#second attempt at digital painting I like it a lot better

[saddnesscentral]

Harry Du Bois Discovers The Concept Of Furries, A Short Passage By Me:

RADIO-COMPUTER: After browsing the contents of the *World Wide Web* for around half an hour, you stumble across a particularly unusual image.

FURRY ART: It is a painting rendered *Digitally* of a wolf, or maybe a hyena, standing on two legs, and using two human-like hands to grip onto things with. It appears to be wearing modern Human clothes, such as a tank top, shorts, bracelet, hat, and piercings. It is carrying a skateboard.

PERCEPTION [EASY:SUCCESS]: “It is rendered in a style distantly reminiscent of cartoons you enjoyed as a child. It is obvious that it took a lot of effort to draw something in this style.”

SHIVERS [CHALLENGING:SUCCESS]: “It is a rainy afternoon, somewhere in Martinese, a child is taken to the theater with his parents to see the new animated hit ‘The Wolf and The Warrior’.”

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [MEDIUM:SUCCESS]: “Forget about all of that, you see that ciggie in the wolf's mouth? That’s clearly a sign you need to go out there and *Smoke* some *Gokes*”

YOU: “Wait, what’s a"Goke "?"

ELECTROCHEMISTRY: “An interesting question. It would be a lot easier to solve with a cigarette in your mouth…”

YOU: *Refocus on the Furry Art*

ENCYCLOPEDIA [MEDIUM: FAILURE]: You have absolutely no memory of what this could possibly be. Nothing. You do remember that Contact Mike once scored a TKO during the first fifteen seconds of a boxing match, however.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [IMPOSSIBLE: FAILURE]: “Why? Why would anyone draw something like this?”

RHETORIC [CHALLENGING: SUCCESS]: “Mayhaps the artist is attempting to create an Ideological message through this work. It is stating that we, man, are no better beasts.”

YOU: “No, it probably isn’t that.”

AUTHORITY [MEDIUM: SUCCESS]: “It is the artists attempt at stating that they are the *Alpha Dog*. The head of their pack.”

YOU: No, it’s not that either.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [EASY; SUCCESS]: “Don’t you see? The artist was horny for some Wolf Cock. Look at that bulge in the wolfs pants. Look at how toned those muscles are. The attention to detail the artist poured into the wolfs *Physique*. You have felt this feeling for someone before, but only for other Three-Dimensional people.”

YOU: “Oh god, is it that?”

EMPATHY [TRIVIAL: SUCCESS]: “You do not know the person who made this. It is impossible to say whether or not the artist *was* horny or not.”

VOLITION [CHALLENGING: SUCCESS]: “If you could talk to this artisan, you would certainly be able to figure this out. Until then, recenter yourself. Talk to Kim about it.”

YOU: *Turn and talk to Kim*

KIM KITSURAGI: The Lieutenant glances over at you on the Radio-Computer. His characteristic expression of placid calm is momentarily shaken by what is on the computer monitor.

EMPATHY [MEDIUM: SUCCESS]: He isn’t disgusted by what he sees you doing, merely surprised.

YOU: “Kim, do you know what this drawing means?”

KIM KITSURAGI: The Lieutenant adjusts his glasses “It appears that you are looking at Furry Art. It’s a… unique subculture of people mostly on the World Wide Web. These people enjoy anthropomorphic animals, like the ones in old cartoons.

YOU: “By enjoy do you mean, like, in a sex way?”

ESPIRIT DU CORPS: “This man you are talking to would take a bullet for you. He would die for you. He would *kill* for you. You are the black to his white, the ying to his yang. You complete each other. But the Lieutenant would rather drag his balls through glass than have this conversation with you.”

KIM KITSURAGI: He sighs “I personally do not, but I know there are members of the community that do, yes.”

REACTION SPEED [IMPOSSIBLE: SUCCESS]: “Wait! Did you hear that? The way he’s phrased that response, it’s as if he’s implied that he’s a furry.”

YOU: “What do you mean ‘you personally do not’? Are you implying you are a furry?”

KIM KITSURAGI: He stands there, unable to speak for a moment.

EMPATHY [TRIVIAL: SUCCESS]: “He’s thinking ‘Dear god, the human can opener’s gotten to me too.’”

KIM KITSURAGI: “Yes…I am in the Furry subculture. I…enjoy thinking of myself as a cat.”

CONCEPTUALIZATION [EASY: SUCCESS]: “A cat; lithe, sophisticated, agile. The perfect creature to represent our lieutenant.”

AUTHORITY [MEDIUM: SUCCESS]: “He is handling this well, despite everything. A graceful surrender if there ever was one.”

KIM KITSURAGI: “I fail to see what this has to do with the case at hand. It’s better if we keep moving and don’t mention this to anyone again.”

SUGGESTION [VERY EASY: SUCCESS]: That’s his professional way of saying “Take my secret to the grave, please”.

YOU: “One more thing, Kim, am *I* a furry?”

KIM KITSURAGI: The lieutenant looks you up and down “You will have to be the judge of that yourself, I suppose.”

THOUGHT GAINED: THE FURRIES ARE AT HOME IN THE MIRROR

[dggmsk]

hi! i love your art and what really sticks out to me is your grasp of form (like how you can depict a person with just a few lines) and how you arrange shapes and colors

is there a way you studied that, if at all? i'm looking to improve both things i listed as i think my art looks pretty flat lol again i love your art and you're a major source of inspo :)!!

aww omg first of all thank you so much! second, seeing this message made me really excited because this is something i'm very mindful of and really enjoy about other peoples art so i feel really honored to fit into that description! to answer your question directly: i used to paint abstract and i think i have learned a lot about shapes and color from that experience as well as studying other abstract artists.

while painting i found it liberating to use difficult and/or hard to maneuver brushes. there is a lack of control that comes with attempting to paint with a cloth or the rough end of a broken crayon that can make the creative process feel less restrictive. this is absolutely possible to do with figurative art as well. the key for me was to let the brush strokes dictate the shapes and not put too much focus on making a silhouette look 'realistic'. another thing i really love to do is to paint with 'negative space'. back when i was painting with oils i would often paint several layers of solid color and 'carve' shapes into the canvas with something like a palette knife. this is a basic layering technique that i use for digital art as well. u can see a sort of example of that with these drawings that i have posted:

it is essentially two layers, a solid color background with another solid color on top of it that i erased parts of to make a silhouette. i find this method not only to be a lot of fun, but the contrast between void and life makes you take the form a lot into consideration. another thing i like to do is to use a big, hard to maneuver brush and create the silhouette by painting the shaded, darker parts first. while that works really well with solid colors and flats, it can definitely be used for any sort of talent and style. using these two very different illustrations i have done as an example:

of course this is a matter of taste and style (like no need to use these strong contrasts and overwhelming shadows, that's just what i like to do lol) but these methods where sort of my gateway to getting a better understanding of shape and form. as for colors, i can only recommend to try and mess around with it but from experience i think some sort practice with figuring out how to balance different shades of black really helps.

my tip! if you are into character drawings, try illustrating a character as if they were only one solid color, build out their shape without sketching beforehand, let your hands go wild, then try to fill in the solids with details. or do the reverse, fill a paper with nothing but color (even graphite works great!) and try to make the silhouette by erasing. let the materials you use decide the outcome of shapes then consider what works and what doesn't, then do it again! and keep an open mind! what didn't use to make any sense eventually will (-:

[kulapti]

Cover construction for The silent isle imbowers, July-Aug 2023.

Finished binding here.

Materials shown: metallic gold and matte black heat transfer vinyl with cricut-cut designs, cricut-cut paper stencil, acrylic paint, bookcloth made of cotton + drawing paper backing + Lineco PVA glue. Calligraphy by quillingwords, flower art and cover construction by me.

————-General tips on how to make smth like this:

Steps in order were (1) have bookcloth, (2) cut and paint stencil, (3) cut and weed both HTV layers, (4) apply black HTV, (5) apply gold HTV, (6) add paint detail with paintbrush over the vinyl, (7) apply bookcloth to cover board.

This is not a beginner-friendly design LOL. Be like me and try most of the steps by themselves on other projects first.

I drew this design knowing how the sections would be layered, and which materials (and therefore colors) would go with each layer. Achieving a similar result with a premade design will likely require editing in a digital art program.

Test how your materials will layer before committing to a complex design. In this case I discovered that the type of bookcloth I made actually helps conceal the adhesive spread under the black HTV.

Layering HTV over small sections of acrylic paint works! Cannot confirm the result if you were to use large painted sections.

PSA This black layer with many very small pointy bits is at the extreme limit of what I think is possible to weed from machine-cut HTV. A different material might work better, and I got a lot faster at weeding the second copy than the first one, but some of this is just a technical limit. The gold section worked great but I would not recommend this for the black.

Layering HTV is much easier to do uniformly with a heat press! Check if your local library or maybe an art class studio has one you can use before doing smth like this with your iron.

Paper stencils are easy to make with the cricut but don’t try to use them for anything with small details. The above example is pushing it despite being very simple shapes. Stick-on stencils are better.

Tiny HTV design tip: designs with jagged sections and very thin lines are hardest to weed successfully. Smooth curves are much easier.

Scale all pieces of a stacked design on the same drawing program and within the same canvas in cricut so they layer precisely.

Cut tiny HTV designs with the washi paper setting on a cricut. I did not find this out myself but I can confirm the results! Using the HTV setting will cause the blade to catch on and pull up small sections of the design while cutting, ruining parts of the design.

—————-Tiny HTV design weeding tips:

For the love of cheese do not try anything this complicated the first time you use a cricut. or the second. you will cry

Seriously consider trying both HTV and cricut stencils before doing anything complicated like this. I wish I had at least attempted the black layer as a stick-on stencil.

This isn't a weeding tip but again you better cut this with a washi setting.

Use a very sharp weeding tool, good lighting, and consider a magnifying glass

Be prepared for this to take several hours, especially if you have never done a tiny piece before.

Important! The cricut does not perfectly cut out designs, leaving very small connected sections around the design at various locations. This is almost unnoticeable on large designs but can ruin tiny designs very easily. Be prepared to hold down the “keep” sections of the design with tweezers or a fingertip while pulling or trimming off some of the “remove” negative space.

