#almost a fantasy at this point

[vivitalks]

best types of brennan NPC

autism haver

stoner

frat bro who has unlearned hypermasculinity so hard that he's gone 100% the opposite direction about it

anticapitalist proletarian

the most insane person you've ever met

[ewwww-what]

Floor time.

[ntls-24722]

What if Jurassic Park was Music Man park

~@monty-glasses-roxy

jurassic park if it was actually Worth A Damn

(/J. /J. /J . DONT FUCKING KILL ME CULTURED PEOPLE)

all the music man aus i have appear in the jurassic world movies as the hybrids/bioengineered dinos. indominous rex is just comet valero

[webvein]

Dragon design commission!

[ninuev]

Can we talk about how Zack's face lights up the moment he hears Aerith?????

Like, I NEED what they have they are so cute I CAN'T-

I hate this game.

[arson-09]

I just don’t buy the whole “hes too hot to ignore” schtick in these romantasy books it just gets BORING like you can always ignore a man!! its always the best option!!

[deathberi]

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH (2024)

[natjennie]

what's weird about the fantasy high drama is that like. it seems to me like people forget d&d is primarily a) a game you play with your friends and also b) luck based.

I mean it's fine to say that "nothing felt like a challenge" and "they just dominated everything and there weren't any stakes" but like. it's not as if they weren't up against huge threats. they lost the mall fight. the last stand was an onslaught of enemies. they fought a dozen dragons from an airship. the fights were hard. they're just really good. they've had very good dice luck in general this season and are all very high level and highly specialized. fig is gonna beat deception and performance checks. adaine's gonna figure out the arcana. riz is gonna succeed investigations. like. for some reason their strategical competence and wisely picked abilities are. a downside? a disappointment?

the thing about d&d that you need to remember is it's first and foremost a game. it's mostly random and it takes you down weird paths and you're playing to have fun with your friends. the dice are literally telling the story that it's their time, it's their year. they've struggled enough. they've trained enough. they're good at what they do. and in my post about the academic/domestic/personal stressors being the focus, d&d doesn't have any other system to work them out than rolling different skills. that's what d&d is. brennan set specific challenge levels for different tasks and the players strategized to prioritize which abilities they were strongest in. the challenges were there. and the players rose to them. they were both smart in their delegation of responsibilities and lucky with their dice rolls. of which, both are foundations of d&d.

don't mistake them being good players and getting lucky with there being no hardship. just because they smashed through the wall, that doesn't mean the wall wasn't strong. they were just stronger.

[nabaath-areng]

Not a yes 'no'

[xskyll]

Izuku is like a chinchilla; you can put things in his hands and he’ll hold them (provided he’s properly distracted).

Prev / Next

First

[hers-underwraps]

Real footage of me trying to not crash out after people are using me in their arguments to perpetuate AnB Dashi slander

[shitpostingkats]

I think it was… Penny Parker of Snapcube who I first saw pointing out the comparison between Rebirth’s ending and the fix-it fics and game mods that save Aerith from being killed in the temple. For the game mods in particular because Aerith doesn’t exist on the other discs she has to stay behind. Even if you pretend she lives it leaves a necessary hole in the narrative: she has to go pray, or something has to happen so that the story can keep moving. It breaks apart if she’s still in the picture.

He still dies. She still dies. That’s how the story goes.

And it makes me INSAAAAAAAAAAANE

[soulshards]

#MiqoMarch2025 13: Wonder

"Hey, Dee? Y'ever wonder what life would be like if you took a different path?" "...no point dwellin' on it now, lad."

[heliosynchronisity]

so I was thinking about themmmm and well i uh.. i did it. I found every (decent enough to post) doodle of my OC's Aestereoth and Ninys from 2020 all the way through to 2022 (plus a bonus one from today) and compiled them into THIS!

