#i'm bad at shading skin in any detail!!!!!!

[seagullcharmer]

me when i want to just go ahead and post my art but it's not finished yet

[sundrop-writes]

Hi! I hope this is okay to send because I’ve sent this type of request to others (and I know that’s normally bad) BUT it’s because I enjoy the different opinions of all the amazing writers!!! It’s not a fic request but just a request for your top headcanons for Spencer Reid.

The things that you’re like “this is canon and I’ll fight you over it” - smut, nsfw, tame, domestic, anything - just your opinions/rants!

(If it’s not okay to ask though please accept my apology!!! I’m still learning the social etiquette of tumblr requests! ) - 🌑

I definitely think this is okay to send to different writers, because you will usually get very different results - usually writers don't like it when you send a request that can only get similar results (asking for a narrative fic with a detailed, similar plot). But I love giving my random headcanons about characters.

Random Spencer Reid Headcanons

And okay, the first one I have in mind for Spencer is so weird.

One of the headliners that I always have in mind for Spencer - he wears tighty whities.

Like - the only kind of underwear that he wears are the classic hanes briefs (usually white, maybe heather grey, never black or any other 'fun' colour) - he doesn't wear boxer briefs, he doesn't wear boxers. Whenever I see a fic saying 'and then Spencer took off his boxer briefs', I'm like: "no, you don't know him like I do".

Spencer is a fucking nerd. Spencer is the type of fucking nerd who would insist on wearing the nerdiest underwear - tighty whities. And people probably write about him wearing boxer briefs because those are the sexy men's underwear and briefs are not like 'hot' to picture men in - but that is exactly why I HC him as wearing them and exactly why I mention that he wears them in every single one of my fics.

Spencer would wear the dorkiest underwear in expectation that he's not going into a sexual situation. He wears his underwear thinking that he's not going to fuck - he's not going to have to 'impress' anyone. Also, over time, of writing several fics about him and thinking about Spencer for 100s of hours a week - I have come to develop this kind of kink for picturing his giant nine inch cock trapped inside the crotch of a pair of briefs, hard and struggling to fit in there. It would be hot in its own way. (Which, Spencer always is.)

Speaking of his cock - you may notice that with a lot of my fics, I take the time to describe in depth what a male character's dick looks like. This is because I take the time to picture and think about what a characters dick looks like and how it is different from other characters (because no, not every characters dick is nine inches, thick and veiny. no) - I call it the Dickscription. And I think it's a very important part of characterization.

Spencer is eight to nine inches (when fully hard) - but he is skinny. His cock is a bean pole, just like he is. You would look at his dick and call it a snake. His cock is very smooth - the skin on it is baby soft and smooth, rather than veiny, and Spencer does not shave his pubes. Spencer is a full bush kind of guy - because he is terrified of putting a razor anywhere near his dick. He would only shave if you helped him and if he trusted you a lot. And he had a very thick, dark bush of hair near the top, around the base of his cock, but it gets more sparse around his balls, which even get soft and fuzzy in some places. (I have thought about this way. too. much.)

He is uncut, and when he gets really needy and teased or if you don't let him cum, then his cock turns a really bright shade of pink or even red, and the colour goes across his whole cock so his cock becomes like this beautiful bright pink rocket - and he leaks. Spencer is a very leaky guy, to the point where he gets everything so wet before he can even cum.

(These headcanons are getting out of control, lets get back to something more wholesome, shall we?)

Spencer is the kind of person to take himself on dates. On the rare occasion that he gets a day off, Spencer indulges in going out alone. It's not necessarily that he likes the solitude, but he's used to it because he spent his entire childhood pretty much alone, and there are a lot of activities that he likes that he thinks no one else he knows will enjoy. So he tries to enjoy treating himself to a day out alone.

He will bring a few good books to a cafe and drink a few expensive lattes (and probably eat a few pastries) and simply enjoy the peace and quiet of reading by himself for a while. He'll go to a book store and browse for hours before finally picking something. He'll go to a naturally history museum and walk around by himself, not tied to the whims of what someone else wants to see.

Hmmm

Maybe some relationship headcanons?

(Because we all love Spencer, lets face it.)

This is something I bring up in Careful (as you guys will see) - but I genuinely believe that Spencer Reid would treat his partner like royalty. He is someone who has spent years reading about romance - especially with his mother reading him so much classic literature, he regards the classics as the bar for romance (and he just hopes that his life doesn't become one of the tragedies where one or both partners die in the end). So he's not the 'Netflix and Chill' type - and he definitely doesn't bring you to the movies to sit in silence on a date.

He is the type of person to hire a violinist to play your favourite song by the table on a date, he will open doors for you, help you with your coat, pull out chairs for you, recite poetry to you (probably in other languages just because it sounds beautiful).

He will always think of the most unique dates to take you on. He'll take you to museums, to an observatory, to the orchestra - he'll take you to a large, elegant library that has rare books and recite lines from those classic books to you while you're there. He would take you to plays or a midnight picnic by a lake. Dates with him would never be boring or typical - it would be like living in a romantic movie.

A lot of people HC that Spencer would not be into PDA because he's too shy, but I don't think that's the case. Early seasons Spencer maybe, but I think that even he would get to a point where he's just so enamoured with you that he needs to touch you in public. But his PDA wouldn't be steamy or smutty, it would be romantic and soft and passionate.

He would keep a hand on your lower back while walking around, a sign that he's right there with you, a gentle signal to anyone around that you're with him. He would lean in close to speak right in your ear - showing that his words are only for you, that nobody else in the vicinity deserves to hear what he has to say, only you do.

He would graze his fingertips right across your arm, causing goosebumps on your skin. He would stare into your eyes with such intense, burning passion. And he would kiss you in public - lingering only long enough to leave you wanting more. And on occasion, he would lean in to kiss your neck or bring your hand up to kiss the back of it - gentle things to show his appreciation of you without giving away too much for prying eyes to see.

Dating Spencer would be like dating a prince from a hallmark movie, I swear to god.

(That's all I have for now, because if I keep thinking about this too much, I may explode because Spencer is not real and I can't actually date him.)

[thishazbinamistake]

Howdy!

I am here to talk about Viv's horrible character designs.

From an animator perspective, they suck.

Here's why

1. The characters have way too much detail

For animation, more lines equal more work. You're going to be drawing them over and over, and it just creates more stress and work for the animators.

For example, I took one of the most egregious designs in HB (Beelzebub) and simplified it to be animation friendly.

(Can't send it here but I'll probably make a post about it or something.)

2. There's too much of 1 color

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH RED??

Especially since they're in a primarily red background, they don't stand out AT ALL.

Like how am I supposed to see them if they blend in to the background??

3. I have no idea what half of them are supposed to be

Charlie is based off a doll?

Alastor is based off of a deer?

Katie Killjoy is based off of a praying mantis?

Angel Dust is based off of a spider?

Beelzebub is supposed to be well... Beelzebub?

When designing characters, they need to be clear on what they're supposed to be! And no, explaining it on Twitter does not count.

4. The animation reference sheets are garbage

No wonder there's so much animation errors. There's no facial expression sheets, lip sync guide, nothing. It's just a 4 angle turnaround sheet where the character is in complex poses all the time.

If you Google Lackadaisy's animation reference sheets and then look at HB's, it's like night and day.

I'm more than willing to send some examples (along with the edit I did) if you want

So yeah, what are your thoughts?

These are all great points! I think you summed up the main problems very well, but I'll elaborate on each of them. I'm no expert at character design or animation by any means, but I'll do my best to explain my points!

First of all, like you said, the character designs are way too complicated. Anyone who knows even the slightest amount about animation knows you want to simplify and streamline your designs as much as possible to make it easier on the animators. Vivzie is way too obsessed with her Deviantart OC lookin'-ass character designs to actually do this, even though it would seriously help to make the animation process way faster and easier. Beelzebub is seriously the best (or worst?) example of this.

I feel so bad for the poor souls who had to animate this. There are just way too many moving parts here, from her multiple arms, her wings, her markings, to her freaking lava lamp hair and tail?? It's just awful. And so many of Viv's designs suffer this problem, I could go on and on.

Like, I think it actually is a nice looking design, as a still image. Maybe not for the demon Beelzebub, but as a general furry OC, I think she's cute. But that's beside the point. I would love to see your redesign of her!

Next, the RED. So, most of the characters we see in Helluva Boss are red-skinned imps, which has been a common depiction of demons for centuries. One big problem I have is that there's little contrast in these designs. Let's look at our three main imps.

Aside from some white and yellow highlights, they're all mostly red and black. Their color palettes aren't distinct in the slightest! And, I mean, come on. Red accessories against what's almost the exact same shade of red skin? Really? It just doesn't look good. A little contrast here and there goes a long way, like... maybe make Moxxie's bowtie blue? Or Blitz's pendant green? I don't know, anything to help each character stand out, and help give them more visual intrigue.

It doesn't help that most of the backgrounds are primarily shades of red, too. Here's a few screenshots I found that really show this problem.

Look at all that fucking red. Like you said, there's such little color variation that the characters blend into the background. Now, to be fair, I did specifically choose these screenshots because I think they really highlight the problem, but this really is what so much of the show looks like. Granted, we do have a bit more variety in the different rings of Hell, each with their own main color, but this is still too much red, considering how much the color comprises the main characters' designs.

Next, like you said, Vivzie is really bad at making characters actually look like the things they're supposed to look like. Let's take Alastor as an example!

Oh boy! More red and black. So, Alastor here is supposed to be a deer. What's the first physical characteristic that comes to mind when you think of a deer?

Yeah, those big, impressive antlers! So... where are his? Oh, they're those tiny little forks on his head that are almost entirely obscured by his stupid emo hair. Like, come on! Giving him bigger antlers would have made him look so much cooler and more intimidating, and it would have been a great focal point for his design! It's such a missed opportunity. (I know he has bigger antlers in his scarier "demon" form, but you still could have made these a little more impressive.) And don't even get me started on those ears... they look more like fox ears or something. Like you said, a good design shouldn't need to be explained through supplementary material. We should be able to tell what a character is supposed to be just from looking at them!

Another great example is Angel Dust, who, despite being a spider, lacks so many distinct features we associate with spiders! He only has six legs instead of eight, he doesn't have pedipalps or chelicerae, and he also lacks that big old spider booty, which I think is such a missed opportunity, considering he is supposed to be in the sex industry. He isn't even remotely shaped like a spider, he looks more like a fuzzy stick bug or something.

Part of me feels like Viv is too afraid to make her characters look unique, so she just goes with the same, skinny humanoid design for just about everything. It's such a shame, because I really do think she is a talented artist who can make some really interesting designs. But then again, she also gave us Beelzebub, so... maybe not.

As for the reference sheets, maybe I wasn't looking hard enough but I couldn't find any official ones for the main characters, so if you could send those my way I would appreciate it! Though it honestly wouldn't surprise me if they were bad. I did look up Lackadaisy's and found them pretty easily and...

This is so freaking comprehensive and detailed, it's incredible! Look at all those poses and facial expressions!

Comparing Vivzie's works to Tracy's feels kind of unfair, since Tracy has been working on Lackadaisy for 17 years, and it really shows. This is leaps and bounds above Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel in quality. Rocky's design is tight; it's detailed, but not overly complicated. There isn't an obnoxious overuse of highly saturated colors, and there's such nice contrast between his fur, his eyes, suit, and tie, making his design very nice to look at. You can also tell so much about his personality and the world he lives in just from his appearance. It's such a good design, and Rocky is just one example from Lackadaisy! All of Tracy's designs are memorable and stand out from one another, unlike so many of Vivzie's characters, whose designs honestly feel interchangable.

So much thought and care has gone into Lackadaisy, and I seriously cannot wait for the full series, as well as all the other amazing indie animated series that have been coming out recently. It's sad that Helluva Boss is seen as the pinnacle of indie animation, when there are so many other series out there that are just.. better! Lackadaisy, obviously, but we've also got Digital Circus, Murder Drones, Monkey Wrench, and so many others that deserve way more appreciation than what Helluva Boss receives. And that's just from an art direction standpoint, we aren't even talking about writing. That's a whole other can of worms.

All of that being said, it's obvious that a ton of love and hard work went into Helluva Boss, and I hold absolutely nothing against the animators and artists at Spindlehorse. These poor design choices are a hallmark of Vivzie's art style, and they're simply working with what they've got. There is such wasted potential here because it feels like Vivzie is too afraid to step outside her comfort zone and design something that isn't a brightly colored, sharp-toothed twink, or skinny anthro wolf girl.

