#tdcjanedoe

[dystopianarcher-blog]

We burn.

'Cause we love.

[mollythepathologist-a]

CONFESS!

Well I've never really thought about you that way before, but I don't know.

You've got a very pretty neck. I mean it's just pretty. It's long and then your collarbones connect, well yes  neck. 

Oh my. I hope this doesn't make things awkward.

[dystopianarcher-blog]

Can You Teach Me Love?

How can you measure love? You measure love  with: arrows shot, with: gunpowder burning, with: backs watched forever always.

How can you speak of love? You speak of love with: solitary nights spent reading, with: bookbinding taught to a girl with green eyes, with: promises of forever shared while watching suns rising.

How can you write of love? You write of love with: the feel of cold skin against warm lips, with: tattoos on battle scars and old TV shows, with: blind eyes that see deep into cherished hearts.

How can you sing of love? You sing of love as: the sun sets, as: old brothers and lovers are hidden in smiles, as: you dance on the beach and forget all the Fallen. 

How can you scream of love? You scream of love with: Horns in darkness, with: Hunters and Wolves, with: powers that will never truly lay to rest. 

And can you teach me love?

I cannot teach you, no, Blind One. I cannot show you, no, Lost One. I cannot see, he cannot speak.

But I can love you back, Hurt One. I can listen to your cries. And I can cherish all your pleas.

And I will let you hurt me, Fallen. 

And I will help you to run free.

O Fallen One; O Blessed One;

My Darling Dearest Brother still.

[thewintercomes-blog]

tdcjanedoe started following you

 tdcjanedoe started following you

Not subtle. I like you. But then again, why not. You are, technically, my jurisdiction.

Did he forget to tell you? Mo athair is so forgetful, these days, but then again, he has much to remember.

I wonder, how much do you recall of history, Miss Doe?

[nogravebuthestars-blog]

in keeping secrets of silent heaven iv: the seventh turning hour {iz/jane}

The phone call, of course, had been the first thing Ciaran had done, after the initial shock and rage wore off. There were priorities, after all, the first of which was ensuring the safety of the twins, especially the Malach Hamavet. What had been done to Duma was unspeakable, of course- the angel suffered his brother's wounds in silence, but actual physical damage was nonexistent. The Angel of Silence wouldn't move for a good while, but he would survive.

If they'd lingered longer within that sigil of mortality, Izrial would have been a different story entirely. Robin walked out of the kitchen then, a silent offering of coffee given before he left, a twisted smile on his face the only sign of the madness no doubt mental millimeters behind the facade. But Robin Goodfellow at work was more than a bouncer- he was a source, and a man with loose pockets and looser lips only in pantomime. Being social meant being aware, and mischief correctly managed meant a better position, for all of them. Not that Ciaran was sure it could get any worse.

The bitter liquid hitting his lips was unfamiliar, and reminded him in a rush how exhausted he was. Healing was not his domain on a normal basis, but it hardly meant he hadn't tried. In the end, Slania'd stayed behind, spilling mortal blood over the divine as her husband left to finish the cleanup efforts, prayers to a dead mother somehow still retaining their power and dragging the very energies of the Veil from barrier to blessing. He'd pulled her away when fraternal protection became too much guilt to bear, and her and Tal were collapsed on the floor by the couch, exhaustion not even allowing them to make it to the furniture.

He'd live, that at least was certain. He'd barely spoken, of course, choosing to communicate much like his brother- in squeezes of wrists and small smiles, the latter unbelievable considering his condition. Wounds were patched and broken fingers splinted, but his eyes...he'd refused. And given that the damned things were no longer weeping blood, no one'd dared question the matter. The Stag Lord had his suspicions as to why, of course, but those were best left unsaid for the moment.

The inner soliloquy was interrupted, then, by Natasha Romanoff, exiting her lover's room with the look of a wolf. Her passage was silent, at first, skirting by him into the kitchen before reappearing with...carrots. A bowl of them, in fact.

Ciaran stared. She stared back, before looking down, a chapped mouth seemingly just registering the absurdity of the situation. "He's hungry. The rabbit. Not- oh, Jesus. You're aware."

"All too well." Dear gods, he wanted to laugh. This was insanity, then. "He's managed his priorities, then." 

"He'll live. They both will." The sigh she gave was that of a soldier trapped in an endless foxhole, and it struck him in that instant that she was, indeed, mortal. Enhanced, perhaps, but it was easy to forget. "She's coming, then?"

He managed a curt nod, and another sip. "On her way now, I'm told."

"He asked for sunglasses." The statement seems absurdly random, but the pit in the god's gut tells him otherwise, the same sick look in the spy's eyes across from him. 

