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runwayrunway · 1 year

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No. 15 - PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines)

Thank you to @lobstersinmyhouse for requesting PSA! And, in all honesty, this is exactly my feelings too. Pack it up, post over.

...okay, no. I am going to write a post, but I make no secret of loving PSA's airplanes. After all, one is even my icon.

image: Piergiuliano Chesi

There was never an airline like it before PSA sprang up in 1949, and there has never been an airline like it since. Decades after its demise I still feel a real sense of grief about the fact that it's gone. Pacific Southwest Airlines hasn't existed for longer than its entire time in operation and it mostly only operated in a single state, but it remains one of the most beloved airlines ever to exist. I'm certainly far from immune to catching their smile. So I'm very, very excited to cover the iconic grinningbirds, one of the best-known airline liveries of all time even 40 years after the regional carrier which wore it ceased existing.

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PSA officially stands for Pacific Southwest Airlines. Unofficially, it was the Poor Sailor's Airline. According to a button they put out, it was this.

image: psa-history.org

But really, it can stand for anything you want. I think it stands for Pretty Smiling Airplanes.

You see, PSA's marketing leaned into the fun and casual as much as it was possible for an airline to do. They called themselves "The World's Friendliest Airline". Their branding was all bright, colorful, delightful. One aspect of it is particularly well known.

image: Piergiuliano Chesi

The name "grinningbird" is literal. PSA's fleet was lovingly painted with massive smiles directly under their noses. Their advertisements encouraged people to "catch our smile" across the state of California.

A preserved DC-3 in original Pacific Southwest livery

PSA was started as a single leased DC-3 hopping from San Diego to Oakland. Apparently their ticket office was literally a refitted military surplus latrine where they weighed passenger baggage on a bathroom scale. When they expanded with DC-4s they painted rectangles around the windows to make them look more like DC-6s. This was in 1955. And then, by the early 60s, they were taking off.

A pre-smile PSA Electra. The L-188 Electra is, of course, my favorite jet plane. image: Jon Proctor

It was in the 60s that their planes stopped saying 'Pacific Southwest Airlines' and started just being PSA, and it was in the 60s when they caught their smiles. This was the point when PSA became PSA, transforming from just another intrastate airline in the pre-deregulation era to a turning point in aviation history.

a 1972 promotional button image: psa-history.org

While the smiley faces are the most significant historical fact about PSA, also notable is the fact that they were the first low-cost carrier in history. Although PSA's routes were limited to Southern California, they charged $9.99 for a ticket other airlines would charge $13.50 or $22.05 for - and keep in mind that in today's money that's a difference of hundreds of dollars. Free of federal fare taxes and operating frequently, PSA grew at an intense pace with its new fleet of Lockheed L-188 Electras.

I love the L-188 Electra (not to be confused with the earlier L-10 Electra best known for Amelia Earhart reasons). Although Lockheed has long since moved over to exclusively making weapons for killing people, back when they were in the civil airliner market they made the most incredible planes which somehow ended up commercially flopping time after time. The Electra, for instance, was all but killed immediately by two early crashes caused by a sneaky design flaw. These were fixed, but the type's reputation had already been sullied. (Interestingly, similar early design flaws with far less prompt responses failed to kill either the DC-6 or the DC-10, despite the latter causing the deadliest crash in history at the time and the former having had the serious potential to give us a timeline where the President of the United States was killed because his presidential transport had a design flaw which encouraged going up in flames midair.) Ironically, the Electra is actually an insanely reliable and sturdy plane, and the example pictured is still in service as an air tanker under the registration C-GZCF, still doing her thing at just 63 years young. (Another Electra in Air Spray's fleet is a similar age but also survived being bisected across the belly by her own detached propeller, and she literally flew two days ago. These planes are on a level only shared with Nokia cell phones, especially for their size.)

That paragraph became about the Lockheed L-188 Electra. I did not mean for it to be, but I am leaving it in, because I love this plane. Looks great with the smile, too. The roundness of the nose gives the distinct appearance of something like a teddy bear snout.

From this point things only grew quicker. PSA continued to be PSA, acquiring more aircraft to fly more passengers. They did expand routes eventually, and once the 1978 Deregulation Act allowed they flew to some other states and even Mexico. Despite this, they remained an icon in their home state, and are often called "the unofficial flag carrier of California".

PSA stewardesses. I can't find an original source for either of these pictures, which have been widely spread without context or credit - although significant effort has been made to archive PSA's promotional content, a lot of it is, sadly, free-floating orphaned bits.

PSA's stewardesses wore bright pink and orange uniforms of miniskirts, hot pants, and go-go boots. They were encouraged to joke around with passengers, and so were the pilots. Other airlines at the time were still only slowly losing the unapproachable aura they had cultivated of stiff, sterile luxury and gravitas. PSA would get you where you needed to go without any fuss and they'd charge you half as much for it. And they weren't sloppy, either. Despite their low fares, PSA was incredibly safe, having one fatal accident in a span of time where American Airlines had 16, and even though nostalgia is obviously a factor I've only ever heard glowingly positive accounts of PSA, its service, and its staff.

image: Bill Larkins

PSA's fleet was...eclectic. Though they operated a few very popular models, like the Boeing 727 and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series, a lot of their offerings were somewhat uncommon. The plane in my profile picture is one of their two L-1011 TriStars, another of Lockheed's underappreciated airliners and by far the most advanced wide-body aircraft of its time. PSA was unique in that it operated a jumbo jet, their "Mother Grinningbird", on a route that was not just domestic, but intrastate. They also apparently operated a single Bell 206 helicopter, which I can find no additional clarification on. Lastly, they flew one of the oddest airliners ever built in both function and appearance, the British Aerospace 146.

Just your regular high-wing jet. No thrust reversers necessary. Western-made but rocking the Il-76 wing anhedral. Super quiet because the powerplants are based off what you'd put on a helicopter. Seats less people than a 737-200 - six-across layout for maximum discomfort - and flies exclusively puddle jumps...yeah, I think four sounds like the right number of engines. image: Ted Quackenbush

Across all these planes, they found a livery that worked and they kept going with it. The reason this post is so long is to give context to just how important this livery is. The grinningbirds were what started low-cost carriers, paving the way for the silly names of jetBlue airplanes in a future its founders couldn't even have imagined. The shift to approachability over prestige in airline marketing was PSA's lasting gift to aviation, as were the low fares and the knowledge that a 'budget' airline didn't have to be dodgy or unpleasant - they just had to charge less than TWA and Western.

image: Piergiuliano Chesi

PSA's colorscheme was incredibly vibrant. The red and orange colors feel warm and tropical, complementing the California sunshine in which these planes spent their time. Earlier liveries also had a shocking hot pink shade above both, though it was eventually painted over due to issues with paint fading - I think the livery is vastly improved with its presence, but I suppose needs must. Despite the airline serving commuters more than vacationers it puts one in mind of things like beaches and ice cream stands - warm, high-energy things. The sorts of things one might smile about, if they like those things. I hate those things, but these planes make me like the idea of them, because they're just so darn happy to take me there!

The design of the fuselage is incredibly bold despite not using much more paint than any other airline of the day. While the striking colors definitely contribute to the overall look being more than the sum of its parts, I think there's also a few bits of clever design that really elevate the design of the plane.

The tail has a design almost like an inverse hockey-stick. Instead of following the cheatlines for maximum sleekness it chooses to diverge from it, creating a sharp angle that keeps the aerodynamic feeling while feeling fresh from similar designs of the time. By having the thin line from the tail trailing down towards the fuselage it prevents the block of empty space on a regular hockey-stick livery, where the forward portion of the empennage is fully unpainted, and creates a feeling of continuous color and excitement while keeping some staccato punch.

Similarly subtle yet effective are the stripes themselves. They aren't of an equal width - rather, the red stripe is thinner than the orange one, and in planes with the additional pink stripe this one is even wider. It feels a lot more dynamic than simple even-width stripes, feeling almost as if you can see the colors start to mix into each other. The 'mixing' feeling is helped by the fact that the cheatlines wrap under the nose instead of simply ending where they meet. The small painted white line under the main colored ones, above the unpainted metal of the underbelly, creates basically an extra two stripes for the price of one despite being so subtle many people probably didn't notice it.

On its own, the design of the bodies of PSA planes is already good, but it practically ceases to matter when you get to the face.

The way the top line of color wraps around the back of the cockpit windows makes it look almost like the plane is wearing sunglasses. And then there's the little painted black nose and, of course, the huge ear-to-ear grin. I don't really know what else to say about this because it's all been said time and time again.

I genuinely don't know how else to express it. PSA's livery was gorgeous and it was perfect for PSA. In all honesty, I don't think it's possible to improve it at all. My one slight criticism is that the actual PSA wordmark, though designed well, is a bit small and out of the way, but to be totally honest it's barely necessary. You see the smile and you know exactly who that plane is flying for.

PSA gets a PSA+.

So what happened to PSA, if they were so successful? Did an economic shift catch them off-guard? Did some demographic evolution rob them of their old customer-base? Did a change of management result in a new owner running the airline into the ground? Did it have anything to do with the fact that the one time they were involved in an accident it spent eight months as the deadliest crash in US history?

Nope. They got bought out by USAir because they wanted more routes on the West Coast.

Yeah. That's the story. Neither a bang nor a whimper. They left one morning and didn't come back. That was the end of PSA, the first-ever low-cost carrier, California's most beloved airline, and one of the best-designed liveries in airline history if not the very best.

There is, however, one final twist. USAir eventually was sucked into the gaping maw of American Airlines. With this merger American Airlines also inherited the rights to PSA's IP. In classic fashion, they created a wholly-owned subsidiary by the name of PSA Airlines, just to make sure nobody else could get the trademark.

Under the iron fist of first US Airways (USAir's eventual rebrand) and later American Airlines, we were allowed one last grinningbird - an Airbus A319-100 registered N742PS. It's strange, seeing the PSA livery on a model of airplane they never operated. It's a rare example of the design on airframes that have that rather distinct 'default' modern empennage, all sharp and tall with no t-tail or third engine. The implementation could take some notes and the colors look bizarrely plastic, but I will never stop loving her no matter how much they take from her. How could I not, with that smile?

Unfortunately, in April of this year she was re-painted to a standard American Airlines livery. Although the Allegheny and Piedmont heritage liveries were removed at the same time, I almost don't even notice their absence because of the loss of our very last holdout from a much more colorful time and place. Part of me feels a sort of ripping-the-bandaid-off relief at it. American Airlines shouldn't get to parade around the skin of a much better livery worn by a much better airline. That isn't theirs; they didn't earn it. And there's no way to rebuild PSA now that times have changed and the industry is unrecognizable from the days when a ticket from San Diego to Burbank cost $9.99. All the same, the loss of yet another smile hurts. There's no way it wouldn't. And at the end of the day it makes me feel a little dead inside just imagining the mindset of the American Airlines executive who walked by her in the hangar and instead of smiling back gave the order to paint her white. And that day, the sky got a little less colorful and a lot sadder.

Maybe, in a strange sense, the way it happened is better. Nobody ran PSA into the ground. They did not cause some sort of reputation-ruining accident through willful negligence. Their customer service did not decline until they were widely grumbled about. They didn't die infamous for poor safety and loose morals like Pan Am, or splitting at the seams and betraying their reputation like Chalk's Ocean Airways. No, I don't think an organic shriveled going-under would have held any more dignity than this. I think the ending PSA got is as graceful as the ending to something like PSA could be. There is no end to the glory days which forces itself into our memories. There is no decline. No sunset to fly off into. There is a loss to mourn, but no accompanying moment to curse. Lost at sea, ship never found, nothing to imply a terrible fate; all we know is the poor sailors aren't here anymore.

