#probably not bc i have no concept of lighting or backgrounds

[teabiscs]

Just thinking about Kai/Rei that don’t get together in their youth. A Kai and Rei who go through young adulthood with out really intermingling. Yeah they might be at events together but it’s not more than a polite Hello.

A Kai and Rei who have firsts that aren’t with each other, nor necessarily with other Bladers. Where they’re in their mid twenties just vibing away.

Kai, this confident queer disaster, who somehow pulls himself together and looks like a CEO when needed. Who’s always out somewhere. Known in the club scene as a tease, but it's so rare for him to actually take someone home or to go home with someone. But he's always at a table, with an expensive drink in his hand, and some guy on his arm whispering in his ear.

A Rei, who has finally grown comfortable in his skin. Who’s left the village and made what amends he could. A Rei with self confidence, even if its still a little thin. A Rei that’s just going with the flow of everything and doing things as they’re needed. I still picture him working for Dickinson. (And that’s where a lot of his confidence comes from. He’s good at working for the BBA. He’s good as an assistant. He’s a good coach. He’s a good blader. It makes his job easier.)

But also. They both just don't date. Rei has ex partners. And Kai has ex-hookups. But they just kind of stop. They’re both perpetually single. And they’re fine with it. Rei doesnt remember the last time the two have seen each other outside of some blading event that Hiwatari Enterprises hasn’t sponsored.

Until Takao’s 23rd birthday takes them to some fancy club. And y’all already know. Kai’s at his table (cuz hes that guy, with money) and in walks his ex teammates. And his eyes can’t leave Rei.

Time was good to both of them. They’re both hot. And dressed like it.

… and this is just my excuse to draw Rei in a skin tight cheongsam (idk if thats what its called) all muscles with his hair down, and Kai in a crop top and tight pants, with messy hair and eyeliner doing that male power sitting position holding a rocks glass with liquor in it.

[idontwantrobyntodie]

ugh i need to make a mermaid conlang

[gaybd1]

So my favorite character in The Brothers Sun is Taiwan. Like yeah Taiwan has its own shows and movies but it just feels Different to see Taiwan in a big international/American show! It’s SO cool actually and so um here are some thoughts I had and things I Noticed about different Taiwan scenes and things in the show idk

Episode 1

the opening shot of Taipei tells us this is a Thursday- the top of 101 is green and is a different color every day of the week

that corkscrew-shaped apartment building we see Charles living in is kind of an urban legend here in Taipei. They say it’s the most expensive place to live in the city, that each apartment has its own swimming pool, and that there’s an elevator specifically to bring cars up to display in your living room. No idea if the interiors look like that for real though

I was gonna say it’s pretty crazy he has an American-style oven in Taipei bc nobody does but actually in that apartment… yeah he probably would

afaik there’s not a way to (“legally”/officially) stream any of those famous British baking shows here rip

I do wonder if they actually filmed the opening scene in the corkscrew building or if they just really pay attention to detail because the skyline seen out the window matches up to what it would really look like from that part of the city

the shoes, I mean we all know about shoes-off houses but yeah

豆漿. Soy milk. Yeah

They definitely eat Hi-chews in one of these scenes

Episode 2

It makes way more sense for the guys to have snuck out for shaved ice as kids than youtiao… I’m just saying… like would *I* do that yes but it’s usually just like. A thing you eat with soup or breakfast

Episode 3

“Are you sure you can handle-“ “the heat? I’m from Taiwan.” lmfao BITCH Taiwan has some of the blandest cuisine I’ve ever tasted (he does think it’s too spicy tho lol)

“Keelung. A fishing village just north of Taipei.” Okay like I can see how the older generation would call it that but it’s actually a whole ass city…

Episode 5

Not a Taiwan thing but the Maotai made me laugh. It’s like the Coca Cola of Chinese baijiu and imho it’s just as awful as every other brand

Episode 6

ok the episode that made me want to make this list

the Costco shit IS funny because vitamins, baby formula, that’s all the good stuff you want to bring back from abroad BUT actually we have Costco in Taiwan and can easily get a lot of that stuff? This concept imo would fit a lot better for China than Taiwan. It’s still very much a thing to load your suitcase up with baby formula on the way home to China, and there’s actually a huge smuggling business bringing it in through Hong Kong but I digress

Idk why I’m happy to hear Changhua and Douliu mentioned in an American TV show… Seriously, I don’t know. They’re kind of like nowhere places I’ve never even been. I just feel like everyone’s grandparents live there.

Even the way they film Mama Sun on the plane. Like the Mandarin music in the background with the announcement for Taoyuan airport… to me it feels specifically like a transpacific flight to Taiwan lolol but that’s definitely like a bias probably

Okay not to be SO nitpicky but so when she looks out the window on the plane to see Taipei 101 etc I’m not sure about that? The airport is actually in another city and I feel like I usually come in around and over the ocean or something?

But WOW the taxi scene my favorite scene it’s SO visceral and SO Taiwan… the street, the lights, the Cosmed/Mos Burger/7-Eleven, the street noises, like I can FEEL Taiwan through the screen and HER FACE taking it all in I WANT TO SOB

The temple, beautiful like this episode makes me believe Michelle Yeoh is Taiwanese lol

I appreciate the viscerality of the night market shots too but it seemed a bit empty

Okay so Mama Sun’s mom is super rich too based on where she lives which I guess it makes sense. But what I am curious about is the story about why they’re speaking Cantonese because Taiwan has a lot of languages but that’s not one of them like officially at all. I wonder if there’s a character backstory there or they just like. Didn’t want to bother teaching Michelle how to speak Minnan or something

The cemetery too is so fancy, I mean it fits but wow that’s expensive real estate

In the hospital scene, Taipei 101 is lit blue out the window, making it a Friday. Has everything in the show so far happened in only 8 days?

Episode 7

“Last night the Boxers made their move” 101 says it’s Tuesday for anyone keeping track

I LOST it at the Foodpanda driver assassin the first time I saw this… So Taiwan

Big fancy church in Taipei? I know they exist but I’ve never seen one in person (like 2%? of the country is Christian)

A mom bringing back tea as a souvenir from Taiwan? 100% real

Episode 8

RAW is a real restaurant in Taipei. It’s very fancy and very expensive and had I think two Michelin stars. I don’t know ANYONE who’s actually been there lol

[reveseke]

Spontaneous crossover / au time with Spiderverse and Criminal minds about Spiderverse! Reader within Criminal minds ( feat a arcade themed stim board bc i wanted to make one <- TW bright colors & lights + flickering { Glowcore popping balloons } )

(( CW Sooo ~ Rather dark themes, mentions of being a lab rat, kidnapping, possible paranoia at some point even | mention of Jumping spiders ( due to the powers ) | You have been warned, approach at your own risk :3 ( probably didn't get all of it down these were the ones I thought off, if you find more please lemme know! )

Au/tropes — Crossover of Spiderverse × Criminal minds | Sci-fi | scientific super powers | found family (mention/hinted) | Angst(hinted)

Random – concept headcanons | Arcade theme in play

About reader — Masc! Aligned; trans, nonbinary & masc ambiguous friendly ! | He him pronouns used | R instead of y/n or m/n used | teen! reader around sixteen fifteen y.o ? | Hinted to have small amounts of background & a dog! | Tech savvy reader !!

Disclaimer – English is my second language and I'm Dyslexic, grammatical errors are more than going to happen. this is barely proof-read completely, it's just breezed through that's it lol.

DNI — Fudanashis/Fujodashis, fem-aligned, basic DNI criteria(ableists, racists, sexists etc), Maps(+other related terms), Pedophiles, transmeds, TERFS ( + other related terms ), antisemetics, proship/profic, kink/nude/18+ blogs, sh/pro-ana/Ed blogs, blank blogs

Gif ID. Three gifs in upper row; a gif showcasing the 90s arcade mat designs with varying colors and shapes, second gif of a bundle of cables with small flashing RGB lights in between the cables, third gif of cyan and magenta glitters being stirred.

three more gifts row down; a gif of glow in the dark stars if varying colors being thrown down, a gif of two balloons filled with green and orange glowing liquid Uber a black light being driven over by a car popping them, third gif of three arcade machines against a wall flashing lights and active. Gif ID end

Credits — 👑|👑|👑 — 👑|👑|👑

What if spiderman! Au, masc!reader being something similiar to Spider-Man, a teenager and gets to work for the government when he's caught. Of course suffering through the court etc -> as in assault charges that can be linked to him even if it was against bad guys. Y'know lol .

Also bad guys just being criminals most of the time. And actually being normal people. Ofc there can be an alternative of serums etc etc.

If they were serumed up then there would be more chaos tbh.

But I'm still thinking wether or not it be the known sci-fi type with differences to the actual Spider-Man powers. Also bc i personally love jumping spiders, i think the powers will circle them specifically. ( So the suit design descriped wouldn't be the one Spider-Man actually wears bc originality if i ever continue on this concept lol )

R just swinging around and avoiding cops and agents as he starts to realise he's being chased / targeted.

His powers are seen as something pricy and unique, one could say people may be interested in seeing him fighting in a rink.

I think he would be a lab rat if caught by anybody who has the proper or improper equipment and skill(s) to be used.

I think the first time he'd use his powers would be after being attacked or scared and having the fight or flight response activated.

Most likely panicked and absolutely bat shit scared.

At some point may have had something to do with a murder or being an accessory in it. Koff Koff. Or maybe just do something with a murder of somebody in general bc of not knowing how much power he actually has.

:0 Vigilante good guy misinterpreted to be a bad guy bc his powers went haywire.

Oh yeah heh mentioned jumping spiders above, think about ultraviolet vision as something R would be able to access.

Also bc of 15-16 y.o R he would be in highschool during these times. ( Think about it being the present)

Getting a dog for his own protection, company and to combat the possible paranoia the shit underneath may have caused and is spoke of.

Yes I'm kinda just portraying this origin of Reader to be close to the original spider-man origin. Thinking of ways he could get his powers; i don't like the origin how that ended, bc angst i need angst and the Reader being a full lab rat by being kidnapped for tests with other people. Either they survived it or died during the testing. ( I think he could have been a bit younger when this happened. )

Also kinda wanna include Survivalist intuition(link) to the mix in a way, not only for thee possible danger intuition that will be part of the myriad of things the testing may have given him.

Having a friend group that somewhat knows what's up with the reader and tries to help him as much as they can. Which includes possible not talking to the cops or FBI if being questioned at one point bc the fbi found possible lead to the reader after seeing him appearing around newspapers and the streets of Virginia mainly.

If the reader does have parents they are spoken with aswell, if he does not then he's basically taken in as the shared child of the BAU team in time lmao .

If he does not have parents as in they aren't really there in his life that much.

Finding out he's a student, a minor in general surprises them a little, especially after connecting dots and finding out what may or may not have happened to him when he was younger.

After being caught he's held accountable for the crimes he's committed. And doesn't exactly deny them either. But he's also offered a possible job bc they could actually use someone like him in the forces due to his powers.

Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait what if more sci-fi type of shit is going on and the technology is a little more advanced from the 2000- 2018 (i think?) Technology evolution. And the reader was tech savvy and build his own equipment and instead of actual webs or chemically composed webs it's just wires?? Like grappling hooks but small and study as fuck ¿¿ Lmao

So like in a way he's not smart in chemistry way, but in technology & physics way if you will lol ??

And if the reader liked a more colorful arcade-ish designs ?? :0

The fanfiction would be a crossover obviously, but idk if there would a specific world to be put in. Bc spider verse! Reader sounds really cool. Especially arcade-aesthetic style/ tech savvy(kinda like Peni from Spiderverse, but not completely y'know?) version would be really cool.

AAAAAAAAAAA— just thinking about a case where spiderverse! Reader is already part of BAU and is sent to go undercover in a school campus bc there's a killer and nobody knows anything and he's the only one that could easily without raising any suspicious'

Also how he's secretive about being hurt and sucking it up to bandages himself home bc that's basically what he's been doing. The amount of scars and wounds he has and how's he not dead yet ?? The teams shook lol .

Oh also JJ's basic maternal instinct; he's basically if put to work with the BAU department under Hotch as a trainee also under her, Emily and Penny's gaze. Also Hotch and Derek lol imo would look after the reader a little if they're assigned with him.

Also Derek will absolutely if the Reader is energetic and speaks alot pretend to be annoyed before actually being annoyed bc he can't catch a break off of you ( in this situation he'd voice it out politely. Instead of ignoring R completely lol ) . Also teasing how much of a motor mouth R can be.

With Reid he can absolutely talk about the most random things that come to mind and if he doesn't know what R's on about R can actually educate him on it !

Also i actually think especially if the Reader is neurodivergent Reid would absolutely be the best person to talk about hyperfixations and specials interests. In other seriousness you could pour your interests and likes to him and you'd get a good conversation out of it :³ .

Also mama hen Rossi content. You cannot convince me this man does not hen over the team in general. I have seen too many headcanons and hints off of this, + the show let's it up as well in some episodes and I am headcanoning it myself lmao. He's really caring tbh.

Can you already tell I'm hip deep in found family trope content with the old BAU team lol ?

Absolutely think once Penny gets a sniff at something R's interested in she's going to get him something related to that to keep his mind off of the dark things the job forces him into. She's absolutely the one you could just pour out and she's ready to help, care and possible be doting ;; .

Also just randomly thinking about those roof-top chase scenes where reader would be the dominant one bc he could catch up faster with the target especially if it's jumping roof top to roof top. Bc naturally much stronger and longer leaps than a human can do and more stamina. ( Bc of having a jumping spider specific powers )

[artboxartist]

tw: images of blood and gore and talk about blood and gore.

Okay so I have this AU/fic that I keep rotating in my mind and I want to share it bc even though it probably won’t ever be a fic, I want to make some concept sketches for it and MAYBE some animations (MAYBE). I made this particular sketch while working on a different project, hence the “I was supposed to do my project”

Background:

In this particular setup, Eggman is less of a world-dominating villain and more of a morally grey CEO (like Elon Musk but arguably less evil). He still contributes to pollution, thanks to his factories/warehouses, but he isn’t actively trying to take over the planet. Sonic still tries to dismantle his machinery tho because he doens’t like the pollution that they cause.

The Chaos Emeralds aren’t a thing in Sonic’s planet (yet). They still have the Master Emerald though and its shards sort of act as the individual Chaos Emeralds. When united into the Master Emerald, it’s as powerful as all 7 Chaos Emeralds and can turn people who come into contact with it Super. This is relevant to the plot. 

Sonic and co. (except Eggman) have the generally exact same stories/histories, just without the 7 Chaos Emeralds. 

Actual Plot: 

The planet is experiencing an energy crisis. Robotnik Industries obviously has a role to play in this, as one of the largest energy consumers and waste producers in the world. However, rather than trying to put restrictions on the company, GUN-- which benefits highly from Robotnik Industries’ weaponry production-- decides to set their eyes to the stars in search of a new energy source. 

According to ancient echidna manuscripts, evidence from archeological digs, and mysterious energy pings from beyond the solar system, the planet of Mobius used to have 7 Chaos Emeralds along with the singular Master Emerald, but a mysterious cataclysm sent them off the planet. Seeing no reason to doubt the glaring evidence of their existence, GUN initiates a mission to retrieve the emeralds as a way to make more energy. To gather a crew for the mission, they open 150 slots for potential crewmates to try out and begin training. 

