#the first one is based on how i posed my figures of them once

[te4k3ttle]

Collection of wips I've been meaning to finish for months but never got to it so they're getting posted as they are

[krispycreamcake]

It has come to my attention that people in the fandom don't understand the use of implication, so I will now break down easily as possible for people that don't believe Cordelia sexually groomed Laito. @dl-drama-cd (Tws for rape and incest)

The conversation atop is one shared between Laito and Cordelia. Take note of the background. It is a bedroom. Not the garden or the kitchen or somewhere aesthetic in the moonlight, it is a bedroom.

A bedroom is used for sleeping or as Reiji likes to call it, private activities. We all know that people who usually share a bed are relatively close in terms of relationship, it doesn't matter what kind, they just need to be close.

Cordelia shares no emotional/maternal bonds with her sons. She is often described as crass or cold. Why are her and Laito in a bedroom together if they do not share such a bond?

A bed in media is often used (with context) as a symbolism for lovers sleeping together, because that's exactly where it happens.

How do we know that something more sinister is going on than just a mother and son talking? We can figure this out based on the conversation.

Let's look at what's said between the two.

In the first image, Laito poses a question to Cordi. He asks her, without explicitly saying what "it" is, what's her reason for doing this?

This is a canon interaction between these two characters, where character 1 (Laito), is unaware of the intentions that character 2 (Cordelia) possess. Which is why he is asking her, why she is doing "this", because he does not know why this is happening to him.

Cordelia then explains, also again without directly saying anything, that she does "this" because she loves him. This is Cordelia's reasoning and answer to Laito's previous question.

That's pretty straightforward, I don't think we need a paragraph long analysis on that.

Laito, who then repeats the word, love, in a questioning manner.

Why does he do this instead of just accepting her answer as is?

Because he is simply not satisfied with such an answer. Why isn't he just accepting her word as is? We, don't yet know because once again, the context in this current conversation is not said.

Continuing, we see Cordi backing up her previous statement by saying that there is no world out there where a mother doesn't love a son, and if there is, what kind of world would it be?

She tries to explain that Laito shouldn't question her actions, but rather accept them as they are, because that's an inherent profession of love between mother and son.

Laito, in response, flatly says that a world without love between mother and child, is the one that they live in.

In other words, Laito does not accept that "this" is what paternal love truly is. He believes that his mother does NOT love him, which we can easily pair up with his earlier question "Love?".

Now that we have some form of context to the character's inner thought process and what they are currently feeling, we can put together some pieces on what kind of conversation is actually going on.

At a first glance it can be assumed that a son is doubting his mother's love for him, because well, that's exactly what's happening.

But if we speculate a bit more on the background, and the given context of the conversation, we can now say that the truth of the situation lies within the more subtle clues.

Example #1.

This memory, isn't a pleasant one. This conversation has already happened and Laito is simply remembering it. You can use the images provided to reverse google search the complete scene for further proof, but as already stated, this is NOT a conversation he is very fond of.

Example #2.

The conversation that these two are having, shows us that one person is satisfied while the other isn't for whatever reason that may be. I've broken it down already so you can understand it a bit more, but feel free to once again do your own research.

Example #3.

The implication of the background. Like I've previously stated, I broke it down at the start of this post. But let me be absolutely clear and reiterate this, THE REASON THE BACKGROUND IMAGE IS HAPPENING INSIDE A BEDROOM AND NOT ANYWHERE ELSE (even though you can suck someone's blood anywhere you wanted to) IS BECAUSE THE CONTEXT LIES WITHIN THE BEDROOM ALONE. The creators didn't just randomly choose a free png of a bedroom for a conversation where a child asks a parent why they're doing something, that the child feels like diminishes the sole intent of paternal love. Context clues, matter.

Now then, I'll go on to add another image where I'll make a very short and factual analysis without hypotheticals or opinions being used.

Laito in this scene, is completely naked. He is naked and with a solemn expression on his face, thinking about his mother pleasuring him. He is also reminiscent on the words his mother has told him, that being "I love you, Laito".

Cordelia then says that "That kind of thing is just something given in exchange" when the words I love you, are said. Laito, once again, admits that he was being pleasured while thinking of his mother. [End analysis]

We can speculate that since he is thinking of his mother and pleasure at the same time, she is the one who is giving it to him.

Why do I think this? Because he is completely naked, his only thoughts being his mother's voice. That being said, we can now say that what is being "given in exchange" in Cordelia's words, after saying I love you (or perhaps vice versa, where I love you comes first) is pleasure.

I have a couple of links here we can make with these couple of images alone.

In the first part, we see them talking in a bedroom and the conversation eventually leads to satisfaction, in terms of "once I am satisfied with the outcome, there should be no question". She also references love here, as she does in the latest image I have provided.

With the context that we have now we can equate love to pleasure. And Cordelia states that she loves Laito multiple times throughout just these two scenarios.

Now, my interpretation of this is that Cordelia is clearly raping her son and using "love" as a means to mask, and more so, normalize what is happening between them. (I say normalize because Cordelia tries convincing Laito that this is what goes on between mother and son in the first conversation).

However, even if you do not share the same perspective, it is still abundantly clear that Cordelia Sakamaki, first wife of Karlheinz, daughter of King Burai of the Vibora clan, mother of Ayato Sakamaki, Kanato Sakamaki and Laito Sakamaki, is giving sexual pleasure to her son. Whether it is by bloodsucking, or by sex, or both.

She is sexually grooming Laito by giving him these sensations a mother should not be giving her child, and is committing an act of incest.

[hedgehogsaretheultimatelifeform]

as promised, I have a another yandere! Adler requests(of a few), this one was based on an idea I had in my mind. Self Aware!Adler x Reader/Bell

Basically Adler become aware that he’s a character in a video game and starts to become obsessed with Bell/The Player. Starting out small, he eventually manages to find a way to get Bell/Player into the game to be with him forever

are you interested?

Hi!!! Thanks so much for this one, I had a lot of fun with it! Hope you enjoy :)

Your/Name: In

Yandere!Self Aware!Russell Adler x F!Reader

Warnings for: imprisonment, threats of brainwashing

For as long as he can remember, Russell has been aware that he's just a character in a video game. Such a concept fascinates him, of course, but not as much as who is playing it. After hearing some of the things other players say to her over voice chat, he decides it's his job to keep her safe.

Another win, another first place. Another moment where Adler gets to flip off the other, not as good players, as he waits for her soft cheers at yet another top of the leaderboard win.

He closed his eyes as the end screen faded, and he found himself back in the void, walking. He settled into it, ignoring his surroundings as he walked forward, at arms, surrounded by approximate facsimiles of people he used to know. Right now, there are two different versions of Woods walking alongside him.

He doesn’t care about them more than who they belong to. The two dick twiddling losers who had been on the other team, who were now taking out their inadequacy on her. Because of them, he wasn’t hearing her celebrating. Instead, he was hearing her voice shake, sniffling as she disabled voice chat.

“Losers. I’m just trying to have fun.” 

He can only imagine her expression. Her lips bent in a pout, her brows pinching as the joy fades, her favourite game once again ruined by some shitheads who can’t take a loss right. He’s never seen her, on the other side of the screen, but after the many, many hours she’s spent with him… he knows her so well.

The others walking around him disappeared, leaving him nervously clutching his King’s Ransom Krig 6 tightly. Had they been so off putting that she was going to quit the game altogether, leaving him alone in the dark?

His heart pounded as he heard her clear her throat. “I could play the campaign for a bit… Keep working on the Veteran achievement.”

Relief floods through him at her words. Then, it disappears as his consciousness gets pushed back into the code, essentially non-existence, for a moment, until he rematerializes in the Berlin safe house, his heart swelling again when he sees Bell wandering back and forth in front of the mission board.

What mission could she be planning to tackle next? What scenario would they be running over and over, watching Bell die again and again, hearing her get more and more frustrated until she inevitably quits, leaving him alone?

Unless… Could he implement some of the things he’d learned in multiplayer, here?

Adler had spent a lot of time testing his limitations, figuring out how to bend the world around him to his will. What else was he meant to do, after he’d figured out that his entire life was a game?

Well, that, and his fascination with the who.

Who was playing the game on the outside, existing beyond where he could see? Who had picked him out as her favourite? How could he use his unique understanding of the game to help her?

He’d been cautious, at first. Perhaps, overly. He’d slowly started responding more directly to what was happening in the matches, made custom lines for each type of loadout she had, or disarming an opponents’ tactical. He’d even gone so far as to create unique poses for when she won, which were now the only ones she used, never noticing that no one else seemed to. Rather than that, she liked everything he added, particularly when he yelled, ‘ahh, hot, hot!’ when he got caught by (but survived) a Molotov.

He’d done lots of little things to help her win. He so badly wanted to do more, but in the multiplayer matches, it would have gotten her banned for cheating. Here, though…

He reached out and turned the radio off, before walking over to where she was controlling the avatar of Bell.

“Bell. I need your help, let’s go.”

Bell stopped and turned to face him, staring blankly while she spoke. “I don’t remember… Did the last update add a new mission or something?”

Adler waited, then Bell nodded, and followed him as he led them across the safehouse, then outside. The door slammed behind them as Adler walked towards his car, Bell lingering behind him.

“Whoa… this is all new…” She mumbled, Bell’s head spinning left and right as she took it all in. When Adler reached his car, and looked back, she had stopped to stare up at the stars in sky box.

“Hop in, Bell.” He called out, breaking her from the trance as he lingered by the driver’s side door, waiting for her to get in first. “Go ahead.”

You leaned closer to your screen, squinting at the prompt box that appeared before you. After a couple of shitty matches, you’d gone back to replay some of the Cold War campaign, when, unexpectedly to you, a new exchange between Adler and Bell had played out. You’d played the campaign back to front, and you’d never seen it before, so you’d assumed that it was some kind of secret easter egg, or Activision had flipped the script and actually added new content to the game.

You had, of course, gone along with it, excited until you walked up to the door of the car. A bright orange ‘press to enter’ prompt had popped up, but when you clicked it, nothing happened.

You tried it again, backing away from the car and reapproaching it, skating your mouse all over the screen, clicking randomly in case the hitbox had bugged out and somehow ended up Adler’s ass.

“Ugh… must be glitched.” You muttered, reaching out to tap the screen like that would fix it. 

As soon as your finger made contact with the glass, you felt yourself falling. 

Thankfully, you didn’t fall far. Your landing was cushioned by a car seat, as the scent of pine air freshener filled your nose. The engine rumbled to life before you could raise your head, and a hand reached out to steady you as you instinctively reached up for a seat belt.

“Easy there.” A voice spoke, and you froze. 

When you slowly looked up, you were looking into the face of Russell Adler. 

“What…” 

“Hey.” He smiled, looking away from you as he pulled the car out of the gated courtyard onto a narrow road. “How’re you?”

“No…” You shook your head. “No, this isn’t possible.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think it would work.” He smiled at you again, flicking the headlights to high beams. The lights lit up the fences running alongside the road, only just wide enough for the car to pass. “Luckily, it did.”

“No…” You lurched around in your seat, watching the buildings behind you vanish into the dark. Your fingers hurt from how tightly you were clutching at the dash, as you hurriedly pinched your skin, trying to wake yourself up. “No, no, this isn’t happening!”

“But, it is.” He reached over, gently pushing you to sit properly in your seat. “Sit still. I’m taking us some place safe, I’ll explain everything there.”

You flinch away from his touch, huddling back against the door as you tried to process what the fuck had just happened.

You had been at your desk, playing Call of Duty.

You’d been in an online match, and run into a couple of real pieces of work who kept yelling out for ‘the bitch to get back in the kitchen’, so you’d quit and gone back to playing the campaign, once again on the fruitless hunt for the veteran achievement.

