#Double Bottom Pattern Explained

[profiteadeveloper]

Mastering the DOUBLE BOTTOM FOREX TRADING for Maximum Gain 2023

[katz-rambles]

Hiii I hope that you're doing amazing.

Can I request a fluff fic where reader is Copias daughter and after he summons Phantom they start to fall for each other. Maybe something like forbidden romance trope. I would be so grateful if you'd write that. Byee 😊😊

Yes!! I'm not the best at forbidden romance, but I'll try my hardest. 💗

2.8k words. It's not the best, and I didn't write it amazingly but I hope it's good, Anon!

(fluff, my take on a ghoul summoning, Google translated Italian. <- Please correct me if it's wrongly translated!)

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰

Today is the day. The clergy meets together in the abbey to summon a new ghoul. A day you finally get to attend. The walk to the room is almost painfully slow, the energy is building inside of you and it makes each step you take feel like forever. Not very many people are awake at this time, it’s almost midnight. Most siblings have retired to their rooms and the ghouls are in their den. There’s only a small handful of people still awake, half of them are meeting in this room.

“Where is this room?” You can’t help but ask, your father looks behind him to look at you. He looks around before answering you. “It’s not a place most people get to be in, you see. It’s been hidden away so curious siblings don’t stumble upon it,” Copia explains, pausing between some words to take a breath. He grabs your hand and pulls down a hall you swear wasn’t there before. The hallway itself is eerie looking with tall dark walls that seem to never end, stained glass with pictures you can’t figure out line the rooftop, and if it weren’t for the moon shining through you would have never seen them, there’s doors placed among the walls, and they’re clearly old, the wood is chipping off and the door knob is rusted. The hall just never seems to stop going.

Copia places his arm in front of you and you slow your pace. In front of you both lay tall double doors with writing on them, it’s old and not in english or italian so you aren’t able to translate it. The horrid creak that comes from the door opening pulls you from your thoughts and back down to reality. As soon as you step inside you can feel the shift in the air surrounding you, it gets colder and heavier, pressing down on your shoulders while sending a chill down your spine. There are windows that follow the intricate brick pattern, lining the walls and then stopping when they reach a tall altar of sorts. Candles lay on the altars, there’s three of them from the looks of it and then there’s one big one that sits at the back of the room. All sorts of gifts and pleasantries sit at the bottom and even some on the top.

“Papa. Sister. I’m glad you could make it,” Someone you don’t recognize extends his hand to you and you politely shake it. He places a candle in Copias hand and than one in yours. When you scan the room you can see the start of a summoning circle, a large pentagram made out of a chalk has been drawn. There’s candles surrounding it, one set on each point, all different colours. There’s two empty points and you place your candle down on one of the points, when you set it down the candle changes from the normal white wax to a diluted green. Copias change as well but into a deep blue. Symbols are drawn beside where your candle sits. Each symbol meaning something different.

The top of the pentagram has an arrow-like symbol, it represents spirit. Going clockwise the next almost looks like a disfigured number four, it represents water. Next is an odd shape that you don’t know quite how to describe, it kind of looks like a K, it represents fire. The one after it almost looks like an upside down cross, there's a circle that sits on the top of the symbol, this one is earth, the one you placed down. The last one looks almost identical to the one before it, just larger, this one has to be air.

Now that all the candles are set, one by one, they start to flame up, each flame a different colour as well. The candle for spirit, the wax is the same egg white it was when placed but the flame is a blinding white, the one for water has a deep blue and the flame has turned in to a dark blue that casts a light that looks like the sea, the candle for fire is a bright red and the flame burns the brightest and hottest, easily overtaking the candles around it, the earth candle has gone into a diluted green and the flame almost the same shade. The light cast by earth's candle looks like vines crawling up its point of the star, the candle for air has gone yellow, it looks like the same shade kids draw the sun in, and the flame is the same shade, it’s not as bright as the flame for fire but it’s just as hot.

“I think we are ready to begin,” One of the people in this room announced to the rest. A giddy feeling starts in your stomach, your first summoning. You grab the outreached hands on either side of you and when everybody is ready,chant begins, a language you can’t understand nor follow along with, you awkwardly look around, your fathers following along, but when you look over you see someone else who isn’t saying anything and you two sheepishly exchange smiles and look back. At least you’re not the only one who hasn’t been here before. One by one the points of the star get brighter and the middle of the pentagram seems to be losing light despite the burning flames. The chant continues, getting louder by the second. The middle gets darker and darker until it looks like you could fall into it, or something could come out of it.

An odd noise comes from the hole and you find yourself and the person from before giving each other confused looks and awkward shrugs. You almost scream when a shadowed figure escapes from the whole, desperate screams follow as it climbs out. That must be the pit that the ghouls have told you about. The candles start to get brighter, but the one representing spirit seems to be the brightest. The figure pulls itself up and out of the hole, almost as quick as it opens it closes, leaving the screams to be silenced. The flames dim back down to how they were before, and then they all go out, leaving a thin veil of smoke to cover the figure.

“It’s done,” Someone says, but you’re too focused on trying to process what the fuck just happend, and you’re glad to see the other person just as confused as you are. You let go of the hands that you were holding and cringe at the sweat that's started on your hands.

You start to move over to the person when you’re stopped by a loud sound, a mix between a growl, a scream, and a screech. It’s deafening and horrifying. You force yourself to look over and see that the veil of smoke has lifted and the figure, which you can now fully make out as a ghoul, lays in the middle. You try and get a better look at what is going on, you see one of the people here has grabbed a blanket or a robe, you can’t really tell right now. They lay it on the Ghoul and your father sits in front of it. He’s talking to the ghoul but he’s sitting in such a way that you can’t even try and read his lips. The ghoul seems to relax a bit at his words and sits up, pulling the blanket over to cover itself.

As the ghoul responds, Copia ushers two of the people over and they take the ghoul with them, to get fitted anc cleaned, you assume. When the ghoul leaves people start to disperse and you quickly follow after Copia. “What the fuck just happened?” You ask, your voice much harsher than you had ment it to be. “A summoning. We got the ghoul. That’s it. It tends to be a bit shocking the first time, but you’ll get used to it,” Copia explains, not in as much detail as you would want but you let it go and start to walk back to your room.

—

After the summoning you see the new ghoul, or as he's now called, Phantom, around quite often. More often than you see the others, but he's new so he's looking around. You don't blame him, this place is huge. Though you've never seen a ghoul near the siblings quarters before, that was a shock.

You won't complain, if anything he's kind of cute. He's almost like a puppy. Though you've never actually talked to him, you've just seen him from afar. If your father caught the way you looked at him, you're sure he'd lecture you on spot.

This morning wasn't going to be any different, you'd get dressed, go to breakfast and do whatever had to be done. That was until you got about half way to the dining hall and came face to face with Phantom. He's not too much taller than you, so it's not quite as intimidating as it would be if he was somewhere near Mountain's height.

He's looking right down at you, even through his mask you know he's looking at you. “Sister, you're Copias daughter,” He states, it's not a question so you assume he knows, you're not quite sure what to do now so all you can do is nod and hope you don't seem like an idiot. He tilts his head to the side and back to the middle, almost like he's searching for something on you. He leans down so you two are actually face to face and he places one of his hands on your cheek, making sure his claws don't scratch your skin. There's a loud noise that comes from down the hall and you both look over and when you look back he's gone. Deciding to try and continue on with your day as normal, you go down to the dining hall.

You take your seat with some of the siblings you've grown quite attached to. You tap one of them on the shoulder, someone you'd call your best friend, Isabella, when she looks over you start to recount what happened just a few minutes ago. “Really? I mean.. maybe he's just trying to get to know you, you were at his summoning. Maybe you should tell your dad,” She shrugs, obviously just as confused as you are about this. Other than that odd interaction the rest of the day goes smoothly, until it doesn't.

Again, he's there again. Almost like he knew you would be there. This time he doesn't wait for you to come up to him, by accident or not, he goes straight over to you and leans down once more. This time you don't try to avoid his gaze, you stare right back. “Hello?” You sheepishly try to start a conversation with him, hoping to get more than just a few words out of him. He doesn't say anything back to you, just a smile, with the charcoal shade of his skin it looks like he has too many teeth with the way they're such a contrast to each other. He places a hand on your shoulder, the contact is warm and, against your better wishes, starts to create little butterflies in your stomach.

“Phantom! Come on, you don't want to be late for your fir- oh.. Sister, I didn't realize you two were talking,” You watch as Rain starts to stumble over his words, and Phantom lets go of your shoulder and smiles at you once more before leaving with Rain. That was by far one of the weirdest things that had ever happened to you.

