#usually in the evening after work

[icurwithme]

Mists

It was early morning. The sun had just begun to think about rising, and Kakashi was once again at the memorial stone. He was visiting the team he once had but cruelly lost; as he did most mornings when in the village.

There was a low fog this morning that blanketed the ground obscuring the grass, and bases of trees. It would seem spooky to some but to the copy-nin it was peaceful, quiet. He most likely would still be standing there until the sun had burned off the mist, but he sensed someone else nearby.

It wasn't unusual for a patrol or returning unit to be out that early, but this was someone different. Someone who wasn't concealing their presence, or at least didn't care to at the moment. Curiosity pulled Kakashi from his lonely vigil.

He passed where the Third lay to rest, a little further to an area known to him, but of which very few others visited. There lay the memorial stone set for his late father, in front of it crouched a figure he would know anywhere.

“Iruka-sensei?”

The man stood and turned towards the voice. “Ah, Kakashi-sensei. I didn't expect anyone else here at this hour.” He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Though, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised it was you, considering.”

Kakashi was a little baffled. “Considering?”

Iruka motioned down to the rock, at which Kakashi just noticed a bowl of fruit and incense sitting in front. “You came to wish him happy birthday as well.”

It took all of his ninja training not to react in surprise. Honestly he'd forgotten his father's birthday. How did this teacher know, and why would he care?

Iruka stared down at the memorial with a soft smile. “I came to wish him peace, but also to thank him.”

Kakashi was silent for a moment as he took that in. “Thank him?” Could he only manage questions today?

Iruka nodded. “I thanked him for what he did to save his team, though it cost him dearly. He was wronged in so many ways. Also I thanked him for you.” He glanced at the other teacher. “Without you I have no idea what would've happened to our village. Much less what would've happened to Naruto.”

Kakashi was a loss for words. What could he say to that? As he was grappling with his thoughts the other teacher, with a parting pat on his shoulder, made his departure.

[egophiliac]

don't think I'm not still obsessing over 7-12

[evercelle]

2024 art summary! it sure has been a year

[starlooping]

ten of swords: loss, deep wounds, painful ends

[starry-bi-sky]

Okay so this is almost a direct copy-paste of my earlier reblog but only the Xin Yuan parts, because its long enough to be its own post and i want to share it! It deserves it's own post <3 typical starry stuff to write a 2k word long reblog, unfortunately.

I say almost because I went through to proof read and ended up adding more stuff.

I've been cooking on this idea for the last two days since I saw the Xin Mo!Shen Yuan post but??? I can't find anything on Xin Mo's backstory or how it came to be -- which means that's free fucking plot right there baby. That's a sandbox and im making LIFE SIZED CASTLES. I'm so excited.

The idea of Shen Yuan transmigrating centuries before the events of PIDW as Xin Mo -- but when he wakes up, he's not the sword. He wakes up in the body of a young boy named Xin Yuan. Now it makes sense for this boy to be a demon, but the drama, the intrigue, the spice of Xin Yuan being a human child.

SY wakes up as a boy below the age of ten, and the System tells him where he is, and SY is excited to meet his favorite protagonist -- only to gradually realize that he's like, a thousand years or so before the events of the novel. The rant he gives the system is legendary.

Bc what's the point of getting dropped into PIDW if he's never going to meet his favorite character??? This is a scam! BUT he settles into his new life, he's like, some orphan street rat or some other tragic airplane-esq backstory.

The system gives Shen Yuan his first mandatory quest: become a righteous cultivator. Which was like, kinda his plan/hopes anyways, except! There's like?? No official cultivator sects anywhere? The Cang Qiong Mountain Sect hasn't even been established yet, and there are pockets of cultivators running around, maybe some groups or schools popping up and then sinking back down, but nothing's really taken root!

If he asks someone how to become a cultivator, there's no straight answer. No "oh you can go to X to do that". He's pissed! How can he become a cultivator if there aren't any schools around to teach him? Deus ex machina, that's how.

Out of sheer luck, SY manages to help save a rogue cultivator, and promptly gets adopted by said rogue cultivator, who gives SY the name 'Xin Yuan'. He is ecstatic. And you know what? It's actually pretty fun!

