#sorry if you see a duplicate of this post i decided to keep this one on this blog bc the reblogs make me happy

[deadbeatescape]

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN GMAN IS ONE OF THE SKIBIDI TOILETS

[damienns]

My GIF Making process: Screen capturing using MPV player, Organizing files, 3 Sharpening settings, Basic Coloring PSD + Actions set

This is a very long post so heads up.

I’ll try to be as thorough and true as much as possible to the way I make my gifs (I already use Photoshop Actions which I’ve long since set up but now for this tutorial I’m reviewing them to show you the exact steps I’ve learned to create my gifs 😃) and present them to you in a semi-coherent way. Also, please bear with me since English is my second language.

First things first. Below are the things and tools we need to do this:

Downloaded 4K or 1080p quality videos (let’s all assume we know where to get these—especially for high definition movies and tv series—so this post doesn’t get removed, okay? 😛)

Adobe Photoshop CC or the CS versions can work as well, but full disclosure I haven’t created gifs using the CS versions since 2020. I’m currently using Adobe Photoshop 2024.

mpv player. Use mpv player to get those frames/screenshots or any other video player that has a screen grabber feature. I’ve used adapter for the longest time but I’ve switched to mpv because the press to screenshot feature while the video is playing has been a game changer not to mention ultimate time saver for me. For adapter you need to play it in another video player (like VLC player), to get the start and end timestamps of the scene you want to gif which takes me ages before I can even open Photoshop.

Anyway! Please stop reading this post for a moment and head over to this amazing tutorial by kylos. She perfectly tells you how to install and use mpv player, both for Mac and Windows users.

One thing I have to share though, I had a tough time when I updated my MacOS to Sonoma since MPV is suddenly either duplicating frames or when I delete the duplicates the player seems to be skipping frames :/ I searched and found a solution here, though it didn’t work for me lol. My workaround for this in the meantime is decreasing the speed down to 0.70 then start screenshotting—it’s not the same pre Sonoma update but it works so I’ll have to accept it rather than have jumpy looking gifs.

Now, after this part of kylos’ tutorial:

you can continue reading the following sections of my gif tutorial below.

I want to share this little tip (sorry, this will only cater to Mac users) that I hope will be helpful for organizing the screenshots that MPV saved to the folder you have selected. Because believe me you don’t want to go through 1k+ of screenshots to select just 42-50 frames for your gif.

The Control + Command + N shortcut

This shortcut allows you to create a new folder from files you have pre-selected. As you can see below I have already created a couple of folders, and inside each folder I have selected screenshots that I want to include in one single gif. It's up to you how you want to divide yours, assuming you intend to create and post a Tumblr gifset rather than just one gif.

Another tip is making use of tags. Most of, if not all the time, I make supercorp gifs so I tag blue for Kara and red (or green) for Lena—just being ridiculously on brand and all that.

Before we finally open Photoshop, there's one more thing I want to say—I know, please bear with me for the third? fourth? time 😅

It's helpful to organize everything into their respective folders so you know the total number of items/frames you have. This way, you can add or delete excess or unnecessary shots before uploading them in Photoshop.

For example below there are 80 screenshots of Kara inside this folder and for a 1:1 (540 x 540 px) Tumblr gif, Photoshop can just work around with 42-50 max number of frames with color adjustments applied before it exceeds the 10 MB file size limit of Tumblr.

Sometimes I skip this step because it can be exhausting (haha) and include everything so I can decide visually which frames to keep later on. You'll understand what I mean later on. But it's important to keep the Tumblr 10 MB file size limit in mind. Fewer frames, or just the right amount of frames, is better.

So, with the screenshot organization out of the way, let's finally head over to Photoshop.

Giffing in Photoshop, yay!

Let’s begin by navigating to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack…

The Load Layers window will appear. Click the Browse button next.

Find your chosen screenshots folder, press Command + A to select all files from that folder then click Open. Then click OK.

After importing and stacking your files, Photoshop should display the following view:

By the way, I'll be providing the clip I've used in this tutorial so if want to use them to follow along be my guest :)

If you haven't already opened your Timeline panel, navigate to Windows > Timeline.

Now, let's focus on the Timeline panel for the next couple of steps.

Click Create Video Timeline, then you’ll have this:

Now click the menu icon on the top right corner then go to Convert Frames > Make Frames from Clips

Still working on the Timeline panel, click the bottom left icon this time—the icon with the three tiny boxes—to Convert to Frame Animation

Select Make Frames From Layers from the top right corner menu button.

So now you have this:

Go and click the top right menu icon again to Select All Frames

Then click the small dropdown icon to set another value for Frame Delay. Select Other…

The best for me and for most is 0.05 but you can always play around and see what you think works for you.

Click the top right menu icon again to Reverse Frames.

I think Photoshop has long since fixed this issue but usually the first animation frame is empty so I just delete it but now going through all these steps there seems to be none of that but anyways, the delete icon is the last one among the line of feature buttons at the bottom part of the Timeline panel.

Yay, now we can have our first proper GIF preview of a thirsty Lena 😜

Press spacebar to watch your gif play for the very first time! After an hour and half of selecting and cutting off screenshots! 😛 Play it some more. No really, I’m serious. I do this so even as early (lol) as this part in the gif making process, I can see which frames I can/should delete to be within the 10 MB file size limit. You can also do it at the end of course 🙂

Now, let’s go to the next important steps of this tutorial post which I’ve numbered below.

Crop and resize to meet Tumblr's required dimensions. The width value should be either 540px, 268px, or 177px.

Convert the gif to a Smart Object for sharpening.

Apply lighting and basic color adjustments before the heavy coloring. I will be sharing the base adjustments layers I use for my gifs 😃.

1. Crop and Resize

Click on the Crop tool (shortcut: the C key)

I like my GIFs big so I always set this to 1:1 ratio if the scene allows it. Press the Enter key after selecting the area of the frame that you want to keep.

Side note: If you find that after cropping, you want to adjust the image to the left or another direction, simply unselect the Delete Cropped Pixels option. This way, you will still have the whole frame area available to crop again as needed and as you prefer.

Now we need to resize our gif and the shortcut for that is Command + Opt + I. Type in 540 as the width measurement, then the height will automatically change to follow the ratio you’ve set while cropping.

540 x 540 px for 1:1

540 x 405 px for 4:3

540 x 304 px for 16:9

For the Resample value I prefer Bilinear—but you can always select the other options to see what you like best.

Click OK. Then Command + 0 and Command + - to properly view the those 540 pixels.

Now we get to the exciting part :) the sharpen settings!

2. Sharpen

First we need to have all these layers “compressed” intro a single smart object from which we can apply filters to.

Select this little button on the the bottom left corner of the Timeline panel.

Select > All Layers

Then go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters

Just click OK when a pop-up shows up.

Now you should have this view on the Layers panel:

Now I have 3 sharpen settings to share but I’ll have download links to the Action packs at the end of this long ass tutorial so if you want to skip ahead, feel free to do so.

Sharpen v1

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen…

Below are my settings. I don’t adjust anything under Shadows/Highlights.

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Click OK then do another Smart Sharpen but this time with the below adjustments.

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

As you can see Lena’s beautiful eyes are “popping out” now with these filters applied. Click OK.

Now we need to Convert to Frame Animation. Follow the steps below.

Click on the menu icon at the top right corner of the Timeline panel, then click Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips

Then Convert Frames > Convert to Frame Animation

One more click to Make Frames From Layers

Delete the first frame then Select All then Set Frame Delay to 0.05

and there you have it! Play your GIF and make sure it’s just around 42-50 frames. This is the time to select and delete.

To preview and save your GIF go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

Below are my Export settings. Make sure to have the file size around 9.2 MB to 9.4 MB max and not exactly 10 MB.

This time I got away with 55 frames but this is because I haven’t applied lighting and color adjustments yet and not to mention the smart sharpen settings aren't to heavy so let’s take that into consideration.

Sharpen v1 preview:

Sharpen v2

Go back to this part of the tutorial and apply the v2 settings.

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 20

Radius: 0.5

We’re adding a new type of Filter which is Reduce Noise (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise...) with the below settings.

Then one last Smart Sharpen:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Your Layers panel should look like this:

Then do the Convert to Frames Animation section again and see below preview.

Sharpen v2 preview:

Sharpen v3:

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5

Preserve Details: 50%

Reduce Color Noise: 0%

Sharpen Details: 50%

Sharpen v3 preview:

And here they are next to each other with coloring applied:

v1

v2

v3

Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the post 😂

As promised, here is the download link to all the files I used in this tutorial which include:

supercorp 2.05 Crossfire clip

3 PSD files with sharpen settings and basic coloring PSD

Actions set

As always, if you're feeling generous here's my Ko-fi link :) Thank you guys and I hope this tutorial will help you and make you love gif making.

P.S. In the next post I'll be sharing more references I found helpful especially with coloring. I just have to search and gather them all.

-Jill

[celestialcrownsvn]

Update 7/17/24

Hello Tumblr, I'm back! I'm so sorry for the unmentioned hiatus. I just had a lot of stuff going on that I had to deal with and didn't have the mental capacity to keep up with socials. I'm trying to ease myself back into it, so I will be resuming my once a week posts on tumblr, and I am aiming for two twitter posts a week.

So despite the fact that I've been away, there has been some serious progress made on the game. Specifically, backgrounds!

Backgrounds

Sorry for the duplicate, I just loved Aalam's room so much I had to share twice ^^

That's right, this is our first look at Aalam's room, and the full city of Andromeda! Mika has been doing a fantastic job with the backgrounds and there are only a few left! Which means that I'll be able to program in style and see the game really come to life as I keep writing.

We also have both the Laute and Andromeda infirmary, the Laute dungeon, and Aalam's family cabin!

Community Goal Reached

We hit one of our community goals--1000 steam wishlists! 🥳

This means that I will be adding an additional CG to the game! It will be in the first few chapters, so I've asked the CG artist to prioritize it so I can get an updated demo out. Look out for sketches in the Discord sneak peak channel if you pledged at that tier!

Writing

I have continued writing and am currently working on a new Aalam scene! Here's a look:

In this scene, Aalam takes Terra on a romantic sleigh ride. Who knows what might happen...?

Music

I have decided to add three more songs to the game, specifically theme songs for the LIs. So I will be speaking with the composers soon about those!

Conclusion

I am steadily moving along! Now that I've started writing again I'm hoping to have some meatier updates moving forward, but it's always difficult because I don't want to give too many spoilers.

Thank you all for being so patient!

[heartkyeom]

grad student!seokmin headcanon

word count: 742

notes: hi, long time no see! I don’t know what this is tbh, my writing has been quite stalled lately but this has been sitting in my drafts so I figured I would finish and post it, I hope you like it. happy new year and I hope you’re taking care of yourself 💗 also sorry for the duplicate line under the read more!! tumblr hates me so it won’t let me fix it

taglist: @weakforsvt @junhui-recs @rasparagus @just-here-to-read-01 @baekhyunstruly

grad student!seokmin walks you home after your shared lecture that always runs late. He always grumbled that your professor should be aware of the time, and you always agree wholeheartedly. You insist that you can walk by yourself, but he doesn’t mind, and you secretly enjoy his company. You both keep each other accountable for thesis deadlines and you’re definitely the closest to each other out of your cohort. Even when you cry on his shoulder about your research feeling unorganized or meaningless, he’s making sure you remember why the work you do is important. In return, you text him not to stay up until 5 am writing like usual. After you both finish your final presentations on the final day of the semester, he walks you home one last time.

