#also hm

[turrondeluxe]

I just wanted to warn you about Twitter/X new policy that gives them the right to use art/anything you post to train ai.

https://www.tumblr.com/gebranntgebrannt/729384666852999168?source=share

i think ive answered this before but answering again ! im aware! unfortunately twitter is not the only social that works with ai, but its understandable that a lot of artists do not wish to post in that social anymore

[cass1x1]

“  your bandages— you’re bleeding through them.  ” lian&micah!

@sangre um y'know the usual triggers here for them apply but also like specifically blood, violence, injuries...

Lian's hands reached up to her side, as though she had forgotten which injuries there were, as though she did not feel the warm, sticky feeling creeping up her shirt. Blood liked to soak into fabrics. She pressed her hand there, and it came back slightly sticky too. Not good. She would need to change the bandages sooner rather than later. "Yeah," she admitted, "I guess I am."

"Are you--" Micah's voice was different when he was worried, she was learning. Clipped, but also nasal. She did not much care for it, in comparison to their normal tone. Perhaps she should prevent them from worrying. The thought was distant. Her thoughts were increasingly distant as the blood loss seemed to hit her. "Shouldn't we call a hospital or--"

"No," she interrupted, a little too fast. Micah straightened at that, his clear eyes boring into her, not unlike the blade that caused the bleeding out her side. He wanted answers. Having none, she offered a half-truth in their place. "I don't have insurance so...no hospitals."

Their eyes flicked to her side, and she pressed her hand harder against the spot. It hurt, but she hoped it would hide it from their sight until she could figure out what to say. Lian had noticed some...oddities about herself, but no one else had ever seen the evidence before. Micah did because they were, irritatingly at the moment, a more observant roommate. "Lian, are you sure?"

There were so few things in the world Lian believed it was worthwhile to lie about. She was as un-self-conscious as they come, wholly indifferent to what other people thought of her, and narcissistic enough to enjoy telling anyone just about any thought that popped into her head. Filters were not part of her natural skills. So it was odd that her instinct here was to hide the gash away from Micah entirely. She only wished she'd worn something that would've covered it in the first place.

"It's fine," she said, though her voice was starting to sound weak even to her. "It's really worse than it looks so I'll just--" Her mind couldn't seem to hold on to the sentence long enough to find an answer. Instead, her free hand came up to brace against the nearest thing--a table--and hope that the wave of nausea hitting her wasn't somehow visible.

This was all, apparently, so unconvincing that it had the opposite effect on Micah. Micah, who was so her opposite, shy where she was brash, contemplative where she was impulsive. It surprised her that he was so concerned because it was exactly what she would do. Not her opposite in all ways, then. He reached under her to steady her, though she couldn't help but distantly notice his hand stayed clear of the blood. Squeamish, maybe. Or courteous. Either way.

He said nothing to her, perhaps recognizing that she would want to argue. Instead, he carefully walked her to her room, easing her onto the edge of her bed. "I am okay," she tried to protest. "Just need to wait until it heals. It always--"

Micah turned to face her again. His eyes were so clear, so crisply blue, that for a moment, she felt crisp. Clear. Not as sluggish as she had a moment before. "What do you mean always?"

Lian shook her head. She should not have said that. Should have just asked him for help re-wrapping herself. Or, better yet, should not have gotten herself stabbed in a seedy alley. That would have been a better solution. "'s not important."

More than anything else, that seemed to worry them. He came back to her, right between her legs, and squatted down low. If her mind were working properly, she would've had some flirtatious crack for them there, but she felt oddly transfixed by their stare. Their eyes seemed to be anchoring her at the moment, and she had to be a little grateful for that. "Lian, if you're--if there's something you're not telling me... You can trust me."

She could. She knew she could. That had always been true, even when they first met. Micah was incapable of malice, she was pretty sure. "I--" But what could she say about this? That the few times things had looked grim for her, she had pulled through? That when it would take a miracle for them to survive, the miracle always seems to come? "I know."

He stared at her for a minute longer, until one of the two of them could not stand it anymore, and then they reached up and gently--painfully gently--pulled her shirt up. "Let me see. I think we have something in the first aid that..."

Since the moment she got home, Lian had been the one trailing off, the one losing her train of thought. But now, it seemed, Micah was too. They eyed the gauze-covered gash at her side, and the words seemed to die in their throat. Their eyes, which had seemed so bright a moment ago, darkened. Or...hm. It was hard to put her finger on the right word. They became different, and she knew she did not have enough left in her system to put her finger on how. Only that it was like the wrong side of wanting, and it made her strangely jealous.

