#i forgot what tag i used. sorry.

[athetos]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Masquerade Series - Seth Dickinson Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Baru Cormorant & Svirakir | Apparitor, Baru Cormorant/Tain Hu, Svirakir | Apparitor / Lindon Santamine Characters: Baru Cormorant, Svirakir | Apparitor Additional Tags: Modern AU, College AU, mentioned tain hu and lindon and xate yawa and tain shir, mlm/wlw hostility but in a funny way, referenced sexual content, Nothing explicit Series: Part 1 of Aurdwynn University Summary:

Now that most of Baru's friends have graduated, she finds herself having nobody to room with her for her junior year of college, so her university assigns her a random roommate. To her surprise, the person they selected is the last one she would ever expect... but perhaps that isn't a bad thing.

[quirkle2]

his stupid giddy smiles compel me

[peridots-pixiwolf]

[Start ID. A redraw of the official icons of the ten named slugcats from Rain World, arranged in two rows: Survivor, Monk, Hunter, Nightcat, and Gourmand in the first, Artificer, Rivulet, Spearmaster, Saint and Enot/Inv in the second. Each is drawn in roughly the same pose as in the original art and fitted with speculative interpretations of their biology, and the second image is a “dead” version of this. For example, all ten have slug-like rhinophores in place of ears, cuttlefish-like colorful eyes with strangely-shaped pupils, cephalopod-like beak "teeth", expressive barbels or oral tentacles at the corners of mouths, spiny radulas, and the frilly mantle fringes of sea slugs, though otherwise their faces are squishy, simple and mammalian-shaped.

Cream-colored Survivor and yellow Monk both share triangular, bicolored spots matching their eyes (which are tan and brown, and two shades of blue, respectively), small, bumpy fringes, and relatively neutral looks on their faces. Defensive-looking Hunter is mostly a dull orange-pink, though their blobby fringe is a more violent red and their back is purple and marred with lumps. Nightcat is navy blue and flecked with dots of yellow and teal, their rolled rhinophores are a lighter blue, and their shading fractures into stars in some places. Gourmand is almost uniformly tan, their wide, very ruffly white mantle fringe bordered by a spray of white spots, and their beak sticks out from either corner of their smile. Primarily red Artificer, snarling, has yellow markings of multiple sorts, a prominent yellow dewlap and their characteristic dark scar taking out a chunk of its face. Rivulet is a darker blue than usual, with long barbels, red gills and rings, countershading, and a cheerful expression, sticking out their radula. Spearmaster is purple with orange accents, eyes and spots, a large fringe and spines down their back. Saint’s green caryophyllidia are marked by small, yellow diamonds, and their long, thin radula extends far below them. Enot is decorated with mottled red stripes, blue patches, yellow stars, and an uneven and almost cartoonish imitation of blush, though generally the same deep blue as Nightcat, a passive or almost slightly smug look on their face and their rolled rhinophores out to either side.

In the second image, nine of the slugcats’ eyes are crossed out, indicating that these are death icons. They look fairly the same, with mostly expression differences. Survivor is caught in the beginning of a threat display, a karma flower sprouts from Monk’s side, Hunter is burdened with overgrowing, purple and blue rot, Nightcat’s rhinophores are pinned back, and Gourmand looks mildly disheartened. For the final row, Artificer bites its radula between small plumes of smoke, Rivulet drops their expression, Spearmaster looks very startled, Saint looks almost entirely the same besides half-open eyes and their markings greater in number, and Enot grins confusedly. End ID]

If you'll excuse the unusually lengthy ID: the arena meme introduced by @pansear-doodles at long last after a nearly year-long wip status (or, rather, finished a month ago today to honor my own first time playing it!)

Design notes and shout-outs under cut! :]

The following people are some of those who’ve inspired my designs most since I started this eight months ago (or just inspired me to get a little weirder with slugcat biology), among many others for sure, and I thank them for it–but this is simply to bring attention to artists I find cool, and in no way an obligation to interact or anything :]

> @saturncoyote , @carpsoup , @charseraph , @gallusgalluss , @bitsbug , @dopscratch , and @0hmanit (and a special mention to dddeerbo and hunterlonglegs, who’ve since deactivated)!

