#anyway have some elves

[minne-cerbinna]

The baths of Cáelmewedd are an excellent place to spend time among friends.

[armenelols]

In deference to my recent bout of shitposting, have a daily reminder that Tolkien's half-elves have no happy ending and no matter what they choose, they'll still lose part of their family forever. They'll always be split between two people, neither fully one or the other, yet forced to pick one and lose the other

[icewindandboringhorror]

I made a few new wax seal stamps out of clay (like the ones I did for my worldbuilding stuff forever ago), this time just of random symbols that I thought might look good done in the style of painting over the raised part of the wax or etc. :0c Some of them aren't carved deep enough to really show up that well, but overall they worked okay for being clay lol

[mazken]

brush test slash rendering practice with ayem

[tomcat-tapes]

How about side by side with a friend?

Aye, I can do that.

[lokh]

ive been thinking about this but. i think shuro understands laios' character pretty well, but he doesn't value his strengths or interests (monster knowledge). in the DVD extra where laios imagines what would have happened if they'd been on better terms, shuro STILL leaves because he thinks his chances are better with a trained crew (which....... is likely to be true but. look at how he ended up anyway lmao). meanwhile kabru recognises that while the party isnt particularly strong, the reason they get so far in the first place is BECAUSE of what laios knows about monsters. shuro seems aware that laios knows about monsters or has an interest in them, but views this as frivolous and a waste of time and doesn't seem to realise how much this knowledge carried them in the first place

[eri-pl]

Silm Advent calendar 7: Light

(thank you @edennill for your headcanons, here's a small hc of mine)

Varda smiled, looking at the young Noldo bowing nervously before her. Despite being named “the spirit of fire”, he wore pale blue and yellow, both clean narrow hues, but not too narrow, matching the outer colors of the Treelight surprisingly well for something made by an incarnate.

“I want to show you something, my lady.” There was a tone of anxiety in Feanáro's voice. Why? 

He pulled out an ornate box which shone richly from the inside and opened it—

They were beautiful. A harmony of two lights, resulting in a wide and balanced white, almost like a reflection of the light in her face. This brilliance was the fairest thing ever made on Arda, surpassing the glorious lights made by the Valar, even though it was born from two of them. Three gems in perfect harmony with each other. Almost too beautiful for this marred world, like a pure sound of a violin, narrow, and impossible for the imperfect beings to harmonize with.

She reached for them but stopped, waiting for permission. 

“I love them dearly,” said Feanaro apologetically. “But of course, if you wish to take a look at them, I would be honored… Forgive me, o queen, but I feel— I feel they are so vulnerable, so — they are near impossible to destroy and yet — I do fear for them.” The last part he was almost a whisper.

Varda nodded. Light could only shine where it could be touched, of course. And what could be touched could now also be hurt. Did the Elves not know it? It was difficult to distinguish what was new to them and what they would consider too obvious to even mention.

She studied the scared prince. The best she could do for him was to put some thin glass to protect the light a little and hope for the best. Half-measures, always half-measures. But that was the way with incarnates, wasn't it?

She took the gems and kissed them gently. They were warm and alive, even though unmoving, and they rejoiced seeing her.

No wonder Feanáro loved them.

“Neither evil nor hand unclean shall touch you and stay unharmed,” she said. “Nor a mortal man—” she paused, seeing the Elf’s expression. What was he surprised about? 

Anyway, the blessing was done, for good or for ill.

She kissed the gems farewell and gave them back to the prince. “Thank you.” 

She rarely spoke, indeed, but some occasions were worth it.

[swordmaid]

anyway shri’iia’s epilogue outfit which is a mix of 1900s male stage costumes and also that one camp outfit mod. look at the ring hehe 🤭

[rohirric-hunter]

Angstober Day 02: Countdown

I did not write this on the second. I wrote it this morning.

~*~*~*~

The final day dawns, and you are up early.

Well, you believe it is dawn. The sun does not penetrate the cloud cover above, which you imagine is thickest to the east, where it originates. But the earliest risers in the Camp of the Host have begun to stir, and you with them.

Breakfast is surprisingly cheery.

You all know what lies before you, and what lies behind. And you all know that today is likely the last day you will ever see. There is no reason, you suppose, for the cooks to be stingy. The rations are still road rations, but the helpings are larger than you had expected, and more dressed up. You find what remains of the Grey Company gathered around a cookfire with a few Rangers of Ithilien. Most of the party is known to you, and you laugh along with the others as Radanir and Thurindol exchange barbed words with no heat behind them about the use of Elfspear as a seasoning. The plant they are arguing about bears little resemblance to the Elfspear you are familiar with, which grows in spiky bunches close to the ground up and down the Great East Road from the Brandywine to the Hoarwell. You daren't venture a guess as to whether or not they are related. You suspect Orthonn knows, but he watches the argument with a smirk, and does not offer his opinion on the matter.

