aetherdecember

[aetherdecember]

Jelly cycle, gamblin ink on kitakata paper, hand pressed

[aetherdecember]

So y’all know the classic edge trope of “my blade cannot be sheathed until it has tasted blood”? What if a magic sword that has that requirement, except it’s sort of inverted. A sword that, instead of being inhabited by an evil spirit which once awakened cannot be lulled back to sleep except by blood sacrifice, was inhabited by a benevolent spirit who would not allow the sword to be drawn unless bloodshed were the only possible solution. A sword whose power could never be misused because it would only allow itself to be used in situations where it was justified. What about a Paladin who spends their entire journey fighting with a sheathed sword, incapacitating but never killing or maiming. The party believes that the Paladin has taken an oath of no killing, until they face the big villain. And it is in that moment, and that moment alone, that the sword will allow itself to be drawn.

Idk, this image set my mindwheels a-turning.

But do y’all see the vision?

[aetherdecember]

celestial seal. sealestial? celestseal? a harbor starbor seal

[aetherdecember]

stjärnfall / falling stars

[aetherdecember]

The Forgotten Valley.

[aetherdecember]

The 12th century ruins of Château de Joyeuse Garde, associated with Arthurian legend and said to be the location of Sir Lancelot’s tomb.

[aetherdecember]

Look, you'll get no argument from me about the various problems inherent to the popular conflation Dungeons & Dragons as a corporate brand with the tabletop roleplaying hobby as a whole, but yelling at people on Tumblr for tagging all tabletop RPG posts with "#dungeons & dragons" probably isn't going to be terribly productive, given that this is a website where – in my experience – a non-trivial number of people tag tabletop RPG posts as "#video games" because they can't be arsed to make a second tag.

[aetherdecember]

so we are driving down the freeway, as you do, and i see a car out of the driver's side mirror and go "hey jo, look at the car that's about to pass us, you wanna see this" because i'm sitting behind someone doing 50 in a 60 mph zone and would get around them but again, i wanted her to see it

and jo says "well that's ominous" but looks

and what we see is:

bright red

sports car

christmas tree strapped to the roof

tree covered in christmas lights already, this is not a fresh cut tree

this is already very good! we are very pleased! this is a $100k car, good on the owner to use it to transport AN ENTIRE CHRISTMAS TREE, idk what is going on but they're living their best life

the car passes us. i switch lanes to get around the dingdong doing 50.

we see the license plate reads CLAUS.

giggling ensues. speculation starts about the driver. jo is now constructing a hallmark special where santa has a rebellious lesbian daughter--who, to be clear, still goes apeshit for christmas it's a different sort of rebellious

lane change again. i pull up alongside.

this guy is living his best life oh my god

[aetherdecember]

merry christmas to everyone except my printer that decided to disconnect from the wi-fi the very precise second i tried to use it

[aetherdecember]

unfortunately, I will write this fic and I am writing this fic are two very different things

[aetherdecember]

terrible website feature that came to me in a dream

[aetherdecember]

[aetherdecember]

i was at a restaurant last week, watching the political ads on the TV between sports games. one from the trump campaign ended with the slogan “kamala is for they/them. trump is for you”. it was vilely clever - and it made a clear statement about who was the enemy, the other, the unwelcome, in trump’s great america. i thought about how the right had gone all-in on transphobia this election season, and i hoped it was a gamble that would cost them.

this week has been a gut punch, and i’ve been feeling a lot of things - rage, fear, grief, and subspecies of those emotions. what i kept coming back to, though, as i digested these feelings, were the people i love. my queer friends. the trans kids in my community. the people who, already, are losing their rights to bodily autonomy, state-by-state. the way that i’ve had to start looking at our country as a fucked up patchwork of safe and not-safe. the way that access to medical care, increasingly, changes depending on which side of an arbitrary border you’re on. i’m also realizing the ignorance and privilege it is to only think of our country this way, now. america has always been about picking and choosing who deserves rights, who we consider a person. but, despite the deep-seated flaws of this country, i live in it. so do so many people i love. and that’s what I keep coming back to: the people i love, and my desire to protect them. at the very center of all the rage and hurt and anxiety and sorrow i’m feeling, is a deep, perilous love. i am holding onto that love. i hope you are, too.

[aetherdecember]

i think r/BenignExistence is my favorite subreddit 🥲 i love these pleasant little glimpses into strangers' lives

[aetherdecember]

The creature who fell in love with the light

[Watercolor and gouache, based on ‘The Fog Horn’ by Ray Bradbury]

[aetherdecember]

[aetherdecember]

let me relax……………will comment later…………………..