#WE ARE INSANE OVER IT

[angeart]

Could totally do au rambles you say?? Tell me about this forest curse au? 🤲🤲🤲❤️

CURSED FOREST AU!!! yesss <3

i will warn, this might be a long ramble. (edit: it is a VERY long ramble) this is the au me and @stiffyck are insane about. i will also say, this idea was thrown out as a horror au. aaand as such, the most important content warnings are body horror and animal death. please be aware.

it's set in a fantasy setting, and the forest isn't actually cursed. it's the people who come there, each bearing their own unique curse, then choosing to stay there with the others (found family boatem <3)

i'll put the au ramble under the cut here.

It all starts with Scar, who is a necromancer. Now, necromancy is scorned upon, it's a forbidden magic and people hate it. Which then means they hate Scar.

Necromancy works in two ways: one is raising human corpses/skeletons, in which case, Scar would need to focus and consciously manipulate them, like a pupeteer. They do not move on their own. However, animals are a different story. Resurrected animals continue behaving as if they were alive, independent of Scar. They are technically not alive, though. If they get hurt, their bodies will not heal. (Jellie is a resurrected cat. Yes, there's a whole story behind this.)

So, Scar is hated and he has nowhere to go and maybe he raises dead just because he's lonely and desperate to understand himself. Down the line, he gets cursed by someone, and his curse is one of shapeshifting, which might sound cool, but here's the thing: Scar doesn't know. He doesn't know he could willingly change shapes, he doesn't know how to control it, and even if he knew how, it'd be an incredibly painful process. But not shifting isn't an option—the curse, when idle, lashes out. What this means is Scar's bones just randomly snap and break. They do heal quickly enough, but it doesn't take away from the pain of it.

In the end, Scar finds himself settling in a forest. Away from everyone. There's nobody who'd care about him and he's so tired of being hated. So he settles in an isolated forest. And he raises dead animals for company.

Now, enter Grian.

Grian, unlike Scar, has a nature magic. He used to be an animal healer. One day, someone's pet died in his care. Not to the lack of trying—he did everything he could. Still, it wasn't enough, and it didn't matter. On top of his own guilt and grief, Grian got cursed by the pet owner.

The curse causes Grian to randomly pass out/fall asleep. When this happens, his mind gets transferred into a body of a random nearby animal. He gets to be the animal for a bit, but once he wakes up, that animal dies. Every time. There's no way around it. He can't stop himself from passing out, he can't stop himself from controlling the animal, he can't stop them from dying.

Needless to say, he's not having a great time.

He doesn't stay as an animal healer. He can't handle the possibility of hurting the animals he's supposed to take care of on the off chance that he passes out near them. He goes away, but it doesn't matter how far he goes, the curse follows.

That's when he finds Scar's forest.

He stumbles upon Scar reviving an animal, and it startles both of them in different ways. Scar is used to be hated. To be judged. To be hurt. He feels like he needs to hide. Like there'll be backlash, any second now. But... it doesn't come. Instead, Grian looks relieved. He watches Scar do his magic, watches the animal start to move again, and for the first time in a very long time, he feels something akin to hope.

So he stays. He lingers.

This surprises Scar, because nobody ever stays around in this forest. He doesn't even know where Grian is sleeping. There's no place for him to sleep, no other houses, no bed. Does he just, sleep outside?

Scar doesn't know Grian avoids sleep like a plague (he has nightmares), and his "naps" always happen inconveniently (passing out), so yes, at this point, Grian sleeps outside in random places.

One day, Scar comes across Grian sleeping in a meadow in the middle of the day. Oddly, he can't seem to be able to wake him up. Later on, Grian comes to him, holding a bundle of something furry in his hands. He looks wretched.

He presents Scar with the dead animal, asking if he can "fix it".

This is when things properly start. Because even though Scar is confused—why is Grian so upset about this random dead animal, if it doesn't belong to him? What is he even doing here, why has Grian nowhere to go back to?—he's impossibly, desperately drawn to the idea of having someone around. Someone who doesn't hate him.

So he invites Grian to stay.

There's only one house at this point, so they make Grian a bed and they sleep in the same room.

Well, sleep. Grian avoids sleep. (At some point Scar catches on.)

And when Grian does sleep, he has nightmares.

