#living desert

[spinus-pinus]

Striped Hyena Hyaena hyaena

8/14/2022 The Living Desert Zoo, California

[quinnmil]

[snowspot]

all the world will be your enemy

[isjasz]

do you remember

[seagiri]

heatstroke

[gentlemanmotorslifestyle]

[sprinklesharkie]

the way grian just yoinks robo scar T-T

[starcurtain]

Teyvat's "Most Down Bad" Award Goes to Alhaitham for a Second Year Running

Seeing everyone making fun of Alhaitham for his "stalkerish" tendencies in this event is funny, because I feel like a lot of people missed that "Be literally everywhere Kaveh is" has been Alhaitham's MO from the day Kaveh appeared in the game.

From only grabbing his house keys after Kaveh returned from the desert (he couldn't have had both sets of keys at the end of the Archon Quest unless he went home and got Kaveh's copy) to ditching conversations to get back to his house only after Kaveh came home, to showing up without any warning or explanation in Kaveh's hangout with some ridiculous excuse about hearing his voice through noise-cancelling headphones... Refusing to offer any help in the Temple of Silence story quest other than staying in the library with Kaveh...

Since when does Alhaitham willingly cover anyone else's duties?

But this trend of "Be everywhere Kaveh is" didn't start when they were adults. It was already in place when they were still Akademiya students--and it's a trend that didn't end even when they had their fight.

Even when they weren't speaking, Alhaitham dogged Kaveh's every step through published responses to Kaveh's research articles in academic journals. He insisted on keeping a line of communication between himself and Kaveh open, even if the only way to do that was through very public ideological clashes. Pulling Kaveh's pigtails to get his attention lolol. It's implied that, for at least the few years between their fight and Kaveh moving in, this was the only communication between them--Alhaitham's refusal to allow their connection to entirely fade away. (And the fact that this is revealed in Kaveh's character stories--through his precious journal that records the moments of his life that had the most impact on him--shows just how deeply he values the fact that Alhaitham didn't give up.)

Another relevant side note: Alhaitham never asked Kaveh to give up his half of their house. Knowing half of it belonged to Kaveh, knowing that Kaveh may one day want to reclaim his part of it, knowing that it was listed as theirs, Alhaitham moved into the house and made zero effort to change its ownership. He was completely fine with living in "his and Kaveh's house." The stories suggest it was only months later (or even longer) that Kaveh even noticed he had the house, and he transferred away ownership of his portion without Alhaitham ever asking him (or even seemingly wanting him) to do so.

Please, let that sink in. Alhaitham actively left his grandmother's (presumably comfortable) house to move into "his and Kaveh's house," with no apparent explanation for why, and after doing so, he made no attempt to change that "his and Kaveh's" label. He moved into the house with no promise that Kaveh wouldn't show up on the doorstep the very next day and move in too. It almost feels like another deliberate provocation--I've moved into our house, are you going to come stop me? LBR, if Alhaitham had had his way, Kaveh would have been living there with him from Day 1...

There's also the fact that Kaveh literally can't write on a single message board anywhere in the entire nation of Sumeru without Alhaitham hunting his messages down and responding to them (which absolutely no one else does, by the way).

"NUH-UH!" "UH-HUH." "NUH-UH!"

Alhaitham's own character stories tell us explicitly that one of Alhaitham's defining character traits is "He is never where you need him to be," yet somehow...

Shot, and chaser:

Any time Kaveh is in the slightest bit of need or danger or just wants Alhaitham near, Alhaitham is "coincidentally" exactly where Kaveh needs him to be, whenever Kaveh needs him to be there.

Alhaitham didn't just "happen" to run into Kaveh in Port Ormos, an entirely different city from where he was supposed to be working. He didn't just "happen" to read the same terrible book as Kaveh when we know he otherwise would not waste a moment of his time on poorly-written literature...

He didn't just "happen" to appear when Kaveh was upset and needed a distraction in the House of Daena during Kaveh's hangout. He didn't just "happen" to be sitting around waiting when Kaveh needed answers after the Archon Quest. He didn't just "happen" to find Kaveh's academic publications and every single message board posting and respond to them at length and in public.

Which is exactly what Kaveh's mother told Kaveh he needed.

What level of down bad is "Abusing your powers as an Akademiya employee to keep tabs on your crush's library loans"? Just asking for a friend.

The only person for whom Alhaitham just "happens" to be available is Kaveh, over and over and over again--because he is very deliberately making himself a constant presence in Kaveh's life.

(Like, out of all things, I think people really underestimate the devs deliberately paralleling the romantic relationship between Kaveh's mother and father with Kaveh and Alhaitham's relationship. If you want to point to one thing that says "These two characters are intentionally queer-coded," it doesn't get any more obvious than this.)

Alhaitham, are you not embarrassed to be this transparent??? 🫣

[kunehokki]

@isjasz and I had the lovely opportunity to join this year's @mcytblraufest! Of course, what AU better for us than In Stars and Lives?

In Stars and Lives is Jas' and I's In Stars and Time AU centered around Grian and the other GIGGS members as his adventuring party!

You can find out more about the game's premise from Jas' ISAL tag, playing the game ISAT yourself, or reading the fics @all54321 (Family Bonding) and @evil-mop-eating-sponge (In Stars and Lives: Act 1) wrote for the AU Fest! The fics aren't canon to our AU since that exists in its own space, but they're a lovely read for getting to know what ISAT/ISAL is all about :D!!

The fics are linked below!

[whatidkwhatimsupposedtowriye]

In my au they got together after scar kept trying to get a kiss from grian under a mistletoe and after a while grian lost it and just kissed him

Artistic rendition

[daily-sifloop]

Loop the prettiest princess in a dungeon and siffrin the handsomest knight saving them

Day 81: the hero always gets the princess!

[spinus-pinus]

African Wild Dog Lycaon pictus

8/14/2022 The Living Desert Zoo, California

We watched this pack of wild dogs being fed by a keeper through a "window" that was designed to allow guests a closer view, while still keeping everyone safe. It was very fun to watch them!

[catminecraft]

panel redraw, kinda

[nobie]

[isjasz]

[Day 304]

Andddd here begins Grian's long suffering o7

this is a canon event don't blame me blame the game👍

[cherrifire]

[0.5/70] Renchanting + Desert Duo - Take Me to War

“Take me to war. Honey, I dare you”

[DTIYS, rules under the cut!]

If you don't know, I've been slowly working on a project where I draw a fake album cover for every song by The Crane Wives themed around the Life series. IT'S ALMOST DONE! I have around 8 left!

So as a sort of precursor for what's to come, I made 2 more matching covers for "Take Me To War" as another DTIYS! I just thought it would be a fun thing to do as another build-up for the final product :)

[Rules]

No deadline! Take all the time you need <3

You can do one or all four, it's up to you how many you do!

You can change elements if you'd like I just want to see people get creative!

If you post yours, use “#cherri dtiys tcw” and tag me so I can like + reblog