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blacktabbygames · 5 months

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Slay the Princess Concept Art

We shared a bunch of concept art on Twitter today. Sharing it here, too, where you can find it all in one post. Post contains spoilers, so proceed with caution (or just play the game already if you haven't 😉)

Going to start with the first piece of concept art Abby drew for the game.

In the earliest stages of development, we toyed around with the concept of there being multiple "end game" forms of the Princess.

The initial outline, rather than being tied together by an overarching metanarrative, structured a full playthrough as a 5-6 chapter long, self-contained journey down a single route, determined by your decisions in chapter 1. Here's an alternative late-game form:

The idea of deviating end-game forms didn't lost for very long, though. As we explored the game's themes more deeply, it made the most sense for there to be a singular "true" form.

If your reality is shaped by subjectivity and perception, then the "truth" has to be what's left when that subjectivity is swept away. the Shifting Mound's final design feels like that initial truth for the Princess, though there's also another truth if you push back against her and press on into the final cabin.

We really liked this "void" design, and I played around with the idea of it being an intermediary to the final form. The "void" Princess would be what you saw upon encountering the final Princess without understanding your own truth, but once you had that understanding, you would see her as the Shifting Mound, as depicted in the game.

That gave way to the intermediary design of the SM being a sea of disembodied limbs, and we also took parts of both designs and incorporated them into the protagonist (particularly the wings.) You can see the eyes and feathers for this void form in the ending card of the original trailer below:

You can see extremely early concept art for the spectre (top), nightmare (top-right), stranger (left), beast (bottom) and ??? (right) as well!

The eyes became a motif in the Nightmare route (Paranoid's manifestation of the fear of being watched), but I also like to think of them as a part of The Long Quiet's truth. You are space and emptiness, but you're also that which observes those things, and it's your perceptions that give the Shifting Mound shape.

Anyways, on the note of the original original concepts for the game, the Princess was initially going to remain human for several loops before taking on more monstrous forms. Some concepts of that are below. Had to get Abby to tone down some of the more horrifically cartoonish designs because they creeped me out and I didn't want to romance them in a video game.

We had to hold our cards close to our chest in the non-metanarrative early drafts, which is part of why, even in the first demo, the cabin doesn't really change much in chapter 2. More room to subtly play with the concept of transformation over time.

There were a lot of reasons we moved in a different direction for the full release. The branching was unmanageably large to write, and the game felt like a slog to write.

Using an overarching narrative as a framing mechanism in the final version gave us a lot more freedom to explore wildly divergent ideas within routes while still driving the player towards the originally planned finale.

Anyways, now we've got some concept art for individual princesses. There's a lot more than this lying around somewhere, but it's all in sketchbooks, and we'll probably wait until we make an art book to show it off.

First is the tower, who really didn't change much at all. (She got a little thicker, I guess. All of the Princesses did)

Not a lot to say about her, other than the fact that we knew we wanted a set piece where she gets so big that the trees and cabin orbit around her.

The stranger went through many many redesigns over the course of development. Here, she was a "princess skin" filled with a hive of sentient bugs. The script wasn't working for me, though, so instead she became a peak behind the curtains without the necessary context to know her.

A lot of people ask how these earlier drafts of the Stranger route would have played out, and the answer is I can't tell you, because I couldn't figure out something worth writing.

The writing process for individual routes didn't really start with outlines or plot beats. Rather, the routes started from a theme and a relationship dynamic, and I organically found their outcomes by exploring actions within those themes, and then seeing if those passed Abby's editor brain.

Neither of us found actions we wanted to explore with those versions of the Stranger, at least actions that weren't a beat-by-beat retelling of chapter 1, which contained way too much variation to put on a single chapter 2 route.

If each princess examines a relationship formed by perception and first impressions, the Stranger examines one that's fundamentally unknowable. One where you've seen too much, too quickly.

An insect hive-mind pretending to be a person seemed like a good starting point, but it was too difficult to write any interactions that didn't immediately feel knowable, if still strange. So the final version of the Stranger was designed in such a way where her unknowability makes interacting with her on a human level fundamentally impossible, and you don't get to have a real conversation with her unless you satisfy extremely specific criteria.

Anyways next up is the razor's final form. We decided she needed more swords.

Hearts became an accidental motif very quickly in the development process, too. (The fact that it is only strikes to the heart that fell her in the demo was accidental, but it felt poetic so we extended it to the rest of the game.)

So on top of adding more swords, we made her heart visible. This is something we did with the fury as well, as a way of showing their emotional (and physical) vulnerability.

Here's an early version of the Adversary and what would eventually become the Eye of the Needle, back when she was still called the Fury. Originally her hair was going to be fire (as seen on the right), but it didn't feel right in its execution.

She's hit the gym since this concept art. Good for her :)

And we're going to end with the Beast, who at this point was called the Adversary. I think this was before the Witch was added? The Beast was originally designed to be a Questing Beast who lurked in the shadows, where you'd only see glimpses of her, and where each glimpse would make her appear to be a different animal. This was too difficult to execute, though we gave her a more chimera-like appearance in the final game.

This design was from when we still has the Voice of the Obsessed, and the route was going to be a more feral mirror of what eventually became the Adversary, but it felt too thematically similar while being less interesting, so we moved in the direction of making the Beast about consumption as a form of love.

Anyways, that's all we've got for you right now. Hope this was fun!

#slay the princess #interactive fiction #character design

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ataraxiaspainting · 2 months

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There’s a Certain Slant of Light.

Yan (Soulmate) Chrollo x F Reader.

Synopsis: Something is different. But what could it be?

Warnings: Yandere themes, the reader is unwillingly a Spider and from Meteor City, mentions of religion/religious imagery, implied drugging, manipulation, and unhealthy relationships.

Word Count: 1k.

i’ve been seeing a lot of chrollo being paired with a phantom troupe member reader and i just think that the concept is very interesting! :D

credits for og art piece here!

*~*~*~*

Your sword, while having the ability to stab and slice just about anything, is still by far the most frail weapon at your disposal. It is a slight sadness that fills Chrollo’s mind, then, once he realizes this. The feeling is small, minuscule, just like most of the other emotions Chrollo’s heart cannot beat with, the blood that flows through his veins frozen with the concept of what he wants to be. He feels next to nothing as if he were a walking corpse, a prisoner who has just been released from the deepest depths of hell, not once being able to see twinkling eyes and shining stars. Light is a concept unknown to people like him, and people like you, foreign, as alien as a coup made of peasants storming a palace larger than ten of their villages combined.

Your two true weapons are your lips calling out his name, and the thin red string that connects your little finger and your fate to his thumb and his future. Despite the thread being wispier than that of paper, it has a will stronger than one forged in diamonds and never had to be a carbon crystal to be so. Chrollo is thankful for it, more so than he is for most things that he would rather leave in the past. It has linked you two together for so long and has been the key for chaining down your animosity towards him whenever he had gone too far. All he had to do was tug, and you would be right back wherever he had placed you. But even diamonds can shatter when a love made in a less-than-fortunate childhood turns more and more into hate.

This entire act is like a balancing beam. He must not be too loud, but also not be too quiet. He must always have cards up his sleeve for any potential mishaps down the line. Inside one hand is the key to your freedom, but inside the other is the key to a false route to such fantasies, the trap of reality. Even Chrollo does not know which is which, for he is a dreamer himself at heart.

“Good morning, sir,” It is a rare sight, you yawning, your posture nowhere near how put together it usually is. “How are you today, sir?”

“Very well, thank you.”

“I must have been quite exhausted last night; my apologies, sir.”

“I told you if you ever wanted to take a break here, you are more than welcome to.”

“I’ve always declined such an offer for a reason, sir.”

“Just as I’ve always told you that you may call me just Chrollo for a reason, [First]. I think I haven't heard you say my name without an honorific since we were both still children if my memory serves correctly.”

“...”

The provocation of the past seems to hurt you more than him it seems, from how you flinch at the word children, and from how he smiles at your discomfort.

“We are not with the rest of the Troupe right now, it is quite alright if you want to relive prior times, wouldn’t you say?” He asks, and with his eyes appearing to look back at his books, he sees yours darting around the room, looking for an escape route.

