#so glad i finally finished and posted them

[starvingnarcissistmusic]

I've had this drafted forever and I'm not entirely sure why I didn't post it. Oh well, better late than never!

MAL DU PAYS (the song) fun facts:

(Like the original post, spoilers for Act 5 ((and also 2hats)))

- Originally, after finishing the game, I wanted to write a song about Loop. They're one of my favorite parts of the game and I really loved their character, but I ended up scrapping that idea very early on, as I couldn’t really find a personal tie to anchor the song to me. While I did want to write a song about the game, I didn’t want to write something that didn’t resonate with me and my musical “mythos” in some way. It's a fan song, but it's also a Starving Narcissist song, and I felt it was important to strike that balance. MAL DU PAYS (Monophobia) only got released because I felt that it was something that fit into the larger body of my works even without the context of the game. So in the end, I chose to write about Siffrin, as I found them a lot more personally relatable. The final version, lyrically, is almost like I’m using Siffrin as a vehicle to write about my own feelings. Some lyrics are his, some are mine, a few are both of us, it’s a weird sort of style I’ve never really written in before.

I do have some leftover lyrics from the scrapped Loop version, though!

“There’s a you you’ll never be, across the cosmic sea / Who has everything you wanted, now it’s everything you need; is it over yet?”

- I think originally the song had a lot more of an exhausted vibe, but with most of the stuff I write, the tempo usually gets faster the more I play it. At some point in the writing process the song channeled more of a manic energy than I had originally intended it to. Loud and shouty is kinda just my default lol.

(The first ever demo for the song, recorded September 15, 2024. Features some slightly altered lyrics!)

- The title was also subject to change! I think for a while I was going back and forth on just calling it Homesickness, mostly because I was a little nervous that my song’s name was technically a late game spoiler. Half the reason I wanted to even write the song was because I thought MAL DU PAYS would make a great song title though, so in the end I just sucked it up and went with my gut. The alternate title was also not set in stone, I think originally I was considering just calling it Mania or Paranoia, but I thought those would be a bit generic. Eventually, I settled on Monophobia, because I felt it was apt in describing the song as a whole. I write a lot about loneliness, and Siffrin is afraid of being alone, so it felt fitting to name the song after the fear of it. (And also, a bit more superficially, I thought Monophobia made a better song title.)

- The song is the only Starving Narcissist song on a nylon string guitar, and it's also the second song in a completely non-standard tuning (third if you count ITWYW?, but that's just a half step down from standard). MAL DU PAYS (Monophobia) in DADF#BD, with a capo on 1.

- THIS SONG HAD SO MANY REVISIONS. I don't think I've ever had this many versions to a song ever. It got so bad that I made a specific folder just to hold all the different variations I had for the song. They're not all too different from each other, and they're all built on the same take of the song, but I was playing around with mixing and structuring and vocal layering and its a whole mess. Honestly, the fact that it's a song about a timeloop makes it probably the funniest song this could have happened to.

- And that's about it! To end off this little fun fact post, here's a little something I wrote for Genius (where lyrics for this song and all my others are posted! plus annotations I write! <3) about the song. The response to MAL DU PAYS (Monophobia) has been pretty wild, and I'm glad it managed to resonate with people, even some who don't even know the game it's about.

That's all. While I guarantee this year will probably be slower for Starving Narcissist, rest assured that I am working on stuff, just very slowly. There's a very low chance I'll ever do something as flagrantly self indulgent as this song, but whatever I do end up doing, I hope you're around to see it.

In the meantime, stream the song on spotify! or buy it on bandcamp! or even just go watch the lyric video i made for it (please i spent like a week on this)!

Thanks for everything, see you later <333

Happy one year anniversary to In Stars And Time! tldr; i wrote a song about it. if you wanna skip all the gushing and just listen to it, click here. (spoilers for act 5) If not, behold this big rambly mess of a thing i wrote:

So funny story, I kind of wasn’t planning on releasing anything for the rest of the year. The album wore me out, and the only other idea I had sort of fell through, so I was content on just letting the album be the only thing of note I would make in 2024.

… and then, in September, I played a little RPG called In Stars And Time. beat the whole thing over the course of three days, then spent the next couple weeks ravenously consuming all the fan content I could get my hands on. my friends have been forced to stare at my siffrin pfp every day for two months straight at this point and frankly i think they are tired of me talking about it.

i love the art, i love the story, i love the music, i love the characters, i love the world. siffrin sort of immediately became one of my favorite protagonists like,, ever. and it definitely did not help that i am also a scrawny forgetful person who has to regularly fight off the part of my brain that convinces myself that All My Friends Secretly Hate Me.

