#this face angle was actual hell to draw Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[candycatfalls]

"hey handsome~ 😘" "WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF PRISON"

[stevie-petey]

i just know steve was buggin the hell out of bug while dustin was away at summer camp… like however miserable y’all think he was… he was acting like it was a zillion times worse and i just know bug was over his ass

hi and ur absolutely right that he was INSUFFERABLE

enjoy <3

"the house just isnt the same without him."

"you dont live here."

"its just so quiet now, so empty."

"again, you dont live here."

steve slumps further onto the couch, groaning as if in physical pain. "god i miss his laugh."

"dustin left yesterday," you hit the back of his head, annoyed, and its forceful enough to cut off his incessant groaning. "and im begging you, please shut up."

steve grabs your hand before you can hit him again. he tugs just enough to offset your balance, sending you stumbling onto his waiting body. he tries to hide his pleased smile in your neck, continuing his groveling act with a faux pout. "but i miss your brother."

"you cant stand him most days." you argue, nose hitting steves cheek as you talk. youre angled awkwardly and yet his arms still feel like home.

steve hums, drawing circles in your back. "yeah, but now i miss him."

"how ever will you survive a whole month without dustin henderson?" your fingers tug at his hair, teasing.

"im serious, angel. i miss that shithead. i mean, sure he can be really annoying and i think he stole money out of my wallet the other day-"

you poke his cheek. "unconfirmed."

he swats your hand away playfully. "anyways, regardless of his concerning pickpocketing ways, dustins actually endearing when he wants to be."

"henderson charm," you smile wide. "its hard to hate us."

through the cream curtains the afternoon june sun creeps into the living room in fragmented rays. a rare day where you arent at the bookstore and steve isnt at scoops. just the two of you alone in your childhood home, hiding from the heat and welcoming the delicate sun.

the beams of sunlight streak across your face and dance in your smile lines. eyes alight, steves fingers gently skim the crest of your cheekbones in a childish experiment to make sure youre real.

"yeah," he says softly, voice dripping honey. "annoyingly hard to hate."

the tenderness in his eyes knocks what little air remains in your lungs. youre always left breathless around him. a byproduct of his beauty and kind heart.

"well," you turn your head, unable to hold steves almost lovesick gaze. its too soon. too much. not yet. you lay back down and listen to his heartbeat instead. "looks like its just you and me for the summer."

his fingers dig into the exposed skin of your waist. "oh no," he sighs out. "what a nightmare."

you pinch his side lightly, eliciting a clear laugh and affectionate squeeze, encasing you in his arms. steves laughter settles as you settle against his body. his fingers play with your hair. your lips press against his neck.

a comfortable silence takes over

what a nightmare indeed.

“COME HOME” BLURB MASTERLIST

if you’d like to buy me a coffee ☕︎

[applestorms]

hi here's a nearly frame by frame breakdown of that one bit in the kiss where we get a zoomed in look at their faces 👍

for context: during the main sequence (shown above) the camera jumps the line and sticks to this medium-ish close up shot, where we can see them from the shoulders up. this is notable in that it allows us to see how till pushes ivan away after the initial kiss, which he obviously ignores to immediately go back in for another.

after this point, however, the camera zooms in and we are locked into a view that is mostly limited to their faces. the main section i'm going to look at here is only about 5 seconds long (from approximately 3:12 to 3:17) so it passes by Real quick, but i find till's reactions in particular here interesting enough to make note of it. to start:

not a lot of changes so far, but when we're this closely zoomed in it's kind of hard to see a lot anyways. the most notable shifts here come down to their eyes opening or closing, with till's fluttering open and closed a lot more while ivan keeps his eyes pretty steadily closed before they stay mostly open for the rest of the scene.

till looks quite grumpy here (:3c) but we don't really see him push away again. if anything, he seems to become frozen in shock, not sure what to do after his instinct (to fight) get so sufficiently overridden, though admittedly we also can't really see his hands this closely zoomed in. for a couple seconds there, he also almost looks kinda into it?? tbf that may be the shipper goggles blurring my common sense, but when his eyes are closed it does make it feel like he has at least a Second or two of leaning into it (also see: second frame in the previous grouping).

(note the parallels with the lip touch. damn you luka)

till is then very quickly shocked a second time when ivan almost immediately drops his hands and starts choking him.

which, if i may note, looks a lot more like a typical kink choke hold when we see it from the front rather than a I'm Trying To Murder You one-- in particular, look at how he seems to be angling his hands to put pressure on the sides of his neck instead of crushing his windpipe.

till still obviously panics in reaction to this which makes me think he must be applying some kind of pressure, but clearly not enough to cause him any lasting or significant harm.

we can also see his hands shaking when we view him from the side-- maybe an act to make it look more real/intense? without the context of the fact that till has no visible marks, it's easy to interpret this as his hands shaking from the Grip as he squeezes as tight as possible, but considering the fact that till is like. fine. i think it's perhaps a lot more likely that this could also be seen as him just being nervous too.

(edit: his hands also shake later on, when he's being shot. i'm inclined to attribute most of this to nerves.)

anyways. some conclusions that i'm drawing from this:

till has two panic instincts being activated here: to freeze, and to fight. he switches between these two quite quickly but i find both to be notable. his first reaction to ivan kissing him is to freeze in place, just staring at him, before he then switches to fight and immediately tries to push him away. when ivan goes back in anyways till seems to go back to freeze, unsure of what exactly to do. ivan then moves to choke him and till again sticks with freeze, accepting the choking without question and not visibly fighting back against it (e.g. he doesn't push ivan's arms away or grapple for his hands etc.), though he does still seem shocked and freaked out by it.

till seems to be significantly more distressed over ivan choking him than ivan kissing him. he also pushes ivan back when he kisses him, but not when he's choking him. (kind of fucking obvious, but still interesting to me considering their Histories, both together and as individuals).

ivan is very calm and calculated here, considering what he's actually fucking doing. who the hell taught that kid proper choking practices etc. etc.

ivan's very white outfit must be waterproof or something since we never see any stains even as the rain fucking pours over them. i also cannot imagine what the fucking acoustics must be like in that place.

i need to do a closer analysis of this more generally, but there is a Lot to be said about (ivan)till and collars.

final point, love that till unrepresses for exactly one (1) frame before it's all fucking over. GOD DAMMIT I HATE THESE GUYS

also bonus: ivan's very obvious checking out of the scores before he gives till one more little peck (still choking him, btw) and then dies 👍

fools.

[balrogballs]

queen of ai art <3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Writing

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tschüss! 🖕

[ppnuggiexxx]

Helloo may I bother you for your ratings on the whb demons you think have the best head game?

oooo yess !! <33 ill give some of my insight ,, though i think my opinions may differ from most ! these got kinda long :0 so the rest are under the read more !! ^^ tysm for asking :)) ,, i kinda did it on who from each nation gives best head . idk if this was meant to be a general ask or an actual request 😭😭but if its a request feel free to resend it with characters you might want :3 !!

from gehenna ,, i think leraye and astaroth would be the best with head . leraye is more on the eager side and desperate to please ,, happy to do something good for you and yearning to make sure youre pleasured . the piercing on his tongue would at extra stimulation ,, and his horn is perfect for grabbing and moving him to where you want him .

astaroth is more experienced in the subject ,, interested in re-enacting scenes of those he affiliates himself with . scenes from books often add oral scenes between the main characters ,, hearing their voice read out the scene for him . he’s quick to fulfill the other character ,, treating his partner of the time just how the character would in the book .

from hades i think foras would be best at it overall ,, with barbatos being a close second . foras wants to please you ,, more than happy to . he’d be jealous if it were someone else you were asking ,, unless it be leviathan . in his h-scene we got to see some of it ,, half invisible and using his tongue to prep you . the chains on his horns also are great for grabbing and redirecting wherever you want him to ,, making angling him up more to lick at your clit or move him down to focus more on the rest instead .

from tartaros mammon and valefor would be the best . bimet only falls into the category should you give him a pretty penny for it ,, then we may see what he gave us in his h-scene . for mammon ,, he wants you to want him ,, to yearn for him and have the need to covet him to yourself . hes happy to do what his master wants ,, if it means you wont hold back on your desires .

valefor was more on the softer and gentler side of sex in his h-scene (or i think from when i last read it) . despite knowing mammon has an eye for you ,, he cant help but want to please you himself . he wants you to be the one to come to him ,, to want him to give you pleasure . and he’ll gladly drop to his knees and lay on his back ,, whichever you prefer ,, should you come to him instead .

from abyssos ,, i think they all would be good should they try in a way . not to say theyre not good ,, but bael is overworked most the time and when he gets the chance to enjoy time with you ,, he may fall asleep fast and be sloppy with his oral . stolas has a big mouth a lot to say when you ask him to give you oral ,, but does it nonetheless but with a lot of extra steps (him having a lot to say about the situation) . beelzebub isnt there most the time but when you do he may forget if you planned it at a later time . unless its right then and there ,, he may not be able to help himself but be rough and take a few bites into your thighs ,, hard enough to draw blood . he may get so into it he won’t let you rest until all you can do is have empty orgasm after another . pussy game so strong it makes mfs cannibals 😔👊 and amon ,, he would probably be your safest bet . naberius if you catch him on a good day too ,, being part dog does have it perks at times . <3

for paradise lost morax would be best . say im biased all you want (might be 😿) but he would be the best especially if youre not used to hell’s intensity yet . he could walk you through ,, actually communicate what youre both okay with doing and what feels best for you . though i hope you dont mind his face being covered in partially bloody bandages for the most part . he’ll remove enough to make room for his tongue but thats the most he’ll do . he’s a little worried to scare you off with how mangled his face may be ,, how scarred and charred and broken it may be under his bandages . <//3 though he’ll be gentle and bring you a wonderful orgasm ,, and more if you’re wanting it .

for niflheim ,, beleth would be a good choice tied with andrealphus . beleth is more nicer than belphegor when it comes to pleasure . while belphie would rather sit back and take ,, beleth knows the struggles of being on the opposite side . he’ll be nice about it or rough depending on how you want him to be . he could bring you to an intense orgasm through edging and stimulation to the spots you feel pleasure through most ,, or he could hold your hips down and drive you insane from how many hes already given you .

andrealphus likes to touch you and feel you . he may be blind but he doesnt let it stop him from giving you pleasure however you wish . he takes his time with you ,, going slow and wanting to pleasure you thoroughly . his hands wander you body ,, trying to find whats best for you and what you dont care for . though he knows to focus on the clit for optimal stimulation ,, unless you get more from being fingered . he’ll slip his long and dainty fingers inside and massage them at the top where youll feel most pleasure from .

for abbadon ,, i truly will be biased but i fear ronove would take the crown <3 hes truly so fine i need him carnally 😕 but listennnn ,, i mentioned it in earlier oral hcs involving him and ill mentiomed it again ,, the struggle of seeing him give oral with the ball gag still on would be so fun . it’ll bump into your clit ,, his drool and tongue trying to peak out from the gag to make for messy oral . unless you take it off him and let him give oral that way (nakey) . sitting on his face would be better unless you want to ravaged ,, though that wouldnt be so bad either . he’s like andrealphus where he takes his time though his is more so to edge you through yours to bring you to an intense orgasm that will surely fulfill you lust and his curiousity . he wonders how long until you tap out from him .

