#wow this is a long post sorry about that

[plantwriting]

Rereading the "Rolan and Rand catch Kian with Jesse" oneshot rn. Just like for fun. This is genuinely so good how did I write this. Collection of my favorite lines from the fic under the cut because im genuinely proud of it and wanna show it off again

"Kian Stone was an act, a performance, a character built up to hide the pieces of Kian that would leave him as nothing but that nameless child again if they ever came to light. Kian Stone was a pretty face, a nice voice, a fun personality, a rockstar. All the pieces of Kian that could be loved. A perfect mask to make people want to be near him without getting close enough to notice the small cracks in it." IT SURE FUCKING IS god he's so fucking convinced that people could only ever care about him for who he pretends to be rather than who he is aghhhh

"Nobody else would be willing to deal with all of his baggage, all of the frankly pathetic pieces of him that Rand and Rolan were willing to put up with." i dont think i even did that on purpose. kian doesnt think they love him. or care about him. he thinks that even they just put up with who he really is. not that they could actually fully care about him as a person. god. fuck.

"God was a fucking bastard. An all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving creator, who knew very well this was all the nameless child he’d made would become. He’d known very well that Kian would become just another sinner, cast out of the light of heaven and into the torment of hell. Why make him at all if that was the only fate that could await him? Why bother creating Lucifer Morningstar if God knew he would fall?" WHAT DO YOU MEAN I WROTE THAT??? HOW. WHAT. my magnum opus for real jesus fucking christ

"He wished he could have had both of them here with him, his best friends, his first loves, his everything. The two people who got to see him as a full person, and still loved him anyways. He could imagine it so clearly, Rand’s rough and thick hands holding him steady as Rolan’s slender ones explored each piece of him, the taste of alcohol and weed and smoke on his tongue as they took turns kissing him, how they’d take him, need him, love- 'What the fuck?!'" evil.... evil evil evil heheehehehehe fuck i love it so so much >:)

"His best friends, who stepped closer towards Kian, still frozen in place where he stood. Who were staring at him with so much disgust and hatred. Who’d just seen him and Jesse making out in a filthy alleyway between the hardware store and the gas station. Who looked so unfairly beautiful in the pale moonlight." he's so scared and so panicked and thinks theyre literally about to kill him and yet. he cant help but still think about how beautiful they are. look at this fucking gay ass fucker wow

"(Kill him) For tricking them into being friends with something like him." something. someTHING. not even someone like him, no, he doesnt get that luxury. the luxury of being considered human. he doesnt even allow that much to himself, hes something, hes not a person, hes. aghhhhhhhh and it only gets worse when he gets older.... to the point where he sees rolan as more human than herself... agh

"They had every right to be upset, to hate him, to want him fucking dead. He deserved whatever they would throw at him, and he’d take it, he’d let it happen. But he could at least do it as someone better than Kian." and the fact that he cant understand that thats what they want him to be. not a rockstar, just kian. they just want him as a person. but it doesn't fit with how he sees the world so he refuses to accept it

"'You coming? Or are you just going to fucking stand there for the rest of the night?' He looked to Rand, who’d stopped walking and was now just standing at the end of the alleyway, looking back at Kian." Fun fact! I couldn't decide whether I should have Rand still offer to drive him home or not. Like would his care for Kian override the disgust he felt? I wasn't sure. So I rolled a die! Can you believe that this shit could have been even angstier than it ended up?? wild

"He wanted to sit in Rand’s attic bedroom and talk about stupid shit with him and fall asleep on the spare mattress set on the floor near Rand’s bed. He wanted to wake up to Donna telling them that breakfast was ready, and race Rand downstairs to get to the kitchen first. He wanted to listen to Rachel talk about space or science stuff or any of the other things he was too fucking stupid to understand, and then tell her about music in return. He wanted to stay somewhere that actually felt like home, with an actual family, that didn’t have the smell of incense barely covering that of rotting food and whatever drugs his parents had gotten their hands on. He didn’t want that. He didn’t want to be at home. He didn’t want to be alone." pretty sure this was the first thing in a fanfic i wrote that made me cry. just. the desperate need for something that should have been such a given. for family, for love, for just any amount of care from others. and he thinks hes lost it forever. he thinks he DESERVES to lose it forever. god. why did i do that to him i didnt have to but well. i did.

"He stepped inside after her, instantly overwhelmed to the point of nausea as the smell of mold and rot and whatever else he didn’t even want to guess hit his nose. He hadn’t gotten the chance to clean in way too long since his parents always got pissy about him going through their stuff, and they hadn’t actually gone out anywhere in several weeks. He didn’t know how much longer he could handle the filth he was forced to live in." knowing his future living situations as well.... ah. delicious delicious angst :3

"But he didn’t deserve to be Kian Stone. He didn’t even deserve to be Kian. He deserved to be nothing, that nameless and unlovable child, who’d spent so many nights crying alone in this exact same room, trying to block out his parents’ sounds as they did the same with his cries. Kian Stone was attractive, Kian Stone was popular as much as he was hated, Kian Stone was a rockstar. Kian was fun, Kian was a caring and good friend, Kian was a music lover with the skills to actually make something that sounded nice. Kian Stone was someone worthy of admiration. Kian was someone worthy of attention. He wasn’t either of those things. He wasn’t worth anything." he can never see himself as deserving of love and affection because he cant even see himself as a person :D

"He stood up carefully, taking support from the wall next to him to avoid falling over. A part of him was nervous about leaving his room like this. Of his parents seeing what he’d done to himself. But a far bigger part of him was extremely aware that they wouldn’t give a shit even if they noticed. And there was a very, very small part that hoped that they would. That still wished they’d care." he still wishes that theyd care. hell forever wish that theyd care. theyre his parents, theyre supposed to love him, so why wont they? maybe they hate themselves for it just as much as he hates them (not enough)

"He couldn’t play D&D with them anymore. He’d never get to see the end of the campaign that Rand had planned for them, he couldn’t yell at the dungeon master with Rolan when he threw some absolute bullshit at them that got their favorite npc killed, couldn’t see the sketches Rand made of the characters and the monster they fought. Couldn’t theorize about everything going on with Rolan, couldn’t tell Becky about everything that had happened afterwards, his set of dice would end up collecting dust in the small box underneath his bed with no reason for them to be used anymore." ......was i thinking about how in canon they never got to finish the campaign in the end? maybe :)

"He really could not understand what Rolan’s problem with Jesse seemed to be. He knew neither of his friends had ever really liked him, mostly because in their eyes he was just an asshole jock amongst other asshole jocks, but Rand had always been the one that actually seemed to dislike him before. Obviously it made sense that they might have had something against him now that they knew he was gay, but… still." Rolan's being jealousssss and he doesn't even realize ittttttt because that would require accepting that the reason he got uncomfortable seeing Kian and Jesse making out wasn't because that's gross but because he wished he would've been in Jesse's placeeeeeeeee

"He couldn’t let them find out the truth. Not ever. He wasn’t losing them, he couldn’t lose them, they were almost all that he had. He’d rather die than live a life without them, he couldn’t fucking go back to being completely alone, unloved and either hated or ignored by everyone. He needed them to be worth anything, nobody else could ever truly care for him. And if they found out, then they couldn’t care for him either." hey. hey do you. do you think hes ever fully let go of that? That he ever moved on from the idea that if they found out he loved them, they'd cut him out for good? at the point of the therapy series rand doesn't even remember saying it. he doesn't remember implying something like that. but kian sure does <3

Just. Wow this fic is the best thing ive ever written. kiangst my beloved. i cant wait to draw parallels to this oneshot when- *gets shot before i can give any spoilers*

[unicornpopcorn14]

inspired by @sensitiveheartless comic

Thinking abt Dazai being infatuated with Chuuya's resting face after corruption.

Thinking about how he progressively ventured with how much he provided caring touches each time Chuuya is out cold.