Maybe it's not universally known to people who aren't interested in subjects that bring them close to it, but to those of us who love planes PSA is truly special. Its quiet apotheosis has made it synonymous with the very best an airline could be. The joy of a time where a regular person could finally afford their first plane ticket and be greeted by colorful people who talk to them like friends, where even the planes are smiling, is encoded into the DNA of PSA's remnants, into every anecdote told by an aging former stewardess and into every Polaroid taken of one of those smiling planes parked on a sunny California tarmac. It was there, and then it was a distant echo of warm breezes and idle chatter that feels almost close enough to reach out and touch. PSA never died. One day it was flying passengers to their destinations, planes smiling their same smiles. The next day it was fond memory, already graduated to the distant sunny shores of nostalgia.

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#tarmac fashion week #grade: a+#region: north america #region: united states #era: 1960s #era: 1970s #era: 1980s #pacific southwest airlines #requests #defunct airlines #regional airlines #double sunrise #long haul #galley gala

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queenofthedisneyverse · 2 months

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WOAH ME SENDING AN ASK WHAT UH…Anyway for some stupid reason I didn’t see you tag me in the dragonoid post until a week later I AM SO SORRY???

Erm 🤓☝️ I would love to help with it, I love world building so much you don’t understand. And this au has a really cool start, any more lore or do you need like. Prompts or whatever 🌚

Girl I mostly need help with lore (and maybe design ideas, I don't mind prompts eigther) but here's some other stuff I got so far

For now, we'll call baby dragonoid's "Hatchlings". They stay with the name "hatchling" until they are about the equivalent of 10 years old.

I can't think of a dragon equivalent title to tween or teen so if you come up with anything. Edit (idea given to me by evostar): Tweens/teens are called Dweeps!

Diet mostly consists of fish (like regular dragons). I think fruit, other types of meat, and vegetables too?? I'm not sure.

Elders that are the equivalent of 40-50 years of age guard the edges in case any humans stumble upon the Encanto.

Also, dragonoid's that are Alma's age are deathly afraid of the outside world. So, the rule of never going beyond the barrier is HEAVILY MANDATORY.

DO NOT TOUCH THE EGGS!!! If you aren't a relative or close family friend, you will get a limb torn off.

Hatchlings are very curious and hardheaded; they only learn after the accident to not do it again (hopefully). Same for tweens and teens, but not to an extreme extent. Hatchlings also have a lot of energy.

Nests/Homes are always adorned with jewelry and anything shiny.

No shoes. Their feet are as stuff as leather so there's no need to wear them.

Teeth are as sharp as knives, it's a miracle tongues aren't bitten by accident on the daily.

shops, vendors, and "restaurants" do exist in Encanto it just looks different a little different.

The fashion is well...raggy per say?

Examples:

They can make their clothes look close to human standards, but they simply don't want to conform to that for petty reasons. And I just love this kind of fashion, so I wanted to put it in here.

Odd patterns, random jewelry, embroidery, patches, etc. Plus, certain patches or scraps of fabric are passed down from generation to generation.

Madrigals!

I've decided, they do have gifts!

Alma wears a headpiece jewelry on her head that belonged to Pedro. She's rarely, if ever, seen with it off. Example:

Also, male dragonoid's where whatever they want. Earrings, necklaces, rings, etc.

Ceremonies still exist, but like in beach town au, the very fact that you are alive is very important. Especially to a dragonoid seeing as they were wiped out very easily.

All of them are close in this au, no pressure. Isabela is the very definition of wild and so are the other grandkids.

As hatchlings (baby - 4), they bit everything in sight for teething reasons. Even their parents but it doesn't hurt at all. But to a human, the pain would be like if a piranha latched onto you.

Mirabel doesn't have a gift (I'm sorry Miraboo butcha don't), and her wings are smaller than the others. So, she mostly has to walk, crawl, climb, and run wherever she needs to go.

Which isn't an issue really, her body is already equipped with the biology to do all four, but it does get tedious.

Pepa doesn't breathe fire, she blasts lightning out of her instead. Think toothless.

Also, I'm not sure what dragon type they should be related too. Each dragonoid is related to some type of dragon but I can't decide theirs'. (But I think the triplets should be a mix between Alma and Pedro, the yellow kids should be a mix of Pepa and Felix, same for the blue couple and their kids.)

One more thing, Dragonoids' are taller than the average humans but much smaller than original dragons (BUT it depends on the type of dragon). I hope that makes since.

I'll have to look up the different types of dragons from HTTYD for some more info.

Also, @evostar

srry, forgot to tag you @thefourchimes

#encanto dragonoid's au #encanto au #au

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thatweirdfandomfanatic · 6 months

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Ok here are my headcanons:

I think Morty doesn’t have a crazy growth spurt until he’s like 17ish, I think this mostly because the show kept him like 14 for 7 seasons and that bothers me a little because of how much he has changed since season one. So I’m instead head cannoning that he was actually just really short and 14-16 durning the show.

I then think Morty is going to go through some really rough mental health issues due to adventuring but primarily due to how many times he has died and been resurrected, knowing that there are millions of Mortys just like him, and knowing that there r just so many other versions of his family out there. I think that’s going to lead to ptsd, issues with derealization, and alcoholism.

Because of this I think Morty tries to distance himself from “being a morty” and develops a new look when he’s about 17ish. He also pushes away from Rick and doesn’t want anything to do with portal travel or know about the other dimensions. I think during this time he starts hanging out with space Beth and developing his weapon skill set, and learns how to build his own sci-fi tech.

I think he flunks out of highschool due to the absolutely massive amount of time he spent going on adventures with Rick.

At around 18 he starts to spend a lot of time in space and develops a reputation for selling guns/tech, and being a bounty hunter.

Then something goes wrong and that all crumbles and he goes back home.

He’s in his late 20’s to early 30’s and he’s got 0 life prospects. Beth let’s him move back in on account that he starts going to therapy.

Eventually life evens out, he gets married, goes to trade school, gets a job and life gets easier.

In the end I just want things to work out for Morty and his life to just not be so crazy or bad anymore. Idk, i just didn’t like how hopeless older Morty was, so that prompted this haha.

(Scars were originally visible on all of the older Morty designs, but the photo quality ate them sorry guys)

#fandom #art #artwork #digital art #fanart #my art #procreate #rick and morty #rick and morty fanart #rick and morty fandom #morty fanart #morty prime #morty smith #morty oc #morty smith fanart #character art #character design

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spartanguard · 9 months

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sons of love and death, 13/13 {CSSNS 23}

Summary: After the Final Battle, Killian Jones had finally settled into his happily ever after with his wife and family. Until a new foe arrived in Storybrooke: the infamous Dorian Gray, who looks rather familiar—one might say identical—to the pirate, and he’s on a mission: to claim the powers of the Dark One for himself. There’s only one problem: the Dark One no longer exists. What follows is a journey of vengeance, revelations, magic, and finally facing down the darkness within himself that Killian thought he’d finally put to rest. [roughly canon divergent from 5B, though set post-canon] A/N: Here we are at the end of my @cssns story for 2023!! Hope you like how I've wrapped it up! Thank you all for following along this adventure! (As always, thanks to the best beta, @optomisticgirl !) rated M | 1.3k words | AO3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

Several weeks later

Storybrooke’s harbor was just a few bobbing lights on the horizon, almost disappearing into the glare from the setting sun behind it. It was a clear, cool evening—perfect for a sail.

Killian had navigated them to a spot just far enough away for privacy, but close enough to get back to town quickly if needed—not that they were concerned with anything happening, but mostly out of habit. That, and he didn’t want to get too far into open water until he was more comfortable with his new prosthesis.

It had taken him a week or so to recover from what happened with Dorian—more mentally than physically, though the stab wound had left a scar over his heart—but once he got through the thick of it and started getting back into a normal routine, he realized he needed something better than the old wooden hand. Surely in a realm with the technological advancements of this one, there had to be better options?

There were—probably too many, if he was being honest. They’d had to go outside of Storybrooke to meet with a specialist (as well as come up with a cover story for his original loss of limb and the subsequent primitive surgery on his wrist), but he was quickly on his way to having a more modern prosthesis.

(A more expensive one, as well; Emma’s eyes had gone wide when she heard the estimated cost, but Gold had been surprisingly generous and offered to pay for it. Killian had first assumed it was Belle’s prompting, but was shocked to find she had done no such thing. It wasn’t quite turning over a leaf, but perhaps it was the final nail in the coffin of their rivalry.)

The following weeks of physical therapy were rough. When learning his magic, he’d compared it to flexing a muscle in a new way; this was similar, but far more literal—and rather more painful, as those in his left forearm had seen little action in the last centuries. Now, though, he was finally getting used to using them, as well as his new hook.

He had debated getting something a bit more hand-like, but after two hundred years, a hook was what he was used to. This one was far less intimidating, though, and far more dexterous; it actually opened and closed! He was still perfecting his modified grip, but the fact that he had one was thrilling.

(And he particularly liked practicing by using it to remove Emma’s bra straps. He was still working on unclasping, though.)

It was smaller than his old one, but still fit against the spokes of the Jolly Roger’s wheel perfectly. Weighing anchor was still a minor challenge, though, so he had Emma help him with that, and then waited for her at the railing.

“You’re sure about this?” she asked for the umpteenth time as she joined him.

“Aye; it’s time.”

From the deep pockets of her winter coat, she produced the dagger. It was still as sharp and wicked-looking as it had been all those weeks ago, and knowing their blood sat in the enameled design was off-putting—even worse that it was forged from the steel that had so long been his companion. So it was high time to say goodbye to it, and all it represented.

The portrait had already been taken care of—buried in a small plot in the cemetery, with an unassuming stone bearing Dorian’s name. (Belle had protested simply entombing such an iconic artifact from literature, but no one felt right about trying to display it anywhere, especially with it being both damaged and cursed.)

He actually had come to terms with the loss of his brother more quickly than he anticipated. Despite all the drama, they had still come from the same womb, but he realized—after some more late nights fueled by slightly more beer than necessary on the back porch with David—it was more the what-ifs he was lamenting. Again, no one understood that better than his father-in-law. (And, in the process, he realized perhaps what he’d thought he was missing was already right there: regardless of what their relationship might be on paper, David had long since filled the brotherly role Liam left empty, and he admitted that Killian held a similar position in his own life. They could only partly blame the subsequent tears on the booze.)

And now they would put to rest the last bit of Dorian, and part of Killian’s past.

Emma handed the dagger over to him, and he took it gingerly. Despite the emotional weight it carried, it just felt like any old dagger—no hum of magic, no din of dark whispers.

He glanced down at the railing, where the burn mark from Dorian’s cigarette was still a blight on the wood. It was a scar it would always carry, just like the one on his chest from the blade’s edge, and so many others from his past.

But it was just a mark—a memory, one from which he had learned and was moving on.

A line from Dorian’s namesake novel stood out to him: “What fire does not destroy, it hardens.” In a way, it applied to both of them. Dorian had spent so many years burning in the embers of his own ego, entitlement, and anger that it had hardened his heart even against what love it had let in. Killian, though—he’d walked a similar path, but the fires of the Underworld had only hardened his resolve to fight for the things he loved, no matter what.

He didn’t need a piece of metal to remind him of that; the woman at his side was more than enough.

“Fare thee well,” he said, and without further hesitation, dropped the dagger into the ocean.

As long as they could, they watched it fall through the water, the setting sun glinting off its edges, until it slipped into the depths and out of sight. And with it, a weight that Killian hadn’t realized he’d been carrying also fell away.

He took in a long breath of the sharp sea breeze and slowly let it out, then pulled Emma close to his side. “How do you feel?” she asked.

For a moment, he mused on it; how did he feel? It was a complicated set of emotions to sort through, and he’d probably spend some extra time discussing it in his biweekly session with Archie, but one thought swam to the forefront: “Free.”

His dark history would always be there, but he was no longer going to let it hold him back. It took him coming face-to-face with an even darker turn his life could have taken to realize that it was, but now—he was ready to face the future unburdened, and eager for it to start.

“Good,” Emma said, smiling as she rested her head on his shoulder. “So what do you want to do now?”

“Hmm,” he hummed, then took her hand in his and led her away from the rail. “There was one thing I wanted to do with my magic, but never got a chance to.”

“Which was?”

“Remember that delicious red dress you wore to your father’s engagement ball?”

She rolled her eyes, but nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

“Think you could conjure that up?”

