#this house was really just... designed to make me want to kill myself‚ I think

[ghostgirl-22]

My version of road trip AU preview for the handful of ppl that gaf <3 there’s a bit more than this written… but here are 2 states :) I personally love it and am mostly writing it for me so if y’all don’t fuck with it I promise I’ll keep the rest to myself lol. Side note: how do y’all make your fonts all pretty and colorful outside of what tumblr offers?

—-

New York City

Tashi lies and pretends she’s road tripping with girlfriends from the tour so her parents don’t book a flight out to New York and insist on escorting her back to Palo Alto themselves which they absolutely would do if they knew her plans. Driving across the country with two boys. (Both of them she made out with— one of them her boyfriend.) God forbid. Even she can’t believe she’s doing it.

They’re late picking her up from the hotel the tournament put her up in. Somewhere in the middle of Queens. She’s sitting in the lobby with her suitcase and tennis bag. Awkwardly waving goodbye to some of the girls she just beat in the tournament. 

Patrick’s coming from his house in Rhode Island and he’s already picked up Art in Massachusetts early this morning.

“Boston rush hour traffic was hell and he’s a horrible navigator,” is Patrick’s explanation as Art flips him off and jumps out of the passenger’s seat of the double parked car to help her load her suitcase in the trunk. “You have a tomtom dude… you just don’t fucking listen,” Art snaps back.  

As annoyed as she is she can’t help smiling thinking maybe they’re more annoyed. She carves out her own little space in the trunk amongst their messy half zipped suitcases and scattered clothing and clutter. It looks like Art loaded some things he had at home that he wanted to take back to school. He lifts her suitcase into her designated space for her. So chivalrous. 

“Do you care if I sit in the front?” She asks, biting her lip. 

He cares, it’s obvious but he shakes his head no anyway. “Of course not.”

”Thanks… we can switch later,” she offers.  

They’re supposed to be driving from New York City to Palo Alto. Nearly 3000 miles in Patrick’s little Jeep. He’s got a full tank of gas. A cooler full of water and sodas.  “We also have lots of chips and pretzels,” Art explains. 

“But no food food?” Tashi asks. 

“Uh peanut butter and honey,” Art says weakly. “And wheat bread.” 

It’s supposed to be a three day drive but it’s summer break… they’ve got nothing but time. no games, no practice, no school, no plans. “It takes as long as it takes,” Patrick shrugs. Setting the Tom Tom gps. 

It’s so hot Tashi feels like she’s barely dressed— short shorts and a tank top which she can tell Patrick really appreciates as she slinks into the passenger seat. The way she appreciates his thighs in athletic shorts, his biceps in a crisp white t-shirt, his freckles in all the sunlight. Art dressed nearly identical except with a stanford t-shirt and a baseball cap. He’s sleepy, soft and beautiful like always. Sexual tension between the three of them, already so thick you could cut it with a knife. 

The air conditioner is blasting but Patrick’s got the windows down. A lit cigarette in hand.

”I think we need rules,” Tashi says. 

“Rules? Why the fuck would we do that to ourselves?” Patrick asks, before taking a long drag of his cigarette.  

“Oh I dunno, so we don’t fucking kill each other… like rule number one… you can’t do that the whole time,” Tashi snatches the rest of the cigarette pack out of his cup holder. “Maybe 1 per state.”

“Oh fuck off,” is his half hearted response but he throws her a sideways glance and a little smirk as she pockets them. 

“Just ask me if you want one and I’ll consider it.” She says, biting back on a little smile of her own.

He reaches for her hand and links their fingers. Pulling her close to his lips and pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. 

“I missed you.” 

She kinda melts a little bit a lot. She loves the way he doesn’t let go of her… notices the way he catches Art's eye in the rear view mirror, a little smirk on his lips. As if this is also about him somehow. Then there’s a loud honk of someone jamming on the horn behind them.  

“Okay okay, I’m fucking going! Jesus.”  

Patrick puts the cigarette to his lips and starts the drive out of New York City. They turn down street after city street. One lined with row houses and flooded with water. Kids and teens playing around in front of an opened fire hydrant. Water splashing the car windows on the passenger side as they pass. On the next street they pass kids playing basketball at the open air park. A loud car sitting outside a bodega blasting Spanish music. The rumble of the overground train as Patrick weaves in and out of traffic, avoiding bicyclists, pedestrians, double parked cabs and the city bus like its a video game. All while he turns up the radio playing “Lady Marmalde” with Christina Aguilera, Missy Elliot and Maya. 

It’s Patrick’s music. Loud and brash, silly and unapologetic. Like him. They listen way too loud. “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?”  Singing along mostly making up words like they’re already in the best part of the road trip. Patrick racing steadily towards the beltway as  they escape the city via the Verrazano bridge all the way at the bottom of Brooklyn. Tashi gazes out the window at the sparkling water of the Hudson. The New York City skyline getting further and further away in her side view  mirror.   

New Jersey

“How do you know how to drive like that in the city?” Tashi asks as they enter the New Jersey turnpike. 

“Why? It’s kinda sexy right?” Patrick smirks. 

“He’s a city kid,” Art chimes in. “His sister and her surgeon husband live in his parents old New York City townhouse.” 

“Oh fuck… so you’re like…really, really rich,” Tashi says. 

Patrick shrugs, there’s a little color in his cheeks, “I mean… they are sure. I just have my jeep.” 

“That they paid for.” Comes Art from the backseat. 

“It was a birthday gift actually. so technically...” 

All through the Jersey turnpike and on towards  Pennsylvania they argue talk too much and eat too many chips. They share sodas and stories about family, how many siblings do you have? And all the annoying sibling stories. She knows Patrick but not the way art knows Patrick. All the people Patrick brings up Art knows and vice versa. Then Tashi, curious about their lore, starts asking them about boarding prep school. It’s like an avalanche of inside jokes. Some things she asks to know more about… some she lets them keep to themselves. They speak in riddles… they mention one word or say a name and thats all they need. Giggling with each other off of little to no context. They do it so often it’s like they aren’t even aware they’re talking in code. It’s adorable (and annoying) and maybe she’s a little envious. Wishing she had a friend that close. 

They get gas on the turnpike. “God bless Jersey we’ll have to pump it ourselves the rest of the way,” Patrick says. Which is just another invitation for her to call him a spoiled rich kid which always makes him blush. Even after they go into the food court for the bathroom and snacks, Tashi sits shotgun. She stays in front all afternoon even though she knows it makes Art jealous (she’s still unsure of who he’s more jealous of but she loves to play around with the idea of who he wants more in her head. Currently she thinks he wants Patrick more). 

As for Patrick, he has to hold her hand whenever it’s free. She’ll never admit to him… but it absolutely gives her butterflies. It’s like he still needs to touch her if he can’t be in her face. Needs to hold her hand up near his mouth within kissing distance. She can sense it… that  Art is anxious for their flirting. Sitting in the backseat one shoe up, tapping on the center console, biting his thumb. She glances back at him often just so he feels included… and not because she likes to flirt with him too. Maybe she does make eyes at him… but only a little bit. She knows she should behave herself but she does get a bit of a rush knowing they’re both so into her.

Patrick’s playlist, now background to their chatting, is beginning to transition from pop music and some R&B with artists like Nelly Furtado, Britney, Usher and Justin Timberlake, to random classic rock tunes. Stuff Tashi heard her grandpa… her mom’s dad… play a lot when she was younger. “Ramble On” by Led Zepplin, “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult, “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas she’s vaguely familiar with all of them  and when she explains how she knows them— it sends them all down a rabbit hole about old music they know. And Tashi takes over the music rig plugging her iPod in and running a playlist of Motown songs some she’s certain they’ve never heard (Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, some of her grandma… dads side… favorites like the Temptations. They’re both delighted to hear “My Girl.”  

They stop at the last turnpike exit before Pennsylvania for “real food” and more gas while their at it. Patrick stretches his legs. Pulling her into a real kiss before she can go inside, tongue slipping into her mouth big hands on her shoulders, her waist, her ass…then he’s slipping them into her pocket as he steals his cigarettes back with a grin. 

“Loser,” she tells him only mildly breathless as he puts one to his lips. 

“Takes one to know one,” he grins back. 

Art lingers awkwardly before she links her arm with his and drags him inside. They both get salads. Patrick meets them inside after his cigarette and gets a Nathan’s chilli dog. They eat in the car… in the parking lot. Seats reclined. Patrick arguing with them about why he should be able to just kick his shoes off.

“absolutely fucking not,” is Art’s response. 

“Come on, you’d get used to the smell. After like an hour or two you won’t even notice the difference.” 

“No fucking way… thats rule number two. Keep your shoes on. I mean… unless you’re wearing sandals all day of course” Tashi says… stretching her bare feet out onto his lap. 