[wewerebornsextuplets]

idk how but you draw in the Oso-san style so good i need to know your secret please

HAHA thank you very much!! im glad you think so :D unfortunately im not very good at explaining how i work, but ill try my best to show what i mean!!

once again this is long as hell. you know the drill at this point

to be honest, half the battle i fight with drawing in the osmt style is just. Looking at it. the ososan art style actually fluctuates pretty wildly depending on what you're looking for, whether that be the mobile games (for instance, tabimatsu and hesowars look nothing alike in terms of style despite both being the same source material), official art and merch, or even the seasons of the show itself!

using ichi as my example here since i draw him the most, but its pretty easy to play spot the difference with the varying styles. even within a specific season you can do this across episodes, especially with season 1!

when i draw, i tend to be a bit sacrilege and use references across different media; usually ill use the show [especially season 2, if only because its a bit more "uniform"] as reference for the actual features and colors/poses/etc, but i like to use hesowars to reference proportions, since they seem to be most consistent there.

SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO NOTE: theres a WEALTH of fanartists that have styles that are INCREDIBLY similar to the show, so be careful to check your sources! these artists deserve credit for their hard work, which they often don't get since their work is reposted under the guise of being official art.

once you've pinned down the exact style you'd like to emulate, and the character you're looking to draw, its really just a matter of finding references, which is pretty easy! you can scrub through different episodes for good angles/shots, or if you're going for one of the game styles the AU wiki has most of the games catalogued to my knowledge. if you're looking to draw an oc, use characters you think they would look similar to in the show. if you really wanna waste your time, though, you can always scrub through crowd scenes in the show to see if any background characters might look like what you're going for; the season 3 episode Mt. Takao comes to mind, there were a lot of cute mob characters there.

using keiko as my example here, you can see that i pulled her features from multiple different characters to get her to look right in the style. with ocs, its important to reference a number of different characters, since the likelihood of a background character being a 1:1 for your little guy is unfortunately pretty low. there WILL, however, be a lot of characters that look KIND of like them. the key is to figure out what parts go where!

to this point, most prominent ososan women have very similar stock anime girl faces with very minor differences, so if youre looking to make a cute girl oc, most of the womens' faces can be used somewhat interchangeably. if you want your cute girl oc to have a more unique face, though, the movie gave us some women with more unique faces in the form of the NEETs' old classmates! theres also no harm in referencing male characters faces in this regard. #butchswag #kiruminikuya

BUT. going back to the assumption that you're drawing a canon character, today I'll be drawing oso for my example

when you're first getting a feel for the style, tracing some of your references can actually be a really great way to acclimate yourself to the characters proportions and features. think of like when you were a kid, and would trace over pictures of pokemon or cartoon characters so you could draw them better. its basically the same principle! this was especially helpful for me when it came to eyes; they vary the most wildly of any other trait that characters have in ososan, so going over the different shapes to get a feel for each of them was very important.

when you trace, though, I recommend doing so a bit more loosely, sort of like if you're doing a photo study for anatomy; block out the basic shapes and do small markers for different features (i.e small lines to denote where the eyes start and and, distance from nose to mouth, things like that), and from there draw the rest on your own.

after long enough you'll get a feel for the basic placement of where everything should go! the eyes and nose are undoubtedly the hardest when it comes to the sextuplets, since they shift around a LOT between games/seasons/etc. so don't feel bad if you have a hard time with that, since there isnt really a "right" answer with how frequently it changes. i still fuck it up all the time myself!

as for some basic tips, heres some stuff i try to keep in mind when drawing them that just helps the finished product look a bit nicer!

when drawing the hair + fringe line, its important to swoop it downwards a little bit; the flat across look Can work, but if you're not careful you risk showing the tops of their eyes, which is um. ew! ick! nast!

when a matsu is facing forward, their hair will usually tend towards one direction to keep the silhouette. in most screenshots i saw, the bowl cut points left! that said, dont be afraid to point rightwards if its better for your specific drawing!

and lastly: USE THE LIQUIFY TOOL. LIBERALLY. i am not joking when i say this has saved my ass so many times, its hard to get the placement right on the facial features and even harder to get everything to LOOK good, so if its available to you i HIGHLY suggest just squishing everything around with a liquify tool until it looks right. you can always go back and correct the blurry lines. its really a life saver

BUT YEAH! i dont know if this was very helpful but i hope you're at least able to gain something from it :-))

[patowrd]

Capitán - Strollonso drabble

I'm not entirely sure what this is. Thank you Lance for the most overtly flirty secret Santa gift I've ever seen <3

warnings; v. slight nsfw, that's pretty much it

Lance can’t quite figure out how he got here.

Well, that’s a half lie, he knows exactly how he invited himself onto Fernando’s yacht, can precisely recall the moment where he scribbled a message onto the wine bottle before he wrapped it and the hat up for secret Santa, can’t wait to share it scrawled hastily on the label of one of his dad’s priceless pinots. It hadn’t been a big deal, though, because this was Fernando, and he and Lance were friends, teammates, two guys who could have a drink together outside of the F1 circus without it being weird, or awkward, or jarring. 

And it hasn’t been. For the last few hours it’s actually been lovely; the mediterranean sun is golden and hot on Lance’s flushed cheeks, and the pinot turns out to not be so bad after all. Fernando’s also a hell of a cook, or at least he looks good working the barbecue; Lance can tell his eyes are lingering just a little, can feel his pupils sticking to the folds of Fernando’s wet t-shirt, at the way it smoothly coats the ripples of muscle on his flanks. It isn’t weird to think that Fernando’s fit, Lance thinks, and he bites his tongue before he says anything stupid, instead taking a sip of his third glass of wine (or maybe it’s his fifth, he hasn’t been counting).

Fernando chuckles when Lance asks to see his tattoo anyway, turning towards him with a slight glint in his eye and abandoning his tongs on the table next to the grill. Lance is biting his tongue so hard he might draw blood, and he’s praying that Fernando doesn’t notice the deepening of the flush across his cheeks and down his neck. He reclines, his elbows resting against the harsh grain of the deck, and watches as Fernando peels his shirt off, making sure his back faces Lance so that he has a full view of the samurai tattoo stretched across the soft angles of his suntanned back. Fernando must know about Lance’s schoolboy crush, because he looks around for the hat, plops it onto his head, and smirks at him while flexing his biceps like Lance won’t just spontaneously combust. He points to the ‘Capitán’ embroidered across his forehead and that’s when Lance realizes he’s fucked; Fernando’s in charge, through and through.

He steps in closer, hand reaching for the tattoo on Lance’s ribs like he’s never seen it before, like it hasn’t been on show for hours as Lance lounged lazily all across the yacht, his body feeling looser and lighter than it has in weeks. The tattoo feels so warm now that Fernando’s eyes are trained to it, almost burning as his hand reaches out to touch it.

And Fernando honest to god slides his thumb right across the ink, the slightly calloused fingertip making goosebumps bloom all down Lance’s chest. He’s breathing heavy now, his eyes widening slightly as Fernando’s own meet his gaze. It shouldn’t feel this way, Lance thinks, the thought of Fernando touching him shouldn’t make his breath hitch in his throat. He can feel the understated hardness of his cock, can ignore it as long as Fernando doesn’t notice; but the devilish smirk painted across the Spaniard’s features tells Lance that he certainly will, that he already has.

The kiss stirs something deep inside of him, undoing a knot he’s so carefully tied in his own tongue. Maybe his body can accept his repressed urges better than his brain can, because Lance can’t fight the urge to reach for the back of Fernando’s neck and pull at the strands which curl underneath the hat. Low moans escape his throat when Lance tugs, and he wonders if Fernando knows just how pretty he sounds, how broken and unwound. He’s harsher than Lance is used to, lips rougher than the nameless girls he makes out with in darkened clubs; here the sun shines bright across the golden expanse of Fernando’s chest, and his teeth lightly graze Lance’s lips as they pull away, mouths red and raw.

And what the hell, Lance thinks as he rises up to his knees, Fernando’s shadow cast over him as he opens his mouth wide, it isn’t a big deal if they fuck on Fernando’s yacht sometimes.

[ltash]

Forever

Ep-11 "Doubtful" SimonGhostRileyxFemaleReader

Grief is the price we pay for love."

As they moved into the compound with military efficiency, Andrea and the team approached a large, ominous container. She stepped forward and pulled open the heavy door, revealing a sight that made Soap's eyes widen in disbelief.

"What the hell is this?" Soap muttered, his voice laced with shock.

Ghost stepped closer, his eyes scanning the contents. "It's all in English," he observed, his tone grim.

Andrea joined them, curiosity piqued. She grasped a handle and pulled it up, revealing a missile emerging from the container.

"Steaming Jesus," Ghost breathed, taking a step back. "Ballistic missiles."

"It'll go a thousand miles," Soap added, his voice tinged with alarm.

"Yeah, at least," Ghost agreed, his mind racing. "How the hell did Iran get its hands on this?"

"Ghost! Andrea, take a look at this." Andrea's eyes widened as she examined the markings on the missiles. "They're American," she said, disbelief creeping into her voice.

Ghost immediately reached for his radio. "7-3! Get us through to Laswell."

The radio crackled to life. "Laswell, this is Ghost. We got something."

"Ghost, do you have Hassan?" Laswell's voice came through, clear and direct.

"Negative. We found a weapons cache. Hassan's got missiles," Ghost replied, his voice steady.

"This is Gold Eagle Actual. Repeat your last," General Shepherd's voice echoed over the comms, a tone of urgency lacing his words.

Andrea, unable to contain herself, blurted out, "We got American missiles, Daddy!" Her voice echoed through the comms, drawing the surprised glances of her team. Realizing her mistake, she quickly added, "Oops. Sorry."

Back at CIA headquarters, General Shepherd rubbed his forehead in exasperation before striding into the conference room where Laswell was conducting a meeting. His expression was a mix of concern and determination as he prepared to address the unfolding crisis.

General Shepherd strode into the conference room, his expression grim. The gathered CIA officials fell silent as he took his place at the head of the table. Laswell quickly briefed him on the situation.

"Sir, Ghost's team has discovered a cache of American ballistic missiles in Iran. Hassan is linked to their distribution."

