#Lost.... in.... THE DESERT

[jrueships]

that one boy band member who tries to branch solo through a slow song that doesn't go anywhere

[astrowarr]

i just watched scott's session 7 and noticed a pattern: every single person forgot about grian.

grian hasn't been caught yet, cleo and scott establish. barely a minute later, scott is leading cleo and bigb by the hands to his secret spot and saying "i think we're the last three." like the name has slipped right out of his hands.

as etho tells the other zombies that no, actually, he doesn't want to kill cleo, it occurs to him suddenly. "actually, i kind of want grian to succeed on this, don't i? he's my teammate," he says, not like he doesn't care for grian, but like he's shocked he even forgot in the first place. (seconds later, he lifts his gaze to the sky, and he sees where grian is hiding. he's the only one who sees. he carries this secret with him as he watches grian run, an apology of sorts; sorry I forgot. I hope this makes it better.)

but it got me thinking: this is what grian does, isn't it? even since 3rd life, where he hid in the shadow of scar, whose face was always, always in the light, as he burrowed under doorways, covered in redstone and days-old blood. no one thinks of him as scar sells them the coffins grian will put them in.

grian has mastered the art of becoming nothing. he's so nothing, in fact, that his presence glances off the skin of even his friends. his name slips away from them. he disappears time and time again, falling through their fingers like sand. there are brief moments: "where's grian?" someone asks, but their blood is boiling and their fingers are itching. the image is a mirage and the sand crumbles at their fingertips. it's gone as soon as it comes; back to cleo, green cleo, uninfected cleo.

a reminder, perhaps from the universe itself. he is nothing but a ghost of a memory, a whisper of a promise. this is by design. the universe is telling him this, as it strings grian up limb by limb: you were only ever meant to watch.

[desert-love]

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997)

[mishori-o]

Yey them :3c

I gave up on this in halfway coloring it

[tubbytarchia]

AND THE UNDERDOG YURI TAKES THE WIN WOOOOO ok but that was fun lol, all the ships are super neat and I really didn't expect GemPearl to win but good job guys!?

[3twindragons]

It’s been a long dry spell for WinterHawk!

[daily-sifloop]

Hii can I get some uhhhh toxic yaoi? However the chef wishes to prepare it

Day 100: Princess and Knight AU

Or Day 81, but my brain took the prompt and ran with it.

Lore. or something:

In a world where the Island is all good and well, has a monarchy ruling over it and Siffrin is the heir to the throne. Cracking under the pressure of their position, Siffrin wants to escape, but is unable to leave his position empty, so in desperation he makes a wish for a "perfect replacement", except who could be a perfect replacement if not, well, themself! Loop is made, in that moment a being that has all of their knowledge and experiences but isn't "them" (point of view) seems perfect, they will do great! And Siffrin leaves, only to later realize that, hey, that's like them, literally them, they abandoned themself to a life that both of them hate.

Fast forward a couple of years, the Island is in political turmoil, the heir to the throne, Loop, is kidnapped by King, a member of an offshoot branch of the royal family that demands for a transfer of power. His base is in Vaugarde and outside of the Island's legislation, unable to send official forces, the royal family instead issues a notice "the one who saves the heir will get their hand in marriage", but as it goes with the Island it's not just a motivation for some hero, it's a wish, one made to keep the heir alive for that to happen.

Enter Siffrin, who became a wandering knight after his escape, currently travelling with the party (assembled for different reasons than canon). He catches word of what is happening with the island right now and well, he never stopped regretting what he did, but at some point all the marks left by the life outside the castle became too much to be able to seamlessly return to the life before. But isn't marrying someone you don't know, with no way to refuse just the worst? It's high time they stopped running running away from their responsibilities. So he dons his armour, leaves camp in secret under the cover of the night and goes to rescue.

When they see him, Loop is livid. Siffrin left them all this time to deal with his shit just to return now?? They reconvene with the party and it's time for the road to the Island, very tense and heartbreaking conversations, living up to responsibility, healing and severely confused onlookers.