They move left, to the tables at the back of the sitting room which hold lamps and framed photos and paintings. Then right, to the fireplace and the large but still solitary couch, covered with leather and embroideries. Then up, to the crackless and spotless white ceiling, and then down, to the wooden rosewood planks of the floor.

“I saw a book in your satchel. Crime and Punishment, hmm?”

“Yes. Please do not say how ironic it is, sir.”

“Very well.”

To you, perhaps the room feels deathly still. To him, it feels like the scene right before the climax. Slow, steady, full of tension and dread. Though Chrollo will never let the curtains that cover your very soul close ever again. It would not be hard to get them to open up again, you have known each other for so long after all, but regardless he needs you to stay within the palm of his hand forevermore. Only then will he be able to feel something so warm and soft once more.

Oh, how he wishes that he could open the floor below you and trap you there. But he cannot. At least not yet.

“...Where is my bag?” At your question, Chrollo pulls his thumb towards him, and you move accordingly. “It is not in the room.” You continue, your eyebrows furrowing as you attempt to resist. “Sir?”

Desperation. Then a hand raise and a pause.

“Stolen treasure from the last meeting.” Chrollo begins curtly. “A contact list full of people I have not permitted you to speak to. Keys to a car that is not mine.” He proceeds to say. “Tell me, [First], what is all of this, hmm?”

Something akin to a mix of a horrified chuckle and a choking sound emerges from your throat as if his hands were squeezing and squeezing until you burst. He sets the book he was reading down, and without his hands covering both the front and back of it, you see the title, the synopsis.

“Crime and Punishment, hmm?” He repeats, and for the first time in what must be a few years, he sees you terrified, shaking, and near to tears. “A clever way to code your plan.” Chrollo crosses his legs. “By the way, it is an hour or so past sunset by now.” He hears a small gasp from you. “You missed your flight a long time ago, sweet thing.”

“...I… I…”

“You were planning on leaving us, weren’t you?” When you don’t answer, instead looking straight towards the door, he raises his thumb again. “I know you never wanted to join the Troupe, per se, but still… this hurts.” He pulls and pulls, and being forced to be a puppet for the umpteenth time since the soulmate string has appeared in Chrollo’s vision, you are placed where he wants you to be.

Close to him.

#author aya #yandere #yandere x reader #yandere hunter x hunter #yandere hxh #yandere chrollo #yandere chrollo x reader #yandere hxh x reader #chrollo x reader #yandere hunter x hunter x reader #yandere chrollo lucilfer x reader #yandere chrollo lucilfer #chrollo lucilfer x reader

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the-hole-in-terzos-shoe · 9 months

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My Muse

Cardinal Copia x Artist!Reader

CW: SMUT, 18+, MDNI

The Cardinal catches his favorite Sister of Sin making some spicy art on her iPad, and smut ensues.

A request written for the lovely @mustluvecho 🌹 you are the best and deserve all the love in the world from our precious Cardinal, especially for the beautiful art you make of him!

Btw this is based on a real piece of art Echo made. I'll leave it up to her if she'd like to share 😉

Word Count: 2k

"...do you know what I mean, Sorella?"

Your beloved Cardinal continues to scribble away at something on his desk, absentmindedly rambling to you about his week, when he notices you haven't responded to him in several minutes. "Sorella?" He perks up, gazing across the room to find his favorite Sister of Sin perched on his bed, lost in her own little world as she whittles away at something on her iPad.

Silence falls over the room, except for the sound of your Apple Pencil quietly tapping the glass screen. Copia decides it's time to quit working for now anyway; it is the weekend after all, time to partake in the sin of sloth.

Letting out a sigh, the Cardinal stands, sauntering over to get a peek at your art. What he sees makes him flush a deep shade of red, coughing wildly to disguise his shock as if he were choking on something.

"Cardi, are you okay??!" you ask, concerned at his sudden outburst.

"Sì, Sorella! I am- I am fine!!" he says practically running to the kitchenette, "I was just going to make some tea, would you like some?!"

Surely your face showed your confusion, but you don't question it further, simply replying with your favorite tea flavor.

After a while, he re-enters the room, tray in hand with a pot of water and teacups.

"You're dressed nice," you remark at his button up shirt and slacks. It's not the full Cardinal get up, but you know that's pretty much what he wears underneath the cassock.

"Ah, yes. I had a meeting with Papa Terzo this morning," he responds, pouring water into the porcelain cups and plopping teabags in.

"Terzo? He got up early on Saturday for a meeting? Must've been important." You glance up at Copia momentarily in disbelief before returning to your drawing.

"I said I 𝘩𝘢𝘥 a meeting; I didn't say it happened," he deadpans, before you chuckle at the realization of what he meant. "I'm sure he had some Ghoul or fine Sorella occupying his short attention span." He rolls his eyes, drizzling a little honey into his teacup.

"Or both," you quip.

"Dirty girl," he mumbles under his breath, trying to hide the smirk on his lips. "May I sit?"

"You may, but it's pajamas only in this bed," you smirk back up at him.

"Oh, so you get to make the rules about what happens in my bed?" You love seeing him banter like this; he isn't always so confident around others, and it had taken a while for you to get him out of his shell.

"Well... I seem to recall you whispering in my ear about how I was your queen a few nights ago. Typically the queen makes the rules," you shrug.

He scrunches his nose at you playfully before going to change as you had requested. In the meantime you take a sip of your own tea, appreciating the way Copia always makes it just the way you like.

Returning in nothing but a pair of maroon sweatpants that leave little to the imagination, he asks, "Is this to your liking, amore mio?"

You look up from your artwork, admiring your muse standing at the foot of the bed, hands on his hips and expectant eyebrows raised. Smiling shyly, you still find yourself easily flustered by your lover, even after all this time. Gazing over his bare chest, dusted with brunette hair and marked with the sign of the Olde One, and then on up to his handsome visage with his well-groomed mustache and full sideburns, you nod your approval.

"Now, may I sit?" he repeats his earlier question.

You nod again, glancing back down at your tablet, but when you feel his hands on your shoulders, urging you to lean forward, you giggle, "What are you doing?!"

"Sorella," he grunts as he throws a leg behind you, flopping down on the mattress, "I am 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 to offer you a more comfortable seating arrangement as well!"

His dramatic tone sets you off laughing, while he settles in comfortably behind you. Your Cardinal knows humor is one of the many ways to your heart, and, oh, how he desires to be someone that you care for. Finally, with his legs on either side of yours and his back against the headboard, he pulls your hips so you're placed squarely in front of him then tugs on your shoulders so you're lying back against his chest.

You stop and look up at him, trying to hide your chuckles.

"Well, we are comfortable now, sì? Go on, continue sketching," he dismisses you with a smirk, as if he hadn't just caused a scene trying to get in bed.

"Okayyy," you concede, still grinning as you return your iPad to your lap.

Now, the sketch you are working on is quite... steamy, to put it lightly. Your Cardinal had caught a glance at it earlier, but now he's settled in, your heat pressing against him as you work diligently.

From what he can tell from the lines on the digital page, it seems two lovers are deep in the throes of passion trying what he would describe as a rather... experimental position. Depicting a man laid back with his partner atop him, facing away and legs spread wide, the picture has heat rushing various places in Copia's body. First and foremost, the flush in his cheeks tells him he is feeling embarrassed or even guilty, like a young boy seeing a Playboy for the first time. But the stirring between his legs has him wanting to see more.

Carefully he peaks over your shoulder, watching the naughty display come to life before him. "S-so... Is, um, is that... you?" he asks softly, admiring the curves of the hips and breasts of the woman on screen.

You chuckle at the way his shy personality resurfaced, "Yes, see?" You pinch to zoom out, revealing your own likeness next to his, clearly blissed out.

"Is-is-is-is that 𝘮𝘦??" he stutters, shocked.

Turning to look over your shoulder at his bewildered expression, you pull him in for a sweet kiss, fingertips tickling at his jawline. "Of course it is, il mio Cardinale... I haven't been with anyone else since you."

