#making the source of light themselves is so fun though

[whismann]

I wasn’t joking @jetcat-14

[o-sunny-day]

SCROLL FOR @forgettable-au ANGST :D

ok so ((WAILS LOUDLY))

WE KNOW HOW THIS GOES *breaks knuckles* ITS TIME TO TEAR APART MY ART BECAUSE PASSION

trust me, im a proFESSIONAL yapper at this point

This whole thing takes place within my own headcanon that “The Quiche Room” was one of many of Sans and Wingdings’ little hangout spots. They also really liked the echo flower there (maybe they planted it themselves-) Maybe thats why Papyrus is so unnerved and disturbed by echo flowers now…

Notice, the echo flower grows as they grow!

Oh yeah! I had fun drawing them grown in their kid outfits for 2. Wingdings can finally see his ankles

2 is also sorta a reference to my Radio Star comic, same stuff they did as kids, Wingdings working and Sans assisting, They haven’t changed too much yet. haven’t gotten the lab job. yet.

in 3, this is after they get the job at the lab and Wingdings realizes its a great place for supporting his unhealthy habits of seclusion and emotional repression. The echo flower is repeating something Wingdings said a while ago. I dont know what- fill in your own angst I suppose (I cant do EVERYTHING around here)

in 1 and 2, the light sources… are each other. Sans n Wd. Theyre each others lights. Each others stars (cries loudly and noticeably) but then for 3, the only light source is the echo flower. Yknow. The echo flower. with wingdings’ voice

4 is how the quiche room looks in the game 👍 Dunno whats sadder… Wingdings’ voice being removed because he’s in the void now, or because someone just talked over it without a second thought.

Oh yeah, and its empty because Sans and Papyrus don’t remember that ever being a place they hung out.

Yeah.

Yeah, im crying too. Its okay, let it out.

SANS AND GASTER SANS AND GASTER SANS AND GASTER (PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE) I need them to interact i’m gonna have an aneurism.

THIS PART IS GETTING ITS OWN SECTION BECAUSE CMON MAN, ITS SANS AND GASTER

It was said in this post that Sans knows he was involved in whatever accident Gaster had, that had MAJOR consequences, and made everything and everyone different.

That makes me wonder, does Sans feel any guilt?? like subconsciously or not, he knows he was involved, so does he suspect he could have done something to stop it, or did something bad, and he was at fault in some way?

I DONT THINK HE WAS

so in 5, Sans is asking “what happened.”

What happened to him, why is everything like this, was it his fault? what did he do? what did he NOT do???

And Gaster just replies “Nothing that wasn’t my own fault.”

OK THATS ENOUGH. WHITEBOARD DOODLES, ATTACK!!!!

also- I PROMISE IM WORKING ON THE DTIYS 😭😭😭 IVE GOT IDEAS IDK HOW TO EXECUTE EM

Heres a thing I made/am working on(???) that was inspired by the dtiys though :3

[vigilskeep]

hello! you know a lot of dragon age lore so i thought id ask you— i saw a post earlier that was discouraging to me aa trans person where the op said that veilguard having top surgery scars in the cc goes against established worldbuilding. does it make sense for top surgery to be possible in thedas? thanks

my rule of thumb is that in a world where healing spells exist, there’s absolutely no logical, believable reason for it not to be possible. you don’t have to go back and provide sources about historical surgeries—which is something i personally know nothing about—for this to be true

like, i just can’t take this line of thought seriously. ohhh we can have floating cities and magical neon lights and spirit healers who can mend injuries just by passively standing next to you, but we draw the line as soon as it’s something that would make our trans players happy! it’s so transparent. do not listen to these people or let them discourage you

if you want to get into the worldbuilding potential of it—which is just fun to do—we can probably guess that for the top surgery scars to be as neat as they seem to look in the veilguard character creator, similar to modern ones, magical healing was involved. now i do believe that the chantry might get suspicious of body-altering magic, that magical power is hoarded by the circles in the south and the wealthy in the north, and also that “out” trans people are a minority in thedas. so i’m not saying that this is something easy for your average guy to get hold of. that’s where you can feed it into backstory. are they powerful and connected enough that they could find specialists willing to go beyond the ordinary? or do they have underground connections to hidden apostate healers, whose only priority is what helps (or perhaps just how much you’re willing to pay)? do they belong to a culture that might not be restricted by the chantry’s norms about gender or magic, like the dalish or the rivaini? or do they belong to a mage-focused community or order, who among themselves do whatever they like? endless options

some might be referring to a line in dai from krem, a trans man, where you can ask him about potentially changing his body with magic and he essentially says he wouldn’t let magic that could do that anywhere near his body, though when he was younger he might have dreamed about the possibilities. firstly, krem is absolutely not the gold standard for trans representation and nobody should care about being flexible from what bioware put out a decade ago. secondly, krem is a random mercenary who knows one (1) mage, who spends the entire time insisting she’s not a mage. i very much doubt he’s the no. 1 source for what might be magically possible in this or any regard

also ultimately, and i cannot express this enough, you can do whatever you want forever. it could be absolutely fundamentally impossible in-world somehow and it would still not be that serious to be “unrealistic” in the dragon video games. don’t let anyone discourage you from making the character you want to make. it being an option makes it canonically part of thedas, end of. they put it in the game and nobody bitching about it can take it out

[coeurify]

perfect girl | ellie williams.

tlou2 ellie williams x fem!reader. college modern au universe. word count 6.8k. proofread barely. part two here

ellie is the most known dealer on campus, and reader is a stuck up, bitchy, sorority girl. somehow ending up near each other at every party, despite constant fighting. this party is no different, at first

this is smut, 18+ only. included use of pet names, mean!ellie, mean!reader, name calling.. fingering r!receiving.. etc. its a bit filthy. i wrote when high

Honestly, you hated frat parties. The loud music, the humid air and noisy college students that all reaked of jungle juice and sweat. None of it appealed to you— you always left feeling dirty and with a headache. But being in the university’s biggest sorority meant it was sort of a needed appearance.

Even now, when you were stressed beyond belief over the three different exams on monday morning. You had still been dragged out by your sorority sisters with the promise of a great party.

It never was great though. Never.

Usually you found yourself shoo-ing off shirtless frat boys advances, cup in your hand that had a bit too much cheap vodka and too little juice. If you had to deal with these things, you may as well be tipsy enough for it.

Though, the alcohol never made you any less in control of yourself. Control was what you valued most, being able to easily keep yourself in check. Making sure your well taken care of clothes never crinkled, ensuring no piece of hair was out of place. This in turn usually meant you took the role of watching over your sorority sisters. Eyeing any boys who got too touchy when they were drunk, snapping at frat guys when they didn’t take a hint. cleaning their face of tears or sweat, reapplying their mascara or lip gloss when they couldn’t. Holding their drinks with your perfectly manicured hands when they needed to pee.

You didn’t judge them for how they acted, you knew they were just having fun. Sometimes you wish you could let go like that too, join in on their dances.. giggle loudly and flirt with boys with drunken courage. But you never did. You probably wouldn’t tonight, even when your friend Dina had taken the role of sober one of the group so you could try and have fun. You still just stood straight up and watched on.

You were untouchable, everyone knew it. You saw the way boys looked at you— like they were falling over themselves just for a chance you might talk to them. Girls whispered about you, whether it be good or bad.. you didn’t exactly care. You had been called a prissy bitch one too many times to truly give a shit what other twenty somethings had to say about your attitude. You enjoyed being something no one could reach. It made you feel powerful. You rarely gave anyone that wasn’t your friends the time of day at these things, and god did it drive people crazy.

You always positioned yourself somewhere like the drink table at every party, watching on as if it was a live show for you to consume. In some ways it was.. you were always a watcher, never involved. So looking on was usually your only source of fun at these things.

Tonight was no different— eyes steady on the large group of people dancing, more so falling over each other, in the center of the room. It was grossly humid, and the flashing lights hurt your eyes. Everyone was pressed too close together— far too big of a crowd for this tiny off campus fraternity.

You found a more open place between the scratchy and old couch and the pop up plastic table. It held half empty bottles and a punch bowl full of some concoction that made you shake your head at girls when they tried to take a cup.

You stand stiffly against the wall— refusing to sit, let alone lean against the couch next to you. You didn't even want to imagine how disgusting it was.. swearing it was a lighter shade of grey last time you were here. This choice of station however was opening yourself up to a night of pure torture from a particular presence that seemed to haunt every. fucking. frat party.

Ellie Williams. Right on cue she walked over, ignoring you as she plopped down onto the couch with a few of the frat boys. She opens a little bag and turns in to face them. Of course. Obviously the stoners would choose the couch as their designated spot for the night.

Even if she had not acknowledged you, you already were burning with annoyance. The orange lighting currently overhead painted you the same color your insides felt. A growing flame, dull and orange in the pit of your stomach.

Ellie was a usual attendee at these parties. But not with a group of friends or some sorority like a normal person. No, Ellie was the chosen dealer for most fraternities of the university.. meaning she almost always showed up to smoke and give out to stingy college students.

But god, you could not understand what made her the choice for these people. You found her utterly obnoxious. She was loud— had the mouth of a sailor, and was always making god awful jokes. She had no shame— outwardly talking to whoever she wanted however she wanted, flirting with girls no matter the situation. Because Ellie also referred to sit out on the side of the parties, it meant you unfortunately spent a lot of time around her. You heard every stupid joke, smelt every gross joint, watched every girl swoon over her atrocious flirting. It was miserable really.

And god did she love to annoy you. It was too easy. She had discovered that at the start of last spring semester, and since then, almost a year ago, had made it a fun game for her. It became routine — and you swore she did it on purpose. Found somewhere close to you, invaded your space, and made the party even worse. Ellie would never admit that though.

Tonight wasn’t different. You couldn’t avoid your eyes drifting to where she was collecting cash from a few frat guys, loudly laughing and making jokes about some Jurassic Park movie that a frat guy promised to put on the projector later.

“Nah, the second one is way better!” The frat boy, Josh from Sigma something-something (you didnt care to remember the names) argued.

Ellie quickly shook her head, and you noticed she was wearing that messy half up half down hairstyle you once told her looked dumb. “You fucking idiot, the first is way better! It's iconic and so are the dinosaurs in it!” she fights back, lightheartedly shoving Josh’s arm.

God, did she have to be so loud? It was already loud enough with the shitty music playing. You tuned out the rest of the conversation.. or attempted to. Ellie’s laugh made its way up and over the beat of the song playing. You looked over again, watching the way her head fell back. Even from here you could see the freckles on her face. The low colorful flashing lights of the room made them hard to see sometimes, though. Not that you cared.

Eventually, Josh and the three other boys got up and moved away from the couch— emptying the line of sight from you to Ellie. She caught your gaze before you could look away, and smiled that stupid cocky smile she always did.

“Need somethin’ princess?” Ellie questioned as she scooted to the seat closest to the edge you stood closest to. The name made you clench your fist tightly around the cup in your hands. She had adopted this nickname for you after commenting about 1200 times how you dressed and acted at these parties. ‘Stuck up princess’ she had called you after one particular comment. It stuck after that.

“Nope,” you popped the P, sipping at the vodka in your cup and refusing to meet her eyes again.

