#I WAS TOO STUNNED TO SCREENSHOT PROPERLY | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eyrieofsynapses · 4 months

Text

why Aurora's art is genius

It's break for me, and I've been meaning to sit down and read the Aurora webcomic (https://comicaurora.com/, @comicaurora on Tumblr) for quite a bit. So I did that over the last few days.

And… y'know. I can't actually say "I should've read this earlier," because otherwise I would've been up at 2:30-3am when I had responsibilities in the morning and I couldn't have properly enjoyed it, but. Holy shit guys THIS COMIC.

I intended to just do a generalized "hello this is all the things I love about this story," and I wrote a paragraph or two about art style. …and then another. And another. And I realized I needed to actually reference things so I would stop being too vague. I was reading the comic on my tablet or phone, because I wanted to stay curled up in my chair, but I type at a big monitor and so I saw more details… aaaaaand it turned into its own giant-ass post.

SO. Enjoy a few thousand words of me nerding out about this insanely cool art style and how fucking gorgeous this comic is? (There are screenshots, I promise it isn't just a wall of text.) In my defense, I just spent two semesters in graphic design classes focusing on the Adobe Suite, so… I get to be a nerd about pretty things…???

All positive feedback btw! No downers here. <3

---

I cannot emphasize enough how much I love the beautiful, simple stylistic method of drawing characters and figures. It is absolutely stunning and effortless and utterly graceful—it is so hard to capture the sheer beauty and fluidity of the human form in such a fashion. Even a simple outline of a character feels dynamic! It's gorgeous!

Though I do have a love-hate relationship with this, because my artistic side looks at that lovely simplicity, goes "I CAN DO THAT!" and then I sit down and go to the paper and realize that no, in fact, I cannot do that yet, because that simplicity is born of a hell of a lot of practice and understanding of bodies and actually is really hard to do. It's a very developed style that only looks simple because the artist knows what they're doing. The human body is hard to pull off, and this comic does so beautifully and makes it look effortless.

Also: line weight line weight line weight. It's especially important in simplified shapes and figures like this, and hoo boy is it used excellently. It's especially apparent the newer the pages get—I love watching that improvement over time—but with simpler figures and lines, you get nice light lines to emphasize both smaller details, like in the draping of clothing and the curls of hair—which, hello, yes—and thicker lines to emphasize bigger and more important details and silhouettes. It's the sort of thing that's essential to most illustrations, but I wanted to make a note of it because it's so vital to this art style.

THE USE OF LAYER BLENDING MODES OH MY GODS. (...uhhh, apologies to the people who don't know what that means, it's a digital art program thing? This article explains it for beginners.)

Bear with me, I just finished my second Photoshop course, I spent months and months working on projects with this shit so I see the genius use of Screen and/or its siblings (of which there are many—if I say "Screen" here, assume I mean the entire umbrella of Screen blending modes and possibly Overlay) and go nuts, but seriously it's so clever and also fucking gorgeous:

Firstly: the use of screened-on sound effect words over an action? A "CRACK" written over a branch and then put on Screen in glowy green so that it's subtle enough that it doesn't disrupt the visual flow, but still sticks out enough to make itself heard? Little "scritches" that are transparent where they're laid on without outlines to emphasize the sound without disrupting the underlying image? FUCK YES. I haven't seen this done literally anywhere else—granted, I haven't read a massive amount of comics, but I've read enough—and it is so clever and I adore it. Examples:

Secondly: The beautiful lighting effects. The curling leaves, all the magic, the various glowing eyes, the fog, the way it's all so vividly colored but doesn't burn your eyeballs out—a balance that's way harder to achieve than you'd think—and the soft glows around them, eeeee it's so pretty so pretty SO PRETTY. Not sure if some of these are Outer/Inner Glow/Shadow layer effects or if it's entirely hand-drawn, but major kudos either way; I can see the beautiful use of blending modes and I SALUTE YOUR GENIUS.

I keep looking at some of this stuff and go "is that a layer effect or is it done by hand?" Because you can make some similar things with the Satin layer effect in Photoshop (I don't know if other programs have this? I'm gonna have to find out since I won't have access to PS for much longer ;-;) that resembles some of the swirly inner bits on some of the lit effects, but I'm not sure if it is that or not. Or you could mask over textures? There's... many ways to do it.

If done by hand: oh my gods the patience, how. If done with layer effects: really clever work that knows how to stop said effects from looking wonky, because ugh those things get temperamental. If done with a layer of texture that's been masked over: very, very good masking work. No matter the method, pretty shimmers and swirly bits inside the bigger pretty swirls!

Next: The way color contrast is used! I will never be over the glowy green-on-black Primordial Life vibes when Alinua gets dropped into that… unconscious space?? with Life, for example, and the sharp contrast of vines and crack and branches and leaves against pitch black is just visually stunning. The way the roots sink into the ground and the three-dimensional sensation of it is particularly badass here:

Friggin. How does this imply depth like that. HOW. IT'S SO FREAKING COOL.

A huge point here is also color language and use! Everybody has their own particular shade, generally matching their eyes, magic, and personality, and I adore how this is used to make it clear who's talking or who's doing an action. That was especially apparent to me with Dainix and Falst in the caves—their colors are both fairly warm, but quite distinct, and I love how this clarifies who's doing what in panels with a lot of action from both of them. There is a particular bit that stuck out to me, so I dug up the panels (see this page and the following one https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-30/):

(Gods it looks even prettier now that I put it against a plain background. Also, appreciation to Falst for managing a bridal-carry midair, damn.)

The way that their colors MERGE here! And the immense attention to detail in doing so—Dainix is higher up than Falst is in the first panel, so Dainix's orange fades into Falst's orange at the base. The next panel has gold up top and orange on bottom; we can't really tell in that panel where each of them are, but that's carried over to the next panel—

—where we now see that Falst's position is raised above Dainix's due to the way he's carrying him. (Points for continuity!) And, of course, we see the little "huffs" flowing from orange to yellow over their heads (where Dainix's head is higher than Falst's) to merge the sound of their breathing, which is absurdly clever because it emphasizes to the viewer how we hear two sets of huffing overlaying each other, not one. Absolutely brilliant.

(A few other notes of appreciation to that panel: beautiful glows around them, the sparks, the jagged silhouette of the spider legs, the lovely colors that have no right to make the area around a spider corpse that pretty, the excellent texturing on the cave walls plus perspective, the way Falst's movements imply Dainix's hefty weight, the natural posing of the characters, their on-point expressions that convey exactly how fuckin terrifying everything is right now, the slight glows to their eyes, and also they're just handsome boys <3)

Next up: Rain!!!! So well done! It's subtle enough that it never ever disrupts the impact of the focal point, but evident enough you can tell! And more importantly: THE MIST OFF THE CHARACTERS. Rain does this irl, it has that little vapor that comes off you and makes that little misty effect that plays with lighting, it's so cool-looking and here it's used to such pretty effect!

One of the panel captions says something about it blurring out all the injuries on the characters but like THAT AIN'T TOO BIG OF A PROBLEM when it gets across the environmental vibes, and also that'd be how it would look in real life too so like… outside viewer's angle is the same as the characters', mostly? my point is: that's the environment!!! that's the vibes, that's the feel! It gets it across and it does so in the most pretty way possible!

And another thing re: rain, the use of it to establish perspective, particularly in panels like this—

—where we can tell we're looking down at Tynan due to the perspective on the rain and where it's pointing. Excellent. (Also, kudos for looking down and emphasizing how Tynan's losing his advantage—lovely use of visual storytelling.)

Additionally, the misting here:

We see it most heavily in the leftmost panel, where it's quite foggy as you would expect in a rainstorm, especially in an environment with a lot of heat, but it's also lightly powdered on in the following two panels and tends to follow light sources, which makes complete sense given how light bounces off particles in the air.

A major point of strength in these too is a thorough understanding of lighting, like rim lighting, the various hues and shades, and an intricate understanding of how light bounces off surfaces even when they're in shadow (we'll see a faint glow in spots where characters are half in shadow, but that's how it would work in real life, because of how light bounces around).

Bringing some of these points together: the fluidity of the lines in magic, and the way simple glowing lines are used to emphasize motion and the magic itself, is deeply clever. I'm basically pulling at random from panels and there's definitely even better examples, but here's one (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-16-33/):

First panel, listed in numbers because these build on each other:

The tension of the lines in Tess's magic here. This works on a couple levels: first, the way she's holding her fists, as if she's pulling a rope taut.

The way there's one primary line, emphasizing the rope feeling, accompanied by smaller ones.

The additional lines starbursting around her hands, to indicate the energy crackling in her hands and how she's doing a good bit more than just holding it. (That combined with the fists suggests some tension to the magic, too.) Also the variations in brightness, a feature you'll find in actual lightning. :D Additional kudos for how the lightning sparks and breaks off the metal of the sword.

A handful of miscellaneous notes on the second panel:

The reflection of the flames in Erin's typically dark blue eyes (which bears a remarkable resemblance to Dainix, incidentally—almost a thematic sort of parallel given Erin's using the same magic Dainix specializes in?)

The flowing of fabric in the wind and associated variation in the lineart

The way Erin's tattoos interact with the fire he's pulling to his hand

The way the rain overlays some of the fainter areas of fire (attention! to! detail! hell yeah!)

I could go on. I won't because this is a lot of writing already.

Third panel gets paragraphs, not bullets:

Erin's giant-ass "FWOOM" of fire there, and the way the outline of the word is puffy-edged and gradated to feel almost three-dimensional, plus once again using Screen or a variation on it so that the stars show up in the background. All this against that stunning plume of fire, which ripples and sparks so gorgeously, and the ending "om" of the onomatopoeia is emphasized incredibly brightly against that, adding to the punch of it and making the plume feel even brighter.

Also, once again, rain helping establish perspective, especially in how it's very angular in the left side of the panel and then slowly becomes more like a point to the right to indicate it's falling directly down on the viewer. Add in the bright, beautiful glow effects, fainter but no less important black lines beneath them to emphasize the sky and smoke and the like, and the stunningly beautiful lighting and gradated glows surrounding Erin plus the lightning jagging up at him from below, and you get one hell of an impactful panel right there. (And there is definitely more in there I could break down, this is just a lot already.)

And in general: The colors in this? Incredible. The blues and purples and oranges and golds compliment so well, and it's all so rich.

Like, seriously, just throughout the whole comic, the use of gradients, blending modes, color balance and hues, all the things, all the things, it makes for the most beautiful effects and glows and such a rich environment. There's a very distinct style to this comic in its simplified backgrounds (which I recognize are done partly because it's way easier and also backgrounds are so time-consuming dear gods but lemme say this) and vivid, smoothly drawn characters; the simplicity lets them come to the front and gives room for those beautiful, richly saturated focal points, letting the stylized designs of the magic and characters shine. The use of distinct silhouettes is insanely good. Honestly, complex backgrounds might run the risk of making everything too visually busy in this case. It's just, augh, so GORGEOUS.

Another bit, take a look at this page (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-15-28/):

It's not quite as evident here as it is in the next page, but this one does some other fun things so I'm grabbing it. Points:

Once again, using different colors to represent different character actions. The "WHAM" of Kendal hitting the ground is caused by Dainix's force, so it's orange (and kudos for doubling the word over to add a shake effect). But we see blue layered underneath, which could be an environmental choice, but might also be because it's Kendal, whose color is blue.

And speaking off, take a look at the right-most panel on top, where Kendal grabs the spear: his motion is, again, illustrated in bright blue, versus the atmospheric screened-on orange lines that point toward him around the whole panel (I'm sure these have a name, I think they might be more of a manga thing though and the only experience I have in manga is reading a bit of Fullmetal Alchemist). Those lines emphasize the weight of the spear being shoved at him, and their color tells us Dainix is responsible for it.

One of my all-time favorite effects in this comic is the way cracks manifest across Dainix's body to represent when he starts to lose control; it is utterly gorgeous and wonderfully thematic. These are more evident in the page before and after this one, but you get a decent idea here. I love the way they glow softly, the way the fire juuuust flickers through at the start and then becomes more evident over time, and the cracks feel so realistic, like his skin is made of pottery. Additional points for how fire begins to creep into his hair.

