#i don't think i'll ever be able to

[katsigian]

💕 self-love time! talk about which ones of YOUR creations (edits, artworks, fanfics) you like the most then send to other creators to do the same 💕

Aw, thank you so much! 🥹 I appreciate the prompt <3

I think my all time favourite creation is Valen. He's the greatest thing I've ever made. The time and effort that I've put into him, just countless hours building him, writing his story and lore and events in his life. Building his personality and traumas and how they relate to each other. His details and quirks and the symbolism behind him. Valen's story is 60 pages long and it just keeps growing because he's so incredibly special to me.

The effort that went into his tattoos and complexion; drawing the designs, placing them, shading them all in so they're realistic, painting his freckles and face skin texture. I have 40+ hours into that alone and regardless of what happens, I always feel a bit of pride when I look at the completed project (Pic 1 and Pic 2 below).

He's my baby, my labour of love.

Pic 3 is there because I love it and I'm proud of it. All of my VP are monuments to the things I love most.

Another creation I'm proud of is his and my other daywalker's lore. I've built an entire world on the base that is Cyberpunk 2077 to fit my daywalkers and wolves into. I've spent a lot of time worldbuilding and hammering out their individual lore. How my daywalkers work, how my wolves work, what their strengths and weaknesses are as a species. I have pages of it written down and maybe one day I'll share it.

And of course, I need to mention how proud I am of the things I've built with others, with my partner @rindemption and my best friend @noirapocalypto. My OCs and theirs are intertwined in ways that mean the world to me. I love these connections deeply and I'm proud of the stories and lore and people that I've built with them. There are a lot of days where the only thing that can make me smile is thinking of them.

These are pictures of Rin's Nathan and Sayne's Salem I've taken as acts of love. I'm very proud of them, too, because they're for people that mean so much to me.

And those are my creations I'm the proudest of. Thank you again for letting me share.

[pralinesims]

A gaming livestream... at least the attempt of one!

[swampybogg]

[jaguarys]

I think it is SOOOO FASCINATING that Hisoka and Illumi are the first villains that you see because they're such good representations of the pitfalls of Hunter society. On the one hand you get Hisoka, who represents this overindulgence. Where you get to a point where you're powerful enough you lose the perspective of people on the ground. Where you start to believe no one matters unless they can match you. Where you no longer have to follow rules, where you can do whatever you want whenever you want because who's going to stop you? And then on the other Illumi is this hyperawareness and paranoia of knowing, no matter how far you get, no matter how powerful you become, that there will always be people stronger than you. And you might as well just roll over and take it and never try to be anything more than that because there will always be people greater than you. Both of them have failed, and they don't even realize it

[canisalbus]

not sure if you've given them canon scents, but i've found myself imagining how your dog boys smell since i tend to like,, assign scents to characters/art i really enjoy (my nose is very sensitive, haha) so in my head, i think that machete smells a bit like flour ... and freshly washed laundry. his scent is distinct but not overpowering at all--its subtle, and typically goes unnoticed. as for vasco? he smells like cashmere :)

Flour boy...

I'd say these are good headcanons! I'm also kind of scent oriented irl so I know what you mean, and I've thought about what my characters might smell like.

Machete smells mostly of frankincense, which is one of the key ingredients of the incense burned in catholic churches during worship. It's hard to describe but I'd call it sweet, resinous, woody, citrusy and smoky. He doesn't wear perfume in the canon setting but the sacred smoke clings to his fur and clothes for a long while. Other than that, there may be a fleeting trace of lignin and ink from the endless stacks of books and papers he surrounds himself with, mild soap, and the lingering evidence of any medical treatments he's been recently put through, even if he tries his best to scrub those away.

Vasco smells primarily clean but distinctly alive and organic, if that makes sense. Like a well-rounded mix of earth, sun-warmed animal fur and carefully oiled leather from his boots and riding gear. Horse aromas are never too far away, especially when he's off-duty and outdoors. You may able to detect the subtle fragrance of his expensive soap, and he's been known to add in a drop of perfume when he's dressed to impress, his preferred notes being iris root and damask rose.

In modern au, both wear scents on occasion. I could say Machete's routine choices might be Etat Libre d'Orange's Rien and Heeley's Cardinal. Vasco fancies Tom Ford's Tuscan Leather and ELDO's Tom of Finland.

[dokukoi]

TA NANNAKUN as PHEE & COPPER PHURIWAT as JIN DEAD FRIEND FOREVER (2023–2024)

[pardonmydelays]

hey no offence but like a little splinter buried in your skin someone else can carve it out but when you've got the pin it hurts a little less and you can even push it further in when your body's screaming out trust your mind's listenin like a silhouette that you can barely see as a shadow cast upon the ground where you'll eventually lay forever but the day goes on the sun moves behind you you get taller bolder stronger and the rearview only blinds you

[ghostly-cabbage]

We need to talk about the worst thing about making AUs....

The fact that then when you inevitably think about crossovers you don't want the crossover with the canon you want it with your specific AU. Your brain worms, your circus, but THEN WHAT?

Oh, yeah, to understand this crossover you need to go read this entirely different fic/series? Girl help 😭 you can't do that

[0nlyhere4phil]

okay.