“You were staring.”

“Was not, you got my attention by being obnoxiously loud,” you bit back.

Ellie held her hands up in surrender, “Whatever you say.”

You scoffed, turning your nose up and looking at the center of the party again. Mentally you counted your friend group and where they all were in the crowd. One finger came to press a strand of hair back into your hairdo, and then press a hand to smooth your shirt. You just wanted to get through the next hour or two and get home to study.

You can hear the flick of a lighter next to you, and bite back a sigh. Ellie had been sitting here all of five minutes and had already resorted to smoking. Unsurprisingly.

When the smell soon invades the small space between you, and that flame of annoyance in your belly grows to a small blaze.

At first you ignore it, sniffing and rubbing your nose like it would make the smell disappear. You glance around the room, eyeing some particularly loud and annoying men who were whooping and hollering. Soon though, the smell became too much. You turned to face the couch.

“Ugh,” you make a noise of disgust, loud enough for Ellie to turn her head to you. You pair the sound with a (very dramatic) scrunched up nose. “You smell horrible.”

Ellie smiles in a lazy sort of way, legs spread comfortably on the couch and head leaned slightly to look at you. She makes it a point to blow the next puff from the joint straight at you— enjoying the way your hands come to swat away the smoke like it was poison. “S’ just weed princess.. can't hurt you.”

Your arms cross, and Ellie watches as they press against the pretty baby blue lace shirt you're wearing.. too clean, too soft for a party like this. “It can make me stink though, like I already pointed out. Some of us care about things like personal hygiene, Williams,” you argue, to which she whistles, adding a quiet, “damn, low blow..”

She sits up straighter, leaning forward to inspect you. Seeing the pretty skirt that falls to your mid thigh— Ellie doesn’t doubt even for a moment that the white fabric caught lingering stares of every horny drunk college boy in the room when you walked in with your group.

But here you were, choosing to insult her instead of entertaining a single one of them.

“What's the reason for stick up your ass tonight?” She asks, making your eyes roll.

“Oh screw you, I’m acting perfectly reasonably.”

Ellie actually laughed at that, loudly enough to make you turn your head in embarrassment. “The way you act with me is never reasonable actually, but tonight is extra bad. You look stiffer and didn’t even attempt to be civil.”

It annoyed you even more that she noticed the stress radiating off of you so easily. She always could— it made her even better at pulling on the threads of you that made you most annoyed. She knew how to get a rise out of you.

“It's absolutely none of your business, Ellie,” you snap. Maybe it was a little harsh for such a simple question, but the auburn haired girl beside you got that out of you easily.

“God, would it kill you to be a little less bitchy for one night?” her green eyes narrowed in at you and she took another puff of the joint. Your eyes followed as she tilted her head up to the ceiling to blow out the smoke.

“Fuck you,” you mumble.

“Fuck you too, princess.”

There's a moment of heavy silence between the two of you, lights flashing now between a deep blue and green. The toe of your shoe tapped into the wood of the floor, the repeated motion serving as a distraction from the annoyance that Ellie caused. Your mind falls back to the exams you have to study for tonight.

The distraction quickly ends when the voice you had come to recognize anywhere popped up again. “Can you chill out? I can hear your shoe tapping from here.”

You huff, biting the inside of your cheek. “Can you shut the hell up? Go back to your joint and leave me alone.”

Ellie just scoffs, mumbling something about you needing the smoke more than her.

You ignore it, but can't deny how your mind wanders to the comment. What would it be like to smoke? Would it take the edge off like everyone said? You had only tried once or twice before.. both at a small get together where you ended up having to sober up quickly to care for your drunken friends.

“Seriously,” Ellie says a bit louder. “Come sit and have a smoke.”

“Excuse me?” you look at her like she had suggested the two of you take your clothes off mid party. Or she had suddenly grown two heads. It would offend her, the clear disgust— if she didn’t know you so well.

“There's a huge group of drunk guys walking over right now-“ she pointed with one of her fingers to where they were passing some game of beer pong. “If you stay there you’ll just get more pissed off and strung up when they bump into you and shit.”

You eye the group, slightly annoyed that Ellie was again right about how you would react. You glance then at the couch, at the weird dark stain and uncomfortable looking material. “I'm not smoking. But if you want me to sit? Take off your sweatshirt.”

Now it was Ellie’s turn to ask, “Excuse me?”

You make a face at her, pointing to the gross couch. “I’m not sitting on that nasty couch. If you want me to sit? take off your sweatshirt and let me use that.”

You know it's a bratty request, and neither you or Ellie look away from each other for a moment, not knowing who was going to make the first move. You almost regret it, and then Ellie reaches to the bottom of her sweatshirt.

It sends some sort of shockwave through you when she pulls the material over her head. You convince yourself it's because you feel like you have won, gotten your way over the girl you hated. Definitely not because her undershirt rode up for a moment, or that her sleeve tattoo was now on display.

“You’re such a fucking bitch,” she says in a exasperated tone, but still lays the sweatshirt across the seat on next to her on the couch.

You smile sarcastically, “Mhm, thanks,” you move to the front of the couch, holding your skirt down as you sit on top of her sweater and press forward, sitting straight up so the back of your shirt doesn't hit the couch. You felt Ellie’s eyes on you, on the very large gap between you. “I can't infect you with something you know?” the auburn haired girl says a bit slowly.

“Haven’t I said it a million times? You smell bad.”

Ellie’s lip quirk into a smile and she doesn’t reply, placing the joint between her lips again and lighting it for another drag.

Just like she described, the group of college boys clambered over to the drink table, invading the corner you were just standing in to shout loudly and put the bottles wildly into cups. You cringe, shifting in your seat. You wouldn’t admit it, but you were glad Ellie had asked you to sit now.

The two of you didn’t talk, for a moment you watch Ellie’s freckled cheeks suck in slightly as she takes a drag, and watch her lips part to blow it out. Unable to tear your eyes away until a new voice comes from in front of you.

“Hey, Y/N right?” Ellie glances up for a split second before going back to looking uninterested in the boy trying to start conversation with you.

“Yep,” you answer plainly as you look at him. You recognized him in a blurry sort of way. His name started with an L… Lucas.. Leo.. La-

“Im Liam, from the last party,” he explains before you finish your train of thought. “Right, Liam.”

Liam bounces a bit on his heels, which embarrasses you. You fight the urge to curl your lip at the sight. “I was wondering if you wanted to go chill with a few of my friends and girls from your sorority upstairs? We’re gonna smoke and play games like seven minutes in heaven.”

Beside you it feels like someone has stiffened, but you ignore it. You let your face drop to look even more uninterested. “Seven minutes in heaven? Really? What are we? Fifteen?”

Liam flushes, clearing his throat to talk again. You just shake your head to stop him. “I don't smoke either so no thank you, Liam. Im good.”

The boy slumps a little. “Right. Maybe next time,” and then he turns on his heel and walks off.. looking like a dog with its tail between their legs.

Ellie chuckles, making that fire come back to your belly. You turn quickly— eyeing her. “What's funny, Williams?”

“He totally wanted to fuck you,” Ellie shrugs, watching until Liam disappears up the stairs.

You try to ignore the heat creeping up your neck, picking at your painted nails to keep the blush from reaching your cheeks. “Fuck off.”

“Trust me, I know these guys. Every party one of them tries to get in your pants, and you turn them down every single time.”

Ellie looks smug as she says it— and you want to wipe the look off her fucking face. Acting like she knew something, like she could tell you more about what was happening than you could.

“You don’t know shit Ellie,” you argue, unable to bite back the slightly misplaced anger anymore, leaning forward. “Why do you even care? Are you obsessed with me or something? Not everyone wants to fuck everything that walks.”

The words have a bite to them, bitter on your tongue. Your chest’s rise and fall is speeding up as you finish speaking. You watch as Ellie’s eyes get darker in the light, the flashing lights stop into a solid red as some song with the color name begins.

“And why do you care who I fuck? hm? Maybe you do need to get laid by one of those guy’s falling all over you. Might make you a little less of a strung up bitch,” Ellie’s voice is harder now, aiming to displease you more so than before.

It works, the flame in you spilling over to a whole fucking house fire at the comment. Your hand instinctively grips your cup, reaches forward and dumps it all over Ellie’s chest.

Silence follows, and you immediately regret it.. knowing you took it too far. This quiet is uncomfortable enough to make you squirm, pressing further away from the wet patch growing on the cushion. Ellie looks at her shirt, very slowly raising her head to look dead at you.

“Get up.” It's not a question when she says it, harsher tone than she had ever used with you.

For once, you don’t immediately bite back. “Wha-“

“Get up. You just fucking dumped your drink on me, you can help me fix it,” Ellie demands again. She puts out the joint on the table nearby, messy enough to make you cringe.

You can't tell how red her face is because of the lights.. but you are sure she is fuming. The way she is stiff and slow with her movements to stand a clue enough.

That’s why you don't fight to scramble to your feet after her when she starts walking. Your fingers grip at the sweatshirt under you, holding it in your hand as she pushes past people to get to a room nearby. You follow quickly behind— watching curious eyes follow you chasing after the other. The red lights hide the growing blush on your cheeks, the music pounding in tandem with your heart.

When she pushes open a door, you squeeze in quickly after her.

Ellie’s tattooed arm reaches to the side of you where the doorknob is, and her fingers move to lock it. You swallow at the proximity, ducking away quickly.

She doesn’t speak as she peels the now wet shirt from her frame— throwing it on the floor near the bed. Your eyes don't look away as she does so. In fact, you can’t tear them away.

Her body is toned, more so than you would have expected. Not that you thought of her shirtless before or anything. Her fingers ghost gently over her own skin, wiping any extra wetness. Your pupils follow the way the digits move.

What doesn’t surprise you however, is the sports bra that lays beneath the shirt. It's snug against her skin, and you watch as she tugs it back into the right place. You watch her breathe, heavy and unsteady, a clear sign she is not exactly calm at the moment.

“You are such a fucking brat, you know that?” Her blazing eyes meet your own— and you almost shrink. This Ellie.. She was different. You are no longer burning with the anger her face usually ignites in you. No, this fire is all different.

“Oh cat got your tongue now, princess? for once you don't have a stuck up comment to make hm?” She steps closer to you, looking down to where her sweatshirt hangs from your fingertips.

“Put my sweatshirt back on me.”

The words make your mouth go slack, finally mustering up the courage to speak. “Fuck off, Ellie.”

“Im serious,” her hair is more messy now, strands falling in front of her face as she stares at you. “You made me take it off for you, so now you can put it back on me. Fair is fair, princess.”

“You can’t be serious,” you scoff, shaking your head at the suggestion.

“You do it or I go out there, tell the frat hosting that you’re a crazy bitch who spilt her drink on me. You and your sorority sisters would get blacklisted from every party before those pretty eyelashes could even blink.”

It's a threat. A threat to your power, the social standing within your group and the general university. A threat to your ego as a whole, the thought you would be the cause of something like that. It also was a quick reminder that no matter what you said to her at these parties, she was the one with the power. You could insult and poke at her all you wanted.. but Ellie was the one with half of the people out in that room down the hallway wrapped around her finger. Her.. business determined that.

