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apocalypse-shuffle · 11 months

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HOBIE BROWN | SPIDER-PUNK (atsv)

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“Brand New Metal” (Hobie Brown & Fem!Reader)

| Hobie helps you pierce your nose.

| SFW, piercing description, needles

| Featuring almost the entirety of my own piercing experience. (Pic source: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) movie)

You pull away for what feels like the hundredth time in five minutes and Hobie’s hand moves outta the way even faster, barely a blur of movement before it’s back within his bubble of space.

“C’mon, Mama, I can’t do this if you keep jumpin’ away from me.”

You shift in place where your butt is planted beside the hard water stained sink. Shoulders dropping you rub your hands down your face.

“I know that,” you grumble.

Problem was, knowing barely qualified as a quarter of the issue, and whoever said knowing was half the battle clearly hadn’t been staring down the point of the thickest needle you’d ever seen in person.

You wave your hand to the metal rod with a grimace. “But look at the size of that thing, Hobes. That’s gotta be overkill.”

Hobie’s accent seems to get thicker as he hits you with a deadpan tone, full brows shading his eyes.

“This’s a twenty gauge needle. I’ve seen you ’old your guts inside you and still make time to bash in some fascists, this’s nothin’.”

In response you flip him off but Hobie - perfectly unfazed - only starts twirling the needle around two latex glad fingers.

His own piercings - of which there were plenty - glint off of the dim yellow lighting of his bathroom like a taunt. Or at least it feels like that to you.

“Look, I already told you piercings ain’t some crucial part of the scene, Mama. You don’t have ta do any of this. It’s all just boxes and labels, the lot of it,” Hobie points the blunt side of the needle at you. “And you know I hate labels.”

“Yeah, Hobes, the whole of Camden knows. Besides, I want it cause I think it looks nice not cause of capitalism’s agenda to make us buy shit instead of looking at whatever human right of the day they’re doing away with,” you shrug and Hobie’s mouth twists to the side for a second before he’s shrugging too.

“Great. Point’s been made then. Pick a struggle.”

“Fuck your struggle,” you frown. “It’ll hurt.”

“Hn,” he scoffs and shakes his head. He’s giving you this narrow look like he’d let you keep this back and forth up for the rest of the day without any complaints though. “Fake ones exist for a reason.”

“Fake ones won’t give me the satisfaction of a real piercing though.”

“The lie that we need to feel pain in order to be worthy of livin’ is also capitalistic propaganda, Luv.”

Now it’s your turn to give him a look; face dropping and one brow rising.

Hobie chuckles.

“Fine.” He grins, sharp. “We both know I know exactly what it is you’re sayin’. I just can’t tell if being an accomplice to yer masochism is fair to me.”

“You wouldn’t deny a woman her creative outlet, would you?”

“S’pose not,” Hobie agrees, taking another alcohol swab and disinfecting the needle again for extra measure.

He eyes you up and down and you smile, fluttering your lashes at him and kicking your heels into his cabinet doors. You needed Hobie to be the one to do this. For one, because you were not going to be able to do this yourself, and for two, because he was really the only person you trusted to puncture a literal hole in your body.

You take a deep breath, now if only you could chill the hell out.

Hobie shakes his head, wicks flopping around and knocking into each other languidly.

“Yer one ‘elluva reluctant participant to this for someone agreein’ they’re a masochist,” he nods to the needle while brandishing it like a knife. He knows you're full of shit, but he’s not about to make your decision for you. “You gotta stop flinching every time light just glints off the needle if you really want this.”

You lock eyes with him, sitting up to your full height and trying not to back away from the metal rod. “Maybe I’m just waiting for the adrenaline rush to kick in.”

“Pretty sure that happens after the pain, yeh?

A huff and your fingers curl over the edge of the counter and squeeze.

“Just…get it over with, Hobie.” You take a deep breath. “Please?”

“Alright alright, don’t get your knickers in a twist,” Hobie eases a hand around your jaw and raises the needle. “You know I’ve got you. Now keep still.”

Another deep breath from you and Hobie meets your eye for a second time.

“On three,” he grunts. With your head in his grasp you can’t physically nod so you use your eyes to convey your agreement.

Hobie takes a breath to start the countdown and you inhale with him. You’ve gotten your ears pierced before, you could do this. It was fine. Plus you’ll have a few seconds to prep yourself before he gets to number three. You got this. You both exhale.

“Three,” he states.

Without a second to spare the needle pierces through the squishy cartilage of your nose and your breath catches in your throat. Instantly tears well in your eyes and your face heats up something fierce - like somebody’s holding a blow dryer on the highest setting up to it with zero mercy. Your joints pop, grasp on the counter growing tighter in your attempt to keep yourself from jerking out of Hobie’s hold. The sheer need to not garner an actual injury from the metal is almost solely what keeps you in place.

This wasn’t like an ear piercing at fucking all. Fuck this septum piercing and fuck Hobie too. What the fuck?

“Ow! You motherfucker!”

NOTES: Hope you enjoyed!! I only wrote his accent clearly some of the time; you’ll have to forgive me. I was confusing my damn self, okay? I did my best.

Also what I said about how adrenaline works isn’t really correct so don’t take that as gospel.

Edit: Had this labeled gn!reader on accident at first y’all, that’s my bad. Sorry for any confusion.

btw: if you’d like to leave a comment I’d very much appreciate it. this is a sideblog tho so I won’t respond.

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monstersdownthepath · 6 months

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A collection of Nascent Demon Lords (plus an extra)

(Pic source; it’s not 1 to 1 what I have in mind, but it’s close enough! and certainly eye-catching)

I’ve done daemons and sahkil, so here we have a trio of nascent demon lords. And also, as an extra treat, an especially disgusting Qlippoth Lord! These aren’t my only concepts for nascent lords, but if I put all of them in a single post then I won’t have any to post later!

As always, there’s significantly more lore for each of these horrors than I put in their little blurbs. Feel free to ask! If one or another gets enough attention, I might write a full article like I’ve done for bigger divinities.

TW for alcoholism mentions in the second entry, and body horror and major unsanitary themes in the final entry.

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Caerbannog, the Deceptive Death Chaotic Evil Nascent Demon Lord of Aggressive Mimicry and Camouflage

One of many wicked children of Lamashtu, Caerbannog has risen above his lesser kin and maintained a hold on a small but stable kingdom of labyrinthine tunnels which link into the realms of various other Abyssal powers, which he constantly steals from. Petitioners, territory, treasure, whatever he can claim for himself without risking immediate retaliation. While this audacious behavior would get any other creature slaughtered for their impudence, Caerbannog remains under the radar of beasts such as Jezelda, Angazhan, and Zevgavizeb by sticking to a simple but fairly effective gimmick: Appearing very, very small.

Able to hide his presence to a degree that even True Sight cannot pierce his disguises, Caerbannog masquerades as harmless animals, demon larvae, or lowly creatures such as quasits to creep unseen in the lairs of his betters, taking from them what he can as part of a strange ‘game’ he plays with himself. Patron of all manner of beasts and killers whose appearance belies unholy strength and hunger, Caerbannog is overjoyed when he is found by some guardian or predator which mistakes his taken form for his true one. Exploding forth from the body of a quasit, kitten, or--his favorite--a rabbit, he becomes a whirlwind of shredding teeth and claws that can quickly dismember beasts of any size, leaving him to frolic adorably amongst the gore until he grows bored and moves on.

