#this will be canon later down the line

[lead-to-light]

whisper, we all know your a good shot, but I have a real test for you.

Shoot an apple off of Surges head, William Tell style. without missing.

"And you're trusting me to do this?" Whisper asked, watching the tenrec toss the apple up and down.

"Well if you hit me, You have two options admit you hit me on purpose and deal with everyone being mad at you or admit that you're a crappy shot. The way I see it, I'm perfectly safe," Surge said with a toothy grin.

Whisper didn't have a counter for that. Truthfully, she still didn't know what to think when Surge approached her for what she calls a 'trust building exercise.' No doubt the woman had read about the classic trickshot in a book, Surge being turning into an avid reader was not on her bingo card, and wanted to try it out for shits and giggles.

Deciding to appreciate the roundabout olive branch, Whisper had Cyan enter the wispon and took aim, "Okay put the apple on your head."

Surge moved to place the but realized something, "Pfft wait hold on this'll only work if I let my quills down." Taking her hairband off, her long quills cascaded down, allowing her to place the apple on her head. "Now I'm ready," Surge said with a soft smile, secretly very excited.

Looking down the scope at the tenrec, Whisper took a moment to take Surge in and was having trouble reconciling this woman being the same angry destructive menace she first meet a few months ago. She looked so…..content right now. With her quills down and happy smile, Whisper was forced to admit something.

"I can kinda see what Lanolin sees in her now," Whisper said quietly to herself as she began pulling the trigger.

Not quietly enough apparently as Surge shouted, "LANOLIN SEES WHAT IN ME!?"

The shout startled Whisper, throwing off her aim at the worst possible moment.

BANG!

A split second sickening squelch sounded out as the shot took out Surge’s right eye.

Dropping the wispon, Whisper shouted in complete horror, "SURGE OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY-"

Before she knew it Surge was upon her. But instead of a well justified beatdown, Surge had a completely different priority, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY ABOUT LANOLIN SEEING SOMETHING IN ME!?"

"SURGE YOUR EYE! WE NEED TO GET YOU TO THE INFIRMARY!" Whisper was not enjoying seeing the bloody cybernetic insides of her skull.

"I'LL WALK IT OFF! NOW TELL ME!"

Watching her face slowly knit itself back together surprisingly did little to calm Whisper down, "FOR GODS SAKE SURGE-"

"PLEASE WHISPER!"

It's those two words that got her to calm down and shift her gaze rightwards. Plain vulnerable desperation was clear as day in her intact eye. Taking a deep breath, Whisper got her thoughts in order, "Okay I'll tell you. But first you have to put me down."

Surge was leaning them both over so far they were perpendicular to the ground, Whisper impressively ignoring the blood dripping onto her face from Surge’s gaping head wound.

"Sure sure," Surge acquiesced, setting her down gently. A few seconds later both women were sitting on the ground facing each other. "So?" Surge asked softly.

"So when Tangle and I got wine drunk and hired the chaotix to investigate something about Lanolin, the thing we asked them to investigate was who she had a crush on. Vector and Espio purposefully spilled beans in front of the three of us and she confirmed it while she was yelling at us," Whisper explained.

I'm not gonna tell her it's full on love. I'm not taking that away from either of them.

A short life of made up of mostly agony trained her not to grab hope so zealously, "Really? You're not lying are you?" Surge said carefully.

Looking dead in the eye, Whisper said firmly, "Surge, listen to me. I know we do not have the best relationship but I would never NEVER do something as cruel as lie to you here. You are without a doubt the most important person in her life."

"She feels the same way about me the way I feel about her?" Surge said, somehow still able to blush despite the blood loss.

Oh

It was one thing to heavily suspect it but confirming it was another thing. How could two people so different love each other?

Well I suppose that's a silly question coming from me of all people.

"Positive," Whisper said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The tenrec stiffened and Whisper worried she had overstepped her bounds when Surge wrapped her in a hug and began sobbing into her shoulder.

"T-t-thank y-you," Surge stuttered out, staining her cloak with blood and tears

Once over her shock, Whisper hugged her back. Gently rubbing circles on her back and patting her shoulder. Letting her know she was safe to cry happy relieved tears as long as she wanted. It was during this that Whisper recalled something.

What was it that Claire said once? History doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme

[doubletroubletag]

idk if anyone's said it, but I LOOOVE the new outfits you gave the main group!!! Especially Isa's. Love the little bit of exposed chest teehee

[mentalbreze885]

Got into smiling critters recently so I’ll be sharing a lot of my art of them here as well ^_^

[vxmpirehunterd]

  Who is he? What’s the D even stand for?