I’ve never really been so called out by a character before. The spiraling, the deflection, and the agony of being a stranger to yourself. the yearning for something you cant even name, because how could you? you cant even find the words on your tongue. not being able to tell anyone how you feel because its just easier to live with it, easier to let it eat you from the inside out then to bother anybody else. its easier to keep the mask on, stick to your lines, let the show go on.

all that hit just a bit too close to home. so i did what I usually do When Things Hit and wrote about it.

(like i said, spoilers for Act 5; It’s pretty devoid of context but they’re spoilers nonetheless)

MAL DU PAYS (Monophobia) is a song about cyclical burnout, self-estrangement, and homesickness. It’s half about Siffrin, half about me, but mostly it’s a rumination on loneliness and the hell that is the self.

Out now wherever you listen to music.

“How can you be homesick if nowhere is home?"

[eulaliasims]

Round 3, Shep 1 / 3

Believe it or not, I've actually played the whole autumn round in Veridia since I last posted. Unfortunately, some of that was two months ago, so caption quality may be questionable on some posts. Anyway, here we go, I'm not summarizing anything this time. You probably maybe remember who these guys are. Or not, I had to go check my tags a few times to make sure I was spelling names correctly.

Shep is having a pretty calm autumn. She checks on the bees (she's glad now her mothers insisted she bring that queen bee cell all this way to start a new hive, because the honey has been a nice little boon), chats up random passersby, and works a little bit on her weaving in the evening before it gets too dark for fine work.

When she's not weaving, she likes to spend time at the mead hall.

Xiang: Shep, you have bees, correct?

Shep: I do, in fact, have bees! I just finished a batch of honey, were you interested in buying?

Xiang: Actually, I was wondering if you would be willing to give Drustan a lesson or two about the bees. See, he's developed something of a phobia after an incident—

Shep: And you think learning about them will help?

Xiang: That's my theory. We can work out payment for you, of course, if you're interested in doing it.

Shep: Be paid to talk about bees? Sure! I could do that in my sleep.

(Reminder that Drustan actually got chased by bees three times in one round. On the other hand, I started playing Legend of Zelda: BotW for the first time and immediately got chased by bees, so maybe I am the problem.)

Elmet and Eisu are here too. Who's watching the kids, you ask? Eh, Mouse has got everything under control, I'm sure.

Helenet and Elmet's impending marriage has become the hot topic in town this week.

Helenet: What about you? Do you have your eye on anyone in particular, Shep? Oh, or if that's something you're not interested in, just ignore me, I'm a little tipsy I suppose.

Shep: I do, actually, but it's nothing serious yet.

Helenet: Well, just kissing is fun too! *giggle*

BIG NEWS! Selling off most of her honey meant Shep could finally afford that pottery wheel! She may only have 82 simoleons to her name now, but she can make plates!

That morning, Xiang brings Drustan by for his beekeeping lesson.

Shep: Rule number one about bees, bees mostly only get aggressive when they feel threatened, especially if their home is threatened. It's how they keep their hive safe from intruders trying to eat their honey and babies. Lots of beekeepers will use a smokey torch to make the bees sleepy when they collect honeycomb.

Drustan: Don't the bees get mad afterward that they don't have any honey?

Shep: You have to leave enough in the hive for them, otherwise you won't have bees anymore. It's what the baby bees eat. Anyway, my mother believes bees recognize their keepers and have people they prefer. I don't know, they do seem calmer after they've become acquainted with you.

Drustan: Hmm... does the silly hat make them bees like you more?

Shep: My hat isn't silly. I just burn easily. Do you want to look at the bees with me now?

Drustan: Maybe. From a safe distance.

[chains-of-destiny]

Monthly Progress Update #8

Hey everyone!

So...it's been a long time since there was a monthly progress update, and I apologize for that.

First off, where is the update?

It's coming! I still want to do a few test runs and read through everything one more time, but if I don't find any major issues, I'll post it tomorrow.

So what's been happening? (This is mostly IRL stuff, so if you're uninterested, feel free to skip this section.)

As I mentioned, there were some things that pulled me away from writing for a while, especially last month. January was a very busy month with work, university exams, and some medical stuff (I'm in good health now). Thankfully, I managed to juggle everything and successfully pass all my exams while also squeezing in some writing on the side. It was a tough balancing act, but I'm glad to be back on track now!

What's next?

