#it's total shit but hey

[starry-bi-sky]

don't you want to be a cult leader? - danyal al ghul au

this is mostly a joke post but i thought it was funny and had to share so--

his first mistake was, obviously, inheriting his father's inability to see an injustice and stand still. -- actually, danyal's first mistake was his lair being so big. a mountainous island with a large temple in the center resembling his old home in Nanda Parbat? With sprawling foliage and rivers and streams and waterfalls galore? What was he going to do with all that space? Let it go to waste? He had plants there! Native trees of the ghost zone growing from the soil! He couldn't let it all be left unchecked!

So naturally after helping a fellow teenage assassin ghost -- who he later learns is named Akihiko, -- from Walker of all people, he sent them over to hang low at his lair until it was safe enough for them to wander around the Zone. Walker couldn't get through Danyal's astrofield if his life depended on it, and trust him -- he's tried. Danny was clearing out debris from his stupid transport vans for weeks.

Honestly it wasn't so bad, he and Aki really quickly became fast friends and Danny loves having a sparring partner close to his level again -- he hasn't had this much fun fighting since he left the League. Aki was very dedicated and levelheaded, the both of them clicked really well because of it.

Nonono, the real trouble began after Danyal met some long-passed League members and allowed them to come join his island as well. Apparently they had made a few enemies of the zone, and maybe Danyal still felt some loyalty to the League. He couldn't just let them be left to rot. Their zealotry could be overlooked so long as they kept it contained and helped him take care of his island.

And it.. snowballs from there? He meets a teen squire aptly calling himself Ambroise -- whether that was his living name or not is yet to be seen -- who died during feudal france, who is just about as dramatic and passionate as every french stereotype makes them out to be. He calls Danyal "my moon and great muse" -- which is both flattering and little uncomfortable, but Danyal's grown up in the League as the Grandson of the Demon Head, he is used to mild worship. he passes it off as nothing more, nothing less. -- and while his energy is overwhelming on the worst of days, he helps Danny draw out of his shell more in ways that Sam and Tucker still struggle with.

Him and Aki butt heads a lot, but the two seem to hold the other in at least some positive regard, so Danny doesn't worry too much about them fighting while he's gone. It only becomes a mild issue when Aki also begins calling Danny "my moon". It's a little sweet, so Danyal brushes it off.

Then he takes in a troupe of ghosts some time after he defeats Pariah Dark and they begin calling him "great one" just as the yetis do in the far frozen. This is where he meets the twins -- a pair of sibling ghosts who call themselves Trixie and Missy (short for Trick and Mislead) -- who aren't quite as passionate as Ambroise but more energetic than Aki. Eventually they also start calling Danyal "my moon" and attach themselves to his hip, even within the living. They like to hide in his shadow and cause trouble for the rest of the students. He makes sure they don't hurt anyone.

He's pretty sure Aki is jealous, same with Ambroise, but he can't be too certain other than the fact that they become much more lingering (re: clingy) whenever he visits the island.. Something he's trying to do much more often these days due to the increasing amount of people living there now. Since when did he become so popular?

Then there's Pēnelópeia from the Greater Athens, who ran away from home and joined his Island after he ran into her while she was being chased by Skulker -- and he's pretty sure the reason was because of her chimeric appearance. Her strange eyes and mismatched wings and lion's tail and talons. She assimilates into his friend group very easily, she gets along well with Ambroise and Trixie and Danny usually finds the three of them climbing the trees to pluck the most fruit from the top. They can fly and he knows it, but they prefer to climb.

Then finally there's silent poet Akkara who comes from ancient mesopotamia, who gets along most with Aki -- which is no surprise there considering their similar personality dispositions. he watches Aki and Danyal fight each other and leaves comments on this or that that he notices. He writes Danyal poems on clay tablets and leaves them by his room.

They're one big mismatched group of outcasts, and Danny's got the other ghosts on his island to tend to, because they're living on his island and he wants to be hospitable even if he struggles with that. But he spends the most of his time with them.

Sam and Tucker are making fun of him. Tucker jokingly tells him 'careful Danny, at this rate you're gonna start a cult'. Danny really wishes he had taken that joke more seriously.

He just. keeps. collecting people. Wayward souls lost in the zone, looking for shelter or refuge from something or other -- whether that be another hostile ghost, or a past afterlife, or just a purpose. Danyal finds them, he takes them in, offers them a place on his island until they are ready to leave. Many seldom do. He's not complaining -- he has the space, and it feels like it's only ever growing.

