#I've also never worked in this dark of a composition

[rimeswithpurple]

Inktober Day 3 - Path

"Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping

than you can understand"

-"The Stolen Child" W.B. Yeats

#inktober #I've referenced this poem so much over the years #i don't think I'll ever be done with it #I've also never worked in this dark of a composition #it scares me to do it #but I'm so happy with the result #knitting #yarn #knitblr #the stolen child #wb yeats

[mtkay13]

Qi Ye ensemble cast poster, second edition

Yet another one of those LOL Qi Ye just has that power over me. You know the drill; more info below!

I'll go straight to the point: my main reason to draw this was because I wanted to draw the most somber, dark-looking Helian Qi possible with some dark cross-hatching effect. And because I don't want to draw a Helian Qi solo image because who the HELL does that, I had to turn it into an ensemble cast thing again. I just REALLY like to do that for Qi Ye, for some reasons!!! For a general note, first: shading was a PAIN but making a nice composition and thinking about how to make a hierarchy that both works in terms of storytelling and visual composition was fun. I also liked finding out the "color scheme" to use and I do like lineart. So, now, little notes about each character, and the obligatory name poster just so I'm sure we all know whom I'm talking about:

Jing Beiyuan: I've mentioned it before but drawing Beiyuan is like. The easiest for me, I think, out of ALL Qi Ye/TYK characters combined. He happens to have my general goto "pretty face" (which conveniently has peach blossom eyes). I'm happy with how he turned out here! And got to put the sable around his neck which makes for a nice additional touch. Helian Yi: He's easy to draw as well and I'm glad with how the guan turned out. He initally looked sideways, but I liked it better having him wistfully stare into the distance. Helian Zhao: has the exact same face as in the other, coloured poster, and that cracks me up bc that wasn't even intentional. Helian Pei: GDI I find him so hilarious. He looks so done and out of it. Shout out to all his bird as well, which, I find, really complete the look. Helian Qi: I can't possibly say that I love him as an antagonist because there's nothing to love about this literal trash, but I'm still grateful that we got some of the most rancid stuff going on in Qi Ye just because of him and I'm always here for that. He deserves the villain visual treatment, at least. He was VERY fun to draw and I tried to push that nasty grin and shading as much as possible. He turned out exactly how I wanted him to! (the shading on his face and the balance of light and shadow was a bit of a challenge, actually)

Wuxi: Again, a rather easy one, always pleasant to draw! I loved working on his hair (but complained a lot while doing so)--which I think turned out nicely. Bai Wuchang: Finally! Finally I draw him!! He had to be there, since he's like. The base of the whole Qi Ye plot. Lining him was....... a pain, but at least it looks nice.

Su Qingluan: nothing much to say--I think it's always important to have her there in Qi Ye stuff, and I put her next to Helian Zhao because of how he tried using her--but it did make me feel bad for her when I realised that. Song Ping'an: The real star of the show, lowkey, but always alert and present. Feng Xiaoshu: FINALLY. PRINCESS JING'AN. I'm sorry I took so long to draw her. I want to work on a proper design, I swear. To make up for having completely forgotten to include her in the other spread. I'm so sorry. I like how her face turned out! Liang Jiuxiao: I never, ever, EVER get enough of drawing him. Have I mentioned how much I like him? How much of a great surprise he was reading Qi Ye? How many times I've wanted to high five because finally someone is as confused as I am? I love drawing this very specific smile on him, SO satisfying. Also Bichen said he was "THE Qi Ye antagonist" and I live for that LOL Zhou Zishu: do I really need to say anything atp Jiang Xue: I'm so sorry I put Xiao Xue next to ZZS. The cruelty. But she came out really cute didn't she T_T Anyway that's it. I'm still obsessed with Qi Ye and given my current (totally secret) retranslation project I'm nowhere near done going crazy about this book.

#qi ye #jing beiyuan #wuxi #bai wuchang #helian yi #helian pei #helian zhao #helian qi #su qingluan #ping'an #princess jing'an #liang jiuxiao #zhou zishu #jiang xue

[triflesandparsnips]

I'm not seeing enough deep-dive nonsense about the new Good Omens season 2 poster drop on my dash, and by god that means I must be the one to deliver it.

For those who haven't seen it yet, behold:

...there's a lot in here to go a wee bit feral over, if one was so inclined, and lord knows I love an inclination.

The Obvious Stuff

1. There Was Only One Bed Chair

This is the bulk of the commentary I've seen, and tbh, it's pretty great. "I am bored/busy and ignoring you but also what is personal space, never heard of her, we will not be taking questions at this time."

Notably, however, this is the second time we've seen them back to back-- the majority of the poster art we saw for the first season had them side by side. In both cases they're in a position to face some third thing together-- the difference, perhaps, is that side by side might imply equality of situation, while back to back implies implicit trust that the other won't stab you there.

2. The bookshop

Aw, look at them. Look at it. What a glorious little mess. This is them in London. Arizaphale looks pleased with the situation; Crowley looks bored af but he's also squished up on that one dang chair, so there's a "cat sitting next to you because parallel play and mirroring are the Best Interactions" feel to it.

3. Tea and wine

Arizaphale's got a teacup, Crowley's got a wine glass, this is very Them and indicative of their Vibes. Tbh, I think this is just a nice bit of design work, but it's worth calling out.

4. The outside street

The shop across the way is using a Gothic and reads "GIVE ME" before being cut off. No clue what it means, but it probably means something.

5. The tagline

The previous tagline we got was "Something's going down in the Up" (with that grey feather falling between their black and white wings)-- this tagline reads "Everyday it's a-getting closer."

Easiest interpretation is, oho, we're getting closer to the second season, and gosh there will be some Plot in it. And sure, yes, it works for that too, huzzah. But leaving aside the "it" and what that may mean-- "a-getting" is a fascinating word choice. It evokes similar constructions like, say, the somewhat obscure "Sumer is icumen in" (a song about the changing of the seasons and also encouraging a cuckoo to go lay some eggs in other birds nests if u no wat im sayin eyyyyy)-- and the significantly less obscure protest song "The Times They Are A-Changin'", whose ending stanza is:

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin'

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin'

Gosh.

Now the Real Fun Starts

This poster is a composite image (as so many ads are), composed of different bits and pieces to form a whole impression -- based on fun stuff like relative pixelation and whatnot, you can often tell what portions of an image were there to start with, and what were specifically added in after the fact. How packed this poster is in tiny details -- which is exactly where I would hide fun hints to things -- is generally a cue for me to take a closer look, and I have been, I think, rewarded.

1. The books with legible titles

Zoom in on Aziraphale's book-- he's reading Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. The "two cities" in play are Paris and London, and the book is set before and during the French Revolution.

It's the story of a man who had been previously imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 years, and then was released to go live with his daughter -- who he has never met, what with the whole "imprisoned" thing -- in London.

The opening paragraph is:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

The pile of books in the foreground have two visible titles: the topmost one is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (a "novel of manners" that's considered a heavy-hitting romantic classic, and also yes the leads are both prideful and prejudiced and it takes an entire book for them to clear that up) and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (a young adult coming-of-age adventure story about a kid who finds himself on an adventure with a bunch of pirates to discover buried treasure).

Of note: A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, and Treasure Island also all have note tabs sticking out of them, and are the only books that have them. This is reminiscent of how Arizaphale studied and referenced Agnes Nutter's prophecies.

Some of the books beneath the window technically have titles, but they appear to be about as pixelated as the rest of that section, and so I suspect they're just part of the scenery.

Similarly, most of the books on the background shelves are like that as well, except:

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (A satirical novel set in World War II; Wikipedia briefly explains that "the novel examines the absurdity of war and military life through the experiences of Yossarian and his cohorts, who attempt to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they may return home." The book also coined the phrase "catch-22," which is a situation someone can't escape because of paradoxical rules-- in the case of the book, you can't ask to be evaluated for insanity so that you can be exempt from flying dangerous missions, because "anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy.")

Iain Banks's The Crow Road (and a first edition, perhaps? I haven't read it, but apparently it's a Scottish family drama about a perfect murder against the backdrop of the 1990s Gulf War. Its opening line is "It was the day my grandmother exploded." The phrase "the crow road" is a euphemism, in the book, for death.)

Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (Sparknotes says it's "the story of a man named Marlow's struggle to tell and to understand the life story of a man named Jim" -- a young man who goes to sea, makes a terrible and cowardly decision while following his leaders, and then spends the rest of his life haunted by it.)

There's at least one extra, partially obscured title:

It appears to read "THE BODY ------ and ------", which makes me wonder if it's an anthology of murder mystery short stories.

Leaving aside the uncertain book, commonalities between many of these books include:

soldiers, war, and the horrors/absurdities thereof

doubles and parallels

death and murder

a young/inexperienced protagonist thrown in with more experienced/weirder folk

fragmented and out of order narratives, sometimes having to be pieced together from multiple viewpoints

...pirates

2. The strange but noticeable inserts

There are several images that have been inserted into the poster that -- unlike the teacup and wine glass mentioned above -- don't seem to make a lot of contextual sense and are therefore, perhaps, extra information. These include:

a. the three lizard boys

b. the broken smartphone

c. the matchbox with the quote on the side

d. the camera

e. this statuette that seems suspicious

f. this record and scroll that seem out of place

g. the clockface with the missing hand (which may be just for the Aesthetic, but whatever, I'm including it)

What do they mean? No clue. I suspect it will become apparent as we get trailers and/or the actual show.

