#apothecaryforwearysouls

[callsignbaphomet]

You should talk about Berserkers more <333

Aw, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ignore the ask. I was super fixated on finishing that thing I was working on and wanted to finish it first for two reasons. I was super fixated and that would answer part of this ask. Sorta. I'll post that later.

Also I'm sorry if I sound incoherent I took some Benadryl and everything's fuzzy right now.

So. Berserkers.

Okay so I basically love the idea of the berserker and all that but found it lacked a little...panache. At least to me anyway.

Berserkers are essentially a long lived type of humanoid warrior. While out of berserker mode they look identical to regular humans in every way. In fact, there is no way to tell if what you're looking at is a human or a berserker. However, when they shift into their berserker mode they turn into hulking, muscular humanoids that stand somewhere between 8 feet and 9.5 feet tall and weigh anywhere between 350 to 490 pounds. That's without armors and their weapons. Aside from getting really freaking big they conjure up armors and weapons, adults conjure up two weapons. The look and style of the armors and weapons differ from individual to individual but each armor and weapon depends solely on the culture of the berserker.

Let's use Loke for an example. He's Norwegian so his armor and weapons will reflect that. He's a Nordic or Norse whichever you wanna use berserker so that'll reflect on the style of his gear.

Aside from hulking out and conjuring weapons these fuckers are strong and I mean S T R O N G! They're one of the few non-humans that can and dare to go up against the divine in a head to head battle and make them sweat and work for their victory. They're not mindless in this state but they are super quick to start fighting and once a berserker picks a target there's not much that'll stand in the way of them defeating their target.

Also their armor can sustain damage and even break but the amount of force that has to be used in order to break their armor is fucking mental. Now, just because the armor breaks it doesn't mean it's permanent, if the armor breaks the berserker shifts back into their human form until it regenerates which can take a few hours depending on the severity of the damage. However, their weapons will never break or dull or rust. Speaking of, a berserker doesn't need to shift into berserker mode in order to conjure their weapons, they can do so at any time they need. Like so.

Another change I forgot to mention is that while in berserker mode their eyes tend to glow in whatever color their eyes are and that also happens when only conjuring a weapon. Yeah, Loke has green eyes but the red comes from when he was resurrected so Loke's kind of a special case. The electricity surging through the axe isn't normal either. We'll get to that.

Now, berserkers may have their roots and origins in magic but they cannot use magic, not in human form and much less in berserker mode. It's not that they aren't permitted, it's just that they cannot actually understand magic so they can't really learn it. I had to nerf them somewhere lol

Yeah, I know, the doodle is contradicting everything I'm saying but again, Loke's kind of a special case.

If a berserker should ever decide to try and learn magic it would be one hell of a gargantuan task as like I said, they don't actually understand it so they don't bother, besides, with their raw power they don't need magic. Hell, they don't need a rocket launcher either...

When they're young berserkers can conjure a range of weapons to try out and practice with them to sort of get a feeling as to which two they feel most comfortable with, then iirc by their late teens they've already made up their minds as to which two weapons they feel comfortable with and stick to those two only. Since they specialize in two weapons they become like an extension to them, they pretty much master that weapon and become devastating with them.

In the case of Loke he chose a two headed axe like his dad has and the bow and arrow like his mom has.

Like I said, these guys are long lived but they seldom get to fully enjoy that because they're a warrior species. Fighting is in their blood so most die in battle. And these fuckers are extremely tough to kill which means that they tend to die brutally and bloody.

They don't have some jacked up healing like other species have, they'll scar and aren't immune to diseases both inherited and catching.

Loke for example has asthma, hemophilia (which is crazy when you really think about it and what he is), astigmatism, can't see well up close I forgot what that one's called...you get the idea.

Now! Magic and Loke. Okay, so he's idolized his mom for as long as he can remember and always wanted to be like her. Since he was a little boy he asked his mom to teach him how to use magic and while Sanaa knew it was damn near impossible she humored. This took a very long time, we're talking 30+ years for him to get but Sanaa taught him a small trick she often used that can turn one arrow into thousands of arrows that rain on the enemy. She also taught him to conjure an element, in his case it's lightning, to wrap itself around his conjured weapon. These are things that would take a child a few months to get but since Loke's a berserker it took that long. This was kind of a pretty big deal as vommon berserkers just can't really do that but he persevered until he got it. Then it took him some 20 odd years or so to be able to consistently pull it off. Now he can do it in his sleep like it's nothing and it serves to intimidate others and impress others like his mom's side of the family. When they first saw it their minds were blown to hell and back and those people don't get surprised by anything.

So if the berserker is based on the person's culture, what about those who's parents are from two different cultures? Easy. The armor and weapons take aspects of both parents.

That pretty much cover the common berserker. Then there are arcane berserkers of which ONLY AND ONLY the Nyota people can be arcane berserkers. However, if a common berserker and an arcane berserker have a child that child will also be an arcane berserker and be considered a Nyota descendant.

More on arcane berserkers will be on another post I'll post later.

[headcanontheshitoutofsoulsborne]

@apothecaryforwearysouls replied to your post “Hey guys, confess your stupidest "Mistake I made...”:

I believed in my heart of hearts that upgrading the broken straight sword fully would lead to a cool upgraded version lol <3

​You embraced your inner Zero Lenny. I am so proud of you!