A small detail that's generally consistent across the comic, but which I want to make note of here because you can see it pretty well: Kendal's eyes glow about the same as the jewel in his sword, mirroring his connection to said sword and calling back to how the jewel became Vash's eye temporarily and thus was once Kendal's eye. You can always see this connection (though there might be some spots where this also changes in a symbolic manner; I went through it quickly on the first time around, so I'll pay more attention when I inevitably reread this), where Kendal's always got that little shine of blue in his eyes the same as the jewel. It's a beautiful visual parallel that encourages the reader to subconsciously link them together, especially since the lines used to illustrate character movements typically mirror their eye color. It's an extension of Kendal.

Did I mention how ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL the colors in this are?

Also, the mythological/legend-type scenes are illustrated in familiar style often used for that type of story, a simple and heavily symbolic two-dimensional cave-painting-like look. They are absolutely beautiful on many levels, employing simple, lovely gradients, slightly rougher and thicker lineart that is nonetheless smoothly beautiful, and working with clear silhouettes (a major strength of this art style, but also a strength in the comic overall). But in particular, I wanted to call attention to a particular thing (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-12-4/):

The flowing symbolic lineart surrounding each character. This is actually quite consistent across characters—see also Life's typical lines and how they curl:

What's particularly interesting here is how these symbols are often similar, but not the same. Vash's lines are always smooth, clean curls, often playing off each other and echoing one another like ripples in a pond. You'd think they'd look too similar to Life's—but they don't. Life's curl like vines, and they remain connected; where one curve might echo another but exist entirely detached from each other in Vash's, Life's lines still remain wound together, because vines are continuous and don't float around. :P

Tahraim's are less continuous, often breaking up with significantly smaller bits and pieces floating around like—of course—sparks, and come to sharper points. These are also constants: we see the vines repeated over and over in Alinua's dreams of Life, and the echoing ripples of Vash are consistent wherever we encounter him. Kendal's dream of the ghost citizens of the city of Vash in the last few chapters is filled with these rippling, echoing patterns, to beautiful effect (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-14/):

They ripple and spiral, often in long, sinuous curves, with smooth elegance. It reminds me a great deal of images of space and sine waves and the like. This establishes a definite feel to these different characters and their magic. And the thing is, that's not something that had to be done—the colors are good at emphasizing who's who. But it was done, and it adds a whole other dimension to the story. Whenever you're in a deity's domain, you know whose it is no matter the color.

Regarding that shape language, I wanted to make another note, too—Vash is sometimes described as chaotic and doing what he likes, which is interesting to me, because smooth, elegant curves and the color blue aren't generally associated with chaos. So while Vash might behave like that on the surface, I'm guessing he's got a lot more going on underneath; he's probably much more intentional in his actions than you'd think at a glance, and he is certainly quite caring with his city. The other thing is that this suits Kendal perfectly. He's a paragon character; he is kind, virtuous, and self-sacrificing, and often we see him aiming to calm others and keep them safe. Blue is such a good color for him. There is… probably more to this, but I'm not deep enough in yet to say.

And here's the thing: I'm only scratching the surface. There is so much more here I'm not covering (color palettes! outfits! character design! environment! the deities! so much more!) and a lot more I can't cover, because I don't have the experience; this is me as a hobbyist artist who happened to take a couple design classes because I wanted to. The art style to this comic is so clever and creative and beautiful, though, I just had to go off about it. <3

...brownie points for getting all the way down here? Have a cookie.

#aurora comic #aurora webcomic #comicaurora #art analysis #...I hope those are the right tags???#new fandom new tagging practices to learn ig #much thanks for something to read while I try to rest my wrists. carpal tunnel BAD. (ignore that I wrote this I've got braces ok it's fine)#anyway! I HAVE. MANY MORE THOUGHTS. ON THE STORY ITSELF. THIS LOVELY STORY #also a collection of reactions to a chunk of the comic before I hit the point where I was too busy reading to write anything down #idk how to format those tho #...yeet them into one post...???#eh I usually don't go off this much these days but this seems like a smaller tight-knit fandom so... might as well help build it?#and I have a little more time thanks to break so #oh yes also shoutout to my insanely awesome professor for teaching me all the technical stuff from this he is LOVELY #made an incredibly complex program into something comprehensible <3 #synapse talks

740 notes · View notes

sharpedgedfool · 3 months

Note

How do you go about designing the interiors/layout the backgrounds for your comics? They’re very intricate and stunning to look at! Do you make concept art? Use in-game or comic structures?

I’m especially impressed with the look of that Stardust Speedway space bar in TDSO, what was the creative process behind that one?

Hey, thanks! I've been trying to work on backgrounds more recently so thats super nice to here! I'll ramble a little bit and try explaining how I do it (apologies for the long post I'll hide it under a read more!)

Landscapes or outdoorsie areas I usually just freehand, but anything with buildings I use grids and stuff. I love interior design games or anything that lets you decorate so I've plenty practice just setting up scenes from that, but I use references and usually do a floorplan while thumbnailing so I can sort of play set designer. For individual pieces I try to draw from scratch or have really basic room grids set up, since I wont have to draw the same background like 20 times I can spend more time on it.

Heres the concept art I did for my big pirate drawing I did a while back, for this I did all of that background work from scratch. I used a ton of references and then just planned it all out by developing thumbnails and smoothing it out.

For comics though, to keep myself sane I've started using the sims 4 game to like create rooms and I pose them around and screenshot stuff, I usually use stand-in objects then draw over them to match the comic background. For the Stardust space bar I looked up the references from Sonic X as that's where it's from, and basically just re-created the shape of the building to use as a base - the bar was already designed so I'm just figuring out the proportions really.

Heres some pics of my notes and a screenshot I've used for TDSO to show u how I do that too! I do all my planning on paper then just use the sims to re-create what I've drawn in 3d!

The sims 4 base game is free to download so it's def super useful for cheesing it quickly for comics, but if ur looking for more specifics to properly learn perspective I highly recommend Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (I think that's the one I'm thinking of lmao) it has a ton of good comic tips but the perspective section has helped me massively while I've been figuring this all out!

#ask #oriontag #this was so long im sorry but I realised I've never gotten to share these notes before! exciting haha

28 notes · View notes

hiorintruther · 11 months

Text

A comprehensive not-PowerPoint presentation on why I ship hiorin even though they’ve only interacted twice… and that’s being liberal with the word “interact”

(For @zevacheiznekam coz they asked me to 😌)

Do bear in mind that Hiorin as a ship is quite largely based in headcanon. While shippers like myself use canon as a basis to scrape whatever details we can about Hiori and Rin, their (brief) interactions and their personalities, canon material is more of an anchor from which several generally accepted headcanons have sprouted which we all kinda sorta abide by, although different people might have slightly different interpretations. This is just my interpretation. Also, this did sort of start as a crackship for me but then I started actually thinking about it and, uh, I don’t think it’s a crackship anymore when I’ve written nearly 50k words of fanfic for it on my AO3…

For starters, I began shipping Hiorin based on one singular interaction. It also happens to be the only one of two times where they properly talk to each other at all. This interaction (below) comes from the U-20 match, right after Rin has been roundhouse kicked in the face by Shidou. It was a moment that surprised me because despite spending the match getting progressively more and more aggressive to everyone else, Rin here isn’t aggressive towards Hiori. He lets Hiori help him up and they even manage to engage in a very brief but mutual conversation.

Now sure, Hiori is just being nice here and Rin is probably a bit stunned. They haven’t interacted since this moment in the manga and likely won’t again in any real capacity. Still, it was this interaction that got me trying to imagine what it might look like if they could be closer — mostly in the context of Rin actually being able to make a proper friend. He does seem to have a certain level of tolerance for Hiori that he doesn’t for the rest of Blue Lock (which I’ll explain later), plus Hiori is probably the only one patient, kind AND calm enough to be capable of being Rin’s friend without Rin despising it. Other kind characters like Nanase and Bachira are in my opinion too bubbly and talkative in canon for Rin’s more broody personality (although I do love a good sunshine x storm-cloud ship don’t get me wrong). Meanwhile, Hiori is equally as kind but calmer. More quiet. He’s also not got a drive to try and defeat Rin or devour him, which I think Rin would appreciate given he hates people who do try to go against him like Isagi and Shidou.

The only other substantial interaction we have for hiorin comes from the Third Selection tryouts match in which they’re placed on the same team. I’ve already made a post about it so go to that here for the relevant screenshots from the manga. I will copy over the conclusions from the post though. From this match I inferred that:

Hiori can keep up with Rin like it’s a regular day (speaking to Hiori’s adaptability)

This, for Rin, translates to “Hiori is reliable”

Rin can trust Hiori to definitely get the ball to where it needs to be if they cooperate, even though they’ve never played together before (and they didn’t even discuss a plan beforehand but were able to immediately link up without issue — see again Hiori being adaptable)

Rin doesn’t look down on Hiori the way he does with Isagi or Shidou, probably because he doesn’t see Hiori as a threat or insulting

This concludes all of their interactions in the manga. From here, me and other shippers use these small conclusions from canon as well as canon-adjacent information from things like the Egoist Bible Character Book to build a hypothetical situation in which they ARE able to start talking to each other more often and build a bond. Most of the fics about this pairing that take place in the canon universe will deal with overcoming the hurdle of ‘getting them to actually interact’. For us shippers, after that hurdle has been cleared it’s rather smooth sailing to imagine a relationship forming for a lot of reasons.

To begin, the obvious thing to focus on is their similar backstories. More specifically, the emotional responses they have to their backstories and how it could be a source of understanding between them (spoilers for the manga up to chapter 206). The resentment Rin holds towards Sae is incredibly similar to the resentment Hiori holds towards his parents. Both have canonically been shown wanting to hurt/kill their family members due to how these family members treated them, as well as the feelings of false love associated with these family members being a big part of why Rin and Hiori want to hurt them. Rin feels betrayed by Sae because he thinks Sae pretended to love him and care about him in their childhood to further his own ambition only to throw it all away like it was meaningless, meanwhile Hiori feels that his parents don’t actually love him and only want him to be the best because they never could be. This similarity is something that us shippers tend to use as way for Hiori to be able to understand Rin in a way that other characters can’t, as well as a way for Rin to be able to actually articulate his emotions surrounding Sae to someone who is able to understand him to a certain degree and won’t think he’s being “too edgy” or “over-reacting”. We can count in Hiori to not be judgemental of Rin.

Beyond their families though, the two of them just have similar interests and personalities. Rin likes horror games (Egoist Bible) and Hiori is a gamer. They’re both quiet, more reserved and Hiori’s ideal type in a romantic partner is someone who will leave him alone a lot (Blue Lock wiki). They’re ‘no-nonsense’ people who prefer to be blunt and to the point. It might seem a bit superficial but considering they basically never interact, it’s rather a lot to go on.

Overall, the completely made up dynamic that has been created by us shippers after taking all of this information into account goes something like this:

Rin doesn’t find Hiori as annoying or threatening as the rest of Blue Lock because Hiori is adaptable, no-nonsense and doesn’t try to come for Rin’s position as number 1

Hiori has an understanding of Rin’s trauma because he himself experienced something incredibly similar

They get over the ‘start talking’ hurdle and begin to realise that they actually have similar interests and can hold a conversation for longer than 2 seconds

The relationship builds from there, with Hiori being the ‘exception’ in Rin’s life and Rin being a safety where Hiori can talk about his true feelings without having to filter himself or be kind

In terms of other headcanons, these are a couple that I’ve seen floating around:

Neither of them like PDA very much. You might see them holding hands if you’re lucky

They play co-op together a lot, especially co-op horror games

They don’t pry into each other’s business. If one of them wants to talk about something, they will

They have the type of relationship where they’ll sit in silence not talking to each other for 30 minutes, then one nudges the other a bit and suddenly they’re cuddling (only in private, obviously)

They have had many long, depressing trauma-dump sessions with each other

It isn’t a depressing relationship though, mostly because Hiori is a light in Rin’s life and Rin feels like he can be more ‘the old him’ around Hiori (see: Rin’s light novel)

They both like striped clothing (see: Rin’s casual design and Hiori’s onesie, coaster design and child design)

And with that, I have finally finished my overly long, overly indulgent explanation into why I and others ship hiorin. It’s 3am for me rn so I might have missed smth so if any other hiorin shippers out there in the aether wanna drop in with their perspectives and/or stuff I forgot to mention, feel free! As for @zevacheiznekam, I hope this answered your question and you didn’t get too bored half way through 😅

(Also, if you wanna see some hiorin artwork, uh, shameless plug)

Sources used:

Blue Lock manga

Egoist Bible

Blue Lock light novels (we’re actually getting a Hiori one later this year which will hopefully add some fuel to the hcs!)

