#which just hammered in the surreality of this piece lmao

[artdecosupernova-writing]

OC Kiss Week Day 6: Adventure

WIP: Darkspace Portent series Pairing: Thrive x Warren Timeline: after Aurora CW: none Rating: T Words: 1,706

***

At four-thirty in the morning in his old apartment on the Consortium Node, Warren stirred as the mattress dipped under the weight of someone leaning toward him. He peeled his eyes open and snorted back a ton of mucus, clearing his throat instantly upon remembering that he'd gone to sleep alone, and realizing that Thrive's face was currently inches away from his.

"Oh," Warren muttered, rubbing his eyes. "...G'mornin'?" He then realized Thrive had actually been hovering over him, arms on either side of him, and it was all he could do not to grin broadly through his curtain of grogginess. "Good morning."

Thrive, on the other hand, was smiling. Big and genuine, warm, bordering excited. The expression was close to being unrecognizable on him. "I had a thought."

"Congratulations," Warren said.

"Would you like to join me on an adventure?"

Now, Warren was awake. He assessed Thrive's sparkling eyes and soaked in his radiance for a few moments. "...I would like nothing more."

After a record-speed, multitasking shower and altogether disregarding the start of a beard he'd accumulated over the last few busy and exhausting days, Warren followed Thrive to the tram that would take them to the Centrum.

The car they boarded ensured they were surrounded by grumpy commuters and groups coming down from a full night of partying. Tucked away in the corner—though the other passengers either didn't recognize who they were or didn't care—Warren turned to Thrive and spoke in as low a voice as he could muster over the loud humming of the tram.

"So, explain to me this adventure you have planned that had to be done at the ass-crack of dawn."

Thrive reached up to hold onto the grab rail above Warren's head, which Warren clocked was more of a treat for him as Thrive could maintain his balance atop a rolling log bobbing on a thrashing sea should he be so inclined. "I can't go into detail in such a public location, but I've discovered that one of the only benefits that come with my position of power is the ability to access parts of the Node that most wouldn't see in their lifetimes."

Warren looked up at him, intrigued. "...You're going to break a law, aren't you?"

Thrive fought off a smirk, keeping a vigilant eye on the other passengers.

"Oh...Thrive."

"A certain...human," Thrive murmured carefully, "held in high regard to the majority of Milky Way occupants...owns a fascinating piece of technology not normally enjoyed by fellow inhabitants of this station. I, a curious outsider, would like a first-hand account of such a piece of tech for myself."

Warren practically vibrated with adrenaline. "This is gonna be the best day of my fucking life, isn't it?"

"That altogether depends on how this goes."

An hour later, they disembarked the tram on a Centrum station, one Warren had never been to before. Their IDs were checked at the gate, and once they were let through, Thrive took charge, leading Warren through official-looking corridors and elevators until they reached what appeared to be the entrance of a garage.

Thrive waved at the control panel by the door and it swiveled open for him. He turned to Warren with exhilarating mischief in his eyes. "Still trust me?"

"Never in my life have I ever trusted you as much as I do right now."

"That's saying quite a bit," Thrive chuckled, and they entered the garage together.

The vehicle Thrive made a beeline for was a compact, streamlined aerial car painted pale aqua with an iridescent purple sheen. Warren slowed to a halt in the middle of the spacious garage, jaw hitting the floor as it registered what exactly it was that was going on.

"Wait," he stammered. "Yo, wait, are you—"

"Keep an eye out," Thrive interrupted. He crouched beside the vehicle, running the pads of his fingers over the panel on the door.

Warren whirled around to watch the garage entrance, and something caught his eye in the corner of the ceiling. He glanced around and noticed there were several cameras placed strategically, each with a perfect angle to document their every move. "Look, I'm a ride-or-die bitch, but I can't exactly resign myself to being stupid enough to do this in full view of every security camera in the Centrum."

Thrive peered at the nearest camera. "I wouldn't worry about that," he said, his fingers working precisely against the metal chassis of the car. "By the time they realize we're gone, We'll be halfway across the Node. All the same..."

He lifted a free hand in the direction of the camera, and it popped in a shower of sparks and high-pitched whining. Smoke seeped from every device linked to it, and the LED light powered down in each one.

"Jesus Christ," Warren said under his breath. "Who the hell did I marry...?"

Thrive made a sound of triumph and stood, and both doors of the car lifted open following a cheerful series of musical beeps. He addressed Warren with mirth potent enough to bring back the dead. "You married the tired fool, my love."

Warren hurried to him. "This is DeCosta's car?!"

Upon piling inside, Thrive switched on a few controls on the dashboard, revving up the engine and remotely closing the doors once more. "We're taking this machine on the same joyride for which it's apparent she relishes taking me."

