#well Topaz is different. but just not my colors

[two-nines-left-spleen]

Ok but at this point its not even funny anymore. I saw the RRR, I wanted Gabriel. GABRIEL.

THIS GAME KEEPS GIVING ME MEN 😭

#alchemy stars #gacha games #gacha pulls #im very much a husbando puller and enjoyer in literally any other game but AS has such gorgeous fucking art I go for both #this is karmic retribution for ignoring all waifus in HSR #They're just not as intriguing to me #like the only one I actually liked designwise was Fu Xuan because of her Halo Thingy #the others are just “Woman in hot dress” #well Topaz is different. but just not my colors #honkai star rail

[eeulysian]

hm enough smut for today, i kinda got tired of it.. sigh, maybe i ate too much. anyhoo, what do u feel about [insert charac] x shy!reader? ^_^ lllike imagine chRCter being all extrovert, party addict, and fun then there's this little lost zoul clinging on the charactwr's arm TT it's be such a cute relationship i swear.

idk what character that would be fit for this role...

reader being shy and possessive after the party (overthinks a lot as well.. im not romanticizing that btw) AKSJDHJEBDHEHEJWHEHU——

“you were talking to them the whole time, u shouldn't have brought me here with u.. they didn't need me there anyway,” tsk. tsk. character ends up cimforting and doing whatever reader wants becuz they neglected them wayy.. too much. (if this even makes sense, im half asleep writing this)🦈🦈🦈🦈 ermm.. im not requesting a fic btw! ur free to make it into one tho. :D

I LOVE THIS TROPE SOO MUCH. its one of my favourite tropes. its like, in terms of animal tropes, it would be golden retriever x black cat. the characters i have in mind for this areeee.... topaz, serval, bai yi, beidou, elysia and kafka. i think all of them would definitely be a perfect fit for this kind of trope. not a fic but just a little short imagine!!

forced to be invited to this rich kid's mansion party by college gf!(char) because she wants to taste the drinks there, eat the food and have fun with other people. you kept refusing at first, because your introverted ass cannot handle crowds. you'd look like a small, crying kitten in the midst of the crowd. you know you'd be pushed here and there, hearing crazy screams and shouting, with rave music in the background and you hated it. in the end, you gave in and was dragged to the mansion by (char). in there was so many people, chatting, laughing, having fun and dancing to the music. (char) saw a friend and ran after them, forgetting you were there with her. 30 minutes passed, you were standing in a corner, a little further from the crowd and you started getting anxious, wondering where she is and why she just left you like that. you decided to just swarm and squiggle into the crowd to find her, feeling your social battery get drained even more. and you spotted her talking with her friend, because her hair color just stood out alot. you ran after her and shyly hugged her from behind, trying to silently tell her that she forgot about you and that you're still here. she flinched a little, but knowing it was you, she gave you an apologetic smile and told her friend that you're her girlfriend in case they were confused.

"y/n, i'm sorry i accidentally left you behind. it wont happen again, i promise", she told you, but you still felt a little insecure that she just... left you like that for a friend. "no it's fine, maybe i shouldn't have been here anyways if i wasn't so important. i don't like parties anyways." you blurted out. she noticed you looked and even sounded sad from that tone, she knew she was going to have to make it up to you with hugs, kisses and snacks when you two get home tonight. she apologizes once again, and tells her friend that she'll be going home earlier to avert her attention more to you. she feels guilty, but she knows you meant no harm and you can't help feeling like that. but she just loves taking care of you and reassuring you anyways, no matter if you guys have huge differences, contrasts and are considered total opposites by others. they say opposites attracts anyways 🤭

#⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚ an talks #honkai star rail #hsr #topaz x reader #serval x reader #hsr imagines #hsr headcanons #hsr x reader #honkai star rail x reader #path to nowhere #ptn #bai yi x reader #ptn bai yi #path to nowhere x reader #ptn x reader #kafka x reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact #genshin imagines #genshin headcanons #beidou x reader #genshin beidou #honkai impact 3rd #honkai impact #hi3 #hi3rd #elysia x reader #hi3 elysia

[ilovechuuy4]

ˊ "I thought you were leavin' me.?" ˋ

٭✰.Fyodor D. X GN! Reader.✰٭

A/N: erm, ty to my bsf for giving me ideas when I had none (I just didn't want to do any of my drafts) I was making this while the pole was going on:3 HAPPY BIRTHDAY FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY!!! ✰٭

→ Description; It's Fyodor's birthday and you wanted to surprise him

↣ Fyodor is the type to not get nor want birthday parties anymore but when he gets them from close people, he enjoys them a lot ✰*

It was around 4pm, you and Fyodor were out 'nd about walking around Yokohama until a REALLY important thought popped inside your head. You hadn't forgot but, you were so caught in having a nice day with Fyodor it was just resting in the back of your mind. It was Fyodors birthday! You looked at Fyodor and then back at the ground, you felt bad if you left your boyfriend but, you really wanted to surprise him for his birthday.

You looked Fyodor in the eyes with soft worried eyes placing a kiss on Fyodors lips. "I got to go my love, promise you I'll meet you at the house" You spoke slowly before colliding your lips with his one more then skittering off in the crowded streets of Yokohama, Fyodor looked so disappointed when you left him alone in the streets.

You walk around the stores grabbing foods to cook, cake, sweets, everything you think you would think Fyodor would appreciate. You also decided to get him a gift, you weren't sure what to get him since he isn't the most open when it comes to things he likes most it's always "you" or "church" which obviously doesn't give you anything!

You sigh as you walk around until you find a jewelry shop, men's womens, etc. Everyone was shopping there so you decided to take a peek. You walk in, gently colliding shoulders with a lot of people, it was pretty crowded. A few minutes of glancing and looking, you spot a beautiful ring, it was a silver ring with a small piece of topaz, it was the exact color of Fyodor's birthstone, so maybe he would like it?

You slowly picked up the box and looked at the ring more closely, you could definitely get something ingraved on the inside, maybe the date of yall's anniversary? Yea, that's good. You pick up the ring and head to the check out counter, you had the ring to the worker and ask them to ingrave that anniversary date, which they happily did for you.

You watch as it is engraved and then the worker told you the price, which made you choke on your own so it, 200 dollars?! But, you decided it was worth it since it was Fyodor's birthday. You take out your credit card and pay. You walk out with all the bags of different foods and sweets and the ring and make your way home, and hopefully you could get this all set before fyodor is home. When you arrived home, luckily for you, Fyodor wasn't home.

You quickly put away all the cold items, along with the red velvet cake for fyodor's birthday. You decided to make beef stroganoff, you got all the ingredients ready and started to cook. It had taken around an hour and thirty minutes. It was weird, fyodor wasn’t home yet so, you plate the beef stroganoff over noodles along a piece of garlic bread and broccoli.

About thirty minutes go by and then you hear the front door doorknob jingling and rattling, Fyodor was finally home! You quickly warm up the lukewarm food and place it down on the dining table. You rummage through your bag to grab the present you bought for Fyodor placing that on the table too. You skitter around to get every thing ready, quickly grabbing the cake from the fridge as well, putting it on the center of the table. You watch as the front door opens and a tired, slightly annoyed Fyodor walked in. You knew exactly why he was upset.

"Surprise?" You said softly a soft sorry look on your face as you said it. Fyodor looks at you then at the table with the gift and food, the annoyed expression slowly faded and turned to a soft smile. “Oh darling, thank you so much.” Fyodor spoke as he hugged you tightly, his arms wrapping around your waist. He plants a soft kiss in your forehead before he speaks again, “Let’s eat that delicious food now, yeah?” He said smiling as he let go of you and took a seat at the table, and you quickly follow suit.

Y’all both pick up the forks and start eating, occasionally talking and sipping on the white wine that you prepared along with dinner. It took around 20 - 30 minutes for y'all to finish since y'all spoke to each other, but eventually y'all were finished. You quickly stood from the table and grabs the small bag off the kitchen counter, handing it to the black haired man with a soft yet bright smile. "Here I got you a gift, honey." You said with that same bright smile while handing the small bag to Fyodor.

Fyodor takes the gift with shaky hands, "You know you didn't have to get me a gift, I know you get me a gift every year but still my love" he spoke lovingly, even if he complained so much about you getting him a gift, he really did appreciate it. "I know, but I enjoy seeing the look of joy on your face every time." you responded as you watched Fyodor open the present. As Fyodor slowly opened the present, you watched in utter joy, you really hoped that Fyodor liked the present. Fyodor pulls out all of the tissue paper you had stuffed in the bag which was a lot, you didn't have any wrapping paper so it was the best option.

Your soft e/c eyes follow the boney hands of the Russian man as he reaches in the bag and pulling out the small box, which causes him to look up from the bag at you, one of his raven colored eyebrows cocked. He just shakes his head with a soft smile as he looks back down at the small box. His slim fingers slowly open the box as he sees the beautiful silver ring with the beautiful topaz gem, he slowly picks up the ring from out the case and looks at it, his violet colored eyes lighting up and filling with love as he sees the inside of the ring with y'all's anniversary date, he looks at you and back at the ring.

Your lover wasn't the one to cry when receiving gifts, he never has. But it seems you hit a nerve as his beautiful eyes started turning glossy and the clear tears drip slowly from them. "Fyodor, darling? What's the matter?" you said a frown of worry on your face. The Russian looked up from the ring and at you, "y/n, honey,i really love it you don't even know how much I do." he said as the glossy clear drops continue to fill and drop from his eyes. He stands from the chair he was sat in and embraces you tightly, his arms around your waist. He plants a slow, tender, and loving kiss on your lips and holds it. The taste of wine still on his lips from dinner as he slowly pulls away. "I really thought you were leavin' me you know?" He spoke as he sighed, keeping you in that tight embrace.

#bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bungō stray dogs #bsd #bsd fanfic #bsd x reader #fyodor dostoevsky #happy birthday fyodor #x reader #bungo stray dogs x gn!reader #gn!reader #bsd fyodor #fyodor #fyodor x reader #fyodor dostoyevsky bsd #bungou stray dogs fyodor #fyodor x y/n

[adelarsims]

Hi, you are more than welcome to ignore especially if you have answered before and I missed it/it's elsewhere on your blog but can I please just ask how you get your CAS photos to look so incredibly clean? Especially around the edges, they're so smooth it's incredible. Thank you in advance, I really appreciate it! You inspire me so much tbh, everything you post is so beautiful. (Also also also the eyebags you released recently are my new gold standard and I use them for everything now tysm for sharing them) 🖤

thank you!

ok so here are a few tips, you don’t need to follow all of them, but if you like exactly my cas style, maybe some of them will help

1. edge smoothing. sorry for being obvious, but use either in-game anti-aliasing, or a smaa shader if you’re a reshade/gshade user, or you’ll get a pixelated staircase for the edges that will be hard to fix. if your PC doesn’t handle high graphics well and you play without edge smoothing, you can toggle it on temporarily just for taking a few good cas pictures and then turn it back off.

2. use MXAO. if you use reshades, use mxao shader for pictures, it's really a life changer. though i don't use it during the regular gameplay and only turn it on when i take pictures, because moving a lot with it slows down your game and is a visual overload for me.

3. but don’t overdo it with MXAO. seriously, don’t go all out with mxao. for a cleaner look shadows need to be delicate, just to overline shapes and give your sim more dimension. every time i tweaked my reshade presets, i made mxao even more thin and gentle and realized that it only got better.

4. background makes a huge difference. solid colors. in my personal opinion, grey gives the "cleanest" look (i said while still using my old dirty yellowish that i'm too lazy to find a replacement for). also, if i want to use black or white background, i make it a little darker than white and a little lighter than black, they look pretty much the same but will attack your eyes less (especially the white one).

5. CAS lighting makes a huge difference. maxis light isn't that bad, but cc lighting definitely give you more clean, crisp image. my personal favorite neutral one that i use by default is v2 by helgatisha. sometimes i use lightings with side highlights for more “rendered” look, but they aren’t always comfortable for everyday use and i only use them for specific pictures and then get back to my default neutral one.

6. shadow overlays. i mean cc that imitates shadows on sim's face, it gives sim's face so much dimension. there are spotlight v1 and v2 by simandy and lighting overlay v1 and v2 by joshseoh. i'd say josh's overlays are for fancy portrait pictures (they imitate a very strong light source from different angles, very cool for sim photographers but not for regular gameplay), and simandy's are more neutral and are very gameplay-friendly on lower opacity. personally, i only use v2 by simandy now, it's my holy grail and i don't take sim's pictures without it.

7. SRWE. it's a program that emulates having a bigger display resolution than your monitor can afford, meaning much better screenshot quality and cleanliness for small details. srwe can be a bit of a hassle to use for a lot of pics and most of the time i’m too lazy to use it and just take my regular small pixelated screenshots, but sometimes i want just one, but extra clean picture.

8. Topaz Clean 3 (photoshop). i don't usually edit my pictures and just drop them like whatever, mostly because i don't know how to do it, but sometimes i make them sharper and cleaner with a gentle touch of topaz on very low strength.

#adelar ask

[yesloulou]

hello! i absolutely love your gifs and recently started making my own. your tutorials have been AMAZING especially the one ab creating super smooth gifs!! i was wondering two things if you wouldn't mind going into more detail. how do you go ab using topaz? I downloaded it (video ai) and when I try to use the frame interpolation, the video comes out looking super weird and staticky. My other question is unrelated, but was wondering if u could talk a little more ab neutralizing colors in gifs which you mentioned in one of ur tutorials? Thank you so much for all the beautiful gifs and amazing tutorials!! <3

hi anon. thank you for the kind words!! this actually just reminded me to update my lil gif speed management tutorial bc im doing something different now (avoid converting into smart object at the end which always made my gifs less sharp). i think it makes a pretty big difference &lt;3

Re: smooth gifs by neutralizing colors (from this tutorial)

basically the concept is that since gifs only allow at most 256 color entries, the more neutral in color a gif is, the more detailed those colors can be represented. here are two gifs whose only difference is the color on the big screen behind daniel. the first gif has more saturated greens and blues, and from the color table we can see PS utilized a lot of the 256 color slots to express greens and blues. the second gif is more neutralized, as a result we're seeing more skin colors in the color table, ie more efforts are made to express the main subject of this gif (daniel <3).

at this size, it may look like the first gif looks better bc of vibrancy. but the problem will expose at full size. taking a closer look we'll see the skin tones in the 1st gif are not as well expressed as the 2nd gif. the 2nd gif is a lot smoother, less pixelated, and less splotchy, especially around the highlight areas.

this comparison in gif:

obviously, nobody will look at a gif this closely. but in my opinion this is what makes the difference between 'smooth' and 'butter smooth'. vibrancy and smoothness are both important to a gif, but unfortunately they are a trade-off. it comes down to the gif maker's personal preference. to me personally, the first gif is eye-catching bc of its bright colors, i totally see why some ppl might prefer it. but there is a smoothness and real-ness in the second gif that the first gif just doesn't have. as a result, the more neutral coloring would be what i prefer for this particular gif

in application, this can go both ways:

1. if i feel a gif has too many colors and is pixelated bc of it, i will try to neutralize some of them for smoothness. example: here the very blue background that we're all familiar with was neutralized to an almost baby blue. the bright yellows on sharl and max's race suits were warmed up and desaturated to a peachy yellow color. this will be particularly useful if your gif is too big and you have to use even less than 256 colors.

2. if a gif feels too dull, i will either try to make some of its existing colors more saturated (using Hue/Saturation Adjustment), or add some hues to the whites or blacks (using Selective Color), so that it will have more vibrancy. example (left): the blue on the red bull can is almost the only cool color in this gif, so i made it more saturated for contrast; example (right): the gif had virtually no cool tone so i made the whites (see prints on sharl's shoulder) more cyan than reality. (ps this is why i think sports gifs are challenging. in tv shows or movies the colors in every scene would've been designed and arranged, but in sports we won't have that)

3. colors/vibrancy may be the only thing i want. pixelation can be a style in itself

4. i might not care about colorfulness at all and just want the gif to be as smooth as possible

Re: interpolation

speed coming out weird after interpolation is almost always bc your original video contains dup frames, esp if the footage was screen recorded. topaz does provide a "Replace Duplicate Frames" option with interpolation but imo it's not reliable at all. in my experience automated frame dedup requires more configurations than the one topaz lets you customize (sensitivity). which is probably why their dedup doesn't work as well as their other features. making sure your original video is free of dup or missing frames should solve your problem <3

ohh also interpolation works best in doubling or quadrupling! ie 25fps -> 50fps, 30fps -> 120fps etc etc

hope this is helpful!

#asks #* #gif tutorial #gif tutorials #my gif tutorials #dailyresources #f1edit

[megamanrecut]

And here's the consolidated list (mostly?) All from Diamond in the Rough, character notes below cut (not in same order as pics)

Considered a few different systems for assigning gems (gemstone family, value, etc.) but ultimately just went with color/relative familiarity of gem. There’s so many cool gems out there~ (I was trying to not be too repetitive with types/use more common ones though Quartz has a million interesting varieties!)

Mega Man, Blue Sapphire Sphere I wavered a lot on his ‘trinket’, Sapphire seemed obvious (especially with Proto being a ruby, both are corundum gemstones) but also considered blue diamond, alexandrite (blue/purple color shift), and aquamarine. For the jewelry, was also considering an atomic model (for chemistry?), a screwdriver, and slightly regretting not considering circlet

Roll, Amethyst Earring: primarily always wanted amethyst, but also considered heliodor, padparadscha sapphire (but it wasn’t quite the right color? and perhaps too obscure), tanzanite, morganite, zoisite, kunsite, iolite, (purple gems etc.) For shape, was considering spikes/fangs though that’s also Treble and Punk’s lol

Bass, Emerald Snake Arm Cuff: loosely based on a real arm cuff I saw in a book. Also considered black diamond, green diamond (he’s the titular ‘diamond in the rough’), and black opal

Proto Man, Ruby Aviator Badge: I went with ruby in the end, which seemed most obvious choice, but also considered red diamond and bixbite (red beryl)

Elec Man, Black Opal Ring: Also considered chatoyant Sapphire, Alexandrite (??? color shift?), chrysoberyl, angelite/anhydrite, and even hawkeye quartz (loosely inspired by a real hawkeye ‘lightning’ ring, before that I was thinking cufflinks, but seemed weird for him to become either a pair of gems, or even a single cufflink lol)

Jewel Man, Colorless Beryl (Goshenite) Monocle - also considered rock crystal, diamond, and Padparadscha sapphire. Apparently both beryl and rock crystal were historically used for eyeglasses. Monocle is a reference to gentleman thief archtypes, also they are just fancy. (Also I realized while drawing this that having a plique a jour monocle chain is probably super impractical, oh well lol)

Top Man, Imperial Topaz  Pendant in a Jeweled Egg - also considered alexandrite and spinel (for the pun, heh) and spessertite

Kalinka/Mega Girl, Rose Quartz Blossom Barrette: Pink :) though I considered other lesser known (but more valuable) pink gems

Quint, Alexandrite Wristwatch: Quint is a time traveler (of sorts), also considered model armillary sphere/astrolabe, a screwdriver, and jade or malachite or nanocrystal

Wily, Agate Cameo Belt Buckle: Loosely inspired by his skull belt in some of his game art, also considered amythist

Dr. Light, Alabaster bead on a bookmark tassel:  Dr. Light likes books! Was also considering rock crystal and goshenite

Ring Man, Zircon Hoop Bracelet: Reference to both his namesake and his carney background. Was also considering class ring (before assigning the ring to Elec Man) and a circlet. ‘Zircon’ just sounds circusy, must be the Z

Magnet Man, Garnet Horseshoe Amulet: garnets are apparently magnetic, also considered fridge magnet

Cut Man, Citrine Paperknife: for obvious reasons. I also considered topaz for the gem

Guts Man, Tourmaline Paperweight: funny/fitting pairing with the paper knife, the shape is in reference to the boulder he holds in game art (for a brief week, was a rock crystal until I realized those are clear lol smokey quartz would have made more sense)

Punk, Spinel Motorcycle Chain: ‘Spinel’ may be a derivative from Latin ’spina’ which means thorn

Rush, Labradorite Bone Collar Tag: Went for the pun!

