#wanted to mess with those effects layers again...

[taya-ki]

Night at Quarks ✧

[reiderwriter]

The Lightbulb Moment

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female Reader

Genre: Fluff but a little bit suggestive at the end.

Summary: You want Spencer all to yourself for the first few months of your relationship and he's only too happy to comply. Unfortunately, you're two dumbasses who can't keep their hands off one another.

Word Count: 4.8k (I love idiots in love...)

Warnings: secret relationship, mentions of hickeys, kissing and heavy petting but no actual smut (a little suggestive and fade to black). Minor character is a misogynist prick and gets his nose broken, though.

A/N: I need everyone to know that this is absolutely inspired by the very first episode of OHSHC. I don't think I will elaborate further. This is also my first fluff, so if you want to see more like this my requests are open!~

My Masterlist✨

Walking into the BAU’s Quantico offices was a simple part of your daily schedule. You usually drove your car from your house to the parking complex, took the elevator up to your floor, put your bag down on your desk and moved immediately to the office kitchen to make yourself an appropriately large mug of coffee. Today, however, you drove your car from Spencer’s apartment, after quite the pleasant night together. The two of you had agreed weeks before to keep your relationship as private as you could.

Which meant that you were now in the office, trying your best to hide both your hickeys and your micro-expressions in a room that was about to fill up with extremely observant FBI profilers.

The turtle-neck sweater was a classic but effective aid, and when paired with the piping hot mug of coffee you were making yourself, you were hoping to feign an oncoming cold of some kind to escape any scrutiny. Spencer had left an hour earlier than you, knowing that it took him longer to commute alone on the metro than it took you in your car, which was probably the best thing for the two of you right now, as after last night, you wanted the whole undivided attention of his hands and his mouth on you.

Taking one last deep breath you walked into the office, and were greeted by the sight of two more new arrivals, your beautiful boyfriend and SSA Derek Morgan. Thankfully, the marks you’d left on Spencer's back the night before were easy to hide under his usual sweater-vest-shirt combo, as he'd probably have a harder time explaining those away. You wrapped your work blazer a little tighter around you and made your way to your desk.

“That’s a big cup of coffee you got there, angel. You have a long night?” Morgan says as you sit down in your seat, trying your best to look at anything but Spencer.

“A long night with a bottle of nyquil and three layers of blankets, if that’s what you mean, yeah.” You shoot back, praying he takes the bait.

“Aww, that sucks sweet-pea. If you need anything, let our resident Doctor know, I’m sure he’ll do his best to make sure you're in peak physical condition once again.” Morgan mocks the younger male, before walking off to his desk.

You happen a glance over at Spencer, and he’s sporting the cutest little blush you’ve ever seen, not needing to hide his embarrassment at the insinuations of his friend.

The two of you share a quick glance, but don’t have to say much else when Hotch walks out of his office announcing there’s another case.

“Meeting room in ten, wheels up immediately after, we've got a serial in Washington State that requires our attention.”

You sigh in relief knowing that a case will be a great way to distract you from somehow messing this up and you grab your stuff and head to the meeting room. Before you can get there though, Rossi cuts you off at the door.

“A word of advice, if I may,” he says, letting your other team members pass in front of him on their way into the briefing before grabbing your attention.

“Sure, why not?” You reply, curious about what the man has to say.

“I’ve never heard of a cold that causes bruising behind your ear. I’d suggest you take yourself and your make-up bag to the bathroom to cover that up.”

You feel yourself grow hot. You’d thought you’d got them all covered with the turtleneck but you had a limited range of vision. Cursing under your breath, you tried to explain to your senior coworker but again he cut off before you could.

“No, I’m not gonna say anything else. Just tell the kid to keep it classy next time, if your gonna wine and dine a lady, you don’t need to make her neck dessert.” You blanched now, all of your previous redness running out of your body.

“You know?”

“I’m very good at my job. However, whatever this is is none of my business, so please, don’t make it my business again any time soon, okay?”

“Yes, thank you. I’ll just go down now. Could you-” you gestured vaguely to the meeting room where all your close coworkers were taking their seats, and the older man smiled back at you.

“Consider it done.” You thanked your lucky stars that it was Rossi who had spotted it first, and made a mental note to send Spencer a quick message before you got on the jet.

Y/N: Busted by Rossi. Next time, don’t go full vampire on me. Okay Doc? That was like getting the talk from my dad, but somehow worse.

–X–

After a week in Washington, you wrapped up your case fairly quickly. The flight was long, so you were very much looking forward to finishing the documentation for the case and heading back to your apartment for some much needed alone time with Reid.

The entire week you’d been in the field interviewing witnesses and suspects, and he’d been stuck inside making geographical profiles and aiding Garcia with undigitized file information. It hadn’t helped things that you’d ended up stuck sharing rooms, you with Emily and JJ in one room and him sharing with Hotch, of all people, so you couldn't even sneak out at night to meet each other without arousing suspicion.

It had taken all of your strength not to climb onto the long bench next to him on the Jet and just melt into him, letting the long journey ahead lull you into some much needed sleep. You forced yourself to the other end of the jet, picking up a blanket you’d stored there previously and forcing yourself to shut your eyes.

When you landed, you practically launched yourself off the plane, so eager to get back to your car and drive all the way to your house. But fate had other ideas.

“Everyone, take the rest of the day off, but I want to see you bright and early monday morning working on the required paperwork. Reid, Y/L/N, can you stick around for an extra ten minutes? I just have some supplementary questions I need to ask you.” Hotch announced to the team and you felt your freedom escaping from you once again.

You made it calmly to Hotch’s office, following both your boss and your boyfriend, unsure of where this conversation was going to go.

You sat down on the sofa, and watched as Hotch pulled out two sets of documents.

“I’m not asking questions, and frankly I don’t want to know. But this is standard for all workplace relationships, so I need you to fill out these forms and submit them back to me ASAP.” He said the words calmly, but you felt the panic rise in your chest.

“Did Rossi say something to you?” Spencer managed to recover quicker than you could, neither confirming nor denying your entanglement to your boss.

“No, actually…” Hotch seemed to hesitate for a moment, unsure of whether to continue or not. “You talk in your sleep, Reid. You talk quite loudly in your sleep.”

Your head snapped up to your boyfriend and you came face to face with a look of mortification. You heard him mumble a curse under his breath, before he grabbed the papers from Hotch, handing you one quickly.

You filled them out in silence as quickly as possible, trying to not let the blush on your face deepen, and entirely grateful that Hotch was busy ignoring that the conversation had ever happened now, back at his desk filling out his own paperwork.

Spencer grabbed your papers from you when you were finished, put them together with his silently on the older man’s desk, grabbed your hand and swiftly walked you out of the office.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry Y/N, I’m used to sharing the room with Morgan and you know he sleeps like the dead.” He apologised, but the look on his face was so cute, you couldn’t help but tease him.

“I’ll forgive you on one condition,” you smirk up at him. “You have got to tell me exactly what that dream was about. I'm very curious”

–X–

After both Rossi and Hotchner had guessed at the nature of your relationship within the space of a week, you were a bit on edge around the office. But a month of busy cases (and thankfully no more room sharing incidents) had restored your confidence in your lying capabilities. You almost felt guilty now, hiding the best part of your life from some of the most important people in your life. But you chose to keep being selfish, knowing that the side of Spencer that you were witnessing now was yours and yours alone.

Basically, you grew over-confident, and when you grew over-confident, you grew sloppy.

After coming back from a particularly rewarding case, a stalking case that you managed to solve before the unsub could turn from attempted murderer to murderer, you went out to celebrate with the team. Hotch and Rossi had begged off again, and Morgan had excused himself because he was giving a self-defence talk the next day at Quantico and didn’t want to show up still suffering from the night before.

So, at the behest of Emily and Garcia, you found Reid was swiftly uninvited, and the team celebration turned into a Girls’ Night Out. It had been a while since you’d been able to let loose, having spent practically every weekend between yours and Reid’s apartments, so you were determined to make the most of the night.

You blame Garcia really. JJ had survived two rounds, but had retreated back to her husband and child when she saw the drinking getting out of hand. Emily had been on virgin drinks the entire night, because she’d drawn the short straw and ended up the designated driver.

Which left you and the wonderful Penelope Garcia going toe-to-toe, or more realistically, tequila-to-tequila as you not so healthily egged each other on. By 1am, Emily had to make the executive decision to put Garcia in a taxi, knowing she would at least be able to function on her own, whilst you were sat like a little mess in the other woman’s arms.

“Emillleeeee!” You giggled as the brunette helped you into her car. “You’re sooooo strong, Emileeeeeeeeee. I love you, y'know.”

“Yeah, Y/N. I gathered that the last time you told me.” She laughed back at you, knowing that she was going to absolutely let you know everything that was said and done that night in the morning.

“Wanna know whoz also realllllllly strong?” You giggled and slapped your hands over your mouth like a schoolgirl talking about her crush.

“Oh, yeah? Go ahead and tell me.”

“Ssspencer,” you said his name and your entire face flushed, “Spencie is really strong.”

Emily rolled her eyes at you, assuming for the time being that you were too drunk to understand what you were saying.

But her reaction obviously didn’t satisfy your drunk self enough, because you pouted a little and then continued.

“Sss true! He’s so strong when he lifts me up and holds me against the wall, it’s so fuckin gooood, Emilleeeeee.”

