#I tried to scan this but I don't think my scanner works....

[spoiledskullz]

Draws them as ponies again ☁️💎

[sirfrogsworth]

When I got to this photo in Katrina's collection of vintage family imagery, I was pretty stumped as to how to approach it.

There is a major problem when you zoom in to 100%.

The paper it was developed on has little micro bumps. When it was scanned, the light from the scanner caused a highlight on one side of the bump and a shadow on the other. This causes a pattern which is nearly impossible to eliminate using traditional techniques.

The easiest way to fix this is actually quite clever. You scan it once, then turn it upside down and scan it again. The second pass reverses the side the highlight and shadow appear on, so you can combine the images in Photoshop and blend them together, essentially canceling out the bumps. It's weirdly analogous to noise canceling headphones.

But I don't have access to the physical copy of this image.

So... now what?

Enter Fast Fourier Transform or FFT.

This is a filter that uses extra fancy math to recognize patterns in the image and eliminate them. There is a pretty good filter for Photoshop, but it does not work easily with newer Macs with Apple Silicon. I really did not want to figure that out, and I also was too tired to go downstairs to my PC. However, I learned that a Photoshop competitor, Affinity Photo, has this filter built in. So, I downloaded a trial copy and started the process of trying to figure out how to fix this image.

It was amazingly simple. It brings up these star patterns and you just paint black circles over every one but the center. It literally felt like magic. (Full screen with sound recommended)

So once I did this process I ended up with this...

The paper still had a rough texture but it was much easier to work with using traditional techniques. I started with a black and white conversion and meticulously went through the photo zapping scratches and flaws and balancing tones and sharpening facial features. All of my photo restoration tricks were needed.

I eventually landed here...

I then thought maybe I should match the sepia tone of the original print, so I got to here...

I think the black and white looks nicer in this instance, but I always like having options and this is the most faithful representation of how the photo originally looked.

But there is something else I have been playing around with lately. Photoshop has these experimental neural filters that use cloud processing to do various tricky enhancements. Most of them are in beta and they can be very quirky. But they have a colorizer that tries to detect people and things and adds color to them. Not every black and white photo is a good candidate. I have found these professional portrait photos work decently, but the filter is very hit-and-miss. And there are tools within the filter to help you make a miss more of a hit, but often I have to accept the photo isn't going to work.

But I decided to give it a shot with this one and surprisingly, the colorizer got me most of the way there.

I can work with that.

The one thing it does well is skin. Manually painting color onto skin is tricky and requires more skill and knowledge of traditional painting techniques than I have. But if a filter can do that part for me, I can do the rest.

So after my touchups, I got the image to here.

All I have left to do is my standard color enhancements to make them a little less ghostly and a little more human.

And I present to you where I started and the finished product. I encourage you to flip back and forth.

I'm not sure how, but I was able to go from an image I thought was impossible to edit to a beautiful colorized memory for my best friend's mom. I cannot wait to show her.

[brucewaynehater101]

Recently my mind has been plagued with ideas about things Tim could be other than human and what would both fit him and make an interesting story. I believe I might have found something that suits him rather well.

Tim has always been a strange child, always silent and always watching. Learning everything he can about everyone he has to interact with so that he can best make sure every interaction goes in his favor. He learned his manipulation from his Mother after all. She was the very best at it so he will be the very best too. She nor his "father" have watched over him since he was very small, after all they are creatures that do not raise their own young. Her returning to see him every few months, teaching him how to hide what he is and how to defend himself, *and* making sure he has food and shelter is far, far more than most of his species could ever even dream of. Janet is their version of Best Mom In The Universe, even if she's horrifyingly neglectful by Human Standards.

As for how Jack treats Tim, he doesn't. After all, once they were married and she had everything, she didn't need him anymore. Jack died before Tim was even conceived and the current Jack is nothing more than a husk, a living puppet that his mother walks around with as a shield to keep herself safe from prying eyes and questions. Perfect for keeping her cover as Just A Human. She has taught Tim how to do this same thing using small animals from the garden (and making sure he eats them after. He's still a growing boy who needs to eat after all) si that one day he can have a few living puppets of his own.

Tim does not tell anyone he isn't human, as per his mother's instructions. After all, he shares quite a few traits with a type of creature that humans *hate* and actively go out of their way to kill. Well, most do.

As he grows and ages as Robin, he never let's anything slip, he can't afford to let them know. He knows that Bruce doesn't trust magic in Gothem (or at least, Tim thinks that's the truth) and even if he did, the others have shown a distaste for the creature that he shares so much with. Especially Alfred and Dick, the later of which he has verbally claimed to *hate*. Given, one of them was in his hair when he yelled this but it still stung quite deeply and Alfred works hard to make sure that not a single trace of them can be found anywhere in the manor, even scolding Tim once for letting so much proof of their existence pile up in the corners of his room. But Tim doesn't blame him either, Alfred's job is to keep the house clean after all.

Eventually he must come clean though and what a way it is. Bruce has been working a case with Constantine about people going missing in Gothem. Turns out, everyone who has was some kind of magical creature and the people doing it are likely poachers. The others have been informed of the case so that they can report anything they know or anyone they know who could be a target. Tim doesn't say anything, instead keeping a closer eye on those he does know. He would never, ever sell out another creature. He would rather die.

A week later, an attempted raid on the poachers goes wrong and ends up with Jason, Tim, Bruce, and Damian all captured by the poachers. Tim is the last to wake up and when he does, the poachers are discussing what kind of undead Jason is, scanning the tied up vigilante with a device that simply says again, "subject, magical. Type, undead. Futher information, unknown."

At this point Tim realizes he's the only one not tied up. He's also the only one in a cage. He tries to pretend to be asleep but the one watching him says, "look who's awake. You know, we had bets on how many of you Bats were part of the magical community. Seems like I won the bet since only you and Red Hood over there are. Don't bother trying to lie your way out, our scanner can see through your Glamor spell, no matter how powerful it is. And this?" They hold up a small remote control with about a dozen buttons on it, "this does a wonderful little thing where it makes a specific pitch at a specific volume that causes Magical Creatures to drop their Glamor Spells or Shifts. Luckily it's nothing more than mildly annoying to humans."

A button is pressed before anyone can ask questions and the remove makes a loud, buzzing sound. It's not painful for the trio who are tied up, but Tim? Tim is shaking and writhing and *screaming* with both hands pressed over his ears. He is rolling back and forth across the ground as he screams for the person to stop, just *stop*. Bruce is almost free when he freezes upon realizing something. There aren't two tear tracks on his sons face. There's a lot. A pair of eyes have opened on his cheek bones and above his eyebrows and a smaller pair between them. Tim has gotten much paler and his canines have turned long and sharp like his nails. Tim rolls onto his stomach and curls up as best he can, screaming as there is a cracking sound. A long spindly, spider like leg shoots out of his side and slams into the floor, curling up in pain like the rest of Tim's limbs.

When the device is finally turned off, Tim is laying on his side, wheezing in pain and his legs are gone. In their place is the body of a giant spider which has sharp points at the tips of its legs instead of the regular spider feet. Tim has 8 eyes and is totally limp as he tries to recover. The Poacher simply laughs, "A Jorōgumo, a real master of puppets you are. But weak without them. God, your kind is so rare, you'll fetch us the price of at least 4 normal monsters. Add in you're a famous vigilante and we could break a few million dollars off *just* you."

Tim glares weakly at them and hisses softly. He knows the numbers are true. It's the secondary reason he never told anyone. He knew he would either get squished or sold off. How he just needs to figure out how to escape from Gothem before Bruce can confront him on this. He doesn't want to explain.

Aww... was he collecting little spiders and getting upset when his family kept expressing their hatred/distaste for them? Did he have to hear them talk about how creepy their eyes are, their weird abundance of legs, and how disgusting their overall being is before he excused himself to stare in a mirror and compare the similarities?

Does he dare to meet their eyes after the reveal, or does he fear finding the look of revulsion?

Also, would he find comfort in knitting, crochet, and weaving? Is his house full of hand-made blankets?

Anyways, enjoyed what you have and would definitely read more

[mysecretlittlelibrary]

Teach Me How To Love

Pairing: Moonknight (Steven) x Reader

Word Count: 3.8k

Warnings: LOTS OKAY; This is smut minor dom/sub undertones, oral (m receiving), p in v, unprotected sex (be safe around trains-shitty reference sorry lol), riding, creampie, kinda praise kink tingz, lemme know if I missed anything

Genre: fluff + smut

Summary: You knew dating the shy guy from the museum giftshop would mean taking the lead on things sometimes but boy is it sweet when he asks you to show him the ropes in bed

***

When you walk into the museum gift shop you scan the various shelves and racks. It doesn't take you long to pick out a few things, an archeology dig set, a stuffed Anubis toy, and a set of fact cards. You walk up to the counter where you realize you can't see a cashier.

"Uh- hello?" You call out looking around the gift shop for any indication that there's someone working here. A curly haired man suddenly pops up from behind the counter, so quick he loses his balance a little and has to grab the counter to avoid falling. "Oh." You gasp shocked by his appearance. You didn't even realize he was back there.

"Hi. Sorry I uh- didn't know anyone was here. Can I help you with something?" He asks softly.

