#totally changed between sketch and render

[kitnormality]

very sad i will not be finishing this tumblr please enjoy

+ here's the before rendering version that i like much more.. there's a charm that i must've lost halfway through sighhhhh

[pawborough]

Mini Preliminary Art and Dev Check In

Hello all!

Thanks for your patience! We found some big bugs in the code and have been working nonstop to iron them out. In general, we've been hesitant to comment on any dates aside from general expectations, but we're erring on the side of caution so as not to promise and run into issues and have to push. Codes can be generated at any time, but we don't want to send them out without a date to match. 

In general, we found a bug in forums and have been cleaning it. And with that last push all we'll be doing is a final sweep of each function before sending codes out. It's our hope that alpha will be pretty clean and transition into beta rather quickly. 

That all being said, I do not want to do a full throttle update until we have external users in the game, which mark my words will be before the end of August.

So this is just a quick preview of the day to day work we have gotten done! With a comprehensive breakdown on what we are doing to ensure that you all as users are not kept in the dark. 

The content shared here does not encompass everything we'll have, and we'll have a dedicated update for August before the month ends.

 Art Check In

In general, there's a lot to do on art! 

We've begun hiring more artists to meet the demand (information on applying for an artist role can be found on our Instagram, our Discord, our Tumblr, and our Twitter.) 

It's for this reason as well that we have not yet provided an updated team graphic. Namely, we want to close applications and onboard the new hires before plastering the newest team roster in various places. 

Here is what we currently have to do and are concurrently working on: 

Icons, icons, and more icons! There are a total of 175 different icon-only items for the alpha and beginning beta testing. We have so far completed full illustration for 103 of them. The remaining 72 all have placeholder sketches, but we're all pushing to get them done! All flavor text has been written!

In addition, we're working on a new pattern, Leopard, and have illustrated on 7 out of 12 poses, with the goal to push Moontails around the same time as Leopard. This is for users who are not testers to have new material to work with. Fyrets and Thumpers have had their patterns started to also be updated. 

Moontails need Cardinal illustrated, but all other patterns are done for them. The push for them has been a lower priority than getting everything for Alpha in order, but they are being worked on between bigger tasks. 

The Sweetheart set was completed on the 9 testing poses. All other accessories need additional final illustration. Woolen is the closest to full completion. 

Fauna variants and additional Fauna are getting padded out. We shared the Romanovtsa variants with the community this month by playing a guessing game in our Discord!

Electra Crest, Demonic Crest, and Staff Crest are being rendered from sketch designs. All other crests are done.

Decor is being continually illustrated. 

Lastly, there are various assets we'll be filling over time, such as NPCs and onsite environmental decorations.  

And that's all of what we're currently doing! The art team has been working hard, and if you're interested in working with us, please look at our hiring resources! Applications are still open. 

So, let's look at some of what we've done!

Fauna Variants

We shared the work in progresses for the Romanovtsa variants earlier this month. As we explained, all Fauna "recolors" will be variants rather than recolors without change. Each variant will be marked by location, such as "southern" or "far southern" using the world map as reference for regional points!

Southern Romanovtsa by Hydde

Southern Romanovtsa by Hydde

Easterh Romanovtsa by Hydde

Western Romanovtsa by Hydde

Central Romanovtsa by Hydde

Leopard Pattern

Leopard design by Hydde. Leopard illustrations by Asp.

Here is a preview of our Leopard pattern! 

Icons, icons, icons!

Embers, Honeycomb, Iron Bar, and Steel Bar by Hydde. Boiled Egg, Chicken, Saffron, Sakura, Whale Meat, Bison, Jasmine, Fennel, and Recipe Template by Tybaxel. Apple by Rune. Blackberry and Potato by Nik. Dandelion and Tomato Basil Soup by Rue.

Metamorphic Items

Here is a fun treat! We designed out our metamorphic items: things that change a cat's appearance. 

For overcoats: Agate!

Solid Agate, Cardinal Agate, Tiger Agate, Tigerface Agate, Valentine Agate, Butterfly Agate, Tuxedo Agate, and Blotches Agate illustrated by Hydde

For accents: Quartz!

Cheeks Quartz, Lollipop Quartz, Harlequin Quartz, Skin Quartz, Claws Quartz, Overgrowth Blossom Quartz, Overgrowth Ivy Quartz illustrated by Hydde

In lore: these items have been grown, carved, and carefully cultivated by magicians to induce genetic mutations. Thus, they're artfully decorated to do as intended! Some are rarer than others, and magic tech can be expensive, but the breakthrough in magic technology seen in The Metropolis means that, if crafted correctly by a skilled magician, they won't up and fail catastrophically!

And for Overgrowth, the plants have grown and imbued themselves throughout the magic stone!

Angelic Crest

We have been working on forum crests! Here is a look at the Angelic Crest:

Illustration by Giulia

Dev Check In

One big breakthrough was setting up and implementing the admin for Zendesk! With this, we'll be able to much more thoroughly and swiftly note down and respond to support tickets and bug reports. Lots of tools at our disposal now for more competently handling user support. Huge!

Here is what we have to do now:

Re-push forums for testing. 

Link all item visuals to onsite items.

Internally sweep all mechanics ready for Alpha and pinpoint any lacking functionality. "Internal Alpha" with about 25 testers has already been happening concurrently, but getting things ready for over 150+ users at once has been the big push!

The first two are happening as I am writing! But unfortunately any estimation for the last point will inevitably put a curse on it. What I can say is that we have an impressive amount of Buttons That Do Stuff and we're really eager to get on it. 

In addition, here are the first non-bug-squashing and non-improvement endeavors we're going to work on while Alpha and early closed Beta is happening: 

Party functionality for dailies. 

Processing (the act of turning one item into another without a recipe, such as dying any accessory item.) 

User settings. 

Private user to user trading, chat, and friend notifications.

User notification dashboard. 

Fauna functionality.

Pelts and partials. 

Item and game database.

Adding white coverage in the creator UI, dynamic undercoat gene vs automatic, founder creation and re-creation, and full metamorphic functionality (previewing cat changes in the item card.)

And there will be more! We got a lot designed out to steadily build in. But here's what the immediate plan is. It's very exciting how much like a full game we're looking!

Here's a look at the private trades UI while we're here!

Thanks for all the support! 

In the next big update for August, we'll move our progress tracker and give any retrospective on how testing is going, show way more art, give everyone videos on our functionalities, and do a lore dump! 

[tassodelmiele]

Skin's red where the heart beats the most

Soft, warm, sad, with a gentle ending Ghost x Soap

Yes, yes, there's no smut in here, what in the bloody hell it's happening omg.

Menstruation hit just worst than usual this month, and I NEEDED something sad but kind, with tears but hugs.

I was about to draw a thing 'bout it, but my drawing abilty had just flew out of the window.

Sorry for the unrequested sadness. And for the totally random verbal tenses.

What a month.

What a period of time.

What a what, in the goddamn whatever, are we living.

..........

<Why red?>

He had pointed his sight at the drawing, hazel eyes on the brushed shadow around the sketched man's shoulder and chest as if it was a life print. Ghost had made Soap stop with a single glance and those two words muffled under the balaclava.

<'S blood. Changes the skin's tone>

<On the shoulders?>

<Here's just a bit reddere ‘cause of rendering reasons. Also, 's where the sun hits the most>

<So where's the blood?>

The colored pencil made one last stroke before the rest. Soap's fingers were brushed on the rough paper surface, a caress so gentle that Ghost had almost felt it on himself.

<The chest. Just a little saturation, here where veins do their most>

<Pretty sure 'm not that saturated>

And that was when Soap's gaze had turned to Simon, sited behind him like a judgmental wall, curled in crossed arms, hoodie and gloves and with eyes hitting the dim light of the safe house. A glimpse of curiosity hit the work of art, and the artist's reply was a mumbled:

<'S just a sketch, Lt.>

<A pretty good one> and that made Soap chuckle in his gear. <Anatomy seems accurate enough>

<Are ye some kinda art critique?>

<Just giving ma bare opinion on it. I've seen ya drawing for a bloody eternity>

<What ‘bout the red, then? I’ve done it before>

<Dunno, if I have to give my take on it> Ghost had lowered just what was needed to peek at the portrait a little better, mumbled on Soap's shoulder: <Ya've drawn more accurately than this. I don't spot red on my chest, unless I'm bleeding>

<What about when ye’re bruised?>

Soap had turned so suddenly, jerking his torso in a rotation move that had almost made his spine squeak.

And in a blink of an eye, he had been facing the Lieutenant's big, black disguised eyes, the solo glimpse of warm light in a silent night concert. 

<What 'bout> he had kept on asking with his eyelids steady, not willing to lose a single bit of that eye contact <when ye feel?>

Ghost had frowned.

<Like, when I feel the bruise?>

And Soap's shoulders had made a little jump.

<Whatever ye bloody want to>

It could have ended there, hidden between the cracked wall; a secret held for eternity, signed in red and locked with the last mixed glance of ancient gold and deep water.

It could have ended in a glimpse of an eye, a wing stroke, just the recall of a shadow on the wall.

But that shadow was hanging on his masked face, livid in the colors of a death that was not calculated, not researched, not wanted.

...

<Lt.?>

Stormy thoughts had gotten him so well he didn't even realize Soap had come in, a big cup of tea in one hand and a worried sight printed on his face, stronger than his curiosity.

Sergeant wavered on the doorstep.

The only window was open; so peculiar, so odd, almost atypical. Nothing more than warm summer air was flying through the small meeting room, emptied just one hour ago to speak about the order of the day. Nothing particular: some kinda illegal traffic carried on by a Mexican family, something about new members of the cartel that were trying to get a piece of the drug monopoly cake. 

Ordinary, common matters to be discussed in the Task Force's file filled with every crumb of sin traceable in human's brain.

Everything was good. Everything was about to be calculated.

But a name.

And the flame's echo had caged the walls with him inside, suddenly tied by the throat in front of a flashback he had prayed to be able to not see anymore in his sleep.

The light, wooden sound of the mug put on the table was enough to warn Ghost how much Soap was near his scratched eyes; he turned to the window, pretending a masked ball of boldness and a cough of disappointment. 

<Ye've stayed here for a bloody hour>

No comments. Johnny came closer with the audacity of a famished cat trying to share the same prey with a wolf, head down, ears up and heart gulped deep in the guts.

‘Cause that was the correct reaction, the right amount of feeling digging a hole in his chest, chocking his breath at the sight of a living reference, a statue hidden in the dark, some sorta totem he’d looked at in the worst night possible, through crossfires and death sentences, just as a baby could stare at his star-shaped light bulb and feeling safe before falling asleep.

And how do you explain to a kid that a bad, big, scary man had broken into his room and tore his light into pieces?

Two minutes of silence sounded like an eternity. Soap gulped a breath, lowering his eyes just to pretend to not have seen Ghost's back jerk under a hidden sob.

<Sorry> he just muttered, ready to leave the room stiffed with something that was just scraping his heart apart.

Till something brushed his hand; and his heart skipped a couple beats as eyes caught Ghost's fingers trying to lace a bond between the two of them, his hand just as close as what it was needed to touch him in a rush before Soap got away.

And he was so desperate, so vivid in his need to be held and have his brain teared apart by tears, that Simon didn't even think about how it would have been better tear away the water from his gold-engraved irid before showing himself wet and broken, fallen.

Lost.

The mug attended silently at the outburst, almost trembling on the table as Johnny caught Simon by the hoodie, pulling him toward him with digits digging in the black fabric, surrounding every inch of that man so big he was difficult to handle, even all curled on himself. Ghost felt his head being pushed into Soap's hollow neck, and there he allowed himself to breathe a low, grumbled, chocked cry, wetting the sergeant's t-shirt with no more regret.

Arms squeezed muscles at their limits just to try and hold Simon together, to not let him slip away in his dangerous train of thoughts about to derail.

<If just I→. Lips were bitten, not enough though, and Soap kept on murmuring: <If just I could kill that bastard- > 

Just to be stopped by an almost inaudible: <'S ok>, whispered muffled on his t-shirt.

Johnny's answer was a stronger hold onto Ghost, and the end of the sentence was a spit:

<I would do it. A million times>

‘Cause Roba’s name was too fresh as a wound, still opened on Simon's heart, still hurting so bad. And, of course, everyone could read a bloody dossier, nothing special about the whole task force knowing there was something still buried and burning behind the skull mask.

Everyone could read.

Feeling was something else, though.

Just a heart pierced by a poisoned nail could have been compared with what Soap had seen in Ghost's eyes when Roba's name had appeared on their files.

<I'll survive>

That had been Ghost's excuse since the dawn of time. 

