#with plants of literally every color and shape

[rubys-domain]

man i wanna be a teapot main

[icewindandboringhorror]

Misc daily life images

[ot3]

HOT OR NOT? POKEMON

There are a lot of pokemon out there. Some of them are good. Some of them are bad.

the world of pokemon is a beautiful one filled with many "types" of pokemon. some pokemon are steel. some pokemon are bugs. some of them are even normal. lately i have found myself thinking, which pokemon is the most steel? which pokemon is the most bugs? which pokemon is normal? and today i am proud to say i have answered these questions and more.

It can be hard to decide, since there are so many of them, but luckily I'm here to make that decision for you. i have definitively chosen the most representative (most) least representative (least) personal favorite (best) and least favorite (worst) design of every pokemon type. and i will now explain it to you in detail

now keep in mind we are ONLY talking about design here. lore is not coming into play whatsoever. if you want to explain to me why xyz pokemon is actually the most/least/best whatevertype pokemon because it's based on this or that: i don't care. that's not why we're here. we're judging books by their covers today

Normal Type

Most - Herdier: This is just a regular ass dog, which may be considered one of the normalest things on the planet. It doesn't get much more normal than this, folks.

Least - Arceus: If i saw this thing it would be one of the least normal days of my life.

Best - Skitty: This is just a perfect design, there isn't anything bad you could possibly say about it and if you tried I'd hit you. Look at that face. ^_^

Worst - Castform (Normal): It looks like either a pair of balls or casper with a fat rack and in either case it's just kind of unappealing to look at.

Grass Type

Most - Shaymin (Land Forme): Although 'grass' a type represents all plant life, I am choosing to interpret it literally here. Shaymin is the grassiest of all grass pokemon, and although this is not part of the criteria, it is also very cute so lets all take a moment to appreciate that

Least - Kartana: this is an origami swordsman bug thing which to me isn't really Grass at all. I do love the design but it's not very grassy. yeah paper comes from plants but gun to my head i would have not guessed grass type for this pokemon in top 3, maybe not even top 5.

Best - Wo-Chien: I just think this guy represents a ton of pokemon design philosophy at its best. It has a very strong sense of color, good use of shape, is just a tiny bit strange, and most importantly is a kind of Creature i would like to hang out with

Worst - Calyrex: The more realistically proportioned hare head with the strange body does NOT work for me. I'm not mad about the massive berry on top at all but why the perfectly round torso? Why the stubby little arms? Why the noodle legs with the thigh high boots? I think you could fix this one pretty easily ultimately but it really needs fixin

Water Type

Most - Wailord: Although there is no actual water in wailord's design, the mere presence of a whale implies the necessity for an amount of water that is almost as catastrophically overwhelming in its absence as its presence.

Least - Palkia: Other than looking like an anthropomorphized speedboat palkia is not particularly aquatic in its nature

Best - Lapras: There's a lot of great water pokemon designs but i think lapras is firing on all cylinders. Really a classic pokemon design.

Worst - Quaquaval: There are a lot of pokemon that are uncomfortably anthropomorphic and there have been since gen 1. It's not something I'm against in concept at all and it's produced some of my favorite pokemon designs of all time. But unfortunately when it flops it flops hard. Seriously, what are these proportions? Perfectly fine idea for a pokemon just executed with shocking inelegance.

Fire Type

Most - Gigantamax Cinderace: This is simply the most amount of fire you're getting in a fire pokemon. Biggest bang for your buck

Least - Blacephalon: Another ultra beast design that is, as a design, excellent, but i would not be able to guess the typing on the first try if you put a gun to my head

Best - Chandelure: What if a haunted chandelier was your friend. Enough said. This thing just rules

Worst - Cinderace: Everything I said about quaquaval is equally true here.

Fighting Type

Most - Machamp: He's a wrestler with four arms this is as fighting as fighting gets

Least - Meditite: This is a small child in an open, peaceful stance. I sense no violence here. If he were to fight, he would have been provoked.

Best - Mienshao: effortlessly elegant design that conveys the aesthetics of martial arts and combines it with the simplified animal anatomy and strong shape language that represents pokemon at it's best

Worst - Gurdurr: This entire line is profoundly uncomfortable to me but the prominent near-bursting veins and inexplicable hourglass figure are at their worst here.

Flying Type

Most - Altaria: This is a bird made out of clouds, which is the most flyingest a thing could be.

Least - Shaymin (Sky Forme): This dude doesnt look like its feet are getting off the ground anytime soon if i'm being quite honest

Best - Sigilyph: Great example of what flying type can look out when you branch away from simple birds. The stranger and less organic feeling pokemon are collectively some of my favorite and i think sigilyph is one of the more effective ones.

Worst - Enamorus: 😬

Electric Type

Most - Xurkitree: The Exposed Copper Wiring Pokemon. Great stuff. Also a banger design on top of being the most. i love the ultra beasts

Least - Alolan Geodude: I understand the eyebrows and hair are supposed to be gatherings of lead sand but its still not giving electrivity. it just looks like a rock, one of the least electric things on the planet

Best - Rotom (All Forms): I wanted to put every rotom here but there was no way to arrange that easily. Just picture all the other rotoms here too. Rotom is awesome it's normal design is just cute and fun and then all of the other appliances are just a great concept.

Worst - Elektrike: Not unforgivably bad or anything but just kind of a design that doesn't convey a lot of information or have any appeal to it. Completely forgettable.

Poison Type

Most - Galarian Weezing: This guy is the most poisonous possible poison you could have. This guys hobby is global warming. This guy is dumping carcinogens into the river. And not just incidentally. He's ideologically motivated AND gets pleasure from it.

Least - Oddish: Not only do I not believe eating an oddish would poison me, i think oddish is healthy. I think it's good for you.

Best - Ivysaur: It's impossible to truly extract the nostalgia from my feelings towards the gen 1 pokemon designs but I think we can all agree. Ivysaur looks great

Worst - Eternatus: Does not even look like it belongs in the same franchise as anything else on this list so far. And on top of that, it looks stupid. 0/10. I do like the version of it that's an evil hand though.

Psychic Type

Most - Mega Alakazam: This dude looks like he should be airbrushed on a black velvet tapestry. I can't imagine anything more psychic than that.

Least - Exeggcute: Picking a least psychic pokemon was a hard one, because although we have some specific idea of what a psychic is, it's hard to say what one isn't. Ultimately, I don't think a handful of cracked eggs feels very psychic to me. I'm not sure what they feel like to me to be honest.

Best - Deoxys: Take a note, people, this is how you design a pokemon that's 'cool'

Worst - Necrozma: Take a note, people, this is not how you design a pokemon that's 'cool'

Ground Type

Most - Dugtrio: Dugtrios presence in the area is synonymous with the ground. in the same way that wailord's existence comes with the implicit presence of huge amounts of water, dugtrio's existence comes with the explicity presence of The Ground, because it's part of the design. We will never know dugtrio in its entirety, we will only see as much of it as the ground lets us.

Least - Whiscash: That's a fish, it shouldn't be on the ground.

Best - Trapinch and Claydol: I really really wanted to avoid ties here but please indulge me just this one. These are two creatures that are perfectly made but each in its own distinct way.

Worst - Zygarde (Complete Forme): Overdesigned as fuckkkkkk

Ice Type

Most - Avalugg: This guy's ice.

Least AND Worst - Jynx: Not only is Jynx not particularly icy, changing the skintone was really not enough to redeem this design.

Best - Glaceon: There aren't any bad eveelutions. That said, glaceon isn't my favorite. However in the contect of ice pokemon I think it does a great job of using shape language and colors that feel icy without needing to actually resort to just chucking ice onto it. A lot of ice pokemon are either a little bit too on the nose or just outside of my taste bracket

Bug Type

Most - Caterpie: Very bug.

Least - Pineco: this is a pinecone with eyes, which is different from a bug.

Best - Leavanny: Look at that winning smile :)

Worst - Buzzwole: TOO SWOLE!!!!

Rock Type

Most - Onix: You may think it would have been geodude, who is just a rock with arms, but onix is actually just a rock with a face which is then attached to SEVERAL MORE ROCKS. That's as rock as it gets.

Least - Sudowoodo: You can't pull the wool over my eyes. That's a tree.

Best - Lunatone: What if the moon was kind of creepy and also your pet.

Worst - Terrakion: Think this motherfcukers just ugly

Dragon Type

Most - Mega Charizard X: We all know Charizard is a dragon but that's only sometimes true. When it's true, it's very true.

Least - Tatsugiri (All Forms): Why is a piece of sushi a dragon. I do support it don't get me wrong. But I'm not exactly following the throughline

Best - Rayquaza: I think sometimes the legendary pokemon end up in the Too Much category but I think rayquaza pushes riiight up against that edge without going over it.

Worst - Dracovish: Shitting on the mix and match fossilized pokemon feels kind of like low hanging fruit. I honestly think they're kind of fun in concept. But this just looks stupid

Ghost Type

Most - Haunter: Self explanatory

Least - Decidueye: A very fun design but it feels like its got much too life in it to be ghostly.

Best - Polteageist: I'm insanely biased because I love ghosts and have a teapot collection so when i saw they put a ghost in a teapot i was overjoyed and it became my favorite pokemon as a whole instantly.

Worst - Gholdengo: Looks like the mascot for a string cheese brand

Dark Type

Most - Guzzlord: Dark type in japanese is Evil type which certainly has different connotations. In either case, I think whatever it means for a pokemon to be dark or evil is embodied here.

Least - Scraggy: I don't think this guy is particularly sinister at all.

Best - Mega Absol: I'm just so charmed by mega absol because it is indistinguishable from the kind of thing a teen with a deviantart would have drawn. It's like an edgy emo fairy white haired anime boy angel sparkledog. But despite that it still has a lot of aesthetic integrity and manages to only be a bit over the top in a way i think it's suited for.

Worst - Mega Sharpedo: This cluttered design pretty much undoes anything that's successful about sharpedo's standard form

Steel Type

Most - Melmetal: the unrelenting metalness of this guy is not even tanted by any even vaguelt biological components

Least - Wormadam (Trash Cloak): Not a single visibly metallic part on this pokemon

Best - Magearna: A clockwork magical girl... what a great design. i love her. so cute. there's really strong competition in steel type though

Worst - Varoom: Something about this guy looks agonized to be alive. And I feel that agony too. It looks like a motorcycle that was in the process of being transmogrified into a creature but the process was incorrectly terminated halfway through and now it lives a cursed and painful existence.

Fairy Type

Most - Mega Diancie: this thing could give me a quest to save the world and i would listen to it

Least - Galarian Weezing: I also wanted to do no duplicates but once again I will ask you for my forgiveness. Clearly this thing is the least fairy fairy. Not only is it unfairy, I think it tortures fairies. I think it's the villain in a movie where a bunch of children have to rescue a gang of captured fairies who are being used to power a Pollution Factory. I think this things grinds fairies up into dust and uses them to line the rim of its cocktail glass.

