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kurosakikai · 3 years

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. xx1 . Urahara's Return

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As promised, tagging one @mysteriousshopkeeper with the finished result!

There are few things that stop or startle an ageless, nigh-immortal former spy-turned shopkeeper.

The sight before him is one of them. He’d merely intended on visiting Ichigo-kun, see how he was doing, only to be startled by the sight of eyes so green and so vivid that his mind immediately thinks to Kaien himself.

A single blink, and the overlaying visage returns to that of a young little boy, his head tilted in question.

“...” Someone should have warned him. Kisuke should have known, especially, what he was getting himself into, and he has to take a few shallow breaths, shaking a little inside. They say nothing, the two sizing one another up, before the boy unbends enough to offer him a small, shy smile.

It’s like getting slugged in the face a second time, that soft expression bringing him sharply back to sweeter days, to memories of thrown flour and laughter, joyful expressions of happiness and sunshine promises, and Kisuke barely snaps out of it in time to see the flicker of confusion, and hurt, that covers the little boy’s face.

“I… Sorry, sorry,” Kisuke apologizes with a rub against the back of his head, kneeling down so the youth can see him better. “It’s okay little guy, really. It’s just… been a long time since I saw your dad - I didn’t even know he had a kid.” The child relaxes a little, tiny, clutching fingers loosening from the bottom of his shirt. “What’s your name?”

“Papa calls me Kai - but Momma calls me Kaien, sometimes.” Intelligent blue-green watch him, the little boy still a little tense and anxious, but slowly relaxing.

Meanwhile, Kisuke wondered what cruel trick of fate had left this boy with such a name that would evoke such strong memories of the man he’d bonded with, in another life.

“... I can see why...” Kisuke allowed himself to be led by the little boy to take his shoes off, but the pursuit of making a guest comfortable has been waylaid by the quest for knowledge, which was truly adorable on such a young face.

“Really?” The boy looks hopeful, tugs upon a hand gently. “Can you tell me who he is?” Kisuke carefully tucks his geta away - the scolding Ichigo had given him for scraping the floor of his clinic was not a lesson he was willing to put up with more than once - before considering his answer.

“He was your dad’s second cousin,” Kisuke says dutifully, slipping on the house slippers his little host had brought for him - in a rather fetching green color, he might add. “I suppose that would make him your...” Pausing, Kisuke took a moment to count on his fingers. Family trees were always so complicated. Give him a genome sequence and he could tell you if people were related, but the genealogy charts never failed to send him in a tizzy.

Tch.

“Ah-ha!” He says, triumphant. “Second cousin once-removed.” Pleased, Kisuke nods to himself. “Your mother was very fond of him.” Sometimes, Kisuke thinks she might have been in love with him. Of course, that was not a thing said to a little boy who looked like Kaien so much it could physically hurt him.

Tiny fingers find their way into his hakama, and startled, he looks down. “Was he nice?” The boy asks, childish curiosity written all over his face as he gently tugs on the fabric in his hands. “Did he like riceballs like me? Oooh, did you know him?”

Kisuke had forgotten - with Jinta and Ururu now adults and off to their own life - how persistent, how curious, children could be. Paired with those eyes, and that coal-dark head, Kisuke allowed himself to soften a little.

“Oh yes, very well in fact. I was actually quite fond of him myself, you know.” Looking the boy over, he adds with a smile, “You actually bear quite the stunning resemblance to him, I must admit.”

The boy’s eyes - already impossibly coinlike and round - widen even further. “Can you tell me about him? Daddy doesn’t know him, and Momma just gives me bunches of chores to do when I ask.” Those big… green… eyes…

Good grief. He clearly needed to work on his resistance to puppy-dog eyes if he was contemplating standing there the whole time rather than taking a comfortable seat! A little pang reminds him that he has no children at home to aid him in his endeavor.

With a sigh, Kisuke says, “Mind if I sit down?” It’s actually rather cute, to watch as the boy goes from intent curiosity to embarrassed realization at the knowledge that he’d been interrogating him in the entryway, a hot pink blush dusting his ears and the boy lets go of his hakama to take his hand instead, sheepishly guiding him towards the comfiest seat in the room.

Kisuke should know. He used to have that very armchair in his house before Ichigo had absconded with it as payment. (He really should take it home with him, just to be petty.)

“Sorry,” the boy mumbles, looking a little embarrassed as he seats his guest. “Don’t tell Papa, but I sometimes sleep here at night. So what’s your name? I’ve seen your picture, but every time I ask, Papa calls you Hat-n-Clogs and Momma calls you Basketcase.”

Kisuke snorts violently. If he wasn’t so amused, he’d almost be offended.

“I’ve answered to both of those names often enough,” Kisuke says, tone wryly amused. “But if it pleases you, feel free to call me Urahara-san.” No matter his behavior and his… stunning looks… this little one was still a child, and barely knew him aside. No matter how much he resembled Kaien…

Shaking his head, he refocuses on his very young host, who is fussing around him to ensure he - and Benehime (how thoughtful!) - are nice and comfortable before he climbs up to an armrest.

“Okay Urahara-san!” The boy is very amiable, and quite obviously happy to know his name at last. “Do you want some tea?” the boy asks, eyes wide. “Momma always says good tea means happy visitors.” He’s obviously trying to be polite, and Kisuke smiles, charmed.

“If you’d please,” he says with a little chuckle, offers his hand to allow the small boy to climb down safely. “Of course, your mother did always have the better manners, out of the two of your parents.” Shaking his head with a chuckle, he continues. “If you can, I’d love a cup of green tea with honey, if you’re offering. How old are you, Kaien - ah, Kai?” He immediately corrects himself, and feels a flash of guilt at the sight of hurt in those green eyes.

Dammit.

“Kaien’s okay, Urahara-san,” the boy says, the hurt vanishing into the ether as though he’d never experienced it. But Kisuke had been a spy and had made a living being able to read people. The mistakenly given name was not something the boy was unused to, and he bites his lip, upset that Kai would take such dismissal of himself so lightly. Firmly secure on the floor, the boy adds, “I hear it often enough from Momma when she thinks Papa or I aren’t able to hear her.”

Kisuke’s heart breaks a little.

The boy trots off towards the kitchen door, peering over and beaming. “Yay! Momma and Papa left the tea set somewhere I can reach, so I can make you tea!” The boy refocuses on him after a moment, beaming as he adds, “and I’m seven! But, like, an old seven,” he says, making Kisuke’s lips twitch upwards at the innocent, joyfully cute way he said such a thing. Trotting off, Kai goes after his targets.

He can see how the boy assembles his tea set, fetches the finest green tea in the tea cabinet, and gets the candles.

And of course, the honey.

While watching, Kisuke allows his mind to wander. He’s… well, he’s not sure how he would have taken the situation even forearmed, he thinks. Of course, with Ichigo being a Shiba, he’d resemble Isshin’s side of the family no matter what, and with Rukia having such dark hair, well, genetic dominance was certainly a factor.

But those eyes… Silently, he considers. What did happen to souls that passed on? Obviously, human souls reincarnated. That was merely the way of the world, but he’d never known for a pure soul to reincarnate into the human world. That was far more unusual.

Of course, Kaien’s soul had been through quite the conga line, having been hollowfied, reformed into an Arrancar, sent to Hell, and then purified again.

Not to mention the unique physiology of both parents. Ichigo, of course, had his feet in both camps, a son of Quincy and Human on one side, and a son of a Soul on the other, no matter his choice of living full-time in the human world.

Putting that aside, Kisuke allows for a rare moment of pride.

Damn his gigai were fucking good - this was proving to be the second generation capable of reproduction, Ichigo being the prime example of the first.

Of course, that made other questions come to mind, though he sets it aside when his young host finally approaches, setting the tea down with a bubbly smile and childishly overeager hand gesticulations that are a truly uncanny reminder of Kaien himself.

Tuning into the boy’s words, he cannot suppress a smile at the realization that the boy is telling him all about his first attempt of making tea all by himself - he understands the pride a child feels at such an act - and all of the silly shenanigans that had come from that.

He could see their reactions now - Rukia, with a hand over her mouth to hide her embarrassed smile, and Ichigo, laughing himself silly at his son’s childish whimsy.

“... Momma tried to pretend she couldn’t hear the teacup crashing, even though it landed right next to her foot!” The boy rambles, a freshly prepared cup of green tea and honey in hand as he shyly - and a little clumsily - climbed up to the armrest, presenting his tea with the same pride Ururu had, so long ago. “I hope you like the tea,” the boy says shyly, suddenly nervous. “I don’t normally get to make tea for guests.”

Kisuke takes the tea, smiling warmly all the while, even as his mind races. That storytelling, the way he gestured as he told his little tale… it’s almost uncanny, and not for the first time, Kisuke wonders which parent was responsible for Kai’s name.

Of course, a little pang strikes at his heart - he can almost see Ururu there, the little girl he had raised so proudly displaying her first cup of tea for him that she’d made on her own - and he mourns, yet again, having an empty home.

Things simply weren’t the same without a child around to liven things up.

Graciously, Kisuke takes a careful sip, smiling the whole while. He’d not expected it to be very good, but to his great surprise… It's quite decent, for a child his age. This blend has a bit of ginseng in it, he notes, and the inexpert - though lovingly done - cup has just the faintest hint. It’s a little sharper than he prefers, but he dutifully drinks it all the same, so as to allow the little one his joy.

“You did an excellent job,” Kisuke praises, watching Kai beam enthusiastically at his praise. “I’m honored that you found me worthy of such good tea-making skills,” he adds, eyes crinkling with amusement.

Green watches him avidly, before their owner beams, a full megawatt smile so similar to Kaien’s effusions of praise as the boy curls up on the armrest like a small kitten.

Perhaps he should bring Yoruichi around, just for a little bit. It’d be fun, he thinks, to see how the boy treated her.

“Really?” The boy knocks him out of his fond musings, Kai looking delighted. A tiny hand adjusts his hat, and he allows the boy to do so, surprised he simply didn’t take the hat off entirely, merely readjusted it. He’s grateful, however, that the boy didn’t remove it in its entirety. “I’ve practiced lots and lots when Auntie Yuzu’s visiting, but I’m not as good as Momma or Papa yet,” the boy sighs, despondent. “They’re real tea makers.” Kisuke’s lips twitch up into a smile at the wistfulness.

“Well, they are older than you,” Kisuke says, wondering if his words were true, or an unintended falsehood.

Which brings him back to Kai’s curious question from earlier. Leaning back, he suppresses an amused smile as he continues on, “You do remind me of Kaien very much. We were in the military together, for a time. I was a Captain, and he was a Lieutenant - He would have made Lieutenant straight out of the academy if he hadn’t been so determined to not be.” Chuckling, Kisuke remembers how often Kaien had turned down Ukitake-taichou, fondly indulgent.

“We met at a party, of course, and became best of friends during them. He was quite the joker - I never knew if I would need to stop drinking my tea because he would deliver the perfect punchline at the worst personal timing for me, or if he’d taunt me into a drinking game.” Grinning, Kisuke adds fondly, “And he was always waving his hands around - sometimes, he forgot he was holding things, and he stained so many uniforms,” Kisuke says, chuckling. “Of course, Captains wore white, so I was always such a tempting target. People would take one look at me and go ‘ah, you were with Kaien-kun again’.”

Kai giggles shyly, hands pressed against his mouth. The boy clearly admired him, and knowing his upbringing, he probably thought the military to be a very respectable job. Kisuke was looking forward to tarnishing that reputation.