[artist-kreating-stuff]

You’re as Beautiful as the Day I Lost You

“I… I know what you’re going to say, General,” Cody started out slowly. “How could I have done it? Kill you after everything we’ve been through… or at least, attempt to?”

His commanding officer… no, former commanding officer only stared at him, wide gaze unreadable. His face looked worn, his hair was more white than auburn, and even the humble desert structure behind him seemed wildly out of character. Yet Cody would never forget those bright blue eyes that put every sky Cody had ever seen to shame.

The stifling silence prompted Cody to continue. “W-well… I was given an order, General! F-from the Emperor… n-no, the Chancellor himself!” He had to remind himself that Palpatine was only the humble High Chancellor of the Republic at the time of the order. The simple fact reminded him just how drastically the galaxy had changed that day. “Good soldiers follow orders, that’s what we were always taught! Follow orders or risk being decommissioned! I was acting on instinct - we all were! I’m not even sure we were entirely aware of what we were doing at the time. If we knew what would become of the Republic, I promise you, we never would have done it!”

It was somewhat of the truth, though not the whole truth. The whole truth was that he wasn’t exactly sure what had happened. Before the order from the Chancellor came through, he had been excited about the potential prospect of the war finally ending. After the order came through, all he could think about was shooting down his General and every other Jedi he saw. Part of him at the time had screamed traitors, enemies to the Republic, shoot them down, kill them all.

The other part of him, which had been much quieter than the other part, had whispered why, how could you, they were your allies, your friends.

The only traitor here is you.

He shook himself to rid himself of the memory. It was the truth, yes, but it wasn’t a good enough explanation.

Though for what he and his brothers had done, he feared that there never would be a good enough explanation.

“I-I know I wronged you very badly…” He stuttered, having not thoroughly thought out this part of his speech. Part of him had doubted he’d even get through his poor attempt at an explanation for his actions before his former Jedi slid his lightsaber through his chest. “A-and I’m sorry that it took me so long to question the order. I thought that the Empire sought to bring the peace that the Republic failed to, we all did… most of us still do, I believe. Though the things I’ve seen have caused me to think to the contrary…”

With a start, he realized just how close Obi-Wan had gotten to him. Somewhere during his clumsy speech, the former Jedi had started moving towards him, his boots moving like whispers along the sand. His hands hung limply at his sides as he continued to stare at Cody; he wasn’t reaching for a weapon, yet, but Cody felt his panic spike all the same.

“What we did - what I did was wrong, I realize that now!” He claimed loudly, scuttling backwards two steps for every step Obi-Wan took forwards. His escape attempts were quickly shut down - one flex from Obi-Wan’s fingers and he was stuck in place, his limbs refusing to listen to his frantic commands to move. He may have been living on Tatooine, the hellhole of the galaxy, for years at this point, but he was still every bit the Jedi Cody had fought beside.

Had commanded his men to shoot down.

Obi-Wan still hadn’t said anything, his expression betraying nothing as he kept Cody in place with nothing more than his mind. Cody found his patience wearing thin. With everything that had happened, with everything that he was laying bare in front of him, he believed he was owed some emotion. “Stop being such a Jedi, sir!” He growled in his face. Obi-Wan was quickly closing the distance between them, causing Cody’s tone to switch from annoyed to full on frantic. “Go on - shout, scream, say something!”

With only a few inches between them, Obi-Wan did finally do something. He reached out and laid his hand on Cody’s cheek.

Cody’s eyes went wide at the contact. He still couldn’t move, but the same could not be said for Obi-Wan. His calloused fingers twitched over Cody’s skin, tracing the ridges of his scar and the new wrinkles that had popped during his service to the Empire. His bright blue eyes scanned Cody from head to toe, taking in his unruly streaked hair and the desert attire he had thrown together from various sources. His chest and torso, the latter a little thicker than the last time Cody had seen him, heaved with quick, short breaths.

The entire time, Cody couldn’t move, couldn’t blink, couldn’t breathe. He didn’t dare to, lest he break whatever spell was currently keeping Obi-Wan from killing him. He couldn’t tell if it was the Force or his own desperate will at this point.