[apocritast]

Tagged by @vodkafolie (please go look at their art it's amazing and the way they work with colorsssss) to share the 5 top tracks you've been listening to:

(I don't know how to do fancy embeds lol so I'll just list them)

Prayer for Rain, by The Urge

The Cricket and The Hamster, by PhemieC

The Dirt I'm Buried In, by Avatar

Firestorm, by Danny Schmidt

Howl, by Florence and the Machine

Tagging @rxttenfish @ratlastheseus @callsignbaphomet @apothecaryforwearysouls @vanilachai @bookoramaenderteeth @nightmaredaisy , and anyone else who wants to but also no pressure!

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls

[callsignbaphomet]

I feel like Jelani and Angelus are big dumpling folk <3

(Lol I have many headcannons for your boys, I daydream often)

Well, dumplings ARE Angelus's favorite food. Specifically steamed dumplings. Jelani's partial to them as well, mostly because Angelus is so into them, he's not picky about how they're made or what they're stuffed with though.

Ngl, totally wanna hear about the other headcannons lol!

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls surprise second secret lil Bulbasaur!

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls

Lol I'm partially kidding but not. He's so picky and when he says no to veggies he simply will not. Not an easy puppy to fool.

And Uthorim, my dear, will learn of Jelani's struggles with a hyper carnivore, energy drink chugging, coffee loving, candy scarfing pain in the ass when it comes to food ❤️

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls I see so much potential for builds suited for our boys! This bitch is gonna be so much fun!

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls

There's a lot of people so I'll just stick to key people lol.

Jelani: He was terrified of him. He was bleeding out and had just regained consciousness and he sees this unknown man looming over the hole he was thrown into and he's never seen him before. Everyone he had ever met up to that point hurt him in some way and he wasn't sure what new twisted form of torture his abusers were coming up with but as soon as Jelani went down the hole and spoke to him softly and wrapped him in his coat and carefully carried him out he sort of relaxed and didn't let go of him until they all arrived back at the compound and even then Jelani had to carry him directly to the doctors because he didn't wanna let go of him because at that moment a lot of things were happening, there were a lot of people he didn't know, a lot of yelling and shouting, his abusers were threatening to kill people and some man he didn't know was claiming to be his grandfather but Jelani remained quiet and quietly reassured him that everything was going to be okay and that he was safe now. That was the very first time someone held him and spoke to him instead of hitting him or stabbing him or abusing him in any way and actually spoke to him instead of yelling and shouting at him or threatening him. That's why Angelus formed that safety link to Jelani. It was the very first time he felt safe.

Aleksey: He didn't see Alek until days later but he did hear his voice. When he clung on to Jelani he'd buried his face on his chest and didn't look up out of fear. He never met Alek before and was confused when he heard him tell him he was his grandfather.

((The reason Aleksey hadn't come to get Angelus was because when Nicholas sold Angelus Nicholas told Alek that his wife and son had been found by slayers and were both killed. So all those years Alek believed Angelus had died when he was 2 years old until one of the abusers had grown a conscious and wrote to Alek and told him EVERYTHING.))

Loke and Trevor: I put them both together because Jelani is never far from his brother and Trevor was always close to the two siblings. When Jelani handed Angelus over to the doctors he didn't see him again for almost a year. His initial recovery was not easy or pretty and it took doctors a very long time. From getting him to relax to rebreaking bones to set them right and a bunch of stuff I don't wanna mention here. Anyway, once he was okay enough to walk the premises he actually sought out Jelani who was, to no one's surprise, with Loke and Trevor. Jela introduced him to them and he was afraid at first but when they spoke to him the same way that Jelani did he felt safe enough though it had to do with the fact that Jelani was there. With time he formed a close bond to them as well and even learned to communicate non-verbally because of Trevor and he was the one who taught him to write while Jelani taught him how to read and Loke taught him to express himself better without fear.

Ginger: She's like a little sister to him and both instantly formed a strong friendship given the fact that both are arcane users and powerful ones at that. She didn't know anyone and once Angelus initially recovered he had the habit to make sure any new people weren't feeling alone. Once they got to talking and found out each were magic users it was almost instant friendship.

Uthorim: Oh, he instantly thought he was lovely. He really gravitated to his face because to him he looked really kind and soft though he noticed he was big and strong so he also instantly thought he was hot. Angelus was the first to notice that Uthorim was focusing a lot on Loke and very subtly nudged at Jelani and both got a kick out of watching Loke not realize this teddy bear of a mountain of a man was flirting with him. Don't worry, Jelani told Loke lol.

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls

Here's my favorite drawings of 2023, wooooo! It's so fun to see all the different seasons represented. I'm curious, which of these do you like most?

Thank you for following along with my art this year! I feel so lucky that anyone connects with my weird little drawings. Your attention and kindness is very much appreciated. ♥

Here's to more growth in 2024!

[callsignbaphomet]

The boys's "redone" presets. Angelus was the one that was changed the most. Ish. Least was Loke. Managed to better Jelani's scars...which like an asshole I neglected to take a shot of them. @apothecaryforwearysouls

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls

Use an AU as an excuse to try it out and see how you feel about it. Who knows? You might end up liking it enough to make it canon.

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls

Antique 1920's Rat Perfume Figural Bottle from Germany ebay Diane's Clearinghouse

[callsignbaphomet]

@apothecaryforwearysouls

Ngl I saw the video and rebloged so quick I didn't notice the tags. Super curious about the comparison though.