You decide to go talk to your father about it. It's probably just because he's a new ghoul and has curiosity, and like Isabella said, you were at his summoning. The door to your fathers office is a tall dark oak door that has a plaque with the words “Papa Emeritus IV'' labeled on it. When you open the door the first thing you notice is how ungodly warm it is inside his office. “Dad?” You call out and hear a thunk noise from the side room and see him quickly scramble out with a pile of paperwork in his hands. You chuckle and grab some of it to place it on his desk.

After you two get sorted you start to tell him about what's been happening. “La mia amata figlia.. (my beloved daughter) I think he likes you,” He chuckles and grabs his pen. At his words you feel like your eyes bulge out of your head. You open your mouth to say something and then close it again, like a goldfish. “Wha- He.. huh?” You stumble over your words, your mind going blank as you try and think of the right words to say, yet they never come.

That didn't clear anything up. But you couldn't help but feel a little happy that he might like you, you were there when he was freshly pulled from the pit, and even though you didn't realize at first, you were the first person he looked at, and even with him wounded and dirty, he still looked beautiful. You can't help but feel guilty for the way your heart races and your cheeks warm at the thought. You hope you get to run in with him again.

There's a soft pattern of rain hitting the window when you lie down in your bed, the sound soothes you. As you start to feel your body relax your mind drifts to the strange interactions you had today and the talk with your father. You haven't seen Phantom much, not until today, so what ever changed.

The next day goes the same, except this time when you run into Phantom, it's on purpose. You see him in the hall and decide to go up to him. “Hey, Phantom, right?” You tap his shoulder and when he turns, you're surprised he didn't give himself whiplash, you have to cover your mouth to stifle the laughs at his reaction. “Yep, that's me,” He gives you one of his smiles, the ones that seem like he has too many teeth. You two manage to have a pretty nice conversation, and the whole time you're trying to keep your heart rate steady, it feels like your heart may pound out of your chest at this rate.

“So, are you going to talk to him again?” Isabella sits down beside you and raises her eyebrows and wiggles them and you scoff and gently smack her. “I don't know,” You sigh and she chuckles. She rests her head on your shoulder and looks up at you. “You should. I saw the way you two talked today. He likes you,” She says with an eager smile when you agree to talk to him again.

When you go and look for him, he isn't anywhere to be found. Not in the hall, or the practice room. You can't find him. It's strange, you've even checked the garden. You're just about to go back to your chores when you feel a pair of hands on your waist pull you back. One of the hands leave your waist and cover your mouth. When you look back, ready to punch whoever it is, you see Phantom behind you. The first thing you notice is how he isn't wearing his mask. He puts one of his hands on your face and leans down to you. This time it's direct eye contact.

His eyes are a comforting shade of purple, almost lavender. It looks like he's scanning you. “Phantom?” You reach up and press your hand on his face and he leans into your touch. You can hear him purring and it reminds you of a cat. “Hi,” He leans in so your faces are closer together. He rests his forehead against yours and you move your hand down to his neck. “You were there, weren't you?” He asks, his brows furrowing and his lips pursing when you nod. He pulls you closer, and hugs you tightly.

“I like you, sister,” He sighs and takes a deep breath through his nose, taking in your scent. “I know I shouldn't, but I do,” His voice gets lower against your neck, and you place your head against the crown of his head. “I like you too, I don't think I should though,” You laugh and you can feel his lips curl into a smile against your skin. He lays his forehead back against yours. “Then no one shall know,” He whispers and you nod. His lips press against yours, it's slow and gentle. When you pull back he gives you one last smile. “No one shall know,” You giggle and let him kiss you once more.

[impactdial]

möbius, forever (2/2)

Ship: Sanji/Usopp

Rating: T

Warnings: Alcohol use

Tags: Feelings Realizations, Jealousy, Denial of Feelings

“Are you mad at me?” Usopp asked suddenly as he lifted his head slightly, his voice slow and a bit somber. The stark difference between his behavior from just a little while ago versus now made Sanji’s stomach drop. “No,” Sanji said without hesitation, maybe too eagerly, pushing himself closer to Usopp to double the warmth between them. Some of Usopp’s stray curls brushed the hollow of his throat, and something compels Sanji to add, “Why would I be mad?”

Note: Thanks for reading! Sorry it took a minute, I actually ended up rewriting a lot of this chapter lol. I'd love to know what you guys thought! <3

AO3

It was relatively easy to guide Usopp through the cabin door, physically speaking. He did lament, albeit very briefly, that Sanji was “robbing the party of its guest of honor”, to which Sanji (lightly) kicked him in the back of the thigh to usher him inside. After that, Usopp resorted to theatrically jutting out his bottom lip and whining in the deliberate, exaggerate tone he uses when he’s trying to appeal to the cook’s kinder tendencies (such as grilling pike for dinner or, seas forbid, obliging a dessert request). Sanji, already thoroughly pissed off, just barked at him to put his dirty overalls in the dirty laundry pile while he rummaged through his own locker for a spare shirt.

(He purposefully avoided looking inside the locker’s door, where the old charm was still carefully taped beside some scribbled recipe cards.)

Once he’s found something suitable, he quickly changes and then sets upon the task of finding Usopp something as well, which is easier said than done. Usopp’s neighboring locker is, perhaps not unlike its owner, organized chaos at its finest. Sanji eventually got frustrated rifling through piles of hastily folded overalls and grabbed something from Franky’s locker instead; an older floral pattern top, something that he knew for a fact Usopp could wiggle into easily. In all honesty, they both probably need a shower to properly rinse off the heady smell of beer, but Sanji was not going to attempt bathing someone who’s intoxicated and likely to slip and bust his ass anyway (and then Sanji would have to explain to Chopper why he felt the need to go to the trouble of rescuing Usopp only to leave his drunk, clumsy crew mate unattended in the showers). He decided that was something that could wait until morning, at least.

The cook then pivots on his heels to turn towards Usopp, only to get an eyeful of the younger man in the middle of stripping down to his skivvies, kicking off the rest of his ruined overalls. The sound that leaves Sanji’s mouth is so high pitched that nothing manages to come out at all.

“The hell are you doing?!” Sanji snapped incredulously, quickly turning away again and wondering why in the world he felt strangely lightheaded for a moment, like he did when Nami’s displaying a more than generous amount of cleavage. The mental image of Usopp’s broad, bare thighs and the tantalizing line of dark curly fuzz that trails down his overhanging belly lasted every time Sanji rapidly blinked. He heard Usopp make a confused sort of noise, sucking in a breath between his teeth.

“Y’ said to get naked–” the sniper began before Sanji whipped towards him again and quickly interjected, “I said put your clothes in the dirty laundry, not strip down while I’m still in here, dumbass!”

Sanji shoved the oversized hand-me-down in Usopp’s hands on his way out the door, fuming.

“Stay here! Do not move, or I’ll kick your ass so hard it flies across the Grand Line twice.” The blond ordered firmly, but Usopp didn't seem to take it to heart as he’s barely holding back boyish tittering at the mental picture Sanji’s painted for him. Sanji stormed out without waiting for a reply, briskly making his way to the galley while he fumbled to light a cigarette. He scrubbed at his face, hating how warm to the touch it felt. Fuck. Damnit. Shitty long nose.

Sanji knew this is what he karmically deserved for fussing over Usopp in the first place, but even so, the quieter, shittier part of him got what he wanted too, and seas, if that wasn’t a fucked up thought. Squirreling away Usopp from any potential danger. The same selfish thoughts that invade his mind whenever the Strawhats encounter trouble. That maybe he could forgive himself for failing to protect Usopp on Saboady that fateful day, that maybe if he tried harder these other times, he’d finally be forgiven–

The cook hissed in pain, batting away the sting of hot ashes on his skin where what remained of the filter dangled in his grasp. Sanji swore, pitching the finished cigarette over Sunny’s railing, and fished in his pockets for another all before he finally reached the galley door. He doesn’t dawdle in the kitchen. The blond poured a tall glass of cool water and grabbed a clean dish rag from the cabinet before wetting it thoroughly. He wrung it out once, then with both his items, returned to the boys’ room. His walk was again thankfully uninterrupted, and somehow no one seemed to notice him slipping by. If anyone saw that he and Usopp were hidden away while the swell of Brook’s violin sang high over the evening waves, nobody questioned it anyway.

