#but I have another thing up my sleeve

[crystalflygeo]

“…. that’s weird.”

meirin stared at the sigil of permission clutched in her hands, before looking up at the clear sky outside the window, as if it would yield the answer she was looking for.

is it because i have to be closer to liyue? no, she said she should be able to hear me from basically anywhere…

her hands straightened the talisman before closing her eyes. the smell of incense burning in the small censer wafted in the air, calming and sharpening one’s focus in their prayers.

“can you hear me? spring bringer, the doe of the geo archon’s eyes. the dream walker, the one who travels through dreams… my dear friend, this humble mortal requests for your aid.”

…

…

silence.

is she busy? no… even if she is, she would usually give me a sign—

CRASH!

the woman jolted, knees bumping hard against the table and sending the gold-lined censer toppling over. cursing under her breath, she straightened the item before limping a tad towards the direction of the kitchen, her knees throbbing from the impact caused by her reflexes.

“haitham, you okay??”

arriving at the scene, she saw the remnants of broken glass and coffee spilled all over the wooden floor. she stared in both worry and amusement at the way her lover glared at the cupholder in his hand, which clearly had failed its job in holding the now-shattered cup.

normally, she would be in a teasing mood, seeing the man so sulky without his coffee, but this time, dread settled at the bottom of her stomach.

what a bad omen, her mother would usually say in situation like these. by no means the young woman was a superstitious person — but this, coupled with how her friend wasn’t answering…

“babe.”

she received an irate grumble as the man stepped back from the mess to fetch the trash bin, “no, there’s no coffee left. i’ll have to brew you a new one.”

“that’s not it. let’s go to liyue.”

“….. provide a reasonable reason for me to write on my day off request.”

“you’re smarter than me. use your brain,” the woman tapped her index finger on her temple, grinning a little when he narrowed his eyes at her at the gesture she copied from him effortlessly, “anyway. liyue, tomorrow. get packing. we’re visiting my friend.”

i just hope she’s okay…

It must have made for an interesting sight, a handsome young man dressed in traditional Inazuman clothes, katana at his hip, walking side by side with a deer almost his size, with fur a soft brown, white and gold.

Together they trekked along Byakko plains, crossing streams and climbing small rocky hills, occasionally chatting but focusing on their goal of reaching Ritou. Foxes were common in the area and they stared at Crys with a mix of confusion and predatorial glee. It unnerved her a little, but mostly insulted her.

Crys had obviously not had a pleasant sleep but still felt well-rested enough from her previous time unconscious, if anything she was feeling rather restless and anxious, wracking her brain for answers to questions that seemed weirder and weirder still.

They rounded Konda village, not wanting to attract attention given Crys’… peculiar appearance, but set camp not too far away to eat something. Kazuha managing a quick trip to the village to exchange or buy some ingredients.

“They had some grain and um… vegetables? Not sure what you’d prefer.” He tells her rummaging a little bag, placing down a couple of small bowls as well.

She peeked at him. “What is that? Oh, more fried fish? Smells delicious, I love seafood!”

Kazuha blinked at her. He supposed it made sense, she’s no common deer...

They settle for lunch under a small low tree and thick shrubs, shielding them from the sun and from any traveler’s gaze. “So, you eat meat?” He asks. “Forgive me for assuming but I thought…”

“Don’t worry, I… actually do hehe. Though of course I wouldn’t touch venison.” She shivers.

“Venison?”

“Deer meat.”

“Ah.”

Her ears droop. “Mn, once when I was in Fontaine for some business dinner, we got served that since the staff hadn’t been announced beforehand. I was horrified and-”

She stops. Her new little teardrop pendant glows.

Kazuha stares at her. “Something wrong?”

“I remembered that… but then I… forgot.” She frowns. “His name… someone important was there with me. He…h-he’s…” Her voice breaks a little, the ever-present echo dimming down to a soft voice. The varunada lazurite dims just as well.

“It’s okay, take it easy, you remembered something at least. Little by little they’ll come to you, I’m sure.”

Crys shifts her eyes away, a little sad.

Kazuha does not like seeing her dejected demeanor.

He tidies things up a little and rests against the tree, pulling out a leaf, analyzing and folding it with precision before taking it to his lips.

And as he blows, a soft tune flows.

Crys stares at him for a moment and relaxes. Her eyes close and she breathes slow and calm. Maybe he’s right. Let the answers come to you… relax and empty your mind.