His close friends, his "inner circle" as he's heard the others call them, keep insistently calling him "my moon". He starts calling them his stars, because then it only feels fair. They're his stars, this is his constellation. It becomes a thing; little star halos begin forming behind their heads, picking them out from the rest. He loves them so much, it's hard to place. Sam and Tucker are also his stars, but they reside in the living realm, they're his tie to Life. Meanwhile, his friends here know what it's like to be dead, and sometimes its nice to relate.

Those living on his island keep calling him "Great One" and he's beginning to notice zealotry in their care for his island. He really, deeply appreciates it. His close friends gain nicknames -- as his stars, it's only natural for him to pick them out from the cluster in the skies. Akihiko, his Sirius and bright star. Trix and Missy, Castor and Pollux, the twins and troublemakers. Ambroise, his zealous Antares and close friend. Penelopeia, chimeric and loyal Vega. And Akkara, his Arcturus and strength.

It's ridiculous how long it takes for him to notice; he is, of course, a deadly trained assassin. He is meant to be observant -- and normally he is! But somehow this becomes a blind spot. One that becomes too big to be dealt with by the time he realizes it.

He should've noticed when Aki, his Sirius, stood beside him one day while Danyal looked over his island and saw the sprawling spirits carrying on about their afterlife and bowing to him as they saw him, and said: "I looked down into the depths when I met you; I couldn't measure it." They aren't one for flowing prose, it took him so off guard he was silent for over a minute before he finally spoke.

Danyal should've recognized devotion for what it is, and yet he didn't. He should've recognized it when Antares began spouting praises about him, crowing about his radiance and resplendence to the heavens. He just brushed it off as Ambroise being Ambroise. He should've recognized it when Trix and Missy nearly broke Dash's leg after he knocked Danyal's books out of his hands, he excused it as them being protective. Of them coming from times where such violence may have been customary -- after all, that's what he used to be like. What he was still like, sometimes, when his emotions nearly got the better of him.

He should've noticed it when the people living on his island followed his word like gospel, looked at him like he hung the stars in the sky. When his friends gifted him a shawl with the moon phases delicately embroidered into it, with silver, shimmering thread and moving stars lovingly stitched into it. Their constellations seen clear as day in the dark fabric. When he found small shrines dedicated to him -- but they lacked any image of him beyond stones carved to look like moons, so he ignored it. When the religious imagery began popping up.

He really, really should've noticed it when a bunch of cultists accidentally summoned Antares, and Antares had turned to him when he arrived and called them heretics. But he was so centered on the fact that they had kidnapped one of his stars, that he hadn't paid much attention to what Ambroise had said.

Sages say that faith is blind, they should also say faith in you is even blinder.

It really only hits him one afternoon while he's sitting in Sam's room studying with Tucker, Missy and Trixie lounging at his feet, Aki sat on his right, Penelopeia braiding his hair, Ambroise draped against him, and Akkara lurking over him. Its one of the rare few times they're all in one room together.

It hits him like a bolt of lightning. He looks up from his textbook. "Oh Ancients," he says in no amounting shock. Everyone looks up to him.

"I've become my grandfather."

[favourtonon]

Tim: KON YOU ARE ALIVE!!! :))) Kon: :))) what have you been up to whilst i was dead? Tim: *begins sweating*

[nocofamilyau]

take some daves

[vynnyal]

This is a pretty good point in the wip to share this, methinks :]

Map part for the hole dwelling map, starring... Not my ocs! I wanted to use ocs, but I don't have any-- so I just used the characters from a fic I was reading at the time 😂

Turns out, the symbolism was so much fun to twist into the 11 seconds I had to work with, I ended up going way more complex than I meant to. If you wanna read the fic this was based on, please do!! And tell the author I said hi! :D

[ricky-mortis]

A portrait of Sir John Herschel because I‘m normal about Pulp Musicals

[relaxxattack]

every time someone calls moirallegience just an alien qpr i wilt a lil like YEAH thats more or less the CLOSEST human thing but its also Literally Not That. like a qpr is fundanmentally not romantic and thats not even going into moirails whole Actual Purpose of calming ppl down. its just. aughhhhh pisses me off i see the confusion but, as aformentioned, aughhhhh

OH MY GOD THIS HAS BEEN BOTHERING ME TOO.... but i don't want to get petty at the people in my notes always saying "moirails are QPRs!" because in some ways that is the closest human thing so it's hard to be mad...

i think there's definitely some overlap in some ways. but NOT because moirallegiance and qprs are the same at all really, but INSTEAD because both relationships have unconventional boundaries defined by the people within them.

you know... like every relationship.

like the only reason the two have overlap is because they are both partnerships that emotionally care for each other but can choose to not bang (which is true for any romance anyway, even if it's considered abnormal). they're both just romances* that are unconventional to human norms, which makes people view them as the same thing when they're not.

i think the REAL issue here is that humans insist on using human words to understand things that are just, fundamentally, alien. can't we just appreciate alien romance for being... alien romance?

no, it's not platonic, it's romantic. it's just romantic in a way you aren't quite wired to understand, is all.

