the way he was treating you. You didn't mean to upset him, and even if you did, it was unintentional, he genuinely didn't need to be treating you like that.

“Why are you talking to me like that?" You ask, frustration evident in your voice. Michael lifts his eyes as soon as he hears your stress, allowing his gaze to meet yours behind the hood and the shadows. If he wasn't sure it was impossible, he'd think you were staring at all of his sins.

”You were being noisy, I reacted as anyone would react", Michael shrugs, once again not taking the situation you were in seriously. You didn't know he was actually masking his own fear.

"Noisy? Michael, I asked you a question, you didn't like it, you could just had told me, you didn't have to be rude”, you cross your arms in irritation, upset with the way the man had reacted.

Michael knows that if he doesn't change the course of the conversation, he would end up arguing with you the same way he fought with Henry in the morning. He didn't have the guts to argue with you.

The night security guard in front of you takes a deep breath, and says, “Look, Y/n, I know we're getting closer, but I have - erm, skin problems that I don't like to comment on,” Michael lies, and lies badly by the way, not having prepared or rehearsed any of this lie with Henry.

You noticed, just like you noticed all of his lies before this one. This seems to add fuel to your pending frustration.

“Why do you always lie?”, your voice coming out louder than intended, filling the main hall with your words and your feelings. Michael feels his heart stop for the second time in his life.

“You always lie! Michael, I think I'm mature enough to hear that you don't want to tell me or that you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to lie - damn, it frustrates me!" You unwittingly explode in front of Michael, feelings and suspicions accumulated since the first time he lied to you.

Michael doesn't respond, just brings his hands to his face in, what? Frustration? Irritation? Appeal? He no longer knows what he is feeling, nervous about the direction this conversation was taking. You wanted to know, and honestly, Michael knows that if he keeps getting close to you, you deserved to know. But he didn't have the courage to tell, he didn't want to have to face the possibility that you wouldn't accept him or not look at him the same way. You had such beautiful eyes, how he would live the rest of the his days after seeing the same eyes fill with disgust at the sight of Michael's true form.

“I was going to ask you out on a date today,” you say softly, your outburst seemingly easing some of the nerves you were feeling. You weren't even angry anymore, just sad, sad at the illusion of the man you created in your head.

If Michael had a functional heart, it would have stopped beating for the third time at that moment. You were going to ask him out on a date? He almost found himself feeling excited about the possibility, however, the reality hits him in the face so hard that he remembers: he can't leave the establishment. Michael was not alive, he was an anomaly in biology and science, a zombie from comics and horror stories. How would he go on a date with you?

"You don't have to answer", you lower your head, averting your gaze from Michael's eyes, returning to face the floor tiles of the main hall.

Think of something. Think of some answer. Do something. Michael was frozen in place, a roller coaster of feelings built in his mind. You were interested in him, he realized, you wanted the same thing he wanted, you wanted him on a date with you. Damn, the idea seems so delicious that he can almost taste it.

You turn your back to him, ready to leave the man alone and return home, consequently giving up the possibility of you and Michael having anything but the long conversations and tickets exchanged. Before your heart can break any further, you hear:

“If I ask for you to do something, do you promise to trust me?", the man's voice fills your ears with hope again. He didn't sound as confident as he always sounded, in fact, fear was, for the first time, apparent in his voice.

You stop in your tracks and looked at him, assessing whatever kind of body language he had. Honestly, you couldn't identify anything, but your heart was so hopeful that you didn't even evaluate the proposal when you answered, “Yes.”

”Let me blindfold you, then I will tell you everything", Michael says, approaching you, with cautious and unsure steps. Insecurity does not match with Michael.

It was a lie, you notice almost immediately, but before you can ask or get frustrated with another lie from him, you are startled by how close you two were. Because of Michael's height, your head was on his torso, meaning you could smell the fabric of his coat and the men's perfume. This closeness with Michael seemed illegal, so much so that you couldn't even make yourself look up, as if it was forbidden to look into his face with such a distance.

Your excitement only got worse when you felt his big hands meet the tie on your security uniform. The touch was delicate and cautious, as if at any moment you were going to push him or pull away. You didn't have the courage to do that, not when, in so long, you wished for that small distance between you and him. You wanted his touch, you wanted to smell him, you wanted to see up close the height difference between you two. And damn, how huge he was made all the functioning of your brain fail.