Don’t worry.

Everything will be fine.

Your friends, your loved ones, those important to you…

...

.......

...

The █ne who t█avels th█ou█h dream█…

My de█r frie█d…

Can you hear me?

Spring Bringer.

Once again, she breaks out of her trance with a startle “Spring Bringer!” She exclaims.

“Oh?” Kazuha stares at her. “What is-”

“That’s my name! That’s one of my names! Kazuha you were right!” She skips happily, rearing on her back hooves as if jumping for joy. “That is my adeptus name, it was bestowed upon me millennia ago.”

“It’s a beautiful name, very fitting.” Kazuha smiles softly, genuinely glad and happy for her.

“I am Spring Bringer! And I will make my master proud!”

"Loyalty and resilience... those are your marks, my dear Spring Bringer. You make us all proud."

“I-I cleared my mind and… and a friend was calling for me.” She calms down, panting. “She’s worried… oh no they're all worried for me...”

“Well I’d say we’re one step closer… both figuratively and literally, we can reach Ritou in a few hours if you’re up to it.”

“Yes! Let’s go!”

How strange….

It’s like I feel my powers returning, my memories…

As if part of me was back in place, fitting like a puzzle piece.

But there are still more questions…

A story woven in the breeze The doe skips, her name sings As told by the tune of leaves

@i23kazu ebg Jan 19-26

[unriding]

a … a gift from the talented @kruinka 🥹 thank you so much!! ദ്ദി ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ)

[cent-scratchnsniff]

I'm leaking.

[frnkiebby]

ggooodddddd~🎃

[lokh]

i cannot ollie and i must scream

[moongothic]

Made a crochet lace-top! Wheee

Okay so for a little while now I had been thinking about what a cute outfit it'd be to have like a nice button-up/t-shirt with a mesh top underneath it, so you could see the mesh on the arms and the neck etc etc. And yeah, I could buy a mesh top from some alternative fashion brand (Restyle comes to mind), however most if not all of those are made of plastic and are like, full upperbody suits. Also they would be expensive. And no matter how I thought about it I could not come up with an excuse or a justification to buy a piece of clothing that expensive that 70% nobody will ever see because it'd be underneath other clothes, when all I really need is like a crop top (also it'd be just a little bit too expensive for me to feel good about DIY'ing it and cutting it into a crop top). And the plastic too, my Eternal Hangup.

So, I did what you always do. I decided to just make it myself.

Yup, it's a crop top. Not much to note there, I just looked up some lace crochet stitches until I found one I liked to make the top in and just bullshitted one together. I did struggle figuring out how to make the collar part because I did want the neck to be fitted, but also my head had to like, fit through the hole so I could actually wear it. So what I ended up having to do was leaving a slit in the back that I have to lace up and tie together with some ribbon. Not a big deal by any means, but yeah the way I did it looks a bit messy and rough (but it's in the back so it's fiiiiiiine) Also I made armpit holes lmao. No need to get the alpaca yarn sweaty and stinky

So the yarn I used is Katia's Alpaca Lace, which is 70% viscose and 30% alpaca (color 89 (black)). I hadn't actually gone and bought this yarn for this project in particular. When I was preparing to start the bleeding heart sweater I realized I didn't have the right size knitting needles for it, which meant doing some shopping. And while I was at it I just needed a little bit more shit in my shopping cart to get the free shipping (you know how it is), and when browsing for something to add I came across this yarn and absolutely fell in love with it, so I ended up grabbing some. The yarn is absolutely stunning, it is so soft, the viscose tube is like this beautiful white/silverly color with black alpaca fibers blown into it, it is GORGEOUS and so shiny. But also.

The structure of the yarn also made it an absolute NIGHTMARE to work with. You know how people warn others about working with mohair because the loosey-goosey fibers will stick to each other and make unravelling/frogging a project a gigantic pain in the ass to do? Yeah, I haven't worked with mohair, but based on the experience I had with this I'm pretty sure I never want to try mohair now lmao

Now to be fair, the main issue was that I was bullshitting this crop top together all willy nilly. Which meant that I had to undo and redo almost every section of it anywhere at least once, if not multiple times, because that's how I was figuring out how to make the top fit the way I wanted it to. Hell, on my first attempt I started by crocheting a whole sleeve and the neck piece, only to decide I wasn't happy with how I was making it, so I restarted completely (this time doing the torso of the top first, bottom-to-top). And I am not joking when I tell you that frogging the first sleeve and neck piece took me literal days to do. I had to use a freaking seam ripper to get the job done, it was that hard (like it was the only way to help the alpaca fibers get untangled, though I still had to be extremely careful so I didn't damage or rip the viscose tube) So had I known what I was doing from the begining, I would've had a much, MUCH easier time with this project. The yarn itself is wonderful to crochet with, frogging it was horrible.