“Now you’re just rubbing it in.” He teases his knuckles over the pads of her feet and she pulls away quickly because she feels it all over, tingling in places she shouldn’t be. He smirks at her, his gaze going dark and she looks back at her salasd… feeling her stomach start to do little impatient flips. She’s been so close to him all day. Touching him, smelling him, hearing his voice. She can’t act like it hasn’t had an affect on her. Maybe if art falls asleep first or they book a room in a motel she can get it out of her system. Otherwise it’ll be a long night.

(Forgive any anachronisms i beg. I think all music is from on or before 2006 — was gonna use telephone by Beyonce and gaga but I stopped myself… and the gps came out in 2004 i looked it up i promise)

[squid--inc]

....

[starsonablackboard]

managed to finish another decent ish piece so here's narinder's inutial design!! as always probably will change later

we're living by furry laws in this house so "head fur" aka hair is an option and im using it. period. another unpopular(??) choice is giving narinder a fur pattern, and don't get me wrong i love the pure black void nari, but as an artist i enjoy making up details to draw, so i indulged myself here. (but if i ever were to draw comics with him i would simplify it or just make him all-black, because repeating this every frame is a misery. fun for a one-off ref sheet tho)

not a lot of lore stuff for the guy since the idea of the au is still fresh and im figuring it all out, but there're design inspirations under the cut if you're interested!!

sooo lets go

i wanted narinder to have that dramatic sharp featured og cartoon villain look, so i took inspiration from oriental longhairs for the facial structure and from maine coons for fluffy dramatics. also i just love using maine coons as cat references. look at those things. marvellous.

from the very start (pretty much) my brain was consistently giving me images of narinder with hair, specifically dark long-ish straight-ish, so i tried to walk this mental image backwards to find the origins of it, and i think scar and ozai are my best bets. in my first sketches narinder had shoulder length hair with slight waves, but in the end i opted for long and straight. not really a reason to, just was vibing better to me

clothes are pretty standard narinder robes i think. i find it funny that fandom unanimously gave him basically a priest outfit, and i like it too, so i kept it. that red stripe gave me a little bit of a headache though, couldn't get it to look okay and not weird or tacky. i think i managed. i had to contain my urge to design him an intricate outfit with different textiles and embroidery and shit, but i try to keep it at least somewhat tied to logic and the au, and let's say that no-one was willing to do something this elaborate for narinder for quite some time

and some lore crumbs

• narinder is declawed (after his defeat that is).

see the narinder's claw relic and the whole do no evil motive. the most evil narinder directly did was the injures he inflicted on his siblings, and he did it by, quoting shamura, "such sharp claws". so yeah, that tracks. funfact i considered taking only one of his claws, from the left ring finger, because the relic is "narinder's claw" singular, but "callamar's ear" relic is also one ear and not two, so it didn't feel kike a good enough basis to take only one claw yk. so sorry big cat, all your claws are now gone

• lamb did kill narinder after defeating him. there's nothing on the pic that's tied to that fact, just thought it would be interesting to know

[cotton-fae24]

Hello everybody! Surprised to see me post something not Seabird related? Well sometimes drawing the same things over and over again gets a little tiring, so to clear my head (and to remind myself to draw legs once in while) I’d tried to draw other owl house stuff. During this break times I’d actually end up drawing other owl house creators Au’s, and I decided to clean up these drawings together and compile them into one big illustration. Think of this post as a sorta tribute to creators that inspire me. And don’t worry, Seabird part 3 will still come out Monday.

First up, the Monster high AU by @dazeddoodles

As the title suggests, it’s an AU that combines the G1 Monster high with the Owl house series. I was a huge Monster High fan when I was younger, so this AU was a real treat. I’m really sad they decided to discontinue it, as I think this AU is really cute. I love the designs too, Raine is my favorite. I kinda just wanted to draw some cute interactions, a young Eda and Raine interacting, Gus and Willow giving Hunter “a hand’ and Amity flirting with Luz (in her own way). Drawing this AU was a lot of fun and did inspire me to rewatch some of the old Monster high specials.

Pittwins AU by @nikolutke

This AU is much darker. The idea of the story is what if Hunter and Luz weren’t resurrected at the end of the series and wandered around the Boiling Isles as ghosts. I love Nikolutke designs for Ghost Luz and Hunter, they’re both haunting and really sad. Plus the idea exploring the Owl house characters reactions towards the death of a love one is really fascinating concept. I kinda explored that idea with these drawings, in this case Eda and Darius reactions. I feel like Eda would be out of her mind with grief, as she was forced to watch Luz’s death first hand. I think she’d feel a lot of guilt too, thinking she failed to protect Luz. I also wonder if Kings Titans powers allows him to see the dead, could be possible. As for the other illustration, I think Darius would probably isolated himself and grieve quietly, contemplating what he could of done differently, and if he could have saved Hunter in time.

The Gilded Cage by @catboymoments

I’ve been fan of both their next gen au and this one, but I decided to post one about the Gilded age au. The basic idea of this AU is the classic “What if Belos found Luz instead of Eda” concept. A lot of these AUs tend to go the route of “Luz becomes Belos 2.0” as someone who loves Luz, I’m sad people just think she’d just instantly become a villain if left unguided. I’m really that this AU went into a different direction and actual kept Luz’s personality and made Luz someone who’s trying to help the Isles and wants to protect her friends from Belos wrath. The one on the left is Lilith and Luz interacting, I like to think Lilith sees a lot of Eda in Luz, and makes her think of the good times before everything got complicated. The one on the right is Luz and Hunter, with the former trying to convince the latter to question Belos control. I love in this AU that despite Belos attempts to put the, against each other, they still have each others back no matter what! Their siblings no matter what universe they’re in!

And of course the classic (pun intended) The Mythology AU by @turquoisespace35

This AU is Huntlow story set in Greek mythology. Hunter in this AU is the half human-gorgon offspring of the human Caleb and gorgon Evelyn. Willow is sent to his location to kill him but (of course) they fall in love instead. The story has a lot of twists and turns, so I suggest you check it out if you haven’t already. The left drawing is Caleb and Evelyn interacting together. I don’t know if this work but I like to think the two were able to somewhat interact with each other by Caleb looking through mirror. I of course had to draw the love birds Hunter and Willow interacting together. The one on the top right is a little bit of a spoiler but I decided to draw Lilith and Edalyns in their goddess forms, I love that Lilith plays the role of Athena and acts a caretaker to Hunter. I drew her getting a little emotional about Hunter finally being free, as any cool Aunt should.

And to those who are just hear to see the Seabird AU, here’s a preview drawing of part 3 of chapter 10. I don’t think Edas really enjoying this part though lol.

Anyway, hope you guys this more unusual post, I just wanted to draw something a little different this time and pay tribute to some of the artists that have inspired me.

Edit: Chapter 10 part 3 of the Little Seabird is out now. In case you’re interested in seeing my work, I’ve left a link:

Chapter 10, part 3:

And if you want to read from the beginning, here’s a link to the first page:

Beginning:

[calder]

 Fallout 3 was originally in development at Black Isle Studios, codenamed Van Buren, but it was cancelled when Bethesda bought the IP.

 At one point, designer John Deiley was creating an area called the Nursery, a Noah's Ark-like location which housed pre-war fauna.

 He planned to have Pagans and Wiccans take up residence here, but Chris Avellone allegedly said no, banning them outright.

scream

not to dwell on the dev tension of this too much -- it's very exciting to find such a strong link between V29 and occultism

would really love to pick this guys brain

edit oh my god. yeah cool we can "disprove" the headline of this anecdote by identifying the cult in the van buren design doc. i can also read the top of the article. wanna unpack this?

"He said, 'You are not to bring Paganism or Wiccanism or anything into the game,'" Deiley recounts. "I said, 'Well, Chris, what do you think happened to these people when the bombs went off? Did every one of them just vanish from the face of the Earth? When you consider the whole purpose of the Nursery, wouldn't they make the perfect tenants and tenders?' [He said,] 'I've made my decision' and just turned around and walked off."

@ChrisAvellone: There was a faction you could join, do quests for, and potentially lead in Van Buren that was a pagan faction (Daughters of Hecate). Might have bad info from source?

Deiley said 'he pointedly told me i wasn't allowed to develop this faction descending from pre-war pagans' avellone defended himself by saying 'but i made my own faction which could be called post war pagans'

deiley is describing a thing that happened. the oral history of fallout is richer for this detail & the impulse to entirely deny the reality of his account by calling another van buren faction pagan is an unflattering defensive technicality

these two men worked on eight video games together. they stood in a room together and one of them shit on the other one's creativity repeatedly. his defense is 'he described it imperfectly; i proceeded to do that idea myself'

i just wanted to learn more about the creativity of this furtive fallout vet.

the accusation that someone 'banned paganism from a fallout game' is not remarkable or meaningful enough on its own to be worth negating. we know for a fact deiley was responsible for talking deathclaws and chris avellone killed them and publicly made hostile jokes about it. he complained about deiley's idea (which he already killed) for being hippie shit for a quarter of a century.

