#anyway thank you abyssal!!!

[persephoneprice]

Unpopular opinion(?): I actually can't stand shipping sometimes but this is probably more a me not liking romance most of the time thing than like an issue with the ships themselves. I genuinely do have most ship tags filtered and just click on them if I'm in the mood lol

Also I think sometimes, (and I think I'm kinda included in this), there's an over-emphasis on the mentors' sad childhoods to make them sympathetic when yes, the war and just Capitol society fucked them up, I think the beauty of terrible people in fiction is that you confront people even when they are absolutely heinous and do things you could never justify are deserving of sympathy, pity, ect. even when they would not extend the same to you under normal circumstances. Anyway, I think people should feel more comfortable making the mentors worse and by people, I'm really talking to myself. Although I do try.

Okay I have no idea what I'm saying anymore

ask game!

that’s fair! i think it can be fun but i think it’s weird when people take it too seriously. like getting mad that someone…has a different ship than you? insane behavior.

i think that’s a really good point! i think i’m definitely partly guilty of this by way of always making everything sad!

(unfortunately- i think i’ve just done it again with fucking urban canville of all people.)

i think the mentors are fun because there’s so many ways people can interpret them since we pretty much no nothing! but yeah, i do think we should lean more into them being worse.

[thwispsings]

Can i get some demon trio bonding pls?

Sha Hualing is the worst possible person to ever go drinking with. Mobei-jun will simply sulk in a corner and sip his wine like an ice statue that wished to be a real boy and make you feel somehow inadequate to even be in his company, Sha Hualing on the other hand will start a tavern brawl and only be satisfied once she’s sure she’s spilled blood from at least three people.

“Why are you like this?” Binghe begs her after they’re kicked from the third tavern this week, she’s cackling like a mad witch, not an ounce of concern for her -admittedly, very flimsy- human disguise, he prays no one associates him with the new prestigious guest of Huan Hua Palace and goes babbling to the old palace master, heavens know Binghe does not want that old geezer coming around to act all paternal around him again.

“Because it’s fun, Xiao He! You should do it too, it would loosen you up a bit maybe,” she tells him, pinching one of his cheeks with her sharp rouge stained claws, he whines “Ancestors know it would loosen up that one.” She gestures rudely to Mobei-jun, who just stands there looking serious as usual.

“Is his face stuck like that or does he have another even bitchier expression somewhere deep inside of him?” Binghe asks her in a very serious voice and Sha Hualing chortles like a piglet.

“Oh not, you should see him with his mousy little human, he gets so soft it’s unbearable to watch, like snow melting in the sun, blegh” Sha Hualing tells him, still giggling, draping herself over his shoulders like a warm and jingly scarf. 

“Shang-shishu!?” Binghe exclaims, eyebrows climbing up to his hairline, his expression growing even slacker with surprise at the flush that appears over Mobei-jun’s regal nose “OH YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH HIM!”

Sha Hualing cackles loudly again, right against his ear. Mobei-jun shushes the both of them, looking around with wide eyes as if Shang-shishu would pop out of the ground and catch them in the act of making fun of Mobei-jun for wanting to put his dick in him.

“He wants to give him babies.” Sha Hualing says loudly, pretending to whisper in Binghe’s ear and this time it’s him cackling as loud as he can.

“Hualing.” Mobei-jun hisses, his tone has hardly changed but Binghe gets the impression that he’s close to tears.

“Ancestors, you want to be the peak lady of An Ding Peak.” Binghe says and he and Sha Hualing immediately crumple into giggles again, Mobei-Jun lets out a noise not unlike a tea kettle.

Binghe and Sha Hualing are both doubled over laughing, a strong wind could probably make them topple into a puddle of giggly demon right here in the middle of this town square with the ugly lion statues and crooked lanterns. Mobei-jun looks heavenward as if asking for patience.

“He wants to be Shang Qinghua’s special little demon.” Sha Hualing says, slapping Binghe while tears stream down her face from how hard she’s laughing, Binghe is already hiccuping. Mobei-jun seems to decide that enough is enough, bending down and picking both of them up one under each arm, he opens a portal to Binghe’s palace in the demon realm and steps in.