Do NOT attempt to pull off all the negative space in a single piece. Either add dividing lines to your design for the machine to cut, or use a sharp tool to scrape them yourself. You are much less likely to accidentally remove part of your design if you weed the design in distinct sections.

[janearts]

How do you get your art/character interactions to be so expressive and organic? I've loved your art and ocs for years and keep coming back once in a while to skim through your Dragon Age and Elder Scrolls art to get inspired, so I wondered if you did specific art studies to get to where your art is right now?

Thank you for the compliment! I've got three answers (or exercises) for you and you can take them as you like 'em underneath the cut.

They are in order from Most Annoying to Most Pleasing.

The Noble Still Life

My parents threw me into art classes at around 6 years old. I don't mean to imply that that somehow makes me a better artist out of the gate--it truly doesn't--but it does mean that I've been doing still life studies for a sad but significant portion of my life. And as much as I hate drawing stupid fruit arranged with other stupid shit on stupid pieces of fabric, still life studies were really helpful across the board and especially with developing a sense of how shit works. ... Even if I go on to blissfully ignore what I've learned and draw fabric folds however the hell I want and put shadows wherever I damn well please.

The Ye Olde Master Study

As part of secondary school, we were also trotted out to local museums and parks and whatnot and told to just... have at it. So a lot of my sketchbooks from that time are filled with studies of library-lion-this and portrait-of-supposedly-important-man-that. Then, back in class, we were asked to imitate the old masters. Old Masters studies are really fucking fun and some of my favourite commissions have started out with phrases like "Can you recreate this Benjamin Constant painting but with my character as Empress Theodora?" or "How about a different Constant painting of Theodora?" I also do master-ish studies with my own digital paintings, like this one of Samson and this one of Bree. I think it's a fun exercise because it pushes me out of my comfort zone even if the end result doesn't look all that sophisticated or much like the original.

The Desperate Scribbles of the Human Form~

I should put gesture drawings and anatomy studies before master studies because in theory you need to know how to draw bodies before you start trying to paint in imitation of Caravaggio. (Now that I think about it, a deep knowledge of fruit is also essential to Caravaggio... but I digress.) In my art class, gesture drawings were more about flow and movement than it was about your unnerving ability to draw an elbow. Our teachers broke us using the Boiling Frog Technique, which was to say that they lulled us into a false sense of security by allowing us to sketch the person modelling for 10 minutes. Then 5 minutes. Then 3 minutes. Then 2 minutes. Then 1 minute. Then 30 seconds because they were sadists. It is unfortunately an effective way of teaching 1) how bodies move and 2) how to capture the essence of a pose rather than the strict reality of it.

But I really like anatomy studies and I really, really like drawing hands. And more hands. And even more hands. And then some more hands just in case. And then, just to shock and surprise everyone, a torso. A good chunk of my sketchbook is just me drawing faces and hands and eyeballs and hands and faces and sometimes feet when I can't remember how ankles work.

Other Weird Tips That Don't Quite Count As Studies:

If you don't wanna sketch in a museum or go to a park or stare at a stranger's ankles to figure out how ankles work, then go pull up fantasy stock photos on DeviantArt or take a photo of yourself and then get to sketching. That's what I do!

Watch a shitton of animated films. There's a fluidity & theatricality to how characters move in animated films that I love. Sometimes it seems like every inch of the character is expressing the emotion they're feeling. I find it personally inspirational even if I feel like gnawing off my own hand every time I attempt to draw my own frame-by-frame animation.

Study film. I studied film very, very briefly and a wee snippet of that was studying storyboards (as in: in library, with book) and doing some storyboard art projects (as in: at desk, with sketchbook). I treat every comic I do as if I was storyboarding the animated scene from the disjointed animated film in my brain and then polish it up to make it more readable/enjoyable.

Hope that helps!

[lemon-sugarcoats-nothing]

14. 🍋 and 🐝

Question 14 of the artist asks (Im sorry ive been sitting on this one for so long aaa): How has your art changed over the years?

My art hasnt changed much honestly! i've gotten better at watercolor painting, and acrylic paints, and i'm getting the hang of digital too! - 🍋

🐝 - ...Oh boy, another long history lesson today, Strap in. To keep things a little easier on me to keep condensed, I'm only going over my traditional pony art and NOT digital art. (Im not sure how much of the digital art i could even recover anymore)

TL;DR I've gone through many phases in my art, both pony and otherwise. I started out drawing ponies in 3rd of 4th grade in a very cartoon style, then trying to copy the show style, then with anime eyes to varying success, and finally to where i am now.

Alright so long ass history lesson:

This is my earliest attempt at making my own ponysona; i was really into applejack and wanted my pony to be in the apple family! This oc didnt really go anywhere though, and i dont think i drew her again. This was also early on, before i started following tutorials for drawing ponies.

A bit later, after drawing ponies while following tutorials for a while, I started trying to draw them in my own style. At the time, I was mostly trying to draw in an anime style with my humanoid drawings, and so the big eyes transferred over. During this time, most of my drawings were in blue ballpoint pen on notebook paper or printer paper. I was drawing a lot during my (online) classes and I would fill out pages and pages like this.

While i wasnt using tutorials as often anymore, i still watched a LOT of pony drawing content. At some point, i discovered some videos that inspired me to expand how i drew even more, and i started adding more graphite and colored pencil into final drawings.

Videos in question:

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSmSN3VtdD0

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTyMx2H-nuI

A bit later, i also got into creepypasta drawings for mlp and some of the songs (specifically for rainbow factory), but i didnt ever read or listen to MLP creepypastas on their own until much much later. I did however, write my own two page creepypasta comic for pinkie that i never kept up. I think i intended to but after 24 hrs i forgot and dropped the project. Ironically, I tried to redraw it a few years ago as a humanoid comic, stretching it out into i think...10 pages? until my hand got tired and I never actually got to the creepypasta part of the original first comic page. (If you'd like to see, let me know! I still have them, but there would be too many images to post in this already really long post)

Oddly enough, i noticed that around this time i was also mostly drawing either creepypasta, psychotic ponies, or drawing ponies sad and crying. Just a weird little note.

I had a short phase where i drew ponies with more boxy muzzles too, but most notable here is that i finally remade a ponysona! I would keep this sona until I would stop engaging with MLP content and go through my "Ew, mlp weird" phase.

This was also from my time of boxy nosed ponies, and I think the first image was inspired off of a drawing that came up on a google search but i dont remember. I redrew it a while later, after practicing with colored pencils more. The redraw happened sometime during my "Ew mlp" phase.

And now we enter more current stuff. all these drawings are still old but are more in line with what i draw now, and were while i was starting to come out of my "Ew mlp" phase.

First image, you can see this is one of the first times I drew Lucious as a pony. At the time, in the main rp he's from he was still just straight up a demon. And in the second image is a sketch dump of the mlp characters, where i was jut getting more comfortable drawing them again. Still held onto those boxy noses though.

No style change here, but there was a time in my humanoid art where i would draw my and Mocha's characters as royalty. Then i went and drew them as ponies in those outfits! the first image you can see Cinna as an alicorn, and an early version of Lemon was just a unicorn. In the second image, was one of my first attempts to draw Jaysir! I guess its not too far off.

Last is just this pencil drawing of Lemon when their name was still Lemon Sugar-Moon! After this point, i think i took another break from drawing ponies until we come to current day where my style of drawing ponies has less boxy noses, and more pointy, less realistic and just a bit more fun for me personally :D

Who knows where my pony art will go next! Thank you for your ask and I'm sorry again that this has taken so long for me to finally just sit down and type out lol

[animehouse-moe]

Oshi No Ko Volume 1: An Uncertain Prologue

So, Aka Akasaka's successor to Love Is War, in concert with Mengo Yokoyari as the artist for the series. There's a lot, a lot, a lot a lot to digest in this first volume, but I'll give potential readers a warning. Yes, your friends might have raved about this series, yes, the down the road picture might be completely different, and yes, it goes into detail with the entertainment industry.

However, this prologue is, something. It's a bit all over the place, it's the kind of backstory that needs to be experienced to be understood, and in a way it's the opposite of Love Is War, where Oshi No Ko is far more serious with comedic moments peppered in. It's... hard, to get behind without knowing where the future goes. It's incredibly radical and paints a totally different picture to what readers might expect (depending on their knowledge of it).

So, unless you're willing for a wild ride and are set on reading Oshi No Ko, I'd say hold off on purchasing physically. Read digitally, give it some time to stew and set in before you pull the trigger because I have a feeling that a lot of to-be-readers might not be looking for what this prologue goes into. So, with that in mind,

⚠️Warning: Spoilers Ahead⚠️

So, either you've read it and you're curious what I think, or you haven't and you're dying to know what's going on with this volume. Well, first off there's reincarnation, then there's murder, then there's a revenge plot, mixed all in between stardom and the entertainment industry.

It doesn't really get a chance to relax, and the stuff exterior to the entertainment industry feels extraneous to the core principle of the story. I understand the angle of the revenge plot, and trying to find the doctor, and by extension Ai's, killer, but it feels weird. Yes, murder sells far better, but given the focus on a candid entertainment industry would suicide/mental health not prove a stronger vehicle for the story?

Doing a little bit of thinking out loud, Ai's story could instead revolve around her struggles as a single mother attempting to make it in an entertainment industry where she never really even had a desire in the first place. Slipping further and further into it and its challenges before she enacts an untimely end. It would even work with Aqua and Ruby moving forward into the entertainment industry, in my opinion, as Aqua would still be the voice of reason while Ruby follows her mother's footsteps, missteps and all.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong in the first real (second actual) volume, but the prologue seems a bit removed from the overall focal point. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's like adding a few incredulous pieces to a story to make it unique, in my opinion. Time will tell how this decision plays out, but in the short term, it's somewhat jarring. I like Ruby and Aqua's characters, I like the insight into the entertainment industry, I like that stuff, but the prologue is just a little too out there for me to convince myself that this will be a great series.

I plan to be along for the ride regardless out of sheer curiosity and interested in the angle that they focus on as idols and actors, but how much it grips me overall truly depends on the direction that the present of the series appeals to readers with. It's certainly not bad, but it's definitely not a first volume that grabs readers and has them saying, "I want more". More than that, it leaves them puzzled, thinking, "What just happened? What's going on? What's the answer?". So in a way, it gets to that same question, but it's like asking somebody about something out of morbid curiosity, there's a piece of you that needs it satisfied no matter how base or unappetizing it ends up.

