#this arts like a year old dont look at it too hard

[mechagender]

How many Tranformer oc you got? How many can one man see

only two I'm afraid, and the other one is undergoing a redesign </3 here's their old art anyway! this is Cascade :) funny little decepticon-sympathizing autobot field medic

[eterniqht]

realised i never posted this here whoops…

[december 2021]

[theclosetedskeleton]

extremely low quality and kindof bad needful things art i made today/yesterday

[luck-of-the-drawings]

when i was in highschool one o my biggest coping mechanisms was drawing all the kids i hated getting killed and eaten and killed. and well. time is a slowly ascending spiral. you will find patterns.(i work as a blackjack dealer. gamblers are FASCINATING

[daddyplasmius]

okay, so, I've collected a bunch of DP fandom stuff that I remember off the top of my head, specifically in chronological order & colour coded here in this post (fics/comics, tumblr posts, important imo) for no reason other than I saw a post asking for Phandom history & it triggered my biggest, most long-running hyperfixation & now I'm curious if anyone else remembers stuff.

this link is going to be the permanent version I will be updating, but I'm posting what I currently have (gonna go through my old laptop later for more) just to let people know. you can also find the link on my blog, but only on desktop. It isn't colour coded there, sorry.

please share more if you got anything else cuz I'm 100% sure I'm missing a lot of stuff & am too interested now. the biggest reason a lot of stuff isn't here is that I simply can't find it. second biggest reason is i forgor. things not included here aren't "unimportant," this is just the first stuff that comes to mind.

putting it under a cut 'cause it got kinda long

Mars by JadeRabbyt (2005)

Checkmate by pearl84 (2006)

Conversations of a Ghost Gabber by Cordria (2006)

The Foley Maneuver by bluemoonalto (2007)

One Thousand Years by Nylah (2008)

Lab Rat by AnneriaWings (2009)

Lost by Cordria (2010?) [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Phantom of Truth by Haiju (2011)

Ghost Deaths (2012)

Through Coals and Rain by Kakawot (2012)

Shadow of a Doubt by Haiju (2013)

Pink Pants (2013?)

Wes (2014) [original] [1] [2] [3] [4]

this "I'm Inevitable" gif (2014)

Space AU (2014)

Treading Water by The Full Catastrophe (2014)

Danny, you dead IDIOT!! comic (2014)

wash away the darkest days by anthrop (2014)

Reverse Trio (2014)

Inverse Trio (2014-2016) ALT

Halfas are "feral children" (2015)

Burn the Streets, Burn the Cars by anthrop (2015)

It's Not Gay if He's Dead by phantomrose96 (2015)

You Smell Like Death by starfleetrambo (2015)

Ghost Bird AU by @rest-in-peachs (2016?)

Things I Can(not) Do In Amity Park by RedHeadsRock1010 (2016)

KEtTLE by Cordria (2016)

Deeper, Darker by Silvermoonphantom (2016)

Danny Phantom Punches Butch Hartman In The Face by MistressVintage (2017)

Dannypocalypse (2017)

Ghost Train (2017?)

Ghost Physics by jayrockin (2017)

Ghost Infographics (2018)

The Taxonomy of Ghost Cores: An Observational Study (2018) Communicating with Ghosts Professionally: A Study (2018)

Species in Danny Phantom (2018?)

Diddles Piddles by diddly-darn-ghost (2018)

Broken Ectoplasm by ghostanimal (2019)

Ghost of Heroes by Enigmaris & ScarletNightFury (2019-2020)

do not stand at my grave and cry (i am not there, i did not die) by blueh (2020)

Undercover Phantom by artistfingers (2021)

Corruption is a Two Way Street by datawyrms (2021)

Things That Bleed by artistfingers, kkachis, & Perfectly_Inconspicuous (2022)

10,000 works on AO3 (2022)

Ghost Speak:

Danny's handwriting (2015?)

Cordria (2015)

Fiver-Rivers [1] [2] [3] (2019)

Rubber Chicken Sounds (2019)

[darewolfcreates]

My lil angel of death ( I say as tho they aren't absolutely massive )

[butchladymaria]

yknow sometimes i see an artist who’s maybe young or just new post their art online and honestly? i’m so incredibly happy for them?? like you are documenting your journey as an artist and i think that is an incredible thing to share

[autistickfigure]

first time they meet. Technically. not really

[ironmanstan]

So much work to do but im actually doing it which scares me more than the fact i have work to do and u can tell bc i keep fucking posting like this

[zeldasnotes]

Venus aspecting Neptune

”You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who’d like to believe that this kind of woman exists.”

READ BEFORE YOU PROCEED: This post is about the conjunction, opposition & square between Venus & Neptune but people with trine & sextile might relate to some of it. This post contains both positive and negative observations. These are my personal observations and not facts. The whole chart has to be taken into consideration.

They have what others might consider the dream look. Born with features that are common to go get done. So they could be born with super long eyelashes, an odd eyecolor, or a tan even tho they live in a cold country. ”Dreamy and unreachable”.

There is often a ”glow from within”. God that sounds so sleazy. A strong glow to the skin that reflects light perfectly and make it look like they are wearing highlight.

Women with this aspect might have grown up with a single mother and men with this aspect with a single father so they didnt get a realistic view of the opposite sex.

One parent might have been unstable during their earliest years so they had to be perfect to keep the parent stable. This made them the ultimate people pleasers. ”Obey and act happy to keep mom in a good mood”. Might even have walked on eggshells to keep a parent in a good mood.

This thing with walking on eggshells around people is something that can be very hard for them to get rid of no matter how old they get. Might blame themselves for others moodswings.

The relationship between their mom and dad might have been very unclear so they never learned how love is supposed to look like which is why they started fantasizing. Their parents might not have been the type to say they love eachother or even hug.

Often the parents might not even have lived together. They might have only seen one of their parents on weekends or special occasions which lead to them seeing that parent as a dream or ideal.

Because of this there was a longing to see and experience ”true love”. So they might have started watching romantic movies and dating early.

They might not have been allowed to act out or even say their opinion, they always had to be pleasant. Often because one of their parents had a temper. Because of this they can be way too agreeable.

There is a tendency to overidealize women in their life. Placing women on a piedestal and assuming all women are ”good and pure” and becoming extremely disappointed when that shows to not be true.

Can often have a ”favorite person” at the moment who is on said piedestal until they find someone new to project their disney fantasies onto.

They often do this to romantic partners too. If you have this placement you probably had friends look at you funny when you described your new crush.

There is also a tendency to assume positive qualities about people. ”Jenny would never do that” ”John would never fall for group pressure and bully someone” and this can be about people they only met once.

Just like these people can fall for other peoples manipulations they can be very manipulative themselves. They sense what people want because they are masters of pleasing. They often mold into what they sense their partner wants even tho they might not do it to decieve.

These people have skills when it comes to photography and art. They know how to pose and what looks good. They make really good designers, makeup artist or hairdressers. They know how to sell a fantasy.