THE ULTIMATE NINAES COMPENDIUM!!! 2025 edition!!!

for context, because i havent posted abt these guys in years and even irl only like 2 ppl know anything about them. Blonde bitch is Aestereoth Cain (he/him) an Aasimar wizard professor teaching conjuration. Ninys (they/them, name pronounced like minus) is a feyborn elf, student of Aestereoth before becoming his apprentice (like a phd student) while uncovering forbidden magics 👀

anywho enjoy

thats it :] thats my babies. I've also started working on their story again too. Rewriting it to make a bit more sense. Will I still be working on it in a months time? who knows but im just happy to see and think about and draw these two :>

[fellamarsh]

another thing i've been trying to do recently is read more self-published stuff. "but fell," you say, "you're a self-published author. surely you've been reading self-published stuff all along" and then i laugh for so long in response we both become uncomfortable.

see, the fear (which has for a long time been killing my mind) that i'll read other self-published stuff and find out that it's so much better than mine that i might as well stop writing forever kept me from doing that basically ever. i have a hard time not unfavorably comparing my work to others and had convinced myself i was being smart by withholding an avenue of de-motivation (reader: i was not being smart). it also doesn't help that i'm pretty low income and have a hard time spending money on books i haven't already read, and that self-published stuff isn't always available at the library---but really a lot of it was just me being a coward. which i'm working on. i could talk about how this particular cowardice is Very Silly, but i think enough has been said about it on writeblr and in the Writing Space in general that i don't feel the need to (though i will if anyone wants me to).

instead, i wanna talk about the self-published things i have read in the past few months and ask about the self-published things you love!

so: what happened was i got real sick, and while i was real sick i (naturally) read over 200,000 words of ace attorney fan fiction in the span of a few days. eventually i got bored of it (and also maybe annoyed at how people were characterizing some of my guys), but i still wanted to read something gay and romantic and nice, something i knew was gonna end happily, which isn't my typical fare.

now you may be saying (having gotten over all the uncomfortable laughter from earlier) "fell, you write gay romance. what do you mean that's not your typical fare?" listen. until a couple months ago i hadn't read a cut and dry romance novel since before i finished college. for context: i graduated in 2015. i know it doesn't make sense. i'm a guy who doesn't make sense.

but in this case it worked to my advantage. not the not making sense thing, but the not having read Published Romance in 1000 years thing. I didn't know where to start. I was very skeptical of everything the library had Available Now in the Gay Fantasy Romance category. what if it was all bad and also not good?

and then i scrolled past the familiar cover of our very own @ashen-crest's A Rival Most Vial.

now this was comfortable territory! this was a novel by a very nice writeblr person whose posts i enjoy! i already loosely knew the plot, i was familiar with the characters, i knew the names of things like rosemond street and the griffin's claw and that ambrose had blue hair and that at the end of it all there would definitely be Boyfriends. i didn't have to worry that this would be bad! i only had to worry that it would be really good!

but i wasn't worried about that, because i was officially Not Writing at the time, and because why the hell hadn't i read this book yet Ash literally emailed me some very kind words last year when my cat died??

Y'all, I devoured ARMV. If you haven't read it yet---especially if cozy fantasy is more your thing than it is mine---you should check it out Immediately. It was fun! It was heartwarming! It was sweet and earnest and confident! I was delighted to find it was occasionally hot! Ambrose and Eli snuggled up into my sick exhausted heart and found a permanent little place there. (Especially Ambrose. I have such a thing for Stiff Guys who Kind of Suck for Tragic Backstory Reasons and are So So Lonely They Don't Even Realize It. gawd)

(And a very small part of my brain spent the whole time wondering why I had been so afraid to really engage with the work my community is doing. The community that I'm in. The one I'm a part of. Why?! Maybe more on that later.)

But from there the curse was broken! I immediately devoured @stjohnstarling's What Manner of Man in a similar sort of frenzy (and hooooly shit guys am I excited for the expanded, finalized version to come out at the end of next month!) and started digging into @lurinatftbn's The Flower that Bloomed Nowhere (which I can already tell is going to be an All Time Favorite).

And now I want to ask you what your favorite self-published books are so that I can read them, too, but I think I will in another post that doesn't dedicate so much space to talking about my various and sundry Issues and isn't Terminally Long

[avirael]

Gridania AU Part 02

So many new impression, lively chatter and laughter, a whole different landscape with so much green. It was all so amazing! And how exciting the airship flight had been! It was the coolest thing he had ever done!