Treble, Howlite Fang: and ditto for Treble

Others that weren’t in chapter (this list has no significance what-so-ever, I brainstormed a list of gems but also ‘trinkets’ and my brain just started associating lol)

Beat, Aquamarine Aigrette: Beat actually avoided transformation, but that’s what he would have been

Gyro Man: Mood Ring

Dr. Cossack: Selenite something or other

Dark Man: D20

Time Man: a pocket watch

Enker: Chess piece

Metal Man: A knife

Shadow Man: Also a knife, maybe jade

Yamato Man: Natsuke

Burner Man: Match Box

Fake Man: phenakite, derived from greek word for deceiver

Magic Man: Card Case

Needle Man: Rutilated quartz (it has needle-like inclusions)

Pharaoh Man: Scarab collar pin/cloak clasp

Star Man: Star Saphire?

And that's it from the notes, haha.

#my art #digital art #diamond in the rough #season 3 #aliens #evil energy #mega man #roll #proto man #kalinka #kali cossack #quint #brain bot #jewel man #Elec Man #Top Man #Ring Man #Magnet Man #Cut Man #Guts Man #Bass #Dr. Wily #Dr. Light #robot masters

[kimsuyeon]

hi if its alright with you can I please ask your stage gif process 🩵 (I don't mind if its not too detailed but if you use vapoursynth or topaz or anything)

hiii! omg thank u for wanting to know 🥺🥺 i actually use two methods, depending on the source file (and how lazy i feel). either vapoursynth or mpv. i'll show u both!

long, the example gif has a flashy background, somewhat clear. i hope.

i source from .ts files on k24hr or twitter, fancams, and then the youtube version (which i then run through handbrake before vs or mpv) if there's absolutely no other choice. i try to avoid show music core because its backgrounds make sharpening hard, but i'm using one from there for this tutorial :) i will also use beyond live / blu-ray files when available (i.e. 4th world tour gifs i did of twice)

vapoursynth:

-> only use the deinterlace (60 slow) when it's 1080i 30fps! i use this on files from k24hrs. if the file is already 60 fps (i.e. those from srghkqud on twitter), i don't deinterlace or preprocess. i use finesharp on .7 any time i use vs!

this gif is 268 x 520 px! i leave the delay at .02 and set frame rate to 60fps. on the left, it is just changed to 60fps and run through vs with the above settings. the gif on the right is sharpened!

i change my sharpening settings on every stage (and most other sets as well)! i use an action, and then adjust by the background and quality of the source! this is using my stage sharpening - but i have removed a smart sharpen and reduced opacity of other filters i use on different (clearer) files!

show music core has these really visible leds in their background, so sharpening it tends to be harder! i avoid using my 500px smart sharpens when it looks like this, and use high pass and bigger radius smaller amount smart sharpens!

sharpening settings for above: 8.0 high pass on soft light blending (40% opacity), 241 .2 smart sharpen (60% opacity), 15 15 smart sharpen (50% opacity) i should also note that on really really pale stages, i use camera raw filter to fix whites / highlights before i add the other sharpening! this does really slow down export time and can be frustrating, so i reserve it for then!

then i color! sometimes i use ezgif (which hasn't lowered quality that i've noticed) to adjust the speed, if i feel it needs it! this gif has a fine speed so i've left it as is, but i normally speed up gifs by 120% on their speed feature to make the choreo look a little faster!

left: unsharpened except vs finesharp, colored right: sharpened, colored

my coloring focus is always restoring skin, everything else is pretty much purely stylistic. i try to leave colors in the background the same! i do really like making blonde hair pinker or more toned (since they're often yellow, i always make a point of essentially toning their hair for them - i.e. tsuki in dang! set)

when i color the rest of the set, i keep the first gif open next to it to make sure everything matches! i normally copy and paste the coloring group and adjust as needed :D

also, i check how it looks in tumblr on desktop + mobile, since web safe colors adjust the look of your gifs a lot (the ones with the little dots in the middle are web safe, everything else isn't) and try to fix what doesn't look quite right. i also ask my friends if something is wrong but i'm not sure what (mainly nini (@withyouth) so shout out to her for putting up w/ me, a big part of the stage gif process)!

mpv: -> i press 'd' and make sure it is deinterlacing (again, only 1080i ones get deinterlaced)! and then i screencap. i followed this guide on setting up mpv, and always use minimal compression settings for everything i screencap.

-> i turn my files into dicom files (you can just rename them on mac, on windows it is multistep) and then scipt->load multiple dicom files (faster than loading image into stack and, in my opinion, clearer too)!

for windows: -> alt+d in your screencap folder, cmd. enter. type ren *.* *.dcm into the window. enter. close the command window!

i make my frame animation + frames to layers. once it is on the timeline, i go ahead and crop before i do anything else. i tried to make the cropping like the vs gif, but it's not identical!

sharpening: since i didn't use finesharp, i can add more in ps. this is my normal stage sharpening with nothing added or removed!

left: deinterlaced, screencapped, cropped right: deinterlaced, screencapped, cropped, sharpened -> 8.0 high pass (soft light, 65%), 500 .3 smart sharpen, 241 .2 smart sharpen (60% opacity), 15 15 smart sharpen (50% opacity)

coloring: same one as the vs gifs!

comparison:

left: vapoursynth, fully complete right: dicom, fully complete

i normally use mpv, but sometimes i don't feel like waiting on the screencaps, or i think finesharp will add texture + depth that the original doesn't have (too smooth of a filter, whatever) so i use vs! my taeyeon mr. mr. and le sserafim rock ver. sets were both done via vapoursynth, though the sharpenings are different from each other and what it shown here (i change sharpening a lot, and sometimes by set... sorry.. KJHDFGJKH)!

anyways i hope this was helpful!!! thank u for asking it means a lot u want to know!! if u want more stuff answered or shown, u can always ask :D and i hope it's clear 😭😭 i know i ramble a lot

#. . . letters #from : anon #m:tutorial #niniblr #useroro #awekslook #userdoyeons #rosieblr #tuserflora #<- u all can ignore i just thought i should tag ppl KHDFKJGH #flashing tw #long post #resources

[vodika-vibes]

I saw you reblog your follower event. I couldn’t resist sending in another request. I hope that’s what it meant.

Darman & fem reader. Topaz, springtime picnic near the waterfalls of Naboo. Beautiful flowers of every color you can imagine.

Any direction you want to take it. I’m grateful for everything you write for Darman.

Please and thank you.💕

Almost As Pretty As You

Summary: You manage to steal Darman away from a day of relaxation.

Pairing: Darman Skirata x F!Reader

Word Count: 682

Prompt: Topaz - Affectionate Love

Warnings: None

Tagging: @n0vqni @imabeautifulbutterfly

A/N: Sorry that this took so long to get to! It kept vanishing from my inbox and then coming back and then vanishing again. Apparently that happens if you have more than so many asks sitting in your inbox, lol.

“How did you find this place?” Darman asks as he looks around at the field of flowers. Flowers in every color of the rainbow, painting the fields in a riot of color.

You grin at him, “I am a very talented woman.”

He shoots you a look, “I’m not disagreeing, but you’ve never been to Naboo before.”

“Fine. My cousin told me.” You take his hand and tug him deeper into the field, “There’s a spot near the waterfalls, where there’s a willow that will offer us some shade from the sun.”

“Cyare, I’m supposed to be working,” Still, he doesn’t fight as you pull him through the field of flowers.

“You work too hard. Surely you can take a small break? Just a couple of hours?”

“If my brothers find out-”

“I will take all of the blame.” You insist, “Everyone knows that you can’t say no to me.”

“Yeah…They know I’m pathetic when it comes to you.”

“Not pathetic! Just…a man in love.”

“Same difference.” Darman teases as he adjusts the bag he’s carrying and hooks his arm around your waist, “Not that I mind being pathetic about you, cyare. It is, quite literally, a dream come true.”

You giggle and tug him over to the lake, where the massive willow grows. You’re not really surprised when Darman gets there first and sets all of the picnic stuff on the ground, before he grabs you and spins you in his arms.

A squeal falls from your lips, and he beams at you.

