#really wanted to draw one specific character and i spent so long trying to make it work and now A Fucking Hand is killing meeeeeeee

[pika-blur]

fighting for my life (actually joined artfight early this year and still only did one drawing this month)

[towriteloveontheirarms]

Cat got your tongue (Percival de Rollo x Half Tabaxi!Reader)

synopsis: Percy liked to believe he wasn´t territorial or easily jealous, but something about seeing you with Vax makes his blood boil.

warnings: jealousy, marking, smut, afab reader

word count: 0.9k

taglist: @hopelesswritergall

A/N: Thank you @kawaiiangel906 for this request and I am so so sorry it took me so long to get to it. I hope you still enjoy. <3

(If you want to be tagged for a specific character/fandom or in general let me know in my asks, comments or DMs)

Dividers by @saradika

Laughter sounded over the grounds of the keep from outside all the way into Percy's workshop. Not even concealed by the sounds of the white-haired man tinkering with a weapon. It wasn't like he had much concentration left for it at the moment anyway, but what little was left of it before fled faster than it had come to him. This had been going on for far too long in his more or less humble opinion. This thing between you and Vax’ildan. Not a thing, as you had reminded him countless times, fur covered ears twitching at the idea of it alone. Worries temporarily stifled with a sweet kiss to the forehead and a deep hug. Filled with whispered confessions of love.

Grumbling under his breath Percy makes his way out of the keep.

“Percy!” You immediately jump up and run towards him, a wide grin on your face.

Percy’s eyes lay on Vax for a moment longer, who sits left behind on the grass where you had just trained with him, looking right back at the two of you. When Percy's eyes snap back to you he can see your mouth moving. Had he really not heard you talking this entire time?

“I'm sorry, my love. Could you repeat yourself?” He asks  the back of his neck.

“I just told you about my training with Vax… Are you not feeling well?” Your eyebrows draw together tightly.

“N-No, it's nothing. I am quite alright. Thank you.” Percy takes a hasty step back to avoid your hand coming up to feel his temperature. “Perhaps too much time in the workshop. I am happy that the progress you and Vax’ildan are making is to your liking.”

“Come sit with us then. We were about to be finished for the day anyway.” Your hand caresses his cheek, the other taking him to pull him along.

Night has never been particularly calm amongst the group either. Most certainly not since you had obtained the keep. Laughter and the sounds of people drinking into the early morning hours traveled easily. But this night's rest was particularly hard to come by. It could. Your bones hurt from the extensive exercise each day and the fights in between. Just not with a certain someone distracting you from the sweet release of slipping off to slumberland by needy lips grazing over the skin of your shoulder blades and teeth nipping at the column of your neck.

“Percival…” You groan. “It is late.”

The words come out mumbled and somewhat unintelligible. Still you turn your head until you can see the white head of hair from the corners of your eyes. One heavy hand finding its way into the light tresses to play with them.

“You have barely spent any time with me or anyone that isn't Vax’ildan lately.” Comes the equally mumbled response against your back.

He doesn't stop what he is doing until you are awake again and turn around fully.

“Love…” You begin a sentence but are quickly shut up by the possessive grip pulling your waist impossibly close to his.

“Shhh. This will just serve as a reminder to the others that you are mine.” Percy's teeth nip right below your jawline. Sucking on the tender flesh until deep purple bruises bloom all over.

Pressed into the mattress by his lean hips, you writhe and mewl helplessly. Subconsciously, your own hips begin to grind up against his after a while. Unable to just take it anymore.

“More.” You plead in high pitched tones. No matter how much you try, your voice just won't stay down.

“Nuh uh uh. What's the magic word, dear?” Percy reprimands you with a smile on his face.

He can feel the movement of your hips as well and it is a game to him. He is fully in charge of you and your pleasure in this moment and he knows it just as well as you do.

“Please, Percy. I need more.” You try again with your tail wrapping tightly around Percy's middle to prevent him from possibly pulling away.

“See, that wasn't so hard. When you ask nicely people will be far more inclined to give you what you are asking for.” He slides down almost unnoticeably, pushing up your nightdress, until his chin rests against your sternum, just underneath the valley of your breasts. Scattering more purple spots over them and then wandering further down. A puff of warm breath bringing your legs together around his shoulders. With a chuckle and two fingers, Percy opens them up again.

“Now, let everyone hear who you belong to.” The words echo in your ear as only moments after, his length impaled you in one rough thrust.

A groan in unison fills the room, on one side from the sudden stretch and on the other, because in response your claws shot out and dug into his shoulders. The rhythm with which he starts thrusting into you as soon as he recovers, has you near screaming. Moans of his name and desperate pleas string together to a sort of prayer. The sweetest prayer Percy had ever heard in his life. Until he has driven you over the edge so often that your throat is sore and your body is a twitching mess. Brain so clouded in fog that you can barely concentrate on anything beside his body against yours.

As you lay beside each other, entirely spent, Percy's hand trailing over your side, a satisfied purring fills the room from your lungs. Not even strong enough to keep your eyes open any longer, you are finally granted the relief of sleep. Dreaming of only one man. The one right beside you, who at that moment felt you were his completely. Pressing one last kiss against the back of your neck as he drifted off to sleep as well.

[loremaster]

happy birthday to the guy i've been drawing nonstop for the past several months - here's proof!!! he's a lot of fun to draw!

vivia is also a very important character to me for very personal reasons... (cw: family death)

it didn't take long for me to realize he was gonna be my favorite character in the game - seeing him lounging in places he shouldn't be cracked me up, and so did his morbid catchphrase... i totally related to his autistic tendencies, and his eagerness to dwell on depressing philosophical thoughts. i especially love and relate to his love for literature and literary analysis, especially because my eighth grade english teacher was my dad, who introduced me to so many of what are now my favorite books, and showed me how to look closer into what makes them so good. his story structure classes were unforgettable.

my dad passed away in 2020 and i've been going through fluctuating stages of grief since. it ebbs and flows but never really leaves. a lot of my art and stories from the past 3+ years have been ways to process and try to heal from that trauma (especially my pokemon sword nuzlocke comic, which i'm hoping to finish this summer)

so seeing the strange way vivia deals with death - in general, and the death of a loved one - fascinated me and destroyed me. i've spent many nights curled up in bed sobbing myself to sleep thinking about the heartbreak he goes through in the story, the regrets, the destructive cycle of grief, the depths of the emotions he feels in such a unique way (he's so desensitized he never cries once in the whole game!) and the ways he is able to start to grow and heal from it afterwards.

exploring the queer romantic angle of vivia's character arc is also so so so important to me, not only because i'm a queer person who's wanted to tell queer stories since i was a teen, but because my dad was also a queer person, who didn't get to come out as bisexual until the tail end of his too-short life. i know he connected to a lot of the same Boys In Love stories that I did, and i wish we'd had the opportunity to explore that common ground further. but since i can't, all i can do is the next best thing - making art about it and inspired by it. i think my dad would really like vivia and the stories i've been trying to tell about him. (harold and maude was one of his favorite movies - and if you're a vivia fan and you've never seen it GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW. suicidal teen forms an unlikely friendship with a cheerful old lady. you will cry your eyes out. you will want to LIVE)

so, i guess... thanks kodaka for making this specific character that spoke so deeply to me at this specific time in my life and letting me use him as a vehicle to process my own grief in the gayest ways possible. and happy birthday veeva <3

[marciaillust]

How long does it take for you to finish drawing?

I'm an artist (beginner) and i unconsciously set unrealistic goals for myself and need a reminder of how long it takes to complete a drawing, Thanks.

Hi! In the context you presented it in, that is a really interesting question, so I'll try to approach it thoroughly. I hope I won't make you roll your eyes too much.

Where to start, where to start... I guess the first thing I should say is that there is a difference between time I spend preforming the action of <drawing>, and the time I spent <working> on a particular piece. The first would be counted in hours, the second one - days. I'm a big believer in slowing things down, and giving things time - going through options, gathering research and references, taking breaks every 1h of sitting and drawing - and seeing things through until I achieve the goal I set at the beginning of the process.

The goals are usually different each time: "quick design", "character exploration", "analysis of an artist's linework and experimenting with the knowledge gained", "creating an aesthetically pleasing image", and so on and so forth. Of course I don't write these down like it's a school assignment, but knowing in the back of my head what I'm actually doing helps me manage my expectations. I also enjoy being conscious of why I create - when I was younger regardless of what I was doing I had the thought "AND IT MUST LOOK GOOD AND PRESENTABLE! BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL LOOK!" ...and I think that obsession is the cancer of creative process.

Since the goals for each picture are different, the time I'll spent on achieving each one will be different as well, because the "satisfactory results" lay in different places. For example, the Marcile sketchpage was created in one afternoon, and took approximately 3 hours. The goal was to play around with a brush that has no opacity forcing my lines to be more decisive. I did that and so it is "finished". There's nothing else I want from it.

On the other hand, the cover of Asterism took about 10 days to create, the goal of which was to make "an aesthetically pleasing cover picture taking colour inspiration from the works of (specific list of artists)". I took my time designing it so that it looks aesthetically pleasing, made sure the anatomy is "correct" (a nebulous statement when it comes to stylised humans), took my time masking, and picking colours, and shading. I wanted it to "look good" to my own eyes so if something was not working I would go back, change it, alter it, move it around... that's the wonderful thing about personal art, you can take as long as you like making something satisfactory.

The funny thing is, with what the Asterism cover actually is (a cellshaded image), it could have been done probably in 4 days by the me 4 years ago. But that person was willing to sit 8-10 hours a day to draw with no breaks, she had little social life, and treated herself as a little circus seal performing tricks so that people clap around her, and the clapping was soooo nice because it meant that people remembered her and she mattered. And it worked for her! For long 10 years! Until her arm gave out, and the reality of never being able to draw again became more tangible than ever, and it's been following her like a fog ever since for the past 4 years. The me today works about 4 hours a day and every hour I take about a 30 minute break. I also don't post half the stuff I draw. There is also another aspect that dictates the speed of creating and that is familiarity with the subject matter. The less you know something, the fast you'll draw it! But as you get to know the intricacies of the process, and see all the building blocks, it will start taking *longer* because you will start accounting for every block. But then you'll eventually get familiar with the blocks and so the time spent on a picture will go down again! The cool yet overwhelming thing about art is that, there are always hundreds of building blocks. Form, composition, ambient occlusion, saturation, hue, light balance, line form...... and those are just the *some* of the generalised *categories*. And each category will have it's own subsection of building blocks! And then those blocks will interact with each other to create completely new area of expertise! This is crazy! Marcille sketch page took me only 3 hours to create because I am already quite familiar with linework - I have drawn 3-4 comicbooks worth of linework. This also means I am familiar with believable anatomy, more or less, which got utilised in the Asterism cover - the main bulk of linework got created during a 3h livestream. So.... what's the answer.... "It's all relative" is so unsatisfactory and probably not what you looked for. But you can draw something in 3 days and kill your body over it. Or you can become an expert in a field and dish the same picture out effortlessly in 8 hours. You can also split that 8h block over multiple days bringing you back up to 3 days. You could even add a whole day of visual research which might make your picture only marginally better. And even if we calculate it in terms of raw working time, pen-to-paper, like a self-inflicted capitalist tumor, that time can fluctuate still due to personal visual library and knowledge base. If I asked Tom Fox how long it takes for him to create his sketch pages his answer would probably be downward of 30 minutes. Yet I need whole 3 hours to create something *less* anatomically correct than him. And so here we are at the end of this perhaps unnecessary essay. And all we learned is this: it depends. Dry, not nuanced tl;dr, my personal timings: single sketch - 30mins; single linework pic 1-2h; Cellshaded illust - 16h; Rendered illust: 20-25h.

[runawaymun]

Hey! Any advice on writing multi chaptered fics or just longer stories?

I feel like I'm okay for like snippets but have no idea how to write the middle of a story or move a character or story from point a to point b.

And asking you because you're writing is phenomenal and I'd love some advice.

