#it's supposed to be dynamic pose practice but!!

[bitternace]

(10/10!)

Lay down your bets for the Gambler of Fate—

[ID: two digital drawings of kingdom hearts character, Luxord. the backgrounds are light blue, and the colors are faded.

in the first image, he’s shown looking to the side with a slightly satisfied smile. He half-squats, with both arms raised to chest height in a wide stance, one hand extended and the other curled somewhat on itself as if throwing something underhand. Beside his head, there are five cards of Fair Game, blurred with movement. His organization 13 coat flares a little behind him.

the second image is a close-up of his face. /End ID]

[toytulini]

if you draw enough monster ocs, when you go back to drawing a human character, it feels like "sameface syndrome" everytime, by virtue of their face being. human.

[lucathemchickens]

god i fucking HATE drawing but i also love it so much, but why cant i just automatically be GOOD at drawing certain things, i hate this

[mopopshop]

i keep thinking about how emily would be like w someone whos super un-sporty and clumsy 😭😭 cutest dynamic ever

A Girlfriend’s Guide to Basketball

Emily teaches her very un-athletic influencer girlfriend some basketball basics

“Hey y’all so we’re here at the Mystics practice facility and my beautiful girlfriend here,” you pull Emily further into frame “is gonna teach me some basketball… moves or whatever, so yay!”

Emily chuckles, giving the camera a shy wave. "Yeah, so I’m just gonna start with the basics. First some dribbling"

You glance at the basketball in Emily's hands and then back at the camera, raising an eyebrow. "Dribbling? Like... just bouncing the ball, right?"

Emily nods, “Here, try it real quick" She hands you the basketball and steps back, motioning for you to give it a try.

You take the ball, feeling its weight in your hands, and tentatively bounce it on the ground. It ricochets off to the side, nearly hitting the camera tripod. You scramble after it, laughing. "That was just practice!!" you yell behind your shoulder. 

Emily laughs with you, stepping in to help. "Try to keep your hand on top of the ball and push it down instead of slapping at it."

You nod, determined. This time, you manage to dribble the ball a few times in a row before it skitters away again. "Okay period, I kinda ate that don’t play with me yall" you exclaim, beaming at the camera.

“You gettin cocky fast” she laughs

You pout, crossing your arms “You’re supposed to be encouraging” 

She chuckles again “My fault, my fault. You’re doing great baby, now let's see if we can keep it under control while we move. Try walking and dribbling at the same time.”

You take a deep breath and start dribbling again, carefully taking a step forward. The ball cooperates for a few bounces, but then your foot catches on it and you stumble, nearly falling over. Emily catches you, laughing.

"Okay, what the fuck this is actually hard" you pout, catching your breath. "This was supposed to be easy”

“Baby, it’s been 10 minutes since we started. Chill a little and try again”

You nod, giving it another go. This time, you manage a few more steps without any major mishaps. "Ate that again, put me in the W people" you joke, striking a triumphant pose.

Emily grins and gives you a quick kiss on the cheek. "Slow your short ass down, ready for shooting?”

You turn to the camera, feigning annoyance “She stay mentioning my height yall,” Emily cackles and shoves you playfully before leading you to the basket. 

Picking up another ball. "We'll start close to the hoop and work our way out. Just focus on your form and follow through."

You take the ball, eyeing the basket nervously. "If this misses I swear" You shoot, and the ball arcs towards the hoop, bouncing off the rim. "The fact that it didn’t go in is so homophobic” you joke and Emily laughs behind you.

"That actually wasn’t bad, baby! Just don’t forget to bend your knees and use your legs to help with the power." She demonstrates a perfect shot, the ball swishing through the net effortlessly.

You try again, following her advice. This time, the ball bounces around the rim before finally dropping in. You do a victory lap around the gym in happiness before attempting a chest bump with your girlfriend. 

Emily smiles, pulling you into a hug. "Okay okay, I see you I didn’t know you could hoop like that. Alright, last one," Emily says, handing you the ball as you stand at the free-throw line. "Make it count."

You take a deep breath, focus on the hoop, and shoot. The ball soars through the air and swishes through the net. You jump up and down, ecstatic. "Put me in the NBA honestly, I’m dominating automatically"

Emily walks over, laughing and wraps an arm around your shoulders, kissing your lips. "My girls a hooper now,” then turns to whisper i your ear “you look kinda sexy playing, honestly” 

“Only kinda?” you tease back before playfully pushing her away and walking towards the camera.

“Alright fam that’s it for today, I’m about to kill Em in a 1v1. Thanks for watching uh.. do all that like and subscribe mess, byeee!” then you shut off the camera.

Emily speaks up “Who the fuck said you’re beating me in a 1v1??”

“Um.. me obvi”

She rolls her eyes, chuckling “Girl bye” 

———

Don’t know exactly how I feel about this one and I might rewrite but I hope you guys enjoy 🫶🏾🫶🏾

[ressjeon]

desperate | pjm (m.)

pairing: model!jimin x pa!reader

summary: being Jimin's assistant made you immune from his flirty tactics, but somehow you find it hard to resist him when he unusually becomes desperate.

rating: 18+ | word count: 3.8k

genre/au: smut (a bit of plot if you squint)

warnings/content: crude language, masturbation, fellatio, handjob, deepthroating, face fucking?, switch dynamics, a lot of pining ig, cheeky jimin that has many lustful thoughts and he's a brat too oml

a/n: been a long while and this is unplanned as always lmao. was supposed to be posted on the 14th but the universe said no so i couldn’t post it. anyways, this is for the 2nd anniversary of this blog’s official debut in this community so why not post a fic of the person who made me start writing in the first place, as the first fic of 2023 just like he was my first fic in this blog (just in time with vibe’s release, his solo album announcement and his official partnership with Dior too! 0.0). thank you Jimin for being my light, i love you 🥰

― masterlist — navigation — wips

You’re currently on your knees, helping Jimin out with his problem.

Not that kind, goodness no. He’s been doing practice poses for his shoot as soon as he arrived like he always does in each photoshoot. You ignored his flushed look when he entered the studio, already knowing his morning routine and went straight for the pre-shoot meeting. Everything was smooth until you noticed some stain on his black pants when you were checking him for any final touches.

So here you are now, dabbing the wet wipes around the spot on his thigh while he’s leaning against the frame of the glass partition behind him. 

He’s lucky that most of the staff are not here yet so you have time to remove the stain from his pants, a cum stain that almost made you scream when he told you sheepishly that it was from some girl he fucked this morning before coming to the studio.

“are you still mad? i told you i didn't realize she’d be a creamer”

In any other situation, this would've been a strange exchange with someone you essentially work for. Jimin has no filter in the way he talks to you but you don’t really mind it as you do the same. You and he have grown closer to one another each day since you started working for him so these types of conversations became normal between you both.

It's one of the perks of Jimin hiring someone around his age for a personal assistant. You've been with him from the very start of his career, barely scraping anything during that time with the both of you fresh from graduation. When he initially asked you, you looked at him incredulously because his plan was quite risky. Jimin understood your hesitance but he was surprised when you finally agreed after a bit of consideration.

Your friends said that it must be the puppy eyes that he constantly gives you but no, you knew of Jimin during college. It’s common knowledge from your mutual acquaintances of how hardworking he is and you’ve witnessed it a few times before so you said yes because why not. You're both in the same boat anyways, still looking for other jobs and who knows, if this works then it will be great for your future careers. 

You remember when Jimin got his very first paycheck, running up to you with a tight hug and asking you something that you’ve been wanting for a while. You were confused but then he cracked a smile and revealed that he wanted to treat you as a gratitude for doing your best to find casting calls and gigs for him. You were happy of course, with both of your hard work finally coming to fruition.