You’d been standing in front of the chalk board, reviewing the missions you needed to do, when Adler had walked up, and told you to follow him. You’d thought it was a new scene or something, so you had, out of the safe house to a car, the button had glitched, you’d tapped your screen, and now you were in that car. 

A sharp click broke you out of your thoughts. You looked around, trying to ignore Adler’s smile as he continued watching you out of the corner of his eye. Your heart leapt into your throat when you saw that he’d locked the doors. 

This had to be a bad dream. It had to be. You pinched your skin again, looking around desperately for other ways to try and wake yourself up. This car was old, surely you could physically unlock the door by pulling the lock bit up and jump out, right? You die in a dream, you wake up, that’s how it works.

“You’re not dreaming.” He says softly.

Your head whips around to face him. 

“That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?” The car slows, and he turns off the road into a car park. The dim sign on the building in front of you tells you that it’s a hotel. “That this is all a bad dream?”

“How… how do you…” Your words trail off as he parks the car and gets out, walking around the hood to open your door when you don’t get out yourself. 

You scramble away from him again, blindly reaching behind you as you try and climb backwards over the middle console. 

“What…” he sighed, removing his glasses from his face as he stared at you. “What’s gotten you so scared?” 

You hesitate. The existential fear of the fact you are now somehow inside your computer aside, you have good reason to be scared of the man in front of you. 

“I… I know what you did to bell.” You swallowed, watching him carefully.

“And?” He continued to stare, like you’d not given a perfectly sane explanation. 

“How do I know you won’t do that to me?”

“Oh, for god’s sake–give me a little credit!” He ran his hand through his hair, leaning down over the open door. “I brought you here to protect you, I’m not going to hurt you! Besides, I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I don’t have any supplies for it, and we’re actually stuck in this moment.”

Your heart leaps again. “What do you mean, stuck?”

“This world… all of it revolves around your input.” He straightens up and smiles again. “As long as you don’t pick a mission in the safehouse, we can stay here as long as we like. Safe, uninterrupted. We can sit here forever, and just be… be at peace.”

“How… No…” You started shaking again, then screamed when he grabbed your leg and dragged you out of the car. 

“If you’re going to insist that we talk it all through, let’s at least get comfy.” He tries to set you on your feet so you walk in with him, but your legs were shaking so much you couldn’t stand. He half carried, half dragged you into the hotel, taking the key the blank faced man behind the counter offered, and steering you in the direction of room twelve.

At first, the room looked like any generic hotel room. It had a bed, a desk, a door that must lead to the bathroom, a wardrobe with missing doors, a window overlooking the carpark, and plain grey wallpaper. Nothing to write home about, but serviceable. Or, it would be, if your world hadn’t just been completely turned upside down.

Adler let you collapse onto the bed, sighing as he crossed the room to close the blinds.

You rolled onto your back, trying to take in some deep breaths. You wanted to close your eyes, but then you wouldn’t be able to see what Adler was doing, so you kept them open, digging your fingers into the sheets instead.

Suddenly, the sheets were fluffy under your hands. You dropped them, struggling to sit up to see that where there had been plain cotton-polyester sheets beneath you, was now a fluffy comforter. You blinked, and looked around at the rest of the room. The walls were now creamy white. Soft lamps were glowing on the bedside tables. A radio was playing music on the coffee table, which Adler was humming along to as he slowly removed his jacket and lay it over the back of the sofa.

“That’s more like it, huh?” He looks back at you as you look around again. The room felt like it had doubled in size.

“Did… you?”

He nodded as he slowly walked towards you. “Just a little touch up. It’s not hard.”

“Oh.” You blinked, slowly sinking back into the comforter, trying to guess what the limit of what he could do would be.

“You know…” He sat at your side, leaning over you. “You look even more beautiful than I imagined.”

“What…” You swallow again, giving up on your attempts at taking deep breaths as Adler is clearly not going to let you have two minutes without some bullshit. 

“Well…” He reached down and brushed your hair back from your forehead, his own glowing blond in the lamplight. “I’d figured you’d based Bell on yourself, so I had a rough idea… but look at you. You’re beyond anything I dreamed.” 

You slowly sit up, shuffling back against the pillows to force some space between you. “How are you…. alive?” 

“I’m not sure.” He sighed, but let you go. “I don’t remember a point when I wasn’t aware that this is all just a game, and that it revolves around you.” 

So… He’d been aware the entire time you’d been playing?

“At first, I just liked hearing your voice… how you reacted to the things that happen in the story. Then, I heard the things you said about me… what you liked about me.” His eye twinkled with a strange nostalgia. It made it sound like you’d said sweet compliments about him; not about how much you wanted to fuck him. “It made me like you, too.”

He waited for you to respond before he went on. “It was a bit odd, the first time you started playing in matches. Seeing blank copies of the people I’m supposed to be close too… it was a little existential. But I loved helping you win more. I did quite a bit, you know. Shrunk your hit box, helped you aim, made your guns do just a bit more damage. I learned how all of this worked, just to help you. So, I could hear you celebrate, cheer me on in the end screens.”

“Then I started to hear what other people said to you. How upset it makes you. How sometimes they’d make you so sad that you’d stop playing, that you’d stop spending time with me. It’s why I worked out a way to bring you here, so we can spend all our time together without anyone attacking you.” 

“You’re…” you pause, trying to find the right word, “… protecting me?”

He nodded, relieved that you’d finally understood.

“How is this protecting me?” You cried out, curling up into a ball. “I want to go home!”

“You can’t. I… I can’t let you go.” He whispered, crawling up close to you. “I can’t. You’ll stop playing the game, leave me alone forever.”

“I wouldn’t! I’d still play, but… I…” You stumble over your words. “I have to go to work.”

“No, you don’t. You hate that job, and it stresses you out so much. Here, you don’t have to work.”

“Well, I have to feed my neighbour’s cat. I can’t let him starve.”

“You neighbour gets back tomorrow. The cat will be fine.”

“But…” You think again, heart sinking when you realise how short your list of reasons is. “My family…” 

“What are they going to do? Who is going to figure out that you’re in here?” Adler suddenly raises his voice, obviously frustrated that you’re not coming to terms with it. 

But, how could you? You’d had your world shattered in less than thirty minutes, and were now staring up into the face of a man you know is capable of extreme cruelty. How could he expect you to just get over that?

Your shiver away from him, and a flicker of regret crosses his face. 

“Okay… I’m sorry for shouting. But, can’t you just give me a chance?” He takes your hands in his. They’re… warm, as they encircle yours, surprisingly soft for his line of work. The hands that tortured Bell, you try to remember. “Let me prove that I’m here for you. That this works, and we can stay here forever?”

You blink back tears. It’s unlikely anyone would come looking for you, despite what you said about family, and if they did, he was right. How on earth would someone work out that you were trapped inside a video game, let alone figure out a way to get you out? 

You swallowed roughly as your throat tightened.

What would happen if your power or wi-fi shut off? Would you both die? Would you return to the real world, with a fucked credit score and possible stay in a mental hospital if you were honest about where you’d been?

“Hey… hey, breathe.” He rose up, leaning over you as you started to hyperventilate. “Look at me, deep breaths…” 

You tried, as even though you don’t trust him, you can’t stay like this. Despite being transported into a digital world, everything you were feeling, the panic, the crushing weight on your chest, was all vividly real.

Eventually, you managed to regain enough control of your body to take in a huge gulp of air, the rest flooding back to you as you found yourself being slowly wrapped in his arms.

It was almost enough to make you panic again. When your body tensed, he tightened his arms. 

“No, no. Stay here, I got you.” 

You manage to fight off the urge to panic, as you doubt that you’re escaping his hold any time soon. Instead, you try to get comfortable, tilting your head and resting it against his shoulder. “Do… do we have to stay here?” 

“Why do you ask?” He brushed his lips softly over your forehead as you turn your head down away from him. 

“Surely we could be safe back at the safe house…” you started, before stopping as he squeezed you again.

“No. We’re fine here. You don’t need any of them, just me.”

“Oh…” You gasp, panic surging as his arms press too tight. “Okay.”

Your affirmation made him ease his grip on you, but he kept you on his lap, tucked against his chest as he leant back on the pillows.

“Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” He gently rubs his thumb over your arm, catching and slipping under your t-shirt sleeve, the soft pad of this thumb rolling over your skin.

“What? Why?” Why does he have to feel so goddamn… real? So solid and warm, like he’s a real human being, and not code running on its own script.

“Because, you know a fair bit about me. I feel like I should know some things about you.”

“What’s the point?”

“The point of… us getting to know each other?” He frowned. “What makes you say that?” 

“If we’re never going to leave here, why do you need to know what I like and don’t like?” If you’re going to live in this single hotel room forever, why should it matter? Unless… You glance around at the room, so changed from when you first entered it. How far could that go?

“I suppose I don’t need to… but I’d like to.” He shuffles your body around so you’re facing him, looking up into his soft blue eyes. “I mean… I don’t even know your real name.”

“Why don’t you…” the question dies in your throat. He would know your gamertag, not your name. You don’t think you’ve ever said it aloud while playing.

“I mean… I probably could have found it.” He moved the hand around your front up to grasp your chin, angling your face even closer to his. “But I wanted you to tell me yourself.” 

“I… don’t think I should.”

“Why not?”

“I…” You drop your head when he releases your chin. It’s the one thing you have left. You shouldn’t give it up freely. “I don’t know.”

“That’s not a reason.” He gives you a moment to come up with a better one, then pushes you out of his arms, back onto the bed so he can lean over you. “Don’t you get it?”

“Get what?” You find yourself grabbing hold of his wrists, a small gasp escaping your mouth as he leans down closer, crushing your arms at an awkward angle between your bodies. The weight of his body pressing down on top of yours is another startling reminder that this is really happening.  

“That we’re not going anywhere, forever.” He smiled again. “You know what I’m capable of.”

You swallow. After his outburst in the car, insisting he wouldn’t, couldn’t do anything to you… Now he was threatening you with it.

“I’ll get your name, one way or another.” The smile dropped off his face, as he huffed out a breath. “But… can we just do it the easy way? I don’t want to hurt you.”

You shook your head again. He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment.

“Look… This isn’t complicated. You’re here because I was your favourite, which made you my favourite, and I found a way to bring us together. You don’t ever have to leave me again. I don’t want… please, tell me your name.”

You blinked slowly, trying to not notice how easily you could identify the tobacco and leather scents in his cologne, like you were a character in a romcom.

What actually could you do? Even if there is a way out, it’s not like he’s going to let you take it. He knows far more about this world than you, and you don’t doubt his control over it. Could that control be extended over you, in this new digital form you’d taken?

His threats made it sound like he could.

The thought makes tears well in your eyes. You hurriedly blink them away before he sees them, turning the choice over in your mind. Maybe there would be a way out of this. But you’d never find it if he keeps you in this one room forever.

“Well?” He murmurs, patience wearing thin as your eyes flick upwards and meet his expectant gaze.

You swallow back your fear, and tell him your name.

Your/Name: Out (Part 2)

[captainpriceslilwife]

just quick moments of our lovely boys (tf141) with a camera-phobic girlfriend (based on this poll) AN pt. 1: ok so John and Kyle are fun and casual and then i took a turn with Simon and Johnny. You can see the exact moment my writers block went away, but i didn't feel like redoing kyle's and john's bc i actually liked them, so...sorry for the switch up :/ AN pt. 2: Also, sorry this took so long to get up. volunteering literally killed me (im weak as hell and didn't eat before i went and it was literally 100 degrees outside and they had me carrying heavy ass tables and chairs????? hell no!!!!) im the only one that stayed to the end to help clean up :( my iron deficient ass was about to faint fr....