You only became conscious again when you felt the small tissue touch your eyes. You decided to surrender, accepting Michael's conditions, not moving at all in fear of scaring him or that he would decide that this distance was too close. The smell of him flooded your nose, the perfume making you lose any kind of sanity present in your body.

When Michael managed to bind the tie behind your head, he breathed a sigh of relief. You were totally blind, there was no possibility that you would end up seeing him or any glimpse of his dead skin. You trusted him, that said a lot to the man, and honestly, he was thanking any entity he knew for allowing that, because now Michael could do what he really wanted from the moment you confessed.

You were nervous, uneasy at the sudden silence of the man who blindfolded you. Your hands glued to your body due to lack of vision. Michael's body was still close to yours, you could feel it, his gaze burning into your figure, making you blush. You were embarrassed, not knowing what to do.

“Hm, Michael?" You call to him, but he wasn't going to answer you, having another idea in mind. His lips meet yours. Michael Afton had finally kissed you.

[sylenth-l]

I'm sure someone has asked already but there's no harm in asking this question again, I was wondering how do you plot out your drawings? Like your proportions and stuff? Because I have never been able to get proportions done very easily, the head is always too small for the shoulders, arms aren't the right length, torso is too long/short, ect ect. Do you have any advice to help with this? Thank you :) 💜

Hey! Okay, I'll start with saying that I'm not a qualified art teacher and everything I say are just things I've noticed over the years of drawing myself and thus can only share things that worked for me personally ✌️✨

I use head to measure the height of everything and make the width whatever I feel looks good 😅 The classic art anatomy teaches us that perfect human's height is 8 heads and legs take exactly half of it. I rarely stick to that model tbh, I prefer to draw in an even more stylized way, so I usually make legs a bit longer (making it 8.5 or even 9+ heads total) and head just a biiit bigger.  Still, I started from classics and I believe it's much easier to learn it first, so I drew the 8 heads model for a better demonstration:

I've developed a little checklist of the most important proportions; usually if those conditions are met, the whole figure looks convincing enough to me.

Head + torso is 4 heads;

Elbows and waist are relatively on the same line;

Open palm is the same length as the face (head minus hairline);

Arm length ends a bit higher than half of the hip;

Knees are located at the middle of legs length minus feet.

Okay, it looks really easy for a frontal view of a standing still figure, but what about more complicated poses? My suggestion is to measure the stick figure inside the body (not forgetting about the perspective distortion though). Take the "spine" and the least bent leg to check everything, then make sure both legs are the same length.

Note that these measurements don't need to be exact as if made with a ruler! We aren't doing blueprints here. If you don't trust your eye, then try training it, whenever you have a free minute: just draw a long line and try to divide it into equal parts. Or draw a long line with many short lines of the same length; kinda like a dashline, but with no gaps.

Also, I think it's important to remember that measurements and proportions are cool, useful and make your life a lot easier, but often you may need to bend them for the final drawing to look good. And obviously, people come in many shapes and heights, so I suggest taking these classical measurements as a cheatsheet to draw a good standard stick figure, which you can shape into whatever you want later. The 8 heads canon isn't realistic anyway, it originated in Ancient Egypt and Greece and was used for art needs specifically (mainly sculpture iirc). It represents an idealized view of a human figure already, so no harm in changing it a bit further I think!

 Art doesn't really need to be anatomically correct, it just has to look like it is.

[wireman-au]

[OOC] hey hi! i have. a question for you that you do NOT have to answer but uh. what do all of the characters so far LOOK like? like what clothes do they wear, do they have inhuman traits at all, what objects do they usually carry, etc etc. (if you want you can include tango in this too because i’m cooking up ideas also if you have any ideas for like. a poster of sorts for this i would LOOOVE to draw it) but yes yes no pressure to answer!

well that seems like a reasonable stopping place for the night.

so! in my head there are a few details that are important about everyone we've seen so far!

both impulse and skizz are fairly big guys, but impulse is like, 5'9" and just built big in my head, while skizz is like, 6'4" and built like a linebacker in my head. i don't know WHY skizz is so Triangular to me, but know that he is.

impulse dresses like a dad who wears cargo shorts despite not being a dad in this au because i can't imagine a universe where impulse doesn't dress like a guy who shops at home depot but is slightly confused by doing so.