She smirked. “I’ll do you one better.”

The soft, warm breeze of her magic surrounded them, leaving them both dressed as they were that night, the hem of his long tan jacket swishing against her voluminous scarlet skirts. “Perfect,” he murmured, and pulled her close.

And as the sun finally set, revealing a sky full of stars overhead, they danced under the lights—and into whatever lay ahead.

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・🗡・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

thanks for reading! tagging some peeps (let me know if you do/don’t want a tag!) @kat2609 @xpumpkindumplingx @shipsxahoy @mryddinwilt @cocohook38 @annytecture @shireness-says @ohmightydevviepuu @wistfulcynic @pirateherokillian @colinoeyebrows @wingedlioness @word-bug @thisonesatellite @killianmesmalls @thejollyroger-writer @ineffablecolors @ive-always-been-a-pirate @nfbagelperson @stubblesandwich @phiralovesloki @athenascarlet @kmomof4 @ilovemesomekillianjones @whimsicallyenchantedrose @snowbellewells @idristardis @scientificapricot @searchingwardrobes @donteattheappleshook @jrob64 @the-darkdragonfly @stahlop @klynn-stormz @resident-of-storybrooke @bluewildcatfanatic

#cs ff #cssns 2023 #captain swan supernatural summer #killian jones ff #sons of love and death #my ff

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faytalepsy · 6 months

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Process of my HEX Gift

I finally remembered to take a few screenshots of my progress stages and I always wanted to do a walkthrough post so here we are!!

I did not have a specific prompt from my giftee, except for the ship which was Silrah so I decided I wanted to draw a cozy romantic Christmas scene.

Which totally showed in my first sketch...definitely... My first sketches mostly look unrecognizable and there is no real system for them because it's just lines for my brain to visualize where I want everything to be. Sometimes they look like this, sometimes they are more light/shadow inclusive. The next step was to work out the poses for Farah and Saul and as you can see, I was struggling. 🤣

When I finally found the pose I was looking for and fleshed out some elements in the background it was time for one of my absolute favorite parts.....that I forgot to screenshot....THE VALUES Which is me trying to figure out the lighting by blocking in light and dark areas with various shades of grey. But because I forgot to take a screenshot (and the value layer that I normally keep until the end for reference disappeared into the void of procreate) we will skip straight to the colour! I very roughly block in the areas with the colours I have in mind to see if everything fits and change what I don't like yet. When that is done I now have a finished concept which I need to refine and then paint!

And now I reached the point of actual background design which was HARD. I looked at many pics of Farah's headmistress' office to try and get a feel for what items might be in her private suite. The mantle of the fireplace looked very empty even after I added the little astrology magic thing and the flowers so I decided to add a circle just like the ones in her office as @septemberrie deducted. I also played around with the design of the fire guard because I wanted it to have that elegant whimsical fairy vibe. I added a lamp inspired by one from Sims 4 and a book in the foreground to hide the awkward angle they are sitting at. For the frame on the wall, I wanted a moon-themed design but it took me a while to figure it out, which is why I left the frame empty for now. Then it was time for lineart and actually sketching in the elements I wanted to be in the background. I usually set my colour or value layer and the sketch layer to 20% and draw over it.

You might also notice that the wrapped sword disappeared...which I regret to this day because I simply forgot to paint it into the rough lineart and only remembered when Skye asked what's supposed to be in the remaining present. Maybe I will add it at some point because now Saul has no present...except for Farah. But the square box present was meant to be Saul's present to Farah and originally I wanted a jewelry box but it was too small to see so I just....put a bigger box. Creativity *sparkles*

Another thing is that from the rough line-art to the nice line-art (yes I always draw my line-art two or three times.....even though line-art is my least favorite stage probably) the Christmas tree is losing a lot of ornaments. Originally I wanted to put in way more stuff like small straw stars or figurines but after painting a million tiny branches I started regretting every life decision that brought me to this point so I simplified the tree. A lot. In the end, I don't regret that because I think it fits them even better. Silrah don't strike me as people who go all out on Christmas and rather just decorate small and tastefully (given they would even celebrate because Otherworld= different culture, but we ignore that piece of worldbuilding for this Christmas-themed drawing)

Next I block in every area on a separate layer so I can alpha-lock them for the painting process. At this point I was getting too annoyed with the tree because painting it was a pain in the ass so I started shading and painting in textures and finishing everything else before even continuing to block in the tree.

The whole image was still too cold at this point so I went in with one of my favorite parts: atmosphere and then lighting bringing it all together and making the painting shine! Painting light is so much fun and I definitely want to learn more about lighting and structure to get better at it but I really love it when someone compliments the light in my art!!

I also finally added the title of the book in the front. I wanted it to be something about magic that Farah would read and looked at various old book covers with pretty lettering. I decided on "The Story of Magic" because I found a very pretty-looking reference cover with exactly the letters that I needed to spell.

And then....something was still missing......THE TREE. (I didn't take a progress picture at that stage that's why it's already in the pics up there but in the end I still had to draw the light on the branches and after doing about four or five of them I decided the effort was not worth the result and did the light reflection very very roughly. But I don't think anyone except me really notices.

And tada the finished Christmas drawing!

#my drawing process #fay draws #was this coherent? I hope it was coherent #I actually love sharing my process #it's so much fun to talk about all the work you did after you already finished lmao

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tsarisfanfiction · 3 months

Text

Discordant

Fandom: Trials of Apollo Rating: Gen Genre: Family Characters: Austin, Apollo The string quartet didn't match the vibe of the battle at all. Pop Goes The Weasel fit so much better. TOApril day 10 - This Isn't Goodbye. This was not my original plan for this prompt - my initial thoughts rolled somewhere around the end of TON when Apollo leaves camp after dropping by as a god again - but I like this a lot better. Austin needs more content, anyway.

His dad certainly looked like he’d seen better days, although from what little Will had been persuaded to tell them of their time with the trogs, Austin wasn’t surprised that Apollo looked rough. That wasn’t to say he was happy about it, but this wasn’t his first time in battle.

There would be time for cleaning up later, once it was over, if they all made it through.

Normally, Austin didn’t have much time for ifs and buts, especially not ones of those nature. He’d made it through two wars, and this was practically a skirmish in comparison, and his dad had been through far, far more during his godly lifespan. From the stories they’d received from Camp Jupiter, Apollo had been through plenty of skirmishes even as a mortal, so there was no reason for him not to get through this one, either.

But something felt wrong. It was probably the music, a string quartet emitting from hidden speakers in the elevator and so painfully at odds with the vibe of the tower. Discordance was unsettling at the best of times, designed to raise hairs on the backs of necks and send shivers down spines, and while there were times when that was good, the unpleasantness a pleasantness of its own, there were other times when it was very, very bad.

This felt like the latter, and he couldn’t stop his fingers from fidgeting on the keys of his combat saxophone – not enough to make them clack with the movement, but enough to put pressure on the pads of his fingers as he tried to imagine a counter-melody that would harmonise the gentle, self-assured strings with the chaotic fighting below and behind them.

Next to him, Apollo clearly hated the music, too, or at least its timing and lack of appropriateness for the setting. Austin somehow doubted there was any music that his father hated, given the whole god of music thing. He thrived on terribly composed poetry, so there was no reason he wouldn’t do the same for music.

Situational appropriateness, though, was a different thing altogether.

Just fingering out a solution silently on his saxophone wasn’t enough, not even close, and with some effort he stilled his fingers.

“Wish it was Miles Davis,” he commented, mostly to interrupt the strings, although it also wasn’t a lie. He would much rather be listening to some jazz trumpeting over the classical strings right then. For one thing, it would be a much more battle-oriented vibe, rather than the unsettling nothing is wrong vibe the elevator music was trying to brainwash them with.

“That would be nice,” Apollo replied immediately, and Austin wondered if he’d been thinking the same thing already, or if his agreement was instinct. It was difficult to tell, sometimes, although after spending some time with his father recently – even if it was because said father was temporarily mortal – Austin thought he could hazard an accurate guess towards the former. Of course Apollo would have been thinking about more appropriate music.

Unfortunately, the soft strings were getting to Austin, prickling under his skin with subtle silkiness, and he didn’t mean to start talking about the future, but the words came out before he could think them through. “Hey, if we don’t get through this-”

Apollo cut him off instantly, all sharp and jagged edges, discordant with the elevator music the same way the elevator music was discordant with the battle vibes. “None of that talk.”

Austin appreciated it, but if he was opening that can of worms then he was going to open it all the way, no hesitation in sight. Hesitation was not one of Austin’s preferred traits and he wasn’t going to fall into it now.

Besides, he had things that he did want to say to his dad. It was difficult getting alone time with a mortal god, because everyone wanted to talk to him, and Austin did have several siblings to share with, to say nothing of Meg and Mr D back at camp.

He couldn’t completely blame his unease that this would be the end of his time with his dad on the strings, as much as he would love to.

“Yeah,” he shrugged, catching Apollo’s attention and holding it, thriving on being in the spotlight of his father’s attention, the same way any other spotlight had him thriving. Austin was a performer, after all. “But I wanted to tell you, I’m glad we had some time together. Like… time time.”

Duets by campfires, jokes and laughter at the dinner table, hugs in all sort of situations. Time with his dad the same way he spent time with his mom, with his siblings. Time that felt real, not fleeting and fading like a note that could only last as long as the player’s lungs.

Apollo didn’t say anything back, but Austin felt him squeeze his shoulder, and that was more than enough. A physical reaction, contact that they’d lose again, when Apollo got his godhood back and visits went back to nighttime, during dreams he always prayed he’d remember when he woke up. The body of Lester ran warm, warm enough for the heat to radiate through Austin’s shoulder with ease, but not so hot it felt dangerous.

He didn’t let go until the elevator came to a stop, the doors rolling open silently and more smoothly than the smoothest sax in existence, and Austin wished he could keep holding on forever. The string music hadn’t felt so wrong, had been almost right as a background to fatherly affection, but stepping out onto the mosaiced floor, the discordance came back to him.

Battles were not fun.

They needed some atmospheric music as they padded down the hall, something to echo the tension building in their bodies and disperse it. Or perhaps something energetic and upbeat, defying and reducing the tension until it disappeared entirely. Unfortunately, being the source of any sort of music would bring Nero’s army down on their heads, and Apollo was in rough enough shape that Austin couldn’t risk that, so a silent advance it was.

Of course, spending time with his dad was always too good to be true, and despite his intentions when he’d taken over from Kayla in escorting Apollo further up the tower, the moment his mirror caught sight of a crowd of Nero’s minions directly between his father and his father’s destination, he knew exactly what was going to happen.

He also knew his dad wasn’t going to like it, because Apollo had never been subtle about trying to keep them safe, even when he was a god, and as a mortal he was so blatant about it, Austin wondered how anyone could ever forget that one of his domains was the protection of youth.

But Apollo couldn’t stop him, not as a mortal, and not with Meg’s safety on the line, and this was something that Austin, double-war veteran, knew he could do.

Fifty or sixty of Nero’s goons? Not a problem.

He gave his dad a reassuring grin, trust me, I’ve got this, as Apollo protested his plan, and didn’t give him a chance to try and stop him. “You hang back until I draw them out. Then go find our girl. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Apollo was still going to try and stop him, so Austin didn’t waste any time. The violins still had him on edge and he needed something far more battle-appropriate to settle his bones, so really this was killing two birds with one stone with all the accuracy of an Apollo kid.

Clear a path for Apollo to get to Meg, and reset the musical vibes of the tower.

“Hey, idiots!” he yelled, darting out from the cover of the corner and settling into his performance, nice and simple. He loved performing live. “You’re all gonna die!”

Pop Goes the Weasel was a classic, and it did exactly what it was supposed to as it reset the vibes from discordant to chaotic in an instant.

Some people would probably call it working a little too well as it instantly gained him a following of fifty plus angry guys with weapons they knew how to use, but Austin wasn’t settling for anything less than being the centre of attention, so he was calling it perfect, instead, as he put his musician’s lungs to the test and ran, saxophone still in his mouth.

