#Eight Gates

[n0-n1c]

prompt: strength

for eternal rivals challenge 2025, team kakashi 💚🤝🏻🧡 aiming for: rendered & 2 characters = 6 points

i grabbed my favorite hard brush & lowered myself into lineless hell with a limited color palette (5 colors + black + gradients) -- this time i even named my layers!

first concept had them standing back to back. second is this, more of a legolas & gimli competition (counting downed enemies). gai shouted "challenge!!!" before diving in

also don't worry about the red around gai, it's totally safe, just an artistic decision

[phoebezu]

Lee in Naruto Shippuden The Movie (10/13)

previous: n. 9

next: n. 11

[mugiwara-lucy]

If Luffy ever combined the Eight Gates and his Gears; he'd be Top 1 of the OP Verse EASY 🔥

[dr1f7w00d]

[fallen-goldfishcracker]

[elfcollector]

But don't worry. I'll keep watch tonight. We won't have to worry about any nocturnal visitors.

[baldursgate3tempobsessed]

Okay so thought would Astarion just be uber happy if tav is just clinging to him and is like let me stay here where it is safe for just a little longer pleaseee

I think I'm feeling the energy. And it's an actual drabble instead of a novel! Cw: In-game references, spoilers, but this is just some fluffy fluff fluff.

~

When Astarion made the decision to seduce you, it had been based in cold rationality. In the short time he had known you, you had proven to be intelligent, capable, attractive enough for sex to not feel like a total burden, and extremely hard to kill. Using a falsified relationship to wrap you around his finger was the easy choice for survival. And it did work, with varying results.

Because you provided many, many complications. Like the unfortunate reality that Astarion quickly had grown sincerely fond of you. Not only were you impressively competent, you were fun. Hilariously bitchy in a way that never failed to make him laugh. But you were still kind, kind in a meaningful way that Astarion was simply not used to.

It had felt like a shock when you were so adamant about his right to be his own person. When you didn't make him bite that drow cretin he was struck with the realization that you actually cared about him. What that thing had been offering in return would no doubt have been useful to your journey, but you didn't even give it a second thought. And Astarion wouldn't soon forget how you saying, "He said no," with so much conviction had sent a shiver up his spine.

Perhaps the whole event sent him into a tailspin that ended with him admitting his, in-hindsight, horrible plan, but it had been worth it in the end. Gods knows why, but you didn't abandon him when he revealed the truth. You just listened. You listened and opened up your mind for him to see just how much you cared for him. A care he perhaps didn't deserve, but one he would take. Even if he had no idea what the two of you were doing anymore.

But he did know that something shifted in your relationship after that, the birth of a new kind of trust. Apparently, Astarion hadn't been the only one holding back.

Because seemingly overnight, you got a lot more touchy. A facet of yourself that he really had not seen coming. Not sexually, no. You had been nothing but a dream when it came to understanding the hang-ups he had with that particular topic. But you did suddenly decide that you loved holding hands. You loved hugging him, for no reason at all. The two of you went from the occasional night together before parting ways to simply sharing a tent. And gods were you a cuddler. Every morning he would wake up with you wrapped around him, peaceful and at ease as you slept in his arms.

And... it was nice. Really, really nice. Astarion had always assumed that he would loathe being with someone who was so tactile. But it turned out when every little touch wasn't leading to mediocre and/or horrifying sex they were actually quite enjoyable. It felt good to have you so close, to know that you felt safe and comfortable with him of all people. Nice enough for Astarion to slowly get addicted to it. He wasn't quite sure when his favorite past time became reading while you laid on top of him, but he knew it claimed to top spot with startlingly speed.

Even now, with Cazador still looming, the tadpoles still squirming behind your eyes, worries and responsibilities abound, Astarion felt completely at peace. He was laying flat on his back on his bed roll, a book in one hand and the other carefully petting your hair as you dozed off; your body completely draped over him. He'd have to wake you sooner than later. Baldur's Gate was only a day's journey away now, and if you wanted to make it there before nightfall then everyone would have to get moving. He could already hear the sound of the others shuffling about.

He snapped his book shut, setting it to the side before he gently shook you, "It's time to rise and shine darling, Baldur's Gate won't be saving itself."

You mumbled as you buried your face into his chest, your words slurred, "Don't wanna. Too early."

