#and i ended up going w the first sketch anyway

[identityquest]

here with me

[bishicat]

bishi i gotta know whats vivs canon cyberpunk ending? like if you had to pick one thats actually ingame what would you pick

ok so if I had to choose, I would def choose the Sun ending through the (Don't Fear) The Reaper ending cause I can convince myself that the Crystal Palace holds the cure/Johnny's back-up body and it's the most open-ended imo (i need to believe in something 🤡).

[luderailing]

🇵🇹

[motherforthefamicom]

random assortment of drawings i might as well post

[saewokhrisz]

have u ever talked anywhere about your coloring or composition processes? u are honestly one of my favorite artists and i would love to hear any insight on how you make pieces 💓

wahh thank you TTT !!! I did sorta give a very simplistic answer here but it was more of my simpler sketchy style so lemme redo that, ill try to be consise and make this understandable ?? its a bit hard cuz it honest to god depends on what Kind of piece im even drawing, cuz for some i go the whole length of doing lineart flats and all that, others i just just fuck around untill it looks right?

i do usually start with a rough sketch or colour draft, especially with more compley pieces this helps with figuring out the feel, honestly i should spend more time drafting properly, figuring out poses and such but im so lazy i just go w the first thing that looks good

then just lines over the colour draft, fixing lots of anatomy and proportion stuff, and depending on how i wanna do the colours ill either keep the colour layers or merge them together and have the edited colours as the base colour (this might not even make sense help)

see this piece at the time gave me an insane ammount of trouble with lighting and colours, so after trying to render i ended up merging everything together....which i dont USUALLY do but the rendering is pretty similar except usually i have colours be seperated by layer,

ANYWAYS sadly i dont have a process on how it got from flats to this specific render for this piece...but i still followed my initial drafts/plans with vibe and colours and just painted over it, its why i make it after all!

but honestly a lot of times its just very simple colours and just trying to mainting good contrast and values !!!! and THEN fucking around with colours and rextures, for other pieces i kinda just paint as i go? i have this timelapse of my justice piece that may be a bit more help!

it includes the initial colour draft, the cleanup/lining process, flats, rendering, and all that so its probs the most accurate timelapse of my morecomplex work processes, with stuff that doesnt include heavier backgrounds, which is a whole OTHER topic honestly

im sorry if i cant explain it more cohesively, i genuinely barely know what im doing most times and go by muscle memory and stuff i Know but cant. Explain? like i know how light and folds work since i observed and studied them but i cannot put it into words at all )--)0

my brushes also contribute a lot to how i render and colour, depending on what i use, you can find the swatches for them here !

[doppel-doodles]

It's doodling time fellas

I wanted to give myself a bit of a challenge so I decided to draw the ocs of a few people here on tumblr, with the added challenge of doing it fast-

Minimal erasing and redoing, basically whatever is slapped on the page first sticks whether I like it or not. And there is a little time limit on how much I can spent on each character so that I don't get distracted as easily.

Just a little exercise so that hopefully it'll get easier for me to throw down a sketch using few lines and not taking literal hours-w-" I know everyone has their own pace but I would like to be a faster artist.

Anyway my yapping aside and without further delay: The girlies💚💗💜❤

Now to who these lovely gals belong to:

Haiyang: @riptide-pools

Nawa: @auburnitzy

Suki: @peachy-puddin-cup

An he: @lumidotexe

For anyone interested I'll include some thoughts on each of these below the cut:>

Haiyang

The first one I did and I think it shows>~> I was basically more focused on just figuring out how I wanted to do this so I spent less time and energy on how I wanted the character to look in my style. In the end I settled on doing the basic shapes in pencil and then switching to colored fine liners for details.

With the colors also matches the way I draw digitally just a tiny bit more! Buuuut if I end up doing this again I definitely wanna redraw her, I wanna do this gorgeous character justice after all!/'w'/

Suki

Suuuuukiiii! I did draw her before so I decided to do this version, which I believe to be just her shadow form! While drawing I didn't actually give myself time to look it up cause ya know, no distractions which is why there is a question mark-

But my stupidity aside- here is where I started drawing a lot faster, I was in the zone if you will, so I spent what time I had left adding some variation to the line art. I do like this one and honestly she would probably be so much fun to render digitally so I'll see if I can if there is time:>

Nawa

NOW THIS IS WHERE THE FUN REALLY BEGAN-

Nawa just was such a blast honestly, probably because I was getting really comfortable at this point and let myself play around more with how I stylise the characters! I love me some funky eyes, its probably the most recognisable part of my style.

Also granted I don't know much on Nawa yet(fake fan I'm sorry-/j) I only recently followed the creator so I need to find time to just really browse through their blog and consume all the knowledge there is, but once I do I'll be unstoppable!>:D

An He

Last but certainly not least we finish with An He, who was a just a chill and nice lil drawing perfect to round out this doodle session-w- now I have actually read ERHS(shameless plug, read it it's so good- just need to find my attention span as I haven't caught up with it SOBS) so I have more knowledge on her.

For that reason I attempted to do a slimmer face shape, i wanted her built overall to read as visibly more thin and petite. Along side that I went for rings in her eyes as an allusion to sound waves as I didnt just wanna drop in a music note and call it a day.

however maybe I'll experiment more another time because I just dont think it reads that well:'<

That concludes my silly ramblings! Thanks for sticking around and if any of the creators of these lovely ladies see this- YOU HAVE AMAZING CHARACTERS AND I HOPE I DID THEM JUSTICE!- ahem.

If I do this again I'll definitely go for some male ocs as well for the sake of variety, it was a happy accident that I only drew girls here.

[p-oisn]

let's get positive ! (⁠ʃ⁠ƪ⁠＾⁠3⁠＾⁠）

(the content below the cut contains mentions of sensitive topics such as implied su*cide & sh so pls scroll if you're uncomfortable w those !)

this is a long rant about life basically .. 💩💩

i was going to make a post like this sometime later anyways bc i felt .. like a nice person ... but i made it a bit earlier than i expected bc i saw a post from oomf that really made me think .. so here u go

this comes from my own PERSONAL experiences and this is js my point of view yk !!! im no expert on any topic HSHSJ this is js the way i cope plz dont come for me in my asks ... i am aware that it isn't the same for everyone but , i hope this message can be helpful to some extent </3

if you feel like like life is leading nowhere n you feel like giving up I PROMISE it will get better bc i felt the same for two whole years n i will say that i have improved a LOT since . yes , it took me longer than i expected but i didn't give up and you shouldn't either ! it was hard n there were times i felt like i wasn't making any progress / improvement but in the end , it still got better

be kinder (to yourself, first) ☆

i think the first step to loving yourself is to forgive yourself .. its okay to try over n over again , you're still human n i think ppl tend to forget that often bc they're so tough on theirselves . let's not forget that your body is actively trying it's best to keep u alive , your WBCs for example ! (let's appreciate these little guys for trying their best 🎉🎉) your body too , deserves to be loved back , for fighting so hard just for YOU! so pls don't hurt yourself in any way </3

appreciate yourself for achieving even the smallest of tasks because even if it wasn't something big , YOU DID IT ANYWAYS ! every small achievement of yours deserves to be appreciated . even if it's momentary happiness , appreciate yourself while it lasts . i understand that sometimes even small things could be such a hassle but you can always reward yourself later ! i personally like to buy donuts everytime i finish something (this could come in handy when you're really craving something if you get what im saying ..)

