#very constructive use of my time

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Asunder

slow-paced high fantasy

a woman who has a contract with an eldritch entity allowing her to see the dead & survives by taking various jobs

when a job searching for stranded smugglers in a cave goes wrong, she ends up with the soul of a dying stranger bound to her shadow

along with a scholar and her old childhood friend, they travel to his home country to find a way to unbind him and save them both

dark fantasy world with gods, demonic entities, arcane magic, and semi-sentient beasts used as transport

[ganondoodle]

so with echoes of wisdom .. i havent watched any of the trailers beyond the very first one and the thumbnails/screenshots and what others have said about it-

but with the world inside the rift being called "Welt des Nichts" aka "world of nothing/void" in german ('still' in english, for some reason) and demises title in french being "avatar of nothing" ... yeah my anxiety is shooting through the roof again

(hopefully you can be a little more forgiving for me being anxious/weird about it bc demise is my blorbo)

i had similar worries with totk, that werent proven true thankfully, but the darn book is making it all worse again with all those weird lore things the game doesnt even so much as hint at AND potential retcons- im in for a really rough time huh, not just stress in real life (more in tags.. its alot) but now about my specific hyperfixation from two things even (AND artblock still..)

weird as it may sound, i dont want demise to get more lore, partly bc i dont believe theyd do anything with him that i would like (given their track record) but much more importantly- the fact that he has this little lore about him is precisely one of the reasons why i fell in love with him, i tend to like characters that are neglected by the narrative, and his story being both so flat and already done meant i can be very creative with what i come up with for him without necessarily contradicting anything in canon (which is ... or was a big point of how i wrote destiny's story and lore, working with canon in a way that reframes it all without straight up ignoring it ... but i suppose i urgently need to let go of that and accept i spend alot of time working things that will go to waste :( ) AND not having to worry that there will be more stuff with him that would massively change not only what im writing but also potentially how i feel about him since the game he was briefly in was the oldest chronologically and ended with his death- i didnt expect them to mess with anything that far back and thought theyd just go forward and leave the timeline behind and wouldnt mess with it again, given how botw seemed to be a sort of 'fresh start' that seemingly regarded the past as the past that needs to rest and that the timeline was finally no longer a discussion if everythings unified through botw and one thing going forward

but i suppose i was very wrong with that .__.

right now the only thing that motivates me still is the left over determination and spite to work on my zelda comic, since i have never gotten this far and really want to get something done for once, but i cant lie that im feeling like i should pause all work on it too to wait and see waht the book and the new game will do .. either to determine if i still have the will to keep working on it after those things are out (my love for tloz has been taking alot of hits lately ..) or if i have to change stuff (mostly bc of my lore problem trying to not ignore it ..)

[kiadanta]

Kia is staying with my partner while I'm abroad on holiday and she's not best pleased, poor baby. She's safe, she's well cared for, she's with someone she knows and likes, and she's getting attention, she's just,,, in a weird place without me, and not really impressed about it.

She's starting to chill out and settle in though! Slowly.

Ft @rinnaden

[faaun]

procrastination is starting to have its consequences finally

[druidshollow]

"what would your character be like without their trauma?" is such a hard question for me because it makes me feel like a massive asshole LMAO

(im attaching a picture of a tundra literally to add context to my ramble in the tags because my posts are structured by a sane person) (you should read the ramble in the tags i talk so much about rivers fsr)

[velvetvexations]

Here to support you. It’s understandable for you to be angry unfortunately. But you’ve got a handle on it I believe

someone I until a few minutes ago followed put a post on my dash and I went to OP's blog and they were like "I don't talk a lot about trans issues" and I was like "your post about it was really bad so maybe you should talk about it less" followed seconds later by instant regret and an apology for being too mean because telling trans people to not talk about transphobia is if nothing else a bad look

I've said this before but Fantasy High Junior Year was incredibly timed for me personally for being themed around rage (or at least attempting to be), because the discourse about it on Reddit prompted me to delete my account and come back to Tumblr where I've had to examine my anger issues a lot deeper than ever before

Kipperlilly Copperkettle may not be a kin but she turned out in a late-season twist to be more deeply relatable than I ever could have imagined and that was when my interest in her went from spiting the people that irrationally hated her to Queen of Velvet Blorbos

[rubythecrimsonwriter]

As someone who has lived in the south where the water trough is anywhere from mildly annoying to actively terrifying, who has lived on a fairly decently sized island where it is indeed absolutely terrifying to be cut off from the mainland suddenly with little to no help from the government for an extended period of time--

After No Man's Land and all the issues that arose then, I'd like to propose the new way of interring their dead would be mausoleums. Possibly especially with Gotham canonically existing on a system of caves. An island made of caves on the East Coast that gets battered by hurricanes almost every year is just asking to get sunk a la Atlantis but its fucking Gotham and i think the Gothamites would raise it from the sea floor again out of sheer spite.