Scar sometimes wakes up screaming too. In pain. When his bones break in the middle of the night.

They're both a mess, okay? But now they have each other there. For tentative comfort. For attempts at softness and safety, even though they still don't know about each other's curse.

They learn eventually, of course. At some point, when Grian feels like maybe Scar won't send him away (he kills animals after all, he's so so scared to admit it), they talk.

Scar doesn't send him away. Grian keeps bringing dead animals to him, and Scar does his best to revive all of them that he can. (This means, over the time, the forest fills with undead animals—random travellers who stumble upon this give the forest its name, the cursed forest, and attach a warning to it.)

Sometimes, Scar can't save Grian's animals. As they don't heal once they're dead—for example, if a bird falls when Grian wakes up, and it breaks its wings? It's more merciful to leave it be. They have a collection of graves like these. Scar carves skulls of the animals into the stone to mark them. Grian sometimes sits there, heart full of apologies and guilt and grief.

I'm going to move on to Mumbo now. And Stiff's idea here is so very interesting! Mumbo is a potion maker. He loves to try things, to tinker, to improve. He likes his craft. But. People don't.

People don't like potion makers. It's seen as a last option. Because the transaction involves trust. Because it's something they don't understand and they can't confirm. They have no way of knowing if the purchased potion actually does what the potion maker claims it does. Does it really heal? Is it a poison? Is it a truth potion? Is it just an overpriced drink that does nothing? Is it something harmful that will force them to come back and buy another potion to fix it?

So people are distrustful of potions. There's no real way to know if what you're getting is what you need. But Mumbo finds them intriguing and it's the one thing he's good at, and he doesn't want to give it up.

Mumbo's curse is hypnotising people, taking control of them in a way where they'll do what he says. It happens when he looks them in the eye. It makes him dizzy.

When Mumbo stumbles upon the forest, he's nervous. He's a travelling potion maker, never welcome anywhere for too long, and there's this scary forest with a terrifying reputation and Mumbo has to pass through.

He's so anxious about it—only to find that two animal-loving idiots live there. And Mumbo pulls himself together and goes to check if they need potions. Fully expecting to be turned away.

They don't turn him away. Scar's bones keep breaking and they could definitely use some potions for easier healing.

It's Grian who begs Mumbo to stay. He begs him to stay for Scar.

And Mumbo stammers an agreement, caught off guard. For the first time in his life, he feels wanted and useful. Appreciated. Trusted, even, on top of that.

They also find use for his hypnotising curse—when Scar's in too much pain, he asks Mumbo to hypnotise him, because it helps numb the pain.

So Mumbo makes his home in a forest that is a little bit weird, a little bit spooky (Scar has a strange sense of humour and leans into the rumours; he decorates the trees with skeletones and bones). But Mumbo figures, he's a little bit weird, too. So maybe that just means he finally fits in somewhere.

Then we have Pearl. Pearl used to be a healer. She helped people when they were hurt or sick, but sometimes she also recognised when people were beyond saving, suggesting "letting them pass on peacefully" (or in other words, "putting them to sleep"). Similar to what happened with Grian, this made some grieving people very unhappy, and led to Pear getting cursed.

Pearl's curse makes her extremely tired, in a way where she can only gain energy from other people. But it causes the other people crash from exhaustion—so she literally puts them to sleep.

She doesn't know how to fix herself or where to go with this. She's aimless, a little bit lost. Alone. Tired. So, so tired from being driven away from everywhere.

Until she reaches the cursed forest. She doesn't expect much. Maybe she'll just pass through. But she is so weary, and she finds houses, and maybe she could rest for a bit?

They find out what she does, and she expects yelling and threats, she expects them to be mad, to tell her to go away and never come back, but— They don't. They don't do any of that.

They look at her, take it in, and they don't send her away.

Instead, Scar begs her to stay. Because Grian needs sleep. Grian needs help sleeping safely. He's been avoiding it, due to the nightmares, but it's edging a limit and Scar is worried about him, and this could help.

So Pearl stays. And she's bewildered and it takes her a while for it all to sink in: that they want her here. That she can maybe help them.

That first nigtht when Scar and Grian spontaneously come over to her, asking if they can take a nap there? She's so startled, because usually people hate that she puts them under, that she can control them and make them pass out like that. But these two just came willingly to her doorstep asking her to do it to them.

