#include exercise

[poorlemons]

Tim finds out

[robiberon]

Hiiii 🙈 since you’re looking for ideas, have you ever drawn Éowyn riding a horse? would look grand in your art style!

Oh boy! Horses!

there comes a time in every Eowyn fan's life where they must learn to draw horses. i had never taken the time to sit down and do that before, so i suppose today is the day 🐴

have some more horse sketches as a bonus (these are literally all the horses i've drawn in my life. you can pretty clearly see the progression lol)

[fiepige]

Saw some old vines and got inspired:

So here y'all go, Spiderverse as Vines!

[compress1repress]

procrastinating so here are some ramblings about sci-fi/horror tropes I would link the challengers trio with

art - I actually think art being a werewolf would be very thematically interesting to me, because he's all about repression and passivity I think it would be fun if every full moon he literally can't control himself so all his passivity is thrown out the window and he becomes a wretched aggressive beast and he would feel so much shame about it <3 also he would love to be self pitying over it too. he already walks around like ughhh im so doomed due to my curse #mycurse ... and so this would just exaggerate that (some of this stuff could work with a vampire thing and i know a lot of people talk about vampire art but I just think werewolf art would be more interesting even just visually, like his obsession with shaving takes on a whole new meaning. and also he's more about 'loyalty' than isolation I think. he's always latching on to someone).

patrick - ok this one is kind of obvious but patrick is SO haunted I can't help but make it literal. patrick + ghosts = yayyy <3 i just think he holds onto the past and has never in his life moved on, so that manifesting as him seeing an actual ghost (or ghosts) would be fun!! especially bc on the surface he's egotistical, selfish, self-centred etc but underneath he holds onto everything so tightly, and the guilt clings onto him, and he can't just shake it off, and the feelings won't go away and he is deeply (almost gothically) romantic in this sense. also thematically it's an interesting look at his flaws, his impulsiveness and sense that he can do whatever he wants bc nothing matters, whilst surrounded by these lingering reminders of pain that prove things do matter, and then he realises that in some ways the ghosts reflect himself!! just stuck in this miserable limbo with unfinished business, and without the tools to fix anything and move on. except he does have the tools but he still won't actually make any meaningful change (him seeing Tashi through the window in Atlanta and she's engaged now and Art is doing better than ever at tennis and Patrick is just stood there in the same outfit that Tashi last saw him in... he genuinely could've been a ghost at that point!!). i enjoy the ghosts as representing him BEING haunted yet also him DOING the haunting bc he has become a ghost himself essentially. he has to hurry up and DO something while he's still got life in him. change something (make the throuple happen yay)

tashi - ok she is why I made this post in the first place so it may be long but omggg Tashi and the clone/double/doppelganger trope would be sooooo interesting. I think identity is such an important theme with tashi, and also something she is very aware of. she knows she has to present in a certain way, and probably self-polices a lot, to the point where in some ways it does feel like there are two of her, the version she knows, and the version presented in society (shout out w.e.b du bois double consciousness), so to physically and literally manifest that in the form of a clone would be fascinating. also through a disability lens there is a certain sense that becoming disabled feels like having a new body, and (at least from my perspective) there can sometimes be an out of body type experience with that as you adjust to a different body physically, and a different self too (just to add, i am not saying this is necessarily negative either). so again tashi's link with versions of the self make the idea of a double sound so interesting. clone narratives often brings up the question of who is the 'real' version and who is the copy, or a fear of being replaced by a copy, which are all questions about the self and identity, what makes us ourselves, and which parts are the most important. I imagine tashi ruminates on this sort of thing quite often, especially post injury with the readjusting of her identity after that. how she has to create another version of herself essentially bc the sport she formed her identity around will no longer accommodate her. tennis won't change to fit her new shape (:/) so she must find a way to change her shape so that she can still participate somehow (creating another self = clone moment)... anyway I think a clone would be a point of anxiety and fear yet also could be very cathartic for her. the end.

