#also it's challenging and thus fun to me to draw that

[seawing-vibes]

Decided to fill out a template from @/falling-skyzz I feel normal about . The dragons ! List of characters & design & dynamic thoughts under the cut <3

Also If anyone else fills out thus template feel free to send me the post,, I would love to see other people filling this out!!! I love templates !!

Secretkeeper & Moon • I understand theres a lot of reasonable hate for Secretkeeper but!!! I find her & moon to be a very fascinating pair! To make a long ass thought short, I think Secretkeeper is the embodiment of “product of her environment & deeply traumatize & projecting”. I think she genuinely really loves moon but obviously expresses that through being “”protective””. But I think shes genuinely a character with a capacity for change & realizing the autonomy Moon has over her own powers. Also from the perspective of Moon I think her arc around her relationship with her mom could be really interesting, especially as Secretkeepers authority becomes challenged in Moons life & she has to confront the bullshit her mother has put her through. Overall very very interesting pair I think about them a lot.

Design Note: Secretkeeper is duller in color than Moon & has less stars due to lack of moon light on the island! Also the scales around her mouth are almost completely black, making her mouth barely visible, giving her the name “Secretkeeper” as she “has no mouth to tell others secrets.”

Tsunami & Starflight • Just one of my fav siblings! This specific illustration is from the Arena Scene in Dragonet Prophesy! I really really love Tsu & Starflights dynamic of looking up to eachother & their development together just. So neat!

Design Note: Starflight has very few constellation marks in this illustration as he hasnt spent much time under moonlight quite yet!

Shark & Abalone • One of my more out-there ships! I based this on the thought that Shark was once close with Abalone (cough. Husbands.) and that relates to why he was willing to give Tortoise a lunch-break from watching the eggs. He already saw someone close to him die from being overworked to watch the clutch, he didn’t want to watch another dragon die from his sisters selfishness. I could write an essay on these two I swear

Deisgn Note: Shark is based on a tiger shark & abalone is based on real abalones! hes one of my fav designs here

Six-Claws & Ostrich • He’s just a sweet dad! the little we see of him he seems to really love her & vice-versa <3 they’re just neat

Design Note: Six-Claws is based on a king cobra & is a specific sub-“species” of hooded Sandwings ! Burn found his hood mutation & six-claws super interesting

Tamarin & Pike • My fav background friendship! They’re just fun. I like Pike just chillin out around Tamarin & describing flower colors to her to the best of his ability (she just likes to hear him ramble about a shared interest)

Design Notes: I updated how I draw Tamarins eyes to properly resemble a blind-born dragon ! Also Pike’s deisgn got some yellow in it and I really like it <3

Whiteout & Thoughtful • I just think they’re neat!! They just seem like a sweet pair love them

Design Note: none really! Just experimenting with a rando Thoughtful design that I tossed together for my “ships tier list”

Tsunami • Its just her :) my fav dragon <3!!! I definitely dont think she upholds the “princess” title once she gets older, her only link to the throne is by Coral insisting monthly visits but Tsu otherwise wouldn’t be any interesting in royal life I would imagine

Design Note: Shes caught a waaururrghh something im going bonkers I cant remember what fish that is and my reference photo seems to have dissipated into the cosmos

Anemone • I LOVE HER. SO MUCH ! Anemone haters BACK OFF!!!! Her relationship to her powers is so fucked man. Something you’d think would give her power & control is just a key by which others use to manipulate and abuse her like . Man :( shes literally never had any autonomy over her own identity & intermingled her powers into her identity So Much only for that aspect of herself to also be revealed to be a facade for someone else’s desires like. GUH I love her so much I hope shes having a good day I dont care what anyone says she deserves to be a brat and I support her for it

Design Note: none really! The stars in her talons are just metaphorical though

Snowflake & Snowfox • THE OGS!!!!!! MY FAVORITE PROBLEMATIC LESBIANS <3 Ahhh remember in the early days when they were considered the #1 most problematic ship because they were gay and also evil. I love the evil lesbians so much they’re so shitty sorry Darkstalker Snowfox should’ve been queen I would’ve loved to see that go down it’d be so silly

Design Notes: Snowfox is based on an arctic fox shedding into their summer coat!! I know its p . Away from canon descriptors of her but it was sm fun to illustrate so shhh <3 Snowflake is just grey & blueish per-canon but shes sooo fun. love her.

Okay thats all here are the individual illustrations now !!!!! Because why not !!! If these aren’t transparent its all over

[onyichii]

Shushu Possessed Amalia Doodles

Can Yugo save Amalia (and the kingdom)? Or will she be lost forever to the power of the shushu?

This idea came to me as I was designing a dress for an AU Yugo x Amalia drawing (I'm still working on). I have 7 dress concepts for this drawing. However, this dress design was...🤔...sexy and domineering...and kind of felt a little evil (after I colored it black).

Thus SHUSHU AMALIA was born!

Shushu Amalia is the embodiment of dangerous plants. The tree horns growing from her head are a symbol of how much control the shushu has. Plus, they have a poisonous sap. Touch them and you're a goner.

All plant life Shushu Amalia creates is poisonous. And yes, even her clothes are poisonous too. so you can't touch her (with your bare hands).

Her clothes are also based on poisonous plants and flowers. We have (from left to right) the…

Daffodil dress: Yellow petal collar and bra with a double split leaf dress (⭐ this is my favorite and the dress that started it all!)

Foxglove unitard: Fuchsia petal sleeve dark green romper with dark green thigh highs. (Her butts so big it makes the romper look like a unitard)

Deadly Nightshade pant set: Purple petal crop top with purple bellbottom floral pants. This style is kind of giving Megan the Stallion! Haha

Castor Bean skirt set: Castor Leaf top+ leaf skirt with red castor bean spikey earrings + thorn choker

I also drew an Uma Thurman inspired Poison Ivy outfit—which was a fun idea. I could see that as her battle outfit tbh. I also added a tiny redesign of her current outfit but with a poison ivy leaf belt.

I do have a dress based on Angel Trumpet (poisonous flower) but it's cute and I don't want to put evil Amalia in it. But then the irony of evil Amalia in a cute dress is also fun. It reminds me of evil people ironically wearing bright colors like white or pink. I might post the concept art when I finish my Yumalia drawing.

I tried to make her demon marks leaf-or-tree-like but went back and made it regular. I should have used a smaller brush for the leaf vein demon marking 🤦‍♀️

We also have a chibi shushu Amalia with an Aurora voodoo doll. she is about to impale her ☠️. The shushu is also not a fan of Aurora and her daddy.

I had fun with this. Thinking of outfits was challenging but fun! I love drawing revealing clothing—and it was fun dressing her up in sexy clothes to murder her enemies and manipulate minds.

I kinda wanted to put mushrooms on her feet as a sign that she is infected. But didn't...oh well. Instead, imagine she leaves behind deadly mushrooms as she walks.

She is my demonic plant queen. 💚😈💜

[noses-in-winter]

Jack of All Clits (f/f, nsfw, sneezy lesbian porn cranked up SUPER high)

idk what it is but lately I have been INCAPABLE of writing anything that didn't involve a curvy girl sneezing, receiving sapphic head, and climaxing within a few hundred words of each other. This fic just happens to have all of that! Piper's my horny and perpetually stoned bisexual dumbass and Tourm is @virarushi's hot thicc girlboss gnome OC who sneezes about everything and has not yet had her bi awakening! Tourm is 4'5 and Piper's 5'6 so that's fun. :) Here's some art of her because she's hot! Anyway, to summarize: This is a 2.5k word fic in which Piper's going down on Tourm while she sneezes. They're roommates in grad school and Piper prides herself on being able to deliver bi awakenings.

To reiterate: this is nsfw so please do not interact if you're underage!! just block me!! thanks!! okay enjoooyyyyy ty

(Also to my awesome friends who read this in Discord, I DID add a few more horny details, just sayyin...okay anyway tyyy)

Piper was pretty sure Tourm had never climaxed at the hands (or dick, or mouth, or any combo of those things) of another sentient being. Based on what Piper had learned about her new roommate so far (mostly from asking Alexander), college was the first chance Tourm had ever really had to be away from her family’s rigid expectations and watchful eye. The poor bitch hadn’t ever even had her boob squeezed before! And there was a lotta boob-squeezing real estate there!

Tourm’s lack of preconceived expectations made Piper’s job all the easier. Not that she didn’t like a challenge, of course. But, now she could put all her focus into just getting Tourm to--

“Haah--! F-Fuuuuuuucking Void, Pipes…”

--moan, even if it was not done with near the amount of volume that Piper had anticipated. She expected Tourm’s--

“Mmmhhmm--!” 

--sounds of pleasure to be just as loud and take-charge as her sounds of laughter, anger and annoyance. As Piper had quickly figured out, Tourm was not a throw her head back and cry out with every rock of her hips kind of girl. Would have been hot if she was! But Piper also liked Tourm’s brand of quivering through the arousal, letting out steady moans that evidently came right from the g-spot. That was…actually a lot hotter than the first option. Piper didn’t have to keep an ear out for anyone drawing closer to their room. She could just keep making Tourm squirm. 

“Mmmmhfhhh, fuck. Aah--!”

And, Christ, was it fun to make her squirm.

“Mmmn…MMhmm…Fuck,” Tourm exhaled audibly in a proper English accent that could rival Solara’s. Piper didn’t tease her about it the way she normally might. She simply focused on keeping this pelvis-rolling rhythm going. Piper would have commended Tourm for figuring out the desired beat of her drum, were her tongue not occupied with the shorter coed’s labia. With Tourm’s calves draped over Piper’s shoulders and her hips angled upward, Piper went down on her in a very literal sense. Coupled with two pillows beneath the small of Tourm's back to keep her sex elevated, it made quite the memorable impact. It was Piper's go-to move when someone neeeeeded a good mouthfucking the way Tourm did. Piper prided herself on being able to get hookups to forget aaaaall about sheltered upbringings and disappointed families with the use of her nuclear-powered tongue work. 

Piper’s eyes flickered over to her phone, propped up on Tourm’s bedside table. The stopwatch read: Six minutes and fifteen seconds…sixteen…seventeen…Shit! She was running out of time. Time to pull out the big guns.

Thus far, Piper had been using the tip of her tongue to tease at Tourm’s g-spot. As Tourm evidently grew closer and closer to completion, Piper opted to switch things up a bit. She eased her tongue in farther, just enough to rub the stud of her piercing against the roof of Tourm’s cunt. The warm skin of her g-spot was raised, more than already activated with sensitivity and arousal. Judging by the new way Tourm’s thighs trembled around Piper’s ears, the move felt just as good between her legs as she had hoped. 

Tourm breathed heavily, one hand gripping the blankets beneath her while the other had her fingers tangled in Piper’s hair. She continued to groove against her roommate’s tongue in whatever way she could. “ohhh--ohhhFUUuuuuck, Pi---hi-hhh--?”

Piper wasn’t exactly sure what set Tourm off. Most likely, it was just the fact that Tourm was a gnome that simply existed. No matter the cause of the evident irritation in her nose, the first snag of Tourm’s breath sounded confused, as if she hadn’t realized this was coming. Her voice went a touch high with desperation as her nostrils flared, and then rested again, and then repeated the process to the same beat that she panted in. 

Tourm was sure gearing up for one hell of a sneeze that didn’t seem like there was going to be any attempted cover in sight. Piper couldn’t blame her. She was sure that being eaten out was the only thought and feeling and need in Tourm’s head at the moment. 