Sonic and co understand that GUN would probably use the emeralds for their own benefit. Wanting to keep an eye on the organization, they try out for the mission, with some of the friends staying behind to keep watch over Mobius. 

Those who go on the mission are: Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, and Rouge.

Those who stay behind are: Tails, Amy, Cream, and the Chaotix. 

Initially, Tails wanted to be apart of the mission but was declined because he was considered “too young,” despite his valor in previous battles. Sonic tried to vouch for him, but when Tails realized he’d have more of an impact as part of the on-planet engineer team and Mission Control, he opted to stay behind and participate from Mobius. 

Once aboard the ship-- they couldn’t use the Ark because it wasn’t meant to leave orbit-- the crew settles in. Knuckles realizes he very easily gets space-sick (due to the fluorescent light and sterile, enclosed environment) and enters a state of lethargy and weakness that he has to fight against whenever he’s aboard. Sonic doesn’t like the limited space, but finds himself to be very popular with the crewmates and finds ways to run around. He too misses the open space though. Shadow fares the best, with the ship giving him a sense of nostalgia for the Ark. He seems a tad more relaxed and often compares he experience on the Ark to that of the ship. 

Aboard the ship, the the crewmates are split into Squadrons, with each Squadron containing 4 members: a pilot, a searcher, a guard, and a medic. Each Squadron gets its own little ship for the purpose of exploring planets with Chaos energy signatures. Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow all end up being in the same Squad. Sonic is the pilot, Shadow is the searcher, and Knuckles is the guard. It is here they meet Molly, their medic. Molly, who I based off of Molly from Sonic X, is a human from Mobius. When she was 15, Shadow saved her from a falling building during the invasion of the Black Arms. Now, at the age of 25 (they’re all in their 20s), she feels that she would be able to repay him somehow. 

The story basically follows the crew’s adventure as they search 10 planets for the Chaos Emeralds. Each character has a moment where they almost lose their life, but somehow pull through.

Knuckles gets his head busted open from an ice-cave collapse (shown in the image), Shadow has to have Molly surgically remove a parasite from his side, Sonic nearly gets crushed or nearly drown (tbh idk what happens to him yet), and Molly... I actually haven’t thought about hers yet. 

Eventually, they get all the Chaos Emeralds and start to head home. By now, they’ve travelled obscenely far from Mobius. Like, they’ve left the solar system. To achieve this without needing stasis, they use teleportation rings, much like the mechanism they had for the Blue Typhoon in Sonic X. However, the mechanism was destroyed at some point, and now they’re stranded. Thankfully, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles have heightened sensitivity to Chaos Energy and deduce that the combined energy of the 7 emeralds are as powerful as the Master Emerald when put together. They manage to convince the entire crew to let Sonic and Shadow go Super and chaos-control them home, taking short intermittent rests at the planets they’ve visited in a sort of “planet-hopping” fashion. They make it home and they manage to de-fuse from the emeralds and “accidentally” spread them across Mobius to make it more difficult for GUN to get ahold of them, thus establishing the presence of the Chaos Emeralds.

The end. 

oh! I’m thinking of a couple sub-plot ideas where they come into contact with other societies and try to communicate with them through pictures and video, as well as a bunch of other little fun “slice of life” bits to add here and there.

[alinelovelace]

Gif tutorial by Alinelovelace

Alright, I'll be doing 3 things here today:

1.) Sharing the programs and websites I use

2.) Showing y'all a tutorial on how I make my gifs (this is my first tutorial, so if anything doesn't make sense, don't hesitate to message me, send me an ask, or comment on this post!!!!!)

3.) Sharing some resources by insanely talented gif makers (because I learned how to make gifs by following tutorials)

It's probably important(?) to mention that I use a Windows laptop

A.) Programs and websites:

ezgif: to make my gifs and do light editing

You can make gifs with video clips or screen caps. I'm not advanced enough to use screen caps, though they're supposed to make gorgeous gifs. I use ezgif to make the actual gif and edit the timing (which I end up having to tweak on Photoshop but...)

I also like ezgif because no watermarks!! I will do anything in my power to get rid of watermarks from websites and editing programs because they bother the hell out of me!

Photoshop: for the rest of my editing

This is where I recolor and add text.

A great alternative to Photoshop is Photopea, which I've used before I "obtained" Photoshop. It's FREE and online, so you don't have to download anything! I highly recommend it if you really want to get into gif coloring !!!!

Currently, I get my videos from torrents (bc I have a wide selection for my family to watch on our tv). But I used to use the Xbox game bar on Windows to record the clips I wanted on online streaming sites (unfortunately there's not a whole lot up and running anymore), then cropped and cut them. If anyone's interested in that, I could probably post a separate tutorial for that another time :)

There's also screen cap websites out there and YouTube. And probably dozens of other ways to get videos that I don't know about!

Video cutter

If you use full length episode videos and don't know how to crop them on your laptop (like me)

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

B.) Tutorial:

I'll be remaking the first gifset I ever made since I've learned A LOT since then! It should be pretty simple since there's only one set of subtitles.

Another time, I could do an edit tutorial like my That 70s Show ones. It's just taking the same concepts as this tutorial though, and playing around with colors, fonts, and font placement.

1.) Find your video/screen caps:

Since I no longer have the video from my first gifset, I just googled "Mulder throwing pencils season 10" on YouTube. After finding the video, I copied the link and pasted it into a YouTube to MP4 site ((this site has never given me popups or tried to get me to download something that isn't my video file)).

2.) If your downloaded video clip is short enough, you can just stick it into ezgif. If not, you may have to cut it using a website or a computer program.

Ezgif.com -> video to gif -> browse -> select your file -> upload video

3.) After clicking upload video, you should find yourself on this page:

If you need to do any kind of video editing (cropping, rotating, resizing, etc) this is the place to do it! This is also where you make your gifs.

For the first gif, I don't need to change the start time, since I'm starting at the beginning of the video. 0 seconds is fine. But for the stop time, I'm going to play the video, pause where I want my first gif to end, then press "use current position" by end time.

I don't usually touch the settings for size, FPS, or method. If the gif doesn't have a lot of movement, I check "optimize for static background"

Then press convert to gif.

Here's the product I got. Since it's such a short clip, it moves a little fast for me.

I'm going to click "speed" which is below the gif. You're brought to this page:

This is completely up to you for speed, but I find that between 60% and 85% end up looking good. If you don't like it, just change the number in the box and press "change speed". I ended up with mine at 65% of current speed.

A little better, right? The gifs that turn out best are 3 seconds to 10 seconds in my experience. This one is 1.5 seconds, so it's a little fast.

After that, rinse and repeat for every gif you need to make.

4.) Editing time! This is for Photoshop (if you use Photopea, I very much recommend this tutorial. It's very well explained!)

Go ahead and open all of your gifs once Photoshop is booted up. Then click window -> timeline

Now you have a handy dandy little timeline on the bottom.

The first thing you're going to do click play and decide whether or not your gifs are running at the speed you want. If yes, move on to next step.

If not: click on the three lines -> select all frames -> little drop down arrow. You should have a variety of times available to choose. Usually, I click other, then put somewhere between 0.04 and 0.08 seconds. Click play again. If you don't like it, try this step again.

If you need to crop your gif, three lines -> select all frames. Press "c" on your keyboard and crop accordingly.

4a.) Color editing

This is where things get complicated. Just remember coloring is subjective and everyone does it differently. This is just an intro to the different tools most gif makers use to alter color.

You don't have to use all of these! I definitely pick and choose depending on how I want the coloring to look. When I'm making a gif set, my coloring isn't as adventurous as when I'm making an edit. It doesn't feel worth it to give away my settings for this gifset since it changes depending on the coloring and lighting of the scene.

All of these tools can be found under "create new filter adjustment layer"

• Brightness/Contrast

This one is the easiest in my opinion. It's pretty straightforward. The more you drag brightness the right, the brighter your gif gets. The more you drag contrast to the right, the higher the contrast is.

• Curves

This adjusts lighting with color values. It's another tool that's hard to explain. I just drag the little circles on the chart until it looks good

• Color Balance

Like every other setting, exactly what you do with this tool is up to you. Color Balance adjusts the overall tint of your gif. I recommend editing highlights, shadows, and midtones for the best results.

• Channel mixer

This one is one of the most complicated tools when making gifs in my opinion. It's best for getting rid of weird colored tints (think the blue coloring in Twilight). I'll just link a tutorial here for it. I don't make enough gifs to know how to explain it.

• Selective color

Hands down my favorite tool, though not only specifically for gif making. This tool allows you to select a color (reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues, magentas, whites, neutrals, blacks) and edit each color group. For example: my skin in photos usually has a weird red tint. I can edit the reds in my photo using this tool to make it look less abrasive.

You just play around with the different colors and bars for each color until each color group looks good. I recommend hitting the highest value to see how the color changes/what parts of the gif are affected by the change.

In the instance below, I wanted to see how magenta affected the blue colors, so I dragged magenta to 100. Now, knowing what kind of color changes magenta will make to blue, I can adjust accordingly.

Messing around with the each color put me here:

• Vibrance

Another pretty self explanatory tool! Vibrance and saturation bars make the gif colors more colored and vibrant.

• Applying the filters to all frames

Shift click to select all the filters, and drag them above all the layers. They should now be applied to all the frames.

If not, select all frames with the three lines menu drop down like before -> click the little eye to turn off visibility, then click it again to turn it back on. You should be able to see everything now.

In order to carry the same colors from gif to gif, I take pictures of each setting and edit each filter adjustment layer accordingly. I side by side compare and make adjustments if the coloring doesn't match quite right. I'm sure there's a better way to do this, but I'm not experienced enough yet.

4b.) Subtitles

This part isn't too bad. For subtitle text, I use Calibri. Myriad pro bold italic and Arial are also really good options though!

�� Text

Go to the sidebar and select text. Drag yourself out a box approximately where you want your subtitles. Type whatever you want. If you don't like where it is, click the move tool and drag it wherever you'd like.

Here are my text settings:

• Blending options

Right click your text layer and select "blending options" at the top. I edit stroke, which adds an outline. I also edit drop shadow, just because it adds a little depth to the text

• Applying to all frames

Drag the text layer to the top, just like you did with the adjustment filter layers when coloring. The same troubleshooting applies.

5.) Exporting

I know there's other ways to do this, but this is the way that makes the most sense to me.

Select all frames on the timeline -> file -> export -> save for web (legacy) -> save

With everything together, you go from:

To:

I had the subtitles in two parts because my first one had the subtitle in two parts (consistency).

Happy giffing!~~

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

C.) Resources:

This is a collection of resources both for Photopea and Photoshop

Photopea Resources:

Photopea giffing tutorial by @heroeddiemunson

Photopea gif coloring tutorial by @heroeddiemunson

Photopea removing yellow tint tutorial by @lacebird

Photopea gif making tutorial by @aragarna

Photopea gif making tutorial by @ashleyolsen

Photopea changing background color of gifs by @benoitblanc

Photoshop tutorials:

Giffing tutorial by @dqmeron

Subtitle tutorial by @itsphotoshop

Blurring gif backgrounds by @clubgif

Inverted colored text tutorial by @spaceslayer

Gradient text tutorial by @tawaifeddiediaz

Gif coloring tutorial by @logangarfield

Color consistency tutorial by @clubgif

Channel mixer tutorial by @zoyanazyalensky

[starrygalazy]

It's been a while since I've posted anything big on here BUT I made a concept for Mei's Mythic skin that I am OBSESSED with. The theme I chose is "Holiday Village", and I made Mei a "Towne Baker" skin and a background for it (if you don't wanna see Christmas themed stuff in September yet I suggest keep scrolling lol):

There exists a village where snow falls and golden lights hang year round, a village where the warm hearts of its occupants brighten the frigid nights. The Baker makes her rounds daily, creating a seemingly infinite amount of sweet treats for all her friends. With her special companion by her side, she works endlessly to make and deliver the best desserts and baked goods to all within the village.

Here's the specifics and customizable options too (some of these aren't set in stone yet):

Hair: I was completely obsessed with braids for this, they just fit the holiday vibe too much imo. I also do think her glasses would change but i forgot to draw them so ill just say them here. Her hairstyles are as follows:

Two braids on each side and hair pulled into a ponytail with a bow + full moon glasses

Simple bun wrapped with a braid & bell hairpin (didn't draw the pin bc I only just remembered it) + half rim glasses

Half-up-half-down hairdo with braid pulled back & earmuffs + think rectangle glasses

Shawl:

Fuzzy neck short cloak with strings & cotton balls at the end

Similar to option 1 but instead of fuzzy, it's a bit more refined w/o the strings and has a button clasp in front

Not a shawl at all, but rather a cozy, long scarf

Weapons: These aren't set in stone, especially not the 2nd option (and obviously Snowball counts bc if we can't customize him, imma be so upset)

Gun: Piping bag gun that'll probably change to a more 'gun' style, and Snowball: Muffin Snowball, obviously a baker needs her baked treats!

Gun: I tried incorporating the style of a hand mixer, I like the concept but want to change it. And it's hard to see well, but Snowball: Literal display tray with a glass cover! How that would work with his face, I have no clue, but he'd have a cake or cupcakes inside that you could see.

Colors: Finally we got colors. The only consistent outfit colors for her would be the white fuzz (and maybe her sweater?).

Red for main, light brown for accent (i.e.: Corset & gloves), and brown for hair (so just normal hair here) + gold details for metal

I switched the accent and main colors, so light blue for main, teal for accent, and white for hair. Very much a winter, frozen look. And ignore the "gold", that's meant to be silver.

Dark red main, green (forest green) accents, and black hair with silver metal, fits more with Christmas colors in general.

Finally I'll show you her ice tank, which I think is genius:

It's literally a portable oven with cookies & a giant vat of icing, and an ornament as a charm.

I'll try and draw the actual hair styles or revise the weapons eventually, but this is what I have and I'm very, very proud of it

[missingmywing]

So quick background: some friends and I were talking about Ancient hcs and joked that Hyth probably seduced most or all of the Convocation at some point, and I made the joke that he probably challenged my Azem to do the same. I was then shamelessly enabled by multiple friends to write a fic of them doing exactly that. So. This is technically the second chapter bc the first would be Hyth's challenge itself, but they're all self-contained enough that they work alone with background explanation. Enjoy 13k words of what was supposed to be a 4k smut fic that then exploded into Plot and Character Studies.

Lahabrea

Styx had to admit, they weren’t… entirely sure how they were going to approach Lahabrea.

Not that they were at all adverse, but without Hyth’s prodding they’d have never gathered the boldness, the audacity. The man was stern and focused on his work above all else, and certainly not the type to fool around. Especially with Azem, who was undoubtedly the greatest headache for him on the convocation more often than not.

Styx knew that he didn’t hate them, or even truly dislike them, for all that he was often the first to criticize their methods and actions. But that didn’t change the fact that they were in opposition more often than not and that he would likely respond scathingly to a “distraction from their duties”.

Then again, perhaps it was simply a matter of constraints to work around.

