#shads sketchies

[shadowluver1242]

Practicing. Haven’t drawn him in years. Working on a story and need to see if I can make a comic out of it or not…jury’s still out. I like him floofy.

[leaves-and-inks]

🦇SOME ARE BORN TO THE ENDLESS NIGHT🦇

The last piece in this series!! I love watching the bats fly about in the summer, they're just so neat and cute!! I drew this one on the back of the failed possum piece I mentioned in my vulture post haha

leaning on calling this series "The Cycle" but I may workshop it a little, maybe incorporate something with the song titles in, but I'm not so sure yet. This was a fun project though, so hope y'all enjoyed it as much as I have!! :D

I have a few ideas for more series in the works, and want to resurrect some old ones too, I feel like sticking to something with consistency can be good for me, but for now I've got a few WIPS that need a little polish :)

[ID: A hand holding a black and white illustration on tan paper with uneven edges. behind it is a white tapestry with a pattern made up of illustrated green leaves, slightly out of focus. The illustration is a large brown bat head drawn in black and white ink, looking down and to its left in 3/4 view. All the details and the eye are sketched in with white, the inner ear is left mostly tan, and the illustration itself sits within a white circle. the bat's mouth is open, showing it's teeth, and the ends of the wings are folded up at its sides. The illustration crops at the base of the neck, its ears, neck fur, and the clawed ends of its folded up wings overlap the shape. There is a larger circle surrounding the head, filled with vines with aster flowers, stylized leaves, and blue foot mushrooms. Most of the plants and fungi are colored in black, but some are just a white outline. Some plant material breaks out from a larger circle behind them and the shad drawing, Over top of the plants and fungi are radiating out from the center of the fish head are sketchy white lines. the paper is thin, and has a slight scaled pattern to it.

Image 2: cropped version of the previously described illustration. the photo goes to the edges of the page, and the illustration is centered. the radial lines on the top and bottom of the page are slightly cropped.

Image 3: Crop on the bat's face, details in the white ink becoming more apparent. The image crops right after the end of the snout, the beginnings of both ears, and just short of the neck

Image 4: Crop focusing on the plants and fungi, along with the bat's left ear. it crops midway through the eye, the right, closest ear, and features the top right quarter of the illustration. /end ID]

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

Sorry if you already have a post on this or smthn! But I’m really curious as to why Aph would cannabalize people in MyS? And also is this a trait that’s in ur MCD rewrite? 👁️👁️

Can u maybe plz ramble about this bc I love the concept and I’m curious

(idk how coherent this is it was 1:30 when i wrote it and i haven't reread it lmao)

TW: Cannibalism, auto-cannibalism, sacrifices, blood magic etc

A

okay

mmhm i can do that! i do have like 800 posts about cannibalism, but i don't think i've spoken much about it in my MyS rewrite.

Okay, basically, all of the aphverse series are somehow connected in my rewrite. Aside from maybe MID since it's set on earth… but like, MCD, MyS, A Royal Tale, Mermaid Tales, etc, all connected somehow. Every version of Aph is a reincarnation of eachother, aside from MCD Aph, who is a slightly more complicated case.

BASICALLY, Irene is an asshole. She had a lot of power, which she gained through sketchy means, and used in the form of sketchy magic. Particularly, she used a lot of blood magic, which was the form of magic which predated even her and Shad. It's a particularly taxing form of magic, and it requires a lot of sacrifice (literally). Blood magic requires blood sacrifices, and lots of them, which Irene was lucky to have from so many many people, giving her a lot of freedom with her usage of it. However, specific sacrifices held a certain… magical value. Due to the emotional aspect of human sacrifice, it was the form that gave the most power. All that to say, with all the magic that Irene had left after the war, she decided to pulverise herself completely. She knew that she couldn't die properly, as a god, but she could destroy every speck of her physical form (save her heart, which remained intact). 

However, from the immortal pool of gore and viscera left behind by her death, Avra (my version of Aphmau) was born. This would be fine, if not for the fact that blood magic was what bound Avra into form (an SK got hurt moving through the temple, and the blood landing upon the stone did count as a sacrifice, even if accidental). This melded blood magic into her very being. The only other relevant occasion where blood magic is melded into someone is THE SHADOW KNIGHT TRANSFORMATION PROCESS. And that is complicated bc technically the SK is the sacrifice… its weird, Sks are weird. ANYWAYS, my point is that force-joining a living entity with blood magic causes them to have a very, very strong desire to consume juicy, juicy meat. For Sks, this often manifests in the form of craving the meat of the creatures they fear eating the most (Sks who have a fear of rats will want to eat rats, Sks who have a strong moral compass will want to eat people). However, as Avra's body was constructed from the immortal blood of a goddess who received a whole lot of human sacrifices, wow she now craves human meat (especially human hearts) above all else. who is surprised? but she will settle on others. This is because creatures of blood magic do not oft receive sacrifices, and so have developed to instead hunger for meat, and such, gaining their power from consuming the hearts of their prey.

This hunger is given many names. The Calling, The Hunt, it's a whole thing. It's all-consuming, and painful, and Avra struggles with it often.

ONTO MYS, this hunger carried over through reincarnations. I've made the small decision, pre-poll completion, that her first displays of cannibalistic qualities happened when she was young. She would bite other children often, and chew very aggressively at the skin of her fingers, and inside her mouth, and such. Her fingers are scarred from this, and she keeps her nails short bc the longer they are, the easier they are to tear off with her teeth. that said, she likely wouldn't actually eat anyone until much later on, even though she would frequently have intrusive thoughts about doing so throughout her life.

other characters who are Blood-Bound will also experience some displays of auto-cannibalism, biting tendencies, extreme love of meat, etc, though most are not as severe as Avra. They were merely transformed with blood magic, she was born with it connecting her every fibre. 

[lenjaminmacbuttons]

I GOTTA know more about the Baldur’s Gate Singles Ward. And also, werewolf eats cereal.

