#ty so much for the question!

[brw]

It's obviously loaded but something I do find charming about early Cloak and Dagger is that every time they lose their powers or something, Ty is always upset because he thinks Tandy is going to leave. He is so insecure and feels so much self hatred about his learning disability, about his speech impediment, and about how without being Cloak he isn't tied to Tandy in that way, so it's only a matter of time before she finds someone better, someone more suited to her personality and life, someone who doesn't stutter like he does, and he feels so much guilt about wanting Cloak back because it put them more on an even playing field in his mind, versus Tandy who is always like "This is great! Me and Ty can be normal kids! And I'll live forever with my best friend Ty who I want with me all the time and who does so much for me, my best friend in the whole world Ty Johnson ☺️☺️☺️" and Ty is an active suicide risk.

[jasperyourmutt]

Its official. I am now a TATTOO APPRENTICE

[shivunin]

bergamot and/or morning glory, from the flower rook asks!

oooh thank you mer!!

I took this as a lil prompt, but the short answer to Morning Glory: What is something Rook’s partners could do to make them melt romantically? is "Cook her a meal." Lenore has a lot of baggage about having access to food, so it is genuinely like some kind of divine providence that Lucanis likes cooking so much.

The longer answer is:

Providence

(Rook Ingellvar/Lucanis | 1,083 Words | CW: Brief references to past child abuse/neglect)

The day hung about Lenore like a shroud as she climbed the steps to home. 

There was no reason today’s spell shouldn’t have taken, but it hadn’t. Thirteen hours of trying, of rearranging and testing and rearranging again had left her exhausted. Too exhausted, in fact, to climb all the long way to the communal dining room and take her meal there. She’d missed lunch, had been in too much of a hurry to eat a large breakfast. She’d been so focused on her task that she hadn’t even noticed that she was hungry until she’d been nudged from the laboratory by a research assistant and now…

Well. Perhaps she still had some crackers in the cabinet. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been to the market, now that she thought of it. Had she gotten herself oats the last time she was in town? Ah, but even the effort of boiling water for it seemed too much tonight. Maybe she would just go straight to bed. Maybe—

Someone was inside her quarters and that somebody was cooking. She had been so lost in thought that she had not even noticed the stir in the wards. Stir, not break; there was only one other person with unrestricted access through the wards. 

Lucanis had come to visit her.

Lenore paused in the doorway, tears springing to her eyes. She smelled something savory, rich with tomato and meat and sweet onion. Something sizzled in her kitchen, followed by a soft metallic tapping sound. A spoon against the pan, maybe. 

She hadn’t seen Lucanis in what felt like an age. To see him now, when she hadn’t been expecting him —to find him like this—was almost too much to bear. 

“Rook?” he called from the other room, though of course he must know it was her. “Did you know that you have no food in your kitchen? I had to go back to the market in Treviso, but I brought you some things.”

“Yeah,” she said, scraping the tears from her cheeks and trying to keep the strangled note from her voice. One by one, she set her things back in their place: leather and brass case under the end table, gloves and cloak on the hook, and her shoes tucked away beside his near the door. She stared at the two pairs for far longer than necessary, struck by some indefinite emotion at the sight of her shoes next to hers. 

She needed to get her head on straight before she went to him. And—and her clothes still smelled of embalming fluid. 

“I’m going to change,” she told him. And calm down, she didn’t add. 

Lucanis leaned through the doorway, dark hair swinging with his speed. He took her in; she had no doubt that he saw more than she might have liked. He always did. After a moment, he leaned away again and the hissing of food in the pan intensified. 

“This will be done in five minutes,” he called. “Will you open the wine when you are ready?” 

“I will,” she said. 

She ought to go straight to him and hold him while he worked, thank him for his existence, but she felt so abruptly odd that she turned toward her bedroom instead.

There were no doors in her quarters. They were leaned neatly against the wall in her closet, where she’d put them immediately after moving in. She stripped just inside her doorway and tossed the loose clothing into a pile at the foot of her bed, where yesterday’s clothing already waited. She washed the day away from her hands and face and dragged on a loose green dress, chosen for the sole reason that it required the least movement to don.

As she turned to leave, to go to him in the kitchen, it occurred to her that nobody had cooked her dinner here before. In fact, she could count on one hand the number of times someone had cooked dinner exclusively for her in any home. She paused in the doorway, arrested by the thought. 

Without consciously deciding to, her hands twisted together, fingers finding the smooth edges of old scars. How many times had she sat at her own table as a child, forbidden to eat the meal she’d been served? How many nights had she gone to sleep weeping at the emptiness of her belly, only the intermittent stash of food hidden in her closet to carry her to the next meal? And here he was now, cooking her dinner when she hadn’t even asked. 

Abruptly, she had no desire to be standing in here while Lucanis was in the other room. She took her skirt in hand and hurried across the living room to the kitchen. 

“I put the wine on the—ah,” he said, when she leaned against his back and wrapped her arms over his stomach. 

After a moment, his left hand found her arms, though he was still stirring something with his right. The back of his shirt smelled faintly of blood, of ozone, which likely meant he’d recently made use of Spite’s wings. Lenore breathed him in, cheek pressed against his back, and searched for something to say.

“I missed you so much,” she said, though she’d intended to ask what he was making.

For a moment, she listened to the hiss of the food in the skillet, almost ready to eat, and the soft bubbling of whatever sauce he was stirring. Once she let him go and turned away, they would sit together at the little table and eat the meal he’d prepared. He would tell her about what he’d been doing these past weeks. When they finally went to bed, she would tuck herself against his back and hold him tight and he would be warm in her arms. She would not be hungry, she would not be alone; she could think of no better gift that he could have given her. 

“I missed you,” he said quietly, squeezing her forearm. “I did not mean to be away so long. I’ll stay as long as I can. You have my word.”

Something nigh unbreakable, then. Lenore willed herself to stop darkening the fabric of his shirt and straightened, turning for the counter behind her. 