"Just, checking out." You say setting your items on the counter. Steven glances up at you and nearly drops the scanner. He drops his eyes quickly, his shyness made worse by how attractive he thinks you are.

If you think she's so pretty then tell her so. Steven hears Marc's voice ringing in his head and he glares at the counter where Marc's reflection stares at him with bored exasperation.

"Did you find everything okay?" Steven asks as he rings your items.

"I think so- my nephew's newest obsession is Egyptian Mythology so I thought I'd pick him up some things while I was around. I figured these things would interest one very intelligent four and a half year old." You say.

"I'm sure he'll love it. You've included toys and something that actually provides knowledge. Those notecards are particularly very cool because they have some lesser known facts so it'll be really nice if he's interested in learning."

"Oh are you also a big fan of Egyptian Mythology?" You ask with a smile and his cheeks warm as he realizes he was rambling. He is, but you think it's very cute how excited he is.

"Um- kind of yes, actually. Your total is 32.56." He tells you.

"Maybe I'll have to bring my Nephew around! I'm sure he'd love to talk to another enthusiast." You smile as you swipe your card.

"If you decide to bring him, I'll happily talk with him." Steven says handing you your now bagged items.

"Great! I'll see you then!" You smile taking your stuff from him and heading out of the small giftshop.

I don't understand why you didn't tell her you thought she was pretty Steven. You're such a coward. Marc scoffs.

"She's a customer that's weird and borderline inappropriate." Steven whispers aggressively at the reflection. You glance over your shoulder and happen to catch what you assume is him talking to himself.

It's a couple weeks later that you bring your nephew back to the museum. You have him for the day so your sister and brother in law can have some alone time so you figured you'd bring him here. He's already memorized most of the notecards you gave him it seems because while walking through the museum he casually spouts facts at you about the various exhibits. Once you've walked through the whole museum, your nephew is quick to drag you into the gift shop.

"Don't go overboard sweetie, two or three things tops." You tell him as he scans the shelves.

"Okay!" He says excitedly. Your nephew comes back to you with another archeology dig and a book that he brings up to the counter he can barely reach.

"Oh- you're back!" Steven blinks at you with a smile he almost tries to hide.

"I am. Hello again." You smile.

"Hi."

"Lewis this is the nice man I told you about who likes Egyptian Mythology like you do." You tell your nephew. "I'm sorry, I just realized- I never got your name." You frown at him.

"Oh-- St- Steven. My name's Steven Grant." He stutters out.

"Steven." You say softly and he almost wants to collapse at the way his name sounds from your lips. "Well I'm y/n, and this is my curious nephew Lewis." You tell him.

"Hey Lewis! I hear you're really into mythology." Steven smiles at him.

"Yeah! Everything is so cool." Lewis says.

"Do you have a favorite mythological figure? Or myth?" Steven asks.

"I like Anubis because aunty got me a toy that looks like him, but I'm still learning about some of the others. Do you have a favorite?"

"Well I've heard Khonshu's kind of an annoying old bird but his powers are totally cool." Steven says.

"Is he in this book?" Lewis asks pointing at the book of myths he picked up.

"I actually think he is. You wanna know what he looks like?"

"You know what he looks like?!"

"Sure I do." Steven grabs a scrap of paper and one of the museum pens to start a sketch. It only takes him a couple of minutes to draw a strange skeleton bird creature.

"Woaaahh! He looks so cool!!" Lewis gasps.

"He's super tall so- it's actually kinda spooky." Steven says like he's sharing a secret. He hands the drawing to Lewis who excitedly looks over it.

"STEVEN!! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!" You gasp when a woman's voice booms through the lobby of the museum.

"Oh dear, that's my boss. It's like she can sense enjoyment and seeks to crush it." Steven jokes with you handing Lewis his things in a bag while you wrap up your transaction.

"I hope everything is alright." You tell him.

"Ah I'm sure it'll be fine. She tends to be dramatic." Steven says passing you your receipt.

"Well, it was nice to see you again Steven." You say.

"You too! Hope to see you soon."

"Ah now that Lewis has seen the collection here he'd have me bring him everyday if he could." You joke.

"Well Seeing a face like yours everyday would certainly make work much better." He says casually and you swear he sounds like a different person for a moment. His demeanor is totally different and it almost sounds like his accent changed.

"Aren't you sweet." You muse.

"Sorry, that was bold." Steven mutters and his mannerisms are back to normal.

"It was- cute. Very nice of you to say." You smile. "I have to get going now and you should probably go find your boss, but I'll be bringing Lewis back so, see you soon." You say grabbing Lewis's hand and taking him out of the museum.

"He was nice." Lewis hums.

"Wasn't he? Don't worry when you finish that book I can bring you back for more things." You tell him, ruffling his hair as you walk down the street.

You do bring him back, a couple of weeks later and he's quick to pick out a new book and another archeology dig toy like the one you got him. Apparently there's a whole collection of toys you can get inside and he's determined to get them all.

"Hello again mister Steven!" Lewis says placing his items on the counter.

"Oh hi, you're back." Steven glances at Lewis and then smiles at you.

"We sure are. Lewis is trying to collect all the toys in these things." You say.

"Awesome. Those things are very cool I bet." Steven says scanning the items.

"They are!" Lewis says.

"Well good luck on your expeditions." Steven smiles at Lewis as you swipe your card.

"Thanks!" Lewis says taking the bag from Steven when he hands it to him.

"Hey Steven, this may be a bit forward but would you be interested in hanging out some time?" You ask him. Ideally you'd wait for him to make a move but you suspect it would take him months to work up the courage and you don't want to keep bugging him at work and leave it up to chance.

"You wanna hang out with me?" He blinks at you.

"Yeah! Only if you're interested. You can say no of course, I just figured maybe it'd be nice to talk outside of me coming to your job." You say.

"I'd love to! When? Should I- should I meet you somewhere? Here maybe?" Steven stutters out nervously.

"You know the restaurant around the block? It's off Primrose."

"Yeah, I know it."

"Meet me there by 7 tomorrow." You tell him.

"Alright." He nods and you leave with Lewis in tow, too wrapped up in his new book to pay your interaction any mind.

The next evening Steven is outside your chosen restaurant ten minutes early ignoring Marc's voice making fun of him for being so anxious.

"Steven!" You call as you walk towards him.

"Y/n, hi." He breathes with a smile.

"I hope you weren't waiting long." You say looping your arm through his as you walk into the restaurant.

"Oh no not at all. I got here only a couple of moments before you." He says. The two of you are quickly led to a table where you end up sitting for a few hours. It's awkward at first, the way first dates tend to be. Steven is unsure of what he should and shouldn't say and it makes the first bit of conversation a little unnatural but you're more than happy to take the lead, and the more you do the more he relaxes. He cracks jokes and laughs and it's the most beautiful sound you've heard in some time. While it's obvious he's still nervous around you, by the time your date ends well into the night he's the most at ease he's felt in ages. He's even the one that initiates the invite for a second date for which you go to an art show. You and Steven spend a few weeks seeing each other before eventually making it official. He's sweet and gentle and still pretty shy about certain things even after a several months together. Tonight you've invited Steven over for dinner, it'll be his first time really in your apartment and you're hoping to approach physical intimacy with him. When you hear a knock on your door you're just about done making dinner and you quickly wash your hands before answering it.

"Steven! Hi!" You smile.

"Hello love, am I too early?" He checks his watch.

"No of course not, I just finished cooking. Come in." You step out of the doorway to let him in.

"Oh! I brought you flowers." He says handing you the bouquet.

"They're gorgeous. Let me just find a vase for them. You can just take a seat at the kitchen table." You say taking the flowers from him. You find a makeshift vase for the flowers and set them on the table. You quickly serve dinner, a vegan version of your favorite pasta dish.

"You look amazing by the way." Steven breathes out as you sit beside him.

"Thank you. You look nice too." You say softly. You wait for Steven to take a bite of his food before you eat your own, eager for his reaction. He lets out a groan that brings a proud smile to your face as you eat.

"This is so good." He says.

"I'm glad you like it. It's one of my favorites to make." You tell him.

"If you cook any more meals like this I'll never let you go." He jokes.

"Who said I wanted you to do that anyway?" You muse making Steven blush. The conversation shifts to catching each other up on your days and before you know it, dinner is finished and you've migrated to the couch in your living room with wine.

"Your place is nice, it feels very you." Steven notes.

"I sure hope it does, I'm quite proud of my interior designing." You smile when Steven laughs. "Do you feel like your apartment reflect you Steven?" You ask after a moment.

"Well it's kind of a mess of books so, in some ways yes." Steven shrugs. "I think it reads mostly that it's just a place I sleep though."

"Not big on stylizing it to fit you?"

"Not sure what stylizing to fit me looks like honestly."

"A wall of books sounds like a good a place to start." You joke and he chuckles.

"Well what would you do with it?"

"With what?"

"My flat. What would you expect for it to reflect me? It's a studio, if that helps."

"A large bookshelf that you probably only half use because you're always reading five books at a time so even though it's there you still have books everywhere." He laughs at that, "Little knick knacks from your favorite exhibits at work. It's probably all neutrals, your bedsheets and stuff but you should really get something brightly colored, like nice curtains or some pretty throw pillows. Probably looks like a dead person lives there." You joke jabbing at his ribs lightly. At some point while you were talking you'd stretched out so your legs are draped over his lap.