[moonlit-tulip]

Over time, I'm growing increasingly convinced that a lot of the craft underlying what people-into-storytelling call 'writing' isn't actually really about writing at all, and it would be useful for many people—me included—to swap over to some different term, like maybe 'storytelling'.

Because, in my experience, the goals pursued by me and by most of the people in my fiction-creation-focused social circles aren't particularly constrained to what's easy to render in prose. They're much more about conveying things to audiences, in ways which prose can certainly be helpful for but which other things can also be helpful for.

To bring up a topical example: Deltarune is a game which is very effective at its storytelling, able to deliver high-impact moments at pretty high density. And it's true that a decent chunk of that is down to being well-written; Toby Fox is, in fact, a pretty skilled wordsmith. But a lot of it is also down to other things: music, art and animation, timing, et cetera. The writing is just one component of many in the overall soup of Factors Behind Deltarune Being Good.

As such, it strikes me as worthwhile to view a lot of the skills traditionally touted as writing skills—plotting, characterization, pacing, et cetera—as, instead, more general storytelling skills. Skills which are more specifically writing skills still very much exist—various elements of how to write good prose, good dialogue, et cetera—but they're not the main mass of what most people are thinking of when they talk about writing skill. The main mass of 'writing' skills apply just as well to such things as text-free comics, voice-free animation, silent-protagonist-explores-abandoned-ruins games, and so forth, even if they're made without any writing-per-se involved in the process at all.

There are many tools which can help with telling a given story. Writing is one. But the writing isn't the story; it's just a medium through which the story can be conveyed. The difference is important.

[i-dont-talk-for-days-on-end]

I know the reader is probably not supposed to think of William Baskerville as cute but I am so utterly smitten with Sherlock Holmes in each in every timeline that I just can't help myself ... Yes go on William and look at the world through lenses and ingest some dubious substances and roast those who try to insult you and be gentle to your Watson pardon me Adson and read the signs around you as the genre demands ...

[magdaclaire]

yesterday was my first day getting back on my stationary bike since thanksgiving. manifesting my ability to do it again (aka ingesting thc)

[welcometogrouchland]

I miss them so bad (Dick and Damian)

[mod2amaryllis]

would like.. some weird thing that flips you move yhe baby? like those back stretching boards that tilt you back. idk much about babies

brother i am doing all that and more

[kuroeko]

"I never meant to actually use my feet for walking before!"

[spottedenchants]

TS!SG and Romantic Trappings

Loosely inspired by this post and prompted by @disastergenius, here is a non-exhaustive list of common storytelling markers that, either alone or in combination, often indicate a dynamic is intended as romantic. I have broken down each item for TS!SG in terms of engagement, exclusivity, and reasoning.

Engagement: whether or not they do the thing

Exclusivity: a common throughline of 'romantic' dynamics (i.e. they Only do this with each other)

Reasoning: why they do or don’t do the thing

Some background for Touching Sentiments: I assume most people dislike being touched by people they hate and like being touched by people they love. What if, once he genuinely likes the Nein, Essek still frequently dislikes their touch despite craving it at the same time? This is TS’s premise and flavors how Essek and Caleb engage in their relationship in the series. Different markers apply (if at all) at different points in the TS timeline, so this is the general vibe around 1.5 to 2 years post-C2.

See below!

Relationship labeling: yes and no

Exclusivity: none

Various terms apply to Caleb and Essek’s relationship (friendship, companionship, partnership, kinship, to name a few) and so they opt to leave it unlabeled, generally referring to the concept of their relationship as ‘this’ or ‘us’ when speaking to each other.

‘Define the relationship’ talks: yes

Exclusivity: none

This one is established directly on-stream (see Caleb’s ‘we are, friends, now’ feeling out Essek’s familiarity in ep 77 as well as their talk on the tower’s ninth floor in episode 133). In TS, their footing changes often, especially at the beginning as they get comfortable in one another’s daily lives.