They know styling secrets that others dont. Just like Neptune 1st housers they know how to make themselves into a fantasy. These people knew about contour long before it even was a thing. They knew overlining before it became a thing.

They can be too kind for their own good because they assume everyone is harmless. Might even put themselves in danger because they dont see harm anywhere.

Many often might also not see their own worth so they go for people who are wayyyy below them. But the opposite is also common, falling for people who are unavailable or unreachable.

They are very nonjudgmental so they dont see when others are envious of them or want what they have because they couldnt imagine someone being jealous of them. Too down to earth for their own good.

Others tend to make up a fantasy relationship with these people in their head just like these people do to others. Its not uncommon for them to have someone lie about being with them or someone who wont let go of the fantasy of them.

Women with these aspects can in worst case attract very misogynistic men because they are the ultimate fantasy to a misogynistic man since they often act like a ”woman is supposed to”. He can project his ”good woman” fantasy onto the Neptune/Venus woman and she will act accordingly to please.

These women might feel a strong need to be the typical ”Maid in the livingroom, chef in the kitchen, whore in the bedroom”. This can unfortunately make them a doormat and prey to some very dark energies.

People with this aspect often look for a partner who will save them in some way. Or they might look for a partner who they can save.

They might be unable to look away when they see someone hurting. They need to save the snake no matter how many times the snake bite them.

©️ 2024 Zeldas Notes All Rights Reserved

[meruz]

i hope this hasn't been asked before. what size do you make your canvas? and do you crop it to fit other socials (like Instagram for example)? i hear that 300 dpi is standard. i never know if it's good to make my canvas big or not.

hi i think this ask is like at least 4 months old but i was scanning my sketchbooks from last year and i abruptly remembered i had gotten this ask because i had made a little chart in my sketchbook trying to figure out how to answer it

anyways theres pros and cons. and the size of your canvas is really going to depend on personal needs + preference. how good ur computer is, how complicated ur art style, how comfortable drawing feels, how much disk space you have to spare, what youre gonna end up using the art for in the end...300dpi is standard for PRINTING specifically, if you only plan to ever post things online then 72dpi works great and will save you space (fun fact a lot of professional animation files i deal with are 72dpi. and those eventually go on your tv screen). but personally i make everything i draw 300dpi because i am always printing stuff for cons, zines, etc and its nice to have the option even if i dont end up printing.

when I was a teen I used to draw on a rly shitty laptop and i made everything 800x800px 300dpi because big canvases would cause a lot of lag and also the resolution on this laptop was pretty small so 800px was a lot of the screen already. now i have a slightly better laptop with a bigger resolution and i sketch on giant 10000px-40000px canvases with the hard round brush and no shape dynamics or transfer whatsoever to minimize lag. when it comes to making a final illustration when i know ill be using a bunch of layer effects/blending modes/colors/mixing brushes etc etc ill generally crop the canvas down to the 6000px range. most illustrations i try to make sure are comfortably printable on tabloid size paper so thats pretty much anything hovering around or above 3000x5000px w 300dpi (so 11x17in). HOPE THIS HELPS?

EDIT: OH ALSO re: socials. i always ALWAYS size down my art to post on the internet. i think its crazy when other artists dont. because why would i ever let the internet have my hi-res file for free. also in general i think it looks better if you do the resizing yourself because if you don't then many social media sites will compress your file for you! a lot of people will post a hi-res file to twitter and then go "Wow twitter killed the quality of this img!!!" UH YEAH because they have an automatic image compressor. because they need to save space too lol and they dont want your image to take 248263895 years to load. same with instagram and to a lesser extent tumblr. when i post anything on social media i resize it down to 1200px-1600px on the longest side... its a little arbitrary but im kind of basing it on the smallest resolution of widely available screens. mostly because i think it looks stupid when u open up an image file fullsize and u have to scroll to see the whole thing... also iirc instagram only takes images up to 1080px before it resizes them? granted if you upload something smaller than that itll also resize it up which will look worse so I think bumping the numbers just over 1080px is pretty safe.

I should really be bringing the dpi down to 72 too when i post online but often im too lazy to do that. but it will technically help ur image load faster and stuff. and make it less likely for people to yoink it off the web and print it themselves.

[ganondoodle]

Hello 👋

Swallowing my nerves at last to send you an ask! I was just wondering, what inspires your designs? Are their inspirations in stuff like movies or games? Or just things you come up with yourself?

i .. honestly its kinda hard to tell, sometimes i just randomly think of something, like some detail, or color combination and try to incorporate that into a design somehow; it can come from anywhere, like the color scheme of a pithaya/dragonfruit is something i have been wanting to make a design with for ages but havent come up with anything good in all those years ;O;

im a very easily fascinated by color, espeically in nature, like sometimes i just stop and stare at something like i froze in time bc i just woooooooooooooah color! i probably look like a weirdo doing that though

its really hard to pinpoint anything specifically, the most is probably .. other artists? i guess? which always makes me nervous bc my memory is shit in most areas of life and i worry myself to pieces whether i unintentionally "stole" an idea and just dont remember and think it was my own, it goes further that sometimes i see something that makes me want to draw a similar concept but dont bc i dont want to 'steal' even if that couldnt be further from my intention (have been accused of that before ..)

that said for my ocs specifically .. most are rather old and have just kinda evolved out of their awkward first iterations (shargons first iteration was a hauro-howl- copy that was really just some human covered in feathers .. another oc was once a hellboy copy but in green- havent drawn nor redeisgn them in ages lol), the biggest inspirations for them is a mix of animals, bonus if you dont see them often- im a big shark, whale and sea creatures in general nerd so i tend to take from them as a priority but always trying to be less directly animal and mostly just .. features that work together

Eadrya is one of the newer OCs- i started to write but then looked at my folders and oh they are from 2017 .., i even made a design timeline for them how much they, and my art, have changed back in 2020, so thats also way outdated now lol (they apparently started as a whale .. thing? its like a pokemon evolution lol)

this is them now (i like this sketch still, though shargons design is now also outdated lmao)

this ones from early 2023 so also outdated now but you get the point

for demons i try to be a bit more wild on shapes and colors while still adhering to the rules of how they work (humanoid form, demon form, animalistic, one element each and more or less made to fit that, 4 arms is very common, look to be bost scary and wild but also something that would make you stop in tracks and stare in awe and fear if you crossed paths)

often times designs just kinda .. happen, i have maybe the idea ok i wanna make something with a white and red pattern also moose or those big horned cows are cool and kinda scary so maybe sth akin to that (though this one is technically a redesign too- its also pretty much entirely different)

for non demons but still non human i go for a much more restrained design, mainly inspired directly by an animal and giving the color scheme a good spin, plus adding unconventional body shapes, like ki'ita is also a good example, her old idea was just orca anthro pirate and just by making the white green instead in her most recent redesign already adds that little spin to it

that can have its pitfalls though, as i often fall into the big arm small head small legs scheme over and over xD