It was only when Obi-Wan finished his inspection of Cody did he finally show emotion. He fixed his bright blue eyes on Cody’s wide brown ones and smiled warmly. He brought his face, weary and lined from the years spent in the desert, close enough for Cody to count the tears starting to drip down his cheeks. His cracked lips separated and he spoke in a mere whisper, “My dear Cody… you’re as beautiful as the day I lost you.”

A broken gasp filled the air between them, and it took a minute for Cody to realize that it had come from him. The Force hold that had been keeping him in place finally dissipated, but it didn’t matter. With those simple words, the dam he had been building since he had first met the great Obi-Wan Kenobi came tumbling down. Every lovesick emotion he had beaten down, every declaration of devotion he had swallowed, every small act of kindness he had convinced himself was one of duty instead of love, every overwhelming feeling of guilt he had felt since the day he’d ordered his execution… it filled him up so completely that he couldn’t move even if he wanted to.

The crushing wave of emotion reached his eyes, causing his own tears to well up and fall. Unable to deal with it all at once, he squeezed his eyes shut and allowed his head to lower until it rested against his chest. From beyond the darkness of his eyes, he heard Obi-Wan exhale a shaky breath of his own. Cody felt him move his fingers down his cheek until he was cupping his chin, gently pressing his face upwards. He thought that would be it, but he suddenly felt the soft pressure of two lips meeting his own, accompanied by the warm brush of facial hair.

Cody allowed himself to relax into the sensation, allowed it to tame the wave of emotion. When he felt Obi-Wan pull away, he finally opened his eyes, though made no move to wipe his tears. The warmth of Obi-Wan’s fingers disappeared from his chin, trailing down his chest to interlace with his own. The two of them simply stood there amongst the sand and the heat, smiling through their tears at each other.

Cody thought he would never be here. During the war, it had been unspeakable - he was a clone, one of many faces, whereas Obi-Wan was a Jedi. After the order came through, he had been positive Obi-Wan was dead, had seen him tumble off the cliff himself. When he finally started to question the order, he was devastated that he’d killed Obi-Wan without ever telling him his feelings. It wasn’t until he’d heard the passing mention of a desert hermit by the name of Ben Kenobi that he finally allowed himself to hope.

The Empire was still a problem, he was very well aware of that. Both of them were wanted men now, Cody even more so because the Empire was at least aware that he was alive. But now, with the sands of Tatooine around them and the twin Suns shining overhead, the threat of the Empire seemed so far away, and Cody couldn’t care less.

Because after so very long, he finally had his Jedi.

—————

After reading so many Codywan fanfics, I finally wrote one of my own! That one scene from How to Train Your Dragon 2 has always been one of my favorites from the series, and I wondered how it would look as a Codywan scenario.

Codywan fans, how did I do?

[zevrra]

Hello! I was hoping to request something for Gaara with his wife reader? Like them making up from their first real argument and it gets NSFW?

needy—

tags: suggestive content, 18(+), slight nsfw, naruto, gaara x fem!reader, short & sweet, anon request

creator notes: sorry this is for one, so short! and for two, sorry it took me a little while to respond/finish! i started writing it and was several paragraphs in before i realized i was writing something else completely unrelated to your request so i had to start over aaaaa!!!! so so sorry about that but i hope you enjoy! thanks for requesting!

It didn’t take a genius to figure out he had been avoiding you. Anytime you’d reach for his hand, he’d pull away just far enough so you didn’t touch him. And when he did let you touch him, during any moment of intimacy, he broke all of it off after mere moments. Claiming he was tired and needed to go to bed early for some meeting in the morning.

You had been married to Gaara for a year or so now so it wasn’t as if you two were teenagers sneaking around anymore. It was frustrating but mostly strange to you. His actions made you second guess yourself. What if he was rethinking your relationship? What if he was falling out of love for you? So many emotions and thoughts ran through your head on the daily but today you were getting answers. Even if it was going to be a hard pill to swallow you had to know what was being done wrong.

And as soon as he got home from his work that day, you confronted him.

“Welcome home. We need to talk,” You say, trying your best to put on a brave face and voice.

