#The City Without Light

[mwezina]

Three of Wands & FE3H

The Three of Wands show what the beginning of success looks like. An inner balance is found, allowing optimism about future plans to prevail. The figure stands atop a mountain, showing their current achievements, and looks off to the distance, planning for what else will come ahead. Below them is the ocean filled with vessels, showing the figure watching all of their hard-earned work finally come to fruition. 

The event I connect this to is less of an event and more of a current state of being. Thales has planned for millennia on how to best enact his revenge upon the humans and the Nabateans in the most brutal way possible. Finally, after sowing conflict and discontent hundreds of years in the making, he convinces the next heir to the Empire to launch an invasion on the rest of the continent, and to eradicate the Church of Seiros. He must be well-pleased, to dash all of Lady Rhea / Saint Seiros’ efforts towards peace and prosperity for the continent and also turn the bloodline of her own beloved Wilhelm into her sworn enemy all in one fell swoop (oh yeah, and also implant the blood of her murdered mother into said enemy. Damn, Seiros can’t catch a break). 

In terms of the Three of Wands, I can’t decide if this is kind of Thales’ crowning achievement or him being a petty bitch. Yes, on the one hand, he and his people finally enact “vengeance” upon Sothis and her children, and throw the humans into chaos once again. On the other hand, every single time, he and all his allies die at the hands of humans, and half the time, the entirety of his civilization is wiped out. Is this a sign of progress in his mind? Or is he utterly lacking in foresight (Three of Wands reversed)? I seriously can’t decide.

Previous: Two of Wands

Next: Four of Wands

[happyheidi]

[rileys-battlecats]

girl help I started writing down oc thoughts and have started contemplating the logistics of how a city carved into the walls of a ravine would have access to fresh water

[itissadbutitsmy-artblog]

little lamb how do you keep getting into these situations

[streetlightgoblin]

To look up at a sibling’s sacrifice

Darker and but bluer version under the cut

The lamp posts just look better here- I really need to stop drawing at full brightness lmaoooo

[rubylarkspur22]

The Sun and Stars(💕)

So, an idea I've been tossing around for the last little while in S&TF has been Nezuko creating her own Breath Style. Specifically mixing Sun and Sound Breathing as the main bases. And, as you can probably guess, this Breath Style is going to be called Star Breathing.

And earlier this week, I just realized the genius poetry behind the three Breath Styles named after celestial bodies(Sun, Moon, and Stars)!

The Sun is the brightest and closest light we have in our universe. Sun Breathing is the most powerful Breath Style.

The moon's light comes from reflecting the sun. Bright, but not nearly as much as the sun. Michikatsu was powerful, but still could never match Yoriichi despite being his twin(reflection). And I believe Moon Breathing is the second most powerful Breath Style, even before the Blood Demon Art modifications.

And the stars are just as powerful as the sun, they're just farther away and we can't see them when the sun is out. But when they do get to shine, they're just as brilliant. Nezuko, being trained by an ex-shinobi and three ex-kunoichi, has been taught skills to disappear and strike from a distance. And despite having a similar potential to Tanjirou, Nezuko is going to be mostly disregarded by Muzan whenever Tanjirou is close by. But Sun Breathing is in her blood, the same as her brother and father.

TL; DR, Moon reflects Sun but not as powerful, but Stars shine with their own power despite being outshined by the sun.

And I think this will especially create a fun parallel between the Nighttime Breath Users(Kokushibo and Nezuko). But I'll leave that for another time!

[acourtofquestions]

Overhead, the stars shone clear and bright, and though Mala had only once appeared to him at dawn, on the foothills across this very city, though she might be little more than a strange, mighty being from another world, he offered up a prayer anyway.

Then, he had begged Mala to protect Aelin from Maeve when they entered Doranelle, to give her strength and guidance, and to let her walk out alive. Then, he had begged Mala to let him remain with Aelin, the woman he loved. The goddess had been little more than a sunbeam in the rising dawn, and yet he had felt her smile at him.

Tonight, with only the cold fire of the stars for company, he begged her once more.

A curl of wind sent his prayer drifting to those stars, to the waxing moon silvering the camp, the river, the mountains.