alot of it is trial and error, deciding on the colors can take me hours bc im always searching for my little rule of having one contrast color that shows up in very few places to draw attention to it (like with Eadrya its those bright yellow eyes and thingy at their tail)

and that is all about myy own ocs, when its fandom stuff it works kinda similar though, either in the connections i wanna draw or just thinking it further- like how deities in destiny work also just kinda .. happened like an ever derailing train

like for demise i was at first really just im gonna give him horns bc horns are cool and he got those on the starting mural in the game- so how his hair work? well maybe it isnt hair actually and just unbound energy, im making him a deity too and fit hylias design to his so, yeah, then so how does it work, ok he gotta have a skeleton still, but what if his entire actual body is made up of pure magical energy with its core in the ribcage? with the core in the ribcage >:3c and the scales you see are just like cooled down lava as an armor bc his thing is fire and earth !! the normal blood? is a thin layer of skin imiated from mortals to keep the scales together and flexible so if he ACTUALLY gets hurt hed bleed magic that looks more like lava and any normal blood you see is just the armor- so why does he have a skeleton still instead of being just energy? maybe its gotta be bound to something OH and what if all of the deities started as mortals like a mirror to the trio later on and the gods cannot have direct influence to the worlds so they needed a right hand that is neither god nor mortal but both by killing a mortal by whatever their element will be (demise burned, hylia drowned etc) and their skeleton and spirit is kept but put into a body of magic- OH what if their spirit core is like almost piloting their bodies like a mech in a way bc if youd look close youd see that every strand of magic is actual a hand of their spirit so it makes it more weird and other bc hed be able to reach out with thousands of burning claws of all shapes and sizes like the beheaded forest god at the end of mononoke- SO if hed lose and arm or something all those strands would untangle and rearrange his bones back together-OH MY GOD the whole armor idea works so well for ghirahims dark armor so what if demise had two swords once and lost one and since has forged an armor similar to his own for ghirahim out fo fear of losing him t---

and that all is a process that happens over several weeks and months not rarely while i am drawing something mindlessly and suddendly *have a thought* and omg that makes so much sense-

so "what" inspires my designs? an ever derailing train of thought about making cool thick monsters that arent the evil thing to get rid of for once? cool color schemes? idk it just kinda happens??

[obscure-entity]

ok so going back to this post from wayy back in august (rbing it again would be a mess)

i think it'd be important for me to give a reflection on what this was about. i was making a planning-presentation months ago, which i shouldnt be so afraid to show but rereading my writing produces the same guttural yuck and fear that looking at my old art used to. and it led to all of these pieces. click for full view bc some of them are cropped

writing being the one thing im horrified of is ironic for me asking. but i have to ask if anyone's sincerely interested in my personal analysis of these ? i considered video format but if i wuss out of using my voice i might find some other way

and um. as for how i feel about them, i love these to death and can feel my hand aching thinking about every colored-pencil motion but i just dont feel like i attached myself to these in the way i wanted to. EXCEPT the second piece where a lamb is being snatched by the sky itself. although they do live up to their own messages to me

i discovered that, while i wanted to focus a lot on the aspects of feeling inhuman as a personal identity, in the second half it shifted more to perception. every individual is some sort of monster, creature, or animal because they are not "known" or acknowledged by hypothetical human-set standards, thus making them "unknown." this entire mini-portfolio is literally about the "unknown." the "unknown" is something i keep repeating a lot when im trying to grasp at this same concept. if a person cannot read your expression or wants to mischaracterize what you're thinking, you are "unknown." its really basic nature to be afraid of the unknown, but it's another step to invent new reasons to be afraid via an untrained disgust reaction for anything not reasonably comfortable, familiar, safe. and the attempt at creating "familiarity" is through assigning labels to things around you, simply put. which is just a bandaid shutting the teeth of some beast, to me

after all these months i still dont know what part of me this is about by the way. something behavioral. for example im pretty sure i weird people the FUCK out by staying silent or keeping to myself. and it took me years to realize that actually has a reason to scare people

what im saying is. dear marginalized ppl please keep depicting yourselves as weird monsters that scare people and bite. or some other strange thing that accomplishes the task of Just Sitting There.

im so happy this is essentially completed by the way ? i had another piece i never finished (im not sure i want to, colored pencils fucked me over hard) its just that i didnt think the months would pass that fast. writing about it was really nice when i was trying to kind of realize the mindset for my future personal art too. idk if anyone from the old post is still here but thanks again for the resources :)

[kraviolis]

someone liked one of my TOH headcanon posts from earlier this year and it reminded me about the specific headcanons i have for exactly what types of games the hexsquad plays and how they play them.

luz is obv an RPG fantasy fan. anything with a juicy story and a character creator and complex lore she’ll love. she definitely plays series like elder scrolls and baldur’s gate and final fantasy. she also plays final fantasy 14 and has her character as the good witch luzura and she isnt good at playing it like an mmo is supposed to be played but she loves the story. when endwalker came out luz couldnt stop sobbing to the point that camila was actually worried about her. also enjoys roguelikes such as hades or binding of isaac even if she can only play for so long before getting too frustrated. she also 100% plays genshin impact and gets into arguments online with other genshin fans.

amity is a fighting game girl. she is highly competitive and practices combos with her eyes shut. she prefers the tekken series but when luz wants to play with her they play guilty gear bcus luz likes it’s art style the most. she also likes fantasy RPGs but is way more picky about which ones she plays. she likes fire emblem. she also plays ff14 with luz and is actually good at the game (she carries luz sometimes) but isnt a huge fan of MMOs. she also is the one in the friend group with the NASA ass PC rig with a custom case and the most organized wiring you’ve ever seen with the lcd screen on the liquid cooled cpu and the azura figurine inside the case. she also does custom wraps for all her consoles.

hunter likes games that are very much like, micromanagement sims. like civ5 or cities skylines or factorio (i dont know anything about it but ive been assured by my sister that hunter plays modded factorio) but he’s also a fan of like, old school FPS games like doom and half life. i can see him doing speedruns of those games. (also he 100% once got addicted to some game like fuckin. galactic pinball or something to the point where he was staying up all night and not sleeping so he could play more pinball. in order to get him to stop playing so much and actually get some sleep, gus used illusions to make hunter think he was hallucinating about pinball and scared him into not looking at a single screen or monitor for like three weeks.)

gus is a very chill gamer but he likes games that he can sink hours and hours into. instead of playing a wide variety of games he has a select few that he dedicates his time into learning every last mechanic, but there’s also some games he just plays casually. like with pokemon games he’ll put hundreds of hours into them and carefully curate his team and does like nuzlocke runs but when he plays on his and willow’s shared-custody new horizons island he’ll just walk around and catch bugs and shit and not really worry about upgrading his house and make matching fits with his favorite villager.

