#don't worry there will be more

[solarockk]

can we know more about the bitter water au pls

im gonna rewrite here some lore dump from twt fjdhgh that i forgot to post here

the au does contain some horror and psycological elements! (mostly eldritch horror, grief/mourning and amnesia) also pls don't tag Gem and Pearl under this au, even if it doesn't break boundaries I'd prefer if it stayed in fandom spaces only. (I'm not sure how it works here on tumblr so please let me know if the shinyduo tag is fine to use or not, for the characters I'm gonna tag them as bw!NameOfCharacters mostly for organization)

now, for actual lore!

as the original post impliy the main story of the au centers around Shinyduo, sailing, and the horror of what lies beneath the waves

Gem currently works as a Fisherwoman at the minor port of Hermitopia, She owns a small fishing boat that Bdubs and Cleo fixed up for Her (Etho helped too but don't tell anyone that) and she makes just enough money from selling what she memages to reel in from the ocean to enjoy her simple frugal life in the small port.

her daily life changes drastically when one day out at sea she finds and unconcious Pearl floating among the waves, Gem fishes her out of the water in an hurry and is a little weirded out that Pearl (once awake) is completelly fine after spending gods knows how long lost at sea. Well, except the fact that she seems to not remember anything about her life except Gem's own name. (drawn here! "first meeting")

that is the basic premise, a silly Amnesiac trying to regain her memories and a gruff fisherwoman who feels resposible after fishing her out of the waves. but.. there are things that.. don't match in both their narratives? Why was Pearl in the ocean? why did she somehow remember Gem if they had never met before? ..did they never meet before? did they always used to look like that?

maybe in another life,, another time,,

[lunarriviera]

no one, literally no one:

so funny story, instead of doing work i was trawling the depths of a tumblr tag, as one does, and i began to uncover a vast conspiracy a bunch of thirst traps of 金世佳 jin shijia, so i investigated further.

yes, these are actually him and so here they are, because if i had to be exposed to all this selfie game so too do you. explanation of one of them to follow. trust me, you will want the explanation.

"that's not an actual poster for anything," you say. "definitely not in china," you say. "it's a manip!" you say. WELL THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT TOO but it absolutely is not, it's from 2013 and it's an actual poster for a completely dreadful-looking series called 爱情公寓 iPartment (yes that is the translation) that ran for 5 seasons and over 100 episodes, with a couple of standalone movies attached.

look i do not judge, apparently after it became clear that jin shijia would never be an olympic swimmer he went to grad school in japan, and at one point was so poor that he had to choose between buying cigarettes or a bento box (he picked cigarettes). and then he came home to shanghai in 2009 and made—whatever this was. so, you wind up making a drama poster completely in the nude with a clothed man's hand on your ass. hey we've all been there. more fascinating facts about iPartment and/or its infamous poster: first of all netizens were shook:

The poster immediately caused a commotion on the Internet. Netizens reposted it frantically on Weibo, saying "Love Apartment 3 has unlimited sexual love and is becoming more and more trendy." Some netizens also found it difficult to accept this: "For a long time, Love Apartment has always followed a fresh and fresh approach, but suddenly it became so fragrant and heavy-flavored. I really couldn't accept it for a while." [mtl from the original]

it sure is fragrant alright. the director's defense? it's all about the brotherhood, man:

Director Wei Zheng responded: "This poster is just a kind of publicity for us. There is love, friendship, and brotherhood among the tenants in Love Apartment, and what this photo shows is brotherhood.”

[op having flashbacks to the supernatural fandom and jokes beginning "i don't know what you do with YOUR brothers, but"]

finally, the show apparently had several openly gay characters and it ran from 2009-2020 so that...sure is something. china, you make about as much sense as my mother and i love you the exact same way, excessively and with a lot of crying sometimes.

now i understand why jin shijia is so excited about under the skin on weibo all the time. compared to iPartment, under the skin is prestige fucking television. poor jianci tho. "i have to work with this guy. the naked poster guy. i'm an internationally famous singer and dancer, i've made wuxia, do i really need this role. for why am i doing this"

PS in case this random deep dive into jin shijia wasn't enough for you, he also had a cameo in captain america: civil war so let that sink in

[rheakira]

You guys really liked Starlo Bisexual Stress™️.