You purse your lips, meeting the green eyes staring at you again. It's another fight for power. Seeing who will crack under the tension first. You find yourself noticing the freckles that dust her face again, and a small red mark on her cheek you had not really paid attention to before. Your heart hammers against your ribcage, and you look away in defeat.

Ellie knows she won, stepping even closer to you, enough that you can feel the heat radiating off of her. It does something to you that you wouldn’t like to admit, your knees going ever so slightly weak. She pushes a fallen strand of auburn hair back behind her ear while waiting for your next move.

It comes a second later, shuffling the sweatshirt in your hand to the right position, leaning forward to push the hoodie part over Ellie’s head, fingers shaking when they brush against her bare shoulder. You can't admit to yourself that it isn’t because of some annoyance that you were reacting like this. She helps a bit when you drag the sweatshirt down her chest by pushing her arms through the sleeves.

When it's finished, you both linger for a moment, your nails still near her waistline. It only ends when she steps back, gaze still set on you.

“You gonna say sorry?” she asks, eyebrow raising expectantly.

You shake your head. “Fuck. Off.”

Ellie tsks, watching your every movement. She didn’t ignore how your eyes had been all over her tonight, how you couldn’t look away when her shirt was off. And god, what would be a better way to win whatever this was than taking what she wanted from you.

“Cmon, you know I was right about what I said,” she steps around you and then forward, smiling as you continue to back away everytime she gets closer. when the back of your leg hits the bed, you stop. “You do need to get fucked, might make you a little less miserable to be around.”

Her voice has fallen more quiet, a little something new to the way she spoke.

“But you don’t want one of those dicks outside to do it, do you?” it's accusatory when it's said, enough to make you realize where this conversation was going.

God, you would never admit it out loud. not even to yourself. Everytime you avoided a guy’s advance to instead bicker with Ellie all night. The times you insulted her about something because it made you warm all over, like a certain hairstyle or shirt. You blamed her a lot for annoying you, for those jokes she makes— for how she bothers you. But in honesty, you just hated that you couldn’t look away. Not from her face, her hands, the way she smokes, or spreads her legs open when she sits. It’s absolutely infuriating how much you think of her. But you had always kept it deep enough to not think about it until she brought it up herself.

“No, that's why you always turn them down.. why you always look at me after you do. God, you don't even realize it do you?” A shocked sort of chuckle escaped her lips, like she couldn’t believe this realization either. Her finger moves to a strand of your hair that must have fallen while you chased after her.

“You want me. You want me to fuck you, don’t you princess? That's why you are always such a little priss, isn't it. Get you so hot and bothered you just can't help but be mean?”

When you don't answer, Ellie reaches forward quickly to grab your wrist, gaining your attention. “Answer me.”

“No- I don’t fucking want you Ellie,” you choke it out, like it burned your throat to say. It was worse than a shot of whatever they had outside this door.

“If you don’t want me, then walk away right now. But this is your only chance. No more after this. You can't get one of those asshole frat guys instead. No more entertaining the little arguments you start. No more ignoring when you stare at m-“

You can't even let her finish her words before you crash forward, meeting her lips in an immediately messy kiss. She swears against your lips before dropping your wrist, arms instead moving to your hips, pressing you flush against her body. You want to pull away, regain the control you so desperately cling to— want to run off and out of the party.

But once the kiss deepens, once her tongue swipes against your lips.. you’re a goner.

You whimper when she bites your bottom lip harshly, and she swallows the sound with another burning kiss. You pull her to fall back onto the bed with you, and she immediately manhandles you further onto the bed, taking position over you and not apologizing when your head slams roughly into the headboard.

“Asshole,” you whine, she digs her fingers into your hip to shut you up as her teeth drag down to your neck, wet kisses and small bites pressing there until she finds the spot that makes you shiver, hand slapping against her arm, pretty nails pressing into the skin.

She bites harder, pulling a louder yell from you. She then sucks over the spot, soothing it with another swipe of her tongue. The throbbing feeling will no doubt result in a mark— and Ellie seems to know exactly that.

“Everyone’s gonna know,” she mumbles against your skin as she sucks another spot, controlling your hips with one hand when they try to buck up.

“All those other girls are gonna know when you wake up with these littered all over your neck tomorrow-“ another bite. “Gonna know what happened, what the perfect little sorority girl did with me.”

The comment draws another noise from you, and the heat pools between your legs, embarrassingly turned on by the thought of that humiliation sure to follow walking out of this room later. You can feel your panties going damp when she doesn’t let up the assault on your neck and collarbone.

You can smell the weed on her when her head dips closer to you again, and for once you don’t mind it. You meet her lips, shaky hand still gripping at the inked skin of her arm.

She's so controlled in her movements, enjoying how you are already a squirmy mess, enjoying how she has control. It's nothing like the Ellie she was in public, loud and joking. No, she was completely serious and calculated with every single swipe of her finger, every movement of her lips. One hand roughly goes to your chest, pushing up your shirt above your breasts, not bothering to even do the kindness of taking it off all the way.

“Mm, no bra?” Ellie questions mockingly, pulling back from your wet lips— acting like she hadn’t noticed the lack of one the moment you turned to face her at this damn party.

You shake your head, reduced to little words.

Ellie watches you carefully, at your puffy lips, at the way your perfect hair is now falling in chunks against the pillow. God, what a sight. You, untouchable and pristine.. reduced to being fucked on a stranger’s bed in a frat house. By her.

“Want me to touch you here?” she questions, fingers ghosting over your nipples.. smiling when they pebble at the softest touch. Your back arches, searching for more skin to skin as you nod quickly.

“Nuh Uh- words, princess, need you to say it.”

You glance at her, one side of you fighting against this feeling of submission you can feel yourself falling into. In an act of defiance, your hand comes up and over her larger one, pressing it down against the skin of your breast, breathing out a moan instead of answering her question.

This however was a bad idea, and she immediately pulls completely back, quick to grab your face harshly between her palm. “You fucking brat,” Ellie seeths, your lips pressing open just slightly at how hard she is pressing her hand. The roughness only makes you wetter, and you attempt to squeeze your thighs together for some sort of friction.. but Ellie is faster, slotting a knee in between your legs as she looks down at you, free arm holding herself up.

“No, you don’t get anything from me, no relief for that throbbing feeling you have im sure,” she says it so cockily that you think you may melt into the sheets beneath you. “Not till you admit you want me. Admit you want me to touch you.”

Your face burns a bright red, angry and embarrassed at the same time. You tried to avoid this admittance, ready to die on the hill to protect your already bruised ego.

But then Ellie moves her knee slightly, a shock goes straight through your core. Even the smallest movement had you trying to push down against her needily. She squeezes your face harder. “Just say it, I can make you feel so much better if you just admit it.”

The line your dignity was tiptoeing on is fraying, taken over by the bowling ball amount of weight from the desire in your stomach. The second her knee moves again, the string breaks.

“Please,” you beg, watching as Ellie’s eyes light up at the words, “Ellie I want you to touch me.”

Ellie smiles, reveling in how embarrassed you look. “Where baby?”

You suck in a breath, too far gone to keep fighting, “my pussy, please, please Ellie.. need you to.”

You’re squirming all over now, whining and feeling your throat tighten. Your lip gloss is all over your (and Ellie’s for that matter) chin, and your shirt is still just pushed over your chest. It makes Ellie shake her head. “God, you look pathetic. What happened to you hm? Where’s that put together girl you love to brag about being?”

Any words to snap back die in your throat, her mean tone is making your mind too foggy. The way you are totally at the mercy of her body, of the way she talks to you.. It’s addicting. The feeling of letting go of that control and power you hold so tightly onto.. It's almost as good as the sensation of her knee starting to move more regularly against your center.

“You look like a whore,” she laughed meanly. You are sure it’s true, your skirt is falling down, your hair has snapped out of its tie. Her hand lets go of your chin, and you move your mouth slightly at the soreness. The freedom is short- lived however, and two fingers are tapping your cheek soon after.

“Open,” Ellie says, smiling when you do so immediately. “See, it's not hard to be a good girl.”

She sinks the two fingers into your waiting mouth, one quick demand to, “Suck,” is all you need to close your mouth around them.

You aren’t careful about it, drool seeping out the corner of your mouth when she starts thrusting the fingers in and out slightly, watching in amusement as she curls her long fingers slightly, making you gag. “So fucking messy,” she mumbles.

Her pupils are just as blown out as yours when she speaks again, pulling her fingers out after deeming they were wet enough. A line of spit follows, connecting to your lips.

She wipes the excess across your face, furthering that deep embarrassment that builds in you. “‘m gonna fuck you now, princess.”

She says it as she makes you sit up with her on the bed, arm pulling to set you up how she wanted, knees tucked under your thighs on each side of her lap. You let her push and tug you around— fully dumbed out for her at this point. Desperate for some relief.

her fingers play with your skirt for a moment, and you both watch intently as they disappear under it. You push into her, earning a quick look. “Be good,” the girl demands.

You stop your movements, mumbling something Ellie can't understand. The pad of her finger slides over your clothed slit— humming at the wet feeling.

“You’re fucking soaked,” she shook her head, “All from what? Cause I was mean to you? Just from my knee, baby? How pathetic.”

Another whine rips from your throat, head falling to her shoulder. She shrugs it to force your head up again. “Want ya to look at me while I do this,” she explains— green eyes now mostly black as they meet your own. You nod, trying to please her enough for the next move.

“Atta girl..” she praises.

Your panties are pushed to the side as she sinks a singular finger into you— both of you moaning at the feeling. You’re so warm and tight around her that she gets dizzy, a warmth pooling in between her own legs. But tonight, It was about you. It was about proving who had the control here.. who could make you feel so good.

“Fuck,” you blubber, not getting a chance to savor the feeling before shes moving it in and out quickly, and then she is adding another finger.. and a minute after that, another. It's stretching you so well, so perfectly that you swear you could come right there. But you don’t, eyes set on her own— a hard look on her face as she watches your reactions. She leans closer, wanting to hear every little breath, every whimper.

“What would they think, hm?” Ellie huffs, pressing further into you. “All those frat boys who eye you up at every party,” she adds with a particularly hard thrust. “What do you think they would say if they found out it was me you got up that pretty little skirt first?” She whispers against your ear. Each word is emphasized with a press of her fingers, each rougher.. deeper, than the last.

You can feel your cheeks burning, and you blink away the tears welling in your eyes. You can't help the reaction— it's too much. She’s too much. The feeling is stealing all coherent words and thoughts from your mind— making you a teary and whining mess.

It made a fire flick in Ellie’s lower stomach— knowing she was the cause of pristine, pretty, perfect you— looking so messy. So fucked out. All from just her fingers. From her words.

“Too dumb to answer?” she teases, “too drunk on my fingers to even say anything?”

You shake your head like it isn’t true, and she slows her hand. You shake, trying to thrust yourself down onto them.

“Tell me then princess, tell me none of them could fuck you like this. No one could get you this fucking pathetic other than me.”

Fat tears are rolling down your cheeks now, lip quivering as you search for more friction. “Please, please el,” you cry, “No one else no one else, just you-“

All of your words slur together, and your nails dig into Ellie’s shoulder enough to make her hiss. The answer seems good enough, and she resumes her quick and harsh movements, fingers curling to hit that spot that made your mouth fall open, tears dripping past your lips.

