#but I figure I'll just say it again

[musette22]

Last week, a lovely person went through my back catalogue on AO3 and left a bunch of comments on some of my older fics, and I realised just how happy it made me to know that those fics are still being read and appreciated. I do still regularly receive kudos on older works, but comments are very rare, which is why it was such a lovely, unexpected gift. I think most authors would probably feel the same!

All the more because when I recently left some comments on the older work of one of my own favourite writers, who doesn't even write for this fandom anymore as far as I can tell, they replied so gratefully, expressing that same sentiment of "Wow, I'm so happy and touched that people are still enjoying these stories enough to comment on them!"

So, if you're reading older fics and you enjoy them, please consider leaving a comment, if you're able? Especially if the author is still active, but even if they're not. Because generally speaking, it means so much to authors to get that little confirmation that the work they invested so much of their time and energy in isn't just consumed and then forever forgotten. Thank you so much! ❤️

[a-s-levynn]

And the instinct to kill entangle to one

original 📸 by @fadetodvst

[crescentfool]

orpheus and thanatos 💚

[scoriarose]

She came up with a new activity

[bacchuschucklefuck]

species medley ft. gorgug and riz

[deoidesign]

Portrait of a vampire

Photo of a werewolf (who doesn't trust cameras)

As a treat I like to paint my characters realistically from time to time... so I can see them...

Webcomic

[hotwaterandmilk]

A year ago I was thinking maybe I'd try to create more original content in a vain attempt to help pay for the various health supports I'm slowly starting to need.

I didn't really get too far into planning what I'd do exactly before a bunch of crap happened and I ended up doing nothing.

But I did create a mascot character for my "brand" (I guess you'd call it) before things fell apart. I had a few cool artists work on a few different versions of my original design before I ran out of cash, but out of the blue the other day I remembered she existed and that I'd never shared her with the blog.

She doesn't have a name (feel free to come up with one) but she's kind of a mix of everything I love about the magical girl visuals from Iczer Girl Iczelion, Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Yuna, Chou Kousoku GranDoll & Akihabara Dennou Gumi. Y'know, with an even more obnoxious faux retro colour scheme because of who I am as a person.

I've thought about using her as my icon here and completing the "rebrand" I suppose you'd call it, but I can't seem to bring myself to change my Hiwatari Saki illustration icon for now.

In saying that though, I didn't want my magical robo girl to go completely unseen after I spent all that time creating her so here she is, hope you like her.

[aioliravioli-69]

This one was a long time coming (a.k.a. since I found out about 'Duolingo on ice') so I started looking into it and I found this!

This pose

This pose specifically was MADE for Buddy!!

I couldn't resist

Buddy being a dramatic bastard

[merlins-strawberriesandroses]

I’m not very articulate unfortunately but now that I’ve made this sideblog I wanted to get some thoughts out. I do see the logic when folks say that Arthur mostly experienced bad things in regards to magic, so it makes sense why he was wary of it/didn’t alter the laws since he didn’t know about Merlin’s guardian angel tendencies/etc. BUT. If we’re going with the magic is a queer metaphor (or just using it as one of many real life parallels) then I got to say. If you’re homophobic or your dad’s a queerphobic/bigoted politician who sanctions their murder and you haven’t explicitly said oh yeah I really don’t agree with that. Then queer people will probably not go out of their way to be kind to you while also letting you know they’re queer. They’re going to be wary and many will be antagonistic, and if there are queer people in your life they’ll probably keep mum because saying anything risks their life/security, and even freedom, in a way that’s distinct and sometimes worse than the restriction of freedom the closet imposes. 

In the same vein I feel like well if magic was banned in Camelot, and we know that even innocent people using it for, idk, healing a cut, got persecuted, then why would magic users be tripping over themselves to explicitly show Arthur how they’re using “good” magic. It’d put them in danger! Even if they were being helpful they’d not be telling Arthur they were being magically helpful (on account of the tyrant father’s laws still existing). Only sorcerers who are about to Revenge it Up (or power-grab it up) will likely be found out as sorcerers (on account of the occasional monologue and gold flashing eyes as they try to stab u).

