#so many different texture brushes were used | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

onmyyan · 2 years ago

Text

Kiss the goat

A/N: Horror isekai? Horror isekai, here's part one of the Scream chapters, unedited, hope you like cuz it was so much fun writing

Pairing: Yandere Poly Ghostface x reader

It was such an odd sensation, you don't think you'd ever truly get used to it, no matter how many times it washed over you.

It was always the same, tranquil lull, and it always started in your lower tummy, like this wave of ice cold water suddenly replaced all the blood in your veins.

Whenever you first 'woke up' somewhere new, that damn feeling was always the first thing you noticed, and the only warning you'd get.

This time though, something was different. There was this mix of fear, confusion, and awe tossed in with the lull because you clocked your location immediately.

Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum

For a moment all you could hear was the the blood pounding in your eardrums, slowly , as you forced yourself to breathe, the surrounding noises faded in, at first it was just the chatter of a busy school, then you noticed the shuffle of feet dragging on concrete, with your heart pounding furiously against your rib cage, you pinched your thigh through your baggy blue jeans and began walking, focusing on forcing your feet to move, rather than the millions of other thoughts buzzing through your skull. Why? Well because there you stood, dropped right before the soon-to-be infamous Woodsboro High.

As you walked amongst the crowd of people there were a few things you noticed immediately about yourself, at least this version of yourself, which seemed to change with every new plot you were forcibly thrown in.

The jeans you wore were loose fitting and well loved, small holes in the denim here and there gave you a typical 90's degenerate vibe, the soft cotton of the band T-shirt you were in felt comfortable against your skin, around your waist hung a oversized burgundy flannel with accents of mustard yellow, the fabric looked old and smelled of weed, a sigh rolled through your chest at the familiar smell, it was a bittersweet reminder of your life before this insanity began.

Glancing down at your outfit made you breath out a sigh of relief, at least you dressed better in this one. In the small shirt pocket, you felt a book of matches, the scratchy texture of telling you what it was without needing to pull it out, good to know.

Shaking your head you try your best to look as bored and uninteresting as possible, you've found these things were best tackled from a stealthy perspective. As you finally enter the school, the second you step through the open doors, there's this intense, hair-raising feeling that washes over you, everything in your gut is saying run away, turn around, but you don't.

Instead, you swallow the fight-or-flight instincts and continue your pace as if you hadn't noticed the predatory stare on you. It didn't surprise you, after all, the self-proclaimed directors of this twisted movie were bound to notice a new player being introduced so suddenly, you just hadn't yet gotten used to the uneasy feeling of being in the presence of a murderer.

Or in this movies case, murderers.

The stares you received from the rest of the student body helped to distract you from the heavy stares burning into you, as you leisurely walked down the halls people either mean-mugged you or ignored you, it helped to get a better feel for the role you'd been assigned, depending on how well you played said role was going to determine whether or not you ended up on the kill count.

For now, you kept it pushing, your hands resting comfortably in the pockets of your jeans, your right hand, which you only now noticed was covered in rings, brushed against the cool touch of something small and metal, you quickly pulled out the object to reveal a switchblade, the handle a glossy white with a simple heart scratched into the surface, quickly you tucked it back where you'd found it.

The grin that had stretched across your face as you traversed the halls was downright wicked, in your mini search you'd also come across a crinkled class schedule and a pack of gum. Curious (e/c) eyes diligently scanned the face of every student that passed, searching for any clue as to when exactly you'd popped in, having a clear timeline in mind made these things run so much smoother.

Casey Beckem gave you that answer in the form of a cliché shoulder check as she rounded the corner. She made a point to dust off the area that had touched you, and her scoff of 'Watch it freak.' made a snort leave your nose, god you loved the 90s, even the bullying was better.

Considering she was still amongst the living, you gathered this was before the start of the movie, fantastic. You pushed forward, far too wrapped up in your building excitement to pay any mind to the very dangerous man you'd caught the sight of.

You found your first class a few minutes early, thankfully the school's layout wasn't too hard to navigate, you were intent on taking proper inventory and prepping as well as you could. The teacher took you in with a surprised noise, clearly judging your character on your appearance.

You'd gotten pretty good at handling your, particular situation, so good in fact you'd begun to relax a little. Taking a seat by the window in the back felt very final girl of you, the thought making you giggle to yourself. Whatever entity responsible for isekaing you into this movie flashed between a real asshole and a slightly smaller asshole with each reincarnation, this time it looked like they were feeling nice as you started with a weapon.

Your inner workings were put on an abrupt pause as Randy Meeks burst in through the door earning a glare from the otherwise silent teacher. The bright-eyed male made a beeline for you, his expression was akin to a puppy who just had its bone taken away.

"What the Hell San Francisco? I spent the last 15 minutes running around like some mook looking for ya'." he paused to sit down at the desk directly on your right. "You ask a guy to show you around then ditch em'? Cruel, undeniably cruel." You learned pretty quickly to just roll with it whenever someone from Canon spoke to you.

"My bad Meeks, I'll make it up to you." At this, the energetic man rolled his eyes, now leaning even closer. "Oh yeah? Meaning what- you'll actually take me up on my offer instead of responding with that cold familiar brand of cynicism? C'mon, it'll be funnnn." He trailed off in a whine. "Whoever told you begging was an option for you lied." You laughed, shaking your head at the way he visibly deflated.

You kicked your faded black Converse all star's on the back of the seat before you, legs bouncing as you allowed yourself to ponder your answer, the nervous habit had developed sometime between this movie, and one of your earlier incarnations and subsequent deaths.

This was a little more complicated, see the omnipotent fuck who put you here liked to screw with you, very much into the concept of seeing you mix with whatever plot that laid before you, so much so that anytime you fought against whatever scenario you were thrust into in any way you died horribly. The first time you'd been plopped into a movie was the original My Bloody Valentine,- a chill ran through your body like a punch to the gut at the thought, yeah you'd come a long way since then in terms of working the system but nothing was set in stone.

You figured whatever this offer from Randy was, would no doubt tie you into the plot, knowing better than to fight the waves, you pretended to think about it before shrugging. "Sure. I'll bite." The simple statement had him shooting out of his chair to fist pump before quickly falling back in his seat.

"Yessss-okay it's super easy, I spend my time rewinding the utter garbage the general population consumes on a daily." He was practically buzzing in his seat as he spoke. "Once in a while, the boss leaves for an extra long lunch break and I get to watch whatever I want- Child's Play, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street- you name it I got it." The redhead spoke proudly, leaning back against his chair with a self-satisfied look.

"You should be a salesman Meeks." The male bristled beside you, a tinge of red on his cheeks. "Yeah yeah, whatever Frisco- don't come crying to me when you don't have anyone to sit with at lunch." He teased, leaning over his desk, you smile toying with the ring on your hand, popping your neck with a sigh you took a second before responding, "Oh god, how will I ever survive sitting alone, whatever will I do." you spoke in a dead tone making the male at your side pout.

"You're cold (L/n), couldn't even pretend to care about my threat huh?"

You looked over with a teasing grin, "Course' not- I'm not a liar Randy.", it was then and only then that you noticed the tall Blonde unashamedly staring you down from the door.

Stu Macher had made his appearance earlier than expected but you didn't sweat it, or the almost hungry look he was giving you. Nope, not sweating at all. Instead, you quickly averted your eyes, praying he hadn't caught your stare.

He had, naturally.

The taller male nearly took up the entire door frame, he looked a lot more intimidating in person. The playful look on his face was all the more haunting the more you thought about who he really was underneath it. What he was hours away from doing.

Randy, feeling the sudden rise in tension, refused to be left out, and tried to not so subtly block Stu's vision of you by standing up and not so casually sitting on his desk, his back to the future killer. "Anyway Frisco', I don't want you mixin' in with the wrong crowd okay?" He made a point to flick his eyes back towards the now pouting blonde, "Bad company makes for bad times. Just stick with me I'll show you the ropes." He made sure to mutter that last part, his expression drenched in fear for the briefest moment.

Before you could respond Stu had rather aggressively climbed his way over a few desks to plop into the seat in front of you.

His dimpled grin was rather infectious.

"Now that's no way to talk about your friends Randy." He almost seethed out his name making the shorter male curl in on himself like a rabbit, he turned to face you with flare.

"Hi, there hot stuff- Stu Macher, bad company." He took your hand in his much larger one, completely enveloping your own, the tension was broken by the comical handshake, how hard he shook it up and down dispelled all previous bad vibes, his devious little grin only grew at your response, "Hi Stu, I'm (Y/n). Worse company."

"So whatcha' running from in San Francisco? Girl's like you don't just show up outta nowhere for no reason." He didn't even try to hide the way he was checking you out, his half-lidded eyes eagerly drinking in every inch of the alluring stranger before him.

"Who says I'm running big guy? I might be the one doing the chasing." Maybe teasing a soon-to-be serial killer wasn't the smartest move, but you just couldn't help it, he leaned his head into his palm, the wide toothy grin promising nothing but trouble. "I think I like you- come sit with us at lunch."

"You askin' or telling?" You met his heated gaze with a cold indifference that only fueled the ever-growing fire burning in his belly. The larger male quickly fell to his knees from his seat on the chair, bringing his hands together in a dramatic motion, "Pretty pretty please hot new kid come sit with meee." The laugh tumbling past your lips was real, you quickly ushered him back to his seat, "As nice as ya look on your knees- this is embarrassing please get the hell up I'll sit with you."

He backed off with a victorious grin not knowing you'd just lied through your teeth, there was no way in hell you'd willingly put yourself in Billy's cross hairs, Stu was unavoidable apparently, but Billy? You'd hold out as long as you could, when lunch rolled around you managed to convince Randy to eat on the roof, and used the friendly conversation to get more information out of him.

It was during this conversation you discovered in this world, whoever you were, was Randy's new neighbor.

After the school bell had rung for the final time, you made a point to linger around Randy, usually, when you spawned in one of these things the plot was well into swing, but this time you were here early, and the change in routine felt all the more dangerous.

Thankfully, Randy came to your rescue, you tuned back into the conversation just in time to hear him say,

"-if you even want to that is- we'd mostly be watching the classics." He finished nervously glancing to and from, you managed to space back just in time to greet him with a half smile and a shrug. "Lead the way, Meeks."

"It's so cool how you live next door- when you told me at first I thought you were yankin' my chain." He said bouncing his way down the road.

Randy had stumbled home with sleep in his eye sometime around midnight, you weren't too worried for the guy as you knew they hadn't started their spree yet.

That was until the phone rang.

For a moment all you did was stare. You knew who was on the other end it just didn't make any sense.

Swallowing the thick ice cube of fear suddenly in your throat, you caught your breath as casually as you could.

As if on autopilot your hand scooped up the house phone, you surprised yourself with how calm your greeting was.

"Hello?.."

"Hey there sweet thing- you're up awful late aren't ya?" You tried to look as casual as you could, steadily making your way to every door, and securing each entrance, but it was hard to ignore the twinge of accusation in his tone.

"You're up too.." Was what you managed to get out, trying to keep your voice steady.

"Hm, that's fair. What were you up to? Have some fun with your boyfriend?" The last word sounded harder than the rest, with no humor in his tone, almost as if it was said through gritted teeth, like whoever spoke it spat the word out.

So he was definitely watching you, your mind racked with the best answer to keep Randy from harm's way.

"Just watching some scary movies with a friend- you like em'?" You asked leaning against the island in your kitchen. "Oh, honey- you've got no idea." Before you could respond he continued, "I will see you later gorgeous." and then he was gone

#yananswers #yandere #yandere x reader #yandere x y/n #yandere male #yandere slashers #yandere slasher x reader #yandere ghostface #ghostface x reader #yandere billy loomis #yandere stu macher #yandere ghostface x reader #poly ghostface x reader #poly ghost face #kiss the goat

1K notes · View notes

tofupixel · 9 months ago

Note

I recently started learning to use rpg maker (vx ace!) and as a result have become increasingly interested in pixel art. I hadn't really done pixel work since my teens - I do more digital painting and vector art - so while I'm a little familiar and can do passable editing, there's a lot I don't know.

One thing that's kind of perplexing for me is understanding the differences in style between two creators of pixel art. I studied art history and I'm used to the differences being things like brush stroke length or degree of realism... I feel like I'm lacking in lexicon in this new frontier lol

What nuances of an artist do you think are most important to style in pixel art?

This kind of stuff is not really officially studied (yet) so it's all a bit of opinion from me.

Usually in pixel art the biggest differences in styles are which limitations the artists choose to impose on themselves; colour count, resolution, palette... Or more stylistic choices like hue shifting, anti-aliasing style or no, dithering or no, etc.

I personally think there are a huge variety of styles in pixel art, as it's literally just a medium, and I hope you'll agree by the end 8)

Also (imo) there is some seperation between the styles of art for art's sake, and art for videogames, where things have to be clear and readable to be actually playable.

🎮 Old school games:

Sometimes referred to as something like '8-bit' or '16-bit' (relating to the NES era / SNES era consoles), these artstyles usually follow the rules and limitations of the hardware at the time.

This all falls under retro art, most popular styles include: NES, SNES, GB, GBC, C64

Notable artists: Nickwoz, Sandy Gordon, Franken, Cisco

📚 Old school art:

There were also events called Demoscene (still are), where developers would go to a big convention and share their demos. A lot of pixel art competitions were held here, where artists would draw live.

Generally they used to favour a high realism/semirealism style, with lots of texture/dithering, fairly high resolution (if the hardware allowed for it), and adjacent pixels mostly being different from one another.

There are even older styles than this but they are fairly niche and I'm not that well educated. If interested look into some of the old PCs/consoles.

⭐ Modern pixel art:

Usually using more colours and higher resolution, larger clusters of pixels instead of individual ones. Strong use of art fundamentals.

Artists to look at: Adam Ferguson (yes it is pixel art), Snake, Slym, 6VCR, Yes I do Pixels, Gijotto, SovanJedi, JoeCreates, Franek, @8pxl

the rest below are "modern" pixel artists too but I think they have other things in their style that are a bit different!

🎨 Painterly:

Some artists choose to emulate the natural brushstrokes digitally, and keep their clusters large and loose. Usually don't focus on the minute details as much.

@makrustic, @hexh-pixel, Umbohr, Gawrone

🟦 Dithering

These artists all use dithering / texture in ways that make their styles totally unique.

Deceiver, Night, Reo,

💥 Experimental

These artists are always trying new things and honing in on their unique style.