These are the only moments he sees Chuuya completely resting, without anger or stress drawn onto his features. These are the only times Soukoku can even have silent moments between them, free of exclaims and insults.

The first few instances Dazai would just sit beside him, observe from afar the way his chest heaves and the blood trickles from his skin. The way he's completely vulnerable without a care in the world, like Dazai's presence is somehow grounding for him, safe. And isn't that the dumbest thing he'd ever concluded?

Then the Dragon Head conflict happens, and Dazai can't help but carress his hair, give him a sense of comfort after Chuuya just told him to never stop him. He doesn't hate it as much as he thought it would.

But then, as they resort to corruption more and more, he'd take a risk and hold his hand, maneuvering him to be more comfortable. It would be a pain to have Chuuya develop essential tremors for how his hands shake at these times, wouldn't it? So he'll keep them steady, never letting the blood stain the bandages, else Chuuya would figure him out.

The next time he'd hold Chuuya completely in his arms, because surely the ground can't be that comfortable, and he'd hate for his dog to get sclerosis or something.

And rarely, when they are truly alone, when Dazai is sure they're in the clear, he'd even lean forward so he's resting on Chuuya's shoulder, almost falling asleep himself. His coat is black, so it'd never show the blood smearing him everywhere. And Chuuya isn't that smart to reckon what happens when he falls asleep. It's fine.

Chuuya would be hurled the moment he conveys the smallest signs of waking up, even if he isn't waking up at all, and Dazai would collect himself with an inhale, struggling to fully accept his indulgence in these quiet moments, and knowing he'd miss them for how gradually shorter they're becoming.

And, in fact, Chuuya had already made the connection, seeing how he wakes up with blood smearing Dazai's white shirt, despite getting nullified solely by the wrist, and being wildely far away from Dazai every time at the result of being thrown, despite feeling like he was cozily held not a second earlier.

Though for how hard Dazai is trying to keep this from him, he doesn't find it in himself to be obnoxious about it. And really, he isn't awake for it anyways, so there isn't a risk of him gagging from how sappy this all is. He'll be lenient this once and grant the bastard what he guesses is some sort of comfort for him.

Thus he never brings it up.

[skunkes]

longlegs fucking sucked 😭

[livsmessydoodles]

thinking about this scene today

this scene alone convinces me that byler is endgame bc you cannot make will actively say that hes not gonna fall in love and then write a whole plotline abt him being in love with mike.... just for it to not be reciprocated???

will is the only party member who's completely unexperienced with romantic relationships, which of course has to do with the fact that he's gay in the 80's, but this is a TV show. all of this is fictional so they can take whatever route they want with these characters, and making will continue to stay alone and suffer through unrequited love would be awful storytelling, especially when people claim that will moving on from his feelings would bring character development and growth.

wills feelings for mike arent there just to "show his growth". weve seen this kid go through hell and back yet even with everything kicking him down he stays strong and kind. hes the most selfless character in the show and always puts others needs before his own. in s4, they put a lot of emphasis in these character traits of his, and they're always picturing his love for mike as something selfless and pure.

now if his feelings are not reciprocated, how does this teach will a lesson that leads to character growth?? he already doesn't expect anything. life has shown him time and time again that he always gets the short end of the stick, why would he think this is any different?? making him have feelings for his best friend just to get rejected would just be a nail in the coffin, reaffirming to him that no matter what hes not worthy of ever getting what he wishes. this isnt character growth at all.

but if his feelings ARE requited, that gives us a twist to the story we havent seen. we would get to see actual growth for will, him learning to give himself value and realize that he DOES deserve happiness!! instead of leading into the expected spiral of bad things keeping up the consistency with everything else that has happened to will so far, finally giving him one good thing leads to us seeing a shift in his whole nature, and wed see him dealing with things he hasnt dealt with before!!! GROWTH!!!

besides why would they make such an intricate complicated storyline.... just to lead to a rejection we all saw coming? the GA expects him to get rejected. his feelings not being reciprocated would not be any surprise. but twisting those expectations in a way to shock the GA AND give wills character the happiness he so deserves after being through so much..... now THAT would be world shattering and a satisfying ending to both the viewers and will himself!!

this scene establishes a clear subversion trope, making us aware of how will believes he's never finding love, just for the show to later on subvert expectations and reward will with the love he deserves and never thought hed get🫶

[formereldestdaughter]

ok wait i need to hear more of your thoughts on peeta owning a bakery....

This is one of those rare times where I’m pretty sure this anon isn’t someone I know personally bc I’ve subjected anyone who will listen to my rant about the Peeta Bakery Headcanon. Anyway, you’re gonna regret asking this anon bc there are fucking Layers here.

I know this is probably a controversial take based on the number of fics where I’ve seen it, but I simply do not think that Peeta would open a commercial bakery after Mockingjay!! Like on a metatextual level, I don’t think it really fits with the point of the ending of the series. It actually sort of fascinates me that it’s just such a common headcanon because the ending of Mockingjay is exceedingly vague. I think that vagueness invites us, as readers, to imagine a better world post-revolution. A world where Katniss would feel confident that her children would be safe from injustice, where she’d feel confident that her children would never know want the way she did as a child. A just world. A kinder world. Can a capitalist society ever be just? Is a capitalist society where a disabled teenager has no other means to subsist himself (or feels like there’s no other way he can be a contributing member of his community) really the post-revolution world we dream of? Is that really the best we can imagine?

(This got so insanely long I’m adding a read more lmao)

I get that showing a better world is not always the point of post-mockingjay headcanons/fics. Like there are plenty of really great post-mockingjay fics I’ve seen where, yeah, part of the fic is that society like ISN’T all that different or all that much better. I’ve seen that really well done! Hell, I’ve written them myself! It’s easy to imagine how a lot of aspects of society would not get an overhaul, a lot of the same structural inequalities would continue to exist. One headcanon that really stuck with me (I can’t remember which fic it was from) was that Peeta sells basically mail order baked goods to people on the Capitol, sending them iced cakes and pastries by train, because there are still people who were “fans” of theirs during the Games. And idk this doesn’t actually have much to do with my point lol but I liked it because it’s kind of fucked up and like! Yeah! It makes sense! If he needed money that would be a good way to make it! War often makes people rich, often for horrible reasons, and often it’s people who already have capital in the first place.

Anyway, more about the hypothetical bakery because alright. I bring up the fact that “yeah society not being all that different post-revolution and still being an unjust capitalist hellscape” could be a reason why Peeta re-opens a bakery because that’s actually never the types of fics where I see the bakery headcanon. Fics where Peeta opens a bakery are usually trying to make the exact opposite point. Like. Things are getting better, now he can open a bakery! Look at how much better the world is now, plus he’s got a bakery! Peeta is healing, that’s why he can open a bakery now! And I am so, so sorry to inform everyone who’s never had the grave misfortune of owning a family business, but there is truly nothing further from the truth lmao. Like just putting aside the immense amount of emotional baggage that Peeta has about his family, running a small business is an insane amount of work in any context and being a baker especially is physically grueling and involves early hours (and long hours) that aren’t really the best fit with the multiple ways that Peeta is disabled now. (I could go into this more because I have a lot of thoughts. But I will spare you.). I also think it’s seen throughout the books that Peeta is someone who needs time to pursue creative outlets to process his feelings and someone who values leisure and values quality time with his loved ones. And having grown up in his family’s bakery, I think he’d understand the reality that running a bakery wouldn’t leave much space of those pursuits and wouldn’t leave much space for him to have the things that keep him healthy and stable. I think he’d know that the way he is now— after two Games and the war and unspeakable torture at the hands of a dictator—isn’t compatible with the lifestyle necessary for running a commercial bakery.

