#she's just so wise and kind

[mohntilyet]

still i think the one of the more fun differences drawn between illario and lucanis that was lost would be illario's ability to endear himself to others but serious lack of empathy, vs. lucanis' (self perceived) inability to be charming but how much he cares. it's interesting that the game has gone with the "lucanis' ability vs illario's lack thereof" because i think illario being the dellamorte 'best in show dog' vs. lucanis' attack dog would have made me so unwell.

lucanis is... awkward. he's not unlikable, because he is usually very polite, but he doesn't speak much and only seems to care about the other dellamortes. he once sent viago de riva a knife with no note (who knows what he could have meant by this). he does what caterina asks of him, and by his own admission, cannot say no to her. he is a dramatic and prolific killer, and that makes how untouchable he is even worse.

and the crows like illario, sure, AND he's a good assassin! he's even a good crow! he's so good that he can make lucanis smile, and so he is the charming, sociable one. he's the one that stays in treviso and can be relied upon to care, illario's even the one people prefer over caterina and lucanis!

but illario is decoration. he's the prize poodle, and even if poodles were bred to be working dogs, nobody will ever pick him to protect the house over the german shepherd that regularly mauls intruders. anyways the analogy is getting away from me. the point i'm trying to make is that i want illario to have a different kind of jealousy/hatred that's not just over 'being bad at killing' but also an arrogant loathing for everyone around him that is getting harder to hide, because they've forgotten he can bite and is just itching to rip someone's jugular out. illario is very good at hiding his family resemblance to caterina, while lucanis suffers under his grandmother's, and his own, reputation.

[otaku553]

Ok so I have been stewing this crossover au in my brain nonstop for the past few days and. I am nothing if not committed to the bit, so. Volume cover redraws :)

Here are the originals:

If you want to read more about my one piece spy x family crossover, keep reading!

So the idea is simple! Crossover reincarnation au where ASL is reborn in Spy x Family. They’re each born separately and none of them are born with the same names as their previous lives, and with no way of finding each other, they each find their own thing to do in the world.

Sabo, too used to the dangers of being a spy, eventually finds a cause to devote himself to again, in preventing war from engulfing the country he was reborn in. Ace, drawn to fire as he was in his previous life, used arson as a means to rob rich people for sustenance and survival, and is eventually scouted and hired by Garden as a fire specialist and assassin. And Luffy, though born in perhaps the poorest condition, grows up happily and takes whatever part time jobs he wants to do.

The thing about Sabo is that, as much as he seems like a young man of good repute and high standing within society, everyone in WISE knows that he is a massive nuisance. Nobody knew in the beginning how a child less than half the age of most of their veteran agents could have the same skills and knowledge in their profession. Sabo was— and still is— hyper competent, and by the time WISE figured out just how much of a menace to society he was, it was too late.

Ace forgot for the first few years of his new life that he wasn’t made of fire, and consequently, received multiple accidental burns. This did not deter him, however, from growing up to be a very skilled arsonist, well-practiced in every which way to start a dumpster fire or house fire. As a teenage he would use this often to draw attention as he robbed rich people blind. When he was caught, he was given an ultimatum by Garden: join them and receive payment for starting fires and causing problems under contract, or face the government and authorities for his crimes. Begrudgingly, he joined Garden, but eventually comes to appreciate that he can make substantial money in his element.

Luffy is Luffy. No telepathy or experimentation, no fancy schools, no gimmicks or secret identities. But he has still lived an extremely colorful life in this world, full of fascinating and kind individuals who have helped him grow up healthy and relatively happy. He goes where he is free, and he takes whatever part time jobs he wants in order to make the minimum he needs to survive.

Ace and Sabo find each other first, in their late teens, and neither of them realize that the other remembers their previous life, but both refuse to separate. (Sabo thinks Ace doesn’t remember, because Ace didn’t recognize him. Ace never saw Sabo grow up past 10, however, so he doesn’t recognize older Sabo immediately. By the time he does realize who exactly Sabo is, Sabo has backtracked and pretends to know Ace from a dream, or from somewhere else.)

