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crabsnpersimmons · 3 months

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This one goes out to all the slow burn enjoyers, the dense Y/Ns, and the soft robo jesters that suffer in silence!

Inspired by @bamsara's “Solar Lunacy” fic.

If you feel like reading my ramblings and want to experience more heartbreak for fictional jester blorbos, check under the cut where I detail all the planning behind the frames!

so i heard this song for the first time in a while and the opening lyrics immediately made me think of moon, so i was daydreaming some scenes and then i decided to thumbnail some ideas:

and it all went downhill from there as everything became a metaphor and a parallel to each other, which i will now go into detail on!

you thought the animatic itself was sad?

*writing muse laughs maniacally* IT'S ALL A METAPHOR

Frame 1. "turn down the lights" We start with a back view on Moon. The lights are out, the Moon is out, but we do not see his face. The music and the greyscale atmosphere are enough to establish the weight of the moment and the weight on Moon’s mind.

Frame 2. "turn down the bed" We cut to a shot of Moon's body, kneeling on the ground of the daycare, like a padded cell. Moon’s hands are twitching with the effects of the glitch, with purple sparks coming from his hands. We still do not see his face.

Frame 3. "turn down these voices inside my head" Cut to an extreme close up on the dark half of Moon’s face. Now we see his face, but only a portion of it. His left eye is wide open, red and glitching out. The voices in his head can refer to the glitch but also his repressed feelings. Or maybe it could be Sun's voice in their shared headspace.

Frame 4. "lay down with me" Y/N's hand enters the frame from the upper right corner, lowering down to meet Moon where he kneels on the ground. Only a corner of Moon's face appears on the bottom left corner of the frame, his starry nightcap beginning to cover his glitched left eye.

Frame 5. "tell me no lies" An full shot of Moon on the floor and Y/N standing in front of him with their hand stretched towards him. A light spills out from behind Y/N, creating a boundary between them.

Now we see more of Moon. It is only when Y/N enters the frame—enters his world—that Moon’s body is shown in its entirely. When Y/N is here, he is no longer fragmented. He is whole.

Frame 6. "just hold me close" pspspspsps Playfully, Moon extends his own hand, beckoning Y/N to come closer, to join him. His right hand crossed over his body as he uses the playful gesture to hide his true feelings—to put distance between him and Y/N. His hat continues to cover his glitching left eye. He doesn’t want to worry Y/N.

Frame 7. "don't patronize" In response, Y/N’s hand pats Moon on the head, returning his playfulness. Moon looks surprised by the action. Moon, notably, does not lower his hand—perhaps he has forgotten it or perhaps his invitation is still open.

Frames 8-9. "don't patronize me" Moon rotates his faceplate so Y/N’s hand is touching the side of his faceplate, a more intimate gesture than a head pat. However, his hat is in the way. At this angle, his starry nightcap fully covers his glitchy eye and the dark side of his face, hiding his defect and acting as a veil between him and Y/N. A self-imposed boundary. So close, yet thinly separated. It's better this way. It's safer this way.

The lyrics are broken up by Y/N's arm, both to illustrate how the song is sung ("patronize" is drawn out and "me" is briefly added in before the chorus starts) but also to show how Y/N interrupts Moon's resolve, highlighting the irony between the visuals and the lyrics. Demanding not to be patronized, yet Moon happily accepts this play at intimacy. Don't patronize me, I am weak for it.

This is also the only instance where the red light of Moon's eyes glow and tint the surfaces around it. Visually, it makes it look like Moon is blushing (heavily inspired by @restinsodaroni's art). But also, in this moment of honesty, Moon's intrinsic light spills out, colouring the greyscale world. In this brief moment of honesty, Moon touches the world with his own colours, his own light.

(and this is also where i forgot to clean up the shading on Y/N's arm, but it's okay it doesn't need to be perfect it simply needs to be. And Moon will still love Y/N even if they are a continuity error.)

Frame 10. "'cause I can't make you love me if you don't" A parallel to a frame 4, Y/N retrieves their hand away and immediately Moon is reduced to the corner of his faceplate in the frame. Only now his glitched eye is fully covered by his hat.

The lyrics here (and in the next frame) in particular grow lighter to emphasize Moon's diminishing resolve and agency.

From here on out, the lyrics here are broken up, carrying on this theme of fragmentation. Y/N is pulling away, Moon is breaking up, the words are breaking up. Everything is coming apart.

Frame 11. "you can't make your heart feel something it won't" Y/N turns to leave. The lyrics, broken up as before, highlight the irony of the situation. Y/N, a human, can’t feel something they simply don’t feel. Whereas, Moon, the machine, feels something his code never intended him to feel.

Frame 12. "here in the dark in these final hours" Another full shot that parallels frame 5, as Y/N steps towards the light and Moon leans forward into the space Y/N once occupied. Y/N is leaving—that which makes him whole is leaving. And he is only capable of making it to the boundary where the light cuts into the darkness. The "final hours" suggest it might be the end of Y/N’s shift, or perhaps this scene takes place right before the glitch takes over—the final hours that Y/N has with the true Moon. Either way, time is running out—and only Moon knows it.

There is a contrasting display of body language here. Moon is on the floor leaning towards Y/N with his hand still left out. Whereas Y/N is turned away, walking away, and has already slipped their hand away and into their pocket. Y/N is closed off while Moon is limply open. Y/N is actively moving while Moon is on the floor, waiting, hoping, for that which he lacks the agency to reach for himself.

Frame 13. "I will lay down my heart" A close up on Moon’s hand, rising up again, perhaps to beckon Y/N back once more. This is a slight parallel to Y/N's hand reaching out to Moon. While Y/N can freely reach out and touch Moon, Moon cannot. He can't enter the light and more importantly he can't risk potentially harming his relationship with Y/N—be it through the glitch or by his feelings. He can only lay down his heart—put aside his feelings or hope that someone will pick up his pieces and make him whole.

