#or else I'll never start

[wonderlandsakura]

I think I just gotta start writing the thing, so I'm gonna try to write a bit a day and we'll see how it goes:

Alice wakes up and looks out the window, and... That's weird, it's so much emptier.

Where's the port town facing the sea with their little red roofs and white walls that she can usually see in the distance?

Where are the smoking chimneys of big cargo boats out in the port, made small by the distance?

Where are the cranes, seemingly still ever time she looks, but somehow always hard at work, loading and unloading?

Where is the touch of modernisation?

Out in the distance, all she sees are trees that should not be there and rolling green hills with no roads with people and cars and trucks cutting through them, ever busy.

She opens the window, and the breeze blows in, but it's crisper, fresher, not carrying the smoky tang of vehicles and boats alike, something she never thought of, never noticed until now.

It's quieter too.

There isn't the sound of people and cars and boats in the distance, only the call of birds and the rustling of leaves, so much closer than before.

BANG!

The door startles her and she turns to see Marcus there, panting, anxious, his mouth gaping open, mouthing words he cannot find or voice.

She knows before he speaks what he's going to say.

They aren't in their world anymore.

[hotcinnamonsunset]

🎣lure me in, baby!

[thekittyokat]

you ever just have a lot, a LOT of feelings all at once about a character and not even remotely enough words or brainpower to FORM the words to describe everything you're feeling. so it feels like you may explode. yeah

[yawnderu]

CW: mentions of kidnapping and stolen body autonomy.

Find a way in, kill the enemy, retrieve the hostages, leave. A routine of sorts that gave his life some sense of purpose to avoid going insane for the past two decades. Simon liked to believe he got over what happened in his past... truly, he did; and yet Manuel Roba’s horrors seem to haunt him no matter where how many years pass.

“C’mere.” Simon’s voice held no hostility, he made sure of it, yet your stiff position never changed. Legs angled to the right, hands folded on your lap, and eyes looking forward, refusing to meet anyone’s gaze even if it’s been hours since your rescue. Garrick, Price and Johnny have already tried to get you to talk multiple times, all of them with different approaches. 

Garrick was friendly, trying his best to seem approachable, a bright smile on his lips that you didn’t seem to notice, too busy staring at a wall no matter how much he tried to hold a conversation.

Price seemed fatherly, never once laying a hand on you even if it was itching to comfort you, and so he settled with telling you you’re safe now, how no one will ever get you again now that they're here. His words didn’t seem to do much, either. 

Johnny was… something else. His first attempt was a shitty pick up line, getting a reaction out of you for the first time— a nose scrunched up in disgust, but a reaction nonetheless.  

And Simon… Simon’s approach was different. The man was used to barking out orders and obeying them himself, not to deal with an unresponsive hostage. His behemoth frame was nestled next to you, putting a tray on the table and observing your reactions. From the way you swallowed thickly the moment the meal was presented to you, to the sound of your stomach growling. 

“Go on, then.” Your gaze follows his movements for the first time, the feeling of your stomach rumbling makes you more aware of your hunger, so many years being fed nothing but what was necessary to keep you alive by Manuel and his associates, so many years of being trained like a dog to obey to their very order. 

Simon can see the hesitation in your body language, too tense to allow yourself to dig in the way you wanted, yet no longer as stiff as before. There was a sense of relief at the fact that they didn’t seem to want to hurt you —unlike Roba—, yet years of non-stop brutal training can’t be erased within hours.

Roba’s training was engraved into your brain, and while the sense of security the SAS blokes gave you is something you’re thankful for, nothing guarantees they’re not working for him. You’ve seen other military men come and go throughout the years, always Roba’s friends, and always sharing the same disgusting, sadistic desires.

“Eat up.” The rest of the men watch the way you move, curiosity and amusement mixing at how strange your movements seem, almost robotic. Your forearms rest on the table, elbows away from the cheap wood as you attempt to hold your own cutlery— attempt, because it looks fully foreign to you, trying out different angles to make it work, and yet it's the first time in years you've been allowed to try and feed yourself.

Simon is the first one to catch on, having lived under Roba’s rules for long enough to know he enjoys taking people’s autonomy, to reduce them to nothing but a pathetic mess that depends on him. His gloved fingers are gentle as he takes the spoon from your hand, scooping up some food before holding it up to your lips. His full attention is on you, relief starting to make its way into his body as sees your rather soft lips wrap around the spoon, eating whatever he was feeding you. Lucky for you, this time it wasn’t an MRE… or beans on toast.

His gloved thumb wipes the corners of your lips every time you’re done chewing, and he’s quick to pick up more food from the plate, nothing but patience and kindness shown in his actions, so unlike the brooding soldier he's known to be.

“... two goldfish are in a tank…?” Johnny’s loud groan gets your attention for a second, yet you quickly glance back at Simon, curious eyes looking up at him, almost as if asking him to go on. 

“One turns to the other and says… ‘you know how to drive this thing?’” You can see the corners of his eyes crinkle before he even finishes his joke, clearly trying his best not to laugh at just how awful it was. A small smile hides in the corners of your lips, and Simon takes that as a victory, ignoring the questioning looks he’s getting from his team, for now.

[somegrumpynerd]

Truce is going well

[molathesunfish]

my limbus bugs mainly based on characters that may or may not show up later... and one mystery feature for your guessing fun:]

[lazylittledragon]

I know you dabble in the cosplay scene, will there be any Arcane cosplays in the future??

y'know i would've said no because i just don't think i'm suited for ANY of the characters, but i think i could throw together isha for my chill day at mcm in may!!

i'm nowhere near done with my Big one for this con so it's a terrible idea but i'm justifying bc i could actually use my real hair and not bother stying a wig adfjdhd

[pearl-kite]

Finished it! A couple of months ago I started this pattern by @antisocialxconstruct / @craftsbyrom and I just finished up the last squares today. After the last cross stitch, this was pleasantly straightforward and very relaxing busy-work for my hands. The pattern is available digitally in it's Kofi shop for a minimum of a dollar (I've also bought that glitchy dog skull that I'll get around to eventually 👀).

Some technicalities etc below:

One tweak I made was at the very end I decided to try a tiny bit of backstitch to make the letters stand out, and for the most part I like the addition, but I'm still debating. The way it turned out on the Y has me tilting my head back and forth.

Here's the completed one before the backstitching:

I went with 3 strands instead of 4 like it did for the sample, but I think the coverage was still pretty good. Definitely needed at least the 3 for the dark areas to stay completely dark.

With 3 strands, most colors were okay with just 1 skein of DMC thread, but I did need to run to the shop to grab a few: - DMC 3814 - Aquamarine (I had less than a square inch left when I needed to get more ;3;) - DMC 02 - Tin - DMC 797 - Royal Blue

If I had done 4 stands I would have also needed a second DMC 939 for the very dark blue, because I have just about a foot left on my spool.

I'm debating what to do with it. The last one became a pillow, but this one is juuust a bit small to be a useful pillow. I might just do it anyway, sampler throw pillows aren't that weird after all, but I might also try to kind of rig a sort of frame and stretch it like a canvas? It could be nice up on the wall that way.

[sforzesco]

lmao the rival dynasts are fighting and they're fucking it up for everyone else at a record pace

this tweet made me laugh, and I frequently make political comparisons between these specific groups of people, so now it's finally a comic

regarding the OctavianOctaviaAntony Uniteam Alliance

Octavia Minor and the Transition from Republic to Empire, Katrina Moore

in the red panel, which is an obvious anachronistic soup of events happening all at once: we have on the left: messalla corvinus

Alternative Memoirs: Tales from the ‘Other Side’ of the Civil War, Kathryn Welch

and then octavia (in despair & weaponizing that sacrosanctity to turn rome against antony), some kids (the two closest to antony are the twins, but tbh you can just kind of. pick whoever from the soccer team of kids antony had)

octavian and antony's back and forth is referencing suetonius augustus 68 and 69 (specifically: Antony also writes to Augustus [...] "What has made such a change in you? Because I lie with the queen? She is my wife. Am I just beginning this, or was it nine years ago? What then of you — do you lie only with Drusilla? Good luck to you if when you read this letter you have not been with Tertulla or Terentilla or Rufilla or Salvia Titisenia, or all of them. Does it matter where or with whom you take your pleasure?") and also the whole. thing. about antony's will. that sure was something.

the herod comment from kleopatra is referencing all of this

Mark Antony: A Biography, Eleanor Huzar

AND FINALLY. the art in the inset panels are from The Roses of Heliogabalus, Lawrence Alma-Tadema

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / tip jar!

[solaestial]

some semi-recent maou!russell concept doodles for an AU i've been spinning around in my brain for a while

[mars-ipan]

komahina i love you so much

(images from this post)

[splinteredsweets]

i'm gonna go insane

whenever i watch the opening of wreck it ralph i can't help but wonder ... ok so originally and for years i've always thought the other bad guys just didn't fully understand how much shit ralph has gone through for his entire life and they have better lives which i think is in parts still true , as they do appear to have get-togethers often and they seemingly have other friends while ralph had no one , but i unfortunately don't feel like that's the extent of it and that there's more to it than that .

on one rewatch something about their phrasing bothered me ... 'we've all felt what you're feeling and we've come to terms with it' like this could either - again - mean just that 'we didn't exactly like doing bad things but as bad guys it's our job to' but then i thought ... what if they also experienced a similar situation of mistreatment by their good guys and npcs ? what if they still experience that ? but it's just easier to deal with because they all have each other ? if bad-anon isn't just for 'im bad and that's good' but like the only place they find acceptance ?? bc like when ralph is walking home from pac-man's , the other characters he comes across say 'bad guy coming' like ??? do all bad guys experience this ??? but we just don't get to see it ??? ralph is the only one stopped by surge protector in the instances we see but who's to say the other bad guys don't get stopped on occasion too and we just don't see it ? or maybe they're let off easier bc they've 'accepted their place' . oh my god .

and at the end of the movie , ralph is treated better by the nicelanders , which is good ofc , but how are the other bad guys doing ??? if they've been through something similar , are they being treated better too ??? i sure hope so ... like maybe there was like some kind of meeting offscreen like 'hey can we stop outcasting bad guys for just doing their jobs please' idk ... i just have a horrible terrible feeling there's no way the other bad guys aren't facing or at the very least have faced similar discrimination . it's just easier to deal with bc they've had to forge a community to support eachother . because no one else will give them the respect after-hours . im sure someone else has mentioned this before idk i just need to get it out b4 i lose my mind

i could phrase this all more eloquently but i think i might just end up overthinking myself to death i tend to do that a lot

[sysig]

Wuh oh (Patreon)

Bonus:

The novel experience of being crushed by a giant rock, a visual metaphor

[triglycercule]

mtt mediveal au where horror and dust are rulers of 2 rival kingdoms and killer is an assassin or whatever the hell both of them coincidentally hired to kill the other. this is actually just an excuse to see how badly i can misspell medviel until i get it right by sheer luck

[zirconpetals]

I’ve never been... happy Wouldn’t that be nice? Is this the secret? Singing and dancing through life? Is my integrity worth anything at all?But happiness can’t come before its fall

[chevvy-ryder]

[NC_RES]-31102049-EURGER scharfenberg_g_portraits_047_RC_SD.file ///core:_ryder_von_scharfenberg.file\\\

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⚠️ READ: Please do not repost/reupload any of my art here or to any other platform, or I will be forced to do anything to get it annihilated.

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cowboy shirt by @gloryride and @breezypunk 🖤