“There, now I have you just where I want you.” Darman teases.

“And where’s that?”

“In my arms, pressed against me.” He presses his forehead against yours, his gaze soft and warm as he watches you, “It’s been too long since we’ve been able to just…be together.”

“I agree,” You slide your arms around his neck, “Why do you think I stole you away for the day.”

“Ah, because you wanted my undivided attention.” Darman teases, “Well, you have it. What are you going to do with it?”

You grin and shift just enough to press your lips against his in a heated kiss. “This,” You murmur against his lips, “Is a pretty good start, don’t you think?”

“I think it’s a great start,” He agrees, his voice low as his breath fans across your face, “I also think that it’s very impressive that your cousin found the one place on Naboo that’s almost as pretty as you are.”

Your face heats, but you smile at him adoringly, “The things you say sometimes.”

“I mean it. Every word.” Darman murmurs.

You giggle as he rains light kisses all across your face, “I know you do,” You reply with a bright smile, as you move your hands to cup his face, “Do you have any idea how much I love you?” You ask, after a moment.

“Mm, almost as much as I love you?”

“Almost?” You grin, “Oh no, mister. I love you so much more.”

“Well that’s just not possible,” Darman spins you around in the field of flowers, dancing you to music only he can hear, “Because I love you more than there are stars in the sky.”

“Well, that is a lot,” You muse thoughtfully.

“It is, so therefore I win.”

“It’s not a competition, Dar!”

“It is a competition and I’m winning at love.”

“You’re impossible.” You say through a laugh.

“This is true, and yet you love me anyway.” He kisses you again and again and again, folding his arms tightly around you. “This was a great idea, cyare. I love being able to kiss you without my brothers yelling at me for being distracted.”

“I’m full of great ideas,” you agree, squeaking in surprise as he lifts you and spins with you. You fling your arms around him and bury your face against his neck, allowing the scent of him to fill you.

Warmth fills you as his arms tighten around you, and you feel a swell of affection. You would do anything for this man, you just hope that he knows it.

#star wars #tcw #vodika vibes 500 followers celebration #darman skirata x reader #darman x reader #star wars fanfiction #x reader fanfiction #f!reader fic #answered asks

[bihanspookies]

The First Meeting

Summary: Takes place during MK3 when Kung Lao is seemingly killed by Shao Kahn. He ends up in the Garden of Lotós, where he meets Kasiya, the deity and ferrywoman that helps souls cross into their next phase. A bit of ref to MK Gold.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

“You— you should not be here.”

Kasiya’s eyebrows raise as the tips of her fingers delicately touch her lips, humming softly in thought as she looks at the Shaolin Monk who looks equally as confused. He had suddenly burst forth from the forest, skidding to a stop, huffing and puffing to catch his breath.

“What is this place?” Kung Lao demands, wide eyes as he takes in his surroundings. Colorful flora and vibrant fauna no matter where he looked, species he’s seen on Earthrealm as well as Outworld. He swears his head almost pops when he spots a tiger resting calmly next to a TaiGore.

Kasiya watches him with a slight tilt of her head, mind racing with different possibilities as to how he was here. There were only a few people who knew how to access this place and she was positive he was not one of them.

“Kung Lao.”

Kasiya’s voice startles him out of his daze, his hand coming to his chest.

“You know me?” It sounded more like a statement than a question but the deity could see he was trying his best to remain calm.

“I know everybody. I also knew your ancestor: The Great Kung Lao.” At that he audibly sputters, taking sudden quick steps towards her. Kasiya’s eyes widen just a fraction but she understands how ludicrous her statement must sound.

“You knew my ancestor? Surely that can’t be right. Why you’re no more than—“

“I assure you I am much older than your mind could possibly fathom.” She replies cooly, putting a hand up in between them and moving it forward to have him back up. He spares a brief glance down then back up, silently obeying.

“Now,” She clears her throat, a puzzled look on her features as she takes in the warrior who is studying her back. Now that his heart has slowed down a bit he allowed himself to really look at this mysterious woman.

Her long dark brown hair in loose waves, decorated with a sort of thin crown on top with a beautiful topaz gem in the middle. It almost perfectly matches with her eyes but he could argue that they were brighter than the jewelry. Kung Lao’s head tilts as he notices more and more details on her face: beauty marks, thick eyebrows, the shape of her nose, her full lips.

“You are still connected to your body.” Her voice snaps him out of it, blinking rapidly and locking eyes with her.

“Huh?”

“I have only seen this a handful of times… Tell me, what were you doing prior to this?” Kasiya starts to circle him, Kung Lao feeling like he is being tested by one of his teachers. There’s a graceful element about her, the way her dark green dress flows as she glides around him, her sparkling eyes zeroed in on his form. His cheeks flush slightly, a hand coming to cup the side of his head as he tries to recall where he was before he ended up… wherever he was.

“I was fighting somebody. Shao Kahn I think— sorry, where am I?” He asks again, stepping a few paces away from Kasiya to create some distance.

“And who are you?” He adds on, the thought of her potentially being dangerous crossing his mind. He straightens his posture, fingers flexing into his palms.

“You are in The Garden of Lotós. This—“ She gestures with one arm to the area, “Is where souls come once they have passed. You, however…” Her head shakes slowly, Kung Lao’s head cocking to the side as he awaits for her to finish speaking.

“Have not. As I said, your soul is still connected to your body. Which means that you must be unconscious somewhere, hanging on for dear life.” She starts to walk away, Kung Lao quickly following in step behind her. He has a million questions running through his mind, all of them overlapping and fighting for which will be asked next.

Kasiya stops in front of a giant flower, shaped like a pitcher with vivid colors and surrounded by small leaves. Her hand swirls in a delicate circle above the center, the water inside whirlpooling as it rises up and forms a shapely bubble in front of them. Inside it shifts, spinning until it forms an image. Kung Lao’s eyes narrow as he leans closer, a hand coming to rest along the edge of the pitcher's opening.

“Please do not stick your hands into my fytó stámnas, it is very rude.” She says calmly, side eyeing Kung Lao who quickly yanks his hands back to his sides.

“Sorry.” He mutters.

“Quite alright, now—“ The image in the bubble becomes more clear and Kung Lao’s eyebrows knit together when he sees himself lying unconscious on the ground, covered in blood and bruises. The memory of fighting Shao Kahn comes flooding back to him, just as powerful as the attack the Emperor had laid upon him before he ended up here.

“By the Elder Gods, that’s me! I don’t understand how this is possible. Please,” He turns towards the deity with a plea in his eyes, nearly reaching out to grasp onto her arm but he holds back.

“Do not worry, I will not keep you here. It is not yet your time, Kung Lao.” She offers him a kind smile, her hands crossed politely in front of her and stepping back from her plant. Kung Lao sighs in relief, this time not stopping himself from reaching out and clasping her hands in his.

“Thank you, truly.” He says. Kasiya does her best to remain calm, feeling the faintest flutter in her heart from the contact. She blames it on the fact that she’s alone for a majority of her time and certainly not on the fact that this one is cute.

“Of course,” Good, her voice is steady. “Now, off you go then.” She retracts her hands from his, smiling again for extra measure and clears her throat.

“Shut your eyes.”

He follows her instructions, closing them and fixing his posture to be more straight. His heart hammers away behind his ribs, his toes wiggling in his shoes as he waits for whatever Kasiya needs to do to send him back.

“Now, think of something that you want. Something that is driving you in your life, that you wish to complete.”

Kung Lao doesn’t even have to think about it, his lips already forming the words.

“I want… to leave a life of peace. No more fighting. Just… peace.”

Kasiya smiles softly and raises her hand up to him, her painted nail gingerly poking into his forehead. His features curl slightly, left eye peeking open just a bit.

“Ah, keep them closed. Unless you wish to get dizzy and vomit when you return.”

“Oh uh, no we don’t want that.” He chuckles a bit sheepishly. He remembers something, parting his lips and he can just feel the way she stares at him.

“You never said your name.” His voice is quiet, the temptation to look at her one last time growing every second.

“Kasiya.”

“‘Kasiya’.” He repeats, liking the way it rolls off his tongue. “Beautiful.”

Her hand falters a bit, a thoughtful expression on her face. She eyes Kung Lao up and down, an odd feeling blooming in her chest. She blinks out of her daze, repositioning her hand in front of him.

“Now, even though you saw your body where you last remember, that might not be the case when you return. Time is different here in the garden, just remember once I send you back.”

“Right okay. Uh, how exactly—?”

“Farewell.” With that, she pushes her finger against Kung Lao’s forehead, sending him falling backwards. He braces himself for impact on the ground but it never happens, air rushing past his ears and then silence. He lies there with his eyes closed, feeling the weight of his body suddenly and every nerve, muscle and bone in excruciating pain.

He opens his eyes, groaning and then going into a coughing fit. He feels like he can't breathe, as if something was sitting on his chest and there was a large object lodged in his throat.

“Careful now! We don’t want you yacking up anymore blood now, do we?”

Kung Lao looks to his right to find an elderly woman sitting there, dabbing a rag into a wash bowl before wiping across his face. Droplets roll down his dirty skin, trailing down his sides and into the bed below him. His gaze flickers to his chest, noticing the off colored gauze wrapped around him.

“How long have I been unconscious?” He asks, his voice hoarse and scratchy. He reaches a hand to touch his head only to be gently smacked away by the woman.

“Three days,” She answers, wringing out the rag into a different bowl and then dunking it back into the water.

“Three—?” He remembers something faint, a voice in the back of his mind tickling his brain.