Their cackles echo loudly while Mobei-jun hunts down Binghe’s room. A few of the demon servants stop to listen and smile to themselves before continuing, for once since Tianlang-jun’s demise there’s lightness in these halls again.

[superfluouskeys]

scorched earth (9/11)

Note: This story is set in the world of my very long Maleficent/Aurora fanfiction The Prisoner (which you can read  here if you want), but focuses almost entirely on original characters.   There is no need to read The Prisoner to understand what is going on--this story stands on its own and will give you all the background info you need.  Please also note the general content warning; I will not give specific warnings by chapter.

--

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, Kinsale finds Senna asleep on the beach.  Senna doesn’t know when or how she could have possibly fallen asleep.  She and Joy talked for a long time. After Joy left, Senna’s mind was overwrought.  The last thing she remembers is staring up into the boundless sky, wondering how she would ever begin to wrap her mind around all she had learned.  Then suddenly it was morning.

Kinsale leads Senna back to the road.  She explains, apparently unfazed by Senna’s utter inability to comprehend, that the sand makes it hard to get her footing, which apparently has some bearing upon her ability to rip a hole in the fabric of the universe.

Once again they are nowhere, and then they are somewhere again.  Senna’s stomach turns and her head spins, but at this point she can’t decide whether it’s from the magic or…well, everything else.

“Oh, stars above, you must be very tired!” Kinsale exclaims at last.  Senna guesses this must be true, even though she doesn’t exactly feel tired.  She picks herself up off the ground and greets Ruthie, and then she allows Kinsale to usher her inside and up the stairs to bed.

Just like it was on the beach, Senna lies in bed for what seems like a very long time, feeling as though she couldn’t possibly go to sleep.  Then suddenly the light through the windows has changed, and Senna realizes it must be late in the afternoon.

Read More (AO3)

[felixravinstills]

kind of playing with the idea that Max used to mess with Albanus a lot, and then when he felt the pressure to be the responsible older sibling, he just suddenly switched to like this detached figure playing at being a parent.

Anyway, in a weird way, what I’m trying to say is that the lack of mind games is what stopped them from being close…

Albanus has that annoying trying to get your attention, stereotypical younger sibling energy but like… if he did have Max’s attention, he’d have been gaslit into believing so many incorrect things that the school would need to call their mother in… I think Max would also accidentally give into the occasional violent intrusive thought and “jokingly” push him into oncoming traffic… (very occasional... probably only once a year. the thing about Max is he seems so straightlaced, you just wouldn't expect it.)

Give him time though and Albanus could have learned to play ball, he would have wielded guilt as a weapon… Not very well at first, but he would have gotten better. I think it would only work on Max though. To everyone else, it would seem too moralizing…

Maybe, he can have that for a short time before he dies… except Albanus wields Max’s guilt at being a distant older brother figure and not the guilt of him psychologically terrorizing him for his whole life with a side of physical endangerment...

I don't think Al could ever match Max's freak, but I think he could have gotten to complimentary freak status. Like mostly, Al is just a guy, but occasionally people can pull the weirdness out of him. This is true with Felix too in my mind.

[torgawl]

what is an "i love you" compared to when dainsleif said "defeat me, command me to step aside, show me that you are worthier than i to rescue her" and "my memory has all but faded completely... but i will always remember how much she too, loved these flowers"?

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

you would not believe your eyes

if ten million fucked up guys

pet all your cats as you fell asleep

(versions with white line art to make details easier to see)

[valeriefauxnom]

Hey big fan. How tall do you think the androids in DL are?

Not gonna lie, it's always a bit shocking to hear one has made anything to earn a 'big fan', but thank you very much nonetheless!

As for your actual question, though, I think they're roughly about human height, judging by art? Of course I've gone over how art sometimes varied wildly in height, but as mentioned in that post if you have seen that, Dragalia did seem to try and keep a 'comparison heights' straight, at least. They might not have kept straight if Euden was 4'11 or 5'9 but he was shorter than Ranzal and Luca, etc.

And what we see in the wyrmprints, they seem consistently human in size:

(Well, these are both with sylvans, but sylvans are human in height as well, ears notwithstanding, so the point stands).