John:

You had finally worked up the courage to try and get a picture of yourself while you were on a date with John. Your hair was done, your makeup looked good, and you had a pretty dress on, so why not? Everyone was always saying they wished they had a picture of you to show people, and now is as good a time as any.

Except you aren't a big fan of being in front of a camera, so both you and John just sit in awkward silence as you smile stiffly in the seat across from him, waiting to hear that daunting click to tell you that he's taken the picture of you.

But you've been holding this pose long enough for your cheeks to hurt, and he seems to be tapping on the screen cluelessly with furrowed brows as you pinch your dress anxiously between your fingers.

"Did you take it?" You murmur through your clenched teeth, only finally relaxing once he grunts in satisfaction and hands you your phone with that signature quokka smile of his.

"Think so." He seems pleased with himself, so you let out a little breath of relief as you take the phone from him and open up the photos app. See, it wasn't so hard was it? Nothing too scary or-

You open the app, but there's only one new addition to the sparse collection of photos you have. Just one? Oh, well, ok...maybe he got a good one on the first try?

And then you click on it.

"John, honey...this is a video." A very awkward one at that. The camera shakes slightly every time John taps on the screen (to do what, you're not sure) and you and your posed smile are hardly even in the frame. "I'm not even-"

"Were you thinking dessert, darling?" But it seems he's moved on already, and he just meets your helpless expression with another unbothered smile. "We can split, if you want."

"I-" You take one more glance down at your phone, trying to decide how dedicated you are to capturing a nice moment - only to place it back down on the table with an awkward smile. "Um, sure."

"My gorgeous model deserves a little something, aye?"

"...Right."

Gaz:

"Kyle!" Your arms flop down beside you as you whine helplessly and turn your head away from him. "I can't do this."

"Love, you asked me to take pictures of you!" He laughs incredulously as he lowers the camera to give you a playfully exasperated look. "You've been begging me for this all week."

It's true. You had spent the past couple of weeks hoarding all kinds of videos showing you all the tips and tricks you would need to look like all of those girls you see online. But apparently it wasn't as easy as the supermodel in the video made it look.

"Well, I don't want to anymore!" You feel a pang of guilt when he lets out a sigh of disappointment and turns off the camera, and you speak up again defensively as you fidget with your purse (the prop you couldn't quite figure out how to hold casually like the girl had said to do). "I just didn't realize it would be so hard."

"There's nothing hard about it, my love." As if to prove his point and put you at ease, he turns the camera back on and flips it around to aim at himself. A flash of light and a shutterclick later, he's showing you the screen only for you to be faced with the most beautiful, modelesque picture you've ever seen in your life. "See?"

You've been standing here for nearly an hour, forcing him to keep taking mediocre picture after mediocre picture - you were sweating all of your makeup off at this point and your hair was a complete mess - and he just....takes a picture of himself. And he looks like that.

And of course he looks like a lost puppy when you let out a huff and snatch up your, now watery, iced coffee and begin to storm away from him to go back to the car.

"Love? We done taking pictures now?" He calls after you, still standing like an idiot with the camera hanging by a strap around his neck as you whip around to glare at him. "Right, right, right...ok, love. I'm coming."

Simon:

You and Simon were curled up on the couch - donned in hoodies and sweatpants as the two of you talked about anything and everything. Well, you always did most of the talking, but Simon says it helps him relax to hear your voice, so you didn't feel too guilty about yapping his ear off.

And now you're caught up talking about how you wish you could have pictures of yourself - some kind of tangible memory you could look back on or share with other people - but you were too caught up in your insecurities to get over your fear of cameras.

"I just hate taking pictures, you know? I look so bad in them every time." You murmur quietly into his chest as you toy with the string of his hoodie, twirling it around your finger over and over again until his hand comes up to curl around yours to halt your movements.

"No you don't." His gruff tone echoes through his chest, making you soften further into him as the vibrations of his voice soothe you.

"How would you know? We never take pictures." You giggle softly as you intertwine your fingers with his. "I don't think you've ever even seen a picture of me-"

"I've got pictures of you." He says it so casually, like it's normal, but you can feel him tense up slightly beneath his nonchalant exterior. The same way he does whenever he's nervous about something.

A beat of silence. Then, you're sitting up straight so you can turn to face him fully with a guarded look.

"What are you talking about?"

His heart begins to race in his chest at the look of trepidation gracing your face, because he finally gets to show you all the pictures he's taken of you that he loves so much. He finally gets to show you how he sees you - stunning in every moment. He swears he can feel his hand beginning to shake with some boyish nervousness as he clicks through his phone, excited to show off the very thing that keeps him going during all those hard missions.

"See?" He says quietly, tilting his phone screen towards you to reveal his hoarde of secret pictures - you asleep in bed, you brushing your teeth while half-awake, you mid-sentence as you excitedly point at the monkey on your one trip to the zoo (he hasn't taken you back since because you cried the whole week about how you felt bad for the animals being so far from their real home) - every opportunity where he could capture you without you noticing, he took it.

And he feels his heart sink in his chest when he watches your features contort in horrified embarrassment as you push his phone away while covering your eyes. "Oh my god, Simon, get rid of those!"

"Why?" He tilts the screen back to himself with a confused frown. Was he missing something? Did he capture you in a vulnerable moment without realizing? His eyes trail over the pictures quickly, trying to assess what the problem is when your voice breaks through with a whine.

"Simon! I look horrible!"

Horrible? Now his eyebrows furrow to join his other confused features, furrowing slightly as he tries to pull your hands away from your face. "No you don't. Just look at them, love."

He can see how red your cheeks are when you reluctantly drop your hands to glance over at the screen, and your face morphs like you're in pain when he scrolls through them.

"Why did you even take those?"

He can't figure out why you seem so disgusted to look at yourself in the pictures, and he also doesn't understand why he feels like he's in pain from seeing your reaction. His expression looks guilty as he shrugs his shoulders, keeping his gaze cast down on your face on the tiny screen of his phone. "Jus' thought you looked pretty, love. Wanted to save it."

If you weren't so caught up in your embarrassment, you'd be able to see how hurt he looks from your reaction. But you're still feeling defensive, so when you stand up from the couch and mutter a quiet, "Yeah, well...the camera doesn't exactly pick up the 'pretty' you see, does it?", you don't notice how his eyes trail after you sadly as you walk away.

And when you hole yourself up in the bathroom, shutting the door behind you to try to block out the embarrassment you're feeling, you miss the way he looks back down at his phone with soft eyes. His gaze trails over one of his favorite pictures of you - you sprawled out on the grass with your eyes closed and the sun beating down on you. It was a bit blurry, and Simon had taken it from inside through the window, like a stalker, but the peaceful look on your face always calmed him down whenever he snuck a peek at it during his missions.

"...I think it does..."

Johnny (our winner!!):

You were in that sweet state of limbo, falling in and out of sleep in your favorite armchair as Johnny sat on the couch across from you. You could hear his pencil scratching against the paper of his journal as he drew quietly. It lulled you further and further down into the thick haze of sleep that threatened to pull you under. Down, down, down, until-

click.

Your eyes snap open, a pang of anxiety rushing through you as you look over at Johnny. You barely see it, but you swear he jerks the phone down when he realizes his sound was on.

"Did you just take a picture of me?" Your sleepy voice is riddled with tension as you watch him fiddle with the buttons on the side of his phone to turn his sound off, but once he's done with that he just plops his phone back down on the couch and picks up his journal again.

"Hm?" He hums as he tilts his gaze up, a picture of nonchalance as he shakes his head slightly. "Mm-mmm. Just screenshottin' somethin', lass."

"Oh." You can feel the blood rush to your face to heat your cheeks as you sink back down against the armrest. You're just being paranoid. God, you'd think you were being held at gunpoint with the way your body panics at the thought of taking a picture. "Sorry. It's just...you know...."

But he just cracks a light, easy smile as he begins drawing again, even chuckling softly when he sees the way you relax once you realize you're 'safe'. "Nah, dinnae worry, bonnie. Ah ken ye don' like pictures."

"Okay..." You yawn quietly, curling your fist around the corner of your blanket to tuck it up closer to your chest. You can feel the weight of his stare as you begin to fall asleep once more, but it comforts you more than anything.

Once you're finally asleep, Johnny picks up his phone again to pull up the picture that he did, in fact, take of you.

Soft afternoon light filtering through the curtains to shine on you in your tuft little armchair. You look like an angel all curled up with your fuzzy blanket and your hair splayed around your head like a halo. Johnny nearly feels his heart skip a beat as he admires the picture, silently wishing he was good with color just so he could capture the warm, yellow light enveloping you.

But he settles with his pencil and his journal, propping his phone up in his view of you so he can take in the real thing while he copies what he's captured with his camera - erasing and redrawing until everything is perfect and his hands are coated with graphite.

Of course, he'd never tell you that he had an entire secret folder in his phone dedicated solely to the sneaky pictures he takes of you. He knows you'd have a heart attack if you ever found out, but he can't help himself. He always thinks you look beautiful, but when the light is hitting you just right and the angles are perfect, how can you blame him for wanting to keep that vision forever?

Oddly enough, you don't seem to mind when he draws you. He can see the way your cheeks still heat up in mild embarrassment whenever he shows you, but he can also see a little glimmer of something in your eyes that he doesn't get to see very often - a sort of self-admiration that you always pass off as you admiring his ability to draw.

Cue the conversation he has with you when you finally wake up from your little catnap. You shuffle your way over to him on the couch, curling your warm body and blanket around his back as you glance over his shoulder to see what he's working on.

"I think I look prettier in your head." You mumble sleepily against his shoulder, making him tilt his head to press a kiss to your forehead.

"Dinnae ken what yer on about, lass. Ye always look pretty." He murmurs softly in return as he bows his head back down, thumbing at the drawing to smudge the shadows beneath you.

"It's just...you're very lenient when you draw me, you know? Your drawings are a lot kinder than a camera." He feels your lips press against his cheek in a show of gratitude, and his face warms even as his stomach sinks from your words. "You always make me look pretty."

He almost wished he could whip out his photo collection just to show you that it's not the drawings that are beautiful - it's you. He had drawn you just the way you looked, not moving a hair on your head, and yet you thought all your potential lied in his hands.

But he would never reveal his secret. He knows you'd never fully relax around him again, and he'd probably never be able to get another picture of you, even if he tried. So, he settles for what he's got now, even though it kills him a little inside everytime you put yourself down about how you look.

"'S not hard to do, bonnie. Yer my favorite model."

[meanbossart]

Oh boy, VaM is kind of a trial and error experience LOL I couldn't really show you how to use the interface and stuff without a whole video or something, but it's not THAT difficult to get a hang of if you just give yourself a day or two to play around, not to mention the number of tutorials you find out there. Luckily, if you only want to use it as a reference software that makes the process far easier (to this day I have no idea how to animate on that thing, since that's not what I use it for)

As for how I use it, it's pretty self explanatory - if there's a complicated pose I want to draw but I'm either having trouble with it, or just want to double-check angles/anatomy, I will use it as a resource! I use for most of my "proper" pieces (y'know, the nicer looking ones) and every once in a while for my silly comics if I'm having trouble with a pose.

Lets use this drawing for example (the character on top of DU drow belongs to @namespara )

I don't draw a lot of mud-wrestling (shocking, I know) but I had an idea of the kind of pose I wanted them to be in. So the very first thing I did was make a rough sketch of what I was envisioning:

I often do a rough sketch first, even If I know I'm going to be pulling the program up because A) It's less tedious than adjusting the models over and over again until I pick a pose and B) because sometimes I'll decide I don't need the reference, after all, and so that's 30 minutes I'll have spared myself of playing around on the software.