‘Time is different here in the garden, just remember once I send you back’

“”Time is different…”” He repeats to himself in a murmur, the woman next to him questioning what he just said.

“You were mumbling in your sleep. Something ‘siya’… what’s that?” She stands up and walks away, coming back with a roll of bandages and a jar of ointment.

He tries to think about what she’s referring to, the name ringing familiar in his head. Why couldn’t he remember? He can vaguely recall a figure talking to him, the voice a bit raspy and melodic sounding.

The more he thinks, the more his head throbs but now he can remember that it was a woman and she had the most piercing amber eyes he’s ever seen, even in a dream.

“Best not to try and think about it, might give yourself another concussion.” She chuckles, reaching for his hand and placing one underneath his shoulder. Carefully she helps him sit up, Kung Lao grunting at the ache in his ribs, pain radiating throughout his body.

“Right.”

He thinks to himself that maybe when his head doesn’t feel like it’s being run over by a wagon, he’ll try to remember the woman’s name.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

Taglist: @bdfightclub @chadillacboseman @roofgeese

#YEEEHAHAAWW PAARRNDNDERR #The Pyxis and the vela #Kung Lao #mk oc #yes I will be making a masterlist later #mk kasiya

[revserrayyu]

2.1 Penacony thoughts [part2]

**Spoiler warning** Covering up until we switch to Acheron’s POV alongside Welt (not their first conversation but actually playing as her, hence the cover photo), so be kind to yourself and look away if you haven’t reached that point yet. Brace yourself once more; I’m going to ramble.

First things first, this whole shrinking down scene where we traverse through a model of Penacony was so odd. Poor Ratio had to be rolling his eyes so hard just watching a tiny Aventurine run around like that.

I feel like we didn’t learn much about Sunday last patch, but hearing him speak about how orderly and presentable we should be at all times really fits his personality. The pretty boy certainly knows how to look good and leads me like him even more..

But only for a moment as he then uses some Harmony trickery against Aventurine so he’s forced to answer his several questions truthfully, or at least that’s the feeling I got from watching this interrogation. Seeing this was quite interesting to me because there’s this anime call No Guns Life where a character by the name Tetsuro has an ability called “harmonie” which allows him to control other extends (robots basically) and they way the anime shows it looked very familiar with all the color.

Moving on, Sasuke Uchiha vibes are coming in strong with our gambler being a potential sole clan survivor, not to mention Aventurine admitting his love toward his family is something he values more than himself. Also, I don’t like this bird.. sitting there, keeping an eye on everything, even during Aventurine’s chat with Sparkle later on. I know the Family has a big Nightingale theme going on but still. Big Brother (or in this case the Family) always watching hm?

NOPE. Any small hope I had for Sunday being someone we could safely trust has flown straight out the window with this sinister smirk of his, no matter how handsomely good it makes him look here.

I love that no matter what is going on or who he’s talking to, Ratio always manages to mildly insult others without a care in the world.

So stuff about the Cornerstones gets revealed, how all Ten Stonehearts have one of their own and how very important said stones are to them, so what on earth was Aventurine doing with both his and Potaz Pazto Topaz’s? Also found it interesting how closely hers resembles Qlipoth’s body when she isn’t a Preservation unit like Aventurine is.

Sunday then gives Aventurine only 17 system hours to live and he has to spend it solving Robin’s case with little to no outside help or hints on where to begin. Talk about immense pressure. Let my man gamble in peace!

And if all that wasn’t enough to make me start feeling bad for our fancy man, we get a sad backstory featuring his sister and even learning how both their parents died! Because OF COURSE they’re setting me up to get upset about him for some reason later on in the story and now I’m so terrified because if I learned anything from anime it’s that these kinds of flashback are major red death flags.

The feeling of joy came back to me though upon seeing Topaz show up. Despite Aventurine being around and all the mentions of the IPC, I honestly wasn’t expecting her to visit Penacony at all, but I’m very pleased to see her again! She definitely grew on me after that one quest in Belobog and even though she doesn’t have access to most places on Penacony like her coworker currently does, it’s nice she’s willing to lend a helping hand to us.

It doesn’t settle well with me that none of the Bloodhounds know who Gallagher is. Ain’t he supposed to be top dog around here and in charge?

Oh red text, why must you haunt me so easily? Imagine how different all of Penacony would feel if we had the option to completely turn off subtitles. People would definitely have various opinions regarding Acheron if they knew of her ominous words or not.

I wanna chalk this up as a HI3 reference, but I can’t be sure as I’ve never played. If so, I love how they can toss in hints about Welt’s past like this.

And hers.. I imagine bits and pieces would line up with her past one way or another too.

A little while after that, we cut back to Black Swan and y’all, we FINALLY get some sort of Boothill interaction in the story! Only audio for now but I’ll take it!

Hearing about bullets, him getting annoyed about Acheron being a “galaxy ranger” and the Hunt path are wonderful ways to confirm who it is and I can’t wait to eventually see him in game.

Seems like he isn’t too thrilled with Acheron though and of course, he too knows of her Emenator status. There goes my brief hopes of them being in friendly terms and seeing them work together I suppose.

This item that Ratio gives Aventurine before he suddenly disappears (again) and how it features one of his voicelines.. hilarious. It’s like it was spoken specifically for Aventurine and no one else.

I may be a little stupid.. do we know who the other mute is? The one dead is clearly Robin, but surely the other can’t be Sunday right? He spoke perfectly fine. I’m thinking back to all the Penacony characters we’ve met and they all sound fine, aside from Sam but he’s robotic so naturally he would sound a bit different yea? Maybe we haven’t met this other mute yet, I dunno. The “again” part of Sparkle’s line makes me feel like we have met them at least once.

Sweetie, how the fuck did you manage to sneak such a dangerous device into Penacony?? Even Aventurine is concerned about how the Family doesn’t know of it.

Okay.. so the whole flashback with Aventurine being bought as a slave and used to gamble for his master is tough. I know many people speculated what the mark on his neck said, and majority did think “slave” was written, but man, the hint didin’t make this story any easier to hear. Being blessed with luck ain’t always a good thing hm? Hearing the guy say “all or nothing” and learning from Topaz about how that phrase is now Aventurine’s mantra.. oh boy.

Siobhan is gorgeous and if she was playable I’d definitely pull for her.

SERVAL MENTION HUZZAH! I’m aware they mentioned my girl during the livestream and how they’re both the rebellious ones in their respective families, but Siobhan actually wanting to meet her? Oohhh~

Okay but the fact we’re encountered so many deaths, during the many story and side quests, in a short amount of time shouldn’t be normal. The way he seems so indifferent about it too.. “so what?” like sir, people are dying.

Oh, we did indeed receive one as well. That was the invitation, wasn’t it? I thought the music box Acheron stole from Duke was something different and special for different reasons. Nevermind.

I seriously need to check back into the creepy dream we experienced last time after Sparkle knocked us out, where we encountered that memory zone meme and listen to all the shouting we heard of this Mikhail guy. I figured he had to be someone important, but the Watchmaker and betrayer of the Family? Oh dear.

I bet you anything it’s Misha. Working behind the scenes in the hotel this entire time would definitely be an effective strategy, and his technique outside battle literally stops time and that seems like the perfect kind of ability for someone named “Watchmaker.”

Gallagher wondering if this certain person is real or not is another reason I think it’s Misha because apparently no one notices his presence at all. During that one scene with us, Firefly, Acheron, Misha & Clockie last past, the girlies didn’t acknowledge Misha at all. Only us and Clockie spoke to the boy. In return, Clockie is only seen by us and Misha as well. So that’s just strange.

For a moment I wonder if Misha is actually like.. a ghost of sorts and we’re just going insane seeing visions of people and cartoon characters everywhere. But that’s all stuff I shall find out later. Hopefully. If the story decides to answer my many concerns.

(originally written on 3/28)

#honkai star rail #sunday #aventurine #acheron #black swan #sparkle #gallagher #gameplay #revs rambles

[nanistar]

I know you said they arent technically albino eyes(?iirc), but I like that you still draw them accurately! A lot of people just made them pink when they ARE just really pale blue a majority if the time! N the pink is usually blood vessels :3!

WEIRD thing to compliment you on but the genetics of it are fascinating as well as it’s sad to see people think of it as creepy or unrealistic ect ect so its nice to see! <3

thank you!! i put a lot of thought into how their eyes work, cuz speculative biology is fun, and i don't really draw them the way i actually imagine them. (like how i've said before that most of moonclan would be very thin furred with rat tails but i dont want to draw similar looking cats so they have different markings and fur lengths and stuff) i also imagine all of moonclan to have wide, bulging eyes that don't blink often (like Rock from Canon) but i found that hard to emote with, so for the sake of the comic they have my typical style of eyes, except for in webwhisker and rubblekit's case. their eyes are how i wanted Everyones eyes to look. so my canon reason for web and their son being the only ones who have it is just saying that they are the first to evolve it. rather than albinism, my inspiration for how their eyes look is based on three things; russian topaz eyes, the eyes of some cave tetras i used to have, and the way cats eyes reflect in photos with flash. russian topaz is a really unique eye color that sometimes comes with birth defects and high/unique white spotting and can look "normal" blue or more like this:

(via messybeast)

blue with red shine. but if you know tumblr famous cat pangur a la @pangur-and-grim blog, she has russian topaz eyes where they look more purople/blue with more purpleish/red pupils.

^here's a good post of theirs where you can see what i mean.

russian topaz can also show as black irises with red pupils but that, while cool as fuck, was a bit too "dark forest"-y for me.

