#I want to actually do a proper portrait but I also have other stuff I wanna draw tonight… uwaaa

[alsoyooraiyah]

jem wip… he’s so cute I need a break…

#love and deepspace #lnd jeremiah #his one and only referencr drives me crazy…. #the more I look at his little portrait the more I’m like wow he’s really cute and handsome #I love his brows SO much???? #and his hair is the texture that I wish Rafayel’s is…. #I want to actually do a proper portrait but I also have other stuff I wanna draw tonight… uwaaa #this was supposed to be a quick thing but i guess not but that means he’s gonna be continued later #placeholder art tag

[elendsessor]

hey update on the nocturne no fusion run: it’s gonna be on hiatus.

ik this is sudden especially since it’s lucifer time but i got insanely burnt out. the last few weeks haven’t been great (seasonal depression especially sucks ass) and though i’m finally climbing out of that slump, whenever something like this happens, i need to take a step back from whatever i’ve been playing so it doesn’t cause some sort of relapse. this goes for a couple other games i’ve been working on and have live-blogged about. this doesn’t mean i’m abandoning anything!!! i just likely won’t get around to it until much later.

i still have a lot of grinding and skill resetting to do and tbh it hasn’t helped much because it kinda just. made my brain more mushy than it already is. i’m all over the place in general so sorry.

since i’m not sure when i’ll finally finish what i started, i did want to share some thoughts because i’ve gained a bigger appreciation for nocturne all by running through it again.

first off i forgot how fun team building can be. maybe it’s because without fusion i can’t do much with the demons i can get, but dammit it highlights a problem with a lot of turn based rpgs being the very little breathing room with how you can set up your team.

look, i adore monster collecting games but god there tends to be a definitive “don’t use this unless it’s in a specific way” tier that applies to nearly every one of them. pokemon kinda avoids this problem because of hms/tms and the breeding mechanic but that takes significantly more time and a vast majority of the games are kinda fucking easy. challenging for a kid especially when you get to the stuff like the battle tower, but there’s no incentive to build a good moveset outside of competitive play, and trust me—as an ex-competitive player—it does ruin the non-multiplayer combat in a ton of ways.

but ps2 era onwards megaten somehow gets around this still via mechanics like skill mutation. it’s random and hard to trigger but there’s still freedom, plus the way the games have always encouraged team building and learning how mechanics work is so rewarding. rpgs (action or otherwise) are my bread and butter but so many of them do fail to understand the importance.

nocturne’s combat flavor is so weird. it’s broken. really broken. somehow that’s the fun in it? when people talk about bullcrap smt moments there’s a reason nocturne comes up because it’s designed to be bullcrap. it fits the whole “the vortex world is harsh and unforgiving” angle.

the story structure is something i appreciate a lot more despite how flawed it is. talked about it a ton in a previous post analyzing how it handles characters like chiaki.

there’s so many fun and unique shots and angles and general framework that tbh isn’t something any other megaten has captured since, assuming they try. for all the ones that do post-nocturne, dds is the one that got the most cinematic but it doesn’t play with colors nearly as much. i love the raidou games (especially 2) but 2 got rid of most of the cgs and you could tell both games had much less of a budget than other atlus projects during that era. 4 and 4a have beautiful art and do fun camera movements but the hardware limitations make it so there wasn’t a ton of actual proper cutscenes. 5 is also beautiful and is aesthetic af but camera angles aren’t played with during conversation scenes.

the actual general issue is that talking stuff. nocturne doesn’t have a lot of strictly talking scenes, and the ones that are there are so spread out that you kinda forget they’re there. plus, some of it comes from pov shots like when talking with hijiri which does help with perspective. not many games period actually take the time to play around like that, making a lot of scene set ups feel samey. megaten is no exception especially in the ds/3ds era, and it kinda got abandoned tbh. the portraits and art are good yeah but they can only carry scenes so far.

also gained a bit of appreciation for tde. no it’s not the best written ending—the “bad”/demon ending and freedom ending are definitely the winners here mainly due to thematic importance. yes, it’s really shitty that going for other routes gives you half the content. you can do the amala labyrinth and then back out after beating metatron (as long as you don’t get to the bottom afterwards you can go for any of the other endings), but that’s still tde adjacent. however… i love how morally ambiguous tde is.

it is promising in several aspects but the consequences of said actions are huge. there’s still manikins in the vortex world, an entire society being built from what remains of tokyo even after the whole fight for the right to creation stuff happens, but siding with luci means destroying everything they’ve worked towards. the demifiend can liberate his and other universes from the cycle of death and rebirth, but that’s only if yhvh is defeated and, by extension, the great will. the great will has appeared before in megaten and isn’t actually a being, more a concept, only able to be fought in a comprehensible state. it’s literally existence itself. who knows what’ll happen if someone kills off existence?

gonna be completely honest, this is probably my new favorite mainline game. there’s a lot to it that i keep discovering and loving. (also on like a fandom standpoint i haven’t had a bad experience with the nocturne side yet/haven’t seen much of the toxicity so i’m biased lol). actually fucking slaps. it’s not perfect and some of it is more learning to love than love at first sight, but dammit it’s good.

#shantien rambles #smt nocturne #smt

[andipxndy-writes]

meet the writer: aj

(a.k.a. my writeblr intro, done properly)

heya!! i’ve had this blog for a while now, but i realised i haven’t ever actually done a proper intro on here, so here it is!! (also did i want the opportunity to make an aesthetic of myself??? absolutely. image made in canva and portrait on the left is from picrew, all other images were taken from unsplash)

my name is aj (she/her pronouns pls)!! i’m 26, black, and i live in the uk. i graduated from uni 3 years ago and currently work in lab admin, but i’ve been doing creative writing for 10+ years!! i’m currently trying to get back into reading by reading a book a month (i usually share the book i’m reading in the sidebar of my main blog, which i follow back with as this blog is a sideblog: @andipxndy), and i write a variety of fanfiction and original works (both based off my own characters and those i currently/have rp’d with in the past). i also take requests for fanfiction, which you can read about below the cut or in this post (i’ve made some changes which mean the post is not relevant atm)!! but in general i love being asked questions about my WIPs and my characters and basically any characters i write, because i love delving into character thoughts and doing character development (so please send me some!!).

this blog started off as a way for me to share my fanfiction writing, which is how i got into writing in the first place and how i came to love it, but now i’m wanting to expand some more share/talk about some of my original works too!! i write ya sci-fi in my original stuff, but i’m known to drift into romance, action-comedy and crime when it comes to fanfiction works. i’m also over on ao3 as andipxndy.

my main fanfic writing fandoms are abbott elementary and alex rider, just to keep things managable, but i also enjoy watching ncis, criminal minds and lockwood & co., and sometimes dive back into old favourite animes (k-on!! is my current anime obsession). i may be slow to write or respond to stuff but i DO enjoy diving into discussing fandom stuff too!! i also like playing video games like sims 4 (ea is a money grab pass it on) and cities skylines, and enjoy dnd and rping with friends!!

before this intro gets too long, here are my main WIPs:

power play (1st draft completed, left to stew)

the first original wip i planned, the story is intended to be part of a 5-book series about a 20-year-old who accidentally gives himself powers, and ends up drawn into the science underground whilst trying to save people that he may or may not have also accidentally given powers. and all whilst trying to appear completely normal to his mum and get a summer job whilst home from university.

the crossover (still working on 1st draft, is my main/november nano project)

this is an adaptation of an old rp au i had with one of my closest friends, adjusted to have new, original characters despite the same plotline. it follows a 17-year-old girl as she’s accidentally transported into a parallel universe, where her parents aren’t her parents and she doesn’t exist. in an attempt to get home, she ends up crossing paths with the people who are meant to be her family, and finds out that they’re all superheroes. insert drama and shenanigans here.

the rich life: a modern bourgeoise au (working on 1st draft, is my camp nano project)

a passion project that i’m completing for my rp partners, this au is split into a 3-book series following the lives of our characters in the upper class, those who work for them, and eventually their children, going through the drama of their lives and how they try so hard not to have it all end up in the press. that obviously doesn’t work.

fanfiction fics and requests (ongoing but this is technically a wip)

technically counts as a wip as i have a backlog of fics in progress to write and share for requesters (and some ideas i’ve had myself), but these are mainly either alex rider or abbott elementary fanfics that have been sent in via ask. you can see extra info below the cut after the next paragraph. my requests are currently closed, and i’m working through my backlog. the request(s) active for the forseeable future are:

will you be my maybe? - an abbott elementary fanfiction (gregory x janine - injury + fake dating)

anyway, this is all i’ve got for now!! i do take part in things like nanowrimo and camp nanowrimo, so if anyone takes part in those too i look forward to writing alongside you!! other than that, that’s about it!! i’ll be sharing snippets of my work, and maybe eventually you’ll even get aesthetics eventually!! i’ve you’ve read this far, i applaud you, but thank you so much for reading!! i’d love to get to know more writers on here, both inside and outside of fandom spaces, so please feel free to jump at me and send me asks and messages and stuff!!

