#elsewhere else 🫵

[cozymochi]

That one post with Nyoka’s exposed chest got me wondering if he gets his nails done elsewhere else, or if he does them by himself

(The horror in question.)

[sinister-sincerely]

hi sin... :3c ... >:3c

we care youuuuuuu 💜💜💜

much sillies!! & much lovely art!! from @midnight-mourning @luckyyyduckyyy @soupdweller @wyervan & i, for you!!! 🫵

we hope that you are doing well! and that you are taking care, giving yourself grace through the highs & lows alike. it's not always easy, but you're not alone. hopefully this gets a laugh for ya to enjoy 💜

& in the future, if you'd like to draw together, or simply chill ambiently... the offer is always open!

... In full disclosure this took me a wretched amount of time to pull myself together to actually respond to.

(Its a long one, just a heads up. I do think its worth it though)

To say I was floored~ moved~ touched~ The words pale in comparison.

I believe the saying that a measure of someone being a good person is how they treat those that can do nothing for them.

And here I am, a stranger, being shown a kindness that I am not so sure I deserve but am grateful nonetheless.

To think that anyone, let alone all of you, amazing writers, artists, … people I respect and admire thought of me for even a moment to do something like this.

Depression- it holds me back a lot of the time.

It convinces me, like I am sure it does MANY of those readin' this, that your absence in this community, in this world, would not be felt.

There is a reason that I am a part of this community.

Its because it has a way of pulling together some of the most wonderful people I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know.

Now. I wanna return some of that kindness and talk specifically about the ones that pulled together to do this for me. (And also a few that are never far from my mind too)

@divinit3a

You are one of the only people I know that can just be there and your presence felt. Charismatic in the most brilliant way, I love the way your personality shines through everything you interact with (whether that be your writing or something as simple as a Tumblr post)

There is a reason that when you entered the community that people were drawn to you. You have an ability that is both captivating as it is striking in how powerful that magnetism is.

I am so grateful I get to know you, and I am so excited to see what else you create whether that be in this community or elsewhere.

I will always be a supporter, a fan, and most importantly a friend.

Read their stuff!

@midnight-mourning

Sometimes I get caught up in the fact I actually get to speak with the person who has wrote one of my favorite works on AO3.

I first stumbled upon your fic the day it was published and immediately fell in love with the snarky depiction of Sun (and the beautiful mysterious Moon) that you created in a world that has so much more left to be uncovered.

You manage to balance your life along side updating which in of itself seems like such a superpower that I envy to the core.

You also floored me with the kindness you've shown through out us chatting back and forth. Sometimes I feel just in awe that I can say we know eachother…

@luckyyyduckyyy

Talk about someone I've been actively following for awhile- Lucky, your ANE fanfic was one of the very first I read when stumbling upon the DCA community! It inspired me to take a chance at writing myself and posting it for the first time.

If I hadn't come across you- well, I wouldn't be here now… How do you even begin to pay that back?

I have no idea how I can thank you enough for doing that for me, let alone thank you for doing the above for me…

Its my hope that I get to continue to be friends with you, learn more from you and maybe one day manage to give back a fraction of what you've given me…

@soupdweller

AHH! Hi! So- I have no words but thank you.

I've admired your art for a very VERY long time and its such a cool, (and a bit) intimidating (but in a good way) gesture to have this coming from you too.

Your rendering is beautiful.

The way you laid out the DCA's internals still give me steampunk vibes in the BEST way with the colour palette~ I can gush forever but I also wanna seem cool and somewhat mysterious in that 'kinda quiet way'…

… I'll cut that out for now ^^

on a serious note, thank you, you don't know me very well but you still did this and what I mentioned before about the measure of being a good person- that describes you.

@wyervan

… Would it be weird for me to say that anytime I think of the DCA as humans I can't for the life of me not picture the AU forms that you created that has single handedly metamorphosized into a community Slasher Y/N multiverse?

That is an amazing talent, I am just in awe at what you've managed to not only do, but also how you've brought so many people together!

I have so much to say, and yet I don't wanna put my foot in my mouth by actually following through with the amount of admiration I wanna express.

Thank you for taking part in this for me, we don't really know each-other much just yet but I hope that changes. You seem like such an amazing person, I'd love to gossip about skinny, scrawny, somewhat unhinged guys with you sometime.