And so I do want to give out a warning to anybody reading this; if you wanna bullshit a lace crop top together, go for it, just use a yarn that's easy to unravel. You ARE going to make mistakes and using smoother yarn will make your life easier and the project go by much, MUCH faster

But, I'm glad I stuck to it and didn't give up, because I am absolutely over the moon with how this top turned out. It's so comfy, shockingly warm actually, and it looks so cute. I'm so delighted with it

My only regret is that because the yarn has this gun-metal sheen to it, I don't think I'd wear with anything BUT all-black clothes. I had been hoping to wear it with a button-up shirt, but I can't 'cause the shade and color absolutely does not match the one and only button-up in my closet right now (the Mollymauk/CritRole one, which is a statement piece on its own. As you can see they absolutely clash and do not go together at all lmao)

So I do wanna make another one, next time in a plain black yarn so I can wear it with other colors maybe perhaps (/I just need a plain black button-up) (A white one could be really cool too....... And a red...)

Not much else to add here. The construction of the top was simple once I figured it out. I just made a band that goes around my torso, made it long enough to cover most of my chest, then separately crochet'd the front and the back of the top that I then attached at the top. Then I crochet'd the neck piece directly onto it (instead of making it separately), followed by the shoulder pieces that turn into proper sleeves after getting far away enough from the armpits. The lace pattern itself can't be adjusted much/at all, so to keep the top fitted (especially in the sleeves) I occasionally had to do these little decorative rows where I would cut down the stitch count, before going back to the lace stitch with fever repeats. Like I said, took some mathing and figuring out to get the fit right, but it worked out in the end!

[sheliesshattered]

All eleven pieces of my Yule dress cut out and ready for sewing!

And the swiffer-type dust cloth I used to wipe down all the velvet fuzzies after cutting out each piece. Despite my best efforts there's still velvet lint everywhere, and probably will be until this project is done, lol.

[librarydilf]

god the body language here....

[fisheito]

Imagine you have to set up yakumo's enclosure for the next couple months. How do you set it up and what do you put in there?

oh NO.! THE PROPPHECY HAS BEenm FUFILLED

i am standing in my room, leggies rooted to the floor. i am in shock .frozen and i have no idea how to proceed. there is a perpetual pathetically sobbing serpent under my blankie.

[breezere]

fuck u -tears off their sleeves-

[danidoesathing]

I've been known to look up at the sky

I feel lost in this world and I want to know why

I'll be fine, don't you worry 'bout me

What's the use? I can't lose, there's an ace up my sleeve

Ace Up My Sleeve - Lord Huron

[the-acid-pear]

I got reminded the Lacey's series exists and it really left me confused because... People love and praise that but hate on The Painter?

I want to say it's just bias because Lacey's is very well done style wise (the painter has great art but weak presentation), but Lacey's is pure fucking shock content w little substance. That's why I always hated it. And I still do. It's not even surprising.

And it a way it's fitting for it bc it has that strong 2010s/2000s vibes and horror back then was just like that lmao look at any old creepypasta but it's still edgy as shit.

And I don't want this to be me complaining about that series bc that's not my point what I'm complaining about is how I don't understand how the internet ADORED one but hated the other for arguably the same reasons.

But I also want to complain so see y'all in the tags 👍

[comradecowplant]

my beef with Hughie being the most annoying part of The Boys ended, Kimiko & Frenchie reigniting their romance is my new The Boys best enemy 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

[iateyourburrito]

Updated Tattoo want list

- Mars Rover (wrist)

- Crom Cruach Ouroborous (other wrist. Secret of kells style)

- The Aten (sleeve style, same arm as rover)

- Laika puppy [+ Sputnik?] (back?)

- Pale Blue Dot (ankle)

[reddoll123]

My OC Nadia~

[eldritchmochi]

i had a brief thought of what if i did a punk essek cosplay as an excuse to buy yet more boots and i have already largely planned out the whole thing its just a matter of collecting andor making patches