skizz is a little more varied, but also a little more practical for outdoor stuff because he works a lot outdoors. i also picture him as the kind of guy who would wear a tuxedo t-shirt? i think that would be funny. unnecessary detail.

both of them are otherwise relatively plain-looking.

etho has white hair because i am letting myself give in to a FEW not-realistic appearance things that are fun to have around. he dresses in plain colors. he does have a mask in this au, albeit a more normal one--think a cloth or surgical mask like you might see people wearing around in general these days.

as for tango... i'm allowing for red eyes, i think my conception of him in my head skews slightly more towards irl tango than some designs? he's blonde like his in-game avatar, but trying to explain more about his appearance details is... hard. bomber jackets seem like a him kind of thing for his casual clothes, though, so that's probably what impulse would picture him in.

there are also a few design details i'm not telling you right now about everyone because impulse does not know them yet.

[skyblueartt]

As is the tradition now that we are legal mutuals give me your scoop to Michael head cannons!!!!!

Hiiiiii I’m so sorry I didn’t see this earlier tf!!! Anyways!! I’m relatively new to fnaf (I was one of those who got into it after seeing the movie…lol) but I’ve been learning about game lore (mainly from games 1-6) for awhile now and I’m obsessed with these characters mannnn. Anyways- that being said, honesty I don’t have a TON of scooped Mike headcanons, only that I love him- Mikey you deserved better :(

I saw art of this one time and loved it- I totally headcanon that scooped Mike uses crutches or like some sort of mobility aid for walking. I can imagine moving around as a literal zombie would be uh…difficult.

I also LOVE LOVE LOOOVE the theme I’ve seen in art/fanficiton of him and Henry having this really close bond (pre and post Mike getting scooped), but especially afterwards. Michael doesn’t really have anywhere to go, so he stays with his ‘uncle’ 🥲 sorta fills that void for both of them. Henry lost his daughter, Michael “lost” (in a few different ways) his father, so it’s like this really sweet familial sorta bond they got going on. I love that!

I also headcanon that Mike can’t eat or drink on account of NOT HAVING A STOMACH LOL and boyyy he misses having some good food. Henry forgetting that Mike can’t eat or drink and asking “you want some coffee? :)” or something in the first few mornings of him just kinda, adjusting to his ‘nephew’ being this whack zombie creature, and Mike being like “…uncle Henry, I litcherally don’t have a stomach🤨” hahaha.

OHHHh and all the pizza sim fanart I’ve seen of Michael wearing that cute little bear mask thing. That’s a great headcanon :) also, realistically I know scooped Mike wouldn’t have hair…but that is farrrr from the least realistic thing, let me draw that zombie boy with his floofy brown hair. PLS😭

I absolutely adore Mike and I’d love to hear more of your ideas too!!!

[tianshiisdead]

🪞do you have any physical appearance headcanons for your favourite character?

Taking liberties to talk about 2 character but yes :3 Examples at the bottom ehe

For China I like to give him a little mole on each cheek sort of like the Tang Dynasty dots, not for any reason I just think they look cute… I see him with a broader relatively flatter face/very little nose bridge (think short faced Northerner but not far north lol), his nose is sort of a button but a little broader and I like drawing him with peach blossom eyes :3 in general i want him to have a pretty and comfortable face that leaned towards Northern but you could realistically find anywhere in China without batting an eye.

For Japan I usually draw him with a narrower jaw and a longer more slender face, less round, uhhh lowkey kind of like Yonezu Kenshi? His nose is also longer and more slender but broad near the end, and his eyes are like… triangular ig :0 i also like giving him messier hair and freckles credits to @miyuecakes. hair is because of how male Jidol hair tends to look esp Back in The Day and freckles because island sun = freckles and also I like giving characters little moles or blemishes or whatever, they’re more fun to draw that way :3

[animehouse-moe]

Mr. Villain's Day Off Volume 1: Surprising Heart Hiding Behind Humor

A story about a villain enjoying his days off from attempting to conquer the earth. Pretty simple, right? This first volume would agree with you, truthfully. It doesn't pretend to be something it's not, but rather looks to hone its edge into a fine point, keeping its scope narrow and adjusting only as needed to keep the reader engaged and interested. Makes it seem like there's not a lot to talk about, no? Well, you'd be really surprised as you get into it.