willow prefers cozy games, like slime rancher or stardew valley or the aforementioned shared new horizons island, but she’s also a fucking menace about them. like she goes HARD on the min-maxing and automation and shit. while gus is wandering around their island catching fish, willow’s busy rearranging her fully upgraded mansion up in the hills and harassing any villagers she doesnt like with nets and deciding what hybrids to plant in front of her bell trees (she only has bell trees for the aesthetic. gus isnt allowed to harvest them) she would also be running the most high profit slime ranch ever but the way she treats her slimes makes hunter upset whenever he sees her just fuckin throwing them off a cliff the second they arent useful to her anymore. (meanwhile hunter names each one of his slimes and always feeds them their favorite foods and cried over casey & beatrix)

vee enjoys survival/strategic horror games, like DBD, resident evil, deadspace, or even FNAF. she’s the type of person to see the goriest most violent death in a video game ever and just go “ew yucky” then carry on. masha and her are often playing DBD together while in a call and are the most annoying pair of suvivors ever. she also likes games such as original katamari and pikmin 1 and chulip. she's also the undefeated DDR champion of the friend group.

and of COURSE they all play video games together. they all have a terraria world they play on together where they all are focused on their own little projects while still working together and are slowly building up their own village/mansion/castle/fort but luz keeps rushing ahead of everyone just bcus she's so excited and she definitely somehow ends up summoning the wall of flesh accidentally

they DID have a modded minecraft world for a few months with both tech mods and magic mods but while hunter, amity, and vee all focused on their factories and computers and technology, gus, willow, and luz fucked around with all the crazy magic and accidentally found out by blowing up a factory. this is where heightened tension between the the warlocks & the scientists began. this spark eventually turned into a full fledged war that lasted two months before it ended in mutually assured destruction to the point where no one could actually load into the server without their game crashing.

bonus: camila isnt much of a gamer with one exception-- when she was in college manny introduced her to WoW and got her hooked. it was Their Game that they played together all the time. they made cosplays of their characters together. they had several dates in game. they optimized their characters to perfect compliment one another when they ran dungeons with their guild. even since manny passed camila still plays every so often and keeps in touch with their guild members. for the longest time luz has 0 idea that camila plays WoW at all and only finds out after the whole secret nerd confession.

[httpsbearily]

☆*: Lost Time

[D.C.]: @thepathofpain

[Tags]: brutus x reader | GN reader | fluff & smut

Minors Do Not Interact

[Author’s Note]: I absolutely loved writing this piece, I had to cut some parts out because it was becoming a whole ass book…rip. Anyways, reader displays physical characteristics of a kit fox because I needed a desert animal [mauler] for the plot and I just so happened to have written a research paper on these guys a few months ago. two birds, one stone. too easy!

A life in the desert was not for the weak or incapable. This was a lesson you had learned the hard way when growing up. You were born into a clan of fierce warriors, strong fighters, and battle champions. To the members of your clan, dueling was the highest honor, only triumphed by victory of said duel. Strength, prowess, skill…these were all qualities that were revered by your clan and any who didn’t sport all three would be lucky to be considered decent at the very least.

It was with the luck of being born on a red moon that had you lacking two of the three characteristics. While you weren’t weak, you couldn’t be said to be strong, not when you considered a victorious battle to be one you found your way out of. And your prowess…even you could admit that it was a good thing hunting for a meal was old school, taken over by vendors and restaurants who did the work for you. Skill was the only trait you could said you had more than enough of. You hosted a cunning mind that fostered curiosity for and interest in creation. It was perhaps the only reason why you had stayed put in the desert; Where there were warriors, there were weapons.

Of course, you didn’t find this path of life until you were much older so your childhood was filled to the brim with frustration. There was one memory in particular that stuck with you even to this day:

You were years younger than you were now—still a kid at the time, only having just celebrated your birthday where your age finally reached the double digits. At this age, the clan held a tradition of introducing battle mechanics to the children in hopes that they could foster warrior spirits into their young hearts. So you were sent off to spend an hour or two training at the area the really just looked liked an oversized playground. Along side you there were three other kids who’d just tuned of age same as you, so together the five of you trained and sparred.

In reality, this is when your struggles had begun. With the clan favoring the strongest, naturally a friendly competition had settled amongst you and your group mates. Or, well, as friendly as shaping a fighter could get. Only after half a year, your peers had already seen a big jump of improvement in their abilities. Quite quickly you realized that you were already being left behind…the others noticed it too.

“Why dont you go help the cooks make us a meal instead of trying to learn that skill set. You’ve been doing the same practice for months and still haven’t moved up, ha!”

At first, they’d only tease you like that. Telling you to just go home because you would never become a warrior at your learning pace. And you wanted to, you really did, but you worried how that would make your parents feel. They weren’t exactly frontline warriors themselves, but they were still warriors nonetheless. They excelled in sneak attacks and underground movement, an art that had actually allowed them to meet each other. You on the other hand, had wasted six months practicing basic defense moves.

It wasn’t due to your inability or some lack of skill, really, you just didn’t really care. Why advance to harder levels when the basics were good enough for you? You were honestly more drawn to the wooden sword you practiced with than the movements it made. It seemed that none of the others could relate to you, or even understand you, though because they made jabbing comments and snickering remarks.

By the time a year had passed, they had taken to asking you to spar with them knowing full well you didn’t have the training. You were always quick to dismiss them, instead focusing on whatever it was that you were doing, but on one particularly day, your peers had taken their teasing a step further. All it took was for one of them to pull your arm to encourage the other two to get involved. You felt one flick your ear while another tugged your tail, the third one pulling your arm. Unused to their physicality, you tried to push yourself away, more caught of guard than in actual pain. But they only gathered closer around you.

You told them to go be a bother elsewhere, that you weren’t in the mood, but they didn’t seem to listen. Or care. Poking and prodding, they messed with you relentlessly and you had fought the urge to cry as they ganged up on you. When you resulted to closing your eyes and protecting your ears with your hands, their touch fell away suddenly. You heard their surprised cries and opened your eyes to see the three kids struggling against another.

“Beat it,” the kid growled, “bullies have no business becoming a warrior.”

You recognized the intruder, you’d seen him with the group that was two or three years older than your group. It seemed the other three recognized him as well because they scrambled to get themselves together before rushing away, not even daring to taunt you as they passed. You watched their backs until they disappeared behind one of the training walls before turning to look at the older lion before you. His face appeared stony, his arms crossing over his chest imposing a strong presence. You lowered your hands from your ears slowly, not sure if he meant for you to go away as well.

“Thank you,” You said awkwardly, “for helping me.”

The older lion tilted his fluffy head, “are you okay?” he asked with more concern than you’d anticipated. A stark contrast to his appearance, his voice could almost be described as gentle. It reminded you that he was still a kid too, not just the strongest warrior of his age group and two above.

Nodding your head, you dusted yourself off, “I’m okay. They didn’t do much aside from tugging at me.”

“Why didn’t you fight back?” he asked, “Isn’t that the whole point of training?”

“Oh…I’m still learning. They’re more advanced than I am so even if I tried, I don’t think I could beat them,” you responded honestly.

The lion boy gave you a confused look, “you don’t seem upset by that.”

