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#i feel like its different enough and i added enough of my own elements this is something i could actually make someday
staryukis · 2 months
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SORRY LOGAN I KNOW I ALREADY REQUESTED ONE BUT OBVIOUSLY NOW I NEED ONE FOR OUR BOY & I'M PICKING 13 THIS TIME. ILY BESTIE WE (gojo girlies (gn)) ARE SOOOOOOOO BACK
13. one character joins the other for a late-night conversation, and ends up getting comfortable in their bed next to them - evidently too comfortable, as the char in bed falls asleep on the visitor and effectively traps them there
˗ˏˋa/n: UR GOOD LOL im always happy to write more for our boy 🤭🤭 this one is a little heavier on the exposition/backstory bc i got another request w this one for suguru and i happened to like the prompt a lot so i wanted to make the satoru one more to my style of writing 🥹 hence why its also coming to u a little late 💔 it's a little different from what the prompt suggests bc i wanted to get more creative w it (and i got a little carried away LMFSJNBF)
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note to self: fix the fan above your bed.
with every turn of the blades the motor squeaks loudly, moving about like it'll fall at any moment. sometimes you think it will; sometimes you picture it falling while you're asleep and just crushing you in an instant. it's more of an intrusive thought you get, not a debilitating worry you have.
besides, if it were to fall right now, your boyfriend satoru would get hit by it first. you'd be safe, probably. maybe.
he's the one completely draped over you right now anyway, snoring softly against your chest, arms wrapped loosely around your middle. he's like a giant, cuddly, warm shield for you. (a little bit too warm, you think; even with the fan on you still feel like you're sweating, caged in his arms while his body radiates all the warmth and heat that he has in his heart, fuzzy little waves of energy with a high enough frequency that just peaks in your presence).
you could push him off, if you wanted to. roll over to the side and relish in the cool breeze from your loud fan. but why would you? the fan could fall at any moment, you tell yourself. you're only safe in his arms, nowhere else.
"that fan really is loud," was the first thing to leave satoru's mouth when he entered your room earlier, snorting softly as he tiptoed over to your bed. his movements were careful and quiet, as if anyone else would be able to hear them over the squeaky motor, alerting them of his presence in your room.
"you get used to it after a while, honestly." you'd responded with a fond smile, extending your arms to welcome his presence. he grinned back at you and flopped down into your bed, his face immediately landing in your neck, pressing chaste kisses along the expanse of it as he trailed his soft lips up to your jawline. you giggled at his sudden doting on you, and he shushed you gently by pressing his mouth to your own.
"you'll wake them up, baby, be quiet." he murmured, sealing your smile with a kiss that always takes your breath away. hands dancing along your sides as he pinned you against your mattress, body half leaning over yours and half laying beside you.
you often snuck around with him like this, your newfound relationship discreetly hidden under the noses of your fellow roommates. the four of you have been inseparable since high school, and you're not sure how they'd react to the news that you and satoru started seeing each other. so you've decided to keep it under wraps for now, acting normal when they're in the room and then being all over each other when you have the apartment to yourselves for any length of time.
besides, there's an added element of intrigue with the sneaking around, a little bit of excitement if you will.
tonight wasn't any different, but as you wrapped your arms around his neck, felt his fingers slip along the waistband of your pants, you pulled away for a breath of air and he hummed in content. instead of pulling you back in for another kiss like he usually would, he wrapped his arms around your waist, resting his head on your chest and sighing softly.
"y'know," he began, mumbling softly and letting his eyes flutter closed when you ran your fingers through his hair. carding through the snowy strands from the front of his hairline all the way to the back of his scalp, just above his undercut. "i'll get that fixed for you one of these days, don't you worry 'bout it."
his speech was a little slower than usual, more relaxed. he was completely at bliss in your arms like this, just enough to fall asleep with you.
"hmm?" you hummed, your hands still playing with his hair as he lay beside you, almost completely on top of you. "get what fixed?"
"the, um..." he paused, lips stretching into a deep yawn as he nuzzled closer into your chest. "—the fan, silly."
you nodded your head, chuckling softly at the sleepy tone of his voice. "i appreciate that, but don't lose any sleep over it, 'toru." you giggled, leaning your head back against your pillow and glancing up at the ceiling, at the fan in question. "it's not gonna fall on me anytime soon."
it was a silly thought to entertain, but satoru grumbled softly in response when it came to mind anyway. he adjusted himself so he was laying on top of you more, most of his weight being supported by the knee he had slotted beside your hip.
"i'll protect ya," he murmured, voice a little muffled now against your chest. "'m your guardian, baby, if it falls it'll fall on me first."
you chuckled softly, shaking your head at his antics. "yeah, yeah, you're my guardian angel."
"mhm," he mumbled, his speech significantly slower now. "that's right, i am..."
you hummed again, closing your eyes for a few moments while your hand slowed on his head. you inhaled a deep breath, opening your eyes again and looking down at him. just as you were about to add something to the conversation, you saw his lips part open, a soft snore escaping them as he seemed to drift off to sleep in that very instant.
you smiled at him, at the evened breaths escaping his lips, the squeak of the fan above you — one that, were it to actually fall, certainly wouldn't be heavy enough to quell the way your heart grew tenfold from finally getting to be with satoru like this, after knowing him for so long.
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burningvelvet · 5 months
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Some thoughts on the topic of Byronism, Byronic Heroes, Byron himself, and Mr. Darcy, Mr. Rochester, and their respective authors...
This was inspired after I was tagged in a post (thank you @bethanydelleman !) asking whether Mr. Darcy should be considered a Byronic Hero or not. I start with my response before delving off, but I refer back at the end and it all ties in.
On Mr. Darcy: to Byronic, or not to Byronic? That is the question...
Whether or not Mr. Darcy should be considered a Byronic Hero is a complex question, as is the concept of the Byronic Hero itself.
I think there two versions of Darcy, and general pop culture tends to conflate them. There is Misunderstood Darcy (pre-"redemption" arc; aka what many think of him pre-Elizabeth's discovery of his true personality) and then there is True Darcy (post-"redemption" arc; "oh he's not rude, just socially awkward and proud"). Misunderstood Darcy has aspects of the Byronic, whereas True Darcy isn't Byronic at all.
Is Darcy Byronic? I recognize that he has Byronic elements that would make the general populace view him as Byronically aligned, so it doesn't bother me too much if people call him such, but without fully going into the debateable qualifications of the Byronic Hero, I don't think he is truly Byronic.
My interpretation of "Byronic" as a concept:
"Byronic" is not an easily defined term. A lot of academics have their own preferred methods of classifying the Byronic and there is no one fixed definition or interpretation. "Byronic" originally referred, of course, to the themes and tropes presented in the characters of Byron, who was one of the best-selling and most influential writers of the 1800s.
However, even applying the term "Byronic" solely to Byron's own corpus is an act of over-generalization. Many of Byron's purported "Byronic Heroes" are drastically different from each other or have little in common, as Byronist Peter Cochran noted in his review of Atara Stein's "The Byronic Hero in Film, Fiction and Television" (https://petercochran.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/stein-green-lapinski-ii.pdf).
I believe there are two main types of Byronic Hero: the Broad Byronic and the Byronist's Byronic.
The Broad Byronic is the modern pop cultural conception of Byronism which has been applied to practically every rebellious anti-hero. You can find thousands of articles analyzing why thousands of characters are or aren't Byronic, from Jack Sparrow to Batman to Luke Skywalker and ad infinitum. If you try hard enough, anything can be Byronic.
The Byronist's Byronic is like the Orthodox Byronic, the more traditional sense of the term. Academics who take the stritcer Byronist's Byronic approach mainly focus on Byron's direct literary descendants, like the Brontës and Pushkin, who were thoroughly obsessed with Byron and whose works/characters are directly and obviously inspired by Byron's own works. Heathcliff and Eugene Onegin are the most commonly cited examples and are Byronic by all standards.
Over time, "Byronic" has taken on a life of its own, leading to what I dubbed as "the Broad Byronic." I personally believe there is sort of a Byronic spectrum wherein I would place Heathcliff on one end and maybe Mr. Rochester on the other, considering his salvation plotline, which I feel is huge to his character and which Heathcliff lacks (as he openly declares at the end, he has no regrets for his actions).
Peter Cochran's interpretation of the Byronic Hero
Peter Cochran was a writer, professor, & one of the best Byronists (scholars of Byron) & I often defer to his opinion. His website is a haven for Byronism. His interpretation of the Byronic Hero is very much representative of the orthodox Byronist's Byronic.
In his essay "Byron's 'Turkish Tales': An Introduction," Cochan provides a brief analysis of the Byronic Hero, which I have sectioned out the most relevant parts of:
"Much has been written about him; what few writers say is that he has so many facets that it's misleading to treat him as a single archetype. [..] The Byronic hero is a human dead-end. He is never successful as a warrior or as a politician [..] he is never successful as a lover. [..] The Byronic Hero is never a husband, never a father, and never a teacher [..] He bequeaths nothing to posterity, and his life ends with him. He is to be contrasted with the Shakespearean tragic hero, who has to be something potentially life-affirming, such as a father (Lear) or a witty conversationalist (Hamlet) or a great soldier (Macbeth, Coriolanus, Antony) or a lover (Romeo, Antony). If they were not such excellent people, their stories would not be tragic. The Byronic Hero is not tragic: he's just a failure, and leads on to the Superfluous Man of Russian literature - as Pushkin demonstrated, when he created the Byronically-fixated Eugene Onegin. [..] The Byronic Hero must never be witty, or be brought in contact with a critical intelligence [..] if he were, his tale would lose its imagined grandeur [..] In his gloom, failure, and rejection of humour The Byronic Hero aligns not with the heroes of Shakespearean tragedy but with the villains of Shakespearean comedy: Shylock, Malvolio, and Jacques. [..] I would suggest that The Byronic Hero is either a closet gay, or a poorly-adjusted bisexual - a problem that Byron would have known all about."
On Mr. Rochester and Mr. Darcy
In his introduction to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre: Modern Critical Interpretations, legendary literary critic Harold Bloom explained that Mr. Rochester is Charlotte Brontë taking the Byronic Hero, killing him, and then rebirthing him. I fully agree with Bloom's interpretation:
"[Rochester's] transformation heralds the death of the Byronic hero [..] Rochester is, in this sense, a pivotal figure; marking the transition from the Romantic to the modern hero [..]"
I would argue that what Austen does to Mr. Darcy is a lighter, pre-Byronic attempt at doing what Brontë did with her transformation of the Byronic in Mr. Rochester. Women growing to sympathize with rude men and then (directly or indirectly) inspiring them to change for the better. Women taking the Byronic and not just going "I can fix him," but instead "I'll tell him off, and then maybe he'll fix himself." Like Darcy, Rochester has two versions, pre-redemption and post-redemption. This is not Byronic, but their pre-redemption selves are, with Mr. Rochester being much, much more so than Darcy, and being considered an archetypal Byronic Hero (rightfully so in my opinion, his come-to-God ending aside).
Also, what Darcy and Rochester are redeemed for differs greatly; I'm not equating their moral or personal failures, and I know that Rochester clearly has more of them (if any anti-Rochester, pro-Darcy fan is out there, pls don't kill me for comparing them).
On Austen and Byron:
Austen started writing P&P when Byron was 8-years-old, so she definitely wasn't influenced by the actual Byron in creating Mr. Darcy. However, Austen did read Byron's work later on, or at least his poem The Corsair, which was his best-selling work at the time and which is one of his most cliché "Byronic" works. She did write some works, like Emma and Persuasion, after reading The Corsair, but I haven't read these yet and I'm not the biggest Austen scholar, so I don't know if she was ever actually influenced by Byron or not. I'm positive that people have analyzed this before. Lots has been written on Austen/Byron. They also shared a publisher, though they never met.
On Byronic (the writer) VS Byronic (the writer's characters):
To further confuse us, "Byronic" by its literal definition can refer to the Byronic Hero OR Byronic as in Byron the Man. Many conflate these things, but they are separate. This adds to the case of the Broad Byronic. Many of Byron's contemporaries created characters that were direct and obvious tributes or parodies of him, including Mary Shelley's The Last Man, Percy Shelley's Julian and Maddalo, and Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey. They all knew Byron personally. Mary Shelley openly put Byron into several of her novels, as explained in "Byron and Mary Shelley" by Ernest Lovell Jr. and "Unnationalized Englishmen in Mary Shelley's Fiction" by William Brewer. Other notable examples of this are Caroline Lamb's Glenarvon (Lamb was Byron's ex) and Dr. John Polidori's The Vampyre (Polidori was Byron's doctor) in which both titular characters were/are clearly known by readers to be caricatures of Byron. The Vampyre was the first vampire novel, and was not only a caricature of Byron but also based on Byron's short story Augustus Darvell. So all modern "Byronic" vampires, including Dracula, are really Byronic as in Byron the Man, although they sometimes may overlap with the Byronic Hero. As I said, easily confusing!
