#;; phew this was a lot

[samijey]

NXT No Mercy 2023

[laudsimogen]

Can you do a continuation of “Half Light” where something/someone spooks laudna so she disappears and Imogen starts calling out for Laudna to come back, she’s safe, Imogen won’t let anything hurt her and just all around concerned she might not be able to find laudna (but she does of course)

Pike has trouble pulling them out.

It’s a huge, difficult spell, and Imogen can’t logically fault her for struggling with it, but she can’t help the frustration bubbling under her skin. Try to find another spot, Pike had said. Can you get back to where you started?

They could, at least in theory, but it would take more of the precious time that they don’t have to gamble with, and Imogen’s chest feels as tight as her ever-present grip on Laudna’s hand as they walk.

It’s when they reach the tunnel under the cabin that Imogen’s anxiety reaches its boiling point. It’s silly, but she’s genuinely afraid to let go of Laudna.

“Get in front of me,” she urges Laudna as their friends enter the tunnel one by one in front of them. Laudna only stares at the dark passage.

“I don’t want to go back there,” Laudna whispers. “The townsfolk, the fire. It’s real. Or…it feels real. I don’t know.”

“I know,” Imogen says, and she cups Laudna’s cheek to give her the most encouraging smile she could muster through the bolt of rage that courses through her. How dare those people hurt her. How are they torment her here, too. “Don’t worry; I’ll be right behind you,” she continues. “They should be gone now. We even put the fire out.”

Laudna nods and squeezes Imogen’s hand one more time before letting go and entering the tunnel. Imogen goes in after her, steadily keeping her eyes locked onto Laudna’s form as they climb. She won’t disappear, she tells herself. She’s right here. She’s going to make it out. It won’t be long once we leave the cabin.

But Imogen should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. It never is, is it?

The awful ghostly voices pick up again as they reemerge into the cabin. There’s no fire yet, but the taunting and jeering are enough to stop Laudna in her tracks.

“Come on,” Chetney calls from the doorway. “We can miss them if we get going.”

Laudna still doesn’t move, and Imogen can’t quite tell through the shifting wisps of her form, but it looks like she’s shaking.

Imogen tries to lay a hand on Laudna’s shoulder, but Laudna jumps away from her touch and whirls around. Dark, inky tears fall from her eyes and float away from her face.

“You lied,” she murmurs, and the simple words punch Imogen in the gut. “They’re coming for me.”

“No,” Imogen says. “No, I didn’t lie; I didn’t know they’d be back, I swear.” She reaches out for Laudna’s hand again, but Laudna takes another step away from her, and tears fill her eyes again. “I’m sorry, Laudna. I didn’t know. We need to get out of here now. You can be mad later, just—”

Imogen can’t finish her thought before Laudna just…vanishes. Her form flickers once, face screwed up in fear and distrust, and then she’s gone.

“Laudna!” Imogen cries. “Laudna, wait, come back! I’m sorry!”

“What happened?” “What’s going on?”

Imogen can’t process her friends’ questions as they look back through the door. She can’t think, she can’t hear; all she can do is let a wave of guilt crash over her. She lost Laudna again. In this place. This vast, horrible nightmare where nothing is real and where Laudna is fading away.

What if she can’t find her again?

She pushes past her friends, screaming Laudna’s name into the odd landscape around them. She’ll search it all if she has to. Laudna has to be here somewhere.

Imogen scrambles through the rocks and trees, desperately searching for some trace of Laudna. She faintly registers the others looking, too, and Fearne putting out the new fire before it has a chance to grow.

Laudna isn’t here. Deeper in this realm, maybe—maybe even deeper than the Sun Tree—but she’s not here. Not in any capacity with which she could be found, anyway.

Imogen stumbles deeper into the woods, peering behind every tree, her voice hoarse and her legs weak. She’s lost sight of her friends. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter until she finds Laudna.

But she can’t, can she? This is Laudna’s head. Her memories, her nightmares. As little power as she has to escape it on her own, she has more than enough to keep hidden in her own mind. If she isn’t already gone for good.

Imogen collapses to her knees in the loam and curls in on herself, balling her fists on the ground as the sobs tear through her one after another.

“I’m sorry,” she cries. “I’m so sorry; this is all my fault. I just wanted to keep you safe. All I ever wanted was to keep you safe. And I just keep fucking up.” She rests her forehead against the cool ground, repeating over and over as she’s wracked with shaking and tears: “I love you. I’m sorry. Please come back. I love you, Laudna. I love you. Please don’t leave me again. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

She doesn’t notice the sad, scared eyes watching her from just out of her line of sight. She doesn’t know that Laudna has heard her every word, doesn’t know that she’s finally understanding that Imogen isn’t going to leave without her, not even if it kills her. And even in this state, so overwhelmed with fear that she’s barely clung to who she is, Laudna can’t let Imogen die. She could never.