Best - Klefki: Klefki is soooo fun. I feel like if klefki was a ghost pokemon it wouldn't hit the same way because the idea of a haunted keyring is fun, sure, but it's notwhere near as good as a Whimsical Enchanted Keyring.

Worst - Zacian: this thing could give me a quest to save the world and im not sure i would listen to it. man the legendary dogs are just kind of a mess aesthetically

Okay that's all of the types. I don't really have a way to end this post. Of course there are a bunch of really good designs and really weird and cluttered ones that I didn't get a chance to talk about but. Idk man I can't rate every pokemon design there's just too many of them. there you have it.

[valictini]

I don't know much about pokemon, so I'm curious about your choices for Siffrin, Loop and Isabeau's pokemons (and if you want I would love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the cast, including the little red pokemon).

Thank you for enabling me hfisndjs Here we go!!

Siffrin

Clefable! A pokemon described as timid and generally living in isolated mountains. It is heavily tied to the night sky and the moon, and learns a lot of cool moves that remind me of Siffrin!

Follow me (redirects all attacks on Clefable), Healing Wish, Encore (forces enemies to repeat their last move), Metronome (activates a random move, pulling from every existing moves in the game, kind of reminds me of the sometimes random nature of wish craft)

None of these moves are unique to this pokemon, but I personally heavily associate them with it!

Loop

Gengar! So there's this theory that, because they look so much alike, Gengar and Clefable might have been initially designed as like, two sides of the same coin. Gengar is a ghost type, implying that it's a dead Clefable? Sorta? But it also has preevolutions that don't exactly match with Clefable's preevolutions, so it's mostly a fun theory/urban legend in the fandom at this point. And I felt like it matched well with Loop's whole deal lmao

Isabeau

Sudowoodo (and Sylveon for the trainer version) Sudowoodo's whole deal is "not what it seems': It looks like a plant, acts like a plant (literally will stand stock still to camouflage), but is actually a rock type! I kinda wanted to reflect Isabeau's façade with this pokemon, and Sudowoodo was the first that came to mind!

Also, Sudowoodo evolves from a small, very scadery pokemon whose whole deal is that it cries a lot, and it needs to be loved to evolve so. I liked the parallel with Isabeau's Change.

As for Sylveon, since in my head eevee is a popular starter choice, Isabeau probably would have gotten one too. And this eevee needs to be very very loved by their trainer to evolve into Sylveon! (And also. Trans colors. Cmon.)

The red pokemon

A shiny Jirachi! Jirachi is literally the wish pokemon, it's shaped like a shooting star and has empty wishing papers on its head ! It kinda changes depending on whether you're viewing the anime or reading the manga but when all conditions are gathered, a Jirachi can grant wishes! And when it does, the eye on its stomach opens up! (I think... forgor the lore a bit)

Also why am I calling this "their Ho-oh moment"? It's because in the anime, Ash begins his journey after seeing a Ho-oh flying high above him, granting him a blessing or something. It is a pivotal moment. I feel like Siffrin and Loop seeing a Jirachi (a shiny one at that!) would be just as significant to them.

I'm gonna stop there because that's a lot of text, but if anyone wants clarifications for the rest of the cast, pls do send an ask hxidbd

[l-in-the-light]

Chapter 1128 comments

And the Strawhats in Uncanny Valley adventures continues! Some things I noticed from previous chapter turned out to be right, some still have no conlusion, and some I might have been wrong on haha (not losing hope yet!). Since the chapter is super fresh, everything is hidden under the cut below!

Strawhats finally made it to Hogwarts haha. What a cute color picture :D the chapter's title ("RPG") together with this double spread makes me think of Hogwarts Legacy ❤ I like how tiny Zoro is just sitting on the dragon's nose XD

Nami confirmed for us that those plants don't just look fake, they *are* fake. Also, gigantified? I dunno about you all, but I feel like this is exactly the opposite case here. We saw giants who are suddenly small and huge animals/pets... could it be that Strawhats have been minimized/shrunk?? Maybe to the size of the tontattas?? So they could fit the lego set.

No wind, no sea in sight... no wonder I found this place so eerie too, haha.

This is the Land of Gods. And all Gods happen to be animals. Needle God is a hedgehog, Ear God was a rabbit, The Great Iskar is apparently the cat. While I was hoping the sun god would be the cat/lion (apparently not the case, it's some sorcerer dude instead), I was right that every god of this land is actually an animal :D

I gotta say, lovely fantasy lego set. That bridge ❤ the castle ❤ and that lovely house with a tower ❤❤❤ I also like how plants have all different shapes and structures, they're not just copy-paste of one and same plastic tree! Wish I could build a set like this :3

This was a fun callback to Whole Cake Island :D

Welcome back to the mirror world, Luffy! Speaking of which, that chapter I took it from is called "Adventure in the Mysterious Forest". Feels really similar to the previous chapter's title "Adventure in the Mysterious Kingdom", doesn't it? They are more similar than one might think. Both times it took some time to figure out what's actually going on too.

Oooh, we literally broke through the 4th wall here, haha. This is a very neat room. Clearly someone really likes wood and sewing. Interesting that the bricks don't actually seem so small in comparison to the table. Definitely not lego-sized, more like duplo-sized. Or maybe even bigger?

The underside is still completely wrong though. It's either flat or completely hollow (but damaged bricks from chapter before were definitely not hollow inside). Which creates the question: how is it possible they stack on top of each other?!

Apparently plastic is now confirmed to exist in One Piece world. Oficially! Color me surprised :O I thought One Piece world wasn't that advanced and we definitely *never* saw plastic in this world before. But hey, it doesn't neccessarily mean that the current residents can actually *create* it. It might be remains from the Ancient Kingdom! After all we know that plastic can take up to 500 years (or even 1000 years, according to some sceptics) to break up and it never fully decomposes. This one though looks very well preserved, maybe it was stored in some safe place?

Still, if Sanji knows what plastic is, it means it's still being used, right? I still wonder if it means they can still produce it or not.

Someone who likes to watch animals and people trapped in the block world... a sick hobby... remember this bit of info, we will need it in a second.

Also, Usopp, please, there might be more possible explanations to this situation! Don't disappoint me like that!

Is it just me or is that door kinda unusual? Why the Z shape? And here comes our sun god. I guess whatever we expected, it wasn't THIS. What is that? Wendigo?? Or... Elias, is that you?!

This is Elias for all of you who never read this pretty fun series. He's a sorcerer. Curiously enough, his One Piece twin also has a sorcerer's staff. Is it a crossover? (yeah, no way, Oda doesn't do that XD but it's worth mentioning that the anime adaptation of The Ancient Magus Bride was done by the studio that is responsible for One Piece anime remake :D). But wait, before I jump too far away from One Piece, I need to show you all something. Because we MIGHT have seen that guy before once!

Here, at God Valley! He was an unnamed member of the God's Knights! Is it the very same guy? Is it his son/other family member? Or is there a whole cult of them? Does it mean we will finally learn more about God's Knights perhaps?! Also, since he's carrying a sorcerer's staff, does it mean we will finally learn more about magic in One Piece's world?!

Did he summon Strawhats' ship with magic and that's why they're now in this weird place? Did he shrunk Strawhats with his magic as well??

Also few other things to note here: 1. there are multiple, same looking doors in that corridor. I wonder what's behind others... even worse hobbies? 2. There's obviously a very human-looking face/eye behind that skull mask. 3. If it's indeed a God's Knight, that would explain Zoro's comment from before. "Someone's sick hobby". We saw another example of a sick hobby God Knights and World Nobles engaged themselves in: hunting for human "rabbits" at God Valley (and possibly many other, unfortunate places in the world). Speaking of which, I wonder if they still continue doing this kind of cruel entertainment games, even to this day? But of course it's never reported in the news so we would have no idea.

And now let's progress to my new favourite part, pointing out inconsistencies in Strawhats! Just like in my last commentary to previous chapter 1127 (leaving you with link in case anyone's interested), the Strawhats still show some odd behaviour (though it's not obvious at first glance). This time I won't focus on equipment going missing, but I do want to point out one thing:

I dunno how come people didn't notice it, but Luffy apparently does have his strawhat, it's not missing! Like yeah, in last chapter it wasn't there, but in this chapter there are a few shots when it's visible. And since we're speaking of Luffy...

Isn't this like the first time Luffy went into Gear 5 and didn't faint or get hungry or get "old" and exhausted after using it? He's completely fine this time around. Odd. This is definitely the first time it happened. Also poor cat.

"I'm still full from the rabbit"... This is not the Luffy I know xD

Nami charging people for skinship? Yeah, totally normal and to be expected... for everyone BESIDES Chopper. Allow me to refresh your memory below:

Nami had no problem bathing in front of Chopper, she even invited him indirectly to *join in*. In one of the SBS corners Oda wrote this as well:

"Chopper gets invited to bathe with the ladies a lot". Which means Nami would never charge Chopper any money for just a hug or even if Chopper saw her naked. The answer to "why" is simple really. It's because Chopper is a reindeer and doesn't have pervy thoughts about human females, that's why Nami and Robin feel safe being naked around him, hugging him etc.

So this is not exactly correct Nami's behaviour here. Now, let's look at Sanji:

Nothing seems out of order, right? Except the fact that Sanji doesn't sense women in trouble with his nose or his observation haki. It's actually thanks to this:

His sense of hearing. He hears people in distress even from far away. He hears "lady's tears falling". It's been always consistent. So Sanji is using wrong sense up there!

I feel like this scene exists only for Oda to remind viewers that Sanji should be afraid of bugs, so they can compare this moment with the one from the previous chapter, in which he claims they should eat the bees. Seems like Oda wants us to catch on to all those inconsistencies, huh.

The same here, Oda reminds us Usopp is usually very observant and sceptical, and he did not behave this way in previous chapter at all.

Also I totally agree, there's no way giants would have clothes ready at disposal in Strawhats sizes, haha. This almost counts as a 4th wall breaking comment ;)

And again, this is how Usopp usually acts: afraid, would rather take a safe route instead of risking a confrontation. Don't tell me Usopp became a brave warrior of the seas when I wasn't looking, come on. This here is the Usopp I know! Not the one from previous chapter who decided to test out if the illusion is real or not on himself!

Meanwhile, this throws me off. "I totally lost my cool"? Where's my Usopp's tall tale? Where is him trying to say he fought bravely, but the enemy did a dirty trick on him, and he lost in an unfair fight? Where's him blaming it all on Nami that he fell into a trap? Come on, Luffy asks him for a reason here, he believes in many lies of Usopp's, after all. He expects Usopp to brag, but what we get instead? An answer that sounds like truth instead. Since when is Usopp telling us truth?! That is blasphemy to his name!