And tbh with that in mind, I don’t think he’d push himself to re-open a business (one that would be a constant reminder of his dead family and his complicated relationships with them that got no closure) that would require him to sacrifice his physical and emotional well-being. Like I think he might look into the possibility, I think he might even start trying to open a bakery out of a sense of obligation/duty, maybe harboring some idea that this is who he was supposed to be, who he would've been without the Games, or that it’s this last piece of his family that can live on, or that it’s this last connection to his family so he can’t let it die too. But ultimately, I think any attempt to open a bakery wouldn’t get very far. Maybe he'd start wading into the logistical nightmare that is small business ownership and realize it's not for him (because it's probably also true that as much as him and his brothers were involved in the business, there's almost certainly parts they weren't involved with and didn't see, i.e., filing taxes). Or maybe looking into opening a bakery— how triggering it is, the stress of it— causes a downward spiral. Maybe he hates how much he's worrying everyone by unraveling. Maybe having a breakdown from the stress of just trying to open a bakery makes him realize, yeah, maybe in another life he would have ran his family’s bakery but the way he is now just doesn’t work with running a bakery, not without great sacrifices he's not willing to make. I just can’t see a bakery coming to fruition.

I know a lot of fics include Peeta deciding to reopen a bakery as a big step in his healing or include him rebuilding a bakery as part of his healing process but honestly, I think the opposite would be more true: I think Peeta either trying/failing to open a bakery or ultimately deciding not to open a bakery would be hugely healing for him. I think it would be a huge part of him accepting the way he is now as a person, his new limitations but also his strengths. I think it would be a huge part of him accepting the way his life his now and accepting that he likes his life the way it is, that he’s satisfied with his life without needing to own a bakery. I think it would be an important part of him coming to terms with the loss of his family. I think he knows he can never have things back as they were and I don’t think he would try to recreate them, especially because his family’s legacy isn’t a business. I think he’s emotionally intelligent enough and self reflective enough to realize that what mattered to him about the bakery— taking care of others by feeding them, being integrated into his community and being actively involved in it, brightening people’s days with delightful things whether that’s beautiful cakes or hearty food or delicious treats— and the things he learned from his family through the bakery, are things that he can carry on in other meaningful ways.

(Do you regret sending this ask yet, anon? Because if not, you will soon. I’m not done yet. There’s more.)

I wasn’t really sure where to put this next part in what is rapidly becoming an essay because it sort of combines the points about like “what do we imagine a post-mockingjay society to look like” with the practical difficulties of starting this bakery but here’s another thing: do people really think that the Mellarks owned the land the bakery was on?? Like, sure, the merchants are the petit bourgeois of Twelve but I still don’t imagine they really own anything. In a society where houses are assigned to people upon marriage, where property ownership and capital are so closely interconnected with citizenship (as shown by the Plinths who, by having immense capital, are able to leave their District and become citizens of the Capitol) do people really think the Mellarks would be allowed to own the land their bakery is on?? I always imagined it sort of like a tenant farming situation: the Capitol gives them the raw materials for the bakery and in return the bakery give them some absurdly high portion of their profits, or the Capitol sells them a year’s supply of raw materials at a premium on credit and at the end of the year the Mellarks have to use the money they made with those materials to pay it back, except it’s never enough to turn a profit so they always have to buy next year’s materials on credit and the cycle continues.

We (understandably) get a really skewed view of the merchant class through Katniss’s perspective so I can see why people come to the conclusion that his family owned the property and, as the last surviving member, he would’ve inherited it. I’ve seen the inheritance thing in fics a lot or a hand wavey “well Twelve was decimated to no one owns anything anymore so it can be his” or even like an almost sort of reparations type situation where he’s entitled to the land as a surviving refugee of Twelve. But I don’t know. I guess I don’t think it fits with everything else we know about Panem that the Mellarks would’ve owned that land and I think the question of whether the government would’ve let him take ownership of the land post-revolution brings up a lot of issues about the structure of society post-Mockingjay that I find more interesting to explore in other ways, especially when, from an emotional perspective, 1) I find the idea of Peeta not opening a bakery more compelling and 2) I don’t think it really fits his character arc by the end of Mockingjay to reopen a bakery, as I went on about at length above lol.

On the flip side: literally who cares!! Do whatever you want!! Headcanon whatever you want!! I get why people go for the bakery!! It’s fun, it’s wholesome, it’s a built in bakery AU that isn’t even an AU. It doesn’t matter if it’s practical or realistic!! It doesn’t need to be practical or realistic!! It’s fanfic of a dystopian YA series!! My unfortunate affliction is that I grew up in a family that owned a restaurant and that I have multiple degrees in the social sciences so I can’t see the bakery without being like “What about the overheard? What about the start up costs? Who’s spending long nights balancing the books? Is Peeta covering shifts when an employee calls in sick? Is Peeta the sole person working there until the bakery is open long enough (often a year or more) to start turning a profit? How does that sleep schedule work with his nightmares? How does that work with Katniss’s nightmares? What happens when he has an episode and suddenly needs to take the day off before he has any employees? Does the bakery just remain closed for the day? Can the profit margins withstand regular unexpected closures? Can the supplies withstand regular unexpected closures?” And if the answer is “Elliott none of those things matter he’s not doing the bakery because he needs the money but because he wants to”, then my question is why does he want to? Does he not get the same sort of satisfaction out of feeding his loved ones? Doesn’t Peeta seem like someone who would rather give away baked goods than sell them?? Doesn’t Peeta seem like someone who would prefer to make cakes for people’s special occasions upon and then when they insist on paying him for it, he only lets them “pay for the ingredients” which actually cost significantly more than he says they did??

So yeah my point is that it’s a matter of personal taste! It doesn’t fit the way I see the series but that doesn’t mean it’s like wrong, I’m not an authority on Peeta lmao.

It’s also a matter of personal taste in the sense that I find the themes that most resonate with me at the end of Mockingjay (and the end of Peeta’s arc specifically) more interesting to explore in other ways. Grief, living with loss, relearning yourself, finding hope, figuring out your place in a dramatically different world when you don’t even know who you are anymore, healing, building a new life after such complete and total destruction of your old life— those are all things I find compelling about the end of Mockingjay but for me the bakery isn’t the most compelling way to explore them.

Not to say I find the concept of the bakery totally uninteresting. I have this fic about Johanna that I’ll probably never finish where the point sort of is that, yeah, her life really isn’t all that much better after the war. It’s been years at this point and she’s still miserable and she doesn’t know how to be a person but by the end she’s trying to figure it out. And towards the end, Peeta tells her that he’s spent years sort of passively, half-heartedly trying to figure out how to inherit the land his family’s bakery was on, only to find out it was never theirs in the first place. They’d been renting it the whole time and he’d never even known as a kid. So he sort of passively, half-heartedly went on another wild goose chase to find the owner and now, finally, after years of writing to various government agencies and being sent in circles and things being barely functional, he’s managed to track down the owner. Now it’s owned by the daughter of the man who owned it when he was a kid because the original owner (who was likely up to some sketchy war crime shit) died during the war and she inherited it (the irony…). He got in contact with her and asked how much it would take for her to sell it and she told him she’s not interested in selling but in light of the situation, in light of the fact that he’d have to build a new building in order to operate a bakery, that she’d cut him a deal— she’d only require 50% of the bakery’s profits as rent instead of the 80% his family used to pay. And of course Johanna is outraged, that’s not right, the owner shouldn’t be allowed to do that, they should do something about it, they should fight back. And Peeta is like. Not interested. He was actually sort of relieved that opening wasn’t very feasible. Getting the answer was a lightbulb moment where he saw that over the years of trying to look into this, he’s built a life that he likes— one where he’s stable, where his loved ones are stable, where he’s cared for and can care for others— and he doesn’t really want to change it drastically by opening a bakery anyway. He just needed an answer, one way or another, before he could get some closure and move on. (And the point of the conversation is Johanna is having her own lightbulb moment that it’s okay to move on, it’s okay to change, it’s not a betrayal of the people and things she’s lost but that’s not my point here!!).

But anyway. That’s obviously not about running the bakery— it’s about the choice to not run one.

