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cruyuu · 7 months ago

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Oh my god thank you SO much for your last analysis in response to my ask jfkfbwksk

How do you ALWAYS deliver on the feels??

And I have to say, your analyses really shine a new light on Yuuji’s character (and the SukuIta dynamic) in a way that makes Yuuji even MORE tragic to me??

Because quite literally, Yuuji really has NO equal in the story when it comes to selflessness and mindset. In fact, considering just how overwhelmingly SELFISH the world of JJK is, I’d argue that it’s YUUJI who may be the loneliest in the entire series because it is HIS mindset/morality that would be the most alien to virtually everyone else in the series

In the JJK world, where everyone is apathetic to the common good and prioritizes themselves and the people they happen to care about over the rest of the world, and where doing so is legitimately seen as MORAL, Yuuji’s selflessness is the one who seems the most incomprehensible to everyone else. I think this is best seen in how everyone aside from Yuuji views civilian deaths

For instance, when Geto started murdering civilians en masse, characters like Gojo, Nanami, etc were like “ok, he has to be stopped because he’s a tad bit extreme, but he’s still bbg who did nothing wrong and who was very likely correct uwu and he’s actually maybe a tragic heroic figure??” and weren’t upset at him at all for planning to kill so many human beings. Heck, Yuta only got upset with Geto the moment he started threatening Maki, someone he happened to care about

Likewise, even with freak characters like Kenjaku, he’s still understood by people like Yuki and Geto, who share his morality/views/etc

Also, when it comes to Sukuna, even though he’s a literal sadistic cannibal who loves to torture, kill, and eat humans for fun, the cast doesn’t really seem to be all that upset over it and even admire him, feel sympathy/sorrow for him and solidarity with him, seek his approval, and want to reach him with love. The only reason why they even take a stand against him is not because of the threat he poses to humanity, but the threat he poses to jujutsu sorcerers. Yuuji is the ONLY one who is morally bothered by the fact that Sukuna is, you know, EVIL and seeks to subject humanity to his sadistic whims

And during the Shibuya Incident, everyone aside from Yuuji is very nonchalant about civilian death. Gojo, Mei Mei, etc are very blasé about seeing civilians getting brutally murdered or threatened right before their very eyes. Megumi canonically doesn’t care about the masses and only cares for a very select group of people. Heck, him summoning Mahoraga was basically him knowingly screwing over the entire civilian population of Shibuya. Yes, the other characters grieved, but they only grieved for the losses of the people they happened to care about. Yuuji was the ONLY ONE who was devastated over the losses of not only his friends, but over the deaths of the thousands of civilians as well. Heck, the idea that Yuuji could possibly be also upset over the loss of thousands of innocent civilians probably never even crossed their minds since the kind of morality needed to care about civilians is just THAT foreign to them. And ironically enough, the only person who seems to realize that Yuuji would be upset over civilian deaths is SUKUNA, who specifically switched with Yuuji at the last second to see the crater because he knew it would devastate Yuuji to witness the deaths of so many people. Yuuji’s closest companions in the series don’t understand him, but Sukuna does

I mean, in the same way that Gojo, Kashimo, etc tried and failed to reach Sukuna, Mahito (the only one who attempted to do so with Yuuji) tried and failed to reach Yuuji with all of his “we are the same” talk as well. Because although there may be very superficial similarities between them, in the same way that Gojo, Kashimo, etc share superficial similarities with Sukuna while still ultimately not being alike at all where it truly matters, Mahito and Yuuji are ultimately DIFFERENT in the sense that Mahito acts out of his own selfish desires while Yuuji is entirely driven by selflessness. They are not the same at all, and Yuuji is, once again, entirely alone

While Yuuji’s companions (Megumi, Gojo, Choso, etc) don’t understand him, Sukuna, the man who ruined his life, DOES, and that’s something that Yuuji quite possibly has to viciously deny to himself lest it tears him apart inside

Fjskjdks

Hello again anon!

I'm happy to hear that you like my analyses! I am always more than willing to provide for us Yuuji fans. My acc is heavily oriented towards sukuita and Yuuji and Sukuna individually even if I do like all characters.

Now, to properly answer your ask.

Yes, Yuuji is a very tragic character. In fact, the way he views the world is really too idealistic and the way he adapts to it is really fascinating to me because you would think that this guy would start becoming more selfish as time passes (after all, it is logical for him to do so) but instead he just continues fading away and accepts his role as a "side character", still blaming himself for everything. Yes, the fight against Mahito changes him, but not too abruptly. His naivety and cheerfulness are gone from his face, but they are still there from time to time.

For a story such as jjk, this is perfect, however. It suits him to be someone who is in the back lines. The truth is that Yuuji is considered "weak", someone who wasn't from the three great clans nor someone who could ever grasp cursed energy. Someone who wasn't born special. Someone who wasn't born a jujutsu sorcerer. It is logical for him to be treated by the story as such. Even when it's revealed that he's one of Kenjaku's creations, he's still dismissed by them and called "a thing". He's just a pawn for a greater scheme— for bringing back Sukuna. He remains an underdog even after a great ancestry reveal that usually brings main characters in shonen great importance and skyrockets them to the heights of the main villains. Makes them terribly powerful. And don't even get me started how the narrative casually brushes over this fact and how we were robbed of Kenjaku interacting with Yuuji (😭). It really is painful to be a Yuuji fan tbh

Yuuji still remains quietly ignored which I can't help but admire because if Gege did pull that move and made him so terribly important and capable of spamming Blood Manipulation out of nowhere and could easily knock down Sukuna, I would be very ready to leave jjk behind.

Still, even if I call Yuuji weak (kinda like the story itself does), I do not consider him weak at all. His physical prowess as well as speed makes him already leagues above your average human. People who really do consider Yuuji weak do so for very stupid reasons. Because Yuuji doesn't have a domain, nor a cool, science-defying, earth shattering lowkey OP signature CT. Instead, he gets Sukuna's copy which is ridiculed to hell and back by Sukuna (and some fans of jjk). He's not cool by shonen standards at all. This just makes me love him more because usually, in shonen, what would happen to the protagonists is that their power would begin to overshadow their progress as characters. It'll no longer matter if they stay boringly same with the same old "I'll beat you, kill you" whatever, because just look at how strong they are! I am deeply against basic and bland characterization because it's really so unsatisfying and doesn't make you dwell much nor remember the character. They become shallow and stale because power isn't everything, there has to be something else there as well. I could find it cool for a while before it'll start to get on my nerves because what is there to like outside these abilities? What else is there about the character?

Part of Yuuji's charm is how human he is. Amongst the big cool jujutsu sorcerers who all have these amazing, flashy cursed techniques and can tear down mountains, Yuuji fights with his fists and with the simplest technique there is which is just channeling cursed energy into his punches. Even if he gets Blood Manipulation, he's still slowly adapting to it and isn't an outright expert on it. I really adore how hard working he is, really. I love how hard work pays off for him because it is way more satisfying than seeing something unnatural– like Yuuji suddenly being capable of channeling cursed energy into a punch which tears apart enemies completely and crashes several buildings consequently OR he starts throwing meteorites or something lol. Even if jjk is highly unrealistic, I admire the realism of Yuuji.

Still, funnily enough, as much as he's dismissed and constantly suffers through the story, he still isn't completely out of the picture.

He's not really erased. He's just quietly there, going with the motions. And how strange it is— like, a boy wearing the same face as one of the main antagonists, born from the secondary antagonist, yet dragging himself behind all the side characters placing his trust into them because he views them as strong and more powerful. Isn't it contradictory? I lament the fact Yuuji isn't liked by the fandom and more noticed but instead it is the total opposite. Still, seeing how most butcher even the simplest character's characterization (for example Gojo), I am happy he isn't that popular. I lowkey really hope it stays that way tbh. I would hate to wake up to nonsensical power scaling arguments or awful theories that don't suit Yuuji's character.

Most do tend to say jjk is a story that spans over many character's lives but I disagree. In each and every work there is always a main character— the one who you're introduced to right at the start of the story. The one who sets off the events that will follow. That is Yuuji, not anyone else.