WOULD THIS MAN SHIT ON AN IDEA????????

"I’ve always hated aliens in Fallout, for example, and as I’ve often told Tim Cain, I was pretty fucking pissed off he thought including ghosts in Fallout was a good idea. It’s like you’re opening the goddamn door to the spirit world in a post-apoc game, and that’s a whole separate aesthetic detour in a franchise that’s already been placed in danger of losing its direction by being given to a bunch of newbs.” -Avellone, recounting the first time he worked on a fallout game

one of avellone's co-workers revealed that he stomped on their idea and his rebuttal is that he implemented a similar one elsewhere

it is embarrassing that he responded this way

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 90 (Under Pressure)

cw: a bit of coarse language from River, it's just his voice.

Light snow fell over Sable Square on this sunny winter morning, and Conrad tensed his shoulders as he opened the front door. But his best friend and future brother-in-law stood before him, and Conrad relaxed as he stepped out to greet him.

"Hey Riv. What are you doing here? We're gonna be in Henford in two days."

"I'm off for a few weeks with Cass and baby Sammy, but I wanted to talk when we weren't surrounded by family," River said. "Everyone's kinda worried about you, you know."

"Everything's fine. Work's just a little stressful right now."

"Yeah? Those security cameras are pretty intense. You've got that restraining order, and Hazel said you guys brought home a ghost from your date last night...?"

"He's not a ghost anym- Is there anything your family doesn't talk about with each other?"

"Not really, but you knew that already. Are my sister and her kids in some kind of danger?"

Conrad shook his head stiffly. "No."

River studied him. "That's good, because you know if you put a Landgraab in danger, that old bitch who hates my sister will probably have you killed."

He laughed a little but wasn't kidding, and Conrad shifted uncomfortably. "I've got to get to work soon, but come on in for a few minutes."

River followed him inside and greeted Gord with a smile. "You're also about to miss the deadline for our fantasy sportsball league."

"I completely forgot that was this week. I'm sorry. Maybe I should skip it this time around. My head's kind of jammed lately. I haven't even kept up on offseason trades."

"Dude, you're not okay at all. You're the first one in every season..."

"Riv, I just have a lot going on." He tried, but failed, to bottle his frustration with himself, but his reply came out terse and unwelcoming. If everyone could see his stress, he wasn't managing his secrets, but he didn't mean to take it out on River. "Sorry."

"It's alright...I brought the number for that ring designer you asked for, too." He paused, and Conrad didn't fill the silence. "You should go see Cass' mom. Every time she calls, she says how stressed you are. Cass thinks she talks like you're one of her kids, but that's Bella Goth for you - everyone's family to her. Besides, you and my sister have gotten into some real Goth-flavoured shit the last couple years, so it's no wonder she's started thinking of you like family."

Conrad laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "Maybe it's just a Brindleton Bay thing for everyone in town to pick up strays. How are you doing? How's Michael adjusting to having a new baby at home?"

"Michael loves Sammy, but he doesn't understand why the baby just stares at him so far."

"Ash was like that. Now Lavender tries babbling with him and he's a lot more interested. Seeing them together kinda makes me wish I had a sibling or two."

"Dude, you've got plenty these days." River stood from the sofa and tightened his scarf. "Listen, I'll get going. I told Cass I'd stop in to see her mother before I left town, myself. It'll be great to see you this weekend, and just...take it easy, okay? No case is more important than my sister and those kids."

"They're my entire world, man. If they're ever in danger, I'll do anything to keep them safe. Thank you for coming by, but I'm handling the stress. I swear to the Watcher."

River leaned in for a hug before they both left the house on Sable Square. He thought about their conversation the whole way to the precinct, about Heather's suspicions, needy Ximena, and angry old George Brindleton. By the time Conrad made it to work, he felt like his heart could explode from his chest.

He made a beeline for the break room and hit redial on the unlisted number he knew would be Ximena. This time, she picked up after only two rings.

"Conrad, do you need me?"

"Where's your brother?" He kept his voice low to ensure no one might overhear if they walked in the room.

"If I knew, I wouldn't have found you to ask for help."

"You found me before you said he went missing. What did you want then? Just me, right? Then what? Things start to go a little sideways with the cartel and you remember I said I'd help you if you ever left, the day I finally left you? But you never left, did you? When's the last time you worked for Los Tigres?"

"Four months ago."

"You and Jimmy, huh. How did it go?"

"It should have gone better!"

"Did they take your brother?"

"It's possible."

"Ximena, I can't do this. I can't help you. I've got kids. I'm not getting mixed up with you and that world again. When it might've been some degenerates trying to mess with the cartel, it was different."

"So you're just going to let them do whatever they want with him? Like they did with me before I took my future into my own hands?"

"You figured out how to beat the cartel at their own game once. If you're really against them and this isn't another lie, do it again for your brother. I'm not going to start investigating the cartel just because they've cut you out after too many bad deliveries." She stammered, and Conrad sighed. "Did you not think I'd read your file after you found me again? You don't even know that's who took Rafa."

"So you're really out? Even though it's Rafa." The sweet voice she put on for him had disappeared.

"Good luck, Ximena. I'm out."

He shook from a mix of anger and guilt when he hung up the phone and blocked her latest number. He was angry at her, but angrier at himself for letting it get this far. To never see her again wouldn't trouble him, but the mystery of Rafa's disappearance wouldn't be so easy to leave behind.

Yet River was right, as usual. He had to let it go. Heather and his family deserved his attention more than Ximena. More than Rafa.

He changed into shorts and a t-shirt and found one of the punching bags unoccupied in the upstairs gym. He funnelled a torrent of guilt and frustration through his gloves, pounding the leather bag at the end of his gloved fists.

For the rest of the day, Conrad stuck close to his desk to organize his case files. When 6p.m. hit, his head still clouded with stress, he clocked out and headed home.

But he remembered what River suggested and changed course, driving his cruiser across the bridge to Cavalier Cove, instead. ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 1 Summary | Gen 1 Start

Meanwhile, Ximena returned home and made herself a sandwich. Anyone recognize her apartment? 👀

[lemonstars8583]

lalalaa hello i haven’t posted my fnaf au stuff in a while here’s two recent doodle pages RAMBLES UNDER CUT! but before that who the FUCKKK WAS GONNA TELL ME THEY MADE A TO BE BEAUTIFUL GRAPHIC NOVEL AND REDESIGNED SARAH ENTIRELY??????????

WHO IS THIS NEW GIRL whatever I’m not changing my sarah design ❤️ (mine is inspired by the pic on the left)

idk if I’m gonna go the route of “wow sarah realizes she’s (he’s?) trans!” I just think it would be neat if that sort of makes her realize something and she goes thru a journey of “did i ever really hate myself or did i just hate that i wasn’t what society said i needed to be?” there’s a happy ending for her in there… somewhere… even though she’s dead… 😭😭 uhmmm

but yeah idk transmasc sarah is cool but the more i think abt it the more butch sarah is cool too. like maybe she even goes by he pronouns sometimes but eventually settles knowing that she likes being a woman!! just not in the way she was pressured to be before :)

I REALLY really want funtime freddy and circus baby to parallel millie and sarah.. former best friends who’s relationship got super fucked up and all that yknow.. ik i said somewhere in a former post that sarah and millie didn’t know each other well but that is NOT true anymore sarah is the best friend millie had in CTW who ditched her for the popular people

also i didn’t draw freddy damaged here bc i’m too tired to add the cracks and little details LOL i don’t care ❤️❤️

ALSO!! fun story change! I think it’s fucking stupid that sarah just like. slipped on a fuckin banana peel and her necklace fell off. soooo i think it’d be cool if Millie saw her wearing the old BFF locket she got her back when they were friends and got PISSED that sarah would have the NERVE to wear that when they aren’t even friends anymore and sarah fuckin ditched her to be popular, so they get into a fight, millie yanks the necklace off in the scuffle, and whabam! Sarah’s true form is revealed and everyone freaks the fuck out.

Millie would probably continue clutching the locket tightly without even realizing it, she’s just in shock, and later on when she goes home freddy is able to identify the illusion disc inside. baby probably pressures sarah to go break into millie’s house to steal it back since now they can’t hide anymore so she’s pissed that sarah lost it

Sarah of course gets caught breaking in 😭😭 but millie and her grandpa offer to house her there while they figure out what’s going on and try to help her, during this time millie and sarah become very close again as friends while freddy and baby are at each others throats.

freddy doesn’t want sarah there AT ALL but is also reluctant to tell them why because explaining to millie that her best friend is dead and possessing her own corpse which is being piloted by his ex-friend who tore him apart is really awkward

(also he knows baby is trying to hide and blowing her cover might make her want to kill millie and her grandfather THOUGH as sarah’s corpse continues falling apart, baby already has plans to look for another body to inhabit..)

