#the tentacles are all added separately

[beatriceportinari]

Origami jellyfish, one square sheet of elephant hide paper. Colors are inspired by Thysanostoma loriferum. Zoom in to see the glitter!

[bethanythebogwitch]

If you asked me as a kid what my favorite animal was, there's a good chance I'd respond "chambered nautilus", though I probably would mispronounce it. I don't know if it's still my favorite but it's definitely up there in the pantheon of weird critters. For this Wet Beast Wednesday, I'll discuss my childhood favorite.

(image: a nautilus)

The nautilus is a cephalopod that lives in a curved shell and looks similar to (but is not closely related to) the extinct ammonites. There are 6 living species in two genera, but 90% of the time when someone is discussing nautiluses they are referring to the most well-known species: Nautilus pompilius or the chambered nautilus. Nautiloids are ancient, going back to at least the late triassic with their more primitive ancestors going back as far as the ordovician period, a time when only invertebrates and primitive plants occupied the land and true fish had not yet appeared. Because of their ancient history, nautiluses are sometimes considered living fossils. I have ranted before on how misleading the term "living fossil" is so I'll spare you that for now. Nautiloids are considered a sister group to the celoids, which contains all the squid, octopus, cuttlefish, and everything else we thinks of as cephalopods. Nautiluses should not be confused with paper nautiluses. Also called argonauts, paper nautiluses are a group of octopi that make an egg case which looks like a shell.

(image: a nautilus)

The most noticeable feature of a nautilus is its shell. The shell is smooth and finely curving, naturally growing in the shape of a logarithmic spiral (though not, as is commonly stated, a golden ratio spiral). The shell has a stripy outer layer and an inner layer coated with nacre. Internally, the shell is divided into camarae (chambers) separated from each other by walls called septa. Each septum has a small hole in it through which a strand of tissue called the siphuncle passes. Most of the nautilus's body is in the foremost and largest chamber. The shell grows new septa as the animal grows, with the nautilus's body moving to a new chamber as it becomes too large for previous ones. Juveniles are typically born with 4 septa, with adults having as many as 30. In addition to providing protection from predators, the shell is also key for regulating buoyancy. The septa can contain pressurized gas or water and the siphuncle regulates their contents by either adding or removing water to increase or decrease buoyancy. Because of its pressurized contents, the shell can only withstand pressure at depths up to 800 M (2,400 ft) before imploding. Oddly enough, nautiluses can be safely brought up from deep waters where most animals would be killed by the pressure changes. To move, the nautilus pulls water into the first chamber of the shell using its hyponome (siphon) and shoots it back out. The chambered nautilus is the largest species, with a maximum shell diameter of 25 cm (10 in), though most get no larger than 20 cm (8 in).

(image: a diagram of nautilus anatomy. source)

Where celoid cephalopods have tentacles, nautiluses instead have numerous cirri. Unlike tentacles, cirri are less muscular, are not elastic, and have no suckers. They are used to grab objects using their ridged surfaces and can hold in so hard that trying to take an object away from a nautilus can rip off its cirri, which will remain firmly attached. In addition, the nautilus has modified cirri that serve as olfactory receptors and a pair that serve to open and close the shell when the nautilus needs to retract into it or emerge. Nestled within the cirri is the beak, which is used to consume the nautilus's primary prey of invertebrates, though they have also been seen scavenging fish. Their eyes are less developed than most cephalopods, lacking a lens and consisting of a small pinhole that only allows the nautilus to see simple imagery. Their brains are differently structured than most cephalopods and studies have found them to have considerably shorter long-term memories.

(image: a chambered nautilus (upper left) next to a rare Allonautilus scrobiculatus. source)

Cephalopod reproduction is quite different than that of other cephalopods. While most cephalopods are short-lived and semelparous (reproducing only once), nautiluses can live over 20 years and reproduce multiple times (iteroparity). They do not reach sexual maturity until around 15 years old, with females laying eggs once per year. Eggs are attached to rocks and take 8 to 12 months to hatch. Males have a structure called the spadix composed of 4 fused cirri that they use to transfer sperm to females. Females lose their gonads after laying their eggs and will regenerate them for the next year's mating season. Interestingly, male nautiluses seem to vastly outnumber the females. EDIT: @bri-the-nautilus in the replies found an alternate explanation for the disparity in male and female numbers you should check out. TLDR; the females are asocial.

(image: nautiluses mating)

Nautiluses are found in the Indo-Pacific reagion of the ocean and can be found on the steep slopes of coral reefs. They prefer to inhabit waters several hundred meters down. It was once believed that they would rise to shallow waters at night to feed, lay eggs, and mate, but their vertical migration behavior has since been shown to be more complex than that. They have noon been fished by humans for their shells, which have become popular subjects in art and can be made into a number of decorative pieces. The nacre of the shell can be polished into osmeña pearl, which can be quite valuable. Demand for the shells combined with the late sexual maturity and low fecundity is threatening all the species. As of 2016, nautiluses have been added to the CITES Appendix II, making them protected by limiting international trade of their shells. Despite this, they are still threatened and require further protection

(image: a carved and painted nautilus shell from the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan)

[mikimakiboo]

Tiny Steps Forward

More of bitty Nightmare :)

Previous part (and first one)

Nightmare is slowly getting used to the gang !

Short part, but I wanted to do a little something since ya'll seemed to like the first part :')

And if you like angst with a happy ending, you can check out You Will Be Fine, Now, which is unrelated to these parts but is focused on bitty Nightmare too !

Nightmare sat on top of the chimney, watching Killer assemble the planches, he was building him a tiny house next to the fireplace with a cat bed next to it if Nightmare wanted to take a nap outside the house. It was his second day here, having fallen asleep in Killer's hood when he was showing him around, he woke up the next morning, on the couch and still in the hood, but without Killer.

Horror had been the first he saw as he was the only one awake. They had looked at each other before Horror hesitantly waved. It seemed like they were both as confused as each other regarding the current situation.

- You... hungry... ?

Horror had asked. Nightmare slowly nodded, he hadn't eaten since at least twenty-four hours as Killer and he had left the shelter before lunch time, and his little cube of ham was merely a snack, not a meal. The bitty got up, but quickly realized that the couch was to high for him to jump from it. He looked up at the big skeleton. He was scary, but then again, it would be hypocritical to judge him based on how he looked, so Nightmare took a deep breath and held his tiny arms out for him. Horror looked at him for a minute, wondering what he wanted, before getting closer and carefully scooping the bitty in his hand, which was much bigger than Killer's. Nightmare curled his tentacles around the fingers for balance and sat on the palm as Horror straightened up, having bent down to grab him, he looked at the living room, seeing it much better with the new height. There were a big couch and an armchair in front of a fireplace with a TV sitting on it, a coffee table between the couch and chair, and on the right of all of that was a wooden dinning table with chairs.

Horror took him to the kitchen, putting his hand on the counter for the bitty to get down at his own speed. Nightmare stood on the marble counter, looking at the knives and pans hanging on the wall, he heard Horror going through the cabinets to gather some ingredients.

- Killer said... bitty food... for you...

Nightmare turned to him and nodded, he wondered if the big skeleton had trouble speaking ? At first he thought he was just unsure about interacting with him, but it seemed like there was something else... Horror grabbed a box, the one Nightmare thought contained material to kill and cook him, looked through it, and grabbed another smaller box with picture of different ingredients on it. He put it with the other ingredients already on the counter.

- What are you doing ?

Nightmare asked, quite curious about all of that. Horror moved his hands in the air, but all he earned from it was a confused look from the bitty. The big skeleton frowned, thinking for a bit before finding the right word.

- Cookies..

- Why do you speak like that ?

Maybe it was a bit rude to ask this like that, but Nightmare wanted to know.

- Dust said... aphasia... can't find... words..

Horror replied slowly, trying not to mess up his sentence too much.

- Was that sign language when you moved your hands ?

Horror nodded. Nightmare didn't understand sign language, he knew what it was because he had seen customers using it at the shelter, but he was never taught this language.

- Easier like that...

The big skeleton added before focusing on his ingredients and grabbing two bowls, one big and one smaller. Nightmare got closer and climbed on a small jar to sit and watch Horror cook. He let the bigger one prepare the cookie dough, using regular ingredients in the big bowl and special bitty ones in the other. Once the dough was done he took a hob and started separating the dough to shape the cookies on it. Nightmare jumped a bit when Horror pushed the little bowl near him and put the special dough in front of him. The skeleton didn't say anything, watching the bitty expectantly. Nightmare hesitated for a while before finally getting down from the jar, rolling up the sleeves of his sweater, and slowly detaching parts of the dough to make his own little cookies, glancing at Horror to make sure he wasn't doing anything wrong.

He had never cooked before, nor did he ever watch anybody cook, it was new but.. he liked that, he liked shaping his little cookies next to the big cookies.. he had liked sleeping in Killer's jacket too... he felt his tentacles curl, reflecting his.. his happiness.. he was happy..

- Heyyyy big guy ! Whatcha making ? Ohh little guy's here too !

Speaking of Killer, he just arrived in the kitchen. Nightmare didn't pay much attention to him, too focused on his cookies that he shaped slowly, carefully... He just heard Killer speaking, Horror didn't talk so Nightmare figured he might have been signing instead, then he heard the same noise as when they left the shelter, and Killer was gone when he looked up. Horror was still there, waiting patiently for him to finish.

Nightmare stood up after a few minutes, finally done and rather proud of his work. He looked up at Horror, wanting to see if he was proud too, but quickly looked back down. Why was he so.. so childish all of a sudden ? He never seeked validation like that before ! Or at least not since the first year in the shelter, when he still had hope.. what was happening ? Horror smiled at him, giving him a small and careful pat on the head before taking the hob back and putting it in the oven. He then went back to Nightmare, carefully scooped him back up, and went back to the living room where Dust was now laying on the couch, apparently finishing his night downstairs. Horror put Nightmare on top of the chimney and that's when he realized Killer was kneeling on the ground, assembling planches.

So Nightmare stayed on the chimney, watching Killer work and Dust, who had woken up, comment on his work, telling him where to put some pieces. He watched them both from his spot, finding them not so scary after all...

Horror came back a few minutes later, putting a tray on the table.

- Cookies ready..

He announced. Killer looked up excitedly, abandonned his work to stand up and scooped Nightmare to go to the table with him, putting him on the middle of it for him to chose his seat. Dust followed them and sat on his assigned chair.

The cookies smelled amazing ! Nightmare looked at the mountain before him before spotting his own, smaller, cookies and taking one. He saw Horror signed something and Killer smiling happily. He really needed to learn sign language.

Everyone sat down, talking as they all enjoyed a nice breakfast with warm cookies. Nightmare looked at them, were they his family ? His caretakers ? His owners ? His roommates ? He didn't really know how he should address them, but did it really matter now ? He'll probably just figure it out later.

He looked at Dust, he hadn't said a word, simply nodding along to whatever was being said, or signed, the shadow of his hood covering his face. He was the one who told Nightmare that Killer brought him here out of pity, that they all were unwanted. Nightmare couldn't really feel his emotions, there was a sort of mist surrounding his soul, and Nightmare's magic wasn't really powerful anyway. He jumped when he noticed a red and blue eyelight staring at him. Was he mad ? Did Nightmare stare too much ? Maybe he shouldn't have, it was rude to stare after all...

Dust's eyelight finally turned when Killer playfully hit his shoulder.

- Stop scaring my baby !

Nightmare felt his cheeks getting hotter, was Killer talking about him ? Why did he call him his baby ? He didn't have time to think about it as Killer had grabbed him to pull him closer.