U’laqa loved journeys like this. Sadly his father rarely went on any journeys and even more rarely he allowed him to come along. So it indeed had been quite a special occasion when U’odh had not only invited U’laqa’s mother but also their oldest son to accompany him on a trip to Gridania to visit one of his friends from his adventuring days.

All his younger siblings had stayed behind at home taken care of by the other women but U’laqa had been allowed to join them on their trip. He truly was his father’s favourite child and often enough his bold behaviour suggested that he was well aware of that fact. Or maybe this bold behaviour was why his father was so fond of him in the first place.

U’laqa’s mother had her hands full not only with keeping his impatience at bay on their journey first to Ul’dah and then to Gridania but now also with preventing him from running off and exploring the city on his own. If she let him he would long have been gone without hesitation or the slightest bit of worry regarding this entirely unfamiliar place. The feisty little Miqo’te boy would not spend the tiniest thought on how he would find his parents again or that they might worry for him.

And of course so it had happened that he had slipped away unnoticed in the crowd when his parents had been busy talking to a merchant. U’laqa planned to be back before they ever realised he had been gone, he just wanted to inspect a few shop displays in the closer vicinity. All of the shops were so interesting! Not as impressive as the market in Ul’dah had been that one time father had taken him to the city but instead here he saw a lot of things he had never seen before.

He had not expected however that one of these curious sights would be a crying child cowering in an empty corner between two shops. And yet he paused as he tiptoed around the crowd of people and suddenly heard an almost silent whimper. Curiously he tilted his head at the seemingly very distressed child. It was a Miqo’te just like him, so much was obvious because of the red-furred ears on the kid’s head. The kid’s face however was partially covered by his arms and strands of shoulder-length red hair.

Carefully U’laqa stepped closer and knelt down.

“Hello?”

The unfamiliar voice startled A’viloh. Almost fearfully he looked up. Was someone here to yell at him again just like the tall angry man with the crates had? Or was he maybe going to get stolen? He remembered his older sister had one evening told her family about how lately a lot of things got stolen on Gridania’s markets. Maybe that included small Miqo’te children too?

But no, the person kneeling in front of him was just another small boy, another Miqo’te even. Curiously he looked at A’viloh with big, golden eyes.

“Are you alright?”, the boy asked.

A’viloh had been so surprised to be spoken to that for a second he even had forgotten to cry. But now, reminded of his cruel fate, the tears started to roll down his cheeks again while he desperately shook his head.

“Now, now… don’t cry.”, the blonde child said and patted A’viloh on the shoulder. “Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help you.”

But A���viloh continued to cry nonetheless.

“I… I got… lost…”, came out in small gasps between his sobs.

“Oh!”, the blonde boys ears shot up. “Are you looking for your parents?”

Attentively he turned this way and that as if he was looking for something.

“They’re not here.”, A’viloh explained silently but the other boy shook his head. “No, no. I am looking for mine.”

That was strange enough for A’viloh to stop crying for a moment. “You mean you are lost too?”

“Nooo.. They are… somewhere over there! Should we look for yours? I can take you home!”, he offered with incredible self-confident while in reality he knew nothing about this city.

A’viloh’s eyes got all wide and hopeful as he stared at the other boy.

“You can??”

“Sure! Where do you live?”

As quickly as his hopes had gotten up, as quickly they sank again. With another long sob he cried, “I don’t remember…”

“Shhh, it’s alright.”, he tried to calm him down but it was all in vain. Carefully U’laqa crawled closer and put his arms around the crying boy in a hug. “Please stop crying.”

“But I want to go home to my mommy…”, he wailed. A’viloh had long decided that his brother was not coming to look for him. He probably had long finished his tasks and went to play with his friends. Only Azeyma knew when his parents would even notice he was gone.

The red-haired boy truly was a miserable sight and U’laqa felt sorry for him. Just as he pondered how he could help him, he noticed a small daisy flower, half-slipped out of the crying boys hair and barely hanging on.

“Ah, hold still.”, he said and carefully reached out to pluck the flower from the dishevelled red strands. “You almost lost that.”