Having never been in an aerial car before, the initial jolt of speed came as a shock to Warren, whose adrenaline peaked with each second they zoomed through the deceptively massive garage. He gripped the panic bar over his head though the last thing he felt was panic, watching various important vehicles zipping by beneath them.

"This is happening," he said, buzzing from head to toe. "I can't believe you're doing this."

Thrive eased the car to a steady crawl as they neared the exit. His hands worked the controls with the expertise of a professional driver. He shrugged one shoulder, watching the door roll upward with due caution. "The rebellious phase is now or never."

"Fuck yeah, baby," Warren laughed. "Now you gotta get a bunch of tattoos and dye your hair bright fucking blue."

Thrive's nose scrunched, and he leaned forward to size up the traffic past the garage door. "...Blue isn't my color."

He punched the gas, so to speak, and they shot onto the sky road, soaring over the walkways and streets by several hundred feet. Despite the other vehicles reaching breakneck speeds, Thrive kept up with them, maneuvering fluidly through and around, until he took the nearest exit leading them into the main channel of the Node.

Warren could only stare in awe at the station's nebula on display through the transparent ceiling. A dust cloud of sapphires and emeralds, an intense glitter helped along by the nearest star casting sunny rays onto them. The main skyway was so open, the ceiling so clear, that it gave off the illusion that they were in space, ascending into the outstretched fingers of the gemstone fog.

"Open the door," Thrive said.

Warren snapped out of his absorption. "Ah. This is an assassination attempt. A little disappointing, but I guess I've had it coming."

Thrive pressed a button to unlock the vehicle. "It's safe, th'saiya."

With great hesitation and a second taken to be at full peace with this being the last thing he ever experienced before he died, Warren released the latch and pushed the door open.

As Thrive predicted, nothing happened. The great drone of thousands of vehicles on the road at once poured into the car, wind whipping through Warren's hair, and suddenly he was alive. He turned his face to the nebula and leaned out, holding tightly to the panic bar.

He basked in space for a moment, holding onto the memory of this with an iron grip. He outstretched his arm, as if he could run his hands through the nebula, and released an elated whoop when he spotted the tell-tale shimmer of one of Thrive's shields enveloping the car and, by extension, him.

"I'm the prince of the universe!" he shouted at the top of his voice.

His euphoria boomeranged back to him through his and Thrive's connection, and he was overcome with emotion, eyes welling as he embraced his life and the magic of being there, of doing something reckless, yet safe, and right, with the person he loved more than he could adequately articulate.

When he was once again secure in the vehicle and the door shut and locked, Thrive reached over to take his hand, and Warren pressed kisses into his knuckles, laid Thrive's palm against his face, heart full and happy. Thrive brushed his thumb across his cheekbone.

—

Thrive drove them to a lush park in the Southern Division, where he landed them in a designated spot out of the way. The second the car powered down, Warren lunged at Thrive, pulling him into an intense, passionate kiss that was prolonged for several minutes. Thrive cupped his face in his hands as they broke apart, and Warren noted with some amusement that when he was otherwise preoccupied Thrive had tinted the windows, which were already fogged up.

"Hey, man," Warren said breathlessly. "We're fucked."

"Likely." Thrive looked out at the park, observing the people for a moment. "I can't imagine the Consortium will take grand theft auto of a delegate's vehicle lightly, and I suppose my being king will only abridge our punishment enough to avoid prison."

"Regretting it?"

"Not at all." Thrive smiled at him. "...Are you?"

"I've had more fun than I think I've had since I was a very small child."

"It doesn't have to end here," Thrive said mysteriously. He nodded in the direction of a pathway curving away from the park around a corner. "Down there is a nuptial hall."

Warren took a deep breath. "You wanna get married again?"

"We've yet to cross the Node from our marriage itinerary, correct?"

"Yeah." Warren nodded. "Okay. Yeah, the kids'll just have to catch the next one."

Thrive laughed as they removed themselves from the car, all but powerwalking to the nuptial hall before Node security could track them down.

#ockiss23 #Darkspace Portent #pair: Sun & Moon #this was inspired by a Mass Effect fic I wrote years ago #and I listened to the last ever song for Darkspace Portent on repeat while writing this #which just hammered in the surreality of this piece lmao

[magpiemalarkey]

Got a couple of questions from the Artist Ask Game I reblogged a bit ago from someone who asked to be anon-ized! (So, if you're shy, that is an option! I'll still know who you are, but the world doesn't have to.)

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by.

I feel like maybe I'm lucky that this hasn't happened in awhile or in ways that bothered me often, haha! But back in college I remember getting pretty salty about this happening once and so that stuck with me. During constructive criticism time, someone's sole comment on my work for one assignment was that it looked Tim Burton-y.

