#hills of progress

[sweet-beezus]

You're not the same person you were several reflections ago, y'know?

[beautifulsimswherearethey]

the pottery studio next door

inspired by @moonwoodhollow's Zora Ceramics build

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

"I wouldn't have eaten the forbidden fruit" yes you would have. Why? Because you do it everyday. Because every character in the bible does it (with a few exceptions) over and over and over again. The narrative uses different ways of talking about it, "taking the fruit", "getting bit by the snake", etc but the real point is that your absolute failure to read the bible as a narrative, and instead to insist on historicity as your primary way of reading scripture, is the root issue here because it causes you to be blind to the actual message of the Bible.

[tapeworrmart]

Rip to this slutty wip version of Pyramid Head before I put his clothes on 😔 (ignore James. He's fine.)

[shithowdy]

2015 >>> 2025

I realized I actually did try to do a turnaround for DK Oliver a whole decade ago but didn't really have the confidence to take it past a rough, so hey!! I actually have a proper progress comparison.

(and oh my god the courage it's taken to dredge that thing up again because WHAT is that waistline 😭)

[psalms-and-spells]

You ever follow cool Christian’s and then they post something and your like “Oh…. You genuinely believe in thought crimes… okay.”

[canmking]

L a u r y n

H i l l

[quinnhills]

one year on HRT today! had to go off script for a moment and get real :)

[satanfemto666]

El progreso que hice éste año :) todavía me falta llegar a lo que quiero pero espero seguir mejorando

[sweet-beezus]

Iliana (Hills of Progress)

This generation's chosen Guardian who's longing for acceptance outside of her role. Simultaneously hard working and laid-back with an attitude to boot.

[pinazee]

Im doing a complete rewatch of Psych and imma have thoughts for the next couple weeks so prepare yourselves accordingly haha

To start, the pilot of Psych is actually highly enjoyable to me. And i have a few notes:

This is actually a great introduction to who Shawn is as a person. Shawn is highly intelligent sure, but the way he approaches people with sympathy and respect is what makes him so enjoyable to watch. In this episode alone, we see him smiling as buzz dances in the closet, he helps the handcuffed man initially, tells desk sgt. Allen (who deserves more credit for being Shawns inspiration to become psychic) to stop paying for all the fake psychics and got her to quit smoking (in a later ep). Plus, i believe he went to Mccalister not just to confront him but to gage whether he was going to turn him in or not. Which is interesting because he seems to sympathize with him, despite clearly relating more to being the one disappointing his father. I think he was giving him a chance to do the right thing, which he would expect his own father to do.

But it also tells us how much he needs to solve puzzles. Shawn could have walked away with everyone happy but instead he needed to know. He has a natural curiosity but on top of that, i think he needed to prove to himself that he could do it. He spent the first 18 years of his life being told he wasn’t doing anything right, specifically regarding the skills he was using to solve this case. So he had to solve it and solve it correctly.

I can understand why they had to get rid of lucinda (anne dudek) but i actually liked her character for the brief moment we had her and seeing the fallout of their relationship could have been interesting for lassiters character. But overall, i do prefer the naive full-hearted juliet.

Sidenote- Idk what it is about the theme song, but from day one it has filled my soul with such warmth, like it was instantly nostalgic and comforting.

[beautifulsimswherearethey]

a little sneak peek of the interior

[escapefromthedeal]

COMING SOON

(Yes, I'm back 💜)

[creativenicocorner]

Thought I'd share a small sneak peek of ch10 from my fic Glow Worms or rather: In the Depths of the Safflower Hills

During the ongoing editing process this is a moment I keep coming back to wondering if I should cut and save for a later time, or keep. Lately I've been leaning towards keeping it, but who knows what the future holds!

In the meantime, please enjoy! ___〆(・∀・) -------------------------------------

Serizawa placed a hand to his temple. Then pointed past a canopy of trees where the edge of a roof could barely be seen. There was a decorative statue on it, something that had wings. 

“And that must be the old main… manor?”

“As a manner of speaking, yes. Heh heh,” went Reigen. A pause. Silence. Reigen’s little self satisfied smile dropped some.

This wasn't causing the reaction Reigen had hoped for. He observed Serizawa a little closer. “You don’t look so good, Serizawa,” said Reigen in gentler tones.

It didn’t help how hot and bothered Serizawa was already feeling. With the back of his hand he dabbed at the beads of sweat showing up on his forehead. It was as if summer came early, but only for Serizawa.

A door opened from one of the sheds. Together they watched as two people with plastic bags exited it, busy with their talking and tasks. One was putting on heavy duty gloves. 

With so many workers Serizawa was surprised no one came to greet them. Were they just, used to people ambling up the road unannounced?

“I can’t tell if this presence is ‘the entity’ or just… the vibe of a very old place that had a lot of… unhappy things happen on the property.”

“It could be intertwined,” said Reigen glancing between Serizawa and the two workers enter into the fields. 

“It could be,” nodded Serizawa, “it very much could be. I’m not looking forward to it,” he dabbed under his chin with the back of his hand. Then shrugged off his muddy jacket. 