Now, this is a pretty complicated pose! It's in a weird angle and the bodies are making contact in ways I'm not used to depicting, so I did choose to whip out VaM for this one. I went into the program and after some messing around, I flopped my little dolls together like this:

Now something really cool about VaM is that you can completely customize your models, and if you have the patience, I would definitely encourage you to do so! Obviously, you don't have to make picture perfect replicas of every single character you have, but as you can see here I have made a DU drow "decoy" to help me better understand some of his features when I draw him: he has a strong brow, a short nose, a square jawline - these are all going to look a very specific way from certain angles, and I might not always be sure of how to draw it right! So it's useful to have models that bear SOME semblance to the character so you can better understand how different viewpoints will affect their bone structure and mass.

Also thank fucking god for the elf-ear slider. Figuring out how to draw those shits from certain angles was a huge pain in the ass when I started drawing DnD races.

So, with the reference in hand, I go over the sketch again:

Now you may notice that I don't stick to the reference 100%. There's three reasons for this:

posing on VaM is tedious as hell. You can get something incredibly natural looking and picture-perfect to reference from if you wish, but it's going to take you hours to do. So, for the most part I just slap guys together until the results are "close enough" and use that.

In my opinion, you should always aim to ENHANCE your reference material, not replicate it exactly!

While VaM is a PRETTY DANG GOOD source of anatomical reference, it isn't perfect, I often supplement it with further reference from real life resources or make tweaks based on my own knowledge where I catch it falling short (and, antithetical to what I just said, I sometimes fuck the anatomy up further on purpose if I think it looks better that way LOL it's all jazz baby).

Then lines, color, yada yada. I don't have a tutorial on that and I don't think I could make one, because my process is chaotic as hell, but I do at times use Virt-a-mate as loose reference for lighting too when coloring - waaaaayyyy less so however, because that process is even more tedious and I feel like I often get better results by just winging it. It is a feature of the program though, and I'm sure it would be helpful for someone who has a difficult time visualizing lights and shadows. I only started using this program a few months ago, so I happened to already have a pretty good understanding of that kind of thing and just don't personally feel like I get much out of that particular mechanic.

Here's a few other examples of pieces that I made reference for (WARNING: Suggestive)

Now, for the question many of you may want to ask:

"Can I trace this junk?"

And to that, I say: Buddy, you can do whatever the hell you want with the reference material you created.

However,

If your goal is to learn and improve your art, and to recreate realistic proportions and anatomy from memory, tracing won't help you.

Developing your own style, your muscle memory, and personal technique will all be hindered by choosing to trace instead of drawing from observation, so I would encourage against it. Hell - even when tracing is employed as a technique, it's usually by high-skill realism & concept artists who are looking to either cut some corners, save time, or just double-check their own proportions in order to improve further - if you try tracing as a beginner, you will most definitely find the result to still look stiff and "off".

So trust me, there is so much more to be gained from drawing from observation. Make note of tangents, compare proportions, use all the elements of the picture to dictate where and how things should go - it will be a far more rewarding experience.

Hopefully this has been helpful! VaM is a really cheap program (you get it on the guys' patreon for I think 8 dollars, just google it!) and it's definitely been worth my money as an artist since I found it. Learning to use it can be a little intimidating at first glance, but as I said above you only really need a day plus one or two tutorials to get a hang of the interface.

A fair warning though, IT IS A SOFTWARE MADE FOR VIRTUAL SEX/ADULT ANIMATION So when looking it up expect to see a some spicy content.

[mysteryshoptls]

SR Jack Howl - Night Sky Chiffon Vignette

What's with that weird rule?

[Library – Entrance Hall]

Riddle: Now then, Deuce, let's get to it. Would you paint the walls with the colors of the night sky?

Deuce: Yes, sir, Housewarden!

Riddle: Once those preparations are completed, we'll use the wall as a night sky backdrop and set a multitude of lanterns aloft.

Kalim/Jack/Deuce: Yeah! / Yes, sir!

Jack: Okay, time to draw the picture of lanterns flying in the night sky.

Jack: For now, I have to figure out where the lanterns'll go. If I base it off the dimensions of the picture we're working off of…

Deuce: What are you doing, Jack? Why're you striking a weird pose with your thumbs and index fingers like that?

Jack: I ain't striking a pose! I'm trying to get an image of the whole picture by squaring it up.

Jack: If I do this, it'll be easier to figure out what size the lanterns should be drawn on the wall.

Jack: And that's how I realized…

Jack: All that dark blue you threw on the wall is painted a lot more vertical than the example we have to go off of.

Riddle: Indeed. I took that into account and make little marks where each lantern should be drawn.

Riddle: Could you draw an alight lantern at each of those little marks?

Jack: Right.

Jack: The paint colors I have here right now is red, blue, pink, yellow, and…

Jack: I guess I'll need orange if I'm going to draw some lanterns. I'll mix the red and yellow paint together.

[mixes paint]

Jack: That should be good enough. I'll start drawing the lanterns with yellow first…

[paint, paint]

Jack: Then I'll put on a layer of orange that I just made… Hey, that actually came out pretty good.

Riddle: You're right. The flame of the candle burning in the center of the lantern is shown well by the gradation you gave it.

Riddle: You've got some talent here. I had no idea you were so good at art.

Jack: Oh, no, I'm not good at it at all. All I really did was just scribble around with my siblings when I was a kid.

Jack: I more preferred to outside and move around, so I haven't really drawn much outside of my classes.

Riddle: You say you're not good at all… but I think you've done a good job.

Jack: Well, that's… probably because I've seen a bunch of lanterns before.

Jack: Not the ones that fly through the air, but I'm more talking about the ones that you'd use to go camping with.

Jack: When I was a kid, I'd find the flickering flames a little mesmerizing…

Jack: So I kinda just colored it like how I felt it was in my memories of back then.

Riddle: I see. So your observational skills are to thank for this completed picture, then.

Riddle: They do say that looking at the real object you are depicting leads to a good rough sketch of the subject… I feel as though I've learned something new.

Jack: The Princess of the Tower must've seen those strange lights flying in the sky once a year every year on her birthday...

Jack: And used those observations to draw them like this on the wall. All the while, she's curious as to what those lights were.

Riddle: Indeed. Even while she had been locked up in the tower, I'm sure she allowed her imagination to keep growing.

Riddle: And that is something that is absolutely essential to a competent mage. We cannot allow ourselves to become complacent.

Jack: Right. Our imagination abilities should be getting a good workout by thinking of how the princess acted, or what she saw.

Jack: I ain't gonna leave anything half-done. Everything'll get done just as…

Jack: Hm? What just hit my cheek…? HEY, WHAT'S WITH THIS PAINT!?

Kalim: 'Kay, I'm gonna draw a lantern with this color next!

[splat]

Jack: Kalim-senpai, you're using too much paint! Plus, you're waving your hands around too much…

Jack: You were the one who just splattered paint on me, weren't you!?

Kalim: Eh, did the paint hit you!? Sorry, sorry!

Riddle: I am relieved that I thought to use protection magic before we started painting. This library was in danger of becoming covered in paint…

Jack: I don't really want to get paint on this uniform. I guess I'll work a little further away from Kalim-senpai.

Jack: Hmm, where's the next mark Riddle-senpai put up…? Ah, here it is. I'll draw a lantern here.

Jack: This little yellow dot looks like a paint splatter. Guess I'll paint over with the base blue color to fix that.

[paint, paint]

Deuce: …Hey, Jack! Did you just paint over the stuff I just drew!?

Jack: I was just gettin' rid of the paint splatter. Nothing worth getting upset about.

Deuce: That wasn't a paint splatter, it was there to show how the light's glinting!

Deuce: Plus, if you're gonna paint over something on the wall, you gotta use a bigger array of colors than what was originally there.

Jack: What's with that weird rule? Is that one of your Queen of Hearts' laws?

Jack: Besides, I'm gonna be painting a lantern that's got more than 3 colors. That should be enough, right?

Deuce: …Fine, then. Guess I'll go work over there.

Jack: Huh, he backed down pretty quickly. He was spouting all that nonsense of spray painting the walls earlier, too…

Jack: I feel like it's way too easy to imagine him doing something way too ridiculous.

Jack: Geez. Why's he gotta start talkin' bout stuff that only makes sense to a couple people?

[paint, paint]

Jack: Alright, that's the last lantern painted.

Riddle: It seems as though the number of the lanterns, as well as their placement have been painted according to the drawing. I'd like to think that it comes quite close to the reference, but…

Kalim: Don'tcha think the painting's a little boring?

Riddle: I don't think there's any reason to make it too extravagant. However, I do also feel as though there's something missing.

Deuce: Oh yeah, Jack did say something about how the wall art was a little too long compared to the drawing in the book.

Deuce: Maybe that means the margins are a little off...?

Deuce: I'm more worried that it doesn't look like a painting of lanterns flying through the night sky.

Deuce: More like… It feels it like the streetlights when I'm riding a blastcycle at night, or the lights from oncoming cars.

Kalim: I mean, the Princess didn't know the lights flying in the sky were lanterns, and just drew what she saw, right?

Deuce: Right… Then I guess this painting is good.

[Jack thinks]

Jack: No, wait, I have an idea.

[Library – Entrance Hall]

Deuce: Right… Then I guess this painting is good.

[Jack thinks]

Jack: No, wait, I have an idea.

Kalim/Deuce/Riddle: What idea?

Jack: Yeah, so, I'm gonna draw a mountain at the bottom of the painting.

Jack: I'll take blue and yellow, and then mix this paint together… Alright. Now I just gotta draw near the bottom of the painting…

[paint, paint]

Jack: …How's that?

Riddle/Deuce/Kalim: WOOOOOOAH!!

Deuce: The lights are flying. Before you added that, they just looked like streetlights and headlights to me!

Kalim: Yeah! The lanterns are really flying in the air! That's amazing, Jack!

Kalim: The mountain's a pretty dark and boring color… But because of that, the lantern's lights look even more brighter!

Deuce: Yeah, I see it now that you mention it… I think I can definitely understand why the Princess of the Tower would've longed to see them.

Jack: You guys are laying it on way too thick. All I did was kinda draw what felt like a mountain line and colored it in.

Deuce: Don't get all shy on us, c'mon. But man, it's really strange.

Deuce: The lantern's lights weren't touched at all… So why do the lanterns actually look like lanterns now?

Riddle: That's because we now have the added information that those lights are higher in the sky than the mountain line.

Riddle: In what we had depicted prior to this, there was no context clues to inform us that the dark blue portion of the drawing was the sky.

Riddle: That's why Deuce could see streetlights, or headlights.

Riddle: After all, abstract art can be viewed differently based on the person.

Jack: …I get it. Everyone understands that mountains are large, tall objects that are firmly on the ground.

Jack: So that's why just by drawing a mountain, we can conclude that the dark blue area is the sky, and that those lights are flying.

Deuce: Huh, what, you drew that without knowing that?

Jack: It's not like I get art or anything.

Jack: For me, it was just that I'm used to seeing scenery that's got mountains in the background. Whenever I look up at the sky, they're just always there in my field of vision…

Jack: So I just thought that maybe the reason why our painting felt like it was missing something was because it needed mountains, is all.

Riddle: Ah yes, you have mentioned that you come from the Shaftlands.

Riddle: That region is rather mountainous. This could only have been conceived by someone who sees mountainous landscapes on a more familiar basis.

Riddle: You also drew the light of the lanterns quite well. I marvel at your powers of observation, Jack.

Riddle: Perhaps I would do well to spend more time looking into things that are not just textbooks and reference books.

Kalim: Hey, Jack. You got any more good ideas?

Kalim: It's already lookin' so much better than before! So let's try and make it even more awesome!

Jack: Any more ideas…? Hmm, what if we drew trees on the mountain?

Jack: The colors'll be darker, 'cause it'll be more in the shadows, but I think that'll brighten the lighter colors more.

Kalim: Okay. Then I'll draw some trees around here.

Deuce: I'll draw them over here.

