#I like how in the drawings its like a blue that fades to white

[mangawatercolors]

Got bored so I did a thing... Kinda wanna make more...

[wwaheoh]

Hey, Hi, Hello!! I don’t know if you’re not taking request or not but If it’s not too much of a hassle or if you have the free time, could I please request a part two of that unrequited love post where the reader starts intentionally avoiding those same characters you posted? Like basically the aftermath of the confession. If you’re closed or busy you really don’t have to accept this but thank you for that read 😭

“Aversion to Heartache…” Zenless Zone Zero x gnReader

Von Lycaon, Zhu Yuan

a/n: not including Anby, since she’s the one avoiding you at the end of Unrequited. also i am always open to requests or chats! just know that it might take some time to get back to you, since i write when i take a break or can’t draw

Sequel to: “Unrequited” (Lycaon, Zhu Yuan, Anby)

It’s been a couple of weeks since your failed confession. You had been purposefully avoiding Lycaon- even Victoria Housekeeping as well as the cafe they used as a front. Ads would pop up on websites, various members on it but the pure white fur of the Therian on your mind sticking out like a sore thumb against the muted colors of the rest of the staff.

Sighing, you clicked on the X to delete the ad, not wanting to see it any longer. You misclicked, accidentally clicking on the web link and being rerouted to the contact page of Victoria Housekeeping. It was familiar- having used it to venture into the Hollow, where you met Lycaon.

Quickly closing the tab, you tried to clear your mind. Lycaon, Lycaon, Lycaon, every day it felt like you got reminded of him. The good times you both had, spending afternoons and sometimes nights with him. Then quickly being soured by you confessing to him- the look on his face more unflattering than what really occurred.

You should go out for a bit… maybe some fresh air would help. Standing up, you put on some casual clothes, fixing a hoodie on and zipping it up before taking your keys.

Closing the door behind you and locking it, you took a deep breath of the cold afternoon air. Fresh, with only a couple of people milling about. A car or two passing by every couple of minutes. Stepping out from the front of your apartment, you began your aimless walk. Letting the sounds of the city fill your ears.

After tens of minutes, you found yourself in Lumina Square. Somewhere bustling with traffic. Following the crowd, you looked through the windows, commenting on things mentally- before something caught your eye.

Lycaon. The wolf-Therian was sitting in front of a noodle shop with… someone else. A figure wearing a blue-orange jacket, hair reaching their chin. Here you were, constantly on the verge of tears and Lycaon had already moved on. Seemingly having replaced you, seeing as how expressive this person was to him.

His ear twitched, a tell-tale sign of where he was going to look- having either heard or smelled something of note. Quickly you lifted your hood up, hiding your face as you quickly followed the crowd, hoping to avoid his gaze and possible confrontation, forever if possible.

Yet he knew you were there. With the aroma and cooking of the noodle shop covering up most of your tracks, but that familiar scent you had snaked its way in. Yet you were already gone, faded back into the crowd.

After the revelation of who Zhu Yuan’s heart had been captivated by, you had begun to slowly avoid Zhu Yuan. The heartache you felt as you spent time with her became more pervasive with each day. Something you wanted became poisoned, leading you to call hangouts off or declining Zhu Yuan whenever she invited you.

She very easily figured this out, but the question was ‘why?’. The two of you hadn’t had a falling out- nothing egregious and there was no reason for you to have any bad blood. Yet every time she approached you, you quickly tried to find an out- you weren’t as slick as you thought you were.

It became harder and harder for her to initiate anything, being stationed in different areas of New Eridu, as well as growing feelings for her partner Qingyi. Yet it still ate at her.

One day on patrol, you were responding to an urgent call, pulling up with lights flashing. A man had a girl hostage, blade to her neck as they ordered the cops to hand them a vehicle to make their escape from a robbery gone wrong.

Just as you were about to go in, a blur passed you, a familiar figure grabbed the girl, cuffing the suspect before roundhouse kicking them, knocking them and a piece of the wall out. As well as a couple of molars.

You watched her in a trance as she consoled the victim. Then you noticed that she was about to turn, with you quickly walking away back to your car. She stepped to follow you but was stopped, having to give a recount and file paperwork for the arrest, as well as return to film the rest of the promotional material for the director.

Qingyi watched you leave as she stepped out of the car, dots connecting in her head as she watched the hurt look on both you and Zhu Yuan’s face. She needed to do something about this...

[cordeliawhohung]

Touch Me 'Till I Vomit (pet!au) [12]

pet!au | ghoap x fem!reader | tag list

gentle

cw: angst, non-con touching, dub-con sex, smut, hate fucking if you squint

Click. Click. Click. 

Johnny won’t stop messing with his pen. Repetitive clicks echo in the small space in his art room as he hunches over his journal, shading away at some image just beyond your view. It’s distracting. That slip of plastic against plastic. It’s not as acidulous as a firing pin striking metal — nor is it nearly as dangerous — but it’s enough to get the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end. Enough to make you remember the weight of an empty gun biting into the palm of your hand. It’s unforgiving, like a bad dog. 

Brain too perforated to properly concentrate, you tap the eraser of your pencil against the notebook in your lap. The scrawlings of a madwoman taint the paper between its faded blue lines. It’s a gift from Johnny. Shoved it into your hands the other day because he said you looked bored. Told you that you fidget too much without something to busy yourself with, and he needs you to sit still in order to draw you properly. It was unusually astute of him to notice something so small about you. You’ve descried something more than just a lowering haze over the sapphire of his eyes, but you’re unable to put it into words. 

He’s different these days. You don’t know why.

Either way, you are grateful for the escape. You’ve repurposed this old, fading notebook into a diary of sorts. Some place to pour your thoughts out to something that has no other choice than to listen — something that cannot bite you. For so long you have carried so much inside of you; not just the pain and fear, but the little things, too. You nearly cried when you realized you finally had a place to put it — that weight — down. 

It wasn’t until you flipped to the first page that you realized you don’t know what the date is. Your passage of time has been warped again and again. A tablet dissolving in your drink made you lose days. Johnny taking you on the floor while a football game droned in the background made you lose years. You try to count the time in other ways. The length adding to your hair. Golden leaves catching fire on the fringes of the forest. An algid whisper on the wind dancing through the open window. The way summer dies with a sputtering pule. 

These days, you measure the turn of the earth by feel. Months. Hours. It doesn’t matter to you how long you have been trapped here; you only care about how much life you have left to live when you escape. 

Johnny. John? Soap. Like the bar. Never feels clean. Never makes me feel clean. Scottish. Tattoo on forearm. Coat of arms? Military? Wannabe? Scar on head. Shot? Simon said so. When? Who? Matching scar. No. Never. 

Simon. Simon. Just Simon. English. Manchester? Guns. Hunter. Big guns. Fucked up nose. Fucked up everything. Scars. One on ribs. Butcher? Smells like blood. Hate him. Animal. Lots of tattoos. Took me as a pet for Johnny. Mad man. Bad man. 

Me. Not Bonnie. Something else. Someone else. Bartender. How old am I? Need haircut. 

Miss my jumper. 

Miss my mum. 

Miss ice cream. 

Had an interview before I was taken. What day? Missing since… June. June. Summer. Hot. Did they ever call back? Needed better job. Wonder if they’re looking for me. Is anyone looking for me? Always called mum on Sundays. 

Does her phone ring now that I’m gone?

No. Not gone. Not yet. Not ever. 

I hope her phone rings.

Scribbles muddle the margins between fractured words and thoughts. You can conjure nothing more than empty, uneven eyes and dried flies lining burnt window sills. What creativity lingers in the fringes of your mind stays in the mess of grey matter; never something to brand the off white paper in your hands. Masterpieces cannot be created in a cage. You save what little energy you have for dreaming. You dream of a day when your teeth grow long enough they don’t whittle down to sand when you try to sharpen them. 

“Bonnie?” 

Johnny moves quietly. Or, your ears are growing old. Too busy trying to recall sounds you used to love; unable to make sense of the cacophony that constantly surrounds you in this tomb. He’s already eye level with you by the time you look up. Crouched next to your plushy chair, a wide hand sits on the armrest that props your elbow. He’s got his journal in hand, and you are very aware of the way he curiously eyes your own. You slam it shut with the pencil between the pages before setting it aside. 

His eyes follow your hands with question, but he says nothing as he turns his journal for you to see. Truly, Johnny has a talent you’ve rarely seen others show off. Meticulously crafted sketches brand the paper, etching your likeness in grey graphite. He captures every curve of your body as you lean in the recliner, eyes narrow with concentration. You’re drawn with a smile on your face, but those muscles in your cheeks have been dormant for so long you’re not sure you could conjure the expression if you tried. 

“That looks lovely,” you compliment. It’s not a lie, but it rolls off of your tongue like it is. 

“You’re lovely,” he fires back. Playful. Light. 

There it is again. That look. Heavy lids threaten to smother the blue hue of his eyes — heavy with a concupiscence so thick it’s palpable in the air that separates you from him. You hope one day it solidifies — turns into some protective barrier — but it never will. 

It starts like it always does. The slicing of the threshold, brittle like eggshells and bones. You don’t think about it as he presses his lips to yours. You keep your mind full of other thoughts because if it’s empty, there’s more room for worse things. Bitter things. A man can only stare at a meal for so long before his hunger consumes him. You are liquid. A flowing being molding into the shape of his body as his torso pinches your legs against the recliner. It’s easier to give in. Hurts less. Angers Simon less. Even with that monster gone you behave because the walls have eyes. Dark brown irises that do nothing but stare and smirk. 

“Ow!”

But you still have your limits, and your body aches more often than it is numb these days, and Johnny’s hands haven’t grown any softer. He paws at you with claws that can’t retract and you wince. Your breasts are sore from weeks — no, months — of abuse. They’re silent wounds that will not heal and always, always scream. 

Then, it stops. 

Johnny’s hands retract from your body at the same time as his lips do, leaving you breathlessly dumbfounded. Blinking away the confusion, your eyes settle on Johnny who retreats back to sitting on his haunches. Blue eyes shimmer in the late summer sun as he shifts. For once, you are the one above him instead of the other way around. He looks up at you as if you’re an angel—

—as if he’s begging for forgiveness. 

“Did Ah hurt you?” he asks. 

“Uh… a-a little bit,” you admit stiffly. 

“A’m sorry.” 

