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lexosaurus · 1 year

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and then he woke up

Happy @phandomholidaytruce to @bleedingectoplasm! I loved your prompts, especially the part where you said, "idk just hurt me<3" so I hope I delivered!

Characters: Danny, GIW, Sam, Tucker Words: 5103 Warnings/tags: body horror, angst, recovery

[ao3 link]

***

It had been a joke once. Back in high school, his classmates had once bantered about the limits to his healing factor. They giggled, theorizing different scenarios, each more ridiculous than the last. Instances where his finger was cut off, his ghostly tail chopped in two, his torso sliced in half. If he was missing an organ, would his body make a new one? Would he regrow it like a starfish if his arm was cut off?

He had laughed, then. Because of course, those situations were crazy. No one was going to take his organs out. No one was going to cut his arm off.

It was a joke.

It was supposed to be a joke.

His breath shuttered. Above him, white blended with white blended with green. Fire and nothingness cloaked his body, his nerves too fried to produce even a twitch. But still, ectoplasm bathed his skin, pooling on the table below him.

Voices murmured off to his side, and the sounds of machines beeped and whirred around him. But everything was muffled, the white was too oppressive, make it stop, make it stop…

“It’s fascinating.” The fuzzy operative hovered above him.

Danny couldn’t react as metal tools pressed against his skin.

“His body seems to be regrowing his missing kidney. Look, you can see it.”

Another face entered his view. “That’s incredible. Level seven indeed.”

Danny shut his eyes. He couldn’t stomach seeing their faces. He couldn’t know who was opening his skin, shuffling through his body, tearing it apart and putting it back together like a crude jigsaw.

He wanted to cocoon in his ignorance and wake up in his bed.

He woke up in his cell. No bed. No blanket. He was a ghost, and ghosts didn’t deserve luxuries.

He didn’t want to move. He didn’t want to assess the damage. He didn’t want to see how deep the nerve and muscle damage went, didn’t want to know if there was still a hole in his body, didn’t want to feel any dents where organs should be.

He didn’t want to know.

But deep down, some ugly part of him knew. And it admonished him, telling him to be grateful. He could have had it worse, he could have died.

But then, wasn’t he already dead? No living person could have survived that.

No living person could have regrown a kidney.

His eyes burned, and his vision blurred over. After he passed out again, he would wonder what else they had removed from his body. What other things was he forced to regrow like some mutant lab experiment?

And to his horror, a few days later, he woke up.

Back on the metal table.

With another fuzzy operative floating above him, metal tools in hand.

The strap on his forehead stopped him from craning to see what was happening next to him, but instinct pooled in his gut anyway, and he knew.

He knew.

“It’s halfway regrown,” the operative said in a sterile tone.

“Time recorded. And what of his kidney?”

“It looks about a quarter of the way there.”

“Excellent.”

He wanted to ask, to beg, what was the first one? What were they talking about? Had they removed his kidney again? Didn’t they have enough fun the first time? Why were they doing this to him?

But even the mere thought of asking sent nausea down his throat and he couldn’t think about it, he couldn’t ask. His voice was frozen over anyway.

If he didn’t know the truth, then the realities didn’t exist.

When he woke up in his cell that evening, he tried to call out to Clockwork, to the Observants, to anyone who may see him. Who may know what he was going through.

But no one responded.

Of course.

Even though he didn’t expect an answer, it still punched him in the gut all the same. And those fears, those insecurities danced through his mind, twisting their imprints into every corner of his thoughts.

He wasn’t worthy of rescue. He wasn’t worth the trouble. He was just a thing, just a specimen to experiment on. He was…

Alone.

And then he woke up again on the table. And again. By now his nerves had been too torn apart to emit anything other than a numb tingling. The places he could still feel burned—they always burned—but he could ignore it. Shut it out.

Don’t think about it.

Don’t think.

He stared at the ceiling. Unmoving. Unblinking. Passed the masked faces above him, only catching the glint of metal out of the corners of his eyes. He listened as the operatives spoke, slicing parts of him away, but their words went in one ear and out the other.

He didn’t want to know.

And time passed. He kept waking up on the table with more things missing. He kept waking up in his cell knowing they had regrown. He kept waking up feeling tingling, burning in previously numb parts of his body, knowing that it was only thanks to the weekend that his nerves had begun to feel again. But then Monday would come again, and he would wake up with his body numb once more.

How much time had passed? How much of his body was no longer his? How much had regrown like an ugly patchwork of an ectoplasmic contaminated doll?

Was he even himself anymore if so much had been replaced?

How long until he couldn’t call himself Danny?

And then he woke up.

Again.

***

He woke up to dimly lit glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling.

Those had been courtesy of Sam’s insistence. Something about grounding him after he woke up from nightmares—after all, the GIW didn’t have decorations in their cells. It was too bad the stars didn’t exist behind his eyelids. It would be nice to be able to prevent the dreams from happening in the first place.

He wasn’t sure what time it was, and he was too afraid to look at his phone to check. He didn’t want to know how badly he’d messed up his sleep for the night—again—he’d realized. But the room was dark, so he could only imagine.

On TV, when people woke up from nightmares, they got out of bed. Maybe they got a glass of water, hopped in the shower, or started getting dressed.

Danny always thought that was a load of bullshit. Because here he was, his frantic heart beginning to slow, brain flickering images that made him want to gag, and yet he couldn’t even consider the possibility of leaving his bed.

And so he lay there.

Staring up at the ceiling.

He must have dozed off eventually because one moment his eyesight went blurry, and the next he was waking up to the plastic stars. Except, sunlight streamed through the windows, and the stars had lost their sci-fi glow.

He still didn’t know what time it was. Maybe he should check.

Maybe.

His skin was uncomfortably warm, and he could feel his pillow not quite right under his head. His neck was stiff, but still, he didn’t get up. He could have slept for a week. He didn’t have the willpower to get out of bed.

So…he didn’t. He stayed in bed. A sluggish arm pulled out his phone and his fingers lazily scrolled through various social media sites without stopping to read anything. He let the minutes hours pass by until the stale taste in his mouth and his parched throat forced him out of bed.

It was a good thing Sam and Tucker weren’t here. They would be so disappointed if they saw how he spent his days off.

He turned on the faucet, washing toothpaste down the drain. His sink was getting grimy again, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d cleaned his apartment. Sam would be so let down. Tucker would be too, though he wouldn’t say so many words as her.

So when his phone buzzed to life and familiar names appeared on his screen, he ignored them.

He couldn’t face them. Couldn’t do it.

Instead, he went back to bed. Not to sleep, just to…exist. Whatever that meant.

And when his phone finally rang, he turned it on Do Not Disturb.

(In his dreams, he woke up in his cell again.)

He woke up to the stars.

Again.

He stayed in bed, dozing until his alarm went off, signaling the start of the work week.

Had Sunday passed? Did his brain skip an entire day without him knowing?

So he had spent the entire weekend in bed.

Fantastic.

He forced himself up, forced himself into the shower. He was careful not to touch his body anymore when he showered—that was what the loofah was for (another gift from Sam). His skin didn’t feel right anymore. It prickled at his touch in some places and burned in others. It had raises and bumps and lines that it didn’t use to. He couldn’t touch it, couldn’t admit to what happened, didn’t want to know.

Of course, it was impossible to forget.

He didn’t even notice he had transformed until he was already invisibly touching down at the subway stop. Danny Fenton took the subway to campus. At least, that was the story everyone else saw.

He detransformed—still invisibly, thank god he’d mastered that—and ducked out from behind the pillar. The invisibility dropped, and he slung his backpack over his shoulder as he made for the turnstile.

Danny Fenton was a researcher getting his MS in aerospace engineering. Danny Fenton was looking for summer internships. Danny Fenton was a normal man, one who grew up with scientist parents, who never went into their portal, who was never kidnapped by the government, who never had his body cut open and was never forced to regrow his organs day and day again.

He was normal.

Very normal.

The sun hit his eyes and he tried to pretend that he wasn’t squinting at the sudden light. That he hadn’t just spent the entire weekend inside. That he wasn’t royally fucked for class today because he hadn’t even glanced at the prep work.

He followed a group of students inside his building and scanned his ID at the front desk. The security guard hardly looked up from his newspaper, and why would he? Danny Fenton was a normal, tired human student.

The elevator dinged at his floor, and he made the same trek to the office that he always made. Someone acknowledged him from the hall—probably Blake, he practically lived at the school—and Danny grunted in response.

He hoped he remembered to shave that morning. He couldn’t remember anything other than the relief and subsequent dread at waking up.

“Got some grading for you, Fenton,” the professor said as soon as Danny walked through the door. He tapped a stack of folders. “It’s a rough one, sorry.”

Danny’s voice crackled as he responded, “Sounds good.” He flushed, realizing it had been several days since he’d spoken last.

(He talked plenty in his dreams, though.)

His advisor quirked a bushy brow at him. “You sleep alright?”

“Fine.” Danny swiped the stack of folders. “I’ll be in the conference room till someone kicks me out.”

“‘Kay.”

He was glad it was just grading. Math had formulas, it had plans. It was either right or wrong. A rocket ship couldn’t fly if the numbers were wrong.

And grading undergraduates was mindless. They either knew the material or they didn’t. In the case of Professor Patel’s class, most of them didn’t.

Which was fine with Danny. If that meant he had to take longer to grade these exams, then that was good. Great, even. It meant he could spend less time thinking.

But eventually, he finished, and Patel ordered him to get food before class.

Danny tried to remember what he’d eaten since Friday. Maybe he had…pizza? At one point? A sandwich? Some ramen? He couldn’t remember. He must have eaten something because he wasn’t that hungry.

“You sure you’re alright?” Patel had asked again as Danny gathered his coat and bag to leave.

“Yeah.” He refused to make eye contact. “Just tired. You know, busy weekend.”

Busy weekend of staring at the wall, more like.

“I get it. Grad school is tough,” Patel said. “Listen, I have some meetings later, so I don’t need you for the rest of the day. After class, just go home. Get some rest. Swing by tomorrow.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. Make sure you actually sleep this time.”

Danny attempted a weak smile. “I’ll try.”

Still, shame and guilt clawed at his hollow insides. He knew that he was giving nothing but empty promises.

