#ariadne-mouse draws

[ariadne-mouse]

hello hello, humbly requesting snailssek :)

He's actually just polymorphed and crossing the surface of a beacon on the desk. Snailssek is having a transformative experience though.

[blueoctopussss]

I'm working on an illustration for Mermay of Caleb and Essek inspired by @ariadne-mouse 's fic 'till human voices wake us' (so lovely, you should definitely read it, I've wanted to make a drawing for it for a while and now seemed like a good time!).

However, when I was working on the sketch I kind of just had a vague line between them of where the other arms would go, forgot about it, finished most of the linework, and now I'm not sure what to do with them!

I'm open to some suggestions, and I made a poll with some of my ideas. Feel free to elaborate in the comments or tags if you think they should be doing different things. I can easily use the lasso tool to move them farther apart/closer together or adjust the angle to make different poses work. I will also adjust the arms that are currently drawn as needed (please ignore the hands currently; I did not want to spend a lot of time on them until I was sure I liked the pose!).

Posing is one of the things I struggle the most with in art, and having an underwater scene where gravity has less of an effect means there are even more options so I appreciate any feedback I can get.

I hope to have the illustration done maybe next week (by the end of May for sure!) and I will post it here then!

Thank you!

[houndfaker]

rahhhh i haven’t felt like drawing for it (i miiiight after work today?) but i have some teams picked out for the p3 pokemon au and i feel like babbling about them since ive been replaying heartgold. under da cut. a lot of the team configurations are based on a mixture of persona parallels and just vibes.

femc/kotone/minako/etc

I’ve literally redone her team a million times because I’m never satisfied with it but i forced myself to compromise on this particular configuration (she’s probably got a ton in her pc though. members that didn’t make the cut include bewear, raticate, musharna, dragapult)

blaziken represents orpheus, and duskinoir represents thanatos. the remainder are more like “i think she’d have these”. storywise in particular, plusle is a childhood pokemon matching with yuki’s minun (the protags are twins in this au as always).

yukari

these are pretty outright i think. decidueye for the obvious archery reasons (have joked that i think it’d be cute if yukari’s decidueye actually used to be very poor with its aim until she started helping it practice)

miltank being (sort of???) representative of io, and togekiss being (SORT OF???) representative of isis. (there are only so many cow/bull pokemon and a few of which im reserving for other teams)

the rest are mostly vibes based! porygon in particular is a pokemon passed down to her from her father after his death. she has a very tight bond with it.

akihiko

magnezone represents polydeuces and golurk represents caesar

the rest are mostly vibes based. aki comes off as the type of trainer who would literally fistfight his pokemon as training. his pachirisu was his sister’s first and only pokemon before she passed.

mitsuru

ceruledge represents penthesilea. empoleon Somewhat represents artemisia.

she has somewhat noble/rare pokemon to fill her team. gardevoir is a reference to her mild navigational abilities (it would be kinda funny if she was mildly psychic like sabrinabut to a lesser extent). indeedee is a pokemon she picked up at a young age, one of the first few she caught herself.

fuuka

fuuka is a coordinator as opposed to a trainer, so her team isn’t super battle-capable. lapras and musharna are meant to sort of rep lucia/juno.

i dont have heavy thoughts on her selection but i think quagsire is very close to her.

aigis

this is one of the teams that has a great number of members that relate to her personas. bastiodon, escavelier, and iron valiant are meant to represent palladion/athena. silvally is pretty much a perfect fit narratively as a partner for aigis. ninjask is there because well i think she likes it. pikachu is a match with the rest of the moonlight bridge quartet, each having an electric mouse pokemon

she’s still a robot btw. scarvio is my enabler for that being a thing within the pokemon universe

BONUS ONES THAT ARENT FOR SEES (i have not made teams for all of them because the bestie is in charge of everyone else)

you knew this was coming

kikuno

kikuno has a number of mons matching to mitsuru’s (they caught their indeedees together, for example, and gallade to gardevoir and whatnot). noctowl dodrio and lycanroc because i think she’d like them. rotoms various forms i imagine are a helpful aid for housework, and they match one another in Mischief.

chidori

I think chidoris are pretty self explanatory. very vibes based. tauros/houndoom representing medea. mesprit because we’ve been imagining each member of strega being in possession of a member of the lake trio.

labrys (she’s here too yay!!)

this one i actually wrote a compact little list for LMAO

zorua - her illusion abilitiesss

bouffalant - asterius

haxorus - her axe

aegislash - unit 024

furfrou - snowy

pheromosa - ariadne

dats all for now. we have loose plot concepts in mind but nothing concrete enough for me to explain here

[mithrilwren]