Feelings confessions: yes

Exclusivity: none

Related to the above, the Nein as a whole frequently share the fact they are fond of each other and only rarely is it treated as a revelation. Essek, when capable of articulating his feelings, will often express them either in a stumbling rush or a matter-of-fact way. Caleb tends to keep his affections to himself unless he deems them necessary, beneficial, or useful to express.

Saying ‘I love you’: no

Exclusivity: n/a

Out of universe, they don’t say ‘I love you’ verbatim because I have banned myself from writing it. In universe, ‘I love you’ said by Caleb to Essek or by Essek to anyone is a question, not a declaration. It does not clarify; it is a request for clarification. It is a less clumsy ‘do you feel loved by me?’ or a succinct ‘am i loving you right?’. ‘Love’ in terms of emotion is a vague word to them and they prefer to be more precise.

Flirting for fun: yes

Exclusivity: none

They both find it entertaining to tease, compliment, and fluster the other, but this is not exclusive in any direction in the Mighty Nein’s dynamics. Caleb’s style aligns the most with Essek’s tastes. (Rather, Caleb can/does mold his flirtations to Essek’s tastes.) Essek’s style involves intense staring and layered language, and is largely misinterpreted by all but Caleb and, much to her chagrin, Beau. (e.g. Essek may flirtatiously compliment Caleb’s dexterity when Caleb successfully counterspells- most of the Nein would assume the flirtation only lies in his observation of Caleb’s casting reflexes (physical) when it’s actually also an implied compliment on Caleb’s quick thinking (intellectual).)

Flirting for romance/sex: kind of

Exclusivity: None in concept, yes in practice

Essek is not typically receptive to flirtation when the one flirting with him is just after a sense of ‘romance’ or a sexual encounter. Though neither Caleb nor Essek are opposed to being flirted with by the Nein, none of them do so with Caleb or Essek for romance/sex reasons save for Kingsley on occasion.

Terms of endearment: yes and no

Exclusivity: none*

Their terms of endearment for each other are ‘Caleb Widogast’ and ‘Essek (in a fond tone, no Thelyss)’. Their names are very important to themselves. Essek acknowledges the time and effort and care and kindness and strength it took to foster Caleb into *Caleb*. Caleb acknowledges Essek as an individual, untethered from courtly contexts and familial expectations. ‘Essek’ alone is a new start. Caleb knows what it’s like to inhabit a floating identity and wants to reassure Essek he sees him underneath any name, and so he teases Essek over having multiple aliases. Under the guise of adding to Essek’s running list of aliases, he tries out a few pet names (e.g. ‘Schatz’, ‘Schmusekatze’, ‘dearheart’). ‘Dear’ is established in canon, and TS!Essek gains ‘dear’ as a result of the aforementioned teasing. This one sticks because Essek appreciates the fondness it conveys, like an anonymized greeting in a letter. Essek thinks of Caleb in fond Undercommon terms, but he tends not to say them out loud. *Essek fullnames the members of the Nein as terms of endearment, so they usually don’t register it.

Prolonged mouth kissing: yes

Exclusivity: none in concept, yes in practice

Essek in canon frequently touches his lips while thinking, so in TS I've extrapolated that into TS!Essek enjoying his lips being touched. Physicality aside, between Caleb and Essek, kissing on the mouth represents voluntary vulnerability. They can’t efficiently/secretly cast most spells while engaged and it is a distracting activity besides. Kissing on the lips also becomes a means to determine each other’s emotional state. Neither Caleb nor Essek are entirely opposed to being kissed by the rest of the Nein, but no one’s genuinely asked.

Hand holding: yes

Exclusivity: none

Aside from mind and mouth, a wizard’s hands are their most important tools. Both Caleb and Essek readily acknowledge their bloodstained hands, so they enjoy casual hand holding in private as a representation of repurposed weapons forging tenderness instead. They also taunt one another by pinning or otherwise restraining the other’s hands. Essek frequently holds Yasha’s and Jester’s hands.