*in generalization, most QPRs are not romantic, because they are made up of aroaces who are life partners in a non-romantic way. however i want to disagree with you that none of them are romantic, because that is up to the partners in question.

[ccircusclwn]

hi! my evolution of mk is insane cause damn girl how r u so shaped now...

like, look at mty 1st mk drawing and compare it to my newest one (which is a spoiler kinda. for my next post. whoops.)

i know she had WAY more details back then, esp in the face, cause i rlly liked making the blush. but im way more comfortable w my style now, tho i do miss the certain unique elements that came from it (my style is still unique btw, i never truly "changed" my technique, i just went into the more simple artstyle route) (im just more polished now.... how tf did i post unpolished pieces like that gee)

[secondstar-acorn]

can’t think of anything to say other than it was everything I could have ever expected and wanted and hoped for. seeing them perform truly is an electric experience and I am so, so grateful I got to be there. I’ve never felt such overflowing joy and love in one room before and that truly is down to what a one-of-a-kind group Starkid is. I’m so happy and a little emotional that it’s over but like it’s sung in days of summer, “don’t wanna see you go but it’s not forever, not forever” ⭐️💜

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

The amount of self loathing on egg irl is fucking wild. I'm honestly quite concerned for the trans youth who frequent it with how normalized it is there.

[humming-doodles]

the elden ring DLC coming out reminded me I've actually had a larger er piece sitting around uncompleted for *checks watch* 5 months so was fun to revisit that a little today hahaha

[stxrdust-widow]

You’re the words in my soul that I wanna say, so won’t you make me stay?

[torchstelechos]

Housemaiden Lillian tried not to judge, truly! She thought the saviors of Vaugarde were incredible individuals with amazing talent and never ending bravery. Its just... shes not quiet sure what to think of the traveler in their group. At first she had thought them an unfortunate soul that had pushed themself too far to save Vaugarde as he had collapsed after the celebration, but after a while it became clear something was wrong with him.

The ever present smell of something sweet in the air when she entered the room to change the towel on their head. The way the lights flickered and bent around him in a pattern unlike anything she had ever seen. It was unsettling, it was wrong. But no one else seemed to notice! The other saviors simply went about their business and talked to the unconscious traveler laying in bed, unable to respond but listening all the same. It was like she was the only one to notice, to see, to be aware.

Then one day the traveler was awake when she came in to do her rounds. Simply sitting up, looking out the window in awe at the sunshine, turning to stare at her when she opened the door a tad to quickly. His eyes snapping to her and sparking with thousands of lights that dissipated in an instance, now back to the dark shade they'd been previously. They squinted at her before smiling wide, too wide, teeth sharp and pure darkless; the appearance of ceramics and not bone. It took everything in her to not scream at the strange creature masquerading as a human in her medical room, but she prevailed as she simply nodded at the stranger.

"You're awake. Thats good, I'll let your party know."

Turning around before the stranger could speak, she hurried away. But it was fore not as the creature let out a sound akin to the sound of glass shattering on the ground, but no, actually, was it the sound of a million tiks of a clock all at once? Or perhaps the sound of sobbing? Maybe even the grind of rock against scissors... If Lillian had to name what sound the creature made it would have been the knowledge of death breathing on her neck but she knows, she knows, she knows... the creature had simply called out "wait!"

The world reset itself and she turned back to the creature, the stranger, the traveler, the human. The thing that bent the lights and shades around it into undefinable things, as it looked at her with pitiful eyes.

"Could you... get me some water, please?" Its hands come up in a pleading motion, as if in mockery of prayer, and Lillian tried to ignore the anger that brought to her. She swallowed, and nodded.

Hurrying down the halls to the kitchen, turning left here, turning right there, bump into housemaiden Mirabelle- ah! Wait! Mirabelle needs to know her... thing... is awake. Yes, she can handle that abomination in human form.

"Housemaiden Mirabelle! Thank goodness! Your... ally is awake in the infirmary, please do go talk to them. Im sure they would enjoy your company!" Please, please, please take it from her hands she does not want to see it ever again, please.

