#this is rather different from my regular art style

[just-rainbow-thoughts]

Love this beast, the artificial cucumber

[judithan-fr]

Tutorial: How I Render Accents

PART 2: COLORS

I usually do not recommend 'pixel hunting' aka going over your work with a fine tooth comb and picking out stray pixels to erase. However, for setting up a proper base layer for accents it is imperative to do so.

To explain my method of color blocking: I select everything outside of the lines, invert that selection, then fill in. This does a more accurate job than going into each and every section and filling them all in individually, and is also significantly faster. Only downside is small sections like above where you can see bits of the green (which I use bright green against a dark grey background to contrast the base color, lines, and background) poking out, as well as the inner section where it filled in a spot I did not want filled in. Getting all of this right in this stage will make your life easier as you go. (It's also the method I use to color block all my work, even beyond accents)

Now this where my style of rendering color may come off intimidating and, tbh it might be. I do gradients first and then I color over them with "normal" blend layers. I typically don't use multiply layers unless I'm shading something that has a lot of textures. If this scares you, it's okay I'll keep walking you through it. Here, my gradient goes from a pastel but deep periwinkle, to a soft more cyan blue, then to a lighter pastel green. Skipping steps and going from the periwinkle to green will give it a different look. There's also hints of a pinkish tone as an accent color.

So as I said, these additional layers are done with regular "normal" blend mode layers. I've placed one in between the butterfly line art and the line art for the rest of the flowers, and then an additional layer under everything else. This allows me to create a glow effect specifically around the butterflies, and then specifically under the flowers. Going back and forth with the proper amount of opacity (by using the airbrush transparently) helps to make it glow but not be Too Loud. Also checking it against a dark background can help to check for spots where it spills past the borders, as well as really gauge how Bright it is. I've also color matched the butterflies with the flower pits and the bulbs. This adds extra cohesion and makes them all look uniform but different enough with the gradients.

The stages of how I render gems/dew drops. Take the base color, make it a bit darker and less saturated (as well as changing the hue a bit depending on what the default color is. For yellows I go more orange/red, for blues I go more purple or even pink. It depends), add a small drop light at the bottom thats a fairly saturated version of the base color, and then a stark white/ near white highlight. That's it. Don't over complicate it, it will not matter when it gets shrunk down. Note that I do not use multiply/overlay/screen layers for these types of things as it adds too much bulk to the files and doing it manually helps to strengthen your color theory skills.

For shading and rendering, again, I create a "normal" layer and simply. Draw over what exists. Color picking and hand blending allow me to create the exact shades and effects that I want that multiply/screen/overlay layers may not be able to achieve. (which isn't to say I dont use them! i just don't use them for the main meat and potato part of my coloring) All of what is shown here is also achieved with the CSP asset SOIPEN (which can be found for free in the asset store)

another example. The one on the right is showing how the layer looks without the gradient base layer under it. All of this is rendered by hand. I also specifically put a highlight color around where the butterfly is sitting to give a better illusion that it is properly sitting on the flowers rather than just in front of them.

Next is changing the color of the lines, if needed. A method i'll use is I color just the sections I want (on a separate clipping layer) then lock that layer's alpha setting to them add in a gradient. It's a small and subtle effect that adds more depth without doing a lot of effort. (work smarter not harder)

Now we get to the Polish Layers!

first image is how it looks as a base. second image is with an overlay layer applied. I've used some dark purples and mid tone desaturated greens to push the values a bit further (especially evident on the top left wing) Third image is with a screen layer applied, highlighting the inner most part of the flowers and adding some additional bounce light.

An important thing to note about making accents vs making full coverage skins: OPACITY AND LAYER TYPES MATTER OVER TRANSPARENT SPOTS. What I mean by this is that if you use a soft, light grey to shade with a multiply layer, don't clip it to anything, and have it go outside the lines - that will no longer appear as a 'shadow' when it comes to the final result. Instead you will have a section of soft light grey that is simply laid on top of whatever the image under it is. The same applies for overlay/screen/add layers and so on. If i use a very dark color on a screen layer (to give a soft highlight) and airbrush it over a bunch of stuff and don't clip it, it will end up with this horrible dark splotch over everything that isn't opaque. To this end, mastering normal layers is imperative to having well rendered and convincing accents.

Another thing of note: when it comes to sparkles/small details, note how 'large' the sparkles behind the butterflies are. They seem a bit chunky, yeah?

this is what they look like at proper size. If anything, I could have gone larger on the small metal beads connecting the dew drop jewels to the lace.

Another trick I also like to do is this:

a slight hint of transparency! It's just enough to let the dragon's lines underneath show through but not enough to be super noticable. I like to do this a lot when it comes to sparkly and magical effects.

Next is the worst part of all: destroying all that beautiful hard work with the shadow and line art layers! (sobbing)

This stage always agonizes me. This is my first pass of the shadow/line layers and let's hope it's dark enough.

But yeah that's a start to finish look at how I create my accents. Unfortunately a lot it devolves into needing to know, yknow, line weight and silhouette importance, color theory and the ways that drawing applications actually apply color to a png vs how its rendered in app. All of these things impact the finesse of the accent, and are things you do have to learn gradually over time, but hopefully this has given yall some additional insight and perhaps some helpful tips.

And this should also explain why I get so mad when people go 'hey can I get this accent in another color' no! no you literally can't!

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

lore for tempting fate

[wolfie leon drawing!]

this post will have any world lore about this fic that's in an easy post to refer to! but! there can be spoilers up to chapter 10!!!! so if you have not read the fic, this can spoils major plot points for you

BUT if you have read up to chapter 10, then you will be fine!

again, SPOILERS AHEAD

world lore

this is set in a rural part of romania and heavily inspired by re village. there are no villages named, or cities named as to keep it rather vague (also because i have never travelled there before lol so i didn't want to be wrong about locations by naming places)

because of how rural the setting is, i did spend a lot of time going through google maps and finding really far apart cities so i could map out what makes sense distance wise for them to travel back and forth on foot or car

this is a post re6 fic but pre vendetta. this au exists without death island or vendetta.

although i do have a general characterizations set for both leon and ada throughout the aus i've written, this is set outside of the one where they have babies so this is entirely a different set of aeon if that makes sense (like my everyday with you series are set with the pregnancy au in mind but this one is entirely separate)

there are aspects of lore from the vampire diaries (tvd) but that world does not exist in this au. i just pulled different aspects of that universe

because this fic will not explore any part of america, there are no mentions of either leon's home or ada's home.

i do have a floor plan of ada's cabin which they frequent for a majority of the fic and i do have plans of other areas that i might draw out

character and wolf lore

leon looks similar to when he was human. the only significant changes are that he is slightly taller (noticeable difference) and a bit bulkier. i aimed for his design to be a mix of re6, damnation and death island.

since his infection, his scars from the initial attack have a silvery look to them and are slightly colder to the touch. his body reacts and heals very much like most supernatural creatures. meaning he heals very quickly. BUT he can not regenerate body parts. so if he does get an arm chopped off etc, it will NOT grow back (HOWEVER if someone were to be infected and REMAIN a wolf, they could regenerate a body part, but it would not be a normal looking body part example: very thin, broken, formed into an odd shape or different skin entirely (scales, tentacles etc.)

leon's wolf is a golden brown colour and his unique traits are that he is a rather clean looking wolf.

because the werewolf virus cures some of the human's ailments or injuries prior to the infection - his sight hearing loss and vision is corrected after his transformation (however they are corrected to more than a human's ability to see/hear)

leon's eyes are also flecked with a golden colour when his body is in various stages of transition (this is a easy way to tell if someone is a werewolf)

if he does not have any colour within his eye, he is in complete control of his human body and does not have any effect or influence from his werewolf virus

because his strain of the virus was a common one, he has a few negative traits, like not being able to consume a regular diet anymore. he also needs to transform every week and a half at the furthest times apart.

his werewolf is heavily affected by his emotions and has had to hone in on controlling his emotions. he is also heavily connected to ada because of his prior feelings to becoming infected with the virus

leon does have puppy aspects of his wolf virus and can indulge in them sometimes example, feeling lonely without ada, needing to stick his head out of the window in the car, feeling the need to run around because it feels good GOTTA GO FAST, wanting and smelling ada because she smells really good to him

adaaaaaaa

ada's design was heavily inspired by her village concept art and most of her gear is leaning towards a more unisex/genderless style. BUT she has aspects of her more feminine style returning at different parts of the fic. she keeps a vest that contains her notes and anything important to the plot lol

ada's wolf is a dark black colour and she is much larger than her human counterpart but still slightly smaller than leon. her eyes are flecked with a dark purple almost midnight black.

her wolf ears are abnormally large (leon thinks it's very cute) and because of it, her ability to hear is a powerful sense but also can be a detriment as it causes her to hear too much and can cause debilitating headaches. (more in coming but these will be spoilers so i am not saying anything lol)

ada's virus was a pure version and thus she has a lot less negative side effects. BUT because her form allows her to have more freedom with the choice of transforming, it does require balance. (transforming for longer stretches of time require rest in return. they are almost a 1:1 for time in transforming and resting)

ada's sense of taste is similar to a humans but is slightly duller

both leon and ada's sense of taste, smell, sight and touch are extremely developed, but ada's sense of hearing is superhuman and can cause her headaches if she can not control her hearing

both of them suffer from headaches or a horrible fever if they go long periods of time without transforming into their wolf counterparts

because the wolf is somewhat euphoric to become, many people who become wolves do not return to a human state if they remain a wolf form for long (they will lose their humanity if they do not change back)

the word werewolf and wolf are somewhat interchangeable in this au

being a wolf is still a curse in this universe, many people do ostracize and isolate from other people who become infected with the virus (but i don't really touch upon this too much in the fic)

the bar where katherine works is sort of a safe haven at this point in the fic

the wolves are similar to the ones in tvd but much larger. the ones that are more grotesque are similar to the ones in village but can have other extremities such as scales and tentacles or pustules (just gross nasty stuff)

there are many strains of the werewolf virus. some of them are common (like leon and katherine's infection) or pure versions (like ada's.) but many versions are also deadly (like the ones at the lab, where the human host becomes feral and no longer has the ability to return to their human forms)

because the werewolf virus is a virus, the body of the creature is still human and since it's almost parasitic in nature, killing them by shooting them in the eye (or directly to the brain) is the only way to kill them (trying to rip out their heart may not necessarily kill them)

other misc lore

stefan and katherine were inspired by the characters in tvd (the vampire diaries) i opted to keep stefan human and katherine as a werewolf but most of their mannerisms are similar to the original characters

the inhibitor is a light greenish colour and can look somewhat blue in certain lights

the virus is an amber like fluid and reacts like a poison to humans

the cure is a red colour

wolfsbane is a purple flower/herb that was plucked from tvd lore. is is dangerous to werewolves and "safe" for humans. (they are actually toxic irl) it can be grown and manipulated to create different strengths of the herb. it is usually in a oil/liquid like consistency and can be used to kill if injected into a werewolves bloodstream. they can also be used to lace bullets.

wolves in this au are not affected by wood or metals (i opted out of this lore simply for logistics)

many of the foods (if they are described) are pulled from popular romanian foods

I WILL be probably adding lore whenever i find it necessary lol also feel free to send me anything if yall have any questions :3

[arkus-rhapsode]

Manga Recommendation: Tower Dungeon

So looks like Arkus Rhapsode is here to recommend another fantasy manga after the last one. So this time we're going for a bit of a different flavor with the series Tower Dungeon by by Tsutomu Nihei who you may know as the creator of Blame! and Knights of Sidonia.

Now I've known about this series for a bit even though it is relatively new. Having only started last year in Monthly Shonen Sirius. But I remember its announcement from people like Manga Mogul and hearing Makoto Yukimura (Author of the incredible Vinland Saga) recommending it. Now I always loved Sword and sorcery so I was gonna read it eventually, but it just wasn't translated. However, now being able to read the available chapters, I can say this is a very different type of fantasy series.

The premise is very basic: An evil sorcerer has killed a nation's king and kidnapped a Princess and now the royal knights need to ascend the "Dragon Tower" to save her. One battalion has conscripted a young man named Yuva for assisting troops medically has found he has impressive strength. Now Yuva must strengthen himself for the journey ahead as they explore the deadly tower.

Now like all simple premise stories, the real strength is in execution. And unlike the other fantasy series I've talked about before which have bucked the trend of "RPG fantasy" be leaning more into a traditionalist fantasy stories a la Tolkien, this goes for the more realist fantasy of something like Berserk or Dark Souls.

The world of Tower Dungeon may have things like magic and dragons, but it is a dingy, dirty, and lacks any frills. Knights wear heavy armor and people are covered in blood and scars from their adventures.

The mighty Dragon Tower itself? The most iconic thing about this series and the basis of the adventure? Looks like this. This isn't an opulent tower, this is a massive imposing structure where monsters dwell.

However, unlike some grim dark or edgy fantasies, this world isn't indulgent in its darkness. The violence and death are never cool or cheap. They are simply the way the world is. Even when magic exists, the world is still like Medieval Europe and all the "joys" that come from it.