Next, I'll focus on the revision of Chapter 2. I've read through Chapter 2 again, and I'm pretty content with the writing there, so I won't be rewriting 80-90% of the text as I did with Chapter 1. However, there are some small additions I want to include, some [WIP] sections I need to finish, and I also want to incorporate some of the great feedback and suggestions you've given me. Chapter 2 is bigger overall, but since I won't be rewriting most of it, I predict it'll take less time to finish the revision (though my predictions so far have been less than accurate 😅). After that, I'll finally move on to Chapter 3!

Thank you again for all your patience and support. I can't wait to share the new content with you all. 😊

Also, thank you for all the asks! I'll answer them tomorrow after (hopefully) dropping the update.

[dandelion-wings]

Re-reading current WIPs leads to re-reading old stuff no longer in progress, which lead me today to the old stuff from @theabysscomeshome and I's Harbinger AU. And it occurred to me that, while I doubt I'm ever fixing up or finishing the outdated stuff enough to ever put this on AO3 at this point, I could go ahead and post the one complete piece from it that's not completely jossed, and that I still like, here. >>

For reference, the Harbinger AU is essentially a Venti-Tsarita roleswap (with a side of Jean-Childe roleswap but that doesn't show up at all in here), wherein the Knights of Favonius essentially fill the Fatui's role.

---

The great tower in front of them is in disrepair, shattered and half-broken, but the cubical mechanism for opening the door still works once the hilichurls out front have been cleared away. As the great door grinds open, tilted sideways at an awkward angle, a cheerful voice rings out from behind them both.

"Oh, it's Sir Diluc!"

Diluc spins around, his hand dropping to the hilt of his claymore. Lumine, noting his narrowed eyes and tight jaw, follows suit. In front of them both is a young woman, or older girl, in a leather traveling outfit with bright red accents that stand out against the swirling snow--including a headband that looks like nothing so much as a pair of rabbit ears. She pulls up the goggles that had been over her eyes and grins at them.

"Hello! I haven't met you before. Who are you?"

"Outrider," Diluc says, his tone guarded, though he doesn't yet draw his claymore. "You're a long way from Mondstadt."

"So are you! It's so nice to meet you here. I haven't seen you in ages." The girl skips forward as if she hasn't noticed Diluc's tension or the hand tightening further around his claymore's hilt. "Sir Kaeya and Master Jean will be so glad to know you're all right!"

"*Don't*," Diluc growls.

Those names Lumine recognizes. "Diluc, who is this?"

"Outrider Amber of the Knights of Favonius. Which makes her very far from her operational area."

"Oh, that's expanded a little bit since you left, Sir Diluc." She veers away from him to bound smiling over to Lumine. "I still haven't gotten your name."

"My name is Lumine," she says, fighting the urge to reach for the hand that Amber holds out to her. The girl's cheerful friendliness is at sharp odds with how tensely Diluc watches her. Also, if she's more recently from Mondstadt... Lumine has to ask. "Have you met a boy who looks like me on your travels from Mondstadt? I'm looking for my brother."

Amber looks her up and down, then shakes her head, an apologetic look on her face. "No, I'm sorry, I haven't. But I can put up some posters for you once I get back! Uh... if you can tell me a place to contact you...."

"Don't bother," Diluc says.

"I don't have any way for you to contact me, since I'm on the road. But I appreciate the offer." Lumine looks over at Diluc, trying to judge if it's *really* necessary to keep her hand on her sword. "I thought the Knights of Favonius were dangerous? But Amber's willing to put up posters, even if there's no point."

"It's not her I'm worried about. It's who might come behind her. Is that Lawrence woman in Snezhnaya too?"

"Don't call her that! At least call her Sir Eula!" Amber stamps a foot and glares at him. "And I can't tell you her movements, but she's not with me. I'm here because Sir Kaeya's too much of a layabout to do his own intelligence missions."

"Hey, should you be telling us that?" Paimon asks. She's drifted forward over Lumine's shoulder, her curiosity drawing her in.

"You're with Sir Diluc, so it's fine. He's a little grumpy, but he's not a bad guy."

Diluc sighs and straightens up, finally releasing his claymore. "She wouldn't tell us if she thought we could interfere with it. Which means she won't tell us the details, either."

"Nope!" Amber beams at him. "I'm so lucky I saw you guys in the snow. Your hair really stands out, Sir Diluc, and you always wear that black coat, so I thought it must be you. Even though it's not part of the mission, Sir Kaeya will be glad to know you're still going strong. And that you made a friend."

"Hmmph." Diluc crosses his arms over his chest. "And I'm sure it will help him track my movements."