-

I have a few people I wanna shout out too

@amarynthian-chronicles:

Thank you for always supporting me, even when I don't think I deserve it. You've been an amazing person to me, and I hope I get more opportunities to return the favor

@gniteruirui

Gosh. You've been such a beautiful person to get to know this past year or so. Your artwork gives me life, and seeing your name pop up in all the ways it does makes me smile.

@lets-zofifi-stuff

I hope you continue to have more good days vs bad- I hope the sun shines on you and you always find random luck whenever its needed.

You were one of the first people I made friends with here on Tumblr… I may have also looked back and saw that you even made a post about me when I left Tumblr the first time.

@bubbiethesaur

I don't have enough words to express how much I adore you for just being you. Thank you, I hope I can be a friend that deserves you.

I just wanted to tag you- You are so talented, wonderful, and kind.

Something about you just makes me smile whenever I see your username come up. I've always wanted to get closer to you, friendship wise, but I also get scared because you're so cool.

I've been working on it.

Just know that our conversations in Qwille's discord have always been some of my favorite moments in this community.

@maldefekt

Thank you for reaching out to me- even that most recent time when you saved me from something I know would have haunted me forever!

I am looking forward to getting to know you more

[remyfire]

The joy of ur writing translates very well! and never stop exploring how to write bj, i just adore it. bj is such a special man and he deserves all the fics, from his pov to aus and spotlights

im bad at commenting but ur writing is wonderful! i also felt going mental just talking about mash to my roommate who does not care lmao

Ya actually inspired me to write some mash stuff just purely for myself and ah, also makes me wanna be a better artist so thank YOU🫵👁👁 hope ya day is good and wonderful too!

My fellow beejfan, we are handshaking so feverishly right now that we are causing a tidal wave somewhere else. The favorite character bias is so real but the thing is that you are completely correct and he deserves every fic he gets :D

I'm happy to say that MASHblr is quite active, more so than one might expect, so you can spare your roommate and just come shout from the rooftops with all of us! You're so welcome and we're happy to see you :) If you ever feel up to sharing your MASH writing on like AO3 or elsewhere, let me know so I can give it a look! I'm waving pompoms and cheering you on as a fellow creator :D

[snowyyland]

THE jackle/balan fanfic 🫵 not new but just posting it here to have it here lol 🤭 jackle enters the theater somehow and instead of figuring out what this means or how this happened balan falls in love instead 👍

Certainly, a Nightmaren outside of the Night Dimension wasn’t a good sign. A Nightmaren in the theater was arguably an even worse one.

Balan had never heard of such a place as “the Night Dimension,” nor of such a creature as a “Nightmaren,” though his knowledge of the goings-on of foreign worlds was admittedly lacking— ensuring his own world was running smoothly took precedent, of course, and that was a nonstop job that demanded all of his time, no days off for vacations or even a day trip. Whether or not it was even possible for him to leave the theater was a question in and of itself— Balan found himself leaning towards no.  

And maybe it was for that reason that the Nightmaren currently residing in one the theater’s countless spare rooms had come to him, rather than the other way around.

Really, the implications of Jackle’s sudden appearance were scarier than he was himself— to the best of Balan’s knowledge, a creature from neither the human world nor Wonderworld itemself had never been admitted into the theater, and likely for good reason. But that certainly wasn’t to say that, as shameful as it was to admit, he hadn’t been afraid of Jackle. And Jackle knew it, and he reveled in it. Wonderworld had never afforded him a stage, so he’d started residence in one room and expanded his ‘stage’ to anywhere and everywhere else, sometimes silently, creeping catlike among the rafters, or lurking in empty storage closets, wrapped up in his cape and hanging upside-down like a bat, waiting for Balan to open the door to unfold and pounce. He kept himself silent and hidden away from the sight of the humans, though Balan could tell when and where he was shifting about, and would hurriedly usher the guests elsewhere until Jackle inevitably became too bored to wait to strike any longer.

Other times, though, most times, he preferred making himself known, and that was when Balan was sure of it, the scariest part, an uncomfortable truth: in any other world, in any other life, Jackle would have made for a fantastic maestro.

It was like looking at his reflection in the twisting, warping glass of a funhouse mirror— simply bizarre how similar they could be. The same shadow-seeped toothy grin, but where Balan’s was meant to be playful and inviting Jackle’s was downright sinister, lined end-to-end with sharp fangs meant to tear apart the very fabric of dreams and the flesh of other dream-creatures alike. And he had claws too, in place of Balan’s neatly-painted and filed nails, yellow claws that had long since outgrown and torn through his gloves, yet nimble enough to lay down and snatch up cards in such rapid succession that Balan’s eyes couldn’t hope to keep up. Orange devilish horns and a jester’s cowl where Balan had locks of seafoam-colored hair; skin and a body that was invisible, but not intangible— Jackle was too touchy for that to remain a mystery for too long.