He wouldn’t look favourably upon a distraction from his usual duties, so they could approach him towards the end of the day when those duties had reached a point of being set aside anyway. And he wasn’t the type to casually fool around, especially not with the one who was often a thorn in his side - though accidentally, usually - but conversely, his frustration with them could be an opening to offer an outlet.

How likely he was to accept it was another question altogether.

And… they did owe him somewhat of an apology. Not for quelling the volcano, but their use of Ifrita had been-

Well. They’d always intended to apologize to him for it, this just gave them a good opportunity to offer it.

So it was that two bells after the official end to the work day, as the sun began to dip beneath the horizon, found Azem knocking on Lahabrea’s office door with the curls of anticipation and nerves twisting in their stomach.

Frankly the only way this could go wrong was if he took insult, which they strongly hoped he wouldn’t. There was no reason for him to, really, and they knew that at worst he would likely dismiss them with irritable exasperation at the potential waste of time, but… well, their mind had always oh so helpfully conjured the worst case of any scenario they’d ever envisioned.

The flare of aether was sign enough of acknowledgement, and they steeled themselves and pushed open the door into the office.

Lahabrea was sitting at his desk and, given that the majority of the paperwork was on one side of it in designated files, they assumed that he was largely done for the day.

The office had long been altered to reflect a design very similar to that of what they remembered of his office in the Akademia Anyder; with dark stone edged with gold, desk of a dark wood, shelves of books and concept crystals along the walls, and a dark leather lounge with a low table to the right. It was lit more by the lamps along the walls than the rapidly dimming light from the arching windows to his back. It was both nostalgic and a bit comforting in its familiarity. His expression was neutral, rather than pulled into a tired frown, which was… a relatively good sign.

It at least meant that he wasn’t in a foul mood already.

“Azem,” he greeted neutrally as he looked up, voice not giving away any particular emotion. “Is there aught I can assist you with?”

… or perhaps he was upset. He was being suspiciously cordial given that he was undoubtedly still irked about their unauthorized acquisition and employment of Ifrita to stabilize the volcano less than a decade ago. While not as incised about it as Pashtarot, he’d been very vocal about his displeasure with the whole situation as he’d led the formal dressing-down of Azem by the Convocation in the aftermath. Not to mention their and Elidibus’ meddling about the Pandaemonium incident, their avoidance on the subject of their “familiar” in the aftermath, and his own personality shift in the wake of reclaiming his soul shard… 

They eyed him warily. “Not as such, but I thought that time enough had passed to broach the subject of Ifrita without setting implications of excuses.”

He watched them for a moment, then released a sigh. “You are not one to make excuses Azem. While I may find your explanations excessively detailed and opinionated at times, they never deviate from factuality and into vacuity.” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “If it is an explanation you seek to offer, you need not go to the effort. You were thorough enough with your report the first time, and I know well enough what motivates you to piece the events together myself.”

Azem found themselves struck silent at his words. That… wasn’t what they had expected. “I… see.”

“Nor are you one to offer an apology for your actions when you feel them justified.” Lahabrea tilted his head in a way that they could almost see his eyebrow raised behind his mask. “So what, pray tell, could have brought you here?”

They hesitated. “Not… apologies for my actions, perhaps, but for possible insult that could be taken from them, yes.” Azem answered carefully. “Ifrita was a powerful and well-crafted creation, and I’m not in the least ignorant of the time, effort, and care that went into her development. That I took advantage of that so soon after her approval and induction to the archives is an action I am well aware could be construed poorly. Of that, I am more than willing to offer an apology - even if no offense was intended.” Their heart twisted in their chest, awaiting his response. No matter how much time passed, he never became less intimidating - especially when he was in a clear position to offer scathing rejection.

Lahabrea considered them for a long moment, crimson eyes as unreadable as ever behind his mask. “… as I said, I am aware enough of your motivations to know your intent with your actions. While admittedly irate at your callous and blatant flaunting of protocol, I took no offense at your actions with Ifrita. The concept was created and submitted to the archives to be of use - not in that manner, perhaps, but if I wished to control how a concept were to be used I would never submit anything for public use - even restricted as it was. While I may disapprove of the manner, the utilization was within rights.”

… oh. Well today was a day for revelations wasn’t it?

Before they could respond, however, Lahabrea continued. “However; while the apology may have been genuine I can see clearly that it was also an excuse and a veil for your true purpose of being here. Speak plainly, Azem - you waste both our time with this vacant exchange.”

They felt their spine stiffen against their will at being called out, opening their mouth to respond… only for nothing to escape. What could they say? This hadn’t gone at all how they’d expected, and they’d been on the back-foot since the beginning. They had no idea how to proceed from here.

Especially given the excuse they had used to be here, it… full transparency likely would be taken as an offense to both his time and his assiduity. Frankly this whole approach, hells this whole challenge, had been ill-formed. They’d become so used to the ease of their relationship with Hythlodaeus and Hades over the millenia that they’d forgotten how complicated and difficult it was to court someone into bed - or elsewhere - without predetermined attraction.

They hadn’t thought this through, and they were going to fail before they’d even begun. The mortification burned through their stomach, twisting their mouth down into a frown as shame made their head dip. They had no recourse for this; it seemed Hyth had won without any effort and that they would simply have to take whatever he set for the loss consequences.

“It… doesn’t truly matter,” they murmured. “I rather overestimated your ire over my actions with both Ifrita and the island, and I see now that further pursuit of the matter unnecessary. I apologize for taking your time.” With another dip of their head they turned to leave, frustration and shame at their own cowardice a cocktail in their chest.

“Azem.”

Their body froze at his voice, layered with aether and command woven into one - the same technique he and Elidibus used to take control whenever debates became too unrestrained amongst the Convocation meetings.

He stood, an implied expectation laid at the action. As much as they wished to flee with their pride somewhat intact - if wounded - they couldn’t simply ignore his own silent demand. They slowly turned back towards him, shoulders reflexively curled.

Lahabrea stared at them for a long moment then reached up to pinch the bridge of his mask and sighed. A moment later he was stepping around the desk and walking towards them, stopping less than an arm’s length away to look down at them.

(They always forgot, somehow, exactly how large and imposing he was in close capacity. While they and Themis were admittedly smaller than most - and given the information on dynamis Hermes had brought to their attention, what it was and how it applied, combined with they and Themis’ unusual attunement to emotions of those around them and Venat’s dabbling as Azem while carrying them, they had theories as to why - Lahabrea was several heads taller than them and it was… immensely imposing when he did so intentionally.)

“As fellow members of the Convocation, regardless of seniority or approval, we are equals of our positions. Yet you stand there as uncertain as an Akademia student being chastised.” He stepped past them, circling behind them, and though they tried to turn their head and keep him in their peripherals their hood and mask - on, following protocol for once, and they cursed themself for it - blocked their view. “If you wish for something then speak it. Hiding behind empty platitudes is hardly befitting of your station - as either a Convocation member or as Azem - regardless of expected reactions.”

A thrill shot down their spine at his words. He - of course he’d realized their aim, and they once again cursed themself for their lack of forethought. He was tens of millenia older than them, infinitely more experienced - of course he could recognize when someone held intentions towards him.

They bit their lip, frozen, unable to force the words past their lips.

(If there was one unfortunate thing they and Hades had in common it was the inability to force their pride to the wayside and willfully embarrass themselves.)

Lahabrea sighed, and for the first time in the conversation the sparks of irritation were laced through his voice. “As ever, you try my patience.” They could feel him stepping closer behind them, his presence burning hot and his voice much closer than it had been before. “Speak, Azem. What precisely did you come here for, and why should I give you what you seek?”

Azem couldn’t withhold their shudder, the command in his voice breaking through their hesitation. “An extension of the apology, should you be so inclined to accept it. As I said, I assumed your ire deeper than it was and meant to offer an outlet if you so wished.”

He was silent for a moment, and Azem wished they could see his face to weigh just how that was taken. His presence seemed to ease, and they weren’t sure whether to take that as a good sign or a bad one. When he did speak it sent a bolt of molten heat directly to their core.

“I’m beginning to think you simply enjoy being punished.”

Their knees went weak at the words as their breath caught in their breast. Not that he was wrong, precisely, but they certainly hadn’t expected him to say that. “I-”

“I did not give you leave to speak.”

It was all they could do to keep themselves upright as his aether-laced words lashed across them and stalled their voice in their throat.

He stepped back around them, severe red mask working well with his frown to make them feel pinned into place beneath his crimson gaze. “I know not whether what drives you is true contrition or selfish wants given excuse.” Even without his aether woven into his words, they could feel it all around them, blazing hot and overwhelming. Their breaths came more heavily as they tried to swallow back a whine at the heavy sensation. “But regardless, I wonder if you are truly prepared to accept the consequences of what you offer.” He stepped closer, mere ilms between them, forcing Azem to crane their neck to look up at him as they panted for breath and clenched their hands in their robes. “I am not wont to force others to conform to my views, regardless of whether I disapprove of their actions. But if it is punishment you seek…” He lifted his hand sharply and a sigil wove itself beneath them, chains springing forth to wrap around Azem and force their hands behind their back, and Lahabrea caught their chin with his hand to steady them as they staggered. The events together took less than a moment, and the motion of them knocked their hood off. Lahabrea looked down upon them with crimson eyes that blazed as he finished, “… I will be more than willing to provide.”

Everything seemed to still all at once as they stood there, chest heaving as they struggled for air, heat pervading the space around them and sinking directly to the core of their being. Lahabrea continued watching them, unmoving, waiting for their answer.

Giving them the chance to change their mind now.

Stars, as though they would after that implied promise.

They leaned into his grip the slightest bit that they could. “I do not take actions heedless of the consequences,” they forced out. “If the actions I take have consequences then so be it - I am not so unconfident in my judgements as to shy from them.”

His head dipped for a moment before he scoffed quietly. “I find myself unsurprised.” He released their chin and they felt a keen edge of anticipation as they heard the click of the door’s lock behind them, felt the activation of silencing wards as he reached up and plucked their mask from their face. “This is a boldness more befitting of Azem.”

Stars above, if he was trying to ruin them with words before even touching them it was working.

Lahabrea stepped away, walking back to his desk with a measured pace, and set their mask down on the edge of it with a soft click. When he turned back to face them, it was with the same stern, impassive expression he usually wore, with no sign of affection at their state beyond his burning eyes. “You’ve a word, if it becomes too much?"

They swallowed with a nod. “Starfall.”

“Good. I trust you’ll not forget it.” He examined them silently for several moments, as though they were one of his creations and he was determining the best manner of handling them, before he tilted his head the slightest bit to the side thoughtfully and brought a hand to his chin. “Given your apparent fondness for fire, perhaps we should begin with a review of its properties and the inherent danger of engaging with it carelessly.”

Azem had but a moment to think that they were in trouble before the chains wrapped around them burned, the fire-aspected aether pressing through their clothes and against their skin and then sinking beneath it, intense and borderline unbearable, toeing the line of pain and then crossing it.

The kind of pain and heat that made the noise that tore itself from their throat into something between a moan and a cry as they arched against the chains.

They could feel it spreading, feel the aether twisting and twining against their own, sinking deep inside them as it snaked through their body. They trembled against their bonds, trying to keep to their feet.

For but a few moments they managed, barely, before it abruptly pulsed and scattered through their whole form, more akin to a jolt of levin than fire, and they cried out again as their legs gave out. A hand caught their arm, holding them upright, but rather than offering relief it only intensified the aether and they wavered in his grip with a quiet groan.

“Given your excessive recklessness in throwing yourself into increasingly dangerous situations, I wouldn’t have thought you so easy to curb.”

Azem shuddered at the words, the heat of their own pooling beneath their stomach. “Th-this is… a bit different,” they managed out, trying to focus on his face and ignore the fire within them. “Normally the pain isn’t quite so- ngh- targeted.” Had it just been pain they could have endured it just fine - they’d experienced far worse, and even Ifrita had managed some particularly painful wounds of this type but magnified - but that it was the borderline between pain and pleasure, and with such intent…

He was silent for a moment, allowing them to catch their breath as the aether’s intensity faded away to a gentle warmth that they didn’t trust for a moment. “I see,” he said finally, releasing their arm, and they blinked in confusion as the chains dispersed.

“What-”

“Put your arms above your head.”

Levin shot through them at the words and they bit back a strangled noise at it. They complied shakily, watching him from the corner of their eye as he considered them.

Chains wrapped once more around their wrists and seemed to hang from empty air. They tugged at them, testing to see if there was any give, idly considering - distracting themself - if he was using a gravity, time, or wind spell, or if it was a purely aetheric calculation… regardless, there was no pliancy to them. Azem was well and truly trapped in place, and even if their legs did give out they would find no solace in the support of the tile floor below.

Their heart was thundering in their chest as they tried to keep their breathing even, tried not to give away just how affected they were merely from this.

“I must admit, this compliance is… unexpected. Given the trouble you’re so fond of causing, I expected more resistance.”

They huffed out a playful laugh. “I told you, this is an apology of sorts.”

“Is it?”

He sounded distinctly doubtful, but before they could respond the aether flared again and knocked out another strangled sound as it tore through them. They tried to trace the sensations, the aether following along their own and twining with it to redouble its own effects, but it served only to make them more aware of its effects on their body.

The way their robes shifted and chafed, their hair sticking to their neck and falling into their eyes, sticking to their lips, sweat cresting their brow, and the slickness between their thighs turning sticky as they pressed them together in a futile attempt to relieve even the slightest bit of pressure…

The flare likely lasted only a few moments, but it felt like an eternity before it once again died down and left them able to focus on keeping themselves upright on shaky legs, gasping for breath.

Lahabrea was still simply observing them with crossed arms.

They waited him out, slowly regaining control of their body as the heat remained a dull burn and their shaking faded to something more manageable.

Though the ache between their thighs did not, and they rubbed their legs together while trying to ignore the sensation of emptiness. They’d just barely started, Azem wasn’t going to give in so easily.

Whether he would even try or not, Lahabrea would have to put in effort to make them beg.

His eyes narrowed behind his mask, though, at something about them that he’d noticed. They tilted their head at him.

“I suppose I was incorrect about your lack of resistance. You simply cannot help yourself but cause trouble.”

Azem shivered at his tone, mind flitting through potentials as to what he meant. “How so?”

“For someone supposedly offering themselves for punishment,” he said lowly, and a moment later they stiffened as cool air encompassed their bare form, and he flicked a glance down to where their legs were pressed together, “you certainly seem to be enjoying yourself.”

Ah.

They bit their tongue as they felt more aether weave around them, and their legs were forced apart by the chains around their ankles. The chains burned hot, but the polished tile beneath their feet was cold even beneath the sigils of Lahabrea’s spell.

It got to them - the coolness of the air against their skin, being fully exposed in the middle of Lahabrea’s office, windows uncovered (though they were several floors above ground level and were thus unlikely to be seen, the thought of the danger alone was arousing enough), while the man himself remained fully robed, the threatening heat still tracing through them…

Their head fell back with a quiet groan, feeling the burn of embarrassment spreading across their face and down to their shoulders, across their chest. They clenched around nothing as the heat flared once more through their core.

