#umbralined

[nectaric]

🌻

sometimes i get. Sad. because i've noticed this a lot throughout the years, but wlw ships rarely seem to get much traction compared to other alternatives in rp (and elsewhere ofc, but i'm talking about rpc). and i don't mean that people won't ship - i've had many people in all my years roleplaying reach out to me excitedly to ship their lady muses with mine, but i find that it rarely gains any traction. i get a couple messages in talking about the ship, and then it dies out. but if the ship was mlm for example, then there's a lot more willingness to keep going forward with it.

idk, it feels a little bit .. performative, maybe? and i don't mean to throw out any accusations of course, and i definitely don't mean this about any current partners because they're all lovely, but i've definitely felt before that the people who express interest in shipping female muses do so really enthusiastic at first, but then there's zero follow through. ships don't always work out and people move on but it's consistent enough that i'm like... why even say it if you don't mean it?

maybe there's something else i'm not seeing, but it makes me sad because it feels like unless a ship is centered around a man, it always fizzles out and i ain't about that!

[eclipsecrowned]

30 for truthful tuesday. [looking at you autistically, microphone in hand] // @umbralined

Pupper wishes to get Kadi in trouble. Kadi will gladly get in trouble over this one.

There is a specific breed of mun, often belonging to a certain demographic but it happens regardless of income education race or gender, who think their muse is God's gift to the community. Whether you find them here on tumblr, in the badlands of forums, or among your discord experiences, it is inevitable that you will meet someone who just cannot handle what their muse actually is.

In their own head, usually because they are hella projecting onto the muse, this muse is the best thing since sliced bread. They are a near perfect copy of the mun -- let's use our former friend [REDACTED] as an example.

All her muses were able-bodied middle class east coast American women who came from military families and were proudly straight Americans whose brand of liberalism was just conservatism lite. And because that muse is so much like her -- and pick any of them, Beth, Elaine, Charlotte, even in fantasy she'd just adapt Veerle or Adamaris to be the super special white gurl foreigner -- this muse is perfect.

This muse does no wrong. Everything this muse does is cool, funny, badass. Everything this muse does is right, even in instances where the audience tries to call out obvious racism, homophobia, classism, unchecked mental illness. This is not a critique of the character's behavior/the biased writing, but of the creator herself, because the muse is a funhouse mirror of their player. Fuck you. She's going to write what she wants to write.

Except it stops being about just their muse. Suddenly, it's about you as a collaborator having a muse. Here's the role your muse has been pigeonholed into. Here's the script. Here's how in awe or cruel they are to her blessed muse. Here's what your muse is allowed to be -- remember when she'd veto my muses having disabilities or poc love interests as if that was her call?

It's no longer collaborative. It's the Beth/Elaine/Charlotte/Veerle/Elysande show, and we're just living in it. Our muses are there to talk about how cool she is, how women want to be her, how men want to make babies with her. And if you play a villain, the men obsess over her and the women want to torture her. No one can be objective about the character. Who could be objective about God's most perfect creation?

And it gets worse. The creator, totally unchecked and unable to be held in check moving forward without having an actual IRL mental breakdown, is further assured of her own skill. Her muse is perfect. The war crimes ensue, sometimes metaphorical and in [REDACTED]'s case actually for real in universe. The apologia of 'well if my muse did something bad they did it to someone worse,' except they as grown adults are unable to admit their character is capable of doing any wrong. If you are among other partners doing a plot, they refuse to be on the sidelines of it.

The relationship as collaborators and as friends becomes unsustainable because you are dealing with someone who refuses to be reasoned with, and will forever be the villain when they retell the story because you wanted a shared platform, not to be an accessory to a muse you can no longer stand.

I've been on this site since 2012 and I have seen many such muns high on their own muse's farts. Literally if you give me the most special and important heroic muse without an iota of nuance, whether Canon or OC, I'm checking out. I've seen canon serial killers be idealized as 'good people' due to possessing either the lifestyle their writer has or desires, and canon abusers be excused as 'well I mean, his wife is annoying.' I have seen OCs, many times, hold entire servers and communities hostage to their whims, whether as moderators or as simple members of a group. I can name 6 separate incidents across 12 years, and it always goes nuclear, scorched earth, kills communities and friend groups and servers. I refuse to play.