This dynamic you have with Jimin as a very close friend and colleague has been pretty balanced as the years go by. There are times when you fought, unavoidable with your contrasting personalities but you both became comfortable with one another regardless. This makes your teamwork efficient with more understanding from both sides as your relationship gets closer.

“believe me, it’s hers, not mine i swear” he adds, repeating what he explained earlier when you don’t answer him.

Thoughts aside, you do, of course, believe him because Jimin’s one of the most responsible guys you’ve ever known. He always comes prepared for photoshoots and arrives early to do last-minute check-ups despite what his shenanigans are the night before like earlier today. He’ll never go bare with anyone to avoid risks because he already experienced some scares before from past hookups.

No answer from you still but it’s partly because you've been in shambles on the inside with what you feel for him these days. You’re not only annoyed by this whole thing but you also felt uneasy at what he said. You’ve been used to it but you somehow felt the sting when he explicitly laid out his latest hookup. 

You’ll never admit to yourself or him why because it would be unprofessional.

At the same time, you’ve also been fighting to focus only on finishing up what you’re doing, occasionally straying your eyes toward the glass windows to calm yourself down. He was practically naked in front of you, with his damn gold necklace where its round pendant dances around his belly button and pointing down to the huge bulge he was sporting. And it would’ve helped if he’s covered, at least while you’re still on the floor. But apparently, he felt the need to not zip it up and just wear it as it is, torturing you with his sculpted body. 

You shouldn’t mind it but you’re a bit suspicious because Jimin’s always been involved in his photoshoots. He always consults with you regarding his outfits even if it’s not part of your job. He often asks for your input as well, discussing his ideas with you before he gives them a go. For this shoot, he picked this specific hooded jacket among all the ones that you’ve shown him, insisting on wearing it without anything under it because this one is apparently very loose. 

Which became an immense distraction to you. 

You remember zoning out earlier in the meeting room when Jimin was picking the final photos from his pre-shoot, trying all the concepts that he’s been wanting to do. You were already a mess with his slicked-back hair and exposed body along with his tight pants. And now you couldn't stop staring at his veiny hands as they hovered around the pictures. The gold rings on both of his index fingers didn’t help either, turning your focus on them instead of listening to him explaining to you and his stylist. 

Jimin of course notices and teases you like always. Though he’s been doing it more frequently these days, adding more to the brewing tension between you. 

He ran his fingers through the pinned pictures on the pegboard and casually picked up the pictures near where you were standing by the edge of the table. He leans closer and closer so you have to fight the urge to look at him, instead focusing your attention on talking with this stylist.

“you alright, __?”

You just scoff and roll your eyes at him, brushing him off with an excuse of being sleep deprived. He’s doing this on purpose, he could’ve lied to you earlier about fucking someone because how is he still hard? Thankfully he zipped up for now so his oversized jacket covers it but you knew he had a hunch about why you’d been acting weird around him right now.

Jimin's been smiling, knowing that his current hairstyle has been your favourite. He noticed it when he had his rainbow blond one last time where you couldn't stop touching his hair, hands constantly on it whether hair spraying it or simply tugging its strands whenever you can, reasoning that it's looking messy though it's not.

You couldn't stop looking at him too, eyes staying on him more than you ever did since working for him. That's why he specifically talked to the stylist and the photographer about bringing this hairstyle back for this photoshoot since it’ll also fit with his whole look. Also, you’ve been sneaking glances at him today which has been lifting up his mood. It just adds to how hard his dick is already, affecting you this much makes him very excited for today.

“Jimin, you can't do the shoot with this” you will yourself to ask, relieved that your voice came out sterned. When you look up at him, Jimin swears that his cock just twitched at the view of you in this position, his thoughts playing a different scenario where you’re giving him the suck of his life.

“then help me..” he mindlessly responded, totally not paying attention to what you’re referring to. He's not sure really, his mind’s still hazy and all he can think of is the ache of his balls from not being able to cum earlier.

“i’m trying” you grumble, ignoring his pouting. He’s adorable when he’s like this, and he uses that on you when he wants something. Sometimes it works when he combines it with his affectionate touches but you have to be strong this time. You’re not even sure what he’s specifically talking about but then you’ve also been occupied in trying to fight off your growing lust for him. 

Jimin’s pout turns into a grin after catching your eyes flickering from looking anywhere and on his bulge again, he can sense how your hand’s so tempted to touch it with how much you’re gripping his pants. Your hand continues to fidget, eyes unfocused as you continue to wipe off that stain as hard as you can just in case. You don’t look annoyed now either, but you’re wearing a struggling expression that tells him just how conflicted you are at this moment.

You’re beyond torn because that fucking tent of his pants is dissolving your annoyance little by little with sinful thoughts already creeping up your mind the longer you stay down the floor. 

“where are you looking at?”

“the city view looks good from here”

You automatically answer, clearing your throat in the process before gathering up the pack of wet wipes and the damp cloth along with a bowl of cold water from the ground. You avoid looking at Jimin’s face because you knew he was going to try something now that he noticed your slight slip of judgment.

“yeah, the view is amazing but my view from here is better”

“up or down?” 

“both, but i’d say down. you’d say the opposite, right __?”

You almost dropped what you're holding at his remark but this is nothing new to you: Jimin shamelessly throwing his lewd innuendos at you at any chance he got. You indulge him in it, after all, it’s just harmless flirting between friends, something that you never expected when you took this job. Sometimes it's part of your banter, you doing the same thing to him which catches him off guard sometimes when he's focusing on something while working. You especially do it when discussions of his escapades come to light, which you helped in arranging because of his demanding schedules.

Yes, you’re this dedicated to your job even if it sometimes causes an ache in your heart. 

“why? didn’t you fuck someone?” you deflect, not giving him the satisfaction of knowing how much he’s affecting you.

“yeah but i didn’t get to cum, couldn’t…” he trails off as he closes his eyes and grabs his crotch to hopefully feel a little bit of comfort but it's no use. He wants to tell you why he couldn't, wants to let you know who has been stopping him from getting off with other people but you don't care anyways.

“then get rid of it, you still have time”

You state with urgency, nervously looking around if anyone saw but everyone’s been doing their own thing. Patting his thigh, you stand up from your kneeling position and push aside your want to help him in getting rid of it. He might be good at hiding his expressions but he does look like he’s been struggling for hours since he arrived on set. Jimin didn’t do anything but huff before retreating to the dressing room to take care of his problem.

Now that most of the staff are here, you check in with them for any possible last-minute changes. It took your mind off Jimin a bit but your eyes couldn’t stop glancing at the door of his dressing room. You shake your head, pushing yourself to focus on your current task. It’s still early but you want to make sure Jimin’s ready when the scheduled time for his photoshoot is on. This is an important shoot for him so you just hope that he finishes as soon as possible to not keep everyone waiting. 

After you’ve double-checked everything, you decide to fetch Jimin. Nearing his door though is making you more agitated than you already are. You’re about to knock when you hear his loud, sexy groan. fuck. 

You haven't really heard how Jimin sounds properly because each time you catch him fucking someone, either during his breaks or random times when you need something for him to confirm, his partners’ moans usually overpower his so this is quite new, and you won’t deny that you'd love to hear more of it.

“oh fuck..fuck”

Jimin being this loud causes you to panic at the possibility of anyone in the studio hearing him like this. This might not be new for some of the staff but still, you just don’t want everyone to hear how he sounds like. 

You took a deep breath before wandering your eyes around if anyone was watching but thankfully, everyone was busy.

.

He wonders if you’re listening, purposely moaning louder than he intends to as he fists his cock. You probably don’t care and if you ever catch him, you’ll just ignore his attempts and scold him for taking too long at this. It’s always been the case with you but he does find it amusing to piss you off more.

