#Though it does flow well

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

W….what if one of the new grandkits is named Petalkit, after Hootpetal

bonus points if her suffix is something really dark, cause I think that would be funny

“What’s your name?”

“Petal—“

“Oh let me guess! Petalsong? Petalheart? Petalpool?”

“PetalBLOOD”

[torchickentacos]

Finished another :)

[arthur-lesters-topsurgeryscars]

Working on some sketches for a ref sheet of my John design ^^

+ close ups

[icewindandboringhorror]

I occasionally wish to reach out to old friends/acquaintances I haven't spoken to since high school/some other even earlier time in my life, but I have SOOO little social energy even for required tasks (like making dr phone calls or etc), I never have any leftover for extra ones, and it would be very odd to message someone I haven't spoken to in like 5 years out of the blue but then take 4 entire months to respond back lol.. My natural curiosity with nostalgia/collecting details of the past/etc. (literally if I were born a little earlier I would definitely do scrapbooking or something lol) is very strong, but, alas, not strong enough to beat out the Social Issues Demons apparently

[vvelegrin]

i'm really enjoying pathologic 2, actually. i mean, i didn't think i wouldn't enjoy it as much as i was worried it would just, i don't know, muddy the water. and maybe it will, but i'm not really bothered by that anymore. that said, i do think patho 2 took a fairly unsubtle game and increased its unsubtlety by about tenfold.

well. calling og pathologic 'unsubtle' doesn't feel quite right, but i'm not sure what word would feel right. maybe it's 'distinct in its sensibilities'. I think og patho felt more obtuse, whereas patho 2 is like. here. take it. do you get it. here is the information. do you see the themes. i am announcing them to you in such a way that you know that i am saying something thematic. i'm not far enough into the main story of 2 to be able to say that there's less reading between the lines, but it feels very much so far like there's less reading between the lines. whereas the original had a somewhat different... i don't know, affect? it felt like a hostile workplace where everyone recited shakespeare about even the mundane. in patho 2 nothing feels mundane in the first place, everything feels loaded in a way that og patho was but didn't feel, if that makes sense.

but i think that's okay. at the very least, it feels very much like leaning into the 'theater' aspect of it, which is enjoyable. pathologic 2 feels to me more like... bonus content? not to be Stuck Up For Pathologic HD but i enjoyed the feeling of grinding my face against a cinderblock, having to tease out information and conclusions. it felt like a game that you had to figure out, but you actually weren't really doing any ground-level figuring out of much; you're not a doctor, your character is, so the puzzle of Solving the Plague belongs to The Story, whereas the question of What the FUCK is This Town's Deal is your job. it's a very linear game in most respects, but all three playthroughs come through as a thematic package deal.

i so far get the impression that pathologic 2 can be played on its own and be enjoyed in its own right! however it exists to me as like. director's commentary. i'm really liking the playing with different character relationships and alternate things, the expanding of steppe language and the kin, love my worm guys, but i like it because of how it enriches my eternal mind rotation of og pathologic. sorry guys i played the original pathologic and it broke me and remade me in its image. sorry.

[nihiltism]

god the gallery will always be my favorite album ever but as far as dt albums go fiction is growing on me a looot.

[marklikely]

sorry i just really like movie

[curedeity]

Hello hello and a nice Fanfic Friday to you all! Today’s art is inspired by “Leaving Your Tower is Easier in Fairytales” by @starfishes-and-watercolors and boy do I got a lot to say about this fic. I’m struggling so much to explain.

Okay rewrite time number 5:

This fic is amazing. This fic is amazing at building up a relationship, at characterizing two underutilized characters, and at just being a ship fic. The focus of this fic is on Yuki and Motti’s relationship, and a lot of work is put into making this the best part of the fic. Val puts a lot of work into making all their conversations fun and dynamic. The most impressive thing to me, though, is how it the fic shows us the specific moments and things the two characters like about the other. I can specifically see that Yuki likes Motti because of her confidence, and there are other moments like that where you can just see the reason these two are falling in love in this fic. That clarity on selling the dynamic? On making those reasons explicit? That is so impressive to me.