Meeting is over. He said and all the employees left.

Shepherd's face hardened. "This is a major breach. How the hell did they get their hands on our missiles?"

Laswell shook her head. "We don't know yet, but we need to act fast. Hassan cannot be allowed to deploy these."

Shepherd nodded, his mind racing through the implications. "I want a full investigation. Every possible angle needs to be explored. In the meantime, we need to get those missiles out of enemy hands."

Laswell turned back to the screen where Ghost's team was still visible. "Ghost, we're initiating an immediate response. You need to secure those missiles and extract any intel you can find on their origins."

"Understood," Ghost replied. "We'll get it done."

Back in the field, Ghost, Soap, and Andrea moved with renewed urgency. The discovery of the American missiles had heightened the stakes. As they secured the area, Andrea's mind raced with questions and fears. The sight of the missiles, and the realization of their origin, added a new layer of complexity to their mission.

"Ghost, what do we do now?" she asked, her voice steady despite the turmoil inside her.

"We secure the area, gather all intel, and prepare for extraction," Ghost replied. "We can't let these missiles fall into the wrong hands."

As they worked, Andrea's thoughts drifted to her father. His voice over the comms had brought her a moment of comfort, a reminder of the familial bond they shared despite the chaos around them.

"Andrea, focus," Ghost's voice cut through her thoughts. "We need you sharp."

She nodded, shaking off her reverie. "I'm here, Ghost. Let's get this done."

They moved efficiently, securing the cache and gathering intel. The weight of their discovery hung over them, but they remained resolute. For Andrea, the mission had taken on a personal dimension. She was determined to see it through, not just for her team, but for her father and the integrity of their mission.

General Shepherd stormed into the room again, this time his expression a mixture of anger and urgency. "Iran is in possession of American missiles," he declared, his voice resonating through the tense atmosphere.

"American missiles in AQ's hands," Laswell echoed, her brow furrowing with concern.

"Hassan has been passing out our ballistic missiles like it's fucking Halloween, and we didn't know about it," Shepherd continued, his frustration palpable.

"It gives Iran plausible deniability," Laswell pointed out.

"Deniability my ass," Shepherd retorted sharply. "I want to know how many they have and where they intend to use them."

"If Hassan is moving missiles, he has a smuggling partner," Laswell deduced.

"Well then, I would advise you to find out who that is," Shepherd snapped back.

Laswell met his gaze evenly. "Give my team two hours with those missiles, sir. I will know everybody who has ever breathed on them."

"Negative! I want them destroyed," Shepherd countered.

"General, there's valuable intel there," Laswell argued.

"This is an intelligence failure, Laswell. It's not going to be a tactical one. There will be 500 enemy soldiers there by sunrise. We need a win fast," Shepherd asserted.

He turned to his comms, his voice firm and commanding. "Gold Eagle to Ghost. Move your team and call for fire. I want those weapons destroyed."

"What! But we just finished gathering?" Andrea's voice crackled through the comms, filled with disbelief and frustration, but she was swiftly cut off by her father.

"Andrea! Listen to me. Those weapons need to be destroyed. You got that?" Shepherd's tone left no room for argument.

"Roger that," Andrea replied, her voice tinged with resignation.

"Roger that, Actual," Ghost confirmed, his voice steady and unwavering.

As the comms went silent, the gravity of the mission weighed heavily on the team, each member bracing themselves for the next phase of their operation.

The team swiftly moved into position, coordinating the call for the destruction of the compound. Ghost barked orders, ensuring every member knew their role as they prepared to leave the site. The tension was palpable, each second ticking away with a sense of urgency.

"Bravo Team, move out!" Ghost commanded, his voice cutting through the chaos.

Soap and Andrea followed, their steps quick and precise. The night was thick with the sounds of distant gunfire and the heavy thrum of their own breathing. As they reached the designated evac point, the roar of helicopter blades grew louder, signaling their escape was near.

"Evac is inbound," Soap relayed, glancing back at Ghost.

"Get ready to board," Ghost replied, his eyes scanning the surroundings for any last-minute threats.

The helicopter descended, kicking up dust and debris as it landed. The team quickly boarded, Andrea helping a wounded marine into the chopper. Once everyone was secured, the helicopter lifted off, the ground below shrinking away.

As they ascended, the ground beneath them erupted in flames and smoke, the compound's destruction a vivid reminder of their mission's success. Andrea watched the inferno, her heart heavy with the loss but resolute in the knowledge that they had done what was necessary.

"Mission accomplished," Ghost said, his voice steady in her ear. "Let's head home."

Andrea nodded, her thoughts a swirl of emotions. The mission had tested her in ways she hadn't anticipated, but she knew one thing for certain: she was ready for whatever came next.

As they touched down at their base in Al Mazrah, Andrea stormed inside the locker room, her steps echoing off the walls. She yanked off her helmet and vest, throwing them into a corner with a force that betrayed her frustration and grief. Collapsing onto a bench, she buried her face in her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks unchecked. Her sobs filled the otherwise silent room, each one a testament to the agony she felt.

Ghost stood in the doorway, his tall, imposing frame silhouetted against the harsh fluorescent light. He watched her, a silent sentinel, his eyes hidden behind the skull mask but filled with an understanding only a fellow soldier could possess. For a moment, he hesitated, caught between the desire to comfort her and the need to maintain his stoic exterior. Finally, he stepped into the room, the sound of his boots a soft rhythm against the tile floor, approaching her with a rare gentleness.

He approached her cautiously, not wanting to startle her. "Andrea," he said softly, his voice gentle yet firm. "It's okay to let it out."

She looked up at him, her eyes red and swollen from crying. "They died, Ghost," she choked out. "I couldn't save them."

Ghost knelt down in front of her, his tall frame making the movement seem almost reverent. "You did everything you could," he said, his voice steady. "War is unforgiving. We lose people. But we also save many more because of the sacrifices we make."

Andrea wiped her tears with the back of her hand, trying to regain her composure. "I just... I didn't expect it to be this hard."

Ghost nodded, understanding her pain. "It never gets easier. But you learn to carry it, to use it as a reminder of why we fight. To protect those who can't protect themselves."

She took a deep breath, his words providing a small measure of comfort. "Thank you," she whispered.

Ghost stood up, offering her his hand. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up and ready for the debriefing. We still have work to do."

Andrea took his hand, rising to her feet. As they walked out of the locker room, she felt a newfound resolve. The mission had been a harsh introduction to the realities of war.

They entered the conference room, the air heavy with the tension of the mission's aftermath. A laptop sat at the center of the table, its screen displaying the live feed from CIA headquarters. Laswell and General Shepherd appeared, their expressions stern and expectant.

The team settled into their seats, Ghost at the head, Andrea beside him. The weight of their failure to capture Hassan and the discovery of the American missiles loomed over them. Andrea cleared her throat, beginning the debriefing with a concise summary of the mission's events.

Laswell's voice cut through the silence. "Ghost, give us the full report."

Ghost nodded, detailing their infiltration, the discovery of the missiles, and the subsequent destruction order. Andrea's eyes remained fixed on the table, her earlier tears now replaced by a steely resolve.

General Shepherd's voice boomed through the speakers. "We need answers. How did those missiles end up in AQ's hands? Who is Hassan's smuggling partner?"

"We're working on it, General," Ghost replied, his tone measured. "We need more time to piece everything together."

Laswell leaned forward, her gaze intense. "We can't afford more slip-ups. The intel we lost in that compound could have been crucial."

Andrea glanced up, her voice steady despite the turmoil inside her. "We'll find out who supplied those missiles. We won't let this happen again."

The debriefing continued, each team member contributing their observations and insights. As the session drew to a close, General Shepherd's parting words hung in the air. "Get it done. We can't afford another failure."

The screen went dark, and the room fell silent. The weight of the mission and its implications settled over them, but amid the uncertainty, a shared determination took root. They had a job to do, and they would see it through.

They left the conference room. Andrea settled into her quarter. It was more like a barrack but separate for her. The al mazrah base stood between merely a desert.

Andrea exhaled heavily as she sat on the edge of her bed, her quarters feeling more like a temporary refuge than a home. The Al Mazrah base loomed in the middle of the desert, its surroundings stark and uninviting under the dim light filtering through the windows.

Her mind was a whirlwind of turmoil, the images of the fallen soldiers haunting her thoughts. She couldn't shake the weight of their sacrifice, nor the responsibility she felt for their deaths. In an attempt to find solace, she slipped into silk pajamas and busied herself with making a cup of coffee. The routine was familiar, a small comfort amidst the chaos of her emotions.

Stepping outside with her coffee, Andrea found herself enveloped in the base's quiet solitude. Thick concrete walls guarded them from the outside world, casting long shadows in the darkness. She stood there, sipping her coffee slowly, letting the warmth soothe her nerves as she gazed out into the desert night.

"Couldn't sleep," Ghost's voice cut through the silence, causing Andrea to jump slightly. She turned to see him standing against the wall with his arms crossed on his chest. Cladded in a black hooded jacket, his balaclava bearing its distinctive skull print, a symbol of his enigmatic presence.

"Oh my god, Ghost, you gave me a heart attack," Andrea said with a nervous laugh, trying to dispel the tension that lingered between them.

"Can't sleep in unfamiliar places," she added, attempting to explain her restlessness. The desert nights were alien to her, lacking the comforting sounds and sights of home.

Ghost nodded knowingly, his brown eyes serious behind the mask. "It takes time to adjust," he offered quietly, understanding her struggle without needing to voice it.

Andrea sighed, feeling a sense of relief in his presence. Despite the mission's harrowing nature, Ghost's calm demeanor provided a measure of reassurance. They stood together in companionable silence, the night slowly passing around them as they shared a rare moment of peace amidst the chaos of their duties.

"We'll make it through this," Ghost finally said, his voice carrying a quiet determination.

Andrea looked at him, grateful for his silent support. "Yeah," she agreed softly, taking another sip of her coffee. "We will."

Andrea's face lit up with a mixture of nostalgia and fondness as she spoke of Simon.

"I wonder what Simon is doing right now?" She said.

"Simon!" Ghost asked.

"He was my high school crush, my best friend," she explained, her voice tinged with warmth despite the heaviness of their recent mission.

Ghost listened attentively, though he already knew much about Andrea's past as he was the same Simon, the ghost of her past but she did not know that due to his mask. "It's been 11 years since I last saw him, when he joined the British Army," she continued, her gaze distant as memories of Simon flooded her mind.

"He must have seen a lot out there," Ghost remarked quietly, understanding the weight of military service and its impact on relationships and lives.

Andrea nodded thoughtfully, a hint of concern flickering in her eyes. "Yeah, I wonder how he's doing now. We used to talk about everything. He was like family to me," she confessed, a touch of longing evident in her voice.

