flawlessflesh

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delgal and thistle being annoying - again!

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thistle's parents were likely no better and no worse than anyone else. they could have been wealthy or poor, married or not. maybe they only knew each other for a single night. thistle was told by his traffickers that he was abandoned - he internalized that deeply and believes it. and maybe he was abandoned or sold, or maybe he was kidnapped and they were lying to him so he’d give up hope.

his traffickers took him to the eastern continent, about a year or so passes between the ship journey and getting ‘settled in’, and then he’s sold to the troupe master who had connections with them. this is framed as an act of charity by the troupe master who tells thistle that the original group was going to throw him away so he should be grateful for this favor. controlling his reality so he’s easier to control

from the times before, he only remembers the feeling of being held in someone’s arms when he was very small, and he remembers yellow walls with a twirly design painted on the trim, and he remembers a specific bird call. there are also bad memories, but they’re all mixed up with the after so he’s not sure when they happened

he was probably from the southern central continent, which is not under the jurisdiction of the north elven kingdom, and had more open contact with other nations.

so we only know as much as thistle does, which is barely anything. keeping that ambiguity is important to me since his perception of the truth has more weight than what actually happened bc he will never know What Actually Happened

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Your Thistle art and thoughts are just transporting. I've been scrolling your work and it makes my brain whirr something fierce. THANK YOU for the beauty!

thank You for this incredibly kind ask! it's the best thing to hear that my work causes thoughts to spin..

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king freinag, an only child, sired just one child of his own...he had thistle too, though, and i think he relished in calling thistle and delgal "brothers" because it fulfilled a wish for a sibling that he'd had for himself

so it'd be common to hear king freinag say things like "Delgal, where's your brother?" or "Thistle, be nice to your brother," emphasizing the familial relationship. in most ways, they were referred to and treated as siblings, it defined them even after delgal grew up. a childhood of sharing the same father, the same food and bed and lessons and toys and punishments makes an impact.

but thistle was never formally adopted and outside parties would not easily understand thistle's place in the melini family. i see that being a sore point which enemies at court would use as the foundation for cruel rumors towards thistle/delgal/freinag and later, when war and famine was on the horizon, as a method of getting other nobles on their side against king delgal, saying "look how much the king is giving to his elf favourite, a nobody, that wealth and power belongs with us, don't you agree?"

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halfway across the black river

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more viking au thistle!

our cast:

thistle the álfar, an elf child who got lost among the world tree yggdrasil's branches and found himself stranded in the human realm, midgard. magically powerful and regarded as a gift from the gods, he was apprenticed under freinag's seer to be trained as a protector for his adoptive family. in an attempt to prevent delgal's death, thistle manipulates his fate into a knot which cannot be cut.

freinag giftbringer, a viking lord who establishes his 'golden kingdom' in newly seized territory along northumbria's coast. he is called 'giftbringer' for his generosity to his followers and the many riches they gained during his time. thistle is freinag's adopted child, picked up on a raid and taken home with him... plz imagine freinag whining to his men like "Guys i neeeeeeeed this baby elf who tried to burn our ships to come chill with us in my mead hall!"

delgal mirrorblade, freinag's only son who inherits his holdings and men, but not their love or loyalty, and whose byname is an insult because he doesnt fight alongside the warriors - his blade is as clean and glossy as a mirror. thistle is his only ally and the only thing standing between him and a bloody coup.

So Delgal in those days held the hall Of Freinag his father the great gift-bringer And behind the breaker of rings sat the seer of wyrds Thistle thread-binder, small-spear child

(poem written by gwen!)

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the viking chieftain and his seer

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delgal's escape is firmly a suicide in my mind - like, i think he expected he wouldn't survive, it was a last ditch effort urged on by his god to find any help so he and everyone else could finally die. but what if he got to the surface, warned the villagers, and then didn't crumble into dust?

him looking at the villagers and them looking back at him like Alright. What the hell is going on.

the island would still become a boomtown, but this time with a lost, ancient king set up in someone's house (the governor, maybe ^_^), giving detailed instructions about the dungeon's structure and dangers and treasures.

but for the first time in a thousand years, delgal would wake up looking at an unfamiliar ceiling. he'd be stuck in his son's body, out of time and alone, and he'd be doing everything he could to destroy his own kingdom.

and i think after the shock wore off, it'd get harder for him to keep wanting it.

just enough hesitation, just enough new stimuli that death becomes frightening to him again, and with it the realization that he's sending thistle (and yaad, and the others) to their deaths. adventurers sharpen swords in the streets outside and there's an elven ship docked at the harbor, all focused on defeating the dungeon's mad sorcerer. everything is going to plan and it is a nightmare.