“Y/N! You're talking about Reid here, I doubt the boy could even hold a girl's hand without breaking a sweat. Let's go get you to bed." She shot back in disbelief.

“You don’t believe me? He is strong, look I can show you the bruises he left on my hips the last time we-”

“OH MY GOD, please stop talking.” Emily cut you off before she heard something she really didn’t want to hear. Still half in disbelief, thinking you were just so far into your cups you’d reached the horny level of alcoholism, she pulled into your apartment complex and quickly helped you out of the car.

“Emilleeeee, don’t leave me!!” You giggled out as she practically frog-marched you to your front door, having commandeered your keys earlier. Before she had the chance to use them however, the door was swinging open, and there was Spencer, in the door, realising he’d just made a huge mistake.

"Would you believe me if I said I were explicitly for work purposes?" He stuttered hopefully, seeing the shell-shocked look on his coworkers face.

“Oh god, she wasn’t lying, was she?” Emily managed to eke out in horror, the thought of the man who was practically her little brother doing anything sexual with anyone sending shivers down her spine.

He didn’t have to reply, however, because you chose that exact moment to launch yourself at your boyfriend wrapping your legs around his waist as he did his best not to tumble over, as your mouth started working its way down his throat.

“Shit,” he grunted out, still unsure about how to handle the situation. “Emily, let’s just pretend you never saw this, deal?”

“Yeah, okay, I think I can do that.” She turned away swiftly, but turned back to add on one final statement, looking almost impressed.

“You know I really didn’t think you were strong enough to do all of that. Huh, wonders abound.”

–X–

Your devastating hangover the next day saved you from the embarrassment of reliving the more scandalous details of your Girls’ Night adventures, but on the parts that Reid filled you in on, you were mortified to say the least.

“I fucked up so bad,” you groaned in pain the next morning in bed with Spencer.

“It wasn’t that bad,” he did his best to reassure you, but you silenced him with one look. “Okay maybe it was that bad, but Emily isn’t going to say anything. So we just continue as usual, right?”

You groaned again, but said no more and burrowed your face further into your partner's chest, hoping that the painkillers he’d bought you earlier that morning would take you out of your misery soon.

But there is no rest for the wicked and not even an hour later you find yourself in an FBI vehicle heading to a police station.

Your sour mood is noted by every single one of your coworkers, but evidently not some of the locals that you’re working with on the case in question. You notice them gawking at the female members of your team almost immediately as you walk into the precinct, and once again you wish you were back in bed away from these creeps. Can a girl not get some peace and quiet on a Saturday morning?

One of them in particular seems hellbent on making his harassment of the three of you a full time fucking job. He gives up on JJ quickly when she mentions her son (“asshole,” you think to yourself), and when he realises that Emily is a bit too dominant for him, he quickly loses interest in her too (“coward”). Which leaves him with all the time in the world to dedicate his energy to you.

“Hey, sweetcheeks, anything you need a big strong man to help you with?” The officer smiles down at you, practically begging you to punch him in the face.

Luckily, his sleeziness doesn’t go unnoticed by both Reid and Morgan, and they make sure to keep you within earshot the entire day, the three of you reading up on the victims' backgrounds whilst your other coworkers head to the crime scene.

“Sorry, chump, if I needed the help of a strong man, there's about five people I’d call before you - and two of them are women.” You shoot back, unwilling to stomach the bullshit of a uniform when you’re trying to do your job.

“Easy now, pretty lady, very high tension today, aren’t we?” He smirks down at you, hand on your chair, almost the perfect distance away for you to headbutt, but you choose to ignore him looking back down at your work. He backs off slightly before trying again.

“Come on now, I’m sure I could do something about that. Maybe fuck that tension right out of you?" And that’s your last straw.

Morgan almost prides himself on having the foresight to grab you before you can launch yourself at the man, ready to scratch his eyes out if he takes it even one step further. What he didn’t see coming at all was Reid throwing the punch first, connecting directly with the chauvinistic officer's nose and flooring him.

“Son of a bitch, I'm not sure I know any woman who'd want to touch you with a ten-foot pole, much less my fucking girlfriend." He seethes out, and Morgan is almost too stunned to speak. He releases you from his grip, and you run to Reid, making note of the way you instantly slot into Reid’s arms, like you were meant to be there.

“Damn pretty boy, nice hit,” is all he can get out, still a little shocked that the two of you had managed to hide this from him for so long.

“You bwoke my noise…” the officer rolled on the floor in pain.

“You’re lucky it was me and not her. And for the record, she's only 'high-tension' because we got interrupted this morning to come and help your sorry ass with a case,” Spencer seethed at the man, only now noticing that his knuckles weren’t faring too well either.

“As entertaining as this is, that's enough, Reid. You take your man and clean him up, Y/L/N, I got this one here, okay?” Morgan swiftly gave you orders, and you let out a sigh of gratitude, knowing that Morgan was going to make sure you got minimal reprimands for this.

“Oh and by the way you two,” he smirked at you a little as you made your way out. “Congratulations.”

–X–

In the name of keeping your relationship to yourself, the two of you had, so far, nearly gotten suspended, filled Emily in on some of the raunchier parts of your sex life, and accidentally shared some of those same details with your Unit Chief to boot. Your only saving grace was that, because you’d sworn everyone to secrecy, and they all seemed to pride themselves on smuggly keeping the information to themselves, they hadn’t started using you as an office-wide conversation started just yet.

All-in-all though you’d needed some time out of the office to relax for a bit, so when JJ came to you at the last minute with a plea for help asking for you to possibly babysit Henry the next night, you’d gladly accepted. Babysitting may seem like a lot of work, but seeing that little angel's face only brought you peace of mind, despite his mother’s protestations that he was only that well behaved for other people.

You were honestly looking forward to spending the night playing with the kid, and you decided it was about time you showed him some classic kids movies, as you packed both Toy Story and The Lion King ready for a fort film night! You were so excited, in fact, that you forgot your previous arrangement with Reid.

“Hey, Y/N, about ready to go? Thanks again for agreeing to carpool out with me tonight, you know how crowded the metro gets on friday nights.” He winks at you, using your regular cover for your biweekly date night, as your stomach drops.

“Oh god, Spencer I totally forgot. I told JJ I’d watch Henry for her tonight, so I’m heading there straight after work so I can watch him whilst she gets ready for dinner with Will.” You guiltily look up at the man whose face has fallen into the most adorable pout you’ve ever seen.

“Oh, hey, no problem, it’s okay, tell Henry I said hello.”

Overhearing this, and seeing her friend's obvious disappointment, JJ jumped into the conversation quickly.

“Hey, why don’t you come over as well, Spence? Henry’s been saying he missed his Uncle Spencer, and I was going to order a pizza for Y/N anyways, if you want that?” She suggested, looking between the two of you.

“I bought movies as well?” You added, hoping desperately that he’d say yes, even if you weren’t acting the most subtle about your feelings for him.

“Sure, thanks for that JJ. Let me just grab my jacket.”

Four hours later and the two of you were all played out. You’d entertained incessantly for the first hour, Henry desperately excited to show both of you each and every toy he’d acquired since you’d last been at his house. When the doorbell rang and the pizza arrived, he hadn’t lost steam, and it took you putting on the first of your movies of the night to get him to drop his toys and focus on the pizza and the plot.

And of course, you’d gone and promised him two movies at the beginning of the night, so after wrestling him into pyjamas and making him brush his teeth, you were finally resting again on the sofa. Reid sat at one end, you at the other, with Henry’s sleeping head in your lap, you stroking the little guy's hair.

“I think, and don’t quote me on this, that he’s asleep now, Y/N.” Spencer whispered to you over the movie.

“I know, he just looks so comfortable I don’t want to move him.” You pout at him, looking down at the sleeping angel in your arms.

“Hey, it’s not fair he’s getting all of your attention.”

“Spencer Reid, are you telling me you're jealous of a child right now?” You asked him in a mockingly shocked tone as he stood up from his side of the couch and came closer to you, placing one hand on the arm rest beside you and the other on the couch cushion behind you, effectively boxing you in.

“If I say yes, will you stroke my hair like that?” He smiled down at you, closing the distance between the two of you and giving you the softest sweetest kiss you could have asked for.

When he pulls back you find your lips following his, wanting more, but he just laughs at you and pulls Henry out of your arms, cradling him softly as he carries him upstairs to bed as you think to yourself that you’d do anything to see that scene every night of your life.

On Monday morning, JJ pulls you aside to thank you again, bringing you some of the chocolates she knows you like to show you her appreciation.

“He was a little angel, JJ. A bit energetic and excited but he was so sweet and sat with me the entire way through the movie before he fell asleep.” You gushed about the baby, happily holding your gift.

“You know that little angel did ask me something pretty interesting at breakfast the next morning.” JJ smiles at you, and you encourage her to keep going.

“He asked me if mommy and daddy kiss because they love each other, and so of course we said yes, that we love each other very much, and you know what he said after that?” She laughed a little, and you could feel your cheeks getting hot as you knew you’d been busted once again.

“He said that he was happy because that meant Uncle Spencer and Auntie Y/N must love each other a lot, too.”

You covered your blushing cheeks, not even trying to stammer out a response, knowing that JJ had probably interrogated little Henry about what he’d seen when feigning sleep the weekend before.