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Revelations Supports we could have gotten for Lilith if IS weren't cowards

Jakob- I wanna see their work dynamic, does Jakob respect her or is he an asshole or an asshole who respects her, how does she bounce off of him does she rib him back or what.

Felicia- Felicia tries to help Lilith take care of the animals and it doesn't go well, she does decently with pegasi though as Hoshidan pegasi kinda just don't give a shit

Flora- Secret Big Sister Club they're friendship is beautiful and I think it should be explored more

Not-Gunter- You Aren't My Dad. I mean you're my Father but Not My Dad.

Bonus Gunter in Conquest- You Aren't My Father and I don't know how to handle having a Dad.

Selena- Hi Corrin I'm stealing your fish maid and making sure she's properly socialized, see she's hissing she needs this

Laslow- "why are you being nice to me" "Well your old man wasn't exactly specific which child we need to look after... are you crying I'm sorry please stop crying or feel free to cry I'm here for you" "shut up"

Odin- "Pray Tell, My Mermaidian Benefactor, whenceforth do these constellations dwell, the mystery brings my blood to a boil at the idea of the legends and secrets they could hold." "... sorry translating... I'm not a fish and they're other dimensions and deeprealms, there's no legends or anything to them." "That cannot stand, surely divising the tales of these stars must be our calling!"

Beruka: "While the leaves of this plant are commonly used as herbs, the roots are extremely toxic and can be used to poison your enemies. You did come out of nowhere with knowledge of who Corrin was" "Beruka please it's just for cooking, I'm not an assassin. I'm trying to leave that life behind me. I mean I didn't say that, I'm not a threat to Corrin" " ...I understand"

Nyx- Trying really hard to see if there's an answer to Nyx's problem somewhere in the multiverse, Lilith's problem got fixed, why wouldn't hers? Also bonding over being stuck in a form that they don't want.

Silas- *Spiderman pointing meme* who are you *5 seconds later* me and the bestie

Kaze- excuse me, I am the one who does the serving, not being served, stop doing my job

Saizo- I know where you are man. We're in MY pocket dimension I know where everyone is stop stalking me and Corrin or I'm kicking you out. Give us some Moro darned privacy

Azama- heyy I heard your God answered your prayer and then left you in a fishy form for months? Have you maybe considered Nihilism *gets stabbed* that's fair

Setsuna- how do you even get in traps? I don't even put traps in here? Genuinely do you have reality warping powers that just put you in traps? Walk me through exactly how you got in this situation

Orochi- Congratulations! I've decided you're absolutely Lady Mikoto's daughter whether that's true or not because you look. . . Exactly like the kind of pathetic soul she'd take in if you weren't hiding while she was alive.

Reina- "I see a lot of Lady Mikoto when she was younger in you, she wasn't always the calm leader she was before she passed, if you need anyone killed just let me know" "are you asking that in a caring way or you just want to kill someone" "it can be both"

Oboro- oh boy I sure do enjoy designing Corrin's outfit with tasteful and avant-garde references to their dragon form and sure do hope that I'm not about to get jumpscared by the fashion police

Takumi- we both have a lot going on but neither of us are prepared to throw a stone in our glass houses. Whoever successfully convinces the other they need therapy wins.

Kana- they called me Auntie and I'm crying, if anything were to happen to them I would kill everyone and then myself

i love these so much <3333

[lottes-little-place]

Hey everyone🙂 Long personal post incoming!

I can't believe it has been over a year since I last made some custom content. I wanted to post something at the end of 2024 but it felt a little stupid to do a 2024 Tumblr Top 10 post without even having 10 posts in total (I think?), so I did not. I felt very burned out and just generally bad the whole of last year (which means worse than usual) and lost all interest in Sims because of the stress it gave me. It's still a little weird to make a post like this because technically I didn't go anywhere, I'm still lurking here a few days a week liking posts. I just didn't feel like interacting or doing anything Sims related.

I find it also very difficult to see everyone's beautiful lots and amazing custom content and feeling like my stuff or lots or anything I make will never be good enough or pretty enough and that made me lose interest in everything as well. My lots are simple boxes and I feel envious and sad because I want to have pretty houses for my sims as well. Every time I have a good idea for custom content it turns out to be to difficult, someone else does it better or I find my execution not good enough. It always looks so easy to see other people being succesful doesn't it? Why can't I build like that? Why are all my textures always blurrier? How do people even begin to understand how to make certain things? I'm always struggling so much to make simple recolors and I'm barely ever satisfied about the result.

I have learned a lot over the few years now but I still feel like a beginner. Every time I open SimPe I have to check every little thing again because I still make simple mistakes and don't even start about retexturing things in Photoshop process because I'm honestly just winging it. Every retexture costs me hours or even days of stress and uploading is just as stressful. What if I uploaded the wrong files? What if people look at it and think it's badly done? Couldn't I have done better? I see every little flaw and I know most people won't but it still stresses me out. I wish I could care less about things like that. I tried to avoid uploading in the evening because sometimes I couldn't sleep of the stress and the fear that something in the download was wrong.

I just wanted to get these things off my chest. Maybe some of you will read this and recognize themselves or maybe don't feel stupid if they don't understand retexturing things either because honestly it really is painstakingly difficult unless maybe you are a graphic designer or artisticly talented. Most people are just hobbyists and probably have as little understanding of this all as myself. At least that is what I try to tell myself to feel better about my stuff.

Thank you if you have read all of this and if you haven't that's okay too, we come here to relax and to shop custom content and that's okay.

Of course now I'm going to proofread this post because my anxiety will kill me if I make any spelling error and people see it. (I've changed SimPE to SimPe! How could I let this get through😤.)

To end in a happier note, I actually felt like making custom content this week and I actually finished it too so I will probably make a post and upload it tomorrow or later this week. (Spoiler; it's two book recolors for the Billy! I'm always too excited, I can't keep secrets😁)

[bless-my-demons]

Redamancy: Chapter Ten

Series Summary: What happens when your soulmate is a vampire that struggles to maintain a diet of trying not to kill you? Common sense says run for the hills, nothing is worth your life - but my heart is whispering why not, what’s there to lose?

Warnings: Curse words, if that’s still a thing

Notes: Sorry this one is a little short, but I’ve got big ideas for upcoming chapters. Thank you guys for all the love so far, it means so much to me to hear your thoughts and see the notifications!

Word Count: 1900

Series Masterlist

• March 13th, 2005 • Cullen’s Garage •

Reader

Ever since Jasper and I left my house in a hurry, I felt like I’ve been stuck in a haze. Like none of this is real. And even though I snapped at him on the ride over, he’s respected my decision and kept me either within arm’s reach or a hand touching me in some form. It’s the only thing keeping me here in the moment while controlled chaos continues to explode in his family’s garage.

I feel deft fingers unzipping my, or rather Jasper’s, jacket and sliding it from my shoulders. I grab at the hands to stop them, but it’s Jasper himself.

“I need to give it to Esme, for her to lure him with your scent. I also need your hat, sweetheart.” He explains gently.

I release his hands and nod, allowing him to take the articles from me. I shiver without his jacket to keep me warm and he immediately replaces it with a different hoodie, this time slipping it over my head.

“Another one of mine that I don’t mind letting you borrow.” He winks at me and it draws out a smile from me. I feel at home cocooned in his scent.

On the other side of Carlisle’s car I hear Edward arguing with Rose about carrying Bella’s scent. Emmett squeezes past us to throw some supplies in the backseat of his Jeep and turns to me.

“Be safe, Y/n/n?” I nod and he turns to his brother, “Take care of her and watch your back, alright tough guy?”

“Likewise, big guy.” Jasper replies, pulling him in for a quick hug with a smile before parting and opening the passenger door for me. Bella and Alice already waiting in the rear as I climb in and buckle up.

• March 14th, 2005 • Outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona •

Reader

The entire trip south was a blur, what I assume normally is a two to three day trip, took us one day with minimal time for bathroom breaks and gas stops. Me being the designated one to refuel the car during the day since our protectors couldn’t exit the vehicle and Bella spent the majority of the ride in and out of sleep. I was grateful for the temporary duty, it felt like I was actually being helpful instead of sitting and waiting for something to happen, which I know might very well be my fate once we make it to Phoenix.

“All done, darlin’?” I shake myself from my day-dream, Jasper had cracked his driver’s side window and I meet his eyes in the side-view mirror.

“Oh shit-sorry.” I quickly put away the pump and screw the gas cap back on before hurrying back to the passenger side.

“You alright?” He asks quietly, giving me a sidelong glance as he directs the car back to the interstate.

“Mhmm.” I answer him, looking out of the window at the passing cars.