~ aj xxx

(for more info on fanfiction stuff, read below the cut:)

i’ve been writing fanfiction for over 10 years, and as something so dear to my heart i can’t let it go - it’s helped me to develop my writing and character development skills!! i have, however, grown in the fandoms i write, so please see below for more info:

I WRITE FOR:

alex rider

abbot elementary (more specifically, gregory x janine. i ship only those two. with my whole heart.)

fics getting to know my original characters (oneshots)

(i realise that this is significantly cut down, but i have other projects in mind that require more of my time and can no longer spend as much time on requests!! for this, i apologise!!)

GENRES WRITTEN (not completely restricted):

family/friendship

romance

hurt/comfort

action/adventure

IMPORTANT TO NOTE:

MY REQUESTS ARE NOW CLOSED

all fanfics will be cross-posted to ao3

please give me up to a month to get fics written and posted - if not done within a month, feel free to message me about it [please DO NOT pester me about it] - i work and am also writing original things, so do not always have the time

i preferably write oneshots, though the occasional multi-chap will appear - a fic ends up longer, well, it happens 🤷🏾‍♀️

i am a rambler so you are almost always guaranteed a longer fic

please try not to give me word count limits or specifications on fics - they are discouraging

that being said, any writing requests/prompts fulfilled will most likely be 20k words or less (though they may be longer if the inspiration strikes, don’t hold me to it)

i do not write smut, or any nsfw other than possibly gore/torture/violence. this is a personal preference and i will not change my stance on it

if you have any triggers that you do not want included in the fic, please message me and inform me of this

i have a ko-fi! if you would like to tip/donate to me for any of my writings, check it out here

all fics may or may not include a level of humour/sarcasm - i’m not sorry for this

#writeblr #writeblr intro #writeblr introduction #writing #writer #writers of tumblr #andipxndywrites #creative writing #fanfiction writer #fanfiction #ao3 writer #introduction

[lordisitmine]

TTNBD BLOG: PART THREE

Welcome back; as always, spoilers for this week’s installment. Sorry this post is a few days late- I had my hands full with some real-life stuff but it’s the morning of New Year’s Eve and I finally have a day off to sit and write some commentary!

Let’s talk face casts! I don’t normally do real-life face-casts for fictional characters that already exist, but for my OCs it’s kind of necessary, since no one other than me really has a concrete frame of reference for how they look. I tried to draw them of course, but that doesn’t really always translate for me into how they look in my brain. Except for Sybil. My drawing of Sybil was perfect, and the one of her mom as well, that’s exactly how I imagined those two characters, but you can and should disregard the other drawings I did lol. So, if you’re really wondering what Simeon Montrose and Madame LaChance look like, I have good news! I have face casts for them!!

In chapter two, I described Madame LaChance as “the most beautiful woman Lizzy had ever seen” and that’s because I imagined her as the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, or at least one of them, and an actress I’m obsessed with- Carla Gugino. There’s just something about her face and her body and her energy on screen that just makes me feel insane. She has this hypnotic charming quality that is exactly how I wanted characters and readers to feel when they interact with Madame. Incidentally, if you’ve never watched the Haunting of Hill House or The Fall of the House of Usher, I HIGHLY recommend that you do so. Two incredible horror series, both of them are on Netflix and they’re 8 episodes each. She is in both of them. Madame’s hair and eyes are different colours of course but like. That’s the face.

I always had a face cast for Simeon without realising it. When I described him, I had this fac in mind, and then when I actually sat down and thought “who does he look like irl?” my brain was like “Luke Evans. You were thinking of Luke Evans this whole time.” Specifically, these pictures, because his facial hair and age is similar to Simeon’s, even though Simeon’s hair and eyes are a different colour.

Perhaps now that I’ve actually nailed down my face casts, I can do proper portraits of these characters. On top of the rapidly growing pile of other sketches I want to do OOF.

CHAPTER THREE: WAIT AND HOPE

I thought it was time to have some Sybil backstory/POV. The fact that she’s half-demon and has some abilities from that is going to be a much more significant part of the story as we continue, and as a minor spoiler/teaser I will tell you that she had no idea what her dad actually is or what that makes her. Shhhh it’s a surprise for later. Obviously I’ve revealed that she’s able to see the spirits of the dead, but I’m gonna keep her other abilities hush-hush for the time being, she doesn’t even realise she has some of them, and I’ll get into the mythology of half-demon children a bit later. I promise I won’t leave you hanging.

We have a literary reference as a title again! This time it’s from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, which is a story about faking your death and getting revenge, among other things. A little on the nose maybe- but it amused me, so I included it. I liked the idea of Ciel having read it in English and having this visceral reaction to it, and then seeing if the context of the line “all human wisdom is contained in these two words- wait and hope” had a different context or meaning that made it less stupid (to him) in French, since he lives in France now, and the book was originally written in French, and things sometime get lost in translation.

Also, I’m half-accidentally half-intentionally mirroring his and Lizzy’s narratives in this story, and she was reading in the last chapter, so it just fell into place when I was trying to give him something to chew on with his angst in this chapter. Don’t worry, that’s the last literary reference I have planned for now, lol.

Let’s talk about the ring!! Ciel’s ring from the series is based on the Hope Diamond, an actual diamond that was owned by many famous people who all ended up suffering horrible deaths/trauma. Life is funny that way, but of course, people decided that it must be the diamond that was cursed. In Ciel’s case, it was a Phantomhive family heirloom, and all of his ancestors who wore the ring ended up dying horrible deaths. Including him.

So, naturally, Sebastian had to take that and turn it on its head. I already reblogged the post on my blog (scroll down a little), but Tumblr users noirserviteur and azuresins designed, 3D printed and then cast in sterling silver (with real stones I think) a replica/depiction of Ciel’s ring, which I used as reference images for my design. I changed the stone, since it is a different, but similar, diamond- the stone in my version is circular, to fit the engraving of the contract seal.

Sebastian giving Ciel a ring is another way to like, show possession, because this motherfucker is possessive. Also, the original ring was a symbol of a curse that was haunted Ciel in his mortal life. This new ring is sort of Sebastian’s way of saying “no one gets to curse/haunt you forever except me” which is super romantic. Not that either of them sees their bond as a curse, but like, it’s an eternal, unbreakable attachment, which is sort of like a curse in some ways I guess. A Super fun, romantic curse.

And they’re dancing! The song they’re dancing to is Waltz no. 19 in A Minor, b.150, OP- Posth (1860) by Frederic Chopin. It’s always a fun writing exercise to describe music as the characters are hearing it, and I hope I did a good job nailing down the vibe. These two are very Chopin-coded to me, whatever that means. I listen to a lot of classical/instrumental music when I write, and while I haven’t made any playlists, I’m partial to these ones on Spotify when I work on this story specifically. This one is one I find to be specific to Lizzy & Sybil. I am a huge music person; I can’t do anything without my tunes.

There… was not supposed to be a sex scene in this chapter. I honestly hadn’t planned on writing one, but oh boy howdy did this thing want to be written. It’s probably the fastest I’ve ever finished a sex scene (it normally takes me AGES to write porn). And it ended up being super hot (if I do say so myself). I guess these two just really wanted to fuck lmao.

Now that the contract is over (or not over, now that it has morphed into something else), Ciel and Sebastian aren’t really master and servant anymore. So, I love flip-flopping on the power dynamics between them, especially when it comes to sex. When Ciel “orders” Sebastian around in this scene, Sebastian doesn’t have to obey, but he chooses to. What would have once been a tangible command is now just role-play and it’s still so fun to write!

The Christmas stuff was fun to write too. As I said, I’m (sort of) intentionally mirroring Ciel and Lizzy’s story lines here, so I wanted Lizzy to get some jewellery too. I browsed through listings for necklaces of the time and found this one, which I thought was just perfect. I would 100% buy it if I had 1,450 US dollars lying around. I think blondes look really great in green, and Lizzy’s eyes are green, so despite her colour scheme in the anime being super pink and girly I’m putting her in a lot green in this story *glances at the next upcoming chapter). I have multiple party-type events lined up in this one so for you purists out there, don’t worry, she’ll be back in pink eventually.

I grew up in Canada, so ice skating on ponds and lakes local rinks, be it for figure skating or hockey or just for fun was a big part of my childhood. I have a lot of fond memories of ice skating with my family and I thought hey, they probably skate on the Thames and the Sienne rivers, right? We Ontarians do that in Ottawa when the Ottawa river freezes up in the winter. I didn’t even bother looking it up to see if they did it/do it in Europe, I just decided that I was going to make it happen. I did, however, make sure I was referencing ice skates as they existed in that time period. I’m not a complete lunatic.