[rips my shirt off] YEAH

My concept for a bg3 mormon au is basically that all the main companions are BYU students (write what you know, y'know) in the same ward with The Bishopric From Hell. Bishop Geddarm is fine, he's not super competent but he's kind and entertaining, but he's for some reason called as his counselors Brother Thorm and Brother Gortash. Orin is Gortash's freakazoid wife, and Thorm's wife is Shar--though she knows he's sleeping around on the side, and keeps quiet about it cus it's fun to watch him squirm.

The ward is still okay to be in, because the two main Sunday School teachers (Karlach and Wyll) are absolutely fantastic. She was raised in the church but fell away after coming out as bi as a teen, and then when Wyll met her on his mission she was at a point where she really needed it, and he was a good enough dude to actually honestly help rather than manipulatively pouncing on her misfortune to add a tally mark to his baptism record. They're a dream team of actually exploring doctrine in authentic and progressive ways, and breaking down all the harmful and sketchy nonsense we've all been raised with.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel are currently at the point where they've never questioned any of the church's sketchy nonsense, because they've never had need to--Shads is Brother & Sister Thorm's adopted daughter, who's actually lived in subconscious fear of questioning anything because her older stepsister Isobel was disowned for wanting to marry her wife. Lae'zel is similar, but her fear comes out as contempt for those who just don't have strong enough testimonies to stick it out. A lot of her attitude also comes from her being a certified Air Force Brat, but that's neither here nor there. She'll come around eventually.

Gale & Halsin are both converts, the former for his girlfriend and the latter for scout camp lol. Both technically too old for the ysa ward but shh don't tell anyone. Both prone to very long travelogues in testimony meeting. Both the uncontested kings of ward potlucks, though they never get competitive with one another. Until the chili cook-off. We don't talk about what happened the last chili cook-off.

Astarion has never really had a testimony ever. He's only at BYU because it's the only place his family would let him go to get away from them, and he goes to church & goes through the motions out of fear of getting in trouble & sent back home. But he might come around someday. Maybe. He does enjoy Karlach & Wyll's lessons.

i really really wanna draw them at some point because i have very specific lovely ideas for what they each would wear to church but i also have ten thousand other things i wanna draw and not enough energy or motivation so....someday ;v;

as for werewolf eats cereal i will make that a separate post because it's very very different in tone from this and also this is long lol so stay tuned mwah ily

[thewandererh]

good morning chat. i have awoketh at 4am on a school morning (yikes) to bring you some flipaclip art to pass the time 🥱👍

these are from both animated projects and doodlestuffs!! ill label which they are in my caption ^^. sluggo draws all her masterpieces with flipaclip so i wanted to get in on the hype lol. and turns out, i really really like it as a drawing program :] <33. only recently picked it up as a doodling program (after a year of trying it initially) so some of these non-animation-project drawings range in age and skill.

⚠️TW // sketchy imagery of stitches, bleeding/crying eye sockets (heart activities), oddly ominous intense eye contact, SUL trying to look hot lmao

so, without further ado…

.-.

.-.

1. two good big great arts i did at like 10pm!!

drew these partially on voice call with that same sluggo one night during the last few weeks of summer, and continued it after we got off call. apparently i got a huge kick in my skills that night because these turned out different but really good. really good posing and perspective and h a n d s,, i love my art but these two slides feel like some autistic daydream lmaoo

oh!! as for context:

🧡= medical!hms whole

💜= thdph x rainworld kismet

💛= thdph x rainworld checkmate (hes supposed to be orange but ah well)

💙= thdph x rainworld deedee :3

the 1st slide emphasizes how these two got good diverse faces, and the 2nd is a joke i illustrated. silly…

.-.

.-.

2. Shads & Whole :]

aight, now for two more doodles from that same ‘project’ from above (aka they are recent). these two are my beloved antagonist shadows in his gold rush arc doing a silly, and a whole vent i drew when feeling the stress of school starting soon (that i adjusted later). as i’m writing this, im starting the 2nd week of the school year and so far it’s been really interesting!!

.-.

.-.

3. onto animation snippets!

MONSTER: a wip anim of shadows & twine (the ogs before everyone else)

APPLE BOTTOM JEANS: a joke with spectrum and sul i probably wont continue or redraw

???: and the thiRd is an animation that is actively being updated and redrawn and im so excited for it hehehe. itll release by hopefully the end of this year!! i released some gifs of it a bit back that i’ll link down beloww

.-.

.-.

4. drawings from Minnesota (+ sul)

these were from when i first experimented with flipaclip!! i was on i think a winter break? down in minnesota?? again, just recently picked it up so my latest doodles have been a lil more skillful. but i really really really like these.

aight! first!! old lizard oc art :]! hydra: lizard experiment and now boom they have 4 heads (azure is not in this one)

then there’s a black throated loon because i was getting into them at the time!! was watching lots of documentaries. ended up getting a loon plush from the mall of america :]

and thEn, finally, a really old sul art that probably surpasses these both in age. i hopped on flipaclip to do a doodle, and there it has stayed for probably over a year now. god i love him so much. OH MY GOD THIS WAS BACK WHEN HE HAD NO ANTENNAE HOLES wow this really is old

[cinnamontoastcroonch]

oh my god. the idea of laurance being a direct descendant. rant below cut

tbh i think that may have been the original plot plan since it makes SO much sense with the whole dynamic of his character and the other mains… until aaron’s character left his stranger arc and became what he was (i feel like his character was unplanned in the beginning and they just threw him in and messed up the entire storyline)

like this makes so much more sense

aphmau -> irene

garroth -> esmund

laurance -> shad

BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL KEY CHARACTERS FROM THE BEGINNING !!

also once i read somewhere that jesson decided aaron would be worked into the plot of mcd around the time he was advancing in myst

i was never a myst fan the way i was for mcd so pls forgive if this is not the case💀…. but yeah sounds sketchy right

as you guys can tell i’m a laurance gal. i will preach that his plot was stolen UNTIL I DIEEEE.

this is how i feel basically revealing that i was anon:

thoughts on laurance being the one to absorb shad’s relic instead of…🙄aaron🥱

LIKE THE ANGST POTENTIALLL

never thought about it but it's a pretty sick idea. Aaron/Alinas's connection to the relic is a matter of being a direct descendant of him, and Ivy being able to wield it was due to her violent and destructive nature being compatible, so there's two ways I can see this happening:

1. Laurance is actually a descendant of Shad somehow, which considering he's an orphan and we don't know his bio parents is a 100% plausible thing.