You smiled, giving him a small laugh and another nod, “yeah, cause I’m not. Not really. All this fighting, winning, and losing is boring! I’d rather get it over with than participate whole heartedly, I could go back home sooner that way.”

His expression flattened, as if he were suddenly disinterested in you. “Oh, you’re just lazy.”

“Hey! Just because I don’t like punching people around doesn’t mean I’m lazy.” You huffed, copying him as your crossed your own arms over your chest, “I’d just rather be doing other things. Cooler things. Like making my own axe. Look at this dagger—I made it myself.”

You held out a dully sharpened rock out in your hands with a mischievous grin, looking down at it with pride and joy. The lion boy was…unimpressed to say the least, but he wouldn’t say anything. He didn’t need to, really. He moved his hand to take the rock knife from you, lifting it up to inspect it in the light.

A few moments passed with him turning it over in his hand before he returned it to you, saying, “why do you train if you don’t have any interest in fighting?”

You shrugged, “I wanna make my parent proud.”

Pocketing your beloved knife creation, you didn’t elaborate any further making a silence fall between the two of you. Shuffling your feet, you look over the lion’s shoulder.

“Won’t you get in trouble for skipping lessons?” You finally asked.

The boy looked back at the direction of his training area before turning back with a nod; “Only if I have no good reason. But I do. I’ll be heading back now.” He waved goodbye to you as he turned to leave, getting a few steps in before looking back at you, “if those kids bully you again, come look for me. I’ll set them straight.”

And with that he jogged away. You waved at him enthusiastically, even if he couldn’t see you, making you take a few seconds to realize something. “Wait,” you yelled out to him, “What’s your name?!”

“Brutus!”

That encounter led the two of your together from that moment on. Unexpectedly, your group mates hadn’t given you any more trouble—physically that is—so you hadn’t had reason to seek out the lion boy. Luckily for you, that opportunity had come with tournament week. The two of you reunited amidst the competition and completely hit it off. The more time the two of you spent together, the closer you became, growing together until even the clan recognized the two of you as best friends.

Eventually, you quit battle training all together, much to Brutus’ dismay, but you promised him that you guys could still hangout after he was done with his. In the mean time, while he trained on the field, you had taken to becoming familiar with weaponry. Your parents were much more encouraging of you becoming an artist rather than a fighter than you’d expected; Their logic had been that every warrior needs a weapon. So quite soon after, you begged the old iron worker to let you apprentice under him. When he finally agreed, it felt like your life was finally on track.

It went on like this for years: you learned how to forge a blade from raw materials while Brutus honed his skills on the battle field. When evening fell, the two of you would meet at the stack of boulders overlooking an oasis a small distance away from the clan grounds. Stories were shared about both your days, what you learned and who he beat. You spoke about the future and how you would make him the best of the best colossal sword, sharp enough to cut through rock yet light enough to carry around. He would only chuckle at your demonstration of how easy it would be to swing the weapon, telling you he looked forward to that day the most, and promising he’d never use any-other’s forged blades.

Alongside each other, the two of you grew—him growing much taller and much faster than you but you accounted it to his laborious daily training. If he noticed that you never reached past his shoulders, he didn’t mention it. You tried to ignore it too, but it was much harder to do when he could quite literally cast a shadow over you whilst standing. As a rule, you made it so that he could never stand within three feet of you while you worked. You had once thought him to be a wall in your peripheral vision, so you tried putting a searing red sword on him. This experience was all it took for you to make that rule. But aside from height, Brutus developed into a strong, capable warrior with a soft heart that did not match his appearance. You often joked that he’d scare his own children to tears with just his stoic expressions, and end up crying with them. On the other hand, he’d consistently remind you how much you’ve changed as well—in a good way. You were no longer the “weakling puppy” he’d first met you as, but now a sly fox. Of course, you’d push him for calling you a puppy, complaining loudly as you did.

“I’m not some dog! Put some respect on my genetics you overgrown cat!”

“‘Overgrown cat’?! Do you want to fight?!”

You two got along great. Really.

But eventually the day came where Brutus was needed for battle. You knew that it’s what he’s been training his whole life for, and that he was the best warrior in your clan, but you still got hurt when he made the announcement to you.

“The northern clan needs our help. They say hypofiend activity has increased, even stone golems are invading their lands. We have to stop them before they find themselves here,” he explained to you as the two of you sat in the traditional spot on the stacked boulders overlooking the oasis.

You didn’t know what to say. One part of you was supportive of him and his desire to be out protecting those around him…but the other part was deathly worried. Other mauler opponents were one thing, but hypofiends? Stone golems? An army of the two together?! The chances of not only defeating them, but surviving the process as well, were lower than you’d wanted to bring up. He called out your name, and you turned to him with a blank look. How could you ask him to stay? How could you tell him to go? How could you be okay in either situation?

“I…” you started, blinking rapidly as your tried to gather your thoughts, “don’t know what to say…”

Surprise filled his expression, “I thought you’d be a little more happy.”

“Happy?” You repeated, “How can I be happy when you’re literally going off to war against unliving beings? I’m nothing but scared.”

Brutus furrowed his eyebrows, crossing his arms over his chest as he usually did when he was standing his ground. “Living or not, I’ve been fighting battles since I was 10. I’m more than capable of keeping myself alive.”

You turned away from him, looking down at the oasis beneath your dangling feet. You didn’t mean to offend him, or to make him think you doubted him. You were just worried, and you didn’t know how to express yourself. Fighting was never your strong suit, disinteresting you to the point of avoidance. That included fighting with Brutus, emotionally. Your fingers clutched the stone dagger you had made all those years ago, dangling on your chest as a necklace that Brutus himself made. It was his contribution to the best friend tokens that you suggested the two of you did, just for fun. Your token was one of the beads he wore in his mane—a lighthearted joke that was an insider between the two of you.

A sich left your lips, and you hugged your knees. “Alright then,” you said, “be safe.”

Brutus didn’t know how to respond. He hadn’t expected you to behave so detachedly, but it put him off anyways. Why did you seem to believe he couldn’t do it? He though you of all people would know his strength and congratulate him for his upcoming battles. After all, the pride of the lions was the victory of duels. Just as it was for the clan. Wearing a cold expression, Brutus didn’t respond as he turned to head back to the grounds. That was his biggest regret.

The next morning, the clans fiercest warriors were gone, including Brutus. You were still sore from your argument last night, but there was nothing you could do now. All that was left was for you to hope and pray that your best friend would make it back.

You were left praying for 8 months. During that time, you immersed yourself into your forging; Day and night you crafted creating metalwork after metalwork to distract yourself. In working so hard, for so long, it was inevitable that you soon became one of the most highly skilled blacksmiths in the clan--not that there were any to begin with, aside from your teacher; Another reason why your work had soon become sought after. There were many reasons behind all the passion you poured into each individual piece you made but regret was never one of them. While you dearly missed your best friend, you were more dejected by the realization that the two of your paths were fated to run parallel to each other, never crossing. Where you were uninterested in the heat of a fight, Brutus only cared about his weapons when he was using them to strike down his opponents. There really wasn't any space for the two of you two to walk together.