"Duh! He worries about you, you know." She looks past them at the open door to the tower, then turns to Lumine. "If you're going in there, do you want some help? I have the time, and I wouldn't mind getting out of the cold for a while. Snezhnaya is *freezing*. Besides, I can tell Sir Diluc all about how Master Jean and Sir Kaeya are doing."

Lumine glances over at Sir Diluc. He looks a little annoyed, but not alarmed, and he doesn't try to refuse for her. This is her mission, given by the Tsaritsa, even if he's been helping her on it. And she would like to learn a little more about these Knights of Favonius from someone who doesn't have so obvious a grudge. It seems somehow appropriate to do so in pursuit of an Anemoculus.

"All right," Lumine says. "You can help."

As Lumine turns back towards the gaping black shadow of the doorway, she hears Amber cheer behind her. "Awesome! I can't wait to show you Baron Bunny."

***

Baron Bunny is a giant plush, it turns out. It explodes, which is a bit unexpected, but after the brief surprise of it in the first fight Lumine quickly gets used to it. Amber isn't nearly as strong a fighter as Diluc, though she also has a Pyro Vision, but just the presence of her flaring heat in battle seems to make the Melt effect that Lumine has gotten used to setting up with Diluc more effective. Overall, she's a much better party member than Diluc's reaction had led Lumine to expect.

A quarter of the way up the tower, they run into what seems to be a dead end. Lumine stands at the bottom of a cavernous space, made more so by the lingering edges of floors and walls that have crumbled away above. Even if she stands on the highest of the broken pillars, the next partially-intact floor is dozens of feet over her head. There's a lift mechanism in the corner, but it lies dormant and still.

"Those torches," Diluc says, holding his flaming claymore high to light the space. "That sort are usually connected to the mechanisms in these ruins. If I can reach them, I can light them and see what they'll do. It's getting there that's the problem."

Lumine looks around and sees what he means. The tilting and crumbling of the tower have put most of them in nearly-unaccessible spots. That one he might be able to reach by jumping off this pillar if she jumps far enough, and if he can squeeze through that rubble there one is half-buried behind it... but the ones higher on the walls will be harder to reach. Her Cryo constructs melt so quickly under Diluc's feet. The two that, due to the tilt of the tower, are practically on the ceiling? She has no idea about those.

"Oh, is that all? Leave it to me," Amber chirps from the base of the pillar. Lumine crouches down and watches her unsling her bow. She takes careful aim at each of the torches, the ends of her arrows bursting into flame, and lights each of them with one shot, even the half-buried one that Lumine wouldn't have thought she could reach.

"Thank you," Lumine says, smiling at her, as the lift jerks to life and begins to slowly grind its way up the wall. "We couldn't have done that without you."

"Glad to help." Amber assures her, dashing up the slant of the wall towards the lift. "Last one up is a rotten egg!"

Lumine jumps off the pillar to hit the wall right behind her. As she scrambles up onto the lift she sees Diluc uncross his arms, brace himself, and leap to follow.

***

They make it most of the rest of the way up before they reach another such space, this one with great crumbled gaps in the outer walls as well. No lift or torches are apparent this time. The cold winds from outside the tower rip through the sides of the tower, leaving piled-up drifts of snow behind. Lumine, Diluc, and Amber crouch in the lowest corner, Paimon floating low and using Lumine as a windbreak.

"Those are blowing harder than I'd have thought from looking outside," Diluc says. "There must be Anemo energy leaking down from above."

"I bet we could get up there using those winds," Amber says, eyeing the roaring flurries overhead in speculation.

"With the winds?" Lumine asks.

"Yeah, using our wind gliders!" Amber reaches back and pats the narrow wood-and-metal box on her back that Lumine had thought was some kind of travel case. "Sir Diluc, haven't you shown Lumine how to glide yet?"

"We haven't been in a large enough town to find one for sale. Or to get mine repaired," he says expressionlessly.

"What, your wind glider is broken? Let me take a look at it," Amber begs, reaching out towards him like she wants to grab for something. "I bet I can fix it. And I have a spare with me I could lend to Lumine, so we can show her how to glide! You know there won't be a better way up."

Diluc stares at her for a moment more, calculating, then reaches into his travel pack and pulls out another such case and holds it out. Amber snatches it from him with a squeal of excitement. "The left wing won't extend fully," he tells her as she flips it over and starts undoing catches on the back.

"Oh, that's because your pivot gears are bent. This will take me a few minutes, so maybe we should sit down and rest while I fix it? I haven't eaten in ages."

