#lets focus on that maybe

[demonwebs]

yes, having vhaal in your party means lolth gets to directly spy on them all day every day if she wants, but... he's also incredibly beautiful and he thinks that makes up for it honestly

[artharakka]

Detail from a Middle Llehian fresco depicting the sea goddess Maare rising the wind from the crimson morning sea, so that the birds may lift the sun to the skies.

Style testing cultural art style for a story project I've rotated for a while. I've posted some character art of that to my Patreon, but I've been planning to slowly start posting the oldest ones here as well. This was originally a ttrpg setting, but since I've made it a setting to rotate and plan without secrecy with my sibling, it doesn't have to be behind the scenes material only anymore.

[badninken]

When I refer to Law as the world's smallest teenager this is the panel that's on my mind :')

To be fair, he's surrounded by actual giants.

But it does look like he'd have to climb to get onto that little stool he's on. Maybe use an even smaller stool to give him a boost.

Joke joke. He's an experienced, combat trained pirate, he can handle furniture ten times that size no problem.

[megalithical]

robin!dick: i scare people a lot because i walk very softly and they don't hear me enter rooms. so when they turn around, i’m just kind of there and their fear fuels me.

[waitineedaname]

brought myself to tears thinking about luo binghe and his loneliness. during all the worst times of his life, he was alone. when his mother died, he had no one. when he was being abused on qing jing, he had ning yingying but there wasn't much she could do for him. in the abyss, he was alone. when he was grieving sqq for five years, he had subordinates but he didn't have anyone to hold him and comfort him

and it's that loneliness and isolation that xin mo capitalizes on. those feelings of loneliness and isolation make his self esteem worse and his emotional state more unstable, because deep down is a miserable and lonely child that wants to be held and comforted and love

luckily for him, all shen qingqiu wants is to hold him and comfort him and make him feel loved! I think post-canon, they'll spend a long time confronting those wounds left by loneliness, except now instead of having to bear it alone, sqq will be there to hold him in his arms and tell him I'm sorry you were hurting, I'm sorry you were alone, you never should have gone through that. and there's the promise that he won't ever have to be alone again because that's the promise sqq made to him. from now on, wherever binghe goes, shen qingqiu will follow

[vethale-fr]

Don't get me wrong, I love all the modern and ancient breeds (well, at least the majority of them, but that's just personal taste). And I get super excited whenever we get a new one.

But lately, it feels like we've only been getting new breeds. I would not mind if FR took a bit of a "break" from dragon breeds and instead focused more on genes. Both for ancients and moderns. Even if it means we don't get a new ancient for a while...

[bxdtime-ceai]

representation is great but i wish there were more aro/ace/aroace characters who aren't teenagers. i want to see young, middle aged and older adults discover/talk about their aro/ace/aroace identities. there is so much variation! so many stories to tell! but i dont think we can get this kind of representation without addressing the entertainment industry's obsession with youth

[shootingstarpilot]

okay listen. listen. i'm sorry, i had to get this out of my head, it's been haunting me and i want to get back to working on the next proper chapter-

the mimic lives au.

mimic is brought into the fold without question, of course. and needle- oh, needle's borne witness to the nightmares that force helix awake, shaking-not-screaming, and he knows enough-

so he makes mimic a voice.

it takes him just over a week to record the entire gbs dictionary. he breaks it down, keeps it alphabetical so it's easier to find the words. dictionaries of other languages are on the list. needle thinks maybe mimic can pick and choose which ones to prioritize later. they'll have time.

(they'll have time, isn't that a novel thought-)

but the dictionary is only part of it. there are plenty of manufactured voices out there already, after all.

the datapad becomes needle's newest conversational partner. he sets it up when he's on his own and lets his train of thought derail. spinning out stories both real and fantastical. drawing out threads until they reach the boiling point of absurdity and send him into a fit of giggles. he repeats the stories he'd told mimic just that afternoon, tells him about the jedi, about the temple, about making their own home. then he remembers what helix had said about mimic wanting to be a pilot, and goes and bullies comet into educating him on starfighters. he recites his lessons to the camera each evening in the moments of stolen solitude he can squirrel away before one of the others comes looking for him.

"it's like learning another language," he says, and wags a finger at the camera. "you're welcome."

needle gifts it to mimic a week after they arrive at the temple with a wireless earpiece to match. no pressure, of course, he says, grinning, just thought it could be a good resource to have, words to borrow at your fingertips, but i know i'm only tolerable in small doses, so-

he squawks when mimic's hug lifts him clear off the ground.

anyway. so. you see my vision.

helix jumps a mile when he first hears needle's laugh in mimic's mouth. stitch yells at needle for a bit about talking so much, needle, is this why your voice was so hoarse- and then restricts him to tea for four days until he's sure his throat has healed. sometimes it's too much, and mimic will stick his earpiece to the fridge and borrow words spoken right in front of him until his brain stops buzzing-

but it works. they work.

and then.

it's a few months in. they're comfortable. they're setting down roots.

then one night needle doesn't come home.

helix doesn't wait to raise the alarm. needle doesn't spend every night home, but he's good about comming when he'll be staying elsewhere. he knows helix is struggling with letting them leave his line of sight.

and now he's gone. and he didn't comm.

the first three days stretch into a week.

then a second week.

then a month.

and now, the vision that has been HAUNTING ME-

helix, clutching mimic's datapad, sitting on the edge of his bed.

the lights are low. his eyes are red.

he hits play.