As many academics (and Lord Byron himself) have noted, many of Byron's fans wrongly conflated his characters with himself. Although many of Byron's works were indeed semi-autobiographical, he himself said that they were not intended as actual depictions of himself, and that he was annoyed when people thought so. Many fans who met him would write they were shocked to find he was nothing like the Byronic Heroes of his works. He was humorous, he smiled often, he was somewhat of a dandy and much of a rake (self-confessedly), he was an aristocrat, he was considered by many to be effeminate, etc. -- all elements that are not typically expected of the Byronic Hero.
In reference to his drama The Deformed Transformed (which contains the characters Satan and Caesar) Mary Shelley wrote to him in a letter:
"The Critics, as they used to make you a Childe Harold, Giaour, & Lara all in one, will now make a compound of Satan & Caesar to form your prototype, & your 600 firebrands in Murray's hands will be in costume." [John Murray was Byron's publisher]
Here, Mary mentions how many of Byron's readers expected him to be just like his characters Harold, Giaour, & Lara, who fans assumed were his self-insert characters, as they each had strong similarities. However, these characters were more similar to "alter-egos" than actual "self-portraits." My personal interpretation is that Byron was writing these very similar dark anti-heroes and villains in order to channel the darker aspects of his subconscious, or what Jung would call his Shadow Self, to try to purge or subdue it. Though he lived before the field of psychology officially existed, Byron was very interested in all things psychological, and he used his writing as a method of self-therapy (see: Touched with Fire written by psychologist Kay Jamison, which contains one of the most thorough & reliable psychoanalyses of him).
As Bloom explains in the essay I mentioned, and as countless other academics have explained, Charlotte Brontë and many other women in the early 1800s were obsessed with Byron and his works. Byron's English-speaking fan base has always been primarily female, especially in the beginning of his career. Byron's fans wrote him letters revealing their differing interpretations of him and his Byronic Heroes (but again, most didn't really differentiate between the two).
Likewise, I think the Brontë sisters may have conflated Byron with his Byronic Heroes. Mr. Rochester is such a strong example of Byron the Man and has so many similarities to him that when reading Jane Eyre I felt like I was reading Lord Byron fanfiction. It's clear that Charlotte Brontë was familiar with his biography. For example (one of countless), in chapter 17 Rochester sings what he calls "a Corsair song" -- as I mentioned earlier, The Corsair was one of Byron's greatest hits, and Jane Eyre is set around the time The Corsair was published, and Byron also wrote songs and was also known for his good voice.
Although the Brontë sisters were each influenced by him, they took their own individual spins on the Byronic, and their works reveal the dynamicism of these themes. In my opinion, Emily employs the Byronist's Byronic most raw and faithfully (and maybe even takes it further), Charlotte punishes, redeems, and transforms the Byronic with much influence from Byron the Man, and Anne presents the Byronic most critically and realistically, asking "what if the Byronic Hero were real, and really got married -- what would that look like?" and having perhaps the most (Broadly) Byronic heroine ever, who is also later redeemed by the end, and has her veil of Byronic mystery removed much like Darcy did.
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adobe-outdesign · 15 days
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I know you've reviewed the Goodra line, but have you talked about Hisuian Sliggoo and Goodra?
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While I don't like it more than the original, I do think Hisuian Sliggoo is pretty solid for a regional. The original line were mostly slugs with a few snail-like touches, so taking them and adding a shell to make them true snails makes logical sense thematically. Making the shell a result of increased iron in the line's diet and then making them part steel-type also works nicely.
In Sliggoo's case, while the body itself barely changes, the way it hides within its shell gives it a very different silhouette from the original and helps to instantly make the two unique. I wouldn't have minded more changes, but what we got is distinct enough, and cute to boot.
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However, Hisuian Goodra is kind of a major step down from Sliggoo. What makes Hisuian Sliggoo work isn't just that it has a shell, it's that it has a shell that it stays in 24/7. Completely removing that element from H. Goodra makes it way too similar to the original. Sure, the shell itself is different, but it mostly feels like the same creature with one single design change. It actually has multiple changes—one less spot on its head and tail, the spots being desaturated, longer antennae, a different expression that doesn't really add anything—but everything else is so minor it's almost unnoticeable.
Off the top of my head, here were some things they could've changed about the body if they really didn't want to have it in its shell 24/7 (ideally, these would be applied to H. Sliggoo as well for consistency):
Change the colors (there are tons of snails out there to pick from)
Inverse the body so the darker color is on top and vice versa
Make the antennae curled up to mimic the shape of the shell
Change the position of the slime drips
Change the position of the spots, such as putting them on the shell or along the sides of the body
Change the face to look more like Sliggoo's
Change the feet to be more gastropod-ish
Etc. The shell itself is fine—but it's not enough to do all the heavy lifting on its own.
For the record, while I prefer regular Sliggoo slightly I do prefer Hisuian Goodra a bit over the original, just because I like the weight of that giant shell and the way it merges directly with the tail, as well as the more hunched-over posture. I do like the more saturated colors and happier expression of the original though, so it is what it is.
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Overall, Hisuian Sligoo is a pretty good regional that puts a nice twist on the original design. Hisuian Goodra is fine, but it doesn't change enough to really feel like its own unique thing.
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ale10ander · 5 months
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XCOM and the perils of adaptations
Many video games have been adapted into board games: Slay the Spire, XCOM, and This War of Mine are three of the most prominent. But there's a challenge to making a good adaptation.
The Faithful
This War of Mine is extremely faithful; it feels exactly like one playthrough of the game. While the video game is single-player, the board game plays up to six, a concession for the medium. Even with six players, the players take turns reading emotional prompts, and act as one. The best way to play the game is with as few people as possible, in an intimate setting.
The Vibes
Compare that to the XCOM board game. This isn't an attempt to port the video game to tabletop space (that's been done with games like Level 7: Omega Protocol, which is an N-Vs-1 combat game in the same vein as the board games DOOM (2016), Imperial Assault, or Descent). Invariably, these games end up with a lot of dice rolling and complex line-of-sight rules, things often labeled as hallmarks of the "Ameritrash" genre of board games.
No, the XCOM board game takes a different approach. Instead of adapting the gameplay, it emulates the FEEL of an XCOM game: not having enough resources, having a time crunch to make difficult decisions, and choosing whether its better to lose one country over another. In some respects, it's not a very faithful adaptation, as it's a completely different experience to the video game. In other respects, it succeeds at its goal, and gives an experience of the stress and genre of the modern XCOM games.
What about RPGs?
Tabletop roleplaying games (a la Dungeons and Dragons) are an a similarly weird bind to XCOM. Some people play them as romance simulators, while others play them as combat simulators. There are those who argue that the 4th edition of D&D is the best version, because it lays bare what the game is "really" about (beating up monsters and taking their stuff) and makes that core loop fun. Others argue that it's the worst edition, because it only has rules for combat and eschews the "roleplaying" part of roleplaying games.
So what would an XCOM adaptation look like? Just like with board games, there are multiple possible approaches you could take. You could flesh out the combat system and have a slow-moving, tense game of tactics, where the chance to roll is determined entirely by swingy dice, or you could let the combat take a back seat and focus on the resource management side of things.
My take, or The part of this post that's closest to being an ad
Two years ago, I released an RPG called Cyberrats. Mechanically, it was inspired most heavily by the modern XCOM games, as well as Shadowrun (an RPG famous for being incredibly "crunchy"). Here's how I chose to handle various aspects of the adaptation. In my mind, the six most important aspects of an XCOM adaptation are:
Combat
Basebuilding
Resource Management
Specializations
Lethality
and a campaign.
I want to be clear: my goal was not to adapt XCOM, but to create a tabletop experience that feels similar to XCOM, while being its own thing. Here's how I tackled these elements.
Combat
I wanted combat to be tactical, but quick and fun. Many RPGs with heavy combat systems end up spending hours in a single encounter. I didn't want that. I used a modified version of the LUMEN system, which means that players get a number (usually 1-3) of six-sided dice (d6), roll them, and keep the highest. A 5-6 is a full success, a 3-4 is a success with consequences, and a 1-2 is a failure with consequences.
Additionally, enemies are simple (having attacks and non-combat 'moves', like inflicting status effects or activating their allies) and drop loot when defeated. Range bands are abstract (close, near, far), and missions have objectives (hack this computer, defuse a bomb, capture the VIP, and so on).
Basebuilding
My favorite part of XCOM is investing in the base to unlock new powers and abilities. In the base game of Cyberrats, there are 17 total rooms that can be built. These rooms improve healing (the clinic), offer new psychic powers or weapons (Auguary, Detonatorium, Engineering Lab), improve player characters ("Operatives") (Gym, Training Grounds), or otherwise affect gameplay. Players can choose which builds are important to them, and build them as a team in whatever order they'd like.
Excavation
The base is a 4x4 grid of rooms. The first two rooms are clear, the next tow cost 1 to clear. The second row costs 2 each to clear, and so on. In addition to clearing a space, rooms cost money to build.
Campaign and Resource Management
As fun as the missions in XCOM are, it's not a game I would play indefinitely. I play to win, with a strong probability of losing. Similarly, I know a lot of RPGs are designed to be played indefinitely, as a forever campaign. With Cyberrats, I wanted a short campaign, one that can be beat in ~10 sessions.
And I did that by tying it into resource management. The premise of Cyberrats is simple: the world is being invaded by aliens. You are interns at a megacorp, and a rival megacorp has the situation under control. Unacceptable!.
You have to sabotage the rival megacorp, fend off the alien invasion, and make sure your boss gets all the credit.
Mechanically, it looks like this: there are two "Victory Meters". One for the Interlopers (the aliens), one for Valdivian, your rival Megacorp. If either of those Victory meters reaches 10, you lose. In the first case, the aliens win. In the second case, someone else fended them off.
Players are presented with 3 missions. They choose one to fail, one to settle with dice rolls, and one to play out. Failing a mission targeting a specific faction increases that faction's victory meter. Succeeding against a faction lowers it.
There's also a third faction, the military. They don't have a victory meter, but do have some of the best loot in the game, making them a lucrative target.
In order to win the campaign, players must win a mission against each faction 3 times, and then go on a special story mission to fight the big boss form each faction. The final story mission is blowing up the mothership and saving the day.
Specializations
In XCOM, you start as raw recruits. After your first mission, you are assigned a specialization based on actions you took. After that, as you gain experience, you choose between two powerful abilities corresponding to your specialization.
In Cyberrats, you start as interns. You have very little health, and only one power. After your first mission, if you live, you choose a Career. As you gain experience, you choose between 3 abilities for specializations of that career. The careers are Vector (hacker), Trenchy (weapons specialist), Mindjob (psychic), and Ratter (mutated freak).
Lethality
In Cyberrats, you create two Operatives to send on missions. Partially, this is so you can send one on the backup mission (resolved with dice rolls based on the prowess of the assigned Operatives), and partially this is because there's a good chance your Operatives will get Injured.
Hit points are small (even the brawniest Career only starts with 9), and nothing is guaranteed. But, it's very hard to die in Cyberrats: it just becomes increasingly expensive to recover.
Conclusion
There's no wrong way to adapt a game to a new medium. I once read an article about 6 different ways to adapt a book into a movie, and these thoughts have been stewing in my mind ever since. I made some choices in bringing an XCOM-like experience to table, but I can easily imagine several other, equally valid approaches. It's all about what you want to emulate, baby.
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twistedapple · 5 months
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Kiss me more
As announced in an earlier post, I'm unleashing the smut chapter of my fic as a semi-stand alone. It's nicer in the bigger context of the fic of course, since the relationship is a build up, but if you're just here for the smut, well I hope you'll like it.
@kikisgate @fruitypies tagging you two since you asked for the full chapter, have fun with almost 6k of filth. @kiss-inferna you wanted to be tagged on Nuria-related content so here you go lol
Quick meta context: This exchange regarding Raphael's sexuality and how some people view it.
Quick story context: [SPOILER ALERT] in the previous chapter, Nuria infiltrates a private event and get her hands on her target. Raphael happens to be there for business, he knows what she's doing and finds it hot. They leave together, the following text is a turning point for what started as a professional relationship.
BGM over here. Full OC Playlist here.
THIS IS +18 EXTRA SPICY CONTENT, IF YOU READ THAT AS A MINOR DON'T ACT SHOCKED, I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR CLICK, YOU WERE WARNED.
CW: orgasm denial, bondage, blood, alcohol, size difference...