[javida]

Want to add on about some (but not all) of the color correction discourse about the lotr 4K color correction.

Fellowship of the ring had analogue color correction—the kind where the entire frame had to be corrected all together or else someone had to go in and hand paint frame by frame. And nobody did that because it was crazy expensive.

Two Towers and Return of the King were color corrected digitally (post production went full digital basically as fast as possible mostly because it made non destructive editing possible). Digital correction and grading as a leg up because it’s possible to say “I want to adjust the values for greens specifically” and make the green forest look like autumn without turning your cast into pumpkins. Also, as I said, non destructive to the tape.

Now, a lot of the color correction discourse specifically in regards to the 4K stuff is usually when you’re looking at befores and afters of Fellowship. These befores are usually from a notorious HD Blu-ray rerelease where they went in and tried to recolor Fellowship to better match the grading of the latter two films. The issue is, they very clearly were using an incorrectly calibrated monitor that must have had a magenta shift because most of that recolor came out extremely green overall. This green tint was not present in previous releases, it is not present in the DVD that released beside that Bluray. So the most recent 4k release is actually more accurate to the original in color than some of the befores.

Now, the over sharpening I agree with. Fun fact: many big budget things you watch now are still shot with “old glass” lenses (because many of the “greats” from ye olden times were made of specific sand that got used up) that tend to give that nice haze. Another trick is to rub Vaseline on a filter or to turn on a straight up fog machine for like 10 seconds. AND many times, even if it was shot digital, a “retrograde” film grain effect has likely been added because everyone agrees that if it’s too crisp, it feels too uncanny.

EDIT: I also want to add that with any of these upscaled films from tape, a certain amount of CC is required. They are not simply using an AI or whatever to make things crispier. They are redigitizing the tape masters. Analogue does not have pixels, the raster size of its digitization has to do with the size of the sensor on their capture deck. Anything shot analogue can pretty happily be captured in like 16K or more without losing (technical) image quality. Now, the thing about sensors is that they tend to have their own color skews. A LUT can be applied and fix most of that, but someone still needs to go through and make sure that nothing else weird is going on and fix any errors that occurred during capture. Color in 1080 420 vs 4K 444 is VERY different. There's LOTS more information (the files can easily be 6-8x bigger) and a MUCH bigger dynamic range. Something HAS to be done to the image, while trying to be faithful to the original. It's a really tough tight rope to walk.

Also, this kind of upscaling will be impossible to achieve with anything shot digital. Digital DOES have pixels, even if it's printed on tape. So any attempt to make the image bigger will just make bigger flesh colored squares.

They should have added a clarity reduction filter to hide some of the VFX that gets revealed in the 4k also.

I am in love w the way pre 2000s films have that hazy feel to them. hd honestly kills the vibe

[news4usonline]

Steph Curry drops 50, Clippers prevail

LOS ANGELES (News4usonline) - The matchup between the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors seemed like an NBA playoff preview. Both teams are jockeying for a better seed position as the regular season winds down in a few weeks.  The Clippers are holding on to the No. 5 seed, while the Warriors, the league’s reigning champs, are pulling up on Los Angeles at the No. 6 position. 

Los Angeles Clippers guard Paul George (13) plays keep away from Golden Warriors star Klay Thompson on March 15, 2023. Photo by Dennis J. Freeman for News4usonline So, in a mid-March game played at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles, the two teams locked horns in a real meaningful game. Well, they all are at this point in the season. Nevertheless, from the opening tip, the buzz around the game felt electric. That theme played all the way through until the Clippers finally managed to turn back the Warriors with a 134-126 win in front of a sellout crowd.  “I mean tonight they made runs,” Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard said after the game.   “Golden State’s going to make big runs. Great players, great mindsets on the floor. When they come down , coming down, knocking those big shots, threes, two or three in a row, like you said, we kept our composure. We stayed steady. Leonard continued, “We came down and executed on the offensive end and made shots. We were able to go on a run ourselves. It’s kind of like that throughout the game, but we did a great job at staying at it in that fourth quarter even when they were in the bonus pretty early. We kept fighting, we got in the bonus. We made big plays.” For the Clippers to earn their 37th win of the season, Los Angeles had to weather the storm that is better known as Steph Curry. Generally recognized as the best shooter in the history of the league, unleashed another Curry-like performance before what appeared to be a pro-Warriors crowd. Curry went through a myriad of magical shot attempts and came up with 50 points against the Clippers. He made three-pointers. He drove to the basket. There was playground stuff thrown in the mix. For a pretty good night’s worth of work, Curry made 20 of his 28 field goal attempts as he kept the Warriors in the game with his mini-runs throughout the contest. “I think especially when I guy like that explodes, to keep your composure and keep staying with the game plan I thought we kind of tried to take them out of what they were doing and Steph just made a borough of shots,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said during his postgame comments. “We try to blitz, we try to fire, he split it, he dribbled around it. Made some tough shots, some scoop shots falling down. He had it going tonight. But I just like the way we kept our composure. I thought in that first quarter defensively we were good and after that Steph got going so it was kind of hard to gauge how good our defense was.” To counter Curry’s herculean effort, the Clippers got double-digit scoring from six players, outrebounded the Warriors (44-36), and picked up more second-chance points (27-11). Clippers guard Paul George said hitting the glass and playing defense is something the Clippers have done a lot better during the current win streak the team is on.

Los Angeles forward Kawhi Leonard (2) battles with Golden Warriors guard Steph Curry for position on March 15, 2023. Photo by Dennis J. Freeman for News4usonline He attributes that to the work the team puts in when the Clippers are not playing a game. ”Practice,” George said. “Practice is what has been helping. We’ve been drilling it at practice. And it’s been carrying over.” The Warriors, who beat the Boston Celtics to win the NBA Finals after last season, need more than practice. They need bodies. The team had already faced the reality of losing key players like Gary Payton II, James Wiseman and Otto Porter Jr. from last season’s championship run. The Clippers dominated the paint because the Warriors have no real presence in the middle. And now they’re faced with the prospect of not having Andrew Wiggins on the court in the postseason, which puts even more pressure to come up big night in and night out. “Y'all know me,” said Curry. “It’s nice to play well, shoot well, it’s what I expect to do every night, no matter what the stat sheet looks like it’s frustrating when we can’t get over the hump and figure out a way to get a win, especially with where we’ve been all season on the road. Our job is to just keep playing and keep competing at a high level and just try to figure it out. Whatever I got to do in the process individually, just going to keep doing that.”   Read the full article

[cri8ive-scrapbook]

Of animation and inspiration

A little (pffff - sorry, folks, my text blog entries are *lengthy*) update on what's going on on the drawing board, and a great book recommendation!

Alright, so... lately I've been dabbing on an old passion that I had forfeit for many years; playing around with video editing software to create animated "lyrics videos" of songs I like. I am very much a Flash baby - I learned to use Flash in the early 2000s and was instantly won over by the great ease with which I could create little animated trailers with my still artworks, or nifty intros for my websites. But being also AuDHD, when Flash was discontinued, I felt too intimidated to try other video editing softwares where I'd have to re-teach myself everything, and gave up on animations altogether. It wasn't until about last year that I was drawn back to it, at first just for some short commercial videos I was commissioned by a client, and discovered an easy enough program like Filmora that allowed me to get decent effects in a simple interface.

The more I used it for work, the more I felt pulled to again create animation from my own art. I made some shy attempts, and the results were encouraging, but I also became aware of Filmora's limits so I'm now using a bundle of it plus Sony Vegas Pro for carrying out something that is as close as possible to what my mind sees. Being an amateur, self-taught and with great lacks in my artistic abilities, fulll frame-by-frame animatics are beyond my scope (possibly forever); but I can get a satisfying result through the interpolation of still pictures, some sfx, and music score to suggest moods and storylines.

When I work on my little "animated" projects, I always feel compelled to re-read Wendy Pini's Law & Chaos book. Because her approach to the Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer movie she wanted to make in her days as an animation student rings so true to my own experience. What I do in digital nowadays is essentially what she did with painstakingly and lovingly crafted traditional art back in the days; tell a story through the use of key scenes visualized in detail, with the artistic rendition (the inks, the perspective, the colors) in charge of the emotional response and a little additional help from technology and background music.

But there's more to this. Because Law & Chaos reasonates with me to a much deeper, personal level. The earlier pages where Wendy explains how her artwork had always been projected toward animation, how she had always wanted her characters to move, is something I could say from the depth of my own soul. Already as a kid I was more interested in the "movement" than in the finishing (which, I suspect, is why I was such a reluctant learner of techniques or more "technical" drawing); I used speech balloons to show the interaction between characters. I remember my mother would occasionally try to discourage me pointing out that comics distracted from the drawing; my poor mother, I think, associated art more with "traditonal" paintings. Occasionally, she would complain that "it'd be better to put up your drawings if it was just the art, without the speech balloons" and sometimes, to amuse her, I tried, but it seeemd to me that the pictures were then "muted", that the stories and dynamics I saw behind them couldn't be expressed because the characters couldn't "speak".

I was always conscious of my limits. I had seen documentaries on the cartoons I loved, and I knew that a lot of work went behind those smooth animations, and a snide part of me already as a kid knew I'd never be able to pull off anything like that. I was (and am) heavy handed; I delete and redraw so often that in the time of traditional art I'd always tear down the paper and that'd work me into a crying fit because then I had to redraw *everything else* and, on second try, the result was always, for some reason, below par with the first permanently ruined attempt. I wasn't patient. I wasn't nimble-handed. I longed to tell stories with my art - but animation seemed a world out of my reach. So I made "mini-comics" instead. I was content. "The small truth" (to quote the character Strongbow in Wendy Pini's independent comic series, the long-running ElfQuest), was enough for me.