Frame 14. "and I'll feel the power" Still on a close up on Moon’s hand, now clenched in slightly. This initially was going to have the glitch effects. However, I felt it more meaningful for it to be left without. Leave it up for interpretation why Moon pauses his hand. What is the power that he alone feels and stays his hand?

Frame 15. "but you won't, no, you won't" A parallel to frame 1, a view of on Moon's back with his hand stretched out towards the light, and Y/N walking into the light spilling through the open daycare door.

The placement of the lyrics suggest two different “you won’t”—Y/N who won’t realize Moon’s feelings, and Moon who won’t dare speak them into reality.

Another note on the parallel to frame 1, this time we also see Y/N's back, but it is notably different from our view of Moon's back. With Moon, we literally see inside him through the hole for his loop. However, Y/N is shrouded in shadow, just a solid, obscure silhouette against the bright light of a world Moon—and Sun for that matter—are closed off from. We don’t see into Y/N, just as the Daycare Attendant doesn't have any vantage point of Y/N's life beyond their time at the PizzaPlex. (The unfortunate reality of a being a character made for the purpose of being a vessel for the reader.)

Frame 16. "'cause I can't make you love me" We finally cut to face Moon head-on, frozen in place with his hand stretched out, unable to cross the boundary into the light. His eyes have gone dark. Where we began by seeing bits and parts of Moon, and never seeing his full face—now we, the viewer, see the full Moon, open and vulnerable—unbeknownst to Y/N.

Frame 17. "if you don't" But in the dark, behind closed doors, there is no one to perceive him—no one to receive him. The light dwindles as the daycare doors are closed. Moon stays frozen where he kneels. It is no longer the glitch that plagues him, but a far deeper dread.

But a lone streak of light peaks through the gap in the daycare doors. Perhaps that is just enough. A silver lining. A frail hope. A single, ethereal thread out of darkness and into light.

Thanks for reading and watching!

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled fun and games shortly!

#fnaf moon #fnaf dca #dca fandom #so this idea had me by the throat ever since I heard this song again #I've never done an animatic before but I wanted to give it a shot #the opening lyrics already reminded me of moon right off the bat #but then i kept listening and started thumbnailing some frames #it was actually the frames with moon receiving the head pat and turning his faceplate that convinced me i had to do this lol #the sweetest images resulted in this work of angst #thank you if you read all this!#i promise to post something cute soon to balance things out #and no promises but i will say the second verse of the song is PERFECT for sun #“morning will come and I'll do what's right just give me 'till then to give up this fight” /lyrics #hahaha it hurts :')#crab art #traditional art #digital art #traditionally inked and digitally coloured #animatic

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enchanted-wildflower · 5 months

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On animism

One of my teachers at university told us something today, that I believe to be relevant to animism and therefore also witchcraft:

He explained that in the West we see everything as occurences, whereas in some languages the same happenings are described as actions. Meaning that in the West we tend to imply that there is no agency involved in whatever happens, while some other languages tend to imply that someone activily causes things. His example was that in the West rain is understood as something that just happens, no one causes the rain. Whereas in Mesoamerica it was believed that it rained because some god was crying.

While the idea of a literal crying god causing it to rain on earth might be outdated, I find it really interesting how these two perspectives - events vs. actions - might shape our relationship with the world. If rain is not just an occurence, but someone acting with agency, rain becomes another part of the community we live in. The community then doesn't only consist of humans anymore, but of everything that surrounds us. Suddenly there are all these new players that actively affect your life with their actions. Other-than-human persons that you can interact with and with whom you have to keep a friendly relationship. If the tree in front of your house isn't just an object, but a being with agency, you actually have to be at least respectful and might even want to build a relationship with them, get to know them, learn from them.

I think that's really the core of animism. Descriptions of animism are often reduced to the believe that everything has a soul, but I think believe doesn't even factor into it. You don't need to believe that there is a non-physical aspect to rain, mountains, stones. It's about how we interact with them. I don't even have to ask myself the question if the tree in front of my house has a soul in order to learn about and from them or to interact with them. In my opinion animism is something that is done, not thought or believed. It's a perspective.

Listening to my teacher also reminded me of the following part of Braiding Sweetgrass (great book btw) which explains all this really well:

A bay is a noun only if water is dead. When bay is a noun, it is defined by humans, trapped between its shores and contained by the word. But the verb wiikwegamaa - to be a bay - releases the water from bondage and lets it live. "To be a bay" holds the wonder that, for this moment, the living water has decided to shelter itself between these shores, conversing with cedar roots and a flock of baby mergansers. Because it could do otherwise become a stream or an ocean or a waterfall, and there are verbs for that, too. To be a hill, to be a sandy beach, to be a Saturday, all are possible verbs in a world where everything is alive. Water, land, and even a day, the language a mirror for seeing the animacy of the world, the life that pulses through all things, through pines and nuthatches and mushrooms. This is the lan- guage I hear in the woods; this is the language that lets us speak of what wells up all around us.

[...]

This is the grammar of animacy. [...] In English, we never refer to a member of our family, or indeed to any person, as it. That would be a profound act of disrespect. It robs a person of selfhood and kinship, reducing a person to a mere thing. So it is that in Potawatomi and most other indigenous languages, we use the same words to address the living world as we use for our family. Because they are our family.

To whom does our language extend the grammar of animacy? Naturally, plants and animals are animate, but as I learn, I am discovering that the Potawatomi understanding of what it means to be animate diverges from the list of attributes of living beings we all learned in Biology 101. In Potawatomi 101, rocks are animate, as are mountains and water and fire and places. Beings that are imbued with spirit, our sacred medicines, our songs, drums, and even stories, are all animate. The list of the inanimate seems to be smaller, filled with objects that are made by people.