AJ, hby, @ilta222, Alphons

I could really go on for ever, there are so many different styles, cute pixel art, horror pixel art, 1bit (2 colours only), and then adding animation takes it even further, but I think you get the idea

If you want to learn more, the Masters of Pixel Art books have works /interviews from pixel artists of different eras, including demoscene and contemporary.

😊👍

#qna #tutorial #pixel art tutorial #art style #pixel art style #pixel art lore

290 notes · View notes

sibyllinebooks · 26 days ago

Text

stiles x autistic!partner hcs

a/n: april is autism awareness month and i wanted to do smth with our favorite boy! 🫶🏻 reader has lower support needs ( as this is based off of my experience as an autistic person with lower support needs ). not everything will be applicable to all readers.

he’s not unfamiliar with autism, exactly. he knows a lot of his adhd traits intersect with autism traits, but he’s never had a reason to explore it further.

until you.

when he learns that you’re autistic, he goes on one of his adhd deep dives ( sort of like when he went on the werewolf dive when scott was first bitten ).

he knows a LOT about diagnostic criteria ( and sometimes wonders if he himself fits it but that’s for another time ).

he also learns what your dislikes are— tastes, textures, sounds, etc. so he can do his best to keep them away from you. he also knows that are perfectly capable of doing those things yourself but he keeps track anyway because he loves you and he wants to help.

he’s never infantilized you before and he knows that you are your own person. god forbid anyone tries to take your autonomy or imply that because you’re autistic, you can’t do simple things or basic tasks.

but if you do end up needing a little help here and there, he doesn’t mind. he knows what it’s like to struggle with neurodivergence and he’s had a lot of practice with his own. maybe he messes up sometimes but he has good intentions.

he notices shifts in your behavior almost instantly. most of your friend group does but that’s due to supernatural senses; stiles just has an innate focus on you and learns to tell when something is different.

and he does his absolute best to soothe whatever is causing your distress. if some of your classmates are talking too loud or yelling across the cafeteria, he asks to take you outside away from it. or if you’re at a party and suddenly there’s too many people around, he’ll take you to somewhere more secluded. overstimulation is a feeling he knows well, so he sympathizes and does what he can to aid you.

he memorizes a lot of your coping mechanisms. whether it’s the way you tap your fingers together or how you brush the fabric of your skirt back in forth because it’s a texture you like or the rapid onset of blinks that seem to go like clockwork, he knows them all. sometimes he uses them too.

YAP SESSIONS. having an adhd boyfriend is a blessing when it comes to conversation.

he can talk for hours on any of his given topics and so can you. hyperfixations and special interests go hand in hand and god forbid if both of you have the same one at the same time. it happened once and you both ended up staying up all night without realizing it because you were too in depth with your conversation.

and just because he likes to talk, it doesn’t mean he won’t let you talk. sometimes when he needs his brain shut off, he’ll ask you to talk about one of your special interests. not because it bores him, but because he likes listening to the sound of your voice and because your passion for the subject makes it interesting to him. he likes knowing why you enjoy things so much and it helps him when he’s feeling overwhelmed.

he downloaded a text-to-speech app for you for times when you go non-verbal. lydia did too but he was the first because he wanted to make sure that everyone was still able to understand you. communication king.

stiles is REALLY bad at following schedules but if you need one, he makes sure he has it memorized and reminds you when it’s time for something. he can do it for others but when it comes to himself ? not so much.

you went to give him a hug once and his shirt was a fabric/texture you hated, so he threw it away. he wants you to be comfortable around him.

he keeps your safe foods stocked at his house and some in his backpack just in case. once, the cafeteria decided to experiment with the menu and it did not turn out well.

if someone asks “what kind of autism do you have?” he gets defensive. as someone who has dealt with adhd stereotypes and ignorant comments, he hates to see it happen to you.

#teen wolf #stiles stilinski #stiles stilinksi x reader #x reader #dylan o'brien #teen wolf imagine #stiles stilinski imagine #actually autistic #autistic writer #autism awareness #this is all i have for now but eventually i may make a part 2

59 notes · View notes

balrogballs · 20 days ago

Note

queen of ai art <3

I genuinely have no idea what the fuck is in the tap water right now considering these all came in the last ten days from what I suppose are different people considering I blocked the first two… either that or it is one very persistent person or the collective actions of what I assume is probably the world’s most depressing groupchat. Incest anon, come back, I miss you on hindsight.

I don't normally answer mean-spirited questions but these pissed me off recently because of the nature of the accusations. So, let’s get into a long, illustrated lesson including a WIP gallery as to why you shouldn’t rely on “gotcha” AI logic and/or be a little twat, with tips on manual digital scaling, presented in classic Balls style.

Now, the vast majority of my art is traditional, many are quick ‘challenge’ sketches—they are drawn or painted on paper. With many of them, there are progress shots. Sometimes multiple, including fucking gemwork. Sometimes I do silly sketches. I have also been quite open that I’m really focusing on exploring varying styles of portraiture at the moment after an artistic background in watercolour landscapes. A number of you follow my traditional art blog where said landscapes were posted, and you know they’re banging.

Now, I’ve posted *checks notes* like five digital pieces last year from the time I owned a tablet (after which all my work has been trad due to being indefinitely parted from said tablet), and none of them are what you’d call professional quality, considering most of my work is traditional/realist and I am still not very good at stylised or digital drawing. I’ll choose my “best”/most detailed one for the purposes of this impromptu demonstration using the files I do have on me at the moment.

Due to my background in traditional art 👆🏻I always and without fail do my initial sketching by hand, because I find it difficult to get perspective and proportions correct digitally, because I learnt various pencil angling tricks etc… so anything I have drawn digitally that includes people/buildings, I’d do a sketch on paper and scan it, and do the lineart from there.

Here is the sketch, the sketch cleaned up into lineart, shaded values, and a portion of the colour-blocking stage, where I checked to make sure the major colours don’t clash at the borders, thanks to Thingol’s bright orange outfit from hell.

I assume what has been done here is that you or whatever program you’re using has picked up on the below little noisy bits, threads and spirals and decided they’re AI. Let me introduce you to the magic of textural overlays, aka texture stamps/brushes, which I get so impatient with that it becomes quite obvious they’re on there… which works in my favour right now lmao.

Here is me sliding the opacity on and off sections, so you can see what exactly is going on (pillar with marbled effect, thingol skin texture, elrond jacket texture, elrond's remarkable forehead, and the marbled archway):

These aren’t overlaid by my mystery robot sex toy, they are done by hand and there’s around 20-30 different ones in any given piece, some of them (eg skin texture or leaves) are repeated 10-15 times. Using texture brushes or stamps is not a cardinal sin, they are literally sold on this website by the artists who make them. Here is a clip of me just selecting them all in one go, if you’d like that proven for your face eyes as well.

I have no excuses for overblending my colours or leaving sections choppy, I’m just lazy to do painterly detail on stylised digital pieces, and usually just stop after a couple rounds of blending. But if laziness was a crime then most nation-states in this world would not have a functioning government.

Now, the final two stages—because the base for these images are usually scans or photos of my sketches and thus not exactly at the best of resolutions, I upscale in Lightroom. Amusingly, image upscaling is actually normally done by AI either built into Photoshop or plugins—this isn’t exactly generative AI, it’s more an algorithm that breaks down your existing photo and “reconstructs” it at a higher resolution. Hence, many upscaled images are flagged as AI regardless of the manner of upscaling.

I am too stingy to purchase Photoshop, the above plugins can/do use your art to train generative AI even if it doesn’t use it for your image, and I have Lightroom Classic already—upscaling is relatively easy to do here and does not train AI. Here’s a walkthrough:

Open Image > Denoise > Play with Slider > Save as TIFF > Open TIFF > Develop Module > Enhance > Save DNG. Then, work on DNG image re: adding noise/brightness/contrast whatever.

Just a note that the ‘Super Resolution’ feature does actually use (algorithmic, not generative) AI so don’t click on that, just do the normal Enhance. This will increase your image size and resolution without sacrificing detail. However, the file itself would be fucking enormous by this point so you can either compress it yourself or use Canva or whatever.

If you don’t mean those and instead mean these fucking things, jesus fucking christ they’re free graphic design templates with free Illustrator vectors, get a fucking grip, ten days in a charity comms job and you can make these in your sleep while moving the mouse with your pussy.

Here is a collage of some of my other digital works at various stages as well, including pencil/pen sketches, to help you sleep at night:

Please remember that I stopped posting digital art except one charcoal+digital work after I was parted from my tablet in December. If I was really iBalls, I would have continued churning them out surely 😇

Writing

I am not going to even take this seriously because there is clearly no way to explain the concept of writing something in advance to people who clearly type out and immediately send every half-dusted thought the moment it farts itself into their brain.

However, if you are actually sitting in your home in the year 2025, when there is almost definitely litter in your neighbourhood that needs picking and dogs on the Rover app that go unwalked, feeding my fucking writing into whatever fucking AI detector you have that is, in turn, training whatever fucking AI generator it is linked to, simply because of whatever robot you have created in your brain that somehow knows very niche facts about the lifestyle, dialect, speech patterns, culture and politics of a frankly irrelevant town in 1970s Kerala, I genuinely do not wish you a single moment of joy in your life

I have already or will soon be privating some of my artwork considering there are people cheerfully sat there feeding my work to Musk’s field of cows in order to get yourself a good old gotcha against some random Elrondfucker on the Internet — I’m obviously not going to do that to my writing at the moment but please stop letting your actions be driven by your asshole instead of your brain.

As for this one, I initially thought of not being so cocky in my response but considering I either get a version of this like once a month or some fucker goes to another person’s blog to ask them if I’m not tired of people kissing my ass, let me tell you something:

I am not whatever hockey-playing girlboss it was that was a bitch to you in high school and you are now afraid is intruding into your fandom space. She must have sucked I am certain. I am very sorry you had to deal with her. But I am not her. She is not me. I can assure you of this. If you must know, I was a netball girl. In fact, I was netball team captain. If it actually was me, I sincerely apologise for accidentally on purpose fouling you in 2014 because I wanted to win the intra-school friendly and I promise I won’t ever do it again.

And just in general, let me please remind you that I did not curate this audience through purposeful posting of art and literature and tasteful selfies, I did it via the 'Lindircident' post, aka accidentally holding my asshole wide open for the light to shine through two weeks after I made this account and remaining in the same doubled-up position for the six months since.

Tschüss! 🖕

#ask balls #crack but its my life #clearly

51 notes · View notes

tttt06 · 3 months ago

Text

Hair Day

IdolNi-ki! x BlackReader

Request are open! I reply quickly. Masterlist here

Kinda Part 2

Synopsis~ You're just trying to do your hair, but the duck man keeps pestering and distracting you.

Warnings~ No smut! Domestic, fluff, black hair (4A) sorry if ur not 4A it's only mentioned once. Hair touching.

Word Count- 1,115

It was the inevitable wash day. The day you'd spend hours taking out your hair and sitting at the sink brushing through your soaked curls.

Usually, Ni-ki would be at practice until midnight. I was surprised to hear the door opening to him. His keys were jingling in his hand as he slipped on his slippers.

I turned to see him walking into the kitchen. I was sitting in a chair. I moved to the front of the sink and brushed through my last section of curls.

It was so tangled after three long months in blue butterfly locs.

Ni-ki leaned over and kissed my wet cheek. "Wash day already?" I nodded as I watched him lick his lips, and I puckered my lips in response. Ni-ki gave me a juicy kiss on them.

"Let me know when you need help, okay?" I smiled brightly and nodded.

Ni-ki and I have been together for two years. Before I moved out of my mom's place, my mom and dad never let him over. They didn't want us having sex and stuff, and we didn't.

Not even when I moved into my new apartment. Ni-ki isn't like that. He's gentle when he wants to be. He doesn't even bring up the word sex.

Ni-ki gripped my scalp and took a big sniff of my hair. "Mm. You smell like coconuts." I laughed and spun the bottle to show the 'Alba' coconut hair product I used.

"Yeah, it's supposed to smell like that." Ni-ki laughed and said, "What are you gonna do next? I saw you bought different hair."

I bit my lip as I swirled the end of the wet twist I put my hair in. "Erm, I'm gonna do mermaid braids."

He cringed, "Your hand is gonna cramp, and you'll be doing that for two days at least. You don't want any help? I'm home all day tomorrow."

I smiled, "I mean... I could. It's a little complicated."

He shrugged, "Let me help you in any way I can." I asked, "Can you help me rinse out the conditioner?" His eyebrows furrowed with reassurance. He nodded like it was his job to rinse out my hair. His long arm reached over to the faucet. He checked the water's temperature before he put it on my scalp.

"Is this okay?" "Mhm." Ni-ki wasted no time digging his long fingers into my hair.

He only offered to do my hair so he could touch it. He says he likes how many textures it changes into.

Once we finished rinsing out my hair, we moved to my bathroom sink to blow-dry it. I had to blow-dry it in sections because my hair was too thick.

Having 4-A was hard.

Ni-ki was mesmerized while watching. When I finished that, his hands went straight to my hair. "Wow, so fluffy."

It took me years to warm up to this. I knew that Ni-ki was used to Japanese girls. I'm not Japanese, I'm black. It always felt weird that he was dating me.

Even though he'd say he didn't see me as any different, I always felt like I shouldn't show him what it looks like to wash out my hair.

I bit my lip as I thought about his words.

"Baby, I know your hair is different from mine. You don't have to be afraid. You have pretty curls."

I smiled at the thought of it. Once Ni-ki noticed, he couldn't help but ask, "What are you smiling about?"

I laughed, "Just thinking about how far I've come with you."

He took his fingers from my hair and cupped my face, "What do you mean?"

I smiled, "I was so scared to show you my shrinkage." He commented, "Your hair has gotten longer because it's not shrinking anymore."

I thought about how it was true.

Usually, my hair shrinks all the way back to my scalp. The new hair products I've been using helped with shrinkage and the new growth.

The hair that used to be at my scalp dangled to the middle of my neck. But when you stretched my curls, it reached my lower back.

Ni-ki asked, "You usually straighten your hair in the wintertime. Why haven't you?"

I thought, "Well, I got more comfortable doing protective styles here... It's embarrassing to do my hair like this sometimes."

Ni-ki leaned in. His breath tickled my nose. His stare was unreadable as always. "Why?" I looked away from his dark eyes, "Just makes me feel different."