A cool spring chill immediately brushed against Serizawa’s warm body. It was instant relief, but it started to make the cooling sweat stick too. Which also wasn’t great, but he couldn’t stand the feeling of his jacket on him any longer. 

Looking at Reigen’s expression, Serizawa gave a comforting look. “Old places attract presences, especially places with history, or unhappy places or,”

“Cemeteries?” Reigen offered.

“Yes,” said Serizawa. 

“Perhaps there’s an unmarked gravesite around here,” Reigen frowned. Already scanning for potential locations for an unmarked grave. Would an old estate like this have a small potter’s field of sorts? He ignored the needly cynic in him who pointed out: of course there is. 

Serizawa hummed, “very possible.” 

Serizawa lifted a psychic infused hand and moved it about the air, as if moving magnetic powder around. Shifting through the centuries to try to find the specific residue he had come to associate with the Entity. 

Disease, unwanted pregnancies, indentured servitude, the struggle of living within a strict cast system, the little joys and happiness found against great odds, love lost, love found, treachery, betrayal, an unspeakable sacrifice. 

Yet nothing specific. Or rather, recent for their cause. 

Not quite tinged in enough teal. 

Or so it seemed. 

Was that a tale-end of a noise? Just beneath the rumble of a tractor? It came and went like a wave, just out of hearing. And just when Serizawa could place it, it was gone. 

Sometimes old places like this were a little easier to read. The psychic equivalent to geologists reading the foliation on a canyon. The pressure of time centuries, or the weight of grief squeezing the flat or elongate minerals (or in this metaphor; emotions, locations, old old objects and so on), within a place so they become aligned. 

This isn’t always the case of course. 

Something as vast and profound as emotions can hardly be contained within such parameters. But it helped Serizawa contextualize it all. Perhaps other psychics had other approaches, everyone was wonderfully different. 

Serizawa lowered his hand, and lifted a thin barrier. The psychic equivalent of wearing beekeeper’s gear. 

It, the floating residue of emotions, were all mainly harmless. 

The barrier wouldn’t ward such presence away either, it was light enough for them (in this new honey filled metaphor) to even perch and walk along the psychic bee suit curiously, but still, nice not to risk getting stung. 

It was something he found himself doing around locations filled with a menagerie of strong lingering emotions. There was great potential for a haunting here, if not now…then in the future. Dormant and waiting for just the right catalyst. Patiently in pause, until the liminal opening presented itself. 

And so on.

Reigen leaned into Serizawa’s field of vision. Giving his arm a gentle nudge with his elbow. “You good?”

“Yes. Thank You.” Serizawa resisted the urge to cup Reigen’s lovely round face in his hands. His hands fidgeted some. 

“Pick up on anything in particular?” Reigen moved the bicycles so they wouldn’t be in the path of others passing. 

Serizawa shook his head, “usual old place stuff.”

“Old as balls, huh?”

Serizawa rolled his eyes, Reigen beamed. 

Then after a while Reigen asked: “…What do they look like?”

“Hm?” Serizawa blinked at him, he had expected another jovial joke. 

“The, uh, old place stuff,” here Reigen wiggled his fingers indicating all the spiritual hodgepodge he imagined floating about. Or, sticking?  

Serizawa smiled. Once again happy Reigen had come clean and was able to stop squirming long enough to admit to not having powers. It meant a lot less jokes about things being strong enough or weak enough to be seen. And, it meant Serizawa could share more about this side of himself with less song and dance.

“Every location is different…” Serizawa paused, and wondered how he could put it in a way Reigen would understand. “Like…like how some vegetables need the right season. Or…uh, soil…levels?”

Reigen nodded, “ph levels, and an acidic scale in the soil. Plus, weather I’m sure? Except the weather could be…uh, anything?”

��Yes!”

Reigen looked skyward. “It’d make sense that the afterlife is just as varied and different than the, uh, …life life,” he finished sheepishly.

Serizawa noted no one had yet come out to greet them, then again, they hadn’t rung any bell or anything. He considered the fields, and considered all the different type of fields he had witnessed in a single morning alone. He considered Reigen, full to the brim with green thumb facts.

A breeze rustled over the pair of them. 

Serizawa folded his muddy jacket and draped it over his bicycle. 

“…Give me your hand,” said Serizawa, almost inaudible. 

“What?” Reigen looked at him. At the outstretched hand, with little calluses, the vast squishy palm, the little hairs that peppered the back of it and knuckles. “…okay.” Reigen gulped and tried to keep his head on his shoulders.

Serizawa held the hand, and concentrated. 

Reigen shivered as something overcame him. Not just emotion. Like a film was slowly being stretched over him. He felt like a blushing leftover dish being preserved for another day’s meal.

“…a barrier?” Reigen guessed. It wasn’t the first time he experienced such a feeling, though this was slightly different. It made his eyes water a little like bad hay-fever. Or what he had always imagined hay-fever to be like. 

In short, this was new. 