He managed to go to class where he managed to take notes and he managed to follow along. Somehow. Thankfully.

And then Danny Fenton walked to a secluded spot, transformed, and flew home.

His apartment was dark under the drawn curtains, but he didn’t bother with a light switch. It didn’t matter, he wasn’t human anyway.

He grabbed a container from the fridge—takeout, some days old—and ate it under the light of the microwave clock. It was lo mein, some part of him recognized midway through. It tasted blander than he remembered.

Some part of him thought back to when the operatives had cut out his tongue. Partially to punish him for mouthing off, and partially just for fun. Sometimes he wondered how different his new taste buds were. Was this because they had regrown? Or did he just have issues?

No, don’t think about that.

So he didn’t.

He woke up to his alarm.

He went to school.

Helped his advisor around the office.

Assisted with a class for undergraduates.

Went to his own class.

Had coffee with a classmate after. (What was her name again?)

Flew home.

Ate dinner. Ramen this time.

Woke up.

He woke up to pounding on his door.

He slapped a hand to his forehead, blearily sliding it down his eyes. Ugh, what time was it?

Who the hell was here this early?

Muffled shouting sounded from the hallway, but Danny couldn’t even begin to decipher what they were saying. But a second later, he recognized who was speaking and groaned on instinct.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” He braced himself for the unforgiving atmosphere that existed outside of his blankets.

“Danny, if you don’t get to the door right fucking now, I’m going to—”

“Yeah! I heard you!” He snapped, dragging his lifeless body from the bed.

“Sam, come on—”

“No, he can’t ignore us, Tuck.”

“I know, but—”

Danny opened the door, blinking as the light from the hall hit his retinas. He yawned. “What the hell?”

“Danny, have you been sleeping all day?” Sam’s tone hardly reigned in her frustration. She stood, tapping her black boots on the carpet and glaring at him through her purple makeup and dyed bangs.

“What?”

“It’s two in the afternoon, dude,” Tucker said, pushing past the door.

Danny didn’t fight him. He’d learned months ago that isolation wasn’t a battle he could win with these two.

Sam wrinkled her nose, picking at his shirt. “Have you been wearing this all week?”

Danny rolled his eyes, stepping back into the dusty apartment. He couldn’t remember when he’d last changed, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. “Will you relax? I was just asleep. Sorry, I’ll change.”

“Danny…”

“Make yourselves at home. I’ll be right back.” He shut the front door and padded to his bedroom, rifling through his laundry bin of clean clothes he’d never managed to put away.

Tucker, of course, took that as an invitation to perch himself on the bedroom doorframe. He stared into the messy bedroom, his arms crossed, and that annoyingly tense look on his face that Danny had begun to recognize was the “you’ve done fucked up” look.

But as usual, Tucker didn’t offer any of that information first. No, Danny had to be the one to grind out, “Okay, what now?”

“What do you mean, what now?” Tucker said.

“I don’t know. You look like you have something to say.” Danny turned away and shrugged his shirt off, speed racing through putting the new one on.

He couldn’t risk anyone seeing his torso.

Even if his two best friends already knew what that looked like.

“Danny. You already know what I’m gonna say.”

“No, I don’t.”

Of course, he did.

But that was enough to snap Tucker out of his judgemental glare. For his crossed arms to fall down to his sides, and for that unmistakable sigh to escape his lips.

“Dude, you’re getting worse.”

He knew Tucker was right. But that didn’t stop instinct from spouting out, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m fine.”

“Yeah, okay,” Tucker snorted, glancing at the piles of dirty laundry on his floor. “If you want to keep lying to yourself.”

“Danny? All the vegetables I bought last week are still in your fridge,” Sam said, poking her head through the door. A clump of her purple and black hair caught on her lipstick, but she didn’t move to brush it away.

Danny didn’t even remember seeing vegetables in his fridge. “Sorry.”

“Have you been eating?”

“I eat a lot at school. You know, networking stuff.”

Tucker quirked a brow, and Sam’s expression looked even less impressed.

He looked at his two best friends, both dressed in unwrinkled clothes with skin that appeared as if it saw the sun for more than five minutes each day. They had their careers, friends, and lives that Danny could only dream of.

“Come on, let’s go get food,” Sam said.

“Food?”

“It’s past lunch, and I know you need it.”

It was pointless to try to fight them. “Okay. Give me a few minutes to wash my face?”

“Sure.”

Winter was nice, Danny decided. Winter air meant it was cold, and he had an excuse to bundle up. He didn’t have to worry about short sleeves or people seeing his bare skin.

He could cover it up, not talk about it, not think about it.

“I think you should talk about it,” Sam said finally, placing a sub in front of him.

Danny couldn’t recall ordering anything. In fact, he hardly remembered the walk here. Which was bad. That meant Sam and Tucker had seen him when he was zoning out. He tried not to do that when they were around.

Oops.

“You know I can’t,” Danny said. He picked up the sub and took a bite. It was nice, and then he realized that meant he was probably hungry.

“I’m not saying you need to give details as Fenton. Maybe you can find someone willing to work with Phantom?”

“That’s impossible.”

“Nah,” Tucker said through a mouthful of his own food. He chewed for a moment and then swallowed. “Phantom’s been around for a while. You have a lot of support. I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to find a therapist who’s willing to work with you in ghost form.”

“Yeah, okay, let me just do that. I’ll just go ahead and risk finding a therapist on the off-chance they don’t call the government to come take me back there. Sure, no problem.” Danny glared at his food which suddenly didn’t look so appetizing. He huffed, putting it down on his plate, and dropped his head into his palms.

His hands were shaking. He hadn’t even realized they were doing that.

“Danny…” Sam’s voice was gentle this time. “Come on. There are other options.”

“Not really.”

“Sure there are. We can get you to a psychiatrist. You know, as a human.”

“They’d want to do bloodwork.”

Sam was silent at that. And then Danny could hear his breath, how shaky it was, and he hated that. He hated this conversation and feeling this way and he wanted to be home by himself staring at the stupid plastic stars on his ceiling again.

“You can’t keep living like this,” Tucker said. “I’m sorry, but you can’t. This is bad.”

“I know.” His voice was weak.

“So let’s think of something.”

“I’ve tried. There’s nothing else I can do.”

The three of them were silent once again. No one moved until finally, Tucker picked up his sandwich, and Sam followed. And Danny sat there with his head in his hands until the shakiness stopped and he could manage to eat another few bites. Sam wrapped up his leftovers and she and Tucker guided him home.

And that was that.

Until he woke up the next day to his phone ringing. It was Sam—of course, it was Sam—breathless on the other line.

“I’m here.”

“What?”

“Tucker’s outside. Can you buzz us in?”

Danny groaned, dragging himself up again because these two idiots didn’t know how to leave him alone. He hit the buzzer and then waited at his door for the sound of murmurs, footsteps, and the polite knock that followed (it was Tucker’s knock this time). He opened the door to see his friends with their backpacks suspiciously full.

“Guys, stop,” Danny said, stepping aside to let them in.

“Stop what?” Tucker said innocently.

“Stop mothering me. You don’t need to bring me stuff. You already did that last week.”

Tucker hopped over to the kitchen. “Oh well, if you see Danny, tell him we’ll stop bringing him groceries when he admits he can’t survive on ramen forever.” Tucker set his backpack down on the counter and unloaded its contents into the fridge.

Danny mumbled incoherently, pulling out his phone to Venmo his two friends because he knew they wouldn’t accept repayment otherwise.

“Come on,” Sam said, pulling him away from Tucker. “Let’s watch TV.”

Danny allowed himself to be dragged to the couch, and he didn’t resist when Sam pushed him down and threw a blanket over him.

“There,” she said.

“I’m a halfa. I wasn’t cold.”

“But now you’re comfortable.”

“And you have groceries,” Tucker said, jumping onto the couch. He threw his hoodie-covered arm around Danny, patting his shoulder. “See? We got you.”

“I’m sorry,” Danny said reflexively. He was sorry. He was so sorry that they had to deal with him, that he wasn’t just fine and back to normal. That, for some reason, he couldn’t handle what happened even after all this time had passed.

“It’s okay, dude.”

“No, it’s not.” He moved his mouth soundlessly, shoving his trembling fingers under his blanket. He could feel the other two still beside him, and he wanted to unload everything, but that wouldn’t be fair to them. He couldn’t keep using them like this, it wasn’t fair.

“Danny, come on, we’re your best friends.”

“Yeah, but this is crazy. I’m crazy—or, I feel like it. You know? Like…I don’t know, I just feel like the world keeps slipping and I don’t know what to do.”

Admitting the truth was bitter, and he couldn’t look at the other two. He couldn’t see their reactions. He didn’t want to look at Sam’s concerned expression, her eyebrows tight and pulled in, and he didn’t want to see Tucker’s wide eyes and their underlying hard look. Because that would mean that what he said was real and that the dreams were real and he couldn’t do that. He didn’t want to know.

“As we said before,” Sam said, her voice cautious. “You know, there are options.”

“Those are impossible for me.”

“Not necessarily.” Sam reached down into her backpack and pulled out a folder. “I hope you don’t mind, but last night Tucker and I went ahead and looked into some psychologists nearby. We compiled a list of all the ones who had liked or posted pro-Phantom posts on social media.”

Danny’s brain was slow to react, but when the implication hit him, he carefully reached out for the folder and opened it. Inside were stapled pages of various therapists. He leafed around to see printouts of their backgrounds, therapist pages, and their interactions with Phantom-themed social media.

“Wow…” He stared at the papers, hardly soaking in the words in front of him. His throat felt tight, and something prickled behind his eyes.

“Like I said, we got you,” Tucker said.

Danny quickly wiped away a tear that betrayed him. “I—I’m sorry.”

“You’d do the same for us, dude.”

“Wow. Well, still. This was…really nice.” He glanced at his friends and saw nothing but kindness behind their eyes. “Thanks, guys.”

“Will you let us help you find someone now?”

Danny nodded.

“Good.” Sam put her hand on his shoulder. “We’ll get through this, Danny. I promise.”

And if he had to wipe away another tear from his cheek, his friends were kind enough to not point it out.

