#i think the blue gradients were worth it

[neproxrezi]

gotta show off my latest mech, FRENZIED ALACRITY / CRESTING DAWN, a super speedy pulse blade user i've had a lot of fun making decals for (more screencaps under the cut i couldn't pick one)

look at my gradients boy the warning was gonna say HIGH SPEED ACTUATION but that's a long word to fit on the mech

worked too hard on the mri scan decal for where i wound up putting it.... you really have to look for it

quick balteus s rank to make sure i was happy with the build and the appearance :3 i am definitely still a reverse joint legs stan but i like how zippy you can get on the alba legs

[stardust-sunset]

i’m tired and blasting outsiders so here’s my explaination for what i see whenever one of them sings

With brody it’s kinda like…deep red? I don’t know why, it’s just a deep red. Warmer tones. The only cool color is like a navyish blue. It’s a spectrum honestly-it can kinda be a toss up? It really depends but usually it’s a nice shade of seeping red and navy blue with some warmer tones (yellows and oranges) in there as well. riffs are kinda fun because it’s like…i don’t know how to describe it but it’s like each note is an individual ring and it’s kinda like this gradient effect between either red and blue or red and yellow. It really depends. It kinda gets that silvery misty look with some of the higher notes.

Jason was kinda funny because if I didn’t have synesthesia I wouldn’t guess his voice would be a dark color but it’s like…kinda neon? Y’know how you watch those neon painting videos? That’s kinda what it’s like. Usually it’s uber bright colors on a black background. Kinda like bioluminescent light in a way. It sounds uglier than it is but trust me-it’s kinda got a more splashy feel to it. Like just splashes of chan and magenta against the black background. I dunno how to describe it lol

With Brent it’s kinda more woodsy? Shades of green and brown-kinda more earthy in a way. It’s kinda like going through the woods at sunset. Golden shimmering through leaves and lighting up a path iagaknst brown dirt in a way. It sounds weird but y’know. Even in his more aggressive tones it’s still that woodsy, earthy feeling. It’s never really dull but it’s never too bright. Like ai said it’s like a forest at sunset where the gold is just barely peeking through the green leaves. It’s prettier in retrospect.

Sky’s got a bit more f an orange/beige pallets? Like it’s kinda desert like in a way. sjust sandy and earthy-not quite in the same way as Brent but y’know-It’s also got some lavenders and violets in there? Like it really depends with him on the notes he’s singing but usually his voice is a rustic orange color with swirls of beige or tan and little flecks of purple. Think desert like with some purple in there. Sometimes the brown can kinda fade into a yellowish color; or a more muted gold. Just sandy colors. Desert hues.

Josh is purple. Alllll purple with some gold. Little Brother is SUCH a fun experience because it literally has such a strong grape purple to it and it just slowly bursts into more vibrant purples. It never goes beyond say a violet? But if randhes in spectrum. There can be some very dark red-darker than Brody’s voice but definitely still visibly red-or well, reddish pink. But it can also have little bits of gold or yellow. It’s like if you were stuck in grape jelly or something and the only thing visible was sunlight. It’s like that. Just smooth. Sometimes it can be midnight blue too but usually it’s shades of purple or something.

I don’t egg to hear much of Daryl’s voice but it’s definitely some form of yellowish brown. Not like Sky…think more sunrise colors. Pale. Sometimes muted. It really depends. Now again there’s not much audio I’ve heard of Daryl but he definitely has like dark orange/yellow vocals. Sprinkle a bit of sort of denim blue in there for good measure and boom. Sometimes he can have bursts of bright colors like bright pinkish red or bright orange but other than that it’s kinda hard to tell with such little audio lol

Emma’s all purples and pinks to me. Mostly light purples and pinks and kinda bubbly in a way? Like I just picture bubbles lol-white bubbles on a purple and pink gradient background kinda just floating around. During I Can Talk To You All Night it kinda also leads into a royal blue. But for the majority it tends to be pink and purple and kinda bubbly lol-kinda giving Sylveon vibes if I say so.

Anyway. I know this probably makes me sound high off my ass but figured it was worth a share.

[bepisbee]

i had ideas 👀 about vio getting addicted to dark magic and being the monster instead

plz lmk if you think its worth a fic :)

He doesnt even realize it becuase he spent so long around Shadow/the dark mirror openly diffusing dark magic like a humidifier. Until after they all finish the quest and suddenly hes not around it anymore and he gets sweats, shakes, mood swings, blood pressure drops. He doesnt know why until he visits the tower becuase hes sad and misses shadow. falls asleep there. 

the symptoms are gone when he wakes up.

he does his best about it. never tells the others and never goes back to the tower. He hides between the library and his room and becomes nocturnal to avoid the others seeing him. eventually the major shock and withdrawl symptoms stop but theres still thst itch he cant scratch thats always crawling under his skin. constsnt anxiety thst theres part of him missing now.

when they get older he cant take it anymore and gives in. he spends a day at the tower with the shattered mirror and hunts for material. resources, magic wells, heavy spots, books, studies, scrolls, spells. When hes in the dark magic for more than an hour his eyes start doing weird shit. not that he knows that rifht away ofc. they turn black in the sclera and slowly the ice blue turns purple.

He doesnt return for weeks

trying to amass some sort of personal portable dark magic source thst doesnt bring about the end of the world via dark mirror power well. preferably with an on off switch. he manages to be able to condescne some into a liquid form and bottles it for testing later. planning on trying it in a space not affected by “shadow ozone” for potency and relaiablility and effect length. he stays on it longer by channeling the magic in the air through himself

the colors come to find him and they think hes fucking possesed or smth.

he ends up having to tell them or they were gonna execute him for turning evil. hes worried they still might. They warn him off building a magic well and offer to help him kick his magic addiction.

he declines. he realized earlier if he can command a small enough power well that is disconnected from the sacred realm he might even get shadow back. (using different source, twilight realm over dark world?) plus he LIKES the feel of the magic and he isnt having different thoughts than before.

colors are obviously SUPER SUS about this plan but dont want to push him away. once hes determined he WILL do it. if they disagree he’ll just do it behind their backs and be unsafe and possibly hurt himself. or worse connect it too big of a source and attract the attention of gannon or other awful evil beings. reluctantly they all agree to help or at least let him be with this with more warnings to be careful af.

super worry squad

they leave him alone so they dont also get dark magic addicted (they cant though, only vio is susceptible becuase he is the part of link that holds his bad/evil thoughts or is even capable of using dark magic).

he takes his research home when he isnt succesful by the time hes out of food and supplies. he takes his liquid shadow essences bottled up with and goes home with the colors.

theyre there to support him this time around. 

he keeps researching and testing his essence on himself and channeling dark magic and using it to create sources. on accident he overdoses himself and gives himself permanent changes (hand claws, black gradient fades into his skin tone, sharp teefs, eyes remain black sclera) locks himself in his room in shame and fear and when it doesn't go away, panic. Eventually they get vio to let them in and he tells them about it. cue supportive family moment. Red helps file their claws down and Vio practices how to talk without cutting his tongue or biting it or his lips. It’s a struggle with the claws until they get filed down. They flare back out when he gets emotional though.

This ends up giving him a boost, altering his body, altering his magic channels. He now naturally flows dark energy in his magic. he gets to making a small source from a pendant he makes. Hs fuels enough power (with permission and supervision) and summons back Shadow and uses up his source to create a shadow body of dark magic mixed with earth and light magic. (essentially a gollum/elemental ) shadows body is dependent on Vio’s magic instead of the mirror now but it's not a problem since the alterations. If he gets hurt Vio can just fix him by feeding his body magic.

happy ending vidow :) and vios the monster this time!

[friendlies-af]

Broken phone p3

Did you miss this section? Today my sister Angel (@littleangelblogstuff) and I decided to draw together again. Today's topic suddenly became Mike (and we didn't discuss what we were going to draw in advance!). We drew within the New World!AU.

Jeremy picked out a dress for Puppet, but he's not sure if she'll like it. Mike thinks everything will be fine.

AI: 1boy, 1girl, :3, beanie, blue eyes, brown hair, crossed arms, crossover, dark-skinned male, dark skin, dress, english text, gradient, gradient background, green eyes, hat, jeans, open mouth, orange background, pants, pikachu, pokemon (creature), shirt, short hair, smile, turtleneck.

AI thinks Jeremy is a girl (does it knows something about the 2019 Rebornica's reboot??). Okay, I decided to stick to the “dress” and draw something from the past. I used the fan game "Five Nights of Flirting" as inspiration for Mike's childhood friend. I really liked Ellie, so I wanted to take her into my AU.

