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idontknowreallywhy · 5 months

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Estera - Ch 14 - Hide

A slightly different format to tell the story of this next bit… I hope it works!

(Previous… Prologue - Stars are Only Visible in Darkness, Estera - 1 - Colour, 2 - Dinosaur, 3 - Shoes, 4 - Thunderbird, 5 - Lesson, 6 - Safe, 7 - Gull, 8 - Deliver, 9 - Coffee, 10 - Flight, 11 - Run, 12 - Fall, 13 - Trying)

(Sofasurf’s Recrudescence which is the foundation for all of this)

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Was good to meet you today. Here is my number. I hope you’re doing ok? Estera

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Hi Estera, sorry I didn't get back to you immediately. I wasn't well, but I'm doing better now. I'm glad we met. Maybe we could catch up again sometime in the future. Look after yourself, S

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Hi Scott, thanks for your message, I was glad to hear from you, but sad to hear you’ve been unwell. I’m sorry if I have made things more difficult for you. It would be nice to keep in touch if it was helpful to you. Estera

Please don’t be sorry, Estera. It’s not your fault at all.

Are you doing ok?

Yes I’m fine thank you.

Ok. Well, if you ever need anything or you want to talk, I’m here. S

That’s kind, thank you Scott

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“Your anger is distracting you, Estera.”

She lay panting on her back where she’d fallen, and pressed her knuckles into the coolness of the mat desperately trying to keep her mind in the present. She was at the leisure centre, the distant ceiling had huge silver ventilation tubes snaking across it. The rhythmic squeak-wheeze of the trampolines at the other end of the hall contrasted the irregular thump of shoulder and slap of hand on tatami mats close by. She could smell sweat and chalk. She could taste… blood. Aaah no, she’d bitten the inside of her cheek again and now that was going to irritate her for days.

Her teacher dropped to one knee and offered a hand. Estera pretended she hadn’t noticed and pushed herself to her feet unaided. She didn’t need anyone being kind to her right now. It might unlock a floodgate she’d be unable to force closed again.

“You ok?”

“Yes. Again.”

“I’m think perhaps it’s best if we call it a day there”

“Again. Please, I want to master this.”

The teacher cocked an eyebrow, but nodded. Estera bowed and made herself ready. Physically ready anyway. Hopefully muscle memory would compensate for today’s lack of mental discipline

She lasted longer this time, but the inevitable bone rattling thud as she hit the floor came all too soon. She forced herself upright and back into the ready position but a third voice intervened.

“Enough.”

She turned and bowed alongside her teacher as the master approached, disappointment making her shoulders heavy as she stood up straight. The coral-belted septuagenarian didn’t visit often, but on previous occasions the little girl in Estera had been thrilled to receive a nod of approval from the awe inspiring woman. Today she’d just let herself down. Not good enough.

“You need to sleep and recover your wits.”

Estera barely managed to contain the burst of bitter laughter. Chance would be a fine thing. She knew she was running on fumes and fury and the fumes were dissipating fast.

Dropping her eyes to avoid having to see the evident concern, she bowed to the master and then her teacher and tried to keep her head held high as she walked away, knowing full well the other students had stopped to watch her leave. She threw her coat over her gi and strode confidently through reception to the front entrance trying to ignore the bleeding man pleading with her from the periphery of her vision. She pulled up her hood so he couldn’t see her.

But she could still hear him. And found she could no longer disobey.

And so she ran.

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Hi, just wondered how you were getting on? How are Alex and co? S

Hi Scott, the kids are doing really well. They were delighted with the cards, that was a lovely touch. A couple struggled a little with nightmares to start with but seem to be getting better. Most bounced back unscathed. Thank you for asking. Estera

Very glad to hear that. Kids can be surprisingly resilient!

How about you?

Oh yes, I’m fine!

You know that’s usually my line?

I remember!

Ha. Yeah, not my finest moment.

Are you sure? Have you got people around if you need to talk about anything?

Yes, don’t worry :)

Ok. Take care, yeah?

I will! You too.

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Estera pressed send and reached out to steady herself as her head spun. She missed, grasped thin air and staggered sideways into the shelves of stationery, cringing as a monsoon of crayons, pencil sharpeners and boxes of junk modelling materials clattered to the floor. Well wasn’t that just what she deserved for hiding in a cupboard and sneaking a look at her messages during the school day? Why had she done that? So unprofessional.

The buzz of chatter outside stopped abruptly and Astra poked a curious head round the cupboard door

“Are you ok, Miss?

“Oh yes, of course - I just knocked a box with my elbow and that knocked into another box which knocked another one… and whoops! Never mind I’ll clear it up.”

“Can we help?”

“Thank you that’s a good idea. Little disasters are often easier to fix if you have help aren’t they?”

“Teamwork makes the dream work Miss!”

Estera nudged the door fully open and pushed the piles of craft devastation out into the classroom and several children leapt into action to return everything to its correct box. She leant heavily on the door frame and looked up to see the narrowed eyes of her classroom assistant. He was apparently not fooled and raised an eyebrow before inclining his head towards the classroom door. She smiled gratefully and accepted the offer of an opportunity to take a brief break, making it to the corridor before the tears fell. Dizzy again, she slumped against the wall just as the headteacher walked around the corner.

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Hey, you doing ok? S

Hi Scott, yes all good here. How are you getting on?

I’m good, thanks. Pretty late night for you?

Oh! Yes I guess it is. I couldn’t sleep so watched a film but I’d better get myself to bed - busy day tomorrow!

Ok sleep well, take care

And you.

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Sitting rigidly on the park bench outside the GP surgery, Estera frowned at the contents of the paper bag she had clutched in her hand. Sleeping pills and a generic SSRI to take while she crept up the waiting list for some kind of talking therapy. Signed off for 3 weeks. Fine. Predictable.

Fine.

Not as if she hadn’t known what the outcome would be. But her boss had been very firm about her booking the appointment. She’d hoped to fob off the friendly but ever so young-looking doctor with it just being nightmares about the cave in but of course her medical records were right there and Dr Honestly-How-Was-She-Old-Enough-To-Have-a-Degree skipped straight to the point and made a referral for suspected PTSD recurrence. It was likely to be 12 weeks wait to see anyone though. So in the meantime Estera’s job was to not die from sleep deprivation.

Or guilt.

She sighed, not sure she could she even bring herself to take these. She knew the human body needed to sleep but the terror of being trapped in a drugged stupor where the nightmares could torment her without even the safety net of startling herself awake… her hand shook. Then her pocket buzzed.

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I finally ordered some running shoes from that shop you recommended and you aren’t wrong - it IS like running on a cloud! 🥰 S

Hi Scott, glad to hear it! Mine have lasted ages as well. Good value.

I’ll probably destroy them in weeks. I have… form.

Ha, I can imagine.

How are you doing Estera? Isn’t it school time for you? Hope I’m not distracting you from my little buddies?

Ah no, I have the day off today.

Oh?

I’d better get on with doing something constructive with it. Bez probably has some ideas! Nice to hear from you, enjoy the shoes!

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Hey, how’s tricks? S

Hi, I saw you on the news - it’s brilliant what TI is doing for those schools! Estera

Hey :) Ah, can’t take much credit, this is Alan and John’s pet project.

Well you explained it very well on camera.

I’m glad you think so, I thought I was unbearably awkward!!

It didn’t show.

Thanks.

How are things with you?

Good!

Keeping busy!

How about you?

Much better thanks to you

I mean ‘much better, thank you!’

Sorry, autocorrect thinks it’s clever.

Still get some off-days, you know how it is, but I’m back in the air and doing my job again which is good.

That’s really good to hear, I’m glad for you. And for all the people needing rescuing too!

Speaking of which… I have to go. Look after yourself, alright?

Will do.

Be careful!

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Later that evening Scott nursed a long-cold cup of coffee while flicking back and forth through the last month of messages with Estera. There hadn’t been many, just little exchanges every so often when he tried to check in on her. Something felt… off. She was dodging the question every time. Her over-cheery assurances felt uncomfortably familiar.

What if she wasn’t fine?

Patricia had warned him he needed to be careful not to let himself feel responsible for Estera’s welfare, that his lingering sense of failure from before would mean it was easy to overcompensate now, a decade later.

But… how could he not? He pondered her apparent faint in the cave, the more he thought about it the more convinced he was that she too experienced the kind of flashbacks she’d so calmly helped him through. He knew he’d never have made it through without the support of his family, even when he’d spent all his energy trying to push them away and deal with things alone, they’d always caught him as he fell. Scott suspected she was pretty much alone. What if she didn’t have anyone to catch her?

But why would she talk to him? He was little more than a stranger to her even if he felt as if she’d been alongside him for years. Even though he’d felt as if she was the first person ever to really understand there was no guarantee she thought the same. Perhaps he’d been too pushy with all the messages? Was he somehow smother-henning someone from the opposite side of the planet? He paced anxiously.

A reminder popped up in his TI email account. Oh joy, two days of meetings in London next week. He stifled a groan then paused. Maybe he could make the trip more worthwhile? Asking wouldn’t hurt. And if she wasn’t keen then at least he’d know he’d tried his best and could leave it at that.

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Hey, I’m up your way for a meeting next week. Maybe we could catch up? S

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#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #tb estera #estera #scott tracy #idontknowreallywhy fanfic #tw: ptsd

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lydiablackblade · 3 months

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Such an amazing 3 days are behind me. I still can't believe it happened to me. Because I finally saw Macbeth at the Donmar not once but twice! Because I spotted David sneaking into the theater once. Because Cush Jumbo walked by 10 cm next to me. Because I took pictures with two members of the company. Because I got to know fantastic and kind people while queuing and hopefully got a friend in the end.

The play was such an intense experience, I am still shivering when I think of it. The intimacy, being so near to the stage, to really see every tiny expression on the actor' s face, the magical sound technique, the imaginary use of dark and light, the use of only the very few of colours, everything was black, white or grey, so when you saw the shiny, shimmering red of blood, BLOOD, blood was everywhere, on the hands, on the clothes, on the floor, it was so shocking, so intense, you couldn't get your eyes off of it, and the music, oh my good, the Music, I want that OST right now, and when Macbeth whispered into the ears of Lady Macbeth "Oh, full of scorpions is my mind" you really, you absolutely was able to look into that sick, cracked mind tortured by inner demons, David is really the man of delivering one-lines that makes you feel utterly devastated.

So I miraculously secured a ticket online for the Thursday matinee a week before. But because there's no flight back to home on Friday, I decided to extend until Sunday morning.

This is where I sat for the first time

I met a girl, who sat next to me, she was so excited and enthusiastic, after the play we chatted for a while about the play, David, Good Omens... Turned out we are in the same subred 😃 Actually it was a good thing I was already familiar with the play, because I could explain some things which she couldn't catch up with the plot, and as many of the actors played multiple roles, it was a bit confusing even for me.