Tourm’s budding sneezes had her breath seesawing on beat with Piper’s tongue work urging her into the mattress. Finally, Tourm’s whole cunt clenched around Piper’s tongue as she sneezed at last, a cute “hh’chisshiew!” that Piper was more than used to hearing, along with the seeeeveral that always followed. The release peppered her shirt, bare thighs aaaand Piper with the results. Piper made a little noise of surprise when Tourm, fingers still wound in her hair, wound up pushing her face further against her sex. Immediately, Tourm let out a congested little moan, pelvis rising without her control in an effort to receive more and more and more of Piper’s tongue as she geared up for the next sneeze.

 Piper was happy to keep up, but withdrew from Tourm’s sex for just a moment. “Bless you. Sneeze all you need, babes, okay? Just aim somewhere that’s not me,” she teased lightheartedly.

Tourm took in another fluttery sniffle with a dazed nod, unable to offer even half a joking response. She just barely managed to pull the collar of her oversized sleep shirt over her nose with clumsy fingers as she drew closer— 

“hhih!”

 — and closer--

 “h-hehh—!”

 —to sneezing again. 

“hhhh!’chzsshiew!”

After several moments spent in limbo, Tourm’s hips bucked with yet another sneeze. By the sounds of things, this one came with a deluge of mess that was contained to her shirt. She let out a congested exhale that immediately turned into another heady snag of her breath that led to Tourm sneezing twice more. “sszsschiew--adt’chzsschiew!”

Piper opted to take this opportunity to use her thumbs to ease up the delicate hood that protected Tourm’s clit. Piper dipped her head down to greet it with her lips.  “Good giiiiiirl,” she hummed, voice shifting into a little purr as she praised Tourm’s last-minute success of covering her nose as Piper had instructed. “Bless you…”

Tourm gave a close-mouthed little sound of pleasure that could certainly be described as a whimper. Piper couldn’t tell if that was simply out of the stimulation she had been experiencing for the past (one more glance at the stopwatch) seven minutes and thirty-four seconds, or if that praise had done something hot to her. That could be figured out later. Just a little over two minutes left for Piper to push Tourm over the edge of climax. She could so goddamn do this. 

Tourm sniffled heavily with a murmur that probably had some intelligent meaning behind it, but only sounded like horny gibberish to Piper. The self-proclaimed master of orgasms didn’t ruminate on it long. Through the blond curls between Tourm’s legs, Piper took her clit fully between her lips to suck at. She wasn’t surprised by Tourm’s immediate gasp in response, or the needy buck of her pelvis. Tourm moaned through the fabric of her sleep shirt that she had less and less of a hold on as Piper rocked against her rhythmically with every sneeze…

“chissch!”

 And sneeze. 

“ischhoo!”

And a few more sneezes after that.

“iht’chisshiew! F-fucki’g shi--hihh!—kisschiew! hadt’DJISHiew!”

 Each time she geared up for a new sneeze, Tourm’s back arched up from the bed in a desperate squirm before making her buckle again in what looked like the world’s most effective ab workout. Those sneezes were rapidly starting to get away from her. 

“I’m…” Tourm trailed off, dropping her hand from its place of holding her sleep shirt. She instead used both hands to grip the blankets beneath her. Her shirt remained tented, held up only by her nose. That would be changing once she got a few more sneezes out, Piper was sure. Tourm was no longer capable of giving a fuck about a single thing other than her body’s powerful and simultaneous urges to climax and sneeze, sneeze and climax. “I’m g—gonna …hohhhh, fuuuuck….”

“Gonna what, babe?” Piper hummed during a brief pause in her stimulating efforts. “Cum? Or sneeze?”

Tourm gave one shallow nod, evidently an answer to both. Even though the bottom half of her face was covered by her sleep shirt, Piper could see that next sneeze coming from a mile away. Canted eyebrows, a shuddering inhale, the brief, sudden stillness of Tourm’s legs draped over Piper’s shoulders--

Haaaht--?!”

Oh, this was gonna be messy--

“CHIZSCCHhoo!”

Tourm sneezed. Productively, if the sudden splatter of wetness from the inside of her top gave any indication. Dampness bled through the cotton, turning the plain heather gray t-shirt into more of a slate color in several spots. Tourm snuffled and got a fistful of the shirt, drawing it up to scrub at her itchy nostrils. Piper could only see the underside of Tourm’s tits shifting, quivering along to the movement of the rest of her body, as well as the unsteady rise and fall of her chest. Piper didn’t bless her this time, simply choosing to hum as she tended to Tourm’s clit. This felt nice, apparently, judging by the shivering clench of Tourm’s thighs. Piper needed no further encouragement to keep humming and teasing and sucking until Tourm’s head pressed back into her pillow. The tip of her nose was perfectly perpendicular with the ceiling, reddened nostrils flaring as she came--

“OhhHHHHFFFffuuucuuuccckkkk….”

--hard with a shuddering moan that squeezed Piper’s ears between her thighs. Fuck yeah! She was so gonna win---

Nope. Ten minutes and twenty-eight seconds. Fuck! So close! Piper had nothing to complain about, though. That was fun. And hot. Super, actually fucking hot.

 Unable to properly tend to her clit anymore with how tightly Tourm’s thighs held her, Piper instead moved back down to Tourm’s labia. She delivered a few finalizing strokes with her tongue to Tourm’s heated sex as it pulsed rhythmically with the highs of orgasm. Tourm was quiet for several moments as she collected herself, save for heavy inhales and exhales, before she let out a little noise that sounded like a cross between a moan and a laugh once Piper’s tongue piercing massaged along her…shit, what was that part called? Her fourchette? Something French, Piper remembered, but she didn’t spend long on remembering the name. She simply continued with her tongue’s easy kneading of this evidently pleasurable (and ticklish) spot.

Tourm slowly untensed, legs remaining draped over Piper’s shoulders. Her hips continued to move lazily in response to the stimulation of her fourchette, but in a more relaxed way that suggested she was simply enjoying this little pleasure, even if she was still too sensitive to achieve orgasm again. She sniffled, palming the underside of her overstimulated nose. “Okay…Fuck. I gotta give it to you, Twintails. That…wasn’t bad,” Tourm chuckled, her accent slowly shifting back to that Cockney she always aimed for. She sniffled again, reaching for the box of Kleenex on the nightstand. She drew it closer to her, setting the box on the comforter as she plucked out several tissues. “Guess you’re--sdf! Good at more than just settin’ shit on fire and annoyin’ Moseley with me.” 

Tourm buried her nose into the tissues and delivered the first few seconds of a hardy blow before she was interrupted by another sneeze. Ope--and then two more. Piper gave Tourm’s sex one last parting little lick before easing back, wiping her mouth (and cheeks…and chin...and nose…Jesus, Tourm had been soaked) on her sleeve. She stood, easing Tourm’s legs down from their resting place on her shoulders to retrieve her phone from the nightstand.

 Tourm sniffled into her now-useless tissues, looking up at Piper with cracked, teary eyes. “I win?” she asked with a smirk that promptly collapsed into a sneezy snarl--

“adt'IZSSCHSHuh!”

-- that resulted in another heavy sneeze all down her shirt. Tourm grimaced, making a little noise of disgust as she moved to a sitting position and saw just how thoroughly peppered with sneezes both the inside and outside of her shirt were. “Eugh. Gross.” 

Piper snorted with a little smirk of her own as she started for Tourm’s dresser. “Bless y--”

“’chzsshiew!”

Piper gave an impressed whistle as she opened the top drawer, rifling through Tourm’s various shirts. She didn’t look at Tourm just yet, but it was audible in that grumbled snuffling that that sneeze hadn’t been pretty. Piper couldn’t help an amused little smile to herself as she picked out a new top for Tourm. She unfolded it, giving the garment only a brief look before shaking her head and beginning to fold it again. Way too tight for comfortable sleep. Piper did like this shirt, though. If her tits were half as impressive as Tourm’s, she would have been wearing it every other day. “Bless you, infinity. Get ‘em out, babe.” 

Tourm snorted ticklishly, knuckling at one nostril through her bundle of tissues. She blew her nose and actually managed to finish without being interrupted by a sneeze. “So?” she asked with an amused smirk in her voice. “I won, right?”

Piper rolled her eyes fondly, examining another shirt. Nope. Fabric was way too thin for a chilly April night like this. “Fiiiine. Yeah. Just by, like, twenty seconds, though. I’m sure I would have made it without those several sneezy disruptions, but I’m no sore loser.”

“Hah!” came Tourm’s little snicker. “You owe me fift--sdff! Ugh…F-fihh--hihh! I--”

Tourm sneezed behind Piper’s back, another productive sound that had her groaning again in the aftermath. Once Piper turned back around, a perfect sleep shirt in hand, Tourm was already pulling her messy top off. She removed her shirt the way a guy might, Piper noticed, pulling it up from the back. She wiped her nose with it before giving it a lazy toss to the carpet. Tourm leaned back slightly in bed, supporting herself with both hands as she sniffled. Piper, the slut she was, could do absolutely nothing but stare at the way the evidence of all of those sneezes just made Tourm’s tits shimmer in the lamplight. And then how they--

“Hhh--! hadt’DJISHiew!”

--bounced with another heady, uncovered sneeze that simply provided the same glitter-esque shine to her chest. She let out a stuffy exhale in the aftermath that sent a bolt of horny lightning down Piper’s spine. That…really had sounded like another moan, hadn’t it?

Damn it. She wanted to make her moan again. 

“Double or nothing.” 

Tourm looked at her with a cocked eyebrow, tits settling after that shivery sneeze. “Huh?” Piper didn’t even hand Tourm the new top, simply tossing it to a cluttered desk. She made her way back to Tourm’s bed and took her by the bicep with one hand lightly enough that Tourm could move away if she wasn’t into it. “Lemme try again,” she said, more of a command than a request. “Double or nothing if I can do it in eight.” 

Judging by Tourm’s expression, she very much was into this. Piper took this as a cue to ease her free hand to cup Tourm’s warm, damp tit. Tourm evidently couldn’t help a quivering little exhale, lashes fluttering as Piper thumbed her nipple. Just as Piper would expect her to, though, Tourm immediately shifted her look into one of cockiness rather than the evident need that was there.  “You’re on.”

[mcntsee]

Letters to her

prologue

summary: kaz’s letter to y/n throughout the years.

warnings: Kaz’s past is kinda mentioned, mentions of death, cursing

note: I tried to express kaz’s feelings and growth with every start and finish of all the letters, hopefully you guys understand it too. I added a little something at the end, hope you enjoy! <3333

first letter:

Deer y/n

My da said you can came come play wheneber you want to come play with my me again can you please come play with me soon pleas?

I miss you and Jordie miss and da and the little kitteny miss you we all misses you very much

Love Kaz!

(I drawed a pist picture of you and me and spots playing)

2nd letter

Dear Y/N,

I hope you're doing okay. I wanted to say a big thank you for being there when we said bye to my da. It made me feel better knowing you were there, even though it was kinda sad.

Guess what? Jordie said we're gonna move to Ketterdam. He says it's cause he wants me to go to a good school there. I'm not sure about leaving this house, but Jordie says it'll be good for us.

The cool part is that you live in Ketterdam! That means we can hang out more and play together. Remember when we used to build forts in the living room and pretend we were pirates? Maybe we can do that in Ketterdam too.

I'll miss this house a bit because it's where we played hide and seek and had ice cream parties, but I think Ketterdam will be fun too. And I'm really happy cause we'll get to see each other more often!

I will see you soon, okay?

Love, Kaz!

3rd letter

Dear y/n,

I'm really, really sorry I haven't come to see you yet. It's not 'cause I don't want to, I promise. You're still my bestest friend ever. It's just that things got a little crazy since we arrived.

Jordie met this guy named Jacob Hertzoon. And guess what? Jacob offered us a whole bunch of money for our house! Jordie said it's a really good thing 'cause we can use the money for important stuff. But it also means we're super busy.