So, you devoted your every breath to chasing the one pleasure you knew would never leave you. And it was worth it--almost. Your handcrafted weapons grew in demand, even the most notable of warriors wielded your art. It had gotten to a point where custom requests were given to you to forge a weapon unique only to its master. Over time, your old teacher weened you off his guidance until you were able to run his shop on your own. Of course he was still around, stocking resources and keeping records, but he had all but given you ownership. All things considered, you would almost deem your life perfect.

Now, during the winter, the amount of orders you had lessened slightly as compared to other seasons. You had closed shop early to work on commission designs. As you made your way to the stack of boulders overlooking the oasis, you couldn't help but let your mind wander.

Where was Brutus? Was he okay? When would he return? Would he return?

Your ears twitched on your head as you walked and you reached a hand up absentmindedly to rub it soothingly. Reaching the spot, you silently sat down, dangling your feet over the edge, and pulling out the blueprints of ideas you had for some customers. Digging out a pencil from your pockets, you went to work, filling the silent atmosphere with scribbling noises. You kicked your feet without much thought unconsciously releasing the stress that blanketed your body. It wasn't unusual to find you here, alone, doing nothing but drawing plans or staring up at the sky. You enjoyed the peace that came with the isolation out here, but there were times when you couldn't help but reminisce that company you once had. Another twitch of your ears had you poking them with your pencil to get them to settle down.

"The purpose of reflexes is to keep you aware of your surroundings," a deep voice spoke from beneath you. You startled at their words, immediately perking up as you looked around. "They keep you alive."

Looking down to your right, you finally saw him. He stood tall, taller than you remember...bigger than you remembered too. The leather body armor he wore before had been replaced by metal; A shoulder guard protected his left while a fur pelt adorned his left. On his wrists were metal goblets colored brown with gold accents. Only a leather strap covered his bare chest, but his bottom clothes remained the same. His mane was wild, fully undone with only two braids--one of which was held together by a familiar bead. You were speechless.

It felt like minutes had passed in silence before you jumped up and hurried off the rocks. Like some old married couple, separated by a war, you ran to him and leaped up throw your arms around his shoulders (you feel short quite a distance, but it didn't matter. Brutus had picked you up with strong arms).

"You're back?!" You shouted rhetorically, face burying itself into his coarse fur, "When did you get back?!"

"Not to long ago. When I didn't find you on the grounds, I figured you would be here."

Suddenly you pushed yourself away from him, making you land on the ground, " You asshole! What took you so long? It's been almost a year--was the battle too seductive for you to look away long enough to at least send me a letter?!"

Brutus sighed, his lion ear twitching as he did so, "I had no time. There were more enemies than we anticipated, and they seemed to continuously pour out from the earth. If it wasn't for a mage we encountered, I would still be out there fighting."

You sulked, crossing your arms over your chest as you regarded him. Angrily, your tail swished behind you.

"I apologize," he finished after a momentary pause.

At that, your resolve crumbled a little, enough for you to let out your own sigh before you leaned into him for another hug. With his front exposed as it was, his fur tickled your face lightly making you pull your head back slightly.

"I like the new look," You told him, "you look really different."

Both his arms wrapped around you, engulfing you in an embrace that consumed your. "Bad different?" He asked.

"No," was all you said. Relishing in his grasp, your mind raced as you processed that your best friend was back--he was right here, standing Infront of you after almost a year. A million emotions ran through you and you struggled to find just one to focus on. Brutus didn't say anything else either, just allowing the two of you to grow reaccustomed to the other. You were surprised you hadn't started crying.

When you pulled away once again, Brutus said, "So...I've heard your smithing skills are a clan pride."

A shy smile appeared on your face, "You could say that. I think I still have a lot to live up to in comparison to Teacher Arlo, but my work is out there."

He made a thoughtful noise and turned to eye his colossal blade that he had stabbed into the ground. "I could do with a new blade. This one is dulling."

Out of habit, you had noticed his large blade immediately after spotting him from above, but only now did you have the chance to fully inspect it. He was right, all along the edge of his weapon there were chips and dents in the metal--the metal itself seemed of lesser quality but you figured he didn't have many purchase option out on the battle field. The handle was well worn, the fabric that lined the grip slightly torn and miscolored. It was...a pretty sad sight to see. Letting out a click of your tongue, you poked the metal with your finger; "I think dulling might be an understatement...But no worries. I haven't forgotten my promise to you when we were kids. I already have something back at the shop."

Brutus looked shocked, "you remember that?"

"Of course, I didn't forget everything just because you ran off to war--still upset by the way, you didn't even say bye to me. Jerk."

Your words made his surprise morph into a soft expression, his normally stone expression tainted with something you couldn't recognize. It made your heart flutter, and just like that you were reminded of the old times. Turning away from you, he uprooted his blade--his arms flexing with strength but you definitely weren't looking--before looking back, saying, "On my honor, I will make it up to you."

With that, the two of you set off on the path back to blacksmith shop you lived in. Stories of all that happened were exchanged between you two, catching the both of you up on all the important life events that transpired in the other's absence. If you let yourself feel it, you could almost swear the two of you were a year younger acting like nothing would ever change. It scared you to understand that a few things had.

You would never, ever, tell Brutus, but during his time away you had been forced to sort through things on your own...including your understanding of why his departure had left you so sore. It took weeks of not hearing from him to realize that you were so worried, much more than a friend. Why? Because you didn't just love him, you were in love with him. Needless to say, that made you spiral, but on the bright side, some of your best weapons were created during that time. Your teacher had praised you saying he had never seen such a balanced arrow before. Admittedly, that made you feel a little better. However, now that you knew the fluttering of your heart whenever you were with Brutus wasn't because you were just having a happy time but because he was your happiness.

This much couldn't be said to be the same for your best friend though. He had never shown any signs that he reciprocated your feelings. Right now, you were too focused on the excitement of having him back to face the struggle of keeping yourself sane around him, but you knew later on would be different.

"It took me a while to perfect the ideas I had in my head, but I was so proud of the way it came out. I hope you'll like it because you never gave me any ideas to go off of. I was basically going in blind!" You warned him when you finally reached the shop and lead him to the back room.

"It'll be fin--omph"

You whipped around at the thud that resounded, reaching out in the darkness to light up a lantern. Brutus held his forehead, bending down as he walked into the room after you.

"It's lower than I remember..."

Laughter bubble out of you once you registered what happened, "Haha, no. You've just grown. Inflated like a muscle balloon. Seriously, what happened. Oh look, here it is!"

Using all your strength, your pulled on the large wooden box that rested vertically on the wall. Grunting wit effort, you dragged it to the lion who walked crouched to meet you halfway. Taking it from you, Brutus lifted the container on the table and dropped it with a thud. Impatient, you lifted the lid for him with a 'ta-da' and exposed the giant silver blade inside. It was silver in color, and double edged with an opening along the middle as if you had stuck two swords together. The end of the blade flattened out into a curved geometry that would allow easier swinging motions. The handle was covered in a thick leather that was wrapped around sturdy metal, allowing for a secure handle that would never break. You explained all your designed choices to the lion as he took out the weapon to examine it in his hands.