There’s something in his eyes that unsettle you. You think back to that night when his body thrashed and squirmed next to you on the bed, fear reverberating through the mattress. Panicked and screaming; unable to rip himself from some nightmare. How he screamed about wanting to go home. Your stomach twists at the very thought, and it only gets worse when you realize that — for once — he looks more human than mutt. 

“It’s okay. I… I know you didn’t mean it,” you whisper. 

“Never. Ah would never hurt you,” he concurs. A breadth of stillness freezes the room and for the longest time you hear nothing but the chatter of birds. Johnny reaches for you with a singular hand, and rests it on top of your leg, heavy and warm. “Bonnie, are ye afraid of me?” 

Vocal chords turning to stone, your throat seizes as you attempt to answer. “No,” you lie. Cautious eyes flicker to the walls around you like they’ll crumble at any moment. Something slices through the prostration in your chest, and a strange cogitation flickers in the back of your mind. It’s as strong as it is terrifying, but you find your body executing it before you’re able to stop it. “But… Simon does. He terrifies me.” 

Johnny’s mouth fills with well meaning mirth. “He’s scary alright, but he won’t hurt ye. Simon’s not like that.” 

“I’m still worried he might,” you admit. A hesitant hand reaches out and rests over Johnny’s. The smile on his face quickly melts away into surprise as he stares up at you with parted lips. “But you wouldn’t let that happen. Right?” 

“Never.” His response is quick. Sharp and eager as he leans closer. His other hand comes up to rest upon yours, sandwiching you into a small embrace. “Cannae ever let anythin’ bad happen to ye.” 

Something shudders in your chest. Your diaphragm, maybe. It quivers and quakes as if you hold a bird’s nest within yourself. Foreign words begin to scratch at the back of your tongue, tickling your throat. You know well enough to bite them back, but as you stare at Johnny’s smile — lips pulled wide — someone stronger chokes the words out for you. 

“You’re so good to me, Johnny,” you whisper, voice whiny as you scoot forward in the recliner. Slipping your hand out of his grasp, your palms instead reach up to cup his face. His smile fades into parted lips and bated breath as your thumbs rub against abrasive stubble. You don’t think you’ve ever seen his eyes dilate so wide before. “Such a good boy, aren’t you?” 

“Ah try tae be,” he swallows. 

“I know you do.” 

It takes an eternity for your lips to meet his. Just when you think you’ve halved the distance, it only grows, and you’re unsure if it’s because of the scream of betrayal in your chest, or something worse. He groans when your bodies finally reunite, and you play into the fantasy his sick brain is infested with. Precious Bonnie. So supple and pliant in his hands. If only he knew you were this soft because muscles cannot properly tense around broken bones. 

You pull Johnny onto the recliner by his collar, but you ensure you’re the one to land on top. Legs spreading wide to accommodate his thighs, your knees squish into the sides of the arm rests, sending journals and pencils flying to the ground. When he paws at your chest again, you bite back the urge to push him away. To slice your nails through the back of his hand. Fingers pressing into tender flesh, he stares up at you like he’s finally able to feel the heart beating beneath his palms. 

“You wanna fuck me?” Those words sting on the way out, but you attempt to distract yourself from the pain as you grind down onto Johnny’s lap. He nods, hips pathetically bucking up. “Yeah? Ask me, then.” 

Thick brows pinch together as he parts his lips. It’s as if his request is on the tip of his tongue, but his hands have a mind of their own. Wandering. Grabbing. Pinching. 

“No,” you chastise. “Use your words, Johnny.” 

“Please. Please, Bonnie.” It’s pathetic. He says the words like he’s speaking to Simon. 

“Good boy,” you coo. “Gentle now. Gentle, Johnny.” 

He fumbles with the fly of his jeans, all too eager. His cock hardly has time to spring free before he’s already making a mess. Precum drips everywhere, staining the band of your shorts as his reddened tip slaps against you. Too worried about keeping your power, you don’t bother to properly remove your clothes. Instead, you move the gusset of your shorts and panties to the side before sinking down onto him. This has to be quick. You promise yourself it will be. 

All the while, you remind Johnny to be gentle, gentle, gentle.

Even when you’re in control, it still hurts. There’s that stretch and sting as you split yourself open, but you take it slow. Steady. Unlike Johnny, you allow yourself to adjust. He’s panting beneath you by the time you fully take him. You feel so full of rot it upsets your stomach, but you try to mask your trembling with a gentle rock of your hips. His moan is cacophonous, and your fingers itch to dig into his throat and render his vocal chords useless, but you relent. 

Always, always relenting. 

There is an intense appetency for blood that itches in the back of your mind. Even as you fake your moans and rock your hips, you want to take your hands and dig. Fingers piercing through flesh, cutting through bone; you wouldn’t stop until Johnny’s heart is in the palm of your hands. Still beating. Still fresh. You could squeeze it for an eternity and it still would only be a fraction of the pain you’ve been made to endure. 

You hate him. You hate him like a mother hates her daughter. Like how eyes hate mirrors. How the sun hates flesh. 

“Johnny?” you choke out. “Do you love me?” 

It takes him a moment to catch his breath, mouth stuck open as he stares up at you. “Aye. So much, Bonnie.” 

“Yeah? So you’d do anything for me?” you challenge. You try not to wince as he butts up against your cervix, but you know you can’t afford to stop. 

“Aye.”

“Anything I ask?”

“Anythin’ ye ask. Fuck, Bonnie A’m-” 

“I love you, Johnny.” It’s acid. Pure bile on your tongue. You nearly choke on the words, but you repeat them again. “I love you so much.”  

You hide your face in the crook of his neck when he comes. Thick fingers dig into your hips as you hold still, allowing him to spill his seed inside of you like he always does. His pulse throbs against your lips and you restrain the urge to take the artery into your maw and bite down. There’s nothing in your mouth but pathetic, brittle teeth. You don’t even think you could break through his skin. Still, you dream of it. Running the tips of your fingers along Johnny’s jaw, you yearn for a day when you have the weapons and tools to free yourself. It’s a long, agonizing process. One you’re not sure you have the patience for. 

And so, when you lean back to look at him, you stare at his lips. Soak up the way the delicate skin parts as he smiles up at you, allowing you to catch sight of his teeth. You might not have sharp canines, but he does. You know first hand the way they can dig into your lip and draw blood from skin. Fingers twitching, you yearn to pull the canines from his mouth, to wield them for yourself, but you know you’re not strong enough. 

But maybe, someday, you can be the guiding hand. Point a finger and say go fetch and have Simon’s head delivered to you. That day is too far over the horizon for you to view, but the vision of it is so clear in your mind that it’s enough for now. Right now, you’ve taken the first step.

“Good boy,” you croon as you thumb over his bottom lip. “Good boy, Johnny.” 

You’ll just have to keep walking.

[ponderingmoonlight]

Chapter 1 : Forbidden Bond

Pairing: Gojo x fem!reader

Warnings: Language, violence, physical abuse, traumatic childhood, Gojo being a jerk

Next Chapter ->

His usual so unbothered eyes grow wider and wider with each passing second, watch in slow motion how this tiny human being he’s never seen before draws closer to him. Step by step, not paying attention to the stinging fact that she’ll run straight into him. He couldn’t care less, though.

That smile.

Has he seen you before? No, he would have remembered for sure. There wasn’t a single moment in his still young life that made Gojo Satoru gaze at a smile twice, that made him wonder about the name and voice behind it. But seeing you like this, laughing to yourself so unmoved by your surroundings leaves him pondering.

Who is this girl?

He doesn’t get the chance to think about it any further. Like in slow motion, you trip over his feet first before dragging him along with you onto the hot tarmac, tiny stones digging themselves into the palms of his hands.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry! I didn’t even look out, I…I’m so clumsy!”

“It’s okay...”

No, it’s not. Why weren’t you paying attention to where you’re walking, how dare you to run him over – him, the pride of the Gojo clan? Now he’s all dirty, his pants probably sliced open.

But instead of complaining, he simply watches how you lift yourself off the ground so awkward that you almost trip right back on top of him, brushing the dirt off the dark blue kimono you’re wearing.

“Now you’re all dirty because of me”, you sigh with a pout.

Your voice. It matches your appearance perfectly, the innocent gleam in your eyes, the way your laughter sounded earlier. Angelic, hypnotizing, so melodious that he urges to hear you talk again.

“Let me help you back up!”

You stretch out your tiny hand in front of his and out of instinct, he grabs it. How is it possible that his palm seems to swallow yours whole? You have to be around his age, an inch or two smaller. But his hands…

Your hands…

You let go way too early.

“I was actually on my way home and got distracted by that dog over there. It got so happy when I laughed so I couldn’t stop and then you came and-“

“Do you ever stop talking?”

His cold interruption catches you off guard while he shoves both hands in the pocket of his hoodie. That boy…You’ve never seen him before around here. Sure, you would have remembered those bright blue eyes and white hair. Where does he come from? Why does he look so different? All those questions piling up inside your head.

Where were you even going?

“(y/n)?”

Her cold voice makes your blood freeze in an instant, widened eyes not daring to look behind you. Why is she here? You aren’t late, did nothing wrong…did you?

“Who’s that?”, the boy in front of you questions.

“(Y/N) ZENIN!”

You swallow hard, the tone in your nanny’s voice making you realize what will happen next. Suddenly you don’t care about the boy with the bright blue eyes or the happy dog anymore.

“You…You’re a Zenin?”

He can’t believe his ears, orbs studying you up and down. Of course, he heard about your family, about the stinging fact that he should keep a safe distance from you. Out of all big jujutsu families, the Zenin clan is the worst with its members being as cold as ice. His teachers warned him, parents literally begged him to keep himself away from anything that comes from this family. And that includes you as well, apparently.

“A Zenin…”, he mumbles under his breath.

You look nothing like their description, though.

His voice fades into the back of your mind. All you feel is thick fear crawling up your veins, the dark foreshadowing making your limbs ache already.

“What on earth do you think you’re doing here with this brat!?”

Her cold hand grabs your tiny arm roughly and forces you backwards so harsh that you almost fall over again.

“I ran into him-”, you desperately try to explain yourself.

“You…You are that Gojo kid, aren’t you? The honoured one…”

“And you’re a nobody.”

Gojo.

Your eyes widen in sheer horror. If there’s one thing your father told you over and over, it was staying away from members of the Gojo clan.

“Especially Gojo Satoru. Don’t you dare to even talk to him or you’ll feel my anger.”

“I didn’t know it was him, I was on my way home when I-“

“Quiet.”

