#although i know the ending for that too

[dragonofthemountain]

finished a game. knew the ending. cried anyways

[turtleblogatlast]

I think a lot about Leo standing up for his brothers in the things that really matter to them.

Like- Leo is the one who immediately pushes Mikey and Donnie into finding Raph the second it’s clear that their oldest brother is missing because he knows Raph can’t handle being separated like that.

Leo is the one who stands up for Mikey when Mikey wants to go on a solo mission, actively vouching for him and being the one to convince Raph into letting Mikey go, because being independent and proving himself just as capable of standing on his own two feet as everyone else means so much to Mikey.

And Leo defends Donnie’s honor in particular when his brothers’ intelligence is insulted because Leo is well aware of how important Donnie’s smarts are to him - and how important having those smarts valued and acknowledged is as well.

All this goes right into just how well Leo knows his brothers. For as much as he’ll tease or fight with them, he knows them, and he loves them.

[icterid-rubus]

I wanted to make some kilt hose for the Highland Games but could only manage a single ho 😔

Guess I could hop.

[spaceistheplaceart]

the vortigaunt had a LOT of dialogue and it was VERY interesting so i just kept talking to him until it all ran out but the NPCs kept FUCKING INTERRUPTING ME when i was just trying to speak to my wonderful vort friend.

[redbootsindoriath]

Happy International Don't Stab Your Best Friend Day!

Apologies for this being posted so late. IDSYBFD sneaked up on me this year like an elf on a rescue mission and I didn't remember about it until I saw all you wonderful people reblogging my previous years' posts. And then my tablet's stylus battery gave out five minutes into drawing, and right after I finished charging the stylus the tablet quit as well. We're lucky that I even managed to finish it before midnight in my current time zone.

Transcription:

[Halls of Mandos] [elf 1:] "Holy ent bark, that's Beleg Strongbow of Doriath!" [elf 2:] "Well well, look who finally decided to show up!" [Fingon:] "Good to see you! (No hard feelings about not bringing more people to the battle, by the way.)" [elf 2:] "You know, rumor around here was you couldn't be killed. We've been taking bets on when you'd finally clock in." [elf 3:] "And in what manner." [elf 1:] "Obviously we all knew it would have to be some sort of crazy dangerous creature. Spiders the size of mountains or a horde of trolls at least." [elf 4:] "Or maybe a werewolf like Finrod. That was hardcore." [general clamor:] "So what was it? Balrog? An entire orc army? A dragon?? Someone told me a dragon was somewhere. Oh... ...I bet... ...see you taking on Sauron himself..." "Oh yeah, I bet it was a dragon!" "Multiple Balrogs?"

[sea-buns]

Riz technically hasn't even finished his downtime but I mean. You know he's not rolling relaxation. Even if he tried for the hell of it, that DC would be insane. And even if he hit a nat20, I don't know if if would make sense for him to be able to relax? I can see the scenario where maybe he drops one token, but he's doing so much atm that I think narratively it makes more sense that he'd be keyed up until it's all over. I would like for him to try. I think if Riz gets taken over by rage we are deadass fucked. It would be bad if Kristen or Fig were corrupted. But among the boys who are actively at risk right now, all three could do some serious damage to the party, but Riz has been their guiding compass. And if he's compromised it's gonna be rough for the group to reorient themselves without him.

[legobiwan]

So...we're all talking about Bill and the Theraprism, but something tells me Ford would have been no less of a candidate for a similar sentence/regimen.

[iluvmatt]

chapter ten, boyfriend, girlfriend? taglist: @taking-a-footnote-in-your-life​, @lostwonderwall​, @lomlolivia​, ​@sturniolomads, @kylespencersvocalcords, @stxrniqlo, @sophialimass, @loonielol, @siriusfahey, @getbillzoned, @kjd55, @ceceswriting​, @dancingintheedark​, @yoongoboongo, reach out to be added :-)

new plans, matt sturniolo smau synopsis: coming home for the holidays has its perks; you get to see your childhood best friends again, you get to spend the holidays with the people you’ve always loved, and the list goes on. of course, it also had its cons— you have to face your best friend, matt, the one that you’re madly in love with and have been in love with since you were merely thirteen. little do you know, though, that he’s dealing with the same mixed emotions of you and the holidays; biting his nails as he waits for you to knock on his front door.

previous ♡ end. | m.list © iluvmatt, 2022.

[shopwitchvamp]

New bio just dropped-

Main highlights with added info:

-A reminder to please email us if you've got order questions or need help. Social media DMs aren't reliable and also make it much harder to connect you to your order, etc. Plus my bf is just way better at customer service than me lol, so if you email us things will get handled 1000x faster!!