“But still, thank you, I really appreciate it,” You smile at him, but you’re not sure you can capture the gravity of your feelings.

“But still, thank you, I really appreciate it,” You smile at him, but you’re not sure you can capture the gravity of your feelings.

The silence is quite intense, you’ve never been this awkward around him before. Both of you are typically able to keep conversation better than this, but you internally grasp for anything that could make him stay a bit longer.

“It’ll be weird not seeing you every few days,” You admit. He turns his head away for a moment, looking slightly reminiscent of the past few months already.

“Same, I’m gonna miss it. We can still hang out though!” He exclaims sweetly.

You knew it wouldn’t be the same, though. You could spend time with him anywhere, but these night walks were a different kind of intimacy that you didn’t think you could replicate with anyone else.

You were already used to the way he laughed slightly too loud at all your jokes, the way he smiled so bright that it reached his eyes, and the way he always waited for you to enter your building before walking away.

His kindness had all built up to feelings that were more than platonic. Now, it was just a matter of if you could confess to him or not.

“Of course, but I have to be honest,” You clear your throat and he stiffens slightly.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ll miss you because I like you,” You sigh too loud at your own words before continuing, “and letting the semester end without saying anything would make me realize how much I like you. Then, I’d have to wait even longer to tell you.”

He blinks at you, but you notice he’s blushing. You’ve fucked it up, you don’t know why you couldn’t have just bit back your crush like most people could.

Yet, you knew you’d regret it if you didn’t tell him. You prepare for the worst as you watch him approach you, your faces only a few inches apart. He holds your hands in his own.

“I like you too, I just wasn’t sure how to say it yet,” He almost mumbles as he looks down at your hands.

“But, I’m glad you found the courage to tell me,” He finally makes eye contact with you and your heart could nearly burst from how sweet he looks.

“You’re cute,” you giggle. He brings his face closer to yours and it makes you laugh even harder.

“Kiss me and I’ll be even cuter,” He replies. You take the command and connect your lips to his, you can barely comprehend how good it feels. You feel his hands on your face and it draws you into his orbit even further.

You’re almost gasping for air by the time you pull away from him.

Silence lingers between the two of you, and you decide in that moment that you can’t let him get away, not this time.

“Do you want to come upstairs?” You ask quietly, your heart is in your throat but you can’t help but press your luck one last time.

He turns his head away from you for a moment, but you can see the brilliant smile that spreads across his cheeks.

He faces you again and you can hear his excitement before he speaks a single word.

“I would love to.”

[www-webwarriors]

How 2 Fix: Paul Rabin

Good afternoon fellow webheads. As I stated in my last post, I was going to fix one of the most despised characters in recent Spider-Man comics: Paul Rabin. I personally think he gets a bad rep for being caught in the middle of MJ & Peter's split. Before you say anything else, I'm aware of everything else surrounding his character. But the point of this is to spin him into a character that any writer can deploy in their story. Remember: a bad writer gets rid of stuff that doesn't work. Whereas a great writer makes that stuff work. With all that said, here is how I would fix Paul Rabin.

Widowed, around late 30's or so

Has two twins: Owen and Claire

Wife died of Covid back in 2020 due to lung failure

Has a twin brother himself: Patrick Rabin (Basically muscular, man-bunned version of Paul) who works as male model and currently dating his former Pilates instructor Stephanie (MJ duplicate with brown ponytail)

Pat helped pay for sister-in-law’s medical bills and later funeral

Frequently rips on Paul for being an unaccomplished loser

Paul's own kids look up to their uncle more than their own father

Works as a researcher at Parker Industries (NYC Branch)

Inspired to create the "Jackpot" watch after seeing original Ben 10 show with his kids

Came up with the name "Jackpot" after nightclub owned by MJ Watson at this point in time

Rejected by executives for being too clunky and impractical.

Has habit of self-pitying and as a result, can come off as being oblivious or too self-involved

Scores a date with Shay (nurse from current Spider-Man run) but frequently bails due to work and the kids needing him.

On the verge of being dumped due to his lack of punctuality; implying that this has been going on for a while now.

Before he can feel sorry for himself, the date is interrupted by a gang of muggers outside causing trouble.

Paul, having finally had enough, goes outside to stop them.

Shay tries to talk him out of it, but it falls on deaf ears.

She decides to call the police instead.

Paul tries to talk the muggers out of their shenanigans but to no avail.

They even hold him at gunpoint and threaten to kill him.

Paul then pours his heart out, telling the muggers about his life and how if it doesn't go well, he could very well lose a chance at romance since his wife died.

As he's going on, one of the muggers pulls out his gun and tries to kill him, only for the leader to dissuade him due to him wanting to hear the rest of what Paul has to say.

They are so distracted that they don't see/hear the cops arrive.

By now, a crowd of onlookers have formed outside the restaurant and even the police are bewildered by his bravery.

After Paul is done talking, one of the muggers puts him in a chokehold and threaten to shoot him if the police don't comply.

Paul nut-punches him and runs like hell; giving the police enough time to take them down.

Once they are arrested, the cops praise Paul on his bravery and the crowd claps/cheers for him.

Shay runs over to him, hugging him tight

She asks if he really meant all that stuff about loving her.

He says yes I do, to which she promptly kisses him.

Shay apologizes for doubting him and Paul apologizes for always being late; promising to be more punctual in future.

After getting home from his date, Paul's kids praise him for his bravery after witnessing it on TV. Thus earning Paul the admiration of his twins.

Even Patrick has to admit that his brother has guts he never knew he had.

At work, Paul pitches the idea again. But the higher-ups turn him down. However, one of the supervisors suggest that they modify into a deluxe version of their current Web-Ware watches.

Paul is delighted at his idea being taken seriously.

True to his word, he pops by Shay's work with flowers and to keep her company in-between shifts.

He even volunteers at F.E.A.S.T every so often just to set a good example to his kids.

With that entire backstory in mind, this could be one of many ways one could renovate a character such as Paul. It isn't that hard. Hell, I did it using elements from the current storyline. The trick is to separate Paul from MJ as well as Peter and Blam-o! You've got yourself a spicy yet well-crafted character arc/background. Thank you and good day.

[randomyuu]

An attempt at eyeballing.

Not a fanart of any fanfic, but Yuuji and Gojou are used as my sacrificial lambs for my amateurish attempt at muscle studying (which is just eyeballing). Sorry guys.

Anyone who can draw muscles is absolutely amazing. Like, how in the world did you manage to wrap your head around this bizarre thing called muscles??? I swear, just looking at muscles I’ll be like “oh, that looks cool” or something.

Then I tried drawing it and am amazed and lowkey horrified at how many lines you can put to create the buff look. Like??? That is so cool? But also… weird? It just dawns on me. The human body can do this? The muscles can contract and elongate like this? Wtf???

This is what happens when you did not study the basics during the first stage of self-learning, I guess.

Here is the step-by-step process and images and my thoughts on it:

References

Here are the sources for Gojou's pose and Yuuji's pose.

I just… uh… I actually didn’t know what I am doing (and still don’t). But I want to start somewhere because I want to also be able to confidently draw muscles. So I just google searched “male muscle pose” with Gojou and Yuuji in mind. I’m in the mood to draw them, so yeah. Poor guys.

I don’t know what was on my mind when I was getting the pose for Yuuji, because his waist is not that thin. That would be Gojou’s lol. But this is eyeballing, not tracing. I get to decide what changes I want to make (and pray it won’t turn disastrous).

2. Rough sketch? Shapes?

This is what I usually do when drawing. This helps me to roughly guess the size and position of the objects before I dedicate my time to sketching the details. No heads because uh... I forgot.

3. Sketch

A really big jump from the rough shape, I know. And if you overlapped them, they just roughly matches.

This is where I start to properly eyeball. I start from the middle—the shoulder, down to the waist. Create the centre of the body first. Then I continue with the arms and heads. I separate the head in another layer because sometimes I have problems with head size.

Then I realise I’m not really sure if Yuuji’s waist is thin or not, so off googling the anime pics I went. And uh… he has a thin-ish waist…? Kind of…? Not as thin as Gojou in the manga, that’s for sure. I was going through a dilemma here lmao. I want to be as accurate to the canon, but also I’m not that capable to make a perfect duplicate so what is the fine balance to keep?

And I give up and decide to give Yuuji a bit of a curve.

4. Final lining with details (aka Gojou's and Yuuji's heads)

So uh… I actually didn’t plan to make the line this… clean? It was supposed to be a casual retracing with some sketchy lines but cleaner than the sketch. But midway my brain suggested playing with line weights and I just obeyed. The same also applied to the shading, it was unplanned.

Final thoughts:

Hm... considering this is my first time really, REALLY, dedicating my time to draw muscles and no other things along the way, it was... okay. I guess. Overall pretty happy. Definitely could be better.

Gojou looks better than Yuuji. My boy looks a bit off, I'm so sorry Yuuji :") It's because I have drawn characters' backs (clothed) before, so I'm quite familiar with it. But Yuuji's pose was a new one, so I guess that is to be expected.

So… that’s it. I hope this silly post informs/helps/entertains you in some way. If not, that’s okay, just ignore the post haha. I might be back next weekend with another drawing. Maybe. It’s a month of uncertainties for me. No promises.

Welp. Until then, see ya!

[druidx]

Find the Word Tag - Alexis Dalliance vs the Evil of Titan - Part 1

I have a lot of Find the Word tag games. So I decided to put them all together to make me edit the Alexis Dalliance vs the Evil of Titan, a NaNoWriMo novel from 2012 based on the first TTRPG campaign I participated in the Fighting Fantasy World of Titan setting.

There was a total of 145 words to find so I've split these into batches of ~50. I've not removed any duplicates, and where there's not an exact match I've used synonyms instead.

I've grouped the words by the original tagger - though some of these are old enough the tagger has changed URLs...

Fair warning before you click:

I have tried to keep the snips short, but at ~7000 words, this post is 'colour of the sky' long.

Well, if we're sitting comfortably, I'll begin.

➤ @aquadestinyswriting

Bother

The dragon tilted its head, red scales flashing like fire and blood as it looked at her from another angle. "Well, if that's all it was…" It said, in a descending tone. Alexis nodded fiercely. "Then I suppose I can let you off… But I want you to do something for me, first." "And what would that be?" Richard asked. "There is a Blackguard," the dragon said, "who has been making a nuisance of himself in my territory. I would like him killed.” The dragon sniffed the air, gaze landing back on Richard. “A job, I suspect, for you, holey one.” "Why should we fight your battles for you?" Richard asked. Alexis hissed at him, but the dragon just. chuckled. It crossed its paws, laying its chin down, considering. "Quite frankly," it said finally, "why should I? Why bother sullying my claws when you have appeared at the perfect opportunity to rid this pest for me?" Richard pursed his lips, then gave a sharp nod.

Kettle (Tea)

While Kassandra stoked up the fire and set water over to boil, David, Richard's brother-in-law, bustled around fetching plates and bread for the travellers crowded around his kitchen table. When all had a cup of nettle tea and a plate of bread and jam, David settled into his explanation. “They came a few weeks back,” he said. “They told the village elders they just wanted to practice their new religion in peace. The elders agreed and gave them land to build a chapel. After all, there’re so many gods already – what could one more hurt? “Of course folks are curious. They dropped in to see what this new god was about. And these new priests started converting them.” Bastet raised an eyebrow. “That’s the problem?” “Doesn’t sound like it does it?” David gave a bitter laugh. “But something happened to the folks they converted. Became mindless and mean about it. Our neighbour Sam – you remember, Rich? The fella with the lazy mouser? – he always let me borrow his post-holer, and I’d always let him use my ploughshare. But I went up to ask him for it and he threw me out on my rear, saying the new god didn’t approve of it.” He shook his head. “We never had much, but we had each other. We were a community, see? Now, we haven’t even that.”

