#speak like an elf

[pollyanna-nana]

Post-recovery Thistle being actually kind of excited to talk with a bunch of elves for the first time only to realize he struggles to relate to them in a lot of ways. Certain cultural norms and experiences just fly right over his head and while he’s still used to being an outsider around Tallmen he can follow their conversations wayyyyyyyy easier. Also little stuff like having no idea how to clock elf ages but gets the short-lived races right most of the time. Know what I mean

[cinnamonsikwate]

i'm really curious about what marcille's mother's deal is. seems like she's not too big on the rest of elven society. here's what we know about her so far:

mage at a human royal court (adventurer's bible)

courtship with marcille's father donato lasted 17 years (adventurer's bible)

specialty is roast pork, which was also donato's favorite (chapter 81)

had a cheerful personality up until the point donato got too sick to eat his favorite food. her extreme emotional reaction to this left a lasting impression on marcille (chapter 81)

remarried to a gnome and moved away from the city at some point after donato died (adventurer's bible)

several portraits of her appear in marcille's nightmare (chapter 42); this is the second time we see marcille dream of her (chapter 3)

preferred non-elven food and didn't introduce marcille to any traditional elven dishes (chapter 74)

from the canaries' reactions in chapter 74, it appears elven society looks down on elves who go to live among and work for short-lived races. they seemed especially put off that she would have a mixed-blood child. when they're talking about the lyrikmumare to get marcille to trip up, marcille envisions her mother saying that the food "here" (i.e., the northern continent) tastes so much better. so the picture we're getting here is of an elf who has removed herself from elven culture, but the question is, did she do it willingly or was she forced to?

keeping her other actions in mind, i'm leaning more towards the former. the most intriguing thing for me is that she eventually married a gnome, despite elves and gnomes having infamously waged war against each other over differences in the practice of magic and presently tending to discriminate against the other on sight. (one thing's for sure — marcille's mother is winning the idgaf war!)

marcille never talks about her gnome stepfather though, and it's unclear what she thinks of her mother's remarriage. the timing of the remarriage is also a mystery. donato married marcille's mother when he was 32 (after having courted her for 17 years) and died at 82, meaning they were married for 50 years. marcille is also currently 50 years old, but we know she wasn't born immediately after the marriage: in chapter 81, donato's doppelganger says marcille was born when he'd started "getting on in years." based on marcille's memories of him and the established fact that the average tall-man lifespan is 60 years, i'd hazard that he was in his 50s then. this gives him 30 years or less with marcille — definitely less than 35, which we know is the age at which she left for the magic academy.

we don't know if marcille's mother remarries before or after marcille leaves (if before, than that's definitely a shockingly short time), but it's interesting that she chose to marry someone from a long-lived race this time. maybe this is her way of ensuring she spares herself another heartbreak? or maybe she *is* still heartbroken and is trying to cover it up.

but. i can't help but kind of agree with chilchuck in chapter 81, that marcille's parents are not blameless for marcille becoming the dungeon lord. since it's apparently well-documented, they surely must have known — as well-educated people — that mixed-blood children face not just discrimination but also mental anguish that comes with their unstable aging (not to mention the sterility). so the way they raised marcille feels frankly irresponsible 😭

anyway. i'd love to get spin-off content where post-adventure marcille and her mother meet again. i feel like there's a lot of unresolved issues there (that can of course be hashed out over a good meal).

[possamble]

I absolutely really need to be writing anything but random ideas while I procrastinate and this is so awful rough bc I literally wrote it on my phone in one sitting while avoiding work but

Do you see my vision. Her Nosy Bitch Syndrome would actually be good for him when they've both chilled out a little in the postcanon.

[miraculan-draws]

Steel Watcher: Citizen. Your Actions Are In Direct Violation Of City Ordinance.

Astarion: Cinna kyed, gisír—maeth n'aethen ona.

Steel Watcher, without missing a beat: Quessir, adomhoar'ess. D'rienne o dala.

Astarion, lightly jogging: Tav we have to go right now immediately.

[qrovidcore]

so HEY UH

WAS ANYBODY GOING TO TELL ME THAT DURGE AND ASTARION REALLY DO HAVE THE SAME TRAUMA OR

WAS I JUST SUPPOSED TO FIND THESE PARALLELS OUT FOR MYSELF

OH OKAY YOU ALSO WERE TRAPPED AND HURT YOURSELF TRYING TO CLAW YOUR WAY OUT?????? YOU ALSO WERE THE SPECIAL LITTLE PET OF THE PERSON WHO TORTURED YOU, WHO IMMEDIATELY STARTS TALKING DOWN TO YOU THE SECOND YOU SEE THEM AGAIN?????? OKAY. YEAH. WE CAN COMPARE NOTES IF YOU’D LIKE.

[welcomingdisaster]

crablor is out sealglor is in.

