#also ive been trying to color things a bit differently :) i think it looks nice and im pretty happy with it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

qwuilty · 1 year

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Art Gallery (A general Postal fic)

Hiii it's officially time for my spring semester to be over so i'm on my bullshit again :3

It's rated G, again mainly just a character study type fic with appearances from a couple dudes. Perspective character is meant to be the Art Dealer from Postal 4, be aware of some dream typical fuckery and shenanigans, i hope you like it! ^^

(Also apologies for any errors, i wanted to get this done and out there cause ive had it on the brain for a bit |D)

A little to the left, no, perhaps a little to the right?

She adjusted the painting again and again, partially to make sure it looked just right, and partially because there was nothing much else to do. The Edensin art gallery was effectively a ghost town before its opening with empty frames littering the walls, sure she had gotten that new guy to… Relieve some of the more wealthy locals out of their neglected pieces, but if it was going to take him this long, it was no wonder she was the only one there.

She sighed, resigning with a slightly a little too much to the left but close enough as she walked back to the front, staring emptily towards the door if anyone would come in. Dead silence filled the room, nothing much else to be heard but the sound of her breathing and the dull hum of the lights in the room. Well, if there wasn’t going to be anyone else coming in, maybe she could afford herself a little time to slack off?

Idly her hands moved to put on some music, sitting down on the floor as with a blink of the eyes she faded out of consciousness and into the makeshift headrest in her arms laying on her knees, out of reality around her and into a sinking, dark cloud around her, until she woke again.

Where she woke up however, was another question.

She stood up quickly, trying not to fumble over her own feet while her eyes glazed over her surroundings. It was another art gallery, though this one seemed more refined, full of paintings and statues, its halls like an ever expanding labyrinth. Off white walls, tile floors, light yellow lighting, frames of ornate gold, but the paintings inside seemed almost unrecognizable. It was like they were on the tip of something she could remember, figures resembling what she studied years ago, but the details got lost in a melding mesh as they all blended together.

As she looked to her side, she noticed a figure looking intently at one of the paintings down the hall, and as she got closer she noticed how similar he looked to her ‘friend’ back in reality. He was several years younger, longer hair too, but his facial structure looked familiar and even with his heavy, dark trenchcoat it seemed they weren’t all too different.

When his eyes looked over to her from behind his sunglasses her body tensed up quickly, shit how long had she been staring? Her gaze shot to the painting in front of them, something resembling a bedroom full of bright oil colors and yellows mixing in with blues and reds. “So, what do you think of this one?” She tried to transition to something so they weren’t standing in complete silence, anything to get that feeling of awkwardness out of the air.

“What? Oh, it’s… It’s nice.” It seemed like he didn’t expect her to ask him that at all, trying to find something to say about it for a moment before he spoke up again. “The colors are nice. It reminds me of my home.” His tone felt a bit melancholy at the mention. “Is it nice there?” It was the first thing she could think of, wondering if she said something wrong as he went back to silence for a moment.

“It wasn’t bad, not great, but still. …I don’t know, somethin’ about this one makes me think of how things were before it all went so- so Bad. Do you feel like that too?” She tried to speak up, but he cut her off before she could get a word out. “I feel like that a lot. I miss when things weren’t this bad, but it’s not like I can go back, you know? I can’t just… It’s not gonna to be the same. It’s never going to be my home again.”

He sighed, his shoulders falling heavy with the weight of a sense of homesickness, one that he could never cure. “I’m sorry, I've been talkin’ your ear off. Have a good day.” He shuffled around her, something in her wanting to stop him to talk, but he seemed already caught up in his own world, maybe it was best to let him think for a bit.

Instead she went back to walking, weaving through the halls as she looked at the paintings every now and then, trying to remember what they were, but it seemed to escape her right as she got to the answer. It felt as if she were a lost child again, wandering through these halls and looking at the art she didn’t quite understand, but the feeling was there even after all this time.

Her thoughts were cut short as she bumped into the next patron, stepping back to get a better look at them. It was the same guy again, ginger hair, green eyes, still a little younger but he looked like he’d been aged by life itself. The ends of his black trenchcoat were tattered, his blue shirt bearing the image of an alien faded out, and his posture hunched over to accommodate for how tall he was. “Watch where you’re walking.” He groaned, stepping back himself.

“Ah, sorry, didn’t mean to.” She gave a short apology, once again glancing over to the painting in front of the two of them. This one was of a figure on what she presumed to be a horse. On its back was another figure, something large and colored a bright yellowish orange draping over it as it rested on the horse’s back. “What do you think of this one?” She asked, watching him look over to her before lazily glancing back to the painting.

“I think he looks like a jackass.”

“Look at him, riding on that horse like he’s so important. One stray stick and that guy’s eating massive shit.” He laughed a little, clearly amused by the thought. Maybe he was laughing just at the man in the painting, or maybe it was the thought of others who reminded him of them falling too. “Lot of assholes around here who think they’re just like that, you know? So high and mighty, thinking they’re better than us.” Us? “But they’re not so mighty when they’re on even playing fields. Motherfucking…”

Traces of bitterness and anger coated his mumbles, clenching his fist as he recalled those who wronged him before resting it again with a soft breath out. “Welp, no time to stand around here, got shit to do. See you later.” The man nonchalantly said, walking away from her as her gaze stayed fixated on the painting, trying to imagine what he could have seen until another voice spoke up from behind her.

“Damn, look at that guy!” She nearly spun around a full circle to look at him, he looked almost like the man before her but just off enough to differentiate himself. He had a fuller face, now sporting a light tan trenchcoat and a green shirt, his voice sounding more raspy than the one before. “Looks like he’s having quite a good time, don’tcha think?”

She looked back to the painting, trying not to freak out over the man who appeared so suddenly behind her. Something felt different, as if the moment she looked away, the details changed from orange to red, shades of dark blue now introduced when she only turned for just a moment. “Ah, yes. I- I guess it would be a good time.” He let out a hearty laugh, gently smacking her on the shoulder.

“Yeah! Course, I'd never wear anything like that, way too much shit when you’re moving around on somethin’ like that. Still, it’s like he’s enjoying that feeling of…” He paused, trying to think of a good word before his face lit up. “Conquest! Yeah, he’s totally conquesting all those guys in the back. Lucky bastard.” Her eyebrow raised a bit, now trying to decide which of the two’s opinions held more weight in her view of it. “Welp, gotta get moving, don’t get too lost now.” Again he roughly patted her shoulder, his tone dropping and before she knew it, he was gone again.

Rubbing her now sore shoulder, she tried to get her mind off the strangeness around her. There had to be some kind of exit around her, but it seemed any sign pointing to one was met just down the hall by another pointing in a completely opposite direction, some even insisting she go down when the only thing below her was the tile floor.

Time had slipped past before she noticed yet another patron looking at some of the art. The man was rather muscular, looking out of place in such a soft art gallery with his tank top and combat boots with his pants clumsily shoved into them, furrowed brow indicating confusion at whatever painting was in front of him as he sat down on a small leather bench in front of it.

She looked over towards the painting as she sat down beside him, spotting what seemed to be the figure of a woman wearing something dark teal, brown haired and facing some sort of white silhouette on her hand. He spoke suddenly, words flowing out in a language she didn’t understand fully and struggled to translate until he abruptly stopped. It seemed he noticed her lack of understanding and began again, now in words she knew better.

“Pretty. It is a very pretty painting, with a lot of warmth coming from it.” Even when she understood him, his word choice felt blunt, almost crude even when he spoke of something that seemed so delicate. “A very beautiful woman with love from another. But something feels sad about it.” The man seemed conflicted, and for a moment she wondered what was going on in his head, but she didn’t want to interrupt him. “As if she does not want the letter, if the bird means something bad, or if their feeling is…” He stopped, muttering in his native tongue as he tried to find the words to speak.

Her eyes focused more on the man than the painting at this point, and from the way he looked back, it seemed he noticed. His muscles tensed up, withdrawing into himself as he stood up. “Stupid. It’s stupid, and she is stupid too. Stupid bitch.” The man spat out his words and though she tried to stop him, he stormed off too fast, almost refusing to look back and have to contemplate more on it. All that was left behind him was her and the painting hanging solemnly on the wall, one she wished she could see as much as he did.

She stayed there for a moment, lost in thought before finally standing up again to continue walking on. At this point it all almost blurred together, finding herself passing the same paintings, statues repeating indefinitely on and on in a hopeless maze she was beginning to feel she’d never escape. Sure, it was beautiful, but it felt like if she stayed here any longer, she was going to be sick.

She almost hadn’t noticed another patron gazing towards a painting hanging on the wall at what was a dead end, stopping in her tracks to try and see it too. Even with it being blurry she could tell this one wasn’t exactly coherent, a mixture of white, orange, reds, yellows, green, and blue, all meshing together to create some sort of figure with a gaping hole in it, another in white behind it. The man was wearing some sort of medical robe and fuzzy slippers, looking as if he escaped a facility somewhere nearby, and judging by the look on his face, he seemed just as confused by the painting as she did.

“The fuck does this even mean? I mean, it looks like something I'd see in a drugged out nightmare, you know? Just a mesh of fucking… Things.” He spoke up, looking over to her. “Ah, yeah. I suppose it does, doesn’t it…” She replied, though he was rough about it, just trying to understand it gave her a headache. “But y’know, kinda tilting my head a little, it looks like two people to me. Maybe they’re friends or something, or maybe they’re trying to sneak up on ‘em, maybe they’re the same person. But they’re looking at something, just looking at something. Looking at us.”

There was a noticeable gap of silence, him gazing towards the painting and almost now entirely not giving any notice to her at all. He seemed to turn to his side for a moment, then back to the painting. “Yeah, maybe it’s just a crock of shit anyways. I don’t know, something about it makes me feel confused, but something else understands it perfectly. …Maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all.” He said, groaning a little as he wandered away, past her and back down the infinite halls. She tried to watch to see if he’d be okay, maybe he was some sort of medical patient in need of care, but as soon as she blinked he disappeared out of sight.

And with nowhere else to go but back, she found herself transfixed by it, staring into the gaping void in one of the figures while everything else seemingly slipped away behind her, the lights turning off one by one until she was encased in darkness.

The sound of a door creaking woke her quickly, looking around her in a daze while her mind tried to catch back up with her. Right, it was a dream. Just a strange, weird dream. She groaned a little as she stood up, looking towards the door to see a familiar figure. But this one wasn’t wearing a black trenchcoat, nor a blue or green shirt. He wasn’t wearing anything out of the ordinary, in fact he looked just like when she saw him last, it was almost relieving in a way. Though he looked disheveled as always, part of her had begun to miss his dingy purple bathrobe.

“Yeah, sorry about the door, I kinda… Bumped into it a little too hard.” He said, his hands were full of stolen paintings as some shards of glass laid on the floor behind him from the door he kicked in. “It’s… You got the paintings, right?” She tried not to think about it, she’d get that fixed later when she wasn’t trying to come back to reality. “Oh yeah, I got tons of ‘em. Lots of folks leaving their prized art out for anyone to take.” He said, beginning to unfurl them to show her so she knew he wasn’t bullshitting until she spoke up again. “Hey, this is kind of a strange question, but which one was your favorite? Of the ones you grabbed and all…”

He raised an eyebrow, but seemed amused at the question. “Well, maybe we should actually get these framed first, but if you’re that interested, I'm sure we could talk a little.”

(Author's note, if you're curious the paintings are as follows: P1 is The Bedroom by Van Gogh, P2/P3 is Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David, Corkscrew is Love's Messenger by Marie Spartali Stillman, and BD is Oreste and Pilade by Giorgio de Chirico!)