“You didn’t invent on the spot cleaner?” The boy asks curiously, and Kisuke takes in his small host as he speaks. “Papa said you make lots of neat inventions,” Kai says, and Kisuke smiles, amused and fond as the boy adds, “Couldn’t you have done something to keep your coat from getting dirty?”

Ah. A quick glance shows the house is spotless. He hadn’t taken Ichigo as the type to be a neat-freak, but he supposed being a parent would change such priorities in life.

He nearly spits out his tea however, when his mind catches up to the boy’s words, swallowing hastily so he can answer his young guest. Certainly, he could have, but he was often in the pursuit of science - a few measly messes was but a small price to pay for his experiments.

“I think it’s only fair to admit that I didn’t really keep the uniform clean,” Kisuke says with a smile. “You see, clothes were not very important to me compared to my work. I’m sure given time, I could have invented such a cleaner, but truthfully, I spent far more time in my lab making messes than I ever did cleaning them up.”

Oh. Whoops. He was probably confusing the poor child - the idea of the military was a rather strict one, but the moment he chose to tell a tale weeeeeell… he always did enjoy teasing children, and watching them try to figure out what was true or not was always so much fun.

Kisuke wondered if that was a little mean.

Kai is frowning a little, looking thoughtful. “How did people know you were near Kaien then? If being messy was your usual look, how was anyone supposed to know when you were messier because of him?” The boy looks at him, all wide-eyed, eager innocence. “Besides, Papa said you have kids. Wouldn’t you have invented a cleaner by then?”

Kisuke can already see it - as the inheritor of Kaien, poor Kai probably attracted dirt like a magnet, even if he did nothing more special than homework.

Amused, he listens on.

“Did he make special stains or something?” Kai sounds deadly serious, and he’s glad he’d finished his cup of tea. Spitting it out would have been funny, but incurably rude. Chuckling, Kisuke reaches out to ruffle dark hair.

“I was only referring to parties, Kai-kun,” Kisuke managed with nary a trembling lip to show his amusement beyond a chuckle. “I did at least try to arrive to meetings in a clean -” Kisuke clears his throat rather than allow the words to leap from his lips. “... Uniform.” Damn. He’d almost said haori - despite how long it had been. “Kaien and I were in different divisions, you see, so we rarely saw each other on duty. When off-duty, we wore uniforms at the get-togethers.” Here he winks. “That’s when people realized that we were spending time together. But when we were out on our own...”

Quickly, Kisuke glances at his small host. The boy’s eyes are shining with interest, and he gives the boy a little smile.

It was rather obvious that Kai was living a rather sheltered life, if he didn’t know what his parents truly did on the side.

“Mmm… when we were out on our own, we’d wear whatever we liked.” There. That was simple enough. Kai was only seven, after all. He didn’t need the whole kit and caboodle. “I didn’t have children until much, much later.”

The boy wiggles a little in his seat, visibly pouting, and Kisuke can’t help the amused smile as it grows on his face.

“Oh.” The disappointment is palpable, but the boy rallies fiercely, to Kisuke’s amusement. “Did you like wearing the uniform? How often did you get to see Kaien? Do parties happen often for you guys?” The boy bounces a little in his seat, eager. “Papa says you invented things for a living, so did you get to meet people more often than other Captains and learn all sorts of things, right?” At the puppy-like radiance, Kisuke leans back, just a smidge.

My. It seemed that a certain pair of someones certainly didn’t talk about the Gotei, with these rapid-fire questions. In fact, there was a certain… lack of noble graces that he was quite surprised about - he’d have thought Rukia would have drilled manners into her little boy.

Though, looking at Kai, he had quite the niggling suspicion as to why the boy was so graceless. If so, there were words to be had with Miss Kuchiki.

But for now, he supposed a little mischief was in order. It’s been a while since he’d had such a young audience. “Well, I can’t say I ever cared very much for the uniform. To me, it was just a place where I worked. But Kaien… he took such pride in his work, and he was excellent at it. He took it so seriously that often, he didn’t have much free time, but when he did, he loved to have fun and go to parties.” A sly grin crosses his face. This outta be good. “It’s true, of course, that I was - and still am - an inventor. But that wasn’t how I got to know all sorts of things.”

Kisuke leans in, and his young host does as well, eyes wide.

“Before I became a captain, I was a prison guard. And a spy.”

Kai blinks. Once. Twice. Then, his round eyes gleam like Yoruichi spying unattended fish on a counter. A little gasp, and Kisuke knew he had the little one hooked. The boy takes his tea cup, brimming with questions.

“Really? What was it like? Were people in the prison interesting? Did you meet Kaien being a super-sneaky spy? Where did you travel?” He’s a fount of questions, even as his good manners insist upon refreshing his tea, to which Urahara accepts with a little chuckle and nod of thanks to the little boy. Kai quickly clambers back up, and he smiles down at the boy. He was quite the little extrovert, wasn’t he?

At this point, the parallels were simply… uncanny.

“Oh, I travelled all over the countryside, hunting down deserters, mostly. Of course, a good spy never works alone, when you’re going after capturing dangerous people,” Kisuke sips at his tea, radiating enjoyment. “Of course, not everyone allowed themselves to survive being captured...” A wicked grin, and Kai gives him an amazed little squeak.

Ah, he missed telling stories so much! Perhaps he ought to babysit more often. Orihime and Ishida’s little ones were about three or so now - they’d likely be glad to have some time for themselves in exchange for him babysitting them.

Plans, plans.

Lowering his tea cup, Kisuke chuckles. “The prisoners were some of the most interesting people I’d ever met, of course, being such dangerous minds,” Kisuke really shouldn’t tease the little boy, but he was a perfect audience, expressive as he was, little squeaks and wide eyes. “But no, I didn’t meet Kaien until I became a captain. Of course, there was always no shortage of places we needed to get in - or out of - in a hurry, places we weren’t supposed to be, and times we weren’t allowed to uh… technically, leave. Being a spy came quite in handy for that,” he says, grinning.

Ichigo was going to hit him with a bucket of soapy water, he could already tell. He was quite the corrupting influence on the youth of today.

Kai lights up, as he should when faced with a fun, relatively light-hearted story.

“Dangerous minds?” The boy wiggles off of the chair to go fetch some tea sweets, offering him one to his amusement. That boy was just like Kaien, trying to stuff people full of food. “Does that mean you had the most dangerous mind of all?” Kai asks, nibbling on his own tea sweet, swallowing, and then continuing on. “So you and Kaien got really good at sneaking? Papa used to say Auntie Kuu would complain lots and lots about him sneaking out of the house at night.”

Looking around, Kai leans in, and amused, Kisuke does the same. “Can you teach me your sneaky-spy skills? Momma and Papa are always super protective. Once I get home, I can’t stick a nose out of the door without them finding out,” he says, drooping.

Kisuke smiles a little, pets the fluffy mop of hair with a gentle encouragement for the boy to eat his sweet. He wasn’t sure, of course, how that part of the conversation had gone… the most dangerous mind of all… Did he really deserve such a title? He suspected it really belonged to another, though he wouldn’t deny he was a strong contender.

“I think, if you asked anyone back then, they would have whole-heartedly agreed and said so,” was the mused statement. “I was accused of a crime, in the end, and had to leave - I gave up being a captain, and then moved here.” A little smile. That had spelled the end of the best of times with Kaien, though his friend had been nothing if not determined to make him smile. “After that, I didn’t get to see Kaien much, though he snuck off to see me as often as he was able. It was always good to see him when he did.”

The two of them sit in somber silence for a moment, before Kisuke perks up. Now, Ichigo was definitely going to smack him one, but oh, the possibilities… “I think it runs in your family,” Kisuke tells the little boy, who perks up at his cheer. “You see, your grandfather snuck off once and got mixed up in the worst sort of trouble. That’s how he met and married your grandmother, you know.” Grinning, he continues, despite knowing Ichigo would most certainly be giving him grief, as well as Rukia. “Of course, I can’t count the number of times I helped your Papa sneak off too. If you’re determined, I’ll teach you when you’re older.”

Oh, now he’d done it. The child had been a little skeptical before, but now he was incredulous, eyeing him with the same hefty skepticism Ichigo had, all those years ago when they first met.

“No way.” The boy lunges forward to hug him, nice and tight, and Kisuke really appreciated his warmth, how generous the boy was - that clearly hadn’t changed between lifetimes. “Are you serious? Papa would never sneak off!” The boy says, and Kisuke smothers a smile, though the boy perks happily at his comforting having helped, clearly. “There’s no way Papa would have snuck off - Momma would be so mad,” he says, wide-eyed.

It was really so funny, to learn what kind of married couple Rukia and Ichigo had become, though he supposed their marriage dynamic was still more or less the same as when they’d simply been friends.

Oh yes, they were going to kill him, but what could he say?

In for a penny, in for a pound.

“Oh? Did I forget? Silly me,” Kisuke says with a grin. “Your mom snuck off too. Got herself in tons of trouble and ran away from home.” Oh yes, Kai was enraptured now, eyes wide as dinner plates as he followed along, increasingly incredulous. “She stayed with your Papa, even. Now, don’t tell your mom I said this, but she hid out in your dad’s closet.”

Oh am I a dead man, Kisuke thinks in amusement. But it was worth it, just to watch his surprise and amazement.

“So, tell you what,” Kisuke says, and Kai’s head swivels towards him. “If we keep this conversation a secret, next time I come by, I’ll teach you some sneaky spy tricks, okay? And maybe a few more stories about Kaien.”

The boy’s practically vibrating, and it’s cute.

“Okay!” he bursts outs, lifting his pinkie up with all of his childish enthusiasm. “Do you want to make a pinky promise with me? Auntie Yuzu showed me how! That way you know for sure I won’t tell anyone!” Kisuke’s heart melts a little bit.

What a cute kid. Chuckling, he allows himself to be coaxed through the ritual, the two hooking their little fingers together and tugging.

Almost unknown, something shifted, an old, worn connection that had frayed with absence lacing together once more. There was simply nothing to it - just like Ichigo, Kisuke would have to keep a weather eye on this precocious child.

Smiling, he allows the boy to hop of the armrest and scurry off to make him yet another cup of tea, an amused, fond indulgence.

(In the depths of his heart, the forged connection of a soul revived glows)

#BLEACH #SHIBA KAIEN #KAIEN SHIBA #KISUKE URAHARA #URAHARA KISUKE #BLEACH AU #BLEACH FANFICTION #. oo1 . STORY #STORY

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carewyncromwell · 3 years

Photo

“A waltz when she walks in the room, She pulls back the hair from her face. She turns to the window to sway in the moonlight... Even her shadow has grace. A waltz for the girl out of reach, She lifts her hands up to the sky. She moves with the music; The song is her lover; The melody's making her cry... So she dances, in and out of the crowd, like a glance... This romance is from afar, calling me silently...”