Nomura’s art

#blue lock #bllk #blue lock manga #hiorin #hiori yo #itoshi rin #blue lock hiori #blue lock rin #blue lock meta #blue lock analysis #I keep feeling like I’ve missed smth #but I’ve tried to keep this explanation as headcanon free as possible #my fanfics have no place here #the dynamic is just one that feels nice #this idea of finding solace in each other despite their mildly fucked up mental states and it isn’t toxic or problematic

115 notes · View notes

aeridanus · 1 year

Text

Anonym hat gefragt:

that map you made is stunning! do you have any tips/programs on how to properly make one? i really love looking at these but i never know how to make them myself

Hello there, happy to help! :)

So if you’re interested in making a map, you have several ways of doing that. Ask yourself some questions first:

What is the purpose of the map? Do you want/need a scientific representation of a region or planet (example: Satellite map of the Earth), or is it a highly stylized storytelling tool (example: Map of Middle Earth)? Something in between? Think about what you want to communicate with your map and decide on its setup. As you asked about the map I uploaded, I’ll talk about my approach to satellite/physical maps :)

My personal approach to those maps is pretty scientific because I like hard worldbuilding with a lot of logical thought behind it. The satellite map from yesterday functions both as a physical map for the setup of the planet, but it’s also a base for other maps. For example, the climate chart I worked out uses the physical map as its foundation.

There are some pitfalls when it comes to map projections because we’re dealing with the problem of unwrapping a 3D globe onto a flat, 2D surface. With the standard maps we’re seeing today, areas closer to the poles get increasingly distorted. Just look at how huge Greenland appears on world maps - in real life, it’s pretty small. This is important to consider and I didn’t catch my own mistake until yesterday. If you want to be 100% sure, the best way to do it is to use a 3D program and paint your map directly onto the globe. Unwrapping the texture later gives you the correct distortions. If this is a concern for you, I’m happy to elaborate more, but I’ll stick to the visual side for now :) It’s all done in Photoshop, nothing else required. Screenshots are in German, but I added explanations.

The start of it all is a rough sketch of land and sea areas. It doesn’t need to be perfect or final at this point, just draw shapes you like. You can also add a bit of thought to it - maybe a landmass broke in several parts not too long ago and you still see the puzzle-piece shapes, but that’s another story entirely :) If it’s just about making a nice-looking map, go with what pleases you.

For surface details, I used satellite images and photobashed them onto my surfaces. I had worked out plate tectonics to have an explanation for the location of mountains and plains, but that’s also another story. If you want a mountain range somewhere just because, then put it there :) Collect aerial images which fit what you have in mind. Leave vegetation out for now, it’s just about highs and lows.

Then, roughly lay them over your landmass. I recommend keeping the landmasses on their own layer, separate from the sea, because you can “clip” the satellite image to the landmass layer by hovering your cursor between the layers and pressing alt:

Do this with plains and mountains (no vegation just yet), mix and match and blend until you get a setup you like. Also take a look at satellite images of coastlines so you can use them as a reference for your own. Give your landmass layer a mask on which you can draw to refine your coastline. To add a mask to your layer, select it and then press the button which has a rectangle with a circle on it. Drawing with black subtracts from your image, drawing with white adds to your image. You don’t destroy your base layer by using masks, and if you want to deactivate or delete that mask, right-click it for its context menu.

So now we landed on something similar to this. If you’re having trouble with coastlines, also search for aerial images and use them as references for your own. Where are flat beaches, rugged coastlines, fjords, islands? You can go with science (example: Fjords are valleys of former glaciers, so they’re unlikely to form in warm climates. Rugged coasts in warm areas probably have a different origin) or just do your thing.

I added the seafloor, basically the borders of continental plates, and a soft edge glow to the continents to simulate shallow water around them.

Now, placing vegetation can be a nightmare or ridiculously easy. For a first pass which you can modify later on by using layer masks again, do the following: Duplicate your landmass layer and switch off the layer style if you have one. Now, go to Image > Corrections > Replace color. Use the picker to select a color you want to replace with green. In my case here, I want to have vegetation closer to the mountains, so I pick a slightly darkened brown from my map.

It’s time for the magic :) Now use the three sliders at the bottom of the window to change the picked color to your target color, green in my example. Ho-lee sheeet! :D Use the tolerance slider at the top to narrow or widen the picker’s range, and just go with what you like.

Now you can play around with your vegetation layer as you wish. Add or substract from your layer and/or overlay it with some color variance. Do a second vegetation layer and pick a different color base, maybe the lighter deserts or the darker mountains. Set a different tolerance and color to it... and that’s basically it! Play around with those methods and have fun making maps! :)

#anon asks #maps #mapmaking #photoshop #tutorial

172 notes · View notes

zeebearx · 6 months

Text

Arya Ahmad

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS I LOVE HER confidence and sTYLEE. we love ourselves a sassy queen 🤩 she took a while to make properly as i kept changing her fits and hair but she turned out STUNNING. and if you havent noticed by now whenever a sims fit looks too basic i just slap fishnets on them lmao

her eye makeup and hair are sooo good. she's definitely one of my favorite sims :> i also changed my screenshot to include whatever tf that stuff at the bottom is called cuz it suits Arya more

#sims 4 #sims request #are open #ts4 simblr #simblr #sims 4 cas #sims 4 screenshots #showusyoursims #new simblr #my faves

2 notes · View notes

tourdion · 1 year

Note

what do you like about leonard cohen? basically all i know about him is that he is (was?) a singer-songwriter who wrote for example famous blue raincoat. had dark eyes. think he was a jew but could be wrong. anyway, what's special about him to you? really wanna hear:)

well well well well... you definitely came to the right spot... or maybe the wrong spot if its too overwhelming to properly describe & it is 2am but well.... first essential key context is there was a time in my life where with absolutely 0 exaggeration at least 90% of the music i was listening to (often actually a lot higher then this) was leonard cohen like my question every day wasnt hmmm who do i want to listen to 🤔 but specifically which leonard cohen albums do i feel like listening to & with every single one of his albums i had some extended phase where i was completely obsessed with it for a while & i do deeply love every single one & listened to 1000 hours of leonard cohen one year... actually i even have a screenshot of one of those timewhizzs websites with a bar chart for that year demonstrating the extent of my insanity ill try to find it.....

so this is just the preface..... also i just realised im literally wearing a leonard cohen t shirt rn 😇

i think i have to say the one thing that i find really special about him is his depth.. sounds like such a generic way to describe poetry and music but i mean it in a lot of ways... first that in every single line has been created with so much intention and contains so much meaning.. one example of this is in the song take this waltz (which may be my favourite song ever) which is a translation & adaption of a lorca poem which includes a line leonard cohen added himself "theres a bar where the boys have stopped talking theyve been sentenced to death by the blues" which refers to a time that lorca met up with hart crane with a mutual friend translating for them who eventually left as they came to a gay bar bc he was straight so they could no longer communicate & eventually lorca was killed by spanish fascists who wore blue uniforms & hart crane killed himself like there is a whole story in just these two lines and multiple meanings within this as well

i remember when i first got extremely intensely insanely obsessed with him after you know only being casually obsessed for a few years it was via this song and i didnt even know the story behind this line yet but actually even then it already was my favourite.. but i remember thinking how there was so much intricacy in each of the worlds in these songs i specifically remember thinking that i wished i could just live in his music for a while (then proceeded to do exactly that for the next year 🤓)

another thing is there have been so many cases with so many of his songs that i have just listened to that one song on repeat for days and unlike so many other people his music never ever gets boring after this and actually just gets better as you gain a deeper understanding

another song that i find really fascinating is obviously famous blue raincoat but the thing that really fascinates me is it is really actually so vague but the story it creates for people is often very vivid or at least obvious seeming... so many articles/reviews/quiz answers/people ive interrogated over the years have had so many insanely different interpretations & while sometimes people maybe less secure in their answers like oh i havent listened that much i might be wrong etc the basic premise of the song is mostly just assumed to be as they think & its the details that are less clear but these "basic premises" are always so different & this is what i love!!!!

lets end with a tale from my childhood... so i was a very out of touch child who hadnt watched shrek or the x factor so the first time i heard hallelujah was in my school choir & to make sure we remembered songs properly we werent allowed to read words to songs and i remember being so stunned by the beauty of the words when the choir teacher read those lines to us...

also realising i havent really touched upon my deepest love for him even at all yet but i was frantically drawing diagrams between his songs and constantly having to add more details because there is always just so much there in all his writing.. so my main obsession is his religious/romantic ambiguity & from his very first novel to his last albums he released in his 80s there are still common themes & its just all so insane

so this is a picture of my diagrams i could find quickly on my phone but its very likely that more couldve been added since......

5 notes · View notes

decaffedthoughts · 2 years

Text

a/n: somebody on discord (not clownracha) provided this vlive screenshot and i proceeded to utterly lose my shit. don't get used to this. minors dni

content: established relationship, vaguely non-idol au?, marks, a little suggestive maybe, gn reader, pet names

Something about the smooth, unmarked was just so appealing to you. Trying but failing not to stare so openly at your boyfriend's neck as he was sitting on the opposite end of the table. Your life only got that much more difficult when he tilted his head from side to side, stretching it from the stiff position he had set it in.

Of course, he also looked up and couldn't possibly avoid the way your eyes were near boring a hole into him with intensity. He tapped his foot against your ankle under the table, and had to try a few times before you noticed. He either didn't know what you were looking at or wanted you to say it and both options were equally likely.

"You looked like you wanted to light me on fire. Did I do something? Was I humming again? Or tapping?"

He was so genuine that you nearly wanted to tear up, wondering how on earth such a sweet guy like him could ever exist.

"No, it's not anything like that. It's just- hm. Agh, it's kinda embarassing." You stumble, trying to get the words out properly.

The way you said it too quietly was a vain attempt to try and get Seungmin to drop it, which you knew he would never do.

"I'm not gonna judge you, you know that. Take your time figuring it out. I just don't wanna misunderstandings or annoyances to pop up, you know." He says.

You know he won't judge you, and that he really wants to know what you think. That doesn't stop the overwhelming urge to bite and mark your boyfriend any less weird to say.

Seungmin sits and watches your face as you fidget and struggle to properly get the words out to him. Eventually, your frustration with yourself catches up and you almost shout the words at him.

"I really just wanna bite and mark your neck!"

It stuns Seungmin into silence for a few seconds and that is more than enough time for your mouth to run again.

"I mean, not now, now. I know you're busy so I didn't want to interrupt. Just, once I started looking I just couldn't stop looking." You ramble.

All the while, a lovestruck little grin is forming on Seungmin's face.

"Baby, sweetheart, my darling. You're allowed to want me, and you're allowed to want to touch me. I'd honestly be more concerned if you didn't want me."

It was an unrealistic insecurity or fear, whatever you would call it, you knew that. But marking your boyfriend in a heated moment was much different than admitting you wanted to do it for no reason at all.

"Besides," Seungmin says, "I think we both need a little break. C'mere."

He pushes his chair back and you try not to jump on him as you make your way over. It seems something has got Seungmin a little impatient as well, because he grabs your wrist and pulls you down into his lap.

You find yourself nose to nose with him in a split second and both of you smile widely at each other. It nearly strains your cheeks with the force when Seungmin moves forward a centimetre and bumps your noses together.

"Hi baby." He croons.

"Hey there. You really good with this? People are gonna ask what the hell happened to you."

"Mm, I don't really care. Anyone who matters will know exactly what happened. So get to painting, mh?"

Well, with such clear permission, even desire from him for it, what else are you to do? You lean down and test with just a little bite to his neck. When he has no reaction other than tilting his head that much further, you get bolder.

Sucking and biting harder at the spot, checking and doing it again until you're satisfied with how dark the spot is. Just a few centimetres down you repeat the process, satisfied with how Seungmin is relaxed and the heavy exhales he lets out when you bite down harder.

Now that you're here, you can't quite help yourself. Instead of stopping when you reach the collar of his shirt, you just push it aside and leave more marks. Lighter ones this time as you're already quite satisfied with the line down Seungmin's neck.

When you're done with those you pull back and nearly laugh with how pleased you are. There's no mistaking what the marks are, and a fair amount of them look like they'll be around for weeks. It wasn't some sort of posessiveness that inspired you to do this, but imagining the way people will back off when they see your work is gratifying even in fantasy.