The cambion already knew what her home looked like, but being directly inside was another matter. As he stepped in, the characteristic sillage of carnal roses and incense could be felt. It wasn’t the biggest place – by his standards, it was in fact quite small, however the apartment had a crucial detail tied to a cultural aspect inherent to the Calimshite: wealth itself wouldn’t be enough to display one’s social status, the way wealth would be used for comfort was the real deal, and Nuria’s apartment clearly showed her own status, despite being a woman. The striking element was the sheer amount of convenient magic items. A snap of her fingers and the whole place, bathed in pale moonlight, lit up with the warmth of multiple candles, which shone brighter than normal – of course they would, it seemed Nuria preferred quiet places and had secured a comfortable home in Quill Ward, the district of scribes. This ward had enjoyed special, secret magical wards for centuries – clever wards, really -, that prevented fires and illnesses from spreading, made candles shine brighter, and kept paper and parchment in pristine condition. However, they weren’t the only wards affecting Nuria’s home. Raphael could feel a faint but unmistakable trace – a security ward, maybe? She was careful and meticulous, after all, so it would be very much in character for her to protect her abode against unwanted intrusions with discreet wards.
A soft breeze passed through a slightly open window, and the fresh scent of jasmine filled the main room, adding its dewy scent to the already present feminine perfume. The entire place clearly wasn’t just luxurious by the presence of magical items; it was also tastefully arranged in the local fashion. Walls and tiled floors displayed stylised floral patterns, wooden furnitures had elegant carvings, richly ornate carpets partially covered the floors – which seemed to be Nuria’s preferred place, as low seats and thick cushions were organised to form a pleasant living area. Two short hallways led to other places, and Nuria kicked her shoes off by the entrance before going to the one on the left, dropping her mantle on one of the seats as she passed by.
-Shoes off inside, please.
Amused by the request said in a rather matter-of-fact tone, as if Nuria knew he’d followed through, Raphael did as requested and left his boots at the entrance in a snap of fingers before proceeding further. As she turned to check behind her, she held her hands up, coaxing him towards her with a cheeky smile as she guided him towards what quickly revealed itself to be the bedroom, which proved just as elegant as the rest of the apartment, with a delicate sahnisin – the classic latticework of Calimshan - at the large window. Under his feet, the wide carpet was soft and pleasantly thick. Nuria’s hands felt small and delicate, her fingers feeling even cooler against the heat of his own palms. This promised an interesting night.
-How straightforward of you to directly take me here.
-You didn’t have your fill of banter for the night? How greedy.
-A perfectly fine virtue, my dear. But allow me to indulge in it more.
Without any warning, Raphael snapped his fingers again, leaving Nuria in a state of delightful undress. She gasped, then took a scandalised look.
-I’ll have you know the striptease is part of the fun! At least you left the essentials – jewels and perfume...
As she shared her thoughts on Raphael’s decision, the genasi smiled brazenly and gently guided him towards the bed, having him sit in front of her. As soon as he took place on the bed, the cambion pulled her closer and started running his hands over her body, taking pleasure in finally being able to touch the slender waist and follow the pleasant curve of her hips and rear. Her dress, carefully draped to cover yet show everything, had been teasing him all evening and he had been more and more itching to get it off her back. She giggled under his touch and it made him want to press his face against her breasts, round and pert and oh-so-inviting for a mouth to run across them and leave a flushed mess. Nuria had other plans however, as she ran fingers down his cheek before reaching the chin and gently make him look at her – he could have been offended by the gesture had it been more commanding, but one of her more impressive skills was definitely to obtain results with a velvet glove, and even a devil like him could appreciate that.
-Oh you’re eager, aren’t you...
And there she was with that exceptional charm of her, leaning towards him, their noses brushing as their eyes met, honeyed brown facing grey-and-violet – her eyes truly were like a moody sky. His fingers teasingly played with the delicate golden chain decorating her waist in a sultry display. She really had been expecting something happen, hadn’t she?
-Would you be patient enough to let me handle your clothes?
It was more like a tease than a question proper, really. She was already playing with the buttons at his neck, undoing them slowly, one by one, while he felt her lips brush against his. Nothing had really happened, yet there was already a feeling of sin in the air and Raphael basked in the seductive inflection of her voice, the cool feeling of her skin against his palm, the temptation of her lips still glistening slightly from the murderous tint she’d worn during the evening. Until she’d aimed for her target, that is. The caress of her plump lips caused a pleasant shiver to run down his spine and the next thing he knew, he’d crashed his own against hers. He too wanted some of that assassin mouth and he was quick to run his tongue against her lower lip, as much to request entrance as to gather the remaining poison – it wouldn’t harm him anyway. Much to his delight, Nuria was prompt to react, deepening the kiss with a moan as he guided one of her legs on the bed, right against him, before allowing her to push him on the bed. When they broke the kiss, she left a smaller one at the corner of his lips and it was enough to feel warmth shooting to his loins as she straddled him, teasingly pressing against his hips.
-I’ll take that as a yes, then.
-How very generous of you to do that for me.
-What can I say, I enjoy being of service.
Now his doublet was unbuttoned and open, and he could feel her touch through the cotton of his shirt as she ran her fingers against the planes of his torso, taking the time to feel everything through the fabric while she kept an attentive eye on him. Clearly, the plan was to slowly uncover what would make him react and he couldn’t deny that she had a pleasant approach about it, teasing him with the movements of her hips against his, and yet having him wait. Again, she managed to walk that very fine line between pleasing and offending him, a wonderful display of subtlety that convinced him to lean into her care and enjoy the attention while she was at work on top of him.
With the same deliberate gestures, Nuria slowly unbuttoned his shirt, working her way down while running her hands over him, always at the limit between the fabric and his skin, maddeningly teasing. Raphael only sat back up to fully remove the doublet and the shirt, abandoning them on the floor and stealing sloppy kisses down her neck in the process, a hand reaching up to play with a breast before he felt her push him back down again, playfulness all over her face.
-Tu-tut. We’re not done yet.
As she spoke, she furthered her point by rolling her hips against him, feeling the forming bulge against her core.
-Quite bossy, aren’t we?
-And you’re enjoying every second of it so far.
-I’ve been having a fine night, I’m in an indulgent mood. But keep going, who am I to interrupt your fun?
She swatted at him, chuckling at his retort. It wasn’t her first time with someone like him, they’d act all high and mighty and in control most of the time, but would be inclined to give up on some of that control in private. All it took was the right words, the right gestures. They were her favourite, it was fun to have them turn to putty under her touch, lost in the pleasure she provided, and it was even funnier to keep it all secret and use that to keep them on their toes. Seeing the effect she had on this devil when she had barely started was exciting.
Switching to the next step, she reached back to his lips for a kiss followed by a trail down his throat and towards his chest. One of her hands would go first, the other being used for support, and then her lips would follow to warm up the cool trail of her fingers. Her mouth and fingers lingered on his nipples, eliciting a low moan from Raphael. Ever since they’d met, Nuria had found his voice treacherously pleasant, but that was music to her ears. Smiling in the trail of kisses she left on her way to his crotch, she took the time to appreciate the lean muscles beneath her hands and the way his copper skin contrasted with the golden of her fairer olive – he had the lined face and greying hair of a middle-aged man, yet he remained quite the sight, although considering what he was, she felt appreciative but not surprised. Being attractive was, after all, part of the deal for devils like him to better charm their clients.
The genasi slipped smoothly between his legs, her hands now running on his still clothed thighs before aiming for the bulge in-between, teasing with her knuckles and mouth as she started undoing his trousers to uncover the rest of him. Suddenly, she felt Raphael’s hips roll under her, then long fingers ran through her hair, tousling it as he held her so her mouth wouldn’t leave the bulge in his underwear. Impatient.
Raphael felt dark eyes on him, as she was giving him quite the look under her long lashes. Supporting himself on an elbow, he chuckled darkly as he ran his hand from her hair to her cheek, before settling his thumb on her lips as he forced her chin up.
-That sweet tongue of yours certainly knows how to keep someone waiting, dear.
A voice like velvet and a carefully crafted tone – alluring and threatening in equal parts -, as he pushed his thumb in her mouth. No resistance, she took the finger without hesitation and licked and sucked, looking at him directly with half-lidded eyes the whole time. When he released her from his grasp, she chuckled in turn and straightened back up, her hands back to caressing his inner thighs. She took a long look, before offering his a bright smile that illuminated her features in a deviously innocent way.
-I merely aim to serve... A little deal, maybe? Something nice, easy and simple. Let me finish there, then I’ll let you take the reins.
-You’ll let me? How generous of you.
-My house, my rules. You won’t regret it.
It was Raphael’s turn to chuckle again. The nerves of that woman, simply amazing. Yet she knew how to speak to him, and he was in too good of a mood to reject the offer. Besides, she clearly had an idea in the back of her head, and her proposal had made him curious.
-A fair argument, but you’ll have to hold your end of that bargain.
-Oh, don’t worry about that. Now, back down please, let me tend to you.
He felt a hand gently push on his torso, encouraging him to lean back before slipping over his body to settle at his hips. Both hands held his trousers and underwear and he followed through the soft pull by lifting his hips, allowing her to remove what was left of his clothes and make it join the rest somewhere on the floor. Then her weight disappeared from the bed as she reached for the closed compartment of her bedside table. He didn’t immediately see what she had retrieved from it, as she had taken it in a manner that purposefully concealed the object. He was quick to find out, however, when she sat next to him and cupped his cheek in her dainty hand while making a rather filthy request with the sweetest voice and an equally angelic smile.
-Would you kindly put your hands up, please?
Replying with a knowing smile and intense look of his own, Raphael couldn’t help yet another quip as he complied – they did have a little agreement, after all.
-Bold choice for a first time, I must say.
-Only because I trust you can take it in stride.
-But it’s not the only reason.
-Indeed it isn’t...
As they talked, Nuria slipped the bindings around the bedpost and bound his hands, finishing her reply with a firm tug to tighten them just enough. She was used to that exercise. Heat ran along Raphael’s spine at the thought, racing all the way to his hardened cock.
-You’ll get full use of your hands later, among other things. Just focus on yourself for now.
She slipped back between his legs, and he noticed too late that she had taken something else from the side table. However, he found himself momentarily distracted when she pushed with her thigh to hook his left leg over hers, giving herself better access and making him need her touch. When her hands were on him again, he almost let out a sigh of relief – a tight feel at the base of his cock stopped him in his track. A ring, its pressure points pressed all the right spots. She really was prepared.
-Now we’re talking...
Her angelic smile turned amorous and she bit her lips while openly checking him out, cheeks flushed and clearly enjoying the view, before diving right in to finally take care of the teased then neglected member. She was starting the second delicate operation of the night and needed him fully focused on his own pleasure to handle it. Finally, she gave in and started running her fingers on his length, delighting in the feeling of the veins and the soft curve upward as she took him in one hand, the other on his inner thigh to caress him with her thumb.
Raphael threw his head back and let out an unrestrained moan when he felt her lips on him, the feeling of the sloppy kisses trailing all the way to his tip, followed by one hand going from the root to that delightfully sensitive part right where the skin was pulled and a palm over his tip for more teasing. Her years of learning at the Festhall of Eternal Delight had born wonderful fruits, which he was now fully savouring as she started licking and sucking his balls while working a skilful hand on his arousal. The restrictions of the ring made every single touch feel more intense, even causing his hips to jerk from the surge of pleasure when she took him in her mouth, working him one way with cool fingers steady at the base and another way with the soft and warm touches of her tongue further up his length.
Heat pooled in his loins and his breath picked up the pace as he was more than ready to coat her mouth – then he felt a pressure and the heat receded. He gave Nuria a frustrated look, but was met with a wicked grin in reaction.
-Not now.
Her voice was sweet and sing-song, bearing more innocence than her smile did. Without breaking the eye contact, she slowly got back to work, this time avoiding his now sensitive head to focus on the shaft as well as the softer skin of his inner thighs, which were peppered with gentle kisses. Her boldness would have been irritating if it had not been so erotic to feel and watch. He had spent too much time using Haarlep, in a way her actions felt charmingly refreshing to him. Besides, she had given him carte blanche once she was done with her little fun.
His train of thought was interrupted when she straddled him again, teasingly rubbing herself against him; she was sopping wet. So that was what got her off. This realisation elicited a chuckle from him that quickly turned into a purring moan when he felt her slide down on his length with a practiced roll of her hips. The heat came back in waves more intense than before, an exhilarating feeling taking over as he stirred under her, while her hips kept rolling in a slow and deliberate rhythm, grey-and-violet eyes set on him in an almost feverish gaze that he decided to hold as he silently appreciated the way she took him, how felt around him. His hips started jerking again, the sound of skin against skin echoing softly in the room as they slapped against her rear. He felt close, oh so close, heat pulsating almost painfully as his thoroughly teased manhood felt engorged and strained against the ring. He moaned when he felt the heat cresting... And then Nuria couldn’t be felt around him anymore, and the crest broke again.
-I knew you’d do well.