Blushing at your admission, he tells you, "S-sì, I haven't either, amore." Just as you're about to turn your attention back to your art, he blurts out, "But... but we haven't done that before."

"Hmm?" you ask coyly.

"That--uhh--𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵!" He points at the lovers intertwined. "The position... We haven't done that position before."

"Well, that's what art is for," you smile at him, "to explore the feelings we've had in the past, or maybe want to experience in the future..."

As you go back to your work, your lover finds his hands gripping your hips roughly as his head is reeling, the blood traveling south not helping his case. "Well... Wouldn't you like to," he grunts into the back of your neck, mustache tickling at the skin there, "work from a real life reference?" The buck of his hips into your backside accentuates his point.

You press the end of your stylus to your lips, trying to hide your excitement.

"I mean, we are already right here... We are practically in position as it is, cara mia," his suave manner sneaks forward again. With that, his hand sneaks down your front urging your legs aside.

"Copiaaa," you sigh as his fingers softly trace over your core through your silky pajama bottoms. Relaxing into his ministrations, your head rolls back, landing on his shoulder. His other hand snakes around your waist, holding you steady as he massages your breasts. Alternating rolling your nipples between his fingers, he knows he'll make you putty in his hands in no time at all.

"Sì, bella mia, what is it you want?" his voice hums low in your ear.

"You, Cardinal, I want you... I want 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴," you hold up your iPad to make your point before tossing it aside.

Without another word, he catches your lips against his in a heated kiss, mustache prickling at your upper lip as his tongue practically pries its way into your mouth. As if he's in some kind of rush, Copia's hands grip the waistband of your shorts, pulling them and your underwear down in one swift motion. Miraculously, you manage to not break the kiss while kicking them off, and your Cardinal's hand returns right back to where it had been, earning a muffled groan from you as he teases your folds with his deft digits.

Unfortunately, it never lasts long enough as he's onto the next task of getting you propped up on your feet, knees bent as you hover over his lap as he squirms his way out of his own clothing.

"What's the rush?" you chuckle at your lover.

He pauses briefly, like a kid caught with his hand on the cookie jar, "Have you seen that drawing, Sorella?? I am in need of that immediately," he says with urgency, "You know very well how I am when I want something."

Another laugh leaves you, but it's cut short by Copia suddenly pulling you down on his aching cock. Gasping loudly at the stretch, your eyes go wide at first before fluttering closed at the sensation of his warmth pressed tightly against your fluttering walls.

He only offers you a brief moment to adjust before nudging your ass, urging you to move.

Rocking your hips lightly at first, you chide him, "Demanding, huh?" You smirk to yourself as you start to bounce up and down on his length, grateful for his strong hands helping you stay stable above him.

"S-so good, bella mia," he groans, "the angle is... delightful..."

You can hear just how affected he is. "Sounds like the party might be over before it even begins," you joke, laced with concern.

He glances up at you with a fire in his eyes before gripping the underside of your thigh firmly, taking control of your pace. "Just because the ride is short, Sorella, does not mean it won't be the time of your life," he grunts between thrusts.

The hand under your thigh causes you to lean just a bit to one side, making it easier to turn and look into his eyes as he impales your body on his girth. His other hand takes grip on your ribs, fingertips brushing at your breast, helping to push your weight up and drop you back down again. Wordless, you snake your fingers into his hair, jaw hung open in pure bliss as he slams that sweet spot within you over and over and over.

"Touch yourself," he commands, "touch yourself for me, amore."

You comply, hand slipping from his locks to tease the area where your bodies are conjoined, eyes squeezed shut as you hurdle towards the heights of your pleasure. The thing that sends you over the edge is his hot mouth dragging against your nipple, sucking it harshly.

"Cardi-" you choke out the nickname as your body shudders, clamping down on him as your legs tremble in his hands. "Cum- cum with me, Cardi!!!"

"I am, Sorella, I'm cumming," he nearly whines as you're filled with his warmth, mustering all his strength to not go limp right then and there as his cock swells inside you. Riding you through the waves of your shared orgasm, Copia then slips out of you before flopping you next to him against the pillows before slouching down himself, dragging in deep breaths.

Recovering a bit quicker than him, you curl up by his side with a giggle, "Are you okay, my Cardinal? I didn't break you, did I?"

Languidly, his gaze turns to you, still looking a little mind blown, "Well... My dick may well never be the same after that, but I think I'll be alright." He throws an arm over your waist, as you squeal at his crass remark. "Seriously, amore, you must keep making your art. I've never seen anything quite so... inspiring." He gives you a wink before pulling the sheets over your entangled forms.

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tossawary · 5 months

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I started watching a few extremely long reviews of garbage books (and some reviews of better books, but that's not what I'm focusing on here) because 1) I need stuff playing in the background while I work and there's a LOT of time to fill, and 2) I don't have to pay it my full attention (can't give it). I'm not going to be tested on this later. I don't even have to look at the screen.

While I understand "everyone stop talking about garbage books, you're just giving them free advertising, you're being PROVOKED into giving this terrible book free advertising", it is still... fun... to listen to someone pull apart the pieces of a badly written story just to dunk on them. And if the reviewer actually knows what they're talking about in regards to writing and better stories, then you can actually learn a lot. I think that when learning, it helps to study good art and how it works, but it can also help to look at "bad art" and study why it doesn't work. I think that the strings of what a creator is trying to accomplish are often more visible here.

I also picked up some specific tips to keep in mind when providing descriptions! Example: It generally pays to design your world (characters, locations) with more specifics to draw people in. What KIND of sword? What KIND of tree? Also, when people write descriptions, they leave often leave out the sense of smell, which is not always necessary to include, but can be a helpful tool when setting a scene. Like, I already knew this stuff, but it's good to keep specific thoughts / critiques freshly in mind if there's something specific that I want to work on in my own writing.

I'm also super nosy sometimes and I want to know what people are talking about without having to read it for myself. And I know some people find it depressing that writing THIS bad gets published at all and becomes super popular, and I feel that sometimes, but I also find it kind of heartening while reflecting on my own writing and knowing I'm definitely better than that. And I actually like being reminded that I'm not alone in my frustration at various creative industries, and being reminded how much of success comes down to connections and good luck.

Most of all, sometimes I just really need some random book nerd to take me gently by the hand and say, "You're not crazy. It's not just you. This New York Times bestseller, that went viral on TikTok, by a multi-millionaire author, is complete dogshit."

(I haven't read anything super bad recently, actually, but years ago, I read a single Danielle Steel book (from a library, can't remember the title) because I saw her name around a lot and I was vaguely curious if she was honestly any good. That book made me feel nuts with how bad it was. Airport bookshops lied to me about her skill as an author. :( )

#I was watching KrimsonRogue and as far as I know he hasn't read Steel; I hope he doesn't; he seems like he's been through enough #tossawary watching #tossawary reading

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gachagon · 10 months

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"Make your own Barnaby"

With the newest update for Welcome Home released, I thought it was perfect to come back to the fandom and finally write down this really odd theory I've had for a while now concerning Barnaby. It's more like an odd connection I've noticed actually, and that's the idea that Barnaby isn't really a "puppet" in the way the others are. Barnaby's "puppet" is sort of like Big Birds puppet, where it's both a suit and a hand puppet that one has to control from the inside.

Barnaby's Puppet was also much larger and taller than the other neighbors, much like Big Bird's puppet is. I bring this up because even though that one art of wally going 'Look I made a dog" isn't necessarily "canon" the main story, there is still a lot of allusions to Barnaby being in pieces on the website.

And the idea of "Making a Barnaby" isn't something that only exists in that one piece of art, as the WHRP stated that they believe there may have been patterns for you to make one yourself at home.

I believe Barnaby is a lot more suspicious as a character not because he has some kind of ill intent, or because he might have gained sentience some how, but because something happened to him that we haven't been able to see yet. And I do think Wally had something to do with it. There is a lot of art of Wally and Barnaby together obviously, but some of that art is a bit "Hmm" when you think about the whole "making a dog" thing.

