#the vagues literally made fun of me. for being a child.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

Can I just say how in love I am with the way you draw Marika? Like every art you post of her has my jaw dropping…you add such a beautiful layer of humanity to her with her dynamic expressions and poses—it’s so refreshing to see especially when so many fan arts of her needlessly sexualize her or dial her down to a one-dimensional stone-faced villain (which a villain she is—but she is still complex)

And I adore how you draw her partial nudity as something natural, meaning that you don’t draw her without a top for the sake of objectifying her,

Your art is overall so pleasant and colourful and fun to look at, and your takes of Marika’s character in your fanart is literally what made me more interested in who she is in-game.

Thank you for drawing her the way you do! (And for drawing Elden Ring fanart in general💕)

i've been letting this ask stewing in my inbox for a while because it makes me so emotional 🥲

if you look at how i drew Marika before anything in the DLC was announced, it did fall into the two categories you were talking about, because despite having a little more positive view on her than the rest of the fandom at the time, i still had no idea who she was as a person. and by that time i were more interested in Malenia, so even though i did try to envision how Marika was, it's a very distant and vague image. which is what i love about Elden Ring lore in general: we see Marika via how her children see her.

it was easy back then to conclude we'd never get her, and "mother" is a distant term that will always be overshadowed by "God", so i just went along with the general haha evil sexy girlboss thing that the fandom was doing. but then the DLC teaser dropped the another elusive (possibly firstborn) child of her, with a statue of her holding a baby in his boss room, she started to get more little quirks that's so human in my work (the small smile, the little lock of hair that curls gently) because for the first time, we see her through the eye of a son that evidently adores her, so she gets a bit more human, because someone views her with emotions that are not fear nor distance.

then the DLC drops, and it's not just through Messmer's eye (or the entirety of his being that carry so much of her love it weighs him down and twist into the most horrible curse in the end), it's through the eyes of her family that were no longer there at all. it's the jar innard enemy that huddled in a jar and clutched at a piece of raw meat, it's the Grandmother's gentle smile as she rest among a sea of flowers, it's the solitary minor erdtree that bathed the whole place in the kindness of gold, it's the Fire Knights and soldiers that clearly viewed her as Mother as much as she was God, it's Miquella throwing away his love and doubt because he didn't know how to deal with the revelation that his mother was once a fallible human just like the rest of them, it's Trina's entreaty that Godhood was just a cage that would kill him slowly, it's the final boss music with the female voice belting "Hail, Marika the Eternal" - in the place where she had to wade through a sea of flesh and blood, her family included, to ascend to Godhood. it's finally understanding that to her, Eternity is to live for all her loved ones that have fallen down.

and somehow, it all comes back to this portrait at the base game, right at the Roundtable Hold, of a woman with permanently lowered eyes.

yeah i know after the DLC i've put on such a Messmer-style protective glasses for her, it shows very clearly in my art. now she could cry, looks sad, small smile, big smile, looks silly, looks cute, looks serious, her hair is pulled up in twenty different ways, she jokes and talks to animals and goes back to be just a simple young girl rolling around in the grass, blah blah... im drawing all these with eyes wide open. and i have no intention of stopping lol.

sometimes, things that already come alive will never go back to be a cardboard cutout anymore. if ppl don't like it, block me or whatever, in my space, i'll do that makes me happy. and im very glad that other ppl could find their own happiness and solace with my work too :) thank you for such a thoughtful and kind messages!

[monpalace]

ships .. (ocarina of time/majora's mask) link/reader, fierce deity/reader.

content .. the boys (separately) with a reader who feeds them well, and the fruits of their loving labor.

warnings .. unedited. no pronouns used (you/your). reader is implied to have more meat on their bones (vaguely). reader is in their housespouse era and they aren't even married (legally). non-graphic vomit and forgetting to eat mentioned (link). link and fierce deity are taller than reader. fierce deity is named aram for writings sake. reader is implied to be a god of sorts (fierce deity). fierce deity is literally my oc at this point.

notes .. my schnookums thought they could have big cheeks and get away from me? my cutie patooties thought that i wouldn't write about them eating right? my pookie bears thought that i wouldn't fulfill my duties as their #1? my baby faced sweethearts thought i wouldn't spend 2hrs looking for pictures like those? my favorite white boys? my honeybuns? my hollywood stars? my sugarpies?

i'll eat them. omnom

LINK has always been rather thin. That was especially the case when he was a child. Something about a Kokiri child's diet not fitting what a Hylian needed always kept him frail.

When you both were children, he had quickly gotten used to you plucking his arm when it was idle to compare his lack of fat to your surplus.

(He never minded. He always looked forward to being reminded why he put one foot in front of the other every day during his fight against Ganon, or repeated cycle after cycle when it came to Majora.)

(Funnily enough, you had always made fun of him for being shorter than you as a child as well. You always mentioned he needed to drink more milk and eat more cuccos so he'd one day pass you.)

It was when you were able to cook more than simple meals and wouldn't risk burning down your cottage that you would invite (force) Link over more often than you already have.

Link had always tried to limit his visits to when he absolutely needed to. Free food, bed, shelter, care, supplies, clothes, bathes (the list was endless), and whatnot were always appreciated, but he never wanted to become to comfortable lest he wake up one day (or night. Or afternoon. His internal clock was always ruined when it came to sleeping at your cabin) and decide not return to the world outside.

He does his best to turn down any seconds, or thirds, or fourths, or fifths, and so on you may offer him when he does stay long enough for you to finish whatever extravagant meal you made just for him.

Past experiences often make him sick (with trauma or physically) and result in him vomiting his food, but there's always more from you to replace what he had just eaten and the meal before (if he remembered to eat it).

What he can't finish at the table (or on the sofa, or in the bed), he takes with him when he leaves. Link is respectful in all meanings of the word and hates to leave anything to waste.

When it comes to thanks, he either finds ways to help around your cottage or brings back items from new regions for you to cook. Whether it be repairing the busted bathroom door you've been complaining about before fixing your water faucet so the pressure is what you want it to be, or bringing back a spice the Gorons specialize in you've mentioned wanting to try, Link typically feels his gifts fall lackluster when compared to your treatment of him.

(He trusts your skill and creativity enough to know you won't poison him on accident. He never brings back any recipes or instructions either if it's not a dangerous material.)

(He's always excited to try whatever new dish you've concocted, so his only condition is that you wait for his return to cook whatever it is he brought you. "A celebration, of sorts," he calls it.)

A look in a lone puddle had told him his cheeks had gotten fatter. He supposes he now understands why he was refused entry into one of the pubs when he had to retrieve Malon and Cremia's uncle.

He had noticed that the details of his arms were less visible through his shirts when a Goron had pinched one,— not in the same way you did when you were younger— he had mentioned that he had an amount of muscle and fat to be proud of before asking him to join a tournament. Any attempts prior to were quickly shut down.

During a day of horseback archery with the Gerudo, the sweltering sun had gotten to him enough that he had to remove his tunic and the shirt underneath to feel some sort of relief. One of the women who were training him took a look at his stomach and nodded approvingly, mentioning that he should praise his soon-to-be spouse for feeding him so well.

The last nail in the coffin came when he was riding Epona into Castle Town. His tunic felt uncomfortably small and his tights (curse those damned tights) felt as thought they were stretched more across the expanse of his thighs than they usually were.

He's back in your cottage when he finally vocalizes his thoughts, preferring you to any other tailor or seamstress in the country. "I've gotten to big for my clothes," he either sighs or signs to you while eating. His gaze held a thousand yards in them, idly watching his clothes move with the wind.

The tunic, hat, tights, boots hang outside the window on a string connected to your shed. They had to be washed after a (admittedly well-planned— even if they don't think) ambush by a hoard of chu-chus.

You throw a hazy look to them before returning to the bowl you were tirelessly mixing. You were making dinner, he thinks, or maybe it was in preparation for the big breakfast you were making with the variety of bread from the Gerudo he brought back.

You'd already given him a large snack earlier.

The thought makes him look down at the plate in his lap. Every spot of it was filled and piled with bread, and eggs, and meats, and jams. He couldn't see the white bottom of it even as he pushed and prodded around.

He takes a bite of it gratefully.

"I saw you before you left not even three days ago. You fit everything fine enough to me." At some point you had stopped stirring and held the bowl out to him. Link grabs something off the plate and dips it in without a thought, eating it before responding with a hum of approval. "I can make adjustments to then, if you'd like."

You leave the bowl with him before attending to something on the stove.

"Please," he responds, halfway through another bite of the (what he now recognized as) Gerudo bread and cocoa dip you had made. "Different pants would be nice, though. It'd be a nice excuse to finally get rid of those tights." Both tasted sweet by themselves, he realized, but left a calmer aftertaste that he'd like to savor.

