#but also a lot of adventure

[allthislove]

This is an excerpt from the book I'm writing about Anansi & Hermes, but you could also think of it as an IWTV (AMC) AU. These beautiful monsters definitely inspired me a lot. If you like supernatural stuff, mythology, queer romance, and the like, this book will be for you!

Just in case it wasn't clear:

Hermes - Sam

Anansi - Jacob

“What are you doing?” Hermes asked warmly as he stepped into Anansi’s small kitchen, the handsome young form he’d taken on covertly working over the counter, his back to Hermes. Andre, he was calling himself. Andre, after the legendary African-American actor who had portrayed Hermes so wonderfully in a hit Broadway show. Hermes couldn’t help but be warmed by the choice of name. Hermes had noticed the connection, the first time he heard Anansi introduce himself as Andre. It was the day after their first night together, rekindling what they’d always known was inevitable. Their bond. Their need for each other. More than just love— some invisible tie that bound them to one another, always leading them home to the other’s arms. Then, he realized that Andre was the name Anansi had been using since he’d started his life in New York just a couple of years earlier, the name printed on his documents, on his New York State ID card. He’d wanted to ask Anansi about it– if he was right about the name’s origin. Anansi never usually put much thought into his names, just choosing things that sounded nice and fit the era and the place. But Anansi confirmed it for him casually one day as if the Spider could sense Hermes’ curiosity.

Now, Hermes’ curiosity was piqued by the odd behavior of the Spider in his humble NYC kitchen, his slim body pressed against the counter, his shoulders hunched forward just slightly and his head tilted forward with a kind of focus. Hermes pressed forward into the kitchen, and his eyes caught a glimpse of something metallic in Anansi’s hand. It was a kitchen knife, the kind with a black handle and a stainless steel blade that you might buy at a discount from a big box store. Unremarkable in every way. Anansi, though, was pressing the blade into his all-too-human wrist, and he sliced it easily, the blood seeping from the wound and halfway filling a small glass jar that was placed on the counter in front of him. Hermes swiftly took the knife from him, his godly hand grasping Andre’s wrist and healing it immediately. Their eyes met. Andre seemed startled by Hermes’ speed as much as he seemed ashamed to have been caught.

“What are you doing?” Hermes repeated, this time exasperated– horrified by what he’d witnessed. Surely, Anansi hadn’t brought him to this life, to Andre, only to end things. No mortal death ended Anansi for long. He shed human personas like a second skin, and easily crawled into the next one as if the previous had never existed. But Hermes had never seen him end one on purpose.

“Never mind,” Andre said, his brown eyes shifting back to his task as he took his wrist away from Hermes pointedly. Those were the words he’d repeat when he was doing something magical that he didn’t want to explain, but Hermes hated the dismissiveness. He was a God of Olympus. He dealt in shadows and cunning just as much as Anansi did– maybe more, if he allowed himself to be honest about it. He stood just behind Andre’s shoulder, and he watched him take the bloody knife and reopen the wound, the young man only wincing a bit as if the pain of the blade was nothing more than a mild annoyance.

“Andre will die, Anansi–”

“He won’t. Never mind,” Andre said evenly. Hermes watched as Andre drained blood from his wrist into the jar again. When the jar was full, Andre pushed his bloody wrist into his mouth and fumbled for the jar’s lid.

“Why are you collecting a jar of your blood?” Hermes asked. The blood shimmered like rubies. Anansi’s blood wasn’t golden, the way an Olympian’s blood was. It was red, like them. Like the humans. But the divinity of his birth was still evident in it. Humans had deep red blood that was beautiful but mundane in its shade and consistency. Anansi’s blood almost glowed, and it seemed to shimmer like so many galaxies caught in a jar.

“Never mind, Messenger,” Andre muttered around his wrist, his mouth bloodied from the wound that hadn’t stopped bleeding, that ruby blood seeping over his pinkish-brown lips. Hermes sighed, and he took Andre’s forearm in his hand, easing the wounded wrist away from Andre’s mouth and he covered the wound with his hand, healing it. Their eyes met again, and Andre nodded a bit to thank him.

“The wrist,” Hermes said, “is a great place to get a good blood flow, but it’s difficult to stop the bleeding. There are arteries there–”

“I know,” Andre said evenly.