But with mausoleums you:

Dont have your son crawling six feet through packed dirt after inexplicably coming back to life

Dont have long buried coffins and corpses getting flooded/shaken/otherwise disturbed and shunted into the water system/streets/underground reservoirs (or Lazarus Pits, since there's one of those down there too, as if Gotham didn't have enough things wrong with it)

Continues the Gotham aesthetic

Have more places for various characters to have a private mental breakdown in

Have more places for various characters to find ominous warnings etched or graffiti'd on the walls

Have more places for things much older than the mausoleums have been En Vogue™ for to inexplicably appear and send shivers down the spine

The Gothamites are very firm about not really being part of the US. The US kind of looks at the South like we're really fucking strange, and the South looks at New Orleans like they've taken the South and concentrated it, carbonated it, and shook it really hard.

I want the same vibes for Gotham. This is their home. They are weird and stubborn to a fault and everything is on fire and the government is corrupt and the people aren't always good but nobody else understands. No one else ever could. Who else has seen the lights for rescue appear on the horizon only to see the light of death on the waters, ensuring no help would ever come? They are resourceful and violent and resentful but the gods won't help you if you cross one of their own.

[mymp3]

because twt is broken i thought i could share off my doodle compilation to the world. silly doodles new and old that i made into my new header :)

+ bonus doodles

[shiryawashere]

[[PETTY INCONSEQUENTIAL COMPLAINT GO]]

One thing that never fails to grind my gears re: other people (or let's be honest, cis men) in mmo games is that I will be out here playing the most feral big-fanged beefy cat mommy and everyone I interact with will still refer to me as he/him by default

listen I get that y'all like to play lizardgirls in swimsuits and more power to you I don't judge but is it really that outlandish to expect that if I don't know, the character's sex is likely to match the player's (or even if it didn't, my character is a woman!! and you're talking to her!! if I hear one more 'my good sir' I will riot*)? How about y'all get a lot more comfortable with the concept of being misgendered in a videogame and maybe you'll realize other people exist smh

*note that if I point out I'm a woman it's always accepted no problem I just wish I didn't have to choose between asserting my gender or tolerating being misgendered in every other interaction

[bitegore]

baru cormorant seems to me to be a series that suffers miserably for me having read machineries of empire first. unfortunately everything BC is doing strikes me as something MoE did better and more believably and with much a greater and more grounded eye for how systems, complex system interaction, and oppression like. work

[softquietsteadylove]

We know that Gil once said to Thena: "If you love something, you protect it. It's the most natural thing in the world". Can we have a scenario when Thena says it back to Gil? Tysm!! P.S. you are a delight and a very talented writer, I love all of your fics!

"Feels like the good old days."

Thena chose to ignore him as he joined her on the roof atop their little home for two. The more he said that the more she felt like snapping at him that there was no such thing as good old days anymore.

But he would not deserve that.

Gilgamesh sat himself next to her, legs over the edge, leaning back on his palms despite the heat the roof absorbed from the relentless sun. He looked up at the sky, showing symptoms of dusk.

"You're not sleeping."

She was, she could argue. She slept briefly when he went out to forage for food, or find a human outpost with trade. She slept when he was not around to fall victim to her. "I am."

"Thena."

"If you are not here to witness it, then-"

"Thena," Gilgamesh persisted, turning to look at her. She maintained her resistance to looking at him. "Hey."

She finally did, taking him in under the soft light of evening. Australia had very brief evenings after very long days. It made the slim sliver of soft light feel elusive and precious.

"You're safe here," Gil whispered - pleaded - as he raised his hand to her cheek. He brushed his thumb over the bone of her cheek. "You know that, right?"

Thena resisted the urge to lean into his touch with everything she could muster.

"I need you to know that."

Gilgamesh had worked tirelessly since they arrived on the continent. From walking them all the way out here, hand in hand, to preparing this plot of land to laying the foundation for their house, he did everything.

Houses weren't built overnight. They had been out here for some time now. How much exactly, she couldn't know. Sometimes days passed in a blur, sometimes she passed out for days at a time.