“Relax, Y/N, no harm done. And for what it’s worth, I think you’re good for him. He seems a lot,” she paused to think of the right word before continuing, “a lot more like himself than I’ve seen him in a long time.”

You try to hold in the tears that threaten to spill from the touching words, as you stammer out a small thank you.

Another team member knew now, but that had to have been the most successful way you'd revealed your relationship to date.

--X–

This had to have been the worst way you’d revealed your relationship to date.

It was a slow day of office work in the BAU with no consultation case coming up just yet. And with the majority of your paperwork done, you really were just trying your best to stay entertained around the office before you could clock out and go home.

So when you received a message from Spencer that read “copy room down the hall, five minutes,” your interest was piqued enough to make you run there immediately, not even waiting for the appointed time.

You opened the door slightly and a hand shot out and pulled you in so quickly that you almost lost your balance, your hands pushing up against Spencer’s chest as he slammed the door shut as quietly as possible.

“And what are we doing here, Doctor Reid?” You smirked up at him as you felt his arms tighten around your waist, his hands trailing up and down your back before coming to rest a little lower than before.

“Thought you could use a midday pick me up.” He smirked back leaning down to connect your lips, slowly at first, but gaining a feverish speed.

You were only so happy to give back just as you gave, your hands finding their way up to his hair, pushing your chest forward and up against his own, needing to feel closer to him than you had all day.

He gave your ass a swift slap and used your resulting gasp to force his tongue into your mouth, deepening the kiss. His mouth not leaving yours for even one second, he walked you backwards until your back hit the makeshift file shelving in the small storage closet. Lifting your leg around his waist he pressed closer into you, and finally removed his mouth from yours before swiftly returning it to your neck to continue his ministrations. He removed one hand from your ass, and worked his way underneath your top to your chest beginning to massage you there as he made to push your bra away from your now aching nipples.

Before he could do so however, the door swung open:

“Reid are you in here- oh holy mother of god.” As soon as the door opened to show the figure of Penelope Garcia standing in the door the two of you jumped away from each other like randy school kids just caught clumsily making out on school grounds. Which you supposed you technically were.

“Are you and your lady friend decent, Doctor, can I remove my hand from my eyes now and live a long and healthy life?” She squeaked out, in surprise, her hands firmly blocking everything from view.

She hadn’t seen you just yet, but there was no getting around this.

“Yes, Penny, you can open your eyes,” you almost winced after you straightened your clothes quickly.

“Y/N!?! With Reid?!” She quickly squeaked out, gaining the notice of a nearby Derek Morgan and Emily Prentiss who came rushing in as soon as they heard the frantic tone of their favourite tech analyst's voice.

“I can explain, Pen, please let’s just get out of this closet,” you tried to reason but she was still so shocked she wouldn’t listen.

“Derek, Y/N and Reid!” She motioned vaguely between the two of you.

“I know baby girl, I know.” He tried to reassure her but he couldn’t quite keep the amused look off of his face.

“You KNEW? That Y/N and Reid are getting all hot and heavy in the supply closets now? Emily, are you hearing the words coming from this beautiful man's mouth because I think I have walked into an alternate dimension and I need someone to please bring me back to my real one.” She gasped out.

“Actually, Penelope, I knew too. I think we all did actually.” Emily softly explained.

“You traitors!” she spun around to face the two of you again, and now that she’d calmed down a little, you’d found yourself gravitating towards Reid a little until he’d pulled you into a shy side hug.

“Look at them! They’re canoodling all happily in one of my supply closets, and they didn’t think to share the happy news with me!” She groaned out in faux anger. “Why did you tell Mister Action Man and Little Miss Faked Her Death here before me! Come on, I'm not that untrustworthy!”

“Actually, we didn’t technically tell anyone.” Reid managed to finally get out between Penelope’s moans of anguish, that stupid little smirk you loved so much playing on his face.

“Yeah,” you agreed, turning back to face your three coworkers. “I guess they all just had light bulb moments, and realised themselves, right?”

“God, stop being so cute and in love, it’s making me want to forgive you too easily.” Penelope joked, and you all let out a quiet laugh before deciding to remove yourself from the situation.

“Okay, I’m fine with being the last to know about this, but you better make Aunty Penelope the first in line to hear about any future Baby Geniuses, do you hear me?”

[sinnersmovie]

hey!! Those gifset for scrubs looks amazing!! 

https://www.tumblr.com/billysjoel/776944203704975360/scrubs-jd-elliot-turk-pscentral-event-36?source=share

would you mind doing a tutorial on how you made the colouring and colour isolation and text effects on the second gif? 

hi, thank you so much!! this is the post and i'd be more than happy to make a tutorial for you!

so, i'll start with the coloring:

step 1: as with almost every single coloring/psd i make, i start with a blank brightness/contrast layer set to screen. this is especially helpful with really dark scenes! in this case, i left it at 100% opacity, but sometimes i'll decrease it if it blows out the scene.

step 2: curves. i rarely, if ever, manually adjust this layer and instead use the eyedropper tools. click the black eyedropper (1) and then click on the blackest part of the scene and then use the white eyedropper (2) to select the whitest part. in this case, it didn't make a huge difference, but this is a big help with heavily tinted scenes.

step 3: selective color. my next step is always adjusting the blacks and neutrals (and sometimes whites) in selective color. how much i adjust these totally depends on the scene and messing around with the neutrals can definitely affect the skin tone of people of color, so keep that in mind!

step 4: color balance. this step is usually optional for me, but i found the scene was leaning kind of yellow. again, this will vary dependent on the media you're coloring, so my best advice is to play around with the sliders and see what works!

step 5: gradient map. after this, i added a black & white gradient map set to soft light and reduced the opacity to 25% just to add a bit more contrast and depth to the blacks.

step 6: brightness/contrast. another blank layer set to screen and set the opacity to 15% to brighten things up just a little.

step 7: vibrance +50.

step 8: selective color. adjusting the blacks and neutrals again.

step 9: selective color. my favorite part is just cranking the blues and cyans the FUCK up lmao

step 10: selective color (again) on cyan and blue (again).

step 11: selective color under the reds because elliot's face was looking pretty red.

step 12: selective color under the yellows. again, i recommend just playing around to see what slider does what. a little can go a long way!

and that's it for the general coloring that i used for all the gifs in this set. for the next part, you'll either want to be proficient with keyframes or pick a scene where your main character doesn't move much (this will make life so much easier).

step 13: create a new layer (ctrl+shift+n or layer > new > layer). choose the color you want to use and either fill the layer using the paint bucket tool (g) or use a brush (b) to color it all in. you should have something like this now:

step 14: set the layer to color (or another blending mode of your choosing) and apply a layer mask (the 3rd icon across the very bottom).

step 15: with the layer mask selected (as you see above), not the color thumbnail, use a soft black brush and color over your character. this will remove the blue from from whatever areas you color. if you need to "undo" what you've colored, switch to white (x) and that will bring back whatever you color over.

step 16: typography. i've actually done a few tutorials showing how i do my text like this, so check out this one, this one, or this one!

if you have any other questions, please let me know! i'm happy to help however i can!

[e-vay]

Looking back at your aurora and sage besties comic (its one of my favorites, only being beaten by were amy and sonic being a Simp) and I've got to ask, HOW DID YOU DO SAGES GLITCHING SO FRANKEN WELL??? IT LOOKS AMAZING AND I PERSONALLY LOVE HOW THOSE GLITCHS TURN RED WHENEVER SHES ON NEFARIOUS TIMING ARVDGDBABA

YOU ARE MY FAVORITE SONIC ARTIST.

...just wanted to say and ask.

You are so kind, thank you! I'm so happy you like them!

I do a lot of experimenting in Procreate until I find a technique I like. To achieve Sage's glitch, especially if she's doing something a little more wicked so her "red" side is showing, I'll start by drawing her in her blue version and her red version:

I'll select random rectangles from the red version and mask them/cut them out, so she's mostly blue but some red is showing:

I'll duplicate this layer and keep a copy of the "clean version" and apply effects to the duplicate. In Procreate, I'll use the "Glitch" effect and use the “Artifact” setting and mess with it until it achieves a result I like:

This may take several passes.

I duplicate the layers again, because again I always want to be able to go back if I don't like it. Then I'll play around with "chromatic aberration" under the “displacement” setting. She only needs a little for a subtle glitch effect, but if she's meant to look more menacing then I can go hardcore with it:

Then, I'll turn that original "clean" layer back on and I mask out the effect layer so only parts of it are coming through. When computers glitch, normally most of the image stays in tact and only some parts are scattered/messy so that's why I only have the effect in some areas.

I might even slide bits of those rectangles to the left or right. It's just a matter of playing with it until I like how it looks.

I hope that explanation was easy enough to follow along!