#postal 4 #postal #postal dude #postal art dealer #postal 1 #postal 2 #postal 3 #corkscrew rules #postal brain damaged #wasnt able to get the full group i thought but im happier with how it flows like this #fanfiction #my brain is a little euuugh so again apologies for any errors lmao

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lord-shitbox · 5 months

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part 2 of this ask

📝Process for hurt mezu drawing

here are the steps i dug out of an art server's wips channel lol

1. initial sketch

2. refine sketch. thats lines now babey. (omitted "the sleeves are KILLING ME WAHHH" stage that led to this)

3. grayscale, to use with gradient map (this is a more polished grayscale than I started with, i dug the working file out to get better images)

4. find nice gradient map (ended up being the same one I'd used for the piece i made right before. the goal is to make what's essentially an underpainting, not to color the whole thing with one map)

5. tweak and add colors that arent in the map with hard light layers & also sneak in a layer for special effect and atmospheric/ scenic perspective while you're at it

6. shading & more finishing effects. pretty much all of the shading was done with hard light layers! the only non-hard light layers I used for the shading were the particle effect layers & like one faint glow layer to fix some values. blood was done with linear burn

✨Inspiration for hurt mezu drawing

the coloring method (grayscale -> saturated gradient map underpainting -> additive color adjustments) is something I tried out with the piece i'd made right before (the one where gozu is holding mezu from behind) & turned out really well, so I wanted to keep going with it

I also wanted to draw them angstily again because it'd been a very long time. like half a year at least. angsting them is very enriching for my soul so I try to do it regularly, this one was overdue

subconsciously referenced the poses in the initial sketch from this old thing (feb 2021). i love doing this. all my for-fun works recycle old elements in some way. my favorite game is "what old art reminds me of what im doing rn" im so good at digging stuff out of my archives for it. everyone loves when i do this

the gangi-kozou panel also

i went through a "shade in bold red-orange & dark blue with hard light layers" phase in like..april/may of 2021. i still like that stuff a lot so I wanted to revisit it

💚Things you like about hurt mezu drawing

repasting the link there but the sixth image in the process is essentially the final so you can just look at that

the colors are nice!! I'm real happy with using more saturated colors n I think the warm vs cool balance works really well

the sleeves (man being dramatic on the sand meme)

no like fr look at the 2021 piece's kimono sleeves vs the one I just did 2.5 years later. so satisfying

Gozu's expression came out nice

i think the claws and flash lines successfully added Emphasis to Gozu's expression & the piece overall

the poses … the drama …. the brush textures are also good

⏳Things you’d do differently with hurt mezu drawing

add in a liiitle more contrast...aka use a wider range of values. Some lighter lights and darker darks. I miss my 2021 hard neon lighting

a bit more distinction between the characters and the background also

the composition isn't bad but it could be better. Should've thought more about the way the eye would flow around the image in the drafting stage (solid b&w color block thumbnails are good for this)

Moar Sparkles. (I put a solid amount of large & low opacity light bubbles in there & some finer brighter dots especially around the claw stems, but I think more clusters of tiny bright lights on the characters themselves would've gone hard)

💌Some favourite feedback on art

as the wise man Austin Kleon once said: keep a "praise file" of all the positive feedback you get (if you've never read "Steal Like an Artist," you must). so. i am prepared for this question hold on

tastes like sugar glass

multiple people have told me my art is soft & dreamlike

jayce you reblogged my touchstarved art with nice tags on april 10th ive got that saved love uou

umm theres a lot...anytime someone keysmashes or feels emotional because of my art i get happy ,,, lys messaged me about the hurt mezu piece that made me happy also,,,,,there is so much joy in the world

#shitboxposting #asks #shitbox drawn #JM SORRY I FEEL LIKE THE FORMATTING ISNT EASY TO READ NO MATTER WHAT I DO....AUGH #all my class work with actual conecptual meaning is monochrome what am i doing...man.......#i need to post more art and i also need to make more art. aghhh. boots up ultrakill and magical drop again #im actually Not sure how im going to afford the next few years of my life 😭😭 a bitch gotta have time to do fuck all but i need money..!!!!#whatever its fine. i have time to do fuck all right Now and thats what matters

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youredreamingofroo · 2 months

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hey rooo 😝 4-6 for the editing questions!

gatekeeping this post under the cut, it got lengthy 🤧🤧

4: If you can remember, why did you start editing?

Okay, so this may be a little off topic, but it still talks about editing LMFAO but I started editing mainly cuz one day I saw Minimooberrys renders and was like WOW okay, I want to learn to do THAT and editing, so she was a MASSIVE inspiration for me to start, not only that but I also watch solitasims and lovvvvvveeeddddd her stuff, and wanted to do what she did but mix in editing :) (I think that answers the question, idk I guess like, I've always wanted to edit, but more importantly the want to learn how to render and also do storytelling in TS4 helped motivate me to start editing if that's a better answer)

5: if you caption your edits, what do you decide to put in the caption?

I tend to keep the caption relatively clean (tags are where you get my reaction and shit LMAOO), if you take Leo and Roos posts for example, they're song related, so I'll put some lyrics that I think correlate to them and the scenes placed in the post ("and then you looked right back and caught my stare"), or sometimes scenes not necessarily mentioned in the post, but can be heavily implied or just assume occur ("It's really nice to talk to you, it's really nice to hold your hands," which implies that they talk a lot and that they do hold hands a lot, whether it be romantic or platonic 🤧). There's other situations where I don't have a song (tbf the Reo posts were the first posts where I did put songs agsiabs), like the valentines day prep posts, I just put "valentines day preparations: [sim perspective]", or like in earlier NSB posts, I just put prev / next cuz idfk what to put in the caption. With more recent posts, ive been trying to caption the posts with something related to the characters (like cataleyas drowning post, where it basically lays out the metaphor for the post, which is "too much love from the wrong person").

6: give us a quick breakdown of your editing process

WOW okay, LMAOO well, I'm gonna have to whip out my laptop for this one

For Cas shots: Usually i put cas shots together, so first thing I do is import the images I want to use in a 6000 by 3000 canvas (to preface: I do all my CAS ss in the dimensions 3000 by 3000), and I usually choose from a few mental presets, two headshots and a body shot, two head shots and a half body shot, three body shots, and theres more to list but im not gonna do all that LMFAO so after that, I place them in their positions and then erase the black background (which DOES get tedious when two screenshots sorta overlap and have to make sure theres no black left around the sim), after that incredibly tedious and unnecessarily long process, sometimes I play around with flipping the character around (in the case of two head shots and one body/half body shot, I make the headshots face toward each other, so basically headshot > body shot < headshot- if that makes sense), although that can be placed anywhere in the editing process sometimes I do it earlier on or later on doesnt really matter lmao. Around this point, its just final touches, looking for weird shadows (which is USUALLY more prominent in blender renders, but it can happen), places where shadows look a little too sharp, and cleaning up those spots. For the VERY VERY final touches, I use sharpen and depending on the shot, contrast or saturation, I sometimes use the hue tool to make a certain color brighter or a different color, however I avoid the latter because it creates a weird effect on the picture, the sharpen tool is important for this part, because I tend to make the sharpen effect stronger on closer shots (head shots), or i dont change settings that much for decently faraway shots (half body shots) and i try to make full body shots to not have SUPER strong sharpen, but i tend to go on the lower end for full body shots aisuhdg

For in game screenshots: This is a bit different, so I import the screenshot that I'm using into a 3840 by 2160 canvas (the size the screenshot was taken with), depending on the shot i may add text, the font i use is Walter Turncoat (in most instances, they vary for different posts lmao), I make sure to color the text depending on whos talking or whats going on, a good example is in the catty drowning post and VDAY prep post, I dont do "[character]: [text]", i like the element of figuring out whos speaking (EVEN if it can be frustrating for me), i try not to make it too challenging to figure out, around my level of reading comprehension (/j), so like Catty is pink, calico is yellow, etc etc. I dont use as much sharpen with these shots since theyre clean as is. A lot of my shots like Gifs are pre-planned and thus is a different story, but in short I usually just edit the gif frames as usual and then put them together later. I also have a custom set of black bars to put around my screenshots bc even tho i do use reshades black bars, sometimes bloom or DOF messes with them, and have to put a clean set above them. I dont really know what to say that is quick, I guess for more "complex" shots, like with moodlets or text messages, i just get the assets online and then edit them for myself 😭

and LASTLY, for renders: Trying to keep this short, I usually just do what I do for the aforementioned shots, but like I said in the CAS shots, weird and sharp shadows are more prominent and I just edit those to make them cleaner and then also just add sharpen and make it brighter or more contrast-y idk 🤧

#good lord the last question is NOT a quick breakdown im sorry i just talk WAY too damn much stg #if i had included screenshots it may have been a bit shorter idk #these are all long but i swear most of the time it doesnt ACTUALLY take this long in most cases #knowing me i probably missed SOMETHING in here that is like crucial to what i do in my process but wtv ☠️#yapping

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pipecleaneradventures · 5 months

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thank you for such a in depth reply! this is my puppet, shes made out of wire and is needle felted. she has some problems like a poorly attached head and currently has no hands, but her body is decently poseable

im defaintly wondering what to use to make them stand up, I wasnt sure if most of your videos were top down or not. it looks like your using some sort of pipe cleaner arm attatched to the wall?

i also saw you had a video where one of the characters was blinking, ive always wondered how stuff like that was done. are the eyelids attatched or just sat ontop of the eyes? they dont look detatchable in the video

its rare i see any stop motion artists active online on sites i use, (though maybe i just dont know where to look) so its very nice to be able to talk to someone about it. im very new to it besides dabbling in it a bit as a kid so any advice or tips is helpful, so thanks so much for sharing your setup

sorry if this is incoherant, its kinda late here

Sorry for the late response. I could have answered earlier, but my anxiety is always getting in the way of things.

That's so cool that you can needle felt and that you put wirres inside it. So it's the same as pipe cleaners material wise. :D Are you going to add hands to your puppet? You probably should do something to atttch the head better so itdoesn't fall off, but things can be fixed after a figure is made, though heads can be tricky to attatch better. I need to know how it's held together. The wires in my pipe cleaner heads go all through the body, I usually make the head first even if it doesn't have all the details at first.

I've made my videos with so many different camera setups and ways of holding my figures up. The first year of videos I made were "filmed" top down. (it's wierd to call it that because this is reeeeeeeaaaaaalllly slow filming:D) My figures were just lying on a fleece blanket with minimal backgrounds often consisting of another color blanket supposrting my figures because they wouldn't look natural lying flat, and the second material was also the ground.

For about the next year I had my figures on an easel instead because the wifi was bad in the new place I lived and as I discovered later, my tablet was just getting old, so I couldn't use two separate devices, one as a camera and one from which to edit. Besides the fact my figures were at a slant instead of top down, I made my animations in much the same way as before. (There were lots of other small changes and improvements amongst using these methods and before I did top down I expereimented with all sorts of different ways, some of them pretty silly and not used for long.)

Taking pictures with the easel was often a fight with gravity and I also wanted to start adding more background pieces, but I didn't want them to be bumped by my crittersmoving, so I had to change my method. So again I went through lots of trial and error like I did before I'd settled on doing the top down picture taking. I tried out all the different methods and ways of holding my critters and backgrounds in place I could think about. I experimented with usign materals that hadn't worked for earlier setups, but that I still had lying around so, why not try them?

Finally I landed upon the setup you saw in my recent video where there are magnets on my easel, I also have ground in my animations. (I didn't have that for most of my earlier animations so yay!) As of about a week I've been using a doll stand stuck to the magnets of the "background wall". (The magnets also help hold background pieces in place.) But the doll stand botem is stuck to the wall so the tall part is facing the back of the critter and I have a pipe cleaner attatched to the part that is supposed to be around the figure's waist. (In the video I replaced the wire part with a pipe cleaner, but the wirre is thicker so now the pipe cleaner is just there becaus it is thinner than the end of the holding thing and is the same color as the figure.)

So, now my figures can move freely in the air attatched by the waist to a stand attatched to the wall. The magnet background is covered with my fleece blanket, and the magnets are strong enough to be able to grab the pipe clenaers through the blanket fluff. The blanket hides them. I also hide the botem of the stand by either it going through a background piece like the leaves of a tree covering it, like in my Shadow and Flicky animation. Or the ground color is pulled up over the stand, like in the one with the little chicken, Cucky. Or it is hidden behind an energy aura like in the one with Shadow floating with the blue energy. I proably shouldn't have shared my secret of how I make these, now people will be looking for where the stand base must be hiding. :D I still have to try out my new idea of how to easily move the stans about with the critters on them. (When you pull the tall part they follow along with that so that has to be the leading part when you move them because it is atatched to one side.)

(I think that description was longer than it needed to be. Oh well)

As for the eyelids. The figure in my animation yesterday has atatched eyelids that can pulled from above the eyes like real eyelids. That is difficult to work with and takes longer. I haven't even animated with the eyelids like that. My critters you see blinking have eyelids that I just set on top of the eyes. At first they were made out of felt, but the felt wasn't always the same color, so they are pipe clenaers, (thin pipe clenaers, not fluffy ones). I have separate pieces for the amount the eyesareopen. I alsohave simular ones for making the eyesopen wider or the pupils dialating. I'vealso used ones for the different mouth shapes, even though that gets trickier for animals who's mouths stick out from their faces. But yeah, it's a thing other stop motion animaters also use. At first the felt pieces I used were sticky, but they don't have to be sticky because the fuzzy felt and gravity hold them in place. It was so cool the first time I saw one of my characters blink in my animation. I first had them blinking too often actually.