They reached up, and Lian couldn't think of what they might do next. Stick their finger in it? Cover it? Pull the bandages back to reveal the hole? She swallowed, not so much afraid as weary of what was to come. But when his fingers made the barest contact with the wet, sticky gauze, he seemed to come back to himself. He shook his head, and scrambled back, horrified as Lian had thought he ought to be.

"I--" His voice sounded raspy, as though it had gone unused for some time. Had he sounded like that before? No, she remembered noticing his voice before. It was...it was...memory was hard. She needed to sleep. Rest. Let whatever strangeness exited to heal her do its job. "I'm gonna get the first aid kit. Stay there." As though she had the strength to stand. She gave what she hoped was a nod, and then braced her arms against the bed to hold herself up, certain if she fell back she'd stain the sheets and ruin them forever.

[shadowtraveled]

"mithrun is the only real monsterfucker in dungeon meshi" is objectively the funniest bit you can get out of his everything, but in all seriousness i think his attraction to his love interest is deliberately overstated—and that makes sense, because romantic jealousy is a classic and digestible motive, which is explicitly what kabru was aiming for in condensing mithrun's backstory, and also because until chapter 94, mithrun wasn't willing to admit to the true nature of his desires.

but because romantic envy is both classic and digestible, it probably isn’t a unique enough or complicated enough desire to tempt a demon’s appetite. mithrun’s wish, as far as we can figure from kabru’s reduced retelling, was to have a life in which he had never become one of the canaries, and that carries like 3857 implications and desires within it. that’s delicious. his love interest acts as sort of a red herring to his motivation for making it, though. (side note: i'm saying "love interest" here because, keeping in mind that i barely speak japanese on a good day anymore, "想い人" is something i'd usually take as just kind of an old-fashioned and romantic way to refer to a lover, but in context i wonder if both the connotation of yearning and the vagueness are intentional, and i think this phrasing gets those aspects of it more effectively. anyway.)

mithrun considered his love interest to be untrustworthy. there was a minute where i thought that comment might be about a similar-looking elf (yugin, one of his squad members), but comparing the two…

the "sketchy" arrow is definitely referring to the elf we know as his love interest—the bangs go toward her right, she only has the one forehead ornament, and, most notably, her ears aren't notched.

every time she’s given a full-body depiction in his dungeon, she’s drawn as a chimera, with the body of a snake from the waist down. (side note: the “what if a dungeon has chimeras before reaching level 4?”/“then the dungeon lord is unstable” exchange just being mithrun grilling his past self alive is so funny. he’s so. but anyway) there are a couple things about this.

first, the snake part of the chimera appears to be modeled after some species of coral snake mimic

which, in the biology-for-fun manga, i… doubt is a coincidence, especially with the added context of the “untrustworthy” comment. the dungeon’s conjured illusion of mithrun’s love interest was a harmless copycat of a venomous original. for whatever reason, he felt this person was a threat and made up a "safe" version of her to be in a relationship with, and while it’s definitely possible to be attracted to or even love someone you find to be toxic and/or intimidating, when you take that into consideration alongside the configuration of her body, you get some interesting implications.

which brings us to our second point: if we assume that mithrun was not in fact fucking a snake, then sexual attraction, at least, was so far removed from his idea of a relationship with this person that he did not even bother to keep her dungeon copy human enough to maintain the illusion of the option of a sexual relationship. this is somewhat echoed in the depictions of their interactions, which also imply a frankly unexpected romantic distance. she kisses his cheek and he doesn't seem to react; she's at the edge of a narrow bed with only one set of pillows, on top of his blankets while he's underneath them.

the kiss is particularly interesting because it seems to contrast the text. kabru's narration tells us this was everything mithrun could have asked for, but mithrun is there looking unreadable to pensive, likely because this is right before the panel that makes it clear things in the dungeon are beginning to go wrong.

walking through this backwards for a minute, we have the physical barrier of his bedding and the spatial separation inherent in a bed made for one person, the emotional barrier of his mounting anxiety getting in the way of his ability to enjoy the affection he sought, and... the snake, which historically carries the connotation of temptation, yes, but also mistrust, barring physical intimacy. okay. ok. if a dungeon reflects the mentality of its lord, all of this might suggest that mithrun was not able to have any real desire for a relationship with this person. his unwillingness to be vulnerable or let another person in was insurmountable. but in that case, why was she such a focal point that she remained to the end, after his dungeon had stopped creating iterations of his friends to come and visit him? why would he get so upset over her meeting with his brother that he became lord of a dungeon about it?

well. mithrun's brother was also interested in her, probably genuinely. and mithrun had to win.

you have an older brother who your parents completely ignore, probably in part because he is chronically ill/disabled and almost definitely in part because he received a ton of recessive traits that resulted in rumors that he was an illegitimate child. you are aware, most likely because those same parents fucking told you, that you actually are an illegitimate child. but they keep you around because you had the good fortune of looking just like your mother. what can that possibly teach you but that you, like your brother, are disposable?