In Conclusion

Uh.

Look. Design teams can do all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons. All of this could mean absolutely nothing.

But.

Using my magical powers of bullshit deduction, I might look at all this, and that grey feather falling from the earlier poster, and say... well... the war's still ongoing, yeah? So maybe... maybe there needs to be a new angel keeping an eye on things on Earth. Or an eye specifically on Aziraphale and Crowley.

And that would look SUSPICIOUS, right? So this is an angel who's maybe... a little bit Fallen. For the sake of the Mission. Like, they've agreed to sin just a lil bit, just enough to justify being thrown out of Heaven, and they're not actively in Hell because they're, oh, just stopping off, or maybe just going really slowly, or maybe they were sent back up from Hell because they were still "too good" and all that Pureness of Spirit was stinking up the place--

Whatever. Point is, they're on Earth, they're very confused, it sure would be nice if these very Established metaphysical elders could give them a few hints about how to get on. We'd then get to enjoy a Guide to Living a Totally Normal Human Life given by these two disaster dorks, plus whatever nonsense is derived from, idk, various extraneous plot shenanigans, probably involving a Murder and maybe a MacGuffin Maltese Falcon.

And most importantly: this new angel? Wow no they couldn't possibly be a spy because again WOW, what kind of angel would deliberately Fall? Wouldn't that require doing the wrong thing to do a right thing? ...okay maybe, but can it really be wrong if it was done by command? ...well, wait, it surely must be wrong because otherwise the mechanism wouldn't have worked-- but then, wait, which thing was the wrong thing--

And Aziraphale and Crowley would watch this bouncing volley of cognitive dissonance with great interest, also possibly while holding hands.

#good omens #season 2 #good omens season 2 rampant speculation

[sabo-has-my-heart]

Hello! I'm the anon that asked if you could write a male!reader. I was making sure you do :).

Well... I saw the fic with traffy and reader that has those wings! It was amazing! It made me think, what happens if like- Law had this (rude) awakening. Like he realizes he could be bisexual or pansexual after seeing male!(y/n) shirtless for the first time.

But like-- (y/n) almost has the same body composition as law but just with a bit more muscles since he's like responsible for some heavy duty work around the sub.

Also, I had this occuring thought, a devil fruit of sorts, like... A devil like those performers at wano? (Forgot what they were called 😭😭)

The devil fruit allows the user to turn into a lion or a big furry wolf, only downside is that... Male! (y/n) would have like a fur as a chest? Like a soft fur chest? But the human muscle structure is still there but the fur is just on top like most animals. Like soft cloud pillows 🤤🤤

Anyway- the devil fruit's downside can also vary if it's a lion, the instinct of being on top of everything since lions are the king of the jungle and for big furry wolf is that... It only seems in the darkness, like... He'd hate the light since most wolves hunt at night (I guess...?)

I didn't understand what I typed lol, I hope you do, though 😂😂

(also, re-reading this... Maybe male!(y/n)'s chest would look a bit big if it's under some clothes but it's the fur that's making them big by the volume of said fur {yes, I study volumes of fur because I love lions and big furry wolves lol} as well as maybe, juuuuussst maybe, (y/n) enjoy brushing the fur on his chest every once in a while.)

Don't worry about me understanding, I ramble too. Since you didn't specify if you wanted them to be different fics, I included it all in one thing. I made him a wolf because while I like all cats (big or small) in real life, in the instances of writing, I like wolves better. I hope this is what you wanted and please let me know if you don't like it! I've only written like, 3 things with a male reader!

Warnings: Male!Reader, mentions of arousal, fluffy wolf!Reader

Word Count: 1350

     The Polar Tang had always required quite a bit of maintenance. A submersible ship with hundreds of moving parts that needed constant attention. Subsequently, along with the typical night watch, there was usually a crew member dedicated to roaming the halls and checking or looking out for any problems that might arise with the machinery and either fix them or wake the crew. For reasons he’d never really understood, you usually took this shift if possible. Working late into the night then sleeping late into the morning. Most of the others didn’t much care for the shift, finding the darkness of night on the sub to be rather eerie. Yet you seemed… eager to fill the shift. You’d joined only 2 years back, shortly after Sabaody. An interesting man, about his age, with a similar body build, only with a larger chest and more muscle. Nocturnal as hell, having a surprising abundance of energy at night, yet absolutely dead in the mornings, playful with the crew, yet he’d seen you actively take attacks aimed for the crew or viciously tear into an enemy that threatened them. 

     Closing your file, he leaned back in his chair. You’d avoided his physicals probably a dozen times or more, always stating an excuse, but he was determined to get you into his office this time! This time, he had Penguin and Shachi watching you, waiting for the second you had a free moment before they ‘pounced’, telling you that you should go see Law for your physical exam. It wasn’t long before you were peeking your head into his office, looking around as if hoping he wasn’t there. To be honest, you didn’t mind doctors, it wasn’t that you were afraid of them, but this was Law, the most attractive doctor on earth! How could you just go in there and be… examined by him? Forced to sit still, half naked, on his table, hoping that your body didn’t… react to him, praying that he didn’t get close enough for you to take in his scent. He looked like he smelled like coffee… coffee and sanitizer, the latter of which didn’t seem so attractive, but you hoped for coffee. Part of you knew he probably didn’t care about your devil fruit features, the large, fluffy fur that covered your chest probably wouldn’t bother him, aside from interfering with his stethoscope, but it felt… personal, it wasn’t something you typically showed off to others. 

     Sighing, Law gestured for you to come in, making you duck your head, looking at the floor as you slowly entered the room.

     “Since this is your first exam with me, I’m going to need you to take off your shirt.” Law said nonchalantly, starting to write in your very thin file. 

     “Is that… absolutely necessary, captain? I’m sure the physical would go just fine if I kept it on.” you said, shifting nervously.

     “Yes, it’s necessary, now take off your shirt and get onto the table.” Law demanded, making your heart jump. How many times had you dreamt similar things leaving his lips, though in entirely different contexts. Reluctantly, you removed your shirt, gently setting it aside as you hopped up onto the table. 

     Law sighed, he’d finally gotten you onto his damned table! Looking up, the young man froze. It wasn’t the fluffy fur that had caused him to stop though, rather the young man beneath the fur, shifting nervously on the table. His eyes ran over your body, muscular from working with the machinery, thin and lithe, your size betraying the strength he knew hid under your clothes. For the first time in many, many years, his pencil fell from his hand, clattering to the floor. The sound seemed to startle him out of his thoughts, quickly gathering himself together and starting the exam.

     “You’re a devil fruit user then?” he asked stoically, quickly grabbing one of the pencils from his pocket.

     “Uh, yeah, a special type of wolf user. It’s complicated.” you said, looking away. Those few simple words explained so much about you. Your nocturnal sleeping schedule, your playful demeanor and protectiveness, the Heart Pirate crew was your pack. Law simply nodded, returning to his check up, trying desperately to focus on the check-up and not your body. Not to say that he was the kind of man to only be attracted to a person’s body. Not that he was attracted to you!!! The physical seemed to last an eternity for the both of you, neither of you quite sure what to say or do until he was finished with the check-up. Almost as soon as he gave you the green light, you were bolting out of there, hurrying back to your room.

     Law sat in his chair, staring at the photo of you in your file. His heart was still pounding from seeing you and he felt something strange in the pit of his stomach, tightening and flipping. He was a healthy young man, he was no stranger to the body’s urges and needs, but he’d never felt this kind of desire towards another male before, never desired another male like he was desiring you. He briefly wondered if that fur was as soft as it looked. You’d parted the fluffy looking pile so he could listen to your heart, only able to lightly brush against a few stray hairs, but he hadn’t been able to get a real feel for it.

     Back in your room, you took deep breaths as you ran a brush down your chest, letting the feeling relax you. Feeling the bristles of the brush comb through your fur always brought a wave of comfort to you, allowing you to calm down from your recent encounter with your captain. It wasn’t something you did often, but if you were having a hard time relaxing, it always helped. Your mind was still playing through every second of the physical as you just sat there on your bed, brushing your fluffy mound of fur. He’d smelled like coffee… coffee and hand sanitizer like you’d expected. But also something else, something you couldn’t quite pin down, something that had had your body reacting in ways you really didn’t want it to while sitting in front of him. Vaguely you wondered what it would be like to have him brushing your fluffy chest, stroking your chest with the brush. Would he sit behind you as he ran it through your volumes of fur, his arms wrapped around you in a loving hold as he gently fingered the soft tufts? Maybe he’d kneel in front of you, admiring your fur as he gently pulled his fingers through the silky strands. Perhaps he’d rest his head on top of your chest, using your fur as a pillow, maybe you’d be able to get the insomniac to get some sleep. You might be nocturnal, but you’d gladly sleep through the night, or at least sit still through the night, if it meant letting Law sleep on your chest. Taking another deep breath, you set the brush down, your day dreams would have to wait for another time, it was getting close to dinner, meaning that you should start preparing for your usual night shift. It would be a welcome distraction from the events of the day, finding something so energizing about the night. Your mind could focus on the machinery and any malfunctions, allowing you to take your mind off your captain.

