#a spark of magic

[botanicallyinclinednerd]

Quick, someone suggest something for me to do that isnt think about my WIP that has existed in some form or another for nearly a decade and i havent meaningfully developed in over a year

[stardustandrockets]

Coming up with questions is hard, ask me anything.

I've been seeing Peince of the Sorrows everywhere. I believe Rainbow Crate us the 3rd box I've seen feature it now? Which is cool for indie authors when their books get featured. I'm excited to read it because it sounds right up my alley. I'm happy to have this gorgeous edition in my collection!

Alternate dust jacket art by @houda_belgharbi.art, foiled hardcase by @jamielynnlano, and end papers by @morlev_art

Book also includes ruby gilded edges, a sneak peak at book 2, bound-in author letter, and signed art bookplate

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I love you Safety Wizard.

(Inspired by @keroascrazy)

[cracklewink]

My Mane 6 Redesigns all together! I was going to post them separately but ended up finishing them all before I got around to it lol

[redactedhaunt]

page entry for "a spark for us fanzine" hosted by @dulcesilly and @spoopyjupiart @_starry.clover_ on instagram ⭐️✨️

[the-mang0tree]

Okay so human au for tfo what would be the human equivalent of them getting te-cogs like do they just get magic rocks and the have some crazy growth spurt or something else…? 

Love your art btw

maybe it's like magic??? they don't get a cog but Receive a 'spark' that yeah, gives them a growth spurt like u said, and also gives them.. um.. Magic Weapons & abilities.. and Magic.. vehicles.... ?

thank you !!!! <3

[madcat-world]

Falling Sparks - Artem Chebokha

[cinalilli]

[littjara-mirrorlake]

The Color of Hope: Ambition, Necromancy, and Black Mana

Black is one of the most misunderstood colors in Magic: the Gathering, not least because it appears on the surface to be so straightforward. Look at the most iconic black cards of Magic and you'll see deals with demons, necromancy, mass destruction and cruelty and suffering–the trappings of classic fantasy evil. Even the color's symbol itself is a skull, a universal signifier of death and danger.

And in early Magic that seemed to be all it was. White was the color of Fantasy Good, black was the color of Fantasy Evil, and the rest of the colors were... fire magic? Elves? Whatever odd but intriguing skeleton affairs are implied by Time Walk?

Gradually, though, Magic deepened as both a game and a storytelling medium. The color pie grew into itself as a system of complementary philosophies, archetypes whose associated aesthetics were only part of the full picture. Their arrangement around the wheel, below, is highly deliberate; neighboring colors are said to be allies with a high degree of philosophical and mechanical overlap, while colors on opposite sides of the pie are known as enemies, more likely to disagree on fundamental levels.

Black stopped merely representing capital E Evil and became the color of striving for power; unlike its peers, black felt that nothing, least of all morality, could prevent it from seizing what it wanted. Mark Rosewater's 2015 article about black emphasized the color's focus on the self:

"Black's philosophy is very simple: There's no one better suited to look after your own interests than you... Many costs require the sacrifice of others for your own advancement. Because it puts itself first, black is always willing to make this trade. The weak must fall for the strong to thrive." -Mark Rosewater

At its worst, black is an exploitative, amoral color that prioritizes itself at the expense of all others, allowing the "weak" to fall and scorning the very idea of compassion. Rosewater writes that black is "always willing" to trade others for itself. And these can certainly be parts of black's philosophy, when taken to its worst possible extremes, but they're far from the entire story.

Over time, Magic's outlook on black gained nuance. Magic story introduced protagonists like the necromancer Liliana Vess, whose craving for immortality, seemingly exploitative nature, and demonic deals called back to the oldest portrayals of black–and yet she was not one-dimensionally evil. She underwent character development over the years, learning the value of reclaiming herself and standing beside others, and at no point did she become any less mono-black for it. Remember her; we will come back to Liliana and her story later.

In addition to the usual death and decay, black cards began to feature a theme of relentless devotion. On the plane of Eldraine where each color represents a virtue, black's is persistence, explicitly as important as any other color. On the plane of Ikoria, the love between bonder and beast pulls Winota back from the brink of death. Wherever this Oathsworn Vampire printing is set, its flavor text is quintessentially black. It's the same self-driven attitude as before, but cast in a different light: black is nothing if not persistent when it's got its heart set on something (or someone) it cares about. Nothing, least of all the grave, will keep it down. After all, black will always come back for its own.

These newer cards uncovered the true face of black as a color capable of both great love and harm (sometimes even the latter for the sake of the former), and suggested a tantalizing new thread: perhaps putting yourself and yours first isn't all that bad, necessarily. Black is a deeply protective color; it says you don't just have to accept what you're handed, it's okay even to be furious about it (hello, ally color red), but let that galvanize you to do something about it. 

