#mostly i just wanted an excuse to draw them hanging out together

[bunnieswithknives]

Fiyero gives Boq dating tips :3

Song: Dating Tips by That Handsome Devil

[ancha-aus]

RealAgeAU Drabble - Costume

I had a a few ideas for drabbles :3 And I settled on this one for now :3

Mostly because I have one mental image in my head that is just too cute to pass up and I wanted to add more cuteness to this AU so here we GO! @spotaus You ready my friend?

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Als I am really considering making a masterpost for these drabbles and any related asks/answers and drawings people make... Just a thought.

*------------------*

Cross watches as Nightmare looks at the different options of costumes. They are in the bigger city nearby to actually give him some options.

It had been thanks to Crop that they even knew about this happening. Kinda like a halloween get together but it mostly celebrates the start of the colder seasons and the time of rest the land needs.

But with everyone in costume because Halloween happens around the same time.

But it gave them the excuse to take Nightmare out on a tiny trip and let him pick out soemthing he would like to wear. Killer says he is making progress on that front but Cross doubts it as Nightmare still just only wears the stuff they picked out for him or Dust's old things.

Even if Nightmare looks adorable in the for him much too big hoody.

Cross smiles down at Nightmare "And? Any ideas for what you want to be dressed as?"

Nightmare shoots him a look and shrugs "Why get dressed? I am a skeleton... That is spooky enough right?"

Cross feels part of his soul melt but tries to keep it in. Nightmare hadn't fully noticed that his way of speaking is starting to slip more and more into more childlike talking and words. Even if he still tries to speak in his fancy way. It is just too cute.

Cross sees it as them doing a good job at this whole parent thing.

Cross grins "True... But Horror already decided to go as a lumberjack and Killer is going as Jason from friday the 13th." Cross himself hadn't decided yet and Cross knows that Dust is planning on just matching whatever Nightmare wants to get dressed as.

Nightmare frowns and stares at all the options. He points towards a costume and Cross checks it.

It is the cheapest thing there is.

Cross saw this coming but he knows how to deal with that! Cross grins "Oh? A little devil? We can do that. Come. We can look at more costumes for that."

Nightmare looks a lot more unsure as he rubs his arm "This is fine... stuff is expensive."

Cross crouches down and leans on his hand "Hey... it is fine... Dust got a budget together and everything. Let me worry about money okay?"

Nightmare frowns but looks considered at some of the more detailed options instead of the cheap stuff. Much better. Nightmare slowly starts to gravitate towards the vampire stuff and Cross starts to think this may be a success when-

a soft sizzle.

Oh are you kidding him!?

"You seriously gonna let him get that stuff?"

Nightmare blinks and grins brightly at the sound of Error and searches for him before spotting him near the ceiling.

Cross glares and hisses "Error." he glances around nervously.

Error snorts "Calm down. I know how to time stuff. People hardly ever notice I am in universes. Seriously though. yOu are going to let him grab this shi-stuff." Error quickly changes his sentence when Cross glares at him.

Cross crosses his arms "Well we want to have stuff to get dressed in for the party. We are trying to fit in."

Nightmare looks up at Cross and smiles a tiny bit "Error can look with us?"

Cross really wants to say no. Not like Killer. Killer hates the fact that Nightmare has a crush on the other. Cross just doesn't want to deal witht he headache that is Error himself.

Now that Cross knows what he knows he realised that Nightmare always had a crush on Error. No one ever noticed because... well... Nightmare went about those feelings as any six year old did. hanging out, trying to invite the other to play with them. bringing small tokens and things. trying to be included.

Error snorts "Nah. Don't want to be stuck in this store of bad quality." and he nudges one of the costumes offered.

Cross sighs annoyed "So why appear?"

Error looks smug "I saw you were going to let Nightmare grab bad quality stuff. of course i step in."

That is another thing Cross doesn't like. Knowing that Error just, glances in whenever he feels like it. Cross glares and hisses "Stop having a window on us open. One it is weird and two if anyone sees it!"

Error waves it off "I just check for a few seconds when i know it is clear. Calm down." he shoots Ngihtmare a look "Seriously though. You are a god. don't gods deserve like the best things?"

Nightmare shrugs and mutters "Jsut got stuff because they wanted it..."

Cross also finds it rich coming from Error as Error still wears some upgraded hobo-jacket that looks like it is barely holding it together.

Error blinks before huffing "Yeah no. I am getting you a costume of actual quality." he looks areound "vampire?"

Nightmare suddenly looks a lot less comfortable with the attention adn returns to Cross's side to hide partly. Nightmare never likes it when others start offering stuff to him. Cross leans downa dn picks up their small charge.

Cross nudges their skulls together and mutters "It is okay. You had an idea of what you like?"

Nightmare just pushes clsoer "it is dumb. easy stuff is fine."

Cross nudges him again "It isn't dumb. What do you want?"

Nightmare remains quiet for a long time and Cross waits patiently. Just let him feel it out first. Let him decide for himself. Error looks a lot less patient as he just stands there, obviously wnating to tap his foot but refrains from it.

Nightmare eventually mutters "liked... vampire becuase it is a bat..."

Cross blinks and grins "You want to be a tiny bat?"

Ngihtmar eshrugs again and tries to hide further. Clearly done with being verbal.

Cross nods and nzuzles the skull "I am sure we can figure out a tiny bat costume." MAybe they can get a cape? get some wings attached? Cross is srue they can figure it out-

Error nods "A bat. That is easy." he looks thoughtful before nodding and with a sizzle he is gone.

Cross sighs loudly but Ngihtmare giggles and gives a happy mutter "He likes me."

Cross sighs loudly "You are very clearly he favourite. Which isn't a good thing bud, you don't want to be a god's favourite." at least that is the lesson Cross got out of stories.

Nightmare hums as he nuzzles his skull against Cross's "You guys were always my favourites..."

Cross hugs Ngihtmare close as he walks towards the exit of the store "You are so sweet. and you always cared so much about us." Ngihtmare mutters about not being sweet but relaxes with the affection.

Cross gets a ride back from Ellie and returns home to the others. He is only done for a few minutes with retelling everything as they make sure Nightmare eats his snack when they hear more sizzling.

A moment later a small package drops on their dining table.

Nightmare blinks nad opens it only to gasp.

Because that is a bright purple hoody with bat wings sewed in the back and a hood with little bat ears and a grumpy bat face on the hood.

It is adorable and Nightmare looks adorable in it and Cross has to admit it was a perfect pic. a very comfortable and cute costume for the coming outing.

Killer grumbles as he stabs his fork into his own food. He glares at his plate "Gonna have to figure out how to scare a god."

Yeah... Cross is hoenstly a little curious as to how Kilelr plans to do that. For now their babybones is happy in his new hoody and they have a very powerful ally who wants Nightmare happy like them.

*------------------*

Was this whole drabble an excuse to get Nightmare a hoody with little bat wings and bat ears? Yes. Yes it was. And he HAS one now!! :D <3

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[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for trying to block evade?

This happened several years ago, so I'll put the ages that we were at the time.

I [17F at the time], had an extremely close friend [17F] of 3+ years, and I still haven't found any kind of friendship that came close to the level of trust / openness that was there. So some of this backstory ranges from 14yrs to 17yrs.

My home was abusive, and she and her mom helped me figure out what was rational vs irrational, normal vs not normal, and pointing out local resources to get help - which was absolutely amazing and I could not thank them enough.

She invited me to her house pretty regularly, a couple times a week. We'd have hours of skype calls. She got me roped into Undertale & the fandom. Well, not that we really interacted with the fandom at large. We only publically posted some of the art and barely got noticed haha. Between the two of us, we had something like 26 AUs and had a lot of rp with multiverse shenanigans - like over 1200+ pages of google docs rp, because that's where we did like 90% of it. After we hit like 100-200 pages, we'd make a new doc so it wouldn't take so long to load. And we had like, at least like 9 docs I think. I was mostly in it for her, because it was really fun to just make up stories together. I could've done it with any fandom she threw at me, undertale is just the one that was popular at the time.

At one point, I think when we were around 16, I asked her if she wanted to start dating. She said something along the lines of maybe in the future, but not right now - she wanted to focus on school. Even though she declined at the time, she did say she appreciated me asking and that it meant a lot to her. And there were 0 hard feelings about the answer, we just kept on going the way we were going.

She got hit with a really bad level of depression, and stopped coming to school. After 2-3 days, I started calling her every day around lunch time just to check in on her and see how she was doing. See if there was anything I could do to help - bring some snacks, catch her up on classwork for the couple classes we shared, stuff like that. This was for couple months. More than just a mental health day, and the only reason she gave was Depression.

After a week or two of the daily calls, there was probably an aspect of toxic positivity on my end. Like "You gotta Do Something to avoid being trapped in your misery, even if it's just baby steps like sitting outside on the porch or going on a walk down the block" Not maliciously, but more out of not knowing how to handle a situation like this & genuinely wanting to help her because of all the help she's offered me in the past & fueled a little bit by fear because Depresssion is the excuse that my abusive parents used to justify their shitty behavior & neglect. Not because I was afraid of what she'd do to me, but more what she'd do to herself. That's one of the only things I could think where I went wrong, which I completely acknowledge and understand now.

She was still inviting me to her house, and we were still doing our normal thing there. Drawing and writing stories together.

After 4-5 weeks [? estimate, time is an illusion] of her not showing up to school, I can't remember if I asked if it was helpful or if she suggested that I stop calling every day. Calling every day was making her feel worse.

I did end up calling the next day or two at lunch - crossing the boundary was not my intent. We had planned to hang out on the weekend again, lunch is just when I remembered & had time to call to ask if she still wanted to hang out or if she wanted some space. I think she said yes to hanging out, didn't mention anything about crossing the boundary. Same with the next day - there was something I needed to ask clarification on, it wasn't a check in, nothing was mentioned of the boundary. I can't remember what it was now. This is another one of the places where I think I went wrong, which I acknowledge & understand.

I did stop the check ins like requested though. After those two off days, I did stop calling her every day at lunch.

She finished out the school year having shown up to class maybe 3ish times, I think.

Again, we were still hanging out regularly. There was no indication that I was doing anything wrong, there was no indication that anything I was doing was wrong. She was still the one inviting me to hang out at least half the time.

There were some problems that I was noticing that I just wanted to have a casual chat about and figure out, but she kept pushing it off as a "I don't have the energy right now, we can talk about it later" and we'd go back to the fun things. I don't really remember what those problems were.

In the summer, I went to a different state to visit my older sister that I hadn't seen in years. I talked to her about it, I was excited for it. We were still chatting regularly during my trip over skype or discord.

And then, during my trip that I was so excited about, she drops this bombshell. She sends me several massive messages detailing out a bullet point list of everything I've done wrong, that she's explicitly breaking off the friendship, and blocks me. 95% of things on that list either flat weren't true, or gross misunderstandings of what happened.

It was genuinely horrible things too.

For example, one of the things on the list was "Suicide baiting" or "Suicide guilt tripping" or something along those lines, which had happened several months if not a year before this. -I've only ever communicated feeling acutely suicidal to her 1 time. -Long before that, she made me promise that if I ever felt suicidal that I was supposed to immediately talk to her about it, for her own peace of mind so she wouldn't worry about me. -I reached a point of feeling acutely suicidal due to abuse at home & general existential dread, that happened to be during a time we had an issue.

I purposefully waited until after the issue was resolved, like 2 weeks, before telling her. I did that specifically so it would not be taken as a guilt trip or a form of coercion while still holding as true as I could to my promise. She made me promise to tell her, it was something very important to her. I made very clear to say "this is something I experienced a couple weeks ago due to unrelated things, it is resolved now, I got help through xyz means and genuinely feel better. You made me promise to tell you so I am telling you, I didn't want to say anything while we were having a problem for xyz reason." I just wanted to talk, and clear up the misunderstandings. I wanted to have a good conversation about figuring out where the communication went wrong, try and figure out how she came to these conclusions, and how that differs from my point of view. Do something to work it out, and just talk about it, and try and salvage this 3+ year friendship.

After I realized I was blocked, I was going through so so many emotions all at once. The whiplash of going from 5 to 100, Upset that I wasn't given any sort of chance to explain, the 5 stages of grief, being thrown away like the gum off your shoe, worrying about her and if this was the stage of isolation for depression, holding out the hope that we could still just talk and work things out, angry that she kept pushing off and refusing to have any sort of serious talk before this, doubting if anything she had said on 'normal vs not normal' - particularly communication styles, thoughts that maybe she was abusive and manipulative all along, maybe I was continuing the cycle of abuse, trauma flashbacks, anxieties that I had since squashed as 'irrational', fear that this was a sign that she was about to fucking kill herself and maybe the whole list was a lie so I wouldn't try and reach out and stop her, doubting my own reality and maybe the entire list she sent me was true and she was justified in her actions.

Simultaneously trying to process intense feelings and realities if it was true and I'm really secretly a horrible monster, if it wasn't true and she was about to die, and old traumas getting dug out of the grave.

God I was such an emotional wreck and did not know how to process or understand anything that was happening.

This is where the AITA comes in -

I was pushing through back to back panic attacks trying to contact her and figure out what was going on. I didn't want her to die, if that's what was happening. I didn't want to be discarded and thrown away like a piece of trash, if that's what was happening. I didn't want to have 0 chance of learning & growing as a person even if this friendship wasn't salvageable due to my monstrous nature, if that's what was happening.

So I block evaded like fckn crazy. Gmail, pet game sites, discord, skype, deviantart, whatever online platform that we shared that had messaging enabled. I called her phone several times. On the 3-4th call, her mom picked up and told me that none of the above was true. That she wasn't about to die, that I wasn't being thrown away like trash, and that I wasn't a monster. She didn't agree with her daughters actions and thought it unfair to me, but ultimately it was my friend's choice. All simultaneously which just did not compute.

If the list she sent me was true, I was a shitty horrible person. If it wasn't, and she isn't about to die, then not be able to just have a calm sit-down conversation at some point about it and clear it up - if I wasn't worth even attempting to make that effort then I was being thrown away like trash. I kept trying for days afterwards to talk to her - just, anything at all. Nothing got through, she never responded to anything.

And... that was that.

I didn't have a chance to talk to her again. I didn't have a chance to clear up misunderstandings, or understand what I did actually wrong and where, or any sort of closure.

Sometimes if I'm remembering it and feeling paranoid, I'll check and see if she's alive by looking at her online profiles for any activity. Like, maybe once a year tops now. According to the petgame sites, she's still alive at least. I'm assuming she got new social media. Literally it's just a "is she alive, do I have to worry about causing her suicide" check, I don't stalk or look into anything further than that.

Anyway, AITA for how extensively & desperately I was block evading?

What are these acronyms?

[forsakenmissives]

Jamie does not eat lunch alone. No, seriously. Most of the lads usually gather in the cafeteria together and eat, even Will Kitman stopping by sometimes. So, Jamie is very used to company while he goes absolutely crazy on some grilled chicken because he acts all composed on the pitch, mostly, but he’s usually fucking starved by the time lunch rolls around. That being said, he is completely unprepared for Roy Kent to shoo the rest of the guys away and take the seat next to Jamie — not that he minds, the other Greyhounds still eager to chat about Zava and Jamie decidedly not so. Still, he’s so unprepared that he actually looks unattractive for once, mouth hanging open, chicken half-chewed on his tongue.

Quickly, he swallows. “Did I do something wrong, coach?” Because why else would Roy break his sacred solo lunch time to speak with Jamie?

“You’re favouring your left leg,” Roy says. “We’ll stretch better before training tomorrow.”

Jamie knows he’s not talking about what they just got done doing outside. They finished their second private session that morning, and Jamie’s proud to say he’s gotten with the program quick as a whip. Roy tried critiquing him, but outside of basic form, Jamie was a certified trooper, and Roy found himself biting his tongue, much to his chagrin and Jamie’s joy. He takes another bite of chicken before nodding. “Yeah, alright. And I’ll stretch better before training tomorrow.”

Roy huffs and nods, but he doesn’t leave. Jamie sets down his fork. Stares expectantly at him. Still, Roy remains silent, though one of his hands rests on the table, nails scraping the tabletop in a slow back and forth rhythm. 

“Anything else for me?” Jamie finally prompts.

The cafeteria has a quiet hum about it, a steady white noise that is the blending of various voices all speaking at once. Roy looks around, taking in the other visitors, but they’re all at other tables or by the doors. He turns back to Jamie. “I wanted to . . . apologise.”

He shouldn’t, because he’s sure Roy is either being or about to be very vulnerable with him, and Jamie’s not actually dumb and he’s certainly not dumb enough to take a wrecking ball to this thing that looks a lot like a friendship he can see being built brick by brick, but he’s so shocked by the admission that he blurts, “You want to apologise to me?”

“Fuck off,” Roy immediately snaps, but when Jamie just remains there, now twirli​​ng his fork between his fingers, he rolls his shoulders back, tilts his head, and continues: “I was a . . . a dick. About training.”

“What d’you mean?” Jamie asks. “Bit Spartan, yeah, but you’re a good coach, coach.”

Roy doesn’t acknowledge the compliment nor the backhanded part of it. “At Ola’s, you asked me when we’d start, and I smacked your food out of your hand, and that was a dick move of me.”

Jamie’s lips form into an ‘o’. Not a single ‘fuck’ in that sentence. Damn, Roy really prepared for this. He lifts a shoulder in a half-shrug. “Testing my reflexes, weren’t you? Don’t worry about it.”

“You flinched,” Roy replies, finally meeting his eyes. “You fucking put your hands in front of your face. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Reflexes,” Jamie repeats, but they both know it’s a lame excuse. He drops his fork, drumming his fingers on the table before reaching over and curling them around Roy’s shoulder. He can feel the way Roy tenses under his touch, but he leaves his hand there, lips curling at the corners and brows drawing together. “You’re a good man, Roy Kent. I appreciate it.”

Roy rolls his eyes, shaking off Jamie’s hand, but he’s not half as stiff as before, and he’s actually kind of shit at hiding a smile. That, or Jamie knows him too well, and isn’t that just a dream come true? He gives a pat to Roy’s shoulder one last time before Roy pushes himself up from the bench. “Finish your food, Tartt.”

“Right, right, coach.” Jamie goes back to his plate, and Roy turns to leave, but before he can, Jamie finds himself reaching out, though he never actually makes contact. Roy looks down at him, brows raised. Jamie swallows, though he hadn’t even picked up his fork again. “Uh. Thanks, though. I really do appreciate it.”

A pause stretches between them, and Jamie’s hand draws back to rest on the table. Finally, Roy nods. “‘Course.” And then he turns and he goes and Jamie watches his back until he rounds a corner and Jamie can see him no longer. Months spent being an absolute shit . . . Jamie’s mouth finally splits into a proper grin. He should’ve known. Roy’s eyes have been on him the entire time. 

He bites the tines of his fork, the metal clinking between his teeth. Across the hall, he catches the eye of one of the chefs. “Agnes!” he calls, and she moves as if to rush over, but Jamie waves a hand, halting her action. “Great work on the chicken today. Fucking delicious.” Those who remain in the cafeteria all turn to look at the chef, whose face is quickly turning puce from the force of her blush. Jamie takes another bite and nods. “Yeah. I absolutely love it.”

because sorry but i refuse to let roy be another angry man in jamie's life, even if he is a man that can be very, very angry and they did throw hands a couple times. whatever. anyway that bit of the scene was so insignificant but it still itched at me to write this lol

[einsatzzz]

Oniyanagi 1st Generation Bosses

OCtober Day 4: Under-appreciated OC

Sorry this took a while @social-muffin! Also thank you for your interest in Kana and Kurumi's great-great-great grannies hahaha The questions below are based from Muffin's KHR OC ask post over here 🥰✨

I thought answering the questions for this prompt would work as a way to talk about them, since I barely get to draw/talk abt them vs their 10th gen counterparts. But do not be fooled, they also live in my head rent-free. Whenever I remember them, I start screaming, crying and throwing up. Thank you KHR for having a 1st gen in ur story, its another excuse for us to make another set of twin OCs.

What's your OCs name, pronouns and gender?

(Left, Older Twin) Name: Rinko Ninomiya Pronouns: She/Her Gender/Sex: Female (Gigachad, Alpha Female)

(Right, Younger Twin) Name: Ryuuka Ninomiya Pronouns: Any (People mostly use She/Her due to their clothing) Gender/Sex: Male (Doesn't bother correcting people who see them as Female, like with Kana, I'll mostly use she/her for consistency)

What's their current age and what age do/did they get involved with the khr Canon?

I guess if we were to make a sidestory for them, we'd make the "current" timeline for the story when their age is around 23-24. But the first time they kind of got involved with KHR canon should be around mid-teens, when they met Asari! Then around age 19-20, Rinko should've met Giotto by then.

For comparison, the twins are more or less one year older than Giotto.

What do they look like? Height, weight, unique physical features? (Drawings, Picrews, descriptions, all are welcome! Except AI art lmao)

From this post. Rinko's design here is kinda outdated since we changed her hairstyle to have a ponytail now hehe

Anyway, they both have the exact same height (168cm) and weight (49kg). For any unique physical features, I guess that would be for Ryuuka? She always tries to make it so that she's the same height/weight as her older twin. Even the choice of feminine clothing is because she wants to be perceived to have a feminine appearance like her.

What's your OCs relation to KHR? Are they someone's guardian, friend, subordinate, love interest? Or are they a family member of a canon character? If so, how are they related to that character?

They're both Giotto's close friends! This is the root of where the current Vongola and Oniyanagi's partnership agreement came from in the 10th Gen period. Rinko met Giotto first in a formal social gathering at Italy, through Asari. Rinko had a crush on Giotto at first sight, so naturally(to her), she immediately tried to befriend him like the gigachad that she is.

(fucksdjfhjsdf now I'm remembering that one tik/tok jojo sent me with the "itulak mo ako!"/"push me!", except it's Rinko and she asked Asari to push her to Giotto's direction => so Giotto can catch her lmao hahahaha)

Ryuuka wasn't there at that time since she was in Japan managing family affairs while Rinko was away, but she did eventually get to meet Giotto some time after that. Rinko looked very happy when she came home after all and told her all about the new friends/allies/business partners that she made while in Italy.

In the 1st Gen Vongola Guardians line-up, Ryuuka is also close friends with Asari. While they do spar together, since they're both experts with swords. More often, she also just goes to hang out and listen to him play the flute.

Rinko is also friends with Knuckle, the problem is that she's trying to get him to retire as priest and go back to boxing. So they can be gym junkies together 😭 (please imagine someone trying to convince their who swore off drinking to start drinking again)

What's your OCs flame/flames? If they have multiple, which flame is their strongest?

Both of them have Sky flames!

How does your OC use their flame? Strictly for combat, or more recreationally? Is flame use something instinctive to them, or do they have to direct their flame consciously?

From what me and Sou have right now, they currently just use it during combat. Though even then, they only use it when needed (usually it's not). The use of flames is also instinctive to them too.

Does your OC have a mafia family they are a part of? If so, what's their position in that Familia?

They're both the boss of the Oniyanagi yakuza family! Though the one seen more in public is Rinko, since she's the one mostly in the frontline of both battles and networking opportunities. On the other hand, Ryuuka is often locked up in her lab and handles various matters behind the scenes.

If your OC was a civillain what would their job be? Would they be happy with that job? Would they be good at it?

I'm thinking of modern times jobs right now so it's more fun hehe

Rinko would be a gym instructor that also runs a travel vlog channel! She love working out so much (it's insane) and has a wander lust as well. She'd be very good at both and would be very popular for it. She's also a great cook, the only catch is that she adds protein in almost all of her dishes.

Ryuuka is already a scientist herself. But she'd very much be a full time scientist as a civilian, particularly in the field of Biotechnology. She'd be a renowned expert in her industry, just don't let Umbre//lla Corp hire her (yes, this is a RE reference). She'd also be one of Geppetto Lorenzini's biggest fans in a gatekeeping type of way.

Do you have a voice actor picked out for your OC? If yes, why did you pick this voice actor? (If someone talked with your oc, what would they notice about their voice?)

Rinko's voice claim is Ami Koshimizu, while Ryuuka's voice claim is Kana Hanazawa!

Sou and I had twin OCs in Hai//kyuu before with these voice claims, so we just thought to reuse them. We listened to some of their roles and confirmed that these would still fit!

Last question! What's your OCs current fashion style? And what's their dream style? Are they close?

Rinko used to wear kimono or yukata, but ever since she started travelling to more western countries, she started to have a preference for western style clothing as well, so she wears suits and dresses in those styles.

Mostly when at work, Ryuuka just wears a white lab coat with a black turtleneck dress underneath. Though when just chilling at home or on rest days, she wears a black yukata and a white haori. She doesn't really have a dream style, since fashion isn't on her priority list.

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed reading about them! 🥰💖✨

[dross-the-fish]

Started hanging out with some new friends in a Discord server on days when work from home is slow but I'm not able to leave my desk to draw or write, and I'm honestly surprised by how good of a time I've been having, how at ease I feel. This is the first friend group I've had where most of, if not all of, the people in it are queer in ways that are similar to myself, and not just cisgendered gay or bisexual people, but people who are also non-binary/genderfluid and on the aro/ace spectrum. After a lifetime of being friends with people who were mostly straight or gay and almost all of them cis except for maybe the odd binary-transperson all of whom are allosexual. It also made me realize that I've been walling myself off from most of my old high school friends for the duration of our relationship and haven't even noticed it. I always tend to sit and let little comments slide because I don't want to get into a debate or call too much attention to aspects of myself I'm still figuring out. Dealing with behaviors that were vaguely phobic and excusing them as my friends just "not knowing better," because they seemed well intended otherwise and nothing said was overt. Feeling like before I presented ace characters to them that I needed to have some justification and explanation at the ready and brace myself for people to try and tell me that "well this character can still have sex right?" or "What's the point of making x aromantic?" because they were allosexual and alloromantic and couldn't enjoy characters that weren't "available" in that way. Debates about whether asexuality should even be part of the LGBTQ spectrum weren't common, but they happened. Being made to feel like not being attracted to my partner was unfair to my partner because "everyone deserves to feel attractive to the people who love them." "A stands for Allies" is a thing that came out of one friend's mouth. "Non-binary is trans-lite," is another. "I could never love someone I wasn't attracted to, it must suck so bad to have that part of you missing." When I eventually came out as gender fluid, they seemed accepting but never bothered to use masc pronouns because I still accept fem ones. So they just felt free to ignore my gender all together and one of them even slipped and tried to correct someone who called me "sir" because it was that easy for her to forget, even with me standing right there in a chest binder and men's clothing.

There was always been an element of being ready to defend myself, of weighing my words before I spoke them and agonizing over whether I'd have to hear empty platitudes, excuses of people just "not being used to it" and an obvious, palpable discomfort that no one was willing to unlearn, that would be left for me to bear and to feel like I was at fault for creating by simply existing. And I never noticed it because it was so prevalent and it was still preferable to the blatant hostility most of the conservative population around here has for the LGBTQ community. I can talk to these people about every other thing under the sun, call them when I'm in trouble and they'll help me and turn to them for advice and support in every other area...but the little things still matter. Even when I told myself they didn't. Being around people and feeling like I can be unguarded is such a bizarre feeling that I'm almost afraid of it. Hearing one person talk about how an aromatic character I write isn't broken and wanting strongly for that character to be told that by somebody made me want to cry. Being asked if I would prefer couple art to be sfw vs nsfw because the asexuality of one character was taken into consideration actually felt like a big deal because NO ONE HAS EVER DONE THAT BEFORE. I didn't know these things mattered so much until they happened and now I feel I'm at a crossroads and debating if I should make the effort to advocate more for myself among some of my old friends. Acceptance matters, community matters. I always knew this intellectually but it's a whole different level now that I've experienced it. I've learned that it matters to me.

[greekceltic]

We're still putting the info together and the discord/website look like a tornado ran through them, but here is a break down of what Hetherev (2) is. This group is 21+ only. So is the discord. Hetherev was an ArtRPG on Deviantart that I created some years ago, with the help of a small group whose names I don't quite remember. I kept the name for sentimental reasons, but this group is new and uses Discord as its base. It is not a reset of or continuance of the former. It is its own thing, with new sets of challenges and a slightly different spin on the interdimensional trope Heth was originally based on.

From the website: Hetherev is a fantasy world that exists between other worlds. Anyone from anywhere can just happen into it! Getting there is easy. Getting out? ... Not so much. Drop an OC in our sandbox and progress its story by drawing challenges and exploring zones, and meet some other OCs along the way! Work at your own pace. There are no deadlines! Do I have to Rp? Nope. Roleplay is available if you want it, but this is an art challenge group that encourages its members to do more art and learn from the art that they do, while having fun progressing their character's story. It's an artist's playground and an excuse to draw your OC meeting the OCs of others. There are no deadlines and no pressure to return art if someone happens to draw your OC in their challenge. This group is 21+ and up only. I wish we could include all ages, but this is non-negotiable. We look forward to seeing you all when you turn 21- and of course ArtRPGs are not unique to us. Anyone can make one. Do I have to be an artist? An understanding of the basics and a willingness to draw characters in interactive scenes is required to do art challenges- so on some level yes. We accept a broad range of skill levels. However if you're not an artist and want to lurk, you're welcome to come do so. Can I lurk? Yup. At the moment I'm running it mostly by myself- and might decide to keep doing it solo. I also have old lady wrists. Please be patient with the approval process, lack of info, conflicting info, etc. The discord is already populated with people who were in the original group and know how this works, if you're confused just ask.

[nao-is-broke]

Welcome to: A Post Where I Rant About My Artfight Attacks This Year and the Thought Processes Behind Them (In Order)

First up is this one!! I used to have a sona for MLB a long time ago and still think about him from time to time, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to draw an updated vers!

Since I am a big time travel trope fan, I obviously gave myself the rabbit miraculous. As for the other character, it’s owned by @precisespace , and their name is Vermini!!

As for the process, there wasn’t much to it. I knew I wanted a dynamic pose and I’m a bit taller than average irl, so I wanted to play with that and push it a bit further. Since this one was my first ever artfight submission, I wanted to take it easy and use it to learn the ropes a bit.

This one has a bit more put into it hehe.

The characters, Ellie and Jade, are owned by AletheSnail on artfight!

Since magical girls are one of my autistic special interests, you bet your money I knew I had to draw them as soon as I read their backstory. It’s genuinely so interesting to me, so please go check it out if you have the chance!

This one, I knew I wanted a “vision obscured” type beat, and to also give a sense of longing. I also tried to do a basic background, and it worked out… decent enough haha. I don’t really like it, but it’s better than nothing

Both of these characters are owned by @imthatfilthysinner !

Due to being diagnosed with Star Wars hyperfixation, the rest of all these will be Star Wars ocs.

While it was originally Arielle’s (the Twi’Lek) design that caught my eye, Fii’s backstory,,, I’m obsessed

For this one, I wanted it to look like they were at a table debriefing or something, but then I got lazy and just drew shapes. Hopefully it gets the message across well enough TvT

Sinner did a revenge on me, so this is my revenge back!!

They drew my oc, Vinon, and Fii together when they’re adults in a situation where they meet again after remembering each other as younglings. This inspired me to draw a scene with padawan Vinon and Fii greeting each other!!

I also wanted an excuse to design Vinon’s master finally, so meet Zalale! And the other Chiss is Fii’s master, Saan Bo.

I used Sinner’s piece as a reference for their poses, and I pretty much traced a screenshot from one of the movies for the background. I really super like how this one came out! I think it’s my favorite attack of mine this year!!

Guys… Jinoro’s story… sobs and explodes and dies.

Them and their padawan, Marz, immediately stole my heart. As such, I drew Jinoro giving Marz a funeral after she dies.

I knew I wanted a bit of an angle on this piece, and used Anakin’s funeral as a reference for the scene. I really super suck at drawing fire, so this was good practice! I also really like how this one came out haha

Jinoro and Marz both belong to @tyquu !!

This was a revenge for @spacedem0n !!

They drew my oc, Rasdra (the Twi’Lek) and their oc, Bleen, meeting and hanging out after order 66. As such, I thought it would be fun to draw an interaction between them when Rasdra was still a youngling and before Bleen left the Jedi Order!

I’m not too happy with how Rasdra came out, but I used full creative freedom when it came to designing a padawan version of Bleen. I genuinely had way too much fun with it haha

Once again, I mostly traced a background from a screenshot in one of the movies, and I don’t think it turned out horrible, so I’ll take it as a win!!

In conclusion, this month as my first artfight was AMAZING. I received tons of amazing art of my characters, and it was fun to indirectly bounce ideas off of others! I look forward to seeing the winning team, and I also look forward to next year already!

[reitheist]

bucchigiri ep 9 thoughts:

taken over huh... is that also what senya is doing to arajin maybe? like with the magic trampstamp (words i never expected to write...)

shindo is a bitch and pathetic but i enjoy his character unfortunately (in my defense, my interpretation of him threatening to do That to mahoro was just to make arajin pissed and get him to reveal senya. i think it was kind of narrative low-hanging fruit honestly.)

'is that a yes or no' take a wild fucking guess buddy

zabuuuuuu you are such a good friend

senya hitting people as a show of affection lol

matakara gathering money, presumably he was saving to get an apartment with his brother. what's he planning to use it for?

oh my godddd the cat boy drama 💀 this side gag is so stupid but so funny i love it. i imagine jasmine as as a pure white long hair cat and pu'er as a classic brown tabby. also cat boy getting way too invested in his personal life is *chefs kiss*

arajin is trying his absolute best to convince himself he doesn't care about matakara

the dynamic between komao, zabu, and ara is really funny. i think in other shows they might just sideline the friend characters but they really have an awkward 'friend of a friend' dynamic i like. komao isn't really socially aware enough to be mean to ara despite being him being mean to matakara, and zabu is more hostile but puts most of that aside for matakara's sake. it's like your friends scoping out your awful crush lmao

THE LIFE SIZED NAKED MARITO DOLL? EXCUSE ME??? there is so much wrong with mahoro oml

wait is the life sized naked marito doll marito's? that's somehow weirder.

mahoro, is that concern for a person who isn't your brother? wow

matakara :(

so is the 'monster' literal or metaphorical? interesting

ichiya you're hot as hell but stop telling matakara to draw away from his friends you bitch

'one person would've wanted it' stopppppp 😭 arajin is realizing he liked having matakara around while matakara is being turned against his friends by ichiya. the dramatic irony is killing me

the fact that this 'love forever stone' is a lake blue stone wrapped specifically in a blue cloth as well... that thing is definitely going to be given to matakara by the end, right? pretty gay if you ask me.

ohhhh my god mahoro character growth. plus her relating to him specifically through their shared brother idolization is a good touch. very sweet

mahoro's basically saying like "dude how are you only focused on yourself and me right now. how have you not noticed your childhood friend is depressed and crazy in love with you. like seriously he has not been subtle. at all." lmao i love herrrrrrr

mahoro deserves her own show

also relieved to have ara's interpretation of matakara and mahoro's relationship as romantic to be kind of trivialized again in this scene. i think their dynamic is more interesting as two very different personalities which share just enough to relate with each other. she only wants ara to get his shit together for matakara's sake. i want them to be besties please

arajin is The Worst with emotions huh. he can't read other's feelings and he's somehow worse at reading his own. he needs to stop being relatable right this second

yknow at this point i think i can say i truly and properly enjoy arajin as a character. he's mostly an asshole and deeply emotionally unintelligent but i like him regardless and because of it

ah senya ichiya and arajin matakara parallels as i expected

so does senya=matakara and ichiya=arajin kind of?

i really wasn't joking about them being exes huh

stoppppp ichiya gave him his name? senya was and continues to be so ridiculously down bad

'he meant absolutely everything to me.' dude.

senya is trying to get ara and matakara together bc he couldn't do that for him and ichiya

i am so gd curious what happened to drive them apart

matakara losing sight why he wanted to become a honki person in the first place (ara) and trying to destroy it

'what senya wants is your body' context needed.

i'm thinking maybe ichiya is willing to fully take over bodies and senya isn't, thus why he hasn't done it to arajin already. that or he was planning to in the beginning but got too attached

ohhh this is gonna make for a good dramatic fight

ughhhh another really good episode. i think the story's finally full found its stride. very hyped for the last 3 episodes. i think next episode will probably deal with betrayal between senya and ara, leading senya to explain exactly what happened between him and ichiya. matakara will trying to fight ara and ara will have to run away, frustrating matakara even more. mahoro might focus on trying to help matakara

[voidendron]

i'm not very good at drawing characters in profile, so i decided to draw a bunch of my ocs from the side. mostly as an excuse to figure out how i want their noses to look bc noses are pretty...

i'll probably clean it up a bit and color it later. any notes/info i have for each under the cut

Varkhal [he/it]: SWTOR, Sith, Sephi/Human hybrid. Soren [she/he/they] is his identical twin, Dark Councilor (Sphere of Expansion and Diplomacy). Tried to keep their facial structure mostly the same since. uh. identical twins. but adjusted Var's nose and jaw slightly because of the injuries he received as an apprentice that resulted in his mandible and parts of some other areas of his skull needing put back together + having his nose broken.

Charlie [he/him]: Cyberpunk, ex-Maelstrom ripperdoc. i just wanted him to have a big round nose that's been broken a few times <3

Ozzy [she/they]: Subnautica, i. more or less stole the name and occupation of an actual npc. wanted her to have sharp features to contrast with her boyfriend's rounder ones

Terrin [she/her]: SWTOR, Grand Champion, Alliance Commander, Chiss. her round features contrasted by her sharp nose is a really important detail to me,

Synnda [he/him]: SWTOR, Barsen'thor, Zabrak. gentle giant who's supposed to look threatening, but usually isn't. his face isn't very emotive, so still getting the hang of how his expression is meant to look

Atten [he/they]: SWTOR, Alliance Command Heir, Chiss/Human. was trying to combine traits from both Terrin and Torian - his parents - without just copying their exact details and. i Feel like i did okay

Din [he/him]: Minecraft, Creeper hybrid. another big round nose, but i tried to make it look different than Charlie's. usually up to no good, so i feel like his expression portrays that pretty well haha

Max [she/her]: SWTOR, Bounty Hunter, Mandalorian, Human. ...not really any notes actually, i just had a really specific look in mind for her

Varrich [he/him]: SWTOR, ex-Havoc Commander, Mirialan. he's just. exhausted. that's it that's all i have to say. (he's a big guy, so big nose, big eyes, tried to think...squares? with him)

Xaerez [he/they]: SWTOR, Cipher Nine, Chiss. he's lived longer than most spies, so it's been rough on his body and mind. always on alert, so wide, tired eyes. had his face surgically reconstructed, so basic features to make it easier for them to fly under the radar (if it wasn't for the scaring they received later that unfortunately ruined the whole reason for the reconstruction....)

Ataiqo [she/her]: SWTOR, more or less Empire's Wrath, Rattataki. still figuring out her tattoos and May give her a stud instead of a gauge (but heading to bed so that's a problem for later me). her nose is one of my favorites of the bunch, though..

anyway. 🫠 goodnight haha

[sillygoofyqueer]

Ideas have been spinning around in my brain for awhile now and you can disregard all of this if you want but I have WAYYYY too many characters with excessively detailed backstories and your little character has been sparking ideas for me. So! I have lore ideas and here they are (these ideas may/may not overlap a little with my own stories but not enough that you can’t do what you want):

I was thinking your oc (the wispy one with the colors n stuff) came to be as a result of the remains of dead gods. Morbid, but it happened a little like a star forming from the dust of other stars. So over time all these remains out in the universe just started coming together and suddenly there’s a whole being! And obviously this being has no idea about anything. It kinda just… is. For a long while at that. It kinda just floats through space while sightseeing the galaxy.

It quickly learns it’s pretty much indestructible but at the same time getting caught in a star’s gravity hurts so not gonna do that again if it can avoid it. It also learns that it can do some pretty weird stuff (not that it knows it’s weird yet) like adjust certain things like light and energy. It can change shape at will too. It’s not all powerful and does need rest after some of these things but for a while it toys with things.

Eventually they fall to a planet. A planet with life. A planet with… other conscious beings apparently! (What we know is earth!) It’s curious but also nervous. So it watches. Mimics other life forms. Learns. It figures out how to read and write and talk both from osmosis and from seeing elders teach younger. This is not limited to humanity either. Anything from certain animals to insects and to an extent, plants!

Once they start feeling confident enough, they try blending in either human society. This… admittedly doesn’t go well. It is clear that they look too different to properly fit in and people tend to either stare or scream.

One thing leads to another and they accidentally get in trouble with what is essentially the supernatural police. After many, MANY long hours things get sorted out and they get brought to some higher tier gods to get informed about… well, everything. It is upon meeting the other gods that they realize, they don’t have a name. So they make one up on the spot. Four.

They end up trial and erroring a lot of things over time (under a lot of supervision) and find they have an inclination towards writing and reading. To discuss with other people and have fun. They also learn that they can suck the dye out of shit and annoy people with that fact. It is very fun and the dye tastes yummy so… (the ability is mostly because they’re made up of the remains of dead gods and that’s what large parts of the universe is made of. Thus, if they focus, they can adjust or even take in that energy for themself)

Once Four really starts understanding how society and stuff functions they try again to fit in with society. And it works! Sure, they have to give the excuse of “cosplay” when their disguise fails a little too hard but whatever. So sometimes they just go to the human realm to mess with people and hang out. For the most part tho, they hang around the heavenly realms and fantasy worlds and send out stories/fanfics using their phone no matter where they are.

(Have I written too much? Absolutely. I hope you enjoyed my oc brainrot tho. Because my brain has not shut up since I started drawing)

(Also amazing job on losing hope, I will be screaming abt it in ur inbox soon, it’s just I’ve felt a little like death warmed over lately)

Sorry, I didn't want this to leave my inbox because then I could look at it constantly and giggle and kick my feet every time I thought of it, like a selfish little monster teehee. I can't believe you like my little sona so much!!! This is all canon to my little character now, you created a whole backstory for them and it makes me sob every time I think about it, you're a sweet little MONSTER, GOD- I am sobbing. Violently. How are you feeling? Are you feeling a little better? Because that's so relatable that's how I'm feeling right now, teehee

[inkdemonapologist]

*slides with a rare pair*

I think the fandom is generally not as big in rarepairs but I ended up shipping Joey with Nathan even after TIOL, I honestly believed they could have a good chemistry together. Either as a fluffy ship for joey to have a good pull on him from acting impulsively (since nathan is confirmed good) or as a legit evil business partners thing. The way Nathan was characterized in TIOL gives the impression he didn't know everything about joey but still was somehow very fond of him.

((randomly throwing that out there just because I think about it so much))

Sorry if its random ^^"

Golly gosh hang on OP I just need a minute to contemplate the idea of Joey x Nathan as a rarepair. LIKE… a majority of people I know in fandom agree that they had SOMETHING going on, so it feels like it shouldn’t be one, aND YET… I HAVE NEVER SEEN CONTENT FOR IT….. apparently i need to draw Nathan smooching Joey to fill this void……

Anyway, I DEFINITELY AGREE that the idea that Nathan had Feelings for Joey is really not hard to make a case for. You just point to that one TIOL footnote where Joey is like “Nathan likes creative people, he secretly wishes he were like us” and Nathan’s like “no I don’t, I just Like Joey So Much that I enjoy his creativity, isn’t it just like him to miss the compliment” and then congratulations you’ve made an utterly convincing case even BEFORE you get to the part where Nathan suddenly starts up an entire animation studio to keep his old friend’s dream alive, or that Nathan was someone who was close enough to Joey to “get the call” upon Joey’s death, or any number of examples of Nathan’s tremendously fond teasing in the other footnotes of TIOL. The little teasey note when Joey says "I always make fun of you!" and describes Nathan's face as "looks annoyed but isn't really" and Nate's like "yeah that's accurate". Nathan’s love for Joey is blatant and obvious, enough so that I was quietly shipping them even when I was part of the chunk of fandom that expected Nathan to be sinister; it’s just up to interpretation whether it was romantic, and whether it was requited.

Admittedly I do chafe a bit at the binary morality of “confirmed good” – most of what we can surmise from BatDR is that Nathan was Genuine. He genuinely worked hard, he genuinely loved his son, and he genuinely believed in Joey. He’s also, like, a mega rich guy who is obliviously putting a lot of that money to work in covering up his famous friend’s abuse and exploitation and Actual Murder of employees, so. No matter how well-intentioned he might be, if you're as rich and famous as Nathan Arch you don't get to just Not Realise Employees Can Be Exploited without being a little bit complicit for not looking harder. I don’t think it has to be an either/or of Good vs Evil – Nathan just strikes me as a well-intentioned and genuine guy who also has some serious blindspots, who maybe would just keep making excuses for his good friend as he learned more and more of the truth. And its INTERESTING when you consider him re-publishing TIOL in hopes of showing what he believed Joey was really like -- the charming man he liked so much. How did Nathan read TIOL and come to that conclusion? Joey's insecurity bleeds off every page, and Nathan admits in the footnotes that Joey makes things up, doesn't like to be corrected, might be lying in some of his stories, and has a habit of talking his way into what he wants even when he shouldn't. Either Nathan was SO smitten that he was completely blind to Joey's.... joeyness, or these were qualities that endeared Joey to him. He liked Joey being a bit of a scamp!

I’ve said before that my most deeply held unprovable BatDR headcanon is that Nathan was having an affair with Joey, and Wilson found out about it but Tessa never did, but I think that’s mostly fun for the characterisation it gives Wilson. When it comes to Nathan and Joey themselves, I absolutely headcanon Nathan’s affection as romantic, but I think I was more intrigued by their relationship back when it seemed like Nathan was going to be sinister! Like, if Nathan really had screwed Joey over in order to gain control of the Ink Machine like in some of those early theories, it would be delightful if all his footnotes were actually still true. If it's not just a performative “OH YES MY POOR DEAR DEAD FRIEND JOEY cool grab his stuff” motivation, but that the fondness is real, it just didn’t stop him – "you understand, old friend, business is business!" Obviously the story didn't turn out that way, but I think the possibility really grabbed me, haha.

It is kinda funny, though, that the way Nathan’s characterisation has turned out, you wonder what made Joey interested in him. Was it just the positive attention? Was it just his money? Nathan seems like such an easy mark (see: his reaction to the Lottie letters), and Joey isn’t very complimentary to him in TIOL, but he’s also reasonably fond, and brings Nathan up a few times as someone he counted on for advice that he actually took. Joey felt Nathan didn’t really understand him, but he seemed to value his friendship. This largely guileless, earnest guy who’s characterised as hard working……… who else do we know….. who might fit that description…………………… Joey Drew Stop Getting Involved With Married Men Challenge,

[thenugking]

✨🌊🌸🌿

✨Which is your favourite platonic BG3 dynamic and why?

Hmm. Based on purely in-game stuff, it’s got to be Wyll and Karlach. Enemies to BFFs in like three days. Out of game, I love my Durge Lee with Astarion (they are like when you have two pets or perhaps siblings who sometimes just slap the shit out of each other for no reason before going back to chilling together) and my first Tav, Val, with Shadowheart (bitchy goths who don’t care about people except actually they care So Much). Would love to get around to writing them someday.

Also the dynamic I’m writing between Orin and Ketheric in No Highly Esteemed Deed. This is Ketheric’s emotional support surrogate daughter figure with zero red flags!

For my favourite dynamic not in the game or made up by me… we’ll get to that in question four!

🌊What moment in the game had the strongest emotional impact on you? 

Karlach’s breakdown after killing Gortash gets me every time. And I was sobbing in my Shadowheart Origin playthrough when I saved her parents. That storyline is so comforting to me, especially when, if you’re not playing as her, it’s Arnell who goes, “Ohh you don’t want to go by your old name anymore, of course we’ll love you for whoever you are now.”

🌸Rec one of your fics and tell us what you like about it!

My series No Highly Esteemed Deed Is Commemorated Here is my baby at the moment. So I’m actually reccing two fics but look I spend half my time thinking about this series and I want some validation. But, uh, warning for incest and every relationship here being at least toxic, if not downright abusive. If you like your doves dead, come and give me some validation, if you’re not into that shit, understandable, have a nice day.

What Is Here Was Dangerous And Repulsive To Us: Gortash and Durge take a nice romantic carriage ride to Moonrise Towers except that lol no they don’t, Orin Is Also Here, and gortash isn’t positive she wants to fuck her sibling but The Vibes Are Fucking Rancid.

Super proud of the slowly building Well This Is Fucking Uncomfortable in this one! And that multiple people have told me “damn how did you make me feel for Gortash here?” He’s still very much a bastard and I loved writing him hating the whole world, but he’s fucking Going Through it.

One of my favourite reviews: EXCUSE ME ORIN> MA’AM. THIS IS A WENDYS

This Place Is Not A Place Of Honour: The multichapter sequel that I’m currently working on! The events between the gang arriving at Moonrise and Orin stabbing my Durge in the brain (and the aftermath of that, if I ever get there). They’re all doing their evil plotting in the background, but it’s mostly focused on the relationships between Durge, Orin, Gortash and Ketheric, and the various ways in which these characters are deeply fucked up.

Like I mentioned, I’m really enjoying writing Orin and Ketheric’s weird fucked up friendship. Ketheric imprints on Orin as his New Daughter Figure after Isobel runs away from him (just because he told her that her wife who he is currently torturing was dead so Isobel should get over her) and that’s going about as well as you’d expect. Ketheric is trying to fix Orin while ignoring most of her underlying issues, Orin’s worrying that she’s going to lose Durge to the Gortash and the Absolute plot, Gortash is determined to Win his relationship with Durge despite the constant red flags, Durge is causing problems on purpose.

Another of my favourite reviews: i went into that scene like "hehe the horrors" and i went out like "OH DEAR GOD THE HORRORS"

🌿Rec someone else’s BG3 fic and tell us what you like about it!

here there be dragons by shadowfell

13 year old Orin ends up the ward of the BG1/2 protagonist and under a geas stopping her from murdering people, and becomes friends with 14 year old Wyll. Two Weird Theatre Kids with no other friends hanging out while Orin puts a lot of effort into drawing Wyll’s thematically appropriate gruesome death. They work so well together and their dynamic fucking delights me. And I love getting to see my two blorbos who fandom often doesn't give the love they deserve fucking shine.

There’s also a multi-chapter sequel of the two of them as adults going through the game plot. It’s still early on, but chapter four got posted last night and that’s my read for this evening, once I’m done killing Orin in my current BG3 game and need to go and read a kinder AU for her.

[fem-the-artist]

Explaining AJ part 2 🦇

Ok this is mostly going to be explaining her relationships with the rest of the cast 

it all starts with Mimzy

Obviously, AJ knows the other overlords via the meetings and such but I don’t think she cared much for them and half the time she wouldn’t even show up to meetings but I’ll get into that and the second

With Mimzy being a flapper and AJ being a punk, they’re essentially both the mold breakers of their decades, which I feel like they’d be able to like bond over in a sense. Mimzy flair for stirring up trouble also gives AJ more excuses to act and violence, which is her favorite thing to do.  they’re an odd pair aesthetically, but I feel personality wise they bounce off of each other surprisingly well, what can I say AJ loves an instigator 

Speaking of instigators, a friendship with Mimzy opens the door to A.J. friendship with Alastor although friendship, feels like too strong of a word wouldn’t really call them acquaintances though idk

They already knew each other via overlord meetings. They just never interacted before it Mimzy got involved.  in pointing out they Surprising amount similarities.

Such as

• Hyperviolence

•Having a very specific unknown moral code 

•Despising, one of the vees (i’ll get into that in a second)

•Being aroace 

•Hating being told what to do 

And of course, Alastor becomes endeared to her because he’s a girls girl and AJ is a freak and those are his two favorite things 

Now about the Vees, starting off with vox 

I think it’s a really funny, running joke that Vox keeps obsessing over the aroace who want nothing to do with him (I found Alastor a little too relatable, i’m also aroace and I also have been put in the situation of ‘hey I don’t wanna date you please leave me alone’, so this is me venting a bit. because I feel like it’s way too often portrayed from the allosexual‘s perspective and how it’s sad and tragic but in reality, it’s just fucking annoying and inconvenient)

Anyway, vox is a pathetic bisexual disaster, but then again, what else is new I just think it’s really funny that his taste is the most sophisticated man you’ve ever seen and and a woman who looks like she fought her way out of a dumpster 

(also, you can tell that these sketches with Vox are older than the rest that I’ve shown because it was before I fully committed to curling Alastor’s hair just a fun little fact )

Now moving onto the V that AJ actually hates 

It’s velvet, but you of them are the youngest overlords if I had to roughly guess I’d assume velvet died around 2003 or so 

And most of their beef is really entangled in fundamentals of what they stand for

Velvet is a conformist. She participates and creates trends. She lives by the mold, and even when she’s breaking it, she’s breaking it to establish a new one valve it stands out, doesn’t stem from anything important or anything she believes, and she does it for the notoriety and the look she is fundamentally shallow and she likes it that way

AJ, of course being punk opposes all of that she breaks the mold because it is inherently flawed and believes there shouldn’t be one in the first place she’s alternative not to be cool or stand out from the crowd it’s because of what it represents for her her punk identity is deeply important to her Because when she was alive, she fought for change (she was really hyper violent about it and let her anger cloud her judgment a lot which is why she she is in hell) but that’s neither here nor there 

The point is, they are opposing forces on each other’s identities. They despise each other out of principle, and because they genuinely fucking hate each other. 

Speed round

I don’t have drawings to accompany those ones

Cherrie- has a deep respect for AJ and they also hang out and blow shit up. Sometimes they both got the punk aesthetic

The two of them, rile each other up like there’s no tomorrow  and when left alone together will do something crazy

Rosie- friend of a friend, AJ and Rosie get along fine. The only issue is they have nothing to talk about so they constantly need a third person as a buffer usually Alastor

She will take every opportunity she can get to try to dress AJ up though there’s no stopping that woman

Niffty- AJ loves getting messy Niffty has a need to clean. You can figure it out from there. 



[a-certain-type-of-frog]

(part 2)

“It doesn’t make sense,” he mused a few minutes later, sandwich in hand. 

“What doesn’t?”

“That our families would pass the stones down for so many years, if all they do is make sound. There must be another purpose.”

“I suppose you’re right.” 

“I want to figure it out,” he declared. 

“So do I,” she said. “How long can you stay?”

He grimaced, as if in the excitement of the day he had forgotten he hadn’t started his journey just to uncover family secrets. “I am heading to the capital, they expect me in a few weeks. So, not long.” He paused, doing quick calculations in his head. “If I move quickly when I leave, I can stay two days.”

“That should be enough time, right? I think we can figure it out by then.”

“I hope so.”

They continued talking as they ate. He explained that he was a tailor with expertise in the type of beading on his own clothes, and his service was requested by the prince. It was a dying art, unfortunately, and most of the remaining craftsmen resided in his home country. Mostly, he was happy for the excuse to see the world. In turn, Caelum spoke of her wife and her own endeavors in blacksmithing. They had moved to Threlkeld together a few years ago, still within reach of their families but far enough away to forge their own lives in a new community. 

“Should we speak with your family?” he asked. “To find out more about the stone?”

“If they know anything, they haven’t told me.” She sipped her tea, now lukewarm. “It came from my mother’s side of the family. As far as I know, they’ve lived around here forever.” 

“Mine is from my mother as well. Her side of the family came from the east, but she never spoke of it. I don’t know much more than that. All she told me is that it was very important to her father, and her father’s father.” 

“The reason must have been lost to time, I guess.”

“It is sad,” he said, “that this piece of our history is missing.”

“We’ll just have to fill in the gaps, then,” she said, determined. “Where do we start?”

They decided, given that neither of them particularly felt like spending hours browsing city records, the stones themselves were the best starting point. Their properties must offer some insight to their past. 

The first test was to touch them together again. The pendants no longer drew together, so Caelum simply tapped her stone against his. Bracing themselves, they listened. A soft clink sounded, but nothing else happened. Dima held it up to his ear. 

“Nothing happened,” he said dejectedly. 

“Maybe they needed to charge?” she suggested. 

“Maybe. They could require time, or distance. Winding up, like a clock.”

After brief discussion, they decided not to wait another couple hundred years, nor travel thousands of miles away, before their next test. 

The next few hours found Dima sprawled over the armchair, head hanging upside down and hair brushing the floor in the hope that gravity could help him think better. Caelum paced, started a sentence and stopped it again with a shake of her head, hands drawing some imaginary diagram of sorts. Both of their shoes had been discarded at the door, his capelet hung carefully on a coat hook. Dishes lay discarded in the sink. The second–third? Who could keep track–pot of tea stood sentinel on the table.

---

This was the sight that greeted Laurel, Caelum’s wife, when she returned from her sibling’s house. 

“Um. Love?” Caelum’s head snapped up at her wife’s voice, sweet as ever but terribly confused. “Who’s this?”

“Laurey, you’re home! Welcome back,” she said, greeting Laurel with an embrace. “This is Dima.”

Dima struggled to bring himself upright, then stood with a solemn nod of greeting. His tall, somewhat imposing aura was pierced by his hair, still flopped forward at an awkward angle. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Laurel.”

“You as well,” she replied. 

“We’re trying to solve old family mysteries,” Caelum explained. 

“Oh, of course,” she said, “naturally.”

“I saw her necklace at the market, the stone is the same as the one on my watch.”

“Wait, the heirloom?” Laurel asked.

She nodded. “And that’s not the strangest part,” she began. She and Dima spoke in turn, explaining the sequence of events, while Laurel gaped at them. 

“So now we’re trying to figure out what it does,” Caelum said.

“Well, it must be magic,” Laurel said thoughtfully. “From the initial reaction, I’d guess it’s sound-based.”

“That makes sense,” Dima said.

“So how could we test it?” Caelum asked. “Do you know about anything that works with sound magic?”

Laurel hummed thoughtfully. She didn’t practice magic, but her great grandmother (or some other relative, Caelum could never remember) had, and Laurel had always had an interest in it. Very few people truly practiced magic these days, and most that did were in the employ of nobles, not accessible to people in small towns like theirs. Laurel wasn’t an expert by any measure, but she certainly knew more than Caelum, who usually considered it irrelevant. 

“Usually, common magic works along a single field,” she explained. “It’s likely that whatever its effect is would also be triggered by sound. Or, the effect is sound. Maybe both.”

Caelum groaned at the lack of specificity, but still leaned her head against Laurel’s shoulder and said, “thanks, babe.”

“Thank you,” Dima echoed. “We were experimenting at random; it is good to have some direction.”

“Of course. What are we going to try first? I’m invested now.”

The answer was a resounding “I don’t know,” so they proceeded to brainstorm. Laurel dug up a half-used sketchbook for note taking, and the experimentation began anew. Hours passed much quicker than any of them realized, until the setting sun painted the room in golden shades of orange and illuminated their stones into convincing impressions of flickering embers. They paused for dinner, urged by the grumbling of Dima’s stomach despite his polite protests, before returning to their mission. 

Night fell, and the soft glow of the fireplace illuminated the room. Caelum yawned.

“It’s getting late, isn’t it?” Laurel said.

“But we haven’t figured it out yet!”

“No, but we can keep working tomorrow,” she soothed. “Dima, where are you staying?”

“At the inn downtown–Mahogany, I think?” He paused, flipping open the cover of his pocket watch to check the time. “I will be late to check in.”

“Why don’t you stay with us? We have a spare room, it’s already made up.” 

“Yes, then we can get right back to it in the morning!” Caelum enthused.

“Thank you,” he acquiesced. “That is very kind.”

“It’s our pleasure.”

“Yes, it’s not every day you meet the connection to a magical family heirloom,” Caelum said, leading their way down a short hallway. The room’s decoration was spareser than the rest of the house, mostly in shades of blue and beige and free of clutter. A bundle of lavender spread its sweet scent through the room. They bid each other goodnight, and Caelum and Laurel retired to their own room.

---

The three of them reconvened in the kitchen for breakfast the following morning. Caelum was the first to wake by a wide margin, taking the morning to prepare tea and toast and an assortment of spreads. A mismatched battalion of jars and dishes greeted Dima, his hair still in disarray but twisted into braids, and the rich aroma of coffee summoned a yawning Laurel shortly after. 

Caelum pressed the mug into her hands along with a kiss to the cheek. “Good morning, babe.”

“Mhm,” Laurel said. 

After allowing a few minutes for Laurel to ingest enough caffeine to function, they discussed their plan of action in between mouthfuls and commentary on types of jam. Their continued experiments proceeded much the same as the previous night, although interspersed with more conversation as they lost some of their vigor. They journeyed outside, introducing new stimuli, trying various pitches and volumes of sound, assuring every whim was thoroughly explored. Every proposed theory resulted in nothing but frustration. 

“Maybe we’re coming at this from the wrong angle,” Caelum said. Laurel looked up from where she was scribbling into a notebook; whether it was inane doodling or another brainstorming exercise was unclear. 

Dima, mid-stretch, looked down. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t think it’s magic?” Laurel asked.

“No, it has to be magic; I don’t know what else it could be. But what if we looked at it less like wizards or whatever, and more like our families? If we could figure out where they came from, why they were made, maybe we could figure out their purpose.”

“That is interesting,” Dima mused. “Where should we start?”

The next few hours were spent recounting both of their family histories while Laurel jotted down anything that could prove useful. Dappled sunlight spread across dates and locations, as they searched for overlap where their ancestors may have met. Dima knew a good amount about his lineage, so walking them through where the stone had traveled and stopped along the way was relatively straightforward, although he occasionally got sidetracked telling stories he’d heard from his grandfather about the trouble he got up to with his siblings as a kid. As far as he knew, none of them had ever practiced magic. Caelum’s timeline was much more fractured. She knew that her stone came from her grandmother on her mother’s side, and that none of them had strayed far from Threlkeld, but beyond that it grew much more complicated. Her more distant ancestors were a mystery, although she believed at least some of them were from the north. She relayed as much as she could, locations mentioned in anecdotes or relations heard in passing. 

The rough family tree that Laurel drew up was lacking, without any certain crossover points between their two histories. The fading light cast odd shadows across the paper’s texture, rendering some of the names unreadable when laying flat. Shoulders slumping, they decided to call it a night. Dima’s last night in town.

---

Laurel suggested that he and Caelum head into town to pick something up for dinner, so he could spend at least some of his time exploring rather than laboring over their theories. Caelum perked up at this idea, so the pair ventured back into the cool night air after a brief respite to put on extra layers. Dima rolled his shoulders back, hair rebraided, back straightening with renewed optimism. They strolled through narrow cobbled streets, Caelum stopping not infrequently to say hello to people they passed, pointing out her favorite stores as they went. A shop with a few tables scattered outside which imported teas from across the continent; one that sold exclusively fancy pens, ink, and stationery; and, in passing, she mentioned her own workshop. 

“Could we go inside?” Dima asked, eyes wide.

“I don’t see why not.” Caelum fished her keys from her pocket, flipping through a few of them before unlocking the door. Shadows cast the room into a feeling of gloom which vanished when she hit a light. The forge remained dark and still, but the rest of the room bounced with light reflected off of metal tools and trinkets that littered every surface, some marked for sale and others simply for decoration. Dima trailed along the walls, picking up items and setting them down as they caught his eye, each motion prompting an explanation or anecdote from Caelum. Eventually, he picked up a pair of ornate silver scissors. A delicate design covered the handles, punctuated by a flower at the base of each finger ring. He opened and closed them a few times experimentally–the slicing sound they made indicated that they were razor sharp.

“I forgot about those,” Caelum mused. “The more intricate pieces don’t sell as well, since people usually come to me for function over form, but they’re so much more fun to make.”

“They are beautiful. How much are they?” he asked, looking up.

“Do you want them?”

He nodded.

“They’re yours.” 

“No, I can’t. You have already been so generous-”

“Please,” Caelum said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I don’t think I was ever going to sell them anyway. They’ll be glad to see some use. And if your sense of duty calls you to, you can make me something with them for the next time we see each other.”

“I suppose… that is reasonable.” 

“Good,” she smiled. 

Dima continued exploring the shop, nearly cradling his new scissors, until Caelum was hungry enough to redirect them. 

They returned with dinner much later than they had planned, but based on the just-boiled water Laurel heated for tea, they were about as late as she expected. Their conversation was light–mostly consisting of Laurel asking Dima what he thought of the town and what he’d seen during his travels while Caelum chimed in intermittently–but it was belied by a sense of finality. It was Dima’s last night in Threlkeld, and they hadn’t made any discoveries. He’d take his stone with him, of course, so Caelum and Laurel couldn’t continue experimenting without him. While they both hoped to see each other again, they didn’t know when it would be, or where. Every pause felt heavy, laden with a parting grief. 

Once, Dima attempted to address it. “I want to thank you both, so much, for-”

“No,” Caelum stopped him, her features stiffening as she held off some emotion. “Save the goodbyes for the morning. Let’s just enjoy tonight.”

“Okay,” he agreed.

“A toast,” Laurel proposed, lifting a glass of wine already half-empty. “To discovery.”

“To old friends,” Caelum added. 

“To seeing each other again soon,” Dima finished.

---

“I know we haven’t known each other for very long,” Caelum said outside of the train station the next morning, “but I’ll miss you.” 

“I will miss you as well, Caelum. It has been an honor to meet you.” He extended his hand to shake, which she grabbed and used to pull him into a hug. The sound of the train whistle prompted them to part. “I will try to discover more about our history once I reach the capital. Someone there will know something.”

“Good. Remember to write–and not just about the stones! You have our address, right?”

“Yes. And I will.”

She nodded, clasping his shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Of course.”

And with that, he left, boarding at the train’s second, more insistent whistle. Caelum returned home, the short walk stretching out in front of her. She felt a sort of emptiness, like there should still be someone at her back, their absence pressing in on her. Setting her bag down at the door, she did her best to ignore it. Her hands absently fell to her pendant. 

“Did he get out okay?” Laurel asked, appearing from the other room with paint speckling her arms. 

“I think so,” she said. She stood in the entryway, feeling lost.

Laurel stepped forward to take her hand, the other still twisting the stone on its chain. “And how are you doing?”

“I’ll be okay,” she sighed. “I’ll just miss him.” 

“I know you will.” 

“Caelum?” an accented voice rippled slightly, sounding confused. She gasped. 

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Did you hear that?” Caelum asked, taking a step forward and turning her head, trying to find the source of the sound. 

“Hear what?”

“A voice, I think. It sounded like… Dima,” she trailed off as she realized how that sounded. 

“I didn’t hear anything,” Laurel said, a note of pity in her tone. 

“... you doing this?” the voice echoed again, layered and warbling before clearing up into something recognizable as speech. 

“Dima?” She looked around, as if he could’ve snuck into the house when she wasn’t looking. “Where are you?”

“I am on the train,” he said. “How are you doing this?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t try to, I was just talking to Laurel.” She spared Laurel a glance in her bewilderment, finding a completely perplexed expression. “You can’t hear him?”

Laurel shook her head. “I think it’s because you’re holding the pendant.”

“I am? I am,” she looked down to confirm. “Are you holding your stone, Dima?”

“Yes,” he confirmed. “I think we have discovered what the stones do.”

Caelum laughed, a hand remaining connected to her necklace as she fell backward on the couch. She relaxed under the relief of knowing, and the reassurance that Dima would stay close, even if not in literal distance.

“What?” Laurel asked.

“We figured it out,” she grinned. “Do you want to try?”

“What do I do?”

Caelum wasn’t completely sure, but she filled in the gaps as well as she could. At her instruction, Laurel held the stone, although it remained around Caelum’s neck. 

“Dima?” she asked when she was prompted. Caelum trusted her wife, but couldn’t deny being a little unsettled at the sudden loss of her newfound ability to hear Dima’s voice.

“This is incredible,” she said after a moment that Caelum assumed was him speaking. 

After some back and forth, they determined they could test the full range when Dima arrived at the capital, about 250 miles away. Until then, the signal didn’t seem to dull despite their increasing distance. Caelum wondered how many miles away her and Dima’s ancestors had traveled from each other, testing the magic that strung between them, if they ever found a limit. The magic shared between their families had to explain the immediate connection they’d felt to each other–Caelum had always made friends quickly, but usually not with this sort of ferocity. Dima reflected her musings on the subject. They both renewed their commitments to keep exploring possibilities for the origin of their stones, and the nature of their families’ connection. Escaping either of their notice, the stones glinted with a new light.

You wear a stone pendant that has been passed down to the eldest child for hundreds of years. It is a beautiful, multicoloured heirloom that is precious to your family. A traveller from a distant land stops you, demanding to know where you got your pendant from.

[ducknotinarow]

[07 Summer Ariel]

Ariel quirked her mouth, leant her back against the edge of Summer's bed, eyes scanning over one of many songs they had written together. The idea of performing one of them, to people outside their family, had been floated around once, or twice. But Ariel always got cold feet about the idea. Ironic, considering what she did online, but she supposes she at least has the excuse of some anonymity when it came to that.

Biting her bottom lip, Ariel soon looks up to Summer, humming slightly,

"Hey so, not saying we will, but, if you were to choose a song of ours to perform at one of those underground concert things we go to, well, which one you pick?" Ariel asked, maybe beginning to feel a little brave, "Not saying we will, just, yanno...curious."

| muse Interaction

Summer had her beautiful most prized and cared for belonging, her bass guitar. The only thing in her room that was ever properly put away and cared for. As he was idly strumming cords on Crim, what she lovingly called her bass. Short for Crimson why? well red was very much her families color after all? It was the color her papa was more associated with and his own favorite of course. Her Dad despite claiming his was green also owned quite a bit of red himself. Summer's was pink, hot pink mostly, but she always wore one of Raphael's old masks either around the arm of her jacket or tied around her wrist. The fact Crim was also Crimson had a lot to do with the choice of why Summer just had to buy her bass. She was just idly trying to find a fitting tune to work with in the moment.

Letting fingers and pick work the strings. The more deep rich low sound of her instruments often had a lot to do with the sound of the music that she and Ariel would come up with. Summer wasn't the strongest reader unless it was music notes. Though in truth a lot of what she made up was on the fly. Summer swears the music just finds her. Hard to fully explain. Trying to figure out how the sound of their current song should move though. As she replayed the bit they had and then would experiment with the bridge keeping it to the same melody sometimes switching it. Mulling it all over in her mind to try and figure out well she waiting on her sister.

Ariel was sat on the floor her back resting to the end of Summer's bed, thanks to her height though she was easily see from where Summer was sitting. She seemed deep in thought Summer just assumed it was over where they wanted to go with their current project.

Music might not fully match Summer's love for hockey but it still held a special place in her heart. Especially because it was very much her and Ariels thing. Ariel perfer vocals of course where summer was far more into the notes. Soon summer just starts to play some notes from "under the sea"

"Hey, when ya gonna post that cover?" Summer remarks deciding the lull in the creative process was more so they could use a break. As she kept messing around with notes from the same song. Summer may go brain numb from all the tomes she has had to listen about those movies, but she had to admit the songs were fun. The closest Ariel got to human interaction was from posting her covers and such and sometimes the stuff they made together. Which was why Summer always over sold her poor sisters work on her platforms whenever they were posted. With a million emojis to draw more attetion towards them. And because Summer just always needed an excuse to type out emojis.

"Could post 'his song up to when we finish it," Summer soon sighs our loudly, "but my brain is fried!" She fake whines a moment." I blame it on all the schoolwork, slowly killing my creative thoughts." As if summer had many in the first place. "Hmm, maybe we should sneak back to the underground?" Summer soon suggests "jus' ta hang out get inspired ya know? Might help?" And it was an excuse to go again even if Summer went by herself, never too long her Dad's worried after all. Butnit was more fun with Ariel.

Ariel seemed to like the idea though once Summer suggested it. Besides not loke poor Ariel got to get out and about as much compared to Summer. Even if it had to be under cover and such. Summer soon set Crim down back in the case. Shutting it and locking it up as she moved to lay over the end of her bed to get a better look at her sister. Phone in her hands as she right away went to start seeing about the underground going ons for the night.

Many of the people who often went tweeted about it and gave updates on if the times it would be operating would be different or if any if the people Summer and Ariel liked would be there.

"Hey so, not saying we will, but, if you were to choose a song of ours to perform at one of those underground concert things we go to, well, which one you pick?"

Summer lowered her phone at the mention and her head near about snapped when she looked at her sister blue hue growing in size as she slowly let her smile work over his lips.

"Not saying we will, just, yanno...curious."

Unfortunately for Ariel hypothetical did not exist for Summer.

As she moves on to her knees and scoots off the end of her bed basically falling as she scrambles to sit beside Ariel now. "I got a list!" She exclaims with bit futher explanation nor sign she understood this was meant to be taken as something that was going to happen. Summer reached under her bed soon after. Not even having to actually look where others saw nothing but a mess when looking at her room. Summer actually knew where all her things were roughly. Proven at she finally uncovered her find. She tugged hard to free her notebook.

As there seems to be some cause and effect, a few items rolling out from the side that Summer ignores.

"See if we went on a busier night I feel the more upbeat junk be betta, buuuut if it were" summers soon starts to ramble on cleaely exposing how much she has thought about this her self. Explain why certiens songs would be more fitting for the underground compared to others and how crowed size would affect how well her voice would carry in the room to fit the mood and tone as well. Soon handing over her note book with her awful bearly ligeable handwriting. Where all these thought were contained too. Till this moment that is.

"An' it seems 'ike tonight gonna be a more chill one so we can do somethin' more chill but since it's the first time I feel it betta ta show off our sound instead." Smiling bright as she waits for Ariel to see all her notes and soak in what she just said. "Whatcha 'hink?"