2. At some point his personality ends up being compatible with the destructive nature of the relic. Which does have some insane angst potential! I'd imagine this would happen sometime s2/s3 as he succumbs more and more to being a Shadow Knight.

Now I'm wondering how different S3 would be if Laurance was Shad's vessel instead...

[shads-sketchies]

Someone order a low quality visualization of this chapter of Commander, Meet the Cat?

-Sept 9, '22

[weird-day]

annnnd the final member of the “i sold my soul for some chips” trio is Avery!! Avery is a goofy, chill, tall as hell (like around 6′6 ) nonbinary pal who is obsessed with space and cryptids and may be one as well >w>

[shadowthestoryteller]

Update+OtaGS deal reminder

I'm not dead! I am just doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work for a more polished look when the new year rolls around (making a schedule, creating posting guidelines, revamping Patreon, making Instagram themes, etc). This also means that this account will become my main base of operations, so any side accounts will be rolled into this one. That includes:

@a-batcher-a-day @shads-sketchies @shadowsstorystuff

Any content posted there will be posted on this account after Jan1st, with the accounts abandoned but not deleted. Just to consolidate my stuff into one area so people don't have to follow multiple accounts to get all my stuff, but also so I can keep track of things easier.

My new story stuff is still on hold until Jan 1st, but in the meantime don't forget I have a deal going for a signed hardcopy of my "Off to a Great Start" Clone Wars era Bad Batch fic! Orders are open until Dec 1st, so don't miss it!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to join my discord if you want to see any extra details/chat with me or other fans of the series!

Shadow out ✌️ ✌️ 

[shady-item-shop]

⮚ well ðat sounds like a really sketchy offer. i'm not going to accept.

Sketchy? You mean SHAD💥

⮚ let's just go to=ðe=right> again.

[It doesn't feel like the Advertsary themself is here.]

[discountalien-pancake]

Not sure if you received a reply, nor if you care (I understand if you don't), but Li/ly C/hen is a vampire wlw who is kind of present in the story but not really (not a shad/owhunter means not important for CC). I believe her father was described as sketchy and abusive, but idk if I remember much of her personality. She is there to occasionally move the plot forward for the 'heroes' and that's about all.

I expected as much, honestly. And of course one of the only Asian characters with an Asian last name, meaning they have an Asian father because Cassie doesn’t understand the concept of dismantling the patriarchy, had an abusive father. White women? Not giving a shit about the racist implications of their writing? It’s more likely than you think!

[leaves-and-inks]

🪶 CAN'T KEEP MY EYES FROM THE CIRCLING SKIES 🪶

Another bird!! originally the theme of these next two pieces was going to be scavengers, but I discovered that possums reallyyy don't translate super well into this style and layout, so I'm gonna pair this black vulture one with a different, not scavenger animal instead :)

[ID:A hand holding a black and white illustration on tan paper with uneven edges. behind it is a white tapestry with a pattern made up of illustrated green leaves, slightly out of focus. The illustration is a black culture head, looking down and right in 3/4 view. All the details and the eye are sketched in with white, and the illustration itself sits within a white circle. it crops at the base of the neck, its beak and upper neck feathers overlapping the shape. There is a larger circle surrounding the head, filled with vines with aster flowers, stylized leaves, and blue foot mushrooms. Most of the plants and fungi are colored in black, but some are just a white outline. Some plant material breaks out from a larger circle behind them and the shad drawing, Over top of the plants and fungi are radiating out from the center of the fish head are sketchy white lines. the paper is thin, and has a slight scaled pattern to it.

Image 2: cropped version of the previously described illustration. the photo goes to the edges of the page, and the illustration is centered. the radial lines on the top, bottom, and right of the page are slightly cropped.

Image 3: Crop on the vulture's face, details in the white ink becoming more apparent. The image crops right after the end of the beak, and right after both eyes

Image 4: Crop focusing on the vulture's feathers and plant/fungi life. Only the top right quarter of the illustrated page area is in frame. /end ID]

[shadowtarot]

Shad Playing P5 For The First Time: I'm not that big of a fan of Akechi. The deal that he's famous and stuff and is also sketchy AF kinda bothers me.

Shad Playing P5 on NG++++ After Consuming A Lot Of Addtional Matirial: Akechi is written in a way that you hate him at first, but as you peel back the layers you understand why he is the way he is, making him really interesting. He gives hints with each interaction that he's not in control of his life, yet you only tend to pick up on it retrospectively, just like the Phantom Thieves.

Shad Looking At Akechi's Trailer For P5R: OwO?

[split-n-splice]

[Chapter Guide]

Chapter 3 - Trial

Once she’d caught up to the black SUV, more or less, Shilo was careful to keep her distance and her stalker just within sight.

Paranoia had her palms sweaty on the wheel and her brain buzzing, wondering if swapping the minivan for the Sloth had disguised her well enough or if the man was aware he was being followed now. It wasn’t the first time she’d ever followed anyone, but it was perhaps the first time she’d followed someone looking for her in turn, made evident when the suspicious vehicle took a leisurely pass through her neighborhood before making a beeline for a motel near the interstate.

She found a place to park just around the corner on the block across the street, crossing her fingers she was as inconspicuous as could be after following the SUV for half an hour or more.

A trusty pair of compact binoculars were found in the glove box. For once she was thankful that her brother was an overenthusiastic vigilante.

