#because I'm obsessed with them actually

[whatsthisascianbullshit]

I saw the "in my cups over them," so consider this a general prompt to ramble about them! Tell me anything and everything. I have to know more. 👀

Hi @halfalgorithm-halfdeity I struggle to get a lot of my Muireann and Hien thoughts wrangled down because they're tied up in the "chewing through tables over rediscovering your culture after being colonised and the systematic erasure of your culture and heritage" that Stormblood sends me through (truly, an expansion for My Interests /gestures at Ireland's 800 years of oppression BUT I DIGRESS)

Hien and Muireann meet each other at the best possible time to work but also it's the worst time for them to realise it. (on reading back I do not actually explain this - basically if they met earlier Hien wouldn't have made his own plans for sacrifice/rebellion and Muireann wouldn't have been running from her feelings and grief, and if they met later Muireann would have had a chance to fully wall herself off emotionally. But because they meet when they do, Muireann is still wrangling with her emotional mess and cannot admit that she has feelings for Hien and that makes it a mess for both of them)

THIS GOT LONG AND IS STILL SOMEHOW THE CLIFF NOTES VERSION LMAO

Spoilers for ARR through to Shadowbringers intro under the cut, mostly Stormblood.

Muireann is fresh off of Y'shtola collapsing a tunnel on herself at the end of ARR, Haurchefant fucking dying in her arms, then Y'shtola coming back but now they're both different but maybe there are feelings but it's Complicated now, and then Y'shtola getting almost killed by Zenos and Muireann goes with the contingent to help in Doma in large part to avoid all the feelings that seeing the woman she fully changes the course of her life for get cut down right in front of her and she couldn't do Anything. Muireann is going to Doma to harden her heart back up. Because heartbreak causes mistakes in her calculations and mistakes cost lives, and against Zenos that could mean an absolutely devastating loss of life.

Hien has spent the last year-ish of his life recovering from almost dying after watching Zenos kill his father in front of him. The smart move would have been to then flee but he put his people above his own life (also likely a Terrible way to cope with seeing your dad sliced open in front of you but yanno). He knows that what little military might they had before that rebellion is gone. So he makes a plan. One that only works if several extremely unlikely things happen in succession because he has this plan before the Scions turn up.

So when they first meet and Hien's response to "we have spent days changing their minds so the people ask for your sword" was "I will simply win the Naadam even though I am only a little while recovered and have had maybe a few months to attempt to get back into fighting shape" it honestly kind of short-circuited her brain. Because it was the only logical path forward but it was an incredibly risky plan with so many opportunities to go horribly wrong and it was presented as though it was simple. Because it also was a very simple plan. For the best chance of success with the least amount of lives lost they needed more fighters. This is the most efficient way to gain social standing with the most amount of people in order to make this request. It's essentially then just a process of Muireann's own feelings wearing down her bullheaded stubbornness to get her to admit the fact she has feelings to herself after she had decided that she Was Not Going To Care About Anyone Else Like That.

Hien was faced with a pretty elf that was quiet and reserved but when she did speak up it was largely related to tactics and strategy. Someone who clearly knew what she was talking about but that did not align with how she would have been described (powerful mage, vicious witch, breaker of gods). Then he sees her in battle. And she summons a dragon. To save him? Probably her brother. But maybe also him? Maybe just him?

The two proceed to flirt with each other obtusely while internally talking themselves out of the sheer notion that the other person is interested in them. The post-Naadam Doma arc for these two drives me fully insane I am obsessed with them.

When they eventually do get their shit together at the end of Stormblood they continue the trend of internally making assumptions about the other person and what kind of future they want. And so they pointedly avoid any and all conversation about the future and their feelings beyond "enjoying each other's company". At this point they're both fully smitten, head over heels, cannot imagine a future without each other. Neither of them say this to each other.

Then the strange headaches start.

Then people start falling into magic, soul-snatched comas.

Muireann initially continues to assume that she'll be fine because she has the Echo. Then during the fight at the Ghimlyt Dark where Hien, Yugiri and Lyse hold off Zenos until Murieann and the rest of her party arrive Muireann and Hien both have to face the fact that they are in fact In Love with the other person. Do they say this to each other? No. Of course not. (though in their defense this time Murieann was whisked back to Ishgard with the rest of the gang to recover closer to the rest of the Scions).

In Ishgard Muireann finds out that her brother has fallen into a coma. She's completely distraught both at the potential loss of her brother and also at the realisation that the Echo won't protect her. And she has never told Hien how she feels. She hastily writes a letter because she needs to get it out of her before the fear strikes again, and also because they have a lead at the Crystal Tower that she needs to follow up on. That letter is dispatched and mere hours later Hien is notified that Muireann has also fallen into a magic coma.

Hien then bullies convinces the remaining Scions to let Muireann's body rest in Doma. The offered logic being that if all the Scions and Warriors of Light are resting in the same spot, it would be very easy for Garlemald to blow up one building and be rid of the most persistent thorn in their side. A larger reason is because Muireann's confession letter opens with "I wish I could tell you this in person" and he stops reading. Gets her body safe in Doma. And waits.

Because there is something she wanted to tell him (and something he wants to tell her).

Anyway that's the cliff notes version of Them leading into Shadowbringers. They give me fucking Hives (I am obsessed).

Just two people piecing together what their heritage means to them in the present after attempts at destroying it.

A disaster-sexual wizard and a prince who loves women who can kerb stomp him.

[hilacopter]

normalize liking platonic dynamics just as much as romantic dynamics. normalize being insane over characters as friends and not as a ship. normalize wanting characters to be closer platonically just as you would want them to be closer romantically (I call it platonic shipping). normalize not having characters fall in love for no reason when they were already great and compelling platonically. normalize characters doing things that are usually seen as romantic but in a platonic context. normalize writing platonic fanfiction and drawing platonic fanart. "I am insane about their friendship" can and should be common actually. amatonormativity BEGONE!

