#scribe time

[the-meme-monarch]

smiiiles i’m writing a dandys world fic. frowns. yes it is about arthur and delilah

[thatgaywizardoverthere]

Arthur “Disaster Bi” Pendragon learning about true loves kiss as a cure like:

Gwaine: For fuck’s sake, he’s not enchanted every time he smiles at someone else, Arthur! He was literally just laughing at my joke!

Arthur, aggressively frenching Merlin on the council room floor: YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO CAREFUL OKAY-

[starcurtain]

I know I've talked a lot about Alhaitham actually being one of the funniest characters in Genshin Impact, but every time I think about him, I find something new to laugh at.

Alhaitham's character stories and personal criticisms of Kaveh largely hinge on one specific point: That Kaveh's genius intellect and artistic abilities are incongruous with his idealism. Kaveh possesses more talent than a selfless person should reasonably have, leaving him vulnerable to constantly being taken advantage of.

However, Alhaitham states these complaints about Kaveh's personality while having the exact same problem himself.

Alhaitham is literally the definition of "personality and talents do not match." Sir, you are the pot calling the kettle black.

It's a given: Alhaitham is exceedingly competent. He is intelligent, rational, and capable of being impartial when needed. Despite being a slacker as the Akademiya's scribe, during his stint as the Acting Grand Sage, the game goes out of its way to note--in several places--that Alhaitham was actually going above and beyond what was expected of him, taking the position very seriously, uncovering and fixing major issues in the Akademiya, and demonstrating a deep care for the sanctity and future of the Akademiya as a whole when Sumeru's people's will to research and learn declined after the collapse of the Akasha.

By all accounts, Alhaitham is (was) a fantastic Grand Sage. Compared to Azar, who is shown as inherently self-aggrandizing and unconcerned with Sumeru's well-being, Alhaitham genuinely did his best during his brief time as Sumeru's leader, protecting students' research, concerning himself with how to address the people's problems, and even diving in to solve mysteries that normally would have been left for the matra. As Acting Grand Sage, we're told his behavior and judgments were fair, and he addressed problems immediately and with his full effort.

In short, there is literally no one else more qualified to be Grand Sage than Alhaitham.

And yet, despite possessing every talent needed to be the leader of a nation, Alhaitham doesn't have the personality for it. He has every single trait a good leader requires... And yet he refuses to be a leader. His own talent vastly exceeds the slow-paced life his personality leads him to seek, making his particular abilities more incongruous with his values than Kaveh's--by a mile. People keep trying to promote him into positions of leadership because his talents are so obvious, and yet he does everything in his power to deny his own abilities and instead fly under the radar--and under the level of his full potential too.

Awful hypocritical for you to claim Kaveh's talents don't match his personality when yours match even less, Alhaitham...

[thesummerstorms]

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Noa de Acutis + Being Intimidating

[bornuntohimself]

we really do not focus enough on the fact that dalinar told adolin and renarin about evi via having someone read oathbringer to them like imagine your dad writes an autobiography and has someone read you an advance copy and the whole time you’re like ok raiding and pillaging kind of absent parenting i knew all of this. sure. and then like halfway through he drops that he KILLED YOUR MOM. and chose to tell you this via memoir. and then you just have to keep going about your day i guess

[apollorobin]

ho-tan time bc i LOVE HERRRR

[electric-plants]

cyno: delivery for you.

alhaitham: …this letter is from you

cyno: yes. i’d already written it by the time i realized i didn’t trust anyone else to bring it to you

alhaitham: you could just tell me what it says then since you’re already here

cyno: i can’t say it out loud in your office

alhaitham: ah. so it must be a fairly sensitive case—

alhaitham: cyno.

cyno: what?

alhaitham: this just says that you think i’m pretty

cyno: yes, because i do and - considering the nature of our current relationship - i thought i should let you know.

alhaitham: again— you could just tell me?

cyno, frowning: we’re at work, that would be unprofessional. though i suppose you’ve already breached the line by reading it out loud so please be more considerate next time :/

[lyralit]

sometimes I think I don't know what I would be if I wasn't a writer. if my life wasn't dedicated to inscribing every fleeting second. noting down the lives of other people to give to time. idk who i would be.

[queen-scribbles]

Sosiel Vaenic said All my friends are gorgeous, actually, and we love him for it.

[larissa-the-scribe]

Tell Me About This Time Loop, Again?

And so it begins... @inklings-challenge

Day 12

In Zo's mind, it never felt like the day was properly begun until Lyn woke up, looked around at the room they'd been staying in, frowned, and said—

Day 13

"Where are we? And why does it feel so... familiar?"

"Well you see," Zo replied, as he always did, peeking at the underside of the egg he was frying, "we're stuck in a time loop."

Day 14

"A time loop?" Lyn swung her feet over the side of the bed, seeming to realize for the first time that she was in one.

"Don't worry, it's clean." After confirming they were, indeed, in a time loop, one of the first things he had suggested was finding a comfortable place to set up camp. Somehow it had worked, and they had ended up there every time things reset. "And there doesn't seem to be anyone around, so I don't think we're stealing or trespassing." 

Lyn raised an eyebrow. 

Day 15

"Well, we might be, but no one minds. It's a ghost town. Everyone seems to have disappeared." And since it was a time loop, they never ran out of cooking gas. Or food supplies. That, at least, was convenient. 

"Disappeared?" Lyn stood up, adjusting her shirt from how it had gotten scrunched up in the night. Despite her attempts to look bright-eyed and alert, he could see the sleepiness that still hung from her eyes. 

Day 16

"Our best guess so far is that it's connected to the time loop." Zo flipped the eggs. If this all persisted, he could open up a fried-egg restaurant once they got out; he was getting an absurd amount of practice flipping eggs.

"That makes sense." Lyn padded over to the window, still barefoot, and pushed the shutters open. "Do we have any evidence, or is that just, well, a guess?" 

Her gaze swept the view, which he knew without looking was nothing more than the empty lines of blocky, one-story buildings and the too-smooth black-top of the streets. The neighborhood was pressed together as if sheltering from the plains beyond the town, with such a veneer of newness covering it all that each house might have been churned out of a factory yesterday. They hadn't been, though, considering the subtle signs of wear and tear inside the houses. 

"Eh, a bit of both. Something weird is clearly going on with the area, and we know time is affected, too, so it's a logical guess that the two are connected. Whether that means some psycho wiped the town out before setting up their experiment, or just that their timey-wimey dealybob messed up physics in general is still up for debate. Do you want toast?"

"Yes, please."

Day 17

"Good. We have to finish the bread before it goes stale." Zo left the 'in case we get to the next day' implicit.

"I'm surprised we still have butter. I thought it would have gone bad in your pack."

"It smells a bit odd, but so far we haven't been affected by it."

Day 18

"Okay, but how do you know we're in a time loop?" Lyn asked, setting the table. 

They were in a ground-level studio apartment, so the dining room, kitchen, and bed were all in the same space. No couch, which Zo took to mean that the owner was either poor or a cheapskate. Either way, it was disappointing. Still, the carpet wasn't bad. He'd slept on worse.

"Because you've asked me that so many times I've lost track of the number," Zo said, "and you seem thoughtful every time, like you're not as surprised as you thought you'd be." 

She nodded and set a fork down carefully, wearing the expression she always did just then, brows squeezing down over far-away eyes.

"In all fairness, though," Zo clarified, "I mostly lost track because I wasn't really counting, and then it seemed pointless to start. It's been over two weeks, though, I'm fairly certain."

Day 19

She smiled, and the tension in her brows eased a bit. "This all does feels familiar. Like, I don't remember the other days, but all of this feels like I should, somehow, know what happens next. But I don't."

"I do know," Zo replied, "and it's getting a bit tiresome."

"Fair."

Zo nodded, slotting toast into the toaster. "Very. Whoever owned this place pretty much only had eggs in their fridge. I'm not sure how many more days in a row I can eat those without losing my mind."

Lyn looked up sharply.

Day 20

"Relax," he said, waving his spatula, "they respawn every day, so I don't think it's even technically stealing. If it is, we can pay them back later. There's a fully-stocked but unmanned convenience store down the road, one which we have very nobly not taken anything from, every single day."

"Good," Lyn sighed. "After all, if we get out today, we wouldn't want to be rewarded by jail for petty theft." She tacked on a fierce look at the end of the sentence.

Zo shrugged, and let Lyn interpret the gesture as she would. "Eggs are almost done."

Day 21

"Good. I'm weirdly hungry. Also, thank you for breakfast."

"Don't mention it," Zo smiled. "It's nothing I haven't done many times before."

[terra-tortoise]

notn hatch and new art for their bio!! inspired heavily by art here and somewhat by art here. the first pretty explicitly, the second is art ive admired for a while and have wanted to do something similar in my own dragon bios. didnt do any shading but i might go back and touch it up later. cloth as ever is so hard to draw.

[the-meme-monarch]

fishing around in my pocket and pulling soemthing out☝️annnd btw i have a fic i wrote but forgot to share here bc i was finishing that animatic. read my fiction boy it’s k_k deltarune and he’s going through it. it’s also short

[finelythreadedsky]

 On one level the book is about the life of a woman who is hardly more than a token in a great epic poem, on another it’s about how history and context shape how we are seen, and the brief moment there is to act between the inescapable past and the unknowable future. Perhaps to write Lavinia Le Guin had to live long enough to see her own early books read in a different context from the one where they were written, and to think about what that means.

-Jo Walton

[vulpixisananimal]

<Null> {Mal Du Pays} [Loop] (Siffrin)

[It's still raining.]

[You've stopped at the fork in the path, those two strangers just a few feet ahead of you. One tall, with dark skin, lightless hair and a stoic face. They were standing under the tree reading something. The other was shorter, with dark hair. He was sitting down, eyes closed with a smile on his face. Both had bonded earings to eachother.]

[Why were you filled with dread?]

"Loop?" [Mirabelle leans close to you.] "Do you think. . ?"

"Maybe." [You tug at the rim of your cloak.] "You start the talking."

"O-okay!" [Mirabelle took a deep breath, and stepped forward. You followed behind her.] "Uhm, excuse me?"

[The taller one looked up from the book. A slight, genuine smile on her face. They waved.] "Ah, hello! May I help you?"

[Mirabelle cleared her throat, then continued.] "W-well, there's been something going on at the homestead a little ways back, and, we wanted to check in! Make sure everything's okay, uhm. ."

[The tall one nodded.] "I understand. We're both just fine. Thank you."

"O-oh, well-"

[Okay, you needed to step in.] "We wanted to ask you a few questions if that's alright."

[They nod again.] "Of course, My name is Merlan, and this is Perci, forgive him, he gets lost in thought."

"That's okay! U-uhm, I'm Mirabelle, it's good to meet you."

"Siffrin, it's a pleasure~"

[Merlan raised an eyebrow.] "Ah, Saviors? Oh forgive me." [They leaned down to their partner and shook him.]

[Perci yawned, and stretched, and opened his eyes to look at you. Directly at you with a little, sly smile.] "Company? I just closed my eyes for a moment!"

"N-no it's okay! No need to worry about it!" [Mirabelle reassured.]

"Ah thank you, Lady Mirabelle. So, what can I do for you." [He seemed, charming.]

[You smell something, it was hard to tell because of the rain.]

[Mirabelle started talking.] "Okay, well, uhm, there's been a very, dangerous sadness in the area! So, so I wanted, to, to-"

[You cut her off.] "-To make sure that it wasn't going after fellow travelers. You two haven't seen anything like that, have you?"

"I'm not sure, have we?" [Perci turned to his bonded.]

"I've seen glimpses of it." [They were tapping their foot.] "A dangerous thing, to see a bonded sadness even after the Kings defeat is, curious."

[Bonded sadness? Was that like that pair of strong sadness on the second floor of the house? You keep smiling.] "And there's not been anything else strange?"

[Merlon shook his head.] "Nothing, nothing. Apart from randomly meeting the Saviors of Vaugarde! How'd you beat him, by the way?"

[Mirabelle held her hands close.] "I, reflected his freezing spell back at him, and-"

"Oh no no no! I know that! I mean more, how you got to him. That house full of sadness and traps. One wrong move and it's all over, so, well, how?"

". . . Uhm, luck?" [She responds. Yes, luck. Luck and not the time loops you were stuck in for hundreds or thousands of loops.]

[Perci's eyes are digging deeper into you. Why was he so intense?] "Must have been some wild luck. If the King was strong enough to freeze time. . ."

"An impossibility." [Merlon finishes. They were back to reading, writing, in a book.] "Time cannot be crafted without dying. Unless you had outside assistance."

[Like a wish.]

"It, it wasn't easy, at all. . ." [Mirabelle looked away.]

[Three floors of complex mazes and keys and traps that you had long, long, long ago memorized. It was a hell.]

<Be on guard.>

[HOW long have you- ugh, nevermind! You shrug, still smiling.] "Well, if you're sure you two haven't seen anything. . ."

"Positive!" [Perci is still smiling.] "Honestly we should be going, if a sadness is nearby."

"O-okay, well, we'll leave you too it, then!" [She glances at you, you nod.]

"It's wonderful to meet you both, take care Merlon, Perci~" <You turn to walk back, and wave. You were excited to get out of here, you didn't like this.>

"Goodbye Saiviors." [Says Merlon.]

"Hope we see you again, Mirabelle, Loop!" [Says Perci.]

<You stop.>

[You turn around, still smiling, looking right at the two of them.] ". . . Sorry?"

"I said. . . Goodbye, hope we see you again?" <Perci respond. Merlon quietly kicks him in the shin. They exchange a look.> ". . . . Mirabelle, and. . ."

"Siffrin." [Merlon interupts.]

"Siffrin! Ah yes right, hope to see you again-"

"No." <You smile wider, that kind of smile.> "Drop the act."

". . . Act?" [Perci says. Nice acting.]

"You said Loop. That's not my name. In fact, no-one knows that name." <You step forward.> "Why are you taking a rest here?"

"Well, because I was tired-"

"Because mind craft has a range limit." <You interrupt.> "Don't try fooling me, Perci, when it comes to acting I am of the best."

<There is a cold, tense silence. The rain giving the most dramatic of backdrops. Perci stands.>

". . . Bravo." <He claps.> "Truly, bravo."

<At this point, Mirabelle is standing by you. Hand on her sword.> "You two were behind this?"

<He bowed> "Forgive the misdirection, watching from the sidelines is much better for gaining information."

"What does that blinding mean!" <You were getting angry. You eye up your enemy, two swords, mind craft, how strong? Quick? What was his craft type?>

"People tend to lie, saivor. Not so much when you step back and let them open themselves up. Oh, scissors craft, by the way."

<?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!>

[?????????????????????]

"You're writing all this down, my love?" [Perci turns to his bonded.]

"Every moment." [They reply.]

"W-what?!?" [Mirabelle was getting frustrated.] "You, you're controlling our friends for information?!?"

"Of course! I'm not doing any harm, they wont notice anything different, I get to poke around their heads, and if anything bad happens I snap my fingers and it's all forgotten."

<You want to kill him.> "Did you do this to Ramos?"

"Oh Ramos? Oh they were such a mess, but they were raised by someone from a forgotten culture! I had to interview and poke around in that mind. And just left them with, a parting gift!" <He talked so casually, waving a hand.>

"They turned into a sadness!!!" <Mirabelle yelled.>

<Both were taken aback by that, and looked at each other.> ". . . Is that what happened? I felt some strange and strong emotions before the charm was broken, did they really. . ?"

"You didn't know?!?"

"No, but, that is fascinating!" <He turned to Merlon.> "Do you think we could replicate that? Someone turning into a sadness like that. . ."

"Oh I'm sure we can figure it out." <Merlon replies casually.>

"That's, that's horrible!!!" <Mirabelle exclaimed.>

"It's increddible!" <Perci turned back to you, a sparkle in his eye.> "A sadness created through strong emotions enhanced through mind craft? Aren't you just a little bit curious about it?"

"No!!!!"

"No? But isn't that what Change is all about?"

<You step interject.> "Stop talking. What do you want."

"Information!" <Perci said with a flourish.> "Lore! History! The truths hidden within the words and minds of thousands of people! Everything from the smallest story to the grandest legends! Even legends that don't want to be remembered~"

[Dont want. . Like, our home?]

<You ignore Loop.> "And so to get to it you violate a persons privacy? Their will?"

"Oh it's not like they'll notice, or remember, it's fine!" <He laughs, waving away the question.> "Besides, wouldn't you do something like that? For your home?"

". . . . . . . ." <You're reading our mind. Aren't you>

"I am! What a quick learner."

"H-huh?!?" <Mirabelle looked confused.>

[Oh if you're reading our blinding thought I'll tell you to jump off a cliff PERSONALLY!!! You BLINDING IDIOT!!!!]

<Our head isn't ready for one more voice. Get out.>

"Ahaa, very fascinating. Two voices? I thought I was going mad."

<Yes, two voices. You should be able to tell more, since you are using mind craft.>

"Oh no no no! From here I can only tell the most surface of thoughts. But just shake my hand, and-"

<Fooled you. Thanks for the information.>

[HA! HAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!]

<You see Perci wince, then laugh, shaking his head.> "Oh tricky! I like you, Null and Loop, correct? In the body of Siffrin the nobody. Now, was that a craft? Or-"

"An identity disorder, love." <Merlon adds.> "Many types, all acting very differently, caused by trauma in childhood. Our hero has a dramatic backstory."

[Stop talking like we're FRIENDS!!!]

<You glance over at Mirabelle, she's looking confused between you and Perci.> "He's reading our minds."

"He's- no!! That's private!!" <Mirabelle exlaimed.>

"Oh! No this is fascinating!" <Perci looked like a teacher excited to explain todays lesson. You wanted to rip him apart.> "See, Lady Mirabelle, your mind is so cluttered thinking about every single possibility at once it's very hard to single out many thoughts! So full of anxiety and fear."

"But your friend, friends, here are so much different! They are having a conversation in their mind! Yes many people have an internal monolog but this is an internal debate! It's a breath of fresh air, honestly!"

<. . . . . . .>

[Disgusting, get OUT!!] "Why do you need this!! You've caused enough harm already!!!"

"Because!" <Perci waves his arms dramaticly in the rain.> "Because of that island culture! The island north of Vaugarde, it's history, it's people! They're yearning for home and I can see it. And I will deliver it to them, I will dig, and dig, and dig untill every bone, every word, every little tale is exposed for the world to see!"

[. . . . . . That. . .]

<Doesn't. . . . Seem evil. . .>

[No, it doesn't. But. . .] "But you're, you're just going to hurt people and poke in their heads for that?!? I never asked you to help with our home! How do you know others will!!"

"I asked." <Merlon says, flatly.>

<. . . .>

"I want to see the beach again. The forrest, the maze of water and winds. The darting stars whispering through the night sky, the clouds hugging the stone reaching for the lightless night. . ." <For the first time, you see some emotion on Merlons face.>

[. . . You look away.] "And you're fine with, hurting people to remember that?"

"Yes." [They reply, too quickly.]

[. . . . .]

"Haven't you see their faces, Loop?" <Perci steps forward.> "Other islanders begging for an explination for why they're like this? For their memories, names, faces? What about that man at the Inn? Polaris? What would he do to remember."

[. . . . . . . . You're done talking.]

<Agreed, you take another step, hand on your dagger..> "If you want to help islanders, stop using mind craft."

"Well, sorry, but no. It's too useful a tool." <Perci put a hand on his sword. He knows this talk is over.> "But. . . A wager? A one-on-one fight, if you win, I undo the mind craft here. I win, you let me poke around that brain of yours as much as I like."

"What?!?" <Mirabelle exlaims.> "That's rediculous! You can't just-"

"-Fine." <You interupt, drawing your dagger.>

"Loop?!?"

"Lady Mirabelle, let them fight." <Merlon comments.> "My bonded will not do any undue harm, if your rogue does the same."

"It's just a friendly match, Mirabelle dear." <Perci draws twin swords, stepping forward.>

[Yes, friendly. Very friendly. Extremely, friendly. . . Ha. Hahaha. . .]

<You're pathetic, Perci. You're a conniving snake, a crab, a bastard and betrayal to the concept of history and stories. I am going to kill you.>

<You see the corner of Perci's mouth twitch.> ". . Shall we?"

[Do we have a plan, dearest Null?]

<Yes. You rush in.>

<Speed above all. You step as fast as your feet allow you, aim low, avoid his touch, you'll win this.>

<He stabs a sword low to block your attack, and swipes with the other. You jump, dodging the blow by a hair. You swiped again now that he's exposed, but he twist around you knife, in the end you only get a small slice on the shoulder. He steps back.>

"Bleeding- Ah, my mistake for underestimating you." <Perci rolls his shoulder and gets ready to attack again.>

<You rush again, going for a strike from the left, you just need to figure out his patterns. He blocks with one sword, and slices with the other- too slow.>

[Not this AGAIN.]

<Every advantage must be used. You're mid dash, this time, you'll feint right. He's already ready to block your attack but you change course at the last second to strike his other side.>

<He blocks that as well.>

[. . . . . . . That's-]

<A fluke. Try something else, you let him come to you, running at you swords to his side. Once he's in striking distance, he swipes. You jump back in time to dodge one, but he delayed his second swing and catches you->

[You're going to kill us.]

<We will not loose this. He's rushing at you again, he delays his second swing, so block the first and jump over the second.>

<He lunges, you block the first->

[?!?!?!??!?!?!]

<He, swung with both at the same time.>

[He's CHANGING THINGS]

<Impossible, it's, it's a fluke. Rushing at you again, you, you- >

[You froze up, and got stabbed. STARS Null what are you-]

<SHUT UP!!!>

<You focus, you need to, to, to think. He's about to strike, you wait, step back from the first strike, second one comes in, catches your hand. It stings, it burns.>

"S-siffrin!!" [You hear Mirabelle exclaim. Your breathing is heavy, you were already exhausted from looping and THIS ISN'T HELPING!!!]

"Increddible, absolutley increddible." [Perci is staring at wonder.] "It's like your thought switch in an instant. Going from one plan to another faster than any mind should be able to!"

"Future vision? Perhaps?" [Merlon adds. You look over to Mirabelle, you share a look.] "No, not quite. . ."

"Oh!" [Perci snaps his fingers.] "Is that what that looping you keep thinking about is? Time looping back when you loose?"

<. . . . .>

[Percis face lights up.] "It IS!!! Oh, oh my, Merlon we have a lot of work to do."

<He rushes in again. Block, dodge- >

<Again. Jump, stab down- >

<Dash in to meet him, leap, craft- >

[IT'S NOT WORKING]

<He can read our movements. Can't, think them, just, focus on- >

<Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.>

[What are you DOING?!?]

<Stop thinking. Block, strike, dodge, block, craft->

<To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools.>

<The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,>

"Reciting plays to cover your thoughts?" <Perci says. Strike block lunge.> "It might work~"

"Your rogue is a very talented fighter, Mirabelle." <Merlon's voice.>

". . . ." <Mirabelle> "He, he is."

<Dodge, duck, jump, cornered. Block He looks you in the eye.>

<That struts and frets his hour upon the stage- >

< -And then is heard no more. It is a tale>

<Block, parry. Block, dodge.>

"No crafts, Null?" <Perci lunges.> "Focused too much on your footwork, perhaps."

[I can. Just-]

<No. You just. Needed. A dagger.>

<He's taunting.> "I can tell by your thoughts, you've already tried beating me quite a bit."

<Cut him. Jump. Hit, trip- >

<Told by an idiot>

<Your little wounds hurt. Legs getting weak. Looping, hard.>

"Stop it!!" <Mirabelle.> "Both of you!! They, S-sif you'll, you'll-"

<Jump, duck, parry, counter.>

<He's gloating.> "I'd call it cheating, but, it looks like you're only hurting yourself."

<He knocks your dagger away, you- >

<Full of sound and fury,>

<You collapse.>

<Your legs, arms, feet, chest, hands, stomach, it burns, it BURNS. It's all numb, it's all pain, it's nothing, eveerything. Null. Zero. Nothing. Nothing but pain, pain, pain- >

<Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.>

<You can't go on.>

<You lost.>

[sleights-of-hand]

Timidly leaving this sketchy concepting art of my Dog comic guys as Fallout comic guys here and frolicking away.

[scribefindegil]

Papercraft Emi for Mob Psycho GirlWeek!!