Thanks for the tag @cimmanombagel and @frotees-corner ! Bit late on this one, but hey, I survived the week! š
Iāve been having a lot of fun lately with drawing Veilguard characters as funny Formula 1 moments for Between the Lines. (And trust me - there are SO. MANY.) Here are a few Iām working on now! I like to think there are a lot of random shenanigans that have gone down in the Corvi garage over the years š¤£
Anyway, hereās a shot from Lucanis and Illarioās younger yearsā¦
And hereās a candid from Corviās latest group photo sessionā¦
Gentle tag to the friends @corinnesin , @cravingcoconutredbull , @dreamywritingdragon , @emmi4793 , @grad-writes , @khayr , @incessantstar , @jellyeliart , @negligiblemoose , @vixenofcadmea and open tag to anyone else whoād like to share what theyāre working on!
If you want to be on or off my tag list, feel free to DM me and lmk!
Remember Toto Wolffās infamous headphone smash during the Saudi Arabia GP?
Yeah, Iād imagine Caterina would feel the same if it was Teia.
(This was a fun drawing exercise for Between the Lines! Iāve got a few more of these lined up so expect to see more iconic F1 moments crossed with Veilguard soon :D)
Thanks as always to @jellyeliart for the tag! These are so much fun :) This weekās song isā¦
Silver Spoon by Erin LeCount
This song is my favorite of hers. The lyrics really stand out, and the way she sets the scene really draws you in.
I love how she uses small details to hit it home. You can really feel the warmth in the other personās life through them - growing up with wooden photo frames instead of cold metal, having the light left on when theyād come back late, and eating at the table. You can really feel both envy and sorrow from the singer when they look at their life versus their loverās.
The most striking part to me is the chorus, especially here:
I bet you grew up grazing your knees
But the fall wasn't fatal like it was for me
We're the product of love that we do not receive
I'll corrupt every branch of this family tree
I love how the singer gives a harsh truth about their upbringing against the backdrop of a normal kid thing (scraping your knees). For them, mistakes were fatal but were simple things for their lover. And ācorrupt every branch of this family treeā??? Paired with the earlier lyric, āyou ask about kids, I donāt know if Iām ableā??? MAXIMUM DAMAGE.
Your mother said I'm always welcome
To visit, to take second helpings
I said, "No thanks, I'm so full on resentment that I learned to fend for myself"
I also love the āso full on resentmentā thing. Itās a really interesting contrast to the other lyric of āfed love from silver spoonsā.
Anyway, I think this song is beautiful and gut-wrenching! Check it out!
(peep the rookanis yapfest in the tags!)
---
Gentle tags to the friends if yāall wanna share some music!
@cimmanombagel , @corinnesin , @cravingcoconutredbull, @dreamywritingdragon , @emmi4793 , @frotees-corner , @grad-writes , @khayr, @incessantstar, @negligiblemoose , @vixenofcadmea , and anyone else who'd like to share!
And if you want to be on or off my tag list, please let me know via DM!
Pick a scene/chapter/whatever from one of your fics (or I'll suggest one!) and add any commentary you feel like. Why that line? How come this plot twist? What does the eyebrow waggle MEAN?!?! I want the dirt and I can only smash my face up against the glass of your stories so hard before I start to leave smudges.
This week, Iām nerding out about one of my favorite worldbuilding pieces from Between the Lines:
āØ The PointsāØ
Ok, fun fact - the points a driver earns in the Grand Prix chapters? Those do actually go to a canon leaderboard that matches the current F1 points system. With the way Iāve set it up, I know exactly who will win the driverās championship, how big the points gaps are, and how well every single driver placed in each Grand Prix.
Hereās a quick visual into what the standings are right nowā¦.
Now, I know what youāre thinking - āShrimp, this is so random! Why bother?ā
Honestly, Iām a sucker for details š And when I started writing BTL, I started asking myself questions like, āIf Corviās the top team, how many Constructorās Cups would they have won?ā And: āHow many championships should Serenaās mom have won?ā Or: āHow big should the points gap be between Rook and Lucanis?ā
That led me down a rabbit hole of making an in-canon championship history (that goes back 35 years lol). I did have to make a few tweaks, but I think itās reasonably realistic!
