#this is barely mean at all :D

[shiniestcrow]

Sage freezes the first time they come across a mirror after Volo's failed attempt at extracting the parasite.

Really, it could have been much worse all things considered. Sure, they lost their eye but the prosthesis Volo gave them really balanced things out. Their sight isn't even worse for wear. And on top of that, they now don't have to rely on magic or potions to see invisibility. Worth the pain, really.

And yet, that first glance at their face makes them freeze up. They turn to fully face the mirror. Their reflection feels... off. Rationally, they know why. Their eye colour changed. Gone is the extremely pale grey, replaced by a strange mix of blue and green. And that is exactly it, isn't it?

It's gone. Their original eye colour is fully gone, never to be seen again.

Sage closes their eyes and turns away from the mirror. It doesn't matter.

-

That evening, Sage keeps staring into the flames of the campfire, mind returning to the sight of their reflection.

"Hey, you," Karlach startles them out of their thoughts, and Sage can't help but smile at her as she sits down next to them. They note the careful distance she always keeps, just close enough that Sage can feel the heat coming off her without risking any accidental touch.

"Hey," they answer, mildly distracted by the reflections of the fire on her skin.

"Soo," Karlach says, drawing the word out. Sage finally notices the discomfort she is projecting.

They open their mouth, but Karlach is faster: "Are you alright?"

Sage blinks. And then blinks again because their new eye still feels a little strange.

"Sure," they say, shrugging. "Why?"

Karlach leans towards them then, staring at their face. No, at their eyes. "Because of that. You keep blinking, and you looked like you were freaking out a bit when you looked into that mirror earlier today."

Ah. Had they really been that obvious? Sage leans back on their hands, and Karlach gets the hint, immediately moving back too.

"It's fine. Just something to get used to." They smile grimly. "Besides, it was my choice. I knew the risk."

"Yeah, about that. I didn't want to ask and make you uncomfortable before, but why did you let that weird guy poke out your eye?"

Sage snorts and immediately tries to hide it behind their hand. Karlach just smiles at them.

They shrug. "Figured one of us should let him try on the off-chance that he could actually get the parasite out."

Karlach stops smiling. "And it had to be you because...?"

They shrug again. "I could hardly ask any of you to try it. No, I'm the one that wanted to know, so I'm the one that had to do it."

"Not that I'm volunteering him, but maybe Wyll could have tried? Considering that one of his eyes is already fake."

Sage winces. "Uh, best not to interfere with an eye given to you by your patron. Speaking from experience here."

Karlach stares at them for a moment. "You mean..." She points between her own eye and Sage's left one. "That one isn't natural?"

They can't help themself; they laugh. "Oh no, no. That one used to be grey, too. Turned black when I made my pact. It lets my patron properly see what I see, and I can still use it, so it's not really a drawback for me."

"Right," Karlach says.

There is a moment of silence.

Karlach eventually breaks it, sounding somewhat hesitant. "So, your original eye colour was that pale grey, right?"

Sage nods. They're pretty sure they know where Karlach is going with this. They're not happy about it.

"And one of your eyes turned black."

They nod again and look away. Better to stare into the fire than see whatever expression Karlach is making.

"And now the other one was replaced, too."

They don't nod this time, just shrug. "Yep. I'm all out of grey."

Karlach makes an unhappy noise in the back of her throat, and Sage looks up, alarmed.

"Gods, I wish I could hug you right now and smooch that stupid face of yours," Karlach whines, flopping on her back dramatically.

Sage snorts again. They really can't help themself around her. They also have to stop themself from patting her arm patronisingly, no matter how funny it would be in their head.

"It's fine, really," they say instead. "Like I said, I'll get used to it. And it's not like people ever stopped staring at my eyes. First, it was because they were too pale and then because one was black. That part hasn't changed."

"But it's not fair!" Karlach sits up again, pointing a finger at Sage. "You should be able to keep your eye colour of all things!"

"Karlach," Sage smiles softly at her. They have the feeling that her reaction isn't entirely due to what happened to them. "You're very sweet, but keep in mind that this is entirely the result of my own choices. I chose to make my pact and I chose to let Volo poke around the way he did. I could have told him to stop at any point. I didn't. I wanted to see if he would be successful and was willing to accept both pain and consequences. In fact, him having a replacement ready that would still let me see out of it is a very fortunate outcome. It's okay. I'm okay."