On Friday I spent my time in museums and walks, and headed to Donmar to meet my new acquaintance in the queue before I was attending another play (Mirror with Jonny Lee Miller, very good!) because she really felt the vibe, and spent the day queuing, and while we were chatting we spotted David for 3 seconds before he entered the theater! We don't know how he manifested before the door, really. Magic. Also he wore a big coat, scarf, and baseball hat. We just had time to say "it's him" then he's gone. My acquaintance eventually got in for the second time because she managed to get a daily standing ticket - and still spent the day in queue. So crazy!

On Saturday morning I visited more filming locations then headed to Donmar. The queue was manageable, not too many people before me, and I had a really good gut feeling about it, so I stayed. When no one from the queue was let in to the last matinee, I was a bit worried, but actually I didn't have any other plans, so I stayed.

While we were waiting for the matinee, the actors started to arrive and I recognized two of them. So when they came out from the coffee I asked them if I could take pictures and they said yes! They seemed to be glad, actually.

Jatinder Singh Randhawa and Noof Ousellam

As the time of the last performance came closer and closer and they didn't let in people, I started to give up. After a while slowly they let in 3-4 people, but the time was about to come up. What gave us hope is that one of the staff members started to walk by the queue, counting and asking people if they are alone or with a group. And just before 5 minutes to the play, they let 8-10 people in! It was unbelievable, never ever happened before! It was about 15 people who finally got in from the queue! I witnessed it happen to 5 people before, and according to the queue rumor it was 7 at max earlier. Now 15! And I got a much better seat than on Thursday, I sat next to the passage, the company members were so close to me! Cush Jumbo was so close to me I felt her fragrance!

And the final curtain call was so exciting, the audience went wild, the cast members were so freed and glad!

With the guy who stood behind me in the queue and we were seated together, we found out we are both Good Omens fans, so we ended up in a restaurant in Chinatown shouting for 2 hours about Good Omens, theater, Shakespeare and books and still in touch 😁

I didn't take pictures during the curtain call, but:

This video was taken almost from where I sat.

This video was taken opposite to me, I am on the recording 😉 Thanks to @his-porous-membrane

#macbeth #david tennant #cush jumbo #donmar warehouse

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russellsppttemplates · 2 years

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Many more to come (George Russell)

The shelves at Y/N's and George's flat were getting smaller for the amount of books and trophies that find themselves into their place

Note: english is not my first language. I added a little something, I hope it is okay!

Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!

Tw: curse words, small mentions of smut

"What are we here for again?", your friend said as she pushed the shopping cart, "our shelves are getting full and we need some new ones. George has been squeezing his trophies in there at this point and they deserve a nice place", you explained as you looked at your phone, the code of the material you needed written in your notes app.

You and your friend had made an afternoon trip to IKEA after sharing lunch in town since you hadn't seen her in a bit and you also needed help with the things you were buying.

Looking down at your phone and the cart you had in front of you, you double checked you had gotten everything you needed before paying and somehow managing to fit everything in your car. Your friend had helped you carry the things to the flat before she bid you goodbye, leaving you to organise your work for the next couple of hours as you turned on the TV, catching the qualifying broadcast with ten minutes to spare.

You changed into your leggings and one of George's t-shirts, combing the hair away from your face as you got on with removing the books from their shelves as well as the trophies that George had collected over the years, cleaning them a bit before placing everything back in, your eyes travelling to the TV so you could see your boyfriend get in the first top 3. Later that night, George called you via facetime, "hello my love, congratulations on your grid position for tomorrow", you said as soon as the connection was settled, George appearing on your screen, his body sprawled on the white bed sheets as you admired how his eyes contrasted with his tanned skin and the colour of the bedding as he began to tell you about the day. "With all the grid penalties and the car, we kind of expected it but it's still good enough, the guys are feeling confident about tomorrow", he smiled "That just means everyone's doing a good job, that the car is heading where it is supposed to be, finally. How are you feeling about tomorrow?", you asked, snuggling further into the blanket you had draped around yourself, "I feel good about it, I know we have RedBull and Ferrari at it too but there seems to be some pace in the car", he said confidently, "You'll give it your best, I just know it", your proud smile could be seen from the stars even as you looked at George.

"Do you have any plans for when I'm back? I think I'm getting home just before dinner, and not going to lie, I really want to spend some time just the two of us", your boyfriend expressed and you thought it would be the perfect plan, "me too, I can actually think of a nice thing for us to do", you said as you looked to the pieces that you and George would hopefully be able to build into furniture before talking some more and then bidding eachother goodbye.

George had finished in third, and after a quick phonecall he was on his way back home to you, takeout already ordered to celebrate his race. You were putting the final things on the table when you heard the front door unlock, going to the corridor to see your tall boyfriend walking in and take his shoes off before discarding his bags next to the door, "Hello darling", he said as you made grabby hands at him as you approached him, landing on his chest as you enjoyed the feeling of being back in his arms, "I'm so proud of you, my love", you said as you looked up at him, puckering your lips so he could meet yours in a kiss halfway.

"So, what's this plan you have for us tonight?", George asked as he kept his arms around you while you guys made your way into the table on the living area of the place, "I ordered some food because I'm starving and I thought you'd be too, and if you're not too tired, we can build some new shelves for my books and your trophies", you tempted him, "the collection is growing and they deserve a nice place to be shown, not all cramped up in the unit there", you pointed to a spot that somehow was fitting four of his trophies, along with a few helmets that also deserved a worthier place to be. George chuckled before he placed another kiss on your forehead, "and how do you plan to build it? You're not suggesting we suddenly turn carpenters in a couple of hours, are you?", he teased before you headed to the room where you had kept the new boards, the one closest to your reach ending up covering your height and George online giggled further as he was only able to see your feet and hands, "So you're the board? I don't think your butt is flat in the slightest though darling, I don't think that's going to work", George teased before he grabbed the wooden board and set it back in the floor, his hands moving to your butt and giving it a squeeze, "When did you get all of these? You said you were going for lunch". Pulling his hand so you could go back to the table to eat, you sat down and started opening the boxes, "I needed help to get all of this from IKEA so she helped me after lunch", you explained as you both dug in.

The instructions were open in front of you, with you separating each time of screw in little plates to avoid mixing them up as you handed George what he asked, "No you can grab that bigger one and join those two while I do these", he said as you got to work before getting up so you could both lift it, "Careful with your fingers when we put it against the wall, darling", the driver reminded you, his worry ever so present as you finally got your furniture placed.

"Well done, Bob the builder has nothing on us", you said as you highfived your boyfriend, "Now, how many trophies do we have to put here?", you started counting the ones you set on the table before George came back from the bedroom with the new acquisition to his collection he retrieved from his bag, "Oh, this one is pretty", you said looking at it as you made a quick math about where and how you could fit everything. "Where is this one from?", you asked, not recognising it straight away, "that's from F2, it was the first one I won in there, even my grandma went to watch that one", he said as he grabbed the trophy and reminisced in the memory, "but I do know this one", you grabbed the first trophy he had won when you were dating, the day one of the core memories you had together. George had invited you to a race and, since his parents were not able to be there, you were alone in his garage and that was when you noticed what he meant when he said they were family too. How everyone had welcomed you and offered you everything they could, how they had given you a set of headphones and how you were able to talk to so many people from the team without feeling like you were the odd one and, to finish it off, how George had won that race. "It was also the day I realised you were it too", George said as he kissed your cheek, helping you arrange it in the shelf.

George volunteered to help with the books and his helmets as you grabbed his trophies, quickly reaching to a halt, "Darling, I can't reach the upper shelf, ai need your help please", you blushed at your admission as George finished putting the last stack of books in one of the lower shelves, "Come on, up", he said as he got up and patted your thigh, hoisting you up so your legs wrapped around his strong waist and you both finished your work. Admiring all of it, George noticed how you had left a bit of space empty, "Why don't we move those around that one? It looks weird with that emptiness there", he suggested, "George, at the speed you're going, quite literally, that space is going to be filled anytime soon, there's many more to come from where those came from", you smiled as you grabbed your boyfriend's neck, pulling his face to yours as a kiss developed to a few more, his hands going back to your hips as he caressed your skin under the t-shirt you were wearing. "You think so, hm?", he said cockily as he hoisted you up again, his hands grabbing your thighs as he carried you to the bedroom for some final celebrations.

#george russell imagine #george russell × reader #george russell fic #george russell fluff #f1 imagine #f1 x reader #f1 fanfic

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inkyvendingmachine · 1 year

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DUCK!! Season 3, Episodes 15

💀 Call of Cthulhu: Haunted Hijinx Masterpost 💀 🎶 Call of Cthulhu Season Three Masterpost 🎶

Warning: This campaign is an edited version of Call of Cthulhu: Song and Dance scenario from the Tales of the Crescent City book. While a lot has been changed, there IS spoilers for it throughout these posts.

THIS SUMMERY BROUGHT TO YOU BY @inkdemonapologist !!!! I have been running low on energy for writing summeries, because it gets very difficult the longer it's been. And uh... it's been a long time since we played this episode. Luckily, we only have one more left of Season 3, and hopefully energy will be regained next season, as I get back into the habit of writing right after we play. BUT MEANWHILE, THIS SUMMERY and most likely the next HAVE MAINLY BEEN WRITTEN BY SHAZZ. THANK YOU, SO MUCH,,,

ART CHANGES THIS SEASON!! @inkdemonapologist and I are collabing on all the art for these summery posts!! Shazz does lines, and I compose and colour the pieces.

When we last left off, the monstrous Giacona mob-boss responded to Prophet & Joey’s interruption of his ritual by trying to… pULL THE INK OUT OF PROPHET’S BODY??? There was a reaction in the ritual circle, and now ink is leaking from his face and his pores and he’s starting to feel a bit light-headed without it, actually – and now it’s also hitting Joey. He had turned his hand into a Giant Cartoon Arm (as one does) to try to grab the lady being used in the ritual (that they are deeply hoping is Susie’s dancer friend Colette - all they can tell is that she’s covered in yellow ink), and the piece of his arm that had reached into the circle gets caught in this ink drain effect, too. Joey and Bendy are able to keep themselves stable, but the cartoon arm immediately starts to fall apart and drops the lady, as one of the mob-boss monster’s tendrils digs into Joey’s arm. Prophet tries to take another shot of ink, but it starts to fly out of his flask and aCTUALLY MAYBE LEAVING THE CIRCLE FIRST WOULD BE A BETTER IDEA. As he gets close to passing out, he can feel something familiar – like a vision Sammy had before, when that Muse Spirit in Susie had reached out to him. But now is NOT a great time to fall asleep and have a vision, so he scrambles out of the circle and takes another drink.