Domains: Animal, Chaos, Evil, Trickery Subdomains: Fur, Demon, Whimsy, Deception Favored Weapon: Claws Symbol: The head of a herbivorous animal with bloodstains around the mouth. Sacred Animals: Rabbits and kill kittens Sacred Colors: White, brown, gray

Obedience: Attack a creature that saw you as harmless or friendly. Preferably this leads to the creature’s death. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus to Disguise and Bluff checks.

Boon 1: Harmless Form Boon 2: Beast Shape II Boon 3: Veil

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Vodani, the Demon at the Bottom of the Bottle Chaotic Evil Nascent Demon Lord of Intoxication and Misdirected Anger

Among the most human-looking of any demon, Vodani’s sickly yellow eyes and shark-like teeth betray the truth of his heritage, forcing him to take pains to hide them when he walks among mankind. Appearing as an innocent vagrant, Vodani finds groups of beggars and paupers to infiltrate, gaining their trust and sympathy with gifts of alcohol and stories stolen from his past victims. Over time, he will learn everything he can about them and their lives, what decisions or foul luck brought them to this state, and it’s then he will begin to work to twist their innocent desires for a better life into hatred for foes real and imagined.

There are some who mistake Vodani for a benevolent figure, the Patron (or Prince) of Paupers, uniting the destitute and broken against everything that brought them low, but while his cultists may have their own ideas of revenge, Vodani himself cares little for any true justice; he whips his unwitting victims into mobs united against scapegoats and other innocents, and any long-term good he ends up doing is purely accidental. So long as something or someone is destroyed by the end of the resulting riot, he considers it a success, leaving the poor souls he deceived behind to drink themselves to death and rise again as his children to perpetuate the cycle of violence.

Domains: Chaos, Community, Evil, Trickery Subdomains: Revelry, Riot*, Demon, Espionage Favored Weapon: Improvised weapon Symbol: Two beaten flasks, tankards, or cups toasting. Sacred Animals: None Sacred Colors: Yellow, brown *Followers of Vodani can modify the Community Domain with the Riot Subdomain.

Obedience: Find one or several drunkards and spend one hour conversing with them, weaving in purposefully inflammatory statements against targets of ire, be it yours or theirs. Alternately, spend at least one hour drinking alcoholic drinks while ruminating on everyone that has ever wronged you. Many followers of Vodani perform either obedience by accident. Benefit: Three times per day as a standard action, you may cause a bottle of ale, wine, whiskey, beer, or other mundane, low-quality alcohol to appear in your hand. Each bottle contains enough for two servings. These bottles and their contents disappear after 24 hours, or if you fail to perform your Obedience, though having the drinks on-hand allows you to easily perform it.

Boon 1: Rotgut Boon 2: Malicious Spite Boon 3: Song of Discord

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Galroscul, the Hunger Sealed in Steel Nascent Demon Lord of Cannibalism and Gluttony

In his prime, Galroscul was a terrifying figure to behold. A towering horror in the shape of an anthropomorphic boar with the scales and tail of a dragon, six unblinking eyes on either side of his head, his tusks and claws as powerful as adamantine and his stomach as bottomless as the Abyss itself. He became a Demon Lord by literally eating his way there, legends claiming he consumed an entire Abyssal layer along with every demon and demigod within it to fuel his ascension, and if the stories are anything to go by, he wasn’t nearly close to finished. He had his eye on the throne of gods, hoping that if he drank the blood of Lamashtu, he would stand alongside her and, eventually, devour her as well.

He didn’t even get anywhere close to enacting his plan before he was ambushed by the forces of Zura, lord of cannibals, and Xoveron, lord of gluttons, who both saw his existence as a threat and formed a rare union against him. They drained and consumed what they could of him, leaving him pitifully weakened and, knowing that if they slew him he would simply return to life at full strength, set into motion a plan to humiliate and imprison him with the aid of greedy mortals. On a far-off world, Galroscul has been sealed inside of a great and terrible machine by a cabal of meat-mongers hoping to make their products fiendishly addictive. He rages and starves within this machine, processing countless carcasses but unable to truly eat a single bite, reduced in power to a Nascent Demon Lord and losing more of his sanity with every passing day.

Domains: Animal, Chaos, Destruction, Evil Subdomains: Fur, Demon, Rage, Cannibalism Favored Weapon: Bite Symbol: A boar skull trapped in a metallic diamond. Sacred Animals: Boars and goats Sacred Colors: Red and brown

Obedience: Begin eating a creature while it’s still alive. Alternately, consume a limb taken from a creature within the last 24 hours. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus to your AC versus bite attacks and to your CMD against grapple attempts.

Boon 1: Enemy’s Heart Boon 2: Hunger for Flesh Boon 3: Extended Hungry Pit

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Lormlecht, the Dung-Eater Qlippoth Lord of Filth and Sepsis

There are creatures considered disgusting, vomit-inducing, or putrid, and then there is Lormlecht, whose nauseating habits put all others to shame. Once nothing but a harmless scavenger scarcely as large as a finger, the Dung-Eater has gone from vermin to hazard to a lethal danger the size of a sea serpent as it has slithered through the sewers and muck of the Abyss, feasting merrily on the leavings of these twisted civilizations and dragging unwary victims into cesspits to ferment to perfection. Many attempts to destroy the filth-eating abomination have been made by mortal and immortal alike, but on the rare occasions these attempts succeed, they’re tragically short-lived as Lormlecht reforms within the bowels of a living creature infected with Filth Fever.

Lormlecht possesses a unique relationship with the wasting disease, able to cause embryonic qlippoth (especially Chernobue) to form within the bodies of any creature infected with even a mild strain. Any minor contact with its form is capable of causing a full-blown infection, to say nothing of the horrifying fate that befalls anyone who suffers even a glancing blow from its alarmingly equine, filth-slicked teeth; such victims are infested not only with a nearly incurable variant of Filth Fever, but a menagerie of other diseases which resist magical cures and can cause an agonizing, septic death within hours. It’s quite telling that even demons consider being bitten by the Dung-Eater a gruesome and miserable fate.

Domains: Chaos, Death, Evil, Water Subdomains: Caves*, Plague, Corruption, Flotsam Favored Weapon: Club Symbol: A piece of rotted offal impaled on a stick Sacred Animals: Rats and otyughs Sacred Colors: Brown *Followers of Lormlecht can modify the Chaos or Evil Domains with the Caves Subdomain.

Obedience: Spend no more than an hour contaminating an area you expect other creatures to pass through with filth and waste. Benefit: Your body harbors Filth Fever, which does not harm or inconvenience so long as you’ve performed your Obedience within the last 7 days. Any creature which ingests your blood is exposed to the disease (DC 13 negates, as normal).

Boon 1: Mud Buddy Boon 2: Tenacious Stinking Cloud Boon 3: Plague Storm

#original concepts

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frostbitebakery · 1 year

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How I Scar Up My Blorbos - A Pic-Heavy Post Under The Cut

@fives-lover has asked me how I draw scars and I answered, “wanna see?? :D?” For this show and tell I volunteered Cody. He is ecstatic about this.

I use ProCreate for drawing and its default brushes. Also, please ignore the horrible undersaturation. The colors specs on the iPad screen are so different from any other screen. I’m going with my three most used types of scarring:

tree bark

zombie skin

HB pencil

The tree bark and zombie skin brushes are on full opacity, size depends on the to-be-scarred-up area. I choose a very much darker shade of the skin color and dot the brush once.

I select the dot I made and transform it to my liking and to the body underneath. I erase the bits that hang over and that I don’t want in the resulting scar, giving it the final shape.

With the HB pencil on low opacity I add highlight areas and more depth to the scar.