Shilo leaned over the back seat to peer through the rear window, focusing the binoculars on the henchmen climbing out of the SUV. They stretched, and after a moment of chatter among themselves, they dispersed to their respective rooms. The scowling blue man in the suit was the last to leave the vehicle, and she paid particular attention to the door he disappeared through on the second floor. Shilo branded the room number into her memory.

Deciding to give it some time before confronting the strange doctor, Shilo returned home.

She didn’t want to come off as too interested anyway, let alone desperate. One could never be too careful either, she supposed. It could still be a setup, some kind of trap, and she’d rather keep him waiting if that were the case. Soothing her nerves, she savored the idea of showing up unexpected later to catch him off guard. She’d love to instill a little unease by turning the tables, turning the stalker into the stalked.

In the meantime, she found herself home alone.

She wasted no time busying herself with stuffing an old black backpack with clothes and essentials. It was good to have a go-bag anyway. It didn’t mean she was leaving.

Yet she couldn’t convince herself it was just a precaution when she kept glancing out the window to the street below, expecting – hoping? – to see a black vehicle idling out front. Packing in anticipation was insane. Shilo shook her head but didn’t shake out the bag.

She still paused to contemplate what her most valuable possessions might be that she couldn’t bear to leave behind if she did act on a whim to run away with a sketchy stranger, as ludicrous as it was.

It was practically a reflex to consider family photos, but one flip through the album, and she froze at a rare surviving snapshot of a raven-haired beauty staring back at her not unlike a reflection, the only notable difference being the woman in the photo was happy. Like all other memorabilia, it was destined to never make it to her bug-out bag. It was a wonder the photograph had escaped her hot-tempered teenage rage at all until now.

“I am not like her,” Shilo swore to herself, watching the crumpled photo quickly burn to ash now in her palm.

She wasn’t abandoning or disowning her family for being mutants. She wasn’t afraid of them. She wasn’t skipping town for better things or because things had gotten difficult – her freak family had exceeded difficult ages ago. No, she was leaving because she was nineteen, she told herself. She was long past due for leaving the nest. That was all. Right?

“It’s not like I don’t love them anymore,” she grumbled, and grimaced the second it slipped out. If she was seriously considering a pole shift, then being tethered by things like love and family would just be giving herself a laughable weak spot. Right? Villains shouldn’t have those kinds of sentiments, right? She supposed she’d learn the ins and outs in time.

Was she really considering going through with this?

Deep breaths.

Shilo tried once more to reassure herself. “I’ll see them again,” she mumbled. “Hugo is smart enough and has the resources now to find me if he really wants to.” She paced her room with her bag, stealing another fruitless glance out the window. “He hasn’t looked for Mom yet, so he maybe won’t try too hard to find me either.” Maybe he’d accept her decision and let her go.

She thought her mumblings would make herself feel better, but they really weren’t helping. At all.

She struggled to push thoughts of abandoning her family and being forgotten like yesterday’s news aside in favor of focusing on the television for a while, hoping it would lull her to sleep so she could get some needed shut-eye.

But it didn’t, and when reality TV got grating, Shilo nearly hopped on her brother’s computer to search for Dr. Drakken in Global Justice’s database to dig up what she could on him, but she stopped herself. If he was the real deal, the search might tip off the organization supervising her freak family. Shilo grit her teeth and turned away from her big brother’s door. If he was the real deal, she’d have to trust Dr. Drakken enough to go into it blind, more or less. It was no big deal, she told herself. She took risks all the time.

She resumed her organizing and packing, dwelling over what qualified as essentials while trying to pack light.

It had been a way of killing time at least, but she couldn’t keep herself cooped up all day.

Despite keeping a hopeful eye out for him earlier, Shilo didn’t want to be caught leaving from the front door. Her stalker seemed to have a habit of stakeouts and prowling her street, so come noon, she slipped out the back door just in case to hop the back fence and cut through an oblivious senior neighbor’s yard, just as she used to whenever sneaking out in the uniform she’d grown accustomed to over the years, though she was undercover today, setting out as just a deceptively typical civilian.

She needed more evidence than smooth talk, a failed theft, and a car full of hired muscle to prove the doctor was dedicated to criminal ambitions. She needed proof he was worthwhile, not a wannabe. That he was someone exciting. Or at the very least, someone with the potential to be worth throwing her present life away for.

Catching a bus, Shilo soon found herself practically vibrating in anticipation, giddy with the notion of doing something bigger than petty misdemeanors. She hadn’t even done anything yet, and the thought was giving her a rush. On the off chance the guy was serious about outrageous domination goals, and on the off chance he had the guts and the brains to pull it off, maybe she could get close enough to sweep that victory out from under him, be it for good or for bad.

She was getting ahead of herself.

Shilo caught herself smirking to impractical daydreams and wiped the smile off her face in time to disembark near the interstate.

Even if the man couldn’t achieve his dreams, maybe he could at least give her the thrill of becoming someone notorious, she mused. Accepting his offer would be a place to start. She was sick and tired of playing by the rules. Sick of fighting for the greater good when she’d rather do anything but. She didn’t owe Go City or the world diddly-squat just because she was superhuman. She had to break the mold set for her sometime.

And that time felt like it was approaching fast, and it made her stomach flip.

She was as nervous as she was excited for what she was getting herself into.

Shilo reached her destination and ducked behind the hedge bordering the parking lot. She surveyed the motel. No loitering henchmen or Dr. Drakken in sight. No SUV either. She glanced behind her and all around the street for evidence of the scoundrels, but there was no sign of her stalker or his goons. So she turned back to the motel and scanned the doors to find Dr. Drakken’s, and after a nervous pause, she finally willed herself to make her move.

She straightened up and walked with purpose as she crossed the parking lot, as if she had business here. As if she might be staying here herself. As if she wasn’t up to anything shifty.