Meanwhile, Henry, Jack, Peter, and Leon finally sneak away from the tentacle-filled hallway when they all hear the screams of Joey and Bendy down the hall and decide maybe now is not a time for sneaking anymore! Henry runs ahead to tackle the one band member they can see in their way, putting his axe to the guy’s throat with a threat and a glare that is MUCH MORE INTIMIDATING THAN HENRY USUALLY IS, to let the others all run past unhindered, towards the doorway at the end of the hall where both the yelling and the yellow fog seems to be coming from.

Prophet and Joey are both vulnerable to getting ink drained out of their bodies, and starting to realise that maybe neither of them can truly touch this guy… unless… Something clicks for Prophet. That mirror is a link to Carcosa. And now that he’s not squinting at this monstrous creature of mouths and tentacles through a room full of fog, he recognises it as a creature of Carcosa, too. Destroying that link might be what they need…! Joey has an entirely different idea. More of the monster’s tendrils dig barbs into his leg, but he focuses all his willpower into taking back the ink from the ritual, claiming it as HIS OWN gold-threaded ink and not this corrupted yellow – and it starts to WORK! The cartoon arm feels solid again – it’s HIS again! As he’s fighting to take back control, Prophet breaks away from the tentacles grabbing at him and dashes out of the room, only telling Joey “They are connected, it must be broken!” – but when Joey sees the ink-stained streaks down the Prophet’s face, he understands why he’s running. If Prophet can’t get close enough to rescue Colette, he needs to do it. Still fighting against the ritual’s control, he’s able to grab the ink-drenched dancer for just a moment, and barely manage to toss her out of the circle’s influence.

Jack and Leon rush to the door just in time to see Prophet skidding out of the fog, insisting that they be ready to escape soon – he has a bad feeling that this place won’t be safe for long once they break the mirror – and then, an ink-covered muse is flung right in their direction. Jack wastes no time in pulling her out of the room. She’s so covered in yellow goop that they can’t even tell if she’s human… and when she pulls herself to her feet, it’s so strangely graceful… something uneasy sends a shiver down Jack’s spine, but, y’know, there’s been a lot of pretty unsettling things happening so maybe that’s to be expected. He starts to try to wipe the inky goop off her face and is able to find that she IS human under there…! Great! And also, judging from her expression, something in her is gROWING INCREASINGLY HOSTILE… LESS GREAT, Jack’s attempts to talk her down have zero effect, so he takes a risk and pushes Leon forward – HEY! YOUR BOYFRIEND IS HERE TOO!! – and she relaxes almost at once when she recognises him, both of them hugging each other with relief.

Peter, meanwhile, has noticed the room full of kidnapped people – one is that reporter from before! – and actually goes in to start trying to get them free. thank goodness someone oTHER THAN PROPHET noticed,,,

But since no one has yet checked in on Joey, and he is still very much grabbed and hoisted into the air by multiple tentacles and this is really getting old, he uses the last of his magical reserves to turn his arms into CARTOON BUZZSAWS, LIKE YOU DO, and slice himself free.

Henry, still taking up the rear and watching for trouble, notices another band member starting to peer out of the room where he was juicing (??) the mirror, and runs over to intercept him. He whiffs with his axe, but he’s unsettling enough that the guy takes several steps back – enough for Prophet to dash in, beelining towards the mirror. The band guy PANICS AT THAT, mouths suddenly opening up across his body (??!?!?) as he lunges with claws and teeth for the Prophet and screams in several voices for him to STOP. It’s way too close quarters for Henry’s axe. If he misses, he’d almost certainly hit Sammy. So… Henry drops the axe. And summons his glowing golden scythe, as all the colour drains from his body.

And yells, “Sammy, DUCK.”

The Prophet is too startled to react in time, and the scythe slices through them both.

The band member is sliced apart and splashes in a puddle to the ground, and Prophet… has a glowing gold line across his torso where the scythe hit. He felt a concentrated killing intent, like his actual soul was being attacked, pass through him, and Henry’s face finally shows a readable expression – relief. “I didn’t think it would hurt you, and I’m glad I was right.” He starts to apologise for killing Sammy once, in the past, when things were different – but a shaken Prophet is hearing none of it, demanding that he back away and do NOT touch the others.

Henry complies.

Jack peers in, catching the glowing line just before it fades away and wanting to make sure everything’s okay, but Prophet says he’ll join up soon and urges Jack to stay back. Henry frustratedly insists, “I’m not going to hurt him!” PROPHET JUST GIVES HIM A LOOK,,, but since everyone seems to be doing okay, Jack goes with it and ducks into the other room to help Peter try to free the kidnapped folks from their restraints.

Prophet finally winds up and smashes the mirror as hard as he can. He can see a shadow within the mirror moving closer, looking like… it’s trying to break the mirror, too? And as cracks spider quickly across the surface, he realises he definitely recognises this shadow, it’s a person, someone they knew had been dragged to Carcosa, thAT’S DOC MOONLIGHT –

WELL ANYWAY, THE MIRROR BREAKS!

A sudden torrent of water gushes out of the broken mirror at full force, shoving Prophet back and knocking Henry to the ground as it fills the room alarmingly quickly and spills out to flood the hall. Prophet, still doing his best on his resolution to not leave even murderous sheep behind, tries to pull Henry out of the room before it gets worse, but he slips, and falls under the water. It was only up to their knees, but as soon as he’s under, he can’t reach the surface… Henry reaches in and catches his arm to pull up a now very panicky Prophet, and they lean on each other to make their way out of the flooding room.

In the ritual room, the mob boss turned monster is melting and screaming general HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME sentiments which Joey isn’t interested in at all; he’s getting out of here and quickly scanning the hallway to figure out what everyone else has been up to while LEAVING HIM TO FEND OFF A TENTACLED HORROR ALL ALONE (with Bendy). He checks in the room full of kidnapped people, where Peter’s not having much luck with the restraints on the reporter and kidnapped musician he’s trying to rescue as the water starts to rise, so Joey runs in to help just to make this all move faster. The Lurker has a little magic left, and the best thing he can think of is to turn Joey’s hands into Way Too Many Scissors to snip the straps holding them down, so everyone gets to take their daily dose of Joey induced sanity damage!!! OKAY COOL THEYRE FREE LETS GO LETS GET OUT OF HERE Joey struggles his way through the water to Henry and Prophet, and Henry helps support him while Prophet warns that THIS IS THE LAKE, the one that connects to Carcosa, don’t fall in or you’ll be lost!! That’s exactly the kind of distractingly terrifying thing that makes Peter start to lose his grip and slip into the water, but Jack’s able to pull him back up again and they all make it back to that slippery spiral staircase. The water in the hallway has already surged to chest height.

Prophet doesn’t hesitate, crawling up the steps on all fours. Joey stays at the bottom to organise (and to hopefully use Bendy’s toon powers to catch anyone who falls), sending everyone up the staircase one by one - first Jack, then Peter, then Colette, then Henry to make sure Colette is safe, then Leon, then the rescued mob victims. Allison peeks out from above, asking “So… how did it go…?” but most of the party is still pRETTY PREOCCUPIED trying not to lose their footing on the unsteady staircase – Jack gets to the top and immediately starts digging through the bag he’s been compulsively hoarding things in and– YES. AT SOME POINT HE STUFFED SOME ROPE IN HERE. He ties it securely and throws that down, and almost everyone is able to use the rope to climb to the top, as the water starts to rise up the stairs – but Leon loses his grip, and goes under, and disappears in the haze beneath the water. Joey was ready, starting to use the last of Bendy’s power to give himself a rubberhose toon arm that can reach out to grab Leon, but as he ducks his head into the water to find him – holding onto the rope so he doesn’t slip under – he sees… Moonlight, ALSO reaching out to grab the doctor. UH, OKAY, CHANGE OF PLAN: USE TOON POWERS TO STAB MOONLIGHT IN THE FACE. If it was anyone else, Joey would have hesitated. But Moonlight has been way too much of a pain in the ass.

THAT WORKS, Joey is able to retrieve a panicked Leon uncontested, and they’re able to scramble out of the water, where Allison casually lets them know that she DID figure out the ritual and combined the two pieces of The Great Bertrum Piedmont – but the resulting TGBP just ran off. Well, he had the right idea, we’d better run too! Joey takes half a second to grab the gun Prophet dropped earlier before they all BOOK IT OUT OF HERE… quietly hoping that they haven’t doomed Coney Island to sink into Carcosa.

But they climb out into a quiet Luna Park, closed for the night, and a sky of normal stars. As they hustle towards the exit, they notice someone in the shadows, watching them go…. It’s Y? Apparently he’s human after all… and he keeps his distance, so the boys decide they have bigger things to worry about. The Muses still have to be released from the girls who summoned them. They decide to meet up at that apartment that Susie, Colette, and Nichole used to share. Joey sends Colette and her traumatised boyfriend ahead with Henry and Allison – those two are probably magically strong enough to do something if anything weird happens, and as far as Joey saw, Henry and Prophet even seemed to be getting along fine when the place was flooding! Prophet had nothing to worry about from that weird, stoic Henry after all! (The Prophet seems uneasy about no one else going with them, but doesn’t protest). And then Joey calls Norman at the Studio to bring Susie and Nichole and meet them there. Norman assures him “We weren’t sure for a minute, but didn’t run into any actual trouble,” so it sounds like everything went swell. Peter is put in charge of getting the rescued folks somewhere safe, and the rest of the boys take off for the apartment.

They’ve almost reached the apartment when Prophet’s ink begins to run out… and there’s that feeling again, the spirit reaching out to him. Maybe this time he should listen… he urges the others to wake him up again for the ritual, and starts to drift – before he fully loses awareness, he can feel the spirit’s message, just a small bit of offered help: that he and the Shepherd are closest when they’re in agreement, and that if they want, they can control the automatic swaps that have been happening recently by finding something to agree on. Prophet gives it a try. They both agree on saving these lost sheep– All of a sudden, it’s Sammy. Sammy’s here now. He never fell asleep. The others are confused at the quick swap, but reassure him that they’re about to do the ritual, and uhhhhhh maybe you don’t want to know why we’re all soaking wet actually, but on the plus side, when Joey checks the wound on Sammy’s arm, that yellow ink finally seems to be fading out, for good. Sammy asks about the helpful note in his pocket about some sort of Golden Sheep that he should not trust??? And Joey doesn’t really want to admit he’s not sure what was going on with Henry, but you know, everything seems to be fine now!

As they meet up and all head into the apartment, Allison makes sure they know how the ritual works – Henry does for sure, he saw a completed form of the ritual with his Special Eyes when they first searched the apartment! Susie stops Sammy, glad to see his eyes back to normal, but urges him to let her do another take of the new Alice song before they do this ritual. She’ll never be able to sing this well again, and she wants to be the best Alice Angel she can be! Sammy refuses – he knows none of them will make anything this good again, but this is too dangerous to put off. Besides, Joey confidently adds, “You’re already the best Alice Angel, and I need Susie to sing. We’re doing the ritual now.” Susie… is touched, though she still hums the song under her breath – the new version, the one she shouldn’t know.