(But if no brain space for advice I totally get that too and feel free to hide this ask or something)

(Anyway great updates on boundless and the one shot Brimbrond)

Sorry for taking so long to respond to this! I just wanted to take some good time to gather my thoughts because oh man oh boy I am a bit of a nerd about plot structure, even if I pants it a lot of the time -- because middles and structure absolutely plagued me when I was a beginner and so I spent a long, long time studying it and breaking it down.

I'm going to start with some very, very basic advice and then get into some more specific stuff. So let's talk first about how to structure a long-form plot first.

DISCLAIMER: this is how I personally structure plots. More often than not I veer off my own track. And this is a very western way of structuring a plot. It's well worth looking into how storytellers from around the world structure their work because it can vary wildly (Miyazaki is a great example of this). Take this with a grain of salt. It's a guideline which I find helpful. This is going to get very, very long. Bear with me:

When I'm first thinking about how to create a plot around a story I want to tell, this is the process I walk myself through, and it tends to work about 75% of the time for the stories I like to tell (I'm not much of a thriller or mystery writer and those tend to have different kinds of structure). Main recipe is as follows:

Status quo - establish the setting and the character. Do this by the middle-to-end of chapter one, preferably. You can get away with drawing it out a bit in sci-fi or fantasy works that require more worldbuilding, but try not to.

Inciting incident - I won't tell you to start in media res, as that varies from writer to writer and story to story. Generally you want to have this somewhere in chapters 1-3. Say we're talking about LOTR - I'd say the inciting incident is when Bilbo goes invisible at his birthday party and leaves for retirement. Everything sort of snowballs from there (Gandalf confirming this is The One Ring, the Ring being passed to Frodo, the adventure beginning, etc. etc). This is where your character can lose something, or be confronted with a huge problem, or gain some new information. This is the point where your story really picks up.

Point of no return - your character has been presented with a problem or is put in a situation and now they have to decide what to do about it. Sometimes characters choose to run away, or choose inaction. It's up to you and your character as to what they do next.

The annoying part - the most helpful way I've ever found to think about middles is in terms of a series of decisions and consequences. Your character must decide what to do (or try to get what they want), and this will then come with consequences to those decisions. I ignore a lot of writing advice because writers seem to be very cagey about how they compose middles and plots for some reason, but the one piece I heard that helped me was: "What does my character want, and what stops them from getting it?" -- and this can be anything, right? Frodo wants (has to) take the Ring to Mordor. Luke wants to learn to be a Jedi like his father. Inspector Poirot needs to catch the murderer. Odysseus wants to return home. Each of these characters are going to make a series of decisions toward their goal, and they may be working from incomplete information, or bad paradigms, or racing against the clock, or against impossible odds. They're going to make mistakes. Over and over and over again. The middle is a series of decisions, consequences for those decisions, and obstacles (more on that later).

Point of no return 2, electric boogaloo (i.e. the actual midpoint to the story) - the part right before the climax -- the climax IS NOT the midpoint of your story, nor is it the end. This is your midpoint where Everything Fucking Sucks. Your character's back is against the wall. They have to change, or fail.

Paradigm shift: your character learns something new, or develops in some crucial way that leads to:

The climax/confrontation: 3/4 - 7/8th of the way through your plot. Frodo decides to keep the ring. Luke uses the force to blow up the death star. Anakin's fear and the manipulation from Palpatine overtakes him and he turns to the dark side. Inspector Poirot gets his last crucial piece of information and gathers everybody together for the Big Reveal. Odysseus gets home and chases the suitors out of his house. Etc. Etc. This is that Big Point in the story we all think as the most important or crucial point (but it's not. That's the key here. THE most important point is the whole middle of how we got here).

Consequences and paradigm shift 2 electric boogaloo: varies from story to story, but this is the fallout of the last decision or confrontation. Your character may reflect on what they've learned. The killer goes to jail. Frodo returns to the Shire and it's saved, but not for him. The journey your character has been on has irreparably altered them, or the world around them -- for better or for worse.

Resolution: the place where you land the story ;) what is the final impression you want your readers to have of your character, or this world?

Alright so that's all kind of nebulous. Let me give you a slightly more specific form of this plot structure that I use pretty often, because I almost exclusively write character and relationship-driven stories since that's what interests me most:

So most of this looks much the same (the inciting incident is some kind of meetcute. The characters then have to decide if they want to have some kind of relationship -- I like to name this part the callback). Then we have a whole weird squishy section of building interest and tension, before once again we have The Big Fight (darkest before the dawn or what have you), before one or both characters have some kind of paradigm shift, they confess their feelings (or resolve the fight or whatever), and the security of the relationship is established -- happy go lucky times, everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

So the middle here is of course still squishy and nebulous, but the focus here is still on "What decisions are the characters making? What are the consequences of those decisions? What are they learning, and how do they respond to it?" Maybe the tension is in one character being more reticent, while the other is more open. Maybe the tension is a sexual tension (will they, won't they?). Maybe a character is working off of incomplete information, or a misunderstanding, and that needs to be cleared up before the relationship (or even their own personal growth) can progress (both Elrian and Thalionel in Stars and Boundless Sky follow this pattern). The middle is a push-pull between your character's desires and outside forces that are stopping them from getting what they want, or achieving what they want to achieve.

So okay, that's all well and good. That's basic plot structure. Let me get into my thought process about middles specifically:

Begin with your ending in mind. I do not mean that you need to have like the whole resolution to your story fleshed out. If you're that kind of writer, great! But if you're more of a pantser like me, then that can be a big ask. Instead, ask yourself: what do I want my character to have learned by the end of the story? How do I want them to have changed, or grown? Do I want it to be for better, or for worse? Is there a specific plot goal you have in mind? (saving the world, or catching the murderer, solving the mystery, exorcizing the ghost, the couple getting together at the end, the found family finally gelling with each other, or whatever).

Once you have that thought in mind, now start to think about what your character might need to get from their starting point to their ending point. If it's a murder mystery, this is your information gathering section. You can lead your character to wrong or right conclusions. Have them make mistakes. Etc. etc. If it's a romance, this is where you create a string of scenes where the characters have opportunities to interact and learn more about each other (works for platonic slowburns, too). If this is a traditional hero's journey, this is where you plop in your actual journey.

Not to repeat this ad nauseum, but your middle is all about getting your character to your end goal, but in the most difficult way possible lmao. Let them make mistakes. Let them make bad decisions -- and then follow through with the consequences of those bad decisions. Give them bad information. This is where understanding your character's fundamental flaws becomes extremely important. Your entire plot, imo, stems from your character's fundamental flaws -- because ultimately that is what is going to slow them down the most from reaching their goal. Sure, you may have the big bad evil guy (bbeg), but we're not worried about him. That's an external factor and that's easy to drop in when you need a quick problem to place in front of your protagonist -- but that problem needs to be in service to your character or your worldbuilding. Teach them something. Give them an opportunity for growth. Aragorn needs to lead at Helm's Deep so he can inhabit his leadership role. The mountain pass of Caradhras needs to force the Fellowship through the mines so that Gandalf falls fighting the Balrog and comes back leveled up and ready to fight, and other characters in the fellowship have a chance to grow into their roles without relying on Gandalf for leadership. Your middle is all about crafting little opportunities for character growth, always while moving toward your end goal -- whatever that may be.

The paradigm shifts are crucial, and they can shift for better or for worse. It's up to you and your characters and the story you want to tell as to which it'll be.

If you're bored, your reader is bored. Only write what excites you, skip all the rest, and make it make sense at the end -- I'm so serious. Yes you need to add in breaks for pacing (like the whole Rivendell section in LOTR), but in those breaks still make sure that you're either expanding your worldbuilding, or giving your characters and opportunity for growth.

If you want to tell a really long (novel length) type of story, sideplots and alternate POVs are your best friend. They are structured exactly the same as a regular plot, they're just simpler or smaller and generally work in service to the main plot. Maybe there are side characters or side relationships you'd like to develop. Maybe there's a smaller mystery or a part of your worldbuilding you'd like to explore. Action plots can be side plots to romantic or platonic slowburn plots, just as much as it can be the other way around. And this is not something you need to structure out the gate. Just be curious and playful. Find points in your story that interest you, and explore them a bit. You'll find that they expand the story.

Biggest and best tip I can give you, when all is said and done, is to decide what kind of story you want to tell and then examine how other people are doing it. If you want to write a superhero story, pick out your favorites and look at how they're structured. If you want to write a mystery, same thing. If you're writing a romance or a drama, again -- same thing. Look at the pieces of fiction that you like, figure out what you like about it, and then apply it to your own work.

That's all the general advice off the top of my head. IDK how helpful this was lol. If you want more tips on middles I can try to look at it a bit more in depth, but to be quite honest middles are really what defines a genre. Romances have different middles to thrillers. Thrillers have different middles to mysteries. Mysteries have different middles to dystopian sci-fis. Etc. Etc. So take the general advice with a grain of salt and look more specifically at the genre of story that you're looking to tell.

Thanks for coming to my tedtalk <3

[demodraws0606]

The very weird plays in Tsukasa and Rui's last event and how they can be analysed and the weird detail that links them together

I made a post about this before but it was poorly made (and also not really a theory or analysis it was just me having brainworms) so I deleted it and I want to actually make an analysis about it. Unfortunatly this also means this post will be long as fuck which can be a positive or a negative depending on how you view it.

Warning for mentions of suicide and drowning

So Tsukasa and Rui both have plays that are kind of the focus of the event, to the point where wxs literally stop to basically explain to us the plot of them (in world they're just talking about it but like it's clear it's also meant for us the viewers to understand the plays they're doing).

And these two plays are already very interesting and...well dark on their own but they have a extremely strange similarity that I don't believe is a coincidence (because that would be insane) and also just kinda shakes the foundation on how colorpalet write these sorts of topics in general.

First I want to preface this by saying that me analysing these plays isn't some kind of fool's herrand as colorpalet has explicitely hid backstory information, future lore hints and overall just little bits of character into WxS's plays more often than not. Of course some plays are more explicit than others.

A huge exemple of this, is the first arc ender where the play they do to save Phennyland is one that obviously is meant to parallel Emu's backstory with her grandpa. It also stands as Very early foreshadowing between the parallels of Emu's grandpa and Tsukasa that Emu sees in Admist a Dream.

So yeah, from a writing standpoint, makes sense you don't want the plays you spent a lot of words describing to the audience to be useless especially considering colorpalet has a limited amount of time to explore these stories.

I also want to get this as early as possible before I get possible criticism because I know how this fandom acts towards analysis that delve into darker topics. Don't try and respond with "colorpalet wouldn't write something like that" or "this is too dark for colorpalet". Not only because I'm not insinuating that they will actually go full dark mode and depict something graphic.

But also because this is something that is already IN the text, I'm not making up darker themes here, that is something that colorpalet chose to add in WonderlandXShowtime's event stories. I'm only bringing up how odd this is for colorpalet and how it could relate to the overall story.

I'll bring this up later because this specific criticism gets very silly once you delve deeper into it but I don't want to stall the analysis any longer.

So now with this out of the way, let's get into the plays.

This is the story of the first play showed in Tsukasa's event

Of course the first thing that stands out is how much darker this play is compared to well...almost anything colorpalet addresses in stories ? This definitely shocked when I first read it, there is no usage of "disappearing" and it Actually describes the method as to which the protagonist wants to end their life which the only thing close to that we see is Kanade hinting on wanting to starve herself. But I'm gonna get into how weird this is for colorpalet later.

Extremely dark topics aside you can easily draw parallels to this story to Nene and Rui specifically already. The story is vague enough that those parallels don't hold too much water (ahaha get it) BUT it's still something that I feel is important to point out nontheless.

Nene and Rui were both unsuccesful in their dreams before the main story. Nene having given up going on stage and Rui never being able to be a director being forced to use robots for his plays.

Both were pretty jaded and well "worn out" until they met Tsukasa and Emu which would be a stand in for the protagonist of this play going through various encounters with many people and deciding to live a little longer.

