#downtime’s up

[numptypylon]

Downtime's Up - Chapter 21 (S5E4)

“You know?” Gren asked, but Rayla could tell the words were Amaya’s. He spoke differently when he spoke for her. She looked up, to Amaya’s hands signing, her gaze firmly fixed on her. “That I left him, too?”

“Callum?” Rayla asked, as if there was anyone else it could be, besides him. It was him. Always him.

“Yes.”

“Really?” Rayla asked, disbelieving. She knew Callum loved and admired his aunt very much, she wouldn’t have thought that.

“Really,” Amaya signed, and Gren said aloud. “When Sarai died. I left my brother-in-law, a recent widower and single father. I left my duty to my family, to my sister’s sons. I left my nephews. Ezran was not old enough to know me or miss me, but Callum was. He was six. He had lost his dad not even three years past, his mother two months ago. And I left for the breach and for war, because I could not handle his grief on top of my own.”

“You had reasons,” Rayla protested. It felt wrong that Amaya should blame herself when it really had been bad back then. After Avizandum had reported back about the humans in Xadia, there had been stirrings about war that even she had picked up on, or rather, intentionally eavesdropped on. Amaya had not been wrong to worry a retaliatory invasion could have been coming, it nearly had.

“Oh, I told myself I had reasons. I told myself I left to defend the realm, that I was needed there and not needed in Katolis. That I was better suited for bashing in skulls than holding crying children in the night. That Callum had his step-dad who was shouldering a whole country’s problems in addition to his own grief, and his little brother not even walking yet. I told myself that I would be no comfort to him; too much of a mess myself to be a positive in anyone’s lives beyond my skull-bashing abilities. I told myself anything I needed to, to get through the days, and at night I lay awake in my tent, remembering my sister’s face the last time I saw her, imaging that if she had had time tell me anything before she died, it would have been for me to do the very opposite of what I was doing, to both those I loved and to myself, remembering Callum’s angry little face as I’d left, what he would have said to me if he had had the air to do anything but cry.”

Read more of the twentyfirst chapter of Downtime's Up on Ao3, wherein Rayla and Amaya have a longer chat at the bookery of Lux Aurea

[burquillos]

Day 24: Class 3A Christmas Gifts

[stark-lord]

DEAD BOY DETECTIVES 1.04 - The Case of the Lighthouse Leapers

Exhibit A for the fact that he really would let her get away with just about anything.

[techfan450]

Rex: *wakes up on a good mood*

Rex: Good morning! We have a very chill day ahead!

Fives: *opens his mouth*

Echo: *shoves an entire muffin into Fives's mouth*

[numptypylon]

I have that exact scene planned for my between-canon-scene fic, Downtime’s Up!

I haven’t written it yet, since it’ll be chapter 30 (story is currently only at chapter 9 so… it’ll be several months, sorry 😅), but I have a title and header illustration:

someone please write the missing scene of Soren and Rayla's conversation in the boat on the Sea of the Castout before she goes back down because they know the worst the boys will encounter down there is Claudia, and Rayla is the one who can protect them because Soren knows he'll hesitate and Rayla won't

[sleepymccoy]

Please feel free to add your own ideas

[creakincreek]

More 3 months AU art because I'm going crazy /pos

@hatekawa explodes you with my mind

Quote that inspired the art under the cut ^^

Colour palette

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

most of you will not understand the agony of this outfit. but hey here's fantasy au Howdy!

rambles:

yes. i know. he looks like a gunslinger. but I think it'd be funny if Howdy shows up and he minorly tweaks the genre simply by Existing! plus, he has to make himself useful beyond being a traveling salesman - he doesn't have a scrap of magic in him! so! alchemist gunslinger!

due to much of this "final" outfit design being Miguel's (@indigopoptart <3 thanks for your help homeslice <3) influence, i have less to say than usual! i'll talk about the things i Kept from the first terrible, terrible draft!

i wanted him to have full-coverage gloves because One, gloves fuck, & Two, shooting gloves! plus, he regularly works with dangerous materials! gotta keep his hands as safe as possible! speaking of his guns, they were a Ton of fun to draw. i wanted to make them ornate... Howdy seems like he'd enjoy nice things? fancy stuff perhaps? anyway the guns have his tavern "logo" on them!

the "second safety" mentioned triggers a magic-oriented mechanism that allows him to piece the guns together! they "unfold" into a big ol clusterfuck of a powerhouse weapon! unfortunately, using this immediately breaks the guns and they have to be repaired, so it's a "break glass in case of emergency" ace up the Neighborhood's sleeve!

i like to imagine that his bandolier, while cool, stresses everyone out a little bit. each bullet is full of pressurized weaponized magic. If they break while on the bandolier, well! Howdy would probably be very much Royally Fucked! i also drew the bullets too large here, so imagine that there's a lot more than shown and they're a lot smaller. I didn't realize this mistake until right now! oopsies!

i want to keep elements of the canon outfits in these fantasy ones. hence why his vest is striped and blue, he's still got the reddish brown pants, and! why his cloak clasp is shaped like a tie! and why the inside of his cloak resembles his apron!

i like to think that Howdy got his magic pack by swindling some poor soul out of it! when the buckles are undone, it unfolds into a vendor stand that looks Much different than the tiny scribble provided! said scribble is there to ah... what's the word. Demonstrate? get the point across? it's actually quite a nice stall! he has space to sell, and a workbench to tinker on! the pockets on the bag actually do function as pockets, though.