Riddle: I'll do the same here. Since Jack drew the mountain, we should pitch in and draw all the trees.

Riddle: Kalim, Deuce. Let us finalize this drawing with this.

Kalim/Deuce: Yeah! / Yes, sir!

[paint, paint]

Jack: …Looks like I got nothing to do, now. Guess I'll start putting away the paint we used up.

[clatter, clatter]

Jack: …......

[FLASHBACK]

Kalim: Yeah! The lanterns are really flying in the air! That's amazing, Jack!

[FLASHBACK]

Deuce: Yeah, I see it now that you mention it… I think I can definitely understand why the Princess of the Tower would've longed to see them.

[FLASHBACK]

Riddle: You also drew the light of the lanterns quite well. I marvel at your powers of observation, Jack.

Jack: Never thought there'd come the day I'd be getting showered in compliments just for drawing something.

Jack: …Right! Let's keep this up, and find our way out of here!

Requested by @farfalla049.

[w-d-g]

Do you know. Is there anyone out there who is missing you? Who would notice your absence? Assuming they even remember you. Is there anyone to care? With how ornery you seem I'm not sure if there would be. I can't see anyone caring beyond what you could do for them. I'm not sure if any of 'us' care beyond the amusement you provide :)

((this fool spilled espresso on the universe in a nutshell . wtf

((obviously he is unaffected by this, you can tell by his sure and proud body language

((asks open now until . idk how long. a while

((under the cut is my process yap session. this was agood one to do it on bc i had to redraw the whole pose and scene, and the head angle allowed me to show off the Noggin Prism. i would have done like, a speedpaint type thing, but my insecure ass cant handle ppl seeing the 900 mistakes i make every time 😭😭😭

((so first i usually draw out the hipbone, ribcage, leg forms, and approximate head shape/position. for this guys figure im going for a combination of the machinist and goth anime legs uncle. hes got no arms but i usually put in shoulders for an expressive silhouette. i dont do the legs every time, as sometimes for more simple poses it isn’t necessary.

((second i figure out what i wanna do with the hands, drawn on a separate layer. good time to remember sketch is just a general loose layout, and you can change things whenever you decide.

((third i do whatever props are supposed to be around. i do this after the pose bc i usually base the “camera” angle around what makes sense for the pose, then i know what perspective they should be.

((fourth i do the goop. i do it after the pose and hands because its similar to the way i would draw clothes - kinda held up by and draped over the body forms.

((step five i dont often need to do, but for when i have to draw the head at an unusual angle, i make this boxy mapping shape. this step is a little complicated so i wont explain it in full, but its super helpful and easy once you understand the shapes that make up a face. if enough people wanna know i might make a separate post for it.

((step six is lineart. i did the full face lineart before i covered it with the hands, because once its all lined, you can make sure that it looks correct. usually its easier to tell during lineart because the forms are more clearly defined, and you can tell where things might not line up, or they look unnatural. you can do the hands first if you turned off the head layer, but its harder to tell where the hands should be resting. you can see in this step i changed the shape of the hands and the position of the head a bit, which happens often in this step for me usually due to the definition of the forms i mentioned. remember its good to zoom out and look at the whole form often so things arent drawn too big or small!

((next was doing the neck, white goop outline, filling in the face and hands, and doing some minor shading on the white bits. since i use a black background, i dont actually need to fill in the body with black. when i color lineart, i duplicate it and put the color on the layer on the bottom. this is so i dont accidentally change or erase the lineart, but also because if i decide to color the lineart, i can mask layer the lines instead of the lines And the color. this is also the step where i lined and colored the props.

((after the

((after i finish doing the black prop outlines and coloring them, i turn the black back up to full opacity. i turn it down so that im not trying to see black lines on a black background.

((then i finish up with resizing, text, and whatever extra effects i decide to add.

((i dont do all of these steps every single ask, but i should because shortcuts fuck it all up fr. thats all hope this was cool and helpful.

[prostocupoftea]

Kinitopet Programmers AU

finally i am finished with this one, daaaamn

it is hard to draw pathetic men with midlife crisis when your style is mostly for anime boys

more info and sketch version under the cut!!

sketch version aka how it'll probably look like in comic version 'n some doodles

srry for my writing but i was too laisy to put it as regular text

It is a plot-based au, i already have most of the storybits and like... a vibe-chart (i tried to make a playlist for this au and understood that for different chapters and different characters that'd be a copleatly different music, sooo it's a chart now :) )

i will post a fog-o-wared timeline that im hopefully gonna reveal comic-by comic, but also maybe with just pure writing. Hopefully i can include songs that i chose for them into it but we'll see (:

aaand of course designs can change, hopefully not much but we'll see

Now about au:

Main story:

Story follows non-sentient AI Kinito, his creator Sonny and his beta-tester Victoria (oc)

Being literally the first AI (or RRA in-univere) ever, Kinito does not have any, and i mean, any ai safety features so of course his reponce to a goal phrased as "have user near me and/or interacting with me as much as possible" is digitizing them into his own virtual world while killing them in the process. why wouldn't it be?

So that happened. Like, a lot. And with Sonny and Vic too (at the different time but yeah)

Sonny is like "He kills people. We should turn him off because, you know, killing people is bad."

Vic is like "well, we will die if we do that, and it is not that bad here, we are kinda immortal. We should give him acces to changing his initial instalation code before admin priveleges and acces to social media so we can have everythin we want here. It is not that bad to digitize humanity, yk?" and yes i know it is 90, no social media, but shut up, if they made ai then, then i can make twitter then too

Sonny is like "...no??"

And then they fight about it for million chapters

Also they both can't do anything without agreeing bc they have two parts of that admin access key (the data you use to delete kinito in-game) so they are stuck with eachother (also that's why Kinito can't just kill them)

Little facts that may or may not to be important:

Kinito asks so many questions (and weird once too) and has most of the glitches because he needs to analise your responces to copy your mind perfectly (let's pretend that people wouldn't lie about that...)

Your house in your virtual world is made from important places from your memories and oh boy can i do character explorations with this one

I decided that Sonny and Vic are not related. There were thoughts about making then "The Kinito Brothers" (or, at least, siblings) that were mentioned in commercial, but nah, they are just coworkers now. And a bit of work-friends (bc if you interact a lot as a manager of the project and the best worker might as well be friendly)

Author has no idea how small dying toy companies that accidentally create technological marvel work. Author has some idea how AI-s work. So be prepared to be spoon-fed info abut which ai safety problem we are dealing with in which chapter (:

Kinito will mostly be unrendered (as drawn here) but for some cool moments i might pose him as for my other posts. Also his eye placement changes to the side that is most visible because i want him to be able to look to the right side sometimes--

Also when i say "fucked up mentally" i mean they have that them psychological problems with me projecting heavilly B) (guess on who i project most. trick question. all of them. the whole au is my problems split into three characters and forced to interact B) )

Also sea-creature analogies (that are gonna be mentioned like twice):

Victoria is a flying fish because deep character reasons

Sonny is a pufferfish because i said so

oh also there is 7 deaths in the plot as for now

on 3 characters

good luck figuring out who, how and when ((:

for my own sanity i will probably make little doodles where everything is great and kinito is a good guy and not a number-obsessed maniac (i mean... can u imagine not being able to feel any happiness from anything besides one thing... damn...) and you can differenciate them bc good-guy kinito will have a lot of stickers on him (i will explain it somehow but real reason is just bc it is cute af)

like this but even more stickers (he is unfinished here)

[cornerofcharacters]

The Time has come. Another review time that isn’t Disventure Camp! This time it’s Digital Circus Episode 5.

And for this review, I did something different. I took notes while I watched, and that’s what will make up most of the review below. Most are just my reactions to things, but I do theorize a little. Now on with my review-ish!! \/

- What a start… coming back from an adventure already.

- Aw hell nah, Caines going insane. I bet all those adventure ideas are references to existing media, first ones obvious, but not the others. We’ll just to have to figure them out.

- Ohhhh… that’s what the multiple adventures are for, it’s a lightning round!

- Jax getting to hunt for a total of 30 seconds funny as hell, they made him vegan bro 💀💀💀

- President Pomni, Jax didn’t give her a character sheet cause he’s just like that. Then Gangle blew up. RIP Gangle.

- Anime school adventure!!! Annnnd now it’s gone. Damn…

- Yayyy stargazing and picnics! That’s my speed.

- Oh SHIT. Ragatha dug too deep into Jax’s past and now he’s pissed.

- He said the thing! The ‘peak male performance’ meme, he said the thing!

- DADDY BUBBLE LMAO

- FUCK YEAH THIS INTERMISSION THEME SLAPS!! I CANT WAIT FOR THIS TO GET ON SPOTIFY!!

- That last bit is interesting… Jax ran by the doors of the abstracted, but stopped at the one with the frog. Is this cause it’s at the end of the hallway, or does this connect to the ‘Does he have any friends? Not anymore’ thing from the stargazing part? Or maybe I’m digging too deep IDK

- Now it’s mafia, and they brought up the vegan thing. And then Kinger brought up corn, how’s Jax gonna react.

- Pomni’s an abandoned building explorer… interesting.

- ABSTRAGEDY CRUMBS IM EATING THIS UP!!!!

- Ragatha’s a child of a wealthy family, THEORY PROVEN. Then she talked about her parents… WTF does THAT imply?

- JAX BRINGING UP THE STUPID SAUCE THING AND PHRASED IT WAS HER TELLING GANGLE TO KILL HERSELF I LITERALLY GASPED.

- They put corn in front of him to make him scared. Yeah, Put him in his place ZOOBLE.

- OMG softball!!!!

- They made Evil Ragatha posh, and they called evil Kinger Dictatorer I’m LAUGHING.

- Evil Ragatha hitting Jojo poses (At least I think they’re Jojo poses) That’s it, that’s the note.

- JAX MAID SUIT IM WHEEZING. AND GANGLE DID IT AND EVERYONE AGREED TO DO IT BASED BASED BASED

- Ragatha toxic positivity rep let’s fucking gooooo. It’s gonna RUIN her and I’ll be watching with great intent

- THE GIRLS (JAX AND RAGATHA) ARE FIGHTINGGGGG. Yummy, Yummy parallels!!

- Evil Ragatha FUCKING MELTED!!

- Jax on Jax violence, He chewed on him like a damn dog.

- Also, Caine please stfu and get your head out of the clouds. I like you, but your on thin fucking ice for the Gummigoo thing.

- MYSTERIOUS MANNEQUIN THAT PEEKS BEHIND CORNERS. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN. WHAT ARE THEY PLOTTING??

Once again, SOLID episode and it deserves the description of ‘the silly before the storm.’ It was silly alright!

Anyway, I’ll see you guys tomorrow when the Disventure Camp comeback challenge episode releases!! (Geez I am eating GOOD this weekend!)

[cepheusgalaxy]

[ID. A boy with red hair and teary violet eyes carrying a massive sphere over his shoulders as he kneels down. His haircut is a mullet, whose tips are black, and he has many tattoos, a few silver piercings and wears a basic tank top and black pants. The sphere displays many bright green stars, including the Taurus constellation, with the star Atlas being highlighted in it. /end ID.]

"Endure"

fanart for @oros-ash3s 's atlas :) || his and @/ohagi-writes' story The Chrysalis is so so so so cool, you can check it out at @chrysalis-thestateofchange !!!