When I started making these videos, (I wanted to animate them shortly after I started making things with pipe cleaners, but I had no idea how I'ddo it and itseemed like such a big, imposible progject.) When I finally got good at pipe cleaners and started experimenting with animating with them, it was amazing how many other stop motion animators I found out there. Like, this is an old way of animating, so it's interesting that people still use it. There are lots of Lego animaors, they call their animations Brick Films. After I'd started figuring things out on my own and with advice from others' videos I even discovered other pipe clenaer animators because pipe cleaner creators are also rare unless you are one, and then you start finding them all. :D I had to come up with my own techniques to animate with pipe cleaners because no onehad instructions about that. There are clay animations and lego ones, and I even found a page that's pretty big that does needle felted animations and even made a needle felted videogame.

Stop motion used to be used in movies all the time before computers took over. It's like I was born in the wrong time period. Anyway, there are occasionally Stop Motion movies still. It's nice to be able to talk to somebody about it. I wonder if people I know are starting to get dirven crazy by how I keep talking about a new way of animating my figures. This most recent one has a lot of promise I think. (Though I think that about all of them.:D) So teaching someone about how to make these videos is maybe not the best thing for me to do because I keep changing how I make them every day.

As for actually animating. I think it's just practice and observing what you see and usuaing that useful feature on youtube where you can see individual frames and stuff like that. But mainly it's practice. That's why you wnat to have your figures in a way that you can easily move them. Having a wire frame is great because then they stay where you moved them. That's why my figures also have pipe cleaner hair, so it stays in place. I've been posting videos consitently for over two years, so I've had lots of practice and I hope I'm improving.

Anyway, you can ask me any other questions you like, maybe you can even message me to ask them. I hope you are able tomake some animations and have fun making them. Initial setup is big and scary. I remember making much bigger backgrounds than I eeded to make when you just need what you see on screen. Anyway, so just make what you need for your first animation, maybe even jsut have a blank background for practince. Too many times I've made a big setup jsut to try out one little thing that doesn't work, so just have it so you can practice that one little thing. Even try to move your figures through the motions before taking the pictures to see if they will even move like you like.

Anyway, I hope that helps and makes maybe a little sense, I'm super scatter brained. I hope you will enjoy animating, but it's ok if you don't. The figure you made looks really cute. I'd lketo see other things you've made. Anyway, happy creating!

#pipecleaners #stopmotion #stopmotionanimation #chenillestems #animation

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dogsilliam · 7 months

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Day 9: Past

This challenge is making me realize i barely have characters, just pretty designs LOL.

Was only able to do some sketches today of what these two might look like/do in the future.

I wrote two pages about their future. And its pretty confusing, their story line isn't pinned down yet. So I imagine their stories ending in two different ways. Either dramatic death by police "Everybody dies" ending. Or the good ending, they live in a cabin in the woods together for the rest of their days.

I'll talk about the change in their looks first. Jeremiah finds confidence in his vampire identity, he shaves his snake tendrils, he's not afraid to show off his vampire ears. He gains a little bit of weight, grows an inch or two. I really like his jet black eyes, but I'm not too sure about the vampire lore in this universe, so his eyes could also be a fun color like purple or some. He's gotta have a face scar from their adventures i just don't know where, hehe. As for jack, I'm still unsure whether he's a natural blonde, or if he dyes his hair blonde so he doesn't look like his father. Either he dyes his hair black, or he lets his natural brown hair grow out. He also has a little stubble, because again he's less afraid of looking like his father. Another thing I'm unsure about in his design is his lip ring, hes supposed to be this macho guy so I don't think he could justify the lip ring. He also has a lot of punk influence though, so maybe thats how he justifies it? Its not gay because its cool and edgy punk. But maybe he gets one at the end of the story. IDK!!! see what i mean when I saw i barely have ocs LMAO nothing is figured out with these two and Ive had them for like 2 and half years now.

I explored the cabin option, bc i love my gay boys and want them happy. They live in this nice isolated cabin, since Jeremiah is the son of the vampire ruler they are living on the border of human land and vampire territory. Jeremiah probably gets delivers of blood from his father, and his father is the one who gave them the cabin. They've adopted three cats, more so jack adopted three cats. I drew up the cats designs, they would have 2 black cats, and one calico. They have batty, who is deaf but has huge ears. Hubert who is older and really beat up. He is missing an eye and an ear. Hubert's like the ring leader of the kitty trio. And then lily who is missing a leg. Jack is reconciling his past by taking care of these messed up creatures. He feels reflected in them, they are broken but he loves and takes care of them. Hubert is his favorite, he has a really rumbling purr.

I imagine their relationship is much better then the early years, falling into a dynamic thats good for the both of them. No more fighting and trying to kill each other, just a symbiotic relationship of Jeremiah drinking jacks blood and jack eating Jeremiah's arms occasionally LOL. Thats what I'm really struggling with, how do u give a happy ending to a delusional psycho cannibal. Jeremiah is very motherly to jack near the end, holds him a lot, kissed his fore head. They've almost switched power dynamics, jack no longer being the lead in the relationship.

I think jack has started to make peace with his homosexuality, he would never say it aloud, but his internal voices have reached an understanding. And by starting the process of dealing with that internalized hatred, he's opened the flood gates to processing all the traumas he been through. I think it would be SO funny if he saw a zoom therapist from their cabin, to understand his childhood trauma. He never tells the therapist about the murders, he still a vigilante about being caught by authorities. Jack spends a lot of time in the woods building those strange forest sculptures. He just spends hours everyday, in pure silence collecting sticks and assembling these huge sculptures. He's stopped popping pills and drinking, but still smokes pretty heavily. He's depressed because he's realizing what he's done to the peoples he's killed. I feel like he wouldn't feel bad about all of them, he still believes he had a right to kill the old men. He doesn't feel bad for the hooker, but the random kid, and the gay men he murdered. His father hurt him and his family so bad, and he's realizing that he wasn't taking power back from the universe he was just doing the exact same thing his father was. Jeremiah keeps him as stable as he can, but he breaks down a couple times, probably tries to commit. Probably tries to turn himself in. But Jeremiah doesn't let him. The story of the cannibal killer stays in news for a long time after. The police are still looking for the culprit. Jack tries not to watch the news, but he does. When he sees the family members talking about how much they want to find the bodies of their loved ones,, he cant handle it. He donates so much money to gofundmes for these familys. I feel like this is such a downer end to their story tho, so its still being work shopped. Like these two boys go on this epic coming of age story, and it ends with major depression hello. I think they could also both just stay delusional and murderous together, and like hunt down the occasional hiker. But IDK.

They still be kissin n shit, they are probably super comfortable with each other since they've spent so much time together. I think it would also be interesting if jack becomes sort of a famous sculpture, and in his old age reveals that he was the cannibal killer. He gets taken into custody, but they don't have any evidence to prove that he he truly is and he gets let go. A homosexual famous sculpture claims he was the cannibal killer from 30 years ago. Jeremiah doesn't age obviously becauses he a vampire. I don't really care about their story after this, I dont want to think about them growing old together and jack eventually dying. That is just sad and uninteresting!

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spikeinthepunch · 11 months

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rebrand conflict

idk how to decide what is a good or bad decision in terms of like...wanting to rebrand. i wish i could count back to how long i have used "morrysillusion" overall, i dont have a specific date. but i know after the white/brown antelope/wolf fursona, i think i dropped "moreyytilatot"? i think i tried to just go by "morey" in some form (i recall "princemorry" url). and then i dropped the 'nisovinsillusion' url maybe in early 2016? but i also had the coffini url here for a good while after. i cant remember if i used morrysillusion outside of tumblr around that time so. idk...

and heres the thing-- i dont really feel disconnected from my username, its fine and i think its p cool. but also in my head i keep wanting to change it, and part of that is wanting to claim a super old username i have no bad associations with. and i think part of that is bc of all the ways i am trying to do the things i was denied through my younger years-- so i am just reliving a lot of nice things and recalling the vibes and online trend etc i had. but also like.... attitude? personality wise? i feel like im not reflecting that w my current "brand" so to speak. at the very least if i didnt change my username, i still dont feel like the current look is something i want. i think the urge on the username change is just an additional feeling to push away from what i have been under this name.

the username i keep wanting to fall back to is 'spikeinthepunch/spikedpunch' (had the short one on xboxlive and the long one on deviantart) which was a short lived username but has no negative relations to anything, and i wished i kept it for a bit longer. and its kind of an edgy username lol. but in my recent years of growing as an adult, moving out, and being my own person, i feel soooo different than how my accounts have been presenting me. i guess ive been like soft, simple, and stiff in presentation? i think i fell into this when i was thinking id keep doing art commissions etc in a "professional" way, and especially bc i was doing my CN internship around then and wanted to still look presentable for the industry when looking for jobs. and while i certainly would love to work in the creative industry potentially, i obviously dont need to keep up that Normal-er image, i never should have, but also at that age and time i didnt feel like i could be that way at all. i was far more nervous of people interpreting me badly, negatively, etc if i was more edgy or mature. i was young and not dealing with my issues and so fixated on trauma etc.

this is also lining up w my plans to rework my website too. and i think a lot of this feeling also comes along w my "mascot" who i think is lovely! but him being a "mascot" makes him.... very detached from me as a person. i havent had any sonas to relate to in almost over a year... and my mascot was never meant to be a sona, just a Guy to represent my vibe (the colors, aliens) and social media appearance. and i guess i dont like that vibe anymore. i havent even felt all too into the shift i made to Mikike just having a vague spacesuit either, i felt i was just forcing that in order to fit the simple minecraft skin format for readability. (if people were to draw my skin, making it plantigrade and less animal would be easier)

and of course an additional observation i have had in more recent times are manic episodes that make me uproot parts of my life and change a lot of stuff about my identity etc. it may not seem like that happens online but its bc i manage to hold back on changing things abt my online branding lol- but it often results in making sideblogs for whatever new fandom/media i attached to in my episode and irl changing my entire appearance to fit and much more (and promptly drop both in about a month or so- its why i have so many abandoned sideblogs). this is obviously the bigger issue bc its what makes it Very hard for me to not do this (n yes i am in a bit of an episode rn despite my medication so...). and shocker, so many of my username/url changes and failure to ever keep one long enough to form an identity is related to that as well! its a surprise i havent done it in years but it was the expectation to stay with one identity, one look, in order to be Normal and recognized in a professional way, and i dont like that.

making this post and dumping thoughts has me thinking on a solution. as i said i dont really feel detached from my username. but what i dont relate to the most now is the way i feel i have gotten stuck in presenting myself online, and as a "brand". i want to toss out my color scheme, my mascot, my outward attitude. i want to let myself actually present in a way i like and not in a way that feels "clean". when my wcrp got shut down i had to come to the idea of acceptance and letting go of things i cannot control. and the reality of what truly doesnt matter in terms of what people may think of me. that was a huge pressure left on me for YEARS thanks to 2014-16 tumblr mindset and it is so so much harder to break esp if you want to try and be a creator and build an audience. i felt like i had become aware of this, and i have, but i didnt really click the fact that i wasnt into my current online presence bc i was still living with a piece of that era.. the fear of getting popular and being 'called out' for something for years ago, that wasnt even serious or bad, feeling like i was stepping carefully everywhere even when nothing was wrong. this doesnt entirely tie to WHY i want to do all the above. its just an observation on one of the things that hold me back too. just staying the same and staying safe. i hardly ever post, and while its something i chose to do its also a 'bonus' to not giving people much things to read off of me and assume from too.

this is getting too long and i think i have my point. idk what im gonna do but im thinking a lot abt how i should take control of my online life.

#sorry this could have been a shorter post but you know me #also. i cant change my username on all my sites either :/ so #my icon has been blank for this reason btw

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fatedwithmbc · 10 months

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1.4.3; A new way I learned to say “I love you” when I was in Scituate. There is some lore behind it involving a lighthouse. The whole thing resonated with me because of Dad’s love of light houses. I also had a chance to go to a local cafe that sold t-shirts, I picked the one that reminded me most of my Dad. A tattooed man, wearing a beanie (only he was a fisherman and not a welder) in the color green. I’ve been struggling the last few days with emotions related to missing my Dad. I’m still so angry with the world that I have to live each day without him, especially through my diagnosis; but also because he was my voice of reason when I needed advice about different things.