[elfqueen006]

Was it odd that when the second demo of Sunny Day Jack came out and it was reiterated how heavily consent was going to be a factor in the game I was thinking about all the noncon/dubcon fics people were going to make?

[artifeast]

Cursed Dungeon Meshi AU, with a vague attempt at the manga's style. They are 17 inches shorter than their canon heights. Maintained the height differences though!

Telesphore is an elf of course, Colette is a half-foot/tallman, and Eisen is a gnome. WAY too many miscellaneous thoughts about this AU under the cut. There miight be worldbuilding spoilers if you haven't read the DunMesh manga and bonus material

Telesphore is an elf because, obviously

Eisen's a gnome because that gave me a decent height difference with Telesphore while still giving him strong magic capabilities. He might have a bit of dwarf in him, though

Colette's mother was a half-foot, and her father is a tall-man with a half-foot grandparent. Colette is still taller than the average considering her heritage (I did MATH about this. and jsyk the numbers worked beautifully). I wanted her to not be particularly innately magical, and also this would give her an appropriate height in comparison to Telesphore and Eisen. Like, the AU is already gonna be cursed with how Telsie has to get shrunken, but it'd be even worse if Colette was a tallman and 8 inches taller than him LMAO

Colette still has the Kingmaker in this AU, though I forgot to draw it. In this, it's an ancient elven magical artifact.

Colette's still 25, while Telesphore and Eisen are the same age (190). I made an age comparison chart for the Dungeon Meshi races a while back, taking into account both age of maturity and life expectancy, and according to it, 190 makes Telesphore the equivalent of about 29 and Eisen the equivalent of about 47.5, which is close enough. This AU loses the dynamic of Telesphore being alive for hundreds of years longer than Eisen, and in fact makes Eisen the older one of the two (aging-wise) from the very start, but eh, I think it still works. There's still lifespan angst since Eisen only has 50 years before he hits the average life expectancy for gnomes, while Telesphore has another 210 years. Also I think them remaining the same age, as opposed to canon, but still aging differently is kinda fun.

The Kingdom of Valor is somewhere in the middle of the Eastern Continent, landlocked like in canon. The population is primarily half-foots, but there are also a good deal of gnomes and dwarves, as expected from the region. More interestingly, there is a community of elves.

Within Valor is the Seltsamwald, a bizarre and massive surface-level dungeon in the form of a dangerous forest that stretches for miles, held in check by incredibly powerful ancient magic forming a barrier around it. The elves are investigating it and maintaining it. There is no immortality spell in the Seltsamwald. The lord of the dungeon has not been found, but doesn't appear to be particularly active; in fact, despite being clearly contained and rather active in terms of monsters, it retains many properties of a natural dungeon. Some have theorized that it actually is a natural dungeon that's spread too far, perhaps cultivated by a mage in ages past, that was then sealed closed when it grew too powerful. However, it's not sealed entirely shut, and is kept alive mostly by the elves investigating it. There is very limited non-elf foot traffic, with it mostly being criminals that sneak into its maze-like forest. The Seltsamwald has been kept stable like this for hundreds of years. More recently, a group of elves have formed a small town within the dungeon as a sort of research post, named Sorbus.

Also within Valor are at least two magic schools, located there due to the plentiful mana from the Seltsamwald. One is for gnomish magic, and one is for elven magic.

The Desrosiers were half-foots. Ariadne is a tallman that's managed to prolong her life using ancient magic. (Though even still, in this AU she probably murdered Eisen's parents when he was the equivalent of like... 37, rather than 18)

I've spent a LOT of time thinking about it and I've decided not to try to translate the revolution and the closed Kehrseite portal situation into this AU. It's much easier to say Telesphore not being able to go home is just… a personal issue, because he's a wanted criminal on the Northern Central Continent, LOL. And the revolution's just a huge mess... I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I excluded the Good Neighbors/elves from the proceedings, though. These fantasy medieval ages are allowed a little populist revolution

[bicheetopuff]

Good day to you Puff! ;3 Hope you have a wonderful daaay- 💞💞

Anyways

What are your thoughts with fics that had BK not being an asshole and bkdk just stays besties and became childhood sweethearts? (I personally will eat that shit and kept it on my brain on all times)

I'm not sure on your thoughts on this since what makes BKDK so interesting in the first place is because of their conflict so-

Have a good day ;3

It's nighttime where I am, but my day went well, thanks!

Honestly, I don't think I've read a fic like that that didn't kind of throw Katsuki's entire personality out a window, and while i didn't mind it much, it just didn't really feel like him, you know? He's still loud and brash in canon post development, so I don't see why he wouldn't act the same if his development had happened sooner/if there wasn't a misunderstanding between them in the first place. That being said, I don't really seek out fics like that often so I'm not completely sure how I feel about them, but I really like the concept.