“How do you know about that?” “I know all of your music!” :)

... SAMMY’S EXPRESSION CHANGES… this is Not Quite Susie. LETS UH… LETS DO THE RITUAL.

Norman asks the other boys how everything went, but has to pull out a pair of earplugs before he can hear Henry’s “could’ve been better.” Hm. Norman, amused, says they had a bit of an incident, but took care of it, and Tim, who was helping Norman, sheepishly informs them that he now knows The Three Musketeers is a musical, and Norman makes a decent cardinal. Well, glad you all were having a good time. Inside, once Jack finds the key to the ritual room in uhhhhhhh don’t worry about it don’t ask why he has it he definitely didn’t compulsively steal this earlier he just found it okay, Joey and Nichole and Allison all go about checking their ritual notes to figure out what needs to be changed… well, Nichole and Allison are doing that, Joey is absolutely confident in Henry’s vision and he knows what he’s doing, so he’ll be setting up the ritual CORRECTLY and fixing the others’ work if they set it up wrong. His work… looks good to the other magically inclined folks, so… it’s time to do this.

Nichole, the younger Orchid, feels terrible for starting the whole thing and says she should be the one to take the risk of going first. Joey is determined to make sure it’s done right and runs the ritual himself – and as he does, a golden glow diffuses out of Nichole’s body, she collapses, and Joey and Jack can both feel the creative urge of writing and stories finally dull back to normal. Also, Joey DID spend all his magical energy reserves in his various stunts at Coney Island and starts coughing up a little blood from powering the ritual. JUST A LITTLE. But the others agree he needs to be Done Doing Magic for now. Allison volunteers to handle the next one, and Sammy takes his last shot of ink, hoping Prophet can intervene if she does anything fishy. The apartment rattles ominously for a second, but the ritual seems to go off okay for Allison, too – soon that same golden glow floats out of Colette’s body… followed by, a strange shadow, that wasn’t there last time… As Colette falls to the floor and the shadow starts to fill the room, they all recognise the silhouette – a shadow of one of the Yellow King’s angels; not quite opaque, but VERY THERE, AND TURNING ON SUSIE, the last of the young women to still have a muse in her. “Seems like one of them had a hitchhiker!” Allison helpfully informs us. OKAY GREAT THANKS!! Prophet jumps in to try to pull Susie out before the Angel Shadow can grab her, getting grabbed by said Angel for his trouble. Allison runs in with a sword and Henry runs in to free Prophet, while Joey remembers that HEY WE HAD AN ANGEL-TRAPPING CIRCLE PACKED FOR JUST SUCH AN OCCASION, that probably also ended up in Jack’s Bag Of Acquired Things???? Jack digs it out, and together they manage to throw it under the Angel – at least it’s confined to the room now!

Henry tries to attack the Angel, gets attacked back and… it goes through him? But it manages to grab Allison, and when Norman runs over and tries to shoot it, the bullet also goes through and hits the wall – wait, this is like when Peter was halfway in Carcosa, sometimes he was corporeal and sometimes he wasn’t – the Angel is just not quite here… yet… The Prophet manages to usher Susie out of the room, Jack runs in to pull out the unconscious Colette, Henry pulls Allison free of the Angel – to her surprise, though she doesn’t get long to express her gratitude before the Angel CHOMPS HER SHOULDER and reminds everyone to get out of the room. Norman and Timothee are finally able to jUST SHOOT INTO THE ROOM FROM A SAFE DISTANCE until enough bullets hit that the shadow distorts, smears across the room, and fades out with a yell.

Angel defeated!!!

Creative art of dance restored to normal!!!!

Just one more to go.

[Final Episode]

[Previous Episode]

#call of cthulhu: haunted hijinx #sammy lawrnece #joey drew #jack fain #henry stein #bendy the lurker #the prophet #susie campbell #norman polk #peter sunstram #bendy au

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rickwardsinnerhands · 1 year

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Guinea Pig Plush Pattern!!

For the benefit of sewing community on tumblr I am putting up the pattern I made when I sewed some guinea pig plush recently (as a gift for my brother a proud guinea parent)

There will be instructions and I will also add a list of supplies at the end (with some prices and where I got them)

Here's the pattern to start with, it fits on a normal sized printer paper, so it should be fine to just pint out as is. (don't mind the holes, that's where my pins went in when I was cutting out pieces)

I used felt and it took me only one sheet to cut out the pattern if i was being careful (if not it took 2 XD)

more below the cut!!

first things first cut out your pattern! whatever colour you want piggy to be! (I always cut out the side piece first since you need two, I just folded the felt and cut it as close to the edge as possible, to give room for the other pieces you see.)

as you can see this is white and not yellow, sadly I only took progress pics of one of the guinea pigs I made so i'm using those ones here, hopefully this isnt too confusing.

next step is to sew on whatever patches/markings you want your piggie to have! this piggie ultimately has two black patches on her face and a brown patch on her butt. to make these markings, I used the side pattern and cut out a whole side piece that I then trimmed to my desired size (if you have chalk it's so helpful for sketching things out.)

remember to keep in mind where the ears need to go! I got the ears in by just cutting a slit (about where is shows on the pattern) I smushed the felt (ear piece) between the slit and just sewed it flat on the other side. You may need to move the ears around a little depending on where you want your face markings. After the ears are attached flop the ears down appropriately and sew one lil stitch to keep em looking good.

next you wanna sew the eyeballs (buttons) and ears on.

Next, sew both side pieces to the bottom piece, making sure the slimmer end is at the rear of the piggy. Next I sewed the top piece to the bottom piece just along the edge there (the weird triangular part of the top pattern is the part you want to be sewing here, it comes in and goes out for the nose yanno) I used a flat stitch for this, felt don't fray baby.

the nose and mouth got embroidered on right after that. I sewed them on so that the mouth ends right above the seam between top and bottom piece.

I will now attach a very terrible guide on how I embroidered that.

If you don't know how to do embroidery, you can also just draw a little face on with a sharpie (the prototype piggie has drawn on eyes and they look very cute)

next you wanna sew the rest of the top on following your sides, remember you are sewing it inside out at this point! You wanna see all your little raw edges.

sew it all the way down to the bottom edge, I promise this little flap is enough space to pull your little piggie inside out.

(note about butt flap: the top pattern says to add a few mm, that's just an over abundance of caution on my part. Everytime I did the piggies i had plenty of fabric for the butt flap and pattern is probably fine as is.)

finally I stuffed a bunch of polyfil into the piggie, starting with filling the face and moving along the back, at about half full I put in my bean bag sock. (you can also just put beans in anarchy style. no judgement.)

bean bag sock is just a sport sock that i filled about 2/3 of the way with dried navy beans then sewed shut at the top. (let the beans fall to one side of the sock then jam the sock part in with a chopstick, or anything stick like and let the beans flow into the part of the sock that's in the plush.) Someone please tell me which parts i'm over explaining.

after sock is in you wanna stuff a little more polyfil in, just making sure we look smooth and fat, jamming a little where you are going to close piggy so we juicy. Finally, sew the butt flap closed using a ladder stitch (if you don't know what that is, youtube has lots of instructional videos)

Yay Piggies!!!!!

Stuff List!

felt, at least 1 piece (69 cents at dollar tree- and if you tend to make mistakes, or the idea you only have one shot stresses you out, 2 sheets probably won't break the bank and gives you lots of oopsie room.)

embroidery thread (79 cents at a local fabric store, but micheals has it as well)

Black rounded buttons (4 for 1.69$ at micheals)

thread! (I had most colours but if you don't i did buy one spool of thread and it was only 2.67$ at walmart

Beans!! (helps them to stay upright- I just used some from home but the dollar store should be able to hook you up, for a dollar even. Also any dried legume should be fine, I even have some lentils that almost made it in)

Poly Fil -Fibre Fil (9.99$ for 1.25 lbs at Micheals, Honestly the bag is huge I barely used any of it for these guys. I used cut up socks and extra felt pieces to stuff for the prototype and he looks fine.)

(his mouth is different because I hadn't figured my life out yet)

All together I would say I spent less than 20$ CAD and I made 3, so like. A lovable not super expensive plush. live your best life.

Message me with any questions!! I have never made a guide before, and I am self taught at sewing so I don't know what kind of gaps I am leaving that others wont understand.

Love and kisses,

Rick

#Sewing #plush #guinea pig plush #arts and crafts #pattern #felt #how do i tag #a big plush guide #plush pattern instructions #guinea pig #how to

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bohemiandeer · 8 months

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Headcanon that back when Niran was at the Academy. When he was around, 16 or so, when he was REALLY getting into his rebellious phase after getting a confidence boost and taking matters into his own hands. One of his many, many things he attempted to get himself suspended and (hopefully) sent home was putting a test on the Architech Academy's dress code. Where he basically made a game out of it of sorts of going through the entire dresscode and breaking at least one per day and adding onto them over the days just to see if the teachers would notice and get him suspended for it.

Increasingly finding a way to lower the neckline on his uniform? Check. Gradually adding more and more colour and flamboyant accessories? Check. Doing more stuff within the dress code that is strictly allowed on the girls but not on the boys, just to screw with the Academy's perception of gender roles? Also check. He drove Satya nuts during this time. She tried to warn him not to play this game but the more she tried to stave him off of it, the more he dug in his heels and decided to do it anyways. He didn't last until the next week on a Tuesday until his teachers did indeed, notice and send him to the office. Parents were called, punishments were dished out. Sadly for Niran, he did not indeed, get suspended and/or sent home. On the bright side though, he did end up getting a rough boundary line on just how far he can express himself without getting in trouble for it. Hence why he started growing out his hair around this time, keeping the lotus decals within his uniform,etc. But other than that hated the limitations that was placed on him and his self expression regardless. But yep, to this day he is the one solely responsible for the Architech Academy having to rewrite their dress code entirely in some areas by an extra 2 to 3 pages. And a lot of his fashion sense as an adult these days was shaped out of this very moment out of one, him finally figuring out his self expression and how he sees himself. And two, out of his pure full blown vendetta against Vishkar and the Academy to where he decided "Screw you, now that I'm dropped out, I get to wear whatever I want out of pure full blown spite, and there's nothing you can do to stop me now." Because his prevailing philosophy is, if you're gonna spend a good amount of time getting under Vishkar's skin, it's best done in a neckline so low that it'd give even the most lenient of puritans among them a brain aneursym. The bigger the cleavage canyon. The better.