Mom-Mom really fills the advice void for me, but sometimes, I need a third party. Sometimes, we don’t see eye-to-eye on things. Sometimes, I don’t love her advice, even if it’s the “right” advice. And that’s not a HER problem, that’s a ME problem. I usually recognize when it’s me because it comes with feelings of shame and guilt. I love her, and I know her advice is always in my best interest and what she thinks is right for me and my life. As much as we could be shaken by our differences in opinion, we quickly come to resolution. That is something I am most thankful for. I am able to be honest in my opinions without worry that it will do damage to our relationship. I think we have so much mutual respect for each other that it allows us to have difficult conversations. I truly am grateful for how we communicate and how we respect each other.

I lost a relative last week. He succumbed to a glioblastoma. I was able to attend one of the viewings with my brother. I was grateful for the time I was able to spend with him one-on-one despite the circumstances of the situation. This relative was from my mother’s side of the family, with whom I’ve been estranged. I feel like my diagnosis is really putting heavy pressure on my heart to reconcile, be with and show all of my relatives in some way that I love and care about them.

That said, I was able to make it to Scituate for the family reunion (relatives from my Dad’s side of the family). I was thankful to spend time with that side. It’s not often we see them due to distance. My diagnosis and recent back problems makes it increasingly more difficult to drive the distances. I’m glad there is no reconciling needed with the “Jones” side of the family. They are all dear to me. My great-aunts have been so supportive and thoughtful- they often send me cards or call/text me to ensure I’m doing well. They also like to stay up-to-date on my treatment and progress. I am thankful beyond words. My cousins (Great? Once removed? Twice removed? I don’t know the formal, appropriate term) are all amazing and supportive as well. Especially my cousin Michael and his wife, Heather.

It was nice to travel for a few days. It was also nice to get back home. The short travel did take “it” out of me. I was very exhausted last night and struggled a bit today. I’m still not used to the limitations of my body and recognizing them so I don’t “over do” it. I miss my pre-diagnosis energy and capabilities. I try to treat myself as normal as possible. I even forget sometimes that I have a serious illness, as I think others do as well. I look healthy, but I’m not inside. It was wonderful to hear from my relatives (both sides) that I looked very well. However, it makes me think, do I need to look sick to be sick, and obviously that answer is no. I am sick, I do look well. It’s almost like I need to wear some sort of identifier that says: “I am sick” so that people believe me. I say this because I had an incident boarding a plane - I was in group D, but boarded with the guests with disabilities. The flight attendant basically had a retort for everything I said about why I was boarding in the earlier group until I stated “I have Stage IV Breast Cancer”. Her face said it all. I felt bad, she felt bad- it was awkward for both of us. This is just another part of the process that I need to get used to. I still don’t like saying it out loud. I especially do NOT like saying it to a stranger unless there is a distinct reason why I’d need to divulge that information.

I feel as on edge right now as I did then. I’m out of my anxiety medication and there were problems at the pharmacy with their electronic prescription system. I’m hoping this will all be resolved tomorrow. I feel like the lack of anti-anxiety medication is making the anxiety sky rocket. I feel like that’s why I decided to write this evening. I have a jittery feeling and needed to let the energy out, but wasn’t even sure where I was going to start or where I would end up in terms of topic and subject. I guess I’ve been able to figure that out. I’ve even used my lavender spray… I think I will need to actually use my diffuser this evening though for constant release of the scent. I truly believe in its calming properties.

Some random thoughts that don’t fit into a paragraph in a logical manner:

- I completed all paperwork and got my photo taken to submit for passport renewal. I just need to mail it tomorrow.

- I’m still very in love with and believe in the benefits of my weighted blanket. Although, mine is definitely too heavy for my weight now. I lost weight after I bought it due to my diagnosis.

- It’s great to have Bailey around. The pooch is great for feeling loved and she definitely cares when you get home and shows her excitement. Even after running an errand, she’ll respond as if I’ve been gone for weeks with her level of excitement upon my return.

- I received a book of poetry that I ordered by Pierre Alex Jeanty, called “Heal. Grow. Love. Words to Help You Become”. I am enjoying it very much. The poetry directs itself toward insecurities, like doubts, and how you can handle or reframe them to overcome them.

- I’ve had some intermittent contact with a man that I went on a date with. I’m hoping to see him before I travel to Colorado.

- I’ll see Brittany this week for dinner; the excitement is real. We’ll meet up for dinner this time. I truly can’t wait to see her.

- I’m hoping that the DSLR Camera I want goes on sale for Prime Day. I also placed Botanical Lego sets to my cart to see if they go on sale as well, because Mom-Mom can get them cheaper that way (I asked for them as birthday gifts).

- Moulin Rouge opens this week, and I can’t wait to see it. I have my ticket for Thursday evening. I will drive into town this time as I don’t want to risk missing my train. It was too close for comfort last time I went into town for a show and basically had to run to the train station and made it with only about 3 minutes to spare. The parking fee I’m sure will be a bit high, but I won’t have to run or be on high alert about the time during the show, which will allow me to focus on enjoying it and the music.

I believe I’m at the end of my entry for this evening; however, if I awake- there may be more to come. Thank you for being here and reading my thoughts, concerns and emotions.

El Fin.

#fated with mbc #confessions of a cancer patient #stage iv deserves more #metastatic breast cancer #stage iv metastatic breast cancer #breast cancer #family #I love you #Scituate #grief #grieving child #mourning my parent #missing my Dad

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garlic-gun · 2 years

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just watched episode 121 of z and what was Going to just be an observation about expectations became an entire ramble about my thought process trying to design characters before ive really met them

watching more dbz and future trunks is like. more upbeat than i was expecting so far, after killing frieza and king cold. when i was thinking about how i want to portray him in comparison to present trunks at a similar age a while ago, with little context other than "their upbringings are innately different bc of the drastic differences in their circumstances", "i have watched the dbza version of the history of trunks and i know this boy has suffered", and fan content ive seen in general without first-hand context (that i remember well, at least) i didnt expect ft to be like constantly brooding or anything, but i intended for him to sort of Feel quieter and more serious, and i was thinking and experimenting a lot with giving him a more solemn and reserved feeling, meanwhile pt (that is to say, present trunks, whom im Pretty sure is the trunks that goes on to be in gt. which in recent enough years for me to actually remember in coherent detail ive only seen bits and pieces of) i was thinking id give a louder and more exaggerated and overall lighter-hearted feel. but once the threat of the frieza force doing anything to earth was over i was taken a bit off-guard by how immediately friendly trunks was and the Manner in which hes friendly. like kindness was kind of a given but i wasnt expecting 1) this Adorable smile

(dont mind the lack of crop) and 2) for him to basically just go "hey goku's gonna be here in 3 hours. wanna go hang out until then? i brought a minifridge" (more politely of course but you know). i also . oh i lost mt train of thought actu- wait i REMBER. i was also expecting him to be more calculated but no, aside from knowing when things should happen (bc they already have), hes actually seemingly playing things by ear mostly, with him being friendly and then realizing "wait. wait theyre asking Questions. ive said too much what do i do" and giving awkward not-quite answers to try to deflect from his like. existence. like everything about him is incriminating towards his background Except for the fact that no one has any good reason to think, right off the bat, "oh hes bulma and vegeta's kid from the future". bulma barely even Knows vegeta at this point, let alone enough to like. yknow. but hes like

"i cant tell you my name or else youll immediately know im your son and i am Not willing to talk about that right now so here is a Little information please do not ask for more" and then hes looking down like "oh i fucked this up already"

i guess what im getting at is that my impression of future trunks seems to have been way more off than i even thought, though my sample size is still pretty small so its Possible i like averaged out Something factual about him. but . oh i really lost my train of thought this time. um. damn..

well either way trunks has been important to me since i was young (probably an early benchmark for my queer awakening bc when i was watching gt on nicktoons i definitely was like "hmm. now thats a gend id like to er [files it away in the "things that would have probably made me realize i was trans earlier if i had the words for it then" cabinet]") and i guess what im getting at is, it's nice to actually Know things with a brain that can actually connect complex and nuanced things instead of basically being like "ooh colors" and interesting to see what conclusions i had come to were just completely off and get to finally know the character properly. its a bit of a struggle wanting to draw and think about characters but having nothing to go off of but until i get there, it might be fun to compare my pre-first impression to the truth once i get there.

#dust watches db #was thinking about making that tag specifically z but i Might watch super. probably not soon but one of my weaknesses is the fact that i #am Horrible at future-proofing things organizationally. just my pictures folder on my laptop is a disaster and its not even a year old 😭#the post i think isnt Super long but it would be annoying to scroll past so its going to the readmore dimension #generic original post tag

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campyvillain · 2 years

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hey so i decided to make my own design for a nonbinary lesbian flag!

long post maybe but i just want to explain my process before revealing my design proposal!

i dont usually venture into a lot of flag design related things but as a nb lesbian myself and as someone who cares a lot about color and design, ive always had a few gripes, well more than a few, with the “commonly accepted” nb lesbian flag (the pink and yellow one aka the “pink lemonade” design).

for instance, it’s always been kind of hard to parse the difference between the extremely light pastel hues and the way the colors just kind of blend together without any clear placement. another peeve i have with this iteration is that the colors themselves aren’t as representative of the nb spectrum as they could've been - i know it’s weird to say that pink is always The Go To “feminine” color and of course pink is in no way a girl/feminine exclusive color, but when paired with lighter, more pastel tones, the “pink lemonade” flag has to me always seemed more orientated towards feminine nb lesbians than all nb lesbians as a whole if you get what i’m saying.

ideally i’ve always figured that a nonbinary lesbian flag should try to strike a nice balance between both flags, incorporating elements of both in an equal way where an element of one is not dominating the presence of the other - i’m in no ways the first to think this, i’ve seen a metric ton of nb lesbian flag proposals where both the lesbian and nonbinary flag are made into one. but more often than not, it can come off as just putting the colors together and that’s really the extent of it.

it’s also incredibly important to mention that the creator/s of the “pink lemonade” nb lesbian flag have, from the accounts of those involved with them, done a lot of things to hurt a lot of people. i’m not going to get into specifics of what they’ve done both out of respect for those affected by the situation and to spare you the details that i don’t feel comfortable covering as someone not affected by their behavior directly, but suffice it to say if you do go looking for information about the creator/s of this design you will find accounts of the affected individuals recounting their experiences with them. be aware that this situation involves a lot of potentially triggering material on the creators behalf.

in the conclusion of the warning document, those affected have also stated that given everything the creators have done, that they wish for the pink lemonade flag and other flags made by them to not be used or circulated, as even if indirectly, it gives positive attention to those behind it. for that reason i feel it’s important to offer up an alternative design if only to get the current one to stop being perpetuated as The nonbinary lesbian flag given the toxic behavior its creator/s have exhibited, and in its place bring something that represents the nb lesbian community in a way not associated with their actions.

so to keep track here’s what my goals for my design of the nb lesbian flag have been:

removing any resemblance to the pink lemonade flag

designing the flag in such a way where it retains elements of both the lesbian and nb flags, but not so much as to where it’s ‘too derivative’ for lack of a better wording of either, making it something more subtle yet distinct

inclusivity of the nb experience, not just in variety of colors but in meanings behind the stripes and acknowledgement for all kinds of nb lesbians (xenogenders, transfems and transmascs etc)

making the colors of the flag go together and work in harmony with each other while also ensuring that each color is readable and that the color placement doesn’t blend into itself

with all that being said, after a few weeks of brainstorming and a few cases of trial and error, i finally drafted a design that really personally struck with me and after fine tuning it a little bit, here’s the design i came up with! introducing my proposal for the nonbinary lesbian flag, or as i’ve come to call it - the magma flag!

now you may be asking why i’ve dubbed this one the magma flag, and well to put it simply it’s because you can draw a cool little volcano with its colors (i know it’s technically called lava if it comes OUT of a volcano but sh. shUT UP let me have this it’s cool) and also because the colors have a warm, inviting feel to them!

what i’ve done here is keep the overall recognizable structure of the lesbian flag, specifically the sunset orange white and purple popularized by emily gwen, but added some aspects of the nb flag, like the prominence of the color yellow and deep royal purple and black, making it noticeably a mixture of the two while balancing the colors together in a way that flows nicely, but in a discernible way.

here’s the meaning behind each stripe! i put a lot of thought and meaning into these, and i made an effort to make sure that each one meant something significant to the community.

and finally, here’s some more saturated and muted alternative versions as well as simplified renditions of those in the style of the 5-stripe simplified sunset lesbian flag!

there’s no need to ask for my permission if you ever want to include this flag in any edits, icons or art, or any other forms of work - you have my full go ahead to do so! this flag is meant to represent the nb lesbian community as a whole after all. if you do end up using this flag there’s no need to tag me or anything - credit is appreciated but not mandatory if u catch my drift!

i’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this proposal and i hope everyone finds it as captivating as i do - you can probably tell by how much i’ve gone on about this but this flag design is something i’m really proud of and i put a lot of love into it, and personally i’m just glad that i’ve finally come up with a flag design that i feel satisfied with. i’m so excited to hear what you all think! thank you so much for reading, and if you feel so inclined, feel free to use it! <3

#magma flag #nonbinary lesbian #flag stuff

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its-not-a-phase-mom-i-d8-demons · 3 years

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pairings: Lucifer x Fem!Reader, Mammon x Fem!Reader, Leviathan x Fem!Reader

warnings: tw abandonment (but it turns out okay, I promise), mentions of the act of birthing,

A/N: you came to the right place! as the second oldest of six children, I have some experience when it comes to pregnancy:) I hope you don't mind, nonny, but I'm gonna split this up into a few parts so I can do the dateables as well!