So when he hears the door opening, a smirk creeps up on his face before opening his half-lidded eyes.

“y–”

“shut up” you seethe as you approach his propping form on his vanity. He thinks it's just one of his imaginations again, indulging him with his fantasies. But when he feels you grab the chain of his wrap necklace towards you, his eyes open fully before releasing a small gasp. The smaller chain loop fastens gradually around his neck when you begin pulling its long chain gently while looking into his eyes. He maintains eye contact and you notice the hunger and mischief in them as you continue to pull his necklace.

“s-shit” he whines quietly, though the smirk still remains on his gorgeous face as his hand continues to stroke his cock even faster. His other hand reaches for the dark bottle of lube, bringing it in front of you before pumping its nozzle on his very angry tip.

He closes his eyes again, placing the bottle back on the table while his other hand spreads the lube around his dick. You’re speechless for a second with this whole show he’s putting on, pausing to watch him. It’s when his other hand comes up in an attempt to touch you to come closer that breaks your reverie, swatting his hand away.

You stare him down, brows scrunching while contemplating what to do next. This would be crossing whatever boundaries you have with Jimin both in your personal and professional relationship. You had to look away from him to think this through. You’re used to seeing him semi-naked with other people before but not like this. Him now naked from the waist down in front of you, his tight black pants pooling around his ankles.

It’s Jimin’s desperate whimpers that made your mind up. There’s no point in denying wanting the same thing he desires from you.

“i’ll help you but don't make a sound” you command and he nods, too fucked out to respond because all he wants is his release.

Your hand replaces his before you kneel on the hard floor, immediately swallowing his cock to not waste more time. One of Jimin’s hands is on your head at once, not gripping your hair but just holding onto you for support because fuck, your mouth feels so much better than his hands, hell it's even better than pussies he’s had before.

It’s you, of course, Jimin has always thought about how much better you’ll be at pleasuring him than others. He smiles after noticing your demeanour change as soon as your mouth envelops him. It must be the lube flavour that he specifically picked knowing apple’s one of your favourites. Your mouth is greedily sucking him in now, warm tongue lapping up the entirety of his cock.

"you were drooling for my cock earlier, hmm? bet you wouldn't mind sucking me off in front of everyone outside" his mocking tone shudders, his attempt of gaining control wavering with you being encouraged by what he said. You bob your head faster, opening your mouth more to take him deeper cause the view from where you are is spurring you to do more. Jimin in his fucked out glory is a sight to watch, his gold link earrings swaying as he tosses his head back, his plump lips getting swollen from him biting them to hold his moans in.

You want to see more of it. 

When Jimin’s not closing his eyes from the pleasure, they never leave yours as he stares right into them. He surprises you when he gets up from leaning on the vanity, his hand moving from the top of your head down to the back of your neck to pull you closer to him. This made him push deeper into your mouth so you loosen your jaw, the new angle allowing more of his length in your mouth. As soon as his tip reaches the back of your throat, you’re unable to stop releasing gurgling moans when it nudges further.

“can’t..believe..you’re.. choking on my cock right now..”

Jimin rasps needily as he rolls his hips slowly, deeper with each thrust. The vibrations from your moans are not helping him in holding his orgasm longer. He’s been trying hard because he wants to prolong this, relish this view of you on your knees and your mouth on him because who knows if this will ever happen again. He’s losing himself, grinding on your face while his hand starts massaging your nape in time with his thrusts.

Now you’re confused because you for sure thought that he’ll start fucking your throat roughly the moment you allowed him but he’s not. You take a deep breath through your nose as you come up, readying your throat in case he’ll change his mind later when he’s close to cumming. But the way he’s touching your nape is making you relax, distracting you from your main reason for helping him in the first place.

He’s close already, his cock's been throbbing before you started bobbing your head earlier. His pace also changes a bit faster but is still slow and you’re confused as to why he’s been holding back. His breathing turns erratic and his lower abs are flexing. You know it so before he does so dig your nails into both of his meaty thighs before one of your hands leaves and pushes away his hold on your head. 

You take him deeper until your lips reach the skin of his crotch, immediately pushing back when he grabs your head again, releasing his cock from your mouth which causes Jimin to whimper in frustration.

“that's for making me wipe other girl's cum on your pants” you glare at him, voice hoarse from taking him that deep in your throat. Standing up from kneeling was making your legs wonky, feeling numb from your previous position but your mind’s not on it with your prior annoyance resurfacing because of his attempt to pacify you.

Jimin, however, begins laughing.

Your brows rise from his reaction, totally not expecting this because you were really sure that you already got him under you.

“so you’re jealous after all,”

“i’m not, i wouldn’t help you if i were” you counter, avoiding his eyes as you pull his jacket back on him, it was slipping on one side already, showing his muscular arms and the tattoo on his ribs. Your fingers have minds of their own when you start tracing each of the letters, causing Jimin to shiver at your touches but the devilish smile remains on his handsome face.

“but you’re doing it to prove something, right?”

You don’t know how to answer him and you don’t want to tell him the truth because it’ll just feed his already massive ego. Instead, you grab his swollen dick, hot and heavy in your hands and begin stroking him roughly. The slick from the lube, his precum and your saliva made it easier for your plan. There’s no way you’ll let him, he’ll never be able to make you admit it.

The smile disappears from his lips as his whole body shakes with a cry, not expecting your punishing pace on him. You want to look at him, to watch his smug face morph back into a pliant one.

But you can’t.

Jimin couldn't cum earlier while fucking another girl because all he can think about is you and now you’re doing what exactly he’s been imagining for months, years. You’re still not looking at him, your brows scrunching in focus on jerking him off. He can’t stop himself from bucking into your hands when your thumb starts flicking his mushroom tip, nudging his frenulum with your index finger before squeezing his shaft each time you do it.

You’re honestly amazed at how Jimin manages to hold off his climax this long but it shouldn’t surprise you when he has such incredible control of his body. It’s when your other hand reaches out to pull his necklace again to pull him towards you, that he finally gives in. It never crossed your mind that modifying this necklace by combining it with his gold link could serve as an advantage for you when playing with him.

Jimin’s hand leaves the table to muffle his mouth, eyes somewhat begging you to let him cum. You smile and he lets himself go through a series of incoherent cries, still covering his mouth like you ordered him to. And despite knowing how loud he can be, you quickly move to remove his hands to finally hear the delicious moans that he’s been obediently keeping. 

He continues to rock his hips despite the overstimulation, trying to catch your eyes and when you do look up, he’s back to purposely biting his lips as he gapes at you with his dark brown eyes.

He’s grinning while still biting his lips as he shoots more of his cum into your hands, it’s spilling all over but most of it landed on your black sheer top, especially on the sleeves.

“Jimin what the fuck! you came so much..” your enamoured eyes are focusing on his slit that’s still releasing loads of his sticky cum around your fingers.

“yeah, been holding them back” for you, he wants to add but he just chuckles, breathlessly and all giddy while eyeing you. It could be high from his mind-blowing orgasm but it’s more with how he basically just covered you with his cum.

You look cute when you’re annoyed, grumbling because of the stains on your sheer puffy top. Some of them are on your black leather pants too, and this just adds to his amusement as he watches you walking around frantically, looking for something to clean you both up with before his photoshoot finally commences in about a minute or so.

Jimin’s not sorry of course, seeing his cum stains on you is stirring something carnal in him. It's his way of marking you because you're his now, well, kind of. He'll just make sure to properly mark you next time.

e/n: i initially wrote this around the time it came out and during his birthday but wasn’t planning on posting it until later cuz i do have other priority fics but i just have to since i wasn’t able to post him last year 😭

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

As someone who doesn't usually visit your streams, what's your breakdown for making such dynamic shots? Would love to hear a little bit about your process of creation.