"You've always hated the tights," you hum in response, moving from the stove to the coolers that he'd built you after bringing you a large fish that only lived in Zora's Domain. "What would you want to move on to now? Leggings? Shorts?"

Link watches you remove a pitcher from one of the coolers. He isn't sure how long it's been in there (he doesn't even remember watching you make it), but he assumes you took some ice out so the pink liquid wouldn't freeze over into complete ice.

He watches you try to take a cup from one of the cupboards, watching you struggle to grab his favorite one from the higher shelves.

He stands from the chair sat just outside the kitchen (he liked to watch you cook when you had the time), placing the bowl and plate on one of the many cleared counters (you liked to clean as you worked), and grabs the cup for you.

Link lowers his head with his hand when he hands the cup off, head resting upon the crown of yours as he watches you pour the pink liquid into it, idle arms wrapping around your waist as he makes some slick comment about eating enough milk and cuccos for your liking.

You don't elbow him in the stomach like you might have when you were younger and he doesn't hold the cup above your head teasingly like when he was younger to (— then again, he had to climb a counter to get it out of your reach.)

Instead, you wordlessly pass the cup back to him and he wordlessly drinks it despite not knowing what it was.

He likes it, as he does all your works, and notes how it was both sweet and sour. A taste that fills both his childhood need for sweet all the time and his older palate's need for other tastes.

Handing the cup back, Link tilts his head so he can press a kiss to your crown. "Anything you'd think I'd look good in," he finally responds, the flavor of the moment leaving a tooth-achingly sweet taste on his tongue.

ARAM is often humbled in your abode.

He may have acted arrogant to others in his younger years and horrifyingly aloof now that he's a more seasoned god, but he never failed to (willingly) crumble to his knees when in your presence during either times of his life.

He had no need for the sustenance mortals require, prayers and whispers of his name were always good enough for him, but he'd kiss the ground you walk on if it meant you'd bless him with another food you've created (he already does).

Aram is the provider to your fire-lit home, an arrangement the two have been living by for as long as he can remember.

He is the sword to your shield. The arrow to your quiver. The moon to ever burning sun (which he did create for you, after all). The wound for your gauze. The life to your world— and one cannot live peacefully without the other.

Your food had quickly become an addiction to Aram. He'd eat as much as often as he could, giving little response to when questioned why he loves it so much.

("Because it comes from your hands," he once explained hours later when you were sleeping. "Your hands, that create all. That nourish all it touches and replenishes all that is extinct. I am your antithesis, and I must destroy that which I love."

(You never had the heart to ask again.)

He has enough sense to slow his eating around you. One concerned comment about him choking was enough for him to indulge in needless your wishes, but a question regarding its taste had him eating like a mortal.

His relationship with food prior to getting hooked onto yours was brief and filled with obligation. He never ate to feel full, only to make the people he was fighting with shut up and leave him out of whatever conversation they were having.

It never lingered in his stomach like a warm fireplace that others had described it as. It never made him warm and filled with love. It never gave him the energy he needed to keep fighting.

It just went through his digestive tract (why did he even have one?) and disappeared like an heavy smog finally dispersed by a strong gust of wind before he had to fight again.

When a war was over, you always came. You took the battle-shaken soldiers away when it was their time and healed their ailments if they were able to withstand everything. You went through war-stricken cities and set everything as they should have been. You feed and clothe and bandage and sew and reunite and Aram isn't sure why he lingered.

He's seen the effects of what you can do long after you've left. He knows of the good you're capable of doing just as much as he knows the bad he can cause.

He craves your touch when he sees it at its peak. He indulges himself when he sees it first-hand.

Aram understands what the soldiers mean when you beckon him closer and offer him food, uncaring of how he stands tall above all else.

The soup warms his insides. The flavor resides on his tongue hours after he's finished it. His energy, though far from depleted, had made him feel as though he were a youngling again.

He craves more.

The addiction to your presence and your food (and subsequently, you) had started then. It's an event he could easily recall when asked, one he would happily recount to you if you ever forgot where his devotion to you started.

Meeting after a war or battle had become frequent enough that he had finally learned your name; not some silly alias those who followed you often referred to you as. He felt like one of those lovesick children soldiers talk about, tripping over himself and his words.

He's curious to you, an admirer more than a stalker, fortunately. When he wasn't on the battlefront, he was always hovering around as you worked, busying his hands with whatever task you've given him after noticing his lack of mortality.

You treated him well; doing so even after the era of wars were long gone and he was seldom needed. You cared for him as though he were one of the many wounded soldiers with no family to return to once all was done and said— and to an extent, he was.

He's eating when you bring attention to his softer thigh.

You were reading to him, a romantic thriller that held as much of his attention that your captivating voice did. His gaze focused heavily on you, watching as you lick your lips after each page, how your eyes rake over the page to ensure the tone you speak the next sentence in is correct. He notes how you shift less often, how he doesn't have to move you further up his lap so you can lean against his stomach.

"It's not as painful to sit on you anymore." Aram doesn't think that line was in the book, but he doesn't mention it. It dawns that you were talking to him when you look up, using your finger as a bookmark as you closed the book around it. "Have you gained weight?"

He's a big man; it's a fact he's known since the beginning of his existence. He has large arms, muscles well know for how he snatched prey up to bring back to you. His height made it a simple feat to reach into the trees and capture any avian you wanted to experiment with that night. His legs that would stomp on any fish swimming downstream during a day at the lake you suggested.

He was sculpted by the Goddesses themselves. If they hadn't meant for his body to change along with his lifestyle, they wouldn't have designed him to dough.

(He'd never be ashamed in the fact either. He was contented knowing he had someone to dote over him constantly; a sentiment he had gained after recalling a conversation with wedded soldiers.)

(Also, the prospect of defacing what the Goddesses had long since disgraced was exciting, in a way.)

Aram doesn't look at himself, already well-acquainted with his body as his brow raises in amusement. "You feed me well, My Grace," he responds with a peck on your temple, "I would hope to become more comfortable for your pleasure." He refused to stop eating as he indulged you in conversation, the leg you sat on jumping once in place of his busy hands.

You hum that sweet, quiet hum of yours that Aram has come to associate with your contentedness (he aimed to hear to several tomes every day). Removing yourself from his lap, discarding the novel to the side as you raise your hands to cup his cheeks. "It suits you. You look healthy. Happy."

"Did I look ill before?"

You don't fluster as you might have like in your younger years. He's honored to have grown alongside you, reminiscent of the older couples you've both watched and escorted when he was still an active god.

The same filling feeling your food gives him fills his heart. The lingering sense of peace that he felt since meeting you dancing through his body when your thumbs rub the apples of his cheeks, the softest and fondest gaze anyone's ever given him in your eyes.

"No," you answer in a quiet voice only he'd be able to hear. "Never. You've always looked perfect."

And Aram has never been more thankful that he separated himself from the Goddesses as he preens under your touch. Never been more thankful that he lingered after the war was done. Never been more thankful that he had readjusted his psyche to more readily accept your gifts and affection.

He frees a hand to cradle to back of your head, a threat to all that aren't you, and brings you beneath his chin in a protective gesture. "As have you," he murmurs, pressing a kiss to the crown of your head. "And as you always will be."

[dootznbootz]

Can I ask why you hate OdyDio? I’m not super familiar with Greek mythology yet, and I’ve seen OdyDio as fairly popular so I’m curious about the other side lol (I personally don’t ship it just because I can’t imagine Odysseus with anyone other than Penelope tbh).

Because people are literally mischaracterizing both Odysseus and Diomedes to make it work and it spits in the face of what Homophrosyne means 🙃

And people are nuts about it in a way that pisses me off more than any other NOTP/crackship I've had before.

I guess this post, This one, and This one that people have done about vague fandom is a good explanation if that's all you want as I do rant here lol. NGL, I don't...really care if I'm being mean right now. Like block, unfollow, or ignore me. I wanna rant.

Btw, yeah, I'm being a "hater" but I'll tag right so you can block "#anti odydio" if you must.

I already didn't care for it in the first place, (I've vented about it before) as I agree, OdyPen are literally soulmates. To the point where they have their own WORD for their love. And yet people will fucking insist that "Oh, Odysseus and Diomedes are more compatible". WHERE?

The Odyssey is literally about him trying to go back home to Penelope and their son. And even in the Iliad, Odysseus mentions her. The Odyssey only mentions Diomedes three times and never once by Odysseus (once by Nestor, twice by Menelaus) so... that goes to show how Odysseus feels about him. 🤷

I was just neutral about the ship existing because it's like one of those absurd crackships to me but with how popular, fanonized, and just...With HOW people have behaved about it to me ;~;

Ofc, I'm a huge Penelope fan but even with Diomedes, you can't go into his tag without OdyDio. I'm not even joking. I'm sad I've had to block Diomedes' tag as well because people don't tag right AND don't apparently see him as more than Odysseus' "fling" ;~; (I mean at least Penelope and Diomedes can relate to the fact that it sucks that a lot of people are only caring about them because of Odysseus and not because of who they are. :/ )

Even with OdyPenDio. I've noticed that it mostly means OdyDio (+ Pen in the footnotes) :/

Just in general, with my own reading of the Iliad, I...WHERE?! xD Where is the "ship"? They are comrades and they're very different from one another personality wise. Sure, they're a good team in combat but in life??? They are not "likeminded" at ALL.