Shilo stopped outside her stalker’s room on the second story and listened carefully to the silence inside. She glanced back to be absolutely sure she hadn’t overlooked the SUV in the parking lot that was nearly empty, and composed herself to hide all traces – she hoped – of her nerves before knocking, finding herself hoping he was in. For good measure, she had a smug smile ready for him. She’d love to see the surprise on his face.

But there remained a dead silence, so she knocked a little harder. When there was still no answer, she pushed her disappointment aside and dug in the pocket of her jeans for a handy-dandy lock-picking kit and set to work. She couldn’t help casting a few distracted glances back toward the road for signs of the doctor’s rig.

It would have been faster and easier to blast the door open, but that wasn’t an ideal method when she didn’t want to be busted. Subtlety was key.

Soon enough, Shilo was inside. She tiptoed into the dark room. The only thing of interest was an old scuffed suitcase left at the foot of the tidy bed. Beyond the furniture and luggage, the room was bare.

She should have known not to expect it to look like the headquarters of a raving lunatic – it was only a motel room after all. The walls weren’t covered in blueprints or self-absorbed news clippings or scribes of a madman. At a glance, there was nothing at all she could use to accuse the man of criminal activity.

Which was disappointing, to say the least.

Chewing on a nail as she surveyed the room, she couldn’t help feeling a little stupid. Maybe one of the henchmen had paraphernalia? She kicked herself for not paying attention to what rooms they’d split up to, but made the best of her situation and let her investigation take her to the suitcase.

Shilo knelt down by it and weighed the odds of it being booby-trapped for a moment before deciding to take her chances. However, just as she reached for it, a shadow fell over her from the doorway. She whipped around with a startled gasp, warmth flaring in her palms as she clutched her green fire, reflexively ready for a fight. But the man in the doorway was at ease.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” Dr. Drakken clicked his tongue, watching her like a critical unblinking owl as she leapt to her feet. His gaze drifted down, her glow glinting off his glasses, inquisitive eyes shifting to her hands. “Looking for something?”

Given her uncertainty for her present safety, Shego was hesitant to extinguish her flame, but she let it burn out after a moment of the man waiting patiently. She didn’t like the curious way he was watching the plasma anyway, and didn’t want to prolong whatever satisfaction he took in studying it.

“Proof,” she answered curtly.

“Is that so?” A little smug, the peculiar man cocked his head at her, his brow arching. “What kind of proof?”

“That you’re really as bad as you say,” Shego clarified.

Dr. Drakken scoffed. “I’m only here on a simple pilfering mission, so I’m afraid you’ll find no further proof of my misdeeds and schemes here.”

When Dr. Drakken took a step in, Shego took a step back, hoping at the back of her mind that he’d take another step closer to clear the doorway so she could make a break for it without being snared by grubby blue hands. “What are you scheming?” she demanded instead. “Why are you in my city?”

Elbow in hand, he tapped his chin thoughtfully, making her skin crawl as he looked her over with a critical eye. “I’ll let you in on it if you do me an itsy bitsy favor,” Dr. Drakken bribed with a pinching gesture. When she curled her lip at him, he held up his hands in peace. “Just a little errand,” he added honestly. “Should be easy as pie for you.”

“Not interested,” Shego growled anyway. She gave up waiting and tried to push past him, but she nearly recoiled and lashed out in reflex when he barred the way with an arm to make her pause. She barely kept her fists to her sides.

His jovial facade was gone. “Thanks to you, my men failed their assignment,” Dr. Drakken explained bluntly, crossly. “But if you could get me the robotics programming data from those clever college brats before that rotten Global Justice confiscates it, that would be swell.”

Shego grit her teeth back at him and glared harshly, but he was unwavering. She didn’t put up with family blocking her way or smugly using a height advantage over her, and she sure as hell wasn’t about to put up with it from a stranger trying to employ her either. If she went along with anything, she was doing so on her terms.

So without thinking it through, without pausing to consider how it might affect her chances of getting out of this town or any other consequences, Shego grabbed a fistful of the blue man’s suit and swung him out of her way, throwing him back hard enough that he was knocked to his butt. She might not have had her big brother’s superstrength, but she was no weakling either.

“Let’s get something straight, Doc,” she leered down at him. “Don’t mess with me. I might be labeled a hero around here, but I can and I will leave you for a forensics team if you try to pull one over on me.”

There was an edge of nervousness in Dr. Drakken’s chuckle as he held up his hands, an appeasing smile worn on his face. “I swear, no tricks!” he said with a quiver of sincerity, taking her threat to heart while barely maintaining his confidence. “I want your help – not to harm you.”

Shego studied his face until he uncomfortably peered away. Once detecting that moment of weakness, she relaxed. She suddenly didn’t feel quite so threatened by him if he was so easily bullied into submission anyway. It was only when she gave a small nod and muttered, “Alright,” did he pick himself up and recompose himself.

The pallid man straightened his tie and smoothed his coat. “So. Shego. Are you up for the job?” he inquired. “Stealing the programming for me, I mean.”

She wasn’t ready to outright agree to anything quite yet, so she dodged his question with her own. “What do you need it for?”

“Robots, of course,” Dr. Drakken answered, his blithe demeanor returning. He came towards her as he explained, carefully guiding her out with an arm hovering behind her to urge her along. “They’re very special robots – I’m quite proud of them. I need them to be perfect.”

“Why steal? You’re some kind of expert, aren’t you?” Shego wondered. “Can’t you program them yourself?”

The blue man shrugged and offered his excuse, “For the sake of doing bad, first and foremost of course. Plus it’s easier and less time consuming this way, as opposed to making it from scratch.” He swallowed a little anxiously when the young woman’s scowl turned up to him. “Hnn. Okay. So I can build them alright, but programming – it's…certain aspects of it are not my forte,” he explained reluctantly with a few wild hand gestures.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairway, Shego realized suddenly that although she was keeping pace, she was still technically following the man, and she didn’t quite like that. He wasn’t her superior yet. She didn’t have to follow him anywhere.