"A lunch break sounds like a *great* idea!" Paimon seconds enthusiastically. "Lumine, do you have more of that cabbage-potato borscht?"

"No, I'm all out," Lumine says regretfully to Paimon. Her stomach rumbles at the memory of the delicious soup. "Diluc, what about you?"

"I have potatoes."

"Nothing else?"

"Potatoes are a complete meal on their own."

"Not without butter and cream," Amber protests, looking up from the articulating wing made of metal joins and wooden feathers that she's stretched out over her knees. "I did some hunting earlier, and I still have plenty of meat, plus some cheese. You could make a pile-'em-up! You were always really good at that one."

"Oh!" Paimon comes zooming up to hover level with Diluc's face, bobbing in the air in front of him. "Juicy meat and melty cheese and potatoes! That sounds perfect to Paimon!"

Diluc bats irritably at Paimon until she drifts further away. "It won't be the same without lamp grass for seasoning."

"True," Amber says. "I guess I could make my signature Outrider's champion steak when I'm done fixing your wind glider."

"...I'll make a pile-'em-up without the lamp grass."

***

The Hydro Abyss Mage, shell frozen by Lumine's Cryo and melted into nothingness by Diluc's phoenix and Amber's arrows, tumbles squealing to the floor. Diluc lunges forward and drops down on top of it, pinning it beneath his knees, one hand on its shoulder, the other holding his claymore across its throat.

"The key to the pillar," he snaps at it. "How do we get it open?"

"Like I'm going to tell you," the Abyss Mage chitters, its voice high and cracking and full of vicious glee. "You'll never get through- aaah! That hurts!"

Diluc lets the flame die. "Tell us, or it's going to hurt a lot more."

"Favonians who can't even figure out the order of the elemental monuments on your own- aaah! Ow! Okay! The first, third and fifth have to be lit at the same time, while the other two are left alone, or they all go out! Aaaaah, I'm not lying!"

With a jerk of his claymore, Diluc slices through the Abyss Mage's neck, and it dissolves into powdery black smoke. Then he rises and turns to study the elemental monuments arranged around the pillar in which the Anemoculus is said to be encased. The way they're set, she can tell his phoenix can't hit all three at once without lighting the two in between.

"You could get those two," Lumine suggests, pointing to the two on the end. The curving way the monuments have been arranged in front of the pillar means that there's a straight line between them that wouldn't touch the others. "And Amber can shoot the third at the same time."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Amber pulls an arrow from her bow and sets it to the string, looking at Lumine with a smile. "Just give me a signal."

"Fine," Diluc says shortly, and walks to where he needs to stand to line up the phoenix. He, too, looks at Lumine for a signal.

Lumine takes a couple of steps back, just in case, and raises a hand. "Fire!" she calls, snapping it down.

Amber's arrow flies and flashes, the phoenix blazes forward, and the three monuments light up, Pyro sigils shining above them as veins of elemental energy run glowing down them like lava down a volcano's side. There's a click from the pillar, then a grinding of stone, and a portion of the front slides away. The Anemoculus--a blue-green orb framed with irregular, feathery wing-like protrusions, with a more stylized wing-like symbol shining from within the orb--rotates slowly within. She can feel the Anemo energy radiating off of it, generating a cool breeze that flows through the room.

Slowly, entranced by the beauty of the elemental object, Lumine starts forward. She reaches a hand out towards it as she passes the monument that Amber had lit.

But Amber is faster. She dashes forward and thrusts her hand into the pillar, snatching the Anemoculus from its prison. As she turns about, Lumine unthinkingly reaches towards her, expecting to be handed it. Amber just pulls her goggles down and bounces backwards, using the tilt of the floor to speed her movement.

"Sorry, Lumine. I wish I didn't have to do this, you seem really nice. But Sir Kaeya says Master Jean needs these, and even if he's too lazy to get them himself, I can't let you have one. I really hope I didn't mess things up for you too much. Good luck finding your brother! Sir Diluc, I'll tell everyone you said hi!"

As Diluc lunges for her, face twisted in fury, hands outstretched, she flings herself through the arching, open window behind her and into the freezing winds below. Amber twists about in the air, clutching the Anemoculus to her chest with one hand and pulling the string on her wind glider with the other. Wings snap out behind her and she catches the wind, soaring away and down with expert speed.

"After her!" Lumine shouts at Diluc, charging towards the same window, reaching for the release of the glider Amber had told her to keep as she goes. She can hear his feet on the floor behind her. Paimon, wailing in alarm, grabs Lumine's arm and clutches on tight as they launch.