~“So She Dances,” by Josh Groban

x~x~x~x

And to cap off my set of Valentine’s Day posts where I feature my MC’s and someone they care about...last but not least is my HPHL kelpie kid Ru! In the above picture, they’re pictured with Galen Stagg, who belongs to @cursebreakerfarrier, but this picture, this post, and this basic AF pencil test animation are actually about Ru’s relationship with their “keeper” and ttly-not-girlfriend Estrid Soelberg @that-ravenpuff-witch! (I wanted to overlay the two images, but the online sources I tried using to do so weren’t cooperating, so...eh. Here they are separately. XD)

When the kelpie who’d taken on the identity of the Ravenclaw student Rudolph Ollivander first encountered Estrid Soelberg, they did not like her. How could they, when it was because of her that they now wore a silver chain around their neck that she could use like a “leash” and keep them from transforming back into their true form and eating anything or anyone she disapproved of? Naturally Estrid didn’t care for Ru much either -- and really, considering that they nearly ate a first year, that also was pretty understandable. Over time, though, Estrid’s stance softened somewhat, upon realizing that there was an oddly sympathetic side to the carnivorous kelpie.

For one, Ru absolutely loved being at Hogwarts. It wasn’t obvious at first, given how laid-back and aloof they were, but their electric blue eyes were always bright and aware, never missing out on a single detail. Ru would spend hours and hours every day in the Hogwarts library, devouring every book they could. They would explore every corner of the castle grounds and memorize every shred of knowledge that came under their nose. They collected knick knacks and jewelry from Hogsmeade, even going so far as to pierce their ears in their third year, to the horror of all of the adults, both inside and outside of school. And this didn’t even touch on Ru’s great passion for history, magical creatures, Herbology, art, and especially photography. Their still Muggle photographs were always crystal clear and striking, from a view of the Black Lake taken from the Owlery to close-ups on the details of the winged boar statues near the front gates. Ru’s Muggle-style photography came alive in a way that magical photography -- which was still in its infancy and quite low in quality -- couldn’t capture. On the Christmas break of their third year, Ru also discovered and became very enamored with Muggle animation, which made crude drawings come to life -- Estrid, despite her best efforts, couldn’t bite back her laughter upon finding out that Ru had requested the permission of one of the snobbier girls in their year to use her as a model for an animation, only for the finished product to end up being of the girl picking her nose with her pinky finger.

As Estrid got to know Ru better, she decided to try showing them more compassion. For as inhuman as Ru was, and how eccentric, cold, and rude as they could be, their enrollment at Hogwarts truly didn’t seem to be motivated by anything malevolent -- it had truly just been the only way they saw for them to attend this school they’d been watching from afar and longed to see up close. And Estrid treating Ru with more respect and kindness, little by little, wore down Ru’s walls enough that they didn’t dislike her quite so much either. She not only was insightful enough to suss out that they didn’t like eating around other people and showed them the Hogwarts kitchens so that they’d have a place where they could eat in peace, but she didn’t see the need to fill the silence with worthless conversation the way so many of their classmates did. She could sometimes just let a moment be, let the emotions and time just rest for a while. With that, though, Estrid was actually a rather interesting person too, in her own way. She had her fair share of admirers for her appearance (which Ru acknowledged was decent enough, by human sensibilities), but she seemed actively disinterested and uncomfortable about it, instead being the type who was unafraid of being on her own. And yet despite this, Estrid truly wasn’t a loner like Ru was -- she had a gentle hand with creatures of all kinds, an artistic eye, and a soft smile that she rarely showed to much of anyone, but was always sincere. Most striking of all to Ru, though, was the way she moved when she danced. The way her limbs bent and stretched with such grace fascinated Ru. They wished they could slow down time sometimes, just to analyze every tiny little flick of her fingers or flourish of her ankle. Knowing that they couldn’t take enough pictures to capture the grace of her movements, and not yet having a camera that could take moving pictures, Ru settled on trying to animate Estrid. Most of the animations were very crude in the beginning, consisting of nothing but stick figures, but little by little, Ru studied the proportions of the human body (very different than that of a kelpie!) and tried to refine their technique. And before long, all of their animations ended up being modeled on Estrid some way or another -- the vast majority of them being her dancing ballet.

Another person who’d be in the room sometimes when Estrid was dancing was their yearmate Galen Stagg, who often practiced the piano while Estrid was dancing. Ru found the Gryffindor inoffensive for the most part -- like Ru and Estrid, he had a talent for Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures (Ru could sense that Galen in particular had a magical gift for communicating with creatures, even more than Ru themselves did, considering they were actually a kelpie), so sometimes the three of them would end up in the library studying at the same table before a test. Galen was a bit of pansy to Ru’s taste, given his dislike for conflict or confrontation, but he like Estrid was soft-spoken enough that he never gave Ru any real headaches.

One day while Estrid was dancing and Ru sat off on the sidelines (sitting with their legs crumpled up in such a manner that one could wonder if they’d ever learned how to cross their legs properly), Galen took a break from playing to come over and sit down next to the messily-dressed Ravenclaw on the floor. Although he himself really enjoyed drawing too, he’d always felt like Ru tolerated him more than liked him and so had been hesitant to ask Ru if he could see any of their artwork. This day, though, he finally mustered up the courage to ask.

“...May...may I see what you’re working on?”

Ru lowered the page they’d lifted to fine-tune and shot a look out the side of their eye at him.

“...It’s not finished,” they said bluntly.

“That’s all right!” said Galen self-consciously. “That is...I don’t mind, if it’s still sketchy.”

Ru considered him for a moment silently. Just when Galen opened his mouth, ready to say that Ru didn’t have to if they didn’t want to, the kelpie held their sketchbook out in one hand for Galen to take.

With a surprised, but relieved blink, Galen took it and looked at the top page. It was still only a cluster of loosely connected circles and ovals, but Galen could just barely make out what it was.

“It’s Estrid,” he realized, his jade-colored eyes lighting up. “Isn’t it?”

Ru nodded curtly, their gaze drifting off to watch Estrid at the barre.

“That’s just the last frame,” they said in a very low, nonchalant voice.

“Frame?”

“Of animation. Pick up the next eight pages and flip them one by one.”

Galen did so -- and to his delight, he watched as the little cluster of ovals and circles unfolded its arms and spread them in a graceful arc that flourished at the wrists.

“Wow, Ru,” said Galen, impressed, “it looks just like Estrid! I mean, the movement looks just like hers. You really captured the grace of her arms.”

Ru’s electric blue eyes swiveled absently in Galen’s direction, but they didn’t turn around or meet his eyes. Instead their gaze returned to Estrid as they brought up a hand and smoothed some of their long black hair behind their ear.

“...You reckon?” they asked, their quiet voice oddly contemplative.

Galen looked at Ru, surprised. Were they...blushing?

Feeling a wave of compassion for the Ravenclaw all of a sudden, Galen offered them a smile.

“...Yeah. It’s really nice, Ru. I’m sure it’ll be smashing when it’s done.”

Ru’s eyes stayed on Estrid, narrowing slightly.

“The way she moves...” they said lowly, “I’ve never seen anyone else move like that. Even other dancers. It...seems like something that shouldn’t just disappear into the void, when the moment is over...like everything does, sooner or later. I’ve tried to photograph her before, but it doesn’t capture the movement. Even when I take a lot of still pictures one right after another, or when I actively try to get shots that blur, it doesn’t work. And magical photographs...hmph! They’re an absolute joke. They deteriorate so easily, and their quality is atrocious.”

Galen smiled sympathetically. “Well, wizards really have only had them for a short while...I reckon they might need a little time to catch up, right?”

Ru scoffed loudly through their nose and mouth, sounding rather like an offended horse. “It’s pathetic.”

They rested their hands behind them on the floor, leaning back slightly.

“So...the only way I could try to capture the way she moves -- to make it last, past that moment, was to draw it. It’s not exactly easy to get her hands right, though,” they added sourly under their breath.

“Hands are every artist’s Achilles’s heel, I think,” said Galen with a quiet laugh.

His green eyes softened. “...You really care about Estrid a lot, don’t you?”

Ru’s face flushed a bit more darkly as they whirled on him with a glare.

“Don’t read too much into it, Stagg. I find her movements interesting. That’s all.”

Despite Ru’s denials, however, Galen thought to himself that Estrid was pretty lucky, to have someone in her life who’d put in so much effort to try to memorialize her in a lasting way. He wondered if Ru even realized just how sweet and selfless of an instinct that really was.

#hphl #hogwarts legacy #my art #my writing #ru ollivander #estrid soelberg #galen stagg #other people's mcs #I hope galen's written all right honey!#I couldn't find any writing samples for him so I kind of just used the characterization you put down for him as a kick-off point #of course galen is dressed like a proper student while ru is a friggin' mess #you might spot their silver 'bridle' chain around their neck under their collar #and yeah ru doesn't know how tf to sit properly with two legs even after all these years #this kid SLOUCHES CONSTANTLY #drawing their hair was fun though #I'd actually used some choreography done for the dance of the sugarplum fairy while doing that pencil test #it's basic as all get out but hey whatcha gonna do #it admittedly is still good practice for this one project I REALLY want to do for my blog's first anniversary coming up next month...#I love ru and their tsundereness regarding their feelings for estrid so much okay X3

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tuesdayrising · 4 years

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Lair Review for nevvermore #132590

Buckle up, folks, because this review is a doozy! Over 30 dragons, and ALL OF MY LOVE. As is par for the course when we’re talking reviews. ♥

I absolutely had to start with Morrigan, partly because I wrote her lore for you, and partly because I’m such a sucker for that gold/brown aesthetic. Back in 2017, I was this close to moving to Earth instead of Light, if that tells you anything about my aesthetic preferences. But I also really love that little pop of Shadow around her head! It ties in well to her heritage, and sticks out very neatly!

Plus, she’s ambitious as hell and I adore her for that. ♥

Blue-green and brown is another outstanding combo, and Silail wears it so very, very well! I don’t know anything else about her beyond the implications in Morrigan’s lore (yes, I did notice they’re sisters!), but I’m in love with her anyhow. She just has this very fluid grace to her, and I also think you picked a perfect skin. Plus, Imperials can be super hard to dress, but you’ve pulled it off so well here! Great work on this gal!

Akatsuki is a perfect example of a subtle accent taking a dragon to the next level. Without that Trick of the Light skin, I think his mane would look way too flat, making him a lot more dull over all. This skin, though, adds some brightness and depth in a way that works really well! Plus, I love that he looks like a Fire dragon or Fire-adjacent at first glance, but he’s actually got Ice eyes!

First of all, I love this skin so much. I’ve got it slapped on one of my own Water dragons, and I just adore the way it works. More importantly, though, I’m impressed with how you dealt with Neptune’s tert! Normally, I wouldn’t love Thicket paired with Blue and Teal, but the lantern apparel actually does a huge amount of legwork here. It makes it seem like the green of her tert is actually a result of the lantern’s light, a little bit of ambiance on your deep sea friend. Great work dressing her!

What can I say about Felix except that he looks SO HUGGABLE? Seriously, I just wanna give him a big hug. That skin is absolutely adorable, and it’s making me like a male snapper, which I find hard to do a lot of the time. The big boy beans are typically not my favorite. But this boy? Best boy.

I feel like a big chunk of this review is going to be me commenting on your A+ skin and accent usage. Sparkplug is deceptively simple without much apparel, but I really, really like the accent, and the implications it has for a dragon that (I presume) is part of your flight reps. Did she build it herself? What happened that she needed prosthetics? Or is it armor? I’d love to know more!

Also, Lightning unusual eyes are SUCH a pretty shade of blue.

Again, you’ve got another blue dragon here with a green range tert, but I think I’m fixing on the accent. It’s so cute, all those little shells stuck to Terpsichore, and it makes me wonder if they’re decoration, or if she’s just that lovable to shellfish and can’t bring herself to peel them off.