Falling back a step, she narrowed her eyes at his slick mullet for a moment before crossing her arms and scowling away resentfully, remembering there was no telling how long this creep had been stalking her, which she still didn’t appreciate even if it lead to his offer for a way out. But that was a villain for you. It was in the job description to be sketchy – targeting the presumably weak, stalking, thieving, and the sorts. By evil standards, the devious behavior should probably be appealing. And maybe it was, just a little. She wasn’t telling him off just yet anyway.

“You stalked me here, didn’t you?” she had to wonder.

“No, not this time,” Dr. Drakken admitted. “The crew and I had a change of plans, and I let the boys take the car. I was just coming back and what a surprise! There you were.” He turned an accusing frown on her before barking a laugh just shy of wicked. “It worked out, though, didn’t it? I didn’t have to go looking for you this time.”

“I guess,” Shego muttered, still holding herself as they strode out across the blacktop. “Um…I’m gonna…” She warily sidestepped away. “I’ll see you later,” she said as she left in a hurry the second she reached the sidewalk.

“What, don’t want a briefing?” Dr. Drakken called after her, perplexed.

She waved over her shoulder but didn’t look back at the strange man. “I’ll manage,” she assured him, her mind made up.

++X++

And manage she did.

She’d sworn to herself she wouldn’t wear her uniform again, yet here she was, dressed in a black turtleneck sweater on a warm day, oversized jeans hiding the lower half of the costume as she loitered outside on a mediocre college campus.

There was nothing impressive or renown about the place, and as far as she knew or cared, possibly the biggest news to ever be generated here was all due to Dr. Drakken’s goons yesterday.

Sneaking up to the building without drawing attention was effortless. She scanned for security cameras just in case as she found herself a nice blind spot in the shade along the east wall. No one paid her any mind as she leaned there to check her makeup in her compact. Just as soon as passerby had cleared the street and lawn within sight of her, she slipped out of her sweater and jeans, pulled her hair back into a neat ponytail, and tucked her civilian disguise under the shrubs. She donned her gloves, and though she hated it the most, she tied on her clownish domino mask as well to complete the look of the resident heroine Shego.

If she weren’t on a mission to steal under the guise of good, then being seen in public in her signature Team Go uniform would have felt like forfeit. A handful of loitering students turned their heads and raised eyebrows at her as she strode up the steps to the main entrance, and devious delight bubbled up in her chest when she heard some excited whispers. Those who didn’t detest her yet were so oblivious and in awe of their local heroine that the prospect of treason was all the more enticing.

For the first time in her life, she was happy to wear the uniform.

Shego calmly navigated her way back to the computer lab, passing through the halls like any normal person would – as opposed to blasting into the side of the building like Dr. Drakken’s showy idiot henchmen had yesterday. The door to the tech room had been busted off the hinges in yesterday’s skirmish when Shego had thrown one of Dr. Drakken’s goons through it. Though the glass and debris in the hall had since been swept up, there was still caution tape crisscrossing the doorframe.

Despite the destruction and a new gaping window filling the room with an abundance of glaring afternoon sunlight, the overhead lights were still operating and the room was still occupied. A couple of young men were sullenly putting their things back in order, a lanky boy who looked like he belonged on the basketball team returning textbooks to shelves and a stout pasty kid hunched over a brightly-lit table, sorting tiny pieces of shattered mini-robots into piles.

“Excuse me,” Shego called, knocking lightly on the doorframe.

Both boys glanced to her and a third techno-nerd bounced up from behind a desk, her hands full of cables. Her eyes popped wide and she dropped them with a heavy thump to cover her mouth. “Guys!” she gasped, looking incredulously to her companions. She sputtered something indiscernible before excitedly making out, “Team Go is here!”

But the boys weren’t impressed. They didn’t even look up, giving only a grunt and a shrug. Shego wasn’t surprised. The city was divided on the matters of Team Go lately.

Shego crossed her arms, a little self-consciously, a little nervously, and managed a small fake smile. “Actually, it’s just me,” she said casually, interrupting the girl before she could launch into introducing herself. “I was wondering if I could have a look around? See what those bozos stole? Or tried to steal?”

“They didn’t get away with anything,” grouched the chunky boy. “But they sure broke enough.”

“They’re not the only ones to blame,” added the tall boy, and he cast a dark glare towards Shego.

Oh, she would love to give them a better reason to loath her, but now wasn’t the time. “May I—,” Shego began.

“Come in? Oh, yes! Yes, please do,” said the spectacled girl eagerly as she came tripping and hopping out from behind the row of computer desks. The second Shego ducked under the caution tape, the young woman was bouncing to her side, giving off a puppy-like impression.

“Like Zack said,” she prattled on, “they didn’t steal anything. Mostly it’s just property damage. We think we know what they were after, but I don’t get why they’d want it. It’s not even finished yet, and it’s buggy, and—”

And Shego tuned it out.

Hands on her hips, she came to peek at Zack’s task of sorting miniature robotic parts with the aid of a magnifying glass and oversized tweezers. Some pieces squirmed and twitched like the limbs of insects.

“So, in plain english, what exactly were they after?” she wondered aloud, feigning ignorance. “Cricket robots?”

“Tyler’s drone project,” grumbled the mini-robo boy, not even sparing her a glance.

The tall boy Shego presumed to be Tyler shot an unappreciative scowl at Zack. “What is it you want?” he asked Shego icily, unquestionably still tart over the wreck she’d left their geeky little headquarters in.

“Classified,” she bluffed. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a look around in private. I just, you know, work best alone.”

“GCPD already took care of the investigation,” said Tyler suspiciously. “I’m sure you can get all your answers from them.”

“They aren’t even competent enough to keep yesterday’s lame-o thieves contained,” Shego shot back, the news alarming the young man. She rallied an air of authority that might have rivaled Hego’s. “I don’t trust the depth of their investigation. With those criminals at large, it’s imperative I gather what information I can on them so that Team Go can stop them. So if you don’t mind, please leave me to do my work. I’ll contact you later for questioning.” She gestured to the door, inviting them to take their leave.