The people as well are similar. These aren't romanticized or polished fantasy archetypes that often come with the idea of a Dungeons and Dragons style adventure, these feel like average joes plucked off the streets having to do a job. If you are say a fan of something like Chainsaw Man, this sort of post modern emphasis on people acting like regular weirdos and not some "anime characters." And I think that is something quite nice that even in a fantastical world, we can see our regular selves in them.

But that's just the story, what about the art? Well if you've noticed this series does have a very minimalist style. Something similar to that of Land of the Lustrous or Chainsaw Man. These almost scratchy and not the most detailed designs that make use of their simplicity to create this very unique atmosphere.

Creature designs themselves are less fantastical and more grody. Feeling as if they come from an off shoot of man rather than some majestic beast. Right down to the cat people.

This series is still new and sadly hasn't been officially translated yet. I've had to use mangadex to read this, so my heart goes out to the translator team. I can understand that this may be a niche that's not for everyone, but its something that feels like such a good sign for fantasy as a genre. A genre that I think has somewhat been stagnated in popular belief with the greater emphasis on Urban Action manga and the reliance on escapist fantasy anime like isekai. To see a more dirty but down to earth take on the premise, I highly recommend it.

[artbyjessicajewett]

Hi everyone! I wanted to introduce myself. I'm Jessica and I was a previous user of Tumblr before it was bought. I decided to come back.

Today I'm not so much a fandom person (my first account was a Supernatural and Destiel vibe) as I am living my "real" life as an artist, author, historian, and disability rights activist. I'll be 42 in February and I live on the border of Ohio and West Virginia - like, literally on the border. I can almost throw a rock and hit West Virginia from my apartment building. Living here after spending over twenty years in Georgia has been a fresh change. Georgia is not a great place for people with complex disabilities like mine. I get much better medical care and access to state services here in Ohio, which is why I came here. My ancestry is Appalachian anyway, so this does feel like home in a strange way.

My art is what I do the most. This is me doing a commission order a few years ago.

You're immediately wondering about my disability and why I do everything with the tools in my mouth. I was born with a condition called Arthrogryposis and that just simply means my joints have very little range of motion. Much of my body is stiff. So I taught myself to play with my toys, markers, etc., with my mouth rather than my hands before I could even read or go to school. It was natural for me. I live a happy life and I'm not upset about being born with this disability. You don't have to feel sorry for me because I don't feel sorry for me.

At this stage in my life, I'm working on art commission number 91 with about 50 more on my wait list. My work specializes in black and white pencil portraits, mostly of different historical periods. Most of the art people order from me has to do with my ability to interpret their previous lifetimes (yes, reincarnation) as well as introducing them to their spirit guides. I do regular art with no spiritual complex as well, like family portraits, friends portraits, pet portraits, architecture, fan art, original characters, some fantasy, witchcraft, folk magic, paranormal, historical events, etc. I'm heavily trained in realistic very detailed portraits, so if you're looking for anime or cute illustrations, I'm probably not your woman.

This is the last commission I finished.

This is an interpretation of that customer's spirit guide as they appeared before they died. This is "my style" of art, as they say. I like to do color art too but I finish black and white orders much faster.

Besides art, I'm a lifelong student of 19th century history in America focusing on women's roles, families, social issues, disability history, and LGBTQIA+ history. I was in school to specifically become an antebellum and Civil War historian before chronic illnesses forced me to drop out. Higher education 20+ years ago was a casserole of nonsense when it came to helping disabled students succeed. Don't get me started.

I'm also a lifelong paranormal researcher focusing mostly on hauntings tied to antebellum and Civil War America including old folklore. My mother and grandmother were Missouri folk magic practitioners. I was raised in an understanding of the unseen world. I also collect reincarnation cases from the Civil War period sparked by my own case from that time. I'll talk about that elsewhere if you want.

Follow me here if you like. I'm just getting started. I have to relearn how to use this app.

-Jessica

Shop: etsy.com/shop/ArtByJessicaJewett

If you're not interested in art, I also accept tips if you enjoy my content. I'm at $ArtByJessicaJewett on CashApp, at Jessica-Jones-1002 on Venmo, and PayPal.me/ArtByJessicaJewett on PayPal.

[thebluestbluewords]

Retro-Red

Hi friends. Enemies. Reluctant allies.

It's been a long time since I had a really impassioned rant about the silly logistics of these silly dcom movies that I love so much. But never fear! I rewatched the first 20~ish minutes of Rise of Red the other day, and I've come back with some more thoughts about Red's outfits. 

Mostly that she DESERVED a silly retro vaguely 80s-90s outfit after the time travel.

My visual art skills aren't up to the task of drawing her a new outfit from scratch, but I love silly retro clothes AND dissecting costumes, so I'd like to present some ideas on how to 80s-ize Red’s costumes post time travel.

Main outfit: I really don't love her main outfit - I think the materials look cheap. Her jacket has fun weird sleeves, but they're not easily identifiable as "2020s fashion", and I feel like the costume designers leaned a little too hard into making the outfits look like what they thought "edgy fairy tale fashion" would look like, and not hard enough into making them fit the descendants style that was already established by the last three movies. I’d hoped for more of a distinctive wonderland vibe- maybe a more dramatic fantasy top, or mixing in some color that isn’t just the same matchy-matchy shades of red and black. Give her some white and yellow details maybe?? Or at least let Red visually rebel through her clothes by giving her a look that’s different from the rest of wonderland- make Wonderland vintage, and Red modern! Give her something to make her stand out, not blend in with her mom! Red outfit (the second picture) I actually don't hate this one. She's kind of working the coordinated athletic set look, which as best I can tell is still a trendy 2020s teen look! She's got enough impractical studs to read as VK-style, but not so many that I question how she was walking around set. (cough-chloe-cough) 

side note: I never want to bash a plot-significant shoe choice, but seriously. These are.....bad. 

How is she walking around in these?? The stones on the bottom are doing to give her no traction. I love a glittery shoe as much as the next girly, but these look like a pair I used to own during my middle school days, not a pair fit for a princess. I’d rather see Chloe in some materials meant to genuinely imitate iridescent glass, rather than regular silver rhinestones. Something like these:

(Sporty and coordinated feels like the ideal Chloe vibe, and as best I can tell, that means immaculate un-creased sneakers)

BUT!! My biggest complaint about the costumes in this movie isn't actually about the costumes we did see- it's about the costumes that we were TRAGICALLY DEPRIVED OF SEEING. 

Red and Chloe DESERVED 80s/90s inspired outfits to wear after the time jump, and I’m here to deliver some very accurate and normal ideas for what they COULD have worn!!

consider this a reference image: what Red and Chloe were actually wearing around Merlin Academy.

Red’s general vibe- she’s got the big jacket, the layers, and a sort of cool-girl-slacker vibe.

I think we can make her jacket More 80s. She needs bigger shoulder pads! Her sleeves are big in her modern clothes, but they’re big at the end of the sleeve, not the shoulder! Give this girl VOLUME.

once we’ve got the shoulder pads in place, we need to think about color variation. Colorful details are FUN. They give IMPACT. They bring in the mismatched, retro vibe. Imagine the first Big Shoulder jacket with pink and red collar details- adorable! In character! It ties Red visually to Bridget! And if she needs a sportier look, well, the tri color leather is also a solid option.

Red’s canon pants are cut pretty tight, and I think we can roll with that!! #giveredstirruppants

If she needs the color block vibe, giving her some stripes with the heart cutout (probably not rainbow, but maybe a red/pink sort of look??) would fit the vibe, make her pants look different from her modern outfit, and still look distinctively Like Red.

Alternatively, give Red Big Detailed Vintage Denim. It would work for her too-cool-for-school vibe. Also the heart jeans are Extremely Cute.

For accessories, I want Red to go bigger with her hair. Claw clips are trendy in 2020, but they were ALSO a 90s trend, and giving Red a little half-up claw clip as a time travel alternative to her space buns would have been CUTE.

for Chloe’s look:

Big hair is ESSENTIAL TO ME. GIVE CHLOE CURLY RETRO BANGS. SHE NEEDED THEM. LET ELLA CUT THEIR HAIR TO MATCH IN A DRAMATIC BONDING SCENE. LET HER OFFER TO TRIM BRIDGETS SPLIT ENDS RIGHT AFTER AND EXPERIENCE THE INTIMACY OF HOLDING A BLADE CLOSE TO ONE ANOTHER’S NECK.

(I am. So normal. About them.)

as the sporty fencing queen of my heart, Chloe deserved to wear leg warmers. Preferably with jeans (because oh dear god what a trend), but they would’ve been cute with color coordinated leggings too. She needed these. They could have had crowns knitted into the cable pattern. They could have had GLITTER. Or pompom appliqués of a princess figure holding a cheerleading pompom. We could have had it all!!

speaking of sporty looks, I think Chloe would have looked adorable in a vintage varsity jacket. She could’ve had her dad’s old school jacket! There could’ve been a whole moment where she had to scramble to justify why she had it! More Charming family bonding!!

But if we want to stick closer to her canon look, Chloe is wearing a quilted jacket. The ambiguously historical 80s-90s had quilted jackets. Chloe could rock one of these. She could color coordinate it with her leggings!!

I don’t have a conclusion to this rant (this is a lie) (I have so many images of high fashion 80s prom gowns that the girls COULD HAVE WORN TO CASTLECOMING) but in not-really-conclusion, give these movies More Goofy Vintage Looks!! Adding a bigger costume difference between the modern Auradon Prep scenes and the historical Merlin Academy scenes would have gone a long way towards improving the overall costuming of the movie.

[cyberscratch]

'evil'/anti artstyle meme! inspired by excessive-moisture's post doing this same thing!!! i showed it to my friends and asked them to give out my own art traits and basically a list of things i should not do.

the result is this art style! soft colors, less purples, very round and soft, thin lines + no line weight, no trademark things like how i draw fur and mouths PLUS slightly different desighs to fit the style more! (for example spamton being drawn more like his shop sprite)

i drew several characters i'm known to draw a lot / mean a lot to me just to see them how different they are from when i draw them normally! HURTS to not have an oversaturated drawing, uegugh.... but coloring was the most fun part! i love working with colors! the worst part was the lineart because i got SO BORED. fun challenge anyway!

little explanations on each character under the cut since this is a multifandom + ocs post and i wanna short talk about my silly guys ever (my, what the kids call these days, blorbos,)

since this has multiple characters not everyone may be familiar with, here's a tiny bit of info on everyone

frostbite = my fursona! they're a bat / dragon mix. they're holding a mango! nothing much to say since they're just my sona. me, y'know?

spamton = you know him! it's spamton from deltarune chapter 2 !! he's a shopkeeper and a secret boss in the game where he appears in his 'NEO' form. he's based on scam e-mails and ads!

my freak of a son = toontown corporate clash oc - he's a goopy low baller that i call my son. or rather, toontown version of frostbite and i call him their son. regular frostbite as shown in this image and frostbite are separate. he was made using one of high roller's attacks.

scratch = my deltarune sona and self insert! they're the fourth member of sweet cap'n cakes. they're a dj! they're inspired by cat headphones, soundboards and karaoke machines! they're who this blog is named after :P

high roller = from toontown corporate clash! he is a cog 'manager' who only appears during a yearly event 'april toons'. she is a show host and a fusion of two characters ('dave brubot' and 'buck ruffler'). it's show is also the boss fight you fight when they're around!

cathal = full name cathal ray toby bravecog aka the multislacker, also from toontown corporate clash. he is a manager you can fight in-game after completing a set of 'kudos' tasks. they are the VP's son and are based on crt tvs! they're known for being 'lazy'.

blank = (full name blank b. addison) a deltarune oc for my big deltarune au named datapack au. he is an addison who got corrupted by a swatchling mask - which is a new concept introduced in my au. he used to sell movie related trinkets and was a stand-up comedian.

[running-with-toast]

Lettering sound effects in Shiori Experience

Hi! I’m Toast, the letterer on #dropout’s English translation of Shiori Experience. This series was my first time doing typesetting, and I’ve learned a lot over the two years I’ve been involved in the project. Each new chapter brings new challenges, and as our team has matured we’ve gotten more ambitious. We recently began translating the comic’s sound effects along with the dialogue, a decision which instantly doubled the size of our workload. 

Our most recent release, Chapter 64, was probably the most technically complex chapter we’ve done so far. The sound effects in this chapter were varied and complicated, presenting a number of interesting challenges. Today I thought it would be fun to give y’all a peek behind the curtain, and show the thought process and effort that goes into the adaptation of sound effects in Shiori Experience.

Shiori Experience is a music manga [citation needed], so it isn’t surprising that the sound effects can get pretty complicated. Music manga need to convey not just the sound, but more importantly the impact of a performance, conveying an auditory experience in a totally silent medium. Shiori Experience’s approach to this problem is to make the sound effects semi-diegetic objects. They hang in the air, burst out of crowds, get obscured by foreground objects, and cast shadows on their environment. This is a really cool effect, but also makes converting them from Japanese to English a fucking nightmare.

(Look at the shadows)

Shiori Experience is kind of a nightmare

In some ways, lettering for Shiori Experience isn’t actually that difficult. Sound effects in this series are goddamn everywhere and they’re fucking gigantic, but they’re always straightforward. Much like the art of the series, the sound effects are clean and angular, strong dynamic shapes which are easy to parse even if you can’t read the katakana. For a great example of this, look at this sequence from Chapter 64.