Then... around the time I was 8 or 9, something unexpected happened. Computers arrived in Italy too, and quickly became popular, and next thing I knew not only we had them in school but a lot of my class mates had their own computers at home, and *then* suddenly I was reading up on computers, and *then* I suddenly had my own, and a new world of opportunities suddenly opened before me. When everyone and their cousin was hyped about playing videogames (Internet woudln't be a thing until some years later, and ADSL/WiFi until MUCH later down the line), I could only think of two things; a computer would allow me to have my fiction stories actually look like books and it would allow me to animate my drawings. Have them move, finally tell the stories they were imbued with - and without the need for speech ballons or any filters.

Such "wild" dreams from a learning-challenged kid of under-10, back in the late 1990s, can only sound hilarious in hindsight. Scrambling with Paint, creating "pictures" that I find repulsive today, I felt like I was doing something grandiose and one step closer to my dream of seeing my pictures come alive and tell their stories. I was soon to find out it wasn't so easy and computers didn't "magically" animate things - but, with all my limits, I no longer felt like I was a spectator watching on a world that would forever be out of my reach. I was a beginner, a rookie, on the amateur track still. But I had broken past he wall that separated me from that world of fancies. It would take time, it would take patience, but I was en route and now the journey could only go on. And on.

There were pitfallls, as there always are, and moments when I'd just grow so frustrated or have so many hassles to draw me away from that world completely. This, too, I found in Wendy's recollections in the Law & Chaos book. But there were also moments when my heart soared. When Internet became a thing, and I learned about animated GIFs, and the first thing I did was download a gif animator software and sketch a silly doodle of one of my wolves and animate it. It was crude, nonsensical, poorly executed, and if I think back about it today, I wince; but back then I felt like I was yet one step closer to the dream, and I cheered, and I was ridiculously proud of myself and of what I had done. Then came Flash. Another step closer to the dream. Short snippets, little more than "trailers" of RPs or spooky scenettes for Halloween - but it was *happening*. The first breath of life was infused to my still drawings. I'm writing this now before I delve back into the inks of my latest, current project; a full lyrics video, the second I've made since 2022, after two smaller projects (a series of flashes and a partecipation in a MAP video with other friends). If the first was just a test run to see "if I could do it", now I'm more demanding, with myself and with my tools. I'm using two video editors, not one, because I want the "theater of the mind" (thanks, Wendy!) to look exactly as I know it should. I'm trying to put as much work in every still image as I'll be able to. I have made a screenplay, with the exact sequence of each scene set to match certain moments of the music score. I have made a test-run with the rough sketches and am jotting down notes on what aspects will need to be fine-tuned (a more well-timed fade in/fade out effect, a better placed transition, etc). And I'm weeping with joy and going over this gem of a book again just as I'd told a long time friend "Remember all our talks on animation? Well I'm doing it now, I'm there, I succeeded!"

Because I've taken the final step, and now the dream - my dream - is becoming true.

[akagami-no-rae]

ANS Week Day 2 - Rain

[eyebrowpunk]

really hate how ‘drawing’ and ‘drawing digitally’ feel like two entirely separate, but equally involved, skillsets

[shoutogepi]

First Time BJ HC’s

with Bakugou, Kirishima, Shinsou, & Todoroki

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞 : [  ✘ 𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐰 (𝟏𝟖+) ] smut!

𝐡𝐜 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭 : how would they act while receiving head for the first time?

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 : i don’t usually mention this but i did wanna say that they’re all 18+, AS THEY ARE IN EVERYTHING I WRITE. also please minors stay aWAY. LEAVE NOW PLEASE i am begging you. 

   ─── ・°* ﾟ✧:* • ｡ﾟ:*･☽･*: ｡ﾟ•*:✧ ﾟ*°・ ───

𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐠𝐨𝐮 💥

surprisingly vocal and loud about it!! omg this mf... your panties are def gonna be drenched after giving him head.

fists your hair and shoves your head down, choking you with his dick. he’s just really eager and excited to finally have your mouth on him!! 

lost in the pleasure of it all. so he lets his guard down and ends up making mouth-watering noises for you to indulge in while you service him. 

LOTS of grunts and whispered curses under his breath. 

probably lasts like 5 mins but only because he’s battling himself not to bust every 15 seconds. 

when he does come, he pulls out and paints it across your face. honestly, he’s been dreaming about doing exactly that ever since he first saw you. 

yeah, he knows he’s nasty lol...

asks you if he can take a pic for his spank bank when he’s done. 

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-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Your tongue glides across his hot length, lapping at the bulging veins that line the underside of his shaft. As your lips make their way to the base of his cock, he lets out a gravely moan and your eyes roll back at the sound of it, ignoring the dull ache that’s begun to form at the back of your throat. 

“Deeper, Princess...” the blonde grunts, his hips shifting up so the swollen head of his cock nestles deep into your wet mouth. “Fuck yeah.” 

He pants, vermillion orbs glaring down at you as he lets you off his lap and you sputter for air. The sight of your saliva stringing out between your parted lips and his slick cock makes him ache. Even without your mouth on him, he feels just as hot, like no matter what you do, he gets closer to coming with every second of you on your knees in from of him. 

It’s not long before Bakugou’s deciding you’ve had enough air, slapping his girth against your lips. He swears as your tongue pokes out to trace the ridge of his heavy cock head, the muscle lashing out to caress his skin and take him into your mouth again. 

“Shit, oh my fucking god— fuck—” His grip on your locks tightens as you hollow your cheeks and suck on him, salty pre-come dripping down the back of your tongue. 

Your thighs push together as your core drools for him, his moans clouding your thoughts as you move your neck to pump faster. His balls tighten and the feeling in his stomach sharpens, thighs twitching beneath your splayed fingers. 

“Nnn— no baby, slow down, slo—” You don’t pay him any mind, twirling your tongue extra hard against him as you push him to the back of your mouth. “Fuck!” He moans as he shoves you off him, his cock leaving your lips just fast enough for his release to spray over your cheeks and across one eye. His legs don’t stop shaking even as his cock ceases gushing, his hand coming to cradle the back of your head and smear the white liquid across your lips. 

He groans as your tongue wanders out to meet the digit, cleaning his essence from your mouth with a coy smile. His gaze burns down into yours, desire still simmering in his bright irises. 

“That was fuckin’ hot, Princess,” he commends, watching his come trickle down your face before his fingers reach for his phone. “You’ll let me snap a pic, yeah baby?”

   ─── ・°* ﾟ✧:* • ｡ﾟ:*･☽･*: ｡ﾟ•*:✧ ﾟ*°・ ───

𝐤𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐚 🧱

attempts to be really manly about it but just like bakugou, he cannot shut up about how good it feels. vocally admires you the whole time.

he was hesitant to let you go down on him in the first place, because to him, sex should revolve around your pleasure.

so when you told him that making him feel good in turn makes you feel good, he shuts up and pulls his pants down real quick LOLL.

praises you the whole time, treats you like a goddess and he’s your loyal worshipper.

he doesn’t really know what to do with his hands so he alternates between stroking your hair/chin and covering his face when he’s sure he’s making an obscene expression (although fails to actually hide said expressions from you, much to your delight).

when he’s about to come, he gives ample warning and makes sure to ask  where you want him to finish. 

hot and respectful experience, 10/10.

⋆⋅✧⋅⋆⋅✧⋅⋆⋅✧⋅⋆

Kirishima throws his head back as he moans, his fingers slipping through the hair at the crown of your head. “That feels so, so good baby girl...” His other hand curls into a fist atop his thigh, which tenses as your nails scrape down the inside of it. 

You look up at him through your lashes, tongue following the thick ridge on the bottom of his length. Fitting him in your mouth is a feat of its own, his cock rock-hard and thicker than you expected between your lips. Connecting gazes with him, you watch as his sharp teeth dig into his bottom lip, his hand slipping from your head to shield the lewd look twisting his features. You can feel your cunt warm at the sight of his furrowed brow and hanging jaw, his ragged panting only egging your ministrations further.  

“What about this, Kiri?” You spoke against his shaft, lips moving across the slick skin and moving to swirl your tongue around his thick head. 

“That’s—” he cuts himself off with a moan when you suck on his sensitive member, sliding half his cock into your warm, wet mouth. “God, you’re amazing!” 

You hum, satisfied with his answer. But that only makes his moans louder, his fingers tugging at the roots of your hair again. Your free hand caresses his heavy sack, thumb rubbing over his soft skin and squeezing ever so slightly. 

Kirishima whimpers your name, forcing your eyes to meet his crimson gaze once again. He looks absolutely wrecked, lips parted and hot puffs of breath escaping as his chest rises and falls quickly. “I’m really close, baby girl... where do you want me to..?”

All he receives is a flirty wink in response before you continue your movements, and he doesn’t bother to hold back the moan nor the desperate expression that crosses his handsome features. After a few moments of going to work his hips begin to shuffle under you and he tenses, and you open your throat and allow him to push his cock into your mouth on his own accord. 

“Holy shit!” He cries as he comes down your throat, his hot spend warming your body as your tongue pets his cock, waiting for him to fall from his high. “You’re so beautiful, baby girl,” he murmurs once he’s done, pulling you up for a passionate kiss. 

   ─── ・°* ﾟ✧:* • ｡ﾟ:*･☽･*: ｡ﾟ•*:✧ ﾟ*°・ ───

𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐮 🔮

tries to keep his cool and succeeds... for the most part. 

sits back and lets you do your thing, eyes never leaving you for even a second. 

he has a pretty dick and acts like he knows it, but it looks so, so much better slipping in and out of your mouth.

gently fucks your face. he likes having you take your time, which is also why he lasts longer than you were expecting. nothing crazy tho prob like 10 mins max HAHA.

he bites his lip to keep the noises in so he’s no where near as loud as the others... but when the occasional moan does slip out, it makes it only that much better. 

combs his hands through his hair a lot. also thinks about how he’s gonna reciprocate this great favor once you’re done...

oozes a lot of pre throughout the whole ordeal but he actually doesn’t taste too bad?? magic man. comes on your tongue and demands you hold it there for a second before you swallow. o.o

after everything’s done he’s shocked that he was able to control himself so well lmao

⋆⋅✧⋅⋆⋅✧⋅⋆⋅✧⋅⋆

“Fuck...” Shinsou breathes the swear out lowly, brow twitching while his rough fingertips glide through his indigo locks. He would smirk at the purr that rumbles through your body at his praise, but your mouth sinks down to the base of his cock and his teeth push deep into his bottom lip instead. 