The boys reluctantly ceased their tasks, exchanging looks. They did leave without another word to her, but they shot daggers at her as they left, grumbling to one another.

The girl, however, hesitated at the door. “Um, thank you, Shego,” she chirped nervously, still grinning gullibly. “If you need anything, I’ll just, uh, be in the library, so…”

Shego nodded and offered a smile, watching the geeky girl duck out and shuffle off after the boys. Nerds, she snidely thought to herself, and turned away to begin her phony investigation. She’d already learned from interrupting yesterday’s thieves that there were no security cameras installed in here, and that remained to be the case, allowing her to freely peruse the lab. She took a wild guess as to which computer belonged to Tyler, as it was the cleanest and tidiest of the three, the keyboard free of crumbs and technicolor animal stickers absent from along the edges of the monitor.

Just like yesterday, there were no plainly marked cases to rummage through, no stacks of CD’s or floppy disks set out to grab and go, so she made the assumption that he used his computer for its intended purpose: storing information. That was surely the target, and after all, it was what she’d caught one henchman trying to smuggle out under an arm yesterday.

No tools necessary, she knelt down under the desk to pop the hood to reveal the inner workings of the computer. A couple pulled plugs, and she squeezed the hard drive into her empty utility pouch. Why waste time trying to figure out passwords and burning disks when she could take the whole darn thing to Dr. Drakken? Let him sort that out, if he was such a genius.

It was too easy. Almost boring. If these weren’t a bunch of basic kids, she might have expected some kind of trap. Any future tasks she accepted had better be more exciting, she decided.

As she stood, she spied a small pillbox tucked beside the monitor. If it drew her eye, it was worth a closer look. In the tiny cubicles were three tiny square chips no bigger than a fingernail, and written on nothing fancier than masking tape, the label on the side read Beta Synchronizing Chips. Shego nodded to herself. That sounded about right if she was after some drone programming.

It looked useful enough, so without an inkling of guilt, Shego tucked it into a pocket at her hip. It couldn’t hurt. It might earn her brownie points to make up for knocking Dr. Drakken down earlier anyway.

[costumesbyliv]

Movement and Scene - 30/04/20

This is my favourite task of the module so far. I love all aspects of dance and draw it often. I chose to use my favourite dance performance as inspiration and that is ‘Body Love,’ performed by McKenzie Morales. This dance is about accepting who you are and is about how girls are perceived. It also talks about mental health and suicide and I believe that it is a beautifully told story through dance. Kenzie wears a nude satin slip dress, which looks silky and elegant on stage. I tried to capture this through my styles of drawing. I used a variety of drawing mediums and a range of styles. I used a biro, fine liner, HB pencil, coloured pencil and acrylic paint. I screenshotted aspects of her performance and then used the images to draw from. I looked at key moments where she expressed a lot of emotion or hit a key pose. I drew fourteen images in the end, and I love them all. I drew four in fine liner. These include the continuous line drawing in the top left, and the three sketchy ones of her back, mid-body and knees. The knee drawing is one of my favourites. I can picture the part of the routine and visualise the pain in the emotion on her face. her body looks hurt. She is pausing and it is so powerful. I also like how the fine liner shows off the creases in the dress in this drawing and the other three. They look slightly rough and I like this because it implies movement and rawness. I drew three in pencil. One is the blind drawing which actually feels full of movement. The other two sit bottom left and focus on her body. Even though I don’t like pencil as much, these look good and I am happy with body proportions, as I often struggle with the head and arms, etc. Coloured pencil is normally hard for me to use with nudes and pinks as you want a light look yet need to include depth. The legs are a fast sketch and incorporate biro. This was simple yet showed the colour well, however the other drawing top right is one of my favourites. I used a normal pencil to sketch out parts of her limbs, then focused on the dress adding dark areas to show to contortion of the fabric. It looks strong. Biro drawings are my favourite, so I was extremely happy with the dress drawing near the top. I focused solely on the fabric and the way it folded around her skin. I made sure it included lots of highlights as it draped and caught the light. The shorts are one of my least favourites, just because it was a continuous line drawing, just using more lines. I wish it was simpler. The final is the ribs. This is emotional as she shows off her body. Kenzie struggled with anorexia, so I wanted to capture this well. My final two drawings are done in paint. The first is top left and focuses on the tones in her costume. It is elegant and uses muted pinks. I like the soft feel to it. The final is my favourite on the whole page and is the dress in the middle. She is led on the stage, arched up, arms and legs outreached, and the dress drapes over her ribs and stomach and cascades to the floor. It is beautiful and I am so proud of the way I captured this. the top part is lightest with darker shads being near the creases on the ground. It is my favourite piece in my sketchbook. I showed McKenzie these on Instagram and she was really impressed with them.

[katieamazeballs]