Unlike Neptune, who you’ve dressed super well and pulled off an odd tert for, I don’t think I care much for Pistachio paired with Periwinkle and Twilight. That said, I love that you managed to make a purple range secondary look blue for cohesiveness!

Turns out Artim is NOT wearing Windbound Plumage, like I thought when I first saw him in your lair. That skin is a solid mimic, though, and I really like it. Plus, it adds a lot of depth and color where Artim would otherwise be a little bit flat and boring, so once again, props for your skin usage! I especially like the way it makes it seem like Artim is growing out of the foliage, rather than the foliage growing off of Artim, if that makes sense. He seems very woodsy and very comfortable.

Sometimes I forget how stinking cute M Faes can be, but Xenon just reminded me PERFECTLY. He’s so swirly and soft and adorable, and I wanna put him in my pocket and take him everywhere! White and Sky make for a classic combo, and that accent makes it look like he’s wayyyyyy up there in the atmosphere, just cruising along.

Also, the little hints of pink in his wings thanks to Facet add just a touch of extra color and depth. He’s perfect!

Chaorite is wearing a Ravenhearst skin. That alone means she’s looking absolutely beautiful as hell. That is all. ♥

I’ll admit I didn’t care for this accent during last year’s Trickmurk, but you’ve made it look great on Ashrah! I can’t decide whether those little fellas are her minions or if they’re pestering her, but I like the way they look on her nonetheless. It’s a shame that purple in the accent isn’t a touch more pink to complement the rosy tones in her primary and tert, but that’s not exactly something you can control.

Triple Terracotta, especially with PyMorph, is truly *chef’s kiss* and I LOVE HER. Can’t say much else about her, since she doesn’t appear to have lore or apparel or anything, but I love her nonetheless. She’s just prettier than hell.

Brigit is wearing one of my all time favorite festival skins, AND she’s rocking another classic color combo. She’s also worth a mention for her unusual familiar. I’ve noticed you’re normally pretty good at familiar matching, but the Deepwater Traveler you’ve put on her doesn’t match at all. Is there a lore reason for that, or are you just awakening your familiar ASAP?

Ooooh, a primal fella! He’s...so bright you can’t avoid looking at him. Honestly, he actually reminds me a little of a paper kite with that skin, like a kite that gained sentience and flew off on its own (but also just wandered because what’s a kite to do when the wind says “NOPE NOT THAT WAY, THIS WAY”?)

Pretzel is an ABSURDLY cute name for a dragon whose species is known for literally tying themselves in knots out of boredom. And yet again, your skin usage is a blast! Love the blue tones this adds to Pretzel, but it also works awesome with her existing orange colors. She’s very Halloweeny.

See, this is the power of a good skin or accent. I rarely like triples because they can be kind of boring, even with cool genes. But you’ve taken Phobus to the next level with a complementary accent, and I ADORE IT. The tiny horns it gives him are so cute, and I’m a sucker for florals when it comes down to it. Plus, those little butterflies on the wings are extra cute! He’s just soft and sweet all around.

A Ravenhearst skin strikes again! I’m not sure how I feel about black and brown together (Sand seems like a shade too brown, where something lighter and a hair closer to the yellows might be nicer with this skin), but at the end of the day, she’s still a lovely, pretty gal. Plus, all the eyes on the skin are like multigaze but more eldritch horror than site-approved cuteness. There could be a lore goldmine there.

Ahi is SO GOOD. An XYY Bane with complementary colors is no small feat, and I really like how fiery he looks despite being an Ice dragon. Have you considered Skink for him, though? That also has orange accents!

I’ll confess that I’m writing this lair review BEFORE writing your lore, but I couldn’t help but pick Varrick. He looks every inch a bard, and I really like that you’ve given him a Shabby Cane! Since it blends in with his wing, at first glance, it almost looks like it could be a bow. That works doubly well with his familiar being a Ghosthost Viola!

Lethe is giving me UNREAL steampunk ghost vibes. Between the apparel and her tert, she strikes me as a Victorian waif with steampunk enhancements come back to haunt whoever tried to make her more automaton than flesh and blood. And do you have lore plans for her? Is Lethe an intentional name? Can she make dragons forget things? I’d love to know more about her!

Cinder absolutely screams “oh no, sir, it’s such a tragedy my third husband died just like the other two and left me his entire fortune, so terrible, so awful” and it’s making me laugh a little! Not that she’s inherently funny-looking so much as the idea of a murderous widow dragon entertains me A LOT. What are your crimes, Lady Cinder? WHY DID YOU KILL YOUR HUSBANDS...

You have SO MANY PERMABABIES and of all of them, I think I like Banshee the most. But that’s probably because red is my favorite color, and I think baby pearls are honestly such cuties, even if they do have to spend all that time adding to their pearls in...such a gross way. Ew.

Green/brown/yellow range dragons are one of the most powerful forces on this site, and Swamp alone is a color with outstanding power. I said what I said, and I’ll stand by it. It makes Medeni a stellar dragon without any lore or apparel.

I remember when Stained first came out, and I brushed it off as a terrible gene to charge gems for. It was a ripoff, slapping a color overlay on a dragon!

How wrong I was.

Coriolis is a perfect example of how Stained can be used to soften a dragon and given them a lovely, lighter air, and it pairs so well with that accent! She makes me think of that stretch between summer and fall where the colors on the trees are beginning to change, but it’s still warm enough to wear shorts as long as the sun’s out. ♥

Another triple rescued from a dull life by a good skin! Obviously, the point of this skin is to evoke a prisoner in the Fortress of Ends, but what could Raiju have been imprisoned for? What warrants all the chains and ice? Is it a fair punishment?

It feels a tiny bit like cheating to pick another dragon I’ve already written for, but I really do adore branch! All the red accents add some cheer to her, and they make her stand out a little more. I think she’d be maybe a little too green otherwise, but you’ve dressed her perfectly! It also makes her seem approachable and warm, which is great for a healer.

I’m genuinely impressed that you have this little Goat Spiral army, and CiumaObake is my favorite of them all in terms of color. Do you just love baby Spirals with Goat eyes, or is there a lore reason behind this tiny baby army?

More importantly, is this lair tab just the FR version of corralling a pet or a toddler while yelling “WHAT IS IN YOUR MOUTH”?

I wasn’t part of FR when this skin came out and I am JEALOUS because it looks so nice on Mist! It’s extra frosty and pretty, with that tiny nosy hint on the rose and wings that makes me think she’s looking at a sunrise. She seems very warm and approachable despite the classic Ice aesthetic, and I think she’s outstanding without a drop of apparel.

Plus, you’ve done wonders with yet another triple!

Vedette is getting a mention for that skin alone. It’s so odd-looking in the best way, and I would love to see if you have lore reasons for his appearance! Is he a mutated Gaoler, or is he another creature entirely?

Between that skin and her Speedy familiar, Lusa is really rocking that threateningly pale witch aesthetic. I’m not sure I’d like to meet her in a dark alley. Or even a well-lit alley, to be honest. She’s vaguely menacing in a great way!

I see you, Bill Cipher. I see you.

And last but not least, Mr. Unnamed, living in your projects tab. He’s got some GREAT colors, and I can’t help but see the potential in him! Using Veined with that Sunset tert could really give him a magmatic sort of appearance. I’d love to see what your ultimate plans for him are!

#tues reviews #flight rising

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juniorformulamotorsport · 5 years

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Sunday, 14th July 2019 – The Yeatman, Vila Nova de Gaia

Sunday night was the blow out meal of the weekend, a 2 Michelin-starred tasting menu in what might be the best hotel in the area, the Yeatman. First, however, we stopped off for a drink in Porto before getting a taxi across to Vila Nova de Gaia. In our search for a good place to get a drink, we stumbled upon the Livraria da Baixa, another of the ex-bookshops that have become other things over the years. There seems to be quite a bit of that going on in Porto. We had yet another porto tonico, and this one was different again. The barman asked us which one we liked best, but they were all good in their own ways.

After we’d finished our drinks we headed to the Intercontinental and asked the concierge to find us a taxi to the Yeatman. It didn’t appear, after all, to be the sort of place we wanted to fetch up in looking all sweaty and dishevelled! Also, we wanted to get there a little early so we could have a second round of drinks in Dick’s Bar up there. We’d heard it had excellent views. The taxi pulled up and several uniformed doormen appeared to hold doors open and point the way for us.

It’s very nice! We were escorted in, shown to the restaurant, and asked if we could start the evening in the bar. We were soon installed in a table on the terrace overlooking the river and it is certainly reasonable to say they have a view. As well as the river, and Porto opposite, you get a view of the gardens and the swimming pool – the latter appeared to be full of seagulls using it as a giant birdbath. Perhaps they have a better class of seagull at the Yeatman. Who knows!

Armed with a port cocktail each we dragged our attention away from the seagulls, and towards the view. The weather was not as clear as we might have liked, but the vista is still pretty impressive, even without sunshine and blue skies. I rather imagine in fine weather it would be gorgeous.

The port cocktails were pretty good too!

We decided it was best not to have a second round, and instead moved across to the restaurant to start dinner. There is only the tasting menu (at €170 per person), but if, as we did, you reserve online, this is emailed to you along with your confirmation so you can let the restaurant know if there is anything you don’t eat. In our case it was the pork option, so we let them know and then relaxed into the evening, knowing we’d be well looked after. I should also say that the restaurant has great views, but we weren’t on a window table (I assume those probably go to people actually staying at the hotel), so I only got a photo at the end of the evening.

The first thing that happened, given the Yeatman is part of the Taylor’s port group, was that we were offered a glass of white port as an aperitif while we looked at the menu to make sure it was still to our liking, and we checked the wine list and decided on that or the matching wines chosen by the restaurant for an extra €75 for 6 different wines). The wines in question can also all be bought through the Yeatman Wine Club so it was really easy to establish what we’d had for once. The aperitif was a glass of Churchill’s Dry White which is rather more sweet than the name implies, though it still has a good, dry finish and peppery notes that would probably mean it’s good with cheese too. It worked very well in the heat, well chilled as it was, even if taking a good sniff of it left condensation all over the glass!

Before the first course of the tasting menu arrived, our first glass of wine was delivered, a Filipa Pato 3b Rosé (https://www.theyeatmanwineclub.com/en/espumante-filipa-pato-rose-3b) or more precisely perhaps Filipa Pato & William Wouter 3B Metodo Traditional Rosé, Bairrada, Beiras, Portugal, fresh, elegant, sparkling and just the thing with the parade of amuse bouches that arrived next.

First up, however, was a pair of cool towels for us to freshen up with, which were much welcomed.

The first morsels of food started to appear! And they were good! The first items was described as a Cocktail of apple, spinach and kale (manzana, espinacas y col) and was served with a very fresh bowl of oyster, jalapeños and apples with was fresh from the apples, tasted of the sea and packed a lively punch from the jalapeños.

It was soon joined by a tiny selection of “fish and chips” with two tangles of thinly chipped potato, and a piece of batters fish each. It was both fun and fabulous, and it was quite clear that the kitchen and the chef know what they are doing and have a sense of humour.

The cocktail was delicious (and may be the only way to deal with kale in a way that makes it palatable rather than like trying to eat crispy cardboard)! It was also a slightly alarming shade of green, with sweetness from the apple overlaying a slight cabbage-y bitterness.