Again, thank you so much! I'm really really happy you enjoy my art and stories 🥰 (and I'm delighted to hear you're a fan of Were!AmyXSimp!Sonic hehehe)

[chumbyy]

i love your art so much, what does your process look like? how do you edit images to be saturated/glitchy & also cohesive w your art?

awww thanks so much!!

its a lot of playing around with layer settings (shine&shade and burn&dodge are favorites but screen, multiply, overlay, exclude, those are fun too) and turning up saturation & contrast (in whichever program im using at the time). most saturation sliders have an upper limit. you must. go beyond 😈😈

to get a glitchy look i'll either literally look up "free use glitch overlay" on google images (i have all AI sites filtered out on my browser), or a LOT of the time i'll take pictures of trees or clouds around me, and i'll mess with the saturation of those images until its SUPER crunchy and low quality. zooming in on a random part of the image also helps make it crunchier and lower the quality (you'd be surprised how cool and ""glitchy"" a SUUUUPER oversaturated and zoomed in img of a cloud can look. i <3 cumulonimbus and nimbostratus but it doesnt rain much here 🥺)

i'll add a random layer effect, duplicate the layer, add a different effect, overlay a color gradient or random assortment of scribbled colors, etc... just til it looks sufficiently microwaved and cluttered. i also have quite a few glitch brushes on SAI 2 for some additional clutter

then for the main focus of the art i'll usually draw a little critter on MS paint, zoom in so u can see the pixels, copy the image&cut out the whites around it with magic wand, then put it on the image. its fun to do this with a lot of tiny little colorful cats just to add more color to the bg XD

sorry if thats all over the place. i dont have much of a cohesive process since i just goof around until i like how it looks or i recreate whatever my brain wants. sometimes i'll just do everything on a 200x200 canvas and size it up after editing and it looks crunchy on its own (i do this a lot for gifs, like my most recent piece). integrating photography is very fun. mixed media is fun

i might make some speedpaints sometime if i can get over my anxiety of ppl watching me draw XD

but ty again for the very nice msg. sorry if my response is a tad bit incoherent lol

[flame-shadow]

A breakdown of my quirrel!nosk comic from last year (original post here) since I like doing breakdowns and talking about my process, and I know at least some people like reading those things. :)

First of all, a little background. I made that comic in an evening with just a pencil, a black marker, two grey markers, and a yellow-orange marker. (All markers had a thick tip and a thin tip, and all were water-based markers, so they don't blend like alcohol markers, but they can still be layered to affect the values) I had a text post from @g0at0ad saved in my drafts that said "gotta say. massive missed opportunity to not have nosk mimic quirrel to lure the knight into its lair." and finally, I had an idea for how to illustrate the reveal and felt I had a decent idea for the nosk's design.

I wanted to follow the same encounter order as the game provides, and by happy coincidence, I realized that the route from first sighting to nosk den includes the hot spring, so it made perfect sense for that location and the real Quirrel to appear in the comic.

Ghost spots a Quirrel-like figure in the darkness in the first panel, and then as the path continues and drops into the hot spring, there's (real) Quirrel, so clearly that's who Ghost saw a minute ago. Yay, friend! And since Quirrel explores around, it's not strange that Ghost would spot him again in an area not so far away, though it's odd how he got ahead of them. Perhaps a different tunnel? And it seems like Quirrel wants to lead the way to something, so Ghost follows, until- That's not Quirrel.

In addition to the potential of a reader already knowing the game's locations and recognizing the path to the nosk's den, there are other visual clues that subtly communicate that something might not be right. I made it so every panel but the hot spring one has black silhouettes encroaching on the space within.

The third panel is the mildest one being encroached upon because Ghost doesn't yet feel like something is off (still reassured from seeing Quirrel in the safe hot spring) but the trap is coming together. The existence of the spider web in the corner is a nod to the trap because it's a common visual symbol for being trapped.

Also note how both the first and third panels have some safety via straight panel edges. Contrasted with the fourth and fifth panels which have no straight edges as Ghost cannot escape and there is no safety.

Another subtle reinforcement of danger vs safety is how the use of black is very limited in the hot spring panel. It's a brighter room mechanically, yes, but it's also a Safe Room. The only black is Ghost's void parts and a thin outline around Quirrel (and also a bit of shading on his arm that I did out of habit before remembering that I wasn't going to use black to shade him here, oops!)

And, note that in the only panel with Real Quirrel, he isn't framed against a darker shape in the background.

Okay, and finally, I will share a bit about the nosk reveal panel and its design...

This pose and angle are dramatic and all, but they're The Worst for showcasing the actual design of the nosk! Just a complete mistake on my part that I did my best to roll with, since I didn't realize until too late how I'd messed myself up.

Which happens! I don't always get it right, and especially when I'm working traditionally, there's a point where I can't go back, so I just have to make do with what I gave myself. :) I don't hate what I have here, but I have been dissatisfied with it ever since I drew the lineart.

A thought I have had since then was that maybe I should've drawn it larger, to be more threatening? Maybe a different pose to show off the side-body frills? I explored a couple ideas below, but honestly, I think the whole panel would have to be reworked to get it right.

Making sure that the background frames the nosk effectively would be one of the main things I'd redo, but I'm getting tired and don't feel like drawing more, so I'll just leave it at the nosk replacement sketches.

And since I don't think I did a good job with displaying the nosk's design effectively, I quickly sketched some of the features to maybe show them off a bit better.

I like the gimmick of the nosk turning its head, so I pretty much always maintain that with my nosk designs. This one is no exception. Quirrel's head and face become the cranium and upper jaw while Monomon's mask becomes the lower jaw - the extra length causes an underbite. I've always been a fan of when people add a veil hanging from Monomon's mask while Quirrel is wearing it, so that's where the frills come from. ("Why didn't you include the veil in your Quirrel drawings, then?" I hear you ask. And honestly..... I don't know! That could've been an oversight or it could've been deliberate and I just don't remember my justification. That happens sometimes XD)

Anyway uhhh yeah! I think that's it. I like making comics. I like thinking about nosk. Tadaa~

[arsynnotarson]

so. you wanna start making ug subs (underground subliminals)? let the ex ug sub maker explain some stuff

disclaimer: this is only how to make! this doc is a great starting point for the other things like manifesting and what not

firstly: get your materials

the main thing you need is something to read affirmations. using a tts software is what most, if not all submakers use. i use the software balabolka, which lets you change the pitch, speed, and volume of the text, but free tts and ttsmp3 are websites you can also use, though they do come with usage and character limits, which is a pain if you plan on doing longer and more detailed subs. you can also read out your own affirmations too instead, which might work better depending on what you believe.

the next thing you need is some audio. youtube to mp3 and YtMp3 (beware of viruses) are two of which i used if you have something off youtube you wanna use. i recommend asmr (for those of you that like it) of any type; rain is a common audio choice, but i see slime asmr, clicking asmr, you name it, used too. music is also a good choice, but ive heard that music with lyrics can mess with your subconscious, but all that's limiting you is your own beliefs. also, a critique ive heard on music is that it can get repetitive and you might not want to listen to it over and over if you plan on reusing a subliminal (but then again so can any audio, so who's to say?)

the final thing you need is something to mix the two together. a software like capcut can work, but so can a software like audacity.

optional: something to make the sub into a video with. wanna incorporate your transition goals / desired results as images into your sub? good choice. you can use capcut for that, as thats what ive used.

secondly: writing affs (affirmations)

so now youve got yourself prepared, now comes the main attraction of subliminals: the affirmations. make sure to visualize what you want for the best affs, as it helps with making sure you got everything down and dont accidentally leave out an aff or two you made this whole subliminal around.

now, you can use the law of assumption or law of attraction, but i focus on law of assumption-type affs, as that's what works best for me. here are some base affirmations:

"i have [blank]"

"i have always had [blank]"

"i know i have [blank]"

short and straight to the point affs like this are what ive found to work best personally. dont be afraid to go all out with these, either: your subconscious knows what you want. its very smart. be as detailed as you want.

make as many affs as you see fit, as its your reality you're affirming.

thirdly: mixing the affs + audio

go into the software i assume you have gotten by now and throw those two little mp3s (your affs and audio) into it.

you're gonna wanna make your affs quiet, or at least quieter than the audio, but not mute. the plan with this is that your conscious hears the audio, but your subconscious hears the affirmations and takes it as truth. your conscious is none the wiser. you should set the affs' audio to be just enough to where you yourself can't hear them.

speeding up the affs is a common thing people do (but it might make the affs easier to hear so make sure to relisten to make sure that doesnt happen), but its not an absolute need.

extra: layering affs

layering is putting affirmation audio over another affirmation audio. it can be the same affs, either more sped up, slowed down, or even reversed, or an entirely new set of affs. this can be used to kill two birds with one stone so to speak depending on how you use it, or can make your subliminals stronger / more effective.

extra: bundling subliminals / bundles

bundles are subliminals that combine two subliminals into one mp3. while this might sound like layering, and while it is similar, its taking two completed affs / subs and putting them together (hence bundle) into one mp3. an example would be subliminal x and subliminal y are both about topic z, so they could be bundled into subliminal xy and be "z bundle" (i really hope that made sense)

extra: booster subliminals

booster subliminals (or, "boosters") are made to enhance, speed up, or overall help your results come quicker. this can be achieved by just simply writing affs like "all of my desired results are here already" and bundling / layering it with other subliminal audios (make sure to make as quiet as the affs!!)

extra: formulas

formulas are ways of writing affirmations. some formulas work wonders, and become staples of some sub makers creative process, and because of this, a lot of submakers are protective of it. you can make your own formulas, too, so test out the waters to see which style of affs help you the most!!

extra: angel numbers

angel numbers are the same number that repeats in succession, typically in threes and fours. an example would be 111, 333, 888, 9999, and so on. angel numbers are seen as signs from the universe that your results are coming true as a whole, but each set has their own meanings. you can also choose to assign a certain angel number to assure you of your results, to make sure youre not running into coincidences.

extra: frequencies

certain frequencies can help you attract certain energies. 432Hz can attract happiness, which very helpful when affirming, as happiness helps results come faster, in my experience.

anyways, this has been arsyn's official tutorial on sub making!! remember, you can manifest anything you want. keep believing. stay safe

[sunshine304]

FTH Fanbinding: James Bond Short Story Collection by Anyawen

And here is my second book for this year's Fandom Trumps Hate event! @anyawen won my book raffle and wanted a collection of most of her James Bond short stories and drabbles. There are 82 fics in this book! 😅

Now that Anyawen's copy has finally arrived (after sitting for about a week at Frankfurt airport *sigh*), I can post about the book!