“I’ll get the wine,” she said, and thanked whatever higher power might exist for having the benevolence to bring the two of them together in the first place. 

The dinner, when she ate it at last, was delicious.

[oddsconvert]

what would your characters be like in crossover AUs between your stories? :>

I've surprisingly not considered much in the way of crossover AU's between my own series! I have, however considered one giant crack-fic piece before where all my whumpees are shoved into a basement together (Josh, Declan, Izaak & Henley) as the whumpers all have a little soiree upstairs (Felix, Vince & Ronan) 😈

Ronan would completely idolise Vince and look up to him for insight of how to break down a pet into a mindless subservient. Both Ronan & Vince would be weary and cautious of Felix...they'd be totally and utterly fucking creeped out by him. Felix would not stop rambling on about his perfect Joshy, his lover and soulmate...

Meanwhile, Declan (if not deep in the throes of persuasion) would be inconsolable and cowering. He'd keep deathly quiet, out of sight and out of harms way - he'd be petrified of anyone and everyone and wouldn't trust a soul. Izaak wouldn't help the matter, he'd be laughing and making cruel remarks about him. Josh and Henley would offer him security and friendship, and try to pull him out of his shell. They would all exchange stories of their captors, and even Izaak would be shaken to the core to discover that vampires are real, and how powerful they truly are...

I imagine Felix convincing Vince to use persuasion on Josh... just for a taste of it 👀 of complete and utter submission without question or thought. Felix tells Vince the command, and Vince relays it to Josh. Declan would plead for Josh at the first flicker of fear in his eyes. Henley and Izaak would exchange a panicked glance.

There would just be a lot of mix-n-match, connections and dynamics 👀 I'd love to think about it properly!

[hellishgayliath]

Helli. Helli you’re killing me with the cuteness of your sons—

Plz PLEASE give me the streeength to make my daughters suffer as much as your sons thrives

Sage is racking up cobwebs ack—

Idk how much strength a half woken bun can give you atm but uhhhhhh lets seee. //goes digging in google about character relationships instead

So maybe these links can help you out with yo gurls, get those gears cranking do some deep dives on em

Tips for Writing a Queer Romance – All Write Alright https://allwritealright.com/tips-for-writing-a-queer-romance/

Hot Tip for Character Relationships: The Relationship IS a Character - Helping Writers Become Authors https://search.app/BzU25SVZE5tN37p57

Strong Character Relationships: From Friendships to Romance - WRITERS HELPING WRITERS® https://search.app/iF4BN7RoK6UDCydt7 (i like some of the points this one was bringing up)

How to Write a Complex Love Interest https://search.app/SDhaxxocth2hwvFe9

[skitskatdacat63]

"Non paeniteo potitus."

+ details & process

And, process !!

The jump btwn the second to last and last always surprise me whenever I make one of these because I always forget to take snapshots after I start painting. It's always like: oh yeah heres the lineart with some colors- BOOM fully finished✨️

What he's holding are the Austrian imperial scepter and orb, seen below:

I was going to draw the crown too but decided I don't hate myself that much(maybe some other day), and gave him a golden laurel crown, bcs I'm obsessed with that as a motif, and also its very remincient of the boy king statue that started this whole thing!

There's some symbolism of this, both intentionally but also just historically. I love that the orb represents that the monarch is holding the world in their hand, basically every old monarchy has one of those, and I think it's very cool for symbolism. But also bcs of that, I was forced to basically draw catholic fanart so, you win some you lose some. The star halo above him head is both to reference those religious statues with star crowns(I saw them a lot in Europe and they imprinted onto my brain), as well as: his four championships of course!

[suffarustuffaru]

If emilia had known all the manipulative and deceitful shit that echidna did to subaru in greed If and how fucked up subaru became under her influence, and how much Echidna despised everything about her and saw her as a useless, annoying naive doll, and eventually found out that Echidna was in fact so greedy and inhuman, do you think she would have changed her mind about Echidna and started to wary and disgusted by her? (Plus the talk of Beatrice waiting 400 years in Arc 4's Dream Castle would probably add fuel to the fire)

YES. absolutely. yes. itd be barely even a question, of course emilia would be wary of echidna and disgusted by echidnas actions if she (emilia) ever found this out. but im gonna explain why i think this🙏

we see some major instances of emilia standing up for herself—the biggest examples include her post arc 4 development, also her being mad about subaru calling her satella in arc 1, her arc 3 speech to the royal council (that was sadly glossed over in the anime but you can see it in the manga and its SUPER badass) and also her arc 3 fallout with subaru, etc etc. but the ones where she has more of a negative reaction, ie the arc 1 example and the arc 3 fallout with subaru—are particularly interesting to me.

the arc 1 example shows her standing up for herself with something that was done to her directly. subaru called her satella in public when shes already out there showing her face and being judged as she always is, but people arent usually so bold as to directly call her satella. its why she gets pissed—its a very personal insult, and its one that shes had to deal with for almost her entire life due to more factors out of her control (which is a reoccurring theme with her—shes rarely fully in control of many things in her life). this also is you know one of the examples where she DOES stand up for herself!!

but regarding the arc 3 fallout—yes, of course shes upset that subaru humiliated her at the royal selection when shes already bound to have a hard time because shes a half elf. of course shes upset that subaru broke his promise (especially when you remember her trauma with that), and of course shes upset because subaru absolutely looks like a massive liar right now (especially when you remember her trauma with that) and again, didnt keep his promise. but its interesting to note that emilia has this huge guilt complex regarding people being hurt because of her in some way (which isnt her fault at ALL but thats how it feels to her and this is how its often justified by perpetrators in universe!!). puck even tells her in memory snow that subaru keeps getting hurt because of her because puck is a shit father. so yes, emilia is upset that subarus hurt her, but so much of her dialogue in their arc 3 fallout is about how subaru got hurt because of her, and how she doesnt want subaru to be hurt anymore. a big part of why she leaves subaru then is because of that!! she was personally hurt, her trauma has been triggered by this too, shes been publicly humiliated on a deep level when shes already bound to struggle in the selection, and yet shes thinking more about subaru in this instance. that says so much about her.