The fic is about Yuki getting captured by the Nemesis Cult, and Motti is kind of a reluctant member there who hangs out with Yuki and tries to help in. I don’t know if these aspects of the plot will become more prevalent over time, but right now that plot serves more as setting to facilitate interesting conversations between Motti and Yuki, who are the focus of this fic. It’s a worthwhile read for anyone, in my opinion.

[queensaba]

eurovision 2023 poster series [1/37] ● albania: albina & familja kelmendi, duje

[wiedzmacienia]

Would you rather give up your magic to live a normal life, or keep your magic and never hold any genuine human connections? (There's no anon option, so I guess I have to be called out lol.)

eyes narrow in the light of the campfire, wood crackling and heat meeting her skin that's made it crawl for centuries yet she can not move with the young boy who's head lays on her lap having fallen asleep (she imagined she'd have to carry him back to his tent at some point). maybe she shouldn't have come here, even if the knightley boys had asked her to when she'd been to see beth. they'd found a few soldiers they'd felt able to confide in about themselves, soldiers who seemed to accept them once one of them had used his powers to save the other, and it's from this that such a question has been brought forth. she knows it is not out of malice and yet, it still awakens something deep within her. a memory she's locked away for ages in the depths of her soul. maybe they think her standoffish because she is so much less open than the boys. but she can not afford to be like them when she must direct her forces by the day. these boys were young. too young and had yet to truly understand the world even if they were serving in an army now let alone understand magic or it's role in the world.

there was one day, no, a mere few hours within her life that katarzyna had wished she could have shed her magic from her body and lived a so called normal life. that she could have been as human as the rest of her village. the moment men who had been smiling at the children just the day before entered their home with violence and tore her and her brother from their beds, binding them and dragging them outside. when she had screamed for her brother as wooden posts had been erected. there had been no trial or recourse. no amount of pleading for their lives had halted them from being beaten for speaking the foul words of creatures they'd said. it had been them who had brought the plague upon them they believed. yet was it not the twins whom only sought to save an elderly woman from the pain of such plague? fires had been lit and pain seared their bodies and in those moments she wished they could have been anything but what they were. for to have been born as such had been their death sentence.

but then they had been reborn from the ashes and her whole world view had been shaken. her parents had given of themselves to bring them back and she no longer saw her power as something to shy away from. her parents had believed in magic. had believed in the worth of her and her brother and what they could bring to the world. and she vowed to never seek to be anything but what she was again.

to never be weak and powerless again.

greenish-blue hues move over the fire and meet the human speaking to her. was she not making a human connection now? perhaps once she believed being what she was separated her from the human world. perhaps in the respect that she lived longer than humans it did. but this war and the people she had begun to meet made her begin to question such. maybe making connections with humans wasn't about how long you knew them or preventing one's self from becoming close because of the eventual loss but the value of the time spent with them. no, she did not think having magic equated to a lack of forming human connections, genuine ones. not if she didn't allow it to.

after all, while it had never been the intention, she cared for-- no, she could acknowledge it was more than that now as she ran her hand through the young boy's curls, she held a motherly love for auggie in a way she had never believed she could possess before-- and tended to the human child more often than not these days. sometimes the intensity of which she believed she would protect the boy scared even her for if there was a choice between him and someone else, she held no doubt of what she would choose even if it could mean burning the world in the process. but did her love toward the boy not equate to a genuine connection? and was her magic not the very thing which could allow her to protect him? was such love not a normal part of life?

"why can i not have both?" she questions, gaze drifting over the man's shoulder to see the major approaching. ah, perhaps she would not have to carry auggie back to his tent herself after all. still, she continues, looking back at the questioning soldier without care for the major hearing her words, for they were truth and she would not deny her connection to the boy at this point even if she has no idea what it would look like once this war was done.

"is there some book of rules which state i can not have magic and hold connections with humans who i love? that i can not still have something of a normal life with them?" and with that she looks down upon auggie and begins to shift him gently without waking him, picking him up so that his head falls to her shoulder. strangely, the heat of the campfire seems to affect her less, a different kind of warmth washing over her as she raises from their perch on the log and moves to meet tallmadge. "come to collect the little terror? i think him, cora, and furgus just about defeated half the soldiers in camp charging them while wearing your helmet today."

