#it's my only connection to my heritage

[freshmmeat]

shhh… they’re playing she wolf by shakira

[fistfuloflightning]

The lights of the bamboo house were still lit even at this hour and the doors cracked to allow the summer night wind to blow through, but that was no guarantee Ming Fan was still awake. Luo Binghe’s hands gripped tighter around the medicine chest he’d received earlier from a Qian Cao disciple. Ming Fan had been difficult when they’d both been disciples, and was now doubly so now. It could have been easily blamed on his unstable cultivation, but Luo Binghe feared it was something else. Even at the door, the uneasiness made him hesitate. Lamplight striped gold across his face as he gazed through the cracked door. Ming Fan sat by one of the lamps, looking unnervingly fragile, staring tiredly at the moths fluttering around the golden glow. As if in a trance, his hand rose and softly closed around one of the creatures. He brought it close to his face and examined it between the cage of his fingers. “All you want is warmth and light,” Luo Binghe heard him murmur, “but it’s so easy for you to burn, isn’t it? To destroy yourself over something you could get even from a distance.” A tired laugh and those thin fingers released the moth to flutter back to the lamp. “Foolish.”

this scene has been living in my head rent free for so long (and on my computer) so I’ve finally drawn out how I envisioned it

[fregget-frou]

@autisticempathydaemon said they loved my Angel listener (along with everything else it was SO SWEETTT OMLLL<333) so here’s a doodle for you! They’re also one of my favorites!

Look at that face.

Full of mischief.

Some fun facts about them: they’re native! Specifically they could be from the Salishan (but I don’t know too much so I leave it ambiguous) and are half Filipino, born and raised in British Columbia, Canada around Vancouver. They were raised by their mom and brothers, then moving to dahlia for college.

They originally planned to secure a high end job in Vancouver just going to California for school but they met David. They still visit their family as often as they can.

They’re 5’4, the shortest listener! Aklag is still beefy and could definitely throw David over their head. Their callouses are from being raised on a farm, and they’re starting to fade now.

I took them out of another story I made a while ago so I’m still trying to tweak them seamlessly so I’ll actually maybe probably not but make a backstory sheet for my listeners?

Thank you sm for your words and I hope you like it!

[sab-teraa]

Call me crazy … BUT … The more South Indian movies I watch, the more I understand why my gran and great-gran had random framed pictures of South actors on the fam picture wall 🤯🔥

[val-the-protoss-simp]

Part 1/3 the Tal'darim

Part 2/3 the Khalai <- you're here Part 3/3 the Nerazim

Part two of this ask, the Khalai

Erzadar. Formerly Erzolun (Because I have another Khalai OC named Talizun and I thought the names were way too similar) First concept was from 2022 (can be seen on the far bottom right of the art compilation) She was originally a tiny researcher from the Shelak tribe (??? I think??) Erza and her team of Khalai protoss were essentially Auir’s equivalent to Shakuras’s delegate team of Nerazim/terran diplomats/researchers/whatever.

She (and all the OCs from this story) were in kind of a limbo as they laid forgotten high on a metaphorical shelf of my mind, collecting dust, while I played with other OCs and stories. Until I was *this* video like half a year ago (no, it is not a Rickroll) and was like oh my god. oh. not to be a lesbian but oh my god. oh my fucking god Jesus Christ- we all know the meme.

Anyway, since then she became a tall, beefy adept.

She’s still mostly in development and therefore there’s not much to say about her. She’s a former zealot (became an adept during the events of LotV) With a friendly personality in a way only people in their early 20s have. She was assigned as a bodyguard/guide to the Dominion delegates Auir hosts and quickly becomes friends with most of them, namely Victor. And yes, I absolutely do plan to drag these two through months and years of delicious angst and yearning and denial and more angst before I allow them to become a thing. Their fault they’re my OCs.

Talizun is also a character who I’ve had for a looooooong time too (2018????? Before 2020) but I never really fleshed him out despite his key importance to the plot of Zhakul’s story. He didn’t even have a name until late 2021 ahaha oops. Most of his story was also conceived that year, meaning it’s pretty outdated and also prone to change in places, but I think it’s skeleton will remain.