(Honestly, that deserves its own post, but hereās a quick peek. Corviās the leading team with 10 wins, followed by Evanuris at 7 and the Wardens at 6. And there are a few interesting little Easter eggs in that world champion column on the leftā¦)
Then I ended up planning out each driverās placements for the current season in BTL. It was really fun to plan out, and let me just say - points-wise, this season will be quite interesting to write :)
And really, the final race placements tell their own interesting mini-story about a driverās racing style and their career. For example, when I was thinking about Jacobusās race performance, I placed it in a way that would emphasize that heās young but talented and working his way up - kinda like a Thedosian Kimi Antonelli š¤£ Which is on me for modeling Corvi after Mercedesā¦
(Man, what a sentence! š Modern AUs are so much fun :D)
Anyway, thatās your daily fun fact about Between the Lines, whereā¦
Gentle tags to @vixenofcadmea , @negligiblemoose @jellyeliart , @wombatpumpkin , @khayr , @dreamywritingdragon , @cravingcoconutredbull , @frotees-corner , and any other writer friends who wanna join in!
So, great news - art and writing are in full swing this week! Todayās spotlight will be art focused, and Iāll post the last lines I wrote for BTL later today or tomorrow :)
Anyway, WEāVE GOT COLORS! I donāt think Iām done with it quite yet (I think the main sunset lighting layer still needs more work) but everythingās starting to come together!
Iām really liking how the colors are turning out. Minor aside, but I love starting with greyscale and putting down color layers for the flats - it makes coloring things so much less overwhelming. Such a fun piece to work on!
Gentlest of tags to the friends if yāall have anything to share!
@vixenofcadmea , @negligiblemoose , @corinnesin , @wombatpumpkin , @dreamywritingdragon , @khayr , @cravingcoconutredbull , @frotees-corner , @emmi4793 , and of course, an open tag to anyone else who wants to join in!
If you want to be on or off my tag list, feel free to send me a DM!
Shamelessly share the song or piece of music that is your current favorite! If you discovered it yesterday, been listening to it on repeat for weeks or months or years, find it really meaningful, find it fun or funny, find it super technically well made, you like it just because, any reason at all: please share!
Thanks for the tag, @jellyeliart ! Bit of a late one, but eh, itās still gotta be Friday somewhere :)
Anyway, this weekās spotlight is onā¦
Stela Cole!
I love Stela Coleās music. Sheās got a fun and interesting sound and her musicās got a cool, sexy vibe. Tbh this is gonna be real specific, but if youāre into Rookanis mafia AUs, I feel like Stela Cole gives that vibe.
Anyway, I adore her songs!! Her entire album, I Die Where You Begin, is a no skip album for me. Here are three of my favorite songs of hersā¦
Song 1: Now or Nevermind
Now or Nevermind has such a fun beat. I love the little drum fill before the chorus too! Because my mind is the way that it is, this song gives me Rookanis vibes BUT specifically after the pantry scene. Rook and the gang go do drunk karaoke at the Hilt, anyone?
Song 2: Midnight Killer
This song really lets my imagination run wild. I love the imagery she paints here. So fun!
Song 3: God Loves You
I love the beat of this song too, but the chorus is really what sticks out to me. Especially the lines: When youāre fading slow and the river that you cried is ice cold / Cheer up, baby, God still loves you / Even if I donāt.
Like, DAMN. Salty as hell š¤£ and again, because I am who I am, I imagine this song fitting well for someone in a messy situationship with Illario š
āāā
Gentle tags to the friends if youād like to join in!
@vixenofcadmea , @negligiblemoose , @corinnesin , @wombatpumpkin , @dreamywritingdragon , @khayr , @cravingcoconutredbull , @frotees-corner , @emmi4793 and of course, open tag to anyone else who wants to share some songs!
Want to be on or off my tag list? Feel free to send me a DM!
Getting back into writing has been slow. Real slow. Despite being halfway through the Illario chapter, I feel like Iāve gone back to the drawing board so not much to share thereā¦but hey, this week, Iāve got another art WIP from Between the Lines!
