#also most the sketch will change 2 be Better and Not A Mess i just have 2 jot it down quick so i remember
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nightcap
welt x reader, 1.6k
note: 🤪 im like not even caught up but i love this gilf tew much okay bye. My first reader fic on da blog, blease be nice 2 me <3
content notes: ❗️❗️🔞🔞🔞❗️❗️ explicit smut here, minors do NOT interact!!! Reader is gender neutral, no specific references to pronouns/body type/genitalia for reader, brief oral sex, penetrative sex, reader calls welt “mr yang” a lot 🥴
The Astral Express is quiet. You've finally returned after another long and difficult journey on another strange, new planet. Everyone else has retired to their own rooms for a well deserved rest, but you still wander the halls. Mr. Yang had stayed behind for this assignment and to say that you felt his absence was an understatement.
You had lasted all of five minutes in your own bed before throwing off the covers and deciding to seek him out. Without the exhaustion of adventure weighing him down, he's likely still awake, perhaps poring over a newspaper from your latest excursion. You make sure to bring one back for him if he's not there; he says it's so he can get a better idea of what effect the Stellaron's had on the planet, but you see how quickly he turns to the comic strips. You'll catch him doodling the characters later, sometimes changing their features, doing two and three different sketches that he thinks you won't see.
You're only half right. You find him almost exactly as you'd imagined when you slip into his room, except his brows are furrowed. He's tapping a pencil against the paper.
“Need any help, Mr. Yang?”
He looks at you briefly before returning to his crossword puzzle. "Evening. And yes."
You smile and saunter towards him, crawling onto the bed eagerly. He opens his arms without prompting, allowing you to settle into his lap with your back to his chest. He has most of it filled out already, with only the bottom left grid glaringly empty. Mr. Yang is one of the smartest people, which is why you like to tease him when he has to ask you for help with these things, but he's also the most mature, which accounts for the good natured chuckle you typically get in response.
"What's the clue?"
"Eight letters. 'Hot term for a recent admirer.'"
You make a show of scrunching up your face and delicately take the pencil from him. Your handwriting isn't quite as neat as his, but finds a certain charm in it.
Welt hums appreciatively. "'New flame.' I think you could be right."
You beam. "Bested by the newcomer, Mr. Yang. You'll have to ask me to explain strange things out in the wild next time we leave the Express."
He chuckles. He thinks it's cute when you try to tease him like this; you're all bark and no bite, really. You fold as soon as he gets his hands on you.
Like right now, as his fingers ghost over your thigh. You lean into it as much as you can, but he's so good at holding back. It's the sweet sting of having someone like Welt for a lover: a wealth of experience to keep you satisfied for hours on end, but the patience and precision needed to keep you just on edge until he thinks you're ready.
"Did you need something?" He says it so casually, like he doesn't know your skin is burning underneath him.
You turn your head to look at him. It's there again, that little bit of sharpness in his gaze that seems to go right through you. He's already thinking about all the ways he can unmake you.
"Just you," you say, waiting the precious few moments it takes for the spark to ignite.
Welt kisses you, softly at first. His hands roam over your thighs, just ghosting underneath your sleep shorts. You whine the third time he does it, unable to handle the loss of his touch. He pulls away.
“Patience.”
You pout. He notices everything. “I’m not impatient.”
He humphs in disbelief. “Don’t make a sound until I tell you to.”
Any other night, you might protest his rigidity. Be the brat he likes you to be, until you’re a sobbing mess in hands, begging him to just fuck you and stop teasing. Tonight, however, you’re inclined towards obedience. You hush up and wait the agonizing few moments that he waits, watching for any sign of defiance. Satisfied, he kisses you again, hungrier this time, sliding his tongue over yours. You hold back a moan when he digs his fingers into your thighs.
Welt pushes you down. He trails his lips down your body, over your chest, your sensitive nipples. He halts just below your belly button, kissing the skin lightly while he pulls down your shorts. You shiver once your exposed to the cool air.
Anticipation burns inside you when he pulls your leg up and over his shoulder. He slowly teases your entrance with his tongue, giving it slow, featherlight licks that he soon follows up with a finger.
“Mr. Yang,” you say, unable to resist calling out as he speeds up.
He doesn’t respond, choosing to punish you instead by letting up. He knows it’s agony, feeling his warm breath on you where you need him most.
It’s too much. You give up on obedience and let desperation take hold as you grab at welt’s shoulders and pull him in to kiss you. Your taste lingers on his tongue. “Mr. Yang, please…“
Welt palms at your ass. It’s a nice reminder that he’s far more affected by you than he typically comes off. Although his words are often measured and his tone even, the way he touches you is nothing short of ravenous.
“Tell me what you need, sweetheart.”
You’re on the brink of tears now. Your legs are locked around his hips, his fingers are rubbing and pinching your nipple. He knows, but he likes to make you say it. “Mr. Yang, please, please,”
He doesn’t budge. You reach for the drawstring on his pants yourself, but he grabs your hand and brings it to his mouth instead. “You can speak, can’t you? Use your words.”
You watch as he pulls your finger into his mouth, sucking on it lightly. He’ll keep going, ignoring your pleas while he toys with you long past the rising of the sun. He’s done it before.
You draw a shaky breath.
“Mr. Yang, I need you inside me.”
You wait for his response. He almost looks bored, that half-awake look he gets when he’s quizzing you on the values of each Aeon with hands roaming across your chest.
He kisses your palm. “Keep going.”
“Welt,” his given name falls from your lips, a strained whisper that sets Welt on edge, “please fuck me, I can’t take it anymore, please.“
Welt lets go of your hand. He disentangles himself from you fully, ignoring your desperate whines. You hear his pants fall to the floor and then he’s hovering over you again, sliding a hand under your shoulder.
“Turn around.”
You hear him, but you’re too distracted by the sight of his weeping cock to really pay attention. He sighs and gently lifts you, maneuvering you so you’re on your hands and knees with your back to him.
Tears of relief fall down your face when Welt drapes himself over your back. You feel him lining himself up with your entrance. You shudder when he finally enters you. His grip on your waist tightens. He lets his cock stay sheathed in you for an agonizing moment before he pulls out and starts to set a rhythm. The slow friction stirs something in Welt; he lets go of your waist and covers your hand with his own. He curses above you and moves in closer, his breath warm against the shell of your ear.
“I want to hear you. Please,” Welt gasps. It makes your heart skip.
You call out to him, moaning his name in a quiet voice that gets louder and louder as his thrusts quicken. Your words become more frantic, endless declarations of how much you need him interrupted by broken sobs of pleasure. Welt speaks your name, too, in between ragged breaths and the rapid stuttering of his hips, curses falling from his lips in a constant prayer.
“Mr. Yang,” you say, because you know how his breathing stops when you call him that, just like the first time it did when he had you on your knees in his bedroom, “Mr. Yang, I love you.”
Welt’s final thread of composure snaps. He hooks his arm around your throat and buried his face in your neck. His hips slap against you harder than before, but he still has the presence of mind to reach down and tease you one last time to put you over the edge. Waves of ecstasy roll through as you give one final, strangled shout.
Welt follows soon after, his thrusts becoming increasingly erratic until he buries himself to the hilt and groans deep into your skin. You both slump forward, breathing heavily. He kisses your neck sloppily before finally pulling out with a sigh. He pulls you once to get you to clean up, but you don’t budge, a telltale look of bliss on your face. He gives up and leaves you, returning with clean cloths to wipe you down. You watch him from the corner of your eye as he flips you onto your back and takes care of you.
“Thanks, Welt.”
He smiles softly, but doesn’t look at you, focused on his task. He climbs back into the bed once he’s done, flat on his back. You lean over and rest your head on his chest.
Exhaustion weighs you down suddenly. Even though you left the mission early to see Welt, the trip back to the express hadn’t been easy. It feels like you’ll drift off into sleep as soon as you close your eyes. So you do, but not before reaching up to kiss Welt just under his chin.
#welt yang x reader#welt x reader#hsr x reader#honkai star rail x reader#welt yang smut#honkai star rail smut#hsr smut#writing tag
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January and February dump
This is my most recent work of Lloyd, and my most recent work in general. I made this in the computer room at school with a painful high-sensitive mouse. We have these special course thing in our junior high, so every tuesday after class, I get to be in the computer room. For six hours... (My course is Visual Graphics Design. I'm kinda regretting it now since I've been thinking of becoming an architect... I can't change my course now since it's too late. Which is stupid.)
I'll try to draw more there! I really like drawing with a mouse cause I like the challenge. And since I'm not accustomed to a high-sensitive mouse, it'll be a bigger challenge for me!
I made these two in traditional then polished them digitally since I straight up just used a pen. I rarely use a pencil nowadays so I can learn to fix mistakes without erasing it. Usually it ends up looking like chicken scratch but I'm getting better.
My Harumi one is so bad lol.. When I was making it, my classmates around me were messing around and moving the chairs in the process, making me have to draw strokes with shaky lines. It's not that noticeable though since I made the lines thicker.
I was planning to make something for Rebooted's anniversary but I got busy... (And lazy) The PIXAL one was inspired by an animatic I saw.
If you compare the previous Arin portrait, yes, they don't look the same. I'm trying to find a look for Arin, as I do with every character, that I'll be satisfied with.
By the way, I'm kind of basing Arin's hair with my classmate's hair. Which is funny because my other classmates compared this artwork to my classmate, who looked nothing like Arin but have similar hair, commenting they're the same. (I'm not mad because I actually find this a bit humorous)
I was trying to make an animatic and this was going to be the sketch. But then again, I got busy and lazy. (Mostly lazy)
I accidentally changed their facial features a bit by accident on the second page because I forgot to reference the first page. It was tiring flipping pages every 5 seconds, ok! Also, I drew it after 2 days when I drew the first page, and I didn't have a design I liked for them yet. (...I just noticed Jay has different eye colors in both pages...)
I think I'm sticking to these looks for Lloyd. I'll try to make it accurate to this. (I think I did great with the first image of this post. Though, I made him too round for my liking.)
Discard the growing beard post redesign Lloyd has. That beard thing was supposed to be where his chin was until I realized it was too small. And it's still too small.
Child Lloyd is so cute! The eyeshadow wasn't intentional at first, but then it got me thinking, what if Lloyd had an emo phase? And now emo child Lloyd is my headcanon.
Pre redesign Lloyd kind of reminds me of TommyInnit, and I find it quite funny. Maybe it's the facial gesture, I know a lot of TommyInnit fanarts with that silly face.
For Dragons Rising Lloyd however, I want him to have long hair with his post redesign face. I'll try to make full body designs of the 4 Lloyds.
You guys probably don't care, and this is the first time you've seen me because I don't have an exact artstyle and I dont post as much, but I'm going to put descriptions now since this blog is going to be a silly little art dump! And blog posts are supposed to be descriptive. Which I should've done in the beginning and explained my works..
Anyhow
If you liked my art, thank you!
If you saw me before and told me I did well, thank you and I'm sorry!! I know my previous posts have gotten comments and I'm sorry I didn't respond.. I'm not trying to be ungrateful, I just don't know how to express my appreciation for your positive feedback! Or just reply in general... I get nervous even when I'm wearing my mask..
Please don't hate me, I'm just really anxious to show my work to people I don't know to the point where I might think people disliked my artwork when it's the opposite..
(I'll probably copy paste this in future posts now lol. But I AM thankful that some of you guys think my works are great!)
#everytime i draw idk#traditional art#digital art#2024#2024 art#ninjago#ninjago dragons rising#ninjago lloyd#ninjago lloyd garmadon#lloyd garmadon#ninjago harumi#ninjago arin#ninjago pixal#pixal borg#ninjago zane#ninjago zane julien#zane julien#ninjago jay#ninjago jay walker#jay walker#ninjago cole#tag
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colouring tutorial from sygni aka sima
DISCLAIMER 1. eng is not my native language 2. i am using techniques of a realistic art so it's not for everyone! but you may find some tips interesting tho
big text screamer
so obv 1. making our sketch (and after lineart if you're using it bc im not)
2. filling up background, then character. think about what atmosphere you want to create in result, try to use different background colours for your characters for diff effects in result.
i've had a small post with a little explaining for choosing colours, you can use that too!
i suppose i can make a post about emotional effects of different colours if someone interested bc that's really a HUGE part of final effect on viever. actually i can tell and explain in art so much feel free to send questions <:D
so like that! (tbx i changed it like 3 times so it's okay to change your colouring desigions mid-drawing if you're feeling something feels off)
3. time to get some basic shading going!
don't skip that step i swear to god you can think bruh sima for what do you they added overlays that i can use after i finish the art? are you a caveman or what
please just trust me it'll add so much charm in your art
so how to do it:
1. choose where your light sourse is. on my art it's in front of griande
2. use a CONTRASTING colour for each big part of a character (hair, clothes, face etc) and make shades with that. REMEMBER dark colours going next to light ones, light to dark.
please don't use black for shades for god's sake. also shades are cold coloured most of the time thats important too ig
3. if you're confused where you shall place shades then find a ref or make a photo of yourself OR use a mirror (preferable!)
and this things can help you understand face shading better too \/
don't feel not good enough that you need to study sth or use refs it's fully okay every good artist using that!
so i know this looks like mess BUT what did i do (guys trust the process):
1. desided i want a face to be a centre of viewer's attention so made everything else darker
2. put a light on a face, the most light shade on the parts which are closer to light sourse - at my art it's nose and a bit of forehead. and exact same thing but backwards with eyes
remember face isn't flat! so even if forehead is in the light, it slowly goes back, so it won't be light all the way (you can see it on previous photo of the gypseous head)
then the longest part goes:
we're using semitones (colour which are simmilar to base shade) to connect shades to light parts, to add volume to the art make sure your brush moves according to .. ehh.. face shape? just take someone and weirdly touch their face to understand how it goes and with your brush cope that
example (look closely to the strokes):
so i've did something
i know this looks like "let's add some details" type of thing but:
i've added semitones to the shadows to correct their forms -> to suit the relief of the face
added a contrasting (to pink of the base) orange as blush, a dark blue to show the farthest spots from light
added a basic reflects on the sides of the noce (orange spots), chin (peach). reflections on things are sooo important and add so much life in your art! yet it's easily done: you just create a little light blended line on the bottom of your shade. if next to thing you're making a reflection on is the diff-coloured thing, then pick a colour from it and mix them. example \/
made an edge on a forehead (dark-red line) yet i'd make it more accurate later, and will add it on the chin and sides of the nose to highlight them and separate from other parts of the face. actually this edges are just the darkest spots between the light of the item and reflection on the bottom of it. i like to make it noticible, yet someone tend to blend shades in. if you're just studying how to shade i'd reccomend starting without using blending
yet you can notice how colours going more dull from forehead to chin to make her look like she's angling her head forward, i guess i'll make it more noticible later
AND i'm going to sleep but i have more to tell + i need to finish the work later anyway so put some feedback for part 2
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Mr. Victor Shade, SWORD's leading expert on AI, aka The Vision's mundane alias.