This sequence demonstrates what you can achieve with good lettering. The sound of the band is conveyed perfectly with these visuals. The clear and regular beat of the drums, the dark and energetic bass line, the screaming uncontrollable energy of the electric guitar. We didn’t even bother translating it. We didn’t need to.

But look at the sequence again. In spite of its apparent complexity, there’s only two fonts here, a dynamic block text and an angular brush. Those two fonts represent the vast majority of SFX in Shiori Experience. The rest is just text effects and perspective tricks.

So to convert these sound effects into English, we just have to find equivalent fonts. It took me a while to pin down a set of fonts I was happy with. For the pointy brush font I eventually settled on Jolly Lodger, a brush font with a sort of piratey vibe. I’m still not 100% satisfied with this conversion, it isn’t as pointy as the original, but it’s good enough for now.

And for the big block font I chose Boogaloo. It looks a little thin when it’s on its own like this, but it really bulks up with the right text effects.

Great! We’ve got our fonts! Doing the sound effects should be as simple as erasing the old text and replacing it with the new text, right? Wrong. The nightmare begins.

Different approaches

There are several schools of thought when it comes to lettering manga SFX. One is the "keikkaku means plan" approach. In a translator's note outside the panel, or in plain text near the SFX, describe what the sound is. This is incredibly easy. This is also lame.

(This is from the official release of Dungeon Meshi. I wouldn’t want to redraw this one either, but like, come on guys.)

Another school of thought is style matching. Similar to the translator’s note approach, but rather than plain text, the translation uses similar text effects to the original SFX. This works fine, but it can create a lot of visual clutter if implemented poorly.

(This is from Drifting Dragons. Please read Drifting Dragons.)

The last approach is full replacement. In this approach, the original SFX is (are you ready for this?) fully replaced by the new SFX.

SFX Redrawing

Replacing a sound effect isn’t as simple as just erasing it. We work with tankoban pages, scans of the Japanese volume release. These files are flattened, with the art and text all on one layer as a single image. We can’t just disable the text. In order to remove the original SFX, we have to redraw them.

(for context this is from when I had covid)

Redrawing means recreating the art hidden by the original SFX. This is a complex process, requiring a steady hand, sharp eyes, and  a lot of guesswork. Since we don’t know what precisely is underneath the original SFX, we have to use context to reconstruct it. The goal of any localization is to make the translation invisible to the reader. The same principle holds true in redrawing. The art we add needs to be invisible, meshing seamlessly with the original artwork.

(I made this dude up out of whole cloth. I’m honestly really proud of how he came out.)

#Dropout uses a mix of style matching and full replacement, with the choice between the two being determined by a number of factors. To illustrate that decision-making process, let’s break down the process of redrawing a page of Shiori Experience, specifically the spread across pages 172 and 173 from Chapter 64.

Deciding between Style Match and Full Replacement

This is the original untranslated page, and there’s a lot going on.

In the background of the first panel is the sound of the band, バアアアン, phonetically translated as "BA-A-A-A-N", localized as “BWAAAM”. In the foreground is the cheering of the crowd, ボオワアアア, "BO-O-WA-A-A-A" phonetically, “ROOAAR” localized. Lastly, along the side of panels 3 through 6 is applause, パチ, "PA-CHI", “CLAP”.

At a glance, this page is overwhelming. The cheering sound effect is huge, with custom text effects conveying the energy of the crowd. Worse is the clapping, which overlays multiple panels with dozens of unique partially obscured faces. This looks like a pain in the ass to redraw, but in the end I decided to do a full replacement instead of a simpler style match. With the number and size of the SFX combined with the visual density of the panels, doing a style match would result in a cluttered unreadable mess. Too much of the original artwork would be covered, and there just isn’t enough space. So, full replacement.

The redrawing process

As I’ve gained more experience, it’s been surprising to learn what constitutes a difficult redraw. You’d expect crowd shots to be the hardest, with lots of unique faces and little details, but they actually aren’t that bad IMO. More detail means more context means less guessing. Definitely a lot of work, but not difficult. Meanwhile, something like a gradient or screentone pattern which looks simple is actually a goddamn nightmare to recreate, as we'll see later.

That’s why I started my redraw for this page with the clapping. Again, this looks like it would be really hard, but looks can be deceiving. There’s a lot of clapping, yes, but the text is thin and spaced out. Whiting out the text reveals just how little artwork is actually hidden by the sound effects.

After whiting out the original text, the next step is connecting as many existing lines as I can. I do the panel and bubble borders on a separate layer since they’re simple structural elements. The artwork itself requires a bit more thought. I need to examine the original artwork carefully to avoid connecting lines that shouldn’t be connected. Context can also provide guidance where there are no lines to connect, such as the cheering guy’s hat in the first panel, or the clapping hand in the second panel. Also, when there’s lots of little SFX like this it’s easy to miss a few lines, like the box thing near the bottom of the last panel (don’t worry I catch it later).

The last step is adding in all the inking and screentones, the pattern templates which fill in the “color” to the line work. I have to go through with the clone stamp tool, collect samples from the image, and extend the pattern to fill the blank areas. This is the most annoying step in the process for me, because it requires a level of precision even beyond what’s required for the line work. Humans are pattern-recognition machines. Our brains are really good at catching tiny discrepancies, like when a section of a pattern doesn’t quite line up with the rest of it. My patch job on this panel wasn’t perfect, and you can see where I couldn’t quite line things up in areas like the guy’s checkered shirt in the first panel.

And with that, this redraw is complete! Now it’s time to insert the English translation of the sound effect.

SFX Lettering

The clapping SFX is in that same brush font I pointed out earlier, which we use JollyLodger for. There’s no real perspective things or text effects here, so mimicking the original isn’t difficult. Here’s the before and after.

This approach of fully redrawing the old SFX before inserting the new SFX only works in situations like this, where the text is small and there’s enough detail to reconstruct the image with a high level of confidence. As an SFX gets larger, like the roar of a crowd, the harder it gets to fully replace. This calls for a different approach.

Because of the size and complexity of this sound effect, I decided to do the lettering first. This is the block font I identified earlier, which is replaced by Boogaloo. I do some basic manipulation right away, applying a black outline and distorting the text to create the same perspective effect as the original. The SFX in this series are subtly three-dimensional, and the replacement text needs to be in the same orientation to sell the effect.

I’m also being careful with my placement here, doing my best to align the new text with the old. This will be important later.

Next we need to recreate the distortion effect. Photoshop has functionality to mimic this kind of effect, but I opted to do it manually. Osada (the mangaka) does all these layouts, SFX and all, on paper. The original effect was hand drawn, so the replacement effect is hand drawn.

The lettering for this effect is now complete, and we can begin the redraw process. Since we already have the letters in place, we have the advantage of knowing exactly where a redraw is needed, turning what would otherwise have been an enormous replacement into a minor patch job. From here, it’s the same process as the clapping SFX: Raw, Blank, Line, Fill.

Minor sidebar: translating Japanese sound effects presents an interesting and incredibly niche problem. The katakana symbol オ is translated phonetically as “o”. The problem with that is that when you’re replacing a オ with an O in a sound effect, the hole of the O is positions right on the center of the オ. This makes オ really annoying to redraw. Every O turns into a little window of totally new art, with barely any reference points to draw from. It violates the principle of invisibility, but there’s really no way around it. You can see I got a little lazy here, and clonestamped a different section of the crowd into the hole. As long as I don’t draw attention to it nobody will notice. I hope.

Sidebar over. Just for fun, here’s the before and after for the whole page.

Closing thoughts

So that’s what it takes to do the sound effects for one page of Shiori Experience. This page alone took me multiple days to complete, and it wasn’t even the most complicated page in this chapter. It isn’t why our releases take so long (that can be laid at the feet of staffing and scheduling issues), but hopefully I’ve given you a sense of how much work goes into each new chapter.

This chapter would have taken even longer without the help of Adi and Bangistus, who pitched in on a lot of the smaller SFX. Up until now the lettering of this series has been a solo show, Toast all the way down. Now that Adi and Bang are on the team I’m still keeping most of the big pages for myself, but being able to toss to the others when I get overwhelmed is going to be invaluable. Hopefully I can rely on them in the future as well, there’s some big things coming down the pipe

This series is a labor of love. Sometimes frustrating, often exhausting, but always worth it. I owe this series a lot, and I hope it shows in the work I put into it. I think it would be fun to do more behind the scenes process content like this, so maybe keep an eye out for that in the future.

Lastly, just as a status update, #dropout is not dropping Shiori Experience.  We have a temporary translator who’s helping us put together Chapter 65, which will be coming out Eventually™. Not as long as last time, but like always don’t hold your breath. We’re not sure what will happen after 65 drops. We’re still desperately hiring for a main translator, seriously if you know anybody please hit me up.

That’s all from me. Take care y’all.

[miela]

Shattered Memories • Chapter VIII: Lovers at The Gala • {Peter Parker x Stark!Reader}

Chapter Genre: Comical Fluff, AND LOTS OF FLUFF Chapter Warnings: it's a long boi, Extra: this chapter is for the genshin stans and swifties, if you know then you know. I've been excited about this chapter since the prologue I am losing my mind. I wanted to do two chapters this week because chapter viii and ix are my favorites so you're getting one today and one on friday. Word Count: 6.6k

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It was the big day of The Stark Charity Gala. It was being held in the Empire State Building which was no surprise because the theme was Gilded Age, mixed with Art Deco and Art Nouveau elements, according to Miles’ knowledge from being an art student. When Peter brought it up to you and what your inspiration for it was, your answer was nothing short of what he was expecting from you.

“Art Deco and Art Nouveau are eras that disagreed with each other. So I’m forcing them to get along,” you explained. “I added the gilded age theme to it because I’d like to think it’s the company’s own personal gilded age.”

Creative as always, Peter thought.

Peter arrived with his friends in Harry’s limo around seven thirty, a half hour after the gala started. Gwen and Miles both went with the color red for their outfits. Cindy went with a light blue and Harry and Peter went with regular black tuxedos and a pop of color for their pocket squares. Pavitr was meeting them there with Gayatri, who was also invited to attend. 

Before they walked into the area where the gala was being held, Harry stopped them.

“Now, there will probably…no…there will be celebrities and highly influential people here,” Harry began. “So don’t act a fool about it.”

“Get your head out of your ass, Harry,” Gwen started with squinted eyes. “We’re friends with you and Peter’s girlfriend is (Y/N) freaking Stark, who’s hosting this thing by the way. So you don’t have to worry about your pretty little rich boy head.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Peter sighed. 

“Yeah, but she’s the love of your life so what’s the actual difference here?” 

“One, Gwen, fuck you,” Harry stated with a playful look on his face. “And two, Gwen has a point.”

Peter groaned. “Please, don’t embarrass me tonight. I can’t make a proper move when I’m worried all you are gonna be lurking around the corner just to get the chance to bully me in front of the girl I like. I’m just asking for this one night.”

His friends could see the desperation on his face because they all nodded in understanding. 

“No worries, Parker,” Gwen started. 

“Yeah,” Miles agreed. “We’re rooting for you.”

“If you need a nudge or something,” Cindy added.  “Come find one of us. We can help rather than hinder this time.” She looked at Gwen and Harry with a hard look and they threw their hands up in defense and surrender.

“Thank you,” Peter sighed again as they arrived by the door. 

“Ready?” Harry asked and they all nodded before he led them inside. 

The room was decorated to the nines as were the people. There were geometric elements of Art Deco matched with the floral designs and organic shapes of Art Nouveau. There was gold everywhere mixed in with the Stark Industries brand colors. The men all wore tuxedos of different types while the women wore formal gowns. It reminded Peter of a high-class prom or something. He and his friends gawked at lavishness. It was like they walked into a royal fairytale minus the electro-swing music playing in the background which brought a roaring 20s vibe.

The only thing that broke their trance was Pavitr calling out to them. They looked over to see him and Gayatri matching in Indian formal wear in shades of purple. They hurried over and greeted the rest of the group.

“Isn’t this place amazing?” Gayatri asked. “I wasn’t expecting it to be this nice.”

“That’s what happens when you have someone from our generation running things,” Cindy smiled. “She knows what style is.”

Peter smiled softly and looked around to see if he could find you but there was no sign of you yet. He didn’t even see Nika, who was one of the last people he would want to see right now. He debated texting you but he didn’t want to seem desperate either. He chewed on his bottom lip nervously.

“Peter!” He heard a voice from behind and he whipped around with his eyebrows raised. 

He saw Celina wearing a sparkly silver dress waving at him. She was there with Ned and MJ. Ned was wearing a Tux with a silver sparkly bow tie and a sparkly pocket square to match. MJ was wearing a green dress with geometric lines on the upper part of her dress and flowing silk on the bottom half. Peter waved back with a smile which caused Celina to pull the other two over with her as they struggled to keep up with her excitement. Celina wrapped her arms around Peter and instinctively Peter hugged back.

“It’s good to see you again!” Celina chimed when she pulled back and then looked at Ned and MJ. “This is the guy I was telling you about!”