(The reason I don't compare this protagonist to Tsukasa and Emu here is because I don't think they fit as well. Tsukasa's issues wasn't being unsuccesful its more so him forgetting the reasons behind his dreams and Emu's situation while similar just doesn't feel like it fits this story in particular)

So yeah this story is pretty simple so there is not much to analyse or pick apart. I could go scene by scene but then I would be distracting from the main point I want to make so I'll just be using the simple descriptions of the overall story.

NOW this one is a doozie, I didn't put the whole story that's described but I think compared to the last one this one is way more obvious as to what this could paralleling (or even foreshadowing if you want to be spicy).

I don't think this play is meant to be interpreted in only one way but the most obvious interpretation is the parallels to the disbandement arc. I think it particularly fits Rui in the disbandement considering how Katsuyuki is described but it can also work with Emurui in general as well.

Someone struggling meeting someone who brings joy in their life before they seemingly have to leave, said person being desperate for that not to happen.

I do think it's also meant to be a sort of double meaning here as if you have seen my cyberpunk deadboy analysis, the idea of someone leaving silently with the other trying to chase them down is something that just feels...idk intentional. But I don't have any evidence other than vibes here.

Now that I analysed these plays I want to get into the one common thread they have that is extremely baffling and concerning.

They both have the main character contemplating suicide by drowning.

Now you can be nitpicky and point out how the play in Rui's event doesn't explicitely say that this dude wants to drown himself but I just find it more likely mostly because of how this and the description of Katsuyuki's characters are phrased.

When Katsyuki is said to be "without the will to live"

THAT is a literal translation

Unfortunatly I'm not a japanese speaker so don't take my research with 100 pourcent certainty

However if you look at how this sentence is phrased in japanese, this translation is pretty much word for word

And also just what Hajime says doesn't feel like what someone would say to someone if they're just leaning to close to look at the ocean or just being reckless.

Anyways now that I've made my point that there is a 95 pourcent chance this is Heavily implying Katsuyuki was plannign on drowning himself the question is....

what the fuck ?

Now one time is already a big deal considering colorpalet's insitance on censoring explicit mentions of suicide and for it to be implied twice in the span of two events in a row ? And have it be specifically be by drowning both times ?????

I don't understand people just brushing this off because Colorpalet Actively chose to make the plays like this. These plays often take a large portion of the screentime, and I've showcased how they can hold story significance so such a blatant connection between them feels extremely intentional.

This is why complaints about expecting Colorpalet to get too dark and that it's unrealistic would be legitmatly silly because what's more unrealistic ?

That colorpalet has tackled this dark topic twice in a row to foreshadow or hint at possible topics that will be addressed in the future of WxS's story ? Weither it's through flashbacks or implications like 25ji OR even just symbolism.

Or that colorpalet just went and made the plays needlessly dark, for no reason ?????? Twice in a row with it being drowning both times ??????? With the same actor and both being the protagonist of the play ?????? Have those plays that take a lot of screentime being described just being completely devoid meaning ???????

I think I made my case about why the fandom's usual kneejerk reaction wouldn't make sense here, this isn't a "X character is secretly suicidal/depressed" situation.

Either way, I actually don't legitematly know what this could entail. This is clearly important enough that colorpalet is obviously shoving it in our faces but I do not know the meaning of it towards WxS's story just yet.

It could be hints at some of the members backstory (BTW by that I mean it could be hints at basically anything, it doesn't have to be explicitely 1/1 "they wanted to drown themselves") specifically Rui considering how suspicious they are at handling ms Rui but that is it's own can of wringling worms. But that could also be my fav character bias speaking tbf.

It could also just be meant to be some kind of like, message of colorpalet saying that they are willing to go darker with WxS's storyline if necessary. In a way showing that the gloves are off if they're not censoring dark topics that they usually censor.

Anyways I'm not delving further into it because otherwise i'd get into unhinged rants but honestly this subject just gives me so much brainworms because legit what the Fuck is colorpalet doing rn.

They are being so weird for literally no reason with WxS's story and I just have to sit back and watch them just drop weird shit out of nowhere.

Edit : One of my friends pointed out how one of them is a movie and one of them is a play and i realised I might've mixed those words up while writing this so yeah 😭

[mayhems-cannon]

Show us your oldest piece of art you have on hand.

What is your favourite piece that you have done?

What do you like drawing the most?

List at least one of your “artspirations.”

What do you think you could stand to improve on?

ahh!! this is gonna be a long one! aaaa

Show us your oldest piece of art you have on hand.

i have this old Papyrus drawing from a 2018 sketchbook i filled way too fast. i was really into deltarune back then, and it expanded a little to undertale as well, since there was quite a bit of overlap (obviously).

What is your favorite piece you have done?

probably this one, since i spent so much time "in the zone" doing it. it was an extreme trance, it felt so nice... i suppose it's moreso tied to what i felt drawing it than what it looks like in the end (even if it still looks pretty nice)

What do you like drawing the most?

bodies are really fun for me to draw, but i also really enjoy sketching outside, whether it be in the commute or just standing somewhere and drawing a sculpture or anything.

List at least one of your artspirations.

there's actually a ton! but i guess, here's a few that come to mind:

Francis Xie, because of fucking course (aka the guy who got me into almost everything i'm doing now, from ultrakill the game to actually drawing digitally as a whole)

Milkywaes, with her very cartoonly and self assured drawings!! her works are basically what i aspire to achieve in terms of an alternative art style, she shares it with Yoh Yoshinari as well

Kabi Nagata, for her very raw yet very simple depictions of human emotions

Shin'Ichi Sakamoto, for his eye for keen detail and chirurgical precision, and his use of metaphors for expressing sounds without onomatopeias

Ayami Kojima, for her beautiful bodies and poetic renders

Mossacannibalism, he draws very consistently and always what he wants, i aspire to his level of free spirit in what you wish to draw and in doing it without asking yourself anything else

Kim Jung Gi!!!!

Akihiko Yoshida, who inspired me to go into making art specifically for games

Alphonse Mucha, Renoir, Caillebotte, Sorolla and Claude Monet for the more classical artists

i also just try to look around and observe and assimilate things that interest me, those can come from anything, literally. juice bottle, childrens' books, a graffiti on the wall, anything can be source for study and observation in my book, but maybe i'm just being a little weird. whoops

What do you think you could stand to improve on?

i'd say faces and dynamic shots, panelling as well. faces of literally any kind, i mean. i've stopped drawing faces consistently once i got into Ultrakill and only now am i understanding both how they work and how i never actually knew how to draw faces decently. dynamic shots and panelling go more hand in hand, stuff like two characters fighting or cooler looking pieces. i think i'm not good at drawing pieces that are meant to look cool in a shounen like way, which ties into panelling as well since learning how to panel things include subjects such as fighting or action scenes, but even regular panelling i think is something i really need to work on... ah well

[seeingteacupsindragons]

My last post to get people to talk about their creative projects has gotten something of a theme. People who are trying to write a book, but instead of actually writing it, are writing a bunch of…other stuff.

I may be biased because I do very little of that extraneous writing­, but I think there’s two main places that situation comes from:

Being scared of writing the book/story

Not actually wanting to write a story

And both of those things themselves could probably be a whole post or series of posts, but let me break them down one at a time to see if it helps anyone figure out what’s going on with them.

Being scared of writing the book/story:

Basically, the writing you’re doing instead of the story is procrastination and avoiding actually working on the story. You don’t want to be writing it, but you’re afraid if you actually write the story, you’ll mess it up, so you’re writing other things and trying to prepare yourself utterly and completely so you know exactly what you’re going to do…except none of that “prep work” worldbuilding and character exploration is actually making you any more confident.

So here’s the thing: You can rewrite the same story from scratch several times if you don’t like what the first try looks like. You can edit the story over and over if you don’t like what it looks like.

Some prep work helps a lot of writers. But at the end of the day, it’s really not helping you write the story. The story is the story and it’s not any of your asides, and the longer you spent avoiding the story and building up All These Cool ideas, the scarier actually writing it is going to get. Because now you have a thousand cool ideas and you’re even more afraid you can’t do them justice than when you had one kinda interesting idea to pursue. You’ve invested all this time—what if the story isn’t good?

It's still going to be better than no story. And you're not going to get better at telling stories without trying to do that specific thing, because of the discussion we're about to get into...

Not actually wanting to write a story:

The people who said this to me in that post were largely writers. But the thing is that doesn’t really get talked about is that…writing isn’t really one hobby.

There’s a lot of kinds of writing, and some of them overlap, but they all require different skills and they require different interests, and they satisfy different parts of a person, if they satisfy any.

Writing a novel is different from writing a short story is different from writing an analytic essay is different from writing standup is different from writing a screenplay is different from writing a Wiki entry is different from writing a business report is different than writing marketing copy is different from writing a technical manual is different from…

I majored in creative writing and minored in professional writing, and I have been writing for 25 years. I have tried a lot of those kinds of writing. I enjoy most of them, because I enjoy wordsmithing. I enjoy putting various words together to see what they look like. Not everyone does, but they might still write because…

They like storytelling. Not everyone who likes storytelling is a writer—sometimes they draw, or make a video game, or pain, or act, or direct, or sing. Lots of ways to tell stories exist! And if you like writing but don’t like storytelling, maybe you’d be happier writing analysis essays or business reports, or marketing copy (which can be storytelling, but is very different from narrative).

And maybe, it leads you to writing long character profiles and worldbuilding documents.

Writing a novel and writing detailed worldbuilding documents are honestly basically different hobbies. You might like both! Or you might not, and just feel like “I like writing,” means you have to write a novel or a short story.

You…don’t. Writing doesn’t mean you have to write any specific thing. You should find why you’re drawn to a specific activity, to figure out what is satisfying you about it.

It is perfectly okay if you enjoy writing about made up worlds without wanting to write a novel about it. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.

So basically:

If you want to write a novel, just do it already! If you don’t, you don’t have to keep telling yourself you will because you feel obligated to do it. Just enjoy whatever part of the process you enjoy.

[childhoodgrave]

idk ur ocs who are they .........................................

ohhh welllll i have a lot of them and most of my main (?) ones that italk sbout are on my toyhouse buuut i will give a synopsis of most of the ones from the “world” or story or whatever ive been thinking about alot recently i call it training wings but it doesnt rlly have an actual name because its nit like a specific story or whatever. just a world with guys in it you know.. the lore is overcomplicated when i try to explain it but basically all you need to know is heaven and hell and stuff exists but it operates alittle differently from like ur typical tropes or what evar

this is FRITZ she used to be human but she got turned into an angel and then she fell from heaven bc she hated it there. she likes grindcore music and other stuff like that. also shes italian american because lol. shes kind of currently on the run from like the angel cops or whayever who want to quash any potential resistance to their cause such as fallen angels and things of that nature. but shes ALSO trying to run away from a couple other people she used to know that she would rather not have in her life anymore for various reasons. one of those people being

EZRAH he used to be like the “main” character and he was the first oc i made in this thing but then i made fritz and liked her more. lol. hes an angel who likes humans more than other angels and spent a long time goofing around on earth before he killed a couple people on accident and as a result was punished for that and his centuries of slacking off. his punishment was being demoted to guardian angel duty and the person he was a “guardian angel” for was fritz! he cares about her a lot and basically sees her as like a daughter of his. but she hates his ass and also obviously had no interaction with him while she was alive (that she remembers) so the relationship is very one sided. hes currently trying to track down fritz to make amends with her and also try to protect her from the other angels trying to kill her atm. the people trying to kill her arent just angels thouvh, they also include people like

no name :) shes a restless spirit unable to pass on who wanders the earth bringing terrible storms and natural disasters wherever she goes. she has a name but nobody knows it, so we just call her no name instead. her and fritz are exes who had a really messy breakup after a very long and unhealthy relationship together. she came across fritz like directly after she fell from heaven and helped her adjust to like. existing in general outside of doing what heaven tells you to do and stuff. because of the amount of people harmed by her storms she has a fair amount of clout in hell and can come and go from there as she pleases but she doesnt work “for” hell if that makes sense. she just does what she wants. shes not specifically chasing after fritz but she is pretty bitter about their breakup and when they encounter each other shit usually gets messy.

thise three are the main ocs i talk about but theres also ones like

anise. shes a runaway that ezrah ends up taking care of and eventually fritz joins in and also helps with that because she doesnt trust ezrah to take care of another human child on his own lol.

and fionnbharr :) shes another angel who used to be a human and when she was alive she was a medieval catholic priest in ireland but then she died and got angel hrt and now she guards the gates of purgatory. its a job that keeps her separated from most other angels bc shes gotten a little silly after being around in heaven for so long BUT her and ezrah are friends ^_^ she has a bit of a falin dungeon meshi chimera body type deal shes like 11 ft tall. and she is a sweetiepie

and there are others but these are the ones i draw and think about the most.. smioles at you

[zwy01]

Original Noble Clans + Clan Leader OCs!!!