Language (Accent)

CW Swearing

Alexis paused at an intersection with Bastet and Victor on her heels and looked around. She couldn’t make head or tail of the street signs, so she grabbed a passer-by. "Excuse me, I’m looking for the trade district," she said. The woman she had caught looked down her nose, brushing away a wave of well-coiffed hair, from where it had fallen at her sudden stop. "It would be over that way," she said, gesticulating to the east. "Thank you," Alexis said, but the woman was already walking away, brushing at her sleeve as though something nasty had landed on it. "Spoiled bitch," Alexis muttered, turning to stick out a tongue at the woman’s back. Bastet winked. As the snooty woman passed, she stuck her foot out, causing the woman to trip. "Oh, my. So sorry," Bastet said, in mimicry of the woman’s polished accent. "I didn’t see you there." The snooty woman spluttered from where she sat on the cobbled street, as Bastet and Victor walked on. Alexis let them catch up and smacked Bastet lightly on the arm, but she couldn’t help smirking at the woman’s comeuppance.

➤ @corkythewriteblr

Citizen

Loyal

"We need to leave," Bastet said. "We don’t know who’s loyal to Dire. These people have their hands full right now, but it won’t stay that way.” "She’s right," Richard said, unfolding from his crouch. "Come on." Mute, Alexis stood, trotting to keep up with the others as they made their way down the castle bailey and into the city, swerving through the chaos of screaming townsfolk to retrieve their mounts from the Inn.

Qualify

Sand (Blacksands)

"Sirs," Richard said with a sharp salute. "I can confirm that both Zharradan Marr and Balthus Dire are dead. We have liberated Troll Tooth Pass, and the city of Castle Dire." "Excellent," Hengar said, his tone relieved. "This is just what I needed, some good news to cheer me up." "Good news? You mean there’s been bad news?" Alexis asked. "Yes, sadly." Hengar sat back in his chair. "Master Yastromo, if you please?" Yastromo inclined his head, long white beard swaying with the motion. "Of course, Captain." The old wizard sighed. "I am sorry, my children, to send you straight out again. However whilst looking through Zagor’s effects, I discovered something disturbing." He held up an amulet depicting a stylized eye in a circle. "He’s still dead, right?" Alexis said with trepidation. Yastromo gave her a sad smile. "Yes. I’m afraid this could be much worse. It seems Zagor was part of a cult called the Eye of Myurr. I have also received word that this cult of Myurr is gaining traction in the town of Port Blacksands. We do not know their aims, but given they worship a demon prince from the Pit, it is surely not anything good." Yastromo glanced at Hengar and stepped back.

➤ @talesfromaurea

Cliff

Desert

CW: Blood, animal death

"Very well. Good luck," Nicodemus said, gesturing at Cee-Jay. "Apprentice?" The boy nodded. With a flash and a jolting motion, the group were surrounded by torch-lit sandstone walls and wailing lizardmen. Victor sent a ball of flame rolling through the crowd, Richard close behind, cleaving a path. Bastet and Jay ran, Victor and Alexis, covering their rush towards the portal. Richard had turned aside, making his way through the press of bodies flung against his sword, towards the lizardman elder whose blade was already slick with the blood of desert rodents, and a wavering chant could be heard through the scrum for fighting.

Ocean (waves)

"Bast!" Alexis shouted. "I need you. Richard’ll take care of Victor. I need help now!" Goregut lifted Bastet around, dropping her next to Alexis. The two of them hunkered down, Gorgut shifting splintered planks as Bastet and Alexis lashed them together as best they could with freezing fingers in the torrential rain. It was a small, pitiful thing, but better than not having anything at all. The three of them tied themselves on long halters to the raft, and then with a joint effort, launched themselves into the heaving waves.

Storm

As is often the case the morning after a storm, a blisteringly clear blue sky beat down upon the sandy shore, with only the merest breeze to ruffle the black braids of the shipwreck survivor. Alexis coughed out sand and rolled over, pawing at the salt crusting on her eyes. She dragged out her water skin and washed off her face of sand and salt before taking a long drink. When she felt slightly more alive – certain that the Great Ever After wouldn’t leave her with crusty eyes – she stood up and started to explore the island and see if she could find her friends.

➤ @whimsyqueen

Fascinate

Alexis clenched her free hand as he walked towards her and forced a smile across her lips. "Most feared Lord Dire," she said. "We have come from the Fort at Trolltooth Pass, sent by your brother in darkness, my Lord Marr, to bring you this gift." "Now, isn’t this a treat," Dire said, stepping around her and Three, his eyes feeling as though they lingered on her as much as the patchwork construct beside her. Dire stopped in front of them, taking a few steps backwards. "Please, show me what it can do," he asked, his silken voice and sickly sweet perfume writhing about her, like the snake of temptation in books of yore. Alexis stepped away and glanced at Richard. They hadn’t planned any of this out, and she wondered how long she could keep the charade up before Dire would know something was wrong. Richard dipped his head, his eyes skittering to where Bastet was signing at her in thieves' hand signals. It was a pattern, followed by the sign for someone getting flattened. Alexis cleared her throat, brushing her nose, signalling she understood. “Three,” Alexis said, addressing the construct. “We’re going to play a little game.” "Goody! I like games," he said. “Please take two steps backwards, and then four forwards for me.” “Okay,” he said, and, squinting at his feet, walked back then forwards, quietly counting his steps. Delighted, he looked back at Alexis. “Done it,” he said happily. “What’s next, ‘Lexis?” “One step right, one back, two forward.” “Okay!” Again, Three’s face scrunched in concentration as he counted his steps, stopping right in front of Dire. “Fascinating,” Dire said, staring up at Three. “You can control it even without it’s crystal.” Alexis glanced back at the others. Victor shrugged. Richard loosened his sword from its scabbard. “Yes,” he said, “it’s a new system my Lord Marr is trialling. Woodling, show him the final command.” Alexis murmured her assent. “Three? Smush!” she yelled.

Gentle

Breakfast finished, Alexis slipped outside with a plate of raw steaks and headed towards the stables. “Good morning, Three,” she called. “Hullo, ‘Lexis,” he said, giving her a wave. She knelt beside her riding dog, placing the plate of steak in front of him. Neisk’s tail beat back and forth as she peeled one steak off and passed it to Three. “Eat,” she commanded, ostensibly to the dog, but Three also devoured the steak as Neisk gave a chuff and settled down to eat. “How are you this morning, Three?” she asked as the construct licked his fingers. “I’m fine,” he said, giving her a big goofy smile. “Your doggy is cute.” “Yes. My to'mae is a very good boy.” Three gave Neisk a gentle pat as the dog was licking the plate. “Listen, Three,” Alexis said. “Me and the others have to go into the city, but we can’t take you. You, um, stand out, a bit. Are you okay staying here with Neisk?” “Oh,” Three’s face fell. “Okay ‘Lexis.” Guilt gripped Alexis’ heart, so she reached over and hugged his arm. “I’m sorry, honey. We’ve got some very important work to do in the city and it’s… difficult when you’re with us.” She looked up into his big, trusting, mismatched eyes. “It’s okay, ‘Lex. I understand.”

Holy

CW swearing

"Yeah… It's some kind of powerful magical item, for sure," he said. "It’s glowing bright blue, but I can’t work out what it’s been enchanted with. Give me a sec, I’ll cast Detect Alignment to find out if it’s evil." Once again the rest of them exchanged looks but kept silent as Victor wiggled his fingers in a slightly different pattern. "Revelux in denomination!" he commanded. The wind sighed. Sand scuttled. Victor screamed. He dropped the dagger, falling heavily into the sand, and covering his eyes. "Holy mother of fucksticks!" Bastet rushed over to him and Alexis swiped the dagger. "What happened?" Alexis said. "Are you okay?" Bastet said, cupping the wizard’s shoulders. "Vic, talk to me?"

Ritual (Rite)

Nicodemus raised an eyebrow. "Indeed." He gestured to the viewing mirror again. "As you can see these cultists are devoted and stubborn fellowes. They have almost finished clearing the temple and preparing for their heinous rite which will allow them to open a portal to the demon dimension, or as you might call it ‘the Pit’, bringing their foul lord Myurr through to wreak whatever havoc he wishes on our world. We can not let this happen. As such I am sending you back with this." He handed Richard a cylindrical device, then waved a hand to bring forth a man in pale robes. "This acolyte will transport you back to the temple, and assist you in sealing this portal forever."

➤ @eli-writes-sometimes

Heir (Prince)

"Are you okay?" Bastet said, cupping the wizard’s shoulders. "Vic, talk to me?" "I… I’m all right. I think," he said, his voice shaking. "So. Um. Yeah. That thing is pure evil. As evil as a prince of evil in the dimension specially reserved for really evil things." "What did you see?" Richard asked. "Red," Victor said. "Only red. That thing is giving off an aurora of evil so strong that I see nothing but the waves of light from it. Give me a moment – I must wait for the spell to wear off."

Humanity (Human)

"Richard!" came the delighted cry of a woman. The door flew open and out sailed a middle-aged woman, long braids of ashy-yellow hair streaming out behind her. "Kassy!" Richard cried as the woman threw herself into his arms. "Kassy, what’s wrong?" Her fingers dug into his shirt, her face pressed against his chest for a long moment, before she looked up with reddened, haunted eyes. "Oh Richard, it’s terrible," she said, tears in her voice. “What is? Kassy? What’s happened?” "Richard?” Sticking out from around the door was the head of a human male. His eyes were heavy and his thatch of dark hair was in disarray. With one flickering glance, he took stock of the mismatched adventurers on his doorstep. “Richard, are these people your friends?” “Yes. David, what-” The man pushed the door wider. “You need to get inside now. Hurry!”

Take

"Ho! Whoa. You hold up a moment there, lassy," the captain called. Alexis stopped and turned back, arms folded and head tilted with a glare. The captain grabbed a line, swinging from the ship to the dockside, and landed, silken waist sash fluttering in the breeze. He struck a pose, one hand on the hilt of his sword. "Are y'trying to suggest that I, Captain Dragan Bloodbeard, of the beautiful Oaken Rose, is not fit to take a couple of poncy humans over the seas to Khul?" The captain took a few, stalking, steps forward, glaring down. "Well, are ye?"

Tough

(Word edited out for better prose) CW: Slavery

Once all the women had eaten, the guards unlocked their cell. The slaves filed out and, one by one, were locked to a long chain. The chain was dragged by a guard down to dim pits where veins of opalescent stone ran through the rock. The chain was locked to a staple on the wall, and pickaxes handed out. The other slaves began to attack the rock face. With a glance at Bastet, Alexis followed suit, struggling to even lift the pickaxe.