They also have a fairly large agegap, Odysseus being one of the older kings while Diomedes is one of the youngest. I have them around a decade apart in my writing If you bring up pederasty, you will be smited. You're fucking disgusting. They also have very little in common other than them both being Athena's pets (which um. Penelope is one too, you know?). Odysseus is a fucked up lil warrior trickster who loves his wife and child more than life itself while Diomedes is a young child soldier boy who is incredibly duty bound and war is where he feels most comfortable.

Diomedes would not put up with Odysseus' rambling about his family and Odysseus WANTS to talk about that. They're like co-workers.

Diomedes is a younger king who looks up to all these older and more experienced kings. "Notice me, senpai" energy, and I love it!

That's just the Canon texts itself as to why I just simply disliked it. The fandom was... yeah ;~; made me hate that it even exists. (Not all! Some of y'all are incredibly kind and respectful of boundaries and I appreciate that! It's just that...Some were not.)

I mean I've had to deal with Aphobia surrounding my OdyPen and along with some asks/people in the past who were TRYING to make me write about OdyDio despite the fact that I've never liked it. "Hey, I know you don't like this thing, but maybe THIS will change your mind. You have fun ideas so I wanna see what you do with OdyDio!"

Do you know how shitty that feels? 😞 To have people, WHO KNOW YOU DON'T LIKE SOMETHING, try to make you like it? By sending you links and "headcanons" that will "still work in your writing?" Sending in your asks, DMING YOU SOMETIMES.

That was like, a year ago and thankfully it's stopped for the most part but I was in such a funk that I didn't even wanna write ANYTHING for a while.

Funny enough? I USED to have this "Oh, Odysseus and Diomedes are exes who fucking hate each other." idea where I aged up Diomedes to make it work, which I now no longer have because I realized I only wrote that way because I thought I HAD to in order to get people to be nice to me. ;~; Because if they're romantic at some point but simply don't click, maybe that'll be enough. To get people to just shut up and stop sending me things. (fuck the anon who sent smut last December. you suck.)

I changed that (now it's Greater Ajax who's his ex. lol. idk ask about it if you want.) because I realized yeah, it was making me unhappy and because I felt like I HAD to. ;~;

I also think it's weirdly because some Odysseus fans almost block out the Odyssey, you know, HIS story, and pretend like he didn't do everything to get home to his loved ones.

I've seen some ridiculous shit about Penelope as well. >:( like holy shit, misogyny everywhere.

"Oh, she didn't trust him and made him cry when she tricked him. She's abusive!" Literally one of the most stupid things I've ever fucking heard. She HAD to be sure it was him and when she knows for sure, she apologizes, explains, and kisses him. Kisses that he desperately and happily returns btw.

"After all Odysseus goes through from the Goddesses, he's afraid of women so he and Penelope separate." ...WHAT?! He literally wants to "embrace in love in their bed" as soon as they stop crying! And she holds him back only to know Tiresias' prophecy, which he DOES TELL HER BTW, before they DO "show love".

"Penelope becomes Odysseus' and Diomedes' surrogate!" ...Wow. Just wow. Love how people will talk about how ancient men in the past only saw women as "breeders" as though they're any fucking different with THIS fucking take.

It's annoying that I'll post a headcanon on tumblr and then the tags are "This but with OdyDio." or that people will often only like/reblog my ODYSSEUS shit and not my Penelope. ;~;

I love how people will be adamant about how "Odysseus never cheated" (true), and yet have him with Diomedes :/ Like at LEAST have OdyPen agree to have an open marriage before they're separated if you're going to pull that stance. (also give Penelope a girlfriend if Odysseus gets a boyfriend, you cowards)

So many people for some reason only see Penelope for what she is for her husband and that's all. As though that's all she is. And as if Odysseus isn't as intertwined with her as she is with him.

I just... stdrfgyh ;~; I wouldn't hate it so much if people were nice about someone not liking it but the fact that I literally cannot escape it and because some people were just so pushy, I just negative memories I guess.

Either way, I love Diomedes and Sthenelus together :) whether as a QPR or romantic or whatever, those two are like bonded pairs that cannot be adopted separately.

[somerandomcryptid]

Sixteenth Day Event Prompt:

Logstedshire in the snow

ok so I planned to write more of this but honestly I just don't have the motivation so here

Warning for generally vague descriptions of being very cold and mentions of the possibility of getting hypothermia

It was December. Of course there was fucking snow. It shouldn't have surprised Tommy when white flecks fell, they were so close to the arctic after all, but it did anyway. The snow started on one of Dream’s visits. It was fun then. It wasn't fun now.

Huddling in the walls of Logstedshire didn't prove much help. And Tommy mourned that missing shoe more than ever now, if he had it he could actually walk around easier. Even if he’d still be freezing his ass off. At least the snow was crunchy now. He could walk on top and it would only sting the bottom of his foot, rather than the fluffy white flakes that your whole foot falls into.

Tommy still hated this though, he still had to go about his normal day as if he wasn't freezing to death. Well I guess he didn't go about his normal day; he huddled in Ghostbur's van thingy with all the blankets he could find in hopes that he wouldn't get hypothermia. What? It's not like Ghostbur used this place anymore.

He hasn't visited at all since that stupid party.

Whatever. It didn't matter when he had warmth to worry about.

But he spent hours in that stupid place. With nothing to do but think and try not to freeze.

Wilbur wouldn't have let him come to this, he and Tubbo would’ve saved him, cuddle and laugh, joke until even through the cold he was warm inside and out. A sentimental part of him supplied.

Tubbo put him here. And Wilbur went insane, he wouldn't have done shit if he were still alive.

Literally the only person who was actually keeping him alive right now was Dream of all fucking people. And was he even doing that? I mean where was he now? He left a child in the snow, to freeze.

Maybe he didn't even care. Maybe Dream was just some hypocrite. It would track with the rest of his behavior.

This line of thinking continued for much of the rest of the afternoon until Dream finally showed up for his visit. Took him all till sunset, the asshole.

“You look like shit.” Was the first thing out of Dream’s mouth when he stepped into the van, his entrance letting a gust of cold air into Tommy's safe space, he hissed at that, burying himself further into his pitiful mass of blankets that really wasn't enough for this kind of weather.

AND UH YEAH OF COURSE HE LOOKS LIKE SHIT! HE'S FUCKING FREEZING! He could not infact summon the energy to shout at Dream.

“Either be useful or get out. Actually no, you can't open the door, so really, be useful or fucking shut up.” Usually his bitterness was usually covered by a veneer of humor, but he was hungry, and cold, and very much not having a good day, so pardon his rudeness.

A thick silence covered the van after that. Tommy started questioning if maybe he had been too rude before Dream went to sit beside him, awkwardly wrapping an arm around his shoulder. Tommy eagerly pressed himself to Dream’s side. Despite how his pride hated him for it, his will to at least not die of hypothermia was stronger.

Dream cursed under his breath and Tommy briefly thought he was about to be pushed away until Dream pulled him even closer, practically his lap.

“You're freezing.” Dream stated the obvious, sounding more disturbed by the concept then Tommy really believed he had the right to be. So of course he replied with a scoff.

“No shit. Believe me, it’s sucks ass for me more.” He muttered, with less bite than intended, him pressing his face into Dream's neck -which was notably warmer than him- probably didn't help though. On a normal day Dream might have made fun of him for his choice of words, he didn't though. Tommy kinda wished he did.

“I’m sorry I wasn't here sooner.” Tommy didn't like how sincere sounding Dream was. He felt Dream’s chin rest on the top of his head, a strange warmth bloomed in his chest at the gesture, he tried to convince himself it was just the masked man’s literal warmth. He hated it even with that flimsy excuse. And he hated how he nessled into Dream.

And worse, Tommy didn't have a response for once. No snappy comment came to mind, just blank annoyance. So he just grunted in annoyance.

Dream cursed under his breath again, pulling Tommy closer -as if they weren't already close enough. “I shouldn't have left you out here. I swear to god if you fucking freeze to death-” Dream inhaled a deep breath, before pulling tugging the misaligned blankets further over Tommy and pressing the teen fully against himself. “Just- just don't die on me. Ok?”

Well he’d certainly try. But right now he was just… tired. Not like falling asleep and freezing tired. Just.. sleepy tired. He yawned.

“Fine. Whatever.” The mumbled words were barely legible through their slurredness and Dream’s hoodie. But he was tired so it was the best Dream was going to get.

