#the fire never goes out

[suchawrathfullamb]

Oh Hannigram level of passion that you can go on the entire day with the after effects of transcendental morning fuck and knowing you will get home and fuck transcendentally again even after decades of being together save me

[ech0ech0ech0]

Love your younger self and let them die

Bears In Trees, Fresh Concrete // Jeff VanderMeer, The Strange Bird // @ CryptoNature on twitter // ND Stevenson, The Fire Never Goes Out

[marshbevvie]

COINCIDENCE?! I think NOT!

so i was reading nd stevenson’s autobiography — great book by the way —and i noticed something. one of his depictions of himself looked familiar, but i couldn’t tell from where! the floofy short reddish hair, the key necklace..

the more that i looked at it, the more it bothered me. but then i looked down at myself and realized what the drawing reminded me of!

IT COULD BE A CONSPIRACY!!

[an-adhd-infested-nerd]

You ever have your life fundamentally changed by a book/song/movie/video game/etc and now you have to go about your life like nothing happened

[astudyinchocolate]

a panel from The Fire Never Goes Out that I've been thinking of often.

[mad-world3]

I absolutely love when I accidentally stumble upon a Tumblr users while reading comics/graphic novels

[babyspacebatclone]

I was at my local library to get some printing done (haven’t had a working printer since graduating), and decided to finally pick up The Fire Never Goes Out by ND Stevenson.

Which was - I’m just glad I went in when I had spoons.

The listing was just “YA Ste.”

I need you to understand: I literally volunteered at my high school library. I personally put away probably 90% of the returned books for my school for the better part of a decade.

But once you hit something with that kind of listing?? No Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress number? (That is, basically anything fiction??)

There is no shame in getting the librarian.

I went through Children’s graphic novels, Children’s fiction just in case.

Turns out while Children’s books on the first floor, Young Adult itself is on the second.

And, having helplessly explained the entire “It’s a graphic novel memoire??” to the nice librarian, I was ready to go check the separated Young Adult Biography section after the fruitless search in other YA sections.

Now - for the interesting experience of reading a biography of someone published before they came out as transmasc………

[clownsuu]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK TEEEHHEEEEEEEE

THE BABYYSSSSSSSSS ;;;;;;;

[justaz]

arthur being able to feel merlins magic whenever he uses it bc it makes him feel all warm and tingly and at first he's stumped about it and goes to morgana for advice bc hello?? merlin makes him feel weird?? and its only merlin. it only happens when he's around. it's gotta be his fault. and morgana is like "lol nerd you like him" and he's like "oh fuck" bc he has the emotional intelligence of a walnut and begins to notice the warm and fuzzy feeling grows stronger the closer merlin is and is like "welp. im screwed" and then a magic reveal later and arthur notices the feeling happens whenever merlin uses magic and he's like "oh. thank god." and finally realizes the feeling was merlin's magic, not that arthur has feelings for him. it becomes the new norm and then merlin is dressing him for the day and makes a stupid joke before ducking arthur's hand that was going to cuff his ear, he laughs and walked around behind arthur and the warm, fuzzy feeling returns and he's like "stop. no cheating." and merlin is confused and arthur's like "i can feel you using magic, idiot. remember?" and merlin is like "i'm not using magic tho" and arthur scoffs like "alright, sure, whatever you say."

THIS becomes the new norm of merlin and arthur bantering and then arthur accusing him of using magic and merlin insisting that he isn't. then finally the feeling happens when merlin is staring directly at arthur, comforting him in a moment of vulnerability, and arthur can see his eyes remain blue but he feels as he normally does when merlin uses magic. he still accuses merlin of using magic but merlin just rolls his eyes and once again insists that he isn't, arthur can literally see when he uses magic bc his eyes flash gold. did they flash gold just now? hm? did they arthur? arthur then rebuts "then why did i feel all warm and fuzzy?" and merlin blinks thrice before grinning like the cat who caught the canary. he won't tell arthur about his feelings for merlin, he'll let him flounder for a bit. it's always fun to watch him be an idiot and as much as he wants to kiss his stupid face bc finally (finally) his feelings are reciprocated, it's enough for now to know that arthur feels the same. arthur is infuriated that merlin won't tell him. merlin is highly amused at his stupid not yet boyfriend

[words-and-coffee]

To everyone harboring their own fire and to everyone lost in the dark. May you see the sun again.