➤ @thewriteflame

Erase (Remove)

Alexis must have slept at some point, as she woke in a dog pile of small children and blankets. The sun was burning its way through the hall’s high windows, promising a fine day; what little the weather cared for mortal tragedy… She lay back, staring at the wide-beamed ceiling, exhausted down to her bones. At least it would make assessing the damage easier than if they had to manage it in the rain. Her thoughts turned to Richard and Ithanor, passing buckets in the rain, and to Bastet who’d vanished into the dark, and to Victor, throwing magic and water around with only one care. She should, probably, go check on them. Alexis slithered out of the warm pile, pulling the blankets over those who were left shivering with her departure, watching the children with a fond smile as they snuggled together, filling the hole she’d left. She adjusted her armour – apparently never having managed to remove it the night before – and found her travel pack and weapons close by. On soft feet, she padded out of the Town Hall and into the courtyard.

Flight

"Thank you, so very much," said the dragon. "I’m afraid I was in over my head there. If you kind folks hadn’t come along when you did, I would have been dragon kebab for sure. Thank you again, for saving me, Kypris of the Copper Dragon Flight. Is there anything I can offer you for your excellent service? Alexis instinctively held out her hand. "It’s very nice to meet you, Kypris," she said. The dragon extended a talon and they shook "Why didn’t you use your acid breath attack?" Bastet asked. "My my, you’re very knowledgeable, aren’t you little drow. Well…” Kypris scuffed a foot into the sand. “I was taken by surprise and they tangled my mouth shut before I could use it. I sadly haven’t yet learnt the full way of magic. So I couldn’t do much against those wretched little creatures. Now, please! What can I do to repay your kindness?"

Sleep

CW smoking/ drug use

Slowly they all woke, grateful to find both their necks and belongings intact. “Usually I do not let people sleep here,” the barman said, taking a suck from a long pipe, huffing out a cloud of scented smoke. “But I see you are new here, with no place yet to rest your heads. For the service of keeping the braziers lit and protecting you through the long night.. Eh, I will give you a discount for your newness. Two silver bits each.” He waggled his eyebrows and held out a hand. “Thank you, good sir,” Richard said, passing over his money. “Your kindness in protecting us while we slept is greatly appreciated. You are a godly man.” Silently, Alexis passed over her money. As the coins slipped from her grip, she signed in Thieves Cant, ripoff. The barman grinned widely. With a little prodding, Victor and Bastet also parted, grumbling, with their coins. "Now we’re all friends," Alexis said, "perhaps you can help us further. We’re looking for a ruined temple, somewhere deep in the desert. It’s rumoured to contain a portal to other worlds. Have you heard of such a place?” The barman shook his head. “I have not. But there is a man who sells maps from the marketplace. His name is Hassan. Perhaps he can point you the right way.” “Thank-” Alexis began, but stopped when the barman held out a hand, rubbing his thumb against his forefingers. “The desert is cruel,” he said. “A silver bit.” Alexis scowled. “Two copper is all that direction is worth, and we both know it.” The barman grinned as the copper coins landed in his hand. “Assamarra go with you, tree-child.”

Sound (Hearing)

Before she could get her answer, Richard came pounding over the hilltop. "She shall give it up over my dead body!" he roared, launching into the midst of the cultists, blade flashing in the sun. Fire roared from overhead, arrows zipped through the azure sky. Alexis felt like she’d blinked, and all the cultists lay dead, bleeding into the sand. “Greg damnit!” Alexis snapped, rushing over. “Why in the Pit did you kill them all? We could have gotten information from them. Like why they only wanted the dagger!” Muttering she began to riffle through the bodies for clues. “They… They were cultists,” Richard said, shrinking down. He toyed with the hilt of his sword. “Evil-doers. They were trying to kill you. You’re so small, and you hurt easily. I was just trying to keep you safe.” Alexis looked up, hearing the upset in his voice, and gave a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Thank you, for saving me. I just don’t understand why they wanted the dagger. It’s a piece of junk. I only wanted it because…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I just wanted it.”

Space

"Arts, I want you to show these lubbers to their quarters, then report back to deck. We’ll be setting the sails in half a turn of the clock." "Aye, Cap’n. Passengers, if ye’d follow me?" the First Mate said, leading the way below decks to show them to two cabins. "Ladies, ye’ll be in here," Arts said, pointing to one. "Gents, this'll be your cabin." He pointed to another. "I'll leave ye get settled. It’d be appreciated if ye could stay in your quarters till the Oaken Rose is underway. Dinner will be shortly after then." With a nod, he left them to their quarters.

"Well this is cosy," said Bastet, as she and Alexis arranged themselves in the cabin. It was indeed a tiny space, with narrow bunks on one side and a small tin sink, recessed into a dresser, on the other. Opposite the door was a porthole, letting in the smallest amount of light, over which hung a hurricane lamp. "Mm," Alexis agreed.

➤ @the-writing-rat

Boiling

"Yes!" she said. "We have been sent to rid your menace from the face of Titan." To her surprise, Zagor laughed. "Oh my," he said, wiping away mock tears of mirth. "What an adorable notion. Whilst you all look the part, I doubt you have the skill. So you are welcome to try, but do not think you will succeed." "We have might and right on our side!" proclaimed Richard, raising his sword. "We cannot fail!" At that signal, he and Ithanor made their charge The villain’s smirk dropped and his black eyes became those of death. He flicked out a hand and the last thing Alexis felt was the hissing and boiling of an orange inferno headed straight for her.

Charity (Offering)

"Excuse me, good sir," Victor called up to the pirate. "We are looking to secure the services of a boat and a captain to take us to the continent of Khul, the new land of adventure. Might your good self be available for this service?" "’Sir’?" the pirate looked around as if confused, and his crew laughed. "Ain’t no ‘sir’s here. Ain’t none but us brigands and rouges." Alexis ground her teeth. The seaweed under the hot sun was pungent, the lack of beer from the ridiculous rules of this cesspit pounded at her head. “Your h'excellency might be in the wrong place, eh lads?” “Enough!” Alexis snapped. “Brigands and rouges it is, if you can’t even see your way clear to not making fun of someone offering you good manners. C’mon Vic, these fools aren’t fit to take us up the street, let alone to Khul in this rickety old tub.” She turned on her heel, marching away when the laughter ceased.

Puzzled

She sat down next to the former barbarian, his hair and attire neater than she had ever seen it. "So what of you, old friend?" she asked. "Business booming for you too?" "Oh aye," Ithanor said. "As if I wasn't busy enough with the repairs and upgrades on the town, they've got me drafted in building a host of new homes. All these new bodies want places to live." "That's excellent news." "Oh and," Ithanor said with a shy smile. "Roderick’s not the only one with a new addition to his life." "Oh?" Alexis gave a puzzled smile. "Yeah. I, ah, managed to find myself a wife as well. Very soon after you left actually. Her name is Maeve, and we’re expecting a child, late spring of next year." Ithanor fiddled with his tankard. "I’ve got us a cottage close to the northeast wall, if you ever want to pop on over."

Succinct (Terse)

It wasn’t until evening chow when the winds picked up, large globs of rain hammering into the deck and soaking through anyone foolish enough to not have an oilcloth. When Richard stood to offer a hand, Bloodbeard held out a hand, saying, "I do thank ye for yer help, these past weeks, and by the end of the voyage we'll have made crewmen of you, I’m sure. But for now, let my boys work. Go down to yer cabins, and kindly stay until the all clear’s been given." With a terse nod, Richard led the way below, the First Mate's orders receding as they did.

Weather

Eventually, Bloodbeard came below, his hat drooping with the weight of water and his beard hanging in a sodden mess as he put his head around the door of the larger cabin which they’d stuffed themselves into. "Ah, you’re all here. Good, good. We seem to be having a wee bit of a storm, lads and lassies. But ‘tis nought to worry about – this ol’ girl’s weathered her share of rough seas.” He patted the bulkhead. “It’ll just get a bit bumpy at times. If you could remain here for the time being, that’d be grand. Can’t be having you lubbers out on deck, under me crew’s feet while they try to save her…” Bloodbeard’s eyes darted, and he forced out a chuckle. “Or risk ye being swept off to the briny deep, eh?”

➤ @sleepyowlwrites

Settle

The dragon clapped its paws again. "One moment then, please." It stood on its hind legs, squeezing its eyes tightly shut. The sand around it kicked up in a sudden twisting wind, knocking Alexis over as the others coughed and struggled to shield their faces. The wind died as suddenly as it came, dust settling around a handsome man with golden-tanned skin in the clothes of a travelling merchant. Alexis blinked and Kypris winked at her, his eyes – slitted like a cat – flashed with copper flecks. "Neat trick," said Victor appraisingly.

Sideways (Open-sided)

"Thank you," she said. "We should find someplace to sit and study this thing… Wait a sec." Alexis stopped, looking around with a frown. "Where the hell did Bastet and Victor go?" Richard glanced around, a hand shading his eyes. "There." He pointed to where a group of people congregated around a low table. On dusty cushions sat Victor on one side, his competitor – a dark-skinned elf – on the other. On the table were a set of bone tiles and a large stack of cash. Victor, in his bright robes, was frowning down at his hand, while Bastet stood behind him, hands on his shoulders, cheering him on. "They appear to be playing a game.” Alexis squinted up at Richard. “For money." "Yes, thank you. I know what gambling is. They can use their money however they wish." "They’re probably cheating." Richard pursed his lips and huffed. “Be that as it may, the fate of the world takes precedence over the immoral actions of our friends.” He gestured to an open-sided tent. “Let’s get something to eat while we look at the map.” They took a seat under the awning within sight of the gambling table, and a waitress brought them a tray of hard cheeses, nuts and cured meats. ”I assume you know how to use the map to find the temple?” Richard asked. “If the map is good, then yes, easily," Alexis said.

Sound

Outside, the day was warming up quickly. The four of them wandered through the tented village in search of a marketplace. It wasn’t hard, following the sounds of hawkers and hagglers, to reach the center of the oasis and the packed market. Narrow lanes bordered with awnings and tents, were filled with people and livestock, braying and hollering. Trestles covered in a dazzling array of food and goods, bright fabrics – soft, diaphanous, silky – dangling from racks, piles of skin and fleeces. The smell was incredible: sizzling meats, perfumed flowers, woody spices, offal and dung. Bright fruits alongside mounds of powders in umber and terracotta. Weapons and clothes and scents Alexis could never have dreamed of in a million years, sold by people of all creeds, their dialects and languages swarming into one joyous conglomeration. It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. Alexis trailed along behind the others, dipping fingers into pots of spice to smell the strange new smells, running her eyes over glittering treasures, laughing and playfully batting away the small children who thrust trinkets and flowers at her.

A lull in the tumult of sounds made her pause. Something like a whisper, a gut-feel, a tickle on the back of her neck made her look back at the stall she’d just passed. Under a lean-to awning of red and yellow were stacks of chests, some open with the papers inside spilling out. "Guys?" Up ahead Richard looked back to see Alexis wandering back to a stall of some wordsmith. “Victor, Bastet! Alexis has found something,” Richard called out, with a huff adding, “I suppose her ‘treasure sense’ is tingling.” Richard returned to her side, as Alexis was scanning the stall. Crackling stacks of papyrus, held down by painted stones, and rolls of parchment lay across the stall’s table. Idly, she picked up one of the rolls, peeking at its contents – a map, of some kind.