Usopp was dressed this time, thank goodness, except now he’s lying on the floor in the middle of the room, sprawled out against the cool flooring. Sanji wondered briefly why he’d chosen the hard floor over the cushioned bench, but figured it would be pointless to argue over it. Regardless, if he blacked out on the cushions or the floor, Sanji would be carrying his sorry ass to bed either way. Sanji nudged the younger man’s leg with a mumbled “Here,” muted by the cigarette in his mouth, coaxing him to sit up. Usopp hummed a questioning sound before he squeaked in surprise at the cold, damp rag being unceremoniously tossed at the exposed portion of his chest where he’d presumably lost the coordination to button the rest of his oversized shirt.

“Clean yourself up. I’m not going to bed with you stinking up the bunks.”

Usopp, to his credit, obliged. He took his sweet time sitting up though, the concentration of wiping himself down apparently too much to achieve vertically. Finally, after a minute or two, he hauled himself upward and took the offered water with overly complicated hand gestures that Sanji assumed meant he was grateful. As Usopp chugged the water, Sanji sank to the floor and watched him, one hand in his pocket as his thumb flicked over the shape of his lighter thoughtfully, ascertaining his crew mate’s sobriety.

It’s not the worst Usopp’s ever gotten trashed before, but it’s enough that Sanji couldn’t say for certain just how miserably hungover he’s going to be tomorrow. Something simple and light would probably be best for breakfast, then—toast with almond butter and sliced banana perhaps, served with a mug of black coffee sweetened with cinnamon–

Sanji was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts when Usopp loosely grasped his chin and gives it a small, playful shake.

“You’re so good to me, Sanjiii.” The cook’s name drawled sweetly out of his mouth, and Sanji’s about to tell him off again but his temper cooled considerably when he saw the way Usopp’s grinning at him so dopily, affection brimming full in earthy brown eyes. He tolerated the treatment instead, nose wrinkling irritably.

“You drank too much, shitty long nose,” Sanji huffed, trying hard to sound annoyed, brushing Usopp’s hand away. It’s a half hearted attempt at scolding, and they both know it. The sniper’s hand doesn’t stray far, bracing now on Sanji’s arm, the warmth scalding. The cook twitched involuntarily, but didn't move away.

“Maybe you–”Usopp poked a finger into Sanji’s chest to demonstrate his point, “haven’t been drinking enough! S’what a party is for!”

Sanji frowned. He never really found that much fun in drinking alcohol to begin with. Zeff threatened to skin him alive if he ever caught Sanji drinking on the job, and between sneaking smokes or sampling the Baratie’s wine selection, he’d always choose the former. Still, he’s not a mother hen, so he said nothing in retaliation.

There’s a stretch of silence between the two men, the quiet only briefly interrupted by Usopp taking gulps of water one mouthful at a time. Sanji took the moment to shift into a better position, figuring if he was going to be on the floor he might as well be comfortable. He can faintly hear the commotion from outside, if he concentrates hard enough, muffled through the wood. Sanji breathed in deep through his nose, then outwardly sighed likewise. His temper has simmered, finally feeling the relief of stillness, even if for just a moment. Usopp’s ok. Nothing's wrong. All the possible scenarios that Sanji’s mind had conjured were quieted because Usopp was right here with him, safe.

Usopp adjusted himself, having finished his water, and Sanji startled a bit when the younger man leaned against his side, head heavy on his shoulder. The cook went rigid, the subtle tickle of Usopp’s thick curls brushing his bare skin causing his nerves to sing. He’d never been the best at accepting physical affection, and although the Strawhats had brought him well out of his comfort zone, he hated his own awkwardness. But he does like this. Craves it, sometimes, but can never bring himself to voice it. And even if he didn’t, he’d still endure it for Usopp, who he knew deserved it more than he did. If it soothed the ache of loneliness, even just temporarily, Sanji would keep him close all night.

“Are you mad at me?” Usopp asked suddenly as he lifted his head slightly, his voice slow and a bit somber. The stark difference between his behavior from just a little while ago versus now made Sanji’s stomach drop.

“No,” Sanji said without hesitation, maybe too eagerly, pushing himself closer to Usopp to double the warmth between them. Some of Usopp’s stray curls brushed the hollow of his throat, and something compels Sanji to add, “Why would I be mad?”

It’s a stupid fucking question, of course, especially since it feels like he’s done nothing but laid into Usopp verbally, and Sanji willingly acknowledged he has a short shitty temper; but–that’s the thing, once Sanji’s blown off some steam (sometimes quite literally), he doesn’t linger on those feelings. 

Usopp didn’t reply, and the silence made Sanji anxious, not wanting to be misread, but then the sniper’s head settled back on his shoulder, Usopp’s calm puffs of breath so close they’re giving him goosebumps. He couldn’t tell if Usopp believed him or not, possibly too tired to argue otherwise, but it seemed to satisfy him.

Then, Usopp said in a distant voice,“Y’know, ‘Guin said somethin’ funny. Said, ‘Here comes the guard dog’ when he saw you comin' earlier. What’d he mean by that...?” 

Sanji’s heart was sent into a full gallop.

Something Zoro had said to him once before, which resulted in an especially volatile brawl between them, came to mind: “Don’t be so jealous, cook.”

It was said in response to Sanji allegedly shooting Zoro a particularly sour look all because Usopp had ducked behind the nearest crew mate after being startled by sudden Marine canonfire, which happened to be their vice captain’s hulking presence.Sanji could’ve punted the shitty swordman’s head right off his shoulders for the accusation. Jealous of what , exactly? Not being Usopp’s personal bodyguard? It was stupid. Even worse to get so pissed off about.

He remembered how Zoro had looked at him, an almost pitying expression to parry Sanji’s explosive anger, a huge fight breaking out when the cook argued on the contrary. Like he knew something Sanji didn’t. As if the answer had been clear to everyone except him.

Almost as if to insinuate–

Usopp’s breathing had finally evened out, the sag of his body letting Sanji know that he had finally surrendered to sleep. He snored softly, nestled practically under the older man’s chin. Sanji released a stuttering breath that he wasn’t even aware he’d been holding. Just like that, the moment had passed and there was none left to witness the trembling revelation that had just struck the cook. It was too much, too enormous of a feeling to simply ignore and yet, Sanji felt too afraid to name it. 

So he didn’t. Wouldn’t. Not yet, anyway. He had to examine it later, more thoroughly, because if he went and hurt Usopp for the tangled mess that was his own heart, he would never forgive himself. He allowed himself one terrible, selfish moment: just closed his eyes and buried his nose into Usopp’s hair, lip trembling as he tried to memorize the smell, just in case. 

Of all the things Sanji promised himself he’d protect Usopp from, he never could’ve imagined that included him, too.

[princemick]

can you share a tutorial on how to make a sticker sheet? it’s an amazing idea!! you’re very good at what you do :-)

Yeah ofc! It's a pretty simple process but I'm gonna explain how to get from this.

to this!

all you're gonna need is a pic you wanna stickerfye and photoshop!

step 1:

cut that puppy out!

(I like using the polygonal lasso most of the time bc I like the handcut vibe but if u have ps2024 u can use the build in cut out feature or any other way to cut it out on older versions w round stuff I tend to mix polygoal lasso and magic wand to select the pic I want)

now mask it n ur layers shud look like this

and then convert it back into a smart object (right click n 'vonvert to smart object) now if u delete ur background layer, ur file shud look like this

n ur layers like this

step 2:

now that u have ur sticker cut out we're gonna throw a little filter on it to make it a little sharper and ass noise to get it ready for the filter effect!

this is the smart filter settings I use for pictures which you get to by going to filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen

and then I add a 10% noise amount to the pic. the difference shouldn't be to different but it is gonna make an impact on the filter we're adding to it! but this is what it looks like now!

Step 3:

now we're gonna make sure our colours are what we want the sticker to be down at the bottom of your workspace right there

for the valentines day look I'm gonna use pink BUT for this effect make sure ur darkest colour is on top. my colours are gonna look like this!

(important for this is that for your bottom light colour you can go lighter! so make sure you dont use direct white or anything to close to it!)

NOW. we're gonna make sure we have the layer with picture we wanna make into a sticker selected and go to filter -> filter gallery

now your thing is probably gonna look smth like this SO

where you're gonna go is to the tab with 'sketch' and select the halftone pattern

and then this is the settings I'm gonna use for that but you gotta play around w it how you like

and then you're gonna click the little plus at the bottom right here

and then select in again, the sketch folder. torn edges.

these are the settings I'm using but again, play around w it until it looks good to you!

and then you click OK, it's gonna load a little and now you're pic shud look like this and your layer like that!