This weekās practice was on expressions, and for Lucanis, the vision I had was āthe look of loveā. (The other half of art practice this week was trying to figure out how to consistently draw Lucanisās damn hair š¤£)
Anyway, I think the next part for this one is throwing on some colors and seeing how it looks!
Gentlest of tags to the friends if yāall wanna share!
@vixenofcadmea , @negligiblemoose , @corinnesin , @wombatpumpkin , @dreamywritingdragon , @khayr , @cravingcoconutredbull , @frotees-corner , @emmi4793 and of course, open tag to anyone else who wants to join in!
If you wanna be on or off my tag list, feel free to DM me and lmk!
19. The most interesting topic youāve researched for a fic
Thanks for the ask @sorrygoldfish ! Sorry for the late reply - this got lost in my drafts š
I do a lot of research for Between the Lines, being a relatively new Formula One fan, and Iād say the most interesting topic Iāve researched is: Grand Prix circuit design!
When I first started this fic, I knew I wanted to make special tracks for certain cities, so I looked at the distribution of street / race circuits for an actual Formula One season and made a list of which Thedosian cities get what. If a city has interesting features or a landmark, I put it into the design or history of the track. I love adding as much actual DA lore as I can (so for example, thereās a corner in the Ostwick GP named āThe Wheelā based off an actual Ostwick tradition of running with a wheel of greased cheese). I also take note of the cityās geographic location, because if theyāre by a mountain range or a sea, that might affect the weather patterns. Which, in turn, affects tire performance and race strategy overall.
(Race strategy is its own fun rabbit hole to go down - if youāre interested, I highly recommend the book, How to Win a Grand Prix by Bernie Collins. Itās a really good and informative read!)
Anyway, when I create the actual track, I base pieces of them from real-life tracks! For example, the Ostwick track was partially based off Suzuka since I really liked the S-curves there. I also research potential conflict points in IRL tracks that can be fun to write about. For example, the diving into a chicane part I wrote about in Chapter 8 is based off the Nouvelle Chicane from the Monaco track, which is one of the trickiest places to overtake.
All in all, I have so much fun putting a track together every time it comes up!
Thanks for the tag, @jellyeliart and @cimmanombagel! ā¤ļø
...what I'm reading (books): Well......I'm about halfway through Project Hail Mary... (I'M SORRY BOOK CLUB - I GOT SUPER BUSYš) But with the long weekend, I'm looking forward to getting some serious reading time in!
...what I'm reading (fic): Oh, I have a TON of amazing Rookanis fics I'm following right now. So yeah, this is going to turn into a combo mini Fic-sharing Friday post :) I'll try to tag the authors below, but apologies if I can't find your tumblr! Here's what we've got this week!
A Toll, A Tithe by @wardenmages and DeviantViennese: This oneās so good! It follows Lydia, a mage who enters an arranged marriage with Lucanis. Theyāre so cute and I canāt believe the ficās almost done š
Now You See Me by @frotees-corner: The Superhero AU is an absolute blast. Rook and Lucanisās dynamic in this one is so much fun to watch. Go check it out!
Mors Vincit Omnia by StarsWeepForMe: Listen, if you miss the vibes of NBC Hannibal, this one's for you. The mystery is really interesting, and I am having an absolute blast with this one!
It's Complicated. by happylittlecrisis: This one follows Enna, an artisan who becomes the head of the Antivan Craftsmanās Guild and befriends Lucanis. Ennaās story is so charming and I love the slow build between her and Lucanis. Very fun read!
Sea of Blood by @dellamortal: Lemme sell you on this fic with three words- Dread Pirate Lucanis. Itās so damn good. Check it out!!
...what I'm listening to: Top hits from this past week!
...what I'm watching: The latest season of The Legend of Vox Machina! Iām on the last few episodes and WOW. So good!
...what I'm eating: Wildberry sour skittles. Theyāre so damn sour but I keep eating them???
...what I'm working on: Between the Lines, as always! Iām really excited for this holiday weekend since I feel like I can really focus on digging into Illarioās chapter. Art-wise, Iāve also been working on some BTL sketches. Anyway, trust that things are in the works!
