#spiky font

[gothoffspring]

Hey, y'all! I'm finally back to posting cc and I couldn't be happier about it. Expect at least 1-2 recolors a month from now on! 🌞🌴

DETAILS:

This is a recolor of @madlensims's Elin Outfit. You must download the mesh in order for it to show up in your game.

There are 23 swatches total. It comes in mostly summer themed patterns, with a few wildcards towards the end. You also get 10 of my favorite plain colored swatches from the car park medley palette by @hagsims.

You can see some more CAS previews here and a completely unedited photo (no gshade/no edge smoothing) right here. (I was using colored lighting during my photoshoot and forgot to turn them off, hence the slight purple/pink hue)

Custom thumbnail included for the first swatch.

If you find any issues with this recolor at all, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it.

Also, just sayin', this mesh works very well on fat sims. I even tried it with larger custom presets and there was still only minimal clipping! ❤️

CREDITS:

All patterns found via vecteezy/freepik, or possibly google images. All credit goes to the original pattern makers!

Thank you to @madlensims for this lovely mesh. I could not find a public TOU listed anywhere but I have seen people recolor madlen's shoes, which is why I'm kind of assuming they are alright with recolors. If not, I'll definitely remove this.

@public-ccfinds @mmfinds 💖

DL: SFS / MF

[thebusytypewriter]

GOAT 🗣️🗣️

[mispatchedgreens]

he just hates moral arguments ya kno?

[kiss-theggoat]

I wanna know your opinion on billy loomis getting jealous bc his s/o was hanging out with someone else more often

A/N: Thank you for this request and I can’t handle writing for Billy I’m so in love with him it’s crazy 🧍🏻‍♀️ I might do a pt. 2 to this 😍

Eyes on Me

Billy Loomis X Reader

Word Count: 1K

Summary: Billy hates how much attention you give to that nerd, Randy Meeks.

TW: Possessive Billy, Suggestive, Mainly fluff/domestic stuff

It was a perfect, stormy October evening. You and your beautiful boyfriend Billy had decided to have a night in, watching scary movies and indulging in all of your favorite sweets and snacks. So, in preparation for this date, you two decided it’d be cute to go out and shop for a little bit as couple. Your first destination was the grocery store, where you picked up some popcorn and your favorite candies, watching as Billy tossed one too many chocolate bars into the basket you carried in the crook of your elbow.

And now, you held hands as you browsed through the horror section of the video store, eyes fondly scanning all of the cheesy and brightly colored covers of all the movies on display.

“Hmm…what about The Exorcist?” You asked, grabbing the tape and showing it to Billy, just to be met with his usual unimpressed shrug.

“Just saw it the other night.” He tells you, grabbing a different movie and flipping it over to read the back cover. You set the tape back down and decided to look around the store to see if Randy was working, and to your delight, you saw the spiky haired cinephile just a few feet away, pushing around a cart of rom coms.

“Randy!” You called out, completely abandoning Billy where he stood. Randy stood still for a moment and looked around, seeming alarmed at having his name called until his eyes landed on you. He’d had a crush on you almost the entire year, but he knew better than to mess with Billy.

“Oh hey!” He said fondly, leaning against the cart. “What’s going on?” He asked, immediately cursing himself afterwards for sounding so awkward.

You smiled, motioning towards Billy. “Not much. Just picking out a movie to watch.”

Randy could feel the anger behind Billy’s gaze, his dark brown eyes burning into the side of his face. “O-oh uhm…what are you guys looking for?” Randy asked, even though he already knew.

Billy walked up behind you and snaked a tight arm around your lower waist, yanking you against his body. “Horror.” He said, eyes not moving away from poor Randy’s terrified face.

Randy cleared his throat and gave you a quick glance, but you seemed to be completely oblivious to Billy’s display of ownership. “We uhm…we just got a new slasher in... I’ve never seen it, but it looks pretty good….”

“What? A slasher movie that Randy Meeks has never seen?” You asked with a teasing tone, eyes still focused on Randy. This had Billy absolutely fuming. “We’ll take that one. And I can finally spoil a movie for you for once, not the other way around.” You joked. Randy let out an awkward laugh and knelt down to the bottom shelf of the cart he was pushing, grabbed a tape and handed it to you. It was covered in neon colors, bright red, and a dramatic font splayed across the front.

“Hm. Looks interesting.” You said, setting it down in the basket you held. “Thanks Randy! Hey, I’ll see you at school on Monday!” You said happily, walking back over to the horror section without a second thought about the interaction, not knowing that both men were feeling the tension.

Billy kept a tight arm around your waist and when you got back to the horror section, he whispered so close to you that you could feel his lips against the shell of your ear. “What the hell was that?”

You jumped at the intrusion, turning around to face him, face scrunched in confusion. “What the hell was what?”

“Flirting with Meeks.” He said sternly, eyes dark and lips pressed into a disapproving sneer.

“Flirting with Meeks?” You almost laughed at how surprised you were.

“You talk to him like you just sucked his dick.”

Okay, now that caught you off guard. At first you thought this was sort of funny and a little cute. Billy being a little jealous, but the way he said that to you made you feel…disrespected. You backed up a step and scoffed.

“Billy, what the hell? Randy and I are friends. I’m not allowed to say hi to him?”

Billy rolled his eyes and grabbed another movie off the shelf, tossing it into the basket. He ignored you, a classic Billy comeback.

You grabbed onto Billy’s bicep and shook his arm a little bit, a little, sly smile sneaking onto your face. “You’re so cute when you’re jealous, Billy.”

“I’m not jealous of Meeks.” He grumbled, his back still towards you despite your mighty effort to get him to face you.

“Oh? You’re not? Maybe I should watch movies with Randy then. I’m sure he’d like to come over and sit with us…eat some snacks…maybe we could-“

Before you could finish your thought, Billy grabbed the top of your forearm, finally turning to face you. His grip didn’t hurt, but it was definitely firm. The look in his eyes made shivers go down your spine, and he leaned closer to your face, allowing his breath to fan across your forehead as he spoke to you.