Anyways, that about wraps up my thoughts. Thanks for the ask, this was fun to delve into! And again, I'd be very interested in seeing you post your redesigns! 👀

[vulpixisananimal]

(you leave for one loop. One day. And it becomes a blinding disaster. Oh yes, Stardust gets a loop where they can relax and don't need to worry about anything and look what happens.)

(Because of you.)

(I did not do anything.)

(Oh sure! Was I mistaken? Was I mistaken thinking that the one who's always causing trouble, always making things harder, was the one who messed everything up!?!)

(I had to do what I had to do. It's fixed now.)

(Fixed?!? Is that all you care about?!?)

(You grip the sides of the sink. You might be sick again at this rate. You couldn't tell if the nausea was from looping or from the mental argument you were having.)

(It's fine! Really, it's wonderful even! You could share what you learned now. And figure all this out. It's fine.)

(But first, cue Isabeau.)

"You alright, Sif?--" >> "--Just some loopy stuff, not that bad, I'll meet you for breakfast!"

(It's so easy to slip back into the old routine. It's comfortable. It's easy. You can just zone out and respond in exactly the right way. And yet, it made your skin crawl. After all you've been through you're still supposed to memorize a play? What a joke.)

(You go through the motions, get fully dressed, go downstairs, greet your party. Quesadillas again. They'd probably still be tasty, though you wont want them for a bit after these loops.)

"You sure you're alright??--" >> "--Do you think that's why you're sick again?"

(You were zoning out a lot. Change things up.)

"That would make sense, craft exhaustion, right?"

"Alright eat up then 'Frin, gotta get your energy back." (Nille gave you more food like last time.)

"At least let me finish first breakfast." (You say, smiling.) "I am hungry though."

(You still weren't sure if you felt better or worse after taking some time to relax. Although, that 'relaxing' time was cut short. You take a bite of the quesadilla.)

(??!?!!?!)

"Is Bonnie feeling okay?" (You ask.)

"They woke up with a headache, I think it's from that bonk from yesterday." (Nille looked worried at you bringing it up.) "Just, don't mention the burnt food."

(Odile spoke up from behind her book.) "It shouldn't be from that bang on the head. No concussion, any booboos they had Mirabelle healed up."

"Well what else would it be then."

(You quietly eat up the quesadilla. Just think for a second, Loop. It's probably nothing. Just focus on the task at hand.)

(You and I know that it's impossible for the past to change. If something did change, it would be us who did it.)

(So why does Bonnie have a headache?)

(. . .)

(You're still not giving me all the details~)

(It does not matter, it will distract you.)

(You're afraid arent you~ You're afraid that things are going to change~)

(As are you.)

(I'M at least trying to-)

(You bite your tongue.)

"Blinding-" (You exclaim.) "Ow."

"Everything alright, Siffrin?" (Odile asked.)

"Oh I just bit my tongue, eating too fast."

"Aw no!!" (Isa said, concerned.) Want me to check if it's ok??"

"So you can kiss it better?" (You reply, almost instinctually.)

"!??!?!!!?!?"

"HA!"

"Get a ROOM you two!"

(Isabeaus face was getting off shade, it took you a second before you processed what you just said and what it meant.)

"OH. UH. I DIDNT??? MEAN, UH???"

(you hide yourself in your hat. That's??? So embarrassing?!?!? Oh stars you said that as a JOKE. "I banged my elbow kiss it better." Stupid, stupid Loop! You're making such a fool of yourself.) ". . . S-sorry."

"Noit'sokI'mokit'sfine." (And now Isa was covering his face.)

(. . .)

(Not a WORD from you.)

(There's a bit of an awkward pause before casual conversation starts again. You mostly just zone out untill Bonnie comes back.)

(They looked. . . Fine? It was hard to tell from last time, maybe a bit more tired looking? Nothing physicaly wrong, not that it looked like, they caught you staring at stuck out their tongue at you and make a "nyeeh" noise. You stick your tongue out back.)

"Quite done, you two?" (Odile said without looking up.)

"'Frin started it."

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Alright maybe I did."

(Mirabelle gasped.) "Siffrin? Admiting to cheekyness??"

"Truly a dark day." (Odile commented.)

(You all chuckle.)

(Here again. Back at the explination table. You know you could keep the loops a secret this time, but no. You needed help, you did ask for it after all~)

(Might as well make it fun, though. You look around and see a few scraps of note paper, you grab one and quickly write something down. Next, who to pass it to. . .)

(Odile is still in her book, Mirabelle was checking on Bonnie, Isabeau. . . Passing a note to Isa right now's a bad look. Nille, then. You crumple the paper into a ball and gently throw it at her as she's about to take a bite of food. She pauses and looks at you. You hold up a finger and wink.)

(You lean back in your chair.) "Let's skip going to the defenders, when we head there later today it just becomes a whole mess."

"You looped again!?!?--" >> "--I'll look for one of those next time."

(You hear a stiffled laugh come from Nille, looking over, she had de-crumpled the note and looked at it. She gave you a look and held it up.)

"So do you just have the whole crabbing day memorized, Siffy?" (The note was that whole exchange written down. Nille passes the note to Mirabelle to look.)

(You stick out your tongue.) "Maybe~"

"What's our next line then, Siffrin." (Odile had closed her book, now quite curious.)

"Well, bonnies next line is 'that's crabbing stupid.'"

"Language."

"No that comes after Bonnies line." (Ok this is kind of fun actually)

"Alright, but what's your next line." (Mirabelle says, curious.)

(You nod.) "That this will be try number four, or five, First was me and Odile at the library, rest of you to the Defenders place, Bonnie came running back to us because Mira was framed for kidnapping Bonnie."

"!?!?!?--" >> "--Language."

(There's a bit of a pause as everyone catches up to the exchange that just happened, and laughs.)

"Well, at least you're making light of it?"

"Tee hee, I try~" (Now, how to explain things quickly.) "Next loop we all went to the Defenders and bumped into an old friend of Isabeaus, going by Ramos now. We got split up, Ramos and Isa were acting suspicious, we confronted Ramos and they had a wishing star pendant like from yesterday. There was also a strong mint smell around. And then last loop Mira Isa and Odile went to figure out if mint was a sign of anything."

"That's, quite a lot to take in." (Said Odile.) "Well, did we find anything?"

(You nod) "Yep, a strong mint smell is assosiated with Mind Craft. It makes sense really, with how Isa and Stardust acted~"

". . . Stardust?"

(You wince. Stars! STARS! Oh great you were just TALKING and explaining things and DIDN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. Alright, fine, fine, you'd have to explain this anyways probably.)

(You could try again.)

"R-right, aha, well. . ." (You shook your head, lights, camera...) "Well it's a bit of a story, Mirabelle had the wonderful idea that we take a loop to rest up! Oh very, very thoughtful~"

"Uh, th-thank you?" (Mira looked confused, well, everyone did a little.) "Did, did it go alright?"

"Oh it did! For a bit. And then our good friend Ramos showed up. Stardust, Siffrin, thought it would be a wonderful idea to talk to them to figure out a few things. Buuuuuuuut then Ramos grabed their hand and he started acting ~very different~"

(You felt like you were going to have a heart attack. When was the last time you talked to your party? REALLY talked to them. It was on the final day, wasn't it? And even then you were all worried about Stardust. You just need to keep acting.)

"Let me guess. Siffrin was effected by mind craft in some way, but you weren't?" (Odile, like usual, was ahead of the curve.)

"Correct~ Hello by the way, your friendly neighborhood Loop here to help~"

"Oh! Good to talk to you again then!" (Mirabelle said excitedly.)

"Yeah. Lot cooler than 'Frin." (Bonnie said all cheekily.)

"A devistating blow to someone not even here. Are they around at all, by the way?" (Odile asked.)

"Well. . ."

(We shouldn't bring him to front. They are likely still effected by mind craft.)

(And how would you know that?)

(I don't.)

(Exactly. You tap your chin.) "Well I could get them, but we're worried that mind craft is still effecting him."

"Still?"

"But, didn't you turn back time?!?"

"Yeah, it never happened then, right?"

(You shrug.) "Kinda. Memories stay. Our body keeps some of it's changes, scars and muscle growth, but not wounds. We keep our fighting experience too, naturally. And for some reason, equipment."

"Oh right... Like the bow my classmate got me." (Mirabelle touched their bow, the same one.) "That really hurt my head to think about."

(Nille rubbed her head.) "Well if you get them we can check easily. And if Siffy's still gotten mind crabbery we'll..."

"Then we make sure Loop doesn't get effected either!!" (Isabeau said confidently.)

"Or undo it. It should be easy enough, unless-" (Odile starts)

"-it was powered by a wish." (You finish with her.)

". . This is weird." (Nille says.)

"Give me a day and I could recite those two days in Dormont by heart~"

"Even the sleepover?"

"Especially the sleepover."

(You all chuckle a bit at that. It's. . . Kind of nice, being able to be open about this. Even if you wish it could be in better circumstances.)

"I've got two plans today." (You say, as you take another bite of food.) "First, we'll all check on Stardust and see how he's handling things~ "

"Rude to talk and eat, Loopert." (Nille sais smugly.)

(You choke on your food. Loopert?!?!)

"Hah! Loopert."

"Hehe. It's a cute nickname."

(You sink down in your cloak and quickly finish that bite of food.) "Any chance we could rethink the nickname?"

"No!!! You're Loopert now!!!"

(Great.)

(Well if we they wont remember at least.)

"Alright alright, well the other thing I want to do is try talking to Ramos agian."

"Huh."

"So daring..."

"Are you sure about that, Loop." (Mirabelle seemed worried.)

"Well, I'm curious how they'll react. The last two times we've bumped into eachother they've been. . . acting strange. Oh, and I would like to talk to them one on one if possible."

"You do realize if that mind craft stuck this could be increddibly risky." (Odile looked concerned. Understandibly so.)

"I'd like to be around in case they try anything. . ." (Said Isabeau.)

(You nod.) "Well, if you all could stay nearby in case something does happen, that would be great."

"Why do you need to talk to them alone anyways?" (Nille asked.)

"W-well. . ." (How to put this.) "I don't want to be rude, but you all are terrible actors."

"Ah. . ."

"Oh. . ."

"Ouch, but fair."

"Sorry." (You shrug.) "One of the best advantages of not talking about the loops was knowing exactly how things go. But we made a promise to not keep secrets soooo~"

"No no, I understand Loop." (Mirabelle looked a bit dejected.) "I don't know if I'd be able to keep a straight face."

"Heh, I could do it." (Bonnie said smugly.)

"Sure you could Boniface." (Nille replied.)

"Yeah!!! I could!!!"

"I'll go sign you up for theater classes then."

"NO!!!!"

(Heh, that would be a sight to see.)

(At least we have a plan.)

[xshiny]

Shared Struggles prt 1

Trigger Warning! ⚠️

Eating disorder -> not eating for a while resulting to unhealthy body

WIP 💀

Unbeknownst to those who didn’t pay much mind to you, you had been struggling to eat much or anything at all.You thought you were flying under the radar fairly well with this, until Keegan found you and walked over to you, pressing his shoulder to the wall as he leaned to be level with you. “You didn’t come down for dinner,” He said smoothly. He was the least confrontational of personal problems out of all your friends, so it was surprising. “Nor were you there for breakfast.. whys that?"

"I already ate" you shrugged it off, moving past him.

“You didn’t.” Keegan said bluntly. “I looked in the kitchen on my way back from the table.. there wasn’t even a plate put in the sink. You’re a bad liar.”

"I put the dishes away. You're a bad looker" you quickly said, and took another step.

This caught him off guard for a moment, before he pushed himself off the wall and stepped in front of you, placing his hands on your shoulders. “Look at me.”

"I'm looking" you blinked, looking at him and stood there in his grasp. You were playing it cool.

He tightened his grip slightly until your view was entirely him. “Do you even realize how thin you’ve gotten? You can practically see your bones through your skin for god’s sake!”

"I'm not skinny, I'm just...not as big as you" you shrug, not even caring about the fact that what he said is true.

He looked at you like you had lost your mind. “Not as big as me?? Dude,” He said, stepping back as he gestured to himself, “You can practically see the bones in your spine! You look like you’re dying!”

"Dying? I'm not dying!" You protest, frowning at him.