Sabo’s attachment to Ace, predictably, causes problems between Sabo and WISE, but by then, Sabo is indispensable to the organization, and they make an exception for Sabo to be able to remain with Ace, so long as Ace never finds out what Sabo’s actual job is. Ace, on the other hand, hides his job because he doesn’t want his brother, who he has just found and who does not know Ace well enough yet, to know that he makes a living from killing people.

And they find Luffy sometime afterwards, prior to the beginning of the Spy x Family canon. Luffy figures out, not long after moving in with his brothers, both of his brothers’ secret occupations and the fact that both of them remember their past memories. He thinks it is common knowledge, however, and so he never brings it up.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

dreaming abt sophomore year class swap bard!riz

[hopeswriting]

daily life arc miura haru. does anyone know who i'm talking about. do you guys remember her. i still can't believe what happened to her 😔

[sanchoyoscribbles]

@zexalmonth day 9: gate. I love a crossover prompt!!! instead of letting the characters interact I mostly just wanted to draw yuma and astral in cure star and cure milky's outfits tho. the color schemes... 🥺

I love the series where a blue alien partners up with a pink haired protag with the space theme. B) no, but actually these series do have a lot in common and I think anyone whose a fan of one of them should def check out the other!! 🌟

[effielovesapples]

self insert and the funnies

[blackjackkent]

Astarion doesn't hesitate once the fight is complete. Still covered in the blood of the werewolf he just finished killing, bare-chested and battered, he hurls himself at the stone coffin into which Cazador retreated.

"No, no!" he roars. "No healing sleep for you! WAKE UP!"

Grabbing Cazador by the collar, he hurls him out onto the stone floor.

Cazador scrabbles backwards across the bloodstained platform, struggling to retain his disdainful expression around the fear suddenly in his eyes. "Get your hands off me, worm!" he spits.

Astarion towers over him, the master he has hated for so long finally brought low. "I'm not the one in the dirt," he snarls, like a kicked dog finally showing its teeth.

He reaches down, picks up a dagger that has fallen to the floor as Cazador was thrown across it. It's a strange blade, not like one Rakha has ever seen.

At its center, held within curving strips of polished metal, is a stake of wood. Wyll has told her of how vampires die; she can see the purpose of such a blade. That is not a weapon made for mortal men.

Astarion looks at it, then lifts it to point the tip at Cazador. It trembles almost imperceptibly in his grip. "One last thrust," he hisses - and his voice is trembling too. "And I'll be free of you. I'll never have to fear you again."

He swallows, then flicks his eyes to the staff on the ground at Cazador's side. "But if I finish the ritual you started... I'll never have to fear anyone. Ever." His eyes glow with manic, desperate hunger - and fear.

Cazador laughs hollowly. "You think me a fool?" he cries. "That I would allow anyone to usurp me, speak the words, and ascend in my place?!" He leans forward a little, headless of the sharp tip of the dagger pointing at him. "The runes I carved into your flesh bind you and all seven thousand souls to the ritual! Complete it, and those bearing the scars will be sacrificed - you included."

He pushes himself up on his knees, even now striking out against Astarion with word after word. "You are simply a means to an end! I made you to be consumed!"

Astarion's fingers tighten on the dagger's hilt. A muscle works violently in his jaw as he stares down at his unrepentant tormentor.

"I am so much more," he whispers, "than what you made me."

There's a long, strained pause. Then he looks up abruptly, fixing his eyes on Rakha. "Get over here," he snaps brusquely. "We can do this."

Rakha doesn't move, doesn't say anything for a long time.

She knows what Astarion wants her to do. She even, on some level, knows why he wants it. This ritual, whatever it fully entails, is the ultimate throwing off of the shackles that have held him for centuries. He wants to be free. He wants not to be afraid anymore.

He wants peace, just as Rakha wants it. But he wants to obtain it by accepting the darkest version of the monster that he has become.

The idea makes her skin crawl. She has stood on the same precipice as him, offered a gift that came with the selling of her soul. She wants to grab him by the shoulders, pull him away, out of reach, before it can swallow him.

"Didn't you hear him?" she asks hoarsely. "If you complete the ritual, you'll be consumed..."

Astarion barks a sharp laugh. "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

Perhaps he does. So many times before, her friends have faced choices of this magnitude, and she has trusted to their judgment rather than her own. Shadowheart with her spear, and Lae'zel's stand against Vlaakith, and Wyll's choice of his future, and Gale with the Crown of Karsus. She has never believed that she might know better than them, and this hardly seems the time to start.