I didn't want you to think I forgot about you or anything. I miss you a lot and I still want to see you and play together. Maybe once we're all settled in our new place and get the money, we can have a big adventure like we used to.

Thanks for being the best friend ever. I promise we'll hang out soon, okay?

Love, Kaz!

4th letter

Y/N,

Are you okay? Please write back! Jordie is gone. I need to know you're alive.

Kaz.

5th letter

Y/N,

I heard you went on quite the journey to Shu Han just to retrieve my cane. I assume the trip was bearable. Your efforts are appreciated.

It's curious how life unfolds, isn't it? One day we're children playing in the streets, the next we're scattered across the world for various reasons. Yet, here we are, still connected by some thread of familiarity.

I imagine you'll return from your expedition when the time is right. Until then, business with the dregs continues as usual. The city keeps turning, and so do its dealings. As for me, well, I have my own matters to attend to as soon as I’m able to walk again.

- K.B.

First note

Get well soon! Let me know if you need anything else.

- Love, Y/n!

6th letter

Y/N,

Your letter reached me, and I must admit, it contained more substance than I anticipated. Word travels fast in the Barrel, and it seems that Haskell has taken quite an interest in your recent endeavors. His words carry weight, though they seldom come without a price.

If his assessment holds true, and you manage to prove your worth in the upcoming job, it could indeed elevate you within the ranks. Haskell’s recognition of your potential is both promising and concerning. The higher one climbs, the more treacherous the fall can be.

In the midst of this, know that I await your return.

May you navigate these challenges with the same tenacity that has carried you thus far. I wish you the best of luck, Y/N. Tread carefully.

- K.B

7th letter

Y/N,

You certainly have a talent for uncovering promising recruits. Jesper Fahey. The word on the street is that he’s got a steady aim that’s worth noticing. The skills he possesses could indeed be valuable, particularly in the line of work we find ourselves engaged in.

However, I must tread cautiously when it comes to individuals entangled in debts and vices. Jesper Fahey, from what I’ve heard, is no stranger to gambling. His tendency to wager recklessly has garnered quite a reputation, one that isn’t entirely favorable. The loyalty of a man buried under the weight of debts is a precarious matter. Whether his skills can outweigh the burden of his choices remains to be seen.

Your perspective on recruits is valued, and I’ll certainly keep a watchful eye on Fahey. I trust your judgment, and I’m willing to entertain the possibility. In the midst of all this, remember that your return is anticipated and your presence missed.

Return safely,

K.B.

8th letter

Y/N,

Do you remember Jesper? It’s almost comical how, after discussing him in my last letter, fate seemed to conspire to validate our conversation. Not long after I sent those words to you, I found myself intervening to prevent Jesper from getting himself thoroughly thrashed due to his gambling debts.

I hope I’ve made the right call by extending a hand to Jesper. It’s a calculated risk, one that I’m hoping will pan out in our favor. There’s potential there, no doubt, but potential doesn’t always translate into reliability.

This letter is short, I know, but I will tell you more about it when you come back.

Stay safe,

K.B

9th letter

Y/n,

It’s been days since your last communication, and the weight of uncertainty presses heavily on me. The quiet absence of your presence has stirred an unease I’m not accustomed to.

I’ve seen you handle insane odds, and I know you’re more than capable. But here I am. My mind keeps wandering to places I’d rather it not go, imagining scenarios that could have unfolded, and none of them are sitting well with me.

I hope that this silence is a result of strategic detachment, that you’re immersed in the intricacies of the job and haven’t had a moment to spare for correspondence.

I’m not accustomed to this vulnerability, nor do I care for it. Yet, here I am, plagued by the absence of information. I ask you, if you’re able, to dispel this uncertainty. A simple message, a token of reassurance – anything to quell this rising tide of apprehension.

I await word from you with an intensity I hadn’t thought possible. May it come soon.

Expectantly,

K.B

10th letter

Y/N,

I received the coat you sent, and I must admit, it's a rare occasion when I'm at a loss for words. It's unlike anything I would've chosen for myself, yet somehow, it feels surprisingly fitting. I can't deny its utility either – I appreciate it.

Jesper and Nina have managed to cultivate a special talent for driving me to the brink of exasperation. Their camaraderie is both amusing and bewildering, a chaotic symphony that I'm still attempting to decipher.

Today was no different. Jesper's antics at the club bordered on audacious, and Nina's unbridled laughter was enough to turn heads in our direction. As I tried to navigate the sea of chaos they create, I found myself, unusually, yearning for a return to some semblance of normalcy.

I must confess, the prospect of your return holds an allure I hadn't anticipated. There's a steadiness in your presence, an understanding that's often a rare commodity in these tumultuous times. The chaos, the hustle – they feel more manageable when you're around.

Till then, I'll persevere in the sea of antics that Jesper and Nina stir up, counting down the days until your return.

Until then,

Kaz

11th letter

Y/N,

Your mention of the jurda parem caught my attention, no doubt about it. It’s a name that carries weight, and I’ve got a feeling we’re treading on some dangerous ground here. It’s the kind of thing that’s best left untouched until we’ve got a better handle on what it entails.

Listen, I won’t preach, but I’ve got to say it – be careful and keep an eye out for trouble. The city’s not known for being kind to those who don’t tread carefully, and I’d hate to see you caught in something you didn’t see coming.

I’ve got a job for you. One that’s right up your alley. It’s always better discussing these things face to face, so when you can, make your way back. The sooner, the better.

Until then,

Kaz

12th letter

Y/N,

I’ve never been one for words, as you well know. My tongue seems to have a mind of its own, often saying the wrong things at the wrong time. And when it comes to matters like these, I’ve found that my eloquence takes a swift exit.

So, here I am, writing this letter in hopes that the words come out right, that they somehow capture what I’m feeling. I’ve spent years navigating the intricacies of this city, and yet the complexities of my own emotions have managed to elude me.

I’ve always valued our connection, from those early days of childhood mischief to the present. You’ve been a constant in my life, someone whose presence brings a sense of order to the chaos that surrounds us. And somewhere along the way, that bond transformed into something deeper, something I’ve been grappling with.

I find myself wanting to say more, to articulate the thoughts that remain half-formed in my mind. But it’s difficult, Y/N, and this letter might be the best I can manage.

What I’m trying to say is that you’ve become more than a friend, more than a partner in crime. There’s a depth to my feelings that I’m only beginning to understand. And if I’m being truly honest, I’d like to explore where this path might lead.

I understand if you need time, if my sudden candor is a lot to process. But I wanted to put these thoughts down, to let you know where my heart is at. And if you’re open to it, if you’ve felt even a fraction of what I’ve been feeling, then maybe we can navigate this new terrain together.

Kaz.

Second note

I’d like to explore where this path might lead too.

Love, y/n!

13th letter

Y/N,

I can't thank you enough for stepping in when I couldn't. I hope the contractor in Lij wasn’t hard to handle.

Now, I have a proposal of a different kind. How about we put our skills to use in a more relaxed setting? I'd like to take you out to dinner. No heists, no secret dealings, just you and me, navigating the menu instead of the back alleys.

I've made reservations for us at a place that's a bit more reputable than the Barrel's taverns. Consider it a step toward normalcy, a chance to enjoy an evening without looking over our shoulders.

Looking forward to your return,

Kaz

14th letter

Dear Y/N,

Your letter reached me, and I've got to say, the way you put it into words – how much you miss me – it hits home. The distance is a constant reminder of the warmth I've grown accustomed to, and I find myself missing you more than I thought possible.

This job is driving me insane, and my thoughts often wander back to Ketterdam, back to you. It's like a pull, a magnetic force that tugs me back to the life we've been building together.

I bought something with me – a box of those chocolates you can't seem to get enough of. The catch? I'm hoping they survive the journey and don't turn into a gooey mess.

I want you to know that with every sunrise and sunset that passes, I'm getting more restless to return to the city that's been our canvas, our backdrop. Until then, my thoughts are with you, and I'm eagerly counting down the days until I can wrap my arms around you again.

With all my longing,

Kaz

3rd note

I apologize, it seems the chocolates didn’t fare too well. I hope they’re still somewhat salvageable and that they manage to satisfy your sweet tooth.

- Kaz

15th letter

Dear Y/N,

I hope this letter finds you on the mend, wrapped in warmth and taking good care of yourself. It pains me to know you're unwell while I'm away, unable to offer even the smallest comfort.

My love, get well soon. I miss your laughter, your presence – they're a part of my life I can't bear to be without for long. The distance feels heavier when I know you're not well.

Today, during the heist, I saw a small brown cat with delicate white spots. The sight of it was like a reminder of simpler times, of moments when things were less complex. It stirred memories of my old cat "Spots," whose antics used to provide a reprieve from the realities of the Barrel.

As I look around, I find myself yearning for the day when I'll return to Ketterdam. Until then, my thoughts are with you, my love. Rest well, recover soon, and know that I will be there soon.

With all my affection,

Kaz

16th letter

Dearest Y/N,

There are times in life when words are inadequate, when even the most eloquent phrases fall short of capturing the depth of one's emotions. Today is one such day, and I find myself grappling with a sentiment that defies my usual precision.

I love you, Y/N. There, I've said it, though the words seem almost insufficient to convey the weight of my feelings. You've woven your presence into the very fabric of my being, and I find that I'm navigating uncharted territory, stumbling upon emotions that have long remained dormant.

In a world marked by uncertainties, you've become my constant, the one I turn to when the winds of the Barrel grow fierce. I cherish our bond, our shared history, and the future we're forging together.

As the days pass, my conviction only grows stronger. You've touched a part of me I thought was unreachable, and I find myself grateful for the warmth you've brought into my life.

Love,

Kaz

4th note

I love you too, more than words can express.

- Love, y/n!

17th letter

My Love,

I've stumbled upon something while on my trip to Lij, a revelation that caught me by surprise. My old house is up for sale. I confess, it's a notion that's been hovering in the back of my mind, a possibility I've been toying with.

And then, as if fate had a hand to play, it occurred to me – what if we made it our own? Y/N, would you consider it? The thought of creating new memories in a space that's intertwined with my past is something that holds a certain allure. A place where we could carve out our own sanctuary, away from the schemes and chaos that surround us.

If this notion speaks to you, let me know. It's a step I'd only take with you, a shared decision that would mark a new chapter in our journey together.

Love,

Kaz

18th letter

This is to certify that Y/N L/N and Kaz Brekker is (are) now registered as the absolute proprietor(s) of the land comprised in the above-mentioned title, subject to the entries in the register relating to the land and to such of the overriding interests set out in section 30 of the Registered Land Act as may for the time being subsist and affect the land.

Kaz Brekker __________

19th letter

My love Y/N,

I hope this letter finds you in good spirits, even though I’m far away in Shu Han. I wanted to share something with you – I stumbled upon the perfect dining table. It’s a piece that seems to embody the essence of what we’ve built together, a symbol of the life we’re crafting, even from a distance.

As I stand here, thousands of miles away, my thoughts are never far from Ketterdam, from you. Every corner of the city is a reminder of our shared journey, of the future we’re molding. And with every passing day, I find myself longing to return, to be by your side again.

The plans we’ve made, the dreams we’ve spun – they’re a driving force, propelling me forward through the challenges that Shu Han presents. I promise you, Y/N, I’ll be back soon enough.

Until then, know that you’re in my thoughts, my heart, every moment of the day.

With all my affection,

Kaz

20th letter

Love,

I’ve come across some interesting information that might be of use to you. It seems that there’s a rumor circulating about a certain merchant in the Fifth Harbor. This merchant, it’s said, has been trying to make deals with both the Merchants Council and the Whitecrows, something that has my interest piqued.

