[Mood: ........... ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] ♪ Drop. ...What? Drop. What was this? Why was Zoey's face wet? ...What had Heidi just said...? Zoey hadn't been able to speak a word as she had taken in Heidi's words dumbfoundedly: "Ah... Tyler... Tyler-- he ugh... he's not here, anymore." Not here anymore? What did she mean? What could that have meant...? "Tyler died, Zoey. A couple days before Christmas." Heidi's eyes filled with tears... What did this mean? ...Why was the world not working right suddenly? "That night the four of us switched back. He ugh... He got hit by a car. His mom was in the hospital. She had been bitten by one of those snakes. He died on his way to see her and... and she didn't make it." ...No. No. That couldn't be possible. She had just heard wrong right? She couldn't feel anything suddenly... her entire body felt numb. Heidi must be lying. ...But... no. Why would she lie? She had no reason to. Those tears were real too. ...Oh God... Oh very God... God, God, God! The numbness began to vanish... filling instead with pain, sadness and despair as the tears came more and more. The train started to come to a halt, not that Zoey even noticed. She was just frozen on the spot. ...She'd come all this way... chasing after hope... Through meeting him at last... and thinking she had that one chance for happiness - to have a family member who might hopefully accept her. ...But... he was gone now. All hope was gone. He'd been dangled in front of her only briefly, and then snatched away very suddenly. He never even knew the truth... Zoey didn't know what hurt the most... the fact that he'd never know, or the fact that he hadn't at all. ...No. She did know. The thing that hurt the most was definitely that he was gone. ...It's not like she even knew him that well, right? ...She'd only actually talked to him a few brief times, but still... it hurt terribly. More and more tears came as she wept. People on the train were starting to stare, but she couldn't move, she couldn't care a bit. All that was there right now was immense agony. She couldn't speak, she couldn't do anything except cry and cry some more. Tyler was her brother... he had been at least... Or had he? Did it even count? A simple connection between their diluted blood? What would he have thought of her if he had known? Would he have accepted her? Would he have rejected her? Would he have loved her? ...So much flew through her mind overwhelming her as her sobs became more strangled and desperate. She felt so cold, not from the weather, but... all the warmth in her life was gone. There was nothing light or warm in the world right now. ...She felt a weight appear next to her. ...That's right... Heidi was still here. Without even thinking as if guided by an instinctive impulse, Zoey gripped the sleeve of her coat around Heidi's arm and buried her head into Heidi's shoulder. ...She'd have to apologize later. Right now though... she was desperate. She felt so alone and didn't want to be. She was cold, alone and frightened. She just needed... somebody.
[Mood: Relieved, at least a little... ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] Next Heidi started talking again. They were both sharing with each other, and Zoey felt slight relief from that. She was worried she'd been talking too much and confiding too much, but it did feel nice to get this off her chest. It was surprising as she'd not even told Matt. Regardless, she listened intently to Heidi. "I... I'm going to see my mom too. I haven't visited her in months. It's never fun. The doctors-- they never know if they should be watching her or me. It's not a good time. I just... I have to see her and tell her, and get medication. I have been fine since the body swap, but... I'm not sure how much longer that will last. I don't... I don't want to burden them anymore than I already have. They're nice people that have done so much for me already." Zoey spoke up here. "Hey, you're family to them now, right? That means you'll never be a burden." She decided not to ask about the hospital stuff. Heidi would reveal more in her own time and if she wanted to. She did feel a kin-ship with Heidi though, it was weird about how they had both chosen to visit their mothers that they hadn't seen in a while on the exact same day and were on the exact same train. "What were you looking for? I mean-- I don't mean to pry. You don't have to tell me." The sad look came back onto Zoey's face immediately and she avoided Heidi's eyes. She'd never told anybody before... well, her mother knew, but that was it. "My hope... is probably the last family member I have. ...You see... My mom is actually... in prison. My father is in a coma... not that he was ever much of a father." Zoey sighed deeply as she took a look into Heidi's eyes and spoke resolutely. "The problem is... this family member doesn't actually know I'm... family." Her heart thumped hard... she felt sick as she started talking again, but she tried to be brave. She... could trust Heidi right? "You've met him before. He's Altair's room-mate. Tyler Ashes. ...Tyler is my half-brother. We have the same father."