How do you ALWAYS deliver on the feels?? And I have to say, your analyses really shine a new light on Yuuji’s character (and the SukuIta dynamic) in a way that makes Yuuji even MORE tragic to me??

Thank you, anon! It pains me that the majority don't like the sukuita dynamic, how it's overlooked by everyone and dismissed as meaningless or less worthy in a way because these two really have it all. I am here to prove those haters wrong and prove that reducing these two to just "shipping incest/liking problematic content" is the most horrible take to ever come out of this fandom. I am here to offer a fresh perspective and say exactly why they're so well liked and shipped in the first place. Not because of the problematic age gap or the fact that they're kinda related (which they aren't really but I do accept that as real at times for jokes tbh), but because both of them have been given a lot of narrative importance and singled out as characters who do not have an equal yet funnily do have an equal in a form of each other.

This fifteen year old boy who can't do anything can do everything because of this old curse who's supposed to be the epitome of evil, meanwhile this epitome of evil gets to experience life all over again because of this weakling who's better off dead (who despite being weak and made for the purpose of being a vessel can still actively suppress him lmfao). It's so bizarre and funny yet so sad when you think about it because both are perfect punishment and wish fulfillment for each other.

They're downright perfectly made for each other, yet realistically won't ever, ever acknowledge each other. It's so, so tragic. Believe me these two never fail to bring me to tears considering that everything they've ever wanted lies in each other.

It's so painful that Yuuji could find more solace, common ground and understanding in the very same thing that hurt him over and over again, yet someone like Sukuna can only find an equal in someone he finds pathetic and irrelevant. They could never see eye to eye because even if they compliment each other, the very thing that makes them who they are as characters forbids them for acknowledging each other and that's something which is sad on a whole another level.

I feel like they're terrified of acknowledging it because that would really be the death of them— that someone who you hate from the bottom of your heart is the one who checks all boxes to what you're looking for.

Yuuji really has NO equal in the story when it comes to selflessness and mindset. In fact, considering just how overwhelmingly SELFISH the world of JJK is, I’d argue that it’s YUUJI who may be the loneliest in the entire series because it is HIS mindset/morality that would be the most alien to virtually everyone else in the series In the JJK world, where everyone is apathetic to the common good and prioritizes themselves and the people they happen to care about over the rest of the world, and where doing so is legitimately seen as MORAL, Yuuji’s selflessness is the one who seems the most incomprehensible to everyone else. I think this is best seen in how everyone aside from Yuuji views civilian deaths.

Yep! Yuuji is actually the loneliest in the entire series because every character in this manga is a total opposite to who he is. Even another kind character that seems to be a mirror to Yuuji still can't act as a mirror because he seems terribly selfish when compared to Yuuji.

Yuuji is really the one who pays attention to every living thing, not just the people he knows. He really is terribly, and some would say unrealistically, selfless. Hell, Yuuji had a mental breakdown after seeing the carnage he didn't cause and blamed himself (undeservingly) for something which Sukuna actually caused. He even admits this to Higuruma and it really stuns him because Yuuji's viewpoint is plainly absurd because everyone knows that death brought by other's hand isn't your own. Yuuji doesn't believe in that. He made Sukuna his responsibility, and hence whenever he gets out, Yuuji blames himself. For not being strong enough to suppress him, for being weak. He blames himself instead of blaming this evil curse that dwells in him.

Yuuji isn't faking his kindness, nor is he doing this to gain sympathy and be spared, he's just himself. This combined with the fact that yes, nearly all of the cast of jjk are actually selfish, already make him stand out. Already make him special. But Yuuji, again, isn't doing this for any ulterior motives, he just wishes to help.

Not only the narrative, anon, but do not forget that the fandom itself also behaves that way. They tend to forget that characters like Geto are not really good and actually pretty vile but— like most of Geto's ex-friends— shrug it off as not really that important. It actually gets on my nerves because the amount of times I've seen Geto being characterized, him being an extremist hell-bent on wiping out humans isn't acknowledged. I can understand liking a character but if you like them then you have to acknowledge their wrongdoings and who they really are. Like I love Sukuna but do I try to wipe his characterization and headcanon him into someone who's good? No. He's bad, he kills people and eats them as a hobby. He's a vile monster. It's not that hard to admit lol. Let villains be villains please!

Not only does Yuta get upset over Geto not because of him being a danger to society, but he goes against Kenjaku personally all because "Gojo shouldn't kill his best friend again :(". First off, that is Kenjaku who's in that body, not Gojo's best friend. Geto had been dead for a long, long while and yet Kenjaku- just because they're a brain who jumps into corpses- always gets dismissed by everyone (which really makes you think... about their coupling with Jin...).

Also, it's funny to me really how the kind Yuta doesn't acknowledge that the best friend in question killed and wanted to annihilate all normal humans. If he's kind wouldn't he dwell more deeply on it and consider it good that he's dead at the end of the day because his ideology means the death of humans? I mean Yuta used to be a regular human before he was shipped off to Jujutsu High so I find it funny how that's completely glossed over by him.

Yes, you're right! Even I, as a Sukuna fan myself, am kinda baffled how Sukuna being evil isn't an issue to most characters. To them, his strength is all that matters. He's considered as this "strongest jujutsu sorcerer" and not someone who poses an active threat not only to jujutsu sorcerers but humanity at large. Again, Yuuji is the only one who calls him evil, who asks him why he (and curses in general) cannot live without causing suffering. Not only to jujutsu sorcerers, but all people in general.

And again, I completely agree with you anon!

The only one who strangely acknowledges the devastation he caused is Sukuna and he switches with Yuuji so he could "enjoy the view" all so he could chuckle over Yuuji as he collapses to his knees and has a mental breakdown. It's funny how someone like Sukuna, who enjoys carnage and revels in battles, is satisfied enough to stop right there in front of the view of a decimated Shibuya when he is supposed to be this evil bastard that usually won't notice nor would care do that. Oh but Yuuji is special. He knows that it'll hurt him, that it'll devastate him because he's a kind soul who cares for everyone, not just jujutsu sorcerers.

In the fight against Mahito, Yuuji already stated why they aren't the same even if stating they are. It's all right there in the panels— the glaring difference is all up in your nose if you know how to look:

The reason Mahito gets downright terrified of Yuuji here is because he senses pure killing intent. As if Yuuji really isn't human but a true curse. It's funny that a cursed spirit could fear a human, because curses are supposed to be guided by everything bad and therefore you would think that Mahito would match Yuuji's energy, think that this is exciting. But nope.

For someone who is as kind as Yuuji, seeing him embracing the anger and all negative emotions, is actually terrifying to Mahito for simple reasons. First, Yuuji is completely selfless and often looks to save people (even curses), but for the first time, he wishes to kill for no reason at all which is exactly like how a curse would think. Second, most curses (unlike Sukuna), are guided by human reasons (see Jogo) and are therefore leagues below Sukuna who takes pleasure in everything not because of other people, but because of himself.

The Yuuji vs. Mahito fight is directly tied to Sukuna vs. Jogo fight. Let me explain:

Humans fear death. Yet Yuuji is someone who doesn't fear death. He could easily embrace it if it means it is for a good cause. You could argue that Yuuji is selfish purely for that fact alone— that he's dead set on dying because of his selflessness. It sounds so contradictory but it makes sense lol. It separates him from other humans, as well as other curses, and puts him somewhere between a curse and a human.

Sukuna also spells out something interesting which directly ties into the reason why Yuuji wins in the Mahito fight:

What Yuuji did in the fight against Mahito is exactly what Sukuna was telling Jogo he lacked. Yuuji's wish is to kill curses only so he could end all misery they leave behind (which is like curses in a way– he has to kill to get the result and not really save or talk them down). Still, the one who softly nudges him into that realization is Sukuna himself, who is far worse than all curses combined. This is hinted at and not outright acknowledged because these two would never actively acknowledge each other, even if the narrative brings them together.

The misery that Yuuji feels after that sight pushes him to a breaking point, makes him detest himself but also makes him angry. Angry that he couldn't stop unnecessary death. All of that anger comes out against the fight with Mahito, because he considers him a curse, and he wishes to see them exterminated and wishes to see them dead. He grabs a hold of that desire and decimates Mahito's newly transfigured form, proving himself as someone even worse than Mahito because he has that selfish wish which is guided by his selflessness. He embraces evil for the sake of good, not for the sake of evil. Crying and blaming himself will not end curses, after all, and that's what he realized.