Here, a comparison to Dressrosa. Usopp will always lie, no matter what. Unless he actually does some brave thing, then he will keep quiet about it and keep it to himself. But that's not the case with the cat. Also please note how Usopp blamed everything and everyone but *himself* when he leaves his friends in the dust. "Someone needs to survive to tell the tale", "This is all Franky's fault!", "I can't die over a little white lie!".

Yeah, whatever the deal is with that answer Luffy received, this is NOT the Usopp I know. Usopp telling the truth, tsk. I'm not accepting any of it!

Meanwhile we have Zoro and I still couldn't find anything wrong with him. Even though it amuses me to no end whenever he talks about "no idea which way the sea is". Zoro, Zoro, you never know where anything is anyway :D

All his comments seem accurate, including the scene with him itching for a fight, and he is very attentive, sensing any enemies/strangers nearby, as always.

I also couldn't find anything wrong with Chopper either. Nice that we found him finally! It's interesting he was the only one out of the diorama (a "temple" it is, apparently, huh) and apparently he had a collar on? None of the animals in the lego city wore any collars, so I guess that was only to prevent Chopper from running away. I wonder what the sorcerer wanted to do with him? Maybe turn him into one of the gods of the lego city? Since Chopper is an animal as well. What would his name then be? Perhaps the Antler God ;)?

I didn't mention it in the last chapter, but the "RPG" title is very fitting! It feels a bit like Strawhats are inside a game of some sort, with random enemies spawning. Ofc our pirates fit very well for the RPG heroes team in some fantasy realm :D even lego bricks and escape room mystery vibes fit the game idea!

Are those high heels btw? XD not judging him/her/they or anything lol.

Anyway, that's all for now. I still have no clue where we are exactly and I love the mystery :D the "temple" bit sure is so curious, but I won't pretend I have any clue about what's that about just yet. I'm still hoping for some trolls magic shanenigans though. Even if they're not trolls like I thought they are, the possibility of impostor Strawhats is still not dismissed ;)

I did enjoy their banters a lot in this chapter :D especially Luffy rushing to the "no one returned back from there" temple. Reminds me of that bridge in Dressrosa and "no one returned back to tell the tale" bit which scared everyone off besides Law and Robin haha.

Is the sorcerer somehow related to the "Green Fairy" alcohol? Maybe that's the origin of the "hallucinations" giants spoke about, a sorcerer kindapping chosen few who drank the alcohol, playing with them, and then returning some later when he gets bored, making it all seem like a prank? He does not look like the type who puts people back in the places they came from tho... if his comment of "I'm not letting you escape!" is anything to go by.

Can't wait for the next chapter!

[tai-janai]

The Ray of Light

- Zeus equivalent, solely because he is the king of gods. Vague weather abilities, oftentimes uncontrollable. I like to think he smells like rain. "ray" is also like "rey" which means king.

- Red can have all sorts of meanings, but red is also one of the very few used colors in Slay the Princess, so it works especially well for him.

- He has a lot of softer edges, since he tends to favor that which gets less people hurt. Reasonable, yes, but comparitively softer than most voices.

- A triangle for the pupil, specifically one pointing up. Meant to be similar to a blade's point, but the similarity to a magic 8-ball was definitely a win design-wise. It is empty (unlike others, you'll see later) because he gets influenced by other voices, and it can change.

- I think he has a very lean, sleeper build that he hides under an oversized undershirt. In most terms, however he is perfectly average amongst the other voices; average height, average build, as normal as it gets.

- Also meaning that he is the most like Quiet. Just a little softer, a little less prone to violence. More of a Hero than a Slayer.

The Flora

- Demeter equivalent, since the Witch route has so much to do with nature, and he shows off some hints at it too (his own senses mirroring hers, some other stuff). Demeter is also represented by poppies, which fits for that route. Since Demeter has a lot to do with food, and plants that have to do with food, I thought of it as a good counterpart to the chapter of the Beast, who has to do with animal food and meat rather than plant food.

- Orange has a lot to do with confidence and boldness, and my goodness, does oppy got that. Warmth and vibrance, but undoubtedly a symbol of danger and warning. Pretty and safe, if you know what's good for you.

- The star patterns, as I've explored before, are pretty literal. He is sparkly and beautiful but you aren't supposed to get close. Only to be admired from afar, will hurt you if you step any closer. Every sharp part of him is hidden under a fluffy or smooth exterior.

- Cat-eye pupil with a glint whenever he has some sort of plan or trick up his sleeve, which is more often than not. It always seemed to me like he was moreso the predator within his route.

- He's a little bit smaller than the Hero, and he likes it that way. People like and trust small things. He does try to seem more approachable and attractive with the shaping of his feathers; he purposefully preens his chest to be more accentuated. Unfortunately for him, small tends to mean weaker. However, he is very, very sharp when he needs to be.

- He is a little cleaner, a little more condensed than the Quiet. Always something hidden away. Always preying on someone's downfall.

[cerseimikaelson]

Episode Three: Period Cravings [AO3]

It took Ares longer than he was comfortable confessing to notice the thief.

In his defense, there were multiple explanations for this blunder other than a sheer lack of observation skills.

Number One: they lived in a world of magic. When your doorknockers could talk and your books moved on their own whenever you forgot to dust them and your ties changed color to match your girlfriend’s dress, (though Ares wasn’t complaining about the last one) it wasn’t uncommon for objects to switch places for no better reason than boredom.

It was only when Ares decided to broach the subject with Aphrodite that the following dialogue ensued:

“Has the fridge been acting up lately?” he asked out of the blue.

They were laying on the U-shaped sofa Aphrodite had insisted was imperative to buy in lime green to bring out the curtains. Ares hadn’t been entirely sure how the whole concept was supposed to work, considering she liked changing their drapes every other month, and brought out holiday-themed ones for the solstices, but the sofa was soft and comfortable to cuddle on, so he just let her do her thing.

He was a good boyfriend like that.

“Um… no?” Aphrodite looked somewhat bewildered at the topic, so it rather came out as a question. “Why are you asking?”

“Couldn’t find the jam earlier. Demeter just dropped by and left us this jar of strawberry jam she made from her own plants, there’s no way it’s gone so quickly.”

Aphrodite quirked a brow.

“And you think the fridge just… what? Swallowed it up?”

“Crazier things have happened.”

She couldn’t really dispute that one after having witnessed last year’s Halloween spectacle with her own two eyes.

The less said about that, the better.

Uno was still under an Olympus-wide ban.

“Well, I am in my avocado spread era, so I definitely didn’t try any jam. Have you asked the kids?”

Which brought us to Explanation Number Two.

When one lives with two rambunctious toddlers, one learns fairly quickly nothing- not carpets, not bookcases, not even paintings literally nailed to the freaking wall, which Ares still had questions about- stayed in one place for long. 

Combine that energy with the mayhem that came with raising two immortal toddlers with absolutely no handle on their budding magical powers originating from a love goddess and a war god and you got…

Well, their kids basically.

“What have we said about sneaking into the kitchen for snacks after bedtime?”

Two pairs of adorable wide eyes blinked up at him in exasperated innocence.

Damn, he and Aphrodite had to stop creating such cute miscreants.

“Not to.” Harmonia even shook her head for emphasis, honey curls bouncing.

“Yes, that’s right. If you want a snack, you…” Ares trailed off, letting Eros take the lead.

“Come to Mama and Papa.” his four year old son finished his sentence, looking serious like he was delivering an answer in math class.

“Correct. So which one of you ate the pozole last night?”

There was a part of Ares that doubted they had done it, though. The thief had been incredibly meticulous in covering their tracks, no stains or prints in sight. The only reason Ares noticed the missing quantity was because he had actually made the dish himself, and he knew exactly how filled the pot had been. How well-thought the operation had been overall required a bit more stealth than his four year olds were capable of.

Hopefully. Otherwise he and Aphrodite were so screwed.

Harmonia and Eros glanced at each other and then proceeded to simultaneously shake their heads.

“We didn’t, Papa.”

Okay, Ares wasn’t new at this. It wasn’t the first time the little ones thought they could weaponize their big eyes and wide grins and turn them against him. He wasn’t even mad, it was the principle of the matter. He and Aphrodite agreed the kids had to feel free to come to them to ask for more food, safe in the knowledge they would never be turned away by their parents. They didn’t have to sneak around and smuggle items out of the kitchen.

Ares opened his mouth to tell them a variation of that, but one look at Eros’ cherubic wings made him pause.

They weren’t flapping.

His son’s wings were dove shaped, but the feathers resembled something more eagle-like, (possibly due to the influence of Ares’ genetics) white and pristine since the day he was born.

They were also his biggest tell: not strong enough to fly yet, they twitched like mad every time Eros lied.

The utter petulance on the boy’s face as he tried to get them under control was something Ares wanted to blame on Aphrodite, but the truth was he had seen that same expression one too many times on both their faces.

Only this time the wings were still, nary a twitch in sight, and Ares had to admit he had missed the culprit again.

“It could be someone pulling a prank on us.” Aphrodite said as they settled into bed one night, a few days after Ares’ fruitless conversation with the kids. “Hermes or something.”

“Sneaking into our pantry and eating small portions of our food isn’t really Hermes’ brand of mischief.” Ares argued. “Besides, what would he need to do that for? He can literally snap his fingers and conjure whatever.”

“Maybe it’s someone else then.” Aphrodite shrugged, looking supremely unconcerned at the possibility of some stranger essentially breaking into the home where they and their children slept and committing theft, however minor.

Ares knew it was because she was confident it wasn’t anything serious, because if his girlfriend ever felt they or their kids were threatened she could put the fear of the Primordials even in his father, and that wasn’t something anyone could claim.

Gods, he loved this woman.

“I am just irked by the whole thing, you know? I feel like whoever it is are mocking us.” Ares grumbled, watching Aphrodite tie the end of her long braid with a pink ribbon without even glancing downwards.

“I am sure you’ll figure it out.” She kissed him soundly. “Don’t stay up too late, okay?”

Ares didn’t sleep at all that night (sorry Dite) but the plan he drafted to catch the mysterious food thief in the act was nothing sort of genius. It involved copious amounts of string, a jingle bell from one of Harmonia’s toys, a HD camera he pilfered from Apollo, and a bait tantalizing enough to tempt a saint: his mother’s double stuffed smore brownies.

Ares had to pull strings to get Hera to bake those in such a short notice, but as he carefully set the plate down on the counter, all he could think was: worth it.

No one could resist the allure of his mother’s baking.

“Is that extra chocolate graham cracker? Gods spare me.”

It took a considerable amount of effort on Ares’ behalf not to forget what he was here for entirely and just inhale the whole thing himself.

Yeah, the food thief was definitely down for the count.

Satisfied with himself, Ares turned the lights off, turned the camera on, and waited.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

Now he knew what trying to catch Santa in the act felt like.