So, lets start off with the easy stuff: the art and such. It's pretty, relatively well detailed, and comfortably flexible. It checks all the boxes required for a story like this and then maybe a few more (the animals are drawn so well). My only real complaint in regards to it are: I'd love to see more background art used (it's really quite good when it's apparent), and I really want to see more shading in regards to the art as well. There's bits and pieces of shading to help emphasize certain moments, and I just think it's really pretty and nice in comparison to the default flatness. Just look at how the shading brings out the depth in Mr. Villain's back in this panel, and how much the background adds to it.

Another complaint that's somewhat separate from the art though is the paneling. The storyboarding, that is to say the flow of the story, is really solid. The paneling however can leave a bit to be desired sometimes. There's places where it's really solid and understands perfectly what it should do, like this stretch of plain rectangular panels that emphasize Mr. Villain's character acting, but there's also pieces that can feel rather standard. It's a shame as well because there's undeniable potential and ability with the storyboarding, but it just seems like the paneling hasn't quite caught up yet. In that regard I feel like I should comment on the fact that quite a bit of the paneling feels experimental. There's not any sense of consistency or discernable style in regards to it, as things like the chapter that the image is taken from is entirely comprised of rectangular panels.

Following up my (sort of) complaint with the art though, I really want to praise the character designs and acting in this volume. Simple yet unique and identifiable, they work really well in motion and with both smaller pieces of acting and exaggeration. Specifically in regards to that latter remark, the balance between realistic and exaggerated is really nice, with plenty of subtle and simple acting that can help accentuate the more ridiculous and comical pieces.

And does it ever get comical. Most of it is based off of the personalities of the characters and the seriousness with which Mr. Villain tackles his days off, but quite a bit of it stems from the character acting in the first place. It's not visual gags or puns or anything like that, but rather it's just exploring the range of emotions through all of his days off. Like this one.

Because of its focus on drawing out the simple and more benign comedic moments of daily life, and maybe just a little of the excessive, it maintains a balance in humor that I think is one that can last. It doesn't try to get you rolling around on the floor with every joke, but rather just a bit of a chuckle out of his daily experiences with a knee-slapper or two here and there. Keeping the bar low leaves plenty of potential in regards to the sort of humor you can play with, so I think it's a solid decision to leave it as a secondary element to this series.

So if humor's not the primary focus of this story, what would it be? Well, there's a few things really, with none quite taking priority over the other. First and foremost, we're following Mr. Villain on his days off, so I supposed you could call it a slice of life primarily, but I personally feel like it's more than that.

As this story goes on you notice something, the prevalence of children. It's not a "kids are cute so they should be shown" (though they are), but something a bit more than that. Mr. Villain is an evil alien hellbent (during his work days) on taking over the Earth, so his exposure to kids and the worlds they interact with is a core piece to this experience. It's all about Mr. Villain learning and experiencing the best parts of the world alongside children, as it's always said they look at things with such excitement and awe.

I think it's a super cute aspect to this story, that much like the setup of the comedy, provides confidence in its ability to last. It explores more than Mr. Villain's Day Off as the title may suggest, but how he interacts with and learns from children, how he helps and encourages them to grow, and how he falls more and more in love with the world that he's trying to conquer.

And just keeping the ball rolling on longevity, the idea of additional characters. We keep our recurring cast in this first volume somewhat light, but the idea behind teasing new and recurring ones pops up rather frequently. We have the Red Ranger, and two kids related to him, but we also see Blue mentioned rather frequently as well. Similarly, we slowly get more and more exposed to Mr. Villain's workplace and the group of people that inhabit it. The person that will continually question him about what he's doing on his days off, and the other high ranking generals within the organization are just two examples of characters that are consistently teased to play roles further into the future of this story.

So we reach the end. For people wanting a lighter series, but one that still has substance, direction, and desire, I don't think you can really do any wrong with Mr. Villain's Day Off. Everything it does speaks to a desire to provide the ability to stick around for a good while, but it doesn't trade off any sort of significance or purpose to achieve that. At the end of this first volume, my only complaint is the potential that the author is leaving on the table. They have some great art and work within, but it feels like some of it is limited by aspects like the paneling and whatnot. Regardless of my minor gripe however, I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and really cannot wait to see how the anime approaches this wonderfully warm and silly story.