Step 4:

we're gonna convert this layer into a smart filter again. now to make it look like a sticker we're gonna double click to layer and go into the layer style. we're gonna go to stroke and add a border around it like this

make sure it's lighter then the lightest colour you used for your filter effect

then we're gonna click on the little plus on the left side and add another stroke layer

which is gonna look like this! make sure it's a very very thin light grey line. this is the thing that's gonna make it look like it can be picked off and work as a sticker!

then we're gonna add ONE more stroke layer

you're going to make this last bottom layer the same colour as the light border colour you used in the first layer!

which is gonna look something like this!

your graphic in your preview is gonna look smth like this now!

we're gonna click OK again. and basically. you're basically all done now!

Step 5:

we're gonna make it look kinda printed/paper esc now!

we're gonna start by converting our layer into a smart object again so we flatten our image.

we're first gonna go into filter -> blur -> box blur. and we're gonna box blur by 2

then. we're gonna go into filter -> stylize -> diffuse -> darken only

and lastly. filter -> noise -> add noise by 7%

and ok that is your last step. your sticker is done!

extra step 6:

how to make it look like its on a sheet in plastic. basically you add a little box at the back which is gonna be a lil darker then your stroke layers like this

we're gonna add the same blur -> diffuse -> noise layers as we just added to the sticker to the box

then I'm gonna use this pic to overlay

just add it overtop ur sticker and box. make sure its the same size as the box you just made and then make that a linear burn layer which means it's gonna look like this

we're gonna copy the plastic layer put that under your linear burn layer and make it a hard light layer and get the opacity down a little which means its gonna look like this now

and that's it. ur done. you can add a bunch of adjustment layers until you like the shadow/colour etc. you can add more effect layers or add a little drop shadow to ur paper whatver u vibe w but this is the basic stuff! that's how ya make it look like a lil sticker!

[gundamthey17]

Day 2 of Payneland Promptfest 2024

I know I'm a month late, but December ended up being a hell of a month. I do still intend to write all 7 prompts, so hopefully people aren't totally sick of holiday-themed stories yet. (It's still the holidays, right? lol)

Day 2: frostbite | “How did you even find this?” | getting dressed up

“Crystal!” Charles said excitedly.

“Gah!” Crystal jumped. “Don't startle me like that! You do know it's early, don't you?”

“No, I didn't. I don't sleep,” he replied. Unbothered, he barrelled on. “Have you heard of ugly Christmas jumpers? Or, wait, what do you call them? Sweaters? Ugly Christmas sweaters.”

“Yes, Charles, I've heard of them. What about them?”

“I just saw someone wearing one. They were big in the eighties. I can't believe they're still popular!”

“I don't know about still. More like again.”

“Do you know where to get them?”

“Uh… lots of places. Thrift stores probably have the best ones.”

“Can we go?”

“You want to go shopping. For ugly Christmas sweaters.”

“Yeah! It'll be brills!”

Crystal yawned and shrugged. “Fine by me, I guess.” It wasn't as if she'd had any other plans for the day.

“Great! You get Niko, and I'll get Edwin.”

A short time later, Charles was following Crystal into a thrift store, practically bouncing with excitement. Niko and Edwin were close behind.

Sure enough, the first clothing rack they saw was full of Christmas jumpers. 

“Ooh, what about this one?” said Niko, holding up a particularly garish jumper for Edwin to see.

Edwin frowned, unsure how to respond. “Um… it's…”

“It's mint, Niko!” said Charles. “I think I see some more jumpers over there.”

The next hour was a blur of Christmas jumpers, laughter, and (generally) good-natured teasing as the quartet each picked out a suitable option.

Charles found his jumper almost immediately. He spotted it from across the store, and his eyes lit up. “No way! Brills!” He practically sprinted over to it, leaving Edwin and the girls to follow at a more reasonable pace.

Edwin frowned again as Charles held up the jumper. It was mostly black and green, with some red details here and there. The central image was of a classic-white-sheet sort of ghost, with a red ‘no’ symbol over it. The bottom hem had an alternating pattern of Christmas trees and… some sort of squarish white smiling face wearing a hat. “Why does it say no ghosts?”

Charles sighed dramatically, running a hand over his face. “It’s Ghostbusters, mate. You’ve literally seen the films! This is their logo!”

“Ah, yes, I remember. What has it got to do with Christmas?” To his credit, Edwin seemed to genuinely be trying to make sense of the ugly Christmas jumper tradition.

Charles shrugged. “It was Christmas in the second one. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s in the style of a Christmas jumper. That’s the important bit.”

“If you say so,” Edwin replied, sounding thoroughly unconvinced.

Charles handed the jumper to Crystal, who glanced at the tag. “This is a double extra large. Are you sure you want this one? It’s not gonna fit you.”

“It’ll be fine!”

“Okay. You do you, I guess.”

Crystal had started out somewhat skeptical of the whole endeavor, but her mood had brightened considerably when she found a jumper that depicted the Grinch giving two middle fingers. She wordlessly draped the jumper over her arm and continued to peruse the rack, half-listening as Charles explained the Grinch to Edwin. Crystal didn’t have the patience to explain every pop culture reference, but Charles, for his part, didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.

“Right, so there’s this book, and this guy, the Grinch, absolutely hates Christmas…”

Niko insisted on scouring the entire store before she settled on a jumper. The one she picked featured a large Christmas tree in the center, and was covered in a dizzying array of baubles, garland, pompoms, and candy canes.

“That’s great!” Charles said.

“That’s… something,” Crystal added.

“It’s perfect,” declared Niko, and that was that.

Edwin, to no one’s surprise, ended up having the hardest time finding a jumper that suited him. Early on, he located a knitted blue and white jumper with a pattern of snowflakes across the chest and hem. He held it up hopefully, but Charles shook his head.

“Nah, mate, they’re supposed to be ugly Christmas jumpers.”

“I dunno,” Crystal muttered loudly to Niko, “the grandpa vibes are pretty strong with that one.”

“Given that I am likely older than your grandfather, I am not at all offended by that.”

Crystal ignored him, rummaging around in a pile of jumpers, until she smirked and held one up. “I found the perfect sweater for you, Edwin!”

Edwin turned, and his expression soured as he took in the picture of a fat, grumpy-looking cat, wearing a Santa hat and wrapped in Christmas lights, above the words ‘On The Naughty List’. “Absolutely not.”

As time went on, Crystal grew more and more impatient. “You know what your problem is?” she asked eventually. Edwin opened his mouth, but she continued. “I don’t think you have enough Christmas cheer.”

“I am plenty cheerful,” Edwin replied indignantly.

“Oh yeah?” Crystal grabbed a Santa hat from a display. “Prove it. Wear this.” Without waiting for a response, she reached up and perched the hat on Edwin’s head.

Edwin stiffened like a cat being forced to wear a strange costume.

Crystal snickered. Edwin looked to Charles for help, but Charles merely flashed him a cheeky grin, all crinkled nose and bright teeth. 

Niko looked around to see if anyone was watching them. Luckily, the shop was nearly empty. “Does that just look like a floating Santa hat right now?” she asked quietly.

“Most likely,” Edwin replied, snapping out of it. He quickly pulled the hat off his head and handed it back to Crystal.

Charles and Crystal both offered up several more jumpers, but Edwin rejected all of them. 

Suddenly, Niko’s eyes went wide. “I know!” she said, and without another word, hurried away to a back corner of the shop.

Edwin caught Charles’s eye, but Charles just shrugged.

Niko returned a moment later, holding a jumper that was somewhat similar to the one she had picked out for herself. It was red and had a large tree in the center, but where hers was covered in baubles and garland, this one only had lights.

Edwin kept his expression neutral as he said, “I’m… not sure that –”

“Wait! You have to see the best part!” Niko reached inside the jumper and did - something, and suddenly the lights on the tree began to glow and blink.

Edwin’s expression transformed into one of awe. “How… how does it do that?”

“Batteries! See?” Turning the hem inside out, Niko showed him a small, white box with a button on it, which was cleverly concealed inside the jumper.

“Good job, Niko,” Charles said. He smiled and put one arm around Edwin’s shoulders. “I knew we’d find you one.”

They made their way to the front of the store, where Crystal paid for the jumpers, and then they stepped out into the cold December day.

They waited until they were back in their makeshift office to put on the jumpers. Edwin grabbed his and Charles’s.

“Wait, so any normal clothes can become ghost clothes?” Crystal asked.

“Not exactly. There is a complex magical process that must take place, wherein –”

“Literally no one cares.”

Edwin looked so affronted that Charles actually felt bad for him. He leaned over and whispered, “I care. You can explain it to me later.���

“I have explained it to you before!”

“Yeah, well, this time I’ll listen, won’t I?” Charles replied with a grin.