“You just wait until we’re alone.” His tone was low and his voice was gravelly. You felt warmth pool between your legs, and you shyly averted your gaze from Billy’s oppressive stare, but Billy wasn’t having it. His fingers gripped your chin and you felt a slight ache radiate up your cheeks as he yanked your face back towards his.

“Eyes on me.”

As you caught his eyes, you could see and feel the lust behind them, and he leaned closer to you, his hand moving down from your chin, slowly trailing to your neck down the side of your chest and finally resting on your hip. “You’ll be lucky if you make it home.” He growled, pushing you back slightly by the hip. He walked away towards the counter where Randy stood, ringing up another customer.

He left you in the horror aisle, mouth open and face beet red, feeling like you could practically combust at any moment from how he’d just spoken to you. Maybe you’d have to make Billy jealous more often….

[yourbelgianthings]

if not by faith, then by the sword, i'm going to be restored

redbubble

id: 2 bottles of hrt the left is estradiol cypionate and the right is testosterone propionate, below them is text in a spiky handwriting font that says "I'm going to get my perfect body back someday", the whole image is b&w except for a pink label with a blue outline on the E bottle and a blue label with a pink outline on the T bottle end id.

[fernscare]

bramble and demons

[ID: a pen and colored pencil illustration of the words "sacred and abhorrent" in a spiky, red-to-orange gradient font, surrounded by fruiting bramble vines. Four red imps prance around the words. The background is black. Four ladybird beetles are scattered throughout the image.]

[thecraftydragonc]

Hello Dungeon Meshi fans

[Start ID. A redraw of the "Dog playing chess" meme with the characters Laios and Kabru from the anime Dungeon Meshi. The two characters are sitting at opposite ends of a wooden table with a chess board in between them. At the back end of the table is Kabru, a human wearing armor, he has a brown skin tone with bright blue eyes and wavy dark brown hair. His hands are pressed up to his face, obscuring his nose and mouth, and he has a frustrated and confused expression. There is text in a white font with a black outline over Kabru saying "The smart kid, not understanding how he's losing to me". At the front of the table, sitting very close to the viewer is Laios, a human with a white skin tone with light gold eyes and spiky blond hair. Just a profile view of his face is visible with a little bit of his armor in frame. He is looking to the side at the viewer in a slightly mischievous way and it looks as if he is chewing something in his mouth. Text next to Laios in a white font and black outline reads "Me, who's been eating monsters when he's not looking". In the bottom left corner of the drawing is a watermark with the username "TheCraftyDragonC". End ID] I'm sure other people have drawn this meme with these characters before, but it really fits them so well I couldn't shake the idea. I'm really enjoying watching the anime so far, it's fun to have something to look forward to each Thursday but the wait between episodes is also a little agonizing lol. Also here's a version without text, for funsies.

[Start ID. the same image as above, a redraw of the "Dog playing chess" meme with the characters Laios and Kabru from the anime Dungeon Meshi, but this time there is no text over the drawing. End ID.]

[augustjustice]

Second in Line

AO3 Link

Blake Harrington’s heart hammers in his chest as he stares up at the peeling door of number 402, taking a deep breath to steady himself before he reaches up and gives a firm rap with his knuckles. It had just begun snowing before he managed to duck inside the shabby apartment building, dampness clinging to the shiny leather of his loafers and his perfectly pressed khaki pants now wrinkled from the train ride.

His mother would cluck her tongue if she could see him. Though, he guesses she’d probably have a lot more than that to say if she actually knew where he was. 

He hears shuffling inside, the muffled sound of a deep voice calling out Yeah, yeah, coming! 

When the door swings open a moment later, Blake barely manages not to gape.

The man standing before him has wild, curly hair that falls down to his shoulders and a thin silver hoop through his bottom lip. Inky black tattoos litter his arms, with even more peeking out from the neckline of his black t-shirt. The words Corroded Coffin are splashed across the front in a spiky graphic font. 

If this is his brother, there’s little doubt in Blake’s mind now why his parents never mention him. 

When the man blinks down at him with big brown eyes, though, they don’t quite match his mother’s. Even so Blake can’t help but wonder if this really might be…

“Steve?”

Maybe-Steve’s eyebrows shoot up at that, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Planting his hands on his knees, he stoops slightly, so that he and Blake are more at eye level. 

“Who’s asking, big guy?”

Blake extends his hand for a shake, mustering as much maturity as a thirteen year old can manage, the gesture business-like just like his father taught him. 

“Blake Harrington, sir.”

The man’s already large eyes go wide as saucers at that, jerking slightly like he’s been shocked.

“Uh, Stevie?” Gaze still on Blake, not-Steve tilts his face slightly to call back over his shoulder into the apartment. “You got a visitor.”

Part 2

[winterlleaves]

my piece for ssoblr big bang 2024! i'm very happy to share with everyone ! I worked with @northberg with their accompanying fic, strange trails, which is on ao3! please read it it's wondrous and amazing i really cannot sing enough praises for it ! i tried my best to reflect its energy as much as possible in this cover <3

alt text under cut

[ID: digital art: a faux book jacket cover of star stable online characters

on the left/the cover: tincan is standing 3/4 away from the viewer. fireflies surround him, illuminating the hollow woods behind him. some of the grass is visible and large roots are illuminated on the ground. this scene is in the shape of a moth.

above the moth shape is a spiky tree, framing the top part of the cover in red/orange. underneath the tree, the background fades from a indigo blue scene of a lake to alex, who is a teal blue and seems to be recoiling. white lightning flashes over her.

the center/spine: the title text "STRANGE TRAILS" with the font noto sans myanmar. the text is a lime green, with a streak of teal running through it, before shifting to a light purple. the background is a dark purple before transitioning to a red. black branches emerge out of the sides, obscuring some of the text/background color. at the bottom are small thin branches, growing vertically, with the author's name northberg being overlayed on top.