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

what's yalls most "oh you did not lie about your kitchen experience" question at a new job? Mine's usually "what's the heat distribution on the grill" or "what side of the grill is fucked up" (depending on the vibes of the restaurant)

[inchidentally]

I dw to go too deep into it bc the emotions are too high and the extremes are not fun places to stir up etc etc etc

but the way post Monza felt like a joint experience in misery for Lando and Oscar that they then took a joint approach to with the media, followed by a joint sense of relief and exuberance following this race...

and I always bang on about their joint decision to not do the whole joint content/bromance PR stuff or post when they have down time/social time together and asked to have both their drivers rooms accessible to only each other behind a door barring everyone else - this is exactly why. the job they have to do individually and together is far easier when they can keep fans and media - and Netflix - on the outside and just get on with it in private.

bc there have been drivers in their thirties with 10+ years of experience who haven't kept things as mature and balanced as these two and while the extremes of fandoms and media are projecting melodramas and hatred and conspiracy theories onto them, they deserve way more credit than they're given for maintaining such consistent unity and calm considering they've been thrown into the hottest oil fire situations with a team still struggling to get used to being front runners again, all while only having been teammates a season and a half and both under 25.

like I always say, I keep fully expecting them to at some point be normal and take swipes at each other sometimes and be in a funk w each other for a week or so before being buddies again etc etc the usual stuff for teammates who like each other but are also close rivals on track in a front runner team. and that may still happen and it still won't be cause for alarm for me! but goddamn they've faced some hellish situations and held their composure and traveled home laughing and smiling together each time and showing up for work at the races or MTC beaming into each other's faces. all while never once having a typical PR bromance to uphold/maintain for fans or therefore benefit from. they're just... wanting and choosing to respect and like each other when they literally don't need to do any more than tolerate each other - and could've stuck with rooms opposite management's offices like they used to. with the amount of people desperate for them to hate each other and the fact that teammate rivalries actually generate more engagement and headlines than friendly teammates like, they're (currently) choosing to huddle together and discuss and reach agreement so they can get back out and do the best they can with a team that's still strategically trying to learn how to be at the front again.

[storfulsten]

hhhm

[numptypylon]

Illustration from last chapter of Downtime’s Up, my between-canon-scenes fic, where it’s inn o’ clock in rayllum land 💖 Chapters of this fic can be read independently, without reading the whole fic, since it closely follows the canon episodes.

[demodraws0606]

People complaining about Tsukasa5 already are pissing me off, because like, it's so unbelievably obvious what this event is trying to do and the fact that people are so hung up on "urgh dur tsukasa strong why can't he do a wall climb".

Like, first of all, a lot of Tsukasa's strength has been used as comedy before and also it's never been said that Tsukasa could specifically do a wall climb before so people calling this a retcon or a stretch is really dumb to me.

Sure we can make jokes about it, but this is not like a serious writing problem or anything.

Also are we just gonna ignore the fact this event is literally just a reference to his 3rd event in a silly trenchcoat. Or the fact that this is obviously meant to be WxS's downtime and training arc to prepare them to face the loose plotpoints in the future?

His inner dialogue when chasing the ninja is very clearly a reference to the whole Pheonix thing, how he can't reach it no matter how hard he tries.

The wall climb is like an extremely fucking on the nose metaphor to him climbing over his issues as an actor.

THERE IS ALSO THE WHOLE THING THAT HINTS THAT TSUKASA CAN ONLY OVERCOME HIS PROBLEMS IF HE HAS HELP FROM OTHERS (AKA tsukasa would've literally BEEN INJURED, if it wasn't for the fact the troupe's leader was there).

In fact this literally followed an event aka Tsukasa 4 where he FAILED to do his role correctly.

It's almost like this event is meant to be a transition point between Tsukasa 4 and 6, where Tsukasa builds up the knwoledge on how to face his problems.

But no this is just mid event because it's very silly and "wow plot is stupid why can't tsukasa wall climb".

WxS fans are slowly just turning into VBS fans in terms of how whiney they're being i swear

[genshin-scenarios]

Being reminded that the archons have their own residences is kinda surreal like wdym they probably pay RENT or just own their own home ⁉️ BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY WHY IS THE GAME TAKING AWAY THEIR LAYERS IM GONNA CRY

[masschase]

i've been thinking about SR1 a lot recently

[cahootings]

.

I’m home from spending a week at a conference with some of my best friends in the world who I only get to see once a year and I averaged 4.5 hours of sleep each night and kicked ass at my presentations and got so many questions and hugged and cried every day and I’m not the same person anymore.