He didn’t get the chance to look back at where Apollo was hiding, to make sure Apollo was hiding, that no-one had caught sight of him, but that was okay. He’d meant what he said.

He was going to see Apollo on the other side. Not just of this manoeuvre, with Meg retrieved and back where she belonged, but of the whole battle, with Nero and Python taken down and his dad a god once more.

No matter what some strings tried to make them believe.

#trials of apollo #trials of apollo fanfiction #riordanverse #riordanverse fanfiction #toapril #toapril 2024 #tsari writes fanfiction #austin lake #pjo apollo

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americasass81 · 6 months

Text

Amid The Winter Snow

Warnings 18+ for the following:- Mostly just fluff, but please do take note of the Use of Alcohol, Loss of Consciousness, Dubious Consensual Sex, Edging, Overstimulation, Mild Kidnapping. Seriously do not read if any of this upsets you, the warnings are there for a reason. Feedback is welcomed and any mistakes are my own.

By proceeding you are acknowledging that you are over 18 and are consenting to the content below the cut.

Author’s Note 1:- Written for Navy & Roo's @the-slumberparty Naughty or Nice Challenge. The prompts I used from the Nice List were 20:- "You're never going to get rid of me.” and 8:- "You're going to spoil the surprise." Thank you Navy and Roo for hosting this fun challenge.

Author’s Note 2:- The inspiration for this piece originally came from the following video link https://youtube.com/shorts/DahCSXJc8U0?si=dpcp8kuAJfLRTSrP sent to me by the delightful @dangertoozmanykids101 , who along with @lokislastlove and @caffiend-queen have somehow managed to get me thinking that Loki may not actually be so bad after all.

Author’s Note 3:- As always, all images have been found through google search.

Synopsis:- A trip to Tony Stark’s Annual Christmas Party lands you with a future you never dared imagine.

Pairings:- Loki x Female Reader

Total Word Count:- 6,157

Waking up snuggled under warm blankets and supported by a mountain of pillows, your eyes adjusting to the shimmering winter wonderland outside the window caught you totally by surprise as this was not the view from your bedroom. Hell sitting up reluctantly and finally focusing on your surroundings this wasn't even your bedroom. Adorned in exposed wooden beams that rested atop the most beautiful log walls you had only ever dreamed about, the massive mahogany sleigh bed currently holding you in its embrace in the middle of the room complemented the rustic furnishings perfectly and told you without a shadow of a doubt that you had somehow left the city far behind you.

Pulling your gaze back to the bed now, the puckering on your left side also showed undeniable evidence of someone else's presence and as your fingers reached out to touch the ruffled pillows your mind tried to recall just how exactly you had ended up here. But there was only one way to do that. Metaphorically leaving the room behind and the uneasy feeling of comfort and home it instilled within you, your mind took flight through memory's flow as images of your last known activity appeared before your eyes like windows into a life you barely remembered living.

Shimmering in a dress of frosted blue that reminded you of something out of the movie Frozen, dancing in Tony Stark's arms was most definitely the stuff of dreams. But here it was actually happening, as was the rest of the night that accompanied it. Starting with the laughter, celebrity guests, entertainment and glorious food that Stark's parties were renowned for, there was also the aforementioned dancing as well as a host of holiday themed party games designed it seemed to get each participant to drink more alcohol than was healthy for them and help the spirit of the season make them do things they wouldn't normally do.

And still within the revelry there were also quite magical moments to expand one's knowledge and learn of others seasonal experiences. Talking with Steve and Bucky for example, you got to hear about what Christmas was like for them in an America that currently seemed so far removed from this one. Where families and neighbors actually took time to spend with each other rather than wasting their time on the latest fad or gadget that all the television stations told them they just had to have. While later sipping drinks with Nat after she found you in a corner nursing your tired and aching feet, the difference in traditions of a Russian Orthodox Christmas were laid out before you in a story that had you hearing snippets of her Russian accent that only came out on very rare occasions like this one.

Then of course there were the family guests discussing all the ways to trick their little ones into believing in Santa for one more year, while no Stark party would be complete without Thor passing around some Asgardian mead to those he deemed worthy, namely two super soldiers and next it was his turn to impart his tales of Yule celebrations and Odin riding across the night sky to visit the people in their homes. Yet some vital piece of information was still missing. Hidden somewhere within the memories of this wondrous evening, a sinister element had hijacked your celebration and landed you at your current location. But who or what could that be?

Drawing back slightly now from these prominent memories and focusing instead on the wider scenes within the Tower's environment, you didn't need the flashes of green catching your attention every now and then however to finally discover the root cause of your current predicament. Not when the man of the hour was now standing in the doorway naked as the day he was born.

Shrieking now at his sudden appearance as it, and his unclothed figure, drew you back to the room where your waking form had first alerted you to your abduction, even superhero parties and copious amounts of alcohol in no way prepared you for this revelation. Which is why your next response found you scrambling deeper into the bed as your hands fisted the covers and dragged them over your head just in time to hide the smirk that graced his features as your own embarrassment took hold.

This has to be a dream or perhaps a nightmare. But he wasn't having any of it.

Moving into the room now and climbing up onto the bed as most children tended to do with their parents, your form still hidden beneath the covers felt his weight as your mind silently questioned how he had moved you here without the Avengers stopping him and more importantly, what he planned to do with you. But you were not yet willing to give voice to these particular questions with the result being having to deal with the villain before you, so you remained quiet and still in the hopes of waiting out his attention. That is until part of the covers were snatched back and an even bigger shock replaced any that had come before.

Watching now as Loki released the covers from your upper body and lay back down on what you accepted had to be his side of the bed, his naked form so close to you might have been enough of a cause for alarm if not for your own equally unclothed body laying on the bed right before your eyes. It seemed he had been busy in the time you had lost to sleep. Which now that you actually thought about it, you didn't quite know how much time that was and a quick glance around the room to reveal an utter lack of clothing indicated only one person here had the answer.

And it wasn't you. Which now left you little choice but to engage the man beside you in conversation.

Watching you all this time now in return and fascination as if he could somehow read your thoughts, Loki would have given all he had to ask how you were feeling and what you were thinking but he knew this was something you would have to work through on your own. Especially given how things had gone down. Thankfully though the god of mischief wouldn't have to wait long however until you gave up exploring what had gone before and finally put both of you out of your misery. "Loki, what in the everloving hell is going on here? Where are we and why have you kidnapped me?" you asked, fearing his answer yet still more concerned with the fact that neither one of you seemed to be wearing anything.

But then again perhaps clothes should have been the least of your concerns with what the silver tongued devil was about to reveal. Reminding you in every little detail about Stark's party two days previously and how after one dance you had promised to be his forever, closing your eyes and pinching the bridge of your nose to stave off the migraine you could feel building with every word he uttered, a flash of memory whisked you back in time once more to confirm all that he had just told you.

Back at the Tower and having just walked away from Thor to grab yet another drink, turning back from the bar to the party had that same flash of green fully in your vision now as Loki stood talking to Eric Selvig while directly across from them a distracted Hawkeye glared daggers at the god it seemed he would never quite forgive for the ordeal he had been put through. Not that you could blame him. Still though as your eyes took in his immaculate appearance, you had to admit there was just something so mysterious about Loki. Which may in part be the thinking behind what you did next. The other part most definitely being the alcohol so easily accessible to all who required it.

Placing the glass to your lips and emptying the contents in one go, you quickly ordered another and just as swiftly disposed of this too before standing straight, walking the short distance between the two of you and ignoring his company, cleared your throat to get the god's attention. And what attention it was. The full force of it thrust upon you now almost rendered you speechless but thankfully the alcohol in your system took over as you knew it would and propelled you onwards. "Loki you seem to be trying to grab my attention all night so I figured one of us better man up and ask the other to dance. What do you say, are you up to the task?"

Taking in your appearance now with a clearly defined look of amusement on his handsome face, he excused himself from Selvig's company before taking you by the elbow to a quiet corner to ascertain just how willing you appeared to be. "Tell me pet, even though I am more than up to the task of occupying a wench such as you, what makes you think I actually want to? You don't exactly strike me as anything other than a lowly mortal. Hardly worth my time really," he continued but couldn't think of much else to say when you dropped to your knees and licked his bulge through his pants before rising back up and turning your back on him to walk away.

Not that you made it very far however.

Shooting out his arm to grab your wrist just in time should you somehow vanish, Loki pulled you back against his body in the same instance a curtain of magic shot up around your location and hid your interactions from prying eyes. "Well, well, well pet consider me interested. But now that you have my attention, how do you plan to keep it?" he asked as his hands moved down your dress and rested against your hips before drawing your ass back to feel the glorious package your lips had just now awakened from its slumber.

Grinding yourself against him very slowly now as the alcohol in your system destroyed all your usual shyness and awkwardness, you snaked your arm up towards his neck before grabbing his shoulder, turning your body towards his and finally giving voice to your inner desires. "Dance with me like I asked and if you're any good I promise to be yours forever."

Delighting now in this uninhibited, playful side of you as you then leaned closer and nipped at his chin with your teeth, many many dances and numerous glasses of alcohol later you soon found the party winding down as Loki once again moved both of you to the same corner that had kicked off this whole affair. Yet neither of you still seemed ready for the night to be over.

Sitting you on a couch next as your body finally succumbed to all the enjoyment the evening had to offer, the god of mischief contemplated what to do with you next until you went ahead and solved the problem for him. Reaching out and somehow managing to successfully grab hold of the waist of his pants, you pulled him towards you and toppling sideways on the couch, shocked him even more as your fingers made short work of removing the belt confining your prize. Placing your hand through the opening next and coming in contact with warm flesh, you would have taken a moment to revel in satisfaction at the gasp you heard above you, but you weren't afforded that opportunity.

Pulling away and straightening to his full impressive height, Loki now reached out and pulled you too into a standing position before placing his lips gently against your forehead and uttering words that you had never heard before and probably never would again, for it was then that darkness claimed you. Looking at your unconscious form now as he held you close and marveled at your beauty, another part of him silently screamed at what he had just done. After all you were the one making all the moves and yet his mother's voice kept whispering that none of this was right. That he was a better man than this.

Well, this you too would soon find out.

Returning back to the present now with still no recollection of what had happened in between, yet at last acknowledging that waking up naked in a strange man's bed was never a good sign, you let your mind guide you to the obvious conclusion and turned the full force of your anger on the god responsible for what you assumed had happened.

Pounding your fists against his chest now as you verbally berated him for kidnapping you, stripping you and having sex with you when you were in no condition to either accept or decline his advances, all the fight suddenly left you when he simply reminded you once again of your behavior at the party and the promise you had made.

"Oh for heaven's sake you imbecile, who knows how many drinks I'd had at that point. You can't honestly think I was serious?" you now replied before tossing yourself back onto the bed and staring at the ceiling in total shock at all that had transpired. But it seemed there was an even bigger shock yet to come.

Straightening himself out now beside you in the bed yet remaining a respectful distance from you, Loki waited for your breathing to relax before he finally spoke. Promising you on his mother's honor that he had not harmed you in any way, you were about to argue that the evidence against him didn't look good until he pointed out a tiny fact your shocked and agitated state had somehow totally overlooked ... you weren't completely naked after all.

Reaching out and eventually taking your hand in his, he guided both of your hands down your trembling body and under the remainder of the covers so your senses could actually acknowledge what you were finally experiencing now that calmness had replaced hysteria and his words had told you that you had actually slept in your panties. But there was also so much more.

Releasing your hand now and giving you a few moments to feel around and convince yourself that this was not a dream, another set of muttered words left his lips and smoke rose from the fire and magically took human form before your very eyes. Coalescing now into shapes that resembled Loki with you unconscious in his arms, you watched transfixed as the male smoke cloud sat the female on the bed, removed her dress and tucked her into bed before floating through the door to your left and reforming back again some moments later. Standing then on Loki's side of the bed as the female cloud slept on oblivious to any of this taking place, it next lay down beside her and pulling her close, drifted off to sleep before the whole scene disappeared back into the fire.

