#masked musings

[primalvessel]

❛ you came so fast, i barely even touched you. ❜

A pink flush bloomed across the bridge of his nose, ears tucked back in embarrassment but there was no denying the evidence.

"I can't see you," he protested, though he didn't sound too upset by it honestly. "All I can do is feel. What did you expect?" The fact that he'd been horny all day on top of that had absolutely no bearing on the situation either. Absolutely none.

And now there were no touches and he felt vulnerable. Atop his head, his ears adjusted minutely to pick up every sound around him, tracking the movement around him by sound alone.

"Go again?" he invited, turning his head towards the sound of a footstep. At least now there was no danger of him coming too quickly, right? And he reached down between his legs to stroke his softened cock invitingly, smearing the last of his recent release along it as he did.

[kots-kots]

pillar men with bioluminescent markings! i thought it’d be neat if they have markings they can choose to hide or display whenever they want…

maybe it’s like a courtship display thingy??? Idk but i think it’d be a cool concept considering they’re creatures of the dark

no markings version + the body chart

i had an idea of kars having asymmetrical markings to represent that despite his desire to be the ultimate being, he is not perfect nor symmetrical cuz im a huge fan of that… like things aren’t as perfectly balanced as you’d assume to be

ALSO yes esidisi has like guy fieri fire markings 😭

[chipper-smol]

the frustrating part about writing a tragic character is letting them marinate under their mask of lies and deception to make their vulnerable moments punch you with flavor when they finally happen

noooo youre not ready to come out of your ziplock bag yet. get back in there with your thyme, spice blend, and that self destructive mentality that will one day put everything you hold dear in peril

[cussundria-nerd-kneal]

So, this is mostly just getting my thoughts out, and this may be a take some people might vehemently disagree with... But I've been thinking about Felassan, and how horrible it was that Solas cold blooded killed him for simply trying to argue a different perspective.... And because of that, I've been wondering what if's on WHAT IF Felassan wasn't killed? That Solas chilled out and listened to what his old buddy had to say? Or what if Felassan ran for a single year, and let Solas find the Inquisition, and then sought Solas out after that single year, found him and the position the Inquisition put him in, and joined him? The Breach was obviously Solas' doing (maybe he ran to find him to go "YO WTF MAN?!" but then saw that Solas was actively trying to help the situation out and decided that he'd be killing, like five birds with one stone by sticking around with Solas.)

But with all of these what if AUs on Felassan living.... I kept going back to how would Solas' change? With Felassan being there? And I realized; he wouldn't. Solas' character that Felassan knew would not change. But... the Solas we came to know... would not exist.

Felassan being present would have been the link to the past as a brutal God of Lies and Trickery, the Rebellion General. The man who will kill anyone who disobeys him, as he sees them as a liability. If Felassan was present in Inquisition... I don't think Solas would have ever opened up. He wouldn't have tolerated anyone, or tolerated different thoughts, perspectives, than his own. He would have been more manipulative to the Inquisitor and the Inner Circle than he already was. And for solavellans... I seriously doubt he would have softened enough to allow Lavellan as a distraction. Would have never entertained anything past flirting. Maybe not even that. I can see the cold ancient God shutting that down and telling her she is being inappropriate, and to leave him be. Even if he would still appreciate the wisdom and kindness the Inquisitor displays.

Because Felassan physically being there would have had been a physical reminder of what Solas needed to be... standing right next to him. Looking at him with that familiar mixture of familiarity, respect... and underlying fear. Felassan KNEW what Solas was capable of. He's witness it. He's been with Solas since the Rebellion days, and has watched Solas sunder armies with a single though, drive fellow Evanuris mad with glee, watched him maneuver his network of spies to callously glean information from those they would have called 'friend'. That cannot be erased between them.

So... with Solas killing Felassan, he essentially removed that last remaining link to his old life, to his past, and removed the reminder of his duty. He removed the last true individual who knew him. Between that and his powers being gone, Solas isolated and completely removed himself from his old world with that last action (that we all know he deeply regrets doing).... and that fucked up action is what lets him be able to divorce his past self, for a little bit. He doesn't have to posture. He doesn't have to be intimidating. He doesn't have to search for underlying intentions. He doesn't have to be constantly on guard, and be a GOD to his people. His power is gone, his empire is destroyed, his friends are all dead. He is completely alone. All he has... is himself.

And that leads to him exploring what that means, in Inquisition. Letting himself joke around with a witty dwarf, who wants nothing to do with his dwarven culture. Lets himself debate ethics and philosophy with a Qunari spy on what is morally right for a way of life. Let's himself process and share in his mutual trauma in war with Blackwall. He let's himself stoop down to Sera's petty level and troll her just as much as she trolls him. (how many thousands of years has it been since someone dared to do that to him?) Let's himself dance around and trade insults hidden behind pretty remarks with Vivienne. Let's himself discuss magical academics with Dorian, even if the cad doesn't see his kin as people, as anything truly sentient. And of course... if you the player take this route... he let's himself indulge in his attraction to a woman who never does anything he expects. Let's himself become curious. Let's himself entertain relationships. Let's himself just... be.

I truly, deeply think he would have never allowed himself to be if Felassan had been present for the Inquisition. And I think Trick Weekes realized that too... and that's why it was both the worst and the best thing Solas could have done. By killing Felassan, he set himself on the path to creating connections, and be able to change, so as not to doom the world a second time. This world is broken, scarred, and imperfect. But it's just as valuable as the world from before. And Felassan saw that as well. He knew he was walking to his death, but he went anyway. He refused to give up the Eluvians to Solas, and knew that he would die for it. A death that was heartbreakingly necessary to change this ancient entity for the better.

<credit to @crimsonphantasmagoria for that last little Felassan bit with the Eluvians. The Slow Arrow truly did find it's mark... even if it it came at the cost of that arrow shattering upon against the maw of the Dread Wolf>

[wordswhisperinthedark]

Oh so we're just shooting all potential love interests in the head now??

[longlivethewildernessyet]

What if "even in Arcadia, you walk beside me still" is a reassurance? A comfort? II, III, and IV are Death in triplicate— and they walk beside Vessel on stage. What if it's a rallying cry?

[akasika]

Aventurine is a perfect boss. He's doing his job well: distracting me from the fight with his fluid animations and voice lines.

[grimeowkin]

We could just kiss like real people do

[evileyedoll]

Dark at the End of the Tunnel

Sink into an Anglers grasp in a dream, like the undersea the Night cradles screams

Been inspired by anglerfish recently, so I'm going to try to do at few of these dark background ones back to back and see if I stumble into something new. I noticed I tend to draw characters / mechs / robots in these oneshot illustrations extremely lanky, but I wonder if I made a comic, whether I'd keep these exaggerated proportions - I'm often indecisive about how much mech vs character is in these biomechs, so I usually just don't think about it and draw what feels interesting in the moment.

This gives me a chance to lay down a meandering anecdote - many years ago as a dumb teenager, I'd stay awake every Friday evening / saturday morning till 4 am, hoping to catch my favourite developer, Digital Extremes' weekly devstream. I vividly remember during closed beta in 2012 people would introduce the game as being about futuristic space pirates zipping through corridors - the games fidelity back then was really quite different, one of the early warframes, Ember, even had her whole model redone at one point. Around 2013-2014 ish when I was most excited for these streams, I noticed the games tagline was "ninja's play free", nothing at all to do with pirates - but it was catchy, and you'd see all over in the advertising because of the parkour moves you could pull off in the game were genuinely sick.

Incidentally, both the Defiance MMO (rip) and Destiny 1 (rip) were what warframe tended to be compared to at the time, both released a little after warframes closed beta, neither of which were piratey or ninja-ey , I think probably 80% of the reason for that was that they all had both guns and abilites ... I guess they were also all live services, I don't know if they were called that back then.

Compared to Defiance and Destiny, I was puzzled at what it was about warframes identity that made the aesthetic feel "itself" - and I got my answer on one of those devstreams - the art lead at the time brought out what they called a "faction pitch bible" a one pager showing all the factions they had in the game at the time, each of them with a few lines of flavour text.

What struck me from that faction pitch was that the Tenno / warframes "cyber knight" description was nothing at all to do with pirates or ninjas, it was a third, wholly other thing, and yet by virtue of being first, it might as well have been the "true" description.

But there was another original, even more original than the "true", Warframes predecessor game, Dark Sector, was a spy thriller with biomechanical aesthetics, or perhaps a powered suit superhero series. Would this original, more original than even the initial, not be what it truly was?

I think what my takeaway was from all of these, is that first an foremost, the aesthetic is "itself" rather than any arbitrary descriptors - I enjoy this about my own pieces, that they mostly still feel like they were made by me even if I can't quite categorise them or explain myself. Perhaps I'm happy if the takeaway is "cool mech", "weird robot" or "wacky character" because maybe it's all of those things and even more!

[stud-lover]

Sending love to the studs who can’t participate in pride festivities due to inadequate accessibility, especially when it comes to covid precautions

[tinystepsforward]

[aotearoa] if you're over 30 and haven't gotten the xbb1.5 booster try to do it THIS MONTH

our piece of shit fascist moneylover government is likely cutting funding to covid vaccines for the great majority of people on july 1.

someone who has access to te whatu ora emails posted this on twitter — it hasn't hit the news yet, but others working in healthcare appear to be confirming it's quite likely, so keep that in mind. we knew a month ago that they were revisiting changes to funding as of the new budget. they're also fucking changing the way sick leave works so that part-time workers will get a hell of a lot less. this winter.

if you're under 30 like me, go ask your pharmacist anyway! mine gave it to me and my wife, and i know there are others around the country who will. ask around until you find someone who will give it to you.

we're entering the biggest covid wave since dec 2022, this government is generally destroying the ministry of health and disability funding, you deserve to do what you can to secure any modicum of protection now. it's worth a shot, pun not intended.

[pokemonblack3white3]

Au where the scarlet/violet main games and DLCs take place during quarantine. Discuss

[mr-krinkle]

i don’t know how to explain it but the childhood crush on tuxedo mask/mamoru chiba to adult obsessed with levi ackerman pipeline is real

[the-fallen-aesthetics]

I wonder...

I suspect Thrax's life support needs to have some sustenance or needs to be replaced at one point. I wonder where he is going to get the maintenance if it's going to be replaced? Does it act like like a backpack or, worse, actively being part of his suit/spine? Because from what I've seen so far, it only gives him oxygen/air through a tube! His concept art also shown that the tubes looked painful like it is forcefully sewn in his skin.

If the revived/imagined corpse route/theory is true or confirmed (I mean it's already implied), then that thing on his back is possibly making his entire body him functional outside Duviri, as of his current state in Isleweaver. Bro, what is he eating to survive lol (and can he like the Zariman rations condensed to cubes?)

Note: He's the last one I've yet to properly conceptualize for my Duviri redesign series and thinking about making his robotic arm similar to a Void-Angel's. This brainstorming led me to hypothesize and I need to type it out.

[cussundria-nerd-kneal]

Just pondering, while bored at work...

I can't help but think about and wonder what Felassan's reaction would have been to seeing Solas soften towards the Inquisition. Seeing him be humbled by them. Seeing him be... just an ordinary elf in Thedas.

And, of course, I really really wonder what Felassan's reaction would have been to watching Solas fall in love. Quickly. In less than a year... when it took him a couple thousand years to even be a friend to the man. What would he have though as he watched as Solas' facination became intrigue, to infatuation... then to yearning. I know he would have doubled down on trying to convince him off his crusade to tear down the Veil... but I just wonder.

I'm so endlessly sad that Felassan couldn't be there to witness any of that.

[hipstafootprint]

10 days in Vienna – one photo per day · April 2025

Day six · Muse number seven – Thalia · Vienna, Albertina