As funny as it might have been if every android was big or really tiny, I think it probably makes sense that, being created and wished for them to be 'humans' by Maestro, they resemble humanity as much as possible.

Now, just because Laxi, Mascula, and the androids from their era are human sized, others might not be.

They're a recreation of the older models in another case of Dragalia's humans trying to resurrect older tech, the same tech that made the dragons Very Displeased 1k years ago.

Now, Eireene and Finni, who unfortunately have among my personal least favorite designs in Dragalia, don't really give any indication either of being a wildly different size than Laxi or Mascula. Like this art here, where they are about the same size as Laxi and in a similar 'dwarfed by Ranzal' category most everyone falls into to varying degrees.

That doesn't mean there aren't standouts.

Anassa, for example, seems to carry a much bigger presence in her art. Being something of a commander and command center for the 1k year old model androids, it stands to reason she might have more weapons built in, more data processors, or other things in greater quantity. While we don't have a model or comparative art to truly say for certain that she is bigger, she certainly looks it.

(Does she even have legs??? Is she a roomba that would be foiled by anything over a 15° incline or a sudden height change, ex, stairs??? I mean yeah, doesn't she fly and drop down the one time, but even then, there's any number of environments that might make it awkward or impossible to use it to navigate a hazard.)

Ahem. Anyways, the point is that the general androids, be it Maestro's recreations or their elder Nier:Dragalia -er, Ex Machina, a part of the Humanoid Liberation Agency/the ones living in the sky, seem to be human sized. But there might be a few special model ones out there like Anassa who serve a unique and important purpose to justify the time, energy, and resources designing and creating them to fulfill their goal.

Now, admittedly, androids in Dragalia would be a weak point in my general knowledge since they never really quite struck a chord with me enough to inspire a fixation on them, but yeah, as far as I can tell, they're human-sized with perhaps some rare exceptions. The most I can say that might not be wholly normal is their apparent tendency towards a sort of gaunt build, which, to be fair, it's not exactly as if they can build muscle to change that.

Hopefully that answered your question satisfactorily!

[welcometoteyvat]

whagghh can we see that hu tao xingqiu snippet wip?

Xingqiu slumps onto his desk, defeated. The deadline for a special volume of A Legend of Sword is scarcely three nights away, and yet he still hasn’t progressed past the first fight sequence. Every word he pens is inadequate, and the brush in his hand is crooked and sluggish, and another colorless midnight has almost passed, and still, he has nothing to show for it. His valiant unnamed hero claims a narrow victory against the Tai-Shogun’s cyborg samurai, and then—and then…

When Xingqiu’s eyelids flutter open again, the lantern by his window has dimmed considerably… He cannot have dozed off for that long, can he?

At least his father and brother are asleep. It would be best if they never find out about his sleeping schedule.

The shadow of his hand is so sharp against his lantern-lit draft. Xingqiu traces the ridges of his knuckles, a flickering black silhouette on the page beneath it. From this angle, it almost looks like a dragon’s mouth, one of the Natlan kinds… maybe he’ll be able to see one in person someday…

His eyes shut slowly.

———

ermmmmm embarrassing... this was supposed to be published with the snippet (so i could've just given you the full snippet since it isn't long anyways) but it's ballooned rather fast and I don't want to wait. also yeah this has no hu tao mentioned because unfortunately she comes in right after this lmao. also the hu tao xingqiu dialogue inspiration that struck me at 2 am yesterday left so now i have to reinvent the wheel (<- bad at banter). anyways i hope you enjoy <3 this idea was kinda random haha, i just wanted to write something from xingqiu's perspective and show how they bounce off each other really well LOL nothing much to it. I was going to change it into xingqiu + venti writers block (venti is one of the muses fr) but i haven't watched irodori thoroughly and decided to keep hu tao. anyways yeah hopefully i finish this thing soon lol

[jlfs-ol]

Baxter Ward in other relationships: *quick flings/hook-ups/nothing serious bye*

Baxter Ward with the MC in Step 3: *will not do anything beyond a hand squeeze or hugs/arms around them/on their shoulder unless the MC either seems to want it or instigates it*

The irony that when he actually cares and has feelings, his initial immediate reaction is to hold back because he knows what's coming and that it'll make it hurt more. The silliness of Mr. Direct and Forwardness when he actually cares about the other person is a lot.