I’ve wanted to do these for a while now!! Specifically, new soul weapons with different powers, and character designs of their respective owner(s) in general. I had a lot of fun drawing them and I’ll be drawing them in the future too!

These characters aren’t necessarily exclusive to a specific/fixed setting. They can be interpreted as headcanons that exist/fit in the canon storyline, characters specific to my Millennium AU, characters that exist by themselves and don’t fit anywhere,…etc. Anything really, as I do want them to have some flexibility. So feel free to interpret them as whatever makes the most sense to you. Personally, I see them as existing in both the canon storyline as my headcanons, and in my Millennium AU. In this post I’ll be (mainly) approaching and discussing them in the context of my Millennium AU, though there will also be some references to canon/pre-canon events of my interpretation.

Onwards to the backstory and concepts… woohoo!!! I’m sooo excited to introduce them!!!

In this drawing, there are two clans total, with two characters in each clan. The blue-haired ones are the “Volo”, and the orange-haired ones are the “Pyradros”.

For context, age-wise these Clan Leaders belong to the previous generation so they’re around Previous Lord’s age. Maybe a little older, maybe a little younger, but basically that. In terms of title/position, they were appointed as Clan Leaders by the time PL became Lord. Currently, they are still active as Clan Leaders in Raskreia’s reign, so technically they can be grouped with the current generation of Clan Leaders (aka Raskreia’s peers). The heirs of these Clan Leaders are around Raskreia’s age, maybe a little older, maybe a little younger, same thing.

No one would have guessed that the Previous Lord had a different plan all along. As the years passed, witnessing the rapidly changing world had prompted PL to think of the possibility of entering voluntary eternal sleep with his Clan Leaders. Asking Gejutel to stay behind and guide the next generation weren’t the only things he did. Long before PL even mentioned anything to anyone, he came up with another idea, a different way to protect Lukedonia: sending two of his Clan Leaders to the outside world, as far as possible, to the corners of this planet. Zephyrus Volo and Leona Pyradros were his close friends and trusted allies, and PL entrusted them with the mission of completely separating themselves from influences within Lukedonia, including PL himself. They were to walk every corner of this planet and see the world for themselves, for what it truly is. Try leading others, try being led. Expand your perspective, because it is crucial. PL’s instruction regarding their eventual return to Lukedonia was that they were to return during Raskreia’s reign, and many, many years well into it. In a way, this was PL’s last resort. If Lukedonia is still holding up and doing well under Raskreia’s leadership, they can simply settle back and continue on with their lives. And if Lukedonia is suffering for whatever reasons such as unforeseen circumstances or bad leadership, they can help rebuild Lukedonia and guide them back to the right direction, since they had spent a vast amount of time outside and thus accumulated valuable experience. PL had hoped that this would be Lukedonia’s last choice. By not leaving all of his eggs in one basket, he was certainly preparing for something. Since Zephyrus and Leona were his close friends, he could fully trust them with this mission. For safety purposes, no one knew about this mission except for the three of them. There was a mutual agreement between them, and it was kept secret from everyone else, the entirety of Lukedonia. Not a single one of their fellow Clan Leaders, including the eventual traitor nobles, knew why they departed Lukedonia. They only had a vague idea that PL assigned them on some sort of mission, but none of them knew that they would never see the two again. Perhaps it was also a sacrifice on their part to leave behind their home and everything they were familiar with. They respected PL, so to them this mission was of great importance, even if it meant that this would be a permanent farewell to the rest of Lukedonia. Their fellow Clan Leaders. And most of all, their beloved friend and leader. After sharing one final moment and goodbye with PL in private, Zephyrus and Leona silently and quickly depart, never to be seen again. The drama regarding the traitors would occur much, much later. Their journey began there, and they lived many lives as different people, in different places. They had nothing else except for each other, but that was enough for them. Gradually, their mutual friendship blossomed into something more. They fell in love with each other. Sometime later, Azurine was born. Then Rufus was born. Together they would raise their children and continue on with their journey around the world, completely oblivious to everything around them, just as PL had intended them to. The plotting, the murdering, traitor nobles leaving Lukedonia, Raizel and Muzaka’s fight, the invasion of Lukedonia, even Crombel’s nukes… these events simply didn’t exist to them. The two stay loyal to their mission post-finale and continue to explore the world. They would change locations every few decades to avoid suspicions of their lack of aging. Their now young adult children, thanks to their lifestyle, are very well-informed.

(This is where context starts to become vague/flexible/divergent, for the purpose of my story I choose to have them exist in my Millennium AU.) The four of them return sometime during the events of my Millennium AU, where Lukedonia has already seen birth of a new generation. Prior to their return Azurine and Rufus had never met any of the current generation of Clan Leaders, as they were born and raised entirely outside of Lukedonia. Even Raskreia is surprised. Explanation done, questions cleared, carry on. They settle back in Lukedonia. From then on, the story continues. How will they view the current Lukedonia and what will they do? Is this what PL had foreseen? For the better or worse? Seemingly, another “journey” for them begins.

(will continue to expand on this stuff in future posts!)

Moving onto the clans and characters!

Volo:

The Volo Clan specializes in all-rounders. Their spell-based attacks are ultra wide-range. Clan members can cast buffs on themselves and their allies, and debuffs on their enemies. Usually, the most powerful spells are cast by the pureblooded Clan Leaders and their line of heirs. The fighting style varies depending on the enemy. Due to the nature of their clan, one typically performs the best in fights as support for allies. In circumstances where they’re alone and/or all allies have been defeated, a well-trained Volo can also fight solo. The symbol of this clan is the Healer. Healing is their specialty and almost all Volo CLs and their heirs go through an extensive and unforgiving training regimen specific to their clan. One would find this to be extremely hard to endure. To them this is viewed as a necessity.

Soul Weapon: Octavio. Appearance is a crystal ball set atop a golden base that has eight red gems embedded on its surface. User can choose to hold it or have it levitate on its own. The crystal ball itself for the most part is a dark shade of color such as black, purple, blue etc. and glows other brighter colors when its user chooses to activate its powers. Can summon a wide range of spells. Most spells are not meant to be offensive, as they are intended to be secondary support, though there are a few attack-based spells too. Minor to moderate wounds can be healed repeatedly, though not indefinitely. The number of times Octavio can cast a healing spell depends on the user’s remaining energy and/or occasionally, willpower. E.g. if the user is worn out and/or injured badly, other spells may still be summoned but a healing spell cannot be summoned. When a healing spell is active, the crystal ball glows a bright cyan hue. Octavio’s ultimate skill is not an attack but rather an ability. When activated, the user can transfer a serious and even fatal blow from an ally to them self. Or, they can transfer a serious or fatal blow that they received to an ally. Due to the nature of this ultimate skill, it is rarely ever activated but if the situation is dire, the user can summon the skill and, in the process, decide who to save. Both parties involved need to consent and agree to the injury transfer for it to carry out. Contrary to its appearance, Octavio cannot be used for fortune telling. You can stare at it all you want but all you’ll see is a boring, unflattering reflection of your distorted nostrils.

Zephyrus Volo: the current Clan Leader, and Leona’s husband. Tall and fairly slender, though the slender part isn’t always visible because his layers of clothes cover it up. Wears black eyeshadow. Doesn’t talk much even though he has a lot of thoughts in his head. Some of them might as well stay unspoken, since they’re quite funny but mostly annoying. A very kindhearted man in general but sometimes seen as aloof because he’s always tired due to the nature of his powers as a healer as every single spell, even the most minor ones, will drain his energy. Will extend his hand to help others around him with his powers even if it’s not an emergency, something very minor that people can probably heal by themselves with a bit of time. He takes his job very seriously and it could be a bad thing. His wife Leona keeps him in check and makes sure he isn’t going around fixing everything he can and as a result draining himself dry of his own energy and passing out somewhere with his face planted to the ground. Very affectionate but is shy to express it. Reaaaally likes holding hands. Loves it when Leona picks him up and carries him like a princess. Calls her Leonie.

Azurine Volo: the clan’s heir, Zephyrus and Leona’s first child, and Rufus’ elder sister.

Very beautiful and has a mysterious aura to her. To some she may appear to be cold, because she doesn’t smile much and prefers nodding and other subtle body language for communication rather than talking. However this completely reverses where she becomes super chatty if you get close to her and gain her trust. Just like her father she is passionate about helping others. Unfortunately, she is in the same situation as him where she needs to trade her own welfare for it. She does it a bit differently though. In contrast to the Tradio who specialize in poison, she specializes in antidotes. Specifically, she purposely inflicts herself with poison and/or other injuries, then tries to find a way to fix it. Literally putting herself through pain and enduring through all of it so she can find a solution for others, since she believes experimenting on others is inhumane. There has been several times where she had almost died from self experimentation, but it never stopped her. She does this for centuries after centuries, and there is virtually no one else with the willpower and mental capacity to do this. Her arms are always, always covered either in bandages, long sleeves or other accessories to hide her scars from self experimentation. Occasionally blood oozes out from fresh wounds that haven’t completely healed yet and it scares people. She insists it’s fine though. Karias’ on-and-off lover and in a sense Kaelestis’ not-stepmother.

Pyradros:

The Pyradros Clan specializes in both close-range and long-range combat. Attacks are mostly melee, and are super destructive and explosive in nature. The only purpose is to destroy. Not to weaken, not to contain, not to subdue. The only goal is to completely destroy the enemy with no concern about what state they’d be left in. This style of combat takes a lot of training to master. Insufficient training could lead to injuring oneself, so those who want to wield this type of fighting style must be very experienced. Even an experienced user needs to be careful, Clan Leaders and heirs included. Typically, combat training starts at a very young age and safety precautions are the priority and taught first. The symbol of this clan is the Sun. Beautiful, dazzling, and destructive. Too much or too little of it, you die. It’s all about control and balance.

Soul Weapon: Soleil. A flail. The handle is mainly black with golden tips on either end, with a massive spiked sphere attached to one end. Typically used for swinging attacks that use brute force to puncture and/or smash enemies to bits. Attacks are virtually impossible to defend against, and they are designed to inflict a great amount of pain. Even enemies with superior regeneration fear this weapon, as they will relive the trauma for every single blow they receive and recover from, where the process repeat over and over again. Sometimes even Soleil’s appearance alone is enough to instill fear into the enemy and make them lose their will to fight. In general, Soleil is unforgiving to both the enemy and the wielder, as the former will usually perish within receiving one or several blows, and the latter needs to be extremely cautious too or they may injure themselves in the process. User can also choose to fight long-range as Soleil can also release aura like a typical SW, though most users prefer melee to bring out the full extent of its raw swinging and smashing power. The spikes on the flail’s sphere can detach and reattach on command. User can command Soleil to detach its spikes and the spikes will hurl themselves at the enemy as powerful and fearsome darts. After the enemy is pierced, Soleil’s spikes can be recalled (vanishing from enemies’ body) and reappear on the flail’s sphere. And repeat process if you wish. Soleil’s flying spike darts are very hard to dodge, though it is still possible to dodge them. Soleil’s ultimate attack is summoning a self-destructive blinding light that could possibly temporarily blind everything in the area (user and allies included) and a massive field of sharp crystals in the same fashion as the spikes will emerge from the ground to pierce anything within its reach. Due to the nature of this soul weapon, fights are best done solo just because of how destructive it is. Teamwork is possible but needs to be coordinated very, very carefully.