He rolled his eyes and grabbed my shoulder, "Whatever. Do I need to cheer you up with my childhood pictures? I was a weird kid." I giggled, "I know, baby."

Ni-ki fully leaned in. His kiss seeped into my lips, making me lean back. I felt my poofy hair tickle just above my upper lip. I pulled away to pull back my natural bangs and leaned back into the kiss.

Ni-ki smiled in the kiss as he tilted his head for better access.

"You taste like the hair product." I pushed him back. "Sorry, the soap got everywhere." He leaned in again for a quick peck, "Doesn't matter to me." He licked his lip and mentioned, "Your lips always taste good."

I laughed. "Stop eating my hair product."

He only smiled, "Don't tell me what to do." He held my hand and asked, "You gonna start doing your hair today?" I sighed, "I don't know... I was gonna hang with Mannon tomorrow."

He smiled, "Wait... what am I gonna do here all day then?" I shrugged, "I have no clue. Read a book?" His eyebrows furrowed, "We both know that shit ain't happening."

He kissed me again. The tension was getting stronger. The next thing I knew, we were on the bed.

His long legs tangled with mine as he slowly flipped me to my back. I spread my legs, inviting him into my embrace. His kisses traveled to my neck. I let out a desperate gasp.

Ni-ki pulled away. His face was hot as he said, "Let's stop here." I smiled, "Hey..." I reached for his cheek and let my forehead fall on his.

I climbed on his lap and felt how hard he was. He let out a groan, "You need to stop." I smiled, "I know I should... but I don't want to."

He picked me up and placed me on the opposite side of the bed. "We're not ready for that step right now."

I smiled, "Okay. We'll talk about it first..."

He turned to me, "Alright, get the rat-tail comb. Let me part these damn braids before you give me a heart attack."

I laughed and ran to my bathroom.

#kpop #ni ki enhypen #jay enhypen #enhypen #black reader #fluff #natural hair #black history month #black women #black is beautiful #curly hair #ni ki x reader #nishimura riki #ni ki #ni ki fluff

57 notes · View notes

genericpuff · 4 months ago

Note

Hi there! 😄 Tysfm for compiling the LO brushes, being able to use them (non-commercially of course lol) makes me so friggin happy. 🙇‍♀️ I have a few questions to ask about them though:

Which brush did RS use for laying down color before shading/effects? In the Rekindled tutorial, you use the Lineart Brush for laying down flats, but I'm not sure if what I said in the previous sentence is the same thing as flats (I've been drawing my whole life, but I didn't start taking digital seriously until very recently lol 🤦‍♀️).

When the Splatter Versa brush was used in S1, there are varying oval shapes as well as several other non-ovular shapes that I don't see when I use the brush. Were there other similar brushes used with different shapes? Or am I just doing something wrong with the brush settings? The other shapes look more wilted than the other petal shapes.

Which brush was used for the usual thick, varying lineart? (It's most noticeable with the lines in hair in mid-S1 esp.) This brush isn't really textured, so I'm a bit confused which one in particular it is.

Sorry for being annoying, I'm just not tech-savvy and very intimidated by all the technical aspects of digital drawing lol ("Wtf are 'blending modes'?" /hj). 🙇‍♀️

Hey there, no problem!! I'm glad people are getting use out of them!

Though I'm not entirely sure as it clearly changed often throughout the course of the first season, the Gouache a Go Go brush and Hard Pastel both have those "crunchier" textures that you can see in some panels. There are also watercolor brushes that she used to blend the edges in some bigger panels.

Could you send me an example of a panel? Just so then I can actually see it and mess around with some things and give you a better answer haha That said, if I had to take a guess, either she messed with the brush control / tilt settings in Photoshop, or she may have used the Warp / Liquify tools to warp them intentionally to achieve that "petal" look. But again, send me a pic of the panels in question if you can and I can take a closer look :>

As mentioned previously, an example would help a lot here, but I do know what you're saying that some panels had very thick, varied lineart. Rachel has gone on record on two separate occasions that she used the Gouache Wet Pencil / Wet Round brush from the Kyle Webster Pack. Though the Hard Square Pastel brush can also achieve similar effects. Note that the Wet Round brush is a dual-sizing brush - if you adjust the brush size, you have to also adjust the particle size in tandem, otherwise you'll get a bigger brush size with more scattered/diluted particles. Though this effect IS very helpful for shading!

As mentioned, Rachel has mentioned some of the brushes she's used, and though it's not necessarily relevant to what you're looking for specifically, she's also mentioned these brushes in old FAQ's, specifically the Wet Round brush for lineart.

Here are some examples I whipped up real quick based on some of the panels that specifically depict thick lineart and textured coloring:

Mind you, these are all my best guesses, based on what Rachel has provided and what I've both dug up and been provided by other contributors who have pointed me in the right direction.

Unfortunately, while LO's art style is unique, it also makes it very difficult to reverse-engineer because throughout the comic (esp in S1 when she was still experimenting) while she did clearly have some "favorites" out of the bunch, she also just kind of went off "vibes" a lot of the time, treating every panel as an individual painting. And while that did lend to some of LO's most beautiful panels throughout S1, it also created a lot of whiplash between stylization because after doing one panel with thick lineart and bold texturing, she'd do another with watercolors and softer edges.

That's also not taking into account the software she was using - many of these brushes were designed exclusively with the Photoshop brush engine in mind, not Clip Studio, so they may not work entirely as intended if you use them in Clip Studio or some other non-Photoshop software. We also have to consider other factors like canvas resolution, texture effects added afterwards (such as that canvas overlay), and other adjustable settings within the brushes themselves that Rachel may have tweaked, including the pressure sensitivity, particle size/density, thickness, etc. All of which we can't really truly know, so we can only settle for our closest guess.

This is half the challenge - and fun - of trying to emulate her art style, because even she clearly didn't follow any strict rules 😅 Unfortunately it leaned more towards worse as time went on as it was clear the assistants themselves were given very little guidance or consistency (or at least, didn't have the time to settle on a happy medium) resulting in panels that are even more distinctly out of place as they were being swapped between different artists with different backgrounds and styles.

All that aside, I hope that helps! I do admittedly have to update that brush pack again, I feel like there are a handful of brushes I've found since then that could also be added, but I'd also like to update the included instructions to better reflect what I've learned since then regarding each brush and how they could be used. Ultimately though, they're yours to experiment with! Mess around, adjust the sizes and density and pressure settings, all of these things can contribute to the overall look.

Good luck! <3

#ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything

82 notes · View notes

chaotic-minds-think-alike · 2 years ago

Text

Guess what time it is…….

CENTIPEDE TIME !!! she’s finally real,,,,,,,, based off Scolopendra hardwickei or the Indian tiger centipede

Before I go about the process I just want to say you guys have been soooo incredible and I love reading your reblogs and I love the idea knowing I’ve inspired a lot of people,,, the project, although it was a lot of work and I’m feeling not so great as of posting this, still motivates me to want to make another.

(Art process below)

This was entirely freehanded! I have a lot of experience working in 3D art settings that this part came easy to me but I started with a flat base shaped in the pose I’d like the creature in. I used one whole piece cut from a shipping box and filled in the gaps with tape; you don’t need a single piece for the base but for structural integrity it helps a lot. As you can see here I also cut the legs separate and glued them on using hot glue. The vertical cross sections are to give an early support for the structure of the creature, think about the frames of aircraft or boats. During this part I used a pen to mark the width and height of the previous section to get a gradual flow of shapes.

This next part I wish I got more documentation on but after the vertical cross sections I used soda boxes for the thinner and flexible cardboard to add contour lines along the length of the creature, gluing them on the cross sections. I did about 2 strips of this on either side to fill in the space and then I continued to use soda boxes to fold and shape the top of the creature, gluing onto the strips rather than the cross sections (this part was a mistake but I quickly adapted, no issues happened but it did make it slightly less secure). I also gave the legs vertical cross sections as well to shape them for the masking tape.

The worst part, taping everything. I used tape to further shape it how I wanted but that meant going over parts several times. I used 2 different widths of tape for this for efficiency but it doesn’t matter. The legs were very loosely taped and if squeezed then they’d lose their shape; I didn’t bother filling them in because I don’t have materials for that and I let the paper mache help support them instead. Tape was also used to fill any holes and gaps left by the cardboard skeleton.

The next phase is paper mache of which I haven’t done since 5th grade… I was not confident in this step. I used mod podge and a brush to smooth down the paper. Because I lacked materials I used fast food napkins instead of newspaper which worked totally fine, it just tended to tear a bit easier. Some areas required me to get hands on and I don’t really like the texture during this stage so that was fun (lie). I didn’t do too many layers, one for the body and 3 for the back and legs but some projects might demand more. I used half of a 16oz bottle of mod podge btw so please get more than you think you need.

Finally, texture hell!!! I did a base coat of white spray paint and painted everything else with acrylic. Start with your lighter colors first before doing darker ones! I originally mixed some yellow and orange for the body and realized it was too bright and so covered it with orange instead. It also wasn’t until later I realized I could’ve been smarter with my paint so I skipped over the segments that were going to be fully black, saving the orange for the rest of the body. I wanted my centipede to stand out and not look 2D color-wise so I also used the red for the head and tail to give gradients and edges to the orange segments and legs, later going back with burgundy to further darken them but not too much. For the black segments I also used a very watered down layer of sky blue to give a fake shine and show the intended structure of the segments. Do not be afraid to use your hands! I used mine to smudge my detail paints like the black fade on the legs and the back shading. To top it all off I sprayed a clear coat and punched two holes in the underside to hang it up, using thumbtacks angled upwards.

#myart #bug #insect #bugs #insects #centipede #centipedes #sculpture

621 notes · View notes

muffinsin · 6 months ago

Text

🎃 Happy Halloween 🎃

Sub! Cassandra Dimitrescu x Dom! G!P OC Lauren

[Tags : mommy kink, praise kink, humiliation, sex in public and semi-public spaces, costumes, anal, toys, orgasm play]

Lauren shows Cassandra just how exciting Halloween can be, while making her fantasy of the brunette in a costume of her choice become a reality

Masterlists

╰┈➤ Find more about Lauren under #oc lauren at my profile. The other parts of this series can be found here (Bela) (Daniela)

Happy Halloween everyone!🙌🎃👻

Lauren was thrilled at the idea of a Halloween party, a very welcomed break from the hard work at the castle. The moment the idea was brought up, her mind was swarmed with ideas.

Among those she fancied the idea of her girlfriend shown off in a costume worth of her, and the excuse to put the brunette into such outfits was more than enough motivation for her to fully support the suggested idea of a small Halloween celebration at the castle.

Cassandra felt differently. She did not understand the concept of such a holiday, nor did she care. Why should a random day in a random month mean anything to her, if she did things considered horror every day?

She cared not for what her girlfriend told her, only met suggestions of her family with snarls and rolling eyes.

This was about to change.

”What’s this?”, Cassandra asked, eying the black gift bag in her girlfriend’s hand. The woman merely smirked at her as she stepped closer, her free hand resting on Cassandra’s hip and making the brunette jump when her flesh was suddenly squeezed.

”A gift, silly. Haven’t you seen one before, Cassandra?”

The brunette rolled her eyes.

”What’s in the bag? Is this about that stupid party today?” Cassandra asked, her eyes fixated on the bag. She saw a small, nearly transparent bag in it, with a leathery texture. It looked like rope, almost, yet stiffer. The brunette was curious, despite her distaste for the apparent “Holiday”.

”I thought I’d get you a costume, for today. Or do you have one already?”, Lauren asked, knowing this was not the case. She was painfully hard already from just picturing her girlfriend in the outfit she had brought her.

The brunette groaned and rolled her eyes, pushing the other woman away from her. “You go to the stupid celebration if you want!”

Cassandra gasped when her arm was grabbed and she was pushed up against the wall behind her, her eyes wide and her thighs automatically pushing together when her clit ached. She so loved when her girlfriend made a display of her strength..

”You told your Mother you’d be there, and me”, she stated. Cassandra was about to object, but was shushed when her cheek was cupped. “You wouldn’t want to disappoint either of us, would you?”

Lauren smirked as she noticed the light blush on Cassandra’s cheeks. She snarled at her, yet agreed to attend. “Good, I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Cassandra”, Lauren said, yet her thoughts were all over the place as she noticed just how close her hard cock was to Cassandra. The tight maid uniform barely did a thing hiding it, yet it seemed her girlfriend did not take notice of it just yet.

”So show me the bag already”, Cassandra huffed. She felt frustrated, in many ways. She stood with her arms crossed when Lauren pulled things from the bag, her eyebrow rising as she inspected the things.

When she reached for the leathery looking item, Lauren pushed her hand away. “Patience, Cassandra”

The brunette groaned, her hand reaching for it again, and it was yet again swatted away, more aggressively than before. “Must you always be such a little brat about things?”, Lauren huffed, her cock hardening further. She looked forward to making her girlfriend behave like a good girl again, a task exclusively hers.

Cassandra bit her lip when her girlfriend moved over to her again, standing behind her. She felt Lauren’s hard dick pressing against her backside. “Why don’t we get you dressed”, Lauren suggested, her lips brushing against her girlfriend’s sensitive neck. She smiled to herself as her tongue licked over the bite marks littering the woman’s neck. “We’ve still got so much time until we have to head down”, Cassandra said, her tongue darting out to wet her lips.

”Oh I know”

The younger woman’s fingers easily found the zipper of Cassandra’s dress, pulling it antagonisingly slow. Cassandra squirmed in place.

When the dress was finally off, Lauren didn’t waste a moment to let her hands roam over her girlfriend’s body. The woman bit her lip and made quiet noises as her flesh was squeezed and caressed.

“You didn’t mention if you had a costume…”, she breathed out as her bra was pulled down and instead of the clothing, the strong woman cupped her breasts instead.

”You’ll see mine later, don’t you worry about that now”, Lauren cooed. “I’ve been very curious to see you in yours”, she added.

Cassandra watched eagerly as the gift bag was finally opened fully. The leathery item was revealed to be a tail, a leathery black one with a devil’s arrow at the end. Upon seeing the other end, her eyes widened.

Lauren chuckled as she held the tail plug up by the straight middle peace, the leather allowing her a tight grip on the toy. She smirked at the quiet brunette, her free hand reaching out to squeeze the woman’s face and pull her in by her chin.

”Cat got your tongue? Wont you tell Mommy what’s on your mind?”, She teased. Cassandra blushed brightly, her thighs pushed together. “It’s big”, she murmured, observing the large, metallic butt plug that belonged to the devil’s tail.

