#wip as hell hopefully ill remember to update it when needed .

[unholysanctuary]

hiii im empyrean! (she/it/hy femme lesbian) this is my guild wars 2 sideblog :)

i originally played the game in 2013-ish when i was a little baby and picked it up again in 2021 (on a new account sadly </3)! i havent been playing consistently over the last 2 years but im fixated on it again atm so i figured itd be nice to have a little place dedicated to it :)

ive played through the basegame story and lw1 and ive started hot (although i wont be continuing until i can play lw2), however im aware of a few major spoilers already so im safe in that regard. spoilers will be tagged as lw1 spoilers, hot spoilers, etc.

OCs:

melantha greaves (she/it lesbian): melly is my commander! (human necromancer/harbinger: street rat/unknown parents/melandru) im still ironing out her backstory but she has a strong dislike of authority and only accepted her role as commander to ensure the safety of those she holds dear. she learned early in her life that the best way to protect yourself is to appear bigger than you are so she tends to default to intimidation to get her way (ferocity win!) through her love of melandru shes come to accept the link between life and death and always makes sure to appreciate the little things in her day-to-day. she has a deep love for nature and animals as well :) stick her in a big field and she'll calm right down <3

thje insane part is that i ship her with scarlet and ive been concocting a scarlet lives au (except its my canon) to make this happen..smiles. its still a pretty big wip considering ive barely started hot but i love her too much to simply let her go. my city now (idk if scarlet discourse is a thing but if it is i dont care im sorry.....i am sympathetic towards what she went through and dont believe she deserved to die. im also just here to have a good time and i like her soooooooo much. i am realistic abt how scarlet surviving would go though). their ship name is scarlantha and i might tag things as them sometimes idk. hi

wip :)i have more guys but ive been focusing on melantha so they dont have much info rn </3 also not oc related but i love rox and marjory a lot as well im just insane abt scarlet thank you

[angelinarecs]

*Updated* The Librarian Recs

Don’t mind me casually logging back into tumblr to rec more fanfic after being out for a while. 

Enjoy some updated fic recs for The Librarians (which I recently got my spouse addicted to). Still mad that this show gave me so many emotions. If you want to follow the full rec list, here’s the link. 

Gen

Anytime - Episode tag to “And the Fangs of Death”. What was Ezekiel feeling and thinking at the end? Hurt/Comfort/Family. Ezekiel’s thoughts while facing the prospect of losing himself completely and the surety that his friends will do what they have to do for him. One-shot.

Bite the Bullet - When Ezekiel’s shot during a mission, will his family be able to save him in time? Ezekiel whump. Hurt/Comfort/Angst. What is says on the tin, pure Ezekiel whump and his team worrying after their resident master thief. It’s short and the composition isn’t the best, but the writing is alright. Three-shot, complete.

Escapades - Jenkins is careful when he drops the Australian onto the bed, moving to haul the blankets back and over the weary figure thats curling around one of the fluffier pillows. “Now, sleep, and hopefully tomorrow you’ll be well enough to explain to me what he hell you were doing getting shot at.” He snips.

“Fine…but we n’ver tell Baird bout this, eh?” Ezekiel mutters, eyes slipping closed as exhaustion crashes over him. Hurt/Comfort/Friendship. Ezekiel manages to get himself shot and poisoned. Jenkins is there to pick up the pieces. Lots of snark, a little bit of swearing, and tons of angst to go around. One-shot.

Ezekiel Jones and the Silver Coin - When a wealthy woman is murdered by a thief who broke into her home to steal her most prized possession, the Librarians are sent to Dublin, Ireland to investigate, despite the appearance of it being a normal theft and murder. After their first run in with the monster, everything changes for the Librarians’ own thief as he begins to second guess his decision to become a Librarian. Fantasy/Hurt/Comfort. A series centering around the search for an artifact and Ezekiel’s own personal battles as he meets up with unexpected and unwelcome people from his past. I always enjoy stories that look to flesh out what the Librarians-in-training were like before the Library called them. Complete.