<No>

Johnny's digits started a light move, catching the Lt. by surprise as the fingers moved so gently around the balaclava, brushing it in a kind motion as he allowed Simon to just dig a safe place in his chest. 

<Ye'll live>

Hands touched the mask as delicately as if they were handling a crystal jewel, engraving every bit of covered skin with the tact of an artist cleaning his masterpiece from dust, adjusting the lights and darkness with gentle brushes, setting the most precious ruby in the tiniest gold nest.

Then, with a last, warm, unexpected kiss, Johnny knocked on Simon's doorstep, quietly putting his fingers through the mask, just the tip, just to ask if he, maybe, could come in and bring him some quiet, some calm, some serenity.

Simon's back started to jerk, little by little, in an overflowing crescendo he had kept caged for a little too long.

And Johnny let him do everything, accepted every tear, embraced every silent weep suffocated on his chest, ready to become a safe blanket for once in his life. His fingers dug a little deeper under Simon's balaclava, pressing gently on the scratched skin he was trying to map under his touch. A warm, nice wave, maybe a little wet, entangled Soap's hands.

<I could draw you blindfolded> he whispered, framing Simon on him to better shape himself to be what the man needed to feel finally safe, protect, shield, just for a minute, the time of a couple heartbeats would have been enough.

Ghost's cheeks welcomed Soap's touch, burying little by little in that safe nest with a slow, clumsy jiggling motion.

<See?> Johnny asked, looking through his hands as if he was making Simon's soul a portrait in red and gold, brushing two delicate blushed strokes with his fingers where the skin was warmer, where the tears had dug a little more, where there was needed a little bit of kindness. 

<I was right. Feeling does make skin red>

..........

[priintiisor]

uhh kinda forgot to post this for a few days but anyways- for the 2 people who care to read all of this

the struggles of making neglected space

part 2: somehow i didn t die making it

part 1

so, when i make animatics (or in this case a pmv, whatever), i usually have the idea for a while before i have the time and motivation to actually draw all of it, but i also have shit memory, so usually i make a little "storyboard", not really a proper storyboard, mostly just little extremly messy sketches (usually no one else can tell what s meant to be happening in them), not even to work out the composition, just so i won t forget what i wanted to go over which part of the song.

neglected space technically had a storyboard, from all the way back in october 2023 when i originally started working on it. i made it in ms paint one night and it s absolutely wonderful. you can see it but good luck making anything out

the colors mostly don t mean anything. i was losing my mind a little bit. the shots are numbered cuz i tried to count them to see how insane i d go drawing it

as you can probably tell from the previous attempts at making it, the idea for this pmv was always pretty similar to how it ended up looking (my composition ideas are and have always been boring), but a few shots had changed from how i d originally planned them out in that storyboard so i wanted to make a new one. i didn t have the energy for that however, so i made a sort of script instead. much like my so called storyboards, the script was mostly nonsense (it was just meant for me to not forget what idea i had). here s some of my favorite lines from it

(the things written in italics are the song s lyrics)

and my absolute favorite,

saint. just saint. that was the script for the whole part with saint in it (i just had the shots in my head and this was all i needed to remember what goes on this part. but still it s funny)

usually, i draw my animatics in the order in which the shots will actually appear in it (and either i edit everything at the end of edit every few shots as i finish them). however, i knew that i wanted to make this thing beautiful and fully rendered and it is 4 and a half minutes long, and that s a lot of work. in some of my other animatics (for example, i think it s really obvious in the fall) you can kind of tell at which parts i started to get bored of working on it, and i didn t want this to happen with this one. so what i did is i slip it into parts- exactly the way that maps work, each part was between 10 and 20 seconds long, there were 21 of them in total- and i did those in a random order. i don t remember the order i ended up doing them in, all i can tell you is i did the first part (the first 4 shots, up to the one with the title in it) last, because i had drawn those 4 times already and i was TIRED of them lol

you can still kind of tell on which parts i was tired (like, i m so mad, srs is in this thing for ONE SHOT and it turned out so bad, but oh well) but it s not a big section of it, so it s not as obvious

as for actually drawing it. there wasn t a lot of planning for how the style of this was meant to look. in fact it originally wasn t going to be this detailed- the first shot i did is the one with artificer in underhang (the "the air in here ages me ungracefully" bit) and i think you can tell that one is slightly simpler than the rest. i just wanted it to be really pretty and it got out of hand.

thing is. i m not actually that great at drawing backgrounds. half of the reason the backgrounds in this pmv are so good is because i VERY heavily refrenced from the game, because fuck it, this game is beautiful and it s my fanart i do what i want. but yeah, all the background were drawn constantly at a screenshot, all the colors in those backgrounds are directly colorpicked from the game. i m pretty sure you could figure out exactly which rooms i refrenced in each shot. you could play rain world geoguessr with this thing if you wanted to- the only exception is the shot with rivulet on "where doorways with no doors stage a ballet of leaves", that shot is meant to be happening in the remains of the gate to outer expanse (idk if you can tell in the final thing, but oh well), i stole the colors from the furthest point of subterannean that rivulet can go to but i just made up what it looked like (it s meant to be bits of broken metal because i m pretty sure it s implied the gate just collapsed into outer expanse?? idk i m not a lore nerd, i thought it looked cool)

i made this thing in clip studio paint and paint tool sai, i used 2 different programs because each one has one brush that i really like so yeah i just changed between them. mostly the characters were drawn in csp, the backgrounds in sai and then i did whatever fancy blurring i wanted to do in csp

and now, this is called the struggles of making this thing, so time for me to complain about very specific things no one cares about

for some reason i decided that i wanted to have the lineart be slightly blurry. how i achieved that is copying the lineart layer (sometimes making it a different color) and blurring it. do you know how annoying it is to do that to EVERY SINGLE DRAWING. especially the shots that were a little bit animated and had like 6 different frames.

the compositions in this are very basic, partially because the game is 2d so i usually imagine shots of it in 2d, mostly because i am incapable of drawing things in perspecitive. the one shot of the underhang gate with survivor and monk fucking tortured me i spent like 3 hours just figuring out how it should work. also i realised that shot doesn t actually make a lot of sense because realistically there would be a wall blocking your view from the angle but shhhh

speaking of my struggles with perspective FUCK iterator puppet rooms. it s literally a box with a grid on it. AND sloped edges, just to make it worse. sometimes you can kinda bullshit perspective but it s LITERALLY JUST  A FUCKING GRID. fuck that. shoutouts to my sibling who did the lines on some of the shots for me cuz i was struggling. but at least i now have the funniest answer to "what is you least favorite room in rain world". the "save me the ache of slow decay" shot turned out really cool tho. idk what possesed me when i drew that one (it s one of my favorite lines of the song when it comes to how well it fits rw so i wanted that shot to look really cool, so i m glad it worked out)

also at some point my sibling asked me if i want them to do some of the backgrounds for me because, and i qoute, "i m pretty sure you are going to die otherwise" (they didn t, btw, i was almost done eith it at that point and just went naaahhh i got this)

i also really like how the shots for the part with saint turned out (if you couldn t tell by the fact i have one of them as my banner thing on tumblr lol). idk, the snow was fun to draw

when i was figuring out which shots go where in the final version i realised that i had every scug in it except gourmand, and i love gourmand, we couldn t not have them, so i put them in the weird black bg white lines flashback sequence

what i did NOT realise however, is that srs is in this for one shot and sos is in this for one shot and nsh isn t. (not counting inv and nightcat cuz they re not real) nsh is the only character that isn t in this. and i just think that s kind of funny. next animatic s gonna be about them to make up for it :] (unless i give up on that animatic. hopefully not. we will see)

i never got so burnt out while making this thing that i gave up on it (again, i was kinda doing it so detailed just because fuck it i can) but after i finished it i was like I AM NEVER DRAWING A BACKGROUND AGAIN.

also. i drew these little guys. so fuckin cute. like i m sorry to be admiring my own drawings but fr i was editing this thing a few months after i d drawn it and looking at my drawing of pebbles like why are you so small. who let you be so small.

and yeah i worked a lot on this thing. as i said i basically spent my entire summer drawing this. the rule was that i need to do 2 shots per day (i did some math at some point that if i did that i d have time to finish it. i m not that bad at math, but still kinda surprising it actually worked), and mostly i stuck to that. i really wanted to make this thing. i think there were like 3 weeks in total where i didn t do anything. i think a shot took me on average about 3 hours, counting breaks? so yeah this is truly what i did this summer

and then there is editing! which i definitely didn t put off for 2 months- ok to be fair in october i was working on the terrible things animatic cuz i wanted to get it done for halloween but still.

i actually quite enjoy editing. i use a free program called kdenlive that sometimes just decides it doesn t want to let you use an effect and sometimes refuses to render things properly but it s mostly pretty good

i recently discovered how to use blur and. the blur abuse in this one was real. the blur abuse shall continue into the future.

also, sometimes i edit entire animatics on a single file. but neglected space is 4 mimutes long and there s a lot of moving parts, and i don t trust either my laptop or my editing program to not crash, so i edited it in parts, rendered those, and then edited them together. it was kind of a pain, but probably less of a pain than if it had crashed like 20 times and messed up the rendering

also!! the subtitles. god the subtitles. so i wanted to have subtitles because this song s words are kinda hard to hear sometimes and they fit rain world so well and i wanted people to appreciate my artistic genius- but also because in my head it was meant to be that some characters are saying some of the lines. and. i can t really make that obvious because these fuckers don t have mouths (insert ihnmaims reference). but they do have canonical colors that they speak in!! so i can use that, that s cool!! (side tangent btw it kinda makes me mad that people sometimes use colors to represent the iterators but they use pink for pebbles and blue for moon, like 

i know that s more obvious and the blue might be confusing otherwise but please!!!! they have canonical colors!!! that they speak in in the broadcasts and it s the color of their overseers and the funny lights come on guys!! use them!!!) (side side tangent fun fact pebbles has like 3 different shades of blue, there s the overseer color, and then the broadcast color is weirdly a lot more greenish, and arguably the rot might also blue cuz that s his color but it s a lot darker for some reason. and then there s also purple rot cuz why not. i just think it s funny)

anyways so subtitles- now, my editing program technically can do subtitles (i used it for the terrible things animatic), but.. it doesn t let me make them fade out and overlap and stuff.. we can t have this, i need my subtitles to be cool.. so what did i do? i wrote them out in csp and i saved each and every line of those subtitles as a png and put it in. there are 111 pngs just for the subtitles.

if there s any typos in the subtitles that s not on me, that s on my 3 friends who got to see it a few days before i posted it for not telling me

i maaaaayyyyy or may not have slightly changed some of the lyrics of the song in the subtitles- listen. from what i ve seen no one can agree on what the words in this song are. maybe there s official lyrics somewhere and i didn t look in the right places but istg there are just some lines where everyone says it s something different. mostly i just went with what i first thought it said

one notable thing however is that there is a line in the song that goes "slithers of wistful window gazes glint in borrowed light". i, for (probably obvious) reasons, first thought it said slivers, and i was like ah, works perfectly, it s sliver of straw. in my defense tho- i looked up what the word slither means in this context and.

so yeah i think i m allowed to change that one

so as i said i have a kind of stupid way of making animatics, i draw everything, then i save the parts as pngs and then i edit them together. there s probably better ways to do it but anyways. here is some numbers for you

unless i am failing at counting (very possible) in total this ended up having 85 shots. and other than the subtitles there are 443 pngs

the name of the folder where i kept all the files for this is called "another attempt at neglected space". obviously i had very high hopes i d actually finish it. other folder names include: "wooo", "kill me", "pngs (kill me p2)", "the wonderful world of pngs", "ruffles your whiskers are killing me", "kill me p3 (wait no saint don t-)", "for the last time, pngs", "yes" and the complementary "no", and "editing (god help me)"

so uhh.. i think that is all. thank you for reading my unhinged ramblings.

also this thing has like 5000 views on youtube now. that s insane. it s gotten recommended to me on my other account which i think is really funny. i was fully prepared for it to get like 20 views. i m so glad the people like it. every comment telling me about how it made them cry brings me indescribable joy, like yeah me too. i m just so happy people see the vision :')

as i said to my friends when they saw it,

also. i recorded almost the entire process of drawing this pmv. why did i do this? idk, i m insane, i thought we d established that. i want to speed it up and make it one giant speedpaint at some point. if i ever actually get around to doing that i might link it here. idk if anyone cares to see but i think it would be cool

[ynnu-64]

Hiii, have you ever thought about posting your art process? Also, your art is so inspiring and helps me whenever I’m stuck in a rut!

ahhhh thank you so much ToT im incelredibly honored im someones motivation

if you mean speedpaint i used to post them on Instagram

but I change a lot between Procreate and CSP whenever I draw and there are huge chunks of what I did on other app is missing ,the ones I do on procreate I can totally share :) I don't have much space on my laptop to record any speedpaints 😔

but if you mean a detailed description of my process then I'm afraid I won't ever do ,most of the time it's trail and error for me with drawing,

for colors if it helps when I shade or render and I'm happy with it but not so much with colors I use a lot of layers on top to make it look more interesting

I do a clean sketch/lineart on CSP (I like the brushes for this better on there) and colour on procreate

[jupiter-va]

hi!!!! so ik your focus is on audios (which are absolutely amazing btw) but i was wondering if you could maybe explain how you color/render your artwork? i’m new to digital art and have been struggling a bit. if not that’s totally okay!! i understand <3

Hi! I totally can, though this is gonna get long lol. I tried going in depth? I'm not too great at explaining things so I'm 100% cool with clarifying things if needed. This isn't TLOU art, I was re watching Devilman Crybaby and sketched this out last night. I saw this ask right as I was about to start so the timing was perfect lol

I'm gonna try to go step by step? I haven't rendered digitally in a while, mostly just sketching. Also, this is kinds rushed, it's late, but it explains everything (I hope?)