the right/back-cover: on the top-left is fripp and elizabeth, who is more of glowing silhouette. the background is pink and they are diagonally separated from the other characters on the right. on the top right is linda, lisa, and maya; linda and lisa are pink and look distressed, with linda casting a spell with a book in her hand, while maya is in natural colors and looks relaxed. ydris in pink is beside them; he is framed in a circle, looks mischievous, and has his hand tucked under his chin. beneath them is anne in a grey beach scene. anne has a solemn expression with her left hand over her chest. thin branches grow out to her left before transitioning to the text to the summary at the bottom of the image. the text is in lime green and the background is indigo and purple. the summary text: "There's something wrong with the island. Alex could help, if only it stopped trying to kill her." below is the credits: "written by northberg on tumblr and archiveofourown illustrated by winterlleaves on tumblr part of ssoblr big bang" /end ID]

[daily-teki]

Day 161: Finally announcing the winners of the DTIYS competition! Sorry it took so long to get around to lads TwT

I’m amazed at how many entries i got, and they were all wonderful! If you check out the #daily teki dtiys tag you can check em all out for yourself ^^!

It was really hard to pick between the top 5, (so much so that I changed having a top 3 for a top 5) so without further ado:

Coming in at 5th place, we’ve got @frenchgremlim1808 !!

I rlly love the bright colours and shading, plus your style is always absolutely iconic.

4th place goes to @nina-the-ninth !

The shading and more realistic style is spellbinding, and it’s composed rlly well- it was super tough choosing between 4th and 3rd place. This was 100% the reason I ended up deciding to do a top 5 rather than a top 3- I absolutely couldn’t leave it out

In 3rd place we have @bagofjax !!

The lighting and the textured hand drawn calligraphy contrasted to the bright pixel colours of the game sprites really got to me, and then seeing the strings of numbers making up the background absolutely pushed it over the line into the top 3 for me.

An incredibly close second place goes to @goldyluna !

I am such a sucker for the flow and styling of that hair- she looks like she could be right at home on a figurine shelf. I love the unique chains around her neck seeing as she doesn’t say a word ingame, and I love that you added more chains as well. I also love your font with the calligraphy, the spiky fringe, and even the spotted pattern in the background looking like someone’s watching. Overall I think it’s my favourite drawing of teki herself, and both second and first place are on a skill level I’d love to someday achieve.

And in 1st place is @averagecatdoodlesenjoyer !

The chromatic aberration adds extra depth, and I love the addition of the chains in the background. I flipped so many times between first and second place because they’ve both got so much going for them in so many different aspects. The lighting and composition is what ultimately won me over, and the slight change in pose really works too. It’s truly beautiful, it even looks like she’s under a stage light with the poses falling down like pieces of paper or giant confetti. And so it certainly gets the confetti from me.

I loved absolutely everyone’s entries for this, and a huge thank you to everyone who participated! I’ll have to think of something to give to all the winners seeing as just a thank you and a pat on the back seems a little cheap for everyone’s hard work on these.

[ryegarden]

waow it's my birthday! so here is an updated meet the artist! hello! ask me anything send me questions i like hearing from people tehehe

[ID: a digital drawing of frankie, a young white androgynous person with short curly green hair and spiky green facial piercings. Xir hands are on xir hips and xe is looking to the side, wearing muted brown tones. Behind him in yellow serif font reads "meet the artist, frankie, 22, ENFP, [sagittarius symbol], he/xe/fae". a rectangle next to him lists his favourite things as follows: food, avo + egg toast; drink, lychee juice; colour, olive green; music, indie rock; flower, pansy; shape, parallelogram; game, pokémon mystery dungeon explorers of darkness for the nintendo DS; film, the cat returns". beneath that is a red bean shape that lists fun facts as follows: I have 25 tattoos; my dream is to teach ceramics; I am in my final year of my fine art degree; I've never broken a bone; I am not forklift certified; I have cracked 8 trans eggs (to my knowledge). The image as a whole is in muted autumnal tones with rich reds. end ID]

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Did you know you can move onto other brainrots and STILL be stuck brainrotting on the old thing too? My brain is a decaying piece of wood that has become an essential breeding ground for several species of rot. One of them is still the BatFam variety, so onto the next member!

Initial traces of Carrie Kelley, my child! Be honest, how many of you who have seen the Nightwing and Red Hood posts thought that I was doing Tim next? Well HA! Joke’s on you, I make the rules here! I have a very specific order in my head, and I will stick to that order!

Carrie is technically an elseworld’s Robin from The Dark Knight Returns, but Robin is my favorite superhero, and anyone who has been Robin will get my attention (yes Robin. Not Batman or Nightwing or any of the individual characters who have been Robins. Robin as a hero, regardless of who it is, is my favorite). At this point, she’s actually graduated to Catgirl and then her own iteration of Batwoman, but in my head, she’s the same age as Damian or younger, so she gets to stay Robin in my art for a bit.

I did two traces here because, unlike other Batfam characters, Carrie is in so few comics that I can’t just FIND a perfect, full body action pose from an angle that I like. The first trace is by far the most popular and easy to find picture of her, but it has her hair blowing around in the wind. This is a Problem, you see, because Carrie’s hair is a special challenge for me. In The Dark Knight Returns, she has this very distinctive hair shape that I do not like looking at OR drawing. So I knew the pose I used for my reference was going to need to be a pose where I could update her hairstyle. But, I also needed a full body, and that first photo is iconic, so two for the price of one again.

Stylization time! Carrie was honestly really easy to stylize, her hair is just a bit of a nightmare for me. I finally got a handle on it after the complete project, but it took a WHILE! Anyway, I more or less just lifted her updated hairstyle from her Batwoman costume and some cosplayers. And no, I’m not giving her pants. Damian and Tim are edgy Robins, they can have pants. Dick, Jason, and Carrie are not edgy Robins, so they get short shorts. I did give up on coloring her sleeves green. Too much of one color for me to effectively handle when her gloves overlap her sleeves. Also, I need to draw more characters with capes. They’re so fun to draw!