At this point, her eyes had this dark glint of excitement he’d already seen before, when she was after a target. Back between his now spread legs, she delicately removed the ring, then moved up to untie him. When she leaned forward, Raphael used the opportunity to get his mouth over her breasts – immediately eliciting a gasp in response -, tasting her skin and basking in its sensuous scent while she gently massaged his wrists.
She had dared deny him his pleasure, delightful vixen that she was. He could have been annoyed by that display of audacity, yet he found himself even more aroused and willing to give chase. His half-lidded eyes stayed on Nuria, now sitting on her side in a lascivious manner, sculptural in the warm, low lighting of her bedroom. Finally released from the cockring and unbound from the bedpost – he could have broken the ties she had used if he wanted to, really, but preferred indulging her request for his own pleasure -, Raphael seized the opportunity to pounce on her, once he had his fill of leering. He may have indulged her, but he still couldn’t decently let her get away with it, otherwise she’d start overreaching.
-Oh my dear, that was quite naughty of you.
Welcoming his approach, Nuria straightened herself and closed the gap between them, allowing him to wrap his arms around her slender waist and press her against him, hungry for her pretty mouth.
She felt his arms tighten around her waist as he had her turn her back to him before drawing her close again, heat suddenly intensifying against her ever-cool skin. Then, his chest felt different against her back. Opening the eyes she had closed to bask in his warmth, she couldn’t help a chuckle when she saw his copper skin had turned scarlet, and felt the air around them being moved by his wing, black claws pressing her sides. His diabolical form. That explained the new feeling, his skin hot to the touch and textured like scales, his increased height as well.
-It may have been naughty, but judging by your reaction, it has been appreciated.
As she spoke in this smooth, breathy tone that felt like a warm whisper borne by the wind, she rolled her hips against him, feeling a hardness against her rear that elicited a clear hiss from the devil. Nuria attempted to turn around and get a full look at his new appearance but found herself denied and locked in his hold. His hot breath tickled her ear and neck as he leaned in and replied, velvet voice alluring enough to warrant more wetness between her legs.
-It’s only fair that I answer back in kind, then, sweet Nuria. A deal’s a deal.
Raphael firmed his hold on her, enveloping her and basking in the delightful hot-and-cold sensation of her perfumed skin and hair, the increased cool feeling of her skin contrasting against his own, sending pleasant chills to his loins. He answered to her rolling hips with a movement of his own, sliding a hand down between her legs and enjoying the soft feeling of her skin in the process. Two clawed fingers reached her wet core, caressing her nub with the soft pads while he purred an appreciative moan, before firmly spreading her legs apart.
-Besides, if you deny me my wants, I will take them myself.
In any other circumstances, it could have been an open, sinister warning. Here, it was closer to a game of pretend – Raphael knew she’d provide, he had been well aware of her habits even before deciding to share her bed. But he had an image to maintain, and besides, with the introduction she had just given him, speaking such imperious words to Nuria in that manner was likely to arouse her. The chase was too delightful for them both to refuse indulging in it, shamelessly.
He felt the genasi lean against him, her delicate hand, ornate with tinted patterns and golden rings sliding along his arm and wrist to join the hand between her legs, gilded nails digging his skin in provocation. She rose her head towards him, an impertinent smile on her face.
-What are you waiting for, then?
Even when he was reclaiming control over her, she had a way of slipping away somehow, in a manner that was more exciting than infuriating – just one very tempting step forward and calling him to her still. He shut her up with a harsh kiss, lip-biting and tongues fighting, his free hand sliding up her waist to cup her breast, its round flesh filling his palm perfectly. Without any form of warning, he lined himself and entered her in a single, firm thrust that made her moan loudly in the mouthy kiss.
Nuria had suspected it when she had first rolled her hips against him, but once he thrust into her, it was confirmed: ridges pushed in her, stretching her more than the penetration while he had been in his human form. She barely had time to adjust however, her stifled moan seemingly being used by Raphael to signal that he could start chasing his pleasure. And chasing he certainly did, leaving her lips for her neck, breathing her avidly and biting the supple skin. Nuria let herself go against him, eyes closed, taking in the multiple sensations as they came, heat coursing through her body in waves that pooled between her legs. The hand on her breast kept teasing her now taut and sensitive nipple, while the hand between her legs snaked back up, long fingers playing with the ornate golden chain around her waist and black claws rubbing against her skin, her own smaller hand still holding it, caressing its bulging veins. Her other hand reached back tentatively. If he wouldn’t let her face him, then she’d explore him in another way. Her deft fingers sled against the burning hot skin, feeling the scale-like texture, the ridges at his waist and hip.
Her cool touch pushed yet another button in him, and while remaining on his knees behind her, Raphael angled his hips a bit – a decision he was immediately most pleased with, considering the loud moan Nuria let out as she seemingly gave him full control, basking in the new sensation while her hips matched his thrusts with an almost liquid rhythm that he had previously witnessed, much earlier in the evening, while she was dancing. It was enough for him to feel absolute pleasure shooting straight to his loins, and he went all out, showing her what he was all about.
He lost himself in the tight-hot-slick sensation, his wings unfolding as waves of pleasure kept coming, his hands clawing at her chest and belly when he felt her tighten against him, her entire body trembling in ecstasy as he rubbed against that oh-so-sweet spot with each thrust. His hiss mixed with her moans, before transforming into a moan of his own when his burning seed started filling her. They rode their orgasm fully, and Raphael took pleasure in pushing it further, taking in the overstimulation in her now overly wet cunt. When he released his grip, he felt their mixed fluids drip along his balls, and the idea of having put his favourite in such a state of undress filled him with additional pleasure.
Finally, he let her drop on the mattress and face him, see him in full diabolic glory as he towered over her, his eyes burning like Hellfire. She flopped on her back and winced slightly, noticing the long nicks on her chest before raising her dark eyes to him – he recognised the peculiar shine in them, excitation. It made him want more, it made him want to fully indulge her.
-An enlightening demonstration, I must say.
Chuckling at her quip, he leaned in with a smug smile.
-Red suits you so well, my dear. You should consider wearing it more often.
-Wouldn’t you like to make me?
-Hm... Is that a request I am hearing?
Every word he said was carefully purred as he slowly closed in on her, a predator with his precious meal. As she was considering pulling him in for another kiss, Raphael straightened himself again and tilted his head.
-All of that made me thirsty, however... Would you care for some wine?
Before Nuria could even give an answer – was she even supposed to answer that -, a bottle of sweet trika appeared with a flaming snap of his fingers. Just a bottle. She’d have wine alright, just not the way it was usually drunk.
With a smooth gesture, Raphael opened the bottle and pulled her closer to him.
-Yes... Stay just like that, while I have my fill.
Propped on her elbows, Nuria felt the wine trickle between her breast, the cool feeling replaced by a burning sensation that made her wince as it reached cuts pearled with red, this feeling immediately replaced by the wet warmth of Raphael’s tongue, who leaned in to lap. He let out a shaky moan as he reached a gash and savoured the mix of wine and blood there. He kept getting lower, licking and even drinking from her belly button, before reaching what had pooled at the crossing between her mons and her thighs. While he kept having his fill there, Nuria could feel the rough texture of his horns pressing into her. Changing her balance a bit, she reached out to run a hand in his curls and tightened her grip when she suddenly felt clawed fingers push her legs apart, tongue on her cunt. She saw Raphael’s tail swish and thought of an excited cat, then a renewed wave of pleasure made her throw her head back and close her eyes, taking in the overstimulation with a shaky sigh as he was licking and sucking.
Raphael stopped right before she went over the edge, however, and pulled back with a smug smile – this had been the answer to her opening ministration as well. His newfound energy hadn’t gone unnoticed, as he felt a small foot provocatively rub against his thigh, teasing his hardened manhood without even touching it, while Nuria made a show of her wet cunt with eyes full of laughter and mischief. She was, without a doubt, quite the piece of devious work, this one. He wanted to keep her close. He wanted to indulge her all the more, and have her commune in depraved ecstasy with him.
The devil guided her as he sat and leaned against the headboard, letting her take a seat on his laps. Nuria set against him, an arm snaking around his shoulder to settle at his neck, her hand yet again running through the curls at the nape, while the other hand explored his torso, feeling the muscles and bulging veins, teasing a nipple as she pressed herself against his ridged hardness. Raphael used the opportunity to guide her hips and entering her again. This time, the passion was languid, both of them wanting to savour what was seemingly the end of their shared meal. As her soft breasts were pressing on his chest, as her mouth was peppering a string of delightful kisses from his lips to his neck, he grabbed her rear and tightened his grip, digging his claws in the pleasant flesh while he was fully taking in her wetness and losing himself in her ride. Soon enough, they moved in unison, drowning in the way they felt against each other, how his enticing cherry sweetened her storm-damp rose, how her voluptuous incense perfumed the pepper of his smoke, how everything was being tied together by the intoxicating scent of hot sex. They rode their orgasm one last time in unrestrained, shared moans.
As they basked in the afterglow, silent fell save for their own breath and the sound of crickets outside. After a while, Nuria seized the initiative and straightened back on his lap. With her hands still roaming on his chest, she gave him a long look.
-So… Do you have other places to be, or do you want to stay until morning?
-Hm… I shall extend my stay for the night – or rather, the end of it.
The reply seemed to please her.
-Alright then, how about a cleanup first? There’s also food in the icebox and I have some tobacco blends if you enjoy smoking from a hookah.
-My, you really mean it when you say you enjoy being of service!
-Let it never be said that I am an unpleasant host. Wait here, I’ll take care of you.
When Raphael slipped out of her, the feeling of his softening manhood against her core elicited a soft hiss from her – she remained sensitive. The genasi got up first and crossed the bedroom to go to what she revealed to be the bathroom. Raphael got back to his human form and waited a few minutes before getting up, enjoying the calm and paying attention to the sound of running water. Then, he went ahead and joined Nuria in the bathroom as she was detangling her tousled hair and putting it up again to get ready for a bath she was running, moisture slowly clinging in the air. She had also used the opportunity to remove the remaining makeup on her face. He’d been used to seeing her at least with khôl, so seeing her like that offered a new level of intimacy. She had her back to him, and used his reflection in the tall mirror to address him.
-Oh, I was about to get back to you. Let me clean you up first, then how about we relax a bit?
-Only if you get in the bathtub with me, dear.
-That can be considered.
-You tease.
Nuria picked a washcloth from the washing basin, as well as a bar of scented soap, and proceeded to take care of him – cleaning the beads of sweat on his face, the sticky mix of sweat, trika and blood on his torso and then further down to his member, the pleasant feeling of the warm, damp cloth making him fully relax under her touch.
-And after you.
She directed him towards the bath while she was putting a stop to the magical amphora that had been filling it. A perfume indicated the addition of oils in it – lavender and orange blossom, and a hookah was next to it, ready to be lit and used – a fine habit, that was for certain. Raphael sunk in the hot water with a delighted sigh, before signalling Nuria to join him in the large tub. As she was entering however, he had her stay up, in front of him, while he ran his fingers over her, where his claws had cut. Light shone from the tip of his fingers, as it usually did when he used magic, and for a second a searing sensation made her wince silently. As he finished healing her, he left a kiss on her hips, his lips lingering just enough before he let her take place between his legs, leaning against him while his fingers ran over the biting marks on her neck and shoulder, repeating the process – which he ended this time with a kiss right below the ear.
-What a gracious guest you are.
-Merely matching the energy of the gracious host.
-Cute.
-Always, when I want to show my appreciation.
Nuria reached to the hookah to distract herself from the various feelings his words elicited, and lit the charcoal up with a snap of her fingers, lightning sparks flying momentarily, and pulled on the first drafts of smoke before lending the tip to the devil at her back. They kept going a little while longer, the scent of lavender and orange blossom mixing with the round and earthy scent of tobacco, then patted themselves dry and headed back to the bed, this time for proper rest.
Raphael settled against her, his head on her chest and an arm around her waist. Taken aback for a second, Nuria decided to allow it and took him in a sweet embrace, fingers running as gently as ever in his hair. 
When morning came, Raphael couldn’t tell when he had fallen asleep. What was certain was that despite the rather short and lively night, he felt well-rested. Nuria was still fast asleep next to him, her face displaying a truly innocent look for once. His eyes kept sliding back to her while he was putting his clothes back on – the morning sun was shining through the sahnisin, its shadow drawing an elegant pattern that invited him to follow the curves of her back, hips and rear. The scene inspired him and he decided to leave a little note for her before leaving. Back in the living area, he found an unused piece of paper as well as a glass pen and ink pot. With a lingering thought for the events of the previous night and the view he had just enjoyed, he penned a few lines before leaving with a sulphurous snap of fingers.
A couple hours later, when Nuria woke up, she found herself alone and quite sore. As she covered herself with a silk robe and went to the kitchen area, she noticed the papers had been moved on the table of the living area. She first approached it with suspicion, then noticed a note in an elegant handwriting that was distinguishably not hers. So he had left a note instead of leaving like a thief. A few seconds later, she was caught in an unrestrained laughter, the note in hand.