[...]

The language reminds us, in every sentence, of our kinship with all of the animate world.

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2013), p. 78-80.

#animism #witchcore #witch blog #witchcraft #witch books #braiding sweetgrass #witchy #folk witchcraft #folk magic #plant witch #bookblr #bookish #booklr #studyblr #animist

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cattimeswithjellie · 1 year

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You know the only reason that the Empires folks aren't on board with the Hermits going home is that they are not familiar with the natural Hermit life cycle. They have seen the initial exploratory phase, in which friendly Hermits with no homes wander the server and begin gathering up tools as well as making charming little bases to hold their baby chest monsters. They have also seen the intense growth and development phase, in which Hermits are compelled to create massive farms and trading halls to overcome the significant disadvantage of living in a survival world without the infinite resources they crave. These phases have been generally pretty beneficial to the Emperors, who've had a bunch of new neighbors to show off to, plus a bunch of free labor in their own various farming projects. Nothing beats a Stage 2 Hermit on the grind when it comes to building a farm or trading with villagers!

The Emperors are in no way prepared, however, for the next stages of Hermitvolution. They are already vaguely dismayed at the size and scope of Hermitopia, which is merely one industrial district turned on its side and decorated, how would they cope with Stage 3, Megabase Development? Hermits in the wild need vast amounts of territory in which to create their ridiculously oversized build projects; trying to squeeze them in amongst the existing Empires would be like introducing a massive beaver colony into your average creekside subdivision. They are made to build and they must build, and woe betide anything that stands in their way. (Brief aside: the fact that we have not seen Doc "WorldEater" 77 in several weeks should be cause for a lot more concern than is being shown by inhabitants of the world in question.)

Even beyond the build phase, though, is the Destruction Phase, which inevitably occurs when the Hermits begin to complete or grow bored with their mega-projects. In the past, Hermits have been mostly satisfied by going to war with each other in epic landscape-altering conflicts later memorialized in song and animatic, but last season they celebrated the start of Destruction Phase by crashing the whole-ass moon into their server. It could be anything, is all I'm saying. They like a good wreckage.

The Emperors have a great thing going right now. They've gotten a ton of good stuff from their new Hermit buddies, builds and farms and a fun new Murder Hat to share around, and it's all been so nice. It is absolutely the ideal moment to wave goodbye, promise to write and that you'll get together again at the next death game. Surely nobody's going to do something crazy like try to keep the Hermits around by force, right? Right?

#hermitcraft #empires smp #the hermits are like the living representation of Aut inveniam viam aut faciam #i will find a way or make one #good luck jimmy and sausage

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checkadii · 1 year

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Hey guys— [loud clattering]— oh my god I’m so sorry hold on [crash] guys give me a moment wa— [cat yowling] god this is embarrassing look away [sirens wailing]

[tldr. I’m working on Jon centric animatic so have tribe twelve and old drawings for now]

[hey dol what abt the Leith Ross ani- SHH]

[also Firebrand and Observer are Beholding aligned. I think. HABIT emH is Slaughter aligned]

#tribetwelve #t12 #firebrand t12 #observer t12 #noah maxwell #kevin haas #slenderverse #checkadii

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bestworstcase · 29 days

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i am revising my estimation on what rwby beyond will entail perhaps out of wishful thinking but: since they let the cat out of the bag on salem razed vale with the animatic that means salem razing vale is conceivably something that beyond might touch on. maybe not if her motives for doing so constitute a major spoiler (which is possible but seems unlikely), but that is a big “holy fuck” moment to drop in the Forbidden Eleventh Hour Episode Animatic and. hm. hmmm

i would really like to get a glimpse of the context. salem left atlas with herself and cinder; she can spawn hundreds of grimm per second but came to atlas with a giant whale and millions of grimm, which seems to have taken her several weeks if not a few months to put together. if the civilian retreat traveled very quickly southward to vacuo it’s conceivable that they arrive within hours of the destruction, which does leave salem time to have whipped up another storm.

but retreating so hastily would have necessarily meant leaving a lot of people to die (or be captured—depends what “there’s nothing left” means, really) and the longer it took the civilian retreat to get to vale, the less likely it is that salem stormed vale with a massive fleet of grimm a la atlas.

the other possibilities i can think of are:

salem and cinder flattened an entire city, which has horrifying implications as to how much salem has been holding back up to this point;

she cracked the wyvern out of gay baby jail and let it do the heavy lifting;

“there’s nothing left” means that salem encored her trick of ripping open the continental crust to make a grimm river, but under vale this time, cratering the entire city into a lake of grimm (which also has horrifying implications as to how much she’s been holding back before);

salem didn’t attack vale so much as she was seen approaching beacon tower and mass hysteria ensued, leading to the city being swamped by the local grimm again.

ponders.

or vale was a casualty of an extremely destructive attempt to brute force break through the extra protections ozpin arranged for the beacon vault. what that might look like practically is an open question, but… i mean, i’ve been thinking for a while on the possibility of ozpin weaving traps into those protections.

there is also the more interesting question of why. beacon fell -> grimm pulled out of vale within days -> surgical strike on haven -> held her forces back from attacking mantle -> no grimm in atlesian subway tunnels -> (ironwood forced the fall of atlas while salem was taking a dirt nap) -> razing vale to the ground apparently. what changed?