[women-of-malevolent]

All references to women in Part 45 - The Fire

I guess John called out for Kayne when the witch was killing them? And Kayne didn't answer. So they figure this time/place is a blind spot for Kayne

John and Arthur find fish traps, maybe signs of life of people in the village. Briefly PTSD about the witch who did kill them; no no it's okay she's dead. That reminds Arthur that Yorick is a rotting Prince head, so he puts Yorick on do not disturb+back in his purse

There's a village but it's abandoned

They debate hanging out in the abandoned building. Arthur doesn't want to, it's trespassing and the "houses feel off" like John seeing the bad Scratch auras. Sure. They build the fire outside

Campfire talks with the boys about how time in the Boy's Brigade wasn't all bad

Arthur made a dear, dear friend there who he doesn't want to talk about

John sees a figure in the woods, and then John and Arthur seem to really fall under some kind of trance under the fire they build. I think they're being ENSORCELLED by MAGICS. They are strangely, vaguely contemplating their lives, past present and future

Arthur gets despairy, what's even the point? John says, fuck the point! contemplative.mp3 plays in the background

There's a man transfixed by the firelight. MalaM

god

ngl I think MalaM is fun... much like Yorick i doubt it's the same way the author thinks it's fun... but who knows... maybe... lmao

I like the true/untrue nature of his palindromity

I want to clip his whole dialogue but nah... I'll just summarize

MalaM is all fucked up physically and mentally. Beat to shit.

MalaM is surprised Arthur started the fire. Why would he do that, when the light could attract bad things? Arthur says, he needs warmth... MalaM says he's forgotten the need for that.

There's bad stuff in the woods, MalaM says... Arthur says, are you bad stuff? MalaM says oh no no lol i'm just a little guy c; passing through, I was called here, I was needed... they work out that teehee MalaM killed the whole village... because a man summoned me... a poor, sad man... just wanted to make the world better..... this fire sure is warm.... you are so kind to me.... mysterious.... unexpected.... c;

A man kills a child.... I had to take a Taylor Swift break here, ok, rejuvenated

Listen I don't care enough about the story anymore to do season 5 miscellaneous categories... But the whole village had women in it and really should be a category... I don't care enough rn... Maybe someday. Just like most of the violence against women in this story, it's vague and stupid, the emotional weight of their lives or deaths is never felt. MalaM killed everyone, so he's like an even eviler version of Arthur, because Arthur saved the people of Addison. See. Parallels. 1 million notes, please. It really makes you think. You know... MalaM is a lot like Kayne too. And John. Arthur just meets hot man after hot man who just slaughtered a whole town and if that guy is like 'ii heard u leik daughters' he's like owo

whatever the fuck is going on here

yuck

more

sorry no faroe just "a truth or an item"

I can't believe how credulous the entire ass voting fandom was about this random eldritch murder monster. Just like "HELL YEAH A TRUTH! This guy IS the arbiter of truth, AND his truths absolutely will help us!" *confident nodding* The worst part is you're probably right, the story is for you, you are on the wavelength with the story that didn't realize/care Hattie was the girl version of Arthur. Hattie doesn't have a notebook, she's old!

Oh wow go figure the dude who just killed a village offered a "truth" that was "some woman is terrible and you should kill her". Literally what else could it have ever been in this story.

this

lmao i love that Malam meets 5 dudes and mutters "don't trust him" and John and Arthur are both like "Yeah fuck Yorick" that's SO funny

ok an then John and Arthur are both like "i'm so glad faroe is alive :)". which I take to mean they're under a spell because lmao no she's not. you put her in the fucking ground. but, you know, the story and most of the fandom has lived down to every one of my expectations about women so far. i can't imagine it's about to stop now

[bulbasaur-gone-rogue]

I HAVE NO ONE TO TALK TO ABOUT MY BLORBOS SO Y’ALL GET IT

(For reference. This is for Aiden and Lambert from the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. All of these can be read with pretty much no knowledge. I went into these freaking blind off of… somewhere. I don’t know. I found them somewhere and went down a rabbit hole.)

I’ve been through all 58 or so pages worth of fanfiction in their tag. Lore-wise, we literally only know a name and vague affiliation on one of em. They’re my poor little meow meows. My silly rabbits.

I went through all those fics and I got like. Six recommendations. These all made me feel some kind of way, or I read them more than once. IN some ORDER!

1. Where I Stand by LadySesame.

Status: complete

Ohhhhhhh what if we were lovers and I thought you were dead and then you got dragged into my home (that I never quite had the courage to invite you back to) completely feral and with clear signs of torture and me n my bros and my (kinda shitty dad who I fight with a lot but he’s genuinely trying but also he’s fucking it up) and one of my brother’s weird boyfriend (who was kind of the only one who knew you existed and mattered to me in any way) had to figure out what the hell to do about all this. And then it gets better but worse before it gets better.

Vampire hunt flashback cool. Dynamic immaculate.

2. The Kaedwen Wolves by Kaerith

Status: incomplete, has not updated since 2021.

HOCKEY AU HOCKEY AU

Hockey aus really have it all. The banter. The rivals. The “we’re just homies. What do you mean I’m sending mixed signals.” The inherent homoeroticism of hockey. The “fellas is it gay to get in a fight on the ice so fast you forget to take your gloves off because some guy called your Good Friend over there a slur and like. I’m not gay or anything but also-”. And also men with muscles and a couple braincells but those only work occasionally. The chemistry.

This one would be tied for first but it’s still really early on and hasn’t updated in. A while.

3. Out of the Night That Covers Me by inexplicifics

Status: complete

Ough we love hurt/comfort and being kind in a world that is determined not to be. I love. Kind men with massive muscles who are so so so self-aware (but sometimes also stick their foot in their mouth real bad) And also terrifying women. I love terrifying women. Uh. Modern au. Everyone’s alive that I can think of.

4. Four Chambers by GilliganGoodfellow

Status: Complete

This one harmed me. It’s the accurate portrayal of grief. Warning for my homies. The Cat stays dead in this one. Had me wrecked for Amounts of Time

Rest of that series also bops and slaps. While I do love Complicated Feelings Towards Vesemir (he’s trying. He was part of an institution of child abuse. He didn’t have power to change anything. He was still part of it. He did the best he could. Maybe it wasn’t enough. He tried. Trying only gets you so far). Papa Vesemir ALSO has a place in my heart.

5. Denial by tnico

Status: complete

Author knows more weird little facts than I do. Scratches my brain. All of their works that I’ve read are stupidly good.

6. A Beginner’s Guide to Exploiting the Kaedweni Tax Code for Fun and Profit by heronfem

Status: incomplete, updating

You know.

[box-architecture]

which are the aus You have more on your ming latetly?

A mixture of them!

I'm staring at the Dreambur AU I have (Strangers Vassal) and wondering if I should post what I had planned for it to look like. I'm struggling a lot with writing it, partially because I don't have a lot of people to bounce ideas off of, partially because it's an AU that would have a lot of fight scenes, something I don't have a lot of experience in and am unsure how to proceed with.

I really enjoy the concept of it, and I want to write for it, but it might once again turn into a bunch of shortfics in a series rather than the longfic I originally wanted. It's disappointing that I can't seem to consistently write longfics, but if I don't accept the limitation I might risk not getting anything done at all, and that's potentially more disappointing.

The Communication Knife AU is almost always on my mind. It's evolved from just pure demons and rotations to being a huge comfort that I can just idly think about throughout the day.

It's really neat, because I started out as a Dream-centric multishipper who wasn't sure if I could vibe with Punz and Sam closing the triangle, but after marinating in the idea, it's now really important to me that they become something too. They grow from two people fighting around their relationship with Dream to something based on trust and blunt honesty and Forgiveness Withoit Forgetting. They can be deeply affectionate with each other in a way thats different from their relationship with Dream. Not bad, not in a way that excludes him, just different.

The AU has also tentatively opened me up to exploring 2nd Gen characters, something I've literally never been capable of before. I have a lot of vague ideas for who gets together post-main story, and how those relationships works and why. Ponk/Foolish/XD is a ship for example, and I've designed a possible child for them? As well as designed Fooshs Totem children? It's always a maybe for if I actually want to give people kids, and it's not really the point of CKAU, it's just really fun to explore the rest of the smp in this sort of fix-it au and how it impacts their lives in the After of it all.

It's also helped me expand my Minecraft Lore and Worldbuilding Bible (how in my headcanon the mineacraft world works and its history/lore, including tying other media's like Hermitcraft and Maricraft to the dsmp to make everything part of the overall world.)

Writing CKAU post-story had also, ironically, made me enjoy benchtrio more, as I get to talk to my friends about their interpersonal dynamics and how they work and how they end up finally at peace. Especially considering Tubbo and Ranboo are bitterly divorced for a long time.