Gaara looks at you with his usual gentle face. He’s hesitant for a moment, as if he knows what is coming, before he settles into a chair at the kitchen table.

“What’s been going on recently?” You ask. His eyes avoid you. Shame written on his face.

“It’s nothing,” Gaara whispers. His colder tone makes your gut twist.

“Nothing?” You scoff. “I think avoiding me for as many days as you have been isn’t ‘nothing’.” You mutter, irritated.

Silence falls between you two. Which is not unusual but this silence is painful. Thick and suffocating. Not the usual calming, healing silence you two share. This silence made your heart race far too fast.

“Is it me?” You ask in the coldest tone you can muster. “Have I done something wrong? Am I not enough?” You speak harsh words. Yet they’re the words that have haunted the back of your thoughts for days now. Souring the image of yourself inside and out.

Gaara jerks at the words. He looks at you in pure disbelief as if he can’t understand what you mean. “No-“

He tries to stop you but the floodgates have already opened. All of your feelings and your thoughts pour out of your mouth like rainwater. Tears fall when you try your best to will them away but it doesn’t help. You sob into your hands as Gaara moves to your side.

He’s no longer hesitant as he wraps his arms around you. Lifts you into his chest in a warm embrace. Hugs you so gently it makes you hiccup.

“I’m sorry,” He mumbles into your hair. Apologizing like his life depended on it. He smooths loose strands of your hair away from your face. Wipes the tears from your cheeks and eyelids. All while he kisses the crown of your head. It was more affection you’ve received from him in weeks and it damn near broke your heart all over again. “I’m so sorry.”

You quiet your sobs. Breathing in deep in the hopeful comfort of your husband’s arms. One of his hands moves to clasp at your neck, using a finger against your jaw to lift your gaze to his.

“It’s not you.” He whispers. A kiss is placed on your forehead. “You’re amazing. Truly perfect, my dear.” He adds with a quiet chuckle. His thumbs swipe across your cheeks to collect whatever trail was left behind by your tears.

You sniffle. You must look like a horrible mess right now but it doesn’t stop him from kissing you. As if a fire has broken out inside of him, he kisses you with every ounce of passion he’s ever had. Tears threaten to spill once again at the first kiss you’ve two have shared in such a long time but he pulls away before that can happen.

“I want you so bad.” Gaara admits with a shy look on his face. His thumb swipes across your bottom lip. “From the moment I wake up, I want you more than anything,” He whispers under his breath as he soothes circles into your skin. Touching you so delicately like you might disappear. “It scares me how badly I want you. And I’m…just nervous my feelings will run wild and I’ll end up—hurting you.” He mumbles, glancing away from your gaze.

You suddenly realize he means the sentient sand that is always at his disposal. Sand that acted on its own sometimes and he was so worried about it hurting you he tried to keep his distance. All because of his love for you.

Your own emotions overcome you as you kiss him in response. Arms wrapping around his neck with ease as his own wrap around your waist. And now he holds onto you for dear life. Touching every inch of your skin he has so desperately craved but had been so hesitant to reach for. All while kissing you like it might be the last time. Passionate, eager, and hungry.

You two had some catching up to do.

“To bed?” You mouth against his lips between kisses.

He breaks ever so slightly, a red blush to match his hair spreads across his face. “Are you sure?” He responds. Shy even as his hands, body, and soul yearns to devour you.

God you loved him.

“Oh, I’m more than sure.” You whisper, capturing his lips once more.

Without another word, Gaara is pushing you along to your shared bedroom. Eager to make up for his wrongdoings by giving you enough pleasure to make you forget every negative feeling you've ever imagined.

[ganonfan1995]

and they were transgender...

[desert-love]

[shithowdy]

the hand that feeds

[boanerges20]

Lost & Found

[corvid-blues]

Me: Gosh, I’m tired as hell. What should I draw?

My brain: Fake Ad Astra book cover

Me: What

My brain: Fake Ad Astra book cover

(Fanart for the amazing Ad Astra by @desertduality! You should read it. You should read it now)

[starmocha]

We're waiting on vampire Sylus, but they gave us a nomad instead