He had killed his way across the world; he had gone to war and back more times than he cared to remember. And despite it all, despite the rage and despair and ice he'd wrapped around his heart, he'd still found Aelin. Every horizon he'd gazed toward, unable and unwilling to rest during those centuries, every mountain and ocean he'd seen and wondered what lay beyond... It had been her. It had been Aelin, the silent call of the mating bond driving him, even when he could not feel it.

They'd walked this dark path together back to the light. He would not let the road end here.

[icewindandboringhorror]

It's always interesting to hear about people's weird/unexpected "alternate life paths". Like, something that you could have done with your life, a job you almost took, a school you almost went to, etc - that was still actually realistic enough that it could have happened, but NOW it seems to not suit your current personality.

Like for example, I currently hate advertising (how manipulative it is, brands trying to be 'relatable', social media amplifying it to an obnoxious extreme, etc.) so much that even seeing a little ad before a youtube video is grating to even witness, but there was a point in time where I was genuinely seriously considering going into marketing/making commercials as a career lol. Or like, I have a relative who was very inclined to be a pastor when they were younger, even though today they're a super strong atheist, etc. etc.

[flamemons]

How do you think Digimon Frontier might have gone if the Spirits of Steel, Wood, and Earth had been bequeathed to Ophanimon, the Spirits of Darkness and Water had been bequeathed to Seraphimon, the Spirits of Flame, Light, Ice, Wind, and Thunder had been bequeathed to Cherubimon, and the protagonists had been Katsuharu, Teppei, Chiaki, Teruo, and Koichi (with Kouji joining later)?

im just gonna ramble whatever comes to mind lmao. i drew some stuff too!

uuh while i find it hard to care too much about those other kids because well, I don't know much about them, it is really fun thinking about how kouichi would act if he was there from the start. I think he'd be serious, in a similar way to Kouji, bc he's there on a mission, y'know! All he remembers is following his brother around until Kouji gets some weird text message (wait,,, does kouichi have a phone? probably not, huh. poor people gang ftw...) and now hes in this fuckin place! (hes a dead soul in this au too.) I'd imagine he'd be just as driven as Kouji was, if not more so, bc he KNOWS koujis gotta be here somewhere....but instead of initially trying to avoid the other kids (koujis strategy), he'd probably stick around as soon as he realizes that theyre gonna get themselves killed if they keep acting stupid. So, instead of trying to ditch the kids or act distant, he'd nag them and rush them to stay on track, and come off as kind of a bossy stick-in-the-mud at first

Side note, its easy to think of kouji as being a lot more serious and mature compared to the rest of the frontier kids, but honestly, I have to wonder if he wouldve acted differently if ophanimon wasnt calling him all the damn time telling him that he has to find answers! hes gotta get stronger! theres something he Has To Know!!! like damn if ophanimon was that specific with the other kids they'd also probably be just as sullen. anyway, kouichi would be feeling the same kind of pressure.

in an attempt to make it more interesting for me, chiaki and teruo are now siblings. or close cousins. or something. (what if they were fraternal twins?? that would be so funny actually. there is a statistically improbable amount of twins here!) AND bc i like chiaki the most i think she'd make a cool leader of sorts! like, the lancer to kouichi. kouichi ends up accidentally being the leader bc hes so driven, and chiakis like, a genuinely nice person who really wants to help the digital world as soon as she steps off the first trailmon onto the flame terminal. she also doesnt take shit from anyone. maybe she was a quiet wallflower-type kid at school, but, if its for another's sake, then she'll always speak up! so now, in the digital world, she cant stay quiet!

ah i love just making shit up. this is fun

so together, they make the most chillest leader/lancer duo ever. (hey, if they WERE to be the two Main Ones, wouldnt it be cool if their Susanoomon-type evolution was deep-sea themed? mix darkness and water together, and you get The Fucking Abyss. it could be bioluminescent! a cool way to turn "light into darkness!")