I’ve also managed to uncover some details about a potential source of counterfeit currency that might be making its way into the hands of certain unsavory individuals. The source, surprisingly, seems to be tied to a printing press hidden away in the Barrel. It’s a curious development, one that could have far-reaching consequences.

And finally, I’ve received word that a shipment of goods has gone missing from a storage warehouse near the docks. This might not seem significant at first glance, but it’s the timing that intrigues me. A missing shipment, coupled with the merchant’s deals and the counterfeit currency – it’s all connected, I’m certain of it.

Stay vigilant, stay cautious. And know that even in the midst of our separate tasks, you’re in my thoughts.

I miss you, and I love you.

Love,

Kaz

21st letter

Y/N,

Listen to me, and listen carefully. You need to come back to Ketterdam, now. What you walked into, it was a trap – calculated, deliberate. I can’t explain it all in this letter, but trust me when I say your safety is in jeopardy.

I don’t care what you’re in the middle of, what plan you’re executing – drop it, and make your way back. I can’t lose you, not now, not like this. The threat is real, and the longer you stay where you are, the more danger you’re in.

I’m begging you, Y/N, hurry back. We can sort through the details, I’ll explain everything, but right now, all that matters is your safety. Don’t delay, don’t second-guess. Just come back.

Kaz

22nd letter

Love,

I’m pleading with you, begging you to reach out, to let me know you’re safe. This silence, it’s a torment I can’t bear. Every thought is tinged with worry, and I find myself grappling with scenarios that are far too grim.

I don’t care about the details, the reasons – they pale in comparison to my overwhelming need to know you’re okay. We’ve faced down darkness together, navigated treacherous waters, and I can’t accept the idea of you being lost in the midst of it all.

Please, Y/N, come back to Ketterdam. If you’re reading this, if you’re anywhere, find a way to let me know you’re alive. I’ll make sense of the rest later. Just, my love, come back to me.

Kaz

23rd letter

Y/N,

I can’t wait any longer. The silence is a weight on my chest, a suffocating reminder of the unknown. I’ve agonized, I’ve begged, and still, there’s no word from you. It’s time I take matters into my own hands.

Please, hold on. I’m coming. I hope you’re okay, I hope you’re just out of reach, waiting for me to catch up. It’s a risk I have to take.

I love you.

Stay strong, my love. I’m on my way.

24th letter

My Dearest Y/N,

It's been a week since you left us, a week of darkness and aching emptiness that nothing can fill. I know you won't get this letter, that these words will remain suspended in the void, but I find myself needing to put them down, needing to release the feelings that have taken hold of me.

The pain is suffocating, a weight that's settled into my bones. I still can't grasp the reality, can't accept that you're gone, that your light has been extinguished. It's a void that stretches beyond comprehension, a void I'm stumbling through.

The memories are a double-edged sword. They're a balm, a reminder of the moments we shared, of your laughter, your warmth. But they're also a blade, a reminder of what's been taken from us, of the future that was stolen away.

I want you to know, even though you'll never read these words – I love you. I always have, and I always will. You were more than a partner, more than a confidant. You were my anchor, my solace, my reason to keep pushing forward.

It's impossible to fathom life without you, Y/N. Your absence leaves a void that can never be filled. I can only hope that wherever you are, you're at peace, free from the pain that's gripped my heart.

Until we meet again, my love,

Kaz

25th letter

My dearest Y/N,

Six months have passed, and the ache of your absence has only deepened. The city, our city, is a different place without you. The crows, the ones you brought together, are slowly finding their separate paths, their separate destinies. It's as if the world itself is reshaping in your absence.

I found the little box where you kept all those letters. Your letters, my words – I'm surprised, in a way, that you kept them all. It's a piece of you that I'll treasure forever.

It's in these moments of solitude that I find myself yearning for your presence the most. Your laughter, your insights – they're still very much alive in my memories, and they continue to guide me through the labyrinthine twists of this world.

I miss you, Y/N. More than words can say. The void you left behind is as vast as the Barrel itself, and there's a hollowness that's impossible to fill. I can only hope that, wherever you are, you've found the peace that eluded you in life.

Until the next time we meet, my love,

Kaz

26th letter

My Dearest Y/N,

Time has continued its relentless march, and two years have slipped through my grasp since you left us. The city, once our canvas, has taken on a different hue, a different weight. The crows have scattered, their paths diverging, and the life we built together feels like a distant memory.

I wanted to share something with you – I've made a decision about the house, the one that once held the echoes of our shared history. It's a decision born out of the reality that without you, it's ceased to be a home. The walls, the rooms – they're empty without your presence, and it's a stark reminder of what's been lost.

Putting it up for sale again, it's not just about letting go of a physical space. It's about acknowledging that our time together, our shared moments, live on in memories, not in bricks and mortar. I carry you with me, always, but it's time to release the hold the house had on me.

Life continues to move forward, though it's a path I tread with a shadow that can never be dispelled. I hope, wherever you are, you've found the peace that eluded you in life. And I hope, wherever I am, you're watching over me, your presence a guiding light through the darkness.

With a heart full of love,

Kaz

27th letter

My dearest,

It's been almost three years, and some days it feels like it was just yesterday when I last saw you. I miss you, fuck, I miss you so much. It's like this gaping hole, this emptiness that can't be filled. No matter how many schemes I plan, no matter how many crows I put to work, it's like there's this void that's always there.

I was gonna do it, you know? I was gonna ask you. I got this ring, this small little thing that I bought just a month before you fucking died. It's funny, you know, I never thought I'd be the one to feel this way, to want something that much, to want to stake a claim in this shithole of a world.

But I guess that's what you did to me. You turned this cold, calculating schemer into someone who wanted more, who wanted you. I'm sorry I didn't ask you sooner, that I waited, that I let time slip through my fingers like sand. I'm sorry I couldn't be the one you deserved.

You were my light, Y/N. You shined a light into my darkest corners, and now that you're gone, it's like the shadows have returned with a vengeance. I need you, I need you so fucking much it's like a knife in my gut every damn day.

I don't know where you are, what's out there after this life, but I hope you're somewhere better. I hope you're at peace, and I hope you know that I'm here, waiting in this shithole, missing you every fucking day.

I love you, Y/N. I love you so fucking much it hurts. And I wish... I wish I could've showed it more when you were still here.

With all my shattered pieces,

Kaz

28th letter

Deer Y/N,

This will be the last letter I write to you, and as I put pen to paper, I’m filled with a mixture of emotions that words could never truly capture. The passage of time has been unkind, separating us by years that have felt both fleeting and eternal.

It’s strange, the way grief works. It’s a steady ache that never truly fades, an ache I’ve grown accustomed to carrying. There’s an emptiness in my heart that’s become a part of me, a void that can never be filled by anyone or anything else.

I’ve learned to navigate this world without you, though it’s been a journey fraught with challenges and moments of unbearable pain. There’s a longing, a yearning, that can never be quenched. You were my constant, the force that kept me grounded, and now that you’re gone, there’s a piece of me that will forever remain incomplete.

As time marches on, I find myself grappling with a heartbreaking reality – the sound of your voice is fading from my memory. The way you felt, the touch of your hand in mine, it’s becoming harder to recall. It’s as though the vibrant details of your presence are slipping through my fingers, leaving behind a hazy impression.

And oh, Y/N, the thought that your laughter will never again reach my ears, it’s a pain that reverberates through my very being. Your face, once etched in my mind with unparalleled clarity, is beginning to blur around the edges. The little details that I once treasured, the nuances that made you uniquely you, they’re slipping away, like grains of sand carried by the wind.

I love you, Y/N. Those words have become a mantra, a whispered refrain that echoes in the corners of my mind. I carry your memory with me, every step of the way, and I hold onto the hope that, wherever you are, you’ve found the peace that eluded you in life.

As I place this letter alongside the others, a part of me hopes that somehow, somewhere, you’ll receive these words, that you’ll know that you were loved, that you’re still loved, even in your absence.

I miss you, “we all misses you very much.”

Love, Kaz!

[aubadeatelier]

Happy 20th Anniversary D. Gray-man!

On 31 May 2004, an amazing journey began with Allen Walker making his way to the European Branch of the Black Order as a new exorcist.

And now, it is 31 May 2024, 20 years of a still on-going journey. A lot has happened and changed and yet, he keeps walking.

Happy Birthday, D. Gray-man! And thank you for everything you've brought to me and so many others!

This post contains the pieces I did for the D. Gray-man 20th Anniversary Zine. 1 Party Doodle and 2 Redraw Project pages. Please enjoy! To see the whole zine, please access the zine through the link below to the project tumblr!

✦ D. Gray-man 20th Anniversary Zine ✦

Please make sure to take a look at the whole zine! I had the greatest honor to work with more than 100+ amazing artists across the world. It would mean a lot to me and all those who worked on this zine to have our work seen together as one!

(PS. I asked a funny little question in the Party Doodle section of the zine!)

[Beyond this point are my pieces and some fun facts!]

Party Doodle || A Celebration from 35 Years Ago featuring from bottom left, Mana D. Campbell, Nea D. Campbell, ???, Cross Marian, and Timcampy. ✦ I originally made this celebration doodle with the intention of just drawing Nea, ???, and Timcampy. But upon popular demand and the power of friendship (shoutout to Hana Hazel, Kanin, and Sabhamun), I ended up adding Cross Marian and Mana! And honestly, the additions were a great idea and really make the piece feel more lively and fun! (Also we need more Campbell brothers content damn it. I wanna see them happy!) ✦ Also, if any of your are up-to-date at this point, you know Chapter 251 coming out shook so many things including this piece that was already done when it released. But! I think it's fun to keep it as is as a relic of the pre-251 era. (Who knows? Maybe I'll make a fixed version!)

Redraw Project Page 01 || Chapter 04. Page 119. ✦ The first redraw page I received for assignment! I ended up liking the page, because it felt to me an integral establishing page for the series' themes. I may have gotten a little overboard with how I wanted to interpret the page, but I thought originally I would not be doing a second page and thus, wanted to put a lot of effort. In D. Gray-man, Akuma are created when a person makes a deal with the Millennium Earl. More often than not, the person has no idea what this deal entails, only that they can bring their loved one back from the dead if they agree to it. But what happens when the person is aware or knows not to accept the Earl's deal? And we receive a heart-wrenching, but understandable answer. To have the knowledge of the Earl's tricks does not automatically save a person. The Earl preys on the vulnerable. He appears and makes his offer to those in the deepest pits of despair and grief. That is how he got Leo. He was just a kid who lost his mother. He may have known more about the Earl and Akuma, because of his friendship with Jean, but when you are grieving kid-- what do you do when someone promises you they'll bring back your mother who was taken from you so suddenly? It is difficult to say no. ✦ The books that frame the piece are meant to convey this emphasis of knowledge and study-- the days Jean and Leo spent reading through Jean's father's books and notes about the Earl and Akuma with intention to patrol their town and keep people safe. Ultimately, a book page is the last panel, showing a representation of Leo and the Earl at a grave as Leo becomes an example of a person who takes the Earl's deal and whose body is taken by an Akuma. ✦ The blue tones of Jean and the Akuma were on purpose made to contrast the warmer tones of Jean and Leo's days together. ✦ It was crazy getting to draw an Akuma's face. It was a challenge to try and draw kids, but I ended getting through it pretty well. ✦ There are a few silly easter eggs in the open books. I put a small anniversary message in one. And in the other, I tried to sketch Cornelia and the Campbell Estate with the lyrics of the 14th's song. A nod to some content in the later parts of the series.