- It's okay baby, I'll protect you.

Killer assured as Dust rolled his eyelights, biting into a cookie. This time Nightmare was sure he was blushing as he looked down, biting into his own cookie to distract himself from the nickname. No one has ever called him "baby" before, sometimes the employee at the shelter would call him "Night", but it was that, never "baby" or "little guy" like Killer did. He didn't really know how to feel about that.

He felt a pat on his head, looking up he saw Killer smiling at him, a loving smile, but Nightmare could see the mischief behind it... he opened his mouth to ask what he was up to but only a surprised shriek and a giggle came out when he felt a finger tickle his side. The hand was rapidly slapped and chased off by his tentacles, making Killer chuckle as he looked at the bitty fleeing to Horror for protection, looking very embarrassed.

- I'm sorry I couldn't resist.. ~

Killer smiled, to which Nightmare responded with a frown before turning his back to him, his tentacles curling in embarrassment.

Killer was a threat, Nightmare would have to watch him closely from now on. For now he would stay with Horror, he was much more safe to be around, and Dust... was still a little intimidating. He'll get used to him later.

And later arrived very shortly after because Nightmare was now alone with Dust, Horror had left to work in the garden and Killer went to the store because he was missing materials, so Nightmare was sitting on one of the couch's pillows next to Dust who was busy being on his phone, not paying attention to him.

The silence was loud. He looked at the big skeleton but couldn't see his face behind the hood as he was turned. Nightmare bent over, trying to at least see his eyelights, but he was still too far. He bent farther down, he just needed a little more, just a little... until he felt the air under him and everything shifted as he felt himself fall, having bent too far. He didn't have time to react, all he did was close his eye as his soul beat faster, waiting for the inevitable impact with the hard ground... the impact didn't come. He slowly opened his eye, three of his tentacles were rolled up around him as he was shaking like a leaf, curled in a ball. He felt something tug on his fourth tentacle and he was slowly lifted in the air before being put down on the pillow again, safe. He looked up, Dust didn't move, but he saw a little bit of purple magic around his fingers.

He saved him. He was going to fall and he saved him. Nightmare stood up after calming down from the fright of his near death experience, his legs still shaking a little, and slowly walked to Dust, sitting next to him.

- You should be more careful.

Dust said without looking up from his phone. Nightmare nodded, looking at the skeleton before tugging on his shorts, wanting to sit on his leg. Dust saved him, that was.. a lot, and Nightmare immediately felt a lot safer with him.

Dust turned his head, his eyelight locking on the bitty trying to climb up his leg. He watched him for a second before putting his hand under the little skeleton's feet to help him in his ascent. Once on his lap Nightmare went to sit against his hip, not saying a word, his little tentacles were curling on themselves. Dust didn't mind, returning his attention to his phone, he decided to put on a movie for them both to watch, he didn't have anything better to do anyway, Horror was outside and Killer was in town, it was only him and the bitty who now seemed to really like him, which was curious considering he was scared of him not five minutes ago, but then again Dust didn't know anything about bitties, so maybe that was just how they were ? The only thing he knew was that bitties needed love to live a healthy life, hence why they were sociable and a domestic species only, which was a result of the excessive breeding they went through. Considering that, it was surprising that Nightmare survived this long in the shelter. Dust first thought that he was special, that he didn't need love as much as the others, but he was apparently wrong judging by the way he was pressed against him, it just took longer for him to show it, and maybe he was just more resistant than regular bitties.

Either way, this little bitty was intriguing, and both Horror and Killer seemed to like him, so he'll give him a chance, and maybe he would like him too, who knows ? Maybe he would grow found of this little guy falling asleep on his leg...

Maybe...

[beardedmrbean]

Bad Dragon is suing SinSaint over copyright infringement of their dildo designs. What I want to know is, can you copyright the shape of a dog's dick? Because if you can, you shouldn't be able to.

I did knot need to hear about this one.

one more pun

TSG is gonna be one of the more reputable sources for this one

MARCH 25--A manufacturer of “fantasy-themed sex toys” has accused an upstart Brooklyn, New York firm of knocking off its distinctive designs, according to a federal lawsuit alleging that the defendant has infringed on copyrights for dildos such as “Spritz the Seadragon” and “Tyson the Water Buffalo.”

In a March 20 complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona, Bad Dragon Enterprises contended that its “sculptural” products have been illegally copied by SinSaint, which is headquartered in a Coney Island warehouse and advertises that all its “Ethically Manufactured” toys are “made in Brooklyn, USA.”

Bad Dragon, which noted that it has had “significant commercial success” in the adult toy field, alleged that SinSaint has been selling the duplicative dildos through its website and other trade channels, including the recent AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas (where the new firm’s exhibitor booth was next to that of the all-nude Palomino strip club).

The lawsuit identifies 13 separate dildos that Bad Dragon claims have been copied (and renamed) by SinSaint, which was incorporated in New York last year. The colorful silicone toys feature scales, tentacles, suction cups, and other design elements meant to mimic the genitalia of dragons, sea creatures, and other fantastical characters.

Some of the Bad Dragon products that SinSaint is accused of swiping are “Kelvin the Ice Dragon,” “Stan the T. Rex,” and “Vergil the Drippy Dragon.” SinSaint has not been accused of pirating other Bad Dragon offerings like “Jason the Demogorgon” or “Cuttlefish of Cthulhu.”

According to the lawsuit, SinSaint’s counsel last month stated that the company had begun removing “some of the allegedly infringing listings for product redesign.” This response, Bad Dragon contended, was “unacceptable,” adding that it “continues to be harmed by Defendant’s ongoing, unlawful conduct.”

The Bad Dragon complaint seeks an order enjoining SinSaint from continuing any further alleged

copyright infringement and seeks “disgorgement of all of Defendant’s profits” related to the artificial penises. The company may also seek statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each of the dildos in question.

For more than a decade, Bad Dragon has sought trademark and copyright protection for various product lines. While often successful, the firm’s application to trademark its “Cum Tube” was abandoned after a government attorney rejected the ejaculating dildo because the “applied-for mark consists of or includes immoral or scandalous matter.” The application included a very NSFW image, which can be found on the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office website.

According to an August 2023 trademark application, SinSaint’s owner is Oleg Semenenko, 50, a resident of Brooklyn’s gated Seagate community. Semenenko lives less than a mile from SinSaint’s warehouse, which shares an address with GlobMarble, an industrial molds business for which Semenenko is listed as “manager” in a separate trademark application filed this month.

In a brief interview today, Semenenko was asked how a dildo firm grew out of his original business. “We work with rubber,” he replied. Semenenko dismissed Bad Dragon’s claim that its products were unique and original: “How can octopus hand can be your idea?” (4 pages) ____________________________________________

Hope the judge that did the recent trump case gets this one, even though I know that's basically impossible, just the thought of making him listen to hours of testimony about how these rubber fantasy dildos are protected by copyright or trademark law, or something like that is funny to me.

It's not a revenge thing wanting it, just a keep him humble thing. I know you think you're hot shit now, so here listen to these arguments for a bit.

Totally different note, I'm wondering how long until the discourse starts up, or if it has already started up, where using horse dildos is either bestiality or a gateway to bestiality because what with the way people treat cartoons of fictional people I can't imagine it's far off or not already here.

Look to japan for the tentacle ones.........

[splatoon-edits]

hope I'm not being annoying but I made another

Still not quite sure how to do a color overlay or like change the tentacle colors but just making a really big airbrush brush, lowering the opacity and tapping several times seems to work for me (also curse that leaf, hand erasing it was PAINFUL)

CUUUTEEEE :D

As for the color overlays and all that, i usually find adding filters to be easier in a separate editing app or maybe even canva. And for recoloring in ibis paint you can manually select parts with the lasso tool or with the selection layer and then go into filter > adjust color > color balance :)

and if you are using canva (idk if this is a pro feature or not) you can do edit image > adjust > color edit to mess with specific parts of the image. You can also change the colors of the image overall thru that tab

hope this helps and happy creating :3

[blacksailskmeme]

Black Sails Kink Meme 2024 Round Up: May-June

Hi there pirate fam!

As of today the Kink Meme has collected 130 prompts and 26 fills! Wow!!! 🥳🥳

As I said, I’ve decided to do a round up post for each month the kink meme is live, showcasing those fills submitted to the collection monthly.

We skipped a separate May roundup because things had quieted down for a bit, but in June y'all popped right back up! Happy Hot Kink Meme Summer, we'll be here all of July as well, accepting prompts and fills alike! ☀️☀️

Here ya go: all the fics submitted in May and June gathered in one place for your convenience and enjoyment! ✨

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Flames of Desire By John Silver, SilverFlint, 4183 words

(For PROMPT #71: silver pre series writes filthy rpf of him and captain flint (think kidnapped by the pirate styles bodice rippers) and then he actually ends up kidnapped by flint and tries to seduce him bc of course he does and flint Resists but silver keeps throwing himself at flint until he finally gives in 😈)

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Flavor, SilverFlint, 4088 words

(For PROMPT #72: s3-s4 break, Silver likes how Flint smells sweaty and ripe after they do sword drills on the cliffs, so he keeps distracting with questions or bullshit ship tasks Flint after training so that he doesn't have time to wash up before his other meetings. culminating in flint clocking what's he's doing, getting fed up, and making Silver give him a tonguebath one morning. Copious sweat and armpit hair licking is a MUST.)

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Recipe For Disaster, Silverflint; Silver/Others, 5655 words

(For PROMPT #50: Bad Cook Silver accidentally aphrodisiac poisons the crew. Take it any direction you want, but my idea is that he buys a sketchy potion in a port somewhere, planning to put it in Flint's food because he wants Flint to be helplessly attracted to him for manipulation/blackmail reasons. However through shenanigans, it ends up getting added to everyone's food BUT Flint and, oh no! the whole crew is horny for Silver. Flint, who did NOT get dosed (but maybe thinks he did?) has feelings about this.)

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For Her, FlintMadi, 1433 words

(For PROMPT #26: Madi is eaten out while menstruating. Dealer's choice who is slurping her up, could be multiples)

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Enter Leviathan, Silver/Sea Monster; SilverFlint, 2742 words

(For PROMPT #4: The War Ship is guarded by more than men. They have somehow captured a sea creature and are keeping it under decks. It gets loose during the interrogation, and Flint (still tied to the chair) watches as Silver gets tentacle fucked into oblivion.)

