#Now i just gotta write it too
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
the-ghost-in-your-walls Ā· 2 months ago
Text
Me writing fanfiction instead of studying for my test like
Tumblr media
11 notes Ā· View notes
fictionalsownme Ā· 8 days ago
Text
Tumblr media
smash???????? who said that?????????
engineer doesn't get enough love on this blog considering how much I cannot express my devotion to him, so Iā€™m working to fix that :) this is similar to what I did for damien but it took foreverr!! iswm lighting is so so pretty which makes it impossible to get right ;;u;; the saturation is really high and there's multiple light sources so in terms of rendering it, its like it was personally designed to leave me dead on the floor :))))) either way,, I'm happy with how it turned out!! heā€™s very prettie :))
also bonus:
Tumblr media
555 notes Ā· View notes
starscream-is-my-wife Ā· 2 months ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
This is part 1 of a continuation for my other post where LL Megatron gets trapped in the G1 universe, I was thinking about how someone would go insane in this cartoon world and thought "what if Megatron had someone else to accompany him" so, I gave Starscream an existential crisis
Edit: pt 2 here
820 notes Ā· View notes
keferon Ā· 5 months ago
Note
*clasps your shoulders gently and looks you straight in the eye*
Keferon. Please read Ninth by Kyn on AO3. I think you would love it very much. It has a large chapter count, but don't be intimidated, it's very easy to get into. It is currently unfinished, but is being updated regularly.
You are the seventh person that recommended this fic to me so ahahahaha yeah
Iā€™m doing great Help I hate some parts of it but I love the other parts Iā€™m spinning in the blender
ā€¦..I made the moodboardā€¦.
Tumblr media
#chapter 37#of 120 or something#I must be like 90k words in haha#large word count is not an intimidation. Itā€™s an invitation haha#I love the fics that I canā€™t read in just one hour:)#I gotta say I donā€™t enjoy the concept of making robots into organic life#itā€™s just my preference#seeing them as humans or animals or whatever feels so fucking wrong#the concept itself drives me off#like. Strongly#But at the same time. This fic isnā€™t about them being ā€˜haha cute organicsā€™#itā€™s ā€˜oh god. I was turned into something Iā€™m notā€™#instead of teeheee theyā€™re fluffy#itā€™s please free me from this fucking nightmare. please let me be myself again.#idk how to explain. I resonate I guess#it often feels very disturbing but the characters are also disturbed#So now Iā€™m kind of stuck reading this fic because I just canā€™t stop lol#just politely skipping the parts that make me too uncomfortable#also#the body horror isā€¦.damn. Impressive. I didnā€™t expect to read about grotesque fleshy creature turning itself inside out#itā€™s not even aesthetic or symbolic#it literally looks like a fucking nightmare. Which is impressive also.#the flesh is g r o s s#the beginning got me struggling and skipping#but the intermission is currently ruining my sleep schedule#oh fuckā€¦.I usually send my posts to the authors of the fics I readā€¦..but I feel like I might offend the author of Ninth if do thisā€¦ā€¦..#thereā€™s a tiny chance theyā€™re following meā€¦.if itā€™s true then I wanna tell Iā€™m sorry pls donā€™t take this seriously#your fic got me waay out of my comfort zone#huge points for writing Ratchet. Drift in this fic isā€¦the grossest fucking thing I could probably imagine but Ratchet doesnā€™t even hesitate#he helps him and he cares for him. Which isā€¦..imma be real my first instinct would be to set Drift on fire to end his misery
336 notes Ā· View notes
sorunort Ā· 5 months ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
i said in another post i was rping loop in a multifandom rp group and i'm having a lot of fun! so much fun that i made a giant doodle sheet of loop's glitch....that i haven't even gotten to rp yet but am so excited to im getting carried away. whoops
(in the context of the group, think of glitching like in spiderverse, they don't belong in this new world/dimension so their existence rejects it. we can do whatever we want for glitches so i just made loop's that they get their humanity back. yknow. for misery whenever they unglitch and go back to being a star [thumbs up])
i think my favorite here might just be the Go there Go Into the Dark catcrumb edit lmao
214 notes Ā· View notes
clansocreations Ā· 1 month ago
Text
Tumblr media
@ameliapodcast
well....shit.