This is Astarion's choice, not hers.

Isn't it?

"All right," she mutters haltingly, one hand rapidly flexing into a fist at her side. "What... do you need?"

"I need your eyes," he says. His voice sounds hollow and exhausted - but brittle with determination. "In a manner of speaking."

"What do you think you are doing?" Cazador hisses.

"Unmaking what you made me," Astarion growls, his eyes not leaving Rakha. "Use the parasite," he tells her. "Link your mind to mine. Through your eyes, I can see the scars on my back and copy them onto his."

Cazador's eyes widen, showing the whites at their edges. "You... would not dare."

"I would," Astarion murmurs. "And I will. You will be consumed. And all the power you've lusted after will be mine!"

"And what then, Astarion?" Jaheira asks flatly at Rakha's side. "You would use this power born of so much death for *good*, I suppose?"

Astarion ignores her. His eyes have not left Rakha's, not even to blink. "Help me do this. Please."

Rakha hesitates. She can feel Jaheira's sardonic disapproval, and Wyll's gaze digging into the back of her neck. She senses Minsc vibrating with barely-restrained anger. Even Lae'zel seems somewhat disquieted, her fingers tapping restlessly against the hilt of her sword.

But it is... Astarion's choice. Not hers. Not anyone's....

Mechanically she takes a step forward, and then another.

Enter Astarion's mind so he can proceed with the ritual.

Narrator: Your minds join and your two selves become one. You can feel the knife in your hand, see the scars on his back, and taste his hunger for power.

The bitter, brutal emotion pours through her like a waterfall, like a burning flame. Rakha grunts with sudden pain, clutching at her temple, but Astarion's eyes go wide with exhilaration.

"Yes. Yes - I see it!" he hisses.

In a quick, smooth, harsh set of motions, he steps behind Cazador and rips the robe off of him, baring his back and shoving him to the floor.

And Cazador screams as Astarion, over and over and over, sinks the knife into his flesh and begins to carve.

(A/N: This is a truly unpleasant little sequence and goes on for quite some time before eventually fading to black to indicate that it goes on even longer.)

All sense of time fades out. For a while Rakha is conscious only of the screaming, and the blood, and the overwhelming sense of delighted rage flowing into her from Astarion's mind. She doesn't know how long she's been standing there when the connection finally breaks.

She comes back to herself standing at Astarion's side. He and Cazador are both soaked in blood. The others look on with expressions ranging from appalled to enraged.

"There," Astarion hisses. "Perfect."

"Ungrateful child," Cazador chokes out. Tears are streaming down his face, cutting lines through the red painting his cheeks. "Wretched child!"

Astarion just smiles. "Time to take your place!"

He lifts the staff from the ground, and it glows with blood-red power in his hands. With a jerk, he lifts Cazador from the ground and hurls him into the socket where Astarion himself was held only minutes earlier.

Everything begins to happen at once. Astarion slams the staff into the sigil at the center of the platform, and around Rakha the Weave seems to explode with that same red, writhing light. All around them, the suspended spawn begin to scream, their voices echoing and rebounding on each other and mixing with other screams from below and behind, from the seven thousand other souls prepared to burn for this ascension.

Rakha staggers with the intensity of it, the overwhelming wall of sound and light and pain.

Behind her, barely audible through the chaos, she can hear her companions begin to shout, unable any longer to hold themselves back.

"No!" Wyll cries. "What are you doing?"

"Enough!" shouts Minsc. "We can still stop the nonsense words in his mouth!"

"This isn't the way!" shouts Lae'zel. The three of them break into a run towards Astarion - but the wall of power around him rises to meet them, slaps them back like a physical blow.(*)

At Rakha's side, Jaheira reaches out and seizes her forearm with a sudden fierce grip. "Are we truly to be party to this?" she asks, her voice low enough to cut underneath the screaming around them.

Rakha has gone completely still. The magic is pounding at her like a creature with fists and claws, and the screams echo in her mind, resonating with the memories of a thousand other deaths at her hands in a life she does not remember.

It is Astarion's choice. She is a broken thing, with no right to believe she knows better on this or anything else.

And yet...