I feel a small hand slide onto my shoulder and give it a squeeze before it retreats to the back seat, Alice. I’m not really sure how to feel at this point, I mean - I am happy that Jasper is with me, lord knows I’d be a nervous mess worrying about him. But I can’t help it thinking of the others, Esme wearing my scent and Rose wearing Bella’s. Edward is the fastest and with his ability to read minds, he’s formidable. Carlisle is an extremely smart man and I know Emmett is strong for a normal vampire, but is he stronger than vampires that drink human blood? I shiver, human blood. The vampires after Bella and I want our blood. Just as I’m about to spiral down a path of panic for fear of not being able to protect myself, a large hand slides over my left thigh.

Raising his eyebrows in concern, Jasper gently smooths his gift over my panic to calm me down and combined with the distraction of his hand, it works. I don’t know what I would do without him, it’s like fate knew I couldn’t digest his world without his ability to control emotions. So I give him a sad smile and slide my hand on top of his, with him I can do this - we could do this.

• March 15th, 2005 • Hotel - Phoenix, Arizona •

Jasper

Alice and I picked a hotel for the four of us close to the international airport in Phoenix so that we might have an additional means of escape. That also puts us in the middle of a metropolitan area. Nowhere near a forest.

Nowhere near our food source.

And I’m confined to a room for who knows how long with my singer after having spent 24 hours with her in a car.

Yet another test of my precarious control.

Thankfully I fed myself before the baseball game and under normal circumstances I could go a little over a week until I needed another meal… but I exerted myself trying to mask the energy signatures surrounding the women in our group to the nomads to make them uninteresting. And staying in this room watching over the girls doesn’t help either.

“You won’t hurt them.” Alice tells me from her watchful position at the window, early morning light peaking in the crack in the curtains held open by her slender hand.

“Doesn’t make it any easier.” Taking calming breaths is a human technique, one that would increase the inferno in my throat. Meditation is all that can offer a modicum of peace, a skill I wish came easily.

I can feel her eyes assess me, even though my own are closed in concentration. “I can get us an adjoining room-”

I cut her off and crack an eye open, “And be further away? Absolutely not, I’d much rather suffer through hunger than adding a barrier from protecting you three for my comfort.”

“I’m not incapable of defending myself or the girls.” Her sharp tone makes me wince, so I give her my attention fully.

“I meant no disrespect… I know you are fully capable, but she is mine, Alice.” Surprise colors her emotions.

“She is your singer?” My sister questions in a gasp.

“You didn’t see that coming?” I joke with her, leaning back on the couch to stare at the ceiling.

She smacks my shoulder, “You know I’ve been preoccupied with Edward’s predicament with Isabella. The guy is as paranoid as they come!”

“I only figured it out Saturday, so it’s not like I’ve been sitting on the news for very long.” A sigh deflates my chest, “I haven’t told her.”

“You’ll find the right time when this is all over.” Her smile would be reassuring if I didn’t have the ability to sense the uncertainty in her emotions.

Reader

I spent all day yesterday sleeping while occasionally texting my mom to check in. I passed off another lie that we were just waiting on her mom to get here from Florida and that I’d be staying with Bella for a few days until then. I hope the others catch the nomads soon, I hate lying to my mom and I’m running out of material that’s legitimate enough to keep her placated.

The worry drags me from my shared bed with my friend, Alice got us a suite but with only one bed so our locations wouldn’t be spread thin. Fine by me, I wouldn’t be able to stand a room to myself just waiting.

Exiting the bedroom into the sitting room, I spot only Jasper with no Alice in sight.

“She’s acquiring food for you two, the lobby has free breakfast and the sun has barely risen.” He explains, lowering the newspaper in his hands.

I sit sideways on the couch facing him with my legs tucked in close, far enough away that I’m not touching him. Our confined situation mustn’t be easy on him and I don’t want to add to the difficulty, but I’m like a moth to his flame.

“Did you get enough sleep? I heard you tossing and turning.” A strong hand reaches up to gently run along the indentions my pillow made on my cheek, not the most attractive thing to wake up with in the morning.

“I’m fine, just restless and worried.” I caress the hand on my cheek and lean into it.

His brows furrow slightly, “You’re safe here with Alice and I-”

“No-no, I’m worried about Esme, Rose, your whole family, mom…” I glanced down at my lap and pick at the seam of my shirt, well actually Jasper’s shirt-I did a pretty shit job of packing and he let me borrow one of his to sleep in - I’m trying to not think about that too hard.

“My family can handle themselves, we’ve survived this long for a reason.” Jasper reassures me calmly.

“Yes, but protecting Bella and I has pulled you and Alice away from them-“

“And they’ll be alright. Besides, I have what they want and we’re across the country.”

“If they get angry and-and hurt one of them…” I can’t finish my sentence, anything happening to any one of them for my sake is too much to consider.

Jasper pulls me in for a hug, turning me so that I’m sitting in his lap with my face pressed to his neck and his hands rubbing my back soothingly. “Sweetheart, there’s more of us than them and we have more gifts, the odds are stacked in our favor. Especially with Alice-“

Just then the aforementioned vampire sweeps gracefully into our hotel room with a stack of to-go containers. “My ears were burning, do continue.” She teases us with a sweet smile as she sets the food before us on the coffee table.

“Jasper was just telling me there’s no point in worrying when we have a badass like you on our team.” I wink at her before opening a container with a waffle and bacon, cooked exactly like I prefer.

“You seemed like a soft bacon kinda girl,” I chuckle at her, amazed at her predictive skills. “I’ll go wake Bella.”

As she dances through the bedroom door, I slide out of Jasper’s lap and to the floor next to him, leaning against the couch I dig into my food. “It really is a shame you can’t eat, I’d miss bacon entirely too much if I were a vampire.”

“Something you’ll never have to find out, darlin’.” He chuckles as he goes back to reading the paper, but his words don’t quite sit right in my stomach.

Never have to find out? I suppose I hadn’t really thought of that. One day I’ll be old and wrinkly, meanwhile he will always be this, always be young. My appetite begins to shrink at the thought. Fuck - one day he won’t want me, I’ll be old and-

The newspaper rustles, “What-”

But Alice and Bella walk through the door and cut him off before he could ask what was bothering me.

I don’t even know what I’d say.

That I don’t like the idea that we’re on opposite ends of the mortality spectrum? That I won’t have forever with him? That I might be falling in love with him and I’ll just have to get over it at some point and let him go?

Wait-falling in love with Jasper Hale?

Shit.

Next

[gffa]

Sometimes I get defensive about those house decor posts I see going around where people say that the neutral colors/black & white sleek look is "soulless" and they want to bite, kill, rend, and destroy for getting rid of the color in their homes. Setting aside that people should be allowed to do whatever they want in their own homes, let me tell you what "color" means to me: Everything in my life was a different color. Every room had every color crammed into it. Which sounds like, oh, that must have been a pretty rainbow effect! It wasn't, none of these colors were meant to go together, it's a hot pink plastic shoebox set on top of a dark brown folding table holding three wildly different shades of brown hand towels, some cornflower blue notebooks, and orange pens. It's burnt orange shag carpeting in the living room and hallway, with slate blue chairs, and a white tv tray loaded up with bright yellow pill and cornflower blue bottles and pale wood bookshelf next to dark brown folding table next to pine-colored dresser next to medium dark wood nightstand, all of those that fake material with the sticker made to look like wood, not actual wood. It's lime green countertops and dark beige flooring with one faded yellow wall, one off-white wall, and one faded mint green wall. It's a pine wood mimicking kitchen table with gold trim that's a sticker not actual wood, combined with one black rolling chair, one maroon and oak chair (not actual wood), and one gray upholstered chair. It's a robin's egg blue frayed blanket tossed over the red-and-black walker in the corner, which is also loaded up with the dark green and dark blue exercise bands. It's white and beige pieces of paper plopped everywhere. And all of these colors are faded so they're not really even pretty on their own, it's just a mishmash everywhere. All of this together in one house and that's just a fraction of it, it's a constant clashing of colors and, if there was a foot of space against the wall available, it had another dresser, nightstand, or bookshelf shoved into it. I look at some of these colorful homes that people love and I think they're beautiful and I get so much joy out of people in their homes loving their surroundings! But I will never be able to live in that kind of color for myself again without being heartsore about it. I've gone for a neutral palette now that I'm making the design decisions, I'm choosing white walls (admittedly with a little bit of a blue undertone that you only notice when it's picking up other things' colors), black trim, and gray/white/black/brown reclaimed wood flooring. I picked out a gray/white/black comforter to throw over the bed with a black headboard and black + gray pillows. I'm getting some subtle green accents to put in the room, the guest room has been going with a pale yellow theme (to accent the black/white/gray/grown colors), I'm not eschewing color all together, but those bright, overwhelming colors are not what makes my soul sing. Neutral colors are not a soulless choice on my part, it's the first time in my life that I feel like it's finally clean, that I can breathe properly. You could scrub down a room with seafoam and forest green colors and have it so clean you could lick the walls and I would still have to go outside and take a moment to gather myself together if I had to live in it, because for me "color" means messy and I've had an entire lifetime of mess. I love when people put bright orange or bright green on their walls, that rocks and I will come over and genuinely tell you how beautiful it is, because I understand that it makes your soul sing. But understand that, in turn, having sleek, subtle colors makes my soul sing in a way that's just as genuine.