I wish I had a well written answer, but I kinda just wing it. Okay I guess I think of like, increasing or decreasing fov in a video game. The more intense the dynamism, the stronger the fov. You can make an energetic pose with good sense of gesture with a readable line-of-action, but a very flat fov, which works for "normal" drawings. Increasing fov adds intensity by exaggerating the distance between objects.

Unfortunately, for actual drawing, I don't have a strong, conscious process. I kinda just try a rough draft, and if it's not dynamic enough, try to think critically about whether the limbs seem to properly flow together with the gesture or adhere to perspective, and redraw whatever doesn't work. I'm crudely simplifying all the process in this post because I've practiced a lot of this to the point of it being second nature, which sounds cool but like, I have to stop myself and really think if I wanna actually understand what I'm doing.

It's also a lot easier to do when it's a character with a bodytype I'm confident in drawing. Some days I just can't make the strong fov-look work, and go with something flatter so that it'll actually be on-model. One tip I suppose: Drawing solid red boxes and circles over the refs clients give me can help in getting all the proportions right, and I get a little more comfortable with more dynamic shots again.

[puttersmile]

(Ken) Kickin is fine with bugs but spiders will give him nightmares. Don't matter how big or small.

Ken saving a girl he likes from some kind of peril. Or maybe this is just a daydream.

Doug and Scotch sharing a nightmare? Or this is real danger. What kind of past do they share?

These are some quick arts working out character dynamics and practicing the princess/bridal carry pose for some reason? I do need to practice drawing 2 characters touching each other. These guys are supposed to be friends after all.

I made a side blog on a whim but I'm not even sure how they work. So yeah...

[jojo-schmo]

I really like your artstyle. Especially whenever you draw Dedede. It inspired me to make this:

It's artwork I made nearly two years ago. The left is remade artwork.

How do you stay consistent with your style?

- Jocket

Oh wow!! That's a true honor to hear, thank you for telling me this! Both drawings are so lovely!! But I love how dynamic and in motion everyone's poses are in your new one, and the expressions and colors are so fun!! :D Keep drawing, it's looking great! <3

And that's very kind of you to say that about my artstyle! It's funny you say that, I've been feeling a slight struggle with my consistency these days. (But that's also probably my own perception :P )

I think... whenever I struggle with consistency, I aim for confidence. Confidence in my sketches and the lines I draw. Reminding myself that while the art might not look exactly like the image in my head, I'm doing this to the very best of my ability.

Even when I feel like I'm not drawing something "technically correct." Like backgrounds or perspectives or something I haven't drawn before. I try to remind myself, "This is the very best I can do right now, and it's better than having drawn nothing at all! Because this didn't exist before I put pencil to paper, or stylus to screen. And that's pretty magical!"

Also just studying new things to draw and plenty of practice, I suppose! Practice makes progress! I mean, I didn't draw Dedede AT ALL until I was like 24! And I've been drawing Kirby characters since like, age 11! I just learned to get over my own mental blocks that I created over time. Before, I thought that if I couldn't draw a character "well," I shouldn't even try at all. And that reluctance to leave my comfort zone when I was younger caused me to miss out on a lot of growth in my technical art skills! So I try to remember that mindset more these days.

And hey, maybe consistency isn't the ultimate end goal for everyone's art styles. I mean, art styles are allowed to evolve as much as an artist wants them to! I think I'm personally happier with my progress in my confidence than my progress in consistency. But I'll keep working on both.

I hope that all makes sense :) Keep up the wonderful work!! Your art is something only you can make! And I think that's beautiful!

[pansyfemme]

hey!!! I love your art, was wondering if you have any recommendations for practicing anatomy? the way you draw people is so nice and your poses look so dynamic and fluid it’s rly impressive

hey hey! so my currently knowledge of anatomy is because i’ve been taking figure drawing classes, and really fucking loving them. While i know that an actual college level figure class isn’t super accesible, it’s still worth it to see if there are any figure drawing groups around your area. Lots of places do them for a small flat fee, or maybe even free, depending where you look. BUT, if that’s really not an option, having a friend pose for you or people sketching at a park is pretty good too! Drawing the figure consistantly and from real life is the best way to improve, and i saw myself making leaps and bounds after just a few weeks of starting this kind of practice. On days that you cannot get anyone to sit for you- websites like line of action and fatphotoref are full of images created for the purpose of figure study. I like to a lot of these in pen or marker, and just plot out points in relation to eachother, and give myself like ~ 5 minutes to get stuff down. I find it helps me from getting too fixed on one place. (this is one i did over the summer, its not perfect, but its a good example of one i did off of photos) im pretty sure people make figure drawing videos too? but i’ve never tried them.

I offen hear people give advice on anatomy like ‘breaking the form down into shapes’ and i… personally discoruage that exactly. Not that the form can’t be broken down, it’s just that people tend to take that and run with it, and the shapes become waaaay more simplified than intended. Parts of the body are rarely tubes or circles or squares, and for me, breaking down the body may be breaking the leg into hundreds of parts rather than the standard two or three.

I suppose the main thing i tend to really focus on is making sure your characters feel weighted. Bodies carry a lot of muscle and fat, and if a person does not feel firmly rooted to the ground, the whole figure can feel thrown off.

Im not always sure what else tips i can give besides keeping a regular sketchbook practice, drawing who are around you whenever you can, and just observing your model or reference closely, working general to specific on details

[yonemurishiroku]

What do you think of Jason Grace x Alabaster Torrington, it could be a nice relationship

This is for both anon and @nicosavior456 since Nov 2023, bc I failed to get it tgt sooner.

In regard to Jason/Alabaster, I think it's an indeed interesting ship.

Hear me out. These two have surprisingly many crossings. The first that comes to my mind is that there is a chance Alabaster knows of Jason - as far-fetched as it sounds.

I'm talking about Alabaster's sword of Imperial gold. Imperial gold is the main weapon of Camp Jupiter. I've always wondered how Alabaster, a betraying Greek demigod of the Titan Army, managed to get his hands on such a weapon.

Which then leads to the second crossing - Jason toppling Kronos' throne on Mt. Othrys.

This poses as a perfect excuse for a scenario wherein Kronos (and in general the Titan Army) is aware of Camp Jupiter, and as one of his high-ranking followers, Alabaster should, too.

Taking both in account, I can practically make a headcanon about Alabaster stealing the Im. gold sword from Camp Jupiter's armory, how he and Jason could have encountered in a hypothetical infiltration into said armory, how they could have come across again in the advancing of the Mt. Othrys. i'm probably delusional, but you get what I mean.

tbh it would make quite a compelling story, you know, the praetor and the thief. sort of like a locked-up princess and the piper that comes across and tells her of the wonders beyond the bar. Ok maybe less romantic and more resentful. Alabaster as this enigma that, literally, sneaks into Jason's life and somehow turns it upside down. He comes back every night, magically bypassing Terminus' shield, curses Jupiter and his whole family, destroys everything Jason's been taught to believe in and then leaves in a flash of green light like a torch going out at the first sudden breeze. His visits always end up in fights, and yet Jason finds himself looking forward to them, as if looking for a breeze of fresh air - and things just devolve from there.

Look me in the eyes and tell me it doesn't sound exciting.

What about their dynamics, then?

An interesting thing is that, fundamentally, Alabaster is what Jason might become. It is the same way that Jason and Luke parallel each other? - I suppose.

Alabaster is a bitter one turned traitor. At that time, Jason should have been bitter if only he just allowed himself to feel. Jason is what Alabaster despites, pities, and hates to become the most - a loyal soldier to the mafia gods. Whereas Alabaster's existence clashes with everything Jason (at that time) is taught to believe in. He's against the gods and wants to bring down the Olympians instead of worshipping them.