1.After I do my sketch, I do a fuck ton of blending. It helps me build shadows/depth and I also just like the way it looks. (I also duplicated my sketch in case I mess up and can't go all the way back)

2. Ok, a lot happened, I zoned out, but I swear it's not a lot. I use a grey base on one layer. I clipped color layer to the grey base so that I wouldn't go out of the lines

I changed the line art color to a reddish-brown (which helps me with blending into the skin later) and I added the base color and certain tones.

This character is on the paler side, so a lot of the colors I'm gonna use are cool (blues, greens). And I'm gonna use a ton of red(bc blood flow, and a ton of blush is a stylistic choice for me).

Note: Instead of going straight in with a blending brush, I use transition colors. Blending brushes are good too, I used one for blending the initial sketch, but transitional colors just make everything flow a bit better than just blending two completely different colors. (Color pick between different shades/colors to blend, its tedious but it's what I do)

3. I created a multiply layer and deepened the shadows a bit using the same color as the base skin color, and I made a highlight layer as well (the opacity is pretty low on both the highlight and the shadow layer, you gotta mess around with it)

Has it felt like I've been rendering this entire time?? Absolutely. Have I? No.

I make the initial stages of my drawing all annoying so that when I get to the *checks notes* 8th layer, I can just do the fun stuff. I'm not done at all, but the rendering layer itself is pretty simple, I just add all the stuff that makes the drawing look less dull. Adding more pinkish color on the lips, nose and cheeks. Bringing back a lot of green and blue (that's just a style thing, also there is a 9th layer but thats just the little white highlights)

This definitely isn't the "correct" way to do this (there is no right way), but it's how I do it. I would show how I render hair but:

1.I have no clue what I'm doing when I do it, I just fuck around until it looks decent (even more so than I do with the skin)

and

2.My chair is hurting my butt

All in all, you just gotta practice a bunch and figure out what you like. Using pinterest and Youtube helps me a lot when I'm stuck or need a refresher💕

Again, please let me know if I need to explain something better, I'm not great at teaching stuff like this😅

I might finish this, I probably won't, but if I do, I'll post the full thing.

Update: I finished

[vaynoo]

🌟Draw your Final Card🌟

This started out as a joke drawing between me and my friends about how Henry would totally be a menace at card games due to a.... special little add-on, he possesses, but as I added the lighting, it started changing vibe. It began shifting more towards his direct links to the underworld and how his special connection to Lucifer Darken would provide him with power if he needed it the most at the cost of his humanity.😔 It's probably one of my darker artworks I've made so far. I've also decided to try a new sketching style like this! Sketches like this look good in my eyes! Every 4 sketches I'll make like this will become a render! Considering this one I'm the most happy with, I'll render either this one or another with Demi x Azai in a hot spring! I hope you enjoy this work as much as I do! Full lore comes with the full render! We are also running out of wifi alresdy because of... certain people setting up two phones. So if im slow or gone, you know why XD💕

🌺🌟

CHARACTERS: Henry

STORY: Fiddleburk 🌺🌥🌟

[lesbianneopolitan]

Idk if I ever told you but in my head I always called you Tempy when I saw your icon because I could never remember your full username before you changed it. Hopefully that isn't weird that I nicknames you in my brain

Anyway. You seem to be cranking out art left and right. I'm curious. How long does it take you to whip out a lines commission? Or your colored pieces? Or you're fully rendered master works? Your quality never waivers between the different types of commissions or personal att you do, I am in awe of your speed to do so sometimes...

I don't mind nicknames, although I personally dislike Tempus/anything that comes from that- for some reason I never liked how it sounded, so I would rather be called Neo (preference) or Dev (if the other one gets too confusing for obvious reasons xD)

I'm not gonna combust or anything if the preferenced names aren't used, but my eye will tick or something

---

Tackling the time I take on stuff, tho, a 'sketch' commission like the one I did last night took me around a hour and a half, two hours tops, so I would say that I tend to be consistent with the time when it comes to these

For more finished pieces like the colored and shaded, I tackle them in various days, but the total time I spend on them tends to roughly be like, 4-5 hours

That aside, in all honesty I tend to get so hyperfocused on drawing that I lose my sense of time, but I'm aware that I think compared to the average time of things I tend to be faster than most- it's not the first time someone points that out and idk what to think of it, like, is it good? bad? is it holding me back from doing better pieces? probably, but my goal was never to become an artist that creates super beautiful and super rendered stuff, so I'm happy, because even with that, I compare my newer stuff with drawings I did in 2021 or even 2022 and I can see the improvement

[pitruli]

I love your art SO much it's literally so so pretty

Would you ever consider doing a little colouring tutorial??

Thank you so much :D

I don't know if i can really make a tutorial, but i sure can show my rough "process" when it comes to choosing colours ^^

I have a very specific colour range that i found only recently, less than a year ago even tho i've been drawing digitally for years, all because... my tablet has bad set up and everyhing is too bright and blacks are too black... this is totally unvoluntary, but honestly, best change that happenned in my art style ever !

Anyway, i have exemples with a random Cleo i experimented my rendering process on ^^'

Most of the time i won't even do lighting, so my drawings have this very dull colour range, but they become a bit brighter when i fully render them, which is quite funny i think

I don't know if i'm really clear in this, but basically, i keep my colours between orangy-yellows and cold purples, blues are extremely rare (will mostly be purple actually) and i avoid any green and cold yellow (i end up playing with saturation to make the illusion of cold colours, which i'm still learning). I also keep colours on the desaturate side, and all between a not-so-dark grey and an off white for values ^^

For painting looks, i can't render from a sketch only for shit, so i rather take the long road and have a clean design underneath to help me, which is still very enjoyable to do ! Toggling on and off the messy painting stroke layer is extremely satisfaying to play with ! (only tip i have for painting tho; do the background first, cause you may often need to trim the character's edge with what's behind them to have sharp enough edges ^^)

[goddesstrolls]

OPEN COMMISSIONS (1/9/23)

My commissions are open! I’m offering sketches, inked flats, and talksprites!

More info below the cut:

WILL DRAW:

Anthros, furries, non-humanoids | Example 1, Example 2

Pokemon, animals, monsters | Example 1, Example 2

Robotics, weapons, cybernetics, vehicles | Example 1, Example 2

Armor (Plate, leather, chainmail, ect..) | Example 1, Example 2

Ship Art | Example 1, Example 2

Backgrounds, Scenes | Example 1, Example

Gore, Body Horror (TW FOR GORE IN EXAMPLES) | Example 1, Example 2

WILL NOT DRAW:

Sexual themes/nudity/fetish art

Romantic relationships between a minor and an adult

Weed/sopor or implied use

– Prices are in USD | Payment is by Paypal only

– Price of adding an additional character to 1 image is ½ the total, i.e. for ship art, NOT for buying two separate illustrations

– Prices are subject to change depending on complexity

SKETCH [No color] Bust: $10 Waist-up: $15 Fullbody: $20

“PENCIL” SKETCH [Monocolor] | Example 1, Example 2 Bust: $20 Waist-up: $25 Fullbody: $35

FLATS [Ink + Color] Bust: $25 Waist-up: $50 Fullbody: $70 Background costs extra depending on complexity

TALKSPRITES [Nude base with 1 outfit and unlimited expressions] Base Price: $60 (May vary if your character has tattoos, armor, ect.) Additional Outfits/Accessories: +$5-$10 Rendering: +$10 Multiple Arm Poses: +$10; Price may vary if there is rendering and/or additional outfits/accessories

OTHER OFFERS Ancestor Illustrations: $20 Custom Designs: $10 + Base price for commission type i.e. fullbody sketch ($20)

To order please email me at divinefelinebast@gmail.com OR send a message via my inbox @divinebastet or @goddesstrolls.

Please have relevant references ready. Detailed text descriptions and/or Google images are ok.

[felassan]

Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 annotations & additional pages/art compilation

Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 is a hardcover collection of some pre-existing Dragon Age comics that was released in 2014. It comprises of all issues of The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep. In places, it includes additional annotations/commentaries by the illustrators and authors, as well as a few additional pages with additional art. iirc these additional annotations and pages/art aren’t featured or available anywhere else (in the franchise I mean; other people have probably put them online at some point I’m sure).

From what I can see at least, Library Edition Volume 1 is no longer in print, and as such listings for it on resale sites etc are.. price-inflated & prohibitively expensive (~£100+, which I’m sure we can all agree is just not reasonable or accessible to most people). Due to this, I’ve compiled the additional annotations and pages here in this post. Thank you and credit to @artevalentinapaz, who kindly shared the material with me. This post has been made with their permission. The rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

These commentaries are in the context of The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep. If you notice any errors or annotations missing, or need anything clarified, just let me know. I think the annotations are in chronological order. In places I elaborated in square brackets to help explain which part of the comics an annotation is referring to. A note before you proceed further: some of the topics referenced in the annotations/additional pages are heavy or uncomfortable. The quotes here are word-for-word transcriptions of dev/creator commentaries, not my personal opinions or phrasings.

(Also, I do recommend always supporting comic creators by purchasing their comics legitimately. I own each issue of these comics having bought other editions of them all legitimately. The reason I put this post together is because this specific Library Edition volume has been discontinued and the consequently-inflated cost is so high, rendering the additional material inaccessible to most.)

-----

The Silent Grove annotations

Illustrator Chad Hardin: “I used to be an environmental artist for video games, so I built a 3-D model of Antiva City using the program Silo. Many of the buildings are simple cubes, but a few are more detailed. Overall, I spent the better part of a day building it, but I used it again and again throughout The Silent Grove to maintain continuity in the backgrounds.”

Script Writer Alexander Freed: “Even working with David Gaider, it took me several drafts to find Alistair’s voice. His narrative had to convey his humor and self-doubt from Dragon Age: Origins while suggesting a newfound weariness earned during his years on the throne. For readers familiar with the character, he needed to seem like a changed Alistair - but Alistair nonetheless.”

Chad Hardin: “If you read a lot of comics, you might wonder why the majority of the heroes wear skin-tight suits. Well, I can tell you: they are easy and quick to draw. In video games, you build the model once and then animate it, so details don’t slow you down. In comics, everything has to be rendered by hand. Varric and Alistair’s outfits were quite detailed. It took me a long time to get used to them, and even longer to memorize the designs until drawing them was second nature - Varric’s knee armor in particular! Oy vey!”

David Gaider: “One of my favorite scenes in the entire series [when Varric and Isabela are disarming traps and picking locks together while Alistair looks on]. Isabela and Varric, doing what rogues do. I had a suggestion for how to put it together, but Alex managed to make it fit and did a great job with it.”

Chad Hardin: “I never used to keep any of the artwork I created for comics. I would just hand the pages over to my agent to sell. This page [when Alistair, Varric and Isabela are in a tavern together, with hookah in the foreground] I kept for myself. I love the hookah-smoking elves in the second panel and Isabela’s face in the last panel. I rendered the first four chapters of The Silent Grove in grayscale using ink washes, gouache and Copie markers.”

David Gaider: “For a little while, Varric [in these comic stories] was supposed to be Zevran from Dragon Age: Origins, which would have made sense, Zevran being Antivan and all. I know that some fans would have loved to see him, but the dynamics of the group just didn’t work as well. Then a planned cameo later had to be cut for space. Ah well, Zev, another time.”