Survivor: Surprisingly the hardest to pin down the colors for, since nothing with its sibling's palette seemed to match up right (I did have to add in a little blue somewhere for Monk, the beginning of making it clear how much I’m simply going based off of vibes for the colors of scug innards). I consider them, Monk and Gourmand to be part of the same gene pool of slugcats, and even possibly the same colony even if the latter isn't really related, so took a bit of Gourmand's coloring and fit them in with their inspiration: Goniobranchus verrieri. They serve as a bit of an introduction to my ideas of scug traits (i find it really fun how many people have thought to add so many silly sluglike fixtures of biology completely independent of me, buuut here I’m mostly talking about species variation), and like in-game they’re pretty average! They, Monk and Hunter have a couple scars sourced from a piece of Joar's concept art that I'm failing to find, those across the bridge of the nose, under the eyes, and across the rhinophores, respectively, and my Survivor interpretation features many on the back of the neck, as a result of survived lizard bites.

Monk: Their coloring is primarily based off the fact that I associate them with blue fruits, honestly, a bit because I was compelled to establish a familiarity with Rivulet, and lastly inspired by the spots of Goniobranchus kuniei (and geminus, less important to me as one of my characters is a kuniei instead, but more fitting). Between the yellow + blue and the circular marking in the center of their face, they’re meant to bear a little resemblance to an iterator that shares similarities with the characterization I’ve given them, and similar coding of her sibling can be seen on Survivor’s markings around the eyes. As both a “default” slugcat and one whose campaign I haven’t played, though, I can’t say I have much more to point out about em.

Hunter: The whole rot thing made for a really fun time drawing them, and while the color change on their back is a result of this, it’s also an excuse to relate them to Babakina festiva, arguably my favorite sea slug (mostly for sentimental purposes). And to Spearmaster, a fellow messenger slugcat, and it serves as a gradient between Hunter’s pink and the “traditional” color of Rot seen in the DLLs. Aside from their affliction, they’d actually be the plainest in terms of design, as they don’t have any patterns or quirks of body type, just the red + purple and strange lumps + possible malnutrition. I can’t remember if NSH had created them in particular or just...caught + released or something, but it probably wouldn’t be strange for a lab-grown slugcat to be simple like that.

Gourmand: Like the two above, they’re rather plain in terms of coloring and adaptation, and like the two above, I find that fun. I decided it would be nice to avert the “all slugcats being of the same body type, and Gourmand’s out of place as the exception” thing by just...adding more fat to all of them, really. I did want to emphasize their sheer bulk even so, both fat and muscular (not like I couldn’t have still gone further with it, of course, but slugcat anatomy can be a little obfuscating sometimes, and they were intended to look rather plush considering personal size headcanons and therefore the lack of proper gravity), and the thick and flounced mantle looked like a good addition, as per their sea slug Glossodoris hikuerensis. Unlike Survivor and Monk, I didn’t attempt to hold their resemblance to any particular other character (which means a little less to balance out the “default gene pool” thing), so those are all the design notes I have for em.

Artificer: The second slugcat I’ve ever played, or finished the campaign of, my favorite for at least a long time, and the first thing I did was give them yellow accents, the shape of which have troubled me slightly (not quite like the spots or stripes of the others). They’re both a little more appealing and more explosive-looking to me, and considering how early on I played Arti, actually present in some of my older art. It does give them a little resemblance to Saint (completely intentional, two slugcats with strange relations to karma), as well as the fact that its radula is green for familiarity with one of its children (at some point it was going to have all-green markings, even!). I’m generous with their scars, partly because it was fun to overemphasize the one on their face and partly because it does seem like a reckless slugcat, on top of the dangers of its explosive abilities–I’ll probably just keep adding more forever. Mostly-red sea slugs aren’t too common, but Hexabranchus sanguineus works for sure. The ridged, yellow dewlap can expand for combustion purposes, or something along those lines. Arti’s where I began experimenting with a lot of the mildly-offkilter features seen in my interpretation of slugcats, as they’ve once again been a favorite from the start.

