#so you have to be very specific about the fact that you're coloured of skin

[hussyknee]

Not entirely sure how I'm expected to respond when I point out something is white as fuck and the person I'm criticizing goes "I'm literally PoC!!" Okay? Good for you? Get well soon??

I literally live in South Asia, a place still nursing the world's worst colonial hangover. That's like one billion brown people desperately in need of joining Bootlickers Anonymous. If I had to respect the rancid takes of every yahoo that lives here I'd have to drown myself in the sea.

Living in white countries does something odd to diaspora brains. If you call yourself BIPOC in your own head long enough you end up forgetting you're just a garden variety idiot mainlining white supremacy like everyone else.

[undiscovered-horizon]

hello! if you accept requests for one peaceLive action (I hope)

could you write reader x sanji and I have a strange idea

what if with reader flirting.... another cook? and Sanji feels not just jealousy, but double jealousy... it's very strange, I know, but still I think it's quite interesting.

thank you in advance🙏💕

Enjoying my work? You can leave me a tip on Ko-Fi | Have a request?

The smell of spices, ripe fruit and freshly made food hits your nostrils. It's markets like this that truly show the genius loci of the place. Mobs of people roll through the narrow spaces between stalls that are bending under the weight of displayed products.

You glance at Sanji, who's walking next to you. Judging by the bliss on his face, you'd think you're in heaven and not some unmarked island in the middle of nowhere.

Then a specific aroma reaches you - something you haven't smelled in a long time but could never forget. It's tangy, creamy and herbal...

"Can you smell it?" you turn to Sanji, suddenly stopping in your tracks. Excitement bubbles inside your chest and cherished memories of beautiful days with wonderful people flash before your eyes.

"You'll have to be a little more precise, love," he answers with undeniable fondness in his voice. His thumb is softly rubbing the skin of your hand.

"Lemon tarragon sauce," you say as if it's the most obvious thing. Looking around, you catch a glimpse of a pot filled with yellow-ish, creamy dip. "Right there!"

Tugging at his arm, you pull him in the direction of the stall and the source of the delightful smell. The market stand is managed by a man around your age. He has a head full of black, dense curls that perfectly suit his tanned skin. There's a clean dish towel tied around his neck as if it's an ascot. Skilled, muscular hands move between pans, pots and counters as he's restlessly grilling meat, fish and prawns to put them in cones made from newspaper and layer the tarragon sauce on top.

The street cook looks up from the dishes when he notices customers approaching. As his dark eyes set on you, the man suddenly perks up and a playful smile curves his raspberry-coloured lips.

"Mademoiselle," he says with a certain intensity to his voice. It almost sounds like he's asking you something.

Sanji immediately cringes at the man's tone. This suave, decadent drawl is something he's also used the very first time he saw you. And considering the fact that you're tightly holding his hand, it had worked perfectly. Now just to make sure that this terragon-smelling, ascot-wearing sleazy guy isn't as successful.

"How can I thank you for brightening up my day?"

"I'd love a serving of prawns with tarragon sauce," you say thrilled. It seems that you're either missing the flirtatious aura surrounding the man or you're willfully ignoring them.

Sanji feels his chest tighten and a bitter taste fills his mouth. Why would you be so excited about someone else's cooking? Worse - what if you will prefer that guy's food over his?

The street cook gets to grilling freshly caught prawns. His fingers skilfully dance in the air as he seasons the seafood and mixes it in the pan. Garlic and lemon pepper fragrances overthrow your senses.

The ascot-wearing man gives you a curious look. "What are you looking for at the end of the world, flower?" he asks.

But before you can answer, Sanji cuts in. "We're on a shore leave," he answers coldly. "Won't stay for long."

"That's a shame," the local chef continues unaffected by Sanji's impertinence. His eyes are fixed on you, eating you up like you're the local delicacy and not the seafood in the pan. "At night the island looks even better. Not that it could compare," he says with a wink.

In a swift move, the man moves the prawns from the pan onto a page from a newspaper. He quickly rolls the paper into a cone. Clearly, he's been doing this for a very long time.

"You're from around here, right?" you carry on the conversation.

"Born and raised, ma cherie," he answers with pride. That shouldn't come as a surprise - ever since the Marines built a base on the surrounding archipelago, the islands have been filled with immigrants who couldn't care less about local traditions and customs.

Sanji feels his irritation only growing, hearing how the pet name rolls off the man's tongue naturally, as though he's calling you by your given name. It feels wrong down to the marrow of his bones.

"So, as a local, can you recommend something to pass the time?"

The bitterness Sanji involuntarily tastes on his tongue is mixed with sweetness that only you can bring him. Of course you don't notice the flirtatious tone - you just want the tarragon sauce and something fun to do before tomorrow comes and the Straw Hats are off for another voyage.

Then, another nice thought stirs inside his head. Maybe you're too deep in love with Sanji to even notice another man's interest? The idea makes him giddy like he's a schoolgirl with a crush. He almost misses the next part of the conversation, too busy with his adorable, a little cringy, daydream:

"While the weather is still good and the nights are warm, skinny dipping is quite popular," the local cook answers while pouring tarragon sauce over the grilled prawns. "Much better with good company," he purrs out. "Prawns with tarragon sauce, on the house." The man hands you your order but with only one cocktail stick as though the blond chef next to you doesn't count as a customer.

Excited, you take the paper cone from the street vendor. But before you can try the food, Sanji takes the stick and takes the first bite.

A frown enters his face as he chews the prawn. Then he sighs in disappointment.

"Do you seriously call this cooking?" he asks the ascot-wearing man. His voice is laced with anger and disbelief. "A fishman would make a better sauce. It's missing white wine and anise. And there's too much garlic."

You hiss his name out but Sanji appears unaffected. Forcing a polite smile, you turn to the street vendor, who's glancing between you and your boyfriend with a look of superiority. "Thank you for the food and sorry for Grumpy over here."

Only when you're a few paces away from the vendor and definitely out of earshot, do you confront Sanji about his mordant humor.

"No need to get snappy."

He forces his lips into a thin line. "His food is shit and he keeps making piss poor attempts at flirting when you're clearly," he lifts your intertwined fingers, "not a mademoiselle." Although Sanji quotes the word in mockery, it sounds delicious coming from him. If you weren't already sharing his bed, right now you'd be seriously considering it. Planning it even.

"So that's what this is about?" you ask as laughter forces its way out of your chest. Considering how whipped you are for Sanji, it seems ridiculous that you could think romantically about other men. "You're jealous about a smooth-talking cook. Sounds like someone I know."

"Does it?" he picks up on your banter. That familiar, playful smile returns to his face. His eyes momentarily light up, flashing you a glint of various emotions: desire, amusement, adoration. "How many smooth-talking cooks have you seduced?"

You shrug your shoulders and shake your head dramatically. "Don't know. Never bothered to count. I'm just looking for someone to make me lemon tarragon sauce any time I want."

Sanji's hand again rubs the skin of your palm. His other hand reaches for your face, fingers brushing against your jaw. "For you, little dove, I'd make tarragon sauce every day."

"With white wine and anise?" you ask, leaning in slightly. His scent of cigarette smoke and frying oil fills your lungs. Suddenly, the market around you is nonexistent and there's only Sanji.

"The best lemon tarragon sauce you've ever had," he murmurs against your face. His nose brushes against your cheeks.

"I already have the best."

His lips taste like lemons, butter and herbs when he kisses you. Honestly, this is the best version of the sauce you've ever had.

[gb-patch]

Hi! I saw your ask about skin tones and honestly, that is very much a barebones excuse to not include skintones in your game. You act as though adding skintones to a sprite would be a complete hand-drawn new asset when it would quite literally be filling in a pre drawn base for both Opal and the mc. Not only that but you potentially have thousands of mc outfits you promised for specific tier havers on the kickstarter. And then for 250,000 dollars, you're telling me we'll get more colors but not even 2 or 4 skintones when there are games with Less funding who have more skintones? Especially considering OL:B&A had the exact same amount of skintones and I could count all the afro centric hairstyles in that game on my two hands. I rather have more skintones than just pale, peach, olive, tan, brown and dark brown (most of which screams a 2000s foundation line of tones) than have more hair or clothing colors. I'm sorry, I love your games, I really do but that's an extremely lazy and abhorrent response from you and I am extremely disappointed.

"Hi. I just saw the post about you not adding in more skintones. I really hope this doesn't come across as rude or demanding but I find your reasoning for not being able to add them...lackluster at best. With all due respect, you set this goal for 250k, over three times the original goal you set for the kickstarter, the idea that somehow you can promise an additional set of darker colours for the clothes, accesories hair and eyes alongside the additional MC pieces people are going to request but not an additional skintone because of Opal seems a little ridiculous. I'm not an experienced artist but I do know how art files tend to work and I imagine adding additional colours to Opal's base design wouldn't be an extreme undertaking. In fact, by contrast, the work to add more colours to the clothes and hairs seems much more labourous considering the amount of them and the fact that some of the clothes have subcolours.