My favorite scar is the messy cut. This one is using the HB pencil only. Starting with a medium/larger size and a darker color, I sketch out the hurty bit that ouchens. When I’m satisfied with that, I reduce the size and opacity drastically, and select a highlight color. I trace the edges of the scar where the light source hits, so it looks like the skin is raised around the scar. I also lengthen those highlights to turn them into closed-up scar tissue.

The zombie skin brush I use for burn marks, bruises, abrasions. As with the tree bark, I transform the area to fit the perspective and body underneath. With the HB pencil I add depth with a highlight and a shadow color.

And then I go bonkers usually :D

#commander cody #my art

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kedreeva · 1 year

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I think that... if you've never seen a green peafowl (Pavo muticus) before, or at least never seen one next to a human being before... the size of them is unclear. Most of the greens in the US are American greens, which is to say that they've had their blood diluted with Pavo cristatus blood somewhere along the line. They're smaller, and they sound a little different. There are a couple of farms (and I do mean a COUPLE, I think there are like 2, maybe 3 now) that have imported and breed actual greens, but those birds are generally for conservation, with excess males offloaded either for American green improvement fodder, or for high-spalding hybrid junk. Usually the latter.

These are some pure Pavo muticus imperator birds (a subspecies of the muticus species), from a video posted to one of my peafowl groups, beside yearling Pavo cristatus birds.

Now, yearlings are a LITTLE smaller than full adults, but not by much. Here's a pic of the bigger of the two yearlings, the one that I'd guess (given where his shoulders stand compared to the human) is male and about full grown (minus the train), standing near a pair of imperator hens:

And standing beside the big kahuna of this pen, the male. He doesn't even have to stretch to reach this human's waist.

For reference, my cristatus birds, most of whom are not short for domestic blues, have to jump if they want to reach my hand in a similar position, and I'm only 5'3".

(source)

#green peafowl #peafowl #pavo muticus #pavo muticus imperator #peacocks #peahens #wild peacocks #they're not wild that's just the tag

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commander----shepard · 8 months

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Raúl Esparza favorite photos

I have never seen some of them before and I got so excited. I mean they are perfect for paintings/drawings and he has also the most beautiful eyes ^_^.

Raul Esparza, New York, United States, 2011 pt. 1

⭐Source: Photo by Thomas Iannaccone/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images

⭐Big pics. To open the full-size: Click --> Right Click --> Open Image in New Tab

#Raúl Esparza #favorite photos #high-res #aaaaahhhh...PERFECT ART REFERENCES *screams in artist*#I love the one where he does that look like Rafael xD

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purely-interests-here-not-much · 7 months

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Absolutely amazing piece of art of my Digimon OCs I requested from the ever-so-lovely and pleasant, @makkiah-draws (seriously you have no idea how happy this made... (❁´◡`❁)❤️🌟🍎🐧), please give them a follow and like on their respective platforms to show them your support! Anyways... these are my OCs from my own little Digimon AU/story, Akasa Oginome 「赤佐荻野目」 and her "partner", Kiran the Impmon 「キラン」, or in my case for him, my little fan-variant of him, "Impmon Rascal" 「インプモンラスカル」 (basically, a little sword-wielding Impmon, or a toy sword that he's wielding based around the Long Sword from the Digimon World 4/X game), I do have a whole fan variant evolution-line made up for him! Strangely... he remembers that he has a name, but nothing much else... he's just one of the Digimon that follow her around the "Digital World", as I have few more but I kinda wanna make this short and simple. ^^'

Kiran may still keep some of the traditional quirks of an ordinary Impmon, but he usually likes to playfully pretend to be a "Noble Knight", protecting the weak and his Princess/Prince, though he can be a bit of an cowardly lion and a crybaby, I.E going against a bigger Digimon, knowing full well that he might get his butt handed to him, but he doesn't let that stop him from protecting Akasa and friends! Little tidbit, even throughout his evolution line, ending at my variation of an certain tall (albeit... "big 💪"), dark, and handsome biker... Kiran is more so a sweet-tooth than an meat eater, and secretly likes to be held, or digivolves to flip it around to hold you. u///u Which Akasa (+CO.) usually likes to poke fun at him for, teasingly calling him her "Little Prince"... u///u She may not "show" much, but she secretly has a penchant for pranks, even so more than Kiran, but ones that borderline on the surreal/absurd (I.E, like Mai Minakami's pranks for Nichijou). Usually to get a reaction out of them for fun... ^^'

Decided to include the original just cause, made through an old flash game of an Digimon character creator, as I really can't draw worth jack... (wish I could -.-') Her Digivice would be based around the Smartphone Digivice from Last Evolution Kizuna, her smartphone having changed into a Digivice upon waking up in the Digital World.

Akasa's name and outfit drawing some inspiration from a multitude of sources I love, her last name, Oginome, in particular being from an anime that's near and dear to me... Mawaru Penguindrum, with her outfit bearing some similarities to Heather Mason from Silent Hill 3. In some ways, her outfit sharing a somewhat-similar color scheme to both her and Ringo Oginome's respective outfits? Though "shorts" underneath are supposed to be black leggings under her skirt, considering the flash game was from all the way from 2012 (feel old yet?)... had to make some adjustments. >>' I kinda originally imagined her with lavender hair, à la Rika Furude from Higurashi, but thought this made her stand out a bit much, as I wanted her to seem... "normal" to say? Kiran in the pic is wearing a small black, sleeveless hoodie and shorts his size, with his neckerchief being a red scarf he covers himself with, underneath it as bears similar scars/markings like Beelzebumon/Beelzemon from Xros Wars. As he would state, saying he felt a little... "naked" for some odd reason.

Anyways, this post is long enough as is, just wanted to share this and the artist here, once again, please give them a follow to support their work! ^u^

#digimon #digital monsters #digimon fanart #not my art #デジタルモンスター #デジモン #oc #original character #tamersona #i guess?#impmon #インプモン #digi oc #digifake #well sorta #digimon oc #digisafe #hope i'm doing this right

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lydskisses · 16 days

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🌟PO – Genshin Impact April Official Merch 2024 🌟

ETA: Item-dependent, approx. July 2024

Bonus Deadline: 15 April 2024, 20:00 SGT

➡️ Prices are in Singapore dollar and includes shipping from source country to me. Do note that mailing to you is additional. Paypal and Wise are accepted for international buyers.

➡️ Purchase Bonus: For orders 200p and above, you will receive one venti can badge. For orders 600p and above, you will receive one venti badge and one venti quicksand glitter pocket mirror.

✅ DM to Order:

🌟Venti Outfit Series

➡️Please DM to request for size chart.

➡️For purchase of 2 and above outfit items, there’ll be a discount. Please DM to enquire about the discount with your shopping list.