"I'm very much alive thank you." Steven scoffs at you, hand absentmindedly rubbing your shin.

"Are you?"

"You'd be dating a ghost if I wasn't." He points out leaning towards you.

"Imagine that. My boyfriend, a ghost." You say quietly since he's so close.

"You can't feel a ghost this close to you. Can you?"

"Then it's a good thing you're not one I guess." You say, bringing him towards you with a hand at the nape of his neck. The position is a little awkward after a couple of seconds so you move to shift yourself entirely into his lap without disconnecting your lips. Steven has always been reserved in his kisses. They are soft and shy, as if he's not sure what to do although now he seems to be comfortable matching your intensity when you deepen the kiss. One hand tangles itself in his hair while the other rests against his chest.

Touch her Steven. She wants you to. Marc's voice chimes in.

Touch her?! Wait do you think she wants to go all the way? I don't-

Don't panic dude. I can always take over.

No way! She doesn't even know about you.

Maybe it's time to change that

Not tonight! Just- butt out.

At some point during their mental debate Steven stopped kissing you back, which- you definitely notice and you pull away.

"Steven. Are you alright?" You ask quietly and that brings his attention back to you.

"Y-yeah. Of course." He says.

"Steven we can stop if you're not comfortable. I have cake, we can just- go back to talking." You say shifting to get off of him. Steven's hands move to grab your hips, keeping you in place before you can move too far.

"I'm not uncomfortable. I just- I've never done this before."

"Never done what? Made out with a girl?"

"Uh well I- I thought maybe we were going to do more than that." He says awkwardly worrying that he misread the situation and made things worse by jumping to conclusions.

"We don't have to if you aren't ready." You tell him with a hand against his cheek.

"It's not that I'm not ready. I want to I just- I don't know what to do. You'll have to teach me."

"Teach you?"

"Yes teach me. teach me how to touch you and tease you show me how to please you." Steven says and you swear his words travel straight to your core.

"You're sure about this? I don't want you to feel pressured in any way."

"I'm dying to learn every inch of you." He says quietly.

"I'll tell you what you don't need help with, your words." You muse standing and pulling him with you. "We're going to my room." You toss over your shoulder.

"O-okay." He says letting you drag him down the hall to your room. As much as Steven would like to take a moment to look at your room, he's too captivated by you to bother looking anywhere else as you slowly pull the straps of your dress down. You let the dress fall to the floor and step out of it, turning to face Steven in just your underwear and his eyes are wide as he stares at you. You pull him towards you and place his hands on your waist to kiss him. You make quick work of the buttons on his shirt, running your fingers down his chest. Your hands unbuckle his belt and then stop yourself.

"Is this okay?" You whisper.

"Very okay." He sighs.

"Take them off for me baby." You say stepping back. Steven scrambles to shove his pants and boxers down his legs and nearly trips stepping otu of them. "You didn't have to rush." You muse.

"S-sorry." His cheeks ting pink in a way you find adorable.

"I'm not scolding you, but you almost tripped. I don't want you to hurt yourself." You say gently patting his cheek. With a hand on his shoulder you guide Steven to sit on the edge of your bed. You squat in front him and place a kiss against his knee, and then another above it trailing up his inner thigh and then switching to the other leg, starting at his knee again and kissing your way up. His hands squeeze the edge of your mattress as he gets worked up from your lips against his skin. When you finally take his dick in your hand Steven groans, hips twitching as your tongue traces the length of him. You wrap your fingers around him, swirling your tongue lazily around the tip while you stroke him. Only once his shaky breathing turns into strained whines do you put him all the way in your mouth, swallowing as much of him as you can and the warmth has every muscle in his body tense with pleasure. You bob your head quickly for several minutes, watching the way ecstasy paints itself across your boyfriend's face. His mouth is dropped open as sounds spill out of it, his brow is furrowed and his eyes are closed. Curious to see his pupils blown wide you gently drag your nails down his legs and his eyes pop open. You only get a glimpse of the way the pools of brown have all but disappeared behind black before his eyes close again, the sight of you staring up at him with his dick in your mouth to overwhelming for him to keep his eyes on you. When his thighs tense up beneath your palms you let up, standing while he struggles to catch his breath. You lean over enough to kiss him.

"Move back Steven." You mutter against his lips and let him shuffle his way up your bed until his head rests on your pillows. You crawl over him and sit with your legs on either side of him. You litter his neck with kisses, listening for clues of his sensitive spots smiling to yourself when his breath hitches as you nip at a spot just above his collarbone. You work the spot until a bright red mark stains his skin before you sit up.

"Touch me Steven." You tell him grabbing his hand and placing it on your chest. He hesitates for a moment before squeezing the flesh of your boob, noticing the way you gasp when his thumb grazes your nipple through the lace fabric. With a curious look on his face Steven tugs the cups of your bra down enough to reveal your breasts properly, fingers brushing over your nipples repeatedly, watching the way you subtly arch towards his touch.

"You're sensitive here." He mutters.

"Yeah, use your mouth on me." You breathe out. Steven sits up and wraps his lips around one nipple, sucking and licking it as he rolls the other between his fingers. The way moans and whimpers fall from your lips has Steven wanting to stay like this forever if it means the sounds never stop. You take Steven's free hand and guide it between your legs. Just like with your boobs, he's initially unsure of what to do but your fingers press his towards your entrance and he slowly works them inside. The way his digits curl inside you makes you grind against his hand and with dick pressed against your ass he starts to shift at the sudden friction.

"You're so- wet." Steven marvels at the feel and sound of his fingers inside you.

"You made me wet sweetheart, with your pretty sounds and even prettier dick." You say with your lips next to his ear, nipping at the lobe in a way that has him groaning.

"I wanna taste you." Steven mutters, placing kisses along your neck. You pull his hand from you and place it against his lips. He licks his fingers clean with wide eyes looking at you. "That isn't what I meant." He frowns.

"I know. Next time love. Right now I just want to ride you." You tell him raising your hips to shift your lacy panties to the side.

"But-" Steven's complaint is cut off by a harsh grunt as you line him up with your entrance and sink down on him.

"Fuck you're big." You whimper, your head dropping to his shoulder.

"S-Shit you're... warm." He huffs out. Your hands against his chest push him back against the pillows as you brace yourself and begin to bounce on him. Steven's hands grab your hips tightly as you ride him fiercely.

"You look so good under me like this Steven. So so good." You moan when you look down at him. His head is thrown back and he's grabbing you harsh enough to leave marks but fuck if it doesn't feel so perfect the way he fills you.

"W-wait- y/n I'm close." Steven warns you.

"Fuck- you wanna cum inside me baby?" You ask him and his eyes go so wide you'd find it funny in any other situation.

"C-can I?" He pleads with a look that would make you do anything he asks.

"Sure you can. If you want to."

"Gods I want to- but you- you have to cum first." He grunts. You slow your bouncing just a little so you can keep your balance when you take one hand off of him to rub circles against your clit, the bundle of nerves sensitive and swollen from lack of attention.

"F-fuck." You moan, feeling the coil in your belly tighten as you play with yourself.

"Come on love, please cum. Wanna see how gorgeous you look cumming on my dick." Steven begs. He actually begs and his words are enough to send you over spasming against him as you ride out your high. When you start to come down you pick up your pace again, focusing now on making Steven finish.

"Your turn baby. Cum for me. Fill my pussy like you want to." You drag your nails down his chest and he moans loudly as you feel warmth flood your insides. Before you can move off of him, Steven pulls you against his chest, holding you close as he recovers.

"Was that- was I okay?" He asks quietly after a moment.

"You were amazing. Especially for your first time." You tell him.

"Good- great. I'm glad. I didn't want to disappoint you-"

"You could never disappoint me Steven." You cut him off. "But there's still a lot to teach you." You add kissing his cheek.

"We can start as soon as tomorrow." He mutters, his eyes closed as sleep threatens to carry him away.

"No need to rush. You've got plenty of time to learn. I'm not going anywhere." You say rubbing soothing circles on his chest.

"Neither am I." He manages to slur out before finally he falls asleep and you allow the steady beat of his heart to lull you off too.

***

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

prompt: spider takes the bullet, not neteyam. quaritch will do anything to get his son back, anything. he'll even work with augustine's recom.

(warnings for discussions of past torture and character death, although really an astonishingly gen ending to this magnificent journey)

ao3

"They won't help you," he says. "You know that, right?"

Augustine stares at him, face studiously blank the way it used to get during long board meetings. He can see her tail twitching, though, ears flickering like she's trying to ward off a nonexistent fly.

Behind her, farther down the bloodstained rock, Mo'at'ite hisses, knuckles white around her bow (that bow, that fuckingbow, but Quaritch won't look at it, anymore than he'll look at the body at Augustine's feet). She and Sully both have their weapons drawn, but Quaritch isn't the slow target he was in the AMP anymore and Augustine's standing tall, fucking up their sightlines.

