#if you've been painting for a while and think you have to keep rendering no

[reneeworks]

me: I want my art to be loose and dynamic and have lots of texture

me making art: nnnnnghh how about I keep rendering

[berryfeilds]

thinking abt a cmbyn au with sirius being forced by his parents into visiting a wealthy family residing in the north of italy with whom they're in contact. he'd gotten in special trouble that year and he was sent to the countryside as retribution for embarrassing the noble family name.

but instead of despising the humid air, the ineluctable work, and groaning small talk, he finds himself enamored with the estate's only daughter, you.

you with your glowing face and flower lips, your luscious legs glistening from the pond water, and your figure clad in that dangerous swimsuit -fuck this was bad.

first rule of staying with your despised family friend is not to get involved with said family friend; and there he was, longingly gazing at you sitting in the garden's bench as your ruffled dress flowed with the sultry summer wind. you were currently filling in some extra work for your parents while listening to whatever was currently playing on the radio. your hair shines in the wind while making quick work of the pages that beguile your attention. you're perfect; quiet but feisty, you keep up with his perpetual banter and have a way with words that renders him speechless -oh, and your voice- like the creamy gelato from that shop you both biked to when you both wanted to cool off the summer heat after showing him around the quaint town.

you were perfect but also off fucking limits.

how was it that he was stuck in the same house with radiant you and he couldn't even talk to you! and it's not like it was his damn choice either. on his first day, after the niceties and small talk, your father asked -well rather commanded- that he was not to disturb you; restricted in bold, red letters, but more posh, if you will.

"listen, Sirius, you're welcome here anytime," the overbearing tone of your father's voice and the grimace on his face upon his arrival said otherwise.

"but I need to talk to you about a pressing matter at hand," he turned around to face Sirius squarely, "i've heard about your rather dallying engagements at school, and i want to make sure that no one messes up the quiet environment that my family has worked very hard to build," he finishes with a sigh.

sirius quirks his brows up questioningly.

"i have a feeling you're not finished,"

your father clears his throat before continuing.

"that quiet environment includes my daughter, sirius. and i'd like it if you were not to meddle with her or disrupt her academics or life with your rough ways,"

sirius scoffs humorlessly, well the insults didn't take long.

"I apologize for being so blunt but it's all to protect her, i hope you take my cautions to mind." He ends with a nod.

before sirius can add his aggravated input, your mother comes barreling in with beaming smiles and open arms. "sirius, mon amour!"

after catching up with your mother as she painfully asks personal questions about his life and how his schooling is, he finally escapes her claws and spends the rest of the day getting accustomed to the mansion and ever-lasting gardens.

the walls are littered with grand paintings that probably date back centuries and bookshelves overflowing with old pages and maps that look well-loved and have been read about a thousand times.

at least i'll have something to do here. sirius thinks as he rounds out the room that he assumes was a library, before he bumps into something -or rather someone.

"oh, mi dispiace papa-" your sentence cuts off when your eyes pan up from the flying papers that slipped out your hand to see that the man you bumped into was certainly not your father.

"nessun problema amore," sirius steadies you with his arms grasping gently at your waist.

you survey the boy as you pull away from his large and warm hands. it's then that it hits you like a ton of bricks that one: this is sirius black, the guest your family was housing for the summer, and two: you've already made a fool of yourself.

"oh i apologize, i'm not used to watching where i go," you react.

you quickly bend down to the papers that were released upon impact. sirius quickly follows in your footsteps and helps you in your trek of the blown pages.

"don't worry, i usually have that effect on people," he smirks at you.

a slight huff escapes your pretty mouth as you reach for a paper between the two of you; your fingers touch and it almost feels electrifying.

a quick apology falls off your lips, but sirius ignores it as he grabs the paper. you both stand and face your perched frames. he hands you the stray paper as he stares at you, an easy smile playing at his lips.

"i believe this is the last of your fallen," he sits with a coy and cool aura.

"thank you," you reply softly, avoiding his piercing eyes. you fiddle for half a second before realizing that you were standing there like an idiot.

"how rude of me- i haven't introduced myself, " you offer your name and finally gaze into his blue eyes.

"flying papers tend to charm the masses," he chuckles.

his hands are in his pockets as he stands cooly. he looks at you with his tall build. you know he's not trying to intimidate you -but god does he have to be so tall?

"i hope your settled in alright," you offer an awkward nod of your head.

"oh yes, don't worry, your mother took precise care of me alright," he shrugs of jokingly.

"sirius by the way, it's lovely meeting you,"

you breathe in before raising your hand out for a shake. sirius stares at you with raises his eyebrows amusingly before taking your hand delicately; he swells your pretty hand to his face and plants a soft kiss on your knuckles.

the action has you burning and tingly, starry-eyed as he flows your hand back down.

"it's lovely to meet you too,"

you swiftly compose yourself before speaking again, hoping to break out from the awkward introductions.

"well, if you need anything i'm sure i'll be near by, don't hesitate to ask," you end with a tentative quirk of your lips.

you cross over to the library sirius just walked out from, swiftly avoiding him; possibly for the entire trip.

sirius turns to look at your leaving form -well running is more like it- before pursing his lips; he chuckles lightly and shakes his head before following you. he enters the room he's inspected once before and lays his eyes on you. the sunlight hits your figure perfectly as you work your way around one of the many desks in the library.

"not very chatty aren't you?"

you turn your head in surprise; you didn't think he was going to follow you, let alone keep the -rather uncomfortable- small talk going. I mean you hadn't given him much to work with, hoping you could be left to your own devices but you guessed the english aren't very fond of discerning body language.

you don't quite know how to answer him. should you joke? deflect? ignore? perhaps you could make a friend? it'll give you an opportunity to maybe get to know each other; be so close you can escape your parents' dictatorial attitudes. it wouldn't hurt to loosen up and say fuck all to everything. from what you've heard, sirius gets into all sorts of meetings with rascality and has made quite a name for himself in hogwarts.

"not used to having many guests, that's all,"

you settle on not upsetting your parents. you already have too much to worry about.

plus the truth doesn't hurt. short and sweet. maybe he'll leave you alone soon if you keep your answers brief. last thing you want now is for some random guy whose in trouble with his parents, to come in and mess up your quiet life; your bubble.

"do you have friends?"

"yes,"

"do they come over often?"

"we don't have many guests," you end matter-factly.

merlin, have conversations been this hard? why is it so difficult to talk to you? i mean you're not exactly giving him anything to work with but usually, he's not this...nervous.

he nods as he walks around the room he's already inspected once before. he picks up a stray tennis ball and throws it up and down distracting himself from the tension you've built. he clicks his lips as he stands in front of a world map sat on the wall.

"so what do you do all day? i can't imagine sitting and filling in work for your father is a particularly exhilarating activity,"

"im sure arranging futile stunts and ogling at girls is a better way to waste the day, huh?”

you keep your eyes on the desk below, effectively avoiding the wince on sirius face. of course you would know why his parents all but threw him out on the street like an unwanted dog to stay with you.

"ah so you know of my endeavors,"

"very little,"

"i could tell you all about them, me and my friends get into quite the mischief," he's desperately trying to make a good impression but it all seems to fail -you won't even look up at him! god, forbid you give him a full sentence!

"sounds exciting,"

avoiding you won’t be a problem at all seeing as you can barely stand him talking to you. but the problem is: he’s bored. Incredibly so. and he has nothing to do here at all, except help your father with his work. maybe he should brush up on his italian; if he’s going to the town and meet the people living. perhaps they would be happy with his company. or he could find someone to help him run away from this impromptu and not desired vacation. he'll have to pen james and get him to help.

you pause your fuss with the endless pages and inhale for a second. you weigh your current odds and think about the situation at hand. you don't have many friends, considering the fact that your father picks and chooses who you hang out with; all snobs and money-hungry freaks who care for nothing of the world. you only ever talk to them for absolutely necessary occasions -and even then you tend to avoid them. maybe this would be good, a fresh start and a new soul who is nothing like your parents, seeing as he defies every rule his own guardians bestow on him.

maybe it's time to pop the bubble.

you turn around and clutch your hands to your front before remarking quietly to his previous question.

"there's a secluded river i like to go to when it gets a little too hot. i usually spend the rest of my days there, reading, writing, whatever comes to mind,"

he turns his head to look at you in slight surprise, he hadn't expected you to -well, talk to him- but this is a step!

"i also like visiting downtown on occasion, there's a family-owned store that sells homemade gelato. it's exceptionally better than what i recon they have in england," you try to joke; hopefully you aren't overdoing it.

"oh, believe me you would fall dead if you saw what they serve there," he jokingly gags.

you softly chuckle at his antics and rest your bottom on the desk.

"if you have errands to run you're welcome to join me; im going downtown for a little bit to grab a few things for father,"

sirius' mouth is agape as he stares at you. maybe being an idiot pays off. he quickly regains himself. not now! do not fuck this up!

"you know what, i think i will -only if you show me this lovely gelato shop." he bites away at a forming grin as he eyes you.

"we have a deal then." you throw him a small smile of your own.

"we have a deal."

maybe summer in nowhere italy wouldn't be so bad.

© berryfeilds 2024

[tangibletechnomancy]

This a Moonmelon , scientifically knows as asidus. This fruit grows in some parts of Japan , and it's known for it's weird blue color. What you probably don't know about this fruit, is that it can switch flavors after you eat it. Everything sour will taste sweet, and everything salty will taste bitter, and it gives water a strong orange-like taste. This fruit is Very expensive. It costs about ￥16000 JPY (which is about 200 dollars). Keep reading for more fun facts about this incredible fruit!

This iteration of Moonmelon is the first chunk of my latest as-of-yet-untitled WIP.

What I'm doing is taking various infamous hoaxes, from the internet age and long before, and creating new "proof" of them with AI to compile for a "magazine." The purpose is to encourage nuanced thinking about how technology and disinformation relate.