“Well you’re damn well starving yourself and that’s a slippery slope to all sorts of issues. Your skin is pale, and your eyes are all bloodshot and sunken. And you don’t have any energy, man! You’re exhausted just by walking!!”

"I need sleep!?" You suggest, and shrug your shoulders again.

“Yeah, that too!” He exclaimed, “But I mean, you have to see what I mean right? You look like if you dropped dead, people wouldn’t question it because they expect it! Your entire skin color is almost blue! You’re a shade of white we’ve never seen! Do you even remember the last time you had a full meal?”

"...No.."

“You can’t even remember?” He looked genuinely hurt. “How long has it been?? The last I remember, you didn’t eat that day either… that was, what, two weeks ago?”

Suddenly you feel dizzy and slump forward a bit, stumbling over your feet. "S'been a while"

Keegan let go of your shoulders as he immediately scooped you up in his arms, holding you close to prevent you from any more stumbling.“Jesus Christ!” He yelled, “You’re about to collapse!”

"Am...not...bouta..." You complained, and your knees gave out, causing you to go dead weight on him.

Keegan made the executive decision to carry you bridal style and immediately went downstairs to take you to the medical unit.He kicked down the door and yelled, “We need help! Anyone?! Come quick!”

Has been worked on ⤵️

When multiple members of the unit rushed in, he finally explained in more detail what was wrong with you, making sure to mention your severe lack of eating. The nurses were incredibly worried, but got to work immediately. It took hours for them to fix any nutrient deficiencies you may have and give you an intravenous injection of potassium to prevent further muscle fatigue.

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

A/n: Make sure you lovelies eat!! Take care of yourselves ❤️

Sorry for any inaccurate scenes 😭

And still working on that last scene...will update later...

Update: it's good enough for now 🥲👍 fictional logic save me

Part 2

[jewishevelinebaker]

Have you ever wanted to make the TF2 guys drown in a pool? Or perhaps... kiss? Well, now you can! Here's a list of my TF2 Sims 4 custom content. Playtested, all LODs, all base game compatible. If you come across any problems let me know, but I don't think you should.

I made 3 items for Scout: his cap with headset, shirt with rolled up sleeves (comes in RED and BLU), and a necklace with 2 dogtags.

For Sniper I converted his hat, made a pair of sunglasses with a yellow tint, and added his facial scars. The scars can be found in skin detail, freckles. Also for Sniper I took a vanilla hairstyle and drew on his funky hairline.

Shown with Makesims' Hand Wraps

Here are 3 vests I made by combining and changing some vanilla vests. The one on the left is intended for Heavy, as it has t-shirt sleeves. The two on the right can work for either Demo or Sniper, as both have sleeves rolled up to their elbows. Both contain swatches with and without Demo's long undershirt sleeves. All vests come in BLU and RED.

Also shown here, on Demo and Heavy, are a pair of pants I converted from Strangerville's army career. See, normally when Sims 4 pants tuck into boots, the lower sections of the pants just disappear. But with these, because they include the shoes, the pants puff up over the top of the boots. There are 5 swatches: brown/grey, RED, BLU, and RED/BLU with gradient.

On Heavy and Sniper are black fingerless gloves. There is a swatch with gloves on both hands and a swatch with one glove (for Sniper).

Shown with Pralinesims' eye patch. Also, for Demo I used a white left eye from my Bad Batch CC for when he takes it off.

For Soldier and Engie I made these hats from scratch. Soldier's has two swatches to match his RED and BLU outfits. Engie also gets a pair of goggles.

I made Spy's mask by editing the ninja mask from the Spooky stuff pack and Pyro's by recoloring the inaccurate scuba mask from Island Living. It's not exactly a gas mask, but I really did not feel like making one from scratch and I'm not satisfied with any gas mask CC that already exists.

Pyro's mask also has a version with cat ears. For pary time, of course. Their shirt, while not exactly like Pyro's in-game shirt, has a similar silhouette which is why I chose it. There are white, RED, and BLU versions with and without the balloonicorn graphic.

I also made Pyro's gloves. The second swatch adds a black covering on the neck so that Pyro can wear many shirts without showing skin.

Here are the outfits for the rest of the characters.

Medic has a recolor of the Get to Work lab coat, RED and BLU, with and without gloves.

Spy has a recolor of the base game pinstripe suit in RED and BLU.

For Pyro, in addition to the shirt, I made another pair of pants with gradient, but this time they can go with taller boots. The boots do not come with my CC.

Engie has a recolor of the handyman overalls, in RED and BLU. I also made the gunslinger as a glove. There are two versions, with and without the bulky wrist part, so that it can still work with long sleeves and not clip.

Miss Pauling's dress has 3 swatches with different shades of purple. Please ignore the shading issues in this post's cover image; it has since been fixed but that pic was so hard to get I'm not retaking it.

I have added a few build/buy options. The 2Fort roofs (shown in the 2Fort images earlier) are a recolor of roofs from Werewolves. I also added the gym and meeting room walls from Expiration Date.

Mercenary Career!! Branches for all classes, plus branches for the Administrator and Miss Pauling. Script mods must be turned on and the files for this cannot be more than 1 folder deep in your mods folder.

All items can be found here on Sims File Share.

Recommended: Serenity's 1960s CC and Simduction's Dixie Hair for Ma 💖

My build of 2Fort and my sims can be found on my gallery, username Dadverinee.

[kosmokhaos]

Hi love! Your sims are GAWJUSSS. Literally breath taking. I’ve recently got back into playing ts3 and am loving it. I was wondering if you can recall the skin and/or makeup&accessories you used in Nyanaath’s makeover update here: https://www.tumblr.com/kosmokhaos/733942789751078912/i-feel-successful-now-cause-damn-ignore-the

I’ve been struggling so bad to find skins of high quality and detail that are darker hues, or eye/nose masks that don’t lose detail the deeper the shade gets. I saw that you gave a resource list of skins a few years back when Nyanaath looked a lil different, so i wasn’t sure if there was anything relatively new that you used or not. I see the pores and details in Nyanaath’s skin and am just dying to know how to get like you lmaoo

First of all, Hiii and thank you! 😁💕Happy new year! Prepare for a bit of rambling but I link to some stuff in the end.

I want to start off saying that most of my sim pics are edited to some degree, especially previous pics from the past. I'm trying to rely less on editing to make my sims looks nice, but of course there is only so much you can do in a sims game.

This is an example of what Nyanaath's skin looks like unedited. EA lighting sucks ass and looks patchy in Sims 3 on dark colored objects in general and unfortunately, sims are not excluded. I end up smoothing the discoloration and patchiness with editing 😭

Before vs After

Skins as dark as Nena's have to be made dark from the start because using a pale/light based skin and trying to use an in-game slider to darken it never turns out good in any game. Dark skin reflects light and shadows differently than light skin and needs its own already-dark base.

I will seriously consider trying to throw together a skinblend for male and female skins that are dark like this because I truly think there are none. BUUUUT LOL rambling aside I do have new recommendations for makeup and skin details since that post:

1. First up is @sourlemonsimblr for makeup. Especially for eyebrows and lipsticks! A lot of their lipsticks are insanely detailed and recolorable enough that they can fit most darker tones. Their skins are lovely too and they've even recently made a dark skin which I will💗Link Here💗. I haven't gotten a chance to play with it yet but they always have quality stuff. Take a stroll through their Downloads page because it's definitely worth it. 2. Next up for skin detail makeups is @smallsimmer. They have so many good nose makes and eye/lip details that can be recolored to use on your darker skinned sims! If you ever had a skin you really liked and wanted to switch up the nose, eyes or lips, their skin detail makeup will absolutely come in clutch. They even have a few converted for child and toddler sims (something ts3 is lacking in)💗Link Here💗 3. If you want some AF skins for darker sims that are readily available and detailed, I'd suggest @annoyinglydarkblaze I learned a lot about making skins from watching their journey into skin making a few years ago. Since they aren't as active anymore and their posts are a bit scattered I will link the skins I like best: 💗Here💗 💗Here💗 and 💗Here💗 4. My next pick for more masculine/male-centered CAS makeup and CC is @nectar-cellar Their cc has been helpful as I slowly update my male OCs. The Beards/detail makeup torso muscled-torso meshes and clothing are some of the best. 5. I also suggest @simtanico for sliders and their detail makeup. I have just about every slider they've created 😂They also make really well done maxis-match kinda styled clothes for male sims too.

I'm sure there are tons of other people I'm missing but its been a minute since I've been around simblr myself so I'll try to update this list as I go.

I'll also leave you with a little tip: Do NOT be afraid to use the opacity slider and layering with makeup on darker sims. Layering and opacity is your friend!

Happy Simming! 💗✨

[goodeapple]

be nice to your neighbors.

i have a million and two wip's in my Ysilla folder and somehow, i have to add one more.

i am an exhausting person. love y'all lots!

pairing : Aemond x Ysilla (Rhaenyra'sDaughter!OC)

warnings : Aemond is a simp & Ysilla is a plant nerd. Awkward flirting. Fluff. No smut :(

word count : 2,500+

It’s so fucking early. What self-respecting tattoo shop is open at 7AM on a Sunday? On God’s day? Aegon hasn’t stepped foot in a church since he was thirteen which explains the hours, but why the fuck is Aemond here and not him?

Aemond wasn’t exactly planning on going to church today, but maybe if he had the option, his ass would be in a pew next to his mother right now instead of perfecting a sketch for an appointment that isn’t even until next week. His Americano is lukewarm, steam long blown away by the small oscillating fan tucked up on a high shelf. A row of overstuffed books, on everything from Classic Americana design to Valyrian legends he wants to detail on paper, fill up the rest of the ledge. The next one down houses a line of knick knacks he could never force himself to part with- a tiny tacky snowglobe from Harrenhal, his grandfather’s Hand of the King pin from when he was in the courts, 8-tracks from his mum’s rebellious punk phase before she went to college, and at the end, a framed photo of him and his siblings the day they opened the shop. Three identical terrified grins are spread over their faces, nervous anticipation bleeding through the black-and-white snapshot. Little pieces of his life in his little corner of the world, where he gets to do what he loves. 

And the most important little worm to him sleeps the day away in her glass vivarium by the door. Vhagar lounges under her UV bulb, baking on a large smooth stone after inhaling her breakfast. His little crocodile without the teeth. The soft garden green bearded dragon with her yellow belly has been his constant companion since he rescued her from a Oldtown pet shop when he was a pre-teen. He hid her under his bed for a full seven months before his mum found her one day when she was searching for missing socks. It was an impressive feat, one even she had to acknowledge after blowing her fucking top. 

Aemond darkens the curve of the kraken tentacle he’s sketching, a piece for a client coming all the way from the Iron Isles. The little suction cups still need more depth and he hasn’t even begun to flesh out the texture of the skin yet when the bell hanging above the shop door tinkles, signifying an end to his blissful solitude. 

“Hello? Helaena, you here?” 

Aemond drops his pencil, shoving off from his desk, grumbling as he goes. There’s still a hint of sleep in his eye and he rubs it away as he walks up the hall to the lobby. 

“We don’t take walk-in’s on the weekends and we don’t have any appointments scheduled ‘till 9. So, are you sight-seeing or are you just overly punctual?” He doesn’t mean to sound like a dick, it just comes second nature. 

The back of the head that greets him as he blinks open his eye is a pretty one, thick brunette curls pinned up with gold butterfly clips. The girl abandons the magazine she’d been leafing through, turning at the sound of his voice. The wide-eyed look that’s spread over her face emphasizes plum-shaded irises, framed by palm leaf eyes. There’s a pair of beauty marks peppered on the dawn of her cheekbone. A rosy mocha mouth is pouted before it curves up into a charming bend of itself. 

“I’m sorry, I'm not here to get any work done. I was just coming in to give something to Helaena.” The woman shimmies the large gift bag held tight in her fist as proof. “I’m a friend.”

Aemond shrugs off his disappointment. “Oh, my bad.” She’d be a gorgeous canvas. The golden brown of her skin would take color like a fucking champ. Black would be even better. Really make the contrast pop. The smooth peak of her shoulders from underneath the oversized cream cardigan she wears is a tantalizing taste of something he wants to indulge in. “She’s not here yet.”

Her expression collapses and Aemond regrets causing such a look to dim her face. “Oh damn, she told me she’d be in at this time.” 