“people saw salem and panicked” seems like both a copout and also the explanation that tracks with what we’ve seen from her before and what we know of the situation. “something happened that made salem decide it was necessary to delete vale” is the more narratively punchy option and the one i hope they’re going for. in pursuit of a new world, no cost is too great, and all.

sighs. when glinda lays siege to the emerald city, the witch mombi magically disguises herself in the form of a rose, and general jinjur aligns herself with mombi in a bid to remain in power. salem has put a lot of trust in summer to hold beacon for her, never doubting her loyalty after a year or more without progress. if that trust were betrayed…

(<- NERVOUS.)

the other obvious possibilities is brutal overreaction to a perceived threat to cinder (“if anyone even looks at cinder wrong i will break this wyvern out of its shell” WAS A JOKE I WAS JOKING–). or she’s removing vale from the equation specifically to broaden the search radius for the crown, and/or now suspects that the vault is in vale. that glynda “emblem is a crown” goodwitch is being kept offscreen still is interesting in that regard, obviously.

i don’t think it’s a matter of salem feeling emboldened by possession of two relics, if only because she wasn’t emboldened by having the lamp in atlas, and also her character arc in v8 was firmly oriented around cinder and the beacon relic, in that order. that was the basis for my thinking that she would make a beeline for vale next, which is exactly what she did. my assumption was that she planned to dig in and wait for a counteroffensive to become necessary to hold the vacuo coalition together, which i did not guess would include razing vale—because i thought she might take a gamble on pitching her side to vale, to remove a pillar of support from the vacuo coalition; razing vale is a different tactical approach to the same end.

so it’s possible that salem simply made the calculation that razing vale was the most effective way to achieve her longer term strategic goal (eliminate vale as an ally to the vacuo coalition and prohibit a siege while she digs in at beacon). it comes at the cost of hardening the vacuan coalition by demonstrating that she’s capable of flattening two kingdoms in a span of weeks and giving mistral more reason to be nervous, but it also tells the world in no uncertain terms exactly where she is, which removes an obstacle to the counteroffensive she is probably counting on to deliver the sword to her.

narratively i think it’s a really exciting choice. the pressure it puts on the salem-summer-cinder dynamic stands to be very interesting and i would like to see it.

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tyran-the-tyranical · 26 days

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Baldur’s Gate 3 cute lil AU idea

I have these ideas for animations or animatics for bg3, and today I learned about Wyll and what happened specifically to his mother and I had this cute (or miserable) lil idea for an animatic about the parents of our main characters in game.

It’ll skip to all the bg3 characters at a certain point in their lives but the only difference being is that their parents are either still alive or are actually good parents. For example, Wylls mother survives and it’s him, her and his father all together celebrating his birthday. Another one is Astarion, after coming home from a long day of his magistrative duties and he reads a letter from his parents saying how proud they are of him. Or Gale, instead of learning under Mystra or Elminster, he just stays with his mother and Tara as they cook/bake together.

Karlach’s parents are still alive and keep her away from any body guarding business and they have a big family meal together , or shadowhearts father doing her lil hair buns for her, or Lae’zels mother keeping her and teaching her about combat herself.

I also have ideas for some of the Non playable characters in the game. Like Mol and the tiefling kids staying with Halsin and being like a lil family. Raphael as a child holding a lil puppet show or play for his father and him actually approving and taking him up in his arms. Orin, her mother and Durge killing Sarevok together. Gortash making some new invention and his parents being so proud of him. Arabella celebrating Christmas with her parents, Korilla and Hope sharing a drink in a pub, or ketheric walking Isobel down the aisle

Just lil cute moments of what could’ve been, or what ifs? That’s not to say some of these things couldn’t happen, maybe Astarions parents would’ve sent him a letter saying how proud they were of him, or shadowhearts father doing her hair, or Gale cooking with his mother, but I like to see these as the alternatives to what actually happens in game, that this is the extent of what happens and NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS AFTERWARDS :3

Whenever I get my computer fixed I’ll probably do a lil slideshow or animatic of this, but I do have alot of ideas to get through lol

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meraki-yao · 2 months

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WIP Ask Game

Tagged by @nocoastposts!!! Thank you dear <3

Haven't gotten around to actually writing that much these two weeks because of school and also me working on my little rwrb animatic project instead, but here's some of what I have at the moment!

Ask me anything about my WIPs!

Works Started:

The Word of Your Body (RWRB):

Song fic of the movie Paris scene using "The Word of Your Body" from Spring Awakening, Chapter 1 in Alex's pov completed and uploaded, Chapter 2 in Henry's pov with the Reprise of the song (that supposedly Nick sang when he was in the production at 19) currently planning

Enchanted to Meet You (RWRB):

Reverse Cinderella AU: Alex is the son of the town Mayor and is holding the town's harvest festival, Henry is the repressed prince of the kingdom who snuck away for a break, but then stumbles across Alex. Loosely based on 2015 Cinderella. Chapter 1 uploaded, currently planning (*cough struggling *cough) with Chapter 2

I know better (but you're still around) (RWRB):

One-shot song fic based on Taylor Swift's "Marjorie", exploration of the Hanover-Stuart Foxs (Movie verse) finally learns to deal with their grief and reconcile. Just started writing

Take Me Out and Take Me Home (Malec)

5+1 Fic: 5 times Alec called Magnus his boyfriend and the 1 time Alec called him something more. 4 chapters done, 2 left, and currently sort of in writer's block for this fic

Ideas:

I'll See You In My Dreams (RWRB)

Where the only way the insomniac Prince Henry can fall asleep is to the ASMR videos of a certain ACD, who's later invited to a discussion/panel for one of Henry's mental health-related programmes (or some other social issue? I'll have to think about it)

Book Tok Fic (haven't thought of a name yet) (RWRB)

Inspired by some tik tok reuploaded to Instagram reel I saw ages ago: Henry is an author who's struggling to write the physical part of romantic scenes in his novel and Alex, his roommate who he has a massive crush on offers to help by demonstrating it with him. Kiss kiss fall in love :)