Mirabelle's eyes widen before crinkling in joy, her hands clasped not unlike the creatures own previous pleading. Her smile was that of a human, perfectly normal, perfectly sized.

"Oh! Oh! Oh yes! Thank you so much! I'll go see him right now, thank you for getting me!" and off she ran, her pins dinging as she goes.

Oh thank goodness indeed, Lillian sighs, before continuing onward to grab a pitcher of water. She took her time to grab it and walk back, the unease oozing in the air around her but she is a housemaiden! And she wont! Give in! To some weird creature pretending to be human! Huffing and puffing she stomps back to the infirmary with the requested water. At the door, however, she paused.

What if the creature was a saddness pretending to be human and she had sent Mirabelle to it? What if it was something far worst than a saddness? What if Mirabelle was already dead and Lillian was to blame and that creature escaped and suddenly there was no more saviors and what if, what if, what if???

Opening the door to peek inside, Lillian is surprised to see how normal it is. The creature is smiling at Mirabelle, who is laughing at something it had said. The defender was also there watching on with soft eyes. The researcher sat close by with the child hanging off her, loudly talking about the food they were going to make the creature eat now that it was awake. And everything was... normal? There was no smell of sweetness in the air, the lights didnt bend, and the creatures smile was normal with normal teeth. It was almost like Lillian had imagined it all... did she? It's been stressful after the King and she had only just reawaken from being frozen.

With a sudden rush of guilt, Lillian came in quietly before setting the pitcher of water down on the bedside table. Nodding at the saviors who all cheered and waved and smiled at her, all of them human, completely normal humans. So why, why did she dehumanize the injured traveler? Was it because they weren't from Vaugarde? Was she being prejudiced? Why, why, why?? She thought, well, it doesn't matter what she thought. Clearly she was in the wrong and had turned against one of the saviors because she was tired and stressed out, what a horrible thing to do. Taking a careful breathe in, she turned to smile at the traveler in the bed and froze.

No. No no no no no no. THATS NOT A HUMAN. The shade of pain, of breaking, of rotting, of failing, of something awful reflected back at her from its eye. Stars, thousands, millions, the entire night in it's eye. The light bending and stretching and changing and becoming something WRONG.

Lillian screamed before running but the world bent and turned and shook and she fell hard. The creature making a noise impossible to describe the very feeling of time shattering in her ears and the yelling of humans alongside it. Wrong, wrong, wrong wrong wrongwrongwrongwrong-

Lillian felt. The world. Change. and Shatter.

Lillian woke up in bed, she forgot what she was dreaming about but the saviors were there. She remembers the traveler smiling at her, she smiled back. What a nice fella, that traveler was. Though, she did feel like she forgot something important, but well, you know the saying. If it was important, you'd remember it.

With a smile, she went about her day and hoped the future stayed just as perfect as it was now.

[protocolseben]

/// moon over the castle

full sizes all under cut

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i swear i have the body of a 50 yr old. i did something mildly active for less than an hour today and my back Aches. who authorized this

[ratcandy]

oh my god, I'm so glad you mentioned the "steals your girl" thing as to why people hate on Zote even as a joke, it still weirds me out! stop talking about her like that!!!

RIGHT. The entire argument makes me seethe and spit and snarl so bad. Like I'm coming from a Zote bias perspective, but the way that whole thing frames Bretta too is literally. So Gross.

She was never "yours." She is not a got damn possession to be lost. Her romantic interest in Ghost is never even implied to be anything other than one-sided, mostly because Ghost just. Doesn't Emote.

And the whole "stealing" shit makes it seem like Zote flirted with her or pursued her romantically literally at all, when we get Nothing to support that other than Bretta's fanfiction, which I would take with a huge helping of salt. All we ever see Zote do is tell her his precepts. Like. Lol

Bretta forming a crush on him is a Her thing. Based on him lying a whole lot about how cool he is, sure, but nothing we're given suggests he did it specifically to win romance out of her or "take" her from Ghost. Someone who. Again. Didn't. "Have" her to begin with.

I don't think Zote even knows or cares about any of that. Per Precept Thirty. But that's just me and my aroace Zote headcanon. I Guess. Kicks a rock.

Anyway hey HK fandom stop treating Bretta like a trophy to be won that Zote "made off" with. You're all annoying. God bless.

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

There is a very exquisite agony in playing a game you love so so so so so much, and realizing that one of the other players is trying to play a totally different game than you.