Cassandra gasped when her underwear was pulled down and the air of the room hit her most intimate parts. A throaty moan slipped past her wet lips as Lauren pushed the cold plug between her warm pussy lips, humming as she did so. “Aren’t you a wet little thing”, she hummed. The brunette bit her lip as her partner leaned in, her lips against her earlobe “You’re such a little slut, Cassandra”, she whispered.

The brunette moaned loudly when the plug was pushed inside her soaked pussy, in and out a couple of times until it was equally soaked as her cunt. “Get on the bed”

Her tone left no room for objections, and so Cassandra eagerly swarmed and got on all fours on her bed, her cunt warm and soaked for her lover, the woman’s cock on her mind. She saw the outline of it under the woman’s uniform and felt it press against her, and all she could think about was to get it inside of her and fill her. Her nipples were hard and sensitive already, her pussy aching for Lauren to fill it already.

She eyed the woman in the mirror standing at the wall of her bed, biting her lip as she saw her grab a bottle of lube and hold it over her exposed and stuck out behind. Her back arched automatically when it dripped down on her, almost ticklish, as it slid between her thick ass cheeks and was eventually smeared all over her tight asshole with Lauren’s precise fingers.

”Fuck me..!”, she moaned lowly, and jumped and gasped when her ass was slapped harshly. Dark red blood barely slipped from the cut on her ass caused by Lauren’s rings, yet the sight was more than welcome.

”What did I say about patience, you little brat? You’re not getting a thing before I allow it, baby”

Cassandra moaned when her hair was tugged. “Do we have an understanding with each other, little brat?”

She gulped. “Yes Mommy”, she moaned, her mind occupied by thoughts of the other woman’s cock deep inside of her, fucking her and bulging her stomach as she praised and degraded her all at the same time.

She shivered as the large plug was rubbed against her wet asshole, the tight hole stretching as Lauren pushed the tip in and out of her. “Please..! Mommy..”, she moaned lowly.

”What’s that, baby? Do you want more?”, Lauren cooed. She kept Cassandra’s ass cheek pushed aside with one hand, the other pushing the tip of the plug in and out. “Does my pretty slut want more? Do you want Mommy to push the big plug deep inside your ass, Cassandra?”, she cooed. The brunette felt lightheaded. She gripped the sheets so tightly, her knees already feeling weak as her ass was teased.

“Yes, Mommy”, she answered. Her ass moved slightly, as if grinding on her lover.

”Good slut. You’ll make such a pretty devil for me”, she answered. Cassandra moaned when finally more of the plug was inserted in her, groaning as the last bit stretched her ass, before gasping when it finally slipped fully inside. Her hole felt wet and warm, full with the plug. The tail felt oddly heavy on her backside, yet the plug never slipped out even when she shook her ass.

She moaned loudly when the other woman gripped the tail tightly and yanked a little, having the kneeling woman arch her back more. It felt so good and had her shiver helplessly as Lauren fucked her ass with the plug, her legs shaky and weak after mere seconds already.

”M-Mommy…!”, she moaned, her nails tearing she sheets as the warm plug kept hitting her insides. She felt it deep in her, the tail heavy even as Lauren held and yanked it.

Cassandra yelped when her hips were tugged back. She hasn’t realized she was no longer kneeling and arching her back properly and got back in the required position. “More, please!” She begged, slutty as she was, without shame.

The brunette merely moaned when her ass was slapped instead and Lauren pulled another few items from the bag. “You’ve been such a brat lately, Cassandra”, she cooed as she stepped in front of said brunette.

”I need your co-Ugh!”, Cassandra shrieked in surprise when she was slapped, then moaned as her face was gripped harshly. She knew her girlfriend was done playing friendly with her.

”Why would Mommy give you her big cock if you’ve been behaving like a bratty whore for days?”, she questions rhetorically. The brunette bit her lip to keep from moaning when her tail was adjusted to rest beside her now. She almost pouted and snarled at her girlfriend’s words, her need to get her soaked pussy filled by her girlfriend driving her nearly insane.

”Don’t you look so miserable, Cassie”, the woman mocked. Cassandra attempted to speak yet again, but merely groaned when her nipples were pinched painfully. “No, brat, you’re quiet when Mommy talks, and you’ll answer when she asks you a question. Is that understood, Cassandra?”, she demanded. Cassandra answered with a quiet “Yes, Mommy, I understand”.

”As I was saying, there’s no need to look so miserable, baby, Mommy intends to play with you for very long-“, Lauren gave the tail yet another yank, having the brunette shriek and moan, “- and very intensely.”, she added with a smirk. “However, you will not just get Mommy’s cock this time, not until I deem you’ve behaved well enough”, she explained, her eyes meeting golden ones as she had Cassandra suck her fingers clean.

The brunette watched as two white clamps were put on her hard nipples and licked her lips as she watched her girlfriend undress. The tight shirt was torn off first and almost had Cassandra jump forwards to grope the soft breasts revealed to her, yet she merely moaned and shivered as the unusual weight of the tail held her back from swarming. “No touching yet, you greedy slut”, Lauren said firmly, her shirt and bra tossed aside as she instead worked on undoing her belt.

Cassandra squirmed when she was turned and gasped when every turn made the tail move slightly and the plug rub against her insides.

”M-Mommy No-ooh!” She gasped when she was flipped roughly and the toy pushed deep inside of her before she adjusted to the new position. She laid on her back, on top of pillows and blankets that had her slightly elevated and feel more exposed than she already did.

The brunette groaned when the clamps on her nipples started vibrating, teasing her sensitive nipples as she laid and squirmed and moaned.

Lauren eyed her greedily, her rising chest and her wet inner thighs, her soaked pussy full of her arousal and wetness that almost sparkled in the light when Lauren pulled the Dimitrescu’s pussy lips aside. Cassandra’s back was arched perfectly, the tail’s plug deep inside her and keeping her so perfectly sensitive for Lauren. She almost pitied her brat, almost.

Cassandra opened her eyes back up at when her wrists were grabbed and she felt the smooth, leathery texture of Lauren’s belt around her, tying her wrists together and preventing her to move almost entirely.

”Mommy…” she moaned breathlessly, her nipples red already, her clit aching and her pussy drooling as her soaked ass tightened around the plug so very often. Cassandra felt how soaked she was, partly from her own count and partly from the lube that had been smeared all over her sensitive privates.

She watched as Lauren gripped the tail yet again and jumped when she used the flat, arrow shaped end to slap her broadly on her bare pussy. “AH! A-Ah!”, Cassandra screamed, the pain deliciously mixing with the pleasure she got from the yanking of the tail. The plug was nestled so deep in her…

Golden eyes widened and set on Lauren hungrily when she placed herself on top of Cassandra, her cock straining against her underwear. “Ah ah, no touching, bratty girl”, Lauren cooed mockingly as Cassandra attempted to reach down, yet couldn’t with the belt keeping her arms together.

She moaned throatily as the cock rubbed up against her small and sensitive clit, her pussy so wet it easily soaked the other woman’s underwear in mere seconds, giving Cassandra the view of the woman’s cock’s outline in the white panties. It was so unfair, how she teased the Dimitrescu daughter, knowing to what a needy and slutty toy she was reduced to whenever Lauren played with her.

”A-Ah yes! Mommy! Please inside! Please Mommy!”, Cassandra begged, her hips raising as the large and hard cock kept rubbing against her sloppily wet and sensitive bundle of nerves. She gasped and whined as her tail was tugged and pushed, over and over again, the plug fucking her ass as her clit and nipples were teased ruthlessly. “Mommy I ca-a-Ah! I cant!”, she begged. She yearned to have Lauren push her cock deep inside of her, grip her hips tightly as she did and rail her hard. She felt embarrassingly close to coming for someone who’s had cock merely rubbed against her clit.

”Hm, Cassandra? Does Mommy’s pretty slut want to cum?”

The brunette could only nod her head quickly, slurred words passing her dry lips as her pussy clenched around nothingness. Her legs twitched and her knees felt like jelly. She was so close and could barely function and Lauren knew it very well.

”P-Please! Mommy! I want to!”, Cassandra begged helplessly. She shook helplessly and snarled angrily when Lauren pulled away from her, merely blowing lightly on her warm and swollen clit, a mocking smile on her lips.

”Come on, Cassie, we can’t have you cum so soon already, bratty slut.”

Cassandra groaned and snarled angrily, yet fell back in her state of submission and whimpered helplessly as her tail was pushed and tugged again, the butt wet and warm inside her asshole.

She did not realize Lauren walking off towards their closet until she was hovering over her sweaty and trembling body again, her fingers stroking over Cassandra’s neck before removing her famous choker and necklace carefully, instead replacing it with a heavy choker with a leash made of small chains attached to it. She snarled when her nose was booped mockingly, but fell quiet again when Lauren rose her eyebrow challengingly.

”That’s what I thought, brat”, she cooed.

”M-Mommy!” The brunette gasped when Lauren climbed off her and tugged the leash behind her. It was such an odd sensation to move even slightly with the tail attached to her. She whimpered helplessly as she was pulled forwards and the plug moved about inside her ass, shifting and pushing up against her inner walls as she climbed out the bed clumsily.

”Don’t you look pretty, slut”, Lauren whispered, her eyes taking in her beautifully helpless girlfriend; her messy hair and smeared black lipstick, her smooth neck and the choker, her full breasts and nipples that spotted the vibrating clamps, the tail attached to her especially arousing.

Cassandra gasped as she was tugged along again, the leather tail dragging behind her, and bit her lip when Lauren eventually sat down at the leathery sofa in her room, an addition made by Lauren which Cassandra enjoyed surprisingly much. She grinned as Lauren gave the leash a hard tug and the brunette woman fell forwards on her lap, her face and body caught easily by the servant.

”Now, isn’t this familiar”, the muscular woman teased, her hand sliding alongside Cassandra’s skin and the arch of her back, groping hips and ass cheeks shamelessly and making the woman squirm.

Cassandra squirmed helplessly, her arms tied and the hard cock she desperately wanted inside of her instead wet against her lower stomach. She moaned as her ass was smacked harshly, and whimpered as she tightened around the plug automatically.

”You like that, dirty girl?”, Lauren hummed, her voice smooth and contrasting to her harsh and fast slaps on the sadist’s ass.

”Yes! Mghmm Mommy!”, Cassandra groaned, her thighs harshly against each other. She felt so wet and dirty, needy and desperate for more.

Lauren admired as the pale skin turned first pink, then dark red, and eventually every hit made Cassandra jump and whimper.

”Please! Mommy!”, Cassandra whimpered as she was turned around yet again, her eyes on Lauren as the woman played with her soaked pussy lips.

The woman was softer than she looked, something that never failed to surprise the servant. She slid her fingers through Cassandra’s wet southern lips, collecting the arousal smeared all over her there, the wetness drooling from her. Eventually she took pity on the whining and squirming woman and pushed a single finger inside of her.

Cassandra whimpered, as expected. She yearned for more, too slutty to settle with what she was given, and whined when one of the nipple clamps was removed from her. Lauren chuckled; it left the little bud red and swollen.

”Let’s see how loud we can make you whine with this”, she teased, spreading Cassandra’s pussy lips and blowing teasingly on her soaked clit before clipping the vibrating clamp to it. The woman on her lap arched her back and groaned in pain and excitement.

“That’s it, baby. Mommy knows what a sensitive clit you’ve got”, Lauren spoke clearly, her finger thrusting in and out of the brunette woman, each time coming out more soaked than it had already been.

”Now, let’s see what a slut you can be for Mommy…”, she said, taking the tail and placing it between Cassandra’s tied hands. “Fuck your ass for Mommy, Cassandra, and maybe I will reward you”, she cooed. The woman’s legs already shook, her pussy soaked.

She didn’t waste a moment, instead started pulling and pushing the tail, fucking her ass and pumping the plug deep inside of her. Lauren laughed at the humiliating state of her slut, feeling how very hard she was.

She pushed Cassandra slightly away from her, merely enough to reach for her cock. The brunette’s mouth watered as she was turned and the cock was right in front of her pussy. Lauren merely had to push it deep inside of her…

But that didn’t happen.

Instead merely a second finger slipped inside of her and the younger woman merely stroke herself right in front of Cassandra’s hot and soaked pussy. The brunette whimpered and moaned, her ass so sensitive already.

”Faster, cassie”, Lauren demanded. She wanted to cum to the humiliating image of her tough girlfriend being nothing but a needy slut for her.

And her wish was granted, as the longer she stroked herself the wetter and needier Cassandra became, and in turn she fucked her ass harder and harder. She almost came twice from the teasing clamp on her clit, twice cursing and whimpering when Lauren simply removed it until her orgasm seemed out of reach again, until the poor woman whimpered and begged for an orgasm already, her holes soaked and her nipples and clit so sore and aching, especially as the clamp was back on the little bundle of nerves. Lauren did not give in.

Cassandra shrieked as she was turned again and made to open her mouth, yet growled angrily when she was not allowed to take her lover into her mouth. She moaned when hot cum was shot in her mouth nonetheless and dripped over her sofa as she swallowed all eagerly.

”Now then,”, Lauren spoke breathlessly. She stood up with the chained leash in her hand, tugging her trembling and sensitive brat along. The brunette’s legs were weak and her pussy and ass wet, so much she had even feared the large plug would slip out. But it didn’t, and it kept her asshole pressured as the heavy tail hung and trailed behind her.

”Bring Mommy the other things from the bag, Cassandra”, she demanded, loosening her grip on the leash to allow the woman to walk. Cassandra shivered and whimpered as she did so, legs like jelly and hands tied, pussy and ass soaked in her own wetnesses. She managed to grip the bag and moaned as she leaned down to reach in and the plug rubbed against her walls.

As she looked down again, she had pulled out a set of devil horns. She groaned angrily as they were out on her, adding to her outfit. The next item she had filled her with excitement. A large, realistic looking dildo with an odd wire looking cord attached to it. She brought it to Lauren and blushed as it was taken from her tied hands.

Now, it was by no means easy to make the brunette woman submit. Yet Lauren managed at every opportunity, knowing just how to handle her lover and play her cards against her: she knew taming Cassandra meant there was no space for failure. A single crack, a single peek at insecurity or hesitation could be exploited by the brat.