I had a lot of small ideas for a DNB Mass Effect AU in a similar vein to To Tear Asunder being my Dragon Age AU, but I feel really guilty getting into that when I haven't even finished the Philza fic or the Techno fic I have for the latter. I have significantly less people to bounce ideas off of for To Tear Asunder, which is why I struggle with it sometimes.

A lot of my writing in the beginning was done through utilizing my manic moods, but now that I'm better medicated/no longer constantly manic, it's led to me going a lot slower with writing. Demons (PWP stuff) are a lot easier to write, because they require significantly less scene set-up when I can use the sexual act as a template, and being horny-brained isn't particularly difficult.

(Also. No Plot Nessecary. Hence the Porn Without Plot. Plot is really exhausting to write sometimes.)

Obviously it's a lot better for my health that I'm no longer manic, but it's still disappointing that I can no longer work myself into a tizzy and write 30 pages of something (before collapsing and being unable to do anything at all for the next several days.) Give and take and all.

I briefly was very insane about Benchtrio fucking Dream in various ways. I made a whole Teacher/Student AU about it that's in my drafts, god willing I get my new laptop and can finish that up. I really enjoy CNC and bodice ripper type stuff, so it's pretty fun to explore crack AUs where Dream is just trying to be normal and the 3 most abnormal people in the world come into his life.

I'm not really a fan of the Tommy/Dream dynamic where Dream is preying on the Poor Helpless Child, especially because it has a habit of taking itself Very Seriously. I'm not looking for serious and dark and the villainization of Dream. It's a lot more fun for me to explore a strong, confident, and very tired 20-something desperately trying to figure out how to deal with the 17-18 year old being horny on main. Also it's just really interesting to me when the younger character takes advantage of normal social and power dynamics and subvert them so they can have the older character sub.

^I'm not sure if the explanation there is perfect or makes sense but I'm always happy to try to talk more about it if you'd like.

I have a little more of the Warden Hybrid!Dream type stuff in my head that I wanted to write out, mostly just a lot of Porn With Minimal Plot for purely kink reasons. I also have a Dream/Ravager fic I'm supposed to be posting, but God only knows when I can finish it. I need zoomies.

[new-tella-us]

Seduce Me Characters

But they're described like brands. Because yes.

James- This brand is the golden standard of brands. They are the expensive brand that got every ounce of marketing right. The packaging is sleek, modern and probably unisex, the timing of the ads is impeccable, the people that advertise the product are famous and trustworthy. And to be fair to the product, it's good. Great even. But they've made such hype and fanfare around the packaging that the product would have never reached those standard unless it could literally reverse time. It was doomed to be "overrated" from the start. Though personally, I do get the hype.

Erik- This brand was all about the packaging. It was pretty, the ads were pretty and colorful and made the product seemed like magic. The brand owners clearly understood what demographic it wanted to target (mainly women into more of a romantic looking brand) and it targeted that demographic perfectly... but the product itself was... odd. Like there wasn't a direction to the actual product. They just sold anything vaguely skincare. But then, over time, the brand learnt that fancy packaging wasn't enough and hunkered down on a specific range of products. Once they mastered their craft and re-released their brand with the same colorful packaging, it became a cult classic with how the products improved.

Sam- This brand is the "Stanley Cup" of brands. As in, it started out as a brand mainly marketed towards the more rugged individuals before blowing up immensely in the mainstream. Unlike Stanley, it didn't have to go through a major brand overhaul. (though there were efforts to disconnect it from it's roots, unsuccessful as they may be) Where the product shines is its practicality. Being originally made for rugged adventures, it was made to be durable and high quality. Say what you will about it being "overrated" but it was made well. I don't personally fancy the product but I can acknowledge its strengths.

Matthew- If the previous one is the "Stanley Cup" brand, this brand is the "Drunk Elephant" of brands. It's bright, it's colorful, it's so kid-friendly....right? Well no. No matter how fun or colorful the packaging is, at the end of the day, the product was made for an older audience. But unlike DE that thrived from hitting that child demographic (as controversial as it was), this brand has the opposite issue. How are adults supposed to take the brand seriously if it get called a "Kids' Brand"? The brand's been fighting that association without giving up it's lighthearted persona. But what about this "oh so adult" product? It's good actually! Most people that use it in earnest talk positively about it. The positive rep is slowly changing people's perspective while also forcing the question of why we associate brightness, levity, fun and colors with kids.

Damien- This brand is the most quiet of the brands. There isn't too much marketing, the packaging doesn't stand out. It's just kinda...there with the others only because they're under the same parent company. Turns out, it might have even been shadow dropped as the parent company may have had some negative expectations for it hence the lack of visual displays. But, like the other products, it's a great product! Actually, it's one of the strongest so...use with caution. Over time, the branding does gain a little more uniqueness while still holding that "quiet" energy and it becomes another cult classic. Personally, it's my favorite of all the brands under the parent company but I have thick skin so I can handle the strength of the product. Be warned to anyone a bit more sensitivity than I.

[aszles]

csm chapter 120 but in toki pona (first 10 pages)

alright hellooo!!!! this is my first published translation in 2024 i guess!

of course i'm marketing this towards english speakers since i'm not sure if there actually is a part of the csm fandom that speaks toki pona... i hope you'll stick around to see something a little fun and different!

so if you don't know what toki pona is, allow me to explain! ☝��🤓 toki pona is a conlang created by Sonja Lang where the main draw of it is that it has less than 200 words! it sounds like it may be tricky to speak with so few words, but it's surprisingly easy and very fun! i always recommend it to anyone who has a bit of time on their hands and wants to try something new.

here i was mostly trying out gimp for comic translations, and so i translated the first 10 pages of chapter 120! i chose this because... it's silly! also fun fact, the start of this chapter was one of the things that pushed me to read chainsaw man!

ok that's enough preface rambling, let's get on with it!

i think typically the first page should be full sized if it has to, but nayuta peace sign is just so cute..!

alright, if you wanna feel like you're on a date with asa then keep reading to find an english translation and translator's notes! if not... feel free to leave, i hope you eat something nice today! (omekapo!)

semi-literal translation:

yoru: woof! woof! woof!!

nayuta: HAHAHAHAHAHA!! yoru: woof woof! wooof!! denji: Nayuta! what did you do?! nayuta: i turned her into an animal. denji: why?!?! nayuta: because she [kissed] my thing! (here she basically says that yoru interacted with nayuta's thing using her mouth. it's a very vague statement)

denji: i'm not your thing! turn her into a human now!! nayuta: want food! can't! (technically she says "food desire! no ability!") nuh uh! denji: ah?! i'll make food. when you eat turn her into a human!! nayuta: 'kay!

denji: eat and turn her into a human. i'm not joking. nayuta: hey! this is my food! bad! bad!! nayuta: hey... do you really want her humanity? (sounds very weird in english but i'm not sure a better way to put it) denji: what?

nayuta: Denji. every woman tries to kill you, right? why is this animal different? denji: why...? i have a feeling. nayuta: hmmmm.... good. (this is being used as an affirmation similar to "alright" or "very well then") you won't die. okay. i'll turn her into a human.

nayuta: but, two things. if they're not good to you, then she'll be an animal forever. denji: what are they?! nayuta: number one. i can eat ice cream (cold sweet) all the time. denji: i want (it) too. nayuta: number two.

nayuta: don't be nice to her. denji: are you joking?! nayuta: uh, i'm (being) real. this is the best. she's bad to my nose. denji: your nose?

denji: is she like a wet animal? nayuta: weirdo, wet animals are good! anyways, don't be nice to her! i'll change her knowledge... so that to her you didn't come (today)! denji: you'll what?! then she'll hate me!

nayuta: not important. you won't talk to her. denji: ahhh...

denji: you're number one, nayuta...

tadaaaa! there we have it! now time for some translator notes, of which there are actually not a ton.

toki pona is surprisingly difficult to adapt for different kinds of characters. due to having no register, it's hard to make characters seem more punky or polite than normal, and to distinguish between adult and child characters. here particularly we have the issue that, while Nayuta is a child, she's also super smart! so making grammatical mistakes doesn't really seem in line for her character. the main action i took was doubling up "la" with her. this isn't incorrect, but there are more optimal ways to say things to avoid ambiguity. i thought that perhaps a kid wouldn't think ahead with their words as much as an adult would, and may end up with this quirk in their speech.

related to the last note, one possible way of making a character seem younger or less proper is having them use nimisin ("unofficial" community made words). it's a fun idea, but it's kinda inaccessible and also... i don't really know nimisin! guess i'm not hip enough >_<

the name Nayuta luckily fits with toki pona phonetics (with the y changed to a j)! Denji doesn't quite, so i opted for Tensi. this is the most direct tokiponisation of his name. it sounds a bit like tenshi! (angel in japanese)

just a little something. i went with humans being "jan" and devils "monsuta" (hybrids and fiends may be jan monsuta and monsuta jan respectively, or they could have nimisin) so.. why are these two using jan? well for Denji that's an easier question, as he is basically human-first and also had the name before he became a hybrid. (also there's no need to be so descriptive with a headnoun) as for Nayuta, she uses jan because she's sort of undercover. depending on the circumstances, or when referring to her with her real name (like saying Control Devil in english) she would be monsuta. some devils who gave themself a name use jan, while others such as Power use monsuta (because why would she call herself a human when devils are clearly superior?!)

suwi lete or lete suwi? that is the question. here i decided to go with suwi lete because i think the most appealing aspect to Nayuta is likely the sweetness!

i hope this was at least somewhat enjoyable! i wonder what i'll find to translate next >w> thank you so much for reading if you did! sina lukin la mi pilin pona a!