Like these two images. In one Wally is literally painting on Barnaby's patterns, and in another he's "copying" Barnaby albeit in a silly way.

And also you can find Barnaby's pattern in odd places where you normally wouldn't expect to find them. And they're both in places that Wally is sitting on.

(And in the newspaper that Wally is holding you can see his finger is covering up Barnaby's face which is a little hm....)

Anyways, this is just a few of my Barnaby thoughts and rambles, I don't really have a full theory for what it could all mean, it's just something I've noticed and have always been mindful to look for when browsing the website lol.

#welcome home #welcome home barnaby #wally darling #welcome home theory #welcome home update

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clarionglass · 4 days

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so i have been bitten by the sam reich!master bug courtesy of some phenomenal art by @northernfireart and uh. as is too often the case i had to write something otherwise if i didn't get it out of my brain i would go absolutely insane

(there may be more vignettes coming if i have ideas..... there are definitely other episodes i'd like to give the Treatment to, plus with the new dw series coming out on the weekend i may have ideas for how to incorporate the dw gang! however, i promise neither more writing or no more writing. that said, this was a lot of fun so there'll probably be more at some stage :D )

this has full spoilers for the game changer ep "escape the greenroom", but hey that's been out for a while now so,,,, if you haven't seen it i'd highly recommend it as an episode!

so, without further ado:

Samuel Dalton was a complete fiction, of course, but that didn't mean that when Sam Reich snuck back upstairs to get tied up in the “out of order” bathroom, the Sam that remained on the monitor, laughing at the contestants, was a pre-recording. And if Brennan, Siobhan and Lou had snorted at the idea of a time-travelling evil magician great-grandfather (for good reason), going in with the actual truth of the matter would have sounded like jumping the shark.

It sounded bizarre, but the time travel bit was the only part about his new partner in crime that was confirmably real. Admittedly, the jury was still out on “evil”—he gave off a weird vibe at times, but so far, no lines had been crossed, and it had all been funny as hell—so for now, Sam was willing to roll with it. But perhaps most surprisingly, there wasn’t even the possibility of blood relation between Samuel Dalton Reich and the guy who had shown up out of the blue one day with his exact face and a plan to really fuck around with things on Game Changer.

Yeah, the whole alien thing had really ruled out that particular prospect.

There had been various bits and pieces of confirmation that this guy wasn’t human through the time Sam had known him, but the final nail in the coffin for that one was when his doppelganger had looked him dead in the eye and tried on one of the heart rate monitors—sorry, “range extenders”—for As a Cucumber. The damn thing had literally sparked up, then died completely. Trying to process input from two separate heartbeats at once would do that, apparently.

His doppelganger was a Time Lord, or so he had nonchalantly said one afternoon in casual conversation, though Sam still wasn’t sure if that one was a joke or not. It was hard to tell, sometimes, because he said the wildest things with the straightest face, and so far, most of them had turned out to be one hundred percent certifiably true. The time travel, the space travel, even the changing faces thing—it sounded objectively insane, but the proof was undeniable.

There were some notable exceptions, though. Saying he’d been trapped for aeons inside Neil Patrick Harris’s gold tooth went just that bit too far to be believable, though Sam did appreciate his double’s slightly warped sense of humour.

It was that offbeat line of thinking that lent itself well to game design, as it turned out. He had a knack for coming up with ideas for Game Changer episodes, albeit with the occasional suggestion that went way beyond the bounds of good taste, and, as in the case of Escape the Greenroom, had devised some blinding twists on concepts Sam had already half-formed. The letter puzzle unlocking the secret door? It was perfect.

Understandably, Sam’s doppelganger had wanted to observe the fruits of their labours in real time, rather than watching the recording later. It happened, sometimes, particularly when it was one of his ideas that had made it through to the episode list—they’d swap places for a session, with nobody being any the wiser. Watching those edits back always felt a bit weird—it was uncanny how flawless the mimicry was—but hey, the guy was right. It was always fun.

Escape the Greenroom, specifically, with its “Samuel Dalton” conceit, provided them with a unique opportunity. Instead of swapping out the camera feed for a recording when the cast piled into the tiny secret room behind the wall, as per the original plan to get Sam in position to be discovered in the bathroom, they could just swap out the people. Sam would go upstairs, and his double would take his place at the podium, ducking out of sight when everyone came back to the main stage to “defuse the bomb”.

Sam was keen—hell, if their situations had been reversed, he’d want to be there to watch, too—but caution raised a flag. “You don’t think it’s too risky?” he’d asked when the subject was first raised. “Both of us being in the same place?”

His doppelganger had shrugged one shoulder with supreme unconcern. “The crew won't notice.”

At the time, Sam had shot him a sceptical look, but right now, Sam-Reich-in-a-purple-tie and Sam-Reich-in-an-orange-tie were standing backstage post-record, clearly visible and and calmly chatting, and not a single member of the crew had given them so much as a second glance.

…Hardly even a first glance, come to think about it. If anyone looked over their way, their eyes seemed to… not exactly go through them, but slide over the two of them like water. He was tempted to wave to Nico or Ash or someone, just out of pure curiosity, but something in the back of his mind told him that wouldn’t be the world’s greatest idea. He had a funny feeling he wouldn’t like to see what would happen next.

(He’d given the prop bomb back to the crew once the cameras stopped rolling, and though it looked the same as the one he remembered from before he’d headed upstairs, it felt different in his hands. Heavier, more… serious, somehow. He was sure nothing would have happened—but at the same time, he was suddenly very glad that the cast had cut the correct wire with no less than a minute fifteen to go.)

(The jury was still out on evil, after all.)

“Worth coming in for?” he asked instead.

“Absolutely,” his double replied with relish. “Locking those three in a small room for an hour? Brilliant, fantastic. Inspired. It was absolute chaos.”

“Have you seen up there?” Sam asked, a smile starting to spread across his face. “They messed up the set real bad.”

His doppelganger smirked at him. “You know it took literally two seconds from you telling them to escape the greenroom for Lou to smash that guitar?”

Sam shook his head. “Oh my god. Yeah, they were stressed.”

“Mmm. Some real panic in that room,” his doppelganger agreed, and Sam chose to ignore the faint note of satisfaction in his voice.

He shifted his weight, settling back to lean against the table behind the set, in the exact instant his double decided to do the same thing. It really was freaky how similar they were, down to the smallest mannerism—like looking in a mirror, only weirder, because the face that looked back at him was truly his own face, not mirror-reversed. Even now, it still caught Sam off guard from time to time, but at least it had faded into a more comfortable kind of strange. He had an exact lookalike who was an actual time-travelling alien. Cool. Doesn’t everyone?

The pair shared a companionable silence for a few moments, before a thought Sam had been turning over for a while rose to the top of his mind. He shifted again, this time on his own, and he felt his double’s regard swing up to fix on him like a magnet.

“Okay, real talk,” he started, and his doppelganger frowned back in an approximation of confused innocence. “What’s all this for?”

“Who says it has to be for anything? Aren't we just having fun?”

Sam hummed, considering. “Yeah. No, I'd believe that, if I didn't sometimes walk into production meetings and find out I'd apparently been very specific about the people I wanted for certain episodes.”

“Point for Sam,” his doppelganger acknowledged with a grin. “You got me. Wasn’t hard to make a few phone calls on our joint behalf.”

“Yeah, but why?” Sam pressed. “I mean, Siobhan, Brennan and Lou are always great comedy value when you put them together, and it was awesome to have them for this, but I get the feeling you’re thinking of something other than making good content.”

“Who, me?”

With that, his double gave him a look of such overdone pantomime innocence that Sam suddenly and thoroughly understood why, not half an hour earlier, Brennan had very seriously threatened to push him down the stairs.

He rolled his eyes, which earned him a smirk for his troubles.

Dropping the act, his doppelganger continued. “I’m expecting an… old friend, I guess, to show up at some point, and—well, I’d like to put on a really special show for them. I thought it would be a good opportunity to try a few things out, you know?”

Ominous pause aside, that was actually kind of sweet. Sweeter than he’d been expecting, that’s for sure—he was half anticipating the revelation that he and his cast were subjects in some weird experiment. Hey, that still couldn’t fully be ruled out, but still.