#lifeweaver #overwatch #niran pruksamanee #overwatch 2 #ow2 #overwatch lifeweaver #overwatch niran #ow #ow2 lifeweaver #ow lifeweaver #headcanon #my headcanon #lifeweaver headcanon #lifeweaver headcanons #headcanons #my headcanons #overwatch headcanons #ow headcanons #overwatch headcanon

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orithyiaeleven · 9 months

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UC Fanwork Celebration Day 1 (The early access version)

Day 1 was Favourite Arc / Roll for AU. My favourite Arc is Arc 3, and I rolled Class Swap, so I let the dice decide what each Arc 3 character's new class should be. I then re-imagined their first meeting with their new classes. This is shortly pre-Arc 3 Flashback.

However, I am not quite happy with the story yet, and will take the time to work on it before uploading it to AO3. Because today is the day, though, and technically the story is finished, I will post the current version of it under the cut here on Tumblr instead, and update you once I am happy and have uploaded it.

It doesn't even have a fixed name yet, but my working title would be "A different group of heroes". I hope you enjoy, and the finished piece will hopefully come soon.

The crackling sound of pyromagic mixes with the cheers of people, carried over to Lathe by a helpful little breeze gossiping in his ear. He closes his eyes and takes a moment to taste the caramel popcorn in the air. With a little smile, he quickens his step: Festivities are happening in the centre of Tyle, and he must know more.

Nimbly, he finds his way past the little shops and side alleys. A crowd of people is currently pushing towards the town centre, following the same siren’s call of laughter, fireworks, applause and cotton candy that he is tracking, but he knows the quickest ways around, and how to avoid getting stuck in the slowly moving mass of bodies. He sprints past the little bookstore with a “Good morning, Mx. Shinebearer”, through the backyard of a house that has been empty for ages, past a few spell component stores and the academy students gathered in front of them, until finally, he reaches the town centre. A man dressed in the borderline gaudy garb of a circus director stands on a small makeshift stage built up in front of the gigantic magician’s statue, addressing the gathered crowd with big movements.

“Come, come, one and all! Young and old, people of all shapes and sizes, come and gather to witness the magic and wonders of the Cinderbloom Circus!” More fireworks pop up, displaying flaming flowers in all colours of the rainbow.

“Now, people of Tyle and beyond, witness one of our audience favourites, our star, who has come all the way from frosty Glaceria to present her talents, our ice princess! And remember to come visit our full show and program in Maevir-Eirik-Park, from tomorrow until next week!”

With more cheers, the announcer clears the temporary stage they have set up for a young woman dressed in glittering pastel purple silks. She has a thin, but athletic build, and although she carries herself with the poise befitting her stage name, Lathe recognises the way her chin is slightly drawn forward, and the way her eyes seem to search the crows for someone daring to challenge her position.

Three circus assistants jog up to the statue and quickly arrange some silks to drape around the arms and the wand of the stone wizard, while the acrobat takes out a little flute from a pocket hidden in her garments. She bows to the crowd, looks to the assistants for a quick sign that they’re done, and grabs one of the aerial silks. Within moments, she is up on the statue’s shoulder, dangling her feet, and gives him a coquettish little kiss on the cheek before sliding down again to the tune of her own melody, seemingly falling. Just inches above the ground, she catches herself again, and climbs up the way she came. Her movements are fluid and seem entirely effortless, coming to her as easy as breathing, and all the while she still continues playing the flute as if to underline how little mind she has to pay her motion. Even the way her pastel purple hair falls seems to be choreographed and trained to perfection. She moves through the silks with ease, somehow finding grip on the smooth fabric. All of it seems so in sync, it’s captivating.

Her performance is only a few minutes, but the crowd explodes with cheers for her as she is finished. She gives a smile, together with a head movement that seems to say “see, I told you I could do it”. It fits her stage name, but again, Lathe recognises the signs of someone who had to prove herself all her life. While the announcer reminds the crowd again to visit the full show, the purple performer is already going backstage again, and Lathe follows. Instead of an actual backstage area, the circus has rented an empty store as their dressing room. Before the young woman enters, Lathe manages to get her attention.

“Excuse me, Miss! Can I talk to you for just a second?”

“A second, sure, how can I help you?”

“Lathe Nightrym, my pleasure, truly, what a wonderful performance-“

“Oh thank you, sir, I am always happy to inspire people.”

“You have definitely done that today, my dear. Could I ask you, would you be willing to join a little adventuring party?”

“Ah. Right. I, uhm, I am very honoured by your request, but I must say no. As the circus is travelling around quite a lot, it is simply not possible for me to take up any other obligations. But thank you, I always enjoy talking to fans.”

“Please, just think about it.” He hands her one of his flyers. “A small group of friends travelling through all of Hyranor, defeating monsters, saving the world – have you never dreamed of that? Of not having to prove your worth, but having the stories about your heroic deeds precede you?” She breaks eye contact and looks to the side. “Take the flyer, just consider it, for a moment. The adventures we could go on. The stories they would tell. Being invited to court by the Queen, mere hours after defeating a monster. I am currently trying to form such a group, and I just know that you would make the perfect addition. I have handed out and put up flyers all over town, and in two days, we will meet at the Brewster’s Potions for brunch to meet up. No strings attached yet, absolutely no requirements, just to get a feel for the people, do some brainstorming… And if you don’t like it, you can just leave and go back to this life here.”

She sighs and lets her fingers wander over the flyer. He really did his best to draw the dragon, but maybe in this case it’s not bad that it is reminiscent of children’s drawings. “Alright. I will consider it”, she finally says.

Lathe can’t help but grin. “Amazing. See you in two days, then!” He turns to leave.

“I said I will consider it!”

“Brewster’s Potions, right next to the Gilded Quill!”

Brewster’s Potion, right next to the Gilded Quill, is not empty, but also not bustling with patrons two days later. There is a pleasant drizzle of conversation from the surrounding nooks and tables as Lathe Nightrym sits at the back of the room, waiting for people to show up.

“Are you ordering, or still waiting?”, the server asks again.

“Still waiting, thanks, dear”, he answers with a smile.

“Alright love, you just call when you want anything.” For a moment, Lathe believes to see pity in her eyes. But people will show up, he was just early. He handed the flyers out to at least fifteen people, and put them up in places all around town, someone has to show up.

Mere moments later, they do. The big guy he met at the Academy enters the tavern, and Lathe waves excitedly to get his attention. Carefully, the Firbolg makes his way over to him, the greyish hair on his head scraping the ceiling, his Academy uniform neat, but not freshly ironed. Only when he is already standing in front of the table, Lathe sees that he has brought a friend, a young Halfling woman who seems even smaller, near comically tiny next to him, but dressed in full armour. Eagerly, Lathe puts out a hand, and the big guy shakes it.

“Hello, hello, so glad you decided to come! You’re the first here, and I see you brought a friend as well?”

“Annie Wintersummer”, the young woman answers, putting out a hand as well to greet Lathe.

“Delighted to meet you, Annie Wintersummer. Sorry, friend, your name was?”, he asks, turning towards the Firbolg again.

“Aldrum.”

“Right, right! I’ve met you during the Open Day at the Arcane Academy, truly, what a glorious performance of arcane work you did. And you, Annie – I hope it’s alright if I just call you Annie? – are you a student at the Academy as well?”

“No”, she answers, and Lathe can see Aldrum make the “delicate topic” face. “No, the Arcane Academy did not think my magical talent was… worth cultivating at their esteemed institution. So instead I decided to hone my skills with weapons. I spend my time with technique instead of theory. And my magical gifts can influence my blade as well.”

“That sounds incredibly interesting, would you care to show me?”

“Not inside here, but later outside I can absolutely show you what I can do.”

Lathe smiles with excitement to see what the young woman would show him. Having someone of her size who would be able to run through enemy lines and legs and stab them from behind could be very beneficial, and she seems determined enough.

His smile widens even more as he sees the woman with the pastel purple hair enter the tavern, her eyes searching around. He stands up and waves to get her attention, and she floats towards them.

“You really came! How wonderful, please, take a seat. This is Aldrum, a wizard from the Arcane Academy, who has recently presented a very interesting project on some new protective spells he is working on, and his friend Annie Wintersummer, who apparently is a very skilled fighter.”

“Fighter and warlock. I can do some magic. Even if the academy cannot appreciate it.”

The purple woman smiles and shakes their hands each. “Happy to meet you, my name is Fey Moss.”

It is only then that Lathe realises he never actually heard her say her real name before. “And Fey Moss here is an acrobat with an incredible skill set, truly, I have never seen anyone move that nimbly before, what a performance!”

She nods her head down, as if to indicate a bow. “You might have heard of me as the ice princess.”

“I haven’t, actually”, Annie says.

Fey looks a bit taken aback, although she catches herself with ease. “Well, I am also quite skilled at martial arts, if it is necessary. I would love to see you fight as well, Annie, I think it would be very interesting to see your skillset.”

“Surely, yes. I would appreciate that. I always like to broaden my horizon and learn new styles and techniques.”

“How wonderful!”, Lathe exclaims and claps his hands. “Truly, I am so glad you are getting along already. Let’s get some brunch, and we will get this party going! Excuse me, Miss- we would like to order, please!”

Right as the server brings them their milkshakes and sandwiches, the tavern door opens again. At first, it seems no one entered, until Lathe sits up straighter to be able to see down, where he can track the long ponytail of an elderly Halfling man move towards their table.

“Lathe Nightrym?”, the man asks, looking at him. “I believe you were looking for people with the mind and skillset for adventures?”

Lathe quickly scans the man. He doesn’t seem particularly strong or dextrous, but not frail, either. He wears sun-coloured robes, and there is a certain glint to his eyes that seems almost animalistic.

“Yes, absolutely, take a seat here with us. What’s your name, friend?”

The man gives a polite smile and takes the offered seat. “Diarmad. I saw your flyers around the city.”

“Oh perfect, so they did work, then! May I ask, what kind of skills do you bring to this group? Your robes seem religious, but I cannot see any symbol on them?”

“Right, no, I am a magician, but not the divine sort. The robes are just the kind of garments we wear at my commune. But I was, let’s say born with magic.”

“Why do you say ‘let’s say born’? Were you born with it or not?”, Annie asks, trying her best to cover a probably not too kind remark about sorcerers and nepotism from Aldrum.

Diarmad throws a quick glance over at the Firbolg in his shirt and cloak with the Academy logo, raising a brow, and then turns towards Annie with a much nicer expression on his face, nearly mischievous. “It’s not my first time around. My people have found a way to basically concentrate weak flows of magic in a person through a ritual of reincarnation, so… The weak magical potential of my previous life has been focused into a pretty mean set of magical skills.”

Aldrum doesn’t seem convinced. “And… how exactly is magical talent enhanced through reincarnation? That sounds like it contradicts most current theories on magic.”

“You tell me, you’re the scholar. It worked for me, and that’s all that matters. But you academy people prefer to keep the magic to yourselves anyways, right?”

Annie puts a hand on the hilt of her sword, glaring at the elderly Halfling. “Please don’t talk to my friend like that,” she says in a tone that isn’t a request.

Lathe decides to steer this conversation around as fast as possible. “Alright, friends, I think that’s enough of that, we’re supposed to become a party after all!”