Not that they would admit that, as much as they wanted-

They were abruptly dragged out of their thoughts by a warm touch to their side - a physical one, unexpectedly - and they inhaled sharply at the burning sensation that was painful.

Azem looked back forward to see Lahabrea staring down at their (distinctly flat, so probably not that) chest and side with a severe frown and-

Oh. Right. They hadn’t gotten that healed yet.

“It’s fine,” they said quickly, trying to pull his attention away from the myriad of minor acid burns and long scratches stretching from their left shoulder to hip - the result of their most recent escapade helping some of Halmarut's words suppress an escaped specimen - and back to what was supposed to be happening. “It looks worse than it is, and it doesn’t even hurt-”

“Why,” he asked, dangerously quiet, “have you not gone to a healer?”

Shit, they were in trouble. “Because I’ve been busy since I’ve gotten back, and I didn’t want to bother Emmerololth or her Words with minor injuries.”

“Minor-” he snapped- then stopped and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his mask with a deep steadying breath. “Azem.”

They set their jaw and stared stubbornly up at him. 

It took several moments before he sighed deeply and reached up to pull off his mask and hood in order to glare at them properly. “You are incorrigible,” he said scathingly. “However busy you may have been, it would take naught but a bell, at most, to find a healer available. Emmerololth could heal this in ten minutes. And yet you use the excuse that you were so busy as to not have time available, rather than simply admitting that, as per usual, you are being exceptionally careless of your own wellbeing.”

They hunched their shoulders, looking away. “I have been busy,” they mumbled. “And it didn’t seem worth the effort of hunting someone down, they’ll heal fine on their own.”

“Ridiculous,” Lahabrea snapped again, and Azem glanced up, startled, at the thread of genuine anger in his voice. “There comes a point where recklessness crosses over into foolishness, and ignoring your injuries that could otherwise be easily healed is well beyond that line.” They tensed as the chains tightened around their wrists and ankles, and Lahabrea rested a hand upon their shoulder over the injury. “I will heal you this time, but I will be informing Emmerololth of this.”

Oh no. That was a double edged knife of a promise. Emmerololth would be holding this against them for years, and Lahabrea-

Their thoughts were interrupted once more by his aether, only this time its form was… different. Not the fiery inferno of before, but an altogether rougher sensation prickling through their body over the wounds. akin to the sanding paper artisans used, dragging along their skin and making them cringe and squirm away. Not that there was anywhere to go with the chains holding them still.

It was - not pleasant, certainly; with aether dragging across raw nerves and forcing their body to rebuild itself rapidly, Lahabrea making no effort to smooth the process over and make it soothing as most healers did. But despite that, or perhaps because of it, coupled with the intensity of his focus on them, Azem found that the ache between their legs only worsened even as they tugged and pulled against the chains in a futile attempt to escape the sensation.

Lahabrea sighed, stepping closer and dropping his other hand on their hip irritably to keep them in place. “Hold still.”

“Easier said than done,” Azem shot back mutinously. “You aren’t precisely making it-” they cut themself off with a sharp noise as his aether flared again, chains snaking down around their arms and up their legs to keep them more firmly in place. The aether beneath their skin turned hot again, balance tipping back into fire as their injuries vanished and Lahabrea returned to the task at hand.

“Given your extensive experience with injuries and their discomfort, I would have expected you to endure a simple healing with more poise.” He narrowed his eyes and stepped back, and the sand paper-esque aether returned - beginning where their injuries had been and sweeping slowly out through the rest of their body as though hunting for any other injuries that had been overlooked.

Azem twisted and writhed in place with small whines and moans, helpless to escape it or the heat creeping ever so slowly through them. Every nerve was alight, and their face burned crimson as they felt the slick leaking from them and dripping down their legs and to the floor below as they clenched around nothing.

It was the sweetest form of torture, and Lahabrea undoubtedly knew it as he watched them with narrow eyes and crossed arms.

They wanted him to touch them again, properly this time, but they knew he wouldn’t. Not unless they asked.

Begged, more like, and that wasn’t happening. They weren’t that far gone. Not yet.

But he would make them.

He wouldn’t give them what they wanted unless they spoke it aloud, that much they knew, and the thought alone made their head drop back with a quiet moan.

The feather-light brush of their long hair against the curve of their ass made them shudder, the slightest sensation of touch beyond the burning chains. Not that it actually helped anything, but they would take anything at the moment. Anything physical. Anything beyond his intangible, inexorable aether spreading through them.

They shook as the heat wove through their abdomen, pushing them closer to release, cresting upwards on a wave of pleasure that began to drown out the discomfort. They were close, heart beating louder in their ears as their limbs trembled and their chest heaved, and they arched up as the heat curled and they began to tip over the edge-

-it vanished, the warmth and aether both, and they keened as they yanked against the - also abruptly cold - chains. Their body shook and shuddered, but they couldn’t tip themselves over that edge with no way to touch themselves.

They’d been so close-

Azem slumped in their restraints, trying to catch their breath. Admittedly they had expected it, but still. “That- was cruel,” they huffed at him.

He arched a brow. “I don’t recall offering you any sort of reward. This was meant to be a punishment, yes? You’ve done nothing to earn release.”

That sent another shiver through them, body tightening around the aching emptiness in a futile effort to push itself further. “I see. So you’ll simply toy with me until you’re satisfied?” Although there was an implication there that he may decide not to let them come at all, which was… mildly terrifying to consider.

“Until you’ve learned your lesson,” he corrected indifferently, though the furrow of his brows and searing focus of his gaze said otherwise. “And you’ve admitted to such.”

That sent a shudder down their spine and they bit their tongue to ground themself. So he was, in fact, going to force them to speak their mind. Beg for release.

Excitement pooled in their stomach even as they narrowed their eyes at him. “And what lesson would that be?”

“Your blatant disregard for protocol, and your adamant rejection of conscientiousness towards your own salubrity, to start.”

They arched against their restraints with a choked gasp as the aether returned forcefully, crafted through words and will both, and burned through them once more. They ached for breath, straining fruitlessly against the chains.

Once more they began to crest, tipped to the edge, and then refused when the aether vanished. Twice, thrice, and their eyes were wet as they came down yet again. Still they bit their tongue, refused to cave.

“Stubborn, as per usual.” Lahabrea said flatly, dragging their clouded attention to him. “Must you withhold acknowledgement of indiscretions?”

They tried to speak, voice failing them, and swallowed and tried again. “I acknowledge indiscretions, but I’ll not apologize for those actions which I consider worthwhile. I won’t apologize for that which I don’t regret; merely that which I do. As I said before, I don’t lie. An empty apology is meaningless words.”

“Stubborn,” he hissed, making them flinch at the flare of aether. “Perhaps I have been too lenient.”

What? What did that mean, what could he possibly-?

Their thoughts were broken by the sudden surge of aether that flooded them. Blindingly hot, searing its way through their whole body and making them arch and writhe against the chains, broken cries and moans falling helplessly from their lips as their mind went blank. It was- a lot. So much, nowhere to go, no way to escape it, and they felt themselves being dragged once more to that edge.

Except this time, when they reached the crest of it, it didn’t disappear.

But neither did they tip over the edge.

They were instead balanced on the very edge of it, forced to that point but unable to fall over it. Their body refusing to come.

And it was - too much, too much, they couldn’t think, couldn’t feel, they were numb except to the heat and pleasure and they twisted and cried out and tried desperately to push themselves over, to pull their legs together and force the orgasm to come, but they couldn’t. The chains served their purpose well, holding them firmly in place, and a sob pulled itself from their chest.

It vanished abruptly, the heat drawing back and allowing them back down, but their whole body was trembling and shaking as they slumped in the restraints, unable to hold their own weight. Their face was wet with tears, sweat slicking their body, and they’d never ached more desperately. Stars, they’d take anything right now. Something to fill them, to touch them, to push them over that edge.

The break in sensations allowed them to sense their own aetheric flow more clearly, though, and they almost immediately found the source of the problem. A spell woven to keep them at the brink and no further. The sigil of its form glowing slightly where it rested beneath their stomach, blurry though it was through their teary gaze. He’d used light-aligned aether, the bastard, inducing stasis under the conditions of his choosing, refusing their body to tip past a certain point.

They were completely at his whim, and there was nothing they could do about it.

(Well, they could. One word, one sign that it was actually too much, and he’d release them immediately. But they weren’t anywhere near that point. Not yet.)

They craned their neck to look up at him as he stepped closer to them and raised a brow. Waiting. They set their jaw stubbornly and stared back.

“Still you resist,” he rumbled, glaring down at them.

“Y-you know… my feelings- on the matter,” they stuttered out. “You- you’ll not- change my mind so- so easily.”

“Is that so?” he asked quietly, their only warning before they were once again dragged into the flames.

If they’d hoped their body would numb to the feeling, they’d have been sorely disappointed. If anything, it seemed only intensified this time. The anxious anticipation setting them on edge just before it struck and heightening it when it did. They went rigid and jerked against the immovable chains, anything to distract from the overwhelming aether dragging them under.

They didn’t- it was-

They couldn’t feel anything but the burn, the pleasure so sharp it hurt, the desperate ache of the emptiness and lack of touch where they needed it most, every nerve overstimulated to the point that they could sense naught else, ragged, desperate breaths tearing from their chest in a bid for air.

And it didn’t stop.

There was no recession this time, no diminishing in the aether. It took them to that edge, rising and falling in pulses and waves, and kept them there, merciless, until they couldn’t bear it.

All sense of time vanished in the face of it, they didn’t know how long it took before they broke.

But break they did, as they inevitably would.

“Please-” they choked out, pulling helplessly at the immovable chains. “Please, please, I can’t-” they gasped around the words, voice wrecked, as they stumbled over whine. “No more, please, please let me-”

“If you wish for release, you know how to receive it.”

They shook their head, forcing their eyes open to look up at him wetly. “Lahabrea-”

He stared down at them, seemingly unimpressed, though the way his jaw was clenched and his hands rested a bit too tightly on his arms proved he wasn’t entirely unaffected - not that they could truly register that through their haze. “I believe I made my conditions clear, Azem.”

They whimpered and their toes curled, throwing their head back as the aether flared somehow higher yet again and it burned. “Please! I’m sorry- I’m sorry for- for going behind your back, I’m sorry for un-undercutting the Convocation- I- I-” their voice broke into another sob at the next pulse of aether.

They distantly heard Lahabrea’s irate sigh, and arched up with a keen at the feeling of his warm hand catching their chin and pulling their face up sharply. They strained against the chains, trying to reach him further, as choked whimpers escaped them. “I ask not for empty apologies, Azem, for I am aware that you thought what you did to be necessary. My quarrel is that you did so without recourse. You did go behind our backs, and took exceptional risk of disaster in doing so. Taking a high level concept, invoking it to a powerful level, and intending to face it alone.”

Their nails dug into their palms at they strained helplessly at the chains, his aether pushing ever higher and hotter and staying there.

“Had Elidibus not alerted Emet-Selch to your reckless intent and beseeched his aid, you would have fought alone and the injuries you sustained would have been much worse. Had you failed, the island itself would have simply faced Ifrita’s wrath rather than the volcano’s - and the destruction could have spread beyond even that. Whatever your intentions, your actions were reckless and ill-planned, and your insistence in acting alone put you at a risk much higher than necessary. To say nothing of your refusal to pay heed to your own injuries in the aftermath.” Their breaths were pulled from them in little gasps as his words wrapped around them, their intent echoing through the aether he’d woven through them. “I care not for empty apologies, but I expect you to acknowledge your failings and the anxieties they caused.” They barely registered his glare through teary eyes, dark and frustrated as it was.

“I’m sorry,” they choked out, trying to focus enough to think through the hazy burn and the desperation. So close, pushed to the edge but never beyond, wound so tight it hurt. “I’m sorry, I’ll- I’ll be better. I promise, I- I’ll be more careful, I won’t-” another pulse made them arch and flinch with a cry, “Please, please please please I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I won’t- won’t- won’t go on my- my own next time- I’ll- I’ll find someone to help and- and act as a con-contingency, I-” they sobbed, babbling, desperation driving their words.

Lahabrea’s hand slid upward from their jaw, catching their hair in his fist and jerking their head back, drawing another keen from them. “You will also not hide your injuries, or ignore them, regardless of how minor you may consider them,” he growled. “When you return to Amaurot from now on, you will find a healer - be it Emmerololth or one of her words, or even Elidibus or myself - and have them tend your injuries. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes,” Azem choked out, tears spilling from their eyes. “Yes yes yes, I understand, I promise, anything, I will, I-” Another shudder wracked them. “Lahabrea please!”

“Very well then,” he murmured, and they felt the hand not fisted in their hair reach down to brush against the sigil on their stomach, unraveling the spell, and then dip down further.

His fingers dragged across their clit to hook into their entrance just as another pulse of aether flared through them, and they were wrenched over the edge with a wail.

Their entire body went rigid, every muscle tensing and pulling sharply against the restraints, and they couldn’t breathe as their vision whited out. Everything was overwhelmed by the heat and relief that flooded through them, pleasure so sharp it was like needles dragging across their nerves, and they couldn’t register anything else through the sensations.

When they did finally come back to themself sometime later, blinking spots from their eyes hazily, they were pressed up against Lahabrea with one arm beneath their shoulders and his other hand resting on their waist to support them. They hadn’t yet been released from the chains, but they had loosened to allow Azem’s body to relax.

Their face was wet and they were still wracked with shivers, uncontrollable little spasms from their overwrought nerves and aether. His own had withdrawn from theirs, but they could still sense the little traces where it hadn’t yet fully dispersed.

Azem didn’t try to move yet. They remained slumped against him, pressing their face into his still-clothed chest, and tried to regain their bearings.

He allowed them there, unmoving and dazed, for several minutes before he asked quietly “Are you ready to be released?”

Another shudder rippled through them and they pressed closer against him. They were ready to be let down, yes, their shoulders and hips prickling in discomfort from the extended time in this position, but… they didn’t want him to let go yet.

The abrupt absence of heat after the prolonged exposure to it had left them oddly cold, and they didn’t want to lose the warmth of his body against theirs.

His thumb traced along their spine. “Azem?”

They trembled a bit, but gave a tiny nod in answer to his question. The chains dispersed from their limbs, leaving them unexpectedly unbalanced and their arms dropped down to clutch at his as they tried to regain their balance. He tugged them upright, still supporting them, and they leaned against him even as they found their legs and flexed their shoulders. The pins and needles sensation made them wince.

They’d half expected him to push them back and tell them to redress themselves, but he didn’t. He allowed them to stay where they were, and they were grateful for it. Styx still felt a little like they were floating. Unfocused. Dizzy.

Cold.

After a few more moments Lahabrea let out a quiet sigh. They flinched and clung to his arms with a little bit of panic as he shifted back and cold air rushed into the space left behind, but rather than removing himself from their grip he instead pulled them along with him. Around the low table and over to the lounge seat against the wall.

He settled down on it with his back to the arm and shoulder to its back and tugged them down as well. It was with a burst of relief that they clambered on after him, tucking themself between his side and the back of the couch and burying their face back into his shoulder. He shifted to find comfort, and his arm fell back around them as his other hand settled on their head.

It was comfortable.

A quiet comfort, a soft, unexpected indulgence that they basked in with relief for a while.