Ghost studied her, his expression unreadable behind the mask. "You'll see him again someday," he said gently, offering reassurance. "When this mission is over, maybe you'll have the chance to catch up."

Andrea smiled gratefully, appreciating Ghost's understanding. "I hope so," she replied softly, her thoughts momentarily drifting to the friend who had been a significant part of her life before the complexities of duty and distance intervened.

As they stood together in the quiet of the desert night, Andrea found comfort in the camaraderie they shared, knowing that despite the challenges they faced, there were connections and memories worth holding onto.

[recurring-polynya]

Art question, but how do you personally mark Rukias aging from Rukon, Academy, Soul Reaper, Lt., to Captain? The anime gives her perpetual baby face its hard to tell

I am actually very excited to get an art question! I never get art questions!! Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for this one because it's something that I'm in the process of figuring out. I am happy to share my thoughts, though, and maybe the process of writing this post will help me get some of my ideas together.

I had already started collecting a bunch of reference images before I got this ask, but I went ahead and arranged them in chronological order to see what I could observe.

Front or 3/4 View:

Profile:

Okay! Ha ha ha, that only took three millions hours to do. But now that we have something to look at, what can we take away from this?

Child-Rukia: The usual way to make a character look more childlike is to make their eyes bigger and to move all the facial features lower on the face. The head should also be larger proportionate to the body. Kubo certainly does this, as you can see above. Rukia's hair is also sort of...smaller? It's rounder, and doesn't stick out as far from her head. Later on, she has a little triangular lump on the top her head which is where that piece of hair that hangs in front of her face sticks up away from the rest of her hair, and it's not present. She tends to make big, silly facial expressions. When I draw child-Rukia, I tend to simplify her nose into a little up-turned lump. I sometimes draw out full lips for Rukia and sometimes I don't, but I wouldn't for kid-Rukia. I also tend to draw characters with thick eyelashes that wing out at the edges, and I would soften that for kid-Rukia so she doesn't look like she's wearing make-up.

I actually think that Rukia is more noticeably child-like in the profile-drawings. Kubo really rounds out and simplifies the profile, just a little ledge for a nose and a soft and receding chin. Since Bleach is a comic, we tend to form a mental image of a character from a series of drawings of them, and I think the profile views are doing a lot of heavy lifting in terms of portraying the idea of Rukia as child-like, a thing that doesn't work so well when you're trying to draw individual pieces.

Teen-Rukia: Teen Rukia is really just the same things as child-Rukia, but to a lesser degree. You'll notice that the references, from the front, she looks almost exactly like she does as an adult, although the profile is definitely more childlike. Her hair is sometimes drawn as smaller and rounder, as when she was a child, but not always. She does have that triangular bit at the top now. I would still try to minimize the idea that she's wearing make-up. She's not a Kuchiki yet. Teen Rukia is pretty unsure in her new situation at school, so in general, her facial expressions going to be more subdued. And of course, the uniform is going to be a big cue.

Agent of the Shinigami Rukia: The first arc of Bleach is somewhat of an outlier because Kubo was setting into his art style, but the most distinctive Rukias are from this period. This is left side of the 3rd row of the "front view" chart above. Rukia is much sharper than she is before or after. She's got angles everywhere: her hair, the shape of her jaw. Most notably, her eyes are drawn basically as trapezoids. Even as you go along that row toward images from the Soul Society arc, you can see how her eyes get more rounded. I really love how scrungly Kubo's early character designs are, so if I'm drawing art from this period, I definitely try to sharpen her up.

In between the Academy pictures and these are ones from various flashbacks (her early Squad 13 days, Kaien's death, Fate is a Millstone). She's younger here, but this is after Kubo had settled into his style, and she looks softer, more rounded. Personally, I choose to interpret this as Rukia being stressed to Hell during the Agent of the Shinigami arc and getting kind of squirrelly-looking over it. 😂

Winter War: There isn't really anything that should be notably different before and after Rukia's botched execution, although Kubo has really gotten her hair and eyes down into standardized shapes Eyes have slight curvature on the top and are smoothly rounded on the bottom. I feel like her hair got a little shaggy during her imprisonment and she probably got a trim before getting deployed again 😂. I think the main difference here is going to be in mannerism and facial expression. She's a lot more confident, and has a tendency to make that half-lidded-eyes facial expression that makes her look like Byakuya.

Post-timeskip: I don't love the art in the Fullbringer arc for reasons I can't put my finger on--Kubo did some big re-designs and maybe it took a little practice before he got it down. I just think she looks a little better in the Blood War. I don't think there are any major differences in her face, it's all in the haircut and the uniform accessories. She still tends to make the same sort of Very Serious facial expressions she did during the Winter War.

Captaincy: Obviously the hair and the haori are the big giveaways, but there is a third thing which is that her facial expressions have gotten big and exaggerated again, similar to back when she was a child. I kind of love this actually--she's a captain now. She does what she wants. I'm sure she still has many serious faces that she puts on when she's being captain-ly, but for most of the one-shot, we see her in her own house (where Byakuya can't see her) stealing her sexy husband's phone to bully her cross-dimensional bestie. Of course she makes whatever faces she wants.

Should she look older here? That's a good question. My take on Soul Society aging is that it goes more with events than with time. Rukia and Renji were kids until their friends died and they felt it was time to grow up some. You mentioned Rukia having baby-face, which is true, but I think it's also appropriate. She was yanked out of school early and kept from being promoted and her mentor died and her brother won't look at her. I think she's in a trauma-based state of arrested physical development. At the start of the series, there's no question that she's an adult--she has job responsibilities and professional expertise and a certain degree of wisdom and control over her own behavior that is all associated with adulthood, but on the other hand, she manages to trick everyone into thinking that she belongs at a high school. If there's a time that she transitions from looking like a teen to looking like a grown-up, I think it probably happens over the course of the Winter War, and I'm a little grumpy that I can't figure out any solid visual cues to indicate this. Getting back to Captain Rukia--I think she probably should look a little older at this point. I'm in my 40s, and I can tell you that the only thing that ages you faster than having children is being put into a management role at work. If I had a more photorealistic style, I would definitely try to add a few facial lines and maybe a grey hair or two, but my art is pretty stylized and I haven't figured out a way to do in a way that looks good.

Those are my thoughts for now! I'm hoping to draw about a million more Rukias this year at many points in the timeline. I'd love to come back to this question in the future and see if I have a better answer to give!

[peggy-ovo]

i promised extras so here yall gooooo

heres the final if u haven't seen it :3333

ok first off we got the raw no colour lines

with a face closeup bc im actually really happy with how it turned out, angle and all, im an anime girlie so it was a pretty big jump from the way i usually draw

more below v v v

I took all my reference photos on myself (aside lighting) bc i don't know how to search for stuff well, i ended up doing 3 separate rounds for different things but it WORKED so if u ever need a reference for something and you cant find it make one urself just take a video and then screenshots of that video and know that a wardrobe railing makes for an excellent makeshift pipe <3

and a bra over a buttoned shirt works if you dont have a vest for accurate shirt creases

This is the reference i used for the lighting, i would NOT have gotten ANYWHERE without it

also something i thought was kinda cool to look at, how wierd the colours look in light, and how much cooler they are in dark

And finally by popular demand, here is his ass in its original form before i had to take another reference photo for what pants actually look like from that angle because holy hell

it was NOT necessary for there to be that much ass, i had to take a whole new reference video to fix it because i didn't know how to unvacuum seal his pants. but do enjoy i saved it just for u guys

and also i now have a video of me rotating my butt in front of a camera in my work pants PURELY so i could see how they were supposed to look but thats a secret between us

[aviyinglet]

Pixel Yinglets 0.975 is now out for PC!

Hello, everyone! Hefty update today with a bunch of changes and customization options, getting closer to making this presentable as a cloneable public avatar. The Quest version will be live in the next few hours; you can buy this model for $30 on my fascinating Gumroad page, as early-access pricing before it hits 1.0. Details and changelog after the jump!

I finished 0.96 thinking "Ah, time to relax!" and then it was made clear to me during a meeting with friends that the leg rigging couldn't wait any longer -- so I devoted the entire week of working hours (and then some) to releasing 0.97 -- and the following night of experiences made it clear to me that some bugs needed fixing and more work was needed to improve the new-user experience, so now we're at 0.975. The model now has full digitigrade leg rigging on PC, but also a whole bunch of customization options for character creation, including face/body sliders and separate hue sliders for the body and eyes. In retrospect I'm embarrassed as hell that I waited so long to rig the legs properly, but I like to think I went through my hard knocks fixing it.

Because this is now cloneable, I can confirm that this is very functional in six-point full-body tracking. Putting this in the hands of experienced FBT users (my life-partner and several good friends) was revelatory, and has convinced me to get a set of trackers myself right after Vancoufur. Body language changes a lot!

The next update will probably not come as quickly as this one, but it will feature retopologized hands/feet and toggleable clothing. We aren't done with body customization yet, but I consider this a pretty good start!

The public version of this is currently in the wild, but I'll be waiting till .98 to buy Furhub ad space for it. I'm committed to maintaining feature-parity between the free and paid versions of this, with greater customization through production files as the draw for the paid version. Any questions or concerns, please let me know. <3

CHANGELOG:

02/28/2024 & 03/02/2024

VERSION 0.97: THE "LET'S DIGRESS" UPDATE and VERSION 0.975: THE "LET'S DIGRESS" HOTFIX

(PC-only currently, will have Quest version added in less than 24 hours.)

Feature additions:

Radial menus for body characteristic customization:

Hue sliders! Only visible on PC, since it requires the Poiyomi shader. Body and eye colors can be customized independently.

Shelltooth length.

Snout length.

Snout width.

Snout roundness.

Ear roundness.

Ear length.

Belly size.

Chin height.

Hip width.

Underfluff density.

Digitigrade leg armature on PC version, using constraints. Your hip bones should no longer completely dislocate when you crouch! :D

Front and back fur patterns! In the "Base Fur" layer category in the .psd is a "Patterns" subcategory, with "Front Pattern" and "Back Pattern" subcategories that can be toggled, recolored, and customized as you please.

Credits page, accessible from the main circle menu! Tell all your friends!

"Read this first!" page, which summons a plane containing helpful tips for first-time users.

Geometry tweaks:

Raised feet slightly to prevent them from clipping into the ground.

Adjusted shelltooth angle to prevent it from clipping into the lower lip.

Retopologized legs! Now significantly less boxy, and they stick out less far in front of the body (I used Valsalia's "Anatomy of a Yinglet" as reference).

Retopologized ears. The inner part's concave now!

Added blendshapes for all the customization sliders.

Added a bit more volume to the breast size blendshape.

Tweaked waistline to be more yinglet-y.