(the two above graphics are via messybeast, which is a GREAT source for cat genetic info) so anyway, that was my base, and then i wanted the eyes to be inconsistent in exact color because i want the light to reflect off of it more, and make them glint like holographic colors. i had some cave tetras that technically had red eyes, but when they moved their eyes to look around it felt like you could see into the eyes, like the pupils were just sitting on a layer of clear jelly instead of being surrounded by iris if that makes sense? so i wanted the moonclan cats to evolve that sort of light refraction. and i want their wide stares to be a bit unnerving. in the future, moonclan cats would eventually evolve completely blind eyes and then finally no eyes at all, but i think that would be Really far off. (they have only been in the mines for ~100 years or so.) i have... no idea if this would ACTUALLY be genetically realistic, but it's fun to pretend like i know stuff lol

#moonclan #lore #and their culture is fucked up too but we'll get to that #sbc

[sabraeal]

Keeping Up With the Joneses, Chapter 3

[Read on AO3]

Written for @aeroplaneblues for her birthday! This is our second year of our birthday exchange, for which she made me this delightful piece of Spy x Family AU Obi & Shirayuki, and I was able to make this chapter. This is a little later than originally planned-- I did NOT get to have the easy writing days on vacation that I planned-- but coming in at only a week and change over schedule, I'm beating my usual spread

There is a boy in the cupboard.

Or, at least, there was. Now he’s spilled out on the floor at her feet, lost in the hollow shell of his sweater; the saddest thing to ever claim the distinction, wool so thin and threadbare any grandmother might despair. And yet, against the mess of drab brown fabric and drabber scuffed floors, his eyes shine out like a beacon. Too large in his face, like all these children, hunger and neglect making cheek cling to bone and hang on for dear life. Too bright for a home as hopeless as this. Too blue.

He can’t be much more than four. Old enough that he should know how to speak, how to sleep in a big boy’s bed and turn up his nose at every vegetable. Young enough that he should still be clinging to his mother, a set of too-large eyes peering over a gingham-clad shoulder, but instead he’s here, in a shelter for orphans made by the war, and—

And she’d been nearly the same age when she’d stumbled down the back stairs of her childhood home to find bags packed at the door. Her mother’s old tartan ones, brought out only once before the pneumonia had taken her, just a winter back. Her father had loaded her onto a cart with strangers, wild-eyed and wary, and told her he’d be along soon. Think of it like a big sleepover, he’d said, smile not quite reaching his eyes.

Eyes so different from these ones: a deeper, muted green, against a brighter, paler blue; the sort that shine when the sun catches them. Unclouded, like sapphire. Pale, like topaz. Ones just like her mother’s.

That would work, wouldn’t it? Blue eyes, from her mother. Green was so rare after all. And he was small for his age, the way she had been— still was, though she’d keep that assessment out of her report. A few years of good meals and a steady home life would probably fix that, but then, well, so would a tall father. Boys always grew so much; no one would look twice at a tall one with a small mother. And the dark hair, so thick it mats instead of simply tangles—

Well, another thing to lay at his father’s feet. His absent, tall, dark-haired, no preference for eye color father.

Ah, but…he’s too young. Shirayuki settles back on her heels, smile stiff. It kills her to think that a boy as young as him could prefer hiding in cupboards rather than playing with other children, that she’s close enough to reach out her hand and save him, but she can’t because— because—

Because King Shenezard’s twins are six. And this boy is—

“Six!”

Shirayuki blinks, meeting that steady stream of blue. “Excuse me?”

“I’m six,” he tells her, rolling over onto his knees. “Six years old.”

The warden here— ah, the caretaker, as her contact had so generously called him, despite the lack of care the peeling paint and dusty floors implied— stoops down, a suspicious scowl thinning his already narrow mouth. Mr Fuchs, as his paperwork said, the sole proprietor of Little Day Orphanage since its inception after the war. And yet when he squints down at this child, head cocked so skeptically, Shirayuki wonders if he could even tell her this boy’s name. “You are?”

The boy frowns, mouth a furrowed mirror of his brow. “Of course I am.”

“Oh.” His proportions might say different, but, well, he hardly has a reason to lie to her. Not when she hadn’t even asked. “Are you? That’s a lovely age.”

"Convenient, too.” The old man coughs when he catches her look, scrubbing a hand over his bald pate. “Er, I mean, since that’s what you were looking for. School age. Ready for learnin’. Which is just what this one is.”

He reaches out, one broad palm aiming to clap that small back; a sweet gesture, if the boy didn’t flinch the moment Mr Fuchs lifted his hand. “If you’re looking for a smart kid, then you don’t gotta look at any of the rest of these brats. He’s the brightest one in the bunch by a mile. Can read and everything.”

“Oh, is that so?” It’s an effort not to speak through her teeth; one she manages simply because the boy is watching.  “Do you have a book you like? The ones with pictures are always so nice. Maybe you could read one for me?”

The space between his brow dints, the way it always did before eyes teared and fists shook, but there is no mother to hold and soothe him, no father to convince him to do what he’d told. It’s cruel to test him, to dangle this promise of home and family above him when he still has so much hope left. But Mr Fuchs hardly seems like a man who would hesitate to employ hyperbole, and her mission is clear: she needs a child who can pass Eden Academy’s rigorous exams. And as sweet as this boy looks, as much as she would love to sweep him into her arms and scurry him out from this awful hole…

Well, she doubts if there’s any of Eden’s future bright-burning stars to be found in a place like this. Few minds catch fire without fuel to burn, and every child here is simply embers trying to survive until the next piece of kindling.

The dint deepens into a furrow, turning his expression from anxious child to frustrated accountant. As if a picture book might be beneath his dignity as a professional, er…six-year-old. He does not scramble to his feet, oh no, he rises with all the gravitas of an elder scholar, striding from the room on legs that are barely long enough to hold him steady. It would be sweet, if Shirayuki were not so sure that she had lost her chance to see if he really was the cleverest child in this home.

“Well,” Mr Fuchs clucks, hardly disappointed. “Ain’t that just the way. Boy’s always been a bit big for his britches, though. Might have dodged a bullet, if you ask me. Too smart by half.”

Too smart by a half was the exact sort of child that would fit the brief, the baseline of the Director's impossible standards. Potentially the only one in this terrible place that would have met them

And she had let him slip right through her fingers. Izana would be positively unlivable.

“Plenty of other kids though.” It’s a conman’s smile this man tries to give her, a charlatan’s confidence that she’ll buy his snake oil by the case. “You know what they say. Kid’s true potential is all about a mother’s love.”

That’s certainly not what ‘they’ say, but there’s no point in quarreling with him; only three rooms into this tour and she’s quite certain they’ll never see eye-to-eye on the topic of cleanliness, let alone child rearing. Instead, Shirayuki stitches the corners of her mouth up into a smile, hoping it looks more natural than it feels. “If you say so.”

“I know so.” One of those liver-spotted hands reaches out, skin yellowed with the beginnings of jaundice, and she realizes he means to hold hers. To take her palm into one of his and pat it, as if she were some nervous mother-to-be in a maternity ward, needing assurance no matter what the source.

She tucks both into her pockets. “Then perhaps we should—?”

One moment the door is empty, and the next the boy traipses through it, cutting them a wide wake as he arcs to the center of the room. His head, so large for his body, swings one way, then the other, and with one put-out sigh, sprawls on the floor.

It’s not quite an invitation, but it’s…curious. Shirayuki shuffles a few steps closer, enough that a subtle lean gets a mostly unobstructed view over his shoulder.

It’s a crossword. The one from this morning’s paper, three of the rows already filled by an adult’s unsteady hand. Shirayuki hadn’t gotten around to trying her hand at it this morning, but a quick glance is all she needs to know that they’re wrong. For one thing, Three Across— jewelry that hangs around the neck— was looking for pendant, not necklace; a fact that should have been apparent when the solver had to scratch the ‘e’ into the black space beside it.

Obvious enough that even the six-year-old snuffs when he sees it, carving the correct answer over it in pencil.

It takes him seven minutes to fill the grid. It takes twice that for her to check his work.

“Wow.” It’s a murmur, a whisper, but when she glances up, it’s straight into those bright eyes, waiting for her to finish. “Wow,” she says again, louder, for him. “This is really impressive, er…?”

“Ryuu.”

“Ryuu. That’s a nice name! A strong one.” It would sound natural with Lyon. “My name is Shirayuki.”

Shirayuki is hardly a child; she doesn’t expect the boy —Ryuu— to turn around and compliment her about how pretty it is, or how much he likes snow, but, well…

She expects a little more than a stare. It’s almost impatient, as if she was wasting time reciting facts; the sky is blue, water is wet, my name is Shirayuki. It would have been nice to be able to do something like this the right way, to be able to visit over a series of weeks and form something like a rapport, an ability to trust her, but Izana’s timetable hardly includes the time for paperwork, let alone emotions. Still, it would have been nice if he could at least smile—

Suddenly, he does. One side twitching, then the other, forming around the word, “Shirayuki.”

It doesn’t quite fit on his face, but she hardly notices. “Ah, yes…?”

“Are you going to bring me home now?”

*

“It’s not much,” Shirayuki warns him, her smile as shaky as the keys in her hand. They’d rattled the whole way down the hall, loud enough Ryuu wondered why the neighbors hadn’t poked out their heads. At the orphanage, they would have; every jingle, every yelp, every cough had been entertainment, so long as it hadn’t been happening to you. “I only moved in a few days ago.”