The winds battering at her out here are entirely different from those they'd flown on in the tower. While they aren't as strong, they also aren't nearly as directed. With only her minimal experience, Lumine can't manage to steer herself after Amber, who is dwindling into a spiraling red-brown dot in the distance. Diluc has more experience with wind gliders, but he seems to be having just as much trouble--no, more, one wing, the supposedly fixed wing, stiff and unmoving even when the other one flexes. He's caught by a particularly strong buffet and tumbles as something in the unmoving wing, unable to flex, instead snaps.

With Amber already out of reach, Lumine turns and dives as best she can after Diluc instead. He doesn't fall at deadly speed, but it's still a good clip, and he hits the ground below with a crash sufficient to throw up snow in a blinding cloud all around. Lumine wipes it from her eyes as she lands, then wades through the waist-deep drifts until she finds Diluc fumbling out of them, snow turning to water wherever he's touched and then freezing right back into ice.

All around them, the wind is still swirling, carrying even more snow than before. Lumine looks up at the slate-grey sky that's all she's ever seen in Snezhnaya, searching for a darker blotch. "I think a blizzard may be coming on...."

"It's no blizzard." Finally making it to his feet and dusting off the worst of his snow from his clothes and hair, Diluc reaches again for his claymore as he peers out into the blinding flurries all around. This time he draws it, holding it in front of him, a thin line of flame dancing along the blade. "It's worse."

"What's worse?" Paimon asks, slowly letting go of Lumine's arm and floating up to peer over her shoulder.

Out of the white wall of snow, a figure appears, striding confidently towards them. A tall woman, clad in black and white with a blue cape swirling behind. Lumine is shivering in this even deeper chill, but she seems entirely untroubled. She's carrying a claymore that looks like it's been carved out of ice, held high and ready to swing, the flat resting on her shoulder.

"Diluc Ragnvindr," she says, staring haughtily at Diluc. Somehow the tilt of her chin makes it seem like she's looking down at him, even though he's the same height or taller. "How annoying."

"Sir Eula?" Lumine guesses, glancing at Diluc and then back at her.

"Yes. Sir Eula Lawrence, Captain of the Reconnaissance Company, and Fourth Harbinger of the Knights of Favonius, to be precise." She turns that disdainful look on Lumine. "Amber tells me you're... *nice*... so I will not take vengeance on this traitor here and now, in circumstances where you may get in the way. But if you threaten Amber or our mission, I will not hesitate to turn my blade upon you."

Lumine tenses, reaching for her sword, but Diluc reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder. It's warm on Lumine's bare skin even through his still-wet glove. "This isn't the place to fight her," he says, low-voiced, frustration audible through his gritted teeth. "Report back to the Tsaritsa, and we'll work out our plan from there."

"Wise of you," Eula says. She stands there, claymore on her shoulder, not moving an inch, as she watches them walk away.

[qwordavoider]

Several Sentence Sunday

Tagged by @chococara25 🫶🏼 so here are some sentences from the next chapter of Parting Waves. The chapter is titled Hard Feelings and it has been so fucking hard for me to write. The overall flow of the chapter has been testing me which has totally killed my motivation. I’m kinda hoping to just get it posted and be done with it so I can move on to parts of the story that are coming more naturally to me. It’s not even finished yet but I’m hoping to get it posted sometime in the next 24 hours roughly. Sorry for the rant, but please enjoy the sentences!

Buck had woken up this morning to a series of texts from Chim and Hen asking if they could talk. At first he had been excited because it meant that they were finally coming to their senses, but now he was dreading it. Meeting with both of them together was his idea. Wanting to get both of these conversations over with at the same time.

But now he was a little worried they were going to team up against him. No, I can’t think like that. They’re my teammates and my family. If they are serious about making things right they won’t turn on me. He tells himself as he is heading to the bar to meet them. Frank would be so proud of him right now. Hell probably the entire 217 probably would be too.

That thought kept him going as he walked in to find Hen and Chim waiting for him at one of the round tables in a more secluded corner. It was a week night so it wasn’t super busy to begin with. But he is glad they chose this spot, hoping it means they really want to talk things out.

parting waves tags because I’m a day later than normal posting the chapter because I’m traveling and I want to give you guys something 😅

@consulting-goddess-of-deductions @sensitivescream @inawickedlittletown @walkedthroughfires @cannibalhellhound @fenrirscarsback @nochance-noway @meltedredweasels @moonydanny @thestrangestthlng @the-little-red-queen @sagahaft @tommy-loves-evan @deansmilo @fierybuck @manifestingchaoticvibes @javanicko @chococara25 @911coded @911-is-my-emergency @harmonic-intervention @teabroomsandbooks @comeon-intothemadhouse @sweaters-and-silly @magdad @n1kkii @nephilimeq @partofthelouniverse @xoxo-jnh-xoxo @angelus-bellator @sleepy-lazy-loser @sassybeautydiysports @dandelioncasey @sporadicmakerwerewolf @eliotwaughdeservesbetter

[comicbookddr]

Sarah and Erica in Blue Moon

[adaume]

Reigen's pocket sized husband.. or how I cope with the lack of Ekubo in official arts lol he was there too!!!