“A party?” A tall person with brown skin and some suspiciously alive and worm-like looking accessories in her hair leans over the half-high room divider between the table they apparently sat at alone, and the table Lathe had ordered. “I love parties, can I come as well?”

“Oh, not that kind of party, we’re trying to go adventuring-“

“Adventures are fun, I love adventures, too!” She smiles, climbs over the wall instead of going around it, despite wearing breastplate armour, and squeezes in between Fey and Annie around the table. Fey looks at the, oh yes, definitely worms, with a mixture of morbid fascination and absolute horror.

“Alright, hi then,” Lathe begins, not too sorry about the distraction from the magic discourse, “and you are?”

“A friend! And a new party member for your group. Six is a much better number than five, anyways.” They smile at all of them.

“…And your name is?”

“Oh! Right! Bombyx Mori. Pleased to make your acquaintance,” she says slowly, tasting out every word in her mouth.

Annie continues the questions. “And you do adventures?”

“Absolutely! All the time! The forest is filled with adventures.”

Now, Diarmad seems intrigued. “You’re a forest kind of person?”

“Yes, definitely, that. I met some very nice trees some time ago, and they asked me for help against disrespectful woodcutters. So I helped them, and then I swore to help all the trees, and protect all the forests, and apparently, when you make an oath, that is really meaningful in this world. So now I have to protect the forests, and I haven’t really figured out what exactly that means, yet, but I have already fought some monsters and that has gone really well for me so far, so I think I might just have become invincible.”

“For sure, for sure”, Lathe says, trying to not show his disbelief too much. A paladin is something their party could use. Whether Bombyx Mori is the perfect addition or the last missing piece for a perfect disaster, or possibly even both, he isn’t as sure of, yet. But it’s worth a shot. Especially if they actually have some experience already. “Alright then, let’s order some more milkshakes for the two of you, and then I can already tell you about a potential first adventure.”

#unprepared casters #uc celebration 2023

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moonylilies · 4 months

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2023 Art Summary!!

so here's a single piece from each month i did!! i really wish i did more art this year, so hopefully (and most likely) next year i will!!

below under the cut are links to the ones i managed to post along with my art goals and some thoughts for the next year

thank you so much for those who have been following me this year and i hope we can continue to grow doing what we desire in the next year :3

yall can skip reading this if you just wanna go see the links; most of you probably know i went back to college in january, which unfortunately caused me to gain major art block (ew) when my depression creeped up. i also had like no time this semester with the large ammt of courses i took (i took 6 classes and it killed me with the course load since most of them were online. never again i will be making that mistake). when i go back to classes in january, i hopefully will not be as dying as i was this semester since i am taking a majority art course load. im even taking a printmaking class which means yall will be gettin some goodies posted hopefully

my art goal for next year besides getting more commissions lol (which if you are interested can see about here) is to be able to draw full bodies - i still can't and ive been drawing humans as my main thing for at least 6 years now. i will def be practicing next year by doing many figure studies lol. i also hope i can manage to figure out how to do backgrounds besides the basic ones i tend to do i also hope that with my shop i can break some of my records like getting new states i haven't shipped to yet so that my state ammt goes up from 8 to maybe 10, having my total ammt going up to around 50 sales from 35, getting more fans for my art who love the stickers and prints i am making, ect ect i wasn't able to this year. while i am on winter break, i am trying to set up a shop update for before classes start again which i will be updating on here about when i remember to do so (honestly the hardest thing for me while having an art acct to promote my art and shop is making content besides just posting my art online and hoping people like it)

links for art + what the ones that don't have links are lol: january: lunar new year rabbits feburary: ft ferris bueller's day off au (this one is the one i am the most proud of) march: lucy redesign april: team shadowgear hehehe (this one's my favourite i did this year) may: yuki got hit by a car june: sketch of my oc alyss july: levy for part of my colour wheel challenge that is still a wip (tiktok one two ; reels one two) august: wally ice cream (aka a future sticker) september: art of my oc adora october: the sun tarot card feat sting eucliffe (wip portion is linked) november: bisca icon december: ramen sticker (a sticker soon to drop in my shop once i do a shop update soon)

#mk talks #my art #original art #digital illustration #2023 art summary

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princemick · 1 year

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hi kyle, please explain your process of making graphics! <3

hi anon! I definetely will, I'll walk you though how I get to a graphic like this:

(warning, half of my process is just 'throw it at the wall, see what happens' so like, idk how easily explainable it is.)

first off, I get all my inspiration from pintrest, instagram graphics artist and random stuff I find. inspiration is everywhere and I always keep a notebook with me where I draw/write what I come up with.

all my photo's are from pinterest and google, I dont sell these, if you're going to please make sure the photo's you're using are free use.

all my fonts come from dafont.

the program I use is photoshop.

now, I'm going to break up my editing process into 7 parts.

inspo

images

editing

colouring

font

colour blocking

textures

hopefully it's clear enough

gather inspiration.

so I really like this and this edit I made before and they're pretty easy so I wanted to make a new one.

but normally if I wanna make an edit I scroll through my poster/edit inspo pintrest board which you can find here.

normally if I dont have such a clear way I want to go I'd make some sketches to see what works and how to get the idea out of my brain.

2. gather images.

I wanted to make a Danny one so its not to hard to find stuff as I have a specific search for this edit but I also have a growing archive of folders of drivers full of pictures ive found over time that I'd normally go through to find good stuff.

when you use google please remember to click on 'tools' and select 'size' and big otherwise you'll cry because of the bad quality

this is the picture I wanted to use for the danny edit.

I thought this would work well because it has depth and so will show the colour blocking well, it also has the flag and the shoe which is clearly recognizable.

3. trow it into photoshop baybee.

this is going to be hard to explain but I basically jsut fuck around. most of the time I kind of know what I want to do and the way I want to go but one of the first steps is always to raserize the layer.

I also make sure to copy the original picture for later so you have the same picture twice

I do this so i can be lazy and go to quick actions and remove the background because then, I get this.

without basically any work. (it's almost never perfect so after I let photoshop do it's work I fix up the parts that need it.)

this is what your layers should look like fter.

that lil black and white thingy is really useful and if you select that and go over it w the erase tool it doesnt permenantly change anything.

next thing I do is smart sharpen to spice it up, here is the sharpening settings I use.

a small problem with this picture is that it's to small for an A4 size (which is what I'm making it on) so I need to extend the background a little. which I do in the laziest way.

I select the most of the top of the picture I can and copy paste + extend it out. like this:

then, for this edit, I'm gonna add a black and white filter to the background so everything behind daniel is in black and white with an adjustment layer. I do this to keep the focus on our subject and remove any and all focus from the bg.

I also add a guassian blur to the bg to once again, keep the focus on daniel.

this is the before and after of that.

now, kinda boring right? yeaaah so now onto

4. colouring

first off CLIPPING MASK IS YOUR BESTIE!!!. if you right click on the adjustment layer and click on clipping mask it will ONLY grab the picture right below it, this way it wont affect everything else you've added to your edit.

anwyay. this is the fun part, and the only way I can explain it, is fuck around, see what you wanna do and what works.

I always add, levels, curves etc to just deepen the blacks and add some contrast. heres the before and after of that.

for this edit I kind of wanna focus on the contrast of blue and orange, kinda like the seb one but a lil different so what I'm gonna do is add hue/saturation and remove the yellow and blue from the picture.

you use this adjustment layer by grabbing the little hand and selecting the colour you want to change.

so I'm gonna play around and remove the blue and yellow from this picture. here's the before and after of that.

now I'm going to add selective colour, i wanna up to an extreme the reds in the suit. this is kinda hard as you'll obviously grab his skin with that too so I'm gonna use that black little mask on this too, it already exists when you add an adjustment layer

it's that little white box, if you select that and ue the erase tool you can basically remove that adjustment layer in places you want to, this is what it looks like on my layers and on the picture.

I want to upp the red even more then this so I'm gonna copy paste that layer two more times and THEN add a non erased selective colour and play around with the depth of the skintone until I'm happy with it.

now I'm almost happy with the colour, I want it to be a bit more blue so I'm gonna go to 'colour balance' and play around with that a little more.

this is the before and after of all that

then I'm done with the colouring on the picture itself. I'm also gonna put all my adjustment layers into a folder to make my layers less busy

I'm also going to add noise to both the BG and front picture. it just gives a bit more texture and grain that I like

5. typography!

now the stressful part lol.

I know what I'm gonna add so that makes it easy. the name of the race, place and year. this is hard to explain, I know where I'm gonna put everything because off the other edits so it's just about finding a good font.

for this I'm not gonna fuck around with shapes and text layers and adjustments etc. if you want me to explain that please ask away that's just a whole other 5k worded essay.

I know what kinda font I wanna use at first already these choices have to do with a few things which is basically one questions I ask myself:

is there a vibe that already exists around the race and/or win and how do I translate that into the font? (is it fancy, cool, magical, incredible, bold etc etc)

here's an example of how a font can change the vibe

so the vibe I want to go with for this edit is fancy smansy n stuff so I'm thinking of flowly maybe 1930s vibes this is the font I ended up with

I'm still gonna move the place around but the idea if there.

(I change and play around with my text a lot so, again, ask if you want me to go deeper into this)

6. colour blocking

now for this edit I'm going to add a box of colour, I do this if I want to add a bit of an oomph and contrast to it, I like what I have now but I want to add some contrast to make the colour and him pop even more.

this is petty easy I'm basically just going to add a colour box behind him, I'm gonna do blue as well, thats the opposite of red on the colour wheel AND its the other colour red bull is associated with, also colour theory and all that etc.

I'm also going to add gaussian blur and noise to add some texture and use and overlay. heres the diff in with and without that to show the use of it.

at this point I'm also going to move the text around (as you can see) to make it fit better with the added box

7. texture

the moment where it starts feeling like its finished.

for this edit I kinda want to add some photo texture and more grain. here are the textures I used:

I added these and put it on a screen overlay layer and added some adjustement layers to tweek the last few things.

you can find different textures on google, pinstrest and some awesome artists have texture packs you can pay for w just a few bucks. for these, again, if you're going to sell your work MAKE SURE ITS FREE FOR USE!!!

THATS it!

I add my watermark and maybe fix a few little things but thats all and then I'm done, I reccommend playing around and seeing what works for you.

enjoy and have fun <33

#I dont know how clear this is BUT this is how I work so askjdbajksda #kyle.answers #design.stuff

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plantcrazy · 11 days

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Lost Children Progress Update 17/4/24

It's been a little while since I did one of these. I've been giving small updates here and there, but a big one once in a while is nice, and I enjoy sharing my progress. It's sort of motivating. You know? To look and see, 'Oh wow, I did a lot' or 'wow, I didn't accomplish a lot, but I'm proud of what I did do!' (Some chapters take their time to come together, other the ideas just flow on to the paper).