“Okay,” he acquiesced. “Well… just let me know, next time? Before you start ordering in my cast like takeout?”

“Who says they’re your cast?” his double shot back with a twinkle in his eye, and Sam snorted.

“Fine. Our cast, then. But seriously, let me know?”

His doppelganger nodded, which, if not quite fully convincing, was good enough.

“Oh, and do you know when your friend might be arriving?” Sam asked. “Because if you wanted to plan something, we can—”

“I don’t know,” his doppelganger interrupted. “So yeah, we’ll have to move fast when they do get here. But I’ve got it under control.”

He broke off, then shot Sam a mischievous grin. “In the meantime, though, I’ve had this fun thought about time loops…”

#sam reich!master #sam reich #the master #dw #doctor who #game changer #dropout #dropout tv #northernfireart #clari speaks #clari writes #in posting this i am fully aware that sam reich is a real human being who uses the internet and fuck. if this escapes containment.#mr reich sir if you ever see this i can only apologise but it was truly fucking funny to write #oh btw i imagine that reich!master asked for those specific 3 because across em you've got a good spread of personality traits #that the doctor and their companion(s) would have #we've got the monologues and the high-stakes-all-the-time from brennan.#we've got the puzzle focus and the 'oh this is my first time in this kinda situation' from game changer newbie siobhan #and lou is just. pure and beautiful chaos #plus they're all very smart and creative mfers #so it's a good test run

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messydiabolical · 1 month

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Hi @keriweird and anyone else who might find this useful, the brushes I use on my Javik and other recent pieces (I use Procreate). Links and details below the cut:

First, outside of brushes a big way that I've made my recent pictures look like canvases is to use overlaying effects. I put together a little explainer on that a few weeks ago, find it >here< The bulk of the painting I use a brush set called 'thick paint' by Manero brushes, the gumroad to that set is >here< ($20, or he has a huge $40 bundle that includes other sets) The set includes those above mentioned overlay oil boards and canvases as well as brushes, so you can create a full oil painting looking piece with this set alone. He has a youtube channel and I got the hang of using the brushes by following along with some, such as >this one< In partcular, I like the Messy Canvas Roll brush, which has colour jitters of 2%, creating a nice dynamic when laying on the bulk of colour, and has a canvassy texture. I use the thick paints 1-4 (and especially 4) for the base/underpainting, split bristles brush for hair or crunchier texture, and fine oil sketch for sketching and highlights/fine details. The set also includes an 'experimental set' that does some weird and wonderful things, I like experimental brush 5 for scales on drell, and 11 is phenomenal for pressure sensitive application of hair highlights. Art with Flo is an old favourite, I have a whole bunch of sets from her and often return to them as my go to's. The fineliner is like my main brush for everything, and you can get that one from her free sampler set. Although I did find I needed to turn the stabilisation down a smidge on that one. Her chalk brushes are another set I use a lot especially the round chalk and blocker, and the chalk pencil is nice for sketching and for fine highlights. And while I haven't used them in recent paintings as they aren't particulary for the oil effect I've been trying out, her skin sets and illustration brushes are all lovely. Her brush store page is >here< and youtube channel >here<. She has so many useful procreate tips and tricks. Outside of paid brushes, procreate has some great stuff by itself. I use the hardbrush and various soft airbrushes all the time. Hartz is wonderful for textures like rough metals and leathers. There's one called nebula that I use as a shine on jewellery, or their water ripple one I use for biotics and such.

#ask answered #procreate brushes #procreate #art guide #md answers

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excineribusbooks · 1 year

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we waste the same day like nobody dies by @magpieandwhale, illustrated by @cloudy-recesses

I've lovingly referred to this project as "We Waste the Same Day Like Nobody Dies: The Illustrated Edition" ever since its inception [mumblemumble] months ago (since, if you haven't seen it yet, @teleportbooks also made a beautiful binding of the same series!). magpieandwhale is another friend I've known for TWENTY FREAKIN YEARS somehow; I knew I was going to make her a copy of this as soon as she finished it, and I had the great joy of giving it to her in person last week while in her city for a family wedding ❤️

This was another design that got slammed sideways at the last minute by finding the perfect cover paper. Last month, Renegade Publishing had its first-ever retreat, which included plenty of paper for swap and sale -- and what should I find on the swap table but that incredible gold-and-black Art Deco-ish stuff? It fit so well with the titling I'd already done that I immediately switched it up from a full cloth binding to a quarter-binding, with an inset carved out of the board for the title to sit in. For contrast (and a little intentional clashing), I went with silver-and-black on the endpapers, to play with the idea of Xue Yang and Wang Haoxuan as two not-quite-separate entities with much more in common than either wanted to believe.

The spheres in the cover design reference a scene partway through the third story, "shatter what you will not carry":

Xiao Zhan twirls his pen and digs up a fresh piece of scratch paper. “Okay. Think of a ball of some sort.” “Make it a football,” Yibo says, bone-dry. Involuntarily, Haoxuan laughs. His real legacy, right there. Xiao Zhan scoffs. “Too complicated, I’m not drawing that.” He sketches out a sphere. “A ping-pong ball. One half is black, one half is white.” He draws a vertical line down the middle, giving it dimension, shading it into a half-moon. “Do you get it? Two colors, one ball. If you rotate it so one color is facing you, the other is still there. Sound familiar?” Haoxuan glances at Yibo; his gaze is fixed on Haoxuan, stolid. It bores into him. Haoxuan swallows. He dabs his face with a napkin. Xiao Zhan keeps narrating. His pen dashes across the image. “Okay, now spin the ball on its axis. It’s still the same ball, it’s still got both colors on each side. But now that it’s in motion, the colors blend. The ball is.” He wrinkles his nose. “Gray. Should have chosen better colors. But now it’s a whole new thing, still with its component parts. Are you following?”

And the art! THE ART. cloudy-recesses, thank you so so much for letting me include so many of your incredible pieces -- whether they were made especially for the fic or just so fitting that magpieandwhale yelled "THAT ONE! I LOVE THAT ONE!" as we were hashing out what to include.

You can read the whole series at the link above, and see a whole lot more of cloudy-recesses's art on their Tumblr!

#book arts #bookbinding #fanbinding #the untamed #cql #the untamed rpf #cql rpf #ex cineribus books

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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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So Let's Talk About Warner Bros Discovery Burning Down HBO Max for the Insurance Money

Okay real quick for those of you who don't know who I am: I"m Jake, I review animation on this fair blog sometimes on comission (which is open by the way) , and mostly just because I want to. I love all kinds of stuff from comics, to comic strips, to movies, and review all kinds in turns. I"m telling you this so you have full and proper context as to why Warner Bros Discovery's latests actions have been HELL on my anxiety. While this week has been a hard one for reasons that aren't your buisness, Warner just made it so much worse so rather than do three reviews this week, i'm doing two and this piece, outlying why I"m so nettled, why I no longer feel any security for anything warner has going , in production or otherwise, and why WBD sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms.

Let's begin with what's going on for those in the back who haven't heard: Last week Warner Bros Discovery made the earthshatteringly dumb decision to cancel their 40 million dollar Batgirl film, and not release it in any way shape or form as a tax write off as well as announcing they were canceling several other dc projects with the Arrowverse finally being taken out back and shot with the Flash getting canceled and given a smal lseason to wrap up (and Superman and Lois likewise detatching from said universe for it's own saftey), and just about every DC Project now in fear of being cut, paticuarlly the tv shows. The Flash MOVIE is weirdly exempt from this despite starring known human dumpster fire whose progressively spiraling Erza Miller. Granted they ARE getting help, so it might help, but it still feels odd to not drop THAT movie but drop one by people who have done absoltuely nothing wrong and is almost finished. And by odd I mean...