The “complex magical process” turned out to be the boys just putting the clothes on, though Edwin insisted there was more to it than that.

“If you could just put them on and they vanish, why didn't you do that in the store?” Crystal asked.

“That would be stealing!” Edwin replied. He felt around the hem of his jumper for the mechanism Niko had shown him, and pressed the button. The lights on the Christmas tree blinked to life. Edwin smiled, looking relieved. “I was not sure that was going to work once the jumper ceased to be tangible. It seems it has successfully retained its properties. Though I do wonder about the batteries…” He trailed off as he caught sight of Charles.

The Ghostbusters jumper seemed to swallow most of his lithe frame. It nearly reached his knees, and the sleeves completely covered his hands. He was grinning from ear to ear. “Too-big jumpers are the best,” he was saying, to no one in particular. “It’s like being in a big, warm hug.” He flapped the sleeves for emphasis.

The sight caused a fluttering sensation in Edwin’s stomach. Without thinking, he leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of Charles’s mouth. He immediately drew back with a gasp, phantom heat rushing to his cheeks in an invisible blush as he realized Crystal and Niko were still right there. Before he could stammer an apology – to Charles? to the girls? – Charles closed the distance between them and looped his arms around Edwin’s neck.

“So, what do you think of ugly Christmas jumpers? Pretty brills tradition, innit?”

“I… am beginning to understand it now.”

Niko tugged on Crystal’s arm, and the two quietly left the room as Charles leaned in to kiss Edwin properly.

[jonahmagnus]

How I think the TOH characters would react to you asking their pronouns:

1) Luz Noceda

Start of season one: "Uh, she/her! I think."

By the end of season one: "She/her! For noww~..." *double pistols and a wink*

Season two: "She/they baby! What about you?"

Season three: "She/they, but I dont really care."

Post show: "Ehhh, call me whatever. Follow your heart! See where the wind takes you. Look into the sunset. Listen to the whistle of the sea breeze. The answer lies within your heart, you just have to listen" *leaves before you can figure out what the fuck that means*

2) Gus Porter

"He/they, thanks for asking!" Hes a gay ally at the start of season one, but only because he learned about how humans are opporessed for "being happy" in their realm and that broke his heart so much he swore to stand by any "gay" human he ever found. So he self-identifies as an ally dispite being literally bisexual. Luz considers explaining what gay means in human modern context, but decides this is funnier, and then forgets about it.

3) Willow Park

Start of season one: "O-oh! She/they, thanks for asking! What about you?" A little unsure of herself gender wise but is coming into it

By season two: "They/She! What about you?" *Winks* By this point shes grown into herself and identifies as nonbinary. However, hes still not ready to peer into the depths of his soul and acknowledge the true hidden truth at the bottom there. No little plant boy dont internalize that!!!!

Post-show: "She/he/they, thanks for asking!" This is still fully a lie but he plays cat and mouse with his own gender for a couple years after the show. Literally refuses to think about it. He has other shit going on (he doesnt).

Finally, post-post-show: "He/him! Yours?" He is a nonbinary butch womanthing. Thank god he finally figured that out. Amity and Gus quietly exchange their bet money. Amity won.

4) Amitt Blight

Season one: "She/her. What do you want." I loved her bitch era it was so fun.

Season two: "She/they! Uh, thanks... for asking? Am I supposed to ask for yours now?" Still figuring out the proper etiquette. God bless her soul.

Season 3: "Oh, she/they. You?" This social script is so ingrained in her autistic speech patterns and mind that she acidentally said it to a cafe worker once and she almost turned herself into goo. Rip autopilot girlie......

Post-show: "She/they! :) What about yours?" She is secure in her answer now 👍 a certified category five nonbinary woman moment.

5) Hunter Noceda

Season one: "My..... whats?" You try to explain what they are to him and he says "My uncle says gender is a sin and I should never fall into it lest my soul be lost. And I dont know what that means but I dont want him to be mad at me so. Bye" and then he would flee the scene at 300mph and have a panic attack about in the closet.

Season two: "Oh... uh.... he... him?? I think??" *remembers youre supposed to ask something back* "Why do you need to know that" he sounds increasingly desperate as he realizes the social script for this conversation is slipping from his grasp, much like his current sanity.

Season 3: "Oh, oh, uhm, he/him, I guess" He sounds VERY unsure about that. You eye the book in his shoulder bag, and he shuffles awkwardly.

Post-show: "They/he!" They say, still a little haltingly. You nod like you believe it.

Post-post-show: "They...he... it? I mean I like they and it the most but Uhm he is still fine its fine like Im still a human. Im still a human... man" okay Hunter, for sure.

Post-post-post-post-show: "she...they?????" Sure Hunter

Post-post-post-post-post-show: "she/IT???" she shoulds desperate. Okay hunter.

Post-post-post-post-post-postshow: "It/its, but she/her is fine as well. Uh, thanks for asking. Uh. You?" There we go. Glad you finally came to this realization. The Murderbot Diaries would have irreversible affects on its gender.

[faedye]

(re)threading your Sensu Fan - a cosplay tutorial

I've been working on an Avatar Kyoshi cosplay recently and decided that I was going to make her sensu (Japanese folding fans) from scratch.

The only problem with that is the fact that it's really hard to find resources explaining how to actually thread the darn things!

So, here's what I have learned from many hours of trial and error.

Part 1: the thread holes

3 holes is where it's at. 2 holes is too few to get the right tension, and 4 is too many for the size of your typical fan rib.

The distance between each of your holes should be equal. My middle holes are in the exact centre of each rib (2cm in from each side in my case). Between each hole I have 1 cm. That leaves 1 cm between the left and right holes and the edge of the rib.

The photo below shows what that looks like. See how nice and even everything is?

Part 2: the thread

Because you're going to be opening and closing this fan with some amount of force, you'll want a thread that is both relatively thin and reasonably strong.

I used two kinds of thread in my fans: polyester embroidery thread that I doubled up and 8lb monofilament fishing line.

A note on fishing line: there are three main types of fishing line that you can find in most outdoor stores: monofilament, braided, and fluorocarbon. For a fan, you'll want monofilament because it holds knots the best.

You can use any size and colour of fishing line you'd like, but I chose the very thin, clear stuff for my fans. I wouldn't recommend going any lower than 6lb line though otherwise it might break if you're a bit too rough.

Other types of thread that I tried (with varying degrees of success) include 3-strand DMC embroidery thread (good option), 6-strand DMC embroidery thread (bit too thick), regular polyester sewing thread (breaks too easily), and gutermann linen thread (okay option, but you'll have to double it up and wax the thread).

I believe traditional Sensu fans would have used silk thread because of how strong silk fibres are. If it's in your budget, give it a try!

Part 3: the threading

Now, here's where things get tricky.

Sensu fans need to be able to close fully, open to a set point, and not slip open further than that point. That means that you want your thread to have some tension in it without being too tight. Too tight, and your fan won't close. Too loose, and your fan will open too far.

Step 1 was to see what kinds of resources exist on this topic already. The answer was: not many.

So, I prototyped. 8 hours and several broken threads later, I developed what seems to be a fully functional threading pattern. And here it is!

Lay your fan out on a table in the position you want it to be in when open. Each rib should slightly overlap the next. The most right-hand rib should be at the bottom of the rib pile with the most left-hand rib on the top of all the other ribs

Cut a thread that is about 6 times the width of your open fan if working with normal thread, or 3 times the width if working with fishing line

Thread your string of choice onto a thin needle (it needs to be able to fit through the holes in your fan)

Tie a big ol' knot in one end of your thread so that it can't pass through the holes

With your fan laid out on the table with the farthest left rib on top, we're going to label the holes 1, 2, and 3 from left to right. This will help us because we'll he working from left to right.

Pass your needle down through hole number 1 until the knot hits the rib and you can't pull the thread anymore

Bring your needle up through hole number 2

You should now have a horizontal line of thread on the back side of your rib.

Pass your needle back down through hole number 1 from the front

Flip your fan over so the back side is facing you.

Pass the needle under the horizontal line of thread you made two steps ago and pull the thread gently until you have a little loop

Thread the needle through that loop and pull to create a knot

Still looking at the back side of the rib, push your needle up through hole 2.