***

“You look better,” Tucker said through a mouthful of a pastrami sandwich. “She’s good?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Danny sipped on his coffee, glancing toward the window. Snow flurries had begun to fall, though too sparse to stick onto the pavement. The sun was undecided if it wanted to commit to hiding behind the clouds and letting the snow commence, or if it wanted to break up the incoming storm in favor of blue skies.

But regardless of the weather, the world moved around him. People hurried along the sidewalks, their hands shoved in their pockets and their eyes trained low, blinking away the little white speckles that stuck to their eyelashes. Cars whizzed by with bikes trailing alongside them. Across the street, a man dressed in all blue stood on a box, preaching to the scurrying passerby.

“I’m glad she’s working out,” Tucker said.

Danny was glad as well. Though, he could never express just how relieved he’d been. Looking back, it was almost embarrassing how quickly he had broken down to Amy. He couldn’t even remember what question she had asked him, just that it apparently hit the exact nerve he had spent months pushing down further and further into the recess of his mind.

That had been the first night in a long time he didn’t have a nightmare.

“How’s your job going?” Danny asked. “Sorry, I haven’t really asked.”

“All good, dude! And it’s been going well. My team’s awesome. I can’t really talk about what we’re developing—NDAs and all—but it’s been fun to figure out how to build everything. You know? It’s like a jigsaw puzzle.”

Danny felt the corners of his lips twitch up. It had been too long since he’d seen this, the spark that hit Tucker’s eyes when he got on the topic of technology. For so long, his daily routine had been making sure he didn’t drown, that he’d forgotten how nice it was to be able to breathe air.

“You can’t tell me anything? Not even a little hint?”

Tucker groaned dramatically, pulling his beanie down over his eyes. “Don’t tempt me, dude! Staying quiet about this is already bad enough without having you guilting me into spilling.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.”

“And what about you? You’re working for your advisor, right?”

“Yeah. Patel’s cool. You know, it’s mostly just me doing his bitch work. But he’s been talking about introducing him to some of his contracting buddies. So that’d be cool.” Danny shrugged. “Whatever gets my foot in the door, really.”

“The first job’s the hardest. After that, it gets easier.”

“That’s what Sam said too. And Jazz. And my mom.”

“Well, they’re not wrong,” Tucker said, turning his attention back to his sandwich. “You remember me complaining about my first job. My boss was an idiot who thought more lines of code meant more productivity. No matter how many people explained that fewer lines are actually—a lot of the time—better and that debugging was a thing, this guy couldn’t grasp the concept. I couldn’t wait to finish out my year and get out of there.”

“Bad bosses are everywhere, I guess.”

“Yeah. But you know, now I’m working at this kickass place and it’s great!”

Tucker didn’t have to convince Danny of that. Just looking across the table, Danny could see all the ways Tucker had changed since they were kids. He was taller, more filled out, and he sat with his shoulders back, head held high. He still had that shit-eating grin, but it seemed more genuine now. Kinder.

Danny had a lot of catching up to do. But maybe…maybe one day, he’d get there too.

“Well, I’m sure I’ll be complaining about my first boss too.”

“It’s a rite of passage.”

The laugh escaped his lips before he could stop himself. “Sure it is.”

“So what’s on your agenda for today?”

“Eh, nothing fun. I’m still catching up with all my schoolwork.” It hadn’t been fun facing the mountain of assignments and studying he had fallen behind on. But it hadn’t exactly been the first time he’d been in this academic predicament either. And as experience had taught him, once he’d started, he had found that his backlog of work wasn’t quite as bad as his anxiety had made it seem.

“We’ll be seeing you on Friday still, right?” Tucker asked.

Danny took another sip of his coffee and nodded. “For sure. I’ll need the break by then.”

“Good.”

“And, you know, thanks.” Danny ducked his head. “I know I’ve been off. Thanks for sticking it out for me. I really appreciate you guys.”

“Dude, of course. You know, we moved here together, so we’re gonna stick together.”

“Yeah. Still, thanks.”

“We got you.”

When Danny woke up on Saturday, he wasn’t in his bed. He was on his couch with Sam and Tucker pressed up on either side of him. They must have fallen asleep watching terrible movies again. Empty cans of spiked seltzers and a family-sized bag of pretzels littered the coffee table, and the ‘Are You Still Watching?’ message splayed over the TV screen.

He heard the soft snores of Tucker and the consistent breaths of Sam, and something warm and fuzzy grew in his stomach. After months and months of feeling empty, the warmth was almost jarring at first, but that was quickly replaced by bliss.

Because even though it had been a while, even Danny couldn’t forget how nice this all felt. To have friends, family even. To be loved and cared for. To know that no matter what, he always had these two by his side.

Honestly, what would he do without them?

“Thanks,” he whispered, closing his eyes.

He could wait until they woke up too.

#danny phantom #fanfiction #phicc #my writing #and then he woke up #we got some trio bonding #we got some dissecc #i mean really what more could you need

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chaosandthe-deadblog · 5 months

Text

Sunny's unnofficial rendering tutorial because idk why but people say they like how I color

Hey kid. So you got your drawing, right? And you have your flat colors, now you gotta render 'em, right? Then you find that BAM, you have no idea how to make it look cool? Neither do I! But here's what I do (I've been told that my coloring is cool)

1. Place your flat colors

Imagine these are your flats. A few things: you want your base colors to be all around the same hue, that way they look better together. See how all the blacks, greys and whites are purple/blue-ish? That's on purpose babey! But how do you acheive this? idfk. jk, you have to stay on one (or two) areas of a hue wheel.

This way, all the colors look like, nicer around each other. You're not FORBIDDEN from going outside an area you picked, but you should still try to make sure everything is in the same hue so you have to do less overlay layers later.

(FYI: I do this because it saves me time on rendering. I don't think it's mandatory, there's no rules to art. Go crazy!)

2. Shading

I think shading makes or breaks a drawing. Personally I don't have a lot of rules about it, but there are still tips I can give.

So here's what you gonna do. You're gonna pick a color that's somewhere on the opposite of your main hue, alright? Here, my hue is mostly cold colors, so I'm going to pick a warm tone. You're gonna make sure it's dark enough so it's like, a shade, but not enough so it becomes black when you set the shading layer to multiply.

(Note: I never get this right on the first try)

(Another note: as you can see, I have the entire drawing, including the lines, inside a group. Don't worry! I'll explain this later)

Personally I like to use a paintbrush-esque brush because I like the look of it being hand-painted that it gives my art. Mine is the default paint tool sai brush, but I'll leave the settings down here just in case.

I don't. Really know how to explain the way I shade, I mostly follow the lines I already placed in the lineart phase, and give them depth. I guess my biggest tip would be to FOLLOW THE CLOTHING FOLDS!!!

Idk how to explain this. But people always tell me that they like how I shade the clothes, it's because I follow the fold lines I place on the lineart phase! Not only does this give the clothes depth, it also makes shading a lot easier. Follow your lineart, idk what else to tell ya.

Now you're gonna set the layer to multiply...

And lower the opacity as much as you want until it looks good. No real rules to this, it's kind of depending on the vibe you want your piece to have.

Now, and stay with me here, grab a blending tool, okay? This is the one I use, I have a textured version for when I'm feeling brave, and a regular, flat version (the one I use the most) Here I'll use the flat version.

And. Stay with me here. I want you to blend the FUCK out of this. Just absolutely destroy those borders. Okay? Trust me. If it looks messy you're doing it right. You're gonna want to follow the shape of the shadows tho, this way you don't lose the shape of the objects you're shading.

Woah! Suddenly everything has depth! Let me go back to the clothing folds, because holy shit, the clothing folds.

See how I'm adding depth to the shadows I placed by kinda. Following the line I drew and blending the outside? Idk how to explain this. You blend whatever isn't touching the line, okay? Trust me.

3. Lighting

Ok. I'm holding your hand gently. You have to do lighting on your art, okay? You have to. It adds depth to the shapes and also is sososoososo easy. Here's how. It's so easy.

Grab your airbrush tool. Yes, that one. Hear me out okay?

Pick a light, warm color between yellow and orange.

Stay with me. Make a new layer, set it to whatever lighting mode you prefer. I use luminosity because I live dangerously.

Now.

Airbrush everything that the shadows aren't touching. Yes. I'm serious.

It's gonna look ugly as shit. DON'T BE ALARMED. This is part of the process. I want you to take the blur tool. And blur the ever loving fuck out of this. Just go fucking ham.

Good. You're doing so well. You're being so brave. Now lower the opacity as much as you want, until you like the way it looks.

Like so. I also like to add a few brush strokes and blend them on an up-and-down motion for the hair and certain details, but this is optional. Same as before, you're gonna take a (slightly warmer, but still bright color) and make a new layer on luminosity mode.

Take the blending tool and make it small, only slightly bigger than the brush strokes, and blend these lines until they look nice. Adjust the opacity, and voila!

Now, I could stop here. But I'm extra so I keep going.

4. The pizzazz

AKA, "Ah fuck the colors don't look the way I wanted them to!"

Do not worry! I have a solution that's almost never failed me.

Overlays. Just a whole fuckton of them. I don't really have a method to this, I just kinda try colors and layer modes until something looks good.

For this one, I felt like I wanted the colors to be warmer, so I picked a warm color and overlayed it on multiply. Then, I noticed that the darker colors came out darker than planned, and you couldn't really tell them apart, so I picked a light warm color and overlayed it on screen.

Voila! We're not done! There's one more thing I like to do, and here's where the layer folder comes in!

Remember how I said I keep everything, including the lines in a folder? This is why!

Make a layer that's on top of everything, like this. Pick whatever color you want, make sure it's bright. (Personally I like using pink). Take the airbrush tool again and airbrush whatever edges you want to give a little more pizzazz to.

Blur it as much as you'd like...

And adjust the opacity and layer mode however you like!

5. And done!

Sometimes I add white highlights. Sometimes I add more shading, or more lighting. It depends! But this is the method I use in a nutshell.

Hope you enjoyed it, or at the very least realized idk what the fuck I'm doing!