     Law looked at the time. Dinner would be announced soon, maybe he could find a way to sit near you? Could he find a medical reason to ask about the fur? He really wanted to see how soft it was. Shaking his head, he grumbled to himself, he was Trafalgar Law! The surgeon of death! What was he doing getting worked up over someone? Even if that someone was the most attractive person he’d ever seen! Between finding himself attracted to a male for the first time and all the things he wanted to do or say, things were about to get a lot more complicated.

#one piece #one piece law #op law #one piece trafalgar d water law #one piece trafalgar law #trafalgar law x reader #trafalgar one piece #trafalgar law #trafalgar d law #trafalgar d water law x reader #trafalgar d law x reader #trafalgar d water law #male!reader #male reader insert #law x male reader #trafalgar law x male reader #one piece male!Reader

[clairiko]

Can you do a step-by-step process of how you draw Link or Zelda?

i can try my best! hope this will be a good enough explanation😅

1. First sketch

I always start with with just a circle as a guide to create the shape of the head.

I use very simple dots for eyes just to see where to place them, which also helps me figure out the rest of the face.

Then I block in the general shape of the hair, shoulders etc.

2. Second sketch

Once you have those initial guidelines, its pretty easy start adding lineart on top. It can still be messy at this phase since the next step is to refine the lineart and fix any mistakes.

3. Line weight

I consider this the most important stage in my process. Line weight is very important! Its the step that can sometimes take the longest for me because I'm constantly adjusting lines, erasing them, adjusting again etc etc until I feel it looks good. Take your time and figure out where to put more/less line weight until you're satisfied with it!

4. Flat colors

If I'm being completely honest, I don't have a particular process for choosing flat colors other than just eyeballing it 😅 I like to use trial and error to figure out what looks good. I use references to figure out the colors, but I don't like to just use the eyedropper tool to pick the colors from the ref since I feel it never works well with my art. I just try to match as close as I can just by using the color wheel, and try to pick colors that go well together overall in the composition.

5. Cell shading

For shading and lighting I try to use cool colors like purple for the "dark" areas and warm colors like reds and yellows for the "light" areas. It gives this really neat effect where it looks like there's shading, but really its just a bunch of complementary colors working together. Occasionally I use the Harmony color wheel on Procreate to figure out which colors are actually complementary or analogous to one another.

6. Final render

The last step is to color the lineart with a clipping mask and add any final details, then you're done!

I hope that was a satisfactory explanation, I've never done a tutorial like this before 🥲 Thanks for the ask!

#clairiko asks #art tutorial #loz #link #art #the legend of zelda #loz link #fanart

[adracat]

Esoteric and Divine Composite: Miorine

You all knew this was coming eventually. It's no secret she's my favorite among the cast, though Suletta is quite close. There's good reason for it too! She's a wonderful twist on an old gundam fav, the original peace princess, Relena Peacecraft. But as with her wife, there are multiple homages and inspirations added to her character—Norse gods Odin & Dagr-personification of Day, the goddess Persephone/Kore, and the White Queen

Odin

I'll admit, I was thinking perhaps I was off-base with my original analysis since she never lost an eye as we were anticipating. But she does make a horrific sacrifice and is hung by the swords of hatred as Prospera's Rose Bride. She is indeed the Hanged God who willfully pierces herself in the name of enlightenment/knowledge; for her, 'saving' Suletta.

All at the behest of the show's Mimir, Prospera, who directed her to Quin(Wisdom)harbor in the first place. It's subtle, but it works so well once you notice the pieces fall into place

(I'll expand more on Prospera and Mimir in another analysis)

But why Odin of all the gods? A patriarchal figure, no less. The answer lies in yet another Roman syncretism for Mercury. They share many similarities/domains and became entwined due to the spread of commerce; even sharing the same holy day, Wednesday. They are both psychopomps, able to traverse the realms freely, seekers/scholars of knowledge, and formed their respective alphabets. Odin is another face of Mercury.

And of all the characters, Mio has been at the forefront of gaining knowledge and unraveling hidden secrets, such as the tomato code and GUND. It's rather easy to link her vigilant serviellance over the school/Benerit to Odin's ravens. Her emblem is a bird after all...

Dagr/Persephone

In all honesty, I can't explain why this parallel is so clever without discussing these in tandem. Dagr, as I've mentioned previously, is the personification of Day. Counterpart to his mother, Night/Nott, and father, Dellingr. But why was Mio given this distinction as the bringer of Day? Because she's also coded as Persephone, goddess of Spring. GWitch is intertwining the Norse cycle of Day and Night with the greek seasonal cycle of agriculture. When Persephone descends below into Hades, the winter sets in as Demeter falls into despair. She is echoing Nott, bringer of night. Then when Persephone rises above, life blooms anew and spring begins, mirroring when Dagr has drawn the sun over the Earth. Both bring renewal in a ceaseless cycle.

In the finale, Mio is the harbinger of a new world. She has dismantled Benerit and is working tirelessly with the people of Earth to sow life after the many years of 'winter'.

If I haven't convinced you yet, let's take it back a few episodes. When Prospera vowed to show Mio the voices of the dead and proceeds to drag her below to the dark abyss that is Earth.

Hades Prospera has stolen Mio away and 'defiled' her sense of self. It's not a literal violation, thankfully, but considering the over-hanging Akio parallel it's intentional. Cleverly, the Rose Bride of GWitch is entwined with both Odin and Persephone to create a very layered sequence of events

But this Persephone doesn't wed her defiler. Instead, she's wed to her saviour who leads her into the light; Hermes/Mercury. In the original myth, Hades tricks Persephone into remaining his bride by eating Pomegranate seeds. This Persephone willingly eats a tomato given by her chosen groom. And before that, she decides to visit GWitch's Hades so long as Suletta joins. The Persephone-Hades tale has been indelibly altered to grant her agency and a new suitor along with completing the Dagr/Persephone cycles

The White Queen

Obligatory, please read my previous analyses on As Above, So Below and Red King and White Queen for context.

Miorine is a mercurial girl in multiple ways, from her appearance to her flunctuating temperament. She's the embodiment of Quicksilver/Mercury. Her name is derived from Mercury. Mio- a name imparted by the japanese people for a Mercury Orbital probe. Rembrandt- the name of a Mercury crater with high volcanic activity. The last bit of her name 'rine' can also be interpreted as water/watersilver; she’s elemental Mercury from top to bottom.

Mio is also a metaphorical Queen as the president of Benerit. And her union with the Red King resulted in the miraculous, mediated by the alchemical dove; Earth House.

But the parallel goes further when you look at the White Queen's symbol. The moon. As established above, she is Persephone or the Maiden. Her mother is Demeter, The Mother. And there's evidence Prospera is coded partly as the Crone, Hecate. All three are linked to the phases of womanhood and the moon

She might be the most subtly layered character I've had the privilege of dissecting. Her marriage to Suletta has unprecedented amounts of significance and canonicity. Mio, the Odin/Persephone/Rose Bride/White Queen amalgamate who overcame the tragedies of mythology and established her place in all our hearts.

If you enjoyed this read, plz view my Suletta Analysis here

#I still say she may be coded as Baphomet #lookin real divinely androgynous here #g witch #g witch spoilers #miorine rembran #suletta mercury #gundam witch from mercury #sulemio #analysis and speculation

[therealgchu]

Late Snippet Sunday - To the Shore: Reflections

i'm late cos i deciced to scrap the whole first section of this chapter. it was just too contrived and not organic at all. i started re-writing it on saturday, and finally got enough up to post up a snippet. it's not likely i'll make my publishing schedule for friday, either, as this chapter is going to be long and involved, and i don't have another thing queued up (unless something pops into my thinky-blob between now and wednesday).

progress is never linear.

if you want to read To the Shore from the beginning, or missed a chapter, check it out on ao3.

i've also started a backstories companion called Anamnesis, also on ao3.

finally, sneak peekage

Cora looked up in wonder, “This was your mom's? Grandpa said he didn’t save anything of hers.”

“He didn’t. I don’t remember much, but I know at some point he threw mom’s stuff away. I think he wanted to get rid of the memories…” he trailed off, then looked at Hwa. She could see in his eyes the unfinished portion of that sentence, like me. He shook his head, “It looks like he saved her camera though.” He picked it up, examining it. “Yeah, it’s pretty broken. But, I bet we can fix it.” He handed the camera to Cora. “Would you like to try?”

Cora’s eyes shined and she nodded, taking the camera gently from her father’s hands. She examined it carefully, analyzing what was broken and where. She nodded again, “If I can find the right parts and tools, I’m certain I can get it working!”

“May I see it?” Hwa asked. Cora handed her the camera. “You’ll need some speciality tools. Some of these parts are small and delicate. I think I have some, but otherwise, we can probably find some at a jeweler.”

Sam grinned, “Sounds like a project for the both of you!”

Finding the tools was easy as Hwa and Cora repurposed computer repair tools; sourcing the parts, however, proved to be a challenge as there were very few actual film cameras in existence. It was Walter that delivered the goods for the spare parts, film, and chemicals for developing the film. Apparently, antique film cameras were one of those trendy hobbies for the people he regularly hobnobbed with, namely wealthy people of leisure.