and once you get to post arc 4 emilia in general—this is an emilia who is grown and is still struggling with her deepest insecurities but shes finally started to face them head on. of course shes gonna feel disgusted by what echidna did to subaru (and beatrice!!) if she ever found out—subaru and beatrice are very dear to emilia, and theyre the two people emilia is closest with thatve been affected by echidna the most.

i just think that on the scale of things echidna has done, emilia would care the least about how echidna feels about her specifically. not in the sense that emilia wouldnt care, because she does. she cares deeply about what others think of her and she always tries to be kind and nice and proper. she always tries to prove herself to others because she always has something to prove. shes the half devil, and shes someone whos often overshadowed both in universe and narratively.

echidnas feelings on her are only unique in its intensity and mystery—we see echidnas face scrunch up and she looks and sounds like shes going to cry when she admits in the anime that she hates emilia. we dont know why, only that this is the one and Only time we echidna with such negative emotions of this caliber? but echidna is probably far from the only person in the world to hate emilia and see her as useless and annoying and naive. and echidna is most definitely not the only person to hate emilia in the first place for various reasons.

emilia is extremely aware of just how many people despise her. how could she not when its connected to her appearance and existence? shes reminded of that like 90% of the time she steps outside. or when she thinks about other demihumans or about the fate of her own people. would it still sting for emilia to learn about the full depth of echidnas hatred? yeah, because like i said, echidna really has a personal vendetta against emilia, and also because this is all poking and prodding at the same core insecurities emilia has—that emilia is and will always be some useless doll thats paraded around. would it make emilia a little wary because echidna has a personal grudge? yes. of course. when theres a threat to emilia herself personally, that tends to extend for other people (such as her camp), so she unfortunately has to think about that. and of course emilia would probably also be wondering Why its so personal for echidna.

but emilia will IMMEDIATELY fixate more on the fact that echidna deeply hurt beatrice and subaru.

emilia is someone whos hated by the world, someone whos near constantly targeted unfairly in various ways—but she continually chooses to try and be kind and try to keep her courage and try to do the right thing even as shes completely terrified. shes deeply scared to hurt others due to her traumas and Various Experiences. she may not be entirely certain what love is, but she has felt it numerous times and loves her loved ones a lot. she cant fathom someone like echidna, who locked her own daughter in the library to wait for a person who isnt real just so echidna could watch and see what happens. echidna used her own daughter like some sick twisted lab experiment, and emilia would be even more deeply uncomfortable when you remember that she too was put in a princess room by her mother figure (which was well meaning and WAY different than beatrice of course, but im sure the room parallel would be Uncomfy anyway). and beatrice was waiting for 400 years too, emilias going to be so grief stricken and angry on beatrices behalf!!

and subaru's behalf too!! but let me go deeper into explaining greed if first.

when it comes to greed if, i dont like to entirely attribute everything to echidna here—mainly because i dont want to ignore subarus agency in all of this. subaru is the antithesis to someone like emilia or reinhard—subaru has infinite choices. hes choice itself. he can change in any direction and make whatever choices he wants and nothing can stop him once he sets his mind to something.

and greed if subaru continually makes decisions that makes him and everyone around him worse. he threatens felt and rom to leave the election to manipulate reinhard into joining him. he holds meili hostage in a cell to control elsa. characters like garfiel and ram understandably resent him for his manipulative bullshit. otto leaves because of it. emilia and beatrice’s mental health are completely and utterly destroyed because of his actions. yes, echidna is VERY MUCH to blame for how subaru ended up. he accepted her contract when he was vulnerable and at his lowest point, and now hes in this horribly toxic dependent relationship with her because shes the only one he can confide in. she helps him plan things, she helps him move things along. shes made him worse all this time, and while she plays a HUGE role in greed if for this reason, subaru continually makes the choice each and every single time to keep going down this path. he can try and turn around at any point, but he doesnt. hes a horrible person now, which i think should always be remembered in general for the vast majority of the ifs. he is a victim and a perpetrator at the same time. hes not innocent anymore—everyone is ultimately stuck under his control in greed if because he’ll just keep abusing rbd until he gets what he wants. no one whos near subaru has any free will here. echidna whispers in subarus ear and subaru chooses to listen to her and make more shit decisions.

is echidna guilty for essentially manipulating subaru into accepting her contract and becoming worse as a result? yes. is subaru guilty for doing all the things he did following accepting the contract? yes. these two things coexist. granted, i would still give echidna more of the responsibility for greed if of course, i just don't want to ignore what subarus been doing either hah.

but basically emilia finding out about all of this gets extremely complicated Very Fast.

to find out the full extent of the shit echidna does to subaru in greed if, emilia would have to know about rbd. and emilia finding out rbd is a whole other complicated subject on its own, but long story short, her guilt complex regarding hurting other people is gonna really FLARE UP. her worst fears have basically been confirmed with the existence of rbd because subaru has chosen time and time again to be involved with her, and being involved with her unfortunately means that he gets caught in the crossfire of ALL the things that keep trying to hurt emilia (which again isnt her fault and she has no control over any of this happening). so theres the double whammy of 1. emilia finds out rbd and 2. emilia finds out about greed if which brings whole other layer to this.

emilia is inevitably going to be horribly horribly guilty and In Despair over rbd. but then theres greed if, which shows echidna taking advantage of subaru for her own greed, subaru growing Worse because of echidna, and greed emilia also growing Worse in addition to everyone else involved in all of this. this is absolutely horrifying on multiple levels. OF COURSE shes also angry and grief stricken on subarus behalf—from her perspective, subaru has gotten hurt because of her and other people Repeatedly. she WILL blame herself for not doing enough (even though again, subaru and the people around them have made their own choices). she'll get angry and upset that subaru has even had to carry a burden like this alone, that hes been hurt so many times, and the fact that emilia herself is at the core of all of this. thats absolutely fucking terrifying. subaru has gone all this way for her. from her perspective—how can she possibly make up for all of this? she cant.