And there were, of course, their respective lifelines, which they had both almost immediately recognized as a point of weakness in the other. And though he understood the feeling of attachment, Balan was so agonizingly curious— what was so powerful about the mantle that Jackle insisted on it not even being touched? Balan could only suppose it was similar to his own tophat, Jackle being a showman like himself, serving as a layer of protection between the inner and outermost layers of their personalities, what they allowed to be seen, what they wanted to keep hidden away. Perhaps even more so for Jackle, who often not only wore the cape but traveled in and out from the twisting galaxy captured inside it, another layer of mystery for Balan’s mind to struggle with.

(“I’ll take it off,” Jackle had offered once, pacing along a high beam of the theater’s ceiling while Balan sat dusting nearby— how convenient was the power of flight for such menial chores, “if you take your hat off.” And Balan really had considered, if only for a fleeting moment, and if only just to sate his own curiosity, but thought achingly of Lance’s warning to him and ultimately decided against it. If Nightmaren counted as fae was unknown to him, but it was probably best to not be making deals with them anyways.)

He was absolutely impossible to ignore. It made sense, out of place here as he was, but he had the same presence that Balan strived for on and off stage, overwhelming and enrapturing, combining charm with a hint of mystique, blurring the lines between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ , friend or foe (though Balan knew he mustn’t delve quite as far into that territory as Jackle had— there was a fine line between entertaining guests and terrorizing them that Balan stayed firmly on one side of, while Jackle seemed to merrily jump between whichever side served him best, or perhaps he never chose a side at all). But he would put on his widest, most gentlemanly smile for everyone and everything who dared approach him in the theater, take them by the shoulder invitingly, welcome them into his makeshift room for a round of cards (“no thank you” was out of the question), offer to read their fortunes (“They’re sure to come true,” he would say, offering a sly grin and his hand). The theater staff, perhaps remembering Lance and his own ways, steered clear, but Balan, watching from afar, could sense the gradual shift in Jackle’s intentions, murky to genuine. Not really such a bad creature at all. 

Yes, Jackle would be a good maestro, but he was still a Nightmaren, and so most of Wonderworld’s usual niceties were spared to him— no stage, no Tims flocking to greet him (though there were likely also other reasons for that, those pointed teeth didn’t exactly indicate a plant-based diet). Balan found, though, that once Jackle was through with shrieking and laughing, he could understand ‘the language of dreams’ just as well as he could understand the language of any human guest, and also that Jackle was a fantastic conversationalist. He was delightfully animated when he spoke— any good maestro would be— would tremble with excitement and grasp Balan’s hands within his own when he felt especially passionate about a topic, speech interlaced with all manner of joyful Dream Language vocalizations, chirps and hums and a deep, rumbling purr. And that was how Balan realized the gentleness that underlied Nightmaren nature, how Jackle changed when he spoke about his artwork or tarot cards (or, oftentimes, about hunting dreamers or the guillotine he’d left back home), absolutely lighting up, eager to tell everything and hear everything, not even the slightest suggestion of slyness or the notion of ulterior motives, only a purely joyful Nightmaren.

And because Balan had come to enjoy seeing Jackle like that, he’d taken up his offers of fortune-telling lately. Whether or not what the cards said were true was secondary, really— if Balan couldn’t help him fix his own heart, simply letting Jackle do what he did the best seemed to be a close enough alternative.

The spare room he’d taken up was barely recognizable as a mere workspace anymore— having undergone a stunning renovation by the means of Nightmaren powers, it could have passed equally for either a Nightmaren lair or one of Wonderworld’s stages, with curtained walls and an open view of a endless void of a galaxy, scattered with stars, similar to the one fit on the inside of Jackle’s own cape. He sat across from Balan at the table, face-down cards laying in a line between them. Jackle flipped them over one by one with those precise claws, revealing all cards whose meanings Balan had become familiar with; The Hierophant, Temperance.