He hadn’t been able to detect a concise pattern when it came to the thief’s, well, thieving, only that it was somewhat regular and occurred every month or so. But sometimes it happened twice in the span of a few weeks and once the thief skipped a month entirely.

Ares was so busy trying to calculate the number of days between tonight and the last incident (nine of Aphrodite’s limited edition flavor changing French truffles had vanished without a trace) that he almost missed the bell chiming.

Shooting to his feet, the war god made a mad dash for the kitchen, hand immediately reaching for the trusted sword strapped to his hip.

He would show this sniveling excuse of a criminal what happened to those that defiled his family’s sanctuary (and ate his brownies!).

He would teach them the hard way not to ever covet the gods’ belongings again.

He would…

Swinging his sword with a war cry, Ares lunged forward.

And found himself staring at his very displeased, very judgmental niece.

“Let me get this straight.”

Ares ran a hand through his curls, probably tousling them beyond repair. He would have to let Aphrodite put conditioner on them. But honestly, after nearly decapitating the mysterious food thief whose secret identity had plagued him for three months, only to find out said thief was his niece, well, Ares thought he was entitled to his reaction.

“You’ve been fighting with your mom over eating healthy, so your solution was to sneak into my house and eat my chips and chocolate instead of, I don’t know, getting your own?”

His voice rose a little at that last part.

Viola, for her part, looked entirely unrepentant. She sat cross-legged on his counter, eating the brownies straight out of the container with a spoon Ares was pretty sure was meant for soup.

“Athena forbade all the shopkeepers on Olympus to sell me over 7 chocolate bars a week. One for each day after dinner, she said.” Viola scoffed as if the idea was ridiculous. “I burned through my secret stash within a week. It’s going to take me some time to charm the shopkeepers back to my side. She’s pretty goddamn scary when she wants to be, and they are all wimps.”

Ares tried to comprehend this information, but it was 2 am and his brain wasn’t entirely cooperating.

Anyone with a working set of ears was aware of Viola and Athena’s tumultuous relationship. In just the short three months the girl had been living with the Olympians since the diplomatic incident that forced her out of the Faerie realm (her permanent residence) for a whole year, her clashes with the wisdom goddess had become the stuff of legend.

Ares himself wasn’t surprised. Viola and Athena were like oil and water. Night owl versus early riser, flashy and fashionable versus practical and conservative, careless and spontaneous versus organized and prepared. Even if there wasn’t anything to bicker about, they’d sure make something imaginary up and go from there.

However, this particular stunt felt… odd, even for Viola’s standards.

And this was the girl that convinced Hermes to take her for a joyride in Artemis’ moon chariot.

“Okay kid, time for subtitles. I am too tired for this. If you wanted snacks, why didn’t you just ask someone?”

“I am not allowed to leave Olympus per the terms of the treaty.” Viola reminded him. “The forest is considered part of the grounds, but that’s the end of the property line and as far as the wards extend. Since no one on this godsdamn mountain is permitted to sell me past the Ice Queen’s limit, the closer shops are in the mortal realm. And I can’t go there without violating the treaty and pissing off a lot of important people.”

Viola used air quotes for those last words. There was a tint of bitterness to her speech that warned Ares to tread carefully. For the first time, he contemplated how it must have felt to her, ripped from her home and used as a pawn in the complicated relations between the Olympians and the Fae, essentially changing hands. It was a lot of responsibility to place on a child, even one as precocious as Viola, not to mention the added strain of having to live with a mother she hardly knew anything about.

It gave a whole new meaning to her rebellious tendencies for sure.

“Alright.” Ares said slowly. “I get not wanting to mess with the treaty’s rules. But why not take the stuff from a store and leave the money in the register?”

Viola shrugged, taking another bite of gooey brownie, but there was something deceptively casual about the motion. Like she had to try to pull it off.

“It didn’t feel right, you know? That’s someone’s job. Not to mention, if Athena found out she never would have believed they didn’t just cave and sell it to me. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”

“But it’s okay if you get in trouble?” Ares asked, curbing his voice into something a little more gentle.

Another one-shouldered shrug.

“I am always in trouble. If not for this then something else. I like a little variety.”

Ares took in Viola’s hunched posture, the way her fingers were wrapped protectively around the container with the brownies as though she feared he would snatch it away before she finished, and the dark circles under her eyes and realized there was more to this than a midnight craving.

“Kid, I still don’t get it. Why all the sneaking around? You could have just knocked on the front door. Dite would have fed you to her heart’s content.”

“It’s not like Athena doesn’t feed me.” Viola protested immediately, eyebrows furrowing. “Sure, she’s a little too invested in the whole protein/no carbs after three/smoothie before the gym thing, but even she understood I need my daily chocolate fix the same way she needs her tea after supper, you know? It’s just…”

Ares waited patiently as she tried to find the right words.

He already had a good enough of a clue where this was headed.

“I am on my period, okay?” Viola aggressively stuffed her mouth with chocolate marshmallow. “And it sucks because when does it not and the cramps are killing me and I want to do nothing but curl up watching Love Actually and Gone with the Wind and eat a bucket of ice cream all by myself and I just…”

She waved her free hand around, indicating at Ares’ kitchen as though he could figure out the rest on his own.

He could, actually. After all, Ares had Hera for a mother, Hebe, Eileithyia and Enyo for sisters and Aphrodite for a wife. He knew a thing or two about period stigma.

“That’s perfectly acceptable.” he said, and Viola’s head snapped in surprise as though she expected him to say something nonsensical about how gross periods were like they were in third grade.

“You can have anything you like unapologetically on your period. It’s already uncomfortable and painful, you deserve the pampering. If that means indulging in gourmet French chocolate, you do what makes you happy. Your body is doing some hard work, you can reward it with pizza or chips or whatever. And treat yourself while you’re at it.”

Viola stared at him like he had grown two heads like a Hydra. Ares raised a bushy eyebrow.

“What? I am the eldest sibling. I’ve got a mother that doesn’t take shit from anyone. I have three baby sisters that won’t settle for anything other than being treated like the princesses they literally are. My girlfriend is the literal goddess of beauty. I’ve been raised right.”

“So it seems. Kudos to you, actually. I didn’t think you had it in you. That’s a major green flag right there.” For the first time that night, the beginnings of the familiar impish smile bloomed on Viola’s lips. Ares took the win for what it was.

“Yeah, yeah, just don’t go spreading it around. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.” Ares pretended to be gruff. “But seriously, if you want me to fetch you like, a heating pad or something, I got you covered. Hebe has me thoroughly trained in what painkillers do the trick. And I always get my mother ginger tea and Danish pastries.”

“The god of war is a softie and I am living for it.” Viola gushed, grey eyes sparkling in a way Athena’s rarely did.

“Eat your brownies, kid.” Ares rolled his eyes. “But I still don’t get it. Why didn’t you tell Athena you have period cravings?”

Viola’s good mood vanished. She glanced sourly at the half empty container.

“She wouldn’t understand.”

Ares blinked at that.

“She’s a woman.”

If the kid was comfortable discussing this with him, then surely she could talk about it with another adult who was literally her own mother, right?

“She’s all about self control and not giving in to our urges. She goes nuts when things don’t go according to schedule, you know? There’s no room in the Goddess of Wisdom’s Daily Plan for unwinding with romcoms and eating our weight in Rocky Road. We’re supposed to be tough and power through, which okay, I get it. I just… didn’t want her to judge me.”

Oh Athena…

Ares was going to have words with his sister (who was generally brilliant but could be such a blithering idiot sometimes) but first things first. He needed to get that dejected expression off his niece’s face.

“Listen up, kid. Taking breaks and recharging doesn’t make you any less of a badass or a strong, capable woman, okay? It’s literally what your body and mind needs to survive and keep on all the good work you’ve been doing. Now, Athena may be used to powering through anything, but even she should know you can’t pour from an empty cup. If you want to do something silly just for fun while you’re literally bleeding for four days straight, then that’s exactly what you should do.”

Viola snorted.

“Sweet of you to think it’s only four days.”

“What? You know, nevermind.” Ares shook his head. “The thing is, Athena can come across as frigid and judgmental at times, but even she wouldn’t deny you a little indulgence when you so clearly need it. She’s hardcore, but she’ll cut you some slack.”

Viola looked doubtful, which honestly made Ares want to march up to Athena’s palace despite the ungodly (no pun intended) hour and ask her what the Hades she had been doing to alienate the girl this badly.

Apparently fatherly instincts could extend to distressed kids that weren’t even his. Who knew.

“Okay, how about this? You stay over tonight, and tomorrow we all have breakfast with the little ones. Dite has this special pancake recipe that will make you see Kronos in a piece of batter. You’re going to be licking your plate clean.”

Viola’s grin returned full force.

It mustn't have been a conscious decision, but the girl leaned forward and enveloped his larger frame into a hug. 

"Thanks Uncle Ares." Viola mumbled into his neck, a testament to how affected she really was.

This baby owl was going to make him soft.

Damn it.

Ares knocked once on the heavy oak doors leading to Athena's study and entered without a care in the world.

The goddess of wisdom was seated behind the ornate, claw foot desk, engrossed in some parchments filled with tiny, cursive writing in Ancient Greek.

"You do realize the whole point of knocking is to wait for a reply, right?" she asked dryly.

"I come bearing gifts." Ares said in lieu of an answer and dumped the box he was holding all over her papers.

Athena hissed in annoyance and tried to recollect them.

"Yo, pay attention." Ares snapped his thumb and forefinger inches from her face.

"What's gotten into you?" Athena asked, cheeks darkening with anger.

"You need an intervention and you need it yesterday." 

As Ares relayed the facts of what had transpired the previous night, he was somewhat surprised when Athena didn't immediately start yelling in outrage. 

Maybe she wasn't as hopeless at this as he thought.

"I trust you have the common sense not to rat me out. The last thing Viola needs is thinking someone else broke her trust." Ares said, looking and feeling uncharacteristically stern. He wasn't sure how he felt about it, to be honest. He had always assumed berating Athena would make him feel like the happiest god to ever grace the heavens, but now that day had finally come, all he could think about was Viola's crushed face last night in his kitchen.

Ares wasn't okay with his gloating coming at the price of a kid's comfort.

"Of course I won't tell her." Athena said like he was being an idiot and put her head in her hands. "Fates, this is such a mess. Why didn't she come to me?" 

"Maybe because, and don't even think about acting shocked, people don't usually seek the comfort of those that hurt them?" Ares retorted sarcastically. "What the fuck have you been doing?" 

"Nothing! I swear, I was just trying to get her to consume something that wasn't orange soda pop tarts for breakfast! The one chocolate bar per day seemed like a good compromise, and Viola even agreed to it!" Athena protested.