So that's what Loki claimed had happened. Both of you had simply slept, you safe and warm in his arms. But how could you know this was true? Beside you lay the god of mischief after all. The very same trickster who had called forth an alien army that tore New York apart. And yet as your fingers played with the fabric of your panties and your mind reminded you that the twins preferred it when you didn't wear a bra, a deeper dive into your feelings brought a startling revelation to the surface ... you didn't feel any different.

Oh sure, you had consumed a fair amount of alcohol at the party and it seemed that alone had been responsible for you sleeping away a whole twenty-four hours, but other than that everything else felt fine. In truth, you felt great. Mentally cataloging all your extremities, from your head to your toes you felt better rested than you had in a very long time. Your panties, as all the evidence showed, were not only still intact but also appeared to be as clean as when you had first put them on and if Loki had violated you, then he must have done one hell of a job covering it up because not a single inch of you showed any signs of an assault. Hell even your memory couldn't conjure up any feelings or memories of terror of any kind. There was only peace. Sweet and blessed in a way you couldn't even imagine.

And yet one thing kept you from totally accepting that all of this was real ... your panties were as clean as when you had put them on. But how could that be? Had you really slept straight through twenty-four hours without even needing to use the bathroom? Could such a thing even happen? You knew from previous experience that your relationship with alcohol was intimately linked with numerous night time visits to the toilet, so this alone had to be evidence that Loki was somehow tampering with your memories, right? Embedding a false sense of reality and security to make himself look like a hero instead of the villain everyone knew him to be.

But how to prove it? Thinking just a few minutes more, you finally had enough with the doubts and so decided to just ask him straight out. And his answer here too totally surprised you.

"I helped you use the facilities pet," he answered simply, "and might I just say that while your ability to consume alcohol would rival that of any Asgardian, it really does play havoc with your motor functions," he finished with a smirk as the memory of your chin and arms resting on the bed filled your vision now while your lower body languishing on the floor sprang to life before your very eyes.

You now remembered this clearly and you didn't need the rest of the memory to recall waking the dark haired god from his slumber to help you up and escort you to the bathroom or all that came after. The embarrassment alone was more than enough to confirm that this was no magical illusion. He had indeed been your knight and revealed a part of himself it seemed no one else knew existed. He actually wasn't truly evil.

Armed with this new knowledge now and confirming with him that he had indeed helped you twice more with your personal issues as well as making you a light meal when your stomach finally returned to your body, you now relaxed back fully into the bed before asking what his plans were now. Something Loki was only all too happy to discuss with you.

"Well pet, if you're feeling up to it, I thought we might get dressed and explore some of the area you'll now be calling home. After all, there is the promise you made to a god and as a result you're never going to get rid of me," he confirmed before rising from the bed and holding out his hand to you.

Looking at it and him now and thinking of all that had occurred for you to end up here, as well as the frightening things that could have but never happened, you finally released an exasperated sigh as you reluctantly acknowledged he was giving you a choice. Not a terribly enticing one, but one all the same. After all you had in your drunken state promised to be his forever and being how old he was and the customs his kind were probably used to, it's no wonder he took you at your word. But he also could have taken you. Just like he could now simply reach out, pull you from the bed and magically force his will upon you.

Yet this he wasn't doing. Still standing there silently as you thought through how you wanted to proceed, it seemed you needed no coaxing at all however when mere seconds later your hand appeared in his and a surprisingly gentle tug later had you kneeling before him on the bed as his arms now wrapped around you and held you close a few moments longer before he then completed the movement and brought you fully upright to stand on the floor beside him.

Leading you away from the bed then, while magically extinguishing the fire along the way, a trip through the other door within these walls and a wardrobe the size of your own bedroom appeared before you. Divided up into two distinct halves, Loki left you to explore all the outfits that appeared to be yours before swiftly joining you fully clothed in winter gear that not only looked completely functional, but also made you want to reach out and snuggle deep against his impressive frame.

Shaking this particular thought from your mind however as his intense gaze told you he was trying unsuccessfully to figure you out, a more focused inspection now of your own clothing section soon had you dressed in a green outfit that somehow complimented his red one perfectly. Smiling at you and your choice now, Loki took your hand in his once more and leading you from the wardrobe back through the bedroom, both of you walked through the main door to stand in a glorious hall flooded with light from the double doors leading outside to the balcony he informed you wrapped around to the room you had just left.

Leading you away from there then through the hallway towards the front of the house, his soothing voice added the fact that upstairs consisted of four more reasonably sized bedrooms and a beautiful bathroom that he suspected would draw you in the minute you laid eyes upon it. But all that it seemed would have to wait.

Moving down the wooden stairs next into the open plan living room, the fireplace here too caught your eye straight away and suddenly without thinking, images of you, Loki and a bunch of little ones reading Christmas tales in front of it sprang into existence in a way that took your breath away. It looked and felt so real. Realizing now that Loki had still been talking about the layout here while you had been distracted, you quickly pivoted back to the present and smiled and nodded in return as if you had been paying attention all along. And it seemed you pulled it off.

Continuing on now towards the front door as if you had been hanging on his every word all along, stepping outside and sitting into Loki's waiting car revealed the drive to the main road lined with trees that glowed in soft white lights that made the whole place look and feel like a magical wonderland. But it was nothing more than a simple light display to the wondrous spectacle that greeted you later once Loki had walked you through the local village and treated you to all the little festive activities that brought out a joy in him you rarely saw in adults anymore. It was something almost childlike and it totally fascinated you as the walking racked up and the spirit of the town drew you in the same way it seemed to call to him.

Driving back home then with all your little shopping trinkets and parking the car back where you started, heading towards the front door of the cabin your progress was stopped abruptly as Loki reached out once more to take your hand and this time smiled in a way that lit up his whole face as he now led you down a path on the far side of the beautiful building.

Telling you to watch your step carefully now as the snow here lay thicker and undisturbed upon the ground while rocky outcroppings created an unsteady and meandering path, placing his hand occasionally on the small of your back when he worried the conditions might upset your footing brought an ease you never imagined you'd feel around someone like him. But then again, he had been surprising you nonstop since your alcohol fueled steps first brought you to him. And now was no exception when your destination at last came into view.

Finally reaching the end of the path as it opened out towards a massive clearing, your walking stopped and your breath hitched at the sight laid out before you as there simply were no words to accurately describe what your eyes were seeing. Taking in the sight of the solitary tree lit up and seemingly growing in the middle of this frozen wasteland, you would have wondered how there was even power out here to bring light to such a scene until your companion moving closer reminded you that he was capable of just about anything.

Taking your hand now and leading you towards a low rock formation, a blanket materializing out of thin air for you to sit on actually brought a smile to your face when you obliged and Loki proceeded to continue to flaunt his magic to produce a beautiful pair of skates for both of you to wear. Lacing these up then as Loki did the same beside you, your mind once more began to focus on the sheer beauty all around you until the man who had brought you here shattered the silence and spoke once more. "Well pet, what do you think? I knew by your attitude at Stark's party that this was a place lacking your presence. You're the final piece of the puzzle to make this place magical."

Cutting off your retort now before you had a chance to vocalize it and ruin any image he had concocted for this moment, Loki continued on to explain what made this particular spot so spectacularly special. Pointing out the obvious that this was normally a lake while also not indulging your questions as to how this single tree thrived here, he did however admit that the effect you saw before you was all his doing. Which you totally accepted when you finally took to the ice and discovered the tree you thought that thrived in the absence of all other life was actually a construct of Loki's magical abilities.

Standing back where you started as if giving you a chance to discover the wonder of this oasis on your own, placing one foot tentatively in front of the other at first proved a little bit unsettling, for Loki had been serious. Taking your eyes off your surroundings now and actually staring down to where your feet held you up, you couldn't remember ever seeing anything so spectacular or terrifying in your young life. And something told you you never would again.

Frozen solid with not a single speck of snow in sight, the combination of being able to look down three or four meters through the crystal clear ice and see exactly what was on the bottom would have been an experience at the best of times, but for you what made the whole experience even more amazing was that because of the lake's location up in the mountains, it's bottom was totally devoid of any vegetation and the colors of the rocks reflected in the frozen liquid was an awe inspiring experience. And this was just the magic beneath your feet.

At last moving forwards now and nearing the tree as Loki too joined you at last, its lights reflected off the ice coupled with the night stars glistening like a dome in the heavens above actually had you thinking how small and insignificant you felt amid a scene like this until the mischievous god whom it seemed had made all this possible took your hand in his once again and this time simply let his actions do all the talking and take your mind off the reality of where you now stood. For a little while at least.

Moving with you now to music that seemed to flow from within and fuel him with a grace and poise he hadn't displayed back at Stark's party, the rocks visible through the crystal clear waters beneath your feet that normally gave life to this whole region and currently held the tree in its frozen embrace reminded you of all those tales you had heard from Thor about Yggdrasil and you had to wonder briefly if that was Loki's plan. But at this moment it didn't seem to matter.

In fact nothing really mattered. Not the chill on your face as he continued to glide and weave both of you across the ice. Not the reminder that in a drunken stupor you had all but handed yourself over to an actual god to do with as he pleased. And certainly not the fact that you had no idea whatsoever if the ice beneath your feet would even continue to hold as Loki simply took your mind away from all the vastness around you and compressed your focus to just being in the moment. A moment you quickly discovered you never wanted to end.

But end it did when you suddenly found his movements slowly guiding both of you back to the blanket on the rock as your body huddled closer against his. It seemed in all the wonder and excitement he had overloaded your system with, time had steadily marched on and night's chill had settled more upon you and your location now. And yet Loki still seemed to have your needs forefront in his mind. Picking up the blanket and wrapping it and his arms securely around your smaller frame, a flash of green light later and the lake disappeared to return you where you started.

Back at the cabin now, still basking in the afterglow of the afternoon's activity and the beauty hidden up at the lake, untying your boots to glimpse Loki stripping off as he too entered the bedroom brought a whole new beauty to your world that you had been too shocked to admire earlier that morning. For there was no denying the man was built. Lacking for sure in the muscular physique of his brother Thor, the muscles he did display definitely confirmed a man who knew how to look after himself. And it wasn't the only part of him that was impressive.

Caught up now in staring as each new article of clothing joined his ever growing pile of discarded material, it wasn't until he stood before you and stretched your chin to look up at him that you realized your eyes had been laser focused on one muscle in particular. And now you had been found out.

"Well now pet, I've danced with you through the night, taken you skating on a frozen lake adorned in shimmering lights, even taken you shopping in a Christmas village. Is there any other activity perhaps you'd like us to try before I reintroduce you to my talents in the kitchen?" he asked as your teeth worried at your bottom lip before his thumb swiped across it and freed it from your torment.

Shaking your head in response however as your body now began to feel the effects of all the cold weather exposure and yet also doubting your intentions or his, Loki somehow seemed to once again hone in on your procrastinations and decided that allowing you to wallow and ruminate on what lay ahead was not now in either of your best interests. Standing you up therefore while skillfully and swiftly removing the rest of your outfit for you, the warm waters of the shower hitting your skin moments later somehow proved only slightly more welcoming than the tender touches currently waking up all the nerve endings along your rapidly heating flesh.

It seemed his talents were truly magical.

Grabbing hold of the body wash and covering your body in a generous amount, his fingers lathering it up and massaging every knot out of your frame soon had you moaning softly and grinding back against him until his hands traveled down to your hips and moved you away from his package, while still keeping his talented fingers from where you needed them most. And it was truly becoming frustrating. So frustrating in fact, that the threats, swearing and hair pulling it brought out of you turned him on even more to the point where all that was now left for him to do was utter some more smug words as his teasing intensified.

"Easy there pet, you're going to spoil the surprise," he taunted now before turning you to face him again as your back met the tiles behind you and created a nice contrast to the heat currently consuming you from all his delicate touches. Touches it seemed that weren't about to end anytime soon. Standing at arm's length from you now while moving his hands back up your body, pulling just enough on each nipple, one with teeth and one with fingers, had you gasping loudly and reaching out to hold him closer again but it seemed he wasn't yet ready to give in.