[mayhemchicken-artblog]

in the hour or so it took me to draw this op turned reblogs off

EDIT: reblogs are STAYING OFF. op was right and correct and i have never regretted making a post as much as this one. if you want to reblog my art you can reblog something else from my blog. or commission me, lord knows i deserve financial compensation for the nightmare this post has put me through

[golyadkin]

you'll get the urge as an artist or a writer to say out loud the things you're worried about "the proportions are off" "kind of out of character" "i'm not good at summaries" "didn't get as much detail as i wanted" "i made a mistake and here's how" and that's the self-conscious part of your brain telling you "it's bad and if you don't tell them you know it's bad then they'll think you're stupid" but you've got to ignore that little voice and pretend you think it's good or else that little voice is going to ruin your life

[calicorobin]

beanbag chair psychology

[canisalbus]

✦ I've been saving all my summers for you ✦

[ionomycin]

white night

[hinamie]

I'll give them shelter like you've done for me

[akanemnon]

Shouldn't there be a minotaur in the labyrinth? Who put this goat here? This is not accurate to the mythology! /j

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Soup solves everything.

[vaguely-concerned]

the contrast in lucanis' early game responses to bellara and davrin are sooo funny and also quietly devastating. the vibe is like

BELLARA: heey so... how are you feeling lucanis? generally, I mean. or specifically, if you'd rather talk about something in particular! well, you usually don't, so no worries if not, you know, no pressure, only if you'd think it'd maybe, I don't know, help! I know it doesn't always. but ah, um... are you -- alright? (in the pantry. we should probably stop asking you about this but are you sure you're alright in there? it's where the parsnips live. and you now, too, I suppose! just... you and the onions. and a demon. sorry, didn't mean to remind you! you see I'm only asking because um for a second there I thought the dark circles under your eyes were actually bruises and it jumpscared me a bit)

LUCANIS (tired but soft): I'm fine, Bellara. Really. Don't worry about me.

VS.

DAVRIN: So hey lucanis. just out of interest. what the fuck is your damage anyway. why are you like this

LUCANIS (at his most 'orders one black coffee and drives away' and also honest): Well you see Davrin since you're asking: I am in hell. Also go fuck yourself.

[egophiliac]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN here's some seasonal guys! 🎃

[welcometogrouchland]

(ID in alt) you guys even fuck w/ the flash on here???

[starry-bi-sky]

don't you want to be a cult leader? - danyal al ghul au

this is mostly a joke post but i thought it was funny and had to share so--

his first mistake was, obviously, inheriting his father's inability to see an injustice and stand still. -- actually, danyal's first mistake was his lair being so big. a mountainous island with a large temple in the center resembling his old home in Nanda Parbat? With sprawling foliage and rivers and streams and waterfalls galore? What was he going to do with all that space? Let it go to waste? He had plants there! Native trees of the ghost zone growing from the soil! He couldn't let it all be left unchecked!

So naturally after helping a fellow teenage assassin ghost -- who he later learns is named Akihiko, -- from Walker of all people, he sent them over to hang low at his lair until it was safe enough for them to wander around the Zone. Walker couldn't get through Danyal's astrofield if his life depended on it, and trust him -- he's tried. Danny was clearing out debris from his stupid transport vans for weeks.

Honestly it wasn't so bad, he and Aki really quickly became fast friends and Danny loves having a sparring partner close to his level again -- he hasn't had this much fun fighting since he left the League. Aki was very dedicated and levelheaded, the both of them clicked really well because of it.

Nonono, the real trouble began after Danyal met some long-passed League members and allowed them to come join his island as well. Apparently they had made a few enemies of the zone, and maybe Danyal still felt some loyalty to the League. He couldn't just let them be left to rot. Their zealotry could be overlooked so long as they kept it contained and helped him take care of his island.

And it.. snowballs from there? He meets a teen squire aptly calling himself Ambroise -- whether that was his living name or not is yet to be seen -- who died during feudal france, who is just about as dramatic and passionate as every french stereotype makes them out to be. He calls Danyal "my moon and great muse" -- which is both flattering and little uncomfortable, but Danyal's grown up in the League as the Grandson of the Demon Head, he is used to mild worship. he passes it off as nothing more, nothing less. -- and while his energy is overwhelming on the worst of days, he helps Danny draw out of his shell more in ways that Sam and Tucker still struggle with.

Him and Aki butt heads a lot, but the two seem to hold the other in at least some positive regard, so Danny doesn't worry too much about them fighting while he's gone. It only becomes a mild issue when Aki also begins calling Danny "my moon". It's a little sweet, so Danyal brushes it off.

Then he takes in a troupe of ghosts some time after he defeats Pariah Dark and they begin calling him "great one" just as the yetis do in the far frozen. This is where he meets the twins -- a pair of sibling ghosts who call themselves Trixie and Missy (short for Trick and Mislead) -- who aren't quite as passionate as Ambroise but more energetic than Aki. Eventually they also start calling Danyal "my moon" and attach themselves to his hip, even within the living. They like to hide in his shadow and cause trouble for the rest of the students. He makes sure they don't hurt anyone.