Alexander Freed: “Isabela at her most dangerous [climbing up the side of the cliff]. This scene - featuring a scantily clad, dripping-wet woman who tends to flaunt her sexuality - could easily have come across as exploitative, but Chad did a lovely drop portraying Isabela as purely focused and deadly.”

Chad Hardin: “Isabela rising out of the water and scaling the cliff with the knife in her mouth is one of my favorite parts of The Silent Grove. It is one of those moments where the writing really inspired the art. Hats off to Alex and David. This is another page I kept for myself.”

Colorist Michael Atiyeh: “This is one of my favorite Dragon Age pages. Chad is such an amazing artist; I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him.”

Chad Hardin: “I love that this page [when a guard spots Varric and shouts ‘Intruder!’] made it in uncensored. So many times in comics, I draw something and some stuffy lawyers come out of the woodwork and tell me to tone it down. Dark Horse and BioWare always let me have fun, and this turned out to be one of my favorite pages with Varric and Bianca. Any guesses to which word he is mouthing in the second panel?”

Alexander Freed: “Note the simple decency of Alistair as he gives his cloak, without comment, to Isabela. For all his flaws, he’s genuinely kind at heart - a rare enough trait in Isabela’s world that I think it’s much of what she values in him.”

Chad Hardin: “I love the opening panel to this chapter [the opening panels to Chapter 3, when the team are on a ship at sea]. It’s the image I use on the homepage of my website. This page was a gift to my cousin Wendy, who loves pirates. Seascapes with sailing ships might be clichéd in fine art, but for me it was a first.”

David Gaider: “I wanted to have this story center on the group travelling to a Witch of the Wilds other than Flemeth, and originally I had set it somewhere else - until I remembered a Codex entry from Dragon: Age Origins that offhandedly mentioned a witch in the Tellari Swamps. Brilliant! It’d look like I planned it all along. I didn’t.”

Michael Atiyeh: “I love opportunities where I can show a change in the time of day as you move from panel to panel [when the ship heads towards and the team arrive in the Tellari Swamps]. I feel the palette of each panel is very distinct and beautiful.”

Alexander Freed: “Why did Alistair choose two people he barely knows to be his companions on this quest? We never make this explicit, but of course Varric is on the right track. Alistair wants to surround himself with people who don’t know him and won’t judge him, yet it’s Alistair’s idealism that Isabela and Varric work to preserve.”

Chad Hardin: “Another page where the writing inspired the art [when the group suddenly encounter a dragon]. I love the dragon bursting onto the scene and Isabela’s stare. Some writers will try to cram six or seven panels on a page like this and the pacing just doesn’t allow the artist to give each moment the right punch. Can you imagine if the first panel was crammed into a single square inch?”

Chad Hardin: “Yavana was one of the only characters that we did no preliminary sketches for. I don’t know how that happened, but thankfully it worked out.”

David Gaider: “I love how Yavana looks like a cross between Flemeth and Morrigan. Flemmigan? She’s totally Chad’s design, and it’s great. Typical for these witches, she never says things straight. In my mind, this Alistair is the one who did the Dark Ritual in Dragon Age: Origins - and I was half-tempted to have him lose his cool in this first scene [opening panels of Chapter 4] with her. Too early, though.”

Alexander Freed: “Through this whole sequence [the page when Varric aims Bianca at Yavana], Yavana is dropping cryptic hints and Alistair is refusing to play along. He’s met Flemeth and Morrigan - he knows Yavana won’t give him a straight answer, and he won’t give her the satisfaction of asking needlessly.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Sometimes it’s the little things on a page that spark my interest. Here [when the team navigate vines and mud to get to the temple], the sunset panel came out great and the mud looks really thick and gooey. It’s fun to focus on these details and make them stand out.”

Chad Hardin: “I hated drawing this scene [when Isabela gets kicked] where Isabela gets the boot to the face. Call me old fashioned, but I was raised to believe that only a coward would ever hit a woman (even a battle-hardened pirate adventurer). I draw at home, and my girls often watch me work in my studio. This was a page I didn’t want them watching me draw. I do like, though, that Isabela gets up, yanks the arrow out, and then soldiers on (and later extracts brutal revenge).”

Michael Atiyeh: “Poor Isabela. It seems I gave her more bruises and black eyes than any of the other characters. [when Isabela is yanking the arrow out]”

Chad Hardin: “It’s always interesting to go back and look at artwork because it reminds me of what was going on in my life at the time. I inked this page [opening panels of Chapter 5] at a ‘draw night’ session at an anime convention in St. George, Utah. I was one of the special guests, but I missed the first day because I was at my grandfather’s funeral in Las Vegas, Nevada. Seeing this page brought back those memories.”

David Gaider: “‘Bianca says hello.’ [quoting the panels being referenced] I adore Varric. I was tempted to have him narrate the entire series [in reference to these three comics], but then again I liked the idea of having each series center on one of the trio’s viewpoints. This book belongs to Alistair, but that doesn’t stop Varric from getting all the best lines.”

Alexander Freed: “Claudio, of course, is not a terribly sympathetic figure. But I wanted to emphasize that he takes this fight as personally as Isabela - he sincerely loved Luis and blames Isabela for the man’s death. I think it’s important to give every character, even the most loathsome, some dignity. [when Isabela and Claudio are fighting]”

Chad Hardin: “Payback! Here is where Isabela extracts her revenge on Claudio [when Isabela stabs Claudio]. I never enjoyed killing off a character so much. I particularly enjoyed putting the look of shock in his eyes. He had it coming. There is something satisfying about killing a ‘made man’.”

Chad Hardin: “Every now and then when drawing comics, I wish I could animate some panels and watch them as a cartoon. It would be great to see this sequence [when Yavana catches Claudio’s soul] in full motion as Yavana snatches Claudio’s soul, makes it reenter his corpse and then extracts information from him until he bursts into flame. It was a very Hellboy-ish moment. I enjoyed the movie that played in my mind while drawing this scene. Hope everyone liked the result.”

Chad Hardin: “As I mentioned on page 17, I rendered the first four chapters in grayscale, which made the black-and-white art look great, but had a neutralizing effect when it came to colors. By the time I drew chapter 4, I had seen the effect it was having and decided to stop using the grayscale so the colors would pop. When I saw this page [when Alistair says to Yavana ‘And we helped you find it’] in print, it confirmed to me that I made the right decision. I honestly feel this art was the best of The Silent Grove.”

Chad Hardin: “I practically painted these pages [when Yavana says ‘It is permitted. Tonight and only tonight’] in thumbnails hoping it would help me choose how to render them in ink. It is so hard trying to figure out how to get a full range of value out of just black and white. There are some artists and inkers that make this look easy. Mark Schultz comes to mind. Michael saved my bacon. Colorists really do so much work when it comes to rendering; this page came out awesome because of him.”

David Gaider: “Here we reveal the existence of Great Dragons (as opposed to High Dragons), and also that Yavana was the source of the return of dragons to Thedas after their departure for so many centuries. But why? There’s the rub, and not even Alistair can trust that she’s telling him the truth.”

David Gaider: “Here’s the controversial scene [Alistair killing Yavana]. I think some fans don’t like that Alistair did this, and have said they consider it out of character. I don’t. From his perspective, Flemeth and her daughters have been toying with the world for reasons that can’t be trusted. They dragged Maric away from his family, from him. One might think his judgement foolish, but considering what Alistair was capable of deciding even back in Dragon Age: Origins, it’s certainly not out of character.”

Chad Hardin: “[same scene as above] This was a controversial page, and there were a lot of people who thought it was out of character for Alistair to kill Yavana (I didn’t see it coming - I mean, you just don’t kill a Witch of the Wild), but here is the thing: this page is Alistair acting as a king. Yavana has been manipulating him, trying to play him like a pawn, and he just can’t allow that. There’s too much at stake, for himself and for his subjects.”

Alexander Freed: “The end? An end, at least [the trio walking off into the distance]. The series needed a note of closure while leading into Those Who Speak (which wouldn’t arrive until many months later). David tweaked the ending in the outline several times, and I did my best to balance resolving Alistair’s emotional journey without resolving the quest. It’s not as clean as I’d have liked, but fortunately, now it’s all in one volume...”

Those Who Speak annotations

Alexander Freed: “Capturing Isabela’s narrative voice was much easier for me than capturing Alistair’s - partly because I’d already written The Silent Grove, and partly because of my own writing proclivities. Rereading now, I wonder if I laid on the (mild) profanity a bit too thick. I’ll leave you to judge.”

David Gaider: “I like the additional detail Alex and Chad put in, letting us see more of Qarinus and more of Isabela’s crew. Alex wanted to give her crew more of a presence, and let her first mate have some face time, so they weren’t just parts of the scenery. Good call on his part.”

David Gaider: “I’m really fond of the formal getups Chad made for the party. Isabela’s actually comes from a concept we didn’t use from the cancelled Dragon Age 2 expansion, if I remember right. And Maevaris came from me asking for ‘someone who looks like Mae West’ - with the wonderful outfit all Chad’s doing.

Chad Hardin: “Maevaris. I love Mae. When David and Dragon Age art director Matthew Goldman spoke to me about designing Mae, they wanted her to be fully female with the exception of her biology. They told me to think ‘Mae West’. Well, when I think of Mae West, I think of her... womanly shape. So, drawing Maevaris was always walking a fine line between portraying Mae’s identity and her biology. The process endeared her to me.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Just like in The Silent Grove, we are introduced to another gentleman from Isabela’s past [when the team meet Lord Devon and Isabela threatens him]. As was the case with Claudio, he will meet his fate at her hands.”

Chad Hardin: “When I was drawing Titus, my kids asked me why I was drawing ‘angry Jesus’ or ‘evil Jesus’. I can’t remember which term they used exactly, but it made me chuckle. I was going for a mix of Rapustin and Joe Stalin, but ‘evil Jesus’ would do.”

David Gaider: “I’m not sure it’s apparent here [when Alistair says ‘I’d really rather not’], but Alistair was supposed to be using one of his Templar powers on Titus (that’s why Titus recognizes what he is on the next page) and disrupting his magic.”

Alexander Freed: “Isabela is witty and charming enough that it can be easy to forget that she’s not, in fact, a nice person. Even after finishing the outline, David was concerned about making her too unsympathetic - but I loved his approach in this series. The dark deeds Isabela commits - this murder included [Isabela killing Lord Devon] - are what make her guilt tangible and no easy matter to overcome.”

Alexander Freed: “I thought the notions of Isabela’s pride in her captaincy and dedication to her crew were some of the most interesting aspects of her character in David’s story. In scenes here [when Isabela is on her ship saying ‘Keep them focused and keep them sober’] and elsewhere, I did my best to emphasize their place at the core of Isabela’s world.”

Chad Hardin: “Most of the time I draw from imagination, but because of the complexity of this page [Qunari trying to board Isabela’s ship] I decided it would work better if I had photo reference. On this page are my nephews Jared (Varric) and Adam, my niece Melissa, my kids Erica, Tasey Michaela (Isabela) and Chad (Alistair), my friend’s daughter Amy, my wife Joy, and the neighborhood kids as Isabela’s pirate crew. (The crew member mooning the Qunari is out of my ol’ noodle.) I paid their modelling fee in pizza and root beer. Also, I had originally drawn cannons on Isabela’s ship, so if there are parts of it that look slightly wonky, chances are there was a cannon there.”

David Gaider: “Ever since the BioWare artists finally did a concept for female Qunari, I’ve been itching to include one in the game. It’s always slipped through my fingers, so I was going to be damned if I’d have a Qunari plot in a comic - without the same technical limitations - and not have one present.

Chad Hardin: “I had no idea this was the first time anyone outside of BioWare had seen a female Qunari.”

Michael Atiyeh: “I really like the lighting in this sequence [Isabela in her cell thinking ‘I haven’t eaten in days’], especially the strong white light and the characters in shadow.”

David Gaider: “The entire sequence of Rasaan interrogating Isabela was something I plotted out in detail when this series began. Here they discuss names - something treated in a manner peculiar to the Qunari, considering how much importance they apply to what things are called (and not called), because it forms the core of their identity. Isabela brushes it off, but as we find out later it’s also at the core of her identity. I liked that parallel.”

Alexander Freed: “To balance out the relatively static talking pages elsewhere in the issue, I hoped to make the interrogation and flashback sequences beautiful and full of information. I proposed an approach to Chad, and he wisely reshaped it into what you see here [the page with the scene where Isabela says ‘I’ve made a lot of stupid mistakes’]. Anything that succeeds on these pages should be credited to him; anything that fails is my fault.”