[misccy27]

why I prefer Darius as Hunter's primary guardian (an unhinged rant)

(This post is riddled with disclaimers because the fandom has no chill about this subject lol)

So first of all I want to say, IRL at this point it would be Hunter's decision who he wants to live with. So I'm looking at this from a narrative perspective about what would be most satisfying to me as a viewer.

For the record, I think Darius, Camila, Eda, Raine, etc. can and should all be involved in Hunter's life in some form or another going forward. Hunter needs a strong support network and deserves all the caring parental figures he can get. But I also think that he needs stability. Even if he spends a lot of time at other houses, I think Hunter would do best with a place he can start to think of as his home, instead of cycling through a rotation of 'his room at Camila's house', 'his room at Darius' house', and so on.

Now. I know there were plans for Hunter to stay at the Owl House at some point in season 2, but since that didn't happen in canon, Hunter doesn't have any real foundation for moving in with Eda now. And we sadly never really get to see him interact with Raine. So that leaves us with 2 realistic candidates: Darius and Camila.

And just to head this off, yes Camila is a wonderful person. She would be a great parent for any child, including Hunter. I'm not saying that she wouldn't be, and I'm not saying that Darius is in a better parent. Just hear me out.

1. Practical considerations

I know no one wants to hear it, but Camila has been single-parenting 6 kids for 2-3 months. I cannot believe she had no worse breakdown than a (very well-done) nightmare sequence. If Hunter does move in with her post-canon, then that makes her the primary caregiver of 3 severely traumatized teenagers. Again, I'm sure she would do an excellent job as always. But that's still a lot of stress.

Second. Hunter states his desires at the end of Thanks to Them. They are to: study wild magic; learn how to carve palismen; attend Hexside as a regular student; and play flyer derby with his friends. All of these goals would have him spending a lot of time in the demon realm.

One argument I've seen is that Hunter was the happiest we've seen him yet in the human realm, which is true. But I think a lot of that was because he was with his friends in a relatively safe environment. He should be able to get that in the demon realm post-canon, especially since most of his friends will be staying there and he plans to spend so much of his time there. And for feeling safe, he's now been successfully traumatized in both realms so. yay /s

So those are my practical justifications for why it makes more sense for Hunter to stay with Darius over Camila. But I also have reasons based on what we get to see of their relationships in canon.

2. Canon clues that I'm not just reaching

A lot of people seem to be taking it as a given that Hunter will or should end up with Camila based on canon. For the reasons given above, I don't think there's more canon basis for Camila parenting Hunter over Darius.

I also think it's worth noting that Hunter seems rather attached to Darius. During the draining spell, Willow and Amity try to help Eda while Hunter runs straight to Darius to try to wake him up.

In the human realm, Willow, Gus, and Amity draw pictures of their families. IIRC Gus is the only one who verbally mentions his dad. Luz doesn't talk about Eda and King or hang up any pictures, but she does draw them. Hunter doesn't draw anyone, but he verbally mentions one single person from the demon realm. And that person is Darius.

2. Camila's relationship with Hunter in canon

I hate how little we know about it. I know, I know, the Shortening. But it does affect how I view their relationship. In all of the interactions we see, from the learning Spanish to the sewing machine to saving him from drowning, it could have been any of the kids. There's nothing about the way Camila interacts with Hunter to differentiate their relationship from her relationship with Willow, Gus, or Amity.

What I was really hoping to see at some point was any clue about what Camila knows about Hunter's background. Like I’m assuming she at least knows that he was raised by Belos. But the way it came up and who told her what about it is entirely unknown. Does she know he was abused? To what extent? Does she know about his role as the Golden Guard? Does she know how he met Luz, when he threatened to throw her into the boiling sea? Like I know, I get that she would have been as compassionate as always. But if I'm filling the gaps for how these conversations played out, I at least want more evidence that they happened at all.

Because it isn't a given. Again, Camila is working a full-time job and taking care of 6 teenagers, 5 of whom have to live in hiding to some extent and are struggling to adjust and have unique needs because they aren't human. That is so much stress and responsibility on Camila. So the montage and photo album we saw were mostly the kids bonding with each other. We didn't get to see Camila interact one-on-one with anyone but Luz. Which again, yes, the Shortening. But also maybe Camila just didn't have as much time to spend bonding with each individual child as everyone would have liked. It is a very real possibility that a lot of topics relating to Hunter and his childhood simply haven't come up yet.