And of course, Lizzy having to teach Sybil how to skate means they’re going to be put in Physical Proximity mwahahaha. The image of Lizzy getting kissed on the cheek by a pretty girl and falling over was burned in my brain and refused to leave me alone until I wrote it. Their romantic relationship is a slower burn but it’s starting to burn brighter from here on out.

I’ll leave the commentary sparse for the last couple of scenes- I don’t want to accidentally give anything away by talking too much about the crime scene or the coalition meeting. Have you figured out who the victim is?? Do you think you might know who’s leading the coalition cult since Sir Arthur kicked it four years ago? Much to think about… until next week xoxo gossip girl

lord_is_it_mine

#lord speaks #kuroshitsuji #fanfiction #black butler #sebaciel #writing #my writing #behind the scenes #ttnbd #tteoe series #ttnbd blog #commentary

[astralartefact]

Every Mention of YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse in Encyclopedia Eorzea III I got my Lore Book; Here's the only thing I really care about

They had the chance to do the funniest thing possible and explain the Lore of Y:DA in overwhelming detail. (They did not do that.)

I only gave the book a quick once over, but here are all mentions I could find right now. If I managed to miss an important page I will add it once I gave the book a proper read.

BTW YOU FUCKED UP THEIR PORTRAITS SQUARE, ANOGG IS THE WHITE ONE!!!

To give you a comparison to other quest lines, literally every other alliance raid instance has at least one page dedicated to it. I just want Tower at Paradigm's Breach/Her Inflorescence's Concept Art is that too much to ask for q_q

Anyways, since you might want to know if this could 'mean' anything: The only new thing to me is that Anogg's entry kind of implies they aren't real Dwarves in the first place since they clarify that 'nobody knows where they came from - but recent events have revealed [redacted]'* - and combined with Reincarnation's lore drops and the fact that AnoKono look at least inspired by Devola and Popola this could imply they are actually "Clones" based on their data in the Pseudo-Seed. (And hey, look who recently had a cameo in Reincarnation, it all lines up #AnoggForReincarnation)

*in-game they were referred to as orphans, but i always took that as 'their parents are dead' and not 'nobody knows where they came from'

Also tangentially related side note, the choices on who gets an entry in this book are something. 2B isn't mentioned at all, not even in a "What a Weird Woman! We know nothing about her! Crazy!" sort of way but Ronitt's Mother who we talk to like once gets one that talks about how Ronitt likes pies. And I say that as one of the two people who is a Ronitt stan. I felt personally represented by him having a hard time with saying hello to others. But then there also doesn't seem to be an entry for Pagaga for example and now it seems kind of weird where the priorities went.

(I mean okay I'll be honest: I expected nothing and I'm still disappointed. And sure I get it, you don't want to touch Yoko Taro's World too much, especially with his style of world building anything you accidentally put in there could have massive implications down the line and you don't want to step on his toes but also don't want to ask him to write something for you yada yada yada, but the lengths the writers go to to not mention Y:DA in any capacity is wild. At this point it would be easier to just treat the NieR stuff as 'a weird thing that happened to our world that nobody understands but at least we got some space-travel level technologies from it' - you know, exactly how Y:DA treats it - but No, we will not mention the burning satellite in our backyard at all costs. And now you have a massive hole in the game that the devs just don't talk about.)

#ffxiv #ff14 #yorha dark apocalypse #nier raids #nier #yoko taro #anogg #konogg

[alicedrawslesmis]

#and I just need to say how much I love the way you did the scales and tails and general mer-anatomy#it was a delight and a revelation#and I don't even want ti think about how many fish studies you had to do first via @shitpostingfromthebarricade

(this is about the mermay 2022 drawings)

actually let me share some art notes!

I didn't do any fish studies for this event, except for the beta fish, but I did for the Javert turning into a mermaid comic from a while back. That's when I ran into the big ProblemTM with mermaid anatomy. Cause most of the general public will associate mermaids with Ariel. Now, Ariel is good enough design

the problem is that she has a fish tail that is positioned and shaped like a whale tail, so it looks more human and she can bend it like legs instead of side-to-side like a fish. That was the compromise the animators did

Now, I wanted to give my mermaids proper fish tails. When I was making the Javert one, I went through a whole research rabit hole (of which I saved zero links and forgot everything. Thanks past me) to make a little nod to Javert's (most likely) ethnicity by drawing him as a fresh water fish from Punjab? I believe it was Punjab? Again, should've saved the links. I didn't make it explicit I just wanted to choose a fish

So I made the whole drawing, all the individual scales, only for me to realize that I had messed up the tail position because of disney mermaid bias. I had to change the whole thing and it was very annoying

(and to cap it off I positioned the fish tail upside down. Again, no one but me will notice this. It's a mermaid, it's not real)

That's where I solidified the mermaid anatomy I would use for mermay

now, you will also notice that my drawings were disproportionately sharks during that whole month. 1- I've swam with sharks they're very chill and I have some 1:1 experience with how they move, how they swim, what their bodies look like in water and out (I'd describe it as a creature made of thick latex) 2- Speaking of latex:

(x)

a while ago I made this prop shark for a movie I was working on. Her name is Suellen. I had to physically sculpt her in foam and latex

My hottest art take is that better than making studies from photos I NEED to see the thing move. Videos are my best friends but having access to the thing in real life is even better. How it relates to other objects is more important than making a photorealistic but soulless drawing.

Again, this is bias because I know which of my drawings were made with artistic intent and which were made from a vacuum and other people don't. But I still feel very strongly that one IRL experience with the thing is more important than a thousand photos. So I'd made a shark tail and now I was familiar enough to be able to imagine them in different poses and stuff. Hence, shark mermaids

A more tangible example: If you'd never seen a human outside of portraits, you wouldn't know that we're squishy! Fish are much the same, they're squishy, they're slick, their skin also folds (tho, they don't have fat like we do, so it folds less, but you can take the blobfish as an example of what I mean). And this is what I was going for the most.

I also like to give viewers the sensation of having a mermaid body, like with this fin here. You can actually get some sense of having a dorsal fin yourself.

Now I haven't even touched the subject of fish genitals. Just know that yes, decisions were made

#art rants #I should organize a tag for this #long post #fave arts #2022 #my art

[tehriel]

Buonanotte, Tesoro

Just a little soft moment from my looonnnggg ass fic. Hope you like it~

Warnings: this passage; none, but for the whole fic, uh, mature everything. 

But also I do not know Italian, huehue

***

Everything was tilted. Sodo was a demon with horns, teeth and a tail. Celestials want to harm you. Detectives were happening. “Ye.. yeah, I just—I was walking all night… and--”

“It’s okay not to be okay, Pittore; you are human.”

“And that, that seems debatable,” you laughed hollowly. 

Terzo strode over to you, a billowing bat and touched your waist, “You want to rest?”

“I think that might be for the best,” you were in shambles. You couldn’t laugh, joke, or hide; every emotion flickered on your face as plain as day. You had to stuff yourself back in the box, claw for safety, and find the entertainer. Be light, be funny… be untouchable again.

“You’ve already met my bedroom, come, rest.”

The weight of reality bent and bowed, and as you took steps towards Papa’s bed, things only seemed to become heavier. Terzo supported your weight as you became sluggish.

“We’ll talk later, Bait,” Sodo called mouth crunching at a bone.

“Sure,” you were out of it.

Terzo sat you down on the bed, “That was a lot easier than usual, actually. Sometimes I have to resort to, uh, other means to get him to cave.”

“Must find me charming, I suppose,” you shrugged and watched him take a knee to remove your shoes; they were a pair of painting boots from your van. Did not match the clothes he’d given you in the slightest.

 “And why shouldn’t he?” Terzo pushed you back into the pillows. “Seems familiar, huh?”

“I probably won't remember much of this like you did,” you tried to laugh, but it was empty. “Mm, good sheets.” They were black and silky.

He pulled covers over you and then perched by you. “I don’t know if I ever thanked you for that night,” he murmured, touching your hair. “I was stupidly fucking vulnerable, but you didn’t take advantage of that.”

“Haven’t been drinking alone in hallways since that night, have you, Terzo?” you asked tiredly, remembering it like it was a lifetime ago.

“No.. no, Copia has been very annoyed with me drinking in his study, though,” he chuckled.

You memorised the plains of his face with heavy eyelids—his indented chin and square jaw. “Good, welp, if we’re taking shifts, as you put it, you’d better kiss me goodnight.”

He seemed to freeze at that, “Yes, uh, I remember now..” he took off his mitre, and immediately, some stray hair fell into his eyes.

You reached and ran your hand through his hair, pushing it back.

He sighed into your touch and caught your hand. “Sei fottutamente pericoloso,” he muttered. 