[radios-arcade]

pssst hi hello it’s your turn to receive asks now :D can you tell me about your ocs?? i’ve been intrigued by them since i saw your artfight profile, literally all of them look so cool… do you have complete stories in your head for them? :0

omg hello :3 oh gosh there's a lot of them JKLGHLK. They do all have stories! some completed some in the works, it fluctuates over time lol. I should *probably* write it down at some point other than in my friends dms lol. I'll go from least serious story to most serious :333 The cats are Mune, Bea, Jake, and Marvin. Their story is basically just a classic band story but with cats lol. mune and bea are childhood best friends, bea plays guitar and mune sings. They met jake while trying to find someone to play drums for their band. He's the middle child of six, he's used to being pretty quiet until you get him talking about something he likes (like drums, he's a very one note man/pos). Marvin is a friend from school, really very much the impulse control so they need him around lol. Bea knitted him fingerless mittens for the winter so he could still write with them on and now they all call him mittens. (he's a sphinx) hmmm one fun fact about all of them just to round it off (dont want to go overboard lol) Bea: loves to skateboard, knit, room is covered in local band posters Mune: into goth fashion, boba, yoga, and girls/j Jake: likes drums. Likes animal crossing. great with kids Marvin: enjoys colorful patterns, bugs, and swimming the mers are part of a story where mers are just kind of integrated into the natural world, they just exist, but theyre not well studied yet. elhadi is a shark mer, sheyyu is a ray, and spec(pronounced spess) is a deep sea mer, which at this point in evolution has branched off significantly from more shallow water mers(who moreso rely on mimicry). Sheyyu is the oldest and most protective, elhadi is the youngest. They live in the harbor of a small fishing town, all the locals know and respect them. All of them can shift into a semi-humanoid form, although with varying results. Okay snippet of fun fact for each :3 Elhadi: can never stop swimming! she will die :3 likes humans the most. the two braids in her hair represent her two siblings who have died. despite these descriptors she is the most cheerful and friendly lol. Sheyyu: does not like humans except for maybe two. has a scar from a harpoon. strongest of the group, knows how to herd fish. Spec: was experimented so has quite a few scars from that. Likes to swim with elhadi at night to keep her company. likes soft textures okay last one jSKLGH would take a v long time to explain ngl but the JIST of it is scooby doo series turned actual horror, mixed with gravity falls. I'm sure that's not confusing at all/j. We have Logan and Cassius, they're siblings. Logan has visions of the future and Cassius is able to see anyone's 'true form'. that means if you've made a deal with something, if youre something in disguise, ect ect. you cant really hide from him. Ghost is their guy in the chair, he lost his leg in their first expedition out and decided to stick to computers after that. Woke up with no memories one day in the wrong family, still wrestling with that. M has lived in the town it takes place in her whole life, has ties with a lot of the creatures that live in the woods there. okay one fun fact about each sjdkglh Logan: favorite color is pink, has a cat name shadow, shortest in the group Cassius: has a girlfriend named Mickey, dyes his own hair(although not very well lol), tallest in the group Ghost: has a service dog named Juniper, likes making collages, the calmest in the group M: has a creature her family cares over she calls Brother who is vaguely fae adjacent, knows the town like the back of her hand, strongest in the group tysm for asking that was nice to get o ut of my system lol

[bookishjules]

ever since they decided riptide was gonna be the promo song for the show, i've seen a lot of takes--it's ridiculous, it's campy, it's 2012 fan-made mv vibes, it's eerie, it's fun, it's stupid, it's perfect--but what it seems like everyone agrees on, is that the only real connection to percy jackson is the title also being the name of his beloved sword. i'm not saying that connection isn't enough by itself.. but i do think we could go a little deeper hehe so let's break down these lyrics, shall we? <3

**Riptide by Vance Joy Through the Lens of Percy Jackson**

I was scared of dentists and the dark

beautiful intro line to get us in the headspace of the literal child that is 12yo percy jackson.. maybe he was scared of dentists, who knows? but the point is that these are the kind of fears that a parent might be there to hold a child's hand through, and percy never had anyone but sally to do that. this line prepares us for just how strong of an impact the loss of her will be.

I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations

this is percy "stands in the corner playing basketball at the school dance" jackson. it's him losing his words when he notices how pretty annabeth is, but it's also an indication of his placement in the social hierarchy of his peers up until this point.

Oh, all my friends are turning green

green with jealousy because he has all the power of a child of the big 3? because he gets granted a quest on like day fucking one at camp? because he's a naturally talented sword-fighter to rival luke? .. or green because he's finally seeing the world as it is through his god-given green eyes? or green like kelp and algae and the tint of the sea as he befriends creatures in his father's domain?

You're the magician's assistant in their dream

i think if you see luke as the magician, with his tricks and lies, you could easily attribute this line to annabeth--i mean he did want her with him in his backwards dreams. he also saw her following him in dreams of the past, and saw her in the dream conjured by the river styx. but!! i think this line could also refer well to luke himself, where the magician is kronos.

Ah-ooh-ooh-ooh, ah-ahh-ah-ah And they come unstuck

(gonna be real.. i've never known what to make of this line oops)

Lady, running down to the riptide

first, i think of percy running straight for the riptide as a representation of how accepting he's a demigod and a child of poseidon also pulls him in deep into this narrative that has been constructed around him, both in regard to zeus's bolt and also the great prophecy as a whole. but, i think this could also be addressing annabeth, rushing toward percy (water, riptide, etc. you get the picture) and counting on him to take her away from the shore (camp). another option here, if we stick with luke as the person being addressed, is his being called and swept up by the seething rage and indignation that spirals him away from the calmer tides and into the hands of kronos, which....

Taken away to the dark side

yeah, this could very easily be referring to kronos. we can also use it for percy and annabeth both when thinking about the quest that took them to the underworld, which is quite literally the dark side. i also think it could refer to the darker side of the life of a demigod.. by percy stepping up to accept his identity, his eyes are opened to the monsters and manipulative gods and backstabbing (literally) friends and the vague promise of his own death.

I wanna be your left-hand man

oh hello zoo transport oreo sharing "bc you're my friend" scene hehehe also if we switch perspectives this does work well for luke for obvious reasons

I love you when you're singing that song And I got a lump in my throat 'Cause you're gonna sing the words wrong

okay stay with me now.. sally pov to percy. like he's up on that metaphorical stage all alone and doing his best and he's gonna fail sometimes but he's singing his own song, the song he was always meant to sing *cries*. another option of this is annabeth looking at percy, who almost always gets the words wrong, but it's so enduring--seaweed brain (affectionate). we also have the potential for annabeth to be looking at luke and saying this, only his wrong words were the path he chose, and the lump in her throat is the pain of watching him betray her trust again and again. along those lines, i think there's also an argument here for the percy @ annabeth pov that i would be inclined to associate with this song... because he loves her and the hope and the trust she carries with her, but he sees the way those beautiful traits of hers make it difficult to see luke for the monster that he's become--right tune, wrong words.

There's this movie that I think you'll like This guy decides to quit his job and heads to New York City This cowboy's running from himself And she's been living on the highest shelf

a movie percy would think annabeth would like perhaps? annabeth ran away from home and wound up in new york. before that, she had been basically cast aside to collect cobwebs by her parents. when we meet her at the beginning too, she's very much been set on the highest shelf in the way that she's been set aside despite so desperately wanting a quest. but there's also the case that the movie being referred to here is about luke, who ends up running from himself in the sense that he chooses to stand opposite both his father and the family he created for himself after heading to new york. in that case, there's also the possible attribution of the object living on the highest shelf to thalia, whose tree luke would have looked at every day as a reminder of his cause, but who would have been unable to say anything herself, stuck collecting dust, so to say.

I just wanna, I just wanna know If you're gonna, if you're gonna stay I just gotta, I just gotta know I can't have it, I can't have it any other way

okay talk about percabeth coding.. percy's "annabeth don't" when he thought she was gonna join the hunters. annabeth freaking out after he came back from ogygia. percy printing the picture she sent becuase he couldn't trust that it (she, chb, etc.) was real. "you're not getting away from me, never again." etc. etc. etc. (please feel free to continue spiraling in this vein as i know i will). it's also giving luke and his manipulation tactics tho ngl..