You hum and trace your fingers over where your mouth was moment before. It's likely that you're staring with the same intensity as you did with Seungmin's clear skin, maybe even more. Now, you just want to have this image permanently in your mind, because it seemed nearly impossible that Seungmin could get more attractive but this has done it to you.

The way he tilts his head back is a good sign that Seungmin got something out of this, before he's even seen the result. You grab your phone off the table and flip the camera to let him look. His eyes widen when he catches just how dark some of them are, but before you can panic, he turns and leaves a kiss on your cheek.

"I love it. Maybe I mark you next time?" He jabs playfully.

You laugh and shove lightly at his shoulder. Honestly, you're both laughing but you absolutely want him to do that. Maybe that's what your next break of the night will consist of.

#i wanna tag fluff but i'm scared of attracting minors with it #meh this is just for me anyways because i needed to get this out or i would utterly fucking lose it #maybe i would have imploded if it got too stron #who knows

0 notes

viktormaru · 3 years

Text

A little journal on my Mollymauk Darkest Dungeon Class mod

cause I like procrastinating and remembered read mores and multiple images upload are a thing on tumblr.

So here’s what I’m working on so far!

Scary pic of placeholder mollymauk to begin

Thats one thing I gotta work on: getting spine. But it’s an issue for later so I’m not too concerned atm.

(NOTE: All the names on the screenshot are the Jester’s skills because I don’t want to rename the skills until I have spine, else I break the game for calling for effects and animations that don’t exist by accident)

For his skills so far I have:

UNNAMED SLASH

I haven’t named it yet.

This one is super basic, its almost the GR’s basic melee. Need to flavor it up maybe but it’s supposed to be a basic slash. I think

CRIMSON RITE

This would be that thing Molly does where he buffs his swords by slashing himself.

The idea would be to make this skill a toggle thing, like the Abom’s transform, where:

> swords on: -15% max health / +X% damage / +% bleed resist?

> swords off: Regen max health / heal? / -speed (?) debuff

But it’s broken at the moment and I’m looking into making it work

PURGE

Placeholder name. A suggestion I got was “mindbreak”

Spoilers for the newest arc, but basically this would be that one Lucien thing he does where he grabs someone by the neck and makes them bleed from everywhere.

I want it to be a devastating damage skill, like the jester’s finale, but with drawbacks. I’m trying to figure out how to scale the damage on it properly so you have to build up for it.

One of my ideas was to scale the damage based on the performer’s missing health, but I have yet to figure out how to make it work.

Also you have a chance to stress yourself and your party! Cause its a scary move.

I’m gonna need a lot of balancing here LMAO

EXIT THE SCENE

likely placeholder name.

It’s also broken in the sense you gain 20 dodge for 3 battles LMAO

It’s a skill to make some breathing room, though I need to tweak so it isn’t dumb op. it does stun 2 targets so... Might remove the damage on it altogether. Very likely.

CARVE

Also placeholder name

It’s a melee basic attack with bleed on it. I don’t really like it too much tbh. Kinda simple. Maybe I should make it work on position 3 as well and keep it as a safe skill for ppl who aren’t feeling like playing too bold. IDK... gotta think abt it.

CURSE OF THE EYLESS

This is the thing molly does as a reaction that gives ppl disadvantage on attacks by making their eyes bleed.

I think this one is great, just need some number tweaks and maybe change the debuffs.

You have a chance to make the target bleed, you have a chance to make yourself bleed.

It is actually an offenssive skill instead of a debuff and I think its fun.

DANCE WITH ME

Needs a little HMPF to it. You walk fowrdas and tag so you can buff the PURGE damage, so it’s supposed to synergize. But it also feels kinda... useless?? When it only marks. Also need to do something with it.

Now as for camping skills

FORTUNE TELLER

You read someone’s fortune! It can be a good fortune! Or a bad omen.

It’s a basic little stress heal skill. Might have to tweak numbers.

EMBROIRDERY WORK

Taking time to himself to work his concentration. A little self buff skill. Again, might need to tweak numbers but I think the concept might be okay.

EYE OF NINE

He remains awake and dreams of the nine.

Basically that freak thing Lucien does where he doesnt sleep. It stresses him but makes him more in touch with his powers. Also think its working okay as a concept.

SWORD WORSHIP

He prays over his swords.

Don’t know about the benefits this one gives, but I do want to have his nightly ritual as a camping skill. I was thinking of maybe changing EMBROIRDERY WORK into something else so this become his main buff camping skill but i’ll leave it as it is right now

I haven’t yet worked on his trinkets, I need ideas honestely. Only one I have a real concept for so far is the Four Leaf Clover as a trinket that buffs his death resist and virtue chance, he stands strong for Yasha {:’- (

Anyway that’s my concept so far. Any suggestions or tips or anything like that are apreciated!

93 notes · View notes

igottiny · 4 years

Text

Ateez reaction to finding your thirst blog. *18+*

They are playing around online while away for work when they stumble across your blog. They take it as a hint.

Seonghwa - He couldn’t believe he found your blog, or that you even had one in the first place. But there in your bio was a picture of you and the cat you shared complete with your name and the cat’s name. There was no mistaking that it was you and that you never got over his ab flashes during the Inception era even years later. You never acted like this at home. A smirk adorned his face when he got an idea.

Pulling out his phone he dialed your number for a video call. When you answered, he stared directly at the camera, his smirk still in place, and said, “Baby, you never needed to run an entire blog to see my abs when all you had to do was ask. I’ll be home tomorrow and you can touch and play to your little hearts desire.”

Hongjoong - One of your friends had sent him the link cause they were getting tired of hearing, and reading, about how you loved how dominant his stage persona was and that you wanted be on the receiving end of that passion. He nearly choked on his drink while reading this in your own words. “He’s such a soft hearted leader but imagine what it would be like to be railed by him while he’s in his stage persona headspace. Yummy,” the most recent post read.

Once he was finally able to breath properly again he took a screen shot. If you wanted to play this game, he could play too. He was so gentle with the most precious person in his life but clearly his baby needed to learn a lesson. Sending the screenshot to you through text he also stated, “It looks like you need to be put in line baby. Be good for me and have yourself ready on our bed for when I get home tomorrow.”

Yunho - Finding your tumblr was never supposed to happen. He was just bored while waiting for the music show they were on to start filming their performance. However, reading that you really liked when he wore a suit cause it made him look more mature like a CEO, took him by surprise. Both of you always had so much fun acting like over grown kids that he didn’t think that you would go for such a serious business type. He was now worried over loosing you to someone more mature. That is until you found the post referring to how he could go from a cute hyper puppy to a badass boss in two seconds or less as the “ultimate duality.” He would just have to “barrow” one of the costume suits for this comeback home.

Walking through the door in his borrowed suit had you feeling some kind of way. “Be a good pet and fetch me that toy you like baby.” You scurried off to do as you were told so fast that it made him break character a giggle like a child. Good thing you didn’t see that part.

Yeosang - He knew you were on Tumblr a lot; you said your blog was doing well. He had plenty of time to kill while they repaired an issue with the set and he was going to find it. He was not ready for what he found. You loved his bad boy aesthetic whenever he wore leather and did the eye brow raise thing he does. Not only that but you wanted that lace blindfold to make a comeback so he could watch you work him with your hands and mouth through it as you found out how low is voice actually got. He had a hard time focusing on anything else the rest of the two days they were away filming. It’s not unusual for him to be one of the quieter members of the group, but your unabashed want had him literally speechless. He didn’t know he wanted the same thing till you pointed it out in your posts.

He returned home before you got off work later that week lace blindfold in hand. He found his tightest leather pants and the matching leather jacket. He needed this, now. You got home to find him leaning against the left wall of the hyeongwan leading into the living space; blindfold still in hand and a smirk darkening his already heated gaze.   “A little birdie told me that you needed to be put to work on me,” he said pausing for a moment to take in your stunned expression. “Well jagi, what are you waiting for?”

San - He knew you liked his arms and hands with how you always wanted them wrapped around you while at home. However, this was a new level of like. Every possible close up that featured him in a sleeveless shirt and a band around his biceps as well as every close up of his hands —including the crotch grabs— was gif’ed and individually posted on your blog. Some even captioned as his ultimate talent as those hips don’t lie. It’s just a shame he was out of town for promotions for the next couple of days. So instead he sends you a snap chat of him flexing with the caption, “As soon as I get home I’ll lift you up in my arms and show you how talented my hands really are.”

Mingi - He personally didn’t find your blog. Wooyoung did and showed him cause he thought it was funny. All that focus on his hands and what it meant when a man had large hands as well as him being a tree you wanted to climb has Wooyoung teasing him while he blushed. Scrolling through and his blush depend. You really just wanted to have your way with him didn’t you? He pulled on the collar of the turtle neck sweater he had on; did they turn up the heat? There’s no way he is going to admit to Wooyoung that this worked for him a little too well.

When he got home he found you sitting on the bed typing away on your laptop.

“You working on that little thirst blog of yours baby?” You stared at him wide eyed with bated breath.

“Well then baby, why don’t you climb on up and find out just how large I actually am?”

Wooyoung - It is no secret that he loves to be praised. So when he came across your blog praising the ground he walked on and saying how you just wanted to worship every single inch of his body during a break in filming, he was thrilled. He needed to make this happen. He would have preferred it to be now but that wasn’t possible. The group was on location filming for their new music video.

Not long after he got home, he was leaning against your side on the couch, phone in hand, wanting to show you something. Bringing up your own blog he smirks stating, “If you want to talk about treating me like a king, I do hope you can walk the walk with that mouth of yours jagi.”

Jongho - Your blog showed up as a recommended blog when he searched his own tags on Tumblr. Your icon was you so there was no mistaking it. He turned red before he could even scroll down two times. The posted gifs of him smacking Seonghwa and Wooyoungs’ asses with the caption “I wish I could trade places with them and have him punish me like that too” sending a very distinct message. Then there was a gif of him punching open a watermelon with the caption “Considering the strength it takes to do this, I wonder if he’d be strong enough to hold me up against the wall as he railed me?” He hid his face in his hands. He couldn’t handle this. What killed him most of all was the picture of him in glasses and your caption calling him a professor who’s class you would gladly misbehave in.

If you wanted to be punished that bad then he didn’t really have much of a choice now did he? You were posting this stuff on a public blog and that just wouldn’t do. As soon as the group got back to Seoul from their filming location he made a beeline for home. He found you in the kitchen putting away groceries when he backed you up against the counter.

“What makes you think you can publish that kind of filth so publicly baby? I think you need to learn your lesson that this behavior will not be tolerated again. Now turn around.”

#ateez #ateez reactions #ateez imagines #ateez smut #seonghwa #hongjoong #yunho #yeosang #choi san #mingi #wooyoung #jongho

241 notes · View notes

eligos-venator · 3 years

Text

Things I Like RP Partners to Know;

I like to be called:

I’ll answer to Eligos, Eli, ‘Hey you’, or whatever else, so long as it’s clear it’s directed at me. I’m really not picky.

One thing you should know about me:

Unhappy owner of a goldfish brain here. Work can get stressful at times, and when it is I tend to get extremely forgetful and sometimes require additional poking to be reminded of things, as I’ll take one look before being torn away to check on something else, and immediately forget what it was I was about to do, and never quite find that thought again. If I seem unresponsive at any time, just give me a poke! It’s absolutely not intentional.

One thing you should know about RPing with my character(s):

Eligos does not think in a linear fashion. There’s thinking within the box, thinking outside of the box, and then Eligos’s method, which is to consider the box, and then proceed to shake it a few times before kicking it over to see what happens. He might be harmless most of the time when not working, but he doesn’t think or react like a person. This includes his manner of conversation, and how he’ll say whatever he thinks will get him the information he seeks. He’s actually quite manipulative when motivated by the promise of a paycheck or something he’s seeking, but can’t be assed most of the time to muster the energy to act in such a manner. Yet this apparent harmlessness doesn’t mean he won’t put a bullet in someone the moment their back is turned if he truly believes they’re a threat to his personal safety or his work. Nobody’s the special exception, not even those closest to him. If anything, those closest tend to be the ones most scared of him, as they know what he’s capable of doing should they ever stand in his way, and just how empty that smile really is.

