#every blessed thing

[baladric]

in the spirit of 2024 art wraps actually, here's the sparkling top notes of character sketches for my in-progress book 🥹

introduction blurbs under the cut if you're interested!! they are. all i care about.

in order from top left to bottom right, glossing over the couple duplicates

MELECH PEL-AHN VIÇ ÇIMELLA

lawful good made manifest, melech is a career soldier reeling his way along with a mélange of battles scars, while the world moves farther and farther away from the moral and balanced justice he believes in—and which has begun to challenge that belief, as he realizes that sin and goodness are much muddier waters than he thought.

TAVI QAN

freighted with secrets on secrets on secrets, tavi is a cautionary tale on legs, as well as the wikihow on how not to cope with the stress of compulsive people-pleasing (and every other blessed thing.) what more is there to say? haha jk there's at least 90,000 words of things to say, but that'd be spoilers 😌

KITELLA PEL-FAR EVITT

they say the scribes of anniall are the incorruptible breath of the cosmic body of the gods, and also that this belief has just been summarily shattered by a single man. but kitt, for his part, rejects the idea that he has been corrupted. saint anniall of the sotheren star would want nothing to do with this age of empire and oppression, kitt will tell you. saint anniall would spurn a leadership that has strayed so far from the tenets of harmony and compassionate community, kitt will say. saint anniall would—so kitt asserts (and rightly so)—prize and encourage the underground resistance trying to incite a labor revolution. anniall, too, would pen an aching, cutting manifesto and inspire a movement-wide rebrand in the name of the long-lost friend of his youth. he, too, would [squints at smudge handwriting] land himself a death sentence by military tribunal and lose everything he holds dear in the escape. or something like that.

MINA YLL-SHEVRASK

don't let the youthful portrait fool you—mina is well into her middle years now, and the decades have put the world is on its knees for her. imagine magic. now imagine breaking magic and making it all over again for your own pleasure. imagine keeping the secret of it to yourself while you build greater and wilder things. imagine giving those things to the rising storm of a bastard daughter-turned calamity, remaking the world in your own twined images. also, imagine being super duper gay married to her while you burn the world to its struts 💕

QAILLANI IIKHAL

princess? wife? mother? hah! she's tried it all and walked away, and what regrets she once had, she has swallowed down as bitter pith to be passed. watch out for the cormorants, by the way. they know more about our players than anyone can guess.

AMAAN YLL-SHEVRASK

khai'eş. khai'eş? listen, she didn't pick the name. she has an ego on her, sure, and hubris enough for any homeric antihero—but even she's not enough of a cock-swinger to name herself after the thing feared most by sailors across the khimell sea. or, well... what used to be the most feared thing. that title goes to her now, with her spellwrought ship and her bloody-handed crew and the mage of the isles for a wife. too bad she's grown sooo complacent in the keeping of that other two-headed secret, though.

THEODORA KOSTAS

you could say a lot of things about theo, but you probably shouldn't say them to her face. fractious, viciously smart and just as quick with her fists as her tongue, she ran out of patience for being undermined years ago and has no qualms about making it your problem. but mind your own business and she'll mind hers, and buy you a drink while you're at it.

KETILL BELOW

the thing about loving magic is it can break your heart worse than any person. or so ketill thinks, young as they are. they'll keep doing it, though. it's all they have. no—had. had.

[eruhamster]

There have been multiple times where I've seen people are like "haha Hua Cheng made up a story about being kicked out so Xie Lian would take him in haha so silly" so I just wanted to point this out.

He was quoting himself from when he was a little boy.

He was scared to just outright say who he was, but he kept trying to jog Xie Lian's memory (though ofc being a ghost with a photographic memory, he may not have remembered that normal people don't remember things from 800 years ago). He was constantly quoting himself. He showed Xie Lian the palm of his hand with the intention that Xie Lian see his totally fucked up fate and realize who he is.

To be honest... Hua Cheng doesn't really lie to Xie Lian. He lies by omission sometimes, but he does not outright lie. And I feel like people are missing something by apparently not being aware that Hua Cheng was trying to tell Xie Lian who he was, without telling him.

That's why he started trembling and laughing when Xie Lian recalled the story of the suicidal boy that Xie Lian told 'live for me!' - The entire time, he thought Xie Lian forgot about him. Until then.

[soleyrouge]

Heavenly officials: Hua cheng is dangerous!

Xie lian: 👍🏻

Heavenly officials: He's challenged 33 gods and made them lose their godhood

Xie lian: 👍🏻 *kisses him*

Heavenly officials: He'll kill you!