There’s no need to be worried. Her key scrapes right past the lock, bouncing off the door. There’s plenty of room. Another try skids right off the knob. Anything would be an improvement over that terrible place.

He nearly corrects her: there are worse places. Ones with white walls and lights so bright they burn. Rooms where the only furniture is a tray of strange implements and a chair that unfolds to lay flat. A place where there’s one window, but you can only see through from the other side. Where even though you’re alone, you know you’re being watched.

But it’s better that Shirayuki doesn’t know about places like that. Even if she turns out worse than that old man, at least she’ll never think to put him back in one.

Her key finally slots into the lock. He can’t see, not through her back, but he knows, both from the metallic jingle it makes, and the way her mind eases with her shoulders, no longer a crackling static but a faint hum, like the moment before the television turns on.

“There we go,” she sighs, guiding the knob through its twist. “Guess I’m a little excited!”

I should tell him I’ve always wanted a child. He’s never met anyone who thinks as loud as Shirayuki does, as clear. The other children always thought in pictures over words, and the old man had been like listening to a radio with a broken antenna, just a series of fuzzed out voices heard between deafening static. That might provide a more stable environment. This is hardly an ideal situation, but he should at least be comfortable.

Ryuu would be happy enough with another cabinet, so long as he didn’t have to deal with all the other children running around, pulling on his hair and tearing his sweaters and calling him ghost boy or creepy kid or whatever unimaginative insult they could cook up in the moment. He nearly tells her, so, but then the door opens and—

And none of Shirayuki’s careful warnings could have prepared him.

“Go on.” She steps back, one hand splayed to keep the door in place. “Make yourself at home.”

It’s him that trembles now, taking one large step over the jamb to stand in some— some entryway? There’s a kitchen to his left, just big enough to fit two of him across, with room for another if they squished together enough. Plenty of cabinets too, but it’s hard to tell without looking—?

“Can I take your coat?”

He’s been clutching it, he realizes, hands fisted around the cloth at his belly so hard they’re beginning to ache. Not even at the pockets, but just above them. “Oh…okay.”

It takes effort, thought, to work his fingers loose. One at a time, uncurling, until the hem drops to just above his knees. Takes longer still for his clumsy hands to unbutton, but Shirayuki waits patiently, a smile on her face he’s already coming to like.

He’s barely shrugged it off his shoulders when she thinks, loud enough for the neighbors to hear, He needs new clothes. Those are too big. Everything’s falling apart at the seams.

These were also the only ones he could wear. Ryuu’s shoulders hunch, brushing the tips of his ears. Everything his size had itched, sitting so close to his skin he could feel each scratchy coil of wool. The old man never cared what they wore, so long as they were covered; it’d been one of the few nice things about living in the home.

“Your shoes can go here,” she says, pointing to a corner by the door. “If you’d like, of course.”

He watches her take off her own, revealing small feet covered in what looks like the end of a sausage casing. Stockings, he guesses. Nylons, like the ones he sees on TV, sandwiched between Bondman’s cliffhanger and resolution. For a modern woman! they would profess, showing a lady at a typewriter. That’s what Shirayuki must be: a Modern Woman. One that’s saving the world.

His shoes slip right off, barely tied tight enough to stay on anyway— needs new shoes too, something that fits— and it’s strange to have just socks on. The old man hadn’t been a stickler for much beside silence, but shoes had been one of them. So no one says I’m making you lot run around wild and barefoot like dogs, he’d grunt. The faster I can get ‘em out the door, the less time any nitwit who wants to take ‘em home has to have second thoughts, is what he meant.

Flat against the floor, his foot feels wrong. Like there’s something worming beneath it, right under his arch. He lifts his heel, just so it clears the wood slats, and oh, that’s better. Natural even.

“Go ahead,” she tells him. “Go look around.” It’s your home too.

Ryuu blinks. His home. “Oh. Okay.”

Stepping out past the entryway, he can see more of it: not just a kitchen and mudroom, but a living room too, with a couch and everything. There’s a dining table too, with chairs. Another hallway with— bathroom and bedrooms, Shirayuki supplies, just a few moments before she echoes it out loud. ‘Not much’ she’d called it, but— but—

It’s the nicest place he’s ever lived.

“Did you want to watch TV?” Shirayuki thinks mostly in words, but this time it’s a picture: the always-on box in the orphanage, sound set just above a whisper. The old man had kept it running all day, everyday, hoping it’d keep them entertained. Quiet. It worked, sometimes. Most times, the kids found their own way to occupy themselves. Picking on each other, mostly.

“You’re welcome to,” she says. I don’t know what kids watch, she thinks. “If you have something you like.”

Bondman is the only thing he bothers with— the only thing worth chancing a run in with the other children. It’s not on until after dinner, right before everything switches over to news. But…

But Shirayuki keeps thinking about his smile. About him traipsing over to the carpet and hunkering down, having one on his face. She wants him to be happy.

Or at least look happy.

He tries out one of those smiles again, still strange on his face. “Okay.”

*

It’s four in the afternoon when Obi discovers that his bedroom shares a wall with 5B’s living room. Something he probably could have figured out months ago, when he thinks about it; 5D’s always knocks hard enough to shake the rafter when he plays a nice victory record or two after work. Only makes sense that at three AM that might be coming from a bedroom.

In any case, he finds out now: through the pap-pap-pap of a cap gun. The recorded kind, like from those stupid kids shows they put on now. New neighbor must have one. Which means Obi the Office Worker is going to have to get more creative about catching up with z’s on company time if the Thorn Prince wants to show up to his gigs all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Obi sighs, wrapping the pillow around his head. Or the Thorn Prince is going to have to start taking on less overtime. Not an option, if he wants to keep himself the way he’s become accustomed. Government workers can’t afford apartments in neighborhoods this nice.

Company sponsored nap time it is. He’s just got to worry about tonight. Last thing he needs it to slip up because some kid couldn’t miss Zorro winning the day or whatever. Probably gonna cost him another shirt; dry clearing never really gets all the blood out. Maybe he should go over there, give this kid a little talking-to--

The pap-pap-pap cuts off. All at once, like a power outage.

Obi frowns, lifting his head out of the pillow. No sound at all, not even a villain’s growl. TV’s off.

Huh. Must have been a rerun.

#obiyuki #akagami no shirayukihime #snow white with the red hair #spy x family AU #my fic #happy family #ans #there was one scene I was sad didn't fit in here but it's gonna be one of the first next chapter #so i can't be too sad #but i am excited to get into the first little mini arc here #since now Shirayuki's got her son home. and now she needs to get him into Eden #And Obi's going to have some real big questions about his new neighbors

[adsmpgemau]

The Assignment.

Rhodonite, alongside their Rose quartz guard and Bloodstone pilot, had instructions directly from Pink diamond. They were to join White Diamond's new colony.

Before making their arrival they were to retrieve three Gems.

An Era 1 purple sapphire.

An Era 2 Pink Topaz.

And Topaz's Crimson Pearl. 

The era 1 purple sapphire's reputation precedes him. Had survived several near shatters on the front lines of the war, but every time still helped guide his assigned General gem to victory. 

The Pink Topaz was his personal guard, the Topaz was a well known brutal and efficient fighter, assigned to protect and prevent further shatter attempts on the Sapphire. And sure enough, since The Topaz had been assigned the Sapphire has not received a single scratch.

What rhodonite had found particularly interesting was that the topaz was who the pearl belonged to, instead of the Sapphire. But then, it made sense. A Sapphire usually did not see a need for a pearl, due to their own status and reputation. A Topaz with a pearl, however, showed that they were not to be trifled with and a high value gem.

Sapphire and Topaz, being Frontline gems, had likely never seen White personally. And knowing their own Quartz and Bloodstone, neither had they.

The silent nervousness of the full flight was palpable, but no gem dared cut through the silence.

There the lot of them were, saluting to their new diamond, who was sitting in his chair, seeming rather unpleased to have been interrupted. To their diamonds left stood his gold pearl, and to his right was an Opal.

"My diamond." The Sapphire spoke first.

"Ah, sapphire, we've been expecting you. You have much to enlighten me on." White nodded, gesturing to another Opal. "Show Sapphire to where he will be staying."

The Opal saluted and approached the line of gems, eyes glued to the Sapphire.

"Right this way, your clarity."

Rhodonite swore after the door closed behind the two, they could hear the Sapphire say 'I already know the way, and what will happen on the way, and there's no need for your escort.' And the beginning of the reply before they were to far from the door, 

'But my clarity...'

A look seemed to enter White's eyes as he glanced over the remaining gems. Eyes steady on Rhodenites Bloodstone, it was as if the diamond had truly seen the group now.

"Say, Bloodstone, approach me." Bloodstone seemed startled momentarily, immediately glancing and Rhodonite, who didn't dare look away from their diamond. After a beat of hesitation, Bloodstone slowly approached.

"Yes, my diamond?" Bloodstone asked, standing about halfway between the line of gems and their diamond.

"I didn't mean to half-ass it. Approach me." White's tone was more commanding now. The Opal beside him seemed to bristle, and Rhodonite felt concern bubbles inside. 

Bloodstone quickly closed their approach, stopping just outside of White's arm length.

"Now, don't you have very unique coloring?" White said, grinning. "I have never seen a bloodstone like you before." White looked to Rhodonite. "A very lucky gem you are, Rhodonite. To have such a... Unique gem under you."

"Dismissed!" White said with a hand gesture and leaning back in his chair.

Rhodonite, Rose Quartz, and Bloodstone entered their ship, as the door shut behind them and they were alone again, they all shuddered.

"Do you think white knows?" Rose asked Rhodonite softly.