That was another change with this newfound phase of trust. Astarion had become the only person who knew your little secret of not being a morning person. In the first few moments of wakefulness, you were at your clingiest, your whiniest, surprisingly your most honest, and arguably your most adorable state of the day. A fact that you actively hid from the rest of the group out of sheer embarrassment, but Astarion thought it was cute.

Not to mention that it made him feel special, oddly enough. That he was the only one who was allowed to see you like this; who could take care of you like this.

Astarion laughed at your response, "Tell that to the sun sweetheart. It's high-time we got going."

Despite his own words, he wasn't really doing much to move the process along. If anything he was hindering it when he wrapped his arms around you, only helping to make you more comfortable instead of less.

But then again, maybe he wasn't quite ready to let you go yet either.

You shook your head against him, your hands tightening on the fabric of his shirt, "Le'mme stay, just a little longer."

"That's easy for you to say when you're not the one to get Lae'zel's wrath," Astarion lightly argued, still making no moves to actually hurry this process along. But it was true, Lae'zel always blamed your lateness on him, her favoritism towards you blatantly obvious. The bitch. But at least she was a bitch with good taste, "I would prefer not to be murdered by a gith for being tardy."

But you were already back to being half-asleep, your internal filter completely disintegrated as you mumbled, "Feels safe here, with you. Don't wanna let it go yet. Please?"

Gods, how the in the nine hells was Astarion supposed to say no to that? He didn't. Instead the grip he had on you only tightened, the happy little sigh you let out at the movement striking him straight through the heart. He felt so... happy in that moment, through nothing more than the simplicity of holding you. Because you trusted him. You felt safe with him, which might as well have been a love confession in Astarion's world. It felt so good to have this, an intimacy that he'd been denied for centuries.

Astarion settled back, letting his own eyes close as he smiled. The others would get the two of you eventually, but until then he wasn't going anywhere. No, the two of you would be staying right here.

[malcontentonline]

Naruto doodle dump:

The next one is a reference to this fanfic I wanted to do a design for his seal and it became a whole thing.

these next few are doodles from my own silly time-travel fanfic I'll probably never write

[awihog]

love the bit in the DM chapter where armand starts amassing HUGE amounts of wealth and its like "he owned an entire fleet of cruise ships, a whole island, several houses, an entire college campus, a few small countries, and... EIGHT PHONES"

[iicaru2]

i cant have wyll and astarion in my party together anymore unless im playing one of them because they either start antagonizing each other or blatantly flirting (usually when im romancing one of them) and im not sure which is worse

[tredawakandan]

Just here to remind y'all how good of a fight this was😅. The views did more then doubled since I posted the above 💯💯..

Definitely one the top 3 fights in all of the Naruto franchise..Almost half the views of a $2 billion movie fight🔥🔥🔥.. [Context= Seen how new anime fans believe they have better fights in Boruto than Naruto😧]

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Eight-and-a-Half-Tails

"Virtue is an inner light that can prevail in every soul."

Artist: Daren Bader TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[akrophobic]

drider

[lelianasbong]

Wyll: Gods, I want you. But I can't take your body without taking your heart. :)

Astarion, whose foolproof seduction instruction manual did not include this outcome:

[ddrqoyote]

Naruto Eight Gates Headcanon

i was wondering what each of the Eight Gates in naruto actually do, because we know a couple of them have different effects but for most of them it's never clear what they do besides "the last one but more". so i made a headcanon. this is basically the overly in-depth explanation i expected to find in one of the many fanmade naruto ttrpgs this week and didn't. so here you go.

The Gate of Opening. This gate removes the brain's safety limiters on the muscles, enhancing usable strength. The potential side effect is full-body muscle strain.

The Gate of Healing. This gate turns off the ability to feel exhaustion. The potential side effect is a hard crash when the gate is closed and the user feels all the extra exhaustion they accumulated. In extreme cases a user who doesn't know their limits can work themselves to death. (a) This is the highest level that can be used with no side effects. Someone very aware of their body could control their movements to avoid muscle strain and pace themselves to avoid exhaustion. Above this level there are side effects just from activating the technique.

The Gate of Life. Normally, the heart can't pump blood efficiently past a certain heart rate. The Gate of Life significantly increases that maximum rate and lets the user maintain it for longer, increasing how hard they can work. The resulting high blood pressure turns the skin red and will make wounds bleed faster than normal, and can cause a host of cardiovascular problems if used too long. Taijutsu masters are extremely fit people, so they can stand the pressure more easily than most, but it is still dangerous even for them.

