#way back i thought this illustration was so crazy i liked it because it was just very sweet and i liked the kind of festival lighting

[meringuejellyfish]

oh sillyness, looking at this illustration again and only just now seeing that the little party banner coming out of the book is everyones hats, so cute yay 💙

[darkdemeter]

MY SUMMONING

⚤ College student!Wanda Maximoff x GN/Female/Male demon Werewolf!Reader 18+ SMUT, MDNI — (gn/f/m) reader with a dick — monster fucking — female oral receiving — long demon monster tongue can do many things — unprotected p in v sex — some profanity — *cough* laundry mutt!reader — I think that's it? ✎ 4.5k Reincarnated love can be a bitch when you're stuffed into an ancient pocket dimension for thousands of years because the peasants reviled and scorned you. How you've yearned to return to her, promising that one day you shall join her side again as her faithful, shadowed acolyte. Now awoken to reunite with your master on the night where her magic is most potent to release you from your prison, you're summoned by her... but not her. No matter. A lover is a lover, and your love is eternally devoted to her. Now to consummate it at long last.

↳ MASTERLIST | ↳ TAGLISTS ────────────────────────

No. There was no way this is happening. No way! This was all meant to be some stupid little joke… 

Alright, maybe dabbling in the assortments of witchcraft and old leather-bound tomes written in an ancient language wasn’t the best of pranks to pull, but it was Halloween and Wanda wanted to have her own fun tonight. 

She doesn’t have to read the room hard to know she was practically fifth wheeling through her Halloween night. Steve and Peggy, the all-dream couple on campus, while Bucky and Nat were in the beginning prime of their relationship. Yes, both were pretty popular and many people thought their couplings adorable — if not envious of the partner — but Wanda couldn’t help but feel like an outcast all night long. She’s been following them around, attending a party or two, getting up to crazy shenanigans that ought to land them all a night behind bars until bail.

No. Wanda Maximoff, one of the brightest students in her major’s class, likes to dabble in… odd things. Peggy and Nat both knew of this certain attraction of hers, but it had been a rather closely guarded secret until now.

Breaking into the old burnt down chapel off the corner of Main Street, surrounded by the old, white picket fence, hadn’t seemed like a half-bad idea. 

All fun and games until Wanda approached the podium where a dusty casing of leather sat, singed but untouched by the long forgotten fire. The yellowed, toughened skin of parchment paper crackled and rumpled with each turn over, her green eyes almost glowing with renewed fascination. She stopped at the book’s center when something caught her attention. Her eyes slip to widen a little at the sketching of a large, looming form of a wolf creature whose entire head bears only its skull, standing on its hind legs behind the regal figure of a loosely-clad robed woman. The image itself was intimately intoxicating to look upon. Something about it was pulling her to silently read over the daggered calligraphy. The woman’s illustrated body conveys what her drawn features lack; a postured body of contentment. Security. Lustful wanting. 

And the tall creature before her stood proudly. Protectively. Equally wanting and willing. 

The soft pad of her finger runs over the drawing, stroking the blackened detailing of the fur and skull face. Blooming deep in her abandoned, she feels that awakened need that begins to throb between her thighs and forces them to push together quickly, embarrassed with a warm glow in her cheeks. 

While Peggy had urged that she leave the book and its ominous being there alone, she had been outranked by the other three who egged her on.

How could she say no? What harm could come from an obvious prop of the occult? As if a place so holy could harbour anything dangerous. With a cheeky grin, eyes slowly moving back and forth between her friends and the page she read from, she began to read aloud the incantation. 

Before the very collective eyes of four witnesses, the surrounding candles sizzled with rekindled life, a singular flame dancing on each blackened wick before it would throb dimly in their warm arousement. A copied sensation Wanda felt herself able to relate to. 

“Wanda…” Peggy whimpers, unsure. Steve only pulled her closer to him but made no intent in stopping Wanda as she continued to recite the chant. 

The old chapel is awakened with a deadly, hollow breath, howling ominously in a deep and thunderous wind that travels through the marrow of bones and tenses the muscles. The air eagerly lapped and ravished at them, as if tasting them on its non-existent tongue. 

The rattle of the ancient, relic urns chattered on their shelves beneath a baritone of a rumble that became suspiciously familiar to a growl, that of a predatory beast. Wanda’s hair whipped around to almost blinding her vision but she feels like she’s incapable to stop, that whatever force pulled her in the first place has full control over her, that even if she wanted to — and she doesn’t — she couldn’t stop. 

Not until her words and voice enunciate the final lyric of whatever summoning spell she reads. 

“Come hither, loyal acolyte, silhouette and blackened, come back to your vengeful pedestal upon the earth — I beckon you from your voided prison, answer my summoning!”

Behind the knowledge of Wanda’s awareness, the visage of an animal skull formed in a smoky apparition finally pushed her friends to flee.

“Fuck this!” Bucky shouts, pulling Natasha with him until his grip is white knuckled around her wrist. Steve mimics the action and sentiment with Peggy. Each of their screams joined the territorial growls and roars as they ran to the cellar’s exit. 

“Wait—!” Wanda’s hand stretches out, gripping for her friends pleadingly only for the cellar door to boom loudly as the doors slam to a close. 

The air feels cold around her yet so thickly laced, it shrouded her in darkness despite the many candles lit around her. Behind her, tendrils of grappling mist form into spiraling columns that wrap and weave together into a crafting tower, silent with a voice she hears as a mere whisper. Your fur manifests in this realm with a bristled motion and your ears immediately twitch, perking up at each minute breath she utters in her shell-shocked state. 

Your master.

Oh, how long it has been since you last graced her beauty, her powerful aura and taken her into your enveloping hold. For too long she has been away from you. A tiny, coiled rasp akin to a curious, predatory purr emits from the chasm of your large chest. 

Wanda’s voice feels raw, stretched thinly by the grimoire’s spell and her hand delicately moves to pet and stroke it but a figment of lithe, cold clawed fingers beat her to it. 

A gasp hiccups in her throat as her head is tilted back slowly. Her eyes meet glowing balls of flame within the hollow frame of shallow eye sockets. A chiseled and grizzly face of a skull decorated with small cracks and a gaping maw revealing the serrated blades of teeth, moistened with an oily slick from a long, black limb of a tongue. 

No way…

You make the sound of that grinding, off-note purr again, louder to reach her ears. “Milenec…”

Odd as it was to feel an inkling of acknowledgement to the term. It sounds so… endearing. Like she’s heard it before but not in this lifetime. The aspect of a time before her existence here and now is brought into question immediately. 

“Y-you can talk…” she chokes out through a whispered breath, “What are you?”

“Milenec…  it  is  me.” You let her slip from your grasp where she stumbles back, the rise of her heels clobbering against the cellar flooring like loud cracks of thunder. Your body moves unlike any natural thing on this earth. It contorts, twisting and bending in places that shouldn’t. 

You body arcs and crosses over the podium with slinking ease, the wispy nature of your fur bellows in airy streams akin to the warp of fire and your long tail follows you as a trail of smoke; your body pushed and pulled like a magnetic charge between this realm and the next, there are forces at work that attempt to banish you and hold you grounded here. 

“Don’t  you  remember  me?” 

“I don’t understand,” Wanda mutters. With a tilt of your large head that furls your ears with a flop, you speak with a guttural enunciation. “You  freed  me,  Master. For  so  long  I’ve  waited,  trapped  in  the  void. But  you  kept  your  word. You  summoned  me.”

“I-I… that was… that was just a joke, I d-didn’t mean to—”

“But  you  did.” Low and unwavering is your tone, musing to and fro within the fabrication of vocalisation. 

You stalk closer until the bony bridge of your skull bows down to meet her at eye level. “And  now  we  can  finally  be  together…”

“Properly…  consummate  our  love.” 

What?

Wanda stumbles back, nearly caving in on her heel in her blind stun but the shadowy appendage of your tail wraps her and draws her in closer so that her breasts meet the glistening grotesque of your tongue. 

Long and expressive, it explores the exposure of her cleavage, tasting the warm dew of her skin and a thrumming growl rattles in your ribcage like bones being shaken in a hollow encasement. 

With a quivering breath, Wanda sighs, caught in the midst of this awakened desire and her need to get away. “I’m not—Ah… who you think I am…”

Pulling away and bumping the skinless mouth of your face against her cheek, you huff. The tattered, darkened rings hidden deep within the sockets of the skull move like muscled skin. A cursed deformity? 

An indication that you were once something more? 

The visceral shade of glowing amber shines ominously bright like a flame tempered angrily.

“A  reincarn…” The words speak as an echoing drawl that overlaps together. “But  my  Milenec  all  the  same…  my  mate.”

“M-mate?” Wanda stutters and you nod with a low purr. 

Had her dabbling in magic really cost her this time? For all her friend’s pleading to reconsider her less than tame rituals and practices, she truly opened the genie bottle on this one. And that genie happened to be a mystical entity hellbent on her being someone someone it knows. A reincarnate. 

Wanda cannot exactly place it within herself, but there is a certain cadence of allure in your words. Your profession that you and her are meant to be together. She’s felt so lonely as of late after her messy breakup with her ex. Feeling unwanted and pathetically isolated, believing that nobody else wanted her because of her taboo hobbies. 

But to think that this… creature wants her. She feels like it’s a sort of lust yearning to break free of herself. That this is right. That you’re meant to be. 

Your hands move to cradle her jaw, her visage cutely small compared to your hands. Her breath comes in light pants. “May  I…  kiss  you,  Milenec?” 

When Wanda had arrived back at her dorm room, she mostly expected it to be barren of her roommate after what occurred tonight. No doubt staying with Bucky. Her plump lips still reside with this vibrating tension after the kiss you shared. It was exotically powerful, submissively contained despite the ravenous hunger she could all but feel course through your materialised body. 

The grimoire sat on her dresser, a foreboding piece of occult just laid out in the open. You advised her to take it with her.

“It  was  yours.  Take  it.”

From the vessel of her sleeping form, you emerge as the figment moving through the shadows, a tainted mass like water in oil. The native, lesser darkness submits beneath your imposing will, threatened by you. As a wayward spirit now marking your haunting claim to this new territory, you drift around your surroundings under an inquisitive note to investigate. 

Your master is… different. She must be that of a reincarn. The loss of her memories — the loss of you — and in the matter that the world has changed so much since you were last summoned to this realm. Only the telltale sign of your presence leaves your shadow out in the open view, under the protruding light of the moon painted over the wall. 

Before you, your hand muses between the phases of existence, taking care to be gentle when your claw pokes and plucks at a button eye of a stuffed toy of a bear. You recall young village girls who made their comforting friends from old straw, ragged scraps of hemp and linen thread. Witches of the craft also used similar ingredients to create dolls, giving them onto you to then find and slaughter them. Ah, those were the days you were admired as a god. A deity of the dark and the shadows, where your name was uttered on the faint whisper of fear and gasped aloud in seek of repentance. 

Then your beloved summoned you, bound you in the sustained chains of her servanthood, and despite your nature to feel angered because of your entrapment; you admired the raw power she held. Together, you both would be unstoppable. In pledge of your divine protection and loyalty, she would bed you and settle your every carnal desire. She announced her soul yours to take in exchange that you would in turn serve as her faithful acolyte, the fonted source behind her increasing magic. 