More concept work for my comic plans, where after Westview Vision is found by Monica, Darcy, and Jimmy who help him build a life and remember who he is. Monica offers him a job at SWORD with Hayward out of the way, to reform it and return it to her mother's vision (pardon the pun). Vision helps out with this process, because who better to be watching and ensuring there is ethical treatement of AI and other 'sentient weapons' than the most advanced synthetic being on Earth? It will also give him an opportunity to explore who he is, and how he ended up being turned into Hayward's weapon in WandaVision.
(I have no affiliation with Marvel/the MCU - this is purely a fan project, and I know if we get Vision Quest as a series it will likely go in a very different direction. That's the joy of the Multiverse though - anything is possible, and I love telling *my* Vision's story through art and my stories.)
Breakdown of my process below the cut, as this was painted as a quick demo for a friend asking about how I do things and I enjoyed it enough to finish it:
My process has changed a little over the years but remains roughly the same. The level of depth and detail just means more hours refining the painting down more and more with additional layers and passes of light, shadow, and texture.
Before I start a piece, even just sketches to unwind, I gather reference. Sometimes I'll just see a photo I like of Paul/Lizzie, or sometimes an unrelated image where the pose or lighting or ambience speaks to me. I also use my collection for reference - my statues and Hot Toy figuresm to get the right lighting and angles, especially for Vision and all his robot lines (though admittedly these days I don't always use a reference and just go from memory...I think I draw this silly robot too much).
Once I've got a concept and some references gathered I set up my canvas. Currently I use CSP and I love it, and I have a variety of texture files I've purchased that mimic different types of paper. I like working on these as it feels more natural with the pencil, ink, and marker brushes I use. Once I have my references set up in the file I'll do a rough sketch, blocking out proportions and basic shapes. I'll set a mid-tone grey background as well, and I almost always sketch in color. I like choosing a color that represents the character for me - bright blue for Vizh, red for Wanda. I have a Loki sketch I need to finish for my sister and I used green for him. It helps me capture the 'energy' of the character, and this sketch remains a part of the finished painting even as I refine.
Once I've got a rough sketch down I'll start working on more detail. Sometimes this will be inks, sometimes just another pass with pencil. Depends on the piece and what I'm going for. This step can happen multiple times for complicated paintings, and usually I'll cycle through steps 2-6 multiple times for a large piece.
Once I have the lines down I'll paint flats. Most of the time I'm using a big brush that emulates a marker, because I like the texture it gives, especially when layered. I'm very mess and use an eraser brush to clean up the lines, and sometimes I'll go back and tweak the line art until I like the look. During this phase I'll also lay down some details - freckles, scars, details like eyes, tattoos, jewelry as well. When painting Vizh I like getting the texture in his robotic eyes done early on, and usually refine them again towards the end.
The real fun starts here - I'll block in my lighting, usually just going with whaveter I'm feeling in the moment. I like playing with gradients and layering them in different ways to create a more dynamic image, and then I start blocking in shadows with soft brushes.
More lighting. I start adding top layers to further stretch the dynamic. I like overlays, and adding a sort of dreamlike/surreal filter through the color. I'll also start adding in highlights to contrast the shadows and work in small sections to render the details. I always start big and decrease my brush sizes for detail and work in layers and stages, checking the reference as well as the painting's lighting (which is not always the same as my reference) as I go.
Texture texture texture. I like texture. This step sometimes happens earlier, but once I'm happy with my actual *painting* of my subject(s) I'll start figuring out background elements and textures for visual appeal.
#the vision#white vision#wandavision#paul bettany#wandavision fanart#marvel fan art#mcu fanart#digital art#art process#my art
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I loved the designs you did for cane and able in codotverse, reminds me of wendell and wild from the new stop motion movie!
what inspos went behind your designs if you are okay with telling
I've had those designs stashed for years
if anything Wendell and Wild GOT INSPIRED BY ME!!!! /j
Lmao thank you
I'm about to info dump and dont take anything I say as Canon, this is me hyperfxating and having LITERALLY too much information in my brain about to random ass motherfuckers.
Okay so, fun things. About Inspo.
ABOUT CAIN:
Normal Cain. Soft, grandpa man.
2008 Cain. (From a HoM comic I am not too fond of except...)
Fucking sharp lunatic with his hair going EVERYWHERE. Constantly UNHINGED.
And so I decided to strike right on the middle bcs I always enjoyed the idea of this motherfucker flipping like a switch, also because he is an older brother, and he cleans the house and does the crops and tells stories and helps with the animals and maintains the house, and is fuzzy and very classic focused. But you know, he will also murder Abel in a split second and he gets a JOY doing it. Most of the time. But also enough to live with him normally and still have dinners and get mad when someone else hurts him.
His front hair flop also comes from the fact that he has to hide the "MARK OF CAIN" TM. The one that hits you 7 times worse if you hurt him. He has no control of what that shit does tho.
Also fun fact, the houses are located in Kentucky (Unless they are teleporting) and stuck in the 70s aesthetically LMAO.
So I sharpened the old man, still gave him kind eyes. I unbrokened his nose, because is impossible to break it without you dying, so this man is SURPRISINGLY DELICATE when it comes to fights.
A well groomed beard that can be easily messed up. And big CAINines.
The clothes are just classic Cain clothes but pushin a little bit more of the military ww1 aesthetic he is placed with.
The long and short, Grandpa please go to bed.
ABOUT ABEL:
Younger frisky freer brother.
A lot of Abel is based of Harveydont's Abel work. In all honestly we both worked on these bozos over the years.
Regardless here is the explanation for his look at least on my end.
He has always been a fancy little lad, a lot more pristine than his brother. A lot of the thought behind Abel is how he does a lot less of heavy work such as gardening or house renovating, but does things such as cooking and sweeping and organizing. Which is why he can always afford to be dressed to the nines.
Always seems to dress BETTER and be well more mannered. But while nicer he is also a trickster. So He can't be a circle.
Anyway, this picture also has done its millage.
This is the ORIGINAL sketch for Abel by Joe Orlando. I think my man nailed it first try. There has been A LOT of Cains over the years, but Abel always... ALWAYS relatively looks like this. And I have NO ROOM to complain.
As you can visibly see he hasn't changed much... I just put a knife to him and sharpened his features, as well give him bigger eyes than Cain bcs 1) makes him also look unhinged 2) Can also look more innocent.
Also his mutton chops are cleaner, in general his look is more put together and softer. He is supposed to be PRISTINE. The ring on his hand is because CANNONICALLY, Abel wears the gayest shit in the comics and I something he could fiddle with when nervous. (Mesh shirt while cooking, you know, gay club look just while cooking, iconic. Speak your truth, king.)
Also I made their skin darker bcs I am tan to darker color and I Was like, lol I can't be stopped now!
I hope this helps.
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I'm trying to make a reversed Alternia AU slightly based on this old drawing but I am having some trouble so if anyone wanna help feel free to.
(The canon trolls won't be part of this AU, I just used these redesigns to sketch out the world building)
More details and doubts under the cut
First of all, they are reversed in that Rust bloods are at the top and fuchsia at the bottom, the aesthetics of the rusts are now of Greek Gods and royalty while the fuchsia are sea witches who wear what they find in the ocean, you can noticed Eridan is covering their gills and that's because to run errands and walk in land they have to do that, Purple bloods mark the line between land and sea but still live in beaches at the margins of land.
While all that is going on, Mutant bloods are universally liked and praised, their rare blood colors are pretty to look at and so most of them show off their grub scars.
This is where it gets complicated because while I am swapping things out, what stays the same is 1-their powers and 2-their numbers, rusts are still the most populous group and fuchsia are still only one every hundreds of years, so their classpects are still the same, Fuchsia are sea witches who steal things, Rusts have to look after everyone so they're still maids, they still mess with dark arts (for funsies) so are witches as well.
And one thing I noticed about the social hierarchy of Alternia (a lot of people did actually) is that being a higher caste allows you to have better technology, Equius makes robots for fun, HIC has a fancy tiara that allows her to do everything, but on Reversernia, the dominating classes have psychic powers which allows them to not rely on technology for things but have a stronger connection with nature, bronzes have animal connections, Golds are linked to the organic technology of the bee combs and various bugs, their technology mastery is different from the ones of Equius and HIC because they never built the hives or the bugs they make games with, they just grow their technology, meaning the that Reversernia isn't a technocracy but they almost worship nature itself.
Another thing is that I don't want to reverse the life expectancy, Rusts still come and go faster than everyone while Fuchsia are stuck living forever as eldritch beings at the bottom of the sea with mysterious abilities.
And their psychic abilities are also changed by this new form of government, and THOSE I want to reverse but not as a meta decision but as in-world thing where the castes under blue were taught to only use their abilities on ways that don't benefit them, for so long they straight up forgot how to use them on ways more similar to canon. Basically:
Ceruleans have reverse mind control, they can invite people into their bodies for the benefits of those that are lending their bodies, that is a lot of Ceruleans line of work even, just lending out while their conscious take a back sit. Warm bloods do that when they want a more resistant body and maybe to escape the boredom of their lives
Purples are entertainers who can use their skills to give people pleasant dreams, and are overall nice clowns
I'm kinda lost on the other abilities, this is where I need help, what would be the opposite of telekinesis or talking to ghosts? Should Bronzes turn into animals instead of controlling animals? What would be a reversed blood drinker?
And another theme I want to work in is the feminine and masculine dominated roles, what if Jade bloods become cool and tough action heroes, what if Indigos become small and petite nuns that worship a technological God instead of an organic mother Grub? Should the trolls stay nocturnal or what? It's hard making a reverse AU and not knowing which things to reverse, specially when I already decided to keep their population disparity the same as canon and their powers roughly the same? I just hope I can get more ppl invested into this.
#homestuck#homestuck au#worldbuilding#i guess#ive been reading a lot of worldbuilding posts#hemospectrum#my stuff
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SE-POST Reread part 1/4
Guess it's time for another update - still recovering and readjusting so nothing substantiual, but I decided it would be fun and usefull to reread my own stuff for the future so I don't just forget all the things I set-up and to see where I messed up the most and what I can improve. I leave small notes after reading a chapter and record them, maybe they will just be repetive and the same as the chapter notes, maybe not, but to make up for it, I'll include little rushed no-effort sketches with each one. Also you can catch up or remind yourself if you want to be ready for when this story finally continues.
If this still isn't satisfieng for everybody waiting for the hiatus to be finally over - yeah...sorry.
So anyways, here we go:
chapter 1:
not as bad as I remembered, even the dialog (besides the obvious countless typos, word repetition, sometimes unclear baloon order) wasn't too bad, I remembered it to be so emberassing that I wouldn't be able to reread it, but it actually even causes me a slight chuckle a few times and didn't sound much worse than some stuff (maybe cause I started watching the third season of mob psycho, a series I used to hold in high regard, and realised that it's dialog and exposition isn't as good as I remembered). But it could also just be to the anesthetics in my system still affecting my perception (Probably shouldnt after all this time, especially when I didn't take pain killers once they became voluntary)
Guess my most controversial opinion, which will make people think I truly lost it and became narcisistic and delusional, is that the art doesn't suck - no I mean it does suck, but in a way that often actually conveys things more clearly than probably some later chapters, and has a certain charm to it, even though I admit some panels are really rough Still dunno, maybe I can just pretend that it had more "soul" than even I realised. Alas.
chapter 2:
Weird, that even though I figured out how the speech bubble tool worked, this chapter actually had more instances were the layout of them was confusing and it wasn't clear which bubble to read first, probably ruining some jokes. Also I allways felt a bit that the woman that was the victim had a too quick of a turn of opinion, just to get her out of the scene, just showed my sloppy writting and use of convenienve, hope it wasn't too jaring anyways.
Still, I personally liked the whole intro scene, even if it may be simmilar to many cliche "saving someone from a monster in the last moment" depictions. Didn't use any reference for the flow of it and I think it worked, but as I mentioned, maybe it's just my megalomania speaking.
But another flaw I admit is the 3 time repeated "oh how was the mission? Great!, besides- anyways..." talk. Even though it happens in real life (as I experienced recently when 3 different old ladys asked me why I wasnt at a rehabilitation exercise when I felt bad) , it still feels clunky, unecessary and "fillery" in a story, maybe if I had done something with it like conveing something a bit different or showing some subtle change.. But eh, can't cry over spilled milk. Also I thought the lame reference/meta humor would make me wince from regrett but nah that shit still works, and if you "cringed" you just don't get the vision
(Also funny that Kurma and Zalte appearedncoe the first time, can't say I didn't build up the arc, even if it took a bit longer than expected, also did anybody catch the first hint of Ragnarok being "nice" to Tsubaki, wishing her goodbye and even Crona being comfused by such behaviour from him?)
chapter 3: Think the confusing speech bubble problem persists but is a bit less common. Some panels at the end were a bit unclear, especially at the end but others thing did the job. Still some typos and dialog sure sounds clumsy, should have chosen some other words. Also in the talk between Kid and Death, guess some "jokes", could be cut out to make it flow better. But on the other hand I quite liked the conversation between Ragnarok and Tsubaki, wasn't too schmalzy, atleast in my opinion. Still this chapter set up a few things even that early, even though no real "antagonist" appeared in it, guess I just have a preference for these silly slice of life chapters.
chapter 4: yeah think this one has just mostly bad art without any of the previously mentioned charm or "pizzaz", even though some panels were still quite dynamic in a good way. Still having Crona and Patty interact was probably a good idea, and something I should explore more in the future. Sadly this one still hasn't solved the problem of some text bubbles having a confusing reading order, ruining some jokes and emotional moments. Also it's were you can see the overstuffed unecesarry jokes and dialogs rear their ugly head. Also the scene trasitions were probably confusing, even if maybe I did it on purpose? Anyways interesting to see an early Zalte and Kurma, maybe one could arguee that Zalte's charachter was different at that moment but I guess I could try to pretend that I just didn't want to reveal to much. Still weird that in some ways on reread I didn't like the chapter but in others I enjoyed it quite a lot, but guess it is what it is
chapter 5 Weirdly I found this one a lot better than the previous one in a lot of aspects. Even if it just seems to be a few scenes jumping around without a larger important plot, the art seemed a lot more lively and even actually "readable". Even some jokes and scenes seemed to land better. Guess the cover is the worst part, cause the church building looks kinda lame, but in contrast the silent scene of the wedding itself seemed quite nice, atleast to my self-loving eyes. Also intersting that this is the first time when Medusas remnant snake showed up. Anyways, maybe I should write more on it, but I think it speaks for itself, ofcourse it still has some problems with the text bubbles being confusing and dialog containg typos or just confusing sentence structure and word choice (Im not even sure if "joker" can be used in the context, basically I ment "lifeline", like in a quiz show, guess things like that get mixed up when you speak 3 languages and are trying to learn more)
chapter6: even if the art takes a dive again, I enjoyed the content of it still, was suprised by how well I could switch from the c*** mother to caring mum without making it look to cartoonish. But yeah I admit the action was too confusing to read and even I can't even decipher a few panels of it Anyways this one shows what happens if.you dont make enough concept art and do new charachters mostly of the dome. Guess for the first two parter it set ups things well enough, but hard to say without a second opinion, maybe most people find it all weird. Still maybe I have more to say after rereading the second part
chapter 7: Just noticed that I was very sparing with the sound effects at first, maybe I thought it was bwtter to make them clear by context? Still liked the chapter, because it seemed a lot happened in it without it being too rushed and even the art, even if super basic and scratchy, still conveid the action mostly, with some exceptions. Atleast better than the previous one. Still think using Humpty Dumpty as a kishinegg was a creative choice, I mean why not, atleast its not as exploitative as using real life recent serial killers, which I did and probably will continue to do, even if I probably shouldnt... Anyways, I have less to say than I though, just felt engadge myself when reading it, so atleast one person is satisfied by it so thats good enough. Oh also, think the speech bubble order problem is mostly solved by this point.