[delyth88]

Trying to get back into writing one of my WIPs tonight. It's been so long that I had to read what I've written so far to remember where I was up to.

Now it's almost bedtime.

Sigh.

[wrongcaitlyn]

hey guys! so. i really really really hate to do this, but i've been thinking it over for the past few weeks and i've decided that i'm going to take a short hiatus from tyt. and by SHORT i mean that i will 100% no doubt be returning to this on the first sunday of january (jan 5), and will only be taking november and december off!!

reasons for this are quite a lot, both for the benefit of the dear reader verse and my personal life! just to briefly summarize:

college app's. i really need to prioritize these, and though i'll definitely be finished by early november, it will be taking up a lot of my time

arcane. this seems like a silly reason, but i'm an editor as well as a fic writer, and i just know that the arcane s2 release will consume my brain. i want to allow myself to fully enjoy the season release and not stress about also writing a fic so that i can edit to my heart's content :)

both of those are happening in november, but in december i will be having finals and will leave for a trip for two weeks!! as we all know (*cough* my summer vacation) i am not the best at balancing both writing and vacation, and again, i don't want to stress myself out too much on what is meant to be a vacation

other fics! i still have two unfinished fics, and i'd like to finally get those done instead of having them lingering over my head for another five months lmao

but the main reason is for the overall quality of dear reader and its upcoming one-shots!!! a whole lot of stuff is about to go down in the upcoming chapters, including several one-shots that detail other parts of the universe. according to my outline, in the next five chapters of tgol, i will also be posting 4-5 one-shots in the dear reader series (yes, two of those include the pollen lore!). i want to be able to do those stories justice, and the one-shots do tend to take a longer time to write than the tgol chapters just because i'm usually writing from new pov's and outlining a whole lot of extra plot (especially in those pollen one-shots - they're going into a completely different time period and i want to be able to confidently say i've put enough time and effort into them to be proud of them! i've been hyping the pollen lore up for quite a while now and i want to do them justice!!)

so yes. that's quite a lengthy explanation lmao but i'm justifying it to myself as well because of how much i adore tgol and don't ever want to accidentally abandon it <3 rest assured that i will be using the two months to hopefully get ahead of my outline and ensure a concrete posting schedule when i return! but for now, i will obvi still be active on here (as well as insta and tiktok, if you guys are interested in arcane content) to answer asks and ramble about tyt!!!

[amourningcrow]

Late game spoilers, particulary about Varric! I wasn't able to put this into words before, but now that I've had some time, I think I can actually talk about it. It's a little long though.

I tried to start a new playthrough three times now, but I can't even make it to the ritual side without breaking down. It is, frankly, embarrassing.

But Varric means so, so much to me. I knew deep down that he wouldn't make it out of this alive - that he even survived past DA2 was a surprise to me. The man's got tragic death written all over him! But I still wish we had gotten some more out of him. Some more interactions with the companions, more banter, more relationship dynamics. We never even found out what he would have called the others! (Aside from Neve, who was 'Slick', apparently.)

This isn't even a criticism of the writing! I think it makes sense and fits his character, sadly. (Though it's also the first time they actually managed to make me hate Solas, which is quite a feat.) It's just me being heartbroken about one of - or maybe even my ultimate - comfort character. I played DA2 (and the others, too, but DA2 holds a special place in my heart in this regard) during a time in my life where I was very much just... lost, I guess. God. I think I actually felt physical fucking grief when I went through the Fade prison scene? I was shaking and sobbing the whole time and I don't know if I have it in me again.

I'm a bookseller by trade and Varric loving stories always resonated with me. He's often reduced to being the sarcastic sidekick, but I love all his aspects and complexities so very dearly.

The son who didn't ever quite fit in with the society he grew up in, who couldn't hold up to his parents expectations and so instead refused to be tied down by them, but still had a deep love for his family.

The man who was so tragically in love with a woman he couldn't have that he made her his little secret, keeping Bianca's identity even from his best friends. Who probably still didn't let go of his yearning all those years later, maybe because it was easier than opening up and getting hurt again.

The one who was always bickering with Cassandra, this steely woman he was always at odds with, but still wrote her a continuation for his romance series he didn't even think was good because beneath all of his veneer, he still cared.

Who was presented with this half-spirit half-boy and saw just a squirrely kid who needed some help to find his place in the world. (And yeah, this is special to me. Because god damn it, I never had someone like that growing up, and I would have given all my limbs and a kidney for it.)

Who was so, so full of compassion himself, despite all the shit the world had already thrown at him.

I don't know. Maybe I just have a thing for people who try to lock their hurt away so not even they, themselves, have to confront it. (Maybe because I'm a little like that myself and maybe that's why I like Lucanis so much, as well. Damn you, Mary Kirby.)