He brought your palm to cover your mouth, and you gave him a wry ‘what the fuck?’ look. 

But he seemed intent, “Buonanotte, Tesoro.” He leaned in, his knee dipping the bed. He kissed the back of your hand, your hand a barrier between your lips. His eyes fluttered shut, and you felt his tongue run slightly against your skin. 

Your brows drew hard. It was a beautiful torture. 

He pulled back and finally looked at you; whatever he saw there—he seized your wrist. He gripped your jawline. His touch trembled, and his chest rose and fell. He knelt on a precipice, looking ready to take your hand away and claim your mouth for his own.

“Seems you are stronger than me, Pittore,” he said softly, gritting his teeth to pull himself away proper. “You are safe here; you can be as involved or uninvolved as you like with what we do about your situation. We have wards, so no summonings unless sanctioned. Rest. Tomorrow… tomorrow, I will sit for my portrait again, and things will be as normal as you allow.”

“Thank you, Terzo,” you said softly. 

“If you want me…” he swallowed at the wording, “I will be on the couch tonight, in my study during the day.”

If you want more, you can have more.

#the band ghost #ghost #Ghoul #sodo x reader #sodomizer ghoul #papa terzo #terzo #terzo x reader #terzo fanfic #papa emeritus iii #Papa Emeritus #papa III #papa emeritus lll #long fic #GHOST FIC #ghost fanfiction #ghost bc

[gaypleasantview]

The Goth Family

+ some blabber under cut that i'd normally put in tags but not today <3

this is a small photoshoot location i randomly created on spot just to take this photo, i wanted the goths to have a picture together but i have genuinely never been good at buy mode so i believe this is my first try at making a proper room and i just loveee this place so much <3 too bad it's a random square box i built next to the actual goth house lmao but i definitely want it in the estate so i'll have to move all the stuff eventually (and figure out where it would fit since i have the ts1 goth house and it's tiny and needs a lot of add-ons, it's gonna be fun but it feels intimidating). and cassie's dress is so uneccesarily big but i love it so muchhh, she looks like a princess that's my baby <3 (she's older than me) i have to mention there's also a feral michael bachelor in the house and i almost k worded him bc he kept interrupting the photoshoot wearing a tshirt with shorts like he's your embarrassing uncle that you're stuck with on a beach vacation, anyway i made him light the fireplace a few times and was seriously scared the place was gonna set on fire like the last two times i had a photoshoot also everyone was obsessed with the piano and thinking about it all the time when i had the bubbles on and once i accidentally moved michael into a window, i hate love playing with the goths bc in every game they're the same and keep wreaking havoc and fighting each other and ruining their relationships, it was always that way when i was playing out their story in ts1 bc i had a hacked poster that worked like maxmotives but it also made all the other stats go up as well including their personality points (idk who needs that) and because of that everyone was 10-points extraverted and wouldn't stop talking to each other and eventually they all hated each other, also mortimer with that stupid mouse doll was everywhere pls tell me you all know what i mean 😭 i really should share something about that story one day yeah...

okayyyy also idk what to do with this photo now that i think about it bc the timeline is all over the place, bella hasn't been in the picture for like 2 years and cassie's scar is fresh and alex was definitely younger when their mom disappeared, he's supposed to be 13 now even though he looks 15 here but his age was decided on actually about 13 literal years ago so i don't know if i can part with that 😭 i like him being a weird ultra smart child pain in the ass lol. i actually had a legacy challenge in ts1 ten years ago where spoiler alert alex was the actual child of my founder bc she adopted him, he had a different name and all and he was super mega sweet, i feel like he's way more bitchy here for some reason 😭 i just love when everyone is a bitch i guess...

okay i'm so happy thank you i just need to make some portraits for the game now that will actually be representative of how everyone looked at some points in their lives okay bye. i think i'm actually gonna do it and not just dream of doing it and i love this inspiration wave i've been having, big thanks to my moots <3

#the sims 2 #goth family #project: cr #ts2 premades

[loregoddess]

Do you have any head canons for triangle strategy?

I have a small one that out of all House Wolffort, it’s Benedict who holds his liquor best. Erador tried to prove otherwise. He did not succeed.

Honestly that headcanon tracks, although Erador also gives me Olberic vibes when it comes to drinking so he's no lightweight either.

Aside from my age and height headcanons, let's see...I just sort of have a random assortment of headcanons with no clear organization, so I'll write a few out by character (also a few of these are based specifically in like, the post-golden route timeline; if you want the sad angsty post-any other route headcanons, I have a few of those too, but lets keep it light for now).

So we all know Serenoa is like, the wife guy who loves his wife so much, but I think he does the whole Maes Hughs thing as well, like I know photographs don't exist per se in this world, but he definitely carries around a little portrait of Frederica in a locket, and any kids eventually too, and shows them off any chance he gets. He is so excited to spend time with Frederica, like yes, he's a responsible lord first and won't skip out on important meetings and stuff, but he'll also book it home first chance he gets I'm sure.

Speaking of Frederica, she ends up making an excellent Lady Wolffort, and is able to handle the duties of managing the demense just as aptly as Serenoa is. The two make a fantastic team, and the people of Wolffort love them immensely.

Despite both being like, the rulers of their respective countries, I'd like to think Svarog sort of takes a vaguely surrogate dad approach to Roland at times, giving him bits of advice and helping him out, especially since Roland never got any proper like, king-training from his own dad, but also because Svarog radiates huge "do you need a dad, I will be your dad" energy with how doting he is on Frederica and how much he loved Dragan, and also taking Avlora in, and just, how gently he talks to Roland when they become allies on the golden route.

Benedict is a mess to deal with as a character in terms of figuring what's going on in his head, but given his ah, many issues, I don't think he ever really felt worthy or like, didn't feel like he deserved to be Anna's father, even though he took raising her very seriously. It isn't until Anna sits him down and talks about what she'd learned about her parents from Erador and like, really talks with Benedict about the subject, that he's able to allow himself to truly express how much he cares for her as a daughter and how proud he is of her. (If I had the time and energy to comb through all the in-game text to really get into the characters heads, I'd really want to write a fic following Anna's life, and also getting the resolution between her and Benedict hinted at in her second character story, I just, love Anna a whole lot and want to learn and know more about her life).

Geela gets to open that school of hers after the war, and by the time she's retiring it's a world-renowned academy. She still somehow ropes Hughette into teaching courses despite Hughette's role as head of the royal guard.

Erador and Hossabara aren't romantically involved, but after the war and reconstruction efforts they do develop something of a deep platonic bond.

Corentin invents refrigeration. Norzelia gets magical refrigerators before it gets fantasy automobiles or anything like that. His research into ice magic for non-war efforts leads to the invention of many other things, like fantasy air conditioning.

Once she learns Serenoa's her half-brother, Cordelia makes regular visits to the Wolffort demense to build that familial connection, but she also kicked Roland for taking so long to tell her.

Archibald and Groma get to actually talk and learn that each is the person the other was searching for, and eventually settle down together running a nice little tea shop. I am here for old people finding love and peace together.

Well...this got a bit longer than I intended, but suffice to say, I do have all sorts of weird little headcanons floating in my head at any given time.

#I don't even think this is all of them I just wrote what I could remember from glancing at the characters list #thanks for the question though I still love TS a lot even if I haven't been talking about it #(there is an incomplete draft on how Anna and Avlora are narrative mirrors I swear I'll finish it one day) #but anyhow it was good to talk some TS after so long! #alynnl #triangle strategy #I still don't have an ask tag

[swampgallows]

6, 11 & 28 :)

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it) honestly, now that i'm watching it again as an adult, Disney's Gargoyles. i dont think i ever actually watched it as a kid, i couldnt even tell you what tv station it was on (I dont think we even got the disney channel til i was almost a teenager) but i knew enough about it to know that lexington was my favorite. im almost positive the commercial for it was at the beginning of our lion king VHS, which i watched and loved religiously as a child. (maybe it was aladdin or beauty and the beast; two of my other favorites, and both circa 1993. but lion king for sure was my fave. i LOVED simba and wanted to BE simba. dont really know why, or how i didnt end up a furry). but anyway yeah a lot of the character design in gargoyles reminds me of how my own stylization developed despite trying my hardest as a 12 year old weeb to emulate a proper anime style

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what sometimes i'll have music going while sketching or doing very loose drawings, but when im doing details i either get too engrossed in what im doing that i forget about the music or i tune it out. i also end up holding my breath and stuff while doing cross hatching/linework lmfao. most recent time i know i had music on was when i looped jaina's battle for dazar'alor music while making these ink portraits. oh my god, TWO YEARS AGO??? jesus i need to draw again hahaha

