#{|There... Satisfied now?: Asks|}

[forzathunder]

"I have many fears, most of them about Lucrezia." — Cesare Borgia (The Borgias, 2011-2013) + hints of insecurity

that she adores someone that much / if she will reject his dark nature and act of love and violence as Ursula did / if he truly is not part of her desires / that she easily forgets him

[fidgetspringer-art]

The way you draw shoelaces is heavenly I don't know how to describe it I just wanted to thank you for that

Man, I fucking LOVE drawing me some chunky shoelaces <3

[a-s-levynn]

"A sacred guardian" A Series of Small Offerings - IV/1 - day33

[demadogs]

its so funny thinking about the people who dont watch yj seeing all my yj shit cuz theyre probably like "oh wow op moved on from jackishauna shes kissing someone else and op loves it" no this is very much still about jackieshauna. shauna kissing this rando proves jackieshauna thats why im losing my shit

[beaulesbian]

One Piece ep. 986 || Luffy & Zoro on Onigashima

They're running away!

[tathrin]

I saw a mention of Celebrimbor in third age AU in your tags and I deeply wish to hear more about it 👉👈

Ohhhh my goodness, okay!!

So, it's a canon-divergence whose pivot-point is set on the idea of Celebrimbor returning to life from the Halls of Mandos shortly before the War of the Ring, and—somehow—begging a boon of the Valar that allows him to return to Middle-earth to help in the struggle against Sauron.

(Is this plausible at this point in time? Probably not, no, no matter how badly they feel for Celebrimbor's pain and how proud they are of his defiance of Sauron before he died. I don't see anyone being allowed to sail back post-Istari, but it's plausible enough that I can build a fic off it if I want to lol.)

So, we pick up in Rivendell with the Council, except this time Celebrimbor isn't just a name in the story of the Rings of Power, he's there. With all his history and skill and knowledge.

(And his trauma and guilt and grief, but shhhh.)

So all of a sudden, there are three options for the Ring: throw it into the sea, throw it in the fire...or entrust the elf who helped make the Rings of Power to take it to a forge, and unmake it.

Of course, with Ost-in-Edhil in ruins, there aren't a lot of forges that are equipped for that kind of work. In fact, the various members of the Council can only think of two: Sauron's forge in Mordor...or Sauron's old forge in Mirkwood.

So that's where the Fellowship heads for.

But since "attacking Dol Guldur" is a lot less stealthy of a mission than "sneak into Mordor," this time the Council decides they have to be more active in providing distractions for Sauron than in the books. They have to have enough attacks going on in other places that the one on Dol Guldur can get lost in the noise. It's one of Sauron's places of power, sure, but it's not really one that matters a lot to him (they hope, probably) so they figure if they have enough battles going on elsewhere, that one will rank low on his priority-scale.

It's a fortress of last resort, a fall-back position he flees to when things are bad elsewhere. If he has to choose between Mordor and Mirkwood, he'll pick Mordor. If he has to choose between attacking the elven realms where the Bearers of the Three Rings are (no longer) hiding, he'll pick Lórien and Rivendell. Who cares about Mirkwood, with its silly flower-crowned king who doesn't even have a Ring?

And if he has to choose between conquering the Dwarves of Erebor and fending-off an assault by Gondor on the Black Gates, or protecting his old half-abandoned home in Mirkwood, he'll surely choose the former two and forget the latter. At the least, if they can split his forces enough that he has to prioritize where he sends his armies, the one he sends to Dol Guldur is sure to be the smallest and least powerful, right?

That's their hope, anyway! So they instigate war everywhere else they can, and hope that while they're keeping Sauron busy there, the Fellowship and the little army sent to help them can both take Dol Guldur and hold its walls against whatever force Sauron sends to take it back long enough for Celebrimbor to do his work.

And if you'd like to read it, here's where it all begins.

[not-poignant]

I’m sorry, do we have to wait 200000 words for Caleb to actually start getting through to Faber or pushing him enough to get that relationship going (the tags) 😭 I don’t think I’m prepared for all that angst I can already feel how much UtR is going to hurt 🫣

Hi anon,

I was joking like a little bit, but I also don't have Underline the Red plotted, more realistically it will be... *takes a breath* 80-100k before we start seeing some decent kind of inroads re: Caleb again.

This is one of the reasons why Kenneth's role in the story is going to be so important.

Tbh, this doesn't surprise me for my slow burns. It takes Gary and Efnisien in Underline the Black, much longer than 100k to like, start becoming sexual with one another.

But I'm also not at all shy about saying that the angst levels in Underline the Red are HIGH. One of the reasons it's had the least regular schedule is because I knew that when we really start getting stuck into it, asking folks to wait forever through such high angst (because it's about to get way, way higher) is unfair, so I've been moving more slowly through these initial chapters.

Underline the Red is due to take over as my 'updates 3 times a month' story after Underline the Black is finished. So I'm trying to time it as much as possible in a way that means by the time we hit the worst of the angst, no one will be waiting long for chapters anymore. How much Red is going to hurt has actually very strongly determined how many chapters I've released since it started. It's been waiting for its time to shine.

[emry-stars-art]

You may ask “Emry how do you imagine it goes down if Neil and Andrew are comfy enough to use the pool they miraculously have to themselves”

Shameless flirting and simply enjoying each others company ✨

[itshobogizmo]

I offer you a Horror plush in these trying times.

