#long post i guess cause the writing

[that-one-guy-nobody-remembers]

since I know you like lalalopsy dolls, what kinda design would you do if you could make one yourself?

Yes I absolutely adore the lalaloopsy dolls and I've been sitting on this ask for a while but there are many lalaloopsy dolls that cover many different themes and varieties, but if I could make one myself then the design would be along the lines of something dinosaur themed like I did a quick look of some of the dolls and I'm surprised they didn't make one because how wild some of the dolls can be!

Reason why I decided on dinosaurs is because I really loved them a lot when I was little and so I'd make a lil dinosaur loving doll, Her name would be Dino Digs and have four little friends named pokey,spiny,bitey,and twiggy plus she loves learning about dinosaurs and other creatures of the past and always curious to know more about the world around her along with having a very active imagination! She'd probably be sewn from a quilted fabric since its reminds me of scales kind of and day she would be made on June 1st as it's dubbed "dinosaur day". The hair and outfit wouldn't be anything too crazy, like the hair would be curled or kind of a soft spikey look with little dinosaur bone hair clips here and there along with the outfit consisting of a jacket with dino tail with spikes and claws on the sleeves with pants with some lil quilt "scales" scatter about and dino boots or maybe a dino pair of overalls as an alternative outfit! But the iconic thing of the doll would be her hats as they would be interchangeable and reflect her lil dino friends she has like she has stego,t-rex,tricera,and brachio one but her favorite one has to be the stego one!

Oops might've gotten a bit carried away sorry its a tad long but thanks for the ask bun!

[aroaceleovaldez]

I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.

It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).

We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.

I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.

And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.

Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.

It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise

[feelo-fick]

I WANT ENDLESS BLISS!!!

HALF-AWAKE, HALF-DEAD, HALF-LIFE CRISIS

ALL NATURAL POMEGRANATE PULP.

FERMENTED TO PERFECTION, SAVOUR YOUR SAVIOR.

Q: What's your favourite food? A: THE ALE THEY SERVE AT THE TAVERN!

other versions : )

[queenofhearts7378]

Tucker and Spud Appreciation: An essay by me apparently.

Tucker leaned back in his chair, “-and that's why we're no longer welcome at that gas station.”

Spud had a wide eyed look of wonder, “Woah man…….That takes some skill.”

“Thank you!” Tucker gestured wildly on his side of the screen. “Sam called me and Danny menaces but she's the one who brought the mace!”

Spud nodded. “It really was a team effort.” He flipped through his notebook, “Anyways how’s the progress on your side? I managed to crack into some uh, supplies and shipment invoices?”

Spud wrote down some notes, before clicking through a couple of the unlocked files on his computer, squinting at the screen.

Tucker groaned as his chair hit the ground, “Man I keep telling the guys hacking isn't like the movies make it out to be. Like yeah, if I got a back door planted I can get in and out no problem. But straight up hacking a new system?”

“The problems with being the smart ones on the team,” Spud said.

“I managed to get some payroll documents, and some employee work times I think?” Tucker blew a raspberry as he typed a few more lines of code, “All fake names. I doubt a place employs 23 different J. Doe's.”

“John, Jane, Janet, Jake, Joseph, Josie,” Spud recited.

Tucker snorted, “Yeah pretty much.”

Spud hummed before something dinged on his side, “Huh. That might be something.”

Tucker cracked his knuckles, “Share with me?”

Spud copied a few of the files before sending them over. “Hang on, I gotta check something.”

Tucker saw Spud disappear off the side of the screen, but could hear him rooting through some papers.

He looked over the information, scrolling through the various invoices. “Dude what are you seeing that I'm not? It's just the shipping invoices for a bunch of different places.”

Spud came back carrying five different notebooks, of varying sizes. “You may be better at hacking, but I'm better with the information man.”

He waved one of the notebooks, “I started helping Jake keep track of the various magic communities around, you know, to help with his duties when they kicked up.”

“Dude, that is so baller of you.”

“Heh, thanks.” He cracked open the notebook and pulled a highlighter out of a cup. He started marking the notebook as he scrolled through the files. “Anyways, I thought I recognized a couple of the areas some of the buildings were placed in annnnnnnd…..”

Spud furrowed his brow and grabbed another notebook, flipping it through it real quick. “What are some of those shipments carrying?”

Tucker started scrolling through his own files, “Uhhhh looks like…..lots of metal and rubber. Toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, and a frankly concerning amount of coffee. Office supplies, like so much office supplies and-”

Tucker winced. “Oh man, and a lot of chemicals I recognize from the Fenton's lab.”