A ruthless slap right in your face sends you onto the ground all over again, blood squinting out your tiny nose immediately. You…You did something unforgivable, something your father will punish you for. Shivers haunt your whole body, thick fear almost taking your sight. One last time your glossy eyes dart towards the boy with the unbothered blue orbs that now show a hint of disturbance.

-8 years later-  

“Look what we have here, Suguru! There’s that dirty brat from the Zenin clan!”

“I don’t think you should call her like that…”

“I smelled your arrogance miles away, douchebag”, you mutter under your breath.

There he stands. Probably a few inches taller than the last time you saw him but still with the same dumb smirk plastered on his dirty face. He looks horribly good, arrogance dripping from every pore of his body. Oh, words can’t describe how much hatred you hold for that boy, how much willpower it costs you to not wipe him from the surface of this earth in an instant.

“Be nice to me, (y/n). After all I’m a special grade while you’re a lousy grade 1”, he bites back at you.

“Don’t make me launch another bit of Phobia Projection your way. I’ll never forget the way you cried like a baby.”

A cursed technique rooted in the dark arts of Jujutsu, a technique you learned by your grandfather by the age of 12. Those who wield this technique have the ability to delve into the depths of their target's psyche, extracting and manifesting their worst fears into reality. Through manipulation of spectral energy, the user projects vivid illusions that evoke intense sensations of terror and anxiety, effectively trapping their victim in a nightmarish realm tailored to their deepest fears. This technique not only inflicts psychological torment but can also paralyze the victim with fear, rendering them vulnerable to further attacks. It is a formidable and sinister ability that exploits the vulnerabilities of the human mind, leaving a lasting impression of dread long after the encounter has ended.

And made none other than Gojo Satoru break down in front of your feet.

“You’ll cry as well when I’m done with you, little bitch.”

Gojo builds himself up in front of you before Geto is able to stop him, glimmering eyes staring at you filled with nothing but hatred.

“Want applause for using a dark art on me? You’re nothing but a pathetic little girl that got slapped by her parents a little too often. And even though they trained you like there’s no tomorrow, your still not good enough to face me.”

His words hit you with full force, flood your mind with memories you tried to avoid so desperately. Out of instinct, you grab him by his throat and thrust him into the grass underneath, dig his flawless white hair into the dirt. If there’s one thing your family was right about, it was Gojo Satoru.

“I fucking hate you, Gojo. You’re nothing but a waste of space, just like your whole pathetic clan”, you hiss through gritted teeth, voice dripping in venom.

“My pathetic clan? Your family roams around and kills innocent people, (y/n). Who the hell are you to judge, huh? You’re not even strong enough to even talk to me”, he barks in reverse.

“Why does it always have to end like this between you two? Get off him, (y/n).”

Geto’s firm hands grab your shoulders and yank you backwards in order to create distance between Gojo and yourself while you can’t catch your breath.

Your deadly orbs still glare at him, blood pulsates through your veins so rapidly that you feel like exploding any given minute. He has some fucking nerve, talking about your past like that. Him, who’s nothing but a spoiled brat. Him, who’s gifting just by being born. Him, with nothing but immense powers and a pretty face.

“Next time you’re getting so close to me, I’ll kill your ass without thinking twice”, you spit at him from afar, Geto holding you back with all his strength.

“I love to see ya try little girl!”

“Come on, (y/n). Just turn around and leave, this is senseless. You’re just hurting each other.”

Suguru’s calm voice has always been the only thing that kept you from scratching those bright blue orbs out of his eyeballs. You allow your eyes to rest for a brief second, your heartbeat to calm down. Your family told you to stay away from him, to be better than him and forced you to attend Jujutsu High. Why does it have so damn hard to make them happy, to show your father that you’re worthy? How are you supposed to stay away from him when he’s around you all the time?

Without gifting him a single look, you turn on your heel and simply walk away.

Training. A training session is exactly what you need right now.

“Don’t you dare to shout after her, Satoru”, Geto warns his best friend right when he takes a deep breath in.

“I really don’t get it. All that hate just because your families don’t get along?”

“You don’t get it, Suguru.”

“What makes you hate (y/n) so much?”

Satoru can’t believe his ears, the sheer question of his best friend seeming like an insult. Why would he even like you? You with your stupid pretty face, you with those remarkable eyes that shook him to his core when he first saw you, you with that laugh…When was the last time he heard you laugh?

He shakes his head violently. Why would he even care about something so stupid?

“Cause she’s a Zenin brat”, Satoru replies monotone.

You are his enemy, the biggest threat of his family, hunting after his future. You deserve nothing but his hatred, nothing but disinterest. You are the devil himself. Yes, your sheer presence on this earth is enough reason to hate you.

“Didn’t you tell me she was quite nice when you met her as a child?”

“I never said that”, Satoru mumbles under his breath immediately.

Enough of all that bullshit, all that talking about your dumbass. It’s not like you deserve his attention anyway.

“C’mon, let’s grab something to eat.”

That was the first chapter babes, hope you enjoyed! It would mean the world if you take your time to tell me what you think and how you liked it so far! 🤍

Tags: @whereismysane @risuola @colouringfrogssittinginleaves @livmarauder @sapphireandange @madaqueue

[eyesthatroll]

STRAWBERRY VANILLA

SEPT. 2021

[ takes place in the bless the broken road universe ]

summary jack and (y/n) aka winnie meet for the first time

pairing jack hughes x fem!poc!reader

warning(s) none?

word count 1.2k

It's a late Sunday evening, and you find yourself knee-deep in baking preparations for the upcoming morning at the bakery. Normally, this task was reserved for early mornings, requiring you to rise at the ungodly hour of 4 am. However, the prospect of waking up so early had lost its appeal, so you had opted for a late-night baking session instead.

Despite the soft hum of background music, the relentless downpour outside remained unmistakable. The rain pounded against the windows, a symphony of nature's fury that was everyone's least favorite song. As you worked, you held onto the hope that it would subside before closing up. The thought of venturing out into the pouring rain wasn't appealing, and the idea of driving through the intense downpour filled you with a nervousness that you couldn't shake.

You're in the midst of placing some freshly baked, unadorned cakes into the refrigerator when the distinctive chime of the entrance door bell sounds, pausing you from your task. Your expression shifts from concentration to momentary confusion, as you're almost certain you'd locked that door. However, the distant murmur of a stranger's voice calling out confirms your earlier suspicion that you must have forgotten to secure it.

Hastily, you exit the kitchen, halting as you arrive at the front of the shop. Your gaze fixates on a tall figure, draped in clothes soaked by the non-stop rain. With practiced ease, he sheds his hoodie, revealing a sculpted physique beneath a clinging, rain-dampened white t-shirt that accentuates the contours of his well-defined torso.

"Sorry, we're closed." Your voice cuts through the air, drawing his attention like a magnet. He swivels his head towards you, his deep-blue eyes locking onto yours. An exasperated sigh escapes his lips, and he runs a hand through his tousled, chestnut hair, his fingers tugging lightly at the roots before releasing them.

He appears oddly familiar, and you tilt your head slightly, straining to recall the distant memory of where you might have crossed paths with him before.

"Can I ride out the storm here for a bit, just until the rain slows?"

His question hangs in the air, tinged with a hint of pleading in his tone. You find yourself intrigued, unable to ignore the curiosity about what drove him out into the storm. Though your initial instinct is to refuse and tell him to leave, you can't deny the surreal feeling of this encounter. It's not every day that an attractive stranger stumbles into your bakery, seeking shelter from the tempest outside. It's as if you've stepped into a scene from a novel, a meet-cute destined to unfold. Yet, you're acutely aware that once the storm passes, your paths will diverge, and this fleeting connection will fade into memory.

"You can stay until the rain stops, or until I leave." You agree.

A warm, appreciative smile graces his lips as he nods in gratitude. "Thank you so much."

"Sure." A subtle, awkward tension lingers in the air, leaving you feeling somewhat uneasy about resuming your work in the kitchen while leaving the stranger alone in the front of the bakery.

Instead, you opt for some light cleaning in the front. With deliberate motions, you wipe down the tables, sweep the floor, and diligently review and sign some pending invoices.

Despite your efforts to stay occupied, that lingering sense of awkward tension gradually returns to fill the room as there is nothing else up front for you to do.

"Did you want something to eat? I have cake, donuts, and some other stuff."

He shifts uneasily, his mouth opening and closing as if he's uncertain how to respond to your offer. You look at him expectantly, arms crossed over your chest, and a slight sway in your stance as you roll onto the balls of your feet.

His hesitation finally gives way, and he responds, his teeth grazing over his bottom lip. "What kinds of donuts do you have?"

A grin spreads across your face as you step over to the counter where he's standing. You reach behind the counter, retrieving a menu and flipping it over to reveal the section dedicated to mouthwatering donut options.

Shoulder to shoulder, you take a moment to walk him through each of the donut flavors. Some are classics, like the indulgent Boston creme, while others venture into the realm of culinary creativity, like the pineapple basil donut.

"How about..." He pauses briefly, contemplating his choice. "Strawberry Vanilla?"

You accept the menu from him with a nod, then pivot toward the kitchen. Swiftly, you retrieve two strawberry donuts from the fridge and arrange them on a spare plate you have lying around. With a deft hand, you pluck two napkins, ready to serve the treats.

Returning to the front, the handsome stranger remains in his original spot, engrossed in his cellphone. You clear your throat, gently guiding him to the side as you hoist yourself onto the counter. His gaze meets yours, uncertainty etched across his face. A reassuring smile graces your lips, and you pat the space next to you on the counter. He hesitates for a moment before mirroring your actions, and the two of you settle side by side on the countertop, indulging in your donuts together.

"Oh my god," he exclaims between bites, his enthusiasm palpable. You glance at him, a mixture of amusement and pride washing over you as his reaction to the donuts you made becomes increasingly evident. "This is insane," he declares, his words filled with genuine appreciation.

"Thank you." You thank him, laughing softly as you take a bite of your own donut.

A comfortable silence envelops both of you, with only the soft background music as your companion. Your eyes occasionally dart toward him, quick glances to avoid being caught staring. It's become clear, especially now, being so close to him, that he is undeniably beautiful.

Surely, he must have a girlfriend, right? There's no way he doesn't. You try to push aside the twinge of disappointment that accompanies that thought, but it lingers at the base of your chest.

He wipes his mouth with his napkin, then turns to you with a curious expression. "Crazy, I never noticed this place was here."