The Little Prince (RWRB)

Movie Verse Expanded: Taking the campfire scene monologue and telling the story each part shows, ex: "His grandfather, the King, sent the prince a suit of armor and told him that if he always wore it, nothing would ever happen to him." = the King's talk with Henry on his 18th birthday

I know you (I walked with you once upon a dream) (RWRB)

Sleeping Beauty + Soulmates AU with Henry as Aurora and Alex as Prince Philip, the dreams actually being a soulmate connection (the mechanics of the soulmate aspect inspired by one of my favourite Malec fics)

The Dreams That You Dream (RWRB)

Henry's POV of the Buckingham protest, one on book and one on movie

Song Fics/ Character Studies (RWRB)

At All Cost from Wish and You Matter to Me from Waitress

Identical (Qi Ye/ Tian Ya Ke)

I don't think any one of my tumblr followers would know this one but Qi Ye and Tian Ya Ke is a duology of Chinese BL ancient drama novels, with the latter adapted into the TV Show Word of Honor. There are two characters in the book that although only met once, have a very similar trajectory when it comes to their relationships and unrequited love, only one already moved on and found someone better while the other hasn't. Had this idea to expand upon their connection because in the novel, the one it's implied that the one that moved on immediately recognized their shared experience. But I never got around to writing it, it has been lying in my drafts for a year now 😭

Tagging @typicalopposite @luainthewild @england-would-fall @pippin-katz and anyone who wants to join in!

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ego-osbourne · 4 months

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2023 Art Roundup

JAN - FEB - MAR - APR - MAY - JUN - JUL - AUG - SEP - OCT - NOV - DEC

(These aren’t entirely indicative of when I posted them, but when I actually finished them.)

These are some of my biggest/favorite projects through each month!

Piece details + Mod-posting below!

JAN - Asteía ; This was one of my first projects of the year that dealt with lighting, and additionally light from multiple sources! I also remember experimenting with backgrounds and how to make a character pop against a semi-detailed background without making them get lost in the piece.

FEB - Mora and Ego ; This was a good project on figuring out how to fill empty space while still keeping the atmosphere of a piece. It was also good perspective practice!

MAR - Sanguine and Ego ; Though I’m no longer too happy with the proportions or lighting of this piece, I still remember having a blast with it. Hearing feedback about them holding hands and Sanguine’s ear getting squished are very fun memories for me.

APR - Miraak and Ego ; This might be my favorite project of the whole year! Though I know I can do backgrounds better now, I remember being pretty confident and happy during the whole process! I think the motion/lighting/effects all came out very well :] ALSO it was the first piece I did with expressive masks for Miraak and Ego! Wahoo!

MAY - Mora and Ego (again) ; Though the last one was my personal favorite, I heard from a couple of friends that THIS was their favorite. Though a pain in the ASS to do, I’m especially happy with all the texture effects. This was also me experimenting with Mora’s design!

JUN - Erandur ; Not a particularly complicated/difficult piece, but one that was simply pure fun. Had a blast with lighting effects and atmosphere. It was also a good break from the family trip I was taking at the same time ,:]

JUL - Dagon ; Specifically his revamp! This was my first successful attempt at a (very) muscular body type that I liked! In fact, over the course of the year I’ve been pretty proud of my progress of expanding on body types. This one especially, though, was just very fun!

AUG - Iren and Rakell ; My first dive into a colored + shaded animatic (animation? It’s awful choppy lol)! FAR from perfect, but I was (and still am) so happy with the outcome. I particularly remember enjoying figuring out lines of movement and sound effects for the video.

SEP - Sanguine ; My first (and still only, though hopefully not for long) attempt at making Sanguine intimidating. I think this one is going in the right direction! As far as effects go, I actually had a very tough time with things because of a few layer-merging mishaps, but the final product was well-received!

OCT - The Warden ; After many-a night on Minecraft with friends, I realized just how much I loved the warden, and HAD to draw them. Redesigning characters is one of my absolute favorite things to do, especially when taking minimal details and expanding on them! They were super fun all around.

NOV - Miraak, Serana, Ego, and Ancano ; I’d been meaning to draw the siblings being siblings for a while now, but putting them all on one canvas was more than a little intimidating. I was so happy to have it done, though, and I kinda love seeing their colors clash together.

DEC - Sanguine (again) ; After not drawing him for so long, it was a blast doing so. The moment I was back home for winter break, I was ECSTATIC to get to work on this piece. #1 blorbo

This year has been an absolute ride.

I became a mod and then co-owner of the TES server that got me into making TDI and have made some really tight friendships over there (genuinely, anyone reading this who is/was in the cult server, I’m so damn happy to know you).

I’ve done some intense progress on TDI, and even though I didn’t QUITE accomplish my New Years Resolution of posting Ch. 1 this year, hopefully you can understand the drawbacks considering I am… //checks notes/// 70+ chapters in and still going.

I’m in college! Have been for a hot second now, but I’ve been working towards a ministry degree, and have future plans of getting a PhD after my bachelor’s so I can teach at a college level! I don’t think I talk a lot about my irl happenings, but hopefully that gives you an idea of why I might be a liiittle busy when it comes to writing. Ministry is an unforgiving degree when it comes to papers and meetings.

As earlier mentioned, I’ve learned how to do different body types, and am trying to find a good balance between shape language and inclusivity when it comes to bodies! I am… still struggling with feminine anatomy! Admittedly! But I’m willing to keep trying ,:]

And, overall, I (certainly hope I have) improved on my art. I have a much better sense of face shapes, line weights, and consistent details than I did at the beginning of the year. Always learning, but always improving, too!