In that it had goth theme matter and some stripes and some lurid colors, sure, I guess? If Burton was your only other exposure to spooky themed art by nerdy goths. In an animation-related class in art school. I think Burton and I shared some inspirational overlaps in a fondness for German Expressionism and 1960's Hammer films, but stylistically, Burton's aesthetic tends to play with odd proportions and distorted forms far more than my work did (or does). If I had been drawing inspiration from Burton and had intended to do a Burton-esque piece, I would have tried to include those traits and not stuck with an approximation of my own style and a late 60s/early 70's palette.

Also, as constructive criticism, this was not helpful. It was clear from the tone that she was dismissive of my piece based on it's "Burton-esque" qualities, but she didn't come out and say anything useful. Did she hate Burton, but begrudgingly agree that Technicolor goth was working for my spooky scene? Did she think this perceived Burton-esque style was holding back my piece? Impossible to tell.

I managed to dig up the file, but given that this was for a class in Illustrator and Flash (neither of which I ever got comfortable or good at using, lmao) and I don't have either of those programs now, it got a little mangled when I asked Photoshop to open it. But I think we can all agree: not particularly Tim Burton-y!

(please don't ever ask me to use Illustrator or Flash again. I will cry. the only part I enjoyed about this project was picking music and sound effects...and jumpscaring my class at 9am in the morning.)

26. What’s a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended.

Hmm...again a benefit of being relatively obscure on the internet means that I rarely get people projecting wildly on my art. And also, if it matters how things are interpreted, I will usually include that in my comments or descriptions below a piece. I'm sure it's happened! But apparently I am less bothered by that than by uselessly-framed dubiously-constructive criticism comparing me to Tim Burton, so I recall nothing right now.

I'll pivot this to writing and tell you about the wildest feedback I ever got.

I took a short story writing class waaaaay back when I was in community college in my hometown. It was very much full of the community. Our big assignment was a short story which the class would read, write comments on, and discuss in class. I wrote a version of the fairy tale "The Fisherman and His Wife" about an aspiring artist with an ambitious wife. Rather than a fish, our protagonist meets a strange being in his dreams and helps this being out, because to the being, the dangers in dreams are real. In thanks, the being grants the artist inspiration and success in the real world. Like in the fairy tale this escalates and things get weirder and weirder in the dreamscape, until the mysterious being gets fed up and punishes the artist and his wife.

After class, one of my classmates, an older woman, approached me, convinced that I did "dreamwork" to have written of lucid dreaming and the weird symbolism of dreams so well. I tried my best to accept this as a compliment. But lady, where ever you are, I was and always have been just a weirdo who loves using dreams as an excuse to go wild with surreal almost-logic and weird descriptions and symbolic landscapes.

I think this was the first time in my life where I was really sharing work with strangers and having strangers come to conclusions about me based on my writing and so it felt and feels bigger than it is.

And while I'm not upset about this conclusion being drawn and can definitely understand that this lady was excited to discover I had written something that resonated so strongly with her passions that she assumed I shared them....it did feel kinda weird and put me in a weird position to have her approach me assuming I did dreamwork rather expressing that it reminded her of dreamwork and asking me if was into such things.

Heh, both of these questions kinda made me think of situations where people made an assumption about me and my work and acted on that, rather than leaving me any space to explain or discuss. Very....

Anyway! That was a lot of words! It turns out, I am very verbose! Feel free to scroll way back to the beginning to find that link to the Artist Ask Game to ask me more questions and see if I can stay on topic!

#magpiemalarkey chatter #artist ask game #ask game #ask response

[littlepurinsesu]

V Watches MagiReco - Episode 6 Review

*Spoilers for Magia Record Anime Episode 6*

I think I’m starting to see a pattern for these episodes that introduce main characters: one slower, “expository” episode with a lot less action that introduces the new character to us, and then a more action-packed episode the week after.

With this in mind, I kind of expected this episode to be calmer and less “exciting” than last week’s, but there was still plenty of cuteness and weirdness that kept me hooked throughout!

First things first: I was overjoyed to see Nanaka’s group animated! To me, they’re probably the most important characters out of that huge batch of 2-3-star girls introduced at the very beginning of the game. And Nanaka was always my favourite out of all those and I still love her a lot even now with the cast expanding and so many more amazing girls getting added. But I’m also a bit cautious about these kinds of cameos; they make perfect sense to game players, but I wonder how anime-only fans would react to suddenly seeing a whole new random group of Magical Girls, especially since this week’s “cameo” was a lot longer and the group actually spoke and used names. In any case, seeing this team animated was still a joy to me, and I’m so glad that they got to be featured in the anime! ^^

That being said, I really did love the way they ended the opening scene with Felicia finally showing her face and screaming one of her most iconic phrases in that aggressive voice and slamming her hammer at the screen as the OP begins. GOSH I LOVED IT. An amazing introduction that really captures Felicia’s character super well!