Aemond thinks maybe he should call his big sister, considering he hasn’t received her standard “i’ll be there in 10, I PROMISE 10 MINUTES AEMMY!!” text today, when the girl’s face blooms into one of recognition.

“You’re Aemond, right?” 

“Uh, yeah- yes, yes I am.” He coughs, straightening up a bit, manners braided into every core memory he possesses. His mom is, in Aegon’s terms, a “tightass”, but damn him if he doesn’t know how to treat a woman.

“I always see you coming in and out of here, and well, you and Hel and Aegon all look alike, so I put two and two together and made four that you’re the missing piece of Three Headed Dragon.”  She gestures to the air, implying she’s speaking about the name of the shop. The gold chains layered around her neck, some with pendants and some without, jingle with her movement. Aemond likes the softness of the sound. “And when she came in for a succulent recommendation a few months back, I asked about you and she told me your name, and… yeahhh. I just didn’t want you to think I was some weirdo who’s been waiting for the perfect moment to get you alone.” 

“Oh no, I wouldn’t think that.” Aemond looks very serious, even knitting his brows in a thick, no-nonsense line, but he has to bite his lip to keep from snickering, which she notices. 

She breathes out a laugh, dipping her head in surrender. She turns to the entrance, and Aemond is worried she might leave. He doesn’t mind her company, which is a miracle considering the hour. 

“Hey-”

“Is this your’s?” She points to the hyperrealistic direwolf stencil he’d cranked out last year during an artist’s block that he couldn’t shake for the life of him. The piece is gruesome, wicked lines and keen edges that intimidate even him, and he drew the damn thing. 

“Uh, yeah. Good guess.” The black frames adorning the gallery wall are a mixture of his and Aegon’s work, all in varying shades of grays and blacks. His brother’s signature new school style is easily distinguishable to Aemond, but he admits some of their earlier sketches are more uniform than not.

“You do beautiful work.”

Aemond’s eyebrows raise and he lets the compliment warm him.

“I appreciate that. Many wouldn’t call that beautiful, but I think it has a certain magnetism to it.” He looks the woman over, using the excuse of actually searching for ink so that he can appreciate her willowy arms and the peek of shapely legs through the dash in her skirt. “Do you have any?” Aemond gestures to the wall, before gesturing to her. She shakes her head no, freeing an errant curl that falls over her forehead. Aemond picks at his joggers to keep his fingers from doing something stupid. 

“Oh no. I’m not the biggest fan of needles. Self-admittedly, I can also be a bit of a flake, so permanent artwork on my body kind of gives me hives.” She shivers and Aemond thinks her modesty is adorable.

“That’s a shame.” 

Mystery woman snaps her fingers, spinning on her toes to pin him with a look, and Aemond basks in the scent of jasmine and sea salt that wafts his way.

“If I change my mind, I know who to go to.”  She blinks suddenly, her pointed hand gliding behind her to rub at the back of neck in a bashful way. “That is, if you’d ever want to. Or, if you’re like, accepting clients.”

“For you? I think I could make an exception.” Aemond leans into the counter, settling to her level. The way the flush of her cheeks drips into the creamy sweep of her chest makes him hungry. She drops her hand, edging forward on timid toes.

“Well, aren’t you sweet.”

He doesn’t really know how to reply to that. He can feel the tips of his ears heat up, and when she tucks her lock of hair back in place, Aemond wishes he would’ve done it for her. He can see a thin line of dark walnut bracing the white of her eyes with how close he is, so close now he can smell the cinnamon on her breath from the condensating chai latte she holds in her other hand. 

“Aemond!” The back door slams and his sister’s voice floats up the hall. 

“Fuckin’ A, I’m sorry I’m late. I hit construction traffic and I had to get gas or I would’ve been pushing my Volksy here, and then I needed a coffee, believe me.” A white-blonde head of super short hair is unleashed when his sister yanks off her crocheted bucket hat, and she gasps as she catches sight of the shop’s first patron of the day.

“Good morning, muffin, I was trying to get here as fast as I could!” Helaena is a tornado of violets, lavenders, and magentas, purple her chosen color of the day as she spins into the room, tucking her backpack into the lockable cabinet by Aemond’s knees. 

The girl’s smile is a thing of beauty and even if it’s for Helaena, Aemond will keep it for himself. 

“Good morning, Hel. No worries, your brother’s been keeping me company.” 

Helaena spares him a look, sending a delicately sharp elbow right into his ribs. 

“Has he? It must be your lucky day- he usually scares off the customers that aren’t on the schedule.”

Aemond throws a sturdy blunt elbow into her shoulder and revels in the wince that she tries to hide. 

“Mmmm, not scared off yet. But if you would’ve given us a few more minutes, who knows?” A wink is sent his way, showing she means it in all good fun. Aemond fires a smile back at her, curling his lip up in a smirk he knows carries some weight to it. She swallows- he can see the jump in her throat, before she damn near flings her reason for coming in onto the counter.

“Here! She came in yesterday towards closing time, a special delivery just for you.” 

Hel snatches it with greedy hands, unknotting the twine laced through the handles so she can stick her whole face into the bag. 

“Oh my word, it’s beautiful!” Helaena exclaims, wonderment turning her tone soft and breathy. Aemond can’t stunt his curiosity, knocking his sister’s head out of his way to peer into the gift bag. 

“It looks moldy.”

Mystery woman looks mildly offended by his assessment, but it’s his sister that thwacks him in the chest.

“Shut up! You and Aegon practically drowned my cactus when I went on holiday last summer; what do you know about plants? It’s stunning and wonderful and all mine!” Helaena pulls out the plant with careful hands, gathering up the trailing vines like she’s lassoing a rope. 

Hel oooo’s and ahhh’s , rubbing the silver spotted leaves between her fingers, smelling the somewhat heart-shaped sprouts for any lingering fragrance. Aemond’s surprised she doesn’t pop one in her mouth and give it a taste. 

“A cactus?” 

Aemond shrugs, happy to have the woman’s attention back on him, even if it is at his expense. “It looked thirsty.” 

The giggle she gifts him makes his 5AM alarm worth it. 

Helaena claps her hands together twice, calling attention to her like she’s a nursery school teacher. “Tell me about it- what’s its name and how do I keep it alive?” 

“It’s a Scindapsus pictus, but satin Pothos or silver Philodendron is easier to remember. Even though it’s not technically a Pothos or a Philodendron, it’s in the Araceae family, which can be confusing, y’know? It’s naturally from the Hills of Andalos but it can also be found from Tyrosh all the way to Pinkmaiden.” 

The siblings blink at her, both enjoying how she waxes on about something obviously interesting to her, even though it sounds like Dothraki to them. The brunette takes notice of the silence, tapering off her anecdotes while wearing a quiet, bemused grin.

“Anyways,” she twists the ring around her pinky in circles of nervous energy, “lots of light, water her like once a week, and she should thrive.”

“She’s perfect! Oh thank you for picking her out for me, darling. I’ll take such good care of her. ” Helaena has a way of hugging you with her words. It fills you with the warm and fuzzies, and the girl looks filled to the brim with them. She sighs though, shouldering the strap of her bag into place. 

“I gotta get back to the shop- my early lunch break can’t go past 7:20, or Miss Olenna will be pissed if I’m not there to let her windowshop the roses.” 

Helaena flutters around the counter, gushing promises of midday coffee dates and takeaway dinners before sweeping up the other girl in a rocking embrace.

The woman beams, happiness a good look on her, before pecking his sister’s cheek in parting. She pushes open the shop door, ducking out before catching it right before it closes. Her head ducks back in, and the same stubborn curl from before has come loose again, twisting around the corner of her eye. 

“It was nice meeting you, Aemond.”  

“Likewise…” Did he not catch her name once the entire time? Fuck him and his so-called manners. 

Her smile is so bright, it burns itself behind his eyelids. “Ysilla.”

“Likewise, Ysilla.” Aemond rolls her name off of his tongue, discovering he quite likes the taste of her. A gorgeous name for a gorgeous girl. 

She bids him a little wave of her hand before shutting the door softly. She looks both ways before darting across the roadway and into roots., an aptly named nursery that bursts at the brick with vegetation and flowers. 

Aemond turns on his sister with alarming agility. 

“Alright, share with the class. Who was that?” 

“That’s Ysilla, Aem. Duh. She runs the plant shop across the street.” 

He resists the urge to flick her in the forehead. His trainers are new and he doesn’t want her size seven foot print scuffing them up. 

“I’ve never seen her before.”

“Well you would, if you ever bothered to come out of your room and meet our neighbors. She’s been in charge for about a year and a half now. Mr. Forel is an old flame of her grandma’s, or something like that, and she needed a job when he was thinking of retiring. So, perfect timing, I guess.” Hel fluffs the leaves, turning the plant pot this way and that, trying to decide which angle is most appealing. She carts it around the shop, holding it up to the spaces she’s thinking of occupying it with. 

“What are you two, besties?” Aemond is so not jealous. Nah, never. Nope. No way, no how. 

Helaena pauses, looking thoughtful before resuming her decorating.

“I’m kind of trying to be, but she goes to class after she’s done at the shop and if she’s not doing that, she has three brothers she helps take care of when her mum is working. So I stop off when I can and chat with her so we can catch up.” 

Helaena cheers as she steps off the footstool she keeps around for high reaching access, admiring the vines cascading from the partition wall that divides the waiting room from her piercing studio. 

“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” His sister is obviously speaking about the plant. 

Aemond stares through the window across the street, the tan stucco building a bright bustle of life next to the high brow boutique to its left and Hot Pie’s bakery to its right. The numerous hanging pots from the ledge above the doorway would 100% split his skull if he wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking. Big glass windows are crowded by giant emerald fronds and stalks of leafy sprouts. The flower pots mirroring each side of the doorway are starting to wilt with the season, but the vibrant highlights of color splash a last breath of life against the stone. 

If Aemond squints, he can catch a dark head of curls bouncing behind the register. 

Maybe a plant wouldn’t be a bad addition to his shelves. 

“Without a doubt.”

.

.

.

ps: i have another modern!au in the works of these two little fuckers, which is much longer, much angstier, and much more fun to read. should be out very very soon ;))

[agoodfictitle-shadowban]

From Vormir, With Love - Part 5

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Tags: strangers to lovers, love in space angst on earth, slavery mention, alien abduction, post Endgame, will add as we go on

Summary: As you're being chased you crash on Vormir. So far, so bad. But things take a turn when you come face to face with a marooned Black Widow.

Word count: 2.2k

A/n: ah, spiders, amirite :)

"Are you sure it's okay for you?" You ask. You have a good thing going, but sharing a bed was something else entirely.

"Yes. You're not sleeping on the floor. And the ship has been claimed by Carol and June." You grumble something about those two getting along way too well, and Natasha smiles at that. You fluff the pillow and throw it back on the bed. It's the third time you do it, while Natasha is just looking at you, laying down on her side with her head in her hand. She looked stunning in a short and simple tee-shirt, with her hair freely flowing. You can see very clearly the disparaging hair color, and you want to plunge your hand in it to see it in more detail, get closer to her skin, and smell her scent.

Oh god. No.

Since the stress of landing was gone, and you realized how she made you feel, your brain started filling with all those thoughts of you and her together. You tried your best to keep them at bay, but it had been harder than you thought. During dinner, you spilled water on you when you tried to drink because your eyes were glued to Natasha while she was talking. Everyone laughed but they were gracious enough to not point out the reason why you were so unfocused even if you had a feeling a few of them noticed - maybe even including the one responsible. But no, if she did notice, why offer to share a room? 

She's way out of your league, and now that you're back on Earth it's not like there is any reason for you to act on any of how you feel. Yep. No reason, you think as you finally find the courage to lay down in the bed, under the blanket. It feels nice as the house is slightly too cold for you - contrary to popular belief space is very warm and you are used to it now. But you quickly forget about it when Natasha slides her silhouette under the blankets in turn. She closes the distance between the two of you and faces you with a smile.

"Hey."

"H-hey?" You answer, confused about what she is doing and why she's so close to you suddenly.

"I want you to know, I'm not sorry."

Her words confuse you even more. Until you feel it. Her ice cold feet on your legs. You shriek and try to worm your way away, but there is no use, Natasha grabs your arms and quickly neutralizes you as the cold is penetrating you to your core.

"Please, stop! Get your feet away! Please!" She laughs at your shrieks, which are more laughs now, but you won't give up, moving around erratically as she keeps trying to fully pin you down to steal your warmth. And she succeeds, obviously, she's the Black Widow after all.

