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ohwolfling · 9 months ago

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Waterdeep Style & Culture (part one)

I've been working on pinning down some aesthetics/cultures connected to Baldur's Gate 3 and the Forgotten Realms in general. Y'all voted that you'd like to see my ideas on Waterdeep FIRST so here ya go.

I (and many others) have spoken about Gale Dekarios being INCREDIBLY Greek coded, even before you find out the Dekarios bit. So in my mind, Waterdeep is deeply Greek coded. First, Chessenta does exist in Faerûn and is very openly Hellenistic/Greek inspired.

There will be pretty pictures & stuff, promise, but first let's talk about concepts of Greek myth & early society & how it relates to our Wizard of Waterdeep.

Themes/Ideals

Art and artistry served the gods and gods made people in their image and of course in Greek mythology gods and especially demigods loved to be a mess in, on, around, or about mere mortals. The parallels there are obvious… Gale speaks first of feeling the Weave, of composing with it. It’s art and artistry to HIM, regardless of any limitations, codes, or creeds Mystra or anyone else might try to put around it. Another parallel is the concept of Arete. Arete refers to the journey to personal excellence. It’s a belief that everyone is called to be the absolute best version of themself, with the acknowledgement that that is different for every living creature, and from person to person. Do we perhaps know a wizard who takes that perhaps too seriously and has been historically manipulated and controlled around that concept? Hmmmm.

Aesthetics

Greek Arts

Mosaics, Tiles, painted everything. Bold and natural. There’s a sharp contrast between the fine lines of Waterdeep’s architecture, the precision needed for its docks, its ships, and the boldness of its artistry, applied to all things. Art is meant to be seen, experienced. And all art there needs to survive winds and storms all kissed with the salt of the sea.

My general idea of seafaring/fisherman communities and the specificity of Greek inspiration, especially mosaics, leads me to imagine a Waterdeep that utilizes clear motifs, themes, and symbols. You can already see from the photos I selected above that images reflect the natural surroundings but also lend themselves to myth. Even in busier, more detailed work, there are figures that STAND OUT!

Clothing (symbols, structure, some talk of status, jewelry below)

Here’s an excerpt from a fic where I have Gale lay out a typical, representative Waterdeep dinner. Here, I utilized my ideas about folk/mythological symbolism and its use in even an artistry most of us don't event think about, dishware and such:

“Come and see,” Gale extends a hand, unnecessary for a walk through the foyer and kitchen and into the dining area but Tav takes it eagerly. Tav gives a genuine sigh of awe at the table before her. This gladdens him. He meets her own sigh with one of his relief. She lets go of his hand to circle the table. It was simple illusory magic but Gale took care in making a series of ethereal fish in blues and golds seemingly swimming just above the scene, a few of them circling playfully around the candelabra in the center of the table. The table itself Gale had lain with a gold runner with embroidered blue waves and copper boats along its length, a very old tapestry motif that had been popular in Waterdeep before Gale’s time. Still, it was handmade with care by his own grandfather. He resists the urge to tell Tav this in great detail, wanting instead to be present. He focuses on how charmed Tav seems by the space. On either side of the candelabra Gale had placed two wine goblets, bronze with inlaid seahorses the likes of which donned ships during Waterdeep’s parade seasons, which Tav had not yet experienced. A carafe sat on the corner of the table, covered in hand painted seahorses of a less stylized nature.

Clothing

symbols and structures

I think these symbols extend to clothing as well, perhaps less on the day to day (though I don’t think Waterdeep has a concept of being overdressed in so far as having prints, patterns, and embroidered details go). Embroidery is reminiscent of the mosaic and tile arts, taking turn with repetitive detail or focusing in on one figure or symbol. I won't get too much into jewelry for now but I do think small jewelry pieces might be used to signify rank and status in various arenas of Waterdeep life (and this is something that happens in a few magic school campaigns for Forgotten Realms), using specific coins or beads to communicate anything from authority to "first time caster, please be kind" and "this bard breaks suddenly to jam" to which district a person is representing. This is an especially impactful idea to me because I imagine that Gale may have given up all these other pieces, including signifiers of House Dekarios and his achievements at Blackstaff to solely represent Mystra once he became Chosen. I've also included some of Elia Fernandez's ASOIAF women art because of the specific way they use house sigils. Dynamic, colorful symbols.

I imagine summers are hot so you want clothes to have enough structure to SERVE and to have a base if you want to strip down OR add light linens for more protection from the sun. I want to combine the silhouettes we see from ancient Greece- cloaks and tunics and, yes, shapes similar to the Roman toga- with the flowing structure we see of the wizard robes we encounter in Baldur’s Gate 3.

As a note, I think Waterdeep- partly by virtue of having so many places where people go to train as monks, bards, wizards, etc so having a huge uniformed student population, partly by virtue of having a canon drag scene- considers most pieces of fashion to be non-gendered. So any of the silhouettes included here, be they skirts, deep Vs, corsets, underbust details, etc, I'm assuming are flexible to and socially normal/accepted for any gender expression.

Lastly (for this round), here's a color palette for our Waterdeep aesthetics thus far.

I have a part two outlined that I hope I'll get to soon! It will be influenced by another island culture with a rich art/textile history and open us up to more fashion subcultures and how they reflect the working class and more physical studies of Waterdeep.

Feel free to let me know what else you might be interested in a series like this. Would you like more jewelry? Are you interested in interiors? any other specific elements of culture you'd like aesthetics for? Any time periods irl speak to you when you think of Waterdeep?

Thank you to those who voted to see this first and to anyone who reblogs or chit chats. If you'd like to support my sanity and so make it easier for me to do bigger fun things like this, I'm on ko-fi and Twitch and won't look a donation or support horse in the mouth.

#baldurs gate 3 #forgotten realms #waterdeep #galeposting #gale of waterdeep #wolfling plays #wolfling worldbuilds #gale dekarios

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wowbright · 7 days ago

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Chapter 18: Busy

Figureskating!Blaine/designer!Kurt Olympics AU for december klaine fanworks challenge. Also on AO3.

You might expect an Olympian at the Olympics to be incredibly busy, but for Blaine’s first few days at Sochi, he didn't have much to do as he waited for the games to start besides unpack, tour the facilities, chitchat in Russian with any Russian who would speak to him, and play foosball in the lounge with Mike and Sam (who had become far less insufferable since the backflip incident).

Blaine wanted to go into Sochi proper and see if he could find any locals to talk to about the effect of all the new construction, but it was an hour drive each way—and even though he didn't have much to do, the few things he did have scheduled were sprinkled throughout the day. He slept a lot and practiced a little and managed to escape the Olympic village with a bunch of teammates long enough to go on a hike in the foothills. The park looked absolutely nothing like Garden of the Gods, but it reminded him of being with Kurt anyway, and he felt an ache in his chest that he simultaneously wished would go away and also wanted to wallow in because it was so new and precious. He snapped a photo of the waterfall and sent it to Kurt with a text that said Wish you were here and then immediately regretted sending such an unoriginal sentiment to such an original person, so then he sent another message saying I ache when I think of you and I love it and wondered if maybe that was too much but whoops he had already sent it.

I might be a bad person was the next message Blaine received from Kurt when he was back in the Olympic village. Blaine wondered if his texts from the park had failed to transmit.

What happened? Blaine asked.

Because I like the fact that you ache. It means I'm not alone in the feeling.

The feeling of missing you? Blaine texted, half flirtatious and half concerned that was what Kurt literally meant.

You’re cute, Kurt texted back. It’s not me that I’m missing. And then, a while later, Sue thinks I'm distracting you.

Ugh. So that’s why she had interfered with Blaine’s last conversation with Kurt in Colorado Springs. Not to talk about costumes or trip logistics. But to— Did she threaten you?

It took a few moments for Kurt to respond. Unsure. Her tone was kind of threatening, and she did say something about punching me in the face if I kept you from medaling, but she also promised to get me a kitty cat I would fall in love with if you didn’t medal. Sue is very confusing.

I'm sorry. It's my fault. It's because I was late to that meeting. But you're not a distraction. At least, not in a bad way. If anything, Kurt was an inspiration. Before Kurt, Blaine had been approaching the Olympics half-heartedly. And then Kurt had shown up, and by the simple act of being himself, he had helped Blaine remember why he had fallen in love with figure skating in the first place. The way Kurt’s eyes lit up when he had a new idea, the way he talked about the process of co-creation inherent in costume design, the obvious joy he felt in bringing a shared vision to life—it reminded Blaine on a visceral level that what he was doing was art, and art could transform lives.

When Blaine had been younger, his dreams had so much bigger than figure skating. He’d wanted to help people through his art. Giving people a respite from their day-to-day struggles by having something beautiful to look at was part of it, of course. But it was more than that. He’d wanted to be a person gay kids who were in the closet and multiracial kids who wondered where they fit in could look to and feel a spark of hope, knowing that there was someone famous and respected who was like them. That's why he wanted to be a champion—not for the bragging rights, but so he could inspire others.