"Of course he knows!" Bloodstone blurted, "I'm as good as shattered!"

"Now, we don't know for sure, surely he would have reacted differently? Perhaps he truly sees you as a unique bloodstone?" Rhodonite attempted to reassure Bloodstone, who was visibly panicking. "Just lay low, remain on the ship, do as you're told and cause no trouble. Do not give White diamond a reason to be further interested in you." Rhodonite gently touched the secret fusion’s shoulder. "Nobody's noticed before, not even Pink noticed when we stood before him to get this assignment, there's no way White knows."

#dsmp au #dsmp gem au #dsmp writing #lore post #Rhodonite!Eret #Bloodstone!Ranboo #RoseQuartz!Niki

[aflawedfashion]

You make such beautiful gifs, the quality and coloring are simply wonderful.... I'm slowly getting into making gifs myself but I'm really struggling since my results come out looking muddy/low quality whenever I upload them (for example, uploading on twitter) .

And so I was wondering if you were ever up to making a tutorial on what your process is to get the results that you get.

Thank you for sharing your work with us, always a pleasure to see.

Thank you! Happy you like my gifs!

Learning to gif is a journey, and most people's first gifs don't turn out as nice as they want them to, so you're not alone. There's a lot of trial and error involved.

As for tutorials, I follow the same steps as most of the gif tutorials you'll find on tumblr. If you're not using Photoshop to make your gifs, you might want to try it. I'd recommend just finding a tutorial on how to make gifs in Photoshop on tumblr and working from that. Aside from one caveat, which I'll get to later, I don't have much to add about the gif making process that hasn't already been said.

The requirements for Twitter are a bit different than Tumblr as Twitter processes gifs differently than tumblr (and Twitter is worse). I don't make twitter gifs very frequently, so I can't give you the best advice for that. What I can say is that you'll need your gifs to be large enough for Twitter. You'll want to look up the optimal size for gifs on twitter because the last time I posted gifs to Twitter, the optimal size was larger than Tumblr. Once you figure this out, you should be able to make pretty good gifs for Twitter.

In terms of general gif making, for best results you should use HD files. This is going to be key. You want to use either 1080p or 4k, and in my experience, 4k doesn't significantly improve gifs unless you want to zoom in, in which case the extra resolution of a 4k file helps a lot. I use 1080p unless I want to zoom in.

You also want to make sure the file you download isn't overly compressed because overly compressed video is much more difficult to brighten and color. If you're looking to download an episode of a tv show, you may find a few different files. I usually go for the largest 1080p version because that will give me the best quality. The smaller 1080p files are noticeably worse quality than the larger 1080p files. They both say 1080p, but they are not the same - that smaller file size came with sacrifices. Ripping straight off a blu ray will usually give you great results, but the files can be very large.

Now on to the one thing I do differently than what you'll see in a lot of gif tutorials - I don't sharpen in Photoshop. I use Topaz Video AI. This is a resource-intensive program, and I run it on an expensive laptop which allows it to run quickly. It's not going to run well on everyone's computer, so if you're working with 1080p files, it's absolutely not necessary. I use it a lot because I like it, but sharpening in photoshop will be fine if you're gifing an HD file.

If you're working with standard definition content, Topaz Video AI makes a world of difference. If you're asking me about my gifs because you saw my Scrubs gifs, then, unfortunately, Topaz Video AI is the secret to how they're much higher quality than anything you'd make from the SD/DVD files that are available.

I do know that a lot of people have used Topaz Video AI (or a similar program) to upscale many older series, so if you're looking to gif a standard definition series, someone out there may have already done the work for you. For example, I know you can find upscaled Xena episodes pretty easily these days, which was not the case when I first started using topaz to make my gifs.

And if you can't find an HD file, you just have to make the best with what you have. Sometimes that's the only option.

Hope this is helpful!

#reply #i know it's not super specific #but the gif tutorials on tumblr are usually pretty good for the basics #and this is what I have to add that might not be in there

[follyglass]

Follyglass : Hidden

Six of The Seventeen Hidden Bookstores of Boston, a guide by Charinia Black

Buckingham’s - Only found in the golden hours of October in a shower of freshly shed sugar maple leaves. The proprietor is quiet and at first looks bothered at your arrival, but be assured that he is only a bit socially anxious as not many people have found his shop. He is more than happy to guide you through the towers of volumes that deal with the boundary between life and death. Even if you just say your hello and turn right around to leave, please don’t be surprised that when you emerge it is a cold night in December.

Charles - Entrance is located under the southernmost arch of the Obelisk footbridge on the Charles river. Accessible only to ladies named Charles. For those of you who are not ladies named Charles, a hint: find the paisley cat at Harvard Square, and for the price of a nibble (of noodles, of fish, of cheese), she will bestow a spell in the form of a purr that will, for a single hour, charm you to the appropriate Charles. It must be said that if you do go about this, keep meticulous track of time and perhaps plan to leave a smidgen early, for when your purred magic wears off and you’re still in the shop, you will be dumped as if a trapdoor has given way into the river below. To add to your sudden sogginess, you name will also be charmed – or perhaps cursed – into a new form that integrates whole or parts of ‘Charles.’ Try as I might to write my previous name, it always comes out as you see it now, with the added twist that with the exception of me, nobody can read or remember my original lovely name of Charinia.

Avender Pinkfog’s Delectorium - Avender is known for popping up at odd places with his carriage decorated in flower chains. Only six are permitted, for Avender sadly hasn’t room for more, and when the sixth arrives the entire party vanishes. Nothing malevolent, mind. Snippets of story are in the faceted bottles that look very much like alcohols. His bookshop’s genius is in those bottles; always a different combination for each time he heads out. The night we had found Avender’s carriage there was carrot and honey and ginger and topaz and lemon, and when given coin and a suggestion (a bittersweet romance), Avender mixed them in specific proportions, then served us. Through sips of his concoction, we felt, we saw. It was as if we were all watching a film together, a film never to be experienced again. If you tell him a dream, he will make your own little vial of story, and you can take it home and drink it when you wish. I told him I wished to see him again, but sadly Avender’s shop can only be visited once.

The Society of the Recently Broken - Not everyone has the key to gaining entrance to this rather large bookstore, and that key is an experience of true heartbreak. Perhaps its magic was meant as a pick-me-up for those who had been recently wounded, very much like offering someone a chocolate after a mild disappointment as a thin balm to sweeten the soul. Oh, you’ve just been rejected by the wondrous life that you could have had? Welcome dear heart. Once inside, it is a marvel that cannot be described accurately, but those who have been within will manage to make you quite envious of their experience. So what must one do if you’ve always had a charmed life free of tear and strife? A curious thing… some book lovers do gain entrance after the crushing feeling of being denied.

Kindlewicks - Follow the curious amethyst-hued windowpanes up the cobbled streets of Beacon Hill to an aubergine colored door. Here, you’ll find a wide range of books and trinkets that were previously owned by those proud of the witches in their lineage. It’s much like a well-to-do eccentric’s yard sale, if it smelled overwhelmingly of coriander and crystal. If you’re not looking for a book, perhaps you’ll be interested in a bone-handled fork or a fringed lamp. And if one of the seven owners (the Kindlewick siblings) feels up to it, you may be gifted with a reading of your path through the shop, which takes note of the direction of your turns as well as what sections you lingered in. Reader, I had been informed that my path was grandly optimistic.

Step and Hall - Kindly address the left statue guarding the public library, and if she finds you worthy, she’ll blink. Note that many who have been granted access have compared notes, and nobody can determine what makes one ‘worthy.’ Nevertheless, if you find yourself blinked at, go inside the library, and ascend the steps to the gallery of the gods painted by the Singer Sargent. No, there isn’t a hidden door, but if you ask one of the gods a question, they’ll give you an answer from their eternal knowledge. It’ll only be a one-word utterance, but wrapped within you’ll have experienced the writing that you most seek.

#flash fiction #boston #bookstores #creative writing #fantasy short story

[angst-and-fajitas]

Ragtaggers allows me to focus on my true passion in life--BADGE DESIGN!

Pictured here, we have the design for VTA Councilwoman Michelline's official badge. Rather than a unique personal design like a Venture Team would have, the head VTA council members all have the same standardized design, just with different colors and insignias depending on the division they represent.

Due to my small and difficult handwriting, I shall transcribe my notes below, and add my ramblings as well!

"compass rose and sun motifs"

"sterling silver plated"

"blue topaz -- highest ranks get precious stones instead of the usual glass or enamel"

(pointing to scroll) "ideally, the VTA motto will go here, once I can remember it lol"

"medallion insignia depends on which councilmember and which seat they fill"

"Michelline is the councilmember for the Law & Peacekeeping division, so her color is blue and her insignia is the scales"

I really love making badge designs like the old ones I did back in 2019! Honestly, if I were ever to do commissions for anything, it would likely be this kinda stuff. But back to my rambles!

Especially for Michelline's character, I was inspired to model the badge after the style of military medals you see on uniforms of really high-ranking officials, often royals. A real sense of unearned valor, there. Separate from her, though, the compass rose and sunray motifs in the design are what I felt was vital to the founding ideas behind the VTA: the sun being in reference to the Day-Night calamity forcing everyone to recognize life's dependence on the sun, while the compass rose has to do with exploration being the original core of the association.

#emma draws #ragtaggers #emma writes #my ocs #councilwoman michelline #very proud of how I got that gem to look #honestly just love the whole design #ive got the character design for her coming up pretty soon--just gotta work out some issues with pesky accessories