Also, we know that Camila still has a shaky grasp on the Boiling Isles by the end of TTT. It is totally understandable because she's never been there and has never seen it; the kids are having the same issue adjusting to the human realm. Hunter didn't seem overly eager to talk about his past. Luz didn't seem overly eager to talk about the Boiling Isles in general. I think most of Camila's understanding comes from what Vee told her prior to and during TTT, and what Willow, Gus, and Amity told her while they were there.

So that leaves a lot of room for interpretation about what Camila's understanding of Hunter's situation is, which in turn makes it hard to imagine how any specific interaction or conversation might play out. Like yes, Camila would of course be loving and supportive, and she would say all the right things and model all the correct behaviors, and that's great. But without any canon basis for how Camila uniquely views and interacts with Hunter, it all ends up feeling more like wish-fulfillment to me than a relationship between 2 characters who know each other in canon.

For example, Camila doesn’t seem to be expecting Hunter to stay with her long-term. Because after months in the human realm Hunter is still sleeping on the floor of the basement. But there are so many possible explanations for this, because we don't know anything. Maybe Camila doesn’t know yet that Hunter is functionally homeless. Maybe she does know, and they had a really fulfilling heart-to-heart about it off screen. Maybe Hunter really is already planning to stay in the human realm. Or maybe Camila is under the impression that Hunter already has a place to stay in the demon realm.

Which is its own thing. I am being a bit of a hypocrite. For all we know, Hunter did talk to Darius about this before the Day of Unity and already has plans to move in with him. There are plenty of gaps to go around! So I will move on to:

3. Darius' relationship with Hunter in canon

I will admit it, I'm biased. This relationship is so much more interesting to me, just from the set up.

Because Darius is the only adult we see actually try to help Hunter while Hunter is still living in his abusive situation.

I know there's been discussion and debate about Darius' behavior, so I'll try to keep it brief. Darius did not help Hunter for a long time. He also didn't have any particular responsibility towards Hunter. Darius failed Hunter as much as every other adult Hunter interacted with over the years.

It is unclear based on canon how often Darius and Hunter interacted or what those interactions were generally like. It is unclear what Darius knew or suspected about Hunter's situation prior to Any Sport in a Storm. I think a lot of fandom disagreement comes down to how generously or harshly you interpret Darius when filling in these blanks. So I'll focus on what we do know.

Darius gave Hunter a mission in ASIAS. He didn't mean to; he was just trying to get rid of Hunter. He seems to view Hunter as a lost cause for most of the episode. Because of that and/or the traitor thing, Darius makes no effort to explain what he thinks Hunter is doing wrong. Which is unfortunate, because he is pushing Hunter in the right direction.

Darius encourages Hunter to think for himself at a time when Hunter is still loyal and Belos is still actively working to keep Hunter unquestioningly obedient. And this is before Darius has even taken any real interest in Hunter. He goes about it horribly, but he is already taking the right stance on these fundamental issues, and that matters to me.

Then at the end of the episode, Darius' attitude towards Hunter changes completely. And yes, I know it shouldn't have happened this way. I know Hunter shouldn't have needed to prove himself to earn help and attention. But this show is full of flawed characters who change for the better. So why not Darius?

And Darius shows that he is capable of change. He admits to Hunter "I had you all wrong". He praises Hunter for both making friends and for disobeying him, which is huge for Hunter while he's still in his abusive situation. And then Darius' first action after his revelation is to give Hunter a scroll and encourage Hunter to make connections outside of the castle.

And again, Darius didn't have to do that. He could have just as easily ended the interaction there. He could have agreed to keep Flapjack a secret in return for Hunter keeping his mouth shut about letting the 'recruits' go, and then gone back home to get his beauty sleep.

But he didn't. He gave Hunter a scroll and encouraged him to break out of his isolation more. Then he gave Hunter back his cloak and fixed the cloak and gave Hunter the approval that Hunter spent all episode desperately wanted since the beginning (which is problematic, I know). And then Darius told Hunter to get a sewing lesson, which he very well may have given actually him based on Hunter comparing his stitches to Darius' in TTT.

So did Darius handle everything perfectly? Of course not. But he did consistently push Hunter in the right direction, and by the end of it he does seem actively interested and willing to help. He becomes the first (and tbh only) adult we actually get to see start paying attention to Hunter's situation and intervening with Hunter's best interests at heart.