I hope your year has gone well! Thank you so very much for checking out my blog. Tumblr has been a wonderful thing to get into and has led me to a lot of wonderful people. See you in the new year!

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sonicman66 · 1 month

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My gf is being Tormented by an animatic of Ascended!Astarion set to Burn from Hamilton, so have the idea i'm tormenting her even further with.

EDIT: forgot the read more lmao

Ascended!Astarion gets peggy sue'd after a romanced Tav dies to free themself from his clutches. Her last words to him were 'You're just like him now. The second coming of Cazador. He wakes on the ground right after the nautiloid blows, with all his memories intact, none of his Ascended powers. He's back to square one, but he's done this before, right? All he needs to do is woo Tav again, kill Cazador and the Absolute again, easy-peasy. He even has foreknowledge now, so he can help with pesky sidequests, secure him even further in their good books.

He has a Much Nicer meeting with Tav, no daggers involved. He's smooth and suave but... they're not buying it. For some reason, they're not falling for him. He recalls cute moments they had in his past and they aren't happening here, why arent they happening- why arent they ~~his~~

Because they fell for Astarion the Spawn, not whoever the hell this is. And his behavior gets him left behind more often than not, even when he has things to point out about current questlines.

And maybe one of those times he's left behind, Tav gets severely wounded, bc in the other timeline Astarion was there covering their back-

And maybe shadowheart is out of healing, and they don't have another healer-

So they get back to camp with a Tav who is very clearly struggling to hold on to life and Astarion is suddenly confronted with the fact that he might lose them *again*

So that night he fucks off. He returns the next morning with Karlach and two bags full of health pots. He raided every stash he remembered in the first timeline wnd grabbed em, and also Karlach bc he killes the fake paladins and looted their corpses and she was nearby.

On the way back, Karlach tries to strike up a conversation and mentions how this person must mean a lot to him if he's willing to hunt down health pots in the middle of the night and take down (fake) paladins just for their stuff. And he realizes she is correct, and he does not want to imagine life without Tav.

So he makes it back (ignoring the situation with Wyll, those two will live until he's done) and heads straight to Tav's tent. Almost drowns them in health pots, then sits down. Properly apologizes. Just like 'My behavior up til now has been... less than ideal. That changes now. I don't expect you to forgive me for my past actions, but I am sorry for how I've acted.'

Tav asks him why he's so fixated on them.

'Maybe... in another life, I failed you. Maybe I intend to make it up in this one.'

#bg3 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #ascended astarion #astarion bg3 #for reference a peggy sue is mental time travel #usually someone from late in a piece of media wakes up earlier in the story memories intact #i think its like the only way to redeem an ascended astarion #the power has to Go or he can't change #tav x astarion #astarion x tav #fic ideas

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overtheimaginationwall · 8 months

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Favorite boss(es) in No Straight Roads?

Least favorite?

(Sincere apologies. I've been holding this one for more than a year in my box, so I hope you don't mind a really late reply ^^")

(Also Happy 3rd Anniversary, NSR!! 🎉)

I will tell ya honestly - they all are my favourites!

Tho if to be more specific I decided to set them up by TOP.

1. Sayu

Oh Sayu, my beloved <3

The Best Virtual Idol and The Reason I bought this game in the first place!

Her music and style of battle was the most fun and dancy! I still vibe to it to this day-

Sooo many references to Internet Culture and Digital Art fills my heart with warmth and gives me determination just like her song itself as well!

Funny Useless Fact: She is the only boss I've beaten on Rank B on my first blind playthrough!

2. DK West

He's OUR MAN, He's THE BEST!

My second favorite and at the same time the hardest for me to beat.

I personally didn't adore RAP genre at first and never seen anyone preform it as an actual entertaining battle until he showed up...

HOLLY MOLLY DESPITE ME BREAKING MY THUMBS WHILE GOING THROUGH THE PAINFUL DODGE GAME - HIM AND ZUKE RAPPING FELT LIKE I'M WATCHING DISNEY-

LIKE-

I STILL HAVE IDEA IN MY HEAD TO MAKE A SORT OF ANIMATIC WITH "FIRST ENCOUNTER" ALONE!!

Anyway, despite damaged fingers - 10/10, would fight again!

Funny Useless Fact: When I was drawing him for the first time I listened to his theme on loop for 4 days straight in order not to get myself distracted or lose motivation, so I finish the piece.

3. Yinu

Oh, sweet child...

I love Yinu and her theme lots even if I'm not that big of a fan of Classical Music. And her backstory...Gosh! It made me cry a lot.

And I'm still feel ashamed of breaking the piano ;;-;;

Love the pace of how music goes with the fight and it feels even better when you get into actual rhythm. There were issues that gladly wore off thanks to practice and fighting this boss over and over.

Tho those slamming cords haunt me whenever I listen to the song off-battle-

Funny Useless Fact: I didn't like her Mother at first but when I read more about her and relationship with Yinu my opinion completely changed. And this is why I would nominate No Straight Roads for The Best Storytelling and Character Design.

4. EVE

Two-faced, tall woman.

Used to be one of my favorites but due to some circumstances I can't look at her the same way I used to but I still adore her as a boss!

I honestly love her style of the fight and music that changes depending on who you play.

Tho fighting her is literally like eating a lemon but eventually you kinda just accept your fate and roll with weird artistic antics happening around you.

And EVE herself as a character is so fascinating. Like this is the moment where I started to see that these aren't just bosses, they are actually characters that tie this little but complex story together bit by bit. And this is why I would nominate No Straight Roads for The Best Storytelling and Character Design AGAIN!

Funny Useless Fact: EVE was supposed to be a next character to have a complete and detailed art of but due to my forgetfulness, difficulties with her design (and many other things) - it was never finished but I hope to get that dusty sketch out of WIP folder someday.

