ultra-indigo - Tumblr blog

[ultra-indigo]

Remember when I said I DIDN’T want to do more character portrait work after editing Lilith? Well, since I decided I want to write more scripts (it’s easier to churn out plot that way), I might as well not use generic unit placeholders for the more important characters. It’s actually easier to edit stuff when all you’re doing is close ups and not the full standard view from head to waist. When it’s so small, no one can tell if you messed something up.

I like sharing my frustrations, sources, and tips so idk read more if you’re into this stuff?

Keep reading

[ultra-indigo]

Hello! i was wondering how u do the sprites since i dont have any idea how to make them? thanks!

Ah, you mean these?

I won’t say it’s easy, but I can give a basic few steps about what I tend to do for the more trickier ones. Most of the time, I try to avoid hand drawing stuff, so that limits what poses and faces I can use, because and an awkwardly angled sprite can look really bad. I don’t want to call out bad examples I’ve seen on the web by other people, so take my old version of Jerry and the new one.

The old one was an attempt to adhere to Gerome’s stance in his sprite, but it ends up looking awkward because messed up shadows and also just the angling is not that great. Jerry isn’t my best work, but the new one is a big improvement.

All right, let’s try making a sprite for Damian. His design is something that really combines most of the techniques I use for this stuff. Full tutorial under the cut. This might involve a lot more handholding, but this is made for the less experienced Photoshop user.

Keep reading

[ultra-indigo]

this is fine, i'm fine, feeling very normal about this actually

[ultra-indigo]

so i wanted to talk about why i really like the way royal portrays the interactions between haru, futaba, and akechi.

in royal, insofar as i can see, haru is treats akechi with a sort of kindly polite working relationship. i actually cannot determine whether or not that’s because it’s akechi, or if it’s just because he’s a boy. her relationships with girls tend to be focused on spreading positivity and being kind, while she doesnt seem to be anything less than formal and shy with the boys–except mona, of course, but that’s a little different because he’s a talking cat.

futaba, on the other hand, seems to treat him like a potential traitor for comedic effect, which i can’t imagine she’d be doing if she thought he was going to betray them for real. (we already know what futaba did when she knew akechi was going to betray them, which was put everything on lockdown and bug his phone.) on the other hand, people do tend to make jokes about things that worry them, so akechi’s betrayal does seem to be on her mind either way.

haru is, notably, the first person to advocate for bringing akechi on the team, seconded by futaba. both of them cite the fact that they need the manpower, and both of them seem to be of the opinion that if he betrays them again, they’ll just squash him like they did the first time.

which is a very notable difference from the direction fandom interpreted that relationship. and i like the way that fandom interpreted haru and futaba as potentially never forgiving akechi for what he did, but i do think there’s a lot of merit in royal’s take.

Keep reading

[ultra-indigo]

I was gonna not make this post but it's gnawing at me from the inside

This is entirely unprompted

I think that the reason that I can't ship Akechi with just Joker is because whether or not he means to he does and can have deep, meaningful interactions with the other phantom thieves that are just as interesting as with Joker. There's nothing that's by necessity just interesting about their relationship that isn't interesting about the others.

What Akechi is to me, narratively, is a mirror that reflects whatever the thieves dislike about themselves the most. Like for Ryuji it's how quick he is to anger and how he feels like he has something to prove, for Ann it's that desire for revenge that sits under the surface of her skin that she never shows, for Yusuke there's so much that we would be here all day because they are so fundamentally similar in so many ways, for Haru it's the way he gets used by everyone in his life just like her and for Sumire they both pretend to be someone they aren't in order to be liked

I just think there's a lot of potential in making the other thieves look at themselves through Akechi in the same romantic lens that's put so heavily on joker and I think that Akechi should be making out sloppy with the thieves that I listed about it

[ultra-indigo]

on forgiveness: best girl haru okumura

OKAY LET’S TALK ABOUT how most people’s idea of Haru (besides her being axe crazy or some shit) begins and ends with the first half of this line to Akechi. And also babble about how everyone reacts in the engine room for a bit:

Just to be clear here: Akechi murders Haru’s father. Not only that, he murders him after his change of heart, at the point he has a chance to turn around and do better and stop being, y’know, kind of a tremendous asshole. Would it have worked? Haru will never know. Akechi stole that from her.