She doesn't know what to think that first time.

But they keep coming back.

Later, they make sleepover parties at her house. It's all of them curled up around her, and she's still flabbergasted by the trust, by the way they let her do this.

The fog of exhaustion hanging over her finally starts to relent. And she thinks maybe she can be herself after all. Maybe it's okay to be who she is. Maybe it doesn't actually have to hurt or scare anyone. Maybe she can actually help and be a proper part of this little community they're building here.

Then we have Impulse! Impulse is a devil spawn or a half demon or something like that. He has horns, which gives him away. He's never done anything bad, never intentionally hurt anybody, but being good is not good enough, because people take one look at him and expect him to be evil. So he didn't do anything bad, but he got cursed anyway.

The idea of the curse is to warn people away from him. To "show his true nature" before people have a chance to get tricked. Basically, it distorts the perception of people around him—sort of like hallucinations (auditory, visual, the whole package).

It happens more often than not when Impulse feels strong emotions. It just unfolds in an area around him, and anyone who's near enough gets to experience something personally tailored to their own fears. It's disturbing. It's terrifying. Impulse can't control it.

When he comes to the forest, he doesn't get sent away for what he is (which is the first for him), and he's so scared that they'll send him away because of his curse instead. And it's this building anxiety that actually makes the curse flare out for the first time in the forest.

Impulse scrambles to soothe them, to calm them down, hurriedly explaining through his (and theirs) panic what's happening.

They still don't send him away. They know how it feels to be relentlessly followed by a curse and by hate. They promise him they'll figure it out.

Over time, they mostly learn to recognise where the hallucinations start and end—so that they don't have to always be afraid around him. They also recognise that they happen the most when Impulse is distressed, so whenever things start looking scary, they go and find Impulse to check up on him and make sure that he is okay.

(This is from the discord rambles: imagine them being enveloped in a very dark, disturbing hallucination. and instead of cowering or running away or panicking, they'd search through it, find impulse, and beeline straight to him. gently take hold of him and ask if he is okay. and how can they help)

The hallucinations add a nice flavour to things, because they can trigger other curses—think Scar panicking and breaking a bone, or seeing something and raising a dead creature to defend himself. Think Grian with waking nightmares thrown into the mix. Or him passed out, transformed into a small animal, already defenceless and vulnerable, when everything around him starts distorting into terrifying things.

Also, it's harder to know it's a hallucination when they don't know that Impulse is nearby.

They're still trying to work though it. To be there for each other.

Now, Boatem, right? And this is silly, but listen.

One evening, Impulse tells the others a story about a boat. It's a random silly story. His voice is fond when he says it. Everyone listens intently. (They all like stories.)

Both Grian and Scar like crafting items, and once when they have a sleepless night, they decide to distract themselves with crafting. They think of their new friend, and boom, suddenly a bunch of boats have been made.

They wonder how tall the boats would be if they stacked them on top of each other.

"Would they be taller than Mumbo?"

"Bet."

Others joke that maybe Scar and Grian need a different hobby, because making a pile of boats in the middle of a forest where nobody needds boats is a bit bonkers. (They don't care and make another boat.)

Impulse loves it, because it means they all remembered his story. It's very nice.

Then they all come together to decorate the boats. Grian uses nature magic—flowers and vines and moss. Scar decorates with bones. Mumbo uses his potion skills to stain the wood and make it colourful. Pearl carves into the wood and Impulse draws on it, creating little stories. (Jellie pitches in with her claws and mice offerings.)

====

Now, we do have a lot of different little scenes and ideas for this au. I think one of my favourite ones are the dancing scenes.

Scar used to dance with skeletons when he wanted some comfort. A gentle sway, being held. That kind of thing. But he's also good at dancing overall.

Grian doesn't know how to dance. So Scar teaches him—using a skeleton puppet. Think Grian huffing "When can I dance with you?" and Scar laughing under his breath: "When you stop stepping on the skeleton's feet."

Think of the first time Grian gets his steps right. He beams at Scar and bounces over, all excited, "Now will you dance with me?"

Think of Scar not used to actual soft warm hands on him. Not used to the firmness of human touch, the way it sends sparks across his skin. He's not used to this. It's making his head spin. It's making his knees weak.