it's utterly unsurprising that mithrun, under these circumstances, developed a pathological need to be better than everyone around him. people don't keep you otherwise. i'd argue this is also why he says he looked down on everyone he knew while milsiril claims his dungeon reeked of feelings of inferiority—he sought out people's worst traits and prioritized them in his mind to protect his already extremely fragile sense of self-worth, and all the while he tried to be as likable and high-performing as he possibly could be. his parents disposed of him anyway, but even then he tried to keep up the performance. he was kind to everyone. he never once lost to a dungeon.

when he saw his "love interest" meeting up with his brother, what he saw was himself being replaced by a person his parents had always treated as worthless, and if that was what they thought of the child they'd kept, what value could anyone possibly see in the bastard they'd given away to die? mithrun and kabru tell the story like he wanted to win this unnamed elf's heart, but it was never about being with her. it was about cementing his worth, proving that he didn't deserve to be thrown away.

and so it's particularly cruel that his demon discarded him, too. but maybe it's also particularly gentle that, in the end, there was someone who refused to even consider giving up on him.

kui laid it out in three panels better than i could hope to.

yeah. it's love. you wanted to be loved, even when the only way you were able to understand it was through the desire to be wanted, and you wanted that so badly that the idea of being consumed felt like the promise of finally mattering to someone.

[waveoftheocean]

late and very much still a wip but happy superbat week day 4: on a case/undercover!

[ssalballoon]

Mystra showed him the secrets beneath the veils. The gossamer veils first, draped across the Weave. The delicate veils next, draped across her body. 'Chosen One' she whispered, as she slipped them off completely.

poor gale :'(

- the dialogue is from ea gale's explanation about his folly

- i kinda like that she ended up looking like a mother-of-pearl inlay lacquerware!

- oh this was a subconscious choice, but Gale is sitting in seiza which is a posture for showing respect especially to elders. it's also known to be a painful position to sit in for extended periods of time, which is why it was sometimes used as a method of (morally dubious) punishment. however, experienced people can maintain this posture for much longer. food for thought :-)

- (edit: deleted this point bcs it didn't really make sense + detracted from the art a little;;)

[infernal-lamb]

Searching your eyes for the saint is an act of futility

something that's just been on my mind recently!

[puttingwingsonwords]

Dracula scrambling around the castle pretending to be his own servants is so important in showing that aside from being a super powerful evil vampire-sorcerer he is also a huge loser

[spirk-trek]

I ALMOST SPIT OUT MY DRINK HE REALLY WENT "aww... anyway bye!"

[improvapocalyps]

You have 90 minutes to complete. (original poem: r.a.)

In participation of the MCYT Recursive Exchange 2024 hosted by @mcytrecursive!

Inspired by know that all my love will be your breath (i will save you when your lights go out)

[text under cut]

1. Have you ever been in love? (Please circle your answer.) a. It's me and him b. Our hearts beat in sync c. Our lives intertwined

2. Do you understand what you’ve done? (Please circle your answer.) a. I couldn't do anything b. I lost my balance c. I doomed us both

3. It's been god knows how long since you felt phantom hands on your neck and there is no one in sight. If you were soul-bound to him and both of you died at the same time then why are you still waiting in the void? Please answer clearly, in full sentences. (Not a correct answer：I just wanted to see him one more time).

4. Define two (2)： Fate | The feeling of his forehead against yours Curse | The moment you realise he isn't linked to you anymore

5. True or False： i. It was your fault. ii. You wish you had met him under different circumstances. iii. You can’t regret a single moment that you had him. iv. You would do it all over again if you could. v. It ended long before either of you said anything.

thumbnails:

sketch cover thing for imgur link:

[sirenetica]

Get a load of these dudes!

+ some silly romance-y stuff

[christadeguchi]

happy year of the dragon from this guy…

[egophiliac]

I DID IT I GOT MY PINK HAYATE now I am never doing that again!

(at least until they give me, like, a frilly unicorn Kamui or something)

[starstruckodysseys]

never stop blowing up is so fun bc 99% of the time it’s near incomprehensible and high octane action and then every so often out of nowhere someone will make a character choice that sucker punches you in the gut. and then it’s back to the antics so fast you get whiplash

[mercurymoths]

The colours as little paper chain guys was an idea I couldn’t get out of my head, so I drew not one but two versions! (Cuz I’m a sucker for shadow >:))

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i call this one "queer silence" or perhaps "slightly judgemental stare"

[hychlorions]

i wanted to see jealous klavier (,,>﹏<,,)