-Anon asks have been disabled. End of an era, truly. But anon hate these days is so boring and uncreative anyway so what's the point. If you want to send an ask and not have it posted publically, just let me know if the ask. (But in that case, once again, it's probably a situation where you're better off emailing us rather than sending an ask that Tumblr may or may not eat depending on how hungry it is that day)

-Also I finally put into our tumblr bio that yes we are still just a 2-person business. I hear tell that my shop makes us appear to be a much bigger operation than we actually are (btw thank you so much for thinking things are too polished to possibly be a tiny business run by 2 people and a middle-manager dog out of an apartment), but please keep that in mind when it comes to what we're able to handle, how quickly we can expand/add products, things often being out of stock, etc etc.

[arttsuka]

post oc lore king/queen !!

😭 I don't really have lore tbh, mostly vibes. Everything is too underdeveloped for lore

I have vague ideas of what I want my ocs to be.

For example, I want to put these guys in a 'time travel' kinda situation, where a murder takes place (that phone guy, who was the only one who knew how to help them get back in their time).

The only thing worse than their designs are the names

[virtuangel]

the complete eri guidebook (2023) full version under the cut ♡ pdf ver. happy birthday @xiaojuun !! <3

credits. with the help of: meg (@hozierbyrne) // brina (@aquablues) // aléks (@possession1981) // vianey (@souladies) // lili (@ninqz) // aweks (@awek-s) // miha (@jaebeomtual) // rachel (@gnanii) // mare (@dongkwan) // ro (@sunghanbin) // rosie (@kimjiwoong) // lulu (@fushigojos) // sofi (@yukuz) graphics: gift boxes // broccoli // orange fruit watercolor // lip print textures // notion-style scribbles // healthcare vector icons // human anatomy icons // film cutouts pack // 3d travel icons // drinks vector icon set // coffee outline illustration pack // baby vector icon pack

[coldturkeybabe]

WIP- i refuse to look at this for much longer JKFDSFJK ill finish it later today

[doodles-dearest]

Steve hates being called "perfect."

It reminds him of back in the day. Back when he was 16. When he was King Steve.

Everyone worshipped him back then. Everyone said he was perfect. Everyone but one person; Eddie Munson.

That one loser, the one who shaved his head back in middle school, the one who wasn't afraid to stand up to assholes like Steve "The Hair" Harrington.

That Eddie Munson.

Steve has a very vivid memory of Tommy or someone calling him perfect before behind him he heard a very loud "No he isn't."

And that's how he met Eddie Munson.

Well, sort of.

Eddie had looked straight into his eyes and told him what for;

"You are not perfect. You're a spoiled rich kid with too many people worshipping you no matter what you do. Everyone has flaws, and for you, Harrington, one of them's clearly egotism."

Steve didn't get chance to respond before Eddie was running away, Steve's little followers chasing after him, until Steve called them off, a slight tinge of annoyance that they complied so obediently, like they were his fucking dogs.

He didn't quite understand why, but Eddie's short speech to him really struck a chord. He knew he should be angry- but he wasn't. It was someone seeing through he confident facade and noticing his flaws for once.

Then shit happened. Demogorgons. The Upside Down.

No one really called him perfect after that. Not until he became a babysitter for a bunch of twelve year olds. ("We are not perpetually twelve, Steve." they always argued. Steve knew that but, hey, he likes being annoying.)

Then he caught wind of what Dustin was saying. "Worshipping" him. Calling him "perfect".

And Steve hated it. He never said anything. Just hoped Dustin never directly did it infront of him.

Then he met Eddie- properly.

Well as properly as getting pinned to a wall with a broken bottle against his throat is.

And Steve was so grateful.

Finally, finally someone who could see his flaws. Finally someone to point out that he's not all that.

But now as Steve's sitting in the wanted man's van, he says it.

"You're perfect, y'know?"

And Steve stays quiet.

happy ending here :)

[chibishortdeath]

Great googley moogley it’s all going to shit! Every day becomes exponentially more terrifying!

And all perfectly timed to just right at the start of what’s supposed to be my adult life where I get my shit together and be useful and productive!

[the-mononoke-facade]

Alright, so there's been some talk about whether Shusu is actually a different medicine vendor from Ri Kusu (show Kusu), and at first that was my assumption (or my preference since I found the characterization in the book went all in on the detached, stoic side of things than any of the other things that make Kusu an interesting character). But the more I think about it, the more I'm like "is he though?"