“Fuck yea, only me,” she groans, your words pushing her to make you come even more now, thumb rubbing against your clit. It coaxes downright pornographic noises from you. Ones that someone had to have heard. You don’t give a fuck though, not right now.

“M’ gonna come,” you whine, face falling to Ellie’s shoulder again, pressing your nose into the crook of her neck. This time Ellie allows it— too focused on the wet sounds of her fingers moving in and out of you under the now ruined skirt.

“Alright baby, you can come,” Ellie coos— finally showing a bit of kindness to you as you clench around her fingers. “Come for me, princess.”

The cord in your stomach snaps, and you have to bite at Ellie’s neck to stop from screaming. The orgasm hits you like a fucking train, shaking harshly.

Ellie works you through it, mumbling compliments against you. “So pretty, so messy and perfect for me,” she hums. When she is sure you have calmed down enough, she slowly pulls her fingers out, and then lays you back against the bed. You sink into the mattress, cheeks red and wet with tears. She admires you, messy fingers pressing to her own lips to get a taste. The flavor of you, god Ellie thinks she may be addicted. She sucks her fingers clean and for a moment debates ringing another orgasm out of you with her tongue. But the look on your face, how tired you look.. she decides to save it for another time.

For now she stands, searching around until she finds the attached bathroom, disappearing into it.

Your eyes search for her, feeling needy. “El-“ you whimper.

“I'm just getting a rag to clean you up baby,” she explains from the open door— and you relax when she walks back out with a warm small rag.

She joined you back on the bed, coaxing your legs open as she very carefully cleans you off. The friction makes more tears drop from your eyes.

“Aw princess,” she pouts— wiping with her other hand to get the tears off of your cheek and drool off your chin. “So pathetic looking.. so pretty.”

The switch between praise and degradation makes you dizzy again, eyes closing for a second.

When shes done cleaning you up, you grab her wrist when she tries to stand. “ w’nna make you feel good el,” you beg. It takes Ellie a moment to match your whiny voice to that of the girl she knew outside of this bedroom, but when she comes back to reality— she shakes her head.

“Later baby, promise. You’re too tired, wanna get you back to your place.”

The promise to not just abandon after this makes your heart twist in your chest, that cold front that Ellie put on while fucking you straying away now.

You nod, letting Ellie help you sit up.

“Ready to walk through that door?” she asks, quirking an eyebrow.

A tired laugh bubbles in your throat just at the thought, cheeks hot all over again.

“Yea. Yea, I’ll just say we got into a fist fight.”

“Fucking brat.”

[krowlovesinazuma]

Prologue:

Life was often disappointing. Looking at the world around them, y/n often had this thought resurface. So gray, dull, repetitive, tiresome... It was hard not to think like this, especially when you had such wonderful worlds to see inside of your phone! Sure it was just a reward after going through bothersome real life tasks, but at least it was a source of color and light into their life.

And nowhere was this more true than in the world of Genshin Impact. Was that any surprise though? The sceneries, characters, stories, it was all so eye catching! But of course, with so many to choose from, everyone has to have favorite places to visit and sources of content. Y/n's choice? Inazuma, of course! To many, this wasn't a surprising choice, as this region was one crafted with care and passion.

That's why y/n put so much time of their life into this small game filled with so much soul, especially when they had a favorite to prefer! And with a favorite region came favorite characters! However, this little game had a far stronger soul than many would suspect. After all, when writings on the internet spoke about self aware characters, it was easy to treat it as just a fun imaginary scenario.

However, interestingly enough, something special happened in y/n's game. Yes, stories of the creator rang wide and far across the entire lands of Teyvat, but they were old, degraded, forgotten by some and discarded as fairy tales by most. Thanks to your love, however, a certain special region felt something special.

Inazuma was a land filled with legends come true and old traditions remembered amongst all, so the stories of the creator were still relevant there. And when suddenly, some influential people of the islands began to feel a light sensation in their bodies, leading them on adventures and making them stronger as soon as the traveler arrived at the archipelago, the dots were easy to connect.

Using connections, they realized that they were the only ones that felt this sensation, or at least the only ones that had associated it with the tales of the creator. At first, some wanted to spread the good word and alert the other regions, but the people in charge realized something alarming. While yes, their influential characters were gaining strength and happiness, wouldn't it be dangerous if other regions suddenly had the same powers? Wouldn't it be safer to keep it a local secret? After all, tourists would just assume it was a silly folk tale, and they would earn the safety if disasters were to come.

So, while they decided to keep this secret from the rest of Teyvat, they began to worship you alongside the rest of their gods. You were far greater than them however, as some could claim that your presence made their lives much better: General Kujou Sara, head priestess Yae Miko, courier Kirara, even the Shogun herself had spoken highly of this creator. They all showed devotion towards them, and desired to keep their love.

There was a sudden change in the middle of this strange situation in your account. One night, a particularly tiresome day of work left y/n exhausted, both physically and mentally. They turned on their laptop, eager to get to playing, but as they began moving and doing commissions, they felt far too tired. It wasn't long before they fell asleep, their head squeezing the keys. It was then, with the screen flashing right at their face, that an error happened in the game. The game recognizes you as a critical character in the game, and Inazuma worshipped you far too much for your influence to be something remote. The screen flashed brighter than your world could ever aspire to, and suddenly y/n was no more.

When they woke up, they found themselves in a field, with the grass hugging their picture. They were well rested, far too well for having fallen asleep at the desk... Wait a minute. Looking around, they knew exactly the location they were in! This wasn't their boring old world, this was the bright Inazuma! But hold on, they had read stuff about this, and how some stories like this turned incredibly dark, and terrifying... They ran some tests.

//tw: small injury mention//

Taking out a swiss army knife they kept in their pocket for convenience, they made a small cut to their finger, and much like they had read so much, they weren't bleeding like normal, but instead a few drops of glittering gold dropped! Letting out a relieved sigh, they knew that they were a legitimate creator. Then, they checked their pockets, and they still had the phone there, so that they could still control the world through there. All was good in their checklist! Now it was just time to get out there, and enjoy whatever they could in this strange situation...

[somegirlontheinternet135]

Ok but, how cool would it be if there was a click & point adventure game and dating sim based around The Beasts

Like, imagine you, the player, woke up in a dark, unknown forest. You don't know how, or why, you got there, but one thing's for sure, you don't want to stay for long, who knows what kind of horrors could be lurking in the darkness. . ? Quickly you make use of the environment, gathering wood & making a fire (via a minigame) in hopes it'll alert some cookies to your location, and while it doesn't work at first, it does give a certain someone, or something, a beacon to your location. . .

As you sit before the fire you just built, you begin to notice something was off. . . the forest you were in, it was quiet, eerily quiet, normally at night, many forest would be bustling with some sort of life: the sounds of night beasts, owls in the night, maybe the occasional cricket, but there was nothing. What only adds to this uncanny wood were its lack of creatures, not once did you encounter any sort of beasts on your journey. . . both these factors alone made you question what was really happening, is this all a dream? were you going crazy? questions were racing through your head, till finally, something snaps you out of it. . .

"Ooooooh!~ What do we have here?~"

"Has a little cookie come by to give me a visit?~"

A voice from the darkness pulls you out of your thoughts, jolting you onto your feet. Hearing that so suddenly within such a vacant space, you could've sworn you were alone. . ! You frantically look around, desperately trying to find the source of the voice, but the thing only laughs at you. . .

"W-Who's there?! show yourself!!"

"*Ehehe he he he HE HE HE HE!*"

"Try looking up here, darling~"

Your attention was slowly drawn to a tree behind you. On one of the branches, two heterochrome eyes staired at your from below, taking you off-guard, was that. . . a cookie? The creature made zero attempts to hide themselves as he jumps off the tree branch, over your fire. Light from the flames revealed their figure, they appeared to be some sort of jester, its figure & face making them resemble that of a cat. They do a bow before finally introducing themselves

"Shadow Milk Cookie, the world's favorite trickster~"

"Pleasure to meet you!"

In this scenario, the player is given two options, each of course having a different outcome:

Run Away

Sprinting away in fear will, of course, cause Shadow Milk to chase, eventually getting caught, though this does increase his interest in you

"*heh he he HE HE HE!* where are you going you silly little thing?!~"

"That was so much fun!~ I think I'm starting to like you already!~"

Standing Your Ground & Ask Questions

Respectably, you don't anything regarding the fallen heroes, but asking more questions does leave Shadow Milk upset

"H-How could you not know who I am?!"

"Shadow Milk Cookie, actor, playwright, dictator, does that not right a bell?!"

This's basically how the story starts. The player is isekaied into this strange world and are quickly met with the Fallen Heroes, who all woo the player with their charm & status in an attempt to find out how they got in, so they can do the same to get out. . . whatever that means. But one thing leads to another, and they all fall in love with the player, fighting over them. As for the player, they transverse through the strange world, learning of it and its secrets via minigames, hidden secrets, and puzzles, all while learning about the fallen heroes and their backstories. . .

I picture the game itself being a mix between one of those disturbing click & point adventure games (i.e. Sally Face, Fran Bow, and Little Misfortune) and a dating sim (i.e. Obey Me) which by itself, would cause major emotional whiplash, cause imagine going from seeing the most messed up sh*t to smooching your jester bf. For reference, think of the game as "Little Goody Two Shoes" something you should play btw!

[cyb-by-lang]

Cascade (part 15)

Wherein we wrap this arc up, finally.

Fun fact: Koda would be able to identify a transformed shinobi as not-a-real-animal because his Quirk wouldn't work on them.

They sat in silence for a while, though Midoriya moved off his cot to gently rest his hand on Iida’s arm. Iida couldn’t really lean on him, but his breathing steadied after a little while. Midoriya’s mumbling was probably more a comfort than she’d ever manage.

Kei tried not to watch. She mostly ended up staring out the window, toward the not-so-distant column of smoke elsewhere in Hosu. 

If she focused, she could feel Obito poking around the area, hopping from roof to roof with his chakra a guiding light in the dark. Whatever he wrote would probably cushion Kei’s report to Sensei, if only because she’d actually been there for all of the nonsense. Her smoldering humiliation leftover from the fight wasn’t his problem.

“Gekkō-san,” Iida asked after a while, drawing her gaze back to the rest of the room. “I…thank you. For trying to help.” 

“That’s what heroes do.” Every word felt disingenuous at best. A canned, thoughtless phrase.

“Not that. I meant before. When you tried to give me a chance to talk,” Iida told her, still sounding low. 

Oh. That. “I knew you were hurt,” Kei said, as neutral as she could manage. “People in bad places don’t always make the best decisions.”

“I believe I proved you incontrovertibly right.” 

“Yeah, you did,” Kei admitted, watching Iida’s shoulders sink. She slid her way off the bed and finally crossed the space between their hospital beds, leaning so she could try and catch his downcast gaze. Only after she succeeded did she add, “But Iida-kun, you’re better than your worst day. It’s just up to you to go and prove it.” 

“It sounds so simple when you say it like that,” Iida muttered, though the furrow between his brows had smoothed out.

“Maybe. But ‘simple’ and ‘easy’ aren’t the same thing.” Like surviving high school again without wanting to explode. Kei certainly failed at that one.