Leona Pyradros: the current Clan Leader, and Zephyrus’ wife. Has a great smile and radiates energy that can be felt by anyone near her. A bright and bubbly person who is most often found chatting with just about anyone. The weather, new recipes, your kids doing stupid things, just mundane things. Though, as inviting as she seems, she is actually pretty selective and doesn’t let people into her inner circle easily. Or at all, really. They don’t even know that she has functionality blocked them off because she’s so good at handling it and making them feel like they’re important to her (even when they’re not). Probably knows all of the latest gossip. In a way, she’s very good at collecting intel. Enjoys fighting and will fight anyone who is willing to spare some time. Sometimes refers to her SW as “little sunny” and talks to it as if it is capable of conversation. Aww, little sunny is feeling a bit bloodthirsty, aren’t you? Me too me too. Stuff like that creeps people out sometimes. Very protective of her husband and hates it when people expect him to fix just about anything. Will chase them away so he doesn’t spend his energy on them. Will shoot spike darts juuuuust a little past your ear barely grazing it as a warning to back off. Hah. That’ll do. Though if someone really needs healing she’ll let him help. Calls her husband Zeph and sometimes Windy if she’s feeling playful. Loves a good ribcage-crushing hug (usually the one giving it)

Rufus Pyradros: the clan’s heir, Zephyrus and Leona’s second child, and Azurine’s younger brother. Quite muscular in general but that part is usually invisible because he wears so many layers of frills and furs. A bit shy and instinctively covers his eyes when he sees his mother and elder sister because he hates the sight of blood and is quite afraid of it actually, and more often than not they are bloody, with the former loving spars and the latter injuring herself for research. Will scream “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!” if frightened. A big sweetheart in general and his love language is gift giving. If he likes you you’ll find that he’s always handmaking something for you. Loves makeup and often makes his own from scratch. He loves his momma and wants to make her proud but he is pretty much lacking in terms of fighting ability because he’s SO scared of blood to the point where she can’t even train him properly without him crying and begging for a break and/or quitting at the sight of any open wound really. They just keep trying and momma is very patient. He’s very sorry about it and thinks he won’t ever be able to wield Soleil, even when she tells him not to worry. Loves potato chips. The really salty kind that always leaves your fingers all greasy and sticky.

That’s it for now! Excuse me for any typos a bit sleep deprived lol see you later will draw them more in ghe future!

[hybbart]

Would you ever consider drawing the day when scar had to leave the hospital because of the skulk? I’ve been picturing it in my head but it would be very cool in your style (I’m also a huge scar fan and I love how you draw him) it’s totally fine if you wouldn’t want to draw that though, since it’s not really part of the ranchers’ story

I probably won't, cause I don't plan on doing any flashback days or side art really, and Scar's a character I struggle to draw how I want him to look, but mostly I think whatever I could draw or write is going to be mostly disappointing compared to it being a blank spot. Honestly if I was writing or animating it I would probably just skip over it entirely, have Scar draw a blank on exactly what happen, or something more symbolic and unreal? I think those types of things are scarier that way.

I can give a bit more detail on Scar's whole situation, though, below the cut.

Scar and Cub were buddies pre-apocalypse, specifically Cub was Scar's doctor and they were having a meeting when it all went down.

It was a children's hospital they hauled up in because they specifically wanted to save the medical equipment there for any children that might have survived.

The real reason they didn't clear the place out was because people in story didn't know how the zombie disease or sculk worked. The two were hoping they could maybe figure out a cure before people started figuring out zombies couldn't be saved once zombified.

The sculk came from a lab room Cub was using.

Scar stayed for quite a long time trying to appease Cub's sudden changes but eventually he had to get away or be consumed as well. He spent a lot of time unknowingly making it worse by doing so.

Scar is very much Not Okay with having abandoned his friend, especially knowing what little he knows about sculk (that the host is alive and it is possible to sometimes recover from it)

His experiences with Cub are a big reason he attached himself to Grian and is still trying to find a cure for The Thing We Do Not Mention (Grian's requested phrasing because Grian is also not all too accepting of his precarious mortality). He does not want to lose someone else to it and does everything he can.

Both are quite terrified of the upcoming winter and if they'll get enough sun and heat to keep it at bay.

Grian treats Scar a lot like Tango treats Jimmy, which is to say fretting over him and making sure he's okay while actively ignoring his own issues. He just does it in a much more Grian way.

Part of Scar still really hopes they'll be able to go back and save Cub one day.

[campbyler]

ok. a genuine question. how do u guys write 20-30k *chapters* bc i will outline fics minutely or i will just let myself start writing based off a vibe & either way i will get 600 words out of maybe. two hours of work. on a good day with no distractions/interruptions, & i very much do not have an uninterrupted two hours to write very often, so you can imagine how slowly things get written T_T so i’m interested if there’s any aspect of any of your writing processes that really enables u guys to write so much or if it’s not really something you think about? anyways i really like ur guys’s work, & thank you for deciding to write for byler bc i know me and a lot of people enjoy it a lot. thanks!!

hello !! this is a super valid question and i’ll try my best to answer it for you 😗✌️

andi infamously writes a lot faster than thea and i do (she finished draft 1 of chapter 3 in like. two days. which was so scary. i’m in awe of her fr) but she has also spent a lot of time editing ch3 so it’s definitely not like these chapters are publish-ready in a short amount of time by any means! it took thea a couple of months total to fully write + edit ch1 and it took me about 3.5 weeks to write ch2 and another two weeks to edit it which is part of the reason we’ve spaced out our posting schedule like we have — we put a lot of effort and care into these updates and we want to give ourselves as much time as possible to get ahead before all 3 of us inevitably get so super busy with work and/or school in the fall!! so while we do write a lot, please don’t think we are so insanely speedy about it because unless we are having Really Good Writing Days, that’s definitely not the case. sometimes we do have days where we are really in the zone and write more than usual, but at least for me, this is so so so rare. whatever i write in this time gets heavily edited because so much of it was nonsensical brain vomit LOL

as far as writing process goes, i think one of the things that motivates us a lot is that we genuinely do just talk about this au constantlyyyyy like we’re always coming up with silly little hcs or drawing for it or adding to the Lore ™️so we’re always getting inspired to write! all three of us are definitely people who use writing as a way to relax or even reward ourselves after a long day; we would probably die if we had to go too long unable to :/ messages like “i can’t wait to get home and write after work today” or “i’m going to write a little bit of ___ before bed because i deserve it” are very commonly found in our gc because we really just look forward to it so much! as for our scary word counts, i feel like there is a lot of worldbuilding in this universe specifically, and pacing is really important to us — we want to make sure introductions and set-up to a scene and character interactions are meaningful and flow naturally, and building tension (which is a hallmark of this fic hehe) does take some time, which can definitely add up word count-wise.

for the most part, none of us usually have a solid few hours to sit and write either (unless it’s on our days off or after work if we’re not too tired) and we get a lot of writing done in chunks! we hold each other accountable for short check-ins (“ask me for a snip in 30 minutes”) which is super helpful when you’re stuck, because it kind of forces you to get Something down without worrying if it’s super polished and edited and perfect. if you’re writing on your own, something i’ve started doing lately is setting a 15 minute timer and just seeing how much i can get done in that time, and then setting another and doing it again (up until however much time you have to write that day). i’ve found that the artificial deadline helps break the monotony of sitting in front of your computer for Hours on end with nothing to show for it bc TRUST we’ve all been there and it sucks so bad 😔✊

this got super long so i apologize but i hope at least a little bit of it was helpful! it definitely helps that we are constantly feeding into each other (i.e: having brainrot) and offering inspiration and advice, which does wonders for creative flow tbh. we’re definitely not cranking these chapters out as quickly as people might seem to think — thea started chapter four, which won’t be posted for about a month, maybe a week or two ago. i just started chapter 5 — about 6 weeks away — yesterday lol so we do take our time! don’t be scared by the giant chapters, we just had a lot of content we wanted to include in each one and are in too deep to take anything out 🥳🥳 thank you for the question! good luck with your writing we believe in you 🫡

[jazlynriddle]

Welcome to your life - Pt 2:

Acting On Your Best Behaviour Ch 16:

Summary:

They'd seen it in their fellow orphans often enough to recognise the pattern and were now forced to admit, despite their hopes to the contrary, that Isidora had likely suffered similar side effects.

No… they'd always known she had. The Keeper had just wanted the power that Ranrok had, enough to convince themselves that they would be able to handle it better than that naive woman.

With the start of the Keeper’s sixth-year in Hogwarts, comes a whole slew of headache-inducing challenges from the most unexpected of places. Between insignificant pests throwing wrenches into their plans and tedious teenage drama, that the Keeper is entirely unprepared for, they wonder if they'll make it to their NEWTs without losing their sanity.

Or worse, Ominis or Sebastian.

Warnings: This chapter contains smut! And violence. But not violent smut, don't worry xD

Warnings: Sebastian x MC x Ominis! Drug Addiction! Spoilers! Slow-burn corruption! Dark content! Fucked up 1800s orphanages! MC has no love for Anne or Solomon! Dubious happy ending (it's happy for MC, Seb and Ominis at least).

You can also read on AO3! (chapter specific warnings below)

Notes:

Warnings: Graphic descriptions of injuries! Canon-typical violence! Not exactly torture, but kinda torture? And of course, the SMUT you're all here for! Finally-

Also, I spent like 40hrs+ drawing the map for this chapter x') I redrew the lake like five times and the mountains four times before I was satisfied OTL I am so tired- I really don't know how I managed to finish drawing the map by hand and a 5k+ chapter in time lol

Anyway, feel free to speed scroll down to reference the map when the characters look at it or save it to look at after reading! I've uploaded two variations of the map, the original map, as well as the map that the characters have made notes and drawings on.

You can also view the artwork in HD for free on my Patreon page!

Also here’s a cool site I found that *ahem* might be helpful for the map :3 https://abcbraille.com/braille

"How is she?" The Keeper asked as soon as Sepulchria's feet touched the ground.

Tynx, who had come to greet them as always, bowed slightly as he replied. "Master's… guest, has given in to hunger, after refusing to eat for two days, and is currently consuming the food that Tibsy brought her. She has also been demanding that she be released or be allowed to speak with her captor."

"Ignore her demands, she'll see me again soon enough." The Keeper chuckled, holding the thestral in place while Sebastian dismounted first.

"How long will we wait before going after her?" Sebastian asked, offering them a hand to dismount.

Taking the offered hand, the Keeper hopped off the thestral, landing with a soft grunt. "With the anti-apparition ward, I'd give her a generous minimum of six hours to reach the borders of our territory, so we can wait in the gatehouse for about an hour before going after her."

The Keeper patted Sepulchria's flank, tucking the beast back into their Nab-sack, before turning to Tynx and passing him a small vial of invisibility potion. "I want you tailing her through the entire test. If she comes within reach of escaping, and restraining her is not an option, you have permission to kill her."

"Yes Master." Tynx dipped his head without hesitation, tucking the vial away in one of his coat pockets.

"Good, you can leave her cell door unlocked after clearing away the dishes." The Keeper nodded, gesturing for Sebastian to begin heading into the gatehouse and adding with a wry smile. "Try to make it look like an accident."

"Of course, happy hunting, Master." Tynx bobbed his head and popped away.

The Keeper snorted lightly as they turned to follow Sebastian up the stairs to the gatehouse.

"Are you sure we can't start experimenting with your power on her?" Sebastian asked, frowning as they fell in step with him. "The sooner we find a way to safely extract pain, the sooner we can cure my sister."