Flight Risk - Ezekiel never meant to do a lot of things: Get caught. Get caught by Flynn. Have Baird find his file, etc… He also never meant to let a sad looking gargoyle steal his heart. But you know, accidents happen. Fluff. Another Stumpy fix-it, because dammit guys, that gargoyle and Ezekiel deserved better! One-shot.

Home - A life-threatening incident in the library makes Cassandra and Jake realize just how much Ezekiel means to them and how much they mean to Ezekiel. In the after-math, Cassandra must learn to overcome her guilt and Jake must learn to appreciate those around him. Hurt/Comfort/Family. An accident injures Ezekiel and forces those around them to consider how much the thief has changed and how much he has changed them. A fairly standard use of hurt/comfort to force emotional introspection and touchy-feely confessions, but still a good read. One-shot.

In My Nature - A collection of stories fleshing out my ideas for the mysterious origins of Ezekiel Jones. Not based on any spoilers just my imagination. Drama/Angst. A series of stand-alone one-shots that each tell of a different origin for the resident thief. Some of these are very creative and I really appreciate the diversity of examples and the move away from the tropic “tragic past” that so many of these characters invariably end up with. WIP, a series of one-shots with no unresolved story arcs.

The Boy and his Gargoyle - Jacob notices how Ezekiel feels about Stumpy’s demise and recruits Cassandra to do something about it. Because someone needed to write this. Family/Fantasy. Poor Stumpy was honestly a really cute edition to the show and I really enjoyed seeing Ezekiel care about a magical item so much. The story is definitely s Stumpy fix-it that serves to showcase the friendship of Ezekiel, Cassandra, and Stone. One-shot.

The Feeling is Mutual - Ezekiel shut his eyes as the pressure and pain in his head began to ebb away. Ezekiel had to admit, he was a little disappointed. When his mind had first hatched the haphazard idea, a large part of him had been hoping he’d lose those memories. But, he supposed, nothing ever worked out like that. Just his luck. Hurt/Comfort/Family. In the process of defeating a magical creature, Ezekiel reveals to his team that he still remembers the events of the video game loop. In turn, his team helps him deal with his memories. One-shot.

Ezekiel, Stone Friendship

And the Returned Favor - Ezekiel sneezed. This, in and of itself, probably wouldn’t have been very dramatic. At least, not for normal people. Ezekiel Jones was not normal people. He did nothing by half measures; if he couldn’t do something right, then he wasn’t going to make a point to do it at all.  Hurt/Comfort/Drama. Ezekiel gets sick, and then nearly kills himself fighting off an intruder in the library. Or, the time everyone finally realized that the resident thief was a self-sacrificing bitch. A good story with a really weird paragraph structure. Seriously, it seems the majority of this story is one sentence paragraphs. One-shot.

Hero Material - “What do you mean the amulet could kill me!” Ezekiel is not having a good day. Hurt/Comfort. Ezekiel nearly sacrifices himself trying to save his friends and he is not happy about it the entire way through. Poor Stone has to try and couch him through the ordeal without losing his friend. One-shot.

Of Oubliettes and Other Obstacles - Broken bones, a concussion, and a hole in the ground. Yeah, no, this assignment was completely awful. Or: Jake and Ezekiel tumble into an oubliette and have to keep each other alive until help comes. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? Lots of whump and hurt/comfort abound! Hurt/Comfort. Pretty much what is says on the tin, Jake tries his best to keep everyone alive and the situation as under control as he can manage. Purely hurt/comfort and friendship for a rainy day. One-shot.

Remind You of Someone You’ve Never Met - Ezekiel’s been doing well, all things considered, with the aftermath of the time-loop. Honestly, a bad day was bound to happen. Just his luck it was in the middle of a case. Drama. Ezekiel has a flash back and Jake coaches him through it. This story highlights Ezekiel confronting his memories and making small-steps towards acknowledging that they are issues and that he isn’t alone. I really appreciated that this story didn’t set out to fix everything and simply dealt with that first foot forward. Two-shot.