2020 Creator Wrap

ta2020 Creator Wrap: Favorite Works

Tagged by @essektheylyss!! Thank you :D

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I’m going to go with “or so” and do four, because it’s almost midnight and I’ve gotta wrap this up ;)

1. your dust from mine. This is the second longest story I’ve ever written, at 75K words, and it might be my favourite thing I’ve written, ever - not just because I’m proud of the writing, but because of the circumstances of the writing itself. I spent most of this summer of uncertainty sitting on my parent’s back porch, watching the apple trees bloom and crafting this tale of two princes (one knowing, one not) falling in love in a greenhouse. The fjorclay community meant so much to me over the past year, and I’m really glad I got to share this story when I did. It brought me a lot of peace in a turbulent time, and I hope it did for other people as well.

2. The Ghost on the Shore. Another record, this is my longest one-shot of all time, capping out at over 20K words. It was really my love letter to things I remembered from childhood - the lake, campground tuck shops, the open highway - and to the person I am today: uncertain about the future, dealing with things from my past, but still hopeful, just like Fjord and Caduceus are in this fic. But my favourite thing about The Ghost on the Shore is the response it got from other Canadians, who felt the same nostalgia and homesickness for their homes reading it that I did writing it. That my work could bring out those feelings in people is absolutely the coolest (and most touching) thing.

3. “Waiting” Essek fanart. I’ve never considered myself an artist in the way that I consider myself a writer, but if there’s one thing the pandemic has given me, it’s ample time to pursue hobbies I’d let fall to the side, including drawing. Is this piece perfect? No, of course not - I see ten new issues every time I look at it - but it is leaps and bounds better than what I could draw at the beginning of this year, and I am super proud of that, and all the work that went into getting there (thank you @flammablehat for being my art partner and practice buddy!)

4. Ceremony. I am proud of this fic for a completely different reason than the ones above - because I never thought I’d finish it, but somehow, somehow, I did. This TAZ blupjeans fic sat half-finished for literal years in my WIPs - always something that I meant to complete, always something I’d look at for a few minutes and then give up on again. But somehow, during my last week of work (and one of the most chaotic times in my life), I managed to do the impossible and finally finish the last few segments. Feels good, man.

I’ll tag @ariadne-mouse, @the-kaedageist, @sky-scribbles, and anyone else who wants to do this! (Seriously, anyone who wants to do it, I wanna see!)

Ten minutes to midnight - cheers to the end of 2020! May the next year be a better one.

[ariadne-mouse]

Isn't he beautiful?

[ariadne-mouse]

I legitimately just woke up from a dream where I opened your tumblr and found a drawing and I spent ten minutes after I woke up recreating it in my mind over and over and maybe this is the sleep brain talking but I feel like this drawing was like, putting my hand directly on lightning in the best way, if lightning was the also gentle, bittersweet joy of an afternoon where the rain is falling and you are inside and cozy and it is perfect but you know it will end. but reversed

but so the drawing was a very simple room with dark green walls and a brown floor and orange trim, very goodnight moon colors, and the bedspread looked like the sky was falling apart, and caleb and essek were asleep in the bed, their faces kind of melting together in a Picasso way so there was only one head, and it said "in the end do you think they loved holding each other forever"

tl;dr you were in a dream of mine and I feel like dream ariadne-mouse unlocked some part of my brain and now I feel like crying a lot but in a good way

@_@ i... how very interesting! If my actual blog provided any of this material, perhaps your sleeping brain juice might have been drawing from recollections of this meme (goodnight moon CR edit) and this drawing (sleepy shadowgast cuddles)? I'm fascinated with how you describe the details like "the bedspread looked like the sky was falling apart" because that's so on point for what things feel like in dreams where it's impossible IRL but in the dream it's like, yeah of course it's like that.

The shenanigans of my dream-counterpart's blog aside, this was a fantastic drawing prompt, and inspired this! (moved to its own post so that it stays full-sized in reblogs.) I know it probably won't match your dream, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

[ariadne-mouse]

Pomegranate Still Life 5 - Wreckage

[saturdaysky]

Have you read til human voices wake us, @ariadne-mouse's spooky mer-Caleb shadowgast AU? It's a delight, especially if you enjoyed the early canon shadowgast vibes. I'm doing art for most chapters!

This is from chapter 5, in which: Essek goes on a field trip to Rosohna's night market and braves a journey through the mushroom cavern so he can procure quality fish for his merman boyfriend. Maybe merman enemy, he isn't sure.