...And then we don't get to see them interact after that. It's another place where the fandom diverges, particularly regarding whether or not one or more sewing lessons ended up happening.

But we do get some crumbs.

During Hollow Mind, Darius is alarmed when he realizes Hunter got trapped in Belos' mind.

Then in Clouds on the Horizon, Hunter reveals that Darius sent him to escort Luz. I think this scene is overlooked a lot, but it's huge to me. Because it means that Darius and Hunter got in contact some time after Hollow Mind, presumably after Labyrinth Runners.

Like Hunter must have had some pretty severe trust issues after learning that Belos is an evil sadist who manipulated him his whole life. It would've been compounded by Coven Head Adrian showing up at Hexside lying about being a rebel. So even though we didn't get to actually see it, we know something must have happened between Darius and Hunter that somehow got Hunter to trust Darius enough to go on a mission for him on the Day of Unity. And I'm assuming that required Darius to make at least some effort to confront head-on the reality of Hunter's situation and Darius' role as a rebel and all the messy complicated emotions that go along with all of it.

And again, he didn't have to. Darius didn't have to get in contact with Hunter after Hollow Mind. That is a choice that he both made and successfully pulled off. Like I see this hc a lot that Darius can't handle emotional situations, but he was there for Hunter at least to some extent both while Hunter was unknowingly in an abusive situation and while Hunter was coping with the fallout of having everything ripped out from under him. So I don't get why it's so hard to imagine Darius being there for Hunter in emotionally difficult situations post-canon.

Anyway. This scene also tells us that Darius went and gave Hunter the same mission that Eda gave Luz, presumably for the same reason: to let the kids feel useful while also trying to keep them relatively safe and out of the line of fire on the Day of Unity. (And that's it's own thing. There are plenty of parallels you could draw between Darius' relationship with Hunter and Luz' relationship with Eda, particularly in the early stages where things were a bit rocky.)

So. This turned into a little bit of a tangent of why I don't get how it's so inconceivable to some people that Darius is truly capable of genuinely caring about Hunter and/or being able to grow into a parental figure that can do right by Hunter. Because we have canon evidence for all of these things.

2. Canon clues that I'm not just reaching

A lot of people seem to be taking it as a given that Hunter will or should end up with Camila based on canon. For the reasons given above, I don't think there's more canon basis for Camila parenting Hunter over Darius.

I also think it's worth noting that Hunter seems rather attached to Darius. During the draining spell, Willow and Amity try to help Eda while Hunter runs straight to Darius to try to wake him up.

In the human realm, Willow, Gus, and Amity draw pictures of their families. IIRC Gus is the only one who verbally mentions his dad. Luz doesn't talk about Eda and King or hang up any pictures, but she does draw them. Hunter doesn't draw anyone, but he verbally mentions one single person from the demon realm. And that person is Darius.

And I'll accept the hc that the way Darius treated Hunter before was just too unforgivable,

[mysteriawrites]

hi 🗣️ may i please request a bg3 matchup?? (i'm p sure i've done matchups for you in the past on my sideblog @frostfall-matches - i'd be happy to make this an exchange if you want!! 💪 you may ignore the fact that my requests are listed as closed lol)

raven / 20s / any pronouns / slight preference for male match but gals are fine too.

personality traits (and notes): introverted (distant, disinterested in getting close to many people, does not get lonely), extremely independent (often refuses to rely on others, hates when people step in to help without me asking for help), confident (arrogant, a bit prideful), straightforward (blunt, sometimes tactless), even-tempered (somewhat apathetic, rarely has strong emotional reactions, but is baseline content almost always), good sense of humor, playful, teasing, mischievous, realist that leans optimistic, curious (nosey, loves gossip), a bit of a troublemaker/rulebreaker, does not shy away from conflict (a bit combative with authority and people who don’t know what they’re doing), not sentimental, does not hold onto regrets, good at self-reflection, cold and a little mean when upset with someone.

hobbies: drawing (digital), painting (watercolor, acrylic), baking, cosplay, reading, taking care of plants, thrill-seeking activities, traveling.

likes: cats, sweets, good food, lattes, aromatic candles, cool weather, traveling, piercings, tattoos, puns (!), lazy days, learning foreign languages, cleaning, new experiences, people with a good sense of humor (quite subjective), when people banter back with me, people who develop their own opinions but are still willing to listen to other perspectives.