I used the gun barrel sequence as inspiration/template for the case design. Originally, I'd planned to make the two different linens fit together like a puzzle, buuut my cutting skills aren't that great and there would've been too many obvious gaps. 🙈 So I did two layers instead, which also doesn't take away much from the desired effect because the linen is quite thin.

The two copies I made are sisters, as I reversed the colours to save a bit of linen. I like the black circle a bit more, but am pleased with both copies.

The typesetting took, uhhh, a long time. 😆 Just harvesting all those fics took several hours, and arranging them to my liking even more so. Anyawen had sent me a list with the fics she wanted to see in the book with different sections mentioned (series, stand-alone drabbles etc.). I used those sections for the book and arranged the fics in chronological order; there are perhaps a handful of exceptions where I had to switch around fics because it would have messed up the formatting (two dangling lines on the next page etc.).

I made an extensive Appendix for all the fic stats.

For the title page, I also used the gun barrel sequence as it's so iconic for the franchise. After I'd printed the book, I change the title page again because I didn't like how the first version came out in print. With this version, I'm very pleased though.

As Anyawen made several moodboards for her fics, I used that as inspiration for the section title pages. Making those was a lot of fun and I'm really pleased with how they came out.

Thank you again, Anyawen, for participating in my FTH offer and giving me your trust with your fics! <3

Materials used:

Printed on Clairefontaine DCP 100g

Case and endpapers:

booklinen Colibri graphite

booklinen Colibri cranberry

Japanese paper Katazome 70g

Hot Foil (Memory Keepers)

[the-spam-specialist]

We love Caine and Pomni fluff in this side of wherever we are

Pomni summons Caine for a hug only to use the super duper secret information she found out in Winter Wonderland. Caine is flabbergasted by the betrayal.

Ah yes, some much-needed fluff for those who just read Chapter 5 of Hollow Words

Secret's Out

Characters: Pomni, Caine

Word Count: 600-ish

The air in the Digital Circus was thick with the usual fantastical energy. Today, it crackled with an added layer of mischievous anticipation, at least for Pomni. For a few days, the memory of a secret accidentally spilled. During their Winter Wonderland adventure, Caine had accidentally revealed something about himself in front of her. She'd feigned ignorance then, but the seed of curiosity had been firmly planted. And the thought had taken root and blossomed into an irresistible urge to confirm it.

So, she formed a plan and went off to enact it.

"Okay, Pomni, you got this," she muttered to herself, taking a deep breath. She walked to the center of the tent, the swirling colors beneath her feet mirroring the turmoil within. Her plan was deceptively simple.

"Caine!" she called out, spreading her arms wide. "You want a hug?"

The response was instantaneous, as it always was. Caine, in all his unsettlingly cheerful glory, materialized before her, his dentures gleaming, his mismatched eyeballs practically sparkling with enthusiasm.

"A hug? For me? Oh, Pomni, you shouldn't have!" He launched himself into her open arms, his embrace surprisingly warm despite his artificial nature.

Pomni smirked, a flicker of triumph in her eyes. Phase one complete. Now for the risky part. Maintaining the hug as a convenient cover, she subtly maneuvered her fingers to Caine's sides. Then, with a quick, decisive motion, she tickled him.

The effect was immediate and utterly unexpected. Caine, the unflappable ringmaster, the master of digital mayhem, squeaked. A high-pitched, almost comical sound escaped his floating dentures, followed by a series of uncontrollable giggles. His levitating form faltered, and he dropped to the floor in a heap laughter.

Pomni stared down at him, her jaw practically on the floor. "Oh my god…" she breathed, her voice a mix of shock and bewildered amusement. He really was ticklish!

Caine, sprawled on his back, looked up at Pomni with wide, betrayed eyes. He attempted to regain some semblance of dignity, though his still-tremulous giggles undermined the effort.

"Pomni! How could you?" he wailed, his voice laced with mock offense. "The utter betrayal! I thought we were friends!"

He crossed his arms over his chest and adopted a truly impressive pout. It was, frankly, adorable.

Pomni couldn’t help but giggle. The sight of the usually unflappable ringmaster reduced to a giggling mess had been too absurd. She knelt beside him, "Sorry, Caine! I couldn’t resist! It was… kinda cute, actually."

Caine’s pout deepened, "Cute?! I am a majestic ringmaster! A purveyor of wondrous adventures! Not cute!" He huffed, turning his head away from her.

Pomni chuckled again, nudging him playfully. "You seem more like a grumpy ringmaster right now."

He remained stubbornly silent, his arms still crossed. Pomni knew she had to make amends. The cure for a grumpy and pouty Caine was a simple one.

"Alright, alright," she relented, opening her arms in a sincere gesture. "Come here. I’ll give you a real hug this time."

Caine glanced at her skeptically, his large eyes searching hers for any sign of deception. "No tickles?" 

"No tickles," Pomni affirmed.

He hesitated for a moment, then the corners of his denture-mouth twitched upwards. He couldn't resist.

With a small, happy sigh, he threw himself into Pomni's arms. This time, the hug was different. It was a comfortable, comforting embrace. Pomni felt a deep rumbling emanating from within Caine, a sound that, strangely enough, resembled purring. It was a bizarre sound, especially coming from him, yet it sent a wave of warmth through Pomni.

She held him close, patting his back gently, "Better?" she asked softly.

"Better," Caine mumbled, his voice muffled against her jester’s costume.

[moxie-girl]

Hey! Mind if I ask how you did your manga colouring? It turned out so well!

ahh thank you! I'll try to run thru my process but it's really nothing complicated... (this is also a more streamlined and organized version of my actual very chaotic process, aka how I would do this if I went back and did it again..) (warning, this got long!)

first, I did a handful of color layers on multiply to fill in the lines like a coloring book, all flat except for the eyes (which was actually the first thing I did).

I also added a few darker lines to areas like the eyelashes and around the mouth (tho some of those were actually added a little later, when I switched the line layers to overlay, because they looked weird without them)

(you might notice I didn't actually ever color in his shirt because I'm lazy lol)

next I added a LOT of shading layers... like so many layers. I used a lot of references from bsd volume covers for his hair especially!

I used multiply layers mostly for the darker areas, and glow layers for the highlights, which I don't usually use since they're pretty finicky, but I liked the effect they gave when I set the lines to overlay, which was the next thing I did!

I spent a LOT of time messing around with different color blending layers to get the lineart to look the way I wanted, in the end I think there were hard light, overlay, and color burn layers, as well as a base layer underneath the color layers to make the text bubble and shirt still look good.

I also added a few other details like highlights in his eyes, a background gradient, and darkening his suspenders.

finally, I added a handful more overlay effects, like glow layers to make colors pop and a lighten layer to give the lines a softer brown color, and voila!

thank you again!! I've literally never done this before so I was just winging it, I'd love to hear any advice from artists who do this more often!

[a-salmon-good-time]

How do you nail that movie screencap effect thingamajig?? I'm a sucker for VHS-animation looking stuff but sometimes fiddling with blending modes, gaussian blur, noise, ntscQT etc. just doesn't feel right.

For me, I love experimenting with a mix of using blending modes and using ntscQT, but I definitely get the feeling of it still not feeling right despite using those methods!

I'll do my best with explaining how I go about achieving the look! The art software I use is Paint Tool Sai 2 (but any art software with blending modes + layers will do!). Apologies in advance if this is too wordy haha

1.) I draw the usual setup- a background with a character or so. I usually flatten all the layers into one but, for this case, I just only flattened the layer the character's on:

2.) I duplicate the character layer, blur it, set its blending mode to "Lighten", and adjust the opacity as needed before merging the two layers together. I duplicate again, blur again, set the mode to "Darken", adjust opacity, and merge again!

3.) (1st pic) Once I do that, I duplicate & blur the character layer again, then move it a bit to the side (any direction is fine; for this I moved it to the right). Then I set the moved layer's mode to "Color"! After that, I add a drop shadow behind the character layer to give it the look of a traditional animation cel being used.

(2nd pic) Next, I flatten ALL the layers now into one layer, duplicate it and blur it greatly + set blurred layer mode to "Saturation" & move it in any direction before merging all layers again!! lots of duplicating and merging LOL!!!

4.) OK THE LAYER DUPLICATION + MERGING PROCESS IS FINISHED FINALLY! Now we just adjust the colors!

I like to lower the Contrast and raise the Depth, though the adjustments can vary with each piece, depending on how much of a effect you want! Image on right includes the settings I used for this. (I also added a noise layer, but that's optional)

5.) And for the final step.... make the image a smaller size and save as a JPEG/JPG file!!! This should somewhat achieve the low-quality crunch look!