Cassandra watched as things were swiped from the table and the realistic toy was set down on it instead. It latched onto the surface of the desk. “Straddle it, baby”

She whimpered, yet walked towards the table, eager to feel her pussy full at last. Like a true gentlewoman, Lauren helped the other woman on the table, smirking as she moaned and whimpered as she attempted to sit with the tail’s plug pushing in her. “Now Cassie, Mommy told you to straddle it. Let me see it sink in your little pussy”

The brunette moaned as she did just that, gasping and whimpering as her soaked pussy easily had the toy slide deep inside of her. She groaned once it was fully inside.

”Good girl”

Her asshole and pussy clenched around the toys.

”Ride it, baby”

She felt degraded and humiliated, and so horny as Lauren sat down at the desk’s chair, watching her brat as she rode the dildo and moaned helplessly. Her legs shook easily and she blushed as her lover watched her grind on the toy like a needy slut.

The horns sitting on her head were adjusted and her leash was yanked. She felt truly like such a slut and loved every moment of it.

”Now hurry up my sweet baby, fuck your pretty pussy with the big toy. We’ll need to head downstairs soon”, Lauren cooed. She stood, her chest close to Cassandra as she spoke in her ear, hands resting and cupping the brunette’s full and vibrating boobs.

”Maybe Mommy will let you cum if you get there before we must prepare to head down”

The brunette’s eyes widened in excitement.

”Y-Yes Mommy!”

She whimpered and moaned as she fucked herself faster, more and more, the tail and dildo making a mess of her holes, the vibrating clamps getting her so close in only a matter of minutes.

”M-Mommy!”, Cassandra breathed out, moaning as she was so close.

Lauren chuckled at her, cupping her cheek. “Cum, my good girl”, she cooed.

Cassandra did not have to be told twice. She rode fast and eagerly and arched her back, she was so close.

Her eyes opened and frustrated tears almost spilled down her cheeks as the vibrating stopped and Lauren held her in place, preventing her any more friction of the toys.

”M-Mo-mmy?”, she breathed out miserably, whimpering.

Lauren chuckled sadistically, looking at her broken slut. She pushed her lips against Cassandra’s, her tongue dominating hers. “It seems we must prepare to head down, Cassandra”

The brunette whimpered and groaned, yet her eyes followed her partner’s hands as she moved along the cord of the toy and to a small, oval looking thing attached to it. “What’s that?”, Cassandra asked curiously. She had never seen such an odd thing on a dildo before.

Alas, when Lauren squeezed it and the dildo inside of her grew in size, Cassandra shrieked and squirmed. She attempted to lift herself off the toy, yet her knees and legs felt too weak to support this cause.

”Now now, Cassandra. Didn’t you say you wanted to be wet and full? Very well, we’ll make sure you don’t only become filled, but stay that way until Mommy decides otherwise”

The brunette moaned and shivered as she felt fluid spurt from the toy, warm and wet almost like cum, until it filled her nicely. Her eyes could barely keep open, she felt so sensitive and horny.

Another push of the oval looking thing- the toy expanded again and had Cassandra shriek helplessly.

”M-Mommy!”

She gasped when it grew more and more, stretching her soaked pussy as it went.

”Did I not teach you to mind your words, you spoiled little brat?”, Lauren scolded, mercilessly pumping the cock until it was inflated to the maximum and kept the woman’s cunt sealed. Cassandra’s hips squirmed helplessly, yet no more wetness slipped from her pussy.

”Good girl, Cassie”, she praised.

Cassandra gasped when she was lifted off the table and caught by Lauren when she nearly fell over. “Let’s get you dressed in your costume now, baby. We can’t have you show up dressed as a naked slut, Cassandra”

She took a breath as the heavy collar was removed from her and eyed Lauren as she brought black panties and scissors.

Gasping, she saw the woman cut a small hole in them, which she used to push the tail through the panties. Cassandra’s eyes were wide.

”It stays on?!” She gasped in surprise. She whimpered as the oval add on of the toy was pushed between her pussy lips and the panties were pulled up. One still saw the slight outline of the toy, but only barely so.

”Of course, my tempting devil”, Lauren cooed. Cassandra gasped when the clamp was removed from her nipple, yet the one on her clit remained. “M-Mommy?!”

Next the woman pulled a black corset from the bag. Cassandra shivered, memories of Lauren teasing her by cutting off her breath with corsets or by wrapping her hand around her neck.

She shivered when the item was put on her and tightened, leaving her barely room to breathe, just the way the masochist liked it.

”Good girl”, Lauren praised her. Cassandra clenched around the toys inside of her.

To finish up her look, it seemed, Lauren pulled out leather pants. Cassandra squirmed. Again, a hole was cut in them, it was almost a pity, and they were put on the squirming brunette. “Good girl”, the woman repeated.

Cassandra whined helplessly as she was put in her normal heels, somehow expected to walk despite the toys rubbing inside of her and the clit clamp that might turn on any moment.

She snarled when she was pushed on the bed yet again and whined when both toys seemed to push almost deeper into her.

Eagerly the brunette watched the other woman get dressed too, and rolled her eyes and scoffed as she noticed the outfit. An angel. Typical.

Lauren laughed as she noticed Cassandra’s reaction. “No need to pout, baby”, she teased. Cassandra whined when her hand was taken and she was sat on Lauren’s lap. Both women were merely distracted yet again as the tail rubbed against Lauren’s cock. “Let’s see here, you’ve made such a mess of your pretty face, Cassie”, Lauren cooed, wiping the smeared makeup and instead replacing it with new one. Cassandra sat surprisingly still as the woman did her makeup, smearing black lipstick along her lips before pressing a kiss to the tattoo on her forehead. “Let’s head down, Baby”

Mere minutes into the celebration Cassandra had realized just how badly she wished they could have simply stayed in her room. Daniela had mushed about the cute “couple outfit” Lauren and her wore, Bela was too busy to even realise her younger sister was there. It would seem, Cassandra thought with slight disgust, they both suffered the same fate under their clothing, as Bela practically stuck to Donna’s side and would barely walk, instead kept her thighs pressed tightly together. Cassandra had no such luck. Lauren had simply pushed her into the room, kissing her and demanding of her to mingle as she got them drinks.

An hour into the celebration or so, Cassandra had realised how badly she needed release. She felt full and needy, her clit teased so much it had her jump when Lauren merely brushed her finger against it through the clothing.

Not unlike her sister and her lover, Cassandra too at least found herself on Lauren. She angrily shooed Daniela away whenever she wished to talk, instead whimpering in Lauren’s ear about how needy she was, how she nearly came when Daniela thought it fun to pull on the tail, not knowing it was attached to Cassandra and instead foolishly believing it was a part of the leather pants. Her younger sister didn’t quite understand why Cassandra yelled at her for this, only rolling her eyes and mumbling something about her sister’s bad moods.

”Mommy please”, Cassandra begged, straddling Lauren’s lap. Her hands were on the woman’s cock, subtly rubbing it though her white angel robe. Cassandra couldn’t help but rub her pussy over the woman’s thigh. It felt so good, her poor clit teased almost brutally in the past hour.

“Now, baby, we’ve barely been here. We can’t leave after just an hour. Everyone else is still here”, Lauren cooed. She was correct, too. Alcina was eager hosting the event, yet had her watchful eye all over. Daniela was dancing eagerly with servants, all evening, drinking and kissing only to be scolded by her protective Mother, whereas Bela and Donna had not left yet either. The blonde woman, dressed ironically as a maid, barely left the side of her lover, dressed as a vampire. Lauren chuckled at the pair and partly scolded herself for not thinking of the outfit. Then again, she was sure Cassandra would have her head for trying to put her into the costume of a fair maiden seduced by her. The image of innocence did not at all fit her dear lover either, not that Lauren would change so.

She too felt like she had enough of the party already, yet enjoyed seeing her brunette squirm about and stroke her cock for her. She grabbed Cassandra’s hands when Alcina’s watchful eye turned to them. “Be a good girl and get me a glass of wine, won’t you?” She asked instead, still after months slightly fearful of the watchful eye of an overprotective, and most of all deadly, Mother.

Cassandra groaned, not at all feeling like moving, but did so nonetheless, needing a glass herself in an attempt to calm herself.

Their plan to wait for someone else to first leave the celebration was failing, as the couple realized, for Alcina and Daniela had no intention of leaving, and the many attending maids had no choice but to stay until dismissed. Furthermore, it seemed as though it was Bela’s idea too to wait for the first couple to leave.

Cassandra was sick of waiting. Her panties were soaked through despite the dildo in her, her clit and ass was sensitive enough to nearly make her cum if she merely bumped into something or someone.

Lauren watched anxiously as her girlfriend excused them from the party and politely thanked Alcina as she was pulled off, chuckling to herself when merely moments after they excited the room she heard Bela call for the countess too, no doubt ready to retreat to her bedroom with her partner as well.

”Easy, Cassie”, she gasped when she was pushed against the door as soon as they were back in their room and the door shut, Cassandra’s hands groping and squeezing, her legs on either side of her thigh as she rutted against it in almost primal fashion.

”You-“, Cassandra moaned, “have been”, Lauren moaned as hands cupped and squeezed her large cock. “Teasing me”, Cassandra whimpered as her hands shook too much to pull down the zipper of the leather pants, instead settled for grinding her clothes pussy against Lauren. “All damn day.”, she finished.

Cassandra moaned as her hair was gripped and she was pushed towards the bed, the collar picked up again and put on her. “That’s right, my pretty slut”, Lauren panted. She eagerly ripped open the zipper and tugged the pants off her lover, “I think it’s time Mommy took what she wanted all day”

Cassandra moaned as the collar’s leash was tied to the railing of the bed, keeping her head in place and keeping her leaned forwards on all four. She felt so needy and wet.

”Let’s see…”, Lauren panted, shredding her own clothing off and freeing her already red swollen and leaking cock.

She pulled down Cassandra’s underwear roughly and deflated the dildo, pulling the soaked item out and tossing it aside. No time was wasted as Lauren instead thrust inside her soaked lover, laughing as she felt the warm insides of her pussy. She laughed loudly as her poor lover came from merely the penetration, tearing the clit clamp from her and tossing it to the discarded item.

”Mhmm, has my beautiful girl missed me?”, she teased. Cassandra moaned, nodding and gasping for breath as she came. “Don’t you think we’ll be done anytime soon, baby”

The brunette fly woman gasped when her hips were grabbed tightly and Lauren thrust deep inside, over and over again, her wet cock easily sliding deep inside of her. “P-Please!”

She felt lightheaded already, at last cumming after a night of seemingly endless teasing, and she bit her lip in anticipation, eager for what was yet to come her way that Halloween night.

#cassandra dimitrescu #bela dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu #oc lauren #cassandra x lauren #cross posted on ao3 #lesbian

74 notes · View notes

lavenderdropp · 7 months ago

Text

ABYSSAL: [MERMAN! KOKUSHIBO /MICHIKATSU TSUGIKUNI X FEMALE! READER]

-> Chapter One: Purest of all

Warnings: mentions of injuries, drowning, blood and sea storm and amnesia.

The soft splash of the sea waves hugging the shore echoed throughout the land. Sea breeze brushing against their skin, acting as a reliever from the draining summer day which now came to its end with a lovely sunset. It could be considered as a reward for all the hard work done by her throughout the day. Just as the sky was being tainted in the blossoming hues of settling evening, their hearts melted with love and longing for one another. Salty waters of shore ends kissed her feet which were dangling down the wooden ramp as she was seated at the edge of it.

The maiden looked down at him. Her [eye color] orbs holding nothing but admiration and affection. For him. Her eyes comparable to that of a marble. So beautiful. So alluring as she had held him captivate under her gaze. Yet, she was unaware. Unaware of the hold she had upon him which tied his heart and soul to her. It was almost foolish that how vulnerable he felt in front of her. But he wouldn't have it the other way. As they succumbed into the moment, the only thing surrounding them was serenity.

Her hands in his.

The tender hold of her hands against his was simply blissful. Her mere presence was enough to calm the raging turmoil within him. She was the missing piece of his soul which completed the puzzle of his being. With her by his side it felt like his search for the unknown was complete.

He was complete.

A claw, embroidered with elegantly shimmering scales beneath the setting rays of sun, reached up to brush itself against the delicate texture of her cheek. She didn't flinch or tried to pry off his hand, instead she only leaned into it and smiled at him. She always managed to catch him off guard. No matter how many times she did that, it always felt new. Her reaction, it was different, different from what he had experienced throughout his life from others. He was used to the looks of fear and cowering figures beneath him. Yet, there was she, seated at the top of a wooden ramp which connected the land to the sea, gazing down at him with eyes filled with affection while he was submerged in the water as his tail helped his upper body to stay afloat upon the surface of the water.

A mutual madness, a mutual desire, and a mutual flowing emotion in the eyes as she leaned down and he leaned up slightly. Their faces inches apart. Their lips hovered over each other's lime a taunting indication of what might happen next. Senses on fire from the drug of love. Then their lips met-

Eye lids opened to reveal a pair of [eye color] iris, as cold as the ice, as shimmer-less as a rusted metal and devoid of any emotion. They were just empty. Slowly, a movement took place as they shifted to observe their surroundings. A wooden hurled room, number of barrels and a couple of ropes and fine weapons.

The vertigo of rocking from left to right sent sensations down the body of the wooden blight on its voyage towards it's next destination unknown and undisclosed towards the figure bound by the shackles of metal forged by fire and repeated beating of a mighty hammer. The rocking motion made the wooden prison creak and groan from the perpetrator responsible for it's sick cradle of motion. However unlike an infant's cradle that was supposed to bring comfort, this was anything but comforting.

Sensations from the rocking and creaking reached the numb body that slowly awoken from the deep slumber she had been in a moment ago.

COLD.

Cold was the first sensation that returned to her. Stinging her awakened flesh like a string of wasps. Hurting and painful. Second was the throbbing and pulsating sensation clawing at the side of her head making her groan. Third was pins and needles and tiredness the more her body moved. And last was the cold of the metal shackles and chains, clanking with every small movement of her body.

They sounded together echoing in the dark as her arm reached out and she flipped onto her stomach. As if to insult her small triumph, a roll of thunder and strike of lightning sounded off from above. Lighting up the strange room just for a brief moment. Letting tired confused orbs get a glimpse of what might've been a ship's storage room. Tied barrels thumped against each other as the rocking continued with a roll of thunder off the tip of the storm's violent lashing tongue.

The sounds muffled together in her ears as her vision swam about. Her ears ring. Her body stings. Her visions blur with roundabout darkness. Where was she? What had happened?