AI: 1boy, 1girl, :3, beanie, brown hair, fang, hat, holding, holding animal, holding pokemon, long hair, open mouth, pikachu, pokemon (creature), ponytail, purple shirt, shirt, smile, sunglasses, sweater, vest, yellow background.

Oh no, the sunglasses are missing! 😭 Okay, Ange decided to try the near-lineless style + Rebornica art style. Mike looks happy to have received the rare card.

AI: 1boy, bandaged arm, bandages, blue background, blue shirt, cellphone, closed eyes, crown, gradient, gradient background, hand on hip, holding, holding phone, male focus, phone, pikachu, pokemon (creature), shirt, short sleeves, smartphone, smile, solo, upper body.

“Bandaged Hands” immediately transported me to the present. No, Mike doesn't harm himself (on purpose)! One of my drawings showed Mike playing a game on his phone. I wanted to expand on this topic. "Mike, how often do you donate to this game?", "This is the first time!"

That's where Angie's part ends. I definitely liked it~

I wanted to draw Mike with Ellie's ghost. Due to his head injury, Mike has frequent headaches, and Ellie's presence almost always makes things worse.

AI: 1boy, 1girl, beanie, blue eyes, dark skin, ghost, hat, silhouette, sweatdrop, sweater, transparent background.

I like that the AI was able to see the ghost in the picture. But what I like even more was how Ange was able to draw something completely new! And then there is Ellie in life too!

AI: 1boy, 1girl, bandana, brown hair, closed eyes, covering mouth, flashlight, grin, hand over own mouth, holding, long hair, long sleeves, open mouth, purple shirt, red shirt, shirt, short sleeves, smile, teeth.

I liked the experience of drawing Michael Afton, so I decided to draw something dark again. The 1999 incident, also known as "the bite of '99". Someone had reprogrammed an animatronic dog to attack a boy who stood in his way to perform a ritual (and no, it's not Vincent!). Mike miraculously survived, but Ellie…

AI: 1boy, 1girl, bandana, blood, blood on face, brown hair, knife, red shirt, shirt, short hair, silhouette, weapon.

Back to the present, back to Ellie protecting Mike. She only does this in particularly stressful situations, because she understands that she is harming her friend.

Each time such drawing brings a new experience. I'm glad that so much attention was paid to Mike this time. This section doesn't end, and someday we will bring something more interesting! (Also, I think it's worth leaving the FnoF tag just in case)

[lovelessprick]

White Thief - Chapter 2

Pairing: Din Djarin x reader

Summary: With no way of escaping you bounty hunter, you accept the reality that you were coming back "home".

Themes: Angst (a lot of action)

Warnings: gambling, persecution, mentions of violence, swearing, kidnapping, typical show violence

Words: 6.6 k

You loosened the grip on our leg, and if it weren’t for the long trousers, you were sure there’d be a red mark following the pattern of your fingers. Just like your dad had taught you when you were younger, you breathed slowly, breathing out frustratingly long. And while the whole process was bothersome, to say the least. You had now entered a new stage of emotions or better said lack of there-off. 

The rush of emotions you had in less than an hour was simply astonishing. From determined and hopeful, to a panic-stricken version of you trying to run away with your life at the very least, to grief and acceptance because you were about to lose your life, and now just numbness. Your head had been all over the place, but now you couldn’t even feel despair. 

Your father was right, breathing helps in dealing with hyperactive feelings, and now you were on the other side completely. Too calm, and yet you couldn’t completely think, your mind too foggy to even care anymore.

You lifted your head and found none other than the Mandalorian. He was standing there, unmoving. And what estranged you, he wasn’t holding any weapon, or showing any sign he could turn lethal to you. You had been on the floor for about a minute, waiting for your final moments, only to find he wasn’t going to kill you, or at least that’s what it seemed. 

“Hey buddy” your voice was weak, and you didn’t try to show any type of recomposure. He already saw you probably in this state anyway. 

He lifted his hand to accommodate himself on the frame. And almost immediately he looked at his side, outside the cramped stall. You didn’t quite know what exactly he was looking at, but he remained like that for a few seconds. The way the natural light painted on his beskar armor told you it was getting late. Different shades of orange and pink, similar to those of a peach, were on his right side of his armor. And just like a gradient, those peachy colours quickly faded into different shades of grey and black to his left. 

Brushing his gloved fingers at the frame he was supporting himself slightly, he let his arm fall like heavy weight, and then he turned to look at you again. With a husky sigh, his hand quickly got something from his waist, small enough to fit in perfectly on his palm, and threw it at you. 

The object, with a round circumference, but cut at both sides, leaving a perfect circle, rolled determinedly at you after landing. And once it stopped one foot from you, it fell on its side. Momentarily, a blue hologram came up, showing none other than you. The red “wanted alive” written boldly above your head, and below you, decorating the greyish cloth, said the amount you were worth, 35,000 credits. 

The Mandalorian hadn’t said anything aside from calling you when you ran away, but he spoke up momentarily.

“Let’s go” his tone demanding. He stepped aside so you could walk out of the tiny space. And so you did. You stood up and felt the heat of the sun coming to your face through the windowed spaces of the stall. And with the heat, you were able to notice three paths of tears that fell down earlier, already dry from sight, but still present enough for the sun to notice. 

You quickly brushed your cheeks with your sleeve, while walking to the near exit. Only then it downed on you. You were alive, and you would be for a while more. That surely would’ve made anyone happy, finding out you weren’t supposed to die. But I couldn’t even muster a smile. Because it made no difference being dead, or under his surveillance, lord’s Denter surveillance. 

Oh, you knew you were dead dead, physically or psychologically. Either way, your fate was far from pleasant. 

The Mandalorian had positioned himself behind you, and you deduced it was so he could watch over you and make sure you wouldn’t make any plan of escape easier. And so you walked, him guiding you along the way to whatever place he would take you. Your theory must have been correct because, as a warning, more like a threat, the gun was held tightly in his hand pointing ahead of him, exactly where you were. 

By that point, the market began to be livelier, though there were still very few people. The rest were probably too scared to come after being in the middle of this little incident and so, only clients that needed essentials and were desperate enough to buy, were around. 

All of them looked curiously at you two. Their pupils stalking you until you were too far for their eyes to reach you both, with a fear undertone to them.

 But their eyes didn’t matter, in fact, the only thing on your mind right now was going back to that town in the desert-like place in Ryloth. And how much you knew after Denter would have his clutches on you, you were sure you were never going to experience the freedom you had until now. 

You didn’t like to think about your stay there, but your mind made a point to stick out those memories even more. Like it was trying to show you something you didn’t know, or perhaps to open your eyes to the harsh reality that was to come, to make you stronger even. And so against your will, you had sunken into the world of daydream, and you wished someone saved you from yourself.

You’d been raised within a humble family, somewhere far away from civilization. In the middle of pretty much nowhere. Your only task was to find as much as supplies as you could since your family could be considered scavengers and often compared to vultures. Always picking up after other people and use it to your advantage. 

From planet to planet, you and your dad never lived in one place for long. Keeping your longings on a small suitcase you’d bring to your ship, actually no, what used to be our ship.  From place to place, finding little mechanical parts from anything that came from a machine, from little scraps of metal to scavenging the engine of a broken ship that had been abandoned. 

Though you visited the cities quite often, so many you’d already started to forget the names. After all, you had to survive on something, and your dad created this trade business, he’d sell the scraps and pieces you together found and sold them to a willing buyer. And he’d often bring you to these negotiations, and teach in the meantime.

Many thought of him as a charismatic dealer, and no matter how much people tried to deny his services, you two always found yourselves with a bunch of credits stored in little old ragged sacks at the end of the day.

You barely remember the people you met along the way. They were the only source of socializing you had besides your dad. But through the years, you had learned those quick friendships were empty and hollow, and it didn’t take you long after your realization, these friends you made soon became faceless, and a year later nameless. 

And from a young age, even though you so desperately wanted someone else in your life, the love you gave and received from your dad was enough. There was no point in plating roots if you'd be gone just as quickly. Your dad was enough. 

But some days, while your back faced the city, your unsatisfied heart pumped stronger than ever, and a strange feeling would poke your little organ in your chest. 

Those memories, those bittersweet memories. It would soon come to an end after we both landed in a small town on Ryloth. 

The best description of how this chapter of your life came to a close would be the wrong place, the wrong time. 

Another usual visit to a small planet. The usual people, your dad’s usual charisma. Everything had been just normal, nothing out of place. So how this event came to be was still a mystery to you. 

You only remember bits and pieces of what happened. Destruction, blood, screaming, fire, that’s all you remember. And a moment later, you were in a cell with many other children. 