Redraw Project Page 02 || Chapter 01. Page 38. ✦ Originally, the plan was I only would do 1 redraw page and 1 doodle, but we needed fill-ins and I took a shot at it! ✦ When I found out it was a page from Chapter 1, I was ecstatic! I had originally wanted to do one from the chapter, but they were high in demand which was more than understandable. ✦ Unlike my first redraw page, I decided to be a little more simplistic with the layout. This layout is not too far off from that of the Katsura Hoshino's, but I made a few changes such as certain angles, drawing characters closer to emphasize faces. ✦ I am not the strongest with backgrounds and drawing buildings, but I ended up enjoying the challenge of it all. Thankfully, a lot of other artists in the project tackled the building and referenced the original page, the pages and sketches of the building or interior by other project artists, and the anime to ready myself to tackle it! ✦ The spirals of the Akuma bullet gave me trouble at first, but then I ended up enjoying it as I figured it out. ✦ This page was overall a big joy to play with as it challenged me with backgrounds, certain effects, and word bubbles.

And with that, this concludes the tour of my work on the D. Gray-man 20th Anniversary Zine. I have so much to say about this series and what it means to me, but I will try not to make this post horridly longer.

D. Gray-man is the series that made me fall in love with storytelling and art. It showed me something that filled an emptiness I felt. It gave me joy and company at a time where I felt unsure who I was and felt like an outcast. My resolution after this project is to continuously grow better at my stories and art. I hope to make something as meaningful to myself and others as D. Gray-man is.

Happy 20th Anniversary D. Gray-man! I hope and pray for more wonderful chapters and for there to be a lovely conclusion someday. For now, let us keep walking together!

[midnighttrain-project]

Hello everyone! It’s time for another development blog!

Thank you very much for the support I received in the previous post! This time, the focus will be pixel art! In particular, we will talk about the creative process behind the new sprites of the remake.

As some of you may already know, MerúM is the artist in charge of the pixel art in Midnight Train. Let’s ask him some questions about it!

🌙🚂 Interview with MerúM 🚂🌙

Lydia: First of all, could you introduce yourself?

MerúM: I call myself MerúM. I am the pixel artist of Midnight Train: New Moon, and I am in charge of the sprites and animations of the characters. I also worked on Aria's Story and the previous version of Midnight Train doing the same job.

Lydia: The character sprites in Midnight Train: New Moon look quite different from the original version. Is there any reason for this change?

MerúM: Well, before the switch to RPG Maker MV, I was already working on the new sprites and animations for the Midnight Train remake. However, once we changed programs, I noticed that the character sprites were very small compared to the current screen dimensions. I decided that this was a perfect opportunity to redo the sprites from scratch as well, increasing their dimensions and detailing them more than the previous version allowed me, without wanting to move them too far away from the previous chibi style.

Lydia: Right now, you already completed all the characters sprites for chapter 1. Was there any challenge or something you’re really proud about? 

MerúM: After changing the sprites, the expressiveness of the characters has improved a lot. Characters now have many more unique animations and expressions, solidifying their personalities. I think this new style works very well with the aesthetic of Midnight Train’s world and makes them look quite unique from character to character.

Lydia: Could you describe your workflow and what programs you use to create your work?

MerúM: For my sprites, I use Aseprite. Before starting with a specific character, I tend to draw their base sprites and their walking animations. After this, I receive a list of events that will occur in the game related to those characters, and then I create the sprites and animations that fit into said scenes using the base sprites as a reference. Usually, I am in charge of designing how these scenes will look in pixel art, but with some more specific or complicated scenes I have received a quick sketch of how the sprite/animation should look like as a visual aid, and thus arrive at the version that best suits the scene.

Lydia: I’m just curious about something… Who is your favorite character from Midnight Train?

MerúM: I think all the characters are fantastic, maybe I could consider Neil Lawton my favorite. I think, in the end, we should all be a little like Neil. Even if you are afraid at first to move forward, just do it. This is what Neil does, he may be afraid, but he faces this fear to survive.

Lydia: Is there anything else you would like to tell us?

MerúM: What else could I say? I think Midnight Train: New Moon brings a story that will appeal to anyone who is passionate about mystery stories. By the way, it's fun to mention that in addition to Justice, Purity and some secondary characters, I have been the main designer of Larissa, one of the new characters in this remake. I hope you play Midnight Train: New Moon and get to know her!

🌙🚂 Progress 🚂🌙

I hope you liked the interview with MerúM! I wouldn't have been able to create my games without his help, as I'm pretty bad at pixel art. I'm excited to see all the sprites he will create for chapter 2! I personally can't wait to see Apollo's animations. Now, I want to report about the development of the game. I’m almost finished with the maps of chapter 2, so I expect to start programming this chapter very soon! Literally, there is only one map left…! I wanted to add a new puzzle to this map, so I’ve been stuck brainstorming ideas… Ahh, it feels like facing a final boss before proceeding to the next step.

Thank you a lot for your support and patience! See you next time~

[edenvinity]

ranking the f1 driver pairings as amazing race teams

me and my family have been watching amazing race for years so you KNOW i had to combine my interests !!!

amazing race is basically a show where teams of two race all around the world and preform a series of challenges rhat can range from physical to more mental, and the team that reaches the “pit stop” last is eliminated. plane flights + transportation around the country is also often up to the teams, having to buy their own plane tickets + hailing their own taxis + driving themselves around a country which works against one team dominance

KEY:

detour - teams can choose to complete one of two challenges

roadblock - one person in the team completes a challenge (one person cannot do every roadblock)

express pass - by doing an extra challenge, one team can get this pass that allows them to skip any one challenge

teams are ranked based on how far i think they would make it in a fictional all-f1 season of amazing race :)

10. pierre & esteban

sorry you KNOW they would be a dumpster fire. like the couples who go on and are like “i love my partner so much :))” and then immediately implode the second aomething goes wrong. would start off polite enough before the first detour where one of them is like mildly slow and the bickering starts. they would start rushing in an attempt to catch up and leave an important item behind (passports, clue, etc) and thats just the nail in the coffin for them

9. lance & fernando

tbh i could see them making it maybe 1 or 2 legs more depending on the challenge but. nothing against lance but hes a rich kid. the challenge would be like “find all the items on this shopping list at a wet market” and hes LOST. fernando gets 3/4 of the list AND has to find lance who is desperately looking for duck eggs (it was at the first stall) and then they get back and lance bought regular eggs anyways for a massively jacked up price. sorry but as entertaining as it would be they are doomed to flop

8. alex & logan

SORRY WILLIAMS BESTIES they would be such a silly team and fan favorites but respectfully i dont see them being very good 🥲 i think they would have a very good dynamic but other then that based on the pumpkin carving/drawing challenges,,,, they would not go far 😭 they would get a challenge to deliver something to several different locations (without map) and eventually get lost and be so far behind that when they get to the mat its like. nighttime. but they would be very cheesed and happy still !!

7. yuki & daniel

THE FUNNIEST PAIR EVER can you IMAGINE the dynamic when trying to navigate or drive a stick shift car. one of the friendlier pairs, willing to help point other teams in the right direction at challenges. also between the two of them they have a pretty decent skill set so i think theyd do pretty well at the challenges, plus be able to get around the city well enough. theyd eventually go out on a leg w more physical challenges just by virtue of the remaining teams being better but they have SO MUCH FUN and SO MUCH banter

6. kevin & nico

solid guys overall !! could see them maybe making it another leg further over the next team. definitely one of the most chill teams, sightseeing/enjoying the travels more (not to say that they arent competitive tho) and overall having a great time !! i think their experience with raising children would also factor in well (patience/calmness) and thus would keep them from making little mistakes and stay consistent. would eventually go out in a leg where they start from a lower spot and cant manage to find any earlier trains/flights and thus cant make up any ground and end up going out

5. lando & oscar

they are the most unstable team LMAO they (lando) always take big gambles with challenges to try and get ahead and as such always end up gaining/dropping tons of places in each leg. impeccable dynamic tho !! oscar is def the grounding force and keeps them on track, navigator to landos driver, while landos creative strategies often help them gain places where they might otherwise be stagnant. would eventually go out on a leg where lando insists on trying to catch an earlier train but ends up missing the connector to their destination (setting them back) and they cant catch up, eventually resulting in their elimination

4. valterri & zhou

i actually cant really explain this one guys its just a gut feeling. like i know that valterri is reasonably fit from biking a lot and zhou could help them get around more reliably in asian countries but other then that i dont have an explanation. theyre chill and like just kind of cruising/enjoying themselves. theres a roadblock where they have to name several different types of beer by taste and valterri crushes it. theres a challenge where its watching this person dancing and having to recreate the entire outfit that zhou kills. they go out right before the final because theyre beaten in a footrace to the mat

3. lewis & george

these guys are EFFICIENT. lewis somehow manages to get them on the earliest flights possible. george reads the map once and immediately find the fastest routes from place to place. they are reasonably good at most challenges. their downfall is challenges requiring them to work together closely, which happens in the final where they are required to learn a traditional wedding dance and preform it and they just cant sync up, costing them major time, and the entire experience just leaves them irritable which eventually leads to them claiming third

2. max & checo

similarly to lando & oscar, max is the competitive force with checo grounding their team. highly competitive (though not to say they dont enjoy themselves), always going for express passes and valuing efficiency. their strategy works for the most part, with them racking up the most leg wins. their downfall ultimately came during the final challenge, where they had to match moments from previous legs with their locations, and neither of them really remember LMAO. just barely misses out on first which goes to…

1. charles & carlos

impeccable dynamic. gets one express pass and uses it strategically. very supportive of each other during challenges. they are just a generally overall solid team but not outstanding, never really winning and just beats out valterri/zhou for the third spot in the final. but in the final leg they are just incredibly in sync which allows them to complete the challenges efficiently, and at the end challenge they have memories tied to each place and are able to figure it out faster then max/checo and beat them to the mat to take the win !!!

okay thanks for listening to my rambles ☺️ maybe a part two of this later ranking old driver pairs OR an f1/survivor ranking

[birchbow]

Your character designs are always so dang cool!!! Are the captain positions on other ships in the holy fleet challenged for like the position of GHB in a duel to the death, or are they appointed? (Some combination thereof?) The Orisoner looks so friendly, but I bet he’s brained somebody with that whimsical staff! I love that in the group shot Kurloz’s frame is almost a 2x scaled up version of Sister Waspclaw - his Gigantic Lankiness is just so fun. (Also LMAO at Kurloz being too prudish to claim his right to show tits! Honestly any time he mentions modesty standards being different a couple centuries ago it cracks me right up 😂)

Aw, thank you! :D Waspclaw is real small for a highblood, especially a relatively old and powerful one--smaller than pretty much all her pupated students, and a few of the pre-pupation ones! So next to Kurloz "Big Motherfucker" Makara, she's absolutely tiny. But does still manage to have more boobs than he does. Tragic.

RE: succession, it varies! It's pretty much always going to include some amount of combat--some of the variety where the loser is allowed to slink away and lick their wounds, and some where they definitely don't. Let's see. On a scale from most to least "Challenge To The Death"...

Definitely the Behemoth. It follows the same rules as the Grand Highblood challenge--if two trolls who want to be in charge walk into what passes for a captain's court on the Freakshow, only one is going to come out. Yozuna's not fast, and most trolls who ARE fast aren't nearly strong enough to make a dent in it even if they hit it--but the fact that Kurloz is big enough to really hit it hard and also came up specializing in speed and evasion is probably a real big part of the reason it hasn't made any attempt to challenge him for the throne, honestly.

Waspclaw. She's very lax with gutsy newbies getting fresh with each other and their superiors, thus the Joker's reputation for letting people get away with stuff, but stepping to her directly is SUPER dangerous. Make your gamble if you know you can get away with it!! But always know you aren't going to get away with it with her. :o) Plus, much like the Uderaks and Untoxxic, she works in poisons and venoms, and also she's heavily min-maxed into speed, so by the time you realize your challenge fight has officially been accepted, she's gone "well, they made their choice!" and you've been stung with something fatal.