Those feelings had motivated Blaine through most of his career. But recently, he’d lost sight of them. Maybe they got buried under all the dysfunctional stuff with Eli, or maybe it was a natural period of burnout after more than a decade of pushing himself and being pushed. In any case, he had stopped caring about winning. Sure, he told himself that he wanted to win. But deep inside, he had the niggling thought: What did it matter, who got bronze or silver or gold? Every year, the competitions came and went and the medals inevitably ended up with somebody. Why should he care if he was one of them?

Those doubts had haunted his performance in the seasons prior to the Olympics. The only thing that had kept him going was the challenge of adding more rotations to his jumps and trying to make the odd new spin combinations Sue kept coming up with work. In retrospect, it was a miracle he had medaled at all, and even more of a miracle he was now here in Sochi. Sam had been right about one thing. Blaine hadn't earned his place on the team. He was a second stringer who made it to the top three only by dint of someone more deserving getting injured. And even after his place had been secured, even with Sue doing every weird thing she could think of to motivate him, even after designing programs with the goal of reviving the energy and focus of his younger days—even with all that, he’d kept thinking that maybe it was his time to fade into the background and let the likes of Sam Evans and Yuzuru Hanyu take over the sport.

And then Kurt had shown up and put Blaine back in touch with his heart.

In those private moments in the costume room, they had talked about the boycotts and the media frenzy and how fatiguing it was sometimes, wondering if there would ever come a day when politicians who were failing to address the real problems affecting their constituencies would stop using random minorities as scapegoats. It was all so impersonal and calculating, and yet the effects of it were deeply personal, transforming real people's lives, making it harder to live and breathe and just get by in the day-to-day, much less to find happiness.

But somehow, Blaine was finding happiness anyway. He wanted to help others find it, too. It was the most beautiful sort of defiance, to live and love and create in a world that wanted you to believe you were nothing.

You inspire me to be better, Kurt. I don't know how I would do this without you.

You've done it plenty of times before without me.

No, I haven't. This time is different.

How?

Blaine wasn't sure how to distill it into words that would fit on a phone screen. Because I'm different and the world is different. It's about something much bigger than me.

I think I get it, Kurt texted. I'm glad I can be there for you. I want to be.

~~~

If anyone was a distraction Sue should be worried about, it was Cooper. Before that interview at the Olympic Training Center and every day after, Cooper had bombarded Blaine with messages like Whenever you want to make a public statement I'm ready. And even though Blaine deleted every one of them, he couldn't delete the pain of receiving them. But Cooper was so single minded. He put his entire identity into his work. When he'd been in the NHL, everything was always about the NHL. And now that he was sportscaster, it was all about that.

ButAll Blaine wanted from his brother was for him to be like other people's brothers, sending him stupid texts about the latest episode of Homeland or his obsession with playing The Last of Us or even, you know, wishing him good luck.

Blaine wanted to believe that Cooper meant well. That this was his way of reaching out and saying I see you, but I don't know how to have a conversation that does not tie back to my identity as a media figure, so even my best efforts at communicating with you in a supportive manner will be couched in those terms.

That’s how Cooper’s support had always been packaged. Back when Blaine had decided to come out publicly, Cooper had run interference with their parents. “Of course we support you, Blaine,” his mother had said. “But what you do in private should stay private. You know, you should talk to Brian Boitano before you do anything rash. There’s a reason he never came out publicly. It would have ruined his career.”

But Cooper, who had already been in the public eye for nearly a decade at that point, had used his career in the NHL to persuade their parents to support Blaine. If he didn't come out, Cooper explained, he would be plagued with incessant questions about if he was dating and who was his girlfriend, and he wouldn't be able to answer any of them honestly. And since Blaine was absolutely terrible at lying, the public would know he was lying, opening him up to rumors and speculation and scandal. If Blaine wasn't keeping any secrets, he wouldn't have to worry about any of those things.

Blaine shouldn’t look askance at that. It was the right thing to say to their parents. They wouldn't have been persuaded by emotional appeals or arguments about integrity and being true to yourself. Blaine had already tried those. And to be fair to Cooper, sometimes he actually could say something nice and supportive without referring back to himself. After that taxing conversation with their parents, Cooper had said privately to Blaine, “I'm so sorry our parents are like this. I can't imagine what it’s like for you. But I’m glad you’re my brother. Our parents need to stop being such homophobes. They should be proud of you for who you are, not just your skating. I am.”

And Blaine had thought Cooper was being a little harsh, because their parents weren't virulent homophobes; they were the milder kind, the kind that could have gay friends and be fine with it, but for whom having a gay son was inconvenient and disturbing because it upended their expectations for a daughter-in-law and grandchildren and heteronormative Christmas photos. They we're proud of him in their own way. But also, they would have preferred him to be more like Cooper.

But Cooper didn't need Blaine to be like Cooper. So Blaine had cried and Cooper had hugged him, and even Cooper cried a little, and Blaine hadn't felt this close to his older brother since Cooper first taught him how to skate.

Blaine wanted to believe that Cooper was trying to be supportive again, to offer Blaine the opportunity to say what was on his mind publicly so that it didn't seep out in unproductive ways. But what could Blaine say that would make a difference? His teammate Ashley Wagner had already told the Today show “it’s horrible the treatment the LGBT community gets in Russia,’’ and Brian Boitano had finally come out and been appointed by President Obama to the U.S. presidential Olympic delegation along with already-out Billie Jean king and Caitlin Caho. Weren't those pretty big statements in themselves? Blaine didn't know what words he could add. Maybe the biggest F-you he could give to Putin would be winning the gold.

The day Kurt was supposed to arrive in Sochi but didn’t because his flight was delayed, Cooper texted, You speaking up could help people.

If Kurt had been there—if Blaine had picked him up at the airport that morning and Blaine had sat contentedly in the corner of his hotel room as he unpacked and they had gone to lunch and then for a walk along the Black Sea—Blaine would have had someone to talk with about this. Sure, there was Mike, but he had his own pressures to deal with right now. And there was Sebastian, but they didn't really talk about this kind of thing. But with Kurt, Blaine felt like he could talk about anything, even the parts of himself he was unsure about and didn't understand.

It shouldn't only be that way with Kurt. Family was supposed to be like that, too.

This time, Blaine didn't delete the text. He texted back, You know what would help? If I could talk to you without it turning into a story. I want you to be my brother, not my interviewer. If you can't do that, stop messaging me.

~~~

That night, Blaine woke up only a couple hours after going to bed. He’d been dreaming about being with Kurt in the Garden of the Gods, only in this dream it was summer and warm, and sometimes the sunset shone through the rocks, lighting everything up in pink and orange, and sometimes it was night and the Aurora Borealis illuminated the dark with dazzling streaks of green and purple. Kurt had on short sleeves and an ascot—a tantalizing blend of skin revealed and hidden—and they were holding hands, and Kurt said something that made Blaine’s heart ache in that increasingly familiar, delicious way, and Blaine ran his fingers over the Kurt’s forearm and Kurt smiled and Blaine's heart overflowed and he said, “This is my home, Kurt,” and Kurt understood exactly what he meant.

Blaine lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. The curtains were flimsy, letting plenty of light into the room and Blaine’s eyes now that he had pulled his sleeping mask off. Inside him, another long-buried dream was awakening. Once upon a time, Blaine had dreamt of sharing his life with someone—really sharing his life, not just his bed and his body, but his hopes and aspirations, too. He’d dreamt of having a husband and creating a home that would nurture them both, a sanctuary where they could explore life together and bring out the best in each other, where every day Blaine would discover something new about himself and also be challenged to look beyond himself as he learned to understand the world through another person's eyes.

He'd gotten glimpses of that in some of his relationships. As a teenager falling in love for the first time, he’d been so open and generous and naïve. But with each breakup, he’d pulled his armor a little tighter around himself, always holding something back because he knew he would eventually get hurt, and the blows would cause less harm than if he never revealed the parts of himself that were vulnerable.

Around Kurt, Blaine didn't feel a need for armor. He wanted Kurt to see and know everything. And sure, that was risky.

But this time, with this person, it would hurt more to never take the risk.

Blaine lay in bed for ten minutes, maybe twenty, listening to Mike snore and thinking about Kurt, before realizing he was not going to fall back asleep anytime soon. His body was convinced it was early afternoon, and Blaine didn't feel like fighting it. It wasn't like he had to go to bed early and get up early like he did back in the U.S., anyway. All his slots were scheduled for late afternoon or evening. As long as he was adjusted enough to feel awake and revived for those, it wouldn't matter if he slept when it was dark or light.

Besides, Blaine had something better to do than sleep.