Rivulet: I've obviously given other slugcats spots, deeply enjoy the bubbly-soda markings of other peoples' slugcats, and thought seal riv would be cute. Despite not too closely resembling it, they've been government-assigned Hypselodoris bennetti, for color reasons and for a couple sentimental ones. Originally, the colors of every scug were meant to match up with the custom colors I gave them at the beginning of their campaigns, (though Arti, Gourm and Spearmy are the only three who actually apply here, since I've only played through half the slugcats: I gave arti the yellow as mentioned above, gourm brown eyes and spearmy light pink spears, furthered by the outskirts pearl accompanying me and that palette all the way to moon. Tolerance training for eternity in hell cause I already knew about the maroon pearl quest). I initially gave them the colors of the bi flag for fun... but with the limited palette of this image, I was left without pink for a while and decided to see how they'd look in red. I then realized how they now wonderfully matched Moon, and besides, red's a sort of camouflage in deep water! As a side-note, the difference between their eyes and those of others always bothered me a little for anatomical purposes, and the cephalopod eyes were probably influenced by this!

Spearmaster: Inspired as much as possible by @notyourfunnyman ’s wonderful spearmy: designed in a way that helps it fit in with scavengers, at least between the long sensory tentacles, big ruff, back spines and slightly thin/distended anatomy, a form of defensive mimicry. I always had annulate rhinophores in mind, for a little diversity sure, but mostly because the shape reminds me of radio antennae and communication towers (seems fitting for the comms array and being a messenger slugcat)! I started searching for a real-life slug to give them just by looking up their rhinophore shape...and was met immediately and coincidentally with annulate-topped nudibranchs that fit them more perfectly than I could've imagined: Flabellina and surrounding clades, I think Paraflabellina ischitana works very nicely. The orange was completely unplanned, but there wasn’t a place for light pink among the other slugcats’ palettes, and importantly it likens them to both Hunter and Seven Red Suns a little more.

Saint: I am very much a non-furred slugcat enjoyer, with respect to those who aren’t, so figuring out the only visibly furred slugcat was an interesting challenge. I’ve decided that they likely have other, milder adaptations for help in the cold, mainly just more efficient fat storage, and what looks vaguely like fur is instead a bunch of tubercles (called caryophillia, for the second reminder out of three). Their inspiration doesn’t have these, however, Miamira sinuata’s numerous yellow and blue spots (not to mention...whatever’s going on with that shape) and general effect of being the only really green nudibranch I could find were probably perfect for a strange green echo. Not pictured, but their beak-teeth are tiny and flat to make a surface for grinding soft food against with the lack of a functioning radula, which is tipped with a specialized spiny “grapple-hook” for better traction/grip (not to mention the numerous little teeth running down the whole thing).

(Best part of hiding this under a readmore means edits will be seen by all reblogs, I'm mostly sure, because I completely forgot to mention! The spots on their forehead are simple eyes. Their camera eyes appear closed in-game, I like to believe their complex eyesight is rather poor anyways or otherwise reason that they aren't seeing out of those, and while this was far from her REASON for attunement with the world, it does help compensate for mainly viewing it through a canvas of simple light and dark. This, and the fact that their swapped-out "fur" is not only to commit to a lack of hairs but contributes to sensory input!)