You immediately shake your head, eager to share a bit of your story. "Actually, I just bought this place a few months ago. I think it used to be a vegan place or something."

He appears genuinely surprised by your admission. "Wow, you own this place? You look pretty young."

A sheepish smile plays on your lips. "I'm 20."

His eyes light up with shared astonishment. "Me too!"

"And what do you do for work?"

Before he has the chance to answer, a sudden knock at the door jolts you back to reality. A taller boy, strikingly similar to the one sitting next to you, stands outside. It seems neither of you had even noticed that the rain had stopped, leaving the sky a light grey.

"That's my brother," he says, sliding off the counter. He retrieves his hoodie from the floor, draping it casually over his right shoulder.

"Thanks for the shelter." He says. "And the donut," he adds, flashing you a warm smile.

"Of course," you reply with a nod. "Drive safe."

"Yes ma'am." And just like that, the handsome stranger you'd shared laughter and conversation with for the better part of a half-hour is gone.

mari speaks! consider this a part one i suppose.

tag list! @tomhollandsbabymama

[ if you’d like to be added or removed from the taglist, please comment and let me know ]

[gemapples]

im so sorry it took me so long to answer these oml but YES i'd be happy to show how i draw and color :)

— SKETCHING

please note that i almost always sketch traditionally first lol it's just a lot easier for me to determine how the drawing is placed that way, but i always go over and re-sketch it digitally

for magolor i always start with a basic egg shape (lmao) and then i add his ears. then I draw the scarf; it's easy to determine the shape and dynamicism based on where the bottoms of the ears are located

then i usually add the cape and hood together. where and how these are placed and what these look like in general are very important because they're the main area that perspective is directed to (the ears and everything else is important too ofc!! but the hood and cape usually help demonstrate where he is looking and how he is moving the most). then i add everything else, usually his hands last!

— LINEART

ohhhhhh god my worst enemy. Hope youre sitting down because this will be embarrassing LMAO

lineart is easily what i struggle with most and is more often than not the most time consuming and grating step for me. If i had a choice i would drop it in a heartbeat, but my style is so dependent on thick lines and shapes that it's difficult to 😭 a hole i dug myself into unfortunately ITS FINE THOUGH. ANYWAYS I'm getting sidetracked

i use my finger to draw all my digital art, which means i usually have to use a Heavy stabilizer to avoid shakiness and staggered lines. Unfortunately ibis paint's stabilizer is actually dog water and doesn't even stabilize more than half the time (in which case i have to repeat lines over. And over. And over again until i get it right) but when it does like me and works properly it's very helpful!

i always use the soft school pen bleed brush as my main tool for lineart. This brush has been my best friend for everything, i even use it for sketching idk it just really like the way it looks lol. sometimes i change the aspect if i want the lines to look more ,, chalky?? or smoother depending on the work

i don't really use this tool much but for this specific piece, force fade was my partner in crime

also i think i need to mention that i use so many layers for this. So many layers lol like to the point it's embarrassing. and at the end i merge most of them (except for the gear patterns, rings on his ear, and eyes + hands, which usually need to be by themselves as they're colored separately) Thank you for layers

and i end up with this!

— COLORING && SHADING

yippee yahoo the fun part !!! the part that i love the most

at this point, if i havent already, i always create a folder for convenience in organization because this is the part that i stress the most about what details are on which layers lmao

then i add ANOTHER layer below that for the color, then i put every single color used on their own separate layer!

now, for shading, if im working on larger pieces with more complex shading, i'll usually plan it all out. normally when just drawing magolor, i don't really need to do this anymore because i'm so used to it lol, but for funsies i did it here anyways

then i use the bucket tool to fill them all in

i usually have a set color palette for all the characters i draw (though the way i shade white differs. A lot between my work as you can probably tell fhdfgf). For every color, i have two specific tones that are associated with the shading. for example, indigo + violet are shaded with my blue, pink + light orange (or lighter pink depending on my mood lol) are shaded with yellow, etc.

so, i shade the other areas with the 2nd shading color

a big tip i can give for coloring is to look at a color wheel when you draw. i know that sounds like. Such basic advice LMAO but that seriously was a huge help for me when developing my shading and something i learned while studying — if you notice, in all of the shading in my work, all of the colors used are analogous on the color wheel. note that not ALL combinations will work together like others obv !! but it's a huge step in knowing where to go with it

then i add other extra details like extra lighting, halftones (if i feel like it // if it fits the work), glow to his eyes, and color the lines and ta-da!

another tool i use a lot especially with my more recent art are blending modes, especially multiply. i use a clipping layer to add a dark color (usually a dark blue or purple) and set it to multiply, then erase the areas that emit light

and this is the end result! this is a very very basic demonstration of it fhdjg i was a pretty messy with the lighting and erasing in this example but you get the general idea right

and that's how i draw :) i hope this was helpful, and thanks for asking and being so patient with the response!

[starboltz]

Since a new TADC teaser came out, I really wanted to do an analysis of this post by gooseworx.

To start off with, in the quick flash of new characters we see in the trailer, 3 of them are seen in the teaser image - those being the cowgirl ghost, the candy princess, and the bubble man. The only character we don't see is the frog-looking character.

While not obvious by the reflection, the round part of the ghosts head is likely a hat, as seen in the teaser on the cowgirl ghost. I am fairly sure that both of these ghosts are the same character based on the dress silhouette of the reflection, and the design of the upper body of the ghost in the teaser. (If I am wrong about the ghost's gender and/or pronouns, I will edit this post.) I find it incredibly interesting that this is the most humanistic character yet on TADC.

The next character, the candy princess, has a silhouette that is very easy to match to the reflection. The only major difference is that her gloves and upper part of her skirt are a darker pink, but that could be due to lighting. She is very likely the princess of Candy Canyon Kingdom. If not, she's definitely royalty of some sort because of her crown. I did see a few people think that she was going to be similar to a betty spaghetti toy, but now that we see her in her natural setting, it seems like her arms are more like cake pops. The rest of her body seems to be a neat amalgamation of cake and other candies.

I don't have much to say about the bubble man, other than he appears to be a customer at Spudsy's - where Jax is being forced to work for minimum wage. If you look closely, you can see Jax's reflection in the bubble man's face. His (or it's? again if I'm wrong I'll change it later) reflection counterpart is a much darker blue, which again could be lighting, but it could also mean that other customers at Spudsy's are bubble people. (Also I love how Spudsy's is a ripoff/homage of McDonald's, hopefully it'll make for some good satire of the fast food industry).

While we don't see the frog character from Gooseworx' teaser image, a lot of people theorized that it is some sort of gummy frog or reptile, which makes sense when it comes to one of the other characters announced in the teaser trailer.

The gummy gator appears to be in the Candy Canyon Kingdom, and looks to be some sort of cowboy or guide. He has a white belly similar to the frog, which is why I think they exist in the same storyline/location. Something hard to see in the trailer is that he starts fading to green from yellow around his shoulders. It's hard to tell what he's holding, but it's very possible it is reigns.

Another character from Candy Canyon Kingdom is the chocolate ooze monster, who looks similar in style to the gloink queen. I love the details of candy corn teeth and jawbreaker eyes. It's difficult to tell if this will be the big boss of Candy Canyon Kingdom, or just an obstacle for the TADC crew.

A fourth character from the Candy Canyon Kingdom is revealed in the teaser, and that is the periwinkle drawing mannequin. It seems to be the only character from the CCK that is not made of candy, which leads to some questions. In the teaser it is screaming its head off, so it's likely it is running from the chocolate ooze monster.

Going back to the cowgirl ghost, another cute little ghost appears. It doesn't really have any defining features other than its puppy-like face, but its a ghost, so it works. This is the only other character in the western ghost town story revealed in the teaser. Though the gummy gator looks like a cowboy, I think the ghosts appear in a different location from the Candy Canyon Kingdom.

The last character I haven't talked about is the tape recorder. It doesn't really look like an animate character, but if TADC has taught me anything, inanimate objects can always become animate characters. It's hard to tell what storyline it's from, but based on the lighting, it's from the western ghost town storyline. One of the most unnerving things about it is that it is one of the most realistic looking characters in the entire show.

Overall, 4 characters were revealed for the Candy Canyon Kingdom storyline, 3(ish) characters for the western ghost town storyline, and 1 character for the Spudsy's storyline. I personally don't think all of these storylines and characters will appear in the same episodes, unless the TADC crew is split up like in ep 1. The Candy Canyon Kingdom and the Spudsy's storylines definitely don't, because Jax can be seen in the wagon, along with (at least) Pomni, Gangle, and Kinger, in the large image shot of CCK in the teaser. (I have no clue what kind of gummy animal is pulling the wagon.)

I also wanted to briefly talk about the unfinished location that Caine showed in the teaser. My first thought was that it was a baseball stadium, but after further inspection the field seems a bit off to be a baseball field. Regardless it definitely is set up to be a performance space, whether it be a theatre or arena of sorts. From the design, I don't think it connects to the other locations revealed in the trailer.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading my theories on this teaser! If you have any thoughts, please comment or reblog to let me know!

[popsickless]

Neuvillette ♡-part 1

___________

"Someones crying for help?" Navias attention instantly gave way. The cries were distant but noticeable. Your head snapped towards the crowd of trees on the left of the Opera Eclipse.

"A melusine? Of course." You frowned, instantly packing up the picnic navia had set at the table near the water fall. To think the world was a better place now, that melusines finally had a home in fontaine. "They're still getting singled out?!" Growling to yourself, taking about 10 stomps towards the situation.

Navia follows quickly, yelling worrs that were coming through one ear, and out the next. You didn't have time to listen, it made you sick to the stomach that you had to intervene with harassment towards a harmless creature. There they were, a bunch of low life treasure hoarders ganging up on the poor girl. It didnt take you a second thought to draw out the sword.

"You filthy rats." The blade pointed to the hoarder closest to the melusine. The other 2 backed off, with smug smiles on their faces. "I might just have to kill you instead of sending you to the fortress of meropide" The anger was toxic, toxic enough to make you seem out like the bad one in the situation.

You swipe the blade underneath the brown haired hoarders feet, dropping him to the faded greenery within seconds. "At least it will be a better punishment than facing Wriothesely himself." Spoken in a low tone but loud enough to create an audience.