The Gate of Pain. The First Gate supposedly lets the user use all their muscle strength, but really the pain would probably stop them before significant tearing happened. The Gate of Pain dulls muscle pain, granting them a full five times regular strength at the cost of more severe tears with longer recovery time. Since the Third Gate is also active, it's really more than five times regular strength.

The Gate of Limit. The first four gates have pushed the muscles to their absolute limits. The last four go beyond them. This gate lets the muscles cannibalize fat and protein stores from the rest of the body to enhance their strength, and because this is a chakra technique it happens far faster than would normally be possible. The mechanism is similar to the Akimichi Clan's Calorie Control, though whether the Akimichis got the idea from the Gates is unknown. This gate increases muscle strength beyond what the bones can handle. The First and Fourth Gates have this problem to a point, but damage is much more likely here. If the user has insufficient chakra to fortify their bones, as Rock Lee did, throwing a punch or kick will break them on impact, and even other movements can damage connected bones, which is how he got bone fragments stuck in his spinal cord.

The Gate of View. This gate is highly unusual and harder to learn than the first five. The gut bacteria have a certain intelligence and effect on the brain. A great deal of the less strictly vital parts of the autonomic nervous system are near the stomach. The Gate of View redirects that processing power to the brain and voluntary nerves for combat. The user's senses and reaction time are enhanced, and their form becomes perfectly controlled, directing force only in the exact direction they want it with no wasted energy. An already-strong user can do things like set the air on fire with their blows because their force is so concentrated. However, this is the first gate that can directly kill the user. Someone without strong body awareness and training in the first five gates might transfer all their autonomic nerve processing power to their brain, even their heartbeat! Or it might go to the wrong areas and make important organs go out of control. Even for someone ready for it, this gate can cause headache or even brain damage, especially since the brain is already strained by the Third Gate's blood flow. It also causes some embarrassing digestive issues; the less said about those the better.

The Gate of Wonder. The base of the spine holds the root chakra, the foundation of the spiritual body. Chakra is formed from physical energy the body produces and spiritual energy cultivated through training and meditation. By unlocking the root chakra, one unlocks the production of physical energy, forcing every cell to produce an enormous amount. This is a similar principle to the Uchihas' Susanoo, except the excess chakra is kept in the body. All physical stats are enhanced, but the force of the chakra puts pressure on all body parts in addition to the effects of the other six gates, like the tree-walking technique directed inward from everywhere in the body. This gate is a major ordeal even for a master. It will always incapacitate the user and put their whole body in intense pain when it is done.

The Gate of Death. Imagine trying to force your whole life into a few minutes like pushing putty through a funnel. This most esoteric of the Gates doesn't just enhance some body function; it compresses years of future vitality into minutes, boosting strength and speed and chakra a hundredfold. This overclocking makes the body temperature ridiculously high, and anyone besides a master will be cooked from inside the instant they activate it. Even on a successful activation, their body temperature will boil their blood and it will steam out through their pores, creating a gory red aura. Their skin will be as hot as molten metal. If it doesn't instantly kill the user, they will be the strongest and fastest person in the world for the last minutes of their life. Even a Tailed Beast doesn't compare to a taijutsu master amplified so far. The side effect is, of course, death. Eventually the temperature will be too much for anyone and they will be left a charred husk. Even if the user is resurrected by the Rinnegan or otherwise miraculously healed, they have permanently burned out their ability to create chakra and use any shinobi techniques.

[toaarcan]

It's kinda wild that the solution being presented to "The gods are going to bring down the Divine Gate" is to literally put them all on this side of the Gate anyway.

They're going to get their memories back. They're going to be to stronger than most. They may not be able to reclaim their full power but they'll likely be able to get close. They're going to be living among the people that the Betrayers all want to super-murder.

Also, Vecna perfected the Matron's ritual and was able to ascend without consuming another god. If he did it once, and there are no gods above him, what is to stop him doing it again?

"Yeah Vecna just remembered how to do the Ritual of Seeding and this time there's no Primes to help banish him, whoops."

Even if they don't figure out how to ascend again, they're still going to be extremely powerful assholes who remember being the Betrayers. They will be the next in the long, long line of evil mages with god complexes causing problems on Exandria (a list that far outweighs the divine villains, amusingly).