The next round was barbeque chicken, and again demonstrated both humour and skill with a chicken sandwich, a smoked chicken oyster in panko breadcrumbs, and a chicken liver mousse, and superb even to those of us who normally avoid chicken (mostly for fear of how it might have been raised, though I rather suspect that the Yeatman is as concerned about provenance as Lynne and I are).

The final round of amuse bouches was tuna-based with a bonito “nitrogeno” that was tartare-style…

And a tuna “sandwich”, with fish roe and mayonnaise wrapped in a nori seaweed sheet. It was a fun thing, full of flavour and it came with its own little dramatic reveal from inside a scroll of paper that the waiter then opened at the table. I was liking this place, because although there is a formality to the Yeatman, there is also a great deal of playfulness, and the staff could not be friendlier.

The sommelier brought the next wine, an Ilha do Pico Arinto 2017, from the Azores and fermented in oak vats for 6 months. The result is incredibly drinkable, especially with seafood, which is where the menu started. It doesn’t look as if it often escapes from the Portuguese speaking world, which is a pity because I really enjoyed it and would like to drink more of it.

It went brilliants with the Gamba Blanca (crayfish) with crab and clams. The crab and clams were in the form of a neat little beignet, and we were encouraged to use our hands to eat it rather than being wussy and using cutlery, neat though the cutlery was.

There was a sauce with it that needed to be scooped up and smeared on the beignet, and it was a positive pleasure to do just that. The dish was described as including chawanmushi, a traditional Japanese appetiser of steamed savoury egg custard and usually full of things like prawns, fish cake, mushrooms and so on so I assume that was what was holding the crab and clam mix together.

The crayfish came separately, carrying on the egg custard theme but being decorated with what the French would probably call mimosa style eggs, coriander and a traditional broth. It was a most excellent portion of shrimp, prawn, crayfish, whatever you want to call it.

We had moved, oenologically, onto a new white wine, this time a glass of Anselmo Mendes Parcela Unica 2016, made from Alvarinho grapes. We got the expected peach, citrus and minerality from it, which went well with the shrimp, and also with the cuttlefish that was brought out next. These were tiny cuttlefish served two ways, with fried rice and with a gloriously unctuous spicy Hollandaise sauce. The first pieces were served an a plate possibly made from a dried cuttlefish, which just made me laugh…

It also tasted good, especially dredged through the spicy Hollandaise sauce.

The other pieces came on a plate decorated with octopus shapes. It seemed a lot of trouble to go to, but then it’s that sort of place.

We knew we’d moved on from fish when the waiters brought us some butter in a very stylish box…

There was also a dish of olive oil, the oil a lovely shade of golden yellow that instantly made me want to dunk some bread in it.

That was made possible when the loaf of sourdough was put in front of us.

We had reached what would usually be the suckling pig course, but the restaurant swapped things round and served us the national beef first. It was a small but perfectly cooked piece, the iron of the rare meet working brilliantly with the roasted spring onion, the Jerusalem artichoke puree, and the rich, deep civet sauce. The meat would probably have fallen apart with just the application of a spoon, but we used our knives, cutting small pieces to try and make it last as long as possible. With it was drank a mighty fine, deep Maria João Private Collection 2008 from the Dão, and made possibly from Alfrocheiro, Aragonez, Touriga Nacional, and Jaen grapes (at least the 2010 was), with notes of chocolate, toasted cocoa, spices and dried red fruits that I definitely picked up.

If the beef and wine combination was good, the replacement for the suckling pig, which came next was sublime. It was the same accompaniments or mango, coconut and chilli, but served with two perfectly cooked pigeon breasts, the skin beautifully seasoned and crsip. We drank a Boavista Reserva 2015. I’ve seen the wine described as “deep ruby colour. Complex, deep, intense and seductive hints of both red and black fruit, plus tobacco, spices and dark chocolate”. I see no reason to disagree with that assessment.

The last of the pigeon was gone, and it was on to the home straight for a dessert or two, starting with wild strawberries (in different textures), including a soup served in a wonderfully complicated drinking vessel. This definitely was essence of strawberries in all their wonderful forms, and it was a brilliant way to complete an excellent meal. Especially with a glass of Adega de Favaios Moscatel Colheita 1999, a sweet white moscatel instead of a port, but made with much the same levels of care, commitment and, dare I say it, obsession to create an ideal dessert wine. The Moscatel Galego grape produces a clear, bright, golden coloured wine, with citrus freshness and honeyed sweetness that matches fruit as well as chocolate. It’s a wonderful wine.

There was also São Tomé chocolate (with toasted corn, toffee, and whipped cream) which came along with the terrifyingly well-stocked petit fours trolley. We resisted the temptation of an offer to let us have a piece of everything on the trolley because I think we’d have needed to be put of trolleys to be taken out to the foyer if we’d done that.

I did weaken and have a tiny doughtnut, and a pastel de nata though, along with a cute little meringue.

We turned down the offer of infusions or coffee and were presented with a copy of the menu each in a lovely sealed envelope, along with a list of the wines we’d drunk. It was a lovely evening, and we were more than happy to get a taxi back to the Intercontinental instead of trying to walk to the metro (which would be doable, but who wantes to after a meal like that, right?)

Food 2019 – The Yeatman, Vila Nova de Gaia Sunday, 14th July 2019 - The Yeatman, Vila Nova de Gaia Sunday night was the blow out meal of the weekend, a 2 Michelin-starred tasting menu in what might be the best hotel in the area, …

#2019 #Bars #Cocktails #Cooking #Dick&039;s Bar #Dinners #Drink #Europe #Food #Food and Drink #Hospitality #Hotels #Porto #Portugal #Restaurants #The Yeatman #Travel #Vila Nova de Gaia #Wine

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stanprokopenko · 6 years

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How to Paint From a Black and White Photograph

Every now and then you might get that commission from someone who wants you to paint their father’s high school photo. Since you can’t rely on the reference for your colors, you’ll have to invent.

I wouldn’t jump into the painting and hope for the best. Something like this needs preparation, especially if it’s a commission.

In this tutorial I’ll be using my ‘Brothers’ painting as an example. Lately, I’ve been exploring my family albums for reference and unfortunately, most of the older photos are black and white.

1. Gather Color Reference

Gather as much color reference as you can to help guide you in inventing the colors in your painting. This can be a colored photo with a similar subject. Or it can be a painting by an artist you really admire.

Similar Color Photos

This can be one or a combination of photos. If you’re looking at multiple sources for color ideas make sure that the two photos have similar lighting. You don’t want one to be lit by an overcast sky and another to be lit by a fireplace. This can cause more problems than it solves. Also, keep in mind that the color temperature of the light source plays a big part in the colors on the subject. I’ll talk more about that later.

Stage a ‘Similar’ Scene

Another option is to actually stage a similar scene and take a photo. The subject doesn’t have to be exact, since you’re only concerned with the color harmonies. But the important part about this is to properly light the subject. For example let’s say you get a commission to do a painting of a fair skinned woman. Find a friend that has fair skin and light her with a similar light source. Make sure the light is coming from the same angle and that you decide whether you want a cool light source or warm light source. With so many light bulb options available, you can mimic a fireplace or blue sky – 1000Bulbs.com. Then, paint the original black and white photograph, but borrow the colors from the photo you took.

In my painting, I didn’t use photographs for color reference, but instead, decided that I wanted a similar color feel as some of Morgan Weistling’s paintings…

Other Artist’s Paintings

No, this isn’t stealing… Every color combination has been explored thousands of times by artists at one point or another. You’re simply using their work for inspiration.

You’ll hear me mention Morgan Weistling in many of my posts, since I’m currently very inspired by his work. So, I go to him whenever I need help figuring out my own paintings. I’m also very attracted to the colors he uses and it fits the mood I’m going for. He uses a lot of greys and browns. I’ve always liked using grey in my paintings. You might be different though… Find a role model that shares a similar taste in color as you and study their color compositions and harmonies. Can you find any patterns in the way they select their colors?

2. Color Studies

Overlay in Photoshop

A quick method is to do an overlay in Photoshop. Create a new layer on top of the photo and place large strokes of color over it. This is the method I used for my painting to figure out the color composition.

The color composition in this case would be a version of the split complementary color scheme. Most of the painting is in the red-purple-blue range with yellow as the accent color. The brightest yellow is in the apple.

Thumbnails

If you don’t have experience in Photoshop then the traditional method will be best for you. Paint a small version of the photo, called a thumbnail. The trick with thumbnails is to not get caught up with the details. You’re not trying to create a miniature masterpiece. You’re simply working out the color relationships. Use a brush that you think might be too big for the job.

Explore Your Options

When doing these studies it might help to think of the various color schemes (analogous, complimentary, triadic etc…). That’s a whole tutorial in itself. Try to do more than one color scheme since then you can compare and choose the best one. Again, stay simple so you don’t spend all your time on thumbnails.

Consider doing a low key, medium key and high key version too… Is your painting going to be dominated by muted earth tones? Or, maybe brighter colors fit the painting better.

3. Invent the Colors

Don’t Forget About the Values

Once you actually start your painting, it’s important to remember that you’re inventing the colors not the values. Try to stay true to the values in the photograph, unless you have a good reason to deviate. Mix a color that has the same value as in the photograph.

Reflected Light

Everything in a painting affects everything around it. For example, look at how the egg reflects the color of the paper next to it. Letting colors ‘bleed’ from object to object unifies the painting. Without this you might get a painting that looks like a collage of objects from different photographs. This mostly applies to the shadows of objects because that is where we see the ‘reflected light’. The color of the light areas will mainly be determined by the color of the light source and the local color of the object. Any reflected light from surrounding objects will be completely overpowered by the main light source.

But it’s interesting that the halftone colors on the eggs appear to be the compliment of the surrounding colors. For example, the egg on the yellow paper appears to have violet halftones, whereas the egg on the red paper appears to have green halftones. Ponder that…

Color Temperature

warm light source = cooler shadows

cool light source = warmer shadows

That doesn’t mean that if you have a warm light source, the shadows should be bright blue. It means that the shadows will be a cooler version of the light. The shadows could be blue (such as outdoors during a clear day), but not necessarily.

Broken Color

In the areas where you have larger shapes of the same color, consider breaking up the colors. Keep the value the same, but shift the color temperatures of your strokes to make that area more interesting. For example, with skin, you rarely see a large area of the same exact color. Veins, hair, and skin tone variations create notes of blue, green and purple around the red and yellows. Also, consider adding ‘greyer’ or muted versions of the color next to it. This will make the bright colors appear even brighter and create balance.

The example above shows a patch in the cloth from my painting. Notice how many different hues there are of the same value. You can find yellows, reds, greens, violets, blues, and greys. If I oversimplified this area and painted it all in with one color, it would have a flat ‘cartoony’ feel. It would lose its vibrancy.

After a few years of experience, you should start noticing patterns of the way light affects forms. You’ll begin building a library of ‘rules’ that you will intuitively reference whenever you need to invent color. Experience plays a big role in realistic color invention, especially, experience in painting from life. Get out of the studio on a regular basis. Don’t underestimate those live model workshops and plein air painting.

Like this? Checkout my other drawing and painting lessons on proko.com.