Again, I do hope I don't come accross as rude but I just feel like this announcement was highly dissapointing, especially considering the fact that the additional colours are currently the biggest goal for the kickstarter at the moment" There were two replies, so I put them together. I hope that's alright.

I understand. It would be bad and make no sense if that didn’t happen. I can say that this has nothing to do with funding. I'm not gonna attach more skin tones to a stretch goal, that’s not fair. It’ll be done whenever it can be regardless of what happens with the Kickstarter.

The other colors for hair and such is something I confirmed can be done by our programmer ahead of time using a color picker system in coding.

The situation as it stands today for Opal is that I personally don't have the skills to recolor her myself, the artist we have is in a situation where it would be unkind to increase how much work they have to do (it'd be easier if even less work could be on them), and while another artist could be hired- that hasn't happened at this point. So, saying it "could happen but maybe not" is cautious development process. It’s how it went with both the Cove Patreon Bonus Moments, where I pretended for months that it may or may not happen while working on it behind the scenes because I wasn’t sure how long I’d need to finish it and was worried it could be delayed for long stretches of time.

Being realistic, it is virtually a 100% certainly that before the game comes out, the skin tones will be expanded. There is no good reason why it wouldn’t. I was waiting until things got to a better point in production before coming out to officially say that it’s happening.

And I could’ve said it’s extremely likely but we’re not able to do it quite yet and avoided making anyone feel hurt. I wish my way of handling it hadn’t made the people who believed in our games sad. The reason why I didn’t is that I just can’t help but be averse to making promises I can’t do/the team can’t do and so have to rely on something else working out at some point in the future, even if it is entirely likely that it will.

That’s because I know that these things will make a lot of people happy. I want the excitement and any praise that might come to not happen until the goal has been achieved or is on the way to being achieved for sure. To a degree it’s helpful for players to have confidence in what the company is promoting, but it’s mainly to help with my own habit of catastrophizing. I tend to believe bad things could happen and I’ll let people down even when it’s so unlikely it’s not worth considering. I consider it anyway. And so, you get this kind of long-term hedging before the feature people hoped for suddenly appears. Even now my compulsion is to add a caveat that “there’s still a chance something (I don’t even know what) could happen and it won’t be added so don’t thank me yet” despite me already coming out with the truth that there’s every intention to have it added. I’m sorry to have disappointed you and made you feel disregarded by doing this. Hopefully when the skin options are expanded people will be able to enjoy the game a lot more than how it is with the current demo. And thanks for taking the time to let me know what you thought rather than giving up on the project entirely.

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

Responding to yet more unhinged Anti zionists arguments

Because I am not going to waste my precious time and energy on replying to each ignorant person who believes Hamas are a "brave resistance group"

For the millionth time: I do not support the genocide of Palestinians when I say Israelis shouldn't die. I am not deflecting or denying anything, I am making posts about how I and other Israelis have been impacted by October 7th and the war ever since. I am allowed to mourn my people.

Released female Israeli hostages aren't "weaponizing Feminism". Just because some were "only" sexually assaulted and threatened with rape, doesn't mean others aren't raped. Israeli women were targeted on October 7th. Their assault, mutilation, and violent rape were all planned. Hamas terrorists who were caught and interrogated have said so themselves in published recorded interrogations. *** Regarding Mia Shem- I've said before: mocking her appearance isn't making you the great humane person you think you are. I've had some nutjob tell me "Oh well in an interview she said she was only groped and others were raped. She's using feminism and things people care about in order to gain sympathy." She was: -Kidnapped from a party and shot. -Operated on by a veterinarian while in captivity for over 50 days. -Starved ,beaten, mocked , groped and sexually assulted while constantly threatened with being raped. And you're mocking her. Wow that is a new low. Believe Jewish women.

You are constantly backing up your "facts" and statistics with un-credible sources. Let me make this clear one final time: Al Jazeera = racist and antisemitic supports terrorism There isn't a Gaza Ministry of Health- it's Hamas.

Palestinians and Hamas specifically are very racist towards Afro-Palestinian / black people. A quick Google search will lead you to this:

Anti-Black racism in Palestine

The State of Palestine has a community of Afro-Palestinians, many of whom are descendants of the victims of the historical Slavery in Palestine, which ended in the 20th-century.[43]

Racism against African Americans in Palestinian media (Wikipedia)

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has been the subject of some viciously racial personal attacks, alongside vociferous criticism of her policies.[44] These included an anti-black racist cartoon in Palestinian Authority's controlled Press Al Quds. The New York Times reported in 2006:

Her comment that the Israel-Lebanon war represented the "birth pangs of a new Middle East"— coming at a time when television stations were showing images of dead Lebanese children — sparked ridicule and even racist cartoons. A Palestinian newspaper, Al Quds," which "depicted Ms. Rice as pregnant with an armed monkey, and a caption that read, "Rice speaks about the birth of a new Middle East.[45]

The Palestinian media has used racist terms including "black spinster" and "colored dark skin lady."[46][47]

.... The African Palestinians who now live in the two compounds near al-Aqsa mosque have called the area home since 1930.[12] They have experienced prejudice, with some Palestinian Arabs[21] referring to them as "slaves" (abeed) and to their neighbourhood as the "slaves' prison" (habs al-abeed), and their colour has led to objections against them marrying Palestinians with lighter skin.[9][3] According to Mousa Qous, director of the African Community Society and a former member of the PFLP, "Sometimes when a black Palestinian wants to marry a white Palestinian woman, some members of her family might object." Interracial marriage with Afro-Palestinians has become more common in recent years.[8] In colloquial Palestinian Arabic, standard usage prefers the word sumr (dark colour) over sawd, which has an uncouth connotation.[22]

-For further reading I found this research paper to be very detailed: https://d-nb.info/1204258597/34

*** I have to mention this as well since some anti-Zionist brought up MLK as an example for their argument against Israel: you clearly have no idea what you're talking about... he was a Zionist!

Jews and African Americans have historically been allies in their struggles for equality. He literally wrote an open letter titled "Letter to an Anti-Zionist friend", explaining why he supports Zionism. Do your research.

5. Gaza hasn't been under Israel's control since 2006, it is controlled by Hamas! Before that, it was governed by Fatah, Another terrorist organization (Hamas killed all of the Fatah members when they came to power). Hamas = terror organization leaching off the Palestinian people. They want to kill all Jews and are against everything that represents the West. UWNRA - Is filled with Hamas terrorists. UN & ICRC - Both have a long history of being biased against Jews and have failed the Jewish people once again.

6. Israelis don't deserve to die just because they are Israeli. They are not privileged to have a government that (relative to Hamas) cares about their civilians.

7. "From the river to the sea" Is a genocidal chant calling for the death of all Jews / Israelis. The final solution / one solution = killing all Jews, holocaust. Intifadas aren't peaceful or inspiring resistance. It's Terror attacks targeting civilians: Shootings, stabbings, lynchings, school buses exploding, etc.

I have an entire post explaining this, you're welcome to read it but the main takeaway should be: You don't get to decide what's anti-Semitic, Jews do. If Jews tell you this chant threatens them and is antisemitic- it is.

[dovahkinniez]

could we see some lucien flavius heacanons, since you said youre open to modded followers? thank you!! c:

Hey, so multiple people have asked for Lucien headcanons, so here I am. I'm specifically answering this one as it says Lucien Flavius, so I know it's him rather than Lucien Lachance.

Either way, let's get into it!

Remember to not be a silent reader, like and share your thoughts! I love hearing everyone's feedback. <3

LUCIEN FLAVIUS BF HEADCANONS

— such a sweetheart. :']

You're the muscle, he's the brains. Definitely the type to create the plan and then allow you to do all the physical work, at the start anyway.

He's a fast learner and you truly knew he had feelings for you when he fireblasted a bandit to death for coming near you, even his own anger and confidence shocked him.

While dating this man, you'll never be bored.

On the road, long days can be boring as you travel from one place to another. But Lucien spews out facts and songs along the way that makes it less tiresome.

He likes to read to you on the nights too, it's cold in the open air, the fire crackles away and furs just about warm you as he reads softly, almost in a whisper as you watch his lips move with each word.

In dungeons he will stop at least 400 times to pick something up, look at everything and make notes. Especially in Dwemer ruins.

You'll know more facts about the Dwemer than he does once he's done speaking about it all, you wouldn't be surprised if he even knew what happened to the Dwemer and where they went.

He isn't good at cooking. But he likes to do it anyway. Once he burnt his sleeve while cooking and screamed the house down, you truly believed someone broke in and tried to kill him.