Running Hot - Jake and Ezekiel get a new understanding of one another. Of course, it’s brought on by intense fevers and a shower. Not a pairing but if you squint I suppose.  Hurt/Comfort/Friendship. An illness helps to expose Ezekiel’s backstory and his vulnerability causes Stone to reconsider some of his opinions regarding the other librarian. Not a bad use of hurt/comfort, even if it is a fairly standard use. One-shot.

Jake/Ezekiel

And the Behavioral Side Effects of Lycanthropy - After being cured of temporary lycanthropy, Ezekiel has some lasting behavioral side effects. The compulsion to chase balls, the compulsion to chase cars, being on edge for no reason. Oh, and not being able to sleep alone anymore. But Jake’s got a fix for that. In a friend way. Just a bro helping a bro. Fluff. This is solidly pre-slash, but the boys are adorable, confused, and just trying to figure out cuddling in the aftermath of Ezekiel’s near transformation. I appreciate the little touches of Ezekiel having to remind himself he’s human and not a wolf. And Jake’s ‘no-homo’ attitude even though it is very much homo is hilarious. One-shot.

While the Bars of Sunset Hold - Sure, he might still be able to be Ezekiel Jones: World Class Thief, but what if he was no longer good enough to be Ezekiel Jones: Librarian? Hurt/Comfort. Ezekiel is tortured and is left wondering whether or not he can continue to be a Librarian in his current state. Jake clears up any confusion and shares a heartfelt moment with the “World Class Thief.“ One-shot.

Jake/Ezekiel/Cassandra

And the Proximity Addiction - When they start dating, Ezekiel isn’t a fan of touching. That changes, and boy, when it does, it changes. Romance. A fluffy one-shot concerning Ezekiel’s proclivity for cuddling and how his partners view it. Told through a conversation between Eve and Cassandra over milkshakes. One-shot.

Charged - With the tilt of a head the evening star, Venus, came into view. She looked down at the three tangled hearts on earth with her bright shine and pride. Or: Sunsets and Subtext. Romance. A slice of life short story about the relationship between Jake, Ezekiel, and Cassandra as seen through an evening of joy. One-shot.

Getting Warmer - Ezekiel Jones doesn’t lose to the cold. But Jake and Cassandra might just lose him to it. Hurt/Comfort/Angst. During a mission, Ezekiel nearly dies from hypothermia. Jake and Cassandra are forced to think over his stupidly self-sacrificing ways and what they would do without their friend. Eve just wonders when they will all stop being so blind and just get together already. One-shot.

The Best Kind of Medicine - Ezekiel has a cold and the other Librarians come to the rescue. Fluff. Seriously just reccing this story for these lovable tree idiots and the their sleepovers/snuggles. One-shot.

Tread Lightly - “Everyone wants a taste,” He tells them, laughing it off as if he couldn’t care either way. “But nobody really wants the bill.” Romance/Angst. Jake and Cassandra want to bring Ezekiel into the fold of their relationship, Ezekiel is unsure how to move forward. A tender and in character story of how Ezekiel is brought into Jake and Cassandra’s romance. One-shot.

We’ll Catch You While We Can - Each of them have different relationships with personal space. Fitting them all together is a little weird, a little rocky. But they figure it out, in the end. Fluff/Angst/Hurt/Comfort. A look into the librarians’ past, emotions, and developing relationship through the lens of physical touch. This was honestly a very clever framing device that allows for the reader to engage with both the characters and the unfolding relationship on a similar theme. It’s cute and heartwarming and angsty in all the right places. Three-shot, complete.

[sssoto]

Creator’s update #1

Hey guys! So I’ve decided to start actually blogging on this blog and tell a bit about the various things I’m working on, share WIPs, music I’ve been digging recently etc. I realise that I rarely post anything, so it seems like I’m super inactive - which is totally not true, I just have so much stuff going on and take a long time to finish things, and I’m also pretty picky about what I put up online lol! For the sake of keeping those of you interested in the loop, I’m gonna start this series of creator’s updates in which I’ll update y’all on the progress I’ve made on my various creative projects. The goal is to give an update a few times a month (hopefully lol)!