Tailtip now tapers more to a point.

UV/texture tweaks:

Added front and back fur-pattern layers, toggleable in the PSD.

Repainted legs and ears.

Repainted the weird transparent pixels bordering the tops of the hard black sections of the legs.

Made eyebrow anti-aliasing pixels actual transparency instead of the default fur color.

Changed credits page to use pixelated fonts.

Condensed color legend on texture.

Added "Read this first!" UI elements to texture. (Will be cleaned up when I expand the texture canvas for clothing.)

Armature tweaks:

Re-weighted feet. Still not ideal, but hands and feet will be retopologized for the next update.

Constrained feet to plantigrade ankles.

Added glasses bone. This and the skirt bones will factor into the next major update.

Added bones for individual whiskers.

Other tweaks:

Assigned default values to most properties between 0 and 1.

Radial menus have been reorganized. All customization sliders are nested in a Customization submenu.

Fixed default lid minimizer not firing in eyelid animations.

Restored eye sparkles on Quest.

Known issues:

Feet rigging is passable but could be better; I'll throw myself at it after feet receive the hand retopology.

Can't yet toggle front and back fur-patterns. (There's an issue with decals that causes them to not retain the hard edges of the rest of the model's pixelated texture.) Will be fixed in a later update.

[panda-writes-kpop]

A/N: Happy Halloween!! I'm spending my day in classes and then doing homework afterward 🥲 but at least I'll get to dress up and be comfortable for one of my favorite holidays of the year! 💖

TW: Physical and emotional bullying, specifics about reader's talents and background are given, kinda sad but kinda happy(?)

Acknowledgments: Inspired by the Wednesday Netflix show (yes, I've been holding this fic for a WHILE it was too perfect for Halloween), and the following works by my friends inspired the universe and its characters: @kingmaker-a Ecdysis, You're A Keeper, and Logistics of a Cat; @foolish-sparrow Felix Votum; and @sanccharine mishaps gone right series, and @neon-city-dreams for being awesome <3

Summary: Your bad relationship with your peers causes you to come face-to-face with one of the most brilliant Ravenclaws, Dami. You're afraid that she's just as judgmental as the rest, but through time, she proves to be one of the most important people in your life.

♡ Masterlist ♡

"Hey, give it back!"

You tried reasoning with the young Slytherin members, but nothing worked. Perhaps being more strict would do the job?

The eldest boy sticks his tongue out at you as he tosses your art notebook to the shorter, younger boy.

"Let's see what kind of weird things the muggle writes in here."

You wince as he starts to flip through the book. After going through a few pages, he laughs before pointing at a drawing of yours.

"Wow, you really are obsessed with that Lee Dami girl, huh? You wouldn't mind if I told her that on your behalf, right?"

The youngest boy runs into the Great Hall as the oldest laughs like a wild maniac. You nervously bite your lip before running after the shortest boy.

"Yeah, go get 'em, squirt!" The eldest boy teases as your legs fail to carry you remotely close to the young boy.

He stops at the Ravenclaw table, right where Dami is seated. You try to, as calmly as you can after running what feels like an Olympic marathon, approach the table and remain calm.

"Hey, Dami, you wanna see something neat?"

You cringe as the boy hands her the notebook. She carefully handles the notebook before looking up at the boy.

"Is this yours? Why are you handing it to me?"

"No, it's theirs." The boy points over his shoulder at you, and you do your best to calmly wave as you try to tame the wild beast that is your rapidly beating heart.

"Then why do I have it?" Dami nonchalantly asks, and a few Ravenclaws around her giggle at the boy in front of you.

His ears turn red as he huffs and slightly turns toward you. You brace for impact as he storms towards you, but you're surprised when he puts on a brave smile and harshly wraps an arm around you.

"Tell her this is one big misunderstanding and that she can look through the notebook, alright," The boy loudly says before leaning closer to you, "otherwise I'll make the rest of your stay at Hogwarts a living hell."

You nervously laugh before slapping the boy's back as friendly as you can appear to be.

"Of course she can look through it!" You say through gritted teeth, and the boy shoots you a deadly glare before you push yourself away from him. 

Dami looks at you for confirmation, and you feel your face heat up as you nod at her.

You start mentally planning your funeral as soon as Dami touches the cover. You might as well make plans to move to Africa, where no one knows who you are or what your face looks like.

Perhaps that wouldn't be the best idea since you weren't the most multilingual person, so America would be a better fit, right? You could send an owl to your parents, and they'd figure out the details for you! That'd be great because the Wizarding school there is just as good as Hogwarts, plus you'll never have to face Dami again after she ultimately rejects you because what reasonable person would want a loser like you who can't actually verbalize their feelings and instead draws them from every possible angle and OH MY GOD SHE THINKS YOU ARE A STALKER YOU NEED TO VACATE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY WHAT ARE YOU DOING-

"I-"

Dami pauses after she closes the back of the book. You say a prayer to as many deities and saints that you know as you hope that she'll reject you kindly and you can instead live out your days at Hogwarts in shame without having to move to another country.

She looks up at you before a prominent pink blush settles on her cheeks. She clears her throat before readjusting her glasses as your tormentor closes in on Dami.

"So, what did you think? That art is so stalker-ish and lame, right? You'd never want to be with someone like that, huh."

He triumphantly folds his arms as Dami's sweet, deep voice hits your ears.

"I think it's sweet."

"What?" The boy says in utter shock as his eyes are nearly about to widen past their capabilities.

"What?" You softly repeat as you feel lightheaded.

No, she was supposed to reject you and laugh at you, right? When was this a part of the horrid fantasy that you created 30 seconds ago?

More importantly, when did the room start spinning?

The last thing you remember was Dami calling out your name as you felt your body being tugged towards the floor.

~

Although your confession wasn’t anything like your dreams, it managed to land you in Dami’s favor, and now you’re on a date with the girl who you’ve been endlessly doodling in your notebook.

This moment, you decided, was one of two things.

Option A.) A cruel joke by the universe, in which one of your peers would jump out of a nearby bush with one of those muggle recording devices, and your life would return back to normalcy.

Or Option B.) You’re somehow dreaming still, and you probably need to see the headmistress because dozing off like this isn’t good for your health or your grades, and you know what your mother will say when your grades start to slip-

“Hey, are you alright? You’ve been staring off in the distance for a while…”

Dami calmly observes you as you nervously shift on the picnic blanket.

“I’m okay… I think.”

You mentally scold yourself before nervously playing with a strand of your hair. Dami sweetly laughs before placing a hand on your shoulder. That part of your body heats up, and your internal body temperature rises about 5 degrees as you feel yourself start to sweat.

What a pair the two of you were.

The brilliant scholar, the one who was a prodigy at everything she tried. The radiant Ravenclaw who managed to excel in every subject and charmed her peers and professors along the way.

And then there was you, the tortured artist. The mockery of your peers was a constant negative force in your life, and you always had your head in a sketchbook or notebook.

She was the strong sunshine, constant and unwavering, and you were a waning moon, ready to disappear to make room for something greater.

Yeah, this was definitely a pity date.

“Are you sure you’re feeling well-”

Dami’s ever-so-gentle with you, as if every last word would break your body like a glass figurine shattering when it hits the floor. You’re scared, sure, but you’re not that much of a wimp, right?

“Dami, I-” You pause to chew on your lip before gently reaching for her. “I really like you, and I’m scared of ruining this date because I think that you think that I’m a freak, just like everyone else does!”

You slap your hand over your mouth as Dami begins to rub your back. You bow your head in shame as you feel her free hand touch your extended hand.

“I don’t think you’re anything like the other kids say you are. That’s why I wanted to come out here with you. I want to find out who you truly are,” She offers you a warm smile as you dare to look up at her, “and if it makes any difference, I really like you too.”

“You do?” A sea of hopefulness floats into your voice as you tentatively smile.

“I do.”

Your eyes widen, and you let go of her hand before wrapping both arms around her. Dami looks startled for a moment before she laughs and wraps her arms around you.

Maybe this year would be different, just like your mother had said.

~

“Do you have the notes for Potions?”

“You weren’t paying attention?” Dami teasingly asks Lia before sorting through the books in her arms. “Color me surprised.”

“Don’t give me the third degree. Ryujin already did that.” Lia scoffs as Dami hands her a few sheets of paper from a book.

“Ryujin sleeps in class almost every day.”

“That’s what I said!” Lia exclaims before quickly looking at Dami’s notes. “My god, you really do take detailed notes.”

“I do my best work in class.” Dami shrugs before looking out at the courtyard. “Do you have Potions today?”

“Unfortunately, yes, but I-” Lia pauses when Dami sticks her arm out in front of both of them. “What is it?”

“Hold my things.” Dami hands her books to a skeptical Lia, who sends Dami a quizzical look until she looks out into the courtyard.

“Oh shit, that’s-”

“Uh-huh.” Dami pulls up her sleeves before grabbing her wand. “That’s why I’m going to interfere.”

“Before they hurt someone?”

“Before someone else jumps in.” Dami corrects as Lia’s eyes widen.

“Are you referring to SuA and Siyeon?”

“Who else would I be referring to?” Dami sighs before walking away. “Make sure nobody tries to jump in, alright? I need to handle this myself.”

“To prove that you’re a good girlfriend?” Lia jokes as Dami walks towards the scene in the courtyard.

“Funny, Lia.” Dami mumbles as she approaches the scene unfolding in front of her.

~

When you were younger, the teasing and bullying from your peers would bother you to no end. You’d sob in the arms of your friends and Dami every time they decided to mess with you.

Now? They were just an annoyance to you.

“Please give it back…” You hopelessly say as you watch two of your peers hold your books hostage ten feet in the air.

“And why would I do that?”

Because you’re not a total bitch?

“C’mon, don’t you have anything better to do?” Exasperated, you pull out your wand as they both chuckle.

“Oh, what are you gonna do, summon your Patronus?” One teases as the other laughs.

You bow your head in shame before putting your wand away.

“That’s what I thought, you pathetic waste of-”

“What are the two of you doing?” 

Your head snaps up as you make eye contact with Dami.

Thank goodness!

“Dami!” One of the students squeaks out before running off, and the other slowly lowers your things towards the ground.

“You’re no fun.” They say before throwing your stuff on the ground.

Your eyes widen as you quickly gather your things from the ground.

“You’re sick!” Lia yells from the side as the other student rolls their eyes.

“We were just joking around, right?” They shoot daggers at you, and you shiver under their glare.

“Ahem.” 

You pause as you hear heels click behind you.

“Headmistress BoA, I-”

“My office. Now.” She calmly says, and the student bows their head before walking away. “Oh, and if you track down your friend before I get back, I won’t make you clean out the Hippogriff cages.”