“Oh yeah, we know him,” MJ spoke. “Always ordered the lamest type of coffee when you came into the cafe. You know, I was tempted to add vanilla or something just to give your life a bit of razzle dazzle or something but legally I couldn’t do that.”

Peter smiled in response. Typical Michelle Jones-Watson Communication.

“Jeez, M,” Celina put her hands on her hips and stood in contrapposto as she looked at the tall woman. “Way to greet him.”

“What?” MJ asked.

“Anyways,” Celina said, turning back to Peter. “This weirdo is MJ. And this precious guy here is Ned.” She hugged his arm and he smiled and kissed her temple.

I know. “Nice to meet you, both. Officially.”

“You too,” Ned smiled back. “You know, (Y/N) talks about you a lot. I feel like we all know you already.” 

“Oh my god, Celina?” Cindy popped up from behind Peter. 

“Cindy?!” Celina beamed.

The two girls squealed and hugged each other. 

“You can speak now!” Cindy exclaimed and Peter mentally facepalmed himself for not mentioning it to her sooner. 

MJ’s phone sounded and she checked it and sighed. “Our girl is running late, but she’ll be here in a few.” She put her phone away. “Good, we have time to interrogate you.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Ned suggested. “How about we just get to know him without you grilling him.”

“Well, I didn’t mean literally,” MJ responded. “I know he’s harmless. Gayatri knows him from Pavitr.”

“MJ!” Gayatri exclaimed as if on cue. 

“That’s my cue. You boys play nice now,” and with that, she walked over to Peter’s friend group to say hello to Gayatri and Pavitr. 

It was just Peter and Ned left and they looked at each other awkwardly. 

“Hey, wanna find a table?” Ned asked, pointing over to one of the clothes tables.

“Yeah, sure!” Peter responded. 

After a bit of socializing, Celina invited everyone to sit together which turned out to be the greatest idea. Celina and Cindy were bonding and catching up, Miles, Gwen, Pavitr and Gayatri were talking about MIT culture and Harry and MJ were talking about something Peter couldn’t figure out, but Harry got a smile out of her a few times which seemed like a good sign. His friends were all together and it made him really happy. Especially now that he could see his old friends too. He talked to Ned about MIT, answered questions about himself when Ned asked, and ended up in a deep and intriguing conversation about Star Wars.

He found out why the entire group was here in the first place. Gwen and Miles were there to represent Brooklyn Visions Academy Star Alumni, Pavitr and Gayatri were there to represent Horizon High Star Alumni, Cindy and a girl named Jessica Drew were there to represent Midtown Tech Star Alumni, and Ned and MJ were there to represent MIT Stellar Students. Celina was Neds plus one which made both of your and Peter's friends groups there at the Gala.

“You know, I know I like, just only met you,” Ned started with a smile. “But I feel like I’ve known you my whole life. Is that weird? I dunno. Maybe I’ll take a page out of Celina’s book and say it’s a sign that you’re good for (Y/N).”

Peter’s heart swelled at his words. “S’not weird. I mean I still think it’s weird that you think anyone is better than Obi-Wan Kenobi, but that’s none of my business.” He smirked, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed.

“Dude!” Ned exclaimed with a laugh. “Don’t put words in my mouth. I did not say that!” 

“You implied it,” Peter sang playfully.

“Nuh-uh! Obi-Wan is way cool! He’s the strongest force user! The one you should argue with is your Sith sympathizer girlfriend who still has a major crush on Anakin Skywalker even though he went through with order 66. And called Darth Vader, Darth Daddy,” 

“Ugh,” Peter winced. “Don’t remind me.”

They laughed softly for a moment before Gwen interjected.

“Hey!” She whined. “He gets to call her your girlfriend but I don’t?”

“He gets a pass because he’s not trying to put bets on my decisions like it’s a dating sim.”

Gwen stuck her tongue out at him again before there was a rush of commotion outside of the main entryway. They all looked over curiously.

“She’s here,” MJ stated. “God, she’s gonna hate all this attention.”

Peter’s senses started buzzing which confirmed MJ’s claims about you being here. He stood up at the feeling as his excitement to see you was rising. The reporters outside got louder as the outside door opened and you walked in. Peter could feel you getting closer as his senses focused on you. 

When you entered the room, Peter froze.

There you were, in a golden gown that complimented your upper body in ways that Peter wasn’t used to or prepared for. The tattoo on your arm was in full view and the blue of roses complemented the gold of your dress. Your makeup was made up of golden glitter on your eyelids and soft colors that went well with your skin tone. 

Peter wished he was sitting down because he was sure his legs were going to give out on him. Celina was right. If he was busy today with work, he would’ve risked it all just to be here to see you. He thanked the universe that the stars aligned in his favor.

You looked heavenly. 

When you spotted him your face lit up and you smiled at him and started to make a beeline towards him. He watched you the entire time.

“Peter, hey,” You smiled. 

He could smell your soft-scented perfume as you approached him and it relaxed him and he sighed softly in satisfaction, but his eyes never left you and his heart still raced.

He felt like he was in the presence of a Goddess. 

“H-” He cleared his throat before he squeaked again. “Hey, (Y/N)...”

“Snap out of it before you drool all over that tux,” Nika, who wore a green gown that was a similar color to MJ’s, said from beside you guys. 

Peter looked at her surprised that he didn’t notice her. Nika looked at you and held up a black box for you to take. “You left this in the limo. I swear you would lose your head from your shoulders without me.”

You take it with a sheepish look on your face. “Thank you.”

Nika smiled and then turned to greet your friends. You and Peter looked back at each other and you handed him the box. 

“For you.” 

He looked at you wondrously as he opened it. It was a bowtie and a pocket square that matched your dress. 

“Celina made the dress,” you explained as your face burned. “She thought it would be nice if we matched.”

Peter smiled and nodded as he took off the bowtie and took out the pocket square that he was already wearing. “Thanks.”

“Here, allow me,” you stated as you took out the golden bowtie from the box and began tying it around his collar. He watched you the entire time.

There were so many things he wanted to say but his brain was so scrambled that he could only muster up a “Did you get here okay?”  

“Yeah,” you replied as you worked on the pocket square softly. “Traffic was backed up to hell, but we managed.”

When you finished with the pocket square, you patted the pocket area with your hand twice. “There you go.” You smiled up at him meeting his eyes. 

He blushed. “Thank you.”

You smile bigger in response. “Welp, I got a speech to go make and then socialize with the pretentious assholes and organizations that are actually nice. Give me like an hour? Then I’m all yours.”

“No, yeah, yeah!” Peter nodded rapidly and cleared his throat while glancing at the ground for a second before meeting your gaze again and giving you a soft smile. “Go get ‘em, Tiger.” 

 After a while, Peter went upstairs where it was less crowded. For a while he watched you go from person to person from the balcony with a glass of sweet wine in his hand that he sipped on. He then watched what his friends were doing. He noticed that Harry and MJ were spending a lot of time together talking. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen her smile like that before. He raised his eyebrow wondrously at her out-of-character reactions to Harry. Did she just giggle? Peter blinked rapidly.

Peter sensed you approaching him. 

“Hey there, Stranger,” you smiled and leaned backward on the balcony next to him. 

Peter looked at you with a small smile on his face. “Hey there, beautiful.”

Your face burned and your eyes averted away shyly at the unexpected compliment. “Stop,” you said sheepishly with no real conviction behind your words as you smiled down at the ground and tried to compose yourself. 

Peter's smile widened. “I would apologize, but I’m not sorry.”

You pressed your lips together and turned to face the same way he was. Your shoulder pressed against his. Two can play that game, Parker. “Keep it up and I might leave this circus early and take you with me.” 

“But Celina worked so hard on that phenomenal dress, and Harry got this tux sized for me. It would be a shame to let it go to waste,” Peter smirked. “Plus, Nika would murder us both if you left early with me.”

“I’m sure there’s a secluded room we can go to.” You argued playfully. “It wouldn’t be hard to… share our secrets there.”

Peter snorted. “How romantic. I hate to inform you that I’m not that kind of guy.”

“Even better,” you smiled and took the glass of wine from his hand and took a sip out of it while looking directly into his dark brown eyes. 

Peter looked back into your eyes deeply. He wanted to kiss you right then and there.

But of course, there was an interruption. Like always. 

“So this is the famous Peter Parker,” He heard a man’s voice say. “Right here in the flesh.”

You audibly sigh and roll your eyes as you look at Sam who was standing with Bucky both dressed in tux with serious looks on their faces but mischief in their eyes.

“Hello, Sam.” You said with not much enthusiasm in your voice. “And Bucky.”

Bucky squinted at the two of you and you both prayed to any higher being that they didn’t hear your flirtatious conversation.

Peter cleared his throat to make sure his voice didn’t embarrass him again. “Captain Wilson. Sergeant Barnes,” he addressed them politely. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Sam hummed and looked at the two of you. 

“Well, this was fun but there are some people I would like to introduce Peter to so if you wouldn’t mind-” As you spoke you took Peter’s hand and started to pull him away but were stopped when you felt a tug on your hand. 

You turned to see Peter standing there and Sam and Bucky each had a hand on his shoulder. Their grips were gentle but firm and it sent a chill down Peter’s spine. Despite his senses telling him that they weren’t going to do anything, it didn’t mean they weren’t going to say anything. Especially when they’re like older brother figures to you. You gave Peter an apologetic look as Bucky put his arm around Peter’s shoulder.

“We’re concerned for you,” Bucky stated. 

You sighed deeply. “He’s harmless, guys. I made sur-”

“Oh no, not you,” Sam interrupted and pointed at Peter. “You, my friend.”

“M-me?” Peter asked in confusion.

“Oh yeah,” Bucky added. “She’s kind of obsessed with you. I would be careful.”

You crossed your arms and huffed. “You guys aren’t funny-”

“She’s been researching you,” Sam interjected.

“Investigating, if you will.” 

“We know about you more than we should,” Sam gave Peter a warning look. 

Peter from each man as they spoke and you pouted and rolled your eyes. “Stop.”

“Hey, just trying to help a brother out,” Sam threw a hand up in defense. “Your ass is a little crazy.”

“I am not crazy,” you argued. “Now give him back.”

“Oof! You hear that, Buck?”

“Yep!” Bucky chimed. “Possessive as hell.”

“Stop making me look bad!”

“You’re doing that all on your own.”

Peter couldn’t take it anymore and he busted out in giggles and all three of you looked at him wondrously. 

“I know she’s been doing that,” Peter smiled smugly, crossed his arms over his chest, and looked at you. “She just couldn’t help but fall for my charm and cute face.”

You deadpanned so hard. “You know what, never mind. Keep him.” you downed the wine, forced the glass into Bucky’s free hand, turned around, and walked away.

“Wait, (Y/N)-” Peter called. “I was joking!”

“Mhm, sure,” Peter could hear the smile in your voice. “Go be cute and cocky somewhere else with your new bros.”

Peter tried to pull from their grip to go after you, but Bucky kept his firm metal hold on him. Peter looked at him wondrously. 

Bucky gave him a thin-lipped smile. “Take care of her, yeah? Otherwise, you’ll have to deal with us in the not-so-subtle way, Spiderman.”

Peter nodded. “I promise.”

Bucky and Sam let go of Peter and he instantly ran after you picking you up from behind and twirling you around for a moment as you squealed and laughed. 

“Gotcha,” Peter sang. 

“Caught right in your web,” you smiled. “Poetic isn’t it?”

Peter snorted and set you down. “I feel like I should apologize to you about them.”

It was your turn to snort. “Please, I would apologize for them but they are two grown-ass men who can do it themselves. No worries though. I’ll be a brat about it for a few days until they do.”

Peter laughed. 

“Speaking of poems,” you said looking at the time. “I should get ready to give my speech and do the rest of my mingling so I can get that out of the way.”

Peter smiled at you. “Okay. I’ll probably go bully Harry with Gwen.”

You giggled. “You saw him with Michelle too?”

“Yeah.” And I would bully her too if circumstances were different.

“Have fun,” you said.

“Good luck,” He replied. 

After your speech, you mingled more. One guy got a little handsy with you than you or Peter liked but you handled it with grace. And by grace, Peter meant you took the guy's hand by the wrist and nearly broke it as you told him off. After that Peter lost you in the crowd. He couldn’t find you and he couldn’t sense you. It worried him. He asked his friends and your friends if they had seen you. They haven’t and you weren’t answering your texts from anyone. It worried him more.

He spotted the table where Pepper, Happy and Morgan were sitting and decided that was his next best option, even if Happy was giving him suspicious looks all evening. So he walked over to them with sweaty hands and a racing mind.

“Um…Hello,” Peter said sheepishly. 

Pepper looked up at him. Happy never stopped looking at him. Morgan didn’t acknowledge him.

“Uh…you haven’t seen (Y/N) anywhere, have you?” He asked, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m Peter. Peter Parker.”

“Oh!” Pepper chimed. “She was going to introduce us to you later but fate has other plans I guess.” She smiled as she stood up and went by him. “It’s nice to meet you.”

She held out her hand and Peter shook it politely. “It’s nice to meet you too, Mrs. Stark.”

