#they were awful

[lazysunjade]

story inspiration tag | age of arcanai

tagged by: @morrigan-sims

rules: write up a blurb or make a visual collage of the people or characters (from books, TV shows, movies, etc.) that inspired your story and/or OC, either visually, personality wise, or just a general vibe

Last time I did this tag I did character inspirations, which are less concrete, so this time I did story inspiration. I think by now most of these are pretty obvious and/or I've spoken about them at length over the years. AoA's origins lay mainly in the Tolkienian world. Of course my love of elves is legendary at this point, but I was always most fascinated with what was going on behind the curtain. What would daily life have looked like in Rivendell, Lothlorien or Silvermoon. What would it be like to grow up in a society where that larger than life elegance, beauty and magic was simply commonplace. What would it be like to live in the days of kings, in a world not yet broken but still deeply connected to its ancient roots. Worldbuilding has always been my passion, so, inevitably, I take most of my inspiration from history's best worldbuilder.

As for Yeryn's specific dynamic, it was most influenced by Kuroshitsuji, which was my favorite anime in my high school/college years. Though it's no longer my favorite, I still deeply love the connection between Ciel and Sebastian. And I find that my current favorite storylines follow this trope almost as closely (Devilman Crybaby, Tian Guan Ci Fu, Mo Dao Zu Shi, SpiritPact). But it definitely all started with Kuro (I even gave it a tribute naming Yehl and Taryn's son after Ciel). As I grew older, I shifted away from Japanese animes into Chinese donghua. I just find that the genre of xianxia more closely resembles that epic Tolkienian fantasy, but in an eastern backdrop. Its inspiring, mystical art style and the all around beauty of Chinese animation and storytelling is something I've really latched onto and have started leaning into in my own works.

tagging: @amuhav | @thesimperiuscurse | @keibea | @izayoichan | @mahvaladara | @lilypixels | @rollingsim

[princelancey]

Those bloody sunglasses 💀

[take-taker-taken]

I’ve been deliberating for ages over whether to post this as it’s from Patreon so I’ve trimmed it down just enough to where he recounts how poor Terry Anderson tried her hardest to talk him out of going ahead with those snakeskin pants.

[miss-m-winks]

Hey help me shame my housemate who always uses his Italian and German ancestry as a bragging right in the kitchen even though all he really does with it is argue for storebougt bratwurst over storeglbought hot dogs, and also brag about how good his family lasagna recipe is while only ever making store bought frozen lasagna or pasta from a box.

If I lose this I will be very sad for all you people and your unseasoned meat. But if I win I can cancel his kitchen bragging rights forever.

[nxuvillette]

woke up with awful period cramps i’m gonna hate today

[clearcutcasualty]

No fictional couple will ever piss me off like how the Mad Hatter and the Hare from Adventures in Wonderland (1992) did

[insert-witty-user-name-here]

Quick reminder as we head into Trump’s first week in office. We are about to see an onslaught of executive actions designed to strip of us our rights. We’ve seen this before.

Many of them won’t be legal, many of them won’t take effect immediately, and some of them will be just plain nonsense. Trump alone can’t change the law (yet anyway- that’s Congress) and there is an official government process for enacting most executive actions that works slowly.*

There will be time to fight against these orders—either by stopping them entirely, weakening them, or at least slowing them down.

The purpose of doing so many terrible things at once is to scare us. Is to intimidate us to cede more ground than we need to. Don’t let them.

Stay engaged, stay angry, stay hopeful (or spiteful- me tbh), and—most importantly—stay strategic. Find an organization you trust, follow them, and take action when they ask you to.

(Side note- pick just a few issues to care deeply about and only follow a few organizations you trust. Don’t try to solve everything all the time or consume every piece of news. You WILL burn yourself out and that’s not helpful for anyone. Trust me, speaking from experience. Staying 15% engaged is better than 120% for three months and then 0%).