Lucifer

The moment you had shyly produced the positive pregnancy test from the pocket of your hoodie, it felt like Lucifer had entered into a fever dream filled with nursery designs, baby names, the expenses that pile up before the baby even arrives, researching human pregnancy, keeping you out of harm's way and healthy and happy...

So when you first stagger out of bed and rush to his bathroom, hand clamped over your mouth and one shaky hand on your slightly swollen tummy, Lucifer isn't surprised

He is very concerned, however. You had been so nervous to tell him of your pregnancy, you waited until the last moment before your bump was noticeable to tell him

That meant you had been suffering from all of these pregnancy side effects before he'd permanently moved you to sleep in his room

Lucifer hoists himself out of bed and pads into the bathroom, gathering up your hair, if any, into his fist and pulling your hunched form between his legs for support

You hate this feeling with a passion; throbbing stomach and a lump in your throat with little to no vertigo and tears rolling down your face as you try and catch your breath

You tell him it hurts, you ask him if he can take the pain away as your head rests on his chest, lashes fluttering with wooziness

Lightheadedness was unbearably common; you would suddenly grip his sleeve and he could watch the color drain from your face and your knees get shaky, body beginning to sway

He always catches you though, finding a place for you to sit or lie down and gather yourself

Tummy rubs become more common; the feeling of his hands against your bare tummy, spreading their warmth and nullifying the ache, allowing you to relax

He's extremely attentive as well and can tell whenever you need something

Water? Here's a cup sweetheart, remember, you're hydrating and eating for two people!

Craving something? Chocolate? Fried pickles? Chips of some kind? sweets? He's stockpiled anything you could want and locked it away just for you.

I feel like Lucifer would want your baby to be a little girl. A little princess he can carry on his shoulders and spoil with his love and gifts.

Satan ruined him for having another baby boy, but if that's how the cards fall, he certainly wouldn't mind. Unfortunately, he'd be constantly walking on eggshells, afraid he'll make your little boy into another rebellious child

That's the last thing he wants

Lucifer does his best to keep his kid away from Satan and Belphie and out of the 'Formerly Anti-Lucifer League', but sometimes you're taking a nap or out shopping with Asmodeus, and Satan and his brothers manage to coerce the little one into their shenanigans

One thing is for sure though, even if Lucifer didn't want any kids and the creation of one was unplanned, he would never ever turn you away

He's very responsible and does anything in his power to make the pregnancy as easy and happy as possible

On the day you are to give birth, he's a mess

He has already sweat through 3 shirts by the time the IV has been secured to your hand

Everything he says doesn't come without a stutter

He's squeezing your hand and kissing your hair during labor, trying to distract you from the burn between your legs as much as he can

You probably need extra stitches from baby's horns ngl

Definitely cries before the baby is even put in your arms

Refuses to let his brothers come and see you, "They can wait until we go home."

Lucifer is Smitten™

He smooches the tiredness under your eyes and tells you to get some rest

Surprisingly, he enjoys a lot of the names from the human world you discuss and will most likely pick one of those

But if it's a girl, her name is Lilith. I'm sorry MC, your input is invalid at this time

You don't regret 'final day in the devildom sex' at all when you get to witness the Avatar of Pride reduced to tears when the nurse puts the child in his arms

P-P-Pregnant? MC, ya better be jokin'...

Mammon

You weren't, judging by the pregnancy test(s) clutched in your fist

He's not mad at you, he's not upset, (in fact, he's the happiest he's ever been), he just scared

Broken Condom Victim™

He loved you just a bit too hard last week...

but let's be real here, HIS MC, carrying HIS baby?

That's like the highest level of ownership on his lovely human you could get! Levi, Asmo, Beel, Lucifer, everyone would be SOOOO JEALOUS!!!

AND

He gets to have a little one running around again!

You saw how sweet he was to babified Satan in the obey me anime premier! He LOVES little kids and nothing would make him happier than someone to play with (besides MC of course) that wouldn't make fun of him for messing up and being silly!

AND

You're so pretty!!

I mean, ya were always pretty, but somethin' about ya is different and yer even more beautiful than before somehow!

Mammon said, his entire face the shade of a pomegranate

Pregnancy glow is REAL

Asmo agrees, after stealing you away from an extremely overprotective mammon and hiding in the attic to chat without disturbance (mammon)

But as much as YOU know he would be the BEST father, comments from his brothers continue to drag him down and the evenings he cried into your shoulder became more and more frequent as your pregnancy progresses

Mammon, as we all know, is, in fact, a tiddy man

He likes to touch and squeeze them, and just gently hold them while cuddling or even browsing in a store, he'd just come up behind you and touch your boobs

(also, mammon likes all sizes, so if you have next to no tiddy like me, you'll be at his mercy as well. those with the large honkers, however, watch yourself)

Now that there's a miracle growing in your tummy, other parts of your body are preparing for its arrival, including your chest

Swelling, swelling, soreness, growing and darkening of the nipples, and swelling make it so Mammon can no longer touch your pretty tiddies :(((

(grammarly didn't like that word)

On the day mammon snack size was to be born, mammon is silent but extremely fidgety

It was early in the morning when you'd shaken him awake like, "mammoney, I'm going into labor" and he was out of bed and out the door with your luggage before you finished blinking

After grabbing your DDD's and you, he carries you down to the car (what dysfunctional family doesn't have a car? a nice one (Mercedes, Audi, you get the idea) for lucifer and a Volkswagon bus or something for his siblings to share) and drives quickly, but very carefully drives to the hospital, holding your hand the whole way.

He covers your eyes when they put the IV in, just in case you're squeamish, and rubs your arms as the drugs begin to take effect and there's a little fear in your eyes at the thought of pushing an entire human/demon being out of your coochie

He assures you and never lets go of your hand no matter how long you're in labor

When it's all over with and you are resting in your hospital bed waiting for the doctors to finish the Apgar tests and give you your baby

Mammon is speechless as the nurse places the baby in your arms

That's HIS KID!!

Immediately starts crying

The little horns poking out of the blanket? Those look just like his!!

Judging by the bit of hair on it's head, it looks like the baby will have hair like yours

If it's a baby boy, he thinks it should be named "Mammon II" but you just giggle and remind him of the deal he made with lucifer long ago, that his first born child, no matter the gender, had to have 'Lucifer' somewhere in their name

Human names are dumb, except for yours of course, so he searches for suitable demon names

The last thing he wants is a kid named Lucifer, so that will be the kid's middle name

He really regrets his past decisions now

Leviathan

"Levi?"

"Yeah, babe?"

"I'm pregnant."

*leviathan has been KO'd*

No joke, this man is literally floored and didn't wake up for a while and you were afraid you had just slain the fucking Lord of Shadows

Some Henry you were

You had to call Lucifer in to wake him up because he was still flat on the floor a half and hour later

Mammon is more that happy to tip a bucket of ice water on the face of the son of a bitch that impregnated HIS MC

Levi wakes up and pounces on you, gripping you tightly by the arms

"You're k-kidding r-right?"

Him? A father?

Uhhhhhhh

Unfortunately, Leviathan.exe has stopped working, try again in two thousand years

I hate to say this, but he definitely detaches himself for a while until his brothers, especially Asmodeus, literally beat him into shape

He comes back to you, a little bruised and sobbing, but not from the beating he just received

He's so sorry he neglected you! He's such a horrible demon, undeserving of your welcoming nature

He's gonna be the worst dad, and he's not good enough for you, and his kid will hate him just like everyone else does, he doesn't deserve you, he's so sorry for making you suffer the side effects and feel all alone,

Sir, I-

FALSE

It's your turn to shake some sense into him, reminding him that he would be the. best. dad!!

Not to mention the fact that you were just happy he realized his mistakes and came back to you

He begs you to sleep in his bed tub with him for security, and you have to admit his tail is very comforting

Levi does extensive research on human pregnancy and now at the dinner table, instead of talking about the latest slice of life anime he'd been watching, he's just spouting random pregnancy facts and you're laughing so hard it brings you to tears

When the weird dreams and vivid nightmares happen, Levi is right behind you, rubbing your swollen tummy, and letting you talk about them

A lot of them were about him and about your future child

Most of them were about how they got hurt in some way, either that or YOU got hurt and the baby died

These, more often than not, brought you to tears and stress you out, but Levi is right there, okay? Nothing can hurt you, nor would he let anything happen to you on his watch

Learns how to massage you (safely) to reduce stress

Definitely talks to the baby a lot

Levi begged you to be induced so the birth was safe and not a sudden occasion and you agree

On the day the doctor recommended, you arrived at the hospital and got down to business

Levi didn't really want to be in the room with you, but he knew he had to for your sake and he'd played a few birth simulators from both perspectives and you really needed him

Kinda sits there awkwardly comforting you and encouraging you, holding your hand and caressing your cheeks, a bit flushed from exertion and tears

Listen

If the baby is a boy, his name will be Henry and that's final

If it's a girl, he doesn't really care, as long as you don't name her 'mammonia' or something dumb like that

definitely crashes your hospital bed to snuggle until the baby is ready

cries when the baby wraps its extremely small digits around one of his own

also at the little horns protruding from its head

and the tuft of purple in its head

Also Smitten™

He's so excited to get home and show off his beautiful baby to his brothers and then formulate a plan to raise the kid to live and breathe TSL just like his daddy <3

July 9th: VIP MEMBERS, GET YALLS JUICE!!

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agent-whiskeys-sweetheart · 3 years

Text

Meant To Be (iv)

Pairing: Hotch x F!Reader

Summary: Once the team is back you all go out for drinks and your connection to Rossi becomes increasingly evident. The following day at work you get your first chance to work in the field.

Warnings: None! Just the slow burn as usual.

Word Count: 5,751

A/N: As always, thank you all so much for your continued support! It means so much to me! I just wanted to warn you guys that I may not be able to update as often as I would like for a while. School just started for me and my schedule doesn’t really allow for “free time” at the moment. Just know that I am working as quick as I can and I always look forward to sharing more with all of you. Thank you for your patience. I love you all so much!

Today goes by much more quickly than the last few weeks. Garcia helped to make the time pass a little faster but most days you were hanging on by a thread. Now that the whole team is back you feel more hopeful about your future amongst them. As the others do their required reports you make your way down to Garcia’s office. There is a bit of paperwork for the two of you to complete as well but it’s much different and a lot shorter than the rest of the team’s. At this point, you are able to walk into her office without even knocking.

“Hey cupcake! Ready to finish things up?”

“You know it.” Pulling your chair around you saddle up beside her. The paperwork is already laid out in front of her and she pushes a few sheets over to you. Thumbing through the few pages that there are you ask her for something to write with. What she gives to you is a small boring ballpoint pen. With a pang of betrayal in your eyes you look at her. “So what, I’m not good enough for the fun pens now?”