That's why Yuuji says they are the same, but they're still different. When Yuuji kills, he kills out of his inability to do anything else. Killing isn't the first thing on his mind. See how he usually talks down his opponents (hell, even Sukuna when he's in Megumi) and then settles on fighting? Only when he realizes there is no way, that is when he pushes himself to go all out.

Mahito cannot be the same as Yuuji, just as Sukuna cannot be the same as Jogo. Again, both Yuuji and Sukuna are singled out and funnily their fights end the complete opposite way to who they are. A human against a cursed spirit proves to be worse than a curse who doesn't care nor want to see his viewpoint but instead just wants him dead. Yuuji comes out as selfish. A curse against the cursed spirit proves to be really human by thinking of someone else and not himself and tries to see his viewpoint. Sukuna comes out as selfless.

It's fascinating, really.

You could argue that the real reason Sukuna actually showed him the sight of decimated Shibuya wasn't only to torture him, but to actively push him to a breaking point– strike him where it hurts the most– and cause unintended (to him) character development. After all, who else cares about other normal people unlike him? Who else sees Sukuna as evil and only evil? Who else is selfless? He proves that he knows who Yuuji is here and what would give him the motivation to fight. Not only his friends dying, the people he cares about, but regular people. He shows him what curses are all about, really, which is what opens his eyes and the hatred to see them gone (because of the damage they do) is enough to send a mirror of death to humans running away like a coward lmfao.

So yes, Yuuji is alone because, again, nobody in this story does stuff like he does it. Even if Mahito barks how same they are, Yuuji sends him running in fear, effectively proving him wrong even if he does say they are the same. It's the actions, not the words. Yuuji's soul remains unknown and not acknowledged. Again, just like someone else's 🤭

Yep. People who care for Yuuji can't even make sense of him yet the selfish, vile, cannibal and murderer curse can. How illogical, huh. How sad and horrible.

The only way these two can acknowledge each other is if they actively learned about each other, which they kind of are. Sukuna's becoming way more selfless and Yuuji is growing more selfish. After all, they are learning through each other of something they think is impossible and they have to embrace that otherwise, like Kenjaku said, nothing will be solved and history will repeat. The conflict between them is proved to be quite, quite important to the entire story.

On that note tho, Kenjaku really is a perfect villain because they understood the assignment and that's why they created Yuuji lmfao. Even if people love to say they didn't care for their creation, and even if Kenjaku calls Yuuji a thing, they still go to Sasaki (one of Yuuji's high school friend) and thank her for being there for their son (yep! son!) while actively ignoring all other creations of theirs (Choso did say that Kenjaku ignored them for 150 years which... ouch). So, does Kenjaku really not care? I don't think so!

I'm afraid Yuuji's power is unrivaled. No matter how much people fight against him and reject him, they end up falling in love with him. No matter how much the story itself is against him, he's the only one who can bring an ending to it <3

#melanswers #jjk #yuuji #best boy really #he's everything i ever wanted out of a shonen protagonist tbh #such a breath of fresh air #sukuita #tagging sukuita as well because yuuji and sukuna's souls are one actually

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chibishortdeath · 6 months ago

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Free will strikes again, these were some really fun doodles :3. I think Simon is allowed to be a little visual kei sometimes. Idk I just know he’d vibe with it. Explanations under a cut—

And also a couple unfinished doodles that were just intended to be rough pose/anatomy practice sketches, but ended up accidentally more detailed than intended 💀💀💀. It’s nothing graphic, but ⚠️slight artistic nudity warning⚠️ anyway in case d(>_< ).

Hehehe, this is based off of a photo from Malice Mizer live, it’s Simon in place of Mana and Fuma in place of Gackt. Very fun pose to draw!!! Especially cause it’s a pose with a whip and also cause idk why but I find poses with one or both arms up pretty easy to draw. And yeah yay, Fuma inclusion yippie :3!

I don’t have any other explanation for why this exists other than dresses are cool. So I made him one :D. The coord has a half caplet that connects to a shoulder paldron on the other shoulder by chain with a little cross. Under that there’s a blouse and skirt combo with patterns similar to his SQ armor and some rose thorn patterns around the ends of the sleeves and collar. Over that is a corset and under is a cage crinoline made to look like crosses peaking around the edge. Shoes carry outfit motifs like the roses on the bow tie and headdress and the lace throughout. Also, an eyepatch with cross on it because yeah, cute :3. I’d probably wear this if I had uh any skill in sewing at all (TwT ).

A not chibi version of the above outfit! Except probably without the crinoline with how the skirt fabric is sitting lol. Tbh I think Simon would probably be fine with this for a little bit and then get uncomfortable about having so many layers on. I don’t think he’d like tights at all 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀. Hmmm I’ll have to draw a version of it that’d be more comfortable for him hmm maybe tomorrow.

Another Simon holding Dracula’s heart artwork. Shout out to how this guy just carries this thing around for so long lol.

Simon facing off against his worst enemy: stairs! This one was practice drawing characters in backgrounds, since I’m so rusty at actually drawing those two things together (ToT ). I can draw a separate background fine, but the second I have to put someone in it I just completely forget what I’m doing XD.

This one is also a practice! He’s running up to the altar in Drac’s basement. The lighting was fun for this one, but I forgot to draw the whip in his hand 💀.

This one was an attempt at drawing a skeleton and keeping the same proportions in a drawing of someone (Simon) who is uh not a skeleton. Fun fact! It took me like 5 tries to get the skeleton to not just look like Papyrus Undertale cause holy heck do the skeletons from that game take a hold of some part of your art style and never let go 💀💀💀💀

CASTLEVANIA JUDGEMENT HAS HATS??? AS LIKE AN UNLOCKABLE?????????? So obviously I had to draw Simon (x2) with the bow options. Pink probs looks really nice with his hair tbh. And the striped bow was black and white so it fits with the Judgement design’s outfit. If I ever actually play this game again (I suck so bad at it), I’ll be trying to get these for the very important reason of Simon cute. :3

—

Ok now these two. The first one was a different attempt at that Mana pose, but a bigger scale and a bit less exaggerated. I ended up having to do a ton of edits to it cause I kept making things too big or too small lol. And the second one is just a couple dynamic posing practices. They’re also excuses to draw more arm up poses cause they’re fun X3. He was just supposed to have like a generic placeholder rectangle er um uh there, but some of the sketchy lines ended up looking like what’s supposed to be in that spot, so I just didn’t wanna risk these being on main tags out in the open 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀. Though, tbh, I’ve seen more explicit things on the tags so eh, better safe than sorry tho (- w - )

#castlevania #castlevania games #simon belmont #akumajo dracula #akumajou dracula #castlevania ii #castlevania simon’s quest #simon’s quest #art post #my art #drawing the same guy all the time augh—#I’ve drawn a couple other things recently tho #i should put those up later hmm #it’s vocaloid stuff which whoah that’d make them the first vocaloid post of this account wait :0 #but yeah yay Simon and I put him in clothes :)#aaa I’m too sleepy to think of any other tags rn #honk shoo mimimimi I guess

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punkassfrance · 2 years ago

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Buttercup - Tess x Fem!Reader

MDNI, 18+ ONLY Tess sucks at relationships. You lash out, and both of you get what's coming to you. This work contains: Smut, mild angst, cunnilingus, slapping, rough sex, BDSM, mild dubcon (as in a spontaneous scene), choking, mommy kink, D/S dynamic, bratting/brat taming, and intimacy issues.

Sorta kinda inspired by "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations, if you're wondering about the name.

The food in Jackson was better than people expected. There were plenty of chefs willing to try new recipes- always happy to feed their community with love. Today, breakfast was French Toast and fruit, traded preserves from a nearby settlement.

It tasted like shit.

As good as it was, you couldn’t appreciate it for a second. Your focus was on the table, glaring holes through the wood, carving a literal hole in the wood with your free hand. Ellie and Jesse had both tried to approach you and ask what was wrong before retreating- you’d have to apologize and tell them you appreciated the gesture. Later.