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines) i created (and contributed to) the @puzzleboxzine of course! i would love to do another one, but blizzard as an institution is quite polarizing these days. depending on how dragonflight turns out maybe i'll get enough interest going for another :) there are many other zines i've supported/backed but not participated in, such as @crossroads-zine or @artistsofazeroth (both Legion zine and What a Long Strange Trip it's Been). i love physical media and supporting artists in my community so it's a win/win for me. hopefully the next time a project comes around i can kick myself in gear enough to contribute

#ask #alexstrasza #tumblr user alexstrasza #ask game

[tonispencerart]

When Art Goes 'Wrong' - part one

I'm sure we've all done it at some point. We get tempted, especially in the age of social media and constant sharing of content, of only talking about and sharing the 'good' stuff or the art we're proud of. It's not 'cool' or whatever to show off the mess and the mistakes... But, with reference to one of my previous posts (the four portraits on wooden slices), it took a LOT to get there. It was definitely a very steep learning curve! Before I settled on the idea of Theatre - and the overall concept of Human Life as Theatre - I was caught between the Burlesque idea and Shakespeare, in part (OK, a lot, but for the 'wrong' reasons) the series 'Will'. If you're actually curious, it is on Amazon Prime (for a price, I should warn you...) but I would strongly recommend approaching with caution. Be prepared to swear a lot. I know it wasn't intended to be accurate but they didn't even try... Anyway... That very thing actually gave me an idea I could sort of run with. It struck me that the creative decisions made were as interesting as they were irritating. Human Life is as much a theatre performance as, well, a theatre performance. The series tells a story of Theatre from the viewpoint of theatre - and not just from a performance perspective, but behind the scenes and the people involved directly and indirectly. I kind of get what they were trying to do, but it just didn't hit the right spots for me. But, I got there in a really weird way. Towards the end of the previous year, the first part of Stranger Things season 4 came out. I was actually in an online meeting that day and I was willing the tutor to stop talking! I watched the whole thing in one sitting and literally didn't move from the sofa the entire time! But it also sparked an idea that I was reminded of months later. I made some notes about the character of Henry Creel/Vecna, specifically, but the idea applied to a few characters, really. The idea was originally about Masks, Pretence, and Trickery. And really, if you think about it, theatre is based on a similar concept. Theatre isn't supposed to be real, though, in my opinion, it should be realistic. But it's a space for storytelling and playing roles. The idea was to paint 'Henry Creel' on one side and the other side was supposed to have a tiny portrait of Vecna (or rather, the point where Henry would begin to lose any remaining humanity). And, in Shakespeare's day, the theatre was a space where you could question and criticise those in power and get away with it! I'll explain more about the Why next time. It is my hope to use it as a way to explain some of my processes when I'm working with ideas and concepts. But, before I got there, I was playing with something else. And it went so very wrong... It was a mess and I was mad as heck at it. The photos below are only part of the process...

The first attempt was using liquid acrylic. In all honesty, I should have guessed before I started, but I didn't. And it went wrong within seconds of starting. The paint sank into the wood instantly. Huge error on my part! So then I tried 'regular' acrylic paint and I made even more mess when I tried to blend it. I said many many bad words! I didn't document the first try with acrylic paint because I was furious with it.

So then when I got home, I studied all of the things on YouTube trying to work out where I went wrong. Turns out, I needed PVA glue and Gesso and Sandpaper. Let me tell you - it blew my mind and changed my life! Cue several days of prepping wooden slices! It took a while to get it how I wanted but it was so worth it. The next hurdle was image transfer. I initially wanted my background to be black so I tried several ways of putting an image onto a black surface. The pencil was an instant fail. The chalk transfer also failed but I quite liked the effect, even though it was utterly useless. I then spent a small fortune on proper transfer sheets. The yellow was the most successful. I quite liked this, too. And I thought I'd cracked it. But when I tried it on the wooden slices (minus the black paint because I changed my mind about how to paint it) it didn't take on the wood. Cue even more sweary words!

#art #fine art #traditional art #theatre #painting #acrylic paint #art disasters #when art goes wrong #stranger things #henry creel #vecna #jamie campbell bower #jamie bower #acting #pretence #trickery

[peachypaddys]

about queerbait... the q word... people please learn about definitions and the different terms pertaining to queer rep bc the shit you guys call 'queerbait' (a VERY negative term) is sometimes actually, good queer representation. i see people calling shows/movies that have casual rep called queerbait and go hold on... WHAT?

you don't want movies/shows where the gay characters' only personality trait is being gay, but you also don't want the characters to come out and then just fucking exist?? like how the fuck is always sunny queerbait when the gay guy has called himself gay multiple times and is canonically in love with another man? how is wwdits queerbait when literally all characters have talked about past gay relationships and there is an ongoing storyline of a man being heavily implied to be in love with another man?

like what we talk about normalised/natural rep is when it's in line w the style of the show/film and it doesn't change much from what the show/film is. it's always sunny never gave any of its characters a proper healthy long term love interest, then why would you assume mac would get one? in fact, as of now, mac IS the only one w a love interest! they didn't change anything FOR a gay mac bc they wouldn't need to do it if he was straight.

a lot of y'all might go like "heavily implied isn't canon" well yeah it is! especially when that's how things in the show/movie work! subtlety is a thing, especially in art. portrait of a lady on fire never explicitly states that the women are lesbians but i guess it's only understood by most ppl because it was released as an 'lgbtq film'. if the story of those women were a side storyline in a show, i bet a 100% that people on this website wouldn't believe it's gay unless someone said OUT LOUD they're gay or they kissed. even though they're literally falling in love with each other from the beginning.

while there are genuine cases of queerbait - which, PLEASE read up on definitions and famous examples - a lot of the times people call stuff where the writers are genuinely trying to represent the community well queerbait which makes them feel they're gonna have to align to just one particular way of representing queer people. queer people aren't a monolith, there are many positive ways to show the community, and making writers subscribe to a certain way of telling the story is reductive.

if a writer wants to do a slow-burn romance, and doesn't wanna reveal ahead of time that it's gonna happen (like they don't do with straight couples) that's NOT queerbait! if a writer wants to imply romance between 2 characters and one or both are canonically, explicitly queer, that's NOT queerbait!

#what we do in the shadows #it's always sunny in philadelphia #iasip #sunny #queerbaiting #i am beyond done w this discourse #y'all learn one word and then run with it till the end of time #lgbt representation #lgbtqia #lgbtq #queer characters #queer

[randomshipperhere]

The Heist That Happened the 30th of October in 2019

This one is more focused since I have proper records of events and I was actually highly active prior, during, and after the release.

I had fun with the title. I also want to say this about the endings. Even the earliest folks took a minimum of 2 hours. 3rd hour was when a lot of the super active fans finished. So if anyone says they took one hour, obvious hyperbole but it’s just a minor annoyance I have.

ISWM Countdown- 1 day.

Let’s start at the beginning or at least... an easily traceable date for this mess.

2019-05-03

Since Damien came out around this time it was put on hold for fandom topics until a later date but fans are already aware of an upcoming project. Said later date was around May 20, 2019 where people began speculating the what ifs and could be of the series. It’s really funny since Mark’s post already told us what happens in the actual Heist when you look back on that picture.

A common joke told at the time is how we were gonna steal the museum itself. Made jokes on how we’re all gonna side with Dark the second we have a chance to switch sides. Even speculations how we might play a bigger role in the Heist by calling out Actor on his bullshit.

Then came the June 24, 2019 stream. Most well known as the one where Mark told us to shame him for locking out Amy and the stream where he wore a yellow shirt. Someone made a good summary post of the events (op deactivated). By openly talking about it and how excited he seemed, it created hype.

Late July, Mark began doing weird things to his channel banner. I just put this one since there is a mention of third Sunday and use of a moment in ADWM.

August not much to comment on outside of the Dark with demonic and religious art depictions n’ stuff. Really want that fan art era to be brought back... My gothic heart needs it. Uhh, yeah and September was focused on The Edge of Sleep but boy, when October hit? We went wild.

Before I go recalling the events leading up to the day. It is necessary that I show you this reblog from  2018-03-01.

Keep that in your head.

October 08: This is probably the first day when things started to turn suspicious. If you’re part of Jack and Mark’s fandom, the spooky month is when we go into overdrive. Like what could October 30 mean...

October 10: Mark uploaded this on his tumblr. And would you look at that. Actor exists in the video. What could the portrait be for? Looking back, I don’t quite remember those exact sound effects being used in the actual youtube original. It may have just been for promotional content and considering there was an activity level spike. I’d say the video do its job.

We do love our speculations. And I want to say this, a lot of predictions were off the mark. In the sense that a lot of us assumed that the Heist itself would take about 2 or 3 videos before going off course, instead of the one it ended up being. That was our mistake. The actual date did only happen for one video because the next options went off the rails. There were other, angstier and bold takes people had as well. Even with the inaccuracies, I still like reading old posts of what we thought could and would happen.