・(399p) Jacket SGD$94/ea

・(249p) Totebag (40.5 x 34 x 11 cm) SGD$64.90/ea

・(299p) Ita Sling Bag (25 x 19 x 7 cm) SGD$72.50/ ea

・(249p) Blouse SGD$59.90/ea

・(299p) Skirt SGD$69.50/ea

・(269p) Long Pants SGD$64.50/ea

・(399p) Shoes SGD$94/ea

・(14p) Lenticular Card (14 x 10 cm) SGD$6.90/ea

・(39p) Acrylic Message Board Stand (20 x 16 cm) SGD$15/ea

・(39p) Character Acrylic Stand (Approx 19cm) SGD$15/ea

🌟Character PV Series

・(18p) Character 3-pc bromides (DM for pics of full set) SGD$7.50/set

・(12p) Can Badge SGD$6.90/ea

・(58p) Quicksand Glitter Acrylic Stand SGD$18/ea

・(28p) Acrylic Keychain SGD$11.90/ea

🌟Teyvat New Series

・(12p) Chibi Food Can Badge SGD$6.90/ea

・(28p) Chibi Food Keychain & Acrylic Stand SGD$11.90/ea

・(15p) Character Can Badge (Lumine/Aether) SGD$6.90/ea

・(28p) Character Clear Bromide & Chibi Can Badge Set (Lyney/Navia/Neuvilette/Wrio) SGD$12.50/set

・(28p) Washi Tape SGD$10/ea

・(98p) Pearl Seahorse Big Plush (34.5 x 17.4 cm) SGD$34/ea

・(98p) Otter Storage Case (30 x 15 cm) SGD$34/ea

・(12p) Chiori Can Badge SGD$6.90/ea

・(49p) Chiori Acrylic Stand (16.2 cm x 10.8 cm) SGD$16.90/set

・(70p) Large Mousepad (70 x 40 cm) SGD$24/ea

・(25p) A4 File SGD$11.50/ea

🌟Kirara Series

・(79p) Totebag (40.5 x 38 cm) SGD$26.90/ea

・(42p) Chibi Acrylic Stand (5.45 cm) SGD$14.30/ea

・(69p) Character Acrylic Stand (16.9cm) SGD$20.50/ea

・(18p) Can Badge SGD$7.50/ea

#genshin #genshinimpact #mihoyo #hoyoverse #原神 #games #genshinmerch #genshinimpactmerch

#genshin impact #genshin merch #genshin #genshin impact merch #mihoyo #hoyoverse #games #原神

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savage-kult-of-gorthaur · 2 months

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SERENITY IN MONSTROSITY -- UNHOLY SPAWN OF THE CRETAN BULL & PASIPHAË.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on a close-up shot and full size/remastered/mixed media painting of the "Sitting Minotaur" by Scottish artist Paul Reid, c. 2021. Oil on canvas underpainting with extensive over paints in Photoshop.

Resolution at 1536x2048 & 1419x1971.

Sources: www.flapperpress.com/amp/the-art-of-paul-reid & X (formerly Twitter).

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woodywood101blog · 1 year

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Even though Luis had swapped a life of drugs and gangs for something better, he didn't expect the 'better' to be one of multiple guys part of a surrogacy enterprise. Not that he's complaining - $40,000 to get fat, eat lots and then push out a child for another couple... sold!

Source: kennysosa1234 on DeviantArt https://www.deviantart.com/kennysosa1234/art/Big-Mpreg-Belly-Tweet-Full-Size-Pic-Morph-944964824

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punchdrunkdoc · 3 months

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Part 3, Chapter 9

Summary: After the events of S3, Matt Murdock is trying to once again balance life as a lawyer and a vigilante. But he’s been scarred by loss and betrayal - will a mysterious new neighbour help him heal? Or will her secrets drag him back into the darkness?

Notes: This is a slow burn romance with an original female character, told in 3 (maybe 4??) parts. There is mystery, intrigue, action/violence and angst - all the good stuff!

Also available on AO3 and Wattpad

Masterlist

Reference pics

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PART 3

Chapter 9

The warehouse was a confusing maelstrom.

The scents and the body heat of dozens of people blended together, and the painful cracks of gunfire bombarded Matt's sensitive hearing. But within moments of crouching by the main door of the squat, rectangular building, he started to sense the order in the mayhem.

The Widows were advancing through the space in teams, covering each others’ backs, their movements precise and economical. Their enemies were spread out and floundering, seemingly taken off guard, and too poorly trained to adapt to the sudden attack.

No. Not quite. Matt cocked his head, assessing the occupants of the warehouse further. They weren’t poorly trained, they just weren’t used to working as a team. As individuals, they definitely had some skills…but they still weren’t a match for the Widows.

He followed the fight from the sidelines, knowing it wasn't his place to intervene, that it wasn't his battle. But he was poised to enter the fray if Calina or one of her sister's were at risk of getting hurt, or if something went wrong.

And after ten long minutes of fighting...something did.

The balance of the fight somehow shifted. Something turned in the favour of Volkov’s men, and the Widows formation started to fracture. They started to take more hits, and they had to scramble to try to cover each other.

But not all of them managed.

Matt caught the moment one of the smaller Widows came up against a hulking thug almost twice her size. He could smell the gunpowder from her weapon where it had been knocked to the ground, and she was reduced to dodging and spinning out of the way of the brute’s powerful fists, her own hits landing with barely any impact against his muscled mass.

Sensing the danger she was in, and knowing it was time to act, Matt sprinted through the doorway and into the warehouse. He leapt over workbenches and the boxes littering the cavernous space and reached the Widow just as her opponent picked her up by the throat and slammed her onto the concrete floor. Matt launched himself into the air, twisted, and used his momentum to kick the Russian in the side with full force. The brute grunted as he flew across the floor, and Matt quickly leaned down to check on the Widow at his feet.

Up close he recognised her as Inessa, one of the Widows from the cabin. She was sprawled on the concrete, eyes closed and not moving. The scent of copper filled his nose, but before he could check for the source of bleeding, his opponent got to his feet and came at him.

That’s right, Matt thought as he ducked under a right hook. Pick on someone your own size.

He parried the hook with a one-two jab of his own, and attacked with a series of kicks and punches…but just like Inessa, his hits barely registered. The hulking Russian just absorbed the impact and kept standing. Even a booted kick to the face - with Matt’s entire forced behind it - did little more than snap the man’s head to the side. He just spat out a globule of blood and smiled, baring red-stained teeth.

Matt took a step back, frowning. His first kick had managed to affect the guy…but was that just due to the element of surprise? Because nothing was working now.

Who the hell was this?

What was this?

There was no time to figure it out - it was the brute’s turn to go on the offensive, and Matt had to use all his concentration to avoid the attacks.

Given his size, the man wasn’t exactly light on his feet, but his fists packed a huge amount of power. The support beam to Matt’s right splintered into fragments when one of the punches missed Matt by a hair and impacted the wooden structure.

Matt wasn’t so lucky with the next hit. He was a fraction of a second too late to fully dodge an uppercut, and the glancing blow to his chin was enough to send him flying backwards. He landed in a heap next to the still-unmoving Widow. He gave himself a moment to shake off the ringing in his head from the impact before staggering back to his feet.

But it was a moment too long.

It gave his attacker time to swipe Inessa’s fallen gun and start firing. Matt dodged the first round, his honed senses moving him out of the line of sight before his addled brain had a chance to catch up.

The next round glanced off his mask.

But by the third round, Matt was ready. He ducked and spun out of the way, grabbing his billy club from his holster. With a sharp flick, he sent one end of it barrelling towards the gunman. The baton hit the man in the hand with a crack, and the pistol flew out of his grip.

Before Matt could follow up the move, a familiar figure came sprinting towards them from the right. Matt watched as Calina leapt up onto a nearby workbench and used the added height to launch herself onto the shoulders of the Russian brute. She wrapped her long legs around his chest and jammed both hands into his neck, sending bolts of crackling electricity through his system.

As the incapacitated man dropped to the floor, Calina gracefully rolled off his shoulders, somersaulted across the floor, and came up in a crouch at Matt’s feet.

She stared up at him, mouth parted in surprise. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

There was no time to reply. Another man had chased Calina across the room and was coming in hot. Matt grabbed Calina by the arms, pulled her to her feet and shoved her behind him just as the newest aggressor reached them.

This one had a knife. A long, serrated dagger that flashed towards Matt as the man attacked. Matt blocked the blade with the edge of his baton, and countered with an elbow strike. Calina stepped out from behind him, dropped into a spinning crouch and swept the knife-man’s legs from under him. He collapsed to the floor, and Matt followed him down, hammering a vicious punch into his face to knock him out.