Stood up fucking again. You were used to it, but that didn’t make you any less furious. No, last night was the fifth or sixth time. When she did manage to show up, she was drunk, or high, or both, or gone by morning. Always gone by morning. It felt brutal, robbing you of the chance to wake up in her arms. Like it was something she owed you, and the debt was growing every time she bailed before sunrise. If you were honest, you would rather she didn’t show up at all than do that.

As many times as she let you down, you could never bring yourself to make it the last time.

“Hey, hon…” Dina took a seat beside you, setting her plate down. “You alright? Ellie said you were kinda biting her head off when she tried to check in.”

The knife in your hand fell to the table as you sighed and rubbed your face. “I know, I’ll beg for forgiveness later.”

“Done seething?”

“For now.”

She smiled softly and folded the pocket knife shut, tucking it into your pocket. “Patrols start soon. Might want to finish up.”

You stood and pushed the plate in her direction with a sigh. “I’m done, eat up.” Dina grinned, looking down at the mostly full plate.

“Thanks. Good luck, I hear you’re on pairs.”

Even though Tess was just innocently adjusting the saddle on her horse, you were furious the second you saw her.

You probably fucked something up trying to get your things situated faster than her, but you succeeded either way. Posed at the gate, waiting for her to trot up beside you, you had only a second to think.

When she pulled up beside you and the gates creaked open, you took off.

Hitching your horse to the post outside the lodge checkpoint, you sighed and leaned up against the wood siding. Only a few rounds left, as you counted what was left of your ammo. There were more infected along the trail than you’d anticipated- if you were honest, you were almost overwhelmed. It was worth spending the journey almost a mile ahead of Tess. You were nothing if not stubborn.

The morning light caught your eye, cutting through the trees in just the right way to grab your attention, dust defining the beams. Approaching the cliffside, you leaned on the aging fence and looked down at the river. The first warmth of the day shines on your face, leftover snow twinkling on the mountain. As upset as you were that morning, it was easy to forget for a moment.

You weren’t sure what to think about Tess. She acted like she wanted you, most of the time. Flirting on patrols, getting you drinks, even a few…sweeter moments you wouldn’t tell anyone else about. The sex was mind-blowing, without a doubt- it was almost, very nearly worth what she put you through.

You heard hooves.

Within another minute of gazing into the canyon, you felt a hand grab the collar of your shirt. It jerked you away from the view, forcing you to meet Tess’ eyes.

“Now, what the fuck was that, kid?” Your top button almost popped off with the force of her grip. As startled as you were, you couldn’t bring yourself to be scared of her. You liked it rough, and as pissed as you were, you still trusted her.

“What was what?” Your hand came up to grab hers.

“You want to explain leaving me in the dust on what’s supposed to be a pairs patrol?”

“Not my fault you were lagging behind.”

She sneered, turning and dragging you by the collar to the lodge. “You could have gotten yourself fucking killed. There are a dozen ways to be petty without putting yourself in danger.” You struggled to keep up, reaching up to try and pry her hand apart.

“Fucking, let go of me-”

“Let go? You’re lucky it’s not your fucking hair. You have no idea how much trouble you’re in. Fucking christ.” She shouldered the lodge door open and pushed you in, locking it and sliding the pipe beside the door through the handles. You fell hard to the floor, trying to prop yourself up on your elbows.

“Now.” She turned to glower down at you, gritting her teeth. “We have two hours before the next patrol gets here. You can get out of this now, apologize, and we’ll spend the next two hours in silence. That, or I can spend the next two hours wearing you out. What’s it going to be?”

There it was. The out she always offered. If you were done playing games with her, done letting her have her way with you, ready to move on with your dignity, you could pull the plug on whatever this was. You could stop subjecting yourself to this, to her, at any time.

Meeting her gaze with a bitter look, you spat at the ground in front of her.

“Fucking brat.”

She took your collar again and pulled you to your feet, guiding you to the couch in the lobby. Before she pushed you down, she took a step back, holding you in place as she sized you up.

“Sweetpea, I just can’t decide what to do first.” One hand went to unbutton your shirt halfway down, her eyes wandering to the soft swell of your breasts. “I think I’m gonna have to wait to taste you until you’ve learned your lesson.” She ripped the rest of your shirt off, grabbing your hips and pulling you in to kiss your neck. “I really, really want to taste you, sweetpea. So I guess I’m going to have to make you beg for mercy.”

You both fell onto the couch, your hands gripping at the upholstery. One of her hands curled into your roots and pulled your head to the side, exposing your neck for her to devour. Her teeth dug in, your back arching off the couch as she bit a hickey into the crook of your neck. God, she was feral like this. You wouldn’t be able to move at all without feeling her later, you were sure.

Leaning back, she took a moment to admire the view.

“God. I know you're in trouble sugar, but it's hard not to appreciate you when I've got you like this.” One hand went behind your back to undo your bra, helping you out of your clothing as her other hand smoothed over your soft skin. She dipped down and pressed her lips to your breast, moaning softly at the feeling.

“So fucking pretty for me. You're lucky I have a soft spot for you, or you'd be over my knee already.” She leaned in to whisper in your ear. “But no promises about later, sweetheart.”

When your bra and shirt were discarded, her fingertips dragged over your chest. A few more marks were scattered across your breasts before she took your nipple into her mouth, flicking it with her tongue. You gasped, arching your back as her hands eased around your waist.

Once she'd left all the marks she wanted and stripped your inhibitions away, she adjusted you both to lay down a bit more comfortably. Her weight was comforting on top of you, only for a moment before you felt her hands wander upwards. They smoothed over her handiwork and up your neck, circling your throat for a moment before falling back down.

She crawled off you and stood, just for a moment, undoing her belt. You almost covered yourself, self-conscious and maybe a bit nervous, but you couldn't bring yourself to think she would really hurt you right now. Not now, outside of Jackson, where she'd still have to get you home safely. Tess was a lot of things, but she wasn't reckless, and she didn't mean any actual harm. You were pretty sure, anyway.

She kicked her jeans off and returned to her position on top of you, adjusting until she found a comfortable spot. You could feel her panties on your thigh- if you thought about it for too long, you wouldn't last, so you refocused on her calm expression. Her hands went back to smoothing up and down your chest, inching up to your neck and then back down.

Before long, her hands fully secured around your throat, squeezing gently as she adjusted her hips.

”You're goddamn lucky I'm not in the mood to get rough right now, so here's what's going to happen. You're going to lay there like a good girl, and I'm going to get off. If you can be quiet and still, I'll reward you after I'm done. Do you understand?“

You nodded, looking away at a painting on the wall. God, her gaze was intense. That was a good word for Tess overall, you thought. Intense.

”Unless you're ready to apologize.“

Snapping back to look at her, you scoffed, rolling your eyes.

Her hand drew back and slapped you, jerking your head to look back at the wall. Her other hand tightened around your throat.

”Brat.“ She squeezed, starting to rock her hips back and forth on your thigh. ”God, you're so stubborn. This would be so much easier if you could just listen to me, sweetpea.“

”You know...“ She stifled a moan, grinding her cunt into your jeans. ”...you're like an animal, sometimes.“ You didn't respond. ”As much as I try to teach you who's in charge, you still seem to...mmph...have some trouble understanding.“

You tried to reach up under her shirt, anything to get your hands on her. She grabbed your wrist with a bruising grip, pinning it to the couch as she leaned more into the arm choking you. Things went a bit hazy as the blood cut off to your brain, only for a moment before she let up.

”You even beg me to take control, don't you?“ She leaned in. ”You want momma to be in charge so bad until I try to be in charge. Isn't that right?“

You didn't respond. She leaned into your throat again.

When she eased her grip, you coughed, your free hand weakly grabbing her wrist. ”Please-“

”What was that?“ She let you breathe only to smack you again, harder, before putting her hand back up against your throat.

”Shit- momma, please, I'm sorry-“

”You're not sorry. You just want me to fuck you.“ She leaned down to kiss your forehead. ”I can't blame you for that, sugar.”

The longer you sat there with her rubbing off on your thigh, the more things got blurry. From the lack of blood, the limited air, or the tears in your eyes, you couldn't be sure.