Characterization pose! In the comics, Carrie wears her goggles as a civilian too. I interpret this as her needing glasses, so I gave her regular glasses instead because wearing the same distinctive goggles you wear as a superhero is maybe not the best way to keep your identity secret. Comics Carrie has like one friend that you don’t see after she puts on the costume, and her parents don’t remember they have a kid, so it’s not like she has a whole lot of people to be hiding her identity from, but it’s the thought that counts. Schoolmates and random civilians and nosy reporters and all that.

I put her in a Girl Scout uniform for her civvy outfit because I think that it’s important to her character. The whole reason Batman took her on was because she was 1) crazy/traumatized/determined enough to buy herself a Robin costume, fight petty crime on her own, and follow him into dangerous situations and 2) used her Girl Scout first aid training to save batman’s life and splint his arm after he got his sh*t rocked in an ill-advised fight. I figured a salute, even if it’s a bit of a sassy one, was a good pose for her not just because of this, but also because The Dark Knight Returns is a very depressing comic, and so Batman calls her “good soldier.”

If you saw the first two posts, you may notice that I did not trace the hero text for this one, and that I used the same font for both names. This is because 1) I didn’t feel like the regular Robin font with the spiky R fits Carrie’s vibe, but she doesn’t have any comics covers of her own I can steal from and 2) I feel like Carrie’s personality is the same as Robin and Carrie. Unlike with almost everyone else, there’s no posturing, no distinction, no divide there. So the same font works for both personas.

Nightwing Edition

Red Hood Edition

[mianitezine]

Contributor Announcements - Artists!

We've been quiet over here for a while, but it's just because we've been working hard. Now, one month out from the release of the zine (May 30th), we're excited to introduce you to the rest of the team! You can expect to hear more between now and then as we get closer to showing you the amazing creative works we've been producing.

[ID: Three graphics with the list of artists for the Mianite 10th Anniversary Fanzine. Each graphic has a purple background, with a gold illustration of a column on the side of the frame and matching gold text. 

The first graphic has a heading in gold font reading “Artists” and lists each participant’s name, icon, and social media information. The column is on the left side. The top row, left to right: ArcaneGlitch, art-caneglitch and arcane glitch on Tumblr and ArcaneGlitch on X, whose icon is a drawing of a light-skinned person with short brown hair in profile; ArtyLinds, artylinds on Tumblr and Instagram, whose icon is a drawing of a light-skinned person with short blonde hair looking down and smiling; and chiangyorange, chiangyorange on Tumblr and Instagram, whose icon is a drawing of a light-skinned person with pointy ears and black space buns sticking out their tongue. The bottom row, left to right: GrailknightMonty, grailknightmonty on Tumblr, X, and Twitch, whose icon is a drawing of CaptainSparklez with long hair and horns; Gynii, gynii on Tumblr and gyniizilla on X and Instagram, whose icon is a drawing of a light-skinned person with spiky brown and teal hair; and Hypnoticas, hypn0ticas on Tumblr and Instagram and Hypnoticas on YouTube, whose icon is a full-body drawing of a smiling light skinned person in a purple shirt and teal pants on a bi flag background. 

The second graphic has more artists and a column on the right side. The top row, left to right: IngaPotejto, ingapotejtoo on Tumblr, ingapotejto on Instagram, and IngaPotejto on X, whose icon is a drawing of a person with chin-length curly brown hair and a wide smile; Leon, raccooncity on Tumblr and 10000raccoons on X, whose icon is a drawing of a person with brown hair in a ponytail smiling downward; and Montrovy, montrovy on Tumblr, whose icon is a drawing of a light-skinned person with neon green hair and pointy ears frowning upwards. The bottom row, left to right: Moon Pal, The-Moon-Pal on Tumblr and Moon_Pal on Instagram, whose icon is a drawing of a grey anthropomorphic bunny with pink heart sunglasses; Mothswitheyes, mothswitheyes on Tumblr, whose icon is a drawing of a Mothman in a field; and Null, nullifi-blr on Tumblr and Nullifi3d_ on X, whose icon is a drawing of purple-grey person with black and white hair and a white starburst obscuring one eye. 

The third graphic has a column on the left side. The top row, left to right: Paradiigm, _paradiigm on X, whose icon is a drawing of a person with glasses and a curly bob surrounded by text; Septictech, Septictech on Tumblr and X, whose icon is a graphic of a person with a floating red cube for a head; and Snakeinspace, snakeinspace on Tumblr and Instagram, whose icon is a black and white drawing of a person with a black bob. The bottom row, left to right: sockeyeseven, sockeyeseven on Tumblr and Instagram, whose icon is a drawing of a light skinned person with glasses and a yellow hoodie; TeaRosePedall, tearosepedall on Tumblr and Instagram and Tpedall on X, whose icon is a simple drawing of a smiling person with glasses; and thedailypaper, thedailypaper on Tumblr and thedailypaper_ on Instagram, whose icon is a drawing of a light-skinned person with long blonde hair looking up and out of frame.] 

[longdeadking]

Miles Edgeworth was a prosecutor, and a good one. There weren't rankings of employment in the Japanifornia District Prosecutors' Office, exactly, but it was an open secret amongst its employees that Chief Prosecutor Skye entrusted him with the most tangled, convoluted, and high-profile cases they were given. He considered it an honor, and wore the title of "Demon Prosecutor" like a crown. He refused to let the whispers in the break room get to him — the ones rumoring salacious interactions with the Chief Prosecutor, or sums of money paid to her, or forged evidence and lies in court that gave his defendants harsher punishments than they otherwise would have received. He knew they weren't true, and so it was immature to let them bother him. He would not be immature. After all, despite his requests for a name change being shot down each time, he was a von Karma, and von Karmas were perfect.