He's pretty sure Aki is jealous, same with Ambroise, but he can't be too certain other than the fact that they become much more lingering (re: clingy) whenever he visits the island.. Something he's trying to do much more often these days due to the increasing amount of people living there now. Since when did he become so popular?

Then there's Pēnelópeia from the Greater Athens, who ran away from home and joined his Island after he ran into her while she was being chased by Skulker -- and he's pretty sure the reason was because of her chimeric appearance. Her strange eyes and mismatched wings and lion's tail and talons. She assimilates into his friend group very easily, she gets along well with Ambroise and Trixie and Danny usually finds the three of them climbing the trees to pluck the most fruit from the top. They can fly and he knows it, but they prefer to climb.

Then finally there's silent poet Akkara who comes from ancient mesopotamia, who gets along most with Aki -- which is no surprise there considering their similar personality dispositions. he watches Aki and Danyal fight each other and leaves comments on this or that that he notices. He writes Danyal poems on clay tablets and leaves them by his room.

They're one big mismatched group of outcasts, and Danny's got the other ghosts on his island to tend to, because they're living on his island and he wants to be hospitable even if he struggles with that. But he spends the most of his time with them.

Sam and Tucker are making fun of him. Tucker jokingly tells him 'careful Danny, at this rate you're gonna start a cult'. Danny really wishes he had taken that joke more seriously.

He just. keeps. collecting people. Wayward souls lost in the zone, looking for shelter or refuge from something or other -- whether that be another hostile ghost, or a past afterlife, or just a purpose. Danyal finds them, he takes them in, offers them a place on his island until they are ready to leave. Many seldom do. He's not complaining -- he has the space, and it feels like it's only ever growing.

His close friends, his "inner circle" as he's heard the others call them, keep insistently calling him "my moon". He starts calling them his stars, because then it only feels fair. They're his stars, this is his constellation. It becomes a thing; little star halos begin forming behind their heads, picking them out from the rest. He loves them so much, it's hard to place. Sam and Tucker are also his stars, but they reside in the living realm, they're his tie to Life. Meanwhile, his friends here know what it's like to be dead, and sometimes its nice to relate.

Those living on his island keep calling him "Great One" and he's beginning to notice zealotry in their care for his island. He really, deeply appreciates it. His close friends gain nicknames -- as his stars, it's only natural for him to pick them out from the cluster in the skies. Akihiko, his Sirius and bright star. Trix and Missy, Castor and Pollux, the twins and troublemakers. Ambroise, his zealous Antares and close friend. Penelopeia, chimeric and loyal Vega. And Akkara, his Arcturus and strength.

It's ridiculous how long it takes for him to notice; he is, of course, a deadly trained assassin. He is meant to be observant -- and normally he is! But somehow this becomes a blind spot. One that becomes too big to be dealt with by the time he realizes it.

He should've noticed when Aki, his Sirius, stood beside him one day while Danyal looked over his island and saw the sprawling spirits carrying on about their afterlife and bowing to him as they saw him, and said: "I looked down into the depths when I met you; I couldn't measure it." They aren't one for flowing prose, it took him so off guard he was silent for over a minute before he finally spoke.

Danyal should've recognized devotion for what it is, and yet he didn't. He should've recognized it when Antares began spouting praises about him, crowing about his radiance and resplendence to the heavens. He just brushed it off as Ambroise being Ambroise. He should've recognized it when Trix and Missy nearly broke Dash's leg after he knocked Danyal's books out of his hands, he excused it as them being protective. Of them coming from times where such violence may have been customary -- after all, that's what he used to be like. What he was still like, sometimes, when his emotions nearly got the better of him.

He should've noticed it when the people living on his island followed his word like gospel, looked at him like he hung the stars in the sky. When his friends gifted him a shawl with the moon phases delicately embroidered into it, with silver, shimmering thread and moving stars lovingly stitched into it. Their constellations seen clear as day in the dark fabric. When he found small shrines dedicated to him -- but they lacked any image of him beyond stones carved to look like moons, so he ignored it. When the religious imagery began popping up.

He really, really should've noticed it when a bunch of cultists accidentally summoned Antares, and Antares had turned to him when he arrived and called them heretics. But he was so centered on the fact that they had kidnapped one of his stars, that he hadn't paid much attention to what Ambroise had said.

Sages say that faith is blind, they should also say faith in you is even blinder.

It really only hits him one afternoon while he's sitting in Sam's room studying with Tucker, Missy and Trixie lounging at his feet, Aki sat on his right, Penelopeia braiding his hair, Ambroise draped against him, and Akkara lurking over him. Its one of the rare few times they're all in one room together.

It hits him like a bolt of lightning. He looks up from his textbook. "Oh Ancients," he says in no amounting shock. Everyone looks up to him.

"I've become my grandfather."

[ikkoros]

cactuars are the sanrio of eorzea, actually