(Also,you haven't seen Watson around anywhere by any chance, have you?)
72 notes Ā· View notes
queerofthedagger Ā· 1 month ago
Text
sometimes. what i like to read or write in fic or just generally play around with.... is different and, dare i say, sometimes even contradicting to what i think the canonical reading is offering. like yeah he would not fucking say that but every once in a while i do like to indulge. sue me
63 notes Ā· View notes
applestorms Ā· 3 months ago
Text
ok, well. if last time i talked about parallels between near & light, i guess itā€™s only fair that this time i talk about parallels between mello & misa. yap central on this blog lately.
the main thing that stands out the most about mello & misa, and the reason why i will forever Defend them and their place in the story, is that in my mind they both function in a similar way on a narrative level: namely, both of them are incredibly active wild-card characters that keep the action going and the story moving forward when the other main characters like light, L, & near start getting too passive.
notably, while i often see this trait praised in mello, usually in the context of a comparative criticism of near for his overly-abundant passivity, i have also seen it used as a criticism of misa's character, that she breaks up the status quo of DN too significantly and thereby makes the story feel less realistic. this last point in particular is an odd argument to make imo, as if anything misa's presence only increases the realism of DN by adding some extra luck/random chance into the story in a way that is ultimately still character-motivated and thus easier for the audience to go along with-- something DN in general is very good at, often introducing elements through pure chance but keeping them grounded in characters enough that you almost don't even notice.
take light meeting naomi misora, for example: the only reason he runs across her at all is because he offers to run an errand for his mom on a bored laundry day, literally stumbling across her right at the exact moment she is divulging important insights she is literally the only person capable of making about kira. yet this moment does not stand out as particularly aggravating or out of place in the story, as ultimately the only reason why light is able to get out of that situation is his own quick thinking and ability to calm himself while under immense pressure, squeezing his way out of a potentially run-ending situation he didn't even know existed moments prior.
(not a fan of that big joel video, if you couldn't tell. lmao.)
point is, mello & misa both fulfill about the same narrative function in the story by being so aggressive in their actions, catching the others off guard even if their plans aren't as well thought out or careful as they could otherwise be. they're both incredibly passionate, dedicated characters as well, tough enough to take the hit when it inevitably comes, and in my opinion neither of them are nearly as stupid as the other MCs like to make them out to be. to some degree, i think both of them are aware of the fact that they can't win at the Mind Game Cold War Bullshit the others are inclined to get involved in, so they instead choose to carve out their own place in the story through sheer perseverance alone.
which, speaking of passion: one of the most interesting parallels i think you can make between mello & misa is the ways in which they idolize their respective heroes, misa's obviously being light while mello's is L. allow me to elaborate.
as this post points out, DN has some very interesting use of its religious imagery & theming, and in particular its use of christian/catholic gothic imagery in its story and especially its art. however, as op notes, a lot of this is quite superficial, ascribing to an aesthetic of "kitschy Catholicism," that was characteristic of a lot of early 2000s japanese goth style. yet, while i admit that a more serious consideration of religious elements in the art & story could add some interesting flavor to the story, i also think that, regardless of intention, the superficiality of DN's religious elements works really well in the context of this particular story. as i stated in my tags on that post: light is a superficial god. he is a fake, a scam, some idiot human that stumbled across the powers of a real shinigami and got his head up his ass about it. and a lot of the arcs of other characters in DN is about their reaction to light's claims-- whether they choose to follow him (e.g. misa, mikami), follow somebody else (e.g. mello), or follow nobody at all (e.g. near, also kinda soichiro?), and the implications that has for their lives and personalities.
this is all to say that while you can, on a surface level, connect misa & mello pretty easily as the two aggressive, fashionable blondes of the series, i also think that these somewhat superficial traits betray a greater connection between the two of them. if we understand the christian/catholic elements of misa & mello's fashion as a demonstration of their connection to not just a higher power but a lie, a superficial deity simply reflecting the sunlight of powers greater than himself, then i think we have great insight into another key element of both their characters.