#oil painting #painting #art lesson #art tutorial #art tip #painting tips #proko

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lilybeige25 · 3 years

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안전한놀이터주소 & resort guide! - GTA Online guides #3527

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If the dealer's hand qualifies for a payout that is a percentage of the jackpot amount on the progressive meter and if more than one player wagered on the dealer's hand, the jackpot will be divided equally among the number of players who wagered on the dealer's hand. This type of bet is popular in Germany and many European casinos. It is also offered as a 5-chip bet in many Eastern European casinos. As a 5-chip bet, it is known as "zero spiel naca" and includes, in addition to the chips placed as noted above, a straight-up on number 19. Before the deal begins, each player places a bet, in chips, in front of them in the designated area.Tens or Better is a variation of 6/5 Jacks or Better.

The dealer designates one of the players to cut, and the plastic insert card is placed so that the last 60 to 75 cards or so will not be used. (Not dealing to the bottom of all the cards makes it more difficult for professional card counters to operate effectively.) Rick suggests the man bet on 22. After the number comes up, Rick tells him to let it all ride. He does, and wins again. Rick tells him to cash in his winnings and never come back. The higher payoff of the flush attack represents one of the higher overlays of video poker. These machines, once common, are now relatively rare. 샌즈카지노 At any time, a player may wish to take any bet or bets out of play.

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wkm-theories · 7 years

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-Insert some clever title-

I disagree that all 3 entities are conscious in Dark. The way I see it is like a car. Damien is the driver, Celine is the engine (powers everything), and we the viewers, are the car. However, all of our main personality traits have melded together, hence Dark’s unstable behavior. We know Damien’s the dominant trait because when we reach for the cane, our hands change to his.

Continuing, Y/N AKA the car is the most important object. Without the car, there wouldn’t be a driver or power. We’re the starting point in this video. Also, Y/N is a DA, why is that crucial? An attorney sifts through every detail to help his case, going to great lengths and even stretching the truth to prove it. That sounds pretty familiar… to the fan-theorists. We are intricate to Dark. He didn’t exist before us. However we are guided and led by him, and our theories couldn’t function without him. Again, like a car.

About the house/dark entity, whatever… I don’t think plays an active role in Darkiplier, rather it is the thing that corrupted all of us. As much as Damien despises Mark now, it’s not in his nature to act like Dark. Since there’s less of Celine shown in WKM, I can’t vouch for her, but she even CALMS Damien’s rage towards Mark. In chapter 3, she feels that the house itself has dark forces surrounding it. (Also the last thing she says to you before you trip begins is keep your enemies close. Is anybody talking about this??) Also, all the groundskeeper said. Something happened to all of us either in the void or once we were brought back.

WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS SCENE IN CHAPTER 4???? It starts at the 1:17 mark. This is obviously something big. Not only do we get future lines, a creepy monochrome overlay, but also different characters’ POV!!! And IT leads us to the detective’s room?!!? This is too good to be true. This occurrence wasn’t even triggered by anything like Celine’s witchcraft. You know what’s also monochrome? Dark. So I think we were led by the house to discover the detective’s room because after that, that’s where all the S hits the fan.

Back to the car. This would also explain how the colors work in the other videos. In almost every instance, we see Dark with blue, Damien’s color. Blue is associated with trust, loyalty, intelligence, and truth. I’m just rehashing what others have said, but we all think about Damien in this way. Who wouldn’t trust such a pure, innocent boi? What these color theorists leave out is blue creates a calming effect. Whenever we see Damien, we feel safe. And when people feel safe, calm, and comfortable, that is when a manipulator, like Dark, strikes.

Red represents Celine. Across the board, the appearance of red is almost as consistent as blue, BUT red’s nature is more volatile. What does red mean? A quick Google search says it means power, danger, desire, malice, the most intimidating, and is considered the most manipulative. In ADWM and AvD (Anti v Dark), there are erratic moments where red either overtakes the screen, or barely present. Specifically, in the AvD video, he has huge red backdrop, meaning that in this void, he is way more powerful or not able to control his power as well. When Anti and Dark bicker, Dark’s red is “glitched” ;) out, meaning his power is being contested. This instance doesn’t happen in any other video with Dark (I checked). As more Egos file in, he tries to exert the red again to mostly be intimidating, but it fails. When Dark Chica arrives, he’s completely monochrome, meaning he has almost no power in this situation.

Both of these colors have been addressed by the other AMAZING Theorists, BUT they forget a third, less prominent color. Green.

Green is rarely seen in any video with Dark, and Damien and Celine weren’t green. That leaves us with one option: the viewer’s color was green. Not only are we the least functioning part of Darkiplier, our color too is the last. Green represents life. We the viewers, essentially gave life back to the trio by giving our body, and the birth of Dark with our theorizing. We might be the least prominent one, but we are still there.

The final nail in the coffin against the popular “all 3 are conscious and fight for control” is: it doesn’t match Dark. His personality is consistent in every video, and we never see any evidence to internal arguing that someone with 3 would. Some would argue that his twitchiness (when we see 2 Darks: one screaming and one not) in the void in ADWM portrays it. I think it’s because we, the viewer, are still alive and therefore the void gets distorted. Also, it doesn’t even look like the two versions are arguing; Dark’s just freaking frustrated! If you’re not convinced with the twitches, in WKM where everyone is dead in the void, there is not a single twitch. Although, it could be argued that since they weren’t joined yet, there would be no need to glitch. For those who’d say that, I’d reply “Good eye!” But in AvD, we again don’t witness any twitches at all, and there’s no human person alive in there.

The Big picture is WKM is a “perspective” of Dark and Warf’s origin story, told from Dark’s point of view. Based on what we know about Dark’s personality by Mark, it’s easy to connect the dots that he’d make Mark look like a jerk to turn us to his side. Y’all spent an entire post describing how WKM is filmed to make us like Damien (brilliant btw!). The best lies are always half-truths. While I’m not defending Mark, he is more of a jerk (in ADWM and WKM) in this universe, I doubt that he’d want such specific revenge against the Colonel as many theorize. Also, many pointed out that Mark wasn’t stabbed 30 times, drowned, etc. it’s just impossible because there’s no blood on him. This was all embellished… by someone who would profit from it.

Now, you may be wondering how the HECK WKM even works with all the rest of the lore. Especially ADWM. Mark’s still alive in ADWM, but he died in WKM which is an origin story?? Rest assured, there’s an explanation, but here’s the twist: Mark didn’t die in the first place. Damien is the one on the floor, dressed as Mark.

To those that immediately scoff at the idea, hear me out. Mark in this universe is an actor, which is shown in ADWM. If Mark and Damien were besties since childhood, he would know Damien’s little quirks. Even enough to throw off the Colonel! When Damien claims that Mark is walking around in his body, he’s doing so in a figurative sense. This would fix the plot-hole of where did “Mark’s” body go and why “Damien” was never found. Also, this would fix the relationship between ADWM & WKM.

Finishing off, I’d like to leave the only comment Mark has written about Dark on Tumblr:

“For the people picking Darkiplier as their favorite character of mine… I don’t know who Darkiplier is. He is not a “character” I play. I don’t even know when you all started calling him by that name. You made him real. And now he knows who you are. Why did you do this…”

But hey, that’s just a theory…A DARK THEORY! Thanks for reading- Car Anon.

(P.S.) Y'all are doing an amazing job with this tumblr page!

*Wow! This is a great, very well put together theory! I’m glad we got the submit thing working, because this was worth it! As always, what are everyone’s thoughts? I have some, but I think I’ll save them for a longer reblog later. -Ironwoman*

#who killed markiplier #whokilledmarkiplier #wkm theories #wkm #markiplier #darkiplier #celine #the seer #damien #the mayor #y/n district attorney #the car theory #theories #submission

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ellaofoakhill · 3 years

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Havel of Deeprock

Ella heard a rap on the shop door. “It’s open!” She called. She heard a click, and the tramp of work-boots.

Havel was an earth fairy with a neck nearly as broad as Ella’s waist. It was a rare fairy that approached four inches; Havel topped five.

“Good morning, Master,” he called as he set down his tools. He’d recently made a backpack to carry them, in addition to the bags he had in each hand. He would soon have more tools than Ella could easily lift.

“So, find anything for us tonight?”

“Well, there are some bits of brass the people left in the shed,” Havel said. He started twiddling his thumbs, a sure sign of nerves. “…along with some steel filings.”

“Hmm…” Ella scratched her chin. “Did you find anything in the mines?” Havel had been on a roll recently, with an entire set of copper pots and cooking utensils finished just last week. The scribing he’d done on the knives was impressive; they could hold an edge almost as well as

Ella’s. He’d earned a break from reconnaissance. And most earth fairies liked spending time underground, anyway.

Havel immediately brightened, and pulled out a beeswax tablet he’d written his notes on. “Well, there’s a garnet down North Fire shaft—”

“Spessartine?”

“Grossular, actually.” Ella gave him a thumbs-up. “And we have three large lumps of gabbro, one down East Wood shaft, and two down West Earth.”

“Ooh!” Ella resisted the urge to rub her hands together. “What’s their content?”

“Mid-grade I think,” Havel said. “I’m fairly certain I did the naming right, but you’ll want to check.”

“Of course,” Ella said, “I’m your teacher.” Havel inclined his head. Ella smiled and gave his arm a gentle slap. “Who’s hardest to extract?”

“Hmm…” Havel tapped his stylus against his broad nose. “Probably the lower gabbro in West Earth. It’s partly encased in bedrock, and wedged between a piece of granite, and a piece of limestone.”

“Still not too bad, then.” Ella started gathering her tools.

“Not like the Azurite Incident,” Havel said. Ella groaned.

The trek to the western mine took them far enough around the great panels that Havel wouldn’t feel their iron.

“How has Meline been, Master?” he asked as they reached the pines along the west edge of the yard.

“Quite well,” Ella said. She’d visited Wild Rose the previous night. Meline had shown her the western pasture up to the border of the wood, and they’d gotten into a lengthy—friendly—debate over how to properly harvest and store moonbeams, deep-black, and tree whispers. Meline favoured the crystal resonance technique, where Ella was more inclined toward the silver jar. It had been a fun exchange of ideas.

“How does she like the knife?” Ella smiled. Havel had quickly taken to Meline, and the two got along famously. Meline described him as the most adorable giant she’d ever seen, and he couldn’t get enough of her rosehip preserves. The knife in question had taken Havel a month to make, with a bronze back and a slot into which Meline could fit any of sixteen blades, depending on what she needed it for. There was even a blade with a corundum edge, with red flecks in the glittering material that made it look like it was braided. Meline had given him a kiss on both cheeks, and Havel had turned redder than a tomato.

“Last she told me, she was making good use of it,” Ella said. In addition to their visits back and forth, they were exchanging letters. Mostly they spoke of current doings, but Meline did reveal bits of her past, too. Like how her father had taught her all he knew about brewing when she was young. How her mother and she had served in the War all those millennia ago. And how the pasture had changed a great deal and hardly at all since she moved there eight hundred years past. Ella felt a warm crinkling in her chest when a letter from Meline arrived.

They passed the last of the panels. Just beyond them, the opening to West Earth shaft was covered by a thick layer of moss overlaying a limestone lid.

They checked safety equipment—helmets, vests, boots, gloves—before entering the mine. One of the higher side-tunnels had clues that a substantial creature had been living there—Ella suspected Thamnophis, though the evidence was old.

At the top of the shaft was the elevator, a cage made of reinforced bronze. Once they were inside, Ella pulled a lever, and the elevator began to drop as, some thirteen feet down, the counterweight rose.

“So where exactly is our gabbro?” Ella said. She tapped her copper helmet and spoke a word of power. It began to glow. They’d arranged crystals along the walls, which caught and reflected the light up and down the shaft.