Chad Hardin: “Probably the most challenging spread I have ever done. My friend Stacie Pitt was the model for Isabela on this page, and my wife Joy was Rasaan. I saved these pages [around the scene when Rasaan says ‘Mistakes can be corrected’] for myself.”

David Gaider: “Sten from Dragon Age: Origins becoming the new Arishok of the Qunari was something we'd planned even during Dragon Age 2. This was a great opportunity to show that, and also to show that Sten didn’t acquire horns even despite the makeover the Qunari received in DA2. Hornless Qunari are considered special, and Sten is no exception.”

Michael Atiyeh: “I think that David, Alex and Chad handled Isabela’s flashback [to when she was sold by her mother] in an interesting way, and it created a nice flow to the story.”

David Gaider: “This was a controversial scene [what happened to the slaves Isabela was transporting], the end result of a lot of discussions between me and Isabela’s original writer on the team, and it went through a lot of revisions over that time. It needed to fit with the story Isabela told the player in DA2, but fill in the blanks of what she didn’t tell. We didn’t want Isabela to be someone who became who she is because she was ‘broken’ but instead as a result of her own actions - yet also not be completely beyond redemption.”

Chad Hardin: “These were hard pages [as above] to draw. It was difficult knowing that events such as this are part of human history, such as the Zong massacre in 1781, where the British courts ordered the insurers to reimburse the crew of the Zong for financial losses caused by throwing slaves overboard when faced with a lack of water. Horrifying beyond words.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Here, Isabela visits here crew, and I wanted to play up that she was in the light and they were in a dark cell. The light streaming through the bars gave me the opportunity to highlight Brand, who also had dialogue in the scene.”

Alexander Freed: “I struggled to find a way for Varric to contribute to victory without distracting from Alistair and Sten’s big fight. I’m happy with the solution: a brazen lie seemed appropriate to the character without taking away from the main show.”

David Gaider: “I believe my original plan had Isabela’s and Alistair’s fight scenes happening separately, but I like how Alex intertwined them in the script and I especially like how this ends up highlighting the differences between their characters when their fights are resolved. Isabela is defiant, revealing her name not because Rasaan demands it but because it’s her choice. In both cases, mercy is strength.”

Michael Atiyeh: “The brush I created for the clouds really gave them a nice watercolor effect here [on the deck of the ship, Sten calling Alistair ‘kadan’]. That brush has become a staple in my toolbox.”

Alexander Freed: “With the strong theme of names running through these issues, I liked the notion that Isabela had outgrown being, well, ‘Isabela’. When her name comes up in Until We Sleep, it’s largely played with ambiguity.”

Until We Sleep annotations

Alexander Freed: “The story of ‘Arthur’ is one of my favorite minor sequences [Varric infiltrating and fighting his way into the fortress]. It tells us something about Varric and it delivers plot information - and it’s also a reminder that our heroes kill an awful lot of people during these series and cope with it in their own ways. In general, writing Varric let me skirt the edge of metacommentary, which I greatly enjoyed.”

David Gaider: “Varric, as always, is my ‘voice of the narrator’. Here he’s expressing some of my own amusement at Alistair’s growing list of peculiarities [‘Your majesty is quite the special snowflake’]. To think, back at the beginning of Dragon Age: Origins he was just the player’s goofy sidekick who grew up in a barn.”

Michael Atiyeh: “By the third series, Until We Sleep, I really started to have a complete feel for what I wanted the final art to look like. As an artist, it’s important to continue to evolve and grow. The close-up of Sten’s face [same page as above] is a perfect example of how I wanted the rendering on the characters to look.”

Alexander Freed: “David’s outline called for a short, somber reveal of the Calenhad story by Sten. Fueled by my desire to avoid ‘talking heads’ sequences, I scripted it as a full-on storytelling flashback. David made sure the history worked (at least from the Qunari point of view), and Chad did a beautiful job handling it in a mere two pages.”

David Gaider: “Blood is important in Dragon Age, as a theme. Here we tie in the dragon blood that was mentioned all the way back in The Silent Grove and explain what it means at last. I was a bit hesitant to tarnish the legend of Calenhad the Great in this way, but I comfort myself with the knowledge this tale is but a viewpoint and not necessarily the entire truth.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Titus melting the attacker is a great example of classic comicbook storytelling and exactly what made me fall in love with the medium.”

David Gaider: “I was really happy with how Chad handled the reveal of Mae as transgender [the scene with Mae in the cell]. My worry was that Varric finding her disrobed might be potentially titillating, but I think he handled it nicely. I only wish there was more time to have Mae properly respond to being exposed in this manner, even to a friend.”

Chad Hardin: “I originally drew Mae as female [same scene as above], then changed her anatomy, so the psychological violation and humiliation she felt would be the focus. Hope that came across.”

Chad Hardin: “When in doubt, have Bianca shoot it [Varric shooting the artifact].”

David Gaider: “This scene [Varric and Bianca the dwarf] with Varric was one I wanted to do for a very long time. We’ve hinted that Varric’s crossbow was named after a real person, someone he never wants to talk about. Now I finally had the chance to show why.”

Chad Hardin: “Of all my Dragon Age pages, this scene was hands down my favorite, because Varric is my favorite. It was awesome to get to draw Bianca in her dwarven form. These scenes give you a glimpse of the love Varric and Bianca shared. It doesn’t tell you the whole story, but you can assume plenty from what is shown. You get to see Varric mostly naked (you’re welcome), but most of all you witness Varric’s heartbreak. I felt privileged to draw it. I got so obsessed with drawing this page I did an entire watercolor painting based on the last panel [Varric gets up to leave, ‘This isn’t right’ - ? or perhaps the scene where he opens the door to leave].”

Alexander Freed: “Unreliable narrators are always tricky - done wrong, they can just confuse the reader. But I’m fairly happy with Varric’s lies throughout this series, most of which are used to downplay the emotional cost of events rather than whitewash the events themselves.”

Michael Atiyeh: “This palette worked perfectly [Varric standing in front of the doorway/portal in the Fade proper], but I can’t take all the credit because BioWare provided reference for the Fade. I added the hot orange energy for the doorway, which looks great with the sickly green sky.”

David Gaider: “This scene [Isabela’s Fade nightmare] was actually inspired by a fan named Allegra who did a cosplay as a Qunari version of Isabela. I knew I wanted something like this for Isabela’s Fade section of the comic, but it didn’t really solidify until I saw the cosplay.”

Chad Hardin: “Isabela is more affected by her encounter with Rasaan than we were led to believe. A portent of things to come?”

Michael Atiyeh: “I love this shot of Mae in the fourth panel [on the page where Isabela is affected by vines]. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what a great character she is in the series, and Chad captures her beautifully in this shot.”

Alexander Freed: “I saw this issue as a sort of downbeat victory lap. Over the course of the previous series, our protagonists largely came to terms with the inner demons the Fade confronts them with here. The fact they’ve come so far lets them win this last battle... but they still have scars that will never completely disappear.”

David Gaider: “Maric was in the first two novels I wrote for Dragon Age. Seeing Chad’s rendering of him as a regal, grown-up version of Alistair made me incredibly nostalgic. Some characters you just never let go of.”

Alexander Freed: “I feel Varric’s lines (‘tell yourself the stories you need to tell’ but ‘never live your own lies’) are the natural endpoint of all the exchanges he’s had with Alistair, starting from the end of Chapter 1 of The Silent Grove. And of course it plays off the story of ‘Arthur’, as well.’’

Chad Hardin: “I’m happy with the way Titus came off in these pages [Titus attacking and saying ‘The last magisters of Tevinter were so close’]. He looks threatening and powerful when fighting Alistair, Isabela and Varric, but genuinely confused by his inability to defeat Maric. Bye-bye, evil Jesus.”

Alexander Freed: “I can’t help but feel for Titus. He was unthinkably corrupt, but I see him as genuinely motivated by Tevinter’s glory. (The fact Alistair reads zealous ideology as a lust for power says a lot about both characters.)”

Michael Atiyeh: “I love the seamless transition of color from Titus’ magic to the dragon breath and then back into the orange remnants of his magic in the smoke. This was a really fun panel to color [Titus saying ‘Die by what wrought you’].”

David Gaider: “‘You are not the dreamer here. I am.’ I always have a scene or a line that’s in my head when I begin a tale, and this line of Maric’s was one I wanted all the way back when I started working on The Silent Grove.”

Chad Hardin: “I love this page [Maric and Alistair clasping hands]; Mike’s colors are spot on. We get to see all our heroes in an ideal state for the last time. This is the last Dragon Age page I saved for myself.”

David Gaider: “This scene kills me [Alistair destroying the Magrallen]. I knew it needed to happen; I knew I wanted it to happen even back when I began the story. Alistair lets Maric remain in the Fade rather than dragging him back to a world which has moved on. Alistair’s ready to move on, but forcing him to give up that hope... it makes me feel like a bad person.”

Chad Hardin: “Heartbreak for Alistair as he realizes that once again, as a king, he must kill: this time, his own father (granted, the Magrallen did most of the work). I really like how Maric crumbles away in the end. This was my last page, and the emotions on the page and in my studio were very final. Altogether, this was a year of my life in the making. On my last page, I wrote a thank you to everyone involved, the crew at Dark Horse and the crew at BioWare. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them again. It was a thrill. Finally, a huge thank-you to the Dragon Age fan community, whose support was overwhelmingly awesome.”

Michael Atiyeh: “As the story came to an end, I knew I was going to miss these characters. Writing these annotations reinforces the fact that I hope to work with this great creative team again one day. Many thanks to Dark Horse and BioWare for the opportunity to work on Dragon Age.”

Alexander Freed: “The tension between the art and the narration on this page [the one with Alistair sitting on his throne while nobles argue] is something you can only pull off in comics. Neither tells the full, bittersweet story alone. Similarly, these issues wouldn’t have been possible without everyone on the team; thanks to David, Chad, Michael, and everyone I lack space to list!”

Additional pages / art

Library Edition Volume 1 also came with some additional pages, with additional art and commentary. These are as follows (I’m including them for the sake of completion, click the links to see):

1. Alistair and dragon concepts

2. Rasaan and Maevaris concepts

3. Sten, Titus and Yavana concepts

4. A series of cover pages 1

5. A series of cover pages 2

In case anyone has trouble reading the notes that accompany these images, I’ve transcribed them below:

1. Dragon Age Sketch Book

Alistair Concept 

Dragon Age / Dark Horse

Chad Hardin: “The headshot of Alistair is from a finished sketch with a rejected armor design. In order to save time, the redrawing was completed on the computer, where tweaks and changes are quick and easy, if somewhat less glorious.”

[Dragon] Head #1 / Head #2

Chad Hardin: “Everyone liked this dragon sketch so much that Dark Horse printed it for signings at conventions. You can see I did multiple proposals for the dragon’s head. It was more effective than drawing the body over and over.”

-

2. [arrow pointing to Mae’s sleeve] concealed [I think that’s what it says anyway] daggers / shurikens?

Chad Hardin: “When designing Rasaan and Maevaris, I wasn’t exactly sure how their roles would play out in the series. Maevaris’ outfit was inspired by brothel madams of the Wild West. I thought it would be cool to have some weapons concealed in the formal wear. These never came into play in the series, but they were there in my mind.”

-

3. Chad Hardin: “Although we only see Titus in his battle garb in one issue, I really liked the design of his armor. The sketch of Yavana was done on the fly and served as both a rough preliminary sketch and as a panel layout. You have to work hard and smart in comics to keep up with the deadlines.”

-

4. Cover Artist Anthony Palumbo: “This was my first assignment for Dark Horse, and I was both excited and nervous. I drew pencil sketches of the main characters, scanned them and played with different arrangements, poses and color schemes in Photoshop.”

-

5. Anthony Palumbo: “Fellow illustrator Winona Nelson helped me by sitting for photo reference. I created the mock-jewelry with gold-painted Sculpey. That’s a quick photo of my own gaping maw, to help with the image of Varric.”

[liya4kar]

4,8,9 😌💓

HEY FBU YOU'RE THE BEST!!!

4. ... Girls, pretty girls-

8. Most fun is without a doubt the rendering part! I love playing with light and shadows way more than I should. Though on big pieces it can also be the less fun because it takes a hella lot of time. Otherwise line-art is probably the less fun!

9. Here we go! Took my last gala piece for it since it's one of the last pieces I did with the more difference between the initial sketche and the final piece!

For this there was also kind of conceptual sketches? I ended totally changing the BG idea pretty early on though.