The topic of his name and its origins was a touchy one due to the sheer amount of turmoil associated with it. A name given unto him by his father. One that he thought worthy of his son–a boy that would grow up to stave off the eventual extinction of the vampire race. A boy that would grow up to be a man and create harmony among humans and vampires once more like the golden ages before. To be that world's destined RULER. D would be Dracula’s very own version of a messiah--created in his very own image like God and his begotten son.

Because of this, the dhampir was named after his father’s namesake when he came into the world. Dracula... he was dubbed.

But D chose to reject such a thing. He rejected the role, and he rejected the name once he reached maturity. There was nothing more detestable than sharing the sacred Ancestor's name. Not only did he resemble his father down to the minute detail in form but his name would be his father's too--and that was unacceptable to the dhampir. For all the intelligence and creativity Dracula had--he couldn't be bothered to extend that when naming his son. It was as if his father saw D as little more than a clone, a puppet, a reincarnation. Never his own being belonging to himself. All of it was so infuriating.

Taking matters into his own hands, D chose his own. A name that would be uniquely his. One with meaning. He chose Demetrius (Demetri for short, D even shorter). A reference to the ship--Demeter--the one his father used on his voyage to London to meet his mother Mina. The shipped that helped bridge the gap between Human and Vampire that day in the form of his parents.

[jinxed-sinner]

Do. Do people realize relationship dynamics can change??

Usually I stay out of shipping discourse but people need to realize that relationship dynamics can change. I personally don't think Lucilith, as of now, is canonically toxic, but i DO think there are toxic patterns in how Lilith treats Lucifer and his relationship with Charlie. I have every right to think it's fucked up that Lilith made a deal with her ex to stay in the realm that traumatized her husband though! This isn't me saying "Lucilith is bad and shouldn't be shipped" because I like pre-series Lucilith. More accurately, I like pre-Charlie Lucilith. It's implied in More Than Anything that Lilith didn't like the things Lucifer was showing Charlie so she just forced them apart, potentially making Lucifer’s mental health issues worse.

I'm not saying people can't like Lucilith, but if you think it's NOT weird for Lilith to be in Heaven on a deal with her ex, you're sanitizing the situation because by doing that Lilith left her mentally ill and traumatized husband and her daughter to rule Hell on their own. She hasn't talked to Charlie or Lucifer in 7 years.

(Also, they might not be divorced but they are separated, as mentioned by Charlie; she specifically refers to "after Mom and Dad split". I can't say I'd blame Lucifer if he did decide to divorce her though.)

I'm not trying to indicate that Lucilith is objectively bad or anything but I AM saying Lucilith shippers need to stop using the family portraits to deflect "Lucilith looks like it MIGHT be toxic in the current day" commentary because like it or not, Lilith leaving her kingdom that Charlie claims she absolutely adored for her daughter and mentally ill husband to rule and leaving to the realm that traumatized her husband so bad he doesn’t seem to care if they decide to try to kill him is fucked up.

[someobscurereference]

Insane over the awakening trio again. We fought a war together, saved each other multiple times, and I know for a fact I can trust you with my life. We have never learned to socialize normally so we can't interact in a normal environment for five seconds without dunking on each other. I would follow you through time and space and abandon everything with you. You are the living reminder of every awful thing that have ever happened to me. Our traumas make us hurt each other at every turn. We're the only ones who know what lead to each other becoming Like That. Our jobs are barely in the same area and we don't even hang out that much outside of necessities. You are all I have left. I cannot fucking understand you. I am the only one in this entire world who has the ability to even try to.

x

[shaykai]

It is definitely canon that Durge didn't have the Slayer form pre-tadpole. I think it's because they didn't create more Bhaalspawn - it's the one major flaw (the "cardinal sin") that Sarevok charges Durge with. That takes on an extra weight when you remember that Durge was previously a normal kid that was forced to kill their family.

Depending on how you look at it, it's either more a poor image of themselves ("there shouldn't be more of me in the world") or just not wanting to be forced to have to kill even more family, no matter how loyal they are to Bhaal. I think there'd also be a certain measure of relief for a child Durge meeting Sarevok and Orin that they'd finally have family they couldn't kill in their sleep.