Anyway!! Anyway… are you satisfied anon? Is this what you wanted?

Lastly, here is my most important qualm with the bakery headcanon: must Peeta be gainfully employed? Is it not enough for him to be Katniss’s boytoy? Can’t he just paint and garden and bake and hang out with his girlfriend all day? Is that really too much to ask?

[utilitycaster]

Do you think that Laura and Marisha are deliberately making their relationship somewhat toxic and unsustainable or do you think they see the relationship as healthy? It is just so different from all of the other relationships they have been a part of and not really in a good way. Would love to get your perspective on it if you have one

I am honestly unsure. I would like to say it's deliberate. Prior to it becoming canon, in fact, I, and a lot of other people who were less than enthused by Imogen and Laudna's romance and weren't entirely sold from the start, made the case that we expected they would be talking to each other and would put together a compelling story, not the dull fluff so common in fanon. While whether it's compelling is a subjective judgment, we know for a fact they didn't talk to each other. We know for a fact Marisha was surprised by the question of "Can I kiss you," and Laura was surprised by the answer. We know from a 4SD not long after (4SD #16, Kiss and Tell) that several episodes later they still hadn't talked. We know that Marisha perceives Laudna as holding Imogen back (and that Laudna perceives herself as doing so) from the Rose City Q&A. We know that from 4SD #20 (Episode Twenty) that Laura doesn't like conflict in narrative and Marisha does, and that Laura was thrown by Laudna's regression following Ashton's attempt to absorb the shard (4SD #19, Shard Candy).

I don't know if it's deliberate or not; I don't have any extra insight that isn't public knowledge any fan can easily access. But man, it doesn't feel like these are two actors on the same page about what's going on.

I've touched on this before but mostly in tags or whisper posts but I've always felt ill at ease with a number of for lack of a better term "fandom-approved opinions" and one of the ones that has baffled me the most is this idea that Marisha and Laura have exceptional chemistry. I watched Campaign 1 knowing the endgame ships but deliberately avoiding the fandom, and Vex and Keyleth did not even once occur to me as a thing. I watched the first year of Campaign 2 without a ton of fandom interaction because I was avoiding additional C1 spoilers and it seemed crystal clear that the obvious ship was Beau and Yasha; it felt like Beau and Jester only even had enough potential for me to multiship it as my general "whomever Jester picks" for like, 30 episodes. And yet people - people who didn't even ship either of the above ships and in some cases disliked them- would just say "oh man I can't wait until we get to a campaign where we can finally explore Marisha and Laura's incredible chemistry!" and it's like. I feel like I'm the kid in the Emperor's New Clothes on this! I understand that chemistry is to an extent a matter of taste and subjectivity, but it just increasingly feels like people looked at two campaigns of tables where Ashley was frequently absent and said "well, if I want an F/F ship that's between two of the women in the cast, I guess this is what I have to work with" and repeated to themselves that a flat pamplemousse La Croix was a Piña Colada until they started to believe it. I mean if someone wants to explain it to me in good faith I suppose be my guest and I will try to take it in, but it feels like people just treat this as incontrovertible fact and if you doubt it they're like "don't you have eyes" and it's like, well, pretend I don't. Explain like I'm eyeless and five because I have never understood this. They both have more chemistry with every single other cast member; it's not all romantic but man, I didn't even buy Laudna and Imogen as platonic best friends of two years. I have never had this problem with any other pre-existing character relationships Marisha and Laura have played, platonic or otherwise. It's literally just them. I just never feel like they're quite on the same page.

Back to the relationship between Imogen and Laudna onscreen, this was easily the best conversation since the start of the gnarlrock fight, and it is my hope it doesn't fizzle out the way that did. You can't keep kissing Laudna whenever she fears she's lost forever to Delilah, Imogen. Or you can, but that won't fix the problem. Again: are you disgusted? Do you feel betrayed? If you're not, why did you say that? If you are, how will you move past it? Do you want to be with someone who never feels like they're good enough for you? Laudna, do you want to be with someone who, no matter what they say, you feel you're holding back?

Early in the campaign, my feeling was that of our current situation, switched - Imogen felt her powers were a burden and a curse and Laudna kept referring to them and to her glowingly. It's just...ships passing in the night, no pun intended here. I hope it's on purpose and whatever comes from it is a good story - and either a tragedy or a happy story could be a good one. But I have a nagging sensation that Laudna wants out but is afraid to say no, and Imogen is afraid to let go, and I honestly don't know if the actors have realized this impasse and how the characters might resolve it, one way or another, besides the insufficient bandaid of a kiss whenever the conversation gets too uncomfortable.

[cygniavenue]

been stewing on this one for a while but i said i was gonna post more of my headcanons so here's a little bittersweet tidbit;

childhood was a really rough time for Diomedes and Sthenelus (and the other younger Epigoni as well) full of a lot of grief and sorrow and confusion, and the weight of your father's legacy crushing shoulders too young to uphold it or begin to understand it. Diomedes, for the most part, doesn't even remember Tydeus. All he really knows is the idealized version of him Athena and others hold him to. Sthenelus has fleeting memories of Capaneus but refuses to remember - he only resents. Their childhood was spent being trained up to be weapons.

But even so, I do think there were moments where they got to just be kids. They built their own little fort of escape somewhere they knew would remain hidden. It took weeks of stacking rocks with what little free time they had until it was perfect, and it was theirs, and it was somewhere where they didn't have to be wise beyond their years.

They eventually forgot about it as they got older. They sacked Thebes, Diomedes restored Oeneus to the throne, and then the Trojan War happened, and all the things in between being on the battlefield - getting married, becoming kings, Sthenelus even had children of his own. The fort lay forgotten and untouched, a reservoir of good memories they'd both buried a long time ago.

And then, when they're fleeing Argos, they find it again, reclaimed by the vines and the leaves. All their old stuff is in there still, little wooden swords and shields, animal and soldier figurines, drawings they etched into the rocks. It's the only place they ever had that wasn't overrun by sorrow, where they weren't forced to fill the shoes of men they don't (or refuse to) remember.

But there's just no time left. They have to leave it knowing they'll never see it again. All they can do is hope they can hold onto a fragment of the tranquility their younger selves buried there.

[deadqueernoldor]

Thinking thoughts about those from Cuivienen and how they later treated the Valar, especially after Cuivienen was destroyed.

I imagine a foundation of sorrow and a layer of betrayal and pettiness. They had promised safety. And how did it turn out? Kin of Tata and Tatie their first leaders, slain in Valinor by the Dark Hunter from which the Valar promised protection in Valinor.

And then, the War of Wrath comes and with it the destruction of Cuivienen.

If any of those were re-embodied in Aman, I wonder if they make it a point to always turn their back to Valar and Maiar. I wonder if they only speak in the tongue they had first devised all those millennia ago and spoke in Cuivienen before time and different kindreds changed the tongue, not Sindarin or Quenya from the Great Journey's time or later. I wonder if they sing songs in their ancient tongue, songs about the beauty and unsullied health of Cuivienen every time any of the Ainur are near.

I wonder if the Valar feel any shame when those who they once looked upon in wonder and love gaze back at them with indifference or disgust.

[perditus]

Closed starter for @empyreanparadisaea || x

“ Meet back here when you’re done. Don’t worry about taking your time I’d rather you be thorough than miss something. If we need to spend a few days then so be it. ”

An affirmative, followed by all-too-familiar bickering, is the only response the Duke receives as the trio ventures off towards the Sumuru Akademiya. Jurieu and Lourvine are intelligent enough to make up for whatever consistent quarrel they had with each other thankfully. Otherwise, Wriothesley might not have endured it for as long as he had. 

Unfortunately the guard he sends with them doesn’t seem as resilient, but the Duke’s word is law. 