@honorhearted

[longagoitwastuesday]

[cuteniaarts]

Rough concept of 14-year-old Haya, which I’d call a quick sketch if I hadn’t spent almost two hours on it

Alternatively: Photos taken moments before disaster (read as: a few months before her parents died)

[gachaparadise]

I've been doing interludes lately (as you do during an interlude campaign) and the gap in quality and character analysis is insane sometimes. I did Qsh and Nezha's back to back and... Night and day over here. Qsh's was so charming and showed me a new side of my beloved moth, as well as some really cute gap moe moments. Nezha's was boring, hardly focussed on them at all, and made the same tired jokes about their gender over and over... Even the blurb on their profile you get after it's complete does it orz

[claire-starsword]

Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons - Chapter 1-4 & 1-5

They only boarded a ship three days later.

It wasn't because Camallia took time to recover. Fortunately, it took her only a day to be able to walk on her own. Perhaps because she had undergone harsh training as a battle priest. Her gorgeous body had no flaw or weakness.

The issue was not the people, but the ships.

The monsters who apparently attacked Camallia's ship had stayed in the waters. Many small fishing boats were attacked and lost. The island country of Waral had sent an official warning to both Uranbatol and Rudo, urging them to be careful.

Because of that, no sailor was moving an inch away from the harbor. None of them could stand the thought of their precious ship getting destroyed, especially after seeing the last shipwreck. Of course they had lost their nerve at that sight.

However, Karin's father, the leader of Rudo Village, had given them a real lifeline. Levering his position, he got the captain of the ship that brought Krin back to action. What they agreed upon was to sail southwest through the bay, and then head to the town of Rindo. That way, they would circumvent the dangerous region.

Bleu, Camallia, Krin and Karin boarded the ship. Marron insisted to the very end that he would come along, but he couldn't find anyone he trusted to do his gatekeeping duties in his place. Until the day they departed, he kept telling Cerberus to protect her master well.

The ship set sail safely, and took the sea route to Rindo's harbor. Should everything go well, they would arrive in a few days.

There was a rowing boat up in the deck, covered with a grey cloth. Karin was sat on its edge, entertaining herself by kicking her feet in the air, swaying dangerously. Bleu warned her a billion times that if she fell and got knocked out, no one would find her there until they reached land. She replied that she wouldn't mess up like that.

"It's my first time going to West Rune. Could it be, that it's the same for you too?" She asked Bleu as she puffed her chest, taking in the breeze.

"Yeah, it's a first for me too. That's why I'm a little bit scared."

"Oh c'mon. With your wings, you could cross between the lands any time you wanted. Aah, I wish I had some of that."

She stared at his wings, a bit envious.

"Don't be silly. Not like I can lend them to you if you asked. Besides, it's very hard to keep flying for that long. I won't say it's impossible but it's so absurd I don't feel like trying."

"Oh, but birds seem to do it just fine," Karin narrowed her eyes at him, as if that meant dragons had to be capable as well.

"That's because they are lightweight. I'm bigger and heavier, so it's more trouble than you think."

"Hehe, how much are you stuffing in that belly, I wonder."

Karin said he should try it.

"Well, I guess today it will be a bunch of fish."

Bleu smiled a bit, and Karin joined him. They tried to understand each other's feelings through those smiles.

Bleu had some regrets. He needed Krin and Camallia to come along. But he did not plan for Karin to come as well.

Of course, he objected to it. However, taking her as a representative of Rudo was one of the conditions the village chief had agreed to when it came to getting the ship, so Bleu could do nothing about it. Of course, it was also clear that Karin had convinced her father to help behind the scenes. By persuading or intimidating him, Bleu wasn't sure which.

Bleu questioned himself on why didn't he object more to her coming along. Starting from the fact that demons were attacking the Sacred Dragons and Camallia, this journey wasn't going to be without danger.