"Kiri," Sully says, voice taut. "You gotta get out of the way, babygirl--"

Quaritch barks a laugh, the ragged kind that comes when you're teetering on the edge of hysteria. "Babygirl? You shitting me?" He shakes his head. "Come the fuck on, doc. The Augustine I know would've put out her cigarette on any man who tried that shit with her."

"She isn't Grace," Sully says hoarsely. "Kiri, stand down now. That's an order."

Quaritch doesn't even dignify that shit with a response, just rolls his eyes (easier to avoid looking at the ground, at the body). Augustine doesn't seem particularly moved either, her fingers flexing as she adjusts her stance.

She could kill him, Quaritch knows, without any help from her so-called mommy and daddy. He can feel the power crackling in the air around her, buzzing around her fists, blood-metallic on his tongue. It makes his kuru ache, same way it had in the woods--back then, he'd been too focused on Spider Spider Spider to really pay attention.

He knows better, now. He'd seen what she'd done to Lyle after Sully's voice has crackled over the line, sharp and cold and still shaking ever so slightly: your boy's dead, one of your dumb fucking grunts shot him. Let my daughters go, or you're next. Sully's always been a shit liar, but it was the panicked look at Lyle's face that made it impossible to deny.

Fucking Lyle. He's lucky the way Augustine turned his brain to slurry when she did, before Quaritch could get his hands on him. Lucky he doesn't have to fucking stand here and not look at the thing on the ground, the thing, the body--

"You think they'll even let you bury him?" he asks. "The locals won't stand to have this shit in their holy grounds--they'll probably give him back to Spellman so he can get dumped in a fucking crematorium. You'll never see your Monkey Boy again."

The pipsqueak with the eyebrows, tail lashing. "Don't you talk to her--" he growls, but Augustine cuts him off.

"I'll never see him either way." Her voice is hoarse--Quaritch remembers the way she screamed on the ship, like something had been torn loose in her and would never be put right. He knows that feeling.

"Kiri," the older boy says, the one Lyle had screamed something about trying to shoot instead as his blood ran out of his eyes. "Kir, please, come on--"

"We've got his memories," Quaritch cuts him off fast, can't let her get swayed by her fake family now. "At Bridgehead, we--we scanned them. Got a copy." If they're still there; they better be still there. The kid had thrown a shitfit in the scanner like every time before, but he'd still gone into the revamped Soul Drive with the rest of them.

"You hurt him." There's blood dripping from the tips of her fingers; he wonders if Sully and the rest have realized it's not hers.

"I did," Quaritch admits, because he doesn't have any time to fuck around. "Whatever you want to call me, whatever I've done, you're right. But I want him back, you understand? I mean it, you know I do."

She does. He can feel this fucking eyes of hers burn into him, bright with whatever wacky upgrades she got from her own trip through the other side, flaying him deeply enough she can see Spider Socorro's name written on her heart, same way it's written on hers. Kid's always had that fucking way about him.

"I want him back and none of these assholes will help, none of them could if they fucking wanted to, but I can." Quaritch takes a step forward and the Sullys tense, knuckles white on their weapons. "And you--you've got the know-how, you're the egghead I need in my corner. You brought yourself back, didn't you?"

"She didn't--" Sully whines.

"Didn't she?" Quaritch doesn't bother looking at him, keeps his eyes firmly on Augustine as he holds out a hand. She looks at it, then at him, those little flashy lights twinkling across her skin like she's rebooting. Remembering.

"I offered you a chance to make amends and work on this moon together, once." She knows what he's talking about, he can see it. "You told me to go stick my dick in a woodchipper, and you were right. But I don't care about that anymore, I don't give a fuck about this stupid mudball we're on or the stupid mud ball we're from, I just want my son."

His gaze flicks to her family, just for a second, then back to her. "They don't see anything about you except the meatsuit, same way those RDA pukes did with me. And they don't see anything about--" His breath catches, twists, "him, except that he's a big fucking mistake, and they'll do everything they can to forget he ever existed."

Silence. Her jaw works and he wonders if she wishes she had a cigarette right now--seeing her without one feels more jarring than the baby face or the blue skin. 

"Kiri," the little girl whines, reaching out before the Metkayina girl carefully tugs her back. "Kiri, please."

Augustine's hair rustles with a wind that doesn't exist and her fists curls tight at her side, fingers trembling. Quaritch wonders if she's going to burn him like she burned Lyle, or maybe just call up something big and toothy to rip him apart.

And she might have, if Sully hadn't decided to lunge across the island in a few big, stupid strides, clapping his hand down her shoulder. "Kiri," he gasps, tugging her back. "Come on--"

Her eyes flare (panic anger fear, quick and smashed-up the way it always came with her) and she whirls, queue crackling, palms raised high. Sully goes staggering backward with a yelp, clutching his bleeding nose, and Mo'at'ite lunges to catch him before his head hits the rock. Augustine watches him topple, stunned still, gaping in horror.

Then she moves. Turns and scoops the...body up from the ground, cradling it (him) carefully to her chest even as she hustles down the rock. No vocalization, but her banshee swoops down from the sky, landing with a whomp of wings next to Cupcake, and she's hauling the body (Spider) onto the saddle before Quaritch's got his first leg up Cupcake's side.

"Kir!" Pipsqueak yells, rushing to their side, frantic. "Kir, wait, don't--"

She holds out a hand and he jerks to a half, from his own volition or hers it's hard to say. "Look after them," she says, and then Quaritch is fitting his own queue home, not that Cupcake needs more encouragement to go go go as they soar into the sky.

They go swoop out over the smoldering sea, Augustine's hair--Spider's hair--whipped gently by the wind. Quaritch glances over his shoulder to see the Sullys vanishing, a scatter of blue dots rapidly fading from view.

"They won't follow us," Augustine calls flatly. "Their ikran won't listen until we're out of range." She shoots him a cold look, hand resting on his son's spine--Quaritch doubts he's getting near that body any time soon, but that doesn't matter, he'll make it not matter. "Lead the way, Ranger Rick."

"Yes, ma'am," he says, just to be an asshole, tossing off a snide salute before leaning into the next turn. She bares her teeth the way the kid used and follows, banshees swerving together to meet the rising sun.

[nichijouofficialartsandstuffs]

hi hello! really liked your parapara cards!! if you’re still active may i ask what kind of scanner and what scanning dpi you used to get them? my brother and i have similar cards that are for k-on and we want to make them into something as high a quality as you made (the only versions available are pretty low quality) also, did you scan them one at a time or many at once?

Ooh, that's really cool! I don't have anything so fancy, but it's an Epson Perfection V39 that works well for my needs. I did them one at a time and tried my best to keep everything aligned and all the good stuff. Definitely takes a long while, but I think the results were worth it.

...I should really get back to scanning stuff huh? It's been one heck of a time since my posting, oops.

[best-titan-7274]

I just got home from the painfull teeth stuff anf my teeth still hurt so much, can I have some hurt/comfort with Jack and BT? ;o;

maybe Jack gets hurt on the mission, but like, not too serious, just painfull, and has to take care of himself untill the medics could get to them (or they to medics?), and BT kinda frets over him and gets lowkey anxious that he can't really help with that. maybe insert "why are humans so fragile" thinking from BT, and Jack getting amused and countring it with some facts about human resilience (like the fact titans need specifically made copmonents/parts to get fixed, and humans just need some food/drug stuff and rest, or something).

oh I love hurt/comfort, hope you're feeling better by now!

Sometimes, shit happened. That was a phrase that he'd learned long before he ever joined the Militia. But lately it had definitely applied to missions and Jack was starting to get kind of tired about it all.

"Pilot, are you sure that you do not require any emergency medical assistance?" BT asked, not for the first time.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, BT. It looks worse than it is."

Not entirely. His arm does hurt like hell, and it is kind of slashed open from his shoulder to his elbow. He should have kept a closer eye on his surroundings, but the scanner hadn't been working, so he'd been staring at that, and he figured BT was scanning the area himself instead of just watching him-

Anyway, they'd both made some mistakes. And now Jack was hurt. They'd finished their mission just fine, and nothing else had tried to eat him, so he figured everything was okay.

Except the part where BT was more of a mother hen than his actual mother.

Jack had patched himself up, kind of, more like he'd taped a bandage over the cut and then another to keep it from bleeding through. BT had judged him for his slipshod job anyway.

"Why are you so worried about me, anyway?" he couldn't help asking. "Is this more protect-the-Pilot protocol stuff?"

"Partially. I am also worried about you as my friend."

"Aw, BT. Don't worry about me, all right? I'm fine."

"I am still concerned about your injury."

"Humans heal themselves, you know that, right? It's not like a Titan that's gotta have a tech crew with special parts. I mean, sure, the medic is going to want to give me an antibiotic shot or something, probably. But I'll be all right."

"My records of the things that can injure human Pilots indicate that their skin and bones are very fragile compared to my chassis, even if it does require special parts."

"Yeah, we break easier, but we get fixed easier, too. It's gonna be all right. A few weeks at base and I'll be just fine. Trust me."

"Of course I do."

"And if you're really worried, you can help me convince Briggs that double chocolate ice cream is essential to my recovery."

There's a pause, and then, "My records do not indicate that this is correct."