“I’m here,” Laudna says quietly, tentatively stepping into the open. Tears still streak her face, but they’ve calmed. She seems more lucid now.

Imogen’s breath catches at the sound of Laudna’s voice, and she looks up slowly, terrified of spooking her again.

“Laudna,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry; you gotta believe me. I would never hurt you, not on purpose. Never.”

“I know,” Laudna whispers back. “I know. I don’t know why I—I don’t know what keeps coming over me.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Imogen says. “You’re still here. We just…we have to hurry. I won’t make any more promises. I don’t know what’s out there. I don’t know how it works. But we’re almost back. We can make it.”

“We can make it,” Laudna repeats with a solemn nod. Imogen can see her steeling herself, still so scared to move through this landscape but prepared to try. She’ll remind Laudna of how brave she is when they get back.

Laudna allows Imogen to take her hand again, and to everyone’s relief, they find their way back to the others quickly. Not long now, Imogen reminds herself with a glance at Laudna. Not long now, and then they’ll be in a position to really help Laudna. In the living world.

They wake up back in Pike’s living room. For a moment, Laudna’s body remains still, and Imogen is terrified it didn’t work. But then she draws a breath and her eyes open slowly, blearily, and Imogen cries with relief.

The hard part is over. Laudna is alive. They’ll work through anything she needs, but they have time because she’s alive. The ghosts can’t get her here. Nobody can change what happened, but here she’s loved, and that’s enough. It has to be enough.

[hexiewrites]

on eddie not apologizing in carve your name:

I got a comment on carve your name into my chest that really had me buzzing (in a good way!) with thoughts about character development, and I wrote out a whole reply explaining where I was coming from and figured it may be worth sharing too.

I've seen the take that eddie gets off 'easy' at the end of carve. he never really apologizes to steve for how he's treated, and at the end of the fic doesn't really have consequences for this. steve has grovelled and apologized and done something on a huge public stage, and eddie... well. he's been a little shit.

I love seeing people pick up on that, because it was something I did with a lot of intention! when you write from single character POV interactions like this can often feel unbalanced, especially if we feel connected to one character more than the other. but all of carve was written with both of their ongoing development and feelings strongly in my mind. the sequel is going to touch on this a lot, and there are hints as to what's to come in my answer to the comment I got, so stop here if you don't want any inkling (but still want to know that yes, eddie is going to have a lot of his own making up to do). otherwise, enjoy this unrestrained ramble on my character choices.

(oh, and also: serious spoilers for carve your name below! read at your own peril!)

off the bat: Eddie needing to apologize for how he treated steve is definitely going to come up (more than once) in the sequel. we're going to get some insight into the character development steve has gone through (and if you read the prequel, i hope you can see how much he's a different person in THIS fic compared to that), and these boys are going to need to spend a really solid amount of time working through where they are as people and how they've treated each other (on both ends). eddie definitely has a lot of apologizing to do and is going to really need to prove to steve that he has grown and changed, and is still growing. steve definitely still has wounds from the way eddie has treated him (aka: as disposable), though steve has also made choices in this fic that are going to have serious repercussions.

ultimately, eddie absolutely makes a bad call here when he kicks steve out and refuses to listen to him, and he focuses so hard on all of steve's faults that he really ignores his own (as we often do when fighting with someone who riles us up). but the thing is: he mades a bad call because he has been hurt over and over, and he is STILL hurting with the fact that steve just kind of wants to gloss over everything and go back to their previous arrangement, when it has substantially changed eddie's life. don't forget he's also got brenner over his head and he is terrified of losing his career, so he's trying to take brenner's warning to heart, he just isn't very good at communication (all characters in this fic need therapy should be a tag, huh?).

at the end of the day, we have two characters here with their own faults, insecurities, and struggles. steve (as we'll get into in the sequel!) has his own self worth problems and has always been one to try to smooth over problems and just 'get back to normal' even if it's no longer working for the people around him (see: his breakup with nancy in canon). he is going to need eddie to prove that he's in it, that he wants this as much as steve did. eddie's got faults too, he's a hair trigger who's quick to jump and slower to think through the way his actions read. his original plan here was to sit down and talk to steve after the game but when steve changes things with the kiss, well, he gets caught up.