Acting a victim, the treasure hoarder rises both hands. "Y-you're seriously going to let these monstrosities of a species manipulate you?" The disgusting thing stated. Oh how your breath was going shallow, your hands shaking out of fear. The end of your blade touches the skin of the fox's neck. "Normally id let pathetic people like you live, but i guess there can be a change of plans." The light from your eyes fading as you finally go to take the last strike.

Deafening pleads from the criminal, slowly fades as a soft hand touches your shoulder. The blade shifts away from the bandits skin. Your eyes drift to the side, out of curiosity to wonder who in the hell would stop you, or even try stopping you. A white and blue haired man, looking at you with a soft smile, it was almost reassuring.

"I understand your feelings, i too have a soft spot for melusines." The elegant voice began to speak. Everyone around instantly went silent. "But killing the culprit doesnt make you any better."

Your arm drops completely as you take another horrified glance at the treasure hoarder, sprawled on the floor. The melusine, stood close next to the blue figure. "I understand neuvillette." You nod, softly taking his hand off the top of your shoulder.

Neuvillettes expression suddenly goes dull as he turns towards the trio of treasure hoarders. "Whats the situation?" He asks. You stand by quietly watching the conversations go down.

"Its that weirdo who let them freaks into our home." One of the hoarders whisper to one another. There it was. That anger. You was about to draw my sword again if neuvillette didnt do something quick. Navia taps your arm and shakes her head, reassuring that everything was now under control. "Is that so? How would you folks prefer the fortress of meropide be your new home instead?" Neuvillettes tone was surprisingly calm but assertive. The bandits looked at eachother cautiously. It didnt take long for them to submit. After a long discussion, a bunch of paperworks and a tiny tantrums from Wriothesely, the treasure hoarders were sent to 8 months of reinforcement underground.

It was now late in the evening, Navias assistants went to go take the melusine home, while her, you, Wriothesely and neuvillette were in the office of the fortress of meropide. "The guy will be taught a lesson dont you worry." Wriothesely recklessly announces as he sits behind his desk. You quietly tut and look to the side. You didnt doubt him, but you sure as hell wanted to punish the bastards yourself.

You cross your arms looking dead into Wriotheselys eyes. "I hope so.." you all stand there for a moment and Wriothesely lets out a small chuckle. "You cant result to violence whenever something goes down with a melusine." Navia lightly jokes. Although she wasnt wrong. You werent the best at dealing with your emotions in the heat of the moment.

"You have to respect her cause though, to instantly put yourself in the middle of a situation without a second thought, highly admirable but selfless. Some would even say selfish." Neuvillette states, placing his knuckle underneath his chin while gazing towards the floor. His eyes slowly drifted towards yours. "What you did today was foolish."

Normally when anyone makes comments about your actions, it's just like stepping over a bug, not trying to kill it. You didnt give a damn about what others thought of your methods. But everytime neuvillette had a comment about it, it made your teeth grit. It would even sometimes make you rethink your whole life. And it was irritating. You were speachless for a second. You really wanted to ream him about not taking responsibility and blah blah blah. You werent childish or foolish. God, you would only prove his point if you argued back.

"Yeah, ill rethink that one overnight.." you jokingly mumble, knowing full well you werent joking. You were going to be up all night thinking about neuvillettes petty comment. Even though hes right. After some time of filling in documents about the treasure hoarders, and the incident itself. You were all sent home for the night.

Taking a long and silent walk back to your place, alone. It was dead in the middle of the city of fontaine so it wasnt that far to walk, the thoughts about neuvillette made the journey quicker anyway. The daily night routine was done, you had set out your work outfit for tomorrow and had send the documents to Wriothesely. Now you were just layed in bed on your back, staring at the ceiling.

"If neuvillette had actually done his job, and made a proper introduction and home for the melusines. I wouldnt of gotten into that situation today." Thats all you could think to yourself, all night.

The next morning, you are woken up with the same mechanical clock sounding alarm. It did your head in but that's the whole point right. Like every morning you go to check the post box at the side of your house. Reading the front of the envelope expecting it to be about charlottes morning newspaper. The pupils of your eyes dilated instantly.

Good morning:

It would be highly appreciated if you come to visit me this morning.

- neuvillette

[tartiflvtte]

First Encounter | Homelander

hello! here's the very first one shot i've ever written for Homelander (and hopefully the first of many). This is based off the first time Homelander meets Qilin. Even though this is based off of my OC it's can also be read as Homelander x Fem Asian!Reader as no physical description occurs in this except powers/shapeshifting descriptions.

Summary: Homelander meets the path of something, or someone? That will change the course of his life. Timeline: Pre-Canon (2014) Words count: 1,1k Warnings: None!

It was a sunny day, with a few clouds in the sky, and a usual boring patrol. Fucking annoying, Homelander thought. The only thing that kept him from missing them was the cheers he was getting when he was a bit too close to regular people. Honestly, it was a bit nice, just a bit though. He was flying so fast, soaring through the city clouds, he was only checking if someone needed any help. But to be honest? He didn’t care. Nothing thrilling was happening today. Homelander debated whether he preferred patrolling or shooting the most random ad for a useless Vought product. 

Ugh, he thought, either way, that day was as basic as usual, an ad or not wouldn’t change how bored Homelander was. Not enough spectacular saves, not enough cheers, not enough praises. Can we get this over with, he thought. He wanted to get back to the Vought Tower and just have a break. Until he smelled something unusual, well, more like, unknown. It was the first time he smelled something like this. He rushed towards it, not even questioning anything.

And that was when he saw it, for the first time. The Cloud Beast, people called it. He always found the name ridiculous because he wasn’t able to visualize how massive The Beast was. It was… probably bigger than an elephant. Homelander couldn’t process the information, because The Beast saw him. It approached him, leaving a trail of clouds behind it, and made a long eye contact with Homelander. 

The Beast was impressive. It looked like a horse… Or a deer, maybe a bit of both. But with scales, oh a lot of scales, a large tail that fades with the clouds, and a mane… a mane that moved as if it had a will. Its fur was a sort of blue canary, and the scales were darker. The mane was white but with a black gradient on the end. Oh and did I mention the long almost ethereal gold mustache that Asian dragons also have? Yeah, Homelander was struggling to process what he saw.

The Beast was still staring down at Homelander, not moving. It looked almost like it was amused by the Supe. The Supe couldn't draw his eyes away, until he heard his heart beating faster, and felt some sweat on his neck and forehead. Oh dear, was he scared? The Beast felt it. Homelander was scared, so The Beast just approached him a bit closer. But it drew Homelander to the edge, and he fled as fast as he could.

Oh shit, Holy fucking fucking shit! He thought. He fled to the Seven Tower roof and stayed on for a few minutes. It felt like hours. Homelander knew that this… beast existed, but he never saw it from his own eyes. And now what? He was supposed to be the greatest American Superhero, and he fucking fled because that… thing scared him! He felt ridiculous. He ran his gloved hand into his hair, sighing. Compound V did incredible things, yes, but its range was so unpredictable. He knew that there was a person behind the Beast, the question was, did it talk? Did it even have a human form? It should have one because you can’t fucking hide a monster that big! 

But wait, was it really a monster? For Homelander, it was one for sure, but he was curious. Too curious. He quickly made his way into the Vought Tower and called for Madelyn. He stormed into The Seven’s Room and quickly took a seat, fidgeting with whatever he could find. Madelyn came a bit after, obviously in a rush. 

“I have work to do. I hope it’s important Homelander.”

He took a moment before answering.

“You wouldn’t leave your office If you knew it was not serious. I’m going to be straightforward, do you know anything about « The Cloud Beast »?” 

She froze. And Homelander saw it very clearly. He raised an eyebrow at her and waited for her to answer.

“We…” She cleared her throat. “We have barely any information on it. We just know that they call themselves «Qilin», Cloud Beast is just a name that people gave them because they’re scared each time it flies in the sky.” She paused, feeling the intense gaze of Homelander on her. 

“From what we know it’s a Supe that can shapeshift into this creature. Apparently, it’s a creature from Chinese mythology, that’s why they want to be called Qilin. Not a lot of people saw their actual human form but it seems that some sources describe them as a masked woman in a Chinese-inspired hero suit.”

The Supe clenched his fist, the more he listened, the more he was curious. He wanted to know who was behind this enormous creature. He wanted to know if it was powerful, he wanted to know everything. Homelander wasn’t the curious type, oh no, but this moment when Qilin and he were staring at each other made him feel so many different emotions.

He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he felt weak, and powerless, in front of the Beast. It was the main reason why he ran away, but at the same time, he was drawn to the creature, he wanted to stay, observe it, follow its path. It was so conflicting for him, he never felt so… confused. Madelyn was still talking but he was lost in his thoughts.

He clenched his jaw, then looked back at Madelyn. His expression was unreadable and it threw Madelyn off. 

“Thank you for all of this important information.” He didn’t seem sincere, as usual, but it seemed he was thinking of doing something he shouldn’t do. He stood up pretty abruptly, which made Madelyn jump a bit. 

“Homelander, I hope you’re not thinking of doing anything irresponsible?” He snorted.

“I’m serious. We barely know anything about this woman, let the other supes and the Crime Analytics take care of this.”

He sighed as he headed towards the door. “Fine. But I’ll need reports! Every little thing, whatever saves or little apparition she makes I want to know.” His voice was firm. Madelyn didn’t feel like questioning any of his decisions when he was as stubborn as he was. So she just agreed without complaining.

He then left without saying a word, directing himself to his penthouse. He was tense, and a bit frustrated. The sun was already setting down. As he made his way inside his penthouse, he took off his gloves and let himself fall on the couch while running a hand into his blonde hair. Little did he know that this day was about to change his life. Little did he know that he would think of this first encounter every day until he would see her again. Little did he know that The Beast was so much more than just a mythical creature and that he would be the one that we call a Monster.

taglist: @sunshinetomioka

[akaibaras-yearning]

Chapter I: Whispers of Blue

Everything is blue His pills, his hands, his genes And now I'm covered in the colors Pulled apart at the seams And it's blue And it's blue

~Halsey: Colors

Warnings: feelings.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡. .｡.:*･･:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ.･*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡. .｡.:*･･*:.｡. .｡ .:*･゜ﾟ･*

She collapsed onto the unforgiving ground, the echoes of her labored breaths mixing with the collective exhaustion of her classmates. Every inch of her body seemed to protest aching in places she didn’t even know could ache, the sweat clinging uncomfortably to her skin, marking the effort she had exerted. Yaga-sensei made sure that they knew that he would, in fact, not be holding back on their physical training. 