He didn't want to involve her, who was not a Sacred Dragon, in the problems surrounding the Manual. He was plagued by self-reprimanding thoughts on getting her wrapped up in this. He was a Sacred Dragon. And protecting the Manual was a Sacred Dragon's one and only duty. It was not something they could burden anyone else with.

With that, Bleu began to get determined to cross the great ocean and save his fellow brethren. Whether bringing the Manual with him or not, he could not let them die without doing anything.

But, perhaps that was a form of escape for him. To run away to others of his race. And once he got to them, would he ever come back? From a land of Sacred Dragons, back to where humans like Karin were…

Karin would never forgive him for that. Maybe crossing the ocean would be their parting of ways. So, he wished she hadn't come along. He didn't want to hear her protests.

Bleu wanted to set out without saying anything. But Karin wouldn't take that quietly.

Looking at her, he saw both her current smiling face, and her angry face from back when they were kids. Her once soft and plump face changed to a slender adult one. What else had time changed, and what did it leave untouched…?

Once a child scared of everything, how much had he grown up as well?

"Why did you come along?" Bleu decided to ask her.

"Because I won't let go of you," Karin answered. "I've known you since I was a little girl. I can see through you, always. You're planning to leave me behind, and there's no way I'm accepting that. Things are different from ten years ago. I hate to stay behind waiting, that's why I became strong enough to follow you."

Bleu was at a loss on how to respond to that.

"It's not like I wanted to leave you behind."

Karin's face scrunched slightly, wondering how true that was.

"If I let you go like before, you don't know when you'll come back to Dragonia…"

"I'm no vagabond," that's all Bleu said.

"But do you know how long it took for you to come back when you went with the Shining Force? It was way more than it should have been to just cross back to the north. So don't tell me you never thought of leaving."

Bleu found the determination to join the Shining Force because he wanted to protect Karin, with all his heart. He thought he could bring peace to the world before the danger reached her.

At the time, he thought Karin had been happy to see him off. But maybe that was just what he wanted to think. He couldn't imagine how she had felt while waiting for him to return. This grown up Karin was not a girl contented with just waiting around. She had become stronger of her own volition.

Having said everything she wanted to, Karin became quiet.

"Sir Bleu."

Going around a pile of rope near the mast, Camallia approached the two. She still had her circlet with the red jewel and her long black hair, which seemed to be faintly tinged with blue, and wore a deep blue tunic, with a lustrous purple surcoat over it. The golden embroidery in it was likely Volcanon's insignia. She also wore long leather gloves and boots the color of cinnamon.

"Have I interrupted something?" She asked, looking at Karin. Karin smiled at her and said no.

"Seems you two have something to talk about, should I give you some space?"

As she said that, Karin hopped off the boat's edge. Her lace-up boots made a soft noise as she hit the deck. The unbound cloth covering it turned over with the wind, exposing the emptiness inside for a moment.

"Please do, if it's not a bother. I have something to discuss with the Sacred Dragon," she politely dismissed Karin.

Karin herself had offered to leave, so she had no excuse to refuse. Against her will, she left.

"What you're going to say is something Karin shouldn't hear, I guess?"

"No, it is nothing like that. I just wish to speak with you, Sacred Dragon."

Confirming with the corner of her eye that Karin was gone, Camallia began to speak.

"Just call me Bleu," he said, frowning at how formal she was.

"There is something I wish to verify… Sacred Dragon — that is, Sir Bleu, I hear you are the youngest Sacred Dragon, born not long ago to your parents. Is that true?"

"Of course," Bleu answered, and then asked back, "what's the problem with that?"

"It is not a problem, but it is the first time I see a descendant, a Sacred Dragon of a new generation. The Sacred Dragons of Parmecia are said to be immortals with no successors. I was, how should I say, very surprised at you being a special case."

"That sounds very different from us. Though it's true that I am a bit of a strange case."

Bleu laughed a bit at how she had struggled to say that. She added that she wouldn't word it like that.

"It took a long time until I was finally born. Maybe the Sacred Dragons of Parmecia just didn't have the same time yet."

"You needed time, to be born?" Camallia asked. The feeling that such a thing wasn't all it took lurked deep in Bleu's heart as well. Why had he been the only one to be born? What kind of creatures were the Sacred Dragons, what kind of creature was he?