Wanted to mention as well... The reply to thread button is cut out a bit messily... There are those little white bits in the corners of it. Not a big deal, but thought I'd point it out. Because it's next to the other buttons, it makes it look very obvious. lol
Wanted to report the odd placement of the search bar.
ONE... is clearly for me. And... NPCs: Mr.Heckles (DOM's brother and fisherman extraordinaire) Miki-chan (Owner of club Neo-rosé where Dylan works and also the owner of the Maid Cafe) Black Rodney (A bouncer at club Neo-rosé) Mrs. Price (The head Librarian)
I personally would like to have a smaller option, but I don't want to create more work for you either. lol Also: Could I just ask why this is? I'm purely curious is all as to why this has changed. It was nice having the options before, so I'm wondering if there is a technical reason as to why they're not being offered this time.
I know it says in the style chooser that you're not gonna work on another style, but can I at least ask if a thinner version (the fluid/fixed was it?) will be released again? I just don't like seeing KHV so wide especially after getting used to the fluid version before (personal preference) and I think I'm not the only one, so that's the main thing I want to ask about this. lol Either way, I do really like the looks of 7.0... Just yeah. XD Good job, Misty.
[Mood: ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] Zoey noticed Heidi's look of dismay as she took the jacket, but was then relieved when she heard the words "Thank you Zoey" come from the girl's lips. "No problem at all." "I'm... I'm glad you were here actually. I'm kinda scared and it's nice to have someone to talk to while I wait." "I didn't wanna tell Altair. Not after... not after everything he and his grandpa have already done for me.I guess... I guess his grandpa adopted me. I can't imagine how that conversation went with Aunt Stacey. Mr. Marshall is strong, but Aunt Stacey makes people cry..." Heidi was adopted by Altair's family? Wow. That was something. Of course... Zoey didn't understand the relevance of this Aunt Stacey, but she could tell one thing for sure. The way Heidi smiled when she talked about Altair or his Grandfather was pure. "It's nice seeing you happy though. I mean, you seem to be happy that you're now family with Altair, right?" She commented, feeling weird about using the AC character's name in real life, but dealing with it. "All that matters is finding that happiness and then holding onto it while making those you care about happy, and by extension, seeing you happy will make the people who care about you happy. At least that's what I think." Zoey said. At least, that's how she tried to be now not that she'd ever force her own way of living on someone else. She just found it an easy way of living after her own experiences. Zoey looked at the floor for a moment, in thought. Heidi was opening up to her so it was only fair that she did the same. "...I'm going to visit my mom. As I said to you before, I haven't seen her for a long while since I have to live alone right now. I've not been sure about whether I should go and see her or not. Things are really complicated right now. In a way... it feels like I'm living a lie. I only came to Coy City not long ago chasing after one little shred of hope, and then suddenly had to move to Brookridge like every one of the other Bellhurst students, I'm just jumping around everywhere without any family and I guess it can get kinda lonely sometimes. Thankfully I have Matt who has been a great friend, but... it's hard sometimes you know?" She commented with a weak smile. "I still hold that one bit of hope in my heart though. I want to reach out to it some day, but don't know how to go about it. I guess I'm still trying to find my own happiness, but... I'd like to think I could one day." She would have to survive this email thing first sure, but... who knew truly what would happen. Zoey wasn't ready to give up yet though. She might be hesitant, but she'd already decided life was too short to keep holding herself back, and especially with this new time limit. No. Zoey Quill would live by continue to run free just like when she was doing parkour, and if she was going to die, she'd die knowing deep down that she had ran free and by living true to herself.