...what I'm doing to touch grass: Itās been really warm lately so Iām excited to get out on the lake and cool down.
...what's making me laugh: World Cup fan shenanigans. My favorite is the one video where a guy loses his wallet and the crowd chants his full government name until they find him. People can be so funny sometimes š¤£
...what's giving me hope: Iām not super big into soccer but seeing people get together this World Cup season is so wonderful. Seeing fans having such a great time in the various host countries and enjoying each otherās company is amazing!
Gentle tags to the friends and anyone else who wants to join in!
There's a party at Dellamorte manor, but Lucanis can't attend. At least there's a consolation prize.
Rated Teen
1,700 words
Warnings under the cut
content warning: minor character death, parent loss, child loss, kids in danger
"Please, Nonna?" Lucanis leaned on his grandmother's shoulder, big brown eyes pleading. Her dress smelled like the old flowers, but Lucanis never minded, just like she didn't mind that he sat in her lap even when she was fancy. Illario, thumb in his mouth, nodded along encouragingly from the other side of her.Ā
"Lucanis," she said, the syllables pulled out slow and sweet like honey, a smile in her voice as she tried not to let it show on her face. "I've read it twice already. Surely you'd like another?"
"But it's my favorite!" he insisted. When she didn't immediately open the book again, he played his last card. "Please? I already didn't get to go to the partyā¦"
She chuckled finally, and Lucanis knew he had won. He started to open the book again, and she held it shut between her hands with a tsk. Both children stared up at her, betrayed and ready to protest, when she held up one finger.Ā
"I shall read it one last time, but first you must do something for me." She waited to make sure she had their attention, and once they were still and silent, she continued. "I shall read it oneĀ lastĀ time, but first you must get in bed, and once I'm finished, you must go to sleep."Ā
"But we're not even ti-" Illario protested, thumb pulled from his mouth with indignation, only to be cut off with a yawn. Caterina's eyebrow just raised, and Lucanis' mouth pulled into a grim line of defeat. There would be no luck to push back on it, now that Illario had undercut their argument.Ā
Still, he was never one to give in easy, even when there was no hope. Mama always said he was the stubborn one, so even as he pulled the sheets up and helped tuck Illario in beside him - just for tonight - he continued, beyond hope.
"ButĀ MĆ³nicaĀ and Lorenzo get to stay up and go to the party. And Claudia! She's the same age as me, it's not fair."Ā
"Mm, life is not fair, little crow," she hummed, holding up the blanket for him as he dutifully climbed in. "But in this case, you know the answer. Claudia has started her training, you have not. When you begin your training, you may attend the parties."Ā
Lucanis huffed, even as he raised his arms to let the blanket to wrapped around him. Illario leaned his head into his arm, but Lucanis stayed frozen. He wanted to argue, to dig in his heels, to insist that he should be allowed to finally start his training, no matter what mama and papa said, but he could hear his father's voice.Ā If you begin your training, who will be left for Illario?
Illario whined as he nudged his shoulder again, and after a final moment of resistance, Lucanis finally sighed and tucked his arm around his cousin's shoulders. As Illario curled into his chest, his grandmother graced him with a rare, indulgent smile, and caressed his cheek.Ā
"There you are. Now, as per our contract-"
An excited smile broke apart his serious expression as she held up the book, taking a moment to smooth her skirts so that both of the boys could see.