It took about a week of intermittent work to get the camera in working order. Sam and Barrett helped set up a dark room in the basement of the Lodge, clearing out the spare storage room. Once the work was done, Cora started photographing everything and anything she could find. Walter, once again, was instrumental in assisting her new hobby, as he was her source for acquiring film. He felt it was a good investment as it “recorded Constellation’s endeavors for posterity.”

She had a good eye for composition, but it took time to understand the mechanics of things like aperture speed, film grain, and lenses. And, there was both a craft and an art to developing the film. It was a couple weeks before decent enough photos were produced, for which Cora showed off proudly to the members.

The first batch she showed to her dad, especially one photo of which she was particularly proud of, and thought he’d like. It was of him and Hwa aboard the Razorleaf, with Hwa holding onto his arm and laughing. 

“Oh, gum drop,” Sam said, a little choked up, “this is beautiful. My mom used to show me pictures like this. Can I have this?” he asked. 

“Of course. I can always make a copy from the negative.”

“Thank you so much,” he whispered to Cora, and hugged her tightly. He let her go, sniffled, and wiped his nose. “I want to get this framed. Have you shown this to Hwa yet?”

“No, I thought you’d like to show it to her.”

Sam smiled widely, “That I would. This is the best gift I think I’ve ever received.” He gave Cora another hug. “Do you know where Hwa is? Is she in her room?”

“No, last I saw her, she was downstairs working on her armor.”

Sam headed down the stairs, two steps at a time, and found Hwa was tinkering with the Mantis helmet, head down and goggles on, soldering servos. He walked over and put his arm around her waist when she stood up. Hwa jumped a little, but calmed when she felt him kiss her neck. “Cora’s first batch of photos are done. I wanted to show this one to you,” he said, and handed her the photograph.

She briefly glanced at it. Her body went rigid and her breathing stopped. She dropped the picture, and removed his arm from her waist. Without a word, she left the basement, leaving Sam flabbergasted.

#starfield #sam coe #fanfic #space husband #fanfiction #hwa kim #to the shore #space cowboy #coemancer #spacefarer #therealgchu writes #snippet sunday #i'm late #it's monday

[hare-beneath-pine]

2023.09.09

Big working last night - consecration of my black book of (visual) art, plus the first painting in it. This is a general road opener with an area to place a small, separate sheet of paper with a sigil or petition for a specific situation.

Consecration was pretty simple, though I had to write what I was going to say... often I just speak off the cuff, but wanted to be a bit more precise in my language for this. Apart from that it was my usual feeding with incense and candle (a safe distance away from the book) plus three breaths. Here's what I said:

I consecrate you, my black book, With cover dark, with pages blank; White void before creation. By my word and by my will, May you live in the threshold Between this world and the Other. As your pages bleed and bloom, The lies I draw turn into truth, The dreams I paint persist in waking. May messages from other realms Adorn your pages by my hand: Wild whispers and weird visions. I consecrate you, my black book, With cover dark, with pages blank. Now feed upon creation.

Probably this is quite influenced by Aidan Wachter (as is this whole thing), though I haven't read him in a few months.

The painting was a little more complicated and I'm not 100% pleased with the results. Trying to be nice with myself since I'm a novice painter and have never painted ritualistically before.

Process-wise, I entered a light-medium trance through song (Station to Station on repeat baby) and swaying/dancing - thanks to those who suggested that. I didn't prime the paper as much as I normally do, which had a negative affect on the brushstrokes - didn't pre-prime because I didn't want any marks on the book before consecration. Future paintings will be primed and taped before the working. I also think I'll prep a palette with liquid retarder pre-trance or in a light trance next time. Grabbing and mixing colours on the fly feels very intuitive but I haven't internalized enough colour theory to be happy with the result on an aesthetic level.

Results-wise, I have mixed feelings. I like the general composition and the central sigils magically and aesthetically, and I'm also happy with the inclusion of a thumb print to tie it to me. My annoyances are aesthetic - not happy with the quality of the brush strokes or the lack of unified palette.

Shortly after finishing this painting last, I had a strong visualization of the palette and brush strokes I "should have" used. I've primed and taped the next page and am planning to do a second road opener painting with these improvements. I feel like I should leave this painting in the book though, as it leads to the next one.

#my practice #hare-brained rambling #witchcraft #witchblr #art magic #art witch

[ryehouses]

i was tagged in this by @bobafett, who wants to bring back ask box games! this was really fun and really helped drive home the fact that i am maybe a little too wordy!

y'all know the drill. copy, paste, fill in your own answers! feel free to share!

How many works do you have on AO3? impossible for me to say because i have shed ao3 handles like a particularly robust hermit crab, but if i'm just counting everything under iridan, thirteen!

What’s your total AO3 word count? ......1.3 million, as iridan. if we throw in some of my other psueds and the truly awful eragon fanfiction i wrote when i was fourteen, we're probably loking at 2 - 2.5 mil.

What fandoms do you write for? presently, star wars, jujutsu kaisen, star wars again. i have some witcher fic in my gdocs and older projects in rdr2, dishonored, anything that can catch and hold my attention for long enough for my brain to produce a bit of dopamine,

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? all five of them are in the ast 'verse except for lost country

Do you respond to comments? i try to, but it's really hit or miss! i am painfully shy and usually can only go '!!!!!' in thanks

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? of my completed fics, none! i am not really in to the angst ending. if i ever do get around to finishing it, i started a dishonored/his dark materials au that would have ended with corvo going slowly, gently nuts and taking over the outsider's place in the void

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? i like happy endings, so all of them!

Do you get hate on fics? occasionally. i still think about that one commentor on ast who accused me of blaming the jedi for order 66 like, all the time. mostly no, though, everyone is really nice!

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? i've been told that 'wrestling as nasty foreplay' is something of a signature move of mine, so! 1) yes and 2) whatever kind of smut 'wrestling as nasty foreplay' applies as

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? yes, but almost exclusively his dark materials crossovers. i do have a witcher/temeraire fusion au sitting in my gdocs

Have you ever had a fic stolen? no, not that i'm aware of. i do semi-frequent google searches to see if my shit pops up anywhere.

Have you ever had a fic translated? i don't think so! ast was podfic'd, if that counts.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? i don't think so, because i am a whole idiot and am hard to collaborate with.

What’s your all time favorite ship? of ALL TIME? impossible to say. i am inconsistent and flighty. bobadin hit me pretty good, though

What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? haha too many. i started a jedi!din fic and didn't get far. i've had several WIPs on ao3 sit without an update for years. i have drafted, redrafted, and drafted again a novel that will most likely never see the light of day. finishing even one of those would likely water my crops for several years

What are your writing strengths? i take particular pride in my settings! somebody on ao3 told me last week that i have nice turns of phrase, too, and i am proud of those too

What are your writing weaknesses? i have never once said anything in six words when i could say them in six hundred million billion instead

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? obviously i've experimented in various projects, but i am fundamentally kind of lazy and prefer to sprinkle in a few words here and there instead of spending the time to learn about another language's grammar structure

First fandom you wrote for? the first fandom i published anything in was eragon, way back in the day! the first fandom i wrote for was his dark materials, in a composition notebook in like the fifth or sixth grade!

Favorite fic you’ve written? could not possibly pic! they are all like my children and also my therapist.

i'm tagging @meyerlansky and anybody else who wants to participate! consider yourself invited!

#ask box #ask games #i do miss ask games those were fun

[etherealascend]

hii it's unorcadox ^_^ how does your editing process work!!! like how do you choose what images to use, how to combine them, how to get the right "feel" etc. 👀 very curious abt ur answer

Damn, great question! Also, love your edits, Orca! (also a bit jelous abt your productivity, wish i had so many great ideas) So i present to you: a wall of text! (cw really long!)

So, many people see a great base image and then immideately get an idea of what they wanna do w/ it. I'm not like that, i ususally have an idea of an edit in mind, and then search for sometimes a few hours for a base image that may work. I have a whole tutorial-worthy process of how i always find what i need, but i digress… Most of the times, tho, i get something better than what i had in mind. I love this process, cause it's like tresure hunting for me. (ofc it's not always like that, just most of the time. Since i have a giant collection of base images i may sometimes use them). I choose my images based on the mood i wanna portray. It's always supposed to be looking kinda dreamlike and unreal, but it can also be creepy, dark, bright, etc.

When editing my favourite style of edits - fake dreamlike places - I try to make them look as real as possible, regarding color, lighting, etc, while still making them look blatantly fake regarding the composition, subject matter, etc. Ofc i don't try to perfect my lighting, since it can take away the feeling i strive for, so it's kinda based on my own feelings idk. I get really inspired by the surrealists' painting. Artists like Brent Wong, for example. Liminal spaces are already weird, so why not make them even weirder, by making the geometry non-Euclidean and subject matter impossible in the real world. Also unlike surrealist painters, i have a luxiry of making the scene like "more real" by combining actual photos in photoshop. Ofc people have been making surreal art w/ 3d programs forever now, but it still doesn't give off the same feeling real picture does, yk.