[moonshere]

Another day another ISAT live posting, some more thoughts and potential spoilers

Man man man where to even BEGIN! God this game gets more and more heart wrenching by the minute!!

to be clear, I’m currently at Act 3 I think? I tried to help everyone all at once so I did one full run with no skips to get all the info I needed, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what every else’s pov of Siffrin is like. At the moment my Siffrin is over lvl 60, so he managed to one-shot a lot of the enemies.

How does it look to everyone else? Your friend, the cheeky, pun-loving, trap and puzzle master. Who’s known more for their speed, killing enemies faster than anyone else. And while exploring they don’t look around, they just take the keys in the correct order and manage to choose the correct path every single time.

I noticed that some interactions you can make your friends notice that you’re acting suspiciously. So far I only got Odile to comment on it (and get interrupted rip) and Isabeau to say they will talk later about it. But I’m REALLY hoping there’s a way to get Siffrin’s friends to actually confront him before a loop end so he can actually freaking open up!!!

On that note, I know that I’ve only been talking about Siffrin (I can’t help myself ajdbhsbs they’re my absolute fav and consume my every thought!) I ADORE all the other characters too!!!

Mirabelle is soooooo freaking cute!! (I’ll be honest her character design is one of the reasons that made me want to play the game aidhisns) I’m so so so happy that she’s someone who’s aroace and adores romantic novels!!! There really isn’t that many aroace characters out there, especially one I relate to. But her!!!! It made me so happy!! I loved the scene between her and Siffrin (and that they’re ALSO ace and maybe alloromantic?? Demi??? I’m still unsure haha) their friendship means everything to me!! I also love the subtle way they confirmed she has anxiety! I’m kinda half wondering where she used to live before the House of Change considering how much she talked about how the headmaiden taught her everything

Odile is also so cool!! Finding out that she was only looking for half of her heritage, trying to find somewhere she belongs was something I did not expect but expands so much on her character. At first I thought she was just gonna be the Adult of the group, wise, knows what she’s doing, distant and Too Cool. But this was genuinely so good cuz it showed that Odile is just as unsure as everyone else. Hell, she and Siffrin turned out to have so much in common!! Finding a place to belong but finding nothing but yourself. I loved it so much!

little Bonnie!! They are so stinking cute I would absolutely die for them!! I like how- in a turn on how kids in video games are always put in incredibly dangerous situations and adults let them just cuz they are determined to help- Bonnie is always the one the group wants to protect the most. Even though they wanna help (and they do!! Their heals are lifesaving frfr) it’s always within the limit of their own safety. I also loved their hang out, the hug was so sweet!! Seriously, if anything happened to them I would cry

And lastly Isabeau!! He's so sweet!! i love how much he looks out for Siffrin! I’m not sure if it was a scripted event or that I managed to raise enough sus points for him to notice, but I love how when he noticed that Siffrin isn’t doing ok, he decided to postpone the confession just so he can properly focus later on Siffren’s own mental state! Also also! After looking at the romance novels once again, I almost screamed when Siffren said they were aware!!! They know that Isabeau likes them!! (And their self deprecating comment once again,,,,) Seriously, what torture it must be to see him almost confess over and over and fail everytime!! I definitely want to go back to the ending one more time to see if he ever manages to say it (but man is the king fight long,,,) His hang out was also sweet!! I think also a possible nod to what Siffrin’s home town is? If related to the stars?? But either way, the full on picnic afterwards was so cute!!

I just had to do a full run with them all together once again without any looping cuz Siffrin said so, all the new cutscenes with them together was just the sweetest!! The woodcutting one, the hair brushing, all of it is so soft!! the ending scene where they said they were a family just 🥹🥹🥹🥹 I can’t I can’t this game is too good!! I think the worst part of this though, is seeing Siffrin hoping, despite himself, that maybe, maybe, this time might be it. That all he needed was to be safe, to be happy, to be loved

And it still wasn’t enough

[chaosduckies]

Rising Tides (Chapter 1)

So basically this is just a piece for Mermay. A very late piece, but if you guys like it, I’ll continue it! Honestly, this is very fast paced, and I’m very sorry, but it is STRESSFUL out here.

Word Count: 2.8k

CW: Mentions of Death, A little bit of violence (just getting chased my a shark), that’s pretty much it I think!

1-Nico 

The ocean was a dangerous place. Even for someone who has lived here their entire life. 

Living in the ocean meant knowing how to survive on your own. It meant knowing just how desperate other creatures were to survive. I knew that. I knew just how much of a light snack I was. I knew that I was small. Incapable of being strong or even giving one glare at someone and making them swim away with their tail fins behind their backs. 

Such is the life of a very, very insignificant, mer like myself. 

The little reef I lived in was small, but quaint. My parents love it. I don’t live very far from them. Occasionally I would go over and have dinner with them. Even if I wasn’t hungry. They would ask how my day was, and I would say: “It was good.” we would catch up since the last time we ate, and then they’d ask me if I finally made any friends. I would tell them no. 

Today, really wasn’t a good day. 

My job for the community was to gather kelp. Weird, right? Only some mers eat kelp, like myself. I’m weird. But that’s besides the point! I gather some at least once a week and give it to another person who just delivers it somewhere I don’t even know. I feel like I should probably figure that out, but I’m pretty sure that didn’t really matter- 

Everyone had their own designated job to do for the community. We didn’t have any currency, but the people who lead us told us to do our part, and usually mers are very reluctant to listen so, no one complained. It’s not like I didn’t like my job. Every time I eat I think to myself “Maybe this is the same patch I picked myself-“ Stupid, right? But, everyone has their jobs so they can keep on peacefully living in this community. Though, sometimes it’s not all that great. 

Some mers don’t like each other. When a fight happens, they like solving it civilly so it doesn’t encourage anymore to happen. That’s not it for my case. A lot of people don’t like me. Not because I did something wrong to them. Nonono. I could never hurt a person. Even if I tried. It’s mainly because people outcast people with brightly colored tails. Like mine maybe? They say it’s a liability. That it’ll only get me killed if I’m ever on my own. They’re probably not wrong either. 

Despite my parents having a dark purple colored tail, mine was a bright purple. It’s not good at all for camouflage, it reflects some sunlight when I’m closer to the surface, and it’s just basically like a sign to other mers saying “Hey! I can very easily be killed from a large predator!” And no one wants to be with someone like that. As for the soulmate thing? Despite humans having to find their one true love, mers just have to make a few friends, and if the universe decides that you were meant to be with someone, then there would be a matching tattoo on your wrists after a single contact. Again, weird, right? 

——————

I was swimming off to my small, but humble house hidden inside a huge piece of coral. I don’t even know how I found this place, but I remember loving it because it had a perfect view of the sun above the ocean, and it was far away from most people except for the occasional kid who was just exploring. It was a nice place. I just carried up some sand here made it look nice and decorated with some shells I find while gathering kelp. Turns out you can make a decent home if you really try hard enough. 

There were two shells I had today, a nice light blue one that was probably just a piece of an old clam shell, and a mixture of an orange and yellow one that came from a hermit crab that abandoned its home. I was going to give these to my parents later since they also love seeing the bright colored shells, but they were too scared to travel far from the little village we live in. There are predators out there that would love to snack on a helpless mer, and no one was going out unless they knew they could live on their own or they were hunters getting fish for the others. My parents were none of the above. They preferred the village life. They practically new everyone here and they were both soulmates. And here I am the entire opposite. What a great son I am, right? 

I grabbed a little satchel from my home and started to slowly swim off to my parents. The sun was setting, the water above reflecting a bright orange hue. It was a nice evening. Hasn’t been like this in forever because of all the storms happening above. It’s a wonder how those fishing boats humans have stay afloat when all the waves are just trying to rock them over. Well, maybe it’s because they have some help from other mers or something like that. It wasn’t unheard of. 

The path to my parents’ humble abode was lined with clumped up seaweed and some colorful rocks. Their house was dimly lit, but I knew that they were still awake. My mom was probably making some kind of bag while dad was eating happily in his chair. I swam in. 

“Hey mom.” I mumbled. 

“Nico! Your plate is on the table!” She cheered back at me. She was always happy to see me. Even if I came at least two times a week to visit. I was old enough to take care of myself. Or… at least in the community we live in. 

I looked at the plate on the table, shook my head and swam into the main room where they were doing just as I had imagined. Mom was almost done making a very small bag that she would probably give to one of her friends. I looked through my own bag, grabbing the two small shells I found and placed them on one of the side tables near my dad. 