Violet eyes fixate on your mouth, the way your slobber glistens and trails behind your lips with each purposeful movement of your neck. He wants to allow his eyes to roll into his skull as his swollen head presses against the back of your throat, but he forces his gaze to remain on you, determined not to miss a single second of the show. 

His fingers curl into his roots as your tongue swipes against his flushed skin, allowing a quiet groan to escape as you repeat the movement. Briefly he wonders how you can be so good at this, how he feels like he’s been on the edge of his orgasm for the past five minutes and somehow he’s loving every second of your heavenly torture. 

He licks his lips as your mouth leaves his cock and he watches the strands of saliva that connect the two, how your lips curl into a confident smile as your eyes meet his. Tracing your tongue along the side of his cock up and down, then sucking and nibbling at the same skin immediately afterwards. Another groan tumbles out of him, his hand flying to your hair and tugging your head up so that his erect cock rests against your sealed lips. 

You keep his gaze as your tongue wanders out and pets his head, then slipping the length back into your hot mouth as far as you can. Shinsou lets out a particularly heavy breath at the action, his hips jerking up gently so he pushes all the way into your throat. It’s easy to find a rhythm for the both of you, and for the first time, he lets himself close his eyes and become lost in the feeling of your mouth on him. 

“Just like that, kitty... that’s it, good girl...” He starts to grunt and grow louder as he reaches the cusp of ecstasy, still pushing his cock in between your lips until the feeling becomes too much to hold back anymore. “Hold your tongue out.” 

Following his instruction, your pink muscle is covered in white as he comes, some dripping down your tongue and disappearing down your throat. He strokes himself through it, dipping his thumb in the puddle of his seed after he’s finished before he pushes the finger back and you wrap your lips around the digit as you swallow everything. 

   ─── ・°* ﾟ✧:* • ｡ﾟ:*･☽･*: ｡ﾟ•*:✧ ﾟ*°・ ───

𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐢 ❄️

poor baby, he is sooo flustered and reactive. almost catches on fire a handful of times. 

not super vocal at first but he pants a lot and every time you go further down on him, his breath catches in his throat.

speaking of preTTY DICKS!!!!! he has the prettiest. 

honestly he doesn’t last very long. he just is so sensitive bc he’s never had anything so warm and wet and gorgeous near his cock before. and he prob doesn’t jack off as often as the others so there’s that too.. 

he doesn’t have a clue what to do with his hands, very similar to kirishima in the way that his fingers are either touching you or masking the bottom of his face. he keeps his eyes on you most of the time though, taking mental pictures— hell, a mental video— and frying it into his brain. 

warns you when he’s getting close, moans increasing in depth, frequency, and volume. he’s so head over heels for you that just holding your gaze brings him even closer to the edge. 

doesn’t care where he comes, but seeing his spend on your face does things to him... 

⋆⋅✧⋅⋆⋅✧⋅⋆⋅✧⋅⋆

Dual-colored eyes pierce into yours as you hollow your cheeks, wet tongue flush to the delicate skin of his aching member. Shouto’s hand lands over his mouth, long fingers stretching across his face as his brows scrunch beneath his silky locks. A harsh breath falls from his lips as your mouth drops down to the base of his throbbing cock. His contoured abdomen quivering underneath your fingers as he draws in another shaky breath, you savor how his gaze is locked on your tongue snaking around his wide shaft. 

“Ahah~ that feels—” he sucks in between his clenched teeth, fingers on his other hand carding through the hairs falling around your face. “Incredible, angel.” His sock-clad toes curl and drag through the carpet beside your knees, your nails digging into the ample muscle that lines his thighs. The action elicits a broken gasp which in turn makes you moan around his rosy cock. 

His hips buck up and shove his length into your throat even deeper at the vibrations, only making him sigh deeply with bliss. You gag and sputter around him, your throat tightening and forcing another heavy huff from his lungs. He allows you to come up for air, feelings mixed about how the sight of you struggling to breath makes him ache for you even more. 

“Don’t stop, love...” he mumbles, barely cognizant as his head spins, your lips sliding around him and answering his plea instantly. His hand curls around the back of your head, loosely guiding your strokes and forming a makeshift ponytail that keeps most of your hair out of the way. “You look so pretty like this, oh god...” 

The number of grunts and moans floating out of him increases as you find a steady tempo to bob your head to, his fist in your hair allowing your movements to speed up. You can feel him gradually tensing, his pants becoming more breathless and desperate, little pleas falling from his lips as his voice turns more gruff. 

“I’m gonna come,” he cautions abruptly, digits pulling at your roots tighter, his other hand flying up to push his own hair back from his forehead as the pressure builds within him. His frantic gaze meets your calm one, his face contorting with the increasing pleasure. “W-Where should I— Fuck, love— agh, God, I— I’m—” 

His body trembles as he falls over the edge, orgasm wracking through him as thick ribbons of white shoot onto your chin, your hand stroking his slick length as you guide him through the haze of euphoria. He comes a good amount, especially when you stick the head of his cock back inside your mouth and happily allow the last few spurts to coast down your throat. 

   ─── ・°* ﾟ✧:* • ｡ﾟ:*･☽･*: ｡ﾟ•*:✧ ﾟ*°・ ───

.

.

(ᇴ‿ᇴ) ahh i love smut.. lol lmk why i made toshi so daddy tho tfff 

[chil2de]

hi yes the benimaru fic i mentioned earlier— fire force fandom will you let me in please??🥺🥺 i don’t know what i’m dealing with fanbase wise mmfldjfj sometimes it feels like i’m head over heels for bens by myself so... i’ll drop this here for now.. see how it goes and i’ll continue w/ a second part if ff isn’t dead

nsfw themes throughout, so please read my disclaimer if you’re new. enjoy :)

w.c: 1.7k, characters: 9.6k (incl spaces)

-

there’s a certain sluggish quality that plagues your movements. it’s not fatigue or incompetence. or so benimaru would hope.

his mix matched gaze glosses over your unnecessary movements. that extra exhale you hiss, the additional bat of your eyelashes and the excessive perspiration that drips onto the earth below.

“stop.” he commands, tone low and stern as it pierces through the open air.

“huh? captain shinmon, i’m fine. we can keep going.” you huff through laboured breaths, pausing to gasp and drink in the plentiful oxygen around you.

“it’s one thing if you’re overworking your muscles. it’s another if you’re running a fever. go inside.”

“b-but captain-“

benimaru shoots you a dead stare, keeping his statement rooted deep where he stands.

judging by the bruises that adorn your knees, you know better than to disobey the captain.

“waka! have you seen (l/n)?” konro lingers in the doorframe of the main communal area, gaze scanning for one of his colleagues.

“she’s in her room. why?”

“her room? she has a few errands to run. is she feeling okay?”

“she’s running a fever.” benimaru exhales, shifting to get up from the table. he lightly scratches the back of his neck, adorning that usual aloof facial expression.

“in the middle of summer? how’d that happen?” konro chuckles through a small glimpse of bewilderment. of course he’d be concerned for one of his best recruits.

“hell if i know. what do we need? i’ll head out.”

if anything, benimaru is probably the sole reason why you’re running a fever. why he subjected to railing you underneath water that felt like it was nearing sub-zero was beyond you. it’s not like he’s about to admit he enjoys fucking his special little fire soldier. how he relishes and engrains the sight of your fucked out facial expression deep into his head, burning the image into his retinas. shit, you wouldn’t be surprised if the reason why he sometimes spaces out is because of you.

it’s always been blatantly obvious that you’re the captain’s favourite, no matter how much he denies it and how many glares he shoots at the people from other companies. you’re always left apologising for his behaviour, attempting to keep a straight face.

for the one time you dragged him out to patrol with you, and the amount of incessant whining, complaints and bribes you offered your captain, after a full month of lovely slow burn he decided to come along with you. he just up and left, had the audacity to turn around and ask you why you’re still standing there. benimaru always kept his distance to yours close, in fact the separation was almost minimal. you could feel his shoulders ghost over you.

every time he noticed someone staring at your figure for a little bit too long to be deemed appropriate, he hissed a scoff of distaste. at around the third or fourth person, you were already forced to deal with his short temper.

“what the hell are you gawking at? mind your damn business.”

but sure. apparently you’re not his favourite.

he can scoff and complain all he wants, but that won’t stop him even now from lazily snaking his hand around to his favourite baby girl’s waist. to him, this seems like the most normal thing.

“how else is she going to stand upright? she’s all stick and bones, the wind will knock her right over.”

okay, benimaru. you keep telling yourself that. even when his fingers feel an itch every time they’re not touching a part of your skin. he tends to get a whole lot more mouthy and irritable every time you’re not around, too.

hell, even his own townsfolk pick up on the fact that he’s out and about more. rounds that he always left to the lesser important underlings became more commonplace, especially with you by his side.

but the things that go on behind closed doors?

his peppermint red eyes that haunt your mind, infiltrating your very thoughts. you could be minding your business, going on about your day until you get an abrupt flicker of his mundane tic-tac-toe gaze staring up at you from in between your thighs.

you could be taking care of hinata and hikage, entertaining their antics when you feel the weight of benimaru’s stare burn holes into your uniform.

you could be doing your daily sparring with the captain. in the zone, breath held and blood stream steady until you remember the feel of his hot tongue trailing along the side of your neck. for someone who seems to be stuck in a perpetual state of sadness, you always catch the arrogant smirk that pulls at his lips.

“thinking of something?” he’ll cock his eyebrows, using the distraction to take a jab to your gut.

you groan, stirring around in your bed. you hate him, hate that stupid half lidded gaze of his. you hate how soft his wavy jet black locks are. the way the strands tug and bend whenever you try to yank his face away from your cunt. you run your fingers through your hair in a valiant yet futile attempt to free your thoughts from your captain. it’s only three o’clock in the afternoon, and you haven’t done anything but reminisce about your lover for the past hour and a half.

a meek and uneven sigh hisses from your lips. your eyes screw open and you flinch at the hard sunlight that pours in from the window. as you use the inner portion of your elbow to shield your gaze, you catch glimpse of a very familiar figure in the doorway.

“captain shinmon?” you inquire, propping yourself up onto your elbows. he closes the door behind him. you’re certain that you looked like a loyal dog sat panting and wagging its tail upon discovering the return of their owner.