"I understand your impatience." The Keeper soothed, placing a hand on his arm. "But we can't properly prepare our defences if I accidentally damage her emotions."

Reaching the upper floor, the Keeper pushed the door open and entered the gatehouse as they continued. "Fear is a powerful motivator. Without emotions, she likely wouldn't attempt an escape and surely you remember what happened the last time you gambled on succeeding at complex magic on your first try."

Sebastian winced as he followed with a sigh, leaning against the wall. "You're right, sorry. I just-"

"I know." The Keeper murmured, closing the door and cupping a hand against his face, placing a soft kiss on his lips. "We'll save her, but we must be patient and smart about this or we'll never get there."

"Yeah, we will." Sebastian breathed, moving forward to capture their lips more firmly and placing his hands on their hips.

The Keeper allowed him to hold them for a few moments, before pulling away gently with a chuckle. "Let's not get distracted."

Sebastian huffed lightly but dropped his hands and the Keeper moved over to the map that lay on the table, the only piece of furniture they'd bothered to place in the gatehouse for the time being. The late morning rays streamed through the window and illuminated the large parchment.

"We can assume that this woman has some familiarity with the terrain of this region, having lived just east of Dìon for most of her life." The Keeper placed their hands on the table. Not noticing the way Sebastian's eyes lingered on their behind before he shook himself, dragged his brain out of the gutter, and joined them at the table.

Sebastian cleared his throat before nodding. "She probably knows the lake at least, it's a good source of freshwater and the far end of it is relatively near her home."

"Indeed, it is likely that she'll attempt to travel in that direction when she gets her bearings. The blood potion Tibsy added to her food should make it easy for us to track her through our territory." The Keeper nodded. "I doubt she'll make it to the red zone but we'll see."

"Hopefully she will, I'm eager to see if the runes we drew work." Sebastian grinned with all the mischievous energy of a hyperactive kitten.

The Keeper chuckled. "I'm more curious to see how the prototype Guardians we constructed will perform."

At that moment, the Keeper felt the fine hairs on their skin raise as the cell breach alarm rippled through their wards. Their mental visualisation of their environment now held a distinct point in space that they could sense even from a distance.

"Well, the detection wards on the cells work." Sebastian grinned, having long since been keyed into said wards as well.

"And the tracking potion works, are you getting it too?" The Keeper asked as they 'watched' the woman move upwards through the underground floors.

Sebastian nodded. "Yeah, feels weird, but it looks like I was right, mixing both our blood into the Indago blood-magic potion allows both of us to track the target."

"Excellent." The Keeper nodded, they were off to a good start.

Moving to the windows, the Keeper watched the tent covering the underground entrance carefully as they swished their wand. "Tempus."

Sebastian joined them and several minutes passed while they waited, before the tent flap was pushed open and the haggard looking woman peeked out of it, her wand gripped firmly in her hand.

"Not bad, she found the wand that we left for her in the elves' quarters." Sebastian chuckled.

"Twenty minutes to reach the ground floor with her wand, we'll see how far we can push that with obstacles." The Keeper muttered as they noted down the time on the journal they'd extracted from their satchel.

Seeing that the courtyard was empty, the woman sprinted for the castle gates. As she neared the gate, guarded by two simple clay statues on either side of the arch, designed in an approximate resemblance to the Elder Keepers' Guardians, the two statues came to life and attacked her.

The Keeper watched the statues' movements with avid interest as the startled woman dodged four consecutive sword strikes with unexpected agility, considering her condition. Perhaps her father had trained her to defend herself in the event that they were pursued.

However, another two attacks later, the statues' movements slowed, grinded to a halt, and then crumbled into a cloud of fine clay powder.

"Tch, only five minutes of active time for so much Ancient magic?" The Keeper kissed their teeth in annoyance. "I guess I'll have to perform the Leyline Binding ritual, before they are viable, after all."

While she seemed uncertain about the remains of the statues, the woman wasted no time and waved her wand, casting Alohomora on the gate's lock and sprinting through the gates the moment they were open. The woman sprinted to the other side, and the Keeper and Sebastian moved to another window to continue monitoring her.

She surveyed the environment, taking advantage of the castle's position atop a hill to get a good look around, before she took off downhill at a brisk pace. The Keeper watched impassively, trusting that Tynx was trailing after the woman at a distance under the invisibility potion.

"Well then, whatever shall we do while we wait?" Sebastian whispered, resting his chin on the Keeper's shoulder.

"You rest up for the hunt, while I take a hit." The Keeper chuckled and pulled out a jar from their satchel while Sebastian pouted.

Tynx watched carefully from his perch atop a tree as the woman finally finished winding her way down the hill after thirty minutes. He had been concerned when the statues crumbled at the gates, but he would simply continue following his master's orders until instructed otherwise.

In truth, he hadn't been particularly surprised when the Keeper brought an unconscious and bound woman to be kept in the dungeons. The design of the underground levels made their use obvious to him from the start. He'd done his best to minimise Tibsy's interaction with the prisoner to give her time to adjust, but this was something the young house elf would have to come to terms with.

As long as it wasn’t him or Tibsy being used to test their master's security, it wasn’t their place to say what their master could or couldn't do. It was more than enough that he wasn't the one stepping into a bear trap cunningly placed amongst the grass covering the long strip of field between the hill and the forest.

The loud crunch of her bone and the woman's shrill scream were jarring but Tynx simply swallowed and tried his best not to think about it. He'd tolerated far worse without a single complaint.

The woman lay on the ground, whimpering in pain for several minutes, before she pulled herself together and raised her wand shakily to sever the spring holding the trap closed. She then tore off a strip of her skirt and tied it firmly around her knee.

Her breaths became frenzied as she pried the teeth open, gasping in agony as the sharp metal slid free from her flesh, before choking out a Vitulus Emendo charm through her sobs and groaning in pain as her calf bone mended.

To her credit, she seemed to understand that she couldn't afford to rest for very long, and hurriedly cast a Ferula charm on her leg, causing bandages to coil around her leg in a neat splint. A sound concern, as the moment that she managed to get to her feet, the Keeper and Sebastian arrived on Sepulchria's back, landing a few meters behind her.

Propelled by fear and adrenaline, the woman began to sprint for the forest line as Sebastian flung a Confringo at her from the thestral's back. Laughing when she barely ducked in time, the cloth covering her shoulder catching on fire, stumbling as she cast Aguamenti on herself to put it out.

Tynx watched as Sebastian dropped from Sepulchria's back, chasing after the woman with a wide grin, while the Keeper followed at a more leisurely pace, gesturing for the thestral to circle overhead.

Sebastian threw an Expulso that the woman neatly dodged, throwing a Stupefy back at him, which he countered, as she ran in zigzags to avoid getting hit by the Keeper's Diffindo.

As the woman entered the treeline of the large forest surrounding the lake, Tynx popped over to another tree, tracking her progress through the thicket from amongst the high branches. Carefully making his way from branch to branch rather than travelling on the ground, specifically to avoid-

The woman shrieked in pain as she ran face first into a web of thin and barely visible wires strung up from the low hanging branches of one tree to the next. The thin and sharp wires at head level sliced into the woman's face, just taut enough to leave deep and painful cuts without threatening to cause more severe damage.

Jumping back, the woman placed a hand against her bleeding cheeks, gaping at the mesh of wires that were now adorned with small beads of red along the strands. Perhaps now understanding exactly how sadistic her captors were, that she had just entered an arena designed not to kill or even capture, but to cause as much pain as possible.

"Are you sure you have the luxury of gawping?" The taunting voice made the woman jump and she spun around to see the Keeper emerge from the shadows with a wicked smirk stretched across their lips, followed closely by Sebastian, a vicious light in his eyes.

At the sight of their sinister figures, she began running once more, followed closely by another Confringo from Sebastian, his voice filled with anticipation as he called out after her. "Come now, give us some fight, it's more fun that way!"

"Careful not to fall into one of our own traps, love." The Keeper chuckled as Sebastian leaped forward in pursuit.

"I know, I know." Sebastian called back distractedly, ducking under the wires, and throwing a Diffindo after the woman, who countered it with a Protego this time, throwing a Bombarda back at him.

The Keeper sighed as Sebastian dodged and tripped over a root with a yelp. Without missing a beat, they poured their ancient magic into their feet to sprint to his side, throwing up a shield to defend him from the explosive heat.

"Aha ha… thanks." Sebastian cleared his throat and laughed sheepishly as they helped him up.

They could feel his pulse thrum in their firm grip, the heat of his excitement felt almost scalding where their hands grasped. The Keeper allowed themselves to partake of Sebastian's feverish eagerness, fueling their own energy with it.

"Don't get carried away." The Keeper smirked knowingly, releasing his hand as he got to his feet, giving him time to collect himself.

"Sorry, I- well, it's just been so long since we got to fight together-" Sebastian explained breathlessly, brushing the dirt from his clothing.

"I know, but you needn't rush. This is different from our battles last year, we've got plenty of time to enjoy the hunt." The Keeper purred with a sharp smirk as they turned to follow the woman, offering him their hand again.

Sebastian felt their low voice resonate through him, reigniting the fire in his veins as he took their hand, feeling almost as though he had somehow become intoxicated. A wide grin stretched across his face and his eyes gleamed with elation as he followed the Keeper’s lead, weaving through the trees to catch up with their prey.

Meanwhile, Tynx had continued to keep the woman within his sight. His master was strong enough that he wasn't particularly concerned about their safety, a monster like them would probably melt a blade the moment it touched their skin.

The woman stumbled through the forest frantically, casting an Episkey on her face to close the gashes and doing her best to cover her tracks by rearranging the foliage behind her, to no avail of course.

Tynx shook his head as she wasted time and effort on a futile endeavour, though she couldn't possibly know that she was being tracked or that she wouldn't be leaving this forest regardless. Summoning a swirl of air to part the foliage woman examined the ground carefully as she continued walking, avoiding several bear traps this way.

As she reached a fork, she spotted several darker wires along the floor, perhaps thinking that her captors had made a mistake when trying to camouflage the wires, making them visible instead, she smiled and lifted her foot to step over them.

Only for her shin to press against a barely visible strip of wire placed right above the black ones. It dug into her skin, leaving a deep gash that burned as she fell forwards and over onto a mesh of wires, feeling the net sitting an inch over the floor cut into her palms.

The woman trembled, in such pain that she could barely breathe, nor did she really want to, as every breath made her weight shift and thus sliding the wires in her flesh. Holding her breath, she overcame the pain and forced her hands to apply pressure to the wires so she could leverage herself off the net cutting into her hands and knees.

Rolling off onto the soil, she curled up into a ball, gasping in pain. Her hands trembled, blood oozing from the multitudes of paper-thin gashes lining her palms and knees, as she cast another Episkey charm to close her new injuries.

Struggling to her feet, she pushed past her pain and continued stumbling through the forest for several minutes before the soil beneath her feet gave way and, with a yelp, she found herself falling into a pit filled with bright red ants. The fire ants went into a frenzy, climbing up her arms and legs, biting into her flesh angrily and the woman brandished her wand, crying out in panic. "Incendio!"

Tynx winced, she'd acted exactly as his master had predicted. The flames from her wand rolled over the ants, burning them to cinders, and unfortunately, igniting the oil covered wood that lined the bottom of the pit.

The woman coughed through the heat, desperately struggling to climb out of the pit. Unaware that the Keeper had designed this pitfall with a small tunnel dug out through the side that ensured that the fire would always have oxygen once started and the heat would build endlessly until she cooked alive.

Tynx hovered uncertainly, his master had not instructed him to save her life if she seemed in legitimate danger of dying and he wasn't sure if he should intervene.

However, while he was hesitating, the woman resolved his dilemma by managing to cast a non-verbal jet of Aguamenti, dousing the fire but also causing an explosion of hot steam and scalding water that probably would have wrung another scream from her if her raw throat were able to produce sound at this point.