He isn't what Jason would have considered one of them, but he has what Jason doesn't have and doesn't realize he needs yet - the courage to resist.

A spectacular turn of events would be that Alabaster manages to teach Jason the freedom to choose - the freedom they have been robbed of, the lack of which has been ensuring Jason as a useful soldier to Jupiter all this time. And what might come out of that? - perhaps, Percy would have an equal child of the Big Three as his enemy.

Also. It just occurs to me how funny that is that Alabaster... actually has a quite amicable relationship with his godly mother, whereas Jason is just estranged. But as it turns out, Al is the bitter one.

All in all, these two are such fun! 🤗 Hope you enjoy my delusions

[leidensygdom]

Ur strength is definitely color and line work. Something I would say needs some work is definitely your full body drawings and poses. Your poses are always static and rigid and (especially when in motion) it takes me a moment to figure out what the character is supposed to be doing. Your anatomy is fine, its the stiffness of the over all pose thats the issue. It makes your pieces lack energy and any real umph. Your beautiful use of color and line usually covers for this but for me (someone who also struggles with this) it pops out like a sore thumb.

To practice, id suggest doing gesture drawings (1 minute sketches of action poses) to really understand how the body moves fluidly and to practice capturing that energy. Id also suggest doing 5-10 minute studies of full body figures in which you specifically observe how the pose affects the distribution of weight. How the torso curves in relation to the pose (your torsos are often very vertical and stiff) and how their muscles, fat, and clothing stretch, bulge, or fold depending on the pose.

Try to keep things loose during these studies and focus on capturing the energy of the pose over perfect anatomy. Focusing on anatomy can often be a distraction and can actually detract from capturing the fluid movement of a pose when you are first learning. You dont want to be thinking about anatomy during a 1 or 5 or 10 minute study if that is not what you are trying to learn.

While doing gesture drawings, its important that you move fast and dont get hung up on details. Get the line of action in there and the general shapes of the figure. Focus more on the movement of the figure over anatomy or details. Feel the rhythm in the pose and do your best to capture it. Id suggest doing 10 or 20 of these at a time. Sites like Line of Action are great for studies like this.

For 5-10 minute studies you want to build on the rhythm you developed during the 1 minute studies. Again, you want to focus on the movement of the pose over the details. Keep shapes simplified and force yourself to think in the abstract. A vibe i get from looking at ur art is that you get focused on the small details while losing sight of the big picture (might be wrong bout this but its something i also struggle with lolol) so during studies its important to keep ur mind on the bigger picture. Focusing in on small details adds to the stiffness of a piece as instead of one singular piece, it’s made of many smaller pieces. Idk if that makes sense lololol. Id do 1 hour of these 5-10 minute studies.

But yea id say this is really the main thing holding you back right now. Once you figure out how to capture the rhythm and energy in a pose id say ur golden lololol good luck! I hope this helps XD

oh gods yeah I need to whip some referencing for poses and specially dynamism, I tend to make things a bit too stiff. I think I cornered myself into making very static poses since I do a lot of character ref oriented work, and showing the design and outfits is a priority over the dynamism, and like, I need to get working on that.

It sucks to realize how I've let social media performance guide a bit on what I draw and I practice. People like their fullbody character designs with a grey background, and I've let a lot of What Isn't That fall apart, and it's bad! I gotta get better!

I need to find a way to maybe get a way to do these practices and still post it, bc even when I've done them, they stay in a folder and never get to see the light of the day. (Also, I saw the other ask and I'm gonna check that one soon! I struggle so much finding good refs for that!)

[lukellios]

Really curious to know how you got so good at art? Bc you've improved so much in the last few years but even back then you were really good...

Hmmm I'm not sure about which "back when" you're referring to 🤔 I've been drawing seriously for over thirteen years so I've got a few "stopping points" of skill

This is about where I started, if that gives you a good reference point. It's... bad. I am pretty sure it was my best attempt at a stylized human face, but it was not supposed to have cartoonist anatomy. At this point I was going for realistic proportions, and it was a struggle. It's not awful but it's got a lot of room to improve.

A year or two later and I'm in my adventure time phase, but I have a better understanding of form and posing. Human faces are still hard for me so I avoid them, animal faces are easy enough that I'm trying to experiment with more difficult angles. My digital art knowledge is very very low.

I branched out into bots for the next couple of years and that gave me a much better idea about form and perspective just because it was trial by fire. Mecha are incredibly hard but I had (and have) brain worms so I did it all out of love. It was challenging but fun (and rewarding), I tried a lot of new color palettes and tried to figure out how to make digital art look better.

Even going back to something I hadn't drawn in a long time after drawing bots showed I'd made significant improvements overall, but drawing human faces was still extremely hard.

At the end of the bot era I've massively improved, but I still shy away from humans. My traditional lines are very controlled and uniform, my digital lines still leave a lot to be desired.

I finally have to learn how to draw humans but it's a struggle. I draw every day, not vigorous traditional studies but just small sketches, practicing over and over. I'm starting to understand digital art a little better and I have a much better sense of posing and framing characters

Around this time I finally have a firmer grasp of how to draw humans and how to use a tablet. I want to show this piece even if it wasn't my favorite because I still wasn't happy with it. My composition is better and there's a lot of improvement on my line steadiness and varying width, but even the two profiles were giving me trouble. The movement felt dynamic but disconnected.

I redid this piece a year ago because I could finally see what I was unhappy with and change it. The profiles are much better, the hair and clothes are following the same direction of wind, the clothes have weight to them, and the shoes have much better form. Everything is also just a little more polished, and I didn't even have to change the background from the first attempt.

Really over the years it's just been about fixing a few things at a time by branching out and trying a lot of different things. Dipping my hand into a lot of subjects and really challenging myself has helped me learn a lot. Even though I wasn't always studying the same thing, learning as I went helped me in a lot more areas than just the ones I was focusing on at the moment. Hope this helps, if even a little! It's a really hard question and there's no one right way to improve, so take a mixed bag of advice and try it all c:

[kate-komics]

I think your art style is so cool. Do you think you can share your art process sometime?

Okay, I’m gonna do my best to share my ‘process’ even though I don’t even know what it is 😅 bare with me here!

Rather than give you a step by step (because the steps are never the same for me) I’ll show you one of my speed draws and try to hit a few points about what I consider/ think about while I’m drawing. This will only be for drawing human figures, just FYI.

I’ll use my lil Steddie sketch I did recently since it’s freshest in my mind and I think I did a good job with the posing.

Here’s the video!

Now let's see if I can articulate my thoughts.

I would also like to note that there was no reference for this drawing. This was only a warm up drawing that I developed a little to much because I was having a good time making it

Things I consider when drawing people:

Gesture drawing/ Pose: Make a loose gesture drawing first so you can get a feel for where you wanna go then build off that. Where is the weight of the body leaning? What direction are they facing? As you can see when I first start I keep it all fairly loose until I really figure out wear the body is leaning. Once I have they're torso/ centerline figured out the limbs follow. As you can see I was having a tough time figuring out what position for for Eddie's legs looked the most natural/ interesting. Which brings me to my next point!

Keep your first sketches loose, and don't be afraid to test things as you go. As you can see in the video I basically start from scribbles and build off of that. Adjust shoulders, move limbs around, tilt heads, whatever you think would look best. All in all I probably redrew the figures 2 or 3 times before I started on line art.

Shapes! Once I have the pose and sketch to my liking I build off the gesture by making shapes and angles a little sharper. This is, of course, specific to my personal preference in style but I think just slightly exaggerating the shape of a muscle or the point of a feature really takes a drawing to a new level in terms of style. I believe Ethan Becker (highly recommend his tutorials) has a good youtube video about how an elongated triangle shape is a fun dynamic shape to use in cartooning. I just make things a little pointer than they are. That's all.