for me this was a good stopping point because it marks a solid conclusion of eddie's arc (from their first encounter where he still thinks he hates steve, through all these issues of his interpretation of steve's sexuality and fear of being outed, working through what it means for eddie to be queer and out in hockey not on his own terms, etc). steve taking the steps to fix it, to prove to eddie that he's all in, is what eddie needed to conclude this arc, to know that steve is going to stick it out even when it's really really hard.

but it's not the end of their character development, and in a lot of ways this marks the beginning of a huge change for steve. in the background of this fic he's spent a lot of time coming to terms with his sexuality and he thinks that this is going to "fix" it and solve their problems, but he's just opened himself up to a lot of issues and he's going to need eddie to reassure him and support him as they deal with the (absolutely massive) problems that coming out like this is going to cause them.

anyways, phew. tldr: eddie absolutely has apologizing to do, and a lot to make up for and to prove to steve that he is as in it as he is in his head. but steve has more things to overcome too, and they will hurt each other again (as humans do!) before they figure things out. they have a lot to get through as a couple in the sequel, from BOTH sides. I've tried to write this whole verse as balanced as I can (though having single character POV can often make things feel less balanced, even if they're not!) and that's going to continue to be a theme in the sequel.

[mienar]

small town buzz

instagram | shop | commission info

[lynxgriffin]

Eldritchrune - Dreemurr of Sacrifice

1 | 2 | 3

Story Setup Eldritchrune Masterpost

Back in the light world, Asgore is still dealing with the heartache of the sacrifice, even months later. Mayor Holiday is still set on moving ahead, though!

Yay, it's nice to finally get back to some light world characters here! More with the Dreemurr family will be coming along soon!

Alt text for these pages under the read more:

Page 1 Panel 1: a landscape shot of the Holiday house and surrounding garden, with Rudy and Asgore outside the fence and hollybush hedge. The Delta Rune is emblazoned over the door and spiky snowflakes decorate the roof and fence.  Asgore is walking by with a wheelbarrow. Rudy: “Asgore, you old goat! Been way too long!” 

Panel 2: A closer shot of the two men- Rudy is slim and dressed in a crisp tunic, Asgore larger and wearing slouchy overalls. Asgore: “Howdy Rudy. You’re looking well!” Rudy, hand on his knee, bends over to hack and cough. Rudy: “Oh y’know… well enough, I guess! How’s business?” 

Panel 3: Asgore looks down,ruefully scratching the back of his head. His wheelbarrow is full of droopy plants, ready for planting. “Could be better… Those soldiers hassle me almost daily. But, I’ve gotten used to it, so it’s all right.” 

Panel 4: Rudy puts a comforting hand on Asgore’s shoulder. “Aww hey, you can complain to me any time…” he says. Asgore doesn’t avoid the touch but he doesn’t seem comforted. 

Page 2 Panel 1: close up on Rudy, who jerks his head to look as far behind him the door of the Holiday house opens to show the silhouette of a woman in a long dress. 

Panel 2: Rudy: “But uhh, I’ll let Carol here say her piece first. See you, Asgore!” He waves and pushes the gate open to go back to the house. Asgore looks taken aback. 

Panel 3: A textless landscape shot of the front of the yard. Rudy, halfway back to the house, turns to look behind him as Carol comes out of the large Holiday gate to meet Asgore, who is hunched in a half-bow with his hand over his heart. 

Panel 4: Asgore: “Howdy, Mayor Holiday.” He doesn’t look up at her, and we see only the back of her head, not her face. Carol: “Good day, Asgore. I appreciate you stopping by, as I wanted to inform you personally.” 

Panel 5: Carol leans into Asgore’s space, and he leans away, cowed. Neither of their eyes are visible, but we see their mouths: hers stern, his distressed. Carol: “We will be conducting the Ritual again in three month’s time, at the harvest moon. You and Toriel’s presence is required.”

Panel 6: Bust shot of Asgore, dismayed. “A…Again? You’ve… found another one?” His hand is still protectively over his heart. 

Page 3:  Panel 1: We see Carol’s face for the first time: she is severe looking, with medium length hair, a stiff dress, and a choker necklace and ornate belt. Her hand is also over her heart, though more like a formal salute. “I have tasked QC with obtaining the child.” 

Panel 2: Carol’s speech bubble continues as narration. “She’s been quite diligent in her duties, and believes we now have one open to the concept of self sacrifice.” The scene shown is QC- a friendly, soft woman with wildly curly hair- appearing to be at a street market. She is speaking to a child with a bandana neck scarf (Clover, from UT Yellow), but there’s no dialogue. 