Nightcat/Enot: I guess you could say I found the “these two are technically the same person” compelling. (E.g. similar colors, both very strange and enigmatic, and Enot/Inv/Sofanthiel’s remark during the dating sim about getting removed from Arena Mode.) I doubt they’re the only two slugcats in their body, considering humans with DID tend to have more than a few (and I find it very funny that a slugcat bearing resemblance to Nightcat appears in Gourmand’s ending. They’re allowed in the colony and Enot isn’t </3), and I have to credit @faelingdraws ’s art for being what convinced me on it! Their design inspirations come down to trying to balance a few different ideas: making the patterns and palettes of both look oddly similar (special mention to the stars, since those are fun to draw), basing them off of Felimare sechurana and juliae respectively, using blocks of color with the same placement as in Enot’s official art, and specifically making Enot look...biologically reasonable and imperfect, whilst also clearly trying to imitate human displays of emotion (what with...the eyes and blush on that one piece of official art).

Lastly, here’s just a lineup with notes on body shape and size. Most of the nicknames (existing to give a little more space, that’s all) are obvious, and while I can’t remember why I shortened Nightcat to Nox, it is in honor of my friend by the same nickname :]

[supercomputerz]

redesigned my Bugs

[transimailisa]

If one day, I could no longer be here with you, will you feel lonely ?

[ganondoodle]

Destiny, a pre-skyward sword legend of zelda fancomic ✨

Chapter 1: Demon (page 49 - 52 out of ca. 70* ) *it was 70 in the rough draft, less now as i have been cutting things due to pacing

archive at @tloz-destiny

(german version will start at chapter 2 over on @tloz-destiny-de )

[vulpinesaint]

Hi! I just went through your quizzes (gorgeous writing, by the way!) and I wonder if you have the results for all of them posted somewhere? I know both saints quizzes have a full results post and the garden one too, but I don't think I've found the others. I'm especially curious about the supervillain one :)

hiya!! thank you so much i'm so glad you liked them <3 as of right now i only have results up for the saints + garden quizzes, but i would be so happy to post more results for you! anytime i post results, they should be linked on the masterpost in my bio :) i think i will. only post the supervillain one for now. the other ones make me feel a little silly. but you are so welcome to the supervillain results <3

for those of you who have taken the supervillain quiz: here's how your story could have ended!

[redbootsindoriath]

Apparently in my absence this post had its 1000-notes-iversary.

This time we get to see the culprit responsible for ruining our heroes' lives as well.

I've really missed you guys, by the way. I know I've said that already, but I'm serious. Once or twice this year I've been right on the brink of coming back but schedule stuff always keeps me from letting myself commit to that again, and that in turn has kept me from posting anything at all. But I've been in an unexpected drawing mood lately and so if I can get enough stuff to set up a queue we might pretend I'm back for a month or so sometime this year. Maybe. Hopefully. We'll see. No promises though. That's why I'm hiding this paragraph under the cut.

Transcription:

[Beren:] "Uhhh...barkeep...I think he's had enough now..." [Tolkien:] "No, I don't think he has...!"

[sleepyskeleton-0]

Prompt: Hug/“this isn’t a negotiation, friend” (day 16)

Characters: Wild + Legend

Goddess, Time’s gonna kill me, Wild thought to himself as he trekked through the forest. He was allowed to go out foraging on the condition that he’d be back at camp before sunset. He grimaced as he looked at the orange streaks in the sky fading into purple.

It had been a calm day. A few stray monsters here and there, but nothing even one of them couldn’t handle. It had put most of them on edge (“it's the calm before the inevitable storm”, Hyrule said) but they all decided to ignore it in favour of having a bit of fun. Wind and Four were by the river last he’d seen them, collecting and admiring cool rocks. The others decided to take advantage of the fact that the old man was actually willing to play cards this time and even put money on the table.

In any case, it had been a while since he left the clearing and he really needed to get back before-

He stopped.

There, on the side of the overgrown path, sat Legend.

He was sitting facing in the other direction, hunched in over himself as if he’d just been punched in the gut.

Wild approached him with caution.

“Hey Legend, what are you doing?”

He came around to face the other hero and sat down in front of him. The Vet had his face buried in his knees, arms around his head. He stayed silent.

“Legend?”

“Hm.”

“You okay?”