#sol.art #art tutorial #sol's art tutorials #god this was so hard to explain. idk what im doing guys

21 notes · View notes

chrisevansredbelt · 2 years

Text

Small World: Four

pairing: steve rogers x reader

warnings: mmm reader gets hurt. reader is sad. swearing, bb gun mention.

summary: the departure.

a/n: ahhhhh i’m sorry this took so long!! hope u enjoy!!

previous chapter, series masterlist

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“Shit!” Sam curses, making a bee line for the door, snatching the keys out of your hand in the process.

You don’t know what happened to you.

You were frozen. The sounds were all too familiar.

The cocking of guns, the shouting. Then it was the sight of black cars, the black gear they had all strapped to their body. Then it was the fear in your heart that really topped it all off. All too familiar feelings that resurfaced.

“C’mon.” Steve tugs on your arm after collecting his own bag and ushering you out the door, right behind Wanda and Natasha.

Just as Steve goes to pull you forward in front of him, you feel an instant sting in the side of your bicep, followed by immediate pressure and strange warmth.

“Fuck-“ You stumble back into Steve’s hard, rock chest, holding your bicep tight.

You both stop in your tracks, staring down at your arm that shows a small red hole. You gasp softly, even though your eyes blur a little bit from the pain, you catch a glimpse of the large pellet inserted into the skin of your arm.

Though Steve’s blood boils, he has to push his feelings aside for a moment and also realise that they are in fact armed, and though it may just be pellet guns, they’re very clearly not that opposed to hurting any of them in order to capture them.

Steve ushers you in the backseat of the car and Sam is instantly taking off, skidding large tire marks into your poor grass, and hardly allowing Steve to shut the door as he speeds off through the hills.

The car is filled with heavy breathing, everyone trying to catch their breaths and the adrenaline still coursing through them. Steve takes a shorter moment to collect himself, before he is turning to you and examining your arm.

You wince, shutting your eyes and throw your head back against the headrest, whining softly as the pain starts to kick in.

Natasha scurried through her bag in the front seat while Sam continues to drive further and further away from the house.

“Here.” Natasha turns in her seat, holding out a shirt sleeve that she had ripped from one of her white shirts, simultaneously berating herself for not grabbing her first aid kit.

Steve swallows thickly, before taking it gratefully, “Thanks, Nat.”

They both know that Steve is going to have to remove the pellet at some point, but he won’t do it with his fingers. No, they’ll need to stop in some town, if they can, and buy some sterile tools. So, in the meantime, Steve carefully wraps your arm up in the soft fabric of Natasha’s sleeve.

“I’m sorry,” Steve apologises as you squeeze his arm, clenching down on your own teeth. Though Steve was apologising for hurting you in that moment, he couldn’t help but feel he was also apologising for much more. For putting you in danger, for putting a target on your back, for having to flee your house, for making you leave everything you own. For being another burden to your life.

Steve pulls you close as you still reel in the pain, resting against his chest as you catch your own, very much need breath.

“Take this road.” Natasha suddenly points, and Sam makes a sharp turn, turning into a hidden road with thick trees.

“Is everyone else okay?” Steve asks once he’s caught his breath. Of course, no one was truly okay, but he just wanted to make sure that no one else had gotten shot.

After a few more minutes of speeding through small roads and thick trees, Sam comes to a slower drive before parking. From here, you can see the main road very clearly, but you’re far enough away so that you blend into the trees and look like just another abandoned car.

No one gets out. Or speaks to be honest. You’ve all caught your breaths by now and everyone is probably too engrossed in processing everything that just happened to talk much.

You rest against Steve’s shoulder still, hands entwined together and he hasn’t stopped caressing the back of your hand ever since. You can tell he’s nervous- or at least… feeling some kind of negative emotion from the way he sighs every now and then. You try and offer him small, reassuring smiles and you’re sure they work for a few seconds- until he looks back out the window and goes back to clenching his jaw.

Wanda seems fine. She too looks out the window, but she doesn’t entirely seem bothered by the whole thing. She’s basking in the peace and serenity.

“There.” Sam suddenly points, after hunching over your steering wheel and staring dead into the main road for what could’ve been 20 minutes. You all follow his gaze, hard to do so through the thick trees and branches in the way but you can see two big, black cars speeding off into the distance- in the direction away from your house and probably back to where they came from. You all collectively sigh, a weight lifted off your shoulders, “We’re clear.”

And so, after waiting another few minutes to be sure that they’re really gone, Sam is exiting the small forest and heading back to the main road.

In the passenger seat, Natasha pulls out her burner phone, pressing a myriad of small buttons and sighing frustratedly.

“I still can’t get a signal.” She huffs, flipping the phone shut and resting back in her seat with crossed arms.

“Let’s find a station at the next state over, we’ll get a signal there and maybe we can get picked up in a few hours.” Steve says, “And we’ll find some medical supplies there too.”

And so you did exactly that. Well on your way to the next state over, you had been slipping in and out of sleep for a whole two hours. Steve freaked out first, thinking you were beginning to pass out into unconsciousness. So, when he abruptly shook you awake, you couldn’t even find it in you to be mad that he disturbed your sleep because you just adored how worried he got.

But even when you’re shaken awake again, you still aren’t mad as you perk up and look out the window. It’s night time now, and you’re in an unrecognisable town. Confusion sets over you momentarily as you remember every little thing that has just happened and you rub your eyes tiredly. But, in doing so, you wince sharply at the pain that courses through you.

Ah, yes, your arm. Your arm that was shot with some kind of high-force BB gun.

“You okay?” Steve asks, holding your arm carefully.

You nod, looking up at him before out the window again, “Where are we?”

“Somewhere with a lot of hills and farmland.” He answers, forgetting the name Sam had told him. You both look around, and your eyes widen slightly at the flock of large trucks currently nestled around the gas station, “And trucks.”

Steve helps you out of the car, your head a little heavy and your legs dead asleep. But once you smell fresh, hot burgers and fries emitting from the small diner connected to the gas station, you don’t care much for your disorientation.

You spot Natasha by the diner, on her burner phone, apparently having reach a signal. You’re unsure who exactly she’s talking to, but you hope whoever it is, they can help you. A warm bed to sleep in would be nice.

Sam and Wanda can be seen inside the diner as well, finding a table to sit at while they wait for the rest of you. But before you can join them, Steve is tugging you into the gas station.

“Gotta fix you up first,” He explains, sensing your confusion and resistance.

Your stomach grumbles as you follow Steve into the dimly lit gas station. He got all the supplies you needed and a few extra for the road, before he was bringing you into the gas station bathroom.

It sounds gross! But it was actually a lot cleaner than both of you expected. Steve offered you an apologetic glance as he asked the clerk for the key, and you both hummed in intrigue when it was… spotless.

You were still cautious though, using a piece of tissue to wipe down each surface before you sat down on it. Steve had you up on the small space of the counter that was provided before setting up an even smaller sanitary station where he gathered his tools.

You felt a little nervous, always hating your trips to the doctors and to Dr. Cho’s lab whenever you needed fixing up. But being in the hands of Steve made it a little better.

He had bought a pair of cosmetic tweezers, antiseptic, and a heap of bandages- plus some candy to hopefully mediate the pain.

“I’ll try and be quick,” He says, washing his hands, “You can squeeze me, punch me, pinch me as hard as you want.”

You huff a smile, shaking your head. You would do no such thing. Okay, maybe you’ll end up squeezing him but that’s it!

You let out a shaky exhale as you watch him pick up the tweezers in one hand and dip them into the alcohol. That’s gonna fucking sting, you know it. Then, you wince as he unbinds your arm, the dried blood causing the fabric to stick to your skin.

“Don’t watch, sweetheart,” He says, nudging your chin in the opposite direction and you swallow thickly, blinking all around the room to try and distract yourself, “Okay, slight sting.” He braces and you gasp softly as a cold piece of cloth meets your skin, cleaning your wound but stinging the absolute hell out of it.

It’s tolerable though. Even if your eyes water. You know you’re just being dramatic.

“Okay, using the tweezers now,” You sigh uselessly, honestly wishing he didn’t tell you but also glad he did. Your heart picks up immensely and now you’re just left waiting for the eventual feeling of the bloody tweezers.

You wince as you literally hear it squelch inside your arm. Then you feel it. It feels like a worm digging into your arm. You squeeze your eyes shut, letting out small whimpers as Steve fishes around for the pellet.

And Steve is just as disturbed as you are. He hates that he’s still causing you so much pain, even when trying to help you. He’s truly trying to be quick about it but he finds it very hard as he loses grip of the pellet twice. Third times a charm though as the metal tweezers grab a secure hold on it, and Steve slowly pulls it out with a shaky hand.

“All done,” He informs you, chucking the tweezers onto the small paper towel beside your thigh.

You open your eyes then, peering down breathlessly at the tiny little pellet that was causing you so much pain.

As you continue to stare down at the pellet, Steve bandages you back up, but your mind is elsewhere as you think about everything.

You thought you’d left this life behind. You never thought you’d have to do anything like this again. Not that you ever did do this… but the whole in another city, undercover on a mission part. Because that’s what this felt like.

You were perfectly contempt at your home. Oh, your home. You hope it will still be in one piece when you get back- if you ever do. Your doors are probably left wide open for some kids to come in, thinking it’s abandoned and loot the hell out of it. Everything you have is in that house. The only thing you own right now is your car and the clothes on your back.

How is it that this is where you ended up?

Steve notices your strange, abrupt silence and distance as he secures your bandage around you arm. As he begins to pack the tools up into the plastic bag provided, he asks you, “Are you okay?”

You look up at him finally, breaking out of your trance and offering a fake smile, “It feels fine.” You shrug, hopping off the counter and onto the floor.

Before you can exit, Steve steps in front of you, a concerning look on his face and a hand ghosting over your waist, “But are you okay?”

You glance in his eyes, remembering just how long you were with this man and how he definitely still knows you like the back of his hand.

So you shake your head, opting for the truth, avoiding his gaze, “I-I don’t know.”

Steve has an inkling not to press it. But that doesn’t stop him from feeling an immense wave of guilt wash over him yet again. Will he ever not feel guilty for all he’s done to you? Probably not.

In the middle of the 5 of you scoffing down your food, Natasha had fled the booth to take a phone call.