“We’re not heroes yet,” Midoriya offered, nudging Iida with his elbow. The uninjured one. “I think that means we don’t have to have everything figured out right now. And we’ll learn together. Right, Todoroki-kun?” 

“Right.” 

Eventually, visiting hours drew to a close. While Kei managed to wriggle her way out of having to stay in the hospital any longer, Iida was thoroughly trapped by his injuries. Instead, she took a (stealthy) rooftop route to Manual’s agency, checked in at the front desk to the sound of fussing night shift staff members, then went to her temporary room. 

(Obito, partway through said route: “Hey! Rough night, huh?” 

Kei, irritable and in the form of a feral cat, swiped at him.

“Okay, okay, we’ll catch up later.”)

The next day, Iida went home with his mom. Given the state of his arms, Kei figured the most strenuous item left on his to-do list for the week was to visit his brother’s hospital room. The most important was to avoid any and all news channels, because the Hero Killer incident (and Endeavor’s credited capture) seemed inescapable. The media wanted to dissect the psychology of a murdering shithead more than they wanted to investigate anything worthwhile. Every time she saw his smug jerk face on a TV screen, she wanted to punch it. 

Somehow, her self-control held out.

Perhaps as a merciful stroke from some higher power, every single patrol without Iida was blessedly boring. Bereft of one intern, Manual tried to teach her the ins and outs of hero work when one’s patrol partner was currently unavailable. He even tried to console her about the dead Nōmu in the middle of the alleyway, which everyone also had decided was going to be attributed to Endeavor despite the knives in its brain. But in Kei’s view, his most important contribution to her education had nothing to do with that. 

Instead, Manual helped Kei find the appropriate phrasing in Bureaucrat to tell her costume’s source company to go fuck themselves. She'd figure something out with the school's support department after taking shears to her costume as it was.

Midoriya, via text, offered to introduce Kei to the explosive and bubbly Hatsume Mei instead. 

Figuring it could not actually be worse than the decorative obi that nearly got her stabbed in the face, Kei gave him permission. Encouragement, even. And the now-boring Hosu patrols gave Kei opportunities to text Power Loader’s under-eighteen nemesis about her upgrade ideas. While it did mean more of a paper trail, so be it. She wasn’t getting into another fight with that aesthetic-only nightmare ever again. 

It also served as a decent distraction from the creeping realization that Isobu had been silent for days. Kei’s head wasn't supposed to be lonely.

But all of the internships did come to a quiet sort of end. Society rumbled beneath their feet, but so far, the volcano wasn’t smoking just yet. 

Next up: End-of term final exams. 

[jazzyquarterblugs]

𝐏𝐏𝐓𝐉: 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒

Time to show ya'll the Altercanons for The Smiling Critters!! :D

(I have already looong posted them on my twitter but again for the Tumblr peeps I will post them here! :3)

From Oldest to Youngest!

Enjoy!

Bubba Bubbaphant!

The smart and probably the most mentally stable one out of the bunch (more on that later-) being the oldest isn't really easy when you've got 7 younger friends most of which love to go on rowdy fun adventures, nonetheless he is always with them every step of the way whenever he can! (Mostly because he needs to keep them from accidentally getting themselves killed 💀)

His Talent

Bubba is capable of creating balls of light and is able to change the intesity of light sources around him, in combat he can create lightbulb shaped items and throw them at to flashbang opponents, disorienting them and giving him the advantage, though this uses up his own energy and so he needs to think carefully about how many he creates, or else he will likely pass out.

KickinChicken!

The self-proclaimed cool guy of the critters. An daredevil who's always put looking for ways to have a lil fun, all the while making Bubba slowly lose his patience 😅 even though he may come off as an arrogant jerk to others, Kickin actually cares a lot about his friends and others more than he likes to admit! Just don't get on his nerves or he will make your life a living hell whenever given the chance!

His Talent

He can whip out three items of his choosing, whether it'd be a simple screwdriver or a flat out atomic bomb, all of which seem to follow a common theme 💀 though he is only lmited to three wishes and after using them all up he'd have to wait for an one hour cooldown before he can create more items again.

CatNap!

Not a very talkative critter, neither is he really stable in ANY WAY to begin with, he went suddenly missing once for 3 whole weeks and came back never the same, for 9 whole months has he never ate, drank or even slept, and it's only a matter of time before one day he finally collapses in on himself...

His...Talent???...

He is able create sleep-inducing red smoke, making whoever is nearby inhale it and fall into a Deep Sleep... (it doesn't kill them dn)

DogDay!

The leader of The Smiling Critters! And CatNap's best friend! This lovely sunshine is always ready for an adventure and bring a smile to everyone's faces no matter who they are! He is always standing up for what's right, willing to put his friends before himself.

His Talent?

His body glows a range of red to yellow whenever experiencing intense emotions, the hue and the temperature of his body depending on how intense the feeling is, if it is too intense his body is capable of burning the skin off of anybody who attempts to touch him.

PickyPiggy!

The nature-loving and diet obsessed one of the group, she absolutely loves the wonders of mother nature, even owning an vegetable garden herself! She loves to eat but always makes sure she stays healthy when doing so! Though sometimes she is so entranced by eating food that she often forgets to keep up with the others and finds herself confused, she always feels like she has an reputation to uphold considering her father is a well-known cook in Critterville, to make things even less easy she has 12 younger brothers to take care of!

Her Talent

She is able to take and storage items within an infinite pocket dimension like a personal inventory in her pockets, though she needs to have actualy pockets for this to work, luckily she knows how to sew!

Hoppy Hopscotch!

The physically active one of the group! And DogDay's beloved little sister! This rambunctious lil rabbit is willing to take on a challenge if it means having fun! Though she is really accident prone so she often gets herself hurt! (Pretty frequently actually-) but even so she doesn't know how to back down! While impatient and loud, she is happy to protect her friends from danger!

CraftyCorn!

The shy and soft-spoken one! She's pretty timid but has an incredible creative side to her! She loves to create all kinds of art but most specifically loves to draw! Even though she may not have had the best first start of her life, but after moving into Bubba's home and becoming part of The Smiling Critters, she realizes she feels right at home.

Her Talent

She is able to mend and shape paint however and whatever she wants it to be! Whether it is colorful wings of freedom or another way to paint, she needs to have paint at her disposal though.

She is also capable of magic of her own! But due to her previous living conditions she was never able to tap into her gift and discover the wonders of unicorn magic all that much, though luckily Bubba has enrolled her to equestrian classes to help her with that problem! <)

Bobby Bearhug!

The sweetest and youngest one out of the group! She was found alone outside near the Critters' treehouse, ever since then Bubba has taken her under his wing and has been taking care of her since, it is unknown what happened to her parents it has been assumed that they had just abandoned her.

Her Talent

She is able to sense the true intentions of a person's heart, helping her know who is worthy of trust or not, she is also able to sense the emotions of an individual though this can be physically and even mentally exhausting, making her needing to take frequent naps to gain her energy back.

Aaaand that is all I have for today!

I hoped you enjoy these Altercanons and if you have any questions regarding them or this AU feel free to ask in my ask box! :3

(repeat users are okay btw!)

[valentine-cafe]

https://www.tumblr.com/valentine-cafe/766501668804280320/oooooh-in-relation-to-my-last-ask-what-if-a?source=share

I FOUND IT 🔥

(That took way too long to find. Curse you, Tumblr search engineeeeeee *waving fist dramatically*)

Oh, but if you're up to it, could I perhaps request a sequel to this? Maybe? Perchance? No pressure though, of course!

I'm interested to see how they'd raise the kid, how they'd groom them to be their successor, and how they'll eventually do the big reveal :0 (and maybe some other stuff in-between if you get other ideas :D)

- 🙇

˖⁺. “ our little ray of light” : 

﹙ grim reaper boyfriend x afab reader mad scientist and mad doctor parents with an enigma kid ﹚.𖹭 ݁

. . . verse 209 zhào jìngyí & rishen with enigma child !! 🍓 : ﹙ mad scientist ˖ mad doctor ˖ spider-mantis-moth hybrid ˖ naga ﹚

some headcanons on the herrera husbands with an enigma successor

.𖹭 ps : tumblr and their shitty search options. here you are !

﹙ cws ﹚: underlying darker themes of experimentation on others ( not the kid! )!  | wc : 0.5k 

﹙ receipts ﹚: this was really interesting to write!

꒰  other treats : guidelines ˖ m.list ˖ characters ˖ our lore  ꒱

it was such a sudden decision but - with some research and reading, they would eventually find their way around it. how could they not with the way that the kid stared at them with such big, hopeful eyes?

first and foremost, rishen was adamant on learning about the kid’s powerset. he ran a few tests ( nothing extreme, all were normal ) so that he could fully understand how their powers worked. once that was through and after further study, he would work towards helping the child through this. teaching them what he could and having jìngyí join in too.

jìngyí went straight to health. do they have any allergies? conditions? anything that they should know? he made sure to run numerous tests and checkups, getting all of it on file and working around it.

they are both very busy people and while they cannot look after the kid all of the time - especially when they are at work, they tried to make a plan. whether it is through ai assistants or their most trusted of employees to take off from valence and instead take care of the kids. . .

they are very protective. they’ve been through a lot, and while they are raising a successor, they will not hurt the kid in any way. they can’t bring themselves to do that. instead they will slowly teach the kid all that they can about science. starting small like videos and cartoons to eventually books and studies, so forth. they’d make sure to make it entertaining and fun.

the kid got only the best education and when they grow up, naturally, they would gravitate towards science. they were particularly surprised to to discover that it was mechanics that their child took a liking to. of course they indulged it. their child would come to work in valence eventually, where they would learn more.

now they also knew that they had to . . . slowly, make the child understand their point of view. from an age where they knew they could understand they would begin slowly teaching them. nothing extreme but - once the kid grew - it wouldn’t take long for them to fall into the husband’s ideals.

everything sort of played out for itself after that. their child ��accidentally’ finding out what they are doing. what they are and. . . understanding that it is for the best.

they’re great parents. even if they’re fucked up. even if they’ve raised their child to see things the way that they do. . . although others would deem it up for debate.

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[songmingisthighs]

[10.34] dad!yunho × baby!jinsik × mom!reader

⇀ how can they be so alike ?

⇁ SO @flowerboykun AND I MADE THIS WHOLE XIKERS AS ATEEZ'S BABY THING AND- BRAINROT !!! I NEED TO GET THIS MADNESS OUT !!!! get ready for more of this in the future though

⇁ disclaimer : the author is not forcing any ideas or form of relationship between irl characters. this fic is specifically for entertainment purposes

You have heard stories about how Yunho was the spitting image of his father. Especially in terms of his personality and humor.

So when Jinsik came into the world, you were not surprised that he immediately became Yunho's best friend, a title Mingi let the kid have because he has "genetic privileges". But how can he not? The boy was the spitting image of his dad; his smile, the mischievous glint in his eyes, and the way he acted, they were definitely twins in the past life or something. The connection they just seem to have was amazing, inexplicable even. Sometimes you envy it because they were just like two peas in a pod.