-Sharess takes me, what a pervert.
“O apple of my eye,
More seeds for your cry
That I’d happily supply.
-R”
Their next meeting promised to be most interesting.
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allgoldenelite · 6 months
Text
ok, as a kinda sorta quasi continuation of this, i'm gonna dump some more thoughts i've had lately about kenny, don, and everything.
cw for abusive relationships, toxic behavior, manipulation
first of all, i'm gonna give credit where credit is due: the storyline as it stands rn has had some things added to it which i would never have thought a wrestling story dare add, let alone handle well. some of it is more subtext and some of it is more out there, but so far i have found that the elements i examined and interpreted only ever enhanced my reading of the kenny omega character, so i've personally enjoyed them as enrichment of the text.
don callis is a sociopathic abuser (there's some subtext there that could be read to mean the abuse is also sexual). the first part he's said so himself, and the second part...well, there's enough material there now to write a book about, but i just want to make sure we're all on the same page here. all those times when him (and kenny!) during the collector run made sure to remind the audience that callis has been in kenny's life since he was 6 (or 10; neither of them are consistent with it) years old were sickeningly recontextualized when kenny said in his sitdown with JR that don fed him substances and started drilling him for wrestling by cutting him off from outside interests and friends pretty much as soon as he entered his life. and in don's sitdown with JR, he of course proclaims it was all because the golden sheik and kenny's family had told him to take care of kenny, so he was merely acting out of selflessness and philanthropy.
but what don did was essentially create a deeply, deeply traumatized weapon. it's all there in kenny's vtrs, moves and akas (the cleaner, the best bout machine, terminator dive, calling himself an unstoppable android, saying he wants to be a weapon for njpw). a cold, clinical thing that others decide what to do with, controlled and manipulated by others (well, i say others, but basically it always come back to don callis), and which exists without its own agency. that thread even comes back in his collector run during a segment with christian cage, where christian correctly pins down what's been happening all this time ("i don't know what's weirder, don, the fact that you manipulated a 10 year old kenny omega, or that the adult kenny omega is still letting it happen."). and as abuse and trauma go, kenny was (and in some ways still is) continuing the cycle in how he treats people close and important to him like take, bucks, hangman, and so on.
now, the don abuser backstory is mostly meant to be read when looking at the latter half of kenny's time in njpw and especially his aew career, but imo you could even go as far with the reading as saying that his time in ddt was like an escape from don for kenny, something he did for himself for a change (maybe the first and only time he did something for himself), rather than for don or because he wanted to prove he's the best. and then you look at the way this is all breaking down because of jealousy and feelings of inadequacy and deeply rooted fear, and you go, of course, the poor guy has so built his entire being and sense of self-worth around winning and recognition of superiority that as soon as that doesn't come in a steady stream (or is indeed threatened by different, unknown and scary feelings such as actually wanting to be the no 2, not the no 1) his mental and emotional health just collapses like a house of cards.
either way, all kenny has known his entire life is wrestling. and the largest swath of that wrestling life has been spent trying to prove he's unbeatable and immortal, while repeatedly having difficulties accepting love and help from others and pushing those closest to him away. and don callis takes credit for all of it.
but here's the thing. in a way, he's right, about taking credit for the winning. of course, from don's twisted perspective, he is right; he spent nearly every waking hour "preparing" kenny for wrestling and pulling strings behind the scenes (seriously, the guy claims to have connections to the european parliament, for crying out loud) to pave his path of destruction through multiple promotions. but the cut runs deeper than that. because ever since don turned on kenny, kenny's been losing, a lot, and commentary and other characters have been picking up on that fact. the fact that, as it seems for right now, without don callis, kenny isn't the winner he so desires to be. he's not just lost singles but random tags or multimans as well, and if he does win, he's getting crucifixed to the ropes and getting his head smashed in with a chair. kenny had the bucks back at his side but that didn't fix it. the elite welcomed hangman back into their midst, but that didn't fix it. ibushi came back to reform the golden elite but that didn't fix it. kenny kept falling down.
so now what?
i don't have an answer. i've seen some discussion lately about kenny's questionable or lackluster performance in this story. as in, not his in-ring kayfabe performance, but the actor's performance. some people say they noticed him having less energy than usual or looking like he's not all there at times, like his head isn't fully in the game, and that translating to how the character is perceived (or not perceived; he's been notably absent from a lot of recent btes, but that could also be due to how little actual story there is on bte these days) and backstage segments when viewers were expecting him to have a comment or a role in response to something that happened in the story).
the thing is...normally i don't really care too much? i'll get angry at this and that in front of the tv and say my peace on it, and then maybe a week later it'll flare back up if the wound's getting picked, but aside from that i don't care about wrestling, and especially not shoot stuff, enough to give a shit. dude could have a million reasons why he's not having the time of his life right now and by no means is he obligated to be in every little thing that happens. he's done enough.
but if you caught him on the street fighter stream he did for crown, it was night and day. it's like he was a different person. which is to say, it leads me to believe that this unmotivated, somewhat muted version of kenny we're seeing on our screens right now is part of the story. that don had his hooks so deep in kenny and yanked them out with such force that all that's left there now is mangled flesh. it reminded me of how kenny reacted when don got attacked by bcc and wasn't available to second him for his match vs jeff cobb: when the news were brought to him he seemed immediately crestfallen and made his entrance looking noticeably intimidated and distracted. like the reliance on don had been so strong and so deeply ingrained for so many years that he legitimately didn't know what to do. no manipulator to pull the trigger.
but still the question remains, what's the cure going to be, if none of the things i listed earlier helped? because at the end of the day this is still a story that involves wrestling, and altho the thought has crossed my mind that maybe this is going to be one of the very very few wrestling stories that do not equate a happy ending with a victory in the ring, i think at least somewhere along the road they will want to show kenny's rejuvenation via a win or two. so, what's it going to take to make that happen, when everything is said and done? i've followed people discussing that one way would be for him to go back to the drawing board specifically in japan (ddt, ibushi, you see where this is going), and of course that'd be very exciting and interesting, but somehow it feels to me like that's not the route they're taking. i'd be happy to be wrong, yet so far there haven't been any signs that i could decipher that that's a possibility in the story, and when kenny said at the wrestledream scrum that his primary focus is on aew in the us, it only reinforced that feeling for me.
this is a slightly different topic, but in addition, there's continued criticism about the confusing or meandering way the story flip-flops between seemingly portraying kenny as all alone and distraught and in need of help and not being any of those things the next week. this one i kinda have to agree with.
i'm not tired of the story in a way that some people are; i think there's still stones left to turn and interesting threads to pull on and characters to explore. but i do think it's been dragged out a little bit too much at times and that it has felt sluggish during some of those stretches, just like how the elite stories did after they came back up until they suddenly pressed the turbo button and kenny was best friends with hangman again. as a result, it has felt meandering, altho i do not agree with the criticism that there isn't anything left to do for both parties in the feud. don said he was going to cut out the elite and that he isn't anywhere near being done with that. it just remains to be seen what kenny's and by extension the elite's motivation in this all will be.
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7grandmel · 4 days
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Todays rip: 24/03/2024
Aphex Twin Snakes
Season 4 Episode 1 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume L [Side A]
Ripped by Snowva
youtube
I suppose we'll round off this streak covering rips with sources I'm far too unfamiliar with, with yet one more that I, like Poké Village, discovered on my own. Yes, I admit it: I am uncultured, I am weak, and I am not yet properly educated on the world of Aphex Twin. Now, that's not to say that the artist hasn't had an impact on me all the same - it wasn't that long ago that I wrote about just how much the Season 1 rip Aphex affected me way back in 2016. So I do have a tenuous attachment of sorts to their music, yet its an attachment I only get reminded of through rips and other remixes. Aphex Twin Snakes is one of those reminder-rips, one I found on a whim just browsing the archives of the Volume L album - and it's an absolute banger.
I may not have actual investment into the Metal Gear franchise yet either, but its at this point impossible not to know of the most legendary music of the Solid series. There's of course the beautiful credits theme to Metal Gear Solid 2, Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday - as performed by Bob Dylan (yes, by the REAL Bob Dylan!), and the long-overdue-for-coverage main theme for the series' third game, Snake Eater - but the main theme of Metal Gear Solid 2 has always felt like THE Metal Gear theme in my head. You can immediately tell something is changed in Aphex Twin Snakes - before the elements of Aphex Twin are even implemented, sound effects from the Metal Gear Solid series are sampled to create a far more prominent "beat" for the track, sort of in the vein of Banjostruck or the various Hideki Naganuma-inspired rips a la September. It's a fantastic way to transition the rip into the more jungle-y style of the Aphex Twin track used, which is Carn Marth if I'm to trust the Wiki - but attachment or not, its novelty as a jungle remix of such a proudly-orchestral piece is appealing all on its own.
The rip sells you in just the first 15 seconds alone as a distinctly different-feeling take to the legendary theme, but continues to impress throughout. I'm always caught off guard by how hard the intentional stutter in the track at little over 30 seconds in hits, and not long therafter the sound of Snake's iconic death sound from the series is used to amazing effect to punctuate the rip's change in tone. Midway through, we're even treated to a little bit of a "dialogue" in a codec call seemingly between Snake and Aphex Twin itself, only communicating through a change in music to the track Windowlicker. This is obviously not really the same thing as something like the canon-to-the-channel dialogue in Haltmanna feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, but it is a really fun surprise althesame - when Aphex Twin Snakes was uploaded, we already knew that Snake was to reappear as a character in the King for Another Day Tournament, and so this little moment of interaction from the character (or the Figment, if we're to be lore accurate) feels all too fitting, its as if he himself was shocked to encounter another source in "his" own track.
After this little interlude, Body & Blood by clipping. is added to the mix, giving the rip a vocal performance quite different in tone from the rip's first half. It was the first half that sold me, and though this shift in direction is certainly a form of escalation, it is maybe a bit too drastic for me - whenever I come back to Aphex Twin Snakes, it is the Aphex Twin part of the first half that I'm most drawn to. But I'm of course althesame thankful that we even get rips with such variety and risks taken in them (sort of like Metal Gear Solid 2 itself, hm?), and that the rip knows not to overstay its welcome. Each of these three sections of the rip get just enough time to land, and all three feel polished to a sheen. This is the first rip by Snowva I've covered on here, but if Aphex Twin Snakes is anything to go by they have an absolute knack for quality - and have helped remind me of yet another incredible artist that I need to start actually listening to.
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birdie-ghost · 2 years
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Okay first of all...your artstyle is AMAZING and the story elements and details are great! But lord the angst is SO good, dude it's no joke giving my daily dose of angst lol. I do have a question...I really want to make my own comic on paper but have no idea on how to do the panels right, any tips??
YES!!!! The first collage course I did in comics and comic design I had to do on paper so i can absolutely help you!!
Use a ruler.
So whatever width you want your boarder to be around the frames, always mark it with a ruler (this is if you're going for a more clean look, but i would also suggest using a ruler for the baseline sketches on a messier panel)
Thumbnail!! Always thumbnail!! It's a good idea with comics to like, lay out the foundation before you start to sketch the actual drawing and go all in, because you wanna see how it flows best. I'll show an example of the last 6 pages for It Runs in The Family (the FA comic)
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And you can see that I changed some thigs but generally its helpful to go in with a plan, cus you don't want to have sketched out and ruled out all the panels on the actual one and then decide that it looks goofy and you want to change it, its a lot of work lol.
Use whatever pen you like, comic's don't have to look nice to do well. It's more about the story and how you emote lol!! Use the frames to your advantage too. Don't be afraid to go beyond the normal square and rectangle ones.
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the way you do the boarders is really really important in expressing the urgency or the feel of the page. Don't be afraid to take and place the character outside of the boarder and coming into the gutter (the gutter is the space in-between frames on a comic)
I don't normally like using Onomatopoeias (fancy word for sound descriptors I just like saying haha) but they can really ad a lot to a frame, espessially if you're going for impact. ie WAM, SLAM, BOOM, etc
(these are some of my OCs)
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You can colour comic pages you drew traditionally digitally.
One, you want to make sure your lines are clear and dark enough. So mess around with the contrast brightness and make sure there's no saturation when you take a photo of your page lol. Two, put it into your art program, I use CSP but I used to use sketchbook autodesk so I know at least that has the layer mode you're going to need.
You're going to need to take the Photo you put in and change the layer mode to "Linear burn"
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Linear burn make's it so that the lighter the shade in your drawing, the less opaque it is So, that means you can use the lineart you did digitally, if you have it edited so that its basically black and your paper is almost white, works just as normal lineart
(now i'm pretty sure there's a way in CSP to take all of one colour and change it to a different one, which means you can take all of white and make it transparent but I am a big dumby and don't know how to do that)
And the final piece of advice I can give you is littarally just start drawing your comic if you want to. Because we all have to start somewhere. Don't go waiting to start it because you want "to be able to do it right" or "you're not good enough yet" because FOOL!! THERES NO RIGHT WAY TO DO IT AND YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH RIGHT NOW!!