"This was your mother's favorite too," she mused, carefully flipping open the worn cover, and past the first few decorated pages. "She would beg me to read it over and over. I never managed to resist her - she learned early how use her eyes like a weapon. Just like you, my dear boy."Ā
He knew this, of course. She'd told him a dozen times, but even as he wiggled his feet impatiently, he knew not to interrupt - she was about to finally read it, after all.Ā
"The joyous wyvern awoke one morn," she began, her voice taking on the same familiar tone as she read the verse. Lucanis let himself drift on it, letting his eyes close; he didn't need to look at the pages to see them, not after so many times. He might not have been tired, but the warm bed and the slow breaths of his cousin, already asleep, lulled him as much as the flow of the rhyme. Faintly, in the pause between her words, he could hear laughing and music as the party continued below, and the patter of rain on his window.Ā
"And so the joyous wyvern ran," she said, her voice just above a whisper as she flipped to the final page. She was reciting it by memory now, he thought from the edge of sleep; she'd said the line before the page had turned. "Over field and through the wood, until she reached her long-missed cave, and thought, 'yes, this-"
Suddenly, a clatter, a series of screams, the sudden stop of instruments. Lucanis bolted straight up, rubbing the sleep roughly from eyes wide with fear as Illario rolled over and whined.Ā
"Nonna?" he said, a wobble in his voice, but his grandmother was already moving, shoving the book and sheets away in one swift movement and dragging the boys out of bed in her arms.Ā
"Hush, Lucanis," she whispered, her voice sharp as she thrust them to the corner, pulling a notch in the paneling that he'd never noticed before. A small passageway opened, as the sounds grew louder, more frantic. Somewhere, distantly but not far enough for the ballroom, his mother screamed. Caterina's breath shuddered, and all her muscles went tense, just for a moment, before she was moving again.Ā
"Take Illario," she hissed, wrapping one of his hands tight over the small, whimpering boy's mouth, even as she shoved a dagger into his other. "Hide, and do not answer for anyone but me, no matter what you hear. Quiet, like we practiced."Ā
The sounds grew louder - they were on this floor. She shoved them into the opening, and then closed it behind them. He half crawled, half dragged Illario to the back of the space and held him there, crouched. He tried to keep his hand over Illario's mouth, but it slipped as the tears on the boy's cheeks worked between his fingers.Ā
"You have to be quiet," he hissed into the boy's ear, even softer than a whisper. He held him tighter as the sounds of fighting got closer. His own eyes teared up as he desperately tried to silence his cousin, as fear bubbled up like bile in his throat, his mind full of images of what would happen if anyone heard Illario's whimpers.Ā He had to do something.
"The joyous wyvern awoke one morn," he whispered, fighting the words up his throat, even as it seemed too tight for them to fit through, "and saw the glistening dew-"Ā
The whimpers stopped, and Illario let out a shuddering breath of relief. Outside, in the room, the door creaked open, and footsteps crept in. A familiar floorboard creaked; they didn't know the room, they didn't belong here, they didn't know to step over it-
A surprised shout that ended with a choking bubble, a drop like the bags of sand when he watched papa train, and then the sounds of a struggle outside the door. Lucanis shook, the dagger gripped so tight in his hand that his knuckles hurt, and he swallowed down the lump in his throat as he continued. "She looked out from her cave and thought, today I shall find somewhere new."
-
The house was silent as Lucanis walked through the halls to his Grandmother's study, book clutched tight to his chest. It wasn't because it was late - it was always quieter now than it had ever been before. He liked it that way. He knew he could hear the floorboards creak from almost anywhere in the house now. He listened for them every night, ever since it happened, ready to pull Illario into the hiding spot if they came to try again. It didn't matter that he didn't sleep in that room anymore; he knew lots of hiding spots now.
Caterina looked up before he even spoke, even though he had been silent. Her eyes were hard, like they always were now, her brow furrowed. Her eyes glanced from the book to his face, before going back to writing. "You should be asleep."
Lucanis swallowed and rocked on the balls of his feet; he considered just leaving. But Nonna liked this book too. He missed hearing her read it. Maybe she missed reading it to them, too.
"I tried, but I couldn't," he said, quietly. His voice always sounded so loud in the house now. "Do you think you can read me the story?"
He looked up at her, his thumb rubbing the corner as he waited, trying not to fidget. She looked in his eyes for a long moment, and her face was strange, like he'd never seen it before. A muscle in her cheek twitched, before she looked away, into the fire.Ā
Her quill was placed on the desk, and for a moment, his heart lept as she stood, took the book from his arms. It didn't last, though, as she turned and clicked open the drawer of her desk, tucking it in carefully for closing it. It locked with a neat click.