After a time they slowly returned to themself fully, mind focusing back in on their body, and they sighed softly as they shifted to a more comfortable position, noting distantly that it was now fully dark outside and the buildings glimmered through the windows.

“You’ve returned to sensibility, I take it?” Lahabrea asked.

Azem made a small noise of agreement, twisting to look up at him. “As much as I ever have sensibility, I suppose,” they quipped weakly with a small smile.

He sent them a dry look in return. “Perhaps I should use alertness as a descriptor, then.” He examined their expression more closely, seriously. “You are unharmed?”

They nodded. “I am, yes. It was… intense, but it wasn’t overmuch.” Styx made a face. “That was underhanded though. Extracting a promise from me like that.” And now that they had given their word they had to follow it. Ugh.

“Given your stubbornness, the options to obtain your word are limited. I merely utilized the opportunity offered.”

Was that why he had accepted their overtures? Well, it was unlikely to be that simple, but… that was more devious than they’d have expected from him. Grumbling they shifted their position, throwing a leg over his to straddle it and folding their arms against his chest, plopping their chin atop of them to pout up at him. “Underhanded,” they repeated.

He’d tensed at their sudden shift in movement, hands hovering above their body awkwardly. “You may say that as many times as you like, but mine own words are equally true. No amount of childish petulance counteracts such.”

Azem huffed at him but didn't argue, instead focusing on him. He was - and had been - making a valiant effort to seem unaffected. But he wasn’t quite looking at them directly, his body rigid against the couch, and though it was difficult to make out against his dark skin there was a red flush across his face and ears.

He wasn’t as impassive as he was attempting to seem, as proven by the way he jerked with a sharp inhale, hands falling sharply to their waist and eyes snapping back to them, as they shifted to press their thigh against the semi-hardness beneath his robes.

“Azem,” he growled warningly, voice strained.

“Lahabrea,” they responded with a small smirk. “Is aught amiss?”

He narrowed his eyes at them. “What are you doing?”

That made them pause, raising their brows at him. They’d thought that would be… rather obvious. “Hmm, returning the favor I suppose?” They shifted again, leg grinding up and drawing a hiss from him.

His hands flexed around their waist, pushing them back the slightest bit. “That is unnecessary,” he said firmly, despite the strain in his tone.

They froze at the words, confusion and a sting of hurt settling abruptly in their chest like ice. “Unnecessary?” they repeated, tilting their head, trying not to show the sudden hurt, the self-consciousness at his words. Had they misinterpreted his responses? He’d seemed to be enjoying the situation, to the degree that he was willing to show at least, but had he not… Did he not wish for them to reciprocate?

The thought, that he was content being the instigator but that their touch was so unappealing to him as to refuse it, hurt. Perhaps they’d misinterpreted his open concern earlier into something more fond than it truly was. If so then they would certainly not push, would leave at his word and accept that they’d misconstrued his reactions, but… it was… it felt…

Lahabrea’s next words broke them from their sudden spiral of panic. “You’ve received what you came here for, yes?” He asked, glaring down at where his large hands circled their waist, avoiding their gaze. “There’s no need to insist upon requitement out of obligation.”

What?

Hurt gave way almost immediately to… not offense, precisely, but… indignation. Their hands tightened on his robes as they quietly asked, “Do you truly view me as so conceited, so self-serving?”

He frowned, gaze returning to their own. “Tis hardly a matter of conceit, merely pragmatism. You had a purpose for coming here, with that purpose fulfilled you’ve no need to travail yourself with a mere unconscious consequence.”

Styx stared at him, unable to form words to respond for a moment.

That was… absurd. Absolutely ludicrous, and it made a thread of concern wind through the back of their mind. A whisper of thought, wondering precisely how bad it had been with Athena for that to be considered a reasonable reaction. But they ignored it, it wasn’t relevant at the moment nor was it their place to pry beyond what they and Themis already had, and they instead focused back on him. “If it were something I considered a travail I’d not have approached you to begin with,” they said flatly, eyes narrowing at him. “I am also not one to simply take my own pleasure and leave my chosen partner without care, and I don’t appreciate the insinuation that I would be. If you do not wish for my touch, or find my attention to your gratification so distasteful, then simply say so and I will accept it and leave.” Much as it may hurt to be so summarily rejected now. “However if it’s simply an assumption of obligation then I assure you, I’m more than willing to reciprocate and more than capable of doing so.”

Lahabrea was the one seemingly struck silent this time, expression startled and a bit confused; something deeper in his eyes that flickered by too quickly for Styx to interpret. But he didn’t push them away, didn’t scowl and tell them to leave.

They took that as implicit permission to continue, watching his face closely as they pressed their thigh back to him. His hands flexed once more around their waist, but he didn't push them back this time. Styx continued watching his expression as they ground gently against him, the way his brows twitched and lips tightened in an attempt to control his reactions and maintain his composure.

They had every intention of unraveling that composure soon enough.

He tensed as they wove their aether through his robes with the clear intent of unmaking them, but didn’t stop them. They took a moment to examine him once they were gone, sitting up and leaning back as their hands dropped to cover his on their waist, and felt their brows quirk in interest as they realized that his undershirt was just form-fitting enough to make the muscle tone beneath visible.

It made sense, of course - creating new concepts put him as the first one in the line of fire when they inevitably went awry in the process, so he would have built up just as much physical strength as aetherical - but somehow they’d never actually considered it.

Well they certainly were now.

Despite their sudden urge to see beneath the black fabric, they didn’t want to rush this and make him uncomfortable - well, to a degree that he became averse to their attention, at least - so rather than vanishing his undershirt they slid their hands beneath the bottom of it to trace along the line where skin met the fabric of his podea. They watched the shudder race through him, jaw tightening, but he made no move to stop them either.

With another gentle twist of their aether - light and careful, still sore and a bit overwhelmed from his earlier attention - they unraveled his undershirt into aether as well and had to stop abruptly.

Ah.

Their impression had been correct, but… underestimated, somewhat. They were unused to anyone being as clearly muscled as Hades, who regularly swung around a sword as large as he was despite his grumbling about it, but Lahabrea was… fairly close. And he was littered with scars, though that was much less surprising. Smaller ones all around, but a few larger ones as well. Scratches across his ribs, a line stretching over his shoulder, a faded burn mark across his other shoulder and neck, and a strangely shaped scar over his chest that they couldn’t quite guess the cause of at a glance.

It took him shifting beneath them uncomfortably after a few moments too long of staring to drag them back to attention, finding him looking at a point just past their shoulder pointedly.

They trailed their hands up his torso curiously, accepting his unspoken request to move on, and traced their fingers across the scars along his ribs. They were tempted to ask after their origin, but- well experience told them that most Amaurotines found scars unsettling and avoided conversation about them. Something about an experience being so dangerous and damaging that it left a mark even healing magic couldn’t fix made them uncomfortable.

(Granted a number of their own were due more to lack of proper care on their part than lack of a healer’s ability to fix it. They liked their scars, even if Hades and their compatriots found them endlessly frustrating and disquieting.

Styx just found them fascinating.)

Each scar a story untold, an experience unique to the bearer.

Given how on-edge he already was, though, it was probably best to leave it alone. They couldn’t deny that there was some disappointment to the thought, but they weren’t willing to make him truly uncomfortable by asking after potentially unpleasant events.

So instead they leaned forward and traced their lips along the same path as their fingers had, the resulting shiver from him pulling a smile from them against his skin. They worked their way up slowly, allowing their teeth to graze him here and there, though they never bit down. His hands tightened on their waist regardless, soft breaths pulled from him with each implied action, until they reached his neck and stopped. They felt him shudder beneath them as they finally bit down, gently, sucking a bruise into his skin as their hands found his pecs and squeezed, and his head dropped back with a quiet groan.

It made something smug settle in their chest.

They moved up his neck one small mark at a time until they reached his jaw and pulled back to admire their work. The bruises were small, barely visible against his dark skin - especially in the dim light of the lamps - but they were there, and Styx had always liked to see their marks on their partners. Lahabrea shifted beneath them, turning his head to look at them as his eyes blinked open, and they found their gaze drawn to his mouth as he panted for breath, overcome by the urge to kiss him.

Styx leaned forward and tilted their head slightly, slowly enough that he could turn away if he wished. He didn’t, though, and instead tilted his head towards them and allowed them to press their lips to his.

You could tell a lot about someone from a kiss, Styx had found, and how they reacted to it. Their first thought was how warm he was - hardly surprising in the literal sense, they’d felt how hot Lahabrea was the moment they touched him and fire was his element - but it still somehow took them by surprise. They slid their hands up to wind around his neck, one hand settling there as the other tangled in his hair, and pushed themselves up to get closer to that warmth. They could taste the lingering coffee as their lips moved insistently against his, felt the way his hands pressed more bruises to match those left earlier by the chains into their skin, the rough scrape of his beard against their chin, and their thoughts were filled with static as they pressed closer and chased the heat of him.

The warmth was a surprise not due to the physical sensation but due to his own tendency towards cool stoicism, the distance he held others at, his impeccable control over his emotions and reactions at all times. And yet they could feel his tremors beneath them, feel the flickers of his aether escaping his grasp and winding around them, the way his hands clenched about their waist despite the sweat slicking them, his desperate breaths brushing feather light against their lips as they shifted their position and pressed their tongue to his lips.

There was something heady about drawing Lahabrea of all people into this desperate state, of seeing his usually-unwavering control slip away as his hands grasped at their back, one reaching up tangle in their hair and pull them closer against him, hips rutting against theirs.

The kiss quickly devolved into something frantic and messy as the heat and aether built between them once more, and Styx released his neck to instead reach down and fumble for a grip on his podea and trousers, attempting to feel out the composition of them to unmake them. They couldn’t focus, couldn’t think around the feel of his lips, his tongue, his hands, and found themself having to pull away and gasp for breath in an attempt to clear their thoughts.

Their chest heaved as they tried to regain their composure, leaning into his grip as their thumb traced the back of his neck, and they blinked down to find him watching them with a burning crimson gaze they usually got to see only in the most pitched of convocation arguments. It sent a thrill down their spine and they flashed him a small, wicked grin that belied the sudden flutter of nerves in their stomach.

Rather than speaking and risking a misstep, though, they instead wiggled back and reached down - purposefully dragging their palm across his clear interest to make his hips jerk - to hook their fingers in the top of his podea and trousers, flicking him a quick, questioning glance. He’d tensed up again at the motion, a bit of the fire cooling to embers in his eyes, but he still nodded sharply in acquiescence. A moment of thought and a twist of aether and the last of his clothes vanished to reveal-

… oh.

Well.

Perhaps they’d underestimated the amount of effort that this would require.

Their sudden pause and flicker of apprehension must have been more obvious than they’d meant it to be, because Lahabrea grimaced with a glance away and said, “You do not need to-”

“No,” Styx interrupted firmly, “I’m going to. I want to. It’s just… going to take a bit more work than I expected. Wouldn’t be the first time.” No, the first time had been Hades back when they’d been in their final few centuries in the Academia, and had spent a very nerve-wracking first time together trying to figure out if he’d even fit. Styx had been determined, Hyth had been supportive, and Hades had been nigh-panicking afraid to hurt them. They’d managed in the end, had made a habit of it even, but it had been… eye opening. This would be much easier in comparison. On impulse they leaned forward and pressed their lips to his again for a few lingering moments before pulling back. “Have some faith in me.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Easier said than done when you’ve made it a habit to push yourself past your own bounds of acceptable harm.”

Styx stuck their tongue out at him. “That’s an entirely separate issue for outside such dalliances as this. I know my limits.” Usually. This fell easily within them, either way. “I’ll just need prep, which,” they reached down to dislodge his hand on their waist, intertwining their fingers and bringing it up to skim a kiss along the back as they turned their head to look at him, “is simple enough to provide.”

They saw and felt the shudder he made at that, eyes flashing hot as he dragged them back into a kiss with the hand still in their hair. His other hand disentangled from theirs and slid down their body with clear intent that made them groan softly into his mouth.

Despite his earlier tension he didn’t hesitate or waver as his hand slid between their legs to find their wet entrance and spread them open, easily pressing two fingers in without pause, and it made them sigh against his lips as they rolled their hips against him. It was easy to get lost in the sensations of it, as his lips pressed against theirs and his fingers curled within them as he worked them open. They hardly noticed when they were loose enough for him to press a third in, the sting as he spread them open negligible comparatively.

They definitely noticed when he pressed a fourth to their rim, pulling back and resting their forehead against his with a sharp breath, forcing themself to relax. He’d stilled, though, watching them alertly without pushing forward. “If it’s too much-” he began.

“-I’ll tell you,” Styx interrupted pointedly. “I’ve taken this much before, it’s just been a while. Please trust me.”

“Given your incessant tendency towards recklessness and negligence of your own health, I can’t say I’m particularly inclined to,” he muttered beneath his breath, making their eyes narrow, but he accepted them at their word and twisted his wrist to work his pinkie into them as well. They closed their eyes and breathed through the stinging ache of it, forcibly relaxing themselves as he slowly worked them open. The pain faded quickly enough, leaving them with just an edge of hunger for more.

They tugged gently at his hair. “I’m as prepared as I’m going to be,” they murmured. “I can take you.”

Lahabrea sighed, muttering, “Impatient.” He shook his head. “I can’t decide if recklessness or greediness is a better description of your drive.”

Styx narrowed their eyes at him, reaching down to tug his hand from their body and pull it up to their mouth. “Perhaps that depends on the situation.” They watched his expression slacken and pupils blow out as they wrapped their lips around his soaked fingers. They tasted the tang of themself with a soft moan, making him shudder and his eyes flash as they dragged their tongue across his skin, sucking softly just to watch Lahabrea’s control slowly slip and feel his hand tightening in their hair. They rolled their hips, dragging their entrance across his long neglected arousal and felt a curl of satisfaction in their chest and pleasure in their gut as his hips jerked in response and his expression twisted with a gasp.

They pulled away from his hand with a small grin and a few last kitten licks, then reached down to wrap their hand around him and tug. It was clear how close he was to falling apart entirely by the way his head fell back with a badly stifled noise as he trembled beneath them. They’d intended to move on immediately, but… Styx found themself watching him with fascination as he slowly lost the fight with his composure as they continued to slowly stroke him.

The way his expression twisted, eyes squeezed shut, his brows furrowing and mouth falling open, sweat shining on his heaving chest and his hips giving little jerks in response to their movements, one hand tangled tightly in their hair as the other once more clutched desperately at their hip, even his aether twisting up from beneath his skin and little sparks flickering here and there around them…

It was a side of him they’d never expected to see, and it made them want to both draw this out to cherish it and to chase after more.

But they didn’t want to push him over the edge too soon, so with a twist of aether they summoned a bit of oil onto their hand and spread it over him before pushing themself up on their knees to line him up with their entrance.

His eyes opened to watch them as they slowly sank down onto him, grip tightening as they stopped with a wince at the stretch. Even with preparation… well, they were significantly smaller than him.

(In retrospect they could probably have altered their body to make this easier, but they had preferred forms and while they’d change on a whim they still had set forms they preferred to switch to, and at certain times. Adjustments that didn’t fit one of their predetermined forms, or switching to a different form when they didn’t feel like it, tended to leave them feeling off-balance and wrong in ways they couldn’t quite articulate.)