Line weight! Building off of how I illustrate shapes, I use line weight to exaggerate it even further and also literally show the weight of the figure. Parts of the body that have weight on them or are foreshortened towards the camera get at thicker outline to exaggerate them. (Though sometimes I don't always do this) Parts that are soft outlines (Facial features and clothing details) get thinner lines or a small series of cross hatching lines. It's all about what you choose to put emphasis on. I also like to use exaggerated lines for clothing wrinkles to add to the gesture. Most of my specific art style is in how I do my line work. I use inking brushes with a dramatic taper to get the shapes I do. I highly recommend getting a traditional art inking brush and practicing on paper just to see the cool shapes you can get.

And finally, black space/ shading. I do have rather dramatic shading being that it's just part of my line art. Honestly, it's often rather unrealistic but really what's the point of drawing if you can't make things look really cool and dramatic? When laying out what the black space will be I suppose I think of how it'll frame the figure and what's really important. For example, Steve's back leg its all blacked out behind his front leg because it's not an important part of his pose and I wanted to use it show the surface he's sitting on without actually drawing it. Draw less details to show the details somewhere else, ya know? Use filled in shadows to frame other parts and put more emphasis on details. Admittedly, it does take some practice to get good at inking this way.

Little drawing rules for humans I don't even think about anymore but use all the time

Shoulders and hips always tilt opposite each other. It's what keeps the body balanced.

The main parts of the human body that show expression are the eye's and the hands. Also emotion in the eye's is like 80% in eyebrows.

It's okay to rework something that doesn't look right at any stage in the drawing.

Most average sized humans are 7 heads high and their shoulders. 2-3 heads across (Think this is in every 'how to draw' book ever)

The blank space of a pose is just as important and interesting as the filled space.

Okay! I think that's all I got. I'm not much of a teacher but I hope this was at least interesting and HOPEFULLY mildly helpful.

Thanks for the ask!

[tortillasconsal]

Some Trenderman sketches

I'm trying to do some practice/concept sketches for Trenderman while planning his design and character and it's way more harder than I thought it'd be.

I have a very "close-minded" version of the character. Like what I think about him is that he is a very tradicional person, and despite being very focused on fashion (an aspect of humanity that is very diverse and personal and used in many ways all at the same time) he has very closed views on it and tries really hard to catter to the mainstream because his objective is to keep people on a box that he himself designs so they're easier to control and manipulate. If you see the little notes I wrote on the outfits that are crossed off you'll see how conservative he's supposed to be.

And while he understands how culturally significant and deeply connected fashion is to humans he is a very inhumane person. I want him to feel approachable and more "normal" than his family but I also want him to feel uncanny and very artificial. He is literally based on mannequins so it makes sense that he is as fake as them.

In general I don't want him to exclude a lot of personality from his looks. And I think I can also do that with his mannerisms, I feel like it could be interesting if he moved kind of robotic or stiff. Which means I have to practice some stiff poses because the ones I made here look pretty fluid and natural.

I kinda like the smallest full-body sketch and the one where he's sitting. They're not too dynamic or too stiff, they're very close to the vibe I want Trender to have.

I'm taking inspiration from preppy and casual business styles and that very minimalist and structured style that some designer collections use. I'm also using some 50s trends to have some variety on silhouettes and articles of clothing, also because the 50s is known as a very cozy and friendly-looking decade despite human rights being barely talked about during it. I also think he'd only use neutral or earthy colors and wear a lot of monochrome outfits.

I guess that is all my thought process so far

I've become more invested on Trenderman since I've started this sort of project(? I know he started as a meme and that's pretty much the purpose of his character but as a fashion enthusiast I find a lot of potential on him.

The fashion aspect of Trenderman is usually limited to a running gag or a personality quirk, but fashion and trends are such a powerful tool that are used for more than just looking good and they can lead to the most grotesque and traumatizing horror stories.

I really am getting excited with all the space I get to fill that nobody else has yet. I want to see what I come up with already.

[anewnewcrest]

What mods do you use for this save, if you don’t mind me asking? I’m assuming MCCC to override the household member limit, but anything else?

And how much autonomy do you allow these nincompoops? For example: did David Johnson autonomously start flirting with Henrietta, or did you script that? I’d be very impressed if you have entire storylines written out in advance, but managing to turn sim AI into a coherent plot also takes mad skills.

Just for my own amusement: do you have a favorite family/sim atm?

Thank you for asking, please feel free to ignore my incoming ramble, I am constitutionally incapable of keeping things short (but you read the blog, so you probably already know that).

I use MCCC to override the household limit and increase the limit of sims allowed on a lot up the wazoo so I can get everyone assembled at church or the Johnsons' house. I also double the bills and half skill gains and career performance gains (and in some cases just stop career progression entirely if it doesn't suit the story), because the game makes it too easy to accumulate wealth, and them all being rich and not struggling with finances would really take the fun out of the Fundies (and really, with their education, they're not supposed to get promoted anyway).

For the religion content, I use Rambunctious Religions.

For screenshot purposes, I also have pose player and teleport any Sim (obviously), in addition to that Control Any Sim (invaluable if you have people from other households who just won't do what you want them to), Less Musical Chairs and No Stand Up to Greet from LittleMsSam, and a few mods that remove effects such as food sparkles and floor sparkles and sparkles around heads and other cosmetic things similar to that, as well as a few to turn off fade on trees and columns.

As for things peculiar to Fundie gameplay, with as often as everyone is pregnant, LittleMsSam's Pregnancy Overhaul is also a must, because if those ladies can't exercise during their pregnancies, they'll never exercise. I also got the Unlimited Jobs mod from Turbodriver because if you've got eleventy kids, one job really doesn't cut it, and you need a side job for your side job. Also a mod for them to keep their instruments in their inventory because these kids are always practicing the violin and keeping their instruments in any semblance of order is a chore. And Adults can Cry which is obviously critical for them to express their misery with their choices.

There's also a lot of modest clothing CC (even though I try to keep it rather minimal - I rarely succeed). And I recently installed Healthcare Redux to spice up the whole thing a bit, because I was getting a bit bored with gameplay lately.

As for how much autonomy they have... very little, I'm afraid! I'm a bit (more than a bit) of a control freak, and I have a large SPREADSHEET where everything is accounted for. I usually have a Sims' general life direction planned out before they're even born (so I can start giving them the personality they need for their plot starting as young as toddlers, and also so I can start dropping story hints), though sometimes they do surprise me (Chelsea leaving was not planned that way, she was set to get married and have a lot of Fundie kids, but then she rebelled so hard and I liked her so much that I just couldn't do that to her, and Sharon Graham was supposed to be a Fundie lawyer lady in a politically influential Fundie power couple... but then I couldn't do that to her parents).

Stories shift around as they develop and I get to know them (honestly, I thought Baker and Lily would be a boring standard-issue Fundie couple together and then I wrote them and I realized all the issues they have from the way they grew up and I couldn't just not add that to their relationship dynamic!) and see how much I like them or not, and whether I'm having fun with them, whether they get along, or if it would be weird for them to end up together, and I also have a long, long list of ideas to draw from if I totally draw a blank with a kid (which does happen). As for Henrietta, she was made for having an affair with David, quite literally, the poor woman.

As for my current favorites... I really like Mark and Kathryn Graham a lot, because they're some of the very few decent folks I currently have in the game, and Mark's just living his best life right now. And on the other end of the spectrum, I'm absolutely, ridiculously excited about Priscilla Sawyer (née Johnson) starting her arc, because while she's not a good person, she will be so much fun, and rebelling hardcore against the Fundie wife mold. Max Sr. and Jr. have no idea what's going to hit them.