Oh yeah! He is really dramatic. Extreme dramatic. He will scream when a mudcrab nips at his leg, will pretend to faint when you kiss him randomly.

He loves kisses. Oh man. He's a sucker for them. Beyond the erratic emotions of being in a relationship, the first kiss was the 'bump-nose-scrape-teeth' type kiss, but after it's perfect and omg, he loves to kiss you.

He especially likes to kiss your collarbone, it's an intimate place, not the regular place to kiss but Lucien isn't a regular person and he loves to press warm kisses there every morning.

He likes to sleep naked, it's real and true. He loves it especially when you to too. Feeling your bare skin against each other just makes him so comfortable, he always sleeps very well.

Lucien writes about you in his letters to his family. They know a lot about you, all the things you've accomplished to what makes you laugh, what you like to eat to the colour of your eyes. They love you already, and when they meet you, they love you even more.

Going to the places in Cyrodiil that Lucien grew up in, seeing all his old friends, it's great to see him so happy and at home, little do you know, he's at home wherever you are.

He loves to sing with you, even when cleaning around the house. Or when you're on your horses in the wild, having fun rhyming games.

He loves your hands, he will stroke his thumb over the scars that litter across them, kiss your knuckles and squeeze the palms of them as he entwines his finger with yours. He has lovely hands, warm, with long fingers.

His hair is very soft too. Play with the blonde locks and he will fall asleep automatically. To be honest, he falls asleep so easily it's unreal. Five seconds on the pillow and he's off.

But he loves it more when he rests his face against your chest. Arms tightly wrapped around you and his cheek smushed as he dozes off.

He's such a cutie. The type to make bracelets with flowers for you, then he surprises you with an actual bracelet. Then he does the same with a necklace. Then one day he does it with a ring and you feel yourself crumble when you realise how this usually works.

When he 'surprises' you with the ring, when he pops the question, he also remembers to tell you he knew from the moment you helped him use his sword properly that he'd want to marry you.

And its true. He did know. He never got so nervous before feeling someone so close. But feeling you close as you taught him, he slipped up a few times which annoyed him but he couldn't focus on anything other than you.

[khaotunq]

GGWM - Get Giffy With Me

I am not professing to be anything even remotely resembling good at giffing, but I got a little message from @thisautistic (hope you don't mind the @, bb! I'll remove if you prefer) asking about how I did my Jay Does Corporate Pride bold gays Ayan set. We quickly realised I can't do anything concisely, and so was born this idea.

All my secrets laid bare. Not that I consider anything here a secret. Go ahead and steal my methods. Steal them. Run with them. They're yours now.

Specifically, I'm going to talk about background isolation and boosting, here, but I'm gonna start a new gif from scratch and show the steps to getting there.

So, I have Photoshop 2020. Or 21. I don't really know. That's the only tool I'll be using, other than the empty cereal box I call a brain.

We're going from this to this. (These are very, very quick and dirty, but they're for demonstrative purposes.)

And this to this.

Annoyingly, I think I prefer the "bad" example, but anyway.

Fair warning: this post is exactly as chaotic as you'd expect it to be, considering it's me writing it and I wrote it in an hour... which includes the time spent making the gifs.

Are there easier ways? Probably.

Let's go!

1. CAP SELECTION.

I have the entirety of The Eclipse capped already, but you'll want to cap your scenes if you haven't already. I prefer working with caps rather than video clips - they both have pros and cons, and I can talk about that some other time if anyone wants me to.

I'm doing two gifs for this little tutorial-turned-dissertation - one that's easy peasy to colour for the purposes of Corporate Pride, and one that makes me want to consume my own elbows. For comparison, or something.

First thing to consider, is if the background is a feature, you want your subject to stay fucking still Kanaphan I swear to god.

You also want to pick something with fairly good contrast. I hate black/white and otherwise relatively neutral backgrounds because they're so difficult to make look natural, but something already predominantly coloured? Lemon squeezy, baby.

2. IDENTIFY COLOURS.

I've taken the easy route and picked green, which is almost always going to contrast nicely with skin tones and makes my life easier, and purple which I have many many issues with, but also contrasts.

Also, this step isn't massively important, it just helps. For example, I didn't know I was going to use green for the First gif until I boosted a bunch of colours and realised how green that rock face behind him is.

I tend to use my beloveds Selective Colour and Colour Balance rather than curves. I don't understand curves. I only use it if I have to lighten something.

3. QUICK AND DIRTY BASIC GIF TUTORIAL ft. my boy Pawin:

Timeline> Video Timeline> Add Media> put in your frames, change your frame delay. Boom, basic gif. Or, to get particularly meta... gif gif tutorial!

What a babe. 🥰

And no, I can't explain why he's here. I have two perfectly fucked up gifs to fuck up, but I chose to spend 60 seconds of my life making a Pawin gif just for this.

4. COLOURING!!!

Go nuts. But here's my process for the Akk gif in specific.

This tells you precisely nothing, but it was fun to make.

I have no idea how to share the specific settings other than to give you the .psd. So as soon as I figure that out, you can have it. I don't recommend using the psd for any and all gifs, because my approach to colouring is interpretive at best, but I really don't care all that much so. Do what you like. S'what I do.

Not included in this: cropping/resizing, my sharpening action, swearing about First, apologising to First, laughing at the fact I changed his shirt colour entirely, swearing at First some more, shrugging and saying, "That'll do."

5. COLOUR FILL / BRUSH / OVERLAY

So, all of this is for this one step.

Here I will demonstrate why white/neutral backgrounds can suck unless you're looking for that particular effect.

For something like the gifset I made, I wanted to punch people in the face with colour, so I had to use scenes with backgrounds I could lean on. In the Akk gif, I noticed the green after fucking around with the colour balance (I tend to boost shadows blue or red, then highlights cyans, but I've been known to go wacky. I leave mid tones alone... for the most part.) so that's what I decided to lean into. When I started this little ramble 500 years ago, I was originally planning on orange. How fickle fate is.

Anyway! I prefer using brushes rather than a full colour-fill layer, because I feel like it gives me greater control. I also prefer adding colour gradually rather than starting with a block. So, I use either a large soft brush at 50% opacity, or a watercolour brush at 100% because it's semi transparent anyway.

I'll use broad strokes - I ain't here for detail work. Set it to Overlay or Soft Light, whichever floats ya boat. And then rather than erase anything, I'll create a layer mask and, using the same brush, splodge it around til nobody's face is green.

And then on the off chance things are eye-burningly saturated by the time I finish other colouring things, I'll just go kill the opacity on the overall colour layer. Like seu~

You have no idea the strength it's taking to not go back and redo this entire tutorial because I've taken too much yellow out of his skin and it's bugging the shit out of me.

This is a fake tutorial, Jay. Breathe.

TO KHAOTUNG!

I am man enough to admit I stole my own damn .psd for the other gif. I literally used the same settings other than futzing about with the neutral balance to try and get some kind of colour undertone.

This is the second gif with just the colouring, no additional fill or overlay:

Isn't he pretty? Don't we love him? I love him. He's so asjdkfhg. Ugh.

Anyway. I figured there was sort of a blue/purple tone. Knowing what I do, I know it's gonna be way too pale for what I want, and he also moves quite far across the frame, so it's gonna be a pain in the arse if I want to go SUPER saturated with any colour background,but this is a demonstration and nothing more.

I could use Linear Burn instead of Overlay but I always get annoyed at it. Because I am a deeply rational person.

Anyway, the point of the above is to kind of show that sometimes u just gotta leave a massive puddle of colourlessness around someone's head if they're moving a lot. I've gotten away with it in this case because it's pale, but if I tried to put any further boost to the saturation, it'd look insane:

I HOPE THIS HELPS

I apologise for my incoherence. It makes sense to me. Which should worry us all.

Anyway, final gifs:

+

Rejects of my War On Purple, because I promised those. Notice how they're all white, black or neutral (dark brown/red) backgrounds? Rage.

[amarriageoftrueminds]

seb looking very obviously eastern european (specifically northern balkan. i like geography) makes for so much interesting meta for his casting as bucky and i wish people addressed it more because he would have been clocked INSTANTLY as EE in universe

Omg right?? Yes! 👆👆👆 What I keep sayin'!

In-universe, if you're going for historically somewhat accurate, even if Bucky wasn't from the Balkans, with him looking like he does he'd definitely have been treated that way, because of the huge influx of Jewish immigrants from that area to New York. (Ditto him being Jewish).

Colourism being what it was, it would've affected his whole life for sure, not to mention adding an extra element of danger in how badly he can be expected to be treated by the Nazis, if captured (worse than, say, blue-eyed ginger-blonde Dum-Dum with the Irish surname.)

On a semi-related note: it weirds me out (just me?) when writers emphasise a character's good looks and then immediately talk about how pale they are, as if those two things are synonymous (eg. it's not even the quality of the skin they praise, just the paleness.) It stands out as most egregious with characters like this, when they're not even pale anyway, and are in fact darker than the narrating character (the idea of porcelain-skinned Steve of all people calling Bucky pale!)