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first prize, SilverFlint, Silver/Others, 4088 words

(For PROMPT #94: some sort of s1/2 au. Flint is fucking Silver, but sometimes he lets a chosen few members of his crew have a go at Silver if they did well on a raid. Lending and voyeurism (Flint watches), Silver feels a mix of humiliation from being used like this and weird messed up pride from being such a Prized Possession that he's being given to people as a prize)

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Bot Love, FlintHam; SilverFlintHam, 5293 words

(For PROMPT #84: Inspired by the porn bots flooding the tumblr black sails tag. Modern AU. POV James. Thomas uses tumblr because he runs an account posting about bawdy quotes from poems/classics. James thinks it's ridiculous (social media at all, that is). One day he looks over Thomas's shoulder and sees such a porny advertise (something along the tacky line of "who wants to play with my cute butt") featuring a picture of Silver or well, parts of his body, in a tantalizing position. Thomas realises that James is very very turned on by it (James is angry about being turned on but damn, that's a really nice ass) and clicks the link. This is followed by a steamy video chat with Silver fucking himself with a huge dildo on his bed. Meanwhile, Thomas gives James a handjob or blowjob or... more (your choice). Bonus points if Thomas pays Silver a very generous tip in the end and if they end up exchanging contact details for a meeting in person (Silver, a poor student, sees his chance to become the sugar baby to these two obviously very rich and hot couple)

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Close Combat, Miranda/Anne, 3261 words

(For PROMPT #117: Miranda and Anne fight sex :) maybe a Miranda lives au or just set sometime in s1 or 2, but Miranda decides she wants to learn how to fight. flints fight style doesn't work for a thin woman, and Miranda hears about how skilled and feared Anne bonny is, so she seeks her out for training. during the course of the training, the sexual tension grows and then breaks and they have nasty rough sex on the ground - something neither of them could get with flint or max who love them too much to be rough nd dirty with them)

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Captain's Treasure, SilverFlint; Silver/Others, 1883 words

(For PROMPT #94: some sort of s1/2 au. Flint is fucking Silver, but sometimes he lets a chosen few members of his crew have a go at Silver if they did well on a raid. Lending and voyeurism (Flint watches), Silver feels a mix of humiliation from being used like this and weird messed up pride from being such a Prized Possession that he's being given to people as a prize)

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Thanks again to all of our May and June contributors! Here’s to more unapologetically smutty, kinky fills for July~~ 🥳🥳

[fluffle-writes]

As I don’t know much about “weird core” what thought process do you tend to imply when designing the characters? You talked a bit about Epel’s wings being stone and Pomfoire being angelic cause of the strict rules, but what else do you tend to think? (Let me pick apart your brain! Your designs are so cool and I wanna know the ideas!)

Weirdcore AU Masterlist Here!

Ehehe, okay so! From what I understand about the concept, Weirdcore is an aesthetic that's reminiscent of things being uncanny, almost like in a dream where things are familiar but different - in a way that may feel unnatural! Shadows may fall strangely, or beings encountered may not be 'constructed' in a way that makes logical sense!

Because of this, I try to make my edits a little uncanny! Ace's flower has a wide, staring eye in the centre of it and no discernable mouth. Cater has a false face and four eyes that seem more cold and calculating. Vil is large and imposing, and Rook has no discernable human face - just a shadow. All these features can make the edits feel more uncanny or not quite right, which is what I feel captures the essence of Weirdcore!

(I'll put the info for each of the dorms under the cut here since it got really long haha)

As for the way I decide how to design the characters - I'm trying to keep each dorm on a theme! Heartslabyul, for example, will all have plants or flowers for heads, and a number of eyes that match their card number (I'm torn between giving Riddle no eyes - to represent his bling rage - or many eyes - to make it look like he's always watching/observing) the flowers I'm choosing will also have either references to flowers that may be associated with the characters in game (such as a rose for Riddle or a Violet/Clover for Trey) whereas others will be focused more on flower language or colours that suit them well - like Riddle and Cater.

Savannaclaw will have the heads of their respective animals - similar to what I did for Crewel - but I think I'm going to add skeletal designs to them like the spine/teeth I gave Ruggie! That way it can be a reference to how, under Scar's reign, the animals in the Lion king went through a drought and famine. I may go for a cooler colour scheme for Jack though, to make him seem somewhat separated from the other two in a reference to how he felt alienated by their plans in book 2, as well as using it as a way to reference how he grew up in a colder climate.

I'm less sure about Octavinelle - but I definitely want to include heart imagery for Jade and Floyd due to their UMs, and maybe a brain for Azul to have them all match. Perhaps it could be a joke that their hearts are visible when, in reality, they're not the types to 'have their heart on their sleeve' as the saying goes! I'll also likely use scale patterns and give Azul a few tentacles, but I'm not planning on giving them the heads of their respective merform species so they can feel more different to Savannaclaw.

Scarabia will have themes around precious materials and gems - I want to give Jamil Viper-like qualities, but I'll probably use overlays to give golden patterning to the scales to match Kalim. His details will be much less pronounced and more hidden though, to reference how he hides his true potential in order to avoid outshining Kalim. I feel like adding more eyes, either closed or open I'm not sure yet, could reference his observant behaviour as well as his UM since it works with eye contact.

Pomefiore, as you already know, has an angel theme. This is partially because of the restrictions that may be associated with angels - for example, some beliefs suggest that angels do not have free will so that they can fulfill the will of their god without error. However, I also chose angels because they're often described as being beautiful or otherworldly - something that cannot be truly perceived but is still believed to be pure and beautiful. This kind of references how I feel about Vil as a character - he's seen as beautiful on the outside, but many people fail to notice how caring he is and how much effort he puts into helping his peers become the best they can be.

Ignihyde, as you could probably guess, will be themed after technology. I'm gonna give Idia a CRT monitor for a head because I think they're cool - plus I can do fun things with his expressions using the screen! The tech thing is self-explanatory but the CRT thing could call back to how Idia holds onto his past and his Grief. Also CRT monitors may be more clumsy or awkward, which could work well alongside his awkwardness in social situations. I'm not too certain about Ortho though... I may make him slightly based on a doll - perhaps with a broken screen...

Diasomnia is one I'm having a little more trouble with - but I think I'll go for a theme of light/fire for them. Lilia has a lit candle for a head to represent how his life is burning down and may be snuffed out soon, Sebek will have something lightning-themed, and I feel like Silver could have a different appearance altogether, but I'm not entirely sure what I'll do for him yet... As for Malleus, I'm also struggling a little with him too, but I'll probably place a flame between his horns and add more Weirdcore elements to the rest of his design. I'll get there when I get there haha.

I hope this was coherent lol! Feel free to ask for clarification on anything I may have accidentally missed!

[weirdpsychoticlife]

Growth chamber stills

I don't remember this room of Moya's being given a canon name, and I'm not sure which Earth-familar organ it most resembles. Uterus? Maybe, but an anatomist might limit that term to the structures closer to Talyn's body. Maybe neither is right, and the whole shebang has more in common with a marsupium. Maybe we'd have to come up with a new word, if we found out that pregnant vacuum-dwelling space whales really existed. IDK, this show is weird, and I appreciate that.

So I'm going with "growth chamber," since her baby, later named Talyn, appears to grow inside it until he can survive outside. I say "appears" because, since the next time we see Talyn is in the "birthing channel," we can't say, for sure, that he doesn't move elsewhere for a later phase of the pregnancy. After all, human zygotes move from the fallopian tube into the uterus; if an alien embryo had to implant more than once during its development, that wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen on Farscape.

I altered the lighting and colors of these caps to make the shapes more visible, so, if you want the exact correct colors, you'll have to re-watch this scene from "They've Got a Secret."

Above, John is approaching on a catwalk and shining his flashlight on Talyn. The layout of the chamber looks so much like Pilot's den that I wonder if Pilot lives in a different baby den with some bells and whistles added.

Compare it to this shot of Pilot's den, from "Exodus from Genesis":

A closer look at Talyn:

Pilot's controls:

Same front panel, same crystal stuck in it.

However, one thing that I don't think we see anywhere else but the growth chamber is the suckered tentacles supporting Talyn. In the scene (from "The Way We Weren't") where Pilot cuts himself loose from Moya, his nutrient tubes appear smooth or lightly segmented.

Of course, given how he and Moya were grafted together, those tubes might be his own, like these that Velorek pulls out during surgery:

I'm not sure if the tentacles provide Talyn with nutrients, or if all that comes in through the smaller, cobwebby pieces. For that matter, it might be that the DRDs take care of Talyn's nutritional needs, without an umbilical cord. Although, in "Thanks for Sharing," Moya provides a transfusion to Talyn (now living outside her body) via something that translator microbes render as "umbilicals," this might not be an exact match for the human umbilical cord. In "Liars, Guns and Money, Part III," Talyn gives Moya a similar transfusion, so "umbilicals" likely aren't exclusive to female Leviathan anatomy.

It's hard to tell if the transfusion "umbilicals" are anatomically similar to the tubes in the growth chamber. If you want to attempt informed speculation, here's Moya administering a transfusion to Talyn in "Thanks for Sharing":

And here our beloved ships are separating, so you can see Moya's umbilicals at a different angle:

[raayllum]

Let’s break this baby down symbolically

Originally this post was longer but my draft didn’t save so I’m doing a quick notes version; if you want more thoughts or have a clarification question please feel free to drop them in my inbox, but hopefully everything will still carry across

Light and dark motif with Callum unintentionally / unknowingly getting close to the darkness, with Ezran and Rayla more in the light. The surface world does not seem to be particularly stormy, more so bright and happy, which is a departure from the previous promo art(s) really highlighting the storm, and how often storms in TDP foretell transformation and disaster (1x01, 2x04, 2x05, 2x07, 2x08, 3x01 when Ez comes home, 4x01, 4x04 before Aaravos possesses Callum at dawn, etc). 

The light-dark duality mirrors Callum’s worries of “What if I’m on a path of darkness” due to its associations with Aaravos: “In darkness, gaze upon a Fallen Star” and “already tainted with darkness, ad destined to play right into my hands.” 

Darkness = dark magic; octopus tentacles have associations with dark magic (Claudia) specifically being used to drag people down (the boys) or catch them (Viren) in terms of control; dark magic / octopus tentacles = control. Control is attached to Aaravos

This is doubly true with associations of water and destiny (“Life is like a river - don’t try to control where the river goes”). If you’re interested in more thoughts on that, check out this meta

Callum perhaps being lured in with curiosity or magical impulse, only to realize he’s in way over his head / being dragged down by something he can’t escape (tentacles having similarities to puppet strings) and/or mirroring his dark magic dreams from 2x08

Ezran being closer makes sense, as he is emotionally closer and currently more reliable to Callum than Rayla has been due to their separation. 

It’s also a nice parallel to Ezran saving Zym (another brother / soulmate) under the ice as well as Rayla and Callum then working to save him, as well, with now Rayla and Ezran working together to save Callum, especially since Ezran almost drowned and Rayla has a specific fear of drowning/water.

In the S1 novelization, Ezran states that his mother’s spirit helped guide him through the darkness to find the glowing (light) egg of the Dragon Prince. Given that Sarai also helped guide Callum towards the Sky arcanum, Ezran possibly carrying / embodying his mother’s spirit while saving his brother would be really beautiful. 

As stated, Rayla being further away makes sense, but it does align her further with the light, and I do think her reaching for Callum (as opposed to a more generic swim pose) is purposeful due to Rayllum (and the show’s) consistent reaching motif.

Rayla’s fear of water isn’t literally about the water (after all, she saved Bait 1.5 days in when she and the glow toad had an immense mutual dislike of each other) but what it represents: shame, self-reflection, fear, guilt, trauma. Rayla left in TTM because she didn’t know how to love Callum and be scared to lose him at the same time in a healthier manner, leading her to majorly hurt both of them. Her swimming through the water could symbolize 1) helping to save Callum (per other foreshadowing as well) in addition to 2) her beginning to learn how to deal with that fear in a healthier way that also lets her stay and be/do what she wants to do. 

And as always, the foreshadowing that Aaravos’ specific prison (darkness, dark magic, tentacles, ocean, etc) is underwater and it will be found / we’ll get some answers about the cube in S5:

[androgynousblackbox]

How To Lose a Lucifer In 10 Days. 19 [Appleradio, Radioapple]

Step 19: Divorce him

"Frankly, how many of your suitors I am supposed to tolerate in this dimension?" Alastor was still huffing, even in front of the enticing smell of the freshly cooked meat nearby. "One was already pushing it, Lucifer."