I swear she's destined for the screen Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen, oh

we (percy) support our queen (annabeth). i could get lost in the percabeth of this all, but i also think it's important to go back to a previous pov we mentioned.. sally's as she watches percy go off on his own. and if the she in question is percy from sally's pov, it's his success that she sees, his happy ending, the one she's been willing upon him from day one. there's also the potential of this line to be about sally from percy's pov. he loves his mom and he's proud of her, and he'll do anything to bring her back from the underworld so that she can live the life she deserves.

**

so yeah, ig in conclusion, there's more meaning here than meets the eye :) but also that won't stop me from thinking about my favorite pen sword every time that word is sung <3

[wlwanakin]

You asked for Grelle asks, so I have some!

1. Do you think she regrets killing Ann?

2. What does she think of her job? Does she see it as a means to redemption? Or does she feel trapped and not care, since she’s broken so many rules?

3. What do you think her human life was like? Family dynamics?

BLESS U i love these questions

1. she 1000% regrets killing her and you cannot convince me otherwise. it’s like pulling teeth to get her to admit it but it was such an impulse move that she definitely did not think out and the severity of the literal murder she committed doesn’t hit until after the fact. grell and anne were definitely like…insanely codependent and there’s no way their relationship wasn’t tumultuous and i’ve always hced that grell regularly tries to test the limits by sabotaging the relationship when she’s pissed except OOPS this time she can’t take it back. and she pretends it doesn’t haunt her but it very much does and she misses her so bad and wants to jump off a cliff about it.

2. she deserted the second she saw a hot girl covered in blood to go kill people so she’s definitely not that worried about her immortal soul. i think bc of the fact that she’s trans in the 1800s (a definitively unfun combination) she probably already had brainworms drilled into her head about her existence being sinful or whatever (i’m just assuming she was raised christian cuz like. probably) so when she bites it and is presented with a variation on purgatory and the eventual promise of something vaguely heavenlike she’s just like “hm are we sure about that” which is probably part of her willingness to say fuck it and commit atrocities. there’s also the existential terror of it all cuz like killing yourself and then being immortal is a Bad Predicament and worse when u add the trans layer and that probably contributed to her general attitude and probably made her not very fond of the divine powers that be. so i feel like her mindset is kinda just “idk if i wanna go to heaven this god guy kinda sucks.” so yeah she just sucks up work to pay her divine rent and also cuz the immortality thing makes her able to express herself but the actual redemptive point of reapering is not something that she cares about that much and she kinda thinks she might be a lost cause at this point. it’s just a job to her.

3. *cracks knuckles* oh i could talk about this FOREVERRRR my backstory for her is so fucking detailed for no reason. but yeah her human life SUCKED! it sucked real bad. she was a sad little pushover with an abusive dad and a mom who Did Not Want Her and she lived with them until she died. she was a Problem Child and she kinda just retreated into herself the older she got bc she was trying to not get abused about it. she has def always been deeply unstable and that was noticeable to the people around her (including her parents who Did Not Like That and were generally ashamed of her) and bc of that she was a very lonely person.

her dad was a bookbinder (according to my notes app. i think i looked up like middle class jobs 1810s or something but if that’s inaccurate just replace it with like a standard middle class job. point is her family was normal and boring financially). her mom was significantly younger than her dad and did not want to be married to him but was essentially baby trapped and grell faced the brunt of that resentment. very bad household to exist in general but especially when u are a deeply mentally ill queer child. they were also religious which is just another fun layer bc i like projecting my horrible experiences onto my blorbos. but yeah grell grew up in that hellish house and never got out. she wanted to pursue acting but it never went anywhere. she had a brief on and off fling with a guy in her early 20s but she was uncomfortable for gender reasons she could not verbalize so she basically sabotaged the shit out of it. she stuck it out until she was 27 but after years of literally nothing good or interesting happening ever and her just constantly feeling miserable and like peeling off her own skin she reached a breaking point and boom now she is immortal. would go into more detail but i’m too lazy to do the historical research rn lmao

[goldeneyedgirl]

So curious--for Iron and Stone will Alice and Jasper end up with the Cullens eventually? (I have this fun scene in my head where Carlisle offers to amputate Jasper's wings and Jasper is like are you kidding? They're the only thing standing between me and high school, leave them!)

Yes!

Basically, there's around 12 years between the end of Iron and Stone, and when Alice and Jasper find the Cullens again. It's obviously complicated because Jasper is so suspicious of everyone, and he's insanely overprotective of Alice because other demons would kill a vampire like we'd swat a fly. Not to mention the small amount of Nonsense that goes on before Jasper lets himself catch feelings for Alice.

And I need to emphasize, Carlisle isn't being mean or cruel to Alice intentionally - what he knows about Demons, especially the ones that were made, meant that at best Alice would have been heartbroken and probably disfigured. There wouldn't have been much there to love. At worst, Jasper would have killed her on sight. He literally thought that telling her to consider Jasper as dead was the kindest thing for her.

Carlisle has spent years worrying about Alice and if she's even still alive. He would be delighted to see her and vaguely stunned and horrified that Jasper is in tow. Very much a small child bringing a feral wolverine home - "can I keep him?"

And I LOVE that idea of Jasper weaponizing himself to avoid school - "I have wings and the intimate knowledge of all the hell dimensions that have sprung forth and how to bring them to Earth, there is NO way that I'm setting foot in a high school."

[barrenclan]

WWAAAH THIS ISSUE OH MY GOD!!!! I think i start half of my reaction-to-a-new-issue asks with "omg this issue" BUT I CANT HELP IT LITERALLY THIS ISSUE ALMOST MADE ME CRY (in a good way). im so happy for this little blue man and his family starting to patch up some!!! Slugpelt opening up about her trauma to her kids, i really love your portrayal on love-bombing and manipulation with Cashew. I think it's really important for things like that to be portrayed properly in media without it being romanticized. And obviously yeah SLUGPELT admits she romanticized it when she was younger because he was the only one to treat her that way and he was HERS but you dont romanticize it with your writing and !!!! literally i admire the way youre able to portray these things so well in writing so much. And honestly those lines of "he was the only one to tell me those things" and the fact that thats what got her so hooked to him,,, stung a little bit bc its like very vaguely relatable to me and auuuh my heart!! I'm glad she realized that he didn't love her but the fact that she loved him while knowing it was just a game to him hurt a bit. i was not expecting to vaguely relate to the equivalent of a middle-aged mother but slay i guess. And Daff's reaction,,, and Slugpelt's response to that? Mannnn my HEART i love seeing Slugpelt come around and actually try to be motherly to her kids. i love her this is a slugpelt fan club. NOW PINEPAW COMING OUT TOO!!! Dude. When i first read the line of him saying "now if were all spilling secrets.." I honestly thought of the skull thing at first. But then after like two seconds and getting a little further i was like OH MY GOD HE'S GOING TO COME OUT ISNT HE. I have so many thoughts about that scene but I cannot materialize them into cohesive words. just. the whole thing was so well done. and im glad it went well for him. His whole spiral of "oh god i messed up why cant i just be normal and-" really hit me so hard and then proceeded to run me over twice, as someone who is gay that is often a thought process i would fall into, so seeing it portrayed in something is so validating man. but everyones reaction. slugpelt comforting him and being supportive, reassuring him its not weird, and that he's ok. asphodel having a look of guilt initially, assumably because of all of the times she would poke and prod at him for "needing to have kits some day" (call back to one of the first issues) , and then instantly teasing him over how she's seen him look at cormorant. Daffodil,,, man i was honestly worried about her at first because I didnt know how the implication of pine liking the same cat as her would come off to her, but her reaction??? priceless. literally so wholesome. i love how she just sees it as something exciting and something they can relate and bond over, i honestly wasnt expecting her to react like that but at the same time she generally does seem like a good sport so im not surprised in the end. seems in character for her. literally i love her. sweet baby child. literally the whole pinepaw coming out section almost made me cry it filled me with so much joy and love i love these silly little cats so much. going to be thinking about this so much for the next week istg

MADDDYYYYY

TYSM I'm super glad you liked the issue!! I really wanted to get across Slugpelt's perspective, to help understand why she could be taken in so thoroughly by someone like Cashew. She's got virtually no support structure in her life, and has been shown pretty much nothing but rejection her entire life, so when someone actually (seems to) choose her it means a lot. And since she's been shown to be such a distant and sometimes hurtful mother, I made sure to try and show why she is that way.

Pinepaw chose to share delights instead of horrors today! He already got everything he wants to talk about with those bones outside him, and Cootstorm did ask him not to tell anyone else.