Xie lian: 👍🏻 *sleeps with him*

Heavenly officials: Something is not fucking right with this guy.

[ghost-kings-court-jester]

Something I think people are sleeping on Hua Cheng and his shapeshifting. I’m re reading and it’s really clear to me that Hua Cheng (who yes has self esteem issues) also does his disguises for fun. Like one of the things we first hear about him in this:

“The name Hua Cheng was very obviously fake, and his appearance was most likely fake too. In the rumors, he was sometimes a twisted boy given to capricious mood changes, sometimes a gentle and mannered handsome young man, sometimes a gorgeous seductress with a venomous heart, anything goes!”

Then later he appears in one of these forms. Like if you read the scenes of Xie Lian checking his disguise he is both giggling and twirling his hair at how smart his Gege is and how good his disguise is. He enjoys looking like a young pretty boy master with boyish charm. He literally changes shape just to play with his clothes. He switches forms I think at least 10 times in the novels possibly more (I’m rereading so I can’t actually remember) but like he has fun with it.

Like yes he does have self esteem issues creating the disguises would definitely be a part of that, but far too often I’ve seen the idea floated around that that’s the only reason he changes forms. Or if he does change forms it’s for self consciousness and for strategic purposes and Xie Lian helps him get over that. Like it seems to me a lot of people think when Hualian get married he never wears one when he’s only around Xie Lian and I just don’t think that’s the case.

Like yeah he does mostly take his true form with Xie Lian but I think that’s mostly because they are getting to know each other and he’s probably tired of masks being between them.

Genuinely he never stops changing forms completely once the reveal of his true form has happened.

Even when he’s forced to be shaped like a child he chooses a full fancy baby outfit and styled hair. He plays with his outfits and hair styles frequently and you’re trying to tell me that man is going to live out most of his married life in just one body type. You think he’s going to completely ignore woman’s clothing because I don’t. A female form is mentioned and I know there’s no way he doesn’t have a thousand outfits for her as well.

And while yes I do love the gender fuckery of it for my own headcannons I can also see him putting on his disguises like drag or to put on a persona to act. I think he just likes playing around and switching shapes because like everything Hua Cheng does he doesn’t go in for half measures. He doesn’t seem like some effort into learning how to shapeshift so perfectly it confuses even XL just because he’s self conscious of his own looks. Like that doesn’t really fit his personality.

Basically what I’m trying to say is my guy is fashionista playing dress up with himself as his own Barbie doll. Let him have fun! Stop making him using his disguises as an obstacle he has to overcome. Not everything has to be that serious.

[hinamie]

playing around w slightly different hair renders

[egophiliac]

like mother, like son, but less wholesome this time?

(I couldn't decide whether or not to put them together, so have them in all the different ways!)

[khaoala]

Bibi's favorite KantBison kisses.

[solhunder]

Good news and bad news, gang

Bad news: due to a variety of reasons, life has gotten overwhelming and i've fallen behind on a lot of Life Things™ and producing content of our lovely lbm has become more stressful than fun. which is like the opposite of what its supposed to be.

Good news: i put in for vacation at the end of may and will be spending a full week in a secluded northwoods cabin with just me, my tablet, and my two cats. and i plan on using the entire time to just draw and chill.

so in conclusion: i'm taking a break. possibly for the full month and a half before my vacation. maybe not tho, we'll see. but i'll be back by june at the very latest!

just gotta focus on getting my life together for a bit 👍

[arcanewebs]

personal take on fem tsukasa

[baladric]

For the ask game:

🙏 share the wealth! People deserve to see the beautiful trainwreck that is Tavi

heehee ty ty this is why we are friends

pulling from the last draft bc you requested tavi trainwreck and the present manuscript is still unspooling so the Trainwreck is quieter and still buried within other stuff, versus...

—

"You know nothing of me,” he said, barely moving his lips.

“Not you specifically, no,” Tavi said. “But I’ve met enough of Eadiir’s rejects to know a military exile when I see one, Major.”

The rank was only a guess, but it was a good one. Shock rattled through Melech in a reaction so stunningly kinetic that Tavi almost felt it himself.

“You dare,” he said—or questioned, maybe. His tone was a creature all its own, now that the constant companion of his fear was brought to the fore.

It was a pretty look on him—fear, and the gimlet-bright spark of panic—but Tavi felt no joy in the sight of it. Though he had made a home with the sort of people who played with their food, he had never found triumph in cornering someone. It was shameful in combat and it was shameful in conversation, and Tavi was ashamed. He looked at his hands in his lap, and found them shaking. Hoping to still them, he pressed them flat against his thighs—and if the motion had the benefit of creating a hot, grounding stab of pain from the tear in his leg, then that was between him and his saints.