"First of all, don't call them suitors. That makes it sound like I was ever available since coming here and that was literally never the case" pointed out Lucifer, turning off the fire. Despite the tentacle wrapped around his middle, he had no issue moving around the kitchen to look for another plate to serve the meat for Alastor and then some pasta for himself. Alastor, supporting his hip against the counter at his side, dismissed the correction. Suitor, potential targets, it was all the same anyway. "Second of all, I don't think you have to worry about that one at all. She had barely any light for me when she thought I was her Lucifer, as opposed to how much she had for Charlie. It was just a temporary confusion that is being solved right now. I wouldn't be shocked to know she only hugged me for the sake of Charlie more than anything else."

"I don't care for her motives" growled Alastor, glarring to the entrance of kitchen as if it could travel through the ear to shot the queen in the head. "She clearly feels entitled to your presence anyway. And why not, right? The queen and the king has a natural ring to it, doesn't it?" The snear of Alasto could be heard at a distance on his voice.

Lucifer sighed deeply in silence. He turned to his husband and took his hand, waiting for Alastor to actually look at him before opening his mouth.

"Well, she is not" said calmly. "She can be the queen of the whole universe and it won't make any difference. The only royal I care about in this dimension is already here" added, squeezing his fingers in a comforting gesture. "You have nothing to worry about, alright?"

The pupils of Alastor seemed to get bigger for a second as they regarded him. But that only lasted that moment before he looked the side, clicking his tongue.

"Tell that to that woman" spat finally.

"I will if I have to" said Lucifer, floating in the air in order to reach the cheek of Alastor with his lips. There were times in which the height of his partner was an inconvenience to say the least, but no that one. His wings worked as a barrier for Alastor to not have any other option than to see him, any part of him. "I love you, you dumbass" gently, he kissed the corner of his mouth, petting the start of his ear.

Alastor tilted his head slightly, as if making a show of avoid the caress, but his ears twitched all the same. His semi closed eye still bore into him. After a while of battling with himself, the smallest bleat in the world escaped him. The softest they sounded, the more Alastor was trying to repress them. For Lucifer, that made them all the sweeter.

"She better not try to touch you again" warned, finally reclining against Lucifer's hand. It was almost funny the contrast between his body language looking for more affection while his words still sounded completely serious. "I will kill her. Charlie will have to understand I was left with no choice."

"I won't let her. I will teleport myself away if she tries to" promised Lucifer, kissing his forehead. Only then the small crease between ALastor's eyes flattened again and he seemed to relax. "It's just a misunderstanding, babe. Nothing else" He nuzzled his head for a bit. The hands of Alastor landed on his waist, their natural place of rest, and the thumbs massaged him slowly, without rush. Lucifer separated slightly to hold his face up and smiled. "Hungry now?"

The chest of Alastor rise and fell calmly as he nodded his head. With that, Lucifer kissed his cheek again and went back to the floor

He filled two plates and send them flying to the table, taking out some wine from the fridge to serve as well in glasses he conjured himself. He frowned to Alastor until he reluctantly sat in front of the meal and started eating, his ears going down at his enjoyment despite himself. Damn it, why did it have to be so good?

Lucifer poured both their drinks and sat as well, sighning as he supported his chin on his hand.

"The other Lucifer never talked to you about his Lily?" He spoke when Alastor was on the second bite and therefore, in a more receptive mood. "I was just told that they fell together from the garden of Eden, separated and she was gone. I even thought she was dead, but didn't want to pry Charlie more if the wound was still fresh. Kind of a dick move too when she already didn't had her father with her either."

Alastor took his time chewing before saying a word. He considered correcting the name of the queen for his husband and that thought ran away as soon as it emerged. That woman should have been with her daughter from the start if she wanted something like being accurately remembered by.

"He tried to" recognized at last, his gaze fixated in the table. "In some misguided attempt to sympathize with me, I guess. I didn't want to hear your voice talking about you missing someone else, so I shut it down" Lucifer reached out his hand to let it lest on his knee, squeezing once. The king bit his lips as if he didn't know what to say to that, but Alastor didn't need anything. He put his palm on top and pat it softly. That contact was more than enough instead of words. "Outside of that one attempt, his main concern was always Charlie" finalized.

"Huh" Lucifer exhaled. His eyebrow went up for a second. "Well, that tells you something already, doesn't it? I must have exhausted everyone here talking about you before you came in."

It wasn't a surprise to hear those words. He had done the same back at home, both to annoy the other Lucifer at the start of the exchange and because it just came natural to him. But have the confirmation of that exact impulse shared between them felt good all the same.

"Indeed" agreed with a nod. "Maybe the split wasn't all that amicable."

"Charlie wasn't very keen on telling me a lot either by herself" remembered Lucifer. With a finger he controlled his fork to start reuniting the spaguetti by spinning. "It could be for any reason, though. Maybe it just never came out the topic. In any case, if she is here again, I hope that helps Charlie somewhat until her actual father is back. Regardless of the history of her parents, that is still her mom."

Alastor hummed. He could respect that, at least. As long she stayed away from what was rightfully his. For a while they only concentrated each on their meals.

"He did say something the first night he was at the hotel" commented at last. "Something about how a you without a queen to fall with would get lonely enough to get desperate. A desperation I took advantage of in order to secure our marriage."

Lucifer snorted. But at seeing Alastor drink from his glass, without any signal that it was a joke, he chuckled harder.

"Really? I mean, sure, I won't say that it was all rainbow and roses all the time, but give me some credit."

"That is what I said" Alastor was satisfied that they had agreed on that point without discussing it. His king might have allowed their marriage in the first place to placate his solitude, that much was true, but that would have never sustained them for as long as it did. Alastor could create a story about when his motivation changed for their little fawn, but in truth he could never be too sure as to in what point Lucifer became the one that made him feel less lonely instead of the other way around. It just happened, without plan, without any intention, and before he knew it was too late to even want to stop it. "Oh, also, apparently I have used our daughter to baby trap you and as leverage in our entire relationship. Oldest trick in the book, he called it."

"Oh, well, obviously. I knew that already" Lucifer smirked big, his shoulder moving with his interior laughter. "Just like our new baby is just another ruse to manipulate me into giving you… uh… something."

"The inheritance, dear. No to mention raise them to dethrone you someday and declare me the only king" provided Alastor helpfully. "Please, keep up with my evil deeds. Or don't, it makes it easier to control you."

"Right, right, of course" Lucifer nodded very serious. He reached to his side and Alastor followed the same path until their lips brushed each other. Lucifer took a hold from the back of his neck to keep him in place as he licked the mouth in front of him. "What is your excuse for being the most precious thing I have seen?" murmured, running a finger alongside the line of Alastor's jaw and pressing harder over the exact place where he could feel his pulse quickening slightly.

Alastor had been called a lot of things through the years. Nightmare, terror, monster, handsome, gorgeous, dangerous. Sometimes by the same kind of people. But only Lucifer ever used that soft kind of language to describe him. He wouldn't say that they made him melt inside, but they certainly did something that no other compliment could achieve. As if lodging themselves on a hole he didn't know existed until then, another ancor whose chain were inherently tied to one man and one man alone.

"Easy" said Alastor, smirking back. "So you would let me get away with anything I want. I planned every little detail to perfection, my love. You never stood a chance."

"Ah, shoot. Fooled again" Lucifer grinned as he deepened the kiss, his hands grabbing handful of red and black strands. The taste of the tomate sauce on his spaguetti perfectly combined with the smoky meat of Alastor. "When you kill me for the crown, make it quick, babe. You know, as a courtesy."

"Relax, my dear" Alastor sighed, a breath that Lucifer eagerly stole for his own. The king's mouth pressed against his cheek and further down. His sharp teeth nibbled at the skin of his throat, but it was the hand that caressed his spine the one that made him angle himself better, offering more for the taking. "For you, I will make it the most gentle death I can offer."

"I knew I could count on you, babe."

The warm tongue pressed against his pulse like the finger had done before and Alastor's mind quickly flashed to the events of the other night, when Lucifer had drinked out of him like a new opened up bottle. His breathy praises about how utterly delicious he was were engrained on his mind.

He couldn't remember everything, unfortunately, but that was one of the few thing that had remained with him even after coming down the high. Before him, Lucifer never once felt hungry for blood of his own heavenly kind. To know that he had managed to corrupt the king the hell to make him into another cannibal was one of the best feeling he ever had, dead or alive.

"Ah, sorry, sorry!"

Alastor cracked his neck turning to growl, fangs out, at whatever had dared to interrupt them. The fact that the interruption in question was a Charlie letting out a squeak as she covered her eyes did calm him down momentarely. Until he noticed the queen laying her weight against the frame of the door and he growled again. Lilith had her arms crossed and a perfectly composed expression, barely changed by the arc of her eyebrow.

"Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to!" Charlie went blindly to the fridge, stumbled into the counter and searched on the cupboard. Her shoulder were scrunched up as she gave her back to them. "I was just looking something to eat, sorry!"

"Sweetie, this is your kitchen" Lilith sighed indulgently. "If anything, they should apologize for disrespecting your space like that."

"Disrespecting?" The nerves of Alastor fizzled out like a cat dumped in cold water. His smile grew in his face as if it was about to split his whole head in two. "What did you think was going to happen, your Highness? I can assure you, we have our own room if it becomes necessary."

The upper lip of Lilith curled tight upward. The gesture was satisfactory while it lasted, however brief it was before she glared over at Lucifer. Lucifer returned the look with only a small aproximation of his eyebrows. He then soften up when seeing at Charlie. She already had a package of cookies in her hands, but haven't turned, as if not daring to move from there.

"Don't worry, duckling, it's fine" said to her with a kinder tone, getting his hand up to the shoulder of Alastor. "We didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

Alastor threw a glance her direction and frowned slightly.

"Is that all you are going to eat?" Alastor sneared at seeing the package she was holding. An old knowing rejection grew inside of him, after years making sure that his little fawn wouldn't ruin her appetite with snacks. Adult or not, she couldn't just stuff herself with sweet for a meal of the day. That just wasn't going to cut it. "Dear, there is still spaguetti that Lucifer made in the pot. You can get that or Lucifer can make something else."

"Oh, no, that is fine, really" Charlie said to them, but Lucifer snapped his fingers already. A plate came out floating at the side of the princess as the food jump to it, a single fork standing upright from the small mountain formed. "Oh! Thank you" after a moment of hesitation, she took it on her hands.

"You can also sit with us if you want" offered Alastor, pulling out a chair with his shadow. The dark silhouette made a show the seat like a chef offering it to its favorite client. It dissolved with a grin only after he gained a chuckle from Charlie.

If it had been anyone else, Alastor would have already kicked them out to keep enjoying their meal together.

"Thank you" said Charlie, going to the empty space as Lucifer made appear a glass of juice for her. "Vaggie had some stuff to handle in the city, so I was planning to order something later on. Oh, mom, there is still some more if you want!" offered, suddenly looking up to the woman that slowly moved to grab another chair.

"It's okay, darling, I can take care of it myself" Lilith sat down and snapped her own fingers. A gourmet meal that surely would cost a fortune in any restaurant appeared in front of her, along with fine silver cutlery and her own glass with golden details alongside it already filled with dark wine.

"Neat trick" said Alastor, tilting his head. "It would have been neat to feed your own daughter with it, too."

"She already has food. Thanks to Lucifer" Lilith swayed her wine on her glass before taking a small sip, undisturbed. Alastor saw Lucifer tensing up as he got closer to him. "So!" said Lilith before anyone could add anything else, perking up. She put her elbows on the table to hold her chin between her two hands. "Charlie has told me the last news. Lots of things have changed around here. I would still like to hear from you two, if you don't mind" said with polite smile, no real warmth reaching it.