This past while I’ve been super inactive in the writing department, but very much productive in the art department, so my writing update will be mostly a summary of what I’ve been doing the past few years up until this point.

Mood: Feelin’ real good cuz my parents finally brought my comfy double bed over from my mum’s place this past weekend, which means no more sleeping on the couch yaaaaaas.

Music I’ve been digging recently:

Skye Sweetnam - Boyhunter So, the other day I randomly listened to this song on my way home from work, and I totally realised that Skye Sweetnam is the perfect voice for my character Caitlyn, and this song totally embodies what Caitlyn is all about lmaoooo. (The song isn’t very accurate to the time period Caitlyn lives in, but it’s super accurate to her character essence and personality, and I just find that so lit hahahah) 

Fallulah - Out of It This song is basically my MC’s theme song?? It’s performed by a Danish artist and was super popular in Denmark a few years back as it was the theme tune to a Danish tv show (a show I loved!). The lyrics are just so Daniel, it’s not even funny. It mostly fits his mental state at the beginning of Renaissance.

Girl’s Day - Love Again Ugh I just love the tune of this song so much, I can’t really place my finger on it, the emotion is just so great. I love the guitar riff especially, and Girl’s Day is a four member girl group, so it’s one of those songs where I can imagine my main girls Annaliese, Caitlyn, Mary and Serena singing as each member lmao.

Nine Muses - Remember Another four member group now, this song is also one where I can imagine my main girls singing each member’s part lmao, and having that aspect to a song always makes it a little better for me! Forreal tho, this new release from Nine Muses slays, and we all know it. The music video haunts me.

Sistar - Lonely This song makes me sad and happy all at once, cuz I’m not ready to say goodbye to Sistar, but at the same time this ending is probably the best one any fan could’ve wished for because there was no drama or anger, just well wishes and hope for the future. I know these girls will go far, and this song just pulls at all my heart strings man. The melody of the bridge and chorus, Dasom and Soyu’s parts in particular, really works for me. And yeah, Sistar has four members too, and once again I can picture my main girls singing as each member lmao. It’s a thing I have, okay?

Moana OST - We Know The Way + Know Who You Are I recently watched this movie, and while I sorta felt like the plot was a bit rushed and tropey in many ways, I totally adored the visuals and the MUSIC OMG. These two songs are my favourite, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s vocals never miss, and Auli’i Cravalho’s high note is gorgeous! Also dat choir in the background tho, and in context with the movie scene that song just makes me irrationally emotional mkay. (That ending was the best twist ever, it definitely lifted the story up a notch for me!)

Writing

So I’m writing a book! You might have seen me mention it a few times already on here, but I’ve not really shared much insight into my process or what sort of book this actually is (other than talking about characters here and there), and as I’ve not been making huge progress lately (I’m in an art state of mind duuuh), I thought that I’d keep this section short and sweet, with a bit of an introduction into what my book project is all about.

I call it a book project because I don’t feel comfortable just calling it a book when I don’t have rights to publish. Technically my book is a fanfiction based on the horror video game Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and as such I don’t own copyright of the small percentage of my story that features the canon elements. However, I take this as seriously as anyone else would writing their own book, because I’ve poured my entire heart and soul into it, and the vast majority of the content (plot, characters and world) is my original creation. It’s my own little big project lol!

You might be familiar with the game, and even if you aren’t, that’s not a prerequisite for reading my book since everything is introduced and set up just as in any regular book. The protagonist is an Englishman named Daniel, and we know little of his past through the game. I won’t go into too much detail on what the game is about (if you really wanna know, you can look it up), but the point of my book is to explore the protagonist’s life from his childhood up to the events of the game and beyond, and afterwards connect his story to the game sequels featuring other protagonists within the same universe. It’s a bit complex and elaborate, which is just the way I like it!