Scar, who is expert at dancing, stumbles through his first dance with Grian, helplessly distracted by Grian's touch, by the body under his own hands, by the actual warmth of a living person. By the way it feels to dance with someone who looks back at him, who grins at him, wide and toothy and overjoyed. The way Grian wants to dance with him, not because Scar made him want it. He just does.

Scar has to stop midway through the dance. He feels so overwhelmed.

Grian teases him for stumbling when Scar's the one who's supposed to know how to dance. And Scar admits he doesn't remember the last time he danced with someone actually living.

Grian smiles at him fondly—so gentle and soft—and he suggest they take it down a notch. They can just slow dance.

And that's something Scar used to do with skeletons to self-soothe—he used it for comfort for so long. And now he's being held by Grian. He's no longer alone. There's someone who doesn't shy away from him. Someone willing to hold him gently.

Scar sways with him and he buries in face in Grian's shoulder and sobs as they dance.

===

ANYWAY, that all being said. Art!!

You've probably seen my art of the cursed forest au - with Grian being upset over a dead animal, and Scar coming over to cheer him up. There's little details there—the flowers in Scar's hair were gifted to him by Grian, and they're kept fresh by nature magic. They're made to last. The bone necklace Grian wears is a gift from Scar. He was nervous to give it to him, but death and bones are the only things he knows, so he did it anyway. And Grian wears it happily, and it makes Scar's heart ache—he feels accepted.

Stiffy also made art for this au!! It's Scar dancing with a skeleton and IT'S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING PLEASE GO LOOK AT IT but also before you do, cw bright colours, eye strain. HERE IS THE LINK.

I think that's. Uh. Enough from me for now.

@stiffyck if you want to add anything go ahead <3

[botanyshitposts]

me explaining to my grandma that the turkey tail and golden oyster mushrooms and birds nest fungi growing on her huge backyard tree stump are simply eating the dead wood to return it to the soil and they're cute and colorful and add to the whimsy of her landscaping and are not causing the weeds in other places of the yard or harming her little white dog

[hinamie]

surprise it's yuri!!!in 2024

[optional-royalties]

canaries should stay above ground.

[barghest-arts]

Modern Prometheus.

[sapsolace]

obsessed w these boneheads as of late :]

[stoopidstapler]

SO IVE BEEN GOIN INSANE SINCE THIS TRAILER DROPPED. JUST. SIMON. SIMON. SIMON.

[glitched-starlight]

As Gravity Falls reenters the void, and the inevitably of fanfiction begins to recirculate, there is a comment I fear I must send out to the general public.

As a trans man who gets, like, -1 representation in shows that aren’t explicitly about queer people, I often will latch onto characters that inexplicably have The Trans (TM) written into their bones, which includes Dipper Pines. And, as one might expect, I turn to my silly little A03 account to get my fix of representation and enjoyment of many a trans dilemma. Unfortunately, this is where my qualms get given the spotlight.

This is a generalization, but it seems as though every single godforsaken fic about trans!Dipper (I see this in the Spider-Man fandom a lot too, but that’s a conversation for a different day) he loses all his unhingedness, all his insanity, and is boiled down to a weak and sad little uwu trans boy who can’t handle his own dysphoria and falls apart at every slight inconvenience?

You’re telling me DIPPER, the same man who got called weak one (1) time and then disappeared into the woods for a solid 12 hours and came back half naked and rambling about positive vs toxic masculinity and manotaurs, is going to get misgendered and fall completely and utterly apart? You seriously think he’s going to have a run in with somebody who tries to bully him for being trans and he isn’t going to read them to filth? Are we forgetting that this is the same man who spent a whole episode learning about how to live and let live and then STILL told Pacifica her family was a sham with the mic-drop line of “deal with it”?????

Like good lord, please give this man some credit. I’m not saying he can’t have panic attacks, or trauma, or be treated differently by certain people, but it is the year of our lord and savior 2024 and we are STILL infantilizing trans men in fanon versions of media???

All I’m saying is if Mabel gets to keep her unhinged characteristics, you gotta let Dipper keep his too. Let Dipper punch a transphobe, as a treat.

[kaahmbem]

legend has it that the young witch circe and the once beautiful nymph scylla shared a complicated past...

