#what in the romance novel cover is this

[ilovef123]

THEY JUST CANT HELP THEMSELVES

[undead-knick-knack]

With his slutty open shirt and steed, Dorian would be right at home on the cover of a romance novel 😂

[ash-and-starlight]

things i’m going crazay about today: the illustrations in the he who drowned the world illumicrate cover

(artist is glassbearer on ig)

[completeoveranalysis]

[1]

*appreciative gay sounds*

Ooooooh!

See now this fucks. 

It’s a bit of a treat to get a cover like this that’s so BEAUTIFUL and DELICATE and actually include characters not directly involved in the plot anymore. It’s like BONUS ART: Fai and Kamui in a tender and deadly gothic vampire embrace for no particular reason :D 

And we LOVE to see it!

I love the fragile looking archway behind them. It looks very Art Nouveau (I say, guessing. Please correct me) and the pose between Fai and Kamui could EASILY be on a romance novel. And in fact it SHOULD be!

We get some stunning visual contrasts, like the dark sweep of Kamui’s cape looking demonic in nature, like bat wings - which, like, vampire - but the thin white arch behind him ALSO spreads out behind him like it could be wings. Or even better, it forms more of a halo - a complete circle above his head in thin white lines. The contrast in the angelic and the demonic really speak to his role in the narrative a couple of times over; he protected Acid Tokyo but purely out of self interest; he's a dick to everyone, which is frowned upon, but he does it to protect Subaru, which is understandable; he killed Syaoran but he saved Fai; even the act of saving Fai was technically a bad thing, turning him into a vampire, but it was the only way he would stay alive, which was what we wanted! 

That contrast continues into Fai’s pose here as well. He’s within the circle of Kamui’s arms, which is traditionally a place of affection or protection, but here it’s almost predatory with Fai as the prey. There's a clear indication of danger laced throughout every inch of it. Kamui’s nails stretch out in front of Fai in a way that COULD be protective, but also form a cage he will never be able to escape from, and the nail of his index finger trails SO CLOSE to Fai’s throat it could kill him with a slight twitch. The nails of his left hand also trail across the wing of his coat, becoming the traditional veins that you would see in bat wings and completing the metaphor of the monstrous. Fai, too, plays with this dichotomy - his head is tilted upwards towards Kamui, neck exposed, in a pose natural for a lover, or for someone giving access to their neck, like the vampire’s victim he is. The clear shadow across his neck (The ONLY shadow in the cover) shows just how close he is to harm, indicates the exact danger this pose puts him in, and yet we can also see him clutching at Kamui’s arm - not hard but gently, coaxing, guiding. Then again the closer I look I think the line of Kamui’s arm is actually a little bit further to the left, which might indicate that Fai is actually holding his waist, which is even more intimate again. 

All in all it’s FANTASTIC, it’s GORGEOUS, I want this as a gothic creepy tapestry I hang in a castle somewhere while lightning strikes somewhere in the distance.

Oh and the splash text, where is that.

The flowing blood whispered

even if you'll defy your own destiny

protect that person --

Which slams home the theme on BOTH of these two - how much of their own intended fate they sacrifice for the people they choose to devote themselves to. But, when combined with the art, just how much this devotion and protection can actually add it's own inherent form of danger, even if they aren't aware. Kamui's protectiveness of Subaru is HARDLY balanced after all, and Fai's devotion to Sakura leads his curse to killing her. Then again, you could easily say the same thing for Sakura, who chose to put herself INTO that danger DELIBERATELY to save the people she cared for.

And so the complicated feelings and consequences that come from "protecting" someone continue to swirl around in the moral grey.

[ghostinthegallery]

Me (then, foolish, unenlightened): I don't understand shipping two characters who have never met in canon, I mean what is there to even go off of?

Me (now, wiser, cursed with knowledge): I need Anrakyr the Traveler and Thaszar the Invincible to make out right this second or I will explode

[mermaidsirennikita]

Naked man stepback/cover of the day is appropriately autumnal in Johanna Lindsey’s Until Forever, with a Viking warrior hurtled forward in time and sworn to satisfy the (professor) heroine’s every desire because back in the 90s we understood what mattered in fiction

[via-val]

i want,,, magnus and alex bookstore dates!!! them just browsing the shelves, criticizing books that are clearly biased, alex reading excerpts of random books out loud to magnus and doing the voices, magnus showing some of his favourite comic issues to alex and (attempting) to do the voices. of course they have to make it competitive at some point so there's also a hidden quest: alex has to find a new comic for magnus to read and magnus has to find a book for alex that she'll like. it turns caothic very fast. sometimes magnus ends up with comics about fart jokes sometimes he gets really good ones. alex almost always ends up with some random novel because magnus is too afraid of giving her something in the romance section and fantasy as a genre is banned on the basis that "we deal with all that on the daily, provide me some good escapism, chase". they go for falafels and coffee after<3

[tongue---tied]

so @a-literal-toaster-wtf is having incredible ideas with a Rimster ghost AU and I just- if I could eat it I could. Unfortunately I can’t so all i can do is fanart

(Click for better quality, and alt image desc) The lyrics at the top are from The Chain - Fleetwood Mac, idk I just thought they fit lol. textless version under the cut!

[triviareads]

The way I hit request so fast (here's the link)

[ffxivaltaholic]

Roses

[tortellinigirl]

i miss when this website was about explicit gay sex fanart. what is even the point anymore.

[starlightpixels]

I wish I were a good pose maker. I'd be making the most niche bullshit you can imagine

[ndostairlyrium]

I think da2 is how it is partially because of Varric's narration, but the visuals are provided by Cassandra's imagination, so let's start to share the blame for Hawke's oiled biceps and Bethany's boobs shall we

[cospinol]

got my nanowrimo project set up at the last possible second, finally!! as always, if you're also writing this year let's be friends ♡

[bragganhyl]

there are a bunch of things I want to draw but I can't decided what

[mermaidsirennikita]

one of my favorite first date questions is "do your tattoos have meaning?" to which I must say "well, this one sorta does because I like X, but to be real Chris this giant-ass 3/4 sleeve depicting a Greek goddess in an art nouveau style was something I randomly decided to embark on over a two-year period and my only input was 'draw me what you like'"