In case you like drawings of fungi, here are some detail shots :D

And the sketch below the cut:

[ariadne-mouse]

Ahoy! I'm Ariadne, also known as mousecookie on Ao3, and ariadne-mouse over on Bluesky. This is a personal blog that meanders with my interests. Right now I'm very into Critical Role, but that is not the only content I post or reblog. Join me for the ride however long you like, and follow or unfollow whenever suits your needs!

For Critical Role spoilers: I use the tag "cr spoilers" for a week after an episode airs, including for non 5e content like Candela Obscura. For the main 5e campaign I also tag the episode number, e.g. "c3e01". I don't have a liveblogging tag, but any post I create instead of reblog is tagged "op". For Beacon-exclusive content I use "beacon spoilers" for newly aired content & "beacon tv" as the general tag.

Other tags you may find of interest are:

ariadne writes CR (for my fic)

ariadne draws CR (for my art), featured in the CR gallery

ariadne doodles (for my non-CR art)

Misc: art, pilte, fanart, gigglesnort, cats, water, green, and decay as a love language/flowers and bones (body horror warning)

[saturdaysky]

Tagged for the WIP meme by @ariadne-mouse and @catalists -- thank you both! 💖

I tag @renquise @mithrilwren @annundriel @mllekurtz @iniquiticity @aboxthecolourofheartache and @sky-scribbles if any of you would like! I'm sure some of you have been tagged already.

Rules: post a recent line or two from a WIP. I am bending these rules because I pasted the lines and then decided to continue drafting the scene right here in this post. Impulse control, I know thee not.

WIP: Post-canon slow burn Aeorian nerd vacation where the Shadowgasts teach each other spells and figure out the new people they are becoming.

Excerpt: Caleb helps Essek remain limber for somatic casting. They talk, and don't talk.

“I am bad at a lot of things around you all," Essek muses quietly. His posture is painfully precise, probably exactly what led to all the knots Caleb can feel under his fingertips. "It is a thing I am coming to cherish even though it can be, ah. Aggravating.”

“Well, we are pretty aggravating assholes in the Nein.” Caleb carefully presses his thumbs into a particularly hard knot, drawing a hiss from Essek. He soothes the area with a gentle stroke, then lets his voice drop into something deeper, differently-accented. “Master Thelyss, are you sure you cannot teleport us again twenty feet further into the jungle? We are rather shit at reading maps, you see, and you are so handy with a teleport spell.”

[read more'd for length and a few suggestive thoughts from one Mr. Widogast]

The shoulders beneath his fingers shake with what Caleb hopes is laughter, though when Essek speaks it is with the perfect blandness of a courtier. "What a remarkable impression of...Fjord? It is as though he is here with us now."

Essek is one of the Nein, and Essek is also an asshole. "You are not the only one who is bad at things," Caleb says, unable to stop a grin. He draws his hands higher up Essek's shoulders, works at some of the tension there. "I trust you with the secret of my terrible impressions."

"It is safe with me, always," Essek promises, and his laughter spills out then, silvery and soft. After a moment, he quiets and takes a shallow breath. His posture eases.

Then he leans back into Caleb's touch.

Oh? Caleb's fingers freeze in surprise. A thought comes unbidden: what would it be like, if he drew Essek back just a bit further until his small frame was nestled secure against Caleb's chest? If he slipped his rough hands beneath the silk of Essek's tunic, skin to skin, and learned all the ways the world had marked him after he'd left the Nein?

What if. He finds himself weak with the want of it.

Seconds tick by, and Essek goes still in front of him, back straightening up once more. He swallows and looks down. Caleb's eyes catch on the pale edge of that new scar — who gave him that? — that reaches up from beneath his high collar to curl just under his jaw. It shines a little in the dim light.

In an instant, the thought of Essek, debauched grows a new dimension in Caleb's mind: of pressing lips where scar meets jaw, following it lower with teeth and tongue, and then working his hands and his mouth against Essek's skin until Essek made soft, silvery sounds of a different kind.

His fingers tighten involuntarily. Essek's posture grows a little more perfect.

Get a hold of yourself, Widogast. You have your hands on him already. That is enough of a bad idea, but you are supposed to be helping him right now, not giving in to base thoughts.

He resumes pressing his fingers over the knots in Essek's back. "Ah, sorry. Just plotting who among our friends I will next profane with my impression of them." His levity is a little forced, but some of the tension leaves Essek's frame anyway.

"...Mr. Clay, perhaps. Though if he saw it, I suspect he'd simply be flattered you tried," Essek replies lightly.

"Ja, almost more embarrassing that way. I suppose I will just have to inflict my impressions upon you alone."

"More the pity, me." Essek tilts his head, considering. "I prepared for a lot of hazards on this trip, but failed to anticipate amateur theater as my greatest threat."