Uhh... what was i talking about... Ah, yes! I firstly make a collage, that i have in mind by this point, and sometimes it just... doesn't work out! i had discarded so many great ideas, cause they weren't turning out good. But if it works, i add shadows and highlights. I look at real liminal space photos and try to really analyze them. Like, what makes them work? the color, the quality, the blurriness? Then i add effects that works to my edit. Every edit needs it's own level of compression, sharpness, blurriness... You just gotta feel it.

Really important step. I leave my edit for a few hours, so i forget how it looks, and then return later. All the imperfections, things that don't work, etc pop out immediately. I read somewhere that the process of creating and the process of analyzing are two completely different things, and i couldn't agree more. It's annoying when you have a finished edit, and you really wanna show it to the world, but you have to wait... But it's better, than being embarrassed later that you posted something unfinished and you can't fix it now.

Ofc i make text edits as well, but they basically serve the same purpose and not that interesting to describe, cause process is the same just with a few steps skipped.

There wasn't such question, but i still wanna talk about it, cause it kinda answers "how do you get the right feel". Well, why do i make edits? Well, the world sucks ass (i don't agree w/ this statement for the most part, like friends are great, nature is buitifull, but then there are parts that just... yk...) and for me weirdcore is a sort of an escapism. I can't traverse dreamworlds mindlessly, alone or come across magical events in real world, sadly. But I can make them however i would like them to look and feel, with my characters (like deer), and my own thoughts about them, that no one except me knows. It's kinda like i actually've been there, and i took a picture. Or hell, maybe i've never been here myself, but those deer were, or invisible creatures, that are not in the shot. And i know them personally, cause i made them, they are a part of myself! And it really helps, and i'm so glad these pictures resonate with so many more people here too! I had been making these pictures without realising why for a year. I had some thoughts and heard dozens of opinins of other pople, but i hadn't had a full picture. And then a video by SuperEyePatchWolf about liminal spaces comes out, and i get it now, it was really eye opening, for me at least. It explains really well why we love unreality so much.

[always-wizu-you]

WITH + DarkMare Winter Live 2023 Rehearsal Log (part 2)

Winter Live is finally coming tomorrow! I'm including some other VA's tweets too

Here's the translation!

November 16th

Pretty Series: ⛄#Winter Live 2023⛄ Each member is rehearsing for the event✨ Here are off-shot photos of NonSugar & Go Go! Mascots' #Minami Tanaka #Nanami Yamashita #Nichika Omori ♡ The live will be held on Sunday, December 3rd at Makuhari Messe🌶🥞 👇Venue tickets are now on sale!! Reiou: Huh~? Hmm……😏 Kobatatsu: Oh... I feel like I've seen this composition somewhere…………🤔✨✨✨🤣 Minyami: This photo is the result after we're being shown WITH's off-shot photos for reference✌️Look forward to the concert day! #WinterLive2023 Seichi: When I met with Tanaka Minami-san at the dubbing studio, she told me that "I imitated WITH"... so this is what that was about huh!!! What did we make our seniors do? Thank you very much [for doing this]!!!

November 19th

Kawai-kun: #WinterLive2023 2 weeks left! ! ⛄️❄️ Rehearsal will start soon! This is my fourth time performing at Makuhari Messe. I want to overcome my nervousness and enjoy it to the fullest!!

November 20th

Kawai-kun: Our winter has begun ⛄️❄️ #WinterLive2023 #We had rehearsals in the morning Uzawa-kun: #WinterLive2023 We had practice today!!! Kawai-kun: It’s not choreography for a new song 🫢 lol As you can see… We messed around with the off-shot photos. We took various poses for the picture. #Staff was helping #Which photos will appear on Official's X? #WinterLive2023

Uzawa-kun: After rehearsal, we invited Saiga-san to Sushiro!!! Shrimp with good posture 🦐 lol [pic of Saiga-san's tshirt] Afterwards, we also went to a cafe, but truthfully I still want to hang out and talk more! lol Kawai-kun: I never thought I would be able to have a meal with Saiga-san… It was so much fun🍣 Saiga-san: I'm really happy that these two invited this middle-aged me😊 The two of them are really nice, so much that I'm becoming DarkMare's middle-aged fan more and more😊 We still haven't talked enough😆 Let's hang out longer next time!😆

Uzawa-kun: We were rehearsing for winter live in the morning Then, in the afternoon, I sang WITH's songs with Master [Shinya] at karaoke. We celebrated Laala-chan's birthday too Then, in the evening, we had dinner with Hibiki-sama. What a PriPara-ful day! #ManakaLaalaBirthday2023 Happy Birthday~! Have a great birthday! Congrats~! 🎂

November 23rd

Idol Land PriPara: Today, November 23rd, is “Good Brother” Day. And it's also Yui Yumekawa's older brother, 🍙Shougo Yumekawa🍙's 🎂birthday🎉! #YumekawaShougoBirthday2023 #PriPara #AdoPara Seichi: Let's work hard for Winter Live 🤝 Kobatatsu: Good brother!!!! Maji yabe!!!! Wooo!!!!✨✨!! ️😋 Maji congrats ㊗️🎊 Kawai-kun: #GoodBrotherDay #YumekawaShougoBirthday2023 [pic of him and Seichi in Shinya and Shougo costume for the stage play]

November 24th

Uzawa-kun: The other day, I met Seichi-san at the studio by chance!!! We talked about Seichi Shoten!!! lol Manager!!! I’ll come back for a part-time job anytime 📕✨ I’m looking forward to the winter live⛄️

[Seichi Shoten/Seichi Bookstore is the nickname for Seichi's radio show, YOUR SEICHI BOOKS. Both WITH and DarkMare's VA had been invited as guest stars in the past episodes.]

November 27th

Pretty Series: ⛄#Winter Live 2023⛄ Today we are releasing powerful off-shots of DARK NIGHTMARE's #Kentaro Kawai, #Shotaro Uzawa, and also #Tatsumaru Tachibana who plays Mario from "Idol Land PriPara"🌌 The live will be held on Sunday, December 3rd at Makuhari Messe🍫 👇Venue & distribution tickets now on sale!! Kawai-kun: We practiced properly, okay?! ① [WITH] Senpai's penlight ⚾️ The day before this, Nippon Baseball won the championship, hence the pose. ② We wanted to take photos with poses that you see in sport festival group play, and somehow it turned into this. It's been a while since I did it. Now, what kind of song will DarkMare perform? Please look forward to it. #WinterLive2023 6 days left until the show!! Uzawa-kun: My first morning schedule today was rehearsal for #WinterLive2023!!! I'm secretly looking forward to meeting the staff. We made a promise to stay in shape until we perform in Makuhari.🤞 Tatsumaru: This guy forgot his shoes and rehearsed in socks (ﾟωﾟ) Seichi: I'm looking forward to the men's dressing room at Winter Live. Just try it, you'll get high* Good work, you three✨

[Seichi is referencing a meme of a pro wrestler trying scallops on TV, saying "try it, you'll get high" to express how delicious it is]

November 28th

Kobatatsu: I've been rehearsing for the Pretty Winter Live✨🎤☀️ Due to schedule constraints, I practiced alone, but it was strange not seeing the other two! It's so empty!!! Huh? Huh? I felt so confused today lol The live's this weekend! Let's do our best! ! ! ! 👍✨😤 I’ll keep doing my best today 😚 Kawai-kun: #WinterLive2023 We have been rehearsing since morning! It was great to be able to practice together! ✋ days left until the actual performance!! After this, I'm going to ChichiBoku* practice!!! [a stage play Kawai-kun took a role in]

November 30th

Kawai-kun: It's stage rehearsal today!! 3 days left until #WinterLive! And 6 days left until #Chichiboku first performance! I hope to see you in December too 🎅🎄 [pic of him wearing Seichi's T-shirt merch] Seichi: Cough cough! Thank you for wearing it! (Ancient WITH stage reference) (I'm healthy) Kawai-kun: 🐺 "Are you okay?!?! Let's fight!" It's stylish and I've worn it numerous times. I like it 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️

Kobatatsu: In preparation for the live show, I changed my hair color to red🟥😍☀️ This weekend, I will be performing on Winter Live as WITH after so long, so I will give my best performance☺️!! ️ Makuhari Messe for the first time in a while! Maji yabe👍 Looking forward to it 😍 Seichi: That's a pretty red color✨🫰👴 I also changed my hair color a little. Regardless of whether it suits me or not, I feel completely ready for Makupari. Let's do it!! Kobatatsu: Seichi also changed his hair color huh!!! ✨👍☺️ Let's enjoy our first live after a long while!! ‼ ️☺️ Reiou: Of all these 5 years doing activities as WITH, this is the first time the three of us actually tried coloring our hair like the characters 👩‍🎤 Seichi: "The three of us"... that means...!? Stay tuned!!!!!

December 2nd

Pretty Series: #WinterLive2023 ＼＼ ⛄❄Finally tomorrow⛄❄／／ The biggest ever❣ A total of 44 people gathered to perform at Makuhari Messe🌟 ✔Points to note 🎄A dream collaboration for one night only!? Special collaboration! 🎄Some songs are different during the day and night…? 🎄There are new songs you'd hear for the first time 📅12/3 (Sun) 13:00/18:00 Tickets on sale now▽ Seichi: This Winter Live is going to be amazing. It's finally tomorrow❗️ Look forward to it! Kobatatsu: It’s finally tomorrow ✨☺️!! ️ Let's have fun! 👍😍 Reiou: I look forward to seeing you tomorrow😌🌕 Kawai-kun: We had rehearsal at Makuhari Messe. #WinterLive2023 Tomorrow is finally D-day 🐺🎤 We look forward to seeing you at the 2 performances! It's going to be a great live show. Definitely.