Once the trio has finally departed, Wriothesley sets his sights on the local market. Officially they were there to gather information for their current project, something Wriothesley had decided was too important to leave to normal guards. Clorinde had been paid a significant sum of mora to watch over the Fortress while he’s away while Sigwenne had simply volunteered to help as well. He had a sneaking suspicion they were a little too eager to agree just to get him out of the Fortress but he didn’t press.

Admittedly he was just a little excited about browsing their tea selection as their brews had always been his favorite. That was how he ended up walking through the streets of Sumuru city, eyeing the different stalls and their wares. He stuck out like a sore thumb though, the darker shades of his outfit contrasting heavily with the brighter colors of Sumuru. 

The humidity was giving him cause to reevaluate his outfit decisions though.

After a few minutes of scoping out the area he doesn't seem to find the types of stalls he's after. Their wares are high quality but mostly fabrics and small nick knacks instead of the tea leaves and vegetables he was searching for. So, instead of wasting his time walking around everywhere his eyes lock on to the first resident he notices, clearing his throat slightly when he approaches them.

" Ah, sorry to buy ya but I don't seem to know this place as well as I thought. I'm lookin' for the stalls that sell more like food. Care to guide a stranger? I'll pay you for your troubles"

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

How would the SVE adventurers and mages react to the fact that the Farmer gave peace to the shadow people by bringing the souls of their loved ones to them? We see Magnus and Marlon be very confused about why the shadow people are acting so weird (I.E not attacking anymore), so how would they and the others feel about getting the news that the Farmer just... casually brought peace between the shadow people and humans just because they could? (Also, sorry if I'm flooding your inbox too much I just really like your content-)

Please don't ever feel like you're flooding here. I'm always happy to see you and others in my askbox ☺️💕 Thanks so much for the question, hope you enjoy it!

Be warned - this post is so, so long....

_________________________________________

Absolutely everyone has noticed a change in the behavior of the shadow people..... In the mines of the Stardew Valley, in the Highland caves, even in the Crimson Baldlans. Everywhere this civilization resided, great changes had taken place.

A topic that became a furor for all the inhabitants of the magical world. The young monster hunters in the recent reports that the shadow shamans, instead of their usual aggression towards them, had simply... retreated. Where? Why? Mages have been discussing for days now that they have stopped noticing shadow people at all in their raids.

All of this did not go unnoticed, and the Ministry of Magic along with the Order of Pythagoras became very worried because of such a drastic change in the monsters' behavior. The Guild heads and the First wizard and witches already called several secret meetings in a row to find out who or what caused this event.

Farmer's friends and acquaintances were also there, puzzling over whether this was a dark plan by a renegade mage to gather an army of shadow people to storm the Crimson Badlands, or an initiative by the shadow people themselves in retaliation to humanity for past wrongs?

Few people realized later that it was enough to ask a young and chaotic farmer to find out the truth about all this...

_________________________________________

Aside from his complete willingness to protect people at the cost of his own life, Lance admits that all the fuss has sparked a genuine curiosity and desire to capture all the details in his book. He still considers the shadow people to be something more than a bunch of mindless and ruthless monsters and hopes that he won't have to spill anyone else's blood. If the pink-haired adventurer is lucky, maybe he can figure out what's going on with shadow people and finish his book.

Whatever the top wizards and adventurers accept, Alesia prepares for a fight. The battle sniper will start training the young warriors of Castle Village even harder, check all the positions of the main wall protecting the settlement, give orders to replenish the arsenal with all weapons, organize shelters in case of irreparable situation.... All hard work, for the sake of saving the people Alesia swore to defend to the last drop of blood.

If the adventurers under Alesia's command had a hard time with the increased training, then for those with Isaac as their boss, the following days became a living hell. No rest, no indulgences. "The monsters will not give you a second to rest or to be weak. Focus!" - was a phrase that had become imprinted on young minds during the training. But Isaac can be understood: he does everything he can to ensure that his charges can defend themselves and others. He doesn't spare himself either: training - sleep, training - sleep. That's his schedule for now.

Jolyne was serious about training her Guild members not only in the use of weapons, but also in battle magic. She has no doubts about Lance's ability to defend himself, but the wise woman worries for the safety of the younger members of The First Slash Clan. Especially if the source of the threat turns out to be the Gotoro Empire, it will be her Guild that will receive the first and most powerful blow from the enemy on the other side of the Gem Sea... So Jolyne can't afford to relax.

While everyone is making a fuss about the shadow people, Camilla has been using all her connections in the magical and non-magical worlds to find out what happened and where. Since the head witch doesn't want to cause any more panic (and also doesn't want the conservative old farts in the Ministry to get in her way), she has quietly begun her search for the cause of the monsters' behaviour. While her own search for the truth began, Camilla quietly poured herself some tea and snacked on sweets, smiling and pretending to take it lightly again so that she would be left alone.

Jadu will sit in the front rows of the meetings and listen to every word of the magicians of the highest rank. He is excited and intrigued - it has been a long time since such a large-scale event, covered with mystery, has taken place in history. And the young mage promised himself to be the first to solve this mystery! Naturally, people's safety is paramount, but Jadu, if possible, won't miss a chance to learn something new about monster behaviour or maybe even a new spell.

Magnus and Marlon were not as excited as the young Castle Village mage. Old and wise, they know for a fact that none of this can bode well. The one-eyed adventurer has sunk even further into depressed thoughts after the day he discovered in the mines that the behavior of the shadow people has changed drastically. Marlon is also worried about the young Guild member, lest they get into trouble because of all this. Magnus, on the other hand, is fully immersed in theories about what this could mean and who might be involved, but also supporting Marlon's concern for Farmer's safety. They're also worried about Krobus's safety, and wondering how to discreetly hide them from the Order when-

Krobus! Of course! And why didn't they immediately realize to ask their shadow friend?

_________________________________________

Leaving the meeting unnoticed, Marlon and Magnus instantly teleported to the sewers beneath Pelican Town, accidentally scaring poor Krobus in the process. After apologising, the purple-haired wizard and the one-eyed adventurer began to ask about what had happened to the shadow people?

''Oh, didn't the Farmer tell you? We made peace. Can you believe this? Peace, finally... With the humans. I didn't think I'd ever see it, but my people are no longer fighting your people. We have a chance to become friends, all thanks to the kindness and endeavour of our friend Farmer. How happy I am!"

Except that it couldn't be said that after hearing this, the old men's faces directly shone with joy. Of course, they both breathed a sigh of relief at the realization that there was no secret conspiracy here, and peace in general after years of confrontation between humans and shadow people. But the fact that Farmer hadn't told anyone about it made them angry. Very angry.

Oh, here comes the culprit of the celebration and all this chaos! Farmer had deigned to come down to the sewers, wanted to treat Krobus to a pumpkin. Except that the young troublemaker didn't expect to see their mentors.... with furious expression. In a moment, Marlon had grabbed Farmer by the collar of their shirt, while Wizard with a snap of his fingers, had moved all three of them into his tower, leaving a confused Krobus with a pumpkin alone.

When Magnus teleported in the tower, he had time to call all the people he had decided to tell for the outcome of the incident. Marlon let go of the frightened Farmer, and barely suppressed the urge to lightly slap them upside the head. He was proud of his apprentice and fellow Guild member's achievement, but not to tell anyone about the peace while everyone else was pissing themselves from stress and training. Even though Farmer didn't know what was happening in Castle Village and elsewhere, it didn't negate the fact that it was their duty to report such important events.

Farmer's familiars teleported over to them in a little less than a minute: first Camilla, as always the first to learn about the news, followed later by Lance and Jolyne, and then Alesia, Isaac, and Jadu.

Magnus decided not to feel sorry for the Farmer this time:

"Well, young one. Is there anything you want to tell us?"

Everyone turned their eyes to Farmer, who craned their head into his shoulders from the scrutiny. Sighing tiredly, the Farmer began their story..... The only difference, though, was not to mention Krobus, so as not to expose their friend to danger, and Magnus and Marlon were grateful for that. But outwardly they didn't show it.