It's okay if you're going at a slower pace than other people , what matters in the end is that you get it done ! everyone is not the same so it's unfair to put yourself down for such things .. also applies to comparing yourself to someone because in the end you'll still be you .. even if you don't like it .. that makes you unique ofcourse , there's only one of you in this world so embrace yourself for that !! you're one of a kind (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

oh, but, life's the same, it's boring ... ☆

yes , a lot of days could end up being the exact same because like , there are 365 days in a year so you can except most of them to be similar .. but as a new year starts , ofc many things change without you even noticing it , you grow older ofcourse , and you could be starting a new year in school , you meet new people and so on ! if you compare your life from a year ago or even a few months ago to now , you'll surely notice a few differences atleast so .. life is not reaaaaally the same right .... everyday is a new experience ! literally anything and i mean anything could happen the next day , you could even win the lottery who knows 🤫

when i felt like everyday was the same , i tried changing my patterns .. (my current favourite thing to do is go on a walk ! sometimes i take my dog w me , it's super fun) i would do small things that i dont usually do like sketch ! or i attempt cooking something new .. but obviously there were a LOT of days where i did nothing , sometimes even weeks , and that's okay ! we all deserve days where we do nothing ESPECIALLY if you're someone who is working or js in school / college everyday .. you deserve that break

i think a big factor is being unproductive ? don't get me wrong , i still am my same unproductive self at times unfortunately , n sometimes they do get so bad that they lead to a terrible burnout .. n i went through a rly bad burnout not long ago n trust me you do not want to get this far :( how do i deal with this ? (let's take studying as an example here) well i always start off with small portions , even if it's just a page or two . n then i slowly keep increasing the amount of pages i read .. n yes ofc , i understand how brutal burnouts can get sometimes n that's why it's important to not overwhelm yourself by attempting to finish a big portion of your studies in one go .. just take it easy , let the information marinate in your head for a bit before you move on to the next topic .. so basically what im trying to say here is don't overwhelm yourself with big tasks especially when you're already burntout

friends .. they're great ☆

the thing that honestly improved my life by a mile is getting good friends .. I've had my fair share of bad friend groups so trust me when I say this , it's better to be alone than with people who drain you mentally because . you deserve someone who treats you the way you actually want to be treated .

"but it's hard to make friends" i completely get this because i am a very shy person myself </3 but i think you could start by trying to make friends online ! its easy to find someone with similar interests on the internet .. so when you feel down atleast you know that there's someone on the other side of the world who cares for you ..

but this doesn't change the fact that solitude is AMAZING too (tbh i could go on for a really long time on how i love being by myself but this is already getting super lengthy ...) you can be your own friend too ! (okay see now this seems insane but if it makes you happy WHO CARES AMIRITE) i personally enjoy my own company like omg .. she can get a good laugh out of me sometimes ... you can do whatever you want when you're alone ! you can dance to your favourite playlist or experiment with a bunch of stuff ! if you get bored you can watch your favourite movie or consume your favourite piece of media that no one gets like you 🤫 so , as much as making friends sounds great , let's appreciate solitude too !!

ah, life can be beautiful sometimes? ☆

one of the biggest reasons i go on walks almost regularly is to remind myself how beautiful the world can be sometimes .. (atp half of this is me convincing you all to go on walks) i live in a beautiful neighbourhood n there are a lot of different flowers and fruits that grow here and that makes me really happy . going on early morning walks especially is soo fun , the world is so quiet then and you can even watch the sunrise 🥹

another thing is buying myself things i like ... especially clothes ... if you think you would look good in something then js go ahead and buy it ! don't mind what other people think because like ... YOU are wearing it and if people around you have a problem with that then i think they should close their damn eyes and not look at you if it bothers them that much 🤦 you deserve to feel confident and comfortable in your own skin , you deserve to dress the way you want to ! so if you feel like dressing a particular way would make you feel better .. GO FOR IT !!! this applies to other things you like, maybe accessories, merch or stationary that look cute .. it's okay even if people judge you for your style because in the end they're the ones who are boring and miserable because they spend soo much time hating on others 😒

life is soo much more fun when you take care of yourself trust me ... you deserve to be taken care of !! so spoil yourself once in a while i promise it's okay as long as it makes you happy <3

to sum it all up .. yes , good times don't last forever but so don't bad times , and you and i both can get through a bad day because life is still going on (⁠*⁠˘⁠︶⁠˘⁠*⁠)⁠.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ bad times too , will pass . so please believe in yourself and hold on !! i love you

again, this is all how*I* like to cheer myself up so pls don't take anything here in a bad way 😖 all of this was made with good intentions and im so sorry if i still ended up hurting anyone in any way ..

[strawberrymangosoda]

Your Jed and Octavius dolls are really cool!

thank you !! they were so fun to make--i highly encourage everyone to try !! i used affordable materials, all of which i already had on hand!

i'll ramble about it under the cut if you're interested.

(charms from @badpanini :D !! )

i did a mock-up sketch of approx the size i wanted the dolls to be, then started to sculpt their parts according to that guide. (literally just a crime scene outline with a vague armature line going through it)

i used sculpey iii to sculpt their heads, hands, feet, and armor! then i used some wire and electrical tape to make the armatures and hot clued the clay parts onto them. i used scraps of flannel fabric from a previous project and wrapped it around the wire using A LOT of hot glue to make sure it was secure!

i wrapped the torso first to make sure the most finicky part of the armature was stable, then moved onto the arms and legs. if you're wondering how the limbs are so nice and bendy, i made sure to wrap the flannel in segments! i wrapped the limbs in two sections each: forearm, upper arm, thighs, and calves! this makes the "joints" uniform each time i go to pose them!

i used that same flannel but inside-out for oct's arms! i hid the seam on the front because i knew the gauntlets would cover it. i have a bottle of "golden brown" craftsmart acrylic paint that i used for his skintone straight out of the bottle, so i painted the fabric with it to match the clay !