“My flower!”, A’viloh cried out, seeing the blossom in its slightly distressed state.

“Let me help…”, Laqa mumbled as he placed the fragile little plant back between a few strands next to the boy’s ear. “There, it's really pretty!”, he said in an attemp to cheer the kid up but also because he never had seen such a flower before.

“Thank you!”, A’viloh said with the hint of a smile returning to his face. “Miss Fufucha gave it to me. She grows hundreds of pretty flowers at the guild!”

“We have almost none where I live…”, the blonde boy said, his ears slightly drooped. “The closest thing I have is this!”, he then announced and fished out a leather string from beneath his shirt. On the black cord was a single white stone in a particular shape. “I found it at home. Mom says it’s called desert rose because it looks like a flower turned to stone.”

“Oooh!”, A’viloh marvelled at it, fascinated by the unfamiliar sight. He was quite sure if it really looked like an flower but it was very interesting nonetheless. A’viloh wanted to ask about the boy's home but but the other boy was quickly distracted. Speaking of his mother seemed to have given him a new thought.

“Oh! I have an idea!”, he exclaimed. “Maybe my parents can help you! My mother is our best huntress! And Father knows everything! They sure will know a way to find your parents!”

A’viloh did not look convinced at all but he still was distracted enough to not protest when U’laqa just grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. Determined he manoeuvred through the crowd and A’viloh had no choice but to stumble after him. Luckily they did not run far before they came to a halt in front of a shop. Thoughtfully the blonde boy knitted his brows and turned this way and that.

“I am sure they were here…”

A’viloh did not like this at all. This was all no use. Probably now they were both lost and neither of them would ever get back home again…

“Laqa!”, a loud, deep voice suddenly called out.

Both boys jumped in surprised and turned towards where the voice had come from.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay close!?”, a stern looking man scolded as he stepped closer. A’viloh was not even the person being scolded and yet he felt guilty. The blonde boy however acted as if he had not heard anything at all. Instead he ran towards the woman next to the man, took her hand and gestured towards A’viloh.

“Father, mother! Look, I found someone! Can you help him?”

“Help him?”, the man echoed as if he had not quite understood.

“He’s lost!”, the boy explained and as if to confirm this A’viloh nodded weakly and began to cry again.

“Oh, you poor thing…”, the woman, who seemed to be the lively boy’s mother, said in a soothing voice and knelt down in front of him. “What is your name?”

A bit sceptically A’viloh eyed her. He did not particularly like strangers but this woman had a friendly smile. “A’viloh…”, he whispered.

“Hello, A’viloh. My name is U’lani.”, she introduced herself in a very friendly manner. “Can you tell me what happened? Or where your parents might be?”

Under tears A’viloh stammered out his story, maybe a little more detailed than was strictly necessary, hoping that this woman maybe knew how to find his mother.

“Hmm…”, she sounded thoughtful. “And you really have no idea where your house might be?”

He shook his head and continued to look miserable.

The blonde boy on the other hand seemed to have yet another idea.

“If we can’t find his home, can we keep him then? He could come home with us! Maybe we could be friends!”

A’viloh’s heart sank. Was he going to get stolen after all?

The boy’s parents laughed. The woman more silently but the man very loudly. A’viloh did not at all understand what was so funny. This was horrible! Bitterly he started to wail again, much to the man’s annoyance it seemed.

“Will he finally stop crying? He seems a bit too old for that anyway…”

“Odh!”, the woman scolded sternly, making him grimace, but otherwise ignored his comment and focused on A’viloh instead.

“Oh! Shhh… I am sorry, it was a joke of course.”, she said, her voice suddenly very soothing, and reached out for him, gently wiping his tears away. “Don’t cry, A’viloh. We will take you back to your mother.”

“But-”, the blonde boy wanted to protest but his mother did not let him.

“No! Of course we cannot keep him, he is a little boy and not a stray dog, Laqa!”, she interrupted in a quite serious but still kind tone. “His family will already dearly miss him for sure. How do you think his mother will feel if we don’t bring him back home?”