It startles a laugh out of Caleb. "You are harsh, Herr Thelyss."

"So I've been told." There's a smile in his voice.

And all is back to normal, Caleb hopes. They are a proper distance away from each other, speaking as friends.

But the image of Essek, shirt rucked up and undone in Caleb's arms, lingers stubbornly around the edges of his imagination. A dangerous thought accompanies it: If I trusted you with myself, Essek, how much of me would you keep safe?

[saturdaysky]

WIP Chain Game

Tagged by @mithrilwren! Rules: Write the latest line from your wip and tag as many people as there are words in the line.

I opened up the most recent document in my docs folder and found a WIP I'd pasted in there which I had totally forgotten about, with a set of last lines that amused me.

“Why not? The hour is ours, Shadowhand.” Caleb speaks the words against the soft skin of his wrist, playfulness turning his fond grin a little wicked. "Suborn me."

It is a terrible line, straight from one of Jester's novels, and Essek has no resistance to it. His voice slips into a low, sultry register with embarrassing ease. "I will do so, perhaps."

Tagging @aboxthecolourofheartache @renquise @mllekurtz @catalists @ariadne-mouse if you should wish and have not been so tagged already! And anyone else who might like to share. :)

Aaaand just because I haven't had time to write lately (booo), here's a longer snippet below the cut. The lead-up to those lines, plus a few after that grew as I minorly polish it just now -- just some fond, established relationship shadowgast stuff. :)

Instead, he smooths his hand over Caleb's hair and sets about tidying the desk to ensure any sensitive spell components are sorted and put away just so. Caleb will likely need them again tomorrow, once he has rested.

Beside Caleb's slumped form, Frumpkin lifts his head and stares at Essek with an assessing eye.

"Good evening," Essek says quietly, checking the seal of a jar. "You won't tell on me, will you?" Frumpkin stares at him, implacable, then stretches and butts his head against Essek's hand.

Essek feels a swell of fondness for the creature. "As it should be.” he agrees. “Your master does not take good care of himself, so it is up to us to do it for him." He reaches out and scratches the cat under its chin, because this too is something Essek can do with his gifted minutes. "It will be our secret."

He sets the last component into its place, then shifts away from the desk, floating quietly. Before he can move farther than a foot away, a calloused hand catches his wrist.

When he glances back, Caleb is staring at him with an amused, accusatory eye. "Essek," he murmurs in the soft tones of the recently-woken, "are you trying to suborn my cat?"

Essek has been working on Frumpkin for the better part of a decade, and he thinks he’s made good progress. "Perhaps,” he answers. “You know I am a fan of taking allies where I can find them, particularly when it is for an important cause."

Caleb sits up from his slump and rests his head on his other hand. “I do know that,” he says. He draws Essek's hand to his lips and presses a kiss to the knuckles. It's nothing more than a short press of closed lips, but the hooded blue eyes above are bright with intent. "I am just curious at the target you have chosen. What must I do to get you to suborn me as well?”

Oh. Well. “Surely I have already done so,” Essek offers. "You are here in my towers, after all." The corner of Caleb's mouth tugs up. He presses another kiss to the knuckles, soft and lingering, his gaze steady. A tiny spot of chill blooms on Essek's skin when he draws back. Maybe Essek isn't the only one doing some suborning.

“If you had," Caleb rumbles, "you wouldn’t feel the need to recruit my cat. I remain my own.” The edges such a statement might have had have been worn away by years, softened into affectionate teasing. Something in Essek glows at the comfortable familiarity; even now it takes him by surprise. His fingers twitch where Caleb has caught them; the calloused grip tightens in response.

Caleb continues, settling further into the fey mood that has taken him upon waking, “But you know, our goals are aligned in this. I could be persuaded to a bedroom, I think." He turns Essek's hand over until it is palm-up.

Essek arches a brow. "Could you, now. I would like to persuade you to rest, but you seem intent on making" — Caleb's smirk deepens and he presses an open-mouthed kiss to the inside of Essek’s wrist — "ah, making the case for other activities.”

“Why not? The hour is ours, Shadowhand.” Caleb speaks the words against the soft skin of his wrist, playfulness turning his fond grin a little wicked. "Suborn me."

It is a terrible line, straight from one of Jester's novels, and Essek has no resistance to it. His voice slips into a low, sultry register with embarrassing ease. "I will do so, perhaps."

He floats forward and cups Caleb's chin. Blue eyes widen, but before Caleb has a chance to make a smart quip, Essek tilts down and kisses him.

It is brief and intense, and leaves both of them panting a little when Essek pulls back. "But after you are thoroughly suborned," he says, gratified by Caleb's flush, "you will go to sleep."