I think Katsuki keeping Izuku close instead of pushing him away as kids would be really cute because I think no matter the circumstances they're written in, they're soulmates regardless. But at the same time, I feel like the conflict they had with each other in their childhood is what really shaped them into who they are together as well as individually. So, while I think it's cute, I can't see them being childhood sweethearts right off the bat tbh.

I can see them being really good friends as kids but I still need some sort of conflict for it to be compelling to me. Like maybe one of them moves somewhere else for a long time and comes back years later kind of like in the fantasy chapter in the light novels? Or maybe they both join a sport later in their childhood and become bitter rivals for a minute before warming up to each other again when they're older? Idk why but I really like the slight "i didn't realize what I had until I lost it and found it again" thing they kinda have going on and it just needs to be there for me to be interested. Either that or their rivalry can be friendly but really over dramatic.

There are some fics I've read where they meet later in life where they don't have baggage, and their personalities are completely different, which makes sense given the situation and more often than not, they kind of resemble their Prototype personalities more than their canon ones, but it still weirdly feels like them . Like they're the same but it's really just different parts of their personality shining a bit more than the parts we're used to seeing. Which I honestly adore with my entire being, I love softer Katsuki x edgier/sassier Izuku. But, they almost always still develop an overly dramatic rivalry first before coming friends/lovers which is probably one of my favorite interpretations of them outside of canon.

I need them to be silly and I need them to bicker otherwise it just doesn't feel like them, you know? I love 'wholesome from the start' kinds of relationships, but that isn't them in my eyes.

Also that picture of Izuku is so cute akjsdfiaj

[perilegs]

i know it wasnt a serious comment but every time i look at a datv character and start thinking about their designs my blood starts boiling from the giving cosplayers a challenge comment

"The previous art director had the mindset we should make things easier for [cosplayers], which I think is a misunderstanding of cosplayers," he says. "We've seen the kind of challenges they're willing to take on, and so we've gone for, in some cases, a level of complexity and detail that I hope a lot of them are excited to rise to the challenge for."  x

unrelated to my point but why are you dragging the previous games down. have you seen any of the designs you speak of mr art director. do you think merrill in da2 wasnt peak. or morrigan in origins? do you know how hard it is to make cosplay armor.

you could have just been like "hey the characters have a lot more detail than before! look at neve's hat and everyone's clothes every single inch being embroidered or otherwise patterned"

which also makes me think. was any thought put into the designs or did they just want to detailmaxx so they can brag. idk if they could have said anything that would turn me personally off more from cosplaying anyone or analyzing their outfits

[curtistheelf]

Cannot believe we are already halfway to Christmas again !!

[uldahstreetrat]

im gonna drop kick my pc if i cant figure out why bibo only wants to work when my character model isnt wearing a shirt i just want my skin textures to work

[safyresky]

The Elf Clauses, for those of you as curious as @shittyelfwriter and I:

THE DIY (DO-IT-YOUR-ELF) CLAUSE

All gifts delivered by Santa must be completely handmade by North Pole elves. Should an elf be discovered outsourcing toy production, they will immediately be removed from the toy line and reassigned to another department

THE SNOWMAN LEFT BEHIND CLAUSE

When an elf builds a snowman, that elf enters into a sacred agreement to care for said snowman until his natural demise. Failure to care for one's snowman appropriately (including but not limited to premature melting, snow discoloration, and nose breakage) will result in punitive action.

THE KRIBBLE KRABBLE CLAUSE

In accepting the position of Head Elf, you agree to take a leave of absence form the North Pole for education and rejuvenation purposes, whether you wish to or not. No exceptions. That includes you, Betty.

THE ELF-EXILE CLAUSE

[we actually couldn't decipher this one properly??? but essentially it says that any elf that is insubordinate to a Santa gets banished to the Wobbly Woods]

[elderscrollsconfessions]

Confession: Elves in skyrim are so fucking ugly oh my god

No wonder the nords hate them! They're so disgusting to look at!

[dark-elf-writes]

Do you think he’d fake his death and make up new names or just straight up keep his and just move around

Shaun: your name is Desmond Miles

Desmond: It’s a family name

Shaun: and you look just like the portrait of the original Desmond Miles

Desmond: It’s a big family

[ashennightingale]

~ the seasons of Zenyth Elassidil Florian Sylkas Hemlock Duskmere, heir apparent to Lord and Lady Duskmere of the Misty Hills of the Feywild ~

my fancyboy eladrin nobleman who has so many problems and never ever wants to talk abt them

he once convinced an entire theatre troupe to rewrite a play on the fly in the middle of the opening performance bc he was mad that he was on academic probation and thus couldn't participate. so he wanted to get his understudy off the stage as soon as possible bc he was Ruining the show. and then he also got everyone to lie to said understudy that it was just a script change. bc he's a bitch 💙

(im posting old art! — jan 2022)

pose ref from @jookpubstock