However. Haru is also not a tremendous asshole. I know, I know, y’all want her to go crazy ape batshit with vengeance and her axe. However, Haru doesn’t believe in vengeance (that’s Akechi’s gig, and maybe Ann’s). She does believe in redemption and giving people chances, and she (besides Joker, who like, doesn’t have lines) is the Phantom Thief who embodies this most in regard to Akechi.

so let’s take a look

Let’s start with the second half of that line. “I sympathize with you”. And let’s put it together with the next line:

Haru understands why Akechi might have acted as he did. And when Cognitive Akechi arrives, she’s the one who tells Akechi it isn’t too late:

Because, make no mistake, Haru is also a child of a terrible father. A father who used her to advance himself. Haru relates to Akechi. She sees what she could have become in him—someone just like her father.

This becomes clearer later on in the scene, when the bulkhead door comes up—and let’s just take a moment here to see what “unforgivable” looks like.

Here’s Ryuji banging on the door as it comes up:

Here’s Yusuke:

And Makoto:

Now note that Haru and Futaba (and Morgana and Ann) have not come forward at this point. But what’s Akechi’s response, by the way, when you tell him you’ll hang on to the glove and keep your promise?

He fucking smiles. Tiny little smile. Sad, barely there, but a real smile, behind the bulkhead where nobody can see it. I swear, people are like “oh, he only dies to save you because it’s the only way left he can get revenge, it’s all part of the manipulation” no, get out of my hair with that shit, I will literally eat you all. He passes up his revenge. He starts his arc as someone who has nothing but revenge to live for, and he ends it (for now) passing up that revenge for someone who matters to him. That’s important.

And that’s level 10: incidentally this is when he gets Endure, “survive an otherwise fatal attack with 1hp remaining”

After this Cogkechi and Akechi face off, and that is when Haru comes forward:

And Ann:

… and then the gunshots, not quite in unison. Bye, kids, we’ll miss you. But note that it is Futaba who only speaks up now—to do her job, not to express any concern for Akechi. It’s Futaba who gives him a far harder ride in Mementos later in the third semester than Haru does. And yet I feel like I see Futaba easily forgiving Akechi all the time and Haru almost not at all?? idk.

so what happens next?

Well, here’s Haru when they resolve to leave:

She’s sad they couldn’t save him. Like her father, Akechi will never have a chance to do better.

what about the third semester?

So in the third semester Akechi comes out as an axe crazy killer and also kind of an interpersonal asshole, but he does seem to have laid off the hired killings, so that’s, uh, good?

This understandably impacts the way the engine room fell out: nobody wants to admit what went on there. Akechi doesn’t; Akechi wants to keep all of them at an emotional radius of ten thousand kilometres, for reasons of his own. The PTs certainly don’t, because third semester Akechi is an immense pain in the ass. and about as friendly as a porcupine on PCP.

Still, he comes back on the team for reasons, and Haru and Futaba understandably have feelings about this. Here are Haru’s:

But this isn’t all that goes on. What about all those Mementos chats?

Akechi doesn’t talk to the other Phantom Thieves—if they say anything, he doesn’t respond. (Sumire also doesn’t, which gives me an image of her, Akechi and Joker stuck next to each other speaking only in Royal Trio in-jokes.) But he’s not saying anything unless he chooses to say something—when the others respond.

And who responds how? Well, there are moments of connection—more than a few. But responses to Akechi often range from passive-aggressive through mocking to outright aggressive. And this is perfectly fair: make no mistake, these guys are not friends.

How does the count stack up?

Yusuke has the lowest number of responses to Akechi—he has five. Ann and Makoto each have seven. Futaba, Morgana and Ryuji each have eight. And Haru?