But anyway. Sorry for the vent. I just needed someplace to share this, I guess. I don't know what to do with this hole in my chest, but props to Bioware (and damn you again, Mary Kirby) for putting it there, because it's definitely not normal for me to care this much. I wasn't even this sad when I had to leave my Hawke in the Fade. Maybe they'll finally find each other again, wherever they are now 💔

[bietrofastimoff23]

the more i learn about s2, the more i wonder why tf Aegon, who was forcibly placed on the throne for the sake of family safety, should even care about their fate? he did not want the crown, no one prepared him for this, but Alicent accuses him of "ingratitude", Otto condemns him for stupidity when he did not do a damn thing to prepare his grandson for the rule, and Aemond is ready to kill him for throne. and even when Aegon is going through heavy grief over the loss of his son, Otto calls him a weakling, Alicent is going to remind him again of her sacrifices for his ascension, and Aemond doesn't seem to care about anything at all except that his uncle sees him as a threat.

i know Aegon seeks revenge, but sometimes I wish he would take Helaena&Jaehaera and ride away with them on a dragon back far away from this guys (to begin with, to the old town to reunite with their brother Daeron), because with such a family, don't need enemies.

[adorabledaylilly]

Why does no one talk about how incredibly kind and brave what Ralph did for Kara was? Ralph is so scared and paranoid he held a knife up to a little girl because he was so afraid of getting hurt. He hid from anyone who saw him and when he couldn't hide he panicked and reacted in pure fear but when Kara needed help staying hidden he tried his best to be calm and answer questions from a threatening stranger (Connor) so Kara and Alice wouldn't get caught and in the case that they do he grabs the threat and holds him back while Kara and Alice run away. This man, who is so scared of everything all of the time because of the trauma he faced received a little bit kindness and compassion from one person and that was enough for him to face that fear head on, risking his own safety to protect them? Love is the most powerful element on earth

[cursedwerewolf]

Bears in Trees, Starting Fires // Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Cycle

do you ever listen to a song that fits a character dynamic almost too well?

[ID below the cut]

Image 1: Lyrics from Starting Fires by Bears in Trees reading: I keep lighting fires and I keep punching walls / I keep holding my breath and I keep poking holes

Image 2: A quote from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater reading: Both of them stopped breathing. Gansey knew he’d gone too far. It was too far, too late, too much. Adam shoved open the door. “Fuck you, Gansey. Fuck you,” he said, voice low and furious. Gansey closed his eyes

Image 3: Lyrics reading: I keep smashing glasses and I keep falling down / I lay in the pieces and I keep rolling around

Image 4: A quote reading: With a sudden twist, he swept all of the figurines from the Queen Anne table. Foxes in breeches and terriers seized in midflight. They all plunged to the floor with a satisfying and diseased smash. He raised his voice. “World’s ending, folks!”

Image 5: Lyrics reading: I'll sleep on my sofa and you can sleep in my bed / I'll never feel whole but you're as close as I'll get

Image 6: A quote reading: Gansey said immediately, “You’re leaving with me.” “It will only make it worse when I come back,” Adam told him. “I mean for good. Move into Monmouth. Enough’s enough.”

Image 7: Lyrics reading: You can be the husband, I can be your wife / We can pretend we can cope with real life

Image 8: A quote reading: Gansey jerked his arm out of Adam’s grasp. Again his eyes darted down the hall and back. “You should look at yourself in the mirror.” Adam didn’t. “We do this, we do it as equals,” Adam said.

Image 9: Lyrics reading: White picket fences and stable jobs / Three little faces and a couple of dogs

Image 10: A quote reading: Out loud, Gansey said, “Fine, then. We’d find another good school. We play the game. We make up a new life for you.” Adam reached past him to find a rag and began to wipe between each greasy finger. “I would have to find jobs, too. This didn’t happen overnight. Do you know how long it took me to find these?”

Image 11: Lyrics reading: You can be the husband, I can be your wife / We can pretend we'll get over our strife

Image 12: A quote reading: Thank God we’re not fighting thank God we’re not fighting thank God we’re not fighting how can I keep it from happening again—

Image 13: Lyrics reading: Having conversations we’ve never had before / You’ll be drinking whisky as I walk out the door

Image 14: This was a conversation they’d had before, and entire days of arguments were replayed in the few moments of quiet. The words had been said often enough that they didn’t need to be said again.

Image 15: Lyrics reading: I walk to the seafront and jump in fully clothed (Ohh) / And I keep wandering aimless, oh shit, I don't even know (Ohh)

Image 16: A quote reading: Gansey couldn’t shake the image of Adam by the side of the interstate, walking, walking, walking. Knowing he was forgetting what he was doing, but unable to stop. Unable to remember Gansey’s number, even when people did stop to help.

Image 17: Lyrics reading: I keep starting fires and I keep poking holes / I keep holding my breath 'cause I am nothing at all

Image 18 : A quote reading: Adam inhaled. Gansey didn’t. He didn’t breathe at all. He just stood, frozen, his hands gripped around his king’s helmet. He told himself to breathe in, and he did. He told himself to breathe out, and he did. He didn’t move, though, and he didn’t speak

[loustica-lucia]

DATV — All That Remains🪴

DO NOT KEEP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED DRAGON AGE THE VEILGUARD!!!!!!

All That Remains🪴(Lace Harding & Calico "Rook" Aldwir)

Wearing his coat... like a nice hug from a lost friend😭