Panel 3: Another shot of Carol in profile, gaze fixed intensely ahead. “With the Ritual rites already perfected, this time we will be successful.” 

Panel 4: A wide shot of Asgore, hunched over his wheelbarrow of wilty plant starts and flowers. There’s no dialogue. His expression is despondent. 

Panel 5: Carol: “Is there something you’re withholding, Asgore?” Asgore: “No. We’ll be there.” We don’t see his expression. Her hands are folded sternly in front of her. 

Panel 6: She moves once again into his space, pushing past the wheelbarrow to lean in. “I know that you two have been avoiding us in public since the last Ritual.”  Asgore cringes away like a dog that’s been scolded. 

Page 4: Panel 1: Carol continues. “Toriel has hardly spoken a word to me since then. I trust there is an explanation?” 

Panel 2: Asgore wrings his hands in front of him. His speech bubble covers up his eyes, but his mouth is downturned. “Carol… Toriel avoids you so much because she respects you. She does not want a confrontation.”

Panel 3: Carol, her expression still severe, almost angry. “A confrontation?” 

Panel 4: Asgore, still cringing and looking down: “I don’t know.. if I can explain just how badly losing Kris hurt.” 

Panel 5: His narration continues from the previous panel. “She’d be so cross if I knew I said this, but…” We see the past, Toriel kneeling and clutching the blankets of an empty bed, crying hard. Asgore kneels beside her, holding her shoulders. He’s crying too, unable to comfort her. “The night of the sacrifice, when we got home… Toriel collapsed and wept so long and hard I was afraid her heart would simply stop.” 

Panel 6: Sill the past with present Asgore’s narration over the top. “And then, once Asriel left too… Both of our children were gone.” Left to right, in the interior of the Dreemur’s house, Asgore stands dismayed as an unhappy Toriel rushes after Asriel, who is walking out the door with a bag on his shoulder. He’s looking back but is clearly set on leaving. 

Page 5 Panel 1: Back in the present, Asgore is even more hunched in on himself, hugging his fists to his chest with his expression drawn tight and sad. “I know Toriel acts as though she is fine, but that’s simply because she is stronger than I am. The tension between us is so terrible that I’m afraid she’d leave me if she had somewhere to go!” 

Panel 2: Close on his distressed, panicky face, looking away from the confrontation. “And part of me can’t help wondering… w-what if we were…”

Panel 3: Carol jabs a finger in Asgore’s face. “We. WILL. Be rewarded for our sacrifices. Of this I am CERTAIN.” She’s stern, but her fists aren’t clenched- she’s controlled. Asgore shrinks under her words, looking up at her as he stammers “I-I know, but…”

Panel 4: Carol’s speech: “You talk of heartache. Kris was not even your child by blood.” Asgore looks down, ashamed. 

Panel 5: Carol continues, hand splayed over her chest. For the first time her expression is something other than stern, perhaps angry- still that, but pained. “Do you think your pain is greater than the one I feel, for December? Whom I gave away first?” 

Panel 6: Asgore plucks at his sleeve, looking away guiltily. “No, of course not-” 

Page 6 Panel 1: Carol’s brief moment of any other emotion is gone. She sweeps her arm to the side. “And yet I have put aside my grief for years, all for the sake of you, and everyone else, in this town. I will do whatever it takes to drive this invader from our doors, and restore this town to the peace it once had.” 

Panel 2: Carol’s face is almost a snarl. “All I require is that you, my oldest friends, trust me.” Asgore looks abashed. 

Panel 3: Close on Asgore’s downturned mouth, so none of the rest of his expression is visible. “Of course. Of course we do.” 

Panel 4: Carol draws away, her face returned to calm sternness. “That’s good to hear. Our children don’t need our tears.” 

Panel 5: Carol turns to go back into her gate, dismissing Asgore with a wave. “But our town does need our efforts.”  Asgore watches her go, putting his hands back to his wheelbarrow. 

Page 7 Panel 1: Another wide shot of the Holiday house and gardens, with Carol walking back to the house and Asgore outside the gate. Carol: “So I’ll see you both at the next gathering.” 

Panel 2: Asgore looks down at his wheelbarrow, despondently. His plants are all notably wilted. “Good day, Mayor.” The sky behind him darkens. 