Vraska, a gorgon who faces extreme discrimination on her home plane of Ravnica, triumphs by reclaiming herself, gorgon powers and all–and even more radically, loving herself. She displays traits often considered the purview of white and green, such as a love of home and a drive to elevate the oppressed, but they are all filtered through the lens of her black alignment. Vraska staunchly refuses to deny herself or her people, the Golgari Swarm, of their value. Nor does she allow law or propriety to prevent her from championing them by any means necessary–even if that means cold-blooded murder, or aligning herself with a villain like the Planeswalker Nicol Bolas.

"[Vraska] thought of Mazirek, of the kraul, of the rest of the Ochran assassins and the malignant Jarad who reigned with casual ruin over the most downtrodden of the downtrodden. She remembered her years of isolation, and the heinous cruelty of the Azorius, and how no group deserved to suffer as much as those who would subjugate her own. Eliminating that hell was all she ever wanted." -The Talented Captain Vraska, Alison Luhrs

Like Vraska, black loves fierce and hard, willing to break any taboo for the sake of those it cares about. And it whispers, the entire way through, you are enough. You deserve better. No matter what others may say or do, you are enough.

"If I am to be met with disrespect, then I must first love myself with a fierceness no fool can take away." -Vraska in Pride of the Kraul, Alison Luhrs

Even black's "ruthlessness" isn't as fundamentally cruel as it appears, centering a passion for problem-solving (shared by its other ally blue) instead of a blunt disregard for others.

"People don’t understand the word ruthless. They think it means 'mean.' It’s not about being mean. It’s about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It’s about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it." -K. A. Applegate

All of this comes together to make a black a color not of evil but of strength, integrity, and persistence. And that's all well and good, but I'm going to take it even further and put forward a new proposition: that black is the color of hope.

Of the nine mono-black Magic cards with "hope" in their names, all but Liliana portray black as an instrument of hope's destruction. This is, once again, black's flaw taken to its extreme–crushing others to achieve its own ends–but neglects black's own relationship with hope.

Black, more than any other color, requires hope to stay alive.

For black to persist, it must believe in a light at the end of the tunnel, a future in which its goals are realized. As long as it does, it will endure any hardship, walk through fire, and turn reality itself upside down on its way there. Primal, desperate ambition is the engine of hope that burns at the heart of black, keeping it always one step ahead of stagnation. Bitter and stubborn, black believes tomorrow will come because there is no other choice. After all, for black to relinquish hope is to let itself wither, regress, and die–an unacceptable outcome. 

Thus, it is monumentally difficult to strip black of hope. That only makes it all the more crushing when it happens, when black contends with the idea that there is nothing it can do.

Black's deepest, darkest fear is helplessness.

Like any mono-black character, Liliana Vess is driven at her core by a seething, desperate hope. When Liliana first unlocks her necromantic power, it is out of a sheer refusal to allow her ill brother Josu to die, even when the esis root that would cure him is destroyed by enemy witches in an undead-raising ritual. She defies her previous training as a healer, which taught her only to take the safe path, in favor of a higher-risk and higher-reward approach: stealing life from the witches themselves to restore power to the esis root she needs. It is her knowledge that her brother needs her, and her sheer stubborn will to succeed, which allows her to defeat the witches against steep odds.

"Six foes, and Liliana stood alone. But Josu's life depended on her, and the power blossoming within her was more than enough." -Liliana's Origin: The Fourth Pact, James Wyatt

Tragically, however, Liliana's attempted cure goes horrifically wrong, transforming Josu into an undead being plagued by eternal suffering. In his pain, Josu attacks Liliana. For a while Liliana holds out hope, finding the power to fight back while she determinedly searches for a spell to reverse the harm she's done. It is when she realizes this isn't possible that her strength falters.

"All this time, she had believed… that she could turn the power of death to the service of life and health. That a healer should use every tool at her disposal. But Josu was the result, a horrible fusion of life and death, and all her spells meant to manipulate the life force of the living could do nothing to harm the dead." -The Fourth Pact

Liliana learns that even her own dark magic, fueled by determination, cannot solve the problem she's created. She discovers the hard limit of her willpower, and the despair of this discovery is what causes her Planeswalker spark to ignite.

At this time Planeswalkers are as gods, immortal and near-omnipotent. Liliana spends decades enjoying this affirmation of her capability before the Mending strips her and all her peers of their power, reducing them once again to mortal mages.

"Then the Multiverse reshaped itself, robbing her—and every other Planeswalker—of the godlike power they once had wielded. Some called it the Mending, as if something broken had been repaired, but to Liliana, it seemed the opposite. It broke her beyond any hope of repair." -The Fourth Pact

Once again, it is Liliana's fear of helplessness and her refusal to accept it that drives her to push beyond the bounds of propriety–this time, to make a pact with Nicol Bolas and four demons to maintain her immortality. It is not enough for her merely to delay death; she requires the security of knowing she is fully beyond its reach, that she will never be helpless before it again as she was with Josu.

"Holding death at arm's length for whatever years are left to me? No, that's not enough. I want to be free of its shadow." -Liliana in The Fourth Pact

Black isn't like its enemy colors white and green, which are superficially associated far more often with hope. Unlike white, it doesn't believe that conviction, justice, and community will bring about rightness. Unlike green, it doesn't trust in the wisdom of the world or the natural order. Black believes that nothing will change unless you make it change; ultimately, black's self is the only one it can trust to bring about the world it needs. In addition, black lacks its enemies' idealism. Instead, it strives to be a pragmatic realist, making a final assessment of defeat all the more definite and crushing.