At least it was their last class of the day. With eyes closed, she allowed herself to indulge in the anticipation of a really, really, really good scrubbing in the shower, she might even have enough energy left to lose herself in a trashy romance book before she passes out on her bed.  

As she summoned the courage to lift her heavy eyelids, she was met not by the comforting embrace of twilight or the soothing warmth of a setting sun. Instead, her gaze collided with an overpowering shade of blue that seemed to engulf her in its depths. It was a soul-crushing hue, one that left her feeling adrift in an ocean of emotions she struggled to comprehend.

 She felt like she was drowning.. She didn’t even get to process what exactly she was looking at. The sky? No. For a moment, she felt as though she was drowning in that azure abyss, lost in a sea of emotions she couldn't quite comprehend. The sky seemed insignificant compared to the presence that loomed over her.

Her eyes traced the contours of circular, pitch-black glasses, and in that instant, a name echoed in her mind like a forbidden word, 

“Gojo-senpai.”

Her upperclassman smirked, drawing back from invading her personal space, leaning back to his full height, “Alright, stand down Shoko. She’s still alive!”

How long did she analyze his face exactly? In that fleeting second, it was like she stood at the edge of a cosmic pause button, where time took a breather and everything faded except for the captivating depth of those eyes. Heat began to creep up her neck as she accepted the hand offered to her by Haibara. Geto-senpai gave them an apologetic and reassuring smile, a hand comfortably resting inside his pocket and the other offering the girl a bottle of water which she took gratefully, muttering a polite “thanks”.

“That Yaga is really good at breaking the freshman’s spirits.”

The white-haired teen snickered, “You all did better than Utahime, though. I heard she actually cried during her first physical training.”

“It’s Utahime-senpai to you!” The miko-wearing woman quickly retaliated, fists bunched on her sides. “And big talk coming from the cocky bastard who got one-upped by a stuffed bear!”

“That was a one-time thing!”

(Y/n) can’t help but quietly laugh at their banter, her gaze turning curious at her senpai’s words which Shoko seemed to observe, explaining further.

“The idiot was so cocky that he actually dropped his Infinity for a moment, and the Cursed toy wasted no time giving him a much-earned uppercut.”

Geto laughed heartily, as if reliving the memory in his head, much to Gojo’s dismay, “And ever since then, Satoru always has his Infinity up. What a pushover.”

“I’m cautious, there’s a difference!” Gojo tried to explain, however it all fell into deaf ears as the giggles spread among the small group.

Their whining senpai sighed in resignation, pushing up his chest even though his pale cheeks were dusted in pink, “I was gonna be a good senpai and all ya’ know, I was gonna treat my adorable kouhais with some tasty ice pops, but..” He clicked his tongue.

Haibara was quick to act on his feet, singing praises as he began to massage the taller man’s shoulders, “The great Gojo Satoru! How generous, how powerful, how handsome!”

Just like that, his air of confidence was restored, hands on his hips and nose in the air, “Ah, I see you recognize true value. This is why you’re my favorite kouhai, Haibara!”

His statement was punctuated with haughty laughs, basking in Haibara’s praises.

“What a pathetic man, honestly.” Utahime deadpanned before she ushered the other students to exit the training grounds. “Let’s go.. before we get infected. Idiocy is contagious after all.” A collective laugh echoed again amidst the group of sorcerers, their miko-wearing senpai ushering them to the nearest convenience store. And even with his proclamation earlier, Gojo still ended up paying for the whole lot, Shoko and Geto wouldn't have let him do otherwise anyways. 

The girl lagged behind once the group began to distribute the cold treats, seemingly satisfied with watching the dynamic between her schoolmates. Looking at the blue raspberry popsicle in her hand, she wondered why every shade of blue that isn’t his eyes feels so wrong now. Like every other shade is just a poor imitation. And the blue that’s so selfishly always encased behind pitch-black glasses is the only shade of that color worth seeing.

She then felt silly and apologized to the popsicle for demeaning it in her head. And then thanking it for the cold satisfaction that’d spread within her once she tasted it. 

“Good, huh?” Haibara chuckled, purposely lagging behind and falling into step with her. 

“All things taste better when it’s free.” She was quick to retort, enjoying the sweetness of the popsicle. 

Her classmate’s eyes seemed to smile in tandem with his lips as an easy laugh fell from them, “Man, how crazy is it to be friends with the strongest sorcerer in this generation? Feels like a fever dream.”

She meets his gaze with a faint smile, her reserve momentarily melting away under the warmth of his laughter, “It’s.. definitely interesting. Seems like something we’re not allowed to do, for me.”

The blonde in front of them let out a soft disgruntled groan, “I’m disappointed. I thought that person would at least have some decorum. But this..” Nanami’s sentence trailed off just for them to hear their senpai’s, 

“Oh yeah? You don’t think I can’t finish two popsicles in one go? Do you know who you’re talkin’ too?”

Said senpai then proceeded to engulf two popsicles in his mouth, scuffing the treats down while sporting an absurdly exaggerated expression of determination, as if he were conquering the greatest challenge of his life.

The freshmen’s smiles fell flat, well at least (Y/n) and Haibara’s did. Nanami’s already displeased face just deepened with a twitch of his eye. “The whole of the Jujutsu World rests on his shoulders? I think the Gods have abandoned us.”

They silently watched the Satoru Gojo scarf down the frozen treats. Rose’s own popsicle nearly consumed, she propped the remaining chunk of it in her mouth, a boisterous laugh echoing in front of them as their pearly-haired senpai pointed condescendingly at his friends. 

“I proved your asses wrong and won more treats. I just can’t stop winning, honestly.”

He spoke as though he bore the weight of his own greatness, flashing the two finished popsicle sticks that were both faintly engraved with the word ‘winner’.

At the same time, while their other senpais threw their protests, she had finished her own treat, pulling it out of her mouth, Haibara was already broadcasting it before she was even finished with reading the engraving. “Oh! (Y/n)’s a winner, too!” Their Geto-senpai snickered, “Would you look at that? Looks like you ain’t anything special anymore, Satoru.”

Unperturbed, even with his sunglasses, everyone saw him rolling his eyes, “Hah? That is just factually incorrect. And I won two. I don’t wanna hear anymore from you losers.”

He then made a particularly derisive face holding an ‘L’ sign on his forehead. The rest just watched in amusement as they could practically see the tick on the Curse Manipulator’s forehead. But even before Geto could retort,

The girl blinked as she was quite literally swept away with a heavy arm on her shoulders, expensive perfume, with primary notes of pine and mint, assaulting her nostrils.

“Sorry, I can’t hear ya. The winners are gon’get their rewards. You losers just stay put, now.”

She was sure she heard multiple popsicle sticks zoom their way, she craned her neck over his arm to look behind, seeing the wooden sticks stopping mid-air from hitting him and then falling listlessly on the pavement. The girl didn’t say anything but her senpai replied anyway, 

“Neat party trick, right?” Frustration filled her as she once again felt that strange sensation of being tongue-tied as she tried to answer, her eyes tracing that dimpled smirk over and over. Her inadequacy didn’t seem to faze the man beside her as he let his arm fall away from her shoulder. Only then did she feel her face cool down. Meaning.. it was hot before? Her body is very confusing today. 

Oblivious to the girl’s inner musings, the taller man began to talk as they made their way back to the konbini, popsicle sticks in hand.  It amazed her just how good he was with making one-sided conversations, his questions were mostly rhetorical, answering them himself before she could even open her mouth. 

So she simply nodded her head along, opting to observe the literally suffocating presence beside her. Men and women, people in between, of all ages stared as they walked by. Of course, they were staring at him. Besides his obvious deviation from the common local features, the way he walked just screamed: dominance. Each step was a declaration, a proclamation of his superiority, and the world seemed to bend to accommodate his presence.

Even with her own knowledge of who this man is, even if they were walking together, she felt the disparity between them. Her silent observer's role felt like a mere spectator in the grand performance of his life. Try as she might, she couldn’t understand how he was able to walk with that much of an ease when certain responsibilities fell on his shoulders just because he was born. 

Her train of thought came to an abrupt stop when he looked at her as if he was expecting something. Those devastating eyes of his prickling her skin as his shades slip down slightly from his nose.

Shit. Did he ask something? Was she just stupidly looking at his face while she was lost in her own thoughts? Her brain racked itself inside and out but her senpai saved her from making an even bigger fool out of herself by repeating without her needing to ask,

“You a Clan baby?”

She blinked, “I’m sorry?”

“Nah, it’s okay. I’m a Clan baby, too.” His shoulders shook from his own joke. A slight pout formed on his lips as he scanned her deadpan expression, “It’s just, I think I saw you in one of those, very much uninspiring, Clan meetings my parents forced me to attend.” The girl’s eyes furrowed, he came to those? When? Surely she wouldn’t have missed this much presence, much less forget it. 

As if he read her thoughts, which the girl would be grateful if he stopped doing, he answered,

“It’s wayyyy back, though. When I could still be bribed with sweets.”

“Oh. But uh,” She cringed at her own voice, clearing her throat to dispel the unnecessary ball of nerves in her windpipe. Why is she so nervous? “Yeah, I’m one.. I think.”

A singular ivory eyebrow raised at her statement, “I wasn’t aware that my question was something to be given with an ‘I-think’ answer.” This time she did feel her cheeks burn. Before an apology could spill from her lips, a bell chimed. Her senpai was already busting the door of the konbini open as if he owned the place. Her shoulders relaxed, grateful that his attention was diverted to something else.

That something, rather a someone, was the cashier of the konbini. A portly man holding his ground against the strongest sorcerer of this era.

“Get lost kid! There’s no way you won two times! You’re a cheat!” 

“Yes, of course, I enjoy my free time by engraving sticks to fraud a hundred-yen popsicle.”

A poorly stifled chuckle brought the two men’s attention to her. The cashier eyed her uniform,

“You with this menace, little miss?” The taller teen cackled, extending a hand toward her without looking away from the man behind the counter. Without missing a beat, she got what he’s asking for and handed him her own stick. With a lofty smirk, Gojo extended his hand to the baffled cashier, spreading the sticks like a deck of cards, flashing the ‘winner’ engraved part directly.  

“Pay up, old man.” His smirk turned into a full-blown grin as Abe-san, the cashier, guffawed in disbelief. His steps begrudgingly slow, they didn’t know if it was on purpose or he sincerely couldn’t carry his own weight, he opened the freezer, dropping three blue raspberry-flavored treats on the counter. 