Karlach doesn't cry, but she does sniffle quietly. Sage, too, wishes they could hug her.

"I liked the grey," she mumbles, but there is a small smile back on her face. Sage returns it readily.

"I just hope that wasn't the only thing you liked about me. Might make me regret my choices after all."

Karlach laughs and Sage feels warm inside. This is better. Karlach shouldn't be sad. Especially not on their behalf. No, Karlach deserves to be happy. And if Sage can help with that, well, they're determined to do everything in their power to do exactly that.

[nina-scribbles]

Finally done with this piece for my 🪐🛸Space Au🚀🌌 !!!

+ some bonus closeups on details i really liked 💕

[d8tl55c]

oh boy !! ! ! ! !!! ! thANK y0u all for the kind words on my last art posts. you all get it and i was/still am so happy about it

as promised, here's some close-ups of the comic for image quality's sake, and other screenshots i rescued from the community whiteboard (and something else)

first up another sketch of mystery gender-ambiguous being. (please send me more name ideas for them if you got one- i like to hear em! (reminder it's the side character that appeared for <10 seconds in AvM Ep. 30))

a few fav scenes

emotional support cwab

they weren't meant for this purpose exactly, but i do have countless "fluffy sticks" loose in my notes and homework sheets from the school years.

papery critter.

even when i wasn't confident in fur or feathers, they helped me practice posing and create some satisfying gradients/flowing poses. (im a sucker for good tail poses) (oh yay! i found a good pic...)

and finally, little sneak peak for you for reading so far ;3

i realized that whiteboardfox is pretty great for my working needs. simple and to the point and all. feels nice with the mouse and the tablet.

so i started hashing out a big project idea just to see if it holds up and

[

several hours later ...

]

oh

oh man

it's a little bigger than i expected

<next>

[princyvish]

WOE KOBYLU MARRIAGE BE UPON YE!! I'm normal about them

They would get married to this song trust

[somerandomcockroach]

@keferon OKAY BUT LISTEN YEAH I would loved if it was just fun ehehehe and sassy flirting with the demon no one sees pfffht, literally summoned a demon just to flirt with, and I guess it could have been going for a long time, just little strips with their funny adventures and then plot can go to the fact that he wants to give him a body and Shockwave would agree or that they just stay the way they are and just hang out like this together (Alo I remember that you wanted to put Ratchet (I keep writing Ratched instead of Ratchet buuuh) and Drift in it as another demon and their summoner thing whghweghgwe but I like how you made two separate stories for them that happen at the same time, okay I am actually PRETTY MUCH invested in this story, I like a lot how it goes and gets tangled and how mixes up with idw ideas and other stuff a lot)

BUT NOW that you changed it that way, you made a few more things that reader might be interested a lot in, like that promise he made and you mentioning that he will regret it, how their relationship progressively develops, plus the fact that Blurr was a frivolous slob gifted with dark magic AND how the tables turn upside dow and he get consequences for what he did in the most unpredictable way for him and how he surely changes in his behaviour, getting more and more concerned about his promise and maybe truly loving someone for the first time in his life and wanting to change something. And then figuring out that that same demon actually was a person before, someone he knew, someone respectable, kind, shiny, absolut sun of a person, who died (I am still on my knees waiting to know how exactly he died...) miserably to the point that he absolutely can't stand his life as a demon and NOT EVEN being able to kill himself!!! And Blurr was a pupil in his school, he saw him, he gifted him an ability to make his magic work for him, gave the freedom to live among everyone to all who was poisoned with this dark magic. OH WAITA HGSDHAG the thing that beastformers can't walk among transformers and the fact that dark spellers also could not, and how these events happen at a close times, OKAY so dark spellers got their kind of freedom thanks to Senator Shockwave (OH MY GOD what if Orion can see Shockwave and will recognise him right away COUGH) BUT I am wondering if beastformers will get some kind of an official declaration or some kind of school to be educated in and I wonder if Deadlock/Drift (I think after leaving he will change his name from the last episode...) will volunteer to be a teacher t be something more, or he will just end up with Ratchet wandering around the world, or maybe there will be a whole damn revolution where all monoformers and beastformers leaded by Drift go against the system, and maybe these events happen at the same time as a Senator Shockwave fighting for the rights of gifted... Okay I'm getting carried a little bit ahsghag excuse me... OH I GOT carried away A LOT I wanted to get back to the point that Blurr, now figuring out the past of Shocwave, dealing with all the events, dealing with what he has done and find a way to free them, at the same time STILL having adventures and fun since I'm sure he can be a good mood lifter to moody Shockwave and even see him in a really good mood since he is... well, not just a demon made of hatred but the wonderful kind of person in his previous life... (okay being carried away but what if Orion might declare the freedom to beastformers (AJHGAJHSDJAH OH MY GOD I IMAGINED JAZZ AS A PANDA HAVING A ROMAN WITH PROWL AND PROWL NOT KNOWING ABOUT IT OKAY SORRY) after seeing what it lead to after Senator Shockwave. And maybe Ratchet will be able to get his sign back freely after revolution will be successful or he will be forever blind just to be free and safe with his husband OKAY LISTEN I think it is obvious that I really like the thing you do....