_________________________________________

When Farmer finished their story, there was a heavy silence. With an indignant half-cry of "What?!" Isaac was the first to break the silence. It didn't take long for the profanity to be hurled in the direction of the careless adventurer who had taken their duties so lightly and failed to report for peace with the shadow people. Isaac was angry, furious. So many days of training to learn such truth? Sure, he wouldn't want unnecessary violence and blood, but what the fuck does the Farmer allow themself!

Alesia was more well mannered, but also spoke out with annoyance at Farmer's lack of seriousness about their duties. They should have immediately reported to the head of the Guild or other senior adventurers first. But they didn't think it was important. A serious lapse in discipline.

To be honest - Jadu wasn't as angry as he was intrigued at what the Farmer had done. Peace? With shadow people? That's so exciting! A whole historical event, and when the others are done with their scolding Farmer, Jadu is sure to ask Farmer so many questions about current event.

Lance breathed a sigh of relief as he realised that there was no dire danger. At least not yet. The only one of them to smile sympathetically at Farmer as they blushed under the onslaught of scolding. He, like Jadu, is very interested in asking Farmer questions about how they were able to accomplish what people in the past couldn't. Farmer is a true peacemaker, and Lance bows to the heroism and bravery of the young adventurer. But praise will come later, now it is scolding, for this could have ended in injury, or even death, for Farmer.

Jolyne, on the other hand, decided to cross her arms and watch Farmer blush with a predatory smile. Camilla joined the head of The First Slash and silently watched this funny situation. What was interesting was that both Jolyne and Camilla had guessed Farmer's involvement even before Magnus and Marlon left the meeting, back then. Camilla's connections pointed to Farmer having become suddenly involved in soul gathering at Crimson Baldlans more recently. While Jolyne had seen Farmer leaving the Mines the day the shadow people's behaviour changed. She had been visiting Marlon then, and hadn't paid much attention to Farmer. She should have. Well, all is well now, and she and Camilla are enjoying the comedic situation.

Magnus and Marlon have the last word, as the official mentors of the most chaotic Farmer in the entire world. Farmer were the most unpleasant to listen to their chastisement, with a face the colour of a tomato.

But after the heavy scolding, both mentors thanked Farmer for their exploit, not forgetting to say how proud they were of them. This made the Farmer's mind go even further into a stupor. Even though Farmer had not intentionally created this chaos, and the fact that it could have ended badly for them, none of the people present dared to deny the fact that Farmer had once again done the impossible and that they were grateful for this peace. Everyone agreed with Marlon and Magnus's words, even the grumpy Isaac, and asked that in the future if anything happened, to let them know.

So much for the life and adventures of the disaster Farmer...

[cerealmonster15]

IM GOING TO TALK ABOUT ALHAITHAM AND KAVEH AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

i love this fuckin argument kaveh and alhaitham have on the port ormos bulletin board

it's one of those instances where kaveh and alhaitham are arguing and alhaitham is saying that like, while he disagrees with kaveh lol, he also doesnt deny theres truth to what kaveh says.

but i also think it's funny how alhaitham is like "end of conversation. ALSO-" like bitch you kept going IMMEDIATELY fkjsjfklds and then that stupid bit where theyre like "he said this" "he did not fucking say that" "he did" "no he didnt fuck you" "he did give me a month ill prove it!!!!" THEYRE FIGHTING LIKE CHILDREN ON A PUBLIC MESSAGE BOARD😭😭😭

also i have this one bit stuck forever in my mind from kavehs hang out

[video source i screenshot from]

MAYBE im reading into it way too much bc i have terminal haikaveh brain. maybe. BUT!!!! art is subjective i can do what i want :^) anyway i think a lot about this part because TO ME it sounds like kaveh keeps assuming the worst from alhaitham - makes sense, they argue all the time and they def have a turbulent relationship. HOWEVER!!!!! while alhaitham does like poking fun at kaveh and gets annoyed with him dskjfdsklf i FEEL LIKE theres an implication that he like, does not enjoy seeing kaveh suffer the way kaveh just assumes he does.

like here, kaveh is like oh, youre not hoping to see me make a fool of myself are you >:(?? just bc alhaitham was like. in a location unexpectedly. lol. and then alhaithams phrasing is just so specific where he like, doesnt say yes but doesnt say no either lol. hes like "oh so you think i get joy from seeing you in pain day in and day out? well if that were true id be entertained always because youre always in distress"

but like. I DUNNO MAYBE IM BEING STUPID BUT JKSDLFJDKL to ME it felt like he was deflecting the question. to be fair it was a silly question so maybe alhaitham didnt think it worth answering lololol but like "are you here to watch me struggle" "why do you assume i enjoy you struggling" is the vibe i get. but then with bullying also bc alhaitham is still poking at him and his distresses lol jdkslfdskl

and then like the moment the traveler is about to be like "kavehs feeling sad" and kaveh tries to deflect it, i personally think alhaitham managed to come up with a distraction to get kaveh to walk away for a minute so he could hear about kavehs troubles bc hes IMMEDIATELY LIKE

ok now that hes gone tell me about kaveh and his issues. and then goes on to explain kaveh and his behavior

and there are SEVERAL INSTANCES i mean this is an obvious thing lol but like, many such cases where kaveh and alhaitham will be like "yeah this guy is incredibly smart but his personality is fucking unbearable" i just enjoy that as much as they rag on each other theyre still like "no he is a genius though im not gonna deny that" AND ALSO [help]

alhaitham says stuff like this a few times, i think hes got a teapot line or so where he says similar things 🤔 but hes like "yeah people go about their lives doing different things and thats fine everyone should stay in their lane as long as theyre not disrupting the lives of others" AND YET!!!!!!!!!!!! he and kaveh endlessly fight with each other on how they go about their lives. trying to get the other to see their way of thinking even though i think they both acknowledge [or it says somewhere in the lore that they do] that it is a losing battle bc theyre both really set in how they see things and their methods of doing things. I JUST FIND IT REALLY INTERESTING that alhaitham is like, "mind your business and ill mind my business what ever bye" but when it comes to kaveh hes like. no actually i have to debate you. the way you feel isnt wrong however your actions make your life really hard for yourself and you could be living better if you changed" like he cannot stay in his lane when kaveh is involved!!!!! and like the whole reason he's even IN the parade of providence event at all was bc he was pursuing a thread of research that he figured out was connected to kavehs dad and his disappearance!!! mister "i dont want to get involved if it doesnt disrupt my life" got involved to give his boy some closure on the haunting of his dead father!!!!!!!!!! I am going to explode now goodbye!!!!

[spectacular-supernova]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PRESIDENT OF TONARI CLUB!

I, uh, m-made something f-for you.

Know that I'm totally embarrassing my ass over here, so... Don't laugh loud enough that I can hear you from over here!

Aaaaaand now, per Lyndis tradition, I'm gonna overexplain shits and turn a simple Ask into a whole ass Ramble!

-----------------------------(why is there no "Read More" partition in an Ask? I'm so embarrassed right now goddamn it)-------------------------

If you're short-sighted, try removing your glasses or contact lenses and look at this picture. I just did and it's suddenly even prettier!

I actually planned to draw your Sonicsona at first. And then I realized I deadass couldn't even draw Base Sonic. Then I thought I should draw a mole. I realized I also couldn't draw a mole. I thought I should just go for the easiest shit and draw ToFu. I realized I could not draw either one of them, too.

Because I cannot draw, I cheat! I mean I turn things into shapes (chiefly triangles, though not all of them) and then color them and hope that something shows up. This is me using this scientific /+ philosophical concept called Emergence.

No, I didn't just say THAT to sound like I have a technique of any kind, trust. It's so totally a technique—my very productive ass told me.

I remember you saying your favorite color is something like pink, blue, and stuff? It was from that tag game from last year. Hence, I decided I should create a context so I could draw an obscene amount of pink and blue.