CRACK-!!

The harsh rocking back and forth increases suddenly increased from the left as a mighty wave must've crashed into this alleged ship's side. The bottom of the ship where the wave him made the floorboards push inwards briefly from the force used to smash into them. The entire room dipped right sending her rolling sideways around and around. Shackle chains clanking crazily and sounds leaving her mouth indescribable in the moment until with a final thud she collided face and stomach first into a line of crates where they leaned against the left wall. Other objects tumbled down around her thudding and crashing from the force of the ship leaning left.

A sharp hiss left her throat at the harsh welcome of the ship from her slumber. Eyes closing momentarily as she tried to take in whatever was happening.

What happened?

The answer to that question came as a sharp sting going throughout her head. Passing images were blur and negative. The train of thoughts seemingly halting at the absence of the pieces to the puzzle.

How do I get out of here?

[eye color] orbs unveiled to search through her surroundings for a way to escape the hellish torment. It was as if the fate was playing a cruel joke with her. Waking up and finding herself tied up with no idea of where she was being sailed to. The growing headache and fatigue did not help either and she found herself helpless in the clutches of a threatening situation.

But she knew she could not give up.

Not when she is in such situation.

She had to stay alive.

She promised--

Promise?

What did she promise? And to whom? The side of her head stung painfully at the attempt to recall. All she got in the response was a pulsating disturbance clawing her mind which seemed to be not her own at this moment.

Was it because of the way she was thrown around? Think. What was the last thing she remembered? She remembered...Eyes narrowed hard at the wooden floor. Her numb and fuzzy mind trying to comb through the fog which rolled over her memories. She remembered...a pain. A quick jabbing pain she had when she first passed out but that was it. She had no memory of anything else before or after that until she woke up here.

Where was here? A ship obviously. But how she got here or why was a mystery. When did she get here? Where was she heading? Judging by the rocking motion they were going somewhere. Why was she tied up? Who put her here? Her mind could only come up with blanks. Alright. Never-mind what she couldn't remember. Focus on what she does know. Firstly she was tied up. Secondly she was trapped somewhere. So her first order of business was just focusing on getting out of these shackles. Maybe there was a key somewhere.

Orbs slowly looked around at her surroundings but it was mostly dark except for the occasional lightning strike. Where would there be a ke-

THUD.

Any thought process was halted by the sounds of a loud thud. Followed shortly by more similarly sounded thuds one after another coming closer and closer and closer to the door at the far end of the room where she was.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

The sounds only halted right outside of the door as another lightning flash lit up the room from the tiny round window on the side wall. That to disappeared only to lit up the room again when the wooden door slammed open, revealing a pissed looking man holding a lantern in his hand. He was drenched, head to toe and his hair too sticking to his forehead. The storm seemingly had spat out it's wrath on him-- and his crew-mates as well since two more men soon appeared after him.

"Sir, the woman is up!"

"I too can see that, 'zander." Bit the said man as he as completely discarded any attempt to acknowledge the mentioned woman. "Just get the supplies and necessities you need and get back to work."

"Who...are you? Where am I..?!" She mustered up the courage to question the man who continued to ignore her and look around for something that might fit his needs for the situation beforehand.

"I'm talking to you!" She cried out again, a scowl plastered on her face which made her reflect on the feeling of the stick-en dried blood-path which has left a trail of red behind on the side of her face down her forehead. "Where am I being taken to?!"

Her earlier disoriented state mended into the bubbling wrath and rush of adrenaline at the sight of her abductors. The earlier fatigue momentarily forgotten at the wake of anger and disgust.

It was then that the man finally turned around snarling his disgusting yellowed teeth at the girl. The other men momentarily looked up from picking up objects and moving things to look at her. She realized her mistake when the man stomped up to her, each heavy thud with his weight until he stood in front of her. A cry of pain left her mouth as a large hand snatched up the shackles on her wrists and pulled her painfully up into the air towards the snarling face.

"Quiet you stupid wench! Little betrayers like you don't get to talk!"

A hiss left her throat as she winced from the pain. Cracking one eye open just as another crack of lightning lit up his face. Betrayer? What was he talking about?

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid. You're lucky to still be breathing where you lay."

"I'm not laying down!"

....A grin spread across his face. "You're right. My mistake. Lemme fix that."

She cried out as he let her go and with a hard thud landing on the floor at his feet. A bout of rude laughter was right after echoing throughout her already throbbing head and making her clamped her eyes shut.

Stop it. Stop it. STOP IT!!

The sounds blurring with the storm outside thundered it's way to the mind. Pounding to the point nothing but a blurring blinding ringing in her ears could be heard from the storm or from those that'll be the victims of the bring deep before their very feet.

C R A C K

The world then dipped sideways knocking all to their sides with curses and yells. Thudding along the room from the ship tilting far left. A force from the outside brutally slamming into them from the depths below.

"What was that?!"

"We must've hit a reef or collided with a whale!"

"Get to the-"

CLASH RUMBLE went the thunder and lightning as the ocean claimed.

The ship began to rock from side to side and the temperature dipped to freezing cold in their veins from bodies thudding to and from from the force. Dark clouds obscured the moon. They rocked grimly in the darkness as black as death. The full moon’s light was painted silver, casting down rays of light with a ghostly glow. Underneath the moon, the rain moved towards them ike a veil of doom knitted with pretty lace by the grim reaper's skeletal hands. A ghastly wind yelled and groaned, rippling the surface of the raged ocean.

The heaved and tossed in the rising swell and the shrieks of the men cried out as they slid from side to and from the waves.

Left. Right. Left. Right.

Then all light disappeared as the cloaked sky blotted out the light of the moon other than the occasional lightning. She shrieked herself as she slid tumbling in circles as the storm downed out their screams and some force continued to slam against the floor pushing up harder and harder with each slam.

THUD THUD THUD

The floorboards pushed up with each desperate hit.

THUD THUD THUD

Spiderweb cracks began forming in the creaking wood as it gave way.

T H U D. T H U D. T H U D.

Water began seeping through between the cracks and crevices.

C R A C K!!

Blackened liquid spurted from the opening in the floor. Water rushed out into the new opening as the space was quickly filled. Digits strong, webbed poked through as an arm raised up through the ever growing hole. Wood and splinters washing away from the being pulling itself into the opening it made. Claws ran along the bottom of the ship as they pulled the creature in and a loud hiss escaped it alongside the sounds of rushing water still pouring in around it's form and the storm outside.

C L A S H

Lightning lit up the room illuminating six glowing eyes and a maw of fangs slowly turning around to carefully scan the remains of the wooden ship and the screams of the doomed humans until with a sharp turn they met eye to eye with the frozen woman in the few seconds the lightning lit up the space. Then when darkness once again shrouded everything-

The depths of Tartarus unleashed upon them all.

The rain whipped down like a laughing audience of evil and lightning emblazoned the sky. The waves rose and she shrieked as she felt water rush over her body, scrambling back with the sounds of desperate splashes and clanking shackles. The wind blew and sped them to their doom.

The ship bobbed like a cork upon the black sea as screams and terror broke out. The depths hissed and laughed as it eagerly claimed it's victim. The oak wood planks bulged and cracked then creaked and screamed as sharpened blades and claws in unison rectified it's vengeance on the haul, port, mast, and everything making it easy for the storm and sea to do their jobs of drowning the mighty ships.

The ship tipped up and up as a wave pushed it over and she shrieked feeling things fly past her across the slippery floor. Her blunt fingernails and hands desperately clawed and dug along the floor in a desperate attempt to hold on and avoid a watery grave. Panic and fear collided within her mind as she slid down, down, down-

And then she fell.

She shrieked as she tumbled head over heels over and over again. Until with a splash her screams were silenced by the blackened water swallowing her up whole with the sinking ship in the stormy night.

Mouth opening in a desperate attempt to breathe, only to choke out. Cold liquid pressing down her lungs as she pushed her limbs desperately, yet no leverage was found. The waters pushed her down further into the dark waiting to claim her and feed its hunger. Eyes struggling to remain open as the throbbing ache clawed upon her insides.

The movement of her form ceased slowly. [eye color] eyes unfocused as blood pounded behind her eyes. Eyelids veiling her gaze as deathly shadows clawed out to grasp her and take her away--

A pale limb, it's being a contrasting mixture of human arm giving rise to a flowing fin emerging from the flesh, embroidered to perfection, wrapped around her waist as the other soon followed after. She felt herself being pulled against something solid and soon the feeling of being pushed upwards met her.

A sharp gasp left her throat as they finally came up to the surface. Air filling her lungs again as her chest heaved up. Soft pants leaving her shivering form--

"Foolish."

A webbed claw reached up to cup the soft flesh of her cheek as her eyes opened to meet the three sets of golden pools surrounded by gleaming red sclera.

"Foolish of them to try taking away the only thing which kept me sane."

"You, my dear, is something i can never compromise with since you are the sole cure of this sickness."

"I could never leave. Not when the only thing that you seek is me. Not when you call for me such. Not when you are somewhere you shouldn't be. Not when my arms are the only place you belong."

The storm seemingly halted as the scattered moonlight fell upon their intertwined forms. It was as if their union was blessed by the heavens above. Yet, the dagger pierced his heart, shattering it into million pieces as it met him in the form of a mere whisper from his beloved.

"Who...are you?"

______________________________________________

Hello lovlies! Finally the book has been updated! The story might seem a bit confusing now but things would clear soon! ;)

A special thank you to @echantedtoon for the collaboration and help!

92 notes · View notes

eemamminy-art · 1 month ago

Text

My art process, more or less

Hey, so a lot of people have asked me before to share some of my art process. So when drawing a recent quick personal piece I decided to finally take screenshots as I went to make a write-up. This is the artwork:

And below the cut is all the steps as I drew this. I wasn't counting the time but I think it was something like ~5 hours between two sessions.

This is less a tutorial and more just showcasing how I draw. You know how writers sometimes call themselves a planner or a pantser? I'm a pantser with art. When I try to plan stuff out too thoroughly I get stuck in the mindset of like, it HAS to be one way and I can't improvise. Improvisation and pivot is kind of essential in how I draw, and I recommend everyone trying to not be so rigid when drawing if you can help it. I'm kind of all over the place and winging it through most drawings so I hesitate to call it a tutorial as I feel it would be hard to follow for beginners. I can only manage to draw this way because I already have some classroom training, thousands of hours and artworks under my belt, and a pretty strong sense of visual recall that gives me a good sense of how to eyeball proportions and the like. Okay, disclaimer done, let's jump in I guess

I had an idea to draw my OC wearing a layered shirt combo that I saw in a cat video and I thought suited him. You'll see the snippet I took of it in the corner of the canvas throughout, but that's where the idea spawned. I began with just trying to get the basic gesture and flow of the pose. I was constructing it from my head, as I most often do (I don't recommend this, but I am usually too lazy for finding pose refs)

I flip the canvas and use the lasso tool all throughout and just continue to push and pull on the body shape and gradually add more substance to it until I'm satisfied with the undersketch

Once I feel like the undersketch is what I want it to be, I lock the transparency and reduce the opacity to 15%. You could also just change the colors on it if you'd prefer, but I've done that and then drawn on the wrong layer too many times lol so I prefer to just lower opacity. Then I make a new layer at 100% opacity and start to draw the clean sketch on top.

I'm making changes to the pose and expression as I go, as you can see I ended up shifting his head away from where it's positioned in the undersketch

I achieve some of the effects in my art, especially the line weight, through setting the colors to transparent and continuing to use my sketch/line brush so that it now acts as an eraser but maintains the same texture and size as my brush strokes. I use it to cut away excess lines, and also add transparency to stuff like having the eyebrows be a suggestion beneath the bangs

I redrew parts of his face, neck, and hair several times and questioned what I was doing with my evening (normal part of the process) and eventually ended up with this:

I realized the hands were way too vague in my undersketch so I went back to it to try and figure out the hand pose better

And here's the finished hands. Well not really finished, I continue to mess with line weight later, but this is basically their final form

And this was basically the finished "lines" (it's still a sketch to me because I use this rougher brush, but people always refer to it as line art. So I guess it's line art), with the undersketch on and with it off

Of course I took one look at the art above and said "something's wrong" lol but I was in a bad mood and it was late so I went to bed. I came back the next day and began tweaking it, using my beloved lasso tool to adjust his face somewhat which helped a lot

I then proceeded to add some more line weighting, adjusted proportions further, and toned down the folds on his jeans because there was WAY too much focus on them lol. Side by side to show the differences:

Okay now we can start colors. And I know this is the thing you're all here for, the skin rendering. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but it's mostly just magic with textures and layer modes! I make a flat color layer for the skin base, and three layers clipped above it (clipped meaning, they lock to the alphas of the base layer). The first layer clipped above is set to 100% opacity with a normal layer mode. This is for color variations on the skin like blemishes, freckles, lips, tattoos, hickeys, and in nude works, nipples and genitals. In this artwork though, it's just his lips.

The top-most skin layer (three above the base) I set to 40% opacity and hard light mode. This is important, but can be adjusted. You can use multiply or soft light if you want, or adjust the opacity, really mess with it. But this is fore the texture on the skin. I use a custom airbrush that simulates skin pores, and I use a saturated orange color and dust it all over his skin

Next is what I normally like to call blush but it's all over, so it's really like. Definition? People call it rendering and I suppose it's kind of like that but in my head I'm just being lazy to make my flat colors look better and not have to actually do proper shading on the piece! But this is below the pores layer (so it's two layers above the skin base) and it's also set to 40% opacity, hard light. Again, use your discretion and play with it. I use a dark red color for this, it leans slightly pink but it's still fully red I'd say. Like a wine red I guess? And I just start defining shapes of the body, and deepening it in areas that actually would have a lot of blood flow (like the cheeks or ears)

I basically do it like this: I use the same brush that I use for blending when I am doing actual rendering (it's just an oil brush with a chisel tip that I got off the assets store, though it is currently unavailable last I looked) and I block out the area darkly. Then, I swap my color to transparent once again and I use that to carve out the midtones. I use a light touch so I can blend it out really nicely but I do leave some hard edges where it feels appropriate.

So satisfying, so beauteous (★ ω ★) Then I just add in the rest of the colors, putting them in their own layer so I can easily edit them later.

And edit them I did. What is this color scheme?? Whack lol I color picked the shirts from the video I was referencing.. and realized I didn't like it. So I tweaked the colors to better match Mal's earthy color scheme. I also colored the lines by locking transparency on the line layer and coloring over it in a deep red.

