#naturally I had to reread it

[titles-for-tangents]

I had to fish this out to make sure it was the right one, and son of a gun:

My copy matches the one in the notes of this post.

Once upon a time, this tumblerite was gifted this printout by her art teacher, and she kept it always. It’s a short story called The Dragon Tamers by Edith Nesbit from The Book of Dragons, a 1995 collection selected and illustrated by Michael Hague (not to be confused with Nesbit’s own collection of the same name, as I found out).

Once I read a story as a child about if one feeds a cat too much blood & bones they gradually turn into a dragon, and if one feeds a dragon too much bread & milk they gradually turn into a cat, retaining only their dragon eyes and claws. So here's a Bosun Dragon.

[tea-cat-arts]

I simply think this fandom doesn't give Wei Wuxian enough credit for the various ways in which he saved Lan Wangji

[froggy-nebula]

vriska is really funny cause when you look at the shit she actually does shes not the best at manipulating people or flarp or combat she just cant win at any of her hobbies

[vomitspit2]

omfg it’s almost midnight here and i have to get up for work at 5 AM but let me compose at least some of my thoughts …

ok idia x robot girl! reader … hear me out 🥺

someone he creates to cure his loneliness of companionship in a tender way that ortho just cannot do; ugh i’m imagining a plain head just sitting on the desk, stripped down to the metal and skinless; him asking which eye color you like the best until it lands upon yours;

the midnight conversations as he builds a body; the pining from the reader (is it actual pining or are you just scraping the edges of desperate self perseverance so he doesn’t trash you like the other models); kind of dream-like transition between adding each body parts (like imagine yourself lying in a tub of ink — cheeks, nose, lips, a slight peel of your forehead visible — and eventually it all drains down as more and more body parts are added);

the first very touch of human flesh upon you; the cracked polystyrene blinks that you give with twitchy eyelashes; you siphon your romantic tendencies between a messy mélange of gritty 18+ hentai and victorian romance novellas; idia pours his damned and tormented soul into making you perfect for him and you pour yourself willingly into the image, designed just for one man <3

past midnight edit:

BRUH TO THIS SOnG

yeah to this fuckin banger

((past midnight edit again: there are really only two ways you can go with robot main characters: the building process or the robot being oblivious and thinking they are human (Ex Machina or Twilight Zone) i enjoy both sooo much))

[akolnoix]

so this is something a bit different lol. i've never made an edit/amv/whatever you call them before but moonlight flowers was so fucking good that i decided to learn.

[mightydyke]

Watched Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind a few nights ago and I loved it so much. Obsessed with all the metaphors and the symbolism. When Kushana said she wanted to destroy the toxic jungle in order for humans to rule the world again, but we know or can guess that humans trying to gain too much power is probably the exact reason why the toxic jungle is so dangerous. And then we learn that the jungle itself isn't toxic, it's just the soil and water that has been poisoned by human activity!! And the fact that the forest actually purifies the water! And of course Nausicaä discovers this by going into the jungle and learning about it. She's a hero because she studies ecology.

I also loved the theme of the danger of violence, and also Nausicaä trying so hard to stay as pacifist as is feasible even when violence is so tempting. During the battle in the castle in the Valley of the Wind when Tolmekian soldiers are invading, Nausicaä fights them off but she's blocked by Yupa and her sword goes through his arm. My friend was like "surely if he's a master swordsman he knows not to block with his arm?" but I was like "No it shows the damage of violence and how war hurts everyone!!" Another moment that seemed really key to me was when the Tolmekian airship was getting attacked and Nausicaä goes to steal a gunship. Kushana sees her and smiles because she thinks Nausicaä is going to use this ship for battle, that she's been seduced by violence, but then Nausicaä uses that ship to save Kushana! She transforms this weapon into a vehicle of peace, when using it for violence would be so easy, she chooses a different path and that scares Kushana more than anything, which is why she tries to take back control using her gun in the toxic jungle, even though Nausicaä knows that this is only going to cause more suffering. Of course there's the ending where she stops the stampeding Ohm not by force but by empathy, taking the pain of the baby Ohm onto herself when she goes into the acid lake trying to save it, and her dress is stained from it's blood, symbolically allowing its suffering to change her so she can understand it, bringing peace by sacrificing herself, not the Ohm (honestly you could read Nausicaä as a sort of Christ-figure but that's a whole other post). For me, a big thing that really resonated with me and drove in the idea of choosing peace over violence even when it's really hard was every time that Nausicaä cried. Every time she cried I felt like I understood the frustration and feelings of powerlessness so vividly. When she tells Yupa she's going to cut off the water to her underground plants so that they die, just like how the jungle is going to die, because the Tolmekians are stronger and forcing them to go along with the plan, and I could *feel* the anger that everything she'd worked so hard for would be destroyed because she wasn't powerful enough to stop it. And this feeling of helplessness is so similar to when she tried to hide a baby Ohm but it was killed by her own people and her own father. And when she learned of Pejite's plan to use the Ohm to destroy the valley of the wind and she just cant convince these people not to murder her valley. And when she sees the baby Ohm and how much it's been injured and she says something like "I'm so sorry for what we did to you" whilst crying... I felt that so much. And all the time it's because she realises the value in all life, and she can't convince people who see life as worthless compared to their greed, but because she knows life is so valuable she can't respond with violence, but her path of always valuing life works in the end! She doesn't need any weapons when she has compassion and ecology.

[mirror-to-the-past]

Xingqiu fans are dining excellently with all the references to him and lore regarding the Guhua Clan being spotlighted via Chenyu Vale's "A Wangshan Walk to Remember." The comparisons that can be made between Xingqiu and his predecessors is also very fascinating...

The Grand Master Guhua truly did live out the life of idealized dignity and transparency just as Xingqiu desires for himself. There's something very touching and heartbreaking about the fact that Guhua's life was one deemed heroic, but he was only able to have his legacy carried on by Boxuan who cast his own name aside to exhalt the name of the deceased Guhua.

And then right after briefly recounting the life and works of Master Guhua, Wen brings up Xingqiu, reemphasizing the lofty ideal/hope that he can respark the dying flame of the Guhua (no pressure) and potentially act as a parallel to the founder of the art himself. It's made all the more poignant, considering that we could easily draw the connection that Chongyun could be considered Xingqiu's potential Boxuan equivalent, a fellow young practitioner of martial arts who acts as a peer and supporter of Xingqiu's arts (although lets hope Xingqiu doesn't die preemptively like Guhua did).

I don't have snippets of the dialogue for it or screenshots, but those books in the archive room were just so lovely to see. The fact that many of the old disciples of Guhua were just nerds like Xingqiu and enamored with wuxia novels, shelving their discussions of them among all of the records they held in their library was so sweet.

Additionally, the person who invented the Rain Cutter technique that Xingqiu uses now was the one involved with the hidden Wangshan chambers that had the really forboding message about the heavens rejecting humanity and whatnot... very mysterious stuff.

Additionally, those 5 swords scattered around Chenyu Vale, the first of which you find at the outskirts of the Wangshan Chamber....while not necessarily all individuals of the Guhua Clan, it made me oddly emotional to see how the years that went by, depicted by each sword's material- from a blade to a crude sword shaped stick- and yet they all had in common a very poetic observation of their goals and the world about them that could easily flow as a singular nature/travelling-based poem. And that spirit of poetry intertwined with swordsmanship flourishing across the ages still continues on with this one dorky rich boy. It's honestly wonderful worldbuilding, that through environmental storytelling and the mere mentions of a character who was never even present for the entirety of the world quest, all of these stories and records of Guhua disciples and swordsmen before him tell me all I need to know about Xingqiu as a character, too.

[cosmicrhetoric]

i should be reading more watch books lol we just watched hogfather and the simple sight of a nobby nobbs loose in the world filled me with childlike wonder and awe

[rui-drawsbox]

Happy new year! I hope everyone has a good time, I can't say the same about myself, a tornado literally passed through the city on the 29th and we won't have electricity in my house for at least 4 days jdjdk

At the moment no one died so somehow everything will be fixed loln't

[bullmotif]

the urge to ignore your assigned summer readings in favour of starting yet another Dostoevsky book that will ruin your life

[littlegalerion]

As a homesteader, I can say 100% Halsin needs some serious help. He is all about "nature has a balance, where all are cared for", meanwhile here I am, having to pull two drakes off one lady duck because, by nature, both will attempt to breed her as roughly as possible, even if it ends up injuring/killing her.

Also, by nature, my chickens have a strict pecking order. A good few get bullied as they are the lowest in the order. I attempted to introduce some young ladies to my less than a foot tall Sebright Rooster, and he was brutal with the bullying. I had to pull them out, he was so bad.

Nature is not a beautiful, idealistic lifestyle. It is survival of the fittest.

Perhaps Halsin needs to seriously rethink civilizations' role in nature. That we, as people of all races, differ from animals in that we can choose to rise above our basic desires and urges if we so choose. Chaotic change is normal among the wilds, but we can actually bring good change, despite however much evil is in the world.

That is our role.

[shirogane-oushirou]

[insert monthly "i need ren to cuddle w me while we read u.mineko'" post]

[cat-dragron]

Head in my hands......... Network Effect.......... .

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer In The Dark -- Meet Lord Nathaniel Rowan

Hello everyone -- today, I would like to introduce you to someone who has accidentally become important to my Valicer In The Dark verse: Lord Nathaniel Rowan! Now, I've mentioned this dude's name a couple of times in previous posts -- most notably my first in-depth post on scores and story ideas for the verse -- but as he's become an occasionally-recurring antagonist for my trio as I come up with more scores for them to pull and things for them to do in my version of Duskwall, I figured we might as well have a proper post telling you all about his deal. So here we go --

-->Lord Rowan technically comes straight from the Blades In The Dark book itself -- there's a couple of mentions of the family name in the text in various places. The most significant one, and one that grabbed my attention first and made me realize that I should include him as a character in the Valicer In The Dark series, is in the write-up for the Six Towers district near the end of the book. Not only is Rowan House mentioned as being one of only two of the original six towers still standing (the other being Bowmore House), Rowan House gets its own entry as a landmark in the district (page 276):

Rowan House. One of the last of the original six towers, this antique building resembles an ancient castle from history books, complete with moat, draw-bridge, and arrow-slit windows. The powerful Rowan family rules their holdings from within the fortress, rarely venturing beyond the security of its thick stone walls.

AKA, Rowan House is the "giant bloody castle" Alice mentions as making her think they'd gone the wrong way when the gang first entered Six Towers in Chapter 6 of "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of." XD Given that Six Towers's whole deal is that it's a formerly-fashionable district that fell into poverty and ruin once all the rich families left, leaving their homes to either rot abandoned or be converted into cheap tenement housing, I was rather intrigued by the fact that Rowan House was explicitly said to still be occupied by an actual lord (Scurlock Manor, in the same area, may have a tenant, but it's not Lord Scurlock himself, just some "nephew or cousin" who may not even have a proper title, and Bowmore House is only mentioned as being still standing, so...). I figured there must be a reason for the family to still be living there --

-->Cue me hitting upon the idea of making Lord Rowan the literal landlord of all of Six Towers! Somebody has to be in charge of all the apartments there, after all! Basically, once all the other lords in the area started abandoning Six Towers for the more fashionable Brightstone, the Rowan family sensed an opportunity and snapped up as many estates as they could get their hands on. They then converted these estates into cheap apartments and lured in as many of the poorest in the city as they could. The family has thus controlled pretty much all the real estate in the district ever since, with Nathaniel being the latest to take over the day-to-day duties.

-->As for other members of the family -- in the "Factions" section of the book, there is a mention of an "Elder Rowan" who is a leader in the Church Of The Ecstasy Of The Flesh (the "state religion," which venerates a healthy body and abhors the spirit; the higher-ups are secretly trying to find ways to turn themselves into soulless demons, who they consider to be the ideal life forms), and a member of the family also explicitly sits on the City Council (the group of elites who essentially run the government, along with the Lord Governor -- the other councilors include members of the Bowmore, Clelland, Dunvil, Penderyn, and Strangford families). As the City Council entry mentions that all the members are also high-ranking adepts in the Church Of The Ecstasy Of The Flesh, I'm thinking of making both Rowans the same guy -- Lord Gregorious Rowan, Nathaniel's father, who has given up his landlord duties to pursue ascension into demonhood all the faster and find a way to take down Lord Strangford, who he doesn't trust as far as he can throw him. I'm also thinking of giving Nathaniel an older brother, Graham, who fulfills the traditional "heir to the lineage" noble duty of captaining a leviathan ship (as being the source of the leviathan blood that helps power everything in the city is one of the major ways all the noble families keep their power). Neither of them would be anywhere near as important as Nathaniel to my stories, but it's good to know where the guy came from and where he sits in the family line.

-->As for Nathaniel himself -- well, dude's an asshole. XD Much like his father before him, Nathaniel does not care that his kingdom is one of rot and ruin, with crumbling roads, broken streetlamps, and hauntings everywhere. All that matters to him is that it is his kingdom, and the people there must do as he says. Accordingly, his apartments charge the most he can get away with, while providing only the barest minimum necessary to keep people alive. A lot of his buildings don't even have heat or working lights, and the porters he hires to watch the doors are little more than thugs, more concerned with shaking down the tenants for cash than actually helping them in any way. The residents of Six Towers are as a result a pretty hopeless lot, just doing their best to survive day to day. A lot of them would love to rebel against Nathaniel and his tyranny, but know there's no way they could successfully storm that fortress he calls a home, so they just carry on, relying on the charity from the Arms Of The Weeping Lady soup kitchen on the edge of the district and the Advocate bunk house set up right next to it to keep themselves going...

-->And then the Three Pillars show up on the scene. Nathaniel initially completely ignores them -- in fact, he doesn't even know they live in Six Towers, given they move into the one house he has no idea exists in the district, thanks to Elder Gutknecht's wards -- but then he hears tell that there's a trio of strangers fixing up one of the old conservatories into a public greenhouse, and that they intend to give away the food produced there for free. "Welp, that won't do," Nathaniel says to himself, and waits until they've pretty much finished the place before arriving on the scene and politely informing them that he owns this land, so the greenhouse is his, thanks. Though if they really want to use it, they could pay him rent -- say, ten Coin per month? (Which, for reference, is an ASTRONOMICAL amount to charge for rent -- it's more than your average small business is expected to take in in a month, and Duskwall months are twice as long as ours!) He expects this trio of losers to fold immediately --

But then Smiler points out that ten Coin would be enough to just buy the property and asks if it's for sale. And Nathaniel, amused and secure in his knowledge that his house is impenetrable, says no -- but if the trio can steal the deed out of the safe in his bedroom, he will let them have it, no strings attached. Smiler is like "I want that in writing," which Nathaniel is fine with, and they go to Barrister Alley in Charterhall University and have a contract drawn up, notarized by an Inspector. Nathaniel encourages the trio to try to get the deed before the week is out, and goes home content to wait until they get caught creeping around and have to give him the property --

Only for them to utterly humiliate him by successfully sneaking in and stealing the deed. I am picturing him spotting them escaping at the last minute, with Smiler cheekily telling him "thanks for the greenhouse!" Nathaniel, as you might imagine, is furious, but the Inspector insists he has to honor the agreement, causing him to start plotting revenge...

-->And from that moment on, the Three Pillars and Nathaniel are enemies! I haven't planned out many more specific clashes, but I know that the group humiliates him a second time by stealing a Dragon's Bane fruit he rented to show off at a party (for Chef Roselle, who needs one for a new dish -- I promise I will explain this further in an upcoming post), and when they team up with a group of Sparkwrights to test an alternative fuel source they're working on by getting the streetlights back on in Six Towers, he's one of the obstacles they have to overcome. (He might also be somehow involved when Dr. Kelman starts trying to track them down to "correct" them, but I haven't fully decided on that yet.) Nathaniel eventually gets so pissed off by their presence in Six Towers that he puts a bounty on their heads -- but by that point, not only are the trio able to fight off potential assassins (including most of the other gang bosses in the city at a certain infamous party hosted by Bazso Baz of the Lampblacks), they're so beloved by the citizens of Six Towers for all the help they've given the neighborhood that said citizens are more than willing to fight for them. Remember what happened to the potential assassin in the fourth entry in this Not-Incorrect Valicer Quotes collection for the verse? Yeah, it gets to the point where assassins hear what the job is and just go "sorry, no, I'm not about to get beat up by all of Six Towers, thanks." XD Leaving Nathaniel to fume impotently as his district slips further and further out of his grasp. I'm not entirely sure what the endgame for their rivalry is yet, but I very much doubt Nathaniel is going to come out on top.

-->And finally, since this guy has the potential to become a very important character in this verse, I figured I ought to know exactly what he looks like -- so I made him in Sims 4! So here are some pictures so you know what he looks like too:

Lord Nathaniel Rowan’s headshot! The haircut is from Get Together – I tried a couple of others, but this is the one that I felt worked the best with his face. Had a little trouble selecting his eye color, but I’m fairly satisfied with the gray-blue I settled on. And I couldn't resist giving him terrible muttonchops when I found the option under facial hair. Era-appropriate, admittedly, since the world of Duskwall is supposed to have Victorian vibes, but still terrible. XD

The full body shot! The suit is a Get Together “sack suit” that I found on accident a while back, while messing around with formal wear options for Victor, Alice, and Smiler. As I didn’t have my CC in the game at the time I created this initial version of him (not long after the Life & Death patch), this was as close to an era-appropriate outfit as I could find for him that didn’t look just a tiny bit TOO fancy, like most of the Vampires suits (ended up choosing one of those for formalwear instead). He is wearing Vampires shoes, though (the black ones with white spats), and that double-ring designed by arathabee for Crystal Creations (since he’s supposed to be a lord, I figured maybe that was fancy family jewelry passed down through the lineage).

And finally, a shot of him looking dastardly, since he is supposed to be an asshole. XD Accordingly, I gave the Sim version of him the Aspiration of Mansion Baron (to reflect the fact that he lives in a freaking castle), and the traits Evil, Hot-Headed, and Materialistic (since he's a nasty bastard with a bad temper who likes the finer things in life). As for his Preferences, he Likes the color orange, compliments, malicious interactions, gossip, deception, polished fashion, egotistical Sims, argumentative Sims, Baroque music, and research and debate, and he Dislikes the color pink, pranks, potty humor, silly behavior, complaints, rocker fashion, funny Sims, spirited Sims, Pop music, and singing. Which, as you might guess, means he hates Smiler in particular among the three. XD Rather fun designing such a douchebag of a man – and now I have a face to go with the name in my imagination, so that’s good too. :)

And there we have it! So now you know who Lord Nathaniel Rowan is and why my trio will be having such trouble with him in the future. Always important to know your enemies as well as your friends! I hope you look forward to seeing him pop up in the verse as much as I am now. :p

[whoslaurapalmer]

sometimes i just think about ellington and lemony going 'you could have told me what you knew.' 'you could have told me what you had.'

[altruistic-meme]

me: *existing*

my brain: hey heres another fic idea!!! and another!!!! oh wouldn't it be so cool if you wrote this??? wouldn't you LOVE to plan this fic out??? you should definitely plan this one, i promise you don't even have to write it ;) [<- is lying, knows that i'll want to write it even more if i plan it]