#§rooted deep§

[the-devil-less-known]

He would beg to differ, fairly confidently, that such a declaration could not always be the case. Despite Alastor's stealth and relative intelligence when it came to schemes and making ploys, he was not omnipotent. He could always have an attack sent from an unexpected angle, all it took was a skilled assassin and a reason. A singular opening in a moment's distraction from a distance. If it could happen to him, to the literal King of Hell, it could happen to an Overlord just as readily; and Alastor wouldn't get back up after a hit with an angelic bullet.

Though, it seems, perhaps, they were speaking in parallel, or at least — not precisely about the same thing.

Not that it stopped the other man from cutting to the heart of another insecurity with ease, putting Lucifer on the back foot. The surprise at the barbed reassurance and the returned forehead thump are enough to cut through the haze of anger, enough to register the sting on his thighs and the warm slick wetness on his hands. Looking between his eyes, and seeing that steady steely gaze, calm and austere... Lucifer huffs, and closes his eyes, nudging Alastor again with a softer bonk though still quite moody.

"I haven't. But you wouldn't be the first nor last Overlord to get hit with a sniper... but I'm sure you account for that anyway. Is it that insulting to you that the thought of your death by any hands other than mine infuriates me? People are so fickle with their objects of desire... they will soon as throttle you as grasp for your sleeve."

The King is rather prickly at the moment, but not to the extent of letting the wounds remain. Not when Alastor just sweet talked him. Sort of. The guy was still an asshole about it.

Nuzzling gruffly, he pulls away enough to look, pressing his palms down, and slowly ...massages the area, the skin pulsing with something dark orange and warm melting into the rendered spaces and punctures in the flesh. Filling it in and dulling the pain. If one looked close, it seemed like innumerable threads stitching across the gap and melding into new glowing skin. It would ache like strained muscles but nothing more when he finished. It's... a shame about the fur, but nothing a rag and warm water wouldn't fix.

Though, the moment shared before he let his jealousy and anger get the best of him... was not likely to be as easily salvaged.

He still wasn't ready to apologize, heated and discontent. Lucifer's eyes smoulder with something like rebellion when he finally meets Alastor's eyes again, searching for answers. It's like pulling teeth, and he's beginning to feel like a goat being led around by a carrot dangling from a stick. "Him? Another... fan of yours? Or, more to the point, a reporter?"

Alastor couldn't be speaking about Zestial, could he? Though, that Overlord tended to keep to newspapers and under the table information gathering. Online media coverage on fan blogs or on the television would be handled by someone else. Unless this was someone unaffiliated trying to capture footage to sell...

Lucifer's mind wanders back to magazines emblazoned with gossip about the Radio Demon and an imp going out to LuLu World; he had thought that had been a one-off thing but perhaps not.

"It isn't a question of you being unable to handle any that could challenge you. I am just... becoming aware of exactly what and how many loiter around the outskirts. I find them annoying, is all, and if I do, I can only imagine how tedious it must be for you. I never humored it in the same way after I learnt my lesson on that."

The bite to his lip, he can endure, his forehead pressing back when that pressure is given to him - though he does wince unexpectedly, teeth bared in a hiss when those claws begin to pierce deeper and undoubtedly leave punctures and wounds in their wake. And though he is not deterred by Lucifer's growing aggression and ire - to the point where it seems as though it is being misdirected - Alastor's nose wrinkles at his implication of 'luck'.

He is no fool. He knows what's being said here. That Lucifer sees himself as some sort of analogous party to the nothing Sinners who Alastor speaks of. As though he himself simply got lucky to break through Alastor's defenses and that is the how and why of what they have now. (Whatever undefined thing that it may be.)

"Don't be stupid," he hisses in reply, feeling the sudden slick warmth of blood beginning to seep into the fur on his chest. So much for the earlier fluff. He will have to bathe and mend those wounds now, if Lucifer is in no mood to do so. "There is no luck for someone or something I see as nothing more than a nuisance. Everything that occurs is calculated. Anyone finding their way within even a handful of yards from me is there because I will them to be." His ears pin back in agitation at the belief otherwise, claws beginning to dig into Lucifer's thighs to make a point. He knows Lucifer is stronger.

But that does not mean he is nothing.

"Do not forget who and what I am, Lucifer," he rumbles darkly. But it is accompanied, perhaps confusingly to literally anyone else, by another aggressive thunk of his head against the other's.

The devil is not there by chance. Not there by luck.

He is wanted.

Back to the other matter, Alastor scoffs, unaware that his antlers have shifted just a bit - grown because of the earlier moment of bristling.

"No - there is not footage. If there is, I've long since corrupted it. But knowing him, it is not for lack of trying to collect it." Being pursued by drones whenever he sees fit to go out among the city on business is only one of the many ways he is certain Vox makes an attempt to keep tabs on him, now that his presence is known.

[canisalbus]

Vasco certainly doesn't mind at all, he's a highly touch-powered person and ear rubs are a common form of everyday low-pressure intimacy.