Haru has nine chats in response to Akechi. She has more than anyone else. And the reason she has more chats than anyone else is that there is one chat that only she responds to:

Yeah. Akechi is not someone who enjoys being cooped up in the back of a catbus. And when he complains about it, it’s Haru who’s the only one to reply. The Japanese is not that patronising, by the way

Haru is trying. She doesn’t want to sit down and hang out with him—she won’t join him in the Thieves’ Den, for instance. But her responses to him range from passive-aggressive through conversational. They are hard to interpret—she’s not comfortable with him; she’s keeping up her mask. She’s not necessarily concerned for him or welcoming—she’s saying the “right things”, making conversation; she joins in when they all laugh at him for bouldering. Haru’s mask has a lot in common with Akechi’s many masks. But she also has that one chat that only she replies to.

Here are her nine responses to various things Akechi says:

Haru: I think this [outfit] fits you better, after seeing how you fight. Haru: I’ve heard you don’t actually need to be that strong to boulder. Maybe I should give it a shot. Haru: It’s pretty hard to imagine a group of phantom thieves successfully getting around on bicycles. Haru: Well, the car does have ears and a tail, so I wouldn’t say it’s impossible to tell… Haru: Well, no one gives them orders, so it appears they just wander around. Haru: As long as you’re fighting alongside us, we’re happy to have you. Haru: Thanks for the concern. You should stay mindful of your health, too. Haru: I wonder… You can’t underestimate the Tokyo subway system, though. It’s pretty long. Haru: Then what say we take a little break when we reach the next rest area?

and what’s the takeaway here?

Pretty much this: forgiveness in P5 is complicated. The story is all about responsibility and redemption and the harm you do others. Even if you can’t forgive someone, that doesn’t mean you can’t work with them. It doesn’t make them not part of your group. It doesn’t mean you can’t take an interest in them. The Phantom Thieves have a bond with Akechi regardless of what he’s done. Regardless of whether they’re “friends” or “forgiven” or whether they will ever be close. That bond doesn’t have to be pretty, or fun, or even something most of them want too much to do with, but it is there. He is, in the end, as close to being one of them as you get.

And Haru does take an interest in Akechi: more than any of the others bar Joker, Haru is the one who seems to relate to him. Haru doesn’t model judgement (that’s Futaba)—Haru is modelling understanding, and reparative justice. She doesn’t want to be Akechi’s friend; they’re hugely unlikely to ever be friends. Any relationship they have is likely to be distant, based primarily on mutual obligation. But she understands him, to a degree.

Let Haru be the wonderful human being she is. #theend

[ultra-indigo]

On that note, can I prompt you for something with a spirit of justice in Elvhenan?

Justice is a big idea.

But it is, at the moment, a very small spirit.

Keep reading

[ultra-indigo]

I wanted to tell you that I'm IN LOVE with all your fics. You have a gift for writing. You've made me feel so many things. And changed my mind in many others (In canon, DA spirits (except Cole) were not really relevant for me. Now I want to protect all of them from the cruelty of the wolrd. They are so LOVELY.) Also, Lavellan has such strong emotions that I cannot stop thinking about her being the mama of some of them. Was any spirit born from her? Does she know? Is she protective of them? Hugs.

To be an absence, to be a loss, is a strange thing to come into existence as.

Grief is never born without cost.

It cannot be.

Keep reading

[ultra-indigo]

Okay, but AU where Haninan gets forcibly stuck in Uthenera, not dying, wakes up thirty-ish yrs before DAI, ends up joining the Clan Lavellan and raising an orphaned future Herald. One da,y DAI time, Lavellan is like "btw Solas, my dad's visiting, feel free to hide if he starts talking about grandchildren." And Solas is all "don't worry vhenan I'm sure I can get along with your father" in that smooth confident tone he has. Cue a voice behind them going "Wolfling! THERE YOU ARE!! =) =)"

For a long time, Haninan dreams.

Keep reading

[ultra-indigo]

Uugggh I don't know if you take prompts and I hope it's not super rude to ask, but I read that drabble about her eye, I want more ruthless tragic Solas! So: alternate chapter 1 where it is Solas who goes on instead? Whyever you think is appropriate.

Prompts are definitely okay - I might not always fill them, obviously, but they’re welcome. Just be aware they might sit in my inbox for a while, especially if I’m busy.

(This starts off with content identical from chapter one; feel free to skim if you’re already familiar with it.)

~

“I did not want this,” he whispers. “I did not mean for this. It should not be this way. Please, please, please…”

“Vhenan,” she says.