For those inclined to be overly trusting of every application of new technology, this is a reminder that it can also make it all that much easier to lie. It still takes time and skill - it took me about 3 hours of attempts to get images this passable, and that's while leaving in enough wonk to illustrate some things to look out for after that first glance - but it's easier now, and attainable with different skills, than ever before, and it will only continue to get easier. This is not a threat, it is not a promise, it's just an inevitable side effect of the fact that technology marches on. Technology makes it more and more important to remember to practice healthy skepticism! If it sounds too good, bad, or just plain bizarre to be true, remember that it likely is! Check more into it, instead of simply accepting everything you read!

And for those inclined to look at that new ease of lying and fear we're entering a new age of disinformation that will render truth meaningless, this is a reminder that we don't need new technology to lie. We don't need AI to create hoaxes. We already have Photoshop, and before that we had airbrushes and double-exposures, and before that we had little girls with paper cutouts of fairies, and before that we had people lying in writing and painting fantastic creatures that didn't exist but they swore they saw. We've had parts from different animals taxidermied together and passed off as mythical beings for centuries. People have been lying since the dawn of time. Even so, life goes on - because although the minority of people who develop any given skill that uses it to make hoaxes has existed for as long as humanity has, they are still a minority. The bottleneck for disinformation has never been the technology; it's always been people's desire and willingness to lie. Forgetting this, in fact, may make you more inclined to believe disinformation, rather than less - just because you've proven a photo wasn't AI-generated, doesn't mean you've proven it is what it says it is!

Created with Simple Stable

[dawnbreakersgaze]

Your sketching/art style is really pretty and clean. Do you ever do fully rendered pieces? I'd love to know what your painting style looks like? Or do you have any plans to paint any of the lads stuff you've done yet? Sorry if you've answered this before!

So this is a bit of a ~fun~ one to answer and might get a little long bit I'll do my best to keep it as short and simple as possible my dear sweet Anon ♡

First off, thank you! I used to do a lot of rendering and full-on painting in terms of digital art, but figure sketching is always where I've been happiest and most comfortable. The human body is my absolute favorite subject, and while painting it is lovely, I find the simple sketching of it to be very soothing. It's uncomplicated, and the shapes and lines don't get lost as easily imo. It's just nice to be able to see the curve and form of the body in its most uninhibited view.

That said, you won't see me do a lot of painting anymore. In March of last year, I got really sick and started to lose the mobility in my hands. I found out I had PsA (short hand for Psoriatic Arthritis, think of it like a cousin to Rheumatoid Arthritis), and so the amount of time I can spend drawing and painting is drastically reduced. This means that while I used to be able to spend all day working on rendering a piece no problem, I just can't do that anymore. To give you an example, I've been working on this piece since January in small bursts, and I'm still not halfway done-

This is a project of love though (the dnd group I play in, the witch on the broom is my character) so it's still something I deeply enjoy working on so I'm happy to do it in little bursts.

Here are a couple other passion projects I'm chipping away at that are all personal projects and a bit of fanart that are all mid WIP. Hopefully this gives you an idea of my limited painting skills 😅🤣 even before my illness I was a mediocre painter at best, as it wasn't ever something that really drew me in to strive for improvement.

I've taken quite a shine to doing manga panel redraws since my illness, enjoying the black and white/greytone styles, so I've been playing with those as well recently. Particularly with the Demon Slayer manga. They're much easier but still pack a punch visually, and I love the comparison between the original and my interpretation.

I hope that answers your question (and I'm sorry it was probably waaay more than you asked for lmao). I'm sorry you won't be seeing many painted LnDS pieces from me anytime soon, or likely ever. As my hands continue to decline so will my skills and abilities. But I'm grateful you guys have been enjoying the sketches I've been able to do. I really appreciate all the love you've given me ♡♡

[sarurun42]

hey sarurun

been a fan for a while and i was wondering if you could give advice on your pixel art journey

Hello!

First of all, thank you for following and supporting me! It means a lot!

Advice, hmm, I'm not really a good teacher or anything but I'll try to give you a sense of how I got to where I am now.

I grew up with old SNES-era games; think Yoshi's Island, Link to the Past, etc, and eventually got a DS where I mainly played Pokemon, and developed a fondness for the sprite-art, especially the animated ones featured in the fifth generation.

My first computer wasn't too powerful and I couldn't play too many games, so I settled for a few sprite-based flash games that had small communities online. After a while I saw others editing the sprites to 'customize' their characters further, and I gave a shot at it myself to try to trick my friends into thinking I had cool items that didn't actually exist in the game (it didn't work, but I found myself having fun doing it), but this was probably my first real experience with the medium.

After that I mainly focused on non-pixel art for a while, really trying to get better at anatomy and rendering.

In 2018 I realized I had to get serious with my art. I'm a really scattered person and bouncing between illustration, painting, 3d stuff and other mediums wasn't helping so I decided I have to choose one thing to really go all-in on, for some reason that was pixel art.

Though before then I didn't really look up any tutorials or actually read anything about pixel art, so I was somewhat new to all the concepts and techniques. I started with a free browser editor called Piskel and started to do mainly small avatars and sprites in it. It's a very limited program but was a good starting point to see if I really wanted to commit to it.

At some point I got sick of Piskel always crashing on me, caved and bought Aesprite, at that point there was no turning back and I decided to go a bit further and also buy a book called 'Pixel Logic' (there's a free preview of it here), I read through it and honestly learning about pixel art, and seeing examples of terms and such really helped me understand what makes pixel art... pixel art. (There's a bunch of free tutorials out there if the book isn't for you, and for Youtube tutorials I'd suggest Brandon James Greer and AdamCYounis )

From there it was really a lot of experimentation and trial and error of what worked and what didn't, and believe me there was a lot that didn't. (Pixel Daily prompts really helped me in keeping a somewhat consistent practice going).

If you're just starting out, don't be afraid to make mistakes and don't save cool concepts for 'when you'll get better'. That time will never come as, while you're getting better, you'll always want to get *even better* and the goalposts will just keep moving. Just do what you want now, have fun and experiment with it.

You don't need fancy programs or equipment to make pixel art either, as long as you've got a mouse, a basic image editor, paint, piskel, librepsrite, etc, and the will to go through with it, you can make it happen. It will just take time.

Good luck on your journey!

[cursmudgeon]

This is so crazy to me because that is like the one place where you just objectively can't put ai. It wouldn't work. There's no way to make it work. Like fuck them for trying to put it anywhere in the pipeline at all but storyboards are the last place you would ever want it. I'm a firm believer that no matter where you put AI tech in art it's at best going to give you something mediocre and difficult to work with. It's just too much of a black box with too few direct controls. But there are some applications where I can at least see the argument. Background painting for animation is an amazing and complex art form but I can understand how you could use AI to get something mediocre but serviceable by generating a full render based on a sketch. Inbetweening is tedious and while I'm sure AI wouldn't hold a candle to a human for subtle acting I can see where someday you might be able to create a better version of auto-tweening that could handle more complex timing. Hell, clean up and coloring are both slow fiddly tedious processes that would make sense to cut corners on. Again I think cutting any of those jobs is a lazy and poorly thought out idea that you'd only pull if you're creatively bankrupt and only in it for the money but I can see how it would actually save money while still actually making something that resembles a show you could watch. But storyboarding is the one thing that this kind of statistical model will never be able to do. Statistical learning models cannot comprehend things, they don't know what a story is. They can't even tell a knock knock joke let alone a compelling story because they have no way of remembering the events that have happened in the story already or understanding that the pixels and words that they are assembling even relate to the concept of an event. They mash phrases and colors into something that vaguely resembles other stuff that they've been told contains keywords. That's it.

But you expect me to believe you're going to get one to understand enough film language to tell a compelling story over a thousand separate images while consistently keeping the characters believably in the same space and recognizable? And it's gonna do that faster than a person doing thirty second sketches? Nah. I don't buy it.

The amount of bullshit you have to do to convince the black box to put the correct character on the left side of the screen facing the right direction in one image would already be more work than doing rough thumbnails of the whole scene. There is so much specific problem solving that has to go into making a storyboard. We have a hundred years of highly specific cultural baggage that defines how we interpret films. No generative statistical training model will ever be able to do that because they are just not remotely capable of understanding what they're making. They aren't and can't be conscious entities with the ability to interpret meaning, no matter how many objects they can recognize or words they can predict would be likely to follow other words. At best you'll wind up with a jumble of blobs that vaguely resemble the compositions of other films thrown together in an order that makes no sense and some poor worker who you've demoted to a revisionist position will have to sort through them and try to turn them into something that makes any sense and it's going to be slower and worse than if you'd just paid someone to do it right the first time.

If this is true and there are executives who think this is going to happen, they're gonna have a bad wakeup call when they realize their expensive machines aren't capable of more than the visual equivalent of word salad.

[charkyzombicorn]

Luffy used to be human. A tiny one, born of a woman who didn't want him and a man who couldn't keep him. He remembers his father's hesitance to touch him, even though he kept reaching out with tiny hands that wouldn't cooperate.

Then he remembers the pain. The kind that was brought on by people in masks with knives, people he couldn't defend himself from because he didn't know it was trouble until the metal cut through his skin, new and sensitive. The kind that left him unable to move, unable to feel, only tasting blood in his toothless mouth.

He couldn't really feel after that, but he could see. He saw himself, eyes unblinking and blank, body limp, stuck in his crib over a blood-stained blue blanket.

He saw a person burst into his room, with fluffy purple hair and wide frantic eyes that lock into him, well, what he supposed used to be him. They yell for someone and his father comes in faster than he ever has.

He remembers the first time his dad cries. On his knees, holding his body but not him. He's right there, but his dad only sees a corpse.

He gets buried at the bottom of the sea, fire sending him off because the ocean is vast but also dark, and dad thinks the fire lights his way.

But he hasn't left, he follows his dad because that's all he has, and his dad doesn't sleep, doesn't eat.

He builds a ship.

He doesn't know why his father builds a ship, only that he loves what his father is building, loves every detail, clings to a father that can't see him as the man finally decides on the perfect shade of red for the railings and sits on the head of a wooden monkey as his father paints its big black eyes.

It's been a week since he's slept, though, and he gets worried because his dad is tired.

He tries to say it's okay, tries to get him to rest, but he can't touch the world he sees.