Arthur just couldn’t have realistically seen an equivalently diverse number of people doing benevolent magic as long as all magic, no exceptions, was technically still illegal. (Though he does see some instances of ‘good’ magic!)

And about magical people close to Arthur not telling him for so long (Merlin, Morgs), I think they had many understandable reasons. At one point if you live long enough in a place where various parts of your identity can be legally prosecuted, or are liable to be socially persecuted, it’s physically hard to even get the words out. From personal experience the fear is just very encompassing, and it sucks to think that you very likely have to bear agression or worse if you want to let people you care about know. Plus, for Merlin I imagine a part of the situation was that telling Arthur would risk their closeness, which is pretty important to his ability to protect him. And Merlin believes that if he protects Arthur, the prophecy dictates at some point in the future magic will be legalized (which it does become, but it’s mentioned so briefly at the end. Could we not have had a happier ending??) :( I have a lot of other thoughts on this specific topic that I’ve tearfully jotted down over the years about how I understand why Merlin didn’t tell his friends (I’m less tearful about it now haha I was just Going Through It back then), but I fear I’ll still be incomprehensible and even more rambly, so I’ll avoid doing that right now. ANYWAY sorry for the ramble. I just made this sideblog and realized I can share some of the things that have been rolling around in my mind for years. Okay now I’m gonna go back to being in denial over the ending :) 

[marclef]

THE EYHM COLLECTION GROWS!!!! managed to make some space without having to move too much so they can all be together!!

(i made the smaller ones into stickers bc i'm running out of picture frames!! hope that's ok!)

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE WHO'S GIFTED THESE TO ME THOUGH!!! I'M CALLING ALL OF YOU OUT HERE BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!! ❤❤❤❤❤

*sharp inhale* @eskariolis-con-salsa @oddpizza @woobab @the-little-knight @moon9931 @misdreavusplush @noodletime @witch-tower-au !!!!!!!

hope you all have a good holiday season!! love you all! *MWAH*

[yellowhollyhock]

remember that 1987 episode when Donatello fell out of the boat and nobody noticed so he swam to catch up and when he got back in Leonardo was like 'why haven't you been rowing?' and Donatello was just 'but but--ugh nevermind!' without even trying to explain to anyone that he fell out of the boat?

And then it wasn't relevant at all to the rest of the episode

[araneapeixes]

just gonna quietly say here that my patreon went live :) it's fairly bare bones so far as it's mostly my recent art (but with way longer rambling descriptions) and some wips and sketches. And for future art it will be where I post process shots and full .sai files for anyone curious to download. At least some nsfw art I draw in the future will also be patreon exclusive lol if I get any subscribers :o)

Most importantly perhaps I've been wanting to do a commission batch soon (start of May) and pat members would get priority and discount!!

[historyartthings]

'The Duke of Norfolk, speaking privately to the captain of the guard, told him to secretly arrest the Secretary after dinner, as they were going into the Council, and to take him to the Tower. The captain wondered very much at this, but the Duke said to him, 'You need not be surprised. The King orders it.'

As usual, they all went to the Parliament at Westminster, and when they came out and were going to the palace to dinner, the wind blew off the Secretary’s bonnet, and it fell on the ground. The custom of the country is, when a gentleman loses his bonnet, for all those who are with him to doff theirs, but on this occasion, when Cromwell’s bonnet blew off, all the other gentlemen kept theirs on their heads, which being noticed by him, he said, 'A high wind indeed must it have been to blow my bonnet off and keep all yours on.' They pretended not to hear what he said, and Cromwell took it for a bad omen.