do not forget: in the world of DN, heaven & hell do not exist. at least in the context of death itself, the realm & lore of the shinigami reign supreme, a point which the DN musical makes even more overt: "Isn't it a laugh? / Isn't it a shame? / Thinking there is someone in heaven to blame?" and "Going through the motions / as if there will be a reward / Oh, while we stay eternally bored!" (BEST SONGGG.) everyone is destined for the same fate of MU, the same void of nothingness awaits all. no reward, no punishment, no greater deity looking down upon us than the bored, slothful shinigami, lazing about in their realm and picking people off only when necessary (for the most part).
misa & mello are thus dedicating themselves to false idols, and we can see the negative effects this has on them in almost every facet of their character-- particularly for mello, who is perhaps more self-aware and has more of a mixed emotional outlook on his idol, but maybe even to a more extreme degree for misa. i keep going back to this idea of equating boredom with depression in DN, but where light/L/near are all "bored" in a very quiet, passive, stewing-in-bed late at night kinda way, misa & mello are characteristically a lot more aggressive and intense about it-- while neither of them are super overtly suicidal, necessarily, their actions still betray a distinct lack of care for their own safety or lives, expressing the same thematic sentiment as the others. even if they still don't straight up say it, through their actions they're a lot louder about not liking themselves, and seem to take the problems they see in the world more personally, shouldering the blame as a failure within themselves instead of projecting it outward like the others: e.g. light taking his unhappiness at the emptiness of his life at the start of the story & placing the blame on the world for "going to shit" & humanity's moral failings, versus misa being willing to literally & figuratively give up her life for KIRA the second he demands it, whether that be in the form of shinigami eyes or killing her own friends w/o second thought-- all because he was the only thing to bring justice to her own parents' deaths, an almost undoubtedly traumatizing/horrible experience for her considering how much value she places on KIRA/light afterwards.
to clarify, this is not to say that all of these characters are actually and literally depressed and/or suicidal, though you could certainly make that argument for some/all of them-- this is just one way that i think you could interpret their roles in the plot, and their thematic attachment to the story. even if DN isn't all that interested in considering the True Moral Answer to ethics/the justice system/human society/etc, it definitely takes at least some interest in the emotional viewpoints of characters in relation to those concepts, so i think this is a fair enough approach to take. or to say this another way, it's less about justifying the claim that "the world is shit," and more about trying to understand the emotional motivation & experience of feeling like the world is shit, if that makes sense.
that being said...speaking more on the whole "not liking themselves," thing: even if she doesn't say it aloud often, if ever, i think that misa is deeply aware of the fact that she was not supposed to live this long, that her existence at all is a pure stroke of luck that let her live on past her destined date. she dedicates herself to light so fully, not even necessarily expecting reciprocation (though she at least reserves herself the possibility of such), because being a disciple to her god at least gives her life some kind of purpose. similarly, i think mello is also aware of just how out of reach the one thing he wants is, how his desperation in and of itself is ironically the one thing keeping him from surpassing near and truly being #1. it's important to note that pre-time skip misa & post-skip mello are almost exactly the same age, around 20 years old at the time of their main arcs. they're immature, and in the case of mello especially, are lashing out at the world in whatever way they can because they know they don't quite fit into it in the way that they want to or should. regardless of the intent behind it, mello & misa both still make the conscious decision to kill with the DN-- perhaps in a way that still keeps their humanity, at least following near's logic, but it's a decision to end a human life either way.
anyways, going back to my previous point, this "worshiping of false idols," idea has some interesting implications-- for misa & mello yes, but also for L and the ways in which he contrasts again light, as under this logic mello's treatment kind of inherently gives L a similar status as a sort of false god/idol. which-- actually makes a lot of sense? or at the very least, viewing wammy's house as a kind of mystery cult a la the eleusinian mysteries is a neat approach to take. L & light's mutual alienation from humanity fits them both filling a false god status, anyway. also there's another thread of analysis you could follow here where near is instead fit into the role of the person mello is fixated on which AAAAAAAAA has interesting implications but jesus fucking christ, this post is long. some thoughts for another time, i suppose.