You dare to look at the student who’s walking much faster now, and you find yourself laughing as you gather your things and yourself off of the ground.

“Are you alright?” She gently asks before placing a hand on your back. “They gave you back all of your things, right?”

You swiftly look through your things before nodding.

“Thank you again, Headmistress.” You quietly say as Dami makes her way to your side. “Thanks for saving my ass… again.”

Dami wraps an arm around your shoulders to comfort you before leaning into you.

“I’d happily step in any time.”

Headmistress BoA gently smiles at the two of you before taking a step back.

“I’m glad you have someone like Dami looking out for you,” She says before waving Lia over, “and it seems that you’ve managed to charm quite a few other students as well.”

“Oh, I…” You bite your lip before staring at the ground. “I don’t think I’d call myself charming.”

“Dami would agree to disagree!” Lia teases, which causes Dami to blush, and you to laugh.

“Well, I will leave the three of you to your studies. If there’s anything I can do, please, don’t be afraid to-”

“Headmistress, you’ve already done so much for me…” You softly interrupt her before looking over to Dami. “for us. I don’t think I can thank you enough.”

~

After you and Dami were close and became ‘more than friends’, the torture that you experienced only multiplied. It went beyond verbal teasing and the occasional shove or someone stealing your notebooks.

It wouldn’t be a day at Hogwarts if you weren’t shoved into a wall and had your face shoved into your food. It got so bad that you ended up confessing to your mother, and when she confronted the Headmistress, they couldn’t find anyone who would talk about the bullying besides you.

You tried to take it on the chin, but after one particularly rough day, you broke down in tears and had enough of their teasing. You stopped reacting to their normal shenanigans, which encouraged them to go farther.

You were walking to The Great Hall while admiring the architecture. You had enjoyed your class, which was mostly because you didn’t have to use your wand all day. It wasn’t a secret that you weren’t the best spellcaster, but you could easily outbrew anyone in Potions and you knew what made the plants grow faster in Herbology. 

You were happy because you were to see Dami, and your day was always better when you saw her. In your ignorant bliss, you had failed to notice the snickering students who were holding a pot of honey above your head with their wands.

You had opened the doors to The Great Hall, and everyone in the world seemed to be looking at you when your assailants launched their attacks.

You screamed when the honey fell onto you, and the force threw you to the ground. You managed to push yourself out of the way of the falling pot before it hit the ground.

All of the students outside of the hall were laughing at you, and from what you could see, a good amount of students were laughing in the dining hall.

You immediately started crying before getting up and running away from the dining hall. You didn’t care that you left your things behind, but it didn’t matter since they were probably ruined anyway.

You didn’t stop running until you had reached a bathroom far from the living quarters and The Great Hall. You closed the door, and you fell back against the nearest wall before burying your head in your arms.

A gentle knock at the door manages to disturb your pity party.

“Leave me alone…” You weakly mumble, and you curse yourself for being so weak, just as your peers had said.

“Are you in here?” Dami asks, and you sniffle before answering.

“You should’ve started with your name.” You say before managing to let out a broken chuckle. “The door’s unlocked.”

The door creaks when it is opened, and Dami files in before shutting it.

“My God…” She mumbles before grabbing a washcloth from beside the sink.

Dami puts the stopper in the sink, and she fills the sink with water before running the washcloth under the faucet.

She offers you the washcloth, and your shaking hand reaches out for it before you stop.

“Do you mind if you-”

“No, of course not.” Dami answers before shutting the faucet off. 

She sits next to you with the washcloth in her hands.

“Can I touch you?”

“Yeah, it’s okay.” You softly say before lifting your head up.

Dami gently begins to rub the honey away by starting with your face. After she finishes with one side, she switches hands, and her right hands cleans your face as the other holds the clean part of your cheek.

“I’m so sorry that this happened to you…” Dami mutters as she gently strokes your cheek with her thumb. “How does this continue to happen?”

“I’m an easy target. I’m useless with my wand, I can’t fly on a broomstick, and I don’t know how to talk to people.” You exasperatedly say.

“But there’s so much that you can do. You’re brilliant with Potions and Herbology.” She compliments you before continuing on. “You’re creative, much more than I am, and you’re kind to everyone, even if they’re not kind to you back.”

“You see the good in everyone, Dami.” You lovingly look at her as she smiles.

“I see the good in you because everyone, including yourself,” She sternly says the last part, “refuses to. Someone has to take care of you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“You can, but it doesn’t hurt to rely on others.” Dami wistfully says before pulling her right hand away from your face “Let me clean the washcloth, and I’ll work on your arms, alright?”

“Okay.” You feel better as Dami stands and walks over to the sink. 

You like the quiet bliss that is between the two of you. No one may understand why the brilliant scholar loves the tortured artist, but you’re starting to get it now.

Suddenly, the door slams open and you jump before curling up into yourself. Dami looks up from the sink before a sour look settles on her face.

“Headmistress BoA…”

“What is going on here?” She sternly says before glancing at you before looking back at Dami. “Did you… were you a part of this, Ms. Lee?”

“I didn’t do-”

“She was trying to help!” You exclaim before tears fall from your eyes. “Please don’t make her go.”

“Are you sure Ms. Lee wasn’t-”

“She wouldn’t hurt me!” You yell before quickly standing up.

You try to take a step forward, but your knees wobble and you fall on the ground.

“My love-” Dami immediately drops the washcloth in the water before placing a hand on your knee. “Did you hurt yourself?”

“No,” You shake your head before placing one of your hands on hers, “I’m alright.”

“Ah, I see what’s going on here.” A glint of mischief appears in the Headmistress’ eyes before she chuckles and smiles. “Clean up, change your clothes, and head to my office once you’re done. I’ll set dinner aside for both of you, and we can chat about finally putting an end to this mess.”

You smile at the Headmistress before looking over to Dami.

“That’d be great, Headmistress. Thank you.”

~

You grab the key from your coat pocket as you climb the stairs with Dami and Lia by your side.

“Ugh, do I have to go to Potions?” Lia complains before sighing. “I’d much rather go to Defense Against the Dark Arts again then do this shit-”

“I’d trade you.” You mumble.

“How bad was class today?”

“I made a fool of myself, as per usual.” You groan as you remember your classmates’ teasing. “Another failure I will never live down.”

“Don’t let those Slytherins bother you-”

“-They were Ravenclaws.” You correct Lia before she pauses mid-step.

“What?”

“Yeah, I know. A lot of the physical teasing comes from Slytherins and Gryffindors, but I can’t count the times I’ve been harassed by Ravenclaws.” You bite your lip before Dami sets a gentle hand on your back. “You think they’d be nicer considering I am a Ravenclaw.”

“Don’t listen to them. They’re judgemental.” Dami reassures you.

“Even you?”

“I’ve learned better from people like you.” Dami honestly says as you reach the fourth floor.

“Well, I’ve got to grab the textbook from our dorms. I’ll see you tonight for dinner,” Lia says to Dami before turning to you, “and I will have a hundred and one questions about Potions to ask you.”

“I’ll do my best to help.” You gently smile before waving Lia off as she continues to climb the stairs.

You loop arms with Dami as you lead her to a locked room, far from prying eyes.

“How was Herbology?” Dami pushes back a strand of your hair before you unlock the door.

“Professor Im says I have a lot of potential in the field. She wants me to start looking into higher level classes for next year. So, it was as per usual. What about you?”

“Potions was simplistic, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, well, I-”

You open the door before gently nudging Dami.

“It’s okay, Dami, I know you’re good at it. You’re destined to be an Auror, I know.”

You mutter a soft ‘Lumos’, which sets the room alight with a soft glow.

“You’ve put up more art.” Dami notes as you set your books aside.

“What else do you think I do here?” You joke before grabbing your staple apron. “But I’m glad you noticed.”

“What are you going to work on?”

“Undecided… but maybe I just want to hang out with you.”

“Oh? Is that so?” 

You let go of Dami’s arm before grabbing her waist. She smiles before wrapping her arms around your torso.

“I-I am sorry.” Dami mutters as you pull her close.

“For what? None of this is your fault, Dami.”

“I just wish I could’ve done… more.”

“Don’t say things like that-”

“You’re planning about going back to the muggle world permanently after you’ve finished your education at Hogwarts, right?”

Your eyes widen as you let go and back away from Dami.

“Did my mom tell you that?”

“Your dad, actually.” Dami pauses for a beat before grabbing your hand. “When were you going to tell me about the fact that you’re taking muggle classes and classes here? Is bullying the reason why you’re going back to the muggle world?”

“Yeah, it is,” You mumble softly before squeezing her hand, “but I didn’t want to say anything, I know you wanted to be an Auror, you’d be brilliant and the best at it.”

“Why the muggle classes, though?”

“I’m a half-blood. It was my mom’s dream for me to go to Hogwarts, just as she did, and my dad… he’s a professor at a well-known university, so he agreed with my mother as long as I kept up with my muggle work.” You sigh before shaking your head. “Was my dad worried about me?”

“He thought you were making the wrong choice.” Dami explains.

“My dad loves you, and he wants what he thinks is best for me.”

“I want you to stay.” 

“You do?”

“Of course I do. As much as I want to be an Auror, I couldn’t imagine being there without you.” 

“That’s sweet of you to say…” You trail off. “But I don’t belong here. You know that, as do many of our peers.”

“They might not think you belong, but you’ll always belong with me.” Dami pulls you close before you rest your head on her frame. “At least think about it, my love. That’s all I can ask from you.”

“I will, dear, I promise.” You peck her cheek before grabbing a paint brush. “You can go back to the dorms and work in peace if you’d like. I’m going to play some music and-”

“-I’d much rather stay with you.”

[kafus]

for the artist ask game i picked two Q’s:

6. Favorite and least favorite angles/perspectives to draw?

20. What motivates/inspires you artistically? (topics, emotions, etc)

love your art especially of the funky little horizons lesbians, and i hope you had an awesome time at the con!

ouagh thank you the con was good 😭 i still need to make some posts about it...