They went to the palace and dined, and all the while they were dining the gentlemen did not converse with the Secretary, as they were wont to do, and as soon as they had finished all the gentlemen went to the Council-chamber. It was the Secretary’s habit always after dinner to go close up to a window to hear the petitioners; and when the gentlemen had gone to the Council-chamber, the Secretary remained at his window as usual for about an hour, and then joined the other gentlemen; and finding them all seated, he said, 'You were in a great hurry, gentlemen, to get seated.' The chair where he was in the habit of sitting was vacant, and the gentlemen made no answer to his remark; but just as he was going to sit down the Duke of Norfolk said, 'Cromwell, do not sit there; that is no place for thee. Traitors do not sit amongst gentlemen.'

Chronicle of King Henry VIII. of England being a contemporary record of some of the principle events of the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI

[muninnhuginn]

Writers tag game

Prompt: share some writing

Thanks for the tag, @miyamiwu!

So, I'll be honest, I don't actually have any WIPs I'm intending to do anything with, but I have some oldish abandoned stuff I managed to relocate. It's back from 2021 so in my Untamed era and this bit was specifically set during Fatal Journey*:

Nie Huaisang woke blearily, cold seeping into his clothes from the floor. It was dark and it took several seconds to remember where he was. He could hear the muffled sounds of clanging and voices. As he lifted his head off the ground, they slowly resolved themselves into the clash of swords and yelling. [...] He didn't know what to do. What would his brother do? Xichen-ge? San-ge? He had his flute with him– he could try Cleansing. This was what it was for, right? Before he could doubt himself further, he started playing, pouring all the qi he could muster into the tune. He'd practised for hours the night before, long after San-ge had left, but despite that, he hadn't truly thought then that he'd need to play so soon. Was that so naïve of him? As he watched, Da-ge began to slow in his movements and Nie Huaisang felt himself start to relax. He kept his lips to the flute, trying not to let his relief fool him into making mistakes. Still, he knew he only had to play a little longer and then they could all escape. Him, his brother, his cousin. They could flee far away from the darkness that haunted these halls. And then Nie Zonghui's head hit the floor. He stopped playing.

And then I had this other bit:

He'd messed up. He must have played a wrong note. Maybe he'd misremembered the entire thing? And now Nie Zonghui was dead and his brother - what looked like his brother - was stood, Baxia dripping blood to the floor. [...] The sword was pointed at him. He tried to hold himself steady as he looked down the blade. Tried to blink away the tears that kept escaping without his permission. He could tell he was failing, unable to stop the trembling, but he forced himself to meet the eyes at the other end of the sword. He couldn't die here. He refused to die here. After all, he was the only family his brother had left.

*(it was meant to be part of a short time travel fic where post-canon characters went back not long before NMJ died. It would've had flashbacks to Fatal Journey interspersed with the "present" up until the point at which future NHS tipped off past NHS about the poisoned music. I actually got as far as figuring out where I wanted all the characters to be at the end of it, but I ran out of motivation pretty quickly so there's only this WIP stuff and the intro part written in the end.)

Ahh not sure who to tag when it comes to writing stuff. I know @roseofcards90 and @floofiestboy write some stuff? And anyone else who sees this who writes, feel free to consider yourself tagged ^^

[bobombun]

My brother, a Warframe veteran, told me about how the veteran players tend to help out the new players, proving this himself by trading me some mods I had no way of getting myself yet. I thought "fair enough, more experienced players tend to be like that, especially if they get bored" and continued on.

Later I had managed to slowly but surely gather up platinum (mostly by selling fish) and was so excited to go to the Market and buy the Feyarch skin for Oberon - I'd seen fanart of it before I learned Oberon does not by default look like it, and I had absolutely fallen in love with the skin. And I realised I was missing one platinum. One. I was so miffed, and ended up complaining to my Alliance's chat, but was resigned to wait till someone would again message me about those rare fish.

And then this one person sends a message to the Alliance chat: "yeah I could give you that." Huh? "I need [super common mod I have like 60 copies of, and I have no doubts that they had at least twice that amount]. Let's trade."

In short, I now have the Feyarch skin, and incredible amounts of gratefulness in my heart. Thank you, friend

[nyssasatelier]

Little bit of my rough WIP of suffering

I promise it won't be this ugly when it's done lol trust the process guys, trust the process 🙏