And again, fiction =/= reality, but the way people handle certain themes or concepts can say a lot about how they'll be as a collaborator --

[nightsongs]

@umbralined gets pasithea for hypnos.

She was not usually one for parties. She disliked big crowds and preferred more intimate settings where it was just a few people. Aphrodite had insisted she come along, though, along with her other nymphs. The goddess liked to have them along so they could enhance her beauty, so to speak.

Pasithea thought it was silly but she would never say that out loud.

Keeping to a corner with her goblet of ambrosia, she was content just to people watch. Her attention was caught by a god with white hair, almost like a cloud, who floated instead of walked. He was handsome. Her attention was not often caught by others in that way.

Should she go talk to him? What would she even say? She did want to go talk to him, though...

Her attention was dragged away from him when someone touched her arm. One of her sisters, Kale, began to gossip about something one of the other nymphs had said.

[shiningsilverarmor]

Seisyll seems to have decided that Kage has no rights - the wee beastie is TRAPPED between large paws, being subject to a rasping tongue and biting teeth that sought nothing more or less than TORTURE gently nibbling tiny sticker burrs from his short short fur.

How...DARE THIS HEAVY CREATURE TRY TO SUBDUE HIM. Plus, torturing him no less? Kage made some attempt to try and wring his head back to bite anything from this giant BEAST and gain some control, but seeing how little this baby body was he had only one option....

.

.

.

AUNTIE. AUNTIE DEE DEE HE SCREAM WITH OPEN MOUTH RAGE.

@umbralined

[bloodedhearts]

"We're feeling the Dark Lady's presence in this area. Don't you think so ?" It's both comforting and scary at once. And she feels that Maledos also has some kind of interest in Lady Shar, even if she's not sure of what it is. That's why she decided to talk to him about it. "I hope... I hope she's proud of me."

@umbralined ❤'d !

[countercharmda]

he's doing his best not to be too obvious as he eavesdrops tbh

[miss-polly]

@umbralined ;

"Oh, ah, hm." Polly pressed a finger to her lips, not yet wanting to admit how hopelessly lost she was. A branch snapped behind her, and she whirled around with a yelp, heart in her throat. "Oh -- um! Hello! Lovely day today, isn't it?" Though she tried to sound friendly, there was no hiding the way her voice had jumped an octave, or the way she fidgeted in fear at the sight of the woman before her.

[leatherfangs]

"I don't want to write kink, so I'm going to put 'freaks dni' in my rules, but I want to write with vampires, so I'm going to follow a kinky vampire blog. For the vampires, not the kink." - sb who doesn't know that they can set boundaries without shaming people

ooc. no but literally why would you follow a dom sex worker who specializes in kink if you don't want to be exposed to kink

[judgcmcnt]

Are You Pyramid Head's Type | Always Open

@umbralined prayed

Evan is not filling out the card, he refuses. He inspects it for a moment and then scrawls 'leave me alone' across the top in a hurried script, and departs before he can be taste tested. Again.

He doesn't need to fill it out to get Red's interest, he's already got it.

And it's too late Evan, he's already following with loud purrs and a eagerness to bite.

[nectaric]

@umbralined from here.

navani did not expect the tears. subtle though they were, szeth's agony was obvious to her. she could feel its weight, seeping in through her pores, infecting her with melancholy. her sympathy disgusted her. this was the man who had killed her husband, who drove her family to war. if she followed that line of thinking, she could blame him for all of this, for everything. that should have sated her. hating him should have brought her some sort of peace, some kind of relief.

it did not. and that, more than anything, infuriated navani.

"does my gratitude hurt you?" navani whispered, circling the table until she and szeth were only a foot apart. he could have killed her. it would be too easy. and navani was not afraid. "does it burn you, assassin? i hope it does. i hope it eats you alive."

his agony proved one thing to her: that he could feel remorse. that he could feel pain and sorrow. that he was undoubtedly human - the famed assassin, he who walked on walls, untouchable and deadly - was human. he could feel the same that she felt, and that was what brought her relief.

she did something dangerous and stupid, then. though dalinar seemed to trust this man, he would reprimand her for her foolishness anyway. navani reached for szeth, manicured hand resting against his cheek. she half-expected him to throw her off, to lunge, to shout at her. she spoke anyway. "i thank you, assassin. someday, i may even forgive you."