He's getting to travel the world of PIDW in its early stages, and gets to see the building blocks for the eventual main story. He's discovering all this local flora and fauna that are foreign to his old world and unmentioned in the book, and he's learning cultivation! Granted, its unsafe, newly(ish) discovered cultivation, but it counts!

Wistfully, he thinks about perhaps he'll do something grand and get his name carved into legend. Something that would eventually help the protagonist later down the line in his quest for revenge.

The system remains silent to his thoughts.

But Xin Yuan doesn't take much stock in that daydream anyways. It's nothing more than fantasy to him; wish-fulfillment. He does discover however, that he is positively brimming with spiritual energy. Overwhelmingly so.

It's both a blessing and a curse, as it puts a strain on his meridians if he's not careful, and leaves him prone to qi deviations for the exact same reasons. He already has a heart demon or two from a few traumatic experiences in the past.

(bc hey! angst a day keeps the writer sadism at bay, and all that)

I'll say he's about... eight when he gets picked up by the rogue cultivator, who I'm calling Lin Kai bc he deserves a name. They travel around PIDW up until Xin Yuan is twelve, where he goes through a traumatic experience that results in a heart demon.

It's after that that Lin Kai decides to put a stop to his wandering, and find a place to settle down to raise Xin Yuan in. Coincidentally! They settle down in a nice mountain region that's thriving with spiritual energy. The mountains at the time were called something different, but they will be eventually known as the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect

Coincidentally, the mountain Lin Kai and Xin Yuan end up on is Qing Jing Peak. XY does not realize that the mountain he's on is Qing Jing. The System does not tell him. But he likes it there, more than he was expecting. And as much as he's traveled around, he really does enjoy being in one place.

He has a tendency to go down the mountain and help the village setting up down there, and when he's a teenager he starts venturing out more and more.

Xin Yuan forgets sometimes that he's in a novel, especially after settling down on Qing Jing peak. The system becomes remarkably quiet since there's no quests for him to do and not a ton of opportunities to get B-Points. He cultivates with Lin Kai, helps tend to the garden they're growing, goes down to the village to play with the other kids.

There's one boy he's best friends with, a boy whose not all that good with words, named Liu Zhihao. He's got potential for cultivation though, so Xin Yuan drags him up the mountain when he can so that Liu Zhihao can sit in on lessons with Lin Kai. He drags him all over the forest at the foot of the mountain to go look at bugs and animals.

(One time, when they're fourteen and Liu Zhihao has been learning cultivation for a few years now, Xin Yuan drags him out of bed late one night to go look at the stars. Xin Yuan tells Liu Zhihao about ascension -- something that still feels like a far off dream to many in this time -- that night, while they're sitting on the wet grass.)

("We should ascend together." Xin Yuan tells Liu Zhihao, jade eyes gleaming. Never let it be said that Xin Yuan doesn't love deeply, no matter what kind of love it is. He was always so lonely as Shen Yuan, Liu Zhihao is his best friend. "We'll become immortals, and then we won't ascend until the other is able to.")

(Liu Zhihao stares at him silently, his face unreadable. Then, quietly, he asks; "Promise?")

("Promise.")

When he starts adventuring outwards, further away from the mountain and the village, Liu Zhihao sticks to him like rice. Not that Xin Yuan's complaining, that's his best friend after all, and Liu Zhihao has become a formidable cultivator. He deserves to show off his skills.

He starts making something of a name for himself by the time he's, like, 18 -- although that name is in its baby steps, along with Liu Zhihao. They're slowly growing renown.

Perhaps XY uses his knowledge of PIDW and cultivation in general to help make advancements in the cultivation field. Although the system prevents him from sharing too much, it doesn't mean he can't practice it himself. Perhaps he's one of the first cultivators to develop a golden core. One of the first known immortal cultivators. One of the first to have a spirit sword.

(Although I don't know the logistics of any of this since my knowledge on xanxia/cultivation stuff in general is all still pretty new and google wasn't all that helpful lol.)

Either way, its my excuse to eventually make Xin Yuan come across as ethereal to other people. Peerless beauty SY for the win. Hs wifebeam is too strong, Xin Yuan has a line of suitors following after him and he's completely unaware of it. The rest of history is not.