First language: English

Age range: under 13 | 14–17 | 18–22 | 23–25 | 26–29 | 30+ | 70+

Am I okay with NSFW?: yes (Eligos is not open to shipping, but other sorts of NSFW is entirely fine! Other characters are much more open to such though.) | no | some nsfw

Combat, plotting, even just meeting and discussing life over drinks, most anything’s on the table with Eligos. He is the sort that’ll listen to all the stories one might have at the bar and sympathize, yet only the next day be the source of a new story as his contractor demanded he bar the way or retrieve something personal from. And then the day after, Eli’s back to being friendly since he’s not on the clock. And what Eligos won’t do, Loth’sae and my other characters are willing to! There’s relatively little that I won’t consider if it’s properly discussed and planned out before the trigger’s pulled on setting off that plotline or starting on working the plot discussed reality through RP. But if it isn’t discussed and just thrust upon at random, I’m less likely to agree and try to figure out a way to make something work. Just communicate and I’m more than happy to help figure out ways to ensure things go according to plan.

Canon Character RP Friendly?: yes | no | depends

I have respect for those that play canon characters, and those that enjoy writing their stories with as well. Names might inevitably be mentioned given the limited world size and impact those characters have made on current events, but Eligos would not interact with them on a personal basis, nor have reason to ever do so. It doesn’t fit to have him involved in such given his complete lack of connection to story beyond how current events have impacted his homeland. Eligos’s story will not contain canon characters, and any he might meet will be dismissed in his mind as cosplayers who took their LARPing too seriously.

RP blog: does contain ooc posts | doesn’t contain ooc posts | occasionally contains ooc |

I will occasionally throw out random considerations into the void, and answer asks as the writer of the character if it’s something my character cannot answer honestly, but beyond that, there won’t be much in the way of OOC beyond the screenshot dump that is my main pastime in XIV when not roleplaying. I made this blog to have a place to post screenshots, do an occasional meme or bit of writing outside of roleplay, and interact with others on rare occasions. We’re all here to have fun, in the end. For me, that entails quietly tossing up shots and memes occasionally while reading the stories of others and seeing the stunning shots others take of their characters!

Tagged by: @kich-rp! Thank you for the tag!

Tagging: Anyone that wants to do this! I know it might be a bit overly personal for some, so just making this an open invitation for any who might be interested in doing it to just tag me as the reason if you need any!

#asks and memes #thank you for the tag!#rp meme

15 notes · View notes

yepiamthesmileyface · 3 years

Text

Just Friends(?)

[Image description: screenshot of an ask sent by @nemesis-is-my-middle-name reading “38 - Everyone thinks we’re already dating, but we’re just best friends- oh wait? (if ur taking prompts idk)” end image description]

Read it on AO3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28347906

Going to a Denny’s after a case was always a gamble. On one hand, there was hot, cheap junk food at whatever ungodly time they wrapped up their investigation; but on the other, sometimes the Denny’s had specimens like this. Vivi sighed, shoving a huge bite of her pancakes in her mouth and trying to tune out the ravings of the old white man who had stormed up to their booth — at three in the morning, mind you — and started screeching about how you should be ashamed of yourselves, displaying such perversions in public!! and three people living in sin!!

Normally, Vivi would have at least been making snarky comments, if not actually challenging him to a fight for insulting her and her boys like that, but...she was tucked comfortably under Lewis’s arm, the hand that wasn’t holding her fork reached across and resting on Arthur’s thigh. Also, it was literally three in the morning, she was covered in mud and slime from chasing a giant frog-creature around in a nearby river, and she had been awake for twenty-one consecutive hours. She took another bite. The pancakes tasted extra good for the exhaustion and ache sunk into her bones, strawberry topping and whipped cream and thick fluffy pancakes and maple syrup...it was almost enough to get her to forget about the man shrieking at them. She glanced back over at him, idly noting that his face was turning an interesting shade of puce.

The waiter walked back over with the same jaded, unfazed look he wore when the three of them had staggered into the Denny’s, soaked to the bone and absolutely covered in muck. He folded his arms and stared at the old man. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You’re disturbing the other guests.” The old man turned to look at the waiter, puffing up not unlike the giant frog the Mystery Skulls had captured and returned to its actual habitat not half an hour ago, and rapidly deflating as he took in the completely impassive, almost dead-eyed stare of the late-night Denny’s waiter. He hurried out of the building, spitting one last insult about how they were all going to hell for living in sin. Given that he had used that particular phrase about nineteen times, it had kind of lost its fire, as far as Vivi was concerned.

Vivi felt some of the tension drain out of Lewis, and she turned her head, looking over at her boys. Lewis looked relieved and tired, catching her eye and smiling at her, soft and warm and completely unguarded. There was a streak of mud high on his cheek, almost matting in his no-longer-pristine hair. She smiled back, the expression billowing up like a balloon on a current of love, and reached up to wipe the smear away. Lewis leaned into her touch, and she cupped his cheek for a moment before wiping her hand on her skirt and leaning forward a little to peer around Lewis’s chest in order to check on Arthur. In contrast, Arthur looked like a live wire of tension, like he would either shatter or vault over the table and sprint away if anything else happened. Her smile dropped.

The waiter turned to them, ready with a scripted apology that actually carried a note of sincerity that Lewis quickly waved off. As he took care of talking to the waiter, Vivi leaned across him, patting Arthur’s leg quickly to get his attention.

Arthur jumped, nearly hitting his knees on the table. Vivi felt a little guilty, but quickly pushed through. “Hey. It’s alright. He’s gone.”

Arthur met her gaze, eyes wide and grin forced. His hair hung limp around his face, framing him beautifully in dark gold. “Y-yeah. Plus — plu-plus, h-he — was, wasn’t even may-making any, any, any se-sen-se.”

She bit her lip. If his stutter was coming out that strong, he was either much more anxious or much more tired than she thought. Probably a combination of both. Pulling up a warm, playful grin from the depths of her chilled bones, she said, “Yeah. I mean, his argument was both really painfully dumb and also really Christian-centric! I mean, hello, not everyone is Christian, I’m definitely not, so, like…”

Arthur continued on like he hadn’t even heard her, leg starting to bounce under the hand she just realized she never moved. “I me-mean, I mean, he — h-he — we, we’re — I mean, we’re jus-just, just friends. Wh— I do-don’t kno— I dunno why h-he tho-thougth we we-were —”

Vivi felt Lewis freeze under her, and she wasn’t far behind. She felt breathless, like she had been punched in the gut, like he had slapped her in the face instead of saying those three little words bouncing around her head. We’re just friends?! “Wait. Wait, what?!” The words came out closer to a whine than she would have liked them to, but she was too stunned to really care.

At the same time, Lewis gasped like he had been shot. “You’re — are you breaking up with us?!” He sounded like he was two seconds away from bursting into loud sobs in the middle of this Denny’s.

Arthur’s mouth dropped open, and he stared at them with eyes the size of dinner plates. A stunned silence fell over their booth, broken only by the wavering sound of Lewis’s breathing.

Before any more drama could happen, Vivi held up her hand, forcing the words out past the cold spot that had taken up residence between her lungs. “No. Nuh-uh. Arthur, one word answer, and we’ll talk about this all when it’s tomorrow. Are you breaking up with us?”

Arthur opened and closed his mouth a few times before volunteering a tentative, “N-no…?”

Her shoulders slumped as she let out an explosive sigh. “Alright. Let’s — tomorrow? Tomorrow, when we’re not all so tired, we’re gonna talk about this, yes?”

Arthur nodded slowly, still boggling at them for some reason. Vivi was too tired to puzzle his behavior over properly, so she just glanced up at Lewis, who also nodded, unwinding his arm from around her to wipe at his face.

The rest of the night seemed to pass in snapshots to Vivi’s tired mind. Their dinner being boxed up. Walking back to the motel, just across the parking lot. Patting Mystery on the head and telling him he’s a good boy yes he is. Collapsing face first into the delicious crisp coolness of the starched motel bed. Lewis’s deep, tired chuckle as he took her glasses off her face. The weight of another body next to hers, but not the two she had become accustomed to after countless nights on the futon in the van.

The next morning, she woke up slowly to the smell of coffee, and made to roll over so she could sit up. Instead, the world plummeted around her as she rolled right off the bed with a sharp, panicked yelp, caught in a devious trap of tangled blankets and sheets. A soft, almost stifled snort came from her left, and a pair of hands reached into the gordian knot of fabric, deftly untangling her. She squinted up at the blur of color and fuzz, the pale yellow-orange blur instantly recognizable as Arthur.

Vivi huffed, knowing full well he was smirking at her, the bastard. “Oh, like you’ve never rolled off the bed before.” She flailed her hand towards the bedside table, groping around blindly and not finding her quarry. “Where the hell’re —” A yawn interrupted her, wide enough to make her jaw crack.

The Arthur-blur disappeared for a second, and when he came back, he slipped her glasses into her hands, his hands nice and warm where they made contact with hers. “Lew had ‘em over on his side of the bed for some reason.”

She slipped her glasses on, and the world came into rose-tinted focus. “Thanks, Artie.” She looked around the motel room, noting a distinct lack of giant purple-headed fops and talking dogs, and frowned. “Speaking of, where is he?”

“He’s grabbing all our meds from the van, I think. At least, I’m hoping he’s grabbing all of ours, he just said he’d get the meds, but I didn’t —” Arthur cut himself off with a swig from his travel mug. “Oh, and Mystery took himself out for a walk a couple’a minutes ago.”

Vivi laughed. “He’s probably definitely grabbing all of our meds. Did he make coffee, or did you?”

“It’s from the breakfast buffet, actually. Burnt, but not horrible. Better than that place in Staccatto, anyway,” Arthur shrugged, walking over to sprawl on the couch. “I grabbed you a cup, too, don’t worry.”

“The mud we were wading around in yesterday woulda been better coffee than that place in Staccatto,” Vivi grumbled, picking herself up and making a beeline for the coffee. “I’m pretty sure it was dirt. At least fifty percent dirt.” Leaning against the wall as she drank, she picked at the feeling that she was forgetting something. Something important, not just the fact that she forgot to shower last night and as such was still covered in itchy, flaky mud and sweat and her socks were sagging down without fresh sock glue — she shook her head to clear it. She was forgetting something important, something that had happened the night before. The case had gone well, they were paid half upfront and they would get the other half later that day, Lewis was getting their meds, breakfast was either the buffet or leftovers...leftovers. Wait. Her eyes widened as the whole Denny’s escapade came back to her in a flash. The bigoted old man who had practically burst a vein yelling at them, Arthur’s comment about them being just friends — but he wasn’t breaking up with them, apparently???

Downing the rest of the coffee in one gulp, she glanced towards the door, then back to Arthur. She should wait, Vivi told herself sternly. She should wait for Lewis, because Lewis was an important part of their relationship, and he should not be left out of serious relationship discussions.

Luckily, she was saved from the antsy feeling creeping around under her shoulder blades by the sound of the door opening. Lewis ducked in, a tote bag bearing the logo of a kitschy tourist trap in his hand. He beamed as he noticed her, walking up and giving her a good morning kiss.

Vivi laughed, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him away lightly. “Lew, I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet! No morning breath kisses, we all agreed those were the worst.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Arthur start, but Lewis just laughed, walking over to the table and setting the bag down on it. He started to unpack, first his own rainbow pill caddy, then Vivi’s cylindrical one, and finally Arthur’s loose assortment of orange bottles. “Fine, fine. Meds, everybody, come and get it.”

Once they had all taken their various medications, and Arthur had been chided into using his coffee to take his meds instead of taking them dry, Vivi took a deep breath. “Okay. Boys, I think we need to have a serious conversation now.” Arthur stiffened, and his eyes darted towards the windows. Vivi immediately strode forward, sitting down on the couch next to him. “I will sit on you if I have to, Artie,” she warned him, only half joking.

Arthur sighed and slumped against the couch, covering his face with his hands. His ears were cherry-red, and Vivi couldn’t help but find it cute.

Despite the cuteness, she shared a worried glance with Lewis as he settled down on the bed across from the couch. Lewis shook his head, a worried frown pulling at his face. She took another deep, grounding breath, setting her shoulders and sitting up straight before she looked at Arthur. “Okay. Arthur. What was that last night? You — you said we were just friends,” and those words still stung like a winter wind, “But then you say you’re not breaking up with us?”

It came out a touch more accusatory than she wanted it to, and Lewis took over with a gentle, “We’re not mad, Arthur. Not disappointed, either, but — if you don’t want us to even say we’re dating when we’re in public, I wish you’d told us earlier. It’s okay if you don’t! It really is, I get it, but…”

Arthur went impossibly redder, and curled in on himself, drawing his knees up towards his chest. “I dndwrdn…” he whined, muffled by his hands.