You were kidnapped, every child that was in that town was kidnapped, and everyone else was gone, including your dad. You had been fifteen then. Just a teenager trying to make her dad proud, and you knew you wouldn’t see your dad again. 

And for the next five years, you became a slave to the people who had kidnapped you. Apparently, the town that had taken your dad away, had a problem when it came to bearing offsprings, and the ruler decided it was best to kidnap children and integrate them into their society as their own. 

This little plan of theirs never worked on you, and you weren’t sure if it was the hormones, stubbornness, or simply resentment that you never succumbed to their beliefs, and you were often thrown in their cell. And slowly the way you had been acting bit back at you. The ruler fed up with your shenanigans made you his favorite slave. And for about six months you had been the product of humiliation after another. 

_______

The Mandalorian behind had opened up the ship, with its metallic ramp descending steadily in front of you. And while you were simply standing, you moved your head behind you to look slightly at your hunter. 

His arm was already down his side, probably because he’d concluded that you weren’t going to do anything funny. Especially when you curiously looked to find the blaster saved on his holster. But he didn’t completely trust you, as his gloved fingers brushed slightly the weapon. 

You looked up at him again, still staring at you. And you smiled up at him, anxiously of course. You came to learn very quickly that acting nonchalantly, calmly, and confidently got you out of many complicated situations. It was just a mask and with that, many of your enemies felt uneasy. It was the fact that they couldn’t read you that frustrated them. And often times they would start overthinking and make up scenarios in their heads. Maybe you had something up your sleeve? Most times you never had, and yet your plan always worked. 

And so when you heard the thud of the ramp coming to the floor you decided to play cool. Walking up the steps you started a conversation for the first time since meeting him. 

“Hey, so, um… how do I put this…” you started, already regretting that you started the conversation with this topic. But you couldn’t help it, it was bumming you out and honestly, you needed to know before it was too late. Behind you, you heard his steps.

“So, um… I heard you guys have carbonite? …” the lack of response behind you just twisted your heart, stressing the hell out of it. And if you weren’t in this type of situation you would’ve given up and left it, but this time you couldn’t. You had a golden beak and you needed to utilize it now. 

Reaching the last step, you moved to the side to let the Mandalorian pass in front of you. He made a few steps before he realized you weren’t following him, and rather just stayed put

 “You aren’t going to put me in carbonite, right?” you smiled, while your hand held your finger behind your back. 

He simply tilted his head to his side, before making another gesture with his head to follow him.

“Wait, you aren’t putting me in carbonite right?!” a bit more desperate, you ran up to him, eyes as wide as you followed his with your gaze. He was already climbing up a ladder. And so you did, now demanding he gave some sort of explanation. 

“Hey, come on” you changed your tactic. You knew you were about to have a bad time, and his lack of response made your blood rush faster and harder. 

“I promise I won’t do anything to anger you, please just don’t put me into carbonite” you swallowed the big lump forming in your throat as you spoke desperately, still trying to play nice. 

Up the ladder, you were met by a huge space made of crystal in front, and shortly behind, everything remained metallic like the rest of the ship. A few seats in front of you, in fact, two, were placed by where the commands of the ship were. You were at the cockpit. 

The Mandalorian already seated in the middle, and you quickly fasten your belt after getting seated. It wasn’t necessarily because you were about to take off. But rather, if he in fact was going to put you in carbonite, you at least had another barrier of shield. And so you grabbed onto the hard lace and just pray at least this ship ride would be somewhat pleasant. And especially not try to run away from him throughout the ship if he was indeed planning to freeze you.  

With some clicking on the buttons on his part, it didn’t take long before you heard the engine start-up. You kept your head pointing forward at the mossy landscape you were about to depart. Your heart had quicked its pace with every sudden movement the man beside you did. Anything from his elbow suddenly getting closer to you, head changing direction as big as an inch, or lifting slightly one of his covered fingers, only tortured your heart nonstop, besides the sunken sensation from your heart when his movements became more bold. 

It only took seconds though, until the ship rose from the ground. And with quickly memorized patterns, the Mandalorian got you out into space. 

Once he deemed we were high enough, he left the chair by spinning it to 180 degrees. And without looking behind him he walked casually to the ladder, almost jumping from it to the floor below you. All the while, your eyes roamed him unblinkingly. You still weren’t sure if he was going to put you into carbonite, and the fact that he didn’t respond to you only made your suspicion that he was in fact going to do such an act only heighten. 

Your lips allowed a sigh to escape once he was gone. And with that, you decided to be merciful to your sore neck that had been tense for the past minutes, and let it rest on the little spot where you could accommodate your lovely neck. Instinctively, you closed your eyes and tighten the grip you still had on the belt. You sighed again, this one softer than the previous one. And it made it impossible for you to think if it was due to the stress or as another way to calm you down, either way, the sensation of it loosed the air stuck in the vent within you, and made it easier to breathe now. 

You opened your eyes again and wander off to space. To the shining little stars, of all types sizes and shapes to reflect on your eyes. All these pieces of tiny shiny rocks outshone the darkness that seemed to try to engulf them. But their light out-matched it, even if they were smaller than the universe. It was funny, your brain had formed this story in your head, the darkness trying to conquer the stars, and failed to realize that the light always wins. That’s what your father taught you whenever he talked about his little knowledge of the Jedi. And it always got you curious if your dad was acquainted with one of them, maybe even friends, and maybe that’s the reason why he always talked so fondly of them.

You tilted your head slightly to the left to accommodate it better to the little pillow behind you. Your head had begun feeling heavier and was beginning to be uncontrollable as it swung various times to the side. And so, you gave in to your head’s pleas. 

Your eyes kept on memorizing the scenery in front. And the very stars that shone enough to reflect your pupils, and traveled deeper and got themselves absorbed in every memory cell, and it would linger for a long time. 

You never saw the stars like this before. Only when you were on a planet, in the absence of light, you could appreciate the shiny event above the sky. And all the times you were on a ship, you never left your hiding spot. You would either hide in a box or crate for the entirety of the travel. And you’d eat whatever you had left from your last stay and rationalize it the best. It may have been uncomfortable and hard, but it was necessary. And you had to admit, you had never slept more. Mostly as a way to fight boredom, but at least you’d wake up with enough energy to leave the ship quickly and find a new shelter. 

And as you thought of the beautiful stars in front of you, those little details lingered in your mind before your mind went to another place far from reality. 

________

A big thump just crushed into your body, something of the size of a sports ball suddenly sunk down your stomach, and it was then you realized you were asleep. And even though, your lungs couldn’t properly function from the pressure and weight of the object placed on top of your abdomen, you still remained unmoving. With your eyes barely open, you closed them again and slump down back to sleep like before, any type of rationality was kicked out and now floating through space. You just wanted to sleep for a while longer, and thus even your thoughts were to sleep as you faded into dreamland. 

A second later you heard something, you weren’t sure how to describe it, just something high-pitched. Waking you a second time, you drowsily opened your eyes, indignant at whoever wanted you to wake up so desperately they couldn’t wait until you were awake.

With a scowl on your face, you blinked various times to make your eyes focus and throw some necessary and some not-so-nice remarks at your assailant. Your pupil was the first to react, widening at the sight of what was in front of you. Your mouth, slightly open to tell that previously wanted to tell whoever woke you up to screw off, closed rapidly. Your eyebrows high from the surprise. And now your dreamland didn’t feel like a fantasy to go back to. What you first noticed was green, big ears, and two big black dots that you recognized as eyes. 

The sheer panic run down your veins cold, and a scream came out of you so unexpectedly you didn’t even realize you’d open your mouth to scream. Trying to move to get away, you realized something pulled you back, and it was hard to notice the y-shaped belt that hugged your body in protection. And curiously, now you needed to get out of that protection to be safe from whatever the creature in front of you was. 

Finally, managing to unclip the bel,t you stood up, the small but not small enough creature went straight to the floor, giving out a yelp in response. Now, out of its grip, you looked around the room for anything that could shield you from whatever that thing was, and while the object specifically wasn’t known for protecting people, you didn’t think when you grabbed onto the seat the Mandalorian was sat before however long ago that was. And using the area of the back, you aimed at the green gigantic rat, that was now making its wait for you. Swallowing hard, and gripping onto the edges of the chair, you tried to make yourself smaller, and with that, your knees touched the base of the chair, lifting your legs up so the rat wouldn’t touch them.

“Kid!” a set of steps echoed through the walls, and the man you had called Tin Can earlier came into view, crouching down to the creature, grabbing it by his sides, and lifting him up without any concern. He looked at it for a second, and walked back, muttering something about the “kid” not listening to him. And before he reached the ladder, your strained voice stopped him.