"Not a lot changing, really" commented Lucifer, hugging him side way. Alastor felt the tail wrap around his middle. At some point during their kiss he had dissolved his tentacle, but the contact was back there and that did make it a little better. "I just never had a Lily in my world. Years passed, met Alastor, got married, had Charlie. When she grew up, she made her own hotel that is almost an exact replica as this one. It's kinda amazing how little things have changed, actually."

"Amazing, yes" Alastor detected a new sort of tension on her smile that, for as brief as it was, made him smile wider. "How long have you two being together, by the way?"

"85 joyfull years" answered Alastor, smiling down to Lucifer, who smiled back. The king laid his cheek against his shoulder and he took the chance to kiss his blonde hair, because he could and that queen couldn't. He did not miss the way that Lilith's eyelashes came down halway her vision, unimpressed. "Almost a century, isn't that right, dear?"

"86 this year" nodded Lucifer against his shirt.

"Although with our new wedding, we could renew the date."

"We should, probably. Since it's going to come out sooner now."

"We want to have our wedding as soon we are back, before the pregnancy makes it more complicated to celebrate with the rest of our family" explained Alastor, his neck making an aundible crack as he looked again to the queen. "Surely you understand, your Majesty."

"I do" Lilith left her glass to a side so she could start eating, cutting dowm with graceful movement that sliced through her food easily. "How long has it been since you end up in hell, Al?" asked, the polite smile back in place.

Alastor tigthned up his jaw. He did not like feeling like there was a purpose more than mere curiosity behind that question.

"94 years."

"Ah, I see" Lilith's smiled extended over her face. "Yes, I imagine that 86 years can feel impressive for a young mortal soul. My sweet Charlie right there is 200 years old and, as you can see, still so youthful" Charlie shrinked on her chair with a little smile, not really wanting to participate of the conversation. "Now, the real trial of fire comes out around the first five hundred years, though. Once you survive that, the rest becomes so much easier to handle. You truly get to know someone in that time period. But I am sure neither of you have to worry about that, when that time comes" she ate a portion of her food, her perfectly white teeth in view for only a second. Alastor finally found the one single trait that Charlie had taken from her. Those two single pair of fangs that were more humanoid than most demons. "So, you were never married before, Luci?"

"No" Lucifer frowned at the diminutive, but a quick glance to Charlie took away his desire to protest about it. He looked over at Alastor, rubbing his side with a hand. "Nobody ever was like Al, so there was no point" The growing static that started to increase its volume lowered again, becoming a calming white noise in the background. "I was very picky" commented with a shrug.

Alastor chuckled pleasantly, brushing his fingers through Lucifer's hair.

"Not about anyone could handle my king" confirmed, caressing the red dots with his thumb. "He knows it for sure because he dated all across hell before I ever existed. Just for curiosity, your Majesty" added with a bright grin, "how long was the other Lucifer dating before chosing you, one of the two only human beings at the time? I just can't picture Heaven being too diverse of a dating pool. Aren't all of them essentially just your brothers, dear?" Alastor looked at his husband, pretending he didn't saw the way the polite smile slipped off Lilith's face to be replaced with a big pile of nothing.

A default expressionless queen regarded Lucifer.

"Oh, dating did not exist at all before humanity, babe."

"Really?" Alastor clicked his lips. "Well, that is unfortunate. Experience goes a long way for building relationships and character. But I am sure you have no reason to worry about that, your Highness" He examined his claws. "Obviously everything turn out alright in the end anyway. No doubt you had other things to take care of than to concern yourself with the fact your ex-husband wasn't in the same dimension as you anymore."

Lucifer couldn't help to let out a small snort, that he quickly covered up by clearing his throat. Charlie looked at her mom with a face that screamed she did not want any confrontation, but she wanted to know as well.

"I did, actually" Lilith remained as calm as ever, delicated cleaning up her mouth after another bite. "I was working on important matters, but I always kept an eye out for my little princess" She directed a smile to Charlie, who returned after a second, less open than the queen's.

"Huh" exhaled Lucifer, twirling his fork with one finger in the pasta. "How long were you doing that, by the way? Wasn't like five years? Nine, duckling?" asked to Charlie. "I can't remember exactly."

The princess threw a look at her mom. Only after Lilith's nod, she pressed her lips together and turned to Lucifer.

"Seven" said finally, swallowing down like it was costing a great effort to do so. "But" added with emphasis" the important thing is that she is here now! Papa…" She let her eyes find Lucifer again, as if apoligizing for her words "papa hasn't always been the most… reliable presence either."

"Still?" Lilith sighed, swinging the liquid on her cup. "Luci always had a bad habit of getting lost in his own mind. I am sorry that is still the case, sweetie" she sounded sincere as she reached out a hand covered in a black glove, over the table, until the hand of Charlie.

Alastor felt Lucifer tensing up at his side as the king adverted his eyes. That was true of him as well. He wasn't the one being called out for it, but it made little difference when he could still recognize the same trait.

"It's fine" said Charlie, to her mom and to Lucifer, as if sensing he wanted to protest. Her hands closed over the fork she was gripping with a bit too much strenght, but quickly relaxed again. "He is getting better now, mom. I know he is. He helped out to rebuild the hotel and has been a great help around. Well, for the most part at least. According to Al, he has been working nonstop to try to get back here. Right?" Her hopeful expression almost in its entirety the underlying sadness, the heaviness behind her words.

Lucifer winced, rushing to drink some more of his own drink.

"Absolutely" confirmed Alastor without wasting a second. He placed a hand on the lower end of Lucifer's back and draw with his fingers the line of his spine through the fabric. The tension of the king started to dissolve slowly. "It hasn't been easy, but every challange that man had on his way he has taken it head on. All for the sake of returning to his dear daughter" Alastor made a point to look at Lilith at the last part. "The very first day the exchange happened he was already desperate to come in. I can't imagine the torment that it would have been for him to stay away even longer than he has already. Please, don't misunderstand me" clarified, taking a relaxed sip of his own wine. He enjoyed leaving that momentarely silence hang in the air. "I am well aware that Lucifer had his flaws and I got to see a few while we were in the same space. However, lack of caring was never one of them."

The smile that Lilith gave him was short. It wasn't a smile of fondness or affection. Even without the powers of Lucifer to see it, Alastor would have it hard to believe that woman still had anything close to what he had for his Lucifer regarding her ex. It wasn't hatred either, just a resigned distance where at least some trace of contempt laid. Alastor would know a thing or two about people inspiring that into him, so that at least could recognize.

"I don't doubt that" Lilith circles her finger over the rim of her glass, sighning. "Good intentions were always there, and we know what they say about where those tend to lead us to" She chuckled softly, taking some more whine. Her lips painted in a dark purple that it was almost black shined after she licked them, eyes fixated on the table. "Unfortunately, actions didn't always follow through. That was more my part of things. Dreams are only as important as the energy put into them to make them come true. Like Charlie did" Lilith lifted her gaze for her daughter, her smile more sincere as her eyes lost all of their edges. "Your hotel has caused already quite a conmotion, hasn't it? I am proud of you, apple tree. You gave those upstairs something really worth worrying."

Charlie's pure unfiltered delight at hearing those words appeared as soon as it was gone. Her eyes turned into white cloudy storms as she settled into her chair, finishing her meal. Lilith's face fell, confused, until her attention was naturally attracted to Lucifer staring back at her.

"Did you…" spat, narrowing her eyes as long, heavy black horn sprout from her forehead. They curved around the shape of her hair as the world spilled out of her, her tone going higher at the incredulity of what happened, "did you just put a illusion spell on my daughter? What gave you the right?"

It would have been easy for Lucifer to just say that he was the king and that gave him every right. But that wouldn't have been Lucifer and Alastor knew it.

"It was that or blow every toilet in the hotel to call her attention. Her hotelier is gone for the day, though, so that just felt adding stress where it wasn't needed" Lucifer straighten up, putting both his arms now on the table. He wasn't sorry in the slightest. "She just thinks we are all having a lovely conversation here, so you don't have to worry about her. I just didn't want her to listen to us as we finally speak like actual adults."

"I thought we were doing that already" Lilith sneared at him, more openly than before.

"No, my darling is right" said Alastor. "Surely, you are not going to speak openly around her. Sometimes parents just need to protect their children or save information they don't need to know. I completely understand that, you can believe me on that, but something here smells rotten."

Lucifer nodded slightly.

"How do you know what was the reaction of Heaven about the hotel?" asked point blank. "You kept an eye on Charlie for eight…"

"Seven, dear."

"Yes, thank you. Seven years, but didn't appear to rebuild the hotel or the many months after that. We know what was Heaven's reaction because we were there with our daughter when she find out. That girl" said, pointing at an enchanted Charlie still enjoying her lunch with easy content" thought you were gone. I thought you were dead with how everyone did not speak about you. Where were you actually, Lilian?"

Alastor bite down his lips to contain his snort. Not at the slip of Lucifer, but the utter annoyance that permeated Lilith's face before she composed herself.

"Lilith" corrected.

"Wait, really?" Lucifer blinked slowly. At the irritated sigh from the queen, he shrugged, as if that didn't mattered that much anyway. "Alright, if you say so. Where were you, Lilith? Why are you appearing right now?"

"I think I was quite explicit already about it" Lilith huffed through her perky, perfect nose. "I was working for the wellbeing of my family. Lucifer did not have the will to do it, so I had to step in. Congratulations to you then" added, snapping her attention back on Alastor", if you are that confused by that notion. Maybe you were lucky to land with a different Lucifer, but that wasn't in the cards for me."

"Mine is better, I will give you that" recognized Alastor with mirth, never the one to miss an opportunity to brag about what was his. "Even then, I can't picture even a lesser version of my husband just being okay with his adoring partner staying years away from him and their daughter working on something. I guess it's better that you two split then" He directed a pointed gesture of his chin towards the golden ring that Lilith very clearly still had.

Not a round ring with engravings like his, an accesory like any other if not for the value they could put on it. A manifestation of pure solid magical energy tying two people together that could never be taken out in normal circumstances. He wasn't anywhere close to saying it out loud, but he missed feeling his when it was there.

"Lucifer knew it would take some time" Lilith examined her hand casually, a brief hand to his own making him want to close his fist. "I only did what was necessary. It may have taken a little more than expected, but it was for the sake of our family."

"Abandon your family and leave your daughter in the dark for their sake. How noble" Alastor couldn't help to chuckle. Before Lilith could reply to him, he continued: "And, if it's not too much of a bother, your Majesty, how well did that work turned out to be? For what miracle should we thank you for after disapearing from the face of hell all this time? Charlie would love to know the rewards for the sacrifice her mother made."

Lilith straighten on her seat, crossing her legs under the table.

"I don't believe any of that concern you" said slowly. "The matters of this dimension, reality, or however you want to call it, have nothing to do with any of you."

"Ah" Lucifer suddenly snapped his finger, pointing to Lilith. "You were up in Heaven, right?" The careful constructed composure of Lilith crumbled in a single blink and Lucifer started laughing, holding to the arm of Alastor, who had to start laughing too. "Seriously!? I was just trying my shot there!" He wheezed, reclining his head forward. "You have to be kidding me! Seven years trying to deal with them? Wait, wait, wait, don't tell me, I can guess this one" Lucifer managed to control his smile to put a thinking expression as his hand rubbed his own chin. "It didn't even fucking work, didn't it? Whatever you were asking of them, they didn't gave it to you or put some stupid condition in the way as if they were the ones doing the favor for you. Either way, they dumped you here when you weren't already useful for them there."