Flip the fan over so you're looking at the front

Thread your needle down through hole 3

Bring it back up through hole 2

Make another loop knot using the horizontal line of thread you created between holes 2 and 3

Pass your thread down through hole 3

Flip the fan over so the back side is facing up

Make one final loop knot using the horizontal thread between holes 2 and 3

Flip the fan over so the front side is facing up

Move fan rib number 2 over so that it's sitting slightly behind rib number 1

Take your needle and pass it through hole 1 on rib number 2

Hold ribs 1 and 2 in place with one hand while you pull the thread tight. The ribs shouldn't shift from the position you're holding them in

Bring the needle up through hole 2, then down through hole 1

Flip the fan over so the back side is facing up and make a loop knot between holes 1 and 2, making sure your tension is correct. (The way I test it is by sliding rib 1 over rib 2 to make sure they close flush and then open them back up and make sure they're aligned properly)

Repeat the rest of the steps until you get to the final rib!

To tie off your final rib, just make a bunch of loop knots between holes 2 and 3 after you complete the normal steps. If you're using a double thread, you can also tie it into a nice little knot as close to the face of the fan rib as possible.

For anyone who's visual, here is the threading pattern written out:

Happy fan-making!

[desert-flowerz]

actually CANNOT explain to you how thrilled i am about this one oh my goodness.

once again, going off this post, this time in response to @tigerbears !! i couldnt screenshot the whole message so im doing this in segments going from top to bottom and cataloguing my thoughts and counterpoints.

of course, this argument does make sense — queen showcases the hologram of a knife, kris is pretty known for their connection to knives, they even use their knife to create the dark fountain at the end of chapter two. seems like a pretty solid bout of evidence. but not necessarily.

see, I'd like to argue that queen doesn't truly know much about the knight, nor how the fountain was created, not in detail. for certain, she knows dark fountains are created via a lightners determination, that they stab into the ground and darkness is born from the act. but, if you look at the video she has — no actual further information is given, pretty strongly suggesting queen herself might not have a whole lot of further information, either. we know she's prone to making assumptions, particularly in regards to the knight — why can't the idea that a knife in specific was used be just one more assumption?

queen is just a computer, she doesnt know everything, after all. she might not necessarily be the most accurate source of information. and wouldnt it make sense, if the only thing she knows for certain is that the knight stabbed into the ground, that she'd draw the conclusion they used a knife? that's certainly what first comes to the frint of my mind witg the association of stabbing (but, then, i might have some confirmstion bias).

kris would also know that the knight, whoever it may be, must have left the computers on. its shown through text interacting with objects in the computer lab that kris has a decent understanding — at least by this point — of how dark worlds work, how they're affected by the light world and the surroundings of the fountain.

... ignore that theyre out of order ive only just realised how to put images side by side but i cant get them to go in the order i want.

BUT ANYWAY, back to theorising and debating. what im trying to say is — kris saw and understood all this before they made the fountain, they easily could have copied off what the knight was doing. of course, this doesn't account for the fact the tv got plugged in overnight, but if this was the plan all along, why make the cyber worlds fountain in the first place, why not simply create the fountain within the dreemurr residence to begin with? especially knowing we as the player would simply seal it as we did with card kingdom.

there could be a number of other reasons for this, i feel, that make a lot of sense as to why the knight has not yet managed to start the roaring. for example, if we were to ascribe to the theory that mayor holiday is the knight (among others, but this was the first i thought of and one i see discussed frequently enough to be of note), it could easily be written down to her being busy — a point that's made again and again whenever she's brought up. in other cases, it could be argued that the knight has to be careful about being discreet, as the more people find out about what's going on, the more people that will try to stop them, thus making their job tremendously more difficult.

and finally, to flip this on its head and argue in the oppisiye direction (because i am an unstoppable force) — i dont think the line in question is referring to what people assume it is, honestly. the closet is supposed to be the city — electronics, wires, all that good stuff. and, as seen interacting with other objects, particularly in chapter two — the text will at times reflect what we saw in the dark world.

i think, more likely than this line in particular being some reference to the knight, is simply another example of this established pattern. of course, there could be a double meaning to it, but it could also been a plain reference to giga queen, seen as that fught occurs within the city.

BUT thats all i gotta say on this, i think — might add on at a later date but honestly who knows. yet again, all screenshots were found on the deltarune text project so all credit there since my points definitely wouldn't hold as much weight without the visual reference (and its honesty just a cool as fuck project).

[oceanofhands]

I should probably do a little introduction of the main characters!! Right now, none of them have official references, so I'm gonna have to try and explain their appearances as best as I can. (under the cut since the post is WAY too long)

Edit 23/04/25: changed Cain's name to Adelard

── ⋆｡𖦹°‧ ──

Malakye Otieno – The Crane (he/him)

Malakye is the protagonist. He's black and has a skin condition called vitiligo which affects his hair too, causing it to go grey in some places. Speaking of his hair, it's black and in locs. He is 6'1 and can be found wearing casual attire, such as varsity jackets, t-shirts, flannels, baggy trousers, and sometimes flat caps.

He's African and grew up in England (Foxby Heath), but for six years prior to the story lived in Paris with his adoptive father Kellen. Malakye is a transgender man, who takes testosterone but doesn't plan on any surgeries. He doesn't even bind (let them hang, king). He's bisexual and demisexual.

He has (squints at a long list) autism, depression, cptsd, and fibromyalgia - which then causes chronic pain, insomnia, headaches, brain fog and anxiety. To help with some of these symptoms, he carries painkillers and uses a cane most days. As for the insomnia ehh.... he just watches ASMR before bed.

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Adelard de la Croix – The Bear* (he/him)

Adelard has white freckled skin and shoulder length dirty blonde hair. He's 5'10 and usually wears dark, thick, warm clothes like coats, scarves, button-ups, cardigans/sweaters, trousers, etc. Since Foxby Heath is set in the south of England and is surrounded by trees (therefore shade), it gets pretty cold.

He's French and spent his first few years in the country, but after his parents divorced, him and his mother moved to England and Adelard spent the rest of his life there. He's a transgender man who takes testosterone, and in the past had a double mastectomy (top surgery) and phalloplasty (bottom surgery). He's gay.

He has autism, adhd, chronic back pain and possibly bpd. But he's in denial about the last two. After the story, he does seek treatment and a diagnosis.

*metaphorically and gay-body-type-ly

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Gaia Kalawaia-Flores – The Fox (he/they)

Gaia has dark brown skin with moles here and there and darker hair (type 3B) reaching the top of his waist. He's 6'0 and has a very fashionable sense of style, wearing things like trench coats, faux fur coats, berets, flare jeans and animal patterns (fake, not literally the fur or scales).

They're Afro-Latino, and lived with their father in America (Texas) until they were around 11, then moved to (surprise surprise) Foxby Heath. This means, unfortunately, he has a general American accent. Not as strong as the Texas accent, but it sometimes slips through. He's gnc trans masc and doesn't have any surgeries or take testosterone, but he plans to take it once he's had his first child. That's if he ever has one. He wears a binder sometimes. His sexuality is unlabeled ("only have eyes for Leilani")

He has audhd and insomnia, and manages the insomnia by having early nights and a relaxing bedtime routine. Another mental illness is that he's basically American.

── ⋆｡𖦹°‧ ──

Leilani Kalawaia-Flores – The Jester (they/them)

Leilani has brown freckled skin and dyed white hair reaching just past their shoulders. They're 5'8 (the shortest, bless their cotton socks) and can be found wearing whimsical diy outfits. Button ups with funky patterns, knitted sweaters, shirts with memes on them, jeans and trousers with patches and embroidery, and all sorts of rings, necklaces and bracelets.

They're Hawaiian (with a hint of Croatian from their father) but lived in England for their whole life, running away to little Foxby Heath with their younger sister when she was 15 and they were 18. They're intersex and don't really identify as non-binary, "I'm just Leilani" as they say. But they/them is still a preference. They don't take any HRT or have any surgeries. They're pansexual.

They suffer from widespread pain and usually need forearm crutches to get around. They have a lazy eye and cover it with an eyepatch, a prosthetic left (dominant) forearm, and they have autism, adhd and possibly depression.

── ⋆｡𖦹°‧ ──

Kōnane Kalawaia - The Tiger (she/he)

Kōnane has brown skin and an outgrown buzzcut dyed blonde. At the sides, it's dyed orange with black stripes to look like a tiger pattern. She wears jeans, tank tops, polo shirts, leather jackets, and always has keychains and a carabiner attached to her jeans.

Like his older sibling, he's Hawaiian with a dash of Croatian and moved to Foxby Heath when he was only fifteen. She lived with Farmer Marnie*² until the lady passed away. She's bigender and recently started testosterone, and also binds her chest with trans tape. He's an asexual butch lesbian.

He's autistic, has arthritis and anxiety (which caused a terrible phobia of germs).