“I oughta’ ban you here, kid. You always do this.” 

Opening his new treats in vigor, one hand extending the girl’s reward to her, he just scoffed, “That’s stupid. I keep this place alive.”

With nothing but a grin sent to Abe-san’s way, her senpai already began strutting to exit, leaving her to bow in apology to which the older man waved away,

“You’re good, little miss. This ain’t his first, most certainly will not be the last.”

She opened her own popsicle, exiting the konbini to see shaded eyes peering at her, treat in mouth as he motioned her back to where their friends were (hopefully) waiting. 

This time, silence occupied their small walk back, both student focused on the cold, sugary confections in hand. 

Now, though, as she finished hers, she turned her stick over.. and a second time more. But the stick was disappointingly un-engraved. A chortle sounded from beside her. Gojo leaning down to assess her predicament. An air of contentment surrounded him as he stood back, which should have irked her, if not for when he handed her his also finished stick.

It was her turn to quirk an eyebrow, Is he giving me his trash, now?   

And much like the first few times, he’d responded before she could even express her discontentment, 

“Looks like the first one was a coincidence, little miss.”   

The blue-eyed teen now running the few short distance to their other schoolmates, she was about to throw the sticks to the nearest bin, if not for the unmistakable etching on one of it. 

‘Winner’.

Looking back, she’s sure that the other frozen treat he’s shoving in his mouth held the same marking, too. 

[spearxwind]

Feel free to ignore, but your rendering of ice is just so so good; I feel like I can hear the crackling groans of it. If you'd be willing, could you share how you do it?

Aw man thank you so much!! It's not too hard to do, but I don't have visual examples on hand right now 😅

The trick that works best is having the base layer be half transparent, and then clip more colors on top of that. The base itself works best as a clear light blue/teal, and the clipped colors get progressively darker depending on the jaggedness of the ice, but in general its darker towards the "middle" (in areas where theres thicker ice and light cant penetrate as much". The thicker the ice, the less transparent it is!

This way you can add grunge textures on top to act as imperfections, and also frost. Its especially effective to add a few odd white cracks here and there to give it depth as well

I genuinely just fuck around and find out, a lot of the heavy lifting is done by the textures themselves because like I said grungy textures do wonders to look like imperfections in the ice and also frost. Which is something a lot of people pass up when drawing ice, so it ends up looking more like crystals because they are so clean cut without imperfections

Also, desaturaring colors also works very well. Ice CAN be really really colorful and blue!! But generally we perceive coldness with lack of saturation, so i like picking the colors somewhere between steel grey and blue. But also I am a desaturation freak i love faded colors x)

[laikaflash]

A Mirror Across Timelines: Mitsurugi

(For the September community prompt. This will also be on Ao3 with notes and stuff later.)

As strange as it had been for Mitsurugi to find himself in Beijing, he was brimming with strength. Not a moment ago, he was in a Spanish port town and what had happened there was far too invigorating to have been a dream. In a flash of white light, he was spirited away to a place lit by a strange fiery glow. All around him floated towers and arches that twisted and broke into rubble, all being pulled into a blue maelstrom. The air itself thrummed with power when he dueled the silver-haired shapeshifter Iska Acht who brought him there. Then came a voice that rumbled through the chaos like distant rapids, but its words were no clearer to him even as the second white light faded. Whatever it was that had awakened there—warrior or demon—Mitsurugi wondered if it was waiting for him in Ming.

Passing shop after shop along the wide street, Mitsurugi looked around to get his bearings. Although he could recognize many characters, his pronunciation of any of them would stand out as much as his armor did. Passersby gave him a wide berth and he caught more than a few uneasy looks from them. Mitsurugi maintained a nonchalant attitude that had served him well in his travels, but there seemed to be something more to their wariness. Was Hideyoshi carrying out his ambitions of conquest?

Amid all the chatter, he caught the word wōkòu—Japanese pirate. Mitsurugi jerked his head to his left and saw two young men hurry into an alley and disappear. He scowled, knowing it would make no difference to them that he had slain pirates on his way back to Japan several years ago. Shading his eyes as the sun glared through a gap in the dark clouds, he hastened his steps. Though the clouds were rolling northward, toward the mountains, the air felt heavy enough to rain at any moment. Much to his relief, ahead was a red-fringed banner that bore the character for wine.

He had not realized just how hungry he was until he walked into the tavern. Mitsurugi had no desire to explain in halting Chinese how he had gotten here from Spain, but the tavern-keeper had noticed the reals among his few wén coins and seemed to give a knowing nod. After a filling meal of fried rice and enough wine to ease his nerves, Mitsurugi bought a night’s stay in a small room upstairs. As he settled in and began to unfasten his armor, thunder rumbled outside and rain followed.

Whoever this new opponent is, he thought to himself, maybe the silver-haired child will lead me to him.

A white flash, like lightning striking nearby, startled him to his feet. But no sound came. A blaze of crimson light filled the room. Mitsurugi grabbed his sword, with only his cuirass remaining to shield him. His heart pounded fiercely as he recognized the power that coursed through him once more as he prepared to draw. The red light vanished as though it had been snuffed, leaving only the soft light of the paper lantern overhead.

Now a swordsman stood before him. His short, black hair was streaked with gray, as was his beard. A katana was tied at his sash, yet the top of his frayed, black kimono hung off his left shoulder like a monk’s robe. The hems of his black hakama were equally tattered. A large necklace of prayer beads hanging from his right shoulder seemed to complete his monkish look. Yet, his bare right arm bore what were almost certainly dueling scars.

“Are you here to fight me?” Mitsurugi challenged.

Sardonically, the swordsman raised a thick eyebrow. “Here?” he asked with a barely suppressed laugh. “Don’t you know who I am?” He pointed to a single, round scar just below his right shoulder.

Mitsurugi sheathed his sword and instinctively touched the same spot on his cuirass. “How…?” he gasped. “How is it possible?”

“You should know.”

There was no mistaking the scar from the tanegashima duel. Mitsurugi remembered how Iska Acht changed her form three times to test him, but it had been nothing like this. If this was a trick, he suspected that his older self would not have bothered to kick off his geta. “I mean… How did you get here?”

“Ah, that. The Astral Chaos brought me here, and there’s no telling where it can take you. I could’ve gotten lost there if it wasn’t for you. Tell me, where are we now?”

“Beijing. The outer city.”

The swordsman took a glance from the lattice window. “So it is. What year is it? You look about twenty years younger than me.”

“Eighteenth year of Tenshō, unless something happened while I was gone. Or, an Earth Ox year.”

At this, his older self cracked a wry smile. “Hm. Say, is that Shishi-Oh?”

Mitsurugi hesitated, noticing that the grip on the swordsman’s katana was black. “Yes.”

“May I see it for a moment?” The swordsman’s voice lowered to an almost reverent tone.

Mitsurugi’s heart sank at the thought that his finest sword had been lost. Even so, he unsheathed it. The older Mitsurugi gazed upon Shishi-Oh as though it were a son he had not seen in years. His expression turned somber and wizened.

“Cherish it. Hone it and wield it well.”

“Of course.” Mitsurugi gravely nodded and sheathed his sword. “I need it in top condition. There’s an opponent I’m supposed to meet. He must have something to do with this Astral Chaos. I heard something—”

Surprise flashed in the older swordsman’s eyes. “What did you hear?”

“I couldn’t make it out. That silver-haired child, what’s her name…? Iska Ahha…” He felt his throat catch on what was meant to be a guttural sound, along with slight embarrassment for it. “Acht, that’s it! I thought this Iska Acht would bring me to a worthy opponent, but well, here I am. Whatever that voice was, she had different ideas.”

The older swordsman thoughtfully rubbed his chin. “You’ll meet him, this new opponent.”

“Where did—uh, where might I find him?” Mitsurugi felt as though he had been talking to Edge Master, rather than himself.

“You won’t find him right away, but you will need one thing. Head to the fortress at Xiwei on the western border of Ming, and in time, you’ll meet your greatest opponent yet.”

Mitsurugi grinned. “That’s more like it! But what am I supposed to find there?”

“A shard of the very sword that started this. You’ll know you’ve found it when you feel it.”

With his brow furrowed, Mitsurugi wondered if it was that same power he had felt in the Astral Chaos. “If that’s so, I’ll prepare to set off at once!”

The older swordsman grinned back at him. Then crimson light filled the room once more. A regretful look crossed his face he stepped back into his geta. “I'm afraid I can’t stay much longer.”

Mitsurugi stood transfixed at the glowing portal, half-expecting Iska Acht to appear. He almost wanted to reach out to his older self, but he gratefully bowed.

“Fare well.”

Mitsurugi felt a chill as his older self stepped into the twisting chaos. At once, the crimson light was gone, and in one last flash of white, the room was once again as it should have been. He fell silent as the sounds of people in the tavern, noises of the street, and rain returned all at once to his ears.

“Damn,” he hissed, pressing a hand to his forehead. “I could’ve asked him what changed in his time!” But he knew it would be a long time before he reached Japan again, and he was no stranger to long journeys. Mitsurugi quietly settled on the bed and began to plan. Soul Edge itself seemed nearer than it had ever been.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Oh, oh, you know what I'd love to see some time? Kauri getting an electric shock from a domestic appliance or something. It doesn't need to be serious, we just know how much he hates getting shocked 👀

"You need a new toaster."

Jake looks up, rubbing a hand over his face, blinking where he sits on his bed in a pair of pajamas pants. Things are blurred and bleary, it's too early for this on one of the few days he doesn't have class. Still, though - he can't help but feel a little... happy, maybe, to hear Kauri's voice. "What...?"

"Your toaster's fucked up." Kauri has it in his hands, gripped white-knuckle tight. Jake reads in his appearance the story of his night - his hair is a mess of black curls, there's dark circles under the bright blue eyes, he's still wearing clothing he had on two days ago, the last time Jake saw him.

His shirt is on inside out. Whose cologne will be smell like if Jake gets close?

There's a twist of something odd and sharp in Jake's chest. "... Our toaster is fucked up?"

"Yeah. It... It's broken. It shocked me. When I plugged it in." Kauri dumps the toaster on the floor in Jake's room, and Jake winces as he watches ancient crumbs scatter everywhere as it tips on its side.

"... And you brought it up here because..."