And also, the way this alleged pale skin is described as having the cool pinkish undertone of a very fair person, like you'd expect to find in someone of Northern European heritage (ie. like Cevans). Which is nothing like SebStan's warm olive colouring!

(I'm like: why not just ship Steve with someone who actually looks like that then, if that's what you find attractive? SebStan does not have the same colouring as Kat Denning!)

[tokkias]

Hi I was wondering how would you describe natsu and Lucy appearance , you inspired me to write and I wanna give those 2 justice please 💗

that's awesome to hear! welcome to the horrible wonderful world of fic writing.

with fic writing, i don't think appearance is something you need to put too much weight into because the reader should already know what the characters look like. if i mention lucy, automatically the reader's brain is going to know, blonde, brown eyes, boobily breasted, etc. etc.

instead, it's better to have a specific when and why you're describing their appearance. personally i only do it in three circumstances; when one character is taking in the others appearance, when a character's appearance is notably different, or when i want you to know who a character is without directly stating their name.

here is an example of the first: "The way his too-long hair falls into his eyes and the way he bares his fangs when he smiles at her remind her that this is her Natsu."

here is an example of the second: "He’s made an effort to clean himself up for her; there’s no dirt on his face or clothes, and he’s wearing a button-up shirt she gave him that he claims to hate because it’s stuffy and restrictive and all the things he hates about the outside world, but he’s wearing it anyway because he knows she thinks he looks handsome in it."

and here is an example of the third: "a girl his age, her blonde hair held up in two pigtails while the rest of it hung loose around her shoulders."

because your reader already knows what the characters look like, you don't need to place too much emphasis on describing their appearance. in fact, you don't have to do it at all. but you can use them to emphasize certain moments or feelings.

"Her gaze rose to meet his, and she was met with a reminder of how pretty his eyes were, even as they were clouded with worry over her. His hair, wild as it was, framed his face perfectly, making him look so pretty in the gentle moonlight, even as he looked down at her in concern."

these lines would be pretty random and out of place if i just whacked it in there with no purpose, but the description of his appearance from lucy's pov is to show the reader that she is very much in love with him.

in terms of how i describe their appearance, i generally take one or two of their physical characteristics and focus on them. try not to get too specific with it, otherwise you'll turn into ebony darkness dementia raven way with her long black hair (that's how she got her name) with purple and red streaks that goes down to her back, and icy blue eyes like limp bizkit or whatever.

so let's break down their most significant physical attributes to start:

natsu has pink hair, black eyes, a pretty defined build, a few significant scars and fangs

lucy has blonde hair, large brown eyes, a pretty dramatic hourglass figure and quite light skin

anything outside of these is all up to you to add as you please. some of my little headcanons include lucy having lots of little scars, soft hands, and cushy thighs, while natsu has chapped lips and calloused hands. go wild with them.

i like to be evocative with my language so i like to use simile and metaphor when describing appearance.

"With golden locks flowing like rivers down her back and a pure white dress draped across her soft, milky skin."

that line is my little double whammy of describing lucy's hair as golden and her skin as milky. i prefer to use gold over blonde or yellow because i think it's more of an evocative word and it's sort of thematically appropriate to who lucy is as a character.

i describe lucy's eyes a lot. i don't stray too far when describing colour, brown is enough. you can use chocolate, sometimes i use the phrase "honey brown" which doesn't make a lot of sense but idk it just sounds good to me. i don't like to use the word "orbs" because you would never describe your eyes that way in any other circumstance. eyes are enough. i describe lucy's eyes as big, sparkly, full of light. it wouldn't be inappropriate to say she has stars in her eyes. eyes are very emotive, i think focusing on a character's eyes is a good way to get across how they're feeling.

off the top of my head i can't find another line where i describe natsu's appearance, but i tend to use words like rosy and blush coloured to describe his hair. it's sort of the opposite of what i do with lucy's because it's almost a juxtaposition of who he is as a character. i'm sure i've just described it as pink before, i don't have anything against using that word and it's certainly not wrong to say that. i don't like the word "pinkette" i think it's kind of stupid. i have pink hair and if someone referred to me that way they'd be catching these hands.

i'm not entirely sure if this answered your question? i don't feel like i'm the best person for this because i am sooo not eloquent outside of my writing, but i hope at least something in this helped lol

[coughloop]

(screenshotting all of this to condense it a little)

I really appreciate the time and effort you put into writing all this and it feels like you sent this in actual good faith unlike a lot of the messages ive gotten the last couple days so I'm going to try to respond and talk through my feelings about it in as well thought out a response as I can (although i am not always the most succinct with my conclusions). My apologies if i contradict anything I've said in the last couple of days but im going to try to express where i am, at this moment in my understanding of cnc and everything else thats been talked about.

putting this under a read more cause it got really long

First off, I want to clarify that the stuff I have REALLY been disgusted with that has come out in the last few days has been 4 main groups:

1. the people that have made public their pedophilic fantasies, and the fact that you can point to people in these circles that have groomed minors in the past or are actively doing it right now.

2. the people posting about their fantasies of sexually abusing family members and strangers alike (which i realize now is seperate from cnc fantasies).

3. the people fantasizing about raceplay (which is just straight up getting off to racism).

4. the people who have defended any of these things either by doing so directly or by going out of their way to spread misinformation about what the original callouts were about to downplay what was originally said and what people were so disgusted by and to make it sound like people were just freaking out because some trans women on this site are "having sex that puritans dont like" (seriously if you're in this group and were part of shifting the narrative, fuck you)

Second, I agree with the disclaimed you sent afterwards. After having a talk with my partner and reading a couple blog posts about what cnc is, I think I had a different understanding of what it can be, and I think i had a very specific, negative image in my mind of what the average CNC scenario actually is. I realize it is probably more of a spectrum with space to play in (like consensual use of rope play or pushing someone against a wall because you both like the feeling, both things i have tried and enjoyed to some degree) could arguably be considered CNC while both parties can be made to feel completely safe through the entire experience.

I do not personally think going as far as actually roleplaying a rape scenario sounds healthy at all. I feel like that is the time in a consensual sexual encounter most likely to be misused by someone with an imbalance of power and safety to pressure someone into a situation they can very quickly dislike and feel unsafe in (like the anonymous message I got earlier about someone else with experience in CNC).

I also know that I am not the sex police and while certain things happen behind closed doors I myself am not comfortable with, if two consenting adults can be comfortable with the scenario that's really no skin off my back, and genuinely I really dont care if I dont have to hear about it (disclaimer this does not apply to raceplay behind closed doors because while two adults may consent to it or whatever, they are actively engaging in racism and rationalizing it into a fetish that further hurts and demeans people of colour in the consenting adults eyes and its just really fucking racist listen to black people and dont fucking do that shit GOD).

To sum up, i dont actually think cnc has to be inherently abusive though i do believe more than all other kinds of consensual sex, it has the easiest leap to get there if partner's dont listen to eachother or try to push boundaries the other is not comfortable with. I think actual full on rape play sounds horrendous and bad and i dont think people should do it but i literally have no way of stopping them if theyre doing it behind closed doors. I think pedophiles and abusers should rot because i know how miserable they make the lives of their victims and fostering it in your community even if you claim you would never act on it or its all just edgy jokes or whatever is a horrible way to live and you need to get better and im going to block you and maybe warn people about you if i see you doing those things.

I hope this all made sense and I didnt ramble too much, i genuinely appreciate you sending your message because it helped me take a step back and think more about what exactly i am upset about and I hope this response is helpful for you too.

[pebblysand]

Director's Cut! Way Specific Scene.

i really adore the description in this, because it helps me really visualize it--how harry and ginny are positioned relative to one another, how what they're looking at instead of one another reveals how they are feeling.

I am curious, and you need not answer if you would prefer not to, how you were able to craft this, what your process was, because it seems (forgive me if I'm making bold assertions) like a thing that would be difficult to do given what you've mentioned about how visualization is harder for you than it might be for others.

do you, like, do the actions yourself and then capture each movement in words?

thank you so much for both your amazing writing and your willingness to engage beyond the published text--i feel so very blessed by both aspects of the goddess pebblysand. 🌸

Yeah, this is a super interesting question. This paragraph involved... an embarrassing amount of effort lol. I re-drafted it a number of times haha. It's definitely one those where, generally, *I* don't see anything in that description and I would very happily have moved on without it, but I hear @copper-dust's voice in my head being like: "DETAILS! VISUALS!" so I... yield to the voice in my head lol.