If I'm being honest, it took me less than a millisecond to come up with the exact context—Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom is abundantly blue.

And since I always wanted to sneak ToFu in, I thought I would make a purplish-pink dusk. And then I will sneak those stargazing two in.

Come on. Everyone knows those ToFu panels. Even someone like me, who had not seen that part of the manga yet, knows.

Bless Tonari for being so relaxing to color.

HOWEVER! Fushi's limited-ass color presented a big problem for my cheat-drawing. How many combinations of "white" can you even make before you zoom out and see... nothing?! So I basically sabotaged them. That's what you get for being difficult, you mopey, neck-crick-possessing, fragile-enough-to-be-blown-by-the-wind cutie doofus.

I made up the color of their pants. I didn't even refer to their Nameless Boy drip when I decided on the color. I assed that part.

Yes. I admit I put a shit ton of effort into coloring Zelda. This version of Zelda is my kin, you know. Anyway, I like the way her, uh, shirt turned out.

I also like how the Master Sword turned out, but there was so much blue I ended up requiring outlines to distinguish it from Link's shirt and the sky. Told ya I have no technique or skill. I cheat through and through

I was too lazy to draw those sky islands. Besides, the ToTK side is already saturated with details.

What the fuck issa "proportion?" Everyone's head is an orange. The difference, Nova, is whether it's a Mandarin Orange or an Orange.

I don't know if I overdid Dinraal's draconic mane. It looks like she's wearing a wig. At least she is different from how she initially looked—a red tapeworm outfitted with chicken legs.

I admit I put more effort than any Past Me would have into Dinraal because a certain mutual is very, ah, particular about dragons.

Drawing two of your favorite ships for their show of devotion was a completely deliberative choice on my end. Did you also realize that both Link and Fushi had a short, small, low ponytail and that both Zelda and Tonari had similar hair? I believe it's due to me hitting my drawing skill limitation.

There is actually an Easter Egg of some sort in this picture. It's not the ugly doodle thing, no. That thing is me. I'm not an Easter Egg; I'm a ghost.

I'm not telling you what that Easter Egg is. I'm fine with it never being discovered; it'd be like those secret levels in old video games.

But if you DID discover it, come tell me what you think it is!

---------------

I hope you like it enough! Instead of it giving you a migraine, that is. Surely my """art"""... doesn't require a trigger warning... right?

Have a good one, mai bruzha!

---Lyn

A RAMBLE FROM YOU LYN IS THE BEST POSSIBLE BRITHDAY PRESENT I COULD HAVE EVER RECEIVED!!!! COUPLED WITH ART BY YOU????? AND OF MY FAVORITE FELLAS????? What did I deserve to be so blessed ;A; 💕💕💕

I’ll spare us all a little extra scrolling on my part by adding that read more you were fretting about, I have my own ramble upcoming!

I KNOW YOURE ON YOURSELF ABOUT NOT BEING ARTISTIC OR WHATEVER BUT THIS IS ART!!! AND DAMN GOOD ART TOO!!!!!!! This is!!!!!!!!!!! I want this made into stained glass I want to make this the permanent window to me bed roOM LYN THIS IS AMAZING THIS IS ALMOST CERTAINLY GOING DOWN AS ONE OF MY FAVORITE ART STYLES!!!! There’s no such thing as cheating in art, it’s all art!!! “Cheating” is a style, no technique is a style!!! I should know I have none either, hehe -w-‘ your art may be some type of cubism? Hehe idk I’m not an art student :3 Either way this is absolutely gorgeous I’m in LOVE!!!

It’s so creative and well done and I LOVE your eye for detail, the lighting is inspired!!!! Like the way the sun hits the space behind Zelda is so pretty, AND ZELDA IS SO PRETTY!!!!!! EVERYRHING IS SO PRETTY, I CANT FOCUS ON ONE THING BECAUSE I KEEP JUMPING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN ALL THE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT IT (every thing, every last detail!!! Is that a little you in the middle? Is that the Easter egg???? I could just pick you up and pat your little head!!! 😭 I know you don’t love hugs but that’s how I’ll be standing if you’re ever ready for one!!!)

I should slow down maybe and pick a few things to focus on BUT I JUST CANT I LOVE IT ALL!!!! The two scenes just blend so well into one another that my eyes are just naturally being drawn back and forth between both of the scenery! Dinraal, who turned out AMAZIING BY THE WAY, ABSOLUTELY NOT OVERDONE, if anything I’m so glad you had fun working on her!!! She’s so gorgeous!!!! I bet your friend is so so proud of how well she looks!!! Oh but anyway, Dinraal naturally leads my eyes over to the sun/moon (and the 24, hehe, thank you!!! /)//(\ Your memory is astounding!!), which have their own beautiful rays of light leading down onto the adorable couples 😭 I love love LOVE the moonlight leading down onto Tonari and Fushi, and the fact that she’s pointing at it too like she can almost reach it? Beautiful! Gorgeous!!! And it just leads my eyes down to them too, there’s just such a natural circular flow here, no wonder I keep getting caught in a loop of admiration! 😁

The blues and the pinks, and the stars on the ToFu side!!! I just noticed them and they’re everything to me!!!! Hahaha I’m so glad Tonari was relaxing to color hehe, same for me, something about her is just so lovely and calming when she’s relaxed 🥰 As for Fushi’s colors, I didn’t notice! Even after you pointed it out it looks good to me! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ this is from someone who never references colors though, I’m so loosey goosey about everything -w- BUT YOUR SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEM WAS GREAT, THEIR SHAPE IS VERY VISIBLE AND EASY TO MAKE OUT hehe :3 I love their crossed little legs 🥰

Zelda being your kin is so good to know hehe, I’ve always been drawn to all versions of Link myself! I think we’ve been perfectly set up to “play dolls” with these characters in the future, so to speak! Aaaahh they can’t have been easy to draw, there’s a reason I almost never dabble in drawing those two and their intricate outfits, but you make it look effortless!!! Zelda’s shirt turned out amazing, and I’m stuck looking at her little triangle braids!!!! I don’t know why I’m so fixated on that it’s just adorable!!! 😭💕 What a lovely technique, man, I’m so enchanted! AND THE MASTER SWORD, I know you called it cheating BUT I LOVE THE LINE WORK, it makes the sword stand out, almost like you lined that specific part with some sort of melted gold??? Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

This is gorgeous and beautiful in every which way and thank you!!!! For everything!!! For this beautiful drawing and for giving me a chance to ramble and giving me something gorgeous to look at for the rest of my day, and for indulging in both of my silly little ships /)//(\ I’m so glad I don’t need glasses because I love every inch of your art, thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!!! Gosh it’s so so so lovely 😭💕 you’re so lovely!!!!

I don’t know how to say goodbye so I guess I’ll just say good night for now! Thank you for thinking of me… I’ll have a wonderful day, so long as you promise me you’ll have a wonderful night along side me 🥰

Goodnight, Mai Bruzha!

- Nova

[thaliasthunder]

ive bever seen a post actually praising tsats preview so:

usually dreams being portrayed in books are my least favorite part of them, they annoy me. and it's bc my brain automatically stops working and suddenly im incapable of interpreting absolutely anything that appears in them since the very first line where the protagonist is mentioned to be asleep and dreaming. for instance in SOM that dream percy had 'bout thalia? i was like "yes thalia appears in his dream and they're in a classroom, for some reason, but ????what the actual FUCK is this supposed to mean ¿¿¿" dreams for me in books are too ambiguous, too hard to comprend bc they're too purposely symbolic that i feel like im walking blindfolded whenever a dream comes up in a book; and since i dont understand shit neither care about it i almost instantly forget them bc they're not actual events in the story. but the tsats prev was nothing like it! i could clearly interpret and understand the reason why of every detail of nico's dream, whether if it was bc i've already hyper psychoanalized nico before and know the reason why he's heavily traumatized or for M.O writing it very detailed, well structured to actually making sense, i honestly couldnt care less bc for once i didnt feel lost in a dream at all! it was intense and i loved it til the point of picking the dream part of tsats as my favorite from the preview <3

[no-brain-just-akutagawa]

[ID: An edited "A platypus? Perry the platypus?!" meme. In the first picture Doofenshmirtz looks at a piece of paper and says surprised "A pretty devil hunter?". In the picture next to it Aki is brushing his teeth with his hair down. In the bottom row in the first picture a shocked Doofenshmirtz says "Aki the pretty devil hunter?!". In the last picture Aki is looking in the mirror with his hair up. End ID]

[braisedhoney]

please tell me about the pigments i would love nothing more than to hear you talk about that one shade of red you like and the process it took too recreate it

... oh, op. you have no idea what you've unleashed.

alright. here we go.