As the games are set at various points during the Victorian era (game #1 is set in Prussia 1839, game #2 is set in France 1858, and game #3 is set in England 1899), you can probably guess that the entire thing will be pretty long. That’s why I’m making it a series! I have at least seven books planned so far (though there’ll definitely be more, since I’m not near the end of the timeline I need to cover yet), and I currently have the first book written and am writing the sequel - however, the first book will need a complete rewrite once I’m finished with book #2, because I’ve since developed and changed a lot of stuff, and I have many new interesting ideas for a more fleshed out version of the first book. Still, the fanfic version is available online, so if you’d like to read it, you can find it here. You’ll get a pretty good idea of the general story and the characters, but keep in mind that it’s super outdated and will be very different after my rewrite!

For reference, this is the list of books that I’ve planned (and titled) so far, so you can keep up with what book of my series I’m talking about at any given point:

I - Amnesia: Memoirs

II - Amnesia: Renaissance

III - Amnesia: Voyage

IV - Amnesia: Noir

V - Amnesia: Encore

VI - Amnesia: Rogue

So what I’m doing right now with this project is revisions. Uuuuggghhhhh. Yes, that’s right, I’m stuck in revision hell. I’ve not even finished the first draft of Renaissance yet (I know, sacrilege, writing blasphemy, don’t start your damn edits until you’ve finished your draft dumbass), but I had some pretty major changes to make, changes so big that it would be a waste of time and effort to go on drafting without implementing them first. Mainly the changes are surrounding 1) a change of ages of my main cast (I aged many characters up a few years), and 2) changing and figuring out the specifics of the illness which my MC’s sister, Hazel, is afflicted with. She’s not such a major character in Renaissance, but she plays a big role in Memoirs, and since I had all these new ideas for the rewrite of that, I wanted to implement the ripple effects in the second book so it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle to edit later when Renaissance is a finished 3-400k first draft lmao (I have a lot of words okay?). These changes mostly affect the early chapters of my book - chapters I wrote about three years ago, which means that these early chapters really need a face-lift. In addition to the age and illness change, I wanna revise the first five chapters by cutting the fluff and tightening up the beginning so we get to the action a tiny bit faster. Adding to the fact that these early chapters are three years old, the prose also needs an almost complete rewrite. So long story short, all of the edits are taking a long ass time, and I’m not having a good time lmao. Doesn’t help that I had to stop drafting right at one of the juiciest scenes in my book?!?!? (that’s a lie, it gets juicier, but I was just getting to the real good stuff yanno?)

(Side note: for someone who said that I’d keep this short, it sure turned out long lmao. I just have too many damn words.)

Chapters edited: 2/16 (working on 3 right now and it’s an effin’ pain)

Current total word count: 120,591

Current total chapter count: 17 (the number will go down to 16 once I finish the revisions, as I’m merging two chapters)

Look at all the dumb shit I still have to edit for chapter 3. Look at it.

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Art

Man, I’ve been doing a lot of artwork recently, and by a lot, I don’t mean that I’ve finished any.

I think I’ve been focused on developing my actual drawing skills rather than making finished illustrations, because I’ve been so overwhelmed with inspiration and I’ve wanted to try out drawing a bunch of different motives, so my mind is on a lot of different art projects at once, and I’m making baby steps of progress on each of them because I just wanna do everything lmao. I should probably take a step back and settle on one thing at a time, but at the same time, I feel like this is working for me because I’m so inspired and motivated and super excited for every single art piece; I don’t feel myself losing interest in any of them, in fact I just feel like my switching between different artworks keeps every piece fresh and interesting for me, yanno?

So here’s one thing that I’ve been slowly chipping away at for the past few months. I’m drawing a full body group picture of my main cast from Renaissance!

I’ve drawn the anatomy sketches of all the male characters (though I’m debating whether I should add some others), and now I’m adding the female characters one by one, so these are not all of the characters yet. But man, I just love seeing the characters side by side? The variety in their body language, body types and heights is just so interesting to look at, and it’ll be even better once I get around to actually adding their facial features, expressions, hair, attire, and then colouring them as well omg! I’m a sucker for this kind of thing, blame it on @juliajm15 and her amazing diverse character designs.