I think I've become more aware of my own limitations in the past year and have, as such, made a conscious effort to adapt. It doesn't mean that I'm changing my style, I'm never going to be a "visual" author, but I can make certain adjustments, you know? This scene could have further details on the colour of the grass and the flow of the waves, and the birds in the sky or whatever, but you're going to have to go someone else's fic to find that cause my brain is incapable, haha. Again, we're making lemonade with the lemons we have, here, you know?

That said, I've noticed I find it easier to generally add visuals at the beginning of scenes (this one and the one with Kingsley and the description of his office earlier in the chapter come to mind) because it's a place where I have mental space to remember to add them, as opposed to later when I'm so focused on the action, dialogue, etc. that it a) wouldn't occur to me and b) would distract me and annoy me as a reader lol. So, usually, every time I get to a new location, I try to force myself to describe it the best I can these days. (Ah, all the sacrifices I make for you, visual people 😅)

To answer your question about my process though, in this case, I just stop and think: how would these people sit? And, so: Ginny would be the kind of girl who sits cross-legged with her skirt over her legs because she wants to look at people when she talks to them. Harry - this is going to sound Very Strange, but I have a whole headcanon from a fic I've started working on but not yet published about the fact that he always sits in a way that make it easy for him to get up and run in one swift-motion. So, he always has at least one foot solidly on the ground, which is the case here. But, if he had both knees up (and feet on the ground), his second leg would be a sort of fence between them, he'd be a lot less relaxed and open towards her with both knees pulled up, which we don't want, because this is a scene where they're having a dialogue.

This conundrum honestly did led me at one point to sitting on the floor of my apartment, trying to find a position for him that worked. Sometimes, I think my neighbours probably think I'm totally cray lol. Then, describing as best as I could, adding in distance (3 or 4 feet cause I'm never bloody sure what a fucking foot is, please adopt metres people!) and light from the sun because it's a hot spring day and I wanted to convey that. She's in the shade because she's not Stupid; I headcanon that Harry's skin is on the "darker" side for a white person (a bit like my own, tbh, is that a self-insert? lmao) and that he tans pretty easily, meaning that he likes to think he never gets burnt, although that is totally Not True. I honestly think about these things too much lol.

Then, their looks are, as you said, also a symbol. She is looking at the castle - which she hates - and he is looking at the water. They're both not looking at each other, though their actual body language is very relaxed and open. That's the contrast I wanted to play with, for obvious reasons as this chapter is very ambivalent.

But, honestly, I almost deleted that paragraph before I published cause it bored me. I'm now glad I didn't, haha.

[grungeeuvu]

All of the questions for the ask game :)

Oh crikey, okay uhhh-

1. Chipotle order?

I've never been to Chipotle (idek if they're in the UK, I've never seen one before)

2. Thoughts on veganism?

I am impressed by those who have a vegan diet, I am not impressed with those who try to change my diet to fit with their views, and I am not strong enough to stick to that kind of diet :')

3. A specific colour that gives you an ick?

I don't really know? A sickly orange maybe? I've never really thought about it hmm

4. Mythical creature that you think/believe to be real?

D R A G O N S.

5. Favourite form of potatoes?

Hmmm. Maybe crisps. Salt and vinegar crisps 👍

More under the cut!! :))

6. Do you use a watch?

At the moment, I do not

7. What animal do you look forward to seeing when you go to an aquarium?

Stingrays and sharks!!

8. Do you change into specific clothes for the house when you get home?

Nah, not unless I've been caught in the rain

9. Do you have a skincare routine?

Nope :) I just use a face wash when I have a shower and that's it

10. When on a plane, do you ask for apple juice or orange juice?

Usually I get water, but I'll probably pick apple juice bc I don't know if the orange juice has bits in

11. Anything from your childhood that you've held onto?

Technically I'm still a child but I've got loads and loads of old toys and a blanket given to me at birth which was dubbed "Night Night" and he stays in my bed 💪

12. Brand of haircare/bodycare/skincare you trust 100%?

L'Occitane 👍👍👍 it's expensive but very good. For cheaper stuff, Tresemme

13. First thing you're doing in the purge?

Hiding. I ain't that stupid.

14. Do you think you're dehydrated?

Judging by the fact I've only had half a pint of water all day, probably 😎

15. Rank the methods of death: freezing, burning, drowning.

From worst to best, Drowning, Freezing, Burning.

16. Thoughts on mint chocolate chip?

Any kind of mint makes me feel really sick so I'm not a fan 😭😭 even the smell makes me ill

17. An anxious compulsion you do every day?

Pick at my split ends or the cracked skin on my lips.

18. Your boba/tea order?

Never had boba and not a fan of tea!

19. The veggie you dislike the most?

Mushrooms. I hate them.

20. Favourite Disney princess movie?

MULAN. HANDS DOWN. MULAN. I have memories of me in nursery singing 'Reflection' to a gathered group of younger toddlers. Very nice memory :))

21. A number that weirds you out?

I do not trust 46. It's evil.

22. Do you have an emotional support water bottle?

Um....... No?

23. Do you wear jewelry?

Yes, quite a lot! I mostly wear multiple rings and necklaces, and the occasional bracelet. No earrings tho, bc my ears aren't pierced yet lol

24. Do you find yourself using American or British English?

Definitely British, it's just superior. We don't say 'erb' for example.... 👀

25. Would you say you have good taste in music?

Absolutely! :) I've always got a song to recommend to people

26. How's your spice tolerance?

Not very good but, according to my dad, I have a heightened sense of taste so I'm not too surprised. Idm things a bit spicy but I'm not a big fan 😔

27. What's your favourite or go-to outfit?

Rose Docmartins, black tights, black skirt, the top I got from a Bon Jovi concert and my purple-patch jacket is my favourite but it's not my most fashionable choice, I'll be honest lol

28. Last meal on earth?

Toad in the hole with Heinz baked beans and some ketchup. Not healthy but my favourite. (And maybe cheesecake for pudding!!)

29. Preferred pasta noodle?

Uhhhh idk my types of pasta beyond the dishes ngl-

And 30 is ask me anything so I guess you get a free question? Lmao this took forever 😭

[kingofballs69000]

Hello! This is a very important post to me, so please listen up!

I'm opening art requests! I've decided I'd like a chance to practice my art, and specifically drawing by hand, so most of my art will be done by hand before I take a picture of it to post!

Please read the whole of this post before requesting, because if your request violates any of my Will Not Draw points, I will just delete the request and not tell you. It's your responsibility to ensure your request is something I'll fulfill, not mine.

Notes for requests!

I probably won't be able to get to a whole lot of requests in a short amount of time, simply due to the fact that motivation is rare sometimes, and I'm just lucky to have a lot right now

The vast majority of requests will be done by hand! Like I said above, I need the practice, but sometimes I will do digital drawings

I WILL NOT TAKE ANONYMOUS REQUESTS!!! For starters, I need to know who to tag when I've finished a piece. If you're requesting for a sideblog, feel free to ask on anon, but please tag your sideblog so I can still tag you.

Some will be done in crayon lol. I just like crayon, it's fun. If you don't want it done in crayon, please specify that in your request

All skin will be done in marker (or digital, if you're lucky lol). I will post a chart of all my marker colours so you can specify the desired/correct skintone.

I don't know every character! Please specify where the character is from so I know who I'm drawing, and if one character has multiple possible appearances (eg. MLP's Luna & Nightmare Luna) please specify which version you want. If a character has no specified appearance in canon (eg. The Magnus Archives/Protocol, Welcome To Night Vale) I'm picking how they look. If possible, please include official art.

For fandom stuff: I will automatically put any fanart in the appropriate fandom tag. Please let me know if you don't want your requested art in the fandom tag.

Do not gift my art to another user. Just don't. If I ever open commissions, then that'd be fine, but requests will not be giftable.

Things I will not draw:

NSFW/NSFT. Not comfortable with that, plus it's not something I know how to draw anyways. Includes implied NSWF

In conjunction with above: nudity. Not that I'm uncomfortable with nudity, I just have trouble with anatomy

Fursonas. I just don't know how to draw anthro. When I learn, I'll probably make it an option though.

Most physical contact between characters. Just physically can't draw it. So no kissing, I can't do hugging from the side yet (hugging where you can see one character from behind should be fine though). Things like handholding, laying together, etc. are fine, they just might take longer.

More than 2 characters! This is to keep it fair to everyone, as that will take too long.

Characters shopping for white bread. White Bread Guy, I know you're out there, these requests are not for you. I can't draw bread ok. Nothing personal, I just actually can't draw bread.

Most MCYT. I don't really engage with MCYT a lot, so I'll only draw Hermitcraft and Empires people. BUT! I will not do any MCYT ship art, and I won't do the real people, just the characters.

Supernatural (tv show) and Good Omens (tv show). Just at all. Will draw Good Omens (book) stuff though.