ANYWAY! You don't care about this. You want to know how long till the next chapter comes out, right????

So, will start with the elephant in the room: Ch.19. It's only 8 pages, which is why, despite the first 3 technically done (anything at 90% is just to digitalise & add text), I haven't uploaded anything.

It's about done. I'm just stuck on page 5 (and two panels of page 4). They're a flashback. A god-damned nightmare of a flashback to draw and... I don't want to do it TT , but for effect and impact, the story needs it >>

Otherwise:

(That should be 20/22 chapters done :P )

Part 1 is coming together swimmingly! With the recent addition of 2 new chapters and, I think, this is as big as part 1 will be getting. I'm finishing off tidying up how I want Part 1 to end at the minute, and then we'll have a small time skip to part 2.

(And maaaaaaybe I'll go back to the start and add an intro chapter to give more info on what the heck happened in the Triple Threat Ending to make Henry think screwing up the timelines and making a new one was a great idea. IDK. Still on the hedge about where to put this info)

Also! The poll I'm running looks like everything in one fic will win, for how it gets uploaded on A03. In two days time once the poll is finished I'll work on implementing those changes (, unless the poll swings back the other way again :P ).

Part 2:

The order of the first 9 chapters, take with a grain of salt. I'm still finalizing the order.

For the most part it's just detailed ideas of what I want to happen in each part + 4 chapters finished, 2 being edited.

'Standing on the Ledge' came out FANTASTIC. I cannot wait to upload that one. Personal favourite of the part so far. 2nd place going to 'Stuck With You'.

And what is that at the bottom? A familiar chapter name! Yes! We're getting back to the Wall. Slowly but surly our characters will be reunited with their frozen prisons, well-

Those who I haven't/ don't kill off~

*eViL lAuGhInG! >:D*

jk.

Or am I?

Anyway,

Part 3:

Part 3 is mostly a butt-ton of editing. It looks like most of the new chapters will land in part 2 (asides from 4), so part 3 will be similar to the original version, but not, given all the minor changes you're about to witness snowball into avalanche sized consequences!

^^;

Anyway, I've edited 4 so far dated them since it's going to be a while till we get to Part 3. That being said, given it's 85%ish editing, it should hopefully just be rapid fire chapter uploading when we do get there :)

I think that's about all I've got to say?

Er... you guys should be aware by now of the 'I'm in uni, chapters are as I have time/wrist able' disclaimer. So...

OH! Also, this is all going up on A03 (once the poll is done), so I can keep the readers over there who don't follow this Tumblr up-to-date with what's going on. So when you see a new chapter update in your inbox, don't get too excited ^^;

And finally, for you.

My dear read.

Who has read through my long waffle and sporadic episodes of evil laughter and fun!

I have an... 'opportunity'

*Snots* I sound like a Mafia boss with Liam Neelson's voice reading this allowed.

I left my colour coding in Part 2 (as I couldn't be bothered to remove it ^^; ), so... will have some fun with this.

Whoever can figure out who's POV are colours blue or green will get a free half or full body drawing of one character (SFW), of their choice (mine, oc, stickmin or another fandom (at my discretion)).

And we'll say... 2 guesses a person (either two on one colour, or one guess for each colour) to make it fair. (It shouldn't be too hard, there's only 12 POV's, and you've met them all but one coming in at Part 3.

OH!

And there will be three winners in total.

Good luck :)

(btw, I'm going to bed now, so first people with the right answers are the winners in case you all rush in here with your answers over the next... 10 ish hours...

Unless... you're the only person to read this far >> )

#thsc #the henry stickmin collection #lost children of the ccc #update #fanfic #lost children #long post #you should totally read to the end *wink*#wip

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aoxasims · 24 days

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The Newberry Legacy - Generation 2

Previously...

Finishing up the final family outing until after this semester. Eloise is like her father and ice does not agree well with her clumsy nature.

The triplets all ended the vacation with acceptance letters in their inbox.

Simon and Juniper found the news to be full of Newberry births. Ones we were aware of, and ones we weren't (Leo's child).

So now homework is even harder and they have multiple you have to study x 3 = @_@

Simon is getting so old. He must need a birthday soon.

First day of university and we get word that Juniper is a plagiarist. REALLY JUNI?!

Sage could hardly keep it together having had one of Simon's edible pancakes earlier this day.

Simon is forever the sweetest dad to all of his girls (and one boy).

He is always pink in the face when Sage is around. She was made for him and only him. He knew they'd wind up together. A lover turned best friend turned husband.

For real... This girl. She was just making popsicle stick houses the other day, and now she's messing around?!

Leila: "I am the one innocent we have left. We are all doomed."

Oh Yes.. Leila lost her first tooth! Girl hated having a lose tooth so we are particularly happy over here.

NO.

You didn't...

Autonomy must be on yes? So how does one keep sims from eating their parents' edibles? Hopefully he preforms well.

Interesting coming from a dealer.

Poor Leila arrived home feeling very sad and unwell. First day of school was a success but the stress was a lot on her delicate soul. She felt very dazed.

I am running out of space for photos so here is the end. I quite enjoy this one. Eloise trying to pretend she is sober with eyes the colour of tomatoes and lips so parched they scream for a refreshment with every breath.

Simon is either studying his daughter or that superman book. Its hard to say.

These children are having the upbringing the previous children never got to experience with having babies after babies after baby and being responsible for a sibling or 10. It rarely had to be asked, the kids just immediately helped. These 3 are offered the freedom to explore and they are taking full advantage of the time they saved being the last of the babies in need of care.

note: *The photo of Simon nude is just the sims 4 maxis skin without the mosiac-blur enabled.*

The Beginning | Next

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chaoticstudying · 1 year

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I've realised i should have an introduction post :)

I'm izzy, and I'm a year 12 vce student based in melbourne, australia

this is my studyblr that i do try to stay active on, as it's hopefully going to provide some study motivation, which I severely lack.

The subjects I'm taking this year are physics, chem, general, english and viscom and i've already done methods 3/4

Some fun facts about me:

my favourite colour is purple but since thats kinda hard to pair with stuff my whole colour scheme for everything is blue/greens and neutrals :)

I'm not really sure what i want to do uni career-wise but we can worry about that later (that's next year's problem).

favourite music artists: new hope club, one direction, louis tomlinson, vansire :)

sports I like: i have like zero hand-eye co-ordination, so I swim (competed at my first ever nationals this year!) and run (casually) :)

I am a chronic, chronic procrastinator. I cannot emphasise this enough. i have written full 1000 word english essays on the day they're due which is good except for the part where that tells me procrastination is ok to do again...

I play the drums :)

favourite book is the secret history!

I draw sometimes (I'm not very good but it is fun)

I will add more if I think of more :)

Feel free to reblog with your own intros! I'm always open to make friends :)

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silvertsundere · 6 months

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Silver Talks AniManga (22/10/23)

next week is gonna have another big catch up, I was actually gonna do it the week after I did jujutsu but then realized next week it'd be the 200 chap for this series so decided to postpone it until then just cause it's a cool big round number, tho today's chap 199 woulda been fitting too since it was the colour page for the serie's 4th anni but anyhoo also starting from now the stuff I talk about will be bolded as seen below, yeah I shoulda done this from the start cause it's way more readable and stuff but the other thing I did made more sense at the time I started it, but this is better overall now

Anime

Hoshikuzu Telepath Ep2

nice epiosde mostly just introducing the 3rd member of our main group, next ep is gonna be aoki shiki's chara so that should be good

Frieren Ep7

very good ep like usual, the demon story in the middle was pretty obvious but it was still good. very excited for the next episode considering the cliffhanger and the title for it, hoping for some more sakuga 🙏

Undead Unluck Ep3

great episode all around, loved hearing my queen yuuki as gina, too bad we won't see much more of her til cour 4 or 5 (depending on how fast adaptation goes) but it'll be worth the wait. also, since I read all of UU from start to just some months ago, in just a couple days I had things very fresh on my mind so I noticed it easily, but it's really crazy to see how early tozuka set up seeds for future payoffs, I won't mention what exactly cause spoilers but there were 3 ones in this episode and it really is great writing and storytelling to be able to pull that off

Pokemon Horizons Ep25

nice and action packed episode, fit for being the end of this initial cour/arc, which we only found out about earlier this week. should be getting a new op along with the new subtitle and stuff but we'll see. we also got some lore like the full team of the ancient adventurer and that the evil organization was related to him in some way. the goal now is to find the rest of the team so that should last for 25 more eps probably but we'll see, there should still be gym stuff along the way and all that

Adult Precure Ep3

nice ep, lots of karen x kurumi moments which this artist I follow on twitter was certainly going hog wild for. saki and mai from splash star showed up at the end of this episode, and next one is gonna be about them, so that's cool since I didn't think they'd show up until the yes 5 girls had all gotten their transformations back

Imas Million Live Ep3

good ep as you'd expect, really enjoyed how much yuriko there was since she's one of my favs from ML (mikku 🙏), next episode is gonna have at least a crumb of rio so looking forward to that too they said the teather will take 2 months to finish building, I hope that it'll be finished after next episode just so we can move on to other stuff. not having this following the structure of the og anime/U149 makes it harder to predict what'll be happening

Manga

Ice-Head Gill Ch17

as expected it's ending soon, and as part of the U19 club as well, hopefully ichinose ends on the same week too, but I'll give more thoughts when it actually ends

Jujutsu Kaisen 239

I was looking forward to see how yuji and co were going to take on juiced up sukuna but we're taking a detour to have kenjaku fight, but with the twist that it's one of the most (unknowingly) op charas fighting him. I really like how goofy his power is so looking forward to this fight. tho I don't think there's any way he'll win

Undead Unluck Ch180

I could see this coming cause of fuuko saying all that earlier in the chap but it's still EXTREMELY POGGIES to have andy back after all this time, even if just temporarily, looking forward to them having a crumb of time together next chap

#silver talks animanga

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maxinelugg · 3 months

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Mephistopheles Update #1 - Concept, Head and Hair

I'm excited to share some progress on my latest personal project, and I thought I'd write a blog post discussing some of my thoughts behind the project and breaking down some of the processes involved so far!

Concept & Project Goals

Almost a year ago, I had the idea to create two full 3D characters based on my own interpretation of the two main characters of a 1592 play by Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. These characters would be the titular Doctor Faustus, and his demonic companion, Mephistopheles (not to be confused with the Mephistopheles of the D&D Forgotten Realms setting), created to fit within the Renaissance Germany setting of the playscript. In the play, itself based on German legend, Faustus sells his soul to Lucifer in exchange for forbidden magical knowledge, supplied to him by a damned servant of Lucifer, Mephistopheles, who takes the form of a Franciscan friar. The idea of a deal with the devil, of selling one's soul or integrity in exchange for short-term material gain, often with eternally damning consequences, predates this play and the legend it's based on, but this story is still perhaps the most prominent example of this trope in the literary canon.