“It’s why they do it when they’re tired of living,” Hermes said pointedly. Andre scoffed.

“I never tire of living, Hermes,” Andre said evenly. Hermes swiped the blood from his lips and chin, his thumb lingering on Andre’s beautiful brown face. “If I don’t give him blood, he’ll lock me away. And you know I can’t live as a caged bird.”

“Who?” Hermes perked a brow.

“I’ve said ‘never mind’ three times, my love,” Andre replied curtly. He picked up the bloody knife and stepped over to the sink, rinsing it. “Not everything is the concern of your kind. Clean the counter for me, will ya, Merc?” Hermes scoffed at the old nickname, but he cleaned the blood from the counter with a wave of his hand. 

“Is this ‘he’... someone I should be concerned about?” Hermes asked casually, trying not to sound as worried as he felt. Anansi sometimes played with things he shouldn’t. Old things. Things that even the gods didn’t truly understand. Andre gave him a look, and Hermes fought a smile. “I know. ‘Never mind.’ But I do mind, Anansi.”

“All will be well as long as he gets his jar of blood,” Andre said evenly. “If I’m gone for a few days, don’t you worry bout me, lover.”

“Gone? With him?” Hermes inferred, and he studied Andre, watching his head nod, his long locs dancing against his back as he did. “Spider.”

“Mmm,” Andre put the cleaned knife on the counter beside the sink and he grasped his jar of blood, capping it up tightly. 

“Are you bound by something?” Hermes asked, barely hiding his concern.

“Ain’t that deep,” Andre said swiftly. He glanced at Hermes, and he smiled at him, holding up his jar of ruby blood, in it, shimmering galaxies of his divinity.

[mroddmod]

don't be weepy sleepy puppies

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

I remember discussing Tintin casting choices with a friend from Germany and remarked how it was odd he often has an English accent in adaptations rather than a Belgian one, and my friend just replied "that's because Tintin gives incredibly strong English boy energy (derogatory)"

Here in the UK there's a lot of weird classism tied into accents. Today accent diversity and representation in broadcasting is actively pursued but in Tintin's time there certainly was a preferred accent to have.

imagine this exchange happens between pages 28-29 in The Crab with the Golden Claws

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

HOT, SINGLE, UNSTUDIED SPONGES. 3000 NAUTICAL MILES AWAY. Come sail the distance and read Tiger Tiger!

[otp-more-like-killmeplease]

[lilybug-02]

In short- the bugs of Hallownest did not take it well. Lots of screaming about "The end of the world" and "past sins coming back to haunt them". Elderbug almost had his second heart attack and basically every bug, other than the Pale King children and Quirrel, hid for several hours. (Zote likes to claim he was the first to make contact)

As for why Dewi's Dad is in Dirtmouth? Well, he wasn't very happy when his 11 year old son told him about going into a 'mysterious cave' to see his bug friends. Adult supervision and all that.

[eleonorpiteira]

Weight of a Feather, Assassin's Creed: Origins fanart, watercolour and acrylic gouache on hot press paper, 17.8 x 25.4 cm

This is one of those that I don't care if no one likes it, or if there are obvious mistakes/things that don't make sense, I'm proud of myself for managing to do it traditionally and that's that. It's for no one but me, I'm just sharing it with you :)

I started it in 2021, even began to paint it, but burnout is a bitch and I couldn't finish it then. Recently I decided to see if I could complete it traditionally and this is the result! It was inspired by a screenshot I took where Bayek's face is entirely in shadow. I then added elements that relate to Ma'at, the goddess of truth and justice, and the ceremony of the Weighing of the Heart, where she'd weigh a dead person's heart against her ostrich feather, to see if they were worthy of going on to the Field of Reeds (a sort of paradise). (Egyptologists don't @ me 😭)

[mysticruinedme]

I like the idea of Sonic being just as heroic as he is selfish - cuz the core motivation for half of what he does when in regards to Eggman and the world or whatever is going on at the time is cuz he himself enjoys those adventures, and not because he feels some sort of selfless obligation over his natural abilities to do anything that he does.