He grabbed his phone from the nightstand, tiptoed into the bathroom, and shut the door. It was a nice bathroom, with walls covered floor to ceiling in large twenty- by forty-centimeter tiles like you’d find in a fancy hotel—way more posh than Blaine had ever seen in a normal Russian apartment. He wondered if the people who’d been kicked out of their homes to make way for the Olympic complex would move in here after the games were over, or if the luxe bathrooms would go empty and unused while people who could benefit from them languished in substandard housing.

Blaine hated the Olympics sometimes.

He checked his phone to see if Kurt’s final plane had landed in Sochi yet. No. It was still in the air, and with customs, he likely wouldn't arrive at his hotel for another couple hours at least.

Which gave Blaine time.

He composed a text.

Sebastian, I have an idea.

~~~

“Before you check in, I have good news and bad news,” Sebastian said when Kurt stepped into the lobby with his customs-cleared luggage and the strong desire to take his travel frustrations out on someone. He just wanted to see Blaine. And obviously he’d known Blaine wasn't going to be here because it was the middle of the night, and that was completely logical, especially because they weren't even technically boyfriends or anything yet, and Kurt hadn’t even known Blaine a few weeks ago so really he should be able to survive just fine another day without him, but also Blaine made everything lighter and better and more joyful and …

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Kurt said. He figured whatever the bad news was, it couldn't be that bad: Blaine was alive and healthy; they'd been sending each other flirty and suggestive texts about their mutual versatility just minutes before when Kurt had still been in taxi. “Why are you even awake?”

“I'm awake because I love the nightlife, and I like to boogie. Also, it can’t wait. You’re staying in my room.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Well, it's a suite, technically. One door, two rooms. I'm being nice and giving you the bedroom with the door that actually closes.”

That was better than sharing a single room, or much worse, a bed. As long as the sheets had been changed since Sebastian had last used them. But— “I've been through four different airports in two days and you probably thought I was thrilled to be rerouted through Charles de Gaulle since I actually speak French, but in Munich they have sleeping pods you can rent, where in Paris it was just benches or the floor, and I missed my flight in Belgrade and the next one was late and they made me go through customs just so I could go to a hotel and shower and sleep in an actual bed for a few hours, and I’m starting to get a tiny grasp on Cyrillic but that doesn't really help when I don't actually know what any of the words mean, and I tried to sleep some more on the airplane to get adjusted to the new time zone but the turbulence was insane and also the person next to me was eating cayenne covered edamame even though they clearly couldn't handle the heat because they coughed every single time they swallowed and kept asking the flight attendant for more milk and water, so of course every time the seat belt lights went off they were climbing over me to get to the bathroom, seriously I don't understand how a four-hour flight can be so miserable but I hate people and I hate everyone and I'm supposed to have my own room.”

Sebastian smiled. He smiled. As if Kurt’s irritation was amusing. “Look, I'm not thrilled about this either. But somehow among the most expensive Olympic preparations the world has ever known, somebody forgot that the media would need housing too. All the hotels are overbooked. They gave your room to somebody else when you were flying over the Atlantic.”

“Fuck me.”

“No. But that brings me to the good news. Turn around.”

“Oh, yippee. A bar. I don't want a drink, Sebastian, I want— Blaine!"

Blaine was there, in the bar, smiling at him. Blaine. With his sparkling eyes and his hair that Kurt longed to touch and his beauty and kindness and generosity. He was real and physical and here. Kurt forgot that he hated everyone in the world and just wanted to be alone—or rather, a switch flicked inside of him and he no longer felt that way, because Blaine was a person and Blaine was beautiful and Kurt wanted to be with him. He abandoned his suitcase with the still-chattering Sebastian and almost ran across the lobby, his heart pounding from nerves and excitement and something that felt an awful lot like love and probably, in fact, was. No, not probably. Kurt had already known falling in love with Blaine would be inevitable. Here it was.

“Care to join me?” Blaine said, his expression radiant with hope and a little shyness. “I know you've had a long trip, so if not—”

“Of course I do,” Kurt said, sitting across the two-person table from Blaine and touching his shoe to Blaine’s. “It’s been too long.”

“Ahem.” That was Sebastian, holding on to Kurt’s suitcase and setting a keycard on the table. “I'm going back to the room for a minute anyway, so I guess I'll deliver your luggage there, Mr. Hummel. And then I'll be going out for a few hours. You know, in case that information is relevant to you.”

Blaine turned pink. It was precious. “Sebastian, you don't have to—”

“I have a life too, you know. I’ve made plans. The dance scene here is off the chain. The snowboarders know how to party, unlike some Olympians I know. Da svidania, boys.”

And then Sebastian was gone, and it was just the two of them, and Kurt wasn’t tired anymore.

#Figureskating!Blaine/designer!Kurt Olympics AU #wowbright writes fic #december klaine fanworks challenge 2024 #day 14: busy #klaine fanfiction #my klaine advent

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melancoley · 1 year ago

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ੈ˚ʚ welcome to my notion tutorial !!

♡ my notion took me a month to make. It's a bit frustrating sometimes, but i want you to know that it's possible to have some organization in your life.

notion is meant to help you have a more organized life: trackers, goals, diary entries, anything can be turn into a notion page and i'm here to teach you how. ♡

ps: sorry for being so long and with some typos and whatnot ♡

♡. 1st step: the choice of an aesthetic.

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for me, i wanted a place cozy and warm that reminded me of spring.

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(i used this website, but any is good enough. it's just to give you an idea of what you're going to work with.)

i chose an aesthetic more gloomy, academic, and obviously green, (for my main layout, a retro blue-ish layout for my fanfics and a melancholy yellow for my original works) and with that i jumped to step 2.

♡. 2nd step: hunting images and inspiration.

pinterest, pinterest, pinterest.

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if you're a beginner, start with notion inspo, notion [aesthetic] ideas, anything notion related. pick your favs and choose what you like most about each one:

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keywords i suggest are: [color] aesthetic, [color] cinematography, [color] photography, and, especially, [color] png icon.

i find it really satisfying having pngs on your notion: it gives a better sense of home and they cute, so it's a plus!

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for transperants images i suggest you look on tumblr. just use key-words and remember to pt 'png' at the end.

now you should be left with a small gallery of photos with the same color scheme and this takes us to step 3!

♡. 3rd step: dividers save lives.

pick one image to be the base of your notion layout.

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♡. 4th step: the creation of art.

is time to make pages and more pages.

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you can take all the time you want ♡

ㅤㅤ♡. 4.1 step: page outline.

choose the number of pages !

i suggest you have one homepage with quick links to your other pages:

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after having the number of pages you can star outlining the pages.

the beginning is always difficult and embaracing, but if you give it a try, i'm sure you will create art!

i suggest, if you do a full page, to use 4 to 6 columns. it might be a bit overwhelming at the start, but i found it easier to work with more columns and less rows. also, it's more compact which makes everything x3254 cuter.

nut you can literally do whatever you want! so here's my organization ♡

my personal organization !

homepage (5-6 columns, 4 rows): quick links to my other 4 pages. daily routine. quick reading and writing trackers. my performances schedules and feedback. goals for the month. clock, weather, year progress bar (see end of post).

original works (4-6 columns, 2 rows): my three wips. websites that help me with writing. my progress in each work. motivational quotes.

fanfic works (4 columns): folders for each fandom with more folders for hcs, one-shots, multi-chapter and ideas. motivational quotes. goals for the year. pretty pics and quotes.

trackers (5-6 columns, 4-5 rows): media that i'm currently consuming or consumed, with details such as rating, author, and some sub-pages with my extensive thoughts.

in short !

have one big page at the beginning to help you navigate easier.

don't be afraid to had columns and rows! if there's a blank space, throw some png's and quotes at it. it always makes everything 10x cuter.

ㅤㅤ♡. 4.2 step: widgets are your best friends.

add some widgets to make it prettier ♡

i use this website. it's pretty easy and has the main widgets.

a quick google search might take you to other websites so feel free to explore ♡

♡. 5th step: a touch of magic and stardust.

the start of a new page is always frustating: what aesthetic to use? what do you put first? what if it's corny? too much quotes? so many questions and, hey!, i hear ya! it's a pain in the ass.

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more artistic pictures, cuter png's and quotes, and my homepage changed completely!

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♡. don't forget about...

you can change the font and size of the page by clicking on the three dots on the top right of your screen ♡

make your text pretty with cool symbols !!

again, just surf the internet and tumblr and i'm sure that aesthetic bios will provide you with the cute little symbols to make everything cute ♡

be creative with your picture layouts ! ♡

i personally use pinterest (frame template) and clipstudio to make prettier pictures, but i'm sure any photoshop app can give you this effect as well.

play with png's and make your notion look more alive ♡

any hanging or 2 png's similar can help with a look cleaner and more organized.