Public displays of affection: kind of

Exclusivity: none

The Mighty Nein are a physically affectionate group. Essek prefers to express his affection privately. Caleb follows suit but will sneak a gesture if he thinks he can get away with it.

Cuddling: yes

Exclusivity: none

It’s a low-effort way to enjoy each other’s proximity. They just have to lay there. They don’t even have to talk.

Sensual touch: yes

Exclusivity: some

Given Essek’s ambivalence towards touch, sensual touch is often a trust exercise involving the discovery, exploration, and maintenance of boundaries. He and Caleb are experimentalists and enjoy teasing out effects from their causes.

Nudity: rarely

Exclusivity: none

The Mighty Nein bathe together and will change clothes in each other’s company. Caleb has few qualms about being nude. Essek has many. Caleb tends to stay dressed in Essek’s company unless asked otherwise.

Sex/Sexual touch: yes, depending on the definition

Exclusivity: none in concept, yes in practice

Due to his Kryn cultural upbringing, Essek initially assumes humans (and other short-lived races) think of sex only as a penetrative and/or reproductive act. Caleb and Essek eventually jointly define sex as physical and intellectual play that may or may not involve genitalia or stimulation but does involve some degree of vulnerability and arousal. Essek rarely wants sex spontaneously or seeks it out in an unestablished dynamic; it doesn’t occur to him. Despite typically enjoying it, sex isn’t something Caleb actively pursues in or out of their relationship because he likes the feeling of pining in a ‘hurts so good’ sort of way.

Shared sleep space: yes

Exclusivity: none

A display of vulnerability, especially from Caleb’s perspective. Caleb trusts Essek to watch his back while Caleb himself is both unconscious and unseeing in the dark. Caleb asleep is usually not disruptive to Essek’s trances.

Cohabitation: yes

Exclusivity: somewhat

Neither Caleb nor Essek mind sharing day-to-day living arrangements with the rest of the Nein. Essek moves around enough that there’s technically no one place he settles for long, but he does end up keeping most of his belongings with Caleb both for practicality and sentiment. Caleb and Essek do periodically share housing with Beauregard and Yasha, though Beauregard and Yasha eventually carve out their own space.

Date activities: no

Exclusivity: n/a

They don’t typically have planned outings with romantic intent. They spend time together when and where they can. Essek is more likely to go on a platonic date with Jester than a romantic date Caleb.

Matching rings: yes

Exclusivity: none

Caleb and Essek share a pair of silver rings. The rings serve as material components for Telepathy, a spell they worked on together as they were re-reestablishing their relationship. Essek wears his ring on his right hand ring finger. Caleb wears his ring on a chain around his neck.

Engagememt/marriage: no

Exclusivity: n/a

They don’t have much legal ability to wed using Essek’s real identity and they don't need a witnessed ceremony to acknowledge their care for one another. Of anyone, Beauregard is probably who Caleb would place in charge of his estate.

Having children: no

Exclusivity: n/a

Caleb wants to focus on the children of the Empire year by year as a whole, not a single child or a few specific children for their entire lives. However, he is very open to taking on a dedicated godfather, uncle, or mentor role. Essek doesn’t enjoy the thought of accommodating a child’s needs on a continuous daily basis, nor does he trust himself to raise a person from the ground up. He had a hysterectomy decades ago in part to eliminate the possibility of accidental conception. He is marginally more open to a mentor role, though he probably wouldn’t think of himself as a mentor.

(Lifelong) commitment: yes

Exclusivity: none

Essek commits himself to the Mighty Nein, Caleb and his goals included. Caleb commits himself to bettering the Empire and holding the Nein together.

Extras for funsies:

Non-verbal communication:

Common is TS!Caleb’s second language and TS!Essek’s third. The two of them don’t always have a shared verbal language, especially with matters of the heart and body, so they make their own language using both words and their bodies. This includes Essek’s ability, as a drow, to purr. After the Telepathy incident, Essek tends to go nonverbal & frozen when extremely distressed/overwhelmed, so he eventually uses taps and squeezes to communicate with Caleb when in such a state.