Demon realm stuff has been stirring up since Xin Yuan was a kid, but at the time it was rare and in the beginning stages. Its been steadily ramping up and the system is sending him on more and more treacherous quests -- some of them mandatory, some optional. SY doesn't often take the optional ones unless it comes with a sufficient B-point reward.

for all intents and purposes though, he's a wandering rogue cultivator with Liu Zhihao, going from place to place to either help a town or village, or to discover more creatures or artifacts (although there aren't that many). Just all around living his life. He participates in a few major quest lines that are sure to get him mentioned in legend, even if it's a background character way.

(Unbeknownst to him, rather than being a side character in these legends, he's named directly. You can't become one of the first immortal cultivators and NOT get name dropped for clout.)

He has a spirit sword named Shā Mó, (杀 shā - to kill/weaken/counteract/reduce) (魔 mó - evil spirit, demon, possession). He routinely goes back to QJP to see Lin Kai, or to rest when traveling has worn down on him and he wants nothing more than to sleep somewhere he knows he'll be safe in. It becomes more frequent as Xin Yuan becomes more famous. Liu Zhihao often comes with him.

it all comes to a head though when the rifts between the demonic realm and the human realm become too great, and the balance between both realms becomes unstable. A demonic emperor's influence, wanting to merge the two realms so he could conquer both to satiate his own greed.

Typical evil king stuff. This comes to a climatic head in a great battle between every cultivator available and the demon emperor's army. Xin Yuan was one of the many who helped lead the charge.

In the end, it was Xin Yuan who ends up defeating the demonic emperor, but the rift that the emperor used to cross between worlds is destabilizing as well. Except instead of trying to close, it's getting bigger and bigger, threatening to swallow the heavens and earth and demonic realm whole.

You know how Yue Qingyuan's soul is bonded to his sword due to a qi deviation? Let's take it a step further >:)

Xin Yuan uses himself and Shā Mó to close the rift. However, it takes all of his spiritual energy to do so, as well as him filtering the demonic qi into his body to redirect it back to the demon realm.

In the end, Xin Yuan and his beloved sword Shā Mó fuse. Xin Yuan's soul becomes trapped in the sword. His physical body is unable to handle the immense amount of power it takes to close the rift, and is destroyed. He is immortalized in legend by his grieving cultivators.

(Liu Zhihao ends up ascending alone. He ascends with the hope that one day he'll see Xin Yuan again, even if it's in the face of someone else. Lin Kai does not ascend, too weighed down by the grief of losing his son.)

Xin Yuan, now Xin Mo, falls into a stasis. He's very confused and disorientated when he regains 'consciousness'. The system has been silent for most of his life, only popping up to give him mandatory quests, hints, points, or to answer any questions.

But once he wakes up, it cheerfully pops up again, congratulating him on completing the origin story of Xin Mo. SY freaks the fuck out. he'd shake the system screen if he could, but he doesn't have arms. or legs. or eyes for that matter.

He can sense his surroundings, but its all like imprints to him. He can sense the energies, but he can't see anything. It's all very disorientating and horrifying after years of being human. Like a sensory deprivation chamber.

The closing of the rift and the cycling demonic qi tainted both Sha Mo and Xin Yuan irreparably, and it did some kind of damage that resulted in SY needing to feed in order to use the spiritual powers. Kinda like how Xuan Su uses YQY's life force for it's spiritual energy, but instead of feeding on his own lifeforce, Xin Mo feeds on others.

The rest is history. Xin Mo is originally tied to the story of Xin Yuan -- believed to be all that remained of the man after he sacrificed himself to keep the realms separate. It's believed that the force of the realms closing permanently infused Sha Mo with demonic energy, turning it into Xin Mo.

But, like many stories do when faced against the tide of time, things get lost; chipped off; changed. Xin Mo is steadily separated from Xin Yuan, especially once it becomes clear how parasitic the sword really is, until they are all but separate entities themselves and the origin of Xin Mo's creation all but forgotten.

The years blur together when Xin Mo is not being wielded, and at first Xin Yuan was agonized by the fact that he stole the lives of all his wielders. He knows it's only a novel, but his decades spent in this life have softened him, and he's grown attached to the world around him.

But time erodes the mind like water erodes stone, and he becomes numb to it, then eventually anticipating of it. He forces himself to remember what he knows of PIDW's plot, and kinda fixates back on his old obsession on Luo Binghe. But while PIDW stays in his mind, his memories as Xin Yuan fall to the wayside.

Not forgotten, per se, but... tucked away. The system prevents him from forgetting fully.