Another assailant came running at them, this one a similar build to the electrocuted brute.

And he was just as strong.

It took Matt and Calina working together to take him out, the two of them utilising their strengths in tandem - Matt’s offensive skills, Calina’s agility, the weapons strapped to her wrist, and the baton in his hand.

And they complimented each other perfectly. They both seemed to instinctively knowing where the other one was, and what they were going to do. They were so in sync, it was like a dance. As if they’d been training together all their life.

As the man finally fell unconscious at their feet, Matt turned to Calina and touched his gloved hand to her cheek, his senses checking her over for any injuries. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

She pressed his hand to her face. “No, I’m fine. Are you?”

“I’m good. But who the hell were those guys?”

Calina shook her head. “They’re not supposed to exist. And they’re definitely not supposed to be here.”

———

Their intel had failed them.

All of Anya’s careful research, the days and days of carefully scrutinising the footage from this warehouse, the weeks spent wading through the information from Ranieri’s laptop…and no one had realised that three members of Volkov’s team were supersoldiers.

Well, super-ish soldiers.

The former Soviet Union had never quite managed to faithfully recreate the serum that had transformed Steve Rogers into Captain America. They’d come close with the Red Guardian during the Cold War, but a fire had broken out in the lab hosting the supersoldier program, and decades of research, and the top minds involved in the project had gone up in flames.

Over the years they’d tried to reverse engineer the serum from the Red Guardian’s blood. But the resulting super soldiers were weak facsimiles, and they invariably succumbed to an aggressive form of blood cancer, accelerated by the serum.

It was no secret that Dreykov’s ultimate goal had always been to combine the mind control of the Widows with the power and strength of the Red Guardian - he’d even experimented on his own daughter to try to achieve that aim. Calina had just assumed all that research had been destroyed when the Red Room fell.

But Volkov had obviously managed to find a few vials - and a few volunteers - and had created a cadre of three semi-enhanced soldiers.

Enough to give the Widows a fight tonight.

But not enough to thwart their victory. Calina glanced around as the warehouse suddenly went quiet, the gunfire little more than an echo, and the sounds of hand-to-hand combat silenced. All of Volkov’s men were down - either knocked out or dead - leaving only the Widows and Matt left standing.

Matt.

What was he doing here?

Before she could ask, he suddenly pushed past her and crouched down behind one of the toppled workbenches. Calina followed, her boots crunching through broken vials and beakers as she hurried to catch up.

Rounding the table, she spotted the still figure sprawled on the concrete. “Inessa!” she gasped. She dropped to her knees and patted the Widow’s face gently. “Inessa? Can you hear me?”

There was no response. Stomach lurching with fear, she scrambled at the material of the other woman’s high-collared suit, tugging it down to try to reach her pulse.

“She’s alive,” Matt reassured her. “But one of those ‘things that shouldn’t’ exist slammed her hard.”

Calina let out a shuddering breath. She hadn’t realised Inessa was in trouble. All of the Widow’s training and strategy had fallen apart once they’d encountered the supersoldiers. 18 against 9 had turned out to be shitty odds when super-powered, 6-foot-5 killing machines were part of the 18. They’d lost track of each other in the melee, their careful plans to watch each others’ backs had fallen apart in the struggle to just survive the fight.

The fight that Matt had wanted no part of. The fight that he didn’t agree with, and the one which went against every facet of his moral code.

But the one he’d joined nonetheless. To help her and her sisters.

“Thank you,” she whispered, knowing instinctively that Inessa would be dead if it wasn’t for him.

“You can thank me when she wakes up,” Matt said, probing the back of Inessa’s head. When he lifted his hand, his glove was wet with blood.

“How is she?” Yelena asked, fear evident in her husky voice. She and the rest of the Widows had rushed over to crowd around their fallen teammate.

“She needs a doctor,” Matt answered. “She’s got a nasty laceration. I can’t sense a fracture, but she’ll need to see a doctor to be sure.”

Yelena nodded, then turned to Calina. “You and Katya, take her to St Jude’s across the river. The gear’s in the van - you know the drill.”

Calina nodded, then looked to Matt. “Can you carry her out? I’ll be there in a second.”

“Of course.” Matt lifted the other Widow in his arms and followed Katya as she led him out of the warehouse.

“Will you guys be okay here with all the…clean up?” she asked Yelena.

“We have enough time,” Yelena replied. “Anya’s checked the airwaves, and no one’s reported the gunshots to the police.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

There were several bodies on the ground who were merely incapacitated and not yet dead - including the two supersoldiers that she and Matt had fought. They needed to be taken care of. And Volkov still needed to be interrogated. Once again, she felt like she was being given the easy way out. That her sisters were taking on the dirty work of killing, while she left with her hands somewhat clean.

“We’ll handle it, Calina,” Yelena said, not unkindly. “Inessa needs you. You’re best placed to sell the cover-story to the medics - you’re a lot less beat up than us, thanks to your boyfriend.”

Calina glanced around at her sisters, realising Yelena was right. They were all littered with wounds and bruises, while she was relatively unscathed. “Okay. I’ll check in later.”

Yelena nodded, then turned and started barking orders at the rest of the team.

Calina jogged out of the warehouse towards the van stashed in the adjacent lot. The earlier pain in her knee - forgotten during the heat of battle - flared up as she ran. By the time she reached the vehicle she was limping badly.

“You okay?” Katya asked from the driver’s seat.

Calina nodded and jumped in the back, pulling the sliding door closed behind her.

Inessa was laid out on the floor, still unconscious. Matt sat by her head, his mask in his hands. The sight of his messy, sweaty hair caused a pang somewhere deep in Calina’s heart. She wanted to freeze time and live in this instant forever. She wanted to avoid the inevitable moment when he would say goodbye and she’d lose him for good.

But they needed to move. Now. Inessa needed medical attention as soon as possible…and she wanted Matt as far away as possible from the warehouse before the executions began.

So she sat down, took Inessa’s small hand in hers, and called out to Katya. “Let’s go.”

———

Five minutes later, Calina started to strip, knowing it was time to put the plan in action. She pulled down the zipper of her suit and started to wriggle her arms out of the tight fitting material.

“What are you doing?” Matt asked, sounding confused.

“Getting changed,” she explained. “I can’t take Inessa into the ER looking like this.”

She kicked off her boots and peeled off the rest of her outfit, then rummaged in the duffel bag stashed in the back of the van. She eventually found what she was looking for and pulled it out, the heavy sequinned material rustling in the quiet of the van.

Matt cocked his head to the side and frowned as he tried to place the sound. “Is that your dress?” he asked. “The one you wore the night we fought?”

Calina laughed, the sound holding a bitter edge. “Yeah. Maybe one of these days I’ll actually get to wear it out dancing.”

But maybe not. This particular dress held nothing but bad memories now. In fact she was starting to think it was cursed. First there was the mind control incident, and now one of the worst case scenarios from this battle was playing out - a Widow was injured enough to need hospital care.

Calina finished dressing, quickly fixed her hair and applied some make-up. Then she turned her attention to the unconscious woman on the floor. She quickly removed Inessa’s suit and placed a different dress around her neck. As Calina gently manoeuvred Inessa’s arms through the sleeves, the other woman finally started to stir. “Why’m I naked?” she slurred.

Calina froze at the sound of her sister’s voice, then let out a shaky laugh. “You’re not naked. But you hurt your head, Nessie.” The nickname came out of nowhere. But it felt right. It made Calina realise how much she cared about the younger Widow…and how worried she’d been that she’d never hear her voice again.