When a slight blush started to creep in through Lilith's face, extending from her neck, they both started snickering.

"All of that talk of how inefficient Lucifer is as a king" said Alastor, taking out his monocle to clean up the tears under his eyes, "and only to trust in Heaven like that?"

"They never listen!" Lucifer shook his head, his own cheek stretched out by his smile. "Ever, ever, ever. Oh, and you know what, babe?" added, patting his chest with a finger.

"What, darling?"

"I bet you anything that her Lucifer also told her that too."

"I find that very easy to believe, my love. Not really worth the bet."

"No matter where we end up, nobody fucking listens to me when I say that! I am just the bitter old little devil who made an oopsie, what do I know, right?" Lucifer rufled his hair, a tinge of frustration layering his words, but quickly he was back to laughing when Alastor snorted loudly at his side.

It was more than what the queen of hell was willing to tolerate. She slammed both her hands on the table, effectively silencing the pair of them in a second.

"It worked!" She snarled. "If you must know so badly, it did work! Thanks to me being over there, they never harmed any of the hellborn in this plane! Never, until my own daughter put herself in their line of fire, went after any of them! That was the only concession they were willing to make! I thought if I was there I could convince them directly to stop the extermination altogether!"

Lucifer and Alastor looked at each other. Then they both made a sound like a deflating balloon, laughing even worse than before.

"Oh my, you really think you did something!" Alastor was almost amazed as he stared at the queen. "That makes it even better of a joke!" finished, slapping his own knee.

"I made the exact same arrengement back at our place, without ever have to give them anything else but the promise I wouldn't intervene" said Lucifer, as soon he was able to regain some air. "As long they could come down and eliminate sinners, they did not give a solitary flying dingy fuck! I am sorry to be the one to break it to you, Lilian" Alastor covered his mouth to barely control his fits. Lucifer ignored him", but you did not need to go there for that to happen! At all! You could have stayed with your family all this time and fight with them here!"

"Get a proper divorce wouldn't have been a bad idea either" Alastor giggled when Lucifer pushed his shoulder, incredulous that he would even say that. "What? Give that poor man an actual closure would have been more merciful and smarter that just trust in Heaven's word."

Lilith glared at him.

"And I suppose you are the expert?" scoffed.

"Yes, actually!" Alastor perked up with glee, showing off his teeth. "I spend five months incarcerated by Heaven when a little slip redeemed my soul and send me there. Very much against my will, I must add! So when it comes to know how much Heaven is willing to listen any dissenting voices, I have plenty of my own experience to talk about. They offered me deals as well to come back home. I rejected all of them because I knew being owed to Heaven was never going to work in my favor."

"Oh, but that is not all!" added Lucifer, hanging from his neck. "Because not only were they keeping my husband, the King's consort and father of the princess of hell, there during all that time. They also were not planning to tell me shit about it! So my Charlie and I were left to believe that he was gone for good. Eliminated from existance forever. Now, I knew they didn't like me very much after the whole fall from grace or whatever, but I gotta admit: I didn't see that one coming. They really outdid themselves on the whole don't giving a fuck category."

"Luckily I made my own way home" Alastor hold up the chin of Lucifer to kiss his chin. The frown that was starting to form on the king's face dissolved as he looked at him. "Withouth any help from them."

"Hell yeah, he did" Lucifer started to smile as he wrapped his other arm around Alastor's neck, coming closer to him.

Alastor tilted his head to accomodate the lips of his king. Their kiss was slow and drain out a most beautiful humming out of Lucifer. When they separated, those yellow eyes stared at him with a glistening spark and Alastor wanted to go for another.

"Wh-what?" That was the first time that the queen was positively speechless. Alastor frowned when Lucifer turned his attention to her. "You… you went to heaven? What do you mean a slip?"

"I had a temporary death and was send there" Alastor shrugged, taking away any importance that could have. "The important part was my retainment."

Lilith blinked a couple of times.

"You were redeemed?" said slowly, as if making sure with herself that she was using the right words. "Everything my daughter is fighting for… you got it?"

"And then he came back, did you forget about that part?" Lucifer made a head gesture to Charlie. "She knows already, by the way."

"And judging by your reaction, you had no idea" added Alastor. Lilith's purple eyes widened for a second, all the confirmation that he needed, and he chuckled again. "Oh, but don't feel too bad about not being told that in all those years you were essentially abandoning your daughter. Heaven was just as surprised as I was when it happened. In fact, they didn't know why it happened at all, which does make it a tad more complicated to promise any soul a sure way into it. If it ever happens on this side, I wouldn't be surprised to know they were not planning to tell anyone down here, not even your royal ears, your Highness. Not unless they saw any gain from it."

A long moment of silence passed through as the queen lowered her head. Her chest barely moving with each breath was the only indication that she hasn't been frozen by a spell. Lucifer started casually playing with the hair of Alastor's nape, waiting on her to react. Alastor inclined his neck towards the touch as his hands locked around the king's waist. There was no reason to rush any of them for them.

Finally, Lilith lifted her gaze to find Lucifer's.

"Take that spell from my daughter" said firmly, straighten up. Her eyebrows were two straight lines in a expression of sternness that wasn't entirely directed at them. "I need to talk to her."

Lucifer made sure that Charlie had already eaten enough from her plate before conceding. Charlie rubbed her eyes briefly, the normal yellow tone of always and a smile back on her face that turned into confusion when Lilith stand up. For her, they were just having a polite and friendly conversation about the renovated hotel and what they could do next to it, so seeing the serious expression of her mother as she kneeled to her side and took her hand seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Sweetie, I am sorry for cutting this visit" started Lilith, brushing a tendril of Charlie's hair behind her ear and cupping her cheek. "I need to speak with a few people in the city. But as soon as I am done, I will be back here, alright? We can have your favorite dinner back at the palace and you can present to me that girlfriend you keep mentioning. I am sure she must be a charming girl."

Charlie's face light up at that.

"Really?" said, squeezing her hand back. "Oh, mom, that would be great! But uh…" she turned to see Lucifer, who had returned to his seat already, "maybe we should be looking trying to get dad back?"

"We can take care of that, duckling" Lucifer flashed a grin for her. "It has been a while since you two saw each other, right?" said, patting Charlie's shoulder and ignoring the glare from the queen. His words were for the princess anyway. "Enjoy this day with your mom, it's okay. We are going to be just talking plans the whole time."

"Indeed, and it will be extremely boring" confirmed Al. "We will inform you of anything we decide to do later on" promised, winking an eye to her and he did threw a glance to Lilith when she didn't seem to like that either. "For today you can relax."

"Alright" Charlie sighed. "I hope this one is the one."

"We will manage" said Alastor, rubbing the side of Lucifer when he felt him tense up.

Charlie nodded and turned to her mom, giving her a hug by the neck. It started soft, but then she squeezed harder and harder until Lilith laughed, patting her back.

"I know from where you are taking those bad habits, dear!" commented, standing up to leave a kiss on her forehead. Lucifer cleaned up the table with a flick of the wrist, even from the leftovers of Lilith, and stand up with Alastor's hand in his. He could continue eating in the staff room if he was still hungry, but they had intruded enough already. No matter what they though about the woman, she was Charlie's mom and Charlie did deserve a break after the dissapointment of yesterday too. "I will come back as soon I can, sweetie. That is a promise" assured the queen, brushing her hair back.

"I know a Lucifer who heard that once!" couldn't help to add Alastor into the air, snickering as Lucifer kept pushing him outside of the kitchen.

"You are the actual worst" whispered Lucifer once they were in the hallway.

Alastor noticed that, despite that, he was still fighting to contain a smirk on his face.

In a place made of darkness, Alastor opened up his eyes. This darkness wasn't the one created by his shadows or one merely created by the abscence of light. It was a weight, it was air, something real and solid that was constantly breathing. Whenever he was called to its interior, there was no doubt that the only reason that force wasn't crushing him, digesting him at his first breath, wasn't because it couldn't or didn't want to do it. Rather because the one holding the wheel had no given that order yet.

"Pet, pet, pet" a cheery voice that came out of nowhere and everywhere at the same time. A voice that made itself known in the middle of a loud party and enchanted everyone who heard it. Beautiful, charming, melodic. The perfect recipe that just needed the right words to convince anyone of shooting their own mother or voluntarely fall into the abyss. Sometimes sounded like his mother, when she wanted to laugh at him. She didn't for the moment. "Yesterday there was quite the commotion at the edge of the city, hasn't it? I haven't seen that kind of power in a very long time. With the king of hell giving him kisses and telling him what a good job he made, no less! You didn't tell me that you had acquired such interesting friends recently."

"They are both irrelevant" The reply came out easy, natural. Alastor wasn't really sure if his mouth was actually moving or his thought were being transmitted some other way. He was aware of his body like a foreign presence that was close, but not enough. "That sinner is a new temporary guest at the hotel. He will be gone shortly so I saw no point to try to bring him up. I wasn't aware that he and the king had any kind of relationship before until yesterday."

The darkness pulsated around him with a silent purr that ran through his entire body.

"Oh? But you still hang out together, don't you?" asked the voice.

"Charlie keeps telling me to keep them company" Alastor shrugged, or thought he did, which may as well be the same thing in that place. "They want to mess around and, as the kids would say, find out. Charlie is so very insistent to make them feel welcome and apparently I am the only one available to fulfill that role. The king, by himself, is not enough with how socially indept he is."

"You poor little boy" She started laughing, her voice bouncing from place to place. Alastor would try to follow her with her eyes without ever seeming to get closer. "So that is how it is? It must be so frustrating to being forced into such a position by the princess. It's not like you are actually getting anything from it."

"Indeed. It feels like I am babysitting most of the time" Alastor swallowed through a throat that felt at his left. "But at least it keeps her happy and relying on me, so that is better than nothing."

"Her trust in you is a valuable resource" she conceded. "Powerful friends are good to have, Al, I keep telling you that, but you don't listen. Are you sure that sinner can't just be disuaded to make a deal or two?"

"I guess I could try" lied Alastor with ease, because one never just said no to her directly. "I am afraid that is a long shot, though, with the king insisting to be so close at all times."

"See into it anyway. Everyone needs a favor sometimes, it wouldn't hurt" That wasn't a clear order. Alastor knew very well the difference, so he could relax a little bit. "What were you doing in that place anyway after those two broke the ground?"

"Taking a few snacks, of course! There was such a conglomeration of people and no one taking a bite. It just seemed like such a waste to not take advantage of the situation."

"That hug the king gave you was cute though" Alastor gripped to his control over his body with all his might. His hearbeat didn't raise. His breathing remained the same. Not even the best polygrapher would be able to detect the slightest change on him. They wouldn't know how much that genuinely surprised him. It was always a gamble to know how much she could see or not, which was probably exactly what she wanted him to assume about her. That way the question was always hanging over him, chasing him over anything he did. "Such cute little friends."

"The king is just way too sentimental. We both know that very well. Give him a little bit of attention and he thinks the world of that someone. I am afraid he has misinterpretated my attempts to keep his daughter pacified as sincere, which has resulted in interactions such as that one at the drop of a hat. If it were any other hellish being I would have no issue shacking him off, but considering his power I am left with little to no choice."

"Mmm, that is true! Lucifer never knew how to read a room. I can only imagine how frustrating it was for you. But luckily now that other sinner is around to hopefully make him feel less lonely!"

"One can only hope" Alastor smiled, waiting to know what actually did she need from him in the first place.