“excited to see me?” he remarks in a flat tone, opening the grocery bag he’s carrying before setting a few things down onto your nightstand. it’s mostly medicine, though he snags a few of your favourite snacks and drinks. there’s also one of those fascinating green tea bottles that you buy at the vending machines, except they’re served piping hot.

“how’re you feeling?”

“i told you i was going to get sick if we had the water that cold.” you huff, averting your gaze in a fit.

“not my problem you can’t take a little temperature difference”

“a little? that shit was freezing! how the hell can you take water that cold?”

“how can you not?”

you chuckle a little, shifting to stare up at the ceiling.

“don’t you have paperwork to do?”

“you know i don’t do paperwork. sure as hell not gonna start doing it now.” benimaru huffs, kicking his boots off by the door. you can hear his clothes rustling and your head snaps to face him. he shoots you a glare, as though to scold you. it’s dripping on his face. ‘really? you’re so eager.’

“move up.” he cocks his head to the side, motioning for you to move over. you shift up, room spinning a little too much for your tastes. the mattress dips with his weight and his right arm (our left) reflexively hangs in the air for you to dip your head into the crook of where his shoulder and collarbone meet. he discards his navy kimono, the article of clothing hangs on one of the hooks at the back of your door. it’s probably not much comfort for him to be relaxing in a bed with half of his uniform still on.

you squish your face against his hard chest, head rising and falling in time with his breathing. the said arm relaxes and his hand rests against your shoulder. subsequently, you realise this is the first time you’ve seen him fully without his kimono on. at the very least, he’d still have the other sleeve on.

benimaru notices your blatant staring at his other arm. he can’t comprehend why you’d gawk at it now, since he’s used it plenty of times to choke you.

he hums a small ‘hm’ in question, asking you what you’re so fascinated about. you can feel his voice thrum and rock against his chest, it sends small shivers licking your body that he doesn’t miss.

“you look so funny without your kimono on. why don’t you wear it like this more often?” you drag your nails softly against his biceps. there’s a small groan that hisses from him. as you await his response, you outline a large vein that runs from his upper arm and trails down all the way to his wrist.

“i get cold easily.”

“then why did you take a shower with me?”

“are you hearing yourself?”

surely a little bit of his body temperature was enough to sacrifice. even if it meant he was sneezing a little bit and shivering afterwards.

“seriously? you can take a tranquiliser but you can’t stand a little cold?”

“you’ll make a shitty wife if you can’t even keep me warm.”

“beni!” you hiss at benimaru in appaul, craning your face up to guffaw at him. the manners on him sometimes are despicable.

you pout, shifting your upper weight to flick benimaru in between his eyebrows. he screws his face in mutiny, lips curled into a scowl.

you and him both know that if it were anyone else flicking him like that, they’d be sent crashing through six different blocks of houses down the street.

“oi.” he warns you, tutting.

“konro come by and work some voodoo magic bullshit on you? ‘cause you’re testing your luck by pissing me off. you’re such a menace when you’re sick, it’s unbelievable.”

you hum in awe, inching your face closer towards his. there’s a wave of mockery that paints your face green and you can only laugh at the unrest that swirls in benimaru’s eyes.

he won’t have his pet talking down to him like that. no, no. that just won’t do.

“oh? really? you want me to do it again?” you flash him a cocky smirk, digits curled into a flicking position. you rest the bridge of your middle finger against benimaru’s forehead, slicking some of his charcoal stained locks out the way.

his left hand flies to catch your hand in an instant. with just two of his fingers, he can wrap himself around your wrist. his touch is assertive, firm. he can drag you the fuck away from him as he pleases, but there’s no real malice or force behind him just yet.

“yeah? try me.” he barks, peering down at you through his lashes.

you just might.

[seeuonadarknite]

pretty girl — yandere oikawa tooru x f. reader

warnings: angst, abuse, noncon, slight mentions of gore, grinding, choking/asphyxiation, blood, virginity loss, breeding kink, overstimulation, tears, exhibitionism, blackmail

“I'm so sorry, Oikawa. I just don't like you that way.”

When you had rejected the boy that had been oh so desperately pining after you, he felt his fragile heart shatter into a million tiny pieces. The only girl he had ever felt genuine interest towards was you. How could you do him so dirty?

Staring down at his trembling legs that were on the edge of bucking, his eyes began to water as salty tears started to form. Within seconds his face was absolutely drenched from the frantic stream of tears running down his face. His eyes were like faucets, and you had cranked the handles by rejecting his advances.

It wasn't long until his crying turned into ugly sobbing. The situation in itself was quite sticky, and you felt pretty helpless in terms of showing him comfort. After all, you were the initial cause of his breakdown.

In a desperate attempt to ease his nerves, you gently placed your hand onto his shoulder and tried soothing him with your voice. However, as soon as you had parted your lips to speak, Oikawa's sobs soon turned into silent, breathy chuckles. “O-Oikawa, what's so funny to you?” You looked at him as if he had two heads.

His reaction to your brutal rejection took a full 180; just a few seconds ago he was pathetically sobbing. The laughter emitting from his body sounded as shrill as a hyena's, marking your trembling stance similar to one of an antelope's, hopelessly waiting for their predator to devour them.

“Do you really think that you can just reject me like that? Do you have any fucking idea who I am?” He sent you an ear to ear grin that caused shivers to run down your spine. As much as you wanted to yell at him and tell him to get over himself, you were quite frankly scared shitless. He looked like he wanted to gut you alive and leave your rotting corpse for the crows.

However, the mischievous glint in his eye told you that he had other plans. Tightly wrapping his arms around your waist from behind, Oikawa forcefully pulled you into a nearby storage closet, slamming the door shut behind him. “Ugh! Oikawa, what the hell is wrong w—” He pressed his back up against yours in the process of shoving you against the wall, face first.

Tangling his fingers into your hair, he yanked your head back, forcing you to meet eyes with him. “Drop the formalities. It'd only be fair to start calling each other by our first names, seeing as I'm going to break you.” His hand released its grip on your locks, only to wrap it around your throat.

“You've lost all of my respect, pretty girl.”

Without another word, his soft lips attached themselves onto your shoulder as he began sucking away at the unmarked skin. Your skin began to ache at his vacuum like sucking, and his sharp canines digging into your skin. It was as if he wanted to mark his territory like some sort of predator.

As he pulled away, a chuckle erupted from his throat. Seeing tears quickly begin to brim your eyelids caused his cock to throb in his pants. “Not even gonna stop me? Were you just playing hard to get? Hah! How pathetic.” Was he seriously getting off to your tears?

Grinding his clothed cock against your rear, a wide grin began to cover Oikawa's features. Heavy pants emitted from his lips as his cock rubbed up against your panties. You must've been asking for it if you wore such clothing on the day he planned to confess, right? It was just too easy.

“Cry for me.” As soon as these words fell from his lips, he pulled his cock from the barriers of his pants and began rubbing it against your clothed slit from behind.

You didn't waste a spare second as you began ugly sobbing, shoving your forehead into the wall as if trying to protect yourself from the situation at hand. A hand was brought up to your face as it rubbed against your cheeks, picking up moisture from the tears falling down.

If you weren't so fucking terrified of your current position, you might have actually noticed the disgusting sounds of slurping coming from the man behind you. He was licking the fingers that he had swiped across your cheeks. He was licking your tears and enjoying it. “Good, good girl.” As he praised you for your natural compliance, he brought his hand up and shoved his digits into your mouth.

“Suck.” Without another word, you regretfully began doing as he instructed. After all, his fingers were a better alternative to what he could be shoving into your mouth.

As you swirled your tongue around his long digits, you felt his free hand push your laced panties to the side. “Wait!” You tried making him stop, but his fingers muffled your voice. Even if he could hear your voice loud and clear, he'd probably continue with his movements, regardless of how you felt.

Slipping the head of his cock against your hole, he wasted no time in forcefully pushing himself inside of you. You couldn't help but instinctively bite down onto his hand, causing a grunt to escape his mouth. He didn't even bother trying to ready you; he was fucking you raw.

“You're gonna regret that!” He cheered into your ear, rearing his hips back only to force himself inside of you with a rough thrust. “It hurts!” As you began crying once again, he dragged your hips back, allowing you to bend down and place your hands onto the wall for the slightest bit of comfort. Of course his reasoning was just to bury himself deeper inside of you.

His thrusts never really held any rhythm. They were sloppy and rushed. It really felt as if he held no regard for your own comfort; he just wanted to use you like a personal fucktoy. Leaning downwards just to get closer to your ear, he smirked. “I want to tear you apart.”

And it really felt like he did. With each thrust, you could feel your muscles tense and your insides ache. His cock had a lot of girth, causing your insides to painfully stretch. As he dug his short nails into the curves of your hips, he adjusted his stance and began drilling your hole with his throbbing cock.

A small amount of blood leaked from your hole, lubing up Oikawa’s cock in the process. Another tantalizing grin spread across his face, basking in the sight of your blood dripping down your leg. “Oh? Is [y/n] a virgin? How perfect!”

Without second thought, Oikawa flipped you over and pushed you onto the cold flooring, causing your head to bump up against the closet door in the process. Groaning in pain, you rubbed your throbbing head, not taking notice of the man on top of you carelessly throwing your trembling legs over his broad shoulders.

As soon as he aligned his cock with your aching cunt, he slammed himself inside of you, once again not even giving you a chance to adjust to his massive girth. You could feel your abdomen begin to tighten as his thrusts quickened. You were close, and by the looks of it, so was he.

“If you cum before I give you the okay, I’ll punish you, pretty girl.” Quite frankly, you didn’t want to know the repercussions of going against Oikawa’s orders. But you just couldn’t help it. The way his cock hit your cervix with such ease and the way his girth mercilessly stretched your clenching muscles had you aching for release.

So you deliberately went against his orders and came, releasing all of your juices onto his throbbing cock. However, as soon as he brought you pure euphoria with the orgasm of a lifetime, he soon brought you absolute pain. Wrapping two large hands around your throat, he carelessly began squeezing his hands, restricting your air supply.