Pepper wore a blue gown with her hair in a low bun. Morgan wore a pink dress with a black leather jacket that Peter recognized as the very first one that Tony had gotten for you. Happy wore a regular suit. 

“She left like fifteen minutes ago,” Morgan stated. “Typical.”

Pepper gave Morgan a warning look and then looked back at Peter. “She didn��t leave. She stepped out for a moment. She doesn’t do well in crowds for very long.”

Peter was surprised that Happy wasn’t with you, but then again he wasn’t surprised because you hated having a bodyguard with you at all times when you can take care of yourself just fine. 

Peter nodded knowingly in response. 

“She’ll be back in a bit,” Pepper continued. “She let Morgan use her phone.”

He looked to see the preteen girl playing a game on your phone aggressively. 

Ah. “Okay. Thank you.” 

“Aw, man!” Morgan exclaimed. “I died!”

She pouted the same way you did. Her bottom lip sticking out and furrowed brows and it made Peter chuckle softly.

“What game are you playing?” Peter asked.

Morgan looked up at him. “Genshin Impact.”

Peter hummed in amusement. “May I?”

She eyed him with hesitation and then handed him the phone. He took it and then sat in the chair next to her. He looked at the screen and blinked rapidly.

“Dude,” he started. “You’re still in Inazuma? When did you start playing?”

“Like a month ago,” Morgan replied sheepishly. “But I used to play on (Y/N)’s account but I got tired of her zooming through the storyline and I was left with only her story quests and world quests. Of course, she would leave the boring parts to me.”

Peter snorted and analyzed the mission Morgan was struggling with. “You’re fighting Raiden Shogun. Saving Thoma right?”

Morgan nodded. 

“So the goal isn’t to beat her. She’s an Archon it’s impossible to do so,” Peter explained like the geek he is. “And she deactivates your bursts and skills so you’re kind of stuck and rendered useless. The goal is to bring her down to seventy-five percent health and run and dodge when she activates the Vision Hunt Decree. You only need to survive for forty-five seconds after that and you’re all good.” 

Morgan looked at him with wide eyes. “Really?”

“Mhm!” Peter smiled. “Here let me equip you with the right things. Especially with the team you have.”

After clicking around and setting up Morgan’s teams for success, he handed the phone back to her. “If you lose you can kick my butt.”

She took the phone and gave him a tight-lipped smile as she started the mission again. Peter watched her the whole time and was her second pair of eyes. She was able to pass the quest with flying colors.

“Yes!” Morgan cheered and looked up at Peter with a sparkle in her eye. “Thank you so much, Peter!”

“Good job!” Peter chuckled softly and held up his hand for a high five and Morgan smacked the palm of her hand onto his.

He looked up to see Pepper smiling at the two of them and Happy's face was softer than it had been all night. Peter gave them a thin-lipped smile in response. There was still no sign of you. 

“You should go find, (Y/N),” Morgan stated, not taking her eyes off the screen. “I think I got it from here. Oh! But give me your UID and we can be friends on here!”

Peter smiled, gave her his UID, and then he got up. “I’ll bring her back safely.”

“Thank you,” Pepper replied. 

Peter walked out and into the cool New York City air. He glanced around to see if he could spot you but there was no sign of you but he could faintly sense you. Which brought him some relief and comfort. 

"If you're looking for her, she's on the roof." 

Peter whipped around to see Nika leaning up on the wall looking at the roof of a building that was across the street. 

"The roof?"

"Yeah,” Nika replied. “She can only take so much of the public eye, public speeches, and networking before it gets too much for her. So she needs a break from it all for a bit so she can come back down and do it all over again. It took her two months of practicing her speech for the expo before she felt ready. In fact, I don't think she ever was ready for that speech."

Peter chuckled softly and said softly to himself. “Yeah, she’s always been that way.”

Nika hummed in response. 

Peter looked up at the sign of the place that you were on top of. It was a cute cafe with globe lights on strings and plants on the roof of it. He imagined it was a quiet place which is why you choose there to go.

“I’m out here as her lookout,” Nika continued. “Decided to give Happy a break and actually enjoy himself for once.”

Peter hummed amused. “How nice of you.”

“He’s probably shitting himself worried right now,” Nika grinned. “I may be a small girl but I can take down a super soldier like Sargent Barnes any day. I’m more than capable.”

“I believe you,” Peter agreed. “You kinda scare me.”

“Good.”

Peter smiled at Nika and she smiled back.

"Well, what are you waiting for?”’ She chuckled. “Go to her. Be an Avenger Boy and save the day.” She waved him off. “Shoo shoo!"

Peter laughed. “You’re not gonna kick my ass for being a distraction?”

“Nah,” Nika let out a deep breath. “She could use a little…or a lot…of distraction right now. Play your cards right and you might get completely on my good side.”

“Good to know,” Peter smiled and began walking towards the building. 

“You can web up there you know,” Nika commented which made Peter stop in his tracks and turn on his heels to look at her.

“You know?” He replied but it came out more like a statement.

Nika tapped her temple. “I know a lot of things. It’s kind of my job. Didn’t take me long to figure it out.”

Peter nodded in response.

“If anyone sees you, I’ll gaslight them.”

Peter laughed. “No worries, I’m careful.”

Nika nodded and gave him a salute of good luck. He was pleasantly surprised by Nika’s friendly behavior. He half expected her to rip his head off for trying to bother him but she encouraged him. And what was he gonna do, say no? Of course not.

 He went into the Alley of the building and webbed himself up after making sure the coast was clear. He saw you on the other side leaning over the ledge looking up at a billboard with Tony Stark and the Iron Man suit on it. The Billboard read “Gone but never forgotten.”

He took a deep preparation breath and walked over to you. You sensed him, looked back at him, and smiled softly.

"Sorry,” you stated.  “I'm a horrible date."

"You're not," he smiled back with a chuckle and leaned next to you much like how you did with him earlier.

You both turned and looked at the billboard again both of your are hit with waves of emotions and Peter couldn’t tell if he was feeling it from you or if you were feeling it from him, but the comfort of each other’s company kept your feelings in check as you guys silently bonded over the absence of Tony Stark in your lives. 

Peter remembered all his moments with Tony and how much he learned from him. He remembers sitting in the workshop with him while Tony worked on his Spider suit and he, himself, worked on his web shooters. 

He remembers a specific day…

You ran up behind Peter, wrapped your arms around his torso, and gave him a peck on the cheek with a giggle. He blushed with a smile and turned his head to look at you and kiss your forehead. You would be spending the day with Natasha and Wanda.

“Heading out?” He asked you softly.

“Yep,” you replied. “I’ll buy you something.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Let her do it,” Tony said from across the table. “She’s gonna do it anyway. It’s like her dream to be your sugar mama.”

Peter chuckled nervously, unsure if Tony was being serious or not. You rolled your eyes.

“Bye, Darling.” You pecked Peter’s lips and he pecked yours back before you went over to your dad and kissed his temple. “Goodbye, Father.”

“Goodbye Daughter,” Tony replied. “Have fun, be safe, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, and definitely don’t do anything I would do.”

You made a pfft sound. “Yeah right,” you replied as you walked away.  “Love you,” you sang.

“Love you,” Tony replied as you disappeared up the staircase. 

Peter watched you the entire time with nothing but love in his eyes. Tony eyed him when he noticed him not focusing on his web slinging gizmo. 

“Y’know, kid,” Tony started as Peter turned to him rapidly from being knocked from his gazing and daydreaming of you. “There’s this thing called a camera. It’s on your phone. Ever heard of it? If you take a picture it will last longer.”

Peter snorted with a smile and went back to upgrading his gadget. “S’not the same, sir.”

Tony sighed and rolled his eyes. “You kids are weird. But I’d take weird over anything else.”

Peter inserted the web fluid into his web shooter and then set it down looking up at Tony. 

Mr. Stark?”

“That’s me,” Tony sang.

“I think I’m in love with (Y/N),” Peter said and Tony stopped what he was doing and looked up at him again. “But ... .I don’t know how to express that to her in a way she deserves.”

Tony’s face softened and he set the suit down on the table and turned completely to Peter listening to him.

Peter continued. “I don’t know much about romance…only what they show in movies and what Aunt May has told me but this is my first relationship and I’m hoping for it to be my one and only relationship for the rest of my life. Is that weird? That’s weird isn’t it?” Peter sighed nervously. “I just…I don’t wanna mess it up. I want to find a way to show her how much I love her. Something that she can hold or look at for when we aren’t by each other but I also know she’s not materialistic and she prefers experiences over items. I dunno…maybe I’m overthinking it.”

Tony pressed his lips together and let out a deep breath. “You got a heart of gold, Peter. It pairs well with her heart of Iron. I’m sure whatever you come up with she will love because it came from you and you specifically. That’s all she needs.”

Peter let out a sigh.

“You know I never visited his grave,” you stated softly and Peter looked at you. “I’m afraid of how I’ll react.” You look down at your tattoo and trace your fingers over the arc reactors. “I never expected to take over the stark throne so soon…the same age my dad took over. If I go visit his grave, that’s just a reminder of what wasn’t supposed to be.”

Peter listened to you.

“Kinda shitty of me isn’t it?” You started. “Won’t take on the role of Iron Hero, won’t go visit his grave, can’t hold an event without running away and leaving my date behind. Some legacy I am.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Peter said, turning to you and seeing your eyes glossed over. “That’s not shitty. That’s called being human. You have the right to feel however you feel about it. He was more than just your dad but the person you confided in the most. No one blames you for feeling this way.”

You looked at him and smiled. “Thanks.”

Peter pressed his lips together and lifted himself from the ledge and took out his phone, opening up his preferred music app. You watched him as he set his phone down as the song played. It was one of your favorites, Lover by Taylor Swift. 

He holds out his hand to you with a smile. "Dance with me?" 

You smiled and took his hand. And he walked you closer towards the center of the roof. You wrapped your arms around his neck and clasped your hands together as his hands made their way to your hips. Your senses bloomed at the contact as you guys looked at each other with burning faces that kept you warm from the cool autumn air.

"You look pretty tonight," he stated. "Not that you don't look pretty any other time."

“Thank you,” you giggled. "You should see me when I wake up in the morning. Puffy-faced, looking scary and pissed off."

Peter chuckled softly remembering how you were in the mornings during their time at the Avengers Compound. You always looked like you were ready to fight someone at any moment even if you woke up in a good mood. You got teased for it often. 

"Well, you clean up nicely," he smiled.

"So do you," you smiled. "You look handsome. Not that you don't look handsome any other time."

“Thanks, I woke up like this.”

You playfully hit his arm and he laughed in response with your giggles. 

“You’re conceited today,” you commented. 

“Confident,” he corrected.

You squinted your eyes and hummed in doubt. “Conceited,” you argued. “But I kinda like it.”

He hummed in response and looked into your eyes meeting your gaze. 

You get lost looking deeply into the darkness of his irises. He has such pretty brown eyes. He looked back into your eyes deeply also getting lost in your wonderous orbs. You guys felt the pull stronger than ever before. You glanced down at his lips and Peter stopped moving as he focused completely on you. Like the rest of the world didn’t exist. His senses were all on you.

It was his turn to glance down at your lips as he pulled his bottom lip in between his teeth like he was debating on something before making a decision. Pavitr’s words rang in his mind. 

This is it. The moment.

You both lean in. It’s happening. The moment you and your senses have been waiting for. Oh my fucking god, it’s happening. You close your eyes. 

Your lips met his softly.

Your senses jolted and in a quick moment your body went cold and an implosion of warmth flowed through you and. your senses lost control of themselves. Your heart raced in your chest and your brain focused on Peter and only Peter. 

It was like something clicked.

You didn't realize that you had stopped dancing. You didn't know when his arm wrapped around your waist to pull you closer and you didn't know how your hand ended up gripping his hair. You didn't feel the moment when his tongue swiped across your lips and you opened your mouth to invite him in. 

He tasted of strawberry candy wine and mint and paradise. 

It was like your senses remembered him even though your memory was still hazy but in that moment, it was like it was only you two in the world.

His kiss reminded you of your first kiss. 

His hold reminded you of your first dance.

His gentleness reminded you of him.

The Faceless Boy.

You forgot to breathe and your hands slowly moved to his shoulders and you pulled back reluctantly and he chased your lips as if you two were a magnetic force not meant to part. You looked at each other with hooded eyes, slightly heavy breathing and racing hearts.

Before you could think your mouth spoke.

"My sweet boy…" you said barely a whisper.

Before Peter could react you both were interrupted.

"Let's go, Parker!!" 

Peter jumped as did you and quickly looked over with wide eyes. You stopped his hand from activating his web shooter and accidentally webbing someone off the roof. 

Then he groaned softly and he winced and threw his head back in defeat.

His friends and your friends were together cheering and clapping. As Gwen and Harry started chanting the intro to Blitzkrieg Bop.

"Hey, ho! Let's go!" Echoed through the night sky as Cindy and Celina threw finger hearts at the both of you and joined in the chant. Nika was there with her phone out recording the whole ordeal with a mischievous smile on her face.

You couldn't help but snort and hide your face in Peter's shoulder as you shook from giggles of embarrassment, while Peter pouted at his friends in particular. You lifted your head with your lips pressed together sheepishly looking at him.