Radanir and Thurindol both likely know too, you reflect, but the argument is comfortable. It feels safe.

Your back and shoulders still ache from — you do not allow your mind to drift to such dark thoughts, not yet. There are better things to reflect on. Instead you set your empty plate aside and stretch the sore muscles. Lothrandir sits beside you, startling you. You had not heard him approach. But he does not speak, only smiles sadly, and takes your arms, gently repositioning them into what you can feel at once is a more effective stretch. You nod your thanks, and he accepts it with a gentle squeeze of your hand, before turning his attention back to the entertainment in the center of the little breakfast circle.

Breakfast cannot last forever. The minutes are counting down until you must all go your separate ways, to attend to your last duties before the end.

But for now, you laugh, as Thurindol finally wrests the Elfspear from Radanir's hands and throws it into the pot, drowning out Radanir's cries of protest with a triumphant exclamation: "It's good for you!"

"And tastes of mud from the swamps of Angmar," Radanir retorts.

You pull your cloak about yourself and lean your head against Lothrandir's shoulder as they argue, tuning out the details and relaxing in the moment. Part of you wishes Hathellang was here — but no. He is — not safe, but safer. He will have a chance, the chance you tossed aside when you agreed to come here, to follow Strider the Ranger to certain doom in the hopes of buying time. He can run and hide and live.

Breakfast will be over soon — but until then, you are content.

[surpriserose]

......i dont like how much people keep pointing to the lore from the extra dungeon meshi stuff (?) that more experienced adventurers are fatter as like...proof dungeon meshi is better with body diversity than it is because like idk!! Maybe it would be great if it was actually used to make falin or marcille or laios or kabru or anyone fat but its not!!!!

[sesamenom]

you said we could bother you... ever consider transfem maglor?

hm, I don't really have much in the way of gender/orientation headcanons for most elves, but I feel like if anything I see him more as the "I have bigger problems and also a sword" brand of agender, if that makes sense?

[extravagantliar]

Nik linked me the trespasser party banter on Varric’s kvetching and yeah he’s doing a service!! It’s called adding to the ambiance

[icewindandboringhorror]

I've referenced before how I have a big google document to keep track of every media I've ever seen in my entire life (just for reference because I like to track everything possible lol… I am the Data Collector), but recently as I was updating it, I thought of actually evaluating them to find out random percentages (like for example, out of Total Shows Watched, what percentage did I finish vs. stop watching, what percentage did I like or dislike, etc.)...

Evaluating these things is made easier by the fact that I already place everything on each subsection of the list into 6 broad ranking categories, so I don't have to go back and guess to figure out how I feel about them or anything. The categories are: Ranking 5 - overall best* (despite some criticisms of course because I'm too much of an Analyzer to ever find anything Perfect lol) Ranking 4 - more positive than neutral, but not good enough to be 5 Ranking 3 - either the good + bad negate each other, OR it's just not memorable/interesting in any way enough to be ranked higher or lower (this is the Default category ALL things are placed in if no other rank applies) Ranking 2 - maybe a few redeemable elements but largely more negatives than positives Ranking 1 - So bad that it circles around to being fascinating to observe in some way (not necessarily Funny, or Good, but just interesting somehow) Ranking 0 - Bad in a genuinely frustrating or obnoxious manner

*("best" primarily defined here as most interesting, rather than most good in a technical sense, or some other measure. I tend to value more highly whether there's something novel or thoughtful about the worldbuilding, tone, writing, base premise, etc - than about whether it's actually executed perfectly.)

And here's the amount of shows that have so far been placed into each category -

TV shows ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 20 shows ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 28 shows ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 114 shows ~ Rank 2 (mid low) -33 shows ~ Rank 1 (low low but intriguingly so) - 14 shows ~ Rank 0 (iredeemably low) - 2 shows

This would make for a total of 211 TV shows overall. However, there are 57 shows within these list marked as "didn't finish" (typically meaning I quit on the very first or second episode - but log them still to keep a record that I at least had a brief view of them).

So my total of genuinely fully watched shows would be more 154. 211 Total, but a More Accurate Total of 154.

Counting them all and using the Total Number Of The List (211) -- that means roughly 9.5% of all total shows I have ever watched (or at least attempted to watch) have been Mostly Good, 13% have been Moderately Okay, 54% have been either entirely Forgettable or some mix of good + bad that lands them right in the Neutral Middle, 15.6% have been Mostly Bad, 6.6% have been Bad (but in an interesting way), and 0.9% have been Terribly Bad.