their clothes were a pain in the ass to make, because you have to maneuver the dolls around to be able to sew them on HAHAHA

yes, i did make jed's jeans under the chaps. it was awful. but it added to the whole thing.

for this entire craft, hot glue was my best friend. my ride-or-die. i can't even begin to tell you how many sticks of hot glue i went through.

i had a trial and error (emphasis on error) phase where i was impatient and tried to use hot glue to make octavius' arms because i was stumped, and it was horrible and ended up losing one of his hands and had to sculpt a new one. (literally lost it. not that it cracked, it just. disappeared into my carpet. think the tenth doctor. gonna have a metacrisis happen, i fear.)

then there was the air dry clay fiasco. do not recommend unless you love waiting or just are a god at sculpting w that stuff. i'm not.

but yeah i mixed my own colors for their blush and some little details here and there, but mostly used stuff straight from the bottle! i have this AMAZING silver paint that is SO shiny with one coat only!! every piece of oct's armor? one coat of this stuff. it's the DecoArt Dazzling Metallics in "shimmering silver". CANNOT get enough of this stuff. i want to eat it.

anyways.

i havent made their weapons yet, and i'm debating making them at all. but honestly they were just so fun to make. took me about 4 days of working on them on and off i think.

i may have forgotten something, so please ask if you want clarification for anything !

[orangelemonart]

that panel of ur latest comic sasunaru roomates where sasuke was like “ in her defense “ right after sakura tried to defend him from going to prison was so sweet !! i’ve been loving the sakura friendship stuff i see from u w/ sasunaru. and the team 7 raising sadara was so adorable !!

Thank you!!!! I actually really like Sasuke and Sakura's bond! Before he left, they were friends! They have a really funny dynamic! They wanted to protect each other! She was precious to him too! ! Naruto is his everything by the end, but he's opening himself back up again to Sakura and Kakashi!! (here is where I cut out a three paragraph rant about Sasuke's relationships and Sakura's ability to be both people in a manzai routine. Maybe another time lmao. I have to control myself.)

I think what infuriates me and a lot of other people about the ss as it exists in canon is that, except for the first few panels of chapter 699 (but then goes right back to it by the end of the chapter), she's still trying to make herself small and suppressing her Inner-Sakura thing in front of Sasuke. Honestly, I'd be a lot less disappointed in them getting together if (ive said this before) she acted like her real self and threatened to knock his block off the way she would any of her friends, he called her annoying, and then they kind of smiled like it was a little inside joke while Kakashi looked exhausted by all these horrible kids' horrible love languages lmao. Instead she was all demure and then Sasuke used the same distancing tactic on her that his brother used on him. Eurgh.

Anyway I keep doodling little mini comic ideas in my sketch book and there're one or two in there about their friendship, I should post those. Someday.

[utahlive]

Behind the scenes day!! It's been a while, I think! Anyway this ones a bit long so im putting it below

This is for the ghostbur comic, if that wasnt clear, and the very very first iteration was drawn sometime last year (December, if I remember correctly)

It's also one of the very first ideas/scenes I had when I started the blog

It was also a semi scrapped idea of Wilbur seeing Ghostbur in the mirror and walking out of his bathroom into the station, or an alt ending of him waking up at the cash register. This comic (the first 2 panels) are the original inspiration for the 'morning routine' comic

I re-wrote and redrew the scene again in January, planning the whole thing out a bit more and started sketching it out digitally.

I was originally going to have Ghostbur peek out from behind Wilbur, but there are some lore reasons as to why that doesnt happen + I didn't think it made much sense

The first 5 panels stayed roughly the same after being sketched digitally

I was going to have a bit more of a violent scene, but decided against it because anger wasn't the intended emotion in this comic haha

I wanted it to be a better transition between Wilbur seeing GB and cutting his hair, so I added that. It's hard to see in the effects, but if you look you'll (hopefully) see that the ends of the hair that he's cutting off are grey.

Honestly I feel like it's kind of clunky, but I'm gonna play it off as an "it was a high-stress moment" hehe

Also here are clearer versions of my favourite panels!

Overlaying them with the cracks was really hard to get right, but Im really happy with how they turned out :]

Overall I'd call this one a W! I hope you guys liked it :D

[chibishortdeath]

Free will strikes again, these were some really fun doodles :3. I think Simon is allowed to be a little visual kei sometimes. Idk I just know he’d vibe with it. Explanations under a cut—

And also a couple unfinished doodles that were just intended to be rough pose/anatomy practice sketches, but ended up accidentally more detailed than intended 💀💀💀. It’s nothing graphic, but ⚠️slight artistic nudity warning⚠️ anyway in case d(>_< ).

Hehehe, this is based off of a photo from Malice Mizer live, it’s Simon in place of Mana and Fuma in place of Gackt. Very fun pose to draw!!! Especially cause it’s a pose with a whip and also cause idk why but I find poses with one or both arms up pretty easy to draw. And yeah yay, Fuma inclusion yippie :3!

I don’t have any other explanation for why this exists other than dresses are cool. So I made him one :D. The coord has a half caplet that connects to a shoulder paldron on the other shoulder by chain with a little cross. Under that there’s a blouse and skirt combo with patterns similar to his SQ armor and some rose thorn patterns around the ends of the sleeves and collar. Over that is a corset and under is a cage crinoline made to look like crosses peaking around the edge. Shoes carry outfit motifs like the roses on the bow tie and headdress and the lace throughout. Also, an eyepatch with cross on it because yeah, cute :3. I’d probably wear this if I had uh any skill in sewing at all (TwT ).

A not chibi version of the above outfit! Except probably without the crinoline with how the skirt fabric is sitting lol. Tbh I think Simon would probably be fine with this for a little bit and then get uncomfortable about having so many layers on. I don’t think he’d like tights at all 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀. Hmmm I’ll have to draw a version of it that’d be more comfortable for him hmm maybe tomorrow.

Another Simon holding Dracula’s heart artwork. Shout out to how this guy just carries this thing around for so long lol.

Simon facing off against his worst enemy: stairs! This one was practice drawing characters in backgrounds, since I’m so rusty at actually drawing those two things together (ToT ). I can draw a separate background fine, but the second I have to put someone in it I just completely forget what I’m doing XD.

This one is also a practice! He’s running up to the altar in Drac’s basement. The lighting was fun for this one, but I forgot to draw the whip in his hand 💀.