and then it gets even more terrifying because greed if subaru is a dark version of him that takes all his ugly traits and exerts control over everyone around him. hes miserable. hes horrifying. hes quite frankly an eldritch horror masquerading as this smiling mannequin version of natsuki subaru. and if emilias finding out about greed if, she has to find out about this other version of her thats all her worst traits amplified as well—shes a useless doll in the sense that greed if subaru removed emilias choices and did everything for her. hes the new puck to her, and puck was already a terrible parent by also exerting control over emilia in his own ways only to do horrible shit (see: destroying the whole world after she dies) behind her back. you know what that sounds like? subaru. and greed if subaru continues to enable this in emilia—hes responsible for her turning out this way and he continues to take care of her by doing everything for her because he now has this emilia that wants to bend to his every whim and follow everything he tells her to do. thats all she has left. subarus actions caused her to snap in this way because he never gave her a chance to actually flourish on her own. he never tried to help her rather than control her. and its why, in all her instability, she nearly freezes everything around her every time she gets angry and upset (see: her nearly having a breakdown after seeing subaru got hurt because of beatrice). greed if subaru has essentially gotten his "dream girl" in the worst way possible—emilia is now fully and completely dependent on him. she never had the chance to be otherwise.

its so incredibly clear when you read greed if that the moment emilia gets on the throne of lugunica, because she will, because subaru will absolutely make that happen, emilia will become a puppet ruler because shes too mentally unstable now to actually rule. because again, subarus made the choices for her this whole time, and it broke her.

greed if beatrice is also similar because really all subaru did was drag her kicking and screaming out of that burning mansion. yeah, from his perspective, what other choice did he have? he had to save beatrice. and theres no denying that greed if subaru has good intentions, but he has a hard time seeing and treating the others as people. theyre just like dolls that he has to drag around, and then he has this whole list of people that need saving, a whole quota he has to fulfill, so he drags them kicking and screaming along with him instead of talking to them as equals. as people.

greed if subaru is the subaru that keeps abusing rbd and going back in time over and over again, but not once is he actually using it to do something like, i dont know, wholeheartedly try to save beatrice by letting her make the choice to save herself like in canon main route arc 4. instead he just dooms her by never letting her choose and by never even trying to talk her out of it. or maybe he has, but he never understood how to do that in the right way. main route subaru figured it out by fully taking the time to understand her on a deep level and empathize with her. beatrice was the one to make the choice to save herself. greed if subarus had Infinite Tries and he never figured out how to actually save beatrice. mainbaru treated beatrice like her own person. greedbaru treats beatrice, and many other people, INCLUDING HIMSELF, like an object. he doesnt save them because he sincerely loves them, at this point. or maybe he does, but its not in a healthy way because hes just saving them because he has to. its an oligation, not a sincere desire to see them happy and safe and fulfilled in ways thats good for them.

and main emilia, i think, would Absolutely be horrified by herself. and i think shed pity greed emilia, but she'd also be disgusted. greed emilia is everything that emilia has hated about herself. greed emilia is the worst of her personified. but emilia would pity her. greed emilia has zero control over herself, her emotions, her own life. the two most important men in her life—puck and subaru—hurt her so deeply that shes just that far gone. and main emilia would be horrified by greed subaru of course, but i think shed be disgusted by all his manipulation. its sad and pathetic and Terrifying to watch. but of course its complicated.

and i hate the idea that emilia cant handle anything complicated (which tappei continues to push forward because hes fixated on making emilia "stupid" and "pure" and "innocent"), but while i think emilia would struggle to wrap her mind around all of this (because honestly who WOULDNT be struggling to do that with all of this shit aljsdlfjsdf), emilia would try her best. and she'd turn to echidna more because subaru wouldnt have turned out that way without echidnas influence. greed if subaru, after all, is still a victim. an imperfect victim, but still a victim, at the end of the day. but i think emilia would eventually have to reconcile that puck, while he did love her, wasnt the best (AT LEAST more than what she already kinda did in arc 4, because she doesnt know the full extent). he was far from it. he failed her in a lot of ways. hes hurt a lot of people. and emilia would have to know that subaru is capable of doing these horrible things too, but the subaru she knows and loves now is far different. shes sorry that hes had to deal with all of this alone. she'd be deeply sorry for greed if subaru, even. these things have nuances and i fully believe emilia will be able to understand even if it takes her some time to do so (because again—WHO WOULDNT feel complicated feelings about this??).

its like how subaru continually forgives the people around him for things theyve done in other timelines—theyre not the same people in the main timeline now. emilia would recognize that, because she herself is someone who sees the ugliness of the world, someone whos experienced it, and someone who wants to reject it all and try her best to choose kindness and love. and she knows that shes capable of that same ugliness too (see: greed if emilia) (see: her killing pandora numerous times after pandora tore apart her family and home) (see: her doing the arc 3 fallout with subaru) (see: her accidentally hurting others in frozen bonds) (see: her accidentally freezing her people) (see: her lowest points in arc 4). but—isn't that part of being human?

i do think that despite everything, emilia would pity echidna a bit. echidna, who deeply loathes her but is driven to tears over it for Unknown Reasons. of course that wont stop emilia from being disgusted by echidnas actions though.

yeah so anyway tldr: emilia deserves to go absolutely feral because i absolutely think she would go apeshit on echidna if she found out about what echidna did to beatrice and subaru. shes fully capable of it and we've seen her go feral multiple times okay. the moment she finds out about her loved ones being hurt shes gonna be like cradling them gently to her chest and then she turns around and goes feral on whoever hurt them 😭 it is SO over for echidna. (AND GREEDBARU, if emilia had the chance to.)

[lazyjellyfish300]

What kinds of rainy days are your and Kento’s favorites? Do you prefer a light rain or a sky darkening downpour?