6. Favorite and least favorite angles/perspectives to draw?

asks that remind me that i need to experiment more with perspective and actually putting my characters in tangible space again because i wanna branch into comics... but anyway

i still struggle with side view on my character art a lot asjfdosa doesn't stop me from doing it but i have to slow down and really think about it and often when i send my work to friends for critique, they point out something wrong with the jawline and i have to fix it LOL, i could definitely stand to do more side view studies at some point and get more comfortable with it (i also tend to struggle with things where the head is tilted up enough that you can see the underside of the chin, i don't have to draw anything like that often but that too...)

on the other hand i am 3/4 view's strongest soldier to the point that sometimes my front facing characters look lopsided on accident because of the 3/4 muscle memory and i have to go in and adjust them after the fact lmao. but i think that's a pretty common problem to have

20. What motivates/inspires you artistically? (topics, emotions, etc)

probably obvious considering the laser focus tunnel vision i've had on likodot with my art lately but. it's shipping art. but like seriously it's like exploring human connection and love through art for me, and being able to see how other people explore that same topic. it is probably more important and complex for me than it appears on the surface. like yeah likodot cute and i want to see their faces smashed together in a kiss on the lips but also as a very traumatized person i am so fascinated by the idea of a healthy and loving relationship, i am so fascinated by being able to safely explore romance as a young person, and i am so fascinated by the idea of safe physical affection - which is why affection gets such a strong focus in my art lately lol.

it also turns out that i enjoy fandom spaces and the community found through it and that's really motivating and inspiring too. i love coming together with other people over shared love of a thing and making art about it together. like hell yeah dude nothing more powerful than human connection at the end of the day

[halfbakedspuds]

Thanks so much to @honeybewrites for the tag!

Find the word tag

My words are: Bold, Fire, Survivor, Chase

TW: burning alive, stabbing

Bold: (From The Tempest Prince book 3)

"Statement: That was a bold move, Haliday" the Archmagos turned to me with her signature clockwork stutteriness, two hollow pits staring through me out of her porcelain face, "Standing up to the Inquisitor-General like that,"

I grunted, not bothering to look up from the glyph I was drawing, "Are you really going to stand there and tell me that you wouldn't have done the same thing if not for politics? You of all people?"

A whirr emanated from her voicebox, the closest she could manage to a laugh with her body. I caught her picking up a page from the pile, scanning over my work, "Amused: I said that it was bold, not that I disapprove. Annoyed, indirect: Where I stand on the matter is that that bigoted einhusfilfr has been in power for far too long. It's about time someone stood up to him,"

She was silent for another moment, a few soft clicks whirred inside her body as its life support did its job. For a moment as the greatest Magos in Allyrian history turned my work about to look at it from different angles. Finally, giving up, she slid it over to me.

"Confused, Concerned: Child, what the hell were you doing here?"

I only spared a moment's glance at the page she held before redirecting my attention to the glyph I was seeing into the page beneath my hands, "Redirecting the output from AH-11 through a Gaussian cycler and into the arcana null with a resistance path to the arcana-thermal cross-converter," I shrugged at the somehow blanker than usual look she gave me, "Remember your old buddy Nikola Tesla? This is effectively the arcane version of his coils. I'm using it to build up some backing-power before firing. Might be a hell of a lot slower but contextually I feel like trading speed for force is worth more to this design,"

"Impressed: That is... genius, actually," The Archmagos said in a warm monotone, "A bold solution by a bold individual,"

Fire: (From Echoes of Shadows)

TW: Burning alive, stabbing.

"Johan!" Sasha cried out, her voice fraught with panic.

Hold on! Spirits, just hold on for a few more seconds!

"Nyet! Get the fuck off of me! Idi nahui, ty suka!" She called out again.

Johan was practically dancing around the things now, ignoring them just to get to Sasha and help her.

A sudden sharp pain in his side tore a cry of anguish from him. Through hazy, swimming vision, he looked down to spot a dagger in his side, gauntleted fingers still wrapped around its pommel. He fought to look up into the crow's mask of the cultist before him...

...and watched their lenses crack as the ambient temperature suddenly fell to that of the Rostovan heartlands.

He heard an uncharacteristically feral growl come from Sasha, and quickly whipped his head around, just in time to watch her put her hands to the face of the cultist who had been harassing her.

"You want me so badly? Fine then, I'll drag you down to the hells with me!" She screamed into their face.

A moment passed, then they began to spasm and thrash, clawing at her hands and drawing long, crimson streaks of crimson from her skin as they fought her grip. The only other indicator of their struggle were muffled cries for help and of unknowable pain, and a steady red glow beginning to shine through their leather mask.

She slowly turned towards the rest, who had all gone still with fear. Johan was fairly certain he could smell urine from the one closest to him, but that could've also been the sewer water. Not that he would've blamed them, though, and besides, he had a knife in him.

There was a sudden, horrible crack as the glass of her assailant-turned-victim's lenses burst outwards, and two plumes of white-hot fire spewed forth like geysers from their eyes. After a moment, it subsided, and the cultist's limp form splashed into the sewer, leaving billowing steam where they lay among the filth.

"You hear me, fuckers?!" She cried with a crazed laugh behind her words, her hands out to her sides and engulfed in blue-hot flames, "I'll kill every last one of you!"

Survivor: (From Children of the Stars)

"Perhaps that's why the two of you seem drawn to each other," another one of the machines answered, this one working a console of some kind. Lyanni was starting to lose track of all the places that Apollyon's voice emitted from.

"How so...Admiral?" She rushed to correct herself.

A chorus of barking laughter erupted from the androids around her, and when the new machine spoke, it was the one in the navigator's chair, "My girl, I've wandered the universe for two centuries, you don't have to play the fool with me. You're both survivors, you both carry unknowable pains and have committed unspeakable acts all in the name of one more day," Lyanni started as an Android put its hand on her shoulder, coming around to stand before her, "You who survived a genocide, and Adam alone knows what he's been through,"

The Android gave Lyanni's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "If you'll permit me to share some insight from one non-human to another?"

Lyanni felt her hearts in her throat. Why was this... inorganic thing so gods-damned terrifying.

She swallowed, "If you'd do me the honour, Admiral,"

The interlocking plates of the android's face, a facsimile of a human's, shifted into a tooth-baring smile, "The Callistoans aren't an easy group of humans to read- believe me, I know what it's like- but they respect skill and grit, and purely from how much he relies on you (don't give me that look, surely you've noticed)- I'd say you've earned his respect. Hell, if I didn't know better I would've said you've gotten the great Adrian Castellan to like you, little miss Sverik,"

Chase: (surprisingly, throughout three active WIP's, I haven't used this word even once)

No pressure tags for @illarian-rambling, @pb-dot and anyone else who wants in

[fea-resources]

Best SAO Abridged Lines As RP Starters Pt.3

“Sheeptar the Sheep King, your reign is at an end.”

“If that thing hadn’t already killed seven of us, I’d say this was a really stupid boss/enemy.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, we can’t just go around sacrificing NPCs! Some of my best friends have been NPCs!”

“That makes way too much sense.”

“Choke on it! Choke on my vengeance! How does it taste?!”

“Yeeeah. You know what? Maybe he has a point. This is super uncomfortable.”

“Sooooo… how’s your day goin’? You’re looking pretty relaxed there, buddy.”

“This grass feels amazing.”

“I suspect that wasn’t a real question–”

“It was great! You should’ve been there! He was climbing the walls, spitting acid…”

“We’re still talking about a sheep, right? Not like a… fluffy Xenomorph?”

“Its a really stupid boss!”

“Apparently not that stupid if it killed seven of you.”

“…twelve now, actually…”

“I mean, you survived, so hey. Silver lining.”

“Okay, what the hell is wrong with you? You’re way too… mellow.”

“Well, I had some time to kill before the raid, so I figured I’d power level my alchemy a bit  by eating some weird plants, and now everything’s…. just… great…”

“Look, okay? I get it. You had a really bad day. You’re stressed out, seven people died…”

“TWELVE PEOPLE.”

“Not the point. Look, they’re dead now. And really? Whose fault is that? That’s right. No one’s.”

“So why don’t you lie down, relax, and watch the stars with me?”

“Its two in the afternoon! There are no stars!”

“Only if you’re looking with your eyes.”

“You’d better come down soon so I can kick your teeth in…”

“Huh… those dudebros make an interesting point.”

“I mean… as a man, there’s really only one option here.”

“I drew cat whiskers on you because I thought it would be funny, and it was!”

“Vhew eh pfftff Well… tff I… I dfff I-I mean… jju uu You know…! jj–… You- you could’ve… like… tjj ahu…”

“Yeah, remind me to draw on your face more often. I’ll eat like a king. Or at least a very wealthy janitor.”

“This coming from the guy who ate random plants off the ground?”

“Oh really? Well who’s dumber? Me, or the one who takes a nap next to some crazed drug fiend?”

“Need I remind you that YOU were that crazed drug fiend?”

“I can’t be held responsible for stoned _______. That guy’s an idiot.”

“Oh, looks like we are out of time! We’ll have to continue this next week, but in the meantime, please enjoy these lovely consolation prizes from the ________ Is Always Right Foundation.”

“Oh my god, you’re insufferable.”

“Huh… look. A human pinata.”

“He’s dying!”

“Uh… correction: he’s suffering. Probably hurts like a bitch, but he’s not gonna die.”

“Hey man! When you pop, could you try to send the candy over this way?!”

“I’m gonna go cut him down, you jackass.”

“Hey, anyone got like a thirty foot stick? I wanna take a crack at this thing.”

“So did anyone see where the candy went, or…?”

“For christ’s sake, a man just died!”

“Ah, yesss… but that just raises an even bigger question. Why do you care?!”

“I’m sorry, are you asking me why I care that a man was killed?”

“No, I’m asking why YOU care that a man was killed!”

“Welll… let’s see… most people would - charitably - refer to you as the crown prince of douchebags, long may he reign!”

“Your usual reaction to human suffering is to pull up a chair and crack out the popcorn! What’s your angle?!”

“I am shocked and appalled that that is your opinion of me!”

“Starts with an A---… right, Y. Starts with a Y. I mean its close, they’re basically neighbors, you can understand my mistake.”

“Its uh… Yo… Yo… Yo… Ya… Yoooooga pants?”

“Oh, spare me, Wonder Woman. You’re only doing this to prove I was wrong.”

“Hey! At least I PRETEND to be nice to people!”

“Yeah, whatever, uh—wait, ‘pretend’?”

“Well if its not my least favorite customer.”

“Aw, you just say that because I’m not dumb enough to buy any of your crap.”

“Yeah, well if there’s one upside to being trapped with these idiots, its that they’ll buy pretty much anything.”

“What’s the matter with you?! Why would you bring her here?! I thought we were friends!”

“What is up in dis… hizouse?”

“There’s just so much beauty in the world, you know?!”

“So dat’s da sitch. Think ya can scope da deets on dis gat for us, homey?”

“Um, but I’m da one dat asked you.”

“Why you ignoring me bro? You got cotton in your ears?”

“OH GOD! I-I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Grand Wizard _______ here’s not what you’d call a ‘people person’.”

“Um, excuse me?! Mr. Kettle? Mr. Pot called. He said you’re black!”

“What? Its a turn of phrase. It has nothing to do with race.”

“Okay, now you see dat? DAT was racist.”

“Well CLEARLY, I’m stabbing myself with this sword to see if it kills me– Oh god, what AM I doing?”

“Ah… handing the black man a murder weapon. Tale as old as time.”