[biblically-accurate-dca]

biblically accurate dca drawing tutorial

i finally fucking made this thing let's GOOOO

the biggest tips i have for anyone wanting to draw them like this is to 1. practice A LOT and 2. USE REFERENCES!!!!!!! if you need a specific angle to reference you can use this sketchfab page with sun's 3d model (and animations!!) or these images of their head at various angles :3

i've also made a (very messy and disorganized) traced reference for their face that i'll be putting below the cut for anyone interested!

the specific image i'm referencing is the same one as my blog's banner if anyone's interested in that as well!! ^_^

i probably forgot to mention something somewhere so if anyone has any additional questions just lmk!!!

[0m3n-0f-d3ath]

You’d be surprised how many recipes call for a rabbit sacrifice

Witchtober day four: Rabbit

Goretober day three: Gashes

[heartofpromethea]

WELCOME TO THE BEGINNING!

aka: my old promethea "intro" post was kind of bugging me, so im making a new one.

promethea is the name of my story/speculative biology project. the story is divided into 4 parts, a prologue and 3 acts. this post will be an overview of the prologue, as well as the introduction to promethea as a whole.

promethea starts with 3 gods: daksari tamman, cadaver, and cinder. daksari and cadaver are the original 2, they have been there since the beginning of time. cinder is daksari's daughter, one of many. all gods are born with the power of creation and free range over the universe to do with it as they please. cinder created a gas giant, ouranos, and abandoned it.

billions of years later, though, she returned to find that not only did ouranos had moons, but one contained life. lonely and curious, she decided to stick around, eventually copying someone else's homework and creating humans to live on it. for a while cinder and her creations existed like this together.

until daksari found out.

all gods are born with the power of creation and free range over the universe to do with it as they please... almost. gods are not supposed to interact with their creations. in daksari's eyes, it's demeaning. you can play with your toys, but they aren't your friends. it's weird, it's embarrassing. cinder knew this and disobeyed anyway. for her punishment she was locked beneath the surface of cassandra, forever. never to speak again.

when i get to writing acts 1-3, they'll be linked down here :)

[thechibilitwick]

the yaoi hype stayed !!

ouh my god oh.Ohmygodn….whwhswhhw WHATTTT!!!!! killed by domestic yaoi beam

[sovhina]

A quick intro for my mc for @infamous-if !! This is basically a wip I have no idea why I formatted so much dhdjs but yep! Here they are! Pronouns are they/she though they prefer they more often tbh and here’s uhhh a lot of information about them ✨ tavvi ✨ for anyone who might be curious lol

[sysig]

2024 Art Purge (Part 1)

Original Edition again! Another year of too many doodles between original and fanart that didn’t make the full cut over the course of the year - off we go!

I made some concept art for smol early in the year of a mushroom girl she had a dream about a while ago that she wanted to try making as a low-poly model sometime. Pretty sure we've narrowed it down to the original DS-era style of 3D models

And so some angular low-poly style doodles were also called for! She's so tiny haha

Around the same time I was thinking about ZEX's “Kissing Strangers” meme, I started considering what Charm's reaction to that one might be - I'm always trying to think of animation memes for her, I'd love to animate her sometime ♥ In the end, it was all a bit too weird! In a way it’s fitting, as the meme is all about Looking and not finding the one you want to kiss til the very end lol, but who would that even be! Who would Charm Want to kiss, I don't know...

[Purple Text] only got a very little bit of screentime this year, but they're just as weird and possessive as ever - once, forever and always, at least according to how they see things

Smol and I tried out a few different creative games over the course of the year - my favourite probably being the Crossover Wheel where we each put in our list of fandoms, including ones we share, and then imagine what a crossover would be like haha. House Hunted is one of hers, and she tossed the idea my way of looking at Zillow Listings (specifically this group) and imagining them as Realtors! I got the Sunflower House - you'll know it when you see it haha

Bit of a random one, but I thought the sheep from this little scene was hecka cute and needed to study her. Good shapes! Very adorable! I like her covered eyes quite a lot, and her spindly little legs, funny to me hehe

I also wanted to study her "Leg of Lamb" posing - can you tell this is memory vs. references lol. S'why references are so important! The original's delicate posing is very lovely! The soft positioning of her knees and ankles and the way she's fully reaching across herself with those fluffy "sleeves" are probably my favourite parts, it's a good pose!