[anobscurename]

ocean eyes – chris evans

PART I | PART II

concept: a collection of happenings, the little moments with him. there will be many more parts. this is the first non-date of many.

pairing: chris evans x reader

word count: 1,8k

warnings: none.

author's note: welcome to the third part of like... twenty. i already have a bunch of them written, so now i'm just going through and reading and editing. hope you enjoy :)

He hadn't noticed you yet, and it was becoming almost laughable.

You weren't hidden away, by any means. You were there, in the café, as arranged. Your very first premeditated and arranged meeting with Chris.

You'd be lying if you said that you hadn't rethought your outfit at least twelve times. You had started in simple jeans and a tee, upgraded to a skirt and tank, fucked it all with a summer dress, and now – after several iterations of similar outfits – you were sporting something in between. A tank top with the same jeans and a slouchy cardigan.

Honestly, you didn't know why you were so in your head about it.

Maybe it was because he'd seen you at your best, and then again in your work ensemble which was as close to your best as possible. Looking good meant more tips at the club, and VIPs tipped quite well if you didn't care too much about the degradation of having to flaunt yourself for it.

You knew it wasn't because he was famous – you didn't care much with that sort of thing, given your work leading to so many interactions with these perceived "betters" that the "starstruckness" of it all had long since worn down from a galaxy to merely a scatter of glitter. So what was it then?

Another five minutes passed, and he still hadn't seen you.

You glanced down at the sketchbook propped against your knee. You were seated in one of the unforgivably comfortable armchairs towards the front of the café, surrounded by college students buried in their notes or typing furiously away on laptops. You fit in quite seamlessly with them, you realised, managing to unintentionally chameleon yourself into their aesthetic. You had one leg tucked underneath you, the other curled to your chest, sketchbook close to you so no one could see what you were drawing. It was a very personal thing for you, your art.

Also mildly embarrassing, considering you had been drawing him.

You had no intention of finishing the sketch – you had started it the moment he entered the café and sat down, and continued in hopes that he would see and acknowledge you – effectively halting the process and leaving it alongside the so many other unfinished projects you'd accumulated over the years – so the meeting could begin.

You called it a meeting, because if it wasn't a meeting, it was a date. And you weren't going to be presumptuous enough to assume the latter, so you decidedly chose to believe the former. You were there to discuss the terms of your new and exciting job of looking after Dodger after all. If it was a date, however, it would explain the sudden apprehension you felt, and the numerous outfit changes, and the goddamn butterflies that sought to tear your stomach apart.

You'd met him before, this wasn't some new occurence. Hell, he'd even asked you to move in after just happening to run into eachother twice... Why the sudden nerves?

The longer time drew on in the café, the more it became a little game to you. How long would it be before he saw you? And how far into the sketch would you be when he finally did?

You had already finished most of his face, and were now working on his lips.

His eyes had been the hardest to capture at the time, because you'd spent so long staring into them in the past – during long conversations and across packed and busy bars – and it was as if you knew them too well to put on paper.

With his lips, the situation was almost entirely reversed. You hadn't paid them much attention at all and it was almost as if you'd forgotten what lips looked like in general. You glanced up from your work to see him talking to a waiter, ordering a cup of coffee – and you decided to watch his lips.

His lips were practically highlighted by the shadow of scruff on his strong jaw. How you'd never noticed them as prominently as you did now, you didn't know.

One thing about them, was that they looked soft. They looked soft, like they could kiss the breath out of you, leave you dizzy. And they stretched so easily into a thankful smile when the waiter returned with his order that it was impossible not to smile too.

The pencil moved easily on the parchment paper as you began to get to work, the gentle curve of the cupid's bow, to the small little upturn at the corners of his mouth, even in their natural position. You almost wished you'd brought colours with you, but you knew that no shade of pink would be a perfect match.

Another ten minutes passed, ten minutes of him checking his watch, his phone, sipping his coffee, tapping on the table... Ten minutes of you realizing what a total creep you were being.

But there was something so beautiful about him. Even in the small movements, it was entrancing to watch. You were outright staring, sketch pushed aside and finished, as good as it was going to get. It was one of your best, you admitted reluctantly. The attention to detail was bordering on mirror like, and you didn't know if that made you a stalker or if it made you a romantic. Not that you were considering romance with your future roommate, but you'd be a liar if you didn't admit the thought had briefly crossed your mind. Specifically in the "meeting or date" debate – one which you'd shut down with the agreement to yourself that it was a meeting, nothing more.

You decided then that this had gone on long enough, and if he hadn't noticed you by now, he never was going to. The last thing you wanted him to think was that you'd stood him up. Considering how you'd both met, and the message you'd sent to the person guilty of that particular crime, it wouldn't be the best look for you. Not to mention it was a fucking dick thing to do, in any case.

You unfurled yourself from the position you'd held on the couch, your muscles screaming at you in discomfort.

The foot you'd sat on was dead asleep, and wiggling it brought the onset of pins and needles. Groaning in annoyance, you rose unsteadily, sketchbook in hand.

The idea that struck you just then was a stupid one, but given the fact that all rationality of yours had been poisoned since you'd met Chris – you were still struggling to comprehend how he'd managed to convince you to move in with him so easily – you resolved yourself. It'll be funny, you told yourself.

Pulling your pencil out from where it was tucked behind your ear, you scribbled a quick note on the bottom corner, before tearing the sketch free from the pad. You moved around the café, making sure to keep out of Chris' eyeline. Not a difficult feat by any means, his focus shifted between his coffee and the door at almost perfectly timed intervals. You could feel his impatience growing – his brow furrowed, muscle in his jaw ticking. But also a familiar look you recognized from the other night: concern.

You reached the table at which he sat, but he didn't pay you any mind. His attention was elsewhere. You slid the sketch onto the table – as close to him as you dared – before disappearing to the counter to place an order, perfectly hidden behind a wall of strangers, but able to see his every reaction.

Your order was being made by the time he noticed the paper on his table.

He stared at it for the longest time – the sketch of him sitting at that exact table, wearing what he was wearing, frozen in graphite in his most revisited position of being utterly engrossed with all the newcomers slipping into the café, searching for the one face he was expecting. His shoulders stiffened – and then he saw the note hurriedly written at the bottom corner, and all tension dissipated.

The face he gets when he's looking for another cab to steal from some unsuspecting girl

You stifled a laugh when his brow furrowed – that adorable crease forming immediately – and realization the dawned on him that you were there, and had been for a while if you'd managed to get that sketch done and as perfected as it was. Your coffee was handed to you, and as you watched him swivel his head in confusion, you decided to put him out of his misery.

You walked deliberately and confidently into his eyeline, gently blowing on the hot liquid you clutched before giving him a charming – if not teasing – smile.

"Mr Evans, cab thief extraordinaire," you joked, sliding onto the seat in front of him. You placed the sketchpad you had tucked under your arm onto the table, sliding the pencil back out from behind your ear to place it on top in case it fell. You set your coffee down, lacing your fingers together before resting them on the table.

"Miss {your last name}, stalker sketch artist," he retorted, his mouth already forming a lopsided grin. Your attention was immediately drawn to his lips...

Stop it.

"Hey, it's not my fault you didn't see me. I needed something to pass the time while you were sat there being utterly oblivious."

He opened his mouth to respond, but words seemed to fail him. Chuckling, he looked down at the drawing again. When he spoke, his voice had taken on a sincere gentleness, one that stirred something in the pit of your belly. "It's really good."

"I had a lot of time," you shrugged the compliment off, like you did many you received before. You were accused of being too humble at times – if that were even a thing – and it annoyed some of the people around you.

"But you know," he leaned closer to you, almost conspiratorially. "A normal person would've just told me they were here."

There was a joking glint in his eye, and although he had tried to fight it, he found himself grinning again. There was something about being around you – it rendered him practically incapable of doing anything other than smile.

"Mr Evans," you paused to sip your coffee. "I am anything but normal."

"What exactly are you, then?" You tried not to falter at the sight of his tongue darting out to wet those perfect lips as he awaited your response.

"I, Captain, am fun. Something which you look like you need a lot more of."

He laughed, the sound warm and welcoming. "Is that so?"

You shrugged non-chalantly. "It is."

"I can hardly wait."

[keyofjetwolf]

Bonus Question Answers! (non-anime animated noms)

This was SO. FUCKING. HARD. This question went so much better than I expected, and I’m only sad I lack the artistic skills to make it all a reality.

Below, my PAINSTAKINGLY selected top answers, If yours is listed below, you’ve earned an entry in a random draw to win a GIFTENING liveblog OF YOUR CHOICE

---

Q: The Senshi suddenly find themselves in a very different animated world. Which cartoon power (think Looney Tunes) do they each now possess?

*  Usagi can make literal rainbows happen when she smiles.  Rei can set anything on fire with her mind (she feels a bit cheated because she can do that at home too).  Ami can write down anything in her special notebook and it literally changes reality around her (she does not share this with her fellow Senshi, because she knows the full weight of this power.  She did, however, write Michiru having a bad hair day for just one day.  Just one.)  Makoto has the ability to pull out any ingredient she wants from any pantry/door/closet.  She usually uses this for cooking purposes, so she won't have to purchase groceries.  Minako has the ability to mimic any voice in the world, whether she has heard it or not.  Hijinks ensue.  The Outer Senshi sensibly escaped from the new animated world right after Michiru recovered from her bad hair day.  They don't speak of the experience. -- @amberlilly  [The whole thing was so solid, but what absolutely sent it over the top for me was Ami using her powers to fuck with Michiru in the most petty benign way, which is EVERYTHING.]

*  Usagi is definitely rocking the exaggerated tear gushers.  Ami can pull charts/diagrams out of nowhere at any time.  Rei combusts when she gets sufficiently mad.  Makoto has birds fly around when she sings while cooking or cleaning.  Minako breaks the fourth wall to make jokes and asides to the audience.  Chibi-Usa is somehow able to walk through ludicrous danger without getting touched, because the censors won't allow kids to be hurt in this show. Haruka can make girls melt into puddles of goo with her flirting.  Michiru can summon a servant at any time to take care of an unpleasant or potentially dirty task for her (including to take the slapstick comedy for her).  Setsuna has access to the script.  Hotaru just sort of appears sometimes, just standing there, silently and menacingly, but never does anything on-screen (though you may hear the occasional off-screen screaming).  Oh, and while I'd like to say Mamoru gains the power of inexplicable entrances... he kinda already has that one.  --Darkcloud k'California  [Again, I loved all these, but particularly Chibs saved by the censors, Michiru’s poor hapless slapstick avatar, and everything about Hotaru, thank you.]

*  Usagi: The power to be found charming by every character she encounters and somehow escape all consequences and damage by simply remaining oblivious, a la Tweety Bird.

Rei: The power to explode, reducing her surroundings to charred wasteland, but remain relatively unscathed (perhaps a bit singed)

Ami: The power to grow multiple arms, hands, and hundreds of fingers in order to do tech stuff

Makoto: The power to punch someone through a brick wall, possibly several, and into someone's family dinner. It's always some surprised-looking family's private event. Often the same family.

Minako: the power to, Bugs Bunny style, apply lipstick and seduce ANYTHING. Which, according to her, is a power she already has.

Haruka: The power to run off a cliff and keep going until she looks down. She never learns to not look down.

Michiru: The power to stick a pin into any other character and cause them to deflate like a balloon

Hotaru: She just gets to actually be used. It is thrilling.

Pluto: She will observe this strange planet from afar with her huge telescope and breathe the Martian air and look great in a kilt and Roman-style helmet. --  @incorrecttact  [Your set-up and punchline delivery style on all of these was perfection, and I legit lol’d at Mako and the poor family she continually interrupts.]

* to make dynamite go BOOM (Rei obviously); to have their opponent chase them to the point where they're floating in midair and then their opponent falls 5000 feet but they calmly walk back to land (like Wil E Coyote & the Roadrunner) (Usagi); the power to blow kisses to their opponent (which are clearly poisonous and end up killing the chap) (Minako); the power to have their opponent's entire arm shattered if they try to even punch them lightly on the arm (Makoto - this is canon anyways, but moreso exaggerated here hehe); to open a book and start reading it out loud and words start showing up on screen, confusing tf out of their opponent (Ami - also canon already)  --@midnightdrops  [Each of these were great, but Usagi and Mako as you described them totally sold me.]