#danpri #pripara #idol land pripara #translation #yamashita seiichirou #yamashita seiichiro #tsuchida reiou #kobayashi tatsuyuki #kawai kentarou #uzawa shoutarou #tachibana tatsumaru #really looking forward to winter live!!! #like what do you mean we get to see wizu seiyuu colored hair. what. #tweet archive

[dotster001]

Oooh, this looks fun! I guess I'll request for Court of Darkness. The first path I chose was Rio because he seemed like the only sane person at the time. I'm glad I did because he's a literal ray of sunshine and I could not ask for a better friend. I'm reading Guy's route (ew) for Aquia. He's just so sweet, and quite frankly the best part of reading either Guy or Jasper's path. When he said that I was his first love, I wanted so badly to requite his feelings. Can I have a fluffy romantic story with me and Aquia pls?

As for the info about me, I'm just gonna copy and paste what I wrote for one of my earlier requests so... Here ya go

Appearance: I am a 165 cm tall, average build, South Asian woman. I have wavy black hair that reaches my shoulders and I usually dress in South Asian attire, usually salwar-kameez. I also wear glasses. I don't really feel comfortable going out without them 😅

My MBTI and enneagram: INTJ 5w4

Star sign: Sagittarius sun, Virgo moon and rising

Sexuality: demiromantic asexual

Personality: I'm pretty calm, collected and hard-working for the most part. People say I'm intelligent, quiet, and polite. I can be sarcastic at times, although people often say it's hard to tell when I'm being sarcastic. I'm probably the most emotional unemotional person I know. I don't really show a whole lot of facial expressions, but I do feel things more deeply than people give me credit for. I also tend to get overwhelmed easily, especially when I'm in really noisy places for prolonged periods of time (Cries in neurodivergent. Maybe. IDK I've never been diagnosed. I'm just calling it symptoms disorder for now). When people get to know me, they say that I'm a good listener and that they feel safe to speak their mind to me. My favourite hobbies include reading, playing video games, listening to classical and lofi hip-hop, and making art. I especially like to draw and paint things that radiate a sense of comfort, nostalgia and serenity. Someone also told me that my artworks also hold a sort of innocence in the composition of the shapes, colours and the overall vibe of what I draw/paint.

(I may have spelled Acquia's name wrong this entire thing.... don't worry about it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the time with your squishy boy!)

A Tale Where Aquia's Feelings are Requited, and Rio Helps it all go down

Rio had been there for you from the moment you set foot in the world. So he was also there to watch as you and Acquia started to fall for eachother. There were two problems though. The first was Acquia didn't have the confidence to confess his feelings. The , was that his big brother, whom he respected above all else, seemed to still think he could own you.

But Rio was a determined man. A determined man who thrived off making the people around him happy. 

"Good work, mate! That dough is coming along nicely. Just need it for a couple more minutes and it should be good!"

Food brought people together, right? Well, by Rio's calculations, proving bread dough would keep people together for at least an hour. 

"This is fun! Thanks for inviting me to bake with you," Acquia laughed, unperturbed by the flour covering his clothes. 

"Hey Rio, what is it you wanted?"

Perfect timing. Right as they'd have to wait for the bread dough to rise, you arrived in the room. 

"Hey! I was hoping you could draw a picture of Acquia for me. You know, since he's such a good friend I wanted to send a picture of him home so my father would know what he looks like."

It was a flimsy excuse at best. But he was hoping that with the simmering feelings you had for each other, neither of you would question him. 

"Okay," you seemed hesitant, and Acquia was a blushing mess, but you were sitting down and taking out a notepad.

"I'll add color later, right now it'll just be a rough sketch. Just go about as normal, Acquia."

Acquia nodded, but seemed at a loss. But Rio was prepared for this.

"Oy! Rio! There's a weird weed we need to get out of the garden!"

Thoma rushed into the room with his pre-prepared excuse. It wasn't good acting, but it would suffice.

"Ah, I should see to that."

Both of you stood up, seemingly ready to help.

"No no, you guys have to stay here and watch the dough. Don't take it out of the drawer until it has at least doubled in size."

Then he and Thoma left you both, triumphant grins on their faces.

        

                               ….

"I hope they're okay," Acquia muttered.

It had been quite a while since Rio and Thoma had left, and if you knew anything about Saligian plants, it was that it was very possible for them to eat humans.  But you weren't going to upset Acquia.

"Rio's tough, I'm sure he's fine."

"Yeah, you're right. He probably got hungry and went out for a victory snack."

You finished up the final touches of your sketch, then set down your pencil.

"Okay, all done!"

You pushed the paper over to Acquia, and held back a giggle as he started blushing again.

"This is how you see me? I look so….I guess the word is sweet."

"Well yeah," you said matter of factly. "You're my sweet Acquia."

"Your Acquia?" 

That's when you realized how it sounded, and got flustered yourself. Not that you meant it any other way, but you didn't know if he was ready for that.

"I…" he whispered, "I'd like to be yours."

"R-really?" You found yourself caught off guard.

"I mean….yeah. I like the idea of being your Acquia. It makes me feel," he blew out a frustrated breath, like he couldn't find the word he was looking for.

"I guess the idea of being yours makes me very happy," he finished, nodding to himself.

"Well, if you're mine, then I have to be yours. Those are the rules," you said, hoping to regain some of the footing he just knocked out from under you.

His smile was as bright as the sun as he gently took your hand and said, "I'd like that a lot. I'd be the happiest prince to ever live."

He frowned.

"I do have one request though. Can you draw a different picture of me for Rio? I want to keep this one."

                                   ….

That was a day of many firsts for Rio. Two of his best friends became paramours, and, for the first time in his life, he forgot he was baking bread.

Later, when you gave him the second picture of Acquia, he had also forgotten what the thing he needed it for was.  

And that was what reminded you how great of a friend Rio could be.

#court of darkness x reader #court of darkness #aquia avari #aquia avari x reader #aquia x reader #cod aquia #1k followers

[pagingdoctorbedlam]

ok so here's my idea

czerny taps horns/antlers with ebenholz and its just a gay little thing they do.

and hibiscus sees it and goes "what was that"

and theyre both like.. "uh oh that? oh. thats embarassing. you werent supposed to see"

(I've actually had similar thoughts before about Ebenholz showing affection through little goat-headbutts...but this idea is super cute. Now you've gone and inspired a ficlet. I hope you're happy. XD)

As with most habits Czerny had picked up since joining Rhodes Island, this one was Ebenholz's fault.

Czerny had never been big on physical affection. Hands to himself, content to acknowledge others with a nod or even a half-bow, not too keen on unexpected contact with anyone. Ebenholz tried to carry himself in much the same way, was nothing but unfailingly polite, but it was clear to anyone who spent more than five minutes with him that the Caprinae was starved for touch and attention both.

The first time had caught Czerny off guard. He'd been working on a composition, practicing a progression so quick he had to play hand-over-hand to reach the notes in time, when he'd felt a solid tap against one of his antlers. He'd startled, wracking his brain over what he might've accidentally hit with them (it had taken quite some time to get used to most of the landship's doorways), only to find Ebenholz standing there.

"You've been here for hours now. It's dinner time. Up with you."

"Right. Did you...knock on my antler?"

"You didn't hear me the first time, but I also did not want to risk being smacked."

Czerny almost retaliated that he would never, but then again, he did once accidentally give Chiave a bloody nose after the man had unexpectedly slapped him on the back. That had been embarrassing enough, though it also somehow earned the so-called gang leader's respect. A confusing man, that one.

He'd thanked Ebenholz, and joined him for dinner in what quickly became routine. Seemed that wherever Czerny might end up, Ebenholz could always seek him out if needed, and would always catch his attention by tapping one of his horns to Czerny's antlers. It was reminiscent of the Caprinae and Elafia children back home, often headbutting each other to play or get attention from their parents. (Not that Czerny had ever done the same...much.) Perhaps such was a habit Ebenholz had never quite outgrown?

Still, Czerny didn't realize how routine it had become until one day when he was asked to grab Ebenholz from the trading post. The young man barked orders and verbally cut down traders who tried to swindle him with all the authority of a former Graf Urtica, and Czerny certainly didn't wish to throw him off. So he approached quietly, waited for an opportune moment, and leaned over to tap an antler against Ebenholz's horn.

The young man turned, and broke out into a grin that somehow made his entire ashen-pale face seem bright. "Ah, Czerny. Is my shift over already? Forgive me for losing track of the time...shall we get going, then?"

Something about that expression did a funny thing to Czerny's stomach. He must've been hungrier than he thought. Surely that was all. He shoved the idea that it might mean anything more so thoroughly out of his mind that he didn't think about it again until months later.

A combat mission had just wrapped up. Ebenholz had made it back to the transport first, sitting in a dark corner with his eyes shut to block out an oncoming headache. Czerny took the seat next to him, waiting a moment to announce his presence with a tap. Ebenholz glanced up at him from under his bangs and smiled.