However, this would more often than not mean that they would both act ridiculously in public and when this happens, your envy decrease significantly. You understood them acting goofily when Jinsik was merely 2 or 3 years old, the boy can be a great source of entertainment just from how he laughed; Yunho is awesome with making the kid laugh. Heck, you loved seeing them being so damn adorable together, just having fun while bonding. Just... Not when they were acting like the entire world was their playground. Especially now that Jinsik is 5 years old because he was getting braver and more forward with his jokes and pranks. It's cute, don't misunderstand, but how were you supposed to proudly claim that Jinsik is your son and Yunho is your husband when they walk around public spaces with a plastic container on their heads and called themselves astronauts and proudly claim the frozen food aisle a "new planet filled with breaded subjects waiting to be fried"?

"Honey, look at this!" Yunho laughed, calling out for you from the other side of the rack.

Your little family were out shopping for Minjae's birthday and knowing Hongjoong, you'd have to be very careful when picking his son's clothes. The last time someone made a mistake (Wooyoung with a duckie costume), someone (Wooyoung) got smacked with something (raw bacon).

From the way Yunho laughed, you JUST know that Jinsik did something and you know you HAD to look and react appropriately to boost your son's confidence and not make him resent you in the future. "Good God, give me strength," you muttered to yourself with a groan before plastering a neutral face and going to the other side of the rack. "What is it?" you asked your husband who had his phone out and a cackle on his face. Looking at you with much happiness, he nudged in the direction of his- your son with his head enthusiastically, "Look at what Jinsik is doing!" he giggled.

When you looked at your son, your eyes almost bulged out when you saw he had his head through a stair railing, a big grin on his face as he waved enthusiastically at you. "Mommy, look!" he giggled, moving up and down the railing without a single care. "Wha- Jinsik, get out of there!" you exclaimed, rushing to save your son from being permanently stuck in the railing but Yunho grabbed your arm before you could even move close to your son. In your eyes, Jinsik was screaming for help and was panicking because of the fact you have mother's anxiety (and Yunho has father's nonchalance) despite the boy looking like he was on a Disneyland ride. "What are you doing?" Yunho asked, blinking curiously at you which made you scoff because it was as if the answer was not staring at him back in the eyes with his neck between the wall and the stair railing. "What do you mean what I'm doing? I'm saving our- MY son from having his head stuck there and having to live as the department store stair railing boy," the words came out of you in the speed of light as you wanted nothing more than to get your son out and back safely in your arms. Oh, how much you wish you were a kangaroo to keep your little hopper of a son safe on your person always. Especially knowing what his dad and his uncles are like. "Look at him, he's having the time of is life!" as if to make a point, Yunho snapped his head to Jinsik who was moving around happily on his own, "Buddy, show mommy your microwave bit!" he commanded. Jinsik beamed and nodded enthusiastically, "Mommy, look! I'm last night's pizza!"

Your eyes almost bulged out when Jinsik began turning around in his spot as he imitated the sound of a microwave whirring. Though it seemed like an innocent move and a careful one at that, in your eyes, it seemed like Jinsik was about to twist his neck and have his head pop off. "My God- Jinsik!" this time, Yunho couldn't even stop you as you rush to your baby and immediately tried to get him out of the railing. Despite Yunho's laughter and Jinsik's complaints, you decided to just not listen to the father and son duo in order to save yourself some sanity from being overly worried.

Yunho's laughter slowed down however when he noticed that you were taking some time to get the boy out. "Honey?" he called out, taking small steps towards you and Jinsik, "Is something wrong?" It was then that you turned to look at him with your face pale and Jinsik with his jaw slack, "Yunnie, I think Jinsik's stuck."

All hell broke loose with Jinsik crying and you trying to calm him down and Yunho not knowing how to prioritize between putting down his phone, getting help, stopping recording, getting people to come to help them, and dropping the bags he was holding. There were approximately 3 store employees and 2 security guards working together to free your son from his (self) imprisonment as a small crowd gathered nearby. Even though the employees were working together as quickly as they can, the poor boy just kept crying, snot and tears mixing together down his cheeks. "M-m-mommy I'm s-sorry for no-ot listening to you," he hiccupped as he grips on your shirt tightly with his trembling hands, "Mommy, get me out, please," he whimpered sadly with bottom lip trembling like a leaf in a hurricane. "It's okay buddy, these people are helping you!" Yunho crouched down in front of him, pointing at the workers who were trying to unscrew the railing to let Jinsik out. Though his dad was trying to help, Jinsik couldn't help but pout at him, "You should be here with me," he sniffled, annoyed that though it was both of their ideas to have Jinsik put his head through the railing, he was the only one suffering.

It didn't take long for the workers to get the railing off and once he was free, Jinsik leapt into your arms and buried his face on your shoulders. Jinsik is always affectionate, but it still felt nice whenever he showed affection JUST for you.

Both you and Yunho thanked the workers before hauling ass (from embarrassment). Jinsik clung onto you the whole way out of the store and refused to get down. He was still calming himself down by doing this little habit that he has been doing since he was a baby which is stroking your nape gently.

"Honey, you want me to carry him?" Yunho offered as he reached forward to take Jinsik out of your hands but before he could even touch the boy, Jinsik had slapped his hands away and stuck his tongue out. "I wanna be with mommy," Jinsik said in a mocking tone before wrapping his arms tightly around your neck and hiding his face on your shoulder. His statement made Yunho huff jokingly and pretended to walk faster in front of you two, "Well then, I'll just go have ice cream by myself!" it was obvious that Yunho was trying to bait Jinsik with a treat but unfortunately, Jinsik only waved him off, "'Kay daddy, have fun! Mommy and I will get cupcakes!"

Jinsik might be a carbon copy of his dad, but you were glad that when it comes to his favourite parent, you might be it.

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[silverag09]

5am rambling about Sky cause my sleep schedule is severely wack - includes personal headcannons about lore lmao- everything below the cut so you don’t get blasted with a billion words ✨

Heads up: this is not a fun silly Headcannon. It is

s a d.

You’ve been warned. There is a cute little doodle at the very bottom of this to make it up to anybody who reads this tho

This mainly pertains to moth players and Eden, I came up with this after watching a few folk’s own lore videos on their sky kid’s backstories and whatnot- imagine

Yknow all the moths you’ve adopted, guided through the world and befriended in the process? Once they enter Eden, that has the potential to determine their entire fate.

The moth’s who enter Eden, with or without your help, have to make it through. One way or another. Or, they don’t. They quit halfway through because they’re too afraid, or they don’t understand what they’re meant to do. Some manage to make it through Eden, but then think that’s the end of the game. No more, no seasons, no travelling spirits, no upcoming events, nothing.

I imagine the moths who never fully make it through Eden simply just.. die, in a sense. Their light, their soul, whatever you may call it, was not strong enough to withstand the storm and they simply perish and become one of the many statues trapped there, until you eventually come for your next run and free them.

Alternatively, the ones who make it out but quit shortly after - they were corrupted in some form by Eden - namely, the same power that may or may not have corrupted Resh - the Eden elder and/or king. I have my own theories about Resh too- but that’s for another time. They don’t continue, so their light/wings don’t grow stronger. Almost like an infection, they don’t have the strength to fight off the ‘virus’ (the corruption) as time passes, they remain stagnant and the corruption chips away at them until they ‘die’.

The sky kids who’ve fallen to corruption eventually return to either the wasteland or eden. Those who find themselves in the wasteland deteriorate slowly over time, transforming into crabs or simply dying, their bodies becoming seeds for dark plants to take root. Those who end up back in Eden aren’t so fortunate to have such a peaceful end. And I’m using the term peaceful very, very lightly.

Those who returned to Eden are back in the direct line of contamination from, as stated previously, the same power that corrupted Resh - their bodies rapidly deteriorate and give out on them, their remaining light unable to stay strong enough to stave off death. They don’t remain ‘dead’ for long though, the remains mutating into dark dragons or other beings of pure darkness. They wander aimlessly, trying to find any source of light in the hopes that they can relight the fire they lost, have the hope that - as minuscule as it may be - they can return to the lands of Sky and return to their normal life. The consciousness of the child who’s been mutated remains partially intact, that’s the only reason they’re still hunting down anything that gives off warmth - but they’re not aware of what they’ve become. All they know is that they’re cold, and that other sky kids run away from them no matter what they do.

In other words, the sky kids who don’t make it through are eternally trapped, until you provide them brief respite through freeing them during your weekly/monthly/etc runs. That’s why you see them in orbit sometimes. Those who can’t or refuse to continue perish, to put it very bluntly. I imagine after a certain length of time, their remaining consciousness fades entirely and all that’s left is a monster of darkness, wandering with nothing but subjecting others to the same fate as it fell to on its mind, taking out the envy, anger, and spite that got left behind on the poor souls it finds - those that have wandered where they should never have gone.

———————————————————

Ngl the only reason I came up was this is cause I wanted all the players who’ve quit at Eden, before/in/after, to have a purpose. It sounds bad when I put it like that but idk how else to put it— my old account, I started just before season of dreams started and I quit the same week cause I didn’t want to go through Eden, and I was unaware there was more to the game aside from “fly through pretty world, talk to old spirit looking things, die.” I returned to the game midway through season of remembrance, and I’m very glad I did. I don’t have a lot of headcannons for lore or anything like that, but this is one of them, and as sad as it is- I like it. I love the krill, I love the dark creatures and I love the light creatures too. I feel like the dark creatures don’t get enough love sometimes and I wanted to make something dedicated to them - and, again, it’s sad, but this makes me love them even more- even if I fell asleep by accident while playing that one time and got attacked by the krill and crabs so many times that I got sent to the pity room. Meh.

Anyways, here’s a doodle of my skykid and his buddies to make you less sad 👌

[ejsuperstar]

MISC SKY LORE POST

Note: This isn't stuff that I necessarily believe is canon, more so shit I've made up for my ocs and comic. I like playing with canon. Long post ahead

Sky kids earn their names. A sky kid isnt born with a name and typically doesnt earn one until at least some time after their first ascension. As such, moths don't have names (me explaining away why my moth ocs don't have actual names lol). Names can be earnt due to actions, behaviour, or circumstance. Names earned can either be granted by sky kids (including the sky kid earning the name) or spirits.

Sky kids forms are malleable, and change over time to be in accordance with how a Sky kid views themself. A sky kid who likens themself to a wild animal may grow horns, one who takes pride in being a moth may grow antennae. If a sky kid feels themself more mature than others they may grow taller, and vice versa. Going to Eden halts these changes. Eden sets your form in place, leaving it unchanging for a while.

Regarding Eden. After rebirth, a sky kid's form is locked in place for a while. Leaving them unaging, and mostly unchanging. Small things like hair growth will still happen, but larger changes (height, mental age, physical age, things like horns) will not happen. A sky kid who does not go to Eden very often may slowly start to grow up at a rate faster than a sky kid who does. And a sky kid who does not go to Eden at all will grow up, and eventually die, and rejoin the cycle with no memories.

Winged light is part memory, part soul. You are granted power when you remember who you are, who you used to be, and when you remember the cycle. You are your light and your light is everything. After being reborn from Eden, moths and young sky kids may find themselves not remembering much at all, while more established sky kids have a better grasp on their memories, and may only find themselves a little big foggy after Eden.