"You're too old for storybooks now, Lucanis" she said, still turned away from him. Her shoulders made a tight line, drawn up towards her neck, and she gripped the edge of her desk so tight that he could see her knuckles turn white. "Now, back to bed. It's not good to leave your cousin alone."
Lucanis hesitated, but he knew not to argue now. She was right, anyway; he would begin his training soon, now that they were the only ones left. Shame coiled in his gut, mixing with his sadness; he knew shouldn't have left Illario. Even if they didn't come back, he'd be scared if he woke up alone.Ā
"Goodnight," he said softly as he turned away, and he grit his jaw tight to stop his lip from trembling as he left the study. No reply came, and he was down the hall before he heard the sound of her sitting once more, her quill scratching against the parchment.Ā
author's note: it might be past midnight for me, but it's still Lucanis week somewhere! Thank you to the @datvcompanionweeks Lucanis mods for the fabulous work they've done, you both have done a wonderful job. Also, this is the first thing I've written in months! It feels good to be back. (Sorry about the bad formatting, tumblr is fighting me.)
What a week! Last week was spent losing sleep over Willing and Able, but I now feel like I'm in a good flow with art stuff. I wanted to keep that energy going, so this week's focus has been: practicing rendering! Trying to work on capturing likeness! Also working on how to draw curls better! Theyāre still quite challenging so this one remains a WIP for now, but Iām going to continue practicing to see if I can do it better.
And with that, who's the star of this week's WIP? Teia, of course!
Here's a fun little card for her from the Between the Lines universe...
Gentle tag to the friends if y'all have anything to share for this week: @vixenofcadmea , @negligiblemoose , @corinnesin , @wombatpumpkin , @dreamywritingdragon , @khayr , @cravingcoconutredbull , @frotees-corner , @emmi4793 and of course, open tag to anyone else who wants to join in!
Want to be on or off my tag list? Feel free to send me a DM!
All that obsessive research into medieval dental hygiene actually paid off
I was spending all this time thinking āLiterally no one cares about Thedosian dental hygiene, Amy, why are you wasting your time on thisā but HERE IT IS
So yeah, this isnāt actually true! While the toothbrush itself is a fairly modern invention, thereās a well recorded history of people in medieval Europe using a combination of various sweet-smelling mouth rinses and scrubbing their teeth clean with a cloth and a mild abrasive herb paste of some sort. Some common rinses included mint and wine or mint and vinegar, and pastes included things like marjoram and mint, rosemary and charcoal, and vinegar, pickling alum, white salt and honey.
Someone even tested a bunch of historical remedies out and found out that they were mostly pretty effective.
So rest assured, your DA makeouts are probably reasonably minty fresh!
For @datvcompanionweeks Lucanis Week, Day 6: Past & Future
Leave it all on the table
And I'll say, "I love you" and mean it this time
Say, "I'm sorry" for everything else
If we found a way to the other side
I'd be willing & able
--
Nothing like working through your issues through sparring. As you do.
Anyway, this one is a teeny bit late, but I hope yāall enjoy some brotherly angst for Lucanis week day 6!
With the decision to spare Illario, I think these two would have a lot of working through their shared past to shape their future together.
Thanks to @datvcompanionweeks for hosting this event! It was such a blast!
Shamelessly share the song or piece of music that is your current favorite! If you discovered it yesterday, been listening to it on repeat for weeks or months or years, find it really meaningful, find it fun or funny, find it super technically well made, you like it just because, any reason at all: please share!
Thanks for the tag @jellyeliart ! For this week, weāve gotā¦
Losing Streak
By Avery Cochrane
After Shapeshifting on a Saturday Night released, I was hooked. So you know I was HYPED when this song came out!
Anyway, itās such a fun song. I love the beat, and the little kind of honky tonk melody in the back is so good! And the guitar riff after the bridge? Perfectionnnnn. Makes me wanna run through a field in a poofy dress like a romance heroine šāāļø
Fun fact: Iāve been listening to this song for a bit and on some days, the chorus says āintricitiesā. On others, itās āintricaciesā. As I understand it, she re-uploaded a corrected version, so maybe the difference still happens because of a caching thing. Anyway, itās fun to wonder which version youāll get!