[leminaus]

is it ok to be a little selfish

[time-woods]

more of this nonsense bc im sooo normal

[rystiel]

that annoying moment when getting left for dead in the trunk of a car in your 20s comes back to haunt you 40 years later (take a shot every time ford says “stanley”)

[narsh-poptarts]

my dark link thoughts coalesced into wonderful headcanons and crazy amounts of forced perspectives and dutch angles

also sorry HW i would have included your dark link(s) but i do not have passion for your game <3 maybe next time

Some thoughts below

I have thoughts about dark link that boil down to basically two things: 1. it's always the same dark link, and 2. dark link has a very difficult time changing.

No matter how many times dark link is brought into existence, he is formed from the shadow of link usually to test link's will. that shadow can be duplicated (as seen in HW) but generally speaking it's the same guy, sharing the thought space, you know how it is. In terms of sentience/thinking for himself, I don't think there's all that much of it. He is a dark reflection/shadow of link, so shares his abilities and thought patterns (for combat) with added aggression and. evil. i guess.

As said by navi, "conquer yourself", and all that. He's a challenge to the inner will power.

That being said!!! he can have a little bit of individuality, as a treat. Just in the form of being mean and sadistic <3 he's got thoughts, he's not just a combat doll (tho in times of low power, or a greater power having the reins, he reverts to that), so he can be frustrated, vindicated, happy, etc etc. though when your thoughts are mainly "evilevilevilevilevil" your idea of these emotions are a bit skewed.

When he's summoned for each different link, i hc that it's all the same magic, so the same dark link every time. he "remembers" in an abstract sense of his role in the same way a link or zelda "remembers" their own reincarnation. tho his is less of a reincarnation and more being used over and over again. a persistence.

The iteration that's summoned reflects the current link at the time, the part of link that needs testing/defeating, so it's not an existence that he himself can change to match the present. he's locked to that first copy/shadow only. So if he were to have a second encounter with an older link, he'd look like the first time they fought, unless he was specifically re-summoned. i hc he's got limited magic, so this is not something he can do himself.

in a links-meet scenario, his form would be limited to those specific forms of the links, and it would always be the points in time in which he first encountered them, unless there's other magic either he or someone else has access to to allow him to change forms to match.

now you might be saying at this point "wouldn't he be a weaker match if he was put up against an older link?" yeah probably lol. but also!!! i like the idea that with the limited magic he has, he's able to change juuuust enough to stay relatively evenly matched. being able to play to different strengths and all that. but the base stuff is still the same, so he is decently easy enough to read if link remembers the kind of stuff he was pulling back when he originally fought dark link.

dark link also knows about all this so while limited to the particular skillset, is able to adapt slightly.

but yeah been thinking a lot about a links-meet au where dark link is there choosing a different link to be every time he appears to the party.

though there are a couple links that he never impersonates in their games!!! so can't change into those guys unless he gets a new round of copycat magic.

Anyways goodbye guy standing there with standard camera angle, i have dutch angles and forced perspective

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

I think my favorite thing about Fionna and Cake has to be how unapologetically queer it is. In every corner, whether it be a cameo appearance from the gay couple,

a quick visual cue/reference to the pilot,

a questionable line from Brian David Gilbert of all people,

[img: Winter King (on the right) saying "Don't think it hasn't occurred to me!" This is in response to Cake suggesting he kiss Simon (left)]

or actually being integral to the primary or secondary plot.

Seeing such a casual yet important and beautiful inclusion of queerness in this show fills me with such indescribable joy. Without even trying, without even stepping away from it's own story, it's making a statement.

Without going out of its way, it's teaching genuine stories while saying "We are here, we have a place, we have a history, and we're here to stay."

[spacevixenmusic]

I would like to thank the entire 2010s for constantly pushing the concept of casual queerness in cartoons, may it continue forward in this fashion forevermore, amen

[delicourse]

lesbian pride moment 😳🌸

[lilybug-02]

We have to dig deeper.

Bug Fact: “Kissing Bugs” carry a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi which causes Chagas disease. Left untreated, it can cause serious heart and digestive problems.

V2 First || Prev // Next

Volume 2 Masterpost

▴♥︎▴ Patreon ▴♥︎▴ Buy Me A Coffee ▴♥︎▴