“I do dare,” he said to the knobs of his knuckles and the blood-darkened length of his fingers against the black of his unsalvageable trousers. “But only to make a point.”

Tight as an over-tuned lute, Melech said, “Which is?”

Tavi rolled his tongue in his mouth and, when he felt he could bring up words, not bile, he lifted his face again to Melech's hard, hectic gaze.

“Take a lesson from the fairies people here are so scared of,” he said. “Names have power. Wield someone else’s against them only if you want the same done to you.”

He saw then, in the warm light of August’s lamp, that there was something cracked inside of Melech. Something raw and bloodied, something wretched, and Tavi wanted to say, Me, too. But before he could prove himself even stupider than he already had, a half-dressed and frantic figure burst through the open door.

ask me abt my WIPs >:3c

[bird-inacage]

The Heart Killers EP10 | "What about the lives we've wasted? What about the freedom I long for, the love I refrain from? Should we kill her? She taught us to kill people. What she did to us was beyond evil. Kill her! Let's kill her, Fadel! Kill her!"

May I present KHAOTUNG The Actor 👏👏👏👏👏

[burningcheese-merchant]

Мне безумно нравится смотреть на неё и думать насколько же счастлива была Голден Чизз, когда узнала, что у неё будет именно дочка(я знаю, что связь между Спайсом и Панир, должно быть, крепче, но я просто очень хочу нежные мамуля-дочурка взаимоотношения)

Матар Панир даёт мне самую ужасную детскую лихорадку в мире

I am absolutely fucking kicking myself for having missed this ask in my inbox. Beating myself black and blue. Non-zero chance I kill myself out of shame after answering /j

I remember you... You're the same person who drew the BurningCheese fam as cats... And you come back here with another banger 😭😭😭 more peak delivered to me, to my inbox, my eyes and my heart 😭😭😭 I just want you to know that you're one of the greatest people to ever live and you have forever won my favor

Look at them!!!!!!!! The girlies!!!!!!! Mama Bird and Baby Bird!!!!!!! Baby Paneer holding a cheesebird omg 😭😭😭 and you're 1000% right, Golden Cheese was ecstatic when she discovered they were having a daughter haha. Not that she was disappointed when Jack was born, absolutely not, she loves her baby boy to death. But now their numbers are even, 2 boys and 2 girls lol

I just... I'm so happy 😭 this is so beautiful... I can't stop looking at Golden's gorgeous expression... You can really feel that mother's love shining through, you know? And Paneer grabbing her face... That's so her 😭 she actually did do that a lot as a baby! She was always a touchy-feely person and she loved grabbing at her parents and brother as a baby! How did you know this, did you get inside my head 😭😭😭

I hope you're proud of this drawing because you should be. It's lovely. Especially Golden Cheese's expression, I really cannot stress enough how captivating it is. You're very talented and I honestly envy you. I can't thank you enough for making this. You've made my whole entire day AND tomorrow with this. In fact, to try to repay you for this, YOU 🫵 get ONE STORY VOUCHER! You can come into my inbox and ask me to write a story about the family and I will! Whatever you want! Angst, fluff, father-son thing, mother-daughter thing, The Siblings™️, the whole family together, whatever you so choose! You seem like you like them a lot, if you want me to tell you more about them I can haha

[turtleblogatlast]

Every day I’m haunted by the fact the boys happily swim in sewer water

Even if it’s filtered somehow there’s no way it’s not still nasty 😭 Bet they can defeat any of their villains just by accidentally giving them diseases I swear

[austiebug]

A read a fic a few months ago where sat was luci's teenage mistake baby but born before asmo and the triplets, thus explaining how he's fourth oldest and 'youngest' at the same time. But now I can't find it. If you have any leads please contact the tip line. Thank you.

[here-comes-the-moose]

Crosshair: I’m sneaking out tonight to meet with a guy, I need you to cover for me to Echo.

Omega: Sure.

Wrecker: No problem.

Hunter: Alright.

*later that night*

Echo: Where’s Crosshair?

*all responding at the same time*

Hunter: Sleeping.

Omega: Practicing.

Wrecker: Pooping.

Echo: …

Hunter: …

Omega: …

Wrecker: …

Tech from beyond the grave: …

Echo, sighing: Honestly I’m not even mad I’m just disappointed in how bad you all are at lying.

[neyafromfrance95]

i'm not saying anything.