Miles Edgeworth was a prosecutor, and he hated criminals. He considered them practically subhuman, and he could not find it in himself to regard them with any amount of sympathy — although, he would concede, he'd never tried very hard to. Those who broke the law were, in his eyes, incapable of being redeemed. The only recourse of justice was punishment, equalling exactly the severity of the crime committed, and no less. It was Miles' job as a prosecutor to ensure that justice was served. He could not falter, and did not; every defendant he faced was declared guilty. No defense attorney could compete with him. He was placed in a homeschooling program by his mentor and guardian, and graduated law school at only twenty. That feat alone, even without the supporting evidence of his spotless five-year record, would be enough to declare him a genius and a prodigy, but evidence was everything in court, so Miles didn't feel too badly about bringing up said record whenever he was challenged on his capability.

Miles Edgeworth was a prosecutor with a spotless record, his superior's trust, and a moral rage at criminals that could not be argued against. He was perfect, unflappable, unbeatable.

Except for, apparently, when his superior handed him a case file with an apologetic smile and an explanation that while no formal charges had been made, she was going to want him prosecuting once they had been, so she wanted to give him the file now. A case file that, when opened, revealed not a mugshot or frame from a security camera, but what was very clearly a cropped Instagram post, a selfie, showing a figure clad in a garish blue-and-red bodysuit that covered every inch of their body, including their face. The figure was, as best as Miles could tell, using the hand not holding out the phone to cling to a pipe on the side of a building, at minimum twelve stories in the air. Miles studied the photo for some time, but he could not figure out how the offending figure had gotten up there. Eventually, he gave up and resigned himself to scanning the rest of the cover page.

The words typed in wide font just below the baffling photo were not a name. They were, however, words that Miles recognized. Working in the legal spheres of Japanifornia, he would have had to have been astoundingly oblivious not to.

The words, the terrible words, the words that would eventually lead to the total destruction of the life Miles had created for himself, were as follows:

The Amazing Spider-Man.

Miles felt his eye twitch. This was going to be a truly awful case.

For how little sleep he'd gotten, Phoenix Wright was feeling pretty good as he rolled out of bed. His arms were sore in the satisfying way they always were after a night on the streets, and his sheets were barely creased, since apparently he'd slept like a brick.

He ran a hand through his hair as he hobbled to the bathroom, pushing back the flattened strands until he achieved something close to his usual spikes, although this time it was sweat and grease making them so spiky, instead of gel. He really needed to shower. The Chief would scowl at him for rolling in late again, but she couldn't really scold him. After all, he wasn't exactly some entitled slacker stumbling in hungover after too many shots at the local gentrification-chic rooftop bar.

No, Phoenix Wright was no stuck-up jerk. He was goddamn Spider-Man, and Mia knew it. So she couldn't say shit about him being late.

The hot shower was bliss on his sore shoulders, and after a leisurely half-hour in the bathroom, he looked professional to head to the office. 

During the day, Phoenix worked at Fey and Co. Law Offices as a secretary and paralegal to Mia Fey, criminal defense attorney. The office was cozy and low-profile, but it didn't need to be flashy. Anybody in real trouble knew Mia's name. When Phoenix first got the offer to work for her, he'd been so starstruck he nearly forgot to respond to the email. Thankfully, he remembered eventually, and now he was working comfortably under his brilliant mentor and friend, offering his perspective as an — ahem — professional to cases that smelled fishy. He wasn't in the courtroom much, but he didn't mind. He got enough attention from the public from his side job, thanks.

Today, Mia was already settled behind her desk when Phoenix walked in with a call of, "Sorry I'm late, Chief! Busy night, you know how it is."

"Phoenix…" Mia sighed. "I hope you slept well. I've got a new client I want you to look at."

Phoenix dropped his bag at his desk and meandered over to Mia, who had a file open in front of her and a few tabs up on her laptop. She pushed the paper file towards him first.

"I got a call from a friend at the PD. He said our client was asking for you, specifically, which was my first hint that this was an odd one." Mia clicked around on her laptop a bit, finally opening her email and refreshing the page a couple of times. Apparently, she was waiting for something.

Phoenix hummed. "Like, me me, or…"

"Yes, you you, Phoenix Wright, my assistant," Mia said. "I'm pretty sure my friend doesn't know about not-you. As in, he doesn't know it's you, not that he doesn't know you. Everybody knows you."

"You used you a lot in that sentence," Phoenix pointed out.

"Hush, you. Read the case."

"On it, boss," Phoenix said, giving Mia a two-finger salute.

He didn't have to read far before it shocked him.

"Larry Butz? What's he in for?"

Mia sighed and rubbed her temples. Usually, Phoenix could sort of forget that Mia had years of experience over him, but in this moment, it seemed like all those years hit her all at once. She had those moments sometimes. "Murder. What else?" she said.

Phoenix's eyebrows, already reaching an impressive altitude, climbed even higher. "Well, he's not guilty."

"You sound pretty certain," Mia said.

Phoenix shrugged. "Yeah, well, I know him. He's a ditz, not a killer. Who's the victim?"

"Maybe if you read the case file, you'd find out," Mia said, turning back to her laptop with a tiny frown. It was the most negative expression Phoenix had ever seen her make.

So Phoenix did read the case file. Well, kind of. He tried to, for sure. He was just a little, distracted.

See, there weren't many people in the world Phoenix was close to, and even fewer that knew about his secret identity. In fact, there were only two.

Mia Fey, his mentor, who didn't get told so much as she found out, after lining up Phoenix's late nights fighting crime with his late, sore, tired mornings on the job;

And Larry Butz, his best friend since grade school, who didn't get told so much as he was there for it, when Phoenix got bit by that spider while doing some light trespassing, and then when his superpowers spontaneously developed at the sleepover that night.

Larry was kind of an idiot, and he fell in love too fast for his own good, but he was kind, in his own way, and what he lacked in academic skill he made up for with his artistic talent. He could pick up any medium and his sense of aesthetic was unmatched, although you wouldn't guess it from looking at him. He was the one who inspired Phoenix to chase his dreams of becoming an actor. Although these days, Phoenix found himself regretting his decision to pass up pre-law. Still, Larry was reliable and a genius in his craft.

