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meanbossart · 2 months

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Asks about VaM, art advice, and miscellaneous stuffs

HI! Real quick please refrain from referring to Sad Sack as S/S for the uh... Obviously reasons LOL We call it "sads" for short!

If what you're asking for are recommendations for a website to host that kind of thing, Neocities, Twitter, Itchio and as you mentioned AO3 are all perfectly good options! Patreon too (depending on how gnarly you're planning on getting) but I'd suggest keeping that as a secondary host option because I don't think it lends itself super well for getting your work circulating. I believe Bluesky allows that kind of thing too, but I'm not too sure since I don't use it.

Now, If you're asking about public reaction rather than guidelines, anywhere you go you might find people that don't jive with the work you do 🤷 just be upfront about the type of content you're making right off the bat to avoid having anyone stumble upon it by accident to the best of your abilities, otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much. I know we're constantly exposed to examples of overwhelming harassment and "dogpilling" happening to others but... Truth be told, most of us won't ever get to the size/internet level of fame where we experience that. I think the threat is a little bit... Overstated, nowadays. Not to mention that most of the time people are getting harassment for things that have nothing to do with their work, and rather relating to their behavior and attitudes. Play smart, be responsible, and be honest! Whatever comes next is in god's hands LOL

Thank you for the ask! Not sure I was of much help 😅 but frankly when you're just starting out it's best to focus on getting the work done first and just throwing it out there, wherever it may be. You can worry about technicalities like that later!

I GOT YOU MAN the full sketch is now up on my patreon!

YES AND YES WHETHER IT BE STORIES OR ART OF DU DROW AND YOUR CHARACTERS SLAMMING PINTS TOGETHER BE MY GUEST PLEASE

I love seeing everyone's take on my weirdo so much, anything is honestly welcomed!

AW DUDE thank you so much! Especially for suffering through the mammoth of a story that ANE turned into - writing has never been my strongest point so I'm always shocked to hear from people that enjoy it 🥲

About the booze question, honestly I'm not picky at all, I usually go by price and by that I mean whatever is cheapest LOL but I prefer a dry white as far as types go.

You only have to pay for it once! You get a code that unlocks the software and all of it's features and you're free to cancel your subscription after that. At some point the code might change or there might be an update that requires subscribing again - but that seems like a very rare occurrence so I wouldn't worry about it.

OH NO I HAVE DEFINITELY TRACED MY OWN REFERENCE BEFORE, but not entire poses! When something is challenging I'll make a point of drawing it out the usual way.

I can remember a couple of instances from Nick and mine's comic where I traced pictures I took of myself, just as a time saving measure. Again like I said in the post, there are several ways to employ tracing your own material that is perfectly acceptable. I have also traced bare-bones 3D backgrounds that I made for the same reasons.

I know you specifically asked about tracing when something's complicated, but I still wanted to be upfront to demystify the practice under different circumstances. The rule of thumb is to never use it when you know it would be inhibiting your skill development!

Happy to hear you wanted to pick up the skill! I definitely understand the urge too LOL since playing BG3 and becoming so invested in the stories and characters my art has improved a ton, simply from forcing me out of my usual style and making me want to capture different moods and scenarios - finding something you're passionate to draw is, frankly a great damn start.

I replied to a bunch of asks asking for pointers and advice a while back, one of the questions was very similar to yours and I still stand behind the advice I gave then. Hopefully you can find something helpful here! https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/740543514692173824/some-art-advice-asks-ive-been-meaning-to-reply

HMMM I don't usually think of myself as the best teacher/tutorial guy, but funnily enough I can think of a few things about this topic that I could elaborate on lol. If I do that in the near future, I'll put it up on my patreon (for free as with everything else.)

If there are any specific things about it that you (and anyone else who would be interested in it, for that matter) find challenging and would like for me to focus on, let me know!

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That's all for now folks, and as usual thank you so much to everyone who's left a nice compliment, word of encouragement or funny tidbit in my inbox as well! I can't reply to you all individually, but I see and read all the messages I get c:

HAVE A LOVELY REST OF YOUR WEEK

#lore asks coming either later today or tomorrow!#I might reply to a few right now/space them out rather than do another compilation #we'll see how I feel about it!#ask compilation

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mzminola · 2 months

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I don't know if I'll ever actually go through and pull panels to illustrate this, but art design and framing has a huge impact on how sexist a comic feels, and that will impact whether I bother reading it, regardless of the writing.

Costume design is part of it. Does this fit the character's personality and history, and is it practical for what they do? Original Dick Grayson Robin fighting without any leg coverage is not practical, but it fits with his backstory. Helena Bertinelli Huntress, who is also a normal human fighting the mafia but with a very different backstory, fighting with no leg coverage and often compromised torso coverage is neither practical nor in character. So I'm more likely to read Huntress comics from eras where her costume does fully cover her than when it doesn't.

Within costuming, we also have "Does real clothing work this way, or did they just color over the body sketch?" For most superhero costumes that's fine because everyone is drawn that way (boob socks aside), but if it's supposed to be civilian clothes? I'm sorry, t-shirts don't work like that, and very few people tolerate their jeans giving them constant wedgies.

Beyond that though, there's framing. What is the focal point of the page? In what way does the layout lead your eye? Does the focal point flow serve the story, general comic book spectacle (check out this roundhouse kick! look at that robot's cool design! isn't this monster weird!), or is it blatantly a pin-up?

How is the character posed, and why?

Sometimes the camera angle and character pose giving us a butt or boob shot actually does make sense. Generally you can tell by asking "If this was a guy character, and we assume the artist is not attracted to guys, would this be drawn the same way?"

Unfortunately, in a lot of older comics (but not, I'm pretty sure, the earliest ones?) it's really blatantly obviously just for wank fodder. Not as a flow of action, not to set a scene's mood, it's just to titillate.

Titillation can be fun and has its place in entertainment...but so does hard science fiction, and I'm not coming to superhero comics for that, you know? Incidentally getting some cool science facts is different from the story bending itself into a pretzel to justify why this character operates under Real World Physics while this other character is basically a Looney Tune.

From what I've seen, superhero comics are getting a lot better about this! But it can still be a problem, and for fans getting into older works, it can be a genuine hurdle.

And with a backlog of thousands of stories? I'm not gonna spend time on the ones where the art skeeves me out, not matter how good I'm told the writing is.

#sexism #comics meta #this also applies to other visual mediums too #and other comics genres #but superhero comics had it pretty bad

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jadethest0ne · 2 years

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Just wanted to day that I really love your work!!! And Aldo was wondering if you'd be able to talk through the process of how you make your comics? You get them done so quick!! And their always so good from backgrounds to expression their amazing!!! Loving your aftermath comic BTW, I look for it constantly even tho I know you post mostly on Tuesday lolol.

Also- Ace solidarity unite!!! ✌️

Hey there! It is possible that you have me confused with @happyfoxx-art who is the one who does the Aftermath comic, so maybe she can say a thing or two about her comic process.

The comics I'm more known for are "The Brains and The Brawn", "Puppet on a String", and "Mikey Bakes a Cake."

In case you are asking about me specifically, I'll talk about my comic process. I usually start with lots of brainstorming in the form of daydreaming and occasionally scribbling out ideas. I often switch between creating a script and sketching out rough scenes depending on how visual the moment is. If there's more dialogue or I want to note down the events panel-by-panel, I'll script more, if the scene is more action-y and I have a specific idea for the layout that I want to visualize, I'll sketch it. I already talked about how I figure out posing in my sketchwork on a previous ask.

Often I create the scenes out of order and write/draw whichever comes to mind first. For example, these are an assortment of drawings I did on my first concept sketch page for "The Brains and The Brawn".

These are from pages 3, 4, 8, and 10, and while they have nothing to do with each other, they represented the main ideas I had for the comic overall.

After that I'll essentially finalize my written script to make sure everything flows well story-wise, and then go about adding or subtracting panels to lay them out in a proper page-like format. It's kind of like slotting puzzle pieces together to see what fits. This is how I get more dynamic action paneling in my comics. Below you can see some of my more disjointed initial sketches (left) become a bit more finalized (right):

From there I block in all the panels with lines, then trace over the sketches with lineart, and fill in the lines with color. Those stages involve a little less thinking on my part, since a lot of it is just filling in what I already have planned out.

I would personally like to get a bit better with color since I tend to color-pick from other source material a lot. I'm hoping in my next comic project to get a bit more trippy and abstract with the coloring. I make sure to keep each color on a separate layer, and group the layers by character to keep things organized. I usually fully color a character at a time.

After that, I add in lights, shadows, and any special effects. I think the shading and lighting is where it really comes together because it adds a nice sense of depth to everything.

Eye shines are very important to me.

I do dialogue and sound effects last. Yes, there is a basic dialogue I put in the script, but honestly, I struggle most with dialogue (I am shocked folks think that the lines are so in-character), so I put the most time and effort into finalizing that. I will make sure to keep space for where the dialogue bubble should go, but it's often filled with placeholder dialogue until I finalize it on the last step.

I'm aware that this is rather rare for comic artists - often the dialogue comes/is blocked in first for most from what I hear, But for me, the final drawing helps me figure out the right mood/tone for the dialogue in the end anyway. That's just what works for me.

Anyway, that's at least how my comic process goes. Thanks so much for asking! And if you were looking for @happyfoxx-art, then maybe she'll add onto this post. I, for one, would be interested in her process as well :3

(also, heck yeah! Ace solidarity baby!!! [shakes your hand])

#comic #comic process #art process #ask #jadethest0ne

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sothasil · 1 year

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Hi! You're one of my favorite artists ever, and I would love to do some studies of your art! What are some of your favorite pieces that you've done, and how do you pick your colors? There's a lot more questions that I could ask, but figured you wouldn't appreciate an entire list of questions XD

Hello and thank you, I am honored! Feel free to send me all and any questions! I'll answer these two, starting by:

How do you pick your colors?

As I change art style with pretty much every illustration project of significance, this varies a lot. Here are, from most to least common, ways I pick my colors.

Eyeballing it. Unfortunately my most common... What I will do a lot digitally is lay down a color background, and flats of a few colors, then manually adjust each until they look good together by selecting by color and using adjustements. I then paint over it all.

Using a limited palette, eyeballed. Same as before, but this time I force myself to only use a few colors. It helps me, as constraints do.

Using a reference, eyeballed. This happens a lot when I mimick an art style. My medieval drawings for example, are often done by looking at images of actual medieval art to get an idea of what colors to use to look medieval.

Using an existing image, pipetted. Rarely, often as a challenge or if I'm super stuck, I'll just take a pic with colors I like and pipet from it. This website automates this if you want a good easy starting point!

These can be combined around. I'll post examples now, explaining how they use each.

This is a sketch for a drawing I ended up doing way different. This is the first method - I used a flat layer for the characteres and three colors for the sky to test out atmosphere. This is how I plan out most full paintings, just trying to nail down a mood I have in my head. I fiddle around until I like it or, like in this case, fully give up and iterate further. Here, the composition was to be redone too as I did not like the body language. I was going for "bright hot sunny day under a weather that feels wrong".

For this comic, I combined a very limited palette and a photo ref to pipet from. I was looking for the stark cold/warm contrast of a mid-season bright night by a fireside. I took a google image photo of a campfire at night that was already edited. The photo itself looks unnatural but conveyed what I wanted. It's still on the file itself! From it, I pipetted a few colors I found "summed up" the palette and did all with them.

While my own habits make me prefer painting as you would in traditional methods, with directly picking the right colors, I will often digitally alter with overlays and layer blending modes some colors and gradients, etc, to alter a drawing to fix it's color palette. The following is a quite egregious example, because I first drew the character in flats before putting him in a full scene. Here is a before/after summed up.

The shadow is a layer, the bright yellow light zones also, and the orange "transitions" of light zones on the skin a third. There's also an overlay over the full character to blend him in. I do this by...making a full flat color of a layer, fucking around until a blending mode does what I want, and adjusting hue/brightness/saturation and opacity until it looks good.

Another WIP where I was struggling with the overall palette. I was going for late 60s psychedelic. You can see in the top right the original color. I thought it looked too...new, so I added a yellow layer on top, and fiddled with it. Final choice was the following setting. I then put it with my sketch and color blockout in a folder and painted over it.

For this sort of adjustement, the "Color Balance" modifier in CSP, Photoshop, and others is also a godsend - but one I often use for fine tuning a finished piece.

This being said, there's some rough rules to coloring which are...born from studying color theory and doing studies. I am guilty of doing very little studies...so I'll just sum up the basics of the color theory rules I use.

For "default" shading, I use a color that is darker, more saturated and with a slight hue diff. This is my "don't shade with black".

Using a shadow that's cooler will make the light look warm.

Vice versa.

There's a bunch of stuff to remember in how colors relate to each other and pipetting images who's atmosphere you think is interesting really is the best way to learn... It's learning how to black-blue/gold-yellow dress in your own art for the lack of a better word...But the basics will be:

Don't trust numerical values, but look at your colors in context. A same hue, brightness, saturation can look so much different. This is how Rakkan's beard looks whiteish here despite being a light very grey brown.

All this but...colour is such a wide topic, I can't really say a lot but can also type for hours... if you have precise questions about a piece in particular I can explain :') I hope this wasn't too vague and was instructive!

Speaking of particular pieces, answering your question last under the cut:

What are some of your favorite pieces that you've done?

In no particular order, illustration only.

Including this in another poast bc staff's new post editor limits the amounts of pics I can put in response to asks. Insert colorful language here...

Frankly twas hard to pick I am rarely fond of what I draw

#ask

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rakumel · 2 months

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Oh no. It's happening again.

It was...sometime last June, I think? When I came up with a god-awful story in like two days that I actually managed to type up (mostly) in about two weeks?

Well, just a few days ago another new idea for a comic took hold, and the story just spread across my brain like wildfire. It was kind of like cooking drunk - put some of this in, a pinch of that, don't measure anything - and I'll be damned if it didn't come together nicely. Not perfectly, but pretty damn good.

Unlike the last one, which is still so bad no one should ever read it without a sick bucket handy, this story I actually wouldn't mind sharing if I ever drew it all up and put it together. Except...I'm really scared to. For a number of reasons.

First of all, it's not completely original - it was inspired by someone else's work, who's a complete stranger to me, and...I kinda don't know how they'd take it. Like...I think it's not too bad, but if it turns out I'm wrong and it actually sucks, I don't want them to die of second-hand embarrassment.

Second, it's very self-indulgent. Many of the things that happen in it, happen mostly because they're exciting and/or make me giddy. And it's been so long since I've shared anything that I did purely for me, that I think I've forgotten how. I don't mean technically, I know how to upload images here. I mean I've forgotten how to just show off something I made and be a little bit proud of it. Instead I just feel weird and self-conscious.

Then there's other little fears, like running out of steam midway through and not finishing it like practically everything else I start on, or that no one at all's going to like it. Oddly I'm not worried about this thing getting scraped. Go figure.

So I'm nervous, but I've also got that same itch from before - the one where I can't *not* work on it in some capacity. I've already started sketching a little during my lunch break at work. The thought of working on this and putting the story together in my head is actually lifting my mood and getting me through the day, but also making it harder to sleep. I don't know how long the feeling will last; I have serious doubts I can sustain the motivation long enough to finish.

I can even hear my inner artist trying to bargain with me, because she wants so badly to work on this. "Okay, just sketch out a rough layout over several pages. Don't even show it off or tell [that person] if you don't want to. Don't label the characters or draw them in detail if it embarrasses you that much*. Just please can we clear off a space and carve out some time this weekend to give it a try??"

(*I have a weird hang up where if I really, really, really like a character from something, I'm terrified of drawing them. I don't know why.)

So...I guess we'll see if This Thing materializes at all, in any form. I kind of want it to and kind of don't. The world won't end either way, but...hell, I don't know.

#writing #fan stuff #sorry tumblr #this is what happens when I want to talk stuff out but don't have anyone specific to talk *with*#waffle-y crap like this post

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keefwho · 3 months

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January 22 - 2024 Monday

10:43pm

6/10

This morning I picked up a few things around the room and vacuumed. I made sure to weigh myself and feed the dog at the same time like I'm trying to get into the habit of. For breakfast I tried making pasta shells in chicken stock and then buttering them like usual, it wasn't anything special. I also had a packet of oatmeal. I watched an episode of Bojack while eating, I'm on the final season now.

On stream I warmed up with figure sketches since I'd be starting the Venus comic commission again. I made decent progress on it.

After stream I did my workout even though my body was screaming at me not to. I watched Bojack while doing that too. Afterwards I was originally going to make soup or something else long to cook since I had the time but I did something that broke my back instead. Since I ended up with less time, I made a can of spaghettios and a granola bar for lunch and watched a 3rd Bojack.

During afternoon work I was going to hang out in the server my high school friend frequents but no one was in there and I wasn't sure I was in the mood for such important, first impression-like communication so I went to Ena's server instead since she was working on her game. I did today's request good and quickly and then worked on her concept art for an hour, making good progress. She said she actually really likes it, I don't think she liked what I had before and neither did I tbh. I don't have a firm grasp on drawing humanoid heads yet. This time I gave it a very toony Adventure Time style look.

I left to do my yoga which I did in VR today. I missed 4 days this month which makes me feel a little bad and like I have a good excuse not to do it some days but I'll try to keep at it. I may need to reaffirm the benefit I'm getting from it because I have no obligation to do this yoga to anyone but myself. Today I used it to try and clear my head before working on my very important project which worked. When project time came around, I once again found a new way to proceed that I think will work this time.

When work was all done I sat down with a Youtube video until Daisy was free. I watched her play Minish Cap for a couple more relaxing hours today. Perfect time to not think for awhile and give my brain a rest. In bed I played Kingdom Hearts for her and beat the Aladdin world.

Today was good and productive. A little bit daunting at first but as usual, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I was very proficient in my work. Today I worked the most I have any other day all month and it doesn't even feel like I went hard. I was also able to focus like I wanted because I've been noticing how often I keep myself in stressful thought loops and how usually I just have to be brave enough to step back from them to realize everything is fine.

#journal #diary

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mcrmadness · 2 years

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Teaching myself more about drawing techniques was definitely a double-edged sword.

Pros: I know how to draw photorealistically now.

Cons: It's very boring to draw, in the end; and seeing art videos that blow other people's minds just doesn't do it for me anymore. Simply because I already know what it's going to look like, and what techniques they use to make it look realistic. Most of these videos start when the midtones are already in place, and it's always the shadows and highlights that make the finished piece to stand out.

Like. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, I guess. I actually find it hard to find what to do next to keep my art interesting and entertaining enough for me to do. I'm constantly trying to find new mediums and methods to use so that it would be something new and different and not always the same old from start to finish.

Every time I make a pencil drawing, and if I'm happy with how it looks like, I will feel good about it. But only for a short while, until the "but what now?" mood hits. That's when I just feel like what I do is waste of time, especially if there was nothing new to learn. And I'm afraid of not finding new stuff to learn. I don't want to master anything because then it all will be so boring, but I learn so fast that I have to constantly switch mediums so that I can keep learning because doing something I already "mastered" is just BORING AF. I love my comics, tho, because with them I will never be ready and they'll keep evolving until I start drawing them. I have minor learning processes every time I start drawing those, so they are much more pleasant for me to WORK WITH vs. photorealistic drawings with mediums I already know how to use as those are mainly just about the technique and not whatever the drawing is about.

I hate it that it took me exactly 1 drawing to do a photorealistic drawing with ProMarkers to really master the markers. Working with them is still lots of fun for different reasons, but it just sucks that there's nothing for me to learn anymore. Same with graphite pencils. Nothing really to learn anymore. Also already figured out watercolours with just a couple of sketches, one test drawing and one proper drawing. It's still quite new for me so I'll be having fun with that one for some time to come, tho.

And right now I'm already considering making something from silk clay despite being really bad at handicrafts. But I just wanna try something new and different and LEARN THINGS all the time.

#mcrmadness' art talk

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seigibathala · 4 years

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Gintsu Sexy Prompts

So, I am just curious for my fellow gintsu fans here if you want me to make some sexy ideas.

Since I’m really not exploring this yet, I think my way to say thank you for those who always support / reblog my works ╥﹏╥ , as some fellow shippers say need some of this lmao.

So you know who you are guys!!! let me know your thoughts , or suggestions?

#gintama #gintsu #gintoki x tsukuyo #gintsu smut #seigi draws #i'll make a sketch or if I'm in good mood a comic #message me!#gintsukki #tsukuyo #sakata gintoki

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devilfic · 2 years

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Giiiirl your Bruce Wayne series owns my whole ass being right now 😩🥵 You're doing a great job with it!! If you don't mind sharing, how did bruce learn about readers mother/what are his feelings towards it? Obvi if that's a spoiler etc it's okay not to share! And I'm a 100% interested to hear any other headcanons you have cooked up, specially about brucexreader and their dynamic 🦇

sfaksjfka thank you so much, lovely!! and I am super excited to share, thank u for asking

how did bruce learn about reader's mother? what are his feelings towards it?

so, disclaimer: I have a plan for the next two parts I've got in mind for this series and I plan to delve more into the history between bruce/reader/the reader's mother in the latter of the two, so to keep from spoiling I'll give ya just a few details

I thought about how bruce sees himself in don mitchell's son, and given how keen he is on collecting robins in the comics, I know he has a soft heart for anybody with a difficult familial situation. in relation to the reader, bruce can't help sympathizing. he lost his parents in one night to a stranger out of the blue, so he can't imagine what it's like to know your parent only has so long left but never knowing when the other shoe will drop. at the same time... he's envious.

he's not proud of it (he hates it), but he often wishes he'd been older like the reader, had seen it coming. the abruptness of losing his parents at such a young age has left him with more sorrow than room to properly grieve. seeing the reader spend time with their mother, having the time to say goodbye, really makes something ugly twist inside him. regardless, he wouldn't wish either situation on his worst enemy.

bruce/bruce x reader headcanons

in "sick day", I mentioned that bruce likes to do charcoal drawings and occasionally draws strangers. bruce also draws people he knows (like alfred, gordon, selina), but he keeps those in his sketchbook. he has a few of you in there but don't ask him how he managed to sketch you without you noticing. he is the shadows

speaking of, when he first started going out on patrol, he kept his drawing materials in his backpack along with his suit. sometimes, he'd pull over on his bike and draw when he had the time. one might've spied a hooded figure standing at a street corner hunched over a detailed drawing of a 7/11 once or twice. he has a lot of half-finished drawings due to suiting up at a moment's notice.

on the rare occasion bruce is up for breakfast (and you're there early), he might come join you, alfred, and dory to eat. occasionally, if he's in a good mood, he might even do the dishes.

bruce has a habit of looming. when you're all working in his dad's study, bruce will often lean over the back of your chair and dictate by your ear... that's when you're lucky enough to know he's there, anyway.

since he's so quiet, you regularly turn down hallways to find him just standing there, bump into him while bustling about, and frighten yourself half to death when you realize he's been standing off in some shadowy corner of the room you're in for who knows how long. alfred and dory are used to it, but you still need some time to adjust.

bruce typically refuses your help to clean him up/tend to his wounds after a rough night of patrol. it's not that he doesn't want (or need) the help, but he has a habit of pretending he isn't hurt when he is. you try not to push him, but seeing him wince in pain while trying to tough it out really frustrates you sometimes (pls yell at him to take care of himself).

in "sick day", bruce didn't immediately get up in a hurry after you both fell asleep together. he'd been mortified to know that he'd curled up to you in the night like a child, but something changed that morning. you'd stayed of your own volition, watching over him and taking care of him because you wanted to. he couldn't remember the last time he'd had a warm body to lie next to. he stayed in bed much longer (respectfully, at a distance) than he'd ever let you know.

he did eventually get up to shower. you were a saint to cut him some slack on the smell and not mention it.

you caught bruce's cold in the end, though.

while not the hands-on caretaker that you are, bruce did send a "get well soon!" card and a person to drop off meals at your apartment/run errands for you that agonizing week. he still won't tell you how much all of that cost.

#mjwrites #thank you for letting me gush about this AHHHHH #bruce wayne x reader #batman x reader #battinson x reader #anonymous #mjanswers

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raviliuz · 3 years

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"Here comes the sun" Blaise Zabini x Theodore Nott

Muggle, retro au

@lifesucksandiwanttobeamarauder I finally translate that fanfiction, I hope you like it 🥺

The dark-skinned boy has tried to sit still from three hours already. It is incredibly hard for him, because of his amazing hyperactivity. In all honesty, sitting here as a model doesn't count to his dreams or favourites activities but he couldn't deny to Theodore's asks.

Just because of that — his bloody weakness for the older boy — he must stick up there and pose to Theodore's new painting. Blaise perfectly knows that person on that work of art won't be even similar to him. But it will be beautiful, perfect as everything that has been made by gifted hands of Theodore Nott.

There's music, playing quietly at the background, played on a gramophone, restored by Blaise himself. He gifted it to his friend as a birthday present two years ago on an incredibly warm and short night, 22th of June.

He has so many memories with that slight, passionate boy.

"Theo," he says suddenly, breaking the silence. He sounds like a dissatisfied kitten and when he doesn't notice any reaction, he repeats meowing "Theo, I'm bored."

The other boy finally pays his attention to Blaise, not his reflection on painting, which is created on a canvas (too small in Theo's opinion).

"Blaise, you really can't stand it for a while more?" Theodore asks and there is a nuance of desperation and melancholy in his voice, "I want to end it."

And Blaise has already known, he loses again. He won't be able to deny his friend the pleasure that results from looking at the painting — finished, after hours of working.

"I'll stand it, Theo" he sighs and in his mind adds 'always for you'. At this moment all he can do is begging and praying that Theodore is not able to read minds, just like some characters in their favourites comics.

"Nah, Blaise" slight boy says suddenly and leaves his paint palette and set of brushes on the cupboard, promising himself that he will wash it carefully within a few minutes when paints won't be already dry "I know you don't want to."

"It's not like that" Zabini starts to explaining himself chaotically because he doesn't want hurt Theodore's feelings, "I love watching your painting and you while you're painting. And I love that you have a passion and you're so talented. I just... It's May Day and we are sitting in your room..."

"It's alright, Blaise" Theodore interrupts his with the most beautiful, in Zabini's opinion, smile — that carefree, happy and only a little faraway one.

"We should do something and bring Hope with us to take many photos and place them in our albums with dumb yet cute captions" Theo proposes with a light laugh.

The younger, but taller, better built and more mature, of boys, stands up and brushes off invisible pollen from clothes. He reaches his hand to Theodore to help him stand up.

"Wanna go?" he proposes and even if Theo doesn't know where he agrees without a single question.

It doesn't matter where they go, it will be awesome as always if Blaise is with him.

He catches Hope and puts it on his neck. Theo loves his polaroid camera with whole his heart, even if it isn't the newest and all the better photos were made by Blaise.

Blaise is still holding Theodore's hand in his (definitely larger and rougher), like he doesn't care about rubs of paints in many different colours on Theo's hand and now, also on Blaise's one.

He pulls his friends outside and enters the garage like he is in his own house. Theodore knows what he means without words and grabs his bicycle with a big smile on his slim face.

Meanwhile, Blaise grabs his skateboard, which, only in the form of rebellion against sentiment, he did not give a name. But he perfectly knows that by his skateboard, people could see a different side of his personality, which he doesn't show often — bloody sentimentalist who loves very clichéd books or movies and constantly remembering beautiful moments, and it doesn't matter if that happens a year ago or two hours ago.

The skateboard has its best years far behind its. The picture which was printed on the underside of 'his love' (although, of course, incomparable to that of the boy just standing next to him) has almost completely faded and crumbled, peeling paint seems not so good, to put it mildly, but in Blaise's opinion, it adds the special character and charm to his skateboard. Every scratch and every cooked screw tell a story and Blaise thinks it definitely better than new skateboard — probably glamorous but without its own character.

Blaise isn't similar to Theo, not it that topic. He has never had boxes filled with various craps, which refer to many different events and happenings. He doesn't have special notebooks with tickets, a diary or millions of notes with quick sketches, created under the influence of a sudden flow of wen. He doesn't keep every notes and message on scraps of papers, which have been hand down on lessons, in hope that the teacher wouldn't see that. In first, even having a photo album was strange for Blaise. It shows, that he likes looking back at past and that feeling, which sometimes accompanies you right before falling asleep, when you remind yourself one of those pleasant situations from childhood, isn't foreign for him. It was all he was trying to defend himself against, but only for a time.

For a time when on his way stood that quite frail and nerdy boy. Theodore showed him being sentiment isn't something bad just as singing songs out loud in public places. As compensation, Blaise showed him the magic of comics and all these beautiful, charming in their area, which he discovered while taking a walk daily. Blaise pulled Theodore out of his room and dragged him away from the easel to lead him everywhere he can.

"To our place?" Theodore asks and gets on his a little too small, colourful bike. The seat creaks quietly under his mass but none of the boys pays any attention to this.

"Exactly, now ride, my carriage" Blaise screams and catches up on Theo's seat so the movement of the bicycle can drag him.

"Pff, flax" Nott giggles and Blaise find it as the most sonorous, melodic sound in the whole world.

They ride slowly through all that musty hole, also known as Torquay, or — their home. The road even if it's really old and it remembers when they as children drew chalk on a street, is not in a bad condition. A worse fate befell the road signs — some of them are smeared with sprays, and some are knocked off the ground, due to a car accident or a group of probably drunk but still strong young people.

There are many houses near the road. They are quite poor and definitely not as modern as houses in the capital. At some time, before he started taking daily walks, Blaise dreamed about living in London. Or rather, to be able to tell others that he lives in London. It's another thing which distinguishes him from Theodore — the older boy sees beauty everywhere, in everything and in everybody. Blaise envied him with this skill, for him the world has been boring or just ugly and people have been cruel sometimes.

The sun is warming their backs when they slowly ride on a well-known path. They pass Mrs Shermik, so out of courtesy from four meters away from her, they shout to the old woman joyful 'Good morning'. As they turn into a lane, which is fortunately dry as it hasn't rained much lately, Theo starts humming under his breath.

"Hey Jude, don't make it bad" he looks at his friend (nearly losing control of his bike) and Blaise quickly understands what he means.

Blaise joins to his singing and adds next line:

"Take a sad song and make it better".

Someday Blaise would have worried. He was worried about what people would think, he was afraid someone would hear them. But not now. Now he doesn't care when the words flowing from the depths of memory, and when the song ends, he starts another, definitely his favourite — "Blackbird". Neither of the boys has a perfect voice, singing is definitely not their hidden talent, but that doesn't matter. And that is wonderful, isn't it?

Here Blaise can no longer skate further — the ground is too uneven, even ploughed by the tires of wheelbarrows and carts of people from the neighbouring village. The dark-skinned man rejects Theo's offer to simply get his bike's rack and chooses to run next to the boy. The basketball team and two trainings a week are finally coming in handy — thanks to this, his condition is really good and he doesn't gasp like an old man with asthma after twenty meters run. Theodore, noticing how well his best friend is doing, accelerates, forcing Zabini to run, which he accepts with a groan. Nevertheless, he catches up with the older boy and promises himself that as soon as they get there, he will get his revenge.

After five more minutes, they are a destination of their travel. The place they describe as "their", although they are well aware that they are not the only people who come here, is exactly as they remember it — beautiful.

It was Blaise who discovered them during one of his walks over three years ago. He perfectly remembered how it happened.

That day he was trying to find a rather fast but shallow brook, which he remembered from his childhood. Before Draco's move to London, they told Draco's parents that they were going to the field, but in fact, they went to the brook and walked back and forth on a tree that had fallen over the river. He remembered just as well how Draco's mother, on her way to the store, noticed they were not on the field, prompting a search. When their parents found them by the brook — wet but in unusually good moods, they were already too worried to be upset with them.

After searching for more than an hour (during which he definitely fulfilled the daily, maybe even a week, step norm, but he didn't care) he found a place from his memories, although it was difficult to recognize its. The brook had dried up completely, leaving only a faint riverbed and tree roots washed out of the ground, but the place has definitely retained its charm.

Theo drops the bicycle, leaning it hurriedly against one of the roots, and lays down on the grass, staring at the almost cloudless sky, hidden only by tree branches. Blaise, slightly out of breath, rests his hands on his knees and stays like this for a moment. When his breath normalized he comes closer to Theodore. There is a snap and a Polaroid camera gracefully named Hope spits out a photo in which the image hasn't shown up yet. Theo enthusiastically grabs a small piece of paper and starts waving it so fast that it is about to reach orbital velocity. After a while, the picture clears up the silhouette of a younger boy, who was about to lie down next to his friend. Blaise looks at the photo and asks smiling, even though he already knows the answer:

"For your or my album?"

"Of course mine," Theodore replies quickly, grinning happily, "Why do you need your own photos? They will be much more useful to me."

The dark-skinned boy can't help but messes Theodore's hair in one move of his hand. However, Theo is not annoyed by that, he reacts to it like a cat, moving closer and silently demanding further caresses, which the younger one does willingly.

They are sitting like that (or rather, Blaise is sitting and Theo's half lying on him) till the sunset. There is a flower crown on Blaise's head, made by Theo with field flowers collected by him. And of course, Theodore took a photo of Blaise in his work of art.

It's getting dark. Butterflies, which were flying around them flew away and gave way for beautiful moths and fireflies. Theodore stands up energetically and starts jumping on protruding trees' roots, chasing insects to take a photo of them.

"Theo, please be careful," Blaise says attentively but the only response is 'don't worry' screamed by Nott.

Blaise unwillingly starts remembering his childhood. Times, when he wasn't Theodore's friend and all that connected them, was the same neighbourhood, chalk and short-term relationship of their parents. Then they found that as a stupid and loathsome. Nowadays, at their seventeen's, just as weird. But they weren't friends. After all, Blaise was friends with Draco and the teacher in primary had repeated that it's better to have fewer friends but true friends. So Blaise fraternizes with Malfoy till he moved to London.

It's not that now Blaise finds it as a mistake or holds any grudge with Draco. But nowadays he thinks that it is not good to withdraw from others.

When Draco had left and moved to London, Blaise had thought they now he stayed alone but on that moment, Theodore slowly crept into his life. Nott sat next to Blaise on school basketball pitch and started reminding happy moments from times when Draco lived in Torquey.

And later he showed his painting to Blaise and dark-skinned boy couldn't believe someone his age could do something that beautiful. A week later Blaise sat down with him in the canteen and sometime later also on most of the lessons so he could distract him from learning to read their favourites comics.

Now, Blaise would imagine his life without his always laughing and only sometimes a little faraway friend.

His thoughts are interrupted by a quiet scream.

"Ouch!"

Blaise, worried, stands up imminently and run through Theo. He is curled up in a fetal position between roods of the biggest tree. Zabini hugs him tightly and Theodore accepts that willing, cuddling to his chest while holds back tears.

"Ah, Theo" Blaise whispers, still cuddling the boy in his arms, "I asked you to be careful."

"I'm sorry, Blaise" he answers, sniffing.

"Don't apologize to me, silly" Blaise couldn't stop himself from nuzzling his friend's cheek.

"But you are worrying now and you warned me that I might get hurt..."

"Shhhh" Zabini interrupts him and places his fingers on Theo's mouth to shushes him "I always worrying about you, no matter if you get hurt or not" he admits truthfully and after a few seconds of silence adds "Please, stop crying.

He stops hugging Theodore, although he wants to do it forever. Blaise squats in from of him and gently grabs his friend's head. He wipes away tears, flowing slowly on fairy (although all that time, spends under the sunlight) skin.

He wants to not cry because of sadness or pain, wants him not to have reasons for a cry.

He wants him to be always happy, even if that meant that Blaise wouldn't be on his side.

Wants, wants, wants.

But the world isn't always beautiful, even if Theodore thinks so. Sometimes the world is cruel, ugly or just totally boring. The same about people who live in it.

Do it's really important to find your refuge. A place, a person or a hobby, which will be like an escape from all evils in that world.

Blaise thought that his escape is comics. Reading them has dragged him into the world of superheroes where he could use his imagination and think about meaningless things for hours such as what superpower would he choose (flying, of course). Besides that, the world in comics is just easier. It isn't hard to differentiate who is good and who's bad. Good people fight with bad people, that's all. The Justice League cares about Gotham and saves innocent people from Joker, Deadshot or Darkseid. In the real world, it would be an unsolvable matter with billions different threads and complications so even the best detectives wouldn't be able to decide who is guilty.

Comics world is just easier.

Lately, Blaise has got to understand that the whole beauty in that world is locked in its confusions, problems and ambiguities. Because the world is beautiful, even if sometimes it's cruel or ugly.

And the one who made him understand that is his only real refuge — Theodore Nott.

He is the one who makes reading comics even better.

He is the one with who Blaise could do anything and it would be incredibly good.

He is the one with who Blaise wants to talk about 'good old times' and makes new memories to remember.

He is the one with who Blaise wants to stay forever.

Theodore Nott is the one who Blaise bestow that hot and unique feeling which, no matter what since says, comes from the heart.

And that feeling, now makes him do something, he has been dreaming about for that long. Blaise gently and unsurely grabs the head of the person, who since a year isn't only a friend for him. He delicately raises Theo's head a bit upper to look him straight into his eyes. Their lips touch slowly and gently. Both of them don't feel so confident with what's going on but they will worry about that later. Now, Blaise doesn't have the time and desire to thinks about the consequences. Not now, when he feels the structure of soft lips of his love.

When the dark-skinned boy doesn't notice any objections from the older boy, he let himself do a light, carefully move with his lips. He doesn't want to scared Theodore, knowing how delicate and artsy person he is. He would ever forgive himself hurting Theo.

If he only knew how long Theodore was waiting for it and how much he enjoys that kiss, even if Blaise's lips are rough and chapped.

Blaise gently moves away and hangs his head down, looking at too long grass. He's afraid of seeing Theodore's reaction for what he has done because he's afraid of rejection and ending that important relationship.

However, Theo, likes he doesn't see his friend insecure, giggles lightly and grabs the younger boy cheeks, turning his face to him.

"Oh, finally. How long might I wait?" Theo says with a delightful smile.

"Really. You... Me..." Blaise mutters like he doesn't know what he wants to say.

"Yeah, silly" Theo chucked and hits an end of Blaise's nose with his "You're definitely my favourite person in that universe. And every other, alternative universe too."

Blaise, still can't believe what's happening, hugs his boy and kisses him quickly. The kiss is one hundred per cent cute and totally not sultry. Because feelings as sultry and desire don't fit Theodore, even in an alternative universe where Bruce Wayne become the Devastator instead of Batman. It just does not fit.

"Yeah, and you're my fav person."

They sit in silence for a while, but it's nothing wrong. The silent can be calming and comfortable, it can say more than every word in the world.

The air is getting cooler and owls' chirps become more ominous, so finally, Blaise breaks the silence and says:

"Theo" mentioned boy turns to him and glance at Zabini, "Is your knee still hurting?"

"It's not that bad" Theo shrugs but Blaise quickly understands that it's not good either, "But can you ride the bicycle? I'll drive on its carrier."

"But what with my skateboard?" Blaise asks inconvenience.

"I'll carry it, please" Zabini's only answer is a sigh but not the irritated one. He doesn't know what would Theo had to do to irritate him.

"Alright, but please, be careful."

Blaise raises Theo's bicycle from the ground and helps the boy to climb up to the luggage carrier and then he carefully sits on its seat. Theodore holds Blaise's skateboard (which he has named against his will — Faith) with one hand and the other one is embraced around Blaise's stomach so Theo can stably stay on the carrier. Well, maybe not only because of that.

"To me?" Blaise proposes and slowly leaves their place.

Theodore automatically nods but then he understands that Blaise can't see him so he quickly says 'yes' some times.

Boys are leaving, slowly and without unnecessary haste, but that moment is different than every previous one, they have spent here. Now, they're leaving their place not as just friends.

From Theodore Nott's album:

"4th of May, 1984 —

My favourite day to remember"

#harry potter #slytherin quidditch #bxb #slytherin quidditch team #blaise x theo #blaise zabini #theodore nott #zabini x nott #mrs zabini #muggle au #non magic au #retro #retro au #slytherin #slytherins #slytherin quartet #draco malfoy

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