"Yes, because it would be a pity to start making friends with Lucifer when that wasn't a part of our agreement. I can't have you getting too close to one of the major players just yet, Al. Too soon for that."

Alastor already was assuming as such, but the confirmation still left a sting somewhere he couldn't pin point.

"I don't believe there is anything to worry about" assured confidently. "I haven't forgotten what we agreed" added when he could percieve something going around his back, like a breeze on a portion of skin that wasn't covered by his suit somehow.

"I know you don't, Al! If I thought that for a single moment, you wouldn't be standing where you are right now" Another chuckle, this time closer to his ear. Or inside his ear. Or inside his brain, between the grey matter and his skull. Behind his eyes. Somewhere his claws tensed up briefly with the need to dig inside to try to take her out. "But nevermind that! I didn't bring you here to tell you the obvious. More interesting things that you babysitting a lonely king are happening! Some little pawns that haven't moved in a long while are suddenly going at full speed! You haven't heard of anything important happening, did you?" As Alastor was preparing himself to deny it, she continued. "One of them was close to where you were yesterday. You didn't notice?" her voice almost sounded concerned, like she felt pity of how oblivious he was.

Alastor clenched his teeth.

"No" said finally. "Maybe if you tell me who that is, I could stop them."

"Who said I want you to stop them?" She laughed over his left shoulder, light and charming. "No, no, that is way too boring! If anything, if you see them in the future, give them a little hand! As a show of good will, of course. We have to let all the players move before knowing what we should do next, isn't that right? Where is the fun otherwise?"

There it was. The pressure on his neck that wasn't just his neck, pulling tight and quick into whatever made his soul inside his body, pending on an edge he wasn't aware of until then. The cold that washed over him and had only slightly to do with fear or dread. There was no real choice.

"Absolutely" said, widening his smile, wherever it was. "I will make sure they get everything they need."

The weight lifted off, only slightly.

"T hope so. I have no use for a pet that is broken to the point it can't do the most simple task."

He could almost see her smile in front of him before the darkness, with everything that came with it, suddenly retreated and he stumbled on an empty room as if he had just gone up an elevator. He managed to grab himself to a nearby wall before going on his knees. For a moment nothing of what made him was real, but that was something he was expecting so he didn't panic. Slowly he started moving each finger in his hands. The ears at the top of his head. His legs recuperating their firmness over the ground.

When he looked at a clock on the nighstand, he was surprised to see that already a big portion of the day had gone past him and it was the afternoon. Their damned sun had to start coming down in the horizon. Alastor checked himself on the mirror of the bathroom and didn't move from there until he managed to convince his face to smile as usual. No traces of panic or aprehension were acceptable on his eyes.

Only once he was sure nobody get a read on him, he came out the building, where someone had already cleaned up the owner's gut from the sidewalk. Apparently that was a musician that practiced at horrible hours of the night, being the annoyance of all of his neighbors. Alastor actually didn't know if that was true or just a story she told him to excuse using his place. There was a guitar upstairs, and he was dead already, so might as well could be.

When he finally reached the hotel, it was officially night. He had only give a few steps in when he heard the voice of one of his biggest source of stress calling him.

"Alastor, buddy!" Lucifer waved at him from the bar where he and Al were drinking. The dark tail of the king now around the other's leg rather than his waist like usual, but that made small of a difference. At least they weren't doing that weird eye focused thing while whispering things to each other. "There you are! I was wondering when you were going to come in."

When Alastor made his way over there, he kept his hands at his back. He did not look at the face of the monarch mora than he needed to. The stupid thing on his chest could be stupid, but he wasn't. At least Al seemed politely interested on their conversation rather than openly antagonistic.

"Any updates on our stone hunting, your Majesty?" asked before anything else, because that was the only thing that mattered.

"Yeah, actually!" Lucifer finished the long tall glass he was taking and swivel on the seat. "We went with Vassago and we have the stone recharged and a new location. The place is kind of a warehouse so we think it could black market shit moving around for some rich asshole. They could be making the exchange right there. There is going to be less people than on the auction, but also!" added, making finger guns, "Less chances of explosions trapping us underground. So that is cool, isn't it?"

At last, some actual relief. If they moved fast enough, maybe he could avoid giving a "helping hand" altogether and just let Lucifer give him a piece of the stone.

"Great. It seems that you have made some progress today. We can talk about the details tomorrow in the morning" declared, turning on his heels. "For now, this is it for me. Good night to all of you!"

"Hey, wait" called Lucifer, chuckling to himself. "Charlie and Vaggie are gone, so we were thinking of watching a movie in the lobby. Al prepared some snacks already and we are just waiting on Angel to bring the pizza. Don't you want to join?"

"No" Alastor said it more abrupt than he intended. When he turned his head again, he smiled wider even as Al's eyes now were staring into him. "I mean, for goodness sake, no, of course not! You can enjoy your greasy fun all you like for me, though! I have better things to do, like laying in bed and count slaughtered sheep."

"Are you sure? The movie we got is an old timey one. A musical! I know cannibals tend to like those" added, winking an eye to Al, who gave him a smirk in response, before his eyes returned to Alastor. "Later we can try a horror one. You can complain about the fake blood all you want!"

"Tempting. But no" said, lifting his chin. "Have a good night, your Highness."

"Ah, but…" before Lucifer could say anything, Alastor had already disappeared into his shadow. He could still hear when the king turned around on his chair and asked to his companion. "Should we have told him that Lilian is back first?"

[adobe-outdesign]

What are your thoughts on Mareanie and Toxapex?

Mareanie is based on a starfish, similarly to the Staryu line. The execution, however, is completely different, to the point where they don't even seem like they should be based off the same animal.

For starters, Mareanie is specifically a crown-of-thorns-starfish, which as the name implies, are incredibly spiky:

Said spines are also poisonous, hence the poison/water typing. You can also see where the line gets its colors from, even if most crown-of-thorns aren't as bright as the above one.

Crown-of-thorns are also known for preying on coral, something which the Pokedex doesn't shy away from. It's also incorporated in to the game, as it can be summed by Corsola's SOS cry. I'm always a sucker for Pokemon-foodchain information, so it's nice to see how much thought they put into this.

The visual execution is also vastly different. The Staryu line has no face and focuses on the iconic "star" shape, but the line tosses that out completely. Instead, the tentacles form "hair" of sorts, and the armless and legless body is what would normally be the stomach of a starfish. Not only is this a refreshing take on a well-known animal, but it gives it a distinct body shape and design.

Speaking of design, it's really solid. The body and tentacles are all soft, round shapes at this point, which help increase the design's cohesion through use of repetition. The pastel color palette is well-balanced, with yellow accents that draw attention to the eyes and the single head spike, and blue to separate the tentacles from the body. And the expression is also great—adorably mopey, with the eyes placed far enough away that they're not hidden by the tentacles. Honestly, I have no complaints here.

Some Pokemon have the issue of losing their most interesting traits and becoming more generic as they evolve. Thankfully, Toxapex isn't one of those Pokemon. Instead, it doubles down on what makes Mareanie good—namely, the tentacles are even more prominent, forming a protective dome over the now very tiny body. Like I said, the body shape was one of my favorite parts of Mareanie's design, so seeing it expanded upon even more is perfect.

It also keeps the repetitive shapes of Mareanie, but this time swapping out the rounder aesthetics for lots and lots of spikes, hearkening back to its crown-of-thorns inspiration. Likewise, the color palette is expanded upon, adding pink to the mix. These colors once again look great together, and are very carefully balanced as to not feel overly complex or messy.

Anyway, as a whole, this is an incredibly solid line. The body shape is unique, the colors are lovely, its place in the Pokemon world and how it interacts with other Pokemon is well thought-out, and it gets sufficiently more imposing as it evolves without losing its best traits. Definitely one of my favorites from Gen 7.

[gatekeeper-watchman]

What Are We Going to Do?

          When you read our Declaration of Independence; when you read the Preamble to our Constitution; when you read our Constitution; and then, when you read the amendments, including our bill of rights, to our Constitution; how can you doubt, as President Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg in November of 1863, “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom–and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”. From all that has gone before, how can we doubt that? And yet, despite all we have sacrificed and endured throughout the history of our great nation and all the blood which has been shed by our valiant soldiers on the battlefields here and abroad, we the people have effectively lost control of our government. Our government is no longer “of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Rather, our government is of the power elite (essentially, the top one percent of us), by the power elite, and for the power elite. Extending their tentacles, acting through the media and those whom we term lobbyists, they have brainwashed us with misinformation and propaganda and bought out our elected representatives to such an extent that we the people no longer have control of our government. Our great nation has become their playground and we are slowly but surely becoming their serfs.

Probably the final nail in our coffin was in the form of Citizens United v. FEC, when the U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 margin ruled that corporations have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcome of elections. Effectively, the Court ruled that corporations have the right of free speech, the same as people. Corporations are people. How many people outside of those belonging to the one percent do you know who can stand up to that kind of political power? The net result is that our elected representatives pay little or no attention to us. We the people are no longer in charge. As I said before, our government is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

What are we going to do? How can our people take back our government? Just for starters, we need new amendments to the Constitution:

We need corporations to remain legal entities. However, we must amend the Constitution to the effect that corporations are not people; and, therefore, do not enjoy the benefit of our bill of rights. They do not have the right of free speech.

We must amend the Constitution to the effect that all elections will be publicly funded from the public treasury, Federal, State, and Local, with caps per campaign to be set for all expenditures; no candidate will be allowed to use his or her personal assets nor those of family to finance campaigns; no candidate will be allowed to solicit or accept outside contributions other than those provided from the public treasury; and all campaigns will be limited to six (6) months duration. Separate “standalone” funds will be established for each election’s entity to account for all campaign transactions and financed by single fully identifiable tax assessments “earmarked” for each entry, i.e. strict accounting control.

In the conduct of all elections within our nation (Federal, State, and Local), through another amendment to the Constitution, we need to establish fair and consistent voting laws throughout, wherein all candidates and parties are treated equal and have equal opportunity under the law. Multiple political parties should be allowed with equal opportunity upon which to be voted.

We should reorganize our government into four branches, adding a “Branch of the Controller”, with the complete responsibility for accounting, control, reporting, budgeting and planning, internal auditing, and investigative reporting over all operations, including subcontractors and the capital police, throughout government. To those opposed to bigger government, I must emphasize that this change should not and must not increase the size of government one twit. Every function indicated in this recommendation is being performed currently throughout our government. This recommendation will put all these functions under one head, thereby eliminating duplication of functions and costs as well as (currently a problem), the fox guarding the hen house. I further recommend that the head of this new branch of government be appointed by the President, approved by the Senate, and serve an indefinite term, renewable every eight years. If he would be willing to accept the offer, I recommend we begin with General David Walker who is intimately familiar with the inter-working of our government and of excellent character. He should be given all authority and power necessary to successfully implement and execute the responsibility of this position.

Let us take back our government folks. Let’s get business and government back to serving the people rather than the people serving them. It’s up to you. Only if we work together can we achieve this end. What do you think?

[twotangledsisters]

My Current Tangled the Series Character Rigs and what they CAN and CANNOT do! (plus what I plan to change about them)

All of these rigs were created by me using the original show as reference with the main goal of learning and improving my animation skills! They were all made with Vectors using standard vector art and rigging techniques.

First of all (which is actually the latest cause we're moving in reverse)...

HAMUEL!

My plan with him is to be able to do a full turn! Am I over judging my capabilities? DEFINITELY! But it's through failures we learn so I shall try.

For flight I believe I'm going to need to create separate open wings, but I'll figure that one out!