"We have a fan base."

He looked back at you with an apologetic look. "I'm so, so, so sorry about this…"

"Don't be. I'm pretty sure it was Nika's idea." 

You both glanced over at them again. As they all started cheering “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”

I think I’m going to enter my villain arc, Peter thought, being unserious. I asked for one night.

"Let's give them a show?" You asked. 

Peter decided that if this is what fate had in store for you both, he wasn’t going to let it ruin the moment. So he smirked at you and dipped you causing you to squeal softly and your leg to lift. He caught the bottom of your thigh in his hand as he pressed his lips to yours again and you lay a hand on his cheek while the other gripped onto his shoulder. 

The feeling was electrifying and your friends cheered and clapped louder.

Later that night you arrived back at home with Pepper and Morgan. You say goodnight to them as you go to your room and close the door. You lean back on your door and sigh happily. 

You and Peter finally kissed. And it was twice and it was perfect. 

You bite your lip while smiling ear to ear. You felt like a teenage girl again crushing…probably on Peter Parker, to be honest.

You pull out your phone and text Peter.

I'm home. 

Me too. 

You smile and touch your lips softly. You could feel his kiss on your lips still and it sent a warmth throughout your body. You were knocked out  of your thoughts when your phone sounded.

I had fun tonight 😊

Me too ☺️

Your face burned and you giggled.

Sweet dreams, Peter Parker ♥️

Sweet dreams, (Y/N) Stark ♥️

Your heart fluttered the entire time you got ready for bed. And when you dreamt of the Faceless Boy you imagined Peter's face and when you woke up the next morning, it was with grace. There was no cold sweat and there was no pain. Only a happy heart, clear mind and a smile on your lips where you still felt the ghost of Peter's soft lips.

~

Tags:

@chrisevans-realwife @riordanness @peterdarlingg @thecrystalclarity @brckenmemories @paleprincesssxo @blackcanary130 @kindlover @i-have-no-life-charlie @melodicheauxxlovesfood

[starrz-n-waffl3-fries]

Official introduction post 🙂‍↕️

EDIT: I got tired of scrolling past this pinned post so I put a cut on it- woh :3c

Anyway!!! That’s me!!! :3

My real name is Maxfield or Max, but you can call me Starrz!!! Considering it’s my name online :D

I am a digital artist who is very flexible in their craft, I see art very structurally so I don’t really have a set art style, but rather multiple art styles depending on what media I am drawing for! <3

examples of this include;

YDB(You Deserve Better) art style

C+B(Cuts And Bruises) art style

SJ(Soweli Jan) art style

And my signature doodle art style I use for everything!! :3

Fandoms I’m apart of!!!

-Btd(boyfriend to death)

-ykmet(you kill me every time)

-Undertale

-Deltarune

Circling back to the drawing of me with all of the symbols and flags that I identify with at the start of the post; let me tell you about those!!! :0

Country flags

America— I live in America, self-explanatory

Michigan— I was born and raised in Michigan, a Midwestern state in America

Germany— most of my roots are from Germany, making me German American

Disability flags

ASD(Autism Spectrum Disorder)— I was officially diagnosed at seven years old with Asperger’s syndrome; an outdated term for high functioning autism. This is a learning disability, however people with this disability(myself included) are very capable of wonderful things and we are all very intelligent in our own right<3

ADHD(attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)— I’m not sure when I was officially diagnosed with this, however I was diagnosed with this later in my life(I think). This one overlaps with autism a lot as it is also a learning disability, however it tackles more so the inability to focus on tasks more so- but much like autism, ADHD is also a spectrum! So everyone experiences it differently and manages it differently. For myself; I like to keep checklists and stuff!!! :3

Disability pride flag— this one is a general term for anyone who has a disability. I already explained two that I have, but I also additionally have two more regarding mobility. I walked on my tip-toes ever since I learned how to walk and this hindered how long I can walk on my feet without it hurting like a bitch(even after surgery)- another thing that this caused was huge back problems that I have yet to tackle, so that’s fun! I don’t use any mobility aids as I am scared to ask for them, but I do believe I would benefit from them some days when I have to walk for extended periods of time.

Mental health related disorders

C-PTSD(complex post traumatic stress disorder)— much like regular PTSD, this is something that you get from traumatic memories from your childhood. Emphasis on memories, because regular PTSD is only from one traumatic memory. As for people like me, I have several things floating around my head that make it so that even today I am deeply affected by what has happened to me. Make no mistake, however; this disorder is not and never will be an excuse for any actions performed by a person with this disability. I am responsible for my own actions, and this disability does not define me. Although it very much affects me every day, it is not my only personality trait, nor is it a way to excuse any actions of mine :3

Depression and Anxiety— these are pretty well researched Disorders that I don’t feel comfortable discussing too deeply, as they are very difficult to manage for me and they are kind of distressing topics for me, however I fully encourage you to do your own research! Stay safe!!!<3

LGBTQIA+ Labels

Transgender(ftm)— I was born biologically female, however when I started puberty I quickly realized I did not like the body I was growing into, and somewhere in 2021 or 2022 I figured it out I was a trans man, and so far I haven’t had any identity crisis about my gender, so I think it’s a permanent label of mine! Which is very nice<3

Panromantic— much like pansexual, this means you experience attraction to anyone no matter their gender! Many people with this have gender blindness, I don’t know what that means, so you should probably look that up on your own time as well! :3 but the reason why I say panromantic instead of pansexual, is because I do not experience sexual attraction to people! Which we will get into in a minute🙂‍↕️

Asexual— little to no sexual attraction, this does not inherently mean you have a low libido, however- you can have a high libido and still be asexual, so do not confuse those!!! me personally, I am sex neutral and asexual! So I’m not inherently bothered by the topic, just make sure not to get me involved or I will sob in self defense! :33

Other labels

Age regression pride flag— so age regression is basically a coping mechanism for people who want to experience their childhood again, for some people that can look like re-experiencing childhood joys, or reverting back to a child like state to make up for the fact that they feel like their childhood was lackluster or they grew up too fast! Me core :3

Therian/otherkin symbol— people who are spiritually connected to animals!! For me, my therio-type is a red fox!! So I feel naturally connected to them- this does not mean that I believe I am a fox, nor does it mean I am a zoo- there is a huge difference, and I am tired of people thinking they overlap. They do not. I am aware that I am a human, however I believe that I am spiritually connected to foxes<3

Cool people in my circle that you should follow!!<3

@0lizard-shark0 -my lovely partner<3

@watermelonolemretaw -my other awesome significant other depending on how this polyamory thing goes!<3

@burntmarshmallowqueen -their sibling that is helping write ydb with both of us and has a very nice and detailed art style >:0c

@blueleon-blog -my awesome older brother figure and my ride or die🙂‍↕️

@finnsworldz -bestie with the coolest art I’ve ever fucking seen!!! >:3

@gourd-n-cord a really cool friend of mine that I go to school with!! >:33

@m0nst3r-clawz A guy- that is also blood related to me- you can follow him if you want, his oc is pretty cool :3c

I hope that my page brings some whimsy to your day or whatever٩( 'ω' )و🎉‼️✨

[ali-croft7]

HI HI HI I hope you're alright and safe. I see your COTL AU Coven AU, and am VERY interested! Are some of the elements of the og premise still there, like your Lamb mc being the last lamb, except this time they have to build a coven instead, with witches as the setting? Please tell us more about it your art of it looks exciting and I love the title card so cool. Would you tell us the hypothetical gameplay and village sim style?

Have a gentle week come to you, drink water and eat vegetables regularly!

Hi!! Thank you for your kind words and your interest my AU <3 Your question makes me wanna draw a bunch of things but, for now, I'm gonna answer like this:

Is the Lamb mc the last one of their kind?

No, but like the og Lamb, she died and met TWWO. There is also a prophecy (a little bit different), that tells about freeing a god that was betrayed and more~

What does the Witch have to do?

She has to recruit new witches, defeat her Patron's enemies and break the seals so He can come back to the mortal world (cause like the og Narinder, He is imprisoned in his own realm).

Are there any Bishops? Or is there something else?

Instead of Bishops, they are called Patrons. Their divine power is related to the forces of nature and they are considered personifications of certain things.

The enemies you might encounter would be from unpleasant creatures to enemy witches... and inquisitors.

How a gameplay would work?

I think it would be more interesting to answer this in a future post, but to resume in few words: not anyone can be a witch. The number would be smaller than your regular cult, but you have to build a bond with your witches. They are your support for the toughest battles. They're your equals, they made a pact with the same Patron. You will be their leader if they see you as one.

So yeah: help with their requests, throw a party or two, give them a chance to grow as witches, give them responsibilities when they look prepared... Unlike the original one, faith is not what will make you keep your coven: is trust. However, the reward would be still devotion like the game (like I said I might need a post to develop this fgghg).

More about the hypothetical gameplay:

- You don't actually wear the crown, yet.

- There might be other creatures who ask for your services. Y'know, regular mortals with their needs and desires.

- Rituals would have to be done at night mostly. These are performances of pure, ancient magic and requires some chanting and music~

- There are witches who wouldn't like to run a cult. They'd rather choose a priest or priestess to guide the new cultists. The Witch (or some of the coven's members) should check them from time to time and make sure the cult is contributing with the Patron's needs.

[lousirs]

this is a dump about the uglydolls movie novel 💋💋💋

Alrighty I'm basically a regular here SO LETS GET TO IT

lodoeheie so I just got the movie novel of uglydolls because i need to fill my hunger for uglydolls content and THERE R SO MANY LITTLE DETAILS AND DIFFERENCES IN THE BOOK???!!???

ok so Lou's monologue in the pipes are completely different and they kind of point out details about Lou like his loafers being expensive and allat

BUT IM NOT TALING ABOTU TAGT

there's this one part in the book where they are about to reveal Ox after the all dolled up scene and instead of Ox, Nolan was behind Lou???? I think it was just supposed to show how awkward Nolan is idk 💀💀

ALSO for some reason I feel like EVERUTIME Nolan made an appearance they always described him as "the handsome doll" and I find that so so silly but I love it

oh YEYEHA it's implied in the book that the dolls wear their own clothes when they aren't doing training which was not the case in the movie (probably due to animation complications)

in the gauntlet scene, in the book, it was Mandy who kinda taunted Lou to participate in the gauntlet rather than him deciding to buy himself. Also it made me think why he even decided to join it in both medias when he knew he'd fail but my friend and I just established that at that point he was probably already batshit crazy and had nothing to lose

the whole Ox flashback part was longer and had more details to it. So both Lou and Ox went for the gauntlet together and completed it but it showed that they failed and everyone thought it was Ox that caused them to fail when it was really Lou (kind of sad that Lou probably knew it was himself and had to put the blame on Ox)

it was also mentioned that both Lou and Nolan have somewhat of a muscular build so time to make some new head cannons

IM SO SORRY THAT THESE POINTS WERE ALL OVER THE PLACE AND THERE'S TYPOS EVERYWHERE

I just found thrse so interesting I'm so sorry

the book is pretty good imo (probably biased) and there's more stuff than what I put here so DEFINITELY go read it for yourself

why hello, we meet again... time for more rambling xD STRAP IN EVERYONE!

yes!! i've known about the novel for a hot minute. i haven't bought or read it (...yet) but i remember seeing silentreadersmatter (i believe?) post about it on wattpad... so shoutout to them lol. anywho time to respond to each thing mentioned in order (just about)...

lou with loafers!!: i always assumed he wore some sort of fancy shoewear... so it's nifty that they added clarification i guess xD

awkward nolan: awkward nolan is the superior nolan (in my opinion. i'm sorry lads)... i see nolan be depicted as a 'uwu soft boy bottom" most of the time... but i always thought he was just a awkward doll. like, an anxious mess that is trying his best but fumbles constantly. he's a ball of anxiety, and i love him. ANYWAYS

buff nolan real??: GOSH, I AM SO GLAD SOMEONE NOTICED THE MUSCULAR NOLAN THING. i always imagined nolan to be taller than the other dolls (he isn't really in the film but i always headcanoned it so because his uniform is smaller as if he was too big for it) but once i saw him be called "handsome" and "tall" and "muscular" in the novel, i flipped. the little baby boy is actually a BIG BUFF BABY. i have a doodle of this from a few months ago heheh... (thank you for giving me an excuse to show it because it's been lingering in my files for a while LMAO)

^^^ lou is just trying to act evil and devious but he got this tall, handsome muscular doll getting in his way xD

ohhh but i can just imagine instead of the robot dog taking lou to the washer, nolan personally picks him up and drags him there. now THAT'S a moment i want to see.

fashion: oh, i didn't know about the clothes thing! DAMNIT i want to see them all in casual clothing, so i know what kind of styles they wear!! i mean, there's a concept art with lou in a white jumper with a golden 'L' on it... but that's all.

i have my headcanons for what they wear, but it would be cool to see... especially since most other dolls normally do have numerous outfits for the kids to dress them up in.

gauntlet: yeah, lou kinda lost the plot around that point. i would take a guess that he was probably unnerved by just basically killing two dolls, one that he knew (possibly for a while) and one that was close to his old friend, so when he saw mandy still alive he was like "well sh*t." and then came the downward spiral of him trying to sabotage the others, before inevitably sabotaging himself. ...but i think the book's version of mandy getting the crowds to peer pressure lou to joining the gauntlet made more sense (lou's reputation would be at stake and his reputation is basically all he has) than him joining anyways in the film. i guess they tried to make it make more sense with the whole "I don't even have to win. I just need to make sure you lose." but ehh... eh....

ox's tragic anime backstory: yes!! they should've done this version in the film honestly. perhaps they could've even shown lou's regret for lying to basically his only friend. ...oh wait, i forgot. lou's meant to be a 100% evil villain who kicks babies. anyways, again i feel that the novel made more sense than the canon we got in film. i guess in the film ox got recycled because he was causing others to fail by accident? but the novel's version is much more interesting.

if i remember correctly (and if i don't, count this as a rewritten version lol) the assistant robots took ox away after he 'failed' in the novel. i can imagine a scene where we are in ox's perspective, being forcefully dragged away to the pipes whilst lou looks at him, dread and sadness written across his face, yet he doesn't try to stop the robots. he just stands there, biting back his guilt. ohh... if only...