The Abattoir. He isn't fucking around, although she also strikes me as very businesslike about it, and not inclined to be vindictive about the act of the challenge itself. I think the format is a little less "immediate fight to the death" and a little more "courtly duel" in keeping with both of his knightly sort of vibes. The exception being if you manage to draw blood on either of him, in which case shit flips very much into death-match mode. Also like. Hard-mode. You do have to challenge for both ships at once, and you will be fighting both of her. So like, considering authority over Elixir and Stardust features a lot of interfacing with the nonbelievers and doing Finance and shit, not a lot of people are jumping at THAT daunting prospect lol.

The Judgment. She wants to hear your argument for why the fuck you think you have what it takes to perform the physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually-taxing work of disciplining the wayward sinner-criminals of the church, and she's not getting any younger, here! If she feels like she's won her argument and the battle and you're inclined to back down in shame, she's not going to continue to press the point, but she will definitely openly think less of you for making a stupid and badly thought out attempt on her authority. She's as close as the church fleet gets to having a legislacerator taskforce, and she's just as stern and hard-assed as the Cruelest Bar, but also a large part of the Penitent's function is for flagellation and rehabilitation (???) of potentially-redeemable highbloods who've fucked up in ways that the church considers forgivable enough to give them a shot. She's down to clown (fatal) but also she's not an executioner necessarily.

Brother Libation. I drew inspiration from Il Dottore from the commedia del'arte, Bacchus, and the whole concept of drunken fist characters as an archetype, so if he's challenged he's got like... a 33% chance of just offering some kind of whimsical puzzle challenge that nobody ever manages to solve to his satisfaction, a 33% chance of just verbally convincing them to chill the fuck out by being a Cool Hang, and a 33% chance of bonking them heartily to the brink of death with his big spiky gourd.

The Orisoner wins for least deathmatchy. You can try to challenge, but you'll just get invited to come chill and vibe and just like. Really get into why you think your leadership will be hilarious and honoring to the messiahs, and what you think about art, and why you feel like you need captaincy to make the changes you want to see in the church and empire. If anybody attempts to escalate to violence, they'll mostly be met with a vaguely disappointed, surprisingly benevolent no-weapon-open-palms kind of rebuff, and if things continue to get more aggressive from there, the big spiky walloping staff will come out and be employed with startling effectiveness and skill lmao. But! If there were ever going to be highbloods inclined to take debate of best leadership policy over violence, it's the ones who decide they want to be theologians professionally. (Debate of best religious interpretation is a whole other ballgame, and gets aggressive here more than any other ship on the fleet lol). Orisoner in general though, would be one of the safer trolls you could be around as like, a human or a lowblood, if you had to pick a ship.

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Happy Triangle Strategy 2nd Anniversary!! To celebrate, here are the translations from the foreword and the first illustration provided in the artbook.

---

Foreword translation:

GREETING

Thank you so much for picking up this book! We've put together a collection of art—a war chronicle filled with the “battles and wars” we waged to create the designs used in Triangle Strategy.

I’d like to reflect back on the beginning of Triangle Strategy's art development.  . . . I’ll recall it bit by bit.

The first time I heard about this project was several years ago, when I was working on art and design for Various Daylife and Bravely Default II on a weekly basis.

The first words I received during the early planning phase were Mr. Asano’s, “What if war came to a world like Octopath Traveler?” and Mr. Arai’s, “Salt . . .  Iron . . . ”

They were simple words, but they captured my heart and filled it with excitement. From there, I began to draw, and it was as if those feelings grew and spilled out of me.

And, as is natural, a story about war will have many characters . . .  The depth of the worldview was crucial as well. I had to add a lot of details to really get across the project’s heavy themes! I very much enjoyed the challenge. However, our time was short, and thus it was the beginning of a war for the artists. We were thrilled by the magnificent setting and plunged headlong into drawing each day.

The art team fought alongside me. This included Mr. Urushihara, an old comrade-in-arms who has a cool head, good sense, and substantial analytical and drawing ability; as well as Ms. Yoshiura (a student at the time the project started), who was positive, fun, and worked very hard on everything. Without them, I don’t think I’d have been able to do anything like this. Thank you very much!

Mr. Morimoto, who brought the characters over to neat, orderly pixel art . . .  Mr. Matsumoto, who was over the UI and worked steadfastly through trial and error . . .  Everyone at Art Dink for bringing art and design to life on the game screen and creating a wonderful world . . .  Everyone who has been involved in and supported Triangle Strategy—I apologize for not naming you all. Thank you so much! And Mr. Asano, who always provides me with new opportunities and challenges. It was a great experience for me to be entrusted with the art for this project. I’d like to thank you again! I look forward to making use of this knowledge in my future work.

For those who are interested in this project, we hope you can play the game and find your favorite character!

I hope the world of Triangle Strategy continues to expand. Best regards, and thank you for your support!

- Naoki Ikushima

---

My name is Urushihara and I was given the opportunity to serve as an assistant on this project. Thank you very much for your support!

Several years ago, Mr. Ikushima introduced me to Mr. Asano’s team, and the first project I got involved with was Triangle Strategy.

I recall that, as someone who was greatly influenced by Square's games from the SNES/PS era, the chance to work on a project that has the same feel as those classic simulation RPGs had me shaking with excitement.

I've had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects during my career, from background designs to characters, illustrations for advertisements, etc., and this project has incorporated all of my experience! It’s turned out to be a monumental work.

I hope that it will be a profoundly memorable experience for all of you.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mr. Asano, Mr. Arai, the development teams at Square Enix and Art Dink, and above all to Mr. Ikushima for giving me this opportunity and for providing me with so much guidance every day!

We’d also like to once again thank everyone who purchased the game software and this book! We look forward to your continued support of the Asano team's works!

- Tatsuaki Urushihara

---

Translation notes, and image ids under the cut.

Translation notes:

"SNES" was actually the letters "SFC" (you can see them in the foreword text in plain English) but it was referring to the Super Famicom, which was the Japanese version of the SNES, so I decided to localize as SNES.

"Salt...... iron......." really was just like that. I'm not sure if there was some formatting/grammatical thing I missed or if Arai really did just send over two words, but. either way it's really funny to me!!

I've recently looked more into Japanese grammar and all the particles that are used, and since I'm feeling a little more confident in what things mean, I inserted more filler words than normal to help things sound more natural. For example, "something along the lines of 'a fleeting instant made up of infinite possibilities'" would probably read more directly as "something that feels like 'a fleeting moment of infinite possibilities'." It's not a huge difference, but I guess I just wanted to make a note that I've taken some liberties with the grammar and the exact phrasing.

Image ID

[Image id: The first image is a picture of the foreword (written in Japanese), which includes a small drawing of Serenoa, Roland, Frederica, and Benedict's faces. The second image is a drawing of Frederica, Benedict, and Roland standing with their backs facing Serenoa, who holds the Scales of conviction, along with the illustrator's note in Japanese. The third image is the translated illustrator's note, which reads, "Frederica, Benedict, Roland… Serenoa has to determine the path he should walk while knowing that the three of them each have their own individual desires concerning what should happen. In this picture, I wanted to illustrate a weighty moment, something along the lines of 'a fleeting instant made up of infinite possibilities.'' (Naoki Ikushima)" /end id]

[unluckyxse7enart]

So this is from 2021, but I was on a Sanders Sides kick and had a fun idea - Sidesonas!! Seven Sides, if you will /j

I started out by making my own emblem designs, reassigned the canon colors based on associations with each theme, and then designed the sides from there! In order of the emblem keys, red is intrusive thoughts; dark blue is logic; light blue is creativity; lavender is morality; green is deceit; and yellow is anxiety!

I initially was going to draw a lot more of these guys at the time, but stalled once I discovered.... I did not match the colors to my own skin and hair tones very well orz.... So how I'll handle that going forward is tbd, but I'm very proud of the results otherwise and would love to play with this concept again! Honestly I may even oc-ify them, the objecthead alternates in particular just sounds like fun to work with...

In-depth design notes under the cut:

Intrusive thoughts:

Ironically, despite the placement on the key, Intrusive Thought's emblem was actually the very last design I came up with! It's a Rorschach-inspired blot mirroring Anxiety's emblem, to tie the two in since for me they're heavily connected concepts.

Red was a given color as for me, most such thoughts are, well, violent.

Designwise, the sona leans heavily into my more goth/guro/yami kawaii style tastes!! Pretty straightforward given my fashion and art tends to be influenced at times in this way

Logic:

For me, logic functions a lot on questions and answers, if=then statements. The question mark thus felt fitting, and an exclamation point for that 'aha!' moment felt like a good closure to it

I have to say it, Sanders's dark blue IS a very good logic color. Can't say any of the others vibed as well to me so I just stuck with it.

Ironically, this sona looks the least like me - not necessarily to divide it from me further, but just because I like leaning into that straight, angular look for such character types. I've worn that hairstyle in the past though and found it incredibly functional at the time, so it was 'logical' to use it here

Creativity:

Ironically this emblem gave me troubles - fortunately my partner suggested 'brainstorming' as the angle to use, and it all fell into place from there!

Since I used cloudy imagery, but wanted to keep the vibes bright and promising, I used light blue here!

This sona's design was Also a challenge - my creativity is broad, varied, and expresses myself in so many ways (True to the canon sides, intrusive thoughts also got a good chunk of some other ways my creativity has been channeled) - I settled on my tendency towards sleek elegance, as in outfits and in fashion/character design, this tends to be where I lean innately. I added touches of an oc I most associate with my creativity, Masafumi, and it felt complete!

Morality:

Morality for me is not an easy topic to navigate, and can be a double-edged sword in my experience - so I made the emblem to reflect that. Sanders Sides covers the good aspects of morality well, but I wanted to capture more how it can be weaponized as the focus - and how that's what has been internalized for me.

I can't honestly recall the thought process on lavender - might just have been purple was the last color to assign - but since purple is a warm and cool color mixed together, it felt right for the complexity of morality.

This sona is a (former) girl scout! That time in my life was probably the best setting for where my own practice of morality was showcased. I'm happy to say this is not where most (if any) negative experiences stemmed from, but it was where I tried to exemplify being a good, moral person the most, so the sona reflects that!

Deceit:

Had fun designing this one - the emblem is a scowling eye or mocking tongue, depending how you look at it. Both felt fitting for what my deceit often hides - namely, variations of contempt and/or a lack of respect.

If memory serves, I went for a rather artificial mint green to lean into the core of this sona's theme - an imitation of something natural (fake plants vs real ones for example).

This sona leans into more comfortable, girly looks I've worn on rare occasions - both in reference to my complicated relations to gender (and how my presentation doesn't reflect it well); and to seem as nonthreatening, polite, and soft as possible. In other words, this sona isn't so cartoonishly evil as Janus Sanders, but could be considered just as devious in their own way.

Anxiety:

Emblem took some time to sort out, but the eye imagery felt too perfect even if it was on the nose

yellow is often a happy, exciting color, but I also associate it with shock or alarm due to its bright, eye-catching tints so I applied it here

Frankly I just pulled from my high school years for this sona's look lmao. Not much to say other than it was so hard to settle on which social aversion headgear item I've used to maintain for the final design. I went for the hat since it both blocks eyesight and would hide my hair but the mask and glasses are still good alternatives imo

[lake-archive]

Track 1

Fandom: Hypnosis Mic

Series: The Past Is The Past... Right?