[signanothername]

May we have some more Cross nuggets if you have any to spare at the moment?

No nuggets in this house, only full couse meals (18 page comic)

Anyway, I’m begging you guys to see the potential of Killer being like a protective asshole older brother to Cross 🙏🙏🙏

[canonically47]

why is everyone forgiving the minecraft movie it still looks like shit dont tell me the meme got to you are you seriously going to see this cash grab bullshit in theatres because hehehoho steve yearned for the mines????? hello????????

[the-barefoot-hatter]

pediatricians are hard to find.

you aren't broken and other important things a triangle needs to hear

[charlie-rulerofhell]

veeery minor spoilers ahead:

just finished The Feast quest, and man, does this hit hard when you are doing the romance arc with Hans. like in no reality can you convince me that at least Hans's feelings for Henry aren't intended as an integral part of the whole story. yes, you could say that for someone like Hans there are other possible reasons why these news are so devastating to him. but for you as the player this whole thing - the dramaturgy of the sequence, the music, the dizzy slow motion, the shots of his terrorised face, of him standing alone at the window, staring out at the road - it only really matters to you when you have already picked the romantic dialogue options a few times before this plot takes place.

and god, how it hurts.

[chloesimaginationthings]

i absolutely love your characterization of movie vanessa,, like she is so mentally unwell but also she is full of whimsy!

The duality of Vanessa Shelly,,

[planetlongjourney]

Classmates when you have different interests and your own quirks:

DS9 crew when you commit your first act of crime:

They will let you battle fascists with them if you get in!!!

[dishwasher710]

modern au enjolras holding a duck. thank you

[frenchublog]

Um hello. Hi sorry for absolutely flooding your notes with spam reblogging all over the place. Your absolutely gorgeous Treasure Planet art made my brain short circuit and melt into a puddle. Your art is great and I love it have a wonderful day

why are you apologizing when you've been so entertaining

[empty-movement]

Welcome to Something Eternal: A Website Forum in 2023 wtf lmao

It's 2023, and a single belligerent rich guy destroyed one of the primary focal points of uh...global communication. Tumblr is, shockingly, kinda thriving despite the abuse it gets from its owners, but that I will call the iconic refusal of Tumblr users to let Tumblr get in the way of their using Tumblr. Reddit killed its API, removing the functionality of mobile apps that made it remotely readable (rip rif.) Discord, our current primary hangout, has made countless strange choices lately that indicate it has reached the summit of its usability and functionality, and can only decline from here as changes get made to prepare for shareholders. (NOTE: WROTE THIS POST BEFORE THEIR MOBILE "REDESIGN" LMAO)

The enshittification is intense, and it's coming from every direction. Social media platforms that felt like permanent institutions are instead slowly going to let fall fallow incredible amounts of history, works of art, thought, and fandoms. It kinda sucks!

A couple years ago, I posted about a new plan with a new domain, to focus on the archiving of media content, as I saw that to be the fatal weakness of the current ways the internet and fandoms work. Much has happened since to convince me to alter the direction of those efforts, though not abandon them entirely.

Long story short? We are launching a fucking website forum. In 2023.

If you remember In the Rose Garden, much about Something Eternal will be familiar. But this has been a year in the making, and in many ways it's far more ambitious than IRG was. We have put money on this. The forum is running on the same software major IT and technology businesses use, because I don't want the software to age out of usability within five years. It has an attached gallery system for me to post content to, including the Chiho Saito art collection. It has a profile post system that everyone already on the forum has decided is kinda like mini Twitter? But it is, fundamentally, a website forum, owned and run and moderated by us. We are not web devs. But we have run a website on pure spite and headbutting code for over twenty years, and we have over a decade of experience maintaining social spaces online, both on the OG forum, and on our Discord. Better skilled people with far more time than we have can and will build incredible alternatives to what is collapsing around us. But they're not in the room right now. We are. And you know what? Maybe it's time to return to a clunkier, slower moving, more conversation focused platform.

You're not joining a social media platform with the full polish of dozens of devs and automated moderation. Things might break, and I might need time to fix them. The emojis and such are still a work in progress. Because e-mails no longer route in reasonable normal ways, the sign-up process instead happens within the software, and has to be approved by mods. Design and structure elements may change. Etc. The point being, that the forum isn't finished, but it is at a place where I feel like I can present it to people, and it's people I need to help direct what functions and things will be in this space. You all will shape its norms, its traditions, its options...choices I could try to make now, but really...they're for us to create as a group! But the important stuff? That's there. Now let's drive this baby off the damn lot already!

Come! Join us!!

PS. As always, TERFs and Nazis need not apply.

[forestshadow-wolf]

Soap doesn't smoke.

Didn't.

Does occasionally.

Sometimes.

When he needs it.

Routinely.

Any chance he gets.