57 notes Ā· View notes
hballegro Ā· 5 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
the clock is here. all hail.
i forgot to turn antialiasing to the right settings with my pen so it is. the little numbers are chunky. thats life sometimes. just dont zoom in too hard. if i fix it, i wont make a new post abt it ill just edit it on to this one or something [and state that i did so in the post]
prev post with noclock version
and as promised here is also progress pics, harvested from when i sent screenshots to friends as i worked. as a bonus ive also included various layer names and the 5 different names the file went thru. the parts i [very lazily] painted over with dark blue had not been done yet, ergo anything with dark blue over it is just the picture itself so do not regard it
Tumblr media
i will now be nice to myself and work on my fanfic and smaller drawings for a while. i will do eye posts sometimes still when i get a slow day and wanna do some peepers for 3 hours, i have collected many eyes [klinger, fr mulcahy, trapper, margaret, charles, hawkeye, bj. ive been busy stealing eyeballs to paint on. theyre all on one document its pretty funny]. i will be doing my best to force the cast into my style so i can do quick stuff.
i also WILL do more paintings of full shots again, but. fellas. ive done 3 back to back full paintings with no other digital art projects in between.
this has been NOT good planning lol
not sure if i should tag everything again so i will just. do so? idk i have not been on tumblr hardcore since like 2018 and have never regularly posted so idk proper etiquette. im gonna leave off characters for this one ig
85 notes Ā· View notes
prince-liest Ā· 8 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
First draft of 666 #11 is complete! +^+
91 notes Ā· View notes
lunar-years Ā· 9 months ago
Text
When I was in DC visiting college friends who are all very smart people with very well-to-do jobs they started a conversation about ChatGPT and concluded it by agreeing in earnest that they think AI is actually really useful and a great tool for things such as WRITING ONEā€™S WEDDING VOWS because otherwise itā€™s ā€œtoo hard to come up with what to say.ā€ When I tell you I nearly keeled over on the spotā€¦
130 notes Ā· View notes
kaisollisto Ā· 3 months ago
Text
(Based off of the reality of having a metal ring in your back as a constant reminder of your fate and how that affects you as a person set in the Switzerland arc)
ā€œDoes it hurt?ā€Ā 
Avaā€™s pressed face down into the pillow sleep curling around her limbs. She hums, she canā€™t remember what she says, sheā€™s exhausted. Her arms are tangled beneath her pillow. She holds her fingers tightly between each other, her bones ache from the pressure but her hands no longer shake. Ava hasnā€™t experienced this before, a fear that haunts her at night. (She finds she cannot stop dreaming about dying. Itā€™s stifling in the cover of night trying to figure out where she is.)Ā 
She slowly opens her eyes and squints in the darkness. Beatrice is facing her a furrow in her brow that Ava knows sheā€™s doing unconsciously. Avaā€™s lip quirks a smidgen, Beatrice looks funny. Itā€™s a bit silly to her, Beatrice no doubt working out a solution to an unknown problem that Ava has yet to see in the middle of the night. In her sleepy state she wants to laugh at the imaginary cogs churning in Beatriceā€™s head.Ā 
Beatrice scooches closer and Ava panics, her skin can taste the dust of Beaā€™s forearm. She hoists herself up on her elbows, turning to face Beatrice. ā€œWha?ā€ Avaā€™s shaking off bits of sleep from her mouth when Beatrice repeats herself.Ā 
ā€œDoes the Halo hurt?ā€Ā 
She doesnā€™t know if she wants to answer that. Ava peers over Beatrice squinting at the harsh light of the digital clock on Beatriceā€™s side. Ava loves it, it reminds her of the early 2000ā€™s and the aesthetic of waking up to an alarm to go somewhere. The clock blinks an innocent 1:43 Am, and Ava debates on letting her head thump back down.Ā 
She turns her body on her side, she can feel the halo shifting in her back and it makes her want to throw up. The sides of the halo press against her shoulder blades and Ava resists the urge to yank it out. She grits her teeth and settles ignoring the skin of her back pulling tight to accommodate for the ring. Beatrice is still expecting an answer and Ava canā€™t lie to her, she pulls the covers of the sheet up to her chest hoping to bide more time for an answer.Ā 
"Everything hurts Bea," Ava smiles, "getting my ass handed to me is hard work."