Erin ( @multiversal-selfshipper )

Hellooo Erin!! 🙂‍↕️☕🌷🎍☔

oooh that's such a good question 😩 thank you so much for this. 🥹🥹💕💕

Kento was never a fan of the rain before he met me. And it's quite frequent where we live. It slowly grew on him. 🤭 I think between the two, he prefers a lighter rain so he can stay productive and it's not as bothersome to be out in the pasture with the animals, but it's cozy enough to brew some coffee, put on our handmade sweaters and scarves and watch from the porch. A downpour makes him want to curl up and not do much. 🙂‍↕️💕

Selfishly, I love the sky darkening downpours because it gives me an excuse to have him all to myself.💕 I love listening to the thunder and sipping hot chocolate from the comfort of our attic where we have a little nook to watch the storm out of the wide windows and I'll write with my feet in his lap while he reads, or just laying in bed all day until the incessant patters make us both fall back asleep. 💕

[coralpaperthoughts]

funniest thing abt the atla kids is that they're not all fatherless but they are all motherless

[mariyekos]

Thoughts on the new DMC trailer?

Going to be honest I haven't watched any trailers since the trailer at the Game Awards (or whichever one I have those 2 breakdown posts for) 😅 I keep seeing the trailer announcements when I don't have my headphones on me, and I've been behind on watching them once I have the time... maybe tomorrow I'll finally get to watching them! Tonight I'm dead tired so I don't think I'd be in much of a good mood and I don't want to start off on the wrong foot, so to speak. When I watch them I can make a write up on it though! Would probably be fun.

[princekirijo]

gonna be a little greedy with this one--1, 6, 11, and 20 for riku? :3c

Hell yeah let's go.

1. What was the original thought that led to the creation of this character?

Ah yes - I think I have spoken about this before but Riku was originally called Rinku and was actually a version of Link lol. It was because my interest was transferring from Zelda to Persona so I decided to combine the two into an AU! Then as I started to really get into Persona I decided to develop Riku into his own character - as a separate Persona OC. It's kind of evolved from there then lol - overall I would say he's gone through two major changes since he became a standalone Persona OC.

6. What was the thought process behind their appearance? Did you go mostly for aesthetic or are there any other reasons they look the way they do?

Hmm. In terms of his physical design he has changed quite a bit - he started out as essentially a Sylvain clone lol (I was a big fan of his design what can I say) and he's evolved into his own character now - mostly from me just going "what if I gave him this or changed this?" and then went from there.

In terms of his outfits I've spent a LOT of time working on them - in particular his thief outfit. I researched each of the other thief outfits and then worked from there - stuff like shape language and colour palettes. He's gone through multiple iterations - most of which I've never shared but I'm pretty happy with the look now (even if I must admit. He is blue Dante 😭).

Overall I would say with every aspect of Riku's design its a mix of what I personally like and a lot of research as well. Character design is something I'm extremely passionate about and I use Riku to basically help me learn and improve that!

11. Is there any existing character from other media that your character resembles? Was the resemblance intentional or was it a coincidence?

Yes to both actually! Riku naturally draws inspiration from some of my personal favourite characters over the years (he's kind of an combination of all of them tbh) so some resemblance is definitely intentional. I would say the big ones are Zagreus (ESPECIALLY him), Dante from DMC, Spiderman and Simba (after the new changes their backstory is less similar but the plot beats are familiar shall we say). All of them have had a huge effect on me and so have affected Riku too.

There's been plenty of unintentional references too - most of which have been brought up by people on here (Karma from Assassination Classroom is one I remember - and that's also how I decided on his Japanese VA). Other times I'll get into a piece of media and realize that the character I get attached too has some resemblance to Riku lol. A very recent example of this is thanks to Arcane - Jayce and Vi both have stuff in common with Riku!

20. Share any additional thoughts, art, favourite scenes, anything you've been waiting to ramble about.

Hm there's honestly so much I want to share that I wouldn't even know where to begin lol. I guess I can say that because of your Asuka posting I've been thinking about them interacting again!

I'm kind of lazy about posting art and idk if I will post this but there's a cool study I did of the Arcane style (the blending mostly) where I drew Riku based on a screenshot of Jayce (S2 E8) and tbh it might be the best Riku I've ever drawn I don't think I'll top it.

A small thing I could share is that I have officially changed Riku's eye colour to a reddish brown and he no longer wears the blue contacts. Tbh I just enjoyed how the blue eyes looked with the red hair which is why I wanted to keep it somewhat - but now I'm way more used to the reddish brown eyes so that's his eye colour (might even change it to a deeper brown like my own eyes lol).

[supercantaloupe]

Sleepover Saturday: what drives you to play an instrument?

It’s probably joy, but I want to hear more details that that :)

For me, percussion is like being the mechanic of the band/orchestra what with all the weird stands and usually having too many parts for however many percussionists there are

i think when i was younger it was sheer curiosity? it's hard to pin it down. i've always been kind of magnetically attracted to instruments and just sort of jumped at any opportunity to play them, whether that be in elementary school music class to piano lessons to worming my way into the circle of old farts playing bluegrass together in the park on a weekend

and then i grew up and went to college. ultimately i gave up a lot of the instruments i used to play for various reasons and just stuck with oboe/english horn as my main (with piano and voice as somewhat distant secondaries). and like, the thing w/ playing in orchestra and being in music school is that you are really immersed in a world where music performance is kind of a given, it's just a fact of life, so if you're gonna live there for any amount of time and enjoy it, you have to find some reason to stick with it so that you don't burnout (because it is a LOT of, at times quite demoralizing, work). and i'll be honest, on its own, there isn't a ton about the oboe that inherently makes me like playing it? i'm so very shit at motivating myself to hit the practice room and do etudes and scales and long tones and all that guff, and if i'm being honest i kind of haven't done that since undergrad. but i still try to play regularly, i still want to play, and i still enjoy it -- just not locked in a little room all by myself.