[eclipsecrowned]

posts that would have the gentry punting me into the tithe -- (with thanks to @umbralined and @luxsclaris for letting me meme on their muses)

[peacedomain]

✧  @umbralined  —  zum  —  continuation  from  here.

𝒔𝒉𝒆  𝒇𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒔  𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉  𝒉𝒆𝒓  𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔,  𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅  𝒂𝒕  𝒉𝒆𝒓  𝒐𝒘𝒏  𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕.

she  tries  hard,  really  —  memorizes  the  spell,  the  gestures,  and  combines  both  the  words  and  the  movements  together,  yet  nothing  happens.

the  gap  between  them  —  a  dove  and  a  dragon  —  seems  to  be  too  much,  too.  it's  hard  to  understand  one  another  if  𝒵𝒰𝑀  still  learns  common,  and  elsinael  was  taught  how  to  speak  like  a  noble  her  whole  life.

she  hangs  her  head  and  then  shakes  it,  handed  moss  now  carefully  explored  by  dainty  fingers.

❝ apologies, ❞  she  utters  quietly.  ❝ i  know  it  must  be  frustrating  for  you  to  teach  someone  without  much  talent  for  innate  casting.  we  can  stop  anytime  you  want. ❞

her  tone  is  soft  and  gentle,  as  always,  which  makes  it  much  harder  to  differentiate  her  mood  or  intentions.  is  she  now  trying  him  and  his  patience?  is  she  making  fun  of  him  for  not  being  able  to  pass  his  knowledge?  or  is  she  completely  honest  in  her  apology?

[shiningsilverarmor]

Deirdre is scooping Kage up, right off the ground. Get scooped you precious little critter. He's offered up a little snack, a pretzel stick that has been half coated in dark chocolate and sprinkled with coarse salt.

He didn't like the look of those.. sharp crystals on the dirt stick??? At least, that was what Kage thought, baffled that his proclaimed auntie would try to give him this kill weapon as a meal.

Only his nose scrunched up when it got near his face. No matter what he would not eat it.

NO, he would not eat it even like that man eating green eggs and ham!

Unless it came to contact with his mouth... and all he saw, right then...

..was PURE IMAGINATION.

[eldritchmoms]

❝we’re either geniuses or the dumbest sons of bitches to ever breathe air.❞ - Mal @ Abdul

Six of Crows Lines || Accepting "Errr... just... be careful up there?"

The floating disk was practically invisible, and not all that wide across. It would be all too easy for Maledos to miss his footing. And Abdul wasn't entirely sure how high he could make the thing go before it failed. It was supposed to stay at about waist height, and it was taking a considerable amount of concentration to keep the thing closer to the height of Abdul's head.

[pix-pulleiaceus]

Maledos has gotten used to seeing them, but he doesn't know what they're supposed to represent. Many holy symbols were obvious things - Suns or Sheilds, Coins or Masks - and with a bit of curiosity it was pretty easy to tell similar symbols apart. Suns had different configurations, Shields bore different crests, Coins were designed differently from one another, and some were gold while others were silver. This, though...

His clawed hands turn over the string of prayer beads in his hand, and then lift it up, dangling the lazily spinning Holy Symbol in front of his face and watching as the crossed lines of wood turned before him. "What did you say that this was called?"

Maledos was still an odd sight to Nicodimas, but no longer was it just due to his features. Every aspect of him was foreign. His words, his religion, his clothes, it was all so strange. And it seemed that somehow, despite the furious wars fought on this very subject, Nicodimas's world was alien to Maledos, too.

It was hard to remember that, though, when the teachings had consumed Nicodimas's whole life. And thus, Maledos's question was met with round, shocked eyes, and his voice pitched up in something that could be mistaken for indignance if it hadn't been for the utter confusion apparent about his entire being.

"What is it called- that is the holy cross! A symbol of the sacrifice of our Lord and savior- how could you not know what that is?"

[miss-polly]

@umbralined ;

Polly grimaces, giggling in her awkwardness. "I'm sorry! It sounds really fun, honest. But I'd start to cry if you so much as looked at me the wrong way." It takes her a second to realize what she said. But as soon as she does, Polly shakes her head and rushes to clarify: "Not you specifically, that is. You're lovely. The general you, though. People as a whole."