Additionally, I didn't even get past the first two episodes of about 27% of the total.

Sooo, discounting ones I didn't finish, my total TV shows ever watched in my life would be about 154 (maybe give or take a few, assuming I might have forgotten some from very long ago).

But instead of entire life, let's just say this is the total for 'About 20 Years' (so, not counting very early childhood when I likely wouldn't remember things I saw/have no detailed recollection of them (like for example, I'm sure at some point when I was like 4yrs old I must have seen an episode of Spongebob or something, but I have zero distinct memories of it, can't quote anything of it, and barely recall the premise - so I don't count it on the list, etc.)).

In that case, 154 divided by 20 would be roughly 7.7 shows a year.

Which is actually surprisingly low considering that I often have stuff on in the background for hours whilst I make sculptures and do costumes and stuff (maybe I should have also marked some distinction between 'things I fully paid attention to' and 'things I kind of half listened to whilst sculpting', but that would further split the categories too much probably lol), but I guess a lot of that is youtube videos or random documentaries, so .. eh.. maybe I get it being lower.

Now, doing the same thing for movies-

Movies ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 4 movies (3.4% of total) ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 12 movies (10.3% of total) ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 91 movies (78.4% of total) ~ Rank 2 (mid low) - 8 movies (6.8% of total) ~ Rank 1 (low but interesting) - 1 movie (0.8% of total) ~ Rank 0 (irredeemably low) - none in this category (0%)

That makes 116 for a Total (Actually Remembered) Movies Watched In Lifetime (Or At Least In 20 Years).

116 divided by 20 is roughly 5 or 6 movies a year (I feel this has probably been skewed though by adding everything since like elementary school onwards, as I remember a lot more movies from child/teen years.. Whereas, the past 3 years I feel like I've barely seen maybe even 5 movies?? lol). I also have "Didn't Finish" marked on 18 of them. Which means I quit halfway through about 15% of the total movies.

So, a for broader summary stuff..

I seem to be less forgiving to movies than tv shows, by far. Which makes sense to me, I guess, because I love elaboration and details, so "short form" things that only last an hour or two are often lost on me a bit. My biggest complaint with movies is indeed usually walking away just wishing there had been more exposition, more scenes where characters are doing nothing, more "mindless bantering" conversations, more Quiet Downtime and Lore Elaboration and so on lol, so... of course most 1-2hr films end up feeling a bit Not Enough To Draw My Interest/Nothingy to me.

If you count 5 and 4 as "like" and rankings 2 to 0 as "dislike", then for TV shows I at least somewhat liked 48 of them, and at least somewhat disliked 47 of them.. So it's almost exactly the same lol. I'm just about equally as likely to find something bad as I am to find something redeeming about it. But overall, the largest chance is that I just won't really care much for it at all and it will be tossed into the 'neutral' pile, forgotten forever. Movies have a bit better of a balance, "liking" 16 of them, and "disliking" only 9 of them. So I'm slightly more likely to enjoy a movie than to find it annoying - though still VASTLY more likely to just not find it anything in particular, possibly not even finishing it.

ANYWAY.. this is vague and literally pointless, but like I said, I just really find information fun. Like my document where I've rated every apple flavor I've ever tried (like 40 of them now?), or reviewed every oreo flavor (32?), or ranking data from my entire 10 years of Trying To Make Friends process (out of 100 people, roughly 8% chance of a moderate compatibility, 3% chance of high), or etc. etc.. I love to have random pointless things to analyze I suppose lol.

I doubt anyone tracks things in their life in this same exact way, but I'd be interested in hearing any at least somewhat similar data !!! (like, how many TV shows you watch a year on average, and what percentage of those you like vs. dislike (if you keep track of that sort of thing), etc.)). I guess it might be easier with movies, since I think some people use those websites where you curate a list of movies you've seen and you can rate them or something, so maybe the numbers are already available on those places. :0

[labyrinthofthestar]

da*2. is a game

[invinciblerodent]

I've graduated from only blocking people who are either stupid, needlessly cruel, or prone to adding stupid, combative quips that miss the point entirely to posts, to also blocking people whose points I fundamentally agree with, I just think they're being a bit of a dick while making it.

In the end it'll really just be me and my handful of trusted mutuals on my dash. Maybe then I'll finally know peace.

[radishearts]

Kesler and Julilne in slurps and burps? with Kesler wearing round dorky glasses?

No labcoats no proper safety glasses I am removing BOTH of them from the slurps and burps labatory :/// where is their workplace health and safety standards sigh