chapter 8: Well, I still wonder if anybody quit just because of what kind of person the kishinegg was, that its a too serious topic to use for a stupid fancomic of a cartoon. But besides the question of tastefulness, I liked the whole intro of the chapter even after rereading it. The paralels with Crona and him trying to help the kid seemed not forced or anything, atleast to me. The only question I started to have while rereading was, if Maka was out of charachter or atleast if her charachter development got ignored. Wouldn't she too have seen a pathetic scared kid, who she would have tried to help after her experience with Crona? I guess I would justifie it that for one, the kid directly killed other student, which is such a terrible act that Maka wouldn't even think about any other "victims" besides the ones slayin. Also she did try to just kill Crona at their first confrontation and at the second only changed her mind once she saw the inside of his soul and realised Cronas situation. But here comes the question - should that have led her to reconsider other people before attacking like she did with Crona or do habbits like that not change so easily, especially if Crona was really "special" atleast in her eyes. Guess the fact that this kid seemed to be more mentally gone than even Crona at his worst could contribute, but at the end I have to admit that it would just be boring if Maka came to the same conclusions as Crona, and there wasn't a conflict or motor for Crona to develop his thought on his own. Anyways maybe I'm just overthinking a minor part of this comic, who knows But on the more technical side, I think even if some of the art looks better than the last chapter, the clarity got a lot worse, maybe it was just too dificult setting for my effort and skills at the time. The ocean especially looked like shit, and I hopefully would have done a much better job at this point. Still I liked the fight itself just for the stupid eye stabing gag and for showing how just arbitrary forgivness won't solve every problem. Anyways, at the end the chapter mostly set up things for the future while having a action set piece - so if it ever gets redrawn it wouldnt just be boring text like some other chapters comming up.
chapter 9: Yeah it looks even more obvious that I rushed this one out in a single day, the "quality" makes it obvious. Still I found a lot of it fun and the whole boardgame parody something lo-fi that gets uses rarely. But that also makes me see how it would all benefit from a redraw or something, even the dialog seems to have a lot more typos and repeating phrases than the last few, even with the edits I did when I reuploaded it on AO3. Anyways, in a story progression sense this "filler" chapter actually planted a lot of seeds, some that only started paying of recently, like Crona acting simmilar to his mother, so I hope it got apreciated for that
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Week 10
Wrap-up of digital bottle project:
Adding a neck to the bottle was surprisingly simple; make a cylinder of the appropriate size and dimensions, align the X and Y axis with those of the bottle, adjust the Z height so that it integrates with the bottle and then select the cylinder using the "attach" option within an editpoly modifier applied to the bottle. This resulted in a merged body which could then be exported as a .stl file for printing.
Following export it was simple to prepare the file in Cura. It would be easy to 3D print the bottle with the specified settings, but I tweaked them slightly based on my preference.
I have been unable to attend campus so have not printed this bottle. I have a lot of experience with 3D printing both from past projects and from working in the engineering makerspaces. One tweak I made to my print is changing the default infill pattern from "triangular" to "cubic subdivision". I have found cubic sub to be better (even if it takes on the order of 5-10% longer to print), particularly in mechanical applications, as it is a truly 3-dimensional infill (as opposed to triangular infill which has a uniform cross-sectional profile regardless of the layer).
Cubic-sub is more dimensionally stable, stiffer, and distributes forces better through an object than triangular infill of the same weight. Cubic-sub infill acts similarly to the cancellous (spongey) bone found at the heads of the long bones in the human body - it is lightweight, tough and distributes regular and irregular forces well.
Nothing is better than a bit of overkill, so a bottle printed with cubic sub infill would be less likely to be accidentally crushed while handling or otherwise being manipulated or finished.
IDES1262 in Review
Looking back on this course I believe I have come to appreciate a great deal more the importance of sketching in design iteration and communication. I have also learnt a decent set of new digital skills (Photoshop and 3DSMax in particular) which will help (and have already helped in the case of Studio B) with delivering future designs skilfully, and in a way which clearly communicates design intent.
For me personally I found the technical drawing to be the easiest part of the course due to prior experience. That being said, just because something is easy or familiar does not mean it is enjoyable. I found again and again that doing technical drawing by hand always took waaay longer than I anticipated, and required a real attention to detail so as to not mess up a drawing and be forced to start again. While I appreciate that attention to detail is an important trait in a designer it does not warrant slaving away doing drawings by hand which could be done in a fraction of the time on a computer, only to end up with an inferior product.
I think it is important to draw the distinction (pun intended) between the skill of drafting and the skill of sketching. Given the course was primarily focussed on drafting in the early weeks I believe it would be far better (and more useful for the vast majority of the students) to have switched to digital drafting after week 2. Doing so could have meant an introduction to drafting in AutoCAD or Rhino (or whatever other drafting program you choose - the skills are ultimately transferrable) which would be far more beneficial (and time-efficient) as opposed to continuing to produce technical drawings by hand.
The most difficult (but also by far the most rewarding) parts were learning how to photoshop my designs and getting my head around the maverick program that is 3DSMax - I'm still not at a level I am happy with either of these programs, but I see the value in them far more clearly and already have a couple of personal projects I will be using them for as both a challenge and as a means to delve deeper into learning these programs which will undoubtedly pay dividends in the future.
If I had to do the course again I would certainly focus more on time management and expectations around that - it doesn't matter whether doing technical drawings by hand, learning how to draw in photoshop, or struggling to get your head around weird software like 3DSMax, all of these activities always took a lot longer than I anticipated.
Overall I have enjoyed the course (despite my grumbles) and have developed some really valuable new skills through this course which I can continue to build on to make me a better industrial designer. Thanks Gonz, Rob & Sarah!
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Well, it’s not quite a master’s thesis, but this is (the first of) a series of posts on why Catra and Adora are the best love story in the history of kids TV animation and maybe the greatest love story in the history of TV. This may in some ways be faint praise - romance on TV is generally not very good compared with books or movies. Often it’s just some will they/won’t they sexual tension that is defused by getting characters together and re-heightened by breaking them up. TV is full of nearly shark jumping pointless dramas like Sam and Diane (Cheers, holy fuck am I dating myself, though that was technically before my time), Ross and Rachel (Friends, which was no Cheers) etc, but also some less annoying couples like Ben and Leslie (Parks and Rec) or Amy and Jake (Bk99) who are mostly just kind of cute and fun. Other shows, like the X-Files, teased viewers for years with unresolved sexual tension. In kids shows most romances are, appropriate for their target viewers, mild, sweet relationships based more on self-conscious flirting and blushing than on complex and conflicted feelings or deep passions - which is pretty realistic when the characters are young teens or even mid-teens. Some of these relationships are really well done - Finn and Flame Princess, Dipper and Pacifica (yeah I ship them), the early stages of Katara and Aang (before the showrunners imbued this childhood crush with cosmic significance), Steven and Connie, etc. Catra and Adora, though, are different. Their love story is not a side plot or a sub plot, it’s the heart of the show. It isn’t a childhood crush, it’s a very messy and passionate relationship between two young adults. She-Ra is an emotionally complex lesbian romance just as much as it is a thrilling action/adventure show. Everything about their relationship is baked into the show’s plot, its themes, hell even its musical score. The dramatic tension between Catra and Adora is not the result of stretching out a flirtation for ratings, but a coherent dramatic arc that runs through the entire show. As Noelle said, he made Catradora so central that execs couldn’t take it out without ruining the show. And the show is better for it. In this series of posts I’m going to try to show why, as well as showing why She-Ra is such a fantastic love story.
First off, let’s talk about how Catra and Adora’s character arcs are foils for each other, and how they come together and apart through the series. This is actually a post that I’ve been working on for a while but I keep summarizing the show rather than cutting to the chase, so I’m not going to recite many plot points so much as sketch out what’s going on with the dramatic structure at the time. But also, let’s talk about what each character’s arc is saying, and how they are commenting on each other. Spoiler alert: Catra’s arc is a subversion and critique of stories of empowerment through ruthless self-assertion and revenge, while Adora’s arc is a subversion and critique of chosen one narratives and stories of self-denial and self-transcendence.
When the show starts, Adora and Catra are shown as rivals and friends - their first scene starts the recurring motif of them reaching out for each other as one of them dangles above an abyss, as well as establishing their flirtatious banter and easy camaraderie. We quickly learn that these two young women plan to conquer the world together. These scenes and later flashbacks show Catra and Adora as deeply enmeshed in each others lives, to the point where neither of them (but especially Catra) have clear identities outside of one another. There is so much genuine love on both sides before Adora leaves, but also resentment, envy and fear, especially on Catra’s side, as well as a protectiveness on Adora’s side that deprives Catra of her autonomy. They are both being abused by Shadow Weaver - Catra physically and emotionally, Adora emotionally. It wouldn’t be too much to say that Shadow Weaver holds Catra hostage to control Adora (this is why critiques that Adora abandoned Catra to be abused are actually kind of messed up, since they accept Shadow Weaver’s premise that Adora is responsible for what Shadow Weaver does to Catra). In addition, Catra and Adora actually see the world incredibly differently. Adora already sees the world in terms of right, wrong and her destiny to right wrongs - this is why it’s important for her to accept the Horde’s obvious lies - she couldn’t keep living if she didn’t. Catra, on the other hand, sees the world solely in terms of survival and personal loyalty - everything for her is about preserving herself and the person she cares about - Adora.
Then, when Adora finds the sword, she leaves because it’s the right thing to do. Catra doesn’t even have a concept of ‘the right thing to do’ being something she should care about, or perhaps, something she can care about as an irredeemably evil, awful fuck-up. So at Thaymor neither one understands where the other is coming from, and Catra and Adora begin to part. This is the first turning point in their relationship. Adora chooses duty over what she desires, Catra chooses to protect herself (such as she sees it) and nurse her sense of betrayal and abandonment.
Their relationship until Promise is a kind of weird Frenemy thing that is fascinating to watch and sold me on the show. Neither one wants to fully admit to themselves that the other is now their enemy, neither one has given up on changing the other’s mind. Each is furious at the other, and desperate to see her again at the same time. There’s a lot of heartache and just as much sexual tension, especially at Princess Prom. Both of them come alive when they fight each other (more about that in a later post). But they’re already growing apart - Adora embracing her destiny as She-Ra, Catra rising in the ranks for the Horde. Adora now has the purpose she always wanted, plus other friends and a sense of being chosen to do something great, while Catra now has power - the means to protect herself from people like Shadow Weaver as well as the vindication she had always been denied, and even the opportunity to beat Shadow Weaver at her own game.
The next turning point is Promise. Holy fuck, this episode. It’s an episode that is even more heartbreaking after you’ve watched the show because you know just how much worse things are going to get, and yet, it’s a necessary part of both of their character arcs. Even through season 1 Catra and Adora had remained very much enmeshed in each others lives in an increasingly fucked up way as they grew apart but refused to turn away from each other. Even though they aren’t -exactly- a romantic couple (Adora doesn’t recognize and acknowledge her feelings until the last episode of Season 5), Season 1 of She-Ra is one of the worst breakups I have seen on TV. As I said in a couple of previous posts, this is the kind of shit that the Mountain Goats write songs about. Everything that was poisoning their love for each other even before episode 1 bubbles to the surface and combines with them fighting on opposite sides of the war to make a truly fucked up situation. In the end, it’s Catra that makes the choice to turn away from Adora. This isn’t a -good- decision. It’s spiteful, and destructive, and based on an outright deluded understanding of their relationship (inspired by Light Hope’s manipulations and her own issues), but it’s in some ways a necessary decision. Catra has been so wrapped up in Adora for so long that she isn’t going to be able to figure out who -she- is without cutting Adora out of her life. And the same is true of Adora.
But each of them do this in about the worst way possible. Catra embraces destruction, ambition, manipulation and outright cruelty, turning the tactics of her abusers against them and against everyone around her. She first triumphs over Shadow Weaver and manipulates Entrapta into trying to corrupt Etheria itself. Meanwhile Adora ‘lets go’ and commits herself to the self-denying mantle of She-Ra. Over the next several seasons, their respective paths will nearly lead both Catra and Adora to their deaths (in the Season 4 finale).
For the next season (counting season 2 and 3 as one) Catra and Adora are still closely linked, but as enemies. Still, there’s more than enough flirtation between them (that ‘Hey Catra’ in the first episode of Season 2 is something else), and especially on Adora’s side we see her hold back with Catra, and often take responsibility for the harm Catra inflicts, just like she had when they were kids. Yet they still drift apart - after facing off every other episode in Season 1, they spend less and less time on screen together through season 2 and 3. Catra continues her ascent to power and descent into villainy while Adora becomes more of a stressed out mess as she takes the fate of the world and the wellbeing of everyone she cares about on her admittedly broad shoulders. Catra’s one moment of vulnerability is rewarded by Shadow Weaver’s betrayal and her exile, then Catra triumphs in ruthless badass fashion through sheer desperation and aggression. In the Crimson Wastes, we see Catra at her most independent, and she almost seems happy. But once Adora shows up and Catra hears about Shadow Weaver, she’s sucked back into the worst of her resentments, and she makes very clear that being happy is less important to her than making sure Adora is miserable.