She was gone for about 5 minutes before she came back with a hopeful sigh. The others look to her for an explanation and she downs the rest of her soda, “Shuri says she’ll meet us at the top of that mountain.” She points out the window, to a lovely view of a large mountain, perfectly composed within the frame of the window. It would’ve made a great movie shot.

But wait, Shuri? As in… Wakanda? You’re going to Wakanda?

That sure sounds exciting- you’ve never been but you’ve heard so many great things. And isn’t Bucky there? You remembered Steve telling you something about Bucky being there. It’ll be nice to see Bucky again… Even if you’re unsure where you stand with him….

But again, your moment of optimism is short lived as you think about having to completely abandon the country. Will you ever come back? Will you ever see your house again. All of your possessions, all of your clothes. You were never one for materialism… but you have nothing else. And your car, you’re just gonna leave that somewhere too? The most valuable thing you own right now.

And so, you all finish your much needed meals and grabbed a few more snacks from the gas station before buckling into the car.

The mood seemed to be lifted a little- a new hope blossoming at the idea of not having to be on the run for much longer. Well, you would all still be on the run, just… probably a lot safer in Wakanda.

Ghee, you guess you’re on the run too now. You hid multiple fugitives, you shouldn’t be surprised. But they’re your friends (and humans!) before they’re fugitives- even if they may have just stripped you of everything you owned, you’re certain it wasn’t their intent. If anything, it was your own.

You were too… excited to sleep. Not exactly excited but, enthralled. You were going to picked up? In some strange jet? On the top of a mountain? Could this day get any weirder?

The drive up the mountain was only short, and it was beautiful to stand by the barrier and look out at the small town below. This was probably the biggest town you’d been in since moving from New York. You wondered what it would be like if you were to suddenly move back to New York with Steve. Getting a bit ahead of yourself there… But imagine it. You would probably stick out like a sore thumb for a good few months until you got used to the hustle and bustle of the city life again.

Steve watches from afar as you distance yourself from the group yet again. You’d been doing it all night and he can’t help but feel so guilty still. He’s certain you’re not aware you do it, and he understands completely why you feel the need to. Wanda hinted to him that you had a lot on your mind, a lot of things to come to terms with and process- space was what you needed. Though he itched to just go over to you and hold you, he held back.

He continues to keep a close eye on you though. You are practically in the wild right now, there is every possibility some animal could just come and attack all of you. But while he looks at you, looking out at the city, he notices an abnormal light in the sky.

“Guys,” He catches the attention of the others who had been playing with a stack of cards in your car.

Sam flashes the lights of the car, smiling softly when the light in the sky does the same. You perk up over the railing, watching with intense curiosity as the strange jet flies over your head so smoothly. You’re surprised how quiet it is for a jet, and wonder if anyone in the town had seen it. Ah well, let ‘em think it’s another UFO sighting and the hype will die down shortly.

You join back with the rest of the group as they start piling out of the car, taking all of their belongings with them. Steve waits for you, a hand coming to the small of your back as the jet lands closely- the wind of it almost knocking you back if it wasn’t for Steve’s hand. Stairs unfold from the small door, soon accompanied by who you can only assume is Shuri.

“Uber for some criminals?” She jokes from the top of the staircase.

While the others laughed and boarded the jet, you made one last final sweep of your car. Hardly anything of value was inside, but even if it was just the wrapper of a piece of gum, a stack of cards, and a picnic blanket- that was all you had. You sigh softly as you shut the door close, a lingering hand running over the old vehicle. Believe it or not, it wasn’t even the cheapest vehicle you could get your hands on. It was actually quite expensive and without the help of a special someone loaning you some money, you wouldn’t have been able to afford it. She was your girl. You relied on her for everything. You could never just walk down to the local shop- you always needed her. And now you have no choice but to leave it.

Steve, once again, notices your behaviour. Switching his gaze from the jet to you and the car, he frowns before making a quick jog over to Shuri.

You depart from your car, goodbyes having been said and acceptance creeping in. You see Steve talking with Shuri, and though you’re a little tentative of Steve right now, you don’t want to board the jet alone. The others have already gone in and you’re certain that if you just went it alone, they would probably think you were some random intruder.

“We’ll take care of your car.” You hear and you lift your gaze up from the rocky gravel ground. You look up at Shuri, then glance to Steve and back to Shuri. They both offer warm smiles, “I will have someone drive it back to your home safely.”

“Oh,” You stutter, “Thank you.” You nervously fish out the keys from your pocket, “Um, here-“ But Shuri doesn’t take them from you.

“Those won’t be needed.” She simply says and you offer her a slightly confused expression as you retract the keys, “We’ll navigate it from the jet. Think of it as a little toy car.” She smiles and you can only hum in understanding- even though you were far from it. She steps aside from the staircase, glancing politely at you and Steve before gesturing a welcoming hand, “After you.”

The jet was much like the Avengers jet, but also much different. This was definitely more fancy.

Steve guided you to a seat where he sat beside you. The others had seemingly already gotten comfortable, Natasha even nodding off already. As you sat beside Steve, you took his hand in yours- a way of thanking him, in a way, because you knew that he had talked to Shuri about your car. Always so observant, he is. You squeeze softly and give him a small, thankful smile as you settle into your seat, to which he returns.

After a few minutes, Shuri had returned from the outside and made her way to the cockpit where she joined the others. Sam lingered closely, obviously having piloted the Avengers jet and taking interest to the differences in this one. And it wasn’t long before you were taking off.

The lights inside were dimmed down and warmed, so your eyes grew heavy almost instantly. You slowly started to lean against Steve’s broad shoulder- God, you missed sleeping on Steve. He was always so squishy but firm. Then he had moved you so that you could rest your head in his lap, knowing that would’ve been a much more comfortable position for you after sitting upright in the car for so long. He played with your hair softly as you were lulled to sleep by the small buzz of the jet.

About an hour in, Natasha had awoken from her short sleep. She looked at her surroundings, reorienting herself with the current situation before getting up and heading for some refreshments. She popped a few skittles and then made herself some tea, along with a second cup. On her way towards the little mini kitchen in the jet, she had noticed Steve gazing out of the window tiredly, still softly stroking your hair. Natasha pursed her lips, practically feeling his clouded mind radiate from his brain.

With cautious steps, she approached Steve quietly with the two mugs. She sat by him, catching his attention finally and handed him the mug. He takes it gratefully, sipping on it almost instantly as his basic human needs finally caught up to him through his foggy mind.

Without even missing a beat, without an ice-breaker even, Steve speaks softly, “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.” He apologises, referring to their earlier conversation… literally minutes before the whole thing went down and Natasha’s points were all proven correct.

Natasha just shrugs, waving him off, “It’s not like it would have changed anything.”

“But you were still right.” Steve relents.

Natasha smiles wittily, before caving, “Yeah, I was.” Steve rolls his eyes playfully before staring back down at you, making sure he hasn’t woken you. You’re sound asleep. He hopes your dreaming of something nice. Natasha follows his gaze and frowns a little, “How is she?”

“I don’t know… Exhausted probably.” Steve shrugs, “I think she’s pretty worried for her house. Plus, she doesn’t have anything- no spare clothes.”

“She can borrow some of mine.” Natasha says without hesitation. Steve smiles gratefully at her yet again. “Are you okay?” Natasha then asks, nudging his shoulder.

He sighs, a loaded question that he honestly wasn’t too keen on answering so truthfully right now. So instead, he opts for a small, “Yeah… Just wished I wasn’t yet again, another burden to Y/N’s life.” He doesn’t say the last part aloud, but knows that Natasha can already sense that he’s feeling that way anyway.

After another hour, the jet seems to land. The others have woken up by now, but you’re still sound asleep in Steve’s lap. Deciding not to wake you, he hoists you up by your waist and carries you. You latch around him instantly, wrapping your legs around his waist and planting your face into the crook of his warm neck.

Shuri takes them in to some lavish building, a high-rise and takes them to some penthouse. She guides each of them to their rooms and once there, Steve sets you down on the bed, tucking you in warmly.

A knock on his door sounds and before he turns, he expects to see Wanda… maybe even Sam or Shuri. He would have never expected to see Bucky.

“Hey,” he simply says, leaning against the door as Steve blinks at him dumbly. Once Steve registers that he is not, in fact, hallucinating, he takes two large strides towards his best friend and engulfs him in a tight hug, “Back so soon?” Bucky asks with a laugh, patting his back.

Steve steps back from the hug and runs a hand through his hair. Both men have changed their appearances significantly, both sporting beards and much longer locks.. Steve then sighs, not knowing where to even begin, “Got into a bit of trouble.”

Bucky raises his brows and scoffs, his way of saying ‘no shit’.

Bucky’s gaze the travels to the sleeping figure in the bed, squinting his eyes briefly before widening them and looking bewildered up at Steve, “No way.”

Steve nervously sighs, knowing how Bucky had felt about the situation, “It’s complicated.”

“Is it?” He asks with an intimidating look.

“We’ve been staying at her house for a few days. They found us and we escaped.” Steve summarises.

Bucky just nods, knowing there was much more to the story than that but also knowing that Steve should get some sleep. He was informed all about your arrival and predicament late in the night and had stayed up himself, waiting for you all to arrive. What they had managed to leave out, however, was that you were with them.

So, Bucky softly punches Steve in the stomach, pointing a finger up at him, “You better have apologised.”

“I did, I did.” Steve defends with raised hands.

“Good.” Bucky nods, “You didn’t make her cry, did you?”

Steve stays silent for a moment and Bucky tilts his head and cuts his eyes angrily, getting ready to land a much stronger punch to Steve’s abdomen, but holds back when Steve holds his hands up in front of him, “I didn’t mean to!” He whisper-yells, only lowering his own hands once Bucky does, “God, I thought my days of punishment were over.”

“Never.” Bucky shakes his head.

You stir awake, quite abruptly as you open your eyes slightly and don’t recognise the room you’re in. You blink away the sleep before sitting up and looking around the room.

Your abrupt movement pains your arm slightly and you frown softly. So it wasn’t a dream. Everything crashes back down on you and you vastly remember why you’re here.

You feel a lot better this morning- both physically and emotionally. Last night, you were just so drained. But now that you’re here- with hardly much of a worry in the world, you can’t find it in you to stress.