The woman's hands scrabbled against the dirt around the rim of the pit, struggling to find traction in the loose soil as she dragged herself out of the boiling water. Her hands shook as she cast Aguamenti again on herself, whimpering in relief as the cool water soothed her burnt and boil-covered skin.

Tynx relaxed, at least he no longer had to guess what his master would prefer he do. He returned to his surveillance and was admittedly impressed when the woman dragged herself to her feet after barely fifteen minutes of rest.

"...found you…" The Keeper's lightly singsong voice was almost eerie as it cut through the woman's laboured breathing.

Immediately, she waved her wand, pulling the still boiling water from the pit and flung it in the direction of the terrifying voice. Without looking back, the woman began sprinting again as a Diffindo sliced into the bark of a tree just centimetres from her.

Sebastian grinned from behind a wall of ice, having cast Glacius, after the Keeper's Diffindo, to defend against the scalding water. Their prey had some fight in her, this was so much more fun than he'd hoped. Honestly, Sebastian had been looking forward to releasing his pent-up frustration from how awful this school year had been and this was exactly what he'd needed.

The Keeper slashed their wand, shattering the ice and the two of them shot forward as one, the Keeper lassoing a boulder with their ancient magic. With a grunt they launched it towards the woman while Sebastian cast a Levitation charm at her to prevent her from dodging it.

The boulder hit its mark with a satisfying crunch, shattering the arm she'd raised to defend herself and the stubborn woman crumpled to the floor. With her uninjured wand arm, she shot a non-verbal Bombarda at them and forced herself to her feet to continue running.

Shielding against the blast, the Keeper waved their wand to dispel the smoke from the explosion and flung another Diffindo at her. The spell clipped her on the leg, slicing open one of her boils and making her limp as the two of them continued the chase.

As they ran, Sebastian spotted the lake through the trees just off to the right and a thrill rushed through him when he realised their location. They were almost at the red zone, placed halfway between the castle and the border of their territory. A glance at the steely glint in his lover's eyes confirmed that they'd noticed too, and his excitement spiked.

The two threw themselves into their pursuit with renewed vigour, doing their best to keep the woman within their sights as she ran across a clearing, until…

The woman's left foot landed squarely on an inconspicuous patch of grass and in an instant, sharp spikes stabbed upwards through her shoes, into her sole and burst out through the top of her foot with a spray of blood.

Her mouth opened in a soundless scream, and she dropped to a knee. Her blood seeped into the soil and all of a sudden, runes began appearing in glowing red letters over her body and across the floor in two directions. The woman finally passed out from the pain, exertion and magic of the runes, unbeknownst to her, the red line of runes were now cutting through the forest in a long red strip.

Seeing the glow as they stopped several meters away from the woman, the Keeper grinned, and Sebastian let out a shout of triumph. Their hard work had paid off, three whole days of tedious rune-work and trap setting across the entire strip of forest between Dìon and the border.

Drunk on their success, Sebastian moved without thinking and the next moment his hands were pulling his partner into his arms. Their lips were electric against his own and he moaned in excitement as their bodies pressed flush against each other.

He wanted and wanted, and he didn't know exactly how to say what he wanted, but he really really did.

The Keeper smirked against Sebastian’s lips as his hands gripped their hips tightly, not particularly surprised that Sebastian's excitement had hit its peak here.

They couldn't deny their own joy and desire either, this was a victory that they weren't sure they'd achieve, there were so many ways that the blood magic could fail, but they'd succeeded at creating a powerful protective barrier over the most vulnerable entry to their lands with blood magic. One that would trap anything whose veins ran with blood, paralysing them and gradually draining their life and magical energy.

The mountains around their territory were mostly stone, incredibly steep and prone to landslides, making them a natural barrier that was treacherous to scale. So, they didn't need to guard against that direction very strongly, but the forest and long lake presented more of an opening to a ground invasion or escape on foot.

With this, the only thing that remained was the lake, but they could work on that later, the Keeper mused as their fingers worked their way under Sebastian's tunic to caress his heated skin. He whimpered into their mouth as he pressed against them with more urgency, and the Keeper chuckled as they pulled away, disregarding his noise of complaint.

"Let's take this elsewhere." The Keeper purred, whistling for Sepulchria and lifting their eyes, spotting an unnaturally weighed down branch along the canopy. "Tynx, get her back into her cell and pour this down her throat."

Tynx startled when their eyes lingered on him for a split second, could they see him?

"Yes, Master." Swallowing uncomfortably, he popped to the floor, catching the vial of wiggenweld that the Keeper tossed in his general direction as the red light of the runes faded from the floor. The runes were still on the woman's body, draining her magic and strength.

Until Tynx snapped his fingers and lifted the unconscious woman by her clothes, dropping her over the back of the thestral that had landed a few steps away from him. The moment the woman was back on the side of the red zone that she'd entered from, the runes' light faded and ceased its drain.

The elf then climbed into Sepulchria's back and the thestral began flying them back to the castle.

That settled, the Keeper took Sebastian by the hand and began to tug him towards the lake. Weaving through the trees and traps, the shimmering surface of the water that soon came into their view, took their breath away.

Letting Sebastian's hand go as they passed the treeline, and stepped into the sunlight, the Keeper tugged their shirt off, tossing it onto the light brown sand as they ran across the shore. Sebastian grinned as he got the idea and began divesting himself of his clothes as they reached the lakeside.

Kicking off their shoes, the Keeper paused to strip their socks before splashing into the shallow water in their undergarments, stopping only to watch Sebastian nearly trip on his pants and laughing as they waded deeper into the water. Enjoying the spring breeze, the warm afternoon sun and the refreshingly clear water, the Keeper happily dipped down into the water to wash off the sweat from their chase.

Sebastian had a hard time dragging his eyes away to tug off his sock, entranced by the sight of his lover's cheeks, still flushed from their chase, and the lake water sparkling in the sunlight as the droplets trickled down their torso. The simmering want in his heart resurged when they flashed him an inviting smirk.

Ripping the stubborn fabric off and flinging it off somewhere behind him, Sebastian waded through the waist high water towards them, sputtering when they playfully splashed water in his face. With a grin, he made a grab for them, and they ducked, weaving around him, before hiding behind a large half submerged boulder.

Chasing them around the boulder, Sebastian ducked a splash, catching them by the wrist and pinning them against the stone, its surface smooth from years of erosion. The Keeper laughed at the victorious grin on Sebastian's face as he braced a hand against the rock, holding them still with his body, drops of water dripping from his wavy brown hair as his heated breaths warmed their cheek.

Rewarding his hard work, the Keeper tilted their head to the side and pressed their lips together, allowing him to coax them open as he released their wrist to palm their side, groaning into their mouth. His pressing need pressed against them, the warmth of their chest against his own causing arousal to curl in his abdomen.

Sebastian could barely think past the heat pounding through his ears, the feeling of their wet skin against his own, reminding him of that night in the prefects' bath.

Eager to re-experience the sensation of cotial bliss with his lover, he urged them into a better position, where he could press himself against their arousal and grounded his hips against them, releasing an involuntary moan of relief at the stimulation. The muffled groan that they bit back at the same time was tantalising and he rocked against them once more, seeking to draw as many sounds as he could from his conservative lover.

The gentle lapping of water, rippling against the boulder with every thrust, was strangely hypnotic and he gasped as their nails dug into his shoulders, ecstatic that he could draw such carnal reactions from them. Peeling his lips from theirs, he moved down along their neck, tasting their skin and sucking the moisture from it like a man in the desert.

Sebastian could feel that he wouldn't last very long, so tightly coiled he yet was from their invigorating chase, but he wanted them to reach their peak together this time. So, he doubled his efforts, running his hands over their body desperately as he rocked his hips against them, determined to hold out until they came.

The Keeper's breath caught at the delicious way his body moved against theirs, feeling how powerful all their time spent working and fighting together had made him, both physically and magically. How far he'd come, how far they'd come. They had so much power now, this land, this lake, this boy. It was all theirs, and while they couldn't share this joy of hunting with Ominis, he was theirs too.

They gasped as Sebastian rubbed a thumb over their hardened nipple, feeling his muscles shift under his shoulder blade with every thrust that slid them along the smooth surface of the rock against their back. Loving the way his breath shook with every movement, his eyes glassy as though it was taking everything in him to hold them so.

Like they were worth it.

This thought and the building pleasure between them made the Keeper's grip tighten around Sebastian's shoulders as they felt euphoria sing through their veins and pulse through their body like fire. Groaning his name through clenched teeth, their body tightened and that swelling bubble of bliss exploded into pure ecstasy.

The sound of his name and the heated breath against his ear made Sebastian's brain sizzle and melt. A moan escaped his lips, feeling his grip slip and the dam burst, that incredible surge of pleasure crashing over him like a wave.

His hips ground against them a few more times, feeling their body jolt from the overstimulation, before he came to a stop with a sigh of satisfaction. His breaths were heavy and shaky, his legs trembling, as the two of them slumped against the boulder, panting from the high they'd reached, the cloth between their cores warm and sticky as their fluids dissolved into the water.

Regaining their footing, the Keeper removed their nails from Sebastian's skin and slipped their arms under his, supporting him as they slowly slid down the boulder to sit, letting the water's buoyancy carry some of their weight while the two of them recovered their strength.

Settling down beside the Keeper, Sebastian leaned back, resting his head against theirs and basking in the comfortable silence, the gentle sway of the lake water soothing against his skin.

"Our home really is quite wonderful." The Keeper murmured contentedly as their breathing settled.

"Yeah." Sebastian agreed with a soft smile. Home. He hadn't truly felt any particular place as "home" since his parents died. After that, home came to mean wherever Anne was, and then it changed to wherever his lovers were. In time, he could see this place feeling like home too.

"Anywhere we're together is wonderful." Sebastian took their hand in his as he spoke his heart.

"How sweet." The Keeper chuckled, turning to give him a gentle kiss on the cheek. "It is so to me as well, there's nowhere else I'd rather be than home with you."

Sebastian's eyes moistened, love swelling in his heart, and he knew that it didn't matter what trials or tribulations lay in their future, because he'd be by their side. He didn't care who had to suffer for it, he would protect what they had. He could face anything, as long as he was with the Keeper and Ominis.

Never one to stay still for very long, the Keeper eventually got to their feet and surveyed their beautiful lake. "Since we're here…"

Sebastian blinked as the Keeper seemed to spot something moving under the surface through the clear water and abruptly made a beeline for the deeper end.

With a fond smile, Sebastian got up to follow as the Keeper dived in and disappeared under the short waves. A few steps later, Sebastian felt the floor drop out from under him and, taking a deep breath, sank into the water as well.

The sun's late afternoon light shone through the water in multihued streams, and he turned his head around, searching for them for several moments, before he felt arms drape around his shoulders from behind.

Sebastian smiled like a loon as the Keeper's chest pressed against his back and he felt a soft kiss on his cheek. Before they released him and swam around him, offering him a hand, while the other seemed to be clutched around something.

Without hesitation, he took it, and they swam to the surface together, emerging close enough to the shore to stand. Breaking through the water, Sebastian only spared a second to breathe before he pulled them in for a proper kiss. He could taste the sweet lake water on their lips as he held them close, his heart melting in the heat of his affection.

The Keeper huffed a breathless laugh as he broke away to breathe. "You really only think of one thing, don't you."

Sebastian frowned indignantly. "No, I don't."

The Keeper chuckled as they ran a hand down his bare chest to palm his rapidly hardening length through the cloth. "Sure."

"That is extremely unfair." Sebastian protested, his cheeks reddening.

"It's barely been thirty minutes." The Keeper laughed, shaking their head.

"Now see here, you can't blame me for reacting when you're constantly riling me up." Sebastian argued.

"Am I?" The Keeper smirked knowingly, and Sebastian groaned as his heart rate spiked immediately.

"You absolutely are, bloody demon." He growled in frustration, knowing that there was no way he could win this one, he settled for covering their grinning mouth with his own.