Lahabrea was watching them alertly, though they could see how much restraint he was enforcing in himself as he fought against the urge to simply push up into them, and Styx felt a twinge of guilt at it. He’d been denied relief for a couple of hours now in his attention to them. They closed their eyes and forcibly relaxed themself, pushing up slightly to drop down with a roll of their hips to force him deeper.

Their head dropped back with a small noise at the drag and sting, but it wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle and both the oil and their own body helped to prevent friction. It still took several minutes and some effort - and some pointed overlooking of discomfort on their end - but they finally settled with their hips against his as he clutched them tightly with an arm around their back, curled over with his forehead on their shoulder, shaking with the effort of his restraint. Styx ran equally shaky hands through his hair as they waited for their body to adjust enough that they could continue with minimal discomfort.

Turning their head to the side, they tugged at his hair to pull him up enough that they could press another kiss to his mouth - a distraction to them both as the heat and hunger built between their shaking bodies. It was an effective distraction as he pulled them tightly against him, mouth pressing to theirs with the desperation of someone starved and frantic, and they wrapped their arms around his shoulders and responded in kind.

The noise he made when they lifted themself up and then dropped made something hot burn in their gut alongside the pleasure. It made them want to draw it out of him again.

So they did.

And the bite of his nails against their skin as he bucked up into them to match their movements only fanned the flames of their own pleasure higher, their voice soon joining his as they found themselves falling to a haze.

Their thighs burned from the effort, though - this wasn’t their usual preference, usually they were being held down and fucked into whatever surface they were against - and while they certainly didn’t mind this, they weren’t sure they could maintain it for much longer.

It took a moment of readjustment, catching Lahabrea’s attention through his haze and pulling him forward as they laid back on the lounge. He caught on immediately and shifted forward to press them down into the soft material as his arm pulled their hips up into his next thrust and-

Styx arched up with a loud moan as the change in position allowed him to drag across the spot inside them that made levin shoot up their spine and spark through their body. They wrapped their legs around his hips and bucked against him, chasing that sensation again, and Lahabrea obliged as he leaned forward and pressed his face into their neck. He thrust into them hard, drawing a gasping cry from them as they clutched at his back and hair.

“Y-yes, there, that’s- good, come on-” they shuddered as they murmured in his ear, feeling increasingly frantic as the heat spread and built with every thrust. He shuddered as well as they continued spilling pleas and praises into his ear, pressing his mouth to their neck. They found their ability to form coherent sentences slowly deteriorating as he pressed his full weight against them and drove them into the fabric of the lounge. Hot and heavy, each powerful stroke dragging across their nerves and hitting deep within them, and as they tried to groan out his name they found the haze tangling their thoughts together and rather than his title what fell from their lips was “Hephaistos-”

They felt him jerk against them, stilling with a choked noise, and they had a sudden moment of clarity and anxiety that they’d misstepped before he pulled back with an expression that wasn’t quite vulnerable and eyes that blazed with heat and suddenly his mouth was on theirs, hungry and desperate. His hands clutched tightly at their skin and the power and depth with which he rolled his hips and plunged into them made them arch up and clench their eyes shut with a cry, trying to process the sensations and take the pleasure. Clearly his name had not been a misstep.

The intensity only built, his aether once again settling around them, twining through them, like a physical heat, and they gasped into his mouth, “Come on, c’mon- so close- Hephai- Hephaistos-” He groaned, and they dug their nails into his shoulders in an attempt to ground themselves against the pleasure that threatened to consume them as he pressed his full weight down onto them. Their thoughts scattered as they fumbled for words nigh incoherently “You- you’re- close too, right? C’mon c’mon please- so good, feels so good, Heph- Heph-”

Their words were cut off as his mouth sealed over theirs with a torn moan, his hips jerking against them and aether flooding around them as he shook apart. And they were so, so close- balancing on that edge even as he came- and they shoved the hand down between them to find their clit with their fingers and with a pulse of their own aether directly against that bundle of nerves they tipped over that edge with a quiet keen.

It was satisfying, being filled so deeply as they came, and they distantly registered Lahabrea- Hephaistos- shuddering against them as they clenched around him, drawing out both their pleasures. Spots danced across their vision from both the intense pleasure and the lack of air, before they finally came back down and slumped bonelessly against the lounge as they gasped for breath, turning their head away from his to reach it.

Styx lay there incoherently for several long moments, breathing, trying to regain control of their faculties. They felt shaky, and unfocused, but deeply satisfied and it was difficult to fight through that blur of satisfaction back to a state of coherency. His heavy weight pressing them into the couch didn't help - the warmth and the secure weight threatening to lull them into sleep if they allowed it. Hardly unusual - Hyth, Hades, and Themis had long learned that the easiest way to lure them into complacency was to lay atop them and compress them into a soft surface - but the unusual circumstances made them unwilling to allow themselves such complacency.

Not when they were unsure how he would react to the situation.

Focusing themself back to their body, they found Lahabrea burying his face into their neck as he trembled, trying unsuccessfully to calm his breathing. Slowly they reached up and ran a hand through his sweaty hair, making him tense up for a moment before they looped their other arm firmly around his shoulders to anchor him against them and he relaxed.

Their breath left them in a soft huff as the remainder of his full weight slumped atop them and drove the air from their lungs.

Minor difficulty breathing and the tickling of his own breath against their neck aside, it was comfortable and they found themself drifting into a near-doze again as they nuzzled into his hair and breathed deep the scent of coffee, parchment, and ink that suffused him. It was comforting, reminding them vaguely - unsurprisingly - of the Akademia. And it was… warm.

Styx traced inane gestures along his back to keep themself awake as they waited for him to regain his composure, feeling their earlier threads of concern returning as his trembling seemed to compound rather than diminish and he pressed his face more deeply into their neck as he slipped his arms beneath them and clung tightly. While it wasn’t unusual for their partners to be clingy in the aftermath of an intense bout - Hades certainly was, and hell Styx themself was - they… hadn’t expected it from him. Perhaps that had been why he’d been so tolerant of their attachment to him earlier.

Given the nature of his trembling and the slight hitches in his breath occasionally, however, they doubted it was a simple matter of post-coital haziness. He wasn’t crying at least, which was… probably a good sign, but it didn’t inherently mean that nothing was wrong, and maybe they’d been too forceful talking him into this when he had been hesitant, they’d thought it had been simple self-demeaning but if he hadn’t actually-

Styx took a quiet breath and forcibly cut their mental spiral of panic off there. If Lahabrea had truly been opposed to their attention he would have stopped them. Especially given the return of his temper in the months since Pandaemonium, and his other more fiery traits - he’d become more stubborn, not less, so he would have made it perfectly clear had their attention been unwanted.

No, this was something else.

Perhaps it was as simple as an emotional drop after the intensity. They didn’t exactly make it a habit to follow their fellow Convocation Members’ sex lives - except Hades’ because Hyth was a gossip sometimes - so they didn’t know how often he even did something like this. An extended session of intensity after a long dry spell could certainly…

Styx shook the line of thought away and tucked their chin over his head. Speculating would do them no good, and was pointless anyway. For now, the most they could do was to be there as an anchor and a comfort until he was steady again.

They weren’t sure how long it took for his shaking to fade as they traced their hand soothingly across his back and held him close, but it slowly did. Faded away into something truly relaxed and he shifted his head so that he was no longer hiding against them.

It took another few minutes for him to gether himself enough to seemingly realize their continued position and grimace, pushing himself back up. Styx pouted but released him to allow it, wincing as the shift sparked against their overwrought nerves where they were still joined.

They both hissed in discomfort as he slowly pulled out of them, and Styx felt their face burning again as they felt his spend begin to leak out of their gaping hole. They dropped their head back and threw an elbow over their face in an attempt to hide the embarrassment, though they weren’t sure how much they succeeded.

A touch on their abdomen made them peek out and they felt the twist of his aether, and a moment later the fluid was gone.

They probably shouldn’t be surprised he was the type to prefer rapid cleanup, honestly.

Styx considered him a moment, analyzing his expression, and he looked… well, tired. But beyond the obvious there was something vulnerable and uncertain still in his eyes, his movements, and Styx sat up to get a closer look. Or- well, tried. They sat partially up before their lower half gave a definitive twinge and they stilled with a wince.

Unsurprisingly, they were going to be very sore from this.

His brows furrowed but they waved off his concern as they slowly sat up and shifted into a position that didn’t make them twinge. “I’ll be fine, just sore.” They yawned and stretched, reaching their arms above their head. “Give it a few days and it will be gone.”

Lahabrea sighed. “Once again, you prove my point. Your complete lack of consideration for your own-”

Styx leaned forward to slide a hand around the back of his neck and drag him down, pulling his mouth to theirs to cut him off. They managed to distract him for nearly a minute before he caught himself and pulled back to scowl at them.

“Stop that. You cannot expect to avoid a lecture by-” They leaned forward to do it again, grinning as he pulled away to growl, “Styx!”

The use of their name rather than their title made something warm spark in their chest. “Hephaistos,” they shot back, watching keenly as he stilled and his breath caught for a moment. “You can’t compare some minor soreness to a genuine injury and you know it. A potion and a couple of days and it will be gone without a trace.” They glanced down to the darkening bruises on their limbs and waist from the chains and his hands respectively. “Same with the bruises. You need not concern yourself with my health over it, I promise.”

He frowned at them, reaching out to catch their wrist and trace his thumb across the chain-pattern. “I could heal them now.”

“Or you could not,” Styx countered pointedly. “I like seeing the evidence of my dalliances for a few days after the fact. It’s not like anyone else will see them, or they’ll cause any harm. Merely a harmless reminder.”

“I am once against reminded how little I understand your mind,” he sighed, shaking his head.

They hummed, trailing their fingers along the line of bruises on his own neck. “I suppose you’re going to heal these then.”

Lahabrea’s head tilted the slightest bit with a confused expression as his other hand lifted to join Styx’s. “Heal what?”

Styx blinked at him. “Can you not feel them? Granted they’re not exactly what I would call obvious but I left a few bruises too.”

“No…” he pressed his fingers into his skin a bit, and shook his head. “They clearly weren’t deep enough to cause pain.”

They hummed, considering for a moment, then ducked forward to curl against him and rest their head against his chest to drink in his lingering warmth and listen to his breathing, his heartbeat. He stiffened, startled, and they half expected him to finally lose patience with their affection and push them away, but he didn’t. Instead he continued tracing their bruises with the hand around their wrist while his other dropped around their shoulders.

It wasn’t what they’d expected from him, and it made them wonder.

Was it deprivation? In the thousands of years since he’d killed Athena and broken his soul, had he been depriving himself of anything approaching that which she’d burned him so badly with? Or was he normally like this behind closed doors with those he trusted, and he simply wore the cold distance as a particularly effective mask to the rest of them? Judging by his earlier reaction, and previous observations from their time on the Convocation, Styx found the first more believable and the thought sent a pang through them. That he was so touch-starved that he found their sudden touchiness gratifying rather than irritating…

They didn’t know if the painful emotion in their chest was anger or compassion, or a mixture of both, but it made them lean into him a little more and close their eyes with no intent of moving until he made them.

… a decision that lasted until they nearly toppled over when they dozed off, and he settled them off of his lap and stood with a slight grimace as he stretched out an arm and shifted his weight to favor the leg he’d had folded beneath them.

Oops.

They scrubbed at their eyes as they stood and stretched as well, arching their back, and watching his gaze slide across them from the corner of their eye. Even with all that had happened there was some amount of pride at being able to catch his attention of all people.

And with that said-

Styx flashed him an innocent look and took a chance. “Care to share your bed for a night?”

Lahabrea stilled, turned to give them a sharp, searching look from where he was pulling his robes on. “Do you not have another? I’d have thought you’d return home to your lovers.”

They would not be doing that, no. They could, of course, neither would begrudge them it, and they were fairly sure Hyth did it occasionally, but it felt.. awkward, even knowing neither would mind.

Not to mention Hyth would probably eagerly wake them up before the sun in the morning like the godsforesaken early rising madman he was in order to get the details, and they and Hades would have to kick him out of bed and all three of them would spend the whole day cross.

They shrugged, glancing at the chronometer on the wall that they hadn’t been able to see from the lounge. Not quite midnight. “I could, but I wouldn’t want to wake them. Or wake Hades, rather, and if I don’t do it coming in then Hyth will when he starts interrogating me on what I’ve been up to lately - assuming Amphitrite did submit that concept with my name attached as an advisor he might be very cross with me - and I’d rather not do that to him. Besides,” they flashed him a smile, stepping close with as much mischief as they could in their body language, “I thought I’d established that I like dalliances to linger.” They shrugged, leaning back more casually. “If my partners are amenable I prefer to stay the night. If you’d rather I not, though…”

He met their eyes, scanning their expression intently as though looking for something. But apparently finding no hint of falsehood - which there wasn’t any, even if they weren’t voicing their own worries for him - he looked away and continued redressing. “I am not… opposed.”

Perking up with a flicker of relief in their chest, Styx smiled at him and followed him through the portal he made.

His bed was soft and his body was warm, and Styx’s only regret was that they were asleep nearly instantly and didn’t get to take advantage of curling around him.

They almost regretted it the next morning when he awoke them an hour before sunrise, and they realized with horror that he was akin to Hyth in his preference for getting up early.

His grumbling and complaining as they made the process of getting them up as difficult as possible was amusing though, especially since they took the opportunity to be as sleepy-clingy as possible while they still had the opportunity. His irritation was nearly as feigned as Hades’ was, though, so they weren’t too worried.

And they had to admit, he made amazing coffee.

As they walked to the Capitol next to him, they mentally marked the situation off as a complete success with potential for follow ups in the future. It had been fun, much more so than they’d expected, and they certainly wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to do it again if it arose.

Their thoughts scattered and they froze as they entered the building to find a figure waiting inside.

A very familiar figure.

Hythlodaeus turned to greet them with a smile that was just a touch too cheerful. “Ah, good morning Lahabrea.” He turned his attention to them, and Styx felt the sudden urger to bolt. “Hello Styx. I think we need to talk about the quality your advice.”

Lahabrea snorted quietly and continued to his office, leaving Styx at Hythlodaeus’ ire-driven mercy.

“At least it’s not… technically… a shark…?”

“I see this is going to necessitate a very long conversation about technicalities.”

“Look, I’m sorry- it wasn’t my fault-”

“Styx- Styx get back here-”

. . .

A few cameos from Styx’s own crippling self-worth and anxiety issues, it’s fine.

Granted in terms of Laha’s touch starvedness they’re partially right, given my headcanons. I headcanon Laha to naturally be very affectionate and touchy to people he's close to, but then Athena happened (and she was not affectionate and tended to shrug him off unless she had something to gain from letting him) and that completely vanished - one more thing locked behind his mask. And now he's whole again and trying to adjust to it, and Styx is being extremely affirming and affectionate and he can't quite help himself from leaning into those tendencies again.