add spotify playlists (it had to be public, i'm afraid) and youtube videos for more diversity!

table view is a life changer for organizing trackers, especially books and movies ♡

let me know if you want a deeper tutorial on how to use any function or if i forgot mentioning something you would like to know more about ♡

i hope this helps you and it's clear. know that i'm here for anything you need and i'm sure you're gonna do amazing things there ♡

#𐔌 . cole's notion .ᐟ ֹ ₊꒱#notion #notion inspo #notion ideas #notion tutorial #notion tut

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citrus-cactus · 24 days ago

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Citrus' Art Summary 2024!

I made my own template this year, based on filling in all the squares of a 5x7 grid. Not sure I recommend this method; it was difficult to both place pieces in roughly chronological order and make the layout varied & interesting, and I feel like the final result is too easily divisible into (uneven) quadrants, which I wanted to avoid. Ah well, maybe I'll think up a better system next year! :)

This is a bit of an odd year for an art summary, because while I created something every month and I'm legitimately proud of SO MANY of these, I kind of... stopped publishing my art to the Internet in the latter part of the year. There are various reasons for this. I'm not sure all of them are good, especially given the above statement about being proud of everything I made on the whole. But I'll talk about that beneath the cut, since that's where I usually ruminate about the year. There are also links to full pieces (where they exist) at the very end.

***

First, the positive! I branched out a lot this year (or at least... continued the trends that were starting to form in 2023). I did a lot of uh... darker/more serious art? Which I have enjoyed immensely, though I know it can be a bit of a tone whiplash compared to most of my finished art from past years. I love cute, happy things!! But I have these other dimensions that have long been in need of exercising. My favorite thing that I did is probably the first Bad End Takuma piece from January, which was for Survive Week. I just... really love how it came together. It surprised me every step of the way, and it was full of happy accidents (despite the subject matter! Lol). I still look at it and am like "wow! I made that!!" But I really like October's piece too. It's an illustration for a fanfic I'm (still) working on, and it gives me emotions. Justice for minor characters. Justice for minor characters for 1000 years!!! XD

Besides fanart, I made some other things! I published a secret fanfic (it's absolutely not hard to find if you're willing to do a little searching, but there's no way I'm going to link to it ever! Sorryyyyy! :3). I spent two weeks in Iceland, and somehow that inspired a fair bit of artistic endeavors XD September shows a small sample of a digital collage that includes several photos my spouse and I took (as well as some other stuff. The full piece partially communicates my somewhat-cynical thoughts about being a tourist in Iceland). November shows a drawing from an 8-page zine about hiking the Laugavegur Trail, which was an amazing experience! I also cross-stitched a Christmas ornament for a family member this month! None of these were intended for an Internet audience, but they were all fun and somewhat different to do!

So... yeah, the whole "not sharing art" thing. It started because I was... kind of frustrated with how few notes I felt I was getting compared to how hard I felt I had worked on some of these pieces? Which is... I mean, I know it's silly. More effort =/= more notes, especially since I'm focusing my creative efforts on such tiny little niches of the Digimon fandom (sadly, Appmon and Digimon Survive are just not that popular, especially compared to Adventure!), so any "engagement" on that art is going to be low, because the audience is just not that large to begin with. Plus, activity on Tumblr just seems to be tailing off in general. And I GET that numbers on posts shouldn't matter. I really, super-duper get that! But when something you worked really hard on and are excited to see people respond to only gets a handful of notes... well, it does kind of sting a bit, or makes me feel like I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up about it being received well. And then I end up waiting with baited breath for the usernames associate I with the fandom to react to it. If I don't see them in my notes, does it mean they hate it? Or did they just miss it? It's not something I have any control over, so why does it matter to me?

And it's NOT to say I don't appreciate the notes and comments I DO get. I appreciate them so much!! I just hate knowing that my worth as an artist has become tangled up in this notice-me-senpai attitude I seem to have created for myself. I hate caring about numbers (I know I should not care about them!), and I hate how much I seem to care about numbers. Posting used to bring joy, but now it brings... I don't know, anxiety and entitlement mixed with disappointment, I guess? So I decided to remove it from of my art process. I took a purposeful hiatus from The Numbers and caring about who sees my art to really just create for myself, for the first time in many years... and overall, I think it was a healthy way to hit "reset" on myself and my ego's ravenous desires.

But now... well, I don't exactly know to proceed.

There are things I do want to post, that I want other people to see! But the situation on Tumblr and on the Internet at large really isn't any different, and I'm not sure it's different in my brain, either. Can I continue to not care about The Numbers if I put them back in my life? I hope so, but I'm not certain. On top of that, I'm doing a lot of of art for a different fandom, and I'm still unpacking... well, let's call it what it is: a seemingly unending supply of middle school shame that I feel about Liking This Thing Too Much, which (apparently) never really went away. Yikes! This is a "me" problem, it has ALWAYS been a "me" problem. So that's a fun feeling to have (...not :/). Plus it's just... idk, different fandom, different people, different opinions flying around, I've been away from it for so long, do I really belong here?? But of course I do (even when I feel like I'm being so incredibly cringe... looking at you, August). I bring my own unique viewpoints to all the fandoms that I'm a part of (as does everyone!), and by sharing our ideas and stories and passions, we create our own community and extend the lives of the things we love. I do want to continue to be a part of that, but getting back on that horse is hard for me right now! I took a posting hiatus for health, but it also made me that much more shy. I have been thinking about my Return to Posting Art for months at this point, which again feels silly, because it's so easy to hit "post" on one of the many things I have saved up. I probably will go back to it... I'm just not exactly sure when. Maybe when I have something Digimon-related to share. Digimon is comfortable and safe. It's the only fandom I've felt like I really belong in. Sharing anything else feels... too personal somehow, and also too unknown. All of these have been thorny problems to grapple with, and I'm still working my way through them, carefully and slowly.

So yeah. Phew! If you made it through all that existential angst, you deserve a medal! But I can't give you one, so here are those links to the full pieces that I promised:

JANUARY: Bad End Takuma #1 ("Cooperation")

FEBRUARY: Survive Week Day 5 ("Villains")

MARCH: Dark Ages Gargirls

APRIL: HaruShinkai-Daily 4th Anniversary/100 Follower omake

MAY: Bad End Takuma #2 ("Darkness & Loss")

JUNE: Happy Birthday, Haru! (2024)

JULY: OC drawn on iPad

OCTOBER: “True” fanfic illustration

#digimon survive #appmon #appli monsters #gargoyles #wow only three fandoms!#the cactus speaks #art summary #art summary 2024 #year-end summary 2024

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accio-victuuri · 1 year ago

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Sugar Rush : October CPNs

This was an insane month to say the least, I’m not even exaggerating. Things happened that will go down in fandom history. Our detective skills in looking for places and trying to piece a story was tested and the clowning was at it’s peak. I would have to say that by far, this year, it’s this month that generated lots of noise. Both sides were just throwing sweets at us and we can’t even keep up.

It also proved once more the charm of turtle cpns and why context, history and time is important to fully enjoy a candy:

“The charm of turtle candy is that it is incomplete. It is not a one-time solution. You feel suspicious at the beginning, but you are more sure later, and then at some unknown moment in the future, you suddenly get it. The correct answer, everything forms a closed loop, it's so cool”

• YH poster for WYB is from a BJYX fansite

• On 10/1, there has been some talk about WYB’s hair hiding beneath his beanie when he arrived at the airport to Paris. People’s guess is that he is blonde. Some people are connecting it to the blonde character in the XZS vlog.

People are free to interpret this however they want, as a candy, it appears to ZZ giving us a clue as to WYB dyeing his hair. Personally tho, this person is a member of GG’s staff & his friend who also takes part in putting out the amazing materials we get. People particularly remembered one of them had blonde hair during MFW. Anyway, I understand why people are so happy about this & interpreting it the way they do and go ahead and it this if you want 🍭

It also doesn’t help that the character kinda looks like WYB in Paris which is some next level coincidence. I can’t even with this fandom.

• I’m adding this beautiful analysis of Pie @potteresque-ire about the Mid Autumn festival photos posted by our boys. It’s technically from last month but i already published it before I read this meta. It just gives more weight to the meaning of it aside from how it matches 🌙

• Mengniu exhibit with zz and wyb standees

• Camera/Leica CPN : This has actually become everyone’s favorite candy of the year. It started out so simple and almost like a galaxy brain sort of clowning but both sides ended up “confirming” what we speculated. I have talked about this at length and in different parts below :

Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five

10/6, WYB continues to show off his camera. Almost all the photos in the set released by YBO, he is holding it, and there are falling cameras on Weibo in that post!!!! 📸

There is also this CPN on what WYB is taking a photo of and with people using google earth and comparing, they found out it’s the number 23. What a beautiful number. He really loves it! ♥️