Doctor Who's Thoschei (Doctor x Master) and Doctor x River Song ships. They hold a special place in my heart, so I'm not going to draw them for that reason. I will draw the characters interacting platonically (or as enemies, if you'd like, but that doesn't apply to Doctor x River Song) though, so you can still request them

Gore/violence. Nope. Just nope. No gore, no violence, no graphic injuries. Specifically no broken limbs.

Real people, even if they're your friend. No, I won't even draw you.

Things I'm iffy about drawing (these will just take me a bit longer):

Animals. I'm not great at animals, so animal requests might take a bit longer.

Fandom ships. For the most part, SFW ship stuff is fine. But if I decide I'm not comfortable with a ship, when you request it I will give you a heads-up. For the most part, this shouldn't come up, but I know it's possible, so this is your official notice.

Doctor Who. I'm a bit protective of Doctor Who for some reason (it's something I hold really close to my heart), so I might be a bit iffy with it, meaning it might take longer for me to draw.

Vehicles. Not the best at vehicles either, so those might take longer.

Blood is fine, but as seen above, gore is a nope. However, drawings depicting blood will be tagged with the CW and TW tags, and will take me longer as well

In regards to the "No Fursonas" rule: I will still do characters with animal traits (ears, tails, wings, etc.), they just might take me longer. Also, wings will not be accurate. Might just take longer to draw if I have to look up the animal you want the features of

Disabilities. I will have to research the disability before I can draw it, so this will take longer, but I absolutely will try my best!

Original Characters (OCs). I will need a detailed description OR a reference sheet to draw your OC. I will not draw an OC without one of those things. If I draw your OC, you are allowed to use the drawing for a reference sheet, but I will ask that you credit me.

Detailed backgrounds. I can do small landscapes/backgrounds, but I struggle with rooms and perspective so those will take longer. Also, I won't put people in them, so I won't be able to do a complex background for your characters, only something simple.

This will be updated whenever I feel the need to, and whenever I decide to close requests (or if I re-open them after!)

Tagging friends so they can spread this: (also, friends/moots, y'all will probably end up getting preferential treatment, that's just how I am, fact of life.) @a-being-of-chaossss @knight-of-hallownest @phoenixthefraud @fireflychaosdemon

[sublimegardeninternet]

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Magnificence Franchise Opportunity

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[the-desi-aro-ace]

"If aros are really valid, why do they need constant reminders?"

This was said to me by a person in the comment section when i said that aromantic people are valid. on first glance, at least to me, it seemed like a compelling argument. because if people were really valid, they wouldn't need constant reminders would they??

but i thought about this and now i know that this was actually a pretty stupid thing to say. so im breaking down this argument for people like me who thought this statement was true but did not actually ponder on it (excuse my messy thoughts and this is gonna be a long post so bear with me a bit <3)

for doing this, im gonna take my own example. im dark skinned, and in india, being dark-skinned=being ugly. people may say that "oh we dont feel that way, you're just as pretty as fair skinned people" but it doesnt make it easier to believe because the proof that they're lying is right there- the media, with the dark-skinned people being called ugly and no dark-skinned people being portrayed as "pretty". as much as i hate it, i'll have to admit that my skin colour does not make me feel pretty. at all. the fact that i've literally never seen a person with dark skin on screen in lead roles for women who're supposed to be desirable or beautiful doesnt help lmaooo

so seeing people on the internet with their skin colour like me call themselves pretty, seeing people call dark skinned people pretty, this all makes me happy. the reminders that dark skin isnt ugly, are needed. because without them i'd probably still think im ugly or something.

now, according to the commenter's logic, the reminders that dark is pretty too shouldn't be needed if dark actually was pretty. but that's not the case. dark is pretty. i need that reminder. both these sentiments and facts can and will coexist, purely due to the fact that feeding a specific information to someone for a long time will make them believe that, to a certain extent, no matter how false the information.

similarly, people are being constantly told by society, directly or indirectly, that love is the ultimate form of human relationships and that if you dont find love (every kind, but mostly the romantic kind) you're lonely, miserable and your life isnt fulfilling because love automatically makes life worth living. while it hurts alloromantic people too, it hurts aromantic people a lot more, because society is essentially telling us that if we dont love, we're not human and that our existence is not exactly valid. because we're automatically unfeeling machines if we cant love.

now, by feeding this to us since we were kids, its ingrained in us that love is unsurpassed than every other thing you could think of, which results in a lot of self-hate along with the freedom. because if we'll never love we'll never be human right?

that's why the reminders are needed. precisely to remind us that the information we've been fed by the society is not reliable and not true. they're reminding us that being aromantic is okay, just like being dark-skinned is okay.

also, maybe someone you know doesnt need these reminders, but you should remember that just because a particular person doesnt need the reminder doesnt mean everyone else doesnt. so yes, the reminders are very much needed <3

[lilflowerpot]

Reading ur tags on the Blaytz ask lol, and gosh yeah the unknown quality of galra lifespans!! What are they?? Voltron Canon, please, I just need a straight answer!!

To be honest, I just make up my own ages for that since headcanon is the only thing I can rely on in that area.

Galra seem to be naturally long lived; possibly near an altean’s lifespan, or at least long enough that a couple centuries is probably pretty natural?? But either the Zarkon Propaganda Machine is simply That effective since only Allura and Coran ever seem shocked by his age, or quintessence has some pretty interesting effects on lifespans! (Discounting the zombie thing, since I am… Assuming that’s not common knowledge dhfjgkgk.) So it’s pretty fun to imagine the effects that quintessence could have, or at least it is for me.

Although, now, thinking about it, I’m incredibly curious as to whether you yourself have any quintessence-related headcanons!

[Blaytz ask]

I have a couple of posts addressing this exact topic in depth, if you're interested! In fact, the larger of the two - Altean/Galran/Human Aging & Lifespans - was one half of the very reason I created this blog in the first place, and only the second thing I ever posted here! The smaller was a follow-up posted a good year or so later, if I remember rightly, that specifically focused on the ages of Lotor's generals (who I'd not originally mentioned). I think the only other posts in which I've explored galra lifespans are in my two brief yet frustrated rants about Dayak [i][ii] concerning the fact that she absolutely should not have still been alive in canon, but that is neither here nor there.

As for quintessence, it //absolutely// has an immense impact on the lifespan of any given creature that comes into prolonged contact with it; we see this clearly demonstrated in canon time and time again, but in LB the Big Three are Zarkon, Haggar, and Kova! But the quintessence itself isn't exactly the reason for their immortal status, or not the sole reason at least. I clarified my thoughts on what exactly present-day Zarkon is relatively recently, but the short version is that the thing that came back from the Rift wearing Zarkon's skin is only half Zarkon; in truth, it's a denizen of Sa, the same kind of creature that possesses both Voltron & Sincline, and due to Zarkon's body being an organic vessel (ie. not an adequate container for what is essentially an eldritch horror) its insatiable hunger for quintessence has corrupted its host beyond recognition... and made him immortal as a side-effect.

My only remaining quintessence headcanon - regarding its colouration and subsequent properties - is one I don't think I've shared before (?) though given the obscene quantity of posts now on this blog, it is entirely possible that I have, only to lose it among everything else ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But if I have shared it, I’ve certainly not gone into this much depth, so brace yourselves my loves, for it is another long one..

“[Quintessence] is the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe. Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements.”

- galra sentry, VLD, s01ep10

Canon established quintessence as taking three distinct forms; raw (gold) and refined (violet) quintessence are both featured in s01ep10, wherein Keith witnesses a druid transforming it from the former state into the latter, while its third form - concentrated (white-blue) quintessence - is first featured in s01ep08 when Allura heals the balmera. Now I, being who I am, took that which we were given in canon and elaborated on it, but we’ll get to that in a minute. The established facts are as follows:

(1.) The quintessence used by sacred alteans, such as Allura & Alfor, is potent enough that Allura was able to heal an entire balmera by herself. Though the balmerans were seen to support her in the ceremony, they show no notable signs of strain or exhaustion afterwards, whereas Allura herself collapses immediately upon the ceremony’s conclusion and is shown to still be weak and recovering in the following episode, implying that the physical burden was solely on her shoulders.

(2.) As pictured above, s01ep10 clearly depicted the transformation process of raw (gold) quintessence into its refined (violet) counterpart, and what really struck me about this was the difference in container size between those used for the two types: the raw quintessence container is clearly the height of the druid (who I’d estimate to be at least seven foot tall) whereas the refined quintessence container is a mere fraction of that, allowing Keith to hold it in one hand. Though it’s not entirely clear exactly how many refined containers one cylinder of raw quintessence equates to, we know it’s a bare minimum of three: the one created at the process' beginning (13:48), the one stolen by Keith (17:22), and the one beside which the druid places aforementioned stolen container (17:52). There’s certainly potential for there to have been others created off-screen, due to the episode cutting between Keith and the other paladins, but not many; we know that this entire scene only takes place over the span of - at most - ten minutes due to Allura & Shiro’s plot, in which they acknowledge that they only have “a few minutes” before the next patrol comes by, happening simultaneously.