Another interesting detail I liked was that they didn’t simply ignore Iroha’s Soul Gem becoming clean again and pretend that “it is what it is.” The breakfast conversation between Iroha and Yachiyo shows that Yachiyo definitely knows something about Doppels, but chooses to go along with Iroha’s misunderstanding rather than explain what really happened back there. Ignoring the fact that game players already know, this kind of direction makes one wonder just how much Yachiyo knows at this point and why she refuses to reveal more details to other Magical Girls.

Oh, and I got excited for a second when Yachiyo mentioned that Iroha should be careful if she wanders into the East side of Kamihama. I know it’d be unrealistic for Kanagi to show up or even be brought up so early on, but the Kanagi fangirl in me is impatient for one of the best girls to arrive (≧ω≦)

That place where Iroha drank the water is another example of how the PMMM world blends labyrinths and reality so seamlessly and leaves you wondering where exactly the character is situated. But that place was darn creepy even before the Rumour started talking and the drinking figures showed up, so I applaud Iroha’s courage in being able to walk into a place like that like it’s no big deal xD

But anyway, Felicia is super adorable (๑>ᴗ<๑) Seeing them portrayed in a way other than the game sprites really reminds you of how young and tiny she is (an actual kiddo!), and no matter how loud or boisterous she is, you can still feel the innocence and purity of a child in her, which is really endearing <3 I also love how well her reckless attitude and brash way of speaking contrasts with Iroha’s much more gentle and timid nature xD And while Felicia’s transformation sequence was quite short and simple, I assume she’ll get the “Episode 3 treatment” once all of Team Mikazuki are assembled later on, so I’m not fussed or disappointed about that :)

I don’t remember seeing this week’s Witch in the game, but I do recognise its familiars from all my farming/grinding lmao. In any case, this episode’s Witch fights were also too short and too insignificant for my liking, but I guess they really wanted to show how quick and sharp Felicia is at completely demolishing any Witch that comes her way. I’ve also resorted to believing that this might just be their way of presenting the Witches as being less threatening than the Rumours, so if we get a longer and more interesting battle with this Rumour next week, I could probably let these underwhelming Witch battles slide lol.

Kyoko!!! I was fully anticipating her appearance this week so I wasn’t surprised, but the way they brought her into the story was different from what I was expecting. I was waiting for her to pop up beside Felicia during the water-drinking scene, as she was there with them in the game, but they do show that she, too, drank the water, so I guess they just wanted to go about it a different way, which is fair enough :) I didn’t realise how much I missed seeing Kyoko (the way she eats, the way she speaks, the way she holds herself etc.) until this week T^T She shares a lot of similarities with Felicia in both attitude and way of speech, so it’d be really interesting to see their dynamic once they’re brought together in the next episode!

The montage of Iroha and Felicia experiencing supreme luck was really, really well-done (and super cute!). Having the numbers incorporated into the scene was much more interesting and creative than the flying bits of paper in the game. And I know I’m not the only one who lost it at this:

A+ sneak game advertising right there xDDD

Tsuruno and Felicia’s bantering in the background during their meeting was adorable, and Yachiyo with her hand over Felicia’s mouth is already kind of establishing the mother-child relationship between them xD All these tiny details make me so, so excited to see the team finally together and living at Mikazuki Villa ^^ <3 

And of course, the Wings of Magius finally made an appearance this week!!! The scene was another one of those strange, trippy, surreal kind of moments, but what truly struck me was the way the Feathers are portrayed. In the game, they’re much more like individual girls who just happen to be dressed the same way, thus erasing any notion of individual identity in our eyes. But in the anime? They legit feel like carbon copies of each other--almost like clones. Those short phrases spoken robotically one after another without even a sense of a complete sentence really adds to the impression that they’re all just incomplete pieces of a larger being.

But as much as I love this uneasy and mysterious introduction, I’m also a bit concerned that the Feathers and the Magius they speak of seem almost a bit like a part of the Rumour itself, rather than an actual organisation that functions as the main antagonists of the story. But it’s still very early on and they’ve only just made their first appearance, so hopefully they’ll get a much more informative and clear introduction next week with the Amane Sisters’ first appearance!

And finally, Felicia, that face at the end was possibly terrifying.

#magia record #magireco #puella magi madoka magica #puella magi madoka magica side story #pmmm #fandom #mine #anime #review #magia record review #v watches magireco