[Mood: Average.. ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] Zoey saw the confusion that appeared on Heidi's face when she called Altair 'Mr. Ubisoft'. "Oh. Ubisoft is the company that made a game series called Assassin's Creed. The first game's main character other than Desmond was some guy called Altair. Sorry, I forget there are some people that don't know the series, so I just made the joke without thinking it." She let out a soft giggle. The conversation continued before Heidi started peeling off her wet sweater. ...Wait. Heidi was wet? (OOC: no pun - meant the clothing...) Zoey hadn't noticed at all before. The cream tank top beneath was revealed along with something else... Heidi's arms covered with scars which she hastened to hide quickly. Zoey made sure she didn't stare or anything out of respect for Heidi. She could tell revealing herself made Heidi feel uncomfortable. In fact, that also explained so much from when Zoey was in Heidi's body. Of course... "Are you getting off at Frontier?" Zoey however ignored this question and after checking her pockets to see if she didn't have anything important in them like her train pass, she started peeling off her big winter coat to reveal a pink jumper underneath. It was probably odd that Zoey of all people was wearing so many layers today, but she wasn't stupid and even she couldn't deny the cold weather outside. She suddenly thrust her coat out to Heidi. "Here. You're gonna get cold just like that, especially since you're soaked." She predicted that Heidi would likely try to refuse and use the reasoning that then Zoey would then be cold too, so Zoey spoke up before Heidi could intervene. "You don't have to worry about me. I've still got my jumper and besides, you likely already know I hate too many layers anyway. Makes me feel uncomfortable." She smiled. "Please take it. You can always just return it to me later at the dorms." Of course, there were two reasonings behind Zoey's offer. For one, Zoey really was worried about the fact that Heidi was soaked and would be freezing in such weather, but also, this was an indirect way of allowing Heidi to re-cover her arms up which she obviously felt uncomfortable with showing. This way, Zoey wasn't drawing attention to that particular fact and still helping Heidi at the same time. Two birds with one stone right?
[Mood: ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] "Hah, y-yeah. I... I am too, I guess. I just..." Zoey noticed the girl was hesitant... but she felt this strange bond with her. Maybe it was from the fact that they'd shared each other's bodies before. She wasn't sure, but she knew Heidi wasn't a bad person. If anything, she felt quite fond of the girl. Zoey had no doubts that the girl clearly had something going on that left her feeling timid, but Zoey had her own baggage too. She could understand that. "I left without saying anything. I was afraid... maybe Altair sent you or something. I don't know... I wasn't expecting to see anyone else I recognized on the way back to-" "Oh you have no need to worry. I wasn't sent by anyone, and besides, why would Mr. Ubisoft send me?" she asked, scratching the back of her head in her usual habit. "I barely know him other than the time we all spent... you know. Swapped up." She offered the girl a friendly smile. She had realized that the girl had too caught herself at the last second before revealing something. It seemed they were both alike in a way. It reassured Zoey a bit. "And hey, you don't have to tell me what you're up to." She told Heidi. "We're friends now right? We can just trust each other. I'm sure you have your reasons and I can respect that." Her smile turned into a grin. "Both of us seem to have something we've gotta do. So yeah. We're partners in crime I guess." Zoey suddenly felt a twang in her chest from her own words and considering where she was going. ...Partners in crime and she was heading to a prison. Not that was an ironic pun. "Either way. Don't worry about a thing. I've got your back. That's what friends do." Zoey spoke confidently, not letting on a thing about the inner turmoil she was feeling deep inside.
Sounds like an RPG battle theme this time. XD Keep it up. Loving it. lol It's really good. I love this sorta RPG style thing you've got going on.