Firstly the idea of Durge finding comfort in having a family they can’t sleep-murder is oddly sweet- love them loving their dysfunctional family

Also! I can totally get behind them not having kids being part of the issue- I’d also pin a lot of the blame on Gortash, I could ramble for days about how he ruined their life and they let him snsnsnsn

[stabbistabb]

Ya know what, I feel like after becoming captain Jake kinda becomes a people pleaser.. like he now feels like he has to live up to this image of the “Great and mighty colossus” and stuff. So he starts over working himself and makes up a WHOLE new personality for anyone who aren’t his crew..

[azuremliam]

Aftermath of the dance party lol

Scarab didn't appreciate the "Go Bug Boy GO!"

[paragonrobits]

thinking a lot about a premise where after the events of Psychonauts 2, years later, Raz winds up breaking off all contact with his family overall (barring his younger siblings, his older sister, his dad and Nona, and his younger siblings are a borderline case depending on whether or not they pick up their mother's passive aggressive and dislike of psychics like Raz's older brother) and the story idea is SPECIFICALLY Donatella, being grief-stuck at Raz completely cutting off all contact with her and much of the family after he was able to eventually become independent with the Psychonauts and is now a beloved icon and hero to the world famous for his advances in the use of psychic work to aid psychiatry and he very explicitly does not discuss her and acts as if she died when he was a kid

and the whole thing is basically about her having to very bluntly have to come to terms with the fact that if she hadn't been so cold to him or made him feel unwanted because of his powers, or his older brother learn from her example to become a vicious bully towards him (even by older brother standards), then maybe he wouldn't have fixated so hard on the idea of the Psychonauts as a place where felt he belonged and didn't feel like his very existence was shaming her

and its entirely her fault, and all her passive aggressive guilt trip actions in Psychonauts 2 made it worse and just made every moment around her, no matter how much he missed his mother, hurtful and he only felt better when he spoke to Helmut Fullbear who at this point was the first genuinely nice and accomodating voice he'd heard once the events with Maligula took off.

(He would be the first to admit much of that was his fault, but he still felt alone, and it was nice to feel such a kindly and welcome voice, like someone from a group he really belonged to, and that Donatella very specifically never made him felt like he belonged.)

And there's no magic fix. There's no tearful reconciliation, no heartfelt pleas that led to a happily ever after and the family reunions she wants. Decades of resentment, bitterness and childhood unhappiness that gradually turned into simmering hatred isn't something that can be taken back and she has to live with that; her second born son wants nothing to do with her and has written her completely out of his life, and will be quite happy if he dies without ever having to see her or speak with her ever again.

Also probably something like a line like "He stopped loving you a long time ago. After all, he thought you stopped loving him first."

[talentforlying]

priest: i don't, ah, quite know what to say to you. if you are in such terrible danger, why are you taking it all so calmly? constantine: hmh! i dunno, father. i had a bloke beaten to a pulp earlier this evening. that sound calm to you? priest: you did what...? constantine: i must've been off me bleedin' rocker. i've never done anything like it before in me life, y'know?

constantine: but there's header gets his guts blown out, and george is stickin' his head in the noose, and helen gets ... jesus, then friggin' sarah bites me head off — ! everything's coming to bits in me hands and it's so easy to just see red and now, shit, they could've killed the tosser for all i know! and now i'm just like the bastards i've hated all me life! kill him! fire him! close them down! piss all over him! screw you, i can do whatever i want! i so much as blink and you're dead, pal! i'm in charge!! ...

constantine: 'scuse me, father. i'm always like this when i don't get me own way. — hellblazer #81, "rake at the gates of hell pt. 4"

babygirl you are just....so, sooooo offputting. (and grieving, and guilty, and terrified, but yeah: offputting.)

anyway, it's issues like this one that remind me why i kind of hesitate over some of the retcons in the recent spurrier runs, like the one with him now having opened dream's pouch of sand and stolen some before they even met. because like, it's easy enough to look at john constantine now — with 70 years of worst possible choices and unresolved trauma crystallizing underneath his skin to cover up all the soft, hopeful bits where he's used to getting hit — and assign him arbiter of ill intentions, magus of wasted potential, saint of shit choices, but man . . . he was new to this, once. he was still new to this 80 issues in.

80 issues in, and he's not used to losing friends yet; he even has time enough between catastrophes to grieve each individual one. still has enough left to live for at this stage to necessitate running and hiding, instead of bodily throwing himself at the problem like he learns to later, or sitting apathetically by to do nothing except smoke and watch the world fall apart when he finally gives up. fuck, he still apologizes.

and you're telling me this guy, this soppy wet cat motherfucker hiding from the devil in a church basement, so guilty over not knowing what happened to the guy that he paid people (paid chas, so chas could pay people) to attack that the bottle he's holding in this scene isn't even his second or third........this guy's past, more innocent self lied right to the face of DREAM OF THE ENDLESS and got away with it?

hm. i just don't know about all that.