"Do you know that, Thena?" Gil whispered to her, pulling her hand up to cradle his cheek in the same way. He leaned into it freely, leading her by example. He looked at her with those soft, brown eyes of his. "You know that you're safe with me, right?"

He was so concerned about her feeling safe with him, without so much as a thought to how unsafe he was with her.

Thena lifted her eyes to his. "When you love something, you protect it."

They were the clearest words she had spoken in days.

Gil's face contorted, both melting with affection and pained as he did so. He moved closer to her, letting out a sigh. "Protecting me, huh?"

He always understood what she was saying, no matter how few words she had to spare. She could no longer protect him in the way they once had done for each other. This was her coming to grips with however she could protect him now. And that included - and in many ways was limited to - only resting when he wasn't around to suffer any potential consequences.

Gilgamesh leaned in, pressing his forehead to hers, their breath mingling in the dry air. "You don't have to protect me from you."

"Gilgamesh."

"I don't want that."

"Gil."

"Thena," he pulled back to look at her, the same resolve in his eyes as when he declared to their family that he would go with her, safeguard her, for however long they had, wherever that may lead.

She shook her head at him--stubborn man.

Gil's eyes slipped closed as she kissed him. This still felt the same. He remained the same, no matter how many times her world shattered around her.

He held her cheeks as they parted, just far enough. He smiled faintly, "I'm lucky."

She was the lucky one; she pinched him.

He chuckled, "I mean it. I have the Goddess of War protecting me."

As he always would. If she were to find the day on which she drew her last breath, it would be in his defense.

"But y'know," he continued, in such an elated mood now from such a small thing as a kiss. "I'm sure I can protect myself sometimes. Say, if you need some sleep every once in a while."

Thena rolled her eyes.

Gil pulled them back, swinging his legs up and pulling her with him so they could lie down properly on the roof of their house--their home. He looked up at the stars with her tucked into his side. "You can rest, Thena. I promise nothing will happen."

He couldn't promise that.

"I promise I'll be here."

She tightened her fist around a handful of his shirt. Of all things in the immutable universe, this one thing had held true for her. And she lived in fear of the day when it wouldn't be.

"I'm here," he whispered, pressing his heavier hand over hers on his chest, flattening her lithe fingers out over his heart. "I'm right here."

He was right here with her. His heartbeat matched hers and his form was made for holding hers. Thena pressed her nose to his shirt, her eyes fluttering.

"I'll be right here," he whispered to her, pulling her into sleep with a low, rough whisper.

"Bed."

Gil chuckled again, tightening his arm around her waist, "oh, now you want the bed?--the bed I so painstakingly built and assembled and make every-"

"Gil."

"Bed it is," he promised her, standing with her secure in his arms. This was the first time she had asked to be taken to bed since leaving, and he was ready.

[sysig]

Did you expect Rescuing Rusty in 2023??? (RR is @zeejax‘s ♥) (Patreon)

Trick question! Even I wasn’t expecting Rescuing Rusty, but since it was up next on my fics to vet for construction, I had to give it a reread!

Didn’t it turn out lovely 💕 There’s not a lot of sky-related imagery in RR, but I couldn’t not go with this colour - it’s an even richer rust colour IRL :D

The spine ended up being big enough that I was able to sneak in two bookmarks! One for Zoom (the black) and one for Rusty (the red)

Even though they sit separately, Rusty’s still crosses over Zoom’s hehe ♥

[legionofpotatoes]

I played Season over the weekend, which if I had to condense "thematic meandering" into a videogame is probably what I would most closely end up with; but it was still a cozy chill time that targeted my very specific niche of robust cow petting mechanics. Followed by journaling the heck out of them.

I do think cute indies living and dying by their sincere desire to paint the human condition should never ever ever fall into the temptation of obtuse and nebulous worldbuilding that desperately needs to explain itself so it can function as an aesthetic blanket for their vignettes. Just keep it loose and metaphor-heavy, fellas.

Cause if you're not extremely, painfully specific about your intention with a story that centers ignorant tourism and historic preservation, you're gonna beef it, bud

[silvreflames]

young nesta who was groomed to use her beauty as a weapon vs nesta now who has never felt more ugly and undesirable in her life since she has failed the one thing she was raised to do

[goldenageofwireless]

i have to use copilot and midjourney for my homework this week. i feel like im betraying my values bro

[hauntedwoman]

anyways if i ever get killed in a mass shooting throw my dead body onto the steps of the capitol and let it rot there