Except this time, someone noticed. A someone called Hibiscus. "Oh, what was that? Some sort of Leithanien greeting?"

Czerny's eyes shot up to meet hers. She was smiling, but it was more than her usual peaceful grin. No, there was a spark behind this one. Sly, some might call it, as if "sly" and "Hibiscus" could ever be put in the same sentence together.

"It is..." Czerny found himself at a loss for words. What was this, really? It had long gone beyond a simple greeting, but he didn't have the words for what it had become. It was a way to say "I'm here" without words. A halfway point between needing to touch and not wanting to be touched at all. An assurance. Trust.

"It's just a little thing we do," Ebenholz answered, soft but with an air of finality that invites no further conversation on the matter. "Do not worry yourself overmuch about it, Fraulein."

"Right, of course. Well, if neither of you are hurt, I'll let you get to it." Hibiscus had the audacity to wink at them as she walked away. The duo waited until she was gone to look at each other and silently ask: what were they really doing? What was this thing between them, really?

They didn't answer aloud. Ebenholz inclined his head. Czerny tapped, antler to horn. The pair smiled and settled in for the ride back. And when Ebenholz leaned against him and closed his eyes, Czerny found he didn't mind that so much either.

#arknights #bedlam writes #arknights czerny #ebenholz #ebenholz/czerny #czernholz #thank you for the suggestion friend!

[astralartefact]

Placeholder Name for Atarase's Media Diary

Entry 003 - NieR Reincarnation <<Prev: Dragon's Dogma 2

Synopsis

Living in the shadow of its predecessors a [g___] grapples with the fact that it was born shouldering the burden of Reincarnation.

And don't forget, Mother is watching. Don't. fuck it up.

gambling that whatever they announce next week makes parts of this post irrelevant

How much did I know before playing?

I played it since the JP launch despite not understanding a single word and I've played every DrakeNieR Adjacent thing in existence except for DoD2 (no interest, sry) and... NieR Automata which I refuse to play at this point - but I guess that just means you can't complain that I haven't played DoD2 lol.

Did I like it more than I expected?

I did in fact not expect the Gacha game to turn out the best NieR game but here we are.

Since I liked it, here's what I hated about it

Despite its (to me) clear intention to present a diverse and not particularly "objectified" cast it still has a visible bias towards a certain group of characters - by which i of course mean the waifus, because those make more money. But it means that certain characters never get the 'worthless' free event units while some only get them - snd I mean, just look at Priyet who has 3 less costumes than Yurie who came out months after her.

Also, the story was clearly supposed to be longer, especially with 10H's more-than-swift in- and ex-troduction, but tbh I didn't particularly mind it? 'Cutting it short' didn't ruin anything even though it could have taken the game a bit longer to end - but I wouldn't have said no to a Purple Season 3 Chapter either.

Also also, 'Tis evident that this ludus has maybe one singular mention of our Lord and Saviour YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse (henceforth referred to as Y:DA) - and even that one mention is marvelously vague. Father, are you ashamed of your best work? Is it because it doesn't qualify as its own game? Please, I beg of you to acknowledge the existence of the Crime & Punishment fanfiction sequel you wrote in a MMORPG cross-over! Do it for meeee!

What did this game make me think about?

Reincarnation is a Cage.

Specific Impressions that will stick with me

Honestly? A lot, so this is very non exhaustive.

The Art, both 2D and 3D, especially the very limited usage of color.

The Story and how exactly it was written. Every single line in this game pulls at the same rope and that's impressive for a game that's basically a very, very complicatedly put together Collection of Vignettes written from more than 5 people.

How thought through this game's structure is - how and when what kind of story was introduced/unlocked, stuff like that. I even thought "the grind" wasn't pointless okay, sue me but it makes the pay-off from the ex stories feel better.

Sarafa and Priyet

Outstanding Audio

The entire soundtrack, as always the crew at MONACA is beyond mere mortals - and honestly, Shotaro Seo deserves more credit for his NieR work!!! (also he's cute but that's besides the point)

Here are some fave picks:

Inori, Kizuna & the S3 Main Theme

Kusabi (i love seo's voice i think its so funny that they just used him as the male voice)

Mizukagami

Madan & the S3 Battle Themes

The Return of Normandy

The Mourning Mother Theme, All Versions (if this one doesn't come back in one of the next games i swear to mother)

The Final Boss Theme

Favorite Character

this is so hard why would Past!Me make me choos- Sarafa.

also mama, dark mama and papa and fio and levania and saryu and yudil and priyet and yuzuki and hina and argo (bc he's an idiot) and akeha and frenlise (still not sure why that's the only name they changed) and- all of them, i love all of them, some more than others but all of them except for the carrier, fuck the carrier also anogg y:da should be on this list

Favorite Arc/Story Line

Sun/Moon Story

Favorite Set Piece

The S3 Cage is so fcking gorgeous, around every corner another compositional marvel, they went above and beyond.

Favorite Scene

Priyet's Hidden Stories

The Library

Mourning Mother

Best Performance (I played with JP voices)

Yumi Hara as Mama.

--- ENTERING THE PRETENTIOUS SECTION OF THIS ENTRY --- reminder that the pretentious section is called that way for a reason, don't take it too seriously

What about this game gives me Hope for the future of gaming?

I guess the death of the Common Gacha is somewhat imminent if even Square Enix is giving up on it. A shame that what's left in its wake (the Gacha with "Gameplay Value") is so much more worrisome than shitty jpg dispensers ever could be.

And I don't know, I guess I'm just excited for Yoko Taro's next big hit because he has yet to really miss. Sadly this game won't set any industry standards in the ways I would like it to :/

What about this game makes me scared for the future of gaming?

The Internet has figured out that complaining about things that everybody agrees is bad is fun - and that's nothing new. What's new is that they have at this point seen enough video essays to make their incessant complaining sound like "Criticism."

The problem I have with that is that these surface level "Criticisms" taint the stage, so to speak. Everyone is constantly mad at the mere mention of Microtransactions or of Gacha Games (except, of course, if it's one of the popular ones) and it makes it so that "not critizising" Gacha Games for even just existing in the first place makes you "uncritical."

Can you tell by my usage of Quotation Marks that I do not like the word Criticism anymore?

And I wish that my only stake with this is that I think this shit is annoying as fuck. That I think it sucks that every person having something, anything genuine to say about this game feels the need to state how they know Gacha games are bad because Capitalism sucks - a so surface level fact I would genuinely struggle to believe anyone who would agree with that hasn't already caught on to it yet.

But no - that's where our public interrogation of this type of media starts and ends, because god forbid we have a more nuanced opinion about this shit than "Gacha Bad".

Instead of talking about anything below the surface, good or bad, be it the artistic merits of this game I really like or the actually deeply fucked up evolution on the Gacha Formula the Industry is going through to make their practices more palatable despite being so much worse and deeply ingrained into everything else - resulting in an ecosystem that's so much more dangerous than anything Square Enix could ever hope to come up with.

Instead of talking about any of that I get to hear people act high and mighty about how smart and brave they are for voicing an opinion everybody shares with them.

Meanwhile Hoyoverse has made it cool to just take whatever game is currently popular and turn it into an industrial-grade FOMO machine printing object women of the week and money and everybody unironically endorses it, creates endless amounts of free publicity through fan-art & co, feeding into this FOMO cycle that's already exacerbated by games solely built to drive you to FOMO through all of its built-in game design mechanisms - all so you gamble your money away for your own enjoyment - but that's 'better', actually, 'because it has good gameplay.'

[This is where I cut a lengthy section about how Japanese Idols and Gacha Games are both selling the same things. It was very informative and you are disappointed you're missing out on this quality content.]

Because clearly, the problem with Gacha Games has all this time been that Gacha Games have boring gameplay and not that they do everything in their power to addict people into spending money on parasocial relationships to people (mostly women) that don't even exist, all to impress themselves and their friends.

and also you guys it looks kind of silly when you say 'good riddance, you cheap cash-grab' to a game that a) clearly wasn't that cheap and b) clearly didn't grab that much cash

The Ramble Section where I get to actually talk about what I thought about

[This is where I cut a lengthy section about my complicated feelings towards Video Game Archiving and how Lore is a blight. It was very informative and you are disappointed you're missing out on this quality content.]

So a couple days ago Yoko Taro met up with the Stellar Blade guy and the only thing I can think about is... well...

Was 2B a mistake?

I mean, it's kind of a sign of how good he is at analyzing the topic at hand so take that as you will, but the fact is that Yoko Taro set out to create the most objectifiable women he could think of - and he was so good at it she has become what is probably the most objectified female character of our time.