So yeah a 40 billion dollar diverse, great looking film is in limbo, any dc film that hasn't started shooting is in the firing range. While I do feel the DCEU badly needed an actual structure instead of just doing whatever movie without any real plan. But

Is somehow worse than no strategy. But there does seem to be SOME method to the madness here.. unfortunatley said method, as most perfectly put by my surrogate tv dad John Oliver "It seems like your trying to burn down my platform for the insurance money"

That does seem to be WBD's plan: Liquidate as much as possible, put as much of it as a tax writeoff as you can, and to hell with what comes next. There's no building going on here, just madly selling anything they can to make money. Which admitely I have done, I once had to sell off my entire 3ds collectoin to get buy, but i'm a 30 year old man with the body of an orangutan, not a BILLION dollar company that should know better. Even if Discovery is new at running this type of company, they seem more concerned with making as much money as possible and don't care if they actually surivive as a platform, if works of art surivive, or for anything other than getting a huge kickback.

And that brings me to today, the worst news in recent animation history. And keep in mind that history includes: 1. Disney cancelling the critically aclaimed and briliant owl house because it was too gay and trying to pretend that's not why they did it 2. Netflix's Childrens Content slowly collapsing into the sea with one or two exceptions. 3. Sex Monster John Lassiter somehow getting another job and a new movie AppleTV+ feels comfortable promoting. 4. The passing of Betty White, Ed Asner and Gilbert Gottfried

But yes HBO Max decided to delist a TON of his content. While ti hasn't happened yet and the backlash, and a recent blow to their stock due to this bullshit as a rare instance of corprate greed biting them, MIGHT stop it, it might be too late. The shows being chopped include Close Enough, a show they had just canceled a week ago and now decided no one can enjoy and that was not only one fo the platforms lead shows, but it's only adult animated comedy that didn't make people throw things at it on sight, Infinity Train, a show people were already mad was screwed out of more than four seasons, Ok KO Let's Be HEroes, one of the best cartoons of the 2010s, Mao Mao Heroes of Pure Heart which was stuck in cancelation limbo, and victor and Valentino, which I have not watched but is JUST going through season 3 as we speak. None of it makes sense, none of it is right and all of it is clearly a ploy to mak ea tax writeoff. And while previous managment had done this, there was a simliar incident iwth greats such as megas xlr and sym boinoic titan, never before has a company made material not only unavablaibe but so nakedly tried to claim something as a loss. I'm HOPING this bs dosen't fly in court, as none of these shows really are the net loss they thinkt hey are, paticuarlly close enough and infinity train, so none of this should add up, but i'm not holding my breath.

I'm also not holding my rage. I belivie in works being avaliable to people. Good or bad, as long as their not harmful , they should be out there and avaliable. Things should be preserved. And making it so several shows are just outright unwatchable, JUST so you can make money is one of the most greedy, discpiable, hateful and agonizing acts i've seen in some time. OK KO thankfully escapes thanks to being on hulu, but that may not be forever and they may try this shit with other platforms. For once most of these shows being on netflix in other countries is a lifesaver. And yes you can still find the stuff that's being taken on the internet, piracy can be bad but it can also be a way to preserve stuff, but I should be able to have a legal and fine means of watching Close Enough. I shoudln't hav eto scour for a show just because you want money. I'm still subscribed to hbo max as it's not me who does and it still has enough content.. but if they keep doing this scorched earth nonsense, it's going to leave them with nothing to sell and nothing to buy and no one to buy into thei rshit. and i'm hoping they learn their lesson and ease back before it's too late and one of the best platforms in the streaming wars is gone.

For now though all I can do is wait and hope like hell more things I care about don't die a cruel greedy death.

#warner bros discovery #hbo max #close enough #infinity train #i'm pissed now

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thekingofwinterblog · 8 months

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So i haven't seen anyone on this site do a full on dive on what little material we do have of dreadwolf. For a title that's gonna come out next year if its not delayed, there's shockingly little that's actually out, and what there is can be divided into two.

In game images, and artwork.

For this post i wanna focus on the art.

The most famous of the art is of course this piece. Solas in both his Elf guise and True form, both reaching for the red lyrium idol Hawke and Varric found in DA2.

First things first, before we got confirmation through Urthemiel's concept art, this was the first rock solid proof that the Evanuris were the Old Gods. 7 were sealed away, 2 yet remain, just like the orbs we see here so clearly connected to the taint through the red lyrium idol.

Now a couple of things about this idol.

1. It keeps regenerating. Inquisition did not in any way tell us about this, but this idol keeps regenerating regardless of what happens to the original.

Meredith's lyrium body was hollowed out from the inside out, and the lyrium had used her internal parts to remake itself, where it was taken by certain expanded DA universe characters.

Thats how its back despite being made into a sword, then infecting meredith.

2. The way this picture frames it, this seems to be the key to Solas goal of ripping down the veil, entering the Fade in the flesh and remaking the world.

That's not really the interesting part. No the interesting part is that this isn't the first, or second or third, but fourth completely separate object Solas seems to theoretically be able to use to undo his great work.

In the most recent trailer, we see him use a seemingly completely different artifact to try to do the job, but given the fact this is likely going to be the opening introduction of the game, whatever he's trying to do with this artifact is most certainly going tk go wrong somehow, and might tie into the main character of the game's strange ability to summon magical weaponry out if nowhere.

Maybe a sorta repeat of what happened in the inquisition? His great ritual is interrupted and derailed by some random schmuck that absorbs it's power and becomes his arch enemy?

That would explain how this random thief leader guy that this game is supposed to be headed by, becomes able to defeat Solas.

Assuming this is correct, this means that after this ritual fails, his eyes will instead turn to the red lyrium idol.

Also as i said, that would bring Solas artifacts that could be used to accomplish his plans to backtrack on the veil to a total of 4.

The first was The Mask of Fen'harel, from Redemption, an artifact that was clearly meant as a possible failsafe, given it had the capacity to rip down the veil even in the hands of a mediocre mage, nevermind Solas as he is now.

The mask was destroyed in that series, before Solas even woke up, forcing him to try to rely on his second option, his orb, his Foci, which was also destroyed in Inquisition.

Thirdly there is this strange, green, wand thingy, that seems likely to fail in some way.

And fourthly there is the red lyrium idol, which was the source of all red lyrium that has since plagued the world.

And speaking of the blight...

There are two remaining old gods, and we know how Urthemiel would have looked like in his uncorrupted state through his statues.

This is another of the old gods, uncorrupted by the taint, though which of the Evanuris this is i have no idea. A true eldrich abomination.

Regardless, while Solas is the main villain, we'll be fighting at least one more Elvhen God in this game, which assuming the other one is not fought and/or killed, means there will be one more at the game's end.

One more potential blight.

Or not as we'll see below.

From what very little we have seen of the main character, they seem to have the ability to summon a magical energy weapon. If i had to guess, this seems to be a concept art piece for that.

It also seems to be set at the final area of tresspasser(wherever that is), and the fade seems to be really powerful here at this moment, given those gloating rocks.

Not too enlightening, except for the fact there are Two archdemons in the background who may, or may not be blighted.

Guess all the evanuris as waking up in this game after all.

Shockingly enough given the last two old gods will awaken in this game, we'll get one, final dig into the deep roads before they become irrelevant as a setting.

There's some concept art for what is clearly companions, but i wanted to highlight this one along with the big one im ending this speculation post on.

The three figures from the wall aren't too interesting looking(I think the foremost guy is the pc), but the guy on the far left seems to be a avaar, given his Hakkon helmet.

Apparently we're gonna get water diving in this game, either as a cutscene, or in game play.

The guy with the mustache seems to be Dorian, though it could be a new companion rather than a returning one. The lady on the left looks like isabela, but given the glowing, magical knife, i think this is concept art for the female version of the pc, before they settled on the whole summoning the weapon.

Also the fact we're finally getting sea levels, hopefully means we get to see and possibly fight the last of the important lore monsters, the Cetus.

Seriously, if this series ends without us even getting to see the gigantic, electrical sea dragons of the Northern ocean depths, i will be so mad.

The anderfels, likely Weishaupht, the only place we know for a fact that we'll visit in game, given our only glimpse of gameplay so far takes place there.

Again, this game will likely be the final time the grey wardens are relevant, so of course we're visiting the great Warden fortress, and taking a look at what the hell's going on there.