She pulled Inessa into a seated position, quickly tugged down the dress, then let the injured woman rest against her. Her head fell heavy onto Calina’s shoulder, and Calina gently smoothed a hand over her braided hair as she explained what was happening. “We’re taking you to the hospital. But we need to get the cover-story in place first. You remember the plan, right?”

Inessa started to nod, but groaned as it aggravated her sore head. “Party time.”

“That’s right. Just one more thing to do.” Calina glanced up at Matt. “Can you-” Her question died on her lips as she saw the strange expression on his face. His head was still tilted to the side, his eyes were soft, and he was smiling a small, affectionate smile. It was so out of place in this van soaked with fear and sweat and blood, that she didn’t know what to make of it.

“Matt?”

The smile dropped. He shook his head as if clearing it. “Sorry, what?”

“Can you pass me the bag by your feet?”

He reached down and grabbed the paper bag, handing it over. She pulled out the bottle of whisky from inside, unscrewed the cap and downed a heft swig of the dark liquor. Then she deliberately splashed some of the contents over Inessa’s outfit.

“So that’s the cover-story,” Matt commented, putting together the plan. “You were out drinking and got injured.”

“Yep,” Calina replied. “We’re just two innocent, twenty-something party girls living it up on a Friday night.”

Matt shook his head in admiration. “You guys really thought of everything.”

“We had a lot of time to plan for all eventualities. Well, almost all eventualities.” The last part was muttered under her breath.

But, of course, Matt caught it. “You’re referring to those men in the warehouse?” he guessed - correctly. “The ones who aren’t supposed to exist?”

“Frickin’ supersoldiers,” Inessa muttered, still slumped against Calina.

Matt sat forward. “Supersoldiers? Really?”

“Yep, really,” Calina confirmed. “Do you see why someone like Volkov - with his knowledge of how to create monstrous armies - needs to be taken off the board?”

Matt said nothing and Calina winced internally - she didn't mean to drag up their fight again. She didn't want to remind him of why everything between them had fallen apart.

Luckily, she was saved by Katya. “We’re here,” she called from the driver’s seat.

———

Matt felt the van slow as it made a left turn. The sounds of beeping monitors, and the smell of antiseptic and blood grew stronger as they approached the entrance to the hospital.

“You okay here?” Katya asked Calina.

“Yeah, I got it,” Calina replied. “Can you drop Matt off somewhere dark and shadowy on your way back?”

“No problem,” Katya called pulling to a stop. “Be careful.”

“You too. I’ll call with an update once we’ve seen a doctor.”

“Do I get a call too?” Matt asked. They still hadn’t gotten a chance to really talk. The whole reason he’d been at that warehouse tonight was to see her, to talk to her.

To figure out where they both stood.

Even if that mean re-hashing their fight from the other night, so be it. He just wanted to talk to her.

Instead, she was about to leave, and he felt a sudden, irrational spasm of fear that he would never see her again. That she would disappear forever and he’d be left with nothing but a disconnected phone number and a pile of regrets.

Calina paused, her fingers resting on the door handle. She turned to him slowly. “Do you want me to call you?”

“I think I made that pretty clear when I dialled your cell a million times today.”

She frowned. “You did?”

Matt frowned too. “Yes. I called you all afternoon. Because we need to talk, Calina.”

The confusion radiated off her - and it felt honest and true. She really hadn’t known that he’d called.

Had it all just been a misunderstanding?

He’d spent hours fuming with anger over her ‘cold shoulder’ treatment of him, and he’d recklessly traveled all the way into Jersey to hunt her down…all for nothing?

No. Not for nothing. If he hadn’t been there in that warehouse tonight…and those men had managed to kill Inessa and overpower Calina…

He couldn’t bear to think about it.

He was meant to be there tonight. Call it God’s plan, or fate, or just wild coincidence…for whatever reason, he’d ended up in the right place at the right time tonight.

“I hate to interrupt,” Katya called out, “But you need to go, Calina, before someone takes too much notice of this van.”

“Right,” Calina said. She pulled her hand from his and wrenched open the sliding door. Then she helped Inessa out, one arm wrapped tightly around the other woman’s waist. She looked back at Matt and bit her lip. He could sense her indecision - and her struggle between helping her friend and not leaving things so uncertain between them.

So he let her off the hook. “Go,” he said, grabbing the handle of the door. “Inessa needs you. We can figure this out later.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “I-I’ll see you later.”

“See you later.” He pulled the door shut, and followed her with her senses as she hobbled with Inessa into the building. As Katya started the engine, Matt listened as Calina put on a show for the medical staff inside.

“Please you gotta help us, my friend fell!”

He laughed at the unexpected, note-perfect Brooklyn accent.

“We were just out drinkin’ at that bar, you know the one in Bushwick with the balcony and all those fairy lights, and she fell. Outa nowhere. There was all this blood and she was knocked out cold.”

She’d completely morphed from his sweet, serious Calina into the perfect rendition of a vapid, drunk party girl.

It was impressive, really.

“What’s so funny,” Katya asked.

“Calina. She’s really selling your cover-story.”

“Yeah, when she gets into character, she really commits. She should be on the stage.”

“I can’t really picture that.” Calina was too reserved to chase a life in the limelight. She wanted a simpler future, filled with happiness and meaning.

He just hoped he could be a part of it.

————–

Chapter 10

Tag list: @hollandorks @chezagnes @stilldreaming666 @sio-ina-bottle @tearoseart-blog @acharliecoxedfan @freckledbabyyy

If you’d like to be added - let me know!

#daredevil #daredevil fic #tabula rasa #daredevil fanfic #daredevil fanfiction #matt murdock #daredevil x original female character #marvel's daredevil #matt murdock fanfic #matt murdock x oc

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mecthology · 4 months

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Akkorokamui from Shinto folklore.

In Shinto mythology, the Akkorokamui is portrayed as a humanoid creature with a vibrant red hue, reminiscent of the sunset's reflection on water. Standing at an impressive 120 meters, this entity shares characteristics with certain octopus species, possessing the unique ability to self-amputate and regenerate limbs. In Shinto belief, this regenerative quality translates into healing powers, with followers offering gifts to Akkorokamui in the hope of curing physical ailments, especially disfigurements and broken limbs.

According to a legend, Rebunge, a villager of Abuta Toyoura, fell victim to a spirit's curse, foretelling the devastation of his town. The curse took the form of Yaoshikepu, a creature with both spider and human attributes, unleashing havoc and turning the streets crimson with blood. Fearing this monstrous entity, the sea kami Repunkamui intervened, transforming Yaoshikepu into an octopus and casting her into the sea.

As Yaoshikepu grew in size underwater, she evolved to consume larger prey, including whales and ships. One ill-fated day, Akkorokamui ( the transformed Yaoshikepu) swallowed a boat full of fishermen, who, trapped inside, called for help. Responding to their pleas, Repunkamui poisoned Akkorokamui, causing immense pain. Seizing the opportunity, the fishermen escaped, but Akkorokamui adapted, learning to use the venom as a weapon against her prey.

Follow @mecthology for more myths and legends.

Pic generated by AI.

Source: Cryptidwiki & Wikipedia.