[Mood: Surprised. ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] The journey so far was uneventful... Zoey just sat in place feeling the rhythm of the gentle rocking of the train around her. It was making her sleep almost as she just got lost in her thoughts, but then... "Hi Zoey," Heidi casually commented before sitting down. ...a few seconds passed as Heidi checked her stuff. "Z-Zoey?!" Suddenly Heidi had jumped out of her skin as though she had only just realized just who she had said hi too and was freaked out like a deer caught in the headlights. ...Was something up? "Hey there." Zoey commented casually and held up a hand in greeting. "Wh-what are you doing here?" The question made the girl hesitate... she found herself looking at the floor for a second unable to meet Heidi's eyes for once, not having picked up on Heidi's emphasis with the word 'you'. ...It's not like she could say the truth could she? What the hell would Heidi think of her if she knew about her mother being in prison? She felt ashamed as she realized she was scared... Her mom hadn't done anything wrong and yet she was still terrified of what telling the truth could mean. "I'm... wondering that myself." She mumbled before realizing she'd spoken that aloud. Stupid girl... she cursed herself. She needed to relax, this wasn't a big deal. She quickly caught herself and spoke up trying to work more of a natural hue to her voice. "I'm going to visit a relative. That's all. It's been a while since I've seen them." She said, almost a little sadly, but trying to hide it still. "Nothing to worry about." She grinned through the sadness. "How about you? You seem a bit agitated. Is everything alright?"
Funny you should say that. I have an update. Jacket has been darkened so it no longer looks like shiny red plastic. Also, I blended the shading on the right leg in better so it looks like a smooth gradient instead of cutting off. Finally I neatened up some lines more among other things. Thanks for the advice on the shorts though. I'll work on that next. Someone else made the same comment so yeah. Lastest: And updated banner to match:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m69jxtCeZt1r5zq6ao1_500.gif Another for you. XD
lol People do tend to raise an eyebrow when I tell them my nickname is Bushy, so I can imagine why it would be funny. XD When are you talking...
Loving the GE avy and sig. Just wanted to say that. lol
[Mood: Resolute... ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] Zoey had decided last night... after getting home, stripping off, watching porn and then laying in bed she'd become lost deep in thought. If she had learned anything from this whole one hundred days to live thing, it was that life especially now was too short. ...She'd come to a decision after all, and it being a Saturday gave her perfect opportunity. There was no school. Now was the time. She'd go and visit her mother. ...It had been a while. After all, her mother had told her to stay away from the prison if at all possible. It wasn't the place a fourteen year old girl should be going really. Zoey hadn't told anyone where she was going, she had simply gotten the train and then on several buses and headed there. Today was going to be... interesting. [Mood: Meh... ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] Dylan was starting to get sick of this playing Hero gig that kept throwing itself at him. He'd been minding his own business, heading down the road when what do you know, this old lady got attacked from nowhere, having her bag ripped from her weak grasp as a guy ran past. ...Trouble just seemed to keep finding Dylan, but no matter. ...Why not right? It'd kill some time. The thief just happened to be running in the direction that Dylan was coming from. The guy probably thought Dylan wasn't going to do anything and just let him pass. BIG mistake. At the last moment as he was running past, Dylan stuck his arm out and clothes-lined the guy, which aided by the fact that the ground was snowy and slippery completely made the guy lose his footing and go flying smack to the floor. The bag flew up high into the air and landed firmly in Dylan's outstretched hand from where he had just stuck it out to trip the guy. The guy was already picking himself up. "Hey! You bástard, what was that fo-" Dylan's heel smashed into the side of the guys head without him even saying a word. The guy crumpled to the ground and Dylan couldn't help but sigh. That was it? It hadn't killed much time at all after all. He had walked over to the old lady and handed her bag to her before walking off wordlessly, or so he thought. He felt something tug at the back of his clothing. He glanced back at the old woman. "I just wanted to thank you, young man." "Don't mention it." he commented before walking off again. ...Or so he thought. He felt the tug again. "I was just on my way to the library, it's awfully close by. Do you know of it?" she kindly asked. "I do." What of it though? Why was she being so nice to him. He'd only saved her. It's not like it was a big deal. "I was hoping you might accompany me. I want to give you proper thanks and you look awfully cold dressed like that. We have really good hot chocolate over there." Dylan was wearing his usual style of a shirt, pants and waist coat. He wasn't wearing anything particularly warm, so he could see why she'd assume he's cold even though the cold had never really bothered him. "I won't take no for an answer. Come on now, young man." she insisted and started scurrying off with a surprisingly swift walk for a woman of her age. Dylan sighed once more and followed after her. Again... why not right? It'd kill some time. It didn't take long for them to get there and for him to be sitting down with a mug of hot chocolate in his hand. It turns out the woman he had saved was the head librarian, go figure. Not only had she given him hot chocolate, but she'd also insisted on giving him a library card. ...Would he ever even use it? He doubted it. But he'd accepted it none the less to simply keep the old lady quiet. Now he just sat there sipping the hot chocolate, ...Which was indeed in fact pretty decent, and staring down at the watch Marina had left for him on Christmas day.