He inspected them before smiling to himself. I knew he liked them more than my mom did. He said he used to bring buckets back home to his parents and just have a collection to himself. I see why he did. It was fun to find some. Better than sitting around the house all day and not having anything to do. 

I stared at the matching tattoos on both of my parent's wrists, slightly rubbing my own. I knew I wouldn’t find someone who would actually like me. I can’t even picture myself with anyone else. It was the sad, but indisputable truth. And I’ve accepted that fact. 

——————

The next morning, I woke up with my dark hair in my face and streaks of light I shining through some cracks in the little coral cave I lived in. I forced myself up, lazily rubbing my eyes. What should I do today? The question practically begged for an answer. I could just go swim around, but that does’t really sound all that fun if I were being honest. I mean, people would just sit and stare at me all day or do the exact opposite and whisper hurtful comments and rumors about me. Not that I really cared about that though. I said to myself that once I was able to, I would move away from here and just live on my own. 

Today I felt adventurous though.  

I grabbed my little satchel, and headed out, the morning sun still rising above the waters surface. The ocean felt great today. Today just felt like a good day. Something that’s rare to come by when you’re all on your own. 

Where was I swimming out to you may ask? Well, for your information, I was currently heading outside of the community I live in. It’s not like it’s prohibited, but most mers don’t find a need to venture out further when they already knew what was out there. Predators, other mers, food, fish, water. There really wasn’t anything new to find out here when you’re in this ocean. I guess what they really feared were the sharks that were found near the area though. But most don’t even bother with us. Mostly because no small mer like myself is crazy enough to venture out here alone. Yeah, I’m crazy enough. 

To a large shark, I’d probably be like, half it’s size. Most likely shorter. A purple tail is a sign that you’ll be a small mer, but big enough to be on your own. I was the exception though, given that I had a brighter color and was actually the size of like a small human basically. Yes, I was made fun of by some old classmates and sometimes my parents when I was still a pup, yes I know I’m small, and yes I can reach the top shelf on the counter (I mean I can swim so-) 

Swimming along the ocean floor along with the many overgrown plants and small anemones where I saw several clownfish leave to go get whatever is was that they needed. I had found a huge coral reef far into the ocean, there were tons of colorful fish everywhere I had looked. 

I want to say it was maybe an hour long of just roaming and admiring the many colors of the reef I had just found before my eyes drifted off to something big and dark in the distance. I squinted, slightly swimming closer where, for some reason, none of the fish dared to do. 

Filled by my curiosity, I swam towards the large object, wondering what it was. It was a long ways from the reef. It was dark, only seaweed and some kelp patches were the only plants. There were some starfish and snails, some crabs, but that was all the life I could find. It seemed like this part of the deep ocean was pretty much deserted. Strange. 

I kept going, seeing that the object I was looking at looked like those metal ships humans make, except it was wooden and had a bunch of holes. I swam cautiously in, minding that this was a place far away from home and there would basically be no hope in escaping a shark or something if I encountered one. I took a look at my tail, still bright when the waters here were dark and the sun was covered by a layer of seaweed. This would be fine. Nothing was going to find me here… Hopefully. 

The shipwreck didn’t leave much behind. Just some broken pieces of old wood and some old pictures. I doubt there would be anything of worth in here honestly, but I kept on looking, fueling my curiosity. What else was I supposed to do? If I do end up finding something maybe I can show it off to the mers back at home and maybe then they’ll stop ridiculing me and making fun of me for having a bright tail. There is no way I was the only mer in the entire ocean like this! 

There was a room that looked much like an office. Broken pieces of a desk, a little container that once held ink. What I was really intrigued about was the little open chest that revealed a round pice of flattened gold. I grabbed it, studying the rust colored piece of metal. Humans used this as currency once before, right? I’m sure they don’t use whatever these were anymore. Or if whatever I was holding was even a kind of currency. It just seemed like something a human would use. 

I stuffed the gold piece in my bag and continued looking. At least until I saw a large shadow swim fast in the corner of my eye. I kept my arms close to my chest, keeping my breathing controlled before I overreacted. It was probably just a big fish… yeah. Just a really, really big fish that can swim amazingly fast. 

I saw the same shadow swim by again, but this time it bumped into something, making me let out a little surprise yelp. I immediately clasped my hands over my mouth, hearing another thunk! Before I saw the full shadow of whatever the hell was outside. It was a shark. A huge shark. And it looked hungry. 

My hands were shaky, I couldn’t move. I wasn’t going to die, right? I didn’t actually think something like this would happen! I thought those were just rare occurrences that people were making rumors about. Was I actually going to die? No. There has to be some way out of this. 

Looking around, I found a small little crack I could probably fit in if I really tried. I swam slowly closer to it, noting that the thunks outside were getting closer. Please let me get out of here alive… I kept telling myself as I hurried to fit myself in the tiny crack. As soon as I was out, something fast was coming my way, and I was swimming just as fast to get away. 

It was hard to swim when you were in a life or death situation. I never realized that until now. I stole a glance behind me, letting out a weak yelp when I saw the sharks mouth open wide. Great. It seemed like I could fit perfectly in that thing. Imagine being killed by those sharp teeth- No don’t think about that. Not right now at least. 

The water around me only grew darker as we headed deeper into the ocean. There were some small caves, but I didn’t want to really trap myself in there. I had no idea why this shark was so desperate in the first place. It was so much bigger than a regular shark, couldn’t it find something else to eat other than a mer? Like a big fish or something? 

Eventually I realized why the shark seemed so interested in me. They like bright colors. I remember being told something like that when I was younger. It’s just great that my tail is just sooo bright, right? Wow I am so unlucky. My only hope to lose the shark (Who was gaining on me really fast, ohmygoshwhatdoIdo?) is to somehow lose it in a cave or something. Hopefully there was a small space I could get into that the shark couldn’t. And of course hope I don’t run into anything else that was hungry. 

There was a huge cave in front of me, and I took my chances. I felt the sharks jaws snap behind me, just mere inches from snapping on top of my tail. I shuddered, but kept swimming fast, trying to find some kind of small cave to fit myself into. Please oh my gosh I’m getting so tired I don’t want to die-  Stop thinking like that. I’m not going to die. At least not today. 

Just a couple feet ahead of me, I spotted a tiny hole that looked like it could fit me if I squeezed in fast enough. I stole another glance, seeing the shark right there behind me. I let out a scream, grabbing the bag around my neck and throwing it back at it. It slowed it down just a tiny bit, but it kept after me. Maybe just enough time to get myself safe. 

“Pleasepleasepleaseplease.” I muttered to myself, not noticing that something big moved in the dark. 

Right before I could fit myself through the crack hopefully leading to a small cave, I felt a sharp pain in my tail, The part I actually needed to be able to swim. I was forced out, seeing that it was caught in between the sharks sharp teeth. It let go for just a split second, before a loud growl was heard, making the shark almost instantly swim off. Tears stung my eyes (Weird because we’re underwater right?), but I blinked them away and stared at my tail fin, seeing all too many rips and tears. It hurt so, so much. 

That was when my mind had finally clicked and wondered why the shark had left in the first place. The growl. The two huge sets of dark blue eyes trained on me. The slight hue they gave off. Oh. It was just a really, really, really, huge mer. The ones that eat other mers? That destroy community’s for no reason? The one’s that were outcasted? That’s just wonderful. 

I tried swimming away, but the tears in my fins didn’t let me, making me whimper like a lost puppy. My breathing was fast, as I stared back into the eyes that would soon be the death of me. Oh I am so going to die. 

And suddenly I was encased in darkness again. 

——————

Yayyyy new characters. No worries, the giant mer is good. But oh noooo I totally didn’t hurt Nico’s tail on purpose for future purposes… Okay but I feel bad for my little mer. I’m not that sadistic.

But anyways, thank you guys for reading this little Drabble, and of course I know it’s not my best writing, but I was rushing and it’s just these last few days of school that are KILLING me. I hope you guys liked this, and thank you for reading!

[moonlightflower-queen]

Welcome to the post where i ramble about my fan design of Macaria for Hades game because i like rambling and you clicked on the link so you did this to yourself.

Anyway i did some research first, not very in depth mind you because my brainrot goes deep but not deep enough to look for primary sources. My source is wikipedia. There's a daughter of Heracles who has the same name so i decided to take some stuff from her story and make this Macaria the goddess of blessed death and sacrifice (also so she doesen't overlap with Thanatos too much.)

Then i sketched her traditionally. I'm not good at letting loose when drawing digitally.