"Once we meet the great Sacred Dragons of Parmecia, perhaps the mystery of your birth will be unraveled as well, sir. There might be answers within the Manual as well. As of now, we can do nothing but hope."

Having inquired what she wanted to, Camallia left.

She figured more time was needed until she could find the answer.

5

The eastern wind continued to carry the ship with no issues through the night.

"Yes. I couldn't believe it, but he is truly a second generation Sacred Dragon," Camallia, alone in the deck, watched the reflection of the stars in the ocean, whispering low so that no one could hear.

"…Certainly, he might be able to fill the place of the lost warriors. That one is without a doubt, obsessing about number and power."

Within the reflection of the stars in the waves, there were two notable lights shining. They were like eyes, one silver and one crimson, blinking in the water's surface.

"However, I feel something about that Sacred Dragon that has gone beyond the gods' expectations. Perhaps that one also cannot conceive of someone like him. We should keep him under our control somewhat."

The stars blinked once more.

"…Understood. As you desire, our great leader. I will bring the Sacred Dragon to Parmecia, and to you, my lord…"

Camallia pressed hard on her head.

The lights of those stars in the ocean faded away and disappeared, as if their face had moved away from the surface.

She let out a heavy sigh, brushing away her dark hair as if trying to cool off her flushed cheeks.

The wind blew, caressing her neck as her hair fluttered.

Camallia rested her back on the ship's edge, bending to gaze at the stars above.

The night had just begun. The journey had just begun. Yes, everything would begin from here onward. And who knows what the ending would be.

She grinned widely, excited for what she also couldn't predict.

To next part>

[nightingale-prompts]

Lazarus What?!

Phantom pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to take in what he was just told.

"Explain it one more time. I need to know if I got this right." He said his frustration mounted.

They were standing at the edge of the Lazarus pit. The Ghost hero had been searching for wells formed from ectoplasm on this planet.

"We-" Superman spoke first.

"YOU SAW A BIG FUCKING POOL OF OTHERWORLDY GOO AND DECIDED TO SWIM IN IT?!" Phantom exploded.

"Well, it does heal and revive people," Flash said hidden behind Wonder Woman.

"Well that makes it perfectly safe and healthy for you doesn't it," Danny said sarcastically. "It's not safe at all! You people are just tossing corpses into this thing and think it's a miracle that people come out alive! This stuff is a waste pit made from the leakage from my realm!"

"Waste? Like as in-" Clark's face gritted in disgust.

"Not like human waste but still waste. Our bodies take in new ectoplasm and the old tainted stuff flows out. Like a fish breaths with it's gills. The old material tends to collect in different spots like a dump of toxic waste. And you people are bathing in the used materials." Phantom explained.

"And why is it so dangerous." Batman finally spoke up after considering the information.

Phantom sighed.

"The reason why the goop is bad is because it's tainted. As in it has remnants of the ghosts that expel it. When you dump the corpse of a freshly dead person in the goop it melds with the person giving them the ability to persist beyond death and linking them back to their soul. That sounds good, but the soul is now infected with the random assortment of attributes of the ghosts that are in the goop. It won't do much to you though. Barely affecting you in any negative way. Now if you keep putting bodies in the goop you create a big problem as the ectoplasm is invected with the freshly dead's issues. If someone evil, vengeful, or unbalanced is put in the waters parts of them will stay behind. Constantly using the ectoplasm will cause someone to go insane as it corrupts them. If someone dies painfully enough, it will also persist in the ecto and create a revenant. Like an avenging super soldier hellbent on revenge so their soul can rest. The ectoplasm will also become less potent over time, and eventually, the only thing that can come out is zombies." Phantom tried his best to spell everything out like everyone present were idiots.

"That explains many things." Batman said pinching the bridge of his nose.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN! ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU ALREADY DID THAT?!" Phantom was turning red now.

[fantasybots]

I FINISHED THE FINAL CHAPTERS OF THE MOON AND FINALITY. CRIED. OVERJOYED. HUA NEEDS TO VISIT KIANA IMMEDIATELY.