This changes everything. Catra completely breaks with reality and tries to kill Adora, herself and the world rather than lose to Adora and Shadow Weaver (I do think it’s important to remember that she does that after Shadow Weaver nearly kills her). Catra betrays everyone around her when she exiles Entrapta, threatens Scopria and lies to Hordak. Then she flips the switch. When Adora tries to fix things, Catra fights to her own death to make sure that the world disintegrates with her. For her part, Adora fights first to understand what is wrong with the world and then to fix it. Finally she tells Catra that destroying the world is her choice and she has to live with it, decks her, and then sees her off with a death glare once the portal is closed. With this, Adora writes Catra off even if, as she says later, she never never hated her. By doing that, Adora casts off the guilt that had dogged her and takes responsibility for her own life rather than someone else’s - this is actually a huge step for her, and one that will become more important in Season 4.
Season 4 is in many ways the nadir of their relationship. They only see each other once during the entire season, in Fluterrina, when Adora tries to blast Catra, much to the latter’s shock. There’s a sense in that scene that Catra is trying to have the same flirtatious enmity she used to have with Adora, and Adora is having none of it. Catra almost seems hurt by this, which is an early hint at how isolated Catra is beginning to feel. Catra spends the rest of the season at her highest and lowest. On the one hand she spends most of 12 episodes winning by every standard she has ever claimed to care about, besting Hordak himself in single combat and making herself co-ruler of the Horde and coming within a day’s march of ending the Rebellion. In many ways it is the ultimate empowerment fantasy - the abused young woman has defeated her abusers, showed up everyone who doubted her and forced everyone to respect her. But I think it’s striking that the show starts with her and Adora dreaming of conquering the world together and in Season 4 Catra nearly succeeds in conquering it alone, almost like she was trying to live out her old shared fantasy while proving she didn’t need her former best friend.
At the same time, Catra is clearly miserable. She’s always been unhappy, but in Season 4 we see her completely isolated and lying to herself and everyone who will listen in a desperate attempt to justify her actions. Turning the tactics of Hordak and Shadow Weaver against them to gain power and then against Scorpia and Entrapta to maintain it haven’t vindicated Catra, they’ve made her more and more alone as Entrapta is exiled and Scorpia drifts away. Meanwhile Catra reaches out to Double Trouble, and her interactions with them reek of a kind of desperate desire to have someone in her life (the feeling of their interaction is of an unhealthy casual relationship where one partner becomes emotionally invested and the other takes advantage of that while denying the other the closeness they desire). As people leave her, one after the other, it becomes clearer and clearer that Catra doesn’t want power at all - she wants connection, friendship, love, and power is a very poor replacement. As I said in my long Catra rant, Season 4 is both her ‘Walter White as a Catgirl’ season and the beginning of her redemption. Everything comes to head when Sparkles destroys everything Catra has tried to achieve, Double Trouble delivers those harsh truths and Horde Prime shows up and makes it all irrelevant, just highlighting how futile all her struggles and sacrifices and crimes have been.
Meanwhile Adora spends Season 4 becoming her own her and her own woman. After telling off Catra, she grows more and more disillusioned with Light Hope and critical of Glimmer (though the latter has more than a shade of her old habit of taking responsibility for others - Adora’s development is not linear). She’s gained the courage and confidence to strike out her own path, not just follow a destiny. At the season’s end she once again breaks with her best friend to do what is right, and discards the destiny that she was being prepared for. But in this case she isn’t chasing one packaged destiny for another, instead she’s making her own choice and literally shattering the thing that she thought gave her life purpose. It’s badass, and heartbreaking, and along with decking Catra and jumping after Catra into the abyss (see below) it’s the perfect Adora moment.
In many ways Season 5 starts with Catra and Adora farther apart than they have ever been. They aren’t even enemies anymore, they’re completely out of each other’s lives. And both Catra and Adora are lost at the beginning of Season 5 - Catra is useless and alone on Prime’s ship, completely defeated despite ostensibly being on the winning side, and she goes through the motions of her normal plotting without any particular conviction and none of her normal flair. Meanwhile Adora is even more miserable and self-destructive than usual, throwing herself at Horde Bots and working herself until she drops of exhaustion. In a very real way they both stay lost until they have a chance to help the other. Catra takes responsibility for what she’s done and what she can do, saves Glimmer (at least partly for Adora’s sake), apologizes to Adora, and sacrifices herself. Adora only seems to come alive when she decides to turn around, face Prime, and save the cat. And when she does, Catra and Adora’s arcs, which had separated so completely in season 4, come crashing back together to end the series.
Adora during Save the Cat is such a contrast with the uncertain, hesitant and self-destructive wreck we’ve seen so far in Season 5. This is possibly her craziest plan in 3 years of mostly cazy plans, but she never wavers or questions herself. Even when Chipped Catra appears and we see Adora’s heart break while we watch, Adora doesn’t back down or relent. She keeps at it even as the tears stream down her face. She fights better trying to save Catra without She-Ra’s powers than she fought at the Battle of Bright Moon with them. Catra’s just about as desperate - we see her cry and plead, and now is probably as good a time to any to point out how amazing a job both VAs did throughout the show, but especially in this episode, and how good a job the board artists did.
Seeing each other for the first time in a year, and only the second time since Catra blew everything up, Catra and Adora are probably the rawest and least restrained we’ve ever seen them. There’s barely any banter, no bravado, and no pretense that they are anything other than two women who desperately need each other (Prime doesn’t help with ‘You broke my heart’.) Then Catra is flung to her death, Adora jumps after her, breaks both her legs in the fall (we see her crawl to Catra, as though she couldn’t walk) and becomes the real She-Ra. It’s such a triumphant and deeply queer moment seeing a woman transformed into a warrior goddess to protect the woman she loves, and it’s the reason that, as dark as it is, Save the Cat is my Comfort Food episode.
Let’s not sleep on Taking Control, though. This episode is like a microcosm of what this show does best, especially the A plot with Catra and Adora. Catra’s reversion to lashing out at everyone and her refusal to be open to Adora shows just how much of a struggle this whole ‘being good and trying to connect to people’ thing is. Catra’s outburst gives Adora a chance to stand up for herself and refuse to be Catra’s punching bag, while also not trying to control her. Adora’s ultimatum gives Catra a chance to reach out to Adora (quite literally), and allow herself to be vulnerable. In this episode, we see just how far Catra and Adora have come since the messed up stew of their relationship in Season 1. Adora lets Catra be responsible for her own actions; Catra lets herself be vulnerable to Adora and takes responsibility for her actions. They’re both better people and better friends and better partners than they were, and the show has shown this in a strikingly nuanced and realistic way.
The important thing to note in the next few episodes of Season 5 isn’t just how much closer Catra and Adora get to each other and how much they flirt (So much. So much, y’all) but just how -happy- they are. We see both of them transformed in the other’s presence. Basically, since they’ve parted, both Catra and Adora have been defined in no small part by how miserable they often are. They have both had their triumphs and their lighter moments, but there’s been a sense of melancholy dogging both Catra and Adora since episode 1. And now that they’re together again, that lifts, somewhat. Catra’s verbal barbs have lost their venom, and she can openly show how much she cares for Adora and even Bow and Glimmer. She’s still herself - snarky, cynical, somewhat devious - but she’s not engaged in a self-destructive zero-sum struggle with everyone around her. Meanwhile Adora has spent 4 seasons being a neurotic and sometimes nearly joyless mess who takes responsibility for everything and often doesn’t let herself enjoy anything other than the odd BFS group hug (exceptions include trying to uh...impress Huntara and reveling with the butterfly ladies of Elberron in Flutterina). Around Catra, though, she’s a cocky, swaggering jock who gives as good as she gets. It’s a side of Adora we’ve only seen hints of before, and one that’s so much more confident and joyful even as the world is ending around her. Apart, Catra had tried to protect and vindicate herself with power and conquest, while Adora had tried to forget herself in duty and sacrifice. Together, they can be themselves again. This dynamic is crucial to the show’s portrayal of Catra and Adora’s romance because it doesn’t just show how much they love each other, but how they’re -good- for each other now that they’ve grown as people, and that they are so much better than they were when they were apart.
Until Shadow Weaver shows up. Their old abuser reintroduces tensions but even then things are different than they were. Now Catra isn’t just resentful of how Shadow Weaver prefers Adora - she’s protective of Adora, which is clearest in Failsafe when she calls Shadow Weaver out for being willing to sacrifice Adora. And while Adora takes the Failsafe, it isn’t to follow her destiny or because she has a death wish - it’s because she loves her friends, and she is the only one who has any hope of doing this and living (though Catra’s suggestion that Shadow Weaver take it is a good one). And finally, when Catra leaves Adora, it isn’t because she hates Adora, nor, despite what she says, is it because she really thinks that Adora chose Shadow Weaver. At least, not exactly. It’s because Catra loves Adora, and can admit that to herself, and can’t stay around and watch the woman she loves sacrifice herself rather than choosing Catra. Before Catra leaves, she asks Adora ‘What do you want?” It’s a question that echoes Shadow Weaver’s speech in Episode 1: ‘isn’t this what you always wanted since you could want anything?’ As much as Adora has grown as a person, and defined herself and stood up for what she thinks is right, she still has never answered that question - it’s never been ‘what do I want’ but ‘what do I have to do?’ and that’s how Adora answers Catra’s question. This is Adora’s last gasp as a self-transcending hero, letting go of what she wants (not that she ever dared articulate what that was) in order to do what must be done. And it nearly kills her and dooms the universe, because Adora can’t be the hero that she needs to be by being anyone less than herself.
But it’s losing Catra that inspires Adora to tell off Shadow Weaver for good (not that she’d ever really warmed to her after season 1). And it’s love for Adora that inspires Catra to stand up to Shadow Weaver and demand that she do the right thing. In both cases, Catra and Adora aren’t just standing up to their abuser, but holding her to account for the harm she’s caused, and it’s the love that they have for each other that inspires them to do this. In Catra’s case in particular her refusal to let Shadow Weaver weasel out of finding Adora is a much greater triumph over Shadow Weaver than beating her up and breaking her mask in Season 1 - it’s proof not so much to Shadow Weaver but to Catra herself that Catra really is better than this and that she deserves better than this. It’s not turning her abuser’s tactics against her, but truly holding her to a moral standard and demanding that she do the right thing.
And then there’s Catra and Adora together at the heart. Catra has already come back for Adora and stayed to the end, choosing to die with her even if she can’t share a life together (not out of some death wish, but because Adora needs her). And Adora, who’s been avoiding answering the question for three fucking years, finally let’s herself want Catra when Catra finally confesses her love (breaking the last of her self-protective shields) and asks Adora to stay -for her-. And by admitting what she wants, Adora can truly be at peace with herself and be the hero she needs to be, lesbianism saves the universe, The End.
So anyway, that’s how Catra and Adora’s stories are woven together and how they compliment and comment on each other. Narrativiely, Adora and Catra start together, come apart, find something of themselves, and truly find themselves and each other when they are reunited. Thematically, they are critiquing seemingly opposing narrative tropes - empowerment narratives and narratives of self sacrifice. But by showing the flaws in both types of story and showing how neither self-seeking empowerment nor self-negating self sacrifice can actually make us happy, She-Ra asks and answers more profound questions than most prestige dramas for adults do. I’ll get into how the show sells the idea that the power of love can bring us happiness (and save the world) in a future post. But next up, I’m going to celebrate just how much Catra and Adora’s relationship revels in ambiguity, complexity and contradiction and so tells a grown up love story in a kid’s show.
#she ra#she ra spoilers#she ra adora#spop#catradora#she ra netflix#she ra and the princesses of power#goat ship#long#meta
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Of Immortality and Nymphs
(Philza Minecraft x Reader)
Request 2: Just c!philza simping over reader!!
Requested by: Anonymous
(Okay maybe I got a little carried away with this one...)
~~~
He met her for the first time when he was a young man, who barely understood the world around him. Messing with things he shouldn’t was his specialty so when he heard there used to be Nymphs in the nearby forests, he just had to find out if they were extinct or not. Phil flipped through his worn journal and tapped his quill on the paper, he wanted to document his journey to finding the supposedly mythical creature. After all, this was one of his first real adventures all by himself he wouldn’t accept any form of defeat. He popped the cork off the invisibility potion he had and downed it with one swig. Phil, now hidden, wandered into the forest of the last known location, of the last recorded Nymph. Not being visible to the creatures in the forest allowed Phil to take in the beauty of nature around him, he could get close to the animals and see them in their natural habitat. The forest was beautiful, sunlight peeking in through the leaves of the trees, it was magical. He placed his hand on the trees running his hand over the bark with a smile, Phil heard a soft twinkling in his ear, and his head shot up. Always trigger happy he put his hand on his sword, in the middle of a nearby clearing stood a beautiful woman with gorgeous (h/c) hair. Flowers and leaves seemed to be interwoven within the strands, her ears were elf-like in appearance adorned with gold piercings. Her dress flowed in the wind, it was a soft almost translucent green decorated with leaves, in her hand was a baby chick. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, it was clear she was the Nymph that the old stories were talking about, thank god for the invisibility potion.
Pulling out his journal once more he began to sketch a picture of the elegant woman, he didn’t want to forget her face. The man looked up once more to finish up the sketch and the Nymph was gone, he frowned sadly, he did hope he could get to talk to her.
“What’re you drawing?” Phil snapped his notebook shut letting out a startled yelp, he turned to look at the figure beside him. The potion must’ve worn off when he wasn’t looking, however beside him was said Nymph. His jaw almost dropped open, did she have no self-preservation? “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you!” She stepped a few steps back and he held out his arm to stop her.
“No! No, you’re alright!” He put his hand to his heart, “I’m Phil. and you are?”
“(Y/n). Are you human?”
“Tragically,” Phil gave her a little smile as she tilted her head curiously. “Are you a Nymph?” You looked a little hesitant, he watched as your ears twitched in an undeniably cute way. He felt himself melt a little as you gave a nod,
“A Meliae if you want to get specific,” you smiled fondly giving him a teasing wink. Opening his notebook again he scribbled that down next to the figure drawing of you, you sat down in front of him watching in awe, “Is that your language’s written system?” Looking back up at her curious expression Phil once again felt his heartbeat speed up in his chest.
“It is. You’re very clever,” He hummed and was delighted in the way you flushed up to the tips of your ears. You waved him off,
“I’m not that clever. When you’ve been around as long as I have you pick up on certain things,” He watched you carefully as you sat down beside him resting on your knees. Curiously Phil tilted his head,
“How long have you been around?”
“Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a woman her age?” She shot back a grin on her features, oh Phil was in love. Nymphs did tend to have that effect on people, people fall hard and fast for them, but Phil didn’t care.
“My apologies, that was rude of me huh?”
“Very.” She teased with a snicker, “I’ve honestly lost count at this point.”