Dropping to his knees next and winking up at you before burying his dark head between your thighs and suckling on your honeypot, it appeared he wanted more of your nectar, fire and unfettered swearing before he was even willing to think about letting you come. Or at least that’s what you thought. Edging you over and over and over again for what felt like hours until your legs gave out and his name now fell from your lips like a prayer, his glorious purpose was finally revealed to you as he stood up and one powerful, yet unexpected thrust upwards from his package had wave after wave of electrical pulses shooting skywards from your joining and assaulting your overstimulated body in a way you swore you would never recover from.

Tightening your legs around his waist now as your walls held onto his shaft for dear life, the strength housed within his lithe frame blew your mind once again as Loki decided enough time had passed and somehow began to finally move within you. Pounding up into your flower now as the moisture dripping on the tiles moved you down to meet his every jerk, thrust after thrust had more sensations overloading your system until you and Loki finally came together in a series of earth shattering orgasms that left you feeling like nothing but a pile of clay to be reshaped into his ideal mate.

And perhaps that was his true intention all along for as darkness claimed you once more it was the next phase of this adventure that would reveal the final facet of the god you were just beginning to develop feelings for.

Waking back up in the sleigh bed again some unknown time later to the warmth of the fire and the fabulous smell of freshly cooked food permeating throughout the room, a quick examination of your body told you that this situation was starting to become a regular occurrence while at the same time there were still no signs of any lasting effects. In fact, if you were perfectly honest, the only lasting effect was currently coiled comfortably against your back while his left leg made its weight known just below your hip.

And still you had to admit if only to yourself that the day you had shared with him and the sense of home his presence seemed to offer you was something you could most definitely get used to.

Ignoring this thought now however as your stomach at last began to feel the effects of the thorough workout Loki had put you through, throwing back the covers to leave the bed and see what delights your host has prepared were suddenly halted as the god in question chose this same moment to let his vulnerability appear.

"Please pet, say it again. Repeat your promise," he beseeched as he turned you towards him now so you could see how much he wanted this and he in turn could gauge the sincerity in your reply.

"I'm yours Loki, til both of our hearts stop beating," you answered and kissing each other in this moment, you knew the words were true and both of you had at last found the soul destined to complete you.

Delighting in your answer now and at last feeling secure in the knowledge that everything he secretly wanted was finally his, Loki grudgingly untangled himself from you and leaving the bed, loaded up a tray with generous helpings of food you recognized, as well as some you didn't, before walking it back towards you, lovingly feeding it to you and then reminding you once more of all the pleasure that would now define your future as his one and only love.

#theslumberparty #naughty or nice challenge #loki x reader

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auspicious-manner · 2 years

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Hi, if you are still taking requests can you write Dodge x reader with the prompt "taking a bath tohether" from the prompt list?

i’m always going to be taking requests! i changed up the prompt a bit, but it still mostly fits with the whole bath theme. i took inspiration from that one scene from episode 4 with dodge and natalie in the hot tub. i hope you like it!

female reader x dodge mason

warnings: it gets a little sensual at one point but nothing too crazy

Steam

•

it was the night of the player’s ball, and Y/N couldn’t be more excited. she was thrilled to have a break from all of the stress and fear that panic caused, and she loved a good excuse to get dressed up. although she was originally planning on getting beyond drunk at the party, she lost a game of rock, paper, scissors against both heather and nat and was then demoted to being the designated driver for the night.

heather, nat, and Y/N all decided to get ready for the party at nat’s house. Y/N was wearing a light blue silk dress with spaghetti straps that hugged her body close, and a silver choker around her neck that reflected any light that hit it perfectly. she wore small hoop earrings that matched her choker. her shoes were also a shiny silver with a small heel to give her some height. she went for a natural smoky eye look, and she tied her hair back into a half up half down look with her curtain bangs hanging around the sides of her face.

she looked in the mirror at herself, admiring the look she threw together. nat appeared in the mirror behind her. “Y/N, you look hot.” nat said, placing her hands on Y/N’s shoulders.

“thanks nat,” she started, turning around to look at her. “you don’t look too bad yourself.”

heather came out of the bathroom, her dress already on as well. “i think we all look hot tonight.”

the three girls all got into heather’s car, driving to diggins’ motel where the party was being held.

pulling up, the music was loud and there were already players drinking and partying. “let’s go get some drinks.” nat said to heather as they ran off. “hope you girls have fun tonight!” Y/N yelled back sarcastically.

she walked into the back, and she looked around to see if there were any nonalcoholic beverages she could drink. when she saw that there were none besides water, she took a bottle of water and poured it into a red plastic cup. she didn’t want to seem like a buzzkill drinking the water straight from the bottle.

“what’s that in there, vodka?” a voice asked from beside her. Y/N turned her head to the right and saw that it was dodge mason.

her and dodge had an oddly flirty relationship. Y/N wasn’t necessarily in the right state of mind to want a relationship, but she liked to play along with the flirting just for the fun of it. she couldn’t read dodge as well as she could read everyone else, though. she couldn’t tell if he liked to flirt for shits and giggles like she did, or if he was actually trying to make advances.

they knew of each other during school. they didn’t dislike each other, but they certainly weren’t friends. it wasn’t until the first challenge at the drop where they began to talk more. maybe dodge had something for Y/N in a swimsuit.

“nope, just water.” Y/N replied back.

“really? no alcohol?” dodge asked, surprised.

“being the designated driver sucks.”

dodge sighed. “i won’t be drinking all that much tonight either. this is only my second drink, and after this i’m done.”

Y/N nodded. the two stood in silence for a quick moment. dodge almost said something, hesitated, and then started again. “i’m bored. should we… check out the hot tub?”

Y/N smirked playfully. “you want to check out the hot tub with me?”

“who else would i check it out with?”

she smiled. “fine, you win.”

dodge and Y/N walked over to the hot tub, which happened to be empty. “want to get in with me?” dodge asked confidently.

she turned bright red. “me? get in with you?”

dodge looked at her and squinted. “you say that like i have cooties.”

“i just never took you as the bold type, mason.”

“well, maybe we should work on learning more about each other.”

the pair looked at each other for a moment. “you know, i totally would get in with you, but i have nothing on under this dress besides underwear. sorry.”

dodge took his shirt off. “i don’t mind.”

Y/N bit her lip. she contemplated her options for a moment, before saying, “okay fine. but if you stare at my boobs at any point,” she started, stepping closer to dodge and stopping when she was right under him. “i’ll slit your throat.”

dodge held his breath. “yes ma’am.”

Y/N turned around and took her dress off as dodge got into the hot tub. “dodge, don’t look at me until i get into the water, okay?”

“will do, princess.”

Y/N turned bright red again and walked towards the hot tub. she took note of how dodge had his hands over his eyes, looking down. she gently stepped into the water and sunk down so only her neck stayed above water.

dodge continued to keep his head down, and Y/N rolled her eyes. “you can look at me now.”

he removed his hands from his eyes and looked up. he gave a small smile. “this water feels great.”

Y/N nodded. “it’s almost like bath water.”

“if you think about it, it’s almost like we’re taking a bath together.”

Y/N’s eyes went wide, and she felt her cheeks burn up. dodge noticed this and laughed to himself before continuing. “i mean, we’re both almost naked, we’re sitting in a warm tub together, all that’s missing is some soap and a little rubber duckie.”

Y/N tried her hardest to not laugh. “did you really have to throw in the duck part?”

dodge giggled. “yes, i did. you don’t play in the bath with a rubber duck?” he asked, scooting closer to her.

she pressed her back to the wall of the tub. “i did when i was like, five. i’m seventeen now.” she said, feeling butterflies in her stomach the closer dodge got. he was right in front of her now.

dodge looked over her face, and Y/N glanced down at his lips before quickly placing her glare back on his bright blue eyes that just so happened to match her dress.

“you looked beautiful tonight. that dress fit you very well.” dodge said to her, quietly.

“thank you.” Y/N said, almost in a whisper.

“your hair and makeup both look stunning too.” dodge said, his eyes still looking straight into hers.

“thank you.” she said again, the butterflies still present in her stomach.

“too bad it’s going to get ruined.” before Y/N could even react, dodge stepped back and splashed her with a wave of water while he erupted in laughter. hearing him laugh, she couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

“you are so dead dodge!” she then splashed him, and a splash war commenced. Y/N was losing, however, because she remembered to keep her chest under the water.

“okay, okay, you won!” Y/N exclaimed as dodge stopped splashing. the two continued to laugh even after the war was over.

dodge admired her from afar. “this was a fun bath. we should do this more often, Y/N.”

“once again, not a bath.”

dodge shrugged, and stepped closer to her again. “a boy can dream, right?” the two froze again, and at the same time, both leaned in and kissed each other. dodge held Y/N’s chin with his hand and tilted her head up to get deeper into the kiss.

“wow, i can’t tell what’s steamier. you guys, or the hot tub.” they broke away from their kiss and saw natalie and heather with drinks in their hand.

“we were going to get in, but seeming as you two are clearly busy, we’ll leave you to it. carry on!” heather said as she left with nat, giggling as they walked away.

dodge and Y/N looked at each other before turning and kissing once again. she couldn’t believe she finally let dodge get to her, and she was completely sober nonetheless. “what have i gotten myself into?” she thought. she didn’t let that passing thought stay present in her mind for long, because the longer she kept kissing dodge, the more she didn’t want it to stop.

#mike faist #panic on prime #mike faist riff #riff x reader #dodge mason imagine #dodge mason x reader #dodge mason #mike faist imagine

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ask-obt · 9 months

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I feel like this question has already been asked but i can’t remember and I couldn’t find the answer by searching his tag, so: What was the role of Akio in the original OBT? From what i can tell he’s meant to be Rune’s son, but what about his father? Is there a chance he could appear in the current comic, or would he just be repurposed into a new character? (Sorry for long prompt btw)

// the explanation was a bit buried into this ask here (which also talks about other plot points from old OBT), but I'd be happy to give a more accessible version of an explanation as well as some extra context! so akio is the remnant of an arc I had in mind for rune from the very early era of preboot OBT up until I officially scrapped him in 2020. october 6th, 2020 in fact (happy die day you little freak)! in old OBT his role was to be the son of rune and some rando from the luxio tribe in a one night stand, mostly to stir drama between her and kodali. later on it turned out that luxio had the same name as one of my partner's characters (a mew named Xander), and we joked about Xander shapeshifting into a Luxio and blending into the tribe and getting together with rune... and then I made doodles of a vulpix with fun little mew traits, and got attached to the idea! around that time I was gearing up for the reboot of OBT, so he's... well, I was gonna say alolan, but this was actually my first doodle of that fire opal vulpix concept!

and then I thought "actually it'd be more fun if he was kantonian and also will help differentiate his design from rune" which is where you get the current iteration of his design that I use for memeing purposes

then with this being in the reboot timeline, it meant it started intersecting and butting heads with other arcs I had planned. I can probably go more into detail with that once we're a bit further along in the story, but basically rune was A Little Cringe for the circumstances she ended up with xander in the reboot, which would've ended up giving akio a bit of tasty insecurity as he got older and realized he resembled his dad in several ways he didn't like.

one of those ways being that he was flirty, but didn't want to commit to having a family

but that said... these were all headcanons for akio when he was older, aka either in the epilogue of OBT or in a potential sequel. which would've meant I'd have to carry around a baby character that I didn't really have any strong feelings about, a character arc for rune that was fitting with the story less and less over time, all for an epilogue or sequel that may or may not have seen the light of day. don't get me wrong, i still LOVE the idea of exploring this type of arc. but... does it have to be rune's son? she has a bunch of other arcs to explore, and her experiencing motherhood was just complicating the story in a way that wasn't fun to write. overall, it stopped fitting with the themes of OBT and needed to be cut in order to tell the story I actually wanted to tell. so nowadays, akio is a funny little in-joke with myself as a remnant of a long forgotten storyline, and is floating around my brain like a dvd screensaver. maybe someday he'll find a home in a story (he'd be more likely to find another life in my original project before OBT), maybe I'll use him in some sort of RP/collab, or maybe he'll keep collecting dust. only time will tell!