Jack laughs despite himself, and stands up, shoving the packaging from the bandage in his pocket. He's not going to litter, he's not an animal. But he's also not above pestering his Titan into being extra nice to him while he's injured.

"You can keep an eye on my vitals while we keep walking, all right?"

"I believe that will be essential to your continued health."

Geez, not a lot of faith in him. But he has done a lot of reckless things in the past, so BT does have good reason to be slightly worried. Jack trusts his Titan to keep an eye on him no matter what problems they run into. Here, or anywhere.

[autodiscipline]

hi! just wondering, what scanner do you use for all your scans, or which scanners would you recommend?

Hi anon! I’ve answered this question before here. It’s been a minute since that first ask, so I do have a bit to add. 

First is that the cover has obtained some warping over time with the consistent pressure of scanning, & won't flatten back out (tried applying even pressure with books, I think I made it worse LOL, this may be preventable & totally user error since I don't always make sure the cover is level. long parenthetical) I’ve also noticed the colors becoming weirdly saturated with a green hue recently. +The older it gets, it gets stuck mid-scan, only slightly, more frequently. It is a ~2 yr old machine with good milage so some degradation is to be expected. It does the job, & the results speak for themselves.. I’m not dissatisfied by any means, it performs exactly how I expected it to! Only a little sickly

As for recommendations, this is the only scanner I have experience with, so I’m not the right person to speak on this. Frankly, I’m too broke to shop around cry. I know there’s talk about these things on forums, which is where I initially did my research, tons of helpful info about what works for specific needs & price ranges.

[merchantarthurn]

hello!!! if you dont mind me asking what kind of white pen do you use for adding little highlights in your art? your art inspired me to start inking and coloring my traditional art and ive been having a lot of fun with it for a year or so now but i can never seem to find a good white gel pen to use 😭

you and me both friend 😭 I have a lot of issues with the ones i've tried and im thinking i might switch to just using white dip-pen inks (shirahama has given the brand she uses it's something like icy-white but i'll have to dig that out again).

the best luck i've had has been the following:

General notes of paint/acrylic markers - be extremely careful of smudging and drying times, both of the pen and whatever you have underneath. For any solvent-based mediums (paints, alcohol markers and ESPECIALLY linework inking) acrylic markers can pick up some of the colour or damage the paper and create smudges and tears. This is relatively easy to avoid so long as you wait for stuff to dry and work in small areas. The paint itself will take a while to dry so I usually let it sit for 30mins-1hr before putting it anywhere near my scanner bed. If you need to work on a larger area and the paper you're working on isn't pretty robust you should probably switch to a paintbrush and just use regular acrylic paint (which has a longer drying time).

I've also found that with smaller pen nibs getting a reliable opacity is an absolute crapshoot lol.

Artistro paint market pen - really good when fresh, but god help you if you go without using it for too long after you start using it. it'll gunk up and I don't know how to fix them. They are relatively cheap and come in packs at least. Doesn't seem to have larger sizes though.

Posca paint pens (various sizes) - far more robust than artistro if you store them right but regrettably more pricey. I've also found the finest nibbed white pen to be... deeply underwhelming. It never seems to have adequate pigment no matter how long I shake and prime it. By contrast the artistro gave the same sized line much more consistently, but at the cost of the pen nib itself being pretty unreliable.

Decobrush pigment - I've not got these in white so can't speak for them directly, but the colours I do have are pretty spiffy and it's a BRUSH pen, which gives you so much more control and a range of sizes per pen. There is some difficulty with low opacity on these though (since they're meant to be used with other decobrush markers), so I don't know how a white "corrector" would fair. The colour range is generally pretty gorgeous though, in the long term i'd like to have more of them.

General note on gel pens - I've got a love-hate relationship with gel pens honestly. I find I can get more consistent results out of them because the ink doesn't settle and you don't have to prime the nibs, but that's only if you can find a good brand... and then a good specific pen lol. I've also found an issue when you don't let the medium below dry properly re: smudging, but it also seems like if your work isn't boneeee dry (like overnight or multiple days of alcohol markers drying) the gel can very easily take on the colour of the pigment underneath, especially darker ones. Oddly this doesn't always show up when scanning, but it will look odd in person. Not always a draw back though - it looks great for white detailing in shadow.

Sakura Gelly Roll 08 - Not sure if there's other sizes (or their efficacy) so I thought I'd be specific because if there's one thing about gel pens the specificity MATTERS. I've got a couple of these and they don't disappoint (insofar as my expectations for gel pens go)

Uniball signo broad - this was my favourite until it ran out of ink. I cannot say for the uniball signo (without the broad part) which seemingly just gave up delivering ink and enjoys carving lines on the page and maybe delivering just enough ink that you can see where the ball is on the track it leaves behind. But the broad? I really liked. It honestly probably performs the same as the gelly roll but the pen just feels nicer to use lol, and the fact that it ran out of ink rather than dried out speaks for how much I liked it lol

as a general warning though - basically any gel pen or acrylic pen should be the last thing you do on your piece, because the second it goes down you will not be doing any more colouring in that area (unless you paint with acrylics). You can maybe use lineart pens on top of them once fully dried for at least an hour (ideally more) but it's very likely to smudge.

honestly... if you scan your work, there's no shame in cloning a white area of your work to use as a highlight post-scan. i always feel like im cheating until i remind myself that every digital-artist peer i have gets do to this at their leisure lol. i'd recommend getting a good scan/photo of the work before adding any highlights anyway because it's sooo easy to bugger them up and be unable to fix it (i say this as someone who never remembers and always regrets it lol)

examples:

you can see where the opacity doesn't quite hide what it's covering - an extra layer or digital correction would have been great. pretty sure this was artistro acrylic pen. but the unseen thing is i had to correct around the iris to the point where i said "well fuck i can't do what i want now" and just fixed it digitally.

dot highlights on the left and in/around the eye - definitely gelly roll. gel pens are really good for little pin pricks because you avoid the ball-point smearing things too thin and you can get pretty high opacity from that. also some more digital "help" with a bit of airbrush glow.

Definitely gel pen but i forget which kind, but I wanted to show what I meant by "picking up some pigments" and how can can be a boon, but also how sometimes the scanner just picks it up as white anyway (left is scanned, right is a photo - you can see it's purplish in the shadows)

[thepatchycat]

Hi, I’m a real new shiny here (on Tumblr, but also at drawing), and it’s the first time I ask anything, so I hope it’s ok. I must say first that I love the way you draw TCW characters (especially the clones)! 😍 I just came across this sketch you made on canvas (if I remember correctly) https://www.tumblr.com/thepatchycat/729224397978828800 and I was wondering, if you don’t mind sharing, how do you get the perfect white background on non-digital drawings? I currently use a scanner app on my sketches and the results are always inconsistent and far from that white… thanks a lot in advance!! 😊

Welcome to the Tumblr crew, shiny! ;) And thank you kindly!

So my dirty secret for that sketch is... it actually is completely digital! I drew it in a program called Rebelle 5, which is designed to mimic traditional canvas/paper and pencils/paints. I picked it up for super cheap during a huge sale last year, and it's a lot of fun; unfortunately, it's usually pretty expensive, as many art programs are. I highly recommend keeping an eye out for sales though if you ever get into digital drawing--and if you'd like a free program, the one I use most of the time is MediBang. But those programs are really mostly helpful for digital art, not so much for scanning actual pencil sketches.

While I tend to stick to digital drawing nowadays, I definitely feel you on the scan cleanliness issue; phone pictures and even proper printer scans tend to end up either kind of dirty or faded. The short answer is that I don't actually have an easy and effective solution, but there might be some things you can try depending on what you have available. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already explored more methods than I have, and there are definitely people with better ideas and more experience than me, but I'll share what I've tried.

Long(er)-winded rambling under the cut!

So, I currently have an unfinished piece sitting in my files that began as a traditional drawing, one that I want to keep all the pencil details for. Here's the sketchbook page, scanned using a household printer:

Not terrible, but it'd be nice to have clearer contrast between the lines and the background. In MediBang, I can adjust the contrast by going to Filter>Levels (or Ctrl+L), which gives me a little box that looks like this:

I don't technically know the nitty gritty of how it works, but by my understanding, the outer triangles for the input and output indicate the range boundaries. Adjusting the input--particularly the darker boundary--so that the output boundary exceeds it basically tells the program to make the darker parts even darker, resulting in this:

Better! As you can see, though, the darker parts of the background also show up a bit more. Rather than relying only on contrast adjustments, what I actually ended up doing was carefully erasing the background around the drawing after adding a plain white layer underneath, and also going over some of the lines digitally. I did this first in MediBang (the only art program I had when I started working on it), then transferred the file over to Rebelle.

MediBang (left) has the pure white background, while the Rebelle (right) canvas settings I chose are a little off-white and more textured, which I think blends a bit better with the texture and shading of the image. It's possible to add textures and the like in MediBang, too, but Rebelle has it built into its design, so it's a little easier to figure out there; I'll likely finish this piece in Rebelle (whenever I get back to doing so, haha), since the canvas and brush settings will be easier to match to the texture of everything that came directly from the drawing.