Xin Mo isn't fully a demonic sword either i think, but instead harbors an ugly cocktail of both spiritual and demonic qi. Special circumstances and all that. Everyone just assumes he's a fully demonic sword because that's usually at the forefront, his spiritual qi weakened from the initial fusion and from years of not being fed spiritual qi. It's part of the reason his wielders always end up destroyed by him, other than the whole, yk, 'overwhelming qi' thing.

Nobody would recognize Xin Mo's human form as Xin Yuan other than some truly ancient demons. Of which Meng Mo might. But even that's iffy because there's a lack of surviving paintings of Xin Yuan, but also because of XM's demonic appearance and supposed lack of connection to XY.

Xin Mo has never spoken to his wielders before, not in the same way he does Luo Binghe. He tells Luo Binghe this, and he also tells Luo Binghe down the line that he is both spiritual and demonic -- something he also never told his wielders because there was no point to it.

okay okay i've got to end it here because its already gotten ridiculously long -- of which im both apologetic and unapologetic for -- but i DO think the Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan meeting (and reveal) would be fucking hilarious. Especially if SY has learned how to pop between sword form and human form by then -- although i guess it doesnt matter either way because SQH's reaction is still the same.

And that reaction is internally screaming and going "hey what the FUCK?? WHY DOES XIN MO HAVE A HUMAN FORM??? WHAT IS THIS??? SYSTEM??? EXPLAIN???"

meanwhile from his place on the sword hilt xin mo is squinting at Shang Qinghua in bewilderment and going "aren't you supposed to be dead" but doesn't pay too much mind to it because its not like its going to change anything.

...up until he catches shang qinghua going "WTF" silently from his little corner while all eyes are off him. One moment SQH is standing beside his king, and the next he's been tackled to the ground by one wild-eyed, human-shaped Xin Mo.

everyone, including SQH, thinks Xin Mo is going to kill him. It is a surprise to everyone when he does not, and instead dissolves into deranged, uncontrollable laughter after spitting out some phrase in some ancient tongue and watching SQH's eyes grow wide in recognition.

[cultivating-wildflowers]

ladies, I need to wander despondently across a foggy moor asap

[vaguely-concerned]

the relationship between the chantry and the mortalitasi in nevarra is SO fucking funny. the carefully politic and civil syncretism of it all. the ‘I’ll refrain from scratching your back to bloody shreds if you refrain from scratching mine :)’. left hand politely averting its eyes from whatever the fuck the right hand is doing merrily up to its elbow in entrails because it usually knows what it’s doing I guess. speak softly, and have an army of the restless dead ready to go banapants horrorshow bonkers if you don’t get to tend to them. We Receive: being able to keep doing our goth thing mostly unimpeded. You receive: us not raising the great majority to protest your unwelcome meddling. render unto the chantry what is the chantry's and unto the watchers what is theirs (or, with all possible courtesy you understand, else…)

[idontmindifuforgetme]

embracing my morning gym girlie routine i think. gonna study for like 3 more hours then hit the gym in the cutest workout fit. and then im rewarding myself w my favorite veggie wrap after <3

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

Oh gosh the roommates are unloading the dishwasher ... this is an answer to prayer

[reverseisekai-richie]

The Queen in White

The Lord in Black

More than rulers, they are the living Black and White itself, unable to ever fully rid themselves of the other.

Wanted to add some more Yog-Sothoth “knows the gate, is the gate, is the key and guardian of the gate” and Azathoth “our reality is his mindless dream” flavor to Wiggly and Webby in my headcanon in a few ways, and also an idea on why gods have a 5-v-1 stalemate. 

[random-autie-fangirl]

Chara: I'm wanting everything to end instantly

Asriel: And I'm wanting to go on unchanging forever

🔥🔥🔥THE BEEF WITH LINEAR TIME SIBLINGS🔥🔥🔥

[honeypleasejustkillme]

i use dissociation more than anything i’ve ever learned in my 10yrs of therapy

[qoldenskies]