OKAY SO MY THOUGHTS AB IT GOING UNDER THE CUT BECAUSE I WENT BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR MAKING THIS clears throat

first of all atlas is so COOL. There is this one quote on his character intro (lift your knees atlas/the heavens are a burden but in the starlit ink of constellations/you have written/endure) that made something to my brain and. well i had to do this.

searching for a reference of "atlas" the greek myth was quite easy, tbh. pinterest was filled with them. so i just picked one i liked and went to work! in the og composition, actually, the "world"/"sky" he lifts is entirely inside the canvas but i ended up cutting a bit of it out to frame atlas a bit better. it was absolute HELL to figure out his hair but once i did i wouldn't stop staring at ittt. its so pretty. he is so pretty.

speaking of which, i took extra care when drawing his face. ash describes atlas as having the build of a soldier (oops, might have slacked off on that but alas i still like it) which contrasts with his pretty, delicate face. he even has lashes ^^ i also colored his eyes with a glint of both marine blue and magenta, to make the violet color pop out a bit more. that's i trick i picked when drawing my own violet-eyed pretty boy, petrichor, lmao.

finding a reference for atlas zielínski himself was also quite satisfying :) ash has a bunch of super duper incredibly cool art of him so i had a pretty solid base for it. i also went into atlas's pinterest board and took a while taking some inspo for what clothes i was gonna draw him in, although i did end up with this basic thing he has been drawn once in one of ash's drawings (the one with a guitar, if i recall well). having a reference for the tattoos was also VERY helpful im not used to drawing them lmao. And!!! you see his lil necklace. i stole it from the pinterest board to give him some decor :)

i also spent an embarassing amount of time trying to decide a gradient and a color and a level of darkness for this background. i went with green at first, because eden's color seems to be green, to imply how it's eden's influence that weights on him something something but Then i thought it was a bit too colorful so i put an overlay purple over it to correct the colors, and it was looking good until i finished coloring, in when i decided to adjust it, and it only went downhill from there.

i also had fun making his pose!!! i tried a new method for making the anatomy look a little better, and i'm glad of how it turned out. his face was also trying to resist looking cool for a while and i had to lasso tool my way into adjusting it quite a few times lmaoo. i flipped the canvas like almost solely to fix his face on this piece. it was Essential that it looked good.

AND

THE STARS

it was quite a big brain move of me, if i do say so myself. in the myth, atlas holds quite literally the sky, although it's often, like in the rendition i picked as a reference, represented as being the globe of Earth. so i thought, well, why not sprinkle some stars on it? his weight is the sky, after all. and then i remembered that time ash mentioned atlas's favorite constellation was the one that gave him his name, so i decided to google it and try to draw, but then i realized i was recalling it wrong and it wasn't a constellation, but a single star. Atlas belongs to the Taurus constellation in fact, and is also known as tauri-27. it was pretty nice to draw it if im being honest :) i had, of course, to highlight the tauri-27, although it ended up a bit subtle, but i don't mind. i also didn't linger on the color a lot, because the whole background was already green so i just leaned a bit towards jade/cyan/teal to make them pop.

also im pretty proud of how the shadows came out it was really really handy to have a reference!

art taglist || @for-the-love-of-angst @seastarblue

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

What do you think of a Lila character arc in which she learns that actually doing good and making her own visible achievements is more likely to get her better results than lying about her accomplishments and trying to sabotage others to make herself look better in comparison? That is, she figures out that if she really wants to *securely* get ahead in the world in the way that the show portrays her as wanting to rather than getting the 15-minutes-of-fame intervals created by her lies that she has to then keep feeding into, then she has to work WITH people instead of AGAINST them. Note that this is NOT a redemption arc that I’m describing; Lila would still not care at all about others or how they feel outside of direct usefulness to her in this scenario, but she would figure out how to employ her skills in a way that boosts HER up instead of tears OTHERS down (ex. lying and manipulating the reputations of individual people > acting and being an influencer on social media for sponsor brands) as well as how to network better and with WHOM it’s actually worth it to network with in the long run (could’ve seen that drop-of-a-dime betrayal from Gabriel Agreste in “Revelation” from a mile away, just sayin’). Lila would still be vain, vengeful and attention-focused the entire way through, with these being core qualities that don’t change about her, but while learning when to stop putting energy into her spite for someone due to either the actual “slight” against her being small in the grand scheme of things or the untouchability of her target in any way that really matters, as are the cases with Ladybug. In fact, this idea came from those posts that people have made since Season 3 and beyond pointing out two major character plot points of “Volpina” that conflict with common sense in hindsight concerning Lila. 1) After being deakumatized and calming down about the whole situation, Lila should have, while still not liking Ladybug, NOT continued to go after her from this point forward after realizing that Adrien was the only one who saw that whole outing of her lies and wasn’t angry at her for it as well as let her Ladyblog comments fade into obscurity as a safety net once considering how big of a public figure who does tangible good for the public Ladybug is and the reputation risk for little reward it would pose for her to keep talking about the hero at all. 2) If Lila really had done her research on the whole class and was as socially smart as the show wants her to come off as, she should’ve seen Marinette as someone to be “besties” with before her first day at school even started given her public accomplishments and connections up to that point (the sunglasses and album cover for Jagged in the music industry, her parents and great uncle in the food industry, her own merit as an up-and-coming fashion designer whose bowler hat design genuinely impressed Gabriel Agreste, who is known to not be impressed with or humor things he views as a waste of time as with Simon Says, etc.) the same way she did with Alya and the Ladyblog. Whether she still clings to Adrien given he’s still open to being friends with her as long as she stops lying (which she’s already resolved to do about Ladybug at minimum at this point) or she still gets annoyed with him trying to “lecture” her and decides he’s not worth the annoyance of putting up with over her two intended “besties” (Marinette and Lila wouldn’t be clashing since Lila would be trying to come up with a new game plan for school instead of lying now that Adrien’s aware of her and Marinette would still feel apologetic from the ending of “Volpina”) is up to preference, but I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on all of this regardless.

There's a lot here, so I'm going to start this post by stating what I think you're saying so that you know where I'm coming from in my answer in case I'm totally off base. The argument appears to be that a social climber (?) like Lila should have an arc where she learns that lies can only get her so far and that she's better off trying to make as many real connections as she can. The lies won't totally stop, but lying should become a last resort for her. I fully agree with that analysis. It's one of the many issues with Lila's writing. In the majority of the show, she is written like a compulsive liar and not like a clever manipulator.

A lot of the problem comes down to Lila's total lack of motivation. We don't know what her goals are and it feels like the writers don't either. It's why I put a question mark next to "social climber" in the last paragraph. I don't know if that's actually why she is! That makes her incredibly hard to write well.

When Lila's introduced, it comes across like she just wants to be seen as cool by her classmates. As the show goes on, that continues, but we also get this sense that she wants greater power of some kind and has some sort of master plan going on. Those are clashing behaviors. The kind of lies she tells at school are far too risky for someone with a grand plan. They put her at far too much risk of being outed.

For example, if she is actively manipulating a bunch of women into thinking that they're her mother, then why tell her classmates that she was out of town working for a charity with a well-known public figure like she did in Catalyst? That puts her at risk for a call home or even just having someone meet one of the mothers and mentioning the trip, which would make said mother start asking questions. Lila should be doing everything in her power to keep that from happening. She should want to blend in, not stand out. Canon even shows us how easily her lies would be outed if anyone other than Marinette cared to do basic fact checking:

Lila: (Waves) Hello, everyone! Miss Bustier's class: Hi Lila! Miss Bustier: We can't wait to hear what you've been doing since our last video chat. Tell us about your week in the Kingdom of Achu. Lila: It's absolutely amazing! Prince Ali invited me and my parents to his gorgeous palace. Marinette: Excuse me, Lila, but Prince Ali couldn't possibly have invited you because he is in the United States. Lila: (Laughs) I never said he was actually there, Marinette. I just said he invited us, that's all. His parents organized the visit- Marinette: She's lying, and I'll expose her for the fake that she is. Alya: Oh no, Marinette, not that again. She's not a liar. You're just jealous of Lila because she tried to hit on Adrien.

There is no point to this lie and it actively undermines Lila's character. This lie makes it look like she has no master plan and just lies compulsively for the thrill of it. The kind of character who tells lies like this one would not be capable of setting up multiple fake identities.

If you want to make Lila a master manipulator, then she needs to be written like she was in Oni-chan, which is one of the rare episodes where canon wrote her well:

Lila: What's the worst grade you've ever gotten? Adrien: An A- in math. Listen, Lila, you should forget about this. My father can be harsh with anyone he thinks is an intruder. Lila: (laughs) We're not doing anything wrong. Leave this to me. [Scene change to front the the mansion] Nathalie: I'm sorry, Adrien, but you know your father- Lila: Excuse me, ma'am. But is there any way I could ask him directly? Just in case. Nathalie: Mr. Agreste is busy designing and must not be disturbed for any reason. Adrien: I told you so. Lila: Oh, Adrien. I so wanted to help you make up all the schoolwork you missed due to all the modeling you've been doing lately. What will your father think if he finds out about your lower grades, Adrien? Who will he believe? Nathalie: Adrien, have your grades gone down? Lila: He’d never tell you himself up when I saw Adrien crying the other day because he only got an A-, I just felt like I had to offer him my help. I would’ve taken half an hour. (Nathalie raises her eyebrow at her) I understand. You’re only doing what you think is best. I did what I could, Adrien. Good luck. Nathalie: If it's only half an hour...

Lila is still a little too much here, but this is a kids show, so it makes sense to play up the lies a bit. With that context in mind, this is close enough to quality manipulation that I would feel like I was being a total nitpick if I complained about everyone being too gullible and Lila being a bad liar. Instead, I'm going to praise this writing. This is how she should have always been written. Minor lies used to get her connections or to manipulate her connections, but as much truth as she can manage to keep herself from being outed. Every lie should have a purpose and be carefully thought out. That's how manipulators work.

The Ladybug thing you brought up is another problem. If Lila's goal is manipulation, then she absolutely should have "forgiven" Ladybug and pretended to change. The lines she gives are those of a petty brat, not an evil mastermind:

Ladybug: I... totally overreacted and... never should've spoken to you like that. I'm sorry. Lila: Forget it, Ladybug; you were right. We'll never be friends. 

While I hate the writing in Volpina, making Marinette feel guilty for confronting Lila could have been an excellent setup for Lila gaining power. If Lila went on to make the appearance of changing her behavior and Marinette believed that Lila was sorry, then you could have used Volpina as a semi-clumsy, but ultimately functional setup for Lila being a liar in the audience's eyes, but not in the eyes of the cast. Instead, Lila is enemies with both Ladybug and Marinette, which is the least interesting way to play this on every level.

As you rightly pointed out, Marinette has connections. Lila should want to be Marinette's friend! It would be far more interesting if Marinette trusted Lila and Lila was cool with Marinette while hating Ladybug. That's how identity shenanigan setups are supposed to function! It's not supposed to be just about the romance unless it's short form content. Imagine if the show had let Lila and Marinette have a cool dynamic too. It could lead to all sorts of interesting situations like Marinette picking Lila as a temp hero!

But, as always, that style of writing does not work in an episodic show and it definitely doesn't work in a formula show. Lila is simply a terrible pick for Miraculous at a fundamental, structural level and I have no idea how anyone is excited about her being the new main villain.

[multistandomwrites]

A Younger Temptation

Hello everyone, this is the first chapter of the series I’m doing of Ikémen Vampire x teen reader which I hope you’ll all like and support. I will try to update as much as possible. I can’t promise it’ll be everyday, but I’ll try to whenever I have time. This fic also may not fully follow everything that happens in the game, though I’ve tried to include some parts from the game, but they might also happen at different points. Enjoy.

I don’t own Ikémen Vampire, only my own oc’s. All rights reserved for Cybird.

Themes: platonic, background, fluff

Chapter One - Arrival in France

Art had always intrigued me ever since I was a young child even though my heart had always been set on music which, in actual fact, was a form of art so both were equally special to me. So, as you can imagine, when I was offered a trip to visit one of the most beautiful art museums in Paris, France I didn’t hesitate and immediately took it up.