Most of this is much easier to do with a drawing tablet/pen, unless you're a wizard with a mouse. As for traditional means... the best suggestion I can come up with is to try inking sketches, or at least darkening them further with a pencil. The more contrast you can get between your lines and the background, the more easily you can digitally tease that contrast out even further. I think most photo editors have at least some contrast, color, and brightness adjusters, and probably more useful functions I don't even know about--it never hurts to mess around with any program's filters and settings to see what happens!

Good luck, and happy drawing! :D

[mysticdragon3art]

King of diamonds.

Continuing my ink drawing playing card witches. I'm thinking of doing the suit of clubs next, in green ink.

11/14/2023. Dip pen and paintbrush, using Liquitex Professional Acrylic Ink "Naphthol Crimson". Fixes and clean-up with Daler Rowney FW acrylic ink "White" and Krita.

Leaving the hair white to contrast against the spiral-filled collar, put too many white shapes together, when adjacent to the face, neck, and diamond-patterned collar. But also, filling the hair with hatchlines made it blend in too much with the spiral-filled collar. So I tried outlining the hair with white lines. It works for Scott Christian Sava, so I thought I'd try it. (Love his vids.)

Also now finding that pressing my hand atop my scanner, in addition to a heavy book, works much better at creating focused quality scans. I'm now tempted to go back and re-scan all my past drawings in this playing card series, where I weighted the scanner lid with only a jar or paperweight. But then I'd have to re-do all my digital modifications too. I don't have the time or energy for all that. ;-; But now I know that pressing the paper further down onto the scanner, with my hand, works better than using just a weight like a book or jar alone. I hope this doesn't eventually break my scanner, after numerous repetitions. Scans with parts unfocused, didn't used to be a problem I'd think about. But I'm used to drawing with alcohol markers, and this playing cards project is in acrylic ink. It warps the paper slightly, but apparently enough to lift the paper away from the scanner glass, to produce portions of unfocused scan quality.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #315: DOOMSDAY PLUS ONE!

March, 1990

Guest-starring the Amazing SPIDER-MAN! The enemy REVEALED -- WHILE A UNIVERSE TREMBLES!

Is Nebula auditioning for a Bond movie poster? What's with the ass shot?

Also, we're still really slapping SPIDER-MAN prominently on the cover. I wonder if this story arc got a sales boost. Because it really is trying for one.

And not to nitpick but "the enemy revealed" when we already know Nebula's flimsy grasp of science was behind the universe vanishing. And how can a universe trembles when the universe has vanished?

Dammit, cover text! Get your story straight!

So, last times in Avengers: the Avengers were cleaning up after Acts of Vengeance when bouts of photo-negativity kept hitting the universe. While Iron Man and Vision went to investigate a weird call from Starfox, Thor and Spider-Man came into the Avengers Subbasement just in time for a series of photo-negativity strikes. Sersi used her Eternal powers to shield the room from the effects. Then, the Avengers discovered that everything outside of that one room had ceased to exist.

Captain America: "The whole universe has... vanished!!" Thor: "Say it is not so, Avenger! The son of Odin in his time hath stood upon the very brink of Ragnarok but ne'er hath such dark words been said!" Captain America: "See for yourself, Thor! This long range scanner shows the area of deep space immediately beyond Earth's Moon... At least, that's what it usually shows. Now there's... nothing!"

I wonder what DOOMSDAY PLUS ONE means in this context. Plus one what? Plus another doomsday? Plus another day?

I also wonder how all the instruments of the room are working without being connected to the greater sub-basement. Were the scanners and cameras located just within this square chunk of room? There wasn't anything on the surface? That doesn't make sense for an underground base...

I wouldn't bother thinking about it except the fact that the heroes only have the oxygen in this very specific room and no more invites one to think about the logistics of this.

A neat little touch is that endless nothingness isn't actually a white void. That's just the best man-made mechanisms can do at showing nothing.

The Avengers are feeling pretty defeatist in the face of the entire universe being gone. Understandably enough.

Captain America: "I've spent all my life surviving, first as a boy growing up in New York's lower east side, then as America's first and only super-soldier battling the Nazis in World War Two... finally as a member of the Avengers. But this... I don't want to sound like a quitter, but I have no idea how to deal with this!" Thor: "Nor have I, brave Captain -- and Thor hath lived a thousand times beyond thy mortal lifetime..."

Then, very special guest star, Spider-Man, gets a brilliant idea. He's the very special guest star so obviously, he's got to be pulling his weight.

Spidey knows a thing or two about cameras and Cap said the long range scanners weren't showing anything. What if they were missing something closer?

So he adjusts the depth of focus and zooms out (how do the scanners do this?) to see if there was something they just couldn't see because of how close it was.

"The way dust doesn't register on a normal camera lens..."

And bingo bango Bob's your mother's brother, another chunk of something floating in the endless void. A building floating about where New Jersey was labelled PolyDyne Industries.

Cap goes to check PolyDyne in the computer banks but ruh roh the computers aren't in this floating cube of Avengers Subbasement.

Sersi recovers from the strain of protecting the cube and suggests she can telepathically scan the PolyDyne sphere and find out if anyone is over there.

She tries to warn Cap that there could be danger to doing this but Cap insists. At this point, they have no choice but to try anything!

Sersi scans and then yells NO-OHHH!! and curls into the fetal position.

So her psychic abilities are about as useful as Jean in the 90s X-Men show. Zing.

Thor points out that a similar thing happened when she scanned the Negative Zone in Avengers #304. So basically, how do we keep an overpowered Eternal character like Sersi balanced?

This, I guess.

She's so ruffled that she forgets English so can't even warn the Avengers that she sensed a great EVIL at the center of the emptiness.

I guess that Thor knowing Allspeak hasn't been established yet. Or has been forgotten.

Thor can speak and understand every language. He gets Cipher's entire mutant power as a racial bonus

Ain't it sad, Cipher?

Jarvis, the most humany person here, notes that the air is getting stale.

Cap apparently has a "super-efficient bio-system" so he's better at breathing than a normal person. But even he can tell that the air is getting heavy on carbon dioxide.

This room only has this room's amount of air in it. It doesn't have extra air tanks or a carbon dioxide scrubber installed. Why would it? Under what circumstances would just this one communications room of the Avengers Subbasement get launched into an airless void??

I mean, except these circumstances. These are a bit unprecedented though.

But now that there's Something the Avengers can do, Cap isn't giving up.

Captain America: "If I've learned nothing else in my years of battle, I've learned the absolute truth of one old saying: While there's life, there's hope!"

Over at PolyDyne, everybody floats around in unconscious poses.

Nebula regains her wits first and marvels at the power contained in the compressor.

Nebula: "The power! Never in my wildest dreams have I anticipated such power! It crackles still about the compressor! It surges through my flesh like a thing alive! Even mighty gravity seems twisted by it!"

She tries to contact Gunthar the Rigellian on her mothership but he's not responding.

Then she looks outside the window and sees only the VOID.

Bit of a nitpick but after the explanation that the empty white void is the best human instruments could do to show absolute nothingness, I was hoping that seeing it with eyeballs would have a different effect.

Eyes lie to the brain, y'know.

Ah, well.

The story already settled on empty white void and its made for some striking splash pages.

Nebula floats over and starts yelling at Professor Harker to EXPLAIN.

Professor Harker: "It can only be a genesis pulse! There was always a danger of this, but it seemed so remote as to be beyond the need for considering! What my compressor does is concentrate the force of a one megaton nuclear explosion into an area smaller than the nucleus of an atom! In theory, this should release a vast quantity of usable energy. However, there was a small chance it might duplicate the effect of the Big Bang... create a new universe in the midst of the old..."

How small a chance is too big a risk that a science project might destroy the world? Just based on Mr. Destroy The Universe's project, I might say a non-zero chance but we've had a lot of particle acceleration since this was published and the universe seems fine.

Nebula slaps him and yells that obviously that thing he just described would destroy both the new universe and the original! Now she has PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER at her fingertips and no universe to become absolute ruler of!

ALSO, SOME AVENGERS JUST BUSTED IN SO SHE'S ALSO ANGRY ABOUT THAT NOW!

I have to say... The Avengers (and Spider-Man) had no idea they'd be busting into the PolyDyne building right where the baddie was so this isn't an "Ultron, we would have words with thee" badass entrance. They just kinda blow their way in, glue the Avengers communications room in place so it doesn't drift, and then go 'oh hey Nebula is here, now this makes sense.'

Although, Spider-Man hasn't run into Nebula so mistakes her for Andromeda. Do all blue ladies look alike to you, Spidey?

Thor asks how Nebula managed to escape that time vortex she fell into with Dr Druid, as seen in issue 297.

And Nebula's answer?

She has no fucking idea what he's talking about. She thinks he's making up nonsense just to distract her.

Ah, so, the retcon goes even this far back.

While Captain America and Thor are safe thanks to their shield and spinning Mjolnir respectively, Spider-Man has to dodge and jump around in zero gravity while Nebula shoots ray blasts at the Avengers and Spider-Man.

Captain America throws his mighty shield... which Nebula easily deflects. BUT IT WAS A FEINT. While she was doing that, Thor spins harder and kicks up a wind which blows Nebula into a bulkhead.

She manages to peel herself and blast Thor off-balance. Spider-Man gunks up her wrist-mounted ray blasters and tries to grapple her but she tosses him away.