Beatrice frowns displeased but looks at her through her lashes, it's unguarded, the stress and worries of the world stay out of their room in the dead of night. Her lashes are so pretty and Ava wants to curse the soft glow of the moon. Thereā€™s just enough moonlight to illuminate her eyes but overshadow her freckles. Ava swallows down the taste of defeat, she canā€™t win, she thinks.Ā 
Her gaze is soft, Beatrice is looking at her and itā€™s different yet the same. The same feeling in her chest constricting her lungs, the same soft gaze of Beatrice. Beatrice who likes what she sees in Ava when Ava can barely see where she begins. She doesnā€™t like to dwell on it, the truth of the matter being what belongs to Ava.
If she closes her eyes she can pretend just a little longer. She can give herself the hope of the future and what comes after all this. She can put down the fighting and the artifact and live. Ava doesn't want to think about it anymore, at least not tonight when Beatrice is here with her.Ā 
Beatrice is soft. She knows it from hours and hours of training. She's felt it when Beatrice corrects her form, in the way she talks. She speaks from a place of care like she has turned the harsh words in her brain over and over to soften the syllables spoken to Ava. And Ava doesn't linger on it, the meaning behind it, (Ava didn't think she'd make it this far, finding a person who cares quite like Bea does.)
And Ava's got it bad, she knows she's fucked because Beatrice doesnā€™t say anything about her language and Ava can't not tell her the truth. She looks down, her hand fiddling with the bed sheet underneath them.Ā 
"It doesn't hurt," if she thinks about it she can feel the fibers of the cotton between the pads of her fingers. "But it's very uncomfortable." She doesn't want to find the response in Beatrice's eyes, content to hear it from her voice. The soft British lilting accent that holds her just as soft as a touch.Ā 
She waits, she can picture Beaā€™s mannerisms with her eyes closed but maybe she should check just to be sure. Ava peers up at Beatrice and sheā€™s suddenly closer. Her eyes really are pretty, thereā€™s a depth to them that Ava wants to spend an ungodly amount of time studying.
ā€œCan I help?ā€
39 notes Ā· View notes
cluescorner Ā· 8 months ago
Text
I cannot imagine being a Damian stan right now. You've got both Zdarsky's bullshit (where he clearly doesn't give a shit about your boy) and The Boy Wonder (where Juni Ba clearly gives so many shits about your boy) coming out on the same day. The whiplash must be insane. I hope y'all get some nice warm soup for your efforts jfc
#damian wayne#damian al ghul#damian al ghul wayne#batman#batfamily#for all of the issues that come with having Steph as your fave having too much wild shit happening at once is never one of them#btw I quite like The Boy Wonder Issue 1. wow shocker an artist and writer who I have liked everything they've ever done#has once again written something that I am enjoying with art that makes me want to be part of its world.#it's almost like Juni Ba is really freaking talented or something#like I have some problems with it but it seems like many of those are part of the point. Damian is learning that his siblings are more#three-dimensional than he realized and that is part of this 'coming of age' story merged with fairytale#so I can't be mad at the oversimplistic defining of Dick and Jason and Tim until the conclusion of the series. that might be the point.#I hope that the series will address Steph as a Robin but if not then frankly it's not an issue unique to this series.#I'll be annoyed and disappointed but ultimately roll with it like I am with Babsgirl being here. There's too much good stuff here to get#hung up on shit that seems to be almost an editorial mandate at this point. at least that's where I'm at.#I am also very sorry that Chip Zdarsky is massacring your boy. he has 'X (Tim for him) is the best Robin so everyone else must suck' diseas#where a writer really likes one specific Robin and in trying to uplift them demeans all of the other Robins. instead of like...just writing#for that one character only or alternatively not demeaning the other characters in order to make his blorbo look good#it's wild because I actually think his writing for Tim is pretty solid. but he's not writing a Tim series. he's writing a Batman series.#and if you are going to write a Batman series and include other Batfamily members you need to actually write them well.#instead of assigning them like 2 personality traits while Tim gets to be a whole character#I accept that behavior in fanfic where I have lesser standards because it's fucking free. not a comic run that wants me to pay#tens of dollars in order to understand what the fuck is going on. he's been going for a while now it's gotta be a lot of money.#I can buy Steelworks with that money. I can see John Henry and Natasha Irons in a trade. Fuck you Chip.#it's why it takes such a special person to write a good ensemble story/a good Batfamily story. you have to be good at writing a LOT#of different characters. which I don't think most people are. I sure as hell am not. I can write maybe 3 at a time confidently well.#and you also have to give all of them at least SOME love or else people will be upset that you aren't focusing on their fave#and also the writing as a whole will suffer. Chip Zdarsky is a pretty good Tim writer. I'd maybe read a Tim solo written by him.#I would not read a story focusing on multiple characters that I like written by Chip Zdarsky. because every character who isn't Tim#is at least a bit weak/inconsistent/out of character INCLUDING FUCKING BATMAN. THE NO. 1 GUY MOST ARE HERE FOR
87 notes Ā· View notes
justaz Ā· 6 months ago
Text
once merlin puts arthur to rest, the world around him disappears and heā€™s in ealdor staring at his motherā€™s back. his sobs from the lake grow worse at the sight of his mother and he wails like heā€™s a child again, calling repeatedly for his ma. she spins around and finds him, without asking any questions she dashes forward and pulls him into a hug, holding his weight as he falls apart in her grasp, choking out nonsensical words and soaking her dress with tears, snot, and drool, his overwhelming grief causing him to ignore any sense of shame he mightā€™ve felt at such a scene.