* usagi: can now float on yummy aromas, so long as they lead her somewhere tasty! the others play a quick tournament of jun-ken-pon each time it happens to determine who will be responsible for steering her from blissfully drifting into traffic. again.

ami: is now possessed of x-ray vision! only she can neither turn it off, nor control its intensity. she is working on developing a set of goggles to dampen the effect, and secretly hopes they will make her look like geordi laforge.

rei: rei-chan is now blessed with the power of song! her heartfelt melodies soften the malice of even the most one-dimensional baddie, and influence public policy on a global scale. international success life, yo! i guess she's really a hard worker!

makoto: has become something of a cartoon cupid! in a poorly-ventilated room, her mere presence has bystanders declaring their love for one another within minutes*; and her decadent wedding cakes are the hit of second marriages across the country. *all of them so like her old senpai, and none of them falling for her, alas!

minako: employs her considerable powers of confidence and charm to convince the others she now has access to Plot Manipulation, mainly by engineering and taking ownership of a series of happy accidents. her real power is to literally jump out of her skin when she's startled*, and she has no intention of EVER letting the others know about it.  *minako discovered this new ability while she was changing a roll of toilet paper, and a spider dropped onto her hand. the leader of the inner senshi had never been so horrified. her bones were so slick and cold, her skin a hideous unwiped pile, and then THE SPIDER CRAWLED INTO THE PILE and she STILL doesn't know if it ever got out and sometimes her skin itches REALLY bad and you know what let's stop talking about this right now okay???

setsuna: can now manifest a giant pencil and erase the enemy! but doing so would be breaking The Greatest Taboo, and leave her impaled upon the pencil.

haruka: her new empathetic ability is remarkably similar to Ma-Ti's "heart" ring (Captain Planet and the Planeteers, 1990 - 1996). basically, she's just like really soft at you, and it inspires you to take more positive actions toward yourself and the world at large? she protests about wishing she'd received something tough and intimidating, but secretly is very moved by being made an instrument of kindness.

michiru: her intuition has mutated into fourth wall awareness, and the subtlety with which she makes this known to you is SO GODDAMN UNCOMFORTABLE OH MY GOD

hotaru: can now not only communicate with inanimate objects, but also render them permanently animate! you should have been there during the princess tutu crossover episode when she met lamp-chan - they're STILL inseparable, and chibiusa is SUPER jealous. speaking of which,

chibiusa: can now use hammerspace to store her endless series of magical geegaws and weird animal boyfriends.  -- @rasiqra-revulva  [Dude, you have got to stop making me snort laugh, it’s RUDE. Pure solid gold, every word, with a special nod to Haruka, MICHIRU, and Minako’s extended tragic cartoon backstory.]

* Usagi - like her name suggests, she is now Bunny. By which I mean she is now a very pink and blonde bunny (somewhere between Bugs and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit), but with super-elastic limbs to accompany her new form. Ami - Magical Science Powers up to and including ‘mix one brightly colored liquid in flask with another brightly colored liquid in flask, explosion, get hammer.’ Rei - An infinite supply of dynamite she can pull out of nowhere. This shouldn’t be as useful as it is. Mako - Literally suplexed a giant metallic youma not just untransformed, but before she has Senshi powers at all. I fully believe she could lift an anvil in canon. Minako - While Usagi looks like a rabbit, Mina now has the supernatural trickster abilities of Bugs Bunny. Implausibly effective bad disguises, persuasion, showing up out of nowhere. Chibs - Now that gun from her first appearance is a real gun, but it shoots anything from normal bullets to pies in the face to live birds. Pluto - The fourth wall is a real and tangible thing. Pluto can not just break it, but control it. If she wants to remove a layer of cel or suddenly turn things into sketch, she can do it. If she wants to teleport, she can skip in the animation. If she wants to suddenly appear as a Roger Rabbit-style cartoon in a live action field, or vice versa? Yeah, she can do that too. She basically uses this power to warp the layers of her cartoonish reality for pastry acquisition. Haruka - You’d think it would be Roadrunner speed. Haruka thinks it will be Roadrunner speed. But no, it isn’t. Space Jam is Looney Tunes, and Haruka’s power is Basketball. Michiru - Another power that’s just canonical: Wealth. Ridiculous, tremendous wealth. Hotaru - The funniest thing for Hotaru to be in a zany cartoon world is Even More Spooky. Nothing changes except the artstyle and a ridiculous supervillain cape.  -- Regalli  [Pluto, man. Fantastic and brilliant and I legit WANT THIS. Also though, Hotaru with a cape.]

*  Usagi gains the ability to eat anything and everything like the Tazmanian Devil, though she shares none of his aggressive personality; Minako enjoys fucking with people by bending reality (you know, diving into painted tunnels and stuff like that); Ami is able to utilize and test unreal technology without harm, like jet boots, massive bombs, tornado seeds, etc.; Mako uses body manipulations to change her size and shape--especially for blocking attacks to protect people or grabbing people (coupled with her immense strength); and Rei is the only one aware of the audience beyond the Fourth Wall... She tries not to talk to them but sometimes she just can't help it, especially when Usagi is getting on her nerves.  -- @thehubby  [I said pander to me, and you absolutely did. I can’t stop thinking about Rei trying not to make fourth wall eye contact, then just whirling around all “CAN YOU FUCKING BELIEVE THIS SHIT??!?” and as it turns out, that IS precisely what I wanted.]

---

I’ll be drawing for the bonus liveblog around the start of THE GIFTENING 2020 (currently looking to be Monday, 11 January 2021). Each bonus question is another chance to earn an entry, so keep those answers coming! I CAN ABSOLUTELY AND SHAMELESSLY BE BOUGHT.

[heypasstheegg]

Willowson prompt: finding each other/meeting after getting out of the Constant

This one took forever for some reason but it’s done!!

It’s also not very good sorry

--

“He looks like this!”

Willow held up her crudely drawn picture of Wilson for the officer in front of her to see. Not her first choice by a long shot, talking to a cop, but she didn’t think anybody in Woodstock was going to give her too hard a time. And anyway, she’d been talking to strangers an awful long time...

Despite the artist’s rendering being less than lifelike ( Sketch-Wilson’s hair was wilder than normal, more like a lit campfire than Willow had really intended, she had possibly gone overboard on his shallow, sunken eyes, and also one ear was higher up on his head than the other), recognition flashed on his ginger, pudgy face. “Ah, the Ghoul.”

Willow bristled. “What?”

“Bit of an oddball.” The cop took the paper in his hands a moment and inspected the image a bit closer. He didn’t comment on her change in attitude, thankfully. Bad form on Willow’s part, but it had just sort of slipped out… “He keeps to himself. Most folks around here don’t even know his name.”

Hence the nasty nickname, she figured. They should have called this place Jerkville.

“His name is Wilson.” She exposits. “Wilson P. Higgsbury. The ‘P’ stands for Percival.” 

The cop snorted. “You two related or something?”

Willow thought about it for a moment. “Um. Yeah, sure, I’m his...sister.” Whatever ended this conversation quicker. 

He side-eyed her a bit but just shrugged lackadaisically in the end. “He’s up on the hill.” He pointed to a cluster of trees in the distance, away from the suburbs. “Maybe an hours’ walk out there. Stick to the road. You’ll hit him eventually.”

Hours’ walk??? Uggggggh. 

“I can give you a lift if you’d like.”

Willow narrowed her eyes a bit. The last thing she wanted to do was ride with the fuzz anywhere. 

But it’s not like she was in trouble or anything… so…?

“Uh, you don’t have to do that. I can walk there myself just fine.”

“Humph. Suit yourself.”

--

This was such a mistake.

Oh, the walking had gone just about as well as she thought it would. But “sticking to the road” wasn’t helping, and it was starting to get dark…

Willow shook herself. It’s not like there was anything in the dark to get her, and even if there was, she had her lucky lighter! Just like old times. Get a grip!

Willow stopped sort when a flash of something caught her attention on the side of the road. A sign next to a pathetic little trail.

“PRIVATE PROPERTY”

Well, this is the first sign of human habitation she had seen on the road so far. Looked like his handwriting too… 

BANG!

Willow jumped out of her skin. A distant explosion. She looked up and saw a cloud of blue smoke waft over the trees.

Oh, this was his place alright! Willow couldn’t contain her excitement as she tore through the woods. 

And there it was, Wilson’s house, in all it’s decrepit, depressing glory. 

A window was thrown open with a fury on the second floor, accompanied by a very familiar string of coughs and another plume of chemical smoke. It was him!! It was him!!!

“Wilson!!” 

A few seconds later a very perplexed scientist had stuck his head out of the window, an erratic expression plastered on his alabaster face. “Huh??? Who’s there, don’t any of you know how to read?”

“Wilson! I found you!”

They locked eyes for a moment (though it seemed Wilson was still a bit blinded), totally frozen. 

Suddenly he slammed the window shut and ran from the attic. Willow could hear him racing around the house, the walls must be pretty thin.

The front door opened then, gingerly, as though Wilson meant not to startle a skittish animal.

“W-Willow??” His voice trembled and his eyes were glistening. He must still have smoke in them, poor fella! “Is that really you?”

“Um, yeah!” She twittled her thumbs some, nervous that maybe she had interrupted something important. 

Aw, screw it. She missed the big lug, he was getting a hug!

“Oh don’t-” Wilson stepped outside and shut his door behind him. “Don’t come in yet, the place is- I mean it’s all so-”

Willow pulled him into an embrace, burying her face into the crook of his neck. 

Wilson returned it, tightening his grip with each passing moment. 

Willow pulled away at the sound of him sniffling. “Oh geez, don’t cry! I’m sorry I took so long. It took me a while to remember the name of the town you said you lived in.” And the state too. Turns out there was more than one Woodstock on the East Coast. 

“I… I thought-” Wilson held his face in his gaunt fingers and whimpered, “I thought I’d never see you again… I thought you were a dream.”

“Who, me? You’re not getting rid of me that easily.” 

Wilson chuckled a bit in between sniveling. “No.. I don’t suppose I am.” He took his handkerchief out of its usual hiding place. It was stark white, which shouldn’t be possible, given the years of gross mistreatment in the wilderness.

Wilson seemed stark white himself. Cadaverous, more so than usual, as if he had pulled himself out of the ground not too long ago, and was still trying to remember how to be a person. The person he’d been before he came to The Constant. “The Ghoul” of Woodstock...

She wouldn’t bring that up, it was mean. She felt mean for thinking it.

“I’ve missed you, Willow” he dabbed at his eyes with the cloth, “you don’t know how miserable I’ve been these past weeks.”

“Wanna bet?” She wrapped him up tight into another bone-crushing hug. She listened to his heartbeat (slamming against his ribcage), and sighed contentedly. 

His embrace felt the same.

His nervous little squawk when he exclaimed that his house wasn’t fit for her to be in made her laugh; she really didn’t care what the house looked like, because it wasn’t her home.

Wilson was her home.

[missingmywing]

Let Us Embrace Whatever It May Bring

@boomchickfanfiction this was inspired largely because I randomly remembered your 30-day challenge, went back to reread them, and rediscover your D&D au. And then got seriously inspired by the remake because I’ve got this colossal D&D universe that I’ve never written or posted anything for. Which is a shame.

So, thanks for reinspiring me!

(Potential spoilers for FFVIIR)

(Link to headcanon post on this; here!)

. . . . .

“They’re going to be so confused.”

“Of course they are, that’s what makes it fun!”

“Cloud is going to hate us.”

“Oh, he is not. Admit it, he’s going to be so excited to bring back the goofy try-hard jackass from the original story. He’s been irritated at what Strife’s slowly turned into across the multiverse, all because he actually payed attention in Intro to Psychology and accidentally took the “play to reality” character type a bit too literally. A hard reset is exactly what he needs, bonus points when he realizes where we’re going with this.”

“Which, hopefully, won’t be until the end of the first part of the campaign.” Sephiroth sent Aerith a pointed look. “We’ll have to be careful not to give them too much to work with too soon.”

“Tell that to the DMs,” she shot back, nudging her cousin with a grin. “Who’s heading it this time? Angeal was the main one last time, even with your parents helping him out, but are we going back to that?”

“Time travel isn’t Angeal’s usual forte,” Sephiroth conceded, “but that adventure was very much his. I’m not willing to take that from him unless he’s an actual player this time. Which, considering where we’re starting the timeline, he can’t be. Not with his own character, at least.”

“That is true,” she sighed, leaning back in her chair to stretch. “I definitely agree; it was his and he really owned it. I know Auntie was super impressed.”

“Yes, yes, mother is very supportive of dragging people into nerdom. It’s why she and Gen get along so well.”

“And that they share a nickname?” she grinned.

He rolled his eyes with a sigh. “That too. So, how are we going to pitch this without arousing suspicion?”

“‘Hey, why don’t we see if we can keep Aerith alive this time?’”

He sent her a deeply unimpressed look.

“I know it may come as a shock, but the world doesn’t actually revolve around you, y’know.”

“This one does!” she shot back with a brilliant grin. “Now help me figure out how to set this up so no one realises that we’re literally resetting the timeline.”