[0erpro]

Funny non Canon redesigns

Decided to have some fun and try to build up some of the world of Fallen and Risen a bit more with silly non-canon redesigns!

[thatonecrookedsmile]

I made these sketches the week SOTM launched, and I didn't think about posting them at the time. I recently looked at them again and thought "hmm, why not". In my own way, I decided to add a *little* color to make it a little more nice,and I edited the image *just* a little,and boom, here it is. My Riley Wells design. There's not much to say about the process of creating her design. I only used the portrait you find in the game as a reference, and I made a design of her at the time she joined JDS and then Gent. There's not much to say,really.

These were sketches made after I made an initial sketch of her to put the idea of her design on paper, and were made to help solidify and test out her design better. I haven't drawn her since.

So, yeah. They aren't much, and I don't have much to say about them. But I wanted to eventually show my design that I made of her. Plus, those sketches turned out quite nice,so there's that.

Other than a small idea that I don't know when I'll do, I don't have anything in mind that could result in drawing Riley again in the future. But hey, in case one day I end up wanting to draw her again, at least I have a design prepared for the occasion.

As a bonus, here is the first sketch I made of her. No editing or colors.

[sankttealeaf]

in a world where rue and gortash do have kids she makes it known to him from the start that "they are bhaalspawn they will worship bhaal. i'll have none of that banite nonsense going into their heads. they are to kill or be killed."

gortash agrees only slightly, but also dresses them up in little banite robes. reads them banite bedtime stories. its 'take your kids to church' day and he's bringing them in to banite meetings. "they look so much better under the black hand... the next one can be a proper bhaal worshipper i promise" (he's a liar)

[dennifreeman]

polyamory is a myth made by Big Mattress to sell you bigger beds to fit your polycule on

chaz, dennie (oc), and hickory

i'll probably look into improving my shading techniques later down the line too.

[will-of-the-wisps]

Writing Drabble (5):

The rain poured from the grey-tinted skies, the sound of thunder, the feeling of drums in the breast, and the thunder the clap of hands. For everyone staying indoors, they were content and cozy—but for others? Oh, well, that was another story, for there was the noise of a boombox sitting on the side of a wet, damp sidewalk in the middle of the mountains, where pine was the only strong smell to the nose, and there was a slight tinge of dust from the rain.

Two pairs of feet and bodies swung against one another as jazz and big band music rocked through this small corner of the world. No armor, no weapons, no need for there to be any words but the rhythm of the music that thumped in their souls—that being a red dress and sopping, clinging white fur against the skin, compared to that of darker red and black clothing, with a scarf having been discarded on the sidelines.

The goddess and the demon, a Macaque and a Jīnsè, but a content pair out of pure spontaneity, were dancing like no one was in the room. Her movements moved along with his as he led this kattywampus. While he swung his legs, her hips were shimmying, arms swaying in a mimicked display of the Charleston, and the sound of her laughter ringing through the air. Her right hand was then grabbed with firmness and assurity, and she was quickly tugged and spun into his arms to then proceed to be couriered into a dip where her head almost brushed the skin of the concrete floor—her right leg following suit to where it bent to her chest.

Seeing a grinning monkey down on her was too much for the feline to bear, as she was in an uncontrollable fit of chuckling from his lustrous charm. However, before she could stop him… she had squeaked when he suddenly flipped her backward and onto her feet—her hair over her right eye tossed from her face as silver eyes stared at him in shock, eyes wide and mouth parted in joyous disbelief, her right hand still in his. Despite standing apart, he was smirking in her direction before showing her a lighthearted and cocky shrug in return, liking the drama of this as she would wrinkle her nose at him in return and playfully shake her head, which earned the sound of his husky laughter in reply.

Oh, but they were back at it again when his chortling calmed. The music rocked and rolled—the feeling of Macaque’s hand pulling Jīnsè into his chest as she would immediately side-step and sway into it, as her head barely touched his chin, while he, in turn, was guiding them in a manner of the foxtrot, his leading a beautiful thing. However, the temptation of a red blush crossed the goddess’s cheeks when he so swiftly and deftly brushed his lips against the crest of her right brow, causing her right eye to barely close, smiles on both of their mouths, while they enjoyed the frivolous and chaotic-ness as their feet caused puddles to scatter in their wake as the music boomed.

“Well, now, friends, let me tell you about this cat that I once met…”