#ludus.

[overmorrowrpg]

LUDUS MIRA MALHOTRA — 25-31, UTP — GRIFTER.

YOU EVER HAVE ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS, WHERE NOTHING EVER SEEMS TO GO RIGHT? The kind of night where your hand of cards runs thin, where every drink goes sour. WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO NEVER HAVE THAT AGAIN? To be blessed by Lady Luck, for her to kiss your brow and call you her chosen child. It's not a question that has to be asked, all rhetorical and uncertain. It's a thing known— on one of those nights, the floor of the dive sticky with cheap beer and bad fruit, your whole being aching, you played a hand with her. She won. Of course she won. She was never not going to win. And you came up on short on cash, asked Luck herself if she'd trade for a kiss. She only laughed, and offered a different bargain. But let's rewind. Start over, go back to the beginning: from her you learned one lesson. But there are many more to cover. The first lesson that is learned is the way that hearts are weapons. The second is how reality skips, jumps, breaks. People always fill in gaps with whatever they are expecting. There is nothing that your words cannot change. You are resplendent, body ever shifting, smile always sliding. You are lies piled high, doused in honey, what anyone might imagine the attention of a beam of sunlight might be, had they the chance to encounter it. THERE IS SO MUCH MUSIC; WHY NOT DANCE? Someday, Luck will come and claim her due, but that is the future. And for now, you have an infinity of presents.

CONNECTIONS

AGAPE — THE DAYS OF BURNING, AND SILENCE, AND DISTANCE.

There are some things that lies cannot soften. Some things that not even your trickster's heart can forgive. WHAT AGAPE HAS DONE IS ONE OF THEM. To them, the death was only one job, the eradication of a loadstone that another told them to remove. But to you, it was personal, was a person near and dear. While the rest receive your smiles, your light, your ever flitting attention, they will never receive the full of it. This, you promise, this you burn into your being.

PHILAUTIA — BUT THE HEART HAS ITS OWN MEMORY AND I HAVE FORGOTTEN NOTHING.

Once, PHILAUTIA was the object of one of your games. Once, you wove a story around them, took them on twirl. You knew that they knew— and still they came, jackrabbit eager, ready to hear the story that you had to tell. BUT THAT WAS THEN, AND THIS IS NOW. Now, they lack the wide eyes, now they lack the encouraging nods. Now, there is only a bitter tinge to their voice, a hollow uncertainty. But the memory of them once haunts— could what once was ever be restored?

PHILIA — LIKE ORPHEUS, I AM NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO NOT LOOK AT WHAT I WANT.

For you, lies are fun. Lies are just part of the dance you weave, a truth about yourself twisted around and turned inside out. PHILIA is different. And this unsettles you, unmoors you. There is nothing honest in the way that they lie, no truth in the pile of masks they paper on. You want to shred, to understand. You want one honest moment out of them, something that you might finally understand. And until that day comes, this is all you can do: trail them as if a dog with a bone, tease them, grin and poke. There must be something there— no person can be fully hollow. IT WOULD RUIN YOU TO EVER BELIEVE THAT.

TAKEN BY JOY ✧ ZOE BARNARD

[katioart]

The jeweler and the carpenter

[gecko-with-a-greatsword]

drew my husband because I missed him <3

[fisherrprince]

compiled doodles. the latest design for Ari’s lightwarden form, some very dumb Wol’s Journey doodles, and ended up drawing Ari’s family tree!

[nonalillie]

[pansy-picnics]

I WAS RLLY HOPING I COULD GET THIS DONE FOR THE ACTUAL ANNIVERSARY BUT I RUSHED LAST YEARS SO BAD SO I DECIDED TO ACTUALLY TAKE MY TIME ON IT LOL……..i considered just redrawing my pride pieces from 2021 but i thought that was too boring!!!! i like how this turned out a lot more

HAPPY AWL RELEASE BTW!!! i just remembered to preorder it like the day before it came out so it’ll be a while before i play but i’m excited🫡

[olaylien]

This came to me in a vision before going to sleep. Triple baka.

[bbbartblog]

@elisemochi's fanfic "Pendant of Embroidered Flower Petals" inspired me to draw this~

[shirtlessmoviestv]

Spartacus Blood and Sand

[coline7373]

Ludus: playfull love, made of dancing, flirting and lighthearted things.

My last piece for @starwarsalltypesoflove !!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Thank you to everyone who participated and enjoyed!!!

This one is dedicated to blackkat and their fic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Time-Travelers.

It is not, actually, a scene of the fic. But @blackkatmagic is constantly doing the Lord's work by putting front and center characters and/or ship that aren't popular, yet amazing all the same.

Mace/Five has two works on ao3. Two (2)!!!

That's it.

But, by God, do they make it count!

In the spirit of the swatolv event, spreading the love on amazing things that don't have as much spotlight the rest of the year, this ship was always in the plans when I started my fills.

I hope you enjoy this fill at least half as much as I did the fic!!!!!

Many thanks and cheers to my partner in sw crimes @thesunlikehoney with whom I made the event!

[kokonutcookies]

lulu (:

[dozyteacozy]

The similarities between Balor's and Ludus' green heart/flower events is wild y'all

[elisemochi]

you know I'm not even going to say anything I'm just going to leave this here because askdjflksdjf

[keonnise]

Your Vaugn art! 😍😍

Idk if you still want character suggestions to practice facial hair, but Ludus with some scruff would ascend me!

Sorry it took a while! The first one I drew just didn��t feel like him and I had to try and do justice for my favorite tot bachelor

[sunnyskies281]

[cyberaxolotl]

drew every main-game romancable so that i’d have my own consistent references 💪 (there’s several inconsistencies between their character art and portraits)

i know i’ve shared Iluka and Siluka before but they’re here for The Gathering

also been wondering if there are any 3oT fan discords out there… sighs curse of niche hyperfixation

Big fistful of notes: Wayne is meant to appear sunburnt, which his admirers mistake for blushing. Ford’s heterochromia is based in a discrepancy between his model and his portrait, his model his brown eyes, his portrait has purple eyes. Ludus has lots of band-aids and work scars from being a dipshit (affectionate.) Siluka’s skin is darker than Iluka’s from constantly falling asleep in the sun. Komari has her father’s tooth gap, and if I were to draw Ginjiro, they’d have similar birth marks. Kasumi is meant to naturally fit several beauty standards, something she hates. Yuzuki uses a rollator for support, I see him as having chronic fatigue and nausea (fuck the way nintendo just had him be Cured), and damaged skin. Hinata has a couple spots of hyperpigmentation. Inari’s markings are part of their skin.