Lastly, I made some little edits to line weight, gave him his fuzzy arms (essential, and also? Charm point) and used a deco brush from the clip studio assets store for the background. Here's the finished artwork:

And here's the deco brush, if you wanted to download it:

#art process #art tutorial #art stuff #art resources #art tips #idk man idk how to tag this #long post

32 notes · View notes

ranticore · 9 months ago

Text

selected pages from Shapeshifter Problems, a small exploration of old old concept art & thoughts on shapeshifter tropes (specifically the question of the 'true form') i posted to patreon earlier this year. there's a bunch more haha. here's some OLD art and bg process for writing said the black horse. I don't like my old art but looking back at it I'm really happy how I've developed since, I used to make everything too sharp, straight-sided, or skinny. I had to make a conscious effort to change that and now it's so much better.

image transcriptions under the cut (just the text sorry)

Image 1: "These are more of those older designs - the horns were a deliberate play into devil imagery on Puck's part while giving Félix this form (all to cause more torment of course) but again I couldn't vibe with it. Such clear statements of intent didn't work for me.

The scars remain canon but not quite so stark, more a difference in texture (again, moving away from visual details). His forehead scar is ALWAYS there."

Image 2: "Félix. These are really old - from 2019-2020. They're the first attempts at Félix's horse form. At the time I was leaning into some goat-like attributes. I liked the idea of something that looked like an emaciated amalgam of many familiar creatures but if you look closer, it actually doesn't look like any animal at all. The original body shape and proportions were inspired by moose. I didn't know how to draw convincing horse shapes which is why he had these hands and claws for so long. I still draw the little flower wheel pattern on his sides sometimes... a secret just for me. His belly fur, squared off ear shape, and beard are still defining characteristics"

Image 3: "More old art from 2020. Bottom left is my first ever painting on my iPad using Procreate. I still prefer SAI for creature drawings, or at least the original sketches underpinning a lot of my art. Below on the bottom was my attempt at a scarier form for the character but I ultimately decided that it ran contrary to the atmosphere I was trying to create. Top left is my first 'real' horse painting and it includes the tail shape which has not ever changed, and feathers, which I nixed because I wanted to learn how to draw the feet and legs properly and not rely on covering them up with flowing hair (my favourite thing to draw)"

Image 4: "Like the black horse designs, these humanoid designs for Félix (circa 2019 - OLD art!) started very complex and simplified over time. I decided to avoid visual complexity, but made the mistake of solidifying specific 'rules' for how the Púca servants' bodies work, and I deeply regret this. Because I wrote Said the Black Horse in 2021, I was still operating under the old mindset and that caused it to become somewhat established canon.

In his original iteration his tattoos represented magical contracts between him and various faeries, so they were supposed to be always visible as a reminder of that contract.

<- a really early furry version, I was playing with the eye on the neck as a design feature. Ultimately I feel that although it looks cool, the medium he exists in is proser. So I needed to move away from visually complex designs and towards designs which were interesting to different senses instead."

Image 5: "As time went on the design simplified. I enjoyed making fun textures using procreate brushes. These designs lack his forehead scar but do include his impalement scar. If you've seen my Hanged Man card you'll know how he got that one. But when I made the charts like this about how his body 'worked' in 2020, again I ran into the same issue I always do when writing about faeries... the more I explain it, the most 'logic' and 'science' goes into it, the less it feels like a faery story to me. Overexplaining is anathema to the faeries of Inver. so even though I like these design notes they just don't fit in this setting."

#setting: inver #mvf

83 notes · View notes

carniekisses · 6 months ago

Text

Here's a long post that I really hope Tumblr will not flag as NSFW (please don't flag this), I remember back when I showed off the needlefelt Gomer sculpture I had made, someone asked if I had like a work process to show off for it. And I did not, because I had kept it all confined to a private account. I thought it'd be fun to have something to show for it for this one.

So I've been wanting to make a BJD for at least the past 15 years, back when I was a kid with no money to buy supplies with and also with a worry for symmetry, and also also I wasn't very skilled. It's 2024, and I vaguely know how to use Blender now

I've started this project on April 6th, as I've been documenting this on the above mentioned private account.

Of said model I (much) later ended up only being able to salvage the physical sculpts of the chest and torso parts as I messed up somewhat badly, see down below. I also ended up dropping the 'magnets in hands & feet' concept as it was just redundant, one can simply unhook them off the elastic if they are to swap them out.

At any rate, I 3D printed it all and got to sanding, and painting.

So far so good I guess, really not a fan of how the knee and elbow bean slots were just holes (I fixed that later don't worry)

So This was Not looking good lmao. I used acrylic paint, which was not necessarily the problem, the problem was that I'd applied it with a sponge brush which caused the surface to feel really sandpapery once dry. So don't do that I suppose, bad idea

On top of this, I realized that given the thickness of this doll I absolutely needed double joints in the legs, in order to have decent articulation. You can see in the above pics I *had* sculpted those, but I later fused the knee beans with the shins with apoxy resin, for some reason? I think it was because as I posed the legs the knee beans kept falling *into* the hollowed out shins/thighs, and I got tired of it.

The final blows for this model were me applying some 3D finish resin in a last ditch effort to smooth out the horrible texture, which rendered the pieces extremely shiny and smooth (disgusting), WHICH then prompted me to apply matte varnish to fix that bullshit. It absolutely did not work lmfao, and I have no pictures of that disaster because I became pretty discouraged about having to go back to like square two or three.

Some time passed (months really because I kept getting distracted for many a reason [sanding is so fucking boring, Blender was a mistake, I was feeling overwhelmed, I was too sad/tired to work that day, etc.]), I buckled down and finally retooled the pieces that needed it: everything But the chest and torso parts, off of which I managed to sand the varnish and smooth resin. I had fixed all the double joints too to actually be decently functional this time. The head was completely resculpted to better reflect the character's latest design iteration.

bean slots: Fixed

So after sanding (which was the part I was dreading the entire time, because it's so tedious and also it hurts after a while), I caved and got myself an airbrush to, hopefully, lay paint down good this time.

Very glad I did because the difference is kinda crazy. Please ignore my dirty ass desk, it's what happens when you craft. These pictures are from last week btw.

The blue base and the blush were airsprayed, the finer details like the dark shading and the pinker parts were done with both chalk and just acrylic paint. I miiight remake the eyeballs, or at least add more of a smooth finish. The shine to them is really nice

Here's she with lashes, wearing a shitty little scrap of fabric I cut in 10 minutes for fun (please DON'T flag th), and posing to test out the double joints too, they definitely could be better but they work Fine and I'm okay with that.

As of today I'm waiting for the fibres to deliver, for the wig, I already have the cap done. I guess I can update this when it happens, thanks for reading so far, I hope it was interesting, see you next time.......

#carniekisses #carniekissesart #art #artists on tumblr #character design #oc #original character #oc content #~iivi #sculpt #sculpting #bjd #doll #ooak #ooakdoll #artdoll #2024

36 notes · View notes

justbelievinginmagic · 6 months ago

Text

ariadne's thread ⎯ pt. 10: betrayal.

pairing(s): hyunjin x fem!reader, jisung x fem!reader, jisung & fem!reader, chan & fem!reader, changbin & fem!reader series summary: when tempted by an intoxicating offer by hyunjin the goblin king of the underground, you fight against him to find your own sense of self once more while in his labyrinth. glimpse: with the aid of the king's knight, the quest continues into a humid forest as the party begin to recall their pasts and retrace their steps to the labyrinth; jisung is forced to choose a future. warnings/tags: inspired by the 1986' movie Labyrinth, follows majority of the movie's plot points with lore divergence, 3rd person POV, use of Y/N, faerie lore, world-building, explicit language, no hyunjin appearance fyi, betrayal, hunger, magic, guilt, implied drugging, some relationship building, a lot of lore building tbh, all the labyrinth animals are actually from the dark crystal: age of resistance which i watch to get into the mood to write sometimes, other than thatttttt lemme know if i need to tag anything else :) word count: 4 k previous chapter <- -> next chapter series masterlist

While the Bog was blistering hot, the forest they founded themselves in wasn’t much better. Instead, it’s shade did little to make it cooler. Instead, it became mucky and humid. For the first time since entering the Underground, she sweated. Rolling up her sleeves and pushing her hair back, she fanned herself as they walked along.

“It’s so hot here,” she voiced.

“That’s the Underground for you,” Chris commented. “It has so many different eco-systems. You should see the ice caverns.”

Ice caverns… now that sound hellish. She hoped they would not stumble upon those on their journey. She could handle a light chill; she could handle the dark; she could handle heat; she didn’t know if she could handle snow.

“I remember the first time I saw them; they were glittering for the Prince’s birthday… or was it for the King’s? No, no maybe it was for the Goddess’ Celebration.” Changbin pondered aloud as they rounded a large ivy-covered tree stump.

The dirt beneath her feet was gritty, transitioning from sand to a dirt the further they left the Bog behind. With the rich dirt, the forest bloomed larger. The trees were gigantic; huge redwood-esque trees burst forth with bulging trunks and root bases. Their leaves and branches fanned out, shielding the stalactites and any openings in the cavern’s ceiling from view. Green and thriving. Sunlight from the cave’s opening casted through the branches and leaves, making the forest floor look like a kaleidoscope of greens and yellows.

Squinting at the trees, she could see an electric hum course through them. Magic trickling through the trees like liquid gold, giving them an unearthly glow. As they continued along, some even became a strange transparency. Only the rough texture of the bark was visible in a shroud of golden veins. She could clearly see the magic pathways then, sparkling like crushed diamonds, like the powdered magic flowed in rivers along the ringed layers of the tree. Trickling throughout the plant, trickling down into the roots. It was beautiful.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the Ice Caverns,” Han said. He sounded strange, a bit distracted as he looked this way and that.

“I can’t remember the last time I left my post,” Sir Changbin commented as he trucked along.

Large leaves from an equally large tree crunched beneath their feet, loudly. Changbin’s sword clicked and clanked against his meaty thigh as he stomped this way and that. He had become the unofficial guide through the brush. Leading them around large trees and ivy-covered bushes, he directed them with his loud boisterous voice. Loyally, Chris remained by her side as Han stumbled behind them. The Runner glanced back at him every now and then. Was he still ill from the Bog?

“A lot has changed,” Han called as he caught the Runner’s eye. He was quick to look away, dodging her curious eyes.

She furrowed her brow at him. Was he okay?

“It’s the same Underground regardless,” Chris reassured Changbin.

As they continued along, fauna emerged once more. There were jelly butterflies, all who seemed to still love Chris, swarming him with gentle kisses. He giggled and said quiet hellos to them as he gently swatted them away. Pixies of blues, pinks, and yellows were circling through the air in organized flocks. Han glared at them as they dove down at him, tauntingly. Multi-tailed foxes chased one another as they dodged in and out of large elephant-ear plants.

It was almost peaceful. The sound of crickets chirped in the air.

“Same Underground,” Changbin agreed with a grin.

It was strange to think it was peaceful, Y/N thought. The Labyrinth had been so upside-down, so strange. But perhaps when oddity was reality, was it really so odd?

A rabbit with an odd muzzle, almost like a pig’s snout, hopped across their path. “Oh, a dwaekki,” Changbin exclaimed with a fond look.

“It’s a pig-rabbit?” she exclaimed.

“Or a rabbit-pig, depending on the way you look at them,” Chris commented beside her, shrugging.

“Are all animals… conjoined?” she asked. She had seen jelly-fish butterflies too.

“We have chickens, sometimes dogs,” Chris answered. “But there are also dwaekkis, jellyflies, vindles, winged rakkidas, unamoths, shrookils-“

“I love fried shrookil legs,” Changbin chimed in, eagerly.

Chris hummed in agreement. He had been used to gruel every day for the longest time. He yearned for something greasy and indulgent.

“With a good side of rice and maybe—”

Her stomach growled loudly.

“Oh,” Changbin looked bashfully at her stomach, surprised to hear such a loud noise come from the human.

“Sorry, hungry,” she commented as they rounded a corner.

Chris looked this way and that, scanning the brush for anything edible. Instead, they came upon a roadblock. Twisted and a rusted color, it was a large briar-esque circular plant. Up to their waist, it was tall and full of pine needles, thorns, and even glowing baubles. Without a second thought, Changbin whipped out his sword to slash away the obstacle for them.

Jisung huffed out in outrage as pine needles rained down on them. Changbin turned at the sound and laughed out in short ‘ha, ha, ha’s.

“Things really haven’t changed,” he laughed. “Never would I think I see the Han wandering the wilderness.”

“What do you know of Han?” The Runner asked immediately. Almost teasingly. She knew how private he was and how insistent you weren’t just supposed to ask certain questions.

Han didn’t even roll his eyes.

Now, she was concerned.

“He was the Prince’s Lord, the Gentleman-In-Waiting. You saw him wherever he went. And the Han I know hated traveling.” Changbin recalled. “Or… was that Hoggle?” He frowned.

“I didn’t need to travel much,” Han clarified, poutful. He plucked the pine needles out of his mussed hair. “And it was done in luxury, not this.”

He plucked pine needles from his clothes – as if he’d look much better. He and Y/N both looked worse for wear with blood stains, dirt stains, and who knows what else on their clothes.

“Luckily, we will be at the Castle in a skip. My lady, you will be good as saved,” Changbin encouraged, smiling at her with such human honesty.

It was clear he wasn’t a fae like Jisung said. From the metal adorning his muscular form to his naïve optimism, he seemed genuine in this place of twists and turns.

“I hope, Changbin,” she agreed.

Changbin’s grin was admittedly cute. He looked always so prideful, almost in the way a peacock strutted about fluffing its feathers out. He wiggled a bit as he began to sheathe his sword once more.

“Yeah, I don’t think it’ll be that ea—" Chris murmured, mostly to the Runner before Han’s voice interrupted.

“The King is dead, Changbin,” Han stated simply. “The Prince has ascended… by the Goddess’ will.”

Changbin paused in his efforts to put his sword away. “The Prince is King…” he repeated slowly.

Han nodded as he pushed past his friend to continue walking.

“But… that means—how long have I been gone?” he whimpered.

“A while,” Han said as began to push past brushes and bushes.

What was up with Jisung? Her brows crinkled. He was acting so strange. He was kind and soft moment before and now… why was he angry? Or upset? She couldn’t understand.

“Oh,” Changbin breathed.