I mean, he even gets surprised when the MC missed him while he was gone before Drinks happens and still thinks he doesn't bring value just for who he is. >_>

[abyssalpriest]

God. Talking to Lev about the religion we're in the process of making together... He's been treating it as a pet project for only the two of us bc it makes me anxious, ie he's hiding what it truly is and I only know that it's hidden and not what is hidden, but slowly hes introducing the idea of it being an actual established thing with more than just us in it (not necessarily big, just that us two was already intimidating in size when it started so even three people feels Established to me), and I just asked him like. OK. You know. I already know Im coming here and incarnating from the future for A Personal Job, is this a part of it? Do the waters of our time mention or talk about this or does it die with me? I'm not getting into what was said because future shit is the one thing I don't want to discuss anything about online, and also I. kinda. shut down him answering bc I don't want to think about it rn

Suddenly though I'm like... A switch is flicking in my head from "I was a part of the pop culture pagan section of my ex's cult, he was having me expand his cult by creating a 'new religion' based on BB secretly connected to it" to "hold on, why did my ex, who knows who I am and when and where I'm from, start trying to get me to create a new religion with him that's eerily similar to the one Leviathans insisting on creating with me?" i already new my ex has been trying to twist fate and time and reorder his downwards spiral and steal shit for his own and so this is a little...... Uh...

Bc like. I keep getting this overwhelming relief and clarity throughout my entire working w Lev - even way before this was ever a broached subject - these past three years of "ohhh THIS was what I was supposed to be doing, THIS is who I was supposed to be doing things with, THIS is the real god of oceans and dreams and the dark shadowy aspects of life and (etc), my ex was just fully playing up all these aspects to fulfill a role" i never.... Stopped to ask why my ex did that.

Why was he having me fashion a religion based on what I'd later come to find was Leviathans attributes, energies, symbols, etc ?? Because my soul already loved him, he didn't need to pretend to be Lev bc I knew lev and not him or something. He could've picked a mask based on anything - he even specifically picked cut content micolash and not even in game micolash because the mask he chose didn't fit micolash's aesthetics and energies so it's not even a "oh well I just happened to be drawn to micolash bc micolash is like Leviathan, so he had to go with it" they. are not alike. he literally had to change his fictional mask to be like Leviathan. He had to warp the character so hard and just count on cut content mic having no fucking content so that he could be as much like Lev as possible. Yes, they are indeed very similar, but like also no they're not. Anyway. and then he spent five years bringing me into this spirituality only to start building a religion with me -

- oh my god. I always brush past "yeah in the months before we broke up was when he started getting me to write stuff on the religion, our religion (called Oceanic Spirituality. bruh) really only started being made just before shit hit the fan and idk what he was trying to get me to do" but like. I. Wasn't supposed to be making it with him. was I.

[jeoseungsaja]

And, despite the pain you went through, you still have mellow eyes; you still have helping hands; you still irradiate warmth; you still have a a gentle heart. And, despite it all, you still have the courage to be kind.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PATRICK MYUNGDAE GRACE ❤️📖🧩!!! (@clemencetaught)

[hydrodragons]

one year ago i got this man and the entire trajectory of my account improved for the better for the second time (first was when i got kazuha)

[felixravinstills]

Taking the time to plug my unfinished Twilight Volturi OC fic on my tbosas blog for no reason other than why the fuck not? And also Felix Ravinstill brainrot is probably the reason this fic is still unfinished… so I need you to know what I could be writing instead:

(Below the cut have some context and my current favorite scene in that fic (1.5K words) and one of the reasons I started writing it in the first place… also considering this was the first fic I started writing, one of the reasons I started writing fic full stop period)

(There’s so much context that I don’t have time to give, but just know Children of the Moon are different from what Jacob is (and it’s kinda problematic how it’s all handled in canon rip). This fic takes place currently centuries before canon. Vampires are basically superhuman statue people who can heal super fast and sometimes have superpowers. My OC has such a gift and it’s death precognition basically. The Volturi (the vampire government) took her in after she got turned into a vampire because of her handy gift. And before this scene, someone important to the Volturi died while she was away so she couldn’t predict their death. Also yeah, if anyone here knows Twilight, I made Caius a girldad… For reference, he’s kinda like my Max in that fandom… I’m torturing him through his adopted child.)