Havel pulled out his tablet. “Sub-shaft Vy, spoke shaft Honey Yellow.”

“Bit of a haul, then,” Ella said. They’d have to take tunnel Marsh Green, then down Vy, and almost to the end of Honey Yellow.

“A bit,” Havel said.

Ella pulled the lever back when they reached Marsh Green, and got off the elevator. They’d bypassed hardpan and were into parent material. As they’d excavated, they’d shaped the shaft into an arch and lined it with stone, and Havel had used words of power to fuse the stones together. They repeated the process as they dug, every time they removed stone that wouldn’t serve another purpose. Split into blocks, carry blocks, fit blocks into place, fuse, go find new stone, repeat. Now, Havel was learning how to turn sediment into stone. He’d started with hardpan—which was practically stone already—and as his skill had grown, he’d learned how to fuse progressively coarser and finer pieces.

Sub-shaft Vy was unlined, being relatively new. The earth was stable, though, so the odds of the tunnel collapsing before they lined it were small. They descended, until the walls of the shaft changed to bedrock.

Spoke shaft Honey Yellow was named for the colour of its siltstone walls. Veins of granite, dolomite, gneiss, and other stone ran through it as well. They mined that, too, especially the granite, which had quartz crystals excellent for knives and abrasives. And, apparently, there was even the occasional hunk of gabbro.

Havel led the way along the spoke. He took a left, and then a right, and there it was. Ella unspoke the word on her helmet, and its light faded.

“Hmm,” she stepped close. It was indeed wedged between granite and limestone. She set a hand upon it, and spoke a word.

Ella’s normal vision shifted. The yellow limestone went black, and the granite turned a dull, patchy red-orange. Bits of iron in that, then.

Her attention was mostly on the gabbro. It had many clear spots of bright pink-orange, and white, and a few yellow patches, with clouds and rivulets running off in every direction. Typical gabbro. What surprised Ella was not what she saw, but where. The lights extended far back into the stone, and down, and across, almost as far as Ella could see. This wasn’t a chunk of gabbro. It was an entire layer, extending who knew how far.

She blinked, and unspoke the word. She turned to Havel. He was clearly resisting the urge to twiddle his thumbs.

“We could mine just this,” Ella said, “for six thousand years, and never come close to running out.”

It didn’t take long to mine enough stone to fill their packs. They checked each piece for quality. Havel would carry the substrate, and Ella would carry the useable ore.

They returned the way they’d come. When they came to the place in Marsh Green sub-shaft where the fused stone ended, they stopped, and unloaded Havel’s backpack. As Ella passed him stones, he spoke words of power, fusing each piece to the stone already laid down. When they finished, they split the ore in Ella’s backpack between them, and continued on their way.

“So what’re we gonna do with the metal once we smelt it?” Havel asked as the elevator took them up West Earth shaft. Planning out a new project always got him excited.

“Well, I don’t have it earmarked for anything,” Ella said. She looked sidelong at him. “Did you have any ideas?”

He flushed, rubbing his neck. “Well, uh, I’ve been meaning to try a scale belt. Or maybe a cloak clasp?”

“Oh?” Ella used her most inquiring tone. Havel flushed deeper. She shook her head as they came to the top of the shaft. “Is it for Meline?”

“Um…”

“Havel,” Ella said, struggling to find the gentlest, clearest way to say what needed to be said, “I cannot fault your taste. But… I don’t think Meline feels the same way.”

The elevator stopped. So did Havel. Ella waited. He mumbled something.

“I’m sorry?”

“I know.” his shoulders were sagging. “It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

Ella laid a hand on his elbow. Saying he was far too young for Meline would only twist the knife harder. “Loving feelings for another can hurt, when they are not returned. And hurting is a sign you are alive, Havel. If you need to fight or run a circuit about the estate, or mayb—” Her feet suddenly not touching the ground, Ella found herself crushed in arms bigger around than her thighs, as Havel’s sobs echoed off the shaft walls in a melancholy din. Wriggling so she could free up an arm, she shh’ed him, patting his shoulder as he cried into hers.

Eventually, the tide ebbed, Havel let Ella down—soggier than she had been—and he succumbed to a fit of hiccoughs. She rubbed his back in sympathy.

“Shall we eat cookies and play Jack of Spears tonight?”

“Mhmm.” Havel sniffled, took out his handkerchief and sounded a blast like a foghorn. “Maybe it’s just (hic) as well I didn’t tell her,” Havel said as he put his handkerchief away. “That would’ve made (hic) things more awkward for all of us.”

“Perhaps,” Ella said, hiding a smile; by any measure, Havel was a mature young man. “I could feign a mild ague, if you’d like some time to compose yourself.”

Havel half-smiled. “(hic) No, thank you, Master. I know how (hic) much Miss Meline likes to come here.”

“That she does.” Ella stepped out of the elevator. It was hardly a walk at all up to the hatch. “Across the pasture and the fence, into the people’s yard. Most fey wouldn’t.”

Havel grunted an affirmative. “She loves you a lot, Master.”

Ella felt like Havel had shattered a pane of glass over her head. The past several months flashed before her eyes. Every laugh, every smile, every knowing look sailing so low over Ella’s head it must’ve brushed her hair, every kiss on her cheek or her hand. All clearer than spring water.

Ella had missed all of them.

“Master?” Havel touched her dry shoulder.

Ella jumped, and wiped her eyes. “I love her too,” she almost whispered.

Havel gave a wet chuckle. “You better.” Ella chuckled, too.

They lifted the lid of the shaft and climbed out. “I think you will be ready to meet the Sage soon,” Ella said as they started back.

There was a sound like a warhorn as Havel blew his nose. “Really, Master?” He sounded happier.

“You have shown yourself to be a fairy of uncommon kindness, and you are a superior student,” Ella said. “I think he would be pleased to meet you.”

Havel didn’t skip back to Oakhill, but he wasn’t sagging either. As they drew close to the tree, he pointed. “Master, there’s a bat fluttering by the stable door.”

Ella quirked an eyebrow. There was indeed a large bat flapping about the base of Oakhill. “I wonder what she wants.” Ella called out, and the bat flew in their direction. It was a red bat, bigger than Ella, though not so big as Havel.

She had a letter in her mouth, which she transferred to one claw when she landed. “Lord Ella of Oakhill, yes?”

“I am.” Ella recognized Meline’s writing on the envelope. There was no wax seal. Odd…

“Lady fairy flagged me down as I was waking up this evening. Offered me four cutworms if I’d fly this to you. Mighty generous, if you ask me!”

Ella took the offered letter, pulled it out of the envelope, and read.

“Master?” Havel said. His tone strongly suggested he found this odd, too.

Ella froze as she read the last line. “Havel.”

“Yes?”

“I need to get to Wild Rose with all speed.” She thanked the bat, hardly noticing her anymore. “We need axes. Bring the armour as well, and the log splitter.”

“The armour?”

“There’s plastic involved.” Havel almost tripped over his feet. “I’m taking Coarser, the lance, and the spikes ahead. Come when you have everything, including provisions.” She took the fairy key from around her neck. “Lock up the hall behind you.”

On another night, Havel might’ve goggled at such responsibility. He shook himself, and snapped a crisp bow. He lumbered for the hall.

Ella put two fingers to her mouth and whistled, piercing and clear. She saw the bat was still there. “I’m to return to the young lady with your message.”

“‘I’m coming,’. Give her that message, and I’ll feed you and yours a cutworm every night for the rest of the summer.”

The bat was already in the air. “Maia Squeak at your service, ma’am!” Ella was already running for the hall. She heard a familiar whinny off to the south, and redoubled her pace.

Meline needed her.

#the fairy tales of ella and meline #tftem #havel of deeprock #chapter 9 #my original work #fantasy #lgbtq+#fairies #iyashikei #healing #fairy tales #romance #all ages #fey #fae #magic #family #strong female protagonists #backyard fantasy

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t-baba · 3 years

Photo

How to Find & Fix Common Website Accessibility Issues

It’s the 2020s, so we shouldn’t any longer have to make the case for accessibility. An accessible site means you reach more people, the people you reach (even abled ones) all have an easier time using your site, and you won’t get sued. And with the tools and resources available to developers and designers, it’s now easier than ever to make sure you have an accessible site.

At Polypane, accessibility is one of the three core areas we focus on, the other two being performance and responsive design. If you’re not familiar with Polypane, it’s a web browser specifically for web developers. It has all sorts of tools you won’t find in regular browsers — tools that make you more effective and efficient. To learn more about Polypane, check out the introduction article.

In this article, we’ll focus on a few common accessibility issues and find ways to audit and fix them in your site to make sure it’s as accessible as possible. Here’s what we’ll look at:

Does my text have enough contrast, and where it doesn’t, how do I fix that?

How does my site look for people with visual impairments like color blindness or farsightedness? What about situational impairments like bright sunlight or a device with night mode?

Does my page structure make sense for people that depend on it?

How do I make sure I don’t have any code quality issues in my site, and are the things I did to improve accessibility actually helping?

Does my site work well on smaller screens?

How do I make sure my site works well for users that prefer dark colors or don’t deal well with motion?

Contrast

Does my text have enough contrast, and where it doesn’t, how do I fix that?

Ideally, text contrast is dealt with during the design, with tools like Stark making it easy to test individual text and background pairs. But unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. While there are plenty of places online to check a given text color and a given background (we even built our own online color contrast tester), your web pages likely have many different colors and backgrounds, and for any reasonably complex site, you might not know all combinations beforehand.

And that makes it really easy to overlook that one grey text that’s normally shown on a white background, but has this one place where it’s on light gray, or a dark text color with opacity that only works for certain backgrounds.

In Polypane, nearly all interactions with an element will do a quick contrast check for that specific element. Our algorithm determines the real text and background colors, taking into account the color, opacity and all background colors. We then merge that into the actual perceived text and background color and compare that.

We’ll show the result in an element tooltip and in the elements panel alongside other information like font family and font size. That way, your text contrast is always glanceable.

That still relies on chance, though, so Polypane also has a color contrast overlay. This will go through your entire page and find all unique text and background combinations, check all of them and add labels to each element. All passing contrast pairs get a single label with the contrast, and any failing contrast gets a warning label for each instance, so you don’t overlook any.

We made it really easy to find contrast issues. But how do you fix them?

If you’re lucky, you can use another color from your design system, but if you don’t have one, or if this is a one-off color pair, you have to go back to your designer or use an online contrast tester and find another color yourself — a tedious and time-consuming process, and something I wanted to do something about.

For every failing contrast pair, Polypane calculates a text color that has enough contrast with the background, and suggests that to you for easy copying. You can even preview it just by hovering over it. (The online contrast checker we mentioned also suggests improved colors for you.)

Visual and Situational Impairments

How does my site look for people with visual impairments like color blindness or farsightedness? What about situational impairments like bright sunlight or a device with night mode?

Not everyone that visits your site is going to have perfect vision. In fact, a large number of your visitors will definitely have some form of visual impairment. And while you can make sure to follow guidelines around minimum text size and not communicate anything just through use of colors, it can be easy to overlook an issue. The best way to get empathy is to try to simulate how other people experience your site.

Color blindness

Between 8 and 10% of men worldwide are color blind (women much less so, at 0.5%), and they fall in three different groups: red-green color blindness, blue-yellow color blindness, and full color blindness. Polypane lets you simulate all of these with our accessibility overlays.