"-ah, i love them," needle says, laughing. the laugh stretches into a yawn-

(that holds for one, two, three seconds, helix knows it now by heart-)

a knock at the door sounds in the video. needle hunches his shoulders, grimacing- his eyes are dancing, he's not annoyed, not really-

"be right out!" he calls, and then- helix's voice on the other side-

"get your beauty routine under control!"

needle waits until his footsteps have vanished before turning back to the camera-

(six footsteps before they fade enough to become inaudible- helix has counted them so many times-)

"i don't need one," he says, and winks at the camera- his eyes are shining, bright and happy- "he's just jealous all of this is effortless. night, mimic. talk to you in the morning."

the video ends.

helix sits in the dark.

after a moment, he taps at the datapad again.

"ah, i love them," needle says. his laugh- snorting, open, happy-

(one-two-three for the yawn-)

helix hits pause. rewinds.

"i love them," needle says.

pause. rewind.

"i love them."

pause. rewind.

"i love them."

pause. rewind.

"i love them."

"i love them."

"i love them."

[inchidentally]

just a thought, we know now that the grid dinner was at a japanese restaurant so obviously sushi’s on the menu, i wonder if oscar intentionally avoided ordering anything fish-y bcs lando was sat right next to him

😖✊🏻 aghsbsshjshhs

I mean he gave up eating salmon at the engineer's table and then gave it up for his breakfast for Lando which makes me absolutely insane bc that's smth so specific and pointed and sweet that should only happen in fic but !!

[yurislava]

KILLUA FACT I NEED MORE PEOPLE TO KNOW

Killua's birthday (July 7) falls on the same day the festival of star-crossed lovers, Tanabata, takes place. STAR-CROSSED LOVERS!!! Not only that, the character from the myth and Killua's pasts heavily resemble each other.

I don't believe this wasn't an accident and I think Togashi purposely chose that date for these reasons.

[vaguely-concerned]

I'm guarding my heart against expecting adoribull crumbs in veilguard because I really don't believe it's going to happen. I think that might be one of the sweet slender branches on the possibility tree that they'll gently and quietly prune away from relevancy, especially since it doesn't involve a player character. dorian will almost certainly be back (hey hiii bestie how have you been? stressed out of your mind I imagine), but I can't imagine they'll let you get too granular with setting up your world state, especially since after ten years they will be expecting to have a lot of players who are new to the series. like AT MOST I can imagine a little background detail implying an amicable bittersweet breakup rather than dragging out the long distance and danger of it all as tevinter politics heat up, if you're allowed to set them both as being still alive.

all that being said I still want it so fucking badly tho fhdskjfhas

[skunkes]

i loooove when ocs unrealized development makes them feel like real people like no i dont know whether talon is genuinely attracted to women after years of both clinging to them for safety and years of putting them onto that untouchable idealized Perfect Protector Pedestal that must remain untainted by any bad experiences, so he doesn't even try to Be With any. He doesn't know either

[lugarn]

i just want to know who watched spare me your mercy and thought "the most tonally appropriate thing is a few OBVIOUSLY MISSING NC scenes"?

i mean obviously i did, but that's because i'm fucked up. i recognize that the majority of people aren't gonna look at a super heavy show about euthanasia and grief about your parents dying and think "where's my fucking NC scenes, sammon??"

[skull-faced-fruit-cake]

was feeling kinda iffy at first about the s&b hallucination scene because i was screaming at my laptop screen that IT'S HARD FOR INEJ TOO!!! KAZ'S TRAUMA ISN'T THE ONLY TRAUMA TO GET IN THE WAY!!!!!! SHE ALSO HAS TOUCH AVERSION!!!!! but after sitting on it for a couple weeks i've realized that... yeah, that's the point. in the hallucination we see kaz disarm her, disarm himself, remove his gloves before ASKING FOR PERMISSION TO TOUCH HER, and inej just... stares at him, with fear and hope and confusion and Want and she wants to pull away so badly because she knows that this is wrong but what if it isn't and god she wants to be closer to him she wants to feel his hands on her body but it Hurts AND YOU CAN SEE ALL THAT IN HER EYES, IN HER WIDE EYES AND HER HESITATION AND HER LIPS ALMOST TOUCHING HIS BEFORE SHE PULLS AWAY, HURT BECAUSE SHE KNOWS IT ISNT REAL AND SHE KNOWS HOW HARD IT IS TO BE WITH HIM LIKE THIS AND I THINK THAT'S SO FUCKING. BEAUTIFUL AND FUCKED I NEED THESE TWO PEOPLE TO GO TO THERAPY SO FUCKING BADDDDDDD

[amygdalae]

I have given up on getting this essay in on time 🫡

[payaso-gomi]

Made these little ghost pins for funsies! My mom has the beta, she looks rough ofc but i think i rlly figured it out for this blue one (she's for my sister)

A couple of progress pics under the cut!