now as an adult/semi professional musician, i definitely still play out of love for the art, but also the community of it, and a sense of, like, being useful. like, before i was anything else i was a pianist, but by high school i was mostly an accompanist rather than a soloist, and today i'm far more an ensemble player than a soloist (now i've shifted focus to almost solely oboe/english horn). and that's something that i've come to realize is a huge part of it for me -- i feel comfortable in a community of musicians, and i enjoy collaborating with them to make music. i am not particularly adept at playing solo, nor do i particularly enjoy it/am particularly comfortable with it. music is a social outlet for me, and while it definitely is a ton of work, i enjoy getting to put in that work for other people, and be supported by other people putting in work around me, and it all goes to a common goal. when i was younger i use think i hated group projects because i always got stuck doing all the work for everyone i got assigned to work with who didn't give a damn, but when i started playing in orchestra regularly i realized i actually love working in groups -- as long as everyone else knows what their part of the job is and fulfills it. i love getting to be a part of that, of doing my part of the group's work, that no one but me can do (well arguably any other oboist at roughly my skill level could do that, but the thing about oboists is that we're rather few and far between compared to a lot of other instruments). i like being reliable, i like doing work with and for people, i like being the guy that people will call on when they need some help with a music thing because they know they can count of me. i love feeling like i'm wanted. i love feeling like i'm part of the community. and the fact that i get to, on occasion, make some beautiful music on occasion is a real cherry on top

[ask meme]

[thenamesblurrito]

Buzzard and Blurr are so cute :) really endearing ans sorta sweet, hope things work out well with em

Im really curious about the twos relationship. Do you have any thoughts you could share behind their dynamic and how they end up getting together? Or headcanons?

Keep up the good work! :D

THANK YOU ANON YOU MADE MY DAY!!!

i will be honest i would also like to know how they get together bc they are uhhhhhh both bad at this whole romantic thing! like i talk about here, they're both bumbling, inexperienced, and having a rude awakening to the concept of demisexuality, so as far as i can tell there is no end in sight to the mutual pining idiots. there's some possibilities but nothing concrete yet

they're a fun ship but first and foremost they are a funNY ship and the funny bits to me are in the pre-get together stage so that's what i think of the most. so! have some tidbits! this is a long post oops but i am NOT putting it under a cut i am making everyone LOOK AT SELF INDULGENCE RAAAGHH I AM KILLING CRINGE!!!

Blurr met Buzzard after being painstakingly transferred to a new, kitbashed frame and having a weird tall stranger show him the trash cube that used to be him with far too much enthusiasm. Buzzard was the one to fish that cube out of the trash as they went spelunking in Cybertron's waste disposal system as Team Purple were on planet to pull off a pet heist (and got more than they bargained for). once everyone realized the cube was a person and was ALIVE, they were also the one to uhhhhhh procure most of the pieces of his new frame, constructed by Knock-out in a back alley deal on Velocitron. Blurr is uncomfortable with how piecemeal and janky this frame is, despite being a close reconstruction of his original, and it takes him a long time to truly realize that Buzzard donated, bought, or outright stole 90% of the parts needed to bring him, a stranger, back to life. it's an odd feeling, to suddenly reckon with the concept that maybe there's more to this junker than picking pockets and being silly

it takes awhile for either of them to really pay attention to the other? like, Blurr has essentially pulled a Jesus, and also maybe unwillingly defected from the Autobots, and is currently "trapped" with a team full of criminals and Decepticons, one of whom was a spy that he spent so long tracking down and got thiiiiiiiis close to discovering her true identity before Longarm sent him off to Earth, so he's understandably got a grudge the size of a planet against Rosanna who is happy to taunt him about it, NOT TO MENTION the awkward, vulnerable, and painful physical therapy of getting used to this new frame and trying to regain his speed and just... being alive again?? sure, Buzzard is tall and weird, but they are the least of his worries in his early days with Team Purple

to be fair, like. for months the only real impression Blurr has of Buzzard is just:

infinite storage booba

that and "tall flightframe with purple parts but NOT a Decepticon???? not even an enemy????" it's something he's still coming to terms with. Gremlin consistently seeking him out to nap on is not helping

it may be easy to assume that Buzzard, having been brought to life by an Allspark shard on Earth, is young and ignorant and stupid and may not even know what love is etc etc. however, they were mentored by the whirlwind romance duo Rum-maj and Wreck-gar, both very invested and also very forthcoming about their own relationship. Buzzard is pretty knowledgeable about what love/romance/sexuality can look like, just from observing them and others around them! no, the mutual pining idiocy isn't from ignorance, it's just twitterpated stupidity 👍

this goes against popular fanon interpretation of Blurr i think, but i like to characterize him as the kind of hypercompetent-but-lame guy who's married to his work, doesn't bother with social skills beyond bare minimum, and isn't so much arrogant/full of himself as he is just impatient and dismissive. he's like a working breed dog. you might think he's hot but he would rather skip an offer of a one night stand in favor of following up on a potential lead or staking out a target's home all night. so Blurr's experience and general overall INTEREST in romance is nil

the fact i have slapped asexuality onto both of them just means they're both extra unprepared to Experience Feelings

it's slow! Buzzard thinks this guy is funny, and kind of sad, and though they never say this they think he could use a friend who won't get impatient with his own frustration. he knows a lot of stuff about Cybertron and Autobots and such that they've never heard before and he can be prompted to give entire lectures about anything, which they soak up, they love learning. Blurr is only mostly irritated by Buzzard being affable, and curious, and dropping odd knickknacks and riffraff into his hands whenever they feel like it. they don't roll their optics or look lost when he gets talking like many people do, and usually even manage to keep up with what he's saying. it's toleration at least!

he doesn't realize it, but it's really the least stressful/antagonistic connection he has with Team Purple so far. Rosanna was a target he was cheated out of uncovering and holds it over his head, Dreadringer is the mysterious captain of this dangerous gang who seems to want to toss everyone out the airlock, Wheelie was an old friend but seeing him so comfortable around these strangers is almost more offputting, Red Alert may be an Autobot but she's also the doctor seeing to his recovery which is hardly pleasant, the multiple Decepticons aboard keep him on edge even if they're nice to him like Voidwander, there's so many utterly absurdly strange people like Necro, or Wreck-gar, or Inferno, or Sky Lynx, or even Beachcomber, etc....