Alright, so one of the first pieces of art we ever got, and it seems to be the companions of what is likely going to be the last dragon age game.

Left to right, i think the lady on the far left is the lady with the mask from the big battle scene artwork. If so, probably an antivan crow with a mask and a rapier.

Next is a Qunari, though what class is hard to say.

Next one is definitly a rogue, though seemingly male.

Looks like the Inquisition's horse master to be honest.

Next is who I'm assuming to be dorian.

And after him, there is the most interesting part of the piece, a figure with either a thick hood, or thick white hair, holding what is very, very clearly a gun.

Which is not too surprising. Gunpowder has been on the verge of being cracked since awakening, and the Inquisitor discovered the recipe in tresspasser, so guns being invented in the meantime makes perfect sense.

No clue about the next two, but the final one is very, very clearly related to the Navarran death mages, though wheter it's a mortalatasi, or a spirit bound to a body by them is hard to say.

Regardless they all seem to be a ragtag bunch compared to Inquisitions group. Which would fit with the idea that they are supposed to be a bunch of thieves and such that'ss forced into a battle for the world.

#dragon age #dragon age dreadwolf #meta #speculation #dorian pavus #tevinter #anderfels #grey wardens #evanuris #old gods #arch demons #concept art

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morroodle · 3 months

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The Ninjago Battle Box: the best investment of my life

A reveiw

A few days ago I got bored and made a somewhat impulsive decision to buy the ninjago battle box which I've been wanting for a while and it finally arrived today so I'm gonna reveiw it cause I haven't seen like anyone talk about it. It dosent even have its own wiki page even though it is chock full of fun facts and information and pictures

Contents:

A 2 sided map - one side is ninjago city while the other is ninjago as a whole (kinda)

Book of battles

Ninjago world guide

30 cards

Lloyd minifig

Garmadon minifig

The map:

HOLY SHIT THIS IS COOL. As far as I'm aware this might be the most detailed map of ninjago we've ever gotten and no one is even aware of it! What I think is the most interesting and what makes me question how cannon this is is that the main map of ninjago only covers like... 1/4 of the whole ninjago island? Kinda odd how like all the locations are in this tiny chunk when they have a whole island they could cover but hey its still a super cool map and an amazing piece of art!

The book of battles:

Kind of a weird thing and I couldn't find any information on what it was until I got it. Basically each page is a rough (and not 100% accurate) summary of one of the battles of ninjago, a vague but still pretty obvious clue about where the battle took place, a prompt to play and a neat art piece based on the battle. It's not so much a history book as it is a book of play ideas, your meant to use the clue to find where the battle took place on the map and then use the little battle dojo, the minifigures and the cards to play out the battle however you want. Very cute and I love it. One weird thing I found though: in one of the battles it calls the serpentine the serpentai? It's done 3 times so I don't think it's just a typo. Don't know what's going on there but its cool. Here's an example of the best page, they're all formatted the same

It only has a handful of battles, not nearly all of them, but that's to be expected and it's still great

Ninjago world guide:

It's like a little encyclopedia of heros, villains and artifacts. It includes the main ninja, the elemental masters, all the villains (up to season 15 and strangely excluding the overlord), and a bunch of non people important things like the bounty and the realm crystal. Pretty much nothing I don't already know but still neat! It's kinda cool how it's split into 2 sections, one half being heros and good artifacts and the other being villains and bad artifacts. I don't know how to describe it but theyre kinda facing different ways? It's like 2 books in one, both starting on the outsides and meeting/ending in the middle like so.

Here's Morro's page (again most of the pages are formatted the same):

Cutie pie <3

The cards:

I wish I could show off all the cars but sadly tumblr has a limit to how many pictures you can have in one post. Cards include heros, villains and artifacts, similar to the world guide but not quite as many things, just the important ones. Theyre pretty simple, with just the name/title and a drawing of the character/item. Theyre meant to be used to play the battles in the book of battles. Morro's is the absolute best one look at this little cutie pie!

Hes so sweet and adorable he has never done anything wrong in his life and I love him

The minifigures and the box itself:

Nothing really special about the minifigs just a basic Lloyd and Garmadon. Interesting to note that despite wearing his season 8 gi Lloyd has his legacy hood on. Not complaining, I hate the smooth round hoods.

The box that everything came in doubles as the little play area :D its a little dojo setting with some cute nicknacks scattered around. It needs a bit of encouragement to stay flat though. Oh also here's the outside of the box

Conclusion:

The best $25 I've ever spent. I can't believe almost no one knows or talks about this! It's from 2023 and covers up until seabound. I might have to see if I can add this stuff to the ninjago wiki, more people should know about it. If anyone else is interested in getting one (you should be) it's on the scholastic website for $17.99 + shipping, not the actual lego website.

#ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago battle box #ninjago morro #morro

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annymation · 2 months

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Okay, I know Valentine's Day just passed, but how would a Valentine's Day interaction go with Aster and Asha? What would each of them do for each other on Valentine's Day?

Sorry for the VERY late reply, haven't got much time to answer lately, and before I didn't have much inspiration for this one, but @uva124 gave me an idea, so here's a little Valentine's day story

Asha decided that for Valentine's day she'd make a painting for Aster, a painting of a field of purple aster flowers, with a beautiful night sky.

However, because she's quite the perfectionist, and not as skilled with painting as she is with drawing, she felt like the painting wasn't quite good enough no matter what she did. So for days before Valentine's day arrived she'd hide in her room trying to finish it, not letting Aster see it.

But then the day actually arrives and she loses track of time trying to finish it, before she knows it it's already close to night time

*knock knock*

"Asha? You're in there?" Aster asks worried from outside her room

"A-AH! Don't come it yet! I'm busy!" Asha has her hands and arms all covered in paint as she tries to hide her unfinished work behind a cloth

"I know, you said so earlier but... Valentine's day is almost over, do you wanna hang out?" Aster sounded a bit sad that they didn't even see each other earlier

Asha looks surprised noticing it's indeed sunset, she completely lost track of time "Oh no! Ugh I knew I should've used acrylic paint!" She says in frustration

(For those who don't know, acrylic paint dries way faster than oil paint, I'd know, I used to make oil paintings)

"What are you talking about" Aster says coming in the room, they see her covered in paint "*gasp!* You were painting!?" He smiles widely "I didn't know you knew how to draw AND paint too!"

"That's because I honestly don't know how to paint, this turned out a mess" She points to the canvas hidden behind a piece of cloth

"... Let me be the judge of that" Aster walks in and pulls out the cloth to see her art.

The night sky is full of white dots splattered around that do resemble stars, and the purple field of flowers looks quite messy because the flowers all sorta mixed together into one purple blur.

Aster looks at the canvas in awe while Asha covers her face in shame "It looks like a child made it, I'm sorry, I've wasted the whole day instead of spending time with y-"

"I LOVE IT!" Aster exclaimed hugging her tightly "It looks amazing! What do you mean "like a child made it"???"

Asha smiles at him, but she still feels insecure about the painting "I wanted it to be perfect"

They smile at her reassuringly "You don't have to be perfect, you just have to be you, and that's way more than perfect for me, okay?" he says while still hugging her

She blushes as a big smile stretches across her face, she hugs him as well "Okay heheh" she giggles a bit, feeling her heart flutter

"Now! It's my turn to give you a gift, come on!" Aster pulls her by the hand out of the room

They go to the cliff next to the tree Asha wished upon Aster

(I make a lot of romantic scenes take place next to this tree but come on it's a cool location)

They watch the sun set together, leaning on one another without really saying anything, just admiring the beautiful sight

Once the sun is gone and the stars start to appear, Asha says "That was a beautiful gift" holding Aster's hand

"Oh that wasn't my gift yet" Aster corrects her with a cheeky smile "OKAY GUYS! Do your thing!" Aster yells to the sky above them

Asha looks up, already excited to see what he got planned but... Nothing seemed to happen

"... Guys???" Aster asked the stars, already getting nervous they wouldn't do the one little favor he asked

Then, Asha sees it, a shooting star cutting through the night sky

"*Gasp!* You asked for a shooting star just for me?" Asha asks hugging his arm

Aster looks quite disappointed though "... No, I asked for a meteor shower, it was supposed to be A BUNCH of those, like come on, is throwing some asteroids around too hard???" They ask, frustrated that things didn't go as he planned

"Hehe you don't need to make a whole cosmic event happen to make me happy" She leans on their shoulder "I love just watching the sun set with you"

Aster feels his heart beating faster "And I love you"

"I love you too"

They kiss under the starry night sky.