#on borrowed time comic #ask-obt #ooc #akio

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doorbloggr · 2 years

Text

What is Inktober?

And what's the controversy?

Sunday 23/19/22

So in 2009, a concept artist and creator named Jake Parker started a challenge, mostly for himself, to complete a hand-drawn art piece for every day of October. In subsequent years, other artists worldwide joined in on the challenge, and from 2015(sic), Parker has posted a list of prompts prior to October for artists to inspire what they'd draw each day.

Originally, as the name suggests, Inktober participation would only count if you completed ink-drawn pieces on paper, often with a fountain pen, but it has since grown to a challenge incorporating all artistic mediums, include paints, music, writing, and even digital art.

But in 2019, Jake Parker made the decision to copyright the term "Inktober", meaning that artists trying to sell art under the "Inktober" title were receiving cease and desist notices or legal action would be threatened. Parker has given several reasons for the decision, including protecting his own work; books of his own art, and about doing ink art; and to not allow predatory profiting off the brand; people using the Inktober name of discriminatory tshirts or posters, selling merchandise using the brand name without permission from Jake Parker and his team.

He has assured artists that it is not his intention to scare artists away from participating in Inktober, or selling their own art made during the challenge. But there are guidelines on how to avoid action from his team. Artbooks must use Inktober as a subtitle and not as the main title, ideally, together with the year of the challenge (e.g. Doorbloggr: Inktober 2022), and avoid using the official Inktober Logo in any merchandising.

In August 2019, it came out that Parker may have plagiarised most of the content for his book "Inktober All Year Long" from an artist named Alphonso Dunn, and their book "Pen & Ink Drawing".

Rightfully so, this brutal stance and the controversy around it scared away a lot of artists from participating in the Official Inktober challenge. But luckily, the variety of artists that this original challenge brought in gave rise to iteration and elaboration on the idea. And so the Inktober spin-off was born.

October: A Month of Art

In the same way that Parker made prompt lists for each new October, many different communities made their own challenges with their own names and flavours. Many still have prompts for 31 days, while others ease it down to 16 days, or even once a week.

One of the first offshoots was Drawlloween in 2012. And from my own limited research, it may have not even been inspired by Inktober. It just so happened to also take place in October. Since October is Spooky Month, Drawlloween prompts are all based on Halloween, many very specific to pieces of spooky media and horror stories. In a similar vein, other Halloween themed challenges are Witchtober, Spooktober, Drawtober, and Goretober.

INKTtober is a spin-off I've seen on a couple different social media's I'm on that focuses specifically on Tattoo art. OCtober or OC October is a common one I see on Tumblr where each day is about an artist's Original Characters or OCs.

Other artists have grown the idea of a monthly challenge beyond October. And I wanna specifically shout out @regal-bones for their beautiful work on Swordtember (Sword designs in September) this year. Amazing work.

Day 2: Candle, Day 25: Spider

And finally, the one that I have been partaking in, Linktober. Linktober is a celebration of the Legend of Zelda series. The challenge began in 2015 as a spin-off of Drawlloween, and in 2016, the team created their first full month calender of prompts.

Each year of Linktober has brought a new calender of prompts and in some years, they even introduced alternate challenges that spice it up beyond just Legend of Zelda art. 2018 introduced Linktober Chance, where the prompt is only half finished and you roll a d6 dice to generate a more specific prompt. 2019 introduced Linktober Quest, where each day is part of a story about a Zelda OC you make and the adventure they go on to save the world. Linktober 2020 introduced Linktober Shadow, a counterpart to the regular challenge where every day is spooky, or about the villainous side of the Zelda series.

I want to talk more about my experience with Linktober, but I fear this post may be getting too long. So I will talk more about Art and Deadlines in a Part 2(?) to this post.

Thanks for Reading

A lot of the information I wrote in this blogpost I sourced from the following article, so I implore you to read it too if you want to gain more insight:

The Controversy with Inktober, Alexis Epinoza (September 2020) The Telescope

Also, if you don't already, please follow the tags #drawlloween #witchtober #linktober #swordtember or any other drawing challenges promoted across this and other sites. Artists love reblogs and if there's a fandom you like, there's likely to be creative people making things for you. So show them some love.

#blog #blogpost #inktober #linktober #jake parker #alphonso dunn #drawlloween #witchtober #spooktober #drawtober #goretober #inkttober #swordtember

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golby-moon · 10 months

Text

oh no I accidentally started making fakemon for the first time since my fake Fidough and Lechonk evolutions. these were designed for a few people from their discord usernames and from their own vague description of things they might wanna see

first up is @whitster-lizzy

I think by the end of a somewhat confusing back and forth that I was supposed to make a combo of Bulbasaur, Medusa, and poison ivy. I took inspiration from the last two, but just could not get Bulbasaur's plump little front half to look good morphed into a tail. instead, I went for more of a 'protector of the forest' thing and added a maternal vibe that Whitney kinda gives off and ended up with this. I wanted to put an emphasis on three for the three leaves of poison ivy, so even its tears (which may or may not be from sad edits and the inability to hug anything without poisoning them :(() carry that, as do the scales sporadically thrown around there. the arms became vines when I was too tired and frustrated to keep trying to redraw actual arms to get them to look right (oops) and the hair is just a mess as I'd expect vine-hair to be

next is @rauko-is-a-free-elf, who started this whole thing with a comment about someone mispronouncing their name as 'Rocco'

for whatever reason, I came up with an ice bird instead of something that screams 'rock type' idk why either. took inspiration from blue jays (one of their favorite birds) as well as peacocks with the tail and tried to go for sort of a crystal structure on there (along with dots that were supposed to be snow but failed to look like it) while still including the distinctive dark swoops blue jays have on their tails. the wings were supposed to be icicles and that was actually the first thing I designed rather than the head or the body. it really does make use of diamond shapes so I did try to add some rock type elements to it mostly in color scheme though maybe it would've been better without. I'm not really sure why it has a mask other than I wanted to give its face some dark lines like blue jays have but my brush was too thick to add too many little details. so mask👌

now we have @bleuzombie

I didn't have any sort of a prompt or direction for this one and based it entirely off of their username. I originally took inspiration from Machop in the way of body shape and went from there, developing a vaguely reptilian form somehow that looked a lot more lizard-y before the dark typing came out in the form of skeleton-bits not unlike the Cubone line. the spiky bat there is a reference to The Walking Dead ofc, which led me to develop more of a baseball vibe with the dark line under its eyes representative of the grease baseball played use to reduce glare and with the sorta long sock-like design for the feet, along with the baseball stitching pattern that doubles as what's supposed to represent the stripes like all baseball uniforms have. its hands have always looked boxing glove-y from the very first beginnings of the sketch so I just colored them to match the rest of the color scheme and oh no now it's a fighting type oops

now @nickelkeep

this one is also inspired by their username, which at first had me thinking about how dragons hoard coins but then somehow got turned into c a t and I don't really know why. either way I tried to keep a coin theme going (especially with its eyes, which are supposed to look like coins) while also making it a dark/fairy as sorta requested and it became a representation of the duality of cat: both angel and devil (also a twist of money being the root of evil and all that). so it got fluffy and spiky at once and now has pitchfork-themed whiskers and a few occult symbols to offset its scarf and heart motifs. I think this one was actually the first design I worked on and to the relief of everyone, I actually used a reference of a cat to get the pose right 🎉

(idk why there's a bad drawing of a nickel I think I was originally gonna make that into a background but I did decide against it in favor of making these look more like official pokemon character reference sheet things. enjoy the bad nickel anyway)

next one up is @anyreiart

idk what happened with this one. I don't know much about anyrei and their username doesn't inspire much in the way of fakemon (beyond a few seconds where I thought of making a sun-inspired something with the 'rei' becoming 'ray'), so I went with a theme based on what I do know, which is that they paint, along with two pictures that they sent, one of which was Gothorita (the other was for a hairstyle I think but I did steal the funky red and black checkered tie from that because reasons). going off of that, this one is supposed to look like a paintbrush with its body and its edgy anime hair, and its belt continues carrying the paintbrush motif. since I was provided with the request to make it goth, I added thick eyeshadow-esque lines under its eyes and kinda used the hairstyle from the picture while also turning it into a paintbrush that utilizes their favorite color as the paint color. carrying the gothic art idea, I tried to make its lower half (originally meant to be a blobby sort of easel shape before I changed it) into something resembling stained glass windows that was famous at the time (I got confused multiple times while making the stained glass design so it's not all that consistent uh). it was supposed to be dark type, but ended up giving off more of a ghost/fairy vibe after I realized I accidentally made it a ballerina paintbrush (oops)

moving on to @as-lost-as-sams-shoe

this one is heavily inspired by their username, starting with the scallion, which is a kind of oniony thing. they themself actually added the 'wrapped' part to push the pun a little further, which made me think of Swadloon and its cozy little leaf blanket, which naturally led to the scallion with its massive head and slimmer body (to match the shape of an onion more than a scallion admittedly) to be all wrapped up. scallions have leaves that look like they were cut straight across, which lead to the development of its 'bangs' (which was also inspired by the fact that scallions themselves grow underground and only the leafy parts are seen, adding a 'shy' element) as well as the tassels along the bottom of its leaf-wrap. the lines along its body are made to represent both the rings inside of an onion as well as the word 'rapscallion,' which is a term that can be used to mean villain or bad guy, earning it prison-esque stripes. its eyes are massive as a play on onions making people cry, and the smaller parts of its eyes that I can't remember the names of are based off of onion rings. the skull and crossbones shape is just to make it pirate-y, which is what I can't not picture when I read the word 'rapscallion' for one reason or another

and finally @zybynarx, who gets a finished one as well as a sketch I scrapped and started anew

I actually had a lot to work with for this one, as they specifically asked for a fire type puppy pokemon. first instinct is ofc to go for a dalmatian, which is the firehouse dog or whatever, and I wanted to make the lower half black as a reference to that scene from 101 Dalmatians where they coat themselves in ashes to appear completely black. I made some firefighter-y stripes and tried to make its back legs look almost like boots which looks, in a couple of word, super weird. I then added tinder fluff on head and a kindling sort of thing on the neck, but when I tried to develop the back half's design, my brain sorta died and I couldn't decide what to do, so I went back to the drawing board fully intent on making like a complete copy of what I'd already tried

instead I ended up with this personification of tinder that's just all fluffy all the way down instead of the almost lion mane of tinder design I was originally picturing. I carried over the themes of adding firefighter stripes to allude to a firefighter's jacket as well as the kindling collar thing the other one had. I kept the bottom half black but made it more like wispy smoke than ash that trails behind it when it moves (which is a lot because puppy). the eyes are two pieces of coal and the nose is supposed to look like a match but doesn't. it looks very fluffy but is probably too squirmy to make a good lapdog. it just has that squirmy ball of energy vibe to it

whether people really like these or not, it was definitely a learning experience, and I did pick up on a lot of things to keep in mind for future fakemon designs (particularly not to overcomplicate things and go more for consistency, which I did not originally do as I wasn't planning on make them into character sheets at all and didn't plan beyond the main drawings of the fakemon)

this craziness is a result of the @deancasanimebang (which is still accepting artists until October 1st :0)

(08/28/23)

#my art #pokemon #pokemon fanart #fakemon #art made for other people #in a more literal sense #like these are gifts #unwanted gifts perhaps but still gifts #my bang legacy #spn anime bang #deancas anime bang #my requests

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hyperbolicreverie · 2 years

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Okay, so I wouldn't normally post something like this so soon after a chapter release but I have stuff to do today and my brain won't let me do them until I ramble about Thoughts. Meta under the cut, spoilers for Chapter 1054.

So let’s talk about the admirals.

When we first see the original three admirals all together, there’s some pretty interesting theming going on, and I’m not talking about the names, but rather personality and design hints. On a sliding scale, we have Aokiji at one end, relatively chill and slow to anger, then we move through Kizaru and his terrifying neutrality, onto Akainu who is much more of an aggressive presence. We also get this with their colors: cool and calm blue on one end with angry red on the other end of the spectrum, Kizaru’s yellow again taking up the middle slot.