Spacious (Space)

Alexis reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, but Bastet shrugged her off. "It’s okay," Alexis said. “You tried, at least.” "When we get out of here," Bastet hissed at her. "That one is mine." Alexis backed away to give her some space and went to find the elven woman. "Nassurae," Alexis said “Yes, sá itil?” "I don’t know night from day down here, but I’m told you do. If my friends and I are to free everyone, I need to be awake three hours before the guards come to take us back down the mines. Do you think, if I sleep now, you’ll be able to wake me on time?" Nassurae looked thoughtfully at the other elven women in the cell. Each nodded, gripping hands, their eyes alight with hope. “Yes,” Nassurae said. "We can accomplish this. We will take shifts and wake you when it is time." “Thank you. I’ll rest now.” Alexis glanced at Bastet. “I would recommend leaving my companion for now. She’ll sleep when she’s able, and I’ll rouse her when it’s time.” "Quiet dreams, eshen," Nassurae said, as Alexis lay down and closed her eyes.

Supposedly

CW Racial slur - black american

A rustle came from behind them, causing the group to turn. Richard and Ithanor drew their blades as a human and a black-skinned elf emerged from the scrub. "Who are you?" Ithanor demanded, levelling his blade at the newcomers. "Umm, hi?" said the drow. "Well?" Nathardrin said. The human stepped forward, brushing down his shabby robes. "My name is Victor, with a monocle. It seems we both have had the same idea: to sneak into Firetop Mountain and destroy the evil Zagor who lurks within." "And what are you supposed to be?" asked Richard pointing at the drow. "Some kind of pointy-ear coon?" The drow straightened, shoulders pulling back as she looked down her nose at Richard. "My name is Bastet," she said coldly. "Despite your manners, I, and my comrade here, wish to assist you with your venture into the fortress to defeat Zagor." "Oh really?" Alexis said. "Yazty-" She turned back to where the wizard had been standing, only to find the patch of rocky grass empty. "Oh. Well, I hope one of you’s a spell-slinger." "Indeed, little one. I am the mighty Victor with a Monocle!" said Victor, swaying a little. "I will astound you with great acts of wizardry and maybe even set alight to some things." "And I am a fighter of great renown," said the drow. Those from the militia shared dubious looks. "Well, there’s not much point us standing around debating it," said Nathardrin. "We may as well get on with this."

Sweep

(edited the word out for better prose)

As the stablehand led their mounts out, Victor slipped him a silver. "We were never here, okay?" he said. Wide-eyed, the boy nodded, grasping his broom and vanishing into the stalls to send out little puffs of straw dust.

➤ @drabbleitout

Accept

Soon enough their packs were ready and armour had been donned, and now they stood in the blustery morning, the dirt of the courtyard underfoot. To one side their mounts stood patiently, as Hengar ran through the lists of evils they may face: Goblins, orcs. A bugbear, if they were unlucky. While Alexis listened with half an ear, she studied the mounts with concern, and when the captain was finished, raised her hand. "Yes?" asked Hengar. "Sorry, Captain. None of those mounts are short enough for me to ride." "Do not worry, little one," Yaztromo said, coming from the door of the Town Hall, tugging on riding gloves. "We shan’t make you walk. You’re to ride with me, if that’s acceptable?" "Oh." Alexis flushed and dipped her head. "I’d be honoured." Hengar tilted his head at Yaztromo, his eyebrows raised. Yaztromo replied with an allowing flourish of his hand.

Bark (growl)

"What did you find?" Ithanor asked. Quickly, Alexis outlined the layout of the fort, the two sets of stairs, and the pattern of the patrolling goblins. "We should take them out," Richard said. "Are you stupid?" Alexis growled. "What part of 'stealth reconnaissance' did you not understand?" Richard blinked. "Uhhh…" Alexis could see on his face that he didn’t understand, but before she could snap the answer, Ithanor beat her to it. "It means we go sneaky-sneaky-sneaky," he said, pantomiming a person stepping carefully. "We can’t take them out because it’ll make too much noise, and risk them raising the alarm. We just have to be like little mice, trying to steal grain." "Oooh," Richard said, in a rising tone of understanding.

Borrow (scrounge)

Alexis rose closer to noon than she would have liked, rolling out of bed with a series of groans. Her head felt ten times heavier than usual, and her mouth was as dry as pound cake. Aside from the snoring of the night watch, the barracks were empty. Victor, she supposed, was still in the pub, but where Bastet and Richard were she had no idea. By the neat folds, Richard would have risen early. Bastet, on the other hand, might have woken just before Alexis by the state of her bed, or been just as hungover. After dunking her head into the water ewer, Alexis wandered down to the mess hall to see if she could scrounge up something to eat.

Dry

CW Blood

Zagor was sitting in a chair by his desk on the far side of the room. He smirked at them as they entered and fanned out. "So. You’ve come back for more?" he asked, his voice the rasp of two dry sticks being rubbed together. Slowly the lich unfolded himself from his chair, as Victor darted around to fire off a Magic Missile. Zagor’s robe singed, but the creature inside remained unharmed. While Richard and Ithanor charged in, Alexis and Bastet took up flanking manoeuvres. The battle was arduous, but between the five of them, they whittled the lich down until finally, the pale creature lay deformed in a pool of its own black blood.

Fine

Slowly the group made their way down to the ground floor, exiting through the now open front gate and into the fort’s courtyard. "Yaszty!" Alexis cried, spotting the wizard perched on the back of a wagon. She hurried over to him, the others trailing behind. "I am fine, little one," he said, raising a tired hand. "I assume you were successful?" Alexis nodded. "Yep, we got that bastard and his phylactery. Is Lieutenant Nazaretian around? We should report our success to him." Yaztromo hung his head, letting his shoulders slump. "Sadly, the Lieutenant perished in the battle, taken out by an uncannily well-aimed goblin arrow. The men here have nearly finished their clean-up efforts, so I shall be returning with them to Toreguard soon. I shall convey our success to Captain Hengar on my return.” He cast an eye over the group, taking in their dented armour and bloody scars. “You should take some time to rest before returning. Now the Firetop is free, there is no rush.”

Large

"It doesn’t look like they managed to crack the combination," Marag said, running her hands over the outside of the vault. "Good ol’dwarven engineering, that. Everything inside should still be there, then." With that, she began to finagle the door mechanism, until, with a soft noise like a sigh, it opened. Marag pulled open the door, and Alexis’ jaw dropped. The walls of the vault were lined with gold and platinum ingots. The floor was filled with chests, weapons racks and armour stands, upon which hung the most beautiful items – plates of pale, glistening, silvery metal; bladed hilts crafted with tiny jewels; crossbows engraved with strange runes. Magar stepped into the room, gesturing for the group to follow her. With no regard for the horde of treasures, she went to a chest pressed against the left wall and threw open the lid. Inside, nestled in neat rows on trays, were hundreds of gemstones. Maga scooped up a handful, and moving through the group, doled out a large ruby to each. "I hope this will be compensation enough f’helping us. And as advanced payment for taking out that velskkus, feel free to choose an item that’ll help you in your coming fight."

Mercy

"And how much will this map and information cost us?" she said, squinting. "Ah ha! I see the little miss is shrewd, as well as beautiful," Hassan said with a wink, and without breaking stride, added, "Three hundred gold pieces." Alexis gave him a flat look. "Fifty" "Fifty! No no, I can not go lower than two hundred, seventy-five." "One hundred, and you throw in a compass." She cast her eyes over the pile of treasures. A beautiful curved dagger with a jewelled hilt caught her eye. "And this." "All for one hundred golden bits? No no! Lady, you are crazy. That dagger is five hundred gold alone. Two hundred and twenty-five, and that is like cutting my own throat." "Please," Alexis scoffed. "That dagger is thirty at most. You think I can’t spot coloured glass just because the sun’s brighter here? Two hundred and twenty-five for the map, information, the compass and dagger, and one misdirect should anyone ask about us or our destination. Agreed?" Hassan threw up his hands. "Gods have mercy on me! Beautiful, shrewd and cruel, tsh." He shook her hand. "It is agreed."

New

Twilight was falling, the sky banded with pastel rainbow shades, as Alexis returned from the market with her haul of fresh supplies. As she walked along the dirt track towards the pub chomping on a newly harvested apple, she passed a pair of elders gossiping over a fence about some scandal from a few villages over. She slowed down to listen in as one of them complained about the reign of terror from a monstrous elf who claimed to be a paladin. Back at the inn, Alexis knocked on the gent’s door. “Heads up,” Alexis said, tossing him an apple. Richard glanced up from where he was trying to buff out the dents in his armour and caught it with one hand. “Ah, we haven’t had apples in ages.” He sniffed the skin. “Makes me feel a little homesick. How was the market?” he asked, placing the apple aside and returning to his armour. “About that,” Alexis began. Richard’s head shot up. “No, not the market. The market was fine. I got everything we needed. I meant, um. The village you’re from. What was it called again?” “High Creek. Why?” Alexis bit her lip. “Um.” Richard’s brown eyes creased in concern and he set aside his work. “Alexis?”

Peel (skins)

"Hey," Bastet said, calling her back to reality. "I think there's someone in here." Alexis looked over to see Bastet peering through the bars of the cell door. "Hello?" Bastet called through them. From the other side of the door came a blistering string of curses in a harsh language. "Whaddaya dirty green-skins want with me now?" the voice said in common. "I think it is a dwarf," Bastet said, glancing at Alexis. "Whaddaya mean, ye think it be a dwarf?" asked the voice mockingly. "I most definitely am a dwarf, ye lousy stinkers." Alexis shrugged at Bastet. "Sounds like a dwarf, yeah." "You can pick locks, right?" Bastet asked. "Yes. You go get the others, and I will let the very angry dwarf out of his nasty cell." "'His'! I'm very much a ‘her’, ye cretin." Bastet tilted her head. Alexis nodded, making shooing motions. Baset shrugged. "That’s right," the angry female dwarf called, as Bastet hurried off to find their comrades. "You’d better run, ya mangey beskur!" "Hey, enough with the name-calling," Alexis said, looking up from her investigation of the lock. "You keep that up, and you can stay in there." "Och! Now I’ve heard everything. Yon gobbo thinks keeping me in here’s a threat!" "I’m not a gobbo. I’m eshen." "What’s that?" Alexis sighed, spitting the word. "A woodling." "A woodling? Tch! Can’t be. Woodlings never come out the Darkwood." "Well, this one did. Now will you please be quiet so I can concentrate."

Work

Tentatively, Ithanor moved forward, placing a hand on a tall warhammer. As if that was their signal, the others moved forward, selecting what they wanted. Richard selected a suit of plate mail, Nathardin a recurve bow, and new swords each for Bastet and Victor. "Excuse me," Alexis said as Marag was finishing up with Victor. "I don’t see anything smaller than dwarf-size…" "Ah, now, let’s see. What’re you after, hen? A weapon or armour?" "Armour, if possible?" Maga squinted thoughtfully. "Aye, aye. I’ve got just the thing for a quarter-pint. A masterwork project it is, and a bit of an experimentation for the crafter. I doubt he ever thought it’d be worn." Marag chuckled, pulling from a chest a beautiful set of supple black leather armour, studded with that pale, glimmering metal. "Aye, this should see you right well, hen." Quickly Alexis changed. The armour fit like it was made for her. She grinned at Marag. "Thank you."

[lustandrot]

// SORRY, FOLKS.

A QUICK OOC NOTICE FROM THE WRITER;

More than likely moving most of my stories over to discord where I'm honestly just more comfortable! As much as I am trying to be HERE on Tumblr, it's quite hard to keep track of, in general. I think my biggest complaint / insecurity is everyone's stories, roleplays, and interactions being public for all to see. Not a jealous person, of course, and it's not about anyone specific, but it's so different from the atmosphere of writing / roleplaying that I am accustomed to.