Jackle turned the final card, held it towards himself between two claws, clicked his tongue in amusement— “Well! This one isn’t certainly isn’t familiar.” His eyes narrowed, his mouth split into his widest grin. Balan all but grabbed his invisible wrist and twisted it to face him. His heart sank— this wasn’t supposed to happen, but, regrettably, he couldn’t say what he saw was completely unexpected: figures in a garden, fruit trees, serpent. A new card, but Jackle’s interpretation wouldn’t be necessary here at all. In a futile attempt to soothe his leaping heart, Balan thought “at least the card wasn’t reversed.” 

Desperately wishing he could pull his entire being into his hat like Jackle could with his cape, Balan waited to hear the shrieking, howling, laughter, see the smug, sharp-toothed smirk, feel the threat of that rumored guillotine, even— but Jackle just stayed sat across from him, grinning wide with his eyes shut, chirping, humming, purring in a high tone.

No slyness, no ulterior motives. Only a joyful Nightmaren.

[hershelchocolate]

🫵 pink

Great news in an effort to find guys that I don't talk about as often I literally have 5 guys burgers and fries that I so desperately wanted to share here

Amaranth, the Monster in charge of all the other Echo Monsters. She knew the role was coming and prepared for it well, insuring that she would never lose herself to the power that would someday be hers. And she's doing a great job so far! She keeps herself busy by collecting departed souls, keeping the ones she finds interesting to help her elsewhere. Because every Echo Monster is at least partially influenced by their Lead at all times, it means Echo Monsters quite often have very little apprehension towards death and pain. They know full well Amaranth is coming for them anyway

(Art+designs by hotchocolategalaxy on toyhouse!)

Celeste (right) pictured with her girlfriend Sable (left)! They are SOOO sweet and so so patient with each other. Sable is nonverbal and Celeste has godawful eyesight so communication between the two is fairly difficult but they just love each other so much. They care about each other more than anything so they've worked hard to find their own method of communication. They share music, they go places that remind them of the other, when Celeste is having a good day with her eyes they like to share art that makes them think of each other or moments they've shared, it's honestly so so sweet. They're both really shy but neither of them are afraid of standing up for each other. Celeste will berate you until you never speak to her again. Sable will just beat you up. And i love them

(Art+design by @arcaneyouth !)

Cynthia! The goddess of dreams, and protector of those who follow them. She dream hops to communicate, and tends to sleepwalk while doing so. Her assigned guardians spend most of their time making sure she doesn't accidentally hurt herself walking places, and she loves them dearly for it. She's only awake once a month or so, and uses her time to check up on those who haven't dreamed in a while and to make sure her domain is safe. Sometimes her friends try to predict when these conscious moments will be and surprise her c: she's very sweet and very quiet. And also incredibly powerful. But no one ever really sees her use that power, she doesn't enjoy it

(Art+design by @arcaneyouth !)

Mirage! The royal advisor to Raven, the queen of spades. Despite her title Raven is like 12 so Mirage has their hands full trying to guide her. She definitely knows what she's doing, she's studied hard and she's dedicated to her position, but Mirage can see slightly into the future and has debilitating anxiety so really there's only so much she can do to put his mind at ease. They try to use their abilities to help her during meetings but really they mostly use it to help her not get caught when she's trying to be a kid for once. He cares about her a lot. He's also going to keel over from stress at any given second

(Design by youronlydrpepper!)

Simon! I talk about him more than anyone else on this list but he gets added because of why he's pink. You see, Ghosts in the Whisper Court universe are color coded by how friendly they are to humans. Simon, according to this code, is naturally blue. It's nice! But it's not his favorite color. Since he's a Guardian Spirit he's given a lot more power than most Ghosts to use in protecting his given domain. Since his domain is a school that still sees daytime use, however, there's never really much to protect the place from. So he consciously and constantly uses some of his power to make himself appear pink all the time. It's fucking amazing and I love him. He comes off as this really professional and mentor-like figure to everyone around him and that he's really serious and then you find out he's constantly using 10% of his brain to make himself pink because he likes it :) I'm obsessed with him

[jalshristovski]

OK 🫵 OPEN YOUR EARS OR ELSE

We had discussed about the Turkish Abductions which had happened in the 1600s which was carried out by Algerian Barbary pirates and the Moroccan navy which were then under control of the Ottoman Empire but working separately from it for this

In Turkish they’re referred to as raids (Türk Baskınları) because they were not conducted by the Ottoman government rather a Dutch pirate who’d moved to Algeria and converted to Islam (Jan Janszoon van Haarlem aka Murat Reis), as well as his ‘crew’ which seems cringe to say but that’s. That’s what they were