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playing with big brother

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i hope that at least one person sees my obsessively elaborate thistle art and writing and is intrigued so they decided to check out dunmeshi and when they finish theyre like So barely any of that was in there.

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the living reduce the dead to those who have lived; yet the dead already include the living in their own great collective.

delgal was always going to die first - childhood memories are reminisced about in the present like something irretrievably lost. his shorter lifespan marks him prematurely dead while thistle is estranged-and alive. but thistle will be dead too, even as he keeps delgal living.

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2025 thistle doodle roundup!

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that was the last time delgal tried to prank thistle for april fools.

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@ anon asking about what you noticed, i can’t publish the ask bc the answer will come up in a chapter i’m writing ^_^ but yes that’s the goal with those two

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how did you get better at art? you've told us before that you've been drawing as a kid, but what practices did you do to get to where you are? i love you art so much and you inspire me to draw again. i stopped for a long time because of college. do you draw every day?

thank you ❤️❤️❤️ first , pls draw again because that is where it all starts!

the main practices i use are:

1) draw often, but don’t force it, breaks are okay to rest your mind/body. i used to draw daily (1-8+ hours, depending) but i’ve had to slow down over the past few months bc of health stuff

2) find something you’re obsessed with to fuel your impulse to draw. this can be anything from a certain elf to human bodies to geometric patterns, just find what you like drawing and think about why. it could also be part of your technique - like i really enjoy the process of ‘carving’ shapes into existence with pencil lines, but i absolutely hate painting!

3) USE REFERENCES you’ve probably heard this a million times but it’s true, just like how drinking water will make you feel less awful. you’ll have to build up a skill here too - knowing what refs you need, where to find them/make them, how to use them to learn from rather than copying w/o learning. dissect the reference, understand why a shape looks how it does at that angle, or why an eye is drawn like it is in a certain style, etc

i used to only draw like one half-assed portrait a month and i’d never finish anything either. just sketch after sketch in my comfort zone. but a few years ago, i became unsatisfied with that, and i tried to Finish drawings and tried to learn why certain poses or compositions were difficult, and when i learned that i also learned how to execute them. honestly, the most i’ve learned has been from the comics/scenes i’ve drawn over the past year because they’ve forced me to think about anatomy and composition in more inventive ways. hmm maybe comics is the answer…

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the time-honored pastime of being annoying to your brother >:)

(bonus thistle below cut)

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i'm working on a longer comic outline, and it's got me thinking about the difference in how i write thistle’s relationship with freinag vs delgal. this is a little rambling lol

thistle belonged to freinag, one-way, but delgal belongs to thistle as much as thistle belongs to him…

in the king-servant relationship, there is always the threat of power, obliged obedience, and the feeling that thistle has to earn his keep. freinag (father-king) could make thistle do things he didn’t want to, but delgal (brother-king) couldn’t. like, even at his most demanding, delgal would leave a sliver for thistle to say “no, i don’t want to/i can’t”

a sliver is not enough, but it’d feel enormous to thistle, who has never had a say in his own life. what a relief to have someone who will back down even a little. thistle is thistle though, so he’ll do anything delgal asks anyways. and delgal has a sense of this, so he does push, like in chapter 68 where he asks thistle over and over to perform a miracle…

freinag would let thistle complain and sulk and cry, but he’d just wait it out with the expectation that thistle would obey in the end. it's not patience, but paternalistic tolerance and amusement at thistle’s expense. on the other hand, delgal sees thistle as almost an equal, and he has a whole childhood of memories where he listened to thistle and learned from him. so even though he hates being told no, he wouldn’t enjoy hurting thistle in the process of getting what he wants. but ‘hurt’ depends on what delgal can rationalize away as ‘not my fault’ or ‘not a big deal’ or 'actually it was fine' etc.

and thistle is very experienced at hiding his hurt. above his own well-being, thistle wants to make the people he loves happy, and he has a core fear that he has to do what they ask so they don't abandon him/withdraw their love. he felt the most unsteady with freinag, who rejected him on their first meeting, but i think thistle also gets worried when delgal grows from the child he cared for and played with into a powerful and less predictable man with connections, relationships, and worries outside of thistle. so he'd do anything to keep things the same because that means safety.