…

“It’s not your fault,” Caius began, shakier this time. “It has never been your fault. There is but one person to blame and that is—“

But Myrtis was beyond hearing, and all words drowned out in the face of her sobbed apologies.

As if there were enough ‘I’m sorry’ to make things right.

She crashed forward, crying tearlessly into the inky black of Caius’ cloak.

Caius, for his part, was trying his best to lie to her.

There were more ‘it’s not your faults’ and ‘you couldn’t have knowns.’

His pleas for her to believe his lies about her innocence continued more frantic than the last until finally he pulled her from his chest and looked into her eyes.

“Listen,” he commanded her, but she could not.

She felt her eyes glaze over.

She had gotten distracted.

“Aro—“ Caius was saying.

In her panic, she had frozen.

Gods.

Then, remembering how to move, she pushed Caius away from her as hard as she could.

Caius stumbled back.

“Wha—“

Myrtis regained sight of reality and saw the confusion etched into Caius’ face just as the dark blur of her visions slammed into her.

A clawed hand ripped through her stone skin like she was human, and Myrtis screamed.

The lupine bulk of a Child of the Moon pressed her down into the snow.

The smell was terrible, but the pain was worse. Spittle rained down on her face and into her eyes as she struggled to keep her head out of its gaping maw.

The liquid ate at her skin.

Her gloves were in shreds.

Black dots appeared in her vision, and the last thing she truly saw before being submerged into the frenzied sights of her gift was the moon poking out from the cloud, full and glowing silver.

Her hands grasped and tore and scratched.

She could see it clearly. The sharp, yellowing teeth biting through her neck. The acid working at the flesh until venom could no longer works its miracles. There would be no bringing her back.

Her arms cracked. She could feel them about to give. She would have hissed or snarled back at the beast if her mouth could pull itself away from screaming.

Her gift cocooned around her in a panic.

The death rattle of her mind asked where was Caius. As her limbs shook from the strain, she let extended her gift with equal parts dread and hope.

The exertion was unnecessary.

The vision before her faded. Her eyes were still screwed shut, but hands were tugging her up by the armpits. A moment of pure fear made her struggle until she heard a familiar voice.

“It’s alright. It’s me.”

Caius helped her stand, but again, they were separated.

The wolf-beast was back, or perhaps, it was one of his brethren. Now that she was no longer pinned by its appendages, her visions expanded to showcase their numbers.

Wolves had always been pack hunters.

Myrtis dodged the a clawed swipe, left and right.

She would not survive another tackle from these beasts. The fractures in her arms were still healing.

“Myrtis.”

She moved towards the sound. She stopped when her back pressed against Caius’.

The wolves encircled them.

Caius’ hand grasped her arm. It grounded her.

Her eyes were closed, but she searched for a way out nonetheless.

“There’s a gap,” she said as her gift weighed their chances.

“I know,” he responded.

She heard shifting in the snow. He had bent legs, preparing to sprint. His own hand enclosed around hers.

A vision flashed before her.

“We won’t make it.”

“Have a little faith.”

Myrtis shook her head, taking her hand away from his.

“We won’t make it.”

It took Caius a moment to realize what she meant.

“No,” he said.

His’ voice was harsh, punctuated by the howls of the wolves around him.

He had turned his head to look at her, and that had been his mistake.

He had shown a lack of attention, a weakness.

With her gift pounding through her head, Myrtis moved on instinct.

To her great shame, she moved away from Caius and watched in her mind’s eye as the wolves pounced.

She strangled the scream that tried to force its way out of her throat.

Visions came and went, and she felt like she was choking.

Something landed near her skidding across the snow. She picked it up, knowing what it was.

Move, she told herself, as she held Caius’ right arm to her chest. Move.

She couldn’t fail again.

She couldn’t fail Caius.

Myrtis gave herself a running start before sliding herself into the tangle of limbs and fur.

She wanted to cry, but she bit her bottom lip and crawled.

The wolves were piled on top of each other, reaching for something. The labyrinth of paws and legs was so dense, and she was so weak.