This one was an attempt at drawing a skeleton and keeping the same proportions in a drawing of someone (Simon) who is uh not a skeleton. Fun fact! It took me like 5 tries to get the skeleton to not just look like Papyrus Undertale cause holy heck do the skeletons from that game take a hold of some part of your art style and never let go 💀💀💀💀

CASTLEVANIA JUDGEMENT HAS HATS??? AS LIKE AN UNLOCKABLE?????????? So obviously I had to draw Simon (x2) with the bow options. Pink probs looks really nice with his hair tbh. And the striped bow was black and white so it fits with the Judgement design’s outfit. If I ever actually play this game again (I suck so bad at it), I’ll be trying to get these for the very important reason of Simon cute. :3

—

Ok now these two. The first one was a different attempt at that Mana pose, but a bigger scale and a bit less exaggerated. I ended up having to do a ton of edits to it cause I kept making things too big or too small lol. And the second one is just a couple dynamic posing practices. They’re also excuses to draw more arm up poses cause they’re fun X3. He was just supposed to have like a generic placeholder rectangle er um uh there, but some of the sketchy lines ended up looking like what’s supposed to be in that spot, so I just didn’t wanna risk these being on main tags out in the open 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀. Though, tbh, I’ve seen more explicit things on the tags so eh, better safe than sorry tho (- w - )

[airborneice]

gonna just d r o p some extremely rough sketches here bc my sketchbook I’ve had on the go since 2020 is almost filled up and once it is I probably won’t go revisiting any of the sketches in it, so I may as well share some of them here

I’m incapable of shutting up abt my art so ramblings under the cut

1-3 - mattie sketches :) the last ones are recent and the 1st is one of the first drawings I did of her, back in 2021. idk I just think it’s important y’all know she’s been on her tide mouse shenanigans since the beginning

4 - I think I drew this back in last march and meant to move it to digital and clean it up there but things got busy and I never did :( they’re based on @randomwords247’s wonderful mermaid designs bc I love them

5 - unrelated to the last one, but while I was working on one of my little mermaid au drawings I tried to think how I’d approach the sequel if I got that far & ended up w. this. something something mermaids having human familiars being frowned upon

6 - I think. this is a drawing of @blaithnne’s pony!lauren that I never finished oops

7 - forgot I had this!! year before last me and @bubblekidaesthetics were planning to cosplay these two at comic con, and I got super hyped and doodled this. we did do this cosplay and it was awesome <3

8 - slightly more recent design stuff for freyja, still based on hilda-fanblog/rhombus’ design ofc but figuring out if I wanted my take on her to change anything like how many legs she has lol. also some pony!mountain king doodles on the next page

9-10- something something centaur au. somewhere in my notes app is a whole list of hilda chars and horse types/colours bc I started researching them and got so carried away. johanna’s supposed to be a bay and hilda was gonna be a shetland I think…? (the hilda one is a lot more recent and I think it shows lol). rip to dee who had to watch me talk abt this au so much and barely actually draw it

anyway tumblr won’t let me add any more pics which is probably a good thing 🤷‍♀️ I hope literally everyone feels better as an artist for seeing what an absolute mess my drawings start out as 😌 now I gotta buy a new sketchbook

[bryce-bucher]

.50 Caliber 3D Platformer Post #5

(Flashing Lights Warning near the bottom of the post)

UI UI UI UI UI:

I've been working on UI mostly the past couple of weeks. It has been, as usual, both very cool & fun but also hell and evil. To be more specific, I really like designing the visual aspect of UI, but implementing it is always so horribly tedious and boring that it is really hard for me to focus on doing it. Without fail, I always end up getting UI done very slowly because of this. I am really happy with what I've got so far though, and it has brought me one step closer to getting to the point where I can just start hashing out levels.

Making the Health UI:

The health UI was something I was extremely excited about implementing, so I eagerly decided to decide that it was time to make it. Let me step u through the process 4 fun.

For me, it always starts with sketching out something crudely in pen. I've had this sketch done for months now, so it was p cool to see it finally come to life in game.

Next I hopped into blender and began trying to make some kind of cool y2k-era greebled out shape, but making detailed machinery (or details in general) is not my strongsuit, so I ended up with this kinda neat smooth shape that I wasn't entirely happy with. It looked cool, but I really wanted to challenge myself to make something closer to the windows media player skins I was inspired by.

More Specifically, I referenced this Half-Life 2 windows media player skin heavily, and started with a ring that I could build little pieces and wires off of. I hope u can forgive me if I maybe made it too similar lol, but I tried to get creative and put my own spin on it. I think the shapes on the top left are the most similar to my reference, and those are not-so-coincidentally the first bits that I modeled. This is my first time modeling something in this style, and I suspect that I'll get better at it if & when I do it again.

Finally, I slapped some materials on, made a texture for one of the faces I had sketched out, and rendered out a few frames of it gently(ish) flashing. I then went into affinity photo and made little speedometer components to slot into the small circle in the top right and programmed some functionality to it. The plan is to have the face represent the player's current health, so I am going to need to make a few more and then animate it rotating into a different face. But yeah, I am super happy with it, and I think it is lookin p sick!

Other Stuff What I Made:

Other than the health UI, I also added in functionality and UI for completing a level and selecting a level.

I was very much inspired by killer7 for the sequence that plays when you shoot your target, and I am addicted to intense flashing lights, so I included a lot of that. There are already accessibility options to turn that off, so if it's something that could harm u or if you just hate it (coward????!!!11) you can disable them. I've always found intense effects like that very cathartic, so I'm probably gonna include similar visuals in a few different things I make. That being said, I do also always want to make the alternative visuals (when the accessibility options are enabled) to also be cool af and get the point across. The level select screen was also really fun to make, I basically just slapped together some textures of warn-out paper into a little files situation and placed that on top of an abstract background that I made in jwildfire.

Conclusion:

I have honestly really loved working on this so far, but there has been a lot of anxiety about money in my life lately, so I really do hope to get this out in a reasonable time. I feel like I say that a lot about this game, but it is because it's always on my mind unfortunately. I don't want to make it sound like I am making this game entirely for money or w/e though, it is definitely a labor of love. Anyways, I hope to get to a point where I can get some environment art done soon, and I cannot wait to show off whatever this game is gonna look like. Have a nice day every1!

[cambria-writes]

happy holidays! this is arguably a little late but i’ve had a rough go of it these past few days so i only just finished this tonight lol. Ii insist that i’m not late because we’re still in 2022 and the new year hasn’t hit yet!

anyways this is just a relatively short fluffy feel-good thing because i wanted to feel warm and fuzzy. so it’s absolutely self-indulgent.

word count: 3,229 warnings: swearing, it’s christmas eve and that’s important so that should probably be a warning, no y/n, no mention of gender but ravenloft reader is AFAB, minor ravenloft spoilers if you squint

for reference, this scene (with a bonus crown) is what the reader would’ve drawn.

and for the record, since it was mentioned on ao3, i'm very well aware it shouldn't have been a perception check! ravenloft!reader was never written with the intention of making them a tabletop rpg wiz, they just know enough to get by and follow along if they're sitting in on a game.