(The term ‘Turkish’ in this setting also just refers to Muslims from the Mediterranean region, generally most people from the Ottoman Empire, not just people from Turkey/Anatolia hence ‘Turkish Raids/Turkish Abductions’ not actually being conducted by Turks rather Algerians)

ANYWHO

With that history lesson out of the way, let’s talk headcanons:

In canon, at least in the English localisations of Hetalia, Iceland refers to Turkey as ‘pops’. I’ve always kind of wondered about this, where could this nickname have possibly come from, that is so random, but me and Kolya were talking about it and figured Turkey was probably the one to take care of him while he was stuck in the Ottoman Empire. Now with Turkey’s human name Sadık (if you write it Sadik or Sadiq, tomato tomato tomato tomato), the letter ı is someone difficult for non-Turks to get correctly and I think especially a younger Iceland who’d been primarily speaking Icelandic and Danish might struggle getting it right. But this big Turkish guy is taking care of him so gotta call him something, right? Because he wasn’t ‘Turkey’ back then, but referring to him as ‘The Ottoman Empire’ seems a bit long, inconvenient, if not a bit pretentious. And thus we get to ‘baba’

Baba means dad in Turkish, it’s easy to say, and I don’t think Iceland would’ve 100% understood the connotations of it. I don’t think he would’ve understood how deep it was to call someone like that so casually your father. Especially I doubt he’d fully have understood who he was as The Ottoman Empire and how absurd it might’ve been to just be calling him dad just because

But still, in a way (with our headcanons at least) it makes a bit of sense

As written by Icelanders who had been captured, they were mostly all treated pretty well (considering) at least until they were sold off. It was a mixed set of outcomes, some people were sold to good masters and made lives for themselves in Algeria, some people were allowed to go back to Iceland, some had to flee, and some died. It had also been written that Turkish masters were “far different” to those they were used to seeing where they’d come from (though I’ve never found any specification for what exactly this meant, I can only imagine it was due to a level of human respect they would’ve been given even while in slavery, which would not have been common elsewhere. The Ottomans generally had a different way of doing things compared to other empires primarily for religious reasons)

This to me would insinuate that while Iceland was in Turkey’s care, he would’ve been shown quite a bit of respect and care. It’s not like Iceland is a Turkish territory, so what reason would he have to do otherwise? So we’d discussed that Iceland would’ve gained a lot of trust and respect for him, and thus comes the nickname ‘baba’. He doesn’t know much Turkish, but he knows that

And we also think that in modern day that would’ve gotten a bit embarrassing for him to just casually keep referring to Turkey as ‘baba’, and since not only is ‘pabbi’ dad in Icelandic, it could’ve easily been shortened to ‘pops’ as a sort of more playful nickname rather than something to intimate as it was in the 1600s

AND MORE THOUGHTS!!

We’d established that Iceland might’ve stayed with him for around a year. Denmark would’ve been his (not so present) guardian, and likely would not have visited him but once or twice a year. So if Iceland is totally missing? Well, he didn’t notice until much later

Not wanting to spend time, resources, or manpower just to get Iceland back to where he came from (especially who would leave this young boy by himself? Surely NOT his guardian), so they’d wait for Denmark to come pick him up

But that ended up being a lot longer of a wait, which day by day concerned Turkey more and more

Turkey would’ve kept him WELL fed, bathed, and possibly given him good clothes (and tried to teach him Turkish) so he could at least have a good time whilst he waited for his guardian, but WHERE is his guardian? Well, not here

It’s likely, we thought also, that Turkey might’ve gotten a bit attached to Iceland while he was there. This little guy who calls him baba and follows him everywhere? That’s his son now and he doesn’t care what you think ✋

Perhaps I’ll add onto this but for now I think that’s good

Me and @jalshristovski discussed the Turkish abductions and why ice would see him as a father figure of sorts and I drew this. That boy would not be good at saying any Turkish words.

The idea is that I do not think Turkey himself did the Turkish abductions, but Algeria. So now, Turkey is kind of just stuck with this kid. He knows that Iceland has a guardian, Denmark, but decides to wait to return to Iceland until Denmark can come get his kid himself.

BUT... unfortunately, Denmark during this time would have been very busy in the middle of a war, and it would have taken a very long time for him to realize or even be informed that something had happened to Iceland. So Iceland, understanding no Turkish or having no common language whatsoever, stays with Turkey for a while.