“Yeah but see this?” Spud frowned as he tapped the screen, “These shipments are labeled as various different glass equipment shipments. And it's doubled every other month or so.”

“Could be they're using a lot of the equipment.” Tucker said, “We know they're testing facilities. But you wouldn't be singling those out if that were the case.”

“It's the fact it's double shipments of glass, so the handling of them would be different from most supplies to handle the fragile equipment. And the extra shipments have different weights to them as opposed to the originals they're copying.”

“That sounds super sus.”

“Yeah. What makes it more sus is the fact that the sketchy glass shipments originate from B.U.G.S facilities, rather than outside suppliers like the office supplies and the original glass shipments. Now it could be explained as them having the shipments sent to a warehouse, before dishing it out to other nearby facilities, but there's no record or paper trail that shows that. From what I can tell, the sketchy shipments just appear in the records, before being sent out to a different facility, where it immediately disappears.”

Tucker leaned back, suddenly aware that they were stumbling over something bad. “And considering what we know about them, after the guys stumbled across that one……”

Spud stared at the files on screen, “It could just be magical artifacts. But the more likely explanation is they're catching magical creatures.”

The two of them sat in a heavy silence for a moment.

“How sure of this are you?” Tucker asked. “I mean, the magical world would notice the disappearances right? They would have got a hold of Jake or Lao Shi or someone.”

Spud shook his head and held up his notebook. “All the facilities manage to fall near a cluster of magical communities, that's what I was checking. And like I said, the shipments originate in one facility and then get shipped to a completely different one. Never the same one consecutively, and it's spaced out over years. If a bunch of creatures goes missing, yeah someone's going to notice.”

“But if just one goes missing,” Tucker continued, “It's just an unrelated tragedy.”

Spud set down his highlighter and rubbed his eyes, “And it's not impossible. The Huntsclan has managed to kidnap several magical creatures at once for years for their hunting games.”

“Ugh!” Tucker shuddered. “I do not like the implications of that.”

“Yeah, Jake got caught once. There were about four or five others with him, and they were all misfits to their species, and not well liked so most of their neighbors and families just assumed they ran off or had unfortunate accidents.”

“That's……”

“Yeah.”

Tucker stared at his computer, something twisting in his stomach as he stared at all the locked files he still hadn't managed to get into.

“We can't tell them.”

Spud snapped his head up to look at Tucker incredulously, “What?!?! We have to!”

Tucker shook his head frantically, “We can't. You know the guys as well as I do, we tell them what we found and they're going to go tackle the places right away. This is so much bigger than we thought and in so many places. They barely got out last time and that was with the element of surprise and them not knowing about what they can do.”

“It's basically the same as the GIW! You guys deal with them all the time!”

“It's not the same! The GIW have a single base, with maybe 20 guys working there! I've been tracking them and their branch since they first showed up in Amity and they don't go anywhere else. This is the only branch of the GIW. They barely manage to capture the little blobs or ectopusses, and even then those ghosts escape on their own before I even get the alert about them!”

Tucker pushed away from the desk to start pacing across his floor. “These guys have buildings across the country! That one building had about 50 people working for it and that's not even going into all their bosses. They've been operating for years without anybody catching on! And we don't know what they're capable of! They had something that blocked Danny’s powers, and we still don't know what did it. This is so much bigger than what we usually deal with. We have to wait, get some more information, get some more help-”

“Yeah, like telling everybody!” Spud yelled, “This shouldn't even be an argument, Tucker!”

Tucker stared at the floor, pulling his hat down to where Spud couldn't see his eyes. He was silent for a moment.

“......If we tell them right now, they'll get in over their heads and they'll get hurt and I can't-” Tucker's voice broke.

He took a breath, rubbing his face before looking back at Spud. “I am not sending Danny into a place where they'd turn him into a lab rat.”

“Tucker-”

“All I'm saying is we have to wait.” Tucker interrupted. “We wait, we get more info, we try and get the magical communities more wary around those areas.”

“I don't want to lie to them.”

“I know. Ancients, I know.” Tucker crossed his arms, “But we gotta be smart about this. Are you with me Spud?”

Spud let out a sigh as he slumped in his chair. “... Yeah. Yeah I'm with ya. Let the record show I hate this though.”

“You and me both.” Tucker muttered, “Anyways, plans?”

“You keep hacking into the information.” Spud said. “Send me everything you get and I'll start cross-referencing with the known magical communities when I get them. In the meantime I'll talk to Fu Dawg. He's got a ton of connections and can start spreading the word.”

“What about Lao Shi?”

“I'll talk to him, but I want some more information first.”

“You don't think he'll believe you?”

“No he will. But he'll want to take it straight to the Dragon Council.” Spud scoffed, “It's them I'm worried about.”

The two of them sat there for a moment before Spud said, “This sucks.”

Tucker started giggling, “Understatement man. But we got this. Someone has to protect those losers.”

“Heck yeah man!” Spud held up a fist to the camera, and Tucker did the same as the two of them did their virtual secret handshake.

Someone had to have the heroes’ backs after all.

[a-stars-art-blog]

I feel like a fool for finalizing realizing this but,

I was never quite satisfied with the explanation given in DGS 2-3 on why Barok took on the prosecution of his close friend.

I don’t think it was ever EXPLICITLY stated and the most we really got is it upheld Albert’s reputation. That Barok did it bc any other prosecutor would paint Albert as a sham right away. Which is a fate worse than death for Albert.

But that never stood right with me bc Barok values finding the truth and justice above all else. He would not do something for the sake of “prolonging” cause he knows it’s pointless. The truth MUST be found so there’s no need to tiptoe around it.

It makes no sense to do it for the sake of Albert’s reputation if finding the absolute truth inevitably leads to Albert’s reputation being ruined. The machine, experiment, and theory, it HAD to all be proven faulty if Albert was to be free. There’s no way it could not. Barok knows this.

What he did in 2-3 seemed like tiptoeing but he was working harder than ever to get to the truth.

The reason why he pushed so hard, the way he continued to give point after point, bring up every inconsistency, bring up even the smallest of possibilities that Albert was guilty, (which honestly sounds like his usual thing. But this time there’s an personal motivation to it)

was entirely so that Ryunosuke could disprove him.

We already knew that Barok trusted Ryuno to handle the defense. That Ryuno also strives for absolute truth. So he threw every little thing at him so that there would be NOTHING left that’d indicate Albert as involved in the murder.

That’s why he took the case. That’s why he was adamant on painting Albert as a murderer.

The way Barok trusted the life of his closest friend to Ryunosuke HE TRUSTED HIM THAT MUCH GOD I LOVE HIS CHARACTER GROWTH SO MUCH-

[catsandgoodbooks]

So. Punz and George. They're both very much defined by their relationships with Dream, probably more than anyone else on the server. It's hard to talk about Punz without bringing up Dream, and it's hard to talk about George without referencing him either. They have lives, of course, but Dream is always at the forefront of their minds. Punz spent a whole year of their life just waiting for Dream's escape; George dreams away the days even after the jailbreak in a fantasy world of his imagination where everything is perfect and he can be with Dream.

But they don't really have a relationship. They don't talk, especially not about Dream, because that would show that they cared, and George is trying to deny that to himself after the dethronement and Punz cannot allow anyone to consider even for a moment that they are on Dream's side or it was all for nothing. So the relationship they do have, weak and distant as it is, is based on bitterness and perceived betrayals and envy.

George doesn't really think about Punz much. If he did, he'd had to think about Dream, and not his Dream, not the Dream that exists only in his dreams now, but the actual, real Dream. The Dream who dethroned him without a second glance. The Dream he abandoned. The Dream locked away in an obsidian prison, rotting away as George sleeps. And George doesn't want to think about Punz. Not when it pulls him out of his dreams and makes him think about Dream.

When he does think about Punz, though, he's not exactly a fan of them. They betrayed Dream; undeniably, inexcusably, they did. They had his trust, and they threw it away for a little extra bit of money. George would never do something like that. Dream left first, after all. Dethroned George first and told him he didn't care what happened to him. Dream never did that to Punz.

And that's important. Dream never turned against Punz; they were the one who chose to betray him. Dream never quite trusted George the same way he did with Punz, and, in the period leading up to the dethronement, he let George in on less and less of his plans, grew closer and closer to his mercenary. George told himself it was because Dream wanted to keep him safe. After the dethronement, he accepted the fact that Dream just didn't care about him anymore, and that it had been a sign of that.

George tells himself that if he had been in the situation as Punz, if Dream trusted him, he would of never done what they did.

Punz...doesn't have a great opinion of George, to tell the truth. They might of pretended to betray Dream, but George (and Sapnap, and everyone who was there and just watched it happen) is the one who actually did. George left. He left and didn't come back, didn't even show up for the arrest/execution (because that's what it really was, an execution, no use dancing around it). He didn't even go visit Dream in Pandora's Vault, even when he had every chance to, even when he didn't have a plan dictating that he absolutely could not do that. Not like Punz did.

Unreliable. Untrustworthy. Uncaring. Those are the nicest words for what George is, at least to Punz. Dream died, twice, and George was nowhere to be found. Just because Dream had been trying to keep him safe. To make sure people didn't try to target George to hurt Dream. And George just left, like that was an option in this game they were all playing, that none of them save Wilbur had chosen to play, like you could just throw up your hands and say "okay, that's it, I'm done" and leave with immunity, taking everything you've done with you. That wasn't how the world worked. And it didn't matter if George understood that or not, because it still hurt Dream, and that was what was important. Because what George did was a betrayal, and because they were already familiar enough with that to know how bitter it tasted. Because Punz had to constantly pretend and reap what they had sown and deal with this betrayal they had committed - not the one they were infamous for but the one in their heart and their brain and the way people looked at them and laughed with them and the way they had agreed to the plan and let Dream die and the sneaking suspicion they had, growing louder every day, that something had gone wrong and that they had to do something about it but that too would be a betrayal - but George didn't, just because he had been there earlier and knew some people longer. Because people trusted him more and he didn't have to prove how reliable he was and how much he hated Dream and all that.

And because George had Dream's love in a way Punz never could. Dream loved too freely, that much was true, but he flinches at every motion Punz that was a little too fast, a little too sudden, and makes sure to call everything a business arrangement, makes sure they're mercenary and client, makes sure to suppress any little trace of attachment that could get either of them hurt. And, even now, even after George has gone and left, Dream still loves George; Punz isn't too blind to reality to miss it. And they had kinder days together, back before everything went wrong; there were no kinder days for Punz, and there never had been.

Despite everything, they're two sides of the same coin: wishing for something that is no longer reachable, no longer possible, because things have changed and because people have changed. Because Dream has changed, partially due to the decisions they made, and there isn't anything they can do to go back to how it was. Not truly.

And neither of them really care about anything or anyone else. They're not here to fight for ideals or morals, they just want to keep the people they love safe and away from the people who would want to hurt them. They are willing to kill for it, but, because of who Dream is, and because that would put them in danger, they can't. They're not allowed to, explicitly in Punz's case, implicitly by Dream pushing George away. Because Dream wants to keep the people he cares about safe, and that can't happen if it looks like he cares about them or vice versa.

(It's only okay if Dream's the one getting hurt, after all)

[deoidesign]

Hello I stumbled across your profile and I just say I love your art style! I've gotta ask, how'd your develop it? And do you have any advice for someone who can't decide what they want their art to look like?

Thank you so much!

To be entirely honest, I don't feel like I truly "developed" my style. I feel a lot more like I finally let myself draw it! But I am incredibly deliberate with my work, and I do have clear tendencies and preferences... So I'll do my best to explain how I got to where I am now as an artist.

It's important to remember that "style" is something of a nebulous concept. It changes with you as you grow as a person, and most artists can work in and emulate many art styles! Art really is a form of communication with yourself, and your "style" is a reflection of the tendencies and preferences you have. My art does not look how it looked 5 years ago, and my art will look different 5 years from now too. I've changed, and my art reflects that!

(2012, 2018, 2023; two pieces I remember being incredibly proud of and considered my best work up til that point, and then my most recent piece)

What you need to do, as everyone will tell you, is study the fundamentals (anatomy, perspective, form and structure, lighting and shadow, color, and composition) so you have the proper tools to make the most informed decisions possible about your art, and so you can deliberately break or follow rules as you please for your desired effect. I know it sounds silly to learn rules if you're not gonna be following them anyways, but they help you be much more consistent and intentional! More knowledge is NEVER a bad thing to have!

However, I know it's a bit demoralizing to just be told to study fundamentals. Everyone knows you're supposed to do that, but it takes YEARS to learn, and people want their art to feel how they want it to now (which is very very very normal to want!)

So on that front, I have 2 follow up suggestions that I personally find helpful (of course, everyone is different, so it's not like this is the only way to learn! But, if it resonates with you, it might mean it will work for you too.)

1: Separate study from application

I believe this is beneficial for a few reasons:

If the goal of every piece is learning, it can become frustrating, overwhelming, and boring

It's harder to self critique when there are multiple variables to investigate. I like to study one fundamental at a time

Study (usually) works best with a large quantity of output, whereas application of knowledge (finished pieces) is often more satisfying and effective when you get to take your time

Deliberate practical application of what you've learned in a finished piece helps cement the learning in your mind, and also lets you get satisfying finished pieces with noticeable improvement after a good study session!

I've found that keeping these things separate helps me improve faster and more deliberately, and it takes a lot of the pressure off of both aspects! I'm not worried about my studies looking beautiful, they're just to learn! And I don't feel pressured to critique my finished pieces, cause they're just for fun and to make something pretty. I personally find this helps me have a much healthier relationship with my art.

When studying, copy! Copy things as best as you can, all the time. It gives you something to compare to for self critique (and of course, if you're copying someone else's work and you share the study, ALWAYS give credit, share the original, and say it was for study.) In application, don't copy: reference. Make it yours!

2: Let yourself do the things that feel "easy" or like "cheating"

This one is simpler: nothing in art is easy.

If something feels easy to you, most of the time it's not because it's actually any easier... It's because it's part of your natural tendencies and preferences! This took me forever to realize, but as long as you're actually doing some study, then you're learning. You don't need to learn All The Time. When you're doing the "application" portion, you should let yourself do whatever is actually the most fun and feels easiest! This is where your style will start to come through, and where you get to learn about yourself. Take the pressure off, and have fun!!!

The only cheating in art is theft. If you're not stealing, then it's allowed!

My whole life (and yes, still!) I'd get regular criticism about both my style and my subject matter. You will too. You'll see a thousand different styles, and a hundred different things to admire in each. Your heart will ache that you don't draw like others do.

But art is a form of communication with yourself. It's like your voice, or your accent; just something that's a part of you! It can be fun to mimic others', but when you sit to have a conversation you speak naturally. (I know some people want to and do change their voice, but this is a metaphor and metaphors aren't perfect)

Don't stress so much about what you want your art to look like, especially if you're not sure. There's a lot of value to be had in constant experimentation, I think it'd be rather boring to only draw one style the rest of my life. What I draw is what I want to see, right now, for who I am now! It's a part of me and comes naturally, if I let it!

I hope this helps!

[your-fave-is-christian]

not a request but how's the askbox looking?

Kinda full 😂 127 asks not counting this one right now. I did not expect this blog to get NEARLY this much interaction when I made it, but I'm so glad it's making people happy!!

[softdreamlesssleep]

God, "I missed you" sex is the best

[foggysirens]

me? finally writing destiel fic in the year 2025? more likely than you think!

[cheeekycharchar]

Aziraphale has always piqued Crowley's curiosity. He fascinates him. He surprises him. He keeps him guessing.

Aziraphale to Crowley is just one big unanswered question and Crowley spends an eternity trying to figure him out. So he keeps asking him questions.. tempting him with choices to understand him better.

But it turns out that Crowley doesn't just love trying to figure out the puzzle that is Aziraphale..

At least not until he's finally given an answer to the one big question he never realized he was asking the entire time..

Do I love this Angel?

And yes. Yes he does.

…excuse me. I broke my own heart again..

[penitenteyeball]

Dum de dum dum

Gonna add max tags and max characters to each cause who cares

[chiistarri]

what if instead of messaging me in the middle of the night about your stupid fucking girlfriend and your stupid fucking problems with her you actually act like my fucking friend and message me like how you message everyone else in our group

[viewmonster-deactivated20230122]

torn between "archive of our own is host to some truly vile and downright traumatizing shit including but not limited to romanticized depictions of racism pedophilia incest and abuse and the moderation does nothing about it and every asshole with that websites dick down their throat is really annoying about "censorship" because theyve been called out for jerking off to written CSEM and so honestly i would be glad if it went away" and "archive of our own is like the only dedicated place where any old layperson can put their written fanworks without having to learn an entire coding language and put together their own website and a lot of just regular people who havent been sucked into the horrific throes of fandom discourse who just like to read or write fanfiction once in a while are going to lose out on a good space to share it with others"

[just-spacetrash]

😰

[yuelun]

Resurrection: Explanation

They seemed to come from all direction: the mountains to the South, the sea to the East, the ruins of the Guili Assembly to the North, Mt. Tianheng to the West, and every inch of life far beyond each corner of Teyvat; each speck of ash, of chalk, of dust...

As I absolutely don't want to intrude on the game's events, past and present, I wanted to keep the nature of Guizhong's 'resurrection' rather in the corner of a... natural phenomenon. It's stated within Genshin's own lore that gods never truly die, and we all know that elements never cease to exist either. When Guizhong succumbed to death during the Archon war, the element that she had originally formed from never perished. If anything, everything always returns to dust, but she exists within that concept as she is the element of dust. It's why it lingers at her fingertips and why her attire disintegrates into it at its tips. And Teyvat is littered in ash and dust, and this only accumulates more throughout the centuries. For example, it is my personal (firm) belief that the darkening of the sky above Cuijue Slope is actually a dust cloud, or what we were made to read as 'black dust that choked the heavens' (and still does) as a result of her form having perished so long ago. If so, dust cannot disintegrate any further and/or beyond itself, and it's lingered for thousands of years. Has it possibly grown over-time, and does it pull more ashes into itself? All valid questions, but all in all, if it's dust, that means that it is her.

Keeping this in mind, my concept of her returning is rather simple. As I tie them all so very strongly into their element, and considering that hers is so overbearingly present throughout Teyvat, it is not far fetched by any means to think that the gods could reform from their element after regaining their strength within this phase of 'death' that is not ever final for them. Beyond that, I think it's incredibly dependent on the type of god that they are and what they are tied to, as we know not all of them are tied to a physical element (time, wisdom, to name two examples). With Guizhong being tied to dust (and ash and chalk, as Albedo notes the significance of in the creation life in his character story), I think it may be easier for her to do so, as long as she's capable of, in essence, using something as an energy battery. This simply leaves me with that latter and the timing for her return.

While I had originally decided on the Moonchase Festival, due to its tie to the moon, or specifically, the full moon (a meta for another time); I was a little silly and entirely forgot one monumental detail about Lantern Rite. It must have been a night during which my mind took a little stroll down the pebble beach. But again, I digress. The detail is as follows:

Lantern Rite is a festival in Liyue celebrated on the first full moon of the year and lasts for five days.

What is more symbolical than two of Liyue's founders to be tied to the new year in one way or another; a nation that celebrates its traditions and honours its forebears as it does? But outside of that, this doesn't come without inherent reasons for her directly as well. To reform as she does, especially to redraw into an appearance that perished long ago; it wouldn't be as simple as putting one's mind to it; one would, additionally, likely need a separate body of energy to generate the power needed to accomplish this. Again, pending the incoming meta, the celestial body she's tied to, the moon, when it's at its most significant in either power or symbolical importance (the faith/belief from humanity). A year's first full moon.

Remember the lone glaze lily that overlooks Liyue Harbor? It would be occurring on that cliffside, not chosen out of any notion of romanticism per se, but simply because of how it's one of the 'items' that she has always had such an inherently strong tie to (as we know, when she passed, the glaze lilies dwindled in number significantly, even if that had more to do with the land being ridden of tragedy), much more so than any other. Not only that, but Liyue Harbor represents the area that houses most of the people that are descendants of those that once lived in the Guili Assembly, who were in part, her people. That is another tie, for humanity is exceedingly important to her. Beyond that, from the cliffside there is a fully unobstructed view of the moon even before it reaches its apex as it rises in the east.

What does it look like? It mostly happens in the veil of nighttime, so the entire occurrence would hardly be noticeable to the human eye, nor does any mortal seem to venture out to that location habitually (and as for immortals, Zhongli and Madame Ping are likely its only visitors). But as dusk settles upon the land, motion is found in the dust cloud above Cuijue Slope. Flecks separate from it one by one, and as they do, it thins out, releasing the area of its gloom, joining flecks of dust and ash that gather from all sides of Teyvat to that one cliffside into a small zephyr of sorts. And it takes a long time, it's slow at first, and the higher the moon reaches, the faster they are carried on the wind, or rather, they themselves cause a breeze simply by their motion. And in the midst of this, as the moon dims, seeming a little less luminous than any other full moon throughout the year (but nothing too odd or inherently noticeable), the flecks gather into a form, one recognisable to anyone who knew her in days long passed. I can see it taking hours, and at its peak, it's a rush of wind that's caused by the whirl of them, and the more the moon dims, the brighter the form held within the flecks becomes, and the fuller and clearer it becomes: the same garments, the same hair, the same sleeves. She re-manifests into a solid and corporeal form as she once was, over a period of numerous hours. This would, however, leave her drained of lot of her power for possibly weeks, but ultimately, she would return to how she was, as they all are.