“You’ve lost track? So you’re immortal then?” Phil’s entire face lit up the excitement prevalent on his features, “Tell me everything.” He pleaded, with a soft laugh you began to share your tale with the man in front of you. Phil was enamored she had lived more lifetimes than he could begin to comprehend, what he wouldn’t do to have that gift. The duo talked long into the evening and well into the next morning, Phil knew he had to head home soon. Not that he had anyone waiting for him back home, but he couldn’t stay with her forever as much as he wanted to. “When can I see you again?” He whispered taking your hands within his own, he couldn’t help but notice how soft they were for someone living in a forest. You hesitantly pressed your finger to his earring,
“They’ll start to glow whenever I’m near. So you can always find me,” You whispered cupping his cheek in your hand, he felt himself lean into it. “I’ll see you soon Phil,” You leaned forward pressing a tender kiss to his lips before disappearing in a flurry of flowers and leaves. Phil let out a shaky breath bringing his fingers to his lips a wild smile appearing across them. He opened his journal one last time adding ‘great kissers’ to his list of things about the Nymph of the forest.
They met many more times after that, and with each meeting, Phil only fell more and more in love with her. He wanted to protect you and keep you safe especially after telling him that Nymphs were hunted for their tears that give immortality but now without the expense of the Nymph. Yet even with his pleading, you wouldn’t leave the forest you called home. You told him maybe one day you could, but you were the only Nymph protecting the forest and you had to stay to protect your home. Ever the gentleman Phil would drop the conversation and steer it into another direction said direction ended with a lot of kissing.
As the years flew by Phil found himself growing older and you remaining the same and as beautiful as ever, he wanted to be immortal with you. He never wanted to lose you, so he made a deal with the God of undying, sacrificing his three lives for one immortal life so he could remain by your side forever. He’d also have to give up part of his humanity, he was bestowed giant black crow-like wings. But he’d do anything so long as he got to be by your side for the rest of eternity. Phil didn’t want to tell you at first, afraid you’d be mad but it was hard to hide giant black wings and the man could never stay far away from you. When he finally saw you again you knew what went down practically immediately. Surprisingly you took it much better than he originally thought, you seemed to flattered beyond belief but also pissed as hell. Desperately you tried to explain to him that immortality wasn’t a gift but a curse, seeing the world change around you while you stay young forever wasn’t as fun as it sounded. The man scoffed, shooting back a comment of his own about how he didn’t want to imagine a world without you by his side. You didn’t deserve to lose someone you loved just because they were mortal and he stood by that.
He watched your face scrunch up, cheeks turning pink at his sentiment. Mostly because you were melting around his words and he knew it too by the smirk evident on his features. Phil locked eyes with you and smiled endearingly,
“I love you.”
“I’m pregnant.”
“Fucking what-” He choked on his spit any argument that started before fizzled out the minute you had told you said those two words to him. He felt his features morphed in surprise before wrapping you in a tight suffocating hug. That only solidified his choices, he made the right decision, he needed to stay by you and your child’s side so long as the universe allowed him to.
However, things weren’t all peaches and rainbows as the world changed to a dark and dismal place once more. Forests were being burned and destroyed and humans once again discovered the existence of Nymphs and wanted to hunt them down for sport. Things were dangerous, way too dangerous for you and the newborn son you shared with Phil. Reluctantly you and Phil came to a decision, to protect your baby you needed to leave, it was the only way to keep them safe. You held the baby close to your chest, tears swelling in your eyes as Phil kissed your cheeks trying to shush you softly. “It’s alright…” His voice was gentle, his big hand caressing the boy’s chocolate brown curls.
“It’s not alright. Phil...I don’t wanna leave you or Wilbur.” Your voice quivered and Phil’s heart shattered in pieces, “But his safety comes first.” You brought the baby up to your lips and kissed his forehead, he giggled sweetly trying to squish his mother’s cheeks. You laughed as he did so, “My sweet, lovely boy. I’ll have to leave you for a while, I don’t want to but you need to be kept safe. I…” Phil frowned watching as you choked up once more, “I’m not safe.” Even through your tears, Phil thought you were beautiful, “You can’t tell him about me…”
“(Y/n) I can’t- That’s just not fair-” You shushed him with a kiss to his lips, passing Wilbur off to him.
“If he’s anything like his father he’ll lose his mind searching for his mother. He needs to live his life.” You reached up holding Phil’s chin on your pointer finger, “He has to live life to its fullest, Nothing can hold him back. It has to stay this way until I can come back. Which I will...hopefully it won’t be too long.” You smiled up at him and Phil took in a shaky breath,
“What if I ruin him.” His voice was painfully tight holding his grip on Wilbur tightening as well, it made the baby squirm. You shushed him softly, pressing a kiss to his lips, his scruff tickling your chin. To him the kisses always felt electric, never devoid of passion and adoration, he leaned forward to chase those addicting lips as you pulled away.
“You won’t ruin him, you’re the most gentle and kind man I’ve ever met. You took care of me all these years, you’ll be amazing for Wilby.” Phil watched as you kissed Wilbur one last time before stepping away with a shaky breath. “Just be as good to him as you are to me,” You both heard the crunch of leaves, it caused you to jump a little looking around the forest frantically.
“Go. We’ll be fine. Just stay safe and come back to us okay?” You could only nod at him before disappearing in a gust of leaves and flowers. Phil felt his heartache and he jolted as Wilbur began to cry seemingly already missing the presence of his mother. “Oh Wilbur hush, hush for me please,” His father pleaded as he began to rock him gently this was going to be a lot harder than he would ever anticipate, but to keep you safe he’d give up the entire world.
~~~
Decades went by, Phil had not only Wilbur to watch over but three more idiotic kids, others adopted of course. Wilbur had grown up into a strapping young man, got married, and had a son, you would be so proud of him. You’d spoil Fundy rotten, he just knew you would, he was sure you’d also spoil Tommy and Tubbo. Not to mention you’d force your motherly affection all over Technoblade and he wouldn’t have a choice but to open up to you.
However, none of them even knew you existed, lies were told about who Wilbur’s mother was when any of them asked and it killed him on the inside to lie about you. Eventually, Wilbur just stopped asking, most likely assuming something bad happened that Phil never wanted to discuss with him. Something far too painful to even tell his son about,
Which was half right he supposed.
It started like any other day, Tommy and Wilbur were messing around with Dream, something about discs and war that Phil didn’t particularly care about. Wilbur had come over once again to plead with Phil for aid in the war, but once again he refused him. This time he even brought Fundy along thinking that seeing his grandson might change the older man’s mind. However, he still refused knowing it wasn’t going to end well in the long run even if Wilbur did win. Sometimes kids had to make their own mistakes to learn about the future. It’s not like he hadn’t told Wil it wouldn’t end well, he did multiple times, but the kid was just as stubborn as he was and wasn’t going to back down.
“Dad, please. If you’d just join in we’d slay Dream and his team, all the fighting will come to an end. The nation I’m trying to create would finally be free and safe. Just help me.” Wilbur pleaded, a small whine slipping into his voice as he followed Phil and his son into the forest, “We can establish our new nation and be free from tyranny. No more war, isn’t that what you keep advocating for?” Wilbur continued to rant, not helping at all with his chores, his voice grew soft suddenly, and Fundy grabbed onto the sleeve of his jacket.
“What is it, kid?”
“Your earring’s glowing pops.” Fundy pointed to his ear and Phil froze in place the wood that he collected falling out of his hands, scattering all over the forest floor.
“Dad?” Wilbur repeated his voice growing louder in concern, Phil looked around the clearing frantically before bolting in a random direction.
“Grandpa!?” Fundy yelled chasing off after him, his tail puffing up anxiously,
“Fundy don’t just run off!”
Phil didn’t stick around to hear them, you were around here somewhere the question was where. His heart was beating erratically in his chest, please, please god let him find you. He didn’t have to wait long, he’d recognize you anywhere you still looked the same. Standing in the middle of a flower field you looked over your shoulder, “(Y/n)! Darling!” He called out choking a little on his words, your (e/c) eyes blew wide and he heard you laugh. You ran up to him flowers growing in your wake, you launched himself at the man and he lifted you in his arms. He spun you around laughing in disbelief, using his wings you both floated in the air, he cradled the back of your head with his hand, “I can’t believe you’re here.” Phil whispered, pulling away to cup your cheeks with your hands, “you’re real.”
“Of course I’m here silly goose. I told you I’d come back didn’t I?” You laughed fondly as he began to pepper your face in kisses, “Even if it is way later than I intended…” You trailed off with a small wince,
“Who cares. You’re here now and you’re safe.” He landed a kiss on your lips as you kissed him back. You tasted just as he remembered like fresh air and oranges, he wanted to swallow you whole. He never wanted to let you go again, and he never would if he had a say in the matter.
“Dad? What the fuck?” Wilbur blurted as Fundy and he came upon the clearing, you pulled away from Phil. Tears filling your eyes, your hands coming up to cover your mouth, Phil rested a hand on the small of your back.
“Wilby…” She whispered, stumbling towards the man reaching out towards him, he raised an eyebrow and flinched away from your touch. You pulled your hand back taking a little breath,
“I’m sorry. How do you know my name?” From behind you, Phil flinched; he knew that’s what you wanted, for him not to remember you. But, fuck he felt guilty about it, he was about to feel even more guilty in a minute.
“She’s your mom Wilbur.”
“Fucking WHAT.” Wilbur sputtered taking a few steps back from the woman, “You told me my mom was a fridge!”
“You told him what.” You turned towards Phil, eyes blazing with annoyance, he held his hands up in surrender. “Why would you tell him his mother was a fridge! I know I told you to lie but a fridge! Phil that’s not even physically possible!” You scolded the man crossing your arms over your chest, his face flushed a bright red. He even missed you yelling and scolding him, he was down bad.
“(Y/n) I panicked-” Phil started to explain and you cut him off with an eye roll. “I’m sorry okay, I love you.”
Meanwhile, Wilbur and Fundy looked in between the two adults rapidly as they talked. Both equally shocked and at a loss for words, Wilbur took a step forward and grabbed your wrist.
“Please continue your explanation,” He commanded softly, “If you are my mom why did you leave? Why haven’t you been here?” Wilbur frowned as he watched you look away from him,
“How much do you know about Nymphs Wilbur?” Wilbur turned bright red and the color reached up onto the tips of his ears, “What?”
“My mom’s a Nymph.” Fundy spoke up in place of Wilbur, “her name’s Sally. I...I’m Wilbur’s son.” He watched your face melt and mouth a broken ‘son?’, Phil noticed and walked up to squeeze your hand. You had missed so much, you hoped you didn’t blame yourself, you and Phil lived too long to live with that many regrets.
“What happened to her?” You asked tenderly,
“Killed.” Wilbur said bluntly, “by hunters. Don’t worry, I made sure to dispose of them.”
“I-I’m so sorry.” You spoke and Wilbur couldn’t help but feel compelled into your arms. Something about you just made him want to melt into your body, he knew Phil was right in the end. You were his mother through and through, I mean the shared pointed ears said enough.
“Is that why you left?” Fundy asked walking over to stand beside Wilbur, Fundy’s ears pressing against his head. They both watched you nod and Phil tightened his grip on your arm, you took in another deep breath. His hand moved to wrap securely around your waist, he was here for you. He’d always be here for you.
“When you were born, the hunters were far worse, there were much more of them. Greater numbers and they sniffed out Nymphs like hunting dogs to a rabbit. I couldn’t keep a newborn baby safe, especially one that was half Nymph...Which probably explains why Fundy’s part fox, he has more Nymph in him.” The fox hybrid seemed to light up at even the inclination that he was special in any way, shape, or form. “It was safer for me to be as far away from the both of you as possible, and I was right considering you grew up into a handsome young man with a family of his own.” You chuckled fondly leaning into Phil’s touch. “But I can understand if you don’t trust me or want to get to know me,” You smiled sadly at the man Fundy spoke up before Wilbur could.
“No! We want to get to know you grandma!” He blurted taking your hands in his own, you melted at the adorable way his eyes lit up. You glanced up at Wilbur who Phil totally wasn’t threatening with his eyes,
“I…” The man looked hesitant, but as he stared into your warm eyes once more he felt encapsulated within them. His longing for a motherly figure in his lips came back at full force and washed over him like a tidal wave. He had a mother and she was safe and here and willing to come back into his life if he was ready.
Was he ready? Why did he feel ready?
“Fuck that hesitance she’s grandma,” You let out a delighted laugh ruffling up Fundy’s hair, his tail wagging elatedly behind him.
“Don’t spoil him, love.”
“Fuck you, I’m spoiling the hell out of my grandson. Gotta make it up to him somehow.” Fundy’s tail only wagged harder as he wrapped you in a tight hug, you hugged him back just as tightly.
“Hey, Hey move over champion. I get to hug my mom now.” Wilbur snapped defensively, as Fundy snickered only looking up at him mischievously hugging you tighter. You laughed in delight seeing Wilbur huff, Phil melted against you in relief. Wilbur’s face was scrunching up the exact way you do when you’re pissed, he smiled against the side of your head. Wilbur pushed his son to the side gently and wrapped his arms around you in a hug, he towered over you but couldn’t help but bury his face in your neck. You cooed softly and ran your fingers through his hair, he was gone the moment you did so, melting in your arms completely.
Without you noticing Phil took a step away from the group just to admire the moment from an outsider’s perspective. For what felt like the hundredth time that hour Phil felt light, he felt like the weight of the world was off his shoulders. Everything was right in the universe again, you were finally holding your not-so-little boy in your arms again after all these years. Even if you did have a fox hanging off you as well, Phil let out a soft chuckle looking at the three with adoration. A long time ago he gave up his mortality and humanity for you, after you left he had pleaded to the gods once more, he swore he would give up anything for just one more day with you by his side. They had ignored his wishes, they knew without a doubt you’d be back in his arms again, and this time he wouldn’t have to give up a single thing.
~~~
Okay but actually I had so much fun writing this??? Maybe even a Pt. II?
#dream smp#dreamsmp x reader#dreamsmp x you#dreamsmp drabbles#mcyt#mcyt x you#mcyt x reader#minecraft youtubers#minecraft youtubers x reader#minecraft fanfiction#minecraft x you#minecraft x reader#philza x reader#phil x reader#philza minecraft x reader#philza minecraft x you#philza minecraft#wilbur soot#fanfiction#fanfic#drabbles#imagines#philza imagine#philza drabbles
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punk rock princess
spencer reid x reader
synopsis; where spencer’s working on the final paper for his third phd meanwhile you take on the task of making sure he takes a break.
warnings; smut, p in v, unprotected sex, creampie, sub!spence if you squint, nipple piercings;),
a/n; i’m not saying this is my fantasy but .. this is my fantasy,, inspired by this song, y’all know the drill. you don't have to listen while reading but i always love to set the vibe. lastly y/n doesn't have any mentioned features or looks besides piercings/tattoos,, the rest is all up to you:)
pls send in feedback!
***
A shiver crawled down your spine from the first squirt of dye hitting your scalp. The bubblegum pink shade being a change from the firey red which inhabited your head a mere 24 hours prior.