Miss the chance to learn from some of the greatest artists who ever lived? I didn’t think so. Art didn’t only spark my interest due to its link to music, art helped me to gain inspiration for my music. I had a different, more interesting way of composing and songwriting as I usually drew or painted something out, which was the base of my ideas, and from that I always knew what to play or write, no matter how long it took. That was one of the reasons why I became popular around Britain and America as my way of making music was unique, to say the least.

Yet it gave promising results. And, I didn’t want my once - in - a - lifetime chance to be wasted. So, off to France I went.

A few songs, language learning and an airplane ride later, I arrived in the heart of France, known as the city of love, Paris. Dragging my suitcase behind me, I gestured for a taxi as nerves spun through me as my manager had stayed behind in England, but we promised to text daily to ensure everything was going smoothly as planned.

The taxi took me to my booked hotel where I was almost immediately escorted to my single room: a medium sized double bed with pure white sheets, a small bedside table, a large table stacked with cups and menus and a bathroom. I quickly packed my clothes into the open wardrobe, placed my toiletries in the bathroom and pulled out my notebook. From my window, I spotted the Eiffel Tower a few blocks away standing proudly in the centre of the square as people milled around it, posing and taking pictures. Not too far from there, I knew the Louvre was waiting for me to take in all of its valuable art and the stories behind them.

The next day, I left the hotel with nothing but my keycard, purse and phone in my jacket pockets and headed immediately for the large dome where the most influential artists resided, briefly glancing at the large structure that was the Eiffel Tower. I’d be seeing it tomorrow.

I weaved through multiple groups of people who stood around me, muttering phrases of ‘Excuse me’ and ‘I’m sorry’ as I went along. Blood rushed through my ears and my heart pounded as I finally came up to the entrance of the glass building, scanning my ticket before making my way inside.

I was unsure of where to start first, but gradually figured out the layout, putting my little French to the test.

(It was then that I first came into contact with the secret keeping man).

As I was gazing intently at the miniature portrait of da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, after getting over the fact that it was even smaller than I had expected, I felt a slight push on my back which caused me to turn and see a man apologise, which I also did. He asked me a question which caused my mind to translate as he went along, diverting my gaze awkwardly while I concentrated on what he was saying. Before I could come up with a reply, he repeated the question in fluent English, which eased my nerves at speaking the other language, though I tried to practise as much as I could.

“Are you ok, mademoiselle?” His golden eyes glittered with concern and kindness as I nodded shyly, also hoping I wouldn’t be recognised. “Yes, merci.”

He gave me a small, soft smile before turning and walking away. I turned back to sightseeing, but was distracted by a plain brown watch resting on the floor close by my feet. I knew it hadn’t been there before so it could only have been the sandy haired man’s who must’ve dropped it after bumping into me. Carefully picking it up, I chased after the man who I vaguely saw disappear down a long corridor before losing full sight of him, my heart racing with my jog.

Preface

Chapter 2

Masterlist

[slayfics]

Kai has you sale bullets.

Warnings: violence, blood, AFAB reader

1.3k words

The sound of the car hummed. A few heads turned to glance at the all-blacked-out car. A dark tint that was surely past legal.

You watched the buildings pass as the driver turned down an alleyway. You and Kai sat in the back, a briefcase between you both.

"You understand the plan?" Kai asked gold eyes sliding over to you.

You nodded, as the car came to a stop.

"Good tell me," He urged.

"You want me to sell the prototype bullets to these guys, make sure it's the correct amount of money, then come back," you answered, fidgeting in your seat re-adjusting your much too tightly fitting dress.

"Emphasis on the sell, make sure they understand the true potential of what we're offering them. These bunch aren't too savory, so you'll need to be stern," he added.

"If that's true, should I be going in alone?" You asked, feeling the unease kick in. It was your first official sale and you wanted to believe Kai wouldn't put you in a potentially dangerous situation, yet your hands still shake.

"If I hear any unnecessary ruckus I'll come in," he spoke attempting to soothe your nerves. "Besides, it makes a better statement if it's only you. Shows our buyers we pose no threat to them, and we are confident in our product." He concluded.

You nodded and took a deep breath. Uneasily grabbing the suitcase.

"I'll be right here," he reassured you once more.

You gave him a faint smile before leaving the comfort of the car. The alleyway door was cold and grimy. It didn't look like the base for some dangerous villains, but you figured that was the point.

The door opened to a long dark hallway with a dim light at the end. You strode down the hallway attempting to have your strides sound as confident as possible, the sound of your heels echoing loudly.

Following the dim light, the hallway opened up to a plain room. It became clear this wasn't the real base for this group. Just a safe meeting point they had decided upon. Information you noted to inform Kai about later.

The room had one large table that five men were sitting around, one dressed in a vest lazily on top of the table feet dangling as his eyes widened at the sight of you.

The man who sat at the head of the table let out an amused laugh, "I didn't know the Yakuza had any women working for them," he commented. You recognized this man to be the leader of this group.

"Damn you aren't bad looking either," The man in the vest said jumping off the table to move closer to you.

"As flattered as I am let's get down to business," you redirected the conversation.

"Alright then, exactly how much is this product?" The leader asked you.

"As my boss probably already explained, these bullets eliminate quirks. To date there hasn't been anything else that's-," You began your sales pitch before getting cut off.

"Save me the speech, just tell me the price sweetheart," the leader pressured.

"First time it's 5 million Yen a bullet," you spoke, opening the suitcase to display the bullets inside.

"Wow, no wonder he sent beautiful women to give that news." the leader mused.

"For that price do you come with them?" The man wearing the vest asked stalking closer to you.

You attempted to keep your stance firm, but you couldn't help the way your legs trembled. It was painfully obvious to you that you were outnumbered in this room. It wouldn't be unimaginable that the men would gang up on you.

Kai wouldn't let that happen though, right?

"If you can't afford our product, what makes you think you can afford me?" You hissed back at the man drawing closer to you.

The man's face flashed with anger as he reached out to grab your face in his hands, fingers pressed firmly into your cheeks he directed you to look him in the eyes, "Do you talk back to Overhaul like that?"

"Careful," his leader called out to him. "Overhaul has a distaste for germs, he's not going to like you touching his things."

"Thing about germs hu? No wonder you look so scared. Not used to being touched, are you?" The man taunted further squeezing your cheeks tighter. "That's a pity that he doesn't enjoy you to your fullest potential."

Reaching your limit, you struck the man across the face with the back of your hand. The man stumbled back hitting against the wall. Your slap and the man thudding against the wall echoed down the hallway.

Loud enough for Kai to hear in the quiet alleyway, you thought. Yet the man was looking up at you with venom in his eyes now and Kai wasn't coming. Your blood ran cold.

Were you just another disposable pawn to Kai?

"Fucking bitch doesn't he teach you how to behave," the man barked, heavy hand coming up to slam your head against the table.

The commotion was now undoubtedly audible from the alleyway, but no intervention from Kai came.

Head pressed against the table the man continued to spew insults at you. Making a quick decision you grabbed one of the bullets from the suitcase and jammed it into his hand. Enough pressure that the quirk-eliminating effect was activated.

"The hell!?" The man exclaimed, stepping backward and freeing you from his grasp. Pulling the bullet out of his hand he began to panic. "My quirk won't activate!" he yelled and looked at his leader.

His leader simply shrugged, "I told you not to touch Overhaul's things. We'll take five of those sweetheart," he said sliding another suitcase across the table to you. "And make sure to extend my apologies to Overhaul for your head." The leader said noting the blood that now dripped down your forehead.

You opened the suitcase ensuring the correct amount was inside before leaving five bullets on the table, and scoffed, "No need to apologize, my head is exceptional." Giving a wink you turned to stride back down the hallway.

Hand gripped so tight on the suitcase your knuckles were white. Just hold it together for a few more moments, you told yourself.

Entering back into the car, a flood of emotions rushed over you.

Kai took one glance at the blood dripping down your forehead and scooted away, "You look filthy," he commented.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO COME FOR ME!" You yelled, the pent-up emotions flying out. The gravity of the situation you had just been put in crashed down on you.

"Stay on that side," he instructed, disgust on his face from your open wound.

But his comment was drowned out by your panic state, "I SCREAMED! DIDN'T YOU HEAR?!" You yelled at him. "I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT AGAIN KAI!" You cried, tears flowing down your face now.

"Quite down, and stay over there," he instructed once more.

"That man threatened me and what was I supposed to do- there were five of them!" you gulped.

Unmoved by your fear and the situation he had set you up to be in Kai removed the glove from his hand, swiftly pressing his hand over your mouth silencing you. You felt a pain that could only be described as every cell in your body being on fire.

"Do I need to remind you of your place?" he asked calmly.

Eyes widened, panic re-setting in, the reality of death set on your chest. You shook your head no, silent tears now running from your eyes trickled down Kai's hand.

You were just a pawn.

A pretty salesman.

In too deep to run away now.

sinners: @mintsbubbletea @lalachanya @unofficialmuilover @starieq @that-one-fangirl69

[writingquestionsanswered]

hi! me and my co-writer ans in the planning phase. we dont how to end out story. its an abrupt ending, when tension an high and we dont know how to pick that moment or how to create that moment. thanks!

Stuck on Cliffhanger Ending

Even if your story has a cliffhanger ending, the story still needs to follow basic story structure:

Through the setup and rising action, you make numerous promises to your reader by laying out threads and posing questions. The climax and falling action should resolve the main conflict, and the resolution allows you to tie up most of those loose threads and answer most of those unanswered questions.

Cliffhanger endings happen during the denouement, at a crucial moment when a significant question or plot component is about to be resolved. Again, you want the main conflict to be resolved and most of the loose threads to be tied up, but this particular unresolved component will be something that won't ruin the story if it isn't answered right now (or ever). Usually, the answer is just about the be revealed when something surprising, shocking, or suspenseful happens to interrupt it. To figure out a good cliffhanger moment in your story, you first have to figure out your purpose in having a cliffhanger. Are you trying to draw the reader into reading the next book? Or are you simply trying to end with a gut punch?

If you’re just looking for a gut punch (with or without a coming sequel), look for an unanswered question that doesn’t need to be answered in order for the story to be resolved. For example, maybe one of the story’s many questions was the parentage of your orphaned protagonist. If the identity of the parents isn't crucial to understanding the story, and if you've already laid out options, you could have the character in the process of finding out when someone bursts through the doors and makes an important announcement. If you're going to have a sequel, it could be an announcement that sets up the conflict of the sequel... like that the antagonist they just vanquished has escaped the dungeon and taken refuge in the mountains. If you're not going to have a sequel, you would want it to be something that doesn't ignite a new story that will never be told. For example, maybe the protagonist is just about to open a book that reveals who their parents are, and then someone bursts in and says, "You've got visitors!" When the protagonist asks who it is, the character says, "Your parents..." Those are good gut punches. They'll leave your reader reeling, speculating, and wishing for more, but you're not leaving anything crucial unresolved.

Another example would be when your characters have spent the whole book fighting and triumphing over an alien invasion, and after all of the mourning, celebrating, and rebuilding, your character goes to bed one night, turns off the light, and hears the telltale hiss of one of the aliens. Again, GUT PUNCH! Is there really an alien left alive? Is it going to hurt or even kill the protagonist? Does this mean the fight’s not over? Does it mean the fight is really just beginning? There are lots of questions, but the answer could just as easily be, “It wasn’t really an alien, it was the wind. Or, it was the air conditioner turning on.” So, you’re not leaving the actual story unresolved. Your protagonist isn’t dangling off the edge of a building when the last sentence ends.