At the sound and feel of the blankets moving, you turn and look down at Steve- who’s just waking up now.

You smile simply, glad to at least have him by your side. He smiles up at you, the first thing for him to see in the morning,“Hey,” He says, morning voice in full effect as he stretches.

You fall back down and onto his chest, getting cozy on the warm body beneath you, “I thought it was all a dream for a second.” You admit.

Steve huffs a small, gruff laugh, “It’s real. How’s your arm?”

You hold out your arm for him to inspect, “What’s the diagnosis, Doc?”

He hums as he looks over it, genuinely looking at it underneath your bandage before putting it back in place and sighing, “I think you’ll need a lot of kisses to heal it properly.” He kisses your arm and you try and pull away, his beard tickling your skin. Steve smiles as you squeal softly. Your mood was very different to how it was last night. Sliding his hand down to your waist, he holds you close, “How are you feeling?”

“Better.” You hum, resting your chin on his chest, “I’m sorry if I seemed snappy last night- I was just tired… and worried.”

“Don’t worry about it,” He waves you off, rubbing the skin of your back and waist reassuringly, “Bucky’s excited to see you again.”

“Really?” You ask, excitement building inside of you at the mention of Bucky, though you can’t help but be surprised by Steve’s statement, “I thought he’d be mad at me.”

“What for?” Steve furrows his brows.

“Leaving him with Sam.” You shrug jokingly, before snorting and being serious, “No, leaving him without an explanation. He was like my wingman.”

“Well, I think he took all his anger out on me.” Steve sighs and you raise a brow, “Rightfully so.” He adds and you nod.

“Well, then I’m excited to see him too.”

Steve smiles proudly, “My best friend and my best girl, ever the trouble makers,”

“Your best girl?” You fake offence, “Ghee Rogers, kinda thought I was your girlfriend…”

Steve feels his heart skip a beat. He blinks at you dumbly and you have to refrain from rolling your eyes at the clueless blondie.

“Oh, yeah- I didn’t- I wasn’t sure if-“ You stop his babbling by placing a long, loving kiss to his lips. Holding his cheeks delicately in each palm, the kiss is soft and slow, but filled with so much spark and revelations all in one.

You pull away once you’ve decided you’ve tortured the man long enough, and smile up at his rosy cheeks and evidently kiss-abused lips, “How about now?” You ask teasingly.

“I don’t know, maybe a few more?”

You giggle as Steve connects your lips together, his beard tickling you in the best way possible.

It was nice to forget about everything wrong that was going on in your life and focus on the good for once. The good being that you had Steve again and Steve had you. And Bucky and Sam and Natasha and Wanda. You had an actual roof over your heads and a warm plush bed, you could probably show your face out in public without being worried that they would pull out handcuffs immediately.

So caught up with the current predicament of your life, you don’t notice the multiple missed calls and text messages spamming your phone. By now, your mailbox was full and your battery was almost low from constantly lighting up and showing the messages. And you accidentally ignored all of them because your phone was at the bottom of Steve’s bag- haphazardly chucked in there when you were clearing out your car.

(72) missed calls from Tony

Tony

‘Call me.’

Tony left a voice message

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*･ﾟ☆

#steve rogers x you #steve rogers fluff #steve x you #steve x y/n #steve rogers angst #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers series #captain america #captain america imagine

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sunset-aria · 7 months

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Amber's Art Resource Compilation (The Return!)

Once upon a time, I used to regularly share link collections of helpful art resources here that I would stumble across on my various feeds and timelines, both to keep track of them for myself for later reference, and to share them with others who also might find these resources useful or interesting. And considering how many websites most folks are spread across nowadays? It seems like as good a time as any for me to start doing this again! Feel free to share and reblog to whoever you think will benefit!

(I would recommend that if there's any links that you find particularly helpful, perhaps save the image or video to your computer for safekeeping. I have no idea how long Twitter links will work because of obvious site shenanigans, even with Nitter as a workaround...)

TIPS, TRICKS, AND TECHNIQUES

Drawing easy straight lines in CSP with line variance! (I use this one all the time now):

https://nitter.net/PharanBrush/status/1573559518830940160

Every layer blending mode explained in detail!

https://nitter.net/DanHollick/status/1583080119068807168

A digital inking tip for unsure artists: use a blurred sketch!

https://nitter.net/quasimaddi/status/1585011119277555712

Tips for drawing motion blur by hand:

https://nitter.net/stardustjarr/status/1553140493462241280

Divide layer trick for removing unwanted colours for a picture! (Works great for cleaning up scans)

https://nitter.net/DaveRapoza/status/1513918096922226694

Quick perspective tip: think in several layers of depth!

https:/nitter.net/toni_infante/status/1530209210558042114

A trick for handling 1-point perspective in backgrounds:

https://nitter.net/djamilaknopf/status/1478738291386204160

And another interesting perspective insight from someone else in the same thread:

https://nitter.net/Masa_Ikku/status/1478747970233585667

Easy architectural facades for buildings: paint it flat, skew, and expand!

https://nitter.net/DevinElleKurtz/status/1481791432490815489

Sinix Design: Anatomy Quick Tips. A playlist of videos focusing on how to break down and draw specific parts of body anatomy. (A favorite resource of mine!)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLflflDShjUKH4EfZyf0vuKEuqeqvlV0Qd

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you to Honeybees for a wonderful link to some additional book resources!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vEv0qEQKeGuWI4MPUcX8adWtNuGtTgSB

This folder contains:

"Anatomy for Sculptors", "Anatomy of Facial Expression", and "Form of the Head and Neck" by Uldis Zarins. An invaluable set of resources for understanding the 3D volumes of the human body from all angles! Goes into detail about skeletal structure and musculature, with photos and 3D models to help break down structures.

Volume 1 through 6 of "Hamm Tips", an amazing PDF archive of knowledge from the late Jon Hamm's art advice Twitter. Covering a wide variety of topics from inking to composition to visual narrative, there's a little bit of everything to learn here! (These PDFs are also still available to purchase on https://jessehamm.gumroad.com/ Proceeds go towards supporting Hamm's wife.)

The Morpho Series by Michel Lauricella: "Clothing Folds and Creases", "Fat and Skin Folds", "Hands and Feet", "Simplified Forms Anatomy for Artists", and "Skeleton and Bone Reference Points". A collection of detailed drawn figures and studies covering a variety of essential topics. Especially helpful if you find it easier to learn from seeing drawings rather than photos or 3D models!

DOWNLOADABLE TOOLS AND ASSETS

Baydews shares their favorite CSP brushes:

https://nitter.net/baydews/status/1607413330444169219?t=wH2Ijop-0llRr_HUF-0PTA&s=19

Master list of CSP brushes and assets!

https://cspmasterlist.carrd.co/

CSP Perspective Box asset:

https://nitter.net/PharanBrush/status/1687876570764238848?t=82DGi0khF8qtZTrndemHhg&s=19

Extensive 3D prop resource (Models can be imported into CSP and more!)

https://thebasemesh.com/

REFERENCE MATERIAL

Line of Action, a figure drawing resource tool! Most folks probably know this one, but it's still worth pointing out as a favorite for gesture drawing practice of many kinds:

https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/

AdorkaStock, another great resource for pose photos:

https://www.adorkastock.com/sketch/

A reference search resource for finding photos of human heads from specific angles:

http://referenceangle.com/

A similar resource to above, but for animal heads from specific angles:

https://x6ud.github.io/#/

And another, for finding photos of poses with limbs in specific positions:

https://x6ud.github.io/pose-search/#/

Japanese terms for certain eye shapes, with photo examples:

https://nitter.net/authorkurikuri/status/1597780432526925824?t=45tt1w6XFisqf53wLpW4TQ&s=19

Need pose inspiration for a mermaid? Try photos of skaters!

https://nitter.net/BelgharbiHouda/status/1521578742203752453

Actual mermaid poses, in 3D model form, with multiple turnaround angles:

https://nitter.net/kingcholera/status/1466065821835403271?t=QOTTQ_NaM4lC67hjaIWHKw&s=19

KingCholera's Patreon is a great resource for free 3D model poses! (Select "public" in the Tier dropdown at the top of their Patreon post feed to get a list of currently available free resources):

https://www.patreon.com/kingcholera

Another example from KingCholera's public ref collection: shoe refs (turnarounds)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/480-shoe-pt-2-70970957?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=postshare_creator

PAID RESOURCES

Eco-friendly bubblewrap substitute (helpful if you sell merch):

https://www.ecoenclose.com/shop/greenwrap/

Plushie sewing templates and tutorials from an awesome plushie artist, NazFX:

https://nazegoreng.gumroad.com/

MISC RESOURCES

Font help: good title and body typeface pairings:

https://nitter.net/Unenthuser/status/1539391099919224837

Font: SS Pretzel comic-friendly font:

https://nitter.net/salinsley/status/1445752040123092998?t=JqHW97mq0Zsie84vddCkPg&s=19

Rarebit: a Neocities webcomic website template:

https://nitter.net/spellsquad/status/1537116379706298368

#ambertext #art resource compilation #long post

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mattodore · 4 months

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hi, how are you? I'm quite new to simblr and editing pics, but after seeing your before and after I'm really impressed. Can you please tell me what you do on Photoshop to make your pics look the way they do? Like, the tools, and especially what you use to make them so high quality and crisp. They look amazing!

Thank you <3 and yeah I can get into it a bit.

Before touching on what I do when editing, I think it's important to point out that my screenshots look as high quality as they do because I use NVIDIA's DSR to set my resolution to 3600 x 2025. Here's a tutorial on how to do that—I promise it's super easy! Way easier than SRWE (I used to use SRWE and it's another option if the DSR one isn't for you).

I also use GSHADE on my screenshots. I use a preset I made myself since I couldn't find one that I liked that'd work with both light and dark skin colors. You can see it in action here:

If I know I'm going to edit a screenshot I'll normally turn off the MXAO shaders (I use three) but leave most everything else on.