“You can fight me all you want, doll.” She looked up to the ceiling, letting out a shaky breath. ”But I've got experience taming animals like you. No matter what, they always break.“

She leaned in, shuddering, grinding down into the wet spot on your thigh. ”...and I'm going to break you, baby girl. I promise you that.“

If she had given you permission, you could have finished right then, without her ever touching your cunt. But you didn't have permission. So you watched, distant, fixated, as she guided your hand to her panties. You let her use you to get off, fingers exactly where she put them until she leaned back with a groan and eased off your throat.

You were okay. You knew you would be, she'd never really hurt you. It was easy to forget that sometimes. If you were honest, maybe you liked to forget it.

Her nails dragged over your stomach gently as she rode out her orgasm on your thigh, exhaling and looking down after a minute.

”You alright, baby girl?“

Looking up at her, you took a moment to respond. The early morning sunlight was hazy through the filthy windows of the lodge, filtering through her hair, highlighting a few grays. You were sure if someone had been asked to draw a halo, it would look nothing like this- but it was all you could think of. If she wasn't an angel, she was a goddess, transcending any divinity you knew of.

”Doll?“

”I'm alright.“ You nodded slowly, reaching up to wipe the tears out of your eyes with your clean hand.

”Shit, did I-“

”No.“ You shook your head, taking her hand. ”Just watering up, I'm fine.“

She nodded, leaning down to kiss you. You wrapped your arms around her, pulling her in closer for a moment. Just a moment. Then she pulled away and tugged off her flannel.

“Think it's time I delivered on that promise of mine, don't you think? Unless you want to rest for a minute?”

You nodded eagerly and parted your legs as much as you could, pulling her in for one more kiss before pushing her head down. “I'm alright. Can't rest like this.”

She nodded, sliding down between your legs. Before long, she had stripped you down to panties, the only thing left to cover you. If a clicker came by now, you would have been screwed.

Well, maybe if Tess wasn't there you would have been screwed.

She started like she always did, pressing kisses to your thighs and panties just to make you squirm. Her fingers dipped into the elastic waistband, tugging them down your thighs. You felt lucky she didn't rip them off, as she liked to do- you were not interested in riding back to Jackson commando after all this. You had to remind her once or twice that panties didn't actually grow on trees, and finding suitable ones in the apocalypse was not an easy task.

She parted your lips with her thumb, running through the gathering wetness and lifting it to her mouth to taste. She spread it around a bit before blowing softly, sending a chill up your spine before she leaned in and kissed your cunt.

The chill of the air was gone in an instant as she licked you, swirling around your clit and moaning as her tongue slipped inside you. She took just as much pleasure from this as you did, you were certain. From what she told you, she had years of experience in dingy bar bathrooms, down on her knees for pretty girls who wanted her attention. You had no trouble believing those stories as she put years of skill to work between your legs.

She pulled away to kiss across your thighs again, the temperature change making you grip the couch. Her thumb flicked your clit up and down, watching hypnotized for a moment before spitting on your cunt and going back in.

“Tess-” You grabbed her hair, tugging softly, halfheartedly trying to bury her deeper. She was insatiable like this. If you were honest, she was perfect for you. You struggled to take what you wanted, struggled to ask anything of your previous lovers. Tess didn't need you to ask. She gave without demand, offered when you couldn't bring yourself to request. It was in her nature.

“So pretty.” She whispered into your thigh, nipping the tender skin for a moment. Before long, she shifted lower, slipping her tongue deeper inside as her thumb rubbed over your clit. Your breath hitched.

“Yes, that, keep doing that-”

She moaned into your cunt, fingers digging into your thigh as you shuddered and tipped over the edge. Your eyes watered up again, head thrown back onto the couch as she shushed you and ran her hands over you. Rough calluses over your tender skin were almost too much, dragging over your most sensitive spots as you slowly came down from the intense high.

She crawled up to lay beside you, pulling you into her side as you started to breathe again. “You alright, sugar?”

It took you a second to reply, but you nodded against her chest. “Yeah...yeah, I'm alright. Got intense for a second.“

She nodded, holding you for a few minutes. You glanced over at the clock.

”...want to tell me what that little stunt was about, sweetpea?“

”We have to get dressed. Joel and Tommy should be taking over soon.“

She looked at the clock, sitting up and nodding. ”You're...probably right.“ Something was left unsaid, but it wasn't the time for this conversation. ”Anything planned tonight?“

You hesitated. ”No. You can come by.“

One way or another, something would change tonight.

You spent the last ten minutes of solitude getting dressed and lingering in her touch, letting her help with the clasp of your bra. As she brushed out your hair with her fingers and started putting it back in the neat braid you'd started with, you started thinking about what to say.

As the last few minutes of midnight slipped away, your grip tightened on your wine glass.

She said she'd be here hours ago. This was old news, of course- she was hardly ever on time to come to your place. Still.

You'd resolved hours ago that if she didn't show up tonight, it was over. Either you'd finally get around to asking what was going on, or she wouldn't get another chance.

As your last tethers to hope started to break, the front door opened.

She wasn’t moving slowly, like she did when she was drunk or high. You couldn’t smell anything on her, but you weren’t close enough to know for sure.

She turned to you, locking the door behind her.

”Hey, sugar.”

“Tess.” You set your glass down, eyes locked on her.

She seemed frozen in place as she looked back at you. She even had the nerve to look guilty- you weren't sure if that upset you or not. She felt bad about being late, but that guilt was proof she'd known what a dick she was being the whole time. At the same time, something small in your heart hated to see her upset, and you especially hated to be the one making her upset.

“What?”

You pressed your lips together and stood from the table, taking a few steps towards her. “You said you'd be here at 10.”

“...got held up. Sorry, sweetheart.”

“I-” You closed your eyes, hand coming up to pinch the bridge of your nose. “...what are we doing here, Tess?”

“Are you really...?”

“Don't give me that. You've been jerking me around and you know it. I know you're attracted to me, I know you care about me, I don't understand why you leave me sitting here by myself night after night. And most of all,“ you took a few bold steps toward her, crossing your arms over your chest. ”I don't understand why I keep letting you.“

”Sweetpea-“

”Don't. You don't get to call me pet names when you can't even seem to decide what I am to you. So, what is it? Am I not girlfriend material? Do you just like sleeping around more than you like me?”

“I'm too old to be anyone's fuckin' girlfriend. And I don't...sleep around. Not anymore, I've got you.”

“You've got me. And what, exactly, does that mean? You have a girlfriend? You have a fuckbuddy?”

She wouldn't meet your eye. ”Look, when you've been on your own for as long as I have...“

”Tess.“ You waited until she looked up, wary and distressed. ”I've been on my own for a long time too. But I'm sick of it.“

She sighed, throwing up her hands. ”I don't know what I have left to give you, sugar. I haven't been in a real relationship in years. I thought you were okay with taking what I can offer, but if it's not enough, then fine. I guess I'll stop wasting your time.“

”I know, Tess. I know you're used to no commitment. But just because you accepted scraps from Joel for years doesn't mean I have to sit around and do the same for you.“

It was cruel and you knew it, striking a nerve like that. She didn’t like to talk about her and Joel, too proud to admit she loved him more than he could love her back. But here she was, putting you through the same thing. She gritted her teeth, backing up against the door with a sneer as you got closer and closer. It reminded you of a cornered animal, baring her teeth to look scary. Anything to get herself out of this. ”You have no right, you don't know-“

”I do know, Tess. I know you got used to being on your own.“ You took her hand in yours, pulling her away from the door and closer to you. ”I get it. This is what love has meant to you for almost twenty years. But it's not love to me.“ Her expression fell. ”You've done anything and everything to keep me close without getting close. Did you think I wouldn't get tired of it sooner or later? Or were you counting on it?“

Warm hands came to rest on your waist, her eyes looking away again. She looked gutted, too guilty to try defending herself.