[missionkitty]

Cold and Warm - Dorothea/Sylvain (FE3H)

a short one-shot fic i've been writing on and off for the better part of a year and finally managed to finish. i've always liked dorothea's and sylvain's dynamic and wanted to try writing something a little angsty but also fluffy with them. hope you enjoy. no major warnings, just sylvain trying to reminisce about his academy time with dorothea after they reunite post-timeskip and have their a-level support.

***

Sylvain held the dance pose he was in for what felt like an uncomfortably long time. He tried resisting the urge to glance at Dorothea, who he had managed to recruit to help him practice for the White Heron Cup in a few days.

He didn't want to risk looking at her and seeing a look of disgust or…whatever a professional performer would look at him with after what he felt was surely a poor show, based on her silence.

He started to sweat when he thought he heard a giggle. Sylvain whipped his head to see Dorothea stifling a laugh, her hand covering her mouth.

"Wh–Dorothea!" Sylvain whined, dropping his arms.

"Sorry!" Dorothea said, letting out a louder laugh and defensively shaking her hands. "I just wanted to see how long I could get you to stand there like that."

"Come on…I'm being serious, I need your help! I don't wanna let everyone down."

"I know, I know." She settled her laughter with a sigh. "But you looked great. I don't really have much to say, which is why I figured I could mess with you a little."

Sylvain frowned and put his hands on his hips.

"Well, you could stand to loosen up some. It's not like you to be so worried about something like this,” Dorothea responded with a joking pout.

"I'm just nervous! Like…why did the professor have to pick me to do this–why didn't she pick you?" Sylvain groaned, running his hands through his hair. "I mean, you did this kind of stuff for a living, right?"

Dorothea looked at Sylvain, thinking. She hummed and shrugged after a moment, walking up to him.

"Is all this practice cutting into your dates?" She cooed sarcastically.

"Well, sure, but I really do want to do a good job. I still have my pride as a member of the Blue Lions," Sylvain sighed.

"I don't claim to know what the professor is thinking, but I think her judgement has been really good so far–I mean," Dorothea said, dramatically flourishing her hands as she continued, "She let me join you Blue Lions, after all."

Sylvain chuckled and nodded, looking back at Dorothea.

"That's very true."

"Besides, I think I'm getting pretty good at black magic. You can help me fire off a few extra spells on the battlefield once you get that dancer certification," Dorothea added with a wink.

Sylvain smiled at Dorothea. Her apparent confidence helped push away some of his nerves. They had known each other long enough that she never really minced words with him…

Honestly, she could see right through him.

"...Do you think the professor really isn't trying to punish me or humiliate me by having me be the Blue Lions' rep for the Heron Cup?" Sylvain slowly asked, wanting to divert his current train of thought.

"Well, if what you said was true about that pass you made at her during the Horsebow Moon is true, then…maybe she's only trying to punish you a little bit." Dorothea smirked, tugging and adjusting the collar of his white shirt.

Sylvain sighed and gave a sheepish smile as he glanced down at Dorothea.

"What do you think she'll do to me if I don't win?"

"What, Sylvain Gautier scared of a teacher?"

"Did you know the professor's nickname when she was a mercenary was 'Ashen Demon?'" Sylvain faked a shiver, though it was certainly rooted in a real awareness of their professor's abilities.

"I think I've heard that floating around the academy once or twice," Dorothea said with a laughing hum. "She sure likes fishing a lot for being called a demon…"

"And tea." Sylvain gave Dorothea an astonished look. "You know, I still don't get how all these tea invitations are supposed to help me win."

"Sylvain, are you taking all these tea dates with a pretty lady for granted?" She teased, forcefully tugging and adjusting his academy jacket.

"As mysteriously beautiful as our professor happens to be, I think I'd much rather have tea with you," he replied, habitually turning on his charm.

"Oh really?" She looked up at him with a smirk and an accusingly-cocked eyebrow. "Then what's my favorite tea?"

"Sweet-Apple. Or Albinean Berry."

Dorothea looked at him with a mixture of shock and amazement. Sylvain had an unfamiliar feeling churn in his stomach as he processed her wide, green-eyed stare. He felt his ears start to burn and began stammering.

"I mean, I uh, I…I asked the professor…what your favorite was," Sylvain admitted, somewhat embarrassed. Their banter had disarmed him and he felt nervous again, but now for a different reason.

Dorothea's stunned silence eventually gave way to giggles as she shook her head.

"And for what reason did you want to know, dare I ask? If you're trying to flirt again…"

"No, no, nothing like that," Sylvain responded a little more frantically than he intended, "I just…wanted to thank you for helping me with this after it's all over."

"My, that's very considerate of you," she said with a smile. "Though I haven't done much more than just watch. Our professor seems to have done most of the heavy lifting."

"Sure, but for some reason I felt like getting your stamp of approval would help me feel more confident about this whole thing–which I was right about."

Dorothea smiled and nodded.

"I'm glad I could be of help. I look forward to your win."

"I guess I'll practice a little while longer if you don't mind staying," he said, putting his hands behind his head.

"Sure, but…one question." Dorothea looked at Sylvain. "What's your favorite tea?"

"Hmm…well, if the lovely Dorothea is inviting me for tea, then any tea is my favorite."

"Sylvain."

"Sorry, just trying to be funny." He crossed his arms and smiled. "Bergamot, or if you can find it, Seiros tea."

"Hmm, good to know," Dorothea said, smiling in return.

***

Dorothea smiled as she waited for Sylvain to emerge from a darkened corner of the training grounds wearing his new dancer garb. She wished she could have somehow saved the shocked expression that quickly played across Sylvain's face before he quickly resumed his confident demeanor when they announced his name as winner of the White Heron Cup.

She had begged him to show her what he looked like. Sylvain insisted that she would see it on their next mission, but Dorothea had convinced him to give her an early view.

It was kind of late, and hopefully no one would show up in the training grounds tonight–though Sylvain was a bit concerned about Dimitri appearing if he couldn't sleep, which was apparently a common occurrence.

Dorothea assured him she would protect Sylvain's honor and keep the crown prince of Faerghus from intruding on the dancer outfit sneak peek if worse came to worst.

It wasn't much longer before she heard some light jingling and saw Sylvain step into the light of one of the lamps they had lit.

Dorothea was impressed with his color choices–black with red and purple accents, very striking.

"So? What do you think?"

"I think that it suits you surprisingly well," Dorothea said with a smile. "The professor knew what she was doing when she picked you."

Sylvain smiled and chuckled, but stayed silent for a moment after.

"What do you say to that tea invitation now?" He asked, still smiling.

"Ooh, an evening tea…that sounds lovely. You should stay dressed in this though," Dorothea said with a teasing giggle.

"Is it doing anything for you?" Sylvain teased back, making a pose.

"Oh, absolutely! Our next opponents won't know what hit them."

***

Sylvain sat quietly in the monastery in one of the less-ruined pews, staring absently at the pile of rubble that obscured the altar.

He had been pondering those last few months leading up to the Empire's invasion of Garreg Mach after having dinner with Dorothea earlier that night.

It had been five years since he had won the White Heron Cup. However, after Edelgard revealed herself as the Flame Emperor and Rhea and the professor had gone missing, he hadn't really done much dancing. His other talents were needed to help fend off Cornelia's soldiers from absorbing the Gautier territory into the "Faerghus Dukedom."

He was skeptical that anyone would be at the monastery like they had planned five years ago, but amazingly they had found the professor, along with Dimitri. While the professor was the same kind, quiet presence he remembered, Dimitri was…a far cry from the prince he thought he knew.

He shook his head, hoping to push that thought out of his head.