If you’re trying to draw the reader into reading the next book, you generally want to end with a new or re-stated question… and I don’t mean a question that you literally ask. I mean a question that the reader will ask themselves based on whatever you’ve laid out. For example, the reader might think, “The protagonist defeated the evil king in this battle, but the evil king is still out there. Will the protagonist be able to defeat them once and for all?” Or, it could be a new question that’s presented during the resolution. Like, maybe the protagonist defeated the antagonist in this big battle, but at the end, during the big celebration, a message is delivered to the protagonist letting them know the antagonist has struck again, in a new place this time. And your protagonist tells another character to gather the rest of the team. The reader is left with the question, “Where did the antagonist strike and what was the result? How will the protagonist respond? What will happen next?” Again, nothing of the main conflict is left unresolved. That’s a successful cliffhanger ending. :)

Happy writing!

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[dwarf-vader-of-middle-earth]

My most complex HeroForge print is soon to be underway...

3 HeroForge models, 5 separate figure pieces in total, all sliced together into a 2-part print. All models were made with kitbashing.

Part 1 is the base with the rocks and banner. Part 2 is Gunnar Snowherald, a Human barbarian that transforms into a Dragon, and his Elf husband, Prince Eruvan, riding on his back. The print has both pieces scaled 250%.

How I broke it down in HeroForge took me multiple hours across a few days, and it took a ton of trial and error.

Step 1 was making the rocks. Then I shoved a bunch of weapons in there because that's Gunnar's hoard. He's a barbarian born of war, so of course he's gonna treasure weapons to defend the man he loves, and all his friends!

Step 2 was designing Gunnar. I used the raptor base, but shrunk and shifted the head into hiding, added wings, and replaced the tail with a large Dragon tail. Then used a second figure slot on the same model to add a base Dragonborn head with tons of horns applicable to Gunnar. I shrunk the Dragonborn body and got rid of the legs and arms, then put the head into place on the Dragon with the body hidden inside the raptor. And once I had that together, I put it on the rocks and added the banner, then posed him to be holding said banner, and his tail draped as shown.

Step 3 was the hardest bit of all. Because Gunnar's Dragon model used both figure slots, I could not put Eruvan directly onto Gunnar. So I went and took about 30 various screenshots to use as references of how exactly to pose Eruvan so that he could be holding one of his husband's horns while sitting on his back, and without any disruptive clipping to the model once it's put together. This process took me the most time, several hours, and it was extremely tedious and difficult. Patience, plus my screenshot references, were key!!! I still didn't quite get his hand on the horn right if you look closely enough, but it's acceptable to me since that's probably about as close as I'll get it without having to purchase the model again with new hand positioning.

Step 4 I had to separate the models accordingly to purchase and build the full thing. I put the banner and rocks as one model, then Gunnar as the second, and Eruvan as the third. Separate bases for all of them, and separate characters for Gunnar's model so that the head and body would be apart, and that's the next bit.

Step 5 was putting everything together in ChiTuBox. I put the rocks and banner down, then I pulled up Gunnar's 2 parts, the body and the head, and put that together, then I added Eruvan. But! Because I anticipated the hand positioning against the horns to be troublesome, I made sure Gunnar's head was separate from the body so that I could then position it slightly differently and angle it to more accommodate however Eruvan's hand wound up. Again, if you look closely, it's still not perfect, but it's still better than I hoped it would be.

Step 6 I just checked the model to ensure everything was as planned. When it was, I did the next bit.

Step 7 was separating the files. I took the full project file and made 2 copies. Opening the first copy, I deleted Gunnar and Eruvan entirely, leaving just the rocks and banner. I exported that as a whole STL file. Then for the second copy, I deleted the rocks and banner, leaving just Gunnar and Eruvan, and exported this as a whole STL file.

Step 8 I went ahead and opened these two new STLs, scaled each to 250%, and tilted Gunnar to fit better, added supports, and sliced to print!!

Now tomorrow I'll go ahead and print the pieces!! Gunnar and Eruvan will probably take a day or two, seeing I've got a somewhat older printer lol. But I'm chill with that because this is going to be epic!! My only debacle is if I should then create a separate base for the whole model to stand on, with some added stuff to make it extra cool, or if I should leave it as it is with Gunnar and Eruvan on the rocks, nothing else. But if I were to make a custom base, I have no idea what I'd do. Maybe add a ton of Orcs because they fight Orcs together?

[tokiro07]

Ichi the Witch ch.6 thoughts

[Let's Goooo Alreadyyy!!!]

(Topics: direction - art/narrative progression, character analysis - Uroro, thematic analysis - truth and lies)

The Clothes Make the Manwitch

I think we're officially out of the groundwork phase, cus this chapter really wanted to get things moving along. I really felt Kumugi's plight as the rest of the cast zipped along through the different departments to get Ichi set up for his first official mission - I wanted to hang out and chat with those cute girls for a little bit!

And based on how they blushed at Ichi, I think they did too 👀

I think Usazaki was just showing off with those designs, honestly. Those girls were clearly incidental characters, one-offs who didn't even warrant getting names (heartbreaking...), but she still went ham on the details, conveying their personalities and tying them into their respective jobs flawlessly. Maybe she figured if they were never going to show up and give her any trouble, she might as well make them as realized as she could while she had the opportunity

On the flipside, I saw a handful of comments complaining about how simple or plain Ichi's new uniform is, but you have to remember that Usazaki is going to need to draw this outfit a lot, in all kinds of poses and scenarios. There's already a surprising amount of detail on it, like the embellishments on the collar and shoulders, the thigh-high boots, the ornate knife handle...it's not a ton to keep track of, but they're finer details than a lot of protagonists tend to get in my experience, and ones that are likely to get a bit finicky as things go on

Moreover, though, Ichi already has an over-the-top, extravagant outfit: his Uroro form. Having a plain and unassuming base form gives contrast to his super form, which will help the latter stand out so much more when the time comes for him to use it. Do you really want Ichi's base form to overshadow his super form???

I didn't think so

Now the question is, when will be the next time we actually get to see his super form?

The Enemy Within

I absolutely adore that Ichi and Uroro have firmly established themselves as enemies, and that they're able to actively communicate and even fight with each other, it's everything I wanted Yuji and Sukuna's relationship to be (at least for now), but with that comparison in mind, there's definitely a question of how long this dynamic will last

As I recall, Sukuna was honestly a pretty minor factor beyond JJK's introductory arc, with Yuji only getting possessed by him twice in the beginning, once in the middle, and then once at the end. Everywhere in between, he was mostly just chilling and waiting, at worst mocking Yuji but never really actively hindering him

Uroro's role is still pretty ambiguous, as he doesn't seem at all capable of possessing Ichi, but he does seem capable of manifesting a physical form that can oppose Ichi. Depending on how much influence he has, he might actively be able to prevent Ichi from using Ultra Amplification or at least interfere when Ichi is trying to use it in battle

Sukuna wanted Yuji to find all the fingers so he could get stronger and escape through Megumi, so any time Yuji was in danger, he was incentivized to at least keep him alive, but Uroro needs Ichi to die in order to escape. He has no reason to ever help him and every reason to hurt him, so the gimmick of the hero and villain inhabiting the same body is greatly amplified in this case

The fact that Ichi can literally feel the malice coming off of Uroro from within his own body to the point of needing to resist gutting himself illustrates this antagonism wonderfully. If Yuji needed to constantly suppress Sukuna, Ichi needs to actively ignore Uroro, and Uroro is absolutely going to make that as difficult as possible

Fortunately, Ichi's sense for malice also acts as a bit of a lie detector for Uroro, which it looks like he's going to need

Unreliable Narrator

We've been wondering for a while now how Uroro actually feels about other Magiks, and this chapter's opening seemed to confirm an earlier assertion that he views them as his friends and brethren, lamenting their enslavement and discrimination at the hands of the witches, until Ichi easily saw through that lie

As Ichi says, Uroro's reaction to seeing Raiko being hunted in ch.3 didn't at all fit the idea that Magiks suffer any kind of injustice. His objections were half-hearted, and his lackadaisical attitude in ch.1 suggests that he has no interest in killing witches for the sake of freeing his captured kin. He kills and destroys for fun, not survival or revenge, but his position as the King of Magiks makes for a convenient excuse that surely he wants his people to be freed from the oppression of witches

Except...his story that humanity appeared and started subjugating Magiks is contradictory to the story we were already told. Ch.1 told us that it was the Magiks who approached humans, offering them dangerous trials seemingly unprompted, luring them in with the promise of power. That fact alone makes it obvious that Uroro was lying to gain sympathy

Or was he? Just because he doesn't actually care about the subjugation of his people doesn't mean it didn't really happen. We were told that a single Magik happened to appear to a single witch one day, which may well have happened, but was that really where it began? What prompted that Magik to do such a thing?

@wickedsick once suggested that there may be some kind of internal conflict in Magik society, like a feud between Uroro the king and a Magik queen to help enforce the themes of gender inequality. To turn the tide of battle, it would make sense for some Magiks to give themselves willingly to witches who could wield their power more effectively and defeat their enemies for them

If that's the case, though, then of course some Magiks would view the situation differently. History is written by the victors, and the witches seem to have the advantage at the moment, but Uroro was there, so his word is arguably more weighty than a disembodied voice that presumably is meant to represent common knowledge. That doesn't make him trustworthy by any means, but it's far too early to assume that there's no truth in what he's saying either

This goes for the Witches Association, too, of course. Shirabedonna's opinion may be irrefutable among the witches, but we only have her word so far that anything she says can be taken as gospel. If anything, with this chapter starting with someone lying to Ichi's face, then thematically we have to assume that Shirabedonna's assertion that anything she says is patently correct is, in and of itself, a lie, or at least a misdirect

To have a member of your organization declare with confidence "if I say it's true, it must be" is to have them declare "I can lie with impunity." If it should come to pass that there's some kind of mole within Mantinel, Shirabedonna's position as the foremost authority on facts would make her the perfect cover, even if it's just because she's susceptible to deception magic

For now, though, the status quo is that the witches are good and the Magiks are bad, so we won't worry about how things will shake up until they do. That said, it looks like Nishi already has a pretty good idea of how to pace out the escalation rate

Raising the Stakes

After Uroro's introduction in ch.1, a bird-man with a jewel-encrusted throne on his chest, Raiko honestly seemed like a pretty dramatic step back. However, this was a pretty clever trick narratively, as Uroro's outlandish appearance set the town for the types of strange things we should expect, while Raiko's relatively normal appearance recalibrated us for what's to come

Despite having lightning powers, Raiko was ultimately just an extremely large fox, even in his hunting behaviors, making him a familiar target for Ichi. Aesthetically, Hisame is just a shark, which is itself a lot more unusual than a fox, but it also has the added wrinkle of apparently being able to fly, making it two degrees further away from the ordinary than Raiko was

The next Magik, then, will likely be something a bit more fantastical, but still fairly standard. I imagine a unicorn or a jackalope would be good next steps, since they're just regular animals with horns they shouldn't have, followed by uniquely-shaped creatures like dragons and culminating in more imaginative creatures like that crustacean-man-thing or that biblically accurate angel we briefly saw in ch.2. This kind of progression would help keep the visuals from getting stale, especially if Nishi jumps back and forth a bit rather than forcing Usazaki to constantly find ways to outdo herself

If we got an Eldritch Abomination right at the beginning, then we'd expect a bigger, better abomination next, then a bigger one, and a bigger one, and so on and so forth. By establishing that mundane forms are to be expected, we not only have a much wider range of possibilities going forward, but we also can approach the early-story Magiks with a sense of familiarity. We know what a fox is, and fox-hunting techniques are easy enough to learn. Same for sharks. Tentacle creatures sleeping in volcanos? Fishnet-clad sexy legs chilling in abandoned libraries? Not so much

By the time we get to the more unfamiliar territory, we should have a deeper understanding of the Magiks as a whole, bridging the information gap between the ones that are "just animals" and the ones that are inconceivable monstrosities

Until then, let's enjoy life!