So, “why is this important?” you ask. Well the answer to that is volume.

If we assume that the large cylindrical container’s height is (judging by a combination of the druid in comparison to Keith, and my beloved height chart) approximately 7 feet or 84 inches, then its width, which I measured at about a third of said height, would be 28 inches. The calculation for volume is as follows:

volume = πr² x height

volume = π(14²) x 84

volume = 51,723.2 cubic inches, or 847.6 litres

Using this same calculation, we can also find the volume of the refined quintessence container, assuming that its height is (given its appearance in comparison to Keith) 12 inches and its width 4 inches:

volume = πr² x height

volume = π(2²) x 12

volume = 150.8 cubic inches, or 2.5 litres

So the large cylinders contain approximately 847.6 litres, while the small cylinders (of which we saw three, though I should expect there were several more) contain 2.5 litres. The obvious inconsistency thus being that one large cylinder should equate to a grand total of 339 smaller cylinders... and there’s no way we missed that many. It’s not like the large cylinder still had more to give, either- at 19:16 we see a new container of raw quintessence being loaded up, implying the previous one was fully depleted, so, somehow, there appears to be a massive imbalance in the ratio of raw:processed quintessence, despite there being no physical state change (ie. the quintessence is still apparently liquid post-druidic-tampering).

Begging the question; why?

The principle of energy conservation states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It may, however, transform from one type to another. You can look up Sankey Diagrams if you want to understand this better, but what I’m essentially getting at is that - druidic magic or not - it is, according to the laws of physics, impossible for such a massive quantity of raw quintessence to be condensed down into such a tiny quantity of refined quintessence... unless there is a massive loss of energy somewhere along the line; watching that scene again, a fair amount of it likely dissipates as light energy (and possibly heat energy too), ultimately meaning that the druidic method of quintessence conversion is so inefficient that even if we generously assume that the druid produced a total of 20 containers of refined quintessence (17 of which we didn't see), it would appear that the resultant volume of refined quintessence stands at less than 6% of its raw counterpart.

This brings us to the question of density; it’s entirely possible that refined quintessence could be rather a lot denser (ie. the molecules are packed together more tightly, meaning that it has greater mass per volume) than raw quintessence, though it does still remain liquid. For argument’s sake, let us say the difference is comparable to that between water (with a density of 1.0 g/mL) and mercury (the densest liquid on Earth, at a value of 13.5 g/mL). Due to raw quintessence having a density of 1.0, its mass would be of an identical value to its volume (847.6), but as this is not the case for refined quintessence, the calculation would be:

mass = density x volume

refined quintessence mass = 13.5 x (2.5 x 20)

refined quintessence mass = 13.5 x 50

refined quintessence mass = 675g

Meaning that a mass of 847.6g in its raw state, has been reduced to 675g in its refined state. Not nearly so catastrophic as the aforementioned 6% would have made it appear, but still with a loss of ~20.4% total.

So really, it’s little wonder that the Empire has need of the Komar.

With their methodology of refinement being so inefficient, you’d think that the galra (having had literal millennia with Zarkon & Haggar at the helm) would have figured out how to utilise raw quintessence in its natural state, rather than wasting so much of its power. The fact that they haven't, means that they likely can’t... which is where it falls to me to decide why this is the case.

So raw (gold) quintessence is the substance’s naturally occurring form, the very essence of nature and the universe itself, but as such it is in equal parts powerful and volatile, making it exceedingly dangerous to handle. Though galra of Druidic bloodlines are able to manipulate raw quintessence in this untempered form, Haggar has taught generations of Druids how to convert it into a far more stable and malleable state (violet), standardised for Imperial use, but in doing so they significantly lessen its potency. The graph pictured above compares the different types of quintessence with regard to the relationship between quantity and volatility; generally speaking, the more liquid quintessence contained in one area, the greater the chance of the literal essence of the universe doing something unexpected and potentially catastrophic (and with increasing likelihood at that), but the degree to which this is true is variable depending upon the type of quintessence one is dealing with. Raw quintessence, as you can see, becomes quite rapidly dangerous when amassed in significant quantities, and the amount required to power a military-grade Imperial ship’s average energy consumption per 100,000 lightyears of travel (marked with X) sits over the marker for dangerous levels of volatility. Refined (violet) quintessence, however, is much less volatile, and though it requires almost twice as much refined quintessence to power the same military-grade Imperial vessel under the same circumstances, its level of volatility is less than half of its raw counterpart, and sits comfortably below that aforementioned danger zone.

Finally, we have concentrated (white-blue) quintessence: that which a rare few “sacred” Alteans possessed the ability to convert from the universe around them, transforming raw (gold) quintessence into a form that could be effectively utilised without compromising its power to any significant degree. This ability, however, subjected their bodies to extreme strain, and while there are natural inhibitors in altean brains to stop them from doing so in excess, if they were to forcibly transcend these limitations the untempered excess would likely trigger a rapid decomposition of their genetic structure. That being said, although altean quintessence is somewhat more volatile than refined quintessence, it is far more potent, and so a far smaller quantity of it would be required to reap the same rewards, making it the most efficient form of quintessence in terms of its power:stability ratio.

[creweemmaeec11]

My Demonic Lullaby

A hero x demon snippet partly inspired by both @the-modern-typewriter and @amethystpath-writes hero and demon snippets. This idea actually predates my sleep paralysis snippet, but I never got around to writing it till their snippets got me back on the hero x demon train 😂 Next part to follow soon hopefully!

Insomnia really sucked, Ellory decided. He was already *exhausted* from the fight with one of the cities top villains earlier that day. He was aching all over, his head was throbbing, it was already 3am and yet he *still* couldn't fall asleep.

The hero rolled over onto his back with a groan, both from annoyance and the pain of moving. His ribs ached, still, open cuts stung. His hands came up to rub his face and eyes.

"What I wouldn't give to be able to sleep like a normal person," Ellory mumbled under his breath.

He closed his eyes, flipped his pillow for the * fourth* time that night, and thunked his head back down to the bed.

"Seriously," he muttered to the empty air, "what is it going to cost for me to sleep?"

Ellory had asked the question more to himself, as if asking his brain what he had to do to finally get the rest he so desperately craved.

He wasn't expecting an *actual* answer.

"Need some help?" a low and smooth voice asked from what sounded like the corner of the room.

Ellory tried to snap his head in the direction of the voice, only to be unimpressed by the fact he couldn't move.

"*Oh you have GOT to be kidding me*" Ellory mentally groaned, "*I ask to sleep and what do I get? Sleep paralysis, and even a disembodied voice hallucination to go with it!*"

Suddenly the voice chuckled, "Not quite,"

Now, the hero wasn't new to sleep paralysis. He didn't get it often, but every now and then it would creep its way in. This was the first time it had ever happened *before* going to sleep though. It was also the first time he'd ever hallucinated.

Ellory knew that there were others who had crazy hallucinations, even knew one hero who said they got them almost every night. (Even though they gave Ellory a weird look when they said they'd been getting better recently) Luckily for him though, prior to tonight, the worst he'd ever seen was a shadow or two.

His eyes turned, glancing over as best he could to the corner of his room. Despite the darkness, he could see some vaguely human-shaped swirling shadow. The only way he could make it out at all was because it was somehow even *darker* than the shadows around it.

Luckily, the shadow was just kind of standing there, and despite what his other hero friend had said, it didn't look very scary...

The hero mentally sighed again, letting his eyes slip closed. He was *so* tired. Why couldn't he just sleep?!

"That would probably be the insomnia," the voice stated sarcastically.

"*Thank you captain obvious,*" the hero mentally retorted, before stopping, "*great, now I am literally having a conversation with myself. Maybe villain DID hit me in the head too hard today,"*

The disembodied voice snickered again. Though highly amused, it wasn't mocking or unkind.

"No, you're head is fine. But you never answered my question," the shadow-thing said, its vague shape shifting over, more into Ellory's sight.

Whatever hallucination his brain had come up with didn't seem to be going away any time soon.

"*And that was?*" the hero replied. He had nothing better to do than to just amuse... well, himself; he supposed.

"Would you like some help sleeping?"

"*I would LIKE to be asleep already! And real sleeping, not this nonsense,*"

"I can help," the voice offered, seemingly as the shape took a step forward.

"*Oh I'm sure you can*" the hero replied sarcastically, "*If so, then why aren't you?*"

"You need to say yes for us to make a deal,"

Whatever hallucination Ellorys brain had decided to come up with, it certainly picked... an interesting voice. There wasn't anything wrong with the voice itself, in fact, it was quite pleasant to listen to. It sounded slightly masculine, low and gentle, yet not raspy in the slightest, like whatever this illusion was had never had a sore throat in their life. The weird thing, was it sounded confident and in control, but *wasn't*. The hero had been around villains enough to detect when a false bravado was just that; fake.