October 12: And look what we have here, a post theorizing that the long awaited white suit. If you can imagine gossip girls at the lunch table that is what talks about the white suit felt like. Also being in both fandoms was a wonderful kind of hell. Content for days! Content for weeks! Upcoming content to last us til the end!

October 13: Of course, Mark won’t allow us to rest and let our attention stray far away from him. So what does he do? Laugh at the size of our beloved ADWM’s flowchart. Mark’s “heh“ is a signature response. Keep that info locked in your brain because we still see him respond the same way.

That 11 word response threw us into chaos which we both revel and thrive in as a community, and make us go to the deepest levels of insanity. I did like the joke about making 69 endings. 

October 14: This day starts the unexpected leak spam.

October 15: The leak’s origins can’t be traced and left a lot of us confused and/or enjoying the show.

I find this one to be the most cursed of all the no context leaks. This one also got spammed but I’m not sure if anyone has a screenshot of that. Oasis of galaxies made an incredible post summarizing the shitstorm that brewed on this day.

Over on youtube, another teaser for the Heist which we know comes from the Dark Tunnel section.

October 16: After what happened the previous day, this one was rather chill. Just a few edits here and there about October 30.

October 17: We can’t have peace for long because there’s only two weeks left before the release. So time to spice shit up. What is hilarious about that poll is Mark made us believe that he was going to betray the viewer and we were all on board. Because Mark/Actor has been a bitch but then you look at the videos we have after release. Mark never betrays you, he has wanted to split up a couple of routes but Mark was an incredibly loyal, maybe dumb, but reliable enough partner throughout the Heist. And you see that bit shine in the route to Ending #6 The End. This was a red herring.

More teasers.

October 18: We’re getting overwhelmed and high strung not knowing when this man would strike next.

Ehehe... that link uhh... may have happened to me when ISWM released which led me to doing all of this.

October 19: More pain and suffering continues for the multifandom fans.

October 21: The man spoiled us Illinois before telling or even showing him.

October 22: Mark will not allow us a moment of respite if he can help it.

October 23: The trailer is officially released and people could check the keywords of the youtube video and learn which youtubers were going to be part of it. Abe stans on their way to jail.

If you were active enough, you would’ve known that on this day, the number of videos and endings were leaked in an article.

October 24: Six days left. Have you theorized enough. Have you prepared yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally for this? Without knowing the length of the entire show but equipped with the knowledge of the endings.

This is single handedly the most important spoiler filled teaser that Mark gave to us. It’s a compilation of the whistling clips. Without the knowledge of it being a music number or coming from a new ego, there were theories of it being either Heist/Actor or even Dark’s voice. With the info we have now, it’s safe to assume that the clips the whistling were taken from is the path you took to get out of prison with Yancy. That was a popular speculation.

October 25: The fucker just won’t leave us alone. Even on youtube he was terrorizing the fans.

The most wholesome thing to come out of the chaos he created is when he announced that the crew would be watching the premiere.

October 26: Forgot to mention but even though it was stated in an article, there was a bit of division amongst the fans until Mark himself confirmed that there are indeed 31 endings.

October 27: One of the excitable fans decided to try a little something out. This led to an early discovery of the site: https://www.aheistwithmarkiplier.com/

Surprise surprise. You can figure out what the fandom talked about that day.

Actually, it wasn’t that talked about because Mark did a diversion by creating RABID MARKIPLIER. And THAT flooded the tag. His diversion tactic worked.

Soon after, the website was locked and when you tried to access it, it would say “Private site”. Looks like someone poked their nose into some top secret stuff. Also for the dumb and/or lazy here is the password.

October 29: Dad Mark is back from the grocery store and won’t accept compliments.

October 30: THE Day. A lovely day to rob a museum. Now we better take good care of our sweet little tuckus before heading off to the Heist.

Here are some of my favorite within the first 24 hour posts:

Very subtle Mark. Veeery subtle. This was a neat visual trick that I kept in my memory bank. And this one and that one were just us never being satisfied. We were high on the adrenaline and serotonin that we just wanted a much harder puzzle. Still those bloopers are incredible.

.

Aftermath...

October 31: The day right after. We made him speechless. Maybe you shouldn’t have challenged your fans. It was an incredible experience for sure and seeing how happy he is about the success of the project makes us as a community happy as well.

Oh-! and you know how earlier I told you to keep a certain info in your head?

Truly a King of fan service

The fan reception was overwhelmingly positive. Yancy and Illinois became quick favorites. Wilford and Dark’s outfits made everyone scream. Ending 6 has an incredible storyline. Theorists were staying up overnight. The musical got us dancing. It was an entertaining experience. Watching Heist gave the same reactions one would get when they got out of the cinema after watching an amazing film but it was done in the comfort of one’s home.

Here are some of the fan interactions and other related things he did after.

Just Mark and the fans being proud about everything: x | x | x | x 

AHWM Explanation stream stuff: x | x | x | x | x The first two are the summaries. And here are the bloopers and BTS before they were public.

Amy is the best! x | x | x | x | x |

Fandom’s week in review: We were on the list twice!

A fan compiled the entire show and it’s great. Really interesting.

.

.

Personal experience:

Tried to be as objective as much as possible above. Now I can talk about my ideas and experiences about the Heist. The bullshit that came before, during, and after.

To start off, I am incredibly lucky to have met someone in my life that also likes Mark at this point in time. I could actually share this excitement and hype with someone. We talked a lot about fandom stuff. Specifically Mark and Jack since it is October and they were up to bullshit. A lot of what we talked about is lost in time because they were 1 to 1 conversations but I have a significant amount of stuff that we talked over on messenger.

I was always in the know and frequently updated them. They were super excited when they heard that the Game Grumps were gonna be a part of the project. I told them about the site, they managed to access it but when I had the time to get to it, the site was already in private. They were the one who told me about Mark kinda challenged us on how fast we can finish the youtube original. Sent each other memes, so on, and so forth.

As we’re fangirling we still have lives to live and the release date of Heist just so happened to be the day of an event we had to go to as well. We talked about how we’d just be dying in a corner talking about the show.

And the anticipation of what bullshit Mark is going to do next, what will he make the members do, what things did the fandom talk about that will come true. All of that pent up energy just made me feel like a bouncy person and I am not much for overwhelming feelings. Not good at all with handling emotions. Kind of why my ships and favorite egos post is a mess despite my best efforts.

As a fan, living through October 14-15 was a nightmare. Living through October 27 felt like I was being gaslighted into thinking it never happened and rabies mark is the only thing that matters. And oh my god the fanfic ideas were on fire that month.

.

So what about the day itself? Well. I had my laptop set up, got myself cozy and made sure there weren’t any distractions. Had a tab open to live chat my friend and rewatched WKM, ADWM, and the AHWM trailer before it went live. 3 minutes before it went live, I was watching ADWM, HORROR. 2 minutes, switched to the AHWM trailer. Before it released, I even told (lowkey bet) my friend I’d get Dark’s ending on the first try because “I trained myself for this”.

From the first option it was obvious which one led to which kind of ending. Sneaky like was more lowkey, it went somewhere dark, it was a logical choice! Did not hesitate to jump in there. Split up options were very obvious death ends so I just didn’t split up with Mark. Had a laugh from our sheer will to stay with Mark. I screamed about the suit being similar to ADWM.

Also trust you me, I almost didn’t get Dark’s ending because a. the thumbnail for don’t split up was incredibly click worthy and b. I once again almost misunderstood the assignment.

I had to reason with myself that “We have to split up because I don’t want the tunnel to fall since it said only 1 person at a time” and “Split Up is 4 minutes long... If it’s a death end then so be it”. That was my thought process. I knew Dark’s ending was in the general path I was on but I didn’t know if this was it. I took a risk.

Then my surprise is shown in this video. The hallway, I was just freaking out. So happy about my decisions and even though I didn’t capture it in recording, I fucking flipped and had to pause while fangirl screaming the very second you see Dark in full view with the white suit. The white fucking suit. Instead of letting it play out and then going back to it later, I just paused every other second so I can appreciate everything. The fit, the editing, his dialogue, the auras. Those glitches. Shit.

I didn’t get through the entirety of Ending 31 in 4 minutes. In the middle I just fangirled so much that I threw myself to the floor and curled into a ball while being a blushing mess. There may not be anymore videos but I have the photo and it’s was definitely the “Maybe you just missed my pretty face” that got me.

This gif is how I fangirled in my head. In reality I screamed for like 2 seconds, lied down on the floor in the comfort of my blanket and went “OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODHESSOHOTFUCKWHYISHECALLINGUSOUTMARKIHATEYOUBUTFUCKWHYDYOUMAKEDARKSODAMNHOT” inside my head. With a couple of audible excited squeaks coming out. I was down BAD.