"It's even--whoah! Don't swing it in here, you're going to cut off my tail!" You yelped, taking a step back to avoid his movements.

Brutus admired the craft, flipping it over and looking it tip-to-end with a sharp gaze; Then he looked back to you, his tail flicking side-to-side intensely. "It's marvelous," he commented.

You preened, putting your hands on your hips with a big smile, "Of course it is! I promised you the best, didn't I?"

"You did," he agreed, slowly putting the blade back in its case, "And you honored your promise. Please, let me honor mine."

He stepped towards you, reaching his hands out to gently pull your body into his. You gladly accepted his invitation, letting yourself fall against his large body. This really wasn't safe for your infatuated heart, but you couldn't help but nuzzle into him, taking great pleasure in the way he oversized you. If new fantasizes arose from this, you couldn't be blamed. Wait, what were you thinking?! He was your best friend! Your body tensed at your thoughts and you moved to pull away, but Brutus' strong hands kept you in place. His face leaned between your ears atop your head making them tic as his breath fluttered over them. Out of your control, your tail flicked behind you with a mind of its own but responding to your emotions. All you could do was hope Brutus didn't connect the signs.

Your fingers buried themselves into his mane, scratching lightly and received a tightening grip around your waist in response.

"The battles I fought were easier than this," Brutus grumbled into your hair. Why did he sound...disgruntled?

"With them I knew what to expect. I've never been defeated in a fight," he continued. You made a sound of agreement with your throat to show him you were listening. "But now, I only expect defeat."

"Defeat in what?" You were confused, wasn't the war already over? Unless this was a dream, there was no battle that he was currently fighting. Did all that sparring with stone golems mess with his head...

"Us."

You chuckled, "Us? What, are you breaking up with me?"

He didn't respond for a second making you think your joke might not actually be a joke, but then you remembered you weren't even in a relationship. So you called out to him, "Brutus?"

Suddenly, he pulled you away enough to look you in the eyes. "No. The opposite actually," he said vaguely, a cold expression on his face, "If this spurs you, then I have twice as much to ask forgiveness for."

Before you could question just what on earth he was talking about, he leaned down and kissed you. Stupidly, you froze, completely stunned by the turn of events. His kiss held force which was reasonable for him but at the same time it was gentle, cautious. You didn't process the situation until he was already pulling away from you; Pulling on his mane, you lured him back to you in a chance to redeem yourself. Overflowing emotion filled your lips as you tried to convey your emotions to him. His hands covered your back as he held you tightly, pulling you flush against him so that he could kiss you harder. It felt like months--no, years--of repressed emotions were drowning the two of you and it was enough to make your heart break.

His rough tongue lapped at your lips as the kiss quickly heated causing you to open your mouth to grant him entry. Just like the rest of him, his tongue was sizeable and quickly filled your mouth as he tasted the inside of it. Desperation was quick to settle amongst the two of you, stroking both of your hearts as you took, and took from one another. Seemingly making up for lost time, Brutus picked you up effortlessly and guided your legs to wrap around his hips. He didn't move away from his spot despite what you thought, acting rooted to the ground as his hands began kneading your body. You could feel his sharp claws through your clothes which made a shiver run down your spine, the danger he held in his body made your heart race with thrill. Careful not to hurt it, Brutus gripped you tail with one of his hands, stopping it in its wagging movement to tug at it lightly.

You moaned softly into his mouth, squeezing your arms around him as a bolt of electricity shot through you. When you felt that the small barbs of his tongue were licking your mouth sore, you pulled away from the kiss. Brutus was displeased by this and let out a faint rumble in his chest before moving to lap at your neck. You could feel his ears twitching at the sound of your soft moans near them, and you almost felt bad that you were irritating them, but then Brutus flexed his claws out to tear the back of your shirt.

"Brutus!" You scolded, turning your head to see your naked back. He only licked a stripe up your cheek as he pulled your shirt away to toss on the ground. Like this he was able to access the skin on your shoulders and chest so the end justified the means. Unlucky for you, that top was the only thing that had been separating you from skin to fur contact; With it gone, and Brutus shifting your body around to lick at different spots, your nipples were vulnerable to the friction against his coarse fur. Stimulated by his tongue lapping your skin, his hand tugging your tail, and your nipples rubbing against him, your moans increased in volume. You began to rock your hips against his unconsciously. He growled lowly again, using the hand that tore your shirt to grip your ass tightly.

From your peripheral vision, you saw his own lion tail restlessly flicking behind him and you yearned to pull on it the way he pulled at yours. Instead, you moved your arms to undo the armor he wore on his shoulders. He let you work, too busy nipping his sharp teeth into your neck and groping your behind. Your moving hips only encouraged his to rut up into you faintly.

With a disruptive clang, his metal shoulder guard fell to the ground, soon followed by the pelt he wore. Like this, you had much more access all around his completely bare chest and experimentally scratched your fingers through the fur. Granted, you weren't sure how much pleasure he gained from your exploring movements, but he seemed content enough as he didn't stop you. Instead, he hoisted you up higher, no longer interested with the skin of your neck, to drag his rough tongue over the erect buds on your chest. You moaned out loudly at the sensation, arching your back to push your nipples further into his face to chase the feeling.

"I've spent nights just imagining what you would sound like," He spoke, voice just above a growl. He took one of your buds into his mouth, grazing his teeth over it before sucking on it harshly, releasing it with a pop. Mimicking his actions, Brutus did the same to the other, finishing his thoughts, "My dreams could never amount to the real thing."

Breathlessly, you considered his words to understand what he meant, "How long," a sigh of pleasure, "how long have you felt this way?"

"Years, maybe. The teenage ones were the worst. I'll never understand how you never realized how much I craved you."

Another tug at your tail and a rut of his hips into yours made your head fall onto his shoulder. "You never said anything," you mumbled into his mane.

But he was too busy to respond. With one last harsh lick to your sensitive nipples, he raised his head again to kiss you. You felt his hand leave your rear to push down his pants and you had a moment of clarity; "Don't tear my--"

The sound of ripping filled the room. You lifted your head to give the lion a highly unamused look but he only, once again, licked your cheek to soothe you. Cats, you thought pettily. Just like with your shirt, Brutus--quite literally--tore away the remains of your bottoms to leave you completely bare. Not wanting to waste any more time, he held his member against your entrance. You sucked in a breath; It made sense to assume that he would be big...but this seemed too big. You squirmed against him and he placated you with a kiss on the forehead.

"Be brave, little fox," he said. Then he was pushing into you. The deeper he went the more it felt like air was punched out of you; Stretching out your walls like you'd never experienced before, you held onto him tightly, gasping for breath. Much like the rest of him, his tip was was a sharp point with a bulbous ridge, but still slimmer than the base. Mercifully, he gave you a few moments to adapt to the intrusion, nipping and lapping at your jaw as he waited. Once you no longer struggled to breathe, you tugged at the fur around his head to signal him to move; He lost no time in accepting your sign.