It may not come naturally to you at first, but keep at it and you'll get there. Everything takes time. Have fun!!
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theticklishpear · 2 years
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Hi there ... I have an 80k word manuscript and I'm struggling with too much exposition. I think I'm having hard time adding action because, having already gotten to the end, adding conflict/complication feels totally token and artificial at this point. It feels like doing it for the sake of cutting down exposition, not enhancing the plot. Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated.
This is a really interesting ask. I haven’t done writing advice in a while but now and then I get something in my inbox—flattering and terrifying at once—and some of them strike my fancy to answer. I say this ask is interesting for a couple of reasons: 1) it’s clear you’ve really thought about this from a story theory standpoint, and 2) I think there’s some real discussion to be had here about word counts, style, pacing, and crafting plot. I think everything will come back to one question: Whose story is it? So let’s talk.
This ask is a tough ask to answer because I don’t know your style. I don’t know the way you knit words together when story-crafting that makes something distinctly yours. I don’t have your voice to refer to. And part of your answer may lie in understanding whether your exposition is harming your story or whether it's another living part of it.
Story is partially composed of exposition—sorry friend, there’s no getting around that—but how that exposition is delivered can make the difference in whether your story is hobbled by it or flourishing from it. Are you putting your exposition to work in service of your characters’ development? Does all your exposition support the telling of that specific story?
Worlds are places of infinite story. Every place, every stone, every building, every finial on the doorway has a story, let alone each and every person being the center of their own tale, but you’ve chosen a very specific story—a specific person’s story. Choose the elements of exposition that best support that story, and find ways to pass along that exposition that also support that story. Make your exposition pull its own weight.
Are you weaving your exposition into how your characters speak, what they notice, the resources they go to when faced with a problem? Are you crafting scenes and subplots with that exposition that allow you to show character development in their relationships, their sense of belonging, their personal growth?
If your exposition is being put to work in these ways, scenes that seem—on the surface, to the writer who can see the cogs at work beneath the story’s veneer—as though they’re only vehicles for explaining the world are actually helping to buttress up whose story you're telling. It’s the idea that every scene should be advancing the plot, but sometimes “advancing the plot” means advancing a character through scenes that build your world and the context in which your character lives. Their development through interactions with the world and your exposition is just as important as the actions that make up popular culture’s idea of plot.
So then, is your exposition uplifting whose story you’re telling? If it is, is it really a problem? If it’s not, how can you craft scenes around the exposition in a way that caters to the development of characters and their growth?
Here’s one last thing to consider which probably is only marginally helpful: Is your 80k bloated for the genre you’re writing in? The phrasing of your ask feels like you’re unhappy with 80k, but personally, 80k sounds like a pretty good length. If that’s the amount of words it took you to tell the story, then sometimes listening to your story’s heart and knowing when you’ve told what you wanted to tell is enough. Maybe it’s just a function of spinning your exposition into a feature of your story instead of a bug. Think about how you can give it voice and style, and make it really work for its place in your story.
Good luck, writer.
-Pear
Let’s Talk About: Plot – Part Three: Determining Length
Let’s Talk About: Series vs. Stand Alone – Part Eight: A Closer Look At Stand-Alone Books
Creating Conflict
Too Many Subplots?
Understanding Voice
Let’s Talk About: World Building – Part Ten: The Effect of More
What’s Immersive And Why Do I Care?
You’re Too Close – Letting Your Reader Imagine
“Do you enjoy it?”
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synthshade · 6 months
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So I'm infodumping/overelaborating A TON because I feel like it, but also because I might try to finish the fic versions of Volume 1's chapters and start posting those soon. I'm hoping to have Ch.1 up by next week but preferably sooner (no promises though) and from there I'll decide how often I want to post the next few chapters.
And real quick: I'm posting the fic here, but the comic itself will be on its own sideblog in the future.
Right now I'm just focusing on Volume 1, so this infodump (mostly) only spoils what you'd see in that first set of chapters. That being said, SPOILER WARNING if you don't want to know anything at all, read at your own risk.
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Intro
With the AU being an adaptation of Unleashed for the most part, the first couple chapters are about the same as the game's intro. But to hopefully keep things fresh and fun, I added new dialogue and some extra context.
There's some mild humor based on Sonic being a snarky shit to Robotnik, but I added that for the sake of lifting the mood before then crushing it, because what Sonic goes through while he's captured is rough.
However, with this being an AU set in a different continuity, this is where I had to make some rewrites, the first couple throughout the whole story.
Rewrite 1: Sonic breaks out of the Chaos Energy Cannon
Sonic's greatest fear, the very thing that Longclaw warned him could happen, has finally come true. He's been captured to have his power harnessed against his will, and turns out that as the perfect conduit for Chaos Energy, Sonic's ultimate power is literally his own body.
Sonic realizes that Robotnik could keep him trapped inside a machine as the perfect living battery, and that Robotnik may not ever let him go.
The possibility that he could be here for the rest of his life, on top of the horrible pain he's going through to begin with, causes Sonic to experience just about every single negative emotion. Anger, fear, sadness, all of them. Even with the Chaos Energy Cannon draining almost all his energy, Sonic still has just enough left that his heightened emotions still trigger a Chaos Blast*.
The torrent of Chaos Energy shreds through the Chaos Energy Cannon and completely destroys it, and Sonic manages to escape the machine before it can do anything catastrophic. So far, nothing's happened to Earth or to Sonic... yet.
*The first movie established that Sonic can let off a blast of energy if he's in extreme emotional distress.
Rewrite 2: What do you mean, the MAIN plot point doesn't happen??
One common criticism towards Unleashed is that a planet doesn't just shatter without any severe consequences, and while I almost hate to admit it I have to agree with that. Even for a Sonic fanfic, it'd be too unrealistic for it to not be a cataclysmic end-of-the-world scenario.
My solution -- the planet doesn't shatter.
And you'd think, removing the biggest plot point of Unleashed's story would make an adaptation fall apart, but when you really think about it, it turns out that the broken planet doesn't actually affect Unleashed's story in any truly significant way.
Not to pull a "trust me", but I managed to figure out how to make it work, and the plot is literally almost the same. Sonic still has to travel around the world to restore the Gaia Temples, and both are going through their own inner turmoil, so to speak. On top of that, there's now a time limit because like I said, shattering an entire planet would be an end-of-the-world scenario, and it'll only be a matter of time before Dark Gaia fully awakens.
One plot element I added is that throughout the story, there's unusual worldwide tremors that keep getting worse and worse, and later on Dark Gaia is confirmed to be the cause of these earthquakes, the leviathan stirring beneath the surface of the planet as it slowly wakes up. Each tremor is Dark Gaia stirring under the covers, and when it eventually wakes up, it's going to kick the covers off. And with those 'covers' being entire tectonic plates, and with this adaptation being a semi-realistic story set on Earth, if that happens -- it's game over.
So, how much time does Sonic have to make sure that doesn't happen, no matter what? Well, I'm not telling you that, you'll have to figure it out when Sonic does.
Rewrite 3: Sonic's transformation is delayed
Sonic's first transformation into the Werehog is delayed by about 24 hours, giving the story just enough time to introduce the characters and establish some exposition before the main plot really begins. Sonic seems to be unaffected at first, but he's already changing on the inside.
This brief arc focuses on building suspense and tension as he gets closer to transforming, and it becomes more obvious that something isn't right with Sonic. There might even be a few horror-like moments, depending on how I write this arc.
Sonic's condition/corruption
Having been exposed to concentrated Dark Gaian Energy, his body now entirely saturated with it, Sonic begins to show unusual symptoms as his corruption worsens over the next 24 hours.
Initially, Sonic's condition is in an 'inactive' phase. The Dark Gaian Energy hasn't fully bound itself to his own energy yet, so Sonic won't transform for some time, but inactive doesn't mean that Sonic isn't going to have some symptoms.
Not long after his corruption, Sonic's body attempts to expel the excess Dark Gaian Energy, and Sonic ends up literally coughing it up. This is Sonic's very first sign that something's wrong, because coughed up spit isn't supposed to be pitch black and smoky.
Sonic knows something is seriously wrong with him, but he doesn't want to burden or scare anyone else, so he hides it and hopes it'll go away on its own. He's the Blue Blur, after all. He's gotta stay strong for everyone else. As long as he gets some rest he'll be fine in the morning.
Well, if Sonic had gotten any sleep at all it was restless, and it's already past noon when he wakes up in a daze. But other than having slept in, Sonic seems to be fine, so he shrugs it off.
Throughout the day, Sonic starts to show unusual symptoms, however. When Tails points out that Sonic is eating even more than usual, he finally admit that he feels weird but insists that he's fine. Still, something's going on with him. Sonic has a bigger appetite, he just slightly aches all over, and he feels like he's on-edge.
Maybe it's just a weird growth spurt, Sonic tells himself. And Sonic might be right, but not in the way he hopes.
Eventually, Sonic's condition finally enters the 'active' phase, when the Dark Gaian Energy has fully bound itself to his own energy. If Sonic uses his power AT ALL at night, it'll trigger the first transformation. Even if he sneezes and lets out the tiniest spark, it still counts.
Remember how the first movie established that if Sonic gets his emotions worked up, he starts to spark and glow?
In the middle of the night, Sonic gets into an argument with someone, and he ends up losing his temper. He snaps at them -- and then starts sparking.
Sonic realizes that it's not like him to get this frustrated, and finally, he realizes that something really is seriously wrong with him. Sonic runs back to the attic bedroom, and paces as his mind races with questions, and the biggest one is: what's wrong with him?
Sonic stops pacing when he notices his reflection. His eyes are dimly glowing and his teeth are slightly sharper, and then, everything starts to feel REALLY wrong.
And coincidentally, it's a full moon.
Sonic's assumption
Werewolf.
To Sonic, it's the only conclusion that makes sense, and it seems to explain everything. Why he couldn't sleep the night before, why he was hungry and achey earlier, and why he's so irritable.
But how? Everyone knows werewolves don't exist... but then again, everyone thought Sonic didn't exist either. Still, what doesn't make sense is how he's somehow become a werewolf. He's never even seen one, let alone been scratched or bitten by one.
But as far as Sonic cares, that's not what matters. Right now, he's still turning into a werewolf and if he doesn't get out of here fast, something really bad is going to happen.
So having already jumped to conclusions, Sonic literally jumps out the window, and runs away to somewhere where hopefully no one can get in... and he can't get out.
Transformation
So just to say this real quick, I'm probably going to put a trigger/content warning for body horror on this chapter. It might not be viscerally explicit, but it's still a transformation sequence so it's still technically body horror.
Although, the focus of the scene is less the visceral horror but more the emotional horror of it. Sonic is fully aware of the entire shift, but he can't do a single thing to stop it. All he can do is watch as everything changes from something familiar to something unfamiliar. While it might not be horribly painful, he can still feel every part of his body change, and every sensation is a reminder that he's turning into something else.
With this being his first shift, Sonic is confused and scared. He doesn't know what to expect, other than the end result being a 'werewolf', and every change seems to confirm that conclusion. The densely furred and heavily muscled body, the thick arms that might as well be front legs as long as they are, and the huge hands turning more paw-like by the second. And most of all, the fangs poking out of his mouth and the claws ripping out of his gloves.
Whether or not he's really turning into a werewolf, whatever he's turning into is clearly made for attacking others, and the implications behind that terrify him more than the pain of changing ever could.
And maybe this is just a really bad dream, but dreams don't feel this real, and he knows it.
Aftermath / Leading into Volume 2
Despite his expectations, Sonic doesn't lose control or lose himself, but he doesn't exactly handle what happened very well, either. Sonic finally realizes that if this really had been a dream, then he would have woken up by now. This really did happen, and it's very real. And everything about himself is wrong. He's instinctual and emotional, he's trapped in a body that feels so unfamiliar, and worst of all he's been turned into an animal.
This isn't him. This isn't who he's supposed to be, he can't let anyone see him like this. Sonic's now even more confused and scared than he was before, and he doesn't know what to do, other than run as fast and as far away as he can. So that's exactly what Sonic does, and he ends up stress-running all night.
When the sun does finally rise, Sonic is so worn out that when he turns back to normal, he just collapses from exhaustion. And to Knuckles, who has to carry Sonic back home, it just seems so ironic. Five minutes ago, Knuckles had been tracking a beast that towered over him and could crush him under a single hand, and just about did when he shoved Knuckles away. Now, he was carrying Sonic in his arms, and he was so small and thin in comparison.
However, that total contrast between Sonic and the Werehog could potentially be a problem, and Knuckles knows he needs to figure out how to manage this other side of Sonic.