Once you realize you can't move anymore, you stop thrashing around and open your eyes. She's straddling you now, her eyes in yours, her cheeks a nice shade of pink - you're not sure if it's because of the play-fighting or something else -, and you feel her breath on your lips. Your mouth opened slightly to lick your lips, your heart suddenly pounding in your chest and you know she can feel it in your wrists as she holds them.

"Natasha–"

"Don't." She leans down towards you, your eyes closing briefly when you feel her plush lips ghost over yours.

"Don't what?" You swallow hard.

"Don't say anything."

You can't help but obey, nodding lightly. You can barely breathe when her fingers slowly caress your cheek, only for her hand to go higher. That makes you frown, especially when you feel her move faster and seemingly grab something.

"Okay, you're good." She smiles at you, and stands up, approaching the window with something in her hands.

"Hm. What was that?"

"There was a spider," Natasha says as she opens the window to let the creature out.

"There was… a spider…?"

"Mhm."

You stay where you are, frozen in time as what happened dawns on you. A spider? You almost kissed… but… A. Fucking. Spider? Your brain is trying to catch up to everything as the redhead joins the bed back and lays down like nothing happened. You feel the mattress cave under her but don't look, completely shocked by what just happened.

She turns off her light.

"Good night."

"A spider…?" You whisper as the only possible answer. Is it all that caught her attention? The only reason why she was so close?

A spider.

Tonight, Natasha falls asleep before you.

-

It's early morning, and the first sun rays are hitting the kitchen just right to illuminate the wooden furniture and the silhouette of the redhead assassin. Natasha is sitting there with a thousand yards stare. She has a forgotten cup of coffee in hand, no puff of smoke coming out of it anymore. It simply sits there with her.

The events from last night replay in her mind.

"I almost kissed her," she tells the man who just entered the room. He looks tired beyond his years, but he comes to sit opposite of her. He knew perfectly who she was talking about - the way the both of you interacted didn't escape his legendary perception. The both of you had developed a quick connection that was evident. And if he would normally just listen, he feels that she needed a push.

"Why didn't you?"

It takes her a moment to contemplate an answer. Why didn't she? You were willing, that much she could tell, but something stopped her. Maybe her deep seated fear of abandonment. That she wasn't worth it. Or that you would end up the same as Bruce, not wanting her. Not enough. And seeing this spider - a wretched creature unwanted by most - made her realize she was maybe not enough. For anyone.

"I'm just not good enough."

It is the same room where she stayed the first time the Avengers learned about Clint's family. She doesn't want the cycle to repeat either. But it is her abandonment issues that are mainly responsible after all.

"Nat, you're amazing. No matter what you think, anyone would be lucky to have you."

"I don't think I should. She's still a civilian, and I'm–" she doesn't finish her thoughts, but it's clear to Clint. He is still there himself, after everything he's done. He shakes his head.

"You're a hero. You saved half the galaxy. I think that warrants some peace and quiet with someone you like." He extends his hand and takes hers from her mug. "At least think about it before you go all tortured soul on her."

She considers it, and nods. With a deep breath she comes back to Earth and looks at her coffee. She gives Clint's hands a press before she stands up and grabs her mug to put it in the microwave.

"Cold coffee is the worst," she declares before she turns around and leans against the counter. She's back in business. "You said Tony's funeral," she clears her throat from the emotion of his loss, "will be tomorrow?"

Clint nods and starts to move around the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Since his wife and kids came back, he's been making it for them everyday. He could barely believe his luck to have them back, and now Nat.

"I'll need to buy something for it," she comments when she realizes that the Compound had been destroyed, and that she had no safe house around the city that would have what she needed. It will also give her the time to be alone for a bit ; she had no occasion to be on her own the past week, and with everything that happened it might do her good. Give her time to grieve. To think about everything that happened. Think about you and what she truly wants.

"Hey guys," a strangely happy Carol Danvers enters the room. They take one look at her and it quickly makes sense what happened to her. Apparently Natasha isn't the only one with something going on. The redhead is barely surprised, knowing how charming the blonde is. This spells trouble if she knows anything about Carol.

With a sigh, she drinks from her coffee cup, still leaned against the counter. The day is going to be long.

-

You barely have time to think about what happened yesterday before you're alone in front of your parents' door. It's still the same as before, and you feel like nothing changed, like you're just visiting the way you used to until you were kidnapped. You take a deep breath and knock. You hear ruffling noises before the door opens, a waft of familiar smell invades your nostrils, and you're face to face with your mom.

"Y/n…?" She whispers with incredulity before she launches forward and embraces you in a warm hug. It feels so familiar, but it's been so long you're not so certain what you should do. It has been five years, after all, plenty of time to forget about the affection your parents gave to you whenever you met. Slowly, still, it comes back to you, and you raise your arms to return the strong embrace with delicacy, almost fear it's going to dissipate if you're not careful enough. It feels stilted on your part at first, but you relax as time goes on. The familiarity of the warmth feels good.

Your dad comes to peak what could be taking his wife so long out there, and when he sees you, when he understands you're back, his legs almost buckle under his wait and he has to hold onto the table in the hallway to not fall. Tears are not so resistant to gravity, and soon his face is peppered with them.

It takes your mom a while to let go of you, and your dad to be able to stand up properly again. When it finally happens, you're whisked inside and in questions that you answer patiently, retelling the events of your abduction and eventually how you came back, but you never go into the full details; you don't want to break their hearts further.

After that, your mom leaves the room to go call the rest of your family and tell them you're back, leaving you alone with your dad. He lets out a long, heavy sigh, and after a long beat of silence finally speaks.

"She never stopped looking for you. She always knew you were somewhere out there." He looked at you with the same eyes as yours. "But I have a feeling you didn't come just to stay here."

"I have to go back to see the proper authority at some point and I might have to stay with… people, for some time. Let the dust settle, you know." The government is probably going to want to know about your abduction, and your spaceship. It rubs you the wrong way, but you had a feeling you might not have a choice.

"No, it's not what I meant." He grumbles, his eyebrows knitted together. "Once the dust settles, what will you do?"

You open your mouth to answer, but nothing comes. You often dreamed of coming home, but you never thought beyond that.

"I don't know," you admit. You look down with confusion. What were you supposed to do? Go back to your old life?

"You've tasted adventure, kid, and yeah, it was bad, and scary sometimes I bet, but you changed now. You have a foot in a new world, and I know you." He smiles as he remembers. "I don't know if you remember, but when you were a toddler, you got lost in some caves, and after we found you, all you wanted to do was go back in. No matter how scary it was." He chuckled. "I knew there and then, I told your mother 'oh this one, this one is gonna find troubles one day, and she'll like it.' You know. A 9 to 5 is never going to make you fully happy. So maybe… maybe space can be your thing now."

You look away, frown in the same way he does. In those five years, you were so focused on going home, you never stopped to think about the way flying made you feel, or how at ease you had gotten with taking jobs on the other side of the galaxy. "What about mom?"

"Now that you know where we are, you can come visit us from time to time."

You shake your head. "I don't know."

"Just think about it, kiddo. Just think about it."

You nod, and your mom reappears. You smile at her, and laugh when she tells you your aunt broke her phone again.

"We should have a get together with everyone! I already invited them, they'll be there this week-end!"

Of course she did before even consulting you. Still dazed by your conversation with your dad, you simply nod.

"Sounds great."

"You can bring your new friends if you want too!"

"I, huh, i'll see if they want to come."

After that, your mom starts talking about organization and food, and you check out.

[eltanin0]

I just found this blog and I noticed that a lot of your stuff seems, well, oddly 3D. I don't mean like in a bad way but it feels like rendered but untextured 3D models? I kinda want to ask what your art process is (sorry for mini-rant)

thanks for checking out my blog! and no need to apologize for anything.

hmm, my art process. honestly i have no idea what to say, i dont know how people normally answer this question so i cant base it off anything either. i'm still kinda new to this whole art thing but i'll try and answer, super sorry if i get this completely wrong and this was all a waste of time.

i guess i'll just talk about how i draw things step by step? for the high effort pieces at least.

ok, so for starters like step 0. when it's a high effort piece, i can already see the image in my mind. i see the pose, i see the general lighting, the layout of stuff, but it's a bit blurry. if i cant see this mental image, the drawing usually comes out extremely poorly.

this is kind of an example of what i see in my head? this might be all useless info idk, but this is i guess where i start.

well step 1 is just the sketch and line. i start with just sketching the general shapes, then slowly refining it until it fits close enough to the image in my head. then in the line layer i'll fix any mistakes the sketch had and add more details to it. oh and for brush, it's just a round brush, like default. i dont know how much of a difference using a drawing tablet does, but i dont use one so... yeah.

i should've put more effort into the sketch for this drawing, but i did not.

next i do flat colors. pretty simple, i just select the smart select the outside of the line layer, invert the selection and now i can't paint outside the lines. i dont really think about what colors i use, i just use whatever the characters normal colors are.

next i do the shading, but first. i duplicate flat layer and recolor it to like a cream color

like so. for high effort pieces, i was told online to shade in pretty much black and white. now actually onto shading. there's 2 kinda shading i do, 1 from the proper light source, and 1 that's kinda just a shadow because things are close together (like corners and stuff). and i'll shade them on separate layers so i can adjust them individually however i want. oh right, i'll either use a very dark color, pretty much black and the the layer blending mode set to multiply. or i'll use a light kind of gray, tinted slightly yellow or something and set the layer blend mode to difference. then i just use a soft air brush and shade in the ways i described above. shading from regular light source, and the corner stuff thing.

normal lightsource - - - - - corner thing

then toggle both layers on and mess with the opacity of each layer until you get what you want.

then you can toggle the normal flats layer, the one that has color and it should apply the shading decently. you can mess with the opacity again on the shadows.

next i do lighting. i just grab a very light color, usually pretty close to white and set the layer blend mode to overlay. then i use a soft airbrush and "light" it? idk i just do like the opposite of the normal shadows, lighter the closer it is to the light source

mess around with the opacity as usual. then i do pretty much the same thing if there's another light source. in this case there was a blue light kinda coming from underneath, so i did that.

now from here i would go back to the flats layer, make a copy, and mess around with different layer styles and properties and settings. sometimes just messing around is useful. in this case, i felt it was too bright and colorful, so i decreased the brightness and saturation of it.

i think it helped a little bit but who knows.

now i do some kinda highlights and details. i grabbed the colors that were in the background and used those. it was a weird pale blue. i had 2 layers for this, 1 of them was specifically for his antenna things at the top, and one was just for his "skin". anyway, the antenna layer was normal, just kinda gave it an outline with the random reflective circles you see normally in pictures, no thoughts behind them. the skin tho had the layer blend mode set to soft light, i thought it looked best this way. it was just more random things to imply it was slightly reflective.

together the layers looked like this. i think it makes him look glossier which is what i was aiming for.

next, and it pretty much the end for pebbles, i got someone to look at it and let me know if they think anything was missing. they said it looked a little unsaturated. which it does. so i made a new layer, set the blend mode to saturation, grabbed the airbrush and made it pretty inline with the lighting layer.

that's kinda it. the background i didnt really care about, just drew and colored it. blurred it a bunch and added a bunch of shadows. i did add some like, "overshadows" is what i call it, i just draw some big shadows down the screen as the top layer.

but yeah thats literally everything i did to draw this. i would like to apologize if this was not at all what you wanted to know, i'm certain i've screwed this up bigtime. super sorry for wasting your time. if there's anything i can do to help, please ask. i owe you a proper answer to your question, i'm just really dumb. sorry for rambling. sorry. and sorry if the drawing i used for example didnt showcase what you wanted to know.

also, i really like your art! please keep up the great work!

[orionchildofhades]

steddie swapping soulmate au part 9

part 1 |[...]| part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | Ao3

---

the fist thought in Eddie's head as he awakes is finally.

this is not his bed.

he swapped again.

the last months were painful, the idea of being left alone without the soulmate he was promised like a burn in his heart. with that and highschool going terribly as always, it wasn't very fun.

What he realises quickly is, even if this is not his bed, it's also not his soulmate's. At least not the one he woke up in the first time. The room is even emptier than the previous. White walls, white ceiling, white wardrobe. It feels even less personal than the first time around.

Everything is a bit fuzzy around the edges when he sits himself on the soft sheets. At least the bed is very comfortable.