Guiltily the boy looked down and muttered. “Probably very sad…”

“See!…”, she replied and then waraped her arms around A’viloh and picked him up. At first he did not really like to be picked up by this unfamiliar woman but she smelled nicely and her warm hand soothingly running in circles on his back helped him calm down quickly.

“You said your mother has a flower shop?”, she asked and he nodded. “Maybe we can find it if we ask around?”

“We are going to be late, Lani.”, the man who was the blonde boy’s father said. “We should just give him to one of the guards here, they should take him home.”

The woman made a disapproving face but before she could say anything the blonde boy chipped in again, looking at his father with his hand confidently placed on his hips and the same stern expression as his mother. “No! Mom is right!”

As if to agree the woman nodded.

“Look at him, Odh. How scared he is. We should really help him. The others will certainly understand if we are late. You know this place better than me, don’t you have any idea where we might need to go?”

The man grumbled for a moment but then seemed to relent. “I don’t know about any flower shops but I know more or less where the botanists’ guild is.”

At the mention of this word A’viloh’s ears shot up. “The botanists’ guild! Miss Fufucha works there! It is close to our home!”

“See?”, the friendly woman said. “We should go that way then.”

“But it’s not at all the direction-“, the man wanted to protest but A’viloh was already pleading to the woman. “Please, I want to go there. Can you take me there, please?”

U’lani looked at U’odh with a daring smile.

“You cannot disappoint someone who asks so nicely, right?”

He still seemed unhappy as he shook his head in resignation. “Fine… that way.”

The woman put A’viloh back down and together they set off in the given direction. The man leading the way with urgent steps, the blonde boy clasping A’viloh’s left hand while always pulling a few steps ahead trying to stay close to his father, while the friendly woman held his other hand. Maybe he would find his way home after all.

***

Oh, what a horrible day it was for A’vett.

First he had to take care of his mother’s deliveries and then he had to take care of his little brother too. To make things worse A’viloh had decided to go missing, a fact A’vett only had noticed once he had arrived at the Carline Canopy. Why was his little brother always so silent and inconspicuous? Could he not have said anything before going missing? That would have saved A’vett a lot of trouble.

He considered going back the way he had come but at least from the inn to the aetheryte square his little brother was nowhere to be seen. That only left A’vett with two option. First, walk all the way back home and hope that A’viloh was either there or would show up somewhere along the way. But if he wasn’t, what would his mother say? She would certainly be very sad and disappointed with him…

The second option was going to his father. The carpenters’ guild was right here after all. But wouldn’t he get scolded? Sure, his father never got angry and even when A’vett had gotten in trouble he always had remained calm and patient. But then again, A’vett had never lost his little brother before…

Then he remembered there was a third option and started to sprint down the path to the west. Towards the White Wolf Gate, where his older sister was working today. She was part of the city guard, she certainly would know what to do! Together they would find A’viloh before anyone else noticed that he had lost him.

Or so he had thought.

Tehmi at least had not been mad with him. But maybe that only had been because she was so worried about A’viloh. However instead of helping him search and solve this dilemma before their parents noticed, her first idea was to go to the carpenters’ guild and see if A’viloh was with their father. Which he wasn’t however and A’vanoh after hearing the news had immediately dropped what he was doing. He too did not seem angry but again that perhaps was just because he was so worried.

Together they decided that checking back at home before aimlessly running through the city was the smartest thing to do. Maybe A’viloh had long returned there and all of this worry was unnecessary. But of course he was not at home either. And oh, how distraught his mother had looked hearing what had happened. A’vett certainly felt very bad about all this trouble by now.

Nervously they stood together and planned how to best split up to search for him. Tahja would wait at home in case he returned on his own, Vett would go back to the botanists’ guild, Tehmi would go around the northern parts of town and to the opposite end of the market place in case he went the wrong way, and Vanoh back towards the aetheryte square searching the area around there to then meet Tehmi at the markets from that side.

“Vett!”, his father demanded as calmly as he could, placing his hands on his son’s shoulders. “Think! We’re exactly have you last seen him?”