Characters: Eli (by @watersofcamelot), Ichiro Yamada

AO3 Link

Track List - Track 2

Going out shopping for the day, the weekly big haul Ichiro would do while both of his brothers were busy attending school. He always did when managing to find some time in between. And besides, he couldn’t let his little bros starve. Someone had to prepare dinner and Jiro as well as Saburo would be too tired for it at the end of the day, given all the school work they have to worry about. Sure, they might also have the rap battles to worry about but at the same time they could not neglect that part either. Or rather, Ichiro was not going to let them do that. So he gladly took on some of the chores by himself, he had done so for years now. He was used to it. And thus, the day went on as usual… Or rather, it was supposed to go on as usual. If it had not been the encounter with a familiar face… 

Honestly, he had not expected to see him around Ikebukuro ever again. The last time was two years ago, shortly before The Dirty Dawg had been formed. He had been not just a well respected rapper in the industry but also during the battles, when it mattered more than ever to actively fight for your territory. The battles had been brutal and only a few prevailed, managing to stand out. The Knight had been one of them alongside his crew, performing outstanding results. More than anyone could have imagined. He was probably their strongest member and the other four were basically the equivalent of backup. But he probably could have not made it without the help of his team members. It had even proved to be difficult for Ichiro, him having managed to pull out a draw at the very last second. It was a close one, that was for sure. 

And yet, The Knight didn’t seem like a bad guy all around. He just wanted to have fun and even appreciated the challenge. “Your lot ain’t as boring as those other ones, congrats.” He had said with a laugh. And thus, whenever Ichiro would encounter the guy the two would duke it out, sometimes just for fun. And none of them minded… Well, that was until said Knight had disappeared from the face of the earth. Only few knew of his face apparently and Ichiro had been lucky to have seen it before as well as his name. And even after the years had passed, he didn’t look much different from before. Though… There was something different about him compared to before. Though he could only wonder what. But that had also not stopped Ichiro in the end to greet his old buddy!

“Yo Eli! Didn’t expect to meet ya here!” He would say, making the other male turn into the direction of Ichiro’s own voice. He seemed to wonder who it was, but only half–heartedly, In fact he shrugged pretty quickly, then saying: “Yo Ichi.” Though his own tone was as half–heartedly as his shrug earlier. 

Now, he was not someone who seemed to care about much but like this? Something seemed different. Eli lacked his… Usual energy. The energy Ichiro had gotten used to. That was already odd on its own and probably the first sign, yet he had decided to ignore the fact and shrug it off for now. 

“What’cha doing here?” He asked with a grin. And yet, Eli’s expression had not changed, at all. It was the exact same and would stay mostly the same.

“Nothing special. Just getting something for the Boss.” He responded, his gaze soon turning away to browse the wares inside the shop the two were both in at the moment, eyeing all the vegetables carefully, even mumbling something about them, commenting on them and debating which ones to get it seemed. Then, after grabbing some, he spoke up again. “She asked me to get something oddly specific. Any store nearby had to be of course sold out so I decided to pay some shops here a visit.”

“Your Boss?” Ichiro asked, yet dared not to say his guess out loud. Eli wasn’t exactly that type of person, was he? Well… 

“Oh, from the Soup Kitchen.” He responded quickly and bluntly, not hesitating with his words. “I’m working at one right now.”

“A soup kitchen?” That was the last thing Ichiro had expected in all honesty. A soup kitchen… Eli working in a soup kitchen… Well, he wasn’t exactly a bad guy. Far from it actually, yet that a guy like him would be fine with something like that. A passionate rapper who could defeat anyone at sight? It didn’t add up for him in all honesty… Actually, Eli’s entire attitude had not added up. He was different from before, very different from the Eli Ichiro had known. He almost seemed… Lifeless. Not caring about anything, or wanting to come off as such. And it was off putting, to say the least. “Anything else?”

For a moment he saw Eli’s body stiffen, for a split second. He bit his lip, as if having to think of a response. In fact, he was ready to squish the vegetable in his hand right then and there yet held himself back enough not to do that. Instead he just turned away, quickly. 

“No, nothing else.” He responded finally, his voice uncomfortably cold. All while refusing to face Ichiro. And before he could have even responded to a thing the other male quickly added: “I’ll pay up and then go. Boss doesn’t like it if I make her wait for too long.”

The conversation had been cut awfully short, so much so that one could not even catch up with Eli. He left, just as quickly as he had been spotted, clearly not wanting to continue this conversation. Did he have a clue where it may have gone? Or was he afraid to find out?

Questions Ichiro could not answer. All he knew was that Eli has changed, very much so… And yet, for such a passionate rapper, this change had been all too sudden… Hadn’t it?

Track List - Track 2

[hell-heron]

Greyjoy Ages Post, Attempting To Be Objective

A lot of people really bravely try to make sense of one of the many parts of asoiaf where GRRM didn't even try to account for the linear passage of time. I generally tend to disagree with at least one of the conclusion, however, hence my idea to make a post with just every information we have, as reference for people to draw their own, just as a fun challenge to myself, since I'm very aware there isn't a canon truth George intended to be gleaned here. Special thanks to whoever started A Search Of Ice And Fire or I would have died halfway through this

1 - Theon and Asha's age

Theon is described by himself, Asha, and Catelyn as having been ten when he left Pyke or when he reached Winterfell. The only exception is Asha's "I liked you better when you were nine". It's also emphasized as meaningful (by Robb and by Balon) that he was a hostage half his life specifically, during ACOK and thus in 299, the latter only after Theon corrects him about having been 10 years rather than 9 since he left. He's also described as being nineteen in the first chapter of AGOT, which, without getting in the specifics of the fanmade timeline, seems to be early in 298. I'm not going to completely discount that he might have been 9 (in the sense of having turned 9 that year) but it's unlikely to me

If his departure from Pyke was in 289 (The World Of Ice And Fire tells us both that the Greyjoy rebellion started in 289 and that it was over in less than a year), this gives his birthdate as having been in 279 or 278. If it was in 290, then it's 281, 280 or 279. I personally find the first set more believable as 1) I feel like the year changing might have been recorded in an historical document, 2) every time someone thinks of the end of the rebellion (Theon himself remembering his journey to Winterfell, Ned thinking of when he last saw Robert which might also have involved some post war celebration) their maths of how many years it's been always goes back to being 289, with the exception of Balon's misremembering above 3) Catelyn in ACOK refers to Balon wearing a crown "if only for a season". We know that the long summer started in 289 (in the prologue of ACOK Maester Cressen says it's been ten years, two turns and sixteen days, and it's definitely 299 by then) so that season was probably the short spring before the long summer, and it was over within 289.

So the range 278-281, with 279 being the likeliest to me as it has him freshly turned 10 for the Greyjoy rebellion and 19 in early AGOT. The only information we ever get about Asha's age is she's 3 years older than Theon (in Theon ACOK I), so it's 275-278 (but again most likely imho 276

2 - Aeron and Urrigon's age

We get a precise-ish number for Urrigon

A flying axe took off half of Urri's hand when he was ten-and-four, playing at the finger dance whilst his father and his elder brothers were away at war.

This refers to Robert's rebellion, which the Greyjoys joined after "a raven came to Pyke with word of Prince Rhaegar's death upon the Trident" , which The World of Ice and Fire claims happened in 282, but doesn't feel very right to me at all, to be honest, as that seems to presume kind of a flash development of Robert's rebellion (here are some calculations made by other fans for reference). Even if it was 282, it was probably late enough the Greyjoys would not have joined before 283, imho. However let's be broad and say it could be 282, 283 or 284 supposing that the Greyjoys took a long time to come home after Quellon's death (awoiaf tells us 'by then the war was almost done", which feels more like still 283, but still) . So 267-270 is his range, with 268-269 as the more likely, however. This means the oldest birth year for Aeron is 268.

For the youngest he could be there are maybe some clues here if you take this speech as following at least rough chronological order:

It shamed him still to recall the years that followed Urri's death. At six-and-ten he called himself a man, but in truth he had been a sack of wine with legs. He would sing, he would dance (but not the finger dance, never again), he would jape and jabber and make mock. He played the pipes, he juggled, he rode horses, and could drink more than all the Wynches and the Botleys, and half the Harlaws too. The Drowned God gives every man a gift, even him; no man could piss longer or farther than Aeron Greyjoy, as he proved at every feast. Once he bet his new longship against a herd of goats that he could quench a hearthfire with no more than his cock. Aeron feasted on goat for a year, and named the longship Golden Storm, though Balon threatened to hang him from her mast when he heard what sort of ram his brother proposed to mount upon her prow.

In the end the Golden Storm went down off Fair Isle during Balon's first rebellion, cut in half by a towering war galley called Fury when Stannis Baratheon caught Victarion in his trap and smashed the Iron Fleet. Yet the god was not done with Aeron, and carried him to shore. Some fishermen took him captive and marched him down to Lannisport in chains, and he spent the rest of the war in the bowels of Casterly Rock, proving that krakens can piss farther and longer than lions, boars, or chickens.

This would mean he's 17 at the youngest at the time of the Greyjoy rebellion (so born in or before 272) which anyhow fits with a reasonable minimum age for a pretty feckless lad to get his own ship, but it's not a fixed number. 268-272 overall

3 - Maron and Rodrik's age

Latest possible Maron's birth year is 277, but more likely to be 274-275, based on Asha's. I'm going to assume there are no twins involved or it would have been mentioned. The only real indication is they must have both been old enough to have been involved in combat in some capacity, which is really taken care of by them being older than Asha already. (Above, Urrigon was not involved in combat at 14, but I think we can expect Balon to exercise less common sense than Quellon on this) Rodrik is kind of implied to have been commanding the assault to Seagard

"When my brother stormed Seagard,” Theon said. Lord Jason had slain Rodrik Greyjoy under the walls of the castle, and thrown the ironmen back into the bay.

If you assume this must mean Rodrik was a captain, the ages we get for that are 15 (Dagon Greyjoy) 17 (Balon) 16-19 (Aeron). Theon is also made a captain at once at 20-sh with no discussion of whether it's too soon, and Asha obviously already is one at 23-ish. Maron dies at Pyke, so there's no indication he's a captain as well, though he could have been and simply have returned to Pyke at the same time Balon did.

4 - Balon, Euron, Victarion and irrelevant dead brothers age

This gets really complicated, mostly because our only source of anything material is Aeron, who's not the reliablest of narrators in general and very removed in time from his older brothers. Still here's what we get.

Nine sons had been born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, the Lord of the Iron Islands. Harlon, Quenton, and Donel had been born of Lord Quellon’s first wife, a woman of the Stonetrees. Balon, Euron, Victarion, Urrigon, and Aeron were the sons of his second, a Sunderly of Saltcliffe. For a third wife Quellon took a girl from the green lands, who gave him a sickly idiot boy named Robin, the brother best forgotten. The priest had no memory of Quenton or Donel, who had died as infants. Harlon he recalled but dimly, sitting grey-faced and still in a windowless tower room and speaking in whispers that grew fainter every day as the greyscale turned his tongue and lips to stone. One day we shall feast on fish together in the Drowned God’s watery halls, the four of us and Urri too. Nine sons had been born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, but only four had lived to manhood.

The Wiki's age calculations page takes this very literally as implying none of the boys from Quellon's first marriage lived to age 16. If you accept this, it does put a very tight timeframe on the births as, depending on how you feel about how young is too young to suspend your disbelief on Aeron forming conscious memories, and whether you accept some of the dead kids might have been twins, the age difference between Balon and Aeron must be no more than 13-14 years. (11-13 if you assume, as the Wiki does, Harlon to be the oldest of the children of Quellon's first marriage, which, this list seems to be going in by birth order, but it's not explicitely said, so YMMV). This would give us a very earliest birth year of 254 based on Aeron's very earliest possible birth year calculated above.

Otoh, given greyscale can take up to 5-10 years according to JonCon to kill you, there's the chance that Aeron is not being super exact here, and Harlon might simply have been under 16 when the greyscale started paralyzing him but have died years later. TWOIAF refers to the sons of Quellon's first marriage as having died "in their youth".