• Same place, different times. This is so bittersweet to me. One day, they will get that Romantic Paris getaway together 🖤

• XZ 1005 birthday CPNs : one // two 🎂

• A photography studio shared a shot of GG for his bday and the kadian is 18:23. This same company also released a bday photo for WYB’s. They have worked with the boys a couple of time.

• The same description of something being like a film

• Glasswork art piece from France that could have been a gift and souvenir for GG

• Camping site and it’s connection to WYB selfie - At this point, there’s been so many “evidence” collected by bxgs and the most accurate date is really 8/14-8/15 that this “celebration” was done. There are also posts from people who visited the place and a motorcycle “parade” took place, so we know it’s a popular place to ride your moto. It’s one of the “services” they provide and looks like something that WYB took advantage of.

• Is one of the photographers yibo? 📸

• GG’s rope necklace and it’s meaning

• XZS birthday video taking some inspiration from a queer themed short film “we are animals”

• The camping trip was a team building of XZS and YBO?

• Both of them so sexy 🔥🔥🔥🔥

• 10/12 ZSWW rumor house & fake story content 🤍

• WYB’s 10/13 Selfie : part one / part two

• A galaxy brain cpn of XZS 10/13 post’s caption

• On 10/16, XZ released a tribute song which is government sponsored of course. In the past months, the go-to person we usually see singing for these causes is WYB and now it’s XZ. This is not exactly CPN, but i like the way that they are both people seen as positive influences and may be used to sing for certain events. Maybe one day they can do a duet? LOL.

• This one is so funny, there is an interview in a Taiwan TV show i guess. and the question was, “Talk about the general interests of gay men in Taiwan” ; the person answering is also gay and he said it’s : fitness, mountain climbing, raising cats, and Shiba Inu. 😂😂😂😂

LOL. Why does it remind us of two people? It’s so specific. Who have always wanted to raise both a car and a dog (shiba inu) and is currently loving fitness and mountain climbing. They might as well add camping on there 🤪🤪🤪

I don’t really believe in stereotypes and that there is a certain “checklist” that makes you gay or whatever— your interests are personal and what you enjoy. maybe you will be influenced by your environment but just do what you want. Tho I understand why this was so amusing to c-turtles cause they immediately thought of ZZ & WYB when they saw this.

• Even holding the camera is the same 😂✌🏼like a true photographer. Not acting all cute and using a camera to “pose” but actually using it.

• Updated mole signature by XZS

• XZS video x Bottled Joy Parallel. 🫶🏼 ; and the fact that Bobo’s is by Bottled Joy, a brand who is known to be BJYX bias ( allegedly ) . Tho this was most likely filmed before that XZS video. A happy coincidence. && This is the renewal we have been waiting for.

• Luoyang Tourism video uses a BGM of a song by ZZ

• BJYX and Skydiving 🪂

• 130 fake rumors compilation

• Wuzhen Day 3 Yibo shirt CPN ⛳️

=======

See you all next month for another round up! 💛

Previous Posts: Jan-June 2023 / July / August / September

#yizhan #bjyx #there is no science here i’m just clowning like i always do

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presidenthades · 4 months ago

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Since you did a modern/au fashion on Velargirls, I wanted to ask you if you could do the historical (like actual timeline) version of it, you said you collect pics of clothes, both historical and modern that you can imagine them wearing. I know Jace often wears Sunfyre’s palette, Joff wears mostly red and black Targ colors and Luce is in Velaryon colors. But perhaps their signature styles or some pics of what you imagine them wearing would be nice like you did it with the modern!au version! If you'd rather not do this one, that's completely alr! I just wanted some pictures of their clothing to imagine the dresses they would wear when I read the books.

Disclaimer: GOT/HOTD is a pseudo medieval setting, so not everything about the fashion I choose is 100% accurate to the Western European medieval era.

I took a lot of cues from the official GOT costumes book, where the designer talks about how she was inspired by clothing from places like Japan. I also like Bernadette Banner’s video explaining how in GOT (or the earlier seasons at least), costuming tried to be historically accurate according to the rules of its own universe, not ours.

HOTD has different costume designers than GOT. I have a very amateur interest in historical fashion, but it seems to me that GOT was a bit more exploratory with its fashion (like Cersei’s kimono dresses) while HOTD generally tries to stick closer to more Western European medieval styles (with exceptions, like Aemond’s Hugo Boss coat). So I have a headcanon that in the 170 years between HOTD and GOT, more and more Essosi fashions come to Westeros, which leads to the changes that we see between the two shows.

In my series, these fashion trends are sped up quicker than in canon. One of Jace’s goals is to be a cultural icon at court, so her fashion choices (which are heavily influenced by Rhaena, who spent her childhood in Pentos) spread among the other highborn ladies.

Jace’s wedding gown is based off Margaery’s purple wedding gown, with some differences, e.g. gold color scheme.

Jace’s wraparound dress that she wears to the feast announcing the pregnancy is based on Cersei’s early season dresses.

Other outfits that give me Jace vibes:

Luce is tricky because most days at Dragonstone and Driftmark, she’s stomping around in really plain dresses that she can get messy. But at public events and in KL, she has to dress according to her station. Maybe some of her gowns are secretly pants underneath.

(Dany’s Qarth dress is by far my favorite reference photo for Luce’s outfits when I get art of her.)

Joff, to nobody’s surprise, is the most Targ-coded in regards to her wardrobe. I tend to reference Rhaenyra’s outfits for Joff’s. Joff is definitely hoping to inherit Rhaenyra’s clothes one day.

#my writing #ask me anything #Velargirls #fashion

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theuberadventurer · 4 days ago

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Broken bones and blood shot eyes I hope you like my new disguise

A couple months ago, I got the idea in my head to draw an undead Miko (always a cool concept), so I made a post asking about Tsukiko's necromancer abilities and the kinds of undead she can make. Thank you to everybody who answered my question.

Now, at long last, after months of putting it off and then some on-and-off drawing, while also listening to "can u see me in the dark" for motivation, it is complete! It's been implied that Tsukiko bends the rules of necromancy to suit her needs, so I (or rather, she) turned Miko into a powerful, free-willed ghast!

Here, she's tracked down the Order of the Stick. I don't know when in the timeline this would take place (most likely sometime after Hel's plan is thwarted but before the heroes meet Serini), so the burst of dark magic is meant to obscure the background as much as possible and make it ambiguous. For anyone wondering about the quality, I took a photo of a piece of paper. I don't plan on drawing with a mouse.

I must give a shoutout to @cosmicsodacan-art for drawing the picture that inspired me to draw my own interpretation of undead Miko...and to join the Tsumiko fleet.

#order of the stick #the order of the stick #my art #miko miyazaki #roy greenhilt #undead miko miyazaki #tsukiko oots #tsumiko

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carcarcraziiv2 · 1 year ago

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HEARTSTEEL FIRST MEETING HCs (PART TWO)

Dis for daddy Yone and my love Aphelios. 💗

~*-If you enjoyed, feel free to send me asks (however that works) with prompts. I also enjoy writing about other league characters as well if you're into that!-*~

Aphelios:

Art classes were never really your thing. You were more into writing, and when your best friend invited you to a creative writing workshop you couldn't help but take the opportunity.

You two got to the class early and were shocked to find out that it was being sponsored by one of your favorite band's lyricists, Aphelios from Heartsteel. The excitement you felt at being able to spend your time at a place that someone in the band even thought about had you more inspired than you were previously.

During the workshop, you wrote a nice little series of poems while you daydreamed about the band. The entire time you kept getting nudges from your best friend because you found yourself mindlessly humming their songs.

At the end, you were surprised to find out that they were hosting a contest to meet the band based on the works submitted if you so wished at the end of the night. You did, and you were even more shocked when a few weeks later you got an email stating that you had won!

The email read as follows-

Dear Y/N,

We would like to begin by thanking you for your submission to the Heartsteel: Meet the Band! competition hosted by Aphelios. Based on the band's review of your work, they would like to designate you as the winner! With our sincerest congratulations, please see the information below with the destination, date, and time!

The rest of the letter contained as it stated, and you were ecstatic. The days passed quickly and before you knew it, you were driving to the location of the meet and greet.

Walking into the small very secure building, you were greeted by a pleasant young woman who led you to a small room with a couch and a few plush chairs. You took a seat, and she left letting you know it would be a few minutes.

You were antsy as you sat there but giddy none the less. Soon enough, the door opened, and you stood in excitement as the members of Heartsteel walked in. Sett, Kayn, Ezreal, Yone, K'Sante, and finally Aphelios.

They all greeted you happily, and finally Aphelios gave you his hand in greeting, a sweet smiling gracing his face. You all discussed things, you got photos, and by the end you were feeling so happy that they were all as cool and nice (Kayn was kinda sus but...) as you had hoped!

It seemed like during the whole time, Aphelios kept writing to you that you had genuinely impressed him.

I really liked your work. It spoke to me. Did you write them based on each of us?

"I did! I thought since you were sponsoring the event I may as well make it Heartsteel inspired," you laugh nervously, running a hand over your head. "I'm glad you like it."

I was wondering if you would like to get together for some writing sessions? I know it's kind of off the wall here but... I wouldn't mind learning more about the way you think.

