#please enjoy aough

[citrine-elephant]

what's this? a two-for-one?

ready for the doll au? here ya go.

[kiawren]

Does anyone want to ask me anything about my spidersona lion spider PLEASE. I am cursed with constant thoughts of him and his world but I Cannot draw it. Okay you don't have to ask but if you want you can read this becuz my brain is full of him.

AOUGH okay I ended up typing some info I thought of the past few days. I still haven't settled on his name becuz he's a self insert and I want to name him Wren but I also want to name him something that has more of the character's essence...

Pre spider bite:

He introduces that (though he's Chinese,) he sucks at studying, he can't play instruments and he's not even athletic. He's introverted, likes animals and he likes to draw (Becuz he's basically me) and tries to find and draw them around the city. He tried to join a lion troupe/the club in his school but got rejected cuz he's essentially talentless for them 😭

On the way home he spots a poster at a shophouse for those who are interested in making lion heads to go upstairs. He ends up learning from the old man there, and enjoying it a lot as it's a way to give life to the art form without participating in the performances itself.

His city & some characters

It's modern and urban and has lots of Chinese and other Southeast Asian architecture. It's sorta based on Singapore too which is where the building in the second drawing above is from anyway. Imagine a spiderverse world with lots of shophouses, pagodas, temples, mosques.. They're the heights of skyscrapers. There are only fragmented and rare plots of nature within such a city.

Animals are rare, more common are mythologised ones such as the Chinese guardian lions, and the Naga and Garuda in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, which is what he mentions in his introduction without knowing some of the villians he'll face later are based off these figures. The lions can shift forms between sand and stone, the Naga figure is doc ock and the Garuda green goblin. Yes in mythology they're not evil and that's why they're probably working for alchemax and kingpin before becoming allies later (at least the lions becuz... Kitty...) but I haven't figured it all out yet...

His friend organises shadow puppetry performances twice weekly at a community theatre. This friend later becomes black cat but lion spider doesn't know that at first.

The shows are very popular and of their shows the most popular is the one of Spider-man, a hero who is bitten by a spider. ...... He always joked it was silly but when it happened to him... 😐

Lion spider

The lion dance head shophouse was next to alchemax I suppose. Their spider escaped and made webs in the heads and alchemax sent a bad guy to find it. Except it already bitten lion spider days before. So uh I think the mentor guy got killed (uncle Ben moment) and lion spider fought back by wearing the lion dance head and beat him with his newfound strength. It felt nice to take the form of lion dance and he gained a confidence in doing so. So he decided to incorporate it into the spider-man figure from then on.

It's also good that he didnr officially join any troupe becuz I think lion dance is kind of a big thing in their city and many troupes compete annually in some lion dance competition. And everyone was like ooook whichever troupe member is absent is lion spider. And then all the members were there. while a villian showed up during the crowded competition and lion spider was also there.

He took one of the heads among the chaos and gave a performance defeating the villian yay! The sad thing is he never really got to dance with a partner. Although he knows the steps he only ever practiced on his own.

the ATSV friends + kiawren

This universe has no Kiawe but he eventually makes friends with the Spiderverse characters (not Miguel he also doesn't like him) and hangs out with them. I guess he's a part of spider society but pretends not to know about the seriousness of the canon stuff (Hobie told him about it) and just isnt there in the drama like how Pavitr wasn't.

There's a Kiawe spider-man!! I did draw a bit of his vague design I had in mind before. (which is inspired by polynesian face tattoos and his role as a fire dancer like his original character)

They have a milesgwen romance except not the narrative angst. They bond over their traditional dances and being trans guys. THERE'S A LOT. OF PINING. The yearning to visit each other, the wondering how they're doing in their daily lives in their respective worlds, wanting to show them something in theirs, THE FIRST TIME THEY SAW EACH OTHER'S FACE.

Kiawe isn't really in the friend group, he just spends time with lion spider. So when the latter is with the atsv friend group they keep teasing him and trying to match them on spider society missions.

Also, Kiawe's world has a lot of natural wonders (Volcanoes, oceans, forests) and lion spider loves it so much he sorta tears up seeing it the first time he visits becuz his world doesn't have these things.

[bluepeachstudios]

OK so i don't know how comprehensive this is going to be. I'm currently running on four hours sleep because iwas up most the night tumbling down a wiki rabbit hole.

But while was looking up this and that I stumbled on an article about seasonal affective disorder, which led me to look up the ways that natural light (and lack there of) can effect mental and physical health, which then led to me looking up clinical depression and how it's very commonly hereditary. And all that just reminded me that

Splinter is, at the very least, heavily implied to be depressed

Depression can be hereditary

Splinter is the turtles' biological father

Ghost switched the turts to a nocturnal schedule and doesn't like them going out at all during the day for their safety

And studies show that lack of exposure to natural light over along period of time can negatively affect one's mental health and potentially lead to depression...

So what I'm getting is, did Ghost's attempt to keep his kids safer accidently increase his kids' chances of of developing depression? Or is my mushy sleep deprived brain making mountains out of molehills here? Please tell me I'm making montains outta molehills😭

AOUGH NO YOU'RE MAKIN MOUNTAINS OUTTA MOLEHILLS SOBS

The turtles were already on a nocturnal schedule! Splinter at least taught them to only go out at night!! They have special lamps that give them light that they need, but Ghost will also occasionally take them up during sunrise to enjoy sunning on the rooftops in the natural light.

[katkat030]

hey! I have a. fair few. I made a post about it (here!) but I’ll list some of my all time favourites here too!! :)

sorta goes without saying but these are on ao3, and I’ve included the tumblr urls of the authors if I know them

But oh, the bloom by sillyfairygarden <- sorry it’s not platonic but it is desertduo and aough it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t recommend this!! Staring at you with puppy eyes please go and read it. Just about anything written by sillyfairygarden is worth reading, but this has a special place in my heart for sure

you came at the brink of the end of by world by anonymous/louiessleeplessnights <- I’m not even exaggerating it’s about the sixth time I’m rereading this fic. I’ve genuinely downloaded it to read offline. I just love it. It’s desertduo as well, and angst and sadness and tragedy, amongst laughter. I think I fall in love with Boatem a little more every time I go to reread it. I can and would write an essay on why everyone should read it (although! Beware the explicit rating, that’s only relevant for the last 2 chapters of which there are over 20)

Bread and Butterflies by anonymous <- this was recommended by an incredible incredible author (whose desertduo fic I’ll also recommend because aoughhh) and I read it for the first time today! Tragic, desertduo, post 3rd life…. Yeahhhh I almost cried reading this. <3 definitely recommend

lost in the dark (he's got a heavy heart) by definitelynotshouting <- desertduo and Grian’s… let’s say mental state following the 3rd life and such, but made even more tragic. Like literally more tragic. Aough. Warning here that Grian is absolutely Going Through It and to heed the ao3 tags (eating disorders, suicide etc). The hunger au is brainrot for sure. The worldbuilding goes hard

someone already recommended you Redstone and Sculk by silverskye13 otherwise it’d probably be the first on my list, if you haven’t read it already please please consider it. Helsknight my beloved.

I know you wanted desertduo or helsmet and preferably fics (although. Although there is a fic in the works and I won’t be ready for how insane that’s going to make me when it’s finished. And uh. Ahem. Also technically a second fic which I may or may not be writing), buuuuuuuutttt

So so so so worth checking out the dbhc au by shepscapades here on tumblr. It’s brainrot to the absolute extreme, in the best way possible

here’s the link to the masterpost! I actually can’t stress how insanely cool it is (there’s angst there too so so much angst but hey get distracted by the really cool art)

enjoy :D

does anyone have any fic recs 🙏🙏

preferably anything [platonically] tragic desert duo [even better if its third life related] or helsmits because tjose are cool