"Well." Another sip. "That's probably better. For now."

"Agreed." Her look is long, and sad, and filled with a deep regret that for a moment, even Ciaran pities, and pity is not something the God of the Hunt has done in an age. "You should sleep. He needs you. I'm capable of opening doors, at the least."

"Ciaran. Mo chroí i scáth."

He nearly drops the scalding cup in his hand, then. Silence. The kind he nearly doesn't want to end.

"...I have not been called that for a long time, rinceoir scáth."

"Which as you know, changes nothing of its truth." She approaches him then, death and life and just as horrible as him, with the same skill for bloodletting, if not the desire. "Have I failed you?"

He blinks. "What?"

Her phrase is simple, but painful. "This is triage. Not triumph."

And the Stag God looks at her, for once stymied by his own tongue and thoughts. The strange sensation of naught but static in his brain, before something slices through the silence, and he knows with certainty what needs to be said. 

Old lips with a stag's shadow over them drip sap, but he knows she doesn't care. Not even as they press to her forehead, leaving a earthen stain to be remembered with his whisper.

"Riamh."

She smiles, and then the door knocks, or rather, almost shatters.

"Go," he orders, and for once, the rinceoir scáth actually follows an order, long fingers brushing against antlers only she can see in gratitude before she's gone to true silence and peace. 

It's the last he may have, he realizes. This is now war.

Still, he is a god, and gods have certain duties. Beyond protecting his domain and family, he can open a damned door, and he does, even knowing what he'll find behind it, knowing what his daughter (even if not of blood) must feel, for he feels it too.

"He's waiting," Ciaran says simply, and those words, again, will suffice.

[fuckyouiquit-blog]

a softer whatever: how to remix with GIMP

So for our little RP group we've done some things called "A Softer DGI", which is a series of "remixed" comics based on the webcomic A Softer World. It's not a wholly original idea; there's a lot of Tumblrs and otherwise dedicated to the idea, but if you happen to feel like your current RP feels needs aren't being met, it's a kinda cool, easy thing to do. This is how I do them, using GIMP 2.6 (I believe there's a newer version, but I haven't upgraded on this computer and the concept still remains the same). 

So. Under the cut, if you should be interested: this is how this:

turns into this:

AKA "Lucifer, stop fighting with your fucking brother already". But I digress.

First, open up your comic. Easy enough. If this is your first time using GIMP, take a stroll around and kind of familiarize yourself with that toolbar to the left, otherwise, let's get going.

STEP TWO IS IMPORTANT

Go to Layers->Transparency->Add Fucking Alpha Channel

Just trust me for now, okay? I know, it doesn't look like it did anything, but basically it added a "transparency" channel, so when we cut those cool-ass hipster pics out, we can put new ones there, and not have a white square. So. Now that that's done.

Behold the Rectangular Select Tool, which allows you to select shapes of a rectangular nature. Squares count too, so go ahead and select that whole first panel. You don't have to be exact, but make sure none of the original picture is left in your selection. Your results should look something like this.

Fantastic. Note that I've zoomed in (you can go to the View menu to do this, or use the nifty Magnifying Glass on that Toolbar I KNOW we all looked at) and moved around my Toolbar, for easy access and my pleasure. I mean. Anyway. Now, the cool easy next step.

Behold: the Quick Mask option, hidden at the bottom left of your screen, resembling nothing more than a box with a dotted line and pretending it isn't important!!!! On a throne of lies, it sits. As you see, clicking Shift-Q will also do the trick. Please also note that your colors in your palette should look EXACTLY LIKE THAT. Black and white, no magenta or mauve or what the fuck ever. Yet. I mean later if you want, that's cool. So, go ahead and hit Quick Mask.

Behold. No, your picture has not been turned red. Rather, anything red is NOT selected at the moment, anything NOT RED is selected. Here's the nifty thing, though: now we can get that text selected, as well.

In this pic, I've zoomed in again, and hit the Pencil tool. Using the Pencil, and not the Paintbrush, will give you nice straight lines. With Quick Mask, anywhere you draw/paint with black will be unselected, anything with white will be selected (in case you mess up and for some reason just can't Undo). So, basically, all you need to do is draw over those lines of text until they, too, are red. A trick is to click, then click shift. When you move your mouse again, there will be that thin black line- basically it makes you draw a line. I find it easier/faster to do the edges this way, but you can certainly freehand it. Whatever you like.

When you're done with a panel, it should look like this:

To make sure you got it right, hit Quick Mask or Shift-Q again, and look. It should look like this:

Dotted lines around the panel, dotted lines around the text. Now, hit Delete.

If you see checkerboard, that's the transparent layer. Congratulations, you have cleared a panel. Now, go to Select->None, as seen below.