Notes:

Sebastian: I'd kill for my lovers. *turns to the Keeper and Ominis* Please ask me to kill for you. The Keeper: Sure! Ominis: Absolutely not! Don't encourage him! — Were the Keeper's legs wrapped around Sebastian's waist so he could grind against their clit or were their feet on the ground and Sebastian was grinding their lengths together? Well, that depends on which assigned gender you prefer ;)

There's also going to be another smut scene between the Keeper and Ominis, because I want to be fair to both boys haha x3

Also, the traps in this chapter are actually based off Vietnam war tactics during the Vietnam War of 1955-1975, let's just say they had quite insane strategies.

Vietnam traps are designed to hurt, to make the soldiers who step onto a pressure plate and have their legs pierced with twenty thin spikes, scream as loud as possible to scare and demoralise their own comrades. They even threw naked women onto the field, surrounded by traps, to lure in American soldiers who would try to rescue these women and evacuate them or, well, possibly other reasons I suppose.

So, of course, our Keeper gonna use those kinda strats xP Also, the fire ant pitfall is made with a Dakota Fire Hole design, it's actually a rather brilliant way to create an oven in the wild. My partner came up with that one haha... we're both fucked up- x')

Also, I wonder if an Alohomora charm would open a bear trap, I mean, technically it's forcing open something after all xP

[semisolidmind]

  Hey there! I just wanted to tell your that I love your Fuwa Fuwa Pandemic idea & characters to a point where it has inspired me to make a few characters!

Seriously, the fuwa fuwa pandemic has had me in a literal chokehold for weeks. It's just that amazing. 

and..here they are! (Btw sorry if it gets a bit long or rambly!)

The mascot's name is masaru and he is a badger (based around the japanese badger) and he is a mascot for a farm. 

  He arrived in a small farming town in the country awhile back. He came across a sprawling farm with his character on all the signs and stickers of the farm's products. Now he runs the farm and controls the surrounding countryside as his territory, including any greenhouses, meadows or lakes. 

 He seems sweet and docile, offering survivors warm beds, fresh clothes, warm meals. A caring, fatherly individual with a warm smile, 

However those are for the survivors who he gives permission to enter. 

  Anyone who enters his home without permission or dares to take his three children from him will be ripped limb from limb without mercy. He will hunt them down for miles and make an example out of them…and nobody wants to be tortured for hours. 

  No one is taking his three babies from him unless they have a death wish. 

 Masaru sees the three children in his care as his own. He just felt like he was created for these three little ones. As if he was meant to guide and protect them. 

He adores them and does his best to keep them safe and give them the best life possible on his beautiful sprawling cottage core farm. Even hiding his more vicious side from them and lying about what happened to their ‘visitors’ (even though they aren’t that dense)

The oldest child is fifteen year old taylor. An adventurous cottagecore styled kid who loves cooking and gardening. She was sent to japan by her parents to visit her grandmother when the pandemic hit. Taylor cares deeply about her new-found friends, 12 year old Oliver and 5 year old Daisy (who she picked up along her travels) and will do anything to keep them safe. 

 She eventually ended up in masarus care after he rescued them from another mascot trying to kill them. She is still a bit hesitant around Masaru, but is slowly beginning to trust him day-by-day. After all, he’s keeping them safe and well fed. Plus there is a strong chance he won’t let them escape. 

 Next up is twelve-year-old Oliver. Oliver is a shy and clever kid who loves to read and craft things. Oliver was another kid visiting their relative, specifically his brother. His brother ended up getting killed by mascots so Oliver could escape. He is also attached to Taylor and Daisy, and though the both of them tend to give him a heart attack with their antics, he thinks of them as family and will go with them to the ends of the earth. 

Just as hesitant as Taylor when it comes to Masaru. Yeah he is slowly trusting Masaru, but that doesn’t mean he doesn't have his reservations. He’s not dense. He knows what happens to the survivors who wander in here…he knows exactly what happens when you piss masaru off. So he always has his guard up just in case things go south. 

The youngest is five-year-old daisy. She is a rambunctious and curious child who loves to draw, interact with animals, and explore abandoned buildings.  She got separated from her parents at the start of the pandemic and spent most of her time wandering all alone and scavenging until she was found and taken in by Taylor and Oliver. She loves her new friends and considers them to be her older siblings. She does anything and everything she can to make them happy and includes them in all her games. 

She adores and trusts Masaru because he's friendly and because of her love of badgers (as she has a little stuffed badger she carries with her nicknamed ‘kiyo’). She doesn’t really see the violent side of Masaru, but that doesn't mean she can’t sense something's off.

So, while she is pretty relaxed around Masaru, she knows in the back of her mind to be extra careful around their caretaker. 

 Finally there are original guardians of each of the kids (taylors grandparents, Oliver's older sister, and Daisy's parents)  who are trying to get them back from masaru.  who they know will kill them if they try to rescue them. Thus far they’ve had no luck, but they have to keep trying. For the sake of the kids and their families. 

Meanwhile, while the children's guardians struggle to get them back, Masaru and the children to survive the pandemic as a found family on their cozy little farm. 

oooh, big papa badger. seems like a scary dude. this is another neat idea for a side story. like, maybe Emi and Uzu come across this farm on their way to the city and Emi offers to help (even though Uzu is content to leave this alone). Cut to Uzu picking a fight with Masaru to distract him while the families and Emi go in to save the kids. they take an old truck and get as far away as they can, and Uzu pretends to back off and discreetly follow them to get Emi back.

Masaru is suitably pissed. i can’t imagine he’d let his babies go that easily.

[sibyl-of-space]

what inspired the character designs in amadeus?

What a fun question! With the caveat that specific things can't be discussed without spoilers (and therefore won't be discussed), I'll try to talk about them to the best of my ability.

Amadeus:

I made the first sketches of his design so long ago I barely remember what the initial vibes were. I do remember that his long straight hair and rich boy vibes were kind of meant to be Lucius Malfoy-ish (Prisoner of Azkaban was a huge reason I initially became obsessed with werewolves, so that's where this inspiration came from. I don't want Amadeus to have anything to do with HP beyond this, for obvious reasons; but I should admit this influence).

As far as his actual clothing, Amadeus's weird shirt-coat thing is actually largely drawn from the cape I made for a DGS Sherlock Holmes cosplay. Hound of the Baskervilles is another huge inspiration for the game, and I find it way easier to draw clothes that I have made or worked with in some way, so I drew from that.

(this is the only photo I have easily on hand, lmao)

The pants for his full design are based off of pants I made for a Lloyd Irving cosplay, and the boots kind of are as well. So well, pretty much, cosplay gave me a ton of experience interpreting weird clothes into IRL fashion and making them, so now I get to do the opposite thing where I have a ton of weird clothes I've made that I can pull from when thinking about what characters might wear.

The most iconic part of his design, the arms, well... to put this in vague terms because of spoiler reasons: that was an example of the design actually being revised to fit plot details. It has resulted in a way cooler and more interesting design, but it wasn't originally there. I had to realize some plot things before I could reflect them in the design, and now the design would be unrecognizable without it.

Solea:

Solea went under drastic revision since my first version of her, because her character also underwent drastic revision and the OG design no longer felt like her. I wrote about this a little bit in a devlog, but in order to draw a hairstyle for her that I liked, I spent about 3 hours watching Black haircare videos on YouTube to get a feel for different typical styles for her hair texture and variations on those styles, and bookmarking the ones that felt like they had the right vibes. After that, I drew a mockup and sent it to a friend who has similar hair texture to Solea, and asked "does this hairstyle make sense?" and she said "yep!" so it was a go.

In terms of the rest of her design: I'm being intentionally vague here, but there are reasons she looks the way she does, and it took a lot of tweaking to get it to feel right. My favorite part is the ugly ass gardening gloves she's got on. Without those it still felt too Disney's Hercules-esque (especially the top half - her bottom half design fixes this somewhat, but you can't see it in the talksprite). But the big ugly functional gardening glove contrasting with her pretty flowing fabrics I think results in the right aesthetic for her.

The Witch:

It came to me in a dream.

OK, not really, what actually happened was I was thinking about Amadeus while lying in bed about to go to sleep, and for some reason imagined the witch who lives in his home now descending from the second floor banister looking like some abstract weird ass orange-red creature. It was one of those things where I was just like "that's weird as fuck. Kind of creepy. ...Let's do it." I remembered the head was circular with square "petals" protruding, and the bottom was kind of triangular, but since it was all made up in my head it wasn't that concrete. So when it came time to actually draw her, I drew from the stylized and very Shaped designs in Super Paper Mario, and tried to get it to feel close to the image in my head.

...It was only after coloring it that I realized it looks very, very Homestuck. This was probably a huge subconscious influence, but not for a second did I consciously consider it. If anything I think my initial daydream was inspired by an enemy from Final Fantasy VIII.

Anyway, hope this was somewhat interesting! Thanks for the ask!

[loregoddess]

2, 3, 8, and 19 for the fandom game, for any fandom(s) you feel like talking about :)

(for 3, fic and/or meta posts, can't actually remember if you've posted straight up fic before haha)

2. My favorite fic from the fandom that I’ve read

I haven't read a ton of fic sadly (although I haven't read a lot in general the last few years due to college making me read So Many academic papers and books that I got burnt out and haven't quite recovered my love of reading. Yet). Although, my friend @lookerdewitt has written literally some of the best fic I have ever read, so I would probably say one of their fics.

3. My favorite fic from the fandom that I’ve written myself

I have actually sort of written fanfic (both legit fanfic, and also a few "thinly veiled technically fanfic if you changed the names" for a fiction writing class that I had to write several stories for and wanted to see if I could get away with it), but I haven't actually. Shared those fics with anyone? Partly bc I have historically almost never finished any fiction writing project that I have started, ever, and partly bc I'm just shy about sharing my writing in general.

I have been working on a LoZ fancomic idea for the past uhhhh four or five years (technically last decade since I first came up with the idea in late high school and then had it sit in the back of my head for several years bc all I had was a setting and a handful of characters), and I have never in my life stuck with a project this long, so I guess that would be my favorite from my personal works bc it's apparently something I care about enough to not abandon entirely. I've actually made a decent amount of progress on my "detailed outline" recently, so here's hoping I can stick it out and actually get to the script and then to drawing pages one day.

For meta posts I think my favorite is actually my analysis of the Octopath 1 cast and how the major antagonists in each of their stories acts as a mirror and foil to each character. I really enjoy analyzing stories in general, but I so rarely write it out, so I was happy to actually do so for once. Gave me a lot of confidence for all the other meta and headcanon posts that I wrote afterwards.

There's also a Legend of Dragoon meta post sitting partly-finished in my drafts where I analyze themes surrounding each dragoon spirit and its wielders, which I haven't finished bc I only remember to work on it when I'm doing my yearly replay of LoD, and also bc it started looking like it might need to be a series of posts due to uh....length. Like I make a lot of lengthy posts, but each dragoon spirit's analysis was about a short essay's worth of words, and there are eight spirits soooo....hopefully I'll finish that one day, bc it's an analysis I've spent years thinking about.

8. Is there anything I wish people would write more about in fics? (A dynamic, an exploration of an arc, just a character that doesn’t get much screentime, etc)

I'm always a sucker for post-canon healing/recovery/rebuilding arcs. Can't get enough of them honestly (when I have the motivation to read). There's something so fascinating about looking at a character who Went Through Some Stuff, but the main narrative didn't look at the effects of that, and so a dedicated writer took up the challenge of trying to explore what comes after.

Most of my favorite characters are weird side characters who don't get a lot of love from the writers of canon or fans, so I'm always glad to see stuff for them as well.

19. Favorite headcanon

Oh hmmm, there's a lot and it depends on which media we're talking about, so if you're curious about a specific game let me know. Off the top of my head though hmm...

Okay I have this headcanon that Milo TriStrat snorts when she laughs genuinely. Like sure she's got the ladylike proper, cute laugh that's part of her spy job and totally fake, but when she is being fully honest and laughing for real, she snorts.