[zecoritheweirdone]

first art post of the new year!!! granted, i don't share my art here that much anyway, but– shhh.

hehehehhhooo,, here's something i've been working on for 'bout a month,, albeit not consecutively– took a few,, very very long breaks in between working on this,, but i managed to finish it in the end! am i satisfied with it? .......ehhhh? not completely, but if this took any longer, it might not have seen the light of day, so like. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

anyway,, made a little poster for my favorite fic, tommyinnit's services for villains, vigilantes, and various other vagabonds, by @scorpionoesit!!! it's really really good,,, and i've always wanted to make more art for it,, so i decided– poster! at least,, that's what it's mean to resemble,,, dkdmkdmdkd.

i will freely admit,, i'm... not the biggest fan of the fan-made logo i tried to design for it,, feels a bit boring, and could definitely have used a bit more pizazz, something to make feel more like the fic itself(what does that mean? you figure that out),,,, but– again, steam was running low,, dkdnksjs. graphic design is my passion. i do also have other complaints, but i'm afraid i already punched my one-use self-critique card,, oh well,,, dkdnkxjdkd.

regardless,, even with the flaws only i can really see,, this still turned out pretty okay!! hope you enjoy it, mx. scorpio and mx. alibi!!! and i hope everyone else has a wonderful new year!!!!

[carlos-tk]

well that’s that ☹️💔

[cakesmelons]

Oops! You naughty, naughty Killer

(The harem is definitely watching)

[bunnihearted]

ᯓ★

[blujayonthewing]

the problem with adulthood is that I do actually really like catching up and socializing with other adults, but I still also want very badly to wander off by myself and sit on the ground and pluck grass blades and look at bugs and pet the cat, and there just simply isn't enough time for both

[sysig]

Charm(s) meet Charm Bear (Patreon)

[aelswiths]

this shot haunts me

[revenantghost]

The pretty fanart of the ladies in space made me watch a Signalis let’s play

I don’t know what happened but that was fun

OH MAN, Signalis is a trip. I love it so, so much enough that I wrote fifty-something poems for it lmao and it's lived rent-free in my brain ever since. I haven't watched anything more recent on it because three pistols brainrot, but if you want to dig more into the horror space lesbians (because it is very confusing depending on your playthrough, for sure--and it only gets BETTER the deeper you dig), these two videos in particular are very good, very relaxing, and so well-made imo:

[soft-serve-soymilk]

More random head children musings (aside from the really sad one because that deserves better than a throwaway post):

Honestly I think it’s very fortunate that Dism’s team isn’t *entirely* comprised of lucid dreamers.

[phoenixiancrystallist]

It's Wednesday and I have a WIPpet I want to share, so that means I get to participate in WIP Wednesday :3

"Where did you learn a lullaby?"

Cuff's silence writhed with something Frey couldn't put her finger on. Something... ashamed, almost. Guilty, even. It didn't make any sense.

"Cuff? What aren't you telling me?" Why was he hiding this from her? It's so stupid! How could a song fill him with so much shame? No, more than shame. Remorse. What the fuck?

He didn't breathe, per se, but he made a sound like he'd taken a deep, shaking breath. "I learned it from Tanta Cinta."

Frey's heart skipped a beat. "What?"

"She didn't teach me, you understand," he hastened to clarify. "But recall, I was bonded to her while she was pregnant with you. She... she would sing that song to you, sometimes. She sang it to soothe you whenever you got, ah, kicky."

[steampunk-raven]

holy fucking shit :D