. . .

“Hot damn we actually got everyone here,” Barret looked around, impressed, at the barely-contained chaos of people reuniting, getting food and drinks, and discussing storylines.

“I didn’t actually expect everyone to show up when I sent out that message,” Aerith admitted. “I mean, I did send out the call for Avalanche specifically, even if everyone was invited.”

“What, ya’ thought we wouldn’t show up to a new campaign for this story?” Reno asked with a grin, slinging an arm over her shoulders. “Everyone shows up for the first and final sessions, even if they don’t participate. C’mon Aer, this is our baby. We all wanna know what new adventure awaits us on the distant land of Gaia.”

“Yeah, who’s getting possessed this time?!” Zack called across the room with a grin. “Do I finally get to come back to life for good? Does Cloud finally die for good? Do he and Seph finally bone in-game?!”

“No, that was Dissidia,” Cloud corrected with a grin, and laughter rang through the rooms.

“Oh boy, that campaign,” Genesis grinned, elbowing Sephiroth.

“You weren’t even there,” Sephiroth protested, elbowing him back with a smile.

Angeal shook his head from where he and Jenova were setting up the table. “That’s what you get for live-streaming it.”

“It was a fantastic campaign,” Jenova assured them. “Full kudos to your DMs, they did a fantastic job juggling everything and showing how young their gods were last time, especially in comparison to Cosmos and Chaos from the first two campaigns. And all from behind the anonymity of a computer and avatar.”

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at her, and she winked at him. She preferred to stay anonymous in the wider campaigns like that; it preserved her character’s image.

“It was fun,” Cloud admitted, “even if it was chaotic. And speaking of fun and chaotic, is everyone here?”

“Role call!” Jenova shouted through the house. “DM’s to the floor prompto! Avalanche and evil people, to the table! Everyone else, spread out and stay out from underfoot!”

There were chuckles and laughter as people called out jibes and protests toward their treatment, but everyone gathered just the same. With some subtle prompting from the DMs and two schemers, the people from the Midgar section of the Meteor campaign were settled closest to the DMs, Shinra (Rufus, the Turks, and Reeve) on one side and Avalanche on the other, and Aerith managed to snag Zack into sitting next to her. At his raised eyebrow she winked.

Angeal cleared his throat, and it fell quiet.

“You all have your intro Meteor sheets, right?” He glanced around, and everyone nodded. “Right, get those out and let's get some stat comparing for this campaign.”

That raised a few brows and murmurs, but the rustling of bags and binders and papers soon filled the room.

Sephiroth was careful to hide his endgame Advent Children campaign sheet behind his intro Meteor one. No reason to give anyone ideas at this stage. The anticipation and confusion would be so much more fun if they were all kept in the dark.

His eyes met Aerith’s, and she looked just as excited as he felt.

They took a few minutes to minorly rework the sheets to better suit their play style now, but the changes wouldn’t be major enough to impede the story. Good.

Jenova clapped twice, Lucrecia and Vincent finished tidying up the papers, Hojo spread out the stat sheets, and Angeal once again cleared his throat.

“Imagine, if you will, a sky. Filled with clouds, oversetting a dusty plain with rocky hills. A bird flies overhead, feathers dark and scraggly. It soars through the sky, over the plains, toward a large mass of metal plunging into the sky.”

Angeal had the perfect voice for narration, everyone was hooked from the first sentence, and there were shifts of excitement at the mention of the ruins of Midgar.

“Carried up by the wind, if flies into a cloudbank, navigating through large metal beams and poles. With a burst of sunlight, it emerges on the other side- overtop of a thriving metropolis.”

There was a burst of noise at that. Gasps and shouts of surprise at the realization that these weren’t ruins, and it probably wasn’t Edge.

Jenova called for quiet, and all the DMs looked amused.

“So what, we doin’ a time-skip?” Cid raised a brow.

“No, that doesn’t make sense.” Elena dug through her notes. “In the AC campaign it opened with a five hundred year time-skip and Midgar was a jungle, remember?”

“Yep, Nanaki and his cubs were overlooking it,” Kunsel confirmed, pulling out the concept sheet he’d sketched out at the time, as well as the character sheet he hadn’t yet gotten to use. Apparently he wouldn’t get to use it this campaign either. Darn. He had tons of cool stuff Nanaki had learned over those five hundred years.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that we didn’t time skip,” Rufus pointed out. “It just means that we’re before it was reclaimed by the Planet. It could be a two or three hundred year time skip, and we’re descendents. A city could easily be totally reclaimed in a hundred years or less.

“Or,” Cloud cut in, “we could just wait and see what nefarious plot our DMs have in store.”

“I just got done with the Number 3 campaign with the KH crew, so I know what my theory is,” Reno drawled, drawing snickers from everyone who followed that particular convolution.

Aerith giggled, and tried not to do it too hard. Reno would be the first to figure it out, solely due to the central part he played as Axel in that particular campaign with that group. He’d keep quiet though, just to see how long it took everyone else.

Angeal smiled at them, but continued. “It flies over the train tracks, the cars on freeways, and down between buildings in what appears to be an entertainment district. Children on bikes ride down the street, past construction crews and people loading fuel cells into cars, shoppers entering and exiting shops along the street, and cars making their way along the road. The children ride down a hill, across a road, and reach a playground with a few toys… and a strangely shaped slide.”

Cloud stilled, suspicion arising in his eyes, and Aerith and Sephiroth bit back smiles.

“Day fades to evening, to night, and as the young girl slides down, something catches her eye in the distance. She turns to looks, and watches as a large burst of green erupts from a distant building along the giant outer wall.”

More and more people were beginning to realize, and Reeve looked breathless at the description of something he’d labored at for weeks alongside Jenova, Lucrecia, Hojo, and Vincent to make somewhat realistically believable for his first campaign with them. He was blindly groping in his bag for the sketches and blueprints he’d rendered out on his own.

“Imagine, the sparks of green float up and up, into the cloudy sky, until they resemble stars- and now imagine drifting through them, through the emptiness of space-”

Oh, Cloud knew this. He remembered this from their first Meteor session. Their introduction to the fully realized Midgar, at the introduction of Reeve to their group. And, judging by other people’s reactions, he wasn’t the only one.

“Holy shit,” Barret breathed from beside him, and an incredulous grin was slowly spreading across Zack’s face, while Tifa looked torn between excitement and horror.

“Imagine floating down, down, until buildings take shape. An alleyway, and in the alleyway is a girl. Long, flowing brown hair, with a pink dress, red jacket, and pink ribbon in her braid. Her green eyes are focused on an opening from which the sparks are floating out of; as though she is receiving answers to questions only she would know to ask.”

There was silence for a moment, and Aerith counted down the moments in her head. Three, two, one-

The room exploded into chaos. People were shouting, throwing out questions and theories, laughter and horror in equal bounds on people’s faces.

“Yes!!! Oh yeah, Wedge is back baby!” Zack’s gleeful shout was the most obvious, drawing laughter and groans of protest in equal measure at the reminder of Barret’s Avalanche cell.

“Are we reworking Meteor?!” Elena looked ecstatic. “Because there is so much I want to rework with my fighting style! I have some nifty new spells that I want to try against a bigger level gap!”

“Oh noooo,” Reno groaned, dropping his head back. “I’m gonna go back to bein’ the guy who dropped the plate. Not cool, yo! I finally made everyone forget about that by bein’ a quirky idiot in AC!”

“Ha!” Yuffie grinned. “We’re never gonna let it die!”

Sephiroth focused on Cloud. “You seem conflicted.”

Cloud started, then grinned ruefully at him. “I am, a bit. I’m ecstatic to come back of course, to get Strife back before I put too much realism into his reactions, to completely rework him from the ground up. I mean, this was my first campaign as a major player the whole way through. I’m thrilled. I just also happen to remember all the horrible things that happened to turn Strife into sir angst-fest that he was.”

“Perhaps,” Sephiroth acknowledged, “but if we’re reworking it… then doesn’t that mean that you can change things this time around?”

Cloud sent him a flat look, though his eyes were warm. “I’m not naive enough to think it’s that simple. Between you and the DMs, this won’t go smoothly at all.”

Sephiroth smirked at him, that damn smirk that got to him every time. “Perhaps,” he repeated in a purr, “but isn’t that the fun of it all?”

“Alright children, settle down!” Jenova shouted, but her wild grin showed her true feelings on the matter. “Yes, to answer the question… we are, in fact, reworking Meteor. For a couple of reasons, but mostly… yeah, character development was a large part of it. A couple of people backed themselves into a corner with their characterizations, and needed a sort of… reset.”

Cloud winced, his own feelings being the most well known on the matter. “Oops,” he said weakly.

“It’s not just you,” Lucrecia assured him. “Vincent and I need to rework ours too, because Dirge wasn’t… hmm.”

“I need a character alteration,” Vincent said flatly. “I didn’t like how I played some of that, and would like to have come to some of those conclusions earlier, because some of my lack of action felt a bit too forced and I would like to see if I can smooth it out.”

Yuffie frowned. “What was wrong with it?”

“Essentially the same problem as Cloud, I took the after effects too seriously and made my character more depressed and stagnant than necessary. I’ll see if I can tone it down a bit, or at least form it into a slightly more active shape earlier.”

“And my entire character needs to just be completely reworked,” Lucrecia sighed. “Granted I use character very loosely, because she’s basically just an NPC, and since we based this whole thing on one of our high school campaigns, I am very annoyed with what I turned her into.”

“You turned her into that because she annoyed you and you didn’t like her anymore,” Hojo pointed out dryly.

“I know, but I’m hoping I might be able to fix it.”

“Hashtag-doubt,” Jenova murmured. “I, for one, am perfectly happy with my character.”

“You would be,” Sephiroth said dryly.

“And you aren’t, darling?”

“No, I am,” he assured her. “Just reminding you of your own nature.”

Murmured conversations broke out as people reevaluated their character sheets, considering possible changes. Cloud noticed Rufus, digging out a familiar pet-sheet and quickly scratching out the name up top, and snorted. A glance around revealed Zack gleefully revising Wedge’s sheet, While Jenova and Angeal already had Jessie and Bigg’s revised sheets out in front of them.

Reeve was considering his own three sheets, clearly calculating stats, as was Kunsel. He caught sight of Reno’s sheet just as Angeal called- “This isn’t Kingdom Hearts, Reno, you cannot pull Axel’s stats over to your Turk, he isn’t Lea.”

“Lameee,” Reno groaned, but put the sheet up well naturedly.

“They don’t even use the same element,” Tifa pointed out with amusement, her own sheet done with few revisions.

“Meh,” he shrugged, glancing over. “Not gonna revise stats, Tseng, Rude?”

“A few a bit later, perhaps,” Tseng responded distractedly as he flipped through his later sheets. “As of right now, however, no. I’m content until I can unlock a few higher-tier spell combinations.”

Rude nodded. “Same here. I know what I want to change, but I need higher levels first.”

Barret was grumbling along with Cid about potential mechanics later on, and Cloud turned his attention back to Genesis and Angeal bickering lightly about Scarlet’s potential and materia abilities. He shook his head with a smile, and waited for everyone to finish up.

Angeal cleared his throat once again, calling for silence, and continued.

“Long, flowing brown hair, with a pink dress, red jacket, and pink ribbon in her braid. Her green eyes are focused on an opening from which the sparks are floating out of; as though she is receiving answers to questions only she would know to ask. She starts, suddenly, as though breaking out of a daze, and straightens with a nervous glance around, as though looking for something. Nothing appears, but she quickly stands and hurries out of the alley, glancing over her shoulder as she does. She stumbles into someone, and drops some of her flowers, in her distraction. Quickly kneeling to pick them up, she collects all but one before a man carrying a box and thus can’t see it, steps on it. She slowly picks it up, cradling it in her hands, before her gaze is inexplicably drawn to the sky.”

Angeal to a breath, and continued.

“Pulling away from her, up and into the very sky she’s observing, see the building, lit brightly against the dark, theaters and shops and restaurants; further up and see the city take shape, enormous metal plates with large gaps between them, and at the center… at the center is a tower. Looming over the entire city with an ominous presence, it oversees all that goes on in the city.

Now we go down, down past the other side of the tower, down to Sector 1. A train flies along the rail, a delivery for Mako Reactor Zero. And atop that train is a young man. Blond flyaway hair and a modified SOLDIER uniform, a large sword attached to his back. As the train slows, he looks up, glowing blue-green eyes steely with determination. The train pulls to a stop in the station, and two guards separate to do an inspection.”

Angeal smiled.

“Roll for initiative.”

. . . . .