However, after a little while of letting the idea simmer, I'd decided to shelve it, as I felt it was somehow a bit odd to create a pair of character models based on a play from over four hundred years ago that hardly anyone had heard of. It wasn't until I was playing Baldur's Gate 3, several months later, that the idea returned to me. In seeing the many fantastic demon character models in that game, I realised I really, really, really wanted to revisit this idea. Suddenly, the project had life again.

Back when I first had this idea, I'd created some concept art for myself, as seen above. As you might notice, some things changed!

I liked a lot about this concept, but after time away from it, I'd realised the bright colour scheme, while definitely inventive and bold, and would read better from afar, might not be the most appropriate to the character, setting or premise.

Ultimately, later in this project, I plan to pose the character with some props (books, similar to those in the concept above). The pose will be different from that of the concept art, as I will try to push for something more dynamic. I will hopefully get to share some of the progress on this soon in the next blog post.

Gathering Reference

1. Photographic monk/friar reference material

Straightforward, simple photographic reference of a friar/monk's garments (habits) and accessories. These are contemporary photographs, but are nonetheless the highest quality imagery I could find. This will be most relevant later into this project when I begin to focus on his clothing and attire.

In the Marlowe play, Mephistopheles appears at first in his true demonic form, and is immediately demanded by Faustus to reappear in the form of a Franciscan friar instead, as the demonic form was too unsightly. It's implied that this new form of a friar appears very mundane, so I'm twisting the source material here to make him a demonic looking friar. Perhaps he has possessed the body of a human monk, but the demonic spirit inside has had an effect on the outward appearance, with horns bursting through his forehead and skin turned pallid.

2. Primary face references

While I was not aiming for a specific likeness, I wanted to gather references of quite gaunt and aged male faces. It turned out that Peter Cushing's face was especially good as reference, as he had the long, hollow-cheeked face anatomy I was after.

When it comes to faces, I always find myself returning to the main cast of characters from Dragon Age: Inquisition for inspiration (I also just love this game in general, to be honest). I find the character work in that game to be an excellent example of exaggerating facial anatomy just enough to convey and emphasise personality and character, but not so far as to feel uncanny, and to fit into the rest of the art direction of the game which is, for the most part, realistic.

I used a 3DScanStore diffuse and displacement pack for this project. All of the UVs of their heads and texture packs are the same, and they provide a free head base mesh (with the same UVs), which I wrapped onto the surface of the face highpoly sculpt using the SoftWrap blender addon (Other methods include Zwrap and even Houdini). After wrapping this face base mesh to match the base sculpt as closely and cleanly as possible, you can throw on 3DScanStore's displacement and/or diffuse maps onto the mesh, with the added benefit of now having much better face topology.

I really love this technique, as 3DScanStore's scan data is very good quality and straightforward to use. The diffuse map is an excellent base for texturing later. While scan data displacement maps can be useful as a finishing touch, it's important to keep in mind that a face still needs to read well at a primary and secondary form level before tertiary details are added.

3. Hair reference material

The hair provided a unique challenge. While the hairstyle was not complex, finding photographic reference for a tonsure was difficult. I ended up looking to a lot of historical paintings and illustrations. Using illustrations as reference has an added benefit of giving insight into how the hairstyle might be interpreted artistically, though this would be ideally supplemented by thorough photographic reference.

I sometimes find it useful to quickly sketch over a 3D work in progress to visualise my next steps (I did the same thing for my Guardian project!). It's a way of testing a visual idea without getting bogged down with how slow 3D iteration can often be.

I might revisit the hair a tad a later date once the character is posed, as I'm not totally satisfied with it. It might also be a chance for me to test how iterative and non-destructive I can make the posing process later on.

4. Horn surface details

Sometimes I like to find inspiration in abstract, natural textures and shapes, especially when facing a bit of an art block about a part of a design/character. As pictured above, the design for the horns changed a bit. The previous iteration was fine, but I felt it was reading a bit dragon-scale-like and I had, admittedly, failed to look at much ref for it, so it was feeling a bit uninspired. I could've changed them to look more like conventional goat/Caprinae horns, but I figured I might as well try how they'd look with a texture inspired by the bark texture pictured above. These shaped flowed with the direction of the horns, as if they'd grown directionally out of the head, which is something I'd wanted to evoke.

Pictured below are some other examples of abstract textures and shapes (generally from my mood boards, not necessarily for this project) that could be sources of inspiration when art block hits. It's very easy to get caught up in things and forget that a lot of art is fundamentally about shapes, colours and textures.

5. Spectacles

Simple ref for some wooden spectacles. My initial concept didn't include these, but as I began to design the design in 3D, I soon realised spectacles would be helpful signifiers of a scholarly archetype. Also makes him a bit more distinct as a character design.

6. Vibe Check

These paintings and illustrations, from a variety of time periods, will be more relevant later into the project when I think about my final presentation, but I keep them here in my Pureref as a reminder of imagery and a general vibe I'd like to try to evoke. This keeps me focused on a visual goal, which proves to be important when working on a concept that's changing frequently.

Developing Productive & Sustainable Habits

Before now, when I've worked on self-driven projects, they have primarily been for university assignments, which had a solid deadline, and I could work towards full-time. Since finishing university and starting a full-time job, figuring out how to weave in time for personal work, and how to push that work as far as I can visually, has been something to adapt to.

The following are various habits I've tried to make an active effort to implement to better achieve these goals:

Not waiting for inspiration to hit like a lightning strike, and instead scheduling time to dedicate to personal work. Obviously, the most rewarding experience in working on art is when you're in a flow state and completely lost in the moment, often right after you've made a breakthrough or are otherwise intensely inspired and moved to create. The kind of flow state where you look down at the clock and it's somehow already 3am. These moments are awesome, but are unsustainable to depend on in the long term. Making time, even if it's only a couple of hours at a time, over a long time, is better for your work and your life (at least in my case!).

Coming back to it with fresh eyes. Whenever I'm working on personal work, I like to take progress screenshots and post them in a personal Discord server at the end of every session I spend on it. This means I can look back at it on my phone or wherever whenever I need. And sometimes it's good to not look back on it until a day or two has passed, because with fresh eyes errors are glaringly obvious. In working on a face, like I have so far with this project, I found this to be especially important, as I'm still fairly novice at facial anatomy so my eye for what does and doesn't look right is still developing.

Seeking feedback. Admittedly, this is something I could've done better with this project so far, but getting input from others is invaluable.

Inspiration is more than the Artstation front page. This one is important, and I really mean it. It's a topic deserving of an entire blog post, but I think it's important for game artists to look beyond other games/game-adjacent media for inspiration. Watch fashion shows, go to museums, read some books, watch some documentaries, go to a contemporary art exhibition, watch some theatre - literally whatever. I recently read Lent by Jo Walton (and loved it) which, while I didn't read for this project, it ended up being massively inspirational; the book's detailed descriptions of the life of a monk in 15th century Italy reinvigorated me when I'd hit a lull with this work.

That's all for now (: I hope to be able to share more updates on this project soon! Thanks for reading!

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rosainta · 5 months

Text

Day 5 of Rosain Quivan's Daily Logs

Started December 14th, 2023 at 9:41AM, Class Finished December 14th, 2023 at 7:47PM, Home Log #5 Type: Wednesday Artwork

Author's Notes moved to the end!

~*~

Fandom: Team Fortress 2

Title: “The Pyro”

Date of Creation: 17th of January, 2023

Art #1

Description: First day of the Daily Art challenge, starting off with a rough sketch of Pyro. Attempt at a usage of perspective, no colour… just like its soul.

Title: "Dr. Ludwig [MEDIC]”

Date of Creation: 17th of January, 2023

Art #2

Description: Rough sketch of Dr. Ludwig, the Medic, himself! Quick attempt at a portrait and perspective. No colour. Probably what he looked like before losing his medical license- ah, so serious!

Title: “Meet The Engineer”

Date of Creation: 18th of December, 2023 (assumption)

Art #3

Description: Yeehaw! A full-body refined work of everyone’s favourite Texan engineer, Dell Conagher! Shading and anatomy work, as well as some cool lettering.

Title: “Meet The Overseer”

Date of Creation: 19th of January, 2023

Art #4

Description: Cringey concept for a tenth class— The Overseer. Made before I knew the purpose of The Solemn Vow… rendering its conceptualisation practically useless. However, I may rework this in the future… if I can control the urge to belch!

Title: “Meet The Demoman”

Date of Creation: 20th of January, 2023

Art #5

Description: Probably my favourite and most refined artwork of the bunch! Scrumpy-fueled Demoman, sticky launcher in hand, with some cool anatomy and shading… and some pretty letters, hehe.

Title: “Rabiosa”

Date of Creation: 21st of January, 2033

Art #6

Description: Made after a gaming livestream I streamsniped of one of my first favourite TF2 YouTubers, Rabiosa! (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkTJZ2M7wKnaVefGN9UFb3Q) GO CHECK HIM OUT!!! Here, you can see that I was backstabbed… twice in a row during the stream. What a naive Medic I was… and uh, still am, LOL.

Title: “The Smoke of a Spy”

Date of Creation: 22nd of January, 2023

Art #7

Description: Ah, oui. Le Spy, so elegant, so sophisticated, so… smoke-filled. Maybe a little too much, it's becoming cancerous. Refined portrait practice and shading, with even cooler lettering!

Title: “Meet the Spy”

Date of Creation: 23rd of January, 2023

Art #8

Description: And now, for the final piece, the Spies have multiplied! Each with their own motives to kill one another... and both twice as cancerous. I can only imagine the stink lines coming off of both of them. The only part of the series with some usage of colour! Plus, some shading, anatomy (which, admittedly, could be a bit better here) and, can you guess? Cool lettering.

And that's about it for today's little display of my earlier works. Hopefully, one day, we can see the difference in quality, for better or (though expectantly not) for worse.

~ * ~

Author’s Notes: First day of following the set schedule from yesterday- yay! Like I mentioned in the post-script, this is the artwork I made in January from a TF2 Daily Art challenge I did, as well as some descriptions about them to give you some context on the intention of their creation. I'm also including the ones from the last post, just to give more context around them. Also, quick reminder: you can give me suggestions for art &/ writing tomorrow, anything you'd like, as it is FRIDAY ORDER-OF-THE-DAY!!! (I... I don't know, I just needed something that rhymed. Don't question it). If there are none, I'll put up a fun poll to garner some ideas for next week, and I'll do something else instead of a request, too. So, yeah, hope you enjoyed.

Have a good one, mate!

Credits: Team Fortress 2 by Valve, Rabiosa (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkTJZ2M7wKnaVefGN9UFb3Q) Image source: Rosain Quivan, pregnantsecondo Created by Rosain Quivan Cross posted on Amino ( Rosain Quivan )

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