Secondly...

LADY CAINE!

She's my most advanced human one and there was a lot of cool stuff accomplished here!

I'm not done with her.... I can fix her.

Third up...

ZHAN TIRI (Demon Form)

I seriously messed up rigging her legs/tentacles and am not sure if that's fixable... The other stuff are easy fixes! And I have actually given her some varied expressions for an animation, only I did so manually using frame per frame animations rather than making use of rigging so...

Forth on the list... Rapunzel! (With short hair and only shoulders and head)

CAN ALSO DESTROY YOU:

Using a variety of methods that look way better animated than as single frames xD

Next up:

Cassandra!

She can also probably destroy you...

The final human puppet but not final puppet!

Eugene Fitzherbert

Okay... He used to be able to do more, some very basic lip syncing and expressions as well as the smoulder as long as that was the LAST thing he did in an animation... But he was the first human I did so there were so many mistakes! I need to re-do him fully, no adding, no editing, full makeover for Eugene coming up!

Finally, the first puppet I ever made!

Owl!

And that's all!

Learning animation through this method is a lot of fun, it's so useful to have a huge source of references allowing me to concentrate on the technical side of things!

This is moving from newest to oldest and I think you can see an improvement?

I plan to make more of these, rework a lot of old ones as well!

If you haven't seen any of these in action, you can find a bunch of examples under animation on my blog!

A huge thanks to everybody who's offered up advice as vector art I may be familiar with but vector animation is still pretty new to me!

[clanraire]

How to make accents for Flight Rising

Hi folks! I was asked how I make accents on Flight Rising, so I figured I'd give a step by step guide on some aspects of it to make it clearer to any new FR skin and accent artists how some things work.

Full disclosure, I usually work on Photoshop for skins and accents even though I do most of my art in Clip Studio Paint. There might be differences in other programs that I can't explain since I do not have experience with them.

Alright, first things first, let's look at how the layers in the template files for each dragon and gender combo is set up, by starting with a female spiral file:

There are two folders - the base folder (named Skin Parts) that serves as reference, and the accent/skin area itself (folder named Accent Parts). The Skin Parts folder consists of a basic silhouette layer (called Flats), and a few details on top of it (such as the lines, which go on top of the shadows, which go on top of specific subarea layers, like the wings and belly).

So usually, what is supposed to happen according to the tutorial, is using the Skin parts as reference, you draw your actual accent or skin on the layer called "Accent goes here", which I've marked with a red star in the following image:

You'll notice that the shadows and lines layer on the accent folder is "clipped" (that little arrow going down from Clip lines and the clip shadows pointing down that I've circled in the next image). This means that whatever is on the "clipped layers", will only show up that layer's art on the areas that have been drawn in the layer it has been clipped to.

Another Tip

Here's another tip, which is how I generally make my accents. You don't have to only draw on one layer like a single painting.

What I do is make a separate folder I often just call "Accent", and use different layers there to create overlap effects. I'll deconstruct part of one of my accents to show you how I use different layers. I'm going to use my accent Sunset Astros

This is what my accent folder looks like for it:

It consists of three subfolders: the wings, the legs, and the belly. This is to keep things organized so that I know what I'm editing at a time.

The legs subfolder consists of a few layers that overlap with each other:

The base layer, named "Gradient", is just a flat purple that has been edited to fade out at certain points:

On top of it, I painted a layer with "tentacle" swirls that I named, appropriately, "Tentacles":

On top of the tentacles, I added the light golden claws as a detail and name the layer "Claws". It's on a separate layer so I can play with different shades of gold to see what I like best:

Finally, I add "glowing orbs", using Photoshop's layer effect outer glow:

Building up on each layer, I finally have something nicer to look at. I do something similar for the other body parts until I build up something I'm satisfied with, drawing, or in the case of the belly, painting within the silhouette and belly area.

Once I finish the basics of the accent, which I've been working on without the lines and shadows on top of it, because those are in the "Accent Parts" folder, I have something that looks like this:

Once I like how it looks, I copy or duplicate the "Accent" folder, and then merge all the layers in the copied folder into a single flat layer. In my experience, you right click the folder in the drawing software and then find the option to merge or flatten that specific folder. Not sure how it will be in your software.

Once that is done, I move the new "Accent" single layer into the "Accent Part" folder, underneath the "Accent goes here" layer. Then I delete the "Accent goes here" layer, which also automatically unclips the shadow and lines layers above, making them show all over, not just where the accent is:

This is wrong, so what I do is right click the shadows layer, and click on "Create clipping mask". Then I repeat that process for the lines layer. That's when I am almost at my end result.

From there on, it's coloring the shadows and lines. For fun I'll share what my unclipped shadow layer looks like to show you how I change color for specific part of the accent. In this case, I have moved the layer setting from "Multiply" to "Normal" so you can see the colors but otherwise that layer always stays in Multiply. Make sure your layer is always on Multiply so that the shadows work well.

This is where I make sure to turn off and thus make invisible the "skin parts" folder (which in this case I had colored in that gradient of teal to darker blue-almost-purple). Then I have my end result:

I save it then, and then resize it to 350x350 pixels, save as a transparent png, and voila, I am ready to submit the skin/accent! I also make sure to also undo the resize in the Photoshop/non-png file so I don't accidentally save a smaller version in case I decide to make changes.

Erasing outside pixels

You might have stray pixels - pixels that are outside the lines. I do two things to erase those: I create a layer that I put at the bottom of the layers. I then fill it with a color that stands out against the other colors I've used in the accent so they stand out and are easier to see and erase. I also use the wand tool, go to the layer of "Flats", and select outside the actual silhouette of the dragon, and then just erase everything outside it - which isn't perfect, but will help you get most of the outside pixels. You want to have as few pixels outside as possible.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions let me know!

[after-dark-musings]

Guess who got a fat check and went ✨️overboard✨️

Meeeeee :3

So, from left to right and top to bottom, we have:

Medium/extra soft rogue Bumble Hooves

Medium/soft rogue Meng

Fall sticker 4-pack and Meng keychain

Custom medium/medium Ky'el's Natural Color Swap Moko

Bumble Hooves was a last-minute separate order bc I decided I really did want to get at least one extra soft toy out of this drop, and I'm glad I opted to just sort the inventory by firmness bc this model wasn't really on my radar. I already own one in small/med that I've outgrown by a lot (though I keep it bc it's one of my favorite pours). But I have always, since very first starting to get interested in fantasy toys, wanted a pastel or opal equine toy. So this guy was an exciting find among all the natural and signature extra softs.

Meng has been on my wishlist for a while, for its looks and texture. Lily O'Riley's review of her medium/soft Meng really sold me on it ngl. And this pour is basically made from shades of my favorite colors, so it was the first thing added to my cart out of all of these haha. I also got the Meng keychain because it's a recognizable model to those who are familiar with BD but not something as overt as one of the dick, tentacle, or penetrable ones.

Moko will be my first full custom order from any shop. I've been waiting to get a custom toy that would be worth the production time and cost. This ended up being my choice because while I love my small/soft Ky'el, I wish he was thicker, a bit more curved, and a bit firmer. Medium/medium Moko checks all of those boxes while not being so impossibly huge as medium Ky'el. I think Ky'el's bumps would be too rough for me in any firmer density, but Moko's bumps aren't as defined, so it should be perfect. I love Ky'el's natural colorway, and I thought it would suit Moko well with them both being feline models.

[samglyph]

If you want a space to rant about ST season 4 and its horror flaws I would love to hear your thoughts---i just rewatched seasons 1 and 2 so I'm in the thinking about it mode

Ohhhh I’m vibrating with all I have to say but I’m going to stick to the horror flaw theme and leave out most of my other non horror related thoughts. Ok so starting off: I actually like most of the first three seasons of Stranger Things. I think season 3 is flawed in a lot of ways but there’s enough that I like there that it’s watchable for me. I know a lot of people feel differently so I’m just putting that out there first.

Season 4 starts strong. The first episode? Good! The dnd/basketball scene? Fantastic! The scene with Eddie and Chrissy? Adorable, great character building. I think one of the strengths of this show has always been the acting, especially from the younger actors, and I think that remains true. And in terms of horror, Chrissy’s death scene is super spooky.

Episode 2 is where it falls apart. The reason I said ‘horror rule number 1’ is because while it might not be a general hard and fast rule (there are plenty of things that don’t do it and are still good and scary), it’s generally accepted, especially in creature features (which ST TECHNICALLY IS) that you shouldn’t show off your creature right away. Jaws? You don’t see the shark until the climax. The Thing? You see people transform and mutate early enough, but you don’t see the full spider body horror monstrosity until well through the film. And Stranger Things season 1 does this perfectly; people are taken/killed left and right, but aside from a blurry photo we don’t see the demigorgon until the LAST EPISODE. Now, yes this is often done for budget reasons, but it’s a good technique! Not being able to see what you’re running from makes it scarier. Showing us Vecna in the second episode? His whole body? With his tentacles? It’s a cool shot sure, but it’s unnecessary and immediately makes him less scary. He’s just a weird dude! They’re trying to do like. Power scaling. But it doesn’t connect well to prior seasons and the world building is really finicky at best.

I know it’s season four and they’re trying to explain stuff because we’re coming to the end of the show and they want to wrap up the mystery, but here’s a thought: sometimes things…. Should stay mysteries. The upside down, as a concept, is very cool and scary, and in trying to explain it they just opened more cans of worms and it’s still a mystery but now it’s almost more fantasy/eldritch sci fi then the grounded sci fi that it was and so some of the believability falls away. Also adding magic glowing dust is a retcon and ridiculous we know that’s not how the lights work. And I LIKE alien eldritch horror ok you know that but that’s not what stranger things IS it shouldn’t BE HERE. Also making your villain just the “weird spooky probably neurodivergent child” trope? Don’t like it, I think they could have had Henry find a small portal to the (already existing I don’t think El should’ve made it) upside down and that corrupted him and mind controlled him and given him some base power (kinda like Will in season 2) would’ve worked just as well, but that’s just an idea.

Another issue with the horror: it’s rushed! Why is Max’s Possession scene in episode 4! It shouldn’t be there! It’s a great scene, but it’s WAY to great and climactic to be happening BEFORE THE MIDPOINT OF THE SEASON? There’s another climax with max but it almost feels less important despite the fact that she basically dies. AND WITH BARELY ANY OF THE CAST THERE? That’s a separate issue but really quick: horror partially comes from the awareness of the characters, and then the audience being aware of the characters awareness. Either the character is aware of the horror which can create stress, (ie. Watching Will in season 1 as he tries to avoid the monster in episode 1) or the character is unaware (shouting ‘he’s right behind you! In scream) which can also create stress. But in the latter section, the film/tv show/whatever has to emphasize that lack of awareness. Meaning if for instance, one of your best friends is about to die, and you’re a MAIN CHARACTER and you have NO IDEA, it might behoove the writers to nod to that somehow to twist the knife a bit. Like El is so important in the second Max climax but isn’t even remotely important in the first scene. Cmon. But that’s just my opinion and a little off topic anyway also the Russia stuff slows down the plot and I don’t care about it and they used a nazi prison and then tried to monetize it as a hotel experience Ls all the way down.

Tldr a lot of the horror was ruined because things were rushed/shown to early and overcomplicated. Something needed to be cut so that other things could flourish.

This is no where close to all my thoughts on season 4, trust me I’ve got a whole like. PowerPoint/video essay locked in here and also I have a head cold right now so apologies if this isn’t coherent. Or if I’m wrong I’m not watching the season again to check.