He doesn't have much time to put everything together when the door on his right beeps - beeps? - and burst open. A tall and honestly, even for Eddie's gay heart, gorgeous woman enters. Caramel hair fall like around her face in waves, her skin porcelain and gently decorated with beauty marks under her eyes, above her lips, on her hairline. Her eyes are a shade of brown strangely familiar. What's not is the feint twitch of it when her eyes land on Eddie.

"What are you still doing in bed? We are leaving in ten minutes, I told you to be ready at half past!" She huffs and goes to open the wardrobe as Eddie watch in bewilderment. A glance at the clock above the door shows 10:18. "Come on, get up." A pair of jeans and a polo are shoved his way and the woman hurries him toward another door, on his left. He ends up very quickly in a bathroom, as white and clean as the room, and she constant rummaging of the woman pushes him to speed up any process. He throws his pajamas - his soulmate's pajamas - off with blushing cheeks and gets out of the room in the process of putting on a shirt.

This is not how he intended to meet any of his soulmate's family.

"Oh, honey." There's a hint of fondness in the voice this time as Eddie is dragged in front of the woman, dare he assumes the mother of his bonded soul?, and she starts working with his hair with strong but gentle fingers. "You are such a mess this morning. Be thankful your father is busy today."

And soon enough Eddie ends up outside, at the very bottom of a building that is far too tall to be safe if anyone was to ask him his opinion.

And he's in New York.

That comes as a surprise and a logical explanation as to why the room was different.

It's called a hotel Eddie, comes Frank's sarcastic voice in his mind.

This is the first time he has the actual chance to roam around a big city. And not any big city, but New York. That's just too cool.

The woman, the mother really, it would be weird otherwise, gets them a taxi and takes them for brunch before another taxi brings them to Time Square.

Eddie cannot believe he has such a chance.

He ignores the slightly disappointment remarks coming and going from the woman and happily enjoys his day.

A fleeting feeling of guilt rises in his chest at the thought of his soulmate missing such a day but he shrugs it off. There is no reason for him to feel bad, he can't change any of it. He'll just have to keep every detail in mind and recount everything once he meets his soulmate.

-

on a different note, i'm looking for a potential beta reader for a harry potter fic, if anyone has a bit of time, likes the fandom, would be willing to check some texts and ideas with me don't hesitate to comment, send a text

on another note, the second part of a mha fic i wrote is out on ao3, if anyone likes this sort of stuff it's villain!traitor!deku and people seem to think it's not too much trash so it's there if you are looking for a fic in mha

[iolaussharpe-24]

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - Chapter One

Shoutouts to both @reallyrallyauthor and @redeyerhaenyra who are both my biggest inspirations for this. I've been working on this for a while and this was like my fourth or fifth draft, each with a different plot. I'm still not confident in it, but I'm hoping to improve my writing so that I can make the novel I'm writing extra special because that project is my baby and I want it to do well. (Grace Smith is my OC. She was inspired by Samara Weaving after I watched Ready or Not. Yes, there were drafts of this story where it was a crossover fic between Big Gold Brick and Ready or Not. No, I am not doing that anymore.)

Story part under the cut. I made the collage myself on Microsoft Word. It's a screenshot so it's a little blurry. Cross posted on my Wattpad page.

“Come in; but hurry the fuck up with it!” came Anselm’s voice from the other side of the door. He sounded breathless and his voice had been strained. Close to climax. Any idiot could tell that fact.

Despite his many different physical limitations, (his age, his breathing problems, and his bad leg, for example) Anselm Vogelweide had an impressively high libido and was frequently seen around his mansion with various people to have sex. While she hadn’t been someone unfortunate enough to walk in on him in a situation like that before now, Grace had seen people leave his bedroom or his office with messy hair or makeup while being half dressed and proudly wearing hickies and love bites on their throats, collarbones, and shoulders.

So, she kept her head down as she entered the office. Her eyes were focused on the silver tray in her hands and her own two feet while she walked. Judging by the sounds she could hear, they were on the desk. Going at each other like rabbits in heat. Today’s “companion” was a woman. A very vocal woman who moaned like an amateur pornstar. Charming.

She turned to the side table and set up the things she brought in quickly. A bit of cocaine, two glasses, a bottle of unopened champagne, and a stack of money delivered by an associate who’d recently lost an impressive bet. She didn’t know the details, just that it was some high school game. Soccer or volleyball or something. A girl’s game. The associate had made a comment about ‘tender young players’ that made the poor worker’s skin crawl. It was disgust-

“GRACE!”

Immediately, she looked up, having been caught off guard by the sound of Mr. Vogelweide’s strained voice calling out her name. A lesson that everyone who worked for him learned in their first five minutes was the need to constantly please. Keep him happy. Do as your told when you’re told, and no one gets shot. However…. She regretted that decision immediately.

Mr. Vogelweide was pounding into a fair skinned woman bent over his desk from behind. One of his hands was on her back, keeping her in place while the other hand was on her face, two of his scarred fingers shoved deep inside her mouth.

She was a lean woman, only a little bit heavier than Grace was. She had long blonde hair that looked like it had been flat ironed recently. It was a little frizzy at the ends. On top of being messy from sex.

As Grace watched them, she noticed that the woman was wearing a bright candy apple red lipstick – the same shade Grace herself was wearing – and her nails were painted a glossy black. She had a dark smokey eye that made the cyan blue of her irises pop even as she was being reduced to a blubbering, drooling, teary-eyed mess on the desk.

It was an… unsettling sight. The woman under Mr. Vogelweide looked a lot like Grace. A lot like her. The hair, the eye color, the shape of her body, the color of her skin, right down to the makeup she was wearing. It was a little eerie in a way. If she didn’t stare too hard – if she didn’t focus on the other woman’s thin lips or the almond shape of her eyes, or her square jaw – if she just watched them like she would anything else, it was like a peculiar out-of-body-experience.

Normally, (as odd as that word sounded in this context) Grace would have written off all of the similarities as a coincidence and walked away. Honestly, she should have walked away anyway. But there was one detail that, when paired with all the rest, she simply couldn’t ignore. One damning piece of evidence that sent a chill up her spine.

There was a beauty mark on the woman’s cheek. Left side. Half an inch under the eye. Right on her cheekbone. Too conveniently placed to be real. Granted, it didn’t look real. It didn’t even look like makeup. It looked like a dot sloppily drawn on with a Sharpie.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the woman looked like Grace. It couldn’t be. Not to that extent. The odds had to be a million to one on that. (Well, maybe not a million to one. After all, skinny blue-eyed blondes are a dime a dozen. But, for her to be wearing that color lipstick, for her to have that nail polish, the fake mole on that specific spot on her face, for Mr. Vogelweide to be screwing her, and for him to call out ‘Grace’ as he did, that was where things crossed the line and the possibility of a coincidence went straight out the window.)

Grace was staring at her own doppelganger as her boss fucked her.

She stood there, dumbfounded, unable to fully comprehend the sight. The woman was bent over, her dress unzipped in the back to expose her skin, the skirt bunched up around her waist so that Mr. Vogelweide had access to her sex. Her blonde hair was a tangled mess and her lipstick was smudged as she sucked and slobbered on his fingers.

God, even her age… she looked like she was only a little bit older than Grace. A few years at most. Anselm had to be somewhere in his fifties or so. This woman looked about thirty. And she was drooling on the polished surface of the desk, moaning wantonly. All while the man, with his pants down around his knees, pushed and pulled his cock in and out of her cunt rapidly; the wet slapping out of skin on skin filling the room alongside their ecstatic moans and grunts.

It was such an odd sight. She might have found it arousing if she had a mind even half as perverted as his. But, thankfully, she didn’t. There wasn’t a person alive in any place or time who was as strange as Anselm Vogelweide. He was incomparable. He was insatiable. He was… insane. Some people would argue that that was part of his strangely addicting charm. That it was the reason why so many people kept coming back to this mansion. To his business. To him.

Sometimes she wondered if she was the only sane person in his weird little world. The only one who would see him like this and recognize it as the incredibly disturbing thing that it really was.

Though Grace had never understood why, she was more than aware of the fact that everyone else on staff assumed that she was Mr. Vogelweide’s favorite. From the other maids, to the kitchen staff, to the gardener, to the bodyguards and drivers, all the way down to the pool boy. They all gossiped about her to one another. They all told each other that she had gained the boss’s favor by sleeping with him. That’s how the pool boy, Óscar, did it. Back when he was the obvious favorite who spent most of his nights in Mr. Vogelweide’s bed.

It was at this moment that the older man seemed to realize that he and his toy had an audience. He kept his gaze locked on the other woman’s face; watching as her blue eyes rolled back from pleasure while she moaned pathetically and desperately suckled on his fingers.

“I thought I told you to be quick and leave, you fucking- ” His voice trailed off as he finally lifted his head and saw Grace standing in front of him. He stopped his thrusting and stared at her. From behind the yellow lenses of his glasses, his dark eyes roamed her slender figure.

Grace averted her eyes from him, just to avoid having to face… whatever this was. “I’ll just go,” she said quickly, bowing her head and turning to leave the room. She walked quickly, praying that the semi-automatic couldn’t come out behind her back. Or the pistol. Or the shotgun. Or any gun in his massive collection. The last thing she needed, or wanted, was for her employer to blow her head off or something. It wouldn’t be the first time he did something like that. She would know. It was her job to clean the blood out of the carpets and off the walls before they stained.

“Stay.”

She paused but didn’t turn around. That was the one word she feared hearing in this situation. The one thing she didn’t want to do. Staying wasn’t an option for her. Staying at this point meant something and she didn’t want to know what. But the possibilities of what it could be made her blood freeze and her heart pound.

“Ms. Quinn was just leaving,” Mr. Vogelweide said as he pulled away from the blonde woman on his desk. He pulled up his pants and buckled his belt. Then, he sat down and began to buckle up his leg brace. It was incredibly old. Probably older than him. The metal rod didn’t look like it was rusted, but it squeaked loudly whenever he walked. Well, whenever he tried to walk would be a bit more accurate. The brace, because of how it held his leg from his groin all the way down to is foot.

Grace glanced over her shoulder and saw that the other woman, Annie, hadn’t moved yet. She was still bent over the desk. Her legs were still spread wide. The back of her dress was open and the skirt was bunched up around her hips. She was breathing hard, hard enough to rival even one of Mr. Vogelweide’s asthma attacks.

She lifted her head and looked at Mr. Vogelweide, clearly disappointed in this turn of events. “Wait,” she started, before being abruptly cut off by him.

“You can go now. I want a private word with Ms. Smith.”

‘Ms. Quinn’ lifted herself up into a semi-standing position, her eyes still on him. “But… I didn’t-”

Again, he cut her off. “You have your hands. I’m sure you have toys. I don’t care how you do it or where. Just get out of my house first.”

Grace watched as her doppelganger stood up the rest of the way and pulled down her skirt to try and hide the wetness running from between her thighs. She was clutching her chest with one hand to keep her open dress from falling off her shoulders. Her knees wobbled a bit as she stood up straight. When she walked, she kept her legs apart and limped slightly. She walked to the door, then paused when she saw Grace.

For a brief moment, the two women’s eyes met. Grace’s sapphire blue orbs and Quinn’s cyan blue ones. They stared at each other, seeing all the similarities between themselves. Grace watched, almost in slow motion, as Quinn realized what she had been doing.

Just before she exited the office, she reached up and touched the fake mole on her cheek. The spot that perfectly mirrored Grace’s natural beauty mark.

The last Grace saw of Quinn was her shocked expression. Wide eyes and parted lips. Hand on her cheek. Then the door closed. She was gone.

Grace was alone with Mr. Vogelweide.

The poor girl kept her eyes faced forward, staring at the door. She wanted to go. She wanted to run and hide from the topsy-turvy, boss-wants-to-fuck-the-maid, trashy porno scenario that she’d suddenly found herself thrust into. (Pun not intended.)

She swallowed hard, trying to gather whatever shreds of courage and dignity she had left and said, in an attempt to excuse herself despite his wishes, “I’m sorry, Mr. Vogelweide, I should have-”

He cut her off just like he done to the other woman. “I’d have asked you to watch if I thought it would make you wet.” Grace stiffened when she realized that he was standing directly behind her, whispering into her ear. He reached around and touched her face with his scarred left hand. He stroked her cheek gently with his thumb then gently turned her head so that she’d look at him.

“Why?” she asked. Though, she couldn’t figure out what she was asking about. Why was he touching her? Why would he say that? Why was he fucking her doppelganger? Why hasn’t she run away yet? She wasn’t sure, but she’d take whatever answer he gave her at this point because it honestly felt like someone took a whisk and scrambled her brain into a thick pink paste as it sat in her skull.

“Because you’re my favorite. You’re like a delicate flower. Beautiful and fragrant. All I want to do is pluck you from the ground and keep you with me.”

His fingers trailed down to her throat before wrapping around it. Instinctively, her head tilted back a bit and she held her breath. His grip was firm but not tight by any means. He wasn’t squeezing her, he wasn’t even trying to make her think that he would, but she knew that he could apply that pressure at any moment. The fact that just one of his hands was large enough to encompass so much of her neck. She could feel her pulse pounding against his fingers as they lay over her jugular veins.

“If I weren’t such an empathetic person, I might be tempted to take you by force. If you were not so good to me, I would.” He gently pulled her to bend backwards a bit, her back arched and head tilted back and to side. She stared at him as he forced her to lean against and rest her head on his shoulder. He stared back at her; the foggy yellow lenses of his glasses made his already dark eyes seem nearly black in color. His graying beard tickled the skin across her cheek and jaw as he smiled.

“Mr. Vogelweide,” she started to plead before being cut off again.

“Anselm, dear. Don’t be afraid to use my first name.”

“Ah… Anselm…” she said hesitantly, still staring into his eyes. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this. Óscar was always your favorite. He’s very proud of that fact.”

Mr. Vogelweide actually laughed at that. “I’m sure he is. Óscar is a puppy chasing cars he can never catch. Give him an inch and he’ll run a mile never realizing that he’s in a hamster wheel. He wasn’t my favorite anything. He was entertaining. You are different from him. You aren’t entertaining. At all. You’re quite dull, in fact. I’ve seen you in your spare time. Always reading. And it’s always the same cheap, sexless paperbacks. You’re boring and yet that’s the very thing that makes you so enticing to me. Despite everything that happens in this house, you remain pure and untarnished by both it and me.”

He leaned closer so that he could whisper in her ear, his voice practically dripping with seductive intent. He already had an oddly sensual quality to it. There was something about the odd mix between his German accent and a subtle lisp that could capture and hold anyone’s attention. It didn’t matter what he was saying. He could drone on and on about absolute nonsense and it would hold the attention of an audience. Mostly because his voice was just that enchanting; almost like a siren song. Partly because ignoring him would be a death wish granted in a split second by a hail of gunfire from the semi-automatic hidden in his desk.

He moved his body slightly so that she could feel the hard bulge of his still erect cock as it throbbed against her ass. She screwed her eyes shut at the feeling, trying hard not to focus on it.

“Part of me wants to break you. To pick the flower from the ground and pluck away the petals until there’s nothing left but the pistil. I want to bend you over and ravish you until you can’t take it anymore,” he said, practically moaning out the words like he was on the verge of orgasm from the thought alone.

For a moment, not even a fraction of a second, Mr. Vogelweide’s grip on Grace’s throat tightened. She drew in a sharp gasp as his fingers dug into her soft skin.

Then it was over. He released his hold entirely and walked away, his leg brace softly squeaking with every other step he took. Grace turned fully to stare at the boss as he moved away from her. She wasn’t sure how to process any of this. And his explanations only muddied already murky water.

He was across the room, staring out the window, his hands clasped together behind his back. Despite knowing that she shouldn’t, Grace stepped closer to him and looked out the window as well. Óscar was outside cleaning the pool. He looked up at the office window, a smile on his face, and gave a flirty little wave. He blew a kiss up to Mr. Vogelweide before setting back to work, moving a little more sensually than necessary. Putting on a little show.

“If you knew half of the half of the nasty things I’ve done to that boy you wouldn’t be standing so close,” Mr. Vogelweide said, his voice lowered for a moment on the word ‘nasty,’ while his lisp dragged out the ‘s’ in the middle. It stood out and caught Grace’s attention more than the rest of the sentence had. It tickled her curiosity and sparked her imagination to try and picture the two men together. The young pool boy and the older mob boss that signed his paychecks in the blood of his own cousins.

Óscar was the kind of person who lived for others. The embodiment of an almost self-destructive people pleaser. He was a lemming in the worst way who would stand on the edge of a cliff and backflip off of it if someone told him to. Well, maybe not just any old ‘someone.’ He wouldn’t waste himself on someone he didn’t feel was worth it.

Anselm Vogelweide wasn’t like anyone else in the world. He was strange and alluring. Everything about him screamed danger. Especially to people like Grace and Óscar. The people that worked for him and lived near him. The people who saw, on a daily basis, exactly who he really was. Not that ever made an effort to hide.

He had things hidden all around the house. Things that Grace often found on accident while cleaning. Toys; both new and used. Suspicious stains that smelled old and sour. Books with dirty titles and dirtier pictures. She could only imagine what he did to the people that had sex with him. She had her theories, everyone did, but something about his words made her think that the speculations paled in comparison to the truth.

“Sir, I don’t understand why you’re telling me all of this.”

“I told you, child; you’re my favorite.” He turned away from the window to face Grace again. Startled, she automatically backed away from him. He followed; though his movements were slow and awkward, that didn’t stop her from being intimidated by him. She didn’t focus on the way his brace made it impossible for him to bend his left knee, making him hobble. She didn’t focus on the way the brace squeaked every time he lifted his leg to take a step. She focused on his eyes. On the darkness and hunger in them. She felt like prey under the searing gaze of a predator.

In the question of fight or flight, Grace liked to pretend that she’d stand up and face her fears head on. She wore a brave face in casual conversations about hypothetical situations that were never likely to happen. She’d imagine herself as a gun-toting badass in the face of a zombie apocalypse or a strong survivor in the face of an attack in a dark alley. She’d taken self defense classes. She kept pepper spray in her purse. She wore a ring knife.

Theoretically speaking, she could protect herself if she needed to.

Empasis on the word “could.”

She could do a lot of things. She could be a novelist. She could become a rocket scientist. She could marry a tech billionaire. She could do any of those things. They just weren’t likely to happen.

She didn’t know the first thing about writing a novel. She was terrible at math. And there was nothing significant about her in the slightest that would ever put her in the same room as a tech billionaire, let alone marry one.

The reality was that she wasn’t the brave warrior she liked to imagine herself as. In the question of fight or flight, Grace would always fawn.

She’d try to run first. Then, as her fears grew and her heart started to pound, she’d start to freeze up. Then, as things only seemed to be getting worse and worse and her pulse threatened to send her into cardiac arrest, she’d give in and let the nightmare consume her.

And that’s exactly what she did in Mr. Vogelweide’s office. After taking only a few steps away from him, she gripped the edge of his desk and froze, her eyes fixed on his body as he continued to advance on her. When he was near enough, when he was directly in front of her, gripping the polished wood on either side of her slender frame, she felt herself give in. She could try to tell herself that she was just putting more distance between the two of them, but she wasn’t. She was surrendering. She bent over backwards and let him hover above her.

Mr. Vogelweide seemed to realize this fact. He stared down at her, a smile playing across his lips. He leaned down so that his face was just above hers. Their noses were a hair’s width away from brushing against each other.

“Do you have any idea how easy it would be for me to claim you?” he whispered in that same attention-grabbingly sensual tone. “Do you have any idea how tempting that idea is?”

As he spoke, Anselm ran one of his hands up the length of Grace’s body. He started at her navel and lightly slid his hand up to her chest, over the mound of her left breast, across her collarbone, and up the side of her neck to her cheek. He rested his palm on the side of her head for a moment. Ran his fingers through her soft blonde locks.

Her heart was pounding in her throat as she stared up at him. She was breathing heavily beneath him, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Shush,” he murmured, grabbing her jaw with his thumb and first two fingers. Like his earlier grip on her throat, he was holding her just tight enough for her to feel it without coming anywhere near actually hurting her. He lifted her head and looked down at her lips. “Don’t worry, darling. I won’t hurt you. I’d never dream of it.”

He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. Grace’s eyes widened and a high-pitched whimper escaped her. He pressed his body against hers; squishing her down onto the desk. She felt his tongue slide across her teeth for a moment before he squeezed her face just tight enough to make her open her mouth to him. She let out another, louder, whimper as his tongue entered her mouth to circle and swirl around hers.

It took him a long time, but he did finally pull away from her mouth. He released her jaw and stood up straight, adjusting his suit and tie. Suddenly, he was back to his usual self. Cool and unbothered by the world around him.

“That’ll be all, Ms. Smith; thank you.”

That was it? He’d had sex with a doppelgänger, told Grace he only did it because he wanted her, kissed her, and then did nothing else? He was just going to dismiss her without another word?

Wait… why was she even asking herself that?! She didn’t want or expect any of this. It was thrust on her in a moment that she wasn’t even supposed to see. She didn’t know how to deal with any of this. She didn’t know if she was supposed to get up or stay where she was. Hell, she didn’t even know if she’d still have a job after this.

Mr. Vogelweide started to walk away, then paused. He turned to face Grace again and said, “Oh, before I forget, would you be so kind as to clean up in here? I’m afraid Ms. Quinn made quiet the mess on the other side of the desk and I have a meeting in half an hour. You might need to come back to clean up afterwards. I’d like to avoid it, but there may be blood in the rug before the hour is over.”

She looked at the other side of the desk. Where he’d had the look-alike bent over so he could fuck her brains out and pretend she was Grace. There was a wet spot on the polish. It smelled like sweat and… ugh… old fish. The lingering residue of a shamelessly wet pussy.

Back to business as usual then.

Grace stood from the desk and nodded her head. “Yes, sir. I’ll get right to it.”

“One other thing,” Anselm said as he watched her. “I want you to know that, on the off chance you ever change your mind, you need only to knock.”

“Knock?”

“On my door. The day you decide to me mine, I want to take you in the bedroom. Mine. Not yours. There are… things I’d like to try. Harnesses I’d like to see your body in. Toys I want to put inside you.” His dark eyes moved up and down her body at an agonizingly slow pace. Grace was fully dressed; wearing leggings, a knee-length dress, and a small sweater with sleeves that came down to her elbows. She wasn’t showing any skin that she shouldn’t be. Nothing more than her forearms. And it wasn’t even that the neckline of her dress was low either. It sat right on her collarbones. Yet she felt naked the longer he stared. Like he was peeling off her clothes with his imagination.

This is sexual harassment isn’t it? This was the kind of behavior that got the #MeToo movement started. Back when protecting victims actually meant something to people. She could quit for this, right? Wait… no. No. That was a bad idea. If this were a normal job for a normal person, she wouldn’t even consider it. She’d leave.

But he wasn’t a normal person.

This wasn’t a normal job.

She spent her time cleaning blood out of Anselm Vogelweide’s carpet and cum off of the furniture and walls. Everything in his house was about money and sex. People died here. On a regular basis. There were guns and bottles of lube in every room.

She knew too much about him. There was no leaving. There was only dismissal. And that would likely mean a hail of gunfire that would cut her life short in the living room before his massive bodyguards took her away to some place where she’d never be found again.

All because she caught his eye.

[stillness138]

visual/art things in the Hades 2 technical test i don't like

it was said and is being said already that most of the character sprites have less dynamic poses, or that Aphrodite's face looks, for the lack of a better term, yassified,... it's actually quite a frequent topic in the tag. and i think looking closely despite the excitement is a good excercise! so let's.

i've seen a sentiment that everyone has been made (more, in some cases) conventionally attractive, and i disagree with that a little bit. depends on your definition of convention, but while it's a look popular with many, i wouldn't say Hecate's abs for example are necessarily mainstream. another point i've seen was that Demeter looks younger. i kinda agree, but i don't think it's intentional, because it's quite subtle. she's mostly just missing the defined cheekbones.

the thing about this game's art seems to be that it's a little less sharp, the lines are thinner, shadows are smoother. i think it's an attempt to look more detailed and realistic compared to the first game. i'm not sure how i feel about it. i understand the want to improve or change up, but at the same time the lack of hard shadows and highlights, while it might come across as more realistic, also leaves the sprites a little bland. and i was going to bring up Poseidon as an example where the newer style fits in with visibly older sprites, but he still feels noticeably different in how he's shaded compared to say Moros.

i also agree that the poses are simpler and in most cases less dynamic; Mel is fine and the fact she can change during dialogue adds to it, Hecate looks good too. Nemesis is justifiable since she seems to be standing guard. i think they're simpler maybe because now everyone has a detailed environment backdrop as well, it's especially bold in the olympians' case, but i do hope characters revealed in the future have more dramatic or interesting poses. Selene gives me some hope.

Artemis is definitely unfinished. her sprite lacks any bolder linework or shadows, the coloring is very dull. it really sticks out like a sore thumb as of now. but her boon icons having those letters, likely placeholders too, make it more apparent that she's not finalized yet.

now, this might be controversial, but...i don't like Apollo's design that much. in his case, i definitely wish he had a cooler pose, for his bow/lyre to be a lot more prominent. the outfit is fine, i'm kinda on the edge about it. on one hand, all the colors and shapes work, on the other, maybe not together? but what makes it all bad for me is his actual appearance. i wish his hair was wilder, actually committed to it, and brighter. i wish he wore either more elaborate jewelry or more of detailed armor pieces. i wish he had heavy freckles, vitiligo or some other skin condition to reference the surface of the sun. i think in part this is definitely a case of being spoiled by fanart, but yeah. i'm not vibing with him as much as i hoped i would. i like this design because while the outfit isn't detailed, the freckles and pose make up for it. the hair, choppy like irregular sunrays, is cool too. this one i like too, it's less crazy but still has its own flair, distinct from the rest of the first game, and the lyre/bow design is beautiful. this one is a bit out there but it's pretty cool as well imo, with apparent callbacks to Artemis in hair texture, birthmarks/crests, and the shoulder pelt.

lastly though, Aphrodite. the good! referencing Ares's warpaint is sweet. i like the armor pieces. in general the pose is tasteful, and the long ass banners coming from her spear kinda add some needed drama to it. the spear and shield themselves have nice designs in line with Aphro's overall aesthetic. but the bad... i don't like her face all that much either when compared to her sprite from the first game. there, i liked that her lips aren't exaggerated in any way. compare that to Athena (her shade of lipstick is absolutely amazing tho). but it felt more, i dunno, like trying to convey some natural beauty? in 2, she got that barbie doll treatment. reminds me of witcher 3 female npcs' faces and that is not a good thing. people have said that she looks thinner - her arms definitely do. and maybe because of that they also seem a bit too long to me. she suffers from the lack of hard shadows and highlights a lot, putting both her sprites next to each other really shows the difference in approach. like, overall it's a pretty and perfectly fine sprite, but...there is a but. a part of that but is definitely our expectations and uncertainty about the new direction the sprite art seems to be going in. to give nuance to the other side, we're also still in a pre-early access stage. on the other hand, the other olympians we've seen don't look unfinished the way Artemis does and it's quite likely these sprites is what we'll go into full release with. there was no reason to change Aphrodite's face, and we're allowed to not like it. leaving well-meaning feedback can be effective! and i would encourage it. with emphasis on well-meaning.

i also think the icon for gold in Hades 2 should be just a single coin, because a little hoard of them looks too much like the moly flower icon from a distance.

[autoboros]

would you be open to showing us your drawing process? doesnt have to be on a completely finished piece but id love to know how you colour your art and how you use lines/lineart

This one has been sitting in my inbox for days - sorry bout that, I haven't had much of a drive to draw. But it is something I was interested in trying to show so I gave a stab at it today since I had the chance

I start off by drawing a circle and cross that serve very vague purposes. They kinda help generally. And pretty much right after I draw the side of the face and then the shoulders (for a bust). I don't really have any base sketches to guide, really just drawing what I think looks good

I draw the face, desperately trying to ignore how stupid it looks because it will end up better when it's finished. Hopefully. This is where you pray

Onto the second layer I begin to draw the hair (Depending on my confidence in the hairstyle, it might not even be on a second layer). Kinda winging it so I decide arbitrarily to tuck his hair behind his ear because he's such a pretty boy and I wanna see his face. Totally not because I could not. get the hair right no no

Add the back of the hair, erase stuff that needs erasing and that's the lineart. I use a big, thick brush with pen pressure because its just a lot of fun to fuck around with. Easy to manipulate lines ig. I use the eraser just as much as the brush in a way that's hard to word but the best I can do is "carving the lines"

Then he gets colour. Skin + clothes on one layer, eyes on a layer below, then the hair on the bottom layer. The undersides + suctions are coloured on a slipping mask. He also finally gets a nose here which is the starting point for the shading

I completely eyeball the colouring and shading. Just, again, what I think looks nice. Try to detail the hair but then decide immediately that the rings look bad, get rid of em, add lighting because he's a shiny boy and Bob's your uncle

This is the process for bust shots, sometimes even half bodies. Depends on how much time or effort I want to put into it. My art is seriously inconsistent and my process is even more so, and I'm mostly trying to draw in different ways with different brushes. I just find this way to be one of the easier ways. Hope this answers the question well enough :')) it was a neat question and I'd love to give details on how I do stuff

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Oh Bushman and his super racist backstory (not that he wasn't a stereotype before). Again it could be done well, but it very much wasn't

also why is bushman and some domi are colored grey when African-American characters like Gena are colored a more brown color often in the same comic? Do you think there was a choice there or it's just the colorists fucked up?

(compared Shang-Chi being orange and his father Fu Manchu being bright yellow but all the other Asians and Asian americans were beige)

Hi there! Yeah... Any time a comic heads into Africa for a villain story I have to take pause and wonder just HOW racist this story is going to get. Or at least the art and the depictions of the locals.

I think in the case of the coloration of Bushman, if you look at the other characters that are coming from his homeland, they all have the same ashen black/brown color. Or… At least the bad guys are.

There's a lot that can be said about that.

I'm going to tred as carefully as I can but it's going to get dicey.

You might have noticed that people come in different colors. Even those colors come in different colors.

Not all black people are 'brown'. Some are lighter and some are much darker. The same goes for Asians and white people and all sorts of ethnicities.

BUT. How do you show that in comics? Comics are printed. And sometimes that printing isn't done well. And not all shades of ink print well.

If you use a darker color, you aren't going to see any shading, details, or ink. You can't use black or you lose everything and you have to start outlining in red, white, or green. Which can be jarring if you are using black outlines everywhere else.

So you get the gray color to show darker black toned skin.

HERE'S WERE THE RACISM COMES IN. Boy howdy.

Remember a moment ago when I said 'the bad guys are'?

There was a very popular notion for hundreds and hundreds of years that the darker you are, the uglier and more inhuman you are. (Thank you colonialism). In fact, there is still a notion in beauty standards that many people are trying to change. The notion that dark is ugly. ANd good luck finding cosmetics for the darker colors. Again, companies are trying to change that and be more inclusive, but this is a VERY recent event.

So it's not uncommon in Hollywood to use the darker colored skin to signify the bad guys.

The same goes for comics.

You have "Beautiful and warm brown" for our heros like Luke Cage and T'Challa and Storm! Then you get ashen gray for Bushman.

Yikes.

And Asians? Well… The more yellow…

So next time you are reading a comic that actually includes POC, take note of the shades that are being used. Then take note of where those people stand on the good vs. evil scale.

If you are reading something more modern and they are still using that scale of shading to denote evil, you might want to stop and think about who wrote this and WHY they might be using that color scale. If you are reading an older comic, this is going to be hard to avoid. But pay attention to it. Realize that even the best comics were not immune to racism.

Good job on noticing this, my friend!

Comics can often show us a pretty good idea on the politics of what was going on during the time it was written as well the mental ideas/pictures of people.

I'm sure there's SOME paper or dissertation or thesis out there that talks more about this. If not, someone should absolutely do one! I'd love to read it!

[tekutiger]

There's something I've been wanting to post here for about a week now, but I've been putting it off, waiting for the Dawntrail Benchmark to release. (That can be found here btw: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/ffe3a1a5430a5a8168ca9782ab9ec0e57cd5be62)

On the official Square Enix forums (both English and Japanese), there is an entire thread for the Graphical Update Viera Noses. Our communities are not exactly thrilled with the changes, to say the least.

The (current) last page of the English thread can be found here: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/493947-Graphical-Update-Viera-Nose/page19

The first page of the English thread can be found here: (or you can just go to the link above, scroll to the bottom and click "First") https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/493947-Graphical-Update-Viera-Nose

I tried checking here on Tumblr if this had been posted already but the FFXIV tags are spammed so much 🫠

The Japanese thread link is within the EN thread somewhere, I forget which page.

If you play a Viera, you've probably noticed that your beloved WoL doesn't quite look the same- specifically the nose, and to a lesser extent with their eyes.

That's all pointed out and discussed in the thread. And yes, I did voice my opinion to it 🙃

I'm trying to find some comparison screenies of my bunboi and fembun to contribute here.

The thing I was worried about, and still kind of am even after going through the benchmark- is the strange "shine" you see on bunboi's noses in certain areas, or at random times. I couldn't find any rhyme or reason to why or when this would happen 🤷🏻‍♀️

We were also shown a preview of bunboi's with their nose like 7 shades darker than their skin tone and that didn't sit well with me. Between that and the shine? No. Just no.

This is current graphics 👆🏻

Another thing I noticed in the benchmark is that they removed the colored eyelashes from Face 1 (the face I'm using on my bunboi). It's literally like, 1 of the 2 primary reasons I chose this face to begin with. (They usually match your hair color.)

Dawntrail Benchmarker 👆🏻

You can see some of this "so called shine" in some of these, but it's not as bad as I thought it'd be originally. I guess I can live with it and over time I'll probably get used to it.

I can probably even get over the fact that his white eyelashes are gone, though I'll miss them. I don't know... 😖

I do appreciate the updated quality of the hair, and the iris/eyes, and his facial feathers. I also like that the added "lip color" I gave him appears to be matte and not a gloss, but I'm not sure how other people will like that, lol.

ALSO. There's a very specific scene in the benchmarker that shows your WoL's face so much better but for some strange stupid reason you cannot take screenies during it. I feel like SE really let the ball slip there.

There's probably a reason for it, and then again there might not be- because if I really wanted to, there are loop holes and I could still get those screenshots if I had more time, Lol 😅

Current graphics 👆🏻

I don't have a plethora of screenshots of my fembun like I do of my bunboi- but looking at my fembun specifically I'm realizing her bunny nose doesn't seem that prominent, even now? I guess I thought it was defined more 🤔. Perhaps it's the lighting of this specific shot.

I was going through this phase of changing her hair color from red to yin yang colors, back to red, back to yin yang, rinse & repeat, so...

Dawntrail Benchmarker 👆🏻

Again, I appreciate the high quality in the iris/eyes, hair, facial features- like her tattoos.

It does seem like the highlights in her eyes get a little lost, if that makes sense? The anime type white reflection. Not just for her but for my bunboi too. I think that goes for all character now- I've seen this commented about all across Twitter (yeah I know it's called X, but I'll never call it X).

Her bunny nose seems to disappear in many scenes and then it "seems" to be there in some scenes. I don't know what to make of it.

I feel so wishy washy with this graphics update. There are parts I like and parts I dislike. At this point I'm wondering if it's that whole mentality of "People dislike change" / "People fear the unknown" and over time we'll get used to it.

But also, I've seen some comparisons of people's characters and the overall appearance, the overall vibe of their character has totally shifted. It's understandable they're upset.

I want to offer a couple of pieces of advice here. If you have any commentary to add about Vieras (or any other characters really- like moon kitties got royally shafted on their fangs)- please visit that thread and put your two cents in. Hopefully SE will see it and potentially listen to the community feedback. But in the case of Moon kitties, there's likely a respective thread for them so you'll have to seek out that thread.

The other thing is, take advantage of this benchmarker in tandem with our free fantasia (coming soon). I feel the character creation screen does not properly display what our characters are going to look like once ingame. Do not take the character creation screen at face value. Create and/or modify your character in the benchmarker (you can save your character data). Play it out- make sure you're happy with how they look in the benchmarker. Then go on and use that fantasia. You can load the saved data from the benchmarker into the real game. (unless they changed things, which I highly doubt)

Edit: Adding in some links to other threads ⤵️ (Its been mentioned by others that it's best to keep posts pooled in one thread vs. spread sporadically out across several threads. If SE or Mods are likely to read anything, it's going to be in one centralized large thread.)

Thread: [Dawntrail] Miqo'te face 4 Keeper nose smudge nerfed

Thread: Benchmark/Graphics Update - Lip shape concern and eyes

Thread: Keeper fangs nerfed in the update