*²miiight be important later. winks

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that's all for now! obviously there are more than just five characters, but this post will be VERY long if I do them all.

[farshootingstar]

Alright. Did some basic mockups that aren't finalized, but I think I'd like an opinion on the scarf idea that I have. The yarn pics at the bottom are the colors I'll probably use, since they look like they'll work well for a red crown scarf.

I'm curious, though. Which double knit pattern idea do you guys like more? The first pair of pics are the eye design and the second pair are the text design (just specifying they do go together, since this would be for double knitting).

I could change the side that says The One Who Waits to say Narinder instead and possibly have a more similar size to the The Lamb side, but that also does feel a little weird, since I don't think Lamb has a canon name, you know? Also, I know the The Lamb side probably isn't perfectly centered, but this is just a mockup and I can tweak things later.

[femmedaraya]

I wanted to start a series explaining some of the different work I did on my Talald cosplay, how it won Journeyman at ACen, and how you can use some of these techniques for your own competitive work! In this post we're breaking down how I built my boot covers. This is less of a tutorial and more of a build log with tips.

I found these ankle boots at a thrift store. They had a couple decorative straps which were easy to cut off with a craft knife. The heel's a comfortable height and an unobtrusive color, two things that provide great versatility for a wide range of boot covers in the future!

Try to keep in mind the shape of the toe when shopping for cosplay shoes. A round or pointy toe would look out of place with the curly tips l'd be adding to the top, so I made sure to pick a shoe with an almond toe.

Taping the boot! There are plenty of guides on how to do this; I got a friend's help which made it a lot easier. Personally I like doing my plastic wrap and tape a couple inches higher than I want the boot cover to go, just in case.

Fabric! Not much to this one. I made a separate pattern for the scallops at the top so they were all the exact same size and shape. These covers were made of the same neoprene as the dress, which is a pretty stretchy fabric, so that extra bit of wiggle room made it easier to translate my taped-up boot into a flat pattern.

I'm a stickler for making sure my seams lie flat. You can't iron neoprene, but since it's a double layered fabric, you can hand sew through just one layer on the inside. If you're doing something like this for a contest, MAKE SURE TO SHOW THE JUDGES! They're going to appreciate all the tiny things you do to make everything "just so."

Using a durable fabric for the bottom of your boot covers adds a lot to their longevity. This is the same cotton canvas I use to structure my corsets. I added these hot glue squiggles to give them some grip for my goofy little antics—might try using silicone caulk next time? By the way, that’s not a raw edge at the bottom of the canvas but a selvedge. Using the selvedge there makes my job just a little easier since I don’t have to hem that section.

Thanks for reading to the end! Next time I'll be talking about snaps and closures.

[apparently-artless]

Hi! Your edit for Day 8: Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suruis is really cute!! Would you please make a tutorial for it?

Hi, anon! Thank you!! So glad you like it. (o˘◡˘o)

And sorry for the late reply. Please check the layout tutorial under the cut for this POST.

So you can follow the steps easily, I uploaded the PSD file HERE.

These will be the layers of the file upon opening:

The SINGLE BOX folder is for the GIF with one image. I turned the visibility off since I wanted to focus on the triple image tutorial. Either way, you will do the same actions for the single box and triple box. If you will use the single box, just turn the visibility on and turn off the TRIPLE BOX and COLOR SWATCHES ELLIPSES folders.

In my original post, I used a pattern and clipped it on the RECTANGLE BG (which is a rectangle shape) but I did not include it on the PSD file because the pattern is not mine. You can use whatever pattern you would like or simply change the rectangle shape's color. To do so, double-click the RECTANGLE BG icon then change the color.

Expand the folder to use the TRIPLE BOX layout:

For the boxes (TOP, MIDDLE, and BOTTOM), I used the rectangle tool with the following properties on the left side. Then I added Drop Shadow effect for a 3D-ish visual effect using the settings below:

Feel free to change this setting according to your preference.

The SAMPLE IMAGES will be replaced by your GIFs [if you will use GIFs instead of images]. To add GIF, you need to make sure that your GIF file is using VIDEO timeline instead of FRAME timeline and that it is converted to a SMART OBJECT. [It must be a smart object so you can clip it on the boxes.]

Once you added your GIF/image to the PSD file, make sure that it is one layer above the BOX where you want to place it. Once placed, right-click on the GIF/image, then select Create Clipping Mask.

If you want to move the image inside the box, make sure that you have selected the image file. If you want to move both the box and the image inside it, select both layers.

Do the same actions on the MIDDLE and BOTTOM BOXES. The same actions also apply to SINGLE BOX.

Next would be the COLOR SWATCHES ELLIPSES:

I already converted the ellipses to smart objects on the PSD file. To change the colors of the ellipses and other settings, you need to open the smart object by double-clicking the icon. Once opened, another file should open with a .PSB filename.

To change the colors of the ellipses, just double-click on the individual ellipses layers icons. You can also change the settings by going to properties:

Once done with the changes, just save it (CTRL+S), then close the PSB tab. The changes should successfully reflect on the PSD file.

NOTE: The TOP ELLIPSES and BOTTOM ELLIPSES are the same smart object. The other one is simply the flipped version of the other. So any changes made to a single smart object will also reflect on the other smart object. If you want to have different colors for the TOP and BOTTOM ELLIPSES, you need to copy the smart object instead. To do this, right-click the smart object, then select New Smart Object via Copy.

This means that you are trying to create a totally new smart object that will retain its own settings and not be affected by your other existing copied smart objects.

That's it for this tutorial! I hope I explained it clearly but if there are issues with the file I shared or questions on how to use it, feel free to send me an ask or a message.

[sonnenreich]

⸻ @dryadologist [ . . . ] manifesting spell with intention *.; “now that's a ridiculous thing to say. ”

“Exactly my words” the blonde agreed, gesturing in understanding. He leaned back on the chair, creaking impudently underneath his weight. The English pub wasn’t exactly his taste nor first choice — too private, too dark and way too far away from his hometown. The absence of guests made him question the quality, too. It was disappointing to say the least. Going above his way of leaving his home and then not feeling the joy of attention. The only other guest besides Wendell was an old lad, staring mindlessly at his emptied ale. He surely wasn’t the type of guy who’d waste another glance at Zeev, not that he necessarily wanted him too. 

“It’s like that famous saying absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence. Anyone claiming the contrary is a fool in my books. People are only willing to believe if it serves their cause.” A charming smile returned despite the negative nature of the subject. He wasn’t really feeling like digging up yet again the topic of witch trials and what it had meant for Sundawn. Instead he eyed the other once more while fishing for something in his pockets.

Zeev experienced first hand the attraction that he always used to his advantage. Wendell was surrounded by a beauty so mesmerizing it felt unsettling when thought about for too long. Like a perfect picture with a hidden message, a unique and antique box with a double bottom, lined with silk. It was hard for Zeev not to be distracted by his mere presence. But above all it made him careful.

The piece of paper rustled in his hands — one edge ripped, a page of a book. The beige sheet showed the drawing of what seemed like a delicate flask, adorned with swirls and patterns one only could assume to be floral. Zeev pressed the tip of his lean finger down, pushing the curling paper over the table made of pale beech wood till it reached the other. “The container is less interesting than the content,” he explained. “supposedly filled with tears of the great Baobhan-sìth. Of course most rumours are about granting youth, wealth, beauty and whatnot.” He gestured disinterested. Within a swift motion he turned the page over, pointing at a passage written in the tiniest font no book should ever be written in. “It is believed to inherit curing prosperities beyond human medical possibilities.”

Anticipation shone in his eyes and something that resembled hope.

“I thought someone of your expertise might have heard of it? Perhaps even got any idea of its current location, if it still exists?”

[3ofpents]

The Jersey Devil & The Pine Barrens Pin Stripe // Fabric design for @shapeshiftersvt and The Cryptid Collection

Oh it's time for my favorite cryptid, the Jersey Devil.

We've reached the first fabric design that was a direct adaptation from its coordinating travel poster. Here, let me show you, I think it's pretty obvious.

This wasn't the first based-on-the-poster design that I did, but it was the very first poster that I did. I mean obviously. I grew up in New Jersey and, save for a 9 month stretch in Brooklyn after I was born, and a 2 year stint also in Brooklyn in my late 20's, I lived there for about 30 years. The Jersey Devil has always and will always hold a special place in my heart.

So why on earth is there a version of this pattern without it???????