He was the one who made Phoenix's suits, actually. From the ground up, design to finished product. He never let Phoenix pay him, insisting that he was only helping out his "best bro." Phoenix never really pushed that hard, considering free was a whole lot better than whatever he'd be paying some tailor, factoring in the hush money. Phoenix was endlessly grateful for Larry's ability to keep secrets and his generosity. Not that he'd ever tell him, obviously. If the Butz got a big head it would be a disaster.

Mia's voice pulled Phoenix out of his reminiscing. "Are you alright, Wright?"

"Right as rain," Phoenix said automatically. It was a terrible joke he'd made the first time they met, and Mia liked it so much that it stuck. "Did you say something?"

"Just that the police are through with him, so if you'd like, we can go down to the detention center and interview Mr. Butz now," Mia said.

Phoenix nodded, scooping up the case file and grabbing his bag. Mia joined him and the pair walked out together into the streets towards the detention center.

"Was that what you were waiting for?" Phoenix asked.

Mia blinked. "What?"

"You kept refreshing your email. I was wondering if you were waiting for the go-ahead from the police."

"Oh, no, that was something else."

Phoenix nodded, but Mia didn't say any more. "Cool," he said lamely. "So. Larry. Why do they think he did it?"

"No idea, I'm afraid." The far-away look in Mia's eyes vanished as conversation came back around to the case. "I tried asking the detective in charge of investigations, but he's harder to talk circles around on the phone. I hope he'll still be at the detention center when we get there."

"Chief!" Phoenix put a hand to his heart, pretending to be shocked. "Conspiring against the upstanding members of the police force to get information? How could you do such a terrible thing?"

"Sure, because your method of justice is so legally squeaky-clean," Mia scoffed.

"Hey, I'm not a lawyer, I don't have to follow laws."

"You know that isn't true."

"Besides, if I ever get arrested, I know a top-notch attorney that'll defend me." Phoenix nudged Mia with his elbow.

"Oh, really? And who would that be? Because I know I'd be on the witness stand, hand in hand with Winston Payne to take you down, Terror of Japanifornia."

"Winston Payne! Chief, you wound me."

Mia shook her head. "I can tell you majored in theater. We're here."

The detention center was an ominous-looking gray concrete box attached to the police department. Walking past it always gave Phoenix the creeps. Something about the barred windows and blocky architecture made it feel like you were the one in prison, or at the very least, you deserved to be.

Or maybe that was because most of the times Phoenix was near the police department, he was technically doing crime. 

Still, Larry was waiting for him inside, so he followed dutifully after Mia through the front office and into the visitor's room.

Larry was already there when they walked in, and it looked like he'd been crying. His hair was a wreck, and not in his usual way. He was slumped over the little table like a drunk at closing time, and when he looked up at Phoenix, his bottom lip actually trembled.

"Nick! Come on, I didn't do it! I'm too soft for prison, man! I'm too young to die!" Larry wailed.

Phoenix resisted the urge to put his head in his hands. "You're not going to prison, Larry. Unless you did kill somebody."

"I would never!" Larry, to Phoenix's shock and horror, started sobbing again, fat tears tracing well-worn tracks down his face. "How could you! I loved her, man, I wouldn't ever kill her!"

"So the victim, Ms. Stone, she was-" Mia jumped in to save Phoenix.

"She was my girl, yeah," Larry said, sobs vanishing completely as he stared wistfully into the middle distance, no doubt recalling fond memories of whoever this girl was. "She was a bombshell. Almost as pretty as you." He smiled what Phoenix was sure he thought was a winning smile at Mia.

"Thank you, Mr. Butz. I'm sure this is hard for you to talk about, but we really need all the information we can get," Mia powered on.

Larry, though, looked confused. "Uh, who's 'we?' I asked for Nick to defend me, miss, no offense."

"I'm not a real lawyer," Phoenix explained. "This is Mia Fey, my boss. She's the actual lawyer. She's good, too. A genius. And just a good person. But anyway, she's taking on your defense. I might hang around behind the bench, but I'm not allowed to do much."

"But you said you worked for a law company! You're a liar!" Larry was crying again.

"I said I was a secretary."

"Mr. Butz. Please. Could I ask you some questions about what happened on the afternoon of Ms. Stone's murder?" Mia looked tired already. Phoenix felt a little bad about making her deal with Larry like this.

Larry, though, sobered up a little bit at Mia's words. She had that effect on people, Phoenix guessed. Her energy was just so down-to-earth that everyone around her couldn't help but stay grounded too.

"Sure. Whatever you need!"

Mia nodded. "First, about the murder weapon, the statue of The Thinker…"

Miles was going to pop a blood vessel, probably. Or have a stroke. Or some other deadly stress-related injury.

The case file on The Amazing Spider-Man was, in a word, unbalanced. While the records of their many crimes were plentiful and well-recorded, and there were so many photos that they had to be stored digitally instead of kept on paper with everything else, the most they had in terms of clues towards their identity were that they appeared to have a male build and voice, and that they tended to only appear within the city. Attempts to track them had been proven useless at best and actively misleading at worst. No cops had ever apprehended them at the scene, even though they usually stayed to watch over the thugs they'd beaten up to ensure they didn't "get away." Audio recordings of their voice did exist and were on file, but they were always quite far away, and there was no guarantee that their suit didn't contain some kind of voice changer, or that they weren't simply affecting their voice naturally.

In short, the police had a perfect criminal profile for Spider-Man, but they didn't have a single lead on their actual identity.

And Miles was supposed to assist them, somehow.

Chief Prosecutor Skye hadn't said those words exactly, but Miles knew from working under her for some time that when she wanted him to "keep an eye on" a case, it really meant babysitting the paper file and staying in contact with Detective Gumshoe. He liked Gumshoe fine, when he wasn't misplacing evidence, or overlooking evidence, or giving evidence to the defense. Unfortunately, Gumshoe was essentially always doing one of those three things, which made it very hard to work with him for long period of time. At least the detective had the good sense to know when Miles was right — that was, of course, always.