That is, until he grabs his father's arm to try to bring him back to his family, the one with the fluffy purple person and the dragon flag, and his father sees.

Wide brown eyes look directly at his own pair (were they brown? He thinks his eyes were brown.) his dad doesn't even notice he's pressed the small paint brush so hard into the figurehead that he's made a deep scratch under the eye. Only renders that that's his son.

"Luffy." Is the first thing that comes out of the man's mouth, and Luffy was pretty sure he didn't have a name, but his father probably knew better.

He disappears a second later, back to how it was before, where Luffy could see his dad but his dad couldn't see him. And Dragon flounders, everything dropped in favor of waving his hands around where Luffy is, where he can't see him. His father calls his name until a big bear-person takes him to sleep, with concern on their face as his father says what he saw over and over.

Luffy loves the ship, he plays on its deck and climbs up the mast and lies on his stomach on the monkey figurehead and looks at the endless blue from the sky and the ocean.

He finds he wants to go there, where the sky meets the sea. He tries to, but he's stuck.

Stuck on his ship, in the wood grain and the red paint and the monkey figurehead.

Stuck staring at the endless line he wants to touch so badly.

And his dad doesn't come back, not for days and weeks and months. When he comes back, he's got a tattoo on his face and nothing but steel in his eyes until he sees Luffy, sees the ship, sees his son.

"You've gotten dirty, brat." He says, but there's something hollow in his voice, even when he rolls up his sleeves, grabs a mop and scrubs every inch of him while humming a tune he hadn't heard before. A peaceful one, a lullaby, one he never sang to him when he was alive.

He's happier as a ship, his dad loves him more now.

It became a tradition, once a month, his dad would stop by with a mop and talk to him while he cleaned him. Luffy wanted to talk back, but he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried.

"You'd be a year old now, you know that? I bet the cooks would make you a cake the size of a house. Knowing our shared genetics with Garp, I bet there wouldn't be leftovers." He said with a smile, but there was something broken in his eyes when he looked up and only saw an empty ship.

He sighed, and stopped talking to Luffy.

Once a month turned to once every three months turned to twice a year, but Luffy didn't complain because there was no one to complain to. He sat and watched the ocean as years went by.

Something was different, however, on his eighth birthday.

"Happy birthday, Luffy." He said in lieu of a greeting, much less put off by no one answering than the first few times. "You're eight years old now, in case you haven't kept track." He said, and gave a pause before continuing. "You have brothers."

If Luffy had eyes, they would have widened. "Brothers?" He asked, but his dad didn't hear him.

"Sabo, he's your older brother now. Ace too, but Ace is stubborn, so hit him if he's mean…" He sighed. "They're both eleven. They want to go to sea."

He looked up at the mast, the one which has never been stressed by harsh wind or rain or even someone bumping into it. "I bet you'd want to go to sea too, every Monkey wants to sail eventually."

He let out a bone deep sigh. "If you're the one that takes them out there, take care of them, alright? You're brothers, and brothers do that."

He went about cleaning, and repainting the figurehead and railings that were far too sun bleached for him to put it off any longer, and Luffy told him about the last six months while he couldn't be heard.

--

"As a parting gift to you, I give you my son."

Sabo looked up at Dragon, shocked and confused.

"It was many years ago when my son, barely older than a newborn, was taken from me by celestial dragon hired assassins. Grief driven, I built a ship, it took weeks and every waking hour, but I gave it the name I couldn't give my son." Sabo's eyes were foggy, and his clutch on his small bag of belongings tightened.

Dragon let his stone cold persona slide off, faced with the boy he half-raised going off to become a pirate with his brother. "If I may make one request." He gave a gentle smile. "Let Luffy see the world with you." The live to see the world was left unsaid.

Sabo's expression tightened and his eyes watered before he hid it with a deep bow. "Thank you, for everything. I promise to let the ship see the world and come back in one piece."

With that, Dragon led his apprentice to the dock of the island they were staying on.

They stopped in front of a large caravel, with red trimmed railings and a smiling monkey figurehead. A ship one person could man, but could house a dozen comfortably. He hopped onto the deck, studying the meticulous detail and bright atmosphere. He was almost surprised Dragon had made this, it was so…cheerful. The only flaw seemed to be a defined scuff of paint under the figurehead's left eye, but that only really added to its charm.

Sabo felt a warm feeling grow in his chest as he explored the place, the big circular window in the kitchen, the neatly organized bunks in two different rooms, everything made him feel welcome. "Luffy, huh? I guess it's time to introduce you to Ace. I hope he likes you like I do."

He set off, his farewells already spoken and his ship a breeze to man.

It took him about three hours to get to Dawn Island, and even less to find his brother. He was sitting right on the docks waiting for him, although it was clear he assumed the blond would come in a fishing boat.

"What the hell, Sabo?! Who did you steal this from?" Ace yelled once Sabo was close enough to hear him.

The blond huffed. "I didn't steal it, this is Luffy, I got it from Dragon as a parting gift."

"What? We're starting our journey with charity?" Ace seemed none-too-fond of the free ship.

Sabo ran his hand over the red wood rails. "More of a rental, this ship is very important to him. We're gonna see the world with it, ne?" A smile grew on his face, which was infectious.

Ace jumped onto the ship, trying to look cool despite how excited he was - a habit he never really grew out of.

They set sail without a destination, just a direction and a dream. They would be free, and it wouldn't come with ifs ands or buts.

--

Luffy could feel his dad was near, which was strange because it wasn't his birthday yet. He'd gotten very good at counting in his nearly fourteen years docked at this tiny island with nothing but trees and a cabin with a dragon flag.

Then, he saw his dad walk toward him with a proud smile, and another person next to him. A blonde teenager with a funny top hat and a bag slung over his shoulder. Luffy watched curiously as, for the first time, someone that wasn't his father climbed his ladder, and even more, pulled it up! He forgot his ladder could do that! Luffy got excited as the teen started walking around.

The blonde poked his head in every room, ran his hand along Luffy's pristine railings, leaned over and rubbed his thumb over the scratch on Luffy's figurehead. Luffy opened windows and let the warm breeze in, and shifted the curtains in his infirmary so the new person wouldn't get the sun in his eyes. Luffy didn't remember what it was like to have eyes but his dad squinted his eyes in lights usually, so he assumed all eyes were like that.

The kid leaned his back against the front railing and looked up at Luffy's walls. "Luffy, huh? I guess it's time to introduce you to Ace. I hope he likes you like I do." He muttered, and a spark flew through the ship at the mention of Ace, one of Luffy's brothers.

Luffy was going to see him? He was going? Would his brother take him to where the ocean met the sky?

The blonde opened Luffy's sails, and Luffy flew. Glided through the water, leaving ripples behind him, pushed forward by the wind and directed by the strange teen's hand on his wheel.

Luffy couldn't remember ever being this happy before. He almost didn't notice when he was docked somewhere else, another island. This one was filled with giant four-handled steering wheels that the wind spun, and Luffy saw a boy the same age as the blonde at his helm with freckles and a very orange hat.

"What the hell, Sabo?! Who did you steal this from?" The man squawked, and Luffy lit up once more. The blonde was his brother? He got to see both his brothers? Would they take him to sea?

The blond huffed. "I didn't steal it, this is Luffy, I got it from Dragon as a parting gift." His dad wanted him to go? Luffy felt so warm, he wanted to see the world and tell his dad about it if his dad could ever see him. He saw him once, it might happen again.

"What? We're starting our journey with charity?"

"More of a rental, this ship is very important to him. We're gonna see the world with it, ne?" Luffy would cry if he could, he would sing if he could, but all he could do was watch Ace jump and then pull himself up onto Luffy's deck with the corners of his mouth tight to keep from smiling too wide. Luffy sailed once more, ran for that line.

--

Sabo was not as clever as he'd like to think. This is apparent when he realized that, having decided to take a break from steering, he left his narcoleptic friend at the wheel.

He doesn't even realize something's gone wrong until he hears a resounding crash that sounded suspiciously like shattering wood. Startled, he drops his book and runs outside.

Ace is asleep, right at the helm, and their ship has somehow tunneled its way half through another ship.

The blond made the most awkward eye contact in his life with a man in the cellar of the bigger ship, before the guy runs, and Ace finally wakes up.

"---gUh!" He says astutely, confused by the new surroundings. "What the hell?"

Sabo took a breath, internally begging for patience. "How did you manage to--"

"Thank you!" Both men snapped to look at a small kid with pink hair and a red face, splayed across the monkey figurehead, thanking…it? "Those guys woulda killed me if you didn't come, thank you!"

Ace frowned. "Oi! It ain't the wood you should be thanking."

But the kid looked at him and blinked. "But you were asleep and the other one wasn't here."

Ace scowled and the kid squeaked, now realizing the potential danger he was in, scrambling away from the ship. The brunet grabbed a handle of the steering wheel to help himself off the ground, but the wheel fell from under him, making him smack face-first into the ground before another handle thunked him in the head.

Sabo snorted involuntarily, before realizing if the wheel was that loose, a coil must be broken connecting it to the front rudder, which was currently jammed in another ship.

He sighed, before looking at the kid again. "You're obviously not safe here, might as well climb aboard." The kid started tearing up, thanking the two profusely.

The kid sank to his knees once he hit the deck. "My name is Coby! Please take me to the next island!" He begged, his forehead pressed to the deck and Sabo didn't know if he was desperate or if he was talking to the boat again. He walked down the steps to the deck hesitantly, waiting for Coby to make a wrong move.

"Yeah, yeah, don't go cryin', you look dumb." Ace said, rubbing his head where the wheel hit him. The wheel spun and thunked him on the head again, and he followed Sabo down the steps while glaring at it.

He moved to see if he could dislodge the ship, Sabo moving to the other side and they both pushed on the side of the wrecked boat.

To their surprise, the boat freed itself rather easily, and upon further inspection, there were no visible issues with the rudder. Sabo was a little confused as to how easily the wheel moved but didn't have time to when he saw a large woman with a mace and a face turned almost purple in rage.

"WHAT IN THE EVERLOVING FUCK HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SHIP?!?!" She cursed, very alarmed by the now sinking ship that was attacked unprompted.