It’s gonna be a huge picture with a lot of characters, and I’m stoked for it!! This is a piece which I hope I’ll be able to show ya’ll the progress of bit by bit in every few updates. (also, if you feel somewhat familiar with some of my characters, you’re welcome to make guesses at who’s who (; )

Another project I’m working on is making official character portraits of my main cast (and possibly minor characters as well). I just think it’s nice to have official portraits as reference for anyone who’d like to see what the characters look like, and also for myself for whenever I need to refresh the specific features and expression of each character. It’s just a nice thing that satiates my very Type A personality lmao!

So the characters above are Owen Wright (to the left) , Daniel’s puppy bff with the fluffy hair, and then from left to right I’m colouring the portraits of the Armstrong siblings: Caleb, Caitlyn and Tristan. Their dad is a duke! n.n Caleb is the oldest, Caitlyn the youngest, and Tristan is the bland middle child. He’s a little brat LOL but I still love him.

Also, due to this glorious reference I found, I finally figured out how to draw Daniel. Bless this model, I never knew I wanted Daniel to have big puffy lips, but apparently I do.

He looks actually nice now? Which is nice? I’m amazed. Also his hair? I can never draw his hair, but this looks nice so yay? Also, I dunno why I never draw clothes on him, I guess I’m just lazy lol, but he’s gonna need to wear clothes for the official character portrait soooo... That’s a thing I’m gonna have to do.

Now that I’ve figured out his features, it’s gonna be fun to remodel all his family members accordingly. I sense that he’ll have gotten those cute puffy lips from his mum meheheheh.

I also did some Disney fanart of my two favourite Disney ladies; Esmeralda and Kida <3

I actually never really draw fanart any more, it’s been yeeeaaaars since I did, and when I used to do it, I was always very particular about staying as true to the original art style as possible. But now that I’ve spent the past couple years focusing on developing my own art style, I actually decided not to care about that so much and just draw the characters the way I’m used to drawing my own, and lo and behold - it looks pretty accurate to the Disney style?? I assumed that the characters would end up looking very different, but other than the eyes being smaller I feel like they look the exact same lmao. It’s interesting to me, because even when I used to do fanart, I usually did so of Japanese art and manga, not of Disney or any other western art. Also, I don’t consider my own style very Disney, but it pleases me a lot that the characters look so much like themselves even in my art style! The most important thing to me is to capture the essence of the character anyway, so any fan can recognise the character they love so much n.n

So that’s about it for this round! I’ve been working on other things as well, but I’d rather not disclose them to the public just yet - perhaps later, when I’ve made more progress, or (gasp!) actually finished something!! Bahahah, with the many things I’m working on, hell will freeze over before that day comes. *cries*

Youtube

I’m adding this Youtube section because, in addition to writing and doing artwork, I also like to record vocal covers (mainly of kpop songs, but I’ll do anything I’m in the mood for at any given point), aaaaand as of today I'm gonna be uploading speedpaints as well! Which is probably good since I don’t upload my covers nearly as often as I finish them lmao.

I’ve not uploaded any new covers recently (though I really should, I do have some covers lying around on my laptop mwerp), but I’m gonna list a couple of my favourite covers I have on my channel here so you can take a listen if you’d like!

And today I uploaded my very first speedpaint to my channel, so check that out if you’re interested in that sort of stuff! It’s the process of my Christmas portrait piece for Serena. I aim to be more consistent with uploads since I have a few unedited recordings lying around, so keep an eye out for that!

If you’ve read this far, thank you for sticking around and taking a look at my work, even if it’s only in WIP form. I wanted to start doing these updates because I’ve been watching my friends do them for a long time, and I always love reading their writing updates; they motivate me so much to get working on my own stuff, and I just wanna be able to perhaps do something similar for anyone else who’s watching me out there. So thank you sincerely to @coffeeandcalligraphy, @sarahkelsiwrites and @shaelinwrites for sharing your process with the world and being such an inspiration to me and many others, I love seeing you all make progress on your own projects <3

So that was all for this round, I hope you guys enjoyed a little sneak peek into what I’ve been working on! Until next time, folks!