"Look, I get it, the kid is a handful." Ares conceded because that much was true. "You can't have her walking around either on a sugar rush or a sugar crash every day. Trying to set her nutritional habits straight isn't a bad thing. But you clearly forgot to factor in something important."

"I didn't think about it." It was a cold day in the Fields of Punishment if Athena was openly admitting that. To him! Ares wished he had a camera. 

"Well, you not thinking about it got someone really hurt." Ares continued without rubbing it in her face despite the overwhelming desire to do just that.

If he didn't get the Brother of the Year award this year he was going to riot. 

"I know, alright?" Athena rubbed her forehead. "I'll talk to her. Make sure she understands her period cravings are nothing to be ashamed of."

Finally they were getting somewhere. 

His job almost done, Ares pointed at the box he had brought.

"What's that?" 

"An olive branch." Ares thought it over for a moment and snickered. "Although this one definitely tastes better." 

As Athena unwrapped the golden foil, a blue velvet box of fancy chocolate truffles was revealed. The label advertised them as beetle shaped, cranberry jam filled white and milk chocolate bites.

"You'll do better with Viola if you bring in a peace offering." Ares explained gruffly. 

Athena studied him carefully.

"I can't take credit for this. It was your idea."

Ares rolled his eyes. She really was clueless, wasn't she? 

"Take the damn candies and go apologize to your kid. Do something with her that doesn't involve fighting for once, okay? She's not bad once you get to know her."

Viola really wasn't. A bit intense, sure, but Ares happened to like her brand of chaos. It was about time Athena found someone her icy demeanor couldn't intimidate. 

Athena looked from the beetles to him then to the beetles again as though she had been presented with a very complicated math problem. 

"I am messing this up, aren't I?"

She sounded almost defeated. Ares decided there and then it wasn't a good look on her.

"You can do better." he said flatly, because he wasn't one to mince words. "You're not terrible. You clearly care about her being healthy and stuff. That's good. But having a kid is about more than just putting a roof over her head and making sure she has blankets and keeping her fed. You gotta care about her feelings. Make sure she doesn't pull stunts, yeah, but there's a difference between disciplining her and hurting her. And if you mess up, swallow your damn pride and apologize."

Athena sighed deeply.

"I wish there was a rule-book for this. Every time I feel like I am ahead of things something happens and I have to deal with yet another curve ball thrown my way. It’s exhausting." 

Ares grinned. 

"Congratulations. You just became a mom. It sucks deeply sometimes, but you are going to love it." 

See you for next week's Episode Four: A Clash of Style

Tagging as per usual: @sarnai4, @firinnie, @greekmythstan, @angelfoxlove,

@strongest-angel-in-heaven, @mer-acle, @cloak-of-ares

[cuttyclowngirl]

DAIMA EP.9 (Spoiler) Review/Theories

• Only 3 more shots from the 2 minute trailer left to see in the show now.

• Panzy starts the episode off reminding us that's she's not the type of princess who enjoys roughin' it outdoors. Understandable. One more thing she & Bulma can bond over.

• So they went with "put on a silly hat, Goku" instead of having Goku walk around as a Super Saiyan. (Surprise, surprise, it didn't work out.)

• I'd forgotten that Goku's nyoibo can't shrink to the size of a toothpick like Wukong's staff. Hope it never gets stolen, then.

• If Glorio isn't being sponsored by Kadan, then I guess I should've been saying "poor Dr Arinsu's wallet" this whole time. Glorio must think he's traveling with the most oblivious people ever...

• If Panzy's rubber ducky is anything to go off, then 3rd Demon world ducks either have dinosaur-like crests or silly mohawks. I like it. Either is cute to me.

• If that was a bottle of liquor Glorio was chugging, then he oughta talk to someone. You good, buddy?

• I suppose Panzy placing a tracker on her bag holding the D ball just barely justifies recklessly leaving it by a breakable window instead of everyone's (Goku & co.) line of sight.

• The mohawked blue demon demonstrated an impressive proficiency in body altering/shape shifting magic. This further strengthens the implication that Glinds reach a point in their early life where they choose to have masculine/feminine presenting bodies via magic.

• Glorio acknowledging Panzy's helpful was a cute moment.

• Goku trying to stay up was pretty funny.

• While Vegeta's bar fight was much shorter, I liked that the interior of the bar looked wildly different, not just it's cool blue/purple lighting, but the clearly Star Wars cantina inspired middle table section with colorful drink dispensers. Though it was another bar fight that led to plane theft...

• Vegeta's burger looked yummy. Neat that it wasn't the same black bun burger. Even little bits of variety helps the world feel lived in.

• There are ACTUAL Zombies in the 3rd Demon world. (Implied) Entire forest patches full of them. And they aren't just undead, but can also TURN you into a zombie. I know it's just a bit, but Holy Moly.

• As I predicted in my episode 5 review, Hybis has the Tertian Oculus in his belt.

• I'm starting to think that this whole "timid yesman" persona Degesu has is just an act. A few episodes ago, Shin described Degesu as especially ambitious. Why would someone Shin implied to be the possibly even more ambitious than even Dr Arinsu settle for the position he holds under King Gohma's heel? I keep thinking about that wish Degesu wanted...

• While a bit selfish in it's own right, leaving the rescue of Dende/defeat of King Gohma up to Vegeta & Piccolo isn't exactly irrational. A jerk move to be sure. "Bad habit of his" indeed, Piccolo...

• Out of every angry face Bulma has pulled throughout Dragon Ball, the one she pulls when after Piccolo says "We should have brought Kibito, since he can teleport" is my new all-time fav.

• Vegeta paid extra for slow-mo shots. Also, him just sneaking up on that horse demon while they were distracted by Piccolo was so funny to me. Also also, Horse-headed demons are a thing. Neato.

• All these zoomed in shots of Marba makes me feel like she's secretly much more malevolent than she lets on. Casually mentioning that she used to sell Saibaimen seeds, as in lil killing machines, literally bioweapons, implies a lot. Plus even Dr Arinsu doesn't fully trust her.

• Since Marba only having 2 seeds left, it's loosely implied that Majin Kuu might not live for more than a few episodes. The next Majin will probably be the scarier threat. Dr Arinsu said "This thing might not work, so let's start with just one.(Seed)" One planted more than 5 centimeters down was implied to be stronger yet uncomfortable, according to Marba.

• This Majin Kuu feels sort of intelligent, (maybe thanks to Dr Arinsu's spit?). But I'm literally only basing this off of how it responded to orders/how serious it acted. Only time will tell...

• Hybis, bro, you chew weird.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results -- Narngreg

All right, time to look at this week's critters. (Sorry it's a few hours later than normal, it's been a busy few days and I'm behind on everything.) This one is not only breaking the bird streak, but it's also one of the handful of animals that gets a color scheme. The entry our artists are working from is here, if anyone wants to check:

As per usual, the art is under the cut in roughly chronological order.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has again demonstrated their ability to create these with an impressive turnaround time: this went up the same evening I posted the entry. I like the design -- the high, muscular back there gives it a good silhouette and a threatening appearance, and the way the black fur is patterned looks really cool -- but what really caught my attention was something in the linked post's description of their design rationale. Apparently binturongs smell like buttered popcorn?? Learn something new every day.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) has given her Narngreg an interesting low-slung design, like if you built a hippopotamus on a crocodile frame. (She's also provided her own alt text, thank you.) We can see the characteristic claws, and also the fun decision to give the creature an extra-large mouth for its scented breath.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has again done some fantastic medieval stylization. I really like the decision to go literal with the "eye-shaped circles" description -- makes me wonder if this fur pattern just coincidentally looks like eyes, or if it's meant to ward off predators. Which raises the question of what this friend-to-all-other-animals, dragons-are-scared-of-it beast is trying to ward off. Also, if you check out the linked post, in addition to discussing design decisions, coolest-capybara has another version of this art where a number of the other beasts they've drawn for this project are indeed gathered to follow the Narngreg's scent -- except for the Choglaem, which is hidden in a cave in the earth.

@karthara (link to post here) notes that big cats are probably the sort of beast that can hold their own against dragons, and they fit the physical elements of the description, so here's a big cat species for you. I really like how the coat pattern turned out; the stripes on the end of the tail are a nice touch. Excellent cats all around.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has taken an interesting (and very cool-looking) direction here. (And has also provided alt text, thank you.) In their explanation of their design decisions, which is quite detailed and worth checking out in the linked post, they explain that a lot of the influence on the design came from trying to reconcile "gentle animal" with "dangerous claws". What kinds of animals have large claws but aren't predators? Well, there are a few, but the ones they are primarily drawing on are the extinct chalicotheres and ground sloths -- large herbivores that nevertheless possess sharp claws. I think it's a clever direction to take. Additionally, I appreciate the stylized eye spots. And the mane-plus-goatee situation. They've also included some previous Beaſts following the Narngreg's sweet breath, and the Choglaem hiding from it in the upper right there. And, of course, Stylized Plants that they made sure to point out to me. :)

@pomrania (link to post here) had a similar thought to cheapsweets: what creature is gentle but has large claws? a sloth! And since there's no mention of it being arboreal, it can be a ground sloth. (Ground sloths are cool and I like that they came up more than once here.) This little guy is frankly adorable; I love the ear tufts and mane. I can see why other animals would be friendly to it -- it just looks like it would be pleasant to be around. There are a number of non-sloth influences happening here, which pomrania lays out in detail in their post, so go see that.

(P.S. Pomrania: I have no idea what, if any, pattern there is to whether the bestiary authors cite sources for a specific fact. I kind of suspect that the difference is "whether they know where that information came from" and possibly "whether they think a particular source is prestigious enough to be an impressive citation".)

@strixcattus (link to post) is also of the opinion that the Narngreg is clearly a feline, or at least similar to a feline -- they also note the "sleeping in caves" thing as inspiration for the "feline equivalent of bears" approach they took, so we might be drifting back to the binturongs again. Anyway, let's all take a moment to enjoy the incredibly cute scene here. Now, go read the linked post. Strixcattus's practice of turning the bestiary entry into a realistic modern naturalist's description of the animal is on point as always, and you owe it to yourself to read this and the other entries they have written. They're fascinating, especially in the context of the Bestiary Telephone situation.

They also express a suspicion that the cave thing is a Biblical allegory, and... ding ding ding!

On the third day the [Narngreg] rises from its sleep and gives a great cry, emitting a sweet odour, just like our Lord Jesus Christ, rising again from the dead...

Granted, bestiary authors turn pretty much everything into a Biblical allegory. You may also be interested to know that dragons retreat from it because the dragon represents the devil.

Anyway, the Aberdeen Bestiary version, which I have to say is particularly nice this time around:

Yep, this artist had the same idea as coolest-capybara and cheapsweets: the drawing should show other animals following it and a dragon... um... hm. Let's just assume that dragon is supposed to be hiding in a cave.