This step is entirely optional, but you can take the JPEG image and add it to ntscQT to mess around with different settings! Here's one I put together:

[yandere-sins]

The Orcas' Tale - Choose Nerrocan (BE 1)

Well... yeah. You guys did that :') Then again, I am actually happy we got this bad end since it'll work quite nicely into the rest of the story as an ironic butterfly effect. Thank you for the experience! It was a challenge to write what I wanted to portrait, but I am glad to have had the chance and... good luck re-voting xD

Fandom: Original Content   Pairings: Yandere!Orca Mermen x GN!Reader   Warnings: Yandere, Monsters, Violence (Scratching, Ripping off a leg, Blood loss, Lunging for the reader, Mention of biting their throat), Non-consensual touches, Animalistic behavior, Mention of blood/claws/sharp teeth, Hinting at death

"Nerrocan," you voiced your decision, trying to sound determined as you directed your gaze at the merman to your left.

He perked up, muscles tensing as he stretched his back, meeting your eyes over his shoulder with a mix of surprise and disdain swirling in his. However, your attention was drawn away by the other two, hissing and snarling, teeth bared at their own kind while Nerrocan had his gaze fixed on you. Only you. 

You realized your mistake too late, your gaze being blocked by a mess of black and white as Nerrocan sprung into action, lunging at you.

"Wait! Stop!" you yelled, your voice bouncing off the walls, never to be echoed between the treasures and the bodies. 

The splashing intensified, the merman needing less than a split second to reach you. Panic set in before you could reason with yourself. Come to terms with what you had agreed upon and why you didn't need to fear it. But how could you believe that, even just for a second? The claws reaching for you were against everything 'human' about them. They had the faces of allies, but everything else about them was wrong and unsettling. The way Nerrocan pounced for you activated ancient instincts in your head. The ones where cavemen fought against predators, the possibility of being eaten at every corner keeping them on high alert and constantly looking over their shoulder. It reminded you not to trust. To be careful. With those instincts rose the underlying fears that had been erased by the rise of humanity as the supreme race on this planet and the safety it promised. 

But in the ocean, you weren't safe. Humanity never had been. 

"Fucking Nerrocan," you heard Lyr spit, his voice only scratching at the edge of your awareness, unable to take hold as all your focus was directed at the hands wrapped around your legs, squeezing your flesh so unbearably tight in their grip. Lyr sounded displeased and disgusted as he had to watch Nerrocan claim what Lyr would have liked to have just as much, his tailfin thrashing against the water angrily. Yet, you had no time to avert your eyes from the glowing amber ones that shoved themselves into your face. 

"I hope you don't regret that, Human," Krill added, their bodies disappearing from the corners of your eyes as they entirely vanished in the pool. Their voices were just a nick at your attention, hardly registering as your legs were pulled out from under you, your upper body crashing to the ground with pebbles puncturing your back through the fabric of your clothes. 

All you could do was scream as claws dug into your thighs, ripping and shredding your pants, as well as too many layers of skin to count. You couldn't see Nerrocan's reaction to the high-pitched sound through your blurry visions, tears being the only indication of pain as your brain tried to ignore the bleeding and burning scratches along your legs. 

"Impossible," you heard Nerrocan whisper in between your own sobs. His grip briefly loosened as he held your leg, weighing it in his palm before clasping his fingers around it again. 

"Please, stop," you whimpered, unsure how you'd ever recover trust with any of these mermen after this. Nerrocan had been so quiet and composed until this moment, you didn't think he'd go about this whole 'exploring' thing with such uncaring force. Didn't these creatures know about gentleness? Softness? Were there only animalistic instincts to be found behind their intelligent eyes and heads held high? 

"It hurts," you added, his gaze briefly darting to you. Blinking away the tears, you tried to read his thoughts, the amber giving nothing away that you could make sense of. All you could see was less and less sympathy in them as the seconds passed. The exact opposite of what you needed. His hands wrapped around your left leg, tighter and tighter. One on your thigh, the other on your shin. Nerrocan closed your leg, pressing shin to your thigh, never even pretending to test your flexibility as he forced your muscles to bend. Your knee began to strain, tightened with friction to the point of your joints screaming, the same exact sound you let out through your mouth. 

"This is already enough to make you scream? I can't believe I let myself get caught by something so weak." 

Every word he uttered dripped from his lips with hatred. Had you not been in so much pain, hearing his contempt would have made you shiver. You were in no place to judge him for his feelings, not knowing him or what he had been through. But you couldn't help but push through your pain, reaching forward. Your hand could barely wrap around two of his fingers, but you still tried to pry them off, one by one, if you had to. He might feel slighted about something, but repaying his pain with yours was not going to make this easier for him. 

"Look at you, constricted and breakable at the same time. Nothing to protect you. Nothing to actually come close to our strength," Nerrocan sneered, sliding his hand down to press your foot upwards, almost flat against your shin. Rigid from the cold environment, your tendons now threatened to rip if the strain didn't subside. With all your power, you lurched your upper body forward, digging your fingers into his arm. There was no time to admire the muscles under the taut skin, not when you were desperate to get him off you, fearing him actually breaking or ripping something that would be hard to heal without access to modern medicine if he continued. 

"You're going to break it!" you pressed out through clenched teeth, hoping to make him snap out of it audibly. "I need my legs! Stop it!"

"Or what?" he asked, directing his gaze back at you, his focus drilling into you. Suddenly, he emitted such calm, but one look at his eyes, and you found the storm brewing inside him. At least for the moment, he stopped squeezing. "What are you going to do? Catch me again? Drag me into some weird cave full of sounds and people of your kind? Shoot me with your weapons again before dumping me back into the water, bleeding, and with more of your weird machines attached to my body?"

"I didn't do that!" you tried to defend yourself, finally realizing what had this creature so agitated. You never considered how they got the trackers, only focusing on the fact that the mermen could lead you back to where those came from. But now that you had a few seconds to think about it, every one of those seconds causing Nerrocan's grip to tighten around your leg again, you realized that there was no way these mermen would have agreed to the trackers, not even understanding what they were.

"No, you didn't," he agreed, and a small moment of relief washed over you, knowing he realized that. Somewhere inside him was a reasonable person to talk to. Someone who'd understood if you explained yourself. Someone you could trust.

But the relief was short-lived.

Suddenly, Nerrocan straightened your leg, pulling it further and further away from you by your ankle, his other hand wandering up to your hips. "But what says you won't in the future? What if we help you survive here while you play helpless, and then you catch us and hurt us again? Can't have that, can we?"

The sound of your own scream could barely be heard in your own ears over the sound of your blood rushing through your body, your heart working twice as fast as your bone began to detach from your hips. You knew that if Nerrocan wanted, he could have ripped your leg off fast and efficiently, barely breaking a sweat. But he didn't. Instead, he reveled in the sight of your pain, the panic, and the mind-breaking feeling of your leg being pulled from your body. In the middle of your skin ripping, flesh separating in the most gruesome of ways, he briefly stopped, your body going limb from the trauma and pain, your vision blurred with spots as you took a deep breath, the pain having yet to register. And then, with one swift pull, not fast enough to make it quick, but with less patience than before, your whole life came crashing down before your eyes.

You still felt the phantom of your left leg, the nerves twitching and receiving signals from your brain to move and work. But the loss of blood, a large red puddle disgracing the cave floor as you gurgled in shock, made you lose your conscience faster than you wanted. You tried to focus your gaze on Nerrocan, watching him lick off the blood on his fingers with just as much contempt as he had shown you the last few minutes, making you realize his anger wasn't stilled. It had done nothing for him and neither for you. 

Could you have done something different? Would it have helped him if you had the time to talk and explain these things he mistrusted and feared? Could you have done anything to avoid this act of raw violence? Something went wrong, but you couldn't pinpoint where your fault started and where it ended. All you knew was that your choice hadn't been the right one, your trust misguided by these strange creatures before you even had a chance to understand them. 

Before you had to watch Nerrocan lunge forward, feel his sharp, bone-breaking teeth bite into your throat like the killer he was, you passed out. It was an act of kindness from your body, and you were welcomed by darkness. It flooded all your senses, all your perception of time and self, enveloping you like a warm pool that you kept sinking further and further into with no strength left to swim. 

Your eyes never opened again, for better or for worse.

Seems like you didn't make it… What a shame. And I was so rooting for you, too! Isn't there a way to capture the heart of these creatures? Don't you think you can do better than this? Maybe if you tried again, we could find out… 

Hmm… interesting. I look forward to what you will do from here on out. 

[perfectlysanexd]

How do you do your Final Fantasy edits?

The hard way, my friend. No AI is used here, I do it all by hand. 🥰 I assume you mean the screenshot manipulations I create? I'll try and give a simple summary... First, I boot up Remake on PC and use a "free camera" mod(you can find the links to the mods I use on my archive pages for manipulations, which is on my pinned post) to take a couple screenshots that I think will work well together. Sometimes I change my mind and choose a different one. It can be hard to match the camera angles and lighting, so sometimes I have to mess with that later, as well. But it's easier if they fit together from the beginning. We'll take my current WIP as an example. I started with these two screenshots:

I open them in the free program GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), which anyone can download at gimp.org. Then the first thing I do is choose the base image. In this case, they're both facing the same way, so I choose to flip Sephiroth(you can't really do that with Cloud easily because of his earring, and his hair is less symmetrical). Since the camera was closer up on Cloud, and he's the smaller one, I usually choose Sephiroth's to be the base image. With that decided, I roughly cut Cloud from his background and paste him onto Sephiroth's image as a new layer. Then I position him, resize him, rotate him, whatever I need to do until he seems to be in the desired place, which ends up looking like this: (I ended up adding snow for this preview, so it would look more complete than it is when I showed it to my server, haha)

If you look at Cloud, you can still see a thick outline of his old background around his head. Once he's positioned properly, it's time to remove the rest of his background(I use a size 10 eraser with 100% hardness and zoom in about 5 times). Then I need to think about where they're connected, and how to make them look like they're touching, as well as layering to make them seem intertwined, as if they're truly occupying the same space together.