As for Photoshop... I don't really know how to explain with just words so here's a quick video to show you what the basic tools I always use are and how they work:

In order it's:

Spot Heal tool for clipping (but I also take screenshots without Theo or Matthias in them so I can layer and erase if it's a big area that's clipping)

Clone tool for clipping and anything I want to blend/cover

Liquify for edges

Smudge tool for fixing harsh lines

From there the rest of what I do is just coloring and all the extra stuff like adding lighting and shadows, adding iris blur, etc. The edits I've been doing lately take me like 3+ hours so I can't get into all of it but... that's the basics pretty much.

#river dipping #asks #anonymous #video #resources #a lot of text here so i broke out the capitalization lmao #........also doing this reminded me i still gotta do the pose tutorial #i downloaded obs to record this so i could use it for that too...#idk when i'll get to it tho......... i still haven't ripped mattodore's sims dfkjgnhknjdh

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ranpd · 1 year

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Hellooooo and WELCOME to first art tutorial sponsored by The Horrors ™️ for the more detailed lineless i do :3

This is a long post so im putting it under a readmore

Ok so basically just sketch first. Pretty easy to follow here. The second one doesn’t have to be perfect its just your guideline while coloring

So now its time for the fun part which is COLORING!!!

Turn the opacity down baby!!!!!!!!

Pick a part to outline first. Please do NOT do all your outline on the same layer . Also i advise against putting the coloring layer for the head and the rest of the skin on different layers so you can shade the neck better

Fill in

Same thing for the rest of the coloring. NOW. Shading.

I use the pencil #1 brush on ibis for this. Basically just shade broadly here

BLUR TOOL. Then on a separate layer go a little darker (i use pencil #2 here with a smaller scale) and fill in more specific details.

Blur :3 And that’s what it looks like without the sketch on top!

Then i add hair texture on top and turn the opacity down as much as i like

Okay skin shading!!! This is a little more in depth—still going broad, but you want to have the shading outlined on all of the skin. Only a little on the parts where the light hits it hardest but it needs to be there.

Blur tool yippee anyways you do the second shading here just like the first

So it ends up looking like this

Basically same thing for the rest of the stuff

Highlights!! Lighter color, kinda like reverse shading. Do NOT highlight as hard as done earlier with shading. A little goes a long way here

Change blending mode to add

Blur

Again, similar kind of process with the skin, lines a little more disconnected

Blur <3

Onto the face—i just trace off the sketch (hence why i do face details on a different layer than the rest of it)

It looks like this without the sketch

My FAVORITE PART: the iris. I do 3 shades of darker and 2 shades of lighter with a third as a circle

TAP with the blur tool. If you swipe it moves around the colors and it looks weird

Pretty much the same thing with the retina

Lighting on the eyes in solid white + i forgot to do anything with the gloves

After adding a background and effects, you get this! Yaaaay! Simple tutorial coming soon + i forgot to do lighting on the hair but its similar to everything else <3

@zurxmxru @danishsweethartz

#pretty fly for a white guy #art tutorial #art tut #lineless art #lineless art tutorial #SHOUTOUT to everyone who worked on this . shockingly i didnt have to do allthe worm here #..i meant to say work but i guess worms helped #(ba dum tss)

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tessellated-sunl1ght · 1 year

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Do you use pose/face references when drawing? Maybe some recurring color palettes? Or just. Anything about your art in general i want to know more so bad

Sorry I took so long to get to this, I wanted to give a detailed reply! (you have no idea how long this has been sitting in my drafts) Thank you for the ask, Anon!

Now, for the, short answer to your inquiry— sometimes!

(Very) long answer— it really really depends. While I don’t have a direct reference most of the time, occasionally I do need guidance!

For example, I completely drew from reference for this picture of Fiddleford

Using this

But for my portraits I either go by memory or look at different screencaps of the characters I’m drawing. I’m pretty sure my example of Fiddleford and some of my crutches!Ford drawings are the only ones for which I used a direct reference—

Because I wanted their bodies to look right.

But for stuff like these—

I had no reference at all!

In terms of color palettes, despite having done hours of research on color theory, and studying various screencaps of stuff like Arcane, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Spider-Man: Into The SpiderVerse, etc. I’m… really bad at implementing it. So I rarely use actual color palettes. Instead, I use layer settings gratuitously. Take my Blind Faith drawing for example—

Here it is without all the extra color layers on top— not bad, but a bit flat.

This is the version I posted, which is a lot more cohesive and the colors pop better because I added a subtract layer, a screen layer, a linear dodge layer, and an add layer for the harsh light. For a majority of my works, however, in order to bring everything together I just add a warmly-colored color/linear burn layer (or a cooly-colored subtract layer) over the entire thing and turn the opacity low:

When it comes to shading, even though shading with cool colors is the norm, I tend to gravitate towards shifting to a warmer, deeper hue, like so—

Although I sometimes either shift to something cooler for deeper shadows or use purple on a low-opacity multiply layer. Then, for blending, I use a fading pen to find the midtones that go between the shaded and lighter parts, or I use a blending pen. The blur tool and I are very dubious friends and I only use it to show a fading shadow.

For my traditional art, the only things I used a reference for are the Joel Miller sketches and the Doctor Who screencap redraw I’m pretty sure.

Umm I can’t think of anything else but I hope this was satisfactory (and not too boring)! If you have or anyone else has more questions or didn’t understand the rambling I did here feel free to send them in, I don’t mind!

#i need a tag for asks #ask answer #ask answers #my art #anonymous

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pictureamoebae · 6 months

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Hello lovely helpful person! I have a question about Otis dof addon, is it possible to focus on two characters at the same time (in Bg3). Like a scene where tav and a companions stands next to each other or a romance/kiss scene, it seems that its only possible to focus on one point at once, if that makes sense? everything else gets blurry. Is this just the way it is or can you alter the focus somehow, so several things are in focus, like a group of 4 people? Thank you so much!!! Hope you understand my question (:

Hi anon!

Try to imagine the space in front of you in terms of linear distance from the camera to the farthest point in the distance.

When you focus, you're not focusing on a specific object per se, but rather on a particular distance between the camera and the horizon. Anything in the scene that is at that exact distance from the camera will be in focus, whether it's in the very centre of the screen, or off to the left or the right, top or bottom.

Anything you want to be in focus has to be at that distance.

Let's assume the camera is at 0 and the horizon is at 1, and half way between them is 0.5. If Tav is standing at 0.2 and Shadowheart is standing at 0.4 you can either focus at 0.2 or at 0.4 to have one of them in focus, but one of them will be out of focus. You can't set two different focus points because you'd end up with blur from both of them messing them both up.

There are a couple of ways to work around this, and as always with ReShade both involve compromise.

The first would be to change your composition so both characters are the same distance from the camera. That's nice and simple, but can sometimes ruin the composition you wanted.

The second is to adjust a bunch of stuff to mimic how a real camera creates blurred and in focus areas. Zoom (FoV) will affect how strong the blur is and how quickly it goes from in focus to out of focus. Theoretically, the closer you zoom in (the lower your FoV) the stronger the blur will become and the quicker it will start after the in focus area. Additionally, lowering the bokeh size in the IGCSDoF settings will also create a softer transition between the in focus area and the blurred areas. This can help create a wider zone of space that is in focus, meaning your characters may not have to be at the exact same distance away from the camera.

Unfortunately, because of the way IGCSDoF renders everything, that zone will still always be somewhat narrow, and, especially if you wanted rather strong blur in the background, you'll likely find yourself battling against some areas that aren't in focus that you wish were.

Luckily, there's a secret third way that can come to the rescue: Photoshop*.

I frequently find myself taking a shot with IGCSDoF, and one without, and then opening them in Photoshop to blend them together so I get what I want in focus. I do this a lot with close portraits where I want a decently strong background blur but find as a result only the eye is in focus and the nose and sometimes even the mouth is slightly out of focus. I layer the screenshots over one another, add a layer mask, and paint out the areas of blur I don't want so the in focus parts come through.

There are always going to be limitations with ReShade and screenshot tools more generally because it's trying to mimic real world behaviour in an artificial digital game space, so we have to get crafty sometimes!

*Other programs are available

#Anonymous #igcsdof faq #otis camera tools faq

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squids-and-waffles7 · 1 year

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That's really cool that you use ibis paint! I use ibis paint as well and it's a nice application, I still gotta learn how to do more techniques with it haha. Your art is absolutely amazing, what brush(es) do you primarily use? And what do you use for blending? Thank you! :)

ibis paint gang let’s go!! :] and aaa thank u!! 😭❤️❤️ for brushes i mainly use the crayon brush for lineart and the soft pastel brush for everything else (sometimes lineart too). for blending, i don’t really do it that often so i mainly wing it and either use the blur tool and then blend some more with the soft pastel or just use the airbrush lol. thank u sm for asking!! 💞💞

(also here’s the QR codes for them incase u wanna use them!! they come with the program already but sometimes they’re hard to find (i only found them in june and I’ve been using ibis for almost three years 😭) so just incase!! ty again!!)

#squids answers

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cariantha · 2 years

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Your manips are crazy good, can I ask how do you make them?

Thank you so much!💗

Once I find photos that I think I can make work, I use a background remover. I really like this one. It's super easy to use. It's the best I've found for automatically removing backgrounds. After the background is removed, you can edit to erase anything or anyone else in the photo. It's free to use, but if you want HD quality images, you have to subscribe. (I subscribe because I prefer the higher quality when given that option.)

I create all my manips and edits in PowerPoint.

After I insert my photos, I usually crop the images so they are easier to work with. Then I work on positioning and scaling the images. For positioning, I use the send to back/bring to front options a lot.

For proper scale, I try to resize one of the images so that the heads are the same size. (I think to myself if Ethan were to kiss Sawyer right now, would their lips be the same size.🤭)

And then comes the part that I sometimes spend hours obsessing over. When you click on a picture, you get the Picture Format tools. I use Corrections, Color, Artistic Effects and Picture Effects.

The Corrections and Color options help me with matching up skin tones.

With the Artistic Effects, you can add a little blur or film grain. This helps so much when you are trying to match the quality of your pictures (like when one is a little fuzzier than the other).

I use the Shadow options a lot too. I think it helps soften the images so they blend together in a more natural look.

Once I'm happy with everything, I group all images and Save as Picture.