𝕽𝖔𝖑𝖑 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝕻𝖊𝖗𝖈𝖊𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓

When the phone rang, you didn’t even greet the speaker. You immediately answered with ‘what do you want you fucking menace’ because there’s really only one person who’d call you near midnight like a heathen. 

“What’s your favourite colour?”

You snort and wedge the phone between your chin and shoulder and sit back down at your dining table to keep sketching. 

“Dunno. Like, all of them?”

“Dude that’s the epitome of unhelpful,” Eddie deadpans, and you can’t help but laugh. 

“Right, well like, is there any context to this? Cause you should know I don’t have a favourite colour,” you reply, frowning and erasing a small portion before swiping the eraser shredding away. 

“Come on,” Eddie whines, and you can practically see him throwing his head back in annoyance. “Not even one? Like, something that just always makes you happy when you see it?”

You hum for a second and put your pencil down. “I guess maybe black? I—“

“Nah, nuh uh. Boring as hell.”

“Rude, what—“

“Black’s not even a colour, that’s what you constantly say!”

You scoff and pick your pencil back up, switching the phone to the other shoulder. 

“Did you seriously just call me in the middle of the night to bitch at me for not having a preferred perceptible wavelength of light?”

There’s an unusually long silence on the other end of the line. You frown again and pull the handset away and follow the coiled line. Confused but satisfied that it hadn’t somehow gotten unplugged from the cradle on the wall, you wedge it back where it was. 

“Ed? You good?”

“Yeah, no. Yeah, sorry, just thinking.”

“Jesus, don’t burn yourself out there bud.”

“Oh fuck off.”

The rest of the phone call is relatively short, and colours aren’t mentioned again by the time you hang up. You don’t go to bed until nearly two in the morning, and by then you’re content with having gotten down the main lines of your portrait. 

The snowstorm that rolled in on the 23rd was entirely unexpected but wholly welcomed. You were scheduled to work on the 24th, but with the state of the roads and the fact that nearly half of Hawkins was running off of generators, you were graciously allowed to stay home until the new year. And given that this is your first Christmas in your new home, you were more than happy to hunker down and, ha, weather it out. 

You’d had plans, sure; Harrington had already made sure everyone knew to show up at his place on the 24th, your parents had been expecting you on Christmas morning and the rest of the day would have been spent going around to see extended family. And though the thought of not being able to fulfill your annual Christmas traditions did dampen your mood, just thinking about the astronomical amount of energy you’d save made it a bit more palatable. 

If the same thing were to happen next year, though, you might cry. 

You’d already called Steve to let him know you were staying home. Pleasantly surprised, he’d admitted he’d had a whole speech prepared about how he’s have The Swarm tear you a new one if you even dared thinking about touching your car keys. (Which would have been an effective threat, honestly. You really had no interest in giving Dustin a reason to get uppity at you, and you definitely didn’t want to have to deal with Max’s ire. Girl held grudges like you did trauma.)

Your parents were only slightly less understanding, with your mother trying to insist that your father could come pick you up. A little resistance put that all to rest, though, and with a promise to call on Christmas morning, that was dealt with as well. 

You’d just settled down on your couch, swaddled in the fluffy blanket you’d gotten from Eddie the year before, mug of hot chocolate held in both hands for warmth, when the doorbell rang. Confused, you look at the time—just after dinner on Christmas Eve—and sigh before heaving yourself off the couch to buzzer by the door. You hesitate for a second before pressing the button to let the mysterious visitor in. You’re already on your way back to your couch, having assumed it was just a neighbour who’d locked themselves out again, when you hear heavy footsteps outside your door. 

You quietly walk back up and carefully lean forward to look through the peephole. 

“What the…” you mutter, leaning back, nearly jumping out of your skin when the knocking finally comes. You quickly unlatch the chain and unlock the deadbolt before pulling the door open. “Ed, what the fuck—“

“Merry Christmas,” Eddie blurts out, thrusting a box out at you, though it really sounded more like ‘murr cr’sms’. 

“Merry Christmas to you too but Jesus come inside!” You pull Eddie through the door by his arm, quickly shutting the door behind you and getting started patting the snow off of him. “The hell did you do, walk here? You look like a damn yeti!”

“Y-yeah I kind-kind of d-did.”

You pause in your patting before grabbing Eddie’s arm again and turning him around to face you. You ‘reabout to ask if he was serious, but a quick glance at his face—reddened cheeks and nose, frosted lashes, dry lips—tells you he has, in fact, told you the truth. 

“Fuck me, okay,” you whisper, before shaking your head and getting a move on. “Stay there and take your boots and coat off and then get your ass on that couch, I’m making you coffee.”

You don’t hear any complaints. And though normally you would’ve been glad for the silence, even perhaps proud to have shut him up, Eddie’s silence is, once again, unsettling. And this time you’re pretty sure it’s not because he’s thinking, and most likely because he’s borderline hypothermic.

You try to be quick; you grab that one pair of sweatpants Eddie leant you when you got splashed by a car outside of the arcade. That one metallica shirt you borrowed one time when one Friday movie night turned into an impromptu sleepover. You make your way back to the living room, where thankfully Eddie’s listened to you, and has made himself at home swaddled in the blanket you’d left on the couch. You throw a quick glance to the front door, where his jacket and boots are slowly leaving a growing puddle of snow water.

You definitely need to get a welcome mat or something if this is going to keep happening. 

Your first instinct is to chuck the clothes at Eddie’s head. What you would usually do. But it’s Christmas eve, there’s a god damn storm outside and this maniac walked to your place. For some reason. You feel like you owe him to be nicer than you usually would be. Call it the ghost of Christmas conscience. 

“Here,” you say quietly, holding out the sloppily folded shirt and sweats. “You can change in here. I’ll be in the kitchen.” 

Eddie mutters a very stuttery thanks and takes the clothes from you. You pause for a second to see what’s on the TV—seems like A Christmas Story is about halfway through—before hastily turning away when you see Ed starting to lift his shirt over his head.

Coffee, right. You said you’d make coffee.

You’re being so normal about this, it’s absolutely fine. You’re totally fine. 

By the time you return to the couch in the living room, Eddie’s clothes are exceptionally neatly folded on your coffee table and he’s even more huddled up in your blanket than he had been before. You place his mug of coffee in his waiting hands and have to bite back shocked laughter when, even outstretched, underneath the blanket, he looks like a frozen T-rex.

“Alright,” you huff out when you finally take your seat on the other end of the couch. “You wanna tell me what’s in that box that was so important that you felt you had to walk here in a storm?”

Eddie sputters in his coffee a bit. When he brings the mug back down, he does look a little sheepish.

“Yeah, y’know it sounds pretty stupid when you say it like that.”

You nod and take a sip of your own coffee. “M’hm. That’s cause risking hypothermia to deliver a gift that very well could’ve waited until the storm passed is pretty stupid. No offense.”

Despite your disclaimer and your attempt to sound light about it, Eddie lapses into silence, again. 

“Okay, you keep going quiet, is there something—“

“I didn’t want you to be alone.”

You stop yourself, mouth agape. You bring your coffee mug back up to your lips to try and shake off the surprise.

“I—okay. What, uh, what about Wayne?”

Eddie gestures vaguely under the blanket, and you assume he’s waving the issue of. “He’s with the Hendersons.”

“Oh. That’s…”

“Dustin asked me to go. I said no.”

You frown. “In favour of walking though the snow to get to me?”

“Yeah, well,” Eddie starts, but he doesn’t continue until he takes another long sip from the coffee mug. “Walking wasn’t the plan. Van broke down halfway here.”

“Oh thank god,” you sigh, leaning back into the arm of the couch and pulling your legs up and under you. “I literally thought you walked from your place!” 

“God, never,” Eddie laughs, pulling his own feet up on the couch to sit cross-legged. “But I was halfway here and there’s no power at the trailer, so.”

You hum and nod, but otherwise keep your silence. And you both stay like that for a few minutes. And while you’re taking the time to try and bring your BPM down to something a nurse might not scream about, Eddie seems to be appreciating the warmth that you’ve thrown at him.

“So,” you say after a while, clearing your throat and putting your mostly empty mug on the coffee table. “What’s in the box?” 

Eddie grins and puts his own mug down. The blanket falls away from his shoulders when he reaches toward to grab said box, and he turns it around in his hands before passing it over to you.

“Wait,” you rush to say, just as he opens his mouth. “Shit, wait, I have,” you trail off, and nearly jump over the back of the couch to run to your room. You quickly snatch the gift bag you’d left on your dresser and run back to the living room, nearly tripping over your own feet. You throw yourself back down onto the couch and shove the bag towards Eddie.

“What—“

“Gift for a gift,” you explain shortly, a little out of breath.

Eddie laughs lightly but takes the gift bag from you, and you eagerly snatch the box from his hands. You’re about to start tearing into the tacky Santa-print wrapping paper, but glance up to make sure it’s okay. Eddie chuckles and nods and motions for you to go ahead. 

You make quick work of the paper and nearly tear the top off the box before turning it over in your hand and letting its content drop into your palm.

“Oh my god,” you breathe, turning over the giant cut glass piece in your hand. You hold it up to the do lamplight, and it looks like it’s shimmering from the inside. Every which way you turn it, it’s like each facet is a different colour that reveals itself to you with each new angle. 

You don’t miss the fact that there are nineteen carefully carved and painted numbers on each face, and the last one has a little flame where the 20 normally would have been. 

You look up to thank Eddie, throat a little tight, but you nearly choke on your own tongue when you see his expression. 

He’s holding your gifted frame in his hands like it might break if he holds it too tightly. You can’t really understand the expression on his face, and the more time he spends staring unblinkingly at it, the more unsure you feel. 

“I, uh, is it… do you not like it?” 

Eddie slowly shakes his head before lifting his eyes up to you. He tries to start a few different sentences before clearing his throat. 

“Is this—this is really what you see?”

You let your hands fall into your lap and nervously turn the massive D20 around in them and nod. 

“Yeah, I mean. The crown might be a bit much,” you chuckle lightly, looking up and away towards the TV. “But yeah. You look really, uh. You look happy, when you’re DMing for the kids. Really cool. Thought you should be able to, I dunno. See it for yourself.”

When you do muster the courage to turn to look back to Eddie, he still has that absolutely confusing look on your face. You lift the heavy dice in one hand and wave it around a bit. 

“This is why you asked for my favourite colour, huh?” 

Eddie blinks a bit owlishly at first, but laughs and shakes his head. Slowly, carefully, he puts your gifted portrait on top of his folded clothes. Leans forward to pluck the dice from your hand and gently put it down on the coffee table next to your mug. 

“Ed, what’s wr—“

You inhale the rest of your question when Eddie reaches out a hand to grab and pull at one of your ankles. You screw your eyes shut when your head meets the couch cushion below your with a soft ‘thump’. And when you open your eyes, Eddie’s hovering over you, hands braced on the couch arm just above your head. You swallow thickly and promptly forget to breathe for a second. 

The end credit music for A Christmas Story feels like it’s playing from miles away.

“You good?” Eddie asks, quietly, and all you can do is nod. “You sure?”

“Yeah, uh huh. Fine,” you whisper, holding your hands close to your chest. Close your eyes when he leans in to rest his forehead against yours. “Why did you really come over?” You whisper, hesitantly uncurling a hand to place it on his chest.

“Missed you.”

“You see me almost every day.”

“Worried about you.”

You snort and lightly slap at his chest. “Bullshit. I own more knives than you do guitar picks.” 

Eddie exhales sharply before pulling back a bit. When you open your eyes, you almost want to hide from the tenderness you see in his. 

“Don’t look at me like that,” you whisper, turning your head to the side to watch the TV turns from black to blue, now that the tape’s over. 

“Like what?” Eddie asks, and you can hear the shit-eating grin in his voice when he nuzzles at your neck. 

You grunt. “Like, I don’t know. Like you—like…”

“Like you’re the only person I’d drive and walk through a snow storm to see?” 

You hum but keep your head resolutely turned away. Shiver when you can feel his lips ghosting against your cheek. 

“Like you’re in love with me,” you mutter quietly, screwing your eyes shut. 

Eddie slowly peels a hand away from the arm of the couch to turn your head to look at him. You still avert your eyes. He brushes the hair away from your face instead.

“Come on, don’t be like that,” he says, almost whines, tilting his head to try to catch your eyes. “You’re smarter than me, you’re not that dumb.”

You huff and cross your arms and finally look up at Eddie. There was some kind of combative quip on the tip of your tongue but it dies there as soon as the look on his face properly registers. 

“You’re not fucking around,” you say frowning. 

“I’m not fucking around.” Eddie sighs and moves up to kneel on the couch, both knees boxing in your legs. You move up on your elbows and scoot up a bit to lean your back against the arm of the couch. 

“Since when do you—“ 

“Dude, you literally saved me from a swarm of hell bats, somehow managed to team up with a super powered teenage girl to save the world, still don’t think I’m an absolute coward and show up at my doorstep if I call you when I can’t sleep,” Eddie lists off, starting to wave down at your a bit frantically. “And you actually listen to my shitty garage band music!”

“It’s not shitty!” 

“You’re proving my damn point, woman!” Ed shouts, swatting your hand away when you go to slap his chest again. “Merry fucking Christmas, I’m in love with you!” 

You let yourself slide back down to lie on the couch and laugh when you throw an arm over your face. 

“The fuck, this isn’t funny!” Eddie whines, trying to slap your arms away from your face. “This is serious!”

You choke your laughter down enough to say, “Roll for perception.” 

“Excuse me?” Eddie squawks, indignantly, pausing his assault on your arms. You lower them just enough to be able to peek at him. 

“You heard me, roll for perception.”

Eddie scoffs but turns to grab the massive dichroic dice from the table and gently rolls it along your carpeted floor. 

“Huh. 18. Do I get to add my wisdom modifier to that?” 

Though you bring your arms down from your face, you still cover it with your hands.

“You’re the only name and phone number I keep in my address book,” you start quietly, biting down on your lips before continuing. “That portrait of you isn’t the first one I’ve ever bothered trying to do. The photo of us Max took in the hospital is the only one I have framed. I hate cashews.”

“But you keep a tin of cashews in the cupboard on top of the f… fridge…” 

You nod and part your fingers to catch a glimpse of Eddie. He sighs before shouting and shaking his head. 

“Ed, what the—“

“Why are we so stupid complicated!” He shouts again, but it peters out into laughter. “Jesus, why can’t we just say shit like normal people?” 

“We hate normal people,” you deadpan, slowly letting your hands slide down your face. “So, uh,” you start, curling your fingers under your chin. “Merry, uh, Merry fucking Christmas, I lo—I love you too?”

Eddie closes his eyes and tilts his head back to sigh like you’ve just given him a glass of water after spending weeks in the desert.

You move to half sit up on your elbows again. 

“Hey, you—“

“Does this mean I can kiss you now and you’re not going to think I’m just doing it because it’s the holidays and there was mistletoe over your door?”

You blink for a second and pull yourself up on the arm of the couch and twist around to look at your door. Huh. Sure as shit, there it is.

“Oh. Mrs H must’ve put that up when she came over,” you say nervously, but when you turn around you’re shocked, both because of the still-freezing hand that comes up to your jaw and the lips that are pressed almost chastely against yours. 

“God bless Mrs H,” Eddie whispers, and your laughter is a quick huff before you loop your arms around his neck to pull him down against you for another kiss.

[microwavetoaster-selfships]

hi kane !! if u were in charge of writing the story for a cars 4 movie, what would u want it to be about ? 🤔 (@dmclr)

Ouughh. Ohhmgugish. I don't know why I'm like all "you're asking ME??🤧"

GENIUNELY NO ONE IS OBLIGATED TO READ THIS. I know the whole "I yap a lot" thing sometimes but this is geniunely like a rediculous length. I mean no one is obligated to read any of my posts but yknow.

I need like two read more bars for this post yall. I don't know why I'm yapping so much. In case it wasn't clear I had a lot to say here and thank you for asking me this(<- more thankfulness filled than I can properly express at the moment, so sorry). I didn't proof-read much of this I'm so sorry if it's like incoherent and has the punctuation of the "I'm eating, Grandma" vs "I'm eating Grandma" grammar tool.

Okay I'm like. Blaming the fact I messed up my sleep schedule and it's 11:27pm and I just woke up like an hour and a half ago and I side-tracked myself like absolutely crazy but keep side-tracking myself into different rants or tangents so it is just a forever increasing ramble, but TL;DR, I actually prefer media that is dead or left alone because I get so anxious when new stuff comes out cause I'm afraid of what they'll do to my faves or if they'll butcher them or add slap-stick love interests, etc., and when Cars on the Road came out(idk how aware people are that it exists), I spent the whole first watch through not really enjoying and savoring it cause I was so anxious over what was gonna happen that I spent the whole time making sure it was 'safe' and I wasn't going to have a pit in my stomach. Which, it turned out lovely and I actually have some things from it that I super love and adore, but I have actually unironically predicted my F/Os so strongly(among other listful factors) that I'd rather them finally put it to rest before it starts getting into beating a dead horse territory, cause I don't know if there's really much of anything left for them to expand on anyway.

My serious answer?: I'm not entirely sure, but I would enjoy seeing them just expand on some more smaller stuff, and I'd like it better if they didn't try to do 'revivals' of characters from past movies(ily Chick but Cars 3 was a bitttt of some injustice to you), I know they're supposed to be more action-y movies but I love slice of life stuff and I'd totally just watch an hour and forty minutes of Lightning just like playing around Radiator Springs or something(every Cars game ever). Though my ultimate ideal scenario is just none at all.

My slightly less serious answer that probabblyyy isn't gonna happen but the odds are never zero(he says humorously)?: They should spend the whole time doing documentary style movie about how it would've gone if I was in the previous movies +sketches/storyboards or reanimated scenes of small moments but I'm thrown in there. ALL IM SAYING IS Cars 2 would've been SO funny if I was in it okay. Would've been exhausted running around the entirety of Europe(+like US and Japan for a moment) nearly the entire time and someone watching would've been sick to their stomach cause the movie WOULD CONCLUDE with it all ending via the power love, and I'm not sorry. Would've had my 'Mary Sue' moment of like nearly every major(and some minor) cast role having SOME sort of feelings for me, most typically romantic. And it being reciprocated. You want an action movie?? There, now tell me THAT ain't action-packed. I refuse to believe the outcome of anything would be predictable. Every last interaction is gonna leave the viewers asking "what the HELL is going on and what will happen next". Pixar(and Disney) I am right here but it's okay if ur busy cause I'm busy too.

The stuff under the cut is basically the same thing I said here(mostly focused on my 'serious' answer bit), but veryy elaborated upon, so it's fairly lengthy. PUTTING MY PHONE DOWN AND HITTING POST NOW BEFORE I SOMEHOW ADD MORE. BUT THANK YOU THNAK YOU FOR ASKING THIS I DIDNT THINK I WOULD WRITE AN ACTUAL ESSAY I AM SO SORRY.

I don't know how much I really mention this, cause I think it a lot but I don't wanna like drive my blog viewers nuts if I say it so much over and over again, but I get like so anxious over whenever knew stuff or content of my F/Os come out believe it or not! There was only like.. one or two medias in the past where I was actually like.. excited whenever the person posted new stuff! Somehow I've had the luck of most things that I F/O from are dead upload-wise. I get so anxious that it'll go down hill(especially if the media has been going on for a while now, which.. Cars starting in 2006 I'd count that) cause I've watched some shows just go downhill or randomly butcher characters or add slap-stick romantic interests that it just makes me far too anxious!! Honestly, I thought Cars WAS finished and through with, but for whatever reason there was the release of Cars on the Road(don't know how many people know of that) and DONT GET ME WRONG I LOVED IT and I still do and think about it fairly often, I actually really really love and adore some of the qualities they expanded on with Mater and Lightning but that's a whole thing for another time probably-, but what I didn't enjoy was being so anxious over it that when it came out I practically spent my whole first watch through making sure that it was 'safe' and something wasn't going to happen that makes me feel like I swallowed a rock and my stomach sinks. Which thankfully didn't happen at all, I loved how it turned out and still rewatch it occasionally, I think they nailed it, but I didn't like the so nervous experience I had in the first place😅

I've heard some people talk about someone who did an interview with someone who supposedly works on the Cars stuff about how they still had stuff in mind they wanted to do with the characters, I'm HOPING I don't somehow jinx myself wildly but honestly I'd muchhh rather prefer it just gets dropped and they let Cars just be what it is for now. Sometimes I question if they just do this stuff because they milk a crazy amount of money out of how well the diecasts sell, which is why they have so many one-off diecasts like the off-roading ones or the glow in the dark ones, or just random sorts of themes. Which, entire tangent for another day, can't BELIEVE they put Jackson anywhere CLOSE do a dirt racing series even if it was just the diecast. But anyway.

TO ACTUALLY ANSWER YOU QUESTION... I'm not super sure!!! I've heard some people talk about seeing more stuff about how Cruz and Lightning race together would be interesting, I think I'd prefer something like that as opposed to a revisit of characters from previous movies or such(ily Chick but they tampered your voice in Cars 3 and I'd argue your personality a bit as well), truthfully I'm not super sure, I've never thought about it so much before!! They should include me in the movie(/hj). Truthfully, normally each movie has been sort of centered around Lightning having some sort of character development arc he has to go through, I'm not sure what else he could be put through! Don't get me wrong, he's absolutely not a perfect character, which is what makes characters so enjoyable in the first place, but he doesn't have as big of a staple thing to go through like he did in the first movie where he was a "I can do it all by myself" i-use-my-ego-to-hide-my-feelings rookie. I don't entirely like how the third movie took it truthfully, with the whole "McQueen is getting older..😢😥..how will he still race?!" Cause like one of the staple differences between F1 and NASCAR is that so many NASCAR racers(especially if they made it good) stay racing until they are like in their 60s+ or their hairs are graying(which, arguably could happen whenever but for the sake of my point, stereotypical age-related graying). And Lightning is like in his mid-30s in the third movie at the LATEST. So I don't know what any of that was about. I know there was the whole new gen of racers thing but he honestly wasn't doing too bad keeping up with them until things got into his head and he freaked himself out(on top of the crash, and the like. Literal depression he falls in to). And then there's the whole thing of he actually had it in him the win the last race in the movie at the Flordia 500 blah blah blah but he wanted to switch out with Cruz so she could have her moment, which, I'm not entirely ecstatic over how they paced Cruz's development, I wish they let it marinate a bit more but I get they had crunch-time in the movie.

[i-am-just-a-skeleton]

oh before i forget, i wanted to post something for @maycuryweek

this is the first scene of an AU i've been working on for a while (which i Still don't have a name for). Sorry if the formatting's a little odd i've never posted fic on tumblr before

Brian hadn’t expected to find anyone else up in the tower, especially not at this time of night. So when he opened the door to see a girl about his age sitting in the window, he nearly dropped his candle in surprise. “Oh dear, I’m sorry, I didn’t know anyone w-” The girl startled at his words, jumping up from her seat.

“Who- Your Highness!” She quickly began to collect the drawing paper and pencils left behind her in the window seat.

“Don’t do that, I only wanted to look at the stars a bit, you can stay if you like. Or you can leave, you- you don’t have to though, I’m sorry, I-” To his surprise, she had started laughing. He stared, not sure what to make of the outburst.

“I’m sorry, that was terribly rude of me. Only, you looked so funny, all pale and wavering in the candlelight, like a nervous little ghost.”

At that, Brian couldn’t help but crack a smile himself, relaxing enough to approach and sit on the opposite end of the window seat. “I’m Brian”

She laughed again, in a way that implied she had obviously already known his name, but found his insistence at maintaining politeness to be amusing. “I’m Melina. Do you come up here often, then?”

“Not really. Well, sort of? About once a week I think. Er. Sorry”

She waved away his apology, shuffling the papers in her hands. “Probably no surprise we bumped into each other eventually, then. I’ve been up most nights the past week. I’m trying to draw the view from the tower, but in another day or two the moon will be too far gone and I’ll have to wait until next month for the light to be bright enough again.” She sighed dramatically at that and gestured out the window. He followed her hand, looking down instead of up as usual.

“Oh!” He pressed closer to the glass, trying to take in the whole of the view at once. Below the tower, the castle gardens spread out like a tapestry. The hedges and paths traced delicate lines across the whole thing, and the pond made a perfect mirror at the far end, shimmering in the moonlight. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never… I hadn’t really paid much attention to it before.”

“Really? Then what have you been doing up here?”

“I’ve, um.” Brian ducked his head, looking out into the garden rather than at his newfound companion. “I’ve been looking at the stars. I found this book in the library, that talks about their positions, and how they can be used for navigation, and how they change throughout the seasons. It’s very interesting.” He stopped there, still staring out the window. Now she would laugh at him again, and say that spending his nights mooning away over stars was a silly thing to do, and-

“Oh, that sounds fascinating!” He looked up with a start.

“It does?”

She looked at him a little oddly, but smiled and said: “Yes, it does. Tell me about it?”

"Oh! Well, um, what do you want to know?"

"Hmmm... tell me about your favourite star?"

"It's not a star, exactly, or not a single star at least. It looks like one from here, but with a telescope you can see it’s really three all together. There’s a sketch of what they look like in the chapter about wizards’ stars- that’s stars they use for magic, I’m not sure how though because the book doesn’t go into very much detail on that. I suppose you’d have to be a wizard to know the specifics. Anyway, those are called the Shifters because they have to do with transformation magic. You can see them now, they’re just there." Brian gestured for Melina to move closer so he could point out the stars’ location.

“Is that them? Up above the trees there?”

Brian nodded happily. “Yes, and if you look there…” He pointed up to the sky again, and set off explaining the nearby constellations.

---

It was only when the edge of the sky started to grow grey that he realised just how long they’d been sat there. Melina blinked sleepily at him when he stopped in the middle of a sentence, and then glanced out the window where he was looking.

“Oh, it’s gotten- early, hasn’t it?” She collected her drawing papers from the seat beside her as Brian hummed a response. “Someone’s probably going to be looking for us soon, we’d better get back downstairs before they do.”