A deep purr like rumble vibrated in his chest as he began to move inside you and you could feel it with your own. His hand returned to your ass you grip it tightly, guiding you as he lifted and pulled you down with it in rhythm to his thrusts. Muffled cries fell from your lips and he stuffed you with his cock, doing nothing but already hitting your G-spot with his thickness. When he pulled on your tail again, the sensitivity mixed with the pleasure and you leaned back in an arch, convulsing with gratification. Brutus shifted his weight, spreading his legs a bit so that he could push better inside you standing up; Pretty quickly, wet noises filled the room, accompanied by measured slapping. As a warrior, Brutus was firm by nature, and as a lion, he was lead by pride--both of these together were a dangerous combination for you.

His sharp canines sank into your skin, making you cry out and tug harder at his mane. His tail whipped to his side, wrapping around your waist and making you feel completely engulfed in his grasp.

"You asked why I didn't tell you," he grunted out with shallow breaths, "But you never told me either."

He gave a particularly hard thrust into you, making his balls press against you, and he gruffly huffed. Your mind was reeling from the pleasure of it all which made you take more than a few moments to respond.

"I--was afraid," you confessed with a shudder as the tension in core core built. You gyrated your hips shakily to match his movements and whining out loud when it only served to add friction against your sensitive groin.

"I never gave you reason to fear me," Brutus complained, squeezing your ass, "I've always protected you."

"Th--This is dif--erent..." You wished this conversation hadn't come up during this time. Seductive pleasure was wracking your body, destroying your ability to think clearly which only barred you from properly communicating with him. Brutus lifted his head, enough so that he could take the tip of your ear into his teeth in a light bite.

Your ear twitched in his caging nip, but he didn't let go, fully riding out the possessive feeling that drowned him from consciousness. When the base of his cock began swelling, stretching you even further, you took it as a sign that he was close. Trying your best, you rocked your weight against him, expending the last of your energy in your legs that helped keep you hoisted up on his hips. But the extra movement helped. With you slamming down onto his cock over and over and over, Brutus growled loudly, and you felt the way his knot moved inside you to lock you in his hold.

With a final tug at the base of your fail, and a tight grip on your rear, Brutus came inside you. His seed was hot and plentiful, effectively warming up your gushy walls and plugging you full to make sure you accepted everything he gave. His hips were pushed impossible deep into yours, the head of his dick making a bulge appear on your stomach. You moaned out wantonly, going stiff in his arms as his orgasm triggered your own; You came hard, contracting around him is sporadic motions as you coped with the large mass sitting inside you, still pressed against the oversensitive bundle of nerves. You hadn't realized how hard you were pulling on Brutus' mane until seconds later after your high faded to a reasonable level. With sore fingers, you released his fur and slugged against him, letting him do all the work in holding you up.

"It's not different," Brutus finally said, his voice much deeper as the lust from essentially breeding you flowed through his veins, "I am your warrior. I'll always stand by your side. Either as a friend, or as a partner."

He then kissed the top of your head, softly releasing his hold on your tail, and moving to find a spot to rest with you still in his arms. You were too gone to garner a reply, already feeling beyond sleepy as you nestled into his warm chest. You mentally promised him that the two of you would talk properly once you rested; Brutus seemed to understand as well.

"Rest. I'll take care of you."

As you dozed off into a sleep still tied to the lion with his knot inside you, you felt him murmur: "I love you".

[oldmemoria]

hate the ultimate guide. heres a few reasons why.

reused art: I understand how hard it is to make art, especially at that calliber of detail. I'm an artist, I get it. but the charm of the original ultimate guide was that we had these hand painted, unique pieces of art of these characters, it showed a little personality too.

How stale and lifeless the art is: This is a complaint that I've had with the current western artist for years, the art is just... boring. the colors are pretty, yeah, like wow hyperrealistic cats. cool. but what else? can we see their personalities? what's the book gonna be like? the old covers had that charm, but not these ones. at all. (also is that even... i could not tell that was runningnose and littlecloud. i mean. runningnose has water in his snout, thats not what cat snot looks like but go off. he just looks a little soggy ig, not in a perpetual state of sick.)

Lack of Personality: this is a different complaint I promise. I dont like how the art seems to take away the personality of every character so theyre staring stoicly at the camera. some of these characters arent all that stoic. I never liked the firestar art in the last hope because I deadass thought it was mapleshade until someone told me it was firestar. firestar isnt this scary, stalky cat in the shadows. not to normal people at least. if i can mistake your main character as one of the villains in your cover art that isnt fucking good. I don't want to see these cats staring bug eyed at the camera, I want to be able to tell what they're like JUST from a glance at the art. Who is that- harestar?? why doesnt he look nervous?? he looks almost noble here, which is the opposite of who he's supposed to be, he's a wuss and a loser and i love him for it. like girl that is NOT mudclaw thats some random cat i saw at the shelter once, WHERES HIS ANGER? WHERES HIS FUCKING RAGE??? RISE RISE RISE RISE RISE RI

the Characters are hard to recognize, even with the title cards: Who are these cats. who. who the fuck are they. I can recognize a few cats, sure, but thats if I can pick out a defining trait. Squirrelflights tail, Scourges Collar, Ravenpaw's white chest, those are things that are explicitly told to us that these characters have, but everyone else??? WHO??? Like that was supposed to be leafstar?? HUH?? Wait that's supposed to be Oakheart? I cant even tell if hes red, its so YELLOW OUT I CANT FUCKING TEL WHO HE IS. Sagewhisker is described with yellow eyes, yet she has blue ones in the ultimate guide (i dont usually get pissy about eye color but not only are these cats supposed to be distinct from each other but i really like sagewhisker and i would die for her, yes i will gatekeep her from the artist fucking fight me), Bluestar is barely recognizable, i didnt know who half of these cats were before i read their nameplate. thats not a good thing.

Red mapleshade. Why she red. WHY SHE RED.

Leafpool. I didn't even know that was you at first but man they did you dirty.

sol. dude that is not sol no matter how much you stretch it- why is he a tabby?? hes supposed to be a tortie, why does he look like lionblaze?? and even then he doesnt look that lionlike, even though hollyleaf literally thought he was when she first saw him like what?? HUH???

mothwing. why she anger. also why she not fluffy

squirrelflight. i always hated her SE art but seeing the whole thing makes me angrier. like she isnt not accurate to canon or anything i just... hate it. i hate it withe very fibre of my being. ALSO WHERE IS HER PERSONALITY I WANT TO SEE HER BEING ENERGETIC NOT STARING 😐 AT THE CAMERA FUCKING HELL-

yeah, so im not gonna buy this book. i dont even want to know how they wrorte any of the female characters to make them somehow evil or how they somehow make a completely irridemable male character a sweet uwu baby. and everyone has talked about the ableism to death so im not going to beat this clearly still living horse, im just gonna let you find it yourself.