Some aspec easter eggs:

Essek wears a black ring on his right hand middle finger (in universe: teleport anchor to the Nein Heroez II)

Essek briefly describes his relationship with Caleb as a ‘wavership’ (in universe: a possible translation of the Kryn Undercommon term ‘ferede’)

Jester gives Essek a 'best friend squish' (see 'platonic attraction' in previous link) (in universe: she literally squishes him)

Essek likens his internal search for sexual feelings to searching a pond for turtles (in universe: just another one of his metaphors)

[teethburied]

tag me if u do this too i wanna see !

[smile-files]

one of my favorite kinds of doodle: take the letters that spell out the name of a thing and use them to create the shape of that thing!!! (if you can't read any of these, they will be written out below <3)

going top down, left to right:

bone; butterfly; bee; joy; moth

kitty cat; snail; love; spongebob squarepants

eye; puppy dog; candy; wally darling; dolphin

hand; the element of kindness; lollypop; pencil

[brown-little-robin]

tagged by @earl-grey-crow for 5 boring facts about me

my only 2 scars are from removing moles on my back and belly

I don't use spotify, except to send songs to my friends who Do use spotify

I keep all my sweaters in a special basket in my bedroom so that I can dump my sweaters directly in the sweater basket instead of going through the hassle of hanging them up

my favorite type of fabric for clothing is, um, whatever "t-shirt material" is. optimal texture for my skin is just. t-shirt texture*

I'm just solidly "okay" at driving a car

tagging @isfjmel-phleg, @arrowpunk, @quirkle2, @ghosts-and-blue-sweaters, @swinging-stars-from-satellites, and whoever else feels like sharing boring facts about themselves :]

[onelongsound]

Shira

Watercolor and gouache on paper 2002

[iceiclehorned]

"March-- Is it true that you don't wish for me, your good pal here, to proceed to hydrate in these trying times?!" A dramatized gasp follows! "I thought we were tight knit!" (For March!)

To many, the Trailblazer appeared to be a heroic figure, a man who had conquered many battles since his appearance on the Astral Express. The number of passerby individuals that either gawked at him, or made it a point to exclaim his existence had become a headache March 7th was used to carrying around wherever they went out together. When they had first met, there was a part of her that felt a light kinship with him, and with the passage of time, their friendship had only flourished, as did the trust that they held as a group. No matter what, each would have each other’s backs, and that was more than enough for her. A dynamic that could be perceived at peculiar at worst whenever they managed to get themselves caught out would always remain the best outcome.

…If only people - particularly his weird admirers - knew what he was really like behind closed doors — and outdoors, saying that!

Shamelessly picking through garbage cans for AEONS know why, and on occasion, keeping some of the random items pulled from said bins. It had gotten to a point where the pink haired woman chose not to ask anymore questions about his ridiculous habits. Sometimes, she was beyond convinced she had caught him talking to them, too. Perhaps he had failed to take medication she did not know about?

“Don’t act like you don’t know why I am upset with you!”

Only the closest people to March 7th knew about her habit of picking up snacks from various places they would visit, only to put them in her snack drawer for whenever she got peckish. It was rare that the trio managed to catch a break from their busy lives as part of The Nameless, and even those “breaks” oftentimes turned into another problem for them to fix. However, her beloved snacks had recently been going missing. It was subtle at first, but she knew right away — a girl ALWAYS keeps tabs on her inventory — and the only two people that knew about where these snacks would go are Dan Heng and Caelus.

Even if a person knew about her sweet tooth, it would take much more than a hefty search before these treasures were found. That is how she knew it had to be one of them, and the grey-haired troublemaker was the only one ballsy enough to not expect a good thwack on the head!

“YOU have been the one taking my sweet treats from my stash! Don’t deny it, either. You may be dirty enough to touch unsanitary public bins, but I also know you’d be audacious enough to touch my stuff!”