At fifteen [Balon] had sailed with Dagmer Cleftjaw to the Stepstones and spent a summer reaving.

This is not terribly useful but does exclude some birth dates as we know a winter was going on around 273, as Tyrion mentiones that "He had been born in the dead of winter, a terrible cruel one that the maesters said had lasted near three years"

Victarion has a couple vague thoughs that could help give a feeling of where he's positioned relatively to his brothers:

Obedience came naturally to Victarion Greyjoy; he had been born to it. Growing to manhood in the shadow of his brothers, he had followed Balon dutifully in everything he did. Later, when Balon's sons were born, he had grown to accept that one day he would kneel to them as well, when one of them took his father's place upon the Seastone Chair.

(implying he expected to outlive Balon but also that he had already grown into manhood when his kids were born, which REALLY clashes with the very tight timeframe mentioned above. But that's how the whole thing is, you just have to pick which information you want to take as figurative)

"I was a loyal brother," Victarion went on. "When Balon was wed, it was me he sent to Harlaw to bring him back his bride.

(especially if you feel this is a role he would have to have been a captain to do)

He had never fought a man armed with a Valyrian steel blade, though he had thrashed young Harras Harlaw many a time when both of them were young. As a boy Harlaw had been fast friends with Balon's eldest son, Rodrik, who had died beneath the walls of Seagard.

Info on Euron mostly comes from this

“Well, if you count half-brothers. Do you remember little Robin? Wretched creature. Do you remember that big head of his, how soft it was? All he could do was mewl and shit. He was my second. Harlon was my first. All I had to do was pinch his nose shut. The greyscale had turned his mouth to stone so he could not cry out. But his eyes grew frantic as he died. They begged me. When the life went out of them, I went out and pissed into the sea, waiting for the god to strike me down. None did.

Euron having killed Harlon also puts a limit on how much age difference the brothers can have had, and also def reinforces that Harlon was at least pre-teen aged when he died. It's also clear that Robin was at least a toddler when he died, and he was born in early 283 or before then.

I really wanted to say something about Alannys as well but there's really not much at all, the only informations are:

The AFFC appendix defines her as Rodrik's younger sister, and he's 7 years younger than Gwynesse so Alannys is at least 8 years younger than her

Tywin does not includes Alannys in the group of wives of potential marriage candidates for Cersei who are younger than their husbands, so probably Balon and Alannys don't have a large age gap, it's also true that Tywin is probably seeing her differently because of her known illness however

[justicerikai]

graduation

In Japan, when one decides to move onto greener pastures or simply quit the current job they have been doing for quite a while, that is referred to as graduation.

And thus, I too, will be graduating from translating Charisma House.

Earlier this month (May 2023) I decided to go on a break due some medical and personal issues I had to deal with. No thinking about translating at all, just doing what I want and what I like. It's been roughly two weeks now and for someone who is doing things all the time, it was more than enough to decide where I want to keep going with translating.

Of course, this isn't a spontaneous decision. It's something that weighed in the back of my mind for a bit- can I handle all of this? I love translating, but can I handle all of it? No, I cannot. I need to know my limits.

But most importantly, know what's fun.

Charisma House was very novel for me. I had to learn to understand the humor, grasp what's being implied, the nuances of the jokes that can be easily misunderstood if not read properly. It was a challenge that definitely pushed me beyond anything else ever could. And yet, that honeymoon phase of grasping something so novel, so different, has come to an end.

I still love Charisma House, and always will. I actively keep up and peruse the interwebs for fun theories and content. Yet with the direction of Season 2, I have noticed... translating it no longer sparks joy as it once did. It is still good content, but not the one that made me lose my marbles, or perhaps I have simply gotten used to it?

Or perhaps, I simply just... lost the spark and drive I once had for it. And that is fine. Such is the beauty of what's fleeting, 物の哀れ if you will.

Translating Charisma House was, and will always, be a fun experience for me. I'm happy I took the risk, a mere amateur like I, to still translate it. I learned a lot, I laughed a lot, I shared a lot. I never thought I would translate drama tracks, or even still try with song lyrics (which I did give up on but alas). Besides this, I have also dabbled in subbing anime, I have even attempted manga translating. But at the end of the day I realized that what truly sparks joy, what actually is fun for me, for me is visual novel type content.

Not only that, I also want to translate because... I want to. Not because it is an obligation to give the people content. A few weeks ago, my favourite mobile game released an event with my two fave characters and I had so much fun working on it. I felt so excited with each phrase I translated, I couldn't wait to show this to people.

Even when I am thinking of an other mobile game that's coming out soon, all I can think of is "God, I cannot wait to share this with the masses! I have to! It's my duty as a human being!"

That feeling is, alas, what I have been lacking with Charisma House for a while. And that is when I should know better, and draw the line.

As I said, it is no longer fun.

Is it that serious? That I'm dropping a series that I have translated? No, probably not. Happens all the time, I'm sure there are others waiting in line to continue what I was doing, or maybe not. Who knows.

But to me, it is, and that's why I wanted to convey it in a long hefty post.

As closure, I will share some words of one of my favourite manga. Something I live by, and will for as long as possible.

"The world is filled to the brim with nice things... and all of them are carrying someone's intentions and feelings.

When those feelings get across and manage to make someone happy... I gain little pieces of confidence,

that I'll gather together and carry with me as I move on."

And I believe something like that, is only achievable when you do something that is fun, to you.

Thank you for reading, this post, and my translations. Thank you for being able to find enjoyment in Charisma House through my translations. This blog is not going anywhere and will stay up, of course. You will probably still see me around on my other ventures, just not here.

And never forget,

Rikai-kun is cute and he will always be.

Sayonara

[proxis-shattered-expectations]

Part 9 is finished, which officially marks as the last part for Kissartfebruary challenge by @violettenouvel , and so stuck with more Darksiders as the best for last! Had so much fun with these so wanted to thank @coloredgravity for introducing this Art challenge to me, a great opportunity and nice to have an art challenge buddy for it! Hope ya guys like!

First off, Let the cringey self indulgence commence for Day 25! The topic was tricky, so this is what I could come up with. When Siva concieved what was considered impossible, gentle was unfamiliar but also not impossible. Thus "belly" kisses are rare but treasured!

Second, while not my best sketch, this is a cute moment between mother and son for Day 27 so here! The topic was "Leg" and when Siva is dealing with her own injury, Atreyu wants to kiss it better as she would do whenever he got hurt.

And Last, thought it was high time to redraw this Three year old drawing I did (Original is here)

The theme was pretty much "Anything" for Day 28. Had quite a bit of option, but decided to draw my main couple for the last. Since it was anything, chose to draw "Eskimo kisses" because they are just as lovable. Can finally say I finished something sort of on time, thank you guys for dealing with my crazy sketches and hope ya like!

Art and OCS are mine

Kissartfebruary challenge by @violettenouvel

War belongs to Darksiders franchise

[rhyme-thinks-stuff]

I'm going to start posting old art for repostober today!! My understanding is that it's a flexible challenge, so I'll be posting mostly art I haven't posted anywhere before (because I have a lot of it) and I've been working on a prompt list with weekly themes for myself because I think that'd be fun for me

but before I post the first old art, I think it's very important that people know that THIS THING!!

V V V

is what I used to draw things on for many years before I got my first sketchbook in February 2022

A large amount of the art I'll be sharing during repostober will probably safe fun drawn before February 2022, and will thus have been drawn on printer paper using this clipboard as a surface, and then stored inside said (increasingly heavy) clipboard until I got around to sorting the used pages out of the clipboard and into the archives

(these are The Archives btw) v v v

And This is my first sketchbook, Feb 2022 to April 2022!!

Currently I've completed 9 sketchbooks of varying sizes, 5 of which I've made cover art for

Getting an actual sketchbook turned out to be really good for me and my art, I started drawing a lot more when I didn't have to worry about things like clipboard space and paper spilling out and sorting things to make space and how much blank paper i had stored.

I could just turn a new page, draw on that, and keep going. Also after the first 2 sketchbooks, I got my first sketchbook with paper I could use watercolors on, and watercolors are great and the best and I love them very much!

When I look back at my time with Blue Clipboard nowadays, it's a feeling of nostalgia paired with a feeling of "I lived like this?!"

So I guess the lesson of this story is that change is good sometimes. And sketchbooks are pretty great

[bobbybutterfly]

Elliott art dump!

These pictures are quite mid so I decided to post a whole bunch of them at once. Back when I was starting Tumblr I really wanted as much likes as possible. Yeah. It’s cringe. But I’m a furry. I’m all cringe. It’s especially cringe because likes and followers don’t matter much on Tumblr. You’re never gonna make any money on here! Oh boy. Isn’t being disabled and incapable of work fun!

Well. Now I got some stability with responses. About four per non Squirrel and Hedgehog related stuff. In the past I would spit these three into separate posts. Thus gaining about 12 likes if I’m lucky all together. But now I will post them all together because I’m not such an attention whore anymore.

So now about these fellas. The first Elliott is actually the last one with the sea background. I wanted to impress with the best one so I put the latest one to show first. But this sea background one. He was an attempt at the jelly art style. I still have a long way to go, don’t I? He’s kind of cute. Though he could use more polish. They all could. He was supposed to be more realistic but after I finished the sketch I didn’t pay much attention to the reference photo. A lot of the time my painting don’t have the best of anatomy. That’s quite strange because anatomy in my sketches while not perfect is pretty good. My art teacher said that it’s because I get so engrossed in painting I forget to pay attention to it.

I did learn something on this piece though. Using the blend tool. I first block out under my sketch with a flat base paint. Then I add (lol I wrote ass by accident!) a clipping layer onto the flat base. There I do all the colours. Then I merge the base and the colours to blend it. Don’t forget to use alpha lock! Then merge that with the sketch layer on top. Blend away the lines. Switch off alpha lock and do the polishing.

Got all that? No? You didn’t understand a word what I just said? Ehm. Moving on.

The middle one. I quite like this one. Even though I didn’t do enough blending around the eyes so he got some sick eyeliner. By now you noticed that Elliott doesn’t look the most like his in game appearance. I really love the earlier designs. He’s just so dorky! I also base my head cannon version of him from the actor Haruma Muira. I’ve got a whole bunch written about my head cannon if you’re willing to scroll for two hours down my blog. There’s not much to say about this drawing. It’s sketchy. It works. I went lazy with the sweater. It turned out pretty good.

Now the top one. The eye catching furry version of Elliott. I drew him as antro lion before. But then I remembered that lions are supposed to have a collar like mane. Not just hair on top. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to make him a twink though!!! I did challenge @32girassoisdevangogh but it seems they chickened out! That or they have more important stuff to attend to…

IMPORTANT!!! IMPORTANT!!!!

@32girassoisdevangogh is not a chicken!!! They drew Elliott as both a lion and a Iriomote catand did and incredible job doing so! Really taught me not to do cheap jabs at people because they will make a big fool of you!!

INTERMISSION OVER!

So I changed the species to a Iriomote cat. Which works far more for the story I have for him. My head cannon is he’s a 2nd generation immigrant from the Gotoro Empire, which is like Stardew’s version of Japan in my head. Everyone thinks he’s white because though he has monolid eyes and bronzish skin (when he dares to go out his cabin) he still got ocean blue eyes and red hair. Iriomote cats do look like your usual street cat unless you look close. I won’t have him be a furry if I ever get around to writing the fanfic about him. I don’t want Zootopia 2 Bad Racism Allegory Boogaloo.

This picture looks… alright. I have a lot of learning to do when it comes to digital paintings. Do you have some suggestions for what I should work on? I draw in Procreate.

Bobby out!