After that I sat up and asked my friend if they were alright with a bit of spoilers and said I got Dark’s ending. Went on to finish the route, read through the early comments section and it was just the Dark fans being super happy, a couple of confused first timers, and theorists that were glad this was their first ending because of the hint. My friend meanwhile got the Fresh Meat ending.

I had to calm down after that. Recover from the fangirl mess I became and opened up a document to begin listing down the codes to start the hunt. Told my friend I’d send them the code once I was done. They did a few more routes before getting tired but I just stayed up all day to finish it. I was super dedicated to this god dang it.

Finished the Dark Tunnel, went to light tunnel. Got super excited about Cranbersher’s animation. Was very much stranger danger when Captain Magnum showed up. Laughed at how stupid his endings are. Met Matpat and was very confused the entire time. After clearing All Sneaky Like, went to check on tumblr a bit but not so much that I’d see heavy spoilers. I just saw Yancy but nothing else.

Did the Helicopter route. Became awestruck with the musical. Got super confused if that was still our Mark or a new character and realized it is a new character in the next video. Fell in love with Yancy. Then I decided fuck that shit, I’m going to the car option. Met Illinois first and said Indiana Jones rip off. Ended up liking this flirty son of a gun. Went on to fall in love with Heist Mark in the other option because holy shit is this motherfucker sincere in this route. When he defended you from the Professor, ah, my heart. Had to take another rest because boy was I getting sleepy but my fandom pride won’t let me so I pushed forth and did the rest.

If my first ending was Dark’s, my last ending’s was Wilford. Kinda poetic. And even though I’m tired as shit I opened up tumblr and read through what people thought. Went through my heist codes and looked at the things I missed or maybe mistyped something as an upper case when it’s supposed to be lower case and voila! Got to open the secrets of the website and rested peacefully.

It was an incredibly exhilarating journey and I have never felt so much more satisfied with my day. I woke up with a pep in my step, happily scrolling and even talking about it with my friend later that day. How we felt, what we liked, what we hope for the future of these characters.

Like everyone else Yancy just managed to worm his way into my heart. The tag was just filled to the brim with new egos. I read up on quickly made theories. Read through posts about the show. I was just incredibly happy the next few weeks. It had such an impact and it’s not an experience you can recreate so easily. 10/10 I loved every moment of this mess. P.S eat shit Mark for clowning on us Dark and Yancy fans.

.

.

And you’ve finally reached the end! With under 24 hours left before ISWM’s release I hope you guys are ready because I can’t wait to feel that rush all over again. Even thinking about it is getting me pumped up!

Last time I went cozy but this time I prepared a fit for the event. Hell, I prepared it 3 weeks in advance. If we’re going to space, I gotta look good and I just treated this like a formal event. Hehe. 

#ISWM countdown #iswm #in space with markiplier #markiplier #ahwm #a heist with markiplier #text post

[hella1975]

hella!! important (not really) question: what's your favourite scene that you've written for taob so far? like,, of the published ones

(capt-snoozles)

ohhhhhhh this is actually such a cool question do u mind if i give you like a top 5? this isn't me going 'well they're all just so good how could i possibly choose' it's just bc i'm taking this as what my favourite scene is GENERALLY and not in regards to the writing, and as it is bc taob is such a personal story for me a lot of the scenes have been really impactful and cathartic to write, and also i have scenes that mean a lot to me bc of what they meant to OTHER PEOPLE and just bc of the general reaction they got, so this is just all of that lol (i feel like none of that made sense. im half-awake rn allow it)

okay in no particular order we have;

the aurora scene in ch8 (b1). this scene is the first proper time i let my own personal writing style go a bit feral in taob. up until that point, i'd been too nervous and had actually been trying to mimic the way muffinlance wrote, bc i thought that was what people would want. but i knew this scene was incredibly emotional and my writing style works better with stuff like that, so i let myself write it how i wanted to write it, and the response that scene got and still gets to this day is insane

sokka seeing zuko's scars in ch26 (b2). this is quite simply an occasion where i was really proud of my own writing, which is actually really rare for me bc im so so fucking critical of myself (but im trying to get better at Not Doing That so who knows). i'd been planning the metaphors and fleshing out this scene for weeks beforehand and it was just one of those writing moments where you're like 'omg! here it is! that scene i've been excited for!'

zuko naming his feelings as rage in ch28 (b2). this was so so so important for me personally. zuko had all these feelings and there was that recurring metaphor of the eagle-hawk and it had gone on for 18 chapters by that point, and we finally got to see him accept that it was anger that he was feeling. it was very much a 'name the monster' moment and it probably shouldn't have been as cathartic for me as it was, but i just think there's something so important in finally accepting that, regardless of how ugly it is, regardless of how much you don't want to be, you are angry

the zuko alone chapters 29/30 (b2). OKAY I KNOW THESE AREN'T SCENES AND ARE IN FACT ENTIRE CHAPTERS BUT THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT THESE THAT I KEEP COMING BACK TO AND I DONT KNOW WHY. there are a lot of moments in these chapters that stick out to me. my favourite bit of imagery in the entirety of taob (and one that was very much on purpose and is very much going to be mentioned again) is the scene in ch29 where zuko is staring up at sozin's portrait. And then there's also all the conversations had between zuko and azula in these chapters, and them holding blue fire on the beach, and zuko trashing his room etc. i literally couldn't tell you why these all hit me so hard but chapters 29 and 30 are probably the chapters i've reread the most out of the entirety of taob

the fever dream sequences in ch33 (b2), particularly the stage one. i'd known ever since the beginning of taob that i wanted to go ham with the writing here, but it also happened that ch33 fell over a time where i was really self-conscious about my writing. i thought taob had become really average lately and that i was losing the spark that attracted so many people to my work in the first place, and i was actually in quite a bitter mindset, to the point that reading other people's fics filled me with this really ugly jealousy. i'd like to say that ch33 was me healing from that, proving to myself that i could still write good things, but it was actually quite a petty 'fuck you look what i can do' that i wrote almost in a fit of anger. but the end result was the same, and every time i feel self-conscious, i remember that ch33 was not that long ago and i managed to churn out that shit while doing my economics exams, so i can't be that awful

#sometimes i think my insecurity in my own writing is getting better and then i get asked something like this #and i realise just how prominent it still is #:// #anyway this was actually a really fun question tysm! i love things like this #also if you're someone who has ever sent something either here or on ao3 about scenes you like or something #then you're honestly iconic and a legend and the moment #bc shit like that really helps me figure out where you guys are at with taob and how you're finding it #i actually never know what you guys are thinking and unless you explicitly tell me i WILL assume the worst #skgjhjdkg sorry <3 #OH and also back to the ask for a sec i like how you asked for scenes out of those already published #bc i genuinely think most of my favourite scenes of taob are actually ones that haven't been written yet #like there's so many in future chapters that im absolutely dying to write and for you guys to see #ask #taob asks

[year2000electronics]

Tumblr's being weird and won't let me find the Dark Moon rewrite post. I think there was one where you explained the story behind it, at least?

I JUST HAVENT MADE A FULL POST ON IT IM SORRYYYY but i can do bullet points of what’s going down

- so basically this kinda comes from a place of me like. liking dark moon but wishing it had more Characters. so it started with making boss ghosts and then kinda escalated

- so the plot is luigi is looking for e gadd after he went missing in a place near the mansion called evershade valley, unfortunately along the way we see a flash of lightning, a scream, and then cut to darkness

- it fades back in and it’s revealed that luigi is now... a GHOST!! oh no! (this would be the main ‘gimmick’ of the game like how mansion 3 had gooigi as a big selling point)

- he realizes he’s in a lab and he’s been captured by a ghost researcher named professor evershade who said his ghostly dna seemed different somehow so he wanted to see more

- luigi explains the situation and asks if he can help him contact e gadd but all lines to him are dead- evershade theorizes that he must have been taken by the same spectre that turned luigi into a ghost, and luigi immediately goes ‘KING BOO....’ bc who else does he have beef with.