Recap Week 8

I've never done a show recap before so go with it......Last night we had Abbie's cheer banquet so we were out till 9:20ish EST. @rae1105 Is the MVP for live texting me. However, that meant I power watched just the packages and dances last night with the exception of the judges comments towards Bonner since both The Bestie and my mom mentioned it. As an added benefit....I asked Abs (who turned 13 last weekend in case the hateful anons want to judge her opinions....again)her opinions. The show started when she was just under 1 so she has literally watched every episode with me. As opinionated as I am online, I don't tell many people my obsession so Abs is pretty "general audience" in her opinions. She's a competitive cheerleader though, so she knows some things. - Opening number - straight fire 🔥🔥 why oh why aren't they coming here?!?! -Emma and Rashad - Great package. Emma cried about how great he is and I'm verklempt....again. The dance was AMAZING!!! .....-Judges opinion-Always harping on his feet. Stahp it, Rahn!!!! ....-Abs opinion-That was so fun! I shook my tail feathers! -Commercial break comes and shows Alex and Jenna. Abs said "Is that Ed Sheeran?" I told her it was Alex, Vals bestie and pointed out Jenna. We then had to rewind 47 times for her to oogle Jenna's beauty. 😂😂 -Val and Normani - Hated the package because I hate bullies and racism. I hate that she's dealt with the bullshit in that. The dance was, in my opinion, just ok.....*braces for impact* It was a good dance but in no way was I "shook" ....Judges-I'm a little in awe that they saw literal perfection from that because I didn't. ....Abs- Val is sooooo cute 😍😍😍 He had his curls out 😍😍😍😍 (I got nothing else out of her) Sharna and Bonner - Her outfit in the peach shirt and khaki hat 🔥🔥🔥.....wow she's a stunner. Anyways....that package was BAD. I get that he doesn't want to relive his pain, but if he doesn't want to be reminded of his pain.....maybe he shouldn't remind us every 5 min. There was "the fight". After 24 seasons, I'm ok with "the fight". It's week 8. Week 8 is hell. As for the dance, it was pretty decent. Going towards maybe one of his best. ....Judges-They were harsh. Yes. They were honest. Yes. Len was not totally uncalled for. *braces for impact again* ....Abs- I only watched Sharna and she was so good!!! Bumper with Simone holding Sasha in her arms then the Swiffer commercial....both 😍😍😍 -Sasha and Simone - Simone is flirting with the camera man. I'm dead. He said "Do you want to win.....you better dance" Their dance was super fun. She is a solid dancer but lacks the performance aspect. I get it. She's a gym rat. However, as the parent of a competitive cheerleader.....my kid goes out there and sells the shit of a very technical performance. I need Simone to also. ....Judges-I forgot about them....whoops. 🍷🍷🍷 ....Abs- "I hate 1D". Fun fact....she was once their biggest fan. She had now moved on to more Russian pastures. She *says* she liked it (and hates 1D) but she danced along so don't trust her. Also she questioned why I kept asking her opinion. She now knows I have a blog. Send help....... -David and Lindsay-Oh lord.....where do I start. I love love love this song. This was the perfect song for him. David said his parents taught this to him and he's trying to raise his own children this way. He then starts to cry because he loves his kids and Lindsay notices he's doing a great job raising fine children. This is close to home. As a single parent, the single most meaningful compliment is that my kid is great or that I'm doing a good job. 😭😭. Anyways.....this dance. Lawd this dance. She danced on his feet and I didn't see much of the rest either night because I was crying. .....Judges.....I forgot about again ....Abs-She "awe'd" at the package and the dancing on Davids feet. Then, being that she's now aware of an audience, wants you all to know LEN CRIED. "Tell them Len cried, Mom". Also....."Tell them I love 'my hot bae Val' and show them my 'heart eye' face".....seriously.....send help. Now onto the trios!!!! (This is where my notes get sketchy because 🍷🍷) Emma and Rashad-I would be remise if I didn't mention the "They think their at gymnastics class......and I'm the pole" comment 😂😂 Also, I should mention Witney doesn't know Fleetwood Mack and the team name Ménage A Shad. Best. Team. Name. Ever. This dance was everything that I remembered from last night and more. Holy hell!! 😍 ....Abs- Apparently David made some comment about takin Normani out of the top spot and Abs kept hollering about it. (where is that help y'all are sending) As for the actual dance she has "no words to describe that" She loved it. Wit is her fave. She said this reminded her of Calvin (see she does know). Next up, the commercial for Dirty Dancing Live. Abs is now dead because "Maks and Val did this on Fuller House". All those 80's music lessons so that my kid can recognize good music music trivia have failed. She now equates "I've had the time of my life" with her "Hot Bae Val" 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️ -Val and Normani- Holy hell for a second night. Their package was GOLD! Normani "Bonner is perfection" Val...."hmmmmm". Val to Alan "There's no southern gentleman bullshit here. Do a goon job or I'll kill you". That's some Russian Dance Mafia shit right there......This dance was EVERYTHING. It was so freakin good! And I am NOT a Normani fan. Side note....did you notice when Val tore his shirt off he broke his microphone 😂😂 ....Abs- She nervous giggled the entire package about Val and Alan's curls (where the hell is that help y'all are sending)...She legit raised her hand so I would call on her during the package instead of asking after. She said "What is wrong with her....Bonner isnt cute". She was hella pissed that Val Jr took his shirt off and proclaimed that it ruined the dance. She is gushing and she is not the drunk one. 😂😂 -Sharna and Bonner- The package both B and B "this is my first trio" and Sharna "it is not my first". Did anyone else thing James and his threesome comment 😂😂 onto the dance, hell......where do I start. Sigh. He really fulfilled the role of "creepy boss". Y'all know how I feel about the ass grab thing. And the dance was shit. It was just as bad as yesterday. Britt was half count behind the whole time and I still didn't notice B was even there. Even Sharna couldn't keep a straight face during judging. When CarrieAnn said the girls did the booty pop and Bonner failed, both girls nodded in sequence. Lawd. ....-Abs-(Remember......she is GA and my anti Bonner opinions have not been heard by her).......She was horrified. She literally side eyed the entire thing. She said the dance was "plain and weird". During judging she realized Bruno was wearing pink. Lol Lawd this is getting long Simone and Sasha- I was living for Britt razzing Sasha about his shirt. But I was also so excited for her to help Simone. The dance was just meh and I agree with her "smiles don't get gold medals" comment. The entire season they (and us) have wanted an emotion besides her beautiful smile. We get it and the effin judges want to know why she isn't smiling?!?! .....Abs- She didn't like the skirts and somehow agreed with the judges that Simone wasn't Simone 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️ -David and Lindsay- I loved this package from grey chest hairs to wanting his daughters to be like Hayley and Lindsay. However.....the dance was every bit as shitty as it was last night. ....Abs.....was mesmerized. She somehow thought that was better that her Hot Bae Val. WTF.....I'm guessing this is why a certain potato got as far as he did.....damn GA. Y'all know how I feel about the elimination and the so called souther gentlemans behavior. So with this.....I'm out....