I cut away some of Cloud's shirt, and the rest of that effect will come with shading later. If I wanted Cloud even closer, I would make a duplicate of Sephiroth and erase his background, so that his lock of hair would appear to go over Cloud's face. I could also make it semi-transparent, so you could see the outline of Cloud's face through his hair. You can see I have some small game defects to fix, such as Cloud's hair clipping through his ear. I leave those tiny details for later, typically. Sometimes, because of their height differences, I have to "rebuild" missing parts of them from scratch, such as I did for this other manipulation:

It's a delicate process that's mostly the clone tool(to keep the textures) and some freehand drawing, but I don't have an art tablet, so I use my mouse for everything, which can be quite challenging. I've had a lot of practice from translating doujinshi, where I'd erase the words, rebuild the missing part of the image, and then place the translated words over that spot.

In any case, I decided I wanted more out of this manipulation than just leaning against each other. I wanted Cloud to be reaching up towards Sephiroth, and perhaps for Sephiroth to be pulling him closer. To do that, I needed pictures of their hands/arms like so:

I've taken hundreds of shots, so I looked through what I had first, but it wasn't the right angle, or was the wrong outfit for Cloud, so...then you open up those images and cut out the parts you want. After that, you work on positioning and things like that again. I haven't finished with that part yet, so it looks a little awkward. (And when you're doing these kinds of things, color matching is very important, but that's a bit advanced.)

I'm not fully satisfied yet, so I'll probably remove the rest of the background from the arms and then mess with the placement. As for Sephiroth's hand, I intend to thread it in Cloud's hair, so Cloud will need to be duplicated in order to create that layering effect, as mentioned previously. Which should end up looking similar to this one:

(I had to draw in most of Cloud's hand because I didn't have the camera mod back then, and the Sephiroth shot was provided to me by Coeurlwhiskers.) After that, it's a matter of shadows and highlights, remaining details, and finishing up the colors, etc. It's a long and difficult process, and can take many hours to complete, depending on how ambitious I get with it. Most of that stuff would be a much longer tutorial, and I did used to do some actual artwork a long time ago, so I...kind of know what I'm doing?? I probably do a lot of stuff the hard way(like not using layer masks) because I just don't have the time to teach myself more than the basics. 😅I know it may seem daunting, but it's really fun! I hope I managed to answer your question properly. Feel free to ask follow ups~

[kidokear]

Spoilers for Murder Drones Ep 8.

What ride! I loved it. ^^

Although, there is this particular line from J that had been stuck in my mind since I watched the episode.

"You know there's no escape, even in death!"

Outstanding delivery aside (seriously, the VA killed it), The line itself (even on a surface level) shows how trapped these drones are, but I'd like to delve deeper here. There is something about it that makes the gears in my head turns and I want to drop the product here.

Here we go.

To start, I'd like to say that, of course, J would know that more than anyone. She died so many times during the show. There is even a J death count in the credit scene. If someone would feel like it's impossible to leave, it would be J because her experience showed her that something as final as death could not break the Solver's hold. (Following this line of thoughts can give us a wealth of information about J and her character! But that's for later)

Now, thinking about it, there are more than one way for the Solver to nullify (heh) death, and I think that makes it even more terrifying and, well, absolute. More so than death. It's not one blockage. There are layers.

For one, we know how difficult it is to kill a Solver afflicted drone. They regenerate so much, so quickly. Even when you take out a crucial part (like the head) or a good chunk of them, they'll come back. And when you do manage to damage them enough to the point that they can't just self-repair, if their core is intact you'll get the 'autorun Solver failsafe' where they'll mutate and turn into eldritch abomination that collect matter until it can repair the host back into the original stat, effectively bring them back to life (and we don't even know the level of awareness the host have during the matter collection process).

Second, even if there is no eldritch phase, they'll still live as a core (like Nori!), a body is not needed.

And if the core is destroyed? Not enough. Because there are backups. J's core was destroyed at the second episode, and oh look! she's back, and seemingly with her memories (on some level) intact from her previous run.

But there is more! Now, this part is mostly speculation and theories, so take it with a grain of salt. But there is a point, after Uzi ate the Solver core where the screen had red in it, and, some says, Doll's name flashed there. Now, I don't think Cyn kept a back up of Doll, and her core was eaten. So what does that mean? I think that could mean that any drone connected to the solver (or maybe eaten by it) would be saved in it's... data base? (not sure what to call it). So even if there is no core, no back up, a drone might not cease to exist and 'die' if it was connected to the solver, even passively. They could forever exist within the Solver itself, which mean that the only way to truly die is to erase the Solver and everything within it completely. which I'm not even sure is possible, considering it's nature of being a 'code mutation' with the possibility of popping up again (although, maybe the end of one strain of Solver could 'free' those within this strain. Or we could have a case of Halo's Flood where even when gone, the new one will carry what the old has, which is honestly horrifying and depressing).

And the patch won't safe you because it keep the primary host out, but not the Solver (and honestly, even if it blocks the Solver itself, I don't think a patch would be effective for long, I think it could pull a flu and mutate to bypass it).

All in all, the Solver is living up to it's name and is being one of my favorite cosmic/existential horrors, not just bending the laws of physics but life itself. A background hopelessness that become more and more prominent once you think about it.

Sorry if that was a mess. Like I said, I just wanted to word vomit my thoughts. XD

[demaparbat-hp]

hi dema! i’m learning how to do digital art, would you mind sharing your coloring process? coloring (and lineart) is the hardest thing for me to do T_T… what brushes do you use for coloring and how do you not make it look muddy? i’ve been trying to follow tutorials from different artists on youtube but i find my work to look so muddy… thank u in advance >__<

Hi, and thank you for thinking about me for advice! I'm honoured to share a bit of my process, nerve-wracking as that is for my shy self, and hopefully help you out as much as I can. Forgive me if I don't express myself very clearly—I have a bit of a hard time explaining these things. Now, let's get started, shall we?

I'll be using the first panel of this artwork as an example.

My process is pretty straight-forward for most artworks. Make a sketch, draw the lineart, and follow a self-made guideline for coloring and rendering.

Sometimes I'll throw the guideline to the trash bin and start experimenting with brushes and chiaroscuro and color palettes, but that doesn't happen most of the time and, when it does, it's more a challenge than anything else, and not really what I think you're looking for.

I'll include my usual steps here, however, and like I said earlier, these steps are more like what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.

(I just realized I didn't save the sketch for this artwork. Oops)

This is the lineart!

I tend to think that details bore me and are actually pretty exhausting to do, but then I go and make things as clear and detailed as I can. Because I'm a hypocrite like that.

I did try to keep things simple here, though, mostly because I had to go through three other panels and didn't want to burn out my fuel mid-process.

Base colors! The blush (and Zuko's scar!) I draw in a different layer in case I need adjusting the brightness or saturation later.

It's time for shadows!

Pick a color depending on the atmosphere you want the artwork to have. Is it a cozy, warm scene in a honey-tinted room, or is it a moment shared under the moonlight? The color choice should come as an answer to those questions—deep red for the first one and dark blue for the second.

Choose a color and make it dark and saturated. Then, play with the layer opacity! A darker shadow means harsher light, while less opacity works best for a softer look. See the difference? It's subtle, but it's there.

Of course, this is my personal choice. The way shadows are drawn and color is chosen depends on the artist and the artwork. I choose to play with a more simple coloring style, keeping shadows from blending into each other, but you may like a more realistic approach to shadows and colors.

My best advice? Try doing it every way you can, but in the end choose what works best for you. Whatever feels more comfortable, whatever you enjoy drawing the most. And then work to improve it. Love the little proof that you've gotten better, even if it's subtle.

And talking about subtlety...

I love to play with gradients. I use them mostly to give the artwork some form of atmosphere, and make it look cohesive and whole. A light gradient in the color and direction of the shadows will help the characters blend with the background, as will another gradient in lighter colors for the light.

Get creative with gradients! Use them so the lights feel brighter and the shadows darker.

Now it's time to work with the lineart again.

The pure black lineart makes the artwork look harsher, sharper, so I tend to give it some color to soften its edges and compliment the rest of the drawing. In darker shades as the rest of the colors, growing more saturated as the light comes closer.

I love to make the characters' eyes pop and glow! It's really fun what you can do by just messing a bit with the tones of the lineart.

Finally, I play with the level correction. A high contrast will help your artwork stand out and look brighter. See the difference?

And it's done!

Sometimes I like to add other effects or details, but this is the very, very rough shape of my usual process, and thus what I thought you'd like to see.

Once again, I'd like to point out that this is what works for me, and a large part of improving as an artist is just fooling around and messing up until you find the tools and tricks you're most comfortable with.

So keep drawing those muddy shadows and colors! They're only a step of the process.