What we’re seeing right now is a backlash to decades of progress—a dying (and by extension dangerous I’m not gonna lie) breath of those in power desperate to maintain control. They wouldn’t be trying to squash us if there wasn’t something to squash.

TL;DR- there’s gonna be a lot of bad stuff in the news today. Don’t give into panic. There will be time to fight most of it. Stay engaged.

*Unfortunately, there will be some actions the President can control on his own and will take effect immediately. ICE Raids being one of them. Here’s a Know Your Rights factsheet. To learn more and stay informed on this issue, recommend following National Immigration Law Center, CASA, Immigrant Defense Project.

[pidgydraws]

🤎 never let go 🤎

[puddingcatbeans]

to be perfectly honest. i don't care if it is cheesy or cliched or idealistic. i like stories where the core of it is about kindness, the warmth we can offer others and the gentleness we receive in return. maybe the moral of the story IS love triumphs. it better fucking be

[pencilmint]

Sunset in Shinjuku

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

pls pls heard me out...FIDDLESTAN! <3

ok, i got this ask ten days ago, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Because I got two other asks asking for fiddauthor, and I dON'T KNOW HOW TO LET THEM DOWN LIGHTLY BECAUSE I'M A FIDDLESTAN BITCH THROUGH AND THROUGH 😭😭😭😭 I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!!!!

Don't get me wrong, fiddauthor is great and makes sense and everything. But listen. Billford and fiddauthor are multidimensional ships, they are good! But FIDDLESTAN!?!? that shit is the WHAT-THE-HECK-A-HEDRON!!!!!!! Even though it's literally 100% speculation, the implications are FUCKING CRAZY!!!!!!!!! I jumped between three ships so far during this gravity falls thing, each time thinking one is better than the other. I've decided that FIDDLESTAN IS KING!!!!!! I'm sorry. I could rant about them forever. I've been listening to nothing but extended versions of disco music for the past week. (YES THEY HAD A CRAZY ROMANTIC FLING IN VEGAS NO I WILL NOT ELABORATE!!!! (yes i will. I will elaborate at some point. it will be like ten pages or text. or I will draw it. idk.))

Here is a sketchbook doodle from like a week ago. I'm gonna post another fiddlestan thing in a few moments, but my style changes like I'm a completely different artist every week without warning, so I'm gonna leave this by itself!

He comes into YOUR house, he steals YOUR identity, and he fucks YOUR research partner!!! Fuck you!!!!!!!!!!

[scriblesandbits]

God IS a middle schooler and we ARE a science project except he does know we exist and has very mixed feelings about the whole ordeal

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael and Vanny had wild teen years in FNAF

[calkestis]

First look at ANDOR, SEASON 2 | Premieres April 2025 (source)

[dappy-dappernette]

I keep on hearing people go all "The voice of the Smitten is such a creep. All he wants in the princess is someone to control and keep as a pretty object. He'd drop the princess if she wasn't the perfect petite maiden like in the damsel route." and I will not stand for the Smitten slander.

Like- He's been in love with her as a burning corpse ghost lady:

A terrifying ghost woman who wants to bring fear and chaos to the world:

And even a murderous blade monster woman who would kill you and enjoy every second of it:

Like, he ALWAYS loves the princess no matter what she looks like or how she acts, he loves her for being herself no matter what or who she is. That's the point of his character and I'm tired of people slandering my boy.

[simcardiac-arrested]

i think what pisses me off the most is that last year, nobody had trouble going against russia. companies dropped everything so they could keep russians off their sites, to block them from their news articles and to sanction in other ways. eurovision kicked it out. even steam, discord, any fucking western apps or websites have been so willing to perform in ‘activism’. musicians and celebrities speaking out and country-blocking their work, and so much more. but now what? where is all of that now for israel? where are all the brands leaving the country to ‘protest’? where is anything? what pisses me off the most is that none of them have actually really cared about ukraine, ever, and none of them care about palestine now.