And my wondering about it comes from two places, first being that the theme of disentangling harmful attachments is what the book is named after, and the other is the descriptions of the taima sword both sheathed and released, as well as the descriptions of Hyper/Shingi thoughout the book

(spoilers for Shu, since I've seen more people asking about it lately, as well as including suppositions based on recent lore drops and some minor spoilers for Karakasa based on trailers and the like)

Starting with the descriptions of the sword and Hyper, despite the sword being depicted on the cover being a now seemingly defunct design from older promotional material for Karakasa, the sword is described in the first story, Kama Itachi, as having the kinds of colored stones that are characteristic of the Ri taima sword when sheathed.

When released, it's described in multiple stories with some variation of being "an enormous, glimmering blade," which is also what we've seen throughout the show for the Ri sword. The Shingi of Shu is described with gold, serpentine patterns snaking all along his exposed skin (also tanned but given Shingi also has darker skin, that specific detail might just go with being a spirit of the sword), Kama Itachi mentions gold brocade (it's unclear from what I was ever able to translate of it if it was referring to the robe or the markings, so take that with a grain of salt), Toutetsu mentions the kumadori markings on Kusu's face becoming more elaborate from how they started (compared, again, to Kon Shingi and Kusu where their respective face markings don't seem to have a whole lot in common except maybe the eyebrow area), and then Tamamo no Mae outlines the crimson eyes and silver hair. All of that sounds an awful lot like Hyper and the Ri taima sword (and you know, I kinda figured Fuguruma Youbi would have a better description to pull on as well given how like half a page was Tamenaga just contemplating Kusu's beauty and like, me too man, me too, but ah well)

Could it be a matter of these characteristics being in line with how swords associated with any of the hexagrams with fire as a component seem to show up? It's definitely not impossible, and I certainly don't know enough about how I Ching works to make any certain statements on that, but if I were to speculate on a little bit I noticed poking around a hexagram lookup table, with the hexagrams that are composed of two different elements, it seems to be less about one element being dominant over the other so much as two elements meeting in a certain arrangement to create a new result (and even with two hexagrams composed of the same elements, which of the two elements is on top of the hexagram can drastically change the meaning). So then if each permutation creates a unique end result, wouldn't it also follow that the respective swords would all be pretty unique from each other? How would you even determine that "yes, this is the trigram element this sword is associated with"? By the top of the hexagram? The bottom? The yin/yang alignment of the sword? To my mind, it makes more sense for all the swords (and therefore the spirits attached to them) to be unique to their own hexagram (again, not an expert by any means, I'm open to other takes on how that could work, this is just my working idea of how it works)

So if the swords ARE all meant to be unique, then it's a safe assumption that the sword in Shu is the Ri sword. Does that necessarily mean it's the same medicine vendor wielding the sword? Not necessarily, we don't have any information on what happens to a sword should a medicine vendor fall trying to slay a mononoke; does it disappear? Does the sword spirit die alongside that medicine vendor (especially if it happens after the sword's been released)? And what happens to a medicine vendor if a particular sword doesn't need to be in play at that particular moment, given that it seems from the lore drop that the number of swords in play can go up or down? Does he disappear? Does he get stripped of the qualities that made him a medicine vendor and continue living on as a human? Some kind of unaffiliated ayakashi waiting in reserve for when the sword needs to come back into play? Enter the collective unconscious? Is it possible for this sword to show up the same as it is for a different wielder? All of that is the realm of theories and headcanons for now, but it's not impossible that it's a different hand wielding the same sword (and if it's a different entity, is it a reincarnation of the same soul or is a new one selected?)

With my second sticking point being the theming of letting go of harmful attachments that is the book's namesake, which is a common theme that also runs throughout the arcs of the show (Tamaki and the cat being stuck to haunt the Sakai manor without having gotten any justice for the atrocities commited by the family, the zashiki warashi letting go of being ripped away from the women they chose to be their mothers in this life as well as Shino's letting go of the exercise in futility that would have been using her body and sacrificing the baby she already has to try to right that wrong, Genkei's fixation on his guilt over Oyou's sacrifice, Ochou's futile attempts to meet her mother's selfish expectations, the todaiji feeding the greed and obsession of the suitors and its own obsession with being desired, Ishikawa's drive and tenacity to find the truth persisting even after her death)