There was a beat of silence as they walked along, pushing flora away. Rustling leaves filled the air until they all spotted something strange for a forest. A large sculpture half destroyed in the middle of the path. A column eaten away by decay. A road overgrown by grass and dirt.

“Wait… no, no, this isn’t right,” Changbin murmured, steps slowing as he took in each object.

Han looked back at them, only for a brief moment. A distant look shadowing his gaze as he plowed ahead, stomping a bit as he rounded the sculpture, a destroyed arch, and broke past the tree line and into a desolate field.

“The castle…” Changbin breathed.

The ruins of a grand castle laid before them. Sprawling over the land, left as a reminder for those to pass. There was a distant smell of fire-smoke in the air as they crept closer.

Sculptures of old were tumbled over into rubble. Large buildings were blasted to smithereens with only their foundations left as a gaping ghostly reminder in the ground. Cobwebs and dust clung to everything. Despite the nearby tree-line looking lush and opulent with life, it was as if a bubble was around the grounds of the Old Castle, making anything that laid there dead.

Twisted trees and barren hedges of bramble frames a once-hedge labyrinth on the grounds like the very Labyrinth she passed through. Splattered about were the remains of life – skeletons of tiny goblins on the ground, twisted gaunt bushes, broken carts carrying jars of honeyed mead and loaves of bread sat molded. A dried-out fountain parched of water in a nearby courtyard remained dirtied. Dust sprites huddled together by a tiny barely lit fire in a corner of a destroyed building. Shadows clung to concrete columns and broken hunks of fire-eaten wood.

The Old Castle was a wasteland.

The Old Castle had been all three of the faeries once-home away-from-home.

“When did this happened?” Changbin breathed horrified.

His gaze jumped from one spot to the next. He could see everything perfectly as it had once been. A beautiful fountain that glimmered in the magical Lamp light with nymphs bathing or blowing bubbles at one another. Goblins chattering about as they ran this way and that. Stray chickens roaming cobblestone roads pecking for food here and there. Towers shadowed over them; sculptures taller than the trees stood proud.

Now, everything had been razed to the ground.

“Jisung?” she reached for his arm. Jisung reacted, kneejerking into attention. Wide eyes flashing to her.

“Yes?”

“What is this place?”

“This is the Old Castle.” He started. “This was the King before the Goblin King’s domain. Its… also where most of us grew up.” Han remembered chasing Hyunjin around the once blooming hedge maze, something he couldn’t fathom now. The remains of those mazes rested in twisted dried briars.

“What about that?” She pointed to the ever-present castle in the distance, once again visible from the fields.

“It was a symbol—it wasn’t--,” Han sighed. “It was for ceremony – the Challenge, the Spring, the Fall, the Summer, the Winter Revelries, celebrations only. Now, he stays there all the time.”

There was part of a large sculpture of a familiar face buried in the ground – a strong jawbone, strict lips, and a glowering brow – half destroyed as if by a blast of magic. Y/N recognized it. It looked like the man from the tiles outside the Labyrinth. The one she had seen with the girl from another world. Their noses were the same, their furrowed arched brows the same.

“The old King,” Chris whispered to her, nodding at it.

The old King and a human? She wondered. If that was the same person from the tile, it only made sense. Or perhaps another fae? She remembered seeing the tile in the desert sea, and the story seemed so forbidden.

“What happened? Han, what happened?” Changbin was edging on hysterical as he rushed forward to grasp his friend’s shoulder.

“The Prince--- he let this happen,” Han hissed out.

“Where is the court? Where is the Queen? The Champion Queen? Anyone?”

“They’ve moved into the Goblin City. The Queen is simply the Queen Mother, asleep in delirium; the Champion Queen passed. He refused to remain here.” Han answered.

Changbin’s mouth gaped as he looked this way and that. Y/N looked about, taking in the destruction with a heavy heart. It was a large piece of land. It would’ve housed many people – even if it was a castle for a king.

Her stomach rumbled loudly.

“What was that?” Changbin alerted, sword at the ready.

“Y/N,” Chris answered with a pout.

“I’m fine.” She reassured.

She didn’t feel it at first but then she heard its squeak. A tiny sprite made of soot, rotund and no bigger than a lint ball, nudged her sneaker with dusty stick-like hands. Thud, thud, thud.

“Oh, hello,” she murmured.

It knocked her foot again. She stepped aside… was she in its way? The soot sprite seemed to grumble at that before hurrying back the way it came.

“The Goblin City… the Goblin Castle of yore.” Changbin murmured.

“Yeah, lots of memories, huh,” Han mumbled.

They lingered for a moment, glancing about. Han stood far from her she noted. Every time she crept closer, he’d jump away.

“If… it’s there,” Changbin mumbled. “It’ll take til night fall to arrive.”

“If we are lucky,” Han said aside.

Why was he acting like this? It made her brows furrow.

“Oh, fear not, fair lady!” Changbin boasted out, spotting her face.

He approached her with a kind look in his eye. His hand grasped hers dedicatedly.

“Despite this shock, we shall persevere! The Castle shall be nearer than we think and you’ll be good as saved.”

It was a sweet proclamation but unfortunately it did little to reassure her of Han, their situation, of anything. Still, she smiled and squeezed his hand reassuring.

“I hope so,” she said before letting go of his hand.

“Let’s keep going. This is just a ghost town,” Han commented, glancing at the other three.

There was a ghastly howl from a shadow pressed against a burnt wood chunk. She jumped into Changbin’s shoulder, who pushed the Runner behind him, sandwiching her between the Knight and the Beast-Hunter.

“Good thinking, Lord Han.” Changbin proclaimed.

“Just Han now, Bin,” he said, dejectedly before leading the charge ahead and passing soot sprites with little regard. Rounding broken shards of their once-home. “Just a subject.”

Chris nudged her ahead of him; Changbin in front of her and him walking behind her keeping guard as they continued onwards.

A little soot spirit had returned as they left, carrying a heavy speck of bread only to see the group far in the distance. It squeaked in disappointment before it dropped the heavy bread to its side and crossed its arm.

They walked along, portions of the Labyrinth visible once more in the distance. The once-seemingly close Castle now far in the distance once more. She sighed out, rubbing her forehead in frustration. Fuck Magic. She had made such progress only to be sent backwards.

“Halt!” Changbin cried out, throwing out his arms to stop the group from continuing onwards. She stumbled into his arm, befuddled. The forest in front of them looked safe enough. Large boulders and trees, some creatures dodging in-between plants maybe. “A miracle!”

“What’s—Oh I see,” Chris exclaimed.

“What?” she asked as Chris ducked under Changbin’s arm and approached a series of rocks close together.

“A well!” Chris exclaimed smiling wide as he rushed to it to glance into it. It wasn’t like any common well. It was a series of rocks in a circle, almost like a rudimentary old well. She followed after him and peered in with him. The well was deep and dark, but the Beast-Hunter was used to the dark. He squinted and frowned.

“It’s empty…” he lamented.

“It’s alright,” she reassured.

Her thirst had returned with her hunger after their adventure through the Bog of Eternal Stench. It clung to the roof of her mouth and scratched at her throat. But they couldn’t stop or leave their path for it.

“You were light headed earlier,” Chris reminded scoldingly. “Your tummy…”

“I know, but there isn’t anything we can do,” she said.

“All castles needed water; there must be a stream nearby! Please rest for a moment; I’ll find it for you!” Changbin exclaimed.

“Wait—Sir Changbin!” she called, only it was too late.

He had scurried off into the brush to their right. Huffing out a sigh, she raised a hand to rub at her head. A headache was building behind her eyes. Was it the journey, the hunger, the thirst, or sleepiness? She couldn’t tell anymore.

“I’ll go get him,” Chris reassured her, rubbing the back of her neck soothingly. “We will be okay.”

His smile was kind and sunny like a sunrise.

With that, he too disappeared into the flora of the forest. Han and her were left alone once more. He frowned at her, pacing this way and that. His feet couldn’t seem to rest around her, picking up and wandering as soon as he paused.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You’re acting weird-er.”

In the distance, she could hear Chris trying to convince Changbin to return much to Changbin’s chagrin. He must find his fair lady a drink!

“Nothing.” Han bit back quick. He licked his lips of iron. “Just want to get you out of here is all.”

She smiled, the action feeling bittersweet on her lips. She approached him, rounding around a stump covered in magic dust.

“Changbin… bled pink,” she commented.

“He’s a Changeling,” Jisung told her, gaze averted from her. “Changbin underwent the same Challenge as you many, many years ago.”

“And… he failed.” She breathed. She glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the Knight’s voice.

“Brother, please I must implore you-!” he shouted in the distance at Chris.

Jisung looked over at the sound. He smiled bittersweetly as well before his gaze shifted, taking in sights he hadn’t seen in forever. He stopped to graze a hand over a flower blooming. Its sap tingled.

“He did fail. But he’s a good Changeling. Strong; an amazing Knight. He’s one of the few Changelings that was trusted to be a Knight. He never served an oath beneath the King; it was on his lifeblood or magic. He’s bound to the Underground’s magic and his own honor. I almost think his brain is protecting him by forgetting. You humans aren’t meant to last eons even with the Change.”

It made her shiver, fear clinging down her spine. Y/N frowned at the thought of losing herself. Of failing. She took a deep breath, shifting to sit on the tree stump. Her feet sighed in relief.

Maybe she’d be a good Changeling, Han pondered. If he couldn’t fight Hyunjin… he could protect her if she was Changeling. Be by her side if he groveled enough. It was strange that he was contemplating groveling for someone other than himself.

He looked over at her. When had she become important to him? His heart ached and he didn’t know what to do with the feeling.

“The stream is dried up!” Changbin exclaimed in the distance.

She snorted at that, leaning back to stretch her back. “Well, that answers the question about water or food anytime soon.”

With a heaving sigh, she moved to stand once more. Her bones creaked and her stomach gurgled again, almost sounding like the Bog.

The peach thrummed against his pocket. Heavier than ever, he held it, pulling it from his pocket. It glowed in the streaming sunlight. He swallowed.

Give it to her. There was that voice that whispered in his ear. He had to give it her. He was the King’s subject; it was his will. He dug his nails into the skin; it didn’t pierce its perfect painted façade.

If he did this, he could try to save her by finding the King? He could beg. Plead. Anything. If she wasn’t a human, it didn’t matter. Changbin was a Changeling. Would she be so bad as one? His head ached. His fingers burned, knuckled white as he gripped the fruit tighter and tighter still. He wished the peach would burst. He wanted to keep her safe. He should just run away.

Give it to her or else you’ll be in the City of the Forgotten, stupid goblin. The voice wasn’t his.

“Y/N,” he murmured, quiet and slow.

“Hm?” she answered, turning towards him.

Her smile of amusement, of fondness for her party in the distance, clear on her kind face. Jisung wanted to vomit. She was good. And he wasn’t.

“Here.” He pressed the fae fruit into her hand quickly.

“Oh!” Her exclamation was one of surprise. Her smile only growing in its wideness. “I didn’t know you saved it! I thought you lost it in the Bog!”

Her mouth flooded with saliva as she looked over the pretty fruit. Relief crossed over her features, grateful. Han closed his eyes and looked away.

It was truly the most perfect peach she had ever seen. Ruby red and sunset orange blended into one another like a water-colored masterpiece. The slightly fuzzy surface tickled her fingers pleasantly. She bet it would taste so good. Her stomach growled loud in agreement.

Han’s face remained stoic, swallowing down the bile that crept upwards especially as she thanked him once more with a grateful tone. He couldn’t watch as she took a big bite.

Sweet nectar dripped down the sides of her mouth, pooling at the tip of her chin in a thick droplet. It felt to the ground with a bubbling fizzle. She chewed once and then twice, slow, and less eager as the taste flooded her tongue until she swallowed it down harshly.

“It tastes strange,” she mumbled.

It lingered and suffocated her throat. It wasn’t like a juicy peach she had expected, nor any fruit she had eaten before. Bitter, acidic, and heavy. Honey-sweet, thick on her tongue. It tasted like a million things, and her head wasn’t large enough to comprehend them. Instead, her eyes grew heavy and her head full of cotton.

“Han, what is this?” Her words were airy as she stumbled, a hand going to brace herself on a branch of a shimmering tree.

“I—I had to, Y/N,” he whispered, glancing about as if Hyunjin would come into the open now with the woman bewildered. His gaze locked on her form, faltering. Weak.

Regret climbed up his back as he saw her lose her balance again, her eyes fluttering with delirium. He held himself back from touching her as a magical glow settled around her like a shackle.

“Han,” she slurred as she stumbled forward to her knees amongst the large flowers of the forest.

Puffs of pollen and magic flew into the air, snowing down over her like a sparkling rain. Her hair was shimmering with it, her cheeks dusty with magic. Red flushed, just like the peach she still grasped in her hand tightly.

“Everything’s – everything’s dancing,” Y/N whispered, widened curse-struck eyes that held the cosmos with Hyunjin’s magic. They searched for Jisung in the whirl.

Their eyes met and she saw his eyes fill with tears. Or was it her eyes? Everything was so blurry, bubbling with a shininess.

“Jisung,” she pleaded as she reached out a hand.

Desperate. Fragile. Vulnerable.

She fell back suddenly, head snapping back as she tumbled to rest in the flowers as if she were nothing but a corpse. Bewitched and asleep.

Oh, how it made his stomach churn in guilt – especially when mushrooms climbed up through the magic-filled soil to surround her in a ring. A faerie ring.

Oh, no. There was no saving her now with a faerie ring about her – she was at the mercy of Hyunjin for good. Oh no, oh no. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what to do.

Jisung glanced about for a moment before he heard Chris calling for the Runner. Sir Changbin was close behind with his loud piercing voice. If they found her like this and him like this --- He felt on fire, burning from within. He wanted to scream.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I’m so sorry,” Jisung pleaded, his voice weak as he fiddled with her bracelet.

It did little to calm him, in fact, the charms felt like they were burning hot. All his strength was swallowed up like his very being had been chewed up and swallowed down. He felt sick and small. He ripped the bracelet off the charms clinking as he dropped it into faerie-ringed ground.

“I had to; Hyunjin—he told me—” he felt his eyes burn; she looked too still in the flurry of flowers.

He turned away.

“I’m sorry; I’m not strong. I’m a coward.” He whispered before running off.

Leaving the Runner caught, with his jewels, the bracelet she had given him, and their friendship in shambles.

27 notes · View notes