“Oh I’m sorry your highness. I thought you’d want a professional pen for your first round of professional paperwork.” Taking it out of your hand, she reaches over and retrieves a new pen that is a bright sparkling pink with a tuft of brightly colored fluff on the end.

“Thank you. Much better.” She laughs, nudging your knee with her own. The two of you set about filling out the reports. Every so often you ask her a question which she happily answers before going about finishing up her own. It only takes you both about fifteen minutes, leaving you time to talk before the rest of the team gets done.

“Did you get a chance to talk to Morgan?” Hearing her mention him for about the ten thousandth time makes you roll your eyes.

“Yes, I did. You know what, he didn’t mention you at all.”

“I wish I believed you but we both know that man is obsessed with me. What did you guys talk about?”

“Oh, so we’re feeling especially nosy today, aren’t we?”

“Always my sweet.” You love the ever adorable smile on her face.

“He was just telling me that he was impressed with my work on the case. He also told me that everyone is going out for drinks tonight and he invited me to come along.”

“Are you gonna go?” She asks even though she knows the answer.

“Yeah, of course. This is my first real chance to get to know the rest of the team. I mean, I already know Morgan pretty well I feel like but everyone else is basically a stranger to me.”

“I know. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. And of course I’m going with you.”

“I would expect nothing less from you my dear.” She gives another big toothy grin, causing you to smile as well. Looking back at the clock you stack up your papers and grab Garcia’s as well, heading toward the door. “I’m gonna go hand these in to Hotch.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you!” She says, watching the expression on your face change at the mention of your boss. “Are you still mad at him?”

“No, I was never mad at him. Was I frustrated with his decision? Of course but I don’t dislike him for it. He was doing what he thought was right. Besides, he already apologized to me.”

“Hotch apologized to you? For a decision that HE made?”

“Yeah.” Garcia pulls your chair back around and points to it.

“Okay you can’t tell me that and just leave. I need details.” Laughing you go back over and sit, putting the papers back on the desk.

“There’s not much to tell. Before he left he said he wanted to talk to me so he could ‘evaluate my abilities’. He called me in just a little bit ago. It went pretty well I think. He apologized for being harsh and said that on the next case he wanted me in the field. He also apologized for not remembering me when we met. So, yeah. We’re all good.”

“Okay, so why did you make a face?”

“What face?”

“Oh come on, you totally know you made a face. When you said you were gonna go to Hotch’s office you made ... a face.”

“Okay, well I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Even so, it happened so what’s the deal?”

“It’s nothing. I don’t know.” Hearing your awful dismissal, her nose scrunches up as she watches you with narrowed eyes.

“Yeah, something is definitely going on with you. I’m all ears my love. You know that you can tell me anything, right?” The genuine expression on her face tempts you to tell her every thought that’s gone through head from the very first moment you met Hotch. However, you are having enough trouble understanding your own feelings. There is no point in sharing them right now.

“Yeah, I know. It is truly nothing. I’m just nervous that he might change his mind about me working the next case, that’s all.” This answer seems to satisfy her as she pats your knee.

“Trust me, he won’t. You are an amazing agent and you are going to do great out there. And if he doesn’t like it he can just--”

“I can just what Garcia?” The sound of Hotch’s deep voice makes both of you jump as you look behind you where he is looming in the doorway. His presence is entirely commanding, the power that he exudes seeming very evident to you now. Garcia clears her throat as she looks between the two of you, adjusting her glasses.

“I was saying that you can just make an informed and valid evaluation and we will be entirely respectful of whatever you decide.”

“Right,” He says with a ghost of a smile, walking a little further into the office. “I came down to see if you had any questions about the paperwork. I know this is your first report, I didn’t want you to get lost.” This he says to you as he makes his way closer.

“It was actually pretty straightforward. I have it done if you’d like to take a look at it though.” Reaching behind yourself, you grab the report and hand it to him. With a nod he begins to scan through the pages, flipping through them fairly quickly.

“Exemplary. I’ll just take this up to my office. Garcia?” Without needing any further instruction, she grabs her own report and hands it to him. Just like that he’s gone again, leaving Garcia stunned.

“Wow. He must be in a really good mood.” She adds.

“What do you mean? I mean, how do you know?”

“Hotch doesn’t do that kind of stuff. If you had a question he would have expected you to take the initiative to ask. He normally wouldn’t have even considered making the trip so something must be different. That was ... just not in his nature.” Pondering the implications of her statement you settle for a small shrug.

“I guess he was just being nice. No need to wonder why he did it.”

“Yeah, I guess not. Well that takes care of that. I honestly don’t have anything else for you to do right now. You could probably go ahead and ask Hotch if you can leave for the day.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that. I wouldn’t mind a shower before we all meet up later.” With that you stretch and make your way towards the door.

“Have a good afternoon my dear. I look forward to seeing you later.”

“Thanks Pen. I’ll see you later.” Once she waves goodbye you leave her office, cracking the door behind you. Stepping into the elevator, you slink against the wall. Even though there’s nothing for you to do, the idea of asking to leave this early in the day makes you uneasy.

Once you’re back on the main floor you make a beeline for Morgan’s desk. The sight of you in his peripheral causes him to look up.

“Don’t you ever hang out at your own desk?”

“You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if I didn’t come bug you every five minutes.” This makes him laugh as he sets down his pen.

“We’ll never know until you try,” Faking offense, you cross your arms. “I’m just teasing you kid. What’s up?”

“Well me and Garcia finished our paperwork and she doesn’t need help with anything for the rest of the day so I was gonna go ask Hotch if I could leave early. If he says yes I’ll need to know the name of the place we’re going tonight so I can meet you there.”

“Good luck getting Hotch to agree to that but on the off chance that he does, I can write down the address for you.”

“Sounds good. Better start writing then bud.” Glancing back over your shoulder teasingly you walk up to Hotch’s office, knocking sharply. Hearing him beckon you inside, you step through the door.

“I wanted to let you know that I talked with Garcia and she doesn’t have anything for me to do right now. Nobody else needs help either so I was wondering if there was anything you needed from me.”

“I don’t believe so. Usually today would mainly be spent doing paperwork but since you have less than the others if you’re finished I would be alright letting you leave early.” Hiding a smile, you nod.

“Thank you sir. I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow then.” You go to leave but he stops you before you can get out the door.

“L/N,” When you turn to look at him you see that same softness in his eyes as you did during your earlier conversation. “I was curious ... are you doing anything tonight? Anything recreational, I mean. An important thing to try and do is find time for yourself. This job is incredibly stressful and can take a lot out of you. It would be good for you to find some time each week to do something ... fun.”

This seems like a very light-hearted thing to be coming out of his mouth. He carries himself very professionally. There hasn’t been a moment so far when you’ve seen him unwind so hearing him talk about having fun each week seems a bit odd. However you take the advice to heart. Anything he has to offer you want to remember. “I actually am sir. I was going out to have a drink with the rest of the team.” As you say this you suddenly realize that he may not have already been invited. Feeling guilty you offer a smile. “Did you plan on coming as well?” By the look on his face you can tell that he is unaware of the event however he doesn’t seem upset.

“No but thank you for asking. I need to go home and get some rest.”

“Of course. That’s a very smart decision. If you ever want to though ... go out for a drink with us, I mean. You’re always more than welcome in my book.” The genuine kindness in your eyes when you look at him causes Aaron’s heart to clench and for some reason, this time he doesn’t try to stop it. God, how can one person be so good?

“I appreciate the gesture. I’ll keep that in mind next time,” The two of you stare deeply into one another and for a moment, just one brief fleeting moment, you are just a man and a woman filled with yearning. It passes quickly and you convince yourself that it didn’t even happen. “Go, enjoy your free afternoon and have fun this evening. It’s important for you to bond with your team members.”

“Thank you sir.” As you’re about to leave he stops you one last time.

“One more thing,” There is a second of hesitation. “You don’t have to call me sir all the time. A bit of formality when we’re on the job is appropriate but you can just call me Hotch. Everyone does.”

“Got it. In that case I hope you have a good evening Hotch.” When you step out of his office you can feel your heart beating rapidly. Every time you start to get your feelings in check he looks at you like that and you melt at his feet. It’s nothing but a stupid crush though. You’ll get over it. It’s not like he has feelings for you anyway so there’s no point in entertaining a fantasy. As lovely a fantasy as it is.

“Hey, Y/N,” Emily stops you as you make your way towards Morgan’s desk. “I wanted to tell you, really great job on this case. The work you did was great. You should feel very proud of yourself.”

“Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.” You nod in gratitude.

“Of course. I’m excited to see what you can do in the field. If you’re that good in an office you’re gonna be a force out in the world.”

“I’m excited too. Hopefully I don’t disappoint any of you.”

“You won’t. We’re all on your side here. No matter what happens, we all just want to help you be successful. I promise.”

“That ... makes me feel a lot better actually. Thanks.” She gives you a kind smile, pushing back away from her desk to face you.

“Absolutely. Hey, are you coming out with us tonight?”

“Yeah, Morgan invited me earlier. I was actually about to go get the address from him since I’m headed out for the day.” She doesn’t say anything for a moment, frozen as if she’s buffering.

“Hotch is letting you leave early?”

“Yeah. I finished all my work with Garcia so he’s letting me go.”

“Well, whatever you did to get on his good side, keep it up.” She jokes, turning back to her own paperwork. The continued mention of Hotch’s graciousness with you threatens to go to your head but you fight to keep your daydreaming in check.

“When I figure out what the secret is I’ll let you know.” You kid back before leaving her to continue her work. Morgan seems to be almost finished when you make your way back over to him. Upon seeing you hovering he stops briefly to look up at you. The look on your face tells him everything he needs to know and he lets out a chuckle.

“No way. He’s really letting you leave?” Giving him nothing more than a nod you shift your weight as you watch him grab a piece of paper and write down the address. “I guess you earned this fair and square then. We’ll all meet up at eight. Sound okay?”

“For sure. See you then.” With a smile you stroll out the main doors.

++++++++++

As soon as you step in the door you drop your things to the floor and flop onto the couch. It has been a very short day and yet you feel a strange weight on your shoulders. Hearing everyone’s disbelief at the idea of Hotch being so relaxed with you had sent your mind spiraling with thoughts. Even though you know it was nothing it is hard not to entertain the ideas that come to your head. With a frustrated sigh you push yourself up and head for the bathroom.

Once you step inside your small shower the pressure of the warm water on your back immediately makes you slump over with relief. The strange sense of tension in your body melts away with each droplet as they disappear down the drain. Reveling in the feeling, you take a bit longer than normal to enjoy the time to yourself. After being clean you feel that you can no longer justify lingering in the water so you turn the knob and step out to dry off. The soft material of the towel elevates the feeling of relaxation in your body.

Throwing a robe on you make your way to the bedroom, flinging yourself onto the bed with your phone in hand. Suddenly feeling very mischievous you take an adorably flirtatious picture of yourself in your robe, well cleaned and blissful, which you send to Garcia.

Having fun all alone at work Pen?

I think that I hate you.

The response makes you giggle as you head out to the kitchen to grab a snack. There is a chocolate bar on the top shelf that you’ve forgotten about which you happily grab before plopping down on the couch. Turning the tv on to your favorite station you sit there, impatiently waiting for eight. The day feels impossibly long but once you see that it’s seven you decide to get dressed.

After several minutes of trying to figure out what to wear you decide to keep things casual. You’re not at work tonight. It’s just you and the team spending time together as friends, not agents. The thought alone makes you smile. After a bit longer you figure it’s a good time to head out and make your way to your car. Typing the address into your GPS you pull out and make the drive to the bar Morgan told you to meet at. It is surprisingly close to your apartment complex. When you step inside the building it seems to be fairly empty. There is no sign of the others yet so you make your way over to a table to wait. Cursing your preparedness you fidget with your shirt until you hear the doors open, announcing the arrival of the others.

“Hey, sweetheart!” Morgan immediately calls out upon seeing you. With a smile you stand to meet him as he wraps you up in a hug.

“Hey! Nice of you to show up.” You add jokingly, turning your attention quickly to the others. Emily steps forward next and also gives you a hug. JJ follows with a sweet smile. Spencer offers a handshake, as has become the custom between the two of you. Garcia pushes her way to the front and nearly suffocates you before letting you go with a laugh. At the back of the group is Rossi. His presence is mildly surprising to you but you offer him a small smile. Seeing him brings to mind the recent conversation you have had with your sister but you push those thoughts aside. Rather than embracing you he places a gentle hand on your arm.

“It’s nice to see you again.” He adds, trying to alleviate the tension.