From that angle, the various stories in Shu are pretty much in line with that theme as well: Tokuemon's deep-seated grudge against his abusive father, especially when that abuse was suffered in service to an ancient obsession of his family for riches and honors; Hori Mondo's obsession with his late master and the honor that should be able to be assumed with the ruling samurai class which is disproven by his master's successor, who himself is obsessed with proving himself capable of filling his father's massive shoes, Ishiuemon's obsession with increasing his own power at the expense of Zen, who becomes obsessed with becoming Ishiuemon's wife even as she was nothing more to him than a pawn; Kei's attachment to the notion that she's owed something going right for her after a life that's been filled with hardships, Hagino's obsession with her husband's all-but-confirmed infidelity even at the cost of her daughter, Takaharu's not being able to keep it in his pants for the sake of the family he already has, Koharu's obsession with gaining her mother's affection; Shunsui's obsession with being a popular author and narrator and tainting Ofumi with that obsession when he betrays her trust to help get her love letters over to a more accomplished author that Shunsui both reveres and is jealous of; Jinjirou's obsession with getting his family's sacrifice properly honored when everyone around him seems keen to shrug it off; Tadayoshi's obsession with getting his daughter Kaede safe behind the walls of the Ooku and Kaede's drive to meet his expectations even as they bear down on her

I had mused a while ago that the feminist theming, in contrast, seems to be missing, putting more focus on the woes of the men in the story often at the expense of the women around them, but in hindsight I almost wonder if that's actually the point (and I think I'll find a more solid answer to this in Oni, from what I've gleaned so far, so this might be another "put a pin in it" thought as well...but that pin's going to be in for a very long time at the pace I'm going through this book lol). Another common thread with Shu is the letting go of how things used to be with a lot of the expectations chaining these characters coming from the Sengoku era, which just don't work going into the "peaceful" Edo era. While women's rights prior to Edo weren't exactly robust, they were stripped down over the course of the Edo era.

It could be taken, then, that this comparatively larger focus on men at the expense of the women around them is another reflection of moving into and accepting Edo-era paradigms, and also giving a peek into the unintended (or maybe "unintended") consequences of putting safety and control over freedom. From that angle, a medicine vendor meant to embody not just a woman's desire but also what a woman wants to be would also then become gradually less considered over time (and while he never had the kind of involvement in Shu that he does in the show, there is a general trend over the course of the stories of his engagement falling off a little more with each story). Ending the book with Nuppera-hofu, with Kaede losing her face as her father lost sight of why he was fighting so hard to get her into the Ooku ("she'll be safe there and won't disappear like my wife and eldest daughter did"), where it's not even clear which sister is the one being sent to the Ooku by the end of the story but what does that matter when the goal of getting to the Ooku was achieved, then leads in very nicely to Karakasa, where so many women have lost their individuality in service to "the greater good" until it hits a tipping point, the karakasa becomes active and starts upending everything that the Ooku was built on, and possibly even projecting that outward to reflect what's happening in the rest of the country as well

So then to bring it back to whether Shu Kusu is Ri Kusu or not, if being more passive, or more "feminine" starts to fall in line with the increase of systemic oppression women face in this new era, then in order to reclaim some of his own power and agency, Kusu would need to start to be more active, not a spectator but an actor, and then that leads into Ayakashi Bakeneko, where he's at his most emotive, his most active, and pushing the hardest to be in control of the situation, before gradually over the course of the show relinquishing more control to start to shift back into more of a passive spectator role as women start to chafe under the abuses they're suffering in this restrictive period and fighting to get some of their power back, having the second Bakeneko arc happening somewhere in the 1920s (still obviously a lot of problems, both the old deep-rooted ones and the new ones coming from the reactionaries that don't care much for these seeds of more equality between men and women starting to grow, Moriya being the poster boy for that group and their trying to act like they're the victims in all this while they start running out of justifications for "putting women in their place"), but with more power being reclaimed, he then wouldn't need to be quite as active or "masculine" to be able to have the power or influence needed to get the truths from the humans he needs to perform his duty, so then the differences in characterization could be reflective of what is needed for the era in question. It could also be a matter of the Ri sword and the need to cut away attachments becoming less and less necessary over this general period of human emotion, to where the sword is taken out of play by the end of Shu and the wielder of Ri we see in the show is either a new medicine vendor, or the same one but with a mandatory vacation thrown in there to discombobulate him on how human emotion sphere looks by the time he gets back

Anyway, that's a lot of rambling to say there's a case for it being at least the same sword if not also the same medicine vendor as the show, and it's a matter of the framing and themes of Shu not doing any favors to him for highlighting the things that make him a cool character

[mctna2019]

So Baek Hyun-woo, you decided to do something by making her hate you so she can continue to fight for her life? it's the saddest way you could have chosen and certainly the most selfless. I hope it'll works.