And that’s a really neat way of highlighting how different the approaches of even the highest, most exclusive echelons of the Marines are. It’s a great shorthand to indicate to the reader that the Marines are not quite as united as they pretend to be.

But where things start getting really interesting is when we replace two of those admirals.

It was nowhere near as…I hesitate to say obvious because we’ve only had Aramaki for real for two chapters, but the parallels definitely weren’t as clean. But as of this latest chapter, it does seem that we have a situation now where we have replaced the two admirals who left (either by resignation or promotion) with much more starkly defined versions of the originals—at least in regards to philosophy and beliefs.

We see this first with Aokiji and Fujitora: Aokiji is not terribly well aligned with a lot of the more aggressive philosophies in the Marines, and we do spend a bit of time showing that because of events like Ohara, he has spent a lot of time thinking about things like this. He learns and sees the injustices in the world over time, and finally steps up to maybe do something about keeping more strict and aggressive ideologies from taking over—and might still be doing so, if the thoughts that he’s an undercover SWORD member or just a rogue agent with an agenda bears fruit.

Fujitora is the next step in this thought process. He arrives at the marines already incredibly familiar with the cruelties and injustices of the world—and honestly doesn’t seem to want the job at all—and needs no prompting whatsoever to immediately start working to bring down part of the system that he sees as wrong. It is a clear escalation of the ideals on this side of the spectrum, which is appropriate, because everything about the post-timeskip era is an escalation.

(As an aside, I would believe Aramaki absolutely jumped at the chance to take the job, and maybe had a marine or government-adjacent or related job to start with, given the words that have come out of his mouth, but Fujitora is another story entirely. The World Military Draft is still a draft and that implies a certain level of not being given a choice in the matter. I kind of want to know what sort of thing you have to hold over someone like Fujitora’s head to get him to comply).

On the other hand, Akainu is a follower of Absolute Justice, where the ends absolutely justify the means, no matter how horrific. And to replace him, we have Aramaki, who has taken it a step further and declared that all those horrible things aren’t just situationally necessary but systematically necessary. So we get an escalation in the other direction.

And then we have Kizaru, as ever, sitting dead in the center and being absolutely neutral. No explicit morals or drive, and all the more terrifying for it. Kind of the living representation on what it means to not take a side.

Also, we’ve technically had an escalation in the philosophies of the leadership as well. I can’t speak to Kong because we mostly only know that he…exists, but the shift from Sengoku to Sakazuki is also one of these. Sengoku had a style that seems to have been much more grounded in keeping the status quo afloat, since the breakdown of equilibrium in the world would only cause chaos, whereas Sakazuki is much more “no compromises, no quarter” and is arguably helping accelerate that breakdown as a result.

This sort of evolution of beliefs on either end of the spectrum, especially considering they are increasingly at odds with one another, feels like it’s deliberate. This feels like it’s leading somewhere, and maybe this is just narrative hints at how bad things have become in the outside world—because we’ve been in Wano a long time and one of the best features of Oda’s world is that it keeps moving outside the scope of the focal characters. Actions have consequences, and ripple effects you might not expect.

But between this and the introduction of SWORD, I think it’s entirely possible we’re headed for a very public Marine schism at some point in the near future. There’s going to be a line that a lot of people aren’t going to be willing to cross, and Sakazuki’s vow to “strike back and return fire on all fronts” in the latest chapter sounds an awful lot like it could be the trigger for something like that.

Genuinely excited to see where this goes, and happy to see how the rest of the One Piece world is doing again.

#one piece #rev puts on her analysis hat #analysis: narrative themes #analysis: characters #akainu #sakazuki #aokiji #kuzan #kizaru #aramaki #fujitora #op marines #op meta

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ostrichmonkey-games · 2 years

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DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE Design Dive

Wow this has been sitting in my drafts, mostly finished for ages now. Anyways, time to release it to the wilds.

A few weeks ago I released a new game (editor's note: it has now been more than a few weeks), DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE for the Together We Go Jam over on itch. Together We Go is a design guide/SRD based on Down We Go, which itself is under the often nebulous umbrella of "OSR" gaming. In this case, it's the snappy mechanics, emphasis on anti-canon, relatively high lethality, and emphasis on the table's creativity is what puts it under that umbrella, imo. I'd consider it part of the maybe post-osr or N(ew)SR but that's a discussion for another time and for people who understand that scene better than me. I was drawn to TWG b/c it's a pretty simple framework with a cool twist on the typical OSR style of classes.

Rather than picking a class, you invest levels into multiple classes as you progress, with each class having its own set of cool abilities and more importantly, bonuses. One class might give you a bonus to hit things, another increases your defense. Stuff like that. It's pretty fun! A full breakdown on DWG/TWG could be fun sometime.

Now, time for the DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE stuff beneath the cut! It's long!

WRITING AND DESIGN

Anyway, DGMS. Originally I had the brain-blast of a title for the eventual game; Hyperpop Megastructure. Which honestly, could be very fun to revisit, but I scrapped that angle because I didn't want to do too much on the layout/graphic design side of things (editor's note; he did in fact do too much on the layout/graphic design side of things) and a hyperpop inspired game should have a wild layout. Also I'm just not familiar enough with the genre to really do it service -lmao.

I stuck with the Megastructure part for the time being and started brainstorming the potential classes (since those make the mechanical core of the game). Below are the early versions straight from my notes;

These were the initial outlines for the classes (a 4th was added later) and really set the tone for the rest of the game (and it marks the first appearance of the FRACTALDEATHMACHINE). By that point, I knew I wanted to do something inspired by BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei. Its the first thing I always think of when the word "megastructure" comes up. Honestly, it's a very formative piece of sci-fi for me.

I wanted to push DGMS weirder. Just go all out on the nonsense. Together We Go games don't rely on a lot of setting exposition. The information of the world is found within the mechanics, random tables, gear, and factions that are presented.

This is what forms the central idea of an "anti-canon". You (the writer) give just enough info on the world and setting for the table to get started, but the details, the lore and truths about that world emerge at the table as the Referee/GM and players explore and interact with what is on the paper.

The FRACTALDEATHMACHINE is the biggest example of this anti-canon in practice. All the table gets is a brief description of a few general things. The FDM is hungry, it is ancient, and it is always pursuing the TOWER. A few other places in the text provide more spaces for the table to explore by prompting the players and GM to come up with "terrible truths" about the nature of the FDM.

What is this insight? Why is it considered terrible? Go find out!

For DGMS I wrote a relatively short bit relaying the premise of the game to readers; you play as POST_human remnants within the ancient megastructure the TOWER which is constantly under threat by the ravenous FRACTALDEATHMACHINE.

Side note, I absolutely went bananas with funky proper nouns and formatting. Small things like that can really help convey the tone of the game!

And that's really about it for the setting assumptions. More details are tucked into descriptions of the factions, gear, classes, and locations you get to explore, but there aren't any answers out there. Its all up to the table to find those answers for themselves! What is the FRACTALDEATHMACHINE, why is it devouring the TOWER, can you stop it? Who knows!

Go find out!

MECHANICS

The core game mechanics fit onto a single page, and aren't really changed too much from the base TWG system. In general, its a straightforward "roll over a difficulty value" using a d20.

Three of the four classes give a special bonus either to hit things, defense, or "hacking" - the undefined "magic" of the game. The fourth class, the DLVR, gets a special situational bonus that implies something about their place in the world - a special bonus against ARCHITECT relics - something which furthers the potential for the table to explore the anti-canon. What exactly is their link to the ARCHITECTS?

Outside of the core mechanics and classes, there are two major parts of the game (and two slightly more minor-ish parts). The LAYERS of the TOWER and the CTY_enclave. LAYERS are effectively unmapped "dungeons". They are dangerous sections of the world where the "outside" adventures happen.

DWG uses mapped dungeons as its, well, dungeons. I've never been hugely into running or playing through mapped dungeons (though I appreciate a well thought out dungeon!) And also I'm lazy. So unmapped it is. LAYERS are essentially a compact list of hazards, hostiles, and interesting tid-bits for the referee to use to whip up something fun and dangerous.

TWG games have a punchy, fast-paced, high-lethality action, so in DGMS, I was far more concerned with providing refs a general template and list of Interesting Things, than complex maps or complicated enemies. The ref does far more responding to player actions than they do planning out complicated encounters. It is perfectly easy, in this sort of game, to just toss something at the players and see what happens!

Couple that with mechanics such as "reaction rolls" (randomly determining how NPCs react to players) and the ref's job starts to become plugging a few random variables into a mechanical procedure, seeing what gets spit out, and then asking players what they do next, and then continuing the whole loop! I love procedural gameplay, and could, and probably will, write more on that another time.

Aside from being the places where most of the adventures happen, LAYERS are also another way to package Interesting World bits. One of my favorite parts about writing for/designing this style of game, is that you rarely need justification for putting something in. I can say that in one LAYER, players will face a "MACHINE!!GOD blastula". And that's it! Everything about the nature of that thing is going to emerge at the table, and will almost always be way cooler than whatever deep lore I could have written for it! (Now, this doesn't mean that I don't enjoy writing some Dense Exposition, but time and place and all that).

The other half to the LAYERS is the CTY_enclave; the players homebase and secondary adventure site. I whipped up a quick mapping procedure for creating your CTY_enclave, and it shifts every time the players return to it from their adventures. There are different modules within the CTY. In some you can buy stuff, others you can get information and recover health. Some hide valuable resources but also equally hidden danger.

Just like LAYERS, I wanted to embed story-potential, that delicious anti-canon, into the CTY. Little nuggets of Ideas like, Conduit Riders in the middle of a death race, machine monks transporting a metal sarcophagus (that has a small chance of containing a copy of one player!), or gaining the ability to commune with the FRACTALDEATHMACHINE itself, are breadcrumbs that could turn into larger story beats and adventures if the players and table invest their own interpretation and meaning into them!

Aside from that, the main Design Bit I did for the CTY is the mapping method. A hub location is part of the TWG vibe, but I felt that one, mapping using dice is fun, and two, a constantly, randomly shifting hub really suited the tone and setting of the game.

The last two main parts of the game are the gear and hostile lists. Again, they have surface purposes - cool stuff to Get, cool stuff to Fight (and get killed by) - but also help provide more of that anti-canon scaffolding (I am really going to need to do a whole thing on anti-canon at some point).

LAYOUT AND GRAPHIC DESIGN

And here's where my hubris caught up with me. What initially was going to be a nice, simple, streamlined layout, ended up being over the top. But it was super fun to make, so no need for me to learn any lessons here.

When designing layout, I tend to start with some cover ideas and mockups. Since BLAME! was such a large thematic inspiration, I also looked at its covers (specifically the Master Edition versions). I love the brutalist inspired graphic design, and wanted to carry that into DGMS, and then add a layer of grunge and wear and tear to it as well.

I played around a lot with masks and textures (there's literally a picture of concrete that I turned into a texture) before eventually landing on the looks you can see on the cover. Then it was also a matter of perusing fonts for text, headers, etc, etc.

For the interior, I made heavy use of Lone Archivist's Graphic Archive asset packs. They rule. Buy them here.

I made my life infinitely more difficult by making every single page different and unique, but it was also a fun art project, so I don't regret that. I didn't spend too much time on typesetting, because this was technically a game jam entry (though I did clean it up later when the game ended up getting printed).

And honestly, that takes us to the end. My process was kind of all over the place for making the final version, a lot of jumping between the text and layout. But it ended up being a very fun project with one of my favorite final results.

If you're interested in picking up the game yourself, you can snag the digital version off my itch page HERE (there's currently a handful of free community copies if you wanna try before you buy) and if you're interested in print copies, Plus One EXP has you covered over HERE.

Spencer of Gila RPGs also made a fantastic 5-minute overview of the game you can watch;

youtube

And! Tony hosted a stream that I GMed if you want to see how the game is in action;

youtube

But yeah, DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE. It's one of my favorite games I've made!

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #indie ttrpgs #osr #DGMS #design dive

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