“Yeah, likewise. I know we haven’t really had a chance to talk to one another yet. Hopefully we can clear that up tonight!”

“Sounds nice.” With a nod, you turn back towards the others. They all take up residence at the table you had already picked out. Squeezing in between Garcia and Morgan, you can’t help but smile shyly at the people around you. They immediately strike up conversation, talking like the oldest of friends. Just being amongst them means so much to you. Hearing your name you are drawn back out of your thoughts.

“Sorry what?” There is a uniform chuckle from the group.

“I asked if you wanted something to drink?” Emily speaks up.

“Oh yeah. Sorry.” She starts standing but Rossi stops her.

“Actually, let me get this one,” The action causes you to look between the two, a strange feeling in your chest. “What’re you having?” After telling him your drink order he disappears with a nod. The others continue the conversation as though nothing has happened and you quickly rejoin them. When Rossi comes back over he hands your drink to you first and then passes drinks around to the others.

As the night goes on you share moments with everyone, getting to know them better and allowing them to know you. Emily and you discuss the stresses of being a woman in this field and she gives you several pieces of advice to stay afloat, which you always appreciate. Spencer recommends some pieces of literature to you which you take mental note of. JJ and you get into a conversation about your sisters, confiding in one another as you share stories. Morgan makes light hearted jokes with you as you talk about some of your favorite movies together. Garcia doesn’t do much talking but she does pull you away from the table to dance when one of her favorite songs comes on. Rossi doesn’t talk much either, instead choosing to sit back and watch with a look that seems to be fatherly pride.

After a while of dancing with Morgan and Garcia you decide to go sit back down, a wide smile on your face. At the table Emily, JJ, and Spencer seem to be in a heated discussion about chess. Deciding to leave them alone you instead make your way to sit down next to Rossi. As you do so he smiles at you warmly.

“Having fun?” He inquires, glancing at you briefly.

“Yeah. I really am. It’s really nice getting to spend time with all of you like this. I feel like I’ve been waiting all my life to be part of a family like this and now that I am it’s like I just can’t get enough.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I’ve heard some people say we can’t choose our families but nights like this just go to show how wrong that is.”

“Yeah, exactly.” With that, the two of you sit in content silence. The quietness between the two of you leaves time to think. Your sister’s words continue to ring in your head as you wrack ever corner of your memory for how you might possibly know the man sitting next to you. With a sigh of frustration you come up completely blank. As you ponder this you also begin to wonder if he might be having the same thoughts and decide there’s no way to find out without asking.

“So, I hope this doesn’t sound too weird but I’ve been thinking about this since we first met. I just have the strange feeling that you and I know each other somehow but I just can’t recall where from.” It all comes out at once as you shift in your seat to look at Rossi. When you say this he allows himself a moment to think before responding.

“That’s not weird at all. I’ve been thinking the same thing. There is something about you that is so familiar but I just can’t quite remember how I know you.” Hearing him say this helps to validate your confusion and you offer him a kind smile.

“Well, I guess we know each other now. That’s what’s important, right?” In his eyes there is that same sense of fatherly joy and it causes a pang of sadness to creep into your chest for a moment. Quickly deciding that it’s better to just enjoy it rather than dwell in the past, you nod slowly. “Thanks for the drink.”

“Anytime kiddo. I’m glad we do know each other now.”

With that you mutually decide the conversation is over and you stand with a stretch. Morgan and Garcia seem to be the drunkest of anyone at this point and you laugh as you watch them stumble all over each other as they “dance”. Emily, JJ, and Spencer still seem to be deep in conversation. Looking at the time you decide that it’s probably best for you to turn in for the night. “Hey guys.” You raise your voice slightly so they can all hear you as you make your way over to them.

“I think I should probably head home.” They collectively whine for a minute which causes you to laugh. “It’s okay, I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” Seeming satisfied with this answer they all get up to hug you as you thank them for a fun evening and head outside. Rossi sticks to your side and walks out the front doors with you.

“Would it be okay if I drove you home? I feel wrong about sending you home alone after you’ve been drinking.”

“Yeah, that would be okay. I actually only live a few minutes from here anyway.” With a nod he heads back towards the bar. As you make your way over to your car you can here him call inside to the others.

“Don’t any of you even think about setting foot inside a car yet. I’ll be back in a few minutes to drive you home.” With a chuckle you unlock the door and step inside. He slips into the driver’s seat and you give him directions back to your apartment. The drive is silent and quick. When you arrive you thank him as you both step out.

“Wait, how are you gonna get back?” You say, realizing that you’ve stranded him at your apartment complex since he took your car.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be alright. You get inside and get some rest.” With another expression of gratitude you head upstairs and make your way into your apartment. Stripping as you make your way to the bedroom you flop down on the bed, unable to keep your eyes open.

++++++++++

This morning you are awake bright and early, surprisingly ready to start your day. By this point you’ve begun to get into a routine before you head out for work. Your clothes are always laid out on the chair and your work materials are on the kitchen table. You make a quick breakfast then give your sister a quick good morning phone call before heading out the door and showing up to work promptly at five.

When you step inside the building this morning you are one of the first people there. Setting your things down at your desk you head over to the coffee machine, deciding an extra little boost might not be so bad. After setting it up you wait patiently for it to brew. A few minutes later you are very aware of a presence next to you. When you look back over your shoulder you are greeted by Hotch, seemingly very awake and as professional as ever.

“Good morning, Y/N.” The sound of your first name on his tongue doesn’t escape your attention as you take a small breath.

“Morning Hotch,” Hearing yourself say his name is equally as pleasant to you as you revel in the blooming bond between you.

“How was your evening?” Thinking back to the night you shared with your other team members you can’t help but smile.

“It was really wonderful. I had a great time. It was nice getting a chance to learn more about everyone. It really makes me feel connected ... like I’m truly a part of the team. You know?”

“I do. I’m very happy to hear that you had a good time.” With a nod, you look back down for a moment as you think of what to say.

“How did you sleep last night? I hope you were able to rest.”

“I slept well, thank you. I spent the evening with my son, Jack.” Hearing this takes you aback. The fact that he has a son is news to you. It’s not bad news, just a bit surprising. However, the more you think about it the more fitting it seems that he would have a kid.

“That sounds lovely. I didn’t know you had a son.”

“Yes, he’s two now. The nights I get to spend with him are always some of the best.” The thought of Hotchner taking care of a young baby sends a warm feeling spiraling through your chest.

“I can imagine,” You say, unable to hold back a small smile. “I don’t have any children but if I did ... god, they’d be my world.”

As much as you try not to think about it, for the briefest moment an image of you and Aaron laying in bed with a few babies of your own flashes in your mind. Scolding yourself harshly you erase the image and turn back towards the coffee machine. You look away just in time to miss the same dreamy look cross over Aaron’s face as the exact same vision passes through his own thoughts. It’s these moments of silence between the two of you that dare you to dream. It isn’t awkward. It has all the familiarity and comfort of a silence shared between two people that have known each other all their lives.

“That’s exactly how it feels. He means everything to me. He is the biggest thing that makes this job worthwhile. I want him to look back on his life when he’s older and be proud of the man his dad was.”

“Jack will always be proud of who his dad is. That’s a feeling that doesn’t fade over time. At least, not when you know he loves you. And when you know you love him. I’ve never--” There is a brief moment of hesitation as you wonder whether or not you should continue your train of thought. “I’ve always been proud of who my dad was. I always will be, no matter how much time passes. It’s one of the biggest things I remember about him. How much I loved him. That’s a hard feeling to forget. Jack won’t forget either.”

In this moment, Aaron Hotchner has never wanted to embrace someone so badly. Every fiber of his being is itching to reach out and touch you, to pull you close, kiss the top of your head, tell you that everything will be alright, tell you how sorry he is that you lost your dad, thank you for comforting him, caress your face, tenderly press his lips to yours, and just hold you. But he can’t. So he doesn’t.

“Thank you. That’s nice to hear.” Is all he can muster before he falls silent again. Content with this, you stay silent as well as you both simply enjoy each other’s company. A few minutes later the coffee is finished brewing and you pull the pot out to pour some for yourself and Hotch. With a nod of gratitude he makes his way back up to his office, leaving you there alone but strangely full and warm.

Needing a distraction you head back to your desk and begin pulling paperwork out of some nearby drawers to begin filing. You keep yourself occupied like this for a few more minutes before the other agents begin entering the bullpen. Morgan ruffles your hair as he passes by you causing you to punch him. The others come in, talking amongst themselves and greeting you warmly as they pass by. You quickly join in on the conversation as you all begin your work.

Pretty soon JJ disappears to her own office and Garcia disappears to hers, leaving you, Morgan, Emily, and Spencer to do your own paperwork. Things remain uneventful as you look over your materials, stopping every now and again to ask Morgan a question. As you do your work you can’t help but glance up towards Hotch’s office every once in awhile. Your interaction with him had been very strangely intimate and you almost wanted to speak with him more about it but you knew that both of you had things to do. And even if you didn’t it was in the past and didn’t need to be dredged up again. It’s better this way. Around lunchtime you head down to Garcia’s office, joining her for some light hearted conversation. She has also packed you some snacks she knows you love and the gesture warms your heart. It is a very pleasant afternoon, feeling reminiscent of the time you spent shut up in her office on this last case.

After a while you decide to head back up to your desk to continue your work. The day is passing fairly slowly until JJ suddenly draws your attention and calls you into the conference room. There is a new case that you all need to be prepped for. Now everything around you is passing at lightning speed. Preparing your things you head up to the conference room with the others, buzzing with excitement. When you step inside you realize you’ve never been in this room before. In an instant you are flooded with the gravity of what you’re doing. This is the culmination of years and years worth of hard work and you are finally being presented the chance to do what you’ve always wanted to do. It is both liberating and completely terrifying.

JJ begins her debriefing very succinctly, telling you all the facts of the case. You listen intently, absorbing every single piece of information she gives to you. The others pitch in when the moment is right but you remain silent as you simply take in what everyone is saying. Several gruesome images are pulled up on the screen in front of you and for the first time since you’ve stepped foot in this building your stomach turns. Six homeless people have been murdered in the Phoenix area. Their bodies have all been left in widely public places with various messages written on their skin with blood. All the messages are different but point to someone with a serious hatred for big corporations. They have all been left in different parts of Phoenix, leaving a wide geographical profile which will pose a challenge. Once the debriefing is finished Hotch is the first to speak.

“You all know the drill. Wheels up in thirty.” Everyone nods and begins heading for their desks. You follow closely, pulling your go bag out of your bottom desk drawer. Checking inside to make sure you have everything you need, you gather the rest of your things and head towards the doors. As you stand at the threshold you feel a hand on your shoulder. Once again you are met with Hotch’s intense gaze though his expression seems strangely soft.

“Y/N, I want to make sure you feel ready to get into the field. I know this will be your first case with the rest of the team and I want you to be prepared. This won’t be pretty and it will take a lot out of you.”

“I’m ready, Hotch. I was ready the moment I walked through these doors.” Keeping his eyes locked on yours he responds with a nod before walking away. You head in the direction of the jet, steadying yourself. This is your big moment to prove yourself. To Hotch, to the team, and to yourself. You are ready. You’ve been ready for a long time now and nothing is going to stop you from getting out there and putting whoever is doing this away. Determination fills you with every step you take. No matter what happens, you will not fail.

Tags: @talesfromtheguild @lannister-slings-and-arrows @gryffindorwriter @nopeforyou @sheerfreesia007 @roxypeanut @ohpedromypedro @ssahotchie @ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa @readsalot73 @the-mechanical-angel @races-erster @maxlordd @pascalisthepunkest @paintballkid711 @hotchafterhours @h0tchner @ssahotchswife @ssahotchhner @technotic-prophecy @klinenovakwinchester @hotch-stufff @annadorothxa @canadailluminate @yoshigguk @gothicxbarbie @romanogersendgame @little-diable

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blessyourhondahurley · 3 years

Text

Divine Comedy

Flufftober prompt: Costumes Suptober prompt: Inferno Random word: sunshine

(Read on AO3)

“The hell kind of a costume is that??”

The man in front of him is clearly sloshed. He's unsteady on his feet, weaving gently back and forth while he struggles to maintain enough focus for a conversation. He's dressed as Batman, in a movie-ready rubber bodysuit that clearly set him back some significant coin. The only parts of him Castiel can see under all the latex are his lips (pink and plush), his chin (strong, artfully stubbled), and his eyes (very, very green).