And while Spider-Man is distracting Nebula by being his usual charming and/or irritating self, Captain America and Thor wander off to examine the compressor.

Cap is guessing that the big, glowing energy thing is what made the universe go away. But he doesn't have the science brain to know what to do about it.

He asks Thor to try to dissipate the energy in the compressor but it's just too much for the god of thunder.

Thor has to release the energies or else explode "as would a mighty oak struck low by lightning."

Meanwhile, Professor Harker crawls out from behind a chunk of dislodged lab equipment and tells Spider-Man the heroes have the wrong idea.

But before he can explain to the Avengers how to deactivate the compressor, Nebula blows him up.

Okay, but why?

Nebula, did you firmly clutch the villain ball in hand? Do you want the universe to not exist? Shouldn't you want this problem to be fixed too?

Idiot.

And weirdly a pointless death.

Captain America just switches to talking to the next nearest dude, a PolyDyne employee with red hair and a beard. And this random guy, who I don't think even has a name, is able to deliver the same exposition as Professor Harker.

It's not like it's played for tension. Professor Harker blows up and then on the same page Cap is like 'hey you' to the beard guy.

So I don't really get the point of killing Professor Harker. Nebula should want to restore the universe as much as anyone. And killing the guy didn't stop the relevant exposition from getting delivered immediately.

Weird. Weird writing choice.

Random Guy tells Cap that the compressor will be self-sustaining once it reaches 100% efficiency but until then, it's reliant on power from generators in the sub-basement.

But its crazy to try to unplug it! There's such an intense electromagnetic field around the compressor!

Guy: "There's no force on Earth that could break that connection!" Captain America: "Maybe not... but we're not on Earth any more!"

That's... That's a weird argument to make, Cap.

Granted, he also argues that they've got no other choice but to try.

Cap gets as close to the compressor as he can, even as the field makes him feel like he's got ants crawling around inside him. He can only hope that the super-soldier serum will protect him long enough to get the job done. But he's sure if he comes out of this alive, he'll be lucky if all this exposure to a powerful magnetic field doesn't permanently damage him.

He reeeeaches but he just can't get to the giant power cable.

Luckily, Spider-Man saw what he was doing and comes over to ask what the hell he's doing.

When Cap explains that they need to pull the plug ASAP, Spider-Man decides this looks like a guest starring role for Spider-Man.

His webbing is non-organic and non-conductive, thanks to tangling with Electro so often.

He thwipppts a webline on the giant cable and

PULLS

AS

HARD

AS

HE

CAN

Like lift heavy thing except with pulling.

Spider-Man's specialty.

So thanks to Spider-Man pulling something really, really hard, the universe is back.

... I wonder if the Avengers Communications Room is still webbed to the side of the PolyDyne building. I honestly hope so.

So with everything restored to normal, Captain America does his best to put a logical explanation on this.

Captain America: "Apparently, the... ah... 'genesis pulse' had only thrown the universe into a state of complete neutrality. It needed to reach maximum power to completely annihilate everything."

How did you reach that conclusion, Cap?

Anyway, Sersi has recovered from holding the communications room together and then scanning the void. She's telepathically scanned the entire world and determined no time passed while they were in the white void.

The whole story happened between two ticks of the clock.

Spider-Man's take-away is that they just saved the world and nobody will ever know!

(Jarvis says, hey, we'll know! Jarvis is a good guy.)

Apparently, Nebula vanished while everyone was distracted by the universe and gravity being back.

But Captain America remembers that Iron Man and Vision went to investigate her ship and thinks she's going to be in for a nasty surprise when she gets there.

So, apparently this saga still continues. The next issue is teased as "SPIDERS and STARS" so I'll bet next time has "Guest-starring the Amazing Spider-Man" slapped prominently on the cover.

But before that, we switch back over to Avengers West Coast to continue the Wanda Is Evil And Crazy story.

yay.

Follow @essential-avengers because this issue was actually pretty fun. Like, reblog, comment, or dance like nobody is watching.

[opallyrie]

Hey guys I just had this crazy idea for a crossover between FNAF ruin dlc and twisted wonderland. There is art to accompany it of course.

So in this crossover it takes place after the normal ending of ruin but at the beginning of twisted wonderland. We are going into spoiler territory now so if you don't wanna be spoiled turn back.

In the normal ending, after the elevator falls you can hear Roxanne wolf's voice calling out. While we don't know if this is the mimic this crossover hinges on the fact it is actually Roxy who is actually talking. So she then finds Cassie and cradles her injured body. She scans Cassie and her scanners tell her she is very injured but still has a heart beat. Roxy is unsure what to do until she hears a low humming despite not knowing what is making the noise as she can't see, she hears a voice reassuring her to come closer so she picks up Cassie and walks towards the sound which is in reality a glowing portal leading to Twisted Wonderland. Meanwhile in twisted wonderland the entrance ceremony is concluding and the students are settling down from the shock that a boy without magic was brought to the school I haven't decided yet but I think the boy should be Gregory or the boy should be a yuu who comes from the world of FNAF sb. Suddenly the dark mirror lights up and from it comes what appears to be a mangled robot holding an injured little girl. Everyone grows tense at this sudden appearance, some of the dorm heads even bring out their wands. What they hear the robot say when it realizes it is in the presence of people shocks them. It says "help ...... Her", its voice is full of sorrow and clear worry. Eventually Lilia vanrouge steps up and takes the girl from the robot who then powers down, having used all of its energy up, it falls to the ground. As it lies there motionless everyone begins to wonder what just happened as vanrouge tries to heal some of the girl's injuries with magic.

If yuu is Gregory he will say Cassie's name and rush to her side after getting over the shock while Cassie remains unconscious still in vanrouge's fatherly hold. If yuu is not Gregory he will remain in shock like everybody else. Also in this universe Gregory didn't cut the elevator, that was the mimic who cut the elevator before Gregory could finish speaking. So imagine the misunderstandings that will have to be worked out if yuu is Gregory.

Another thing that would happen in this crossover is Idia would be instructed to fix Roxanne wolf and look through her memory to find out what happened. When the information is brought to light a house warden meeting would probably be called.

So yeah this is my au feel free to write a short or long story about it or make fan art for it I would love to see it if you do any of these things please tag me. Additionally I unfortunately won't be writing more about this myself but I may share headcanons once in a while. Thanks for reading and goodbye for now 👋😁.

[whitherwordswither]

Logs from the Starfields

Name: Trim. Pronouns: They/Them. Background: Long Hauler. Traits: Wanted. Introvert. Alien DNA.

Some Backstory

I used to haul cargo long distances. Didn't matter what, as long as the creds were decent. Parts shipments to new colonies. A few passenger transports here and there when I felt like having some company. Sometimes, I'd even take a shady no-questions-asked contract.

It was one of those off the books deals that went south. That's how I ended up with alien DNA in my veins and a very unhappy client. To be fair, they didn't provide any warning or advise not to open the cargo. Sometimes I like to know what I'm stretching my neck out for. I wasn't totally prepared to fight off a weird space mutt with extra tendril-esque appendages and a penchant for chomping. Fucker got me good. I got 'em in kind. But whatever was in that hounds bite sure did some tango in my genome.

Get some weird dreams, odd cravings every so often. On the plus side I've never breathed as good my whole life. Been feeling quite a bit sturdier too. Food ain't been filling me up quite as well and med packs seem a bit slower but I ain't complaining… much. Which is also why I now have to keep my eyes open and watch over my shoulder. Never know when they'll send another squad to try and collect. I'm assuming they wanted the mutt for some wicked experiments. Guess I did the poor soul a favor on that front.

At the very least… it keeps my life exciting. If not tedious. Christ… I'm tired. But if I stop, I'm dead, so. What can ya do? [ Note: Minor spoilers for beginning of the game ahead! ]

Captain's Log #0.01:

Life's been up, down, and through the ringer more times than I can count. And I can count pretty high. Been trying to find a new way for a while now. Nothing seems to want to pan out. Shit luck, I guess.

Signed up with a mining crew for a change of pace. Was about ready to go on lunch break. Have a nice sandwich. Took it right off Rigel's plate. Stared right at him while I did it, too. The look on his face was priceless. Didn't even try to stop me. (I only feel a little bit like a jerk. But he's been getting on my nerves. What's a little sandwich shenanigans between crewmates, right?)

So anyway. Didn't have time to eat. What did I get instead? A ridiculous helping of ancient artifact brain waltzing, a run and gun all pirate rodeo, and a robot who criticizes the amount of junk I pick up every chance it gets. Listen, buddy. I got to net some creds somehow. And ain't nobody using these 15 microscopes for anything. Or those 37 succulents. Mind your own business. (Though, not sure why I needed all these notebooks in assorted RGB colors. I could drop a few but… I just think they're neat.)

Guess I also got a free ship out of the deal. At least no one's tried to take it back from me yet. See how long that lasts. (Pirates notwithstanding. I made a special detour to talk the head honcho out of pestering me. He even agreed. Then I accidently shot the volatile barrel him and his two guards were standing next to and uh… Oops, I guess?)

Anyhow. Poked around this abandoned research facility. Scanned a few rocks and some novelty sized trilobites. Filled my pockets and then jumped to New Atlantis.