The idea of the boys still being the same under the curse but just misconstruing everything is so painful. You mentioned before that part of Leo was horrified at hitting him, how Raph cried when killing him. I’m just like, imagining how angry they always got whenever he cried or went nonverbal. Leo often describe the feeling of the curse as feeling like a kind of “getting even” situation. Imagining the agony of seeing his baby twin cry and beg, feeling that horrible twist in his gut, and thinking “This is what I’m getting even for. How dare you make me feel this way.” Leo knowing those feelings are caused by Donnie and the way that he’s acting, but that’s where his perception ends. Donnie is doing this to him. And under the curse, he forgot the only reason he felt so pained with every little sob is that he loved him. And eventually all Donnie does is cry, and all Leo wants to do is make him pay for that.

ive been thinking of this moment a lot already heehee

:') the fact that this is the first time leo hit him and this is the first thing he thinks. the way that he quickly recontextualizes the HORROR he felt hitting him as anger because this didn't magically get rid of his empathy. i dont think leo is a super high empathy person but he cares so much about donnie that the sight of him in pain or distress still feels like a skewer through his heart. its not unlike the moment where raph stops himself from hurting him after breaking shelldon tbh

it makes "its like i cant even recognize you anymore" even more of a gut punch because its kind of meant to communicate that like,,, there is a moment where leo's actual care for him shines through and he thinks that he wouldn't have actually hurt the donnie he thought he lost. up to this point he's been rationalizing things by telling himself that donnie's always being shitty and he just put up with him, but this is a moment where the "truth" he's been avoiding really surfaces. but donnie is different now, he's a complete shell of himself, so it creates a feedback loop where leo can continue to convince himself that he's still deserving of retribution.

calling it a "victim complex",, treating it like he's guilt tripping to get himself out of trouble. saying he's spinning stories, using his fearful shouting to act like he's hysterical. its all just the ways they rationalize it to themselves because they still do hurt to see him upset. its funny that their logic requires him to be both uncontrollable and intentional, but such is the nature of irrational hatred.

i also think about leo's shitty aborted "apology" through text after he screams at him, acknowledging that it's a boundary he's crossed and saying he's not feeling like himself ,,,, leo was so casual about it and donnie was too upset to notice but. he knew for a moment there. man :')

[5ummit]

BEFORE & AFTER GIF CHALLENGE (tagged by @ex0rin)

I've been meaning to do one of these sets for a while now. I love before & after comparisons in general but I also think it's good for non-giffers to get a peak behind the scenes at some of the Horrors that gif makers have to deal with (yes, that really is the original on the right) and the work that goes into this under-appreciated craft.

I've seen at least 4 of my gifs reposted without credit in just the last week. The sad fact is the vast majority do not understand that giffing requires a lot of time, effort, and skill – developed and honed over years like any other art form – and, as such, often feel entitled to our work. People seem to think we just take a video clip (at most slapping a premade filter over it), export it as a gif, and call it a day. I challenge anyone to try that and see how well it goes. In reality, each of these gifs required at least 7 individually customized adjustment layers to achieve various types of light and color correction to get the look I wanted while also retaining as much quality as possible when exported with the meager 256 colors allowed for gifs (for reference, a typical monitor can display more than 16 million colors). Not to mention the other processes involved from downloading to frame selection to sharpening.

I taught myself this witchcraft so that we can all enjoy pretty moving pictures of our favorite scenes on our blogs. All I ask is that you please give me and the other incredible giffers out there the same respect as any other artist and at least credit us when reposting and using our work.

[dreamlogic]

remembering at my last job how my supervisor overheard me telling a coworker "yeah, i try to be on time to things, but i think as a person i just chronically run 2-7 minutes late, so knowing that's a weakness of mine i try to do my best wherever i am to make up for that."

and immediately narced on me to our "if you're not 10 minutes early you're late" sociopathic tyrant of a branch manager, but only the first part. so he pulls me into his office to give me a smug condescending lecture about how "if that's the way you think, you're never gonna succeed in life because there's no industry on the face of this earth where that attitude is acceptable"

fast forward to my current job, where my scheduling & pay system is basically "you will get paid X number of hours to complete this task, regardless of how long that task takes you" and as long as the task gets done within the allotted number of hours? literally nobody gives a fuuuuuck about anything. i try not to, but i regularly roll up 5-10 minutes late and nobody's said anything to me about it in the 7 months i've been here. if i know i'm gonna be more than 10 minutes late i'll text my supervisor a heads up, and the response is always "but you're still coming in, yeah? no worries see you whenever"

[lunarharp]

revamped looong mermaid orufrey au :')