Haven't done any Halfway Autumn concept art in a while-while, so why not come back with Diana's bathroom lol. Still a bit of work to be done, moving the door is probably the biggest point - having the leftmost wall lined with counter space is clearly the correct play here. I really like the shapes that naturally occur from isometric, like the way the shower curtain rod connects to "nothing" but it still reads as stopping at the wall! :D

All of this floorplanning just for some flavourtext about Diana's preferred style of hand soap haha. Foaming soap dispensers are the best! Makes everything much much clearer, definitely not just because I prefer it, it's totally objective! Haha

More bathroom flavourtext, either at the schoolhouse or the train station, or both! Since so much of the game is centered around Diana's needs, little things like what soap she uses actually impact the game! I wish something so simple wouldn't affect my day, but sensory needs are called needs for a reason :P

Started a Charm comic that unfortunately only got as far as the first panel haha - she's taking a class! Off to improve her skills at something in a group environment! Good for her :)

Or not, the sads are here :'0

Did a bit of Tsumtsum studying while drawing the Helix boys as such haha - I have one of those little Vocaloid not-Tsumtsums (they're only Tsumtsums if they're Disney, right?), and one full-sized Iron Man one that I studied the approximate shapes of the pattern from, they don't Look complex and they're probably not Actually that hard to make but there's still a good bit to them! 3D shapes, I swear

The 4th Wall group! Their poses and expressions changed a bit from start to finish, Cory once again looking at Bar - I don't think he's actually "seen" Bar's new design before this point! :0 They're all generally aware of each other but "actually interacting" is a whole other thing haha

The two stragglers, made Tala way too tiny here haha. And forgot her bow here, no wonder I forgot it for the full version too! Pfbtl, next time :P

A traditional version of the Just Desserts map! :D Made after putting the digital version together, just kind of loosely studied, general shapes good for mapmaking :) I quite enjoy the little mountain texture here over the one from the digital version! S'hard to make nice-looking shapes without my tablet but I really didn't want to use it Just for that haha, so nice shapes here! Gives me DQIX map vibes, just a little bit... All those little islands to sail to haha

Snake, snake, snaaake, it's a snaaaake ♪ Made for smol's Christmas exchange ostensibly, but really more of a spacefiller and to get into the swing of drawing snakes, the cute lads

Ball python in the style of a ball of yarn! I wouldn't mind wrapping up a plush snake, but the way real ball pythons curl up into a ball is too cute haha

Here was the Actual snake I ended up making for smol - as a bookmark! I printed a few different versions, coloured one like this with extra-dark spots for the scales, and glued on a ribbon-tongue, cut down the middle for a forked look! :D She liked it, and I like it! Double victory :)

A little sticker concept while my laptop was out for attempted repairs - can't save 'em all I suppose. I do like that the head mirror is a disc, the stethoscope is a mouse, cute little details even for an unfortunate set of circumstances

[flowerakatsuka]

kept on thinking about some of the more emotional beats of the kurokara lore while i was trying to fall asleep last night and i just... i need to explode...

[thatstroubling]

when your favorite character makes it to the finale

As a fellow Danganronpa fan, I'd like to imagine that if Pre-game Shuichi wasn't, you know, gone forever because he'd given up his life to become an anime character like a dumbass and could somehow witness our Shuichi kick So Much Ass in Trial 6, he would be the one cheering him on the loudest. After all, Shuichi is his perfect little detective guy and the person he once hoped he could become. That's why I can hear the "You tell them!" in his voice in my head so very clearly. And in spite of being responsible for ending Pre-game Shuichi's favorite TV show in the world, at the core of it, Shuichi was ultimately fighting on behalf of his friends for what was right all the way to the end.

And who wouldn't want to get behind that?

[izzy-b-hands]

Me to myself: you are SO behind on finishing your izzy bingo prompts. You definitely won't finish the whole card now, and you've gotten so little done today. We DON'T need to research if this roadside coastal motel in our head actually exists anywhere. NO ONE IS GOING TO GIVE A FUCK

Also me: Time to search google maps for coastal motels and hotels and cabins and things while my word doc that's got a nearly fucking finished draft on it rots waiting for me!