btw, im not drawing any spirit forms here bc I think these kids would have alternative spirit forms as opposed to the evil ones in the show. like, heroic looking ones (basically, no child deserves to have to spirit evolve into grottomon) BUT im no good at character design and that sounds like a lotta work. also, the other spirits (fairymon, chakkmon, agnimon, etc,) would need evil forms too then, right?? that sounds like a REALLY hard thing to try drawing, so nah. just imagine these kids spirit evolving and fighting offscreen. speaking of the other spirits though,

i want chakkmon/tomoki to try pummeling the shit out of katsuharu and teppei!! karmas a bitch!! tomoki didnt get to have his character development in this AU, bc he (probably) fell off the trailmon train tracks and got Got by cherubimon!

i like the main frontier kids too much to not include them in everything i draw Ever, so imagine that maybe they all came to the digital world alone, and wandered around until they found their respective spirits (in similar circumstances to the show) but since those spirits belongto cherubimon, theyre possessed/convinced to fight on cherubimons side!! like "oh shit i have no friends and i hate my life, yea this big evil bunny has a point lets go fuck shit up". maybe some of them are fully in control of their actions, maybe some arent. maybe some of them remember that theyre human, but maybe some of them dont....?

lastly, i have to apologize bc i got completely sidetracked bc i thought "oh takuya and kouji would be very funny as team rocket-esque villains" so heres flamon and strabimon but Evil™

i like to imagine that theyre the Most Incompetent of cherubimons Evil Guys but theyre the only two (that cherubimon knows of) that can form susanoomon so THATS why hes trying to collect all the spirits. bc of that, they DEFINITELY dont remember that theyre human. (bc of that, they also kind of dont have anything to care about, so theyre just trying to have fun)

it would be fun if they were initially kind of lame but although they may be idiots, theyre not Dumb, so they slowly become competent at the same rate as the Heroes do, and instead of a sephirothmon arc theres like.......a beowolfmon and aldamon arc??? im not a writer i dont know. watch these five kids (and counting!) get slowly hunted by two fucking Beasts in the darkest forest ever.

or maybe they do Actually manage to collect all the spirits but it goes so horribly wrong and now theres like ten goddamn kids and ten spirits mashed up in the psyche of a very unstable susanoomon and its just some fucked up Twisted psychological nightmare. digimon evangelion.

basically in this AU, there is even MORE wild tone shifts and the plot goes Absolutely Fucking Bonkers. and takuya's cosplaying Jotaro Kujo for some fucking unknown reason.

thank you for asking! this was....probably not what you were going for, but c'est la vie

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

He exists now only in my memory.

Avarenya, about Martin the Priest, while staring at the Avatar of Akatosh, probably

[flufflecat]

Guess who got into a fucking car accident

[pliablehead]

HEDWIG'S LAMENT / EXQUISITE CORPSE • atlanta, 2017

[torsamors]

aaahshsjahdka god these ppl only like me or consider me a ‘friend’ when its convenient for them

[notfknapplicable]

Move-in went great! FYI I am never ever moving my self ever again. Movers are worth every single penny and having hired helpers to do the literal heavy lifting was life-saving. I'm still unpacking of course and I gotta figure out where to put my dryer - there's hookups for the washer in the kitchen, but it looks like the dryer will have to go on the back porch :-( cuz there's no vent for it anywhere in the duplex. The back porch is uncovered, too, so I'm gonna have to get one of those sun sails to go out there or something. Ugh so tedious, but it'll be worth it to be able to not hang clothes to dry or use a laundromat.

The new neighborhood is very much in the ghetto but like like the old people's side of the ghetto. Plenty of the people on my street are either retirees or disabled and not working, including my duplex neighbor. The street is quiet for the most part (except for the kid who lives in the house next door - he's clearly a twitch streamer because I can hear him screaming about video games from my porch). One neighbor sells soul food plates and that warms my heart. My best friend in middle school's grandmother sold plates from her house and I loved to visit because there was always something to eat and us kids ate for free. It really triggers my 90's housing projects nostalgia.

Sleep has gone well so far and I can already see the benefits of no longer eating and watching tv where I sleep. I've been able to take my ambien and fall straight to sleep 2 nights in a row now!

I had my first meeting with my advisor for grad school on Monday. I'm taking 2 classes in the fall and I think I've picked the class that I wanna use my scholarship for at the rare books program. It happens next spring (2025) at the NY Public Library and I've never visited that city alone before. Could be cool!

[drakerry]

gratitude post

[ultimategirldad]

Old WIPs/doodles of my Girls™️