I am so much more than what you made me, Astarion said.

An image flashes through her mind, painful as the edge of a knife, of the last moments before her death in the Temple of Bhaal, another moment soaked in red light and blood. Her father's rage as she rejected his 'gift'.

You refuse me? You are my spawn! Your veins course with my unholy blood. Your life is mine!

You were made to conquer! To devour! You reject my blood, and so I will reclaim it!

I will make another who is worthy...

She opens her eyes and stares at Astarion's body, writhing in the grip of the gift he has stolen from his own monstrous 'father,' on the precipice of the oblivion she rejected. And she knows, suddenly, that wrong or right, she cannot let this go on.

This ends here, I said. It ends... here...

We are more than what they made us.

Stop Astarion.

With more instinct than thought, she hurls herself across the platform, lifting the knife with the stake at its core from the place where Astarion discarded it.

Astarion's head swivels to face her, and for a single instant his eyes widen as he recognizes what she is trying to do.

"What are you doing?" he cries over the screams around them. "No - stop!"

She does not stop.

She hurls the knife like a javelin into Cazador's chest.

Silence, abrupt and complete. The swirling power fades. The screaming stops. Cazador, pouring blood from the wound in his heart, slithers to the floor and lays still.

Astarion staggers, then collapses to his knees, letting the staff clatter onto the stone beside him. "It's... it's gone... All that power..." he whispers.

Rakha releases a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She is trembling all over, her eyes fixed not on Astarion but on Cazador's bloodsoaked body. In the moment of her attack, she was striking not just at him but at Bhaal as well - but Bhaal is not here, just the vampire who dies along with Astarion's hope for ascension.

"You don't need it," she mutters. "You're more than strong enough as you are."

We... are so much more than what they made us. Come with me. We will live, and be damned to them all.

But Astarion's head lifts and he stands and rounds on her, and there is no gratitude in his eyes, no hope. They are like burning coals set in the paleness of his face.

"Don't you tell me what I needed!" he snarls. He looks hollowed out, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. "I was so close - I could have had it all," he says with desperate, furious grief, stepping closer to her. "But you took everything from me!"

His voice lifts to a sudden scream of violent despair, and he grabs her by the collar of her robes, jerking her forward.(*)

The rage in his eyes shows no understanding of why she did what she did, or the similarity she sees between them, or the terrible things that have been done to them both. He needs an enemy, and he no longer has Cazador, and she is the only target that remains.

"Cazador won after all," he says - and his voice is suddenly soft again, hollow and mournful. "I'll never escape the hell he built."

And then his face goes hard for the last time, until it is nothing but steel and rage. "And if I can't escape... then no one can. Not them--"

He drops suddenly, lifts the staff, and without hesitation snaps it across his knee. The power still within it - the power that would have released the seven thousand trapped spawn - bursts in a sudden supernova around his hands... and then fades to nothing.

Through the fading, dying ripples of the Weave, he stares into Rakha's eyes, and if there was ever friendship between them, it's gone now, gone forever to the same place as all that power.

"And certainly not you," he growls. The pieces of the broken staff clatter to the ground, and his fingers close around Rakha's throat.

-----

(*) Artistic license in this whole bit. Only one companion actually speaks up here (in-game it was Minsc), and none of them actually do anything but watch. But I wanted to give everyone a little more activity, so I dug all four characters' lines out of the dialogue files.

(*) Also artistic license obviously.

[valzhangism]

i know i said i was happy about how mel's story went, but the more i think about it the less i'm sure about that. this is very much connected to how the themes of classism and wealth disappeared in s2, but mel in the beginning was the epitome of piltover. she wanted to advance piltover to prove herself to her mother. to "put piltover—" and by extension herself, "—on the map."

she wanted wealth just to have it. and i'm not blaming her for anything that happened, especially with hextech! she, just like jayce and viktor, could not have known what it would lead to. i mean yeah heimerdinger said so but who the hell listens to heimerdinger? but anyway i think mel changed throughout s1, much in thanks to jayce. by the end she's become more cognisant of the mistreatment of zaunites. she's the first to vote for their peace. she was a good person all along but now she knows how to act on it. it's also seen more in s2 act 1. when she covers her painting with gold, it's symbolic—she won't act according to what her mother might think. she won't let her desire for approval dictate her anymore.