With a leg stabilizing onto the floor, while the other was on its way to meet the other, you pointed at the creature in his hand. 

“WHAT. IS. THAT?!” you exclaimed to the wall of beskar a few feet away from you, and gladly so you were away from the thing. Shocker, he didn’t respond, but he didn’t completely ignore you, because he stayed put looking at the green thing in his arms. 

Feeling your throat loosen up slightly, your tone of voice softened a little.

“You know, it would’ve been nice a heads up for that… bug?” The thing looked at you, tilting its head to the side slightly and letting another high pitch tone, the same one that had woken you up. 

“He’s a child” the raspiness of his voice came back, and it seemed you had forgotten all about it. You weren’t sure why, but you weren’t prepared to hear his voice all of a sudden. So you just stood there, processing the sound of his voice at the same time as translating the information he said. From his helmet, you slowly went to gaze at the kid, his ear getting slightly higher when it noticed you looked back at it. Taking a better look at it, you noticed the features of the child you had passed up. The little thin white hair standing proudly just above his gigantic eyes, which from this angle made him adopt a more gentler, vulnerable, and childish character. The diminute nose at the centre, and the wrinkles all over its face. 

By that point your heart was calming down a little, and while its stilled moved rapidly, it was far better than a few seconds ago when the child gave you a heart attack. 

Somehow, probably due to the excess in stress accumulated over the hours by which it seemed to block your bran capacity, you translated the child as his. This making you more confused, if tha was his kid, shoudn’t he need a bigger helmet for his ears? You trailed off many questions on your head, by which the Mandalorian standing just sighed when you hadn’t said anything. Moving again to the ladder, and for you to spit out a question you hadn’t thought though. 

“Wait, so you look like him?” you questioned him, not being able to visualize him as the little guy in his arms. His head shot back to you, and his gaze remained on yours with a slight tilt. Until he finally broke the silence, beside the sound of the machine operating. 

“What?” he said pointentdly and his voice transmitted nothing more than incredulity. And by the way of his tone came flying to you, you’d started to feel shame covering you face, and it froze you on the spot. Your right arm came to meet yor  face, in cowardly manner, to hide your face from him. Your palm coming in contact with your cheek you noticed it was warming up, and you could only curse inwardly at it. 

Looking at him still staying in place, you only scrunched your face up slightly, and muttered a what to him, trying to sound as innocent as posible. In response, he only tilted his head further in question, and it didin’t take him long you  was just going to play dumb to whatever he said next, so he climbed down, not before a grunt came out of his modulated voice. Leaving you mortified in place, cursing at every part of your thought process that concluded that it was a good idea to mention a random nonsensical thought.

__

You remained in the cockpit for all your stay so far. The situation you’ve gotten yourself stuck in could be named at the very least messy, and the viewport was your only safe haven in this whole ship. With the Mandalorian somewhere on the ship, you felt like you could relax slightly in your seat. Arms wrapped around your legs, and a layer of your old dirty cape, with a few black marks over it from previous blaster shots that you managed to avoid, this was only proven further whenever your fingers brushed through the fabric and found these marks and noticed how the material was harder to the touch instead of when the soft silky cloth you had bought it for the first time in a market of Coruscant. 

Unlike before, you couldn’t enjoy the sight of the stars like before. It may have been for a quick second, but the sight of the glittering stars around you was stuck in your brain and you wished to see it once more. Everything was so tranquil then, maybe that’s why you had fallen asleep even when you were still anxious about the situation. The sight almost numbed your emotions, maybe that's not the right word, calmed maybe? It didn’t matter anyway, the point is, the company of the stars conquered your body and left you almost high, feeling like the air was stuck within your skull. As a result, your brain just took a more passive action, and before you knew it, your body eased the tension within you, and it didn’t take long after that for you to succumb to your sleep wish. 

But now, it was different, streaks and lines of different shades of blue were passing the ship at a rapid speed, and you’d taken in that the lighter blue streaks, the ones that could almost be mistaken as white, were just stars. Stars you couldn’t quite properly recognize as the ship moved without decreasing its pace. It was still a beautiful sight, but it wasn’t the same as before. Everything in here screamed movement, and acceleration, something to keep your mind and body awake, while the other had the same effect as counting sheep. 

And while looking at this explosion of colours, your mind could only wander off to what your future was to come, enslaved, humiliated probably beaten as well. It was that or either getting blastered on your head as soon as Denter saw you walking down that ramp. Or maybe he’d wait a little, maybe until the Mandalorian was away to finally strike you. Another possibility was that he’d torture you until his pride had decided it was sufficient and just kill you off. The possibility of the future was endless. 

But now you remained in a new posture, sure your heart wouldn’t stop beating at the thought of what could happen to you in the near future, but you couldn’t let it dominate you, even if it meant lying to yourself, that it wasn’t that bad, that you would probably be fine, made your mind remain cool and a sense of rationality still lingered in your skull. You had to make the most of this situation. 

First thing, there’s a higher probability he would let you live, even if its for a while longer, all of this based on nothing but chance. Maybe then you could find yourself an escape route. And if you were going to escape again, this time you had to make sure you wouldn't have another bounty over your head. That means two things, firstly strike up a bargain with Denter, but that could still be trouble. For that to happen, you had to be in a position where he would be vulnerable, and that was practically impossible given the fact he still had soldiers, power and people willing to do anything for him. And even if you managed, you weren’t about to trust someone like him. He would probably try and get back to you in the future. So then it left you with the second choice, kill Denter. Another suicide mission, but at least it had a better chance at working than the other one, though this should preferably be done in private, so none of his supporters tried to take revenge on you. 

To summarise, you were doomed, this was a nasty situation for you to be in. And with that thought, an exasperated sight came out of your soul unwillingly. 

You opened your eyes. Now came the second part of the plan, because this was nowhere done. How were you going to leave the planet? Last time you were lucky enough that there was a cargo ship. But this town was quite small, not many people came here, especially not people with ships. 

That idea lingered in your brain previously, maybe you could leave that small city with this ship. But you needed to be very quick about it. You would need to kill Denter, and prioritize the killing to be in private, somehow convince or like last time, sneak in the ship without anyone knowing. All the while, the small city would be in a mess. 

A soft eh? surprised you enough to come out of your trance, your eyes that were placed onto the velocity of hyperspace came to a halt, positioning your back upright and leaving the comfort of your seat to have a better angle at the direction of the sound. Your eyes speedily trailed off to the floor, seeing the pointy ears of the creature that had scared you earlier. 

Pushing your back forward to come face to the child and have a better view of it, until finally, you saw all of it in its glory. Curious black eyes stared up at you, and it hit you. He must be wondering who you are. You had come into his home, rather nosily but who could blame you, it had been a long day full of emotions like, exhaustion, powerlessness, anxiety, definitely anxiety, and overall emptiness. You’d probably waken up the little guy, only for you to moments later to push him and scream. Yeah, no the best impression you’d given to someone. But he was back, maybe it wasn’t so bad, or maybe his curiosity outweighed the negatives it  feel about you. 

“Hey, um, little guy?” you called out to him, though it came more as a question than anything. You’d given him a little space between your feet so he wouldn’t accidentally trip on them. His ears glided as his head tilted on its side,  probably questioning what you had just said. 

You were left feeling awkward to say the least, and you didn’t know how to respond, or should you do anything at all. By the way it was looking at you, you were sure he or she wanted to stay with you a while longer, maybe play together or talk, but you weren’t sure. You were just assuming based on what came to mind when you thought of toddlers: eat, sleep, and play. 

Now you could have him in your lap and just ramble on about how your life sucked at the very least and how it was going to go much worse once you’d settled on Ryloth. But what would the Mandalorian say if he found, his bounty, which he would assume you were at least a troublemaker, with his kid? Was it his kid though? You weren’t sure, and while you never became a bounty hunter, you decided on following their primary rule, and you decided to just pretend you didn’t know. 

But the idea of just complaining to someone, even if they didn’t understand you, sounded just like the juiciest of meals, so without a second thought you leaned further, your arms stretched out getting closer to the child. And on instinct, it put its arms up, allowing you easier access to hold it and bring it to your lap. 

“Let me tell you something kid” and while you were about to tell it your life story, and nothing could hold you back, you looked at him for approval. The little green gremlin just stared at you back innocently and a tinge of confusion covered its face. But he didn’t retaliate, and it just sat down and listened to you.

You pressed further back into the commodity of your seat, the pillow welcoming your back like you hadn’t been leaning on it five minutes ago. And you looked at the green child in front of you. Why were you so adamant about rambling on to the kid? Well, you had a simple answer, because the fact is, you were lonely. You had no family or friends, or even an acquaintance to talk to. You were alone in his whole universe, and there was no way you weren’t about to exploit the opportunity that came to you in the form of a green bug, a cute little bug that it. 

He tilted his head again to you in question, letting little cooing sounds float in the air. And you translated them as it wanted you to tell him whatever you were going to say to him already. And you slightly smiled, you knew you were making excuses, and yet, without any guilt or shame, you followed through. 

___

“The worst part wasn’t that I was practically left in the dark, no, oh ho no no no” the way you talked seemed like you were just catching up with a good old friend of yours, with a lot of new experiences you just couldn't stop rambling on, and you just needed the minimal confirmation to keep you going. But the reality was that you were talking to a child sitting in your lap. Its eyes looked up at you, with a mix of naivety and sadness in them. And so it felt empathetic towards your situation.

You couldn’t quite reassure the kid everything was fine, because nothing was fine. All you could do was makes lighthearted jokes, and talk about it like it was a small inconvenience. But deep down, the only thing you had hopes for, was that after escaping Denter you’d find a new life. You thought of becoming a bartender far away from Ryloth, settle down, buy a home, get to know more people, finding someone to keep you in the right world. But it wasn’t long until you discovered the bounty over your head. It started out with a very low price, and thus only the amateur hunters trying to make their name out there looked for you, and you had managed to escape them easily. But it didn’ stop there, because the price got higher and higher until the Mandalorian caught you with thirty-five thousand credits. 

That life you had only wished for, a quiet life, was ripped apart by once again lord Denter. 

“He’d also order the guards to just, not bring me food” you stated nonchalantly to the small creature, removing yourself a far as possible to the scene you were talking about. Your hand had crawled up to the childs head and you were petting it just like if it were a cat, making little patterns to soothe the child, but also yourself. Moving your hand from side to side, stroking your palm until it touched the base of its ear to the other. 

“Kid?” the modulated voice called behind you, and you assumed he was talking about the kid in your lap. You spin the chair until you were face to face with the Mandalorian. He stopped, taking in the stutuation for a brief second. He had hesitated due to the unexpected rushed movement on your part, and his hand held nearby his blaster on his side. But soon, once he saw the child safe in your arms he took his hands away from it. 

He started coming toward your seated form, rather confidently, and sprung his arms out to grab onto the green pea, and like before, muttering something about why he couldn't listen to him and walking away. 

You smiled slightly, more like a smirk seeing everything unfold in front of your very eyes. And you coudn’t help yourself in commenting something, maybe it was because you’d grown slightly fond of the child, or maybe the Mandalorian didn’t scare you as much anymore, afterall he hadn’t done anything to make you believe he’d put you in carbonite. And even so, you weren’t going to go anywhere away from the cockpit since it looked like your only safe place at the moment. 

“Looks like a troublemaker to me” you chipped in in their wholesome moment. His gaze was directed towards you but he didn’t say anything, staring at you slightly. And you thought of it as something amusing. But the lack of words on his part started to make you feel a bit awkward and doing what you can do best, you tried to start up a conversation.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” you questioned looking at the kid looking at you after hearing you talk, and you smiled back at it. On the Mandalorian’s part, he simply stood just like before. And it seemed he wasn’t up to talk. 

“A boy” his raspiness got the better of him and made his sentence a bit hard to hear, and so he repeated himself “he’s a boy” he cleared up talking louder than before. Now the creature was looking at him, and you could see just how fond he was of the Mandalorian. Something peeked your interest in the eyes of the small creature. Even with this distance, the hyperspace was easily reflected by his big round eyes void of colour. And even though something like the universe, something so immense that was overflowing in beauty. Even with its bright blue colours, not even the movement of it made the creature look away from the man in beskar. And he looked up at him like he was the most beautiful thing. No, it wasn’t that, he looked up like he was the only thing that mattered. Like it didn’t matter if something was beautiful because to him the Mandalorian was his everything. 

The armored man spoke again, and your gaze went directly to his visor, giving his full attention, but the tingling sensation across you chest lingered for a while. 

“We’ll be in Ryloth soon” he stated before leaving you on your own again. And that moment of surprise, with a tinge of proudness and jealousy squeezed your chest warmly was suddenly replaced by an icy feeling. Cold ran through your veins, your chest squeezed tighter, and an added sunken feeling in you stomach petrified in you place just as if you made the wrong choice and looked at Medusa’s face. 

You may have been like that for a minute or maybe even longer, you weren’t quite sure, everything seemed to go in slow motion. And somehow you found the strength to control your brain again, so you looked at the viewpoint. You blinked a few times, finding how much of your body was in your control, until you finally leaned back in your seat, where you remained quiet and unmoving. Anyone who'd just come into the room would assume you were just looking at the flashes of tones of blue, but you weren't looking, no, your mind had turned white.  You couldn’t think, only feel the desperate emotions of fear and stress spread out through you

[planeturi]

staff number 1: the galaxy staff!

its a bit flawed, but a pretty good result for a first attempt at building a prop, especially since i was practically winging the whole process.

more about the building process under the cut

the pole is taken from a random wooden broom, the top piece is a painted hollow styrofoam egg, all held together with hot glue and sticky-sided foam sheet cuttings. the same foam cutting were also used for the soft handle, to protect my hand from the spikes.

the spikes were made with puffy paint, which is silver but got repainted over with the blue to black gradient because man i was highly indecisive while making this thing.

overall this is what ive learnt from this project, learn from my mistakes:

foam sheets can be painted after being primed with a nice layer of glue. i used matte mod podge, but im sure other thick glues will work fine.

however, my mistake was applying the foam cuttings BEFORE painting them. had i painted them individually instead of all together, it wouldve created a more cohesive/consistent look. it wouldve taken much longer but wouldve also been more worth it!

you can get rid of that icky styrofoam visual texture with the noticeable circles and lines with multiple layers of mod podge. but its kind of ineffiecent. i think ill try using something like painters duct tape instead next time.

you cannot reuse foam cuttings. even if you manage to tear them off successfully. it wont look or stick the same.

PLEASE have a proper plan PLEASEEEE

[crossover-enthusiast]

Just- Hellbeats Corruption thoughts:

• Do you notice how Skid’s eyes kinda change color? Like ordinarily they’re white, but in Devotion they have a kinda gradient. Maybe it comes from the corruption, cause his corrupted eyes are blue?

• This thought hit me earlier and I forgot to say anything, but where would Girlfriend fit into the mod? Did she ever hear that any of that was happening? Would she have been able to do anything? Cause I just think that if Pump can bring Skid back then GF could heal Boyfriend easily (I’d also like to think though that that’s not how it works and the spookeez are just that special)

• I forgot to say this last time I said anything about the random details; I’d always known that the end-title card plays a bit more music with each video, but watching all of them in one go told me just how much. Like it starts out so ominously silent and ends with an entire little tune. That and the lights going out idk I just love the end screens and this whole mod

Oh, no I didn't notice that! I wonder if it has to do with the corruption, or maybe it's connected to his heart being blue

GF is... completely absent the last time I checked? Which tbh is an interesting angle given she's always with Boyfriend. I imagine if the mod had continued past Flashy Sins we would have seen her eventually, especially given DD's namedrop in the final video

For what it's worth, that V2 video had a placeholder cutscene basically saying BF was on his way to meet her, Monster just got to him first, so she was... probably fine? If DD cared enough about Hell to cancel his concert and offer refuge, then him and MM were probably even more overprotective of GF than they usually are

Oh I didn't notice that! I'll have to do a rewatch soon, that's really cool (also yeah I love the lights going out, little things like that just tick off all the boxes for me)

[km-kindredspirits]

3 Unforgettable JiKook Pictures

The photo below was shared on 10/31/17, a day after they returned from their trip (but a few days before the release of the masterpiece that is GCF Tokyo and also JM's short videos). ARMYs spotted them in various locations in Tokyo and also at the airport; so although their trip was non-work related, it was public knowledge. The fact that they knew that we knew about the trip and still posted such a "couple" selfie was incredible. The bold I-don't-give-a-F attitude that exuded from this picture! I mean, look at JK's smile, JM's head tilt, JM's hair on JK's face, JK's confidence stance next to JM's forward slouch, and them looking at themselves on the phone screen KNOWING exactly how they look like in the picture. If you can imagine for a second that the empty space between them does not exist, then JM's head would be leaning on JK's shoulder. Just, damn!

I have such a soft spot for the picture below. JK posted this picture on WeVerse on 07/14/19 and captioned it, "Jiminie hyung's full face smile." (translation credit https://twitter.com/btsweversetrans/status/1150374724012138496). I find it funny that his caption is focused on JM's smile when his smile is in the foreground and way bigger (with gums, eye creases, and all). We all know that this is a genuine Jungkook smile, because of his eye creases. When he is faking a smile, his facial muscles do not impact the skin around his eyes. Another special thing about this picture is that it looks like a candid motion picture, so it looks like they are smiling while laughing. I am not the only one curious about what happened before this picture was taken, right?

I cannot have a list of JiKook pictures without including the GOLD MINE of JiKook pictures. When people say a picture is worth a thousand words, they are referring to the JiKook picture below. When this picture was posted on Instagram on 11/30/21 (I forget by which member), I think it is safe to say that every single Jikooker's jaw fell to the ground. Here, they had an empty beach with a stunning orange to blue gradient sunset and clear moonlit sky, and JK and JM were looking at each other instead. I don't think I have ever seen a picture more romantic than this one. This is my favorite JiKook picture of all time.

P.S. Because of how I perceive their dynamic, this picture is even more special due to the fact that JK was the one standing while JM was seated.

[tamlins-stories-and-poems]

First and foremost: should Seanan read this despite the tag that is intended to warn her eyes away and end up with any ideas or find that I hit something I shouldn’t’ve despite my lack of speculation, I disavow any rights I may have had to the idea. Should she want to print out the art [link]and hang it on the wall/in a window, I will be honored. Should anyone else want to print it out and hang it on their walls/windows, I will still be honored but request some form of payment for my hard work. I put a lot into this. Most of the tutorial/coloring explanations are between the two arrows.

I love stained glass. I always have, and think there should be more of it around, just, in general.

So, when I found a poem I wrote a little while ago, based on how I think the fae society in the October Daye series gossip about the titular character, stained glass quickly worked its way in as the style to emulate. Originally, I was hoping to challenge myself in other ways—drawing messy rooms like the Luideag’s kitchen, practice my shading, work on actual comic panel type deals—but most of those were completely untenable in a stained glass style drawing, at least at my current level of skill. So when I settled on stained glass, the other challenges fell to the wayside.

->You can probably tell that my skill for the line work improved as I worked through these, sketching and inking 14 panels in 14 days, and getting more comfortable with this style. The coloring was done a bit more haphazardly, slapping down bucket fills when I found the right color and jumping between panels to make sure the ones I wanted to match stayed the same. I chose colors a lot more saturated than I’m used to, mostly because at 85% opacity, everything looks a little desaturated already, and the rest because stained glass is supposed to be bright and leave swaths of bright color crossing the room around it.

I needed the opacity to have the texture layered underneath (replicating the inconsistencies in real glass) at least somewhat visible, and for the texture of the brush to have uneven edges, and a somewhat inconsistent shape. I found one that worked—called charcoal, iirc—which I used to randomly place shadows at ~70% opacity beneath the other colors, and very light cyan at ~30% over top. <-

Other than a few examples listed below, the most complex coloring after that was a few gradients, mostly in the background or in hair, but a few on Toby’s coat in “Daye will save you, if she can” that I didn’t feel like trying to redo when I realized I mixed one of her hair colors in, and some painting overtop of the “glass” for Cap’n Pete’s opalescent/oil slick scales and hair

People;

Toby:

I gotta start with Tobes. I used a pale yellow for the lighter part of her hair, near her scalp as it’s been growing in more and more pale as she’s been shifted more pureblood. I know Seanan says it all changes at once, but I chose to ignore that for fun coloring. I wanted her to be the most desaturated person visible, which more affected choosing other peoples’ colors than hers, but worked out well enough.

May:

May’s hair. I had a filker (fandom-musician) friend, upon her retirement, get pink and blue feathered/chessboard hair. She was delighted by this, but decided that she keeps her hair short enough that it wasn’t worth maintaining. I patterned May’s hair based on my friend’s, but threw in colors at almost random and hoped for the best. May’s skin matches Toby. Her neon green sweater is based on something I remember reading from the books but might not actually exist, and her skirt is a patchwork of bright colors, mostly picked from her hair.

Beloved S. Torquill (as opposed to his twin the disliked S. Torquill):

White shirt for his current fresh start. Long hair for Vibes. Not much else to say about him here. Too many spoilers.

Tybalt:

Kitty man! Brown hair, originally was going to have the stripes just be the way the “glass” was set, but after drawing Pete’s hair I painted some darker brown stripes in. Red (probably silk) shirt under brown leather vest. Hair in a bun bc the Toby Discord has had odd fits of being obsessed with man-bun Tybalt. So he can have little a bun. As a treat.

Quentin:

For his hair I went with a yellow intended to be between the dandelion of his introduction and the polished bronze of his more recent appearances. Triangles as the base shape for his hair also just because vibes. Probably broke his nose at least once when he couldn’t get it set pretty and perfect in time to heal.

Raj:

There is a picture of an Abyssinian cat on the Toby wiki, and I used the main visible color for his hair (by eyeballing it, bc, again, saturation). He has dark skin to go with his south-west asian name. Samson may have been the type of jerk to culturally appropriate names, but I want to think Raj is actually a person of color. None of the descriptions I remember actually include his skin tone. In cat form I airbrushed in some details to look a little more like the cat photo.

the Luideag:

Curly black hair, sometimes held by electrical tape in pigtails, can have shark teeth at will. I like shark teeth. I had fun playing with how curls work in stained glass (let me know how you liked them!), otherwise looks like a teenaged mortal who blends in around San Fran. I used to live just over the hill, and I always picture her as looking Hispanic, like about half of my old neighbors (probable hyperbole), at least in her current guise.

Blind Michael (hand only):

Discord member helped me double check, and his skin was “striped tan and white like ash bark” I decided on green pointed nails to look like leaves. Discolored slightly when looking through the orb holding Karen’s soul.

Karen, butterfly form:

I forgot she was supposed to be a swallowtail until I was done inking. Didn’t want to attempt to erase and try again for proper stripes and wing-tails. I was just thinking “she needs eye spots bc eyes are windows to the soul, and this is her butterfly soul.” Yellow bc tiger swallowtail call-back. Trying to escape away from Blind Micheal’s hand.

acacia:

Moth lady moth lady moth lady she gets fluffy moth antennae. Skin and cloak colors taken directly from wiki description, hair gradiented in gold-ish yellow and brown to match what I could of the “writhing brown roots and golden hair” of the wiki description. I didn’t dare go check the books and get caught rereading and lose steam by distracting myself.

Pete

Cap’n Pete in pirate clothes sounded both more fun and easier to stylize than a fancy living-tides dress. Her hair is described as “oil slick” and she has “matching pale scales” here and there, but I only depicted them on her cheek. I also tried to give her ruffles/a cravat that matched her shirt. Bc why not.

[leahmcewen]

Animation Practice - Week 6&7

(as this was the final stretch to complete this animation, I have merged the last two weeks)

I finished all the pieces of animation, time to move on to backgrounds - I find backgrounds can be difficult for me so I wanted to be able to dedicate this last week to them, and definitely think it was worth it. My plan has always been to use a greyscale colour, which definitely reduced the time I spent on it, but it was also the effect that I was personally going for. The only problem I had with this is that I didn’t have any, or a very limited amount of, shading. This was especially shown in the last scene, and to combat this, and to be consistent with the atmospheric perspective, I used the gradient tool in Photoshop to indicate a light source. Once all of the backgrounds were made, I put each scene into After Effects and ensured my animations had a transparent background. Then, I imported the Photoshop file, in some cases, there were multiple files, when there is an element in the foreground, for example, when the bird flies past a nest. It took a while and a lot of editing to combine these elements, as well as going back and changing parts of the background itself, but I was pleased with the result and only exported it when I was satisfied. From here, I could start the final composition for my animation! I did this using Premiere Pro and found it to be quite a simple task. I altered some timings to make the flow better, and this is where I realised that the second to last, and the last scene, weren’t quite flowing. This was due to timing, as in one shot, the bird is up and flying and immediately cuts to the bird lying down. To slow down this transition, I added a scene of the bird close up, which I then faded out into the final scene using the Premiere effect controls, adjusting the opacity accordingly. It isn’t ideal to add scenes during one of the final stages of production, but I'm happy I did as I think that it flows a lot more with the new addition. I also used the colouring tool, as all my shots are in greyscale, I experimented with adding tints of blue in, as I feel it matches the mood and atmosphere. I loved how this looked so applied it to the film. From here it was time to add the sound, which I sourced from a range of royalty-free sound websites. I spent a lot of time looking for a piece of music that I felt matched the mood as well as the timing of the film (to an extent, as I could edit this later in Audition). I also found a range of sound effects, such as birds chirping in the far distance, and the chirps from one of the main characters. As my taller bird is based on the Chank Shell, which when blown makes an Ohm-like noise, I wanted to take inspiration from this by using shell sound effects as the birds “calling” In general, I am really happy with the result of this short film. I felt I really pushed myself out of my usual comfort zone, both in colour palette (I enjoy using brighter more fun colours), and subject. I don’t usually draw birds, so the anatomy was unfamiliar to me. I’m glad I dedicated a portion of time to my research and definitely think that having a specific bird to take inspiration from (I looked at the heron) for the Chank Shell-based bird, really helped in terms of proportions, and even behaviour.

[exosupport]

My family and home were taken from me by a conquering empire as a baby, and as the rightful prince, I ended up being made into a figurehead and rallying symbol for my kingdom's rebel movement at the age of 15. At the time I thought nothing of it - I was glad to take back my home and avenge my family - and it is only the distance of time and worlds that allow me to look back and realize how deeply I was wronged and used by those I trusted. I had many allies, but few true friends. Even if I was an important symbol, why was I made to fight on the front lines? Why did none of my adult "advisors" step in and hold back my childish ambition? Why was I, a child, forced to shoulder the burden of running a guerilla insurgency?

~ Leif Faris Claus

I think I can relate in a way. I wasn't a prince or a rebel but I was the only child soldier in my coven. It's not that anyone really had the ability to stop the emperor from doing this to me but even people I've forgiven now just pushed me away, with many more blaming me for being there and being unkind to me. Some were fully complicit in abusing me.

I don't have an answer to your question, but you didn't deserve that, and you're worth more than what you can do for people. Please never forget that.

[ID: A banner with a Sanrio theme. It says, "We know the feeling" in a decorative font. The background is colored with a blue to purple gradient with the texture of realistic stars over it. There's two images, one at the either side of the banner.

The image on the left has My Melody, a white rabbit who wears a pink hood over her ears with a bow on it, lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling listlessly.

The one on the right has My Melody but she's being deformed slightly into a swirl-like shape with her body blurring at the edges. She has a vaguely miffed, slightly sad, expression on her face. End ID]

[rainset]

D O G XXXIV

When Xi Yeong entered the controlled room, he’s sitting on a black pillow, playing with a toy that only scions can solve telekinetically.

“Jeremy Hoth?”

His body flinches and his fingers stop.

“Dog. Just Dog.”

“Oookay..” she walks around him. “..Dog.”

She sits across from him at the table on another pillow. She smiles and puts a pile of papers down. Dog looks at it, curious. His tone of voice shifts. “People still use those?”

“It’s more reliable incase virtual data gets corrupted. Various reasons— it’s our personal policy for valuable information. Like you!”

She plucks out a pen. “Ready to get started?”

Jeremy looks back down at the stone Diamond with shiftable parts. “Sure..” he starts shifting the puzzle pieces again. His ophthalmics shifting various color gradients to better interpret the puzzle.. but also for fun.

“Dog, how old are you?”

“I’m 13.. 14? Ish.. or 26.. it depends on how you view me I guess. Or one day old. Considering everything.”

“So.. you’re claiming to be a boy?”

He winces a grimace. “Not claiming. I am, factually. I can send you video records of my physical progress into what I am. Authentic.” He looks up.

Dog didn’t understand what just spilled out his mouth a moment later.

Xi Jeong just keeps her grin and nods. “Moving on!”

She writes down a few notes, turns the page. “Favorite colors?”

Dog refocuses onto his puzzle. “Yellow, blue, black, red, purple. Like this one black star my friend showed me and the night sky.. “ he thinks for a moment. “..some of those colors were the glass leading home.”

“Home in Treas?”

“Yes”

“How do you.. feel about what happened?”

He pauses, putting the puzzle down. Processing.

“It’s like I’m me and not. I.. I hate.. what I did.. that place was.. everything to me.” He swallows. “Where Hoths didn’t care, Treas did.” He touches the dark part of his face. “They healed me, tried to.” He rubs into it. “They did more for me than my own parents… I don’t know why they put up with us.”

Xi nods while taking these notes down. “Do you know if your parents are from Sector 26 or 13?”

Dog looks up.

“Or anything under that dictatorial-“

“No. Not at all.”

She nods and notes.

“Okay. You’re still processing all this.. I mean.. “ she gestures her hand to him. Finger curled over her pen, brows nudge up. “..Why did you do it.”

He closes his eyes, rubbing his head. “I was trying to help my friend.. we were trying to hide, I checked inside first… here we are.”

He opens his eyes. The lighting at this moment highlighting the shadow underneath his skin.

“It killed me. Turned me into.. this.” He shrugs.

“That enough of an alibi?”

Xi continues noting it down. “I don’t think your case is in question but.. Alderado is going to want answers.. and their people, retribution.” She looks back up to him. “Accident or not. People are people, they want blood.”

Dog heaves, looking down. “Put me down then. Be done with it.”

Xi shakes her head no. “Can’t do that, you’re too valuable”

Dog scoffs. “That’s the worth of my life, then?”

Xi looks up to him. “The next part is more important.” She folds her fingers. “Are you human?” She gestures to him. “Do you still consider yourself human?”

Dog lets that question sink in. There’s a long string of truth going through him. No. He’s not human— he doesn’t know, what, he is. It’s more like he’s a creature. A thing poising as a person. A part of him for peace. A part of him for war. It depends on who or what he interacts with, wants. Hell— is he even a ‘he’?

Though all circumstances aside-

“Yea.” He looks at her, dead in the eyes.

“I’m human.”

He lied.

…Or that's what he thought... ..Did he..?

——

[sbi-au-ideas]

Tommys magic is subtle.

It’s not like the girl across the street, who drips with neon green and has plants turning at her presence.

It’s not like the boy next door, whose eyes always glow a vibrant purple when he focuses too hard on something.

No, Tommy isn’t like them. His magic is quite shy in reality, a parallel to Tommy’s own personality. It rarely blinks into life for more than a moment, a dull gold that could be easily dismissed as a sun ray.

Nobody really notices the way his blonde hair seems to glow, how the yellow leaves that fall in autumn appear more vibrant when Tommy is around. Still, it affects them, brightening the atmosphere and widening smiles in the slightest way. No, Tommy’s magic isn’t anything extravagant- but when he sees his friends stare into the golden sunset, mesmerized- he thinks he’s okay with that.

Phil adores his magic. The way translucent green pours out of his palms, stretching out over the land before rising, bringing to life his architectural imaginations. The magic glitters in the sun at the right angle, and he could spend all day in the sweltering heat just building. Bringing his magic to life and getting to share it with other people.

His magic is more personal than others. While the green is vibrant to Phil, his wife Kristin describes it as faint- “as if I was looking at it through a fog”- so he makes sure to sketch out the designs on paper, too, so he can ask Kristin for her opinion on all of his new projects.

He discovered that he can create whatever he wants and hold it there. So, during his younger years when all he wanted to do was fly, he brought a pair of green wings to life, and rested them on his back. He hasn’t let up those wings for years, and now they react with his emotions, moving and gesticulating along with him. They feel natural.

Pink has followed Techno around for as long as he’s been alive. It drags along with his movements, highlighting the stroke of his arm as he brings his sword down on his opponent. When he jogs, the pink gradient leaves a trail, one that disintegrates as he progresses further in his run.

He used to despise the pink, which tainted his life and had him mocked in school. Then- when he got into wrestling, and took down his tournament partner with a flourishing swing- he watched the video back and found himself entranced; the pink highlighting his movements in the same way a streamer would follow the arc of a dancer. Amazing.

He snuck out that night and bought hair dye. Pink- the same shade as his magic- and he dyed his short head of hair in an act of defiance.

His parents were angry, sure, but the connection he finally felt with his magic made the arguments worth it. He grew his hair out as long as possible, after that, and reveled in the way his hair swung with his movements in the same way his magic did.

Wilbur thought he was powerless for a long time. No matter what he did, or tried, or risked, his magic never showed up. It made him feel empty, like a piece of himself was missing and he was convinced it would never show up.

He was angry for a long time- and sad- but mostly angry. He fought with kids at school, with his teachers, with his parents. Any time they tried to ask him what was wrong, he couldn’t form the words to explain.

But then, one year when he forgot to list out what he wanted his elective to be and got randomly placed in the boys choir, something happened. A spark- something blue and curly and bright- lit up his vision while he was humming the tune they were learning in class.

He cried that day. He went home a bumbling mess as he sobbed and sniffled, a stupid grin on his face as he tried to tell his parents what had happened. They let him stay home, and after he sung his voice to the heavens and back before losing it, his parents bought him a guitar and a keyboard.

He slowly learned that his magic isn’t bound to his voice, but to whatever music he created. So he strummed nonsensical tunes and pressed random keys until those blue, twirly and bright sparks lit up around him again, and he cried.

As he grows up, expanding his musical dictionary as far as it can go, he meets other new, magical people.

He meets the boy with golden hair, who lights up the world around him with only his presence and a cheeky grin.

He meets the man with faint green wings, who laughs readily and loves just as easily as he creates.

He meets the guy with a pink silhouette, who dyed his hair pink to spite the world, and whose sense of humor is as sharp as his sword.

“Yes,” he sings into the theater, blue sparks exploding with the last strum of his guitar, “I think I will be alright.”

[tawaifeddiediaz]

a beautiful collision.

— The Universe of Us by Lang Leav

(for @diazchristopher — happy birthday my love 💖)

[Image ID: seven gifs of Evan Buckley and Eddie Diaz from multiple episodes of 9-1-1. The gifs are made with a blue gradient on the edges, and text in the bottom right corner from a poem in Lang Leav's The Universe of Us. The gifs have a semi-transparent border overlayed in the center:

GIF 1: A wide smile breaking across Eddie's face in 2.01 as he leans in to shake Buck's hand. The text reads, "There was a feeling of inevitability when I met you. The sense that we would be together;"

GIF 2: Buck and Eddie walking together, shoulders bumping in 2.04 as Eddie tells him the girls flirting with him weren't his type. The text reads, "That there would be a moment when you would look at me in a certain way, and we could cross the threshold from friendship into something so much more."

GIF 3: Buck skidding to a stop as he sprints into the hospital courtyard in 5.06, terrified that Eddie's been shot again. The text reads, "We spoke once about lovers who kept finding each other, no matter how many times the world came between them."

GIF 4: Two gifs of Eddie and Buck's expressions in the grocery store scene from 3.05. Eddie's expression looks hurt underneath his anger, and Buck looks speechless and frustrated in the face of it. The text reads, "And I think I had to break your heart, and you had to break mine. How else could we know the worth of what we were given?"

GIF 5: Buck watching Eddie with amused exasperation as he packs Christopher's bag in 5.17. The gif is blended with Eddie turning to look after Buck goes up the loft to meet his parents in 4.05, his worried gaze tracking him all the way. The text reads, "I think you were always meant to know me a little better than anyone else. And our lives were fated to converge like some cosmic dance."

GIF 6: Black and white gif with no gradient of Buck and Eddie sitting apart on the hospital bed in 4.14. Eddie's avoiding Buck's gaze and Buck is watching his friend with confusion. The text reads, "I know there is terrible distance between us."

GIF 7: A slowed gif of Buck bounding into Eddie's arms in 3.01, the two hugging tightly at Buck's party. Their smiles are wide as they laugh, and Buck claps his hand on Eddie's shoulder in his excitement. The text reads, "But our bodies are made of celestial light, and we are hurtling through space and time, toward the most beautiful collision."

/end ID]

[appledew]

Andi is all set!

Made for  Blshbker on Twitter!

Andi is made of Minky and custom dyed minky, and a tiny bit of short pile minky. There is a gingham patterned heart and has Birthday cake scented disc inside the plush from everyone’s favorite ursid-construction company! :) This plush stand at about 18 inches from the top of the head to the bottoms of the feet, 20 inches including the hair. The spots, feet and hand detailing, and face are appliqued and machine embroidered. The gradient on the base body is dyed on.

Andi is too cute! This little sweetheart took a bit out of me but it was totally worth it! *u *

The gradient on the back was quite a unique experience and more info on the can be found here!: https://ko-fi.com/i/ID1D8C6G7J This is something I plan on working on privately to iron (haha, pun) out some issues. One thing that does look a little obvious is the uneven dye. I’m not sure what exactly when wrong, but I’m assuming it has to do with the distribution of dye. Despite looking a bit uneven, I do really love the results! Especially since I actively avoid doing gradients on teddies. Its not something I’ll offer right away, but there may be changes in the future! :)

The pattern took little to no effort the change! I just elongated the neck a bit and resituated the arm slots! One things that didn’t pan out the way I wanted to was the hands. I was aiming to make them a little more tub like with the hooves coming in at a SLIGHT angle, but they came out a bit flat. :( They’re still pretty cute, and get the point across but I wish they would have been a bit different.

The embroidery was nothing too special, aside from a bit tedious! The embroidery took about 2 days of work, not to mention the time it took to make the files, but it was worth it! Unfortunately I skipped out on adding the cute little gradients on the spot since I couldn’t get proper color matches and transitions going. One small thing I wish I could have done was add, the blue-grey color transition to the back of Andi (the grey blue spots on the shoulder). Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to do it without absolutely eliminating a row of colors. and having to change the big warm purple spot to something else. Perhaps I was just over thinking it. ^^;

Moving on.. I did struggle a tiny bit color matching in general; the biggest culprits were the hooves and the green with the blue-ish tint color. I couldn’t get a neon-ee color dyed, specifically for the feet, as tempting as it was to look at overseas vendors of minky (not custom, just more options), I couldn’t justify the price and protentional months wait time. In the end, I like to believe that I made some at least... good choices for the colors. Oh! Back to the body! There was a slight oopsy when dyeing the gradient! some of the orange dye soaked into the yellow and stained it to be a yellow with a veeeeery slight orange tint. To be honest I rolled with it! I hoped that the other colors would balance it out, and it seems to have worked! In general, this little sweetheart came out warmer in color.

Aside from all that, Andi wasn’t too much trouble! There were some small hurdles that needed to be figured out, and I hope i jumped them all correctly! ^u ^

I’ve mentioned this once or twice, I’m absolutely LUCKY to have had a chance to bring Andi to life in teddy form and hope I did her justice! Qu Q My work space now smells like birthday cake, and I’m NOT complaining; she smells so good! <3

________

More intimate WIPs can be found on my Ko-fi!  :)  https://ko-fi.com/appledew

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AppleDew_

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apple.dew

Tumblr: http://appledew.tumblr.com/

Furaffinity: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/appledew

deviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/appledew

[optimistpax]

Comics theory thoughts on last bot standing issue 2 under the cut + bonus old man Roddy

First of all it is absolutely FASCINATING to read transformers and watch them shift from primarily traditional inking to primarily digital inking.

Page 10 panel 3 and page 11 panel 1 [ID: one panel of moon saluting next to a second panel of the same drawing cropped slightly higher on the characters legs. End ID]

They both have Moon 100% copied and pasted. And like. This isn’t a criticism (of the art team). Deadlines are tight and comics don’t pay you enough to not take shortcuts and be as efficient as possible. I get it. I just think it’s fascinating bc like. That wasn’t POSSIBLE when doing traditional comics. Sure you could use a light box, but I imagine moving your setup from your drafting table to a lightbox is probably more time and work than it’s worth. And that’s assuming you have a light box to begin with (let alone one big enough for an original comic page)

I’m also SO interested in the lettering. I’m really curious if the choice to use the IDW2 lettering conventions were a conscious stylistic decision or if it was more of a “well we have the lettering template for idw2 handy so we may as well use it” sort of deal. (Bc the idw2 letter is a different letterer than the letterer for last bot standing so they would’ve had to ask for the illustrator files? Unless they’re stored on an IDW server? I’m dying to know how that works. I have so many questions pro letterers let me shadow you.)

Anyways. The lettering choices are really interesting to me esp concerning the not-rodimus bots. I can see why the gradient was applied, but it really only works for individual balloons and when there’s multiple balloons it’s really hard to read the white text on the light blue background. I 100% know what happened in illustrator that made that happen, just not sure how to fix it short of getting rid of the gradient or making the text black. Lettering sounds like it’d be so hard.

It’s also interesting that they’re the same shape as the Soundwave speech balloons in idw2 (and similar shape to the radio balloons, but not quite the same) meanwhile Roddy has a regular speech balloon but in orange. Are they all speaking over radio? Are they speaking cybertronian and Roddy is speaking the same language as Shib? Guess I should finish reading and find out 😂

YEAHHH!!! LOOK AT THIS PANELING!!! LOVE the use of proximity to guide the eye!!!! Most of the time if this kinda panel layout is used it’s confusing bc ppl dunno whether to read left left right or left right left but this is super clear that it’s left left right bc the top left panel is further away from the right panel and closer to the bottom left panel!!!!

Bonus Roddy bc he’s still got it (it being dialogue that makes me laugh)

[ID: rodimus from last bot standing smiling and saying “you saw the sorta thing I can do, right? Pull some sweet moves — bam. Flatten you all. and look awesome doing it. End ID]