This isn't just about my Frollo. I know damn well there are others on here and tbh, they are wonderful! I shamelessly follow some on my rl alt. I'm not worried because, to be honest, I write a specific version / rendition of him, a version no one else primarily writes. A version who's quite different. So it's not that I am insecure....per se.

I think we're all used to sharing muses with people, right?! ^^

I think for me, it's just having to SEE it all. No matter what. No matter WHO. Unless you literally block someone and well... that's not fair... because I adore everyone.

I'm just curious how all of you deal with writing and having great connections here when you have to watch everyone write with duplicate muses or just all of their stories in general out there for the world to see? I have two blogs here on Tumblr now and I think it's the one thing I can't get over. Like if I didn't have to see it all, I think I'd be a bit more relaxed.. o.o It's just strange to me and a little invasive? Not to mention, duplicate muses can just blindly reblog your personal ic posts, which is weird by itself.... and as far as I know, there's no specific way to stop that. e.e.. and I'm aware no one is trying to be disrespectful. Even if I forget to put 'do not reblog'... sometimes people will.

Maybe I've always just been a private person with my writing. It's intimate.... writing with someone, and no. I don't mean the dirty. I mean in general. It's an enjoyable hobby but sometimes, more intimate to some people than others. I get we all write differently and we all portray our characters uniquely, so this isn't my biggest issue. I just have a hard time separating myself from everyone else and maybe that's just because on THIS platform alone, everything is done publicly and people can constantly see what you're writing and what's going on and WHO you write with. I know you lot here are so used to it, but as a writer from elsewhere, I am not. Where I primarily roleplay, we have a friend's list and we add each other and writing takes place in messages, comments on the site, or in private on discord. The only interactions people see in public are on the status stream and even that's private if you don't have a person added. My point is, outside of what you WANT to see, where I write, you don't have to see anything you don't want to.

This is no one's fault and there are a few of you I would LOVE to keep writing with, but I'm not sure if I can manage to do it here and so publicly. I have no problem musing and posting my stuff here from elsewhere, but most storylines are going to have to come to a close here before I start or continue anymore. I am sorry for the disappointment. I honestly tried. I just realized the people here are a certain kind of people. This is where you guys have always written and you all are comfortable here, which is literally okay! You all are so wonderful. x

If anyone wants to START a story, CONTINUE a story, or just keep in touch? Add my discord below. EDIT; I DECIDED TO HAVE ALL OF MY RP PARTNERS AND 1X1 WRITING IN A SERVER! At least writing servers can have private channels and sections, which gives me peace of mind. Either way, it's where all my other writing happens. It's where my Quasimodo is and a few others. It's where I'm comfortable. If you don't wish to add me, that's fine too. I'm not making anyone add me. Just wanted to tell everyone where I'd be and that I would be here a lot less.

Discord: lustandrot_

[thevoiceofthepeople]

My Rules and About Me

POV Be Me: Dexter or Dex or Dee or whatever. (He/They, heavy preference on They tho)

Age: 32, soon to be 33.

I've been rping on and off for about twenty years I believe, I got the One piece bug after going through my old rp blog and missing my gurl boss Seda. I have adhd and a not so busy but really full list of things I should be doing most days so I may dip in and out of here when I have free time.

When it comes to rping, the key to me is fun. If I'm not having fun I'm not doing it. So that being said, I don't make overly flashy/stylized posts. Graphics design is not my passion and so I don't find any of that stuff fun for me to do personally. Same with making a Carrd or any of that. Everything you need to find about me and my gurl will be on this blog and tagged accordingly. If you are looking for something in particular let me know and I'll gladly tell you. I have maybe 4 spoons on a good day and I'm not using up my good spoons doing something I dislike when I could be doing something I enjoy.

If you need a post formatted a certain way, let me know, otherwise you are getting it raw, baby!

Just don’t ask for the text to be too small. I have dog water eyesight so I still have to make it accessible for myself.

I yam an artist tho so I'll be more inclined to include art with any post about Seda I make because I'm a visual learner. And sometimes, a quick image gets the job done.

Da Rules

1. The basics: Mun =/= Muse, Don't tell me what my character is doing, don't get overly shippy without us talking about it out of character.

2. Don't be a dick. If you are flinging around isms and phobias, then I will unfollow and drop any threads we are having. If it's something that can be talked about cause it's a misunderstanding then we're cool. But if it's a "Actually, I don't think brown people should have rights." You can fuck right off with that. I'm a black bisexual trans person, so anything that goes against my fundamental human right to exist is conversation ending.

3. Both mun and muse are in their 30s and so, if there IS any shipping, let's keep it gucci with someone close to her age range or older. And I'd like to rp with people over 18. If you are younger, I'm going to ignore you. Sorry.

4. I do adore shipping, but I'm not hungering for it if there is no connection. Same with friendships. If it doesn't feel right, let's not force it. Seda is more than willing to talk with someone she loathes and I think that's a fun dynamic to rp out. Duplicates of anything are just fine with me. In her old form, Seda was bffs with at least three different luffys and she loved them all to bits.

5. There will be talk of sensitive subject matter as is the nature of One Piece, but anything truly nsfw will be put under a read more or moved to private discussions.

6. Speaking of nsfw, I have a pathological inability to write nsfw rps in public, so very likely, anything saucy will go fade to black. I will likely draw it though, just, having to put a mirror to myself and then telling everyone "Hey y'all, look at this vulnerable display of passion and lust that I'm writing with my own two human hands with another person!" fills me with dread.

7. Because I have adhd and the brain of slug sometimes, I make spelling mistakes. I try and catch them but I'm sure there are at least 5 in this post alone. It's just gonna have to be something you accept. No matter what I do, I don't see the mistakes.

8. My main focus is on One Piece characters but I'll rp with characters from other fandoms or just fandomless ones.

9. Anything about Seda is subject to change because that's the nature of life baby. She's had a lot of play testing from my blog ten years ago so this version of her is the stable 2.0 edition, but if I see something I like or decide a piece isn't meshing right, I reserve the right to change it. (Just as we can change anything about ourselves, yada yada)

10. And number 10, don't be a dick x2. I truly am just here for a good time and to play around in this little sandbox we call Tumblr Rping. When it stops being fun for me, I'll stop. But until then:

[sickcroww30]

I really like your artstyle!! What the drawing process like?

I'm not sure if you're asking about a "timelapse breakdown" or how I come up with a drawing idea so I'll answer both just in case (｡•́‿•̀｡)

Breakdown: [I will use Jevin as an example]

Note that I'm doing this on Ibispaint X

[Easy part: always speedrun this lul]

1. Sketch: I tend to keep it simple because I only need the shapes and now places of where things are going to be. Sometimes it can indicate movements of a [character]

2. Lineart: This is where details will start to pour in by however I want it to be. Of course the lineart doesn't have to follow the sketch, I can fix errors after cleaning the sketch later on

3. Color (base): Either eyedrop from references or pick by instinct (this I have to decide on a tone in order for it to be easier to edit on step 6) and then recolor a few areas if needed

[Pain pain suffer, what is color theory]

4. Lighting and Shadow: Colors for shadow are picked following the decided tone/ overall color palette so they will blend easier to the eyes. In the example, I picked cornflower blue for both lighting and shading [cold tone: overall palette but a lil warm: decided tone] to shade.

Screen and Multiply are in separated layers. Opacity is flexible

5. Lineart recolor: I usually start with black for lineart so at this point I have to change its color to suit the overall color palette. And then I start to get into details, especially the line areas inside the character.

6. Color fix: Oh boy, because I need the drawing to look more appealing, I have to admit that I've cheated this part. I either use Tone Curve for editing or lazier, merge all in one, and then duplicate it. The top layer will be used for color fix so I can go back to the original colors in case bad things happen during the process.

[That's all!]

Idea process:

Turn on a random minecraft youtube video to listen to the [chosen] youtuber talk. Doodle during that always end up with a drawing to start with

Make random poses to study or search for poses on Pinterest. Whoever (as in characters) comes in mind that suits the pose, will probably end up in the drawing

Memes, mostly (〃＾▽＾〃) they provide a lot of funny ideas

The mood affects the artstyle heavily. My style is not consistent, you can see that I have a range of styles just by scrolling through some drawings I posted. But no worries, all of them were drawn with good vibes!

Also sorry for bad explanations ;-;) I hope it answered your question, anon!

[maryjanesims3]

Personal

Woooo, I'm back!

Everything is back to normal here. My friend is doing OK, she is getting all the (professional) help she needs and is back on track. Thank you all for the kind comments and messages <3

About the defaults

So, my first default since my hiatus is uploaded. One of the accessory hairs from showtime. I decided that I will do most of the accessory hairs from that pack later on, because I'm not sure what to do with some of them (the magician and singer hairs, for example). I'm leaning towards replacing the singer ones with some cute accessory hairs that I like, but don't necessarily match the hairstyle. But I'm gonna brainstorm about it - we'll see!

Megafile with all default hairs

Something a lot of people wanted, was a megafile with all the hairstyles in them. People keep messaging me about this, it's nuts. I understand that it's inconvenient to scroll through hundreds of post to get all the download links, but making a file like that is easier said than done. That's because there are multiple defaults for the same hair, but also because I'm revisiting and fixing some hairstyles. I would constantly need to update the files if I made them now. I'm sorry, but I can spend my time better than that.

BUT it felt bad to ignore a high demand like that, so I made a compromise. I have now made a sub-folder in my SFS account. Here you can find all defaults I released until now. New hairstyles will also be added to this folder. This way, you don't have to scroll through all my posts to get them all, but download them from one page. Please beware though! ALL the defaults are in this folder, so you need to make sure to not download duplicates (v1 & v2, or low and high poly) because they will conflict.

The merged files and/or organized folder downloads will be made when I'm (as good as) done with the project. Thanks for understanding :)

Happy simming!

MaryJane

[mythiccheroacademia]

The whole time traveling children has me feelin some type of way tbh. Imagine Mirio, Kaminari, and Tamaki walking into their respective rooms and there are just small children vibing. Mirio with his daughter, Kaminari with a daughter and Tamaki with a son. 😭

as i said, parent!bnha is SUPERIOR

A/N: So, instead of making these separate asks, I’m just going to make it one giant post. I thought it would be easier that way. Probably the only post that’ll have more than three characters lol

Warnings: none

Kaminari Denki:

when kaminari walked into his room, he didn't expect to see two children on his bed fighting like wild animals

the younger girl was totally beating the boy’s ass tho

kinda embarrassing bc she’s gotta be like, seven, at most

as if it’s not the weirdest thing he’s seen (bc it’s not) he rushes in to break them apart

he manages to separate them with his arms 

the boy with yellow hair snaps his jaws at his sister’s fingers

“hey! bad! no biting!” he scolds

the little girl blows a raspberry and taunts “yeah! papa says no biting!”

the older sibling just rolls his eyes “rat”

meanwhile, denki is literally malfunctioning

papa?