"Oi!" Ace yelled back. "Don't say shit like that! There's a kid here." Gesturing to Coby.

"G-G-Guys, we gotta-a go." He stuttered, looking fearfully at the woman. Ace just picked his ear. "That is the fattest person I've ever seen."

"What?!" The woman screeched and Sabo smacked him on the back of the head. "Don't say such things, it's rude."

"Taking a chunk out of someone's ship is also rude!!!" She yelled, because they were both idiots. She cleared her throat. "Coby, who's the most beautiful woman on these seas?" She asked, venom on her tongue and a death grip on her mace.

Coby's mouth instantly began to form around the answer he'd given a thousand times over, and Sabo's eyes narrowed at the obvious abuser.

A hand landed in Coby's shoulder and Sabo ignored the flinch. "N-Not you!" He yelled, teary-eyed but convicted. "You're…You're the ugliest cow in the sea!" He shouted, his legs shaking but his voice absolute.

She seemed to turn 7 shades redder, and started storming toward the boat when suddenly the steering wheel started turning left like a pinwheel, and the entire boat lurched as the figurehead knocked her through one of the pretty much useless walls and into the sea.

"Seriously, we need to get that wheel checked out." Sabo muttered to himself while Coby cheered and thanked the inanimate boat again.

"What were you doing there anyway, kid?" Ace drawled, nursing the many bumps on the back of his head.

This seemed to suck the joy out of Coby, and somehow from where Ace was standing a door left partially open swung out and hit him hard in the elbow. Sabo reassures the kid he doesn't have to say while Ace closes the door completely so it won't smack him again, wondering if the boat was cursed.

"It was two years ago…" Coby started, while a gust of wind caught the sails and somehow the boat maneuvered around the other without help - this went unacknowledged. "-- and after that I had to work for Alvida, or she would kill me."

Ace and Sabo both nodded, before they looked at each other and both burst out laughing.

"Mistook that--?!"

"A fishing boat?!"

Though no one moved much from where they stood, the deck creaked an ambient 'Shi-hi-hi' that blended in with the laughter. Coby stared at his shoes.

"Well!" Coby cut in, just as the laughter ceased. "I… I want to be a marine… Then I'll arrest people like Alvida and no one will have that happen to them like me."

Sabo's smile faltered, his brows furrowing as he looked down at the tiny, scrawny, unobtrusive kid.

Ace looked Coby up and down with a scowl. "You wanna be one of those jerks?" Coby nodded, and Ace crossed his arms. "Well, I don't see why the army would need a wimp like you, but--" The same door swung open again and smacked him in his whole left arm.

Coby smiled. "Your ship believes in me!" He said, regretting it a second later for the odd looks both gave him before Ace shrugged.

"I guess." He glared at the door again. "Who knew a boat could be such a prick, though."

Sabo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes, because if anyone is a prick here it's the boat - sure." He looked back over at Coby. "We'll take you to the nearest marine base, Coby. Your life is your own, better to live how you want than die full of regrets."

Coby's eyes got glassy, and he nodded vehemently.

[kathy-rah]

As someone who is slowly learning how to do digital art alone, I may have some advices to give to those who want to start and don't have time/resources to spend a lot of time trying and testing out drawing processes.

These are some things that I've found useful but Boi, it got me a lot of time to get to it. Of course, this is just what I think can be a good advice for who is a newbie like me, you can try it as a way to start your coloring process but it's not something professional t.t so take it with a bit of salt

First advice I wanna give is to do like I did during this drawing process: while I keep everything on different layers (skin tone / armor / hair /detail / background), don't just start with one layer and then start another one after rendering the first one.

Multiple times I've noticed how the different tones didn't match to each other, or the colors were simply horrible to see next to each other. I've spent a lot of time fixing this type of issues in my old drawing, always deleting the layers (fully rendered) or trying to change the tone with horrible results.

Instead, if you too happen to have this problem, I'd advice you to first coloring everything with the base color. As you see in the video, as first thing I simply filled the lineart with base colors. It's not clear but I assure you I've changed his skin tone multiple times because it didn't match the armor. Same with the mask and the red details.

This is something you can easily do at the beginning to see if the colors match and are nice to see all together in the bigger picture.

It's really something easy and I'm 100% sure they teach you this literally at the beginning of art school but Boi I'm stupid. I only learn when I do things myself t.t

Change colors as much as you want until you've reached your desired tones. Be careful of saturation levels. To make everything more balanced, play with the hue level for every base color you've used. You don't like how the red is in contrast with the blue? Change the red layer' hue/saturation values a bit and you'll find the perfect type of red you need.

After you are happy with the overall results, start with the rendering.

This is something I recommend to do if you still aren't used to the use of tones/saturation.

If you need some examples of the pieces where I struggled, here you go: this one is probably my fav one even now that I draw from pc.

Before:

As you can see there isn't balance in the colors. Fulgrim's skin is too much out of everything and in general there is too much differences between the colors. It just doesn't look harmonious. Then:

I assure you I haven't re-drawn anything here, just fixed the saturation, tones and hue levels (and added a bit more of shadows), yet now everything matches. (i also have changed the color of the lineart in a few places, look at the hair for example).

This might looks obvious to others, but I've spent a lot of time on this piece with the only focus on making those colors look nicely together and with time I've learned from my mistakes.

Another example: the commission I did a few weeks ago. I had to draw an Imperial fist, so you'd expect to see a yellow armor. Considering that I painted the background with red colors, bright yellow would have been quite a shock to see: that's why the base color is not yellow but orange. Same thing the clothes aren't white anymore but a light pink.

On a white background it looks weird for an IF armor, yet this is the result at the end:

Yellow is only for the parts hit by the light, where the shadow are more on the red tones. (don't mind the light blue for now)

Of course, you have to take in consideration many things before changing the hues of the original colors, but I hope this could help c:

[freebooter4ever]

The stuff thats been on my dash lately - the strike, playoffs, talk about teams and trades and players salaries - ive just been thinking a lot. You know i think too much. And im annoying. So.

A few years before i was let go from my old research group (2017), a few key federal education research grants were severely defunded. Like almost halved - if i remember correctly. And we were hit hard. And our director at the time was kind and saw this coming, and managed to get a small bit of warning before it happened. But it wasn't enough, because the guy we were going to lose - our extra artist, was in the states only on a work visa, and it was an educational non profit visa. I didnt understand the details very well but basically we missed the deadline for the vis lottery by a few months. Which meant he had zero chance of getting a visa on his own and any new company he applied to in the US would have to shoulder that cost/hassle. You can imagine this is next to impossible for artists to compete with. He had months to find a job that would be willing to take on someone who previously only had a nonprofit visa or he was going back home.

The harsh reality of the 3D art industry is that unless you are an insanely talented artist (we weren't) or have connections (we didnt we were in education for fucks sake) it takes for fucking ever to find a job (it took me two years to finally land the one in LA). Our entire team was worried about him.

This guy was as dedicated to the work as i was, for both of us sculpting/painting/art was basically our life. We both spent so many nights/weekends in that office just because we loved what we were doing and wanted to see the project succeed. Our little team was like a family, especially when we'd all be trapped together in random cities for conferences (the three of us young twenty-somethings provided the entertainment value/jokes, the one mid thirties guy on our team was a foodie who somehow managed to find the best hidden restaurants in even the dullest cities, and the oldest of us were popular enough that we never seemed to go out to eat without an entourage). The running joke was that he could sleep anywhere/anytime - at one point we caught him sleeping on the foldable bleacher seats while waiting for the dolphin show in atlanta (if you've ever tried to sit in those seats you know how ridiculous this is).

He loved pittsburgh more than me (and at one point when my nick was grilling me about why i stuck around so long i finally admitted to him that out of all the places in the world pittsburgh and seattle were the ones i loved best so when i say my coworker LOVED pittsburgh he actually loved it. More than even THAT.). He loved snow and cold to a degree that freaked even snow-obsssed me out. He had way more friends and connections in the city than i did, he was in sports clubs (wrestling. He was the only person i knew who could eat as much at a buffet as i could - we'd go to dinner during their cheap buffet night and it must have looked hilarious slender runner me and this big grappling muscular dude both digging into two piled on plates EACH).

ALL this and one little thing like losing his job when his expertise/qualifications are very VERY narrow and in a field that is grotesquely competitive...meant he couldn't stay in the country anymore.

It was ridiculous, it made me so mad, i kept being like 'theres gotta be a way theres gotta be a way' (there wasnt) and eventually i marched into our directors office and announced that i would halve my salary so we could keep him for one more full year.

And the director just smiled at me in that fond way of hers and patted the couch for me to sit, and calmly explained that i was actually the second person to march in and offer this. The lead developer on our project - the guy who coded the rendering engine FROM SCRATCH back in the 90's when realtime 3D graphics wasn't even imaginable - had offered up the portion of his salary it would take to pay our artist's.

Unfortunately our director explained that the university didnt work this way and it wouldnt have been possible no matter how noble our intentions, BUT she had also been pushing numbers to solve this, and had actually finangled enough finances that she was able to pull money out of a hat and keep him for another year regardless. It said a lot about how close knit our team was, and how much we cared about the programming envirnoment we were making for students for free worldwide that we were fully prepared to do anything to keep it running.

The real tragedy of it all though was that it didnt even matter. He searched and searched for an entire year and found nothing, and then took part in the regular visa lottery and got nothing. And he went back home (after stopping in california to watch some league tournaments haha). And he's still there, and still struggling to find a way back to the US - hiker boy and i were probably two of the people who knew him best, and both of us are probably going to be forever slightly worried/sad about him.

A friend of mine in LA got his green card this past monday - the one whose wedding i accidentally ended up managing. That was a jublient thing. And i still remember in 2018 taking sanjeev to get his citizenship and teasing him because he put it off for so long that he got stuck listening to the orange cheeto's speech when he could have had obama (but he could do that because he was a programmer, his job was in high demand). This doesnt really have anything to do with my point other than to say i know immigrants' experiences with visas can run an entire gamut from good-bad.