"I would love to!" You smile, and he gives you his phone to type your number into, and you couldn't help but add a cheeky smiley face next to your name.

I look forward to seeing you again soon! He wrote, and you all said your goodbyes.

You were smiling your whole drive home, and as you got ready to go to bed you heard your phone vibrate on your side table.

Your heart fluttered as you read the message:

Hey, it's Aphelios. Is this Y/N?

YONE:

You always liked going out to a coffee shop to do your work in the mornings. It made you feel more businesslike, for some reason, when you got to go work in a place where everyone is in suits and also on laptops.

The day started like any other. Gathering your things, you headed to a new-to-you coffee shop downtown. When you arrived, you headed inside and sat down after you ordered your drink and a little breakfast sandwich.

Opening your laptop, you got right to work moving files and typing away at emails. You had your headphones in listening to some soft indie pop and you bobbed your head along to it as you wrote.

After about thirty minutes, you took a little break to stretch your fingers and glance around at the other people sitting at tables around you. Turning your attention toward the window, you saw him.

A tall looking man with long white hair with red streaks in a ponytail sat with his head face first into a little MacBook. You couldn't help but gawk at his overall attractive features, as he has focused green eyes and neat but chiseled features. You wondered what his voice sounded like.

You nearly fall out of your seat the way you turn away when his gaze shifts to look at you. He must have felt someone staring at him, and you could feel the heat rising in your cheeks. Okay, that's awkward.

Trying to quickly forget that you just got caught staring, you get back to work. You had only planned on staying at the coffee shop for a few hours while you got through your morning emails, but this man was a revelation you weren't willing to leave just yet.

Over the next few minutes, you kept stealing peaks at him, and to your surprise he kept looking back at you. At one point, he smiled politely at you as if to say, "Need something?"

Finally, after getting multiple messages from your boss that you hadn't noticed due to your wandering thoughts you decided to brush it all off and dive back into your work. Before you knew it, an hour had gone by and you looked quickly toward the direction of where the man had been sitting. Disappointed, you realize that he was no longer there. You shrug to yourself and start packing up your things, pulling out your headphones and shoving them in your bag.

Just as you are about to stand up, you feel a tap on your shoulder that causes you to jump slightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," You hear as you turn to face the person who tapped you. To your dismay, it was the man who you had been caught staring at.

"It's okay!" you laugh nervously. "Um... What's up?"

"I just noticed you kept looking at me and well, I couldn't help but keep looking at you... and I was wondering if you would like to meet here again for coffee in the morning while you do whatever it is you're doing?" You can see the man blushing, and you wonder inwardly if he was as nervous talking to you as you were about talking with him. "Oh, and I'm Yone. Sorry, I forgot to mention that."

"I'm Y/N," You say in response. "And that would be cool, I usually go get coffee in the morning anyway. Sorry for staring at you earlier, I got kind of carried away I guess." Oh. My. God. Why am I word vomiting on this poor man?

"Don't worry, I kind of liked catching you off guard a few times. It was cute." He says, and you can't help but to blush again. "I'll see you in the morning then, Y/N." He smiles, turns away and leaves you flabbergasted and blushing in the coffee shop.

#Heartsteel Yone #Heartsteel Aphelios #League of Legends Fanfic #vi league of legends x reader #heartsteel x reader

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hetn-3 · 8 months ago

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I wrote this when I saw some art on tumblr that I really liked 🥺🥺

" An Unforgettable Meeting "

Yosano had always known that Dazai was a big fan of idol Chuuya Nakahara. She had heard about his secret admiration during their many discussions, and had decided to give him a surprise that he would never forget.

The concert hall was filled with excited fans, and the atmosphere was electric. The lights suddenly went out, announcing the start of the concert. Dazai, sitting in the front row thanks to Yosano, could barely contain his excitement.

“You’re going to love it live, Dazai,” Yosano said with a wink.

"I'm already thrilled," Dazai replied, smiling widely. "Thank you, Yosano. You're the best."

The concert began, and Chuuya appeared on stage, his energy and presence immediately captivating the crowd. Dazai was in complete awe, his eyes following his idol's every move. Chuuya sang with passion, his performance touching the hearts of everyone in attendance, but for Dazai, it was a dream come true.

At the end of the concert, Yosano led Dazai backstage. His heart was racing, excitement mixed with palpable nervousness.

“Yosano, are you sure this is a good idea?” Dazai asked, trying to hide his anxiety.

"Don't worry, Dazai," she replied with a reassuring smile. "Chuuya is a great guy. He'll be happy to meet you."

They arrived at a door marked "Chuuya Nakahara". Yosano knocked lightly, and a familiar voice told them to enter. Chuuya was sitting, resting after his performance, but he immediately stood up upon seeing Yosano and Dazai enter.

"Yosano! It's nice to see you," Chuuya said with a bright smile. Then he noticed Dazai, who seemed frozen in place. "And here ?"

"Chuuya, this is Dazai. He is one of your biggest fans," Yosano explained with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Dazai," Chuuya said, holding out his hand. "Thank you for your support."

Dazai squeezed Chuuya's hand, still in shock. "It's an honor to meet you, Chuuya. Your concert was incredible."

"Thank you very much. It means a lot to me to hear that," Chuuya replied, visibly touched. “So tell me, how long have you been a fan?”

They had a pleasant time chatting, Chuuya sharing anecdotes from his career and Dazai expressing his admiration and questions. Yosano, smiling, looked at them with satisfaction.

"I'm really glad I got to meet you, Dazai," Chuuya said, giving him an autographed photo. “Keep supporting me, okay?”

“I will always support you,” Dazai replied emotionally.

Leaving the room, Dazai turned to Yosano. "Thank you, Yosano. It was the best day of my life."

"The pleasure is all mine, Dazai," she replied, smiling. “I knew you would be happy about it.”

Back home, Dazai took out his diary and began to write:

_"Dear Diary,_

_Today was an unforgettable day. Thanks to Yosano, I was able to meet Chuuya, the idol I have admired for so long. The concert was amazing, but it was meeting Chuuya that made this day truly special. He was as kind and inspiring as I had imagined._

_We chatted like we were old friends, and he even gave me a signed photo. I couldn't have dreamed of anything better. Chuuya has this aura that makes every moment spent with him precious. It was truly a dream come true._

_Thank you, Yosano, for this wonderful surprise. I will never forget this day._

_Good night,_

_Dazai.”_

Dazai closed his journal with a satisfied smile, thinking about this magical day before falling asleep, dreaming of his idol and future concerts.

I don't know if I had the right to write something about it TvT .....

#bsd smut #bungo stray dogs #bungo stray dogs dazai #bsd chuuya #dazai bsd #dazai #dazai x chuuya #chuuya bsd #chuuya nakahara #dazai osamu

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tartrat · 4 months ago

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Visceral Reaction.

A Visceral reaction is described as "A Powerful Physical Response That Happens Automatically Without Any Conscious Control". Kapyy here is angry but he’s also laughing at himself because of it, losing the look of anger and adopting an unnerving smile.

I mentioned in my first actually decent looking fanart, That i headcanon Kapyy as being someone who just bottles everything up and is putting on an act. This is the result of him just breaking down entirely. And i know that its a bit of the jump from the last kapyy related thing I posted. But honestly if eating crayons keeps him happy then we should let him.

I got the idea when the words "Visceral Reaction" got stuck in my head, and started to think about how such a reaction could be shown. The first image that popped up on google was of a guy who showed a grotesque depiction of laughter.

I can't really describe the emotion that he's portraying, but its like when you are angry but you start just laughing and smiling uncontrollably. This happens to me when i'm mad at someone, i just slowly start laughing whilst still feeling fuzzy from being angry.

Whilst making this i thought it looked weird and the primary reason being because we don't get to see his full face in game, as his eyes are covered by the glasses, but as i finished it, he looked more normal.

I have ideas in my head that i can never put down on paper. One of which was of me developing my headcanon that Kapyy and Talia Sway are twins who were separated at birth. This idea was when they went to cyberfunk, kapyy broke after they finished what they were doing. This portrait (Well landscape but its more of a portrait to me) is a visualisation of this idea.

I didn' give him his other accessories (headphones, bracelets etc.) because he had discarded them before this drawing takes place. I also don't like drawing stuff like that, i find it awkward to make it look good.

The Background is just the background from I'm Good, but i saturated it and turned down the brightness, before i used the gaussian blur filter. I like playing around with those tools on procreate. I wanted to do something different but nothing i did looked good.

The main point of inspiration here was "The Desperate Man" (Though translated from French, le désespéré, its more close to “The Desperate one”. I remember on the back wall of my art classroom in school, there was a replica of it that someone had done. The reason i chose this painting was due to the expression. The expression became stuck in my mind recently and i thought that it would be a fun excercise, just to practice more expressions, and as mentioned above i chose a different expression that shows off a different emotion. I just liked the pose as well and thought it was interesting.

Theres a bonus short comic doodle that i will be posting separately. It shows basically what happened afterwards, after Kapyy has been put to bed and Talia speaks with the Levitating extreme coach, who helped her get Kapyy home.

