2023 TF Big Bang - Ad Astra Et Retro!!
I'm so excited to present what I came up with for this year's Transformers Big Bang (@tf-bigbang)!! Behold: my beloved BlitzBee Barbarian/Tribal AU called Ad Astra Et Retro! I hope y'all like what I came up with!! I tried my best! This is the first time I've written something like this, let alone sharing it!!
I was so lucky to have @shapeofmetal illustrate for my story! They created such lovely pieces!! Please check them out here! I wanna cry every time I see them haha!
I'm sooo glad I participated in my first ever Big Bang! I never would have written so much without the amazing support of everyone involved! I might have been mostly a lurker throughout, but seeing everyone so passionate, kind, and helpful with everyone's journeys really pushed me into believing in myself too! It's been awe-inspiring! So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone involved for making my first ever Big Bang a wonderful experience!! I can't wait to see what everyone has come up with!
Lastly, I hope we all continue to be inspired by the world around us and continue to create out of love!! Your creations make this world a better place, so embrace the light that burns within you and have fun telling your story!!
Until next time!
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Here have a snippet of the next chapter for HTRAJ y'all :D I'm mid write and I'm vibin' with what I have so far
“He’s long gone, Eds. Can we go back inside now? It’s fucking freezing out here,” Gareth asked, rubbing at his bare arms and shivering as the frigid winter wind raced past them. Eddie could barely feel his own body, but he ignored both the cold and Gareth’s words, walking towards his van.
Steve was there. He had to be. He had to be, or else Eddie was going to lose his mind worrying over what was probably nothing, and he might say something incredibly stupid when they actually found Steve, and that would ruin everything they had worked so hard to build.
Luckily for Eddie’s increasingly fragile heart and mind, he spotted a familiar pair of beat up old converse poking out, attached to dark wash jeans that he instantly recognized. Eddie practically melted in relief, jogging around to the other side, needing to see Steve’s face.
He opened his mouth to spout off some stupid quip about dining and dashing, but he stopped short the second he saw Steve’s state. All of the relief instantly vanished, replaced by a bone deep dread that overtook Eddie’s entire being.
Steve was sitting on the ground, his knees pulled close to his chest and his eyes staring firmly at the pavement. He was as still as a statue and just as silent, barely even blinking as he took shallow uneven breaths. Eddie could see him shaking from where he stood, trembling like a leaf in the wind as he continued to just stare at nothing.
Something was wrong.
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"Plants" Process (Initial Sketch | Layers)
Sure, might as well talk about this one, because I actually have a bit to say about it.
So the title I uploaded this with, "Say you will about NSR..." was originally a (*mis)quote he says in the game when you fully unlock the Natura district. The line isn't especially significant, but I've always thought of it as surprisingly "quaint." It's very small, but it serves to humanize him just a little bit when up to and after this point he's dipped into cartoon-style villainy. These brief moments of honesty within his duplicitous nature is a part of why I find him to be an endearing character.
*The actual quote is, "Say what you want about NSR..." but I mistyped it when posting it. The meaning of the line is basically the same, though.
Due to this line, I've had the idea of drawing him surrounded by plants for a while. My first iterations of this idea usually involved him on an apartment balcony adorned with plants and overlooking the city. Sadly, my visions for the scene exceeded my artistic ability, so it's an idea that's been on the back burner for a while.
[A sketch I did last year based on the idea.]
It wasn't until I just randomly thought to come back to this idea that I sketched this piece.
But tbh, I don't think my vision was very clear. There's no sense that he exists in a real place (why in the world would a hanging planter be hung so low, XP). All I knew was that I wanted to draw him surrounded by plants, and that originally I wanted the color palette to be very limited.
Very recently, the SiIvagunner channel had uploaded a parody video of the Yona Yona Dance MV, which led me to listening/watching the original video (which I somehow managed to never see up to that point).
I found the limited color pallet of the video to be very striking, and I wanted to make something inspired by it combined with the experiment I did with my recent Kliff x Tati piece, which also only used about 4 colors.
However, I am abysmal at color picking, so I grabbed a color palette from @/color-palletes (link) to help the process along. In the end, I couldn't keep myself from trying to use all possible colors. Strictly speaking, there's a shade of every color in the rainbow in the final piece, which is about as far from a "limited palette" as it could be. Nonetheless, I think the darker tones of the colors do help to tie everything together, so it feels more limited than it actually is.
To return to discussing the sketch itself, there were a few ideas that changed and evolved throughout the process.