I wanted her to look really demure, kinda tired so it makes her look gentler. I imagine she's not very independent yet and is kind of a doormat. I wanted her to have a very different body type than her siblings. She is considerably taller than both of them (still mortal sized but a really tall mortal) and is very thin (kinda like Chronos but nobody will tell her that). I imagine she doesen't like fighting and works in the house of Hades. Does a lot of paperwork too, lol. She grew up in a more peaceful time unlike Mel so she wasn't trained to be a killing machine. She doesen't like to do it anyway unlike Zagreus. She can use her claws to tear people apart, she just rather not.

Then i decided to design her face first.

I played around while keeping her parents appearance in mind. I decided to make her a witch too (I like putting moons on the characters i design and no one can make me stop) and gave her dove imagery for the whole sacrifice thing. I considered giving her Demeter's hair color and experimented with wacky anime genetics too. I first wanted to give her Persephone's face structure similar to her siblings but then decided i really liked design number 3 where she has a cleft chin and bent nose like Hades does.

The lighter hair color Demeter has didn't work for the color scheme i had in mind. It ended up being too light and the light streaks made the upper part of her design too complicated so i decided not to. As someone pointed out, the Olympian gods don't wear pants but Chthonic gods do. It's a design decision that emphasizes the cultural difference between them so i gave her pants. Also my shorthand for shy character in character design is having them show very little skin.

At this point i was hitting my heads on walls since i didn't want her to look too similar to Thanatos. That was why i gave her the sacrifice symbolism in the first place, so i'd have more imagery to work with. I still think they have a lot of similar elements and don't like that but i also spent too much time on a fan character design already and didn't want to spend more. It's okay for them to have design affinity right, they are both gods of death?? (I'm coping can you tell)

I decided her main color would be white and she'd have a lot of accent colors pointing to her family (Red for Zag, orange for Mel, Green for Persephone and the sigil of the dead for Hades), to symbolize she isn't very independent. I decided to give her talons because bird and because i thought blessing someone in death would require her to be much more emotionally involved, so a weapon that required her to get close and touch mortals to claim their souls seemed logical. The lantern is there because light and blessings seemed similar to me. (I almost modeled her lantern in Blender because i'm horrible at drawing objects but stopped myself at the last second.)

I didn't design her as a main character of a Hades game. I imagine she'd be a helper Npc probably. Like she'd give you a ''blessing'' for your next run when you die. If i turned in this design as a main character of a game where the mc needs to run around, use 6 different weapons and dodge many projectiles and attacks the animators would put my head on a pike. There's a reason boss characters in hades wear clothing with not much to animate. (Hecate takes her hat and skirt off when you fight her even) A design like this would be horrible for clarity in a game where your character model is tiny.

I wanted to give her a shawl around her arms for an unique silhouette. but it made her design too busy. So feather cloak it was.

Anyway this much rambling was enough. I really need to draw my webcomic because i want to launch in August and i want more buffer but i don't think that's happening considering the severity of my brainrot. Uuuh thank you for reading!

[face-mechon]

im not going to find the post again. im now vaguing a post that was vaguing some other post, which probably had even more context. im on the 5th layer of some type of onion or something

so i saw some post about US drivers and pedestrian safety. that was like, admonishing pedestrians for darting out between cars. and like, yeah that is really frustrating... i guess? im gonna be real with you though, this almost never happens to me. like its kind of a bullshit problem. at least in my life.

but the replies were fascinating to me. so, some people who dont live in the US very correctly point out "why dont you just drive slower, you'd be able to stop faster" and i pretty much think it should stop there. when im on streets with a lot of parallel parking and houses i drop my speed a bit and watch sidewalks for people. i do this every day by my house. (im not trying to make myself sound amazing here im still a dogshit driver, seriously. but people darting out behind cars is not a problem to me. fucking skill issue i guess!)

so people got really mad at this person in the replies and like. im mostly with the person saying to drive slower. but at the end of the thread it was all people arguing about if drivers are at fault or pedestrians. and generally i lean towards drivers being at fault for driving the giant metal machine. but no one wants to talk about what an actual road in the US looks like or how the *laws* overwhelmingly prefer and protect drivers.

so like, this commenter just says "people should drive like 30 kmh (20 mph)" and people got mad. unreasonably so. but i kinda wonder if they knew that 30 mph is typical signposting in the US, at least where im at. you can drive slower by choice (and piss off drivers behind you but who cares). but the reality is if the sign says 30, your typical american freak will drive 35-40 mph. you can individually choose to drive slower and not mow people down but it doesnt change the rest of society. im not trying to expect this random commenter to have the solutions to a country they dont even live in. but americans in the comments had fuck all to say about it and they should be aware of the laws and road design. they live there. all they did was complain about pedestrians and i think they should be, idk less dumb?

i know im just a random guy who thinks they have the solutions to everything. but your typical american's response to pedestrian death is actually "fuck the stupid pedestrian" or "thoughts and prayers THE COPS NEED TO PULL PEOPLE OVER AND TICKET THEM MORE 😡‼️" and i probably dont need to say why thats a terrible idea on this site to my 3 active followers.

like streets need to just appear narrower and allow less space for cars. people feel safe and emboldened driving at speeds that will just instantly kill anyone who is hit. cars need to be smaller too. some of this is beyond "individual choice" that you can lecture random people online over. you can choose to drive a smaller car and drive 15-20 mph in some areas but it doesnt fix wider society. it just makes you less likely to kill someone. and i say less likely bc youre still in a car on fucked up streets following driving laws that prefer your life over the pedestrian, in a culture that doesnt value human life whatsoever.

idk what im saying im just pissed off at the replies in that post. because american drivers really just want to jump to blaming anyone but themselves for cars killing people. and "people darting out behind cars" is a fucking nonsense issue. just drive slower, dumbass. but also i think all of society needs to change. but also you could just drive slower lmao.

[davespwite]

im not going to be nice in this post

its so funny to me that some people on here will say "ummm, we cant ban cars, its a 15 minute drive to the store from where i live" like do you not see any issue with what you just said. are you okay with having to drive 30 minutes total to go to the store. really? and "walkable cities is an ableist dogwhistle" is such an ignorant thing to say. not only are you getting caught up on semantics and ignoring the actual message being communicated to you, you demonstrate that you have absolutely NO understanding of what people are actually advocating for. less car dependence = more accessibility for everyone.

first of all, nobody serious or worth listening to is advocating to ban cars straight off the bat. believe it or not but people who want walkable cities have an issue with the city design itself not the fuckin cars. why would we ban cars when it takes you 15 minutes to drive to the store? if your only reason for dismissing the conversation around walkability and cars is because you think we want to ban cars and believe thats all there is to fix the problem, im not sorry to tell you that youre being ignorant.

no, cars should not be banned straight off the bat. what should be changed is city design- cities are designed around cars, not humans. the fundamental problem there is that humans, pedestrians, are being put second behind 2-5 ton machines. these machines destroy the environment in a multitude of ways. the mining for their batteries, oil, gasoline, emissions, microplastics off their tires, etc.... instead, city design should put the human first- walkways and sidewalks should be wider, bike lanes more common, and public transit that moves people en masse efficiently instead of one vehicle housing 1.5 people.

secondly, to all the "its an ableist dogwhistle!" people out there, i have a serious question for you.

which one of these is more accessible for the disabled? for reference, the image on the right is close to the ideal for a lot of people- i think most people advocating for less car dependence would say even that could be improved to be even more accessible to everyone.

left: -visible smog -cars parked on the sidewalk -high curbs -restricted movement -not even a crosswalk -smelly and noisy. uncomfortable to be a human in. made for cars.

right: -no cars on the sidewalk! -crosswalk -lower curbs -freedom of movement--the lanes originally meant for cars were narrowed, therefore the sidewalks are wider -generally quieter. made for humans. social and much cleaner

is it "accessible" if you have to get into and out of your car to go to the store- a process that is all the more time consuming if you use a wheelchair? or is it accessible if you can simply go out the front door and travel without relying on a vehicle to get there in a timely manner?

is it "accessible" to be forced to rely on your car to get anywhere?

some of you make the assumption that cars should be banned and nothing else will change. that people will just have to walk through these giant, spaced-out neighborhoods and shopping districts that were so obviously made for cars. if you live in america, do you step out onto a sidewalk on a street that looks like this:

and feel like the environment is actively hostile to your existence? do you feel comfortable here? is this accessible to you? what if i want to go to the shops across the street? if im not in a car, i have to walk all the way down to an intersection to cross, or jaywalk and risk getting myself killed because the design of this street is so open and wide that people feel comfortable speeding.

^^^ this is a major arterial road in a commercial shopping district. the mall is here, ahead on the left, past the Red Lion sign. if you dont have a car and you want to go from target to the mall, you would have to cross 7 lanes of traffic at the Red Lion sign. thats ignoring having to travel through the massive parking lots taking up all the space. if we got rid of the parking lots the mall and target would probably be directly across the street from each other. if you cant afford a car (you probably shouldnt be shopping at target tbh) then is this accessible? please, tell me, is this accessible? would you prefer this over being able to freely move without a car? really?