The dotted lines should disappear. Now, just do that for all the panels. I know I've written a million words about it, but it's really easy, especially the more you do it. Just Rectangular Select-Quick Mask-Pencil-Quick Mask-Delete-Select-None.

When you're done with all the panels, it should look like this.

It's a veritable blank canvas waiting to be painted with the appropriate angst. So, now the fun part! You can certainly just put in relevant pictures- if you're having trouble with layout or deciding what you want, I find looking at the Softer World website is helpful. You can edit pics before putting them in, put in only one pic, stretch pics between panels: it all depends how comfortable you get with GIMP on its own. Or, you can just stick some pics in, no pre-editing. Up to you.

In this case, Lu's FC and the FC of his OC angel brother have fortuitously been photographed together. Give me convenience, or give me death, I say. So, all you have to do is open said pic in GIMP, and go to Edit->Copy.

The next step is going back to our template, and clicking Edit->Paste as->New Layer. Make sure you pick New Layer, or disappointment lies in your future.

But then, this will probably happen. The new layer (which should also show up to the right, in your Layers toolbar) is on top of the template. Well, that looks godawful, but luckily that's a simple fix too.

Merely go to that Layers toolbar, click the layer that says "Background", and drag that sucker up above the one that probably says "Clipboard". See the example below.

Oh hey that looks better. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was made possible by putting in that alpha layer at the beginning. I told you it'd be handy.

After this, I personally didn't do too much cocking about with the picture. I made that nice hug one there black and white, and added two more. To get the design you want, as a lot of times it looks better to have some panels more zoomed in, perhaps you want a certain angle or what have you- a picture will have the nerve to be visibly too big for its panel.

Goddamn it, Lucifer. When are you not a pain in the ass? Anyway, this is also easy as Hell to fix (pun totally intended). Make sure the layer you want to edit is selected, first. That would be where the arrow's pointing; it should show up either as blue or dark grey in the Layer toolbar.(above: dark grey) Then, click the Eraser tool on the left toolbar. You can change the size or whatever, but it's not an exact science. Just start erasing, and assuming you have the offending layer selected, that layer should, well, erase, revealing what you actually want to see underneath.

Nice try, Lu.

The last step after that is optional; and it's removing the text at the bottom and replacing it with your own. Some people take all of it off, some people don't take any of it off, some people take half- it depends on how lazy I feel, honestly. I do always try to leave a link to the original comic in question- the creators of ASW apparently don't mind this at all, but I feel it's right to give some credit to the people who originally figured out this was cool. In any case, if you want to, just use the Pencil tool to paint white over the text that's already there, then use the text tool with your choice of font and font size to type what you wish: usually "remixed by so and so".

Then go to File->Save As, and type in your file name and desired file extension. On the newer version of GIMP, I believe this process entails going to the Export as... option. Just make sure it's something like .jpg or .png or something, not .xcf. XCF is the GIMP-editing file type, and you won't be able to view or upload it on Tumblr.

Then, you should have something like this:

(original found here)

Not too hard, and like I said: it seriously gets easier as you do more. So, apologies for the rambling tutorial, but I think I've covered everything, and, hey. These are fun and heartbreaking, all at the same time. It's good stuff. Enjoy.

[mollythepathologist-a]

OOC: Won't be responding to threads tonight

Just intro's. 

As far as I know I only owe.

starkcisist - AU: Across the Pond

tdcjanedoe- Silver and Cold

 thethirdsnicket- Threadish intro

If I've missed anyone let me know. 

[nogravebuthestars-blog]

iustum necar reges impios. (a prelude to war)

open mouth, eyes that water, tongue that cannot speak. there's no need. undeniable. he feels it too. if your right arm was gone, the ripping would catch your notice. they both keel over as gods, mortals both rush to their aid. he can say nothing but a name: raphael. fuck. no. why. and in his twin's eyes there is nothing. only loss. pain. the presence has been disrupted, and brave and blonde the young doe tries to console hers, wings writhing as she speaks. her words fall on deaf ears. the crimson shadow, she stops her, early tears falling for tasks undone. "he was their brother." all explained, really. a god nods, and looks away. thinking of one who now shudders even in summer. his hawk, why won't he now fly away?  fevered sobs, two fraternal hands clutched like a rosary or hand grenade as a child's favorite nightmare puts head and horns in hollow hands limbs pulsing with the ancient drums of war. meanwhile, the sun sets. lucifer, who should be unaware, but it seems now an impossible task. even were inaction warranted, he is the fallen, not a deaf man. no one is blind now to the heavens lit with electric mourning.

In the beginning,

No angel cried.

Rather, they screamed.

In Pride; Hope

died.