he doesnā€™t remember explaining anything to her, frankly he doesnā€™t remember much beyond the cries he pressed into her shoulder, but she says heā€™s been in ealdor for a week. sheā€™s clearly worried and asks, no, begs him to eat or drink but he doesnā€™t feel the need or desire to, and even if he did, he simply doesnā€™t have the energy to bring the sustenance to his mouth. she cradles his head in her lap and runs her finger through his hair like she did when he had a nightmare when he was younger. itā€™s almost enough to make the entire thing seem like a horrible, horrible dream. but theres blood on his tunic where he held arthurā€™s body to his own so he knows itā€™s not true.
his mother doesnā€™t ask any questions, the look in her eyes telling him that she knows anyway. perhaps his nonsensical babble created a clear enough image for her to understand. maybe she just saw the broken look in his eyes and came to the conclusion on her own. she doesnā€™t mention him. merlin isnā€™t sure if heā€™s relieved about that or not. in the end, he brings it up, he asks how she was able to go on after balinor left. he asks how she was able to pick herself back up on her own two feet and carry on life as normal after receiving his letter informing her of his passing. she says sometimes she canā€™t, sometimes she lays in bed and listens to the birds sing and canā€™t help but hate them. she says she lives on for him anyway. she pushes herself up and makes food and works in the fields even when she hate the world around her.
merlin tries to relate, tries to understand, tries to imagine himself getting up every morning and living on in his name. he canā€™t. his parents loved each other, he knows that, but they were their own people and were able to stand the years apart. merlinā€¦merlin is arthurā€™s, even in death. everything he is, everything heā€™s done, has been for arthur. he is half of merlinā€™s soul, the center of merlinā€™s world. how can anyone expect him to move on as if heā€™s capable of being alone? how can anyone expect him to function as if half of his soul, half of himself, isnā€™t dead in a lake? merlin canā€™t do it, he canā€™t imagine living a life without arthur. he barely got through the week and thatā€™s only because he was passed out for a majority of it. how could he make it a year, much less another fifty?
he canā€™t. he canā€™t do it. he canā€™t breathe, heā€™s in agony, the world around him doesnā€™t exist anymore. not without arthur.
heā€™s back at the lake now, tears still streaming down his face despite the pounding headache from dehydration yet it doesnā€™t matter, not anymore. none of it does. he stumbles into the lake and sends his magic into the water to tug excalibur from the depths. he can feel freya pulling the sword back, but his magic overpowers hers easily and the sword springs from the lake, gleaming in the afternoon sun. freyaā€™s face appears in the ripples of the water next to him, her expression pleading and sorrowful. merlin whispers an apology before turning back to the sword, staring at the sharp point of the blade. he brings it closer to hover just over his heart, the metal pressing against his skin but not enough to draw blood just yet.