Yo, it's been a while since I've posted in this section. I've been continuing to edit graphics even in my absence from here and now here is one of my latest efforts just for the hell of it. So I'm preparing a character for an upcoming RP (the character as usual is based on one of my own novel characters), and started off with this image for a base (For those interested, the girl pictured is Anarge Huckebein from the Nanoha series). She for the most part suited the right sort of build, hair style, haircolour(ish) and various needs that I wanted, but there were also a few things that I definitely needed to change to make her just right. So then I started to work on it little by little: Original Image: So for a start... my character doesn't have the tattoos... and that shirt is a bit too... short? So I started by working on that. I will mention now that I did this all manually using simply the pen tool and matching the colours and blending them in. I used a similar method for the shirt by getting the main shirt colour and then tracing along the main body shape and did the same for the shading by extending it downwards and trying to help leave some shape for the breasts underneath the shirt by tracing the shadow over some of the curves that had been visible from underneath the shirt. Also, I changed her eye colour to orange and then used the hue-saturation tool to make the hair a more vivid red. This is where I got after all of that: After Tattoo removal, extending the shirt and minor recolouring on hair and eyes: Next up was the clothing which was a bit more difficult. The green clothes didn't suit my characters style or colour scheme, and so I achieved this by creating multiple layers of the same image and using various tools such as manually pen tracing colour over the clothes directly, blending, smudging and other things... I had tried at first to make my life easier and use hue-saturation again (kinda like I did for the hair) but it didn't work the way I wanted (various complications occurred as certain parts weren't changed or the wrong parts were instead. Grr...) and besides, I feel overall that just by manually changing things as I went along, while it would take longer and was more difficult, gave me a lot more accuracy than I'd have achieved otherwise. I also slightly tweaked the vividness of the red hair again since the red jacket now took away from some of the hair's original impact. This is the latest result: After Clothing Recolour: For now this may be one of the final drafts so to speak (It's far from perfect, so I may work on neatening it up as well as making some further changes). I'm personally not quite sure as to what other changes I'd make yet. I think the red on the jacket might be a bit too striking, so I will perhaps work on dulling that down a bit to look more suitable. But for the most part, I'm pretty happy with how she's turned out so far. I can at least definitely use this. I will say... This is perhaps the MOST editing I've ever done just for an RP character's image. lol Also, here is a little sig of her that I've mocked up for now: I'm far from happy with it. Others have liked it, while one or two others have said it is too busy. Personally, I'm not sure that the floral patterns suit the type of person she is anyway. I'll likely start from scratch with this banner, but thought I'd show what I have so far. Either way, any comments and stuff would be appreciated. As I said, I just felt like sharing something with you guys after so long. So yeah.