dislikes: bitter foods, strong scents, pessimism, hot weather, feeling restricted, possessiveness, conformity, having to be responsible for others, when people don’t stand up for themselves, overly anxious people, people-pleasers, when people act condescending towards me, people who try to force conversation with me.

types: intj-a ; 7w8 ; love languages: physical touch, quality time.

misc.: clumsy ; accidentally misuses slang or phrases bc i can never remember how they go ; able to pick up new skills relatively quickly ; studied french, korean, and latin in uni (also studied abroad) ; majors in international cultures/languages + minors in psychology and medieval history ; prone to being a bit directionless in life ; prone to bad luck but tries to find the humor in most situations ; life approach: to live a life of varied experiences, to not take life too seriously, to not dwell too much on the past.

physical description: 155cm, green eyes, round youthful face, curvy, dimple on one cheek, pale skin (sunburns so easily...), 5 piercings in one ear, 4+an industrial in the other, navel piercing. changes hair color/style/length frequently but it's currently mid back length and toned silver, almost always has straight bangs, hair is wavy.

in bg3 persona: wood elf ; main class ranger (gloomstalker) w/ rogue-like tendencies ; the child of merchant parents and did a lot of traveling with them when she was young but has decided to explore and adventure by herself in adulthood ; not really the academic type but is pretty book smart and willing to learn new things ; equal parts strategic and careless, depending on the situation.

Omg hi and thx for the request! Sure I’d love to turn this into a trade and thank you for all the matchups you’ve done for me in the past!

Astarion!!!

Lowkey this was an easy decision. I feel like you couldn’t be a better match for anyone else, but him. You guys have similar personalities with just enough differences to bring the necessary variety to the relationship.

I feel like you guys would definitely bump heads when first meeting due to similar traits (prideful, apathetic, loner), but once you both begin to care more for your party members including each other than sparks start to fly!

You get close very quickly because it’s so easy to banter and bounce off each other.

At first he finds you optimistic and care free nature a bit annoying at first, but then begins to find is refreshing when times are bleak.

I feel like when Astarion’s trying to seduce you for your own goals and you aren’t falling for it, it’ll be the classic troupe of where person A gets every person to swoon over them except person B which makes them want person B even more.

However when he actually starts falling for you he does get nervous and start to back off a bit, but oh no you’re not letting him get away from you that easily.

Due to your knowledge in psychology you’re able to notice his self destructive behaviors and talk him out of it, but ultimately let him take the lead in figuring out what he wants in life.

Also because of your blunt nature you’re able to deliver the hard truths that he needs to hear without sugur coating things.

Even after your mindflayer worm adventures, you two continue to adventure for awhile. Sharing lots if experiences and fun on the road.

If you get yourself into a tough altercation with some people on the road, Astarion’s charisma helps defuse the situation.

Astarion is still working on his trauma so you’ll have to work up to physical touch with him, but once you do he really likes being held and playing with your hair. He also likes to trace your tattoos.

Astarion is also an introvert so he understands how you need to have alone time as much as he himself does. Although sometimes you guys will be in the same room doing your own things and count it as quality time. (Yknow like comfortable silence)

When you’re having a chill day on the road or once your adventuring days are over, you guys have lazy days together. You’ll cuddle and he’ll read to you. You guys may get a bit intimate but don’t necessarily have sex (not saying it never happens though).

You guys exchange elvish traditions (or what astarion can remember of them) and talk about the history of faerun together.

He gets you a lot of souvenirs on the road usually different snacks and foods for you to try with the occasional scented candle or new set of paints. He even gets you seeds of the local plant life for you to grow.

You guys would get a cat. So many people say astarion is a cat person and I whole heartedly agree.

He (loves) hates your puns. He cringes so hard every time you make one (but he finds your smug face very adorable).

Yknow that popular headcanon about how Astarion’s lover would paint a picture of him so he can finally see what he looks like. Well if you would do that as like a birthday or anniversary present and man would full on cry from happiness at the gesture.

He just loves you so much and is so grateful to finally have someone in his life to bring him joy again.

Sorry id this kind of sucks im writing this early in the morning cause I was inspired.

Runners Up: Lae’zel, Karlach