Easy! Remember when I said that some of the fabric designs were created with Eli's runway looks in mind? Well here's the concept sketch for the Jersey Devil design:

The initial concept while we were brainstorming and finalizing the fabric designs was to create a skirt suit with the trees-only design (Pine Barrens), with a binder or sports bra in the Jersey Devil design peeking out from underneath. I can't speak entirely to Eli's thought process, but I believe part of this decision was made with the photobombing idea behind the posters in mind, where the cryptids are sort of semi-hidden, or at least not the focus of the image. And part of it was aesthetic, not wanting to have multiple moons all over the outfit that might even get cut off and such.

I want to say I had a decent time with this one, and I think I did in the end. But I have to admit that it ended up being a little frustrating because it took a lot longer than I expected it to. Or that I thought it should, considering I was just recreating a slightly altered version of an illustration that I'd already done. It took a while to get the trees right, especially because for some reason that I kept getting a single pixel wide line across my horizontal seams that, like. The only way I can explain it is that it was as if the canvas was a single pixel shorter on the bottom than the image, so every time I smoothed out the seams and moved the tile back, that single pixel line would come out of hiding and break up the whole image because it didn't get edited, so the colors were in the wrong places.

This was NOT the case, for the record. I expanded the canvas multiple times in my attempts to fix this thinking that was what was happening. And yet it kept happening. I don't remember if restarting my computer fixed the problem (I often have issues with things on my screen not appearing properly when I need to restart to free up some memory); if I confirmed that it was just a weird visual glitch in Clip and that it wasn't visible anywhere else; or if it just stopped happening because I stopped moving the tile multiple times to double or triple check it and it was happening at the point of moving it. But I got it fixed, obviously.

And I'm pleased with it! I think if I'd put this one further down the list and so had more experience under my belt, I would've done it a little differently. Really mainly the tree repeat. I think I would've done a larger tile to get more trees, for more trunk shape variation; and to have more room to get a more gentle curve back and forth.

But the essence of the thing is still there, and I still think it's a cool concept (one that Eli came up with, I forgot to mention!) with the trees being stripes. And of course I love my flying Jersey Devil. I need draw more Jersey Devil art.

As always, if you'd like to order your own binder or sports bra with either of these fabric designs, you can find them (and the poster print) here, on the Shapeshifters website. If you do, we'll finally be able to get a photo instead of the mockups I made up there.

If you want to purchase the fabric for your own sewing projects, you can do so through our Spoonflower shop. Important to note that the Pine Barrens stripe runs vertically along the length of the yard; and the Jersey Devil stripe runs horizontally, and the pattern repeat is a full yard, so there's only one moon on each yard.

[kajtekmakesthings]

After 2 months of on-and-off work, I have sewn my very first pair of pants!

They are canvas work pants -- specifically the Jutland Pants pattern from Thread Theory.

I knew I'd need to do a bunch of fitting to get the size right, and decided to make a wearable muslin out of cheap canvas. I mostly succeeded at not being a perfectionist about these, but still ended up going a little nuts with the finishing details because I can't help myself.

I printed the PDF pattern at home, taped it all together, and then transferred it to gridded freezer paper to give me a final pattern that was more durable and easier to handle.

I started with their standard size 32, and did a full seat adjustment right off the bat because I could already tell the rear crotch seam was too short for my butt. My actual measurement there was pretty much identical to the size 36 pattern, so I printed that off and used it as a rough guide for making the adjustment before I transferred everything to the freezer paper.

I was really impressed with the instructions from Thread Theory, which are easy to follow and come with an additional sew-along blog that explains everything in a slightly different way. I've never made pants before (or really a garment anywhere near this complex), and it all came together smoothly.

I had some really cute scrap quilting fabric picked out for the pocket flap details, and decided to use it as an inspiration for the decorative stitching on the back right pocket. After some noodling around with different shapes from the print, I came up with a stylized crane I really liked.

Once I'd gotten the initial shape built (everything except the cargo pockets, waistband, and bottom hem), it was time for the first fitting!

Not a bad start. The seat adjustment turned out pretty much perfectly! There just wasn't enough ease in the thighs for freedom of movement (the fabric has zero stretch, and any work pants of mine need to allow for squatting, kneeling, and climbing). Also some tension across the hips was creating a weird... crotch situation.

I spent what felt like an eternity unpicking the outside and inside seams, and then pinning and re-pinning and basting extra fabric into the gaps until I got a shape that worked.

I ended up drafting a couple of long, narrow panels to insert into the side seams. They start about an inch below the waistband and end around the knee, which means I had to get them installed and finished before adding the cargo pockets on top.

This is where I decided to do felled, bound seams. The original pattern calls for flat felled seams, which I love the look of and enjoyed learning how to make. Unfortunately, canvas is bulky and doesn't like to take a crisp fold, and also frays like crazy. It just wasn't working.

I switched to binding each seam with bias tape, and then stitching it down flat so it had the same tidy, smooth, finish as a flat felled seam. I love how this turned out and will definitely be doing it again for future projects with fabrics that tend to fray.

The blue bias tape in the photo is one I had lying around the house and decided to use up for this project. Unfortunately, the panel inserts nearly doubled the number of long seams and I didn't have enough bias tape for them. So I learned how to make my own bias tape out of the gray pocket fabric and the yellow accent fabric. It's not terrible with the help of a bias tape maker, and I love having the ability to make binding that perfectly matches my project.

To adjust the inside seams, I sewed in a long gusset that runs from knee to knee. While the side panels were a pain in the ass and I've adjusted my pattern to eliminate them from future iterations, I think I want to keep the gusset. It's doing a great job of taking strain off the crotch seams when I move, and I'm also finding two smaller, bound, seams on the inner thigh much more comfortable than a single, chunky, serged one like I usually get with jeans.

Here's where I got to with the final fit (adding the waistband, pockets, and hem also changes the silhouette a little). I'm really happy with where I ended up. The pants are fitted enough through the waist and hips that they stay up comfortably without a belt, and make my butt look great. The looser fit through the thighs gives me a full, comfortable, range of motion, and the overall look is much closer to classic men's workwear than the slightly-shrink-wrapped stretch jeans that I've grown accustomed to.

Overall, I'm really happy with this pattern. Aside from adding the gusset, there's only a few changes I'll be making to the original design. I replaced the velcro fasteners for the cargo pockets with snaps (I honestly just hate velcro on clothing). I'll also want to add interfacing to the waistband lining in the future. The soft cotton I used is really comfortable, but adding a little stiffness should make it easier to work with while sewing the wastband and give me a cleaner finished look.

I learned so much about tailoring over the course of this project, and picked up a ton of new techniques. I feel like I not only have a great pattern that I know fits me well and that I can re-use whenever I want, but I also understand a lot more about how pants come together and how to get them to fit and move the way I want. It's super exciting!

[lulu2992]

Decoding the scripts and secret messages in Rebel Moon

Part 3: Figuring out the Old Imperium script

To try to decode the entire alphabet, I studied the Scribes and Priests’ outfits, Noble’s Bone Staff, but also and mostly the inscription on Kora’s gun, which we know means “My life for hers”:

As I’ve said before, it appears this script uses what resembles opening square brackets as spaces/word separators, but there are three other things we can notice. Firstly, all letters basically consist of either one (I), two (II), or three (III) vertical lines. Secondly, vowels and consonants look different: consonants are just lines while vowels have a rounded shape at their top or bottom. They almost look like either a P or lowercase b with up to two additional (vertical) lines.

The third thing we can observe is that, in each consonant, there is a smaller, horizontal line, and I realized this little line could be located at seven possible heights:

As I was trying to figure out which symbol was which letter, a clear pattern started to appear. It seems Old Imperium follows a logical progression: the first 2 vowels and the first 7 consonants in the alphabet have one vertical line, the next 2 vowels and 7 consonants have two, etc. As for the small horizontal line on consonants, it just gets lower and lower as you move from letter to letter in each “group”. So here is, I believe and if I’m not mistaken, how the script works:

In theory, there’s room for another consonant, “III-7”, after Z, but I don’t know if this symbol exists in the alphabet; I haven’t encountered it.

Below is the part of the bone staff that says “a rocking cradle”. It’s very blurry (sorry, the image is so small), but the logic seems to work!

I found the symbol for double letters on the Scribes and Priests’ clothes (under the 5th letter in the image below). As for the other symbol, it seems to be a question mark on Noble’s Bone Staff (the semicolon looks different there, but I can’t see it very well) and either a semicolon or a period on the outfits, so I’m not sure what it represents. I don’t know if my drawings are 100% accurate either, but this is what I see in the pictures.

Part 4 will be dedicated to the Priests and Scribes because they have a hidden message on them too! Using what I’ve just explained in this post, can you already guess what the 9-letter word above is? Fun fact: either I made a mistake... or they did.