The process was muscle memory at this point. Brushing out your hair then parting and sectioning it off. However that was the only methodical part. The fun was in slapping on the dye, not a single worry about staining your hands or neck.
The sounds of heavy drums and bass guitar bounced off the walls in the bathroom of the small apartment. Even though the door was shut it wasn't enough to stop the sound from flowing into the living room where your boyfriend was working.
Spencer sat at the dining table, flipping through copious amounts of folders and books. His third thesis in the process of being written. The computer screen in front of him looking back with a mocking glow. Since apparently things had to be digital now.
Your feet padding on the wooden floor made him look up from the pages. Humming to the music as you walked into your bedroom. Then back out a few seconds later holding a towel and robe.
A small smile tugged across his face. Ever since you had moved in together he loved to watch your day to day actions. The way you played your music concerningly loud, your skincare routine which included cleaning your facial piercings. What fascinated him the most was that in the 13 months you’d been together he’d seen you dye your hair 7 times.
Not including any touch ups.
He stood from his place at the table, making his way to the bathroom. Two quick rasps on the door to check if you were decent. The action made you giggle.
“Come in!” you called, “I don’t know why you knock weirdo you’ve seen me naked plenty of times.”
A blush spread across his cheeks from both your words and your state of undress. His eyes tried to focus on the splotches of color on the counter, keeping the blood flowing to the head on his shoulders.
But it was hard when the sheer bralette you had on did very little to hide the metal bars in each of your breasts.
“Spence?” you said snapping a fingers in front of him.
He cleared his throat, eyes snapping to your face which held a smirk.
“Are uh those n-new?” he questioned, hand going to scratch the nape of his neck.
The usual silver balls at the end of the bars were now tiny jewell hearts. The color was a little hard to tell due to the material of your bra but from the change in your hair he could almost bet money they were also pink.
With swift hands you unclipped your bra and threw it on the closed toilet seat before turning to face him.
“Got them when I bought the dye yesterday,” you said pushing your boobs up with your hands, “You like?”
Spencer’s eyes were as big as saucers, frantically nodding, “Y-yeah they look nice.”
You dropped your hands to your hips, tugging off the shorts you had on. The wide brown eyes before you couldn’t get any bigger, trailing down your frame stopping to admire the bar in your belly button along with the ink which littered your ribs.
He watched as you got to your knees, turning on the bath faucet. You dipped your head under the water, a stream of pink filling the tub.
The slope of your spine bent over was a sight he'd seen more than enough times. He could pinpoint the beauty marks on your left shoulder, the small sun he sketched which ended up permanently on the back of your neck. But if he let his gaze drift a little further south he could see how deliciously the dark lace looked barley covering up your most intimate parts.
A smack to his calf got his attention.
“Earth to Spencer! Can you hand me the shampoo,” you asked which came out sounding a bit muffled.
He quickly scurried to the tub and reached over to grab the bottle, squeezing a bit of gel onto your open palm.
"I'm gonna go work on my thesis some more," Spencer said slowly shutting the door behind him.
Making his way back to the living room, he pulled a few files and sat down on the couch. Glasses sat on the bridge of his nose and red pen between his teeth and he stared in concentration.
They were the same words he had read over and over again. The lack of sleep causing a dull ache in his skull.
"You need to take a break love," you said walking over and sitting next to Spencer on the couch.
"I did take one," he argued back flipping through the file.
"Gawking at me before I shower for 2 minutes isn't a break," you said with a giggle, the warmth flooding back to his cheeks, "Cmon 25 minutes at least without a file in your hand. "
When he didn't respond you took matters into your own hands. Ripping the file from his grasp, earning a grumble of disapproval before you straddled his hips. Your arms circled his neck and your hands went straight to the back of his scalp, fingertips running in soothing motions.
"Isn't this so much better baby," you asked whispering in his ear.
He nodded quickly, staying silent as he let his actions speak louder. His large palms went right to your plush hips. Bucking up as he led you to grind yourself on his lap.
Letting his hands explore the material of your satin rope he could feel the lack of undergarments on your frame. Spencer dared to let his hands dip under the black fabric and take each one of your cheeks in the palm of your hand with a gentle squeeze.
You could feel his cock stiffening under you. If you looked down you'd probably be able to see a wet spot on his sweats, most likely a mix of your arousals.
Leaning forward you let your lips attack his neck, placing sloppy kisses sure to leave marks. The process of licking and biting making Spencer hold onto you tighter, almost as if he had his very own vampire to mark him up.
Trailing up to his ear you bit on the lobe before whispering, "Tell me what you need baby."
Lust filled brown orbs met your own as you each continued your steady grind.
"Please fuck me," he pleaded.
If only he knew how wrapped around his finger you were. As pretty as he sounded begging you'd give him anything.
You pulled the metal frames off his face, tossing them to the other side of the couch. He had complained one too many times about foggy glasses during sex. No matter how cute you thought he looked.
Your hands slid down his torso and reached to pull down his sweats. His precum soaked length was heavy in your hands. Pretty pink tip leaky and throbbing already. The first few pumps had whiny moans slipping from his lips, red from biting so hard.
"Unwrap me baby, it's all for you," you said tilting your head down, motioning to the strings holding your robe together.
Quickly he let his slender fingers go to the ends, a swift tug and it was like opening a gift on Christmas. Leaning forward he let his lips wrap around one of your nipples. A strangled moan leaving your mouth from the stimulation.
With a raise of your hips you lined his cock with your opening before sliding down. You both sighed at the same time, the feeling of him stretching you out and your warm walls hugging his length was just too good.
Slowly you rocked your hips testing the waters, soft gasps and curses left your lips. You could feel very vein and inch stuffed inside you.
Spencer on the other hand was having an out of body experience, there wasn't an inch of your skin which was left untouched. Unkissed. After you were settled he raised his hips meeting you halfway with each thrust.
"You're doing so well baby," you cooed down at him, "You love when I ride you hm? Best fucking seat in the house."
His eyes shut closed in pleasure as your pace quickened, "Love it so much. So so pretty," he mumbled out.
His arms pulled you close again. Chest to chest as you continued your movements. Your lips met in a lazy kiss, panting in each others mouths when you ran out of air.
You could feel him pulsating inside you. The iron grip he had on your hips as he helped drive you up and down on his cock was sure to feel sore the next day. His shoulders were sure to have corresponding crescent marks from your nails digging in.
"Touch me Spence m'so close love," you said breathlessly.
One of his hands fell down to the space where you both connected. Skilled fingers rubbing your sensitive bundle of nerves in quick circular motions.
Loud moans escaped your lips. Your head fell back to the familiar junction of his neck and shoulder, biting the skin in order to stifle your noises of pleasure.
"Y/n I can't hold it any longer, please cum with me," he whimpered out.
Nodding your head you grabbed onto the back of his neck, "Right behind you baby. Let go for me, I got you."
With a few more upward thrusts you felt him pull you down onto his cock, warmth spreading in your tummy. The feeling of his seed filling you up and his euphoric groans sent you over the edge.
You both rode out your orgasms, swiveling hips and satisfactory sighs of release leaving your lips.
After a few minutes of content silence listening to the music still flowing through the hall you moved to get up, the sticky mess between your thighs less than comfortable.
Warm arms kept you in place, denying your movement.
"Spence I gotta clean up," you said trying to push yourself off his chest.
"If I remember correctly you said at least 25 minutes and from my calculations I have 3 minutes and 38 seconds left of cuddle time," the lanky man under you said matter of factly.
You rolled your eyes, sighing but resting your head back on his shoulder, "If I get a UTI thats 3 minutes and 38 seconds of me playing screamo in your ear at full volume."
With one last squeeze he kissed the side of your head, the scent of ammonia only sightly bothering him, "Worth it."
#spencer reid x reader#spencer reid smut#criminal minds fanfiction#criminal minds smut#criminal minds fic#chellewrites
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Hi!!! Hope you're doing great
Can I please have a mix between number 2 from the soft and 8 from the dark one
Thanks, lost of love ❤❤❤
Thank you so much, nonnie! I am so sorry this took so long, I meant to post yesterday but it wasn’t done. Also, the 8th dark prompt was requested just before you sent in this one, so that is filled separately here.
I tried to do the mix you asked for, and I took the liberty of writing this with Bucky (specifically 40s!BB), and I hope that it’s ok. It’s a bit of a more specific story, actually, that I’d wanted to write for a while. I also did a kind of first for me, because it involves Steve x reader as a backdrop 😂 Anyway.
Lots of love to you too, my dear! 💗💗💗
— PAIRING: soft!dark!Bucky x Reader • preserum!Steve x Reader
— PROMPT: Asteria - gazing at one’s object of affection, from afar + Prassius - an impossible desire, and unclean love
— LINKS: Masterlist • love stones prompt list
— WORDCOUNT: 2.5k
It had taken long enough, and sometimes it seemed like it would never happen, but he finally found Steve a girlfriend — or rather, his girlfriend found him one. Dottie had exhausted several of her close friends and most acquaintances, but she knew how tired Bucky was of seeing his friend mope around, feeling like a third wheel, getting into trouble to pass the time. And honestly she liked Steve too, just not like that — but, wonder-worker that she was, Dottie found a girl that did.
She agreed to come on a double-date one night, and she and Stevie hit it right off. It was the first time Bucky met her too, and he didn't think much of the girl. Small, shy, not quite sickly-looking but not far from it, shoes a bit scuffed, clothes a bit too big for her and smelling of plain soap — in a word: perfect. She was perfect for his sickly, skinny friend who nobody else wanted, and by the looks of things, nobody had wanted her either because she seemed to have no idea what to do around a dance hall. As they were returning home that night, he even heard her confess to Steve that she had never been to one before.
They went out on two more dates, all four of them, within as many weeks. Bucky loved to dance, and Dottie too, but Steve and his girl weren't so fond of tripping over their feet and being laughed at. So they sat together at the table like a pair of broken toys, sharing an ice cream sundae, swinging shoulder-to-shoulder with the music when they liked the tune. Bucky waved at them when their eyes met, and they waved back and cheered at his dancefloor performance, but that happened less and less as they got caught up in each other. Steve would start to sketch things on the napkins while they chatted: the band, the sea of dancers, the fancy chandeliers, and eventually her.
"She said nobody's ever drawn her picture before," his friend said dreamily as they walked back, after they wished a good night to the girls. "Can you believe that?"
"Sure can…"
"She almost didn't let me do it. But she's so pretty, Buck."
"Mhm, nice girl."
"I mean yeah, she's no Dottie, but… I don't know, there's just somethin' I like so much about her… I guess her eyes, the way they look when she's smiling, or how her hair looks when the sun shines on it…"
"Get a load a' you," he grinned, wrapping his arm around Steve's shoulder in a playful grip that moved his friend's whole body. "One dame's sweet on you, and all of a sudden you're Romeo."
"At least I'm not a punk like you," Steve teased, slipping from his grasp.
"You know what I like best about her?"
"What?" he asked, with a hint of jealousy.
But Bucky smirked without a care. "How she keeps you out of trouble."
It had, indeed, been a while since Steve got in an alley brawl, and by their fifth date his last few bruises healed. He'd almost gotten into one by a cotton candy stand at Coney Island, but his girl was there to pull him back.
"Stevie, leave him alone…"
"You heard what he said?!"
"Who cares," she sighed, clinging to his arm and throwing the other man a hateful look. "Come on, didn't you want to win me that stuffed teddy bear?"
"Better listen to your girl, pal."
"Oh go find a sty to wallow in," she hissed.
"I ought'a smack some manners into you, you two-bit broad!"
"I'd worry about my own manners if I were you, buddy." Bucky slipped between them, coming from behind, standing now close enough to punch the guy if things got heated. But, seeing himself outnumbered, the other man cursed them and left. Just then, Dottie finally caught up.
"What's going on?" she asked, a little out of breath.
Bucky turned around, and was met by the heart-melting sight of Steve and his girl holding each other, her hands on his cheeks as she quietly chastised him, but loving enough that it made him smile and giggle. She closed it with a kiss to his cheek that made the boy blush, and a kittenish rub of their noses together.
"Nothing, everything's fine."
It was around the time they went to see a movie together that Bucky's joy for Steve turned into something else. They sat in the back while some musical played, and through the flashing lights and the corner of his eye, he could see his friend with his sweetheart holding hands on top of her lap throughout the whole performance. Meanwhile Dottie kept rubbing up against him, sometimes leaning her head on his shoulder, daring in the darker scenes to kiss his neck, but when she tried to get more of his attention —
"Buckyyy, what's wrong?"
— he shook her off. Hearing his name spoken by her voice suddenly felt disappointing.
He caught himself staring more and more, and not just when they went out together. Sometimes, the girl came by and spent some time with Steve, looking at his newer sketches, trying her hand too — oh and how disgusting they looked, Steve taking advantage of the situation to sit behind, and wrap his arms around her, and whisper in her ear. The pair greeted him cheerfully when he stepped through the living room and caught them, and he grinned back at them as he took a glass of milk, but all his appetite was gone.
And when they walked together through the park, and he saw them holding hands again… When Steve dug for some change to get her an ice cream, and they giggled stupidly as they made a mess of sharing it… When she fell asleep by his side one night at the dance hall, and Stevie woke her up with a tickle down her cheek, and she shivered and murmured like a bird and hid her face in his unworthy shoulder…
"Why don't you ever wanna dance, doll?" he asked as they were fetching drinks.
"Not much good at it, I guess," she shrugged. "The fast ones make me dizzy and I always trip."
"I can teach you. It'll work out great! Stevie teaches you to draw, I teach you how to dance… What do you say?"
The girl seemed to think, but shook her head. "Hmmm… No, not right now. Thanks," she smiled politely. "Besides, what would Stevie do meanwhile?"
She told him no just for the sake of keeping his scrawny little friend company, and Bucky had never felt more insulted — not that she wouldn't dance with him, although that hurt enough, but that he couldn't remember the last dame that gave something up just to stick with him, or got into fights for him, or kissed his wounds away, or held his hand in hers with no ulterior motive, and he'd found a girl that did that, and he wasted her on Steve.
So what if she was a little on the smaller side? So what if her dresses didn't fit right? So what if she came down with the cold at every change of season? He put up with it for Steve and he wasn't half as charming. The girl, instead, looked very delicate, more feminine in her own way, like when she braced her fingers on a table as she talked and mindlessly swung back and forth, animated in whatever she was saying, and her digits bent in such a childish way he feared they'd break, and it only made him want to kiss them. Or when she took her shoes off when she came to their apartment and he could catch a hint of shapely ankle, just perfect for his grip, or a peachy pink instep small enough to fit his palm. And when she fell asleep on their couch that one time and Bucky saw her all curled up, and noticed the arch of her hips and the cinch of her waist and pictured how good it would feel to hold them, and angle them upward, and…
Slowly, he started to appreciate some of what his friend had said that night, because she did have lovely eyes, and hair that looked so soft and warm, and her scent, unburdened by perfume, was sweet and girlish, and her lips looked kissable, and her wrists and knees and ankles too…
"Going out again, tonight?" he asked as the blond boy fixed himself in the mirror.