Besides moving some of the plants around, an idea I had that didn't get fully realized was that the three smaller plants in front of him were supposed to represent the game's rockstars: Mayday, Zuke and Tatiana. I had difficulty making that happen with the limited palette: since May, Kliff, and Tati share a lot of colors (notably red), and one of Zuke's main colors is green, the same color for the plants, it was difficult to main the references while still having them all not blend into each other. Perhaps with more time to think through the idea I could have reached a compromise, but as things are, that reference was more or less lost.
To get it out of the way: there isn't any real symbolism behind the plants chosen. They were picked strictly on their aesthetic value/ease of drawing them. If you wanna stretch, the Zuke vase is holding red flowers (poppies), so it's kinda referencing that time his hair was set on fire, but that's totally incidental~ However, I will say that originally that vase was supposed to hold orchids since it's apparently a flower common in Malaysia, but I had difficulty drawing them and settled on poppies. Hibiscus plants were also considered for similar reasons, but as someone who's actually grown up around hibiscus flowers, I knew I didn't really have another place to put them since those plants actually get really friggin' big.
Something else that was lost was the poster behind the snake plant. Originally I had thought to put a poster of Kul Fyra on the wall, but I honestly got pretty lazy about adding the details. That and Kul Fyra's colors would have blended into Kliff hair since she's a combination of reds and yellows. But that space felt so empty without *something* there, so I messed around with random shapes and eventually just landed on putting up some records. It's a generic detail, but I do feel like they add a "pop art" quality to the piece.
To conclude, this was very fun to work on and the turnaround on it was fairly fast. Usually for pieces like this, the process takes me a few days, but I sketched and finished this all in the same day. Had I given myself more time to sleep on this, I might have worked a little harder to incorporate some of my other ideas and clean it up a little more. That said, this is still one of my favorite pieces as of late, and I hope that I'm able to make more things like it.
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5, 7, and 9 with whichever f/o has been rotated the most in your mind as of late? For the "Rile up" asks. :o (Yearnin-cryptid)
I'm doing this one for Lord K. because he's literally the CEO of the salt mines around here asdngsgs
5) what’s the dumbest thing you’ve heard about your f/o, either on the internet or irl?
Let's do a Retail AU and make him a security guard. Surely this won't completely flatten out his character to a boring one-dimensional shell of his former self, leaving only his anger issues and inclination to violence the only surviving elements of his original (as in, developed by yours truly but stolen and chopped up for evil purposes by someone I shan't name) personality :)
If you know, you know. Old sins might have been disguised under a new name to the eyes of the masses, but I remember. I remember everything 👁👁
7) did your f/o deserve better?
In terms of writing? Absolutely. But do I trust the OG developers to handle it correctly, the way it's supposed to be? Absolutely fucking NOT. I alone have achieved that honor and duty. It is my crown to wear, my cross to bear.
As for his boss fight? YEAH. Like I never expected something out of a FromSoftware game, but damn... The Resurrection version is the only one I find varied and interesting enough, so once again it proves to be the superior rendition, despite it all uwu💅✨
9) do you distance yourself from other fans of your f/o or their source?
[original post here]
Honestly, it's not even the greater public (because it doesn't exist). It's the people on this very site even 🌚🌝
f/o asks to rile y'all up
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Rules: In a new post, show the last line you wrote and tag as many people as there are words.
tagged by @bayouteche <3 thank you friend!!! (also anyone who isn't following her or haven't checked out her work... what are you doing?? c'mon. get with it. she's amazing.)
DINGUS: guys seriously. how the fuck do i change my name?
no pressure tags: @abibliophobiaa @blue-mossbird @jo-harrington @boomhauer (i know you've already been tagged but... your writing babes.... incredible i'm sorry)
i can't think of 11 people to tag right now so if you see this by all means join in the fun!! i've got writer's brain rn. also emphasis on no pressure haha
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dynamics tag drop.
pretty words pretty words pretty words / rel: character & character (url).
there's love above love and it's ours 'cause i love you too much / rel: ellen marie & stephen (wrensfeatheredpen).
if you could let me in i could be good with you / rel: rhonda & action (whatsbehindthefacade).
i could stay awake just to hear you breathing / rel: karen & ice (whatsbehindthefacade).
how can i ever tell them this is not a puppy love? / rel: tessie & john (whatsbehindthefacade).
suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste it all revolves around you / rel: graziella & riff (whatsbehindthefacade).
would you wanna run away too? 'cause all i really want is you / rel: heather & dodge (soldwrecked).
hand in my hand and we promised to never let go / rel: graziella & riff (soldwrecked).
because you matter to me simple and plain and not much to ask from somebody / rel: pam & ricky (riickyjay).
to hold a violent man's face in your hands to set him and his blood aside / rel: graziella & riff (heygutlcss).
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