After dying in Eden, you are only reborn after another sky kid comes through and participates in the cycle, granting YOU a winged light. This can take a while in universe, as someone needs to get to you and grant you a winged light. (Same goes for if you die outside of Eden, a sky kid gotta come through and grant you that pity light)

Guides are simple people who have stepped up to a task to... Well guide someone through something. Even something as small as "help us with this theatre play". Guides DO have spirit names, but often-times, after being recognised as a guide, go by their Guide names. There are exceptions (Forgetful Storyteller, and Hopeful Steward come to mind (Yes Storyteller is a guide they're the Harmony Hall guide)) but typically being considered as a Guide is an achievement to be proud of, so Guides like to use their Guide names. There is no fundamental difference between a Guide and a regular Spirit.

Spirits don't age, and don't need to eat to survive. Sky kid's age slower thanks to eden, and don't need to eat either (but do need a steady source of light). Both very much appreciate eating food though.

When getting an item from a spirit, it's not some sort of magical "hey now you can have my hair/mask/clothes". That spirit goes out of their way to make/get a replica of their mask/clothes for the sky kid in question, or teaches them how to style their hair. This is because getting an item isn't a transaction, it's a gift, a sign of friendship.

Candles forged by sky kids are valued highly by spirits because they're persistent sources of Light with a capital L, they have short burn times but can be used by spirits in place of a sky kid's internal light source. Candles are also valued by sky kids too, but thats more a respect of the craftsmanship and appreciation of the gift than anything inherent to the candles.

ok im tired now no more lore dumping, have fun with this guys

[donkeys-waffles]

(WARNING SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 425.)

Just casually thinking about how "Creep" from Radiohead is so AFO and Izuku coded. Just separately, both characters emulate the feelings behind this song. "Creep" is a very self-deprecating song, with deep devotion to another person, referring to this other person as an angel, as something that is 'perfect' in comparison to how they refer to themselves as a 'creep'.

This part I'll be talking about Izuku, next I'll talk about AFO.

We've seen the discrimination Izuku has experienced from being quirkless, the isolation, neglect, verbal and physical abuse.

He mentions that this was the moment he realized that not all people are created equal. It speaks volumes of his character and how he views himself, like he's the main problem of this equation. As if in some way it's his fault for being born without a quirk so it's natural for others to treat him with discrimination. There's not enough righteous fury in this recap.

Everyone, every important figure in his life has told him to be realistic, his mother apologized for him being quirkless as if it was a disease, (I love both her and All Might don't get me wrong here, I can understand their reasonings, but that doesn't take away the impact of what was said.) and both his childhood friend and idol crushed his dreams.

It reminds me of these lyrics from "Creep"

"I wish I was special You're so fuckin' special

But I'm a creep I'm a weirdo What the hell am I doin' here? I don't belong here"

I also wanna add this fun little tidbit for the "But I'm a creep," section,

So many times has his mumbling been a source of discomfort for people, so much so that Bakugou felt the need to have an outburst each time he did it in the beginning of the manga. Makes it even funnier knowing it's about quirks.

The last two lines remind me a lot of Izuku's mentality in the early chapters, during the sports festival and the first appearance of the League of Villains we see a lot of Izuku feeling completely useless. We also see Izuku degrading his own accomplishments, giving the credit to All Might, Gran Torino, or his other classmates. Despite, him earning OFA because of his heroic spirit he views himself as a burden.

I feel like the line "I don't belong here" is emulated in so many ways, you can easily argue that his vigilante arch could emulate this, but I really think that his resolve for being quirkless again is what takes the cake for me.

Of course, he's not too heartbroken by it if he never felt he deserved it anyway. He always viewed it as a gift (not something he earned the right to), we see this with Shigaraki and even Aoyama. That's his line of empathy with them, he views himself as fortunate to be given the opportunity he has, while they suffered a worse fate by hands that wanted to use them. Here are some other honorable mentions when it comes to this idea. (Even though Izuku isn't very lucky either, he's also been used as a weapon in two wars at 16 but that's beside the point.)

And many, many others really, let's be honest. It's one of the first things I noticed about Izuku's character that I feel never truly got resolved.

"I don't care if it hurts I wanna have control I want a perfect body I want a perfect soul I want you to notice When I'm not around"

The first two lines emulate a lot of Izuku's lack of self-preservation.

The first picture illustrates the sacrifices he's made saving others despite it shattering his bones. The second is him grabbing Tomura's hands despite decay and losing his arms.

Lines 3 and 4, as well as

"You're just like an angel Your skin makes me cry You float like a feather In a beautiful world"

Emulates how he views All Might and Bakugou throughout the manga,

All Might is always shown as this unstoppable force for a big chunk of the manga, we can see it in the season 1 anime opening when All Might is standing with his back to Izuku, a light silhouetting him with Izuku reaching his hand out to him. As if he's this unattainable picture of heroism, furthering the lyrics of "I don't belong here," "You're just like an angel" and "You're so fucking special."

Now for Bakugou, which my main examples come from early in the manga of course.

"As you've said, I had nothing going for me."

"I could admire All Might from a distance, but you were right there. This amazing person in my life."

I think this just illustrates my point. He considered them both pillars of strength. (I wouldn't say that has changed with All Might despite him being retired, even though All Might is admired, and cherished, now he's viewed as more human. Which is so sweet.)

"I want you to notice me when I'm not around"

Is also, very Izuku coded, considering his history with being bullied. Looking back to the beginning of my spiel, we see a lot of bullying taking place in the classroom with teachers that could've reported Bakugou's aggressive behavior. A lot of adults failed Izuku, they turned a blind eye to the obvious abuse happening right in front of them. And that's made even worse if you consider whether Inko knew of the abuse herself. There was negligence in the system on Izuku's behalf, that's made clear. Also considering his first friends (in a decade,), and his extreme anxiety surrounding Ochako and Iida when he first met them. But it also makes me think of this recent panel

It really hurts looking at these panels, because he's clearing wanting to talk with them and they're brushing him off. He wants to be noticed here, he wants to reach out to them and have friends to confide in. And Ochako just talks about his hair and brushes him off, while Todoroki does the same thing.

It just makes me sad considering his history, he probably thinks it's because he's going to be quirkless again. And the saddest thing is Izuku wouldn't blame them, he wouldn't feel the anger he's entitled to, because again I don't believe he feels deserving of living the dream he had. With it all disappearing with his quirk feels natural to him when it shouldn't. Bringing us back the beginning of this self-deprecating song and cycle in Izuku's life.

[theelf-art]

How I color manga panels: a tutorial

I'm no expert at doing recolors, I'm simply an artist who's occasionally too lazy to do my own lineart, and uses that of my favorite mangaka's so I can focus on other styles to simply have fun with my colors. I always try and choose panels or pages that are high quality, to avoid too much pixelization. Often I end up sourcing these from scanners or google images.

As far as programs, I use Krita (a free software). This all can be done with the standard brushes and tools that come with the software. But for some of the coloring, I have brushes from brush packs i like to use, as well as a few brushes I have customized myself. The main ones I use are from David Revoy, so if you want a recommendation for a great free brush pack, that's mine.

For this example I'll be using this panel from Chapter 58 of Moriarty the Patriot (I believe this would be Volume 15 of the manga) that I posted earlier here.

I'm not including the step where I crop the image, but I personally chose to remove some of the white borders that are needed for a traditional volume's page borders. Since I'm doing digital art, I don't always include them.

My next step is always to outline and fill the individual base layers. This includes the speech bubbles, each character, any independent props, the panels themselves and the backgrounds. There's no correct way to do this, but personally I use a brush to outline the object, then fill tool to well. Fill it, as well as the rectangle tool for the panels or straight lines I need to do.

For layers, I usually put all of these color base layers in a single group that's set to multiply, and change the opacity of the base panel so that I can fill the blacked out areas with a solid color easily, here you can see I was working with the base panel at 50%, but honestly i just kind of turn it down to whatever I think looks good.

The colors I use for this step are usually brightly saturated rainbow colors so it's easy to tell the different elements apart from each other. So you end up with something that ends up looking rather horrific like this:

From here, I usually create a copy of the base panel to put over the top of the colors. This way I can have transparency for the colors on some of the blacked out parts, but don't loose some of the nuance of the shading entirely. Moriarty the Patriot is a very black heavy cell style, which is the style I find the "panel above, panel below" method works best on. However as I work on the colors, I tend to toggle between having it on or off.

It's about here where I start doing my coloring. Of course this will depend on your coloring style and art habits, however personally, I like to start with the characters. I use those colored layers as the base layer I can clip my coloring layers to.

I will often turn off the layers that I'm not currently using so I don't have to deal with eyestrain, and will change the base layer to something more suitable (often a grey or light tan) so my color theory doesn't get all messed up. The bright colors in previous steps are to make sure they're visually separate. Now they've been established, I don't have to worry about that.

I don't usually label my layers, but for the sake of the tutorial I have to make it clearer which layer grouping is which.

I find in this step because of the multiply layer the colors can be a bit washed out, so I tend to either use much more saturated colors than I usually do, or switch to another layer style like Linear Burn of the overall color group to make the colors pop more. Ultimately though this comes down to personal preference. If your coloring style is very de-saturated, you might not have any problems with it. (I do suggest making your base color white, so the coloring of the base panel isn't off, you'll see in the screenshots above I forgot to when working on Sherlock. Ignore my mistake)

For the parts of the image where it's primarily blacked out (such as Sherlock's hair or coat) I don't bother shading at all, and only do the highlighting, as the black takes care of the darkest tones anyways.

During my coloring, I also add a separate grouping above everything for adding rendering and details above the panels. This includes things like the eye highlights (which I always do in pure #000000 white) and making certain parts of the heavily blacked out areas pop more.

(those refs and paint layer 13 are what I'm using to color pick off of, and keep the shading colors consistent throughout the piece. There's probably a better way to do it, but I just paste them directly into the image and then delete them at the end, paint layer 43 is a color dodge layer, and so has to be outside of the layer grouping to work)

Comparison of the art without:

And with the top details and white highlights:

It's a pretty subtle difference, but I find it's the little things that truly make the piece. Especially with the strands going over the face, they need just a bit more to make them really pop. I also just really like my fancy eyes which is hard to do without the top layer.

Insert several hours of coloring here, and about another hour just trying to figure out what gradient to use for the background, and you end up with the the base colors. From here I usually mess with overlay layers as well to get the colors to all look fancy and nice together without having to do color theory (pro tip /lh).

I forgot to grab screenshots while doing the background, but for the top panel I essentially just used the [deevad 5c screentones] brush and a transparency mask to add a screentone gradient, and totally didn't google "splatter overlay" or something like that and picked something off of google, and added some borders.

Because both the base manga panel and manga panel over the top are both not at full opacity, if there is text in the page or panel (such as this one) I like to copy the just the text part of the panel and add it as full opacity in the "colors" folder to make sure it's legible and matches up the rest of the colors.

And after all that, its basically done. I'll sometimes continue to mess around with certain aspects to make sure I like how it look, but that's essentially it. This is when I add my signature, and then it's queued to post!

[psink]

Aiura Mikoto - Moving on from the gyaru look [2/2]

[part 1]

At a certain arcade Teruhashi Kokomi: Hm~ After all, would a double pose purikura be the best for appearance, I wonder..?