He's hot, and he's drunk, but in Castiel's opinion neither of those things gives him license to be a jerk to a stranger at a party. He opens his mouth to say so, but the man keeps talking.

“You a ghost, or what? Y'look like you just wrapped yourself up in your bed sheets, dude.”

In vino veritas, Castiel thinks with a blush, because that is exactly what he did. But –

“It's a Roman toga. Historically accurate in every detail.” He knows it is; he did the research for an Ancient History paper last semester. Even the tunic underneath, which no one can really see, is the correct color and length.

“Ancient Roman, huh? You s'posed to be, like, Horace or something?” The man takes a massive swig from the beer in his hand, emptying it, then launches into a syllable-perfect recitation of Canto IV of Dante's Inferno in the original Italian. He waves the bottle around in emphatic gestures, punctuating each tercet with a flourish. When he's done, he falls silent as if he'd been drained by the effort. As his hands come to rest at his sides, he drops the bottle and it rolls away under a nearby couch. He stands there for a moment, smiling beatifically in his silly superhero outfit, then thrusts out a slightly wavery hand. “Dean. I'm Dean. Nice t'meet you...?”

“Castiel.” They shake, then Dean snorts an incredulous laugh.

“Dude, your name is Castle??”

“Cas-tee-ell,” he repeats, with emphasis. “Is there a problem?”

“Musta been a problem with your parents, man, givin' you a weird-ass name like that.” He throws his head back and laughs again, hearty and loud. People are turning to look their way now, trying to see what's so funny. Castiel had been cautiously intrigued by Dean's little performance, ready to move past the bluntness of their initial contact, but now he circles back around to fuck this guy.

“It's been nice talking to you, Dean,” he lies, and brushes past him towards the kitchen, or maybe the door. He's starting to feel like he's had enough party for the evening.

“Hey, whoa, come back sunshine!” Dean calls, scurrying after him. “M'sorry. I'm an asshole when I drink too much. C'mon, Castl– Casti– Fuck, c'n I please just call you Cas?”

The question is delivered in a plaintive voice, so different from the cocksure abrasiveness of their interaction so far, and there's even a “please” thrown in there for good measure. Castiel allows himself to consider being swayed. Yes, the guy's drunk, but he's at least self-aware enough to admit that it's made him into a bit of a dick. He's also hot, and maybe that buys him one more chance? Castiel stops in his tracks and turns back to Dean. That chance needs to come with an explanation, and maybe a little more grovelling.

“What do you want from me, Dean? I've known you for three minutes and you've insulted me twice. Why did you even come up to me in the first place?”

The Batman mask covers Dean's cheeks, but Castiel would lay money he's blushing now. His pink, plush lips twist into an embarrassed grimace. Never has the Dark Knight looked so chagrined.

“You're really good-looking, dude,” Dean mutters. “In that toga? With those shoulders? Like, damn. I wanted to say hi, maybe get your number, but I– I never know what to say to hot guys. My brain kinda shut down, and then the beer took over, and...” He shrugs.

“Your brain was working just fine with Canto IV, I noticed. Your Italian was flawless.”

He waves off the compliment. “That shit's easy. Been reading Dante all semester.”

“Well, still, I was impressed,” Castiel says with a sly quirk of his eyebrows.

Dean stands up a little straighter. “Yeah?”

“Yes.”

“Impressed enough to give me your number?”

“I'll think about it. Let's go sit on the porch and you can sober up a little. I'd like to find out if there's a personality under that mask.”

“'We all wear masks,'” Dean offers with a smirk.

“Don't quote 'Batman Forever' at me, Dean. I've seen the movies. I want to get to know you, not the costume you probably spent half your yearly stipend on,” Cas replies with a laugh. “Let's go get some air.”

“From there we came outside and saw the stars” ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

#destiel #destiel fanfic #destiel fluff #destiel au #flufftober2021 #suptober21 #day 18

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rotshop · 3 years

Text

get prankt this isn't an angst fic lol ,,

ANYWAY ,, i realized earlier that i could've just been calling 'auditor reader' employer reader this whole time and then i had a funny silly goofy little idea and now we r here,,,lol,,, ill proof read this later but i did this in one go no breaks so . help.

I might continue this later so!! consider this a sort of 'introduction' if u will,,

note ; auditor uses he / she / they pronouns in this bc ive decided im just going to push my propaganda onto all of you <333 also Hank uses he / they / xe

tw ; dissociation, dereality, some light body horror

Bloody Management

"This is out of your jurisdiction. You've wasted enough time here," you seethed dryly, staring down at the shorter being. "You've made no progress and have only proved your operation to be a strain on our relations and resources."

"Out of MY jurisdiction? YOU'VE never even been there before! You think you can just storm in and suddenly kick me out of my own work?" Auditor shot back, hands slamming down on the mahogany desk in front of her.

"Yes, actually, I do," you snapped, eyes narrowing. "I think you're forgetting just who you're speaking to. You've let this drag on for far too long and your ego has grown in tandem with its pointlessness."

Sighing, you leaned back in your chair, pinching the bridge of your nose as you continued. "Look, I understand. You put effort and thought into this little pet project of yours, but the results have all proven zilch. You fucked up, that's fine, but you can't keep meddling with this reality in hopes something will suddenly work again! All you're doing is tearing and poking holes the rest of us will have to deal with later."

"If you just gave me a little more time I could-"

"We've been giving you time. We've given you more time than we've ever given any project like yours," you gave a desperate look, "It's over. You tried and we tried, there's nothing that can be done. If you just worked with us then we could help you."

There was a long silence as they faltered, hands falling into their lap as their gaze followed, landing on the floor.

"And what happens to my Nevada?"

"We'll try and clean it up again. Return it to..some sort of normalcy," you hummed, "Though, with some of those tears in the fabric it'll take a bit longer than anticipated. That..clown, is proving to be rather difficult."

You paused, grin finding it's way onto your face.

"It's been tricky, if you will."

"Not the time."

You gave a 'tsk' in response, shrugging lightly, "I don't regret it."

"You'll be going back to our depths, effective immediately. While this project was a failure, we're still curious to see if there's anything else that can be done in a different time and place."

"And what about you? Are you going to sit all pretty in this fake office for the rest of eternity?" She questioned sarcastically, eyes dragging up to meet yours.

"God, I wish. I mean, seriously, you have no idea how nice it is to have some peace and quiet after dealing with that fuckin' office."

With a dry snicker and -presumably- an eye roll, they finally stood accepting their defeat.

"I presume I'll be seeing you?"

"If your little posse doesn't cause me too much trouble, yes."

"Have fun with that, I do hope it's as grueling as possible," he hummed, turning and striding towards the door to nothing.

"Thanks, was nice seeing you too."

The door peering to the void shuts soundlessly.

"Was the pun really that bad?.."

---

"What do you mean they're just neutral suddenly? It's not like they all just suddenly unionized or sum' shit! There's gotta be something going on," Deimos groaned, irritation dragging onto him and clinging desperately.

"Well- What do you want me to say! I'm just as confused as you are," Sanford huffed back over comms, making a vague gesture with no audience.

Hank stood in the other room, staring down at the few agents that were on their knees with their hands held tight behind their heads. They'd made no attempt to attack Sanford and xem, simply staring in a bit of surprise when the two'd busted in. It'd completely thrown the raid off, leaving them both in a state of stunned confusion. The agent that they'd asked about the sudden change in demeanor just gave some shaky shrug, stammering out that they'd all received an order to not attack under any circumstances from some unknown contact. 'They really just listen to anyone then?..'

It was hard to believe, hard to find any reason or meaning in that lead to any conclusive endings. Which, had lead to a small dispute going nowhere and fast. Hank only picked up on little parts of it, the words being muffled and distorted through the wall. Xe didn't really have much interest in getting a clearer reading of it though, it didn't sound like it meant much.

"Look, I'm just going to try and look for any documents or actual recordings of this apparent 'ghost order,' alright?..." A pause. "Deimos? Are you there? Shit- Of course the line dies now of all times."

The line wasn't dead. It was somewhere else, some-when else.

---

The ground felt cold.

No, was it warm?

Wait- No no no, it wasn't warm..

Was it even the ground?

Did it even matter?

Deimos could fuzzily recall it. Arguing with Sanford over the line. The points he made exactly didn't seem to ring through the fog of confusion and numb in his mind. Something about the Auditor, the agents, blah bla..something.

He'd been making to say something else when he'd seen it, something off in the corner of his eye. It wasn't anything huge, if you asked him he wouldn't even be able to tell you what it was. There was something wrong, but there wasn't. The ground was cold, but it was warm.

Something was wrong.

Everything is fine.

He'd turned around, looking around for whatever in his vision wasn't right.

That's rude to say, you know.

He'd never found it, something reaching from the depths to grab him.

You're making me sound awfully cruel.

With a groan, he picked himself up off the ground to observe his surroundings. White and black stretched infinitely around him, the 'ground' underneath him was the deepest of not-color while the 'sky' was its blinding twin. A building stood in front of him, a mix of ivory and ink twisted to form its structure. The door faced him, standing tall and straight as a soldier in spite of how tilted and off the world felt.

Before he could even really register it, something was pulling him up off the floor. There were no hands or strings physically attached, nothing sticking from him to drag into the infinite beyond his comprehension, no no. It was something quiet, a ghost or a whisper in his mind that pulled him through the ocean and to shore. The door grew larger- closer. His mind grew blanker. His hand twisted the knob.

Color flooded into his vision finally, the room in front of him coated in it graciously. The floors were a velvet carpeting, a wine red that felt of lavish and glitzy. The walls were lined in bookshelves, each filled to the brim with titles somewhere between poetry and latin white noise where imagination fell. At the head of the room stood a desk, polished mahogany standing tall and still, frozen indefinitely in time. Behind it, you.

Me.

Once again, he was pulled forward. Each step fell in front of the other, unsure of weight behind them and noise that followed suite. He felt half there. Half of a man and half of a void. It was..something.

Not pleasant, not bad.

The ground wasn't cold, wasn't warm.

It just was.

He finds himself meeting your gaze as he plops down into one of the seats in front of you. He finds his neck straining and bowing under phantom limbs that aren't there. He finds his eyes training on yours which stare back pointedly, finds himself between hot and cold. He finds himself sitting down before you as he watches from the window.

There's no window in the room.

"You must be so confused."

Your voice is in front of him, right? That's where you are, so your voice should be coming from there. It isn't though. It's around him somewhere. Even as you tilt your head to the side the noise of your own voice doesn't seem to follow it.

"Don't think too much on this all, alright?"

You mutter something. 'These grunts really weren't made for this- to be here. I'm surprised he even woke up.'

Someone nods in agreement.

"Wh..who are you?"

Is that his voice? It is. It has to be, it fell from his own mouth. He barely even felt it move. Is it his mouth? It has to be.

You pause for a moment, seemingly caught off guard. He doesn't know if its because he spoke or because of what he asked. Nobody clarifies.

"Why don't you call me [name]? That'll be easiest for you. I do apologize for dragging you here rather than appearing there," you hum, leaning forward on your desk. "I just wanted to make sure we had the utmost privacy."

I wanted to make sure you wouldn't be able to forget.

"Now, Deimos," is that his name? "I need to tell you something, I have to work on restoring things for you, so I can't deliver this message to everyone myself in the most..effective of ways. You won't mind filling your friends in for me, right?"

He doesn't answer. He can't. His tongue is lead and his mouth is stuck shut, if he opens it will surely be left that way for the rest of infinity- for the rest of this place, this time. Someone says yes in his voice.

"Good. Now, try to listen carefully..."

---

He wakes up on sand. He's sitting up quickly, stilted as his mind finds his body. His tongue is lighter, teeth separated once more as his jaws are their own entities again. The cliff is still under him, wind passing by him peacefully. The horizon stretches infinite.

The ground is warm, there's no mistaking it.

"Deimos? Are you there?"

He pauses briefly.

"I need to tell you guys something."

#deimos x reader #SORTA???????#I MEAN. U GASLIGHT GATEKEEP GIRLBOSS HIS ASS SO LIKE. TAKE THAT AS U WILL...#idk he's definitely in gay love w/ you but like in that 'aha hey bestie what if we kisses and you were a cosmic horror :flushed:'#madness combat imagines #madness combat x reader #madcom imagines #madcom x reader #auditor reader #employer reader #<- gonna be usin that tag too now ig??

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