[two-fu]

my art process

it still amazes me how a blank canvas can turn into a concept from your head like woah there hands and brain thank you for cooperating during this crucial time in my life /hj

if anyone's curious about my art process, i'm gonna put it down below (otherwise, just scroll past pls i'm mostly just rambling) this is not a guide. i repeat, this is not a guide (￢з￢)

ok, first let me let you this. sometimes my last few braincells work and i actually sketch out a concept straight from my head, but most of the time i just get inspired by a random editorial pic i find on pinterest or a movie scene that i find interesting and then just start with that. be warned that my process is pretty messy and probably only makes sense to me [lmao] but this is how i usually do it so...

i'm gonna use my most recent art for ref which was inspired by a ghost in the shell movie scene. first i sketch the character placement into the scene, then i move on to the bg. i loosely paint the background in one layer first, then paint the additional background details on a separate layer (in this case, the ceiling...holes?? yeah those holes with the light coming in)

i keep going and add in the rest of the background details as much as possible before i draw in the characters: glass panels, lights, wires. once i'm kinda satisfied with the background, i start to add the characters. i usually just paint them in a single layer, except for when some additional elements that need to be in the front/back of the character come into play.

in the case with kdj, i drew him in one layer, the wings on a separate layer, and the wires on another, so it would be easier for me to modify them as needed without messing up the kdj layer. for yjh, i just painted him in a single layer since it's only just him sulking lol

[also, whenever i feel like the character placement/scaling is off, i'm not afraid to resize the necessary layers because i know i can just correct the bad resolution by painting over it]

then i add a bit of lighting/shadow elements on the characters (don't come to me for this bc i don't have a solid grasp on that either. i swear i'll diligently study it someday but for now i just put in whatever feels "right" lmaoooo)

when i'm satisfied with how the characters look, i add in more small details that i hope could make the piece a bit more interesting and not too flat: glass reflections, floor texture, yjh's shadow, and some light reflecting off the cement floor

another thing i added was the bloom effect on a duplicate layer of the copy-pasted canvas. then i lowered the opacity for the bloom layer so it wouldn't look too severe, just the right kind of ambient glow from the lights and kdj's coat. ok that's about it. i could stop there BUT...

personally, i like to do a bit of post-processing after. this part takes a lot of experimenting and this is really the part i enjoy the most, especially when playing around with the colors to really set the mood for the illustration. for this one i...

added a layer for grainy texture and set it to soft light at 9% opacity

copy-pasted the entire canvas then duplicated it before adding a gradient map for the dupe layer then setting it to color dodge at 24% op (just to give it a bit of color and not make it look to desaturated like it originally did)

added an additional color dodge layer to brighten up the lower part of the canvas a bit

and that's how i usually make my art ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

sometimes it takes me only a couple of hours, sometimes times it takes days when i'm procrastinating a piece, and sometimes i just completely give up and trash an entire concept lol yeah it's fun and can be frustrating but i like that it shuts my brain up for a while and keeps me from thinking about awful stuff. idk maybe that's just me idk idk

if you've made it this far in my post, wow, i really appreciate you for sticking around through my yapping /srs ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

[miraculous-pyromaniac]

I am nearly silent about the things i write, both irl and unfortunately on my blog as well, for different reasons.

The simplest reason is my silence irl bc i kind of just dont have anyone to talk to my ideas about. My closest friends generally dont have any intrest in fanfiction and even if they were, me and my friends participate in very seperate fandoms and sometimes struggle to overlap our intrests. So i just generally keep my fanworks to myself most of the time.

I also dont talk about my work much on my blog either(which is kinda the only social media i use) and thats mainly because im just not the type of person who enjoys broad social media engagement, so i just rarely make my own posts.

This all kind of leads to bursts of hyperfixation and progress on any stories or WIPs i have that come about randomly and long droughts of my content.

Also i have this huge anxiety about people seeing any idea i would post about and 'stealing' it from me. Like this is a constant anxiety for me, idk why. Im probably hesitating to hit post on this post and then thinking of deleting it.

Like obviously a writer doesnt want to post spoilers for something theyre working on, but im paranoid to even post ideas for possible fics i may think of for new WIPs, leaving my ideas to rot alone in my mind until i lose intrest bc i have no one to talk to about them.

Anyway, in what im sure is a healthy way to overcome this apparent fear ive just realised i have, ima post a list of WIPs and ideas that are currently collecting dust, most of them i beleive seeing light from my dark google docs cave for the first time ever

Most of these mare miraculous labybug ideas

A miraculous soulmate AU based around Chloe where her initial meeting with her soulmate ends up with them basically dead from a speeding truck. The story is Chloe's journey of navigating the world angry and jealous of everyone else who has soulmates and learning how to deal with that stuff. Ace medifore maybe? Idk just seemed like a fun idea.

A miraculous Myvan AU where Master Fu had the 'native american miracle box'(Which i refer to as the Thunderbox) instead of the 'Chinese miracle box'(aka the Motherbox). He pickes Mylene and Ivan to be heroes weilding new miraculous of my design against an enemy who holds the Motherbox, with more than half the miraculous within being heavily damaged/destoyed. Shown by the below image(right of the red line completely unuseable, on red line damaged but technically funtional like a canon peacock, left of the line are undamaged)

A Percy Jackson story with OCs made by me and by bff which would run parallel to the canon story where I play with background characters and plot to create my own stories. The MC is the child of a goddess so minor Riordon never mentioned her, Euphrosyne, and a devout champion of Hestia.

And even a couple of original story ideas like

An 'everyone has a superpower' concept where the MCs are all artificial 'bornx from a kid whose power is to create new people by giving up parts of their soul. While not a completely original power in this world, its unique by the fact that the MCs here have their own powers, unlike other people created from such a power. This leads to the goverment trying to capture and use this kid to custom create soldiers.

A magical college type story where the MC is a healer in love with a plant mage, which eventually becomes mutual and loving relationship things until plant mage is suddenly killed by an assassin, sending MC on a revenge spiral. Said assassin is MC#2 who is being used by shady folks as an assassin due to her particular abilty for death magic. The two of them team up to dismantle the shady organisation and maybe a goverment later on. Their relationship is also completely non-romantic, but they grow extreamly close to each other.

Uh yeah. I have ideas. I just never talk about them.

Out of genuine curiosity, to fanfic writers in the world, how vocal are you about the fic you write on your blog? I never know when to start talking about my ideas and eventually the lack of traction or discussion has my passion fizzle out with nobody knowing the idea existed at all (except me, of course) anyway im simply curious :)

[vonkarma2]

3, 5, 8, 13, 16 for zeolan for the worldbuilding asks?

3.) any recurring images/elements?

Hmmm this is kind of broad so I’m not totally sure how to interpret it I guess I will go with like. If it was a tv show. What visual motifs or recurring shots would there be. I think if there were constantly shots of Rocio alone like in an empty space that would be kind of funny imagine watching a show and there’s an obvious meta narrative focus on how lonely you are I’d be so mad. That and shots of like her back while she’s reading something or working on something like she’s closed off to the world or whatever. Definitely a lot of contrast of darkness vs light though for sure like places with people in them being associated with yellow/orange light whereas empty places are associated with the dark. 

Also there would probably be many unnecessarily long shots focusing on nature and the environment around the characters bc that’s what I personally like to see 

5.) pick a theme song for the tv adaptation.

life itself glass animals 😞😞😞 rip to the animatic I started in early 2022. theres a whole vision. for variety ill also say the definitive end credits song would be 

8.) what inspired your world building, if anything?

Honestly. Not much lol I feel like a lot of it is just me trying to make something that appeals to me personally just thinking of like aesthetics 

in the extended secret worldbuilding there are some aspects inspired by or influenced by real history. that being said I try not to avoid making that too direct or have it come up too often bc 1) it’s easy to make it extremely tasteless or at least inaccurate/shallow in its portrayal ofc 2) it is ultimately a fantasy world where I wanted to make shit up + have everything be original rather than have like. direct copies of real places + events. I think it’s like background concepts can be to some extent based on reality but specific events are all homebrewed yk

sundown 2020

probably fullmetal alchemist like subconsciously. wrt the magic system not the world itself 

I guess you could say I was inspired by actively trying to go against like. Tolkien esque or popular YA fantasy tropes of the late 2010s early 2020s. Bc a lot of what made me want to make the story in the first place was being tired of and annoyed by the kind of tone that was prevalent in YA fantasy at the time 

I literally CAN’T think of much this is so sad. My worldbuilding is just too original you guys 😔 

no lol but yeah it mostly wasn’t inspired by anything specific which is a shame bc I do think looking at things you were influenced by is pretty fun

they don’t know the wizard system is fully ripped off from how the wings of fire books used animus magic expect it’s learned instead of born 

13.) how long have you been working on this project? what has changed from the outset?

A little over 3 years like since February 2020 :3. I love this question it feels very behind the scenes like Im talking in a documentary.  Mostly the structure of the story has become much more linear when the original was like arcs based if that makes sense? Like episodic even though the episodes were pretty large in scale + theoretical length. Ofc a lot of the characters’ personalities have as well. I think the main focus too like initially it was just for fun but when I first added like a vague general central theme it was a lot abt dissociation from your identity + the weight of living and things like that. Life is hard but it’s worth it <3 And now there’s more focus on the nuances of interpersonal connection and things like that. I do like the original theme though I wouldn’t want to drop that idea entirely even though I’d probably want to have it show up in a more nuanced or subtle way idk 

16.) imagine the entire story takes place but in the meantime the characters all also have tumblr. what kind of (terrible) tumblr posts would happen?

rocio would hate all forms of social media viscerally. if she absolutely has to use it then it’s several thousand word long rants that stay in the drafts for eternity 

cirillo probably the type to just use it as a diary 

angel runs an extremely popular yet controversial fan page for enstars or some shit (<I mean. in universe it would be about 1400s romance novels) but occasionally vagues abt his personal life and everything he says sounds extremely concerning. And then like once he ends up on the news everyone’s like omg… bone stealing witch tier drama 

gloria only posts thirst traps + posts that are like “will be in [x city] tomorrow if anyone wants to meet up 👅” with every location change

[tinyelephentalchaos]

I’ve been reading His Dark Materials, somewhat slowly, after having watched the show. I also saw the movie when it came out, what, 12 years ago, maybe?

Thinking about the guard and what their dæmons would be. Also what gender/sex: it would make sense, with most if not all of the guard being queer, and Andy… possibly being older than the concept of gender as we know it (are non-binary dæmons a thing? Also what do we know about neolithic conceptions of gender?) for them to have dæmons of the same gender… Though, would this go against the theme of them being the same as everyone else, since same-gender dæmons are rare...? Plus, the intersection between dæmons and sexuality is murky re: gender, given Pullman's answer to "could a character's dæmon being the same gender as them mean they're queer?" was "maybe", iirc.

Anyways, we know that they were born several centuries-to-millennia apart, so it wouldn't be that strange if they all happened to have same-gender dæmons, but it might make them stand out in public...

Anyways, here's a list of the guard and their dæmons, Lykon's is unnamed as of now because I have very little idea of where he could be from, or what language he would have spoken, aside from the Greek name he took.

Andy has a saker falcon, called Nyx (Νύξ "night"). That's not their first name, just as Andromache isn't Andy's: they remember the starting sound of each other's name throughout the millennia, bits and pieces of PIE which they speak amongst themselves and Quỳnh. Well, now, with her dæmon.

Quỳnh has a blue krait, named Tâm (from 心 "heart"*), who coiled herself around Andy's shoulders after Quỳnh was lost and never let go.

Nile had thought, at first, that Andy just.. had two dæmons. Why not? Here's this immortal warrior who claims that they lead an army of four people, has been a god, etc. They can have two dæmons, it's fine.

Nile's just... trying not to let her mind break, thank you very much. So, she's just accepting whatever at this point.

Lykon had a painted dog, who alongside him in, uh, whatever-post 331 BC/pre-1099 AD. (I'm begging, Greg/Victoria/Gina, give us a more concrete timeline.) When they disappeared, that's when Andy and Quỳnh knew he wasn't reviving.

Joe has a lion named Mahaad/Liyana (مَهّاد/لِيانَةٌ "comforter"/"tenderness"**) who preferred a rabbit form when he was a child.

Nicky has a wolf with a winter coat because fluffy wolves are adorable, named Concetto/Rossana ("Conception (of Jesus)"/"Dawn/Bright Star"***).

The two have long abandoned any sense of taboo around touching each other's dæmon: brushing past them on missions, cuddling with them during downtime: Mahaad/Liyana will often laze around in the kitchen while Nicky cooks, stretching their neck so Nicky can scratch their chin as he passes by their sunspot, and Concetto/Rossana'll rest in Joe's lap while he draws. As it was, it took Nile that entire first weekend to figure out who's dæmon was whose, not helped that they respond to each other's names. Nicky explained it like this when she asked: "Over the centuries, we've become intertwined, our souls bound together as one. Why shouldn't we call our dæmons by the same sounds, or touch them with our own hands?"

Booker has a polecat with white-ish markings on their face and body named Jules/Chloé (French form of Julian/French form of Chloe****).

Nile has a fox sparrow with russet feathers named Seth/Lucy (from Hebrew שת "Appointed"/Latin Lux "Light"*****). I feel like both are appropriate given Nile's probably Protestant background.

All of the immortals, minus Nile and excluding Quỳnh as an outlier since she's been separated from Tâm for centuries, can separate from their dæmon to some extent. Andy often asks Nyx to scout for the group, and while they tend to slow down for the duration of separation beyond ~ 20 meters, they no longer experience pulling (separation from one's dæmon) as everyone else. (But Tâm'll coil closer around Andy's shoulders, regardless, whispering soft nothings in whatever language she can think of.)

Joe and Nicky, meanwhile, if they can help it, will go with one another's dæmon if they need to separate. So that they can take comfort from the other shape of their soul, and know their first soul-form is protected above all else. When other circumstances arise and they're separated from both their dæmons, they look to each other for comfort through the pulling.

Booker ( like Ms. Coulter), can go the longest time apart from his dæmon without a shared goal or someone else to rely on. It's... not great, and he tries not to do so often simply because it's noticeable and he's trying to pretend, at least, that he's relatively happy, but it's a useful skill especially when there are tight spaces or small openings in a structure.

The first time this happened, actually, was while he was dying his first deaths. Jules/Chloé left to find some kind help, after the first few days. Ended up finding Andy, Joe & Nicky, and lead them all back to Booker. Of the others in the guard, Jules/Chloé is the closest to Andy and Nyx, simply because the pair were the first the dæmon had seen in weeks.

Lastly, as to Quỳnh, Tâm and separation: when Quỳnh was taken in the iron maiden, both Tâm and Nyx were held in another part of the dungeon, as the captors thought that would weaken their powers. So, she's been apart, not only from Andy, Joe and Nicky, for the past 400-500 years, but from her dæmon, too. The Pulling alone was excruciating, halfway down to the bottom of the ocean, she died from it alone. Yet, coupled with the drowning, the riviving, the snippets of dreams... when she finally escapes, Quỳnh's barely clinging to the last shreds of her sanity, and that's only because she knows Andy's been looking after Tâm-- their bond, though stretched to its last threads, still exists and she just knows Tâm's been safe 'til 1812, when she first glimpses her again. She goes peacefully to death that time. What should she care of her own suffering if her dæmon is truly safe? And then she revives, again and again, and she recalls her rage...