#mecthology #creepy #shinto #japanese folklore #kraken #ainu #folktale #legends #folklore #stranger things

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smoocheys · 6 months

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if I may ask what do you use to find reference pics for your nsfw drawings??? finding nsfw refs is so hard in my experience bc its like... regular ref sites dont have nsfw and porn sites can get frustrating bc there be some specific ass poses i need. you always have such banging anatomy and poses i need to know your secret

this is hard for me to answer, because I do have my sources for refs but for example, there's no ref I could've used to draw a lot of my old smunker/cow al art because of the size difference and i genuinely cant remember how i did it LOL

BUT PUTTING THAT ASIDE FOR NOW.......i use lots of different places for general anatomy refs, like oldmasc on twitter, and nudes subreddits if im looking for refs of women (said generally) bc there's way more focus on womens bodies of all sorts on there.

i use porn sites for posing but I personally dont need specific ass poses atm (i dont draw that much nsfw lol so i havent encountered this hurdle yet) and even then i splice things together...! the recent smunker and nyalon drawing pose was compiled from screenshots of 3 different videos so i could figure out the angles!

any nsfw drawing ive done with al's full body has just had to be informed guesswork at adding fat bc i rarely see porn of bigger bodies (and even then he's way bigger!) which is also why i recommended general anatomy refs, so you can sort of splice alllll that visual info together ykwim? like how talon has a visible, big ribcage, so I have to learn that separately so I can then put it into the pose i might get from a video etc etc

and then of course my skunker drawings are easy to ref because well, those are just from Pictures of Me 🤭

#smunk mail #toddhowardschildhoodbully #long post

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walks-the-ages · 16 days

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Ya know, I thought being a Faction Paradox fan meant it could be hard to find books.

But the things I'm finding while looking up Arsène Lupin books? Which are public domain, with some very rare, very expensive first editions from 1908-onward still floating around?

hoooooooo boy, some of the literal scams I've come across...

... First, there's this monstrosity.

first, you know something is up already when you see the cover:

(functional ID: ) The book itself is yellow, and the entire "cover" is just a medium-sized, plain white rectangle with plain text that reads "Arsene Lupin Versus Herlock Sholmes (1910)". The only bit of color outside the yellow background is a tiny rectangle at the bottom of the white section, that has a simple red rose in it, and at the bottom on the yellow portion, it says Maurice Leblanc and Georgie Morehead; they are the author and english translators respectively.

Not only is this cover incredibly ugly and boring....

They didn't even put the accent on the è in Arsène !

Now, granted, I still don't know the key-combination needed to type out the è (on a regular keyboard, that is; mobile is much easier), but I also literally have a pinned tab leading to the Arsène Lupin wiki so I can literally just copy and paste his name whenever I need to, lol. I'm also not a supposedly wide-spread, professionnel publisher who specializes in reprinting rare books....

speaking of reprints!

This is their reprinting statement in the book.

[ID: plain text on a white background that reads: "Printing Statement: Due to the very old age and scarcity of this book, many of the pages may be hard to read due to the blurring of the original text, possible missing pages, missing text, dark backgrounds and other issues beyond our control. Because this is such an important and rare work, we believe it is best to reproduce this book regardless of its original condition. Thank you for your understanding. end ID]

Now, all this wouldn't be so monstrous.......

Except this is what it looks like, reading the book.

[ID: A photo of the inside of the book, showing an unnumbered page which is mostly blank, with extremely large margins around the top, bottom, and sides of the relatively tiny "inner page" of text, which is originally labeled as page 171.

So, on top of admitting they have having zero quality control for their reprints, they're also not even selecting the correct page or printer size for their "rare reprints!" Literally so much paper is being wasted here.

"Arsène Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes" is 350 pages long in its original 1910 First Edition. That's with text that actually filled up the original page. If they'd at least chosen a smaller page size to fit their clear PDF-print, it would have been fine....ish.

But they didn't, so now this book is 350 pages long, and probably wasting half of those pages on pure blank paper.

Also, they're charging $30-$40 for these, "brand-new" on Amazon; going to their publishing website just leads any search to a generic Amazon page, full of the same extremely blatant ripoffs, including "leather hardcovers" from a print of demand location they can't even be bothered to not use a stock photo that requires them to blur out three different titles on the spine for each different angle.

Oh, and the real kicker?

Here's the exact Archive.org listing they're scraping to reprint for exorbitant amounts of money:

Literally down to the exact title, without an accent.

And this isn't the worst one I've found, either; another "public domain scraper" as I've taken to calling them, has taken this book:

and downloaded the ancient, autogenerated Epub from the Internet Archive, and without any human being looking at that Epub, converted it into a PDF and sent it off to a Print-On-Demand company to make those same generic, leather-bound hardcovers for $30+.

Would you like to know what the ancient, auto-generated epub looks like for this very old, very old scan of a book looks like? The one these scammers are reprinting and selling for an arm and a leg without anyone actually looking at the contents of what they're selling?

As a reference, this is what the original, old scan looks like:

[ID: a black and white image of two pages of text from an old book, the text is cramped, slightly blurry and tilted, and is difficult to read; the scan is from an old enough time that, from the shape of the pages not being physically joined together, that the book had to be manually cut page by page to be scanned. There are artifacts, dots and smudges throughout. end ID]

So, you ready to see what these scammers are selling to paying customers with no warning?

[ID: A screenshot of the Calibre ereader app, showing a page from the auto-generated epub from the old scan described above, showing a message in bold across that top that reads "The text on this page is estimated to be only 39.04% accurate." followed by a paragraph of complete gibberish; numbers, symbols, sanskrit letters, various special characters, etc, with no rhyme or reason. End ID.]

I don't know if this scam listing is still out there, I reported the one I found on Abe books, but they're also probably out there with a million duplicate listings on various websites.

So, yeah. Please,

If you are looking for physical copies of the Public Domain Arsène Lupin books, please make sure you carefully check what you are buying before ordering, especially online.

Make sure the 'è' in Arsène has the accent; make sure there's actual quality control, and for Arsène's sake, make sure what you're buying isn't slapdash gibberish.

If you don't know already, most of the Public Domain books that are in English and are PD in the USA can be found on Project Gutenberg (18-19 are PD in the USA this year if you include the play and its subsequent novelization; Gutenberg has 16 of these (including the play) , and you can read them completely for free, 100% legally:

I highly reccomend having the wiki page for Arsène Lupin opened up as you're reading through the books for the first time, because many of the books released at various times (and in various languages) with multiple different titles, so no two reading guides use the same title and leads to sheer confusion.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1358

if you speak French, you can also read all of Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin books, barring 1 that wasn't published until 2012, 75 years after his death, which you can read in french on:

Since USA and French Copyright law are different, if you are in the USA you cannot use any books published after 1928 (except post-humous) for derivative works, as France has a shorter copyright term of 75 years after death (except post-humous), while the USA is based on 95 years after publication, so us poor Lupin fans in the USA have to wait until 2037 before they all are Public Domain :'(

TL;DR: If you're a fan of a series which is Public Domain, you can read them online for free 100% legally; if you're looking to buy phyiscal books and you're shopping online, please take care to check for quality to make sure you're not getting scammed with an extremely poor quality ""book"" which could be complete gibberish, and/or a huge waste of money and paper.

#public domain #arsene lupin #leblanc lupin #Arsène Lupin #scams #large text #bold text #tl;dr #described images #functionally described #this also counts for Sherlock Holmes and other famous PD works!!!