5. Tatiana

The Bitch. The Boss.

I don't really like her music and rhythm but I can forgive that since it is kind of fitting for conflict between her and the BBJ.

She tries to hide her true image throughout the story and the fight but ultimately crumbles cause escaping from the past isn't the best option to improve.

I love her design and personality and I wish there were more villains like her. Strict, simple, stoic and yet well-written.

Funny Useless Fact: I've never drawn Tatiana until NSR announced their release on Steam with addition of Fanat Graffiti Contest that I certainly didn't want to miss out on. It was difficult but I did it and ngl, I am still proud of the results.

6. DJ Subatomic Supernova & 1010/Neon J

I can't really say anything much about both of them. Sorry, guys...

Their designs and personalities are fun and well-made but due to one of them being the first you fight as "tutorial" and the other appears only at the end of a fight. (1010 band doesn't count as an actual boss to me more like a part of it) They didn't struck me much as the others did...

I will say this thou: their backstories are interesting. One is an academy astrology teacher with a goal of achieving the stars and other is a war veteran who just wanted everyone to live in peace and he himself despite everything never stopped his passion for doll-making and making people happy.

Just simply, beautiful...

Cool Science Fact: Their VAs are GOLD!

#sofiath ask #thanks for the ask!#no straight roads #nsr #nsr neon j #nsr djss #nsr sayu #nsr tatiana #nsr dk west #nsr 1010 #nsr yinu #opinion #sofiath thoughts

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polyhexian · 1 month

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*holds up a weird plotbunny* So this one's kinda different. It's not quite Agony and not really eventually and is kinda mostly inspired by that second-to-last shot of the Jabberwocky animatic.

Jasper dies.

It goes down exactly like it does in Jabberwocky. The moments after happen the same way we saw them in the Collector's memory in Agony. At first glance, there's no difference.

There's a lot of aspects about magic that TOH never fleshed out. I don't even think that's because of the whole cancellation debacle, I think it just wasn't important to the story. Aside from the basics, the details about how magic works are delightfully vague and give a lot of leeway to play around with--even if it's annoying that some fields of magic were barely touched on at all.

We don't really know much about oracle magic in general, but ghosts and spirits exist. Hooty coughed up a bunch that one time. We don't really know how they occur, but if our own ghost lore has anything to do with it…

Jasper died desperate to protect his child. If you want to go the unfinished business route, Hunter is still in Belos's clutches. Jasper's final moments were intensely emotional and unjust and pretty much perfect to cause a haunting.

Except he doesn't haunt a physical place.

Hunter's nannies remark on how unusual it is for a baby to sleep through the whole night. He'll wake up when he's hungry or needs a diaper change, but never for no reason. Belos has never had an infant Grimwalker before so he chalks it up to the lack of humanity and spins some words about the Titan's small blessings, blah blah blah.

Hunter rarely has bad dreams as a child. Sometimes one will try to take hold after a bad day, but it's always pushed aside, and it almost feels like someone he can't see takes his shoulders from behind and gently steers him away to kinder thoughts. (When he was very young, it was a much larger hand holding his own, and shaggy blonde hair and bright magenta eyes like his and a gentle smile as he was led to nicer thoughts. But that stopped before he could remember it.)

As Hunter grows older and his responsibilities and expectations pile up, it gets harder to find kinder thoughts to steer to. But the nightmares are still held at bay. The nights after a punishment when he's cried himself to sleep, he dreams of strong arms holding him against a broad chest, his head tucked under someone's chin, and he doesn't know why but he feels safe.

Jasper is…idk, how does one cope with being dead and accidentally haunting your son's mindscape? It wasn't PURPOSEFUL that's for sure. There's so much that can go wrong here. But for the first few years it's like, Hunter's a BABY, he's a TODDLER, at the very least Jasper can be there for him for now! Crap he's learning how to talk, better back off, wouldn't do for Hunter to start telling people about having an imaginary friend. Except double crap, Hunter's life is shit, there's no way Jasper won't help him, he'll just have to make sure he manifests in Hunter's dreams mostly as a sensation and faceless if he has a form at all.

Obviously this can't go on forever cuz that'd be unfulfilling for the plot but idk what would actually trigger them meeting, so to speak. Hunter passes out on his mountain trial or gets knocked out during training/a mission and Jasper is desperate to get him to wake up again? Hunter innocently hyperfixates on oracle magic and mindscapes for a month, realizes from his readings that his dreams are actually really unusual, and purposefully dives into his subconscious to confront Jasper himself? Darius is a jerk to Hunter and Jasper is so angry about it that he accidentally fully manifests in Hunter's dreams while he's angrily pacing around the mindscape that night and when he realizes Hunter is staring at him he just kinda freezes awkwardly like, shit?

Also not sure how to navigate the reveal… I feel like they have to come to some kind of terms or agreement with each other. Like, the end goal here is that Hunter 1) Understands that yes, he's been haunted his whole life, and 2) Understands that he cannot tell anyone about it.

It's not even for Jasper's sake, though Hunter might think it's for Jasper's sake. I imagine one of Jasper's biggest fears is some oracle witch realizing that Hunter has a ghost in his brain and telling Belos. Thank Titan Osran doesn't pay much attention to the kid. Jasper doesn't really want to haunt his kid, but he REALLY doesn't want to deal with the fallout of an exorcism. If Belos learned that Jasper has been haunting Hunter this whole time, he'd kill Hunter immediately, just as a precaution.