“T-Tooru-!” It wasn’t as if he wanted to kill you, he just wanted to bask in your fearful expressions. Looking up at Oikawa with pleading eyes, you watched as his face contorted into a sadistic, bone chilling grin. It was terrifying.

“Don’t worry, doe eyes. I’ll let you go once I cum inside of you.” His thrusts rapidly quickened as he dug his nails into the skin covering your neck. Widening your eyes, you began pleading with him not to go through with his plans. There was absolutely no form of contraceptives you two had been using, and you sure as hell didn’t want this monster to knock you up.

However, your pleads went unheard as his hands tightened around your throat and his cock began shooting a thick, salty substance into your womb, painting your walls white. Whilst he shot his load inside of you, you couldn’t help but orgasm once more, milking any extra semen with the clench of your cunt.

After a minute or two of staying still, Oikawa eventually loosened his grip on your neck and hesitantly pulled his cock out of your aching hole. Leaving you to pant and cry on the floor, Oikawa pulled his pants back up with ease, leaving the storage closet with a few last words. “I’m so glad you accepted my confession. I was really worried I’d have to tell everyone how you came onto me in the closet at school.”

You really didn’t have a choice, did you?

[skribblz]

Discoveries

Haven’t written in like months so yeahhh. and I already spent a lot of time on this so I couldn’t pair it with a sketch :p 

An arrow whistles through the air, sharpened rock driving through the coarse wood. The owner frowns, a sigh escaping his lips as his arms relax back to his sides. 

Missed again.

Ukyo stares at the scatter of arrows sticking out of their round target, each and every one stubbornly refusing to pierce the red circle painted smack dab in the center. Maybe it was because he skipped breakfast? Or perhaps it was the wind, or the noisy birds that sometimes cluttered his hearing. It’s actually pretty damn miraculous that none of his shots hit its intended mark. Today was just not his day.

The crunch of leaves and the soft patter of footsteps quickly pulled him out of his thoughts. Senku and Gen. Incredible ears allowed him to recognize the footsteps of the village chief and mentalist duo.

“-been working me to the bone! I’ve had to scramble between you and Kaseki-chan this whole morning because of one of your crazy projects!” Gen lectures, “I’m tired and you owe me a bottle of cola.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Senku waves off, an infuriating smirk spreading across his face. “Though your complaining may offset all that ‘back-breaking labor’ you’ve put in huh, Mentalist?”

“How rude!” An airy voice huffs, but Ukyo can tell there was no bite in that statement.

The bushes rustle as the pair came into sight, Senku with his pinky stuck in his ear and a pouting Gen right beside him. “Ah! Ukyo-chan! We’re about have lunch now.” Gen chirps, quickly changing his mood, “You haven’t eaten right?”

The archer was about to speak, but his stomach conveniently cut him off with a growl. “Ah...yeah.” The two words stumbling out of his mouth. 

Ukyo may have been able to catch his fake impersonation of Lillian, but Gen doesn’t fail to notice the slight frown and tension in the white-haired boy’s posture. One look at the target embedded with a dozen arrows, all missing the middle red mark, was enough for the magician to understand. 

The three start heading back to the village; Senku in front, eager to return to his experiments, with Gen and Ukyo right behind. “So what brings you two out here? I thought our village chief would never leave his lab.”

“Just thought some fresh air would be nice. Can’t stay cooped up in there forever, so I dragged him out.” Gen nodded wisely, eyes then narrowing with mischief. “It’s like walking a dog, or making sure your grandpa gets enough exercise.”

“The 1079 seconds I’ve spent walking here could’ve contributed towards making your cola, y’know.” Senku states loudly.

Gen jolts. “Why were you even counting in the first place, Senku-chan...” 

Ukyo laughs softly at the two, and Gen decides that this current expression suited him much better than the previous gloomy one. And a wonderful idea comes to mind. Like a snake, his hand latches onto Ukyo’s side to give a few squeezes. The boy squeaks, emerald eyes nervously darting toward’s the offending hand.

“Oh~? Ticklish perhaps?”

“No! No, I was just- surprised.” And Gen just smirks, giving Ukyo no time to react as he pounces, wrestling to be on top.

“Oh Senku-chaaan, won’t you help me cheer up our dear friend here?” The magician calls, capturing one of Ukyo’s hand in his as the other starts kneading into the archer’s stomach. Ukyo immediately barks out a laugh, ears tinted with pink as his own giggles flooded the forest. “NOHOHohoo! No!”

Senku looks back in slight surprise and interest. He figured Gen would do something about Ukyo’s saddened state, but he never expected the mentalist to be this hand-on. Senku shrugs away the thoughts, why not join in all the fun? “Well, I can’t overwork one of my labor sources if they’re all dejected.” 

“Ah, blunt as always, our chief.” Gen dramatically sighs, but then grins as Senku walks over, settling himself behind Ukyo’s head. “Be a dear and hold these for me will you?” He smiles sweetly, allowing Senku to firmly grasp Ukyo’s wrists. Of course the trapped boy tries to squirm his way out, but once those devious fingers returned to scribble at his sides, it felt like his strength was being sapped away. “Wait! Wahaahait!”

Ukyo is very glad that he’s the one with crazy hearing and not someone else in the village, because knows someone will pick up on his peals of laughter. And it didn’t help that Gen was unfairly meticulous with his attack. With Ukyo’s hands pretty much out of the way, his fingers sought out every spot, each receiving a reaction that ranged from smothered chuckles to full-blown, head-thrown-back, honest laughter. 

“Ohh such a bright voice, how adorable.” The magician coos as he flutters his digits around the archer’s neck, earning a weird stare from Senku. Gen just sticks his tongue in retaliation, but it’s not like Ukyo can pay attention to the interaction anyways since he’s being tickled to death. “You’re always so soft-spoken and reserved. How amusing it is to see- or I guess hear- this side of you, Ukyo-chan!”

“NahahAHT! Nahat amUhuhusing! NOHOHOT THEHEHERE!”

“Just see it as payback for almost shooting me with an arrow that one time!” Gen grins devilishly, relentlessly clawing at the boy’s sides. “I was soooo scared!” And Ukyo only laughs in response, his own chortles interrupting each attempt to speak. 

“I- Ihihi waHAHA-!”

“Hmm? What was that?” 

“Wahahasn’t aiming aHAHat youhuhu!”

“Bet he wishes he had driven that arrow right through your head now.” Senku snickers, and Gen glares back.

“Hey! You’re in this too, so you’d be next, Senku-chan.” 

The two continue bickering, but the speed of Gen’s hands doesn’t let up. Even with his attention divided, the mentalist is scary good at eliciting those sweet giggles. Sometimes he’ll use a lighter touch and then increase the pressure, causing Ukyo’s laughter to go up and down. Other times his fingers will lightly tease an area, just to randomly shoot somewhere else, keeping Ukyo guessing. 

It was until the boy’s voice has gotten a little raspy that Gen knew when to stop. The magician wasn’t trying to kill his friend, so he pulled back with a smile, allowing Ukyo to greedily gasp for air. “Hope you’re not sulking anymore, or else...” Gen trails off ominously, wiggling his fingers.

A bit light-headed, Ukyo nods vigorously, body going limp as he continued to get his breathing under control. “You hah...you guys are terrible.”

Gen chuckles, standing up to stretch, “I know! Senku-chan is such a meanie right? Let me know if you want revenge.” He winks.

“Huh? Again, this whole thing was your doing, Mentalist.” Senku smirks challengingly, “Ukyo, let’s teach him a lesson. Chief’s orders.” 

“Ehh? That’s no fair.”

The three then break out laughing, the atmosphere light and refreshing. 

“Hey, thanks by the way. It sucked, but I’m feeling a bit better now.” Ukyo says, pushing himself up into a sitting position.

“Mhm, and I’m hungry so let’s get going.” 

“Anything to help.” Gen purrs smugly, and Ukyo is very keen on wiping that look off his face. The magician reaches out a hand, and Ukyo takes it, pulling himself up while yanking Gen down to fall on top of Senku. The white-haired boy, face still a bit flushed from the tickle treatment, couldn’t help but snicker as he patted himself off.

“I can hear your heartbeats quicken when you’re near each other, by the way.” Ukyo smiles down at the pair, mischief lighting up his eyes as he watched his friends scramble off each other, red crawling up their necks. “See you guys back at the village!”

[twdmusicboxmystery]

The Orange Backpack Symbol

So, we’ve been batting around the symbol of the orange backpack for a LONG time. We first saw it on a hitch hiker in 3x10, Clear, when Rick and Michonne went and found Morgan. We’ve seen it and things like it many times since. We still aren’t entirely sure what it means, but these are some ideas we’re batting around.

(Not my edit but just thought it was funny. It shows the fandom picks up on these symbols, even if they often don’t know what to do with them.  😊) I’ll give you my fellow theorist’s observations, first. They are excellent and most likely correct, even if we can’t say for sure, yet. Then I’ll chime in with a few of my own.

@frangipanilove:

I’m still uncertain about the Orange backpack symbolism versus regular backpacks. It sort of depends on the Dutch angles from Coda. If the term “Dutch angles” was something that came from TPTB, then I can make a strong case about Orange being tied to Beth. If it didn’t come from the horse’s mouth then it’s a much weaker connection. It could still be a thing, but it’s just not a case I can argue very convincingly.

@twdmusicboxmystery: For the record, though we haven’t heard tptb specifically mention “dutch angles” in any particular interview that we know of, I do believe we can safely say this came from them. It was talked about in the fandom a LOT and I believe the writers themselves leaked the first idea for it. It’s also part of the “on screen notes” in the Amazon digital version of the episode. Amazon has no involvement in the show other than carrying it and wouldn’t know what to put in the on-screen notes. Which means they come from the production itself. So I DO believe the “dutch angles” idea can be seen as something confirmed by the writers. Back to @frangipanilove:

@frangipanilove​: But either way, I believe the “back” in backpack is a reference to “come back” or “return”, “resurrection”, Sirius symbolism. Same with “back pocket”, as well as the torsos we’ve seen sometimes. My reasoning behind that is from season 3 when Merle returned to the show, and Michonne wrote a “biter gram” where she used a walker’s back to symbolize “go back” to Merle.

The original Orange backpack in 3x10, Clear, can be tied to return symbolism in many ways. They initially ignored the guy, then later saw him dead. They passed him, but returned to grab the backpack. 