And yet, despite knowing that that's not really a good thing - because clearly he did all of that for a reason and Reincarnation didn't really do all that despite being a Gacha - he continues to just... enable people (and by people I do mean Men) to keep doing these kinds of disgusting behaviours to an entire gender, fictional or not. Things that Automata at least to some degree criticizes through 9S (like there's a reason he's the final boss you guys)

And I guess it just feels shitty to see Yoko Taro publicly give this game his stamp of approval when the entire existential premise for Stellar Blade seems to be that clip of Yoko Taro saying "I just really like girls"; a shitty quote that 100% has caused women some societal harm he has yet to r3pent for because Gamers took it and ran - and now we have another game with a big tits SciFi Woman for Men to objectify and I'm pretty sure this one won't have the underlying subtext of "maybe objectifying women is not all that great you guys"

But then there's stuff like putting a shallow husk of 2B - and they somehow also always feature the butt out version too, isn't that interesting - into any game that will take her - which is pretty much every game that is physically able to because thanks to her standing for nothing but ass woman in the popular conscious everyone wants a piece of that free money from horny gamers.

And I guess I have to legally state that that's fine or else the horny fun police is taking me in, but with how he's treating this character outside of the game it feels like it does such a disservice to the points he makes in his games (plural bc of dod3) and that fucking sucks because clearly the world isn't ready to move on from 2B so she'll be around, and with her a symbol that actually, it's fine to objectify your female characters - full stop because nobody but us few cares about the things he's criticizing through subtext.

And it sucks that to SquareEnix her stupid ass (like literally just her ass) is going to overshadow anything Reincarnation has ever done, all the interesting points it makes about societal agency and human relationships and gender and consent and family - because I wouldn't be surprised if NieR 4 manages to barely acknowledge Reincarnation's existence at all while still churning out YoRHa DLC - I mean just look at how they treat Drakengard, which for its 20th anniversary got... an entire tweet.

Like. They didn't even play Reincarnation Music at the NieR Concert!!! Not even Inori!!! It's been three years, why was there no Reincarnation Music at the fucking NieR concert??? I guess we'll just hear Grandma and Kainé and Weight of the World Remixes forever because squeenix mandated that everything that's not the big 2 games can only be referenced in vague subtext (and listen, I love how NieR treats Drakengard Lore, I will be severly disappointed if he ever actually explains any of it - it just hurts my soul that Kuroi Hana has never been performed live) (also y:da's final boss theme should have been a kuroi hana arrangement and not kainé but i guess licensing is a bitch so there's that)

But I mean it is kind of funny that NieR Reincarnation is in a Reincarnation Cage of its own. It's living in the shadow of its predecessors, grappling with the fact that it was born shouldering the burden of Reincarnation. Another Yoko Taro story whose story is about itself. (can i interest you in a german review i wrote where i explain which other yoko taro story also does that) (it's y:da, it's always y:da)

I guess all I can say is that you're clowning about Women, Yoko Taro, and I really hate that. Do Better, as they say. I wish you would publicly talk about literally anything else at this point, especially since you made a good point and then ruined it by not just simply shutting up about it like you do about anything else you do. (remember the ff14 live stream where he proceeded to not answer a single question about y:da? iconic behavior and absolutely the right choice)

And you have so many other good points to make that you could talk about instead! ...then again I swear to mother if Kamierabi really is about how Abortions are bad I will abort you, we have a perfectly capable successor in Yuki Wada right there. (btw praise be Yuki Wada, the true hero of this story, living his dream with his two nier ocs hina and yuzuki)

#atarasegamediary #nier reincarnation

[danydarkly]

Hi! I just wanted to say, thank you so much for making the Red & Wolf comic. I just found it by accident and read through the whole thing in one night, I am seriously loving it so far. I'm autistic and I've always had a strong interest in wolves, specifically Little Red Riding Hood versions of wolves, and always wanted to read a story about the wolf having a sort of redemption or it being more than just "big bad wolf is evil and wants to eat the girl". There's hardly any content for me to dive into in regards of even just the fairytale itself, most stories are very gruesome, the short films online are incredibly dark and uncomfortable since those are the adaptations of the original grimm telling, or all of the red riding hood movies are horror films instead of fairytale adaptations. Or some sort of like... idk love triangle thing where it's all modernized or something for televesion where Red is wearing jeans and the Wolf isn't even a real wolf? But yours... this is like finding gold. I was hooked immediately and I couldn't stop reading.

Your story of Scarlett and Leikos... it's just so gorgeous, your art work has such clean lines and the way you draw eyes and hands especially is so beautiful. The design for Leikos' hair is my favorite!! And the panel you made where Scarlett is lying down on the grass/tree stump and she's blushing while Leikos is talking with her, oh my gosh, that's my favorite panel out of every chapter so far. Just... the vulnerability of these two growing closer, like... augh clutching my heart when Leikos is like "no don't cross the path you're gonna get hurt :(" and she's like "but I want to dance with you :)" like!!! she trusts him and he refuses to hurt her even when instincts kick in!! HIS BACKSTORY? BRO? I'M IN SHAMBLES?? Ugh your art is so GOOD and this STORY is so GOOD and I am just so thankful to be able to dive into a Wolf/Red story that has action, romance, suspense, all the good stuff. It's so perfect.

Thank you for working so so hard to make this comic. I'm an artist as well and I could never have the patience to upload one comic page, let alone several. Laying out panels is difficult and time consuming and not to mention you're shading and coloring the entire thing. Your poses are always fluid, never stiff, you have good perspective and composition, most ppl who make comics can easily just draw one single pose and one facial expression for 20 panels, but you've always had the expressions and body language shift and change and the camera view as well... and you gotta draw all those damn trees omfg. The flower meadow in the first chapter must have taken forever to draw too! Your hard work really shows in your art and I am so happy to have stumbled upon your comic. If you make any more merch for Red & Wolf on your Etsy, whether it's prints or charms or stickers or really anything, I would be more than willing to throw some money your way. Or if you open commissions as well someday, ahh, I love your stuff so much I would totally pay you to doodle Leikos hehe. Please have a wonderful day and take care! <3

AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa

What a lovely message! Thank you so much, Anon! I really needed to read this today <3 I'm truly at a loss for words, like you basically complimented me on everything I'm mad-insecure about?? It's really nice, like maybe I really am too hard on myself?? Whenever I look back on my old panels (which I've been doing a lot lately since reformatting Red & Wolf for print), I always feel like I put way too much effort and kind of only see what I did wrong, but if you and others recognize the effort and like what I did - then maybe it wasn't a waste of time after all. That makes me feel way better about it, thank you :' ) Also, your favorite panel is one of my favorite panels too, where I felt "dang, I kind of nailed it here" - which is SUPER rare for me, haha. I should read this lovely message whenever the impostor syndrome kicks in, it really lifted my spirits <3

#and yeah drawing all those trees all the time and backgrounds in general is PAIN #and ill always regret painting every blade of grass in the early chapters lmao #but im glad my efforts are appreciated #anon #answered #totally radiating motivation now

[italiantea]

tagged by @hua-fei-hua, 15 questions for 15 mutuals

1. are you named after anyone

yes, i was named after my brother, on account of him being born earlier :p

ok no, i share the same generational name character with my brother but i wasn't named after anyone

2. when was the last time you cried?

like last week graduation day bro you know how it is

3. do you have kids?

idk what those are

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?

like a decent amount ig. but I'd say my sense of humor is mostly recounting funny situations/Being Silly/puns (the sheer unbridled pun power of the chinese language... incredible)

5. what sports do you play/have played?

haha all the sports i partake in don't use the verb 'play' (im dogshit at ball games)

track and field in elementary/middle school (short distance running and long jump mostly) and parkour starting in uni. oh and i also did ballet till like age 12, to everyone's surprise ←now i literally just look like Some Dude and also have terrible coordination and absolutely no grace✌️

6. what's the first thing you notice about people?

hair, if they have glasses, shirt color. I'm pretty faceblind as well but in high school I used to memorize unfamiliar people by their shoes and that worked pretty well. i could spot Neon Pink Shoes senpai coming from a mile away

7. eye color?

⚫⚫

8. scary movies or happy endings?

no preference as long as it's well written. also this is the strangest non-mutually exclusive way of classifying stories I've ever seen

9. any special talents?

i can hold like a really fucked up looking pose on parallel bars on account of my Freakishly Long Neck. can pull all nighters all the time and not get dark undereye circles. double jointed thumbs? Good At Jumping compared to the average person in my demographic. tentatively trilingual. Oh and i wouldnt say I'm particularly talented at drawing but i can say for sure i can draw a mean picture in powerpoint shapes with a trackpad. don't ask me why

10. where were you born?

also in a hospital in einem ✨Krankenhaus✨ yeah that seems fitting

11. what are your hobbies?

digital art, parkour, and more recently novel and lyric translation. anime and manga but i dont keep up with that many series these days tbh. dabble in guitar/piano/music composition once in a blue moon and yes I'm very bad at all of them :D

12. do you have any pets?

none of my own but there's like 15 dogs on campus and we (dog club) are constantly tripping over ourselves to keep them in check. they're very stupid <3

here, have a picture

13. how tall are you?

been 166.7 cm since i was 15

14. favorite subject in school?

used to be physics in high school ig. at least the part about classical mechanics. never been a fan of electromagnetics🤢 in uni... idk, neurobiology was fun? and coding. i dont think most engineering students 'like' their core subjects haha

15. dream job?

*sweats* alrighty everyone that concludes this tag meme have a great night!

i definitely do not have 15 mutuals so anyone who wants 2 do it just go right ahead. if you're in an oversharing mood today.

#the ho rambles #i haven't seen these things for years i don't remember if I have a tag for this #thanks for the tag mutual😘