I also imagine Jasper wouldn't come clean about everything for a very long time. Belos will let Hunter live so long as he's loyal. Jasper would love to get Hunter away from Belos, but he's dead. So Hunter has to stay loyal until there's a viable escape route. Jasper isn't going to spill everything about how Hunter's a Grimwalker and Belos is evil and Hunter needs to run away, it won't help and it'll add to the poor kid's stress and he'll have to pretend he didn't know these things and then he'll slip up and Belos will kill him. All Jasper can really do is offer emotional support and advice.

But this is Hunter we're talking about so like. A little emotional support and advice goes a LONG way. Hunter becomes extremely attached to his live-in brain ghost, who may or may not be his family. Look at this, an AU where Hunter actually wants to maintain his sleep schedule because it gives him access to the one person who gives him positive attention, even if that person is incorporeal, and also dead. He infodumps about whatever he's reading about lately, or he rambles about some issue he's having while Jasper helps him think through the problem solving, and he really appreciates all the tips Jasper gives him about fighting and using the artificial staff. (Maybe in this AU Jasper actually teaches Hunter how to teleport, not Lilith.)

Hunter would dive into oracle magic over this, too. Just a personal side project, y'know, no big deal. Idk how much oracle magic a magicless witch could use, Luz at least seemed to be able to use that one crystal ball a bit. But at the very least Hunter could probably establish a better link to his mindscape, allowing him to choose to talk to Jasper even when he's awake.

And that's all the general ideas I have for this, I don't have very many specific ones, but here:

Belos starts in on the child abuse, and Jasper realizes that Belos didn't hurt him because Jasper was imperfect, Belos hurt him because Belos hurts people, and Belos was always going to hurt Hunter.

Would Darius's relationship with Hunter continue as it did in canon, or would Jasper decide "screw this" and tell Hunter exactly what to say to Darius to make Darius realize "holy shit is this Jasper's kid and am I shooting myself in the foot here??"

Hunter really does like Jasper but as the years go by Jasper slowly starts insinuating that he doesn't like Belos and by canon he might even be trying to get Hunter to question Belos because he's getting desperate and it causes a bit of tension.

Luz and the gang trying to talk or argue or fight with Hunter and he grunts and glares at her but his standoffishness is also covering for the fact that his attention is split by Jasper going SHE KINDA HAS A POINT, MAYBE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO HER, ASK IF YOU CAN CRASH ON THEIR COUCH.

Flapjack chooses Hunter and is also fully aware that Jasper is present and both of them are like "what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck"

Hunter and Jasper being absolute dumbasses who reinforce each other's dumbassery over very stupid things. Hunter goes undercover at Hexside like "I bet teenagers like authority and rules!" And Jasper has never been a teenager and is too dead to read parenting books but he did know some scouts who joined the coven as teenagers so he's like "Sounds right to me!"

As Hunter's friendship develops with Willow, Jasper watches all the trees in Hunter's mindscape slowly morph into willow trees.

Hollow Mind happens and through the handwavey powers of mindscape magic Jasper also manages to be there somehow. Caleb Wittebane's Hallucination Ghost is also lurking in Belos's mindscape and the two of them just stare at each other for a minute. Belos sees Jasper but figures he's just some weird manifestation of his guilt for killing his brother's clones, even when Jasper punches him in the face while the kids escape.

Hunter having his melt-down post-Hollow Mind and freaking out because YOU KNEW??? And Jasper tries to apologize and tries to calm him down but Hunter is so upset that he just shuts down that mental connection and refuses to sleep for 24 hours until he passes out at Hexside. He expects Jasper to show up and yell at him or try to explain or something, but instead his dreams that night are like the ones he had as a kid--strong arms and supportive silence and apologetic love.

Belos tries to possess Hunter in TTT and Jasper is just like SURPRISE BITCH. It doesn't go well for Belos, but it goes much better for Flapjack.

Idk what the endgame would be here, exactly, but I feel like Jasper can't haunt Hunter forever. It's not fair to either of them, Hunter needs privacy in his own mind and Jasper needs to pass on peacefully. But if you go the unfinished business route, well, Hunter is safe after Belos is dead, and he has real living friends and a support network now, so Jasper COULD move on finally. A bittersweet ending.

Hdjsjdnnf Ghost Dad (1990)

Maybe he tells him oh, he's the memory of the last Golden guard here to help train him, yeah, sure, that's most of the truth!

I do also kind of like the idea of him manifesting as like a Ghost-Ghost sometimes because. I want him to meet Papa Titan. I want him to Learn All The Lore. Also to go play cards with kings dad when Hunter is hyperfixating on like algebra or something that jasper finds boring and a little frightening

GOD tho... Ghost jasper running into ghost Caleb in Belos' mindscape.and they stare at each other in silence. I'm imagining Jaspers lips parting with this look of shock and apprehension like he wants to say something, but then he hears Hunter cry out in the distance as he gets schlorped up by the ground and his eyes linger for just a moment before he turns and runs in his direction... And you just see Caleb's head turn silently to follow him, then his expression shift ever so slightly toward pity before the camera cuts back to the action

And the DRAMA of brain ghost j-

Oh my god. Brain ghost jasper. Oh my god

The DRAMA of brain ghost jasper jumping from the darkness in front of Luz and hunter between them and Belos and hunter being like :0 when Belos recognizes jasper and is fucking PISSED to see him.

I don't even know how this would fit in but I have this image in my head of Darius sneering at little Hunter and saying like your predecessor would be ashamed of you and jasper is so fucking filled with vicious anger and passion that he just sort of snaps forward and accidentally possesses the little guy. Tiny little like ten years old hunter staring up at Darius with an older man's eyes and-- I don't even know what if have him say but it would be something sharp and so unsettling it fully throws Darius the fuck off his game like hang on what the hell. And jasper is immediately like oh fuck oh shit [poof] leaving hunter like what. The hell was that. Why did I just say that

Oh my god possession arc brain ghost jasper..... R/possessthemback

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