#open needed characters

[ronanlynchbf]

tshirt that says NO LIVE ORGANISM CAN CONTINUE FOR LONG TO EXIST SANELY UNDER CONDITIONS OF ABSOLUTE REALITY

[jagalart]

Yarrow and Feverfew

Art trade with the incredible @liscepu, I'm so grateful for the chance! Thank you for fueling my love for the game again <3

[hyuckonia]

AAHHHH AHHHHH EVERYONE POINT AND LAUGH!!!!!!!!!! LOOOSERRR!!!! AHHHHHH SOMEONE LOST THE GAMEEE!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 (everyone lost actually (😔) )

AKA a last ditch effort to annoy the shit out of this guy

bonus!

the moment when ortho ace and kalim get inside the playful stage and can see everyone and are deciding what to do next. what easier way to defeat your enemy than completely obliterating them?

bonus 2

my friend said this pic of 2 random people showed up on google when u look up "fellow honest nui" so now theyr in fellow and gidel cosplay 💞

[gemharvest]

[skateboardtotheheart]

there is just something about the difference between edwin's love interests and having the cat king's reaction to edwin in hell being "i'll be waiting when he gets back" vs charles "no version of this where i don't come get you" rowland convincing a powerful trans-dimensional being to open a door to hell just so he could get him back

i am insane

[maliciousmagpie]

Thought tumblr might appreciate this one.

[a-chaotic-dumbass]

every time someone makes a post about catelyn being the downfall of house stark george deletes another chapter of twow

[kriskukko]

some rp related stuff i drew on a whim, feat. me and friends' characters -- a bunch of rogue knights half of which are also legit wizards

[captain-astors]

The Crown Prince

[mimimar]

˖⁺‧₊⟡₊˚⊹my commissions are currently OPEN!˖⁺‧₊⟡₊˚⊹

all info ✧here✧

all my commission types are open right now, including custom paper doll commissions!

i am also open for commercial work in many kinds of projects, including book covers for self-publishing authors. email me for any inquiries♡

[nikoco11]

hi!! 2 slots open ^_^

check out here if interested 🕺 (these will be low in the queue list, so turnaround of likeeee late july-august is expected)

[csidepooltide]

Welcome friends, sky fans, and people who have NO idea who I am! Let me introduce you to my open characters...

Everything included under the cut!

Disclaimer, this is just a general overview. I couldn't possibly include everything or show everything! Believe me, I tried. Thrice. This is why it took me two years.

If you have any questions, don't feel afraid to send me an ask or dm!

And if you make a starkid of your own, please please PLEASE tag me!! I would love to see!!!!! :)

See you in the sky!

[hauntingofhouses]

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE YOUR SQQ HE LOOKS SO FUCKINH DONE WITH LIFE

The recipe for SQQ is: calm on the outside, screaming on the inside.

[boxesblr]

replaying the clip of Cleo saying "etho doesn't take himself seriously at all, but he takes other people seriously. That's part of his charm" over and over again in my head. It's so clarifying to me

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

(more of this, which has become a "trapped together" story because Why Not.)

“T-That’s not fair, Tommy,” Buck said, pulling off a glove to wipe furiously at his eyes.  “Look, I-I’m sorry, that the people you trusted with that, that “real you” didn’t honor your trust.  But if you won’t even let me see him, how can you know I won’t love him?  I—” Buck cut off that thought before it could escape his stupid head.  Telling Tommy that he’d been pretty sure he was in love when he asked Tommy to move in was true, but Tommy would twist it into proving his terrible point somehow.  “I might.  You don’t know.”

Tommy’s face crumbled.  “I was trying,” he said, voice watery.  “I spent so long not telling people anything real about myself that after I came out I was scared of… overcorrecting, I guess.  Being too much.  So, instead, I decided to mirror people.  To give back as much as I was given.”

That… Buck nodded, swallowing around a lump in his throat.  That made sense.  Buck was jealous of Tommy and Eddie?  Well, Tommy was jealous of the 118.  Buck had a mediocre father and a much better surrogate dad?  Tommy never really had a good example of either.  And on and on, in small bursts.  Reciprocal, but… limited.  And Buck had no closet stories to share, no ex-boyfriends to discuss, no sexual epiphanies that Tommy hadn’t been the direct cause of.  No wonder they hadn't talked about this stuff before.  “So we didn’t discuss heavy topics unless I brought them up.”

Tommy huffed a laugh, which quickly turned into a hoarse cough.  Wiping the back of his hand across his mouth, he said, “I thought I was being honest, upfront, without being overwhelming.  But… the way you described me that last night, the carnival mirror way you said you saw me… were you not listening to what I was saying?”

“Of course I was,” Buck protested, a sinking feeling pooling in his gut.  “But it wasn't true!  Like I told you, that first night—you were part of the 118, remember?  Fake mouth static?”

Tommy choked out a laugh.  “Then why did all of them stop talking to me after we broke up?”

Buck blinked.  “What?”

“Not that I was surprised.  Your best friend, your surrogate father, your brother-in-law… and Hen and I were never that close.  Work friends at best, and we don’t work together anymore.  Of course they would take sides, and take your side.”  Tommy turned, squinting into the setting sun to look at Buck.  His face was blotchy, a streak of rusty brown dust smeared across one cheek, and alarmingly pale where he wasn’t red with dirt or tearstains.  “Why are you surprised?”