[/url] Dragoness listened as everyone made their introductions and confirmed that they were well. Her ears twitched slightly as she heard Apostle mention 'Steel's daughter'. Obviously... that was her of course. She looked over to the Magician type hero and spoke up. "That is very kind, I'm sure she would be flattered to hear that. But take a girl's advice." The young dragon girl offered a cheeky smirk for a brief moment despite her usual formality. "I don't think you're her type." She concluded, letting that sink in, not that she was sure that Apostle was serious anyway. It was odd hearing such a comment. It made her feel prideful which was obviously something she liked, but... well, she was a Dragon and... technically human too she supposed, and she wasn't used to such comments from guys. She'd heard the news comment on 'Steel's attractive young daughter' before, but this was an interesting experience. Her father often told her that she was pretty as well, but he was her father, so it was natural for him to say such a thing."Besides, it's probably not a good idea to try anything with your employer's daughter." she commented, amused at how her father might have reacted to such a thing.She then looked over at Runner as he started talking about his frisbees and powers. One thing her father had taught her to try and gain a better understanding of 'humanity' other than looking a lot at philosophy was psychology. Of course... she wasn't an expert, but judging from how he was acting, perhaps he was feeling... inadequate compared to the others? That wouldn't do. What would her father do in this situation? ...Other than crack jokes and try to lighten the mood. ...She should reassure him right? "Runner is an important member of our team, as are you all. Everyone here has been chosen for good reason. Mr. Steel has faith in each and everyone of us. While things are just beginning for this team, there are no doubts that everyone here has 'hero' potential." There was that word... hero. It was a word that awed Dragoness. Her father had talked to her about heroes when she was growing up, before she could even truly understand English (not that it took her long to learn) he had used the word numerous times when telling her stories whether they were about real life heroes such as the members of the Sanction, or whether they were the ones in those comic books. It gave her hope... She was dedicated sure, and had a strong will to master the impulses that her nature as a Dragon forced upon her and all the times her body was wracked with pain as a result from the experiments forced upon her, or when she transformed... Her life hadn't ever been easy. But then came the day her father had told her that she was made this way for a reason, and it wasn't to be used as a weapon... That she could use her powers to help people, to save them just as he had saved her. To be more than just a tool of destruction. ...That she could be a 'hero' too and bring people the same feeling of hope that he had bought her. That she could make a difference. It had filled her with strength. She wanted to meet her father's expectations. She wanted to grab such a dream for herself. It was the first thing she had ever truly wanted more than anything. She'd make her father proud and she'd live up to the purpose that had helped guide her. ...She had zoned out briefly. Runner had suggested a demonstration? That was a brilliant idea. It would allow for team bonding and for everyone to know where they stood with each other. If they were going to be a team, then they had to know what everyone was capable of as much as they knew the limits of their own powers. There was more though... Even Dragoness was curious as to exactly what her future team mates were really like. It filled her with a sense of excitement which she kept under control and hidden from her face. "That is an excellent suggestion. I agree if everyone else is willing to participate."
[Mood: Enigmatic... ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] What had the teacher just said? Zoey's sluggish mind refused to keep up with the droning voice being emitted from the Teacher's mouth. In fact... what lesson was this? Science? English? History? Math? ...She couldn't even tell. Wow. She rested her head on the desk. The school uniforms were adorable, but... god... this winter one felt restrictive. ...It was driving her crazy, which didn't help with the fact that she couldn't concentrate on the lecture either. Time had just seemed to zoom by really quickly recently, one day blurring into the next. Which wasn't good when you had an ever decreasing time limit until your death. It was like someone decided to time skip like you got in those anime and in books, etc. Obviously, that hadn't happened, but it certainly felt like it. She sighed. She hadn't seen any traces of 'him' for a while. She'd heard his mom had been taken to hospital, but she hadn't learned anything else since. It felt wrong to just try and pry. After all, 'he' finally knew her, but... he didn't know who she was. She was just Zoey Quill to him. As simple as that. She sighed again. God she wanted to get out of this lesson, get to her dorm room, strip and watch some porn. She was THAT frustrated. [Mood: Average... ~ OOC: ~ ♪Listening to♪] Dylan was walking idly. He'd ditched classes today. It's not like they were important anyway. Yet again... along his travel, he'd gotten into several scraps. ...Fights just seemed to find him. Not that he minded. It kept him sharp. What was he doing? Where was he even going? He wasn't actually sure. Was he looking for Marina? Perhaps. It seemed odd that he hadn't heard from her for so long. Had he píssed her off somehow? He doubted it. Whenever that happened and they annoyed each other. It usually resulted in make-up sex anyway. No. Something was definitely going on, and Dylan was starting to get fed up that he had no leads to go on. ...Soon enough, he'd find answers, one way or another.