He didn't used to. Not for any morality reason or whatever. Lord knows he already lacks enough of it. Just sometimes it was easier to literally run himself to the ground then go to the shop. There was just no real reason to attach himself when he could just as easily pick his skin of his fingers raw while he got lost in his head.

Plus his mam always said "John, donnae you even start on this, you know how granda was." Granda was a 78 year old bugger who died of lung cancer, and he must've smoked a pack a day. Pretty good for a fucker killin' himself, soap reckons. 'Course he respects the hell outta the man still, and he'll never tell his mam about blond stranger he bummed from once as a teen. There was never any reason to wake a, perhaps, dormant gene.

Never any reason until there was.

It was only bumming a cig once or twice when it was offered. A rare occasion. Waiting for exfil from a salty mission with nobody but the grass and the breeze to witness. Nothing to say. Just have a smoke about it. All that happened. Everything they survived. The parts they almost didn't. But Soap doesn't smoke.

Ghost would never admit it but he gets snippy when he doesn't have his smokes. So Soap carries a pack on him just in case. Just in case Ghost loses his own. It happens sometimes. When it does he'll offer his pack to Ghost, take one for himself too. No reason not to. But it's not like he smokes. Not really.

Usually after the team gets out of debrief from a tough mission Ghost needs a smoke. It helps him unwind. Brings his mind out of survival mode. Brings the lieutenant back to the Ghost. Soap finds he often needs it just as much. Less so for the nicotine, more for the silence, sometimes for the motions. It helps remind him how to to breathe properly again. But he doesn't really smoke.

Ghost likes to have a smoke after meal times. He doesn't even invite Soap anymore, expects him to follow. Like clockwork morning, afternoon, and evening smoke. Soap switched to Ghost's brand. Every time, without fail, Ghost would forget his pack of cigs after lunch and bum one off Soap. And every time, without fail, Ghost would routinely complain about the piss quality of his cigs. But it's not like Soap smokes all the time.

Until he did.

It was Soap's own fault too. Picked a fight over some meaningless topic that he can't remember. Some things were said. Some things were unsaid. He made Ghost the villian in his story. Next thing he knew Ghost was packed up and shipping off to the other side of the country. Soap said some gnarly things. Things he wishes he couldn't take back a thousand times over again. But worse than that it's what he wishes he hadn't left unsaid out of fear. Wasn't even the three big words. Just one. One pathetic work that he couldn't utter. And Ghost would have stayed. Now his clothes smell like smoke, his room, his blanket, his kit, his sketchbook. When he wakes in the morning. Around his breakfast. In the gym working out. Cleaning his fire arms. Doing paperwork. Fixing the broken shit on base. He still smokes Ghost's cigarettes. He was right, his old ones were piss. But more importantly they smell like him. Everything smells like Ghost. Reminds him what he lost. What he chased away. Just how he wants it. Let the memories and hurt really sink in. Ghost said he'd be back. Some day. Soap will return to his cheapest quality cigs. A harsh reminder of what he lost. But for now he smells like Ghost, and he won't easily give it up.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

In Regards To Your 2024 Summary:

Holy shit it’s been another year????? The hell?????

Also! Your art style is gorgeous and that being found in 2023 and then refined throughout late 2023 and the entirety of 2024 really shows, as does your growth in panel layouts, perspective, and — as you said — experimentation. If you ever post your animation or video game art I’m looking forward to it.

As cheesy as it sounds, being able to laugh at funny comics and look at all the details of your art really made my 2024 brighter, even when things were hard. Including looking at your older art— it doesn’t need to be new to be enjoyable! I’m glad your art is well loved and it’s a privilege to have been here since the (near) beginning. I hope you take care of yourself in 2025 and beyond!

You and your art bring a lot of people a lot of joy never forget that <3

Thank you so much for keeping up with my art journey throughout these last two years! Two years!!! I am baffled at how that feels both too long and too short!

Admittedly, my art summary didn't manage to capture the fact that I did a lot of comic layouts that I'm really proud of. I also drew more backgrounds and made some very detailed works (*Dungeon Meshi spoilers for these examples*).

The growth is lot more evident when comparing my 'best' comics of 2023 to 2024:

Sometimes the growth is vertical, sometimes it is horizontal - and damn, sometimes it goes out of sight into the Z-plane. But it is always happening!

[erinwantstowrite]

Peter introducing batfamily to avengers: this my (bio) dad with his ginger partner and this is his huge dysfunctional family

Peter introducing the Avengers: this my (foster) dad with his ginger partner and this is his huge dysfunctional family

maybe the real reason dick and tony hate each other is that they're so similar

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but James Vowles criticising how Red Bull has treated their drivers in the past, only to go and then treat Logan far worse while pulling the exact same shit Red Bull did, ie the exact behaviour he criticised and called them out for, is so freaking infuriating like the sheer hypocrisy -

[voiddaisy]

every time i consume new nightwing media a year is taken off of my life. why is he so tragic? has he sought out a psychiatrist? therapy? maybe some ketamine? does he need a dog? i can bark.