Sure, Sonic was still himself when he was a beast, but he was also terrified out of his mind, and that made him much more dangerous. When Sonic shoved Knuckles, he nearly concussed the warrior. If Sonic had another freakout and shoved an ordinary human like that... he could kill them.
Whether he wants to or not, Knuckles needs Sonic to accept this other side of him. He needs to accept that he did change, and he will change again. Because if Sonic doesn't accept this, and instead pretends that this isn't a part of him now, there's a chance that he'll have another freakout when he changes again. And Knuckles can't risk letting that happen, not while they're in Mykonos, a tourist town that often has a LOT of humans.
For now, Knuckles is only focused on making sure Sonic's alright, but this is something they'll have to discuss later/in Volume 2.
I've definitely said way too much, but whether or not it was a good idea to spoil the first few chapters, I still wanted to show what you can expect from the writing. Volume 1 may be an establishing/exposition arc, but I'm hoping it'll be a good and exciting read. And with it having the most horror-like scenes of the AU, with the transformation scene itself probably being closer to true horror, maybe it'll even be a scary read as well.
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amaiguri · 7 months
Text
How I Added More Appeal to My Worldbuilding
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So, I was checking my Tumblr drafts and looking for the post where I had started my ideation on my Saegenfolk and apparently, that post has been lost to the ether. Which is sad -- it was a really good post, going through the worldbuilding process in real-time. But THAT'S OK: We'll recreate it now using my Saegen culture as an example!
So, imagine you're looking at your worldbuilding but you're just NOT FEELING it. To fix that...
Step 0: Gather all your worldbuilding into one place!
This will help you review it to identify it for problems. Now, for me, the Saegen were actually a whole worldbuilding project for another ice-world with an upper and lower continent and stuff. I'd even written a a whole codex of laws and an etiquette handbook... but here's the shortlist of all the old Saegen cultural info:
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NOW: You must begin by identifying WHY you feel lasseiz faire about your Worldbuilding!
For me, when I was looking at my worldbuilding around the Saegen folk, it felt like they didn't have the polish and the cultural fusional elements that my other cultures had. For example, the Nouveau Thuilleans, for example, have a Franco-Irish aesthetic with Japanese and Sakha elements and a mafia-like government structure. That's a lot of disparate elements coming together to make a culture with its own unique flavor. But the Saegen folk were basically... just Vikings.
At first, I tried to just redesign their fashion. And I mean... here's the barely-redesigned fashion. The main difference here is that they have a more Hanfu-style undershirt. But. This was not the actual problem so it didn't really work to solve my problem
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Add on top of that: I've been increasingly learning a lot of Viking-adjacent, Ancient Norse history has been misunderstood and/or co-opted by Neo-N*zis and it's just a lot more work to make them more authentic representation while dodging accidental dogwhistles than I think it would be worth.
The other issue I had was that their culture was not reflective of the environment enough... Especially since I had screwed up on continent placement and descriptions -- I was writing them as if their whole society DIDN'T live underground with very limited sunlight every day. Whoops!
So this brings us to STEP 2: Review your design objectives.
With creative works, it's really easy to just change things to be different without knowing if it's better or worse. Like, whether you think the new Zelda games are good or bad depends on if you think freedom in games is good or bad. If it's bad, then the new Zelda is bad, right? (I don't think this -- I think they're good and different. But not necessarily BETTER games: just literally different games.)
The way to ensure things are getting BETTER in your worldbuilding is by having objectives or pillars for your work! With pillars, the more your work aligns with the pillars, the better you know it's getting.
For my worldbuilding generally, my #1 goal is that I, personally, should want to make characters for each of my cultures AND they should be distinct from other, to allow me to make the widest diversity of interesting characters.
And the Saegen culture was failing this because "just Vikings" doesn't interest or resonate with me anymore. But I DO like Norse culture and Norse landscapes and Celtic music and other Northern European things like that! But not unchanged for my fantasy world...
So now, STEP 3: Brainstorm changes to the worldbuilding to bring it in line with your design pillars!
I wanted to keep their focus on families and the hyperindividualism that pervades Northern cultures, because I think that makes them a good thematic foil to Nouveau Thuille. And I also wanted to keep their sailing, conlang, and music -- because I'm a huge fan of what my music friends have done with their music.
What did I add? I decided, since Nouveau Thuille had Japanese elements, Saegen culture should have Chinese elements! Plus, I'm a Chinese adoptee with very little knowledge or ties to my birth culture and I've wanted to make a concerted effort to learn more about it. Of course, this required a lot more research BUT I was motivated to do it...
I also began to consider the geography of the North and how the worldbuilding would need to reflect that. They live in an alpine tundra just shy of the North Pole of my world. I mean, here's a sketchy map that shows where their Capital is:
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See how that's smack beneath the Upper Continent AND in the far north? It's fucking COLD. How are they getting food? Staying warm? Drinking water? I'll have to really revamp the ecology of the area to be as cool as the Black Gothic plants of the Nouveau Thuillean valley and as resonant as the cities I've made in the South while still make sense.
Also, since personal appeal is important goal, I also looked at things I was excited about at the time. And you know what was exciting me when I started working on the rewrite? Fontaine from Genshin Impact -- and their upper city-lower city dynamic, high crime rates, water associations...
I was even outlining a whole novel thing called "The Sunken City" and, what if I just tied that into the revamped Saegenheim? I had no interesting things happening there so I COULD set the novel there...
And this made me realize that Saegenheim should be a relatively vertical city underground, near some sort of thermal heat -- as this solves both my ecology problem AND my personal appeal problem. Like... when I think about an underground and partly-underwater city with viking houses and crime problems, I just 😍😍😍
Step 4: Research
Before I got too deep down the rabbit hole of making changes, I wanted to do more research because my knowledge of Chinese culture begins and ends with my Chinese school in 2nd grade. (Okay, that's not fair -- I ALSO learned about all the Dynasties in World History class). I wanted to have MUCH MORE knowledge, so I began to watch a bunch of YouTube videos on Chinese culture -- both historically and today.
And some of the things that really resonated with me were:
The changing traditions of snowy cities in the North of China
Their various concepts of masculinity and how it's changing today
The hyperindividualism seen in modern China compared with the community focus indicated by philosophers and architecture of the past
The evolution of Chinese fashion
The stories behind all the festivals
Color significance
The importance of numbers and their own astrology system
The way the Chinese government interacts with itself and the outside world
I wanna try to capture some of those elements in my work, though obviously, I have much much more to learn. But like... it's really cool to learn about this stuff -- to get a glimpse into the kind of person I might have been if I'd grown up in a different culture.
And then STEP 5 is to JUST DO IT -- which you can see I started doing in this post here!
That's all for today!
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IDEA. AIRON MAN BESTIES WITH A ROGUE DOOMBOT WHO'S JUST TRYING TO BUILD THEIR OWN PERSONALITY AND LIFE OUTSIDE OF THEIR IMPLANTED MEMORIES..........
COULD BE AN ACCIDENTAL GAINING OF FREEDOM OF CONSCIOUSNESS, LIKE W/ SENTIENT ARMOR, BUT I ALSO THINK IT COULD BE RLLY NEAT IF THEY WERE A PROTOTYPE DOOMBOT THAT ENDED UP HAVING MORE FREEDOM AND CAPABILITY FOR GROWTH THAN INTENDED AND THEY'VE BEEN LIVING THEIR OWN LIFE SINCE (IDEALLY W/ VICTOR'S SUPPORT BC RESPECT FOR THE AUTONOMY OF HIS CITIZENS AND CREATIONS AND ALL THAT)
BONDING OVER THE TECHNOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THEIR FORMS, THE PRESSURE TO APPEAR A SIMULACRUM OF A BIOLOGICAL ENTITY AND THE FEAR OF HOW OTHERS WOULD VIEW AND REACT TO THEIR TRUE SELVES, THE "I AM CONNECTED TO MY CREATOR, BUT I AM NOT HIM IN THE WAYS HE WAS HIMSELF AND I AM MORE THAT WHAT HE MADE ME FOR," THE STEMBOY SWAG, ETC........
I ALSO THINK IT COULD BE FUNKY TO EXPLORE LIKE. I AM AN INDIVIDUAL DISTINCT FROM MY CREATOR BUT I AM STILL TIED TO HIM. DO I FEEL OBLIGATED TO ONLY DRAW FROM HIS VISION? DO I FEEL GUILTY FOR ADDING ELEMENTS OF MY PERSONALITY TO HIS DESIGN OF ME? WOULD HE BE PROUD OF WHO I'VE BECOME?
TRULY THIS WAS JUST MEANT TO BE A VAGUE NOTION OF A POTENTIAL CHARACTER BUT I STARTED THINKING AND GOT HOOKED DJSLHFLSHFLS BUT YES HELLO
oh there literally are already feral doombots just Around. thats canon. they are... already sapient as far as im aware (but like, sapient in that they have enough of victor's memories and personality to successfully pretend to be him and sometimes for them to not know they aren't him. also they can feel pain. questioning why victor has made ten thousand cannon-fodder robots with also his whole brain in them which also can fully feel pain is a different post) but yeah feral doombots my beloved
there’s like…. at least two i know of. the one with the fancy coat and the one calling himself vincent that actually looks like a human, i love them. i have so many thoughts about feral doombots just Around and Vibin and its not like victor gives a shit. he can make new ones. whatever.
but also ;-; that's So good, especially if its somehow pre-reveal for iron man being Known as anything other than like, a human in an armor so perhaps he meets a doombot somehow (maybe it's stealing replacement parts from SI and when IM realizes that its not... actually taking anything dangerous hes like. oh. oh. because he's smart enough to also know why he isnt just going to get repaired like normal) and it's just, this sense of Recognition that iron man cannot say anything else
i think it would be good if it was like. iron man offers to help fix the bot. oor just, helps him. no expectation of anything else. and the doombot is supicious because of course it is, it was programmed by Paranoid Bastard Supreme, and it's not like iron man can even tell it why he wants to help it so badly, because even if he doesn't think it's actively a danger that doesn't mean giving it the information that he isn't human like everyone assumes wouldn't be... an incredibly bad idea. it's still attached to a supervillan, after all
(also sidenote but i am frothing at the mouth about potential doomquest in this universe it would be SO funny,,,,,, king arthur sends a pretty lady to iron man's room for "companionship" and iron man is just like. ah. ok. i dont know what is expected of me right now. also doomquest is very good to me, specifically, because its one of the only early comics things where almost anyone has more respect for tony than for iron man, which i enjoy, i think it would be SO good for airon man au especially if iron man is like. in danger of just... running out of power. technicallyyyyy i think this should also be a problem in canon, i think doomquest happens during chestplate era, where hes largely not able to go more than about a day without Dramatic Wall Outlet Time and yet hes fine just vibin in camelot (famously deprived of wall outlets) for at least a couple of days, but YEAH SEND AIRON MAN TO CAMELOT i think hed be both freaked out and also. sad that tony couldn't experience it. i think the background radiation of iron man's life is just... sadness that tony cannot experience any of the cool things he does)
but like... him continuing too help this doombot. maybe the doombot also helps him out somehow, as well. maybe subtly interveening in some fights. maybe giving iron man some neat lil tech tips. maybe a;klsdjfasdf the doombot still wants like. Something To Do and not just sit idle all the time or something so iron man hooks 'em up with a fuckin. tech support job. or like, product testing, for SI. something where he can just fix shit thats been broken in the stupidest ways or, try to destroy other things. who knows i dont. but maybe theres an attack at SI and iron man deals with it but hes damaged, and normally he'd like. hide away and do a quick n dirty patch job just so theres not obvious holes into nothing, but. the doombot follows him. and finds him. and its just... looking at eachother. knowing "oh fuck we're the same" and also "oh fuck he knows"
i think they should help fix eachother up and be buddies anyways it'd be good
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nocturnalghoul · 1 year
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i would love to hear more abt frakenghouls appearance and if they have any elemental powers ♡
Frankenghoul by beloved! I honestly talked a bit more about them than just what you asked (including a little about their summoning) but it's related so yay bonus creature lore.
Slight allusions to gore at one point, but its brief and purposefully vague. It's all contained within the indented section if that is something anyone is sensitive to or does not want to read. Skipping that section does not affect comprehension of anything else about their lore.
Their features have changed over time (partially due to self experimentation with rituals of their own in the woods). Their appearance is different from when they were freshly summoned, to shortly after, to now.
When they were freshly summoned... well there is a reason the clergy termed them "the abomination". It was partially their overall look, but more so the way it was achieved. Nobody really knew anything about how to contain ghoulish features and reconcile them within a host body. The clergy definitely beefed that part of the ritual, along with their element. Several clergy members present at the ritual fainted during Frankenghoul's summoning. Their ghoulish traits (eyes, horns, tail, claws, etc.) quite literally ripped their way out of the host body in a graphic display.