You should test with these simulators to make sure that you don’t rely on just color to bring across messages. For example, if you just make the border of an input field red when you make an error, you’ll find that’s barely noticeable, or unnoticeable with any of these simulators turned on. Rather, you should provide a second, non-color indicator like an error message to communicate the issue to your user.

Red-green color blindness is the most common and the vast majority of people with color blindness have this. In Polypane, we offer four different simulators: Deuteranopia, Deuteranomaly, Protanopia and Protanomaly. The -anomaly variants here are the less severe version, while the -opia variants would be classified as “full” red-green color blindness.

As the name implies, people with this type of color blindness have difficulty seeing the difference between red and green, but also brown and orange and certain shades of blue and purple. You can see how, for example, the common “green is good, red is bad” coloring of elements can become an issue.

Blue-yellow color blindness is much more rare, at just 0.0002% of men worldwide. The technical name for it is “tritanopia”, and tritanomaly is the less severe version. This type of color blindness makes people less sensitive to blue light, making the blue part of anything grey.

Lastly, full colorblindness is the most rare at 0.00003% of men worldwide. Its proper name is “Achromatopsia”, with “achromatomaly” being the less severe version where people see some color, but it’s severely dulled.

It’s worth noting that the simulators in Polypane (and any simulator really) are approximations. Especially the less severe variants come in a range from nearly unnoticeable to close to the full thing, and so the simulator chooses a middle ground there.

Continue reading How to Find & Fix Common Website Accessibility Issues on SitePoint.

by Kilian Valkhof via SitePoint https://ift.tt/3k2XhTB

#CSS3 #HTML5 Branding #HTML5 Weekly #HTMLl5 demos #Javascript Branding #Javascript Weekly #Mobile #Mo

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y4s2-20192020 · 4 years

Photo

4095.

The 1st scenic road trip over wildlife crossing corridor.

Route 4095 is an unpaved road in Nakhon Si Thammarat that might seems like a normal road, but the problematic part is its location where it cuts through the middle of the forest, leaving the unimaginable effect on the existing ecosystem.

It locates in the middle of 3 protected areas in Southern Thailand, including Tai Rom Yen, Khao Nan, and Si Kiad national parks in the northern Khao Luang Forest complex. The route is the shortcut access to Krung Ching valley from western and northern areas.

Look closely into the land use along the road, it’s noticeable that the road is the main access to this strip valley between the mountains, giving the access for people to illegally intrude the protected forest with the program of para rubber farming and other mono crop culture. This results in the endangered edges of the forest with high possibility to be intruded further by human activities.

To understand more about the impact of road creation in any area, this is the phases that explains its effect since the beginning where the final goal is urbanisation.

The first step is an ‘Incision State’, where the road construction is taking place in the forest. The area is cleared out by cutting down trees and level the ground. The construction leaves more light into the space, bringing noise and pollution that chase away wildlife.

Then the process of ‘dissection’ and ‘Dissipation’ is where the road fully cuts through the forest giving access for vehicles that possibly bring in alien species as well as more humans. The area of the forest’s been shrinking and fragmented with human activities and production of mono crop culture.

Once there’s the access, more people are able to get in, more land are owned and more changes in the form of a city, where on the other hand, the forest further shrinks and finally dismissed in the area. Leaving the result of concrete jungle with a lot of climatic problem from increased runoff water and contamination from head water

Especially at this specific location of 4095 route, if there's no attention paid to its existing condition and management. It’s possible that this scenario will happen, considering the current state of the hyper urbanisation. When human activities consume more areas that it expands to the point where they are fully connected, the forest, on the other hand, becomes fully disconnected in fragmentation.

Therefore, it is an urgent need to design and manage the route and the area alongside. The process starts with the understanding of the existing landscape structure by investigating the sectional detail in these 6 selected sections. The selection is made based on the different result of the analysis in topographic slope, land use, and forest to human area ratio.

This map also shows that the area occupies main head water resources that flows northwards and southwards into Krung Ching.

1st section shows the relatively flat ground nearby the urban area, occupied almost fully by para rubber farming with constructed water pond for the activity usage.

2nd section shows more of the uphill area shows the area that’s still nominated by the forest but you can see that there is already the sub street access to the higher hill with para rubber farming.

3rd section starts to show the fragmented state of the forest. Even para rubber farm is small in size it still creates the fraction in the forest.

4th section is the other way round where half of the area (1 km) is intruded and the other half is not, but the forest is still well connected.

5th section shows minority area of the forest those endangered by the shrinkage and attrition process, where they cannot function as the forest any more.

(where function means behaving as wildlife habitat, runoff decelerator, absorber, and purifier)

6th another end of the route with almost full occupied area of mono crop farming.

The comparison of different sections showing different capacity of run off deceleration, absorption, and purification, in relationship to the slope percentage. And also the relative percentage of the forest versus human intrusion along the 2 km axis.

The primary goal of this route design is the conservation in the form of a scenic recreational road.

the 1st half of the project will deal with the habitat value where the main concern is wildlife habitats. In order to maintain or even increase the biodiversity and to connect the fragmented forest islands. The other half is the cultural value that deals more to the understanding of relationship between human and environment through aesthetic and activity design.

It’s important to reconnect wildlife habitats to conserve their population number. The priority species taken in consideration are elephants, tapirs, and serows. Elephant is the specie that is an umbrella species where they open up the route in the forest for other species and creating the network of animal paths in the ecosystem. The other 2 species, tapir and serow are the endangered species and at risk of being extinct. They are found in the area of Khao Nan and Si Keed national parks, where both of them are the important species that help increase the seeding process through their scat, hence help recovering and growing the forest naturally.

The circles are home ranges of each specie, starting from the smallest of a serow at 10 squared km, then tapir with 34 squared km , and the largest home range of an elephant at 310 squared km

Weighted overlay map to find out the most suitable crossing spot for wildlife

Serows prefer to stay and dwell alone in the steepest part of the forest. They have the ability to climb on rocky cliff and able to not consuming water for a week as they can survive by licking the water from the rock gap. Their habitat normally located in the rocky steep part of the mountain and the cave. They feed on grass and sapling of plants.

The darkest green is the most suitable area for serows weighted from 3 elements. 1st is the steep slope, 2nd is the grassland area as food source, calculated from the N-S axis with more potential to be a grassland from shallow soil from wind erosion. 3rd is the elevation that higher than 200m above sea level.

Second specie is Tapir. They normally lives alone and feed at night. They prefer to stay nearby and dwell in the water as they can walk under water and swim. However, the specie is very sensitive to threads and disturbance,hence prefer to stay in the interior habitat zone of the forest. They feed on grass and saplings.

The calculated map comes from the overlay of the stream network, grassland, and the interior habitat in the forest. Their home range places closed to the centre of the forest interior show in the circles.

Moving on to the elephants. Their preferable habitat includes 40% of grassland and 60% of dense evergreen forest. They normally stay in s female group of about 6, hence requiring large amount of water per day. Resulting in the very large home range for food and water source.

From overlay the food source of grassland, water source, and less steep slope on this map. The large area of green is shown in the map as the elephant rarely affected by any disturbance because of its gigantic size, they walk wherever the food is.

By overlay all 3 maps of 3 species, this is the result path to creating the crossing corridor for multi-species. There are 2 critical points more suitable for tapir with the stream line located in the northern spot and the other spot in the south is more suitable for serows.

Zooming into the critical spots, the existing land use in the red part is para rubber farming area and the light brown part is mixed orchard fields.

The overall project will have 2 main zones, the animal crossing area that is the priority and the human and vehicle area.

To be more accurate at the crossing design, it’s important to identify the most suitable spot for animal to cross By zoom in even more to the spot and looking at the current state of the area from google earth, the mono crop land spreads widely in the area. So to avoid also local residences effect, the crossing will be at the circle here, with the need to reprogram the existing para rubber farm to the extra food source for animals such as grass land or constructed salt lick.

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Moving on finally to the design and modification of the route, the main 3 parts of the design include the polluted runoff from the street into water, the mono crop culture of the local, and the most importantly crossing corridor for wildlife.

To a better understanding of the site in spatial scale, I cut 7 different sections along the route to explain the existing condition. The main route contain main 3 different zones, the more affected area near urban area, the normal pass away route, and the sensitive area near the crossing.

1st is the modification of the roadside. The stream line actually runs alongside the road, therefore can easily be contaminated from what the cars bring and also the insecticide from mono crop. There need to be the filtration process by planting in plants that have the ability to filter chemicals along the road and along the side of the stream, including Gotu Kola and Reed grass. There is also local herb and plant that prefer to grow in the wetland, including Asiatic pennywort and Paco fern. These are the extra food source and product for the local in this community.

Next is the change in land-use and program of mono crop farming of the local. It will be restricted from any use of chemical and insecticide, therefore the product will be increased in value as the organic product from Krung Ching. The mono crop will be change to mixed type of farming with more local plants such as herbs, fruits, and flowers, to maintain and fix the soil quality and giving dimensions to the view. Open lands in waiting for new season of plant or grass land will be more varied with the vertical local plants such as palm tree or coconut tree also to give dimension and link to other scene of the roadside.

These are the driving view before and after the land use change

Welcome to 4095.

Let’s take a look at the visitor handbook to know what we need to prepare.

Firstly, the available period for visitors with cars and vehicles are only from February to October as November till January will be affected by Northeast monsoon as the location of Nakhon Si Thammarat locates on the eastern part of the mountain range. The unpaved road will be more dangerous in the pouring rain period. However you can still visit on foot as trail corridor during the gap period. The car type that is allowed is the high raised four wheel car due to the unpaved surface that will slow down the speed of vehicle as well as has lower contamination effects comparing to the long term asphalt pavement. You can prepare the sleeping gear for night time wildlife watching on the bridge as our highlight activity and visit the local organic market for local herbs, fruites, and vegetable. Speed limit also shows above.

Our highlight spot 4095 bridge

Traditionally wildlife crossing will change the pathway of the animals to either overpass or underpass, but in this case I choose to change the path of men.

The bridge is raised for cars to drive over to conserve the existing ground for animals and the forest to grow back and merge the fragmented area back together. The cars will camouflage by the roadside trees, bushes, and shaped hills on the bridge. Eliminating the noise and visual pollution experienced by animals.

In the preparation task, there is the fencing line to lead the animal to the crossing by locate the fence along the edge of the existing forest.

The suspension method of bridge construction is chosen in order to create a long span of 100 m underneath for animal crossing, with also efficient height of more than 10 m

Taking the infrastructure in advantage to bond the visitor and the forest closer by providing the additional programs of wildlife watching in the scaffolding tower on the bridge. There are 8 parking spots, 4 on each side, enough for the overnight camping for 8 groups of visitor to control number of people and avoid the chaotic situation of noise and accident.

Activities that you can do

1. Enjoy the view from the bridge during the day

2. Camping an enjoy the sunset moment in the West camping spot on the bridge

3. Night wildlife watching in the watching tower and morning activities at the East wing

and.. DON’T BE LOUD!!

If you did not plan to stay over night... No worries!!

We have another stop by destination in the local bridge where there is the local plant hub and the local stall for selling organic product of 4095 community, you can also spend time having meals or enjoying the view on top of the tower there!

and please drive slowly at maximum 40 km/h around here

have a nice trip.

4095.

#Chon Supawongse #Ging Kritnara Kroongjit

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