“Do you really hate this place that much, or do you just love the sound of your own voice?”

“Its my gift to the world.”

“Hate to break it to you sweetie, but the world wants a gift receipt.”

“No refunds or exchanges. Only store credit.”

“Shhhhh. The grown-ups are talking.”

“Really? Then show me the body.”

“There is no body!”

“You can’t prove that he’s dead. Let me give this poor girl some hope.”

“Oh, don’t even PRETEND that’s what you’re doing!”

“________, why would ________ have wanted to make sweet love to your friend’s chest with the business end of a broadsword?”

“Meh, I’ve killed for less.”

“I knew it! They’re finally coming for me! It was only a matter of time! The walls are closing in!”

“Ever since he got trapped in here, he’s been terrified that his more… 'verbose’ commenters are going to make good on their threats.”

“I used to laugh at their comments! You hear me?! LAUGH! But now?! What if they actually DO chop off my limbs, rip out my intestines, and ride me like some sort of meat toboggan?!”

“You hear that? 'Meat Toboggan’. Try getting THAT image out of your head. Grippin’ his entrails like the reins of Santa’s sleigh. Streaking through the fresh morning snow on a trail of bile and gore, as his eyes beg the same question as the horrified children in his wake. 'Why…?’ ”

“This… may have been a mistake.”

“I disagree. I think you’ve got a real flair for this.”

“Did I say 'reason’? Sorry, I meant the screaming monkeys that live in her brain.”

“I don’t know about you, but I have a duty to my fans to survive this! …I mean, to the ones who AREN’T threatening to use my spine as a pitching wedge.”

“I think we can safely assume a ghost is not the culprit here!”

“Of course not. Obviously it was a Hit by the Mermaid Mafia paid in Leprechaun gold! But who was the puppet master? The Unicorns? No… they’ve had a feud going with the Mermaids for years.”

“Damn it, this is serious!”

“Weeellllll… I’m not a doctor… but I don’t like her chances.”

"Ah! Ah! Ow! Ah! Ugh! Ah.... aaaugh..."

"Really? I figured some random perp would be no match for the world's greatest detective. Oh-ho wait, no... THAT'S BATMAN. And you're not Batman, are you? You will NEVER be Batman."

"That, uh... cut surprisingly deep. Well played."

"I can't believe you just left me with that guy!"

"Really? What part of that was out of character for me?"

"If you say '_______', I'm going to stab you in the eye."

"So anyway, I think we should go over what we know so far."

"Why? I figured the whole thing out hours ago."

"My sandwich! It was innocent...!"

"SHHH! I must grieve."

"What do you want?! Scalps?! I can get you scalps!"

"Oh, I see. You're an orphan blood man! Do you prefer your victims pre-drained, or do you like to get your hands dirty?"

"Oh, so you like them crucified! Well, that'll be a bit trickier, but I'm sure I can work something out!"

"...so, where are we on the whole orphan blood thing? We talking heads or liters?"

"For the love of-- We're not ghosts! We faked our deaths!"

"Seriously, ________? How many people would you have killed if we'd asked you to?"

"Thaaaaat's... not important."

"I DISAGREE."

"With an asses jawbone, I have made asses of them. With an asses jawbone, I have killed a thousand men."

"No no! You sighed! That's not nothing!"

"Boss... I get what you're going for. Bible quoting serial killer... its a great motif. Classic. But... its a big book. They're not all gonna be gems."

"Okay, bigshot! Name one verse that's scarier than that."

"Oh, I don't know. How about 'no flesh shall be spared'? Mark 13:20?"

"Holy shit! That's in the Bible...?"

"Have... you ever actually READ the Bible?"

"Look, we're getting off-track. I'm the guild leader, and I say my verse was better."

"Don't you think the whole 'Jesus tells me to kill' thing is... holding us back? Plus... you're not even all that good at it."

"How DARE you! The J-man's teachings inform everything I do!"

"That's not even a word! Much less--- ugh. Forget it. Let's just kill these guys and go."

"Stupid horse! That entrance was almost perfect!"

"Don't patronize me, Yoga Pants!"

"I'm afraid that's impossible, officer.”

“The Lord has ordered these sinners dead, in the form of a guy who pays fifty bucks..."

"Fifty bucks? Selling yourselves a bit cheap, don't'cha think?”

“You guys provide an essential, in-demand service, and you're DEFINITELY the leaders in your field. I mean, you GOTTA cash in on that name recognition."

"THAT'S WHAT I KEEP TELLING HIM.”

“The high-paying clients won't touch us. They take ONE LOOK at Reverend Killjoy over here, and think we're a bunch of crazy people!"

"You could reach a much wider demo if you just tone down the religious theme."

"What you guys need is a total rebranding. Ad campaign! PR blast! Get your faces out there! Let people know you're not just about the fire and brimstone!”

“You are multifaceted, three-dimensional killing machines, and you have got a little something for everyone, because contract killing... is a beat we can all dance to."

"As payment, the lives of these sinners are now yours to command."

"Thanks! Jesus told me to say it."

"Huh... so I own you guys now. That's cool."

"Serves one per conspirator, may contain trace amounts of 'caaaaalllled iiiiit'."

"How did you realize I was lying?"

"Ah, well, that part was quite simple. You see: I'm not an idiot."

"Yeah, that'd do it."

"Of course... I do have some evidence. If you're into that sort of thing."

"My first thought was ___________. My second thought was 'Oh shit, window.'”

“And with that, much like that window, the cracks in your facade started to form."

"As if anyone would let that moron in on a conspiracy. A friggin' landmine deals with pressure better than him, and would kill fewer people."

"You seem to have put a lot of thought into this..."

"Well, someone had to."

"BUT. This whole thing still leaves me with one question... WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

"Oh, right. Totally forgot. I should probably mention that he didn't do it."

"What? I just thought you guys might like to know. You seemed pretty interested in the subject."

"Well, I'm sorry. SHOCKINGLY, he wasn't very COOPERATIVE."

"How big is this web?! You're catching school buses in this thing!"

"Hey! We just gift-wrapped your friend's killer for you! You maybe wanna react here?"

"Ah! A valid point! But tell me. Do you think ______ would've trusted a stranger to do the job? Well then, you must think _______ was skilled enough to kill _______ one-on-one. Or perhaps smart enough to catch them unawares?"

"Oh my god, _______'s not the killer."

"Hey, people threatened to kill me for giving Pokemon: V&R a seven out of ten! At this point, I've learned to just assume the position."

"Hold it, I've got something I've been holding in for a while...”

“That hat makes you look like a HIPSTER!"

"What? No! Bullshit! I had to go to a dark place to pull out that masterpiece! It was full of emotions that scare and confuse me.”

“Now come on, get up! We're doing this again!”

“And this time, you're not gonna fold just cause that hat makes you look like John Lennon joined the mafia!"

"See? There's no challenge in it!”

“Verbal abuse, man. Its a lost art."

"You guys were the best slaves a boy could have."

"Fuck it! I tried! You all saw it!"

"We're gonna make sure you get the help you need, buddy. Behind this tree."

"Look, if this is about me being right about everything, I forgive you, okay?"

"Damn it, I'm trying to be nice and have a moment here, which isn't easy with SOME people being so LOUD!"

"Wait-- nononoNONONO---"

[vaingloury]

Disparate Thoughts on Dungeon Meshi

I'm an anime-only watcher, so no spoilers beyond what's currently aired (eps 1-3) + mild map spoilers for a random 3.5e D&D module (Sunless Citadel).

- I'm not the first nor will I be the last to harp on the English localised title but Delicious in Dungeon sucks. I do, however, think going with the "DnD" naming scheme was a nugget of a good idea (let's face it, "Dungeon Food" sucks too). Maybe "Diners in Dungeon"/"Dungeons & Diners" instead (as in those who dine, not a place where one dines). Or "Dungeon Dine" (like "dungeon dive"). Regardless, I'll just be calling it Dungeon Meshi going forward.

- I don't know if this is coloured by me going into this series with the knowledge that Ryoko Kui loves Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 or a wider ripple effect of eastern dungeon-fantasy conventions being shaped by there not being an official Japanese translation of D&D between Basic and 5e, but the world-building's vibe is old-school D&D as hell. It feels like it was written by someone who maybe never got the chance to play the tabletop game much but spent hours poring over the 1e Monster Manual in hopes of getting a campaign off the ground (and ended up penning a manga instead, game scheduling be damned). There's the disarming of traps, feeling for secret doors, and even the iconic red dragon as seen on the covers of the Basic Dungeon Master's Handbook and 1e Monster Manual being the dungeon boss. Design-wise, the dungeon's layout it reminds me a bit of the map from Ruins of Castle Greyhawk or The Sunless Citadel (pictured below, right).

- The main cast is very tropey at the moment. Quite literally all the Basic classes are covered; the generic white man Fighter (Lv 1, no multi-attack yet :P) as the party face, the halfling/thief, the elf/wizard, the missing cleric, the dwarf... This works for this point in the narrative but doesn't make me particularly attached to any of them. They need another overarching obstacle.

- I generally don't like Studio Trigger's output (not the Imaishi-involved stuff anyway; Gridman fucks) but I respect how bouncy their animation usually is. So, I was excited to watch something animated by Trigger but not (originally) written by them. Dungeon Meshi, however, looks static and resorts too often to Dutch angles to maintain visual interest. There's a bit of an art shift in episode 3 where this improves; more fun "off-model" moments, the movements get a little bouncier, more color harmony. Hopefully, this stays and isn't just a guest director fluke. Form the snippets I've seen on the manga, Kui suffers a bit from "draw background killed my grandma", thus her ability to make her simple character designs emote well has to carry the page. The anime does the opposite; super detailed backgrounds but flat shading/lack of texture on the characters creates a need for them to over-emote with a "screen-shake" effect in order to stand out from their surroundings, which I could see getting old fast. The main event, the food, looks better in the anime than in the manga due to colour and animation bringing it to life.

- I don't usually laugh at Japanese comedies because they're either too slapstick for my tastes or too pun heavy for my JP comprehension level. Dungeon Meshi gets a point for making me "lol" more than once.

- Finally, a good panty shot:

- I watched episode 3 dubbed. EN Marcille > JP Marcille (I say this as a stickler for subs). The rest of the dub cast is fine but I'm probably sticking with JP because JP Laios' ability to scream > EN Laios (EN is a great generic white man, though). I'm not familiar with most of the JP voice cast. I think Chilchuck is my fave in JP.

Both languages have little breathing room between lines of dialog and I was hoping the EN dub would play around with the fact that the character speaking isn't necessarily the one on screen (thus less lip-flap matching, especially for Senshi, who has few indicators that he's actually speaking even when he's onscreen) but alas. I'll do another one of these if I have more to say later in the season 🥂