#IDK HOW I GOT HERE

[pyjamacryptid]

I’m not sure how I got here but I’ve been thinking about the intimacy and devotion of washing another’s hair, the hair of someone you care for (how unconditional a gesture it is) and I then thought of Merlin doing it for Arthur.

It’s not in the job description (a lot of what Merlin does for Arthur is not in the job description) and it’s unlikely something that started his first day as Arthur’s servant. Nor the second or the 20th or by the 6th month. Arthur may be a prince, a prattish one at that, but when it comes to his baths he only expects of Merlin what he expects of any manservant - call for the tub, draw the water, lay out a towel, place fresh clothes close by and so on. But, naturally, he’s also a prince that commands the knights and with training comes injuries. Perhaps an arm was dislocated and he’s on strict orders from Gaius not to utilise it, and definitely not to reach above his head. Later that same day Arthur sits in the bath and realises too late he can’t tend to his own hair. But he doesn’t call Merlin over from where he’s making the bed. He tries to do it himself. He’s still got one working arm, after all.

Arthur only knows how to command things be done. He doesn’t know how to ask for things. He doesn’t yet know that asking isn’t weakness.

But he can’t hide his struggling from Merlin, who’s more mother hen than manservant.

“Here, let me,” he says, suddenly behind Arthur, “before you lose all the bathwater and your arm, both.”

“I don’t need your help, Merlin.”

“Of course not, sire. Now, pass me the hair oil.”

“Excuse me, who is it that gives the orders here?”

“You, sire. The hair oil.”

“…”

“Thank you. Right, hold still. I said hold still—“

After, Arthur will wonder why he ever thought Merlin would be anything but gentle. After, Arthur will wonder when his eyes closed and why they feel a little wet, especially as Merlin took great care to catch anything before it fell in Arthur’s face.

Over time, a stool begins to sit beside the bath, whenever it’s drawn. Over time, Arthur will notice Merlin’s fingers never grow any less gentle (even when he knows his manservant is angry with him). Over time, Arthur will want to ask why Merlin added washing his hair to his list of jobs indefinitely, long after his arm healed, but is afraid he’ll only prompt Merlin to stop because it’s not a job at all. Over time, Arthur will wonder what oils Merlin uses on his own hair, if he has access to hair oil at all, and how his cropped hair might feel to touch.

[sand-boxed]

false paradise

[diospore]

Working on a color ref of AFO and somehow his eyes ended up pink? and I kinda like it, halfway between red and white.

[aster-ish]

Procrastinating homework. Started off designing a quick oc for a storyboarding assignment, accidentally ended up with Blues Protoman Light as some kinda posh morally grey detective/gun for hire from the 60s.

[livvylavoiee]

it's 3am but i was feelin silly....

anyway, trauma buddies with benefits

[tortibomb]

Where are the junpo fics hiding? 😢

I love Thame and Po but I just want to read something a little extra angsty with Jun, as a treat.

[wyrdle]

Simon x OC shenanigans

I might or might not be very into this old man yaoi lol. Let them be happy and all that jazz hehe.

[axeofsuns]

Sometimes life gives you a hotel room full of screaming kids and frozen dinners that need to be ate

And you wonder what you must have done in a past life to get here

[messrsrarchives]

writing my first actual smut scene right now and my face keeps going 🤭 -> 😟 -> 😖 -> 😄 -> 🤭 -> 😟

[a-new-nobody]

OOC Important post!

Hi! This account is going to start delving into some very heavy topics of SH in the future. Keep in mind this will also be seen through the eyes of the person engaging in the action so it will be seen in a more positive light then it is. Please make sure you take care of yourself, and if you have thoughts of SH 1. disengage from my posts, take a breath, and come back when you're ready. Remember that this story is fictional and Diamond doesn't need saving, you're safety is much more important then theirs. They will be alright and they will be here whenever/if ever you're ready to return. 2. talk to a friend, family member, or doctor about your thoughts. In no way are my posts an encouragement or endorsement of SH, they are meant to show a (semi) realistic pretrial of someone who has gone through a lot of horrible experiences. SH is not a solution, in fact it will make a lot of it worse.

[daylesspax]

A Prowl who likes doing art

It’s not anything fancy, but it calms him to go through a tutorial and copy the movements and master the technical elements to make it look good. The calculations for the angle and slope of each stroke of pencil or brush is easy but not boring and the there’s a subtle thrill in cycling through different art styles and techniques that require slight tweaks in thinking to accomplish

And for a while it works for him, drawing in his pass times to cycle down from a long work day

Until the war rolls around and Praxus is bombed

He doesn’t pick up a stylus in a while. He copes with work and more work until he’s too busy to think about grief, the future, or the past

It isn’t until after the war, where there’s no new big battle to distract him

It overwhelms him for a while and he develops paranoia, stuck in the midsts of a battle that has long passed

Optimus advises him to go into therapy

It’s Rung, obviously. The first few sessions garner little, but eventually, he asks if Prowl ever had and hobbies

Prowl’s instinct is to say no. But he thinks, and remembers when he used to do art. All kinds of art. He confesses this with reluctance. Rung simply smiled and asked about what he did.

They talk about art and they end the session with Rung recommending that Prowl start doing art again

Prowl does, eventually. He gets a blank datapad and a good stylus.

He tried doing it the same way he did before— scrolling through a library of tutorials and speedpaints, picking one, and following it to the decimal. But it doesn’t give the same satisfaction as before.

He starts getting frustrated. Deleting and undoing and adjusting individual lines and strokes until he closed the program and threw the stylus.

It takes a long time before he tries again. This time with a different approach. He selects a different video this time, one discussing… other things while they constructed their art piece. In the video, they discuss expression and putting yourself into your work. It wasn’t all about making it look pretty or just doing it one way.

It takes even longer for Prowl to deviate from his usual copy-paste style. Line start extending purposefully beyond where they’re meant to stop. Still-lifes look like architectural pieces with numbers sketched above the straight lines. Prowl develops a geometric artstyle, purely in black, white, and red. His values are represented in cross-hatching and organic forms are broken down into comprehensible shapes of triangles, hexagons, and rhombuses

Prowl starts enjoying art again

[lemoneon]

I think I just snorted something yo be able to shit this out from nowhere.

I zoned out the entire time I was drawing this

[selins-drawings]

A sketch of Sportaflop and the speedpaint of it

[foileadeux]

more of the vampire werewolf gfs because im ill

[astro-studying]

- Tuesday, Jan 14, 2025 -

Forgot to take any kind of picture today, but I had a good first day of Astrophysics and Analytical Mechanics! I can tell they're going to be intense, but I'm very excited nonetheless.

Today's accomplishments:

On time to classes

Reviewed notes after classes and cleared up fuzzy concepts

Did most of my first assigned philosophy reading

oh also ... idk how I've gotten this far in life without knowing this sooner, but I JUST made sense of the difference between arctan (tan^-1) and cot (1/tan) ... I have been so blind. but I finally see the light LMFAOOO

[luvsimtingz]

"I can't lose you"

"you'll never lose me Sim"

Our grief filled couple tried to take their minds off their current situation by having a cute picnic outside for the first day of summer. It didn't last long before they both couldn't fake the smiles any longer and fell into a duel crying session.

start| last | next