[zephyrchama]

Yeah, pact commands are powerful and allow you to control the Seven Rules of Hell any time you desire. Pact commands are a little intense though. You can probably get the same outcome by bopping them on the head with a flimsy cardboard paper towel tube.

The great part is that this also works on demons you don't have a pact with, reapers, and other humans (even powerful sorcerers).

The longer your cardboard tube, the more power you wield and the greater your authority becomes. The downside is they can wrestle the tube away from you. But, y'know, until that happens you feel so mighty.

[ylangelegy]

The first thing Jihoon notices when he wakes up is that his neck doesn't hurt.

Dazed, he squints up at the sunlight streaming through a nearby window. It's one of those dreamless naps where you lose all sense of time. He could've been out for minutes, hours.

It takes him another beat to realize that he's in a bed. Not the couch at the studio. Not some corner of the company. A proper bed— crisp white sheets, fluffy pillows.

He groans softly. There's only one person who could be behind all this. And sure enough, your voice reaches him through his haze. "You're awake."

Jihoon mumbles something between 'mhm' and 'sorta'. One of his hands goes to rub at his eyes, like it might somehow will the drowsiness away. He vaguely makes out your figure, seated inches away from him. He has half the mind to ask what you're doing this time. Scrolling through your phone? Reading a book?

Instead, he grouses, "I fell asleep again." His words— gruff around the edges— aren't a question. It's more a statement of a fact.

You hum your confirmation. "It was just a couple of minutes." Then, softer. "You should get some more rest."

Jihoon wants to protest; he really does. A part of him has always felt guilty about this. He already has so little time with you as is, and yet he somehow finds himself squandering it over sleep.

But then you're carding your fingers through his hair and his eyes instinctively flutter close. "Not fair," he exhales. "You don't play fair."

Your hand shakes a little as you laugh.

"Go to sleep, Jihoon-ah," you repeat. "I'll wake you up in a bit."

(You never do, Jihoon thinks. You always say you're going to wake me up and that we'll go out and do something you like, but you always let me sleep in. I'll wake up in the middle of the night with you cuddled in to me— another day that we could've been normal, wasted because I'm perpetually tired.)

"Okay." Jihoon sounds much younger than he really is in that moment. "Okay, good night."

Right before drifting off, he summons up just enough energy to reach for your hand. He thinks he also manages to say I love you.

Jihoon dreams of the view from an airplane window, when the sun is setting over the clouds; a stage during sound check, where twelve other boys make it all worth it; your hand in his, and the quiet way you say I love you back.

[doydoune]

Hazakura Temple, February

[tofixtheshadows]

So I've been thinking lately about how Mithrun is Kabru's dark mirror (more on that another time- it needs its own post), and I thought it interesting that one of their parallels is that they were both cared for by Milsiril, but in opposite directions. She took Kabru in as her foster after he was orphaned and tried to convince him not to become an adventurer. On the flip side, she helped rehabilitate Mithrun specifically so that he could rejoin the Canaries.

And I kept wondering: why?

For Kabru, obviously she loves him a whole lot- despite any other shortcomings in their relationship, I do believe that.

So I get why she tries to convince him not to go dungeoning, and, failing that, at least prepares him as thoroughly as she can.

But why help Mithrun? She used to hate Mithrun, but after realizing what a secretly twisted person he was, she actually thought of him more positively (oh, Milsiril). So it wasn't as if she held the kind of grudge that might motivate her to make his already-depleted life even more miserable by sending him back to the dungeons. And it wasn't that she felt bad for him either, since she didn't visit Mithrun for the first ~20 years of his recovery.

The Adventurer's Bible says that Utaya was the impetus for Mithrun returning to the Canaries, but Milsiril is the one who made the trip to see him and tell him about it.

Why would Milsiril work so hard to get her old coworker back into fighting fit? Why encourage him to return to such a dangerous lifestyle, when she was the one who chose not to mercy-kill him?

That last panel is such a crazy thing to hint at and then never elaborate on. Without it we could have just thought that Milsiril wanted the Canaries' work to continue without her, even if it seemed out of character. I think some people even assume she's just a natural caretaker as a foster mom and handwave it to include nursing Mithrun too. What could Milsiril's suspicious motives be? What does she gain from Mithrun joining the Canaries that isn't an altruistic desire to see dungeons safely sealed? Feeling a sense of responsibility for the work she left behind isn't an ulterior motive.