peace washes over him. the sun warms his skin and the water cools him to keep it from being unbearable. the birds sing in the trees as the wind whistles through the leaves. merlin stares up at the brilliant blue sky and pure white clouds roll by, images of bunnies and birds and crowns and horses staring down at him. he wonders if avalon will be this peaceful, if he and arthur could lay out in a field for eternity, basking in the sun and laughing as they point out misshapen clouds that supposedly look like the other.
he plunges the sword into his chest, right through his heart, and falls back into the water. bubbles trail out of his mouth up towards the surface, blood spills from his wound and mixes with the water. he closes his eyes as he sinks further and further. he knows when he opens them, heā€™ll be with arthur once more. itā€™ll all be okay. he doesnā€™t feel his body hit the bottom before blackness fills his mind.
arthur awakens from his fitful slumber in a bed that is not his own. he squints at the room, or rather hut, around him and finds an old man hunched over a book in the corner. arthur tries to speak but all that comes out is a squeak of air, his throat too dry to speak. the man hears and whirls around to begin treating him once more, prattling on and on about how he found arthur in the woods outside his village donning shiny clothes which he discarded bc of the blood staining them yet he couldnā€™t find a wound. arthurā€™s hand reaches up to his side but thereā€™s no stab wound there, not anymore, though he does sport the scar. he remembers how he got it, he remembers stumbling away from the battlefield, he remembers being found by merlin- merlin.
he asks the man about him but he seems confused and denies ever knowing someone by that name. arthur climbs out of the bed (the flash of golden eyes) and hastily pulls on his armor (ā€œiā€™m a sorcerer. i have magic.ā€). heā€™s out the door before the old man can protest. heā€™s in a village he doesnā€™t recognize, they must not be anywhere near camelot (ā€œiā€™m still the same person.ā€). he turns to the old man hobbling out of the hut and demands directs to camelot. the man stares at him oddly and scratches his ear before informing him that heā€™s never heard of a camelot before (ā€œyouā€™re my friend and i donā€™t want to lose you.ā€).
he instead asks for directions to the woods where he was found and sets off in that direction, the old man shuffling after him (ā€œme, i was born to serve you, arthur.ā€). it doesnā€™t take long to reach where he was found. if the old man had carried him home it couldnā€™tā€™ve been much of a hike (ā€œand iā€™m proud of that.ā€). he steps into a clearing where the man panted that he found him here (ā€œand i wouldnā€™t change a thing.ā€). itā€™s no where near the lake where merlin held him as he took his last breath, itā€™s no where near camelot. the man didnā€™t even recognize the name of his kingdom (ā€œitā€™s not why i do it.ā€).
arthur sits in the grass as he thinks on his next move and the man who watched over him sits next to him (ā€œiā€™m not going to change now.ā€). he speaks lowly of a prophecy about a man from a time long forgotten sent on a journey, a quest, to retrieve what has been lost. he says how the prophecy led many to a sword lodged in stone (ā€œiā€™m not going to lose you.ā€) but no one could pull it free. he points out arthurā€™s armor and calls it odd, he mentions camelot, a kingdom of which heā€™s never heard, and gestures around the clearing where he found the mystery man. he concludes that perhaps the prophecy spoke of him (ā€œi canā€™t lose him.ā€).
arthur, with no other options, follows the manā€™s directions to a lake. not exactly lake avalon but close enough. theres a small island in the center that seems more like a hill. the sword, his sword, excalibur is buried in a stone covered in moss, misshaping itā€™s actual form. arthur wades across the water and climbs the hill. he wraps his hands around the hilt of excalibur and closes his eyes. he imagines merlin confident and reassuring expression as they and all his men stood in the woods around this damn sword in a different stone however long ago it was. he breathes in and out (ā€œheā€™s my friend.ā€) and pulls.
excalibur comes free just as it did before. arthur watches the metal pull free and as it does, the moss on the stone falls away revealing its form. it looks like a collapsed figure, excalibur having been lodged in itā€™s chest, right where itā€™s heart would be. arthur squints at what looks like the head and feels a flash of familiarity. the stone slowly fades away from the hole where excalibur was all the way to the hill. as the stone fades, it leaves behind skin and clothes and hair andā€¦merlin.