[hiding-in-the-vault]

I am in a Brightly Lit Room and have No idea if this is visible but i've been sitting on it for too long, so we rolling with it

Move Cave AU shenanigans

[arttsuka]

Now can we get Jed as a jackalope bc of the swapping mythology/legends post? :0

(Side note: I'm from Wyoming where the jackalope legend originated, so it made me happy to see you mention them :> )

(And also sorry for the very sudden and quick response to that post, please do tale your time if you need it 😭)

Jedalope? Jackalaiah?

I can't really see Jed being a fluffy bunny, he gives me hare vibes.

Also anthropomorphic jackalope Jed because I can

[chiropteracupola]

Boldly onward, never changing course.

[william bush, requested by @sanguinarysanguinity and @quatregats]

[iguanodont]

How do birgs stylize their artwork to make the subjects seems ‘divine’ or ‘angelic?’ Like how in earthen cultures, wings, halos, golden glows, and sometimes other animal features and extra limbs are added to make something seem ‘godly.’ What’s the birg equivalent to that?

Depends on the culture. The central Twowi religion believes all gods and spirits originate from an “inverted world” that hangs above the material world, and represents this by drawing divine entities with upside down faces. Perfectly round faces also invoke the forms of celestial bodies, considered the heads or eyes of these beings peering through the vaulted ceiling of the sky. Many satellites of the Twowi also use the upside-down head motif, but it is usually only a seasonal aspect of gods that change form and role with the shifting seasons.

Lower right depicts a “moon consort” priest, which I hope to expand on in its own post eventually. Their garb resembles the body of a black avian, and they serve as astrologers and guardians of hibernating clans.

The “centaur” god is a common and versatile figure in Kakroum belief systems, embodying strength, protection, and virility.

[sludgekludge]

can you elaborate on your feelings on vassago?

this blogs becoming what i use to kill time while i wait for my laundry to finish hi. first thing i did today was spill my entire water bottle on my bed. i think vassago is, at best, introduced too early, and at worst, shouldn't exist.

best case is that i think they gave him a poor introduction with functionally no personality outside of 'are you winning son' 'OMG STOLAS!' i genuinely don't get what people like about him. he doesn't do or say anything substantial. it's bc he's yaoi bait and that's it

worst case i think he's just a bad character for the plot. it seems like this dude has some history with stolas (if we ignore that stolas awkwardly does not acknowledge the weird fan behaviour whatsoever lmfaoooo) when stolas was like…established to be living this miserable lonely friendless life. no one likes stolas and he's not respected by his peers. he seems to have pretty bad people skills, and that's being generous. the one real light he has in his life aside from his affair partner (an affair of which should be motivated by that loneliness), allegedly his daughter…and fucking guy we've never heard of until now hiii vassago hi!!! i'll eat my words if i'm wrong but i can't really fathom how stolas having 1 guy who's been in his corner this whole time aids in his narrative, like, at all.

utterly baffling introduction. it's awkward and bizarre. it acts like we should already know who this guy is, almost. if he's going to be important later, fine, but he should've been introduced later then. mastermind was basically nothing. it's barely an introduction at all. equivalent of like, someone asking me to introduce myself, and all i say for 5 minutes is I UFUCKING LOVE THE COLOUR YELLOW, like ok. what else man

[oneluckydragon]

Echo and Sora doodles that I've been scribbling down while I genuinely attempt writing again.

I haven't touched my WIP fic in months but yesterday I opened the google doc and actually wrote some stuff. Can you believe it? I am trying to ride the creative wave as hard as I can before I burnout.

[bluegarners]

What do you think Dick would be like if his parents didn’t die? (Please ignore the court of owls stuff for this thought experiment)

hm. i had to really think about this one, and i get the feeling bruce-isms are taking over me when i say this, but i think dick would have lived a largely... unsatisfying life... had his parents never died AND he was never taken in by bruce

bc i think there really is something innate in dick that really strives for achievement and accomplishment and overall some kind of sense of responsibility that is uncommon in others. i mean, he had to have those qualities if he was going to perform with his parents on the level they were at. but also, i think that kind of drive can really only find an outlet in getting the Most out of the world

i think at some point in dick's career as a trapeze artist/gymnast working in the circus, there would be this mental block that no matter what he did in the realm of normal-world-order, he just would never be satisfied. it would never be enough. he could leave the circus at his peak, go to the olympics, win gold, try other sports, go to more extremes-- but there comes a point where the real-world says NO to people like dick grayson who just keep wanting to go to bigger and greater heights

but in the superhero-world, where NO simply just does not exist, the boundaries are endless for dick. saving people, saving the world, being robin or nightwing or whoever, never becomes just old hat. dick just has so much passion inside of him that i don't think leading a civilian life (however accomplished and high achieving he becomes as a civilian) just would never be enough

sure, i think that parent-shaped-hole inside of him would never have become a hole at all, but i think that for the rest of his life, dick would be searching for something that would fill that other invisible hole inside of him. he doesn't know what it is or where it came from or what could ever finally satisfy it, and i think that would eat up dick until the day he died

not to say i think he would live an unhappy or empty life. in fact, i think dick would go on to have a very loving, filled life and would even go on to have his own family full of children. but, in the end, dick would always be searching for that Something that's missing but he can't name. maybe there's a happy ending, but would it be satisfying? i just dont think so