STRONG BOYS!!: heheheheh strong nolan and lou... would be funny if nolan didn't appear strong, but is actually stronger than lou. but then again, how can you tell if the doll is strong? they all look like same. lou says his arms are bumped or whatever in ugly truth but WHERE? WHERE'S THE BUMPED ARMS LOU??

anywho, thank you for the novella lore dump! for anyone who is interested, go check out the novel as well. it's pretty interesting if you are deep into doll purgatory. (also it's mentioned that ox used to wear a fedora from what i remember)(THAT IS TERRIBLE. I LOVE IT)

[watercolourcritters]

How have you found so much engagement on social media? I’ve really struggled to get my art out there.

Your art is beautiful, but I’ve also seen other accounts with beautiful art with much more or less followers and engagement. I don’t really understand it and I was wondering if you had any insights. Thank you

Hi there!

So - very long reply incoming - I have a couple of thoughts on what has worked for me, but I also wanted to break down what engagement actually looks like and means, because I think it is very easy to look at a post with a couple hundred notes and think "wow, they must have a huge following."

I think it is also very easy to look at someone's art and go, "well, it's good, but why is it getting engagement when mine isn't." Which - well, more below - but isn't really how online engagement works.

1) What does well on tumblr? I think it's helpful to recognize what kind of my art, specifically, gets a lot of engagement. My art that gets Tumblr engagement - reblogs and likes - is almost exclusively my encouragement style art (simple art with an animal and some text), which hits 3 boxes: cute, animals, and text that is either funny or meaningful.

However - my more traditional art styles? Canvas art and watercolour? Rarely hits above 30-50 notes on Tumblr. The same goes for my fanart. It's just straight up not as popular.

And it varies between platforms. On Instagram, all of my art is typically between 25-50 notes. On twitter, it's only fanart that gets notes. It varies, and it depends on the community you've embedded yourself in.

Above all though - what gets notes on Tumblr is a bit of a crapshoot, and reflects little on the quality of the art. It depends on who reblogs it, how big their following is, etc. Sure, art quality sometimes helps - but I see fucking amazing art every day that has very minimal engagement. There is no sure-fire way to get engagement, and the shit that does the BEST for me in regards to sales has almost no notes here.

2) Engage in the community

I think something that I'm still learning is that for the most part, no matter the platform, people will encourage and engage with your art more if you're a part of the community. And that requires you to engage, too.

I am not always good at this one, because this is not my main blog - but I get a lot more followers and engagement when I also reblog other art & posts, because most Tumblr folks want to follow blogs that make their dashes richer on the regular in a variety of ways, rather than every so often with just art.

Reblog things. Like and comment on other people's posts. Make friends. Be a part of Tumblr's community, rather than expecting community to grow around you.

(Note: This is not me saying you don't engage, I don't know anything about your activity on tumblr. Just, y'know, engaging helps get engagement.)

3) Having a brand??

Honestly, I kind of hate this one, because I'm an artist who likes trying lots of new styles and fucking around with different things. BUT, in regards to social media, having a recognizable brand/style makes people more likely to follow you.

For example - my encouragement style art, with plain white background, an animal, and encouragement text, is my most recognizable style on IG, Tumblr, and in my local art community. Probably 95% of my followers on Tumblr are for/from that style of art. It is what it is.

My caveat to this is - while having a brand helps, don't let it limit what you do! Try new things, experiment, etc.

3) Recognize what "lots of engagement" does and does not do

So - it probably looks like I have a lot of engagement on Tumblr, because I have many posts with 500+ notes. But, honestly? I am pretty small fries as an artist. I really, really struggle to get engagement beyond this platform, and even what I get here is pretty minimal in comparison.

I don't have a ton of followers - I've had this blog for 2.5 years, and am currently sitting at around 525 followers. My encouragement art on Tumblr regularly gets hundreds of notes. The exact same art on IG, where I have a similar following, gets typically between 25-50 notes.

However - Tumblr, where I get a lot more "engagement," does not translate to art sales or commissions. Or at least, it very rarely does. On the other hand, Instagram, where I have much less engagement, gets me both more direct sales and commissions, because more people on there know me personally.

TBH, doing local craft style markets has been the most helpful thing in regards to actually making any money off my art. Engaging in my local community has also been the best for connecting with other artists, getting encouragement for my art, and validation.

4) Recognize that engagement means very little about the quality of your art

Y'know, I've gotten inbox mail before that is essentially "your art is shit how come it's getting notes." People see my art (especially my more minimal stuff), think about their own art, and get frustrated that they aren't getting notes.

And I mean, I get it! I think we've all had similar thoughts at certain points. Kind of the "my art is at least that good, how come they have such a big following and I don't"?

But it is really, really helpful to disengage the connection between "good" and "engagement" in your head. Because engagement means very little about the quality of something, and is more tied into "right time, right place, right audience" type of shit.

It's also really helpful to do as an artist, because otherwise it becomes really, really easy to do one of two things:

a) "well, I'm not getting any notes, therefore I'm a bad artist/I make bad art."

Or

b) "Other people getting notes is unfair to me, because my art is good, and I deserve more notes."

I've done it. You've probably done it. We've all had those thoughts/feelings. But they are unhelpful thoughts/feelings, and doing whatever you can to nix both thought patterns is helpful as fuck.

Because a) engagement means nothing about the quality of your art and b) other people getting engagement means nothing about the quality of your art.

Engagement is great! It's nice! I want every artist to have tons and tons of engagement! But an artist getting notes reflects nothing on your art.

And - it's really important to find ways to feel good about your own art that have nothing to do with engagement. If it's the external validation you seek, try and find one or two friends to send your art to who will tell you how much they love it. Start a spreadsheet of the tags/notes that people leave on your art. I dunno, get creative.

But find ways to validate your art that have nothing to do with other people, too. Create something that you don't share with anyone. Spend time making art that's just for you and your own enjoyement. Make something that makes you laugh or smile. Above all, set aside time to fall in love with your own art.

This got really long, but:

TLDR: Fuck, buddy, I don't know lol. What does well on tumblr varies, but people like silly, encouraging, cute shit. Build a consistent style. Engage in community. Know that engagement doesn't necessarily mean much, both in regards to art sales and in regards to the worth and value of your art.

Good luck out there!

[bloodyopvs]

the witch's hat and her kiss

PROMPT: mean thoughts and cheap shots

CHARACTERS: The Sanguinarch, Damazsti Cluster, Laqeramaline

SHIP: Duqramaline (Duq'arael/Laqeramaline)

RATING: T for kissing

GENRE: Fluff and Crack

CW/TW: Mentions of blood. also Duq'arael is a warning in itself but he's surprisingly tame in this one

NOTES: For @el-loy, and was based on their Halloween art (as well as our silly convo on twitter). I hope you enjoy this one!

Also, as a general note, I'm experimenting in terms of writing style, so please be warned. It's nothing drastic, though.

she was gorgeous.

not that she wasn't gorgeous on a daily basis. even amongst the other Banshees and the members of her Court — even taking into account all the millennias that he had lived through — Laqeramaline was one of the most beautiful women that he had beheld with his eyes, irrespective of her purity of lineage. 

tonight, dressed in a pointy hat and a witch's attire, she was more beautiful than ever, exuding an aura of elegant charm. more importantly, she seemed to be having fun with the other women of the Sarkaz Royal Court, one of them being the Lich King's attendant. in fact, none of the other Royal Court men seemed to make it to attendance. the Regent was nowhere in sight; so was his right-handed man and Nezzsalem (normally the only other member of the Kazdel Military Commission that he deemed worthy enough to gravitate towards). not even the Confessarius could be seen anywhere.

normally, the Sanguinarch would grumble about how they all went missing on such an important cultural holiday of the Teekaz people (definitely not because he was aware that Laqeramaline was the organiser of this party) and he would gladly take cheap shots on them to anyone with a working set of ears and within his complaining range (on this night, it's definitely the Damazsti), but this time, he was actually quite silent, taking demure sips from the glass of bloodwine he was holding while watching the Royal Court ladies having fun and decorating their respective pumpkins.

...it was definitely not because he felt ridiculous, no. and not due to any reasons that others would think would be the cause.

hell, he wouldn't think that he would feel ridiculous, either. especially because of that.

"do you ever think of wearing something else that's not your boring regular clothes?" asked the green-haired Cluster sitting beside him on the bench, eyeing him with a gloomy look while holding his scythe (one that looks a bit too real to simply be a prop for the party). "especially since she invited you personally this year, Old Red-Eye. we would have thought that this event is important to you, too — being an old cultural holiday and all that."

"well, yours isn't all that different, either," pointed out the Vampire, rather testily. he certainly had a lot to say about that — based on his correspondingly mean thoughts about them — but he was holding himself back, a bit. not because he didn't want to ruin her party with his temper. "my clothes aren't 'boring' — it embodies all sorts of historical and cultural significance from my Court as well as the Military Commission. additionally, it wasn't as if she did not invite me in the previous couple of years, I was simply occupied with court business. in any case, how did you come to the knowledge that she invited me personally this year?"

"we, at least, bothered with the equipment," mumbled the Damaszti, but he heard it, and he shot them a nasty look. the Cluster winced in response to that. "and we were knowledgeable of the fact that she invited you tonight — as well as the fact that she did not invite you in the previous couple of years — because we borrowed your form before. not that we particularly enjoy it."

"oh, is that so? so now you are an expert on my feelings and my history, Lord Damazsti?" Duq'arael suddenly finished his drink in one gulp, usually a bad omen. "are you also aware that calling me a liar has consequences? I said that I had been busy in the years prior to this one — she did send me invitations, but they have been collecting dust, understandably so. hence why she invited me personally this year. between that and the personal insult directed to me — that last bit — you should learn to be more careful with your words. although you do have to try harder, if you would like to insult me."

a scoff followed his words, and he sent the other a withering glare, one that would actually kill, had the Damazsti weren't also a member of the Military Commission -- had they not been in Laqeramaline's Halloween party. his conversation partner flinched in response, although annoyance flashed through their eyes.

"if you felt insulted by our words, then we believe that is on you, Prince Duq'arael. but...we are genuinely curious. do you truly think that we are all unaware of what transpired between you and Laqeramaline — your feelings towards one another, the history you two shared?"

the Sanguinarch bristled visibly at that. he had more than mean thoughts and cheap shots to say to that, but a familiar voice and presence interrupted their conversation.

"both of you seemed to be having a lively conversation," her equally beautiful voice was as elegant and spellbinding as always, although it was infused with an undertone of mischief, one that might not be apparent to those who did not know her well. despite the anger that he was forced to swallow, the Vampire instinctively turned towards the direction of her voice. the sight of her alone makes the peculiar, uncharacteristic insecurity welled up again within him — one that the Damazsti had touched earlier. perhaps he really should have worn something else. "Prince Duq'arael. Lord Damazsti. thank you for coming."

"it wasn't a 'lively conversation' as much as it was an attempt to murder us," grumbled the Cluster, although Duq'arael was much too engrossed by her presence to send them another nasty look. "even so, many thanks for inviting us, Lord Banshee." 

"I am not the one who started it," stated the Vampire, shooting them a Look, although he made an effort to give the lady a diplomatic smile. "this idiot aside, it was my pleasure, Laqeramaline. although I was, admittedly, surprised at your invitation."

"was your surprise a pleasant one?" she calmly responded, accompanied by a laugh, the soft, melodious tone of it echoing in the dusk, putting the night breeze to shame. "it's rare to hear you speak of your feelings so openly, Prince Duq'arael. the pleasure is mine, however — although I must admit, I was surprised, too, that you decided to come."

"if we may interject, we thought that the Old Red-Eye is always too honest with his feelings and his thoughts," quipped the almost-forgotten Cluster, and the Sanguinarch instinctively shot him another glare, even if a smile was still playing on his lips. "needless to say, we were surprised, too, that you chose to invite him out of all people, Lady Laqeramaline. are you not afraid that he's going to ruin the party with his displays of so-called 'excitement'?"