[theecholegend]

Goodnight bunny boy <3

Legend is being held captive bc he won’t stay still and let his injuries heal

[starflungwaddledee]

from: @starflungwaddledee to: @post-it-notes7

message from santa: "happy holidays post-it-notes! 🎄🥳 i know you very politely only wished for a few modest things- characters high fiving, or struggling in christmas attire- but i hope you'll still enjoy this given that i kinda went the opposite direction entirely! i'm an enormous fan of your work and most times you post anything i wind up browsing your art tag from tip-to-tail in enraptured delight. as such, i thought it was only fair i give back something a little more significant in gratitude for all the joy your work has given me. i knew i wanted to do a comic, so i was thrilled you already had a whole storyverse for me to work from!! this scene seemed the most obvious choice (chapter 8 of "wishful thinking" on ao3) given that i enjoy a dramatic fight scene 😂 i tried to stick as beat-by-beat to the writing as i could and worked in as many details as possible; i hope it'll be fun to see it envisioned this way! merry christmas! ~starflung 🎀🔔 "

[dokani]

this came to me in a dream

[aroaceleovaldez]

Do u still have that height chart u made of all the characters? Im trying to find references, no prblem if u dont!!!

You might be referring to my old one, but this is my updated one! Forgive the hastily doodled on clothes - this is also my body type/scar/tattoo/etc/general ref sheet, and while I've posted it without the colors before, it feels weird posting it with colors cause for some reason then it looks like theyre all naked, lol. Ref sheets are funny that way. So doodled on clothes it is.

[samijey]

Spike Trivet vs Cara Noir's jeans (PROGRESS Chapter 135)

[sketchy-tour]

ALRIGHTY! Time to formally reintroduce yall to my silly idiot OC Dandy!

and by that I mean, I redid their ref art, tweaked their bio, and finally made a ref for their stupid pajamas! Wanted to do other fits for them but aa another time. Brain is mashed potatoes.

Anyway, Dandy is my silly WH oc who's main theme is self care/self love messages shown through the imagery of gardening! Meant to be a sort of "garden of the self" sort of deal. They go by ANY PRONOUNS! She/her or He/Him, or They/Them are all correct and okay to use when talking about them! (I just tend to default to they/them) Putting their full bio under the break!!! So you can read it all there!

"Resident gardener of Welcome Home, Dandy Leon is a curious but careful presence among the others in the neighborhood. They enjoy the quiet and spending their time tending to their various flowers. While a little shy around their fellow neighbors, they open up quickly when asked about their garden. Despite their more introverted disposition, they're always determined to make every day just dandy!"

It’s presumed that Dandy makes appearances only in the later episodes of the show’s run. But in old scripts found with them, it's shown that they moved to Home specifically because they were interested in the local plant life there. The episode that featured their move in seemed to focus on them slowly warming up to the others in the neighborhood, as their shy nature made it difficult for them to properly meet everyone. When asked as to where they lived before moving to Home, Dandy mentions living in a farm town far away, simply deeming it "far more south from here!" A lot of their dialogue also mentions their father, though he's never named but instead mentioned passively as Dandy would often use phrases like "Well it's like my pop always said-" when speaking to the other puppets.

During their short time on the show, Dandy's segments seemed focused on care for their garden, the language hinting that the flowers were more a metaphor for taking care of oneself and well being. Other characters can be found pointing out how much better Dandy’s garden looks when they’re feeling happy, but also comment how wilted it becomes when they’re shown to be a bit more downtrodden. They feel strongly about how important it is to be kind to yourself, even if it’s a skill they’re shown to still be working on themselves. Their confidence is something they also struggle with, seemingly a character meant for shyer audience members to attach to and grow alongside with. Dandy is often depicted in illustrations with Frank, getting along quite well in the show, often joining him and Julie on small escapades. Before the show's end however, most of Dandy's screen time is with Wally as he tries to get Dandy out of their shell more to spend time around others.

Interestingly, what pronouns were used for them seemed to change between the show's episodes and illustrated materials. While neighbors would refer to them as 'he' during the show, most art pieces seemed to refer to Dandy as a 'she'. Whether this was simply a miscommunication between teams or a printing error is unknown.

[man-peach-reborn]

You know the drill, reblog for sample size

[kimik0hippie]

I'm in my detroit phase rn 🙌 These are kinda messy and crooked, but I drew them more as a reference for myself

[jazdrawsmtas]

POV everyone in town has a crush on you!

Wow, I can hardly believe I drew them all. Thank you everyone for the support, I had a lot of fun and seeing them all lined up like this is extremely satisfying.

[shkika]

some bracken studies!

clover creep / walk / R U N

[aubadeduflamek]

Fate steps in and sees you through