(I assume the critter is blue in this image because painting it black would make all that shading more difficult, so we're using a dark blue to indicate "black".)

And everyone who thought "feline" was indeed correct, because this is the panther.

Some of you may be thinking, "hey, I don't remember learning any of these facts about panthers."

Some others of you, who are up on your taxonomy, may also be thinking, "hang on, panther isn't a species. what animal did the medieval bestiaries think they were talking about?"

I am delighted to inform you that the answer to that question boils down to Bestiary Telephone! See, classical authors wrote about leopards, as you might expect from people who were kicking around northern Africa and southwestern Asia back when there were still leopards there. But Latin had two different words for "leopard", and as a result people from Europe assumed those were two different animals and panthera must be a separate, non-leopard thing. (How would they know, after all? It's not like they have any Leopard Experience.) The confusion created by this simple mistake continues to reign even to this day: the existence of a "panther" as a distinct species of big cat remains a common misconception, and I bet at least one person reading this was in today's lucky 10,000.

(This is not the only etymological absurdity that comes out of medieval Europeans dealing with What Is Big Cats, but we'll get to that when we get to it.)

[livealittleoc-cb]

The Magics Spell 🪄 [Daily Tasks]

[Greyson on a typical day likes to rearrange his bookshelves a lot, if they’re not by color code, they’re alphabetically organized. He always has a new organization for his books he can’t choose.]

🐉: *placing another pile of books down* Time to arrange all of these books~ *pops his back* ugh but how is the real question now…

[Emilia always has a new recipe in mind be it for potions, enchanted syrups and foods or new spells to try. She’s constantly at her brewery when she’s not working at Club Luna!]

🍹: Hmm…some strawberries, blueberries and raspberries from the enchanted forest should be good~ *smiles writing stuff down and mixing some herbs*

[Jooheon is always writing or working. His textbooks have annotations, any book he’s reading for fun has annotations and any book for work has annotations. Annotating is important and necessary to him to keep him organized so it’s become a daily task and habit.]

✨: So he wasn’t at the crime scene before the crime… *writes something down while mumbling* Then where was he?! *blinks looking down at his book, pushing his reading glasses up*

[When not at the Weather Tower Diego is the designated babysitter in his family and family friends. He understands Ari’s struggles the most whenever he gets asked my his aunts to take care of his baby cousins.]

☔️: Heyyy! Antonio! Stop running, you’re going to slip and fall! *sighs jogging after the baby* I made you puddles to jump in not run, cariño!~ *picks up the baby*

💧: *squeals with a laugh and giggle*

[Bonnie when not at work she’s in her greenhouse taking care of her baby plants and making sure they’re all big and strong. Being half a forest nymph being surrounded my plants is also a good energy boost for her in the long run!]

🌱: Come on now you wee little plant baby, I need you to stand straight and tall *tying a bean sprout plant with a stick to keep it up tall* Now m’eudail [my darling] I’m going to water you~ *walks to get a watering can*

[Leo goes to the gym every single day but normally he mostly does weights or sparring. It’s a bit more mandatory or royal guards to go to the gym constantly but Leo also just enjoys going to keep in shape. He picked up boxing along the way and now it’s become apart of his daily routine.]

🎐: *stretching his neck as he lets out a breath* Gods I should have stretched more before starting… *grumbles as he starts re-taping his hands*

[Ace is on a daily bases doing Cupid duties but when he’s not he’s in his tailoring shop! He enjoys sewing and making outfits so he’s constantly there making new clothing patterns, looking at new fabrics and making himself outfits!]

♥️: Hmm! *bounces while switching between fabrics on the mannequin* I think this dress calls for some nice white silks and tulle! *runs off to get more fabric*

[Skyler is a gallery artist along with being an illustrator and comic artist, he also likes doing graffiti art on his free time. He’s typically working on things for gallery showcases and exhibitions so he can be found in his studio painting unless his epilepsy is triggered. He sings a lot when working and sounds like a literal angel.]

☁️: *cleaning off his paintbrushes while singing to himself*

[Marci is constantly at work. They’re always chasing the bag and will always be found at the hair salon they work at!~]

🕯️: *blow drying a customer’s hair* You’re looking so pretty! The dye you got today fits you so perfectly dear!

[Being a princess Lelani has a lot of stuff to do which includes a lot of fancy gatherings with other kingdoms, big fluffy dresses and lots of talking. She hates having to do it but it’s the only way her moms would let her out of the castle to do normal witch stuff!]

❄️: *sighing and whines* Why todayyyy! *whines more* my feet hurt and this dress is so puffy *huffs with a pout and crossed arms*

[When Angel isn’t streaming they’re doing band practice. Them and Fenrir are in a band together, Angel playing the drums and Fen on the lead guitar. They’re constantly practicing whenever they have the chance and sometimes use their drumsticks on kitchen counters and tables]

😈: *twirls one of their drumsticks in one hand before finishing the song they were practicing* WOOO! I deserve a goodddd drink~ *hops off to get a Monster can and gummy worms*

[Jay normally in the day works at a potion and spellbook shop she owns but at night they tend to do their reaper duties. They ask for their duties at night time just for the sake of not having to sleep. She tends to borrow steal one of Jooheon’s bikes and rides around and scraps her scythe on the ground to create sparks along with scaring people around her.]

💀: *laughing her ass off as she scares another pair of humans* HA gods humans are so easily scared~ *snorts lifting her feet up and dragging her scythe along, creating sparks, holding on with one hand* the gate isn’t until a couple hours from now ughhhh

🩵🩵: @monsterhigh-cb​ [🐟🤍💍 && ⚡💙 && 👻💜 && 🐺💕 && 🎤💖 && 👑💛] @evicted-oc [☕️🤎 && 🐼🖤] @theinvitation-bot​ [🐭🩶💒] @welcome-to-maniac​ [🐇🖤 💍 && 🌻❤️ && 🌕❤️‍🔥] @fantasyaespa​ [💚🐈 💍&& 💎☀️] @fantasydreamcb [🔪❤️‍🩹] @k-venturetime​ [🍓❣️] @multi-joong​ [🌧️🧡 && 🎨💚] @kardpackcb​ [🌙💝 && 🐺❤️‍🔥]

possible new residents: @faywithlove @badbf-cb @clubwnderland @domxbot @dawnswonderland-entertainment​ @beastfights-starting @starhunters-reign @divineblood-cb @urtwice @welcometosector1​ @lunaaofthemoon @littleboywooyoungie @reve-rv @multi-esme @the-hellhounds @3rachabot @san-cb @beaconhillsxbot @hoteldelluna-rp @league-of-assassins​ @dreampodcast​ @enhanced-cb​ @lostwoods-cb @boyzplanet @kimheebby @camboys-com @lavienrosecabaretxo @yandereskzcb @thedevoted-cb @rapperracha-cb @lucky-charmsanhwa @multeez-cb @oppositesattraxt @domrachaa @hwangsiblings-oc @coffeexdreamcb @silcntxnight @crimson-l [DM + / -]

[endangered-aquarium-fish]

Samurai gourami (Sphaerichthys vaillanti)

Endangered

The samurai gourami is a small fish from the area of the Kapuas River in Borneo and its SO FUCKING COOL LOOK AT THEM I WANT ONE RAHHHH

They don’t actually live in the river, they’re way too cool for that-  

They live in a wonderfully bizarre habitat called a peat swamp, where pure rainwater pools over a meters-thick layer of decomposing leaves and wood fallen from the dense canopy above. The acids released as it all decays mean the pH of the water is so low (sometimes 3-4) that nothing can even decompose when it dies, and the tannic acids bond to any dissolved minerals and sink them into the soil. 

The water has the dark color and distinct scent of tea. It sits perfectly still, too dark for any plants to grow, so nearly every fish that makes its home there has to use a specialized organ called the labyrinth organ to get their oxygen from gulps of air. 

…btw, most adult fish will die within minutes in water like that - it’s nearly as acidic as pure vinegar. Samurai gouramis are literally so fucking metal… they live in the fucking Evil Death Water of Doom and theyre just. chilling. unbothered. thriving :3

The gouramis live in pairs, hidden in the tangles of submerged roots and branches and leaves. Their thin shape helps them mimic a dead leaf- and they play into that by acting like one too!! their slow, calm movement looks like they’re simply drifting peacefully through the water, even as they stalk their prey (mostly insects like mosquitoes). Also, they’re some of the biggest fish in the swamp- at a whopping 3 inches long. 

They usually form a social hierarchy where the biggest females get the best territory, food, and mates. And when they choose a mate, it gets really funky and weird :3

The males are less colorful than the females, but they have a pouch in their throat that they can extend as a display, kinda like an anole. The females lay from 10 to 40 eggs at a time before the males fertilize them and scoop them up with their mouth. It’s a lot like the toba betta, but it’s even more specialized - they keep the eggs in their throat pouch, even after they hatch 0.0 The babies spend a while growing up in there, just living in their father’s throat, and so he has to find a way to feed them…

He uses the tannic acids in the water. He absorbs them and mixes them with his own mucus, using their natural stickiness to form sort of a fishy tannin slime that he excretes into his throat like milk for the babies. They spend weeks nibbling at it until they get big enough that he can let them out to swim away. He doesn’t eat anything until they’re free. 

Overall 10/10 fish very funky does a masterful imitation of a leaf. but like if the leaf was fruity or something

They’re endangered by deforestation and pollution from illegal gold mining upstream. The efforts to protect them in the wild have failed, but not in aquariums :3

Luckily they don’t have to live in vinegar or acid rain or something. They’re okay in any soft water with a pH of 6.5 or less, which may even be how your tapwater is naturally. If not, you can gather fallen leaves, seed pods, and sticks from local trees and let those soak in your aquarium, and the tannins they release will give the fish what they need just like in the peat swamps. They really do need very soft water though, so if your water isn’t already naturally soft, this may not be the best fish for you. 

They do best in a shallow tank of at least 30 gallons, with very clean and warm water (75-82 F) and minimal flow. They don’t like bright light so add plenty of floating plants to cast shadows, and make sure the water has plenty of tannins to keep it that dark color. They can be very shy and reclusive sometimes so they really need a lot of cover to feel safe and comfortable enough to come out. It’s easy to give them that, just add lots of wood, dark caves, dead leaves, and plants to the tank. Most plants won’t do well in blackwater, but there are plenty that will - I like to use frogbit, cryptocorynes, water lilies, mosses, and some stem plants like rotala rotundifolia if you let them grow up to the surface. You can also use plants like pothos and peace lilies that like to grow with only their roots in the water - these are amazing at keeping the water clean and your gouramis will love the roots. There should be about an inch of air at the top for the fish to breathe from, and a lid to keep it humid enough so the babies’ labyrinth organs can develop properly. 