"who asked you?" shot the Vampire, finding it harder and harder to restrain his urge to shut the other up. permanently so, preferably. he does not care anymore if the Cluster was also old enough to remember their people when they have yet to become 'Sarkaz', a rootless, persecuted people — it wasn't as if he'd actually done something useful for their people with this knowledge, anyways. "if you are picking a fight with me, Lord Damazsti, I would gladly indulge you anytime."

"thank you for your concern, Lord Damazsti. but I think I am more than equipped to handle this one," the Banshee interjected, smiling amusedly, her melodious voice still so serene and unruffled — although the fact that he felt her grip on his arm right after the words left her beautiful lips speaks volumes. that grip was no joke, either. out of instinct, the Sanguinarch shot her a glare, too, but it evidently had no effect on her, since she remained unfazed. "speaking of which, may I borrow him for a moment? I'd like to speak with the Prince. in private."

"of course we would grant you the honour — although some honour it was. as a matter of fact, you need not return him for the night. we would like to enjoy the festivities without him glaring over our shoulders."

"perfect," Laqeramaline sounded so pleased that it was hard to stay annoyed at her and this entire 'talking about him as if he weren't there' thing. well, almost. Duq'arael opened his mouth, about to violently protest and make a scathing remark, but she cut him off before he could do so. "then I'll be taking him along. enjoy your Halloween, Lord Damazsti."

again, before he could so much as offer a protest, Laqeramaline dragged him away — at least away from the crowd. to be perfectly honest, he had no interest in doing anything else aside from spectating (and offering scathing commentary, although he wouldn't call it that), and thus, the thought of having to do something silly (like decorating a pumpkin) almost made him shiver. well, it would certainly make her happy, but at what cost? his pride?

"what are you doing?" Duq'arael finally blurted out, once there was quite a distance between them and the rest of the guest list. irritation underscored his tone, although this action of hers induced a strange feeling. a more erratic heartbeat. moving through the gravestones, her pulling him along, it felt as if they were lovers heading for a secret tryst — two gods, not the almost, half-dead thing that their relationship was. not Machiavelli's prince and lady Hel, not the monarch of the Crimson Court and the Elegiac Court, but a man and a woman, boy and girl, stumbling through the cemetery like yesterday's child. "Laqeramaline. you owe me an explanation."

"...here," she simply said, ignoring his words, pulling him to a corner near a mausoleum. he obliged, although scowling slightly at her, but instead of giving him what he demanded, the Banshee smiled, and suddenly took off her pointy hat. tiptoeing a little, she placed it atop his head. "much better."

"what is this? are you also taking a cheap shot at my outfit?" the scowl on his visage deepens. it was precisely what makes him feel so ridiculous tonight — and the fact that it does annoys him to no end. it shouldn't annoy him, after all. he could wear and do whatever he wanted. "why are you giving it to me?"

"so many questions," she was obviously stifling a laugh, and wasn't doing a very good job at it. deftly, she adjusted the hat. "you do not have any horns, so it is not a very good fit. however, it still looks good on you."

"it...does?" she took him off-guard, and the Sanguinarch blinked. another peculiar feeling surfaced, or perhaps resurfaced — she was standing so close to him, after all. 

"don't you trust me? you never change, after all."

"should I be someone else?" the words came out less bitingly than he intended. soft. much too soft. so soft, it hurts. a pause followed his words. the smile on her lips was haunting, a reminder that he was not only haunted by the dead, those echoes of the myriad souls from the abyss — including his brother, long dead and gone — but also by someone still alive. "if you would like me to trust you again, then prove it."

that one left his lips before he even realised it. there are so many things left unsaid between them, exit wounds and whispered wars, but at the moment, there was only her and him, the bright, silvery moon their only witness. 

to his surprise, Laqeramaline took a step forward. 

and then another.

her fingertips fluttered, alighting on his cheek like a butterfly's wings. much too soft. so soft, it hurts — transforming him with strange tenderness. he almost flinched. transfixed, Duq'arael bends down slightly, and their lips meet halfway.

(his bones ached for her.)

"...there you go. a Banshee's kiss, on the night of Halloween," she whispered against his lips, after the kiss. they both lingered — a fact that he was secretly glad about, since that means the peculiar feeling's mutual — and she pulled the brim of the hat (that was still sitting on his head) slightly down, as if covering their intimate proximity from any prying eyes, stifling another laugh. "you still owe me a proper costume, though, my Prince."

"I suppose I could try to make it up to you," he stole another kiss from her lips before he responded. "would a bottle of wine of my choice do?"

"you can do so much better than that, Duq'arael," she laughed, pulling back. her ruby eyes twinkling with mirth, rivalling the stars. "is my favour worth only that much to you?"

"fine, then," he arched an eyebrow, finding her arm and pulling her close, gently. her heartbeat picks up, and he unconsciously smiles — perhaps a genuine one. after all, the language of blood never lies. "I'll throw in a date as well. what do you think?"

"well, I think you still need to work on your wooing skills — you're not exactly Prince Charmless, but there's still room for improvement. and it's hard to say no to that smile, admittedly," her hands found his cheeks, cupping them, and she pulled him down, kissing him full on the lips. "my answer is yes. but wear something proper next year, okay?"

a part of him wanted to point out that she was also a witch dressing up as a witch, and...well. that is, if there is a next time. would they still be on good terms next year?

still, the Sanguinarch kept these words to himself. instead, he kissed her back.

that, in itself, was a promise.

FIN. 

[muekyn]

summer character ref!

i realized i never made a character ref for my self insert/oc so here it is <3 she’s a part of the aot universe :3

more information about them under the read more, if you're interested! (it's long i am SORRY)

summary: born in the shiganshina district and part of the 104th cadet corps. they join the survey corps, and ultimately become a part of the special operations squad (squad levi). with a bit of naivety to them, they start off very hopeful for the future of paradis.

as she joins the survey corps, she is in charge of creating maps used for formations and battle strategies. there are also times where she helps in designing equipment, such as the executioner from hell (that large log device used to kill titans) and the new odm gear.

unfortunately, the pressure of dealing with titans on a regular basis, as well as the stressors from her personal life, start to plant a seed of uncertainty in her.

after sasha’s death, she loses a lot of meaningful connections with her friends. she begins to isolate herself and displays behaviors that are abnormal for her, such as excessive fear and panic.

additionally, she loses her ability to maintain a healthy day to day life. no one knows what’s going on- she’s met with resistance towards her “odd” behaviors.

it all becomes too much. since she's unable to “quit”, she runs away, living beyond the walls in a small cabin. she spends her days maintaining her land and learning how to become a fishmonger. her mental health improves slightly, but never really recovers.

occasionally they make trips into marley to sell their fish, forging documents that allow them into the nation. human interaction for them becomes far and few in between, usually only when they visit marley.

her visits to marley really open her eyes; seeing the worst of society. all the blame that’s put on her people, all the injustice, the misinformation.

at first, she takes a neutral stance on the rumbling. ultimately though, she realizes that the rumbling is inhumane and needs to be stopped, so she helps out in the end. she doesn’t fight directly, rather provides support on falco’s jaw titan with levi and gabi.

combat/skills: truthfully, she is not an expert in using her odm gear, being one of the lowest performing students in her cadet days. for some reason, she is unable to get the complexities of the odm gear down, but manages well enough not to get chomped up.

for summer, she is relied upon more for her ability to create diagrams and maps that the survey corps would use, mainly for battle tactics and navigation. she was in charge of making maps for different squads, spending long nights carefully curating each drawing.

personality: summer has an innate curiosity and unique appreciation for the world. she feels a deep connection to nature, the stars, and the moon. she can also be very creative and has a profound love for art, especially paintings and sculptures.

when it comes to interacting with others, she is very shy and withdrawn, opting to avoid individuals rather than approach them. unfortunately, she doesn’t trust easily, making it hard for her to form deep connections with others. nonetheless, she tries her best to be respectful and understanding.

she wants to be an optimist, but has had her hope taken many times, leading her to become increasingly pessimistic as time goes on. her world view can be very negative at times, especially during her visits to marley. but through it all, her love for the world never dissipates. to her, there is always something to find joy in.

appearance: her features are very round and soft. her eyes are an amber color, while her hair is an orange/redhead color. it’s styled to be in a wavy bob with bangs on the left side of her face. 

summer is short in stature, no more than 5 feet tall. she has a very flat/emotionless expression most of the time, even when expressing intense emotion. she also has a hard time maintaining eye contact.

relationships: romantically involved with eren. they have known each other since they were children. as kids, they argued a lot, since summer and eren had similar personalities- the two of them being hotheads. 

however, as they get older, their passion for the world brings them together. summer has a slight crush on eren during her cadet days, silently pining over him for years. after many awkward smiles and shy glances, eren drunkenly admits his feelings to summer at the party in marley, leading them to start dating. 

while summer is living in the cabin, she doesn’t see eren much. when eren becomes a wanted man, he randomly surprises summer with visits that can last a few days. unfortunately he can’t stay for long, otherwise he risks the livelihood of both of them. the two of them simply appreciate the time they have together.

when eren starts the rumbling, they are still together, but summer completely disapproves of his actions, leaving their relationship in limbo (not that it’s that important at that point anyway.) she eventually decides she can’t let him go on with the rumbling and aids in his death.

best friends with sasha. they met in the 104th cadet corps, and instantly became friends after sasha’s potato mishap. sasha and summer’s personalities mesh together perfectly. they stay close friends until sasha’s death, which becomes one of the breaking points for summer.

friends with jean and connie. she’s not as close to them as she is with sasha, but she trusts them greatly and gets along with them very well. connie, sasha, and summer goof off a lot, while jean has to scramble to get everybody back on track. ultimately, the four of them have a solid bond.

aquaintances with mikasa and armin. despite interacting with them since she was a child, she doesn’t know them extremely well. but she gets along with them just fine. she appreciates the level of care they have for eren.

mentored by levi. the two of them have a unique level of trust with each other. levi is familiar with summer’s outbursts and panics, and is able to calm her down alot, especially during battle. summer deeply trusts levi and looks to him for advice and navigating through life. a few sarcastic remarks from levi is all summer needs to push herself forward, or see things from a new perspective.

likes: mystery, thinking deeply, art, the moon and stars.

dislikes: loud noises, being alone, mirrors, and eye contact.

[roseartsandfics]

Tifa (OG) -- Rose

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Golly, I hadn't even displayed anything for awhile, now ^^;. I've been busy, yes. First time back to displaying after the hiatus! Here is another rose artwork featuring my favorite FF character Tifa Lockhart, in the original FFVII, of course ^^

So wondering why I am not active as much? I was doing another virtual career camp. And I've been dealing with mental health issues for a while. It lasted for days, and I am still trying to recover, but I hope this helps.

Some spoils as I am about to say, for those who hadn't played CC, so yeah, be aware of that lol

I beat Crisis Core Reunion last month just before starting FFVII OG. So I managed to get up to the Minerva optional boss, and holy crap I could not defeat her 0_0. I knew she was going to be hard to defeat 0_0. One of my biggest mistakes is not getting the Genji Shield (which is missable to me, and impossible because I only mastered one Octaslash, and I was not going to take FOREVER to master three more), and possibly not having enough materia to convert to SPs, which I was losing due to the SP materia things I used to prevent more damage. Hey, Ziedrich and SP Turbo or Mastered works! They say Costly Punch works, but it made it a lot worse for my SP and getting damage and die every time without getting a Phoenix Down on time (no offense). Aerial Drain and Jump are slower. Surprisingly (prepare for what it works on her), Darkness works on her. HP wa getting low, but I can be fast on healing, and so I beat her! I gave her multiple tries because I am afraid of how other battles in other FF will be, and I don't want to lose the chance on beating them (Jevil from Deltarune I gave up because he was impossible to defeat XP)

Anyways, so I finished Tifa today, and did I little experiment on coloring and made more designable rather than make my coloring more crappy lol. It's been awhile since drawing her in the OG, and I've been playing the OG for a bit, and so here she is! I started using the Crayola Colors of the World pencils to actually color something more divergent and shadowing her hair and skin. I did her eyes differently because I don't feel like drawing her eyes in my style the way I always draw eyes (I am bad at drawing eyes lol). I am actually really happy how this turned out to be ^^. I actually liked how this piece turned out! ❤️ I just love her, and her characteristics as well in the game (and film) <3. I am still writing my fanfic, just hadn't gotten around to it.

We are supposed to have a tropical storm, so I can get this displayed before potential power outage. There… probably isn't going to be much gaming, unless I can play my 3DS and switch handheld, or write (which I can write my fanfics are awhile if the interent isn't wonky, or so, idk), or read, or draw, or whatever the hell I'm doing. I might be on hiatus again after the storm due to potential outage, so this will be the post before the storm. At least we are prepared, tornadoes are the ones I am worried about, but I'm watching. Stay safe and have a good night!

For those who don't know, any rose portrait arts are inspired by a friend of mine on Deviantart (still)! Welp, good night, and sleep well!

Tifa Lockhart and Final Fantasy VII ©Tetsuya Nomura, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshinori Kitase, Yusuke Naora and SQUARE ENIX

Artwork ©RosePrincessArts

No copyright infringement is intended

Used: Soho Studio pencils and colored pencils, Crayola regular and Colors of the World colored pencils, Cra-Z-Art colored pencils and blending stumps