My theory is: Milsiril, knowing that Mithrun was empty save for the burning desire to face the demon again, wound him up like a clockwork doll and pointed him back at the dungeons.

Hoping that he'd eliminate the biggest threat to Kabru's life, before it was too late for him.

Milsiril the puppetmaster.

[zu-is-here]

<– • –>

[moonpatroclus]

Lucien’s reputation follows him throughout the courts of Prythian, but according to @cauldronblssd , @velidewrites and myself, there’s no reputation more important than being hot as fuck. For Day 6: Reputation of @lucienweekofficial , we’d asked the talented @/kowc0a_ to make those thighs THICK and they’ve had us screaming since the very first sketch.

Thank you @/kowc0a_ for making our vision of Day Court Lucien come to life so beautifully! The sheer amount of details in this piece have us INSANE — just look at the fire wrapped around his arms? His tiny little skirt? The anklets? His reputation really does precede him and all we really want is just ONE chance. Just one. Or two. Maybe three?

[sunnie-angel]

Sunnie!! I am insane over this concept of Jason marveling over how sensitive his partner is... and now I'm thinking about Jason being feral when he returns from patrol and NEEDING to bury his face between their legs. All he wants is to make them feel good. Oh also, breastplay. I know in my heart he likes his mouth occupied <3

Yes! Yes! Like Jason loves fucking his partner, that’s a given. But as soon as he finds out just how sensitive they are? Well his new favourite place is with his head buried between their thighs seeing how many times he can make them come on his tongue, then his fingers, and only then his cock. (He’ll mix up the order sometimes but he’s pretty set in his routine). Also? When your thighs are wrapped around his ears and he can only taste you, when his fingers are occupied with curling just the way you like and pinning you down so you stop squirming too much, Jason can block out the whole world. It’s a particularly handy trick when patrol doesn’t go so well and all he wants is to block out the world by drowning himself in you. On those nights he likes to make it a competition to see just how many more times than last time he can make you come.

Jason has eating you out down to an exact science. He knows when to give you flat broad strokes of his tongue and exactly how much suction on your clit sends you over the edge. How many fingers to give you before the stretch gets overwhelming and he can feel you spasming. Knows exactly how to walk you right up to the edge of orgasm before pulling away and making you swear in frustration. He’ll push you over the cliff’s edge so many times your thighs will be soaked with it and he’ll still know exactly how to keep you begging for more. When your thighs are trembling and you’re riding that knife’s edge of overstimulation and pleasure, that’s when he knows you’re almost ready for his cock. He won’t give it to you yet though, wants to wait until he’s got you pliant and begging to be fucked even though you were squealing about it being all too much moments ago.

No, what he does next is become gentle. Moves up your body to mouth at your breasts. His chin is obscenely wet, smears of your slick making your breasts shine from where he devours them. Takes his time with biting and sucking at each breast, catching a nipple between his teeth before soothing the sting with a drag of his tongue. Kneading the other breast with a large scarred hand so it doesn’t feel lonely. All the while he’s sliding his cock through the mess you’ve made between your thighs, the tip just catching but not going in any further. Slow maddening strokes a background to the attention he’s paying your chest but driving you mad all the same.

Finally, finally when you’re coming apart at the seams pleading with him to finally make you full, does he relent. Sucking hickies into the soft flesh of your breast he’ll slide in. And because he knows you so well, he’ll have you right where he wants you. Uncertain of if you want to pull him closer or push him away. The scrape of teeth and the pleasure pain of being stretched full almost too much to process. Punched out breaths turning to high pitched whines as you cling to him, cradle his head to your chest and let him take control of you pleasure until there’s stars behind your eyelids and you can’t feel anything beyond Jason.

Jason takes a lot of pleasure in just how sensitive you are after you’ve come for him too. He enjoys how even the gentlest featherlight stroke of your thigh sets you twitching. How the aloe gel he rubs into your sore breasts makes you murmur and squirm at the sensation. Even when the main event is over, there’s a thousand ways for Jason to play with your sensitivity and he’s not in the habit of denying himself your pleasure.