"Yeah, she wants to try this new place we —"
"Alright, alright…" sighed Bucky, already sick of hearing more. "So, that's all you're gonna do?"
"Well… yeah."
And then he voiced an evil thought. "Don't you ever want to… you know?"
"Y-you think we should?" Steve asked, turning away from his pallid reflection.
Bucky sat sprawled across the couch, and shrugged. "If she really likes you, she'd be up for it, don't you think?"
"I don't know about that, Buck."
"No? Ok," he nodded. "After all, what do I know?"
The aftermath of this particular advice was a draught of dates for poor ol' Steve, because just like Bucky had expected, the girl shrinked at the suggestion and couldn't stand to see him. For a while.
"Can you believe it, Buck?!"
"Yeah…"
"She'll see me again!"
"That's great, Stevie."
"What's wrong? You're lookin' real dour today."
Bucky knew he shouldn't. "I just…" He knew that it was wrong. "Look, it's great that she's forgiven you, but you gotta be realistic about this, pal." He had been happy for Steve at one point, long ago.
"What do you mean?"
But that was before he saw just how much love a girl could give, and realised he'd never felt it.
"Just don't delude yourself this is anything more than what it looks like, ok? She's only forgiven you because she knows nobody else will have her."
"That's mean, Buck."
"Yeah, well… I'm just looking out for you. You're my best friend, you know that. I don't want you getting hurt." It stuck in his throat to say it, but the bitterness stuck more.
And after Steve went to bed that night, Bucky took out the box of candy and the pricey perfume he had bought for her, threw them in the trash, and firmly promised to himself to never wait too long again.
But as he learned a bit later on, when they went back to double-dates, he might not have had a chance at all, because there was an unwitting element of truth to this cruel tirade.
"I can't exactly blame you, honey," Dottie consoled her as they stood in line for the ladies room, not knowing Bucky was just behind the thin divider leading to the men's. "If he does something like that again, I know this other fella —"
"Oh no, Dot, please… We're fine now. He explained things and… he's really sweet, I think he just had a moment of —"
"But just let me introduce you to Jim, see if you don't like him better."
"I… I don't know."
"He's a real charmer," Dottie grinned, "and he has these big, broad hands, jaw like an anvil. He just broke it off with Marcie cause she was a flirt."
He didn't hear anything next, but the girl must've shook her head cause Dottie asked, "You're sure?" and "Really? Well, if you change your mind…"
"Thanks, Dot," she lightly laughed.
"I don't know why you're so stubborn though, it's not like he's that far out your league. You just need to fix your hair a little bit and get a better brand of powder."
"It's not that easy."
"It's all it took me to get Bucky on my arm. That, and a better set of heels," she laughed.
"Yeah but you've always been pretty, Dot. Like, really pretty, and you know it. I guess some girls are for the James Barnes of this world, and some are the for the Steves."
She giggled as she said it, with not a hint of anger or resentment, and that's what stung the worst.
Bucky arranged to go see a late night movie with Dottie after that, while Steve and his girl went back to the apartment to listen to a boxing match on the radio and have some cherry sodas. Dottie went ahead to buy the tickets while Bucky walked them home, and after wishing him good night, she went upstairs to set things up. Steve was meant to go to the store and buy the drinks, but he stayed to chat with his friend a while.
"I can get some eggs and milk as well while I'm at it," he offered, swinging on his heels with his hands in his pockets.
"Sure."
"Or do we have enough for breakfast tomorrow?"
"Go ahead and buy them, pal," Bucky smiled, pretending to be less tired than he felt.
"Ok. And what about — darn!"
"What is it?"
"I just realized, I forgot to give her the keys," he said, taking a hand out of his pocket and holding them out. "I gotta get to the store, can you go up and give them to her?"
"Er, why don't —"
"You know I always trip on the stairs when I'm in hurry, Buck, they haven't changed the lightbulb yet. Don't make me do it."
"Fine, I'll go."
"I owe you big."
"You always do," he grinned, and took the keys from him.
Steve made off for the corner store, while Bucky started the long slow climb upstairs. It was completely dark inside at that hour, and the few candles some neighbours left to light the way had all gone out.
"Stevie, is that you?" he heard her call, standing right outside their door.
He kept one hand against the wall and walked his way toward her, stopping as he heard her whisper, "I think I lost the keys."
Blindly, she moved her hand forward, coming right across his chest. He felt her jolt at the unexpected contact, then burst into a giggle. Bucky could already feel the fanning of her breath right at the level of his chin. With an unseen smile, he took her hand, and placed the keys within it.
"Oh," she laughed. "You had them."
As her hand closed around them his own moved up her shoulder, fingers threading around her hair, and as he touched her jaw he felt her tilting slightly upward, shivering under the feeling.
"Is everything alright?" she asked.
He felt the warming tickle of her breath as he leaned close until, through the pitch black, he touched his lips to hers. Bucky did it lightly, just a little, just enough to taste and sip a kind of love he'd never really had. She stood surprised but took his kiss, and he felt her smiling into it, even beginning to kiss back just as he was parting from her.
"Your lips are softer than before," she giggled, in a sweet but altogether crushing way that made Bucky's heart beat stronger. "Stevie?"
Her hand moved through the air to touch him but felt nothing anymore, and down the stairs the heavy steps echoed, moving downward and away.
#James Buchanan Barnes#Bucky Barnes#Steve Rogers#Bucky Barnes imagine#Bucky Barnes fanfiction#Bucky Barnes x reader#dark!bucky barnes#Steve Rogers imagine#Steve Rogers x reader#40s Bucky Barnes#preserum Steve Rogers#bv;answers#bv;fanfiction#bv;oneshots
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Painting Tutorial!
Hello and welcome to a kind-of tutorial for my colouring technique! I’d like to preface this by admitting that my art style is a mess of actual things I learned in art school mixed with ‘things that look good but idk why lol’ and some lazy shortcuts thrown in for good measure. If something doesn’t make sense it’s probably because it was never meant to, and I’m just winging most of this with no coherent plan. Cool? Cool.
Program used: Procreate (I use the same techniques in Photoshop, so they should work in programs like CSP, Krita and Sai)
Brushes:
-Derwent for sketching (Procreate default) or your favourite sketching brush
-GvW Elder 2. 0 1 for shading (from Georg’s free ink set)
-Basic round brush
-Basic airbrush
Step 1: The sketch (Derwent Brush)
Today we’re painting my favourite murder boy, Loki! I won’t go into much detail about the sketch, because this is about colouring, not sketching. Make sure you have a solid sketch before starting on your colours. I know it gets frustrating to work on a sketch for so long, but anything you fix in this stage won’t need to be fixed later.
Use references for anything you’re not 100% sure about, and flip your canvas often to make sure nothing’s wonky. Your brain gets used to staring at the drawing, so flipping it lets you see mistakes you might otherwise miss.
I like sketching in colour because black just feels daunting to me. We’re gonna change the colour later anyway, so just pick any favourite!
Step 2: Clipping Layer
This is one of the most important stages. All your colour layers for the character will be clipped to this one so you don’t have to worry about going outside the sketch. I usually have a single clipping layer for organic portraits, but my lined pieces will have a layer for each section. We’ll be painting over the sketch eventually, so go ahead and clip the sketch to the base layer as well. It’s also time to pick your base background colour. I decided to go in a completely different direction than the reference image, so I’ll mostly be making the colours up.
Step 3: Base Shading (Elder Brush)
I know this looks like a big jump, but bear with me! All I’ve done is add basic shadows to the form. I’ve picked a midtone for each section of colour, and added a basic shadow and light.
Go ahead and start by locking your sketch layer and changing its colour. I’ve used dark reddish tones in the face, and left the rest blue. I like how the blue pops up here and there when I get to painting over the sketch.
To pick your light and shadow tones, look at the colours you’re using in the background. Something useful to remember is that warm lighting will cast cool shadows, and cool lighting will cast warm shadows. In this case, since the background has a cool tone, the shadows in the face will be warmer in comparison.
Always remember that your character and your background exist in the same environment; the colour of the background will influence the character. Here, the light source has a pinkish tinge to reflect the character’s environment.
Look at your reference to see where light hits, and squint your eyes to determine the big geometric shapes of the light and shadows. At this stage, stick to three tones maximum: a base, a shadow, and a light.
Step 4: The Shit Stage
This is when the feeling of ‘oh no this looks like garbage and I hate myself’ will hit. Don’t let it fool you! Paintings look like trash before they get better. In the early stages, you’re just laying in the foundation for the details that will come in later. Just push through!
Here, I’ve started adding tones in-between the light and shadows to make the shapes blend into each other and look rounded and softer. This is all done on a layer over the sketch, still clipped to the base layer.
I pick my midtones by zooming in and colour-picking at the border between two shades I’ve already laid down. It’s a little tricky since the brush I use doesn’t have an opacity setting, but I like the sharp chunky look it gives my pieces.
Remember: Skin is not one uniform colour, and light will peek through in some places. This is called sub-surface scattering, and it’s the key to beautiful, alive-looking skin. Light will scatter under the surface of the skin, and certain parts neighbouring the shadows will look more saturated because the blood vessels under the skin are illuminated. This piece doesn’t use bright sunlight, so it’s more subtle but still visible.
Notice the strip of warm saturation right before the shadow? It’s going to look orange under sunlight, but for Loki I’ve gone with a pink since the light is cool.
Step 5: Slightly Less Chunky
I like the chunky look in my paintings, but if everything is equally as sharp, nothing really stands out. A wise tip from one of my painting professors is to smooth out the shadows, but keep the lights sharp.
Use a mixture of more colour-picking and the blending tool to round out shapes. You can also use the airbrush if you’re more familiar with it.
Be careful of overblending! Blending too much is a common mistake in digital art, and can make a face look flat and off-putting. Blend some areas, and colour-pick them before going back over them in with your solid brush. This will make your shadows look softer, but not too soft.
Texture is extremely important and often forgotten. It gives your eye something to look at, even in a seemingly smooth space. Remember: Unlike in traditional art, digital media has no surface texture.
A smooth gradient on a cotton canvas is never completely smooth, it will always have the canvas texture underneath it that keeps it from looking too unnatural. In digital, you’re working from nothing. When working digitally, any texture you want, you need to create yourself. This is why depending too much on the blending tool will make skin look unnatural; you need to compensate for the lack of interesting surface underneath.
Step 6: Lighting
Interesting lighting can go a long way to make your painting spectacular. Note that the light source was chosen in the third step; this step simply enhances what you’ve already done.
In this piece, I’ve picked a primary light source (where the majority of the light is coming from) and a secondary light source to keep things interesting. Since the background is cool-toned, I picked a warm orange for the main light source to contrast it. The secondary light source is a cool blue, so it doesn’t quite have as much contrast. I want the secondary light source to be noticeable, but I don’t want it to be fighting for dominance with the main light source.
I clip a colour dodge layer on top of the colour layers, and put another unclipped colour dodge layer over it.
The clipped layer is the secondary light source, because I don’t want it to bleed into the background. Leaving the primary light source unclipped will give a glowy effect to the lighting, since the area around the character will also be affected. I use a large airbrush for this step.
If there are areas that need more contrast, you can deepen the shadows with a clipped multiply layer underneath both colour dodge layers.
Step 7: Details
This is the time to add little things like a more refined eye shine or little flyaway hairs. The eyes also looked a bit wonky to me, so I fixed them up. Not much else to say about this stage, just add little things that will tie the piece together.
Since the face is the focal point, it’s painted in more detail than the armour. If the piece was equally detailed everywhere, the viewer’s eye wouldn’t know where to look! You don’t have to slave away over details in areas where they won’t be noticed or would be distracting.
Step 8: Finishing Touches
This is the final step! Once the painting itself is done, I like to merge all my layers and apply a bit of noise to the whole image. I find it adds a bit of grain and texture that makes the piece even more cohesive. Don’t add too much though, or it will grey out your colours.
In certain pieces, I also add a slight chromatic aberration. I don’t add it to all my pieces, and I use it differently every time. Be careful though, it can become an eyesore if you overdo it! Keep it away from the focal point of the image (in this case, Loki’s eyes) or it can actually make the painting off-putting and difficult to look at.
Since my drawing program has a dark background, I like to export the image as a test and see if it still looks good in my photo gallery with a white interface. Sometimes things look really bright against a dark interface, but will look dull and too dark when put against white. If your piece needs adjusting, use the curves tool to adjust the contrast.
All that’s left to do is sign your artwork on a separate layer (so it can be moved or removed if need be), and voilà! A lovely portrait!
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I hope you found this tutorial helpful! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the notes or message me! If you’d like to chat about art, (or anything really) my ask box and messages are always open to new friends!
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Hi Giulia! I hope you're doing okay! I just wanna say that you have a very solid art style--I can definitely distinguish it whenever it appears on my dashboard. Do you have artists or references that influence your very own art? I guess I just wanna ask, what's your artistic process? Thanks and take care!
Hi RK! Aww thanks you're so kind 💜💜 it really means a lot 💜
Mmm I think my greatest influence was Disney, the cartoons obviously but also some Italian comics, in particular W.I.T.C.H. (five highschool girls that obtain superpowers and can communicate with the four elements) and Topolino (various stories of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and all their friends) and I used to copy every possible drawing available hahha All the various issues are drawn by different artists, so I got to see a lot of variety of styles and pick the ones I preferred or better even pick the bits of each I liked and make them mine. Topolino in particular has multiple stories in a single issue and comes out weekly, so I had lots and lots of material to look at. I had my subscription until 2 years ago honestly hahah but I stopped for lack of shelves in my room 😂
And then during university so like 4/5 years ago I bought some video tutorials by Disney artist Aaron Blaise (he's the director of Brother Bear but he worked on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and other movies) and those really were a booster because I got to study anatomy and character design and drawing lots of animals. I still buy his stuff whenever he adds something interesting, he's an excellent teacher. And I get to watch them all the times I want so I can review weak spots or more difficult points.
As for the drawing process, well first I try and find a pose, I collect everything available that inspires me from stars Instagram posts or tweets, to drawings of other artists (obviously if the pose I finally make is identical to the original I add the reference to the post) to movie GIFs on Tumblr or official art. Oh and Pinterest too, that’s a goldmine, but I always end up finding new stuff that distracts me and not what I was originally looking for haha
Then I sketch on paper or on Photoshop depending on the mood and time, lately I can't even watch a movie in peace because my hands itch because I need to draw. So in this case I use paper.