OKAY SO THE RED PIGMENT. pr206. my beloved. my dearest friend. it was an absolute bastard to find because there are so many of these. however many you think there are, there are MORE, and that's only if you don't count the many many scenarios where colors are known to be multi-pigment mixes, usually varying in tone/shade/intensity depending on the brand and manufacturing style. some colors are more consistent than others, but there are situations where a color can be named the same and contain the same pigments and STILL look wildly different depending on the ratio, binder, and paper you use. and that's not accounting for the way the pigment is processed. some pigments (like pv19 for example) can come in so many shades it's frankly kind of ridiculous.

anyway, my quest begins when i am, admittedly, in an edgier phase. i want a blood red, but not specifically because of that—no, i want it because it is THE IDEAL COLOR (to me) for a perfect, warm, slightly muted but still intense shade to add to a muted autumn watercolor palette. and... if you look at my whole theme, you probably know how much i love warm colors. i want to paint mushrooms. i want to dim down some of the brighter greens to make them autumnal. i want the perfect red to put as an undertone.

the search starts in earnest.

the immediate issue is this: reds (and purples and pinks) have horrifically bad lightfastness. not all of them, mind, but many are NOTORIOUS for fading under uv light, which means they will also fade if exposed to sunlight even in passing should it happen often enough. and—in especially bad cases where they're essentially working with dye and not pigment—they can even fade inside your notebook. inside of a drawer.

so not only are we working with an unfortunate pigment base (i'm simplifying here, there's way more nuance to this but shh) but we are working with one that skews heavily toward floral pinks or oranges. the red i'm searching for is warm, but not orange. dries dark but not brown. is transparent, not opaque. that last part is agonizing, because i also desperately do not want a color that will fade on me or generally destabilize, and most of the stable dark red pigments are EARTH pigments like red ochre (pr101) or the like. which, while fascinating because of their historical usage in things like pottery and even cave paintings that last to the modern day, are VERY OPAQUE. this is an issue with my preferred style of watercolor painting specifically, because opaque pigments tend to lift easier off the page and limit layering.

the search continues. pigment after pigment breaks my heart for one reason or another, drying too close to the cooler purpleish-red tint of wine at best. i think i find it in perylene maroon, but the drying shift (the difference between how a color looks wet vs after it dries on the paper) is so extreme that it loses the luminosity AND it's more opaque than most. i languish.

for a while my search turns to creation. i try and mix as many of my single pigment colors as i can into something that vaguely resembles what i'm looking for—so i take quinacridones and mix them with napthols, with nickel azos, with dashes of ultramarines and burnt sienna. everything turns out either just a bit too opaque, just a bit too muddy (that happens with multi-pigment mixtures, and is why so many people swear by single pigment colors. it's personal preference, really, great art can be made either way.)

still, nothing works. failure haunts me. i sit before a pile of used up watercolor paper that is literally covered edge to edge in nothing but similar red squares with various gradients and blooms as evidence of when i tried and failed to convince myself my efforts were close enough. i admit defeat.

in the meantime i shift my focus. i try and appreciate different color palettes and profiles, experimenting with things like fully transparent palettes (personal favroite) to fully opaque ones that function more like gouache. but despite finding appreciation for it, i still think about the damn red that i could never recreate. it kills me.

and then one day, a youtube video. a pigment is being discontinued, and the watercolor community is distressed. this happens a lot, because pigments are actually not always popular because of artists—sometimes beloved colors are put out of production because larger markets like car companies no longer find them popular enough to invest in. this time, the casualty is pr206, aka brown madder, aka quinacridone burnt scarlet.

let me tell you a little about quinacridones. they are genuinely remarkable colors. they have their own cult followings because of how bright and abnormally stable they are under uv light. they're transparent. they're luminous. they come in mostly shades of red and pink and purple, though there are a couple oranges and yellows in there. (there are no quinacridone blues, as far as i'm aware, but the phthalo blues have that category covered.) they also rewet beautifully, so you can put them on your palette and let them dry and not worry about it turning into a useless little rock of color that you can't get any pigment from anymore.

quinacridone magenta (pr122) is probably the most popular of these, the most often used besides maybe quinacridone violet (pv19). a few years prior we suffered the loss of quinacridone gold (po49) and since then people have been On Alert when it comes to losing these colors. i am one of them, because i never got the chance to even see po49 in person, and now the tubes are so stupid expensive that even the student grade versions go for Ridiculously High Prices on ebay, and the professional brands are being hoarded like (ironically) gold by anyone lucky enough to have a tube left over.

but back to our main character. not me, the pigment. pr206. i have legitimately never heard of this one, which to be fair is probably because i try to limit the random colors i fixate on since the hobby can easily get VERY expensive if you aren't careful. but it's a quinacridone, and that catches my eye.

i open the video.

now, i'm sure any artist out there will be familiar with the fact that screens don't display color consistently. it depends on your device, but most can agree that something that looks cooler on one may be warmer on the other, it's just what happens. but i see this color being swatched, and my brain implodes.

it's almost a perfect match.

it could work. it could. years of thinking that same thought have left me bereft and mistrustful of this specific quest marker, but the thought refuses to leave me. probably because the 'discontinued' label flashes like a neon sign.

i resist for about six months, and then i cave. at this point i have genuinely been trying and failing to find this color for upwards of five years. i am desperate, and the color might not be available anymore soon anyway, and apparently i am weak to sales pitches. (note: the color IS now unavailable in some brands, but others bought a decent supply and should have it available for at least a little while, alongside po48 which is quinacridone burnt orange, a favorite of mine and probably one of the only oranges i use regularly. both are discontinued officially, but they'll still be on sale till those supplies run dry.)

the color arrives. i grab my favorite brush. i pull out my stash of paper that i save for special occasions.

it's almost perfect.

i mix it with quinacridone burnt orange.

the result is, i swear, a perfect match for what i have been searching for.

it's warm. it dries dark but not dark enough to look brown. it keeps its luminosity (thank you quinacridones). it's fully transparent (thank you quinacridones). i genuinely feel the urge to weep, but i don't because i am clinging at last to the dredges of my sanity and also salt makes watercolor pigments behave differently and i will not risk this glorious moment. finally, after all these years, bill cipher has a gun i found the goddamn COLOR.

i mix it with warm yellows and with my favorite blues. with the pinks, just to laugh. life is beautiful and i am painting its sunsets, and i do not care if they look ridiculously messy. i have won.

the moral of the story is to never give up. or maybe it's to remember you never actually know everything about even the fields you love the most, because this color totally blindsided me despite being much more common than i expected. or maybe it's that i seriously needed to chill out for a while.

but yes. that is the tale of one (1) of the colors that has taken up residence in my soul. i hope you don't regret asking now lmao.

[autisticaradiamegido]

hi thank you for all the aradia love this blog

do you have a favorite headcanon about her, even a very small/niche one?

day 284

well i assume u mean aside from the one in the blog title lol

a fun one is this dumb imaginary report card i imagine sometimes

obviously i interpret her as autistic, but i also think shes asexual, sssomewhere on the aro spectrum? and agender! which is all fun because her name also starts with a. call that a straight-A student