Here was the original pose i was going for, i just didn’t like how it was looking. I took multiple reference photos for the pose but i eventually went with the pose in the final version above. I have more work in progress pics that are kinda funny, one being when i was blocking in the hair with the colourfill tool, it also went to his face and he looked like Garfield.

#just dance #just dance fanart #fanart #just dance kapyy #digital art #headcanon #my thoughts #just dance 2024 #sorry if i draw him a lot #sorry if i talk a lot

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sleepy-pigeonn · 5 months ago

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A Look Into My Hades Fan Animatic

I don't know to call this other than a collection of resources and reflections about the process of making the animatic. Hopefully it's interesting or helpful for someone. But feel free to ask questions if you'd like clarification/more info!

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Inspiration (A non-exhaustive list)

It's possible that I've seen/read fan works that may have inspired me unconsciously, so there's no way I can possibly include references to them all. However, the ones I listed here are ones I recall looking back at repeatedly.

The fancomics "First Flight" and "Bonehead Boon" by Liana Sposto

Robbie Elliot Art's animation "Take Tonight"

Toastyglow's animation "Glitter & Gold" and PMV "This Year"

Storyboards posted by Paige Caldwell (@/papernewt) on Instagram

Zag admiring some of these beautiful fanworks.

The following sections are below the cut: References, Songs, Script and Thumbnails, Studies, Drawing, Editing, Random Facts

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References

These were very helpful to creating the animatic!!

In-game references

Hades Wiki

3D Model of Zagreus by @/chunyou_ on Twitter

I also used screenshots I took while playing

General references

"How To Direct A Fight Scene" by Howard Wimshurst

Poses from the photo libraries of The Pose Archives and AdorkaStock

3D Model of Male and Female Heads by William Nguyen

I also just looked stuff up online or took videos of myself acting out some of the movements.

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Songs

I thought of basing my animatic on any of the following songs:

"Icarus" by Bastille

"Dirty" by grandson

"Underworld" by CYPRSS *

"I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" by John Rzeznik

"I'm Gonna Win" by Rob Cantor **

"Could Have Been Me" by the Struts

They all have a varied degree of "Zagreus vibes" but I wanted a song that could be used to show as much of the game as possible. "Could Have Been Me" was the song that I could imagine more things for, so it is the one I ended up using.

* Look at this awesome Zagreus fan art based on this song

** Some of the lyrics for this song are so fitting for Zag but others are pretty ooc.

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Script and Thumbnails

I've seen other artists annotate the lyrics to the song they are working with and attempted that here. But that process is a little confusing for me, so I kept these descriptions vague. It was helpful in keeping track of ideas, since some of them are faster to write down than draw. Especially for fight sequences.

I used Storyboarder for the thumbnails. I opted for this program because (1) it lets you add an audio file and (2) it has very basic tools. It can be used in a more nuanced way than I did. However, with 3 and a half minutes of frames to work out I needed something that helps me draft down ideas efficiently and without overwhelming me. And this was pretty good program for that.

The script and thumbnails happened in tandem a lot of the time. Think of it as brainstorming, both in vague writing and loose drawings. At this point I am trying to see if these ideas flow with the song, if they are readable, if they achieve what I had in mind.

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Studies

Okay. So I am happy with my ideas. Now. How do I make sure the drawings are identifiable as taking place in the game?

This is where those in-game references came in handy. I looked back at my thumbnails and made a list of everything I would need. From characters to locations. Once I had these down, I made folders to make sure everything would be nice and organized.

I tend to avoid backgrounds like the plague. However, for some of these shots to work I need to give the viewer a sense of where the action is taking place. I know that I struggle imagining three-dimensional spaces while drawing digitally. So, using my thumbnails and the references I gathered, I did studies of all the locations I thought would be important using good old paper and ink. This also served to fine-tune shot compositions.

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Drawing

The animatic itself was drawn using Krita. Usually, I worked on all the backgrounds using the studies as a base and then added the characters. My drawings started very rough for a couple of reasons. The main one was that with ~200 frames ahead of me I was afraid of letting my inner perfectionist get me stuck. I kept reminding myself that, being an animatic, the drawings could be rough as long as they are still readable. As I got more comfortable using Krita, I was able to create cleaner backgrounds.

Even so, I hit an art block around the two minute mark where I Could Not Draw. This is where I heavily relied on those References I Keep Talking About. They were my savior and are the main cause for the more "finished" look towards the end of the animatic. I think the best example of this was the shot featuring Thanatos. I was deep in the art block territory by the time I needed to go from thumbnail (top left) to final frame. No matter how much I redrew them, I didn't like how they turned out (top right). To work this out, I found references from The Pose Archives and used them as a guide (bottom left) to get a sketch that I liked (bottom right). I felt this look was more sketchy than I've would like so I ended up cleaning it. I followed a similar process for most of the frames following this one. As a result, the final frames of the video turned out cleaner.

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Editing

Once I had all my frames ready to go, I imported them into HitFilm Express and made a composite shot where I basically just matched the timing of the frames to the music. Frames that have camera movements (like the very first frame) were made in their own composite shots. I ended up having to delete some frames so some sections didn't feel rushed. In the end, there's like 5 versions of the animatic because I kept making little changes. The biggest was adding Zag's dialogue at the beginning since I felt the video started up too quiet. I don't have any images for this stage. Please have this comparison instead.

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Random Facts ✨

Adding color was a last minute decision, it was mainly because I thought a colorful sunset would be prettier. My original plan was to shift the gray tones of the background into more yellowish tones once Zagreus reaches the surface, but keeping everything monochromatic.

If you pause quickly on the very last frame you'll see I accidentally made Zag's leggings black instead of red. I was on auto pilot at this point. Adding color was worth it overall but so time consuming. My respects to people who do fully colored animatics.

I wish I made Meg a pinker (or blue) hue rather than purple. In my mind I saved purple for characters related to Nyx (hence why Hypnos, Than, Chaos, and Charon have shades of purple). But I guess it is a sweet detail because of how Meg confides in Nyx in the game.

I kept a log of all my progress. Apparently getting the thumbnails done took about five months (August 2023 - January 2024)?? Anyways I leave you with these entries.

___

Thank you for reading! I hope it goes without saying but I really appreciate all the support this animatic has received. All the hearts and comments and tags, they mean a lot.

#chbm animatic #art box #hades game #crossing my fingers that all links work

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drabblesandimagines · 2 years ago

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Hiya, I love💕 your kitty fic. The way that Kitty x Rei's relationship is progressing feels so real.

I am wondering if you could do a Rei x artistic reader, like, she's always trying to draw him and stuff. If that makes sense

Thanks in advance

Thank you so much for your lovely comment <3

Sorry this took me a while to get to, but I hope you enjoy! --

Miri’s at daycare and Kazuki is running errands, leaving you and Rei alone in the apartment. He’s on the sofa, button mashing away. You’re on the armchair – you’ve moved it slightly so you have a clearer view of this face – feet up, your sketchpad balanced against your legs. Your art case is open to the side – a gift from the raven-haired assassin to make sure you had everything to hand easily. Every so often, Rei can hear you flip back and forth through the pages of your pad, scribble for a minute or two, then sigh as you turn pages again.

“What’s the matter?” He asks, eyes briefly leaving the screen to look at you. You’re concentrating hard, he notes, your face set in determination.

“You,” you huff.

“Me?” He sounds almost surprised.

“Yes, you!” You swipe through the pages again, find what you’re looking for, and put pencil to paper.

He frowns. The two of you had often done this from the start of your relationship – you drawing away, him gaming. Had he been neglecting you lately? “I’ll stop at the next save point…”

“Not that.” You interrupt, switching pages again.

“What, then?” He’s confused. You let out another sigh and switch to another page.

“You keep changing expressions. I can’t keep up!”

“Keep up?”

You nod, eyes flicking between him and the page – he still looks confused and you want to get the outline down as quickly as possible to work on later before he changes again.

“I know we can’t take photos…” There’d been ground rules from the start before Rei would even allow himself to think about entering into a relationship with you. Rules to keep you safe, that were non-negotiable. No PDAs, no information online, no photos. “..so I wanted to draw you instead.”

“Ah.” He pauses the game. “Can I see?”

“Sure,” you untangle yourself from your position on the armchair and join him on the sofa, nestling up besides him and passing him your sketchpad. “Bear in mind that none of them are finished though.” You huff, jokingly.