Neither of them moved for a long while, each deciding to let the question hang in the air between them while Legend found his bearings.

He lifted his head, his face was screwed into a difficult expression, halfway between anxiousness and despair.

Wild frowned, but didn’t stare. Instead, he decided to take an interest in the dandelions that grew around them.

It’s as if he could hear the other’s struggle as he tried to form words.

“I-”

Legend coughed, trying to untighten his throat so he wouldn’t sound as choked up.

“I’m okay. I just get like this sometimes.”

It was true. They all had days where they couldn’t explain why exactly they had low mood or high anxiety, but that didn’t mean they needed to be alone during those confusing and stressful times.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“That’s okay, but you’re still gonna have to pay your taxes”, Wild turned his nose up in mock entitlement, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Wha- what?” The look of bewilderment almost made him crack.

“I’m here to collect your taxes, dude. Now pay up”, and he opened his arms with a blinding, over exaggerated smile.

Legend stared at him for a long, hard moment.

Tears pricked his eyes, apparently on their own accord, because he reached up and furiously wiped them away, snorting.

“You’re stupid.”

“Nah, I just know you.”

“Yeah, I hate that.”

“Can you just accept the hug??”

Legend sighed and promptly fell into the Champion, making no move to reciprocate the arms that encircled him in a tight embrace.

They stayed like that, enjoying each other’s company while any remaining anxiety and frustration ebbed away.

It took some time before either was ready to pull away. Admittedly, it was cold, and Wild was a pleasant source of heat.

Legend smiled as the last of his turmoil came to an end.

[currentlyinflames]

So everyone keeps telling Rick to give will a gun but give sally jackson a gun again and Percy won’t have to do anything else to get into college except not die

[mars-ipan]

happy early discount chocolate day

[h-didanart]

Could you guys imagine if a fell style SAMS au was one of the chillest dimensions? Like, could you imagine the funny potential in an edgy SAMS au just genuinely being a cool place to live at?

[scionshtola]

i do think a good shtola arc for the future would be like, her sort of calculated recklessness with her own life negatively affecting someone else and her having to reckon with that

[wyrmofworms]

Do you ever think the bodies used in the magic candies speak to their users?

[rosacarolina]

stop pretending you don't use ai photos. i know what a fkn flower looks like lol i go outside. i also know what ai generation looks like. this blog is ai garbage

i have literally never used ai to generate photos. i did sneak a skyrim screenshot in a while back though

[anotherferalrat]

Late Night Musings Pt.1

Indulge me for a moment.

As a preface, I would like to remind chat I am still very early in the story so no spoilers pls, I literally just made it to Inazuma and I've done like no character story quests

So I could be entirely wrong; I know Kaeya-Diluc-Crepus lore seems to be fairly up in the air. But the way I understand the timeline is Crepus dies during the day -> ragbros fight that night -> sometime before the morning, Diluc leaves to do hot girl shit (revenge)

In light of that...

Do you think Kaeya had to handle the funeral arrangements by himself :)

Of course Adelinde and the staff help where they can but as the only person of the household people can find, a lot falls to him.

That's actually how he finds out Diluc left. Adelinde comes to him in town as he's living in the barracks to invite him to the winery to talk plans. Having been yelled at not even hours ago to never set foot there again, he's like what if we do it here in the city instead and after a sec follows it up with why me, i thought Diluc would be in charge as the true heir.

Hesitantly, she shows him the letter the young mas- the new master of the house left, only saying he was looking for answers and couldn't return until he found them and that he's sorry. Nowhere did Diluc mention him but he knows he's part of the reason.

The two work out a meeting place, somewhere that's halfway for both of them but *not* the winery.

Anyways point is, how do you think he felt writing the eulogy, several bottles deep, thinking he shouldn't- doesn't deserve to be the main speaker? That he's once again alone in this world, partially from his own doing? That he was too slow to save the man who cared for him and "drove away" his sworn brother?

Just. Fun thoughts :))