"Because it's broken. You should get a new one. I wanted to tell you." Kauri's voice is short and sharp, Jake can see his eyes are a little too wide. He crosses his arms and Jake thinks it looks like he's hugging himself, trying not to be obvious about it. "It's a stupid toaster. It hurt me. It-... It shocked me, and-"

"Yeah. I'll handle it, I will. But, are you okay?"

"What?" Kauri looks... uncomfortable and surprised. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, but. You said it shocked you?" God, he's too tired to think. Jake leans into instinct instead. "Like electric shock?"

"Yeah. Just. A little one, but..."

Silence draws out between them. Jake rakes a hand back through his hair, and then pushes himself to his feet. If Kauri's eyes drop to Jake's bare chest down to his stomach and the waistband of his pants, Jake doesn't notice. Or he pretends not to, anyway. There's a Tshirt on the floor, and he pulls it on over his head. "Yeah, but... Still. Are you okay?"

"I'm not hurt-"

"That's not what I'm asking. Kaur, you used to be shocked, before. Even if you're not hurt..." He looks back down at Kauri. "That doesn't mean you're okay."

Kauri's smile fades for just a second - then it's back, but brittle this time. "I'm always okay."

"No, you're not. Kauri, I just wanted to know if you need to talk-"

"Absolutely the fuck not. I just came here to get some breakfast, not get trauma interrogations at six in the morning."

"I'm not interrogating you-"

"Then take 'i'm fine' for an answer for once."

Jake's mouth opens and then closes again.

Kauri's smile is small and vicious. "Like I said. Buy a new toaster."

"Kauri, just-"

Kauri disappears from the doorway and is halfway down the stairs before Jake can get out of his room.

"Kauri, wait-"

The front door closes and Kauri is gone.

[angelellipsis-devilofdots]

re: tad songs visualization

im curious what Dsftsa or inkpot gods look like to you :>

synesthesia is a.. cool? thing that im always curious about

synesthesia is absolutely cool !! it is not an inherently negative thing and it actually has a very positive impact on how i listen to music because it makes it even better for me :]

drinking song for the socially anxious: this one has very calming colors. the "general color" so to speak is mainly a cool-toned gray with some really pretty mint green swirls thrown in. the guitar is a nice brownish color and the squeaky sounds are little flecks of gold. madeleine's voice looks like swirls and is a range of purple for the most part, being darker when she sings low notes and more lavender when she sings high notes; joey has that smooth and wavy-looking brown voice i mentioned really liking and it becomes more of a velvet red when he sings higher notes. after about 3:39, the colors become a bit brighter and mix together more when they sing louder.

inkpot gods: the guitar is once again brown but with a lot of gold and silver. joey's voice is the same way (it usually is for all his music) but madeleine's tends to be more on the blue spectrum with some purple in there (navy for low notes, icy-blue and/or lavender for higher notes). the riff vocals mixing with the instrumentals (like all the sounds from 1:55 - 2:03) are bursts of this really pretty thing that i can only describe as looking like a sky; definitely a sky-blue with swirls of white and gold thrown in there. the ending of the song with the "if i dont make it back [and so forth]" is pretty persistent in its grays and purples and silvers, with not a whole lot of variation until the part where they start singing more legato and then their voices become a bright purple with undertones of pink (i don't know why this is, their voices do not usually look like this to me but it's really cool). then at the end when it fades out, it all becomes a light gray and then just kind of washes away.

sorry if the wording of this doesn't make much sense, as it is 2 in the morning, so feel free to ask for clarification or i can try to draw these to help with visuals at some point! it only takes me a bit to draw songs digitally so it should be fine to do eventually. thank you for the ask !! :]

[amphibimations]

Some thoughts about how I’ve been using color in my WH drawings

So I’ve actually been using color pretty intentionally when I design the outfits for the characters, I’d like to talk about my thought process behind some of it!! A note that these are ideas that i’ve been building on as i’ve read the book, so I haven’t always used them consistently and i’m still building on them as i keep reading more of the book.

1) Cathy and Heathcliff always wear blue

In my first comic, I happened to choose blue for Heathcliff’s outfit. Not for any reason, I just thought it looked nice. Once I started drawing cathy, I decided to put her in blue too because having 2 characters in the same color works as a visual metaphor connecting them. After reading the ‘we share the same soul’ part I realized them wearing the same color constantly works even better, and started making a conscious decision that no other character I draw for WH will ever wear blue, to emphasize that the color represents their connection specifically. I also think this color works really well for them because of the color’s association with weather, sadness, nighttime, and ghosts.

2) Edgar and Isabella wearing green and red

This is a thing that doesn’t have that deep of a meaning behind it but i think its really funny. I chose those colors because i had drawn cathy and heathcliff throwing a red and green book that they hate and so i was like ‘haha. They also hate Isabella and edgar. i should do those colors.’ Also i think it worked out because i will sometimes give cathy more of a cyan-blue which is closer to edgar’s green, and heathcliff more of a indigo-blue which is closer to isabella’s red. I do think the colors I decided to use also speaks to how well the characterization of the siblings was written in their introduction, because just based on their first scene I decided red for isabella because she seemed more passionate and intense, and green for edgar because he seemed more meek.

3) Saturation of colors

This one i havent been consistent on, but i’d like to be more so in the future. And its less of a metaphor and more just because of how dyeing clothes works, but I tend to use more saturated colors for connoting wealth. Which is why, when cathy gets back with her new outfit from the lintons, it is such a deep blue, and why i added more brown to heathcliffs outfit and made the blue a bit faded once hindley started making him work. I mean im using pretty saturated colors for all of the characters right now because this is a cartoony style, but if I do make that graphic novel some day I think i’ll be more consistent with this idea.

4) A Mistake

When i was reading the first few chapters I knew going in that there was a ghost in the book, so when Cathy 2 showed up I thought she might have been the ghost at first. So in my head i pictured her wearing white even after i realized she wasnt the ghost. Even though the book SAYS she’s wearing BLACK…. Cathy 2 im so so sorry i robbed you of your goth girl colors i wont do it again. (i know her dress is probably black because she’s in ‘Official 1800s Husband Mourning’ over linton but come on u cant tell me she wouldn’t be goth if she was living in the modern day.)

5) other colors

I don’t really have a reason for the colors of lockwood, nelly, hindley, or hareton. I just thought they looked nice. Joseph wears blacks and greys because hes boring and mean. Idk i do think blue and orange being opposite colors sort of could work to highlight the difference between Heathcliff and Hareton (being put in a similar situation but having different endings). Like i said im still updating these ideas, haha.

edit: another thought i just had is that it would be so so funny to make the color of edgar’s clothes scheele’s green specifically. Get arsenic poisoned, idiot.

[einsatzzz]

Ein's Art Log #1

@lixenn!! Here's the timelapse I recorded for my rarepair week submission! I'm just gonna start this log series because I wanna study art more and take notes of it here in this blog. And maybe it will help people with their drawings? I'm putting my notes below ↓↓↓

Draft & Lineart

First, for this art, I used a base made by Ging (깅). Using bases like these are always useful for a lot of things and it also forces me to draw things (like poses, hands, etc) I wouldn't normally draw by myself (if its up to just my hand with zero braincell input, I would just draw the characters facing 3/4 to the left over and over). Also a lot of them are just so *chef kiss*, god bless Korean artists. They're so good, especially with how they do the figures and anatomy!

I just adjusted the base a bit to match the characters' heights, since Kurumi is taller than Chrome by like 6cm.

Then when making the drawing a draft layer over the base, I usually use bright colors like green, red or blue (most often green). I usually don't think about the draft too much even if it turns out ugly, I think it's actually better that it turns out ugly and messy.

Otherwise, if the draft looks slightly more decent than expected, then I'd become too lazy to draw a more proper lineart. Whenever I remember to do so, I also use a gray-colored background so it's easier on my eyes, especially since I drew this after work.

For the "lineart", I used a brush called 촉펜 (MTL says it's "Touch Pen" in English; Content ID: 2050169). I recently started using this for doodles/sketches, it feels nice. It was free when I downloaded it, but it costs 10 Clippy now.

Anyway, I used a little bit more braincells for the "lineart" now after the draft, but then I didn't really try that hard to make it look clean, since I'm rushing to finish it as fast as I can. I just made sure that the outside lines are connected just enough for easier selection & coloring later.

Coloring & Shading

The coloring is where my experiment actually started! I usually go ahead and color them one-by-one per each color and part, but to be quicker, I used the Magic Wand selection tool to select the area outside the background, then inverting it so now the selection is at the characters *except* the background.

I then used the the bucket tool to fill the selection with the color I use as the base skin color. I still keep the selection there for further coloring purposes.

Just from here, I added another layer on top for the shading of the skin! For the shading, I used a brush called Yuri Watercolor (Content ID: 1889385). This one's really a paid brush, but I liked it a lot so I got it hahaha.

I do plan on replicating on doing this on IbisPaint one of these days! My plan so far is to use the free watercolor brush there, lower the brush opacity to around 60-70% and then draw the shading on a clipping layer set to the Multiply layer effect.

After shading, it looks like this now! I didn't mind the colors bleeding through the non-skin parts (except for two parts: the neck shading that would bleed to the face and thigh shading that would bleed to the skirt). I also used this brush to color Chrome's eye. Huhu I can't remember how I did it, helpskjfbjsbf

Then for the coloring of the hair and clothes, I just used the soft airbrush! I tried using the Yuri Watercolor brush for it too, but I couldn't quite grasp it yet on how to use it for coloring/shading those parts. I guess I know what to study next hahaha

When coloring the hair (and clothes), I did color the middle parts but didn't really full-on color till the edges to make that fading effect at the edge.

For the shading, I added clipping layers above and used the watercolor brush again!

For the hair highlights, I used the soft airbrush again. I just used a white color on a Soft Light layer effect to add a faint highlight on their hair (showed on picture on the left). Afterwards, I added another layer above with the Add/Glow effect and turned down the opacity to around 50%, to put more shine to it (showed on picture on the right).

Additionally, I also added a paper texture layer at the bottom! I also grouped up all the lineart and color layers into one folder and set the layer effect to Linear Burn.

Finally, after a bit color corrections/adjustments, blur filters (post-processing stuff, maybe for a different post?) and adding some decorations, the drawing is finally done! KuruKuro my beloved 💖

That's the process I'm playing around with so far, but I think I can still improve on it. I'm also planning on making a page on my wiki to compile my resources, references and such (maybe some free to use assets too). But anyway, that's all for now!