Teruhashi Kokomi: (That's right...If I'm going to do it, it has to be perfect.) Saiki Kusuo: Good grief, I got worried so I followed her, but...

Aiura Mikoto: Oh! As expected of Terukoko! Yeah, yeah, the twins-style double pose is trending in videos~ Aiura Mikoto: A double pose with Terukoko will seriously boost the vibes~ We gotta make it extra, right♪?

Saiki Kusuo: What language are they speaking? Double pose? What's that? Aiura Mikoto: (Wow~ Such an amazing scent...)

Aiura Mikoto: (Though I super respect Terukoko, I thought doing a pair purikura with her would be like a public execution, but...) Aiura Mikoto: (We're actually pretty good!)

Teruhashi Kokomi: (Aiura-san is friendly without being sarcastic.) Teruhashi Kokomi: (After all, I wonder if it's easier to enter Saiki's territory with a close sense of distance like Aiura-san's...)

Saiki Kusuo: Well, I don't really get it, but they seem to be getting alone, so I guess it's fine. Aiura Mikoto: Hmm, and then edit the skin, make the eyes bigger, put in coloured contacts~ And a tipsy-looking blush...

Aiura Mikoto: Got it...! Terukoko is seriously on a different level!! The stable mega-enhanced gyaru is complete! Aiura Mikoto: She's beyond just cute now!

Saiki Kusuo: Hey, hey. With her aura is at its fullest, there's almost nothing showing up in the photo other than the light source. Aiura Mikoto: Alriiight! Now it's the doodling time!

Aiura Mikoto: Terukoko, write the name of the person you like here~ I'll create a love umbrella for you! Teruhashi Kokomi: Huh? A person I...like!?

Teruhashi Kokomi: (No way, no way, no way!) Talking to Aiura-san about Saiki would be...!) Teruhashi Kokomi: (If, by some miracle, my guess turns out to be correct and Saiki's type is girls like Aiura-san, if that fact was revealed...)

Teruhashi Kokomi: (Th-That kind of thing...It'd be unbearably sad... I could no longer exist in this world...!!) Saiki Kusuo: No, that's not the case.

Teruhashi Kokomi: N..No, I don't really care about that....Ahahaha. Aiura Mikoto: Huuh~ Even though I went out of my way to do fortune telling for you...

Saiki Kusuo: Oh, it seems their girl talk is really blooming. Saiki Kusuo: Well, Aiura probably will guide the conversation well from here, so I think it's time to go home.

Aiura Mikoto: Kyaha! This was fun, right~ If you're alright with it, let's come again! Teruhashi Kokomi: Yeah~

Aiura Mikoto: Terukoko is super cute no matter what she does~ Just walking together is super exciting~ Teruhashi Kokomi: (Aiura-san... She looks hard to talk to, but she's a good person.)

Aiura Mikoto: By the way, about the continuation of our love talk... Teruhashi Kokomi: ...Huh!? (Wh-Wh-What's this suddenly...!?)

Aiura Mikoto: Shall I do love fortune telling for you? Teruhsahi Kokomi: Ummm... Th-Th-Th-That's. well, because~

Aiura Mikoto: You think I wouldn't notice that there's someone you like!? (Well, in Terukoko's case it's totally obvious even without looking.) Teruhashi Kokomi: ......Hmmm~ Th-there's someone I'm just a little bit interested in... ......That's all.

Aiura Mikoto: Woow~~ Her shy face is also LL-size cute~~!! Amazing~! Aiura Mikoto: Alriiight! Leave the fortune telling to Miko-chan♪ I won't do anything bad.

Aiura Mikoto: Hm~...The person Terukoko likes probably~ Aiura Mikoto: He likes people who are true to themselves!! Also... Someone strong who doesn't get swayed by a situation!

Aiura Mikoto: In other words, he probably likes a strong-willed girl that doesn't bend her style, right? Teruhashi Kokomi: Huh...Then...Just the same as always...?

Saiki Kusuo: Is this okay? Not only resolve Teruhashi-san's madness, but also tell her that we've got the worst combability. Aiura Mikoto: Ah, that's right...But the combability is about 2%? It says you're an absolutely terrible match... Hey, are you listening!?

Teruhashi Kokomi: (That means... I can just me myself? Right...?) Aiura Kokomi: Heey...?

Teruhashi Kokomi: (Haha, what am I doing... I'm just fluttering around...I'm so stupid.) ...The next day

Kaidou Shun: Ahhh! Teruhashi-san has returned to her saint mode!! The usual Teruhashi-san, not gyaru, is back!! Teruhashi Kokomi: Well, I was just going with the vibe, or something like that?

Nendou RIki: Oh!? She's still speaking with a bit of an accent, how cute! Saiki Kusuo: It's not an accent, it's gyaru slang.

Teruhashi Kokomi: Fufu, Aiura-san, thank you for yesterday, i gained a bit of courage! (Well, I already knew it, though♪) Aiura Mikoto: Eh...Um? What was it...Ah...That's right!

Teruhashi Kokomi: Yeah, let's hang out after school again♪

Aiura Mikoto: If Terukoko is happy, I'm happy too! Something like that? Aiura Mikoto: (It seems like I became super friends with Terukoko and we might have a chance to hang out, this is the best!

Aiura Mikoto: (Kusuo~! Next time the three of us will go to Sweets Paradise, it's settled~! I'll forgive you this time's favour~) Saiki Kusuo: Good grief, this is incredibly incomprehensible. You can't read a woman's heart even with telepathy... END

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 51 – Women Warriors: An Unexpected History by Pamela Toler

This was a book I never would have heard of were it not for the magic of word of mouth marketing (here meaning ‘ recommended on tumblr.com), so I went in with basically no expectations. It’s a history book, but very much pop history – this is a collection of fun anecdotes for a general audiance wrapped in a persuasive essay, not any sort of academic work. Which is to say it’s also extremely accessibly written and easy to read, excellent for when a hurricane hit and you lost power for the day and have nothing to do but laze.

The book is, well, what it says on the tin – a collection of historical woman warriors from across the globe (if disproportionately but not mostly European) from classical Scythian warrior-aristocrats through to Soviet tank drivers (Well, I presume there’s someone out there for whom the ‘unexpected’ bit is still true, anyway. But it’s about women warriors!) The book begins with an introduction that lays out its thesis – that woman fighting in war is thoroughly historical unremarkable, and not any sort of freak aberration or insignificant exception to war being a uniformly masculine affair – and the agenda its trying to advance – that woman should be allowed to serve in the US military on equal terms with men – with I’ll say admirable clarity. Each following chapter is then dedicated to a specific typology of historical woman warriors (e.g. who become warriors due to their fathers, their husbands, patriotic fervour, those who disguised themselves as men to fight), generally consisting of a light coating of theory before diving into the examples and case studies that make up the meat of the book.

I, needing no convincing of the thesis and having limited interest in the politics of who gets to go kill in uniform for America, was reading this entirely for those anecdotes. Those were entirely worth the price of admission – Toler specifies in the introduction that she’s only talking about woman warriors, as in those who either personally fought or directed troops like a man with an analagous command would have, with the result that e.g. Elizabeth 1 gets skipped and some figures I’d genuinely never heard of get included. There’s also something of an attempt to focus on woman who served openly, rather than those who disguised themselves as men, though that’s hardly universal (there’s still at least a couple crossdressing 18th century bravos, don’t worry. Though shockingly enough no Julie d'Aubigny). Each woman profiled gets a short potted biography: her origins, the sources for her exploits and the historiography around her, then a recounting of her exploits, and a short epilogue of her life afterward if there was one (these are rarely particularly happy).

The book’s very much written for the general audience, with some effects on the choices of women to feature I’d call regrettable (e.g. Katherine of Aragon is very clearly only there because people already know her as Henry VIII’s first wife, the historical Mulan probably gets more wordcount than was strictly needed), but overall they were fun and interesting stories, and (thankfully) focused more on explaining why the women profiled were interesting or notable than getting twisted in knots trying to explain why a given mercenary captain or feudal magnate or pirate queen was actually a moral role model or feminist icon or something (an issue a lot of works in this vein do fall into, I’ve found).

I do wish there was more of an attempt to theorize about the general role of religion, given (if nothing else) the sheer wordcount Joan of Arc gets. But overall? No complaints, plenty of fun interesting historical figures I’d never heard of before.

The author does have a couple very clear pet peeves that each get called out often enough I felt like I should start a drinking game. These range from the entirely sympathetic (yelling at how previous generations of historians have applied wildly different amount of skepticism when reading sources about male versus female warriors) to very fair points that are probably a bit belaboured (by orders of magnitude more woman have fought openly as woman in e.g. sieges of their homes than ever disguised themselves as men to join the army) to the sort of thing that only really makes sense as a pet peeve when you remember Toler spent like a decade reading the source material for this and got pretty sick of the tropes (her visceral annoyance whenever anyone is refereed to as ‘th Joan of Arc of [X]”).

Speaking of pet peeves – Toler keeps a very casual, conversational sort of tone throughout the book, full of asides and tangents. She’s got a very strong voice, and it’s just a matter of taste whether that’s a positive or negative, I suppose. She also uses a lot of footnotes for her asides, especially about historiography and sources, and very annoyingly just uses a basically random series of symbols that I couldn’t distinguish half the time to mark them instead of just using numbers. The combination can grate on occasion, though that might just have been my eyes getting sore reading all the small text.

Politically the book is very consciously and explicitly liberal feminist propaganda, in a way that feels oddly dated for something that came out in 2019? Also incredibly American (woman across the globe are profiled, but she clearly assumes a lot of prior familiarity with, like, the folktale of some woman who loaded a canon during the American Revolution once, and similar). Toler is, as mentioned, incredibly passionate about the cause of women’s service in the united states military, something which I haven’t seen mentioned in the news for so long it almost seems quaint (even though I have no idea whether anything’s like, changed.) Honestly given my social circles at this point it was mostly just deeply bemusing to read a book by someone who clearly considered ‘being able to serve in the US military’ as, like, something to fight for and take pride in. But even beyond that, a lot of the avuncularly and style just felt very 2010s online feminist, I suppose? I really would have assumed the book came out in 2014 or so if I hadn’t checked.

Speaking of – it was just deeply strange how the book had no framework to discuss trans-ness? As in, several of the people the book catalogues disguised themselves and joined the army as men and even after being found out just, never stopped. To the point of fighting duels over the matter, sometimes! And the book never figures out a graceful way to handle referring to them (the ‘him’, scarequotes included, makes a few appearances), let alone really discuss identity. Again, makes the whole thing feel like a bit of a time capsule – it’s about the handling of the issue I’d expect from, like, an old Cracked listickle about ‘10 badass women warriors you’ve never heard of!’, not a recent book clearly marketed towards a progressive audience.

Anyway, as a work of theory or historical scholarship, not going to set the world on fire. But did teach me about the times the Pope and Emperor of Russia separately gave people written permission to crossdress and stab people, and also an actual written pocket biography of Matilda of Tuscany I can cite instead of just ‘forum threads arguing about Crusader Kings 2 circle 2013”. So on balance not a bad read. Just don't go in expecting theory or political enlightenment.