You are more then welcome to DM if you have more questions.🙂

#thanks for the ask!#manips #now I want to make a new one #love seeing my babes come to life

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movedtoferinehuntress · 8 months

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☾ * ―― ᴄᴀɪᴛʟʏɴ & ᴀʜʀɪ 「 @vulpesse 」 ≣ Meme (too lazy to search up) = ❝ [ wounded ] sender patches up receiver's wounds ♡ ❞

Light filtered through her eyes, trying to process where exactly she was. Soft rays of sunlight came through the window, the smell of nature wood blending with the hint of a hopeful rainfall against her nose. Her hand lifted to press against her head to try and understand how she came to be in this cottage.

Her memory floated back to the airship. She was visiting with her father, and she had decided to leave the semantics of politics to her father while she decided to explore the region they were act. She preferred her job as a private detective and had taken a few weeks off to go with her father. With the Hexgates, she wouldn't be gone long and would return to Piltover when the time called. Still, she cared so little for her life in the political region and her father seemed to be catching on okay. The wild nature of the landscape is what intrigued her, her brilliant blue eyes sucked into the world that Piltover didn't have. Piltover was streets upon streets of stone and marble, carved to create a city. Yes, she had her Pavilion in the outer forest and her gardens on her estate grounds but this was something else.

The vivid glow of the blossoming flowers that lined the countryside, and the forest looked greener and more radiant in color. The crisp scent of nature filled her nose as she took a breath to admire how freeing it felt. resinous aroma filtered through, from the old trees deeper into the forest. Yet something caught her ears, something yipping. Caitlyn walked around the trees when she spotted a small red creature; a fox. However, it was the trap she spotted, a piltovan design, meant to trap animals, a cruel way of hunting in her opinion. "Easy, easy," Caitlyn whispered, lifting her hands as the ears pressed against her head and the snip of the jaws. The little fox was confrontational out of fear and pain. "I know, it hurts," Caitlyn had always had a natural way with animals; her entire life she talked with animals as if they were her only friends in life. She had a few friends like Jayce and Grayson, but she often spent time talking with the forest in her forest, or the horses at her barns. Animals gravitated toward her and she appreciated their non-judgemental kindness to her. Once the fox had calmed down, she reached over and started to tamper with the device. "I just need to… prick this spring," Caitlyn spoke out loud, pushing back a spring that allowed her to grab the jaws of the trap. "And then, if I pull back just enough, come on little one, lift your leg," Caitlyn said and when the fox started to lift her leg Caitlyn pulled the jaws back quickly and the fox shot out of it.

Her hands pulled back as the teeth clamped shut again and Caitlyn ground. "If you hunt, you use skill, not a damn trap," She muttered picking it up. However, something sent a tingle up her spine, and quickly shifted out of the way as a bullet ran past her head. With a quick shift, she pulled her rifle off her back (never without her tools) and lifted it well-aimed in the direction the bullet came from. The echoing call of the ones who started this. "that was our prize, bitch," The poachers spoke up and Caitlyn just chuckled as she spotted her target through the scope and aimed just right at the edge of his ear. She heard the shout when the bullet whizzed after releasing the bullet and held her ground. "Take your black market deals and get the hell out of here," Caitlyn shouted as she slotted another shot into her rifle, prepared for a fight. Yet all she heard was grumbles and watched them walk off.

That's when something hit her side. Caitlyn cried out in pain as she looked down, seeing something stabbed into her side and then everything went black. The ache on the back of her skull as her visible blurred and faded to black.

As Caitlyn shifted upwards she hissed in pain, the remainder of the wound on her waist as she pulled up her shirt, stained in her red blood, and saw the bandages. "Who?" Caitlyn whispered, groaning in pain as she sat up and wrapped her arm around her abdomen, hand pressed against her right side. Wherever she was, whoever was here, must have tended to her wounds but why? Soft scents of flowers started to filter through her nose, some sweet and others subtle. The fresh hints of the trees filled her nose as she saw their branches inside the hut she was in. Porcelain hands grabbed the side of the bed, trying to push herself up but she moved too fast and spots started to dot the lines of her eyes as she dropped back down to the bed. Leaning forward, she placed her head against her hand and covered her eyes with a groan. "Bad move, Caitlyn," words muttered from her mouth, trying to take a slow breath so the dizzy spell passed.

#vulpesse #[muse] caitlyn — interactions.#[muse] caitlyn — answers.#[post canon verse] — its time for change.#so I had an idea and I ran with it!#I wasn't sure what part of the world Ahri lived in #but I did use some of your headcanons to try and match where Ahri's cottage is and all!#hope it works lol

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wonwooridul · 2 years

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i have seen alot of people manually write their url/ watermark or place their logo (essentially, a photo) in each gif or photo they make/edit, which is obviously a waste of time and effort. "Actions" is a life and time saving photoshop function for watermarks.

When you make an action for the watermark, the action will place your text / photo exactly where you positioned it while making the action with the font, blend, size and position you chose.

So, here is a small but helpful tutorial of how to put your logo/text watermark in photoshop using actions on photos or gifs by your friendly neighborhood CC!

i use photoshop 2021 for making my stuff. You can download photoshop and other gifs/grfx related resources from this page. (studiocarat, a grfx network for carats)

This was originally going to a part of my other "photoshop tips n tricks" tutorials but i noticed that this is a sorta big one and imp one and thus needs a tutorial of its own.

ABOUT "ACTIONS"

You can record most—but not all—commands in an action.

You can record operations that you perform with the Marquee, Move, Polygon, Lasso, Magic Wand, Crop, Slice, Magic Eraser, Gradient, Paint Bucket, Type, Shape, Notes, Eyedropper, and Color Sampler tools—as well as those that you perform in the History, Swatches, Color, Paths, Channels, Layers, Styles, and Actions panels.

Results depend on file and program setting variables, such as the active layer and the foreground color. For example, a 3‑pixel Gaussian blur won’t create the same effect on a 72‑ppi file as on a 144‑ppi file. Nor will Color Balance work on a grayscale file.

When you record actions that include specifying settings in dialog boxes and panels, the action will reflect the settings in effect at the time of the recording. If you change a setting in a dialog box or panel while recording an action, the changed value is recorded.

Go to Window > Actions. You will see a small play botton in your toolbar on the right side, that’s your actions. Click on it and it’ll open your box with some photoshop actions.

LOGO IN GIFS

Step 0: open photoshop, load your gifs, convert them into a smart object, do you colouring ! Make sure your gif is in timeline video mode !

Since, your doing a logo, you have to have a logo already made and saved in a png format in your laptop. So when you play your action, PS will automatically place you logo png from the destination it was saved in. Your logo can be in a 100 x 100 px transparent background.

for example, my logo looks like this:

Step 1: Click on the folder icon to create a new "Action Set". Name your set. for example, 'watermark'.

Step 2: Click on the '+' icon beside the Action set icon. It will create a new action. You can select which Action Set you want it to be a part of; in this case, "watermark" action set. Rename your new action as your preference.

The second you hit the record button in the dialog box, everything you do will be recorded as steps/action so don't do unnecessary steps or else you'll have to redo your whole action.

Step 3 : The small button in (3) will turn red (🔴) indicating the recording has begun.

Step 4 : Assuming you already have your logo made and saved, click on File > Place / Place embedded. It will open your file manager, select your logo and press enter. It will place your logo on your gif as a separate layer. If it is made on a small PNG (eg. 100 x 100 px), you wont need to resize the photo, but if necessary please resize the logo to your preference.

Step 5: Right click your layer and rasterize it clicking "rasterize layer". Place your timeline cursor thingy at the starting of the timeline.

Step 6: Select your whole document by the shortcut CTRL/CMND + A or Select > All.

Step 7: Now, select your logo layer by clicking it. Go to Layer > Align layer to selection. Select Align Bottom. You'll see your logo move to the bottom. Go to Layer > Align layer to selection again and click on Alight left or Align Right according to your preference.

i don't like my logo sticking to the edges, so i selected the logo, pressed CNTRL/CMND + T and used arrow keys and pressed right & up arrow keys 5-8 times so that logo doesn't stick to the edge.

Step 8: Now, in most cases, the logo layer will be longer than the gif layer in timeline. Like this:

Now, You can place your Timeline cursor thingy somewhere in the middle of the logo layer from the starting by dragging it and press cut ( the scissors icon) on timeline. This will split your layer in two. layer “logo” and “logo copy”.

Step 9: Delete the second half of the cut (logo copy) by selecting it and pressed 'delete' key on your keyboard.

Step 10: Press the square logo (■) on your action box to stop recording. Voila! you're done recording your action !

Step 11: you might notice that you can't see you logo, just adjust the logo layer so that it matches the gif layer! The only thing you'll need to adjust in each gif is the size of layer by matching it to the gif layer.

Don’t make the adjust layer size in timeline as a part of your action because it is different with every gif.

You can adjust your blending mode according to your preference but recommended are overlay & soft-light.

TEXT IN GIFS

STEP 1, 2 AND 3 ARE THE SAME

STEP 4: click on your text tool and type out your watermark name (url, name, whatever) in your preferred font and size. ( recommended size: 10). Press enter.

STEP 5: You don't require to rasterize your layer cause you may want to edit the text later.

STEPS 6 THROUGH 11 ARE SAME.

LOGO IN PHOTOS

FOLLOW STEPS 1 THROUGH 7 to get your action for logo in photos.

Action you just made for gifs won't work with photos because it has the command like "set time of time line", "Split video layer", " Select file 'LOGO copy'" and "Delete Layer" and these won’t work on a photo.

Since there is no timeline in photos, you don't require steps 8, 9 and 10.

TEXT IN PHOTOS

STEPS 1, 2 AND 3 ARE SAME

STEP 4: click on your text tool and type out your watermark name (url, name, whatever) in your preferred font and size. ( recommended size: 10). Press enter.

STEP 5: You don't require to rasterize your layer cause you may want to edit the text later.

FOLLOW STEPS 6 & 7 AND PRESS STOP RECORDING ■.

You can choose your preferred blending mode.

You will see all your action recorded and saved. PS has an auto syncing function so once you have made your action, you don't have to make it again. When required, just select the Action you want and press play ▶

My actions look like this for logos & text (url) in gif: