#usually i draw like. mostly in one single layer | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theresattrpgforthat · 1 month

Note

Two player world building games?

THEME: Two-Player Worldbuilders

Hello there! Almost everything I found for this request required a deck of cards of some kind, so I hope you like card games!

Strata, by Vincenzo Ferriero.

A Mythopoeia Micro-RPG

Welcome fine archaeologist to your new digging ground! Strata is a tabletop role-playing game where you dig to uncover the history hidden under the many layers of rock that have formed over the millennia. Hope you brought along your Equipment!

A fairly simple one-page game, Strata mostly consists of rolling for random discoveries as you dig through each layer of rock. You’re also responsible for naming each age, usually after something you discover there. While this game looks like it could be played solo, with two people you’d be able to bounce ideas off of each-other as to what each discovery means about the age you’re digging through.

HOME, by Deep Dark Games.

HOME is a roleplaying and mapmaking game for 1 to 4 players.

You are a Mech pilot who must protect their home from Kaiju. Explore and map an alien realm as you search for the source of the Kaiju. Prepare for battle by gearing up, building bases, and uniting the world against the terrifying monster. And when the moment of truth arrives, clash against increasingly dangerous Kaiju that will destroy your home if you fail.

Important relationships keep you going in your darkest hour, veteran pilots make sacrifices for the greater good, and you must decide whether to protect important military locations or cherished cities.

This game is much more focused on action, moving your characters through a battlefield using d6’s to determine what boons and banes will help or hinder you in your battle across an alien space. While you’re going to be spending a considerable amount of time in battle, the game’s map is meant to be added to and elaborated upon as you play.

The link above is for the Kickstarter page, but the Quickstart is available now on Itch if you’re interested.

The Whimsy Collectors, by Stori_Lundi.

The Whimsy Collectors is a cooperative game for two people about exploring a fantastical universe together, finding unique items, and selling them to their special customers. You'll need a tarot deck, 2 tokens, and 2d6.

Using a tarot deck, this game uses the cards as locations where your characters can search for items and add them to their bag. You’ll also use the cards to represent customers and their wants; but be careful, your characters can only carry so much. As a result you’ll have to manage your resources carefully. You’ll tally up points according to how well your finds are suited to your customers.

The game comes with a chart to help you determine what members of the Major Arcana are like as customers, as well as a worksheet where you can record what you find where. The game also comes with two pre-generated characters with special abilities, which you can use to move strategically across the map. If you like a game that the two of you can huddle over while drawing cards, this might be your game.

This Old House, by CarrionComfort.

This Old House is a GMless game for 1 to 4 players that uses the act of building a House of Cards to tell the story of just that, a house. You will use a standard deck of playing cards, a 4-sided die, and prompts to tell the story of a home, the family and things that inhabit it, and the land it sits on.

These stories will be crafted by you, even with some friends, as a way for you to create land, give it life, and then tell the full history of a single home. From the first piece of lumber laid, through its first family celebrating new life, mourning death, and dealing with heartbreak. Then that story ends with the house being consumed by fire, lost in foreclosure, or just left vacant depending on whether the House of Cards tumbles or if a Joker is pulled.

This game looks like a good option for games that zoom in on the personal and intimate. You will focus on a house throughout its life, using playing cards as a construction material as well as a game oracle. If you want a game with an unexpected ending, this might be the game for you.

The Ground Itself, by Everest Pipkin.

The Ground Itself is a one-session storytelling game for 2-5 players, played with household materials (a coin, a six-sided die, and a deck of cards).

Focusing on place- one specific place, chosen by the group - The Ground Itself unfolds over radically disparate time periods that may range from 4 days to 18,000 years. By casting wildly into time, it considers how places both change and remember themselves. Fundamentally, The Ground Itself is about the echoes and traces we leave for others after we are gone.

This game is a reflection on a place that 2 or more people create together, using playing cards to generate questions about the location. Time may pass by as days, years, or even millennia. Players can choose when to zoom in onto what the game describes as a “focused situation”, allowing them to add an omen, a party, or some other narrative element to the story.

The game is meant to be played in a single session, so at the end you should find yourself with a location that bears the meaning of a number of events. The designer has also added a number of ways to change the game, such as using tarot cards instead of playing cards, playing places that have no inhabitants, or changing how much time passes in between each round of play.

A Traveller in the City, by Palleon Press.

A Traveller in the City is a collaborative map-drawing game in which you (& any friends you bring along) visit a CITY from your own imagination, drawing it out step-by-step! All you need is a deck of standard playing cards, a single six-sided die, & some stuff to draw with.

Work together to guide the solitary TRAVELLER thru their stroll. Picture the sights they see, the people they meet. Gradually, sketch a map– not of the place itself, but of your own memory of it. For you are not its creator, nor any kind of expert. You are a visitor. How well will you know this place, when it’s already time to leave?

This is based on the Carta system, which involves using a series of cards to represent a map that your character will explore. In this game, both players will control the same traveller, and draw on a grid to represent what this traveller discovers while exploring the city.

The game itself is rather small, and can be printed as a pocket zine for easy of transport - great for just carrying in a pocket for a spur-of-the-moment game.

Aurora, by World Champ Game Co.

Aurora is a tabletop roleplaying game for 2-6 players. This game is deliberately designed to be played comfortably while practicing social distancing or together around a communal table when the necessity for distancing has ceased. Aurora uses 3 phases or modes of play, each of which can be used or removed from the entirety of the game, depending on how the group wants to play. In the first phase, players mail blank cards to another, which will be turned into a custom deck using the zip codes and other numbers. I can see using 5d10 as another way to generate random numbers to help create your custom cards.

In the second phase, city creation begins. Regardless of the setting you decide to create, the city is going to be torn between a Darkness and a Light. Your cards will help determine both of these, as well as the map of the city and the people who live there. If you don’t use the first phase, a deck of tarot cards might work as a good substitute for the oracle.

The final phase uses the map and the cards to generate a story inside the city that you’ve just created. Each player may be responsible for their own character, or they might take ownership of a faction or a number of characters - which might be a good option if there’s just two of you.

If what you want is a lot of room for creativity, this might be for you.

You Might Also Want To Check Out...

My Map-Making Games Post

My Town-Builders Post

My Worldbuilding Post

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #asks #indie ttrpg #worldbuilding

99 notes · View notes

prince-liest · 1 month

Note

oh my god…. prince……. you can’t do this to me. you’re saying next fic has vox getting fucked, focuses on vox’s transness (AH), AND ALSO HES ON THE OFF SEE SAW OF HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH VAL?????? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL MEE?!!?!!????? I THINK I MIGHT ACTUALLY COMBUST. and bc another anon asked abt how alastor views the violence in voxval’s relationship, i have Another thought on the matter. as much as alastor looks down on vox, they can be Very similar sometimes. they are both egomaniacs and very prideful. i don’t think vox, without outside interference, would ever ADMIT that the violence he faces is 1) something he truly hates AND 2) out of his control. he can’t admit he hates it, because then why isn’t he stopping it? that would be admitting to not being powerful enough or strong enough. and hello, 50’s toxic masculinity coming through, he CANT be a victim of domestic violence. he’s a powerful, rich, and important man. it all comes down to perceived weakness. so, the solution is to pretend he’s mostly fine with it. sure, he can act disgruntled and upset in the moment, but i don’t think he’d ever let himself take it seriously. because then he has to start drawing lines in the sand, and what happens then? will val look down on him? will he lose val? yeah, he is not risking that over a problem he mostly refuses to acknowledge exists. and as you said, this is all happening in the setting of hell, where ultra violence IS the norm, and vox himself is excessively violent. it’s the most delicious 50 layer cake of fucked up-ness.

RANT ASIDE THO. i have a question. 2. do you ever plan on having vox interact with the hotel crew outside of angel? ANDDDD what would charlie’s reaction be to their friendship/situationship/ kinda love affair. i think she could add SOOOOO much hilarity and Intense Emotions to this series. not that the boys haven’t been doing their part in that so far. charlie just intensifies everything she does, god bless her. -🌓

The "getting fucked" bit and the trans conversation bit are directly related to and relevant to each other, and frankly I'm just very happy to be out here writing the specific flavors of deeply queer shenanigans that I'm writing, and to have people actively enjoy that. It genuinely means a lot to me that I've strayed so goddamn far out of the bounds of good old top/bottom yaoi archetypes that introduced me to fandom and yet have a wildly enthusiastic audience nonetheless. So, that was my long way of saying that you bring me a lot of fucking joy, anon, hahaha.

As for everything you're saying about Vox, power, and masculinity: YOU! points dramatically at you YOU GET IT! YOU GET IT!!!!!! Everyone just read this, this is it, this is the thing. I have no notes to add. There is a reason that the main point he raises the moment he actually says something vulnerable about it (before he immediately cuts himself off) is a complaint that he's an overlord, so why—?

And with regards to your questions: I'm not gonna lie, my actual planning for 666 is usually, like, extremely by the seat of my pants. I plan nothing except, "Oh, shit, had an idea for the next one. Lesgoooo—" and that's been the case for literally every single installment. It's all just been evolving naturally and building on top of itself. So! I can't say that I plan to have Vox interact with the hotel crew or Charlie, but I also will never say that I'm actively opposed to it.

That said, I do think a lot of this fic is kinda structured around hitting specific topics that come up in intimate settings between Vox and Alastor specifically, with occasional tag-ins from Angel Dust, so I don't really know if there's anything in particular I'd like to write that I think would work better in this series if more characters got involved. But, hey! Never say never!

#ask #personal #half moon anon #long post #hazbin hotel #radiostatic #666 live on air #I do agree with you I adore Charlie and in particular I adore her weird relationship with Alastor #actually before I decided to not make this COMPLETELY unhealthy I had a very very different idea for how to write the rut fic #involving basically Alastor getting pressured and also compulsory allonormativity-ing himself into having sex with Vox #and THAT outline DID involve abso-fucking-lutely everybody sticking their noses into the situation in deep deep alarm #Charlie Angel Husk and even fucking Lucifer showed up #but uh that was also the version of this series that ended with the radiostatic relationship pretty well nuked so #ended up NOT writing the “bad end” edition LOL #maybe one day I'll write it as an AU or something when I feel like upsetting absolutely everyone including myself #my writing #nsft

38 notes · View notes

loveforcarmen · 2 months

Text

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄 - CH. 7

- carmen berzatto x fem!oc coworker | - slowburn

NOTE: warning, this chapter contains out of character carmen 🤗

AN: hello, apologies for not updating for like 2 weeks?? anyways, enjoy this filler chapter and i apologize in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes!!

single - the neighbourhood

As Margaret got ready, her stomach was filled with anxiety. She huffed, digging into her dusty blue makeup bag, pulling out a neutral eyeshadow pallet.

She blended a warm tone of eyeshadow over her eyelids, sitting propped on her bathroom counter, feet in the sink. After drawing a clean-cut black wing of eyeliner over it, she glued on some fake lashes. Just enough to enhance her eyes, not to overpower them.

She had never been one to wear much makeup, mostly due to the fact she worked in the back of the kitchen, not the front. It came as a surprise to see her glammed up like this ; she looked like a doll.

After scrunching some of her curl-defining mousse in her hair, she headed to her bedroom, preparing to tackle her closet to find the right outfit for dinner. She rotated through a variety of styles: a pantsuit, a two piece outfit, a SKIMS dress, etc.

She finally settled on a low cut, shimmery light gold dress that hugged around her waist perfectly. Pairing it with a pair of 1 inch clear platform heels, she added a gold heart necklace to complete the look.

As she paced back and forth in her kitchen, waiting for Carmen to knock, she nervously chewed on her lip. She would surely chew through the damn thing by the end of the night.

Knock. Knock.

Margaret perked her head up at the knocks, the hard wooden, hard wooden door reverberating within the door frame. She drew in a breath, composing herself before opening the door, "Hi." she greeted him with a warm smile, subconsciously crossing one leg in front of the other.

He wore an all black Hockerty suit, paired with a sleek pair of Florsheim leather brown shoes. His hair was worn in its usual style, a jumble of mess of curls on his head.

"This isn't a date. It's an apology dinner." he reminded himself. His eyes glided down Margaret, taking in her entire being. As much as he didn't want to admit, she looked fucking good.

"How do I look?" she gave him a playful spin, being careful not to trip over her heels. Her Tory Burch Reva leather clutch swung around with her body, hitting the doorframe with a thud.

He shook his head, "Let's go." he laughed, still in the doorway. His hand rested on each side, practically leaning into her apartment.

"You're no fun." she spat, grabbing her long, black coat off the hook by the door. Although it was spring, the nights still remained cold enough to require another layer.

As they walked through Chicago, the night sky was clear of clouds. Though it was impossible to see the stars due to the city lights, Margaret still craned her neck up at the sky. Her hand reached over, grabbing Carmen's forearm lightly as she walked.

Carmen looked down at her hand, taken aback by the sudden contact. "What's your thing with stars? I've noticed that you've had this infatuation for them since you started." he asked as they walked.

"Well," she looked back down, rubbing the back of her neck, "There was this saying my mother always told me." They rounded the corner to the L, walking up the steps that led to the elevated platform.

When they reached the top, she continued, "She always said 'you can find me in the stars, even when I'm not with you'. The meaning obviously carries more weight now but..." she waved her hands in the air as she spoke, "It sounds like a cringey quote but it truly means a lot to me."

Carmen solemnly nodded, not wanting to continue to press on the subject. The train loudly pulled up to the platform, stopping with a sharp hiss of smoke. The doors opened, traffic immediately started to funnel in and out. Margaret luckily found a seat near the door, nestling herself down.

Carmen stood in front of her, hands loosely holding the pole. Whenever he took the train, he tried to come in contact with everything as little as possible. Margaret sat with her legs tightly crossed, arms folded, attempting to take up as little space as possible. She noticed and older woman limping through the crowded car out of the corner of her eye. Swiftly standing up, she offered her seat to the woman.

"Thank you dear." the woman said, sitting down slowly. She sat with her brittle arms crossed, arthritic hands on her lap.

Margaret nodded her head, standing next to Carmen. "Do you mind if I just hold onto your arm?" she asked quietly. The trained started back up, torque causing everyone who was standing to slightly sway.

Carmen turned to her, gaving her a puzzled look but obeyed her request. She hooked her arm under his, linking tightly around his bicep. "Why?" he asked, almost in a whisper.

"Look to your right, a few seats down." she whispered back. Carmen slowly turned his head to see a man, sitting in the middle of the car floor. He was clearly on some type of drug, bothering the young women who were alone for pictures of various body parts. Hands, feet, calves, etc.

Carmen turned away from him, staring straight ahead, keeping the man in the corner of his eye. Margaret felt his grip on her tighten, just slightly. As the train moved on, their bodies swayed in unison with the movements of which ever direction they were headed.

Getting off at their stop, they walked only just a short distance to the restaurant. The conversation between them was light, not dwelling on the same topic for too long.

They arrived to the restaurant, Margaret greeting the host warmly as Carmen checked them in. The host walked them to a booth that was cozily tucked in the corner.

The establishment was intimidatingly high end to say the least.

The dining room had booths lining the walls while circular wooden tables took up the space unused space in middle. Angular chandeliers hung down the center of the room in a warm lighting. Along the wide back wall sat a rich, mahogany bar. Illuminated shelves sat behind the counter, housing a variety of liquors to choose from

After seating them, the host handed them each a menu, the front cover reading the name "The Albert" in pristine gold lettering. "Your server will be here shortly." the host said kindly, walking back to the entrance of the restaurant.

As Carmen and Margaret flipped through the extravagant menu, each dish more impressive than the next, she chewed on her bottom lip. She nervously looked at the prices, the last thing she wanted to do was allow him to drop a shit-ton of money on a meal he could easily make.

The server approached them, smiling warmly, "What can I get started for you?" she asked. "We can start off with drinks and appetizers, or we can jump right into the menu." She clasp her blue notepad tightly in her hand, pen at the ready.

Carmen looked over at Margaret, allowing her to take the reins. "I think we're gonna need more time with the menu, but we can order drinks now. Can I please get an Old Fashioned?" she asked politely.

"Of course you may," the server said, moving onto to Carmen. "And for you?" she looked up from her notepad, eyeing Carmen down.

"Hennessy please." Carmen said, looking up at the waitress. His voice was sultry with his reply ; Margaret didn't think it was intentional but it still struck a nerve with her.

"Yes sir," she batted her lashes at Carmen, "We'll get that out shortly."

"Ok." he quietly, waiting for her to leave. The server turned on her heel, walking back into the kitchen with their order. Carmen turned back to Margaret, "You ever been here before?" He clasped his hands in front of them on the table, straightening his posture.

She shook her head quickly, "Are you kidding? Hell no." She looked around the establishment, absorbing its large gradniuer. "Look at this place."

The drinks were eventually brung out, the food following shortly behind. The porcelain dishes were placed on the dark wood table, the food plated so creatively it could be considered art. Margaret had order a duck honey glaze with a spring onion and an alpine radish to top it. It was sided with mustard seed dollop spread, the sweet taste was paired perfectly with the acidic nature of the spread.

She took a bite, her expression widening with each chew. "This is the best thing I've ever tasted." she took another small bite, "No offense." she added, smiling up at Carmen.

He laughed, wiping his mouth off with a napkin, "Absolutely none taken." he adjusted in his seat, "I actually created this dish for this place." he said causally, taking another bite his food.

Her jaw figuratively hung slack, "I mean," she regained herself, straighting her posture in her chair, "It's not surprising. The dish is alright I guess." she took another bite, fighting back a playful smile.

"Just alright?" he recited, cocking his head slightly to the side. He too fought back a smile that was starting to creep across his lips.

Her gaze flicked to her plate as she answered, "Yup." she looked back up, taking another bite.

There was beat between them until Carmen spoke, "You ever think about making a dish for a restaurant?" he took a long sip of his drink, setting it down gently on the table.

"Absolutely not." she shook her head, holding her hand in front of her mouth as she chewed, "I don't think I'm creative enough for that. I'm no Sydney or Marcus."

"Eh, you'll get there. I got a feeling." he replied, looking down at his plate as he continued to eat.

She felt something odd grow inside of her at the sudden praise from him. Unable to help the smile that bloomed, she looked down at her plate in a weak attempt to conceal her joy. "Thank you."

The two spent the rest of the evening talking about mostly food. Slowly becoming buzzed from the liquor, Margaret felt her confidence growing. They began to critic the dishes that were sent out and took notes on how the place was ran. Intently listening to how orders were called out in the kitchen, how the servers operated, everything. They were getting along, with no issues. A stark contrast to their (usual) rocky relationship.

"Woah, I think that's enough for you." Carmen grabbed Margaret's glass before she could take another sip. She had grown quite tipsy, which was unfortunate for her since they had walked to the restaurant.

"But-" she started before being cut off by the server presenting the bill.

"How is the bill being paid?" she asked softly, looking over at Carmen as he signaled to himself.

"Carmen," Margaret said as she dug into her bag, pulling out her wallet.

"Maggie, no." Carmen said, not looking up from his wallet as he pulled the card out. He gave the server a small smile, then turned back to Margaret after she left.

"At least let me cover the tip." she said, her lips forming into a pert pout. Carmen stared at her, longer than anticipated then blinked rapidly before answering, as if he was trying to clear his head.

"I planned this. I'll pay." he leaned back in into the leather cushion of the booth, "I know the owner so I get a discount anyways. I made a fucking dish for their menu, a discount is the least they could do." Carmen said, sounding awfully pretentious. "I didn't mean it like that." he added, leaning back up.

The server returned with Carmen's card, then slipped him a note along with it. Carmen opened it under the table, unsure if Margaret saw it or not. It was her number, scrawled in messy Sharpie along with her name. Carmen looked back up to find her in the kitchen, only to see that she was already staring at him. She gave him a little wave, causing him to look away with rosy cheeks.

He wasn't used to being flirted with, so this came as a surprise to him. Growing up, he pretty much kept to himself and never got involved with the dating scene like most of his classmates.

Shortly after, Margaret and Carmen left the restaurant, beginning their trek to the L. The city was alive, which wasn't uncommon on a Friday night. Lights glowed in all directions, whether it be from cars or buildings.

"Margaret!" a male voice said from behind them. The pair stopped, lazily turning around to see who the voice belonged to.

"Matteo?" Margaret said in surprise, squinting her eyes as if he was far away. She walked over to give him a quick peck on the cheek, a custom in her family.

"How you doin, darling?" he asked, letting his hands fall to her waist, drinking in the sight of her. She looked absolutely delectable in her little gold dress, her gold necklace falling just before her cleavage.

"I'm great. Oh my gosh," she said sloppily, walking back over to put her hand on Carmen's shoulder, "This is my boss slash acquaintance, Carmen." she smiled at Carmen then looked at Matteo. "We just had dinner at.." she trailed off, looking over at Carmen for the answer.

"The Albert." Carmen finished for her, his voice cutting and mean. He sat with his gaze fixed on Matteo, staring hard at him.

"Yeah the Albert!" Margaret exclaimed, taking a step back to Matteo, "Carmen, this is Matteo by the way." she squeezed Matteo's shoulder, which coaxed a smile out of him. He glanced down at Margaret, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

Carmen could see it plainly that he had it bad for the girl. The slightest touch from her was enough to plaster a stupid grin on his face. He watched as Matteo's hand snaked down to Margaret's waist, resting just above her ass.

"Are you guys doing anything?" he asked, barely giving Carmen a glance. As if he wasn't standing right fucking there.

"Um, I think we're both just going home." she smiled at him, unintentionally batting her lashes. She was fucking gone, logical thinking completely exiting her body in that moment.

"You could come back to my place, y'know." he said, finally giving Carmen a glance, "I can get her home, we live in the same building." he half suggested, half stated.

Carmen took a step towards Margaret, slowly pulling her away from Matteo, "Nah it's cool." he said, holding her firmly around the waist. "Let's go." he said softly to Margaret, walking away from Matteo.

"Don't be a stranger baby!" Matteo called, walking backwards from the 2, hands in his coat pockets. With his backed turned towards him, Carmen rolled his eyes at his pathetic attempt to hit on Margaret.

To say the least, it was a struggle trying to control drunk Margaret. Carmen was constantly apologizing for her actions to the poor people on the train and sidewalk who encountered her. It was quite annoying actually to him, as it continued after getting off the train. "Hey." Carmen backed her up, leaning her against a building. "Are you ok?" he asked sternly, annunciating each word.

Her voice was quiet, and her face—high cheekbones, sharp nose—was placid. "I'm perfect." she smiled up at him, her head spinning. She leaned to one side, relying on Carmen's strength to keep her upright.

He grabbed her arm, walking her over to a nearby bench as if she was child. His fingers pressed into the soft skin of her arms, growing tighter the more she resisted. "Sit." he demanded, pushing her down onto the bench.

Stubbornly, she sat down on the bench, resting her hands on her lap. Crouching down, Carmen began to slip off her heels, setting them in her lap.

"What are you doing?" she rhetorically asked. She looked down, eyes following Carmen as he pushed himself back up.

He turned around, hands slightly extended. "Get on." he said, his face turned away from her.

Confused but still obeying his request, she grabbed her heels in one hand then climbed onto Carmen's back. The warmth radiated from his body, keeping her warm from the nipping night air.

Her arms hung limp in front of his chest, swaying with his body as he walked. As Carmen strolled through Chicago, Margaret would point out memories from her adolescence, saying something along the lines of "That's where my dad crashed his car" or "That was my first job".

As they approached her apartment building, Margaret leaned her head against Carmen's back, arms still hanging lazily over his shoulders. "Hey." he poked her in her side, "Don't fall asleep just yet."

She grumbled, lifting her head up. "Home already?" she looked down at Carmen, her undereyes beginning to puff with sleep.

"What floor and apartment number?" he asked, turning his head as far as he could towards her. He could barely see her from the corner of his eye, only able to make out her blonde hair.

"216, floor 2." she said, reaching into her purse to hand Carmen the key. As he made his way up to her apartment, her weight became heavier and heavier, a sign that she was dozing off again.

He slipped the key into the lock, turning the rusted handle. It didn't budge so he tried again, ending up with the same results as before. "You got to wiggle it first." Margaret said softly, her lips brushing against his ear as she spoke. He swallowed a wad of spit, uncomfortable with their closeness.

But was it truly uncomfortableness he was feeling?

He wiggled the handle, then turned it again, opening the door this time. He nudged it open with his foot, walking inside of the small living space. Waking up Margaret with another poke, he slipped her off his back, making sure to hold her upright until she regained her footing.

"Thanks Carmen." she said, keeping herself up. She held onto Carmen's forearm for some support. She was close enough for Carmen to smell the honey and citrus in her hair, the scent bringing him a sense of serenity.

"Let's get you to bed." he said, ignoring her thanks. He needed to cut himself off from her and he needed to do it now.

Margaret turned on her heel, walking down the short hallway to her bedroom. Carmen trailed behind her, hands hovering at her sides in case she toppled over. "Yay round 2 of taking care of drunk Maggie" he thought to himself. This was a bad look for her, having to be taken care of by her boss not once but twice. Carmen repeated his routine of taking care of drunk Margaret, an exact repeat of when she spent the night at his house.

He put her to bed, carefully pulling the sheets up to her shoulders. He crouched down at the side of the bed, eye level with her. "I have a bucket right on the side of the bed in case you puke." he said quietly,his voice barely registering as a whisper.

Margaret's gaze darted to his lips then back to match his eyes, "You're a great boss Carmy." she softly smiled.

Pushing himself up off the ground, he looked down at her, "That's an overstatement." he dryly laughed.

Carmen walked over to flick off her small lamp when her voice spoke again, "Are you leaving?" she asked timidly.

Carmen felt his cheeks grow hot, the knot in his stomach swelling. He felt as if he was going to be sick, his gut twisting in every direction.

"I'll be on the couch."

With that, he closed the door behind him, leaving Margaret in her own thoughts. He shakily let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. Quickly walking to the sink, he turned it on, splashing the lukewarm water onto his face. He sighed into his hands, slowly dragging them down his face, allowing them to fall to his sides.

He grabbed the hem of his dress shirt, bringing it to up to dry his face off. The tips of his curls dripped water onto his forehead, agitating him. His chest began to close up as he drew in shaky breaths, breathing as if someone was clutching his throat.

"No, no, no." he whispered to himself, ripping open the collar of his shirt due to his increasing body temperature. The action caused a few buttons to fly off, landing on the kitchen floor. "Shit." he said aloud, collecting them quickly.

He gathered his suit jacket, tucking it under his arm as he left her apartment. He hurried down the flights of stairs, harshly pushing the doors open. He stepped into the cold night air, breathing heavily. Stopping at the entrance of the apartment, he rested his hands on his head, slowly walking down the street.

He didn't have time to have feelings for someone. No matter how he felt, it just couldn't happen. He was better off having Margaret hate him than have her feel any other emotion towards him.

Carmen pushed it out of his mind as he shoved his hands in his pockets, hurrying down the street to his apartment.

END

AN: omg rereading this, i realized how nasty this chapter is wtf

28 notes · View notes

basiliskfree · 11 months

Photo

(I watched too much history clothes making videos to have Lamp textiles)

For the most part Lamps don’t have the same pressures or need for clothes as Humans. Most finding the restriction of clothes really uncomfortable and annoying on their flexible bodies. Outside of some rare PPE Clothes are pretty much not a thing for hivemind lamps, so the fact all Ships have at least one auto loom and leather growing system was confusing at first to the humans studying them. Turns out textiles can make useful tools and for the speculum Lamps this tool use became used for art

more under Cut

This systems were mostly used instead for tool making, woven textiles are used in bags, Filters and netting for hydroponics. The two types of fibers produced are a polyester like material (that is about as breathable as polyester) and a Kevlar-like material used in strength base tasks. A ship will usually have one small auto loom that will have two settings a plain weave or hexagon net. Other weaves and things like knit fabrics are just not a thing most Shipped lamps wouldn’t even view these materials as something to make clothes out of.

Mostly do you the power in their Leathers. These Materials are grow into many shapes, functions and forms. The Leather is the same cell structure as lamp skin and can be grown and shaped to do pretty much anything the Lamps need. Need a Screen? Just grown a section of the Colour-change layer on top of a light production layer. Need a circuit board? Lamp DNA can make single atom wires for all your 3d circuit board needs. This Leather can ether be tanned for strength or kept “Live” for auto repair and some functions (you do have to feed your computer sugars do to this at times). Most Lamp tack is build using systems like this and for Spectrum Lamps if they are make clothes it will be out of this too.

On to Clothes there are two main Cultural views about it one from the Shipped and the Other the Ship-less

For the Shipped Clothes are ether Costume for plays (pictured are Two common characters in Lamp theater The Singer and The Silent) or PPE all of which tends Leather to be grown into a pattern, with it’s Stems formed from a “glue” that makes the separate edges grown into one piece before it’s tanned; leaving a seamless look. Lights and display elements are common as Lamps are very extra about there theater and the extra power draw is fine as these are not clothes meant to be worn for more them an hour.

For the Ship-less Clothes are more an everyday thing used to protect from the dust storms common to the “wastelands” outside of Greenwich (The one Lamp City). As the Name suggests these lamps don’t have Ships to call home, and with what little Living leather they can trade for are not going to waste it on clothes. These Lamps instead have a culture of weaving, taking the fluffs of a Common food crop and turning it into a range of different fabrics. They also tan the hides of parasites that is then sewn together into sheets. often in to geometric patterns.

#Pilot Light #lamp alien #Lamp aliens #clothes #speculative biology #oc aliens #worldbuilding #textile tech is so neat #basilisk's art

76 notes · View notes

exocynraku · 8 months

Note

Hullo! Do you have any tips on just coming up with designs and markings and how to colour those designs/lines without making stuff clash? You're always able to make such creative and nicely made designs and I'm curious if you have anything you get inspiration off of and how you're able to colour your marking lines so smoothly?

i would make a nice image tutorial like i did yesterday but i do Not have the time to Sadly so you get words instead colouring lineart: colouring the lineart is easy peasy lemon squeezy. you gotta wait until youve FINISHED the colouring to do this part. okay, so, for the characters ACTUAL LINEART, when i draw their legs & tail & face & whatnot, i colourpick the DARKEST colour on the character, whether it be in their markings, eyes, accessories, or whatever. and then i take that colour and make it just... a LOT darker! and maybe shift the hue around aswell (ex: if the character was mostly yellow/cream i'd give them orange or red lines)! and then for the MARKING LINES i take the darkest MARKING. ignore the accessories and characters eyes they dont matter JUST pick the darkest coloured marking. and then make THAT darker, but not as much as you did the actual lineart!! you can also change the hue on this :3 how i come up with designs + inspirations: hmm well i'm going to be honest with you i don't exactly know how i come up with my designs? a lot of it just comes from how i picture the character in my head! especially if its a warrior cat design! i don't tend to stray away from those thoughts unless i picture them as like stupidly boring LOL ! inspirations is a biiit tricky, but i guess i kind of just look at a LOAD of other warrior cats animations & art, and uh! anime! lol! looking at how other people draw cats has gotten me better at drawing anatomy & whatnot, and watching various animes is why i started giving my cats hair lol! it's kind of hard for me to explain like, my EXACT process on why & how i design certain characters im sorryyyy x'''P i would if i could but literally 90& of is me drawing whatever and then thinking 'does this look good' and then saying yes or no LOL how i colour my designs: similarly to how i DO my designs, it's a lot of my just asking myself if it Looks Good or not, but there are a few things i do! a lot of designs i do i jump around the colour wheel a LOT! hue wise, i mean. i think i've managed to find different ways to use every single colour on the colour wheel lol! blues and greens and purples are good for greys & blacks, blues & yellows & oranges are good for white/ light markings, red & orange & yellow & purple are good for brown cats, etc etc etc! the other main thing is layer effects! sooo like if i draw a character but i'm not super happy with their colours, i find it hard & annoying to fiddle around and change each colour individually, so instead i make layer above the colouring, set it to one flat colour, and go through all/most of the layer options (like multiply, linear burn, lighten, glow dodge, difference, subtract, the list goes on) and find something i like! and then i usually do that a BUNCH of times with ALL sorts of different colours until the character ends up looking good!

also hi mossy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope this helps maybe? if you wanna get specific with another question, or maybe send some images (u can here on tumblr or message me where ever) then id love 2 help more!!!! this goes for anyone, i'll always accept art-help/tips/how i do things questions lol!

#ray talk

27 notes · View notes

insulationsun · 5 months

Note

Could you make an explanation of how you pick colors for your art? I think tye way you do it always comes out awesome 👍

oh gosh, hmm...

so, starting with base colors.. i usually colorpick but make a few adjustments depending...like if i colorpick and the lighting effects certain colors i sort of adjust on the fly until i get something i like.

most of my art has the same base (most of the time, depending on the character ofc) and just has filters over it. that i also adjust. and then i sometimes add color on Top of that. and i mess with sliders a lot. it's not so much that i even begin a piece with the idea of the colors, although sometimes i do.

i mostly just adjust things as i go, the idea kinda evolves as i work on it. if this makes sense? i mostly just mess around until i get something im satisfied with

and once i get a palette i like, i might reuse it as the base in a new drawing. (if this makes sense)

here are the base colors for the anne drawing a while back, but mostly when choosing colors, esp for highlights and extra details and such i just experiment until i like it. i dont really study color theory or know much about it, its just a feeling in the moment. but i do try to use the surrounding colors for the one i need a highlight of. so the gold-yellow here has the lighter, sorta pinkish shine. idk

i use clip studio paint, and every single one of these filters is used at least once in all of my drawings. again i just mess around until i like what i see? it means my coloring process might take longer than the drawing did itself, because im adjusting So much

and you may notice that some of the colors arent evne the same evreywhere on this drawing, like anne's mismatched hair here

i just leave these in because i really dont feel like fixing it. my art has a lot of layers and once i get to the end i stop keeping track or caring

um..basically its not a lot of conscious thought going into it, i just Do things and fuck around and find out, really... so im not sure how helpful this can be, but...it's my process sjnfsdk

#asks #sorry for the sort of confusing Non-answer im just not sure how to convey like...#feelings i get . when the colors feel 'right' to me #that said i think the more you color and mess around in general the more of a feel you'll get for what colors go to together #and which colors Dont go together. cos then you can intentionally use both in meaningful ways #jst cos colors dont go together doesnt mean you cant still use them for an artistic effect or meaning that u want to achieve..etc. etc #auuu4 #hard to explain.. . ;

16 notes · View notes

fly-sky-high-arts · 1 year

Note

i found you through your work on skurry's thumbnails and i really admire your art! i was wondering if you have any tips for blending/shading in your painting style since i struggle with that and you're pretty good at it. have a good day!

Hey thanks! I can try explain the best I can without loosing myself in what I'm trying to explain or confusing you in the process XD

I will be honest, and this isn't me being modest it's a general self critique but I am not very good with colors? (or backgrounds lol)

It's still something I'm trying to get to get a bit of a better hang of as well as do so in the way I will enjoy it and not make it too complicated and so far the simple rendering style seems to work out for me personally. Maybe something else could sit with you better but that's the joy of exploring the steps and methods in art, right? :3

Details bellow~

I'll try explain bellow what my general process is when making the slugcat paintings, as they seem to be the topic. I use different brushes for my other commissions and mix them around as I go but for slugcats specifically I used one brush (if not counting the pen tool I used to draw out and fill in the base color)

Detailed sketches help visualize the shape of what's being put down in base color but I'll use a simple one for this example:

With the base color in place, what I usually do is either: -Lock the layer like in this example and work on that single base where all the shaping and color will go on this layer -Create multiple layers of the base depending on what's closer to us or further (I used this for Gourmand and Spearmaster thumbnails), imagining segments like the arm closest to us as its own layer, then the body, then the back arm and so on, if the base shape has depth like that. (lock these as well)

The flat color then gets a gradient (gradient tool) that is worked with me shifting the hues and saturation on the color wheel to get more dark and colder shadow as well as warmer lighter highlight. You can play this in reverse and have cold highlights and warm shadows, depending what you feel like using for the piece

you can have the color palette somewhere visible if you want to reference these later on as you start to render shapes

Now, I have no way to personally explain shapes in detail so I will link a video on that, lighting and some more helpful stuff bellow the post.

What you have to think about is where the light is coming from. Based on the gradient made, here I kind of made it seem it's coming from the left upper corner or above the slugcat but how drastic it is will depend on stuff like what is actually around slugcat, where is it and how much light there is at all (if you look at the Artificer thumbnail, that is an example of little light but the source is also very dramatic red light of the ID drone thingy)

Note that you're allowed to make separate layer to make like a little guide I did above here on where the shadows will go and try base the render off of it.

This is the brush and its setting I'm using for slugcats. What's fun about this brush is that it's very soft but depending on the pressure means how much selected color it will apply to the area. (if you use paint tool SAI, the watercolor brush there applies this effect AND blending much better)

The brush works the way it blends depending where you set the tip and drag lightly. It took me a bit to get use to it but it will drag out the colors bellow it instead of applying color if not pressed too strong. You can use that to both add and blend colors BUT changing the size of the brush while doing so helps a ton.

What you mostly do next is "sculpt" the shape: You use darker color for depth and lighter to make things pop out.

You start of with most basic application on where the shadow and light are dropping by color picking the palette colors that were earlier applied for the gradient. The brush strokes should follow the shape itself (best way to think here is the same direction fur grows on cats and follow that haha)

COLOR PICK TOOL IS YOUR FRIEND~

You want to not just rely on the base palette colors but also color pick from shades and lights on the slugcat itself. Sometimes adding hues and tones between the already applied colors makes them feel more natural instead of using straight up shadow color. But this brush, as I mentioned earlier, is handy with blending stuff in, even if it's not super smooth.

Once you get the overall shadow and lighting done, you can start rendering with the same. What comes of the process is here is depending on how much time you want to spend shaping the look of the slugcat. I didn't had a lot of time but I got the gist of the slugcat down. Funny thing is that you can simplify this even more (and make it resemble cel shading haha)

What you can do after that is get more colors in, add more darker shadows and lighter highlights and like for this slugcat example, you can mix it up a bit. It's easier to stay consistent with colors but playing around by adding purples in blue shadows and light blues into warmer green highlights makes them pop out a bit more because now there are fresh colors in the mix.

(side note: You can use very dark and very light colors but it's prettier for the painting to not use any 100% black or white for anything like shading or highlights UNLESS you really want to have dramatic colors and negative space or such)

From this point on, you can basically adjust, shape, add, remove, work out the details etc. and mess around with how it looks. For practice purposes it's nice to keep it simple but trying to make more depth. I'm not the best at it, my work still feels rather flat but here is a tip that can help: Adding a layer above all layers, coloring it black and setting the layer option to saturation will make you see the colors in values. If you feel like they're too close to each other and too flat you can return to the base layer and add more depth with values to them, then recheck with the black saturation layer again by turning it on and off as needed.

(as you can see from my example, I am missing more darker colors around the neck and back arm haha)

What you come up with at the end again depends on you, what tools you trust using and how far you want to go with it.

At the end, I usually do adjustments to colors if needed. Say, the quick fix I can do to make up for missing shadows is to use one of the tone correction option, tone curve AND/OR color balance.

I usually use and play around with any of these (and sometimes level correction but not as often)

I adjusted base color (color balance and tone curve) and the background (desaturate it in shue/saturation/luminosity)

So uhhh

this isn't really like a tip of a sort, I can't really properly advice how to render since it's about tool preference and the personal process but I hope this was a bit insightful!

Here are some helpful videos that go into detail I could not work out via words or this process because they are multiple separate subjects that can help you learn about rendering colors:

youtube

#ask #about art #there is a bit more that goes on for the thumbnails themselves #like stuff about composition etc.#but hope this basic gist of the process is helpful still #as well as the videos linked

36 notes · View notes

noxcaelestia · 5 months

Note

Huge mechanical pencil fan please tell us more (i don’t draw i just fucking love them)

Hello, thank you for your message! To love mechanical pencils is a great thing. ☺️

To get things started, I gathered up as many mechanical pencils (and mechanical erasers) as I could find and have used in the past year.

I absolutely love mechanical pencils because they’re so convenient, durable, reusable, reliable, versatile, and what I learned from using regular pencils in art especially can most certainly be replicated without worrying about many other drawbacks.

This will be a super long post so please bear with me!

This is a set of Pentel GraphGear 1000 pencils (my favorites) which includes one of each of 0.3mm, 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 0.9mm. The 0.4mm was a separate purchase. It comes with four boxes of Pentel HB Super lead for each size and a tube of replacement erasers for this line and many other compatible pencils.

The Pentel GraphGear 1000 series are my favorites because of their rigid design and retractable point that keeps the lead steady and prevents accidents from pokes to drops. The clip is sturdy and acts as a button to retract the point. You can also twist the barrel and always know what lead hardness you’re using whether it’s 2B, B, HB or H. These are amazing to use on good, lightly textured paper.

The leads shown are the Uni Kuru Toga HB 0.5mm, and Pentel Ain Stein in HB 0.2mm, 0.3mm, 0.4mm and one 2B 0.3mm.

The KuruToga lead is made with the KuruToga technology in mind with a softer outer layer and a harder inner layer to maintain a more consistent thickness through the pencil’s turning mechanism.

Pentel Ain Stein leads are made specifically to write smoother than standard leads by default though they also have varying degrees of hardness/softness. These are my usual lately.

Uni KuruToga, 0.3mm and 0.5mm (standard)

The mechanism in the Uni KuruToga is made to rotate minutely when the lead hits the surface in order to promote a more consistent line. It may be more suitable for writing but I find it helpful for quick drawings when I don’t need to swap out a different size for a certain effect.

Pentel Orenz, 0.2mm and 0.3mm

The Pentel Orenz is meant to help with preventing lead breakage with its own gradually retractable tube (also likely better suited for writing). The lead is meant to sit mostly inside for it to prove effective. When drawing, I tend to ignore this function depending on what I’m doing (it holds up quite well if I’m careful). Plus, it’s the only mechanical pencil I’ve found commercially and affordably that used 0.2mm, the smallest commercially available lead I could find. It’s wonderful for minute details in pencil.

Pilot AirBlanc in 0.3mm

The Pilot AirBlanc have proven indispensable in some of my language study classes years ago where smaller lines made the characters easier to write and more legible for me. The pink one was a gift from a class and I bought a second one in blue. The pencil is quite soft and comfortable and it’s quite fun to use.

Pentel P200 series pencils in 0.5mm (two have blue and red Pentel Super 0.5mm lead respectively) and one in 0.7mm

The Pentel P200 series have been super reliable for me over the years. I’d keep them so long until the metal part lost its sheen but they were still plenty functional for years and harsh usage. (More than once did a single P205 last me for art classes over the years including drawing as large as 18x24in).

It’s a great sleek, versatile and durable option that’s relatively cheap and easy to find in most stationery sections and art stores, sometimes with additional leads and erasers. The 0.5mm was my favorite size for a long time because it’s thin enough for fine detailing in my drawing but also a comfortable size for writing finely.

GraphGear 500 series in 0.9mm and 0.3mm

A more heavyweight drafting option, the GraphGear 500 is more clunky and less stylish than its successor. They do their job well for writing and drawing but the grip is not very comfortable for long periods of use but it does prevent slipping. The metal tip does not retract like the 1000 series unfortunately.

The mechanical erasers I use are from the Tombow Mono line a 2.5x5mm, a 2.3mm and a 3.8mm. They are excellent for erasing small to fine marks and are decently durable and smooth (though a previous 3.8mm one split in half and shattered after continuous wear).

A “how it’s started vs. how it’s going” model comparison since I began working with and completely adapting to mechanical pencils for writing and drawing.

I hope this was informative! I couldn’t help myself!

(Fun fact: my schooling was weird in my early years and we weren’t always allowed to get up to sharpen pencils even through middle school so mechanical pencils sort of helped to bandage the problem hence my long term obsession)

#text post #long post #art supplies #mechanical pencils #mechanical erasers #i told you so #i absolutely love mechanical pencils #i am obsessed

13 notes · View notes

kirk-goes-to-gallifrey · 20 days

Note

I love your art! (I clicked on your art tag and started scrolling.) What is your process for creating a piece? Do you usually look at a single reference photo which you draw from? Do you somehow incorporate photos into your drawings by drawing over them? (I did that once on a tablet.) Or do you use another method? Thanks!

omg hiiiii thanks so much!!!!!!!!

my process is a bit all over the place (I've tried to describe it before with not much success, maybe now I can do a better job hahaha) but yes I always need reference photos, I can't draw anything from my imagination :( sometimes I use more than one picture, but most times I think I use just one photo that I really like and want to reproduce.

when I'm feeling super inspired and I have a lot of free time, I draw from observation only. And then if I get stuck on a particular spot that I feel I can't get right, I overlay the reference picture and make the necessary adjustments. I've been replicating images for such a long time that nowadays I can usually overlay the original over my drawing and 90% of lines match 😅 And when I draw on paper I do the same thing, I place the paper over my screen to check if the lines are where they should be, but always retroactively, first I draw then I check.

I actually started out drawing everything upside down! I learned that technique with another artist (I took a course when I was in high school 15 years ago), cause apparently if you flip your reference upside down, a house stops being a house, eyes stop being eyes, a mouth stops being a mouth, so you can focus on distances between points, lines, areas and proportions only, without thinking "oh a mouth looks like a little cartoon bird on top of a minimalist boat" or whatever, but rather "this shape is about the same size as that one, and is positioned in relation to that other one and that other line..." So that's sort of how I learned to draw/replicate I what I see (if that made any sense). And replicating a photo is much easier than drawing reality cause a picture is already 2D, when I'm drawing something real I have to convert the 3 dimensions to 2 in my head and I often get a headache by the end of the process lmao

Sometimes I don't have the time or energy (it takes a lot of effort from the brain to do the observation thing) and in those cases I do some lines over the reference pic just to get key areas, then I delete the reference layer (of course I keep a copy in another corner of the screen so I can keep looking at it) and paint over the sketched lines till they mostly disappear.

I think painting is the most fun - either in color or b&w - getting the shades to blend and the painting to look realistic is the part that I like most.

I usually paint on photoshop but I recently got a tablet and I've been trying out new software on it. I mostly require a soft brush with opacity varying with pressure. I start out by doing blocks of color and then I blend blend blend.

I often think that my art is not very good (sometimes I question whether it's art in the first place), cause the only thing I'm good at is copying what I see, and because of that I've been trying to play more with colors and textures, trying to make my paintings a bit more different than their reference photos, a bit more "artistic" idk. I wish I could do more stylized stuff. But the realism can be fun too, it relaxes my brain after a whole day of PhDying.

Thank you so much for the ask!!! And for telling me that you like my stuff (ಥ _ ಥ) means a lot <3

#I hope this made some sense??#I think I'm gonna try to put some examples in a reblog later #thanks for the ask!#wild-raven-and-crow #kirk.goes.to.gallifrey

4 notes · View notes

if-mirrormine · 1 year

Note

Hi its me the anon who sent the first message. Oops I didn't mean to start a whole advice train. But I do have some examples! So someone mentioned brightly colored skinny jeans and yes for sure BUT split leg skinny jeans were also very much a thing. Like the legs were two different patterns or two different colors. I had a friend that only wore jeans where the legs were different. Also snake bites (a lip piercing on both sides of the bottom lip) and spider bites (2 lip piercings right next to each other) for piercings for the sceenie weeny kids (yes that was the term). Also the headbands weren't pushing hair back but keeping the bangs down. You just put a giant piece of elastic directly on top of your head and pushed your hair onto your forehead. No lipstick but yes lip gloss. Always wearing a tank top too. Preferably with lace at the top for modesty. Also layers of pants. Tights under ripped jeans under a skirt or dress. Also those rubber bracelets (either the livestrong ones, band ones, silly bandz, or the colorful ones that all meant different things). You either wore lots of colors all the time or mostly black with pops of color (usually a band tshirt) also this was the era of ombre and dyed tips. Converse were a big deal among my group or sperrys were big among the more popular groups. Most of the fashion was pretty universal. Like both emo kids and popular people would wear the headbands to push their bangs down they were just different styles of headband and different styles of bangs. Also I didn't know a single kid who didnt write or draw on their arms and hands. Usually homework or notes but I used to draw fake tattoos or one time I drew fake gloves on my hands. People doodled on their hands and arms and also shoes. If you were wearing Converse someone had drawn a heart, skull, or star on the toe cap.

Sorry that got really long but I vividly remember 2011 lol

#this is all extremely helpful #thank you anon #message received☎️#anonymous

26 notes · View notes

talenlee · 9 days

Text

Story Pile: Lords and Ladies

From time to time I talk about Discworld books, and I will usually say that there’s no reading order. I operate on the assumption that readers have a degree of object permanence, that they are capable of telling if a story happens before or after sometihng and that if you find a story of a character that includes a former drunk in one book, and then find a story of a drunk in another book, you will be able to put the sequence of events in a meaningful order without being overwhelmed by the challenge of the book. The Discworld books are contained stories for dedicated readers capable of managing the complexities of understanding that I could reach when I was twelve years old and in a cult, I do not doubt any adult curious about them will do fine without an authoritive reading list to ensure they do not miss any of the lore.

But.

Ugh I hate that.

But but but but. But! There is a single Discworld Book that I know of (now) which opens with an author’s note that you need to be at least a little bit aware of previous stories in order to appreciate the events of this book. And then it tells you those events.

If I did this more often, I imagine I’d introduce these things by hey, let me tell you about my favourite Discworld book. But let’s do that anyway. Don’t worry, no major spoilers, just a sort of vague gesturing at the plot that’s already covered by the book jacket.

Lords and Ladies is a story of the Discworld, set in the kingdom of Lancre, about the characters of the Witches; Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat. Granny is a stern, hawkish woman who has all the makings of a grand and powerful force, a queen in waiting, and too obstinate and selfcentered to ever dare to let that happen. Nanny Ogg is like if that one raunchy grandma stereotype was scrutinised down to the ground, and Magrat is what a lot of people in the 90s really were when they imagined themselves to be ‘wytches.’ This character dynamic, in addition to fulfilling the classic Sonic/Shadow/Tails dialectic, also presents the reader with an opportunity for a rare thing in the Discworld in that it’s a very big story set in a very small place.

Lancre is nowhere. Lancre is a British Midlands vision of a Fantasy Kingdom That’s A Bit Like The British Midlands. It is mountainous and hilly as conceived by a country with literally no mountains on it, so they have the prevalence of a little kid’s drawing of a map. Its castle teeters, its people are all rural workers with probably no flat land to grow crops on and they drink a foul alcohol that is made out of apples.

Well, mostly apples.

Lancre is also ground zero for the invasion of a parasitic universe, a dimension that does not have the ability to ‘properly’ sustain itself, and from which flood its own native dominant species, a predatory humanoid perfectly suited to the consumption of Lancre’s own dominant species. There’s a repeated theme in Pratchett’s work of humans as entities in an ecosystem – it was something he played with in Reaper Man with the Maul. Now, seeing the presence of a multi-layer shopping body that displaced all local businesses in the name of consolidation and rent-seeking as some sort of parasitic creature that needed to be addressed through the presence of a violent, repelleing antibody could be seen as a suggestion of the validity of anticapitalist terrorism,

The story of Lords And Ladies is in the tradition of the Discworld narrative one where the author picks up on an existing idea from another fantasy convention and decides to grapple with it in the specific idiom of the Discworld. This requires a deeply aware consideration of the fantasy genre as a whole and the storytelling tropes that underpin that genre. In Reaper Man the idea of the cosmic meaning of a figure of death was the centerpiece. In Thud there’s a serious consideration of intractable fantasy grudges between dwarves and trolls. In Unseen Academicals, it’s Orcs.

Lords and Ladies is the Discworld take on elves, which at the time I read it, was a real shock to imagine that someone might not like elves. After all, Elves are like humans but cool and exotic, right? Why would an author not use elves as a chance to show something cool and a different, uh, uh, do I have an alternative to exotic, guess I don’t, an exotic other culture!

It’s truly embarrassing to consider with the benefit of hindsight, how much ‘elf culture’ is just ‘what white guys think even whiter guys would be like.’

I don’t really get paganism. Not properly. I like paganism; I like the invocation of a time before Christianity, a reminder that cultures do not die, they are killed, and that before my identity was wallpapered over by three layers of colonial dictation, there is a line that reaches from who I am back to people who would make up stories about horse skulls that sing cruel poems, and that that is more real to me than the political conveniences of a Roman emperor. I find it in the edges of things; of characters who evoke reminders that there were things before Christ’s God, and that there were things better than America’s Christ.

Lords and Ladies is some fantastically pagan stuff.

If you’ve not read the book (and I recommend it, I like it a lot), the cover sometimes gives away one major event of the book, showing a character standing before a slumbering, slouched, enormous humanoid form with antlers. In the ending of Narnia books, I remembered a description of a giant, of something enormous, standing over the waters before finally settling down into sleeping, that when the great book of Narnia closed, it closed on a frozen sea with someone sleeping inside it. It stands to reason in my mind that there is a shape of something giant in the historical memory. That there is something that we know, at the end of days, there will be there, standing on the horizon, as we watch our last days end.

I don’t think there will be but I think it’s real cool to use it as a visual metaphor for your time is over. Something about the wrongness of the scale, of looking up at the sun and seeing it blink, that kind of thing.

In Lords and Ladies, the witches explore these things. Why are there standing stones. What are they for. How do they work. Why should they work that way? Do you need to understand what it is to work for them to work? Are old practices inherently wrong? Are they weaker for us trying to understand them?

All told in the confrontation between a thing that sleeps, until it doesn’t have to any more.

I think Lords and Ladies has one of my favourite examples of weaponised pronouns in a story. Every elf in the narrative outside the King and Queen are referred to not as he or she or they, but instead as it. The Elves are not people with personhood as we understand it and they would not see you or me as people with personhood either. They do not consider us as entities and do not see our individuality as a thing to explain or explore – just as much as they do not consider their own individuality as meaningful to us.

There is no misgendering an elf, because an elf is not a thing that has gender or a social identity. Elves are stories. Elves are cruel and dark stories, stories about things that are Just So and rituals performed out of fear of consequences that are made up until they are very much very real.

Lords and Ladies is one of my favourite Discworld books because of how much of it is about righteous violence agianst a relentless, abusive invader. There is no ‘ah, but we have won, so we need to be the bigger and more morally appropriate people’ here. This is a story where an invading queen gets punched in the face and axed in the gut. In a very pure way, this is a story about what happens when a dehumanising colonial force arrives to consume your past and future for its own individual enrichment and what it’s worth doing to protect yourself from it, about what violence in even the meekest it incurs.

Even the blind and meek and voiceless have gods.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Discworld #Media #Story Pile

4 notes · View notes

wastelandhell · 1 year

Text

Thank you so much @bokatan and @h3raklion for the tag!

I can tell this is going to become a patented Furby wall of text™ so I'll just throw in a cut now. tl;dr: I love you all and i draw danse way too much

This has been an interesting year mostly in that its my first time posting personal art online in, what, 7 years? I stopped doing this kind of drawing shortly after high school. I picked up painting flash and have been focusing on my tattooing since then. In that time I never did any digital drawing or character drawing until 2 years ago this month, when I drew Val for the first time.

I was terrified to post anything anywhere, I think I posted one piece to reddit, but besides that I kept everything pretty private until April of 2022. I originally made this blog as a place to silently post my drawings and screenshots while providing a sort of devlog of my mods for my own records, and didn't think I would be noticed. I didn't realize people tracked the paladin danse tag, lol!

I'm really glad for all the people I've met through here, I never would have kept this blog up if it weren't for the wonderful messages from all of you guys. So much of my art, both in subject and execution has been influenced by the other users I've had the pleasure of interacting with and I hope to keep it up this year!

You all know I mostly just draw Val and Danse, and this is the palette I use for most things:

These are all pretty drab, I use different of blending layers and photoshop adjustments to get the colours how I want them at the end.

I usually try to use different brushes in each of my drawings, but these are the ones I come back to most often. The first one is a variant of one of these brushes, I modified it to change size based on direction and tilt. I used the brush almost exclusively until august and its still my favourite for quickly laying out forms and values. I use this one for freckles. The rest are some of my top picks from True Grit Texture Supply, mostly from Chromagraph and Monomania.

I'm glad I was able to really get into drawing this year, and going through my folder I'm pleased with how my anatomy and faces have improved. However I am disappointed in how much of it is just the same ginger fuck. I'm really stunting my growth by not varying my subjects, and now that I'm more comfortable with the tools I want to push myself to actually. uh. try. Put in the effort to make art that says something, tells a story. Less single characters floating in blank voids. More people interacting, scenes, environments. I also really want to get back into digital painting, I used to be really into digital painting and in theory know how to do it. I'm going to try and dig out that old knowledge lol.

Despite being bit bland, and having some glaring errors that still bug me, that Danse drawing is still one of my favourites. I think I spent at least 8 hours on it. I was dealing with some personal issues at the time and just really wanted to scratch that brain itch that the bos knight uniform gives me. It's stupid, I hate it, I can draw it nearly completely from memory by how often I'm looking at it.

The 'tried something new' panel is difficult because I feel like a lot of my recent work has been pretty stagnant. It's all done with the same technique, same palette, same boring cel shading, same layer order, boring. This is one of the few times I did any proper digital painting, and tried to adapt the looser style that I use when I'm drawing in analogue mediums to my digital work.

I just talked about art here and not mods because that would be a whole other wall of text. But it would boil down to: love to do it, no time, and expensive.

Also, if anybody is interested, I do my drawing in Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop on a Surface Laptop Studio.

#i do not expect anyone to read all that i just like hearing myself talk #er...you know what i mean

39 notes · View notes

doedipus · 3 months

Text

I watched oppenheimer the other night and I think if I were to describe it with any single word it would be "overproduced"

nolan has never been very good at developing characters through dialogue, and I feel like this is probably the roughest it's been. trying to discuss the pre-bomb and post-bomb parts of rob's life led to an unfocused scope with dozens of characters that mostly were around for a small handful of scenes each, and human connection between characters was cut in order to make room for more plot points to happen. the emotional core of the film felt hollow while the runtime ballooned.

people mocked the movie when it came out for ostensibly being a pity party for a guy who led development of the bomb, but I felt like in the end the movie only weakly gestured towards rob's interiority at all. there are a handful of scenes where he seems nonplussed about the jingoism of wartime america and imagines the bomb being used on his own people, but these threads get lost in the weeds as nolan chooses to focus on things that are more interesting to him. and beyond that, his presence in his romantic relationships seems incidental and tertiary. rob is a very emotionally detached character, which frustrates his lovers periodically, but again, these threads are lost in the weeds and not followed up on satisfactorily. they briefly hint at his interest in various areas of spirituality, but it doesn't noticeably tie into the plot or imagery besides explaining where that one quote is from. he's one of the only characters with significant dialogue, but he still says very little.

nolan also clearly was very excited about drawing a parallel between rob and strauss, as this forms the core framing device(s) of the film, but without much development of strauss beyond and handful of scenes which were repeated every half hour or so, it's unclear what the parallel was supposed to mean. in the end they just seem like two public figures with a petty rivalry that got out of hand rather than, again, any particular insightful commentary on either. this whole arc of the movie is a huge culprit contributing to how convoluted the presentation is, and ultimately fails to justify itself.

and this is the case for so many more plot threads beyond this. like if nolan's aim here was to make a movie about a complicated guy that properly conveyed how convoluted and meandering his life was, that's interesting I guess, but a big part of the job of biographers and documentarians is to help filter and weave narratives out of the chaos of real life, and nolan has staunchly refused to do that at all.

with respect to the bomb itself, I feel like the discussion of it here was very lackluster. we're far enough removed from the event by now to have documented things like the actual contemporary debate around whether we should've used it, what the bomb, like, did, changing narratives about it afterwards, etc. but instead we're treated to the layer 1 "a land invasion of japan would've been too costly for everyone, so we used the bomb to force a quick end to the war" interpretation we've all heard in high school. they even bring up the euphemistic phrasing of "a vital war plant with a large number of workers closely surrounded by the workers' houses" or whatever, but this is accepted uncritically by the film and not like, analyzed at all. going too far into discussing postwar japan or whatever would be more needless scope bloat, but I feel like one of the villain characters quoting stats at rob, while elsewhere the typical line is toed as usual, was not sufficient and did not do the subject matter justice.

people have been comparing oppenheimer and ziller minus one for covering similar material, but like, the political bent of both is just... bad. ziller swings for the fences with the political commentary but strays into wildly misplaced sentimentality that comes off really bad at times, and oppenheimer is seemingly petrified to say fucking anything interesting about the debacle at all.

#I feel like this is probably the most annoyed I've been with a movie in years #idk there's nolan movies I really like but this was kind of the worst parts of all of them #he hit the auteur event horizon. they gotta start assigning him people who tell him to edit things down again.

5 notes · View notes

bee-snail · 1 year

Text

So these days I started drawing a lot of my Tangled OCs, Alice and Henry! They're the children of one of the main characters of my fic, Moonrise!!

I think they're so so fun!!! I've tried making Henry's design very recently, but Alice's outfit was something I'd imagined a long time ago. I'll probably update her outfit later (give her a few more layers; some fur maybe !!)

I think it's funny how Henry kinda looks like that Ice Pillager from that one Minecraft Mob Vote.

So far I have a few doodles of them, but my favorites are these two (they're so cool!!)

They're very likely an exaggeration of fraternal twins (yes, they're twins!), and I love both of them to bits!! Watch as I gush about them for a while:

I LOVE Alice and Henry so so much. They both got (un)lucky enough to have a birth very similar to Rapunzel's—while she became the Sundrop's host thanks to Arianna consuming the Flower, Alice and Henry each got a little bit of the Moonstone's powers because their father is the Moonstone's Host!

Alice can change the formation of the Black Rocks by touching them, making them really unstable for a moment until they settle on a new shape. The Moonstone Host can no longer manipulate any rock that Alice "corrupted", which would make her a really good counter to anyone who dared steal the Moonstone, but it mostly makes her dangerous since the Dark Kingdom's structure is built around the black rocks.

She's at least 10x more rabid than her father, and very energetic. She enjoys fighting (probably a little more than she should), running, hunting, and singing, and has a tendency to show affection in very physical ways (whether it be hugs that break your spine, scratches or bites, she's saying she loves you ♥️). Between herself and her brother, Alice is the one who shows emotions a lot more blatantly, and I adore that (because it made her tantrums as a kid very funny in my opinion HEH)

Henry got the "short stick" of the power draws, and has a very concentrated version of the Hurt Incantation (or, as I like to call it, the Withering Spell.) He can make any organic being feel weakness on a large radius around him, and can focus his withering power into something very deadly on a smaller radius.

Being touched by Henry is usually very dangerous, as he can focus his entire energy into one single target, and kill an individual or more with one touch. It was quite the hassle when he was a kid at school. Eventually, in an attempt to "fix" himself, Henry tried working with dark magic; a terrible mistake when you have absolutely no idea what you're dealing with. From that point forwards, Henry was then granted a special connection with the dead, and can talk to spirits of the deceased—even those who are too weak to show themselves to most, like Ruthless Ruth!

They're a really fun duo. I care them so much!!

#tts #tangled the series #TTS OC #tangled the series oc #my art #moonrise au

21 notes · View notes

ladyalisette · 1 year

Text

How to make your fan plushie: Part 1 - Patterning

Mind you, this goes for every plushie, but i am usually making fandom ones.

The first thing you want is reference pictures. Depending on how geometric and symetric the thing you’re making is, you want different sort of references.

For Ghosties I usually ask for a front, a side and a back view. IF the Ghostie is very asymetric, it may be necessary to get a top and a bottom view, too. For the Horus shell I ended up with my friend standing on Nessus, ghost out, while I was taking screenshots through my sniper scope from underneath to get a good view on what the underside of that baby looked like.

If you’re working from something that doesn’t have good around-views, you may have to either extrapolate or experiment. Don’t be afraid of that! Remember. If you can’t see it, nobody else can either and that means you’re FREE.

Now, let’s assume you have something that looks approximate like this:

Now it’s time to actually MAKE your pattern.

Now, there are a few things I use as guidelines here. One: how big a plushie do you want? And two, how small you can possibly work. In my experience, working mostly with fleece and felt, there is a limit to how small you can make an item and still be able to turn it out, or even sew it properly, without problems.

Note: all of this goes for handsewing. I do not own a sewing machine, so you may have to take that into extra consideration when you work. Like, how small an item can you still work on your machine? How many layers of fabric? That sorta thing.

Anyhow: for me, what worked best is to basically decide on an item that will be my ‘reference size’. For Ghosts, i use the eye/iris. I have one pattern piece for it that I use for all my ghosts, so they all come out in comparable sites.

Having one piece that’s your reference allows you to sort of ‘lead’ yourself to other sizes. If your iris is this big, and in the images the black around it is only half as wide, that immediately gives you the size of the black part and from there you can extrapolate further.

My suggestion is to pick a size you can easily quarter, half, or double. My irises have a side length of 2cm (Metric system and all) so a black circle of half-again that wide has a radius of 3cm, just to give an example.

My suggestion is to draw your reference piece on crafting card and cut it out and keep it on hand, and then work the other pieces accordingly.

The first plushie I build was a g1 Soundwave. It ended up looking like this:

My reference piece was lower leg. I decided how long I wanted it to be, and then used that size again for the length of the whole leg and then used the proportions to guide me forward. There was a lot of trial and error, but that’s how it goes.

What I did was i cut out a folded open part, like so (this is the foot):

Then you fold it up, fixate it with a tape if your choice (i use packaging tape, mostly) and this way construct half of your plushie (if symmetric). If pieces end up not matching, you can more easily remove a single part, adjust it (shorten a side? Tape on more to lengthen it?) and tape it back without taking apart the entire piece.

once you have what you consider ‘enough’ of your plushie - half if it’s symmetric, less if you have a pattern that can be done in identical quarters - you can take apart the entire thing, cut open the taped sections and bang, those are your pattern pieces.

Note, this will give you pattern without seam allowances. If you want your seam allowance included in the pattern, you can glue your card piece onto play paper, trace, add seam allowance, cut out the larger piece. Personally, I don’t bother. I trace my pieces directly on the fabric and just cut half a centimeter away from the line.

Your fabric choice may influence how you do that. Fleece and felt don’t need a hem, since they don’t fray. If your fabric frays, you may need more seam allowance, and potentially prefer a pattern piece that includes that already, for easier arranging on the fabric.

Still, this method will give you a pattern! Cardboard or even better, crafting card, works well for blocks, rigid shapes. Paper works better for things you need to bend and round out. For example, the sides of the Horus shell, in the pattern stage, looked like this:

(the feathers are just layered pieces)

Now, there is one thing is method of pattering doesn’t do as well, and that’s balls or orbs.

But. I got patterns for that too, and they’re a lot easier than darts or those beachball eliptic shapes. This is the cheater’s approach to doing orbs.

You’re using concentric circles. Allow me to explain.

This is your pattern (a ‘bowl’), and the trick is this: The concentric circle, when cut from fabric with the seam allowance, are all a tiny bit ‘too big’ to neatly fit into each other. Not enough to make big folds, but enough that if you stuff the result, fabric stretch will force it into an orb shape.

You sew the circles into each other, and then band around the side, to form a bowl. The length of the band determines the final circumference of your orb, and you can add circles up front if you want a bigger plushie, or just made the circles wider.

The result should look something like this (this turned into a skull):

Imagine that mirrored, and filled firmly with stuffing. It’s an orb. It’s an orb that needs minimal math and NO darts, NO elipses, no nothing. Just concentric circles that are all slightly too big to fit neatly into each other, and a ‘rim’ for the bowl. You make two identical bowls, stick them together in the middle and Drifter’s your uncle.

Next up: chosing your fabric, cutting your parts and get going on the sewing itself!

#crafty crafty #by popular demand

11 notes · View notes