Especially with nothing else to do but listen, Ellory was able to easily pick up on the slight hesitations, the shaky undertones, and even the way the tones shifted, despite his sleep-deprived state.

Why would his brain come up with such a random yet weirdly detailed hallucination?

Maybe he *had* hit his head more than once.

"*A deal?*" the hero groaned again, "*Just sleep already!*"

"I can ensure you get a good night's rest every night, if you'd like...just tell me; do I have your permission to help you sleep?"

"*Yes! Please!*" Ellory internally cried. He was arguing - no, *begging* - his own hallucination. That's what tonight has devolved to.

"Very well then," the disembodied voice hummed. The last thing the hero remembered was opening his eyes to see the shadow move closer before things went black.

The next thing Ellory knew, he awoke the next morning, feeling shockingly well-rested.

What a weird dream he'd had last night.

The hero moved to get up, before remembering he was injured and braced for the wave of pain... only for nothing to come.

He looked down, lifting up his shirt to examine his abdomen and... what the hell?

What had previously been a sprawling mess of deep slashes, purplish-black bruises and swelling was now nothing more than a few scrapes, small cuts and the occasional tender spot.

Ellory skimmed his fingers across the surface of his skin, baffled.

Had it just looked worse in the dark? That made no sense.

Regardless, he wasn't about to complain, and he didn't have time to dwell on it. Being a hero meant busy days.

Unfortunately, as the week progressed, the strange occurrences only escalated.

While walking down the stairs the following day, Ellory tripped, nearly going head over heels, before something seemed to suddenly catch him, turning him in the air and standing him upright again.

It had happened so fast. Maybe his reaction times were better than he'd thought? Regardless, Ellory just brushed it off.

But then the following day, one of the cities villains threw a knife at him. He would have reacted to it too slowly if the knife hadn't suddenly stopped in the air mere millimetres in front of him before dropping to the ground with a clatter.

Now he was officially a little weirded out.

But the events just kept happening.

Doors were opening in front of him, only to close when he walked through. He'd knocked a glass of water off the counter, only to look down and see it had landed perfectly, not a drop spilt. His mail from the apartment mailboxes had appeared on his kitchen table when he didn't remember going to get it. Lights were flicking on and off when he'd enter or leave a room. One night he'd even realized he felt a bit chilly, only to hear the heater turn on seconds later.

One night, he fell asleep on the couch, only to wake up with a blanket over him he *swore* wasn't there when he fell asleep.

And yet, the hero had also been getting a great rest every night, drifting off almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

It wasn't until today, however, that Ellory really began to panic.

The hero had been on the rooftop of an office building, with a villain *on top* of him. (These events had really throw Ellory off his game)

This specific villain, however, wasn't particularly nasty, and Ellory had successfully reasoned with them before, and so despite the knife to their throat, they weren't quite panicked yet.

Said knife was still being held a couple inches away from their throat, more of a warning to stay down than an actual threat of "I'm one word away from slitting your windpipe open,"

"You, are becoming an increasing pain in the ass,"

The hero gave a small smile, "trust me, the feeling is mutual, but you know I can't let you do this,-"

He was cut off by the villain thrusting the knife much closer, "I wasn't aware you-"

Suddenly, without warning, the villain was launched back into the air, catapulted off him. Ellory watched them skid across the roof where they landed a couple meters away.

Whatever the villain saw when they looked back up made the colour drain from their face. They immediately pushed themselves up to their feet, staggered back a few steps, eyes wide, before they turned tail and fled.

The hero was frozen.

*What the hell?!*

Ellory looked down at his shaking hands.

*What the hell just happened?!*

Quickly, the hero got to his feet and took off home, completely panicked. He ran as fast as he could, as if something was chasing on his heels, breathing down his neck. It felt like his own shadow wanted to catch him.

*Something was wrong* *Something was really wrong*

As soon as he made it into his apartment, Ellory ran into his bathroom, looking at himself in the mirror.

He looked normal, though slightly red, which was just the consequence of being so out of breath. He was panting, breathing heavily and shaking. His hair was also a mess, a combination of both the frantic running and previous fight.

He could hear the frantic drumming of his heart in his ears.

Ellory took a deep breath, trying to ground himself. Grip tightening on the counter's edge.

Bending down into the sink, he splashed his face with cold water.

He was patting his face dry with a towel when a voice behind him startled him.

"I'm sorry...."

Ellory's head shot up. In the mirror, he could see a dark shadowy figure in the corner of the bathroom behind him.

The hero immediately whirled around, but was greeted by nothing more than an empty bathroom. His eyes wandered around warily, but not a thing seemed out of place.

Great, was he hallucinating now too?

He sighed, relaxing from the scare before turning back to the mirror and-

Ellory froze.

There in the mirror, in the same spot as before, was the shadowy figure.

He glanced back and forth between the mirror and back corner, but the dark humanoid shape was only visible in the reflection.

There was a few moments of silence as the hero simply stared, brain reeling, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

The shape was in constant motion, shadows swirling gently, like a foggy aura surrounding a much darker silhouette. The constant movement made it near impossible for the eye to focus on any one part of it, as if trying to see the individual particles in a stream of smoke.

The silhouette inside the aura was a bit more defined, at least around the head and shoulders. Apart from the clearly humanoid shape, the darker mass had no other identifiable features; except for its eyes, which were like two white voids, with a slightly darker pupil in the center.

Said eyes met Ellory's momentarily, before being cast downwards almost sheepishly.

That's when it clicked. The sheepish posture. This was the same shadowy figure from nearly a week ago.

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He couldn't think of anything to say.

The figure seemed to take the action to mean he'd had enough time to process.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," they apologized, sounding genuine.

The hero blinked.

*This was really happening*

"What..." the hero managed, barely getting the words out of his mouth. His brain had stalled.

"I was only trying to help," the shadow went on to explain sheepishly.

Something in the hero's stomach seemed to drop, "What... what are you?" He asked nervously.

"I think you know what I am," the demon replied quietly.

Ellory swallowed.

"Why can I only see you in the mirror now when I could see you fine last time?" He asked as if that was the most pressing question at the moment. Perhaps it was the only question he could handle the answer to right now.

"You may want to change your definition of 'fine', you were experiencing sleep paralysis last time,"

Finally, Ellory's brain seemed to catch up, "Why are you here again?"

The shadow in the corner seemed to still slightly, "I'm here because we made a deal,"

Deal...? They didn't make any... wait-

"You tricked me?!"

"Hey!" The demon snapped indignantly, posture suddenly defensive, "Not entirely! I've kept up my end of the deal! You haven't had any trouble sleeping this week have you‽"

Well, no... but...

The hero couldn't help but swallow nervously again, "so then what's *my* end of the deal?"

The shadow's posture instantly deflated again, "just let me hang around, basically..."

Hang around what? His house? Surely not because the demon had been there when he was fighting the villain so clearly-

"You possessed me!?" Ellory realized, eyes widening.

"No!" They replied, sounding almost horrified at the idea, "possession would be taking over control entirely! I'm just... taking up residence in the back corner?"

"What!?"

"Please don't send me back!" The demon pleaded. Their voice was suddenly so *desperate* sounding. The hero could even see the desperation in their white eyes. "I'll do whatever you want I promise! I'll go back into hiding and won't do anything! You won't even know I'm here I swear! I-"

The shadow was full-on rambling now, sounding more and more desperate with every word.

It was probably absurd that his heroic instincts flared, but he couldn't help it! This... being(?) really sounded like they were in trouble. Like they were genuinely scared.

"Hey, hey, it's okay-" Ellory interrupted, holding his hands up and taking a step forward. His heart sank when the figure flinched back, sinking in on itself and pinning its eyes closed as if bracing for something.

When nothing happened after a moment, the demon risked opening their eyes again. Still, they never said anything, just sheepishly stood in the corner as if waiting for a verdict, looking like they wanted nothing more than to hide in their own shadow.

Ellory took a deep breath, surveying the situation. The creature in front of him certainly didn't seem dangerous... and he hadn't tried to hurt the hero at all. Being able to sleep without any problems was also a nice bonus...

"so your... not... going to hurt me or anything?"

The shadow shook its head almost frantically.

"Ok..." Ellory took another deep breath, "As long as you don't hurt me, and don't do anything unless I tell you to, you can stay, okay?"

The demon in the corner immediately perked up, eyes brightening, "r-really?!"

The hero nodded.

"Thank you!" The shadow cheered, and Ellory would swear he could almost see a smile, "Thank you so much! You won't regret it I promise!"

And then just like that, there was a poof of smoke and the demon's reflection vanished, leaving a confused hero that still had a million questions alone in the bathroom.

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