“I don’t know, somewhere at the markets I think… I am so sorry.”, the boy pleaded his gaze and ears dropped low together with his guilty conscience.

But his mother objected. “It’s not your fault, monkey. I should not have sent you two out alone.” Tears welled up in her eyes as she hugged the small baby on her arms a bit closer. “By Azeyma, this is all my fault.”

“We need to stay calm now.”, A’tehmi demanded while putting an arm around her mother. “I am sure we will find him. I will contact all the guards across town and if they all keep an eye out he will be back home in no time.”

Everyone nodded silently, busy with worry.

Then a miracle happened.

“Mommy!”, a soft, familiar voice called.

Everyone turned around to see a group of people coming closer out of the direction of the markets. At first it looked like an ordinary Miqo’te family: a man, a woman and two children. But one of them did not quite match and in fact it was A’viloh! When he caught sight of his family gathered in front of the house he quickly let go of the unfamiliar Miqo’te woman’s hand and happily ran towards his mother.

A’tahja gave the baby in her arms to A’tehmi and knelt down to embrace her son as tightly as she could.

“There you are!”, she sobbed and then pulled back to cup his face between her hands and press a kiss to his forehead. “Thank Azeyma you are safe!”

“We found him alone and crying at the market.”, a woman with long white hair explained and stepped closer. “I am glad to see him safely returned to his family.”

A’tahja was so grateful she could not stop herself from hugging this woman although she was a complete stranger. “Thank you! Thank you so much! I don’t know how I could ever repay this kindness!”

“Maybe try to keep a better eye on him next time…”, the man beside the woman grumbled.

It seemed ungrateful to object against the people who had brought their son home but nonetheless A’vanoh and the other man glared at each other for a moment.

Meanwhile U’lani made a deflecting gesture. “I apologize for his bluntness.”, she offered and proceeded to coo at the small baby that started to get whiny again as A’tehmi returned her to her mother. For a short while they talked about the small baby girl and probably would have kept talking for much longer if not for U’odh.

“We really should go.”, he interjected gruffly as his patience had seemingly been used up.

“Can we at least invite you for lunch as a way to say our thanks? I think that’s the least we can do…”, A’tahja offered, trying to convince the grumpy man not to leave yet. Seeing other Miqo’te that weren't Keepers of the moon was a rarity in Gridania and she would have loved to talk a bit more with them and to properly thank them for bringing A'viloh home.

Hoewever the man’s still sour face suggested it was not possible to appease him.

“We are already way too late due to this unplanned detour.”, he huffed.

The white haired woman smiled apologetically and took A’tahja’s hands in hers.

“Excuse his manners. But I fear he is right, as much as I would love to accept your invitation, we really should be going.”

“Wait!”, A’viloh chirped. Currently he clung to his mother’s leg but now he let go and stepped forward to the blonde boy impatiently standing a step behind his mother. The conversation apparently by now had become boring to him but A'viloh's small yell had made him snap back to attention. Curiously the boy watched as A’viloh reached for the flower in his hair and then held it out for him to take. “You can have this. Thank you for helping me.”

“Oh!”, U’laqa was surprised by the sudden gift. Carefully he took the daisy from A’viloh’s hand and looked at it with a smile. “Thank you!”

Then he seemed a bit thoughtful for a moment, before he reached for the leather string around his neck and pulled it over his head. “Then that’s for you!”

“For me? Really?”, A’viloh gasped staring at the rose-like stone dangling from the cord. The blonde Miqo’te boy nodded and stretched out his arms to put the necklace around A’viloh’s neck.

A’viloh looked speechless, his eyes almost a little teary again but a happy smile on his face. “Thank you so much.”

“Come on, we have to go!”, his father called, so U’laqa tightly hugged dumbfounded A’viloh before waving one last time and running towards his father. Equally so his mother said her goodbyes while A’viloh’s parents offered their thanks one last time. Happily the boys waved at each other until they lost sight of each other as the small family vanished around the next corner.

And while Laqa walked away, begging his mother to put the daisy in his hair just like A’viloh had worn it, the small red-haired Miqo’te stayed behind with his family turning the desert rose pendant between his fingers, eyes sparkling with fascination.