While white and green are more amenable to finding hope and holding it aloft as a banner, black claws hope desperately to its chest with shredded, bloody fingernails. Every ounce of hope black has, it tore by itself from the clutches of an uncaring world.

Ironically for such a self-driven color, black's fierce hope is the greatest asset it can provide to others–on its own terms, of course. It was Liliana who turned the tide of battle against the Eldrazi titan Emrakul, defiant in the face of cosmic despair. And when Nicol Bolas made his bid to return to godhood, using Liliana's necromancy to command his undead hordes, Liliana finally turned against him. In reclaiming her power, so too did she use it to free her fellow Planeswalkers from Bolas' assault. Her fear of helplessness no longer shackled her to him; agency and autonomy were hers at last.

The triumph of black, its moment of ultimate victory, is the hard-won fulfillment of its hope.

"Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light." -Dylan Thomas

An aetherborn, railing against the shortness of their natural lifespan, constructs a new body for themself with their own bare hands. An artificer's grief over her lost companion causes her to push invention to its limits. A young girl who loves her brother calls on the darkest of powers to save him. As it turns out, necromancy–that original thematic keystone of black–is only one of black's many, many refusals to let go of love and hope once it has them, even in the face of the ultimate end.

Time and time again, black–in love with life, ablaze with hope–looks the Grim Reaper in the eye and tells it: "Not today."

[bloodysparklez]

going supernova

[startheskelaton]

I have made some (very stupid) important discovery!

Here is the thing, one might think Sparkplug is you typical YA protagonist (there is somethig special/unique about her, death parent she reminds people of, her love interest is a prince from another world etc). BUT! She also has secret music related persona. And that my friend puts her in the rank above YA protags.

She is a magical girl cartoon protagonist

Feel free to ignore this

This was too fun of a concept not to draw, lol

[imagine-sterek]

Imagine stiles thinking he’s just good at manifesting things.

Like he doesn’t want to go to class so he wishes class was canceled so then there’s bad weather, when there shouldn’t be, or the fire alarm breaks and keeps going off. Or the teacher had to cancel class for like a meeting.

He’d say that he needs to get groceries and someone would accidentally deliver food to his door and let him keep it and it’s his exact order too.

He’d go thrifting and find all kinds of cool clothes and vintage stuff he wanted.

He’s late and he’s hoping all the lights are green and there’s no traffic and instead of getting there 30 mins late he’s on time.

Like if he buys a mystery figurine he’d say I hope it’s …(which ever one he wants) and he gets it and it keeps happening if he has a bunch of them.

But it’s actually all part of his spark and anytime he wishes or manifests anything his spark is making it happen.

The reason no one asks him out is because he thinks no one wants to ask him out and is accidentally wishing it, and then…

[stardustandrockets]

What's a large item you wish was included more in sub boxes?

This blanket might be the softest thing I own (sorry, Obi!). It's got several of the books that have been featured in @rainbowcrate boxes over the last three years on it. I can't wait until it's not a THOUSAND degrees so I can adequately reap the benefits of such a fluffy blanket!

Today ends the June 'A Spark of Magic' photo challenge. I always enjoy these weeks because I get to shout out one of my favorite companies while also showcasing different artists. The artwork for this blanket is by crookedquilluk.

[riss-mlp]

proud to announce i’m a contributor for the #asparkforuszine, a zine centered completely around twilight !

first picture is my page drawing for the zine itself, and the three pictures after it are sneak peeks at my contributions as a goodie artist! i made three character cards of twilight. they are heavily cropped because they are for donors, who will be given access to the full pictures to print out!!! (that is why they are in cmyk) all donations made go towards palestine, please consider donating if you are able!! the zine releases october 13th :]

**edit, just learned the release date was pushed back to november 1st!!

***edit to the edit, the release had to be pushed back but it is officially releasing tomorrow, dec 1!!!!

[sparkp18]

More magic girl shenanigans from the last few weeks ;D We have a Dee to Megatron transformation, and some snippets of Orion lore!

(If you’re interested in the AU, I posted the start of it along with Dee’s design here! Who do yall wanna know about next 👀)

[eternalibrairie]

if you ship drarry you should read...

the simon snow trilogy (carry on, wayward son, any way the wind blows) by rainbow rowell

all the way happy by kit coltrane

captive prince trilogy (captive prince, prince's gambit, kings rising) by c.s. pacat

dark rise trilogy (dark rise, dark heir, TBA) by c.s. pacat

malum discordiae by ashlyn drewek

sorcery and small magics by maiga doocy

sparks fly by birdie lynn

a rival most vial by: potioneering for love and profit by r.k. ashwick

a marvellous light by freya marske

in memoriam by alice winn

these violent delights by micah nemerever

red, white, and royal blue by casey mcquiston

(feel free to give me some more!)