"Here you are," a comforting voice said from behind him.

Dorothea walked up to where Sylvain sat, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, just thinking…not a whole lot of people here, and thankfully Dimitri is off prowling some other part of the monastery for now."

He resisted the urge to turn his head so he could brush his cheek against Dorothea's hand.

The relief he felt when he saw her standing in front of the mess hall, staring at the fishing pond, was immeasurable. He hadn't really had the luxury of trying to keep in contact with anyone besides Felix and the other nobles still loyal to the late royal family.

He had only heard whispers of the Mittelfrank Opera closing after the war spread and had half-resigned himself to the awful idea that he may never see Dorothea again.

She was a vision in red, but he recognized a familiar sadness in her eyes. The war had taken a lot from everyone.

But now, all the former members of the Blue Lions class, originals and additions, were there at the Monastery again. It was both comforting and bittersweet to see. The memories he recalled were the same.

They had found time to converse after meeting again (perhaps unfortunately right after another of his botched relationships) and seemed to fall right back into lockstep with each other, despite the hard edges the toll of war had sanded onto them.

Some lively banter, an admission of affection from both of them.

Sylvain wasn't sure why the words fell so freely from his tongue about spending the rest of his life with Dorothea, but it happened all the same–and to his surprise, his lovely classmate-turned-confidante seemed to feel the same.

But in solitude it felt unreal. Maybe it was the dark cloud Dimitri now occupied, or seeing the Monastery in ruins and overrun by thieves, or the Faerghus soldiers he had to–

He felt Dorothea’s hand gently run through the hair on the back of his head, pulling him out of his ruminating.

“It’s unlike you to look so serious, Sylvain,” she mused. The tone of her voice was soothing, making his troubled mind settle.

“I haven't mentioned it yet, but I like this length on your hair,” she said quietly. “If we weren’t in the middle of a war, I’d say the past five years treated you well…”

Sylvain finally looked up at Dorothea, concerned with the growing grief he could hear in her voice.

“Dorothea…” he said in a low voice. He scooted over, glancing at her and then at the open space next to him. He patted the pew and tried mustering a small smile.

Dorothea pulled her hand from Sylvain’s hair and sat next to him, her arm touching his. Sylvain automatically tried to scoot away to give Dorothea a little more room, but her hand swiftly touched his leg and gently pulled toward her.

Sylvain looked at Dorothea with a bit of surprise before letting out a breathy chuckle through his nose and stayed where he was.

“I missed you,” Dorothea murmured, squeezing Sylvain’s thigh.

Sylvain could feel his cheeks burning, but kept his eyes down on his feet. Her words felt undeserved. Even with what they were to each other now, the bitterness the war had etched into his skin tried to convince him that he didn’t even deserve her company.

He looked at her hand, five years of suppressed worry and longing rising in his stomach.

“I missed you too.”

Sylvain removed his glove and carefully lifted Dorothea’s hand into his. Was her hand smaller than he remembered? The thought was quashed when she firmly intertwined her fingers with his. Her hand was strong, holding his tight.

The soft warmth of her hand broke the floodgates open.

“I was scared I might never see you again. I had no idea how or when I could even get any kind of message to you…” Sylvain’s voice began to rasp as he held back the ache rising in his chest.

“But we’re here now. Together,” Dorothea responded quickly, surely.

Sylvain looked at her before pulling her hand up to his lips and gently kissing her knuckles. He could feel his heart trying to pound out of his chest.

“Sylvain…” Dorothea’s voice was angelic in his ears. She pulled her hand from his to softly caress and hold his face.

“Truly, being so serious doesn’t suit you,” she continued in a shaky whisper. Her thumbs gently swept over his cheeks. A weak laugh escaped her mouth and a tear rolled swiftly down her face and dripped onto her dress.

Sylvain sighed and placed his ungloved hand on hers.

“I could say the same thing about you.”

They sat in silence, leaning in to each other until their foreheads were touching.

The only thing they could hear was each other’s slow breathing, though Sylvain made note of the occasional tear drop leaving a dark spot on Dorothea’s dark red dress. He cherished the feeling of her fingers brushing against his skin and let out a long, relieved sigh.

He pulled his face far enough away to see Dorothea clearly, but still close enough to feel her warmth. Her green eyes shimmered, though it was due to tears. He gently swept a teardrop away with his index finger as it escaped the corner of her eye, doing his best to keep himself from crying as well.

She was too lovely–even in sadness.

A shiver gently rattled Dorothea’s body and Sylvain let out a small chuckle.

“Come on,” Sylvain began quietly. “Let’s go somewhere a little warmer. Quiet as the chapel is, it’s a bit drafty.”

“Oh?” Dorothea replied, some vitality returning to her tone. She quickly, yet carefully wiped a tear from her other eye. “And where do you propose we go at this time of night?”

Sylvain was relieved to see a small, teasing smile play on Dorothea’s lips.

“Perhaps…my room?” He couldn’t resist falling into an old habit, a playful smile forming, fully prepared to receive a quick, clever retort from Dorothea.

She stared at him, her expression somewhat unreadable to Sylvain. He began to wither a bit as he could only identify a hint of contemplation in her eyes.

He began to try and mentally salvage what he was now beginning to think was a poor joke. He wracked his brain trying to think of where else they could possibly go–but wait, why wouldn’t he want her in his room?

His mind began to buzz with thoughts, having difficulty focusing on any one in particular until a cool draft blew and gently rustled his hair.

He recalled the cold winds of Faerghus at his back as he would ride home from whatever conflict he had quelled. His memories of the Academy becoming more and more like a faint dream. The cold relic spear in his hand twitching, the stone at the base of its blade like a mercilessly unblinking, uncaring eye. His bed, even warmed, was lonely.

Dorothea’s warm hands brushed through his hair again, shaking him from his thoughts again. Her eyes were kind and alive. Her breath, warm and soothing.

“Serious again,” she murmured, smiling sadly. She went silent, but supportive as she awaited his response.

Sylvain smiled slowly as he pulled Dorothea’s palm to his lips, kissing gently and then adjusting her hand to kiss her knuckles again.

“Please,” he said in a low voice. “Would you like to come to my room?”

Any hint of his old, cold, habitual levity was gone from him in this moment. All he could imagine now was Dorothea pulled close to him, her warmth pushing away the cold winds and her eyes illuminating his vision.

Dorothea’s smile was warm. Warmer than any he had possibly seen from her ever.

Sylvain realized that must have been what she was waiting for.

“I would love nothing more.”

As they stood to leave, Sylvain instinctively tried to hold her close, to press her back against his chest, but a slight wince and jump from Dorothea surprised him.

“Sorry, your armor…it’s rather cold.” Dorothea turned and smiled apologetically.

“No, I’m so sorry, I…forget I’m wearing it sometimes,” he replied, looking down at the dark gray chestplate on his torso.

Before he could remember the cold, Dorothea giggled and pulled him along out of the pews.

“Once we get to your room, I’m sure you’d like to change into something a little less bulky,” she said with a hint of mischief.

Sylvain felt his cheeks begin to burn as his thoughts traveled on their own.

“I seem to recall a certain someone being a certified dancer…” Dorothea giggled, her eyes sparkling.

Sylvain’s cheeks burned for a different reason now.

“I, ah, I’m not sure I know where that outfit is…or if I’d still even fit into it…”

“Well, I’m sure we can figure something out. It’s not hard to take measurements, you know.” Dorothea squeezed Sylvain’s hand, still smiling.

Sylvain’s heart raced as he squeezed her hand back.

“Thank you, Dorothea,” he replied gently. “For remembering me.”

“Thank you, Sylvain. For not forgetting me,” her reply was equally gentle.

They left the chapel and walked into the cool night, warm.