Some group called Constellation wants me to join up given the head-fuckery I witnessed on contact with the artifact. Some kind of explorers club. Gave me a room and everything. Sarah, who seems to kind of be the woman in charge, wants to take me out on a mission. But I've got a lot of side gigs on my plate already and I want to take care of those first, so. I hope she don't mind waiting around a bit while I do some good humanitorial work… or whatever.

Feels nice to help folks sometimes, y'know? Got a tired lookin' gal near the tram some coffee. Helped fix up some wiring discrepancies down in the sub-city. Even rounded up some bio-scanners for a scientist fella.

Think I might go survey a planet next. I'll tell ya about it when I'm done.

End log.

[robinruns]

what a weird fucking couple days it has been.

yesterday i overslept BIG TIME, like i tried to wake up at 4:30 when my alarm went off, but i just could not do it. next thing i know, kyle's waking me up and it's already after 7 am and i'd slept thru at least his alarm (i think mine 6 am alarm is off actually). so that was a rush. then my mom calls me and says that she got a parking ticket in my dad's name downtown madison. for those who may be new, my dad died two years ago in april. turns out it's the penultimate truck my dad had and sold for cash in 2020. turns out the dude never registered it in my dad's name, it had no plates on it, and so when the cops looked up the vin number, it came up to my dad. so my mom's freaking out and like what the hell am i supposed to do ya know? so i told her to call the cops and be like "hey, here's what's up, what do we do". they called her back and explained what they needed to get the ticket out of my dad's name, told her to call the dmv and they told her what they need to get the car out of my dad's name. of course my mom can't get the document the cops emailed her so i'm like i'll stop by after my eye appointment tomorrow afternoon and do it then.

jump to today. i wake up about 15 minutes before my alarm because fuck me i guess, but i get to the gym earlier than usual. i got good enough workout in, and then stopped at dunkin for a big ass coffee. i got home, got ready for work, and got to work knowing i was leaving at 2:30 (2 hours early) and had a shit load to do. my mom texts me and decides i need to leave earlier and stop by her house first. uggghhhh fine whatever, i'll get it done early then back home earlier.

nope. of fucking course not.

but first i had to get that shit load of work done. i got... some of it done, not all of it because i lost an hour of work time. i'm going to have to do overtime this weekend to make up for it. not like i need to make up for my hours off, but like i need to catch up or try to get ahead ya know?

anyway, i head to madison. i get there and she's freaking out but i get it printed. then she wants to do the thing for the online form for the dmv, but needs my dad's drivers license number. this sends her into a full blown meltdown because she can't find it... just to find it about a minute later. turns out because the sale of the car was almost 2 years ago, we can't do the online form so she calls the dmv and explains the situation. meanwhile i'm like i need to leave in 5 minutes, sooooooo. so what does she do? freaks out that she doesn't know how to operate the dmv website and shoves the phone in my hand as i'm like "i need to leave!!" but luckily i find it in two seconds and get it opened/printed. but then as i'm leaving she's like "come back when you're done."

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucking hell.

eye appointment went fine. eyes a slightly worse than before but i knew that was coming. the person who was checking me out and ordering my contacts kept calling me girl though and i kinda wanted to be like "please don't assume my gender just because i'm wearing a dress". i head home and my mom's like about to leave. "i'm out of ink so i can't copy this form for my records." ugh. i try to scan it, scanner won't send the data to the computer. fine, go get the ink. so i sit in peace and quiet with shandy for the first time in AGES. she's all sleepy from going to the vet and getting her shots this morning. i love her.

anyway.

i don't know why i had to come back. but i did. she got her forms, i got a headache. whatever.

but i apparently won tickets to the badflower show, so i'm gonna see if jennifer wants to go again since she really likes them. i still haven't gotten my waterparks tickets that i won from the other radio station, but whatever. if they never showed up, then they never show up. no skin off my nose. so maybe that's my tomorrow night, idk yet. ugh. too much going on. and i need to do my taxes.

sigh.

[ygg-yiggles]

Old Art: Inktober 2022, part 1

I have participated in Inktober since 2019, on Twitter up until now. To breathe some life into my blog here, I'll post my work from past years over the next few days, along with my thoughts and explanations where relevant, using the more long-form format of tumblr to its advantage. Please mind this small content warning before you continue reading: Some of what I drew for this quite odd and creepy, and in at least one case (day 14), arguably gory. Keep this in mind as you read and view the art.

Day 1: Gargoyle This one was fun. I did a poor job of making it actually look like it was perched on the wall and the wall itself was a pain, ultimately resulting in something kind of halfassed and iffy looking, but still, I had fun with it, and I think the gaping red maw looks pretty decent, all things considered. I used a grey ink--if I recall, it was Noodler's Lexington Gray--for this one, though only sparingly.

Day 2: Scurry Some of the anatomy is screwy here, in particular the catgirl's hands are all kinds of gnarly in ways I didn't intend. Ink is unforgiving. These aren't really meant to be any characters in particular, but I was probably influenced a little by Nazrin from Touhou Project and undeniably heavily inspired by Maekawa Miku from The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls. You might immediately notice two things about this image: firstly that it is clearly more true to the color of the paper and secondly that the left edge curves away, gets blurry, and has a bit of a shadow. Day 1's drawing was simply captured by my phone camera, but I used my scanner for this one. That took time to set up (I have a bad habit of putting things on top of the machine and I have to reposition the whole thing because the USB-B cable I have is too short), so I didn't always use it. There's another scanner now, though, which I can use much more easily.

Day 3: Bat GAHHH why did I go right back to the phone camera? Oh well. The anatomy here is really poor especially around the legs, but I tried to be a little more dynamic with the pose than I usually would be. Evidently, I didn't properly plan this from the beginning, since the torso is on a somewhat different perspective plane than it should be. Oh well, not everything works out as you'd want it.

Day 4: Scallop I love drawing spooky little creatures. Here, we see a sea scallop, but with spindly arms and legs. This is only slightly more monstrous than what live sea scallops actually look like. Did you know they have like 200 eyes, all lined up in a row along the edge of the "mouth"? Crazy. There's also a moray eel in entirely imaginary colors here. It seems about as freaked out by the scallop creature as is appropriate.

Day 5: Flame Dragon girl! I should really put this under the scanner someday. Overall I mostly like how this turned out, though I clearly had no clue what to do with the breasts. Probably should have grabbed some references.

Day 6: Bouquet This time, the gnarly fingers were absolutely intentional. Here we see an elder vampire or something, perhaps some other kind of aged fantasy man, enjoying several flowers. I think they were based upon a couple specific real flowers, but I can't quite recall exactly what they were.

Day 7: Trip This is one I'm really glad I went through the trouble to use the scanner for. There are certainly things that could have been improved, but overall, I'm still quite proud of this one. Two girls on a road trip in an Autobianchi Bianchina, stopped on the side of the road for... I dunno, looking at the scenery, I guess. I don't know if that car was ever sold in this color, but it's what color I'd want one in.

Day 8: Match Matching outfit elves. The anatomy and basic geometry of this one was completely unsalvageable by the time I realized what was going on. Alas, at least it was properly scanned.

Day 9: Nest Sometimes you go into a drawing with an image in your head that's too complex to hold for long and when you zoom in in your mind to look at the details, you lose it. Ultimately, though, when I look at it now, that worked out better than if I had faithfully rendered every piece of trash in the garbage heap that this giant, mechanical bird-thing has built. Seriously, this looks way better than I remember it looking. I also used the grey ink here again, I think to much better effect than with the gargoyle.

Day 10: Crabby Crabby child, crab hat, "Feelin' Crabulous!" shirts. Not much more to say other than wow that mom character looks weird. I think I did a pretty decent job of depicting a child in the middle of a tantrum over god-knows-what here.

Day 11: Eagle A man and his concerningly large eagle. If I recall, this was meant to depict a Haast's eagle, an extinct species from what is now New Zealand. Or at the very least it was mostly inspired by that. In other words, it's completely nonsensical for a man in a heavy coat, fur hat, and snow goggles to have one as his companion, but somehow it just felt right. I used a bunch of different colors of brown micron and even fountain pen ink for this, and I think the effect turned out well.

Day 12: Forget Creepy creatures what take your brain out and make you forget things. The head being comically outsized compared to the rest of the body was actually intentional here--I felt the strange proportions would further bring focus to the point of the action and also just make the whole scene feel even weirder.

Day 13: Kind More weirdo creatures. I thought it'd be fun to depict kindness between alien things rather than more easily relatable humans or animals. This color palette also happens to be enjoyable to me. This is another one featuring some fountain pen inks, but I can't recall what they were.

Day 14: Empty Yeah, this one is pretty gross and freaky. Sorry about that. But hey, that was the idea. Mission accomplished, right? If I remember correctly, this one included Diamine Oxblood ink, to get that fleshy cavern look.

Day 15: Armadillo Yep, it's Tarkus. As in, the album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I guess you could consider this a gijinka? The nameplate thing bearing the day number and prompt is based on the colors of the ground in the album art.

..And that's it for now. I'll do days 16-31 tomorrow or the next day, depending on how much I can think of to write about those. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and for looking at my art.