And we’ve seen the backpack numerous times since, and it’s easy to tie it to reunions and returns to one’s family etc. We saw it in Michonne’s trippy vision with Virgil as well. Basically, it’s more return symbolism, because she’s going after Rick. She’ll find him, but even if she doesn’t, the return symbolism has already happened in that she found his boots and the iPhone (apple symbol) with the etching. That’s return symbolism.

(To her, Rick is dead, but these told her he might still be alive, so he’s just been resurrected in her mind.)

So, I view the backpack symbolism as return symbolism, and then the question is if Orange is a symbol that adds something different to the symbolism, or if it just enhances the return symbolism.

@wdway​:

It's funny that we're having a discussion about the brownish orange or rust color backpack because I wanted us to discuss it, haha. I've been thinking of it quite a bit in the last few weeks and I agree with you to a certain point, @Frangi, about it possibly being a reunions symbol.

I guess the difference for me is that I believe it also represents a journey. Some journeys are shorter than others, but a journey that reunites you to a person you have not seen for a long time, or even possibly thought were dead. In my head, that's for the rusty orange color.

In the Clear episode, team Rick passes the guy with the backpack, they journey to his hometown where he reunited with Morgan, someone who he was not expecting to see and may even believed was dead. The difference is, he picks up the backpack on his return home.

With Glenn, his rusty orange backpack journey was longer, but he ultimately reunited with Maggie who he hoped was alive but was not certain.

Daryl wore the rusty colored backpack when he, Rosita, and Denise took a short journey to a nearby community. On their way back home, they encounter Dwight. It was a reunion, but not a good one. And although Dwight was alive, the last Daryl had seen him, I'm sure Daryl hoped Dwight was dead.

It occurred to me while I was doing my research about the red rag that Daryl is wearing a rusty orange with brown legging on his right leg when he is on a journey to find/reunite the body of Rick. I need to go back and check but at the D.C. capital, there was a banner of an eye that we believe to be Emily's/Beth's. I believe that banner was a rusty orange, which would mean that there would be a reunion with someone that would require a journey to be reunited with someone believed to be dead.

I believe a regular or bright orange could possibly also be a journey color, but not necessarily a reunion with someone the person believed to be dead. Virgil had a bright or regular orange backpack when he found Connie. And yes, Connie was believed to possibly be dead but we are not led to believe that Virgil knew Connie, so the reunions part of it does not apply. Only the journey he had taken from his Island.

I do not know if tptb actually mentioned Dutch angles but I have seen several interviews of movie directors over the years that have used Dutch angle and have commented that it is something taught in film school that could represent something being somewhat out of tilt, something that is not quite right. I do want to mention that in the episode Stalker that has Daryl and Alpha in the garage there was Dutch angles around Alpha which ties it to the episode, Coda.

I think there were better images of the eye in the promo pictures for that season. The second shot is in the entry hall where they showed all of the different exhibits, banners in different colors, etc. What I want to point out is that chevron at the bottom. The banner looks like it reads, “Natural History,” and maybe the word “Living.”

@frangipanilove:

Regarding the Orange cover on Daryl’s leg, I interpret it as boot symbolism (it covers his leg = boot = trunk), which is synonymous with trunk symbolism IMO. That’s also what we see after Michonne has had her hallucination, including the orange backpack; she finds Rick’s boots in the boat. Boots = trunk and boat = vessel = vehicle.

So, I interpret in a way that ultimately points to the story of survival by way of trunk (three/tree/trunk symbolism). In Michonne’s case, it points towards Rick’s survival story, but because of the blue heron painting (among other things) we know that Rick’s story and Beth’s story are two versions of the same story.

So, when I interpret the symbolism around Michonne in that episode as pointing towards a reunion with Rick (or return to Rick), it means I also interpret the same symbolism as pointing towards Beth’s survival.

The banner in the museum in 9x1 IMO is eye = Sirius symbolism. This is because of Sirius as the “heavenly dog with a star in its eye” from the Robert Frost poem, and therefore also a reference to the one-eyed dog from Alone, among other things.

And in 9x1, the eye banner is orange, and Daryl’s leg wrap is orange. Which ties orange symbolism, eye symbolism and boot (Daryl’s leg) symbolism into Sirius symbolism. The orange backpack = return/resurrection. Daryl’s leg wrapping = boot = trunk = return/resurrection. The orange eye banner = Sirius = return/resurrection.

Also, I don’t think they will ever comment on whose eye it is on the banner, but you cannot convince me that it’s not Emily’s eye unless they specifically deny it.

This is a very short explanation of the symbolism pathway that leads me to think back = return. It’s a way to explain it that fits into my system. But basically, I believe what you say about a journey is just a different aspect of it. They’re slightly different ways of ending up at more or less the same spot. But in order to have a return, there kind of has to be a journey involved, otherwise it’s not much of a return, right?

Actually, I don’t know where you guys stand on this now, but I remember when the Michonne episode aired, @twdmusicboxmystery interpreted the apple symbolism as “separation.” I interpreted it as kind of the opposite: apples as a symbol of “bringing your family back, as Virgil said after poisoning Michonne. She said it took her family away from her, but I believe tptb use the apple symbolism as pointing towards reunion/return/resurrection.

My point is, we’re both right because they are two sides to the same story. There can’t be reunion unless there has been some sort of separation first. So, it could seem like I interpret the apple symbolism opposite to what @twdmusicboxmystery said after the episode, but I actually don’t think about it that way. I think we’re both picking up on what’s important about the apple symbolism, and then we use slightly different word to describe it.

I focus on the return/resurrection part, but in order to have that, there has to be some kind of separation or journey preceding it. You can’t reunite with someone you haven’t been separated from, and most likely, there’s a journey involved. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make much sense, right?

We first saw the eye banner when spoiler pictures from filming 9x1 emerged. They made no attempt to prevent the spoiler pics from coming out, they actually made quite the spectacle of it instead. I actually find that very interesting, because if it really is Emily’s eye, which I’m fully convinced it is, then it was a very loud announcement to TD about Beth, the eye/Sirius symbolism and also the orange symbolism.

We first saw Daryl’s leg wrapping in Stradivarius, right? We see the orange leg wrapping (IMO a boot/trunk reference) in Stradivarius, which is kind of the first we see of Daryl after the time skip, if you don’t count the small clip from the opening minutes of 9x6, which is an interesting clip. But you actually don’t see the orange leg wrapping there.

Which, if you don’t count the clip from 9x6 is kind of the first chronological appearance by Daryl after FM. You see him transitioning into the orange leg wrapping in FM, but chronologically that’s set in the time between 9x5 and 9x7. I love the little clip from 9x6, so packed with symbolism. But I do find it interesting that it doesn’t show the orange leg wrapping. It’s like they went out of their way to NOT show it. No idea if that’s significant or not, but certainly interesting.

@wdway:

You're right Frangi at the core we pretty much all believe the same thing. I agree totally with the eye banner being symbolism of Sirius the one-eyed dog but I also was very excited about seeing the Chevron symbol at the end of the entry hall banners, all in colors that can be tied to Beth. To me it speaks that there will be some type of military tie between the Sirius symbol (Beth) and the Chevron symbol (Commonwealth/CRM)

@frangipanilove: Yeah, agree on the chevron. They really like to pile on the symbols, don’t they. It’s symbolism on top of symbolism.

@wdway: We did actually see a quick glimpse of Daryl's orange legging in Who Are You Now, immediately following the reveal of the X on Michonne's back.

@frangipanilove: That’s awesome. Because that means that when we see it in Find Me, it’s the first time in the chronology he wears it. Assuming he had the orange leg cover during the entirety of 9x6, it means the very first time we see Daryl wearing it is when he’s standing waist-deep in the water spear fishing. Obviously, we don’t see it, but I’m going to assume we’re meant to believe he’s wearing it in the water while spear fishing.

Spear fishing is something we saw with both Leah and Carol in FM. He threw a fish at the front door with the X. In 9x6 we saw him catch a fish on the spear, then immediately a walker emerges from the water. All very strong symbols. Michonne has a very poignant voiceover, lots of symbolism there as well. He sees a walker representing himself grown into the tree trunks (three I believe). It reaches out for him, or something. Then the blue bird comes, grabs the ear worm, we see the nest, the bird babies. More poignant monologue from Michonne, tiny beacons of light etc.

@twdmusicboxmystery

What actually kicked off this conversation not long after Fear, 6x12, In Dreams aired, was that I noticed in Grace’s dream, when she met her daughter Athena, Athena was wearing an orange backpack. Not THE orange backpack, but another one.

I don’t have tons to add except to say that I totally agree with these two ladies. Another, slightly different (though not really) way you could look at it is that backpack always appears before someone dies, but there’s always a return as on the horizon as well.

In Clear, as @wdway mentioned, Morgan qualifies as a resurrection and return, but the hitchhiker carrying the backpack also died. In this case, Morgan also disappeared again, not to reappear until 5x01. So it was also the beginning of another separation between Rick and Morgan.

I seem to remember Carl having the backpack in 3x16, just before TF finally kicked the Governor’s butt. I’ve often wondered if it was a death omen for Carl. And it may have been, given that this is the episode where Gimple took over and probably planned Carl’s arc. But that wouldn’t come for a long time. 

It’s more likely that it meant other things. Many of the Gov’s people actually did die, but that also kicked off the Gov’s arc where he disappeared and didn’t return until 4x08 when he bulldozed the prison. And there were HEAVY Beth parallels during those two episodes (4x06-07) about him. There were also smaller returns here, such as Karen returning to Tyreese at Woodbury, and them finding Andrea. Though she, too, actually died.

Michonne’s vision with Virgil has been covered pretty well here. Clearly it’s leading toward her finding Rick (reunion) but also kicks off her separation from her kids, Daryl and the rest of TF. We didn’t see obvious death around her, but I’m sure there will be some in her coming arc. The fact that she keeps ending up with Negan’s bat in her hands is proof enough of that.

I’m sure you can also see how the orange backpack ties into the left/right/back pocket symbolism as well.

So yeah. I think you get the idea. It’s a fascinating symbol, isn’t it? And one we’ll definitely keep an eye on moving forward. Thoughts?