PAPA? HUH???

the only person’s pants (and heart) he’s been trying to get in to for the past three months was y/n’s and he sure as hell would remember if he did

he didn't have kids

especially one that was his age

“sorry! you two are cute, but i’m not your pops”

thus, they begin to tell denki about how they mayhaps followed him and their mother into a dangerous mission and got hit with a time travel quirk

denki just nods his head

tbh, he’s not that weirded out

weirder things have happened

but, he does have one question

“who’s the lucky woman?”

coincidentally, you bust into his dorm room, wet from a recent prank and head steaming with anger

“Kaminari Denki!”

his son juts a thumb over to you

“the woman that’s about to murder you”

“oh say less”

his life literally couldn't get any better

before you get the chance to throttle him, the little girl jumps in your arms and your anger is immediately quelled 

“hey mommy! i just wanna let you know that it was [son’s name]’s fault that we followed you when you told us not to”

“WHAT!?”

you’re to busy trying to get them from killing each other to comprehend anything that’s going on

kaminari is in a love-struck gaze bc hot damn, he won the jackpot, huh?

if he wasn't in love with you before, he’s in love with you now

you and your feral children

it was nice being God’s favorite

Kirishima Eijirou: 

funny thing was

kirishima woke up from his afternoon nap with his mini-me in his arms!

at first, he was really confused as to why there was an 8 yr old boy with spiky teeth and (your hair texture) black hair on his bed

he thought he was dreaming

then the little boy bit his nose and grinned like he had done the funniest thing in the world 

“WAKE UP DADDY! WE GOTTA GET SWOL TODAY”

did he get hit with some duplication quirk?

and what was that he said...daddy?

as in, father?

kirishima is wide awake now, but before he can ask the kid what’s going on, the boy is up and making use of his punching bag

he decides it wouldn't hurt to get a morning work out in, so he decides to humor the kid

after a mini workout, kirishima is in near tears as the boy tries to flex the little muscles he has 

eventually, he gets the kid to tell him what happened and finds out he was hit with a time travel quirk of some sort

instead of being weirded out, kirishima is ESCTATIC 

he has a family in the future 

he’s so excited and proud that he just has to show his son off to his friends!

the first thing he does is go and bother bakusquad in the common room

he’s bragging like shit to them and his ego swells as they all swoon over how cute and handsome the kid is 

you and bakugo come out of the kitchen to see what all the commotion is about and the little boy excitedly runs to you and jumps into your arms 

“momma! you’re here! you’re so pretty! why’d you marry daddy when he looks so unswol?”

it’s silent before bakugo fucking dies of laughter 

“y-you finally let shitty hair hit it? and got knocked up?? LMAO”

everyone’s dying and kirishima wants to die

he can’t believe this was how his long-term crush on you was getting outted

by an 8 yr old boy

so not manly

you look confused before you put the pieces together

the kid did look like you and kirishima

you want to console kirishima about the crush that you lowkey knew he had on you, but your son was one step ahead of you

with a gracious smile, he hits bakugo’s head

hard

“what the fuck kid!?”

“don’t make fun of daddy, uncle bakugo! at least daddy didn’t faint at his wedding″

Bakugo’s contemplating murder and everyone’s rolling on the floor

“WE BEEN KNEW YOU WERE THE BIGGEST SIMP”

even ten years later, bakugo still holds a grudge against your son

Togata Mirio:

i’m about to kill y’all w this one

since year one, mirio has been feigning over you 

but 1) you were too dumb to notice 2) you both were really busy with, y’know, school and 3) he lowkey gave up bc he thought you deserved better

so imagine his surprise when he sees this four year old girl on his bed

and she looks like you with his features

mirio might not be the brightest crayon in the crayon box

but he’s got eyes

and it wasn't like he’s memorized your features to the T

the tiny girl is swinging her legs absent-mindedly before exploding with happiness when he sees him

she runs to mirio and he catches her with open arms 

“daddy! daddy! i got hit with the coolest quirk at school today!”

proceeds to tell him about her best friend discovered her quirk and it was a teleportation quirk 

mirio can’t help but giggle along with her even tho he knew it was a scary situation for the parents

speaking of which...

he innocently asks her who’s the mom

“mommy is the prettiest mommy in the world! she has e/c eyes, hair like me, and the most beautiful s/c skin! her name is togata y/n!”

if he wasn't geeking before, he’s geeking now

not only did he manage to marry you, but you let him be your baby daddy?

him?

big bet

mirio doesn't even care at this point

he’s parading around UA with the fattest smile as he introduces his daughter to damn near everyone 

everyone’s freaking out bc wtf when did mirio get someone pregnant??

maybe he should've explained himself, but he sees you at your locker and makes a b-line for you

“good morning, y/n!”

he doesn't notice that you slam your locker close and hide the confession letter you wrote to him behind your back

you’re a stuttering mess and he’s too busy basking in the fact that he’s holding y’alls child 

y’all look like a mess

but he’s ready to lay it on thick when the little girl kisses your nose and cheers,

“mommy, i missed you”

he explains the situation 

you cant help but smile, “you know this could potentially ruin the timeline?”

and you feel like melting as he gives you the softest smile 

“there’s no way I’m letting that happen. not when i end up with the woman i’m in love with. we’ll just have to twist fate together”

and twist it you did

Tamaki Amajiki:

tamaki wasn't the bravest person ever 

and he knew his crippling anxiety got in the way of a lot

but he had never been more proud of himself for managing to invite you to his room

it was supposed to be a study date

despite how bold you normally were, he took comfort in how nervous you seemed 

now, you two were leaning in, about to kiss

and then a voice from behind interrupts 

“uh, am i interrupting something?”

you two let out the ugliest squeal and jump 50 feet away from each other 

you’re all over the place, trying to explain the situation

tamaki’s heart is barely beating at this point

it takes the kid, who looks about 16, about thirty minutes to calm you down and revive tamaki

explains that he’s from the future and a descendant of tamaki’s family

decides to leave out that you two are his parents so he doesn't risk possibly erasing himself from the space continuum 

that would be bad

despite how surprised you two were, you two take it rather well 

you three spend the day together bc you and tamaki feel this weird sense of responsibility for the guy even though he’s only two years younger

the boy is trying his hardest not to expose himself, but it’s so hard

you two are asking him everything from his favorite food to if he has any siblings

he’s good at pretending that he’s cool, calm, and collected, but he wants nothing more than to jump into his parents’ arms and cry about how scared he is of messing up

but he won’t 

bc he’s a strong boy

but he slips up

“how far are you down the future?” tamaki asks

“uh, about like 100 years or so--”

“you’re lying”

the kid nearly chokes on his food as his father blinks at him

you try and scold tamaki but he continues

“i don’t mean to be mean, but your nose twitches when you lie. y/n does the same thing”

that’s when the jazz record stops and everyone is staring at one another

“....wait”

this time, you nearly pass out

y’all had a kid together???

THE HELL??

the boy, coincidentally, starts fading and he thinks he fucked up

now he’s full out sobbing into the both of your chests, scared that he’s disappearing

despite the news, you and tamaki calm down, look at each other, and hold your son

“don’t you worry, baby” you coo, kissing his fading hair

“i have a feeling we’ll see you quite soon” tamaki comforts, closing his eyes

Bakugo Katsuki:

bakugo finally understood when his mom said

“the meaner you are to your parents, the nastier your kids will be to you”

he regretted being such a demon bc his kid was literally the spawn of satan

katsuki didn’t need an explanation to know that that...thing was his kid

he looked damn near identical to him with features that he couldn't quite place

but anyways, that wasn't the focus rn

rn, he was trying to figure out a way to keep that animal caged

as soon as katsuki took his eyes off him, the six yr old ran out the door as fast as his little legs could carry him

“catch me if you can, you old bastard!”

yup, it was his kid

“GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE FUCKER”

his son is blasting his way through the halls, skillfully evading Katsuki’s grabbing hands 

he’s wildly laughing as he flips and turns through the doors, watching with glee as his father falls on his face

multiple times

the small boy latches on to a cupboard and smirks

“no wonder mom always beats your ass! you weak!”

katsuki nearly looks like the devil, eyes white, and face red with fury

his pride suffering by the second

he’s about to cuss the kids to hell when you come out of the kitchen, confused

you were about to ask why katsuki looked like a rat with rabies before you caught sight of a basket of fruit teetering on the edge of the cabinet, above the little boy’s head

“look out--”

the basket falls on the kid’s head and he’s on the floor, reeling from the hit

katsuki would've normally laughed his ass off, but he felt kind of...concerned?

he watches you run towards the child who’s trying his hardest not to cry

the boy holds his head, fat tears in his eyes as you pick him up and coddle over him 

“i’m sorry, baby. I'm sorry i didnt get there in time” 

cue the waterworks 

the boy is full-on sobbing into your chest about how his head hurts

you bounce him and kiss his forehead as katsuki checks over the red bump 

“you’ll be okay, brat” he comforts, voice softer than usual

in that moment, katsuki can’t help but notice how much a family y’all look like rn

then the dots start connecting and he goes 

oh shit 

so, maybe, he’s had a tiny crush on you

and it didn’t help that you two were friends with benefits bc yall were horny teenagers

but who knew he’d get the balls to ask you out on a proper date one day

he was such a simp for you gosh it was ugly

“you have to be more careful from now on,”  you say to the boy 

the brat suddenly looks innocent and katsuki wants to throw him

“sorry, mommy. i’ll be gooder”

the look on your face is priceless 

bakugo uses it as a chance to kiss you 

“huh?”

“i guess now’s a good time to tell you that i want to be your dick on demand but with feelings and shit, dumbass”

[simminggiraffe]

Mix-n-match medieval men

Time for a default dump! And an ungodly amount of rambling! You’re welcome!

Elders use the adult shape for everything. This is a general rule for anything related to elder men by me.

cutopshortsleevecollar (set to M only), tmtopshortsleevecollar,   amtopshortsleevecollar, amtopshirtpolo and emtopshortsleevecollar replaced with Andravi’s Ren, Tate & Blake as tops by Winter on Silivain’s top-only alpha tunic. Most ages get 15 recolours, am gets 17. The extra 2 are the only 2 tops in the ‘Blake’ style. I combined some duplicate textures to reduce the file size, beyond the usual texture referencing I always do. (Actually now that I think of it, I haven’t released any of those... I have a backlog because I’m lazy with previews, but I want you to at least see what you’re getting.)

There were quite a few unused recolours so get more of em here if you wanna :)))))

More previews of the defaults under the cut + the download.

tmtopnaked,  amtoptanktop and  emtopdressshirt replaced with some of AlmightyHat’s Aelia Autumn recolours of FantasyRogue’s top-only tunic. There’s 9 recolours for am, 8 for em, and 6 for tm. I’ve also included a ‘completer’ for tm, meaning the 3 recolours I didn’t use in the defaults, plus the corresponding child recolours since they’re repository. I recommend checking Hat’s post out for even more colours if you like an abundance of choice!

tmbottomboardshorts,  tmbottomkneeshorts,  ambottomlongshorts and embottomlongshorts, also known as “all shorts” for tm-em replaced with @vampirekiss6661′s multi-boot bottoms, specifically the ArisSkirt recolours. All ages get 9 recolours.

FYI, @asimplevampire​ has already defaulted ambottomlongshorts over here. I do like them, but I like the idea of having all the shorts defaulted together better. Also I straight up forgot.

tmbottompantscuffsboots,  tmbottomtightpantspointytoe,  ambottompants,  ambottomwillpants and embottompantssocksshoes replaced with @vampirekiss6661′s multi-boot bottoms, this time the Rogue version. All 6 original recolours get used, and all ages get 6 recolours. Thanks to rudhira for the default package I used as a base.

tmbottomcargopants and ambottomcargopants replaced with (you guessed it!) the final version of @vampirekiss6661′s multi-boot bottoms - ArisJacket. 4 recolours for am (enabled for em) and 5 for tm - they get Gold as the extra.