“I didn’t catch that, sorry,” Vivi said, wrapping her hands lightly around his wrists and tugging gently, trying to get him to lower them.

Arthur took a deep breath, dropped his hands, and half yelled, “I didn’t know we were dating!!!” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, his hands shot back up so fast he practically slapped himself in the face.

Vivi sat back, stunned. He...didn’t know? How could he possibly not know?!

“I — I, I, you — you never asked!” Arthur yelped.

Oh, she had said that out loud. “What do you — Arthur, we asked you out two months ago!”

Lewis raised his hands in a T, using the same tone he used on his sisters when they were getting too rowdy. “Okay, you two, time out!”

They both fell silent, turning to face Lewis.

Lewis tilted his head, looking at their boyfriend. Who...apparently didn’t know that he was their boyfriend. “Arthur...do you really not remember? We asked you out when we were back home, almost two months ago.”

“Okay, yes, it was a month, four weeks, and five days, not two months, but I don’t think semantic arguments are gonna be a big help here, babe,” Vivi grumbled.

Arthur shook his head wordlessly, still hiding his cherry-red face.

A month, four weeks, five days, and a handful of hours ago…

“It honestly feels so weird not living out of the van, doesn’t it?” Vivi mused, taking a bite of pizza.

“It really does. I’d completely forgotten what it was like to be woken up in the morning by forty pounds of overenthusiastic child launched directly at my sternum,” Lewis laughed, rubbing at his chest.

“Lew, we’ve only been road tripping for three months. That’s a bit quick, big guy,” Arthur snickered, pausing to shove half a slice of his weird oyster pizza in his mouth.

“It was so nice, though! The most I had to deal with while living with y’all is your pointy elbows!” Lewis leaned over and mussed Arthur’s hair. A laugh bubbled out of Arthur as he batted at Lewis’s hand futilely, trying to save his cone of hair gel. Laughing, Lewis subsided, pulling back. “But, yeah, I woke up this morning with a Cayenne-shaped bruise right on my sternum.”

Vivi winced sympathetically, shaking her head. “Ouch. Did she mean to?”

“Nah. Just excited.” Lewis’s smile turned fond. “They missed me. Demanded souvenirs and made me sit down and be their personal giant teddy bear as they watched Moana for the eighth time. Then Paprika gave me about twenty bead bracelets. When y’all come to the Paradiso, she’s got your piles waiting.”

“She’s still doing bead bracelets?” Vivi asked, a note of excitement in her voice. The last time they had all gotten bead bracelets from Paprika, it was right after the Peppers had explained what transgender meant, and the three of them had all gotten a bead bracelet with the word transgender wildly misspelled, the pink, white, and blue of the flag slapped randomly on there. It was the best piece of jewelry she owned — hers said “trasgenner”, Arthur’s said “trainsgandr”, and Lewis’s said “trasgeneer”. Paprika had been very determined to do it on her own, and had just gone with her best guess on each one.

“Yep! She’s got one for both of you that has your favorite animal as a charm,” Lewis revealed, grinning.

“Perfect!” Vivi did a very restrained fist pump.

Arthur hummed, staring at the pizza boxes on the table. It was almost a full twenty seconds before he grabbed another slice. “That actually sounds really nice. Both the, the bracelets and the personal teddy bear Moana thing.”

“Honestly, it wasn’t bad at all.”

Silence descended on their table, comfortable and companionable. Vivi shut her pizza box, setting her elbows on the table and propping her head on her hands, studying the two in front of her. Butterflies were building in her stomach — they were just both so beautiful, the warm noonday sunlight making both her boys glow in different ways. Arthur looked like he was wreathed in gold, his hair and eyes shining the same color as the sunlight. On the other hand, the warm light brought out the full richness of Lewis’s skin tone and made his hair gleam like the satin of his ascot, as well as glinting off his sparkly magenta nail polish. She made eye contact with Lewis, jerking her chin towards Arthur and wiggling her eyebrows.

Lewis blushed, glancing at Arthur nervously. Arthur, completely oblivious, simply leaned back in his chair, eyes drifting closed. He didn’t look tired, or, at least, not drop dead exhausted, just relaxed, happy, and full, so Vivi took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders.

“So, Artie...there’s something we’ve been meaning to ask you.”

Arthur opened his eyes, meeting her gaze curiously. There was no undercurrent of nervousness in his eyes, and Vivi was warmed to the core by his trust in them — she had asked an extremely open-ended question. “Huh? What’s up?”

Lewis cleared his throat. “We want to ask you if...Arthur, would you like to go out with us?”

“I thought that’s what we’re already doing right now…?” Arthur looked adorably confused, brow furrowed as he looked between them.

Vivi shook her head. “No, like, as a date. Will you go on a date with us, and-or be our boyfriend?”

Arthur sat very still for a long moment (she wasn’t even sure he was breathing) before a grin unfolded across his face, as resplendent as the sun itself. “Yeah. I’d — I’d really love that. I — yeah. Yeah, I’ll go out with you and be your boyfriend.”

“Oh, perfect!” Vivi squealed, barely restraining herself from launching across the table and kissing him until he was more lipstick-mark than man. “When works best for you? Should we go somewhere in town, or wait til we’re on the road again? There’s this sushi place in Tremolo that I’ve just been dying to try, we should go there, if we’re waiting til we’re on the road again. Or just in general, it seems really good and I haven’t had good sushi in ages.”

Arthur tilted his head, clearly considering her words. His smile took on a wistful edge. “...y’know...I don’t really need all the fancy date stuff. Just...I’m happy to do what we’ve been doing, just...together. Having you guys be — being with you guys, romantically — that...that would be enough for me,” he said softly.

Lewis grinned over at him, soft and sappy, and opened his mouth. Before he could say anything, his phone rang in his pocket, and he pulled it out, grimacing a little as he checked the caller ID. “It’s Papá. Hold on, I gotta take this.” He stood up, stepping a bit away. Not a minute later, he stepped back, regretful smile firmly in place. “...sorry, guys. I’m needed back at the Paradiso for free childcare,” he joked.

“Aww…” Vivi was really only half disappointed. They had pretty much finished up lunch, only a few slices left between the three of them (none of them hers), and she had a shift at the Tome Tomb coming up soon, anyway. And, more importantly, they had asked Arthur out and he said yes! Their couple was now officially a polycule!

Arthur rubbed the back of his neck. “I can — give you a ride. I gotta get back to Uncle Lance’s place anyway, I’m...” he trailed off, and Vivi waited maybe ten seconds for him to finish his sentence before accepting that he had lost his train of thought.

“Well, then...the Tome Tomb ain’t far, I can walk. I guess this is the end of our first date,” Vivi sighed. She stood up, standing on her tiptoes and pulling Lewis down for a chaste kiss before walking over and pressing a kiss to Arthur’s stubble-roughened cheek — familiar territory that should have been safe enough, she did that in the post-case exhilaration at least half the time.

Arthur blushed bright red anyway, and she left with a bright laugh, walking on clouds with the universe held in her hands.

A month, four weeks, five days, and a handful of hours after that…

Arthur groaned, running a hand through his hair. “Really?! I — guys, I had been awake for, like, two solid days at that point!”

“So you — you don’t remember us asking you out at all?” Lewis asked, shocked.

“No! Or — well — ki-kinda? I — kinda thought I was dreaming…” Arthur trailed off into muttering, fidgeting with his bracelets and not making eye contact.

Vivi paused for a moment, eyebrows creeping up. “Wow. Way to inflate our egos, there, Artie,” she joked.

“Wh— how am I inflating your ego?!” Arthur jerked his head up to look at her.

“We asked you out and you literally thought you were dreaming. We’re literally your dream partners!” She cackled.

Instead of laughing, Arthur rubbed the back of his neck, looking down, his words spilling out in a jumble. “Um. Y-yeah, actually...I — didn’t think it was — I, I mean, I’d, um I’d had dreams...like that...before. And...uh. Since then if I’m being honest.”

Vivi felt a blush rising in her cheeks, and she covered her mouth.

“That’s...that’s incredibly sweet, Artie…” Lewis managed, blushing harder than she was.

Vivi cleared her throat. “Sap,” she managed, shaking her head fondly.

Arthur took a deep, shaky breath. “So, um. Can...can we start over? On dating? I do — I really, really do want to date you guys, for real, I just...didn’t...know?”

“Of course!” Vivi and Lewis exclaimed in accidental unison.

“And this time you’ve definitely slept enough to be lucid,” Lewis added on lightheartedly. “You were snoring before I fell asleep.”

“Well…” Arthur smiled, lopsided. “I’m pretty sure I am, anyway. Lucid, that is — and how could you hear me snoring over Vivi’s, anyway? But, uh —”

“— Hey!” Vivi interrupted. “I don’t snore that loud!”

“You sound like a train, Vivs,” Arthur teased, before clearing his throat. “But, uh. Anyway. Wanna...wanna pinch me so I’m sure I’m not dreaming this time?”

Vivi smirked at him. “I’ll do you one better, actually.”

Before he could respond, Vivi leaned over, pressing a kiss to his lips. It took him a moment to react, startled, but he hesitantly started to kiss back after a second or two. There weren’t any fireworks, at least for her; if anything, it felt like being electrocuted, but in a good way, sparks shooting through her whole body, curling her toes and making her fingertips tingle. Arthur’s hand came up to grip at her sweater. Vivi kept the kiss chaste, and pulled back after a moment, glancing at Lewis.

Lewis pouted at her, a smile tugging at his lips and his voice. “Aww, I wanted to kiss him first, you got to do it at the restaurant.”

Arthur licked his lips, breath coming out a little funny, and swallowed hard before he got up and stepped towards Lewis, grinning crookedly. “W-well...consolation prize?”

Lewis let out a bark of laughter, startling Arthur into jumping a little, and pulled Arthur close with a gentle hand. “I can live with that,” he murmured, leaning in to kiss him.

Vivi settled back, watching her boys kiss from the lumpy motel couch. It felt like coming home, like kicking off her shoes and shedding her stress as easily as taking off her scarf. She ran her tongue over her teeth absentmindedly, and grimaced. “Whoops. Sorry, Artie, didn’t mean for our first kiss to be a morning breath kiss.”

Arthur broke away from the kiss he was sharing with Lewis to blink at her, swaying a little bit. “...huh?” he managed, brain visibly rebooting. “Oh! Uh. It’s okay, I don’t think I...noticed?”

“Still, it’s the principle of the matter,” Vivi wrinkled her nose, standing up. “I’ll be right back, you two keep doing what you’re doing.” She tossed in a wink for good measure, and made her way to the bathroom with the accompaniment of Arthur’s flustered squeak and Lewis’s deep, rich laughter.

#msa #mystery skulls #mystery skulls animated #lewvithur #vivi msa #vivi yukino #lewis msa #lewis pepper #arthur msa #arthur kingsmen #they're stupid your honor #aaaa sorry it's been like 8 kajillion years since you requested this #people talk to me #my writing #nemesis-is-my-middle-name

43 notes · View notes

transboykirito · 3 years

Text

sword art online, volume four: fairy dance (my thoughts/review/summary)

to give a disclaimer, i have some knowledge of the novels however this is my first time fully reading them!! i’m very excited to read all of them and i would prefer to avoid any spoilers for anything after alicization!

under the cut!

again, a disclaimer for oberon and his general oberon-ness, and sexual assault.

i’m going to skim over the whole assault scene because we’re all aware it fucking sucks, but oberon being aware of yui (or at least aware of a weird program) was a detail left out of the anime, and kirito’s conversation with kayaba is a bit different too. still sucks though.

now that’s out of the way……… EMOTIONS.

the kirisuna in the volume absolutely shattered me. they’re soulmates. actual legitimate soulmates. to see them both so desperately try to find eachother again and to finally see them succeed. ugh. my heart.

kirito and yui are also adorable, for some reason the line about yui’s small hand holding kirito’s got me and i nearly cried over it. i live for good dad kirito

SMALL!

ALSO SHE LOVES HER DAD! he hugs her and kisses her cheek and strokes her hair! he loves her too he just doesn’t say it verbally and that’s okay!

the hospital scene was also very good 10/10 cried also nurses exist. the nurse calling kazuto asuna’s family and him not correcting her was cute, they’re family.

and of course, here’s their first meeting:

AND THEY WERE SOULMATES

OH MY GOD THEY WERE SOULMATES

seriously the amount of kirisuna made me cry it’s 11:17pm at night and i’m just laying in my bed crying about these two fictional nerds.

as for non-kirisuna…

leafa is a character that exists and does things but regrettably it’s foreshadowed by her falling in love with her brother. i think the scene between the two of them was better in the anime only because cassandra lee morris (her english va) put her entire heart into that scene and she singlehandedly made it the most stunning performance of the series, in my head you can’t top that.

i do hope that they get their sibling bond back eventually, i can definitely see kazuto trying to mend the bond between him and suguha, i hope the novels do a good job of it. especially the scene after he wakes up from saving asuna, it’s a beautiful moment of realising his baby sister is growing up.