The writers on this strike arent asking for millions each - though i imagine it might seem like that to someone in western PA working a minimum wage job (my 25$/hr was living large in western PA :/). Kinda like me watching the salary discussion of these sports players utterly baffled me like 'we spend HOW MUCH on sports?? And HOW LITTLE on education??? Do you know what an entire development team could do with only one year of that salary???'. - that is to say, i recognize there are multiple levels of looking up at another group and wondering how the fuck they even exist that way.

And i know there's probably going to be a lot of bullshit and blame thrown around at the writers. But i just remember how like, when push came to shove, on my little education team our team members took care of each other. And there is SO much stratification in the US right now that it feels impossible to extend that peer-to-peer help to cross-class-levels help. But we have to fucking do it. And i know we all supported the strikes in the minimum wage service industry. And these going on in hollywood are equally as important. We need to make it socially unaffordable for these elite few to control so much power over our livelihoods. We SAW the mess that happened at the blue bird website. If even protected in-demand jobs like software engineers can suddenly be scrambling for thier paychecks and stability all because of one petty little man - Something is extremely extremely fucked up in how our economy functions. Because i believe at a small scale most humans are like my tiny little team - willing to sacrifice to keep everything running when times are tough. (as long as there's light at the end of the tunnel)

Blah. Ok ive said my bit. I sure as fuck hope the 3D artists figure out how to unionize one day though i have no clue how we'd go about doing it :/

[calowlmitygoddess]

wop wop i wanna fill more ask games

1. Art programs you have but don't use

I dont have them anymore but i used to have Medibang paint downloaded.

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

Left!

3. What ideas come from when you were little

Many of them tbh, many of my characters are like 10+ years old and come from when i was a tween

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

I actually really like to draw enviroments (in theory)

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

All, all of it, i have no self control.

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

Hmmm i dont think so? i at least cant see any influence that wasnt there purposefully

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

sculpting! i tried to do it but gave up, still i love to see timelapses videos of people sculpiting

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

Ugh sooooo many, so many. My first characters have sort of faded away, and other projetcts i gave up halfway.

9. What are your file name conventions

Jokey, very non-serious titles. Like 'siblings road trip' or ' shit hit da fan'

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

DRESSES!!!

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

Youtube videos, like gaming comentary or video essays

12. Easiest part of body to draw

Face and torso.

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

Hmmm idk to be honest, i dont have one i think

14. Any favorite motifs Duality!!

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

My room.

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

Hmm nothing i think, i just draw things i like drawing lmao

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

nope!

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

None!

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

Nature!! i love drawing nature! <- never draws nature

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

Clothes. I like doing the folds and then the rendering

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

Semi-realistic anime styles, or very overly detailed styles.

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

Nonee lmao, thought i do stretch my arm/hand while drawing.

23. Do you use different layer modes

Multiply+ Overlay+ Add (glow) are my best friends

24. Do your references include stock images

Yeah sometimes.

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

My art never gets compared LMAO. Characters ive drawn have been compared to characters that have nothing to do with them though

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

None i think?

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

No warm ups, we raw dogging this

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

Currently participating in one!

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

Music i suppose.

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

SO MANYYYY

[chanstopher]

oh it's no biggie since i recover pretty quick! the 2-3 days where i am, in fact, sick are the absolute worst though, yes 😔 i actually have been set on going into psych since the seventh grade skdjfhf but now i'm hoping to get into anthropology as well & since i've always been into writing, i have english literature there too ^^ but my main area of interest is the social sciences revolving around psych! there's lots of unis i applied to where we could choose up to 3-5 preferred majors so for me it's anthro/socio -> psych -> eng lit. we became stays around the same time then! i actually had an aghase friend of mine (who was keeping up with the show) send me a video of felix saying that i would never expect what his voice is like dfhgjds that's when i looked it up and started watching because i grew a liking to them from the episode i watched :D i was there to witness the eliminations though. remember crying so much when chan kept apologizing to them 😭 i'm so glad they're all together now because i can't imagine 2/3 of my bias line not being there :c that's so sweet though; it's fun imagining you take a while to reach that conclusion after thoroughly dancing around it! i actually leant towards chan during miroh era but side effects dragged me back to my roots haha what kind of content do you enjoy making the most? since i know people might think what one mainly does is enjoyable but for me it's always different depending on whether it's something that sparked my creativity or something i just felt compelled to make for the sake of keeping my blogs alive hehe - 🌨

I apologize in advance because my grammar skills are so bad, as someone who likes writing im so sorry you're gonna spend the next month reading my run on sentences 😔 but wow thats so cool that you've had an idea of what you wanna do since 7th grade! i thnk the only thing I cared about then was anime lmao

The getting bias wrecked thing is like my brand at this point, I am so bad at guessing who my bias is going to be from the start of liking a group it's almost comedic. when I got into got7 i went from jackson > mark > jb > yugyeom in a week flat before i was sure it was yugyeom lmao and when i got into astro i was torn between rocky and moonbin, only to end up becoming eunwoo biased ONLY to get bias wrecked when i saw them in concert by jinjin. I'm always so messy until i find the right member and then its like all in hard core lol

I think I like making graphics the most, I can find it to be the most frustrating because if things dont work the way I want it can be harder to figure out how to fix it, but when they do work I find myself really proud of the result. gifs i find to be a more mindless task, since half of it is just waiting for clips to load and render, and for the most part coloring them isn't really as creative. I do also love art, but it takes way more time to do so it's harder to commit myself to wanting to spend 10+ hours on a painting vs maybe 2-3 on a graphic. I also just think that the inspiration to make a graphic gets me all jittery and excited in a way other things dont. And even when I look back on things and I dont really like the result anymore I can usually find something about it that I'm still happy with (but that is also me being a perfectionist and hard on myself lol) what about you?

[frazzleboop]

Zombie Apocalypse AU

Sun&Moon x reader

Alrighty, so, it's been years since the events of Security Breach. The Pizzaplex is burnt down, partially collapsed, everything inside has been abandoned. And then, BOOM! The Zombies happens.

CW: violence, paranoia, zombies

This is not your typical happy-go-lucky AU, so proceed at your own risk. Enjoy~

You've been on your own for a good while now. The group you had been running with is long gone, decimated and splintered off, separated from each other. You're left to fend for yourself, but it's okay, you've picked up some tips and tricks for surviving so far, you'll be fine, you tell yourself. You don't quite believe it, but yet you try to stay positive regardless.

That's when you see it: the Pizzaplex, or what remains of it. You remember what it was like to go there as a young adult, before it burned, and briefly you consider that maybe it's not such a good idea, maybe you should keep moving, but it's getting late and there isn't another building in sight.

You grit your teeth and ready your melee weapon, a heavy metal bat you filched from a sporting goods store that hadn't been totally ransacked. Carefully, you creep inside, keeping low to the ground and making as little noise as possible so as to not draw any attention to yourself. Surprisingly, inside, there is no trace of undead, yet the charred and broken remnants of the 'plex is still a haunting sight to behold. There's rubble strewn everywhere and you have to be careful and watch your step to avoid potential injury. There are old, badly damaged and burnt security bots strewn everywhere, collapsed where they fell and were left to rot. You pay them no mind; they can't hurt you, they don't have any mouths with which to bite you. There must be something here you can salvage, you think. The place has been abandoned for so many years and is a smorgasbord of robotic parts, so surely you could find something useful. Maybe even rig a go-kart from the old Roxy Raceway? You're not very proficient with robotics, but what else was there to do?

So you scrounge around and search where you can; some doors bar your way that are melted shut and impassable, blocking off certain routes. Some large security shutters are badly damaged and almost seem as though something or someone busted their way out from within. You try not to dwell too much on what could have caused such destruction, and keep moving.

Nothing useful in the gift shop areas, just burnt fabric from where there used to be merchandise like shirts and plushies. The water in the fountain in the lobby has long gone stagnant and a dark green sludge of algae renders the water undrinkable and nasty. You ascend the unmoving escalators with care, turning to regard this second floor level. There seem to be elevators that you seriously doubt still function, a broken glass walkway that leads to what seems to have once been some sort of cafe called FazPad off to your left, another cracked walkway that leads to the second level of the gift shop, and doors that lead... somewhere, you aren't sure where though, as whatever sign was painted over them has been mostly charred away and the only letters you can make out seem to be Sup---ta- --yc--e Pi-- -- along with what could be stars and stripes of some sort, or maybe it was meant to be a rainbow? Either way, one door is busted off it's hinges and lies across the floor while the only hangs on by one corner of warped and twisted metal.

You find yourself in a hallway with broken tiles and a few empty bathrooms that you check before moving on. You pass by another extravagant fountain (this one doesn't have a giant statue of Freddy Fazbear in the middle of it though) and the path continues forward or wraps around the other side of it and leads off to more security shutters. You decide to continue on the path forward, leading to what you can see now seems to be the way to the Daycare, which, as you approach these shutters, they seem to give a metallic groan and shudder before raising about 2 1/2 feet off the floor and stick there, which causes you to jump out of your skin for several reasons; one being the fact that you weren't expecting there to be any sort of power left in the building at all, and the other reason being that the level of noise the door just now produced seems to echo loudly down the hall in the deathly quiet of this area.

Your heart beats wildly in your chest as you still, grasping your bat in a white-knuckled grip as you divert your attention everywhere you can, searching for any sort of movement from any location. Just because you hadn't seen any undead yet didn't necessarily mean there wasn't anyone or anything here.

A good minute passes as you strain your ears for any sound, but everything has fallen quiet once more. You almost debate about your plan to explore this abandoned area in favor or taking your chances back out amongst the hordes outside, but steel your nerves before they can allow you to turn back. You duck low and crawl under the open shutter and onto dirty, soot-stained, 80's retro carpeting, rolling into a crouch on the other side of the shutter before it groans and slams shut behind you, trapping you in the darkened interior of the Daycare pickup area, sealing off your way back; approaching it to see if those same proximity-based controls would reactivate is fruitless. Whatever small power surge that allowed you to progress has now faded, or maybe it’s only a one-way thing. Either way, you have nowhere to go but forward.