[itsdappleagain]

48 for the spotify wrapped

48: My Dead Gay Son from Heathers the Musical

oh boy. this one might be a wild ride. highly recommend you listen to the whole song if you're unfamiliar.

here is a recording of the stage production with...erm...visuals and here is the cast recording with better audio!

They're up there disco dancing to the thump of angel wings! They grab a mate… And roller skate— While Judy Garland sings! They live a playful afterlife that's fancy-free and reckless! They swing upon the pearly gates— And wear a pearly necklace!

summary: jean paul and antonio fake their own deaths in order to escape the dangerous life VILE has put them on and must secretly watch their own "funeral" in order to make sure no one suspects they are still alive.

---

It starts with a note, slipped furtively into the hand of Carmen Sandiego in a fight both of them know is going too easily. Le Chevre holds her gaze and immediately makes good on his whispered promise to to leave right then and there without a fight, telling the Faculty she defeated him as always.

The note she opens says this:

Antonio and I need your help. We are defecting from VILE- we want to start a future together, but we don't have anywhere to go. We are afraid they will find us...you know what they would do if they found out. You are the only one to have ever left VILE and lived to see another day. Please help us. We know you don't have any reason to, so all we can do is beg. Antonio and Jean Paul

Carmen, of course, helps them. It is her nature. Together, secretly, the three begin to plan the deaths of Le Chevre and El Topo.

Tigress is the unwitting unlucky winner of the "who gets to witness their death" contest. Once everything is set in place and Antonio, Jean Paul, and Tigress are scheduled on the same mission again, Carmen makes arrangements for them and the plan goes into motion.

At 11:44pm Tigress sends the duo into their empty target building to scout it out. At 11:49 the building blows up in a ball of fire and ash and shrapnel, and Tigress must flee before the police arrive, streaked with soot and, against her will, crying.

She is the first one to see the news report that the police found the charred remains of two unidentified bodies in the wreckage of the building. She is the first to alert the faculty, and the one to begin arrangements for El Topo and Le Chevre's memorial.

Back in San Diego, Carmen sits with Antonio and Jean Paul, the air heavy as they watch the news report apparently announcing their own deaths.

"Tigress will be devastated." Antonio murmurs, eyes fixed on the circling overhead shot of the blackened building they'd snuck out of before Carmen had detonated the explosives. "She acts cold, but she will blame herself."

"It will make it all the more convincing." Carmen sighs, tracing her jaw with her fingers in contemplation. "If she knew..."

"Better that she does not." Jean Paul finishes, his hand squeezing Antonio's as they lean on one another. With Player messing with the police reports to make it seem as though their bodies had been found in the explosion, they are effectively invisible. Dead. Wiped off the map, and free to start their new lives together however they wanted.

Almost.

"I'm pulling up video and audio feed now." Player chimes from the base's speaker systems. "Good thing that I have the experience now to hack through VILE's 27 layers of encryption. Where did you set up those hidden cameras?"

"Where VILE always holds its memorials." Carmen says solemnly, her eyes just barely betraying a history of seeing more there than she cares now to admit. Her eyes flick to the two former operatives in her living room and they nod.

"The great hall. Last step," Jean Paul sighs, "see if they bought it."

The video feed flickers to life on their monitors- grainy and half-hidden where the two secretly set it up on VILE Island before their final mission. Everyone leans in, squinting as the fuzziness works itself out a little bit. The camera is hardly a centimeter in diameter, and, considering that, it is doing its best.

There, gathered in the grand hall, is a small crowd of operatives and the Faculty, gathered around the small table displaying their operative ID photos. Tigress, clearly wiping her eyes and trying not to show it, has just laid down a small bouquet by their photos.

Zack emerges from the kitchen and leans over the couch to where they're watching. Ivy hangs slightly behind, still suspicious of Antonio and Jean Paul. Zack whistles, oblivious to the tone in the room. "Too bad we can't have this camera on all the time. We shoulda got a man on the inside sooner!"

"Every minute that camera stays on in there is another minute it risks being discovered." Player explains briefly, his eyes still fixed on the feed on his own screen. "It'll self-destruct as soon as the ceremony is over, when I tell it to. We just need to confirm that El Topo and Le Chevre truly are dead to VILE and then we're out."

Zack hums noncommittally, attention drawn to the camera screen. Carmen's eyes are on the Faculty, watching for a sign of suspicion.

It's a second before Tigress's voice filters through their speakers. She stands at the front of the crowd, head bowed and fists clenched.

"Le Chevre and El Topo were part of my graduating class," she begins, a very un-Tigress-like hitch in her throat. "We spent the entire year training together and while- while we had our ups and downs they were some of my first friends here. There's something unbreakable about entering this life together. The two of them knew that better than anyone. I don't believe in any- any anything, really, but I hope that wherever they are now they're together, and-and that they're happy. You were some of the best, and I'm sorry that it wasn't me in that building instead of you. Rest well."

She finishes so quietly the camera's microphone almost doesn't pick it up, and she quickly wipes her eyes again and retreats back into the small crowd of operatives as they scatter some applause into the otherwise silent room.

When Carmen glances over at the two boys, they aren't making any effort to hide their own tears.

"Do you want to leave?" She asks quietly. "I can finish watching it. This might just get harder."

They both shake their heads. On the screen, Mime Bomb steps forward and mimes a flower, placing it on the table with little of his usual theatrics and retreats as well.

"They look convinced so far," Jean Paul says quietly.

Maelstrom is the first of the faculty to speak once the other operatives have finished paying their respects, and Team Red's base goes silent as he moves.

"While I don't want to spoil the evening-" he begins, and in unison Carmen, Jean Paul, Antonio, and Shadowsan (in the other room but listening in) mutter "here we go," all traces of mourning vanishing.

"-I think it must be acknowledged that El Topo and Le Chevre were two operatives whose passion was more often in each other than in their thieving work." Antonio and Jean Paul share a glance as the professor goes on with just the barest touch of disdain. "I would never stoop to say I celebrate their loss- we have lost two fine operatives in their deaths- but I must agree that I hope they are finding their lives after death more suited to the life they wished to live together."

"Cheers, Professor, we are." Antonio laughs wryly. Jean Paul isn't taking it as well, and his fists are clenched in his lap as he stares daggers at Maelstrom.

And then, suddenly-

"Now, you wait just a minute, Gunnar!"

The gasp in the VILE congregation is echoed across the world in San Diego as the group watches Dr. Bellum shoves her way forward, finger pointed directly at Maelstrom.

"You're skirting around your own prejudices, and I'm sick and tired of it. They were not dirty!" There's a glass of some drink in her hand, which seems to have given her a little courage. "They were not wrong!"

"I never said they were, Doctor, please-" Maelstrom hisses, bending with embarrassment towards his fellow faculty member. All five feet of her shoves him backwards and he stumbles, shocked.

"You have made your steady intolerance a part of our Academy's atmosphere for far too long, Gunnar!" Her voice climbs pitches like a roller coaster. "You're too afraid to say that those boys were-" she takes another sip of whatever she's drinking, "-gay as hell!"

"Doctor!" Maelstrom pleads, but Bellum is on a roll now, and the other two Faculty behind her seem to be finding this just as entertaining as Team Red is. Cleo, in particular, is red in the face and biting her lip in a way the three ex-operatives in the room have never seen before.

"Oh my God." Jean Paul stares in disbelief, all traces of anger gone as Antonio wheezes beside him. "This is going to be incredible."

"Those boys died as they lived- together! And I for one want to follow their example. I'd rather- rather live in happiness now than have to stay half hidden like they did here. Now they're up there- dancing to "disco" music and wearing beautiful necklaces like they never could have done while they were alive here!"

Maelstrom is melting into the floor as he tries and fails to do any sort of damage control, and before he can even open his mouth again, Bellum shouts, "We must carry on their legacy in VILE as we continue our work! It should never have taken their deaths to see it!"

With that, she turns, takes the hand of Countess Cleo, and sweeps her into the deepest, most passionate kiss the academy has ever seen. Antonio, in the middle of a sip of water, shoots it out of his nose.

"Shadowsan, get in here!" Carmen shrieks, cackling, as their room erupts into whoops and cheers. Shadowsan enters, sees what's happening, and has to leave again immediately to save face. In the periphery of their hidden camera, the chaos amongst the gathered operatives seems to be an even worse mixture of hilarity and horror. Tigress seems to have passed out cold onto the floor, and Cleo and Bellum are still going.

"Doctor! Countess!" They barely hear Maelstrom shriek over Brunt's roaring laughter. Zack, Ivy, and Player are in hysterics, which is a level more chill than whatever Carmen, Jean Paul, and Antonio are experiencing. Shadowsan isn't even in the room.

"If I got to witness my own funeral, I'm glad this is how it went," Antonio gasps in between howls of laughter as they watch Cleo and Bellum barely surface for air before they go back in, crashing into their memorial table and sending the two's pictures to the ground. Maelstrom has fled the great hall in a fit, and Brunt is literally crying. Someone gasps "disco!" in between laughs behind them. "Look at all the good our death did!"

"Our legacy will be felt around the academy for decades, mon amour!" Jean Paul wheezes in return, planting his own kiss on Antonio's lips. "I think we are in the clear!"

"What was in that drink, Saira?" Cleo gasps on the screen, voice husky, as they come up for air.

"It's plain Pepsi." Bellum responds, and the last thing they see before the camera self-destructs is the two Faculty members going in one more time as the Academy dissolves before their very eyes.