Miles had since closed the Spider-Man file and dropped it into a desk drawer. He didn't want to look at it too closely, lest his heart rate rise to dangerous levels. At the moment, he was waiting for a meeting with his mentor. It was nearly thirty minutes before he was due to arrive, but he had a habit of coming early on occasion in order to make sure that his wards were perfect always , not just when he was nearby. So Miles had spent the last hour cleaning his office until it was spotless, and all the time since then sitting with perfect posture at his desk.

As he predicted, Manfred von Karma knocked on his door exactly twelve minutes before their scheduled meeting time.

"Come in," Miles said, although he really didn't need to. Manfred had the keys to his office, and even if he didn't, Miles would never be so arrogant as to lock his office when expecting a visit from his great mentor.

"Miles Edgeworth," he greeted, standing in front of Miles' desk to force Miles to look up at him. If he were anyone else, Miles would stand so they were eye-to-eye, but he would never dare do something so disrespectful to his mentor.

"I presume Lana Skye has given you the case regarding the so-called vigilante that terrorizes this city," Manfred sneered. "I do not agree with her decision to give such a trivial case to you. You will not expend any energy on such a useless task. You will focus only on your current case, as I do. My single-minded focus is what makes me so perfect. You would do well to emulate it."

"Yes, sir," Miles nodded, voice small.

"This vigilante is pathetic, like all criminals. He is nothing but a violent thug, seeking out fights in order to feel like he is worth any more than the dirt which he likely eats instead of food." Manfred's words were directed at Spider-Man, without question, but staring at him with his face twisted into an expression of deep, well-practiced disgust, Miles couldn't help but feel like he was the one being insulted.

If anyone else were saying this, Miles would correct their language, explain that despite their name, there was no way of truly knowing if Spider-Man was male, but Manfred would hear none of it anyway, so Miles didn't bother. It would hardly be worth the pain it would cause.

"Your current case is your only priority. It must be perfect, because all von Karmas are perfect. I will accept nothing less, Miles Edgeworth."

"Yes, sir."

And with that, Manfred strode out of Miles' office, shutting the door behind him.

The tension bled out of Miles' body like someone cut his spinal cord. He slumped into his chair, suddenly exhausted to the point of tears, though he had no idea where this inexplicable fatigue had come from. The Spider-Man file burned a hole in his psyche, but he did not look at it again.

He would be a fool to disobey direct orders from Manfred von Karma.

ao3 link

[nocturnalazure]

Not-a-tutorial - Dialogues: Part I

This part will be mostly about how I integrate dialogues into my graphic novel, and how I try to make them more visually interesting. Emphasis on "try". I don't think I have much to teach to anyone, I'm just explaining my process.

I use Comic Life for my graphic novel. I have no frigging idea how to do speech bubbles with Photoshop. Comic Life comes with a variety of pre-designed bubbles and layouts, I'm taking no credits here.

But first: speech bubbles and their shapes. Each shape has a meaning in itself and that's why I love them so much. Starting with an obvious one: the spiky, multi-edged bubble is used to indicate that a character is screaming, yelling or laughing out loud.

I use that shape for loud shouting exclusively. When a character is simply raising their voice, I put the text in bold+italics.

I do the same thing but on a single word when the character puts emphasis on it.

Voices over the phone get even spikier bubbles (and text in italics), to indicate that they come out of an electronic device.

Extraordinary circumstances require their very own speech bubbles. Like when Grimmy is talking. Or characters in a dream-like sequence.

I haven't been very consistent with my use of thought bubbles. I don't like showing too much of a character's inner thoughts, so I don't use them often. When I do, I prefer a "manga-style", rectangular caption that can be read as a voice-over.

I did use dashed-line bubbles for whispered convos for a time. But I like now to just use a slightly smaller font. Less traditional imho. And it works well for (funny) side comments.

The wavy bubble is used when a character is really distressed. I use it with parcimony for extreme situations, like when the character is crying or when their voice is breaking.

Extended speech bubbles are a godsend. I generally avoid having more than one sentence in the same bubble. The second sentence will very often be in an extended bubble.

...or on a different panel entirely. I like breaking down the lines of dialogue into several parts, to keep things dynamic and quick to read. The downside is that I need a shitload of pictures for every single scene.

A veeery important part is the order of speech bubbles. The eye must follow them seamlessly, from up to down and left to right. Characters' positions are obviously very important: ideally, a character who speaks first should be placed on the left side of the shot because that's where the eye will go first. That's not always possible though, and it's not always what I get after shooting. So I have to work around that using the tail to indicate who is speaking.

That tail is SO useful. I promise you: although you may not realize it, it helps you as a reader because you never have to stop and wonder who is saying what. It is just visible on the screen and you can focus on the important stuff: the text. That is particularly useful when there are 3 or more characters talking in the same picture.

I always pick quality of screenshots over space for my text. I can always move a bubble around and change the direction of the tail. It won't necessarily be pretty, but having the character's face (or whatever I want to put emphasis on) clearly visible is more important to me. My text goes wherever I can find some space. Now, maybe I unconsciously leave more space between my characters when I shoot? I'm not sure.

On to Part II!

[dirtyoldmanhole]

YRMR cover progress for the curious!

before drawing, there were a few things i knew that the cover had to have/show:

critically, had to have vibes of an enemies-to-lovers dynamic in the sense of ... the power tilt? even though that's not "technically" the true nature of their dynamic. gunter's not a nice guy in this fic, even aside from the possession, and i also didn't want anybody to run into this unsuspecting the darker parts to the fic. him more looming/threatening than you'd expect in base game, etc.

wanted to emulate kozaki's style through the whole cover in line qualitty, coloring, and composition. thankfully he gives a few tips over on his twitter. it's both a neat little nod at the source material, and also as a style experiment.

a big theme in this fic is gunter being made of so many masks/shells (there's a perfect blue cover, see below, that specifically made me think this composition could work.)

learning that kozaki hews pretty close to grids + the golden ratio was another big lightbulb moment, here's a drawing yoinked from his twitter where he shows it himself.