Serizawa nodded proudly. “Correct!” Then he squeezed Reigen’s hand ever so slightly.

It caused another shiver, he had to bite back a gasp as his lashes fluttered as if someone used a harsh flash, and everything was blotchy with after images. 

When Reigen could focus again he saw…saw…

“Oh… I see,” whispered Reigen.

It was as if a cell animation was placed over what Reigen had always considered ‘reality’. Motes of light made of amorphous spirits. Strange beings that looked like Cambrian era entities mixed with impressionistic art styles. It was breathtaking, and melancholic all in one. 

“Do you…see this all the time, Serizawa?”

“Not always. Sometimes I don’t want to.”

“What do you do then?”

Serizawa shrugged, “do the psychic equivalent of putting on sunglasses I suppose. Sometimes it’s for the best that I don’t see…they’re not used to being seen, so if the wrong kind of spirit sees you seeing them well…it’s not always a fun time. You see?”

“I see,” nodded Reigen. “Unwanted attention.”

“Yeah. …annoying even.”

“Sounds potentially, um, tedious.” 

“It is, but, I learned…”

“Like everyone…”

“Yeah,” said Serizawa resisting the urge to make little designs with his thumb over Reigen’s hand. “Yeah…”

Reigen frowned as he nodded. “…Do the kids have to deal with this too?”

“Most likely.”

Reigen’s frown deepened a little more as he considered this. “Sounds…hard.” 

“It can be intuitive,” encouraged Serizawa.

“I suppose,” said Reigen not entirely convinced. 

“‘Can’ is the operative word here,” amended Serizawa.

Reigen turned his head to look around more with these ‘fresh psychic eyes’. 

He observed as something pale lanky and massive poked about the fields. How people seemed to walk straight through the being, unperturbed. Floating one eyed scarecrow like…things. Some sort of prehistoric looking fish made out of the lines of a canyon wall, swimming through the air. Motes of, dirt, or feather balls. A many tooth horned creature that popped in and out of the grass like an earthy crocodile emerging from a river. 

It was like a childhood fantasy come to life. 

Meanwhile what could be seen of the Takeda manor in the background, had a hard to see-through miasma around it. A constant fog. Or the swirl of a coming thunderstorm. 

It was all so terrifying, and beautiful. Reigen wanted to squeeze Serizawa’s hand. Instead he said: “Won’t…I bring attention to myself, being able to see this?”

“It isn’t permanent.”

“Oh…” then Reigen added, “right, Mob did something similar once.” 

Serizawa nodded remembering the memory that Mob had shared with him.

“It was… exhilarating, and,” here, Reigen couldn’t help but allow a smile escape him, “in retrospect maybe even a little cool. But I was so concerned about the situation at the time, and… angry. I didn’t get to really look around. I wonder if I would have seen something like …all this.”

“You might have. Keep in mind this location is… really active to say the least.” 

“Incredible,” breathed Reigen taking in the supernatural scenery.

“You’re welcome to see it anytime though, just…ask.” 

The connection brought by the touch of their grasping hands felt very, very warm indeed. 

“Thank you,” said Reigen just above a whisper. “I might take you up on it…in the future. And…thank you, for showing this to me now. It’s…” a smile grew on Reigen’s face.

Serizawa wanted to preserve it gently like a flower in a book.

“…it’s wonderful, Serizawa. Thank you, again.” 

“My pleasure,” said Serizawa with an aching weight. “You share things with me all the time and…and today alone you’ve shared so much. I just… I’m happy.”

They looked at each other. 

The look lingered.

The sound of rustling trees and bending grasses. 

“I’m going to let go now…it’ll break the connection. So you won’t be able to, well, See. It might be jarring. Is, ah, what I’m saying.”

“Okay.” 

“I’ll keep the barrier up. Just in case.”

“Thank you.”

Serizawa made no move to let go of Reigen’s hand.

Reigen waited politely, albeit curiously. 

Serizawa swallowed. “I’m, uh, concentrating…” he lied.

“Oh!” Went Reigen accepting this instantly. “Makes sense.”

Serizawa restrained the impulse to shake his head, or Reigen for that matter as he thought: How could someone so perceptive be so dense? 

With an internal sigh, Serizawa slowly let go of Reigen’s hand. 

For the best, thought Serizawa.

The hands hovered in the air for a while, lingering, before gently returning to their sides. The connection broken.

After a while, for something to say before he crawled out of his own skin, Serizawa asked: “What crop is in the fields?”

“Safflowers,” said Reigen not bothering to look. He was still observing Serizawa. 

-----

Thank you! ___〆(・∀・)

[yukkue]

I didn’t draw much lately so eh have a wip

I like this one so I might finish

[yourhighness6]

One thing that will never cease to confuse me about Mai's nonexistent arc is the fact that Bryke knows how to write great minor characters/ love interests. Princess Yue only had three episodes but she is so universally beloved in the fandom and she's honestly my favorite character. I think this is just another one of those disparities that shows the difference in the quality of ATLA writing from book 1 to book 3.