ALSO LEAFA HAS GREEN HAIR I WISH WE SAW IT.

oh and before i forget — tonky showed up in this arc!! that was a nice surprise, i wasn’t expecting him until around mothers rosario like in the anime, but i’m guessing he shows up again later for the excalibur arc.

to quickly mention the ending of the volume, WE SEE RIKA!!! and she’s a lightweight!!! good for her!!! that scene is actually very sweet and funny and it’s such a nice break from the rest of the chapter. to see everyone goofing off and relaxing and partying is so nice. especially when it gives us the potential for “klein and agil taking their dumb found family sao kids home to their parents and explaining why they’re hungover” fanfics… :)

and rinko gets mentioned! i’m glad she’s brought up sooner than she was in the anime, i’m really glad the novels actually foreshadow things properly

and that’s all! i tried to include some more screenshots this time, let me know if you guys prefer that! see you in volume 5 :)

#sword art online #sao #light novels #saoln #saoln volume by volume #meta

3 notes · View notes

dirt-cup-draco · 4 years

Text

Loki x Reader- My Heart, My Home

“Am I doing this right? How do I make this cursed looking glass view me as it is with you?” Came Loki’s voice, unclear and breaking up through the speaker from your phone. You reclined on your bed and smiled fondly at his pixelated form as he switched the camera from a view of a couch to his face. He was peering into the camera as if he could make it focus by sheer will alone. It seemed even his great (as he reminded you constantly) magical skill couldn’t make facetime work properly on a poor WiFi connection.

“Oh yeah, perfectly,” You teased, sticking out your tongue at him as he tilted his phone side to side, changing the angles from which you saw him. You couldn’t help but be twitterpated, even from the vague outline of your boyfriend on your cracked phone screen.

“I sense some sarcasm my love,” Loki muttered and suddenly there was a dull thud, the room he was in blurring even more as he dropped his cellphone to the ground. You knew getting him one had been a bad idea, but you hadn’t liked the idea of hollering at the sun and stars every time you needed him. He’d been put out but had decided a phone could have some practical uses.

“I would never be sarcastic with you,” You gasped, pressing your hand to your chest as Loki righted his phone again, no doubt gripping it tighter this time. You missed holding his hand. You frowned slightly as you thought of all the time that had passed since you’d last seen him.

He was helping Thor with something or the other and had been very busy. You weren’t really sure how time zones in different realms worked either so it was a hit and miss when you called or texted him. Part of you was certain half the struggle was just because Loki wasn’t sure how to text back.

“I miss you,” You sighed. You were hoping for a sweet response, maybe something flirty, hell you’d even accept his stupid holier-than-thou teasing.

What you hadn’t expected was a confused, “Wait, Y/N, darling, I can’t- I can’t hear you,” Loki’s eyebrows were drawn to the center of his forehead and you saw him poke the camera- once, twice- before he was peering back at his screen in confusion. “Say something,” He demanded.

“Loki?” You tried, your frown now much more apparent. You don’t know why you thought this would go smoothly.

“Y/N-” Loki began but was cut short, his screen pausing with his mouth half open and eyelids falling closed at different points. You couldn’t help but screenshot the ridiculous ordeal. He was frozen.

Sighing in frustration you ended the call and went straightaway to texting him.

“That was miserable, I’m sorry,” You pounded out on the keyboard, adding a string of emojis that you knew that Loki wouldn’t understand. Why do you need an emoticon of a caterpillar? Are these not used to express emotion? I doubt you know how it feels to be an insect. He had pointed out one day but quickly quieted when you reminded him that he had indeed called you an insect upon your first meeting.

“When will you be home?” You texted, pouting. You knew Loki wouldn’t be up for facetiming again, growing quickly frustrated with the foolishness of it all.

“It’s file

It’s phone

It Is Fins

FINE IT IS FINE YOU BLASTED DEVICE” Came his eloquent response. You were glad to see he had found the speech to text function.

“Soon.” Was his short response and you grumbled, tossing your phone to the other side of you bed as you took a calming breath. You knew he couldn’t help it but you missed him terribly and you just wanted him here and in your arms.

“I love you. Try and sleep, you get grumpy if you don’t ,” You finally responded after dressing and brushing your teeth. You felt guilty for not responded immediately and now you stared at the screen with unblinking eyes as you turned out your lamp. Five minutes passed, then ten. No bubble popped up alerting you that he had seen the text and was responding.

You hopped he was already trying to sleep. He constantly argued he didn’t need it and his body functioned on much higher levels than that of a mortal’s yet he got crabbier than you did when he didn’t get a proper night’s rest.

Sniffling softly you tried to ignore the burn behind your eyelids. Good god, you felt clingy. It had only been a month or so but before he had gone, you two had practically been spending every waking moment together. He was a pain in the ass, but he was your pain in the ass and you’d been lonely in his absence.

You brought your sheets tight up around your chin and tried to cancel out all of your thoughts and focus on your mindless breathing. Your body fell into the stage between sleep, feeling simultaneously like you were floating and sinking as you snuggled deeper into the warm sheets. You let out a lengthy and relaxing breath, the rest of your tension leaving you as your mind went blank and fuzzy. Sleep was claiming you and you would be it’s captor in but a moment.

“Miss me?”

Your eyes popped open and you shrieked as an arm curled around your waist. You rolled out of the sudden intruder’s grip and ended up over correcting. One second you were pulling up to dream land, then next you were stunned on the floor of your bedroom with your sheets wrapped around your ankles. A sharp laugh echoed through the room and warm, familiar, hands pulled you up and set you back on your bed.

“You fucking ass! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” You yelled, stuck in your disbelief and unable to process that Loki was home and standing before you like he hadn’t been worlds away an hour ago.

He only grinned and crawled onto the bed, sitting beside you and offering his hand, palm up, to you. “So glad to be home, darling,” Loki teased but you could see the adoration in his eyes as you set your hand in his. His slim fingers encased your hand in a comfort that you had been longing for.

Biting your lip to hold back your tears you gripped his hand tighter and pulled as hard as you could. Loki fell forward with the force of it and you wrapped your arm around his neck as he righted you both with some effort. Soon, you were straddling his lap with your face buried in his neck. He drew fanciful patterns on your back with his fingertips as the tension you hadn’t been able to rid yourself of melted away at his magical touch.

“What are you doing here?” You croaked, trying to keep the emotion from your voice and failing miserably.

Loki smiled into your hair, kissing the side of your head. “I told you I’d be home soon,”

“I didn’t know you’d be home this soon,”

“You didn’t reply to my textual message until much later and I worried that something was the matter. Besides, it was time to come home and my brother can now handle things himself.” Loki knew for a fact that it was a text message and not “textual” but the resulting laugh from you was well worth playing dumb. Thor had been teaching him a great deal about technology but you seemed to enjoy being the one to help him that he pretended he was none the wiser.

“It’s text message babe,” You pointed out quickly before admitting,“I did miss you a lot though and I was feeling a bit lonely. I guess I got frustrated over the stupid video chat, I just wish it had gone better. I’m sorry I made you worry,”

Yet those feelings were gone out the window now. Especially after he declared that it was time to come home.

“I could travel back to my brother’s land and we can attempt this facetiming one more time if it will please you, my queen,”

“Oh god, no. Having you here is much better,” You chuckled, kissing his pulse point and delighting in the way his arms tightened around you in a small loss of restraint.

“Of course it is, I’m a delight,”

“Yes, you are,” You hummed in agreement, too pleased with his surprise arrival to poke fun at his false enormous ego.

Loki smiled, a soft smile full of awe and love. One you couldn’t see, but one that you could feel from the way his heart skipped a single beat and the temperature of his cheeks raised slightly despite his naturally cold skin.

“I love you,” He spoke softly. Like it was still somehow a secret. Like you didn’t know through all of his adoring actions and gentle touches that he wasn’t completely enraptured by you. Those three words never failed to leave you breathless when they came from his lips.

“I love you too,” You mimicked, your limbs growing heavy with sleep as Loki pulled the blankets around you two as pajamas appeared on his body. With a simple kiss to your forehead, he soothed you into a dreamless rest.

Finally, your heart, your love, had returned home.

Tag List: @angelinathebook @thehumanistsdiary @cleopatera

#loki x reader #Loki Laufeyson #Loki Laufeyson x Reader #fluff

88 notes · View notes

ladyfogg · 4 years

Text

May I? - 15/?

Fic Summary: Ensign Faith Diaz struggles to hide her mental illness from her fellow shipmates aboard the Enterprise until an intrigued Data goes out of his way to try to understand her behavior. At his insistence, Faith tries to figure out what she’s truly passionate about and eventually seeks the professional help she needs. Fic Masterpost.

Fic Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Data/Female OC

Warnings: tw: depression, tw: anxiety, fluff, friends to lovers, eventual smut

Screenshot by @ geekygwen

At first, Data did not realize he yelled. The noise was ripped from him so suddenly that it took him by surprise. But he could not dwell on the sudden outburst. He needed to act quickly.

Oxygen. She needed oxygen.

He carefully lowered her down before turning towards the emergency supplies. They were secured under the floor of the cockpit via a hatch. He pulled the cache out, ripping the lid open to find what he was looking for.

Inside was a plethora of survival items. Along with the basic human necessitates such as bedding, clothing, rations, and water, he was able to locate several oxygen masks.

The battery-operated mask turned on without issue. Data brought it back to Faith. He slipped it on over her nose and mouth, ensuring it was properly secured. Then, he waited, watching the digital readout on the side. Soon, her breathing returned to normal and the mask's sensors showed she was receiving proper oxygen.

Data allowed himself a moment to breathe, metaphorically. It was within his programming to protect lives but seeing Faith in danger had touched him on another level entirely. He did not understand it completely. He supposed it was his positronic brain's version of panic. Seeing someone special to him hurt was never easy.

He had never yelled before. That was new.

Data took in Faith's naked body and returned to the cache. Withdrawing a spare jumpsuit, he took the time to carefully dress her before wrapping a blanket around her still frame. With no life support controls, the temperature had begun to drop and he did not wish for her to be cold.

Faith's pulse and heart rate were steady, yet she had not regained consciousness. Each oxygen mask had a battery life of seven days and there were four in the cache. While he did not need one himself, he did not feel comfortable allowing her to rely only on the mask to support her breathing. Especially if they needed to leave the shuttle.

The sleeping area was destroyed, a mess of twisted metal, wires, and a gaping hole on one side. Data scoured the room for any personal items before manually sealing the doors to that section. He found Faith's sketchbook and his uniform but nothing else.

After, he did a sweep of the remaining areas to assess the damage. Before he attempted, he needed to ensure there were no other major damages. A quick scan revealed no additional hull breaches.

Data returned to check on Faith, who appeared to be asleep. He watched her for a moment, stroking her hair before continuing his work.

He had to connect himself to the shuttle in order to provide some semblance of power to work with. Even then he was only able to access the emergency stores. Thankfully, it was enough. The backup power kicked in, restarting life support and lights. Unfortunately, there was not enough for communications.

By then Faith was awake, silently watching him work. "What's the damage?" she asked, her voice warped by the mask.

"We have minimal life support," Data said, closing the console panel. "I have sealed off the sleeping area due to a hull breach. However, our emergency supplies are well-stocked. We are safe for the time being."

"Well, that's something at least." Faith slowly pushed herself up to sit. "Did you dress me?"

"Yes. I did not wish for you to get cold."

"Thank you. You do know you're still naked right?"

Data looked down at himself. "Ah. So I am. Excuse me." He picked up his abandoned clothing, only to find them torn. "It seems my uniform is no longer wearable."

"I mean, if you want to go naked, I won't say no."

Data pulled one of the spare jumpsuits from the cache. "Being stranded on a strange planet may not be the ideal location to remain nude."

Faith sighed dramatically. "Why is it that every time we get close the ship gets attacked in some way?" she asked. She sat with her back against the wall, the blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"It does seem that way," Data agreed, taking a seat next to her. "How are you feeling?"