arthur drops excalibur and falls to his knees to hold up merlinā€™s limp form. he feels warm, as if he didnā€™t just spend however long with a sword in his chest as a stone. heā€™s not breathing. why isnā€™t he breathing? arthur grasps around, shifting his clothes out of the way to find the wound where excalibur had once been. the skin is stitching itself together with tiny golden threads. arthur looks back up at merlinā€™s lax face as the wound fully closes. he inhales sharply as his eyes fly open, glowing gold, and all around him it seemed the world finally inhaled after suffocating for millennia.
merlin exhales and golden sparks shoot from his lips to flurry around in the air. the grass under them grows longer and curls around both his and merlinā€™s body where they rest against the ground. the water around their island clears from the murky brown to a blindingly clear blue. the air is crisp and clean, the sun brighter and warmer, and one soul finally whole again.
50 notes Ā· View notes
feelo-fick Ā· 3 months ago
Text
Headcanon: Chilchuck and his Bad Takes on Literature
i think chilchuck would be like my mom in the sense that he wouldnt like sad stories. dont get me wrong, cautionary tales? absolutely fine. they serve a purpose to him which is to tell people "dont be an idiot and do this or else something bad will happen"
generally sad or angsty stories though? no point to him, and in his perspective its really confusing how people just read things that make them sad. like whats the use of reading something if its just gonna make you sad. whats the lesson? its not even real so it doesnt help anyone.
whats the point in making yourself cry when you could just avoid that entirely by not reading it at all?
but the one of the biggest reasons why sad stories exist is to let you release all the built up grief in you. to send you something to let out all your emotions in a healthy way. catharsis. empathy.
even when i dont relate to the tragic experiences in some stories, several ones ive read have lead me to realize that im in a bad situation or that im following in the footsteps of the character suffering. its like a wake up call.
and making yourself cry isnt inherently a bad thing. if crying allows you to let go of building pressure and tension in you then thats good!
but chil wouldnt see that. of course he wouldnt, hes avoidant of most situations that would allow him to release emotion, and fearful of letting his mature (read: repressed) persona slip.
hes someone that runs away to quick comforts and distractions at the earliest sign of issue. hes already been in too many horrifying situations, dealing with another is a pain. and he knows denying everything and refusing to look at the situation doesnt help, but it definitely provides a quick and easy happiness in the comfort of ignorance.
because of this, reading something made to make one empathize with and confront these bad emotions is defeating the point of his cowering. if he faces his issues, even if only through the perspective of a story, he'd have to deal with acknowledging that things are bad and need fixing, and he'd feel terrible and guilty in the moment - which of course is the worst thing that could happen to a person (his thought, not mine).
which is why i find the concept of him being/becoming a tragedy himself at the same time as this headcanon soooo interesting. imagine the irony of him bashing on the protagonists of tragic stories for acting on emotion and impulse rather than logic, when he himself has fallen victim to irrational thinking while in grief.
cause... thats what people do when they grieve. they lash out, make bad decisions, ruin themselves, ruin others.
for a tragedy to be prevented, the protagonists would have to change fundamental parts of themselves, and act perfectly rational when under extreme stress. and chilchuck holds himself to these kinds of unrealistic standards because he unwittingly believes he can handle it all.
he cant, obviously. we see it for ourselves in his relationship with his wife. they were doomed from the beginning by chils already-established avoidance and lack of emotional vulnerabiltiy (and whatever else his wife had going on).
this is all just to say that if you told him about orpheus and eurydice, he'd probably be one of those idiots trying to point out the "plot hole" that he couldve "just not looked back" and "just trusted her"
Tumblr media
i dont understand. whats the point in reading tragedies? the protagonist is stupid, anyways. why would you take bitter medicine? why subject yourself to that?
i think its just a bad story.
33 notes Ā· View notes
bluestrawberrybunny Ā· 2 months ago
Text
Ok I know I said Iā€™d work on Apprenticeship and Schmicago this weekend (and I have been working on Schmicago a lot I just got so many issues filling in the blanks from point A to point B, Apprenticeship is pretty planned out so far I just gotta write the damned thing-)
Butā€¦ I now have an uncontrollable urgeā€¦
Iā€™ve made SMG3 suffer watching SMG4 die and worry about himā€¦
I think itā€™s SMG4ā€™s turn to watch the life fade from the eyes of the man he lovesā€¦
21 notes Ā· View notes