---

Sources on names that I'm pretty sure are accurate, but again, please correct me if they're not:

*https://www.behindthename.com/name/ta13m/submitted

**https://quranicnames.com/liyana/ and https://quranicnames.com/mahaad/

***https://www.behindthename.com/name/concetto (masculine form of Concetta, unrelated to the Italian word meaning concept or the English word meaning conceit. Spelled the same though, and is a cognate of Concepción) and https://www.behindthename.com/name/rossana and https://www.behindthename.com/name/roxana

**** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloe

***** Gen. 4:25, New Revised Standard Version and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius

[pacebone]

oh my goodness your art is just. sublime. i can't even express how beautiful your rendering is. please pray tell your painting/colour picking process!

tysm for the kind words!! i'm glad you took the time to send this message!

i don't think i do anything too special, but there are some rules/teachings i try to keep in mind while i work. i love talking about art and color so i'm happy to get into them in what'll probably end up as an unnecessary amount of detail!!! let's go!!

first off, relativity is The Main Rule of coloring, and you'll probably see it referenced in, like, all of the following tips, because it's my main way of thinking about art. color relativity is less of a school of thought and more of a scientific truth: human vision is incapable of processing color on its own, we can only process what we see as it appears relative to its neighbors. my bro josef albers did a lot of important work on this subject.

it always comes back to bauhaus.

you don't see blue, you see bluer-than-everything-else. if your surroundings are orange (blue's opposite on the color wheel, or, in relativity-speak, the-least-possible-blue), the bluer-than-everything-else object may as well look gray in a blue setting. though i gave a simple example, this isn't a simple spectrum, because saturation and value also affect each other, making for a three-dimensional matrix of trouble.

boy, if everyone understood this concept, that white-gold/blue-black dress argument sure would've been short.

anyway, going from there:

1) i usually start with a 50% neutral gray background. relativity is a negotiation, and starting in the color equivalent of switzerland sure makes negotiations easier. starting with white will make everything look darker and more intense than it really is. (this tip works for irl painting too, i always tint my gesso!)

2) #ffffff and #000000 are treats only for special occasions. they are the fried ice creams of values. use them sparingly and in very important areas (or not at all--i tend to avoid true black altogether in lineless work, usually opting for a deep tone of the work's main color instead). i save these until i'm very close to finishing up, because if you add them too early, you'll throw off the balance of the relativity.

3) finally getting to actual color! when choosing highlights and shadows, i always adjust the color in addition to the value according to a general rule: lighter areas appear warmer, and darker areas appear cooler. this is a pretty common tip, but it's parroted for a reason: it works! for flesh tones, that means highlights are yellower and shadows are redder or bluer. doing this also adds liveliness and helps prevent the doll-like appearance that rendered flesh can get (but don't get carried away with this or you'll end up lisa franking it. not that lisa franking doesn't have its own important application).

4) relativity isn't just something you have to negotiate with. once you get the hang of it, it's a very useful tool! as renowned art theorist francis bacon famously said: color relativity is an excellent servant, but a terrible master to circle all the way back: - if you want something to look very blue, surround it with orange, - if you want something to look very light, surround it with darkness, - if you want something to look very saturated, surround it with dull colors, and vice versa. this can be a useful compositional tool, not just a rendering one--make the focus of your drawing light/dark and saturated, and keep the unimportant areas in duller mid-tones.

a straightforward application of relativity is in the whites of the eyes, because you have an area on the face that's neutral by nature, and neutral = your playing field. like our homestuck kids with their fun eye colors... to make rose's purple eyes look super purple, i tinted the whites of her eyes just a little bit yellow-y (i ended up leaning into soft orange bc otherwise you'll just get jaundice).

and this isn't a just one-way relationship: in the john piece, i DIDN'T want his eyes to be a super distinguished blue, because that was a work about him feeling too absorbed/swallowed in his surroundings (retcon power moping), so i made the whites of his eyes very blueish, lessening the impact of his eye color.

slightly off the vein of relativity: i also usually like making the whites of the eyes around the same value and saturation as the skintone for a sense of cohesiveness, but that's more of an personal preference. white-whites kinda scare me (but, to emphasize, scary eyes have their own application--see, conveniently, kanaya and her brighter-than-her-skintone eyes for that slightly uncanny alien vamp effect!).

i mentioned that i always start with a 50% gray background, but if you're particularly discerning, you may be thinking: hey, wait, your rosemary piece has a darkish blue-gray background! cheater!

and my response to that is yes. so true. i was cheating. color relativity may be a negotiation for the artist, but it's a straight-up scam for the viewer. that's why they call it a trompe l'oeil, a deception of the eye, and not something nicer. i wanted to make rose appear very warm and a little yellowish because she's Sun Light Girl and a cooler background will fool people into seeing that. i wanted to make kanaya appear glowy without painting her white, because, as mentioned, that's fried ice cream, so a darker background will fool people into seeing that.

here's what it would've looked like on a neutral background vs. the final one:

haha ignore the lazy leg i hid in the shadow

this is why i think it's so important to start pretty neutral. if you go full saturation/light/dark from the start, then you'll have no room to play! this doesn't mean painting in shades of gray, but it does mean having a bit of restraint with the extremes of color and value. this can involve a little more planning and negotiating, but the results tend to be worth it. and, luckily, those of us in the digital realm can easily tweak these relationships through adjustment layers and overlays.

fuck that's a lot of text. anyway. hope something or other in there helps.

if something's unclear please know i am a little too eager to clarify!!

[hellsvestibule]

Ive gotten a lot of enthusiasm in the tags that made me smile but can’t Not reply to tags this good. please never apologize for analyzing my stuff bc it always brings a massive smile to my face that people even see it as worth that much thought? M also gonna appologize for being verbose and long winded in my reply tho that’s just the way…

I’m happy cuz so much of what you noted Was a deliberate choice I.e. the choice to have him blurring into the background and the deliberate choice to put small details all over the composition that would force your eye all over the place unable to tell what’s him and what isn’t. (In a more practical and selfish sense. It’s fun to work on disorienting images bc if it can hold My attention and make me feel hypnotized then shit I must be doing Something right. Like It keeps me amused when I have to stare at something this long lmao.) I wanted it so no matter where you tried to rest your eye somewhere else in the picture would demand your attention so it would be hard to look away once you start looking and the compounding horror that the most obvious beautiful thing at the front isn’t even special or distinct and that everything you first think is beautiful is kind of gross and decomposed on closer observation the opposite of how he’s usually presented. The figure at the front being the most detailed and realized due to how it’s approached but on closer inspection everything else is a part of it. I had other concepts for this I was give and taking too like having him or his clones have puppet strings or be lying more distinctly in a pool of oil with said strings forming butterfly wings. I opted for the small butterflies instead. There’s a lot of references to little lines in Faust too. Fausts comments that humanity exists like rainbows, as refractions of light. Mephistos comments thst the four elements created pestilence rot and disease, and only the element of fire can purge it. Things like that.

The general approach/ concept I guess. Since he’s a spirit of chaos and pulls you into his horny dreams (theoretically) my logic is everything in said dream has to be fabricated out of himself. But I also wanted to nudge to the implications that he’s not really into being seen as an object of lust just for the sake of lust, since he deliberately presents himself as a grotesque clown corpse and assumes unsexy poses so you don’t see him as such, and actually majorly self sabotaged but potentially pulled some fuckshit back in garden of order when he exploited a paradox to multiply himself then said out of all the mephys he was the only good one and only one capable of change (which among other lines, paralels him to my prior fav #1 worm boy kariya. I could write a lot of analysis about that probably) but I like the idea that he doesn’t forget throwing the whole collective of himself under the bus and mutilating them. My current headcanon is everything Mephy does has massive consequences(chaos theory, he is the butterfly of chaos) and in this case similar to douman he’s not getting that collective back so in terms of incubus, he’s not very sexy, all he has is a bunch of broken dolls to throw at you, a dream/nightmare fabricated out of his broken body with only the front facing one has been given the chance to be good or beautiful, but that the others still have the same base desperation for love as him, if not more so bc their only source of pride has been removed so the one at the front can shine. And that like the similar characters his collective wouldn’t resent him but try to uplift him. They are like his backup dancers but they are still trapped in his shadow/reflection. Bc by his own standards grotesque self mutilation is simply self actualizing and allowing these other versions to become distinct people. But implicitly he in his line to shiki about not cutting his hair, he still sees his beauty as important and on some level massively craves acknowledgement as someone worthy of love, which Kama has also implied when they acknowledged him in their valentines scene when he showed up. The line about being a clown being difficult and he should try being a god of love. Kama cuts past the clownery and calls him for what he actually is, basically someone who pretentiously self mutilates and acts creepy bc his trauma makes him convinced he’s a danger to others. His profile says things like “he Will” put bugs in you but the thing is, he hasn’t done that, at the very least bc one of the core things to Mephistopheles is that he can’t even act bad on his own will, only if humanity wants him to be bad. bc he “wills for bad and works for good.” Making his evil he doesn’t act on feel like decoration to the fact that he’s obviously a mislead victim here and everyone seems to regard him as such. Bc matter how much ill will he harbors towards the world the fact that he can’t and won’t act on it again paralels him more to sakura or kariya than a consciously evil person. Hes implicitly someone amidst a mental breakdown from trying to be good or even properly evil, after seizing the mechanism for exploitation and control. Having read goethe Faust, there are a lot of paralels to Margaret and Sakura in heavens feel, and Mephy due to his forced honesty has cast himself as the victim more adjascent to Margaret or mephistos nameless student, people who were mislead by the old men that aimed to exploit them, and I don’t think you should discount it if only bc kama reacts that way of seeing him as a paralel to them rather than with overt disgust or distrust, same w Moriarty’s hesitant understanding that he’s exactly the type of weird old man who sets off mephy’s rage and obsession, and rather than defending himself or rejecting Mephy, he simply moves carefully around him.

Also I do want to preface my understanding of Mephy as currently being a victim keeping in mind they could pull a kariya or shinji w him and have him utterly fuck up beyond capability to atone too. and you can see that w kamas hesitation and tiredness when acknowledging him too. They’re assessing the fact that there’s like a 50/50 chance Mephy does not come out of this ok and pinpoints his ability to accept love as the key to which way he turns which is rich coming from kamas jaded ass but that’s the irony of the parallel too.

Other than that. It was both a fun low stakes image I wanted to be as erratic and loose with. Bc any content I make of a relatively unpopular character is like utmost self indulgent and for me and the like 10 other Mephy lovers out there. but I did work harder on it than most of what I’ve done lately. the image was actually very carefully staged and posed before I drew it first even though a lot of that was covered up by the mess, maybe I’ll show some of the earlier versions I had bc it changed a Lot and a lot of those earlier versions had their own merits…. I wanted it to have a solid base composition which isn’t always something I think of from the start.

Anyway ty so much and sorry to anyone whose dash i cluttered w the explanation. It just brings me a lot of joy to have someone pick up on things I left mostly to bg level interpretation you could take or leave. And I want to Talk about the clown I just need prompts or excuses otherwise I myself am. Too chaotic to focus lol

Darkness once gave birth to the arrogance of light. Were it not for fire, there would be nothing to this name.

[thefirstknife]

also irt retcons & unreliable narratos. i feel like fans dont realize how much that leaves the door open for cool stuff.

i.e Nezarec

like he was never mentioned before outside a flavor text that implied he was worshiped/feared as a demonic god in some early human culture. (which is so sool to me bc like. imagine finding out as a cryotarch this being knows of pre traveler humanity. how much influence did he have? what did he see?)

but now we have him as an actual character (more or less) and it's such a cool concept that gives new light to so much of destiny's past

if the creator's weren't willing to nudge or change things here or there then we wouldn't get this

Yep! A lot of writing is doing just that, especially when we're talking about big ongoing projects. You throw random things into the pot and then years later you can pick and choose what you want to elaborate on and in which way.

Was Nezarec always planned as a disciple? Almost certainly not! But he fits there now! It's a good solution that ties a lot of the stuff together; disciples as a thing, Rhulk, glaives, the Witness, Lunar Pyramid, Nightmares, new information about the Collapse, Drifter... It's a really cool solution and a better one since writers don't have to invent new things, they just use unexplained stuff from before.

It's simply impossible to always have a perfect explanation for every detail the moment you first come up with it. Not with an evolving media. Nezarec was probably written as a cool curiosity, then added to Drifter's background to connect him with stuff the players would be familiar with (because we know of the exotic) and now this all neatly tied into the current story (not necessarily seasonal, but overall with disciples and glaives and Rhulk and the Witness).

[demoiselettes]

Can I get a match up please? :)

I'm basically a 14 yr old girl. I can be extremely extroverted but I've been told I'm cunning?

Overall all I'm bubbly and friendly with everyone but at the same time witty. I also have good academic grades if that helps in this match up? Idk 😭

Also I am a trouble maker yet still a favorite of my teachers? Don't know how thou. + plus I roast the shit out of my friends but roasting is limited to friends only

My hair is shoulder length and I have light brown eyes.

Im sorry if this is completely irrevelant but I have no clue what to right- anyways hope you have a good day <3

Eventide

I match you with Kaigaku Inadama!

•Kaigaku, at the beginning, would probably consider you as a competition

•Let’s say you’re both Kuwajima’s apprentices, and he seems to have a soft spot for you, Kaigaku won’t tolerate that

•See, he doesn’t get how you’re still being favored even though you cause trouble at times

•Despite the things he does/say to Zenitsu, he makes huge efforts to be liked by Kuwajima, and you’re here stealing his limelight by being a trouble maker???

•He’s gonna challenge you a lot, to see if you’re actually worthy

•With time, he gains some sort of respect for you and takes to insulting you less and in a somewhat affectionate/joking way

• He’s pretty rough, even to people he cares for

•Like when he sees you he’s gonna ruffle your hair harshly or put you in a headlock at greeting

•Definitely tries to beat Zenitsu up too, just to show you how strong he is he..doesn’t really understand how to impress people

•See, Zenitsu would probably be able to tell Kaigaku is fond of you from his heartbeat but he won’t say a word to a soul lest he gets a beating from his senior

•He quickly notices your habit of roasting those you’re close to and now he’s confused bc is it good if you start roasting him? Does that mean you’re growing close to him? Poor bb

•Kaigaku isn’t the most extroverted person ever

•He doesn’t have social anxiety or anything, he just prefers being alone bc he usually looks down on people and only hangs out with those he deems to be worthy of him

•But you’re over here being an extrovert and chatting people up and he’s just in the background fuming bc your attention is not on him. don’t you know you gotta give him all your attention?

•Yeah.. he probs has yandere tendencies, particularly if you actually treat him like a human instead of a monster

•I think he hasn’t had the chance to learn much since he couldn’t very well go to school

•So if you take to teaching him, he’s gonna either be extremely embarrassed or extremely happy

•Happy bc he gets to ogle you

•Anyways, he finds your bubbly nature equal parts endearing and puzzling

•He gets the concept of kindness and cheerfulness, but he just can’t really bring himself to act the way you do

•Still cherishes you a lot though, and pretty much anyone who talks bad about you gets a good beating from him