Still, if they had been a little more organized, she would not have stood a chance. They crashed into one another and jostled amongst themselves.

The pain in her wounds and in her skull was nearly unbearable.

But she could not fail.

In her desperation, she could think of one solution. She bit into the legs that penned her in and hampered her movement.

The blood was bitter. She had to fight the urge to spit it out, but slowly, she felt the flesh of her arms knit themselves back together.

She bit and chewed, and some of the beasts moved. Others acted like she had not even touched them.

Nevertheless, she crawled forward as best as she could.

Soon, her hands did not just feel snow but also another arm, then a torso. Myrtis was relieved to hear the leg that dragged along with it.

Next was a blond head. She cradled that close.

And finally, there was a snout chewing at a leg.

Myrtis thought that it was a kindness that Caius could not feel a thing as she reached and grabbed at the last bit of him. The slobber that drenched the limb burned her hands. She had to wrench the poor limb from the mouth.

With the loss of their play toy, the wolves’ claws came down around her. She took the gashes with a scream, hugging Caius closer and fighting the stinging behind her eyelids.

She scrambled to drag herself out from under those beasts, counting again one head, one torso, two arms, and two legs.

With everything accounted for, she ran, full-sprint in the direction that she knew was south.

Myrtis dodged trees and boulders and other obstacles, just barely.

Her gift shrieked at her:

One wrong move. One stumble, and she was dead.

There was a morbid comfort in knowing she could rely on her visions.

A sharp pain stabbed from her head to the rest of Myrtis’ body.

Still, She ran. She had always been fast. Better yet, evasion had always been her strength.

Myrtis ran until the howling of wolves disappeared into the wind, not stopping until another terrible sight interrupted her.

The pain behind her eyes continued hammering through her head.

It felt like it was splitting her head open.

It was splitting her head open, her visions told her.

She would die.

Worse, Caius would die.

She dropped him: head, limbs, and torso into a heap.

Her hands grasped for the snow. Feeling all the vulnerability of a human, she wished she had their warmth. Flowing water would have served her better than tiny crystals of ice. Still, she sloughed the stuff onto her face.

She wiped the slush of snow, venom, and that terrible acid down her cheeks. Still, the visions did not abate. She buried her head into the snow, opened her eyelids, and let venom and poison spill to the ground.

The vision persisted.

The liquid was trapped in the crevices of her head.

In the distance, she heard the howls of the Children.

A new vision came into view.

She grabbed blindly into the pile that she knew was Caius. She grasped at the various tears and fractures, the places that the acidic poison had touched and scrubbed at it with snow.

Gods, they needed more blood.

More howls went up, and Myrtis’ head swam.

There were more visions, all different except one. Her head was a terrible mess of stony gore.

Then, the sight disappeared as soon it came. She already knew its remedy.

Another howl.

The Children were getting closer.

She laid Caius’ head gingerly beside his neck.

Perhaps, it was futile to imagine that he might survive if she failed, but she needed the hope.

She breathed two unnecessary breaths. Then, inhaling a third time, she raised her hands to her face. Her fingers skimmed her cheeks past the rough texture that was attempting to stitch itself together and to her burning eyelids.

Myrtis laid the gentle pads of her fingers—the thumbs and forefingers— at the far ends of each socket. She eased them into the pools of acid, venom, and the jelly of her eyes and pulled.

And screamed.

…

Except of Cracks in the Crypt, Chapter 21

[kcciny]

was about to unfollow you for being a genshin fan but i see you're a monster enjoyer. so i will be staying as a loyal follower after all....

I’m so sorry anon but they are so pretty they keep me interested in it… if you know any other cyber (idk what to call their design) monsters from other games please let me know I need to collect them all, they are very pretty and I will hold their hand

[ask-the-snek-man]

pretending you totally didn't bump yourself in the face - (it's okay we all have those moments *cough* never letting you live it down *cough* sorry frog in my throat /lh) - what do you do in the imagination? just vibe? go monster/creature hunting?

“It would be a bit difficult to list all the possibilities. Maybe even impossible, who’s to say.”

[vonlipvig]

oh man i could really rewatch pixar's soul right now (translation: i feel suicidal)