DOWNLOAD LINK: SFS (19.2 MB)

Delete the “unmerged” folders if you want all the defaults. There can only be one! Which are unmerged are a bit random but make sense to my scatterbrain. I use the merged packages but figured that since they exist I might as well let you have the choice.

The files are compressorized, there are text files with info (chaotic info, but still), and even previews included (gasp!). I decided to keep the meshes in separate packages, but they’re included.

I used at least @ello-sims, @rudhira and @lottie-sims‘ default packages as a base for mine, but I didn’t think to note down exactly whose packages I uses for which until literally the last one I did. Sorry. I didn’t extract any resources for this project. Just a buttload of clicking and double checking my progress and making sure everything works. I also colour coordinated the shortsleevecollar defaults for some reason. I think I did it so I wouldn’t be lost, but who knows honestly. What am I, a mind reader?!

Yeah thanks to everyone whose work I relied on, one day I hope to be able make my own meshes and textures. That day is far away.

[pingo1387]

Note

NamiVivi Summer 2022  Week 3: Letters  @namivivitime​ 

Nami held out her hand for the News Coo, noticing an envelope tucked in with the daily paper. To her surprise, her name was written in cursive on the front. Setting the paper down on her chair, she opened the envelope, shook out the letter, and opened it. Seeing the handwriting (or lack thereof), she nearly dropped the letter, but held herself together and clutched the paper with both hands, reading it carefully. 

[ID: A note in the form of cut-out characters from published newspapers and books. The note reads: 

Dear Nami, 

I miss you dearly every day. I love you as the sea loves the sky, for when the sky is unhappy, so is the sea. You are my sky, my temperate breeze and stormy front, my sunny day and rainy afternoon. I have as always been keeping up with your adventures in the paper, and though it often has little to offer, I am sure to save every photograph of you that I can find. I fear that you will soon adorn my wall so much so that the paint will be completely smothered in your beauty -- but of course it should thank you for such an honor. 

I miss you when I sleep, as well, and sometimes dream that you are next to me, only to wake up alone. I long for the day when I can see you again. 

Love, 

P.S. Expect a special present in the mail this week. 

End ID.] 

Nami crumpled up the letter, her hands trembling, and looked around as if the mysterious sender was spying on her at that very moment. The Transponder Snail ringing in the kitchen made her jump, but she relaxed when Sanji poked his head out and called, “Nami-san, it’s Vivi-chan for you!” 

“Coming!” she called, hurrying over. It was best to hide her fears from Vivi, she decided, knowing her tendency to fret. 

“Hey, Princess,” she said, picking up the receiver and shooing Sanji and Luffy out of the kitchen. She threw the crumpled letter into the sink. “How are you?” 

“I’m fine,” came Vivi’s bubbly voice over the phone, instantly calming Nami down. “How about you?” 

“Oh . . . fine, fine.” 

“Did you get my letter?” 

“Letter? No, not yet.” 

“Oh! I’m so sorry to spoil the surprise! I thought of a very nice letter, and I thought it would have arrived by this time. Perhaps the News Coos are running slow?” 

"Maybe,” Nami agreed. Desperate to talk about anything, she said, “What’s so special about it? Besides that it’s from you.” 

“I thought of an interesting way to make the words,” Vivi said, sounding excited now. “I found books we had duplicates of, and old newspapers, and cut words out of them.” 

Nami turned her gaze slowly to the crumpled letter in the sink, now damp with spots of water. 

“The only thing is that I couldn’t find enough words to say what I wanted to say, so I ended up having to use separate letters---” 

“Vivi,” Nami interrupted, her voice steady and calm. “By any chance, does your letter start out with, ‘I miss you dearly every day’?” 

“Yes, it does! How did you know?” 

"Vivi, I got your letter.” 

“Oh! That’s great! But you said you---” 

“Vivi,” Nami snapped. “You’re supposed to sign letters.” 

Vivi gasped over the phone as Nami yanked the letter from the sink, uncrumpling it and smoothing it out on the counter. “I thought I did!” 

“You didn’t! It just says, ‘Love,’ and then a post script!” 

“But couldn’t you tell it was from me? Who else would say those things to you?” 

Nami pinched the bridge of her nose. “Vivi! Cutting out random letters is how people make fucking ransom notes!” 

A low moan of horror emerged from the snail. 

“And what’s this about a ‘special present’ this week? That sounds terrifying!” 

“It’s just tea,” came Vivi’s weak voice. “Alabastian tea. It should arrive soon.” 

Nami put her head down on the counter. 

“Nami?” 

“I crumpled your letter and it’s all your fault,” Nami said into the counter. 

“I’m sorry . . .” 

Nami lifted her head and took another look at the letter. “Now that I read it again, knowing it’s from you, it’s really sweet. Thank you.” 

“I’m glad,” Vivi responded with a little laugh. 

Nami squinted at one of the lines. “Do I really ‘adorn your wall’ that much?” 

The call ended with a click. 

[persimmontrees]

so after each vote, i'm going to break down what exactly went down and share a peek at what would have happened had the losing options won!

i won't be going into too much detail in case i wanted to implement some of these ideas in the future, but i'll try to provide some information on alternative paths the audience could have chosen, and i am also willing to answer the first three questions i receive about each route, should anyone wish to ask <3 be warned though, if i feel that the questions might spoil a potential branch in naveen's story, i will simply respond with "this is too spoilery, sorry"

check out the post below to see how naveen's path to victory developed, and what would have happened had simon or ernest won!

first thing's first: the vote

in the first few moments of the vote, i was thrilled to see that simon was winning. my excitement was dashed, however, when i realized he had gotten 30 votes in the span of 30 seconds--something i thought was infeasible.

after removing the replicated votes, i found that so far, the vote was more like this:

you guys would be surprised how many times the vote was duplicated and/or was subject to an attempted rigging:

(at least naveen's vote thief was a bit more subtle than simon's below)

outside of these moments, i was shocked by how close the vote tended to be between naveen and ernest. in fact, when the vote closed, this is how it looked:

right down to the end, naveen and ernest were neck and neck. i went to my team of tiebreakers (this time around it was @stargazingsims, my roommate, and a writer friend of mine--i like to keep three tiebreakers that change each time so that the story doesn't end up being beholden to a single person's tastes) and after conversing with them, naveen was elected winner

i'm a bit disappointed about the multiple attempts to rig the process, and i just have to ask that anyone who's considered it, please don't. it makes it less fun for everyone else

ernest's route

had ernest won, his story would have been about helping him move past the tragic death of his wife and resume having an active presence in his daughter's life

i was in the mood for sound of music, and wanted to pay some sort of tribute to it--without the stress of like 8 children lmao

below is a concept for a scene that would have happened in his arc. without going into too much detail, adaline and ernest would have gotten into an argument that resulted in adaline running after him, and putting her heart on the line:

simon's route

simon's story was fun, because of how he developed as a character in my head. see, in some ways, it could be argued he was a minor villain in ernest's route. however, depending on the choices made, adaline could see hints of depth to him. when i decided to make him a potential betrothed, i really loved writing the ways he might soften around adaline.

had he won, his story was (depending on how many of the hidden variable you guys triggered--) either the story of two people taking part in a fake engagement and begrudgingly falling in love, or a man falling in love with the woman he tried to manipulate

below is a concept from simon's arc. in the scene, he and adaline share a dance during a ball, and realize over the course of the dance that the feelings between them may be genuine

no one else is there because i wasn't going to deal with posing npcs and deco sims for a concept photo sahjfksdf

anyway, i hope you guys found this interesting! thanks for taking part and i'm excited to see how you vote next time!

[fairymint]

There is perhaps, a reason both meta and ic, that overall, Volo here has multiple routes. Possibilities, so to speak. He himself is wildly....indecisive, due to having ADHD, which Felix (muse, mun) shares. Moreover that he’s probably considered all of the paths, and the one he takes for the current thread verse is the path that he chooses to walk....for whatever reason. His ultimate goals remain the same....at least in the abstract. He never loses. point out what you will, but he will make excuses, adapt, or even....’accept’ some things, but mind you that he is still persistent and to be dealt with. He will never come close to seeing himself as ‘the villain who gave up and turned hero.’ Regret doesn’t suit him, only remorse. He feels guilty, but he is not sorry. Big difference there.

So, how he’d feel about other Volos of course would depend on exact timeline and circumstances; I write the canon ‘loss’, and the win.

You could really say that he takes ownership of what he does.

The short version of his God Verse is that he is on his worst behaviour because nothing goes wrong for him in that one. He gets endless little successes, positive feedback for all that he’s doing....justified....and absolutely no discipline. The only thing that may not go his way is hypothetically people treating him worse; his self-defence is legitimized, his plan works all through, he even gets to win against the protag/Felix. (and poor Felix indeed, who gets kidnapped at bare minimum. It gets worse from there, best worst case scenario.), and win against Arceus’s Fragment, in a way. Everything happens the way he planned...though, after such a remake of the world, it’s still not.....infallible, or perfect. Things do start to go wrong, but the guy gets a long-ass time of intial high to keep him riding.

Now as for the good verse, the canon end....that is a bit more complicated. I obviously need to plot outcome shit. But as I’ve slowly come to realize, to my own confusion, that......Volo is not so much forced to pick this end, it’s actually not likely. It’s more that he chooses it. His motivations could vary wildly, which is where the questions start; this probably depends even on ship verse. Because.....presumably........he changes gears. Decides for himself, that this is better???? than what he was doing??? Godverse could reasonably stretch for a long, long time of opportunity post canon, I do realize, as he only needs to win against Arceus once. But. presume he doesn’t go with that, and lets the timeline continue. Why????

I’m going to jokingly say that this muse here is too busy being bisexual to be the Most Volo. (just kidding, that is an awful kind of thing to say;;;)

But, while I did set up the idea of ‘lol Volo PVP’ in the starter I wrote, there’s actually a reason outside of paranoia that I didn’t clarify ‘spoiler’ wise, he doesn’t just ‘hate’ other Volos for just the sake of it, mistrust (although there is a bit of that, too.) His first theory and concern is that he’s interacting with himself from another point in the timeline- that he might fuck himself up. Perhaps his duplicate would spoil something yet to be known, or be blissfully unaware of what he knows- He’s scared of his past and future self. If it is established that this is indeed ‘another’ Volo, not of he persé....then yes, he clings jealously to his world. If their views are different, they may try to take what’s rightfully his, after all. From the new world thing, down to...his people. Yes, he hates them, but they are his people. To play with, mostly, as prey and clay like a cat with a mouse, or, To Keep, for those more worthy, they should consider themselves very lucky.

However! muse wise and such, his default motivations are probably.....his children and s/o. Definitely a theme I write often, but Volo here does have storywise and IC stakes on this. I do think something like his blood, and their future perhaps, could be powerful enough to make him switch gears, that seems to be what he’s giving me for the most part. Perhaps even positive feelings with the protagonist, but of course this all comes with a catch.

It is less ‘guess i won’t be god anymore haha i am just a man’, than Fine, Sure, Yes, I will be the ‘god’ of this world instead. His devotion doesn’t come buckling, it comes with conditions.  Exact scenario tbh, can vary even with the same muses involved- this is where I can trip up with this shipping wise. So many potential first confessions, revelations, and milestones hit in different ways, with how their paths happen to cross.

Basically, even ‘good guy Volo’ is domineering, makes demands, takes the reins. He’s the one who changed his mind, nobody else. The man will deny any sense of agency for the influences that he gets from others, it’s his idea. Even if it’s ‘just’ because he likes somebody, be it Arceus themself, the protag, his s/o, and more.