YEAH the coming out scene was really fun and cathartic to write tbh, and actually I wasn't gonna include it in my initial planning but decided I needed to. I had considered the possibility of his family reacting badly (since they do live in a traditionalist group) but in the end like... I don't want to. "Confused but supportive" feels much better narratively and character-wise. You're right about why Asphodelpaw looked guilty too, especially since she's figuring some things out about herself as well. Daffodilpaw is my sweet kitty and she may be a little confused but she got the spirit <3

I'm so glad you like it,, they are all my silly little children and I love them dearly

[god-mouths]

i wanna hear about,,,, literally any of ur guys actually i love hearing abt ur guys :] if thats too vague pick me a guy and tell me about their inspirations/how you came up with their stories/designs/traits!! i think your stuff is so fascinating and i wanna know how that rotates in ur brain

OOOG…. Thank youe…. I’ve realized a few patterns in how I tell my stories lately so I do want to go over those! I’ll be using yvette my buddy my pal to demonstrate this because he’s the best example. ( later edit : Actually I have more stuff to talk about I’ll number it)

1. I’ve noticed a ton of my story material is based on how the people around us or our surroundings effect us. The cycles and whatnot. For yvette he starts out as a yellow blood and, in trying to forcefully change the oppression imposed on him from his surroundings, actually sort of just continues it by killing a close friend of his. That friend ends up haunting him. Teed hee

Idk if the pictures will come across well since I’m on mobile but to break down this specific piece the colors used on REPENT and the tapeworms in the back are actually the colors of his old psionics before he did all that mad scientist crap to change himself. OLD ART!! AUGHH AU AUGGHH

Is it a little stupid that he changes his own blood color? Yes. But homestuck as it’s own is so beyond stupid that I can do whatever I want I’m a scavenger a critter.

But by changing his blood color yvette essentially locks away his psionics (there must be something very specific to yellow blood to make the psionics work to me) siphoning them off into the trident he wields. He can’t get rid of ALL of his original blood, so the yellow just stays dormant. Should he choose to use his psionics in this new state he’s made for himself he risks fucking up his organs even further.

Anyways it takes a human child with the same exact problems as him to realize Heyyy…..maybe what I did and have been doing is a little fucked. Which it was. But it was the only thing he could have done, in his eyes, because the alternative was getting hooked up to a machine for the rest of his life.

At the end of the story (? Fan venture?) he does break out his psionics again which causes the blood to mix. He’s redeemed but he’s not nearly as cool anymore. Big bummer

2. colors always mean things more often than not in my art. I am a “why is the curtain blue” type of asshole, and I love to do it. For instance in MATSC green is for heaven and blue is for hell, but they have more than just that meaning. Green is confinement and being trapped and whatnot, while blue is freedom. Still kind of iffy on what purple means but it may mean the same as green. We’re figuring it out. In LEM I’m also still working on it, but blue is a mainly bad color there while orange is instead the signifier of good things. As for paradigm shift it’s more of a character-to-character basis. They all get their own specific colors. I loveeee colors colors colors :)

3. I LOVE writing villains. It is my personal goal with every villain I write to see how genuinely horrible I can make the villain as a person and still get people to enjoy reading them. It’s so fun, I mean it. Like the type of guy that would absolutely stump tumblr’s famous reading incomprehension. I love it I LOVE IT

4. This isn’t about my stories overall, just one, but I finally finished the first draft for act one of paradigm shift which I am PSYCHED about. I sent it out to a few people for feedback- only a select few people, though. If it were any other story I’d send it to a wider range but it is IMPERATIVE that my buddies that experienced max first hand when we were little 12 year old kids doing stupid roleplays get to see it first. They know him very well, and Vice versa. I’m so excited. (Air horns) (yippee sound!)

[tortugatime]

finally i got this lore post out (i had to restart sob sob)

rules for this post:

- while none of the turtles knew about being queer/all identified as boys back then, i'll be using their present-day pronouns for this.

- this acts as less of a timeline of important events (like the previous lore post) and more like a description of what they were like as children

- if i'm being vague about something, it's because it's important in some way (and i like to keep yall on ya toes :P)

if there is literally anything you want to know (yes, even "dumb" questions), send in an ask! they bring me joy!!

and now, onto the post

as covered previously, yoshi escaped into the sewers, freshly mutated and now a father of four. for the first few weeks he and his new children bounced from spot to spot, looking for a place to call home. eventually, yoshi settled upon a long abandoned section of the sewers, one that was spacious and surprisingly clean (because is it tmnt without an absurdly spacious sewer?)

now that they had a home, yoshi decided it was time he name his four children. after all, they would need names eventually. with that in mind, yoshi chose to name them after renaissance artists: michelangelo, leonardo, donatello, and raphael. as for himself…he could not be hoshi anymore, and hamato yoshi was long gone. once again, yoshi renamed himself: now, he would be…splinter. yeah, that was a good name.

years passed by, and the turtles began to grow. splinter did his best to be present in their young childhood but, despite those efforts, he was absent more often than not. splinter's entire life had been uprooted once again, and now he was responsible for the lives of four children. he often found himself in the midsts of depressive episodes, ones that rendered him unable to function. that, combined with the frequent scavenging trips he had to undergo, led to someone else stepping up in his place: his eldest child, donatello.

donnie knew they were the oldest of the four. they also knew they were the smartest - their various inventions were a testament to such. so, in her mind, it made sense for her to take on splinter's responsibilities: cooking, cleaning, child care, everything that splinter was unable to do. donnie learned to do all of these, despite being a child himself. but, even though donnie stepped up as a parental fill-in, it didn't stop him from having a childhood - raphael made sure of that.

raph was a mischievous child who wore his heart on his sleeve - a stark contrast to the turtle he grew up to be. he knew that things were stressful - that splinter was sad, donnie was tired, and mikey was sickly - and brought fun into their everyday lives. he would find ways to brighten up life in the lair, from making art with mikey to causing trouble with leonardo who, as much of a goody-two toes as he could be, would participate every now and then.

where donnie was calm and raph was a troublemaker, leo was opposite to both of them; he was an anxious rule follower, always with another thing to worry about. but, while he strived to be the golden child of the four, he would still cause trouble and have some fun with his older brother. back when they were children, the two got along well enough - there wasn't yet a rift between them, nor was there much fighting. but, even as close as they may have been, leo was objectively much closer with the baby of the family: michelangelo.

mikey was the light of their family, balancing the four of them out with her kind heart and joy for everything. she may have been a bit weaker than her brothers, her poor immune system leading to her getting sick often, but that didn't stop her from trailing after them and doing everything they would do. she would make food with donnie, paint with raph, read comics with leo and, at rare times, could even get their father to play along with the rest of them. she held the family together, and continues to do so present day.

their childhood wasn't exactly the most normal of childhoods, but they made do with what they had. they made games out of their environment, from swimming in the cleaner parts of the sewer water to seeing who could find the coolest trash when dumpster diving; they would explore the sewers, making sure to stick together and not stray too far from the lair; and, whenever given the opportunity to go to the surface in disguise with their father, they would take it in earnest and enjoy the limited time they had up there.

it was natural for them to want to experience the world beyond their underground home, and they got to do such on the rare occasions splinter took them to the surface - usually just to help scavenge, and for holidays such as halloween. but sneaking out wasn't out of the question for them - the twins were the best at getting away with it, mikey being too noisy and leo usually chickening out last minute. while they would never get very far - the furthest they'd ever go being a rooftop - the two relished in the freedom.

raph was especially eager to sneak out when he could, too young to truly understand the why behind them hiding away. mikey felt a similar way, and would continue to well into her teen years. donnie and leo, on the other hand, were much more opposed to contact with humans - leo because of splinter's rule, and donnie because they were smart enough to make the connections themself. the world could never know about them, because it would never accept them.

because of their inherently lonely existence - hidden away from a world that would shun them no matter what - they were as close as can be. they were all each other had, after all. but they changed as they grew older; they grew apart. and while change is natural, especially as you grow up, it's debatable whether they changed for the better or for the worse.

after an…incident on the surface, raph wasn't the same; he was an angry shell of himself, lashing out at others and pushing his loved ones away. donnie grew bitter towards splinter due to his on-and-off presence in their early years, and became independent to a concerning degree. leo threw himself into perfectionism, his own coping mechanism for everything going on at home. and mikey? she did her best to hold them together, acting as the glue for their family.

of course, not all the change was bad. splinter grew to accept what he had become and began to be more involved in their lives, and do his best to make amends for what he hadn't done in the past. mikey's health improved as she grew older, and she became ill less frequently than before. and they all became much more proficient as ninjas, eventually being allowed to go on their first mission (a mission that kicks off the plot, i may add).

the turtles still have a lot more growing to do. even if a bit of blood is shed along the way.

———

as a thank you for reaching the end of the post, here's art of them as tots. as for their ages here, they are 8, 7, and 6 respectively.