Tali is a chill templar from a fringe Khalai colony so far away from the empire that it was entirely excluded from the great war that took place during the events of SC2. Him and many of his templar brethren were in stasis for centuries, only awakened AFTER the war was concluded, which is also the reason why he still bears his cords and is tethered to the Khala. (One of the big changes in this AU, aside from Shakuras not exploding and the Daelaam not being a thing anymore, is that the Khala prevails. This could be a separate yap session for later, I’m just making this clear now in case someone is confused over me mentioning it)

Anyway. He’s very chill and level-headed for a zealot, which actually came in handy because Zhakul needed to do some serious deconstructing of the bullshit Dal filled his head with and Tali was up for the job. The two end up bonding over a similar experience (being removed from protoss society for so long they feel like complete outsiders) become friends and eeeeeeeeeeventually form a Zhakul-centred polycule that also includes Jake and various other terrans and protoss.

Tali eventually gets himself killed in a border skirmish with the Tal’darim (originally it was Y’rash that yeeted him, now I’m not sure that’s canon anymore) he’s stuffed into the shell of a dragoon and does his best to continue with his life as well as he can, which is made much more complicated because he ends up having an oopsie baby (who we will also talk about later) and from then on struggles with the crushing feeling of knowing he can never be an adequate parent to them because his broken body must forever remain locked in a dragoon exoskeleton. 

The Talendir Orchard Head FamilyTM

The main characters in Project Sammuro. There’s very little to say about them for now because the story they were created for is at its infancy and therefore their characters are also very underdeveloped. They’re a down-to-earth family of protoss living in rural parts of Auir, growing and harvesting sammuro fruit for it’s rich blue dye, then distributing it across the Khalai empire as needed.

The story focuses on this entire process and also works as a lightbulb moment for Victor, who realises that the strongly capitalistic society of the Dominion is very very  flawed in comparison to the more traditional, socialistic economy the protoss have where culture, tradition and the well-being of it’s people are far more important to them than profit and power.

[widogest]

the mcu has made so many mistakes but i'll never forgive them for what they did to wanda and pietro

[library-fae]

transitioning is me decolonising my body

[blujayonthewing]

reflecting on how all of my other DMs have gone above and beyond to lovingly weave my and my friends' backstory elements into the larger worldbuilding of the campaign by contrast to all of the ways Elyss' DM has gone out of his way to suppress or excise any influences her family may have ever had on anything and I'm genuinely near tears over it

[margoshansons]

Happy Saint Nicholas Day to everyone who celebrates!

May you find chocolate coins and tiny gifts hidden in your shoes this morning 🥰

[bookwyrminspiration]

since you’re talking about languages. just wanted to say im thinking about cajun french again. my mon-mon knows it and I could technically ask her to teach me a few words but it’s different than growing up with it y’know?

Oh BOY do I know. it's like...we are going to spend the rest of our lives with this ache. There is no undoing the fact we did not learn our heritage languages as children. Learning it later in life, even if we become completely and entirely fluent, does not and cannot ever change that we had to work for it. That we had to recreate it and that we will never and cannot ever come close to what could have been

There's this hurdle when learning it too--at least in my experience--where you feel like an impostor. And there is so much shame--for something completely out of our control; we had no say in what languages we were taught as kids. I'm always straining and listening to what others say--how they've shortened words colloquially, what versions they use more (e.g. oraciones vs sentencias), because that ease and experience and familiarity in conversation in others is something I don't have. They own the language enough to shape it to themselves, and I'm just trying to keep up. It doesn't feel like my language, doesn't roll off my tongue. I don't dream in it.

But I could have. And it's so hard, maybe even impossible, to forget that. Even when you learn it

[dolokhoded]

simon zealotes you are in my thoughts

[mamawasatesttube]

one of these days i am gonna write the kon "mixed kid/first gen kid from a diaspora culture" fic of my own dreams. one day it'll happen. as soon as i figure out how to, like, write it.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

not people thinking the poll is an irish lit reference lmao

[amazeedazee]

Having some kinda feelings on my Romani heritage and exploring that more

[synonymroll648]

IF LORE UPDATES APPLIED TO PEOPLE I WOULDVE JUST GOTTEN ONE OF MY HAPPIEST LORE UPDATES TODAY

[thisisnotjuli]

i make one (1) post about a personal, extremely non-reletable jewish experience and the one and only note it gets is a comment by someone who proudly calls themselves a zi*nist on their pinned post :/