"My head is a little fuzzy but I'm okay," she assured him. "Is life support stable enough for me to remove the mask?"

Data picked up the tricorder he had used to help fix the power. After a quick scan, he shook his head. "It does not yet appear to be safe."

Faith sighed and silently leaned into Data for support. He put down the tricorder, tightening his hold on her. She was scared if her trembling body was any indication.

No words were spoken, though Data did not feel the need to speak. Simply holding Faith was sufficient. When she withdrew, she touched her forehead to his briefly before taking a deep breath.

"Okay," she said, voice firm. "Now that we have life support, what should we do?"

"I believe you should remain seated for a while. You lost oxygen for several minutes. I do not wish for you to push yourself too soon."

"Well then after that."

"We should survey the area outside the shuttle to ensure we are in no immediate danger. If we are not, we will remain here. The Enterprise will come searching for us once her repairs are complete."

"What I want to know is what the hell happened? The shuttle was working just fine. What pulled us to the planet?"

"I do not know. Normally, I would suggest we try to determine the cause. However, given our current predicament, it would be ill-advised to wander too far. The Enterprise's sensors would be able to detect any anomalies from orbit."

"Good point." She glanced through the windshield of the cockpit. "It looks like there is some light out there, though I don't know what the day cycle on this planet is."

"We will go outside after you have sufficiently rested. Unless you feel you are up to the task."

Faith sighed. "Not really, but let's do it anyway. The sooner we look around, the sooner we can come back."

"Quite right. Let us see what is out there."

Faith stood, dropping her blanket as Data grabbed the tricorder. They both attached phasers to their hips before Data opened the shuttle door.

They were met with a blast of cold air and Faith shivered. Data's tricorder showed the temperature steadily decreasing.

"We will not stay out for long," he assured her. "The temperature is dropping significantly."

"Wish there was something warmer to wear," Faith muttered, tugging at the jumpsuit.

Together, they stepped out of the shuttle. They had landed in a dense, dead forest. There were plants and trees, but nothing looked healthy. It was all brown and crumbling. With his tricorder, Data began to take readings as Faith followed close behind.

It looked like the shuttle had dragged along the ground for some time before it ultimately came to a stop. There was a deep groove in the hard dirt behind it and a large tree looked to be the cause of the breach in the sleeping area.

"Getting anything interesting?" Faith asked.

"Nothing unusual," Data said as they made a wide loop around the shuttle. "I am getting traces of the alien DNA we found. However, no significant readings to point us towards what brought us here."

Data noticed Faith seemed jumpy. She remained unusually close to him while they walked and frequently looked over her shoulder.

"Something is definitely wrong here," she muttered.

Data paused, looking up from the tricorder. "What do you mean?"

"I can't explain it. My gut tells me we're being watched."

Data scanned the area with his eyes. "I do not see anyone. The aliens do possess cloaking abilities, however, the tricorder is only picking up faint traces of the DNA. If they were here, it was not recently."

Faith took her phaser out of her pocket, setting it to stun. "Let's keep moving."

The dead forest seemed to go on forever. They walked until the shuttle was out of sight, only to be met with more forest. The air had become colder and a heavy wind began to pick up. When he heard Faith's teeth begin to chatter, Data decided they were done with their first exploration.

"We should go back to the shuttle. I do not wish for you to get sick."

She was too cold to answer, only nod as she trembled. Data put the tricorder away and wrapped his arm around her. His body remained a constant temperature which he hoped would help against the cold.

They returned to the shuttle and had just stepped inside when a storm began to rage. Snow and ice swirled around them. As soon as the shuttle door was closed, Faith wrapped herself in the blanket again.

"I'm really glad you got life support going because I'd definitely freeze to death otherwise. How's the oxygen now?"

Data did a quick reading. "Minimal for our needs, but steadily increasing."

Faith removed her oxygen mask and placed it on the floor next to her. "Thank the stars, that thing was uncomfortable." She shuddered and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. "Don't suppose we have more of these blankets do we?"

Data put down his tools and walked over to the cache, pulling out all the extra blankets he could find. "This should help," he said, draping them around her until she was thoroughly bundled.

Faith chuckled. "Thanks," she said. "You know, you can come in here with me and warm me up better than these blankets ever could."

"I do not see how that is possible. My body maintains a constant temperature of…" He paused when she raised her eyebrow. "Oh. You were being flirtatious."

"A little. Yes."

"I see."

Data sat down next to her, sliding in close when she opened the blankets. He put his arms around her waist as she enveloped him. "Is this sufficient?"

"Hold me closer."

Data did as she instructed, pulling her so her chilly body was flush against his. "Better?"

"Mmm, much." She snuggled into his chest, tucking her head under his chin.

Data held her close, feeling her body temperature slowly return to normal. "It appears as though we are stuck here for the time being. What do you wish to do? I did manage to find your sketchbook."

“Oh, you saw that?”

“Yes. I did not mean to pry. I was simply curious about it.”

“It’s okay. It’s just something I was trying when I have some downtime.”

“Do you wish to sketch now?”

“No. I want to stay snuggled here with you. In fact…” She drew closer so their lips brushed. "Let's start with kissing and then see where it leads."

"As you wish." Data cupped her cheek and kissed her deeply.

She responded with a content sigh, kissing him back. He could feel her smile rather than see it and the notion that he made her happy by a simple press of their lips was most curious.

They held each other as they kissed. He was in no rush to push things further. She seemed perfectly happy sitting there with him, snuggled in blankets as they kissed.

When they separated so she could catch her breath, her smile remained in place. "I know we're stranded on a random planet in a broken shuttle but at least we're together," she said. "If I hadn't been here, you'd be stranded alone and I would have never forgiven myself for letting you go."

"I understand your sentiment, though I cannot help but feel responsible for your safety."

"How so?"

"If something were to happen to you, I do not know how I will react."

"Well, then I'll just make sure nothing happens to me."

Data doubted it was as simple as she made it sound. There were very few outcomes for their current situation. But he knew that this would not be the time for complete honesty. So he decided to refocus the conversation.

"Now that the danger has passed, I have an inquiry," he said.

"What is it?"

"How would you describe my abilities? Sexually."

Faith pulled back, looking up at him with wide eyes. "You want me to rate you?"

"It is the only way for me to improve my performance," he explained. "As you know, my experience is limited and I do not wish to leave you less than satisfied."

"Oh, trust me. I was plenty satisfied," Faith smirked with a wag of her eyebrows.

"On a scale of one to one-hundred, using percentages, where would my performance fall?"

"Data, babe, I'm not going to rate you."

"But I wish to improve."

"I understand that I really do," she assured him. "But I don't want you overthinking. You were great. Phenomenal. If I need you to do something different, I will tell you in the moment."

"Like when you asked me to decrease my speed?"

"Correct." She smiled. "I'm more interested in what you thought of the experience."

Data considered her words. "It was...intriguing," he said. "While I was able to feel the tactile side of the equation, part of me wished to know how emotions would have heightened the experience. That is what I meant when I said I would not be able to 'feel' your mouth. I knew it was warm and wet, your tongue was soft. But there was nothing else associated with those words."

Her expression softened and she wrapped her arms around his arm in a light hug. "Was it difficult to enjoy?"

"No," Data assured her. "I found the sights and sounds you made quite enjoyable and I did manage to achieve an orgasm."

"Yes. Yes, you did. Is that also automatic or—?"

"It is based on stimulation though there is a timed factor to it, which I can extend if I wish."

"Mmm, good to know." She kissed him softly. "You were magnificent and if we hadn't crashed I probably would have initiated sex."

"Oh." Data lacked any other response to the mental image. "That is on the list so I would not discourage you."

Faith laughed, resting her head on his shoulder again. "I'm glad to hear it. Though I don't think I'm really going to be in the mood for much until we're rescued."

"I understand." Data contemplated for a moment. "Faith, I have another inquiry."

"I'm not surprised," she teased. "What is it?"

"In analyzing the noises you made during our intimate time, I realized that I did not make similar verbal attempts to encourage you. I do know moaning and sometimes talk is prevalent in erotic media. Do you wish for me to simulate such things?"

"Data, let me give you some advice," Faith said in a gentle tone. "Don't worry or put too much stock in what you've seen in porn. Most of it is purely for show and not a real representation of sex."

"I see. That does remove several items from my list."

Faith blinked up at him with wide eyes. "Maybe you should send me a copy of this list," she suggested. "Just to make sure I am comfortable with what's on it."

"That is understandable. I will send it to you once we are back on the Enterprise."

"Looking forward to it," she said, stifling a yawn.

Data held Faith close, listening as she began to doze off. They had nothing to do but wait, so he decided it would be a good a time as any to activate his own dream program.

"There is a portable bed in the cache if you would like to lay down," he told Faith as she yawned for the second time.

"Only if you lay with me."

"I had a similar thought. It has been some time since I dreamt."

"Great. You do that, I'll have some rations."

Data untangled himself from Faith's blankets to lay out the emergency bed. As it inflated, she ate and drank, her eyes growing droopier by the minute. By the time she was done, she looked like she was ready to pass out again.

"I don't know why I'm so tired," she said. "I just woke up a few hours ago."

"It has been a difficult time," Data said, helping her lie down on the bed. "Perhaps your body is fatigued by the crash and oxygen deprivation."

"Maybe." Faith yawned again, curling against his side as soon as he lay next to her. "I am glad we don't have to wait until we get back to the ship to share a bed though. That's nice."

"Yes, I agree." He slipped his arm around her, enjoying the warmth. "Are you comfortable?"

"With you, always."

Data smiled at the sentiment. It did not take long for Faith to fall asleep, which he found strange. She almost always took time to get comfortable before she was able to rest. Regardless, he closed his own eyes soon after.

They were in the forest together. He had not dreamt of her there since the first time. Yet, there she was, her dark hair shining in the sunlight as she sat among the roses.

"Data, come on, join me," she said, extending her hand.

He smiled and reached for it, her fingers curling around his as he did. She gave him a smirk and yanked him down. They tumbled down together, Data still smiling as Faith laughed. She rolled them over so she was splayed across his chest, her wavy brown tresses draping over their faces like a curtain.

"Gotcha," she said and kissed him.

Data kissed her back, reaching to tuck her wild hair behind her ear. They withdrew and she looked down at him with such love and adoration he wished he was not dreaming. Would he ever be able to look at her that way? Would she always give him such admiration? Or was their time together limited?

He could only give her so much.

As if she could read his thoughts, her smile faded and she looked up. But her next words were not what he was expecting. "Someone's coming…"

Data did not wish for her to worry. "We are alone. No one can harm us here."

She did not appear to hear him. Quickly, she scrambled off him and took off running. Confused and concerned, Data rose to his feet and gave chase.

But the forest was no longer bright and as he lost sight of her, his peaceful place changed.

The woods became dark and twisted, nothing like they used to be.

This was not right. There was no sun. No birds. Only howling wind and emptiness.

Data ran. He ran as fast as he could, yet could not escape the crushing darkness around him.

Faith, he thought. I must find Faith.

Suddenly, a pitch-black shadow sprouted from nowhere and he crashed into it, flying back so violently he rolled on the ground before he was still.

Data awoke with a start, immediately noticing that Faith was no longer at his side. He sat up with alarm, looking around the shuttle.

Except, there was no Faith. Actually, there was no shuttle.

Data found himself in a square room, with only a dim light above which cast the edges of the room into shadow. Gray metal walls and floors were all around him

"Faith? Faith!" he called. There was no answer, only his voice echoing back.

He saw a set of doors and immediately headed for them. They did not open as he approached and try as he might, he could not pry them apart.

He was confused, unsure of where he was or how he got there. It startled him that he was alone and his mind began to calculate many theories as to what happened to Faith. None of them were favorable.

Data turned back towards the room, only to notice something tucked in the corner that he missed before.

A chair.

A very familiar wooden chair with a purple jumpsuit draped over it.

"This is not possible," he said out loud as he approached the only piece of furniture in the room. His hand touched the object, proving it was not a hologram or projection.

Just then the doors opened and Data turned, expecting the intruder yet still surprised by his appearance.

"Hello, Mr. Data," the man said with a smirk. "I told you we'd see each other again."

Data felt his hands ball into fists as he faced his enemy. "Kivas Fajo."

Fajo grinned, arms spread wide. "Oh good, you remember me," he said, stepping further into the room. "You have no idea the lengths I've gone through to bring you here."

#commander data #lt commander data #data tng #data soong #star trek next generation

15 notes · View notes