He falls silent. As shocked as if she’d slapped him.

“The world is ruined. No one cares about your intentions anymore,” she tells him, softly. Her voice rasps with dryness and dust. The words hurt. Her wounds are bleeding, and will run out of blood sooner rather than later. Her patience is gone. There’s no point in any of it anymore. He’s made himself a monster, and still she loves him, as she always knew she would.

“I should have killed you,” she says.

“You should have,” he agrees.

“I never could.”

“It’s what I would have done, in your place.”

She finds she can think of nothing to say to that.

Her wounds spasm and she cringes on it, clutching herself a moment as the black spots eat up her vision. She sways, a little, but the moment for her end isn’t quite at hand yet.

Still. The air is getting thinner, and her legs are cold as ice. It won’t be long, now, until she sees what death has to offer. Mercy, she hopes. At this point she would gladly take pity, as well. But if the trends of her life have been any indication, it will likely offer neither.

They sit in silence until she recovers. Words have failed him. Of course they have; there are precious few for times like these. She doesn’t know of many people who have faced the end of everything together.

“Just out of curiosity, what was supposed to happen?” she wonders. There is a strip of light on the horizon. It would be a lie to call it anything approaching ‘sunlight’, but it doesn’t burn quite as angrily as all the rest of it.

“Does it matter now?” he asks.

“It’s one last question for you to answer,” she replies.

His eyes find hers.

“When the Veil came down, time should have become inconsequential,” he explains. “I planned to revert the world to the state it had been in before Mythal died. It would have been a moment of burning chaos, and then over in the blink of an eye. Your future would never exist. You would never exist. As painless an end as possible; the denial of a beginning.”

Tears run tracks through the blood and dust on his cheeks. She’s amazed he even has any left. Hers are all long spent.

“It didn’t work,” she notes.

“No,” he agrees.

“Why not?”

The wind howls over them.

“I can’t say,” he admits. “The existence of the Veil changed so much about the world. I thought I had grasped the differences. Apparently, I missed more than I ever imagined.”

“I’m shocked.”

It’s his turn to laugh inappropriately, then, though soon enough he is back to weeping. The air around them trembles. The light on the horizon grows, like an angry dawn. Like a serpent rising up to eat the sky.

Solas stills.

He turns, and looks, and suddenly there’s just the faintest glimmer of something in his gaze.

“What?” she wonders.

There’s no possible way things just got worse, is there? If there’s a bottom below this one, she doesn’t want to find it.

Solas gets that look on his face, though. One that makes her feel centuries younger, like they’re back in Skyhold and he’s just had some brilliant epiphany, and all the pieces of a puzzle have fallen into place. His fingers even twitch, the way they do when he wants to cast a spell or pick up a quill or find a paint brush.

“What new horrible thing is happening now?” she presses.

“It’s a fold,” he says.

She considers that sentence. Allows it to sink in a bit.

“Was that supposed to make sense?” she finally asks.

He turns to her, a thousand conflicting things dancing in his eyes.

“It worked after all, in some fashion,” he rasps. “That is the point where time has turned back. If we can reach the opening before it collapses, we can salvage something from this mess.”

Ah.

Well.

Better something than nothing, in the end.

Her cracked lips split in a pained and painful smile.

“I guess you succeeded after all,” she says.

“Come with me,” he asks.

Finally, finally, the fool wants her to go with him. She laughs. Shakes. Looks to the pool of blood spreading like a banner behind her.

“It’s sweet that you think I can even stand,” she tells him.

There is a moment of silence.

At last, she slumps against his side.

“Go. Live well in your new, old world,” she asks.

He hesitates, a moment. His hand comes up, and cradles the side of her face. He lets out a breath so heavy that she sags further, and slips, and he catches her, closing his arms around her. It hurts; but she will let him hold her, one last time.

“I will never forget you,” he assures her again. Swears it; it is all he can offer her now, she knows, and he offers it as if in prayer that it might somehow, in some small way, give her comfort.

It does.

Just a little.

He will live. That’s a strange comfort, too, all things considered.

“Go,” she tells him again.

He presses a kiss to her lips. Tears - his - drop onto her cheeks.