after scraping/studying from kozaki's twitter, i made one or two thumbnail doodles below. you can see the solid one had a golden ratio + general line dynamic check squiggled to the side. there's room for the title, the focus is on corrin, it'll work both in a horizontal and vertical crop, looking good so far.

you can see how pretty tightly to the thumbnail i kept, other than moving the vertical text to the top since i didn't have as much room there. i'm a little worried about the different line quality between how big the face is vs corrin but we'll see.

something i also realized i like about the composition is corrin "could" look like she's attacking the viewer, but she also looks like she could be guarding him with her back to him, which.... heh. comes up in some interesting ways in the last third of the fic (possession wise).

bunch of cleaning up.

as I suspected since this is 11x17in (much bigger than what i normally draw) i had to grab a different brush for gunter since thin lines were not going to work as they did for corrin. i think kozaki's real genius is how he treats texture with his linework; where he does thin lines, where he puts the thick ones, etc.

corrin's coming along great but there's a spirit to the first face on the left i think i'm missing now, so i'll probably re-insert that. (also decided to at least draw in his face there even though the masks/slices will distort that). i think what also helps is gunter's face is very low contrast and needs to remain low contrast, to help corrin pop out in front.

then i started thinking about typography. a lot of the fonts i had were either way too masculine/bland/modern, or way too feminine/curvy. this title needs a hint of masculinity to nod at FE's general action-adventure RPG roots, but it's also very distinctly the kind of erotica that doesn't easily lend itself to a genre. it's tender horror, it's daddy kink, it's vicious romance, it's ... a lot of things.

here's another thing: when thinking about title typography, another consideration is genre. briefly i considered something like lovecraftian covers; my doujin circle and i had been sharing pictures of old pulp covers. i also noticed a lot of my favorite JP erotic horror doujin have very spiky titles. this title also needs to be scrunched up in a tight space so it's not like we got a sprawl of acreage here either.

what doesn't help is enemies to lovers doesn't really have a visual language in mainstream media.

it's a staple of Ao3 (written) genres, but the closest you'd get otherwise would be romantic horror (kind of says a lot about who makes what huh?). for example, the shape of water (movie) isn't a 1:1, but it's pretty damn close -- unfortunately that poster dodged the question by using an art deco-inspired font typeface that was more about the setting than the genre.

and then i had an epiphany. maybe i was approaching this from the wrong direction: it's the knight/liege romance that's the heartbeat to YRMR.

think more old dragonlance novels. old medieval/fantasy pulp novels; plenty of kinky sex and ass in there, and still close enough to FE. remember everyone and their mamma having a bi ass crush for bad boy raistlin? that's the vibe i want.

this kind of glorious deranged shit. you're not gonna be surprised at possessed grandpa whip kink if you read these on the regular.

after ~*arcane designer magic*~ (I do this for a living) bolton and magiona display were the two fonts that were gonna work just fine together.

god that looks so much better. this looks believable now.

the thin/thick line weight contrast in magiona display is going to accentuate the lineart in a way that might be tricky with other fonts that work better on painted covers. bolton's "squished" vertically enough it doesn't compete with the other one, and makes for a good secondary/tertiary font.

few other things happened.

i shrunk gunter's face because not being able to see his jawline (sex appeal u see) was bothering me from a composition standpoint. it's the same reason frank frazetta didn't censor his glorious asses.

(said seriously, by the way. so many people don't give their lust in art enough credit.)

i also needed more room for the title to show, and the line quality/scale difference between his face was also bugging me. does this mess up the golden ratio composition? sure, temporarily, but his armor's weirdly flexible that we can adapt it pretty easily.

it's about this time i'm also looking through my hydrus network stash of favorite covers for what color palette and contrast to use. kozaki tends to skew purple/cooler hues for nohr characters, and that'd go well with these two.

purple/green hues that play well with light purple and the yellow from those old covers i love so much, low contrast midground, and something that'd contrast well with text above. dark/black background for the gothic vibes, and the text will probably need to be white or some sort of light-warm hue for that "pop".

doing color tests is more of a leap of faith and intuition than an exact science, but damn it is it satisfying when you nail it in one go and go 'holy shit i want to read this. :D

(green/gold for the hint of anankos' mask, also matching the yato and her warmer skin tone. purple flames for him, but the high contrast armor to separate her from his larger shapes. we've got the dragonstone and the yato as flexibility for lighting and emphasizing contrast with her. )

i kind of like how i accidentally made the mask shards reflect(?) a bit of his own face. hell yeah throw it in. this is something that's more likely to work than not. this is something that has that mix of id and horror i've been going after.

here's another version with references to the side and the golden ratio laid on again.

honestly a lot of it at this step is going 'dude you know what would be SO DOPE.... PURPLE FIRE...' 'dude..... fuck yes....' 'what about some sick ass sword effects?' 'YEAH....' and saving a bunch of backups in case of the idea didn't work out.

(am i going so much harder on a literal gilf porn fanfic cover than i need to? hell yeah. gunterfuckers deserve better. :D )

anyway here is when i start questioning everything, so i'll take a break from the colors to tighten up the lineart. now that the composition's settling in much tighter, i'm also thinking about how the two shapes interact with each other and if there's any potential issues with tangent points (where two lines intersect each other in a way that makes an optical illusion.)

that said i love how his jawline "points" at her face, that kind of line you want.

grinding away on corrin's lineart. also double checking that the shapes/colors/forms for her "make sense" both standalone and with the composition too. what's nice is she's at the point where i can just turn off my brain and polish up.

naturally couldn't resist poking at it more and this is when the rest of it clicked after figuring out which bit was anankos' mask, which bit was possessed!gunter vs himself (polished up the armor a bit too. at this point i'm pretty confident that it'll stay "set"; the biggest thing i'm likely to change is the blue silohuette to the dragonstone side for corrin.

here's the last true screenshot before cleaning up the last 2% of the lines. added the pulp cover texture around the border, switched the colors of the text so the cream would stand out more, cleaned up gunter's face and also increased the darkness of corrin's body so it'd contrast more with him behind.

thanks for reading. :D