He takes it carefully, worried his fingers might smudge the graphite marks. On this page, he can see the outline of his face, a quick sketch of his shoulders, a confused look on his face. You’ve started a little shading. He carefully turns to the next page – this one is a little more finished, he’s mid-game. Does he really stick out his tongue like that when he’s concentrating? He continues turning through the pad, admiring each one of your sketches. Rei would’ve said he’s a man that displays little to no emotion, but every turn of the page proves him wrong.

“I understand why you might want a drawing instead of a photo, but why so many?” He looks into your eyes. He’s burnt your image into his brain, the only place where the Organization can’t get to.

“Well, you’re my muse,” you tease, leaning in and giving him a slow, soft kiss. As you pull away, you smile, briefly, before snatching back the sketchpad from his lap. “Wait, wait, don’t move…” You’re trying desperately to get the outlines of his lovestruck face down on the paper, but Rei smoothly grabs it again from your lap.

“Well, let me give you some more inspiration…” As he speaks, one hand places the sketchpad down safely on the coffee table, the other hand captures your chin and he guides you back into a deeper kiss.

Masterlist.

#ghostdogwrites #reader requests #buddy daddies fanfic #buddy daddies #suwa rei #rei suwa fluff #rei suwa x you #suwa rei x reader #rei suwa x reader #rei x reader

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spacenintendogs · 1 year ago

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Hi! I love your art and I’m so curious to know what your art process is like!

i've been trying to figure out how to answer this & i've honestly realized that my process is a mess LOLOL i did record myself!!! drawing fishlegs bc he is the fave & easiest for me to draw! i hope everything i explain under the read more makes sense!!

it took me over 44 minutes to draw & the screen recording in the art program i use (autodesk sketchbook) brought it down to about 7 minutes and 25 seconds. i didn't wanna speed it up even more bc it'd be way too fast & jarring i think but!! i've uploaded the video to youtube (with some animal crossing music <3)!! i will still try to explain what i did here tho!!

my initial sketches are EXTREMELY loose! i start with the head by drawing a circle & extending past it for the chin of the character & proceed to do the nose, eyes, & mouth!! hair is next, but if there's a helmet i need to draw, i'll do that before the hair!! then i'll do the body starting from the shoulders & going down!! for the hands i just do circles/a general shape! no details!!

the sketch layer is a layer of black for the brush color with with lower opacity

i immediately do lines on top with the same brush but with black at full opacity on the kayer above!! this time i actually take my time to be more careful with details BUT i am still very sketchy & if smth isn't 100% accurate after i try a few times, i leave it be! hands however...

i almost always end up taking a photo of my hands using the front facing camera set to a 5 second timer on my phone! i also draw using my phone so it's literally having everything i need all in one place lol!! i do trace my own hands but obv i adjust based on what i'm drawing!! fish's hands are def gonna be wider than mine!!

NOW for color i color pick directly from screenshots!! however i use it mostly for flats & then pick my own for shading!! let's focus on the flats for now!! i start with the skin always!! the skin is going to have color layers above and below it, so it's easier for me to see where everything else will go if i've got the skin all settled. here you can see my color layers!! these are ALL flats!!

shading & lighting i don't rlly... focus on being accurate 100% but i try to do it based on where a shadow would absolutely be/to give the appearance of some type of depth (my art is very flat either way tho!) like where his lower hand is cupping i'll shade but leave the top of the upper hand unshaded for the most part! i lay out everything in a multiply layer first (can be any color u want based on the vibe u want!!) & then use a smudge tool to blend it out!! same goes for the lighting layer!!!

my art overall is a lot of scribbling big lines & curves then using the lineart to do the same but slowly make adjustments until it looks acceptable to me. it's SO much erasing & reshaping & i always have sketch lines everywhere but i like how it looks. it looks like i drew it, u know? plus the httyd books art style is a HUGE inspiration to me, at my core. i didn't even realize it was until ppl on here pointed it out :') i also enjoy drawing fast & moving on!! which is just smth i've trained myself to do since my star fox days (the reason i draw in the first place!!)

thank u!!!! i hope this made sense!!

#rose answers #evilwriter37 #httyd #fishlegs ingerman #httyd fanart #🌹 art #i hope this makes sense!!!!!!!#this was rlly fun to do!!!#i'm so unaware of my own process that i feel like it's a lil painful to watch the screenrecording of me #BUT u know what it works!!!!#also: i love drawing freckles LOLOL

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lionheartapothecaryx · 10 months ago

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Wake up it’s the 1st of the month …. 3/1/24

Happy Venus Day 💕 Life Update

As a black, neuro spicy love witch, I’ve always struggled a bit with the shop, blog, group and managing a business especially when I'm not in a creative space but finally I've been inspired again.

So let me reintroduce myself again. I started this blog almost 4 yrs ago and it took off really quickly, gaining lots of followers overnight. This was right around COVID and there was a renewed interest in Hoodoo and love magick around that time. I’ve mainly posted vintage photos, wrote articles and shared spells and had so much fun interacting with all of you.

I started off 2023, grieving a difficult breakup and reflecting on lessons learned about myself, my former relationship, his spiraling addiction and uncertainty about the future. On top of that, I got to the point where I quit working at my high paying but super intense civilian job that was leaving me constantly exhausted, giving me severe panic attacks and driving me crazy.

I decided to take a sabbatical and reconnect with my body, self and my craft. I’ve always struggled a bit with imposter syndrome and the past few months have been difficult but healing for me as I reconnected with spirit, the elements and my spiritual allies. I finally got my spark back and found a good creative space after working with the spirits of Mercury and Venus.

Some of that inspiration has come in the form of creating new spell oils. The past few months I’ve had multiple recipes come to me repeatedly. After struggling to figure out the logistics, finally I can start testing oils out on myself and a few other volunteers before I place them in the shop. It’s been such a cool but confusing process, I wanted to share with all of you, if you still care 🤣 what I’ve been up to.

The first spell oil that I’ve been working is called Love Uncrossing, inspired by myself, other women, friends, clients, SW’s, crazy experiences and some of the strongest people I know. In traditional Hoodoo, an uncrossing is used to spiritually repair and fix an situation or individual with crossed conditions. To be crossed is to be blocked up, stagnant, unlucky, jinxed or even hexed. As a practitioner for hire, I’ve come across crossed conditions for love work so often, I know it’s fairly common.

Experience has taught me as a devotee of Venus/Aphrodite and the Venusian Arts that real genuine love doesn’t always come easily for everyone. Life is full of wonders but often unfair. Whether it’s the grief of a bad breakup, the intense pain of heartbreak, aggravating soul ties, deep traumas, negative cords an attachments or simply never ending bad luck, love does not play fair … but it can be.

For my SW’s friends who regularly work the club, do other forms of s-work or are ex industry, I’ve found that protecting and clearing the sacral, life force energy regularly can protect your spirit, energy and mental health, shielding you from intense burnout. I’ve charged the oil to assist with this. Even if you aren’t in the industry though, regularly cleansing and protecting your life force/ sacral energy can help with bringing you more balance and stability, within yourself and others.

For survivors of SA & abuse (physical, emotional, and s*xual) this oil is also spelled to assist with healing and overcoming any traumas associated with that. As a survivor myself, I understand the unique difficulties that come with processing light and heavy traumas, so I worked hard to create a spiritual blend that covers a variety of issues.

*** this is not intended to be a substitute for proper mental health services. Item is intended as curio only.

After carefully gathering the right herbs, I’ve been crafting and charging the oil for the past few days.

I wanted to create something energetically restorative, with abundant free flowing energy, that also cleared stagnant energy. It needed to be cleansing but also help with dissolving blockages in all matters of love and relationships. Than the oil was imbued with strong protections. I found this part to be really important because it’s easy to be re-traumatized, especially if you’re dealing with heavy traumas which sets you back and impedes your progress and healing process. It’s kinda like picking at or having a scab ripped off accidentally. Likewise if you want the best results in love magick, you can’t leave it up to chance.

The last thing I did was enchant the oil to cut and clear out any negative cords, soul ties and spiritual attachments and then spell it with a soothing potent healing energy using the highest quality lavender and other herbs so the healing process wouldn’t be super painful or stressful.

For those who are spiritually sensitive like myself, spiritual hygiene is a important part of our regular routine. The oil will serve as a multipurpose spiritual primer, to remove, cleanse, heal, attract and grow more love for themselves and genuine love from others. It can be used generally, to maintain your spiritual hygiene in all matters of love and relationships or be set for a variety of aforementioned intentions. The oil is blended to work on five spiritual levels, the auraric field, soul, energetic/sacral/lifeforce, mental, and physical.

I hyper focused on this project because I want you guys to love it as much as I do. I also wanted to give something back to the community, I cherish. I know you guys appreciate my passion and attention to detail.

Before launching the spell oil, it will be beta tested on myself and a few other volunteers.

Thanks for reading and catching up with me. What do you think ? Is this oil something you need ?

Shoutout to my spirit team for sending me the downloads and recipes.

With Love, Gratitude & Magick

Lyonessa 💕

aka The HoodooBarbie

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