Samurai gouramis are wonderfully peaceful and harmless, so whatever you keep with them (except shrimp) is perfectly safe. The only thing you need to worry about is that the gouramis are slow and timid enough that a lot of other fish will eat all the food before they can get any- and if the other fish are aggressive at all the gouramis are done for. The best tankmates for samurai gouramis are small, slow, peaceful, and unintimidating, so I’d suggest a small school of pygmy cories or tiny rasboras like chili, kubotai, or axelrod rasboras. You could probably also keep them with similar peaceful gouramis like chocolate gouramis, licorice gouramis, or snakehead bettas. Just make sure you have plenty of other samurai gouramis (at least 6) since they need company almost as much as we do.

Breeding them is easy, just have a group and they’ll form pairs. The difference between males and females is really easy to see - the males are chocolatey brown like an old fallen leaf, and the females look like a psychedelic rainbow. They’ll all find their own spots in the tank when they decide to breed and eventually the males’ throats will be filled with eggs and they’ll become reclusive and stop eating for up to three weeks while they care for them. It’s best to move the adults into another tank temporarily for a few days after the babies are released or they could get eaten. The fry need to eat the microorganisms that grow around dead leaves, and they should be fed other tiny live foods as supplements like microworms and baby brine shrimp until they get big enough to eat what their parents eat. Even the adults are a bit picky and they prefer live foods but they can usually learn to eat protein rich prepared foods too.

Have fun with ur gouramis :3 

[bogleech]

hey bogleech im running a small dnd-esk campaign where the players play as deep sea creatures (snail fish,sea-cucumbers and the like) and off course i wanna use deep sea predators as the main threat of the campaign, but when i search for deep sea predators i usually only find things like angler fish and dragonfish, so i thought you would be the best person to ask about this: what deep sea creatures would you recommend for interesting encounters in an adventure?

With no plant life in the abyss and very little plankton, almost everything is a predator if it isn't a scavenger! But some that feel most to me like they'd be major RPG enemies:

Cookie cutter sharks are famous for taking bites out of larger animals but they'll also attack things their size or much smaller, so they're a shark that evolved the ability to prey on literally every possible animal they ever meet. They also use a small glowing patch to disguise themselves as a different, smaller fish in the dark.

Almost all sea anemones are predators but since prey can be more scarce in the abyss, fly trap anemones are shaped to make sure it's much harder to escape their mouths

I also have a few I illustrated for the abyss coloring book I made!

( bogleech.com/bookabyss )

[seagreenstardust]

I’m gonna say something that’s probably not going to be well received in certain circles so let me start by saying this: I believe, with only a few rare exceptions, that you should be able to ship whatever speaks to you the most. And just because I don’t ship something doesn’t mean it’s wrong for anyone else to ship it, and the same for things I do ship, no one else has to ship it too. Who you do or don’t ship will never be a reason I pass judgment on you, ever. Live your best life.

That being said, I want to talk about Horikoshi and straight ships.

(And bakudeku.)

Here’s the thing: Hori has written straight ships into MHA and he’s done it so masterfully that it’s made me ship them without even realizing it. I don’t know if we can call them canon because as far as I know no ship is actually canon yet, but what is canon is the care Hori put into building these relationships.

Kirimina. Hori wrote in a backstory that parallels bkdk that I just adore. There is something about Kiri looking up to Mina and being so inspired by her bravery that it shapes the hero he becomes that is such good content. They’ve had multiple mid-battle moments of protecting and helping each other. I ship Kirimina so hard because of the canon Hori gave us.

I am a low key Denki/Hitoshi shipper but season six kinda hit me in the face with whatever we’re calling Kyouka/Denki these days and now I guess I’m a multi-shipper???? That is how hard Hori hit me with the Kyouka/Denki feels. And he did it the same way as Kirimina, because we have years of content of Kyouka teasing Denki mercilessly, plus the cultural festival band, so when they’re separated in Season 6 and Denki has this intense moment of realization that she’s who he needs to be brave for and it actually works??? I’m a goner.

Heck, I ship todomomo too you guys though I can’t blame Hori for that one, that’s just me being me. The point is that I ship it because the characters Hori gave me struck a chord inside.

But there is one straight ship Hori never once made me ship.

Every time izu*cha showed up I just kinda endured it? It just wasn’t for me. I didn’t see two kids with chemistry, I saw two kids who didn’t know who they were or what they wanted fumbling their way through a will they/won’t they without either of them seeming all that invested in it.

In six seasons and nearly 400 chapters and multiple times revisiting the story I have never once felt any inclination to ship izu*cha

Hori can write straight ships. Hori made me ship his secondary straight ships nearly effortlessly. So if izu*cha was meant to be canon why have I never once felt the chemistry?

You know who has the chemistry? Bakudeku. But here’s the thing: I wasn’t thinking about Katsuki as a possible love interest for Izuku the first time I watched the entire story. I honestly wasn’t paying much attention to him at all, he was everything I didn’t like on the surface so I more or less ignored him despite Izuku holding onto him for dear life. Katsuki never once colored my opinion of izu*cha, they did that all on their own.

It wasn’t until after my first watch through, when I was hungry for more and trolling around tumblr, that I realized people shipped Katsuki and Izuku and it was literally like something out of alignment popped into place in my head.

Oh. Duh. That’s the ship.

I went from zero to a million in a handful of seconds because the chemistry was there, the backstory was there, and boy are Izuku and Katsuki loud about how obsessed they are with each other. Just like Kirimina, just like Denki and Kyouka, Hori planted the seeds throughout the entire series so that when it was brought to my attention everything about the narrative and character development supported it.

And I have to take a moment to explain my dislike of Katsuki at first: I honestly fell for the surface-level interpretation of his character and then kinda wrote him off without much more thought. Which is insane to think about because you can’t really understand MHA without Katsuki, he is so integral to the story as a whole that any version of it without him is skewed so far out of alignment that it’s not even the same story anymore. But I just saw angry boy who yells for no reason and put Katsuki in a box and left it at that.

It wasn’t until I was willing to give his character a second look that I started understanding him, and more importantly, his relationship with Izuku. And it helped that when bkdk was presented to me as a ship that my brain understood immediately why it worked. The canon source material supports bkdk at every possible moment.

I really don’t think it does the same for izu*cha.

[blainesebastian]

full of magic

words: 1,327 ship: austin butler x reader summary: ( @livwholikestv requested) “austin takes the reader to disney world* + proposal  notes: thank you so much for the request sweetheart, i really hope you like it!  warnings: none tag list: @killerqueenfan, @karamelcoveredolicity, @elizabethrosecresswell, @gigisworldsstuff, @stylesmendeshearted, @rairaielv, @guacala

The sun hangs low, turning the entire sky a fluffy pink and lavender purple, almost like cotton candy pieces. You expected the humidity to stay in the air, almost like breathing in swatches of fog, but it’s settled in the later parts of the day. Still present, still sticking to your skin, but manageable as day bleeds into night. Admittedly, you’re willing to put up with whatever weather you have to in order to spend this weekend with Austin—a surprise trip, somewhere he’s been wanting to take you for a while now because you’ve never been.

You feel like it’s been on your list for a long time but at the same time it’s always been just out of reach with nonstop schedules and sometimes not even a moment to breathe before you’re jumping from one project to another.

There’s this realization in the back of your head that if you don’t make time for things like this, it passes you by. You’re always waiting around for that one day where you can set aside responsibilities or get through one last thing on your checklist before it frees you up to enjoy something without concerns. But life isn’t like that, sometimes there are no perfect moments that fall into your lap—you have to figure out how to make your own.

Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.

Passing right under the bridged awning, Magic Kingdom opens up in front of you, giving you a direct line of sight down Main Street to Cinderella’s Castle. Austin’s fingers are laced with yours, leading you into the park but letting you roll to a stop every so often to take everything in. It’s busy but not too much in the sense that it’s overwhelming or uncomfortable, a thrum of people enjoying their vacations with all the magic that a place like this can offer.

You expected to feel…you’re not sure, maybe too grown to be in a place like this, or that things would feel corny, silly, but it’s the exact opposite. You can’t stop yourself from feeling overwhelmed in a good way about the sights around you—the lights, the smells of sweets, the glow that seems to come from inside the shops as you walk past them, the way the castle sits in the distance against the backdrop of the pink sky.

“Are you gonna think I’m totally cliché for wanting a Mickey balloon?” You ask Austin, mostly kidding as you pass by a street vender. They’re the typical ones you’ve seen in advertisements or posts on social media—the clear circular balloon with the colored Mickey shape in the center.

“Nah, that’s a staple.” Austin grins, “I’ll get you one—we’ll snag a popcorn bucket too, think they’re shaped like Dumbo right now.”

You smile, stepping closer so you can wrap your arm around Austin’s, holding onto him as you two stroll down Main Street. “You know me well.”

He chuckles, leaning down to plant a kiss to your forehead, “I would hope so after seven years.”

Kinda hard to imagine that you’ve been dating for that long. Well, you suppose it’s nearer to five, you’ve known Austin for seven years. Your families have always been close, it just took a while to really see that there was something there between you two. A lot of wasted time, a lot of mistakes, but you suppose you can’t regret anything—not since it’s lead you here, quite literally, to a place so full of magic.

And sometimes that’s exactly how it feels to be with Austin: magical.

You’re not sure where you’re headed exactly—you didn’t grab a map because that felt silly, Austin knows where everything is. With your minimal amount of research, you know you want to ride the Tea Cups and the Haunted Mansion, but it doesn’t matter where you start out. From the castle you can either begin walking left towards Adventureland or right towards Tomorrowland. You kinda feel stuck, not sure where you want to go first, nearly tripping over the transit tracks in the cement.

Austin reaches out to steady you with a fond chuckle, “Did you get a good look at the castle?”

You raise your eyebrows, moving to step in front of him so you can. Your nose crinkles a little in confusion, “What, does it change colors or something?” You curl your hair around your ear, staring at the castle…waiting but, you’re not sure what you’re supposed to be looking for. You know that there’s a projection show on the castle later that night but it’s tied into fireworks. So what exactly…

“What am I looking for?” You turn to ask Austin a question but your breath sharply gathers in your chest as you realize that he’s kneeling—

He’s kneeling in front of you and pulling a ring box from his pocket.

“What are you doing?”

A laugh stumbles out of Austin’s chest as he widens his eyes just slightly, gesturing with one of his hands, “Tying my shoe—c’mon, it’s fairly obvious what I’m doin’.”

And you kinda envy how nonchalant he’s being about this when your heart is close to living in your throat, ricocheting against your ribcage as he holds a ring up a little higher, with purpose.

People around you stop and stare, some grabbing their cameras or begin taking videos, others just like to watch. You wonder how often this happens, people purposing at Disney…probably more often than you think. Part of you considers the fact that they might recognize Austin but all these thoughts go right out the window as he begins speaking.

It’s funny almost, how a park full of people suddenly fade into the rearview mirror, disappear in your peripherals, until all there is, is Austin.

He lets out a slow breath, smiling up at you—he seems to take in the moment, absorb it for everything it is. As you watch him, you’re surprised to see a bit of nervousness on the edges of his blue eyes. He has to know what you’re going to say, right? An answer to his question before he even has a chance to ask it?

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t want to spend every single moment of it with you—so the last thing I’d want to do is waste any more time. Y/N, will you marry me?”

You can’t stop the grin from breaking out on your face, nodding quickly as you take a step towards him, “Are you kidding me?” You laugh, “Of course.”

Austin slips the ring on your finger and wraps his arms around you, picking you up in a half-spinning hug. A laugh leaves your chest, tilting your head down to kiss him, the world swirling back into focus when he sets you down. Some people are clapping, others passing by and actually wishing you both congratulations—you don’t even realize you’ve got tears slipping down your cheeks until Austin is cupping your face, his thumbs brushing over the bone.

Looking down at your hand, you almost don’t believe it, even when you take a long gaze at the diamond sparkling back up at you. A wet laugh leaves your lips, sniffling as you wipe your cheek, “This is definitely a lot better than the Mickey balloon.” You tease, looking up at him.

Austin smirks, leaning down to press another series of kisses to your lips. “Well the popcorn bucket is still to come, so—” He throws back, to which you shake your head with a fond smile and wrap your arms around his waist.

You think about the moment, drawing your fingers along the back of his neck to playfully tug him down into one final kiss, trying to think about how you’re going to tell this story to your friends, family.

What other word can you use to describe it other than magic?

[solitaryandwandering]

Get to Know Me Tag :)

Tagged by @telomeke, thank you!! :)) My answers are not going to be as wonderfully detailed but I will try not to be boring, at least!!

Do you make your bed?

Every morning! It's the second thing I do (after cleaning my glasses, haha). I've found it to be a pretty big part of managing my depression so it's something I have to do, regardless of how tempting it is to leave blankets ready for me to crawl into

What's your favorite number?

I don't have one (numbers are my sworn enemy, after all) but it has been a bit of a thing since I was a kid that 6 is "my number" lol (for reasons I can't get into since that's way too personally identifying). 4 has been a thing, too. Maybe my OCD just likes even numbers? Don't ask.

What is your job?

Frustratingly, I've been unemployed going on four years. I'm in the midst of yet another round of job searching (which has become pretty desperate, to be honest). Discrimination against deafblind people is no joke. I do a lot of volunteer work in the meantime, running a support group and social media for a nonprofit organization.

If you could go back to school, would you?

I would like to go to graduate school for my career. Otherwise, I totally would go to school for media analysis or to take sociology classes again. But without crushing deadlines! I can imagine it now... doing projects and taking tests on my own time... the literal dream

Can you parallel park?

If you feel like risking your life and the lives of every creature and plant in the vicinity and witnessing considerable property damage, yeah I'll do it! Just put a sighted person in the passenger seat so I don't kill myself in the process.

A job you had that would surprise people?

I don't think my jobs would really surprise people? I've had a lot. My first job was as an assistant soccer referee when I was around 14. I was not very good at it but reffed a lot of games. I also was center ref for a couple tournaments (for kids, no older than ten). I looked good in the uniform but that's about it hahaha

Do you think aliens are real?

Absolutely. I'm not sure if I believe they're sentient (at least not in the way we would conceive of it) but the universe is VAST. There's no way we're the only ones. We definitely have not been visited by any, that's for sure.

Can you drive a manual car?

I understand the general theory of it, so again if you want me risk life and limb, I will. The one time I drove I think it was a semi-automatic if not fully automatic transmission.

What's your guilty pleasure?

I have OCD, I feel guilty about everything I like. But I guess right now it would be Kit Kats and Reese's, both of which I have been munching on all week. I am morally against Nestle and know Hershey's is by far inferior to properly-sourced, better-tasting chocolate but... it's not as expensive as the good stuff and... I like when things are pumpkin-shaped :(

Tattoos?

Love them!! Just not on me. I think if I didn't have the skin concerns I do (primarily, keloids run in our family) I may be way more tempted to get one or two smaller ones (and my brother has tats and is totally fine) but as I've said... I have OCD. I think in reality I would be really really freaked out by having something permanent inked into me. So I just live vicariously though everyone else, especially my best friend. They have great taste so their tattoos are very very cool and well done.

Favorite color?

I love oranges and greens, especially tangerine or a deep green.

Favorite type of music?

I have extremely eclectic taste, so it's basically whatever I'm in the mood for. My Spotify Wrapped never reflects the music I really gravitate to when I want to legitimately sit down and listen. Usually it's just on in the background as I do something else but I really enjoy intentionally focusing on a good album. Overall I'm definitely more into rock (very general, I know) than anything else, though that's not necessarily what I listen to most often. I'll listen to indie, punk, hard metal, folk, pop, electronic, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, soul, show tunes, alternative, classical, you name it. Lately I've been listening to a lot of film scores, ballads, and lighter more instrument-heavy stuff. This month's playlist had Dome Jaruwat, Howard Shore, Martin Nievera, Florist, Jewelry, T-ARA, Kim Jung Mi, TRACE & Ariel Loh, and Sade Adu, among others.

Do you like puzzles?

Yes and no. I find that dyscalculia makes certain puzzles more tedious and difficult than they should be, and that combined with ADHD makes things I should ostensibly be good at (Scrabble, for example) more frustrating than not. I don't mind jigsaws or logic puzzles though. I did Deaf Academic Bowl in high school, so I'm super into things like that (trivia, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, escape room kinds of things).

Any phobias?

Not too many. When it comes to specific phobias, I'm pretty phobic of stink bugs though that's lessened over the years, replaced by a phobia of cockroaches. I'm neutral about bugs in general but as my eyesight has declined I've become less fond of the flying ones. Same thing goes for other small creatures difficult to track. I've noticed some agoraphobia developing in the last year or so as my vision has declined so I am working on managing that along with my social anxiety.

Favorite childhood sport?

Definitely soccer. Did nineteen seasons, despite bullying!

Do you talk to yourself?

Literally all the time. Always having a conversation with myself. Caught myself on the bus earlier today having a bit too animated of an internal conversation hahaha

What movies do you adore?

This is literally the worst thing to ask me. So many movies, so little time. I do love It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! which I watch every Halloween. I say it every year, but it very well may be my favorite film score. And it's technically a TV special so... I also adore The Florida Project, Eighth Grade, Anatomy of a Fall, Bound, Minding the Gap, Rocketman, It Happened One Night, Shoplifters, Blindspotting, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse... I could go on and on and on.

Coffee or tea?

I LOVE coffee but I've been gravitating more and more to tea, probably because of the hell coffee sometimes wreaks on my digestive system.

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

I was very specific: an Olympic gold-medalist figure skater. Only because I loved watching this event so much. To be honest I don't know what the first real ambition I had was? I did wonder what it may be like to be a journalist, professional soccer player, lawyer, that kind of thing.

I am tooooo tired to tag anyone but if you want to play, here's your chance (and tag me so I can read it!!)

[7wolfmoon]

It's been a year and a half. Of course Larkspur still hurts, but constant agony has given way to a dull ache most of the time. There are still moments where he breaks down, sometimes when he's reminded, and sometimes out of nowhere, but for the most part, he's able to go about his life almost as normal.

More and more, he allows himself to heal, to accept his reality. He's no longer jealous of his sister or his boyfriend. He's even been able to tolerate spectating most of the Entrails' matches. 

Sometimes, the saddest thing to him isn't that he can no longer interact with his Palisman, but that Lark's loved ones can't. Lark can feel the glow in his own chest, but the same can't be said for his friends and family.

Lately, in his dreams, he senses that familiar golden warmth not just in his heart, but also beside him. It's moved slowly outward, as he moves onward. Tonight, the presence is almost staggering, almost tangible.

Then he feels a small creature alight on his shoulder. He doesn't need to look to know who it is, but he does anyway. Of course he does.

You'll see me again, Flapjack had said to him back then. Lark didn't dare to hope that it would be literal, but at least here, now, in his dreams, the bird is as vibrant a red as he was when they first met. 

They don't need to say anything. Their shared love is understood. For a time, in that nebulous dreamspace, they just sit and enjoy one another's company.

When Lark wakes, it's with tears in his eyes and a smile on his lips. The weathered carving he sleeps with is as pale blue and motionless as ever, but this morning, it doesn't sadden him. He runs his thumb fondly over Flapjack's crest before rolling out of bed to get ready for the day.

Some weekends, the squad comes with him to the forest. When he isn't carving, Lark helps Willow and Dell tend the palistrom trees with Plant magic. The rest of the group does what they can physically, planting and watering saplings and keeping the area clean and safe.

Everyone socializes with the older Palismen who've yet to find their witches. It would make sense for their numbers to lessen as more of them bond with their partners, but more and more have actually seemed to venture out of the old forests in the time since Belos' defeat and the fall of the Coven system, almost faster than witches can take them in. Which is fine by Lark, really. He's happy that they feel safe enough to show themselves. And even with their magic helping some of the trees grow large enough to harvest a branch or two here and there, the palistrom forest is still so thin that he feels guilty with each cut he takes.

Once all the trees have been checked on, and the wild Palismen are entertained, he contemplates the latest branch. Having carved a couple dozen by now, he has a good idea of how many he can make while wasting the least amount of wood. He stares long enough that he feels eyes on himself as well.

Someone eventually asks what they're all wondering. Is he ever going to carve for himself?

And, as he has each time he's held a block in his hands, Lark considers it. But today, unlike every other time, he doesn't feel an overwhelming longing to do so. He feels lighter, somehow, as if a long-shouldered burden has been lifted.

"No," he answers with both softness and finality. "I don't think I need to anymore. I just want to help other people find their partners... I want to make up for all the damage I caused. Hopefully... put more kindness out there than all the hurt, you know?"

It makes sense, in a way. They've all been there for him since he lost Flap. They've all seen his growth. Luz and Gus as his siblings and Willow and Nico as his partners all have sad but knowing smiles for him, in their own ways.

Just as he sets the branch down to start his cuts, something in the canopy moves. A figure swoops down toward him, and if it weren't for the color, Lark would swear he knows the silhouette. But the old bird-shaped Palisman that lands on his outstretched hand is blue. 

They stare at one another for a moment before Lark lifts his other hand to stroke its head. Come to think of it, he does recall seeing this one among the others occasionally, but it's never approached him before now.

"Nice to finally meet you," he says with a relieved, breathy laugh. 

Waffles coos in response, and he understands her.

My little Lark, I've been waiting for you.

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[[ as a note: i had this planned before anything was confirmed. i know her name was confirmed waffle singular and hunter carved her himself. i don't care. :) this is my blog and i do what i want. ]]