[shaylai]

I would've loved it if they fought side by side 😭

[shalom-iamcominghome]

"We need more diverse queer representation!"

You cannot even handle queer jews.

[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

[scootersscooter]

the best friends ever actually

[jeeaark]

Nobody gave Greygold the 'How to Squid' Manual. And even if they had one (it's probably integrated in their brain like a squid tutorial)-gonna adamantly ignore it. Adapt on the fly instead. In the middle of an invasion. No better way to learn babeeeeeey~

Maybe all the other tiny-tentacled Tavs insta-figured out how to cerebral-armor. But. Greygold has... different priorities.

[kaiser1ns]

You thought it was over? It's not. I'm not done yet, understood. (Imagine Endo saying this like aaaaaaaa)

i think i have a type nom nom men with tattoo sleeves. APPRECIATING ENDO'S ARMS BECAUSE HE DESERVES IT. also adding my other man jeon jungkook because why not (⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♡

LOOK AT THOSE MUSCLES LOOK AT HIM OH MY GAWD IM IN THE OUTER SPACE SCREAMING HIS NAME UNTIL MY VOICE REACHES ANOTHER GALAXY, ANOTHER DIMENSION, ANOTHER MULTIVERSE.

[soshadysoquiet]

A very TUA Halloween - comic

This labour of love has left me frantically creating into the wee hours of Halloween morning just to get it up in time.

As my first time drawing the entirety of The Nightmare Siblings, I'm happy to have gotten a version of them down on 'paper', I want to get more confident portraying them, but a start is a start!

Either way, this was fun, and who doesn't want to see these guys pumpkin carving?

Happy Halloween everyone!

[koriand3r]

Willow | Spike - Clothing

“Why are you still in costume?” “Okay, still having to explain wherein this is just my outfit.”

[tiktowafel]

do you ever think about how all you used to draw when you were 10 was ponies and that you should still know how to do that, then get an idea and proceed to draw something like these in nearly one sitting and it turns out better than any drawing you've done in the entire past month

sooo anyway does anyone have cutie mark or pony name ideas for them?? lol

[fuckinart]

(they'll never understand) How could I ever understand? No, I don't have to understand. I don't wanna understand. So I will never understand. (we could have everything)

[emile-hides]

I was watching a Youtube video of all the Cinematic from the new Overwatch Invasion update (cause heaven knows I ain't buying it) and I noticed at the end Ramattra has this like.. Burn? Mark?? On his chest that goes through his cape

So I downloaded Overwatch on my PC to get a look at the Wandering/Traveling Monk skins this scene is using and I noticed..

Traveling and Wandering have a lot of visual differences, most notably in the burn the originally got my attention.

Wandering has been used canonically to show Ramattra's monk days previously, in his origin story and in the Developer commentary, but interestingly the artwork in those videos is lacking that very burn

Overwatch character designers are very good at visual storytelling, especially with Omnics (I could write an essay on what they've done with Zenyatta), so I believe this burn may very well be what became the Last Straw for Ramattra, what pushed him to leave the Shambali, what caused his fall into violence and eventually Talon.

Was he attacked? Or was he attempting to protect someone else? Despite his best efforts to shield them, the shot fired right past him, scorching his metal, cutting through his cape, and taking their life...

I hope we learn more about it.

[felicitykings]

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (1934) dir. George Nicholls Jr.

[spaceratprodigy]

💋 Cybill and Iris 💋

@grimreapersbutt — it is mandatory Looking At Them hours btw

Commission Info | Ko-Fi | My Links

[novelconcepts]

Do you ever just lay awake at night, turning over in your head the stark difference in delivery between Hewson's Van saying--steadily, unshakably--"it's just something that's happening to you...happening to us" and Cypress' Taissa saying--imploringly, whiningly--"this was not just my dream, this was our dream"?

Do you ever just turn it over and over, how often Tai tried to scare Van away, and how it only made Van set her feet more firmly? How Taissa's first love was this person who saw a problem fall into Taissa's lap, a problem that was quite literally trapped inside Taissa's body, and decided unflinchingly: No, that's an us problem now? How she refused point-blank to walk away even with blood in her mouth, how she flatly informed Tai "I'm never gonna be scared of you", and promptly turned a moment of pain into a declaration of love? And how this would etch itself into Taissa for the rest of her life? How she'd take these things that worked with Van--with the person Van was, with the bond they shared--and try so hard to run through an identical script with Simone?

Except Simone is her own person. A completely different kind of person. A person who hasn't been offered any of the context, any of the realities going on inside Taissa. So: naturally she doesn't respond the way Van did at eighteen--and will go on to do all over again in her forties. Naturally, she hears our dream as the excuse it is, not as a plea for connection. Naturally, she is scared away when Taissa pushes, and shouts, and begs. Because there isn't blood in her mouth, not yet, but there will be. And they have a son to worry about. And she isn't eighteen and a special kind of immortal, a special kind of romanticized. She's a grown woman with responsibilities, with priorities, with an understanding that you can't fix someone just because you love them. And Tai can't just perform a revival of the play she and Van had memorized twenty-five years later with a whole new performer in the works, and expect it to shake out the same.

Of course it doesn't work. But look at Taissa trying it. Look at Taissa trying to reframe her first love through a new lens. Trying to recast it. Trying to play it through again. Van taught her love was sticking out the blood, shaking off the pain, making a you problem into an us problem. Does it ever just eat at you, how tragic it is, watching Taissa try to shape her marriage around a woman who isn't even wearing a ring?