in comparison, Buzzard ends up filling almost a Kronk role to his Yzma as Blurr eventually feels comfortable ranting to them, or relaxing around them, or even skedaddling behind them for protection whenever Shenanigans occur. they're nice to him. it's weird. but it's still one of the biggest reasons why Blurr starts to acclimate to Team Purple, and even start considering himself one of them. without their positive influence, he wouldn't have dealt well with famous Team Purple tidbits like Tito Moto's funeral, Bludgeon deciding to start an official pirate rivalry, Dreadringer's delusions of interning with a god, Crescent's livestreaming career, or The Oil Slick Incident

Buzzard just thinks Blurr is fascinating to be around, in a much nicer way than when he was paranoid and scared of the rest of the team. now he's fitting in! in some corner of their mind, they think of him as another part of the hoard they call a family :3

maybe letting two obsession-prone people who only make friends with other weirdos spend a lot of time around one another was always going to end in a weird tangle of emotions, huh?

now this is of course Buzzard's Iconic Demi Moment, but Blurr has one too:

i firmly believe it's a hallmark- no, a REQUIREMENT that to be an Autobot in TFA you must be repressed. these guys are all touch-starved and alienated from their own wants and needs in favor of serving The Regime. so good luck Blurr you're gonna need it

Buzzard meanwhile is literally scared they're gonna pluck out Blurr's spleen. they keep wanting to be around him, and watch him, and touch him, all of which is normal sure but this is a lot so clearly their subconscious has marked him as a trinket to steal

attempts to explain otherwise generally do not go well

so they just. fail at communicating. they fail at communicating so bad the entire ship knows. even Rosanna gives Blurr tips on flirting. even Gremlin, Buzzard's dearest friend in the world, is giving them the stink-eye for idiocy. they are both still friends, they gravitate towards one another and get invested in what the other enjoys and work well together and just keep growing closer as time goes on, but the awkward, helpless stupidity of Oh My God Feelings turns it into a comedy show for the rest of Team Purple

maybe if Blurr could stop flipping out about the right thing to say and do and be and and and-- then he would relax enough, be confident enough to do something so bold as hold Buzzard's hand. maybe if Buzzard could stop worrying that their preoccupation with him is scary, or unwelcome, or unnatural, or going to upset his place in the team or as their friend, then they would stop feeling dread and start experiencing the joy and giddiness of romance, how it can be a treat for both of them

it's a lot of shenanigans. chicanery. silly falling over one another to just do something nice for the other but not quite knowing how. but they're both earnest. they enjoy one another. they keep coming back to one another

they'll get there eventually. i'll noodle something that fits

fingers crossed

i mean they have to get there eventually or this image won't be canon and i spent a lot of effort figuring out overlapping posing and kibble angles >:(

anyways. i'll leave u with this silly little ship meme (can u believe this image was gonna be my only response til i decided to defy cringe and infodump)

[theharellan]

how does Solas cope or work through the aftereffects of the regret prison?

content warning for mental health / body dysmorphia

At first, it's pure cope.

I've written my Solas as suffering from derealisation/depersonalisation for a good while now. It's been an issue for him since he manifested physically, exacerbated by the body dysmorphia he experiences from his unwilling flesh. It is exacerbated again by the Veil, and throughout early Inquisition he is dealing with symptoms of derealisation. He has developed methods to treat these symptoms. Tellingly, this banter with Cole:

Cole: It's brighter here. Glittering. Glaring. Glinting. I can't...

Solas: It's a mild tremor in the Veil. Nothing to worry about. Focus on what is here, in this world.

Cole: But... what is here?

Solas: Feel the ground, the breath in your lungs, fabric rustling against your skin.

Cole: (Breathes.) Thank you.

Solas: It's nothing. It can be overwhelming for anyone.

Is a treatment for derealisation in modern medicine. So, he has some pre-established methods that might help.

That being said, the regret prison is a different beast. He has always had a strict command of his dreams, and the Fade has often been a safe space for him. But he designed the prison with the ability to keep even the likes of Elgar'nan caged, and has utmost faith in its creation (he designed it, after all). What's more, by being its first host it does appear to be shaped to him, with him having to pull Rook in not only because they were mired in their regrets at that moment, but because they share a regret (Varric's fate).

I imagine the prison as a constant sensory overload for him, a deluge of the past millennia of his existence bearing down upon him almost without reprieve. And if he comes close to working through one, another cuts him off. A pack hunting down its singular prey, if you will. Wolves are persistence hunters, after all.

One last note about Solas in regret prison is that he tries to outsmart his regrets rather than confront them. From a (potentially cut) codex written by Emmrich:

I would offer, however, that your escape shows the true difference in how you and Solas suffered this regret. Solas escaped through evasion. In many ways, he addressed Varric’s fate as he did the problem of the Fade: a puzzle to be navigated or, where possible, denied. ... An immortal life founded in denial risks becoming an endless collection of loss. It would appear that, in the shadow of eternity, a god might regret but cannot accept.

These are the lies and misdirections he tells himself that Rook can call him out on. And like so many of Solas's lies, there is a method of truth to them. It was Rook's fault the gods escaped (but it was his as well), it was an accident that Varric was stabbed (but he did stab him, nevertheless).

The regret murals are another example of this. The Mythal fragment describes them as branches twisting to catch the sun, and while I think what she means by this is up for interpretation, I have my own take. For now, I feel like the best thing I can say is that the regret murals indicate Solas as someone who struggles not only with regret but with the perception of himself as a victim.

It is easier for him to see himself as a villain, because it makes everything he's done a choice. Every friend he's betrayed, every crime he's committed, wasn't because he was a person trapped in an impossible spot, trying to do right by himself, the person he loved, and his people, but the steady hand of Wisdom (or Pride) making the hard choices no one else can. He has to be the one to do it, and it has to be entirely his choice. While out of character I maintain that Solas's agency is reframed by abuse and circumstance, it does not change the fact that he has a responsibility to those mistakes, but I think Solas disagrees. At least when it comes to himself.