- evershade suggests that if they defeat the four rulers of the nearby mansions they can assemble the dark moon, an artifact that will make sure no ghost will be able to cause their own mischief again

- luigi agrees, and in the meantime evershade says he can try to work on a way to see if he can change luigi back from a ghost

- he uses the same teleportation device e gadd does in dark moon to get luigi in and out of evershades lab, and luigi usually winds up in the small garden which leads to the four mansions

- (meta talk here- the multiple mansion exploring and evershades appearance are meant to kinda trick the player into thinking that it’s a ‘different character same purpose’ scenario, like how both goombario and goombella are tattling goombas)

- (you also get access to regular luigi after clearing one or two rooms in the first mansion- this serves as a bit of a tutorial segment for ghost luigis abilities and how youll be able to switch between ghost luigi and regular luigi to accomplish different tasks)

- ghost luigi probably has the power of a portrait ghost himself, so would have abilities such as the ability to scare other ghosts into fleeing a room or scaring them into doing stuff for him (which would serve as both a puzzle solution and a short-term solution for any segments where you may be stuck as ghost luigi), there are also other abilities like passing through walls (but most new rooms will be VERY dark so it would be hard to suss out details), spectral wind, etc. regular luigi is the one able to catch ghosts though, and regular and ghost forms will often interact in puzzles like a slightly less co-op based luigi and gooigi system

- the first mansion, gloomy manor, is a pretty standard mansion, it’s very old and filled w cobwebs. the boss is a spider-themed ghost, madame moufette. she says the mansions been lost to time and now only the spiders and ghosts live there

- the second mansion, haunted towers, is... actually only a one floor lobby. it’s only when you take the elevator that you realize the entire building is underground and it leads you to a literal icy bunker where an arctic ghost, macready, has spent ages under the bunker and is convinced that a light wielding beast is hunting him down

- the third mansion, treacherous mansion, is a house of illusion, led by a chess-playing ghost named rook. there are stuff like portals, tv static, living suits of armour, the like. rook’s message to luigi is that not everything is as it seems in evershade valley

- luigi comes back from treacherous mansion and gives evershade the third piece of the dark moon, which is when evershade reveals he had the fourth piece of the dark moon all along- and. here’s where things get fucky wucky i’m so sorry

- evershade lifts his goggles and takes off his hat and reveals that HE’S luigi from the future. after the events of mansion 1, luigi eventually decided to become an apprentice to e gadd and became a full time ghost researcher. things don’t seem so different at first but unfortunately e gadd game-overs and so luigi is left all on his own. which is a bummer. with his mentor gone luigi throws himself into his work, neglecting going on adventures with mario to a point that he just stops getting invited... (took mario a VERY long time to stop asking though. make no mistake) over time he becomes a bit of a recluse and his curious and observant nature kinda becomes a hunger for knowledge... he wants to know just what the strange and unusual is and what makes it tick. he also starts using professor evershade as a pen name bc ‘dr mario’ gets people asking about his research for the wrong reasons. though not only does he become more curious but he gets very very bored. ghosts are just poltergeists, tricksters... they’re nothing without a leader. luigi tries to bring back king boo, he invents all sorts of things to try- but the one thing the professor did that he didn’t was invent that damn portrait machine (which has rusted and broken with time- it’s been like, 20-25 years at this point).

- basically, what starts out as ‘i need to bring king boo back so i can have a proper rogues gallery of ghosts to study’ turns into ‘i need to bring king boo back but why would i even defeat him? this is great for paranormal studies’ so yeah. now evershade would like to see the ghost world at its fullest power

- he time travelled back to the past to try and convince e gadd to free king boo (yes he made a time machine hashtag smart) but e gadd fights back, destroying the portrait machine he built. evershade is Angry about this and decides if he won’t help him... perhaps someone else will. his ‘time machine’ is actually a large building that affects all of evershade valley, so it, how it was 20 years into the future, was brought into the past. his backup plan was to trap luigi in evershade valley by turning him into a ghost and making him collect the dark moon shards that he had always wanted but couldn’t get (his ghost researching skills are fine but his ghost hunting skills are out of shape. he could have done that in the first place but he kinda wanted to see his old mentor again.)

- the dark moon itself is an artifact split into four parts bc its effect on ghosts is too much to stand, even for ghosts- it’d give whoever owns it absolute power over the paranormal world and its residents, so the four mansion ghosts have taken it upon themselves to protect them (evershades original plan also involved teaming up with king boo to defeat the ghosts and take the dark moon for themselves)

- (actually, the fourth mansion ghost is polterpup! the dark moon piece WAS in his collar but a certain evershade stole it after the doggy lets his guard down around luigi

- evershade, using the dark moons power, casts a blacklight into king boos painting and finally frees him, offering him ultimate power and ruling over ghosts if they work together as a team. king boo finds this hashtag funny so he’s like ok

- then, luigi gets teleported out of the lab before he can try and stop them. polterpup points him towards where evershades lab has been all along- the fourth and final mansion, old clockworks

- in there luigi finds e gadd being held hostage, where he reveals evershade was trying to threaten him into freeing king boo

- as ghost luigi you also experience side effects of the dark moon in this final dungeon, like controller inputs not working or luigi needing to stop and wrestle off a headache

- so yea... final boss is basically king boo fighting you and evershade cheering him on and you need to counter king boos attacks so that they hit the dark moon and destroy it

- luigi sucks up king boo.... LOL

- evershade is defeated and he doesn’t even have an evil monologue he just kinda stares at luigi unimpressed like ‘really? this is the route you’re taking’ and luigi silently just kinda grabs onto e gadd and whatever toads are in this game. and neither of them say anything

- somewhere in old clockworks a clock goes off, and all the rest of them do too (the one time you hear every clock in sync). fade to white and e gadd and luigi wake up in an empty field where a construction worker asks if they’re ok. pan out to reveal evershade is gone and there’s apparently a construction crew hoping to build four brand new buildings here in this valley

UM THATS IT LOL.... it’s rly overcomplicated i know. i’m sorry.

#mothra answers #yea it’s like 2am so the explanation still sucks but basically it’s like. #everything IS on evershades grocery list. he just wasn’t expecting that order #like his thought was get king boo then team up to get dark moon #but dark moon then king boo is ok too. #long post

[candicewright]

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thank you so much for tagging me @highwarlockkareena 💜

I'm tagging:

@zazrichor and this piece

@mushroomtale-fanart and this piece

@snowyfuxue and this set

@wuxxxian and this piece

@satuwilhelmiina and this piece

Of course, feel free to not do this if you don't feel like it, absolutely no pressure 💜

I'll be talking about my process for this art of Wen Qing.

Fair warning that this is going to be a bit of a mess because my process is all over the place, but I'll try my best to explain without it being too confusing.

Planning

Since this was a request, I started by reading the prompt, which asked for Wen Qing and roses. Roses are my one of my favorite flowers so I claimed the prompt and started thinking about what I was going to do with it.

I knew I wanted to do a portrait with roses surrounding Wen Qing, but I still wasn't sure about what the composition was going to be, so I started looking for references to see what would work and to get some ideas.

I started looking for photos of Meng Ziyi that I liked and at first I really liked this one.

She looks great, but when I tried sketching it I couldn't really get the angle of the face right, so I tried to look for a different picture that was within my skill level. Luckily, I remembered seeing a very pretty pucture the day before so I looked for it and this one was the one I ended up going with.

After that, I downloaded some free to use pictures of roses. I really liked the contrast and the color scheme in the pictures so I though I could apply it to the painting itself and so I began getting a clearer idea of what I wanted to do.

Creation

I opened my art program (IbisPaint X) and did a sketch of what I wanted using my references. My sketches are always super messy and I can't be bothered to do lineart, so I usually just clean them up a little bit and work over them directly. I should actually learn how to do proper lineart at some point, but today is not that day 😂

Then, I chose my base colors and filled in the drawing to get an idea of where I was going with the piece. I really likeed how it looked like this so I sent it to my friends for validation. They were extremely lovely to me as always so I was excited to continue working on it 💜

Before rendering, I knew I wanted my light source to be on the right and I wanted the shadows to be quite dark, almost black, but that's the extent of what I knew before going into it.

And then I started actually painting! Unfortunately tumblr won't let me post the process video into this post so I'm going to upload it on twitter. You can see it here! I don't really know how to describe how I paint other than there's a lot of going back and forth and over stuff that I already thought was finished. The whole thing took around 12 hours, which is a bit longer than I usually spend on a portrait but I think it was worth it!

For the main piece I only used three brushes. I did add a bit of glow and sparkles with different brushes on a separate program, but I mostly used these three:

Note that these are at full opacity but I usually work a very low opacity because my stylus doesn't have pressure sensitivity (bc my equipment sucks) and that's the only way I have to blend my colors without the blending tool, which I don't really like because it takes away the texture.

I also had a bit of trouble with the colors in this one because it's not what I usually do, but after multiple adjustments and with help from the references, I ended up with something I really liked!

After the piece was done, I added some of my usual sparkles and a bit of glow and then saved it to my gallery. Then, I opened my editing software and played with the contrast, saturation, brightness and some filters. I was left with three versions of the art that I liked: the one I eventually went with and these two (I still really like the first one tbh).

I sent it to my friends so that they could help me pick which one looked better and after a long period of very serious deliberation (read: we all panicked bc we're gay and can't choose) we ended up going with the one that ended up being posted to the mdzs net!

I then sent it to the net for posting and waited (im)patiently for it to go up! ❤

And that's it! I hope someone can get something put of the mess that is my process or that it was at least enjoyable!!!!!

#showyourprocess #my art