A few more shooting stars can be seen passing by.

#wish rewrite #wish reimagined #kingdom of wishes #ask #asha x star boy #asha x starboy #asha x star

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chewbokachoi · 3 months

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My Writing

-confetti and fanfare-

At the moment, it's all Mortal Kombat. UPDATE: There's, like, one Babylon 5 in there now!

Song Challenges - As the link explains, I write to a song and that's that.

Completed Works:

Friday Nights - A weekly ritual between the two, Johnny finds tonight's session is bringing up something he's tried to not think about. AO3 Rating: E Chapters: 4/4 Notes: Johnny/Kenshi piece and the piece that dislodged me from my writer's block and I more or less haven't stopped since (aside from a few hurdles but ya get me)

Good Dog - Shang Tsung has gathered far more enemies than allies. Realizing that he needs somebody to keep an eye out for him, he decides to hire a bodyguard. By chance, Shang Tsung arrives just in time to hire Bi-Han, a down on his luck man-for-hire. What Shang Tsung didn't expect was for this man of ice to be immune to all his usual tricks and charm. He doesn't want to admit this draws him to his guard. And on the flip side, Bi-Han didn't think he'd ever break his no-attachments rule with the likes of such a fragile mad scientist. Inspired by the amazing art of @eo03o AO3 Rating: E Chapters: 5/5 Notes: I liked their dynamic too much and am too proud of all the random Easter eggs.

Sublimation - Five years since Bi-Han's betrayal and nothing has gotten easier. Earthrealm continues to need its defenders and everyone's starting to feel the strain. But Tomas is feeling another type of strain--he's been treated like a child more than the second in command of the Shirai Ryu as of late. When Liu Kang tasks Tomas and Hanzo to return to the Lin Kuei library, destroyed during the schism, they are ambushed by Bi-Han and Shang Tsung, who offer Tomas up to an Enenra with hopes to control it.

Things, of course, do not go according to plan. Tomas is saved by Hanzo, but Tomas is once again thrown into a life altering experience he never had a say in. Now he and his friends must learn to live with this new version of their friend. AO3 Rating: M Chapters: 5/5 Notes: Part of a series (that'll get renamed). Part 2 already in the works for it. Commentary

Works in Progress:

But a Patient Wolf - Sequel to Good Dog Shang Tsung gifts "Sai" a chance to exact revenge on Quan Chi, the ringmaster of the traveling circus he once belonged to. With that done, the two flee to Chicago. But their time in the city is cut short when Shang Tsung finally figures out where the strange and mysterious island in the East China Sea is. Bi-Han, the ever-loyal bodyguard, follows his beloved mad scientist to their new destination. There, the two discover a suspiciously preserved library full of secrets and wonders that will push the two and their relationship to the limit. AO3 Rating: M Chapters: 1/5(?) Notes: I fell in love with their dynamic. They're too hard to resist. This story will likely have a different tone than Part One/Good Dog itself, but I hope it's still enjoyable!

The Great Duo: Shang Tsung is woken up one morning to find an ex and six-year-old at his doorstep. She leaves Shang Tsung with a girl who is no doubt his daughter. Initially, he takes her in, knowing it to be wiser to have somebody as smart as him on his side. Soon enough, Shang Tsung finds he not only enjoys having the kid around, but he enjoys teaching her and training her to be just like him. AO3 Rating: T Chapters: 1/3(?) Notes: This one is very much a 'I'll update as the ideas come to me' kind of thing

To Be Haunted: Johnny and Kenshi's relationship has gotten more serious with marriage in sight. Johnny's showing his commitment by welcoming Takeda, while Kenshi still struggles to feel like a good enough parent to Cassie. What should be the next step for the growing family is hamstrung by a strange entity that has made their home its own. Their lives are quickly thrown off balance as Cassie and Takeda grow ill from the creature's presence. Johnny, Kenshi, and their friends scramble to solve the mystery of the entity before it's too late. AO3 Rating: M Chapters: 13/? Notes: I am trying to update it :(

#mk1 2023 #johnshi #bishang #coldsoul #tomas vrbada #mk smoke #shang tsung #bi-han #johnny cage #kenshi takahashi #don't get your hopes up for those E ratings my smut writing skills are sad i tried #fanfiction #fic: submlimation #fic: friday nights #fic: good dog #fic: to be haunted #fic: the great duo #fic: but a patient wolf

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takibikaen · 9 months

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My top 5 Bleach women and why I love them: Part 3

If you haven't seen Part 1 and 2 of this, here's the link.

1/5. Rukia Kuchiki ~ Squad 13 captan and Number One

I don’t think I have to explain this but I’ll touch over what themes I love, some of it’s duality and how it all helps encompass her character as one of Kubo’s best.

Upbringing and Human Nature ~ Throughout the first arc, we get glimpses into how Rukia was raised and what kind of warrior culture the Soul Society had. Despite her life in the Rukon District and being treated horribly in the Kuchiki Clan, Rukia maintains that Soul Society is better than the human world, that letting an inexperienced Ichigo fight Grand Fisher on his own was considered right by her captain’s standards. However, there’s cracks in these beliefs even from the moment she met Ichigo and began making friends in the human world. It’s especially more painful when she didn’t see Renji for 40 years, and knew she would have to return to Soul Society, that her brief stay with humans was where she felt she belonged, where she didn’t feel empty in the heart.

Self-Worth and Finding the Heart ~ Saving someone usually means the rescuee wants to be saved right? Not in Rukia’s case, her self-loathing over her execution is visible throughout the SS arc. It’s tragic, she was forced to kill Kaien to stop Aizen’s Hollow experiment from continuing to use his body, that she besmirched the Kuchiki name by giving Ichigo her powers, the guy who looks alike to Kaien. Renji and her split up decades ago due to the divide between them, and compounding all of that corroded her self-esteem to the point of her accepting her execution. However, she finds what connects her to those important people and how they care for her, the heart. Therefore, deciding to stay in Soul Society and reclaiming her self-worth.

Renji declares he won’t leave her in the face of Aizen.

Byakuya Kuchiki protects her to fulfill his promise to Rukia’s sister.

Kaien’s relatives forgive her for being the one to end Kaien’s suffering.

If it can be said that the heart is unchanging, then that is strength. - Bleach Vol. 54 poem

A Soldier’s Heart and It’s Duality ~ At the crux of Rukia’s character is her bonds and how she got there through becoming a Shinigami. Kaien was her mentor who taught her to fight and the theme of “The Heart”. To not die alone, to have meaningful connections is where Rukia ensures she makes sure to support her friends through her manner. I think it’s really poignant that the way she tries to sway Ichigo out of his doubts and fears of his inner Hollow…that it doesn’t work because Ichigo hasn’t been in the shinigami life as long as she had. Ichigo’s issues are far more embedded due to how he’s been changed by them….while Kaien’s heart which Rukia metaphorically holds in her, hasn’t changed at all.

Emulating Kaien’s mannerisms because Kaien’s heart carried strength, Rukia’s way contrasts with Orihime’s nature, which ends up helping out Ichigo even for a moment in the Hueco Mundo arc. However, the soldier’s heart is what allows Rukia to continue fighting against Aaroniero the 9th Espada, because she finds strength in it to want to save Orihime, protect her loved ones, and move past the obstacle, because she cares about the reawakened connections she has.

The top three art pieces are made by @srkbom108 on Twitter. Black and White background art is done by @Mak_ai_ on Twitter. The last two art pieces are by @rakusakugk on Twitter.

Thanks for reading, if you want to see my full-length post of all three 3 parts, then here's the Quora link for it!

#bleach fanart #bleach #rukia kuchiki #soul society #bleach characters

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