The flashlight clipped to your shoulder only illuminates so much in this darkened interior, but you can make out the sight of tables and chairs scattered around. The main thing that catches your eye happens to be the fenced-off statues of what appear to be two gangly sun and moon-themed jesters, similar to the Freddy statue downstairs in the lobby; these statues are in a much sorrier state, one having completely fallen over and crushed the railing around them, an arm and leg broken completely off that you tiptoe carefully around. You don’t spend too much time dwelling on this, however, as you now have an entirely new area to explore.

Without any light, the entire area is wreathed in darkness and shadow. You can faintly make out what appears to be some sort of plastic tunnel embedded in the wall that you can only guess once must have been a colorful slide, but is now reduced to burnt, melted plastic. A path continues past a small entry gate and railing, the way strewn with more damaged, broken bodies of what look to be security and janitorial bots. You pass by several party rooms, their contents still relatively untouched aside from the fire damage, and it all gives you the impression that the place had been shut down in the middle of normal business preparations.

With how hectic your new life had become, you struggle to recall just what happened to this place, what the cause of the fire had been reported in the news from way back then, and why the company had just decided to leave the place to ruin. To be fair, you now had more important things to worry about so it did no good to dwell on the past when you should be plotting your next ten steps.

By now, you’ve made it down to the ground level once more, having descended the nearest set of switchback stairs, your senses piqued and on high alert for any sign of danger. You find that under the staircase there appears to be more bathrooms, but this area looks to be the vestibule of the daycare, as you can see the walled off area ahead, complete with large double doors that look as though they were made to simulate wood but were most likely a hardened, sturdy plastic resin. One of them is cracked as though some force impacted it heavily, and the other is slightly ajar.

You stare at that small gap and war with yourself; was it worth it? Your grip tightens on your bat as you approach. You were already this deep in, maybe there would be something useful inside? A security desk, craft supplies, moldy pillows, something. You push the door open with the tip of your bat, watching it swing inward a few inches before sticking, leaving a small enough gap for you to squeeze through. You're careful, gripping your backpack straps and yanking them closer to your body as you twist sideways and sidle inside.

The inside of the area is just as dark as the outside, and your light only goes so far; you can faintly make out large play structures in the distance and a security desk to your left, which you quickly duck behind, holding your breath and listening closely for any noise, any movement. You can feel your heart beating in your ears as you wait for what feels like an eternity, but you hear nothing and begin to rifle through whatever is left behind at this desk, which isn't much, admittedly. The computer monitors are dark, no signs of life to the towers stashed underneath. Your search for anything useful seems to be in vain and you briefly consider turning and leaving, but something keeps you here.

You peek out from the side of the desk, crouched and keeping yourself small as you begin to explore this area, keeping the half wall and it's tempered glass barrier off to your left, a point of reference and a habit of yours of keeping one wall at your back at all times; there was less chance of being snuck up on as long as you knew nothing could come from that way. It's almost disconcerting to not see any bots here, whereas you's been practically tripping over all the security bots to get to this point.

The daycare is quiet and still and dark, and a chill runs up your spine as your mind begins to run away with you, despite you being pretty confident that there couldn't possibly be any undead in here. The setting was too eerie; the idea that there could be a child zombie waiting to crawl out from one of the play structures and ambush you...

You shake your head; that was just ridiculous, because there was nothing living and organic here in the abandoned Pizzaplex, not until now, not until you. That's how you try to console yourself even as you round the corner of one looming play structure and see some large, dark shape slumped against the once-colorful metal bars.

You freeze, weapon up and ready, as you can only make out the vaguely humanoid shape in the darkness. You're frozen in place and it doesn't seem to be moving either; a stalemate. You hold your breath for another moment before deciding to get closer. Whatever it is, it's incredibly tall, too tall to really be human, so maybe it was a bot? Whatever it is, it's limbs are gangly and tangled up in the metal bars of the play structure it's slumped against.

You move around to get a better viewpoint, keeping a wide berth, just in case this thing decides to get up, unlikely, given the fact that all of the other bots weren't moving anytime soon. Your light catches the rips and tears in the satiny red-and-yellow-striped material of its puffy pants, and your eyes follow the line of its legs up to the chest and damaged faceplate of what you now recognize at the solar-themed character like the statue upstairs. It's in terrible condition, unsurprising given the place's history culminating in its fiery demise, its face, which you see is divided into two sections, one of which bears a striking resemblance to a crescent moon, and the other half completing the sunny side of its visage, complete with what you assume must be solar rays that are bent, twisted, and partially missing, is dirty and soot-stained, what looks morbidly like hand prints and scratches across its unmoving smile. Its eyes are two dark voids, staring out blindly from its head. Its in a reclined position, arms bent at the elbows as they're hooked into the jungle gym being the only thing keeping its body in such a position.

You approach with caution, but it looks like the thing is indeed offline, like all the other bots. You lower your bat from its raised position to gently prod at the animatronic mascot like a child poking a dead bird with a stick. It doesn't react. You use the tip of your weapon to lift its faceplate up slightly, tilting it this way and that as you inspect it.

You wonder what its purpose here was; it wasn't one of the main mascots that you recognized, so it was likely a side character designated to this area. Compared to the other bots littering the place, this one at least seems like it was meant to have some sort of personality. You kind of feel bad for the state it's been left in, but try not to think too much on it.

So lost in thought, you almost don't hear the slight stuttering and whirring of gears clicking in activation. Suddenly, the character is thrust forward, its eyes sparking and lighting with a very dim flicker of white; it jumps in your face, voice box filled with static and catching on its words as it erupts into a cacophony of sound;

"N-n-nEW FR-R-R-RIEND!! HE-HEL-L-LLOOOOOO--"

You shriek in terror and swing your bat; CRACK! The metal rod connects harshly with the animatronic's head and its voice and eyes cut out with a startled yelp of pain before it slumps forward, unmoving once more. You're shaking, stuck in the pose of the backswing of your weapon, heart beating a mile a minute. That was loud, so loud, TOO loud; oh god, what if something heard that? Panic and adrenaline course through you, yet your legs feel like lead, rooted to the spot as you just stand there and wait for an attack in the dark that never comes.

You don't know how long you're standing there, but your arms are sore from holding the bat and from holding the pose for this long. The metallic thunk of you hitting the robot has long since dissipated into the darkness and silence once again reigns, aside from your panicked rapid breath and the faint whir-click-click of the sun thing's gears slowly turning.

Your eyes track it in the dark, watching with horror as it seems to activate again with a groan, lifting its damaged faceplate towards you, eyes flickering once more in the dark. It perks up slightly, face attempting to spin to the side but it gets stuck as it tries and tries and retries to complete the motion before giving up and correcting itself.

"KZZZZTTTT--"

A blast of static from its voice box sends you into another anxiety attack, overly loud in the silence.

"KZZZtt--Fr-r-r-riend, it's so-so-so-"

You bring your bat swinging down and thunk it on the head once more; it seems to flinch in pain but doesn't shut off.

"Aaaa--- KZZZZTTCHH-- FRi-en-d-d--"

Again, you bring your bat down on it.

"KZZtttt-- N-n-no-!"

Again.

"Pl-KZZZ-LEASE--"

Again.

"W-WH-WHY?? KKKZZZZT--"

Again.

"S-Sto-o-op--" The bot's high voice warbles as it twitches with every hit to its head. You watch its lanky arms, still looped through the bars, move to try to protect itself, large hands swatting at your weapon weakly.

You press the bat against its face, gritting your teeth in fearful frustration. "Then SHUT. UP. Just shut up, you're being too LOUD."

You watch with manic eyes as the bot curls in on itself, hands struggling to clutch at its faceplate, slapped over its mouth as though that would stop its harsh, static-y vocalizations. It brings its legs up to its chest, trying to put them between you and it in the hopes that it would put you out of reach of hitting it again. The only thing coming from it now are soft, garbled, static-filled whimpers as it trembles and regards you much like a kicked puppy.

You turn away from it to glare wildly out into the darkness, twisting your body to turn the beam of your flashlight and illuminate the area. You see nothing waiting for you in the darkness, but there's so many things to hide behind now that you can make out their shapes. A small playhouse, a jumbled mess of melted plastic that must once have been tables and chairs, a giant scorched Fredbear that sags to one side against another play structure. Not enough places for line of sight on anything else that could be lurking around.

With a grimace, you turn your head slowly around to regard the sun-themed being still cowering from you, looking as though it wants to climb into the metal jungle gym it's currently trapped in in an attempt to get away from you and your weapon.

You sigh to yourself. This was SO not a good idea...

[wildflowers-of-trolberg]

Any opinions on the voice performances or just like general art of it? You can talk about the book art too if you want

Hmmm - this is a pretty broad question, but I'll try and answer as best I can, because I do have a few thoughts about the art and a couple about the voice acting:

Mostly, I really do love the voices; based on what I've heard, it's probably an unpopular opinion that I don't mind Kaisa and Gerda's voice actresses aren't using their natural accents. I honestly didn't notice (nor did I notice Kaisa Hammarlund also voices Twintail Marra), and I think both of their voices are really fitting. And TBH that goes for the whole cast; I feel like all of them really get their characters, and I couldn't imagine anyone else doing the roles. There's only one voice in the series so far that I really don't think fits, and that's Baba's Mum (as heard in the trailer for the Mountain King movie) - I love the accent, and I think what they were going for was just "young mother" to emphasise that she's not so different from people, especially Johanna, but she needs a voice that's deeper and IDK exactly how to describe it but more mournful than the one she's been given if you ask me.

If we want to talk about the rest of the sound design, then I'm going to be honest; I'm not a huge fan of the soundtrack. The instrumentals are nice, but don't quite have the vibe I want, but I really just don't think any of the vocal tracks fit well, unfortunately.

As for the art, there's one thing I want to get off my chest immediately, and that is that there's something that just bugs me about that one promotional render of Hilda that a lot of the official accounts use:

Something about the shape + angle of her face in this image in particular really bugs me, to the point where I actively avoid it whenever I need references for commissions or anything.

That aside, I think the only thing I don't like about the art is that I think the palette is slightly too restrictive in one specific area, and that's there's no real way to do bright yellow while keeping within it. It's something I've hit in two AUs now; you basically have to choose between the washed-out amber-yellow used for Hilda's scarf, the Sparrow Scout uniforms, and the sofa, or the darker mustardy colour they use for the school uniforms. The characters in the show have been designed around it, of course, but it's the one limit I just can't keep to.

I will also say that, expanding my horizons a little, while I prefer the show's style to the Graphic Novels, I do really like most of those too. Hilda and the Troll is a little too janky-looking for me at times:

But I really like the later books; I like how Stone Forest and Mountain King feel a lot like the show, but with a different texture (it's a little weird to explain but you'll know what I mean if you've read them), but I think my actual favourite is Hilda and the Midnight Giant. It has a very different style to the show, and a different style to the rest of the series that's a little darker and feels a little more evocative. This is actually by far my favourite look for Comic Hilda, with freckles and the earlier pointy nose and darker hair:

One thing I really love that Hilda; The Wilderness Stories gave us is a look at this specific version of Hilda in Luke's current (ie pretty much the show's) style, and I love her to bits:

I really love the style of Hilda's Book of Beasts and Spirits too; it manages to stay true to the show, while also having this really nice painted look that just gives me so much serotonin because it's so beautiful to look at. I would love if they did another book in this style, maybe even a graphic novel or something, although I think it's unlikely.

As for the tie-in novels, well... it's probably best if we don't talk about those:

[shywhitemoose]

...can I send an ask for the writer AND artist game at the same time? If not, dealer’s choice as to which one you answer! (Also am I the only one whose brain always gets a little scrambled looking at all these emojis and numbers? 🤣)

🤡 and 🦅

5 and 21

Haha sure Soph! And no, you’re not the only one whose brain get scrambled by the emojis and numbers in these games [writer asks and artist asks]. I’ve had to double check about 27 times to make sure I’m answering the right questions for you!

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

Oh man my main characters make me laugh at almost every exchange (well, when they’re not making me cry). I doubt anyone else thought it was as funny as I did, but I *still* laugh every time I think of Obi-Wan’s ill-mannered genitalia thoughts from Chapter 15 of A&E: 

He was headed for the floor, but he declined to reach out for assistance because, really, breaking his legs one more time seemed wholly preferable to facing the man he’d just prodded with his ill-mannered genitalia. Gods. Maybe if he were lucky, his head would collide with a bedrail and he’d be knocked unconscious.

I’m also a big fan of their cartoonish, post-handjob scrambling when Mace shows up unannounced at their door. 

 Anakin grabbed a hand towel as the water shut off and gestured with an emphatic jerk of his head toward Obi-Wan’s room, practically shouting through their bond: GO!

Obi-Wan didn’t need to be told twice. Even with his business properly tucked away and a jar of bacta at the ready to justify his lacking attire, disappearing into his bedroom for the time being did seem to be his most sensible course of action. (Come to think of it, he might elect to live out the rest of his years there because Force help him he’d just ejaculated into his former padawan’s hand and quite frankly he would very much like to do it again and surely self-imposed solitary confinement would be preferable to looking another Jedi Councilor in the eye at any point in the near or distant future while such a secret flounced about inside his head now wouldn’t it?) He could still feel the flush on his cheeks and the cool tickle of perspiration evaporating from his skin, and he suspected he looked about as put together as a drenched loth-cat.

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

For most things I have an outline. Like A&E was too complicated and plotty to not have one (i’m not smart enough to keep that all in my head!). But I’m trying something a little different with a more recent wip that has no outline, just going to write each chapter as kind of a stand-alone episode in an au i estabish in the first chapter. We’ll see how it goes? Might be fun to have a little more freedom to play as I go :)

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

Oh gosh, I’d say at least 90% of my digital stuff is anakin/obi-wan/obikin and is intended to ultimately be posted! I’m a traditional artist at heart so all of my physical art is unrelated to fandom and not shared online. That said, being a mom with a full-time job makes that type of art almost not worth it at the moment because when you only have 10-20 minutes at a time to do art, set-up and cleanup make oil painting pretty impractical lol. Digital has really been able to fill that void for me these last couple years!

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

oh gosh, SO MANY! I’m a huge fan of cartoony styles, but I’m terrible at it. And I LOVE more painterly styles of art (02png’s work, for example), but I’m just kind of incapable of it - I try but it just looks like a lazy mess when I do it - I can’t seem to get a good likeness of what i’m going for unless I render more details, haha. 

Thank you so much for the ask! 🤎🤎🤎

[megatontiddies]

Your fallout OC as a companion taken from @goovat ask meme except I'm using it as a writing prompt/ oc development? I guess? because I think it's cool and I'm bored and want to write it all anyways

Anywhompst this is for Alwine and since it's pretty long (like really long you've been warned) I'll throw 'er under the cut

What perk would they give the player?

Occam's Laser

While Alwine is an active companion the player gets +40% damage with laser weapons and +25% headshot accuracy in VATS with scoped laser weapons. One shot kills produce 2X the XP.

How do you recruit them? are there multiple methods?

After the player levels past level 10, or alternatively, upon finding Paladin Danses Recon team Alwine will be found as a new recruit for the BOS. Once the player does the first two repeat quests by Haylen and Rhys and The Lost Patrol quest begins she is available to assist the player in the mission. After the mission is complete she may offer to follow the player as a companion if the player has chosen the more diplomatic speech options with Brandis and Danse. If the player chose the more aggressive/ rude options while speaking with the two then it will require a small speech check in order to be a companion.

What raises and lowers their affinity?

Raises: Minutemen/ Helping Settlement quests, Stealing from wealthy NPCs, BOS quests up until BB, Helping Anyone, Honorable Actions, Amicable Dialogue Choices (for the most part)

Lowers: Murdering innocents, Stealing From Settlers/ Not Well Off NPCs, Unnecessarily Rude Dialogue Options

How do they react to certain things? what do they say? (eg. lockpicking, grabbing junk, killing?)

Lockpicking:

(nostalgic/ thinking to self out loud/ amused) " Really coulda used a trick like that when I got locked outta my house that one time..."

(humorous/ surprised) " And here I was ready to blow 'er open"

(thinking to self out loud/ amused) " Hell o' a lot quieter than kickn' er open"

Grabbing Junk:

(blanket statement/ flatly) "it's amazing what you can build outta junk"

(enthusiastic/ bubbly) "It might be radioactive but if ya render it down with a bit ah castor oil it makes a great paint for glow sights"

(humorous/ matter of factly) "I'd rather carry 40 pounds ah junk than fork up an arm and a leg to buy the same shit later from Crazy Myrna"

Player Overencumbered:

(genuine concern) "If ya keep pickin' shit up you'll slip a disc"

(teasing/ amused/ worried) "Jeeesus look at yah! You look like a pack brahmin!"

(teasing/ amused) "With yer pack so stuffed if ya fall on yer face you'll never get up again"

Murder:

[Alwine Hated That]

(angry/ surprised) "What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

(angry/ confrontationally) "You better spit out a good reason for that and fast"

(angry/ bewildered) "Are you for real?"

notes: Alwines reaction to murder is exclusive to people she genuinely feels are innocent. She's comfortable with deaths she deems necessary (or if the person made themselves known as a pretty awful person).

Cannibalism:

[Alwine Disliked That]

(disgusted/ shocked) "oh? OH. Great, like there wasn't enough nightmare fuel out here"

(disgusted/ worried) "In't there, like, a brainworm or sumn' you can get from doin that?"

(disgusted but still attempting to be light hearted/ humorous) "Like it blue eh? I prefer mine rare... a lil less peopley too..."

Stealing in general:

[Alwine Disliked That]

(irritated) "Hope that wasn't somethin important"

(irritated) "Should I be sleeping with one eye open round you?"

(irritated) "Like people don't have enough shit to worry 'bout out here..."

Stealing/Pick Pocketing (but from wealthy/etc NPCs):

[Alwine Liked That]

(approving) "Lord knows they have more than nuff' to share"

(approving) "Doubt they'll even notice it's missing"

(approving/ musing aloud) "The unyielding greed and ignorance of the wealthy was the catalyst of Armageddon"

Pick Pocketing:

[Alwine Disliked That]

(surprised/irritated) "Why don't you spit in his eye while you're at it"

(irritated/ humorous) "I feel like I should put a cat bell on ya"

(irritated) ~audible scoff~ The player is likely being glowered at

Enemies Found:

(Shocked/ Excitably) "Y' ello!"

(loudly/ warning) "On yer flank!"

(loudly/ shocked) [weirdish sound presumably before lashing out a punch of hit of some form] " GWEHHK!"

Enemies Lost:

(quietly/ nervous) " shit... where'd you go you bastard"

(quietly/ nervous) " Lost 'em"

(quietly/ to self/ nervous) " I swear to lord if ya jump out at me..."

Enemies Killed:

(satisfied/ calmly) "good riddance to bad rubbish"

(loudly/ excitable) "Bingo!"

(quietly/ almost a whisper/ to self) [only if player is sneaking] "...bingo bango bongo..."

Player stops talking mid conversation:

(sympathetic/ lighthearted) "Sometimes I loose track of my thoughts too"

(genuine worry) "Ya good? Take yer time."

(humorous/ teasing) "Not a thought between those eyes is there?"

Player removes all garb:

(shocked but also amused/ between light laughs) "oh?"

(mindless banter/ avoidance) " This would probably be a good stun tactic if y'aint fraid of gettin yer tidbits shot"

(humorous/ almost scolding) "Y'aint invisible... just so ya know"

Player loots a corpse:

(plainly) "Any ammo?"

(joking/ light hearted) "Guess they won't be needing that anymore"

(statement/ plainly) "Grim business but you can find some good stuff sometimes."

Player starts swimming:

(plainly/ matter o factly) "Ain't no way I'm going in there"

(humorous but fear is present in voice) "If a big fish decides you look like lunch I ain't gonna be able to help ya"

(almost nostalgic/ sarcastic) "Yeah me and the brick tied for the swimming contest back in 63... I'll just stay on the shore"

Player jumps from high place:

(genuine concern) "ouch! you good?"

(soft yell/ concerned/ as if watching player fall) "aaAAaaa!?"

(oblivious to the player falling) "Where'd ya go?"

Do they periodically give the player items? what kind of items?

Bowls of various soups if player interacts between 5 and 9 PM. Every other time she'll give the player Fusion Cells.

Would they be able to do specialized task? (eg. repairs, hacking)

Not necessarily a task but if the player was to put various junk/ weapons in her inventory then she will periodically/ randomly mod them.

Would they be romancable?

Yeah probably? I think? In my AU she romances Paladin Danse but that would probably not be something that could happen as an NPC in Fallout 4 so??

If it were something like Mass Effect it would probably be like a Garrus/ Tali situation where if the player never romanced either characters then they would form a romance.

Do they have a unique outfit or weapon?

Alwine wears a black BOS jumpsuit for the first half of the game up until BB. After that she'll wear military fatigues. She'll wear the same over armor (BOS heavy armor) for both but after BB the BOS symbols are sanded off. It would be a unique unremovable armor set.

What would be their personal quest, if they have one?

This one is a bit weird since the player would be taking the role of the Sole Survivor. That being said I've always found that one empty cryo-chamber at the end of the vault hall interesting. There probably is a reason for that (like it just wasn't occupied or the occupant died before vault scientists had their spit) but for the sake of this AU/ prompt we'll say that she had a similar entrance to the vault as the sosu, bringing her babe into the vault and getting frozen with Kellogg snatchin both their children (this is lazy writing I know but I don't know how to write this without fundamentally changing her character). The only difference is that somehow maybe Alwine was released/ thawed earlier and got a bit of a head start. Because Alwine is no longer the sosu she wouldn't of encountered Preston at Concord and Codsworth likely either wouldn't of recognized her or simply acted like it was prewar and spoke to her only as if that was the same narrative giving her no sense to what was happening or how much time has elapsed. Alwine would of wandered out on her own and then stumbled onto Paladin Danses recon team and eventually got inducted in hopes of finding her child.

For her personal quest it would likely be trying to find evidence on what happened to her child. The quest would start with the player character going into the institute, and since companions can't follow the player there (minus X6), she would request that they find out what happened. After some digging the player will discover that Alwines child was killed in experimentation over 60 years ago in trials to make experimentation safer for 'father'. The player can bring this information back and Alwine will be devastated but grateful for the player finding this out for her. Despite being fairly amicable with the player she insists she needs time to grieve and that following the player is a cold reminder of the pain. Regardless of what the player says she parts ways with the player and goes back to the Prydwen and will idle there until the Liberty Reprimed quest where she will disappear from the map. Alwine will remain missing from the map until Blind Betrayal where she will be standing outside the bunker blocking Elder Maxon, as well as arguing with him, from entering the building. The player's choices will affect how Alwine responds.

- If the player executed Paladin Danse within the bunker then Alwine will become immediately hostile to the player. She will be forced to be killed by either the player or Maxon.

- If the player spares Danse then chooses to execute him when confronted by Maxon then Alwine will make it clear that she will not hesitate to become hostile to defend her friend. With a red speech check the player can convince her to stand down but she will be remorseful and refuse to follow the player afterwards and disappear off the map. Her body surrounded by a myriad of dead raiders will then be a random encounter while wandering the commonwealth. If the speech check is failed she will become hostile forcing the player, or Maxon, to execute her.

- If the player spares Danse then convinces Maxon to spare him then Alwine will express gratitude and her perk will become available. Unfortunately for Alwine her disobedience and willingness to become hostile towards the elder causes him to kick her out of the brotherhood. She will remain at the bunker with Danse until the player completes the quest and then upon the player returning Danse will disclose that she has gone to the Castle in order to join the Minutemen where she can be reobtained as a companion.

What are their opinions on certain factions? (eg. brotherhood, NCR)

Minutemen:

Genuinely believes that they have the best interests for the Commonwealth. Worries that they lack the men and firepower to take on the Institute or any other large faction that could pose a threat. This Worry is dissuaded after The Nuclear Option and her affirmation towards them only increases. With time, resources, and good leadership, Alwine believes they could become a major player even outside of the Commonwealth.

BOS:

At first is amazed by their technological advancements and firepower especially compared to the rest of the Commonwealth. The comradery is nostalgic and comforting for Alwine as it reminds her of her days in the US Military as a Power Armor Mechanic. After some time she realizes that they're a bit lost for direction grasping at straws for purpose and that their idea of "freeing the Commonwealth" might be misinformed well intention fueled by fear and dogma. When she was new to the commonwealth and didn't understand much about anything really the fearmongering and racism towards ghouls and synths were more tolerable (but still uncomfortable) it eventually become almost intolerable the longer she stayed and the more informed she became about the natures of both.

Railroad:

At first is weary of them. Alwine is careful around people who keep secrets and after spending so much time in the Brotherhood interacting with the Railroad pushes her hackles up. She does like how they work to help the synths, especially after BB, despite being mostly associated with the BOS. She becomes more comfortable after becoming more educated about synths, between the Railroad themselves informing her and the data collected by the player at the Institute itself, and eventually embraces the Railroad as a necessity after BB.

Gunners:

Heavily dislikes them. To her they're essentially just militarized raiders.

Institute:

Has a hate towards them that just strengthens over time. Their ignorance and misuse of technology is both a tragedy and crime. For the most part she pities them but strongly believes that their destruction is absolutely necessary.

Nuka World:

They're raiders so Alwine is pretty hostile towards them. Despite this their organization and brutality makes Alwine careful about making them enemies. If possible she would work to keep them out of the Commonwealth as much as possible or at the very least work to create some kind of truce of sorts to prevent a major confrontation (which would likely be devastating to both sides).

Atom Cats:

They remind her a lot of her friends prewar with the way they talk and their fondness for power armor. She likes them.

Children of Atom:

Alwine believes in freedom of belief as long as said belief does not infringe on the beliefs and freedoms of others. As long as they are respectful of herself and others she will act the same. Alwine is also a bit curious about them she would likely ask a bunch of questions if they allowed it. Other than that she would keep her distance, mostly due to the rads.

General voice lines? (in reaction to companion wheel selections)

Talk:

(friendly/ bubbly) "What's crackalacin"

(friendly/ inquisitive) "You okay?"

(spacy/ broken out of thought) "Hmm?"

Trade:

(friendly/ bubbly) "What's mine is yours"

(joking/ teasing) "finally got tired of carrying that junk eh?"

(joking within a genuine question) "Hey maybe I can carry the big guns instead of the junk for once....no? maybe?"

Follow:

(plain/ firm statement) "Got it"

(bubbly) "Comin!"

(bubbly/ softly) "Oke Doke"

Wait:

(plainly) "alrighty"

(plainly/ softly) "I'll just sit tight"

(masking nervousness through humor) "Don't leave me here too long... might forget what I'm waitin' for and wander off"

Where would you find them in the world?

She would be located at the Cambridge Police Station. Then later at the Castle.

Which game would they be from?

Fallout 4

Miscellaneous facts?

If the player puts alcohol in her inventory and the player gets 'drunk' she will match the player for drinks and her basic dialogue will be slurred for a short time after

Alwine will loot the entirety of corpses, clothes and all, when asked to loot bodies.

Alwine will periodically build weapon and armor mods which can be taken out of her inventory by the player

Alwine refuses to go in water and a hit box specifically for her prevents her from entering. This results in a glitch that has Alwine swimming in the air several feet above the water while the player is swimming.

If the player uses console commands to force Alwine into the water she will sink to the bottom similar to if she were wearing power armor. Note: This does not affect her health she will just idle at the waterbed.

[bloodydamnit]

heyy i love your robin drawing!! i was just wondering (i'm sure you've been asked this before so sorry if it's repetitive) what your drawing process is. do you make renders then draw the lineart separately? idk why i always thought you drew directly on renders ahaha

Hey!!!! first off, thank you so much! That’s a really good question. So, for little spurts like my Robin drawing, I made that render ages ago. It was our original image of Robin since Season 2 was just an idea. I did the drawing separately because it was just something to keep my hand and mind going. The render just acted as a quick reference. 

Normally, I make a full render of the painting that I’m going to make. Most of the time, it’s just a base goal. So I know how everything will lay, how the lighting falls, etc. I’m a very visual person and I need things to be close to what my painting is going to be. Otherwise, I’ll fret over lighting and shadows for days lol. 

Then, I trace the render (because I cant be fucked redrawing the whole thing. it’s a waste of time imo. If it’s just a portrait though, neck up (like robin), I’ll just draw it separately. I’m really anal so it usually ends up being exactly the same as the render anyway. Again, for me, tracing is just a time saver. I don’t have the time to draw something for 6 hours when I just spent 8 on the render.). If there are things I’m changing, I’ll get rid of the render and finish all the details with just the drawing. After the lineart is finished, I begin to paint. Normally I pull up sections of the render and paint on whatever color background I think will add to the painting the most and compliment skintones primarily. 

Here’s an example. I’m making a big Witcher piece right now. I made a full render of what I want done: 

After the render, I pop it into procreate or photoshop to mess around with the colors, brightness, etc, and get them how I want them. After that, I make the lineart and then, sometimes, quickly plot out a background. 

(geralts head got erased. Woops. I was posting to instagram and the blue lines were distracting me lol)

Now, I didn’t really like Geralt or Yennefers faces. There’s only so much that 3D renders can do. So, I quickly went to google just to get the actors for reference, so I can make them as close to the actors as possible, since I’m using the TV show as reference. 

Doesnt have to be the same pose or anything. It’s just so I can see their facial structures, while still using my renders as reference. For example, my render of geralt has a higher cheekbone and it’s flatter. Where as Henry Cavill’s is a bit lower and he has a stronger jowl. I added that into my final painting so it looks more like him. After I make all the reference changes in the lineart, like where the shadow might fall differently, etc, I begin painting.

Going back and forth between the actor and the render as reference. 

Now this is just my process for something like a movie or show that people can look at and will probably go THAT DOESNT LOOK LIKE THE ACTOR AND BLAHBLAHBLAH. If it’s a book or an oc, I just make the characters how I see them and nix any photo references in favor of making it my own in my renders. But its pretty much the same process! 

Hope this explains things and thank you again!