Amanuensis's Journal

Most years I know what I'm going to do for a halloween pumpkin pattern weeks before; this year the exact pattern eluded me. I wanted something that would top the difficulty level of last year's and also spoke to me, but that never quite happened. So I picked two that appealed and left it at that, not worrying about topping previous efforts.

Both images are Kuroshitsuji/ Black Butler; one image is a promo poster and the other a screencap from Kuroshitsuji II, and combined they look pretty damn spoilery (though they still don't give away as much as you'd think), so, if anyone wants to go unspoiled for Kuroshitsuji II (I'm looking at you, son_of_darkness) DUN CLICK.

Pumpkin pictures are unretouched!

Preview #1:




( See more... )

Preview #2:



( See more... )
What I learned: Faces are a lot easier to do when they're LARGE. It was hard getting the little faces on these two even as accurate as this, and I never did arrive at "perfectly happy with it." But it was fun all the same!

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Off to see Deathly Hallows today! I haven't kept it secret that I thought book 7 was a mess. Silly capers against a background of DOOM = me snickering. And the lack of a year at Hogwarts stole one of Rowling's major structural strengths. So I've been eager for this film since series' end, ready to see the problems of the last books corrected in script and on screen. The film of HBP managed it and I've always had faith DH would too.

In Kuroshitsuji/ Black Butler news, Funimation has put the first four English dubbed episodes up on YouTube. I'm great with everyone's voice except...Ciel's. THE MAIN CHARACTER. ARGH. Ciel's voice sounds just right in the rare moments when he's yelling, but at every other time it's so breathy and quiet, I'm at the point where the English dub series works if I imagine Ciel's a cross-dressing girl. Which is an interesting AR, but. I want to enjoy the English experience of it so I hope I get used to the voice after a while. If not, well. "Language Options" DVD menu is my friend.

*happy dance* Man, I did not think this one would come out this well. Thought I'd got too ambitious this year. (Sorry if I'm preening a bit, but I'm so happy with this.)

Kuroshitsuji Halloween pumpkin!

The image I wanted. Alois in the opening credits:



And the result.



( More pics below the cut )

moon_maiden36 made me my very first piece of Kuroshitsuji fanart for one of my fics, so I am not only squeeful, but have that lovely "I have ARRIVED" feeling for Kuroshitsuji fandom, yanno? (That whole series has just wrung me like a rag. But a happy rag.) Thank you so much, darling!

kurohedonism Prompt #4, "Regal"

Title:Put Not Your Trust In...
Words/Rating: 500, soft NC-17
Characters: Sebastian/Ciel
Spoilers: Nothing beyond the first series, second episode.
Summary: A hint at hierarchy.

( 'What reason might there be...' )

kurohedonism Prompt #5, "Red"

Title: Ring Around a Rosy
Words/Rating: 495, R
Characters: Alois, the Earl of Trancy's household
Series/Spoilers: Up to anime series 2, episode 8
Summary: Even before he's contract-bound, a demon may choose to ripen his prey.
Extras: Warning for fictional child catamites. Thanks to fabularasa for beta duty.


( 'Eyes like a sewer of corruption!' )

So I've pretty much been enslaved to Kuroshitsuji II for the past three months, and during that time I wrote some ficlets for the contest group kurohedonism. I'll crosspost the ones on which the posting restrictions have ended, for those who might be interested in a little smut even if the fandom isn't familiar. Smut's always good, right? (Even when new canon josses you.) I'll put together the shorter ones so that I don't make too many posts to comb through. Some got awards, too!

kurohedonism Prompt #1,"Kiss"

Title: Like a Hair From Milk
Words/Rating: 392, PG
Characters: Sebastian, Ciel, some historical and fictional figures
Spoilers: The end of anime season 1
Summary: Sebastian has had many illustrious masters.
Extras: The title is a Talmud reference and can be explained here. Thanks to fabularasa for beta duty.

( Cats are sacred in Egypt... )



kurohedonism Prompt #2, "Trembling"

Title: Barefaced On the Bier
Words/Rating: 500, PG
Characters: Claude/Alois
Spoilers: Through Series 2, episode 1
Summary: Claude is the stopgap, but not the cure.
Extras: Death, madness, hurt/comfort. The title is spoken by Ophelia in Hamlet. Beta thanks to fabularasa.

( 'Make it stop, Claude.' )

I couldn't do macros for the last episode. I made text icons instead. They're from Kuroshitsuji II, episode 8. They mock. Most of them come from the same lurid image...


Yes, that one.

No previews outside the cut; I thought it might be a bit too early even for minor spoilers.

(Follow the fake cut to nine text icons)

Having finally seen the first Kuroshitsuji II episode:
( Spoilers )

I didn't carve my Halloween pumpkin this year until the 31st!

This is the original screencap that I chose:

Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji



And this is how the pumpkin came out (unretouched photo!):



( More photos of the process below the cut )

The S.O. and I watched all the episodes of Kuroshitsuji together and, of course, MSTied the hell out of them (like you do). The end credits for the later episodes got a lot of jokes made by both of us, so I made icons for 'em.

Preview:



Take, enjoy, credit or not, it's all good.

( Twelve Kuroshitsuji icons below the cut )