”If I'm asking too much of you, then fine. I can accept that. But I'm not going to stay up waiting for you forever, especially when you spend the day leading me on.“ You look down, letting out a puff of air resembling a sigh. ”Either tell me what you want or cut me loose. Put me out of my misery, Tess. Please.“

She was still for a while, eyes on the floor as you watched her. The least you could do was let her think after springing this conversation on her. Eventually, your head fell on her chest, listening for her heartbeat. Depending on what she said, this might be the last time you heard it. The thought made your chest hurt, but you knew this was a conversation that needed to happen. Even if it didn't resemble much of a conversation, with you spewing your thoughts of the last three hours at her.

You both deserved better than this poor excuse of a relationship.

Her arms tightened around your waist, pulling you closer. ”I'm sorry,“ she whispered, hands running up your back. ”You're right.“

You both sat in silence against your front door, holding on like the other was about to shatter. You didn't call her out on her tight grip on your body, politely ignoring the way she clung to you.

You looked up at her, tilting her face to look at you. ”Stay the night.“ Getting up on your toes, you pressed a quick kiss to her lips. ”And be there in the morning.“

After a moment of holding you close and studying your face, she nodded. ”...okay.“

The spring morning chill wasn't so bad when you had someone to keep you warm.

Feel free to say hi or drop your thoughts in my askbox, check out my AO3 or my about me if you're interested!

#the last of us #fanfiction #tess servopoulos #tess x reader #tess servopoulos x reader #tlou tess #x reader #tess/reader #tess servopoulos/reader

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disabilityshowdown · 2 years ago

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i'd like to showcase a character i really like... saki tenma!!!

saki is from a game called project sekai, where 5 groups of teenagers all have worlds in their phones called SEKAIs, manifestations of their emotions and feelings, and in them is hatsune miku (and other vocaloids) to help them figure out their true feelings!

saki is in a rock band called leo/need with her 3 childhood friends. saki is chronically ill, although her exact chronic illness hasn't been mentioned, and had been in and out of the hospital since she was little. during middle school, she was practically always in the hospital, and her and her friends had drifted away, due to all of them having different problems in their lives at the time.

saki's described as having a very physically frail body, along with fainting very easily. she catches illnesses very easily and can make herself sick from overexerting herself, so most fans agree she most likely has some form of an autoimmune illness.

after being deemed healthy enough to return back to school in her first year of highschool, her and her friends eventually reconcile and decide to form a band together, she's the keyboardist! she is very cheerful and tries her hardest to get things done. because of all the time she spent alone in the hospital, she's dead-set on making the most of her life! she loves hanging out with her friends.

she also has an older brother (one year older), tsukasa. the two are very close and have an ADORABLE relationship. tsukasa is an actor/performer, and became one because of saki's support!

overall, i think saki's chronic illness is treated really well in the plot of project sekai. while it does affect her and how her life goes, she isn't reduced to only her chronic illness. she has struggles other than her illness, and has plenty of times she is happy, outgoing and enjoying herself. i think the writers did a very good job writing saki.

also, most importantly, shes adorable! what's not to like?

fun fact: the pink gradient in her hair is completely natural! her brother has a similar natural gradient, but orange rather than pink.

[also im very sorry for not including image descriptions, i am mentally disabled and cannot properly explain images and cannot write image descriptions properly]

[Image 1 ID: A fully rendered and dynamically posed art piece of Saki, a light skinned anime style character with pink eyes, and long blonde hair in two pigtails, that fades to pink at the ends. She is dressed in a white collared shirt, red tie, black skirt, and yellow jacket. The background behind her is of a classroom with some tables put up for the end of the day, and she is posing at a piano keyboard, with one hand on the keys and the other reaching out to the viewer]

[Image 2 ID: A much more chibi style comic panel set in a hospital, where Saki is in white pyjamas with a bunch of magazines in front of her, and flowers to her right. Her brother (who looks similar to her but with short hair that fades to orange) is posing with a flower while doing a dance move, wearing a similar uniform to Saki in the first picture. He says "As your brother I'm here to cheer you up with a new move!" while a person behind him says "Mr Tenma, please keep it down! This is a hospital!" There is a "Yay!" not in a speech bubble above Saki's head, and more onomatopoeia illustrating the dance]

[Image 3 ID: The same art style as the first image, in bright colours. Saki looks to have fallen down, lying amidst a pile of toys and music equipment, adjusting glasses on her face. A white coat and orange sweater have been added to her outfit, and she holds an open notebook in one hand. /end IDs]

thanks for sending this in! i can totally see why you like her, and as a disabled actor/musician i can relate so much

#totally get you on the image descriptions it's tough! and like 90% of the reason i've been taking a week between rounds #project sekai #saki tenma #bonus events

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messydiabolical · 10 months ago

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@dandenbo asked me for the art asks: 🎠What is a typical 'workflow' for a piece from idea to finished? It turns out to be a long answer so here's its own post, under the cut to save your dash! How I go from screenshot to painting: (This is not intended to be a 'this is how you do it!' kind of guide. I absolutely don't do an optimal route, this is just how I go about painting and what works for me! I've done a workflow for a screenshot to painting as I do a few different things but this is one I could explain somewhat coherently. My comics tend to be created pretty chaotically lol)

1) I take an ungodly amount of screenshots while playing. Also pester friends for their screenshots or stalk the group discord for interesting shots.

2) Go through all those screenshots cursing why I took so many, looking for those great moments that I want to paint. I’m particularly looking for nice poses/captivating moments, dynamic lighting or interesting expressions, and they don’t need to have all 3 as we can fix some of that in the next step. Here’s the screenshot I chose for my Keahi x Thane piece:

It was a cute, soft moment between them and I liked the highlight at the edge of their profiles. 3) Refine the screenshot. I don’t use anything fancy for this. I game on windows PC, so I open up the screenshot with windows photo editor. I crop the image, play around with saturation, exposure, contrast, just basic editing until it looks tastier. For this piece I wanted it to be hyper colourful and vibrant, leaning towards warmer tones.

4) Decide what I will change, then gather references for those changes. In this case I was fortunate that not a lot needed changing. I knew I wanted to move Thane’s eye position to looking at Keahi rather than the way he is slightly off focus, do a more realistic ear with earrings for Keahi, make Thane a little more smiley and lower his eyelid and give Keahi nicer eyelashes. I keep a whole bunch of art guides and tutorials on my PC so I grabbed the necessary ones and sent them to my ipad ready to have on hand for the sketch stage. I have Thane’s character model in XNApose, so I can check things like his eyelid specifically in that (this is actually for a different project but shows you what I mean)

If I was going to change up the lighting/shading I would also gather references for that. For example sometimes i’ll take screenshots of lighting schemes I love from films/tv shows (think the strong teal and orange scheme in Mad Max or the neons of Blade Runner). Or for precise shadows, I can again use XNApose. I also have a little 3d printed Thane head I can shine a torch at and take photos of to get shadow ideas. For humans there’s lots of reference to be found with online searches, I find pinterest more useful than google for this. For specific expressions or body parts, i’ll just take photos of myself (hand poses, smiling from the right angle etc.) My camera roll is an interesting place. I have drawn drell frills on my neck and on my chest before to see how the lines would fold at certain angles. 5) Setting up a canvas I work in procreate. For a piece like this I try to go pretty big, say 5000 x 4000 pixels, then i’ll crop down later as needed. 300 DPI. As I work, I’ll make duplicates and continue on the copy each fresh session. When i’m finished I make a backup save of the PNG and .procreate files on an SSD. I immediately turn the background colour down to a more muted colour to not burn my retinas. If i’m using a textured background like an oil board i’ll insert it, and any overlays like canvas effects. Set up my layers from the start basically for easy toggling throughout. I try to be good and label things to make life easier, it doesn’t always happen though. I don't wear a digital glove or use paper effect screens but I do have a bottle of screen cleaner and a microfibre cloth handy at all times. 6) Sketch. I’m still very much learning to draw. I tried for a long time to do the classic ‘ball for a head, draw the planes/lines etc. It was a constant struggle and never clicked for me, the ball especially always made things much worse, turning a circle into a 3d image in my head just does not happen. I find it better to just start drawing and work things out as I go (I use procreates reference window to see my screenshot). So I’ll have my sketch in one canvas, and i’ll also have a second canvas with the photo ref on it at the same size, and if I feel like something is really wonky and off i’ll test my lines over the photo to see what’s gone wrong, then go back to the sketch and correct the areas that revealed. Sometimes I’ll use the grid feature if i’m getting stuck. Here's a few of the sketch stages:

Here I tried out the lines on the photo and noticed that Thane’s frills were a little too far to the left, and Keahi’s eyebrow needed to arch down towards the nose.In the next pass I correct these:

Also, and I know i’m gonna get side eye from some people for this but I really could not care less to be honest. On some pieces i’ll just trace the screenshot. Sometime I just want to get to painting, am not in the mood or mindspace for a learning experience, and this is a hobby. It’s my screenshot, no one is getting ripped off. My latest Javik piece was done this way 🤷‍♂️ 6) Painting. I’ll start by blocking in the background and the portrait flats, usually on separate layers. I try to have an idea of the background colour from the start as this can effect the whole piece overall, but sometimes you just gotta change it as you go so having it on a different layer makes this much easier.

The painting itself I’ll lay down wider areas of colours, then start going in and refining bit by bit, I tend to work on one area at a time, and sometimes I’ll get pretty well rendered on a small area before moving on, other times work on a wider area. It really depends on my mood and what i’m vibing with that day. Like you can see here I’ve done some general messy colouring all over Keahi, but done a lot of refinement on the eyeball:

7) Finshing the piece, uploading and testing: When I’m sick of rendering the painting and don’t think I can add anything more to it without gnawing my own wrist off, it is time to finish up! I make sure I toggle all the layers I want on, add a top signature layer (lol I lie I forget this all the damn time). Then i’ll upload the piece to my google drive and open it up on my big 4k monitor on my PC, and on my phone, and see how it looks (my ipad is a 9.7inch air). I find that once off my ipad, it often looks a little less saturated and contrasting as it does in procreate. So I might go back and change the levels if it’s too big a difference until it looks decent across devices (it’ll never look perfect on them all though, just gotta find that happy medium).

8) Posting online I really don’t have any strict steps for this. I know some people go for optimal posting times, and will make multiple copies of their pieces in different sizes to fit better on different sites (damn you instagram and your need for everything to be square). I… do not do any of this lol. I post when I’m done whatever time or day that is. I do tend to reblog/retweet etc before I go to bed, as I live in the UK and that will at least be getting into evening time in US. I reblog my own stuff a fair bit.

#md answers #art asks

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cynical-tuba · 5 months ago

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VTM Dark Ages mini session, Leo asked Edmund his Sire how he himself would be able to pay for a woman's education while keeping her out of Cainite business. Leo this is the year 1349 but Kine aren't that advanced for women's rights. Damn ok dad I'll give it some thought.

I tried to keep this short but I want to explain the set up of a morally questionable old man and a stoat tailed Caitiff

Then Bishop Lasombra Michel was like come on Emir let's go to Cowley. Emir invites Leo without mentioning he's bringing the Lasombra without a creepy bone in his body. Surprise Leo. But he said he'd meet us there.

The pair arrive at the cathedral to see Saffiyah, Emirs adopted Gangrel daughter, and a Leo's sister figure, covered in blood, half transformed from killing *dozens* of inquisition members. She's broken, this didn't feel right. Emir comforts her in light of her killings. Michel steps out of the Cathedral very serenely and leads Emir and Leo inside.

There are more bodies in here of all men whose robes were once white stained in blood. The three come across tapestries. A Nosferatu is being defeated by a man. A Lupine has had it's head torn off, St George stabbing a dragon, and lastly a woman bound being burned at the stake. Emir sees these people as reminders of his guilt. The figures in the fabric crawl out at him, staring, trying to break out of the threads.

The three continue onwards behind a door where they encounter a holy man. Leo who has Aura perception active, sees the halo around him, he's awestruck by this and isn't sure how to react as the man lunges at Emir slicing his throat. Michel's shadowy tendrils envelope him, burning as they restrain him. The tentacles trigger Leo's Derangement phobia of the dark and he fear frenzies out of the church.

Emir grabs the man, fueled by Anger and Brutal ecstasy he uses cobble to road to drain the man's courage as he's crushed to death and shredded by the abyssal tendrils.

Leo meanwhile stops his frenzy as he hits the cold air. He has realized he has grown a stoat tail. He keeps this hidden under his robes and long winter cloak. (Home brew rule as Leo as a result of a double embrace with Edmund the Ventrue and Tertius the Gangrel he has a lesser degree of both clans flaws. For Leo the animal feature he gets in frenzy is random)

There stands a concerned Saffiyah and her friend Wei Tian the Watcher Salubri who came just in time to the scene. Emir and Michel come out. The five of them descend back in walking over piles of bodies, and enter a basement where they had kept tortured Super natural people. The Cainites are staked.

Among them is Hilda, a Nosferatu librarian of Oxford. Leo tries to pick her up, and due to a botch in the dice pool of 1... He sways and his tail is shown to the room... He's supposed to be posing as a Ventrue. Now the elder Lasombra has seen his tail that's it.

Most people in the room are concerned with getting Hilda back to town. This would be a horrible place for her to wake up in. Saffiyah, the strongest, carries her. Michel tries to get Saffiyah to stay with him. but he's more useful to carry Hilda. Also she doesn't want to, there's some complicated backstory dynamics I'm breezing over but he's controlling of her. Michel wants them to bring the stakes Nosferatu to his haven.

But Leo volunteers to stay with Michel in her place, assuring Emir he will see him later.

Michel and Leo begin to walk around the cathedral and it's depths for any hiding survivors or artefacts. Michel asks Leo what power he could have. Leo, teetering on the line of survival mode/appropriate/ Sincere says Flute. He was never good with wood wind instruments after all. Michel finds that to be a bit silly, digs deeper. Leo says flying could be fun,

Michel suggests Vissistude, like Kresimir the Tzimisce.

--------

Michel: if you could learn any skill you wouldn't learn what Kresimir could do with his hands?

Leo: the flesh crafting? Oh and the other thing he does.

Michel: oh no what is that

Leo:... The puzzle boxes?

Michel: *sigh*

-----

And Michel begins to asks Leo about the tail. What is it? Why does he have it? Interesting like a Gangrel feature Leo doesn't know what he's talking about. It's an accessory. (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠) He says as the tail nervously twitches. He tries to play stupid. This leads to this line of player dialogue

Me: he's going to yeet me into the abyss... I'm so dead.

@spell-fox : ಡ⁠ ͜⁠ ⁠ʖ⁠ ⁠ಡ

Me: wait. Wait no he's... OH HO HO YAAAAS

Michel is direct and wraps a shadow tentacle around his stoat tail. It feels soothing. Leo pulls it away, annoyed. (What a game) Michel gets closer, explaining the legend of Caitiff. The clanless. Have you heard of them Leo? No. They are said to be able to learn any skill with ease and foretell Gehenna. Anyone who believes in that legend would surely kill one. One should be careful. The two don't find any artefacts but we're sure found out about this old man. Before they parted here's another banger quote:

Michel: what an excellent horse

Leo: do you need assistance returning?

Michel: I have my ways. I could give you a ride Leo. (Ominus abyss implications)

Leo: no, I'm alright. I have rosemary. She's spiky. She bites if you stroke her the wrong way.

Michel: That's good, you don't want a pet that's too compliant you want a pet that fights back (◡⁠‿◡)

Why are Lasombra like this.

Meanwhile Emir takes Hilda to the library, a third faction in Oxford, Hilda's faction. They remove the stake and feed her. She has no idea what she's missed in the last year. Change in government, Horsa the previous baron is dead. Wei tian will fill her in. Emir takes his rat, his soul mate who originally was bonded to Hilda and returns her to her Nosferatu mom now they could be reunited. It made the entire room of players emotional.

Emir and Leo met up, discussed what happened and Emir admitted to draining their adversary of courage before he met his god. This disturbed Leo.

Leo went home showed his stoat tail to his (still) ghoul husband Godwin who pet it until he fell back asleep.

Emir and Tertius had a chat about the events. Leo has a cute tail and you missed it Tertius moods follow the moon. He has a new derangement because of killing Emirs sire of course.

Oh my god there's probably a million spelling and grammar errors I'll fix it later my stomach hurts

#its 4am #my stomach hates me #so i write #session summary #oc: leo #oc: emir #oc: michel #oc: Saffiyah #oc: wei tian #vtm #vampire the masquerade #world of darkness #wod #vtm: darkening spires

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sliversofmagicpod · 1 month ago

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A Text copy of our Questionaire answered by Ron Spencer regarding his art for Heart Sliver.

What, if any, inspirations did your draw from when working on Heart Sliver?

There was a VERY detailed and specific style guide sent to the artists. Contained in that was a drawing of a Sliver by Anson Maddocks. That illustration provided the basic anatomy of the Slivers. His piece featured the Sliver with a H.R. Giger translucence.

The art description that they provided for the Heart Sliver required that it was in a volcanic environment. With that in mind, I swapped the transparent skin for a thicker looking, gray hide.

To make it vary from the provided reference, I gave it a gnarled, crusty look. The Heart Sliver needed to blend into the walls and ceiling of a lava cavern, not a spaceship's vent pipes.

Aside from those changes, I stuck with the general anatomy requirements - elongated / beaked / eyeless head, one spiked arm, some type of extrusions on the back and two tails.

Do you remember what, if any, details Wizards of the Coast gave you for the specifics of the card? (Color, environment, etc.)

The only thing that I remember from the art assignments description was that it be shown prowling the ceiling of a lava cavern.

The artists weren’t given the names of the cards, card mechanics or flavor text.

So we looked at the art guide and the assignment notes and went from there.

What are your thoughts regarding slivers as whole?(whether in the actual card game or just appearance wise)

As monsters go, they’re fine. Not my favorite but more fun to do than some of the other creatures.

Their non-anthropomorphic anatomy can be a problem for dynamic compositions. Unless the viewer knows exactly what they’re looking at and is used to seeing Slivers crawling around, they can be very confusing to look at.

That’s why nearly all the Sliver art has the creature in a profile type pose or side view. All of body parts are shown with no overlapping.

The straight- on, front or back view of a Sliver would be a tangled blob, especially with a background and at card size.

All of that being said, they’re quick and fun to draw. Maintain the basic anatomy, then start sticking on spikes, talons and corrugated tendons.

It’s hard to mess up a Sliver.

What’s your favorite part of the art you drew for Heart Sliver?

It’s always fun to draw creatures in fire light. The craggy hide with orange highlights made for a rugged looking beast.

Do you have any trivia or fun fact you remember regarding Heart Sliver?

Only that I was unsure how to make the image interesting. It needed an aggressive look. So I tried a somewhat frontal /top view with the Sliver moving toward the viewer. As mentioned, the anatomy made this difficult.

To keep action in the pose and maintain a discernible figure, I had to turn its head to the side. This made it appear to be distracted or looking around, rather than lunging at the viewer.

Not what I’d originally intended but there were other cards to get done and a deadline looming.

Do you have any fun memories from after it was a printed card? E.G. Interactions with the players that stuck with you?

The Heart Sliver seemed to be well received by the players. The autograph stacks included a decent number of that card. Prints sales for that art were fine. Not remarkable but far better than I’d anticipated.

When asked if it was a tough or good card, the players would shrug and reply that it was good. Not awesome or “broke" - but still useful.

#magic the gathering #mtg #sliver #slivers #Heart Sliver #Ron Spencer #q&a

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plushmayhem · 1 year ago

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Progress talk thread

I like to take a lot of backups as I draw so we I can show off my widdle Lilly wips!! I'm drawing again that means I get to talk about drawing again yahoo

Lately when starting a drawing I've been trying to block out very rough thumbnails as seen above! I usually just start drawing like, the head, and trying to then figure out a body under neath and line by line it all ends up pretty similar to my past stuff because it's just not planned out! I don't know where the road is taking me!

So by starting out and trying to throw together the general pose with just a blown up light brush I'm coming up with much more interesting piece! I can figure out the general shape of the entire piece and then start working on top. No making a shoulder then drawing the hand over it and then erasing the shoulder and getting frustrated because it just doesn't look connected right because I didn't plan it out… where does this drawing end? where's the limits?? where am I going?? So my current workflow involves

Make the dimensions of the piece roughly (just throw a coloured rectangle down) -> very roughly block out the shape of the body within it

This also has the benefit of inspiring me to fill in the blanks with a pose I didn't initially expect! The body is reversed from my initial vague idea because seeing the blobs made me go OH IT'D BE COOL IF I DID IT WITH THE BODY FACING THIS DIRECTION ACTUALLY LET'S MAKE THAT WORK!! If you look at the initial you can kinda see it looks more like she's looking down at you with the raised arm being the one facing you.

Anyways after doing my personal Holiday pic the other day, I was like, it would be cool to do a small run of postcards to send to people yahoo!! I checked the sizes of postcards and none were even close! They all had like an extra inch on of extra space on the bottom whoops! I free style my rectangle sizes when planning an illustration and I guess they're closer to square than the ideal rectangle! Whoops!

So for this one after getting the initial sketch down I thought, hey how close is this to 5x7? AND LO AND BEHOLD IT WAS THE SAME ISSUE!!! So I took filling out the extra space as a challenge. I'm trying to be more dynamic with my art after all!

I spent time adjusting the piece in sai2 using the transform tool with it's perspective skewing on. I wiggled and rotated and pushed n pulled and you get what you see above. A much more dynamic piece filling out the canvas!

The thing that took the most time in this phase was getting the skirt to a shape I found acceptable.

Up next was moving towards making it a finished piece!

Thick lineart is something I've been deciding if I want to stick with or not but honestly it's my natural state! I love thick lineart!! I grew up on manga I wanna see some black lines!!! In the future I wanna go back to colouring lineart as well but for now I believe I need to lean into my natural tendencies for thick lines!

I threw down my lineart to a mostly acceptable state, and brainstormed ways to fill the empty space surrounding Lilly. I found there was just a lot of empty space in the bottom left and I didn't really solve that in the final, but that's ok. It's something I'm trying to be aware of as I actually attempt illustrations. I want to finish pieces right now, I'm not in a place where I can let perfectionism slow me down.

Currently my layers are (face) and (lineart) I throw down some flat colours, a light layer above and for once I tried a shade layer too! It might of been a multiply layer. It was probably was. Anyways this is what I was happy with before moving forward with refining it. I'm currently going with more focus on like, backlighting/rimlighting because it's easier to make it work with my no context existing in da void illustrations haha.

To refine it, right now, I'm playing around with mainly using one layer. So I slammed together my layers other than the face (I made that mistake with my previous piece and that's how we ended up with the eyebrow incident. I wasn't going to put myself in a place where I had to erase an eyebrow again) and started sculpting!

I think sculpting is the best way to describe it, really. It's a lot of slamming down chunky lines, and since the lineart is on the same layer, I'm constantly pushing colours out and finding the ideal shape of both it and the lineart. It helps me push my shapes even farther and let the colours take priority when they need to. Instead of them being separate things I worry about they're all just one big piece!

I was a bit worried about merging the plaid pattern down as well, but I did my best to get the skirt in a place I wasn't going to adjust much after the merge. That was the biggest priority of the previous step really.

It's a lot of fun! I recommend people try it! Try sculpting your lineart a bit!

I added the necklace accessory after since I knew trying to fit it in earlier would also be a pain in the ass haha. I'm not a one layer purist! I'm just having fun!

The background, I went in with no idea for a bg. So this is what we get. I think it works fine for this piece, it's a vtuber attacking you with big fluffy bear claws with no context other than that they are a bear and they're going to fucking get you. Red fits, Lilly has a very orange/red hued design and it's an aggressive attack so the mood works. I could of even gone harder and made it look a bit more splattery but I wasn't sure if I was going to fill up the bottom left space or not.

Looking back maybe I could fit in her name on a cool blood splatter there but I am not a graphic design major my brain is growing slowly in this department thank you

Also fluffy claw gloves usually have much less defined fingers but I couldn't make mitts look good with my initial plans so I stuck with my initial idea!!! Thank u.

Anyways follow Lilly [Twitch]

#tiff draws #tiff talks #my art #wips #digital art #talking shop #art is fun

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