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kitconnor · 1 year

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anonymous asked 💬 Hello there! Could you please make a tutorial on how you combined gifs and images in your edit THE RECENT FASHIONS OF JENNA ORTEGA? It's incredible. Thanks!

tysm for this ask 🫶🏼 below the cut is a step by step on how to do this kind of set. i will be using photoshop 2023 for this tutorial.

original inspiration was taken from sith-maul’s zendaya lookbook gifset !

step 1: cropping

for this style to work, your gif needs to be tall. the best dimensions are 540x700. make sure you don’t have too many frames because the bigger the crop, the bigger the file size !!

the other thing you want to do is crop it a little to the left or to the right, whichever works best. this is so you can slot in the photos of the outfit :)

step 2: colouring

to make the whole thing more cohesive later on, how you colour your set is important. for the demonstration, i’m using a clip of jenna from her interview with who what wear, which has a lot of easy to manipulate colours. because the main colour is obviously pink, i’ll use a colour balance layer, a selective colour layer and a hue/sat. layer.

be mindful when using hue/sat and colour balance that you’re not whitewashing your subject or dramatically altering their skin tone. if there is low movement in the gif, you can use layer masks to prevent this.

you can see here that there’s a huge difference in the old vs. new colouring, which is what we want !!

step 3: source your pics

probably the easiest step. you can either just google search for pictures [person] [event/photoshoot] is the best way to search for that, or you can search for something on pinterest. you want one picture that’s ideally head to toe, plus another showcasing the outfit from around waist up.

step 4: edit the photos.

now that we’ve got our photos, load those into ps. once loaded in, you’re going to want to go to select > subject and then go option + cmd + x (for mac, i’m sorry idk the windows prompt !) and then just paste that on a new layer.

depending, the photo may select some of the background. but there’s really nothing you can do about that, so you just have to tidy it up manually using the eraser tool.

now my photo looks like this !

crop the photo to the same size as your gif and repeat the same process for the other photo.

step 5: placement of the photos

first off, duplicate your photos onto the gif. then, resize them to your liking. ideally, you want the full shot going from top to bottom on the gif, and the medium shot positioned down from it.

i also make the medium shot a little bit smaller, so we can highlight the head to toe. as well as that, put the head to toe shot behind the medium shot by swapping their layer orders.

here’s a ss of what mine looks like, just to give you an idea.

step 6: colouring the photos

first stop: add a black and white gradient map. completely ignore the fact the gradient map will go over everything; we’ll fix it in one sec ! colour the photos as normal: curves, levels, anything you do in your normal colouring process. just make sure all the layers are underneath your gradient map layer !

on top of it all, add a gradient layer and change it to a colour in the outfit. you can click and drag it in all different directions to get to a good point. don’t forget to change the angle of it so it fits best !

for example, here’s mine:

you can see that the gradient gradually goes up on the outfit, leaving it almost half half.

now, select all the layers that are over the first picture and right click > clipping mask. this clipping mask will make sure that all your colouring layers ‘clip’ only to your picture. DO NOT select the picture layer as well. this should be what you have:

the arrows show that it has clipped to the subject.

now, just repeat those colouring steps on the other pic so you’re starting to look like this:

OPTIONAL: i usually change the blending mode of my gradient layer to ‘colour’ so it blends nicer on the picture, it’s not compulsory, but the result looks better. you can also choose to sharpen your pictures if you like !

step 7: typography

there’s two main things you want: the title of it (this could be a fashion brand or maybe a show/film name if you want to do this for a character) which will be in a statement font as well as the location or the date (could be the episode and the episode air date or the film premiere date) to start, create your layer above the colouring layers for the gif, but below the pictures of your person.

for this tutorial, i’m using the font ‘magazine’ but you can really use any font you want, as long as it stands out against the cover.

next up, you’ll want to search ‘map pin point png’ on google and get your little pin point icon. this will be so you can add the location and the date, or whatever you want to add. i change the font that i use for the subheading, just to switch things up ! you can do whatever you like though.

here’s what i’ve got for my subheadings. make sure that you’re placing it in the empty space on the bottom corner, not on top of your pictures.

and that’s it ! you can add any other finishing touches that you’d like, or do any other effects that you want. this is simply a base for you to work off, but you can change things wherever you deem it necessary to improve upon. apologies for this being so long 😭 hopefully it helped a little though !

#*tutorial #asks #gif tutorial #clubgif #userriel #tusercat #usercim #usersmia #userv #thingschanged #userzesty #userlp #userpjo

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thefaestolemyname-ecobioposting · 8 months

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iNat Adventures with thefaestolemyname part 2: Golden Beach Campground, New York State!

Part 1/?

I made this post earlier, but it didn't save properly in drafts so I gotta start over :/

Before I begin with species and fun facts, first a question for anyone who might live in NY: What is this? Why??

It was a simple 4-way intersection!

In Ontario we have this for the same scenario:

Is this an American thing? Just a New York thing? There's gotta be a good reason for that mess.

Back on topic, we start off with a banger:

Wood Frog (Lithobates Sylvaticus)

(The pic is rotated that's why the grass is weird) Recognized them right away because I found one in a swamp nearer to home in June, can't find the post to link. They can handle freezing 65-70% of the water in their body, and the reason why has to do with urea, glucose, and "amino acid substitutions in the ... ATP binding site" (Wood frog - Wikipedia). They depend on multiple habitats, breed in seasonal pools, and have large ranges.

Dragonfly/Damsel fly (order Odonata)

I know, I know, hear me out. At first I had no idea who this shed exoskeleton represented, but apparently Dragonflies have a life cycle in which little things that look like this hatch out of eggs, moult many times, and after their final moult look like a proper dragonfly. Now, this suit of armour's abdomen looks too large for me to be fully convinced it's a dragonfly, but it's the best guess so far.

Dragonfly | Description, Anatomy, Habitat, Life Cycle, & Facts | Britannica

Leopard Earthball (Scleroderma areolatum)

As usual with mushrooms, not 100% confident with this ID, and not a ton of info on the species. The inside is supposed to be full of black spores so the mushroom, instead of raining spores from gills, is like a pouch of spores. I'm pretty sure I'm in the ballpark though, as it's definitely an earthball of some sort. I couldn't find a species on iNat that had pics that showed the same amount of flakiness as these guys.

Scleroderma areolatum, Leopard Earthball fungus (first-nature.com)

Ghost Pipes (Monotropa uniflora)

Re-writing this section is a shame because I just cannot re-produce the excitement. I was nothing less than ecstatic to find a mycoheterotroph. I had read about this almost mystical, otherworldly, ethereal treasure of a living being in Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life, but never thought I had a good chance of seeing any in real life. These guys have a history of baffling scientists, and are the source of much of our understanding of the nature of Mycorrhizal networks. In short, they have no chloroplasts and no roots - they cannot photosynthesize and they cannot bring in nutrients or moisture from the soil. How then do they survive? Fungi! All the carbon, energy, and more that it uses to build and sustain itself comes from other plants through the Mycorrhizal networks that span forests. I could go on and on about how these plants represent magic living on and even through a scientific world, but this caption is already too long.

All About Ghost Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) - Unruly Gardening

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake | Goodreads

Yellow Club Fungus (Clavulinopsis Helvola)

At first I thought it was Golden Spindles fungus, (C. Fusiformis), but after looking into more detail I figured C. Helvola was more likely because of size. Honestly, I thought they might be Cordyceps at first because that's the only club-shaped fungus I remember reading about, but nope. Apparently the spores are covered in warts, which distinguishes them from other Clavulinopsis species, but I was not prepared to take specimens for further inspection this time. In a rare occurrence, I am almost semi-confident about this ID. Surely I got the right genus?

E-Flora BC Atlas Page (ubc.ca)

Northern Red Belt (Fomitopsis mounceae)

This one I am also semi-confident in my identification of. It's got a red belt at the end and is in North America, it's bumpy/warty and has a white underside, and was found on a dead tree at low elevation, all characteristics of F. Mounceae. This species was distinguished from F. pinicola by Irene Mounce (A Canadian! 🇨🇦), after whom it was named.

Fomitopsis mounceae (MushroomExpert.Com)

#iNat Adventures #iNaturalist #camping #New York #mycoheterotrophs #🐸

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