N.D. Stevenson, The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures

[vaguely-concerned]

you know it is hard to not feel for caterina a little in my worldstate. she loses sight of lucanis for a couple of months while her other grandson has her in jail for grandmother time-out, and by the time she sees him again he is in full undying devotion mode for the guy she sent to get him back. her grandson finally brought someone home, and it's a fairly low-level elven mortalitasi whose family background is 'idk we found this baby in a crypt and liked their vibes' who will not be giving her any biological grandchildren. not even one of the politically well-connected scheming mortalitasi, which could at least have been useful (nevarra is a bustling market for the crows! twenty contracts on the king alone and still going strong! still a payday baby let the good times roll!), but one of the dutybound earnest little freaks they keep down in the necropolis to wrangle skeletons and write esoteric papers and who frankly don't care that much about murder b/c death comes to us all in its own time anyway trust us on this one. lucanis looks at him like he hung the moon, the sun, every celestial object and glittering star in the sky, like he's the only real thing in the world. and in caterina vision she sees this weird little slip of a goth mage guy wearing too much kohl who cracks jokes at strange times and is so hard to read but also gives her the unmistakable flinty 'I'll try to keep this civil if you do the same. If.' eye contact over lucanis' shoulder sometimes, with the utter grave calm that only someone who's a speaker to the dead (and the dead are savage) and who has killed several gods and wouldn't back down from second deicide if necessary could bring to bear. she sucks and deserves this and more but she also does have a whole Situation on her hands here

(I love that rye's relationship to lucanis' family is basically 'I met some of the most insufferable people. but, they also met me'. he tangoed with the god of lies and betrayal so he could waltz his way through a dellamorte family dinner relatively unscathed)

[asoftepiloguemylove]

some days i want to spit me out, the whole mess of me, but mostly i am good and quiet

Heather Havrilesky Ask Polly: Help, I'm the Loneliest Person in the World! / unknown / unknown / The Smiths There Is a Light That Never Goes Out / unknown / unknown / Marina Tsvetaeva On Love / Christa Wolf (tr. Jan van Heurck) Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays / Celeste Ng Little Fires Everywhere / Camille Rankine Emergency Management

[ech0ech0ech0]

Nothing matters // Everything's important

Mother Mother, Infinitesimal // Iain S. Thomas, How To Be Happy: Not a Self-Help Book. Seriously // Carl Sagan, Cosmos // ND Stevenson, The Fire Never Goes Out // @ falseknees on Instagram // Will Wood and the Tapeworms, -ish // @ lostinwildspace on Instagram, with “Evening of Ushibori” by Kawase Hasui in the background // Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are The Ants

[ganondoodle]

Kinda in regards to the Empress & BodyGuard 2-

Is Zaphira (sorry if I spelled her name wrong) an elf or do humans have pointed ears in your universe? If no elves, how do the pointed ears happen? Are there different length of ears and if so do they mean somethin?

Love your art & use of colours!

Thank you! and thank you for asking! (this sketch took me way too long .. and the colors still look washed out on my desktop screen but im not editing a third time ..)

Zaphira is human, there are no elves, as such, in this world, though humans tend to live longer than IRL and have differently shaped ears-

the shapes are rather diverse (example above) and culturally (so far) they have no significance, they are merely a trait just like different nose shapes or fantasy hair colors

the worldbuilding reason is that these are extremely diluted demonic influences- in the past demons were frequently in the human world, though largely in secret/disguised, and long time exposure to demonic presences can have varying effects, the most immediate and common being a longer life or wounds healing faster than normal; there might have been other long time effects but the only trait that stayed even after their disappearance is the ear shapes

(there was a mass extinction event of demons that wiped out all above a certain age, since demons generally dont die of natural causes their life neither depends nor revolves around reproduction so there were extremely few left and those were too young to keep most of their knowledge and culture alive, as they rarely wrote anything down; Shargon is of the current oldest generation and witnessed it happen, just like most now adult demons, Thor and Eadrya are both a bit older than him and thus the oldest living demons, which doesnt mean much considering the technically endless lifespans of them)

and to explain me including Shargon in a human appearance- hes the only demon that spends as much time in the human world as at home, largely to escape the others since they are not interested in going there and would otherwise attack him any chance they get (the human world is rather uncomfortable for demons to be in and they have better things to do than to chase him that far), while hes generally very weak compared to them, something he is very good at is shape shifting, mainly the speed of which, being able to shift between full demon and the smaller more humanoid form extremely quickly, or even mid forms that are a mix of both - even in motion! while for the others it takes them quite a bit and forces them to stop which is the main reason he keeps escaping them not able to keep up with his rapid shape shifting (though it does take its toll .. also a reason hes so skinny)

he is the first (only?) one that at some point will learn how to shift into a much more human looking one (depicted in the sketch) too, but its rather dangerous since it involves supressing and compressing his demon heart and system... which is what keeps demons alive (its somewhat like holding your breath for way too long) so the only time he would make use of it is in extreme situations, like avoiding detection by maschines that can pick up demonic energy or escaping shackles made of celestial silver (which drains their energy and can scar/hurt them permanently, like silver to vampires(?werewolfs?) in a way)

....the point is that if he shifts into a human form he has very long ears, meaning that is basically the extreme form that doesnt occur in humans and hints at the origins for those ear shapes being demonic exposure in the past

[kinokoshoujoart]

romeo!! or rock….? idk he’s the ds guy. y’know

[honeydots]

i love olivia's flying dancer alt so obviously inigo needed an outfit too.....