so somehow i wish those themes were. continued, somehow? like again they were dropped not just with mel but the whole show and it makes her story a off to me. there's no meaningful commentary on war or classism or how her ideology stands opposite to her mother's. like some people have said, it feels like she doesn't have much agency, even if she is really cool. and that to me is a shame because agency felt like her thing. "to shape your own destiny" as she says to jayce in s1. i know her collaborating with the black rose (but not fully joining them) and learning magic is supposed to represent becoming independent from her mother, taking her own path, but some other aspects of her character were thrown away... the more i think about it the more i'm thinking they kind of #girlboss-ed her a little bit. maybe to sell another champion. i can't help but feel like even though i enjoyed seeing her on screen, the payoff didn't feel proportionally satisfying compared to her setup in s1.

[ratpinkpunk]

Sketch concept that might become a fully rendered piece

(Also sorry quality is crap)

[welcometogrouchland]

Hello, another doodle compilation post of everything I haven't posted since the period of May to now that I didn't hate but didn't like enough to post on its own + fanart i made of @catboymoments's fankids Azura and Hyacinth! I'm not normally a fankid person but these guys are a whole moment unto themselves I love them sm. ID in alt text bc it was getting lengthy! Let me know if there's any issues

[averlym]

miscellany (again),, tags in the last image by @pyrotechnicarus

[spitinsideme]

Since demon ragatha is like the queen of hell or something like that does that mean demon pomni is queen in that au??

like the demon.pomni and nun ragatha au ? she is not !!! shes like ... an imp, lowest rank of demon, literallt kicked oit of hell because no one likes her and shes just a loser and is ruining the scary hell demons reputation she is quite literally the lowesr of the low in terms of rank

[thespoonisvictory]

still making excuses for oisin in my head btw just to keep you all updated

[marciabrady]

Hi! I was surprised to see somewhere you mentioned you don't like Lily James's Cinderella. I'm not judging, just surprised bc she seems to be widely considered the best live action princess depiction. I do think her Ella is less spunky and interesting than OG Cinderella but what criticisms do you have? Do you think she's as bad as Rachel's Snow will probably be?

I don't think anyone will ever be as bad as Lily was in her film, not even Rachel. With Rachel, it's a difficult situation because people keep changing what she did depending on what the public reaction is to absolve her of any wrongdoing so the internet can baby her. If people are upset with her comments about disliking Snow White, everyone will rally to her defense and say, "But she DIDN'T say that- watch her interviews!" and if someone clips exactly what she said, the goalpost is changed to, "OK, but it's an 80 year old movie; she was right!" So there's no merit in any discussion regarding Rachel, though I do think it's an out and out shame to have one of the most influential films and characters of media history be seen through such a banal lens, with criticisms which don't even hold any weight and all likely originated by an apathetic dullard that had beef with their childhood and took it out on a Disney film, and those criticisms kept getting passed around decade by decade (like I don't think these people who parrot these things to attempt to be intellectually superior to whatever they perceive to be the dominant culture of the past realize that they're really just repeating misogynistic trite half the time; like at Lindsay Ellis' character arc on The Little Mermaid from the late 2000's to today). I don't think anyone who actually watches Snow White for themselves, Rachel included, would have the takes she touts to have if they had to use their own head to come up with those opinions. But that groupthink and monoculture is an entirely different story for another time (and we can see how it's evolved, from everyone agreeing with the things she said despite it not lining up to the movie, to then morphing to the point of actually trying to pretend that Rachel loves the character of Snow White; posting pictures of going to the parks near the character's merchandise after being cast as the character is something different entirely to showing an understanding and appreciation of it, both of which Rachel is completely lacking in. The only thing she admires about Snow White is her reflection in it, now that she's been cast).