“I will not let you die alone,” he says, shaking. But that fold of his won’t last forever, and she doesn’t want to see if it gives out before she does.

“Then you will have to send me off, ma vhenan,” she whispers.

His arms tremble and her body aches, and he is too weak for the mercy of spells, the ease and cleanliness of magic. He draws a small knife from his belt, and he shakes, shakes like a leaf as he presses the blade to her.

She closes her eyes; waits.

He cannot cut.

The knife slips, scratches, but goes no deeper.

She lets out a breath.

“I think you were lying, when you said you would have done it,” she tells him.

“I am sorry,” he whispers. “I am sorry, I am sorry, I am so, so sorry. Ar lath ma, vhenan.”

They are out of time; and if the last thing she can do is ensure that her terrible failure is not also his, then that is what she will do.

“Go,” she says.

Then she presses the blade in herself.

[ultra-indigo]

Okay, I NEED, I NEED to know, what was going on in Haninan's head during the beginning of chapter 12 when everything was finally coming out. I mean with telling about his past, and then hearing her past (his almost future), and how Solas made the Veil (which must have been a hit for him, because wOW)... (I would also totally be more than okay if this just turned into his POV of the start of the chapter, because that promises SO MUCH PAIN.)

~

Pieces can be like letters. Move them around and the same ones can form entirely different words. They can make things work, like spells, brought together to serve form and function. They can stand like pillars, supporting the weight of a great burden; buckling under the strain.

Know where the pieces fit, and you see the picture. But there is almost never just one possible picture, because nearly every piece can serve more than one purpose.

He has never been entirely sure of where the piece labelled ‘Haninan’ was meant to fit.

He thought he knew, once. He thought he was meant to fit with his family. His clan. But if that had been true, then he would not have failed them all so grievously.

He knows what it would be like to want to go back in time.

Pity that it apparently dooms the world to try.

In Puzzle’s story, though, he sees himself fit in as a piece of the tale; next to the young wolf who seals off the Dreaming. Imprisons his son. Haninan can put it together perfectly, in fact, as she describes events. Wolfling seeks knowledge, and he has always been at the mercy of children looking for wisdom. Whenever or however they met, it would have been tempting to take Pride under his wing.

But he would never have let his son be locked away.

Too many prisons already for their family. His boy would undoubtedly deserve it, but that would not matter, not in the end. Haninan was the one who failed him. Always failed him; failed to guide him, failed to protect him. Failed to reach him.

Poor Puzzle loves the same way he does.

He will not tell her, he decides, that if her wild wolf used his knowledge to make a prison for his son, and Haninan did not tear it down himself, then the clearest picture it paints is one where the thread of his life was severed between a wolf’s jaws.

It is only one possible picture, after all.

[ultra-indigo]

[ultra-indigo]

(ffrom top left to bottom right) Abydon, Berath, Eothas, Galawain, Hylea, Magran, Ondra, Rymrgand, Wael, Woedica

All of 11 deities of the pillars of eternity

it was part of co-op artwork, you can see all of it here: http://vhagaren.wix.com/eternitycollabo#!menu/hh9ux

[ultra-indigo]

i wanna play a tabletop RPG where my six stats are

gumption

chutzpah

moxie

childlike wonder

the cut of my jib

and a certain je ne sais quoi

[ultra-indigo]

i wanna play a tabletop RPG where my six stats are

gumption

chutzpah

moxie

childlike wonder

the cut of my jib

and a certain je ne sais quoi

[ultra-indigo]

i wanna play a tabletop RPG where my six stats are

gumption

chutzpah

moxy

childlike wonder

the cut of my gib

and a certain je ne sais quoi

[ultra-indigo]

you know that one image in the intro(/prologue? the powerpoint cutscene) to elden ring where The Fell Omen absolutely pummels someone who resembles Radahn. while im not sure its canon the guy was in fact the starscourge himself rather than a soldier of his i do think its funny to imagine that,

alternatively, i think they can also team up and become a duo of the most miserable eldest (? idk what order they were born in but. morgott/mohg/godwyn and radahn/rykard/ranni give me severe eldest/middle/youngest child energy) siblings in the lands between