So the paint chips, the plaster cracks. Any evidence that he is anything less than in control of his own life fades.

Upon his escape, there is little time to work through anything. Elgar'nan descends upon Minrathous, eager to retake his throne as the god of tyranny, the threat of blight bears down upon the world. There are weeks between, but they are the bat of an eyelash in the span of his existence. So in no way does he begin to truly address those regrets in that time.

He mistakes voices he has known for years as being the manifestations of it, come to haunt him. He stands alone in crowds. He feels nothing. He feels like he is watching himself from outside of his body.

He copes by centering himself, as mentioned in the Cole banter when I started writing this ask reply 40 years ago. Focusing on physical sensations, manifestations of magic in his palm as a stim, counting his breath, etc.

The regret prison seems a very physically isolating place, and I think physical touch would be a salve sometimes. Which, canon Solas is out of luck, but this iteration has Ian. In this thread, hearing Ian's voice makes him flinch, but the Ian in the regret prison never touched him, the real Ian can.

I do think he plays at addressing it. Partially because he escaped it, so he has (in some manner) escaped his regrets, and partially because he has Ian, who knows everything the party knows and more. Not saying anything would be stranger, especially as Ian knows his symptoms of his weakening mental health from their years together. So even in trying to address it he is still coping, almost trying to trick Ian (and himself) into believing he has processed things. The same way he does every time he says out loud that he is someone deeply aware of his mistakes.

Ian, for his part, is a war medic and well-aware that this isn't the time to unpack the centuries upon centuries of trauma his not-husband is failing to process. Although even Ian has his limits, and cannot bring himself to validate some of Solas's regrets involving Mythal. I think here is where the trick is laid bare, and it's clear the things he wounds he believes he has dressed are, in fact, bleeding through the bandage.

It would only be post-game that he could truly begin work through these regrets, and getting over the after effects of the prison that inflicted upon him in such a visceral manner. He will still flinch when Ian (or Thora, or Miraen, or Felassan, or Emithas etc) says his name sometimes. He still will hear him anticipate violence in their words. Sometimes, when the twilight steals into night and all the colour drains from the world, he anticipates statues on the horizon.

But whether the Veil is gone or he is atoning in the prison, being more connected to the Fade and in a better environment allows the sixth sense of magic to flow through him as it hasn't since the Veil's construction. When Ian says his name, it rings with both worlds. And there is little to regret in the sound.

It is a journey, but not a battle, as so many other things have been in his life.

[the-insouciant-scientist]

what are hyakinthos's thoughts on the boatman and the slow boat in general?

Ooh, taking a quick sidestep from the rest of the ask game asks to answer this real quick! Short answer: a little complicated but generally friendly! Long answer: Gotta give some backstory first, bear with me. I have been thinking so much about belief systems vs established canon. Canon says that every human who dies regardless of belief (there may be nuance I'm forgetting but I'm in full speed infodump mode rn so that's a problem for future me) goes to the Far Shore. I say that's... kinda bleak? Also I'm just not a fan of stories where there is only One Real Belief and the rest are played off as silly distraction or whatever, but I digress.

A lot of his everything is based around the idea that both belief and proper death/burial care are important to get people to the afterlife they're meant to be in. Ritual makes all the difference between going to the Far Shore vs the Fields of Asphodel, for example.

His Boatman is Charon, or at least accepts the name. Hyakinthos has a working relationship with him and has probably taken up the oars at least a few times, especially for people who need the extra care in getting to where they need to be.

There's respect there, but there's also a certain... I'm not sure I have the words for it. The idea that death in the Neath is uncertain in so many ways (whether it'll stick that time, whether the person will make it to their afterlife or if they'll slip between the cracks and end up in the wrong place, etc) can be... discomfiting, to him. So while he does hold the boatman in high regard, there's always some little uncertainty there.

(Every so often, by their standards at least, Hyakinthos will bring him a very old obol. The Boatman will always refuse it. This is a ritual of its own. They'll sit for a while and talk anyways, and then part ways afterwards a little lighter.)

[grayscale-sparks]

wait ok i don't know shit about music and i haven't been here that long. what do you play? and also tell me some fun stuff about it, i literally know nothing

hi tyranny :p

putting this under a cut cuz I just started yapping

I play clarinet! I’ve played for. I think coming up on eight years now, so I guess I hold some credibility. I quite enjoy playing music, it’s something that means so so much to me. If you make a song recommendation I will listen to literally any genre. Especially long songs (like 10+ minutes. I love them.)

Also I’m thinking about minoring in music so I can learn how to properly compose. Fun fact, I have a piece I want to compose based off of malevolent. Each character has an instrument assigned to them, but that’s a yap for another day

more Me Fun Facts is that I have music synesthesia aka I can like. See music. I guess. Like colors and patterns and stuff, it’s easier to show rather than explain. But yeah that’s my party trick people think I’m insane <3

uhmm right okay so music theory is The Devil and as someone who does calculus every day, I’m still scared of it. It’s a lot of rules you have to learn but also learn how and when to break them. Crazy. Took one class and almost died.

Sheet music being written on is hot as fuck, whether that be articulation (how notes are shaped) dynamics (loud v soft) or just bullshit little notes (don’t breathe here!!! MAKE SURE TO COUNT <3)

brass is the enemy trust me (sincerely a woodwind player) no but be so real there are Very Strong rivalries between sections in bands don’t even get me started /hj

and I have some songs I’ve personally played and I think everyone should listen to cuz they were fun and I associate them with stories

Second Suite- Gustav Holst

Vesuvius- Frank Tichelli

Carmina Burana- Carl Orff (we played a band arrangement by Krance)

Danzon No. 2- Arturo Marquez

Wayfaring Stranger- Christopher M Nelson