Like these new ones look what a mess they are and very unfinished. It mostly to just jot down the idea so I don't forget it.
And since I always make a mess of it, Photoshop is a blessing. I allows me to change stuff how many times I want, for ex if the head is too big I can select it and make it smaller, it allows me to flip the drawing which is one of the most useful things ever because watching your drawing mirrored makes all the horrors pop up, I've lost count of how many wrong eyes or super long arms I had to correct. Plus I can work on different layers so I usually have one layer for the head (even 2 or 3 like for Hange because they have bangs and ponytail that are tough and glasses) then one torso, two for the arms and so on. I only merge all layers into one lineart when I'm sure it's good to go.
And then I add flat colours and logos and stuff if needed (like the wings of freedom patches or blood).
Like this is flat colours (I know you know Bojack from your Diane profile pic, which I've always loved from the first moment I saw it btw 💜 I love that show). This one stays like this because Bojack has a very simple line and pretty much no shadows unless needed. But otherwise I always add them.
But before making the shadows I tend to decide a background if needed or if I hadn't already one in mind. And the shadows colour tends to pair with the BG, but the general one is brownish (I use the same colour I use for Levi's bags under his eyes 😂 but set it to multiply so it gets darker but you can still see what's beneath).
Like this below.
I don't do many backgrounds by hand, i made one for my Secret Santa but usually I use photos or pictures (AOT is perfect for example because being a cartoon it fits with my style, with real photos I have to be more careful because it might collide instead of becoming part of the drawing) unless there's an object in real interaction with the characters.
For example this one below. The tree on which they sit was already in the frame (that's actually what gave me the idea of putting them on the branches) I tried using it like that but there was too much difference so I drew the tree myself. The rest is the real shot but blurred. Helps focusing on the characters.
Puff I think I'm done hahha sorry it came out longer that expected 😂😂 I hope the drawings make it less boring hahhaha
Anyway thanks for asking 💜💜 and if you have suggestions be sure to drop them by 💜
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Could I request a fatin x tomboy reader, the reader loves drawing
(I’m kind of mad/sad because I had to redo everything after the first time skip and I feel like the first version was better.)
You had known of Leah and Fatin before getting stuck on the island together. You learned a little about them, Fatin being a party queen who played the cello like an angel and Leah who kept to herself with few friends and might have had a relationship with a older man... Well that’s what you had heard from the rumors. You were like a mix between them. You played for the basketball team and led your team to 3 championship titles, you were pretty popular among the ladies but you never really got involved with anyone. You had friends and went to a handful of parties but you preferred a quiet night in and books over the loud music and alcohol. Not to be confused, you didn’t not like parties (your party animal side almost rivaled Fatin’s) but you just didn’t like going out often.
You had multiple classes with the cello player through out your middle school and high school career but the most the two of you talked was when you bumped into each other at a party and that was only to apologize. You also ended up going to all her concerts because she and your sister played for the same orchestra. You don’t know when but sometime during the last two years, you grew an... infatuation with the other girl. (You say it’s an infatuation but it’s lasted 2 years, you’re lying to yourself.)
Now when you would draw in class or doodle on your homework, it wouldn’t be sunsets, animals, or other random things. It would usually be of Fatin. As much as you hated to admit it, half of your sketch book was filled with Fatin’s face, eyes closed, or her side profile, sometimes even just her eyes. You never drew her in a vulgar way.
---
You would think that being on a deserted island, surrounded by a mysterious forest and a beautiful beach, that your drawings would change and become more scenic. But, of course, Fatin was all you could draw, all you could think about. The only other people that know about your infatuation were Toni and Dot... Leah probably knew too but hadn’t said anything or teased you like the other two girls.
“Damn, y/n you are down bad my friend.” Toni says as she walked up to you and caught a look at the newest drawing you had started of Fatin. You slam your book close immediately and look up at Toni as your face heated up. Toni laughed at your reaction, “You look like you got caught doing something bad.” “Well, I...” You struggle to find words to explain yourself. Toni placed a hand on your shoulder to calm you down, “It’s fine y/n, I’m just messing with you.”
---
You sat next to Dot and Toni as all the girls lounged around for the day, making it an unofficial day off for everyone. “When are you going to tell her?” “Huh?” You hadn’t been paying attention, to busy being distracted by Fatin laying out in a bikini. Toni and Dot face palm at your obvious staring. “She said when are you going to tell Fatin you’re in love with her.” You roll your eyes at your friends, they had been trying to pressure you into confessing your feelings to Fatin for the past few days. “I’ll come clean when you and Shelby finally bone.” You say to Toni with a roll of your eyes. It’s silent for a few minutes and you turn to look at Toni with wide eyes, mouth wide open. Toni looks at your gaping facial expression with a look between embarrassment and a smirk. “You dirty dog!” You say a little too loudly and feel Toni’s hand cover your mouth. “Can you shut the fuck up?”
Fatin had looked up at the sound of your voice and watched as Toni covered your mouth. It made her chuckle for a second before she saw you wiggle your eyebrows at Toni and the other girl blushed. Fatin sent a glare, that went unnoticed by everyone except for Leah, towards Toni who finally removed her hand from your mouth.
“You have to tell her.” “What, no I don’t that wasn’t what I said!” Dot shook her head at you disapprovingly, “You said that you would if Toni and Shelby fucked and they have so now it’s your turn.” “That’s not fair! I didn’t know they already did!” Both girls shake their heads at you in disappointment. “Fine, fuck both of you, I’ll do it tomorrow.” You growl at the two girls before grabbing your sketch book and storm down the beach to draw in peace, not noticing Fatin’s concern gaze follow your shrinking figure.
---
“I got this... No I don’t... Yes I do...” You kept arguing with yourself as you paced back and forth away from the girls. You kept taking peaks at the most recent drawing you had made of and for Fatin. It was a black and white portrait of Fatin with a heart behind her shaded to look 3D. “Should someone go talk to her?” Shelby asked in concern as the other girls watched you pace. Toni let’s out a sigh and goes to stand up when she feels Dot pull her back down. Toni looks to Dot in confusion before realizing that Fatin had stood up instead and was walking towards you. Dot and Toni immediately start nudging each other like elementary school boys in excitement.
---
“Y/n?” You hear Fatin say as she walks up to you and your heart stops. “Are you okay? You’ve been pacing for a minute.” Fatin says as she places a hand on your should to stop you from pacing. You turn your body towards Fatin and your eyes widen when you realize how close the two of you were standing. You looked down at the other girl and felt like you were going to combust. Before you said something awkward, you shoved your sketch book into her hands. Fatin looks at the book and then at you in surprise, you never let anyone look at your book. Fatin starts slowly flipping through the book to give you time to take it back but when you don’t, she continues through the book.
Her breath catches in her throat as she stumbles upon the first drawing you had ever done of her. Her eyes got wider and her face got hotter as she found more drawings of her. She noticed how all your drawings where off her neck and above only. It made her blush because most of the guys she slept with did so because of her body and it felt nice for it to not be capitalized in your drawings. Fatin finally reached the most recent drawing and felt herself tear up, it was so detailed and beautiful. Fatin looked up at you and you just gave her a nervous smile, hoping those were happy tears. She pulled you into a hug and heard how fast your heart was beating causing her to laugh.
“I, um, take it that you like them?” You ask uncertainly as Fatin continues to hug you. Fatin releases you from the hug and wipes the tears from her face, she feels a little ridiculous crying over a drawing. You don’t do anything as you watch Fatin collect herself, not exactly sure if she just really liked the pictures or held the same feelings for you. Fatin pulled you in for a bruising kiss, completely cutting off any self doubting thought you had, the kiss taking your breath away. “The drawings aren’t the only thing I like.”
#fatin x reader#fatin jadmani x reader#x reader#female reader#female character#female x reader#the wilds#the wilds x reader
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Happy Saiou Day!! 💙💜
So if anyone remembers last summer I said I'd post the complete portraits of my talentswap designs and a climactic scene from the AU with a full summary when they're finished? Well, I didn't forget!
So, below are my headcanons for Ultimate Supreme Leader Shuichi and Ultimate Detective Kokichi~!
(I'm really passionate about this AU, I hope you read it ':3)
(Tho no climactic scene unfortunately)
Ultimate Supreme Leader Shuichi
So first of all Shuichi's parents are still celebrities, move overseas and leave him with his uncle. However in this AU Shuichi's uncle is a politician who actually has a really good reputation. Problem is, his uncle is incredibly busy and is almost never home because of that. Still, he wants to be like his uncle (though the wish is fueled more with wanting to be good enough and accepted). Shuichi's personality is basically the same.
So then one day I Alligator girl's (Gonna call her Wani) alligator gets stolen by some group who're going to sell it and they threatened Wani to not call the police or tell anyone. So she asks Shuichi to help. Somehow they manage to retrieve the alligator together secretly (idk) and right afterwards one of Wani's friends is in trouble with some shady local business. So Wani suggests they make a group to stop these sorts of people and that Shuichi would be the leader. He agrees, he still wants to do something to make this world a better place like his uncle.
After that Wani starts asking her most trusted friends at school if they'd like to join (Shuichi would never have the social courage to ask someone that). When they get to 10 members (all girls) they stop growing for some time and decide to get themselves uniforms. When they're finally considering getting more people into the team since Shuichi doesn't really know these people, he decides to start wearing a mask to be safe. He also starts using the code name "Crow". The other 10 members go by flower names.
The group then grows a lot. And by the time Shuichi's officially scouted to be an Ultimate, it has around 1500 members. And it's making him very worried as Shuichi's not even sure anymore if he's skilled enough to lead it. The group started out stopping or changing corrupt businessmen, unethical businesses and other evil groups. And although that still is what they do, he's realized that the way they go about things is pretty illegal. (When he first realized this, he started wearing a hat.) Obviously he forbids violence, but they still use blackmail and steal information. Also they need money for the group to function at this point so they've had to get it through illegal means that Shuichi's not sure of anymore. So Shuichi is immensely scared of being revealed as the organization's leader because it would completely destroy his organization and it would also annihilate his uncle's as well as his parents' careers on the spot. Basically everything would get ruined and it would be a nation-wide scandal. Perhaps even an international scandal.
He gets even more worried when the police finally start realizing there's some sort of group that's blackmailing big businesses and start investigating.
When he gets scouted to Hope's Peak, the letter comes to his base and even HPA doesn't know his identity, just that he's a high school student. He doesn't think like he deserves the title at all since it's really his organization that does the hard stuff and Wani's the one that's made it grow and he shouldn't be panicking like this if he really was a "great leader". But he still decides to go due to "If you manage to graduate from Hope's Peak, you will be set for life!". But as his family can't know of him being scouted there as the Ultimate Supreme Leader, he forges a letter claiming he's the Ultimate Lucky Student which he shows to them. And at HPA he requests he be referred to by that title.
Problem is, now his year group has 2 Ultimate Lucky Students and a certain Ultimate Detective gets suspicious.
Miscellaneous: Shuichi really wants to use make-up but he's really afraid to at home since he feels his uncle would think it's really weird. So at the organization's base Wani heard about it and got him some makeup and now Shuichi wears makeup when on missions and at the base. Also the organization has a helicopter. (It's a central part of that climactic scene I talk so much about.) Shuichi thinks about becoming a detective perhaps, but he's not sure how he'd be able to leave his group anymore so...
Ultimate Detective Kokichi
For Kokichi I still have my pretty elaborate origin story. His early years are great until at some point his real father finds out that Kokichi's mother had actually had the Kokichi and his older twin brother with him and not her husband leaving him alone. And thus he murders Kokichi's mother out of spite. Kokichi and Tamotsu (my headcanon name for his twin) see the murder take place and flee. However, they were never actually able to make out who the murderer was and they knew even less of why their mother was murdered.
The murder never gets solved and this mystery stays in Kokichi's mind. Who ruined his life, who killed his mother?
(I feel they'd have like an uncle and their mother's husband lived with them obviously. There'd also be other factors like disposed evidence and the suspects vanishing making the murder so much harder to figure out afterwards.)
So Kokichi and Tamotsu end up at an orphanage, one related to the one Maki's at. It's kind of a terrible place, but it's where Kokichi meets (most of) Dice. They become inseparable friends (tho don't form a group with the name Dice. I'll still call them that here for clarity's sake though). However Tamotsu who had always been supporting Kokichi and being there for him at his side starts becoming bitter (jealous?) against Kokichi due to dice and starts turning against them. This is the time when Kokichi starts developing his lying to protect himself from Tamotsu as well as the borderline abusive authority at the orphanage. He's also started to figure out the dark secret of the orphanage training children to become assassins.
I feel like during this time a detective was investigating the orphanage. So when things get too dire and Kokichi and Dice escape the orphanage the detective ends up taking them in after finding them on the streets afterwards since he can't just send them to an orphanage at that point. So Kokichi and Dice end up staying with the detective and start helping him out. Kokichi's especially interested in the orphanage now and he and the detective with the help of the other Dice members figure out a lot of stuff. (This is also the time the rest of the Dice members "join".) Until one day the detective gets assassinated by someone from the orphanage sending them a message to stop the investigation.
So Kokichi takes over the Detective's office and to get by he starts working on all kinds of small cases with the help of Dice. And that's what they mostly do. Among those small cases are often cases that have something to do with saving children. However Kokichi occasionally also takes on homicides and investigates organizations. He wants to be prepared for when he finally investigates his mother's murder as well as the organization behind the orphanage. He wants those people locked up in jail forever.
Personality wise Kokichi's pretty much the same. He still loves pranks, lies all the time and would have elaborate stories (lies) about like for example how he was the one who managed to put the previous Queen of Novoselic's assassin behind bars. (The previous Queen was not even assassinated). He'd also jokingly blackmail people by claiming he knows something about them or could figure out something incriminating about them. He never really means it, though he would like try to find out harmless embarrassing secrets to mess with people.
Around the time he gets scouted to Hope's Peak he's specifically requested to assist in the investigation of a mysterious organization that steals information and sends blackmail and other such things. It's a huge flashy case, so of course he picks it up.
At Hope's Peak he then meets an (surprisingly mysterious?) Ultimate lucky student who seems really interested about his Ultimate detective talent and his lying.
Bonus
The original portraits from summer 2020. My laptop just broke when I finished the lineart and then I couldn't really edit them on my new tablet anymore and they were getting really old so I just decided to completely redo them. Also lmk if you want the sketch of the climactic scene since I'm not sure if I'll finish it even though I really like it. It looks pretty okay even if it's unfinished.
Also hope this is coherent and that I haven't forgotten anything aah. And damn if you actually made it this far gezus. This took like 4+ hours?? oops.
#saiouma#oumasai#shuichi saihara#kokichi ouma#danganronpa v3#saihara shuichi#ouma kokichi#saiou#danganronpa#ndrv3#ndrv3 killing harmony#saihara x ouma#ouma x saihara
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