I picture it as sort of similar to the werewolf transformation scene in Hemlock Grove. (Warning for anybody who isn't familiar, while I would easily call it one of my favorite werewolf transformation scenes, it is also kinda graphic as the wolf inside of him literally tears and eats it's way out. If you are sensitive to imagery like that do not look it up!). Essentially their ghoulish characteristics had to tear themselves out of the human vessel in a brutish manner.
This is part of the reason they have a lot of resentment towards the church. They had attempted to tie human glamour to the vessel itself instead of putting a ghoul into the vessel and fixing it later. Essentially the magic they used was not strong enough and everything broke through.
Immediately afterwards though, they looked like what observers at the event could only describe as a nightmarish impersonation of a person. They looked like if you took a human man and put them in a taffy puller then added cheap monster makeup. They were far too long, with weird bruised purple-gray skin. The long spiraling glowing horns and glowing eyes (each a set of one violet, one green on opposite sides of the face), fanged maw, and razor sharp tail did very little to help that spooky vibe they had going. They looked neither human nor fully ghoulish. Between the traumatic experience of creating them, and seeing the shocking end result everyone decided to immediately dip out and hold a long series of meetings deciding what to do with this thing that they created.
Good ol' Creature Feature tho managed to eventually recover and come back to their senses enough to run off. As time went on and their scrambled mind returned to them, they were sort of able to fix some things themselves. They are now probably the best and most accomplished ritualist topside so they were able to make themselves less concerning. They don't really have a use for a human glamour, seeing as they live deep in the woods and purposefully do not interact with people, but it is still intrinsically tied to their vessel.
Nowadays they look similar to how the other ghouls look "unglamoured" but the ghouls can still tell that they are a bit too beastly to be quite right. They appear overly strong and oddly proportioned. Their ears and fangs are a little too sharp, and there are lines of elemental magic that shine though out of the scars left behind from their summoning. Other ghouls can occasionally be seen glowing with magic from places besides their eyes when they are channeling their element or feeling super emotional, but Creature Feature just sort of does that constantly. It makes them rather unsettling to come across in the dark.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
They do in fact have elemental powers! It took them at least a decade to figure out how to channel them, but it's there.
Part of the reason it was so hard was because they were an Air ghoul down in hell and accustomed to drawing from their element in a particular fashion. Being forced into the opposite element meant that they had to draw from their magic in a completely different way and essentially relearn how to ghoul magic.
With time, patience, and a few midnight personal rituals deep in the woods, they also figured out how to switch between their original and new element. Whichever element they are currently attuned to will make the eye and horn corresponding to that element glow brighter. The glow from their scars though is always whichever element they are not using at the time.
They still haven't figured out how to channel both elements concurrently, but hope that by researching the modified hybrid and multi rituals the clergy made for Dew/Swiss/Sunny they can write their own ritual to make it happen.
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adobe-outdesign · 1 year
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opinions on chikorita line?
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Gonna say it right now: Chikorita is probably my all-time favorite starter, and is just generally underrated. Look at them! They're literally The Worst starter to use in Gen 2 and yet have enough spunk to take on the world. Respectable.
While the design is pretty simple, it's effective: a little dumpling creature with a large leaf and a bunch of tiny little leaf buds around the neck. It's plenty cute and leads into the rest of the line nicely. I personally like the rest of the line a little more, just because Chikorita's stubbiness starts to look weird around the face if I think about it too long, but they're pretty much perfect in my book.
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I also gotta say, while I love Bulbasaur dearly, I do like the Chikorita line a bit more. The big thing about the Bulbasaur line, which I mentioned in my review of it, is that mostly just gets bigger, with the plants moving in an incredibly linear way. Chikorita's line sticks to the spirit of the pre-evo, but also adds way more differences (the colors change between each stage, the simple leaves become flower components instead of just budding and opening, the body shape changes more drastically, etc etc.). This also means that while Ivysaur doesn't really accomplish much on its own, Bayleef has a unique design that still makes sense as an in-between.
Visually, I like the yellow base a lot; it adds some extra contrast between the body and the leaf elements. I also like the sauropod-ish body shape and how it continues from Chikorita while not looking like a bigger version of it.
My only real complaint about it is the leaf on the head. First, it's a little strange that while the neck elements change with each stage, the leaf stays the same for two stages and then abruptly changes completely. And secondly, it gains a notch out of it and a "jointed" base for... no real reason. It feels like that's the one part of the design that could've stood to be more different from its predecessor.
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And Meganium is very pleasant; expanding upon the design in a way that makes it feel like a natural continuation without being over-detailed or trying to hard to look super threatening.
Visually, it expands upon the green and yellow of Bayleef by adding some very nice pink in the form of petals. Like I said, I like this because it's a much more interesting twist than just having the buds open into leaves like you'd expect.
Even better is the head. I've heard some confusion over why it has antennae, but that's because those aren't antennae—they're flower stamen! The entire neck is made to look like a flower, and I think that's really cool and a nice, subtle design theme.
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One thing that I will note however is that the design is very plain. I don't think this is a bad thing at all; but it does make me hope for some kind of mega (or whatever the future gimmick is) form for it in the future. The line is already pretty weak for a starter so it could use the boost, and there are so many ways to expand upon it visually without making it cluttered (I actually have a mega design in mind for it and the other Gen 2 starters that I might draw eventually, but that's not the point here). Or a regional—a grass/water type based on water lily flowers could be neat.
Regardless, this is a very good line overall; simple, coherent, and with a nice theme. Chikorita supremacy 202K.
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staryukis · 3 months
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omg yes the taking from canon and expanding it in your own way shows how amazingly talented and smart you are!!! (would eat geges ass UP) i wouldve never thought about the physical effects of toji doing that to gojo, only mental because he did heal but YOUR MINDDDDD! im so excited to see all the different stuff you put out, and think of! ill always be here cheering and supporting you! ᥫ᭡
smiled so hard reading this response i’m so glad u think so 😭🫶🏼🫶🏼 YOURE SOO SWEET NONNIE COME AND GET UR KISS… :*
i find gojo’s rct so interesting tho bc on one hand yes he does physically heal like u said so it’s easy to assume his wounds don’t have any lingering effects on him after he’s done so but i still wonder if the ghost of his scars remains yknow? i can relate it closely to that of, like, the concept of ‘ghost limbs’ where amputees still feel like they can (for instance) wiggle their fingers even though they’ve lost an arm. i remember seeing an episode of the walking dead and hershel talking about experiencing this when they cut off a part of his leg and i think about it so often tbh LMAO
i also wanted to find a way to expand on gojo’s trauma that didn’t solely depend on his mental state because he’s very much a “shove everything down and don’t acknowledge anything” person which can be explored on its own too but i feel like enough gojo writers do that and i’d hate to be repetitive !! (not to say i don’t still eat it up tho everyone has their own interpretations of it n i just love love how others dissect it :3) and with the added element of his inviolability and how his six eyes canonically overstimulate his brain, i always thought it’d be cool to consider a perspective of his emotional state where he experiences more physical stressors, but the self-healing element of his technique leaves little room for anyone to really consider it as an option so i had to take a bit of a creative approach with it heh
i really like what i came up with for it and even tho i wrote it as smut it’s an idea i’d love to allude to more often in anything i write abt him bc it’s a fun n unique little way for me to bring smth fresh to the table with regards to my works (since i almost exclusively write abt him lol)
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damnation-if · 1 year
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wrestling with canva like i’m crocodile dundee... this probably won’t end up being anything like a real UI because i don’t think a lot of it is Possible jsfdbgs
It looks amazing, how did you do that? 👀👀👀👀👀
hi, thank you for the compliment! i took a bit to answer this because i'm not really... equipped to be making Design tutorials haha. graphic design is my passion neither ironically nor unironically and i'm absolutely rubbish at art - however, canva has enough tools to help me feel like i'm building something visually interesting despite my. abject lack of talent XD i'll put a cut here and some like. explanation and tips underneath.
i have premium for my non-IF-related work, but the free version is what i started out on and it's honestly surprisingly good and has a generous licensing agreement. the biggest drawback for the free version for me is the inability to save files with a transparent background or resize files mid-edit, but for most people making banners or concept art you're not going to Need transparent files - that's more of a thing for actually creating assets.
the biggest ADVANTAGE of the free canva license is that you are licensed to use anything you make using the free assets in commercial products if you want/need (including games or promo for them). many similar design products only allow personal use for free licensing. (however, i'm not trying to sell canva to you; rather i'm pointing out that sticking with the free version is actually very convenient and the premium features are probably things you won't need lol)
basically canva allows you to search for graphic design elements by keyword and drag and drop them onto a design piece, mix them around, change their colours and sizes etc. and combine them together to make something. i'll talk a little bit about the UI design you're mentioning (the one i showed off here for anyone curious) not to brag about my Skillz(TM) but just to show how easy canva makes it for a total newb to make something that looks really neat!
there's about 30 different elements in that particular UI design - the "console-y" looking frame itself is half a dozen on its own: the basic frame (those cyberpunky lines at the top and bottom of the screen); a semi-transparent box i added to make it look like a holo-screen; the panel on the side, which was originally square until i cropped it down to make it look like a panel and colour-shifted to match the main box; the little connector between the side panel and the screen, which is actually two of the same asset with one upside-down and cropped; and then the various text assets, not to mention all the logos, which are also all separate (and also the little 2 unread messages symbol is another 2 separate design elements i put together lmfao).
canva will probably seem overwhelming once you first start using it because it has So Many tools, but most of these are for companies and you'll probably find you don't need to even look at the vast majority of them. for example, it'll probably ask you to choose a template to start a design, and there are like. 100s. that it'll want you to sort through. but you very probably won't ever use more than one or two. i think i've used three Ever for IF stuff - tumblr banner (for banners, obviously), social media banner, for the RO banners you can see on the ROs page, and 16:9 Blank Presentation, which is what i use for UI designs because it's just. a big blank page size. you can Literally ignore all the others unless you need something specific!
you can either use the pre-generated aspects of the template and simply replace their designs with ones you prefer, or do what i do and delete it all and put your own stuff in lmfao. the templates can help if you don't have much of an idea of what you want your design to look like but obviously for me with UI design it's a bit. Pointless because canva doesn't have a template for that XD
anyway once you have your blank canvas, you can search for "elements" in the search panel and look through them for ones you want to use. the pro version assets are labelled pretty clearly so you probably won't mistakenly pick something that requires paying to use and the search filters themselves are pretty hefty - i rarely run up against a search term that brings back nothing unless it's HIGHLY specific lol
here are just a couple of tips that help me get basically closer to what i want out of the whole thing:
when you're changing the size of an element, canva only increases or decreases its size by the exact ratio of its original dimensions - you can't Only make an image wider, for example, it will also automatically increase the height to match. that's why the "frame" asset in my Gone Dark UI design is centred in the page instead of taking up more of it - i couldn't make it wider without it getting taller and the top and bottom bars disappearing off the page. you can get around this by using elements that are mostly plain - i could have, for example, made the semitransparent screen box as wide as i wanted, because it's uniform in design and there'll be no visible difference in where i draw its boundaries as it all just looks like plain rectangle.
combining photo images and less realistic graphics can look jarring but there are handy image editing tools (found by clicking "edit image" in the top toolbar with the image selected, and then "show all" in the lefthand sidebar to show all of the filters) that you can use to make photos look Less Photolike - lowered blur and heightened clarity especially can make it easier to make photos fit better with other graphics.
some of the text effects (found by clicking "Effects" in the top toolbar with the textbox selected) can make it way easier for text to be visible against certain backgrounds - this is not much use if you're designing something for another medium like a UI, because you can't replicate them in other software, but if you're just producing an image like a banner they add a lot of neat flair.
when you have a lot of elements working together they often look a little better with at least a slightly lower transparency to hide that their borders/edges aren't uniform - 85-90% is usually opaque enough to not notice it's slightly transparent but soften the edges.
it can be hard to figure out the exact size (in pixels) of an element while you're In a design - there are rulers that can be applied through the settings menu, but the maths often fucks me up, so i find it's easier to resize the image by dragging the expand handles by like a single pixel and then putting it back to normal - while specifically holding the expand handles (until you let go of the mouse and "drop" it in the desired size) it will give you an exact reading of the height and width in pixels along the bottom toolbar that you can read easily.
this one is pretty specific but when you're making boxes to put behind text they often look better with a slight blur filter on them as well as transparency - for Gone Dark in particular the blur gives it a nice fuzz that makes it look even more like a projected screen. if you look closely you can see a slight difference between the text screen and the side panel screen background - that's because i forgot to blur the side panel lmfao.
aaaand that's probably all the advice i can offer. i'm far from an expert, but i do feel like i have fun with it XD i'm glad so many people have thought it looked cool! sorry this got so long but. it's hard to explain without actually Getting Into It haha
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