With Lily specifically, I think it's much more heinous for so many reasons. Not to compare traumas, but Snow White goes through more than any other character- male or female- in the animated canon. So while she, too, suffers abuse in her lifetime, I think Cinderella's film is the one that's kinda become the posterchild for surviving abuse so I think Lily opening her uneducated mouth and cosigning on victim-blaming rhetoric was not only incredibly inane, detrimental, uncalled for, and harmful of her to do, but also just...incomprehensibly dense when she gave us someone that more closely aligned with the victim doormat she accused the original of being? To be pompous and as self aggrandizing as Lily is, going to movie premieres that are only possible because of the original production which was the labor of love for thousands of artists, and to put it all down and paint abuse victims in such a shallow, unintelligent light, lacking any perspective, and propping your version up as the "stronger," more "empowered" one, when she gave us one that was more centered around a man, objectively weaker in every possible way, less nuanced, and hyper-sexualized, pandering to the male gaze...to me, it's everything wrong with these Hollywood hypotheses today in a nutshell.

Ilene Woods' Cinderella is so multilayered and human. and with it being a realistic portrayal, it can be alienating- because it reflects life. Some people like you, some people don't. Ilene's Cinderella had limits and could be curt and struggled with her faith and resented her situation, but she also had a fighter's spirit and was resilient and had humor and courage. You got a sense that, this was someone who never had any resources of their own and became, to everyone else, what she never had for herself, which created a path toward her inevitable freedom and success. Lily's...smiled dully, communicated ineffectively, and was a mess from a characterization standpoint. All the ways they tried to make her "empowered" or "develop her" hurt the story. The film is called Cinderella- by trying to develop her relationship with the Prince by making them meet in the woods before the ball, they changed the motive for Cinderella going to the ball to meet the Prince again. That's a HUGE step back and more closely aligns with Lily's insane comments that the original "just waited for a Prince to save her." In the original, she didn't even think she'd ever see her dance partner again after she left the ball. Her fighting for her right to go to the ball was symbolic of her demanding to be seen as a person in the eyes of their society and refusing to be bypassed once more. She didn't come for a Prince- you can see that by the way she showed up to the ball by herself and journeys through the Castle, admiring the architecture, while everyone else- including Anastasia and Drizella- are lined up to meet the Prince. Never once does she mention a man or love in any way until after he approaches her at the ball. She even leaves the Prince at midnight and doesn't know until the next morning who he is or that he's looking for her. That's a long step away from Lily's portrayal, 65 years later.

They try to give Lily more "snappy" moments to prove that she can assert herself (which original Cinderella had no issue doing) but they do it in a way that's largely ineffective. She challenges the Prince, but that's the only person and the way she does it...oof. When he asks her about her family, she passively whispers, "they treat me as well as they are able." But she's comfortable yelling at a stranger with weapons about hunting??? How is this the same person???? When she speaks back in French to her family, but the audience doesn't know what she said and neither does her stepfamily- and after it, she just runs along and does their bidding anyway? There's so many more examples. And, of course, her spinning around in circles and singing out-loud in the attic is the most obviously heinous example of her characterization. I swear, it's crazy to me that these real people half a century after the animated films, that accuse the originals of having shallow and regressive characters, give us just that. It's also funny to me that Lily James went on a press tour bashing the original Cinderella and looking ignorant as it pertains to abuse and feminism, and then got offended when reporters asked if her waist was photoshopped and she had the gall to reference the fact that we should be in a time where women support women. Lily's production of Cinderella reinforces Eurocentric beauty standards more than the original- the stepsisters, Lady Tremaine, and the Fairy Godmother all fit a very similar type of conventional beauty- young, hyperfeminine, white with VERY similar features, and stylized. They're completely monolithic in terms of body type and appearance, and took away the diversity of age ranges, body types, and physical features in the original. Then for Lily to gape about people asking her about her diet, after she spent an hour bashing the original female character as being "passive." Lily even openly admitted to being laced within an inch of her life, naturally being thin with a small waist but having to go on a liquid diet because she couldn't fit into her clothing otherwise. She laughed about having to belch in the Prince's face over and over again because she was so tightly laced and her stomach hurt from only being able to drink liquids and not eat...idk she just lacks in any intelligence or charm to me. I think it's also harmful because it's become the favored version, with Disney writing it into the original's novelization in contemporary books, with people think Lily's character was what the original one was and forgetting their differences, ugh I could go on about this forever. Just know I think Lily's performance in this film is the worst in cinema history lol

[justalittlebluetiefling]

The fight is going well because I got the killing blow on both the high level enemies but their little minions have knocked two of my party members unconscious and one of them has failed two death saves and the other has failed one and I think this might actually be my character's worst nightmare.