A woman after your own heart. No other witch of her time had made such an offering so appealing. Usually they slew a few mortals as a sacrifice or the odd bassinet that cradled a babe surrounded by small, dead birds; all to ask your favour and to surrender a portion of your power to make them powerful.

You’re not sure why these women thought you’d have such need for innocent, infant souls. But you made their treachery pay for their disgusting insinuation. Nor did you ever condone the contracts over the young. A foul entity of the void but one with a consciousness. That was what your true followers came to understand. 

Brought back to the present you stand before the mirror of Wanda’s vanity. Small framed adornments hang by an invisible force that you decree is faulty magic, based on how easily it wanes upon touching it with the graze of a single clawed finger. Your mistress smiles in each one, some with the company of who you presume to be her followers, and others she is alone; in wait for your shadow to loom hazily in the next frame. 

This modern age still confounds you but you will learn it. And with it, you will have all knees bend before your master. You will finally sate one another as you both promised for an eternity. Beside the vanity sits a woven basket. You come completely from the cloak of your phantomhood when the smell hits you. A strong odor exudes from it and you curiously click the lid open. The scent wafts higher, more intense and your core awakens with arousement. You can smell the intensity of her on the used clothes. The nose hole of your skulled face inhales  deeply, sharply with a wheezing crackle. Your tongue laps at the soaking patch of her recent loins, groaning at the way hunger consumes you. 

Your ears rattle with a perked flicker at the piercing chord of Wanda’s softened whine. Your head swerves to peer over your shoulder, a penetrative gaze of two smoldering fires set upon her. How beautiful she looks, the blanket pooled to her stomach, revealing the sculpt of her form, a less than orderly top clinging to her loosely and barely concealing the spill of her breasts. 

As a misted cluster of wavering smoke, you saunter towards her until you stand over her at the side of the bed. Your head cranes on a tilted axis as you examine her closely. Her brows scrunched together, troubled and her body struggles and writhes pathetically, more so as she whines and moans breathlessly under the stir of her slumber. A low rumble vibrates in the chasm of your chest that it echoes deeply. 

Her hips jerk and she lets out another pitiful sound. She’s needy…

She  yearns  for  us…

She’s  ready…

It’s  now  our  time…

With one hand you cup her at the apex between her thighs and she shivers, hips jumping forward into your palming embrace. You growl with a low-edged timbre, desire taking hold of you. You feel the cool dampness soak her panties much like the ones in the basket and her smell… it takes every single sin of yours to remember not to ravish her outright lest you tear her open. 

She continues to move against the wide spread of your hand, rubbing herself on you. Her muscles go rigged with each needy roll of her hips and her throat constricts around her mumbled phrases and wanting sounds. 

She  needs  us…

You intrude two long fingers beneath the thin fabric of her panties, your thumb having sought out her clit. You run along her folds with tantilising motion, teasing. Your master gives a low, sulky moan in turn. Her legs spread further apart to welcome you, accommodate your invading advancements and her breath quickens that her breasts become strained against her top. How you’ll tear it off her in due time. Nothing will keep you apart an longer, nothing else shall hinder you from bearing witness to her naked body pinned beneath you or when she takes her place above you; to spear herself on the throne that is your cock. She will come to remember her manners, her power and then… nothing will remain in your path. You two shall be unstoppable. 

You push the two fingering appendages past her moist folds and she gasps curtly, her spine arching beautifully from the mattress. Finally, she’s embracing that which is long overdue. Your thumb rolls her cli in slowly drawn circles, pressing with a touch of firmness to let her know your toying is an act to please. 

Her name parts through her agape lips and her dark lashes beat with a sleepy flutter, unaware completely to what transpires. 

“Milenec…” you purr. The darkened dart of your tongue slides over the maw of your bony teeth, wishful to savour her taste. You lower yourself at her side, your other hand moves up, caressing the temple of her body until it reaches the nape of her neck. Your jaw cracks and pops, a wiry whisper of breath lashes through the hollow of your throat and your tongue extends further from your mouth. Still fingering her velvety insides until she’s coating you with her arousal, her clit thrumming with a lively pulse, your tongue becomes integrated into the pleasurable mix. 

You grunt and moan with a thousand resounding echoes bouncing back and forth between the walls. You taste the sweetened dew of her skin, its slight tang of salty residue. It slides over the slim plane of her stomach, caressing the creased threshold of her legs right near her navel and then upwards. The damned fabric offends you in your aroused exploration. Your tongue slips beneath its material hem and travels between her breasts, rippling for a moment before tearing the top down its middle. Her nipples become stiff, erected by the sudden chill that riddles her skin with goosebumps. 

Her chorus of moans spurs you on. The inky tendril of your tongue glides over each breast, playful with both nipples until you leave a shiny gloss behind. It has her mewing in a way that makes your cock throb and stand between your legs. The thicker portion of your tongue slides and fondles over the curve of her breasts, its extension moving back down her body following the natural weight of her belly until your tongue prods at her clit. It’s cold to her, she lets out a shivered sigh and a softened mewl of your name. 

Along with your fingers, your tongue divides the lips of her slickened pussy apart, becoming a third instrument that strokes her from within. Her walls are hot around you and it clouds your mind with a clouded lust, her snug walls that are flushed with a velvety feel that’s moistened; a precious cove where she beckons your entreating defilement. You groan with a slurping lap in indulgence to her taste finally on your tongue. Sweetened like a honeyed wine, the taste of a feverish delight. Greedily, you sink your tongue further inside of her. 

She arches her back further and your hand supports her at the backend of her skull as she cries out your name, her breath panting and concealing that of a blissful scream. Her eyes open to the dimly lit world around her, the lamplight having flickered in warning that its lighting will expire soon the moment you laid your hands on her. Terrorised by a series of gasps and hiccuping moans, her hands fist and clench at the chilly spires of your misty fur, just thick enough to grab onto but the fainter portions slip through her hold. 

“Y–Y/n… ah—ahh! My acolyte…”

You give a mused whine at the teetering edge of her voice, a bended inflection as she now balances horribly on the verge of her own orgasm; a heavenly relief. “Right there… please, r–right there!”

Your thumb becomes aggressive on her clit and you pull her to sit up slightly. The widened base of your head forces her legs to remain open no matter how much she clenches them against you, she pulls at the mane of fur around your neck as she begs you. 

With a few more strokes of your fingers and tongue, she cums. Her body trembles violently as she’s taken by the white, hot flush that blinds her for a moment and her juices reward you; allowing you to devour it with gulping eagerness. As a last effort, your fingers work to stretch her walls out and she winces before you withdraw both appendages. 

Her chest extends with each large breath and her eyes drown with a deepened pool of lust, the sparkle of scarlet dancing within them. Her power grows with digesting effort through each powerful exchange of your sexual endeavors. Your tongue retracts slightly back down into the unknown and pitless depths of your gullet and you growl deeply. 

Wanda’s hands become fixed at your shoulders and pull at you, inviting you. With a serpentine movement, your tongue moves slowly over the mound of her clit, eliciting a sharpened gasp from Wanda. Further, it moves up her body again, wrapping as a band around her breasts and squeezing her; a mouse caught in your trap. The thinner flare of your tongue is a wonderful muscle all its own when it balances merely of its own accord before her lips, like a snake risen up for the strike. 

Just from the burning amber of your eyes she understands you want her to taste herself. Her plump lips open weakly and you push the inky, slick covered tip into her mouth. Her tongue moves forward and flicks at the slitted divide of your forked muscle; and your body ripples with an unworldly, loud hum. She will come to understand such an area is akin to the sensitive tip to your weeping cockhead.

Your cock twitches and you move until your widened gate sits between her legs. Her soft, delicate thighs are forced to rest against the strong, muscled limbs of your own, just barely meeting at level with your hips and where her awaiting cunt lines up with your cock. 

You move your tongue as a secondary thrusting muscle. Wnda moans a muffled song around it, her own tongue stroking the underbelly of the blackened length and your hips pitch forward with an eager roll. Your tip notches between the capture of her swollen pissy lips and you push forward.

Her body immediately tenses up and your hands hold tight to her wrists, ensuring her grip that claws at your remains there. You’ve never been opposed to pain mixing with pleasure. 

The pronunciation of your name vibrates through your tongue and you growl. Her walls constrict around you with that hot flushness, fluttering as she eases her body to relax. Your size is one she hasn’t experienced before, not even her ex could compare. You pick up your thrust promptly, shoving your cock in and out, in and out. When you withdraw your tongue, the coiled muscle tightening around her ribcage with each thrust you force to penetrate her deeper, she lets out a sighing moan. Her lashes beat fast and her eyes roll back, lulled by the backward crane of her head that falls back against the pillow. 

“Y-yeah, there, right there…”

“Mmm—mhph, so deep!”

How you’ve waited so long to hear her pleasure all to yourself. It’s intoxicating to be praised by your master and your pace quickens. Your hips snap faster and harder with a harshened force that rocks the bed back and forth with a grinding squeak, the headboard splintering a straight line into the wall from the pounding brunt. 

“Shit, shit— I’m gonna—ah!”

You can hear her deep within the recess of her soul. Her reincarn a physical vessel that harbours your first and only love. Your beloved mate. She sings out to you; summoning you. 

You see her within the blind of a memory, seeing the woman beneath you as you do your master. 

You see two different branches of her soul. 

And the thought that your master in this life has faced so much judgment, that her previous lover left her — not that he would have been around much longer if he’d been in the picture still. 

A new quarry to hunt once your consummation was complete. A prize to bring back to your mate. Her first sacrificial offering you’d present to appease her.

Her legs lock around your sturdy hips to drag you further inside of her, kissing the delicate plush of her cervix that has her keening, her lips parted with deep and loud moans that would disturb the neighbouring dorms for sure. 

“Milenec…,” you rattle with a purring growl, “My  Milenec…  release,  let  go.”

For a second time, Wanda bends to the bliss of her euphoria. Cumming around your cock, her walls hug you tightly and her body trembles again with a feverish tingle. It feels like her insides are boiling but her skin is plagued by the wave of coldness. 

Your ears and back with a sharp howl as your knot swells before erupting with the spurting ropes of your release, listening to the rhythmic and moistened glide of where your bodies lock together now. It’s a sound you want to hear for eternity. 

Your tongue loosens around her bust and slinks back down into your gullet, concealing its impressive length for another time. 

“I feel…” Her words come out as a faded exhale. She’s unable to find the words as she stares up at you, a hand caressing the bony curve of your jaw that pops back into place after hanging so low. 

“Whole.”

No longer will your darling master feel the shaded cloak of neglect and disregard. She will feel what it means to truly be loved. Desired. Worshipped. As your mate she falls under your protection and you will guard her fiercely. You will protect the witch who summoned you all those years ago and you shall forever pledge your service to the witch before you now.

She is one and the same. A lover is a lover even through ages past. Nothing will change the bargain you forged long ago. Not the eyes that spear her to the pyre that burned her in ages old, nor the imprisonment of the void, or even the grades she appears desperate to achieve — though you believe she should turn her studies to that of the grimoire: her true potential.

THANKS FOR READING!

✎ no note from the author

[revelingrexan]

made a reference sheet for Lucifer! :) he's wildly inconsistent in the show, so this sheet has helped me a whole bunch

QUICK IMPORTANT NOTE: BECAUSE HE'S SO INCONSISTENT, THERE'S NO "RIGHT" WAY TO DRAW THIS GUY. JUST HAVE FUN, REALLY! AND DON'T MIND MY SHEET AND NOTES IF YOU DON'T WANT TO

(NOTE DONE) the facial expressions in the lower left corner are more inspiration for pushing his expressions since he's SO EXPRESSIVE!! :D ...rather than direct reference since too many features change between screenshots there

(close-ups of sheet at bottom of the post but before the cut)

(his front view hair should actually curve in toward his two hair "sprigs" like it does in every other angle, but the way i drew it is just my own personal preference at times -- it helps me think of him as a bit more 3D)

below is how on earth i laid out that crazy-looking collection. there's a method to the madness! (the dashed line in the middle of the turnarounds is the "front view," and then the images spin Lucifer left and right from there. sometimes the screenshots in the turnarounds are just for body/leg/arm shape reference rather than face reference)

the note at the bottom of the "Hat angles" box says "The hat angles in the center of the ring are usually intended only for animation in-between frames, rather than for longer poses or for illustrations"

"The Ideal Man" in the upper left corner is a partially joking section name and is the Lucifer design i tend to aim for. i think of his face as "very round except for his pointy chin + his eyes are close together and take up almost the whole width of his face (except for in profile view, and except for when it doesn't look good)."

I WANT THIS POST TO STAY SORTA SHORT, SO UNDER THE CUT ARE SOME NOTES ABOUT HIS HAT plus some hat-less screenshots / screenshots where all or almost all his hair is visible

close-ups of reference sheet:

____

SO ABOUT HIS HAT. HIS HAT CAUSED ME SO MUCH CONFUSION UNTIL I THOUGHT OF IT AS A NON-PHYSICAL ENTITY LOL

short explanation: Vivziepop's art style, and especially Lucifer's design, is heavily based on what "looks right," rather than what is physically possible. so, my hat thoughts:

it's a droopy hat that folds down at the sides. so its brim droops in the back

BUT it also curves upward in the front, both to show his facial expression and in a way that sort of matches the curve of the top of his hair--

--so his hair doesn't look awkwardly cut off on the top

examples:

also, the top part of the hat has a smaller base than you might expect and then angles outward, with the front part always being taller and arcing down to the back

not every moment follows these rules, but they help me a lot when drawing him

(i often take liberties especially on the base of the hat and just do what feels right to me, usually based on similar characters i've drawn before -COUGHBLACK HAT FROM VILLAINOUSCOUGH- and based on where i sketched his head under the hat)

NOW SOME BONUS SCREENSHOTS FOR HAIR HELP. GET THAT HAT (MOSTLY) OUT OF THE WAY LOL

[eybefioro]

(Kanji-less version, timelapse and ramblings under the cut)

ALSO OPEN THE IMAGE TUMBLR KILLED THE QUALITY AS USUAL

I wasn't sure sure which version was better, so here is the one without the ~~menacing~~ kanji! (And sorry. I'm sure the Kanji I did is horrible but I swear I tried my best)

So. Before some time before Good Omens consuming my every awaken thought, the media that lived in my head was JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Because of a certain thing I am working on, my mind end up connecting the two and I HAD to do something about it or else I'd go crazy.

(Cues 3 min time lapse bc i spent -checks app- ALMOST 46 HOURS on this thing. Fuck)

Since JJBA is one of my fixations, at some point I end up watching every single interview with Araki (the author) I could get my hands into, and lo and behold he actually shared about his process quite a bit over the years. We even have access to some timelapses of him working on illustrations!!! I tried to follow a bit of his process, and one VERY interesting characteristic of his work is the JoJo pose – very dramatic covers/panels that showcase the character. He often uses fashion shoots as a references (Araki is very inspired by fashion, architecture and music and there is a million references in his work it's very very interesting and fun) like this:

So there I go on Pinterest looking for a fashion photo that inspires me (Google was shit. What is happening to that search engine?) AND I FOUND IT

YALL. IT WAS LIKE A SHOT RIGHT THROUGH MY BRAIN. I COULD SEE IT SO CLEARLY. Aziraphale and Crowley falling out of heaven together after the second coming. Azi holding him. Crowley giving the middle finger to all those fuckers bc HE GOT HIS ANGEL BACK.

But the thing is... the things is. I'm no artist. I have almost no experience drawing. And this is not exactly an easy pose, and is something pretty ambitious for a beginner like me (I can literally count on my hands the amount of digital drawings I have done. It's all on my blog even lol) so like.... the chances of this going well were very slim. But I am very happy with how it turned out!!

I have to thank @elenthyaolyenths and @gribouli LOTS for that. Elen teached me how wings worked, a bit of anatomy with that, a bit of how she makes those beautiful fluid pieces, Li taught me a bit about colors and light/Shadow. Their support was amazing and they're so so nice to me 🥹

I had so much trouble drawing this bc I'm still learning how digital painting works and how Ibis Paint works. Idk what half of the stuff there does LMAO yk the line work? All in one layer. Don't do that folks. I resized the canvas half way through and had to redo a bit of the line art bc I had to scale it a bit to make the proportions better. Half way in I figured out how to make masks (again, elenthya is an angel for telling me that exists) so I had to learn as I went how that thing works (I still don't know how to use it fully). Ibis Paint froze like 4 times bc my phone can't handle it well LMAO my precision is shit bc I mostly draw with my fingers so I had to gave up control and use the stabiliser on maximum... and so on.

I'm having so much trouble with everything in digital painting BUT IT'S SO MUCH FUN. THERE'S SO MANY POSSIBILITIES. I'm excited to keep going and learn more.

Back to the Jojo style. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I love harsh lines and shadows, the dramatic effects, the detail, the crazy perspectives, the colors... THE WAY ARAKI DRAWS SMOKE AND CLOUDS.

This was my ref for the background, and to represent the heaven Crowley is flipping off and that they're falling from. (fuck this scene in the anime broke me. BUCCIARATI MY BELOVED)

AND THE CLOTHEEEEESSSSS I HAD SO MUCH FUN IMAGINING WHAT THEY'D WEAR IN ARAKI'S STYLE. Obviously Aziraphale is once again sporting something inspired by the crepes look bc omg that was so OVER THE TOP. I'm sure araki would come up with something crazier and more interesting than what I did, but I still think this is a fair shot.

As much as I love JoJo's style I have to say it isn't really an art style made to depict softness. Like. I don't think Araki ever drew something that looks soft. All the characters are slim or super strong, and the few ones that are fat he didn't really... Well. I'm gonna say it. Araki doesn't draw fat people, and when he does I don't think they're a good depiction. As I said he doesn't do softeness lol nothing looks soft in his style, not even fabric I think. It's all sharp lines, dark shadows (again, I love it but yeah) and thin (or extremely big in the first parts) people. This fits really well with Crowley but not so much with Aziraphale. If this was a pose that showed more of him I'd probably not do a great job at it. I think I'd need to go heavy on trying to make his clothes look soft and big to try to make it better.

Now WwwwwiiiIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGZZZZZZZ!!!! Elen is such a magician at drawing wings. I can't believe she actually offered to help me with this one. I learned so much. I was taking inspiration from her work, I wanted to make them BIG and GLORIOUS as she does and I think I succeeded a bit at it (they're not as fluid and perfect as hers, obviously, but I think they still look nice.)

As she was explaining to me how the anatomy works and all we ended up talking about how they're like arms and the digits in bats and I decided to give Crowley that type of wings. I also discovered that Elenthya used to draw DRAGONS. DRAGONS YALL. SHE GAVE ME A DOODLE OF ONE AND IT'S SO AMAIZNG. So together with the bat wings I tried to give him some drangon-esque feel. And she also gave me the idea to make Crowley's wings more damaged, to give more weight to the drawing - Aziraphale helping him not to fall again, holding him in the descend.

Anyway. I talked too much already and no one has the patience for this lol I just like to register the process of me learning things. It's fun.

[mysteryanimator]

Here ye here ye, another breaking down processes post from yours truly!

For this animation, my plan was to make something I'm proud of AND also something to force me to take my time since with all previous animation works they were all rushed. I normally tend to speed through work as someone whose illustrations are painterly and I like to keep them rough. Also lets be totally honest my other plan for this animation was to animate Mizrox being so sickeningly sweet.

Fun fact, this animation was going to be longer. I had tried to plan out Olrox climbing on top of Mizrak during the kiss to lay on his chest. There was an attempt trying to rough that out and several ref videos It was scrapped because for the life of me I could not figure it out. Also hypothetically if I was going to keep it, I would cut to another angle (perhaps Mizrak's face close up) and then cut to another angle that would make it easier to see that climbing over the top. OR, consider Olrox already sleeping on his chest (im just rambling now but this is basically 'if you were able to do this again' section).

I wish I actually went through a more proper tie-down process because the jump from going from my rough straight to clean was rough (badum tsk) for the first few seconds. Defintely learnt my lesson ALSO Olrox is surprisingly really fun to draw from behind.

I challenged myself to see if I could get the idea of "bigger movements, less in-betweens, smaller/slower movements, more in-betweens." Though the effect of Olrox rubbing his face against his arm may be a little too jarring and I steered quite a bit away from my rough and self-reference video in hopes of making the face rubbing more apparent because I thought the character acting was too subtle and wanted a contrast to the other half of the scene. I reconfigured my CSP animation workspace for this too so it definitely made the process less tedious when cleaning up the animation.

(Which by the way I do record a lot of self-references depending on the section! For things I can't do/uncomfortable doing, I'll end up looking up videos. It's the easiest for me to catch subtle things in body language and also get a feels for the motion.)

Also I'm really satisfied with Olrox's anticipation before his smooch and the shoulder roll at the end even though technically the arc doesn't complete itself. MIZRAK THOUGH, when cleaning up I realised my rough wouldn't make sense because he's already looking at him so there's no need for a turn, and then the lack of a shoulder movement felt jarring, so all of that was done without any thought, wish I did think about it more though.

Now compositing was a monster in its own right and basically me jumping back and forth between turning on and off different layers, but here are all the new things I did; I duplicated and blurred the lines of the lineart, beveled the shadows so it was lighter on the inside, and added a rim of blur so the focus drew towards the couple. Also will absolutely admit that my fanboy ass went "... be crazy and try to mimic the show." The final did not go that route because I thought it was more important to emphasize the mood/atmosphere (Also Olrox is intentionally stylized differently because i wanted him to be softer here and I had to give him eye highlights for plot HELP). THOUGH to say I did not try to mimic the style, the #2 lighting test was my 'attempt' LOL 😭 I can never consume media normally.

Here are the lighting tests I went through. I definitely knew I wanted to go with a morning vibe, though I tested out a night ver for fun and did some edge lighting which led to mixing both version #2 and #3 to make #4.

Fun fact, I almost went with #2 due to fear of getting too heavy-handed with compositing and therefore losing the animation (even though I really liked #4 at the time). Thanks to a friend, they also shared the sentiment of liking #4, though pointed out it felt like midday and encouraged me to make the colours warmer and deepen the shadows. It is a really tough balance but I think for a softer scene like this, the more additional layers of comp worked out in the end.

The edge light was a last minute thing because someone told me to add sound and to have light stream in. Also at this point I deadass forgot that you know, Olrox, is a vampire, but hey rule of cute overrules. We can pretend its light not from the sun LOL

Also yay I got to show off my own style a tad, I love paintingggg. It's not as completely fully rendered coz I knew that it would get covered up but I still made sure it was quite clean regardless. I didn't realise how much of it would be covered up even though I did make sure they would fit/make sense for bg LOL

Now we are done!

If you've gotten this far thank you! There's gonna be less frequency of these animations due to the semester starting back up soon and I don't get many opportunities to actually 2D animate (despite it being an animation degree RAH). Also I remembering cringing and laughing a lot when I immediately started putting colour down going "oh i can see the end of the horizon, i have too much power as an artist, people will see this i cant let them see me be crazy"

[Here's some memes I drew over while my friend was reviewing my work]

[applesandbannas747]

i wanna hear your thoughts on the fence challengers: long shot preview pages if you want to share!

oh mAN I have so many and they are all over the place!!

The first one is a little thing, but I bet Seiji had a crush on Marcus Washington when he was a kid--Nick's horror, Harvard's teasing, and Seiji's indignant blush imply as much.

And a fun fact, Jo posted a mini preview of baby Seiji to Patreon on February 14th...maybe I'm reading into it too much, but that's nothing new XD

Next couple of things are about the scene with the trophy case. It was really interesting and fun to see side-by-side redraws of Robert! It really illustrates the way the style has evolved, and also I gOTTA say it feels like Jo is more invested in Robert based on the level of detail she put in--like it's not just a style comparison, it's also just obvious a lot of attention was put into these shots when a) she could have just reused old shots (which she's done before, so I know it was an option), or kept it more simplified like she did when drawing the original shots.

I also think it's sweet that the redraws have Robert looking much more like Jesse than the originals.

And I am sure I will get flack for this, but I have incredible second-hand embarrassment from Nick leaving his newspaper clipping + note in the trophy case jfhdasl like bestieee noooo anyone can see that shit now oh my god please stooop

Onto some Nichoji thoughts! I love that Seiji's been confirmed as a before-bed reader! Him having a Kindle makes sense for the sheer efficiency of it too lmfao. Of course it's also adorable to see him in reading glasses <3 And then my favorite detail is Nick's stupid nightlight...notice where it is?

Rather than illuminating Nick's side of the room, it's peeking around the curtain and lighting up Seiji's reading, which is beyond adorable and sweet. I wonder whether Seiji stole it or Nick put it there knowing Seiji likes to read before bed, and I love both scenarios.

Also, it's fucking adorable that as soon as Nick mentions their date appointment, Seiji takes off his glasses and lowers his Kindle because it's got his full attention and investment.

And a quick pitstop to the locker rooms!

I like the visual metaphor here with Aiden and Bobby both very casual about changing and both literally having their shirts open; meanwhile, Seiji's straightening the cuffs on his button-down, which is already neatly tucked in and complete with his tie. It just highlights how Seiji's a lot more closed off than the others, and I think this was a neat trick to remind us of that.

In regards to plot, I'm still...really disappointed in the pacing. I know most people feel like it's a slowburn/it's taken a long time to develop, but if you waited to read Fence at all until it was complete and then read it all in one sitting, I think you'd see how unbalanced it is. Williams says that their first match will be in three weeks back right after tryouts:

which means everything between issue 12 and CHALLENGERS has happened in 3 weeks. Seiji and Nick's relationship is so sweet and cute, but it went from resentful rivalry to puppy love overnight with very little 'screen time' dedicated to the actual transition from resentment to friends (which I could write a whole essay on but this is not the post for that lmfao). Furthermore, the fact that it's the first match of State Championships rather than first match of the season is crazy to me. I'll admit, I didn't fence in high school--it wasn't even an option because we didn't have a team. And despite hours of research, the structure of high school team fencing is not entirely clear to me. However, I do know that typical high school sports go through the season, facing every other team in their division or whatever. Based on performance in those matches, they can qualify for state, and then their win ratio determines their seeding order for the state championships that happen in like 1-2 days. Seeding order is who you go up against in a bracket, so it's what this diagram is, basically:

(side note, but it appears there are 24 schools competing at state). Again, fencing could be different, but it kinda seems to me like we skipped over the season and went right to State Championships, which just cuts out so much development and build-up. It's like we're speed-running the entire story to get to the end faster. We cut out showing the development in the romance, and now we're cutting out the development of the plot. There's still plenty that we can do at state, of course, but imagine how much more it would mean to see Nick fencing in front of Robert if we'd built that up more. I just don't understand how we spent 12 issues on try outs, 4 on a practice match, 8 on camp, and none on the fencing season. It feels so abrupt and unbalanced. Tryouts and camp were my favorites arcs because they felt pretty well-paced as self-contained pieces of the story. I just feel like we needed waaaaay more relationship development between those two arcs to be satisfying, and I feel like there should be waaaaay more build up during the fencing season between camp and State Championships.

and now, the moment you've all been waiting for: my devastation over Eugene's role (???) in the story. I honestly question why he's in the story at all--at this point, it would have made more sense to have him flat-out not make the team. Except that keeping him this long lowkey backs up the theory I've had on his role since Striking Distance/RIVALS: Eugene is here to make everyone else look better/cooler/more impressive. The very first thing that struck me when reading the first look was this:

The dialogue here suggests that only one reserve actually gets to be on the team in the end, and the reserve is Nick. And, worse, everyone expected it to be Nick. Sure, it's sweet that Seiji thinks Nick's the better fencer, but all I can think about is how hard Eugene's worked for ten years trying to make the team as opposed to Nick's three months of fencing. Now, I love an underdog story. But it's interesting because Pacat stated in an interview (I'd have to go find where for the specific quote) that he always feels bad for the person who's been working to be #1 their whole lives only to be knocked out of the running by an upstart underdog--which I've always assumed would influence the path taken in Fence...and it seems like we may well let Seiji and Jesse remain above Nick in skill (or at least it seems like we won't be dethroning Seiji, even if we go for Jesse), but Nick's overcoming smaller obstacles. And those smaller obstacles hurt worse to see crushed because Eugene almost made the team in a way that mattered, only to have that taken away. It would have been less cruel to him and his fans to let Nick take the reserve slot back in issue 12, but instead we brought Eugene along to serve as a means to make Nick out 'secret weapon' and elevate his story.

I will say though, this page is one of my favorite Eugene moments because I see the character I selfishly want Eugene to be in it. From the context of the panels above, this page is likely Williams telling them that only one will be fencing in State Championships, and this is their reaction. Eugene's immediate concern for Nick and the comforting hand on his shoulder followed by a bright smile and a thumbs up--he just cares so much about other people and it so used to smiling through his own pain/disappointment and comforts Nick through being positive (and as seen back in issue 12, up playing his competitiveness) and acting like it's no big deal.

Eugene deserved better, but if this is where he goes out, I think I can live with it. Better to see him go now than continue to be a means to uplift the rest of team by being less than. but, man, I was really hoping we were turning it around after his moment in REDEMPTION being the only KR boy not to lose his bout

anyway, thank you sm for listening to my rambles!!! <33

[kitorin]

LOVE ALL PLAY. - ITOSHI RIN

TWO - ANNOYANCE

contents. one kys joke, swearing, nsfw jokes / mention (again, it's just me writing shidou as a typical high school boy), smau component :>

"Two nil."

You remain facing the front, just to avoid getting caught by the teacher for speaking in class again. But regardless your whisper is aggressive, full of energy and Rin doesn't have to see your face to comprehend the smug expression you were most likely donning.

The teacher smiles ever so slightly. "Well done y/n."

Rin glances to the side as the teacher goes back to scrawling on the blackboard, teal attempting to capture what was happening without drawing too much attention.

Oh how he wishes he could wipe that shit eating grin on your face.

He scowls at the sight of you. "The fuck are you on?"

"One from running the other day. The other from just now."

With a scoff, indignation rolls his eyes. "Correction: You did not beat me. You interrupted practice like the little shit you are."

"I won."

Rin hisses, careful not to be louder than the teacher's lecturing. "We weren't competing. And I never will. Quit being delusional."

Now, neither of you are bothering with remaining unnoticed by the teacher. "Why so defensive? You scared?"

"I have no reason to be." He scoffs. "Midget."

"'Course you resort to making fun of my height. That's how you know you're truly losing."

Suddenly, Rin's arm shoots up, to which the teacher addresses instantly. "Yes, Itoshi?"

"Because war literature's purpose is to illuminate the dictatorial essence of warfare, the injurious effects it inflicts on entire communities and the brutal changes it forces upon generations. The author utilises a form differing from the traditional novel, as visual representations can express what words cannot." It takes a lot not to smirk at the impressed gasps buzzing around the classroom, as he controls his voice to sound passionate, but not obsessive; calm but not emotionless. "Adopting a different form of literature simply allows the author to amplify and convey their ideas in a manner they desire."

By now, all eyes were on him. It's oddly exhilarating, he knows very well this moment doesn't compare to the 'point' you scored earlier.

"Very impressive, Itoshi. Please maintain that effort for the rest of the year."

Rin smiles, one that displays appreciation evidently, whilst being polite and not excessive. "Thank you sir."

"What the hell was that? That came out of nowhere, I thought you weren't paying attention as well."

"One point for a sufficient answer. Another for being 'very impressive. And one for every classmate that turned to stare." Satisfaction blossoms inside of him, he'd take a photo of the way shock paralysed your features and capture the moment forever. "First set's mine, and you didn't score shit."

"You don't get to decide that."

Indifference pulls his shoulders into a shrug. "You insisted on earning two points for your delusions. I'm just stating the obvious."

You're sweating, because of summer's insolence but Rin liked entertaining the idea that it was you getting flustered. A hand reaches your face to fan it. "I'm not delusional you're just crazy. Did you even understand what you just said, Mr 'dictatorial essence of warfare'?"

"Yeah." He replies, as if he simply didn't memorise synonymous words with an intelligent complexion. "Did you?"

Rin doesn't miss the exasperated roll of your eyes. "Obviously. You can't hide a simple message behind fancy words. All you had to say was that literature's form changes the manner of how it illustrates a piece's concepts."

"Only an average Joe would be satisfied with an answer like that."

You grumble whilst copying down notes. "And only an idiot would feel the need to hide behind obnoxiously long words."

He imbeds sarcasm into his tone. "I can't believe an honor roll student would say such things to a fellow peer. Anyways, hurry up and admit your loss."

"You know, I hope you trip over and ruin your uniform in the dirt during training today."

"And I hope you melt into a sad puddle, in the same way Hiori's ice block did."

Restraint disappears, as you raise your voice. "You—"

"l/n. I'm about to send you out into the hallway if you don't behave. That applies to anyone else in this class." Rin feigns innocence at the teacher's scolding, maintaining stoic composure. Conversely, you seemed to find it difficult to do so, apologising to the teacher.

Victorious, Rin whispers. "Second set. One nil. My way."

For some reason, you were oddly calm now. "Your fly's undone, by the way."

His eyes widen with alarm, glancing down and realizing too late that you were kidding. By then, his well sustained equanimity had gone out of the window.

"You fucking—"

"Itoshi. Get out of my class."

"Rin Rin, please help meee."

As if automatic, Rin frowns at the nickname and Isagi's pleading, pausing from his drink break. "With what?"

"Literature. I didn't understand a thing you said in class today..."

Neither did he. "Read 'The Book Thief'?"

Isagi pouts. "I did. But I don't see how sir reached his conclusion while analysing it."

Rin doesn't even bother looking at his teammate. "Same." Instead he watches Shidou and Bachira (an irksome pair, Rin thinks) argue with Reo over a goal, as Yukimiya attempts to serve as a mediator.

"Huh?"

"What? It's not that hard to reword the things sir says and what you find on the internet."

The older player narrows his eyes. "You're a liar, then."

"Excuse me?"

"You told y/n you knew what you were talking about. Behind your wordy answers is just a search history filled with synonyms."

Rin scowls. "It's not a lie. I do understand what I'm saying."

"You're prideful in things other than soccer too... I mean I can't say it was unexpected." He places a (sweaty) hand on Rin's shoulder. "It's okay to be bad at something, you don't have to be perfect." Isagi was being genuine, though he was treating Rin like a stubborn five year old.

Yielding it as a weapon, Rin grabs the towel draped around his neck, trying to hit Isagi with it. Instinctively, the victim dodges it, barely in time.

"Fuck off—" Rin yells, recoiling the towel to smack Isagi again. "What are you on this time?"

"It's okay Rin Rin, we support youu." Isagi doesn't even take Rin's anger seriously, effortlessly dodging his towel, agile and quick on his feet. "Self esteem issues are valid no matter what. You and y/n are equals no matter what."

The use of the nickname and the mention of you only fuels his anger, Rin doesn't give up, but neither does Isagi. "Don't compare me to that little shit."

"Should be stop them..?" Reo asks Nagi, who was for once, not hyperfixated on his phone.

"Nah. This is funny." He dries the sweat soaking his fluffy white hair, Rin notices it from the corner of his eye. "Do better, Rin."

"Shut up the fuck up, Nagi." Rin chases Isagi (who seemed to be having a great time), around the side of the field.

"Sounds like a skill issue to me." Nagi yawns. "Cope harder." This time, he yells it out loud. "Reo, how much are you betting for Rin to hit Isagi?"

Gaze averted, Reo doesn't even bother watching their quarrel. "None, because it's not going to last very long." He points in the other direction. "Coach looks pissed."

Rin takes notice of this too, it was beyond too late to pretend nothing happened, as he halts his movements. So does Isagi, bowing to Ego when he approaches the two.

"I leave for five minutes and you idiots are fighting." He runs his fingers through his straight bangs. "You're packing up today. Try something like this again and I'm removing you off the starting team."

Relief washes over him, thanking Ego silently for a second chance. "Yes sir."

Ego dismisses the rest of the team. "Isagi. I was referring to you as well. Go help Itoshi."

"Pardon?"

Their coach glares at him. "Don't try to act innocent. I already know you well enough as the type to be annoying. Anyways, don't forget to lock up. Get home safe too."

With that he leaves, murmuring something about teenagers being irritating, and after the events of today, Rin couldn't agree more.

"This is your fault." Rin says, as he collects the cones.

Isagi doesn't bother teasing him. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Get this done so we can leave quicker.

Though he'd never admit it, Rin agrees in silence, exhausted at the antics he had to tolerate today.

It's late at night when conversation stirs in the group chat, Rin texts with one hand while the other dries his hair.

Hair now dry, Rin flops into his bed, face landing in his pillow. He can't stand practice with Shidou, let alone a full studying session where he's the focus. He hasn't known him for long, yet is already sick of him and his jokes regarding his older brother.

But from a logical standpoint, it was a good idea. He's hopeless on his own, only literature permits utilising the art of bullshit to pass, and he refuses to ask for a proper tutor; they're expensive and Rin doesn't intend on going to tertiary education.

Just do it for soccer, Rin thinks to himself as he drifts off to sleep, drained from today's chaos.

ONE | MASTERLIST | THREE

pairing. itoshi rin x reader

synopsis. all itoshi rin ever wanted was a peaceful high school career, his plans go to ruin thanks to the school's badminton genius; entangling their lives—and emotions together.

contents. rivals to lovers, badminton player!reader, sports romance, fluff, high school au

taglist. @yuzurins, @silly-ez, @chigirizzz, @kaiserkisser, @httpshujii, @saesins, @yoimyas, @saetorinrin, @hxniplayz, @certaindreampost, @rroxii, @jar-03, @celestair, @satoruskitchenrag, @kaitfae, @biaonww, @hellothere9597, @its-ur-pillow, @saesofficialwife, @miyanaranagikenmal-intp — bold means i cannot tag you

© kitorin : do not repost, plagiarize, change, or translate

[justlikeeddie]

all of layton and nikita's strictly dances ranked CORRECTLY by ME

14. Samba, Week 1

unfair to have to rank this one really because nobody really knows what they’re doing in week 1. FASCINATING to go back and watch this though. obvs this is strong in the context of a first week dance! but knowing where they’re going to go from here… this is the one and only time you can see that nikita is dancing layton through the steps and keeping him afloat. they’re not yet a PARTNERSHIP here. they don’t KNOW each other!!! anyway good luck to these boys with navigating what they are going to experience over the next three months <3

13. American Smooth, Week 10

the infamous bottom-two dance. a result which i believe was undeserved!!! but the american smooth IS the most boring category on strictly unfortunately, so it’s a humble placing for this one. i did not love their outfits, for once! why don’t they go together. why does nikita look like peter pan. however, obviously i liked it when they both picked each other up and did a little skip in the air. also enjoyed how much craig enjoyed being bammed up by the ending.

12. Rumba, Week 12

controversial to place this so low in the ranking perhaps?? obviously this was a complex routine that they performed beautifully AND was very tender and intimate. but the rumba is the second most boring dance on strictly after the american smooth i’m afraid I’M SORRY. however, points awarded for nikita saying afterwards that dancing this felt like the rest of the world fell away and they were the only two people in existence. girl what

11. Salsa, Week 5

a great dance! fun! good vibes! their first lift! followed by a bit that i like where nikita has to sort of kick layton upright again. loses points ONLY for being perhaps their least homoerotic dance, which one of them, i guess, has to be.

10. Tango, Week 6

all the ingredients for greatness are here. TANGO. HALLOWEEN. layton is in high goth drag. nikita looks a bit like paul gross as geoffrey tennant as hamlet in the flashback sections of slings and arrows s1. but weirdly i don’t think this dance quite lives up to the level of drama i expected from it. having just rewatched it i think it’s because they’re ACTING like it’s a MELODRAMA, and it FEELS like they’re acting, as opposed to the way they usually totally inhabit the narrative of a dance. however. the switch from this vibe into the denouement - the BACKFLIP (fuck!!!) - and then the breathy, drawn-out final moment, which they suddenly ARE inhabiting, braced over each other and staring into each other’s eyes like they are ON GOD going to fuck in the middle of the dancefloor, is astonishing. once again i am asking the bbc if this is what they thought they were going to air

9. Cha-cha-cha, Week 4

okay. we are entering the section of the list where everything from here on down pretty much makes me feral. layton is everything in that jumpsuit. the THROW into the SPLITS. the raw sexual dynamism somehow contained within nikita taking layton’s coat for him. unbearable.

8. Charleston, Week 12

off the charts crazy. how can people move like this. they CARTWHEELED across the STAGE for what felt like YEARS. points only deducted for the fact that when nikita cried in the interview afterwards because he loved layton so much he had to do it in this extremely silly outfit.

7. Quickstep, Week 2

they danced the equivalent of a gay leyendecker illustration in week 2. IN WEEK 2 THEY DID THIS. they’re having so much FUN here. and to follow up on the week 1 ranking, the transformation from them feeling like a professional and a celeb to two people actually dancing together happens SO fast. it’s only a week later, but already something’s changed; layton’s totally at home in the routine and nikita’s REALLY enjoying it. it’s just so nice and i love them so much :’) also the quickstep is one of my favourite strictly dances because it’s inherently funny watching grown adults run full-pelt around a room and occasionally do a little skip. perfect 90 seconds of television.

6. Viennese Waltz, Week 3

ok so this is actually one of their lowest scoring dances on the show. but NOT according to my ranking. this ought to feel as faux-dramatic as the vampire tango but it doesn’t. something is HAPPENING between them in this dance and it’s real. i could write paragraphs about the eternities contained within the long, long seconds of them holding each other after it’s over, which goes on for long enough that the editor just has to like. give up and cut away from them. i’ve been linking to the bbc’s youtube clips throughout this post, but if you have access to iplayer i strongly recommend you watch this dance as aired (i have linked to the timestamp for your convenience) in order to see the full effect of this ending. there’s something about the combination of… the sincerity of the dance. the gender of it all. the refusal to break character. nikita’s slightly baffled-looking parents in the audience lending whatever the fuck is going on here a bizarre frisson. i’m completely obsessed with it

5. Jive, Week 7

the first thirty seconds of this dance genuinely make me feel like i’m coming up. overwhelming transition from the sexy sexy opening section (why are they dressed as little sailor boys? why are they touching like that?) into the supercharged beat of the side-by-side. people pay good money to feel like this. as has been pointed out, the jive is not a traditionally racy dance, and my question to nikita as choreographer is: why

4. Showdance, Week 13

cunt. cunt. cunt. cunt. the absolute fucking serve of the matching slutty magician elbow-length gloves. nikita dropping his hat while layton executes everything perfectly. obviously in the finale, homophobia won <3 but my god. they ATE. no notes.

3. Paso Doble, Week 11

i have said this before. but dancing to BACKSTAGE ROMANCE. in a show where i (facetiously) believe they may be experiencing a BACKSTAGE ROMANCE. seems illegal. anyway. this dance is insane. almost worth them being in the bottom two in week 10 in order for them to produce the unbridled energy of this comeback. as a category the paso doble has similarly melodramatic energy to the tango, but this performance is so unlike the slightly campy vampire number; they’re IN it, they’re living and feeling and breathing every moment. something about the mood of this dance, the power dynamics of it, nikita on the floor looking up at layton in awe as he emerges at his absolute fucking fiercest - happening in THIS week, rising above the stress of relegation and the overwhelming tide of online hate, is, like, pretty incredible, tbh. also the series of searingly erotic snapshot poses at the beginning of this routine are among the worst things i have been subjected to on this show, and as you may be gathering from this list, this is a crowded category.

2. Argentine Tango, Week 8

god it was a TOUGH GODDAMN CALL on these top two places. and tbh i think this is actually, truly, their best dance. the sheer SKILL here… whatever the move is where layton has to jump in the air and kick his little leggies around… stunning. i don’t really have a comical paragraph to write about this because i genuinely think it’s an incredible piece of dance and there’s not much more to add to that. however, extra points for the truly unhinged decision to do some dom nikita roleplay at the end? again, please watch this one on iplayer to experience the full unedited effect.

1. Couple’s Choice, Week 9

as i say. probably, technically, the argentine tango is better. but if i think about any element of this routine, i immediately black out. i cannot stress enough that he is standing on his back. he is STANDING. on his BACK. nikita choreographed this dance and he was like. i want you to stand on my back. PLEASE don’t worry about it. watching this routine is like looking into the sun. if i saw two men doing this in the club i would have to politely turn away to respect their privacy. also sorry to do this for a final time but i also need you to watch this one on iplayer because nikita stays on that pole at the end for so much longer than you are expecting and then does something sooooo unnecessary. this dance should be expunged from the internet so that i never have to contemplate it again.

[apurpledust]

Don't tell my friend that I did not sleep immediately (she will scold me XD). But what is Napoleon and Junot about? Gib their interactions, their history, the tension, their secrets, what you thought about them, what is good and bad about them, headcanons, some things that you love about them, anything that will save my curiosity before I go to sleep in 4:30 am 👀

That is all. Have a nice day/evening 😌

HELLO!! sorry for my late reply I have the cold and I was figuring how to write this without sounding too crazy 😭😭 thank you @whatever-whatsoever for reminding me to check my inbox 🤩 YESSS NAPJUNO ASK!!!! THANK YOU ❤️❤️ I'll have to give a super abbreviated version because they had so much history *sniff* 🥺

I may yap more about my personal head canons and why I love them in a separate post hehehe👅

disclaimer: I don't claim to be objective or an historian as this is very napjuno-biased :P English is not my first language so there will be many grammatical mistakes😭

I feel like I should first mention that Napoleon and Junot had a long history of correspondence throughout their lifetime. And Junot kept every. single. letter Napoleon wrote to him. Unfortunately none of these letters exist anymore because Napoleon sent a lackey to have them burned the moment Junot committed suicide. (I WILL NEVER FORGIVE NAPS FOR THIS 😭) so most of what we know about their relationship is secondhand from Junot's wife, Laure Junot's (Duchesse d'Abrantes) memoirs. She's also not the most reliable person so it's possible she might heavily exaggerated on some stuff

As for the letters, it's always been up for debate why Napoleon wanted them gone but my personal headcanon is they must've been written in a very romantic tone... and Napoleon was so heavily trying to suppress his feelings for Junot and burning those letters was a way of burying their relationship once and for all

OKAY, SO A BRIEF HISTORY ON NAPJUNO!!

Junot's fated meeting with Napoleon began in 1793! He was already promoted to a segreant when they met and Napoleon was already a General at the age of 24(!). It was during the Siege of Toulon that Naps had asked for someone who had beautiful handwriting to dictate a letter and Junot volunteered to write what he dictated before a cannon fire sprayed it with dirt. Naps was so impressed by his coolness that he made Junot his secretary and Aide-de-camp, and soon they'd become inseparable

soon after Toulon, Napoleon was accused of treason for his connections to Augustin Robespierre and was jailed. Junot , of course freaking out about this wrote him letter to offer an escape but Naps declined.

^ this illustration by Jacques Onfoy de Bréville represents one of their "leisure moments" together circa 1794-95

so after a little while Napoleon got married and found his fortune, Junot continued to follow him to his legendary Italian and Egyptian campaigns. In Egypt, he was promoted to General but he was actually not too happy with this since this means he'll be away from Napoleon often. There's also this famous (or infamous?) incident where he challenged General Lanusse to a duel ,simply because he opposed Napoleon's leadership , with this words :

«We must fight; it is essential that only one of us survive. I hate you because you hate the man that I love and admire as much as God, if not more»

sounds like a chivalric romance doesn't it? :3 It was also during this campaign there were rumours within the army comparing Naps and Junot to "Hadrian and Antinous" . of course Junot does nothing to dispel those rumours 🤓 Poor guy got wounded in the stomach and Naps didn't visit him until the last minute.

Napoleon wasn't able to take Junot with him when he left Egypt and by the time Junot made it back to France in 1800, Napoleon was already First Consul and the power differences between them already put a strain on their relationship. This was further exacerbated once Naps became Emperor.

When Naps sent Junot to Portugal , he wrote a bunch of desperate letters begging him to reappoint him as his aide-de-camp again and Napoleon once confronted to Junot's wife about the letters he wrote to him (I'm like 99% sure it probably sounded more romantic than the ones he wrote to her) . it got to the point that Laure Junot ahd to admit that Junot possibly loved Napoleon more than her and their children.

Junot was often sent away from Napoleon during from like c. 1806-1810ish? and didn't interact much except by correspondence (I think) I'm going to skip over the Portugal /Spain period

Okay so by the Russian Campaign of 1812, Junot pretty much fell out of favour from Naps and the consequences of Junot's actions almost completely destroyed their relationship. By this time period, Junot's mental and physical health was very, very fragile from his campaigns in Portugal & Spain and Napoleon was no longer the Napoleon he knew back in their youth. Napoleon was furious and even shamed him on the military bulletin. Junot was devastated at this and the thought of losing Napoleon's friendship was unbearable after 20 years of being devoted to him.

After he returned to France from Russia, there are several anecdotes mentioning how he would wanderlessly mutter out loud that  “The Emperor no longer loves me” in his apartments😭 Napoleon's love for him was all that mattered😭😭💔

There's this scene where Duroc (Napoleon's Grand Marshal of the Palace) and another friend visited Junot to comfort him and this happened:

Junot obviously didn't believe the Emperor still loved him of course💔

Soon after spending some time resting and with his family, he was appointed Governor of Illyria. (I think Naps sent him there because he wanted him out of France but Idk). His insanity finally set in and there's this infamous incident where Junot attended the ball completely naked except for his medals and hat and his battle wounds were on full display...

Soon after that, he had to be forcefully be sent back to his father's home in Montbard. It was there where he committed suicide by jumping out the window.

💔

Junot's last letter to Napoleon is heartbreaking by the way....

“I who love you with the affection of a savage for the sun, I who am entirely yours. Well then: This eternal war that we must fight for you, I WANT NO MORE OF IT! I WANT PEACE! I want finally to repose my tired head, my sore limbs … to enjoy that which I earned … with my BLOOD! The blood of an honest man, of a good Frenchman, of a true patriot. I therefore ask, at last, for that tranquility that I earned through twenty-two years of effective service and seventeen wounds from which my blood has flowed for my country, and for your glory. 

Like I mentioned in the beginning, soon after the news of Junot's demise reached the public, Napoleon immediately sent someone to his house in Paris where his wife and brother-in-law were at and forcibly searched through Junot’s home to seize and burn his letters.

Oh yeah there's more but I'll leave it at that for now </3 LIKE WHAT THE HELL NAPS WHY DID YOU BURN THE LETTERS 😭😭Like they must've been fucking crazy man,,, omg sorry this keeps me up at night 😭

they make me so

Junot's ending was sooo tragic.... he was definitely a Greek tragedy-esque figure😢 He possibly died believing Napoleon hated him when that wasn't the case. Napoleon, despite reprimanding Junot very harshly for Junot's actions (non-actions?) during the Russian campaign, he still had a soft spot for him.

I also think of like how his life would've been better without meeting Napoleon. But also thinking again how much Junot treasured his meeting with Napoleon.... ough they're so painful sdkjskdljdhljhdjfhdkjhfdj excuse me while I combust

NapJuno was basically like painful unrequited love slow burn over 2 decades . Or maybe it wasn't completely unrequited? I like to think Napoleon was in denial and constantly tried to suppress his feelings for Junot 😔😔😔 anyway Junot was so delulu... (he's my precious delulu cat) he kept hoping Napoleon would still love him like he used too pre-Emperor days. Of course those days will never come back. I guess he was always living in the past while Naps moved on 🥲💔

well even if Napoleon doesn't love him at least I do 😤

as my friend @ promises-of-paradise once said, I think Junot was almost definitely romantically obsessed with Napoleon. Like actual romantic love (I'm not even being delusional this is what I truly believe). Whether they actually did anything together is up for debate, but it’s clear that Junot’s feelings for Naps were a lot more intense than a regular friendship.

also I highly recommend reading these posts regarding Junot and NapJuno's relationship:

The NapJuno bible of course: https://erenow.org/modern/napoleonic-friendship-military-fraternity-intimacy-and-sexuality/4.php

BTW THERE'S A NAPJUNO RPF WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED IN A FRENCH MAGAZINE BACK IN 1926!!!! I JUST NEED TO FIND THE LINK (it's also in French)

and Laure Junot's memoirs! it's available on the internet and she (and imo rightfully) suggests Napoleon and Junot were possibly incredibly intimate during their broke days. Girl was the OG napjuno shipper istg

~~

If any of my fellow NapJuno fanatics want to add info about them more please do so!!! I'm probably forgetting some stuff 😭

[mysterialistic]

Over-analyzing the Yingdu Chapter [PART 2]

I'll leve the link to PART 1 here.

Now, going back to the analysis... Who sent this postcard and "clue" to Cheng Xiaoshi? My best guess is that it was Liu Xiao. He got information about Cheng Weimin and sent a clue to lure CXS and LG to Yingdu.

You can't convince me this isn't the face of someone who knows what they're doing lol. Liu Xiao was expecting CXS and LG and he achieved his objective. Besides, why else would he react to their presence if he didn't knew them?

But now this raises another question: Lu Guang knows or doesn't know Liu Xiao and Vein?

I think that Lu Guang knows neither of them. He doesn't react to Liu Xiao's presence when he walks past them at the airport. And Vein... I think he's working with Liu Xiao. My crazy theory is that Vein has the power to invade other people's dreams or minds, so he invaded Lu Guang's and sent him a message through the photographs with the same image of the building and, of course, the clock with "Bridon" written on it.

This would explain why the synopsis mentions that Lu Guang, "with a nervous heart", heads to Yingdu with CXS. LG knows that something awaits him there, a "punishment" that could be potentially dangerous for him and, most importantly, CXS.

And... what's the deal with the "hot-headed" trio?

My main theory is that they're all working together because they want a taste of Cheng Xiaoshi's power, or at least Vein and Xia Fei do, the ability to fix a mistake from the past, to change the course of things. Liu Xiao is the one that confuses me the most, he's... A bit more complicated.

I actually have a couple of speculations about each of them. Let's start with the one we have the most information of:

Liu Xiao: this guy, according to what he said at the end of season 2, wants to "bring more parallel lines together and turn all uncertainties into certainties".

One of my theories is that his power is some sort of omnipotence, he can see everything, including different outcomes, aka, "parallel lines". Something that caught my attention a while back was this official illustration where he's holding a staff with an eye. It's kinda farfetched, but I think it might be a clue to his "see it all, know it all, control it all" power.

We don't know what his ultimate goal is, but we do know he's willing to go to big extremes in order to get what he wants (he has killed indirectly and probably directly too). He's manipulative; for example, I'm pretty sure he's been using LTC ever since they met when they were kids, knowing that he would get powers and lose everything. And how does that benefit Liu Xiao? Well, now he has another powerful ally.

But what stands in the way of his plans?

Cheng Xiaoshi's power. A power that allows him to alter the past and create more parallel lines, something that must NEVER be tempered with. I've always thought that his ability is the most dangerous/powerful of the bunch, so it makes sense that they're hunting him down.

Vein: this character is described as "the eccentric head of Chinatown". Ok, hear me out, this is gonna be a big cliché, but I bet he has something to do with this "mafia" thing on the newspaper.

Now, what about him tormenting Lu Guang? Like I've mentioned before, I think he might have a power as well (manipulating people's dreams/mind?) An extra reason for Liu Xiao to work with him.

Xia Fei: this is the character we know the least about. We only know that he's a model and "seemingly friendly". Aka, he's probably a highly deceiving/manipulative guy.

My guess is that he's going to befriend Cheng Xiaoshi, specifically him cause I think he's more "naive" (maybe we'll see jealous LG lol) and because CXS was the one who noticed him at the airport; he'll probably recognize him when they meet. Xia Fei is going to become close to him just to use him at the end, typical bad guy stuff.

Now, this is a crazy theory of mine: In the newspaper there's this photo of a girl, and like someone once pointed out, she kinda looks like Xia Fei, so I was thinking maybe they're related)?

I don't think they would put a random chick in there just for decoration. Also, there's probably clues of each member of the trio in here.

Ok, so we have the general analysis and the antagonists, what now? Well, now is time to speculate about the plot itself!

PART 3

[bloodgulchblog]

fuck it i woke up and thought about halo and can't get back to sleep.

i really genuinely truly, from the bottom of my heart, think that sergeant johnson is a critical character for a halo adaptation and creates a lot of opportunities.yes, he's dead. yes, he's been dead for longer than we had that character in the first place. but if halo wants to return to the story of the original three games, johnson is so so valuable.

bear with me and pretend i know a damn thing about tv for a second.

everybody loves our boy master chief, but chief is an obnoxiously difficult character to portray directly as a leading man in a medium where you cannot easily get inside his head. chief's quiet and private and focused on his work. because of that, chief's personality is a negative space that you demonstrate the most through the characters around him. the people you put around chief and have talking to him, telling him stuff, and asking him to do things are the tools you have for illustrating him so they gotta be good. cortana is the best of them, obviously, but cortana is also an AI so her perspective on the world is also very weird.

of the human characters who interact the most with chief in that period of time, johnson is by far the best and the one who has the most layers. on the top layer, johnson is charming and funny and competent and tough. game fans love and remember him because he's likable. on the deeper layers, johnson is a long-experienced participant in this war and the war that came before the aliens showed up. he knows a lot of secrets, including the vital secrets about the chief, and has conflicted feelings he carries around. he keeps his head down and his ears up, and plays dumb jarhead to protect himself and others. he has just as much crazy shit in his backstory as chief and cortana, but chief's chief and cortana is like 3 years old tops and also an ai. johnson is our adultiest adult. johnson's pretty stable, he knows who he is and what's going on, and his perspective is much less strange.

chief needs handler characters with perspectives that are easier to grasp than his. johnson is an amazing handler character for chief because johnson knows him, johnson knows why he's fucked up, and johnson is a decent dude who cares about him even though he cannot save him. if you dilate the timeline to let these two characters talk, it is easy to have johnson check on chief and have chief report back that he's fine in a way that totally shows oh, this dude's priorities are insane. you establish that johnson knows the chief and is looking out for him, and then you do a flashback that shows he has known chief since he was a teenaged child soldier? jesus, suddenly so many things click together. you don't even have to get into the details of johnson's own status as a spartan-i grad for it to work.

it doesn't stop there! johnson's also a key character if you're working with the arbiter! johnson's the first human the arbiter ever has a chance to have respect for, and johnson's smart and able to figure out how to work with him! it also makes for great parallels because johnson was there when the war with the covenant started. you don't have to shoehorn him into a situation to create a bookend, it's just there.

johnson is a likable character with a rich backstory and a nuanced perspective on events and a complex relationship to them. (oh avery johnson, you have been victim of and complicit in so much shit, how's that going for you buddy?) he's a capable action character who also works well on the quieter end, is known and involved in secrets, and can draw out interesting and important details in the original trilogy's two main characters.

also, johnson is just a genuinely cool character who deserves more and on the one hand it's probably ultimately better for the character that he hasn't changed hands a dozen times like everyone else, but on the other his death still feels like a gutpunch and a loss. so like. idk. give him something cool to do in an adaptation from the time where he's alive.

....

anyway, the punchline of this whole thing is that i think johnson is a vital character. so of course he wasn't in that tv show.

[tiredly101]

New neighbor Part 9

Pairing: Wally Darling x Writer!Male reader

New Neighbor Masterlist

Illustrated Au, picture made by @nekfofes

Wally sights dreamily when he closes the door of Home since M/n had bring him back in his motorcycle. Wally leaned against the window and stares at M/n while he drives away towards his house, his attention is gained by Home doing some bangs and knocks and he sights dreamily once again.

"It was amazing Home, he took me to dinner and we danced underneath the stars. He treated me like if I was the most important thing in the world," said Wally while plopping himself on his armchair and played, carefully, with the red and black roses that he had gifted him. Home does some creaks which made Wally blush a bright red.

"Oh my rainbows! You are right Home, I didn't plan that... it didn't even cross my mind!," Exclaimed Wally while dialing the phone with hurry, the phone ringed and soon the voice on the other side answer.

"Hello? Which neighbor is it and if it's Julie the answer is no to whatever crazy scheme you thought of," said M/n making Wally chuckled and blushed at his voice.

"Hello Neighbor, it's Wally," said Wally while playing with the string of the phone in a shy matter while he looked again at the roses on top of his armchair.

"Oh Wally, is something wrong?," Asked M/n, Wally chuckle while thinking "always the gentleman" and then he cleared his throat feeling more shy than usual. He could almost feel M/n's loving gaze on him.

"No, nothing is wrong I was just wondering if you were free in two days time, around five? Maybe we could do a picnic together," Wally said shyly and then he heard M/n gasp and chuckle softly. Wally felt a shiver go down his spine because of the chuckle.

"I would love to go on a date with you Wally! Let's best do it tomorrow so Sally doesn't try to interrupt us," said M/n softly gaining a shy smile from Wally, Wally looked out the window and saw M/n standing in front of his, his shirt was slightly opened so he averted his gaze in a shy way.

"Alright then, goodnight," Wally said to blush a bright red when M/n chuckled and said "Goodnight my darling". Wally sighted dreamily for the third time that night and he smiled while putting the roses in a base.

"Maybe this could be the most beautiful thing that has happened to me..."

This is the end of season 1! Hope you liked it!

Tag list:

@farleyis @whynot5243 @fluffyart5000 @blueberricowboi @bonesbonesbonesuponbones @who-let-me-write-this @pr5is1ng @just-random-post @ghosteezofvispast @nettaw @sleepyscxry @theorchardcollective @thelostboys11 @darling-w @ametistacollinsworld @vampyrefay @cloudeecheer @lacunaanonymoused @waywardstardustcollector @welcome-home-puppets @redjeanjacket @fried-lotud @waywardstardustcollector @frindtheshapeshifter405 @lotusflowerexe @sleepyscxry @the-gayest-toad @mythjustiice @backyard-bear @beu-is-here0 @just-random-post

[nameless-headless]

NECRONTYR BIOLOGY SPECULATION MASTERPOST

First of all, the information here is going to be based 30% on what the necrons look like at the moment, 20% on things we learn from books like the infinite and the divine and 50% is my crazy ass wildly speculating based on what little we know.

All right, let’s begin!

Orikan and some other cryptek models have lizard-like legs and a tail. So my thought was that necrontyr were born with more animalistic legs and a tail, but due to the tail often growing lots of tumours because of the nuclear turbo-cancer, the tails often had to be cut off when the necrontyr were still in an infantile stage of life, and because of the tail being important to balance on those weird legs they needed to do a procedure in which they break some bones in the legs and bind them to mold the shape of them to be more suitable for balancing without the tail. The procedure, when done with proper technology, greatly helped improve the balance of those who had to have their tails removed.

Most necrontyr babies/children/teens had this procedure done, either out of necessity due to aforementioned balancing issues or the need to join the military (in which case the procedure had to be done to achieve a more uniform look, especially for the footsoldiers), and those who were lucky enough to not need it, like orikan for example, more often than not became Crypteks due to the idea of still having longer legs, essentially tiptoeing, being associated with reaching for the stars in some way. The markings on their body are natural, and are akin to a fingerprint in that they’re never completely identical. They can vary from light to dark, and the skintone of the necrontyr varies as well, but they always have darker spots around their eyes to avoid getting blinded by light.

Various things i’ve marked down relating to their facial anatomy The crest of feathers that they have, now mostly imitated by metallic headcrests, was most often dyed to represent the dynasty which you served. Examples:

This applies to most dynasties. The feathers only grow on the head, upper back and the tip of the tail, and their natural colour, as seen previously, is an off white/beige colour. Once again, depends on the individual.

Here’s my vision of how Trazyn and Orikan used to look like. As you can see, feathers are dyed appropriately to the dynasties which they serve, though orikan has a green patch and loose bronze and gold feathers as well because of his status as a seer. Necrontyr can’t grow facial hair, so they often use fake beards made of various different metals. Fake beards can be seen as a symbol of wealth, though they’re most often worn by Crypteks to distinguish them from other Necrontyr.

i also illustrated Szarekh, but i didn’t manage to colour him in a satisfying way, but in any case here he is. The headcrest is both a bronze crown and styled feathers, which is what is now imitated as a fully metallic headcrest They wear flowing clothes that cover their skin from the sunlight, but are also very breathable so that they won’t overheat. that’s all i have for now, hope you enjoyed reading my ramblings!

[angeltannis]

So I listened to the entire Echoes from the Borderlands podcast #1 about BL1 and there wasn’t really too much of substance lore-wise, but the tidbits I appreciated were

-They wrote the entire story of BL1 in “about 40 hours”. Like, 1 work week. It shows tbh

-Angel’s name during development was VOG (pronounced like “vogue”), for “Voice of God”

-Tannis in BL1 was written by an autistic person! (Mikey Neumann) He said he drew on his own experiences as a person on the spectrum and how it would affect one’s reaction to trauma when writing her BL1 characterization.

-Lilith, Roland, Mordecai, and Tannis are all names from the Old Testament, but they didn’t really have any reason for doing that besides making it seem like there were deep meanings behind the names LOL

-They named the game “Borderlands” because they viewed it as an area in-between other areas (being the first RPG/shooter hybrid) . Randy compared it to an area of grassy concrete next to a highway but before the trees

-Randy originally wanted BL1’s gameplay to be a perfect loop, where you defeat the Destroyer and then Marcus pulls up in the bus and it’s the character select screen again. They added the Hyperion satellite and the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap end scene literally just for shits and giggles and had no intention of following up on it. (They didn’t even plan to do DLC for BL1 at all)

-They started working on BL2 before BL1 even released

-Randy originally didn’t want a robot character, he thought it was “trite” and overdone, but once they made Claptrap into an annoying failguy he changed his mind and liked him.

-Before they got Cage the Elephant for the opening cutscene, Mikey wanted to try for some Bob Dylan song lol… and apparently Randy said No chance he’s gonna let us put one of his songs in this stupid ass game (not even kidding, that was his reasoning for picking another artist)

-Crazy Earl hiding behind a door was 100% a cost-cutting measure because they didn’t have the budget (or time) to design another character model

-the illustrated ink bits with Marcus’ storytelling at the beginning came from one of the guys just fucking around in After Effects very shortly before the game went gold

-it seems like the majority of this game was made that way lol. The title cards were Mikey fuckin around in Photoshop, the initial trailer was his very first trailer edit, and half the voices were just him and Randy because they didn’t have the budget for too many fancy VAs

-they like the art style of the series, but they also feel like it holds the series back somewhat. Randy mentions numerous instances of players rejecting the game on the basis of wanting something more realistic. (To which he says Fuck that lol and I agree)

-Related to that, they said they tend to focus more on what they want to create rather than how well they think it will or won’t do in the gaming market.

-They feel like developing the BL series is getting progressively more fun as they expand the world and see how far they can develop the setting, characters, and weapons.

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME. last night we watched voy's "waking moments" and ds9's "waltz" (omg waltz).

waking moments (voy):

i was afraid this one would be bad but it was good! -something i say about voyager a lot lately.

naked tuvok was extremely funny especially when they kept teasing him about it. he's like "vulcans dont experience embarrassment may we please change the subject as quickly as possible"

my villain origin story is when inception came out and claimed to be about lucid dreaming i, who was at the time obsessed with lucid dreaming and attempting to teach myself to do it, flipped my lid because absolutely none of it was even remotely accurate to like, actual dream science. (in the very first act, someone READS, which like...you can't read in dreams or at the very least not in the same way you do as in reality. i spent the whole movie fuming and took something very different from it than the shipping girlies did)

anyway, this healed me, because while i WAS annoyed that tom paris was like yeah one time with no training whatsoever i had a lucid dream (not impossible but man come on), he did quickly and accurately explain what they ACTUALLY were

this is also a piece of media that made me very afraid of the moon. just like majora's mask

like, the plot twist when he thought he was awake but was still dreaming...damn...they got us...and then they did it AGAIN. those magnificent bastards, etc

like, not only is that a very successful and smart bit of writing to be able to do the same twist twice, it had me guessing for the rest of the episode at what might be real and what might be fake. they could never do this, but chakotay seeing the moon again in the final shot would have been great

speaking of chakotay, can we please stop saying "vision quest" on this television show. that's two episodes in a row. he can just lucid dream like anybody. don't worry about it. you don't have to make a special racist lucid dreaming ritual

waltz (ds9):

OMG WALTZ...............................

dukat is crazy. off his fucking rocker. it's so good and so layered and it's the perfect way to illustrate that like. the ramifications of colonization and occupation on EVERYBODY involved without forgiving him for what he did and what was his personal responsibility to stand up against and like. how "good" people who do nothing are in so many ways worse than evildoers and become evil in a system that turns them into evil people because if you're not against the oppressors you're literally with them

like, dukat shows up to bajor and he is just Some Guy. shaped by the values of his culture (ie that their race is superior and colonization is the cool hip thing to do) yeah but he's just a dude. he's never really had to look at it up close until now. so he looks around at the labor camps and the executions and he goes yikes this makes me squeamish! hey guys what if we were super nice to the bajorans. and then less bajorans died and they were like Great this enables us to fight back better! let's do some terrorism! and he was like wait what why are you fighting back. you're supposed to love me because i said we should kill less of you. like i need you tell me it's all okay now and i fixed it and he absolutely SNAPPED when they would not do that

like he's crazy now but i think this is just the final result of like. he looked around at what was happening and he could not deal with the fact that he was participating in it. he needed someone anyone to tell him he was good and kind and loved and would never do such bad horrible things unless he was FORCED to and when no one told him that he just told himself that and it became the truth. because either someone forced him to do this or it's his fault and he is a bad and evil person

he begged sisko ALL. EPISODE. to tell him he wasn't evil. he just wants one single person to tell him he's not a bad person. that he wasn't a bad person when he raped leeta, or (in all probability) ziyal's mother. that he wasn't a bad person when he sentenced innocents to torture and execution and that he wasn't a bad person for overseeing the slave labor that BUILT THIS FUCKING STATION

and no one will tell him! his own daughter wouldn't tell him! ziyal got FUCKING SHOT because he's so evil his OWN DAUGHTER could not stomach what he's done. HIS OWN DAUGHTER. and he's so evil that he's not even grieving for her! he's grieving for the loss of the one person he had managed to trick into thinking he WASN'T evil! when sisko took him into prison and he handed back that baseball he was full of forgiveness because he wants just ONE PERSON to forgive him (even kira said this in a previous episode) and like NO ONE CAN. his own daughter can't!

and then hes like. well they MADE ME do this. the bajorans MADE ME punish them because they wouldn't worship me for being SLIGHTLY less awful than the other people occupying their planet and forcing them into labor camps. but I'M less awful everybody should LIKE me everybody should FORGIVE me but they MADE me execute them by the hundreds and rape and torture them they MADE me do that!

AND HE'S NOT EVEN GETTING MAD AT THE RIGHT PEOPLE. you could justify anger at the cardassian government even if that still does not let you off the hook morally for helping that government commit atrocities but he CAN'T. because his identity and his idea of acceptance is so tied up in that society he CANNOT believe it's the problem because it's too much like believing HE is the problem and he CANNOT be the problem because HE'S good and moral and soooo nice to bajorans! he was even "in love" (blech) with the bajoran who became ziyal's mom! he loves bajorans so much he called leeta into his office just to be better friends with one and definitely not abuse her at all!

and the end result is you take this mostly normal guy who is not a good person by any means but is also vaguely squeamish about war crimes happening right in front of him. and you put this guy who wants really badly to be liked in this position of immense power where he is doomed to be hated. and what that does is turn him into the screaming maniac we got in this episode saying he should have killed every bajoran man woman and child who ever lived. colonization ALSO HURT HIM, irreparably. like we're also doing a fantastic at job at illustrating the evils of colonization - just the entire concept of it is so systemically rancid that it is hurting and making worse literally every single person involved, because the people upholding it and participating in it, like dukat, can never ever be forgiven for that crime

AND HE SHOULDN'T BE. this is so crucial: there is NO sympathy. sure he is suffering but he made his own bed of nails he dug his own fucking grave and he DESERVES TO SUFFER there is no fucking m*rvel let's meow meow this guy bs. this is not l*ki this is not w*rd this is a fucking killer. this is a guy who sisko hits on the head with a pipe and says AND THAT IS WHY YOU'RE NOT EVIL??? we joke about speaking truth to power but jesus fucking christ sisko shouted it at power from the ground with a broken fucking arm and a phaser pointed at his head

it's just such a good job at making such a complex fucking villain without him needing a redemption or a sad little wet cat phase. it's so refreshing. sisko literally said damn sometimes i forget people really are evil but there it is. i hit evil on the head with a pipe and told him to get fucked

and by the way.......the fact that avery brooks did do little outside of ds9 is a fucking crime because good lord that man can ACT. the fact that he didn't win that vintage hot guy scifi poll is fucking unforgivable. not only is he hot but he is out-acting everybody else on that show by MILES except for perhaps nana visitor whomst he is only out-acting for like maybe one mile. he's running fucking circles around them. he should have been an a-lister. sisko is so cool and badass and sexy and i had never even HEARD of him until i was like halfway through tng. again i say: unforgiveable!!!!!

LIKE. HE FEARS NO EVIL BECAUSE HE IS THE EVILLEST MOTHERFUCKER IN THE VALLEY. YES HE IS. HE HITS EVIL ON THE HEAD WITH A PIPE. HE TELLS EVIL YOU'RE A BAD PERSON AND YOU DESERVE THE SUFFERING. god. god!!!!!!!!

okay. i'm calm. i'm normal. ds9 GOOD.

TONIGHT: voy's "message in a bottle" and ds9's "who mourns for morn?" rip morn :(

[soukokumychildren]

I. ABSOLOUTLY. ADORE YOUR IDEA WITH YOUR AU SO MUCHhhhhaaaaah!! ✨✨✨✨🖤🖤

Chuuya having WINGS!!? Even though he could in somee way fly before already, it feels so different with wings!! Like really cool!!

(( I have always Liked wings -

Is your AU going to follow the main time-line of the show? Like, the illustrations you've posted sure does look like it-- (love them- love this idea-) ((Soukoku Reunion where Chuuya has feathers!!? ✨)

Wait, wait, wait, No- dont spoil anything..! (maybe just a little yes or no- that wouldn't really spoil anything—) I will find out as I read—!

I mainly wanted to say I'm really looking forward to reading this!!

It's my first BSD AU where it follows the main time-line - just differently- as well! A thing I really like!!

Well, if it really does ofc, but It sure does look like it—Arg, I gotta just continue reading soon——

Even if it don't this seems really interesting already!!!

Ahem, anyhow, this became a bit long- I wanted to expres my excitement about this-especially after, you even looked at some of my BSD stuff after I followed you!!!!

Thank you soo much!✨ That became the last push to write this little too long text, that isn't really a question, but more like a thank you-ahh im excited for this-- that I had already considered writing to you after I started reading😅😅👍

This entire post just made my day and while I could I'd rather not risk dying from lightheadedness from spinning too fast in excitement in my spinny chair XDDDDD THANK YOU SO MUCH

I can't express how embarrassed I am just fshfhsgshgsghshg I have been CRAZY for wings for AGES now, and I just saw soooo many posts about how "what if Chuuya could fly Dazai" I thought, fuckers, I can make that REALITY And it is going to follow the main timeline of the show just...alot differently but at the same time trying really hard to stick to the normal plot In hindsight that means I must suffer with all my energy to watch the first season of bsd (When I first watched BSD, the first episodes were for setup, and rightfully so. That all made sense, it really put the characters together. But I watched it a second time and it dragged ON and ON and I COULDN'T STAND IT UNTIL CHUUYA CAME TO GRAB DAZAI gARgHHrhgh). I must admit I'm confused on the "Soukoku reunion where Chuuya has feathers" bit though 🤔 And currently during the plot I'm writing I have to improvise ALOT from what I know, and really this fic is also whatever the fuck I wanna write with whatever writing style I have on hand slapped into each 1K chapter so I'm really trying here LOL Also the fact when [undisclosed plot device] will be introduced, I'll be writing seperate smut for [undisclosed plot device] because I can then do WHATEVER I want wITHOUT any repercussions Hopefully I can add in [undisclosed plot device] just in a way that people will understand. Though I hear that Beast Dazai also came across [undisclosed plot device] at one point :D

I'm going SO offtopic here LMFAO And seriously? Really??? I'm surprised! I'm sure theres alot of fics that go by the timeline, I especially have run into cough ones which I liked which are specifically smut related..... and I go back to off topic I'm sorry LMAO But I'm sosoosososo glad you like it! It just means alot to me you wrote alot and now I'm just ranting because you've shown genuine interest without going off the rails (as far as I've seen) so this is pretty cool for me too!!! And I do usually look to peoples accounts who follow me (especially those who find interest in a SURPRISING